Saint Pacien
Évêque de
Barcelone (+ 390)
Évêque de Barcelone et
confesseur, ses écrits développent la doctrine évangélique et apostolique du
Baptême, sacrement de la Foi qui fait participer l'homme à la victoire du
Christ sur la mort.
À Barcelone en Catalogne,
vers 390, saint Pacien, évêque. Exposant la foi, il déclarait : “Mon nom est:
chrétien, et mon surnom: catholique”.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/6109/Saint-Pacien.html
SAINT PACIEN, ÉVÊQUE DE BARCELONE, PÈRE DE L'ÉGLISE (390).
Saint Pacien, espagnol de naissance, évêque de Barcelone, naquit et mourut dans
le 4ième siècle de l'Eglise : selon saint Jérôme [Patrologie Latine PL t.13
col.1051], il se rendit également recommandable par la pureté et la sainteté de
sa vie, et par son éloquence, c'est-à-dire par la pureté et l'exactitude du
discours et la beauté de l'esprit. Il avait été engagé dans le mariage avant
son épiscopat, et avait un fils nommé Flavius Dexter, qui fut de si grande considération
dans l'empire qu'on l'honora de la dignité de préfet du prétoire, et qui fut
l'ami particulier de saint Jérôme. Il n'employa pas moins ses grands talents à
combattre les hérésies que les vices. Nous en avons des preuves, surtout à
l'égard des Novatiens, contre les erreurs desquels il écrivit quelques lettres
à un homme qui était engagé dans leur secte. On nous en a conservé trois, qui
non-seulement justifient le jugement avantageux que saint Jérôme faisait de
lui, mais qui font voir encore combien il était attaché à la vérité de la
doctrine reçue successivement dans toute l'Eglise depuis les Apôtres, par le
canal d'une tradition pure et constante. C'est là qu'il apprend à tous les
fidèles à se distinguer de toutes les sectes, en prenant, comme lui, "le
nom de chrétien et le surnom de catholique", tandis que les hérétiques
portent le nom de leurs chefs ou de leurs auteurs. Ce n'est pas seulement dans
des écrits contre les Novatiens que notre Saint s'est rendu le défenseur de la
pénitence : il n'a pas moins travaillé auprès des catholiques pour en établir
la nécessité et les avantages. Dans un de ses exhortations qui nous est restée
sur ce sujet, il reconnaît qu'il est quelquefois plus à propos de ne point
parler de certains vices, que de les reprendre en les exposant au jour, parce
qu'on apprend quelque fois le mal plutôt qu'on ne l'empêche, et qu'il y a des
manières d'éteindre le feu qui ne servent qu'à le rallumer. Il se plaignait
d'en avoir fait une fâcheuse expérience contre son intention, en publiant son
petit livre "du Cerf". Il avait composé cet ouvrage contre une sorte
de jeu profane appelé "le petit Cerf", qui était fort en usage dans
la Gaule Narbonnaise et l'Aquitaine, et qui s'était introduit dans la
Catalogne. Mais, au lieu du bon effet qu'il s'en était promis, il avait
remarqué que son écrit n'avait servi qu'à exciter davantage la curiosité des
personnes portées au mal, et qu'il fallait des remèdes plus sûrs, mais d'une
vertu plus secrète, pour agir contre des désordres qui sont publics, et
soutenus par une multitude. Ce petit traité "du Cerf" est du nombre
des ouvrages de saint Pacien que nous avons perdus : et il ne nous reste, outre
ceux dont nous avons parlé, qu'un discours du Baptême, adressé aux
catéchumènes. Ce que valent de si précieux restes doit nous faire juger de la
grandeur de la perte que nous avons faite. Outre l'élégance du style, qui était
très-rare en son siècle, et plus encore dans les suivants, on y trouve une
justesse fort grande dans ses pensées, beaucoup de solidité dans ses
raisonnements, du tour, de la vivacité et de l'agrément dans sa manière
d'écrire : qualités qui, se trouvant jointes à la pureté de la doctrine et des
moeurs dans saint Pacien, l'ont fait regarder comme l'un des plus grands
ornements de l'Église. Il mourut dans une grande et heureuse vieillesse, sous
le règne de Théodose l'ancien, vers l'an 390.
D'après les Petits
Bollandistes, 7ième édition, Bar-le-Duc 1876, entre autres.
SOURCE : http://home.scarlet.be/amdg/oldies/sankt/mar09.html
Pacianus de Barcelone
310-391
Pacianus naquit en
Espagne au début du quatrième siècle.
De son mariage, il eut un
fils, nommé Flavius Lucius Dexter.
Ce Dexter fut préfet du
prétoire, et son honnêteté lui valut l’amitié de S.Jérôme (v. 30 septembre).
Quand Pacianus fut veuf,
il entra dans l’état ecclésiastique et, à la mort de Pretextatus vers 347, fut
sacré deuxième évêque du siège de Barcelone.
Il nous reste de lui
quelques œuvres intéressantes.
Dans le Cervus, il
démontre que les festivités du nouvel an comportent des manifestations
païennes.
Dans son Exhortation
à la Pénitence, il invite les fidèles à confesser leurs péchés graves.
Dans son sermon Sur
le Baptême, il expose la doctrine du péché originel. Il y revendique aussi
le droit de l’Eglise à pardonner les péchés, contre la doctrine hérétique de
Novatien.
A Pacianus remonte la
phrase célèbre : Christianus mihi nomen est, catholicus vero cognomen, mon
nom est Chrétien, mon surnom Catholique.
L’épiscopat de Pacianus
dura plus de quarante années et se déroula dans une certaine tranquillité, que
ne connurent pas bien d’autres diocèses, agités par l’arianisme.
S. Jérôme a vanté les
qualités de Pacianus, la pureté de sa vie et son éloquence. Le style de ses
écrits montre une justesse de pensée, des raisonnements solides, qu’il sait
exposer avec vivacité et charme.
Pacianus mourut vers 391,
octogenaire.
Saint Pacianus de
Barcelone est commémoré le 9 mars dans le Martyrologe Romain.
SOURCE : http://www.samuelephrem.eu/article-03-09-115924058.html
Saint Pacien de
Barcelone (-v. 390), évêque
Homélie sur le baptême ;
PL 13, 1092 (trad. bréviaire rev. ; cf SC 410, p.159)
Le péché d’Adam s’était
communiqué à tout le genre humain, à tous ses enfants… Donc, il est nécessaire
que la justice du Christ soit communiquée à tout le genre humain ; de même
qu’Adam, par le péché, a fait perdre la vie à sa descendance, de même le
Christ, par sa justice, donnera la vie à ses enfants (cf Rm 5,19s)…
À la fin des temps, le
Christ a reçu de Marie une âme et notre chair. Cette chair, il est venu la
sauver, il ne l’a pas abandonnée au séjour des morts (Ps 15,10), il l’a unie à
son esprit et il l’a faite sienne. Ce sont là les noces du Seigneur, son union
à une seule chair, afin que, selon « ce grand mystère », ils soient « deux en
une seule chair : le Christ et l’Église » (Ep 5,31). Le peuple chrétien est né
de ces noces, sur lesquelles est descendu l’Esprit du Seigneur. Ces semailles
venues du ciel se sont aussitôt répandues dans la substance de nos âmes et s’y
sont mélangées. Nous nous développons alors dans les entrailles de notre Mère
et, en grandissant dans son sein, nous recevons la vie dans le Christ. C’est ce
qui a fait dire à l’apôtre Paul : « Le premier Adam avait reçu la vie ; le
dernier Adam est un être spirituel qui donne la vie » (1Co 15,45).
C’est ainsi que le Christ
engendre des enfants dans l’Église par ses prêtres, comme le dit le même apôtre
: « Dans le Christ, je vous ai engendrés » (1Co 4,15). Et c’est ainsi par
l’Esprit de Dieu, le Christ fait naître l’homme nouveau formé dans le sein de
sa Mère et mis au monde dans la fontaine baptismale, par les mains du prêtre,
avec la foi pour témoin… Il faut donc croire que nous pouvons naître… et que
c’est le Christ qui nous donne la vie. L’apôtre Jean le dit : « Tous ceux qui
l’ont reçu, il leur a donné de pouvoir devenir enfants de Dieu » (Jn 1,12).
SOURCE : http://www.associationdemarie.org/blog/?tag=st-pacien-de-barcelone
Saint Pacien de Barcelone (-v.
390), évêque
Homélie sur le baptême, 6
-7 ; PL 13, 1093 (trad. bréviaire)
« Il n’est pas le Dieu
des morts, mais des vivants »
« De même que nous sommes à l’image de l’homme pétri de terre, de même nous
serons à l’image de celui qui vient du ciel ; car, pétri de terre, le premier
homme vient de la terre ; le deuxième homme, lui, vient du ciel. » Si nous
agissons ainsi, mes bien-aimés, nous ne mourrons plus à l’avenir. Même si notre
corps se dissout, nous vivrons dans le Christ, selon sa propre affirmation : «
Celui qui croit en moi, même s’il meurt, vivra. » Nous sommes certains, sur le
témoignage du Seigneur lui-même, qu’Abraham, Isaac, Jacob et tous les saints
sont vivants. Car c’est à leur sujet que le Seigneur dit : « Tous sont vivants
pour lui, car il n’est pas le Dieu des morts, mais des vivants. » Et l’apôtre
Paul dit, en parlant de lui-même : « Pour moi, vivre, c’est le Christ, et
mourir m’est un gain. J’ai le désir de m’en aller et d’être avec le Christ. »
Et encore : « Tant que nous habitons dans ce corps, nous sommes en exil loin du
Seigneur. En effet, nous cheminons dans la foi, nous ne voyons pas. » C’est là
ce que nous croyons, frères bien-aimés. D’ailleurs : « Si nous avons mis notre
espoir en ce monde seulement, nous sommes les plus à plaindre de tous les
hommes. »
La vie en ce monde, comme vous le voyez vous-mêmes, est la même pour les
animaux, les bêtes sauvages, les oiseaux, et pour nous-mêmes, et elle peut être
plus longue pour eux. Mais ce qui est propre à l’homme, c’est ce que le Christ
nous a donné par son Esprit, et qui est la vie sans fin, mais à condition que
nous ne péchions plus…: « Le salaire du péché, c’est donc la mort ; le don de
Dieu, c’est la vie éternelle par Jésus Christ notre Seigneur. »
(Références bibliques :
1Co 15,49.47; Jn 11,25; Ph 1,21.23; 2Co 5,6-7; 1Co 15,19; Rm 6,23)
Sant
Pacià, s. XVIII, a l'Església dels sants Just i Pastor de Barcelona
Also
known as
Pacià
Pacianus
Profile
Married and
a father;
his son Dexter was high chamberlain to
Emperor Theodosius. Bishop of Barcelona, Spain. Wrote on
ecclesiastical discipline. Saint Jerome wrote about
him, praising his eloquence, learning, chastity, and holiness of life. Pacian
wrote, “My name is Christian, my surname is Catholic.”
c.390 at Barcelona, Spain of
natural causes
relics in
the altar in
church of Santos Justo y Pastor in Barcelona, Spain
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
by Saint Pacian
Against
the Treatise of the Novatians
Treatise
of Exhortation Unto Penance
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Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
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Catholic Book Blogger: Saint Pacian: Trust the Whole
Church, Not the Loner
images
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The Extant Works of Saint Pacian of Barcelona (Librivox
audiobook)
video
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Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
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MLA
Citation
“Saint Pacian of
Barcelona“. CatholicSaints.Info. 8 March 2023. Web. 10 March 2023.
<http://catholicsaints.info/saint-pacian-of-barcelona/>
SOURCE : http://catholicsaints.info/saint-pacian-of-barcelona/
Pacian(us) of Barcelona B (RM)
Died in Barcelona, Spain, c. 390. Before being raised to the position of bishop
of Barcelona in 365 (or 373), the well-born Saint Pacian was a married man. His
son Dexter was high chamberlain to Emperor Theodosius, and praefectus-praetorio
under Honorius. Pacian wrote much about ecclesiastical discipline. Although
most of it is lost, Saint Jerome, who dedicated his catalogue of illustrious
men to Pacian, extols his eloquence and learning, and more particularly the
chastity and sanctity of his life. Pacian's Exhortation on penance is
considered a classic. In the first of his three letters written to Sympronianus
against Novatianism occurs the famous saying: "My name is Christian, my
surname is Catholic." A sermon on Baptism also survives (Benedictines,
Encyclopedia, Husenbeth).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0309.shtml
March 9
St. Pacian, Bishop of
Barcelona, Confessor
HE was a great ornament
of the church in the fourth century. He was illustrious by birth, and had been
engaged in marriage in the world. His son Dexter was raised to the first
dignities in the empire, being high chamberlain to the emperor Theodosius and
præfectus-prætorio under Honorius. St. Pacian having renounced the world, was
made bishop in 373. St. Jerom, who dedicated to him his Catalogue of illustrious
men, extols his eloquence and learning, and more particularly the chastity and
sanctity of his life. We have his Exortation to Penance, and three letters to
Sympronianus, a Novatian nobleman, on Penance, and on the name of Catholic;
also a sermon on Baptism. See St. Jerom, Catal. Vir. Illust. c. 106. p. 195. t.
4. Ceillier, t. 6. Tillem. t. 8.
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume III: March. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/3/094.html
March 9
Appendix on the Writings
of St. Pacian of Barcelona
WHEN he was made bishop
of Barcelona, in 373, there lived in the neighbourhood of that city one
Sympronian, a man of distinction, whom the bishop calls brother and lord, who
was a Donatist, and also engaged in the heresy of the Novatians, who following
the severity of the Montanists, denied penance and pardon for certain sins. He
sent St. Pacian a letter by a servant, in which he censured the church for
allowing repentance to all crimes, and for taking the title of
Catholic. St. Pacian answers him in three learned letters.
In the first
he sums up the principal heresies from Simon Magus to the Novatians, and asks
Sympronian which he will choose to stand by: entreats him to examine the true
church with docility and candour, laying aside all obstinacy, the enemy to
truth. He says the name Catholic comes from God, and is necessary to
distinguish the dove, the undivided virgin church from all sects, which are
called from their particular founders. This name we learned from the holy
doctors, confessors, and martyrs. “My name,” says he, “is Christian, my surname
Catholic: the one distinguishes me, the other points me out to others.” “Christianus
mibi nomen est; Catholicus vero cognomen: illud me nuncupat, istud ostendit;
hoc probor, inde significor.” He says that no name can be more proper to
express the church, which is all obedient to Christ, and one and the same
through the whole world. “As to penance,” says he, “God grant it be necessary
to none of the faithful; that none after baptism fall into the pit of death—but
accuse not God’s mercy, who has provided a remedy even for those that are sick.
Does the infernal serpent continually carry poison, and has not Christ a
remedy? Does the devil kill, and cannot Christ relieve? Fear sin, but not
repentance. Be ashamed to be in danger, not to be delivered out of it. Who will
snatch a plank from one lost by shipwreck? Who will envy the healing of
wounds?” He mentions the parables of the lost drachma, the lost sheep, the
prodigal son, the Samaritan, and God’s threats, adding, “God would never
threaten the impenitent, if he refused pardon. But you will say, only God can
do this. It is true; but what he does by his priests, is his power. What is
that he says to his apostles? Whatsoever you shall bind, &c. Mat. xvi. Why
this, if it was not given to men to bind and to loosen? Is this given only to
the apostles? Then it is only given to them to baptize, to give the Holy Ghost
(in confirmation) to cleanse the sins of infidels, because all this was
commanded to no other than to the apostles. If, therefore, the power of baptism
and of chrism, (confirmation,) which are far greater gifts, descended from the
apostles to bishops, the power of binding and loosing also came to them.” He
concludes with these words: “I know, brother, this pardon of repentance is not
promiscuously to be given to all, nor to be granted before the signs of the
divine will, or perchance the last sickness; with great severity and strict
scrutiny, after many groans, and shedding of tears; after the prayers of the
whole church. But pardon is not denied to true repentance, that no one prevent
or put by the judgment of Christ.” St. Pacian answers his reply by a second
letter, that remedies seem often bitter, and says: “How can you be offended at
my catalogue of heresies, unless you were a heretic? I congratulate with you
for agreeing upon our name Catholic, which if you denied, the thing itself
would cry out against you.” St. Pacian denies that St. Cyprian’s people were
ever called Apostatics or Capitolins, or by any name but that of Catholics,
which the Novatians, with all their ambition for it, could never obtain, nor
ever be known but by the name of Novatians. He says, the emperors persecuted
the Novatians of their own authority, not at the instigation of the church,
“You say I am angry,” says he; “God forbid. I am like the bee which sometimes
defends its honey with its sting.” He vindicates the martyr St. Cyprian, and
denies that Novatian ever suffered for the faith; adding, that “if he had, he
could not have been crowned, because he was out of the church, out of which no
one can be a martyr. Etsi occisus, non tamen coronatus: quidni? Extra Ecclesiæ
pacem, extra concordiam, extra eam matrem cujus portio debet esse, qui martyr
est. Si charitatem non habeam, nibil sum. 1 Cor. xiii.” In his third
letter he confutes the Novatian error: that the church could not forgive mortal
sin after baptism. “Moses, Saint Paul, Christ, express tender charity for
sinners; who then broached this doctrine? Novatian. But when? Immediately from
Christ? No; almost three hundred years after him: since Decius’s reign. Had he
any prophets to learn it from? any proof of his revelation? Had he the gift of
tongues? did he prophesy? could he raise the dead? For he ought to have some of
these to introduce a new gospel. Nay, St. Paul (Gal. i.) forbids a novelty in
faith to be received from an angel. You will say, let us dispute our point. But
I am secure; content with the succession and tradition of the church, with the
communion of the ancient body. I have sought no arguments.” He asserts that the
church is holy, and more than Sympronian had given it: but says it cannot perish
by receiving sinners. The good have always lived amidst the wicked. It is the
heretic who divides it, and tears it, which is Christ’s garment, asunder. The
church is diffused over the whole world, and cannot be reduced to one little
portion, or as it were chained to a part, as the Novatians, whose history he
touches upon. Sympronian objected, that Catholic bishops remitted sin. St.
Pacian answers: “Not I, but only God, who both blots out sin in baptism, and
does not reject the tears of penitents. What I do is not in my own name, but in
the Lord’s. Wherefore whether we baptize, or draw to penance, or give pardon to
penitents, we do it by Christ’s authority. You must see whether Christ can do
it, and did it,—Baptism is the sacrament of our Lord’s passion; the pardon of
penitents is the merit of confession. All can obtain that, because it is the
gratuitous gift of God; but this labour is but of a small number who rise after
a fall, and recover by tears, and by destroying the flesh.” The saint shows the
Novations encourage sin by throwing men into despair; whereas repentance heals
and stops it. Christ does not die a second time indeed for the pardon of
sinners, but he is a powerful advocate interceding still to his Father for
sinners. Can he forsake those he redeemed at so dear a rate? Can the devil
enslave, and Christ not absolve his servants? He alleges St. Peter denying
Christ after he had been baptized, St. Thomas incredulous, even after the
resurrection; yet pardoned by repentance. He answers his objections from
scripture, and exhorts him to embrace the Catholic faith; for the true church
cannot be confined to a few, nor be new. “If she began before you, if she
believed before you, if she never left her foundation, and was never divorced
from her body, she must be the spouse; it is the great and rich house of all.
God did not purchase with his blood so small a portion, nor is Christ so poor.
The church of God dilates its tabernacles from the rising to the setting of the
sun.
Next to these three
letters we have his excellent Parænesis, or exhortation to penance. In the
first part he reduces the sins subjected to courses of severe public penance by
the canons to three—idolatry, murder, and impurity; and shows the enormity of
each. In the second he addresses himself to those sinners, who out of shame, or
for fear of the penances to be enjoined, did not confess their crimes. He calls
them shamefully timorous and bashful to do good, after having been bold and
impudent to sin; and says: “And you do not tremble to touch the holy mysteries,
and to thrust your defiled soul into the holy place, in the sight of the
angels, and before God himself, as if you were innocent.” He mentions Oza slain
for touching the ark, (2 Kings vi.) and the words of the apostle, (1 Cor. xi.)
adding: “Do not you tremble when you hear, he shall be guilty of the body and
blood of the Lord? One guilty of the blood of a man would not rest, and can he
escape who has profaned the body of the Lord? What do you do by deceiving the
priest, or hiding part of your load? I beseech you no longer to cover your
wounded conscience. Rogo vos etiam pro periculo meo, per ilium Dominum quem
occulta non fallunt, desinite vulneratam tegere conscientiam. Men sick are not
backward to show their sores to physicians, and shall the sinner be afraid or
ashamed to purchase eternal life by a momentary confusion? Will he draw back
his wounds from the Lord, who is offering his hand to heal them? Peccator
timebit? peccator erubescet perpetuam vitam præsenti pudore mercari? et offerenti
manus Domino vulnera male tecta subducet?”
In his third part
he speaks to those who confessed their sins entirely, but feared the severity
of the penance. He compares these to dying men who should not have the courage
to take a dose which would restore their health, and says, “This is to cry out,
behold I am sick, I am wounded; but I will not be cured.” He deplores their
delicacy, and proposes to them King David’s austere penance. He describes thus
the life of a penitent: “He is to weep in the sight of the church, to go meanly
clad, to mourn, to fast, to prostrate himself, to renounce the bath, and such
delights: if invited to a banquet he he is to say, such things are for those
who have not had the misfortune to have sinned; I have offended the Lord, and
am in danger of perishing for ever—what have I to do with feasts? Ista
felicibus: ego deliqui in Dominum, et periclitor in æternum perire: quo mihi
epulas qui Dominum læsi? You must moreover sue for the prayers of the poor, of
the widows, of the priests, prostrating yourself before them, and of the whole
church; to do everything rather than to perish. Omnia prius tentare ne pereas.”
He presses sinners to severe penance, for fear of hell, and paints a frightful
image of it from the fires of Vesuvius and Ætna. His treatise or sermon on
Baptism, is an instruction on original sin, and the effects of this sacrament,
by which we are reborn, as by chrism, or confirmation we receive the Holy Ghost
by the hands of the bishop. He adds a moving exhortation that, being delivered
from sin, and having renounced the devil, we no more return to sin; such a
relapse after baptism being much worse. “Hold therefore, strenuously,” says he,
“what you have received, preserve it faithfully; sin no more; keep yourselves
pure and spotless for the day of our Lord.” Besides these three books, he wrote
one against the play of the stag, commended by St. Jerom, but now lost. The
heathens had certain infamous diversions with a little stag at the beginning of
every year, mentioned by St. Ambrose, (in ps. 141.) and by Nilus. (ep. 81.) It
seems from the sermons, 129, 130, in the appendix to St. Augustine’s, (t. 5.)
that it consisted of masquerades, dressed in the figures of wild beasts. Some
Christians probably joined in them. St. Pacian’s seal dictated that book
against it, but the effect it produced at that time, seemed chiefly to make
many more curious and more eager to see that wicked play, as Saint Pacian
himself says in the beginning of his exhortation to penance. The beauty of this
holy doctor’s writings can only be discovered by reading them. His diction is
elegant, his reasoning just and close, and his thoughts beautiful: he is full
of unction, when he exhorts to virtue, and of strength when he attacks vice.
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume III: March. The Lives of the
Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/3/095.html
.jpg)
La
catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia de Barcelona. Capella de Sant Pacià i
Sant Francesc Xavier. L'estàtuade de Sant Pacià, de gran qualitat, dedicat al
que va ser bisbe d'aquesta seu és barroc de l'any 1688 realitzat per Joan Roig
(pare).
The
Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia in Barcelona. Chapel of Saint
Pacian and Sant Francis Xavier. Statue of Saint Pacian, of great quality,
dedicated to the one who was bishop of this headquarters is baroque from the
year 1688 by Joan Roig (father).
Cathédrale
de la Sainte-Croix et de Sainte Eulalie à Barcelone. Chapelle de saint Pacien
de Barcelone et de saint François Xavier. Statue de saint Pacien œuvre baroque
sculptée et assemblée entre 1688 et 1689 par Joan Roig, avec une polychromie de
Joan Moxí.
The works of S. Pacian,
which have been here subjoined, as they are kindred in subject, so may they be
in some sort regarded as further fruits of the mind of S. Cyprian, whose
writings S. Pacian quotes with reverence, and from whom he seems to have
derived some of the texts he employs, his citations agreeing verbally also
sometimes with S. Cyprian. Of his life all which is known is contained in the
few words of S. Jerome, who dedicated his book de viris illustribus to his son
Dexter, a Prefect of the Praetorium and his own friend 1,
at whose suggestion it was written;
"Pacian, Bp. of
Barcelona in the Pyrenees, of chastened 2 eloquence,
eminent for his life as for his writings, wrote various works, of which is the
Cervus and against the Novatians. He died lately in the reign of Theodosius, in
extreme old age;" i. e. before A. 392. (in which, the 14th of Theod., S.
Jerome wrote this book, Praef.) He was born then probably about 30 years after
the martyrdom of S. Cyprian, was a younger |xxiii contemporary
of Hosius, and through him joined on to the Council of Eliberis, and the
restoration of discipline in the Spanish Church. His memory was kept with great
affection at Barcelona on May 9, on which he is commemorated in the
Martyrologium Romanum, in words taken from S. Jerome. It is of the good
Providence of God, that, of the same father, works should have come down,
vindicating the doctrine of the Church on penitence,----as a doctrine, against
the heresy of Novatian,----practically, against the neglect of careless
sinners. The Epistles to Sympronian and the exhortation to Penitence, combined,
shew how compatible are tenderness to the sinner with a strict and, as it would
now seem, severe doctrine of penitence; that not earnest calls to a
self-avenging 3 and
self-chastening penitence, but the denial of its fruits and of the power of the
keys, is the essence of Novatianism. Well versed as S. Pacian was in the
writings of S. Cyprian, who also insists on the same acts 4 of
penitence, his language approaches more both in style and vividness of
expostulation to that of Tertullian, whose work on penitence he claims, as
having been written by him while a Catholic 5.
It is hoped that from this very combination, his works might be useful in these
days, in which, for want of that more frequent special application of the power
of the keys, which our Church suggests, any mention of more earnest penitence
is thought to partake of the hard and uncompassionating heresy of Novatian.
It remains to add, that
for the Translation and the basis of the Index of S. Cyprian the Editors are
indebted to the Rev. H. Carey, M.A. of'Worcester College; and for S. Pacian
with the Index, to the Rev. C. H. Collyns, M.A. Student of Christ Church. For
S. Cyprian the Benedictine text has been adopted, except in some few cases,
(which have been noticed,) in which that of Bp. Fell seemed preferable. For S.
Pacian the very valuable readings, noted in the margin of the Edition of
Cardinal Aguirre, (Collect. Maxima Concil. Hisp. t. ii.) from a Vatican MS. of
the ninth century, formerly |xxiv belonging
to the Queen of Sweden, have been employed. Almost all its readings are
improvements of the text; many places they clear up, in which before the
meaning was altogether obscured. They are marked in the margin as V. or Vat.
Some collations on the margin of the Edit. Par. 1538. Guillard. in the
Bodleian, derived from a MS. in the Royal Library at Paris, (the source of which
Dr. Bandinel kindly pointed out to the Editor,) have also been used. The MS.
although a late one, in several places agrees with the Vatican MS. They are
marked R. The Editions were also consulted for the Editor by Mr. Collyns. The collations of the Vat. MS. are wanting on the De
Baptismo, but neither had the text the same difficulty.
E. B. P.
Ember Week after
Whitsunday, 1844.
S. PACIAN
I. Ep. to Sympronian, of
the Catholic Name 319
II-------------------------on
Novatian's Letter 327
III -------------------------
against the Treatise of the Novatian 336
Exhortation to Penitence
364
On Baptism 378
Indices to S. Cyprian 385
Indices to S. Pacian 413
[Note that in the
original volume the works of S.Pacian were only an appendix to the Epistles of
S.Cyprian. Material relating to Cyprian only is omitted]
1. 23 c. Ruf.
ii. 24.
2. 24 "castigatae
eloquentiae" Vat.; which Vallars also prefers ; others "castitate et
eloquentia," which seems less probable, since he was married. Nor is the
construction so fluent. Ver. castitate eloquentiae.
3. 1 2 Cor.
7,11.
4. m delaps.
21, 22. p. 275. Oxf. Tr.
5. n 3, 48.
SOURCE : http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/pacian_0_intro.htm
EXTANT WORKS OF S. PACIAN,
BISHOP OF BARCELONA.
EPISTLES TO SYMPRONIAN,
EXHORTATION TO REPENTANCE,
ON BAPTISM.
EPISTLE I.
OF THE CATHOLIC NAME.
[Translated by the Rev.
C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student of Christ Church.]
Variety of heresies united
in the Cataphrygians. 320 --- No one convinced against his will;
truth not to be blamed if it fail. 321 --- Value and antiquity of the
name Catholic. 322 --- Penitence, a necessary, though sad,
remedy. 323 --- Exhortations to penitence in O. and N. T. after
great sin. 324 --- If Apostles only could absolve, they only could
baptize. 325 --- All Apostolic functions descended to Bishops, so
none defined. 326 --- Caution in giving absolution; it precludes not
Judgment of Christ. 327
Pacian to Sympronian his
brother, greeting.
1. If it be
not a carnal intention, my lord 1,
but as I judge, a calling of the Spirit, that thou enquirest of us the faith of
the Catholic verity, thou, before all, taldng thy rise as far as appears, from
a streamlet at a distance, and not holding to the fountain and source of the
principal Church, shouldest, in the first instance, have shewn what or how
different are the opinions which thou followest. Thou shouldest unfold thyself
as to what cause more particularly had loosened thee from the unity of our
body. For those parts, for which a remedy is sought, should be laid bare.
Whereas now (if I may so say) the bosom of correspondence being closed, we see
not on what members more especially we have to bestow our care. For such are
the heresies which have sprung forth from the Christian head, that of the mere
names the roll would be immense. For to pass over the heretics of the Jews,
Dositheus 2 the
Samaritan, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees, it were long to enumerate how many
grew up in the times of the Apostles, Simon Magus, and Menander, and Nicolaus,
and others hidden by an inglorious fame. What again in later times were Ebion,
and Apelles, and Marcion, and Valentinus, and Cerdon, and not long after them,
the Cataphrygians, and Novatians, not to notice any recent swarms!
2. Whom then
in my letters must I first refute? Wouldest thou the mere names of all, my
paper will not contain them; |320 unless
indeed by your writings every way condemnatory of penance you declare your
agreement with the Phrygians. But, most illustrious Lord, so manifold and so
diverse is the error of these very men, that in them we have not only to
overthrow their peculiar fancies against penance, but to cut off the heads, as
it were, of some Lernaean monster. And, in the first place, they rely on more
founders than one, for I suppose Blastus 3 the
Greek is of them; Theodotus 4 also
and Praxeas 5 were
once teachers of your party, themselves also Phrygians of some celebrity, who
falsely say they are inspired of Leucius 6,
boast that they are instructed by Proculus 7.
Following Montanus, and Maximilla, and Priscilla, howmanifold controversies
have they raised concerning the day of Easter, the Paraclete, Apostles,
Prophets, and many other disputes, as this 8 also
concerning the Catholic name, the pardon of penance.
3. Wherefore if we
would discuss all these points, thou hadst need been present and teachable. But
if on those points merely on which thou writest, my instruction should not be
sufficiently full, yet as it is our duty to serve, in whatsoever way we can,
those who solemnly adjure us 9,
we now, for the sake of informing you, discourse 10 with
thee summarily on those matters about which thou hast deigned to write to us.
If thou wouldest have fuller knowledge on our side, thou must on thine declare
thyself more unreservedly, lest by somewhat of obscurity in thy enquiries, thou
leave us uncertain, whether thou art consulting or censuring.
4. Meanwhile
(and this concerns our present correspondence 11)
I would above all entreat thee not to borrow authority for error from this very
fact that, as thou sayest, throughout the whole world no one has been
found 12,
who could convince or persuade thee contrary to what thou believest. For |321 although
we be unskilled, most skilful is the Spirit of God, and if we are
faithless, faithful is God, Who cannot deny Himself.13 Then,
also, because it was not allowed the Priests of God to contend long with one
who resisted 14. We, says
the Apostle, have no such custom, neither the churches of God. After one
admonition 15, as
thou thyself knowest, the contentious is passed by. For who can
persuade any of any thing against his will? Thine own fault was it therefore,
brother, and not theirs, if no one convinced thce of what in itself is most
excellent. For at this day too it is in thy power to despise our writings also,
if thou hadst rather refute than approve them. Yet very many resisted both the
Lord Himself, and the Apostles, nor could any ever be persuaded of the truth,
unless he consented to it by his own religious feeling.16
5. Therefore, my
Lord, neither have we written with that confidence, as though we could persuade
thee, if thou resistest, but in that faith by which we would not deny thee an
entrance to holy peace, if thou wiliest. Which peace if it be after thine own
soul and heart2, there ought3 to be no contest about the name of Catholic.
For if it is through God that our people obtain this name, no question is to be
raised, when Divine authority is followed. If through man, you must discover
when it was first taken. Then, if the name is good, no odium rests with it; if
ill, it need not be envied. The Novatians, I hear, are called after Novatus or
Novatian; yet it is the sect which I accuse in them, not the name: nor has any
one objected their name to Montanus or the Phrygians.
6. But under the
Apostles, you will say, no one was called Catholic. Be it thus. It shall have
been so. Allow even that. When after the Apostles heresies had burst forth, and
were striving under various names to tear piecemeal and divide the
Dove and the Queen of God,17 did
not the Apostolic people require a name of their own, whereby to mark the unity
of the people that were uncorrupted, lest the error of some should rend limb by
limb the undefiled virgin 18 of
God? Was it not seemly that the chief head should be distinguished by its own
peculiar appellation? Suppose, this very day, I entered a populous city. When I
had found Marcionites, |322 Apollinarians,
Cataphrygians, Novatians, and others of the kind who call themselves
Christians, by what name should I recognise the congregation of my own people,
unless it were named Catholic? Come tell me, who bestowed so many names on the
other peoples? Why have so many cities, so many nations, each their own
description? The man who asks the meaning of the Catholic Name, will he be
ignorant himself of the cause of his own name if I shall enquire its origin?
Whence was it delivered to me? Certainly that which has stood through so many
ages was not borrowed from man. This name "Catholic" sounds not of
Marcion, nor of Apelles, nor of Montanus, nor does it take heretics as its
authors.
7. Many
things 19 the
Holy Spirit hath taught us, Whom God sent from Heaven to the Apostles as their
Comforter and Guide. Many things reason teaches us, as Paul saith, and honesty,
and, as he says, nature herself. 20 What!
Is the authority of Apostolic men, of Primitive Priests, of the most blessed
Martyr and Doctor Cyprian, of slight weight with us? Do we wish to teach the
teacher? Are we wiser than he was, and are we puffed up by the spirit of the
flesh against the man, whom his noble shedding of blood, and a crown of most
glorious suffering, have set forth as a witness of the Eternal God? What
thinkest thou of so many Priests on this same side, who throughout the whole
world were compacted together in one bond of peace with this same Cyprian? What
of so many aged Bishops, so many Martyrs, so many Confessors? Come say, if they
were not sufficient authorities for the use of this name, are we sufficient for
its rejection? And shall the Fathers rather follow our authority, and the
antiquity of Saints give way to be emended by us, and times now putrifying
through their sins, pluck out the grey hairs of Apostolic age? And yet, my
brother, be not troubled; Christian is my name, but Catholic my surname. The
former gives me a name, the latter distinguishes me. By the one I am approved;
by the other I am but marked.
8. And if at
last we must give an account of the word Catholic, and draw it out from the
Greek by a Latin interpretation, "Catholic" is 'every where one 21,'
or, (as learned men 22 think,)
"obedience in all," i. e. all the commands of |323 God.
Whence the Apostle, Whether ye he obedient in all things;23 and
again, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of One shall many be made righteous. 24 Therefore
he who is a Catholic, the same man is obedient 25.
He who is obedient, the same is a Christian, and thus the Catholic is a
Christian. Wherefore our people when named Catholic are separated by this
appellation from the heretical name. But if also the word Catholic means 'every
where one,' as those first think, David indicates this very thing, when he
saith, The queen did stand in a vesture of gold, wrought about with,
divers colours; 26 that
is, one amidst all. And in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom speaketh these
words, My dove, My undefiled, is but one; she is the only one of her
mother; she is the choice one of her that bare her.27 Again
it is written, The virgins shall be brought unto the King after her. And
further, Virgins without number.28 Therefore
amidst all she is one, and one over all. If thou askest the reason of the name,
it is evident.
9. But as to
penance 29,
God grant that it may be necessary for none of the faithful; that no one after
the help of the sacred font may fall into the pit of death, and that
Priests may not be compelled to inculcate or to teach its tardy consolations,
lest, whilst by remedies they soothe the sinner, they open a road to sin. But
we lay open this indulgence of our God to the miserable, not to the happy; not
before sin, but after sins; nor do we announce a medicine to the whole, but to
the sick. If spiritual wickednesses have no power over the baptized, none, that
fraud of the serpent, which subverted the first man, which hath printed on his
posterity so many marks of condemnation: if it hath retired from the world, if
we have already begun to reign, if no crime steals over our eyes, none over our
hands, none over our minds, then let this gift of God be cast aside, this help
rejected; be no confession, no groans, heard; let a proud righteousness despise
every remedy.
10. But if the Lord
Himself 30 hath
provided these things for His own creature man, if the same Lord Who hath
bestowed remedies on the fallen, hath given rewards to them that stand, cease to
accuse the Divine goodness, to erase by |324 the
interposition of your own rigour so many inscriptions of heavenly mercy, or by
inexorable harshness to prohibit the gratuitous good gifts of the Lord. This is
not a largess from our own bounty. Turn ye, saith the Lord, even
to Me, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your
heart;31 and
again, Let the wicked man leave his ways, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts 32,
and turn unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy.33 And
also after this manner crieth the Prophet, For He is gracious, and
merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil.34 Hath
the serpent so lasting a poison, and hath not Christ a remedy? Doth the Devil
kill in the world, and hath Christ no power here to help? Be we indeed ashamed
to sin, but not ashamed to repent. Be we ashamed to hazard ourselves, but not
ashamed to be delivered. Who will snatch the plank 35 from
the shipwrecked, that he escape not? Who will grudge the curing of a wound?
Doth not David say, Every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch
with my tears; and again, I acknowledge my sin, and mine
unrighteousness have I not hid; and yet more, I said, I will confess
my sins unto the Lord, and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my heart.36 Did
not the Prophet answer him 37 when,
after the guilt of murder and adultery, penitent for Bathsheba, The Lord
also hath put away from thee thy sin? 38 Did
not confession deliver the king of Babylon, when condemned after so many sins
of idolatry? And what is it that the Lord saith, Shall he who has fallen
not arise, and he who has turned not return? 39 What
answer give the subjects of those many parables of our Lord? That the woman
findeth the coin, and rejoiceth when she hath found it? That the shepherd
carrieth back the wandering sheep? That when the son was returning, all his
goods wasted in riotous living 40 with
harlots and fornicators, the Father with kindness met him, and, assigning the
grounds, chideth the , envious brother, saying, This My son was dead, and
is alive again, was lost, and is found.41 What
of him who was wounded in the way, whom Levite and Priest passed by? Is he not
taken care of? |325
11. Ponder what the
Spirit saith to the Churches.42 The
Ephesians He accuses of having forsaken their love; to them of Thyatira He
imputeth fornication; the people of Sardis He blameth as loitering in the work;
those of Pergamus as teaching things contrary; of the Laodiceans He brandeth
the riches; and yet He calleth all to penance and to satisfaction. What meaneth
the Apostle, when he writeth to the Corinthians thus, Lest, when I come, I
bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the
uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness, which they have
committed? 43 What,
when again to the Galatians, If a man be overtaken in a fault, (i. e.
any whatever,) ye who are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 44 Does
then the master of the family in a large house guard only the silver and golden
vessels? Does he not deign to guard both the earthen and the wooden, and some
that are put together and repaired? Now I rejoice, saith the
Apostle, that ye sorrowed to repentance; and again, for godly
sorrow worketh repentance unto enduring salvation.45 But
penitence, you say, was not allowed. No one enjoins a fruitless labour, For
the labourer is worthy of his hire.46 Never
would God threaten the impenitent, unless He would pardon the penitent 47.
This, you will say, God alone can do. It is true. But that also which He
does through His Priests, is His own authority. Else what is that which He
saith to the Apostles, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound
in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in
heaven? 48 Why
said He this, if it was not lawful for men to bind and loose? Is this allowed
to Apostles only? Then to them also only is it allowed to baptize, and to them
only to give the Holy Spirit, and to them only to cleanse the sins of the
nations; for all this was enjoined on none others but Apostles.
12. But if both the
loosening of bonds and the power of the Sacrament are given in one place,
either the whole has been derived to us from the Apostolic form and authority,
or else not even this relaxation has been made from the decree. I, he
saith, have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.49 This,
therefore, we build up, which the doctrine of |326 the
Apostles laid as the foundation. And, lastly, Bishops also are named Apostles,
as saith Paul of Epaphroditus, My brother and fellow-soldier; but your
Apostle.50
13. If, therefore,
the power of the Laver, and of the Anointing, gifts 51 far
greater, descended thence to Bishops, then the right of binding and of loosing
was with them. Which although for our sins it be presumptuous in us to claim,
yet God, Who hath granted unto Bishops the name even of His only Beloved, will
not deny it unto them, as if holy and sitting in the chair of the Apostles.
14. I would
write more, brother, were I not pressed by the hasty return of the servant, and
were I not reserving a fuller account for thee when either present, or making
confession of thy whole purport. Let no one despise the Bishop on consideration
of the man. Let us remember that the Apostle Peter hath named our Lord,
Bishop. But are now, he saith, returned unto the Shepherd and
Bishop of your souls.52 What
shall be denied to the Bishop, in whom operateth the Name of God? He shall
indeed give an account, if he have done any thing wrong, or if he shall have
judged corrupt and unrighteous judgment. Nor is God's Judgment forestalled, but
that He may undo the work of a wicked builder. In the mean while, if that his
ministration be holy, he abideth as an helper in the work of God. See the
Apostle writeth to Laity: To whom, ye forgive any thing, I forgive also:
for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it
in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are
not ignorant of his devices.53 But
if what the Laity forgive, the Apostle saith that he hath forgiven, what a Bishop
hath done, in what character can it be rejected? Therefore neither the
Anointing, nor Baptism, nor remission of sins, nor the renewing of the Body,
were granted to his sacred authority, because nothing was entrusted to him as
assumed by himself, but the whole has descended in a stream from the Apostolic
privilege.
15. Know 54,
brother, that not indiscriminately to all is this very pardon through penance
granted; nor until there shall have been either some indication of the Divine
will, or perchance some visitation, may men be loosed; that
with |327 careful
pondering and much balancing, after many groans and much shedding of tears,
after the prayers of the whole Church, pardon is in such wise not refused to
true penitence, as that no one thereby prejudgeth the future Judgment of
Christ. If, brother, thou wouldest write thy sentiments more openly, thou shalt
be more fully instructed.
[Marginal numbered notes,
references, and footnotes all moved to the end and renumbered]
1. 1 Domine
2. a He was one
of the "false Christs" shortly after our Lord's Coming. See Orig. c. Cels.
i. 57. in Matt. Comm. Lat. §. 33. ed. de la Rue al. Tr. 27. in Joan. tom. 13.
§. 27.
3. b He
separated from the Church as a Quarto-deciman, whence S. Irenaeus wrote to him
as a schismatic, (Eus. H. E. v. 20.) he, however, seems to have so done as judaizing,
(Tert. adv. omn. haer. c. 8.) S. Epiphanius mentions Quarto-decimans as an
off-shoot of Montanists. Haer. 50. c. 1. see Tillemont, t. 2. Art. Montanistes
c. 15.
4. c who first
denied our Lord in persecution, then His Divinity. Tert. L. c. Some then of the
Montanists became nakedly Humanitarians, as others (note d.) Sabellians.
5. d One
section of the Cataphrygians, named from one Aeschines, (kata Aeschinem,) said
that Christ was both the Son and the Father. Tert. ib. c. 8.
6. e The forger
of Apocryphal books.
7. f from whom
one division of the Montanists was called kata Proclum, (Tert. 1. c.) and who
held a disputation with Caius at Rome in the time of Zephyrinus. Eus. H.
E. vi. 20.
8. 1 hoc V.
9. 2 quoquo
modo adjurantibus V. R.
10. g colloquimur.
Conloquemur. R.
11. 3 literas
added V.
12. 4 inventus
sit V.
13. 2Tim.2, 13.
14. 1 obnitenti
Vat.R. obtinendo Edd. Galland. conjectures obnitendo.
15. h see ab.
St. Cypr. Ep. 59. fin, p. 171.
16. 1 Cor.11, 16.
Titus 3, 10.
17. 2 Vat.
omits et, "if it be dear to thy soul."
18. 3 debet V.
19. 1 multa ed.
Rom.
20. 1 Cor. 11, 14.
21. 2 ubique
unum V.
22. 3 doctores
V.
23. 2 Cor. 2, 9.
24. Rom. 5, 19.
25. 1 justi
"'to what is right"' omitted Vat.
26. Ps. 45, 10.
27. Song of Solomon
6,9. Ps. 45, 15.
28. Song of Solomon
6,8.
29. 2 see
Tert. de Poen. c. 7. p. 361.
30. 2 Ipse V.
R.
31. Joel 2, 12. 13.
32. 1 added.
V.
33. Is. 55,7.
34. Joel 2, 13.
35. i or, (as
S. Jerome from the Heb.) "shall he turn again, and He [God] not
return?"
36. Ps. 6, 6.
Ps.32,5. ver. 6.
37. 2 illi V.
38. 2 Sam. 12,
13.
39. Jer.8,4. k see
on Tert. de Poen. c. 4. p. 354. n. o. Oxf.
Tr. Tert. de Poen. c. 8.
40. 3 nepotata
G.
41. Luke 15, 24. 32.
42. Tert. de Poen.
c. 8.
43. 2 Cor. 12,21.
44. Gal.6, 1.
45. 2 Cor. 7, 9.
ver. 10.
46. Luke 10, 7.
47. 1 Tert. de
Poen. c. 8.
48. Mat. 18, 18.
49. 1 Cor. 3, 10.
50. Phil. 2, 25.
51. 1 et
om. V.
52. 1 Pet. 2,
25.
53. 2 Cor. 2,
10. 11.
54. 2 scito R
SOURCE : http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/pacian_1_letter1.htm
EPISTLE II.
CONCERNING NOVATIAN'S
LETTER.
[Translated by the Rev.
C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student of Christ Church.]
Novatians claimed to be
called Christians only, not Catholics; cannot get rid of their human name; or
affix any on the Catholics. Sympronian's captious criticism; all language God's
gift. The civil power may punish misbelievers, if with good end. Novatians not
persecuted, yet dwindle. Contrast of S. Cyprian and Novatian. Nov. no martyr,
nor would suffering out of the Church make one. Pride of Novatian;
humility is innocence.
Pacian the Bishop to
Sympronian his brother, greeting.
1. On a prolix
question I will, as far as I can, seek brevity. Nor will I, brother, make thee
any return of evil, although, under plea of fair questioning, casting and
directing at me hidden arrows in thy speech, of thine own framing. We are
bidden to pray for those that persecute us, and to bless those
who curse us.1 Deceit
belongeth as it were to the fox, violence 2 to
the lion. Either is most alien from the nature of man, but deceit is deservedly
the most odious. For whereas thou deemest thou art best informed 3,
thou questionest as if ignorant; when thou thinkest that thou art teaching,
thou pretendest to be taught. The Pharisees of old were wont to call the Lord,
Rabbi, when they were setting before Him ambiguous questions 4 of
the law; they entitled Him Master, when they would claim all mastery for
themselves. But do what thou wilt, brother, thou shalt hear all in return from
me without guile. I had rather be thought unskilful, than malicious. I. had
rather be judged foolish, than crafty.
2. Wherefore,
before I assign the grounds of our faith, (about which thou art anxious,) hear
a few words on your letter, which you put as a front 5 to
your treatise. You say that you were refreshed by our former Epistle, and then
straightway add that my answer was couched in bitter terms. If bitter things
refresh, I know not what would be the effect |328 of
sweet; unless it be that, as in a draught of medicine, what is bitter is wont
to cure more than what is sweet. But, I beg, look again 6 at
my letters and see whether they are at all sprinkled with gall; what there was
haughty, what unsweet in my answer. Thou sayest that I named many heresies,
about which no one enquired. Well, how did this affect thee, if thou wert not
an heretic? You raised a question concerning our faith, and said that you
wished for instruction; I wrote that the causes of ignorance were manifold, in
order that you might shew which one especially had influence on you, to save
perplexity in opening a large number.
3. On the name
Catholic I answered fully and with calmness. For I said, that it mattered to
neither, what the other was called. And if you demanded the meaning of the
name, I said that, whatever it might be 7,
it was wonderful, whether it was 'one in all,' or 'one over all,' or
(an interpretation which I have not mentioned before,) 'the king's son,' that
is, 'the Christian people.' Certainly too that was no accessory name which
endured through so many ages. And indeed I am glad for thee that although thou
mayest have preferred others, yet thou agreest that the name attaches to us.
What, should you deny? Nature would cry out. But and if you still have doubts,
let us hold our peace. We will both be that which we shall be named, witness
the antiquity of the name. If, however, thou perseverest in asking, beware lest
that man of might exclaim, Why askest thou thus after My Name, seeing it
is wonderful? 8 I
next added, that we need not consider, whence Catholics, derived this name,
because neither was it wont to be any imputation against the Valentinians, if
they were called after Valentinus, nor the Phrygians, if from Phrygia, nor the
Novatians, if after Novatian. At this you are grievously excited, and rouse
yourself as if pierced with a sting. For in your wrath you thus exclaim, 'Is it
ever any objection to that holy man Cyprian, that his people bear the name
of Apostaticum, Capitolinum 9, or Synedrium? Thou
revilest, but lo! I am not moved. Have we been called by any of |329 these
names? Ask a century, brother, and all its years in succession, whether this
name has adhered to us; whether the people of Cyprian have been called other
than Catholic? No one of these names have I ever heard. Consider now, if a man
can be called by a name, which he knows not to have been given him. What then?
These are taunts, not names, and taunts of the angry, taunts of the petulant. I
too could call you by as many names as you will, were it lawful to be angry.
Callest thou Cyprian holy, and his people apostatizing? How so? If the
first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the
branches.10 Am
I Apostate, or Novatus? I, I say, or Novatus who forsook his father, abandoned
the Church, and caused his wife to miscarry 11?
Am I Apostate, or Novatian, whom a letter in his absence made a feigned
Bishop 12,
whom the Episcopal seat 13 received
without consecration from any? But of these points hereafter. In the mean time,
tell me yourselves what ye are called. Do ye deny that the Novatians are called
frorm Novatian? Impose on them 14 whatever
name you like; that will ever adhere to them. Search, if it please you, whole
annals, and trust so many ages. You will answer, "Christian." But if
I enquire the genus of the sect, you will not deny that it is Novatian. And yet
it is not the name of thy Novatian which I censure, and which, so often sought
after, thou cnvelopest in lines of circumlocution, and, if I may so speak, in
closed bosom. Confess it without deceit. There is no wickedness in the name.
Why, when so often enquired for, do you hide yourself? Why ashamed of the
origin of your name? When you first wrote, I thought you a Cataphrygian. Dost
thou 15 acknowledge
it in thy second letter? Dost thou grudge me my name, and yet shun thine own?
Think what there is of shame in a cause which shrinks from its own name.
5. But what is this
thy criticism on which thou art so busy? As though I had applied to a
Rhetorician, or had to |330 treat
of a science, or to expound verses of Virgil? What then had I said? or what
verses of Virgil was I expounding 16?
Having named several heretics, I added, 'Et quos fama recondit obscura 17.'
And whence thinkest thou this to be quoted from a verse of Virgil, if thou
hadst no knowledge at all of Virgil? But I did not set down the verse in order,
for I said, 'Quos fama recondit obscura,' just as, when speaking, we are
accustomed, out of the abundance of human language, to say any thing which may
have been said before. Whereas you requote the verse in its own order, in its
rhythm. Hadst thou so much more love for Virgil, as to deem it sacrilege, to
make any infringement on his verse? And yet I had learnt this of a little
child. What wonder if I stumbled on that which I knew? Is there such a spirit
of enterprise then, brother, that now at last thou readest those very things,
which thou didst blush should once have been read by others? As well mayest
thou accuse one, taught in Latin, for speaking Latin, as thou mightest a Greek
for speaking Greek, a Parthian for speaking Parthian, a Carthaginian for
speaking Punic. Medes, Egyptians, Hebrews, have each their own language,
according to the abundance of the Lord, Who hath harmonized language into an
hundred and twenty 18 tongues.
A Bishop quote a verse from a Poet! What? Does the Apostle Paul blush, when he
hath both quoted and approved of that Athenian verse? For in the Acts of the ,
Apostles he putteth it thus, As certain also of your own poets have said,
For we are His offspring. Since then we are the offspring of God. 19 And
again, to Titus he said, One of themselves, even a prophet of their own,
said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.20 And
he added, This witness is true.21 So
we have authority for our error. Nor are we Rhetoricians, but whatever word we
use, we believe it to be the rich gift of God. Latium, Egypt, Athens,
Thracians, Arabians, Spaniards, acknowledge God. The Holy Spirit understandeth
all languages. |331
7. But why do
you say, 'I will smear thy letters with fresh oil of cedar, to protect them
from the destructive enemies of the Muses?' What Muses, I pray you? Those who
invented letters, and wrote the sheets which are the prey of moths? Tell me, I
pray then, brother, did the Muses invent letters? Are not all things through
The Lord, and all from God? Besides those hundred and twenty tongues, was there
yet another of the Muses? That idea was falsely devised by Hesiod on Helicon,
but only to please the Athenians, who 22,
the Apostle says, had no leisure but to talk.23 We
(the Apostle is our witness) retain the measures of all words, and all kinds of
language, as inspired by God. Yet I pardon you, brother, if you rely somewhat
upon your own author, and if you join together the philosophy of Novatian,
whereby he made shipwreck of religion, with the authority of Hesiod. But thou
oughtest to have remembered the words of the Apostle, who saith, Beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.24
8. And now of
what sort is that which you think is to be imputed to Catholics, "if at
any time kings or governments have persecuted you?" 25 Then,
on the other hand, ought it to be imputed to you, as often as Catholics have
had to endure the wickedness and persecution of kings, and pagan princes have
persecuted us. Have ye had to bear the odium attached to Christians? But we
have had more reason to complain. Let him who did this, see to it with what
intention, in what spirit he did it; to procure peace or discord. But and
if some of them have erred, he saith, shall they make the faith of
God without effect?26 And
yet think not that there was any reason to complain of us. When through our
Faith 27 princes
had begun to be Christians, these very princes, favouring the Catholic, that is
their own, side, were moved by their own sorrow; unless it is to be imputed to
Daniel, that he was avenged by Darius: or to that most holy woman Esther, when
for her a chief minister of the king is put to death: or to the three youths,
because after they had made trial of the flames, the king of Babylon for their
sakes threatens the wicked and unbelieving. Does not Peter put |332 Simon
to confusion with the consent of the judge 28?
Does not 29 Paul
strike Elymas blind with the approval of Sergius? And even at Jerusalem he had
been avenged, had he when in bonds had any confidence in them 30.
Dost thou not know that authorities themselves are the servants of the innocent,
and minister for good to the holy side 31?
As saith the Apostle, Rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the
evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and
thou shall have praise of the same through the Lord; for he is a minister of
God to thee for good. 32
9. And yet I
have complained of no one, I have been avenged on no one, nor do I think that
the Novatians are any obstacle to me, in whose fewness and decrease, if I
would, I might glory. See, no one accuses your people to the Emperor, and yet
thou art alone 33.
Nevertheless we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ,34 of
which one thing I know the Novatians would complain, if their cause were
acceptable to any princes.
10. "It
profiteth more," you say, "to overcome than to please." But they
who are led by a burning desire to overcome make their way by contention.
Whereas the Apostle saith, But if any man seem to be contentious, we have
no such custom, neither the Churches of God.35 On
the other hand, of the desire of pleasing he saith, I please all men
in all things, not seeking mine own, profit, but the profit of many, that they
may be saved.36 But
ye, whilst ye are thinking of your own, not the profit of your brethren, had
rather destroy by overcoming, than refresh by pleasing. To overcome evil with
good, is the office of reason: but to wish for victory, in whatever cause it
be, is the part of a mad presumption. This cometh from the law not of Apostles,
but of Greeks, amongst whom it is found on record, that the whole spirit of the
Lacedemonians was inflamed with a |333 desire
of conquering. The filthy boar also, and the infuriated tigress, what else do
they desire but to conquer, rather than to please?
11. "I have
leisure," you write, and therefore art thou well pleased with contention.
But to me, fully occupied in Catholic business, your letters were delivered
after about thirty days; resumed, after forty more.
12. You say
that I am angry. God forbid. I believe that I am roused; like the bee who
sometimes defends her honey with her sting. But reconsider the letters on
either side. You will soon see whether it be with stings or with flowers that
we join issue on paper. The Apostle indeed speaks of some similar persons,
whose mouths must be stopped 37.
But listen, we engage with thee, as doves, with the mouth rather than with the
teeth.
13. Oh! would it
were true that thou sayest thou wouldest be taught! at once, with my own hands
would I give thee the very anointing of the Holy Spirit. Dost thou love me? I
have not harmed thee, this I know. But then couldest thou love me, if thou
didst not hold things contrary; then wouldest thou approach my work with kindly
feelings.
14. Dost thou
marvel that the Epistles of Cyprian please me? And how should they not, the
Epistles of a blessed Martyr and a Catholic Priest? Dost thou force Novatian
upon me? I hear that he was a philosopher 38 of
the world; it is not then much wonder to me that he fell away from the Church
of the Living God. I know that he deserted the root of the ancient law, the
fountain of the ancient people; envying Cornelius, lending himself to the
phrenzy of Novatus, made Bishop without legitimate consecration, and therefore
not even made, by the letter of those men, who pretended they were Confessors,
who rent asunder the limbs of their one mother. These points, brother, I will
prove to you in letters, by the confession of your own friends. Thus this philosopher
of thine, seeking to establish his own wisdom,39 as
the Apostle saith, was not made subject to the wisdom of
God, since by its wisdom the world knoweth not 40 the
wisdom |334 of God. For
whereas thou supposest that Novatian suffered first, and subjoinest that
Cyprian said, "My adversary hath preceded me 41,"
see how clear the answer I can make. Novatian never endured martyrdom; nor was
that ever heard or read from the words of the most blessed Cyprian. Thou hast
his Epistles in which he mentions 42 Cornelius
Bishop of the City 43,
of whom Novatian was then envious, as resisting the hostile princes, often a
confessor, often harassed; as made the leader of many Confessors, of many
Martyrs also, and as receiving a most glorious crown with many others, whilst
Novatian was still alive, and even free from all anxiety. For he had left the
Church of Christ for this very reason, that he might not have to bear the toils
of Confessorship 44.
First, stung by envy, he could not endure the Episcopate of Cornelius; then,
with the mockery of those letters of a few, he had bound himself to Novatus.
All this concerning Novatian you may learn from the letters of Cyprian.
15. But, moreover,
although Novatian did endure some suffering, yet was he not also slain. And
although he was slain, yet was he not crowned. Why not? He was without the
peace of the Church, without the bounds of concord, without the pale of that
mother, of whom he ought to be a part who is a Martyr. Hear the Apostle, And
though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not
charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and
though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me
nothing.45 But
Cyprian suffered, in concord with all, in the common peace of all, amid a
company of Confessors; and, having often been a Confessor in reiterated
persecutions, and harassed with many a torment, had at last given him to
drink of the cup of salvation. This was to be crowned! Wherefore let
Novatian have his Epistles to himself, to himself his haughtiness, to |335 himself
his pride, by which, whilst he is lifted up on high, he is dashed down to
pieces, whilst he spares no one, he is himself cast out.
16. Lo! the man,
who by an inexorable religion closes the way of salvation against his brethren!
Lo! the man, who is confident that he beareth the fan 46, and
is purging the garner of the Lord! Take pity on thyself, brother
Sympronian, lest Novatian deceive thee under this mask, as though he were
therefore to be thought the more righteous, because he despised others in
comparison of himself. Audacity often feigns itself confidence; and the false
image of a good conscience flatters even desperate sinners. Whereas
contrariwise all humility is innocence, even that of the debtor, even that of
the sinner, even that which softeneth its soul with the sinner 47. Blot
me, I pray Thee, says Moses, out of Thy book which Thou hast written;48 and
this, that sinners might not perish. For I could wish, saith the
Apostle, that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen
according to the flesh.49 Both
then pray for sinners; and yet neither Moses nor Paul offend God on this
account. Is Novatian better than they? a corrector of Prophets? a teacher of
Apostles? Is he now seen with Christ, as was this same Moses?50 Is
he now carried up, as was Paul, into the third heaven?51 Is
he alone to be now heard, and all others neglected? This would have been a
sufficient answer to return to your letter.
17. But as you
argue to some extent against doing penance, or for doing it before Baptism; and
have filled your page with many chapters of examples from his treatise, I will,
though more than is called for, answer each point. I will not hold back the
substance of the truer faith. And as thou hast deigned to enjoin on me to hear
thee at great length, do thou in return afford a kind requital to our treatise.
The Lord perhaps will vouchsafe, that we, who have patiently yielded ourselves
to thy enquiries, may gather some fruit from thy patience also. The Lord
vouchsafe to guard and protect thee for ever, and make thee to live a Christian
and a Catholic, and to agree with us! Amen.
[Marginal numbered notes,
references, and footnotes all moved to the end and renumbered]
1. Mat. 5, 44.
2. 1 autem om.
V.
3. 2 nosse
te for nocere V. It.
4. 3 aenigmata
5. k praetulisti,
perhaps as a false front. [Tr.]
6. 1 repetas added V.
7. 2 esset added V.
8. Judg. 13, 18.
9. l intended,
doubtless, to refer to the admission of the lapsed, who had sacrificed in the
Capitol, see ab. on S. Cypr. Ep. 8. §. 2. p. 18. n. u.
10. Rom. 11, 16.
11. m see ab.
S.Cypr. Ep. 52. §.3. p. 113.
12. n finxit.
Novatian's consecration, although wholly irregular, does not appear to have the
irregularity here seemingly ascribed to it. Yet S. Cyprian is thought to speak
of the absence of consecration in terms equally strong (de Laps. §. 10. p. 138.
Oxf. Tr. see Tillemont, H. E. t. 3. p. 350. note g. sur S. Corneille.
13. o linteata
sedes. "used in investitures." Hoffm.
14. 1
illis added V. R.
15. 2 tune for tunc
V.
16. p "disputandum! Quid
ergo dixeram? aut quos Virgilii" inserted from Vat. after Virgilii,
omitted through the
17. 1 Aen. v.
302.
18. q Coteler.
(quoted by Galland.) on the Recogn. ii. 42. conjectures, that CXX has been
substituted for lxx, according to the distribution of languages into lxxii, or
lxxv. see his note, t. i. p. 513. and Abp. Potter on S. Clem. Al. Strom, i. p.
404. Else the number might have been taken from Acts 1, 15.
19. Acts 17, 28.
20. Tit. 1, 12.
21. ver. 16.
22. 1 ut
om. V.
23. Acts 17, 21.
24. Col.2,8.
25. r regum et
persecutionem Edd. impius et persecutiones V. impietatem Marg. regum imperiis
R.
26. Rom. 3, 3.
27. s the
Catholic Faith.
28. t Doubtless,
Nero, who Philastrius (Haer. c. 29.) says was present, with which correspond
the tales of Dio Chrys. Or, 21. and especially Sueton. (vi. 12. quoted by
Baronius and Tillemont, H. E. S. Pierre Art. 34.) as to a juggler, who promised
Nero to fly, and tell to the ground in his presence.
29. 1 non R.
30. u ''Vindicatus
esset et Hierosolymis, si quid fidei ligatus habuisset.'' If it may thus
be rendered, it may allude to Acts 25, 10. 11. and 26, 32. Could he have
reposed confidence in Festus, he might have been set at liberty, through his
civil privilege.
31. 2 partibus for patribus.
V.
32. Rom. 13,
3. 4.
33. x the sect
melting away of itself, without civil interference.
34. Rom. 14,
10.
35. 1 Cor. 11, 16.
36. 1 Cor. 10, 33.
37. y Tit. 1,
9. "indentare for e0pistomiIzein for which it is also used by Lucif.
Calar. pro S. Ath. ii. 40." (Gall. B. P. vi. p. 195.) Gall.
38. z see on S.
Cypr. Ep. 52. §. l.p. 111. n. m.
39. Rom. 10,
3.
40. 1 Cor.1, 21.
41. a A
spurious account of a confession, or contest (a!qlhsij), also called a
martyrdom, of Novatian is mentioned by Eulogius ap. Phot. Cod. 182. 208.280.
The Novatians set much store by it; Eulogius says, that "it was of the
extremest vulgarity in language, thought, and composition;" and a bad
fiction (kako&plastoj). It consisted chiefly of a long and foolish dialogue
between Novatian and a Ducenarian, and did not even pretend that N.
"endured scourging, or suffering, or torment of any kind." Socrates'
statement (iv. 28.) that he was martyred, as well as that of the text, seem
derived from this, and are discredited by it, as it would doubtless give the
most favourable account.
42. b Ep. 55.
ad Anton. §. 6. 7. p 120. sqq.
43. 1 Rome
44. c see ab.
p. 111. n. m.
45. 1 Cor. 13, 2. 3.
46. d palam ferre
V. others, paleam auferre.
47. e quae
animam suam cum peccatore blanditur.
48. Exod. 32, 82.
49. Rom. 9, 3.
50. Mat. 17, 3.
51. 2 Cor. 12.
SOURCE : http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/pacian_2_letter2.htm
Cartell
informatiu a la catedral de Barcelona
EPISTLE III.
AGAINST THE TREATISE OF
THE NOVATIANS.
[Translated by the Rev.
C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student of Christ Church.]
Pacian the Bishop to
Sympronian his brother, greeting.
1. The whole
treatise of the Novatians, which you have addressed to me thronged with
propositions on all sides, amounts to this, brother Sympronian: That there is
no room for repentance after Baptism; that the Church cannot remit mortal sin;
that by the receiving of sinners she herself perishes. Illustrious honour!
Singular authority! Great constancy! To reject the guilty; to flee the touch of
sinners; to have so little confidence in her own innocence!
2. Who
is the assertor of this doctrine, brother, Moses, or Paul, or Christ? But Moses
wishes to be wiped out of the book for the sake of blasphemers; and
Paul to be accursed for his brethren; and the Lord Himself willeth to
suffer for the unrighteous. None of these, you will say. Who then, I ask? It
was the ordinance of Novatian. Some spotless and pure man, I suppose, who was
no follower of Novatus, who never deserted the Church, who was made Bishop by
Bishops, who was consecrated according to the received rites, who obtained the
Episcopal Chair in the Church when duly vacant? What is that to thee? thou wilt
say. I answer, Novatian taught this doctrine. But, at least, when did he teach
it, brother, or at what period? Immediately after the Passion of the Lord?
After the reign of Decius, that is, nearly three hundred years after the
Passion of the Lord. And what then did he? Did he follow Prophets, as the
Cataphrygians? some Philumene 1,
as Apelles? or received he himself so great authority? Spake he with tongues?
Did he prophesy? Could he raise the dead? For some one of these powers he ought
to have had who was to bring in a Gospel with new laws 2.
Although the Apostle crieth even against this, Though we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed. |337
3. Novatian,
you will say, discerned this; but Christ taught it. Was there no one of
discernment from the Advent of Christ even to the reign of Decius? Again, since
Decius, has every Bishop been weary of his office ? all others relaxed men,
choosing rather to join themselves with the lost, to perish with the miserable,
to be wounded through the wounds of others? Novatian vindicateth, righteousness
is set free; Novatian guideth, every error is corrected.
4. "But
come," you will say, "let our conflict be carried on with examples,
and let us contend with reasoning." But I so far am safe. Contented with
the line of the Church itself, with the peace of the ancient congregation, I
have learnt no desire of discord, I have sought no arguments for contest. Thou,
having been separated from the rest of the body, and divided from thy mother,
that thou mayest give account of thy deed, art an assiduous searcher into the
inmost recesses of books; every thing which is hidden, you molest; and whatever
is at rest, you disturb. Our Fathers, unrequired, entered into no dispute; our
very unanxiousness sought no arms; every advance of your party is guarded. I
then know not what Novatian did, of what Novatian was guilty, what the swelling
pride of Evaristus, what the report of Nicostratus. Despising your weapons, I
know them not; yet, beware, how thou engage with unarmed truth. Let us await,
however, what thou mayest object, what thou hast to say. Will truth be able to
hold its ground though unarmed, or innocence unskilled?
5. You set
forth, and rightly indeed, that "the Church is a people born again of
water and the Holy Spirit, free from denying the Name of Christ, the temple and
house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth; a Holy Virgin of chastest
feelings, the spouse of Christ, of His Bones and His Flesh, not having
spot, or wrinkle, holding the laws of the Gospels entire." Who of us
denies this? But we add moreover that: the Church is the queen in a
vesture of gold, wrought about: with divers colours; the fruitful vine on the
walls of the House of the Lord; the mother of virgins without
number; |338 the one beautiful
and perfect Dove, the chosen' of her mother, the very mother
of all; built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ
Himself being the chief corner stone. A great house enriched with a
diversity of every kind of vessel. But this of ours hereafter. Meanwhile,
consider we those of yours.
6. "The
Church is a people born again of water and the Holy Spirit" Well!
say, who hath closed the fountain of God against me? Who hath taken the Holy
Spirit from me? Yea, rather with us is the living water, the very
water which springeth from Christ; but thou, separated from the everlasting
Fountain, whence receivest thou thy birth? Nor hath the Holy Spirit departed
from the chief mother; whence then came He to thee? Unless perchance He hath
followed one that is in strife, and abandoning so many priests, nor pleased to
abide in His consecrated dwelling-place, hath preferred the broken
cisterns of an adulterated fountain? Whence have your people the Spirit,
not having, been sealed by an anointed priest? Whence the water, being
separated from its mother's womb? Whence renewal, who have lost the cradle of
Bridal Peace?
7. 'The Church
is a people free from denying the Name of Christ' Are there then no Confessors
amongst us, no Martyrs, no untainted and spotless Priests, who have been proved
by prisons, by chains, by fire, by the sword? " There were," thou
wilt say, " but by receiving those who had denied, they perished." I
do not mention, I do not infer even thisd, that your own Novatian, whilst he
was still living in the Church, both wrote, and recommended, and read a book,
on receiving those who had denied, or the lapsed. In the mean time, whom will
you be able to persuade that by receiving the lapsed the whole Church hath
perished? That by the admission of penitents, the people of those who admit
them has been made a denier of the Faith? But even if the people here or there
have been too lax, have the other peoples4 also who approved not of their
deed, but followed custom and peace, lost the Christian name? Hear the voice of
Jeremiah, In those days shall they not say, The fathers have eaten a sour
grape, and the children's teeth are |339 set
on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity. Nor is the Lord
silent by the mouth of Ezekiel, As the soul of the father, so also the
soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die; and
afterwards, The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither
shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him. You yourself bring forward this
example; Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they
shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they only shall be delivered. See,
they who are placed in the midst of sinners, who cannot deliver others, are
themselves saved. Whereas thou bindest the whole world with the chains of a few;
thou condemnest the whole Church for the infirmity of a small portion. What are
all with you saints, whom Novatus trained, whom Evaristus chose, whom
Nicostratus 3 taught,
whom Novatian instructed? Hast thou escaped the thorns and briars? Hast
thou no tares in thy corn? Is thy wheat already
purged? Will He that purgeth come to thee without His
fail? Shalt thou alone of all have no chaff? But come, proceed
with the rest.
8. "The Church is the body of Christ." Truly, the body,
not a member; the body composed of many parts and members knit in one, as saith
the Apostle, For the body is not one member, but many. Therefore the
Church is the full body, compacted and diffused now throughout the whole world;
like a city, I mean, all1 whose parts are united, not as ye are, O
Novatians, some small and insolent portion, and a mere swelling that has
gathered, and separated from2 the rest of the body.
9. "The
Church is the temple of God." Truly, an ample temple, a great
house, having vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earth,
some unto honour; and many indeed of glorious fashion destined for the manifold
uses of various works.
10. "The
Church is a holy Virgin, of chastest feelings, the Spouse of Christ."
"A Virgin," it is true, but a mother also. A " Spouse," it
is clear, but also a wife and an helpmeet taken from her Husband, and
therefore bone of His bones, and flesh of His flesh. For of her David
saith, Thy |340 wife
shall be as the fruitful vine upon the walls of thine house; thy children like
the olive-branches round about thy table. Great, therefore, is the progeny
of this Virgin, and without number her offspring, wherewith the whole world is
filled, wherewith the populous swarm ever throngs the circumfluous hive. Great
is the care of that mother for her children, and tender her affection. The good
are honoured, the haughty are chastised, the sick are cared for, no one
perishes, no one is despised, the young are kept safe under the indulgent
protection of a mother.
11. "The
Church is without spot or wrinkle," that is, without heresies, without
Valentinus, without Cataphrygians, without Novatians. For in these are certain
spotted and wrinkled folds, envious of the ornaments of the precious vesture.
But the sinner and the penitent are not a spot on the Church, because, as long
as he sinneth and repenteth not, he is put without the Church 4.
When he ceases to sin, he is already whole. But the heretic rends, divides,
spots, wrinkles, the garment of the Lord, the Church of Christ. For
whereas there are schisms and contentions among you, saith the
Apostle, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? and moreover, Their
word will eat as doth a canker. This is the spot that defileth unity, this
the wrinkle. Lastly, when the Apostle is speaking of these things, he is
setting forth the love and affection of Christ. As Christ, he
saith, loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might
remove , that is, the heretics, because they know not how to love. But why is
this, you will say, for the wretched penitent? Because he wisheth both to love
and be loved.
12. "The
Church is that which keepeth the laws of the Gospels entire." Truly
"entire," because all, because fully |341 Where
reward is given to the faithful, where tears are not denied to the wretched,
where the weeping of them that ask is heard, where the wounded are bound up,
where the sick are healed, where insolent health claimeth nothing for itself
nor a proud righteousness, where charity endureth long solicitous for
all, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things; (whence
is that of the Apostle, Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended,
and I burn not?) where the whole brotherhood mourning together, beareth
its own burdens, secure in mutual affection, all in turn bearing with one
another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. This will be the Church, brother Sympronian; this will be the
" people born again in Christ of water and the Holy Spirit."
13. "I know
not," you say, "whether sin can be remitted by Bishops, since our
Lord hath said, Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny
before My Father Which is in heaven. Why then did your Novatian teach
this, when a Priest, before he had falsely assumed the Episcopate, long before
Cornelius was made Bishop of Rome, before he was envious of his priesthood? You
have the evidence of Cyprian to this; Cyprian, whom not even ye have ever been
able to defame. For in a certain place he writes to Antonianus after this
manner 5;
'It was added, moreover, (Novatian being then the writer, and with his own
voice reciting what he had written, and Moyses, then a Confessor, now a Martyr,
subscribing,) that peace should be given to the lapsed when sick, and in
extremities; which Epistle was sent throughout the world, and brought to the
knowledge of all the Churches.' What sayest thou, brother Sympronian? Novatian
wrote this, and, that he might add the assent of his entire will, recited it
also when written. His right hand is witness; witness the hand which wrote;
witness the tongue which read. As yet Cornelius, on account of whom all this
envy of yours burst forth, was not Bishop. Long subsequent to this, with very
many brother Bishops, with very many Confessors, and forthwith Martyrs, as the
same Cyprian writes, he agreed in the decision of the elders, that peace might
be given. If the approach to penance is to |342 be
refused, Novatian is involved in the guilt, who wrote, recommended, and recited
this. Where then was this impatient rigour? Where then this unrelenting
censorship? Had no one preferred Cornelius to you, that authority of Novatian
so writing had remained.
14. Now this whole
judgment displeaseth, now are arrows shot at us, and these very men furnish
them, by whose authority the cause whereat they direct them, gained its
strength. But when began the Novatians to fall into this very heresy? Listen, I
pray, and consider the whole course of your error. Cornelius, now made Bishop
of Rome by sixteen Bishops, had succeeded to the place of the vacant Chair, and
in that virginal chastity wherewith he was endued, suffered frequent
persecutions from the angered Prince. At that time by chance a certain
Presbyter named Novatus 6,
having defrauded the widows in the Church of Carthage, robbed orphans, denied
and withheld the money of the Church, cast his father out of his house,
suffered him to die of hunger and left him without burial, stricken with his
heel the womb of his pregnant wife, and destroyed her child, came from Africa
to Rome. And there, when at the urgent request of his brethren in the Church,
the day on which he must render account at Carthage was close upon him, he lay
concealed.
15. And not long
after, when this Novatian was troubled at the Episcopate of Cornelius, (for he
had hoped it for himself,) he, with some partizans of his side, (as is men's
wont in such cases,) urges him on when hesitating, encourages him when
doubtful, exhorts him to hope for something great. He finds some out of the
number of those who escaped the tempest of that persecution, in whose minds he
could infuse against Cornelius this very odium about the receiving of the
lapsed. He gives to Novatian their letters to him. He by authority of these
letters, there being already a Bishop sitting at Rome, in opposition to the
laws of the singleness of the Priesthood, assumes to himself the name of a
second 7 Bishop;
accuses Cornelius of being in communion with the lapsed; asserts his own
innocence. Over against such a man I am |343 to
render account; against such, I am to maintain the cause of modesty; against
such is purity of life to be vindicated!
16.
"But," thou wilt say, "why do ye too, Bishops, approve such
things?" This let another say; do thou defend Novatian. Let the cause seem
to others inexcusable; to thee it should be acceptable. Be he innocent in
thy sight, whoever is in thy behalf guilty. Accuse not another of a crime, from
which you cannot clear yourself. Well, be it that we Bishops every way owe a
debt of shame, because we have received the name of Apostles, because we are
sealed with the title of Christ. "The Lord," thou sayest,
"denies him that denieth, I would not that thou shouldest acknowledge him
denying." Who does acknowledge him denying? He, I ask, who constrains him
to penance, rebukes him, shews him his crime, lays bare his wounds, tells him
of eternal punishments, corrects him by the destruction of the
flesh? This is to chasten, not to acknowledge. The Lord saith unto
us, Ye are the salt of the earth. Good then is the harmony when we so
teach, nor will its authority be slight, whosoever shall hear us. Thou seest
that the sentence of the Lord is not trampled on, but enforced by us; severity
is not laid aside, but His will laid open.
17. "But,"
thou wilt say, "you forgive sin to the penitent, whereas it is allowed to
you to remit sin only in Baptism." Not to me at all, but to God only, Who
both in Baptism forgiveth the guilt incurred, and rejecteth not the tears of
the penitent. But what I do, I do not by my own right, but by the Lord's. We
are labourers together with God, saith the Apostle; ye are God's
building; and again, I have planted, Apollos watered; but God
gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he
that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Wherefore, whether we
baptize, whether we constrain to penance, or grant pardon to the penitent, we
do this by the authority of Christ. See thou to it, whether Christ hath this
power, whether Christ have done this. |344
18. "If
remission of sin," thou sayest, "could be given to the penitent,
Baptism was not necessary." Most senseless comparison! For Baptism is the
Sacrament of the Lord's Passion: the pardon of penitents is the earning of him
that confesseth. The former all can obtain, because it is the gift of the grace
of God, that is, a free gift; but penitence is the toil of the few, who after
falling arise, who after wounds recover, who are holpen by tearful prayers, who
recover life through the destruction of the flesh.
19. Thou
maintainest that to no purpose did I adduce that instance that God hath
said, I desire not the death of a sinner, but rather that he repent. What
had I added that of Isaiah, When thou shall return and mourn, then shall
thou be saved, and know where thou hast been? What if that of the
Apocalypse, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent,
and do the first works? "These things," (thou wilt say,)
"were spoken to the Gentiles before Baptism." Hear the Apostle, Now
we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law. Therefore, those who lived without the law will not be holden by
this condition of repentance. And should they have repented, they had done it
out of an unconstrained faith, not by any bond of repentance imposed by the
law.
20. Therefore
(thou wilt say) the Jews at least who repented before Baptism cannot repent after
Baptism. Who taught thee this, brother Sympronian? Who convinced thee that he
who may have repented before, ought not to repent afterwards? But this we will
see hereafter. Meanwhile, even if the Jews were precluded from repentance after
Baptism, because they had repented before, allow that the Gentiles at least
who, before, knew not the law of repentance, ought to repent afterwards. But I
would not that thou shouldest be deceived even as to the Jews. For on this very
ground did they before repent, because they had corrupted their old Baptism,
and they repented as having, after Faith, betrayed the Faith. Hear the
Apostle, Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how
that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and
were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the
same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same |345 spiritual
drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Bock
was Christ. This Baptism then they had violated, and therefore did they
repent. Let us now see what thou sayest.
21. "If
God bids man often repent," (sayest thou,) "He allows him often to
sin." What sayest thou? Does he then who frequently points out the remedy
for a crime, point out the crime? And when the physician cures, does he teach
us to be constantly wounded? God wisheth not man to sin even once, and yet He
delivers him from sin. Nor yet when He delivereth, doth He teach sin; as
neither does he who delivers from a fire, teach to kindle it; nor does he who
rescues the shipwrecked from the cliffs, drive him upon the rocks. It is one
thing to be delivered from danger, another to be forced upon danger. And
perchance I might allow this, if luxury were accounted penitence, on which such
toil is imposed, the destruction of the flesh enjoined, continual
tears, unending groans. Will he then who has been cured wish again to feel the
knife, again to suffer cautery? Will he wish to sin again, and again to repent,
when it is written, Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee; and
again, On him that sinneth constantly I have no mercy 8.
22. But if, as thou
sayest, he is driven into sin, to whom is pointed out the medicine of penance;
what then will be his case, who is shut out even from penance? who has his
whole wound laid bare, and yet despairs of any remedy? who is utterly and
entirely denied any approach to life?
23. "In
Baptism," (thou wilt say,) "we die once for all according to the
Apostle, Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus
Christ, were baptized into His Death? Therefore we are buried with Him by
Baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. What
marvel? The Apostle taught that we were renewed, that no one might sin. And yet
it followed that he who had sinned should repent. The one is to live uninjured,
the other cured. The innocent should receive a |346 crown,
the penitent pardon: the one a reward, the other a remedy. And, lastly, the
same Apostle saith, For when we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly. Much more then, being now justified by His Blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him. From the wrath, that is, which
was due to sinners. But if He suffered not the Gentile people to die, much more
when redeemed will He not suffer them to be lost. Nor will He cast away those,
whom He hath bought at a great Price. Nor is the loss of His servants a little
matter in His eyes. , He That has risen again shall die no more, as
it is written. But Himself is our Advocate with the Father, Himself intercedeth
for our sins, no powerless Maintainer of the cause of the wretched, no
inadequate Intercessor! Answer, brother; can the devil oppress the servants of
God, and cannot Christ set them free?
24. Thou sayest,
that "the repentance of Peter was before the Passion of our Lord?" No
one adduced this instance to thee. And yet Peter had been already baptized. For
to him the Lord had said 9, He
that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every
whit. Afterwards, however, he received the remedy of Christ's Death, but
he repented before, and was esteemed holy before he attained to this remedy.
Nor would his repentance be written as a memorial, had it not in some way
profited the penitent. He wept, it is said, bitterly. Wiliest
thou not that the believer should do what Peter did? Wiliest thou not that what
profited Peter should profit us? Come say, Favoureth it not me, that Thomas,
after the Resurrection of the Lord, doubt of the Resurrection? Is he not marked
by the Lord as guilty of faithlessness, when are shewn him the prints of the
nails, the pierced Hands, the wound in the Side, when the Lord saith unto him
thus, Be not faithless, but believing? What then? Was he ashamed to
repent? Was he not humbled? Does he not straightway acknowledge his God and his
Lord? And is not that confession his commendation?
25. How acutely now
dost thou dispatch that head which I set down, that power was given unto
Bishops, that |347 whatsoever
they bound on earth, should be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever 1 they
loosed on earth, should be loosed also in heaven. Thou sayest, that this
has reference not to the Faithful, but to Catechumens, that in the case,
namely, of people yet to be baptized, sins were allowed either to be loosed or
retained. Lastly, thou joinest together clauses from two Evangelists, so as to
seem one; and addest, that what Matthew detailed less fully, John filled up: so
that whereas the Lord had said according to Matthew, Go ye, therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, He completed His words in John, saying, Whosesoever
sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain,
they are retained; so that this loosing or binding may
seem to refer to the Gentiles who were yet to be baptized, because the former
Evangelist spoke first of the Gentiles, but the latter "filled up"
concerning loosing and binding. What sayest thou? Do the
two Evangelists relate meanings mutually halved between them, and but half
entire? Were they mutually deficient either in language or in reason? Or did
not in all the Holy Spirit fill the whole man, carrying out entirely the sense
proposed, and defining the words even to the full? No one super-addeth to
a man's testament when confirmed: shall another covenant change the
covenant of God? What is this desire in you of overcoming, that you dare any
such thing? What is this, which according to Matthew himself the Lord had said
before His Passion, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven? Our
Lord had foretold this in St. Matthew, and made there no mention of the
Gentiles. Why then do you join on the chapter of John to him, where he has set
down what is peculiar to himself, and so set it down, as to keep it distinct
from the Gentiles; which, had he wished to refer to the Gentiles, he could
surely join that together which himself elsewhere set down.
26. All thou seekest
then, thou hast in Matthew. Why didst not thou, who teachest a Bishop, read the
whole? Look at the first head of that command. According to the relation of
Matthew himself, the Lord spake a little above to |348 Peter;
(He spake to one, that from one He might lay the foundation of unity;)
afterwards delivering the very same command in common to all, He still begins
in the same terms as to Peter; And I say also unto thee, He
saith, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And 1 will give unto thee the
keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be
bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven. Say, brother, did He speak this of the Gentiles only, Upon
this rock, He saith, I will build My Church? Doth He call
nations not baptized, the Church? Is man not as yet re-born, the body of
Christ? What do I loose to the Gentiles? What is not bound? For if it is not
imputed, nor bound, why bind I on, what I bind not of right? The Gentile is
free from the Law. See now, on the other hand, whether both words do not agree
with the baptized. He is loosed by pardon, because he was bound by sin: he is
bound by anathema, because he had been loosed by faith, and set free through
grace. But if I grant that this power of loosing and binding regarded the
Gentiles also, much more do I prove that it appertained to the baptized. For if
he could be loosed or bound, who had no chain, how much more he, who was held
by the laws of faith?
27. Thou sayest that
Matthew had written, If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and
tell him his fault between thee and him alone; and that immediately after
the Lord added, Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven; so that it would seem to have reference to offence given to a
brother. But look, seest thou not what He saith above, If thy brother
shall trespass against thee? but here He addeth, Verily I say unto
you, whatsoever ye shall loose on earthy &c. The former is a command
to one, the latter a power of loosing granted to many; the one, that same
looseth against whom it is committed, the other, the Church; the former is
obtained without the priest, without the brethren, the latter from all. Whatsoever
ye shall loose, He says. He excepted nothing whatever. Whatsoever, He
says, great or small. Listen to what He saith to Peter below, that sin against
man is to be forgiven seventy times seven, in |349 order
to shew that in other cases it can be forgiven at least once 10.
And yet he who sins against Peter, doth despite to the Lord, as He declares
Himself when speaking to Samuel, They have not rejected thee, but they
have rejected Me. What then is commanded to us so often, is allowed to the
Church, at least, once.
28. But to return
to the lost sheep, the piece of silver, and the younger
son, examples upon which I slightly touched in my former letter, thou hast
gone over again in full, teaching and shewing that the piece of
silver, and the sheep, and the younger son, refer to
publicans and sinners, that is, a lowly people, not to the image of the
Christian people, nor the likeness of the faithful. I congratulate myself on
being taught, but I am sorry that I comprehend not. For what shall I say? That
whatsoever the law saith, it saith to those under the law, and that this was
spoken principally to the former people, but as a likeness of the faithful, but
as an image of those who should be, as the Apostle saith, Now all these
things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come; and again, All
which things in them were a shadow of good things to come. Certainly thou
thyself acknowledgest that these things were spoken to publicans and sinners,
that is, a lowly people, and therefore the younger. Say then, is not the
Christian people itself that younger people 11?
Hath it not grown together into the root? Hath He not compacted these members
into one? built, as it is written, upon the foundation of the
Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner Stone. Is He
the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles
also. For there is One God, Who justifieth the ungodly by faith, and the
uncircumcision 12 through
faith. Certainly, that lowly people, whom God compared to the piece of
silver, the younger son, and the sheep, was the Church, whence
are Apostles, whence is the whole assembly of believers, whence the Christian
people. |350To
this body then are joined our members also, and all portions of believers, out
of the wild olive tree of the Gentiles, that they might grow together into a good
olive tree, partaking, as the Apostle saith, of its
fatness; and so we might be all one in Christ, Jew and Greek, bond and
free. If, therefore, we with those lowly ones are one body, those things which
were said to the lowly among the ancients were spoken also to us; and thus
whatever was declared to a part of the body, was announced to the whole body.
29. I will speak
more plainly still. This latter, this poor, this lowly people was an image of
the Church, the humble and modest soul, the soul delivered through Christ. This
the Lord came to save. This He left not in hell. This is the sheep
which is carried back on the shoulders, that is, with the effort and might of
patience. This the piece of silver, which is looked for, and, when found, is
shewn unto the neighbours. Seest thou how its fashion is like unto the
similitude of penitents? Seest thou that mercy is extended even to this time?
Seest thou that whatever was spoken to the Church at its birth, relates also to
the Church in its fulness? Thence did the Lord then add, Likewise joy
shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and
nine just persons, which need no repentance. For if all these things were
written for our admonition, to whom, I ask, shall that sinful, humble, people
be compared, but to the penitent people? And if, the figures recurring in
regular order, the ninety and nine sheep that were safe are the whole Church,
but the one that strayed in that small portion of offenders, the piece of money
which was lost is that wretched sinner, let the son returning after his evil
ways, be held the pattern of him that is redeemed.
30. Thou now seest
that I rightly set down, when treating of the cure of penitents, that the Lord
said, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are
sick; and rightly again, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted. Whatsoever was said of publicans and sinners, will apply to
all that are sick, and all that are miserable.
31. Thou sayest,
"It was written of Martyrs only, Blessed are they that mourn."
Does no one bewail his sins besides |351 them?
Doth not David cry, Every night wash I my bed? and again, For I
have eaten ashes as it were bread; and, mingled my drink with weeping? Saith
not Jacob, Few and evil have the years of my life been? Does not the
Apostle write to Timothy, Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of
thy tears? And yet he spoke not this of a Martyr. What now? Are the eyes
of the wretched penitents dry? And they who grieve that they have sinned, know
they not how to weep? We ourselves, the communicants, we, the faithful, have
not we tears? Hath anyone of us pleasure in rejoicing, when the world rejoiceth? Ye,
Novatians, Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings
without us. It is not then they only who are miserable, who are the
objects of commiseration 13.
32. Your next
proposition is, that it is written by the Lord, All manner of sin and
blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy
Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the
world to come. Either I am mistaken, or this example makes against thee.
For if all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven, thou seest
that pardon is not denied to penitents; all sin then, even blasphemy
itself then. According to Luke you have it added, And whosoever shall
sin 14 against
the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. What can be more large than this
as to the mercy of God, the clemency of the Judge? Is not thine
eye evil because the Householder is good? May not He do,
what He willeth? Moreover, Who art thou that judgest a
servant? to his own Master he standeth or falleth. Yea, God is able to make him
stand. But he that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit, He
saith, shall not be forgiven. Thou usually readest the whole lessons.
Why didst thou not read here what that meaneth, against the Spirit? Thou
hast it written above, that, when our Lord was casting out devils by His word,
and performing many other deeds by the power of the Spirit, the Pharisees
said, This fellow doth not cast out devils but by |352 Beelzebub
the prince of the devils. This it is to have sinned against the Holy
Spirit, to have blasphemed against those things which were wrought by the Holy
Spirit. For in other sins we either fall through error, or are conquered by
fear, or are overcome by the infirmity of the flesh. This is the blindness of
not seeing what thou seest, imputing to the devil the works of the Holy Spirit,
and calling that glory of God, by which the. devil himself is overcome, the
power of the devil. This it is then which shall not be forgiven. All
other things, brother Sympronian, are forgiven to good penitents.
33. After this thou
thus givest the instances of the branches and the vine: in John the Lord
saith, I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman. Every
branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away, and every branch that
beareth fruit, He purgeth it. Thou seest then that in the branches fruit
is required, that is, good works of repentance, as John says, Bring forth
therefore fruits meet for repentance. Thou seest that the branches are purged. This
purging is the destruction of the flesh, the loss of joy, the loss of
inheritance, the toils of life; and these are the peculiar acts of penitents.
You see also that the Husbandman is the Lord, Who destroyeth not even the very
branches, but purgeth and gathereth, some certainly for the
fire, some to renew and plant again His vineyards.
34. "Eli
the priest," thou sayest, "speaketh, saying, If one man sin
against another, they shall pray for him: but if a man sin against the Lord,
who shall intreat for him? In like manner John, If any man see his
brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask,and He shall give him
life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say
that thou shall pray for it. Thou seest that all this has reference to
sins still remaining, not to those persons who have at any time sinned, and
begun to repent before any one asketh for them. It were a long task to unfold
the instances. Remark all the sins which God threatens, thou wilt at once see
that they are present sins. But if his past righteousness shall not profit the
righteous in the time of his iniquity, neither shall his wickedness which he
hath forsaken hurt the wicked man in the time of his righteousness; for
it |353 is
written, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy. But
if God hath punished even past sins, tell me, hath He it not in His own power
to change His sentence against him, to whom15 He
hath appointed punishment and suffering for things past and overlooked? Did He
not deliver Rahab, Nebuchadnezzar the king, the Gibeonites, the Ninevites, and
Zoar, from the destruction foretold? Doth not Joel thus speak in His
Name, Turn unto the Lord your God with all your heart, and with fasting,
and with weeping, and with mourning, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. Who knoweth if He
will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him? Wherefore if thou
shalt have anyhow proved that punishment is appointed for the sinner, thou must
allow this, either that it is appointed for enduring sins, or that liberty is
left to God of changing His sentence in their favour, on repentance.
35. Thou sayest it
is further written, If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cast them from
thee. The meaning of this Moses foretold by the testimony of the Book of
Deuteronomy, If thy brother, (for these are our eyes and our
hands,) or thy daughter, or thy wife, which is in thy bosom, or thy
friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee, saying, Let us go and serve
other gods, which thou hast not known: then he added below, Thou 16 shalt
accuse him, and thine hand shall be upon him to put him to death. Dost
thou see then that this was not spoken of penitents, but of those who not only
themselves persevere in wickedness, but also cease not to put stumblingblocks
in our way? These, however dear they be, we must relinquish; however useful, we
must abandon.
36. Further,
thou settest forth that the Apostle Paul said, Put away from among
yourselves the evil thing 17;
the evil which continues, that is. But repentance is not an evil, for |354 David
saith, It is a good thing to make confession unto the Lord. And yet
he who is doing penance is not with me, nor is he joined in the portion of the
saints, nor in peace. But the Apostle saith, If any man that is called a
brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a
drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one not even to eat. Thou seest
that not without cause doth it stand, if he be, i. e. one who is not
yet penitent, who has not ceased to be wicked. And certainly the same words
apply to the covetous, to drunkards, and to railers. Answer, brother, is no one
of this kind comprehended in your communion? Thence then is it that God crieth
by Isaiah, The destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall
be together; not of the penitent, not of those who are busied in works of
mercy, to whom God saith again in the same Isaiah, Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they
shall be as wool.
37. "Nevertheless,"
thou sayest, "the Apostle condemned him that erred. For in the first
Epistle to the Corinthians he saith thus: For I verily, as absent in body,
but present in spirit, have already judged, concerning him that hath so done
this deed, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together,
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for
the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the Day of the
Lord Jesus." Mark, brother, first that he condemns not those with
whom this man is in communion. He alone who had done this deed, is delivered
to Satan, he only is excommunicated, the peace of the Saints being kept
entire. Ye for one sinner condemn all churches. Next thou seest, that this very
incestuous sinner is not delivered to death, but to Satan, to
be reformed, to be buffeted, to repent. Lastly, he says, for the
destruction of the flesh, not however of the soul, not even of the spirit
also, but for the destruction of the flesh only, trials, namely,
straits in the flesh, wearing of the members, as in another place he saith of
them who refrain not, Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh. Wouldest
thou know3? In the second Epistle to the Corinthians, the same Paul absolves
this same wicked man. For of him he |355 saith. Sufficient
to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many. So that
contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such
an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you,
that ye would confirm your love toward him. And so below, To whom ye
forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I
forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the Person of Christ; lest Satan
should get an advantage of us. Seest thou the indulgence of the Apostle,
tempering even his own sentences? Seest thou his most gentle lenity, so far
removed from your pride? Widely differing from the front which Novatian
assumes, but consulting for the common life and salvation of all?
38. But thou
inveighest against us also with the severity of a censor. Thou sayest, that
"according to the law of heaven it is not allowed to break one of the
commandments, and that lambs ought not to hold communion with wolves, and
that all consenting unto such is in fault, that he then who toucheth pitch is
defiled, and that there is no society of light with darkness, of the
temple of God with idols, or agreement of Christ with Belial." Thou
sayest at last that we "rescind the commandments of God." Do we alter
one tittle of the law, or the Novatians rather, who have violated all laws of
the Church, all laws of concord, who, after so many years of peace, so many
sacred treaties, have produced these new laws of yours, new customs, new rites,
feigning sanctity under an inexorable front, a sanctity heretofore unknown? Do
we receive wolves into the Church, who avoid the very faces of heretics, or the
Novatians rather, who, themselves rapacious wolves, shudder at the poor sheep
but little more wretched than themselves? Do we "consent unto the wicked,"
do we "touch pitch," have we fellowship with darkness, do
we join ourselves unto idols and unto Belial, or they who received
Evaristus, who received Nicostratus, and the others who left the Church,
defiled in tongue, |356 in
hand, in life? Have we dealings with adulterers and thieves, or they who
preferred Novatus over their own lives and heads, after he had embezzled the
money of orphans and widows, the murderer of his wretched parent and of his
wife's offspring, not only not penitent, but even glorying?
39. But the Apostle
Paul said, Lay hands suddenly on no man. Yet he teacheth, that slowly
and after repentance it must not be refused. "Yet at the destruction of
Jericho Achan the son of Carmi was put to death for stealing a garment."
Slay ye then all who have stolen our money and our books, and exercise your
fury against the bones of Novatus. Take upon you again that yoke which
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. Why delay ye, O Novatians,
to ask eye for eye, tooth for tooth, to demand life for
life, to renew once more the practice of circumcision and the sabbath? Put
to death the thief. Stone the petulant. Choose not to read in the Gospel that
the Lord spared even the adulteress who confessed, when none had condemned her;
that He absolved the sinner who washed His feet with her tears; that He
delivered Rahab at Jericho, itself a city of the Phoenicians; that He set Tamar
free from the sentence of the Patriarch; that when the Sodomites also perished,
He destroyed not the daughters of Lot; willing likewise to have delivered his
sons-in-law, had they believed the destruction to come.
40. Come,
dost thou not remember that the Lord saith by David, With them that hated
peace was I peaceful? and that the sentence of Solomon 18 is
not withheld when he saith, A brother that helpeth a brother shall be
exalted? What says the Apostle? Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a
fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so shall ye fulfil the law of Christ; and again, (which I have before
quoted,) I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my
brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh; and |357 again,
I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save all; that
is, so as to share their groans with the wounded, suffering with the sick,
death with the dying, to be able to blend the fall of brethren with his own
standing, to abate from his own health, and apply medicine to the sinking.
41. What profiteth
it you to harden yourselves with an haughty and hard brow, to be stiff2 and
bear your necks high, to turn away your faces from the miserable, to close the
ear and eye? Have ye, I pray you,never fallen? Is there no stain on your minds?
No mote, I pray, in your eyes? Who will boast that he hath a clean heart,
or that he is free from sins? Ye, I suppose, are just, benevolent,
temperate, your members are all sound, your whole body unharmed, ye have no
need of a physician, nor of medicine for weakness! Enter ye heaven at once,
penetrate the approaches to paradise while the sword gives wayq before
you, close your holy gifts against so many nations of ours, who confess the One
and Only God! But if they are in a far different state from that which the
implacable rigour of nature and your cruelty pretend, ye must see now, O
Novatians, that God can have mercy; now, that a remedy, late though it be, is
open to wretched brethren who confess what is past; now, that that wounded man,
passed by by the Levite and Priest, can be healed by Christ; now, that the
prayers of the Church are not to be refused to the humble; now, that the hands
of the Priests are to be imparted to those brethren who deserve pity.
42. But we understand,
as thou reproachest us, that the Church of God is a dove, not bitter
with gall 19,
not fierce nor rending with talons, white moreover with small and tender plumage.
We know likewise that, being the well of living water, and a
fountain sealed, it is defiled with no filth of engulfing
heresy, and that it is a garden enclosed and full of herbs great
alike and small, vile and precious; that it is the eight souls from
the Ark, among whom, however, was Ham also, and those thousands of birds and
beasts, in pairs and in sevens, clean alike and unclean. But by the dry
fountains and clouds carried about of winds we understand the
barrenness of heretics, and the assaults of strangers' voices.
43. Neither do
we promise liberty, when we are ourselves the servants of punishment,
but we confess our sins, and exhort the rest also to confess theirs,
and to believe on Him Who justifieth the wicked by faith, Who
revoketh the sentence pronounced against wickedness. When also we avoid you,
we beware of false prophets and ravening wolves. But we
believe that Jannes and Mambres withstood Moses, as ye do the Catholics. Whence
the Apostle layeth it down thus, Now as Jannes and Mambres withstood
Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate
concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall
be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. That this was spoken against
you, is clear; for ye can neither proceed further, nor hide your folly.
44. He that is
washed by the dead, profiteth nothing 20,
he, that is, who is dipped in an heretical fountain, and in like manner, he who
is anointed with the oil of the sinner, who is filled, that
is, with an unclean spirit. So then ye shall be also children of blood. For ye
desire not the peace, but the blood of brethren. Your cruelty is a false faith.
An heretical congregation is an adulteress woman; for the Catholic hath never
from the beginning left the couch and the chamber of her Spouse, nor gone after
other and strange lovers. Ye have painted a divorced form in new colours, ye
have withdrawn your couch from the old wedlock, ye have left the body of a
mother, the wife of One Husband, decking yourselves out with new arts of
pleasing, new allurements of corruption.
45. For whereas ye
bring forward as a witness against me the most blessed Cyprian, because in his
Epistle on the Lapsed 21 he
says that Moses 22 and
Daniel and Job prayed for sinners, and obtained not, our Lord saying, Though.
Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they shall deliver neither son nor |358 daughter;
they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. Would,
would ye did rely on the witness of Cyprian, would ye acquiesced in doctrines
so salutary! For when he was urging the lapsed to penance, who were unwilling
to do penance because they said that they had received peace from Confessors or
Martyrs, he taught and shewed that not even those Patriarchs obtained any thing
for the unrepentant. For who can deliver one unwilling? Who can humble himself
for the proud? Who obtain any thing for the unrepentant? So when he said this,
he was constraining them to the remedies of penance. Nor did a man of such
gravity and merit in any wise contradict himself, but he taught that the sinner
must pour forth prayer, and must love Confession.
46. These examples,
however, of Cyprian shake you, in which he relates that both Moses and other
saints who prayed for sinners, obtained not their request. Sayest thou? Seest
thou not for whom Moses obtained not his request? Returned to the people, what
heareth he in the camp? The voices of drunkards and the songs of the
idol-sacrifice were resounding through it. The people was still persevering in
wickedness, still remaining in the very crime, but repentance it knew not. And
yet who of us told thee that Moses obtained not his request? God indeed had
said unto him, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My
book. He had spoken, however, with the authority of a Judge, and with the
power of a Lord. But see how soon He turned back the sentence pronounced
against the wickedness of the people. Listen. Immediately, in the same place,
the Prophet saith, And Moses besought the Lord his God, Lord, why doth Thy
wrath wax hot against Thy people? and so on. Then again below, And
the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people. Seest
thou that the anger of God was softened? Seest thou that the offence was atoned
for? And he prayed for a people not praying, nor repenting what they had
done.
47. "But
Noah," thou sayest, "and Daniel, and Job, could not deliver
sons nor daughters." And the meaning of this is; if they should ask
for them who asked not themselves, if they should pray for him that persevered
in crime, if they |359 would
throw their protection over not individuals, not a few, but many thousands. Yet
Noah delivered his own household from the general ruin; and Job received again
all which he lost; and Daniel by prayer removed that sword which was hanging
over the wise men of Babylon. Lot certainly prayeth for the safety of a city,
Paul for the passengers of the ship. So they who know how to repent are
absolved by help of 1 the righteous.
48. Lastly, look
even at the very words which are written, They only shall be
delivered. Who are they? Those same who pray for sinners, shall pray for
such with impunity. And why condemnest thou the Church? Why forbiddest thou to
pray for the penitent? if we may pray even for those, for whom we may not
obtain? Read, therefore, my Cyprian with more care. Read the whole Epistle on
the Lapsed; read another which he wrote to Antonianus, in which Novatian is
pressed by examples of all sorts. Then thou wilt learn what he pronounced as to
the healing of penitents; Cyprian, I say, who is opposed to you, and adhered to
the Catholic laws. Tertullian after he had fallen into heresy, (for you have
taken much from this source,) you may hear himself, in his Epistle, and that
same which he published when a Catholic, confess that the Church can forgive
sins.
49. Thou seest
then that the Church is a Queen in a vesture of gold, wrought about
with divers colours; consisting, that is, of many diverse bodies, and of
many people. This painting is not of one colour, nor doth this great diversity
glisten in one garment. This part of her array covereth, another adorneth. One
part is fitted to the bosom, another sweeps along in the lowest fold, and
contracts defilement in the very act of walking. Part is likened to the purple
of Martyrs; part to virgin silk. A part is sewed on beneath in folds, or
repaired by the stitches of the needle. One after this manner, and another
after that. And yet in all is she made one queen.
50. Therefore
she is also a fruitful and rich vine, with many branches, and the varied
tresses of many a tendril. |360 Look.
Are there every where large clusters, is every grape full-swelled? Have none of
these suffered from the winter cold? Has none endured the rough hail? Has none
to accuse the burning heat of summer? One bud is studded thicker with shoots;
another is stronger; another cleaner; one bursts forth into fruit, another only
into exuberance of leaves. Yet is she a vine in every part beautiful.
51. She is
the mother of virgins without number. Calculate now, if thou canst,
the Catholic flocks, and count on thy fingers the swarms of our people. Not
those only, which are scattered throughout the whole world and fill whole
regions, but those, brother Sympronian, which are with thee in the nearest
borders and in the neighbouring city. Contemplate how many of us you alone see,
how many people of mine you alone meet. Art not thou absorbed as
eaves-droppings in great fountains, as a single drop by the ocean? Say, say,
are these virgins the offspring of your people? Art thou alone the mother of so
many? This queen, I say, is ours, the chosen one of her mother and
perfect. Nothing indeed can be chosen, except what is better and
greater from another; nothing can be perfect except what is full.
52. Next
consider this, whether she is not especially built upon the foundation of
the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner
Stone. If her beginning was before thee, if her belief was before thee, if
she hath not left her former foundations, if she hath not moved them, if she
hath not separated from the rest of the body and appointed her own rulers for
herself and peculiar documents, well 23;
if she hath made unreceived interpretations, if she hath invented some new law,
if she hath given a divorce from peace to her own body, then clearly may she
seem to have left Christ, then may she seem to stand apart from Prophets and
Apostles.
53. This then will
be the great house, rich in diversity of all vessels, in
which glistens the pure gold, in which gleams the ductile silver, but
which despises not, as it is written, the vessels of wood and earth. For
a great house employeth |361 many
services, is busied about various works. It seeks not silver only, nor is
delighted with ornament of gold alone. Now and then what is of slight account
is more ornament to things great; and in a noble suite, things little are
sometimes pleasing. No workman despiseth his own work, nor thinks that vile
which he hath made. And whence was it, thinkest thou, that Christ suffered for
sinners, except that He was unwilling to lose any thing which He Himself
formed? Whence was it, thinkest thou, that He even now intercedeth with the
Father for the miserable, except that He repels not him of little worth, even
though he be most despised. None of those whom He has received, would He lose,
although compared to vessels of wood and earth, and so He putteth together
in His house all vessels.
54. At length,
brother Sympronian, be not ashamed to be with the many; at length consent to
despise these festering spots of the Novatians, and these parings of yours; at
length, to look upon the flocks of the Catholics, and the people of the Church
extending so far and wide. Where one is, (thou wilt say,) there am I also; and
where two are, there is the Church: "where one," yet in concord,
"where two," but at peace. "Where one is, there is the Church
also." How much more, where many are? Two, it saith, are
belter than one, and a three-fold cord is not broken. Hear what David
saith, I will sing unto Thy Name in the great Congregation; and
again, I will praise Thee among much people; and, The Lord, even
the most mighty God, hath spoken: and called the world, from the rising up of
the sun, unto the going down thereof. What! shall the seed of Abraham,
which is as the stars and the sand on the sea shore for number, be contented
with your poverty 24? In
thy seed, he saith, shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed. Say, does Novatian make these up? Not thus little hath God
redeemed with His Own Blood, nor is Christ so poor.
55. Recognise now,
brother, the Church of God extending |362 her
tabernacles, and fixing the stakes of her curtains on the right and on the
left; Understand that The Lord's name is praised, from the rising up of
the sun, unto the going down thereof. See, see, I beg you, that, whilst
the Novatians are striving over words, the riches of Catholics are being dispersed
throughout the world.
56. I have now
instructed thee on all the points, about which thou hast consulted me. I have
passed over no head or sentence of your propositions. I have answered every
tittle and word. If you enquired as one consulting, I have shewn you lovingly.
If as attacking, I have argued not indi-ligently. I will add, when I shall have
leisure, another Epistle also, in which I will not confute your views, but set
forth ours. And if you read it with good feeling and without fastidiousness,
perchance it may not hurt you. Meanwhile in this Epistle I beg you to read each
and all parts of it thoroughly. All that is read in haste passes away. If thou
cravest better gifts, and hast a soul open to good instruction, thou wilt not
easily despise things so true. The Lord vouchsafe to guard and protect thee for
ever, and make thee live a Christian to the unity of the Spirit!
Amen.
[Selected footnotes only]
1. a see Tert.
de Praescr. c. 6. p. 440. n. g. and c. 30.
2. b ib. c. 30.
p. 464.
3. c see S.
Cypr. Ep. 50. p. 109. n. k. and Ep. 52. p. 112.
4. g Bellarm.
de Eccl. iii. 9. arg. 7. defends this, as though S. Pacian meant it of heretics
only, of whom he had just spoken. But St. P. speaks much more broadly; the
Novatians objected to the reception of certain open offenders; St. P. answers,
that the Church received them, not as offenders, but when cleansed by
penitence, in which case they were no longer "spots." The question
did not relate to a discipline which neither Church, nor heretics, can exert,
as to secret offenders; these, St. P. often says, (e. g. §. 7.) both must have;
but heretics, he says, were altogether denied, and of these the Church was free,
the Novatians were made up; restored penitents were no defilement, because they
were cleansed; while in their sins, they were shut out by the discipline of the
Church.
5. Ep. 55.
6. m S. Cypr.
Ep. 52. ad Corn. §. 3. p. 113.
7. n See St. C.
on the oneness of the Episcopate. Ep. 59. §. 5. p. 155. n. c.
8. q probably
Ecclus. 12, 3. "non est enim ei bene qui assiduus est in malis."
9. s see on
Tert. de Bapt. c. 12. p. 270. n. i. Oxf. Tr.
10. x See on
Tert. de Poenit. c. 7. p. 362. n. d. Oxf. Tr.
11. y See Tert.
adv. Jud. c. 1. adv. Marc. iii. ult.
12. z The Vat.
supplies "acrobystiam." The Ed. notices that a little part of the
sentence is wanting, the letters being faint and illegible, else it seems
complete.
13. a i. e. The
sympathy of the members of the Church is not confined to the fallen; all
"groan, being burdened" and so all have sympathy.
14. b So quoted
also by Lucif. Calar. de non parc. in D.del. p. 237 h. quoted by Sabat. ad loc.
and in the latter clause, Opt. c. Don. vii. Breviar. fid. c. Arian. ap. Sirm.
quoted ib. on S. Matt. 12, 32.
15. d Latinius'
coni. "deque"'for "de quo" gives an easier reading,
"If God hath punished even past sins, andhas appointed punishment and
suffering for things past and overlooked, say, hath He it not in His power to
change His sentence."
16. f LXX.so
quoted nearly by S. Cypr. Ep. ad Fortun. §. 5. p. 284. Oxf. Tr. Lucif. Cal.
de non parc. in D. del. p. 228. d.
17. g as if it
had been to_ ponhro_n, which S. Aug. qu. 39. in Deut. observes, it is not.
18. o Prov, 18,
19. so quoted by S. Cypr. ab. Ep. 55. §.15. p. 126. and by S. Paulinus. see
Sabat. ad loc.
19. r which the
dove was supposed not to have. Horus Hierogl. i. 54.
20. t See above
on S. Cypr. Ep. 71. §. 1. p. 238. n. b.
21. x de
Laps. §. 12. p. 166. Oxf. Tr.
22. y Noah, in
S. Cypr.
23. a This
break has been necessarily made, although there is no distinction in the
present text, of which the former part plainly belongs to the Catholics, the
latter to the Novatians.
24. f It must
be borne in mind in these contrasts, that the Novatians, as the Donatists
afterwards, claimed to be the whole Church; they do not apply to us, who,
however outwardly rent, claim to be a portion only.
SOURCE : http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/pacian_3_letter3.htm
exhortation to penance
THE PARAENESIS
OR
TREATISE OF EXHORTATION
UNTO PENANCE.
[Translated by the Rev.
C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student of Christ Church.]
1. Although I have
spoken several times, however hurriedly, of the cure of penitents, still,
mindful of the Lord's solicitude, Who for the loss of one poor sheep spared not
even His own neck and shoulders, carrying back the delicate sinner to the
reintegrated flock, I shall endeavour (as I can) to build up even with my pen
the example of so great excellence, and as a servant shall imitate, with the
humility becoming me, the industry of the Lord's labour.
2. My only
fear is, dearly beloved, lest by the unhappiness of wonted contrariety, by
insisting on what is done, I should teach, rather than repress, sins; and that
after the example of the Athenian Solon it would be better to be silent
concerning great crimes, than to warn against them, the morals of our age
having gone so far, that men deem themselves reminded, when they are forbidden.
For this I suppose has very lately been the effect of my Cervulus 1,
that the offence has been wrought the more diligently, the more earnestly it
was branded. And all that censure of a disgrace visibly stamped and often
repeated, seems not to have repressed, but to have taught wantonness. Wretched
man that I am! Where has been my guilt? They had not known, I suppose, how to
act the wanton, had not I by blaming taught them.
3. But let
that pass. Rebels from God, and placed without the Church, are also exasperated
by chastisement, as a wrong, |365 indignant
forsooth that their morals can be blamed by any. And as mud is wont then most
to stink, when you stir it, and fire then to burn more if you turn it, and
madness then to be more fierce if you provoke it: so they, by turning the heel,
have broken the pricks of necessary blame, yet not without being hurt
and wounded by their resistance.
4. Do ye however,
most beloved, remember that it is said by The Lord, Reprove a fool, and he
will hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee; and again, Whom
I love, I rebuke and chasten. Do ye then, following lovingly, not
obstinately opposing, believe that the kindly and anxious diligence of this my
work, undertaken according to the will of the Lord by me your brother and priest,
is of love rather than of rigour.
5. Moreover
let no man imagine that this very discourse on the institution of penance is
framed for penitents only, lest for this reason whoever is placed without that
rank, despise what shall be spoken as intended for others; whereas the
discipline of the whole Church is tied as it were into this fastening, since
Catechumens must be careful that they pass not into this state, and the
faithful that they return not to it; and penitents themselves must toil, to
arrive speedily at the fruit of this their work.
6. But in my
discourses the order preserved will be this. First, to speak of the degrees of
sins, that no one think that the extremest peril is set upon all sins
whatsoever. Then I shall speak of those faithful, who, ashamed of their remedy,
use an ill-timed bashfulness, and communicate, with body defiled and mind
polluted. In the sight of men most timid, before the Lord most shameless, they
contaminate with profane hands and polluted mouth the Altar to be dreaded even
by Saints and Angels. Thirdly, my discourse shall relate to those, who, having
duly confessed and laid bare their crimes, either know not or refuse the
remedies of penance, and the very acts belonging to the ministry of confession.
Lastly, it shall be our endeavours to shew most clearly, what will be the
punishment of those who either do no penance, or even neglect it, and who die
therefore in their wound and imposthumes: and what again will be their crown,
what their |366 reward,
who purge the stains of their conscience by right and regular Confession.
7. First,
therefore, as we proposed, let us treat of the degrees of sinners, diligently
searching out what are sins, what are crimes, that no one may think that, for
the innumerable faults from the deceitfulness of which no man is free, I bind
the whole human race under one undistinguishing law of penance. With Moses and
the ancients, those guilty of even the least sin, and (so to speak) of one
farthing were immersed in the same aestuary of misery; as well those who
had broken the sabbath, as those who had touched what was unclean, who had
taken forbidden food, or who murmured, or who had entered the temple of The
Most High King when their wall was leprous or their garment defiled, or, when
under this defilement, had touched the altar with their hand or with their
garment come in contact with it, so that it were easier to ascend into heaven,
or better to die, than to have to keep the whole of these commandments.
8. From all these
therefore and many carnal offences besides, that each might more speedily
attain his destined end, the Blood of The Lord hath delivered us, redeemed from
the servitude of the Law, and set free in the liberty of the Faith. And
therefore saith the Apostle Paul, For ye have been called unto
liberty. This is that liberty, that we are not bound by all those things
whereby they of old were held: but (if I may use the expression) the whole entangled
mass of our faults being forgiven and the indulgence of remedies appointed, we
are constrained to a few and necessary points, which, whether to keep or to
avoid, were most easy for believers; so that he could not deny that he most
truly deserved hell, who, ungrateful for so great forgiveness, kept not even
these few. But what these are let us see.
9. After the
Passion of the Lord, the Apostles having considered and treated of all things,
delivered an Epistle to be sent to such of the Gentiles as had believed; of
which letter the import was as follows: The Apostles and elders and
brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch
and Syria and Cilicia: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out
from us have troubled you with words; so below, |367 It seemed
good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these
necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood,
and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare
ye well. This is the whole conclusion of the New Testament. The Holy
Spirit, despised in those many ordinances, hath left these injunctions to us on
condition of hazard of our lives. Other sins are cured by the compensation of
better works: but these three crimes we must dread, as the breath of some
basilisk, as a cup of poison, as a deadly arrow: for they know how, not to
corrupt only, but to cut off the soul. Wherefore niggardliness shall be
redeemed by liberality, slander be compensated by satisfaction, moroseness by
pleasantness, harshness by gentleness, levity by gravity, perverse ways by
honesty; and so in all cases which are well amended by their contraries. But
what shall the despiser of God do? What the blood-stained? What remedy shall
there be for the fornicator? Shall either he be able to appease the Lord who
hath abandoned Him? Or he to preserve his own blood, who hath shed another's?
Or he to restore the temple of God, who hath violated it by fornication? These,
my brethren, are capital, these are mortal, crimes.
10. Now hear
John and be confident, if ye can. If any man see his brother sin a sin
which is not unto death, let him ask, and the Lord shall give him life, if he
have sinned a sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that
he shall pray for it. But if you like, hear separately also of each. God
thus addresses Moses when praying for the people who had blasphemed, Whosoever
hath (He saith) sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My
book. Concerning the murderer, the Lord thus judgeth, He that smiteth
with the sword, (He saith,) shall die by the sword. And of the
fornicator the Apostle says, Defile not the temple of God, which temple ye
are; if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
11. These
things are written, most beloved brethren, and engraven on everlasting
monuments; written and engraven, I say not on wax and paper and brass or with
the pen, but |368 in
the book of The Living God. Heaven and earth shall pass, (He
saith,) one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away, till all be
fulfilled. What then? Must we die? Many too have in mind fallen into these
sins. Many are guilty of blood; many, sold unto idols; many, adulterers. I say
moreover that not hands only are involved in murder, but every design also
which hath driven the soul of another to death; and that not only those who
have burnt incense on profane altars, but altogether every lust that wandereth
beyond the marriage couch and the lawful embrace, is bound by the sentence of
death. Whosoever shall have done these things after believing, shall not see
the face of God. But those who are guilty of so great crimes are in despair.
What have I done unto you? Was it not in your power that it should not be? Did
no one warn you? No one foretell it? Was the Church silent? Said the Gospels nothing?
Did the Apostles threaten nothing? Did the priest ask nothing? Why seek ye late
consolations? Then ought ye when ye might. This is a hard saying. But they
who call you happy lead you into error, and disturb the path of your
feet. He shews the way of wickedness to the innocent, who after their
crimes flatters the guilty. "Are we then to perish?" will some one
say. "And where is the merciful God, Who devised not death, nor hath
pleasure in the destruction of the living? Shall we die in our sins? And what
wilt thou do, the priest? By what gains wilt thou repay so many losses to the
Church?" Receive the remedy, if ye begin to despair, if ye acknowledge
yourselves miserable, if ye fear. Whoso is too confident is unworthy. To
this man (saith the Lord) will 1 look, even to him that is poor and
of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.
12. You then I first
call on, brethren, who, having committed crimes, refuse penance: you, I say,
timid after being shameless, modest after sinning; who blush not to sin, yet
blush to confess; who with evil conscience touch the Holy Things 2 of
God, and fear not the Altar of The Lord; who come to the hands of the priest,
who come in the sight of |369 angels
with the confidence of innocence; who insult the Divine patience; who bring to
God, as if, because silent, He knew not, a polluted soul and a profane body.
Hear first what the Lord hath clone, and then what He hath said. When the
people of the Hebrews were bringing back the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem,
Uzzah, from the house of Aminadab the Israelite, who had touched the side
of the ark without having examined his conscience, was slain; and yet he had
drawn near, not to take any thing from it, but to hold it when leaning through
the stumbling of the kine. So great a care was there of reverence towards God,
that He endured not bold hands even in help. The same also the Lord crieth,
saying, And as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. But the
soul that eateth of the Jlesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, having his
uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Are
these things old and happen they not now? What then? Hath God ceased to care
for what concerns us? Had He withdrawn out of view of the world, and doth He
look down upon no one from heaven? Is His long-suffering ignorance? God forbid,
thou wilt say. He seeth then what we do, but He waiteth indeed and endureth,
and granteth a season for repentance, and alloweth His Christ to put off the
end, lest they quickly perish whom He hath redeemed. Understand well, thou
sinner. Thou art beheld by God. Thou canst appease Him if thou wilt. But grant
that it is a thing of old that the unclean were not permitted to approach the
table of God: open the writings of the Apostles, and learn what is of later
date.
13. In the first
Epistle to the Corinthians Paul hath |370 inserted
these words, Whosoever, he saith, shall eat this Bread, and
drink this Cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and
Blood of the Lord. So likewise below: For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's
Body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if
we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we
are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the
world. Do ye tremble or not? Shall be guilty, he saith, of
the Body and Blood of the Lord. One guilty as to human life could not be
absolved; doth he escape who violates the Body of The Lord? He that eateth
and drinketh unworthily, he saith, eateth and drinketh damnation to
himself. Awake, O sinner. Fear judgment present within thee if thou hast
done any such thing. For this cause, he saith, many are weak and
sickly among you, and many sleep. If then any one fears not the future,
let him now, at least, dread present sickness and present death. But when
we are judged, he saith, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should
not be condemned with the world. Rejoice, O sinner, if in this life thou
art either cut off by death, or wasted by sickness, that thou be not punished
in the life to come. See how great wickedness he committeth, who cometh when
unworthy to the Altar, to whom it is reckoned as a remedy, if he either labours
under sickness, or is destroyed by death!
14. But if
your own soul is of little value to you, spare the people, spare the priests.
The Apostle saith, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. What
will, thou do, by whose means the whole lump is corrupted; through whom the
whole brotherhood shall suffer? Shalt thou live guilty of so many souls? Shalt
thou be excused when the innocent shall have imputed to thee their communion,
when the Church shall have named thee as the author of her desolation?
15. Behold
again the Apostle saith to the Priest, Lay hands suddenly on no man,
neither be partaker of other men's sins. What wilt thou do, who deceivest
the Priest? Who either misleadest him if ignorant, or, not fully knowing,
perplexest him with the difficulty of proof? I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by that Lord from Whom no secrets are |371 hid,
even in consideration of my danger, cease ye from hiding the wounds of your
consciences. The wise, when: sick, fear not the physician, not even when
about to cut, not even when about to burn them in the secret parts of the body.
We have heard of some who, not ashamed even as to parts of the body, withdrawn
by modesty from sight, have endured the pains of the knife and of cautery, and
even of the corrosive powder. And how great then is the endurance which men
have shewn? Shall the sinner fear? Shall the sinner blush to purchase
everlasting life by present shame? And withdraw his ill-concealed wounds from
the Lord when He stretcheth forth His Hands? And hath he any thing whereat to
blush before the priest, who hath injured the Lord? Or is it better that he
should thus be lost, lest thou, shrinking through shame, shouldest without
shame perish? By not giving way to shame, thou wouldest gain more through its
loss, thou, for whom it were better to perish for thyself. But if ye are
ashamed that the eyes of your brethren should see, fear not those who are
partners in your misfortune. No body is glad at the suffering of its own
members; it grieves with them, and labours with them for a remedy. In one and
two is the Church, and in the Church is Christ. And he therefore, who hides not
his sins from the brethren, assisted by the tears of the Church, is absolved by
Christ.
16. And now I would
address those who, well and wisely confessing their wounds under the name of
penance, neither know what penance is, nor what the cure for their wounds, and
are like those who lay bare indeed their wounds and swellings, and acknowledge
them also to the physician who sitteth by; but when warned what is to be
applied, neglect it, and refuse what they have to take. This is just as if one
should say, "Lo! I am sick, Lo! I am wounded, but I wish |372 not
to be cured." Such is it, but see a thing still more foolish.
17. Another disease
is added to the original cause, and a new wound inflicted, all that is just
contrary is applied, all that is hurtful is drank. Under this evil especially
doth our brotherhood labour, adding on to old faults new sins. Therefore hath
it burst forth into vice more grievously still, is now racked by a most
destructive consumption. What then shall I the Priest now do who am compelled
to cure? It is late in such cases. If however there is any one of you who can
bear to be cut and cauterized, I still can do it. Behold the knife of the
Prophet; Turn unto the Lord your God, (he saith,) with all your
heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your
heart. Fear not this cutting, most beloved. David bore it. He lay in
filthy ashes, and was disfigured by a covering of rough sackcloths He who had
once been accustomed to gems and to purple, hid his soul in fasting; he whom
seas, whom woods, whom streams served and the land bringing forth the promised
wealth, wasted in floods of tears those eyes with which he had beheld the glory
of God; the ancestor of Mary, the ruler also of the Jewish kingdom, confessed
himself unhappy and miserable. That king of Babylon 3 performs
penitence 4,
forsaken of all, and is worn away by seven years of squalidness. His uncombed
hair and wild roughness surpassed the shagginess of lion's mane, and his hands
hooked with crooked talons take the semblance of eagles', while he eats
grass as oxen, chewing the green herb. Yet this punishment commends him to
God, and restores him to the kingdom, once his own. Whom men shuddered at, God
received, blessed through this very calamity of a severer discipline. Behold
the cutting which I promised! Whoso shall be able to endure it shall be healed.
18. I will yet apply
fire from the cautery of the Apostle. |373 Let
us see whether ye can bear it. I have judged, he saith. when
ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus. What say ye,
penitents? Where is the destruction of your flesh? Is it that in the
very time of penance ye always walk abroad in greater pomp, full from the
feast, sleek from the bath, with well-studied attire? Lo, here is one man once
thrifty, once somewhat poor, once sordidly dressed in a coarse cloak. Now he is
daintily bedecked and wealthy and a proper man, as though he would lay it to
God's charge that he cannot serve Him, and would refresh his dying soul with
the pleasure of his members. It is well that we are of moderate means, else
should we be doing those same things too, whereof certain men and women of
richer state are not ashamed, dwelling in marble, weighed down with gold,
sweeping along in silk, glowing with scarlet. If the ferruginous powder
glisteneth on their eye-brow, or the fictitious colour gloweth upon their
cheeks, or the artificial ruddiness melt over their lips,----these things
perhaps ye have not. But still ye have your pleasant retreats at your villas or
the sea, and wines of more exquisite quality, and rich banquetings, yea old
wines well-refined 5.
So act, so believe, so ye but live.
19. I can bear it no
longer, brethren. Daniel with his fellows, covered with sackcloth and ashes,
bloodless 6 through
fasting, speaketh thus: We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we
have done wickedly, we have transgressed Thy precepts and Thy judgments. Of
Azariah also the Divine Scripture saith, Azariah stood up, and prayed; and
opening his mouth made confession to God 7 with
his fellows. David himself saith, Every night wash I my bed, and
water my couch with my tears. But we----what of such sort do we? what like
to this? I speak not of those things which we gather together in heaps, by
trafficking, merchandizing, ravening; by hunting out gains abroad, and lusts at
home; by doing nothing simply, giving nothing to the poor, forgiving nothing to
brethren. |374 Not
even those things which can be seen by the Priest, and praised by the Bishop
when he witnesseth them; not even these daily duties do we observe: To
weep 8,
namely, in sight of the Church, to mourn our lost life in sordid garb, to fast,
to pray, to fall prostrate; to refuse luxury, if one invite to the bath; to
say, if one bid to a feast, "These things for the happy! I have sinned
against the Lord, and am in danger of perishing eternally. What have I to do
with feasting who have injured the Lord?" and besides this, to hold the
poor man by the hand, to entreat the prayers of the widows, to fall down before
the Priests, to ask the entreaties of the interceding Church, to essay all
sooner than perish.
20. I know that some
of your brethren and sisters wrap the breast in hair-cloth, lie in ashes, and
study late fastings; nor yet perhaps have they so sinned. Why speak of
brethren? The wild goats, we are told, know what will cure themselves. I have
heard that when pierced 9
with the poisoned arrow they traverse the Cretan forests, until, plucking the
stalk of the dittany, they with the poisonous 10 liquid
of the healing juice expel from their bodies the ejected darts. We repel the
fiery darts of the devil with no juice of penance, with no plant of
confession. The swallow 11 knoweth
how by her own swallow-wort to give sight to her blinded young. We cure the
lost light of the mind by no root of severe discipline. Lo! man like neither
the goat, nor the swallow, is jealous of his own blindness and malady!
21. Now, brethren,
consider what we promised at the close, what reward, or contrariwise what end
will follow these works. The Spirit of the Lord threateneth delicate sinners
who do not penance, saying, They received not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them the working of
delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Also the
Apocalypse thus speaketh of the harlot, How much |375 she
hath glorified herself, and lived deliriously, so much torment and sorrow give
her. And the Apostle Paul saith, Not knowing that the goodness of God
leadeth thee to repentance. But after thy hardness treasurest up unto thyself
wrath against the Day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
22. Fear
then, most dearly beloved, these righteous judgments. Leave off error. Condemn
delicate living. The last time is now hastening on. Darkness and hell are
opening their enlarged bosoms for the wicked. After the punishment of souls in
time, everlasting punishment is reserved also for the revivified bodies. Let no
one believe as to the heart of Tityus, or the vulture of the Poets! The eternal
fire, itself for itself, renews the substance of the regenerated bodies 12.
Listen, if ye believe not. The force of the waters raging in the fire shall be
recruited by the punishment which feeds it. If 13 ye
draw back from the torture of confession, remember hell, which confession shall
extinguish for you. Estimate its force even from things visible; for some few
petty outlets of it do wear away the mightiest mountains with their
subterranean fires. Thence do the Sicilian 14 Aetna
and the Campanian Vesuvius boil with unwearied volumes of flame; and to
prove to us the eternity of judgment, they are cleft asunder, they are
devoured, and yet do they never end.
23. Consider
in the Gospel the rich man, as yet suffering under the tortures of the soul
only. What then shall be those exceeding tortures of the restored bodies? What
gnashing of teeth therein? What weeping? Remember, brethren, there is no
confession in the grave; nor can penance then be assigned, when the season
for penitence is exhausted. Hasten whilst ye are alive, whilst ye are on
the way with your adversary. Lo! we fear the fires of this world, and we
shrink back from the iron claws of tortures. |376 Compare
with them the hands of ever-during torturers, and the forked flames which never
die!
24. By the
faith of the Church, by mine own anxiety, by the souls of all in common, I
adjure and intreat you, brethren, not to be ashamed in this work, not to be
slack to seize, as soon as ye may, the proffered remedies of salvation; to
bring your souls down by mourning, to clothe the body with sackcloth, to
sprinkle it with ashes, to macerate yourselves by fasting, to wear yourselves
with sorrow, to gain the aid of the prayers of many. In proportion as ye have
not been sparing in your own chastisement, will God spare you. For He is
merciful and long-suffering, of great pity, and repenteth Him against the evil
He hath inflicted 15. Behold!
I promise, I engage, if ye return to your Father with true satisfaction, erring
no more, adding nothing to former sins, saying also some humble and mournful
words, as, Father, we have sinned before Thee, and are no more worthy to
be called Thy sons; straightway shall leave you both that filthy herd, and
the unseemly food of husks. Straightway on your return shall the robe be
put upon you, and the ring adorn you, and your Father's embrace
again receive you. Lo! He saith Himself, I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked; but that he turn from his way and live. And again He
saith, Shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not
return? And the Apostle saith, God is able to make him stand.
25. The
Apocalypse also threateneth the seven Churches unless they should repent. Nor
would He indeed threaten the impenitent, unless He pardoned the penitent. God
Himself also saith, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and
repent. And again, When thou shalt return and mourn, then shalt thou
be saved, and know where thou hast been. And let no one so despair of the
vileness of a sinful soul, as to believe that God hath no longer need of him.
The Lord willeth not that one of us should perish. |377 Even
those of little worth, and the least are sought after. If ye believe not, see.
Lo! in the Gospel the piece of silver is sought after, and when found is shewn
unto the neighbours. The poor sheep, although to be carried back on His
lowly-stooping shoulders, is not burdensome to the Shepherd. Over one sinner
that repenteth the Angels in heaven rejoice, and the celestial choir is glad.
Come, then, thou sinner; cease not to ask! Thou seest where there is joy over
thy return!
Amen.
[Selected footnotes only]
1. a The
Heathen new-year's profligacies were so entitled, (see Du Cange v. Cervulus,)
against which this treatise was written. Litanies and fasts were appointed in
the Church to repress them. (see ib.) The work is mentioned, by S. Jerome de
vir. ill. c. 106.
2. f Dei
Sancta. See on Tert. de Spect. c. 25. p. 214. n. n. Oxf. Tr.
3. i imitated
from Tert. de Poenit. fin. p. 369. Oxf. Tr.
4. k exomologesin
facit. see Tert. l. c. p. 364. and Note L.
5. k See Tert. de
Poen. c. 11. p. 367.
6. l See, of
Christians, on Tert. Apol. c. 40. p. 87. n. z.
7. m Dan. 3,
25. (Song of 3 Children, beg.) not LXX. nor Vulg. but so quoted in S. Cypr. de
Laps. §. 19. p. 173. Oxf. Tr.
8. n See Tert.
de Poen. c. 9.
9. o Tert. de
Poen. fin. p. 369.
10. p "The
juice [of the dittany], drunk with wine, is of benefit to those bitten by
venomous animals. But such is the power of the plant, that even its smell will
drive away, its touch will destroy, venomous animals." Dioscorides de
Mater. Med. iii. 34. ed. Sprengel, (furnished by a medical friend.)
11. q Tert. l.
c.
12. r Tert.
Apol. c. 48. p. 102.
13. s Tert. de
Poen. c. ult. p. 368. The very words are in part retained.
14. t V. has
Aetna Siculus, which may be a trace of the right reading. The Edd. have vel
Lisaniculus. Bal. ad Cypr. p. 568. (quoted by Gall.) makes the same correction
from an old Carthusian Ms. and does not notice the difference of gender as a
difficulty. A scribe perhaps conformed it to "et Vesuvius" which
follows,
15. u et qui
sententiam flectat adversus malitiam irrogatam. Joel 2, 13. so quoted by
S. Cypr. Ep. 55. §. 18. de taps. §. ult. p. 176. de bono Pat. §. 2. p.
252. Lucif. Cal. de reg. Apost. p. 220. c. (ap. Sabat.) Vict. Tun. de Poen.
App. S. Ambr. ii. 593. (ib.).
SOURCE : http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/pacian_4_paraenesis.htm
Restauració
de la capella de Sant Pacià. C. Sant Pacià, 12 (Barcelona)
DISCOURSE ON BAPTISM
TO
THE FAITHFUL AND THE
CATECHUMENS.
[Translated by the Rev.
C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student of Christ Church.]
1. It is my wish to
explain after what manner we are born in Baptism, and after what manner we are
renewed. I shall speak indeed, brethren, in His own words, lest perchance on
account of the beauty of my sentences, ye should believe that I take pleasure
in my style, and that ye may be able to comprehend a mysterious subject. And
would that I could inculcate it upon you. I seek not glory: for glory belongeth
to God Alone. My only anxiety is my concern for you, and especially for these
Candidates for Baptism, if in any wise it may be possible for us to comprehend
the examination of so great happiness. I shall therefore shew what Heathenism
was previously, what Faith bestows, what indulgence Baptism grants. And if this
shall so sink into your hearts, as I feel it, ye will judge, brethren, that no
preaching ever yielded us more fruit.
2. Learn then,
dearly beloved, in what death man was placed before Baptism. Ye know that
assuredly of old, how Adam was returned to his earthly origin; what condemnation
imposed upon him the law of eternal death; and this death had dominion over all
his posterity, as being held under this one law, over the whole race from
Adam to Moses. But through Moses one only people was chosen, the seed that
is of Abraham, if they had been able to keep the commands of righteousness.
Meanwhile we all were held under sin, that we might eat the fruits of death:
appointed to feed on husks |379 and
to keep swine, that is to filthy works, by wicked augels, whose
dominion allowed us neither to do nor to know righteousness. For our very
condition 1 compelled
us to obey such masters. How we were delivered from these powers and from this
death, now listen.
3. When Adam sinned,
(as I have mentioned,) the Lord then saying, Dust thou art, and unto dust
thou shall return, he was assigned unto death. This assignment was
transmitted to the whole race, for all sinned, nature herself now impelling
them, as saith the Apostle, As by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Sin
therefore reigned, in whose bonds we were dragged, as it were captives unto
death, death, that is, eternal. But this sin, before the time of the Law, was
not even understood, as saith the Apostle, Until the Law was, sin in the
world was not accounted, that is, was not seen; at the coming of the
Law, it revived. For it was made manifest, that it might be seen; but
to no purpose, for no one hardly kept it. For the Law said, Thou shall not
commit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou shall not covet, yet
concupiscence with all vices still continued. So then before the Law this sin
slew man with a concealed, under the Law, with a drawn, sword. What hope
therefore had man? Without the Law he perished, because he could not see sin,
and under the Law, because he ran into that very sin which he saw. Who could
free him from death? Hear the Apostle, O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? Grace 2 (he
saith) through our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. But what is grace? The
remission of sin, that is, a free gift. For grace is a free gift. Christ
therefore, coming and taking upon Him the nature of man, first presented before
God this very human nature pure from the power of sin and innocent. Isaiah
saith, Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His
name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the
evil and choose the good. And of Him again, Who did no sin, |380 neither
was guile found in His mouth. Under this guardianship of innocence when
Christ first undertook the defence of man in the very flesh of sin, forthwith
that father of the disobedience of sin, who had once deceived our first
parents, began to be excited, to be troubled, to tremble. For he was to be
overcome by the loosening of that law by which alone he had retained possession
of man, or could retain it. He arms himself therefore for a spiritual contest
with the Immaculate, and first he attacks Him with that artifice with which he
had overcome Adam in Paradise, under the pretence of dignity; and as if
perplexed about His heavenly power, he saith, If Thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be made bread; that so ashamed or unwilling to
conceal that He was the Son of God, He might fulfil the commands of the
tempter. Behold still he is not silent, suggesting that if He would cast
Himself down from above, He would be received in the hands of
angels, to whom The Father had entrusted that on their hands they
should bear Him up, lest by any means He should dash His foot against a
stone; that so, while the Lord wished to prove that He it was of Whom the
Father had given this command, He might do what the tempter urged. Last of all
the serpent being now crushed, as if he were now giving up, promises Him those
very kingdoms of the world, which he had taken from the first man: that so
whilst the Advocate of man believes that he has overcome, He by receiving the
empire (which He was to recover,) might incline towards the dignity offered by
the Evil One, and so at last sin. But in all these attacks the Enemy is
overcome, and destroyed by the heavenly power, as saith the Prophet unto the
Lord, That thou mightest still the enemy, and the avenger. For I shall
behold the heavens, the works of Thy fingers.
5. The Devil ought
now to have yielded. But nevertheless he ceaseth not yet. He suborns with his
wonted snares, and stimulates with rage the Scribes and Pharisees and all that
band of wicked men. They, therefore, after various arts and lying devices of
the heart, in which serpent-like they thought to deceive the Lord by
professions of fealty, when they |381 prevailed
nothing, at last attacked Him with open violence and a most cruel kind of
suffering; that so through the indignity of the thing, or the pain of
punishment, He might either do or say something unrighteous, and thus destroy
the human nature which He bore, and His soul be left in hell, which
had one law to retain the sinner. For the sting of death is sin. Christ
therefore endured, and did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, as
we have said, not then even when He was led as a victim,. This was to
conquer, to be condemned without sin! For the Devil had received over sinners
the power which he claimed for himself over the Immaculate One; and thus he
himself was overcome; decreeing that against the Holy One which was not allowed
him by the law that he had received 3.
Whence saith the Prophet to the Lord, That Thou mightest be justified in
Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged 4. And
thus, as the Apostle saith, Having led principalities in triumph, Christ
condemned sin in the flesh, nailing it to His Cross and blotting out the
hand-writing of death 5. Thence
it was that God left not His soul in hell, nor suffered His Holy One to
see corruption. Thence it was that having trodden under-foot the stings of
death He rose again on the third day in the flesh, reconciling it to God, and
restoring it to immortality, having overcome and blotted out sin.
6. But if He only
conquered, what conferred He on others? Hear briefly. The sin of Adam had
passed on the whole race. For by one man (as saith the Apostle) sin |382 entered
into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men. Therefore
also the righteousness of Christ must needs pass over to the whole race; and as
Adam by sin destroyed his race, so must Christ by righteousness give life to
all His race. This the Apostle urges, saying, For as by the disobedience
of one, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made
righteous. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life.
7. Some one will
here object. "But the sin of Adam deservedly passed on his posterity,
because they were born of him. And are we then born of Christ, that we can be
saved for His sake?" Cease to have carnal thoughts. And now shall ye see
in what wise we are born of Christ as of our parent. In these last days Christ
took a soul 6 with
the flesh from Mary. This He came to save. This He left not in hell. This He
joined to His Spirit and made His own. And this is the marriage of the Lord,
joined together to one flesh, that according to that great
sacrament, might be these two in one flesh, Christ and the
Church. From this marriage is born the Christian people, the Spirit of the
Lord coming from above; and straightway the heavenly seed being poured upon and
mingled with the substance of our souls, we grow in the bowels of our mother,
and coming forth from her womb are made alive in Christ. Whence the
Apostle, The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a
quickening Spirit. Thus Christ begetteth in the Church by His Priests, as
says the same Apostle, For in Christ Jesus have I begotten you. And
so the seed of Christ, that is, the Spirit of God produces, by the hands of the
Priests, the new man conceived in the womb of our Mother, and received at the
birth of the font, faith presiding over the marriage rite. For neither will he
seem to be engrafted into the Church, who hath not believed, nor he to be born
again of Christ, who hath not himself received the Spirit. We must believe
therefore that we can be born. For so saith Philip, If thou believest . .
. thou mayest. Christ therefore must be received that He may beget,
for |383 thus
saith the Apostle John, As many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God. But these things cannot otherwise be fulfilled
except by the Sacrament of the Laver, and of the Chrism, and of the Bishop. For
by the Laver sins are washed away, by Chrism the Holy Spirit is poured out, but
both these we obtain at the hand and the mouth of the Bishop. And so the whole
man is born again and renewed in Christ, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life; that is,
that having laid aside the errors of our former life, the serving of idols,
cruelty, fornication, wantonness, and all other vices of flesh and blood, we
should through the Spirit follow new ways in Christ, faith, modesty, innocence,
chastity. And as we bore the image of the earthy, so also should we
bear His, Who is from Heaven, for the first man is of the earth,
earthy; the Second from heaven, heavenly. This if we do, most beloved, we
shall die no more. Although we be dissolved in this body, we shall live in
Christ, as He Himself saith, He that believeth in Me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live. We are sure indeed, and that on the testimony of the
Lord, that both Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Saints of God are
alive. For of these very men saith the Lord, They all live unto Him, for
God is not the God of the dead but of the living. And the Apostle saith of
himself, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain; I could wish to
depart and be with Christ. And again, Whilst we are at home in the
body, we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8.
This is what, we believe, dearly beloved. But if in this life only we have
hope, then are we of all men the most miserable. The life of this world,
cattle, and wild beasts, and birds, as yourselves see, have in common with us,
or even longer. That is peculiar to man, which Christ hath given through His
Spirit, that is, life, eternal; yet only if we now sin no more. For as death is
gained by wickedness, is avoided by goodness; so life is lost by wickedness, is
retained by goodness. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Before all other things, my
little ones, remember, that once (as we said above) all nations were given over
to the princes |384 and
powers of darkness, now are set free through the victory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He it is, He it is Who redeemed us, forgiving us all sins,
as saith the Apostle, blotting out the hand-writing of disobedience
that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross,
putting off the flesh, He made a shew of the powers openly, triumphing over
them in Himself. He set them free, who were bound, and burst our chains in
sunder, as David had said; The Lord raiseth them that are cast down. The
Lord looseth the prisoners, the Lord giveth sight to the blind. And
again, Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer to Thee the
Sacrifice of thanksgiving. Freed therefore from our bonds, when through
the Sacrament of Baptism we come unto the Sign of the Lord, we renounce the
Devil and all his angels, whom before we served, that we should now serve them
no longer, being delivered by the Blood and Name of Christ. But if after this
any one forgetful of himself and ignorant of his redemption, return again to
the serving of Angels, and to the weak and beggarly elements of the
world; he shall be bound again by his old fetters and chains, that is, by
the bonds of sin, and his last state shall be worse than his first. For
the Devil shall bind him more strongly, as if overtaken in flight, and Christ
shall not now be able to suffer for him; for, Christ being raised from the
dead dieth no more. Therefore, dearly beloved, we are washed once, once
are set free, are once admitted into the kingdom of heaven; once is that, blessed
is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered. Hold
mightily what ye have received; keep it. blessedly, sin no more. Preserve
yourselves pure and unspotted from that time even to the Day of the Lord. Great
and boundless are the rewards granted unto the faithful, which eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man. These
rewards that ye may receive, obtain by the labours of righteousness and
spiritual vows!
Amen.
[Selected footnotes]
1. b res ipsa.
R., apparently, servitus ipsa, in the same sense, the slavery perpetuated
itself; being slaves, we could not but remain slaves, and all our actions
enslaved us the more.
2. c Gratia,
i.e. Dei. according to the reading of D. E. Vulg. S. Ambr. S. Aug. &c.
see Scholz.
3. f "What
is that righteousness whereby the Devil was conquered? What, but the righteousness
of Jesus Christ? And how was he conquered? Because when he found in Him nothing
worthy of death, he yet slew Him. And so it is just that the debtors whom he
held should be set free, believing in Him Whom without any debt to shew." S.
Aug. de Trin. xiii. 14. see others ap. Petav. de Incarn. ii. 5. 10. sqq.
4. g These
words are so quoted by S. Aug. ad loc. as having their exactest and deepest
fulfilment in our Lord; "Thou Alone, justly judgest, art unjustly judged,
Who hast the power to lay down Thy life, and hast the power to take it again.
Thou prevailest then, when Thou art judged." He is followed by S. Greg. M.
in 7. Ps. Poen. ad loc. as also (quoted by Lorin. ad loc.) Gaud. Brix. S. 12.
Isid. de Pass. Dom. c. 25. p. 554.
5. h This
rendering occurs in Tert. de Pudic. c. 19. It maybe an explanation of what the
Vulg. now has, "decreti," tou~ do&gmatoj Vel. (in the sing,
for toi=j do&masin ) Two old Lat. Mss. ap. Sabat. have
"delicti." as S. Pac. §. ult. has "inobauditionis," which
may be a comment, as S. Hil. (de Trin. ix. 10.) quoting "chirographum in
sententiis," paraphrases "chir. legis peccati," in reference to
his own words, §. 7. and S. Iren. 5. 17. 3. has "chirographum debiti
nostri," in reference to "debita nostra" just before.
6. l against
the Arians who, as well as Apollinaris, denied that our Lord had a human soul,
see Petav. de Inc. i. 5, 5. and add ib. v. 11.
SOURCE : http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/pacian_5_baptism.htm
San Paciano di Barcellona Vescovo
m. 390
Governò la diocesi di
Barcellona, in Spagna, difendendo la Fede. Egli affermava che il suo nome era
Cristiano e Cattolico il suo cognome.
Martirologio Romano: A
Barcellona nella Spagna settentrionale, san Paciano, vescovo, che, nel
predicare la fede, affermava che il suo nome era cristiano e cattolico il suo
cognome.
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/44340
PACIANO, santo
di Alberto Pincherle - Enciclopedia Italiana (1935)
Vescovo di Barcellona
nella seconda metà del sec. IV, morto in tarda età sotto Teodosio, secondo la
notizia di S. Girolamo nel De viris inlustribus, dedicato a Nummio (non:
Nummo) Emiliano Destro (v. ambrosiastro, II, p. 807), figlio di P.: dunque
tra il 379 e il 392, data dello scritto geronimiano.
Scrisse un'opera, ora
perduta, Cervus o Cervulus, in cui combatteva gli spassi profani
in occasione del Capodanno. Grande importanza per la storia della dottrina e
della prassi penitenziale hanno invece i suoi tre scritti Contra
Novatianos, lettere-trattati polemici contro un tal Sympronianus. Un quarto
scritto, in cui P. prometteva non più di rispondere a obiezioni ma di esporre
in maniera positiva la dottrina cattolica, non ci è pervenuto. Abbiamo invece
due sermoni, Paraenesis sive exhortatorius libellus ad paenitentiam e De
baptismo, i quali ci mostrano anch'essi l'educazione retorica che P. aveva
ricevuto.
Se in questi scritti P.
si rivela teologo spesso acuto e dalle idee chiare, molto più confuse appaiono
le sue concezioni cristologiche in quel trattatello De similitudine carnis
peccati, che i codici parigino e monacense attribuiscono a un Iohannes
episcopus, e gli adozionisti spagnoli Elipando di Toledo e Felice di Urgel,
citandolo, addirittura a S. Girolamo; ma che il benedettino G. Morin ha
rivendicato a P., senza suscitare discussioni. Scritta contro i manichei e i
docetisti in genere, l'opera sottolinea bensì la realtà dell'incarnazione, ma è
molto imprecisa nel definire i rapporti fra la natura umana e la divina in Gesù
Cristo.
Bibl. e Ediz.: Per
le opere di P., v. Patrologia Latina, XIII, coll. 1051 segg.; ed. di
Ph.-P. Peyrot, Zwolle 1896; G. Morin, Études, textes, découvertes, I,
Maredsous-Parigi 1913, p. 107 segg. Su P.: J. van der Vliet, in Mnemosyne,
n. s., XXIII (1895); C. Weyman, in Berlin. philol. Wochenschrift, 1896,
coll. 1057 e 1104; A. Gruber, Studien zu P. von B., Monaco 1901; R.
Kauer, Studien zu P., Vienna 1902. V. anche: penitenza.
SOURCE https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/santo-paciano_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/
.jpg)
Parròquia de Sant Pacià, Sant Andreu, Barcelona
Parròquia de Sant Pacià, Sant Andreu, Barcelona
Parròquia
de Sant Pacià, Sant Andreu, Barcelona
Paciano. ?, p. m. s. iv –
s. m. s. iv. Obispo de Barcelona.
De familia senatorial y
de sólida formación retórico- literaria, Paciano contrajo matrimonio
—seguramente con una clarissima—, del cual nació su hijo Dextro —quien
ocupó altos cargos en la Administración del Imperio romano—. Convertido al
cristianismo en su edad adulta, Paciano acabó siendo consagrado obispo de
Barcelona en un momento que no puede precisarse, aunque no antes de 343 —en ese
año la diócesis barcelonesa estaba regida por Pretextato, quien pudo haber sido
o no el antecesor inmediato de Paciano—.
Según Jerónimo (De uir.
ill., 106), Paciano escribió, siendo obispo, varios opúsculos, uno de los
cuales, titulado Ceruulus (perdido), era una homilía en contra de las
mordaces celebraciones paganas, con disfraces y libertinajes, que tenían lugar
por año nuevo: al decir del propio autor, esta diatriba no contribuyó a reducir
la pasión de sus feligreses por tales festejos. Las obras que han llegado de
Paciano —todas relativas al pecado y a su anulación— son un sermón acerca del
bautismo (Sermo de baptismo), tres cartas —la tercera es, en
realidad, un tratado— resultantes de la correspondencia mantenida con
Simproniano (un novaciano), y una exhortación (otra homilía) a la
penitencia (Sermo de paenitentibus o Paraenesis ad paenitentiam), esta
última redactada con posterioridad al Ceruulus. Anterior a la restante
producción conocida de Paciano podría ser el Sermo de baptismo, dedicado a
exponer el mal transmitido a la descendencia de Adán y los efectos salvíficos
del bautismo regenerador: su descripción del hombre caído presenta una notable
coincidencia con la teología del pecado original que desarrollará Agustín.
Respuesta a una epístola
(no conservada) recibida de Simproniano —personaje, también encumbrado y culto,
que, al parecer, residía en una ciudad próxima a Barcelona—, la primera carta
de Paciano al novaciano defiende y justifica —ante lo expuesto por su
corresponsal— que sólo la gran Iglesia es la “católica” y que, además, ésta
podía y debía reconciliar, mediante la penitencia, a los pecadores que habían
sucumbido después del bautismo. Al responderle Simproniano con un tratado a
favor del novacianismo —adjuntado a otra epístola destinada al obispo—, Paciano
le dirigió una segunda misiva en la que, refiriéndose a lo expuesto en la
última carta de su crítico, y tras haber conocido su filiación doctrinal,
retomaba la cuestión del término “católico”, se defendía por haber citado
erróneamente un verso de Virgilio, rechazaba que los católicos hubieran instado
represiones antinovacianas y negaba validez a las enseñanzas del rival de
Cornelio. Paciano concluía esta epístola asegurando que respondería con
precisión al tratado de Simproniano, en el cual éste sostenía, aduciendo muchas
citas, que la penitencia postbautismal no era lícita. La extensa réplica —el
tercer escrito enviado por Paciano al novaciano— recogía, con nitidez y mesura,
las cuestiones y razones alegadas en la obra de Simproniano —sólo conocida a
través de Paciano— y las refutaba, evidentemente junto con la eclesiología
novaciana.
En la parte final de esta
carta-tratado, Paciano, después de pedir a su antagonista que ingresara en la
Iglesia católica, afirmaba que redactaría una nueva epístola para describir la
doctrina católica —y no, ya, para rebatir la novaciana—: de tal propósito puede
resultar la composición relativa a la penitencia. Sea como fuera —no hay
constancia de más textos dirigidos por el barcelonés a Simproniano—, este
opúsculo, muy influido por Tertuliano y Cipriano, exponía los pecados cuya
redención requería acudir a la penitencia canónica, amonestaba a quienes
—debiendo— no asumían este sacramento y explicaba las consecuencias dimanadas
de ingresar o no en el ordo paenitentium. En esta composición, Paciano
pone de manifiesto, una vez más, tanto su conocimiento de los autores paganos
como de los cristianos, así como, por supuesto, de los textos escripturísticos
utilizados en versiones anteriores a la Vulgata.
Jerónimo (De uir. ill.,
106) indica que Paciano murió, siendo muy anciano, bajo Teodosio I. Su
fallecimiento debe, pues, ubicarse entre 379 —cuando el emperador hispano
iniciaba su reinado— y 392, año que corresponde a la publicación del catálogo
jeronimiano.
Se sabe también que en 393 era Lampio el obispo de Barcelona.
Obras de ~: De baptismo, ed. de C. Granado, Pacien de Barcelone: écrits. Introduction, texte critique, commentaire et index, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1995, págs. 148-164 [SC, 410]; Epistulae [I y II], ed. de C. Granado, ibid., págs. 166-204; Contra tractatus Nouatianorum [o Epistula III], ed. de C. Granado, ibid., págs. 206-270; Sermo de paenitentibus, ed. de C. Granado, ibid., págs. 118-146.
Bibl.: L. Wohleb, “Bischof Pacianus von Barcelona und sein Gegner, der Novatianer Sympronianus (Sempronianus) (Mit einer Sammlung der Fragmente Sympronians)”, en Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens, II, Münster, Verlag der Aschendorffschen, 1930, págs. 25-35; L. Rubio, San Paciano: obras, Barcelona, 1958; A. Anglada, Las obras de Paciano publicadas por V. Noguera y edición crítica del ‘Liber de paenitentibus’, Valencia, Universidad, 1982; C. Granado, Pacien de Barcelone: écrits. Introduction, texte critique, commentaire et index, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1995 [SC, 410]; J. Vilella, “Las iglesias y las cristiandades hispanas: panorama prosopográfico”, en La Hispania del siglo IV. Administración, economía, sociedad, cristianización, ed. por R. Teja, Bari, Ed. Edipuglia, 2002, págs. 117-159; Pacien de Barcelone et l’Hispanie au IVe siècle, Paris, Les éditions du Cerf, 2004 [actas del coloquio celebrado en Lyon y Barcelona en 1996].
José Vilella Masana
SOURCE : https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/17154/paciano
Den hellige Pacian av
Barcelona ( -~390)
Minnedag: 9.
mars
Den hellige Pacian var
biskop av Barcelona og en produktiv forfatter. Men få av hans skrifter har
overlevd. Det var han som først sa: «mitt navn er kristen, mitt etternavn
katolikk...». Minnedag 9. mars.
Sist oppdatert: 1998-06-09 21:53
SOURCE : http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/pbarcelo
Voir aussi : https://www.editionsducerf.fr/librairie/livre/1479/ecrits-pacien-de-barcelone
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxhZG9yYXRpb25jaHJpc3Ryb2l8Z3g6NGY1ZWZmZmE1YmViOTgyZg
