Question VII

GRATIAN. Part I. Now the seventh question must be treated: whether one renouncing his heresy is to be received in the episcopal dignity or not? Cyprian writes thus concerning these persons to Stephen, [book II, epistle 1]:

If any priests and deacons were first ordained in the catholic Church and afterward proved perfidious and rebellious against the Church, or among heretics were promoted by pseudo-bishops and antichrists with a profane ordination contrary to Christ's disposition, and attempted outside to offer false and sacrilegious sacrifices against the altar and the divine word, it is fitting that these also, when they return, be received on this condition: that they communicate as laymen and hold it sufficient that they are admitted to peace, they who had proved enemies of peace; nor ought they, when returning, to retain among us those weapons of ordination and honor with which they rebelled against us.

Likewise from the Seventh Synod. If anyone violates any ecclesiastical tradition, written or unwritten, let him be anathema. § 1. Let every bishop, priest, or deacon convicted of having given or received ordination for gifts fall from the priesthood. § 2. But some say: “Because we do penance for sin and God forgives it”—and so I too say that God receives every penance and through penance forgives sins which have already been done. For I know that God received David, an adulterer and murderer, through penance and said concerning him: “I have found a man according to my heart.” I know, in turn, that the same man heard from God: “You will not build a house for me, because you are a man of blood.” I know that Manasseh had his impiety forgiven through confession. I know that prostitutes and tax collectors were received through penance; yet none of those who sinned before baptism was numbered among the priests. I know that some, while they were in the world, remained in much fornication, but after becoming monks shone forth like lights of the world; yet none ascended to the priesthood. Even if this has rarely happened, it was nevertheless no law of the Church. We know Mary, the first woman sinner; after her conversion, although holy and chaste, she was nevertheless not numbered among the deaconesses. But why do I say this? Following the holy Apostles and venerable Fathers, with all confidence I cry out that whoever was ordained through simony—whether bishop, priest, or deacon—is alien to the priesthood, for the grace of the Holy Spirit is not saleable; the tradition of Caiaphas and invention of Simon are alien to the holy priesthood. § 3. And if anyone who has fallen into fornication after baptism is not received into the priesthood—for the canons prohibit this—then, if anyone has been promoted to the priesthood with this sin and afterward becomes known, let him be degraded. Likewise: § 4. Concerning the one who was ordained through money, I confess that God receives him through penance. He is good toward all, and his bowels are open to every penitent person. But because, according to the Apostle, a bishop must be irreproachable, whoever has either ordained someone or been ordained through money shall be alien to every priesthood. § 5. Patriarch Tarasius said: Whoever, through money, ordain or have ordained, or are ordained or have been ordained as bishops, priests, deacons, or any persons of the priestly number, let them be altogether repelled from the priesthood, just as Simon Magus was by Peter. Whoever through money have obtained the administration or care of monasteries, churches, religious houses, hospitals, homes for the elderly, or orphanages, let them be expelled from that administration and care with deposition. One who, having fallen into fornication after baptism, was ordained, if he afterward has confessed, let him cease from ministry; but if he has been convicted by someone, let him be deposed altogether. § 6. A bishop, priest, or deacon who strikes someone, by himself or through another, as though wishing thereby to be feared, let him be deposed. Likewise: § 7. One who has been ordained or has obtained a church through secular powers, let him be deposed; but if he has obtained a religious house, let him be expelled.

[PALEA.

Likewise from the Council of Meaux, c. 43. It must be guarded against and resisted with the greatest zeal, and, through the power of Christ's blood, interdicted to bishops and kings, to all higher powers, and to all supporters, electors, consenters, or ordainers of any persons whatsoever into an ecclesiastical grade, that no one obtain a place of governance through the simoniacal heresy by any faction, cunning, promise, advantage, or gift, either by himself or through a person put forward.]

Likewise from the same Synod, [the Seventh, action 1]. Part II. When they had assembled at Nicaea in Bithynia, and Peter the archbishop and Peter the priest and abbot of the monastery of Saint Sabas, holding the place of Pope Hadrian, and Tarasius, Archbishop of Constantinople, and John and Thomas, apocrisaries of the eastern apostolic sees, and the other bishops were sitting together, the bishops of Sicily said: It is fitting that we inquire concerning future matters. § 1. Likewise Basil, Bishop of Ancyra, said: The ecclesiastical constitution has things canonically handed down from antiquity by the holy Apostles and their successors, our holy Fathers and teachers, the six holy universal synods, and the orthodox local synods: that those returning from any heresy to the orthodox faith and tradition of the catholic Church ought in writing to deny their heresy and confess the catholic faith. § 2. Likewise Patriarch Tarasius said: Does it seem good to you that those returning from heresy should receive their sees? § 3. The most religious monks said: Just as the six universal synods received those returning from heresy, so also do we receive them. § 4. The holy Synod said: It pleases all of us. And Basil, Bishop of Ancyra, Theodore, Bishop of the city of Myra, and Theodosius were commanded to sit in their own grades and sees. § 5. Likewise Constantine, Bishop of Cyprus, said: It is not proper that we who are bishops should need instruction, but that we should be teachers of others. § 6. Likewise Bishop Tarasius said: The teaching of evil teachers is evil. The Church does not receive priests from evil teachers. § 7. Likewise John, apocrisary of the eastern sees, said: Heresy separates every man from the Church. § 8. Likewise Bishop Tarasius said: Behold, many canonical, synodal, and patristic books have been read and have taught us to receive those returning from heresy, if there is no other cause in them. § 9. Likewise Peter, apocrisary of the Pope, said: Macarius the heretic was exiled at Rome by the holy Sixth Synod, and our father Pope Benedict gave him an interval of forty days, and daily sent his counselor Boniface to him and instructed him with admonitory words from divine Scripture; and he was by no means willing to be corrected. But he did this so that he might receive him in his own order. § 10. Likewise Patriarch Tarasius said: What do you say concerning Anatolius? Was he not also made chief in the Fourth Synod? And behold, he was ordained by the impious Dioscorus. Therefore, let us also receive those who were ordained by heretics, just as Anatolius was received. § 11. Likewise: It truly is the voice of God that sons do not die for their fathers, but each one dies in his own sin; and that ordination is from God. § 12. Likewise Patriarch Tarasius said: We have heard the paternal commands. What, therefore? Ought we to receive those ordained by heretics? § 13. The holy Synod said: We have heard, lord, and we ought to receive them. § 14. Patriarch Tarasius said: Many of those who assembled at the Sixth Synod were ordained by Sergius, Pyrrhus, Peter, and Paul, who were chiefs of the heresy of the Monothelites, because these men sat successively in the See of Constantinople; and from the last of them, namely Peter, to the Sixth Synod there were no more than twelve years. But Thomas, John, and Constantine were made archbishops by those heretics, and nevertheless they were not rejected for this reason. § 15. The holy Synod said: This is manifest. § 16. Constantine, Bishop of Cyprus, said: It has been sufficiently shown that those coming from heretics are to be received. But if anyone goes voluntarily to a heretic and receives ordination, let him not be received. § 17. Likewise Patriarch Tarasius said: And I reject those who for a cause of this kind were ordained for the overthrow of the faith, especially when orthodox bishops were present by whom they could have been ordained. Such is the paternal understanding. But if there has been synodal concord and unity of the churches among the orthodox, whoever presumes to be ordained by unclean heretics shall be subject to deposition. The holy Synod said: This is a just judgment. Part III. GRATIAN. From this authority it is given to be understood that one who has passed from the unity of the catholic faith into the fellowship of heretics in order to receive from their hands the sacraments of ecclesiastical dignity, or one who, scorning the orthodox, has desired to be ordained by heretics, even if afterward, renouncing his heresy, he has returned to the Church, nevertheless will not be able to exercise the office received. By Cyprian's authority, however, those who, having been ordained within the catholic Church, fall away in order to attack the faith are prohibited from ecclesiastical administration. But simoniacs are neither ordained by heretics for the overthrow of the faith nor, having been ordained within the catholic Church, armed against the faith. For although they ordain some through money, they nevertheless do not attack the faith or preach that the grace of the Holy Spirit is saleable. Hence, when they have detested their heresy by true penance, they are not prohibited by the preceding authorities from being received in their own grades. Nevertheless, by that chapter of the Nicene Synod, “If anyone through money, etc.,” by that other chapter of the Seventh Synod, “If anyone every tradition, etc.,” and by the authorities of Innocent and many others, they are commanded to be irreparably condemned. Hence Leo IV also to the Bishops of Britain:

You inquire concerning those who do not fear to sell doves in the Lord's temple for most base gain and, by wicked temerity, join their own deeds to the heresy of Simon: whether they can do penance in their order or only outside the order and priestly grade? We certainly cannot aid by any penance those who are convicted and those who are known to have perpetrated so detestable a crime—which has already been condemned by many councils—and oppose so many spiritual fathers; but let it be certain to all that I concur in the sentence of those Fathers. Part IV. GRATIAN. Unless the rigor of discipline is sometimes relaxed through a dispensation of mercy. For the crimes of many are damnable, which nevertheless the Church tolerates on account of the time, on account of the person, in view of piety, necessity, or utility, and because of the outcome of the matter. On account of the time: as Gelasius, when because of the necessity of the time he saw the Italian Church, through the incursion of war and famine, deprived of the office of nearly all clerics, so that the means of governing souls were lacking for very many peoples, conceded that clerics might be taken from monks or laymen, speaking thus, [to the Bishops throughout Lucania, epistle I, c. 1]:

We are constrained by the necessary disposition of affairs and induced by the moderation of the Apostolic See so to weigh the decrees of the paternal canons that, with diligent consideration, we may temper them—as far as can be done—in those things which the necessity of the present times demands be relaxed for restoring the churches. GRATIAN. Likewise: “By ancient [canons], therefore, etc.” Seek this above in the treatise on those to be ordained. Likewise Pope Innocent, when because of the necessity of the time, lest there be too great a scandal in the Church, he received those ordained by the heretic Bonosus, says in his decrees, [epistle XXII to the Bishops of Macedonia, c. 5]:

That which was established for a remedy and because of the necessity of the time is established not to have existed originally. Therefore, when the necessity ceases, that which necessity devised as a remedy ought likewise to cease, because the legitimate order is one thing, and that which usurpation compels to be done for the present time is another.

GRATIAN. Similarly, by dispensation it was established in the Council of Nicaea, [c. 8], concerning the Novatians that those returning to the Church should be ordained:

If any of the Novatians wish to come to the catholic Church, it pleased the holy Council that they be ordained and thus remain in the clergy. But before all things it is proper that this confession be exacted from them in writing: that they profess that they will observe, by common consent, the statutes of the catholic Church.

Whenever the eye of the heart, covered by a cloud of error, is made serene by the light of heavenly illumination, one must strive with great caution lest the author of schism secretly rush in and again cut off with the weapon of error, from the root of unity, those who have returned to it. And therefore, after I, N., bishop of the city of N., discovered the snare of division by which I was held, considered the matter within myself in prolonged deliberation, and, with ready and spontaneous will, returned under the guidance of divine grace to the unity of the Apostolic See—and so that I may not be thought to have returned with a mind not pure but feigned—I pledge, under penalty of the loss of my order and the obligation of anathema, and promise to you, N., and through you to Saint Peter, prince of the Apostles, and to his vicar, the most blessed N., or his successors, that I will never, through the persuasion of any persons or by any other means, return to the schism from which I was rescued by the liberating grace of our Redeemer, but that I will always remain in every respect in the unity of the holy catholic Church and the communion of the Roman Pontiff. Hence I say under oath, by almighty God, these four holy Gospels which I hold in my hands, and the welfare of N., our lords governing the commonwealth, that I will remain always and without doubt in the unity, as I have said, of the Church to which by God's favor I have returned, and in the communion of the Roman Pontiff. But if—which may it not happen—I separate myself from this unity by any excuse or argument, let me, incurring the guilt of perjury, be found bound to eternal punishment, and let me have a portion in the future age with the author of schism. Moreover, I dictated that this document of my confession and promise be written by N., my notary, with the consent of the priests, deacons, and clerics who, binding themselves with me in this unity, likewise followed with ready will in all the things written above and subscribed with their own hands; and, subscribing it with my own hand, I delivered it to you. Enacted in the place N., on that day, and under the consuls written above. Subscription of the bishop. I, bishop of the city of N., having furnished an oath to preserve all the things written above, have subscribed this my confession and promise. GRATIAN. But to the contrary, from the rigor of the canons Pope Felix [III] writes to all Bishops, [epistle I, c. 5]:

Those who at any age have been baptized or rebaptized anywhere other than in the catholic Church shall by no means be permitted to approach ecclesiastical service. It ought to suffice for them that they have been received into the number of catholics. For whoever violates this statute, or does not remove one whom he has learned to have crept from their assembly into clerical ministry, will appear to pronounce judgment upon his own order and communion. GRATIAN. On account of the person: as blessed Gregory, writing to Bishop Januarius, [book VII, indiction 2, epistle I], says:

So great a wickedness concerning your old age has reached my ears that, unless we still weighed it in a humane manner, we would already strike it with a fixed curse. § 1. And indeed a sentence of punishment ought to have been hurled against you; but because we know your simplicity together with your old age, for the present we remain silent. GRATIAN. In view of piety: as Gelasius says concerning the illiterate and those defective in body, [to the Bishops throughout Lucania, epistle I, c. 18]:

If any such persons have been received either through their own rashness or through the negligence of those presiding, let them receive nothing further by way of promotion, and let them hold it sufficient that this was conceded to them out of excessive compassion. GRATIAN. In view of necessity: as Pope Hilary, when grave scandal arose on both sides concerning a certain bishop ordained without the metropolitan's knowledge, says in his epistle, [to Ascanius and all the Bishops of the Province of Tarragona]:

Because we see that whatever has been indicated by either party is confused by every perversity, after considering the necessity of the times we have decreed that what was done pertains to pardon on this condition: that henceforth no bishop be ordained without the knowledge or consent of the metropolitan.

C. XIV. On the same.

Likewise Innocent, [to the Bishops of Macedonia, epistle XXII, c. 6]. Whenever a people or a crowd sins, because punishment cannot be inflicted upon all on account of their multitude, it is customarily allowed to pass unpunished. I therefore say that the former things are to be left to God's judgment, and that henceforth they are to be guarded against with the greatest solicitude.

Likewise from the epistle of Cyril sent to Maximus, Deacon of Antioch. I learned from the monk Paul, beloved by me, that your piety refuses to this day to embrace the communion of the most reverend Bishop John, because certain persons in the church of Antioch either still hold evil opinions with Nestorius or indeed once held them but perhaps have come to their senses. Therefore, let your moderation test whether at any time, openly and irreverently gathering together with Nestorius, they hold his opinions and converse together; although they once had a cauterized conscience, let them now be gathered together after penance has been done concerning the things into which they were drawn, even though perhaps they are ashamed to confess the transgression. § 1. But so that we may not be thought to love contention, let us embrace the communion of the most reverend Bishop John, showing indulgence to him; and for the sake of dispensation, let him recognize that his affair is not being treated more searchingly, strictly, or vehemently against him. For, as I have said, the affair greatly needs the grace of dispensation.

The same to the priest and archimandrite Januarius. Dispensations in affairs sometimes compel certain persons to go a little outside what is owed in order to make some greater gain. For just as those who sail the sea, distressed when a storm presses and the ship is endangered, unload certain things so that the rest may remain safe, so also we, when we do not have complete certainty of preserving all affairs, disregard certain of them lest we suffer the loss of all. GRATIAN. In view of utility: as is related in the Council of Meaux, [c. 64], concerning the sons of virgins abducted by force and thus joined in marriage to their abductors:

Those begotten from such a marriage are not to be admitted to ecclesiastical orders unless perhaps either the greatest utility or necessity of the Church demands them, or an evident prerogative of merits commends them. GRATIAN. Peter, agreeing with this, says: “In truth I have discovered that God is not a respecter of persons, etc.” § 1. Certain things are also tolerated in the Church because of the outcome of the matter, as Leo says in his decrees concerning laymen suddenly ordained bishops contrary to the decrees of the canons, [epistle LXXXV, otherwise LXXXVII, c. 1, to the Bishops of Africa]:

The cases demand that fitting punishment be brought forth not only against such prelates but also against those who ordained them. But the mildness of mercy surrounds us on one side and the censure of justice on the other, so that we believe certain offenses are to be tolerated in some manner, but others entirely cut away. We therefore permit those whose promotion incurs only this ground for reproach—that they were elected from the laity to episcopal office—to retain their place, without prejudicing the statutes of the Apostolic See or dissolving the rules of the blessed Fathers, because remission of a sin does not give license to sin, nor will it be lawful afterward to commit with impunity what could be conceded for some reason, lest we punish with just vengeance afterward what we have conceded for a time with pious lenity.

The same to the Moorish bishops. Maximus also, although blamefully ordained from the laity, if he is now no Donatist and is alien to the spirit of schismatic depravity, we do not repel from the episcopal dignity which he obtained in whatever manner, on condition that he make manifest that he is catholic by a declaration directed to us.

The same, [in the same, at the beginning of c. 3]. We wish Donatus of Seia, converted—as we have learned—from Novatianism with his people, to preside over the Lord's flock in such a way that he remembers to direct to us a declaration of his faith, in which he both condemns the error of the doctrine of Novatian and most fully confesses the catholic truth. But the things which we have now remitted after a certain consideration of the cases are henceforth to be guarded by the ancient rules, lest we punish with just vengeance afterward what we have conceded for a time with pious lenity.

The same to Januarius, Bishop of Aquileia, [epistle III]. For it is most salutary and fullest of the utility of spiritual medicine that priests, deacons, subdeacons, or clerics of any order who wish to be seen as corrected and strive to return again to the catholic faith which they formerly lost should first profess without ambiguity that they have condemned their errors and the very authors of the error, so that, their depraved opinions also having been extinguished, no occasion for despair may remain and no member can be violated by fellowship with such persons, when their own profession has begun to stand against them in all respects. Concerning them we also command that this constitution of the canons be observed: let them hold it as a great benefice if, every hope of promotion having been taken from them, they remain with perpetual stability in the order in which they are found, provided that they have not been stained by repeated anointing.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, [c. 36]. If any bishop, or a priest or deacon of any bishop, has fallen into the opinion of some heresy and for this cause has been excommunicated, let no bishop receive him into communion unless first, in a common council, he satisfies all by presenting a declaration of his faith and thus obtains his free purgation. Let this same thing also be decreed concerning faithful laymen if they have been named as holding the opinion of any heresy. Part V. GRATIAN. Behold the causes for which certain things are tolerated in the Church, which, when those causes cease, are punished with pious severity. But Pope Gelasius distinguishes when they are to be tolerated and when cut away, saying, [to the Bishops throughout Lucania, epistle I, c. 11]:

Even if those things are sometimes to be permitted which, if the integrity of the others is established, cannot alone do harm, those things nevertheless must be guarded against greatly which cannot be received without manifest discoloration. And if regard for circumstances or times compels, or consideration of accelerated provision excuses, those very things which are sometimes believed to be indulgently allowed without any detriment, how much more are those things in no way to be mutilated which neither any necessity nor any ecclesiastical utility at all extorts? For sometimes canonical precepts are curtailed and relaxed on account of necessity or the utility of the Church. Part VI. GRATIAN. § 1. We have briefly shown which persons returning from heresy can be received in their own orders and which cannot. But now the question concerns those who were ordained by heretics: if they return from heresy to the unity of the catholic mother Church, whether they can be ordained again in the same order? “For one once consecrated,” as blessed Gregory says, “ought not to be consecrated again.” § 2. Likewise, sacraments which are ministered by heretics in the form of the Church—as Augustine testifies—ought not to be reiterated, lest the injury appear to be done not to the man but to the sacrament. § 3. But that saying of Gregory is understood concerning those who received priestly or episcopal consecration; when they return to the Church, they either receive the effect of their anointing through the imposition of hands or are commanded to cease perpetually from its administration. Similarly, that saying of Augustine is understood concerning the same mystical anointing and the sacrament of baptism. § 4. But there are other orders in the Church which are conferred without sacramental anointing, by the blessing of the bishop alone, with a certain distribution of vessels or vestments, such as the Levites and the others constituted below them. Although these are ordained by heretics, nevertheless, when returning to the Church, let them be ordained by the Church in the same order—if they are otherwise worthy—nor will there be in them a reiteration of the office, since it is taught that nothing was conferred upon them by the heretics. Hence Urban II writes to Peter, Bishop of Pistoia, and Rusticus, Abbot of Vallombrosa:

We found from his own confession that Daibert was ordained deacon by Negzelon, although the latter was a simoniac, but not simoniacally; and it is established as declared by the judgment of blessed Pope Innocent that Negzelon, a heretic (who, it is established, was ordained by heretics), because he had nothing to give, could give nothing to him upon whom he laid his hand. We therefore, supported by the authority of so great a pontiff and strengthened by the testimony of Pope Damasus, who says, “What was badly done ought to be repeated,” have constituted Daibert deacon wholly anew—since he has departed from the heretics in body and spirit and labors according to his strength for the benefit of the Church, and since the Church's necessity presses. We judge that this is not to be considered a repetition, but only the complete conferral of the diaconate, since indeed, as we have said above, one who had nothing could give nothing.

Likewise Pope Damasus, [letter IV, On Chorepiscopi]. Through the illicit imposition of a hand, those who seemed to have received something had a wounded head; and where a wound has been inflicted, it is necessary to apply medicine by which the inflicted blemish may be healed—that is, it is necessary to repeat what is not proved to have been legitimately done or conferred. For how one who received honor from a man who did not have the power to give it legitimately can retain that honor, I cannot discover.

The Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian, [Augusti, to Florentinus]. Part VII. We decree that men of such a kind shall approach the governing of provinces as are accustomed to be advanced to the insignia of office, not by ambition or a price, but by their proven life and the testimony of Your Magnificence; provided, certainly, that those to whom these offices have been entrusted through the choice of your See or ours declare under oath in the proceedings that, for obtaining administrations, they neither gave anything nor would ever thereafter give anything, whether through themselves or through an intermediary acting in fraud of the law and of the oath, or under the title of gift or sale, or under any other covering of whatever contract; and that on this account—excepting salaries—they would accept absolutely nothing, whether while placed in an administration or after laying down the office, for any benefit furnished during the time of an administration which they obtained gratuitously. And although we judge that no one, through contempt of his oath, would be so forgetful of divine fear as to place any advantage before his own salvation, nevertheless, so that he may be subjected to fear for his salvation by the necessity of peril, if anyone should dare to neglect the oaths furnished, we grant to everyone, as in the case of a public crime, the capacity to accuse not only the recipient but also the giver, with the one who is convicted to be struck in every way by the penalty of fourfold restitution.

[PALEA.

Likewise Pope Paschal. It is evident that simoniacs, as the first and principal heretics, are to be rejected by all the faithful and, if after admonition they do not come to their senses, are to be oppressed by external powers. For all crimes, in comparison with the simoniacal heresy, are reckoned as almost nothing.] GRATIAN. With these matters briefly set forth, let us come to those things which the Church is prepared to avenge by the severity of discipline, showing by what accusers or witnesses any persons are to be convicted; by what judge each person ought to be condemned or absolved; if a case has been vitiated, by what remedy it may be relieved; and, if the accusers fail, whether the defendant is to be compelled to purgation. And so that what we are about to say may appear more easily, let an example be placed before our eyes, in which the authorities contending on either side may be distinguished, and what the authority of the holy Fathers holds may be clearly made known.