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Epistle
XXVI.
To Januarius, Bishop.
Gregory to Januarius, Bishop of Caralis
(Cagliari).
We have ascertained from the report of our fellow-bishop
Felix and the abbot Cyriacus that in the island of Sardinia priests are
oppressed by lay judges, and that thy ministers despise thy Fraternity;
and that, so far as appears, while you aim only at simplicity,
discipline is neglected. Wherefore I exhort thee that, putting
aside all excuses, thou take pains to rule the Church of which thou
hast received the charge, to keep up discipline among the clergy, and
fear no one’s words. But, as I hear, thou hast forbidden
thy Archdeacon to live with women, and up to this time art set at
naught with regard to this thy prohibition. Unless he obey thy
command, our will is that he be deprived of his sacred order.
There is another thing also which is much to be
deplored; namely, that the negligence of your Fraternity has allowed
the peasants (rusticos) belonging to holy Church to remain
up to the present time in infidelity. And what is the use of my
admonishing you to bring such as do not belong to you to God, if you neglect to recover your own from
infidelity? Hence you must needs be in all ways vigilant for
their conversion. For, should I succeed in finding a pagan
peasant belonging to any
bishop whatever in the island of Sardinia, I
will visit it severely on that bishop.
But now, if any peasant should be found so
perfidious and obstinate as to refuse to come to the Lord God, he must be weighted
with so great a burden of payment as to be compelled by the very pain
of the exaction to hasten to the right way1549
1549 The rustici,
or coloni, who cultivated the land, made their living out of it,
having to pay dues in money or in kind (see I. 44).
Gregory’s suggestion is that such dues should be made so heavy in
the case of natives who refused to be converted as to starve them into
compliance. Elsewhere we find him deprecating compulsion, or any
kind of persecution, for the conversion of Jews and heretics, on the
ground that forced conversions were unreal. But he appears to
have had no such compunctions in the case of these illiterate
pagans. This is not the only instance of religious zeal betraying
him into a certain human inconsistency. Cf. IX. 65. | .
It has also come to our knowledge that some in sacred
orders who have lapsed, either after doing penance or before, are
recalled to the office of their ministry; which is a thing that we have
altogether forbidden and the most sacred canons also declare against
it. Whoso, then, after having received any sacred order, shall
have lapsed into sin of the flesh, let him so forfeit his sacred order
as not to approach any more the ministry of the altar. But, lest
those who have been ordained should ever perish, previous care should
be taken as to what kind of people are ordained, so that it be first
seen to whether they have been continent in life for many years, and
whether they have had a care for reading and a love of
almsgiving. It should be enquired also whether a man has
perchance been twice married. It should also be seen to that he
be not illiterate, or under liability to the state, so as to be
compelled after assuming a sacred order to return to public
employment. All these things therefore let your Fraternity
diligently enquire into, that, every one having been ordained after
diligent examination, none may be easily liable to be deposed after
ordination. These things which we have written to your Fraternity
do you make known to all the bishops under you, since I myself have
been unwilling to write to them, lest I might seem to lessen your
dignity.
It has also come to our ears that some have been
offended by our having forbidden presbyters to touch with chrism those
who are to be baptized. And we indeed acted according to the
ancient use of our Church: but, if any are in fact hereby
distressed, we allow that, where there is a lack of bishops, presbyters
may touch with chrism, even on their foreheads, those who are to be
baptized1550
1550 See above, IV. 9.
There is some doubt as to what the practice was which Gregory had
forbidden in his former epistle but now allows. In Ep. IX. he had
said, “Episcopi baptizatos infantes signare bis in fronte
chrismate non præsumant; sed presbyteri baptizandos ungant in
pectore, ut episcopi postmodum ungere debeant in fronte.”
There is obvious reference here to the two unctions, before and after
baptism. The first, in preparation for baptism, was with simple
oil, on the breast and other parts of the body, and was administered by
presbyters both in the East and West: the second for confirmation
after baptism, was with chrism (a mixture of oil and balsam), on the
forehead, and in the Eastern Churches might be, as it still is,
administered immediately after baptism by the baptizing presbyter, but
in the West was usually reserved for the bishop in person. It
would seem that in Sardinia the Eastern usage had been followed with
regard to the presbyter signing the baptized child on the forehead with
chrism immediately after baptism, but that it had been also customary
for the bishop afterward to repeat the rite (“signare bis in
fronte chrismate”). Such repetition Gregory, in Ep. IX.,
appears to forbid in cases where the presbyter had already administered
the rite; but, in the second clause of the sentence, he directs that
the Western usage should thenceforth be observed: the presbyter
who baptized was to anoint on the breast before the baptism; but the
bishop, and he alone, on the forehead with chrism afterwards.
Such being the most obvious meaning of what is said in Ep. IX. the
equally obvious meaning of the concession in Ep. XXVI. would be
allowance for presbyters in the absence of bishops, to confirm with
chrism after baptism, according to the Eastern usage, but for the fact
that the expression now used is not baptizatos, but
baptizandos. Hence one opinion is that all that is
here allowed to presbyters is the anointing of the forehead with
chrism, as well as the breast with oil, previously to baptism;
in which case of course it would not be confirmation. But it
seems more likely that the intention was to allow presbyters to
administer confirmation in the absence of bishops, the term
baptizandos being used loosely to denote candidates for
baptism. The fact that it is only where bishops could not be had
(ubi desunt episcopi) that the practice is allowed adds
probability to this view; and also his saying that in his previous
prohibition he had been following the ancient custom of the Roman
Church, which was to reserve the signing the forehead with chrism after
baptism, i.e. confirmation, to the bishop. Innocent I.
(Ep. i. ad. Decent. c. iii.) lays down the rule thus;
“Presbyteris, qui, seu extra episcopum seu pæesente
episcopo, baptizant, chrismate baptizatos ungere licet, sed quod ab
episcopo fuerit consecratum; non tamen frontem ex eodem oleo signare,
quod solis debetur episcopis, quum tradunt Spiritum Sanctum
Paracletum.” Here, we observe, the usage of the Roman
Church allows the baptizing presbyter to anoint with chrism after
baptism, only not therewith to sign the forehead for actual
confirmation; and this is still the Roman usage. It should be
observed further that in all cases, in the East as well in the West,
confirmation was regarded as belonging peculiarly to the Bishop’s
office, the chrism used having always been consecrated by him, though
it might be applied by presbyters: and thus Gregory, in allowing
presbyters to administer the rite in Sardinia, would not regard any
essential principle of Church order as being infringed. He only
shews the same wise liberality as we find evidence of in other cases,
allowing varieties of usage in various churches, where no important
principle seemed to be involved. Thus he approves of single
instead of triune immersion in baptism being practised in Spain (I.
43), and bids Augustine in England adopt according to his discretion
the customs of other Churches (XI. 64). With regard to the
essential form of confirmation recognized in the time of
Gregory, it appears evidently from these epistles to have been
unction, and not mere imposition of hands. It is also
evident that it was administered, as in the East now, to infants; cf.
XIII. 18, where the phrase is “ad consignandos
imantes.” | .E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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