Question II

GRATIAN. Part I. The second question follows, in which it is asked whether money is to be exacted for entrance into a monastery, or, if exacted, is to be paid. That each may licitly be done is proved by the sequence of each Testament. For it is read in the first book of Kings that Hannah brought Samuel with her, after he had been weaned, to the house of God in Shiloh, with three calves, three measures of flour, and an amphora of wine. § 1. But in the Acts of the Apostles it is read that “the multitude of believers had one heart and one soul,” nor did anyone say that anything which they possessed was his own, but all things were common to them. Individuals sold their estates and placed their prices before the feet of the Apostles. One of these, named Ananias, when he reserved a part for himself, after receiving a sentence of malediction, fell dead with his wife Sapphira before the feet of the Apostle. § 2. From this it clearly appears that those about to enter a monastery ought to offer their possessions to the rulers and are not otherwise to be received unless they have offered their own things. But to offer of one’s own accord is one thing, to pay things exacted another. Hannah, Samuel’s mother, offered gifts to the priests not exacted or sought, but of her own accord. The believers of their own accord offered their possessions to the Apostles so that they might serve the necessities of the needy—possessions which the pressing persecution of unbelievers did not permit them to possess. Ananias also was condemned not because he did not wish to offer his possessions, but because, lying to the Holy Spirit, he fraudulently withheld part of the prices of the things which he had offered to the Apostles. Therefore, by these authorities rulers are not permitted to exact anything from those entering, but to receive things voluntarily offered, because the former is damnable but the latter by no means. Hence it is read in the Second Council of Braga, [c. 5]:

It has pleased the council that, whenever bishops are invited by any of the faithful to consecrate churches, they do not demand any gift from the founder as though from a debt; but if he himself has offered anything according to his own vow, let it not be rejected, while if either poverty or necessity constrains him, let nothing be exacted from him. Nevertheless, let each bishop remember this: that he not dedicate a church before he has first received the endowment of the basilica and its service confirmed through a charter of donation. For this is no light rashness: that a church be consecrated like a private house without lights or substantial support for those who will serve there. Likewise Boniface, Bishop of the city of Rome, writes to all the monks of the Church of Cagliari:

With how pious an affection of mind, most beloved brothers, the Roman Church suffers with your destitution is perhaps unknown to you, but is held not unknown to the knower of all things. But that we may give a suitable response to your doubt, God is my witness that the doubt itself also renders me anxious and unfit. For we never read that the Lord’s disciples, or those converted by their ministry, incited anyone to the worship of God by the intervention of any gift—unless perhaps someone incongruously proposes the nourishment of the poor, to none of whom, of whatever profession he might be, provisions were denied. We know indeed that “every best thing given and every perfect gift is from above”; from him the one who, by the holy judgment of deliberation, resolves freely to serve God receives the gift of good will. It remains, therefore, that one who receives a gift for some reception into a church sells the gift of God which ought to descend from the Father of lights, while the one lavishing the gift buys importunately. But what follows concerning the sellers or buyers of a divine gift need not be stated in conclusion. § 1. Beware, therefore, brothers, how ambiguous is the counsel which you sought, which indeed we find confirmed by no reason according to the purpose of your will. Nevertheless, if the person whom you found is so useful for your necessity—provided that every bargain is absent, every agreement ceases, and no alienation of your church is made—let him approach, let him begin freely to serve God, and let him devotedly perform the service of his governance; and afterward the Roman Church permits you, as though for the sake of assistance, to bestow some gifts of your church for the comfort of the brothers. [Hence Pope Urban in the Council at Melfi, c. 12:

PALEA.

Let no abbot presume, under the occasion of any bargain, to take or exact a price from those who come to conversion. Following the ancient rule, I establish that absolutely nothing is ever to be received from anyone for ordinations, neither from the giving of the pallium, nor from the delivery of charters, nor from that appellation of pastellum which a new pretense devised through ambition. For in ordaining a bishop, the Pontiff imposes the hand, the minister reads the Gospel lesson, and the notary writes the epistle of his confirmation.]

Likewise Gregory in the Register, [book IV, epistle 44, or c. 88, in the Synod held at Rome]. Just as it is not fitting for a bishop to sell the hand which he imposes, so the minister or notary ought not to sell his voice or pen in that man’s ordination. § 1. But if the one who was ordained, not from an agreement, nor having been subjected to exaction or petition, after receiving the charters and pallium wishes to offer anything to anyone among the clergy solely for the sake of gratitude, we by no means prohibit this from being received, because his offering, which did not proceed from the petition of an ambitious person, introduces no stain of fault. GRATIAN. By the authority of Boniface it is openly shown that, just as no one is to be invited to conversion for a price, so it is not fitting to grant entrance into a church to anyone by the intervention of money. But by the authority of Gregory it is given to be understood that it is not permitted to exact money for entrance into a church, but it is permitted to receive money spontaneously offered. Part II. Likewise that saying of the Apostle in [the first epistle] to Timothy is objected, [c. 5, v. 2]:

“Honor widows who are truly widows. But those who are not truly widows—that is, those who can be supported by their own resources or those of their parents—are not to be received, so that the Church may suffice for those who are truly widows.”

Likewise Jerome to Pope Damasus. But it is fitting for those clerics to be supported by the stipends of the Church whom no resources of parents or relatives support. But those who can be supported by the goods and resources of their parents, if they receive what belongs to the poor, certainly commit sacrilege and, through an abuse of such things, eat and drink judgment for themselves.

Likewise Prosper in the book On the Contemplative Life, chapter X. A shepherd of the Church ought not to expend anything upon those whose own possessions suffice, since to give to those who possess is nothing other than to lose. Nor do those who possess their own things and wish anything to be given to them receive, without their own grave sin, that from which the poor person was to live. Concerning clerics, indeed, the Holy Spirit says: “They eat the sins of my people.” But just as those who have nothing of their own receive not sins but the nourishment which they are seen to need, so possessors receive not nourishment, in which they abound, but the sins of others. GRATIAN. But by these authorities those prohibited from being received by the Church are not those who once were rich and left all things, like Peter, Matthew, and Paul; or distributed them to the poor, like Zacchaeus; or joined them to the things of the Church, like those who sold their estates and placed the prices before the feet of the Apostles so that all things might be common to them. Rather, they are those who, remaining in the homes of their parents or unwilling to leave their own things, desire to be fed from ecclesiastical resources. Concerning these it is added below in the same book of Prosper, [c. 10]:

If anyone for this reason does not wish to leave his own things, so that he may have from which to live, why does he receive that for which he must render an account? Why does he multiply his own sins with those of others? The same: § 1. It is not mine to say what kind of sin those incur who presumptuously receive the food of the poor; they additionally burden with their expenses the Church which they ought to have helped from their own resources, perhaps living in a congregation for this reason: lest they feed any poor persons, lest they receive strangers, or lest they diminish their own estate by daily expenses. § 2. But if they have contributed something from their fruits to the Church as though for their own expense, let them not prefer themselves with empty boasting to those whom the Church feeds and clothes although they have nothing, because one who strips himself of the things of the world, or one who, although he has had nothing, does not desire to have, is more perfect than one who has bestowed something upon the Church from the many things which he possesses and perhaps boasts of that which he has bestowed. GRATIAN. Behold those who are prohibited from being received by the Church. But those who leave all their own things, distribute them to the poor, or join them to the things of the Church are both laudably to be received by the Church and to be supported by her resources. Hence it is read in the same book, [c. 11]:

A priest to whom the care of dispensation is committed receives from the people, not only without cupidity but also with praise for piety, things to be dispensed, and faithfully dispenses the things received, because he has either left all his own things to his parents, distributed them to the poor, or joined them to the things of the Church, and through love of poverty has placed himself among the number of the poor, so that he himself, as a voluntary poor man, may live from that from which he ministers to the poor. Clerics also whom birth made poor may, when living with perfection of virtue either in their own homes or in a congregation, receive the necessities of life, because cupidity does not lead them to receive those things, but the necessity of living compels them. § 1. The Apostle appears to speak concerning such persons: “Those who work in the sanctuary eat the things which are of the sanctuary, and those who serve the altar participate with the altar.” Unless he wished this to be understood concerning those who contemn their own resources, he would never have added what follows: “Thus also God ordained for those who announce the Gospel to live from the Gospel.” Those who wish to possess nothing of their own live from the Gospel; those who neither have nor desire to have anything are possessors not of their own things but of common things. What else is it to live from the Gospel except for the one laboring to receive the necessities of life from that in which he labors? Nevertheless, the Apostle, who preached the Gospel in such a way that he ministered necessities to himself with his own hands, confidently speaks concerning himself: “But I have used none of these things.” And why he said this he disclosed in what followed, saying: “It is better for me to die than for anyone to empty my glory.” He says that his glory would be emptied if he wished to receive the expense of temporal life from those to whom he preached. For he wished to receive the fruit of his labor not in the present but in the future.

Likewise from the Council of Agde, [c. 36]. Let all clerics who faithfully and vigilantly serve the Church obtain from priests, according to the merit of their service and through the ordinance of the canons, the stipends owed to holy labors. GRATIAN. By the authorities of many it is established more clearly than light that it is not permitted to exact money from those about to enter a monastery, lest both the one who exacts and the one who pays incur the crime of simony.