Question I

GRATIAN. That they cannot reclaim their own things appears capable of being proved easily. For the Lord says in the Gospel: “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have and give to the poor.” Therefore, because these persons undertake the way of perfection, it is not permitted for them to have things of their own. Much less, therefore, is it permitted for them to reclaim them, because that which it is not permitted to possess ought not to be reclaimed. § 1. Likewise: “If anyone wishes to take away your tunic and contend with you in judgment, leave him your cloak also.” § 2. Likewise the Apostle in the Epistle to the Corinthians: “Therefore, if you have secular judgments, it is altogether a sin in you.” § 3. Likewise Gregory, expounding “All things are lawful for me, but I shall be brought under the power of none,” says: “When the mind follows desires that have been conceived, it is convicted of serving the things by whose love it is overcome.”

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Carthage, [c. 19]. Let a bishop, even when summoned, not litigate for transitory things. GRATIAN. Therefore, because those who are perfect are prohibited generally from contending in judgment, it is evident that these persons are not permitted to stand before a judge. § 1. To these matters reply is thus made: One who is perfect is prohibited from standing in judgment for the purpose of capturing gain, but not for avoiding loss. Or otherwise: It is one thing to possess one’s own things and another to be the procurator of things held in common. Canons do not possess things of their own, because things offered to God belong to no individual. For they use the goods of the church not as their own but as things entrusted to them for dispensation. Hence Prosper in the book On the Contemplative Life: “The priest to whom the care of dispensation has been committed, etc.” Seek this in the cause of him from whom money was exacted for entry into a monastery. Therefore, just as these persons do not possess their own things, so neither do they reclaim their own things, but the goods of the church whose administration they conduct. Similarly, the fact that they are prohibited from contending in judgment is to be understood thus: namely, that they do not stand before a judge for themselves, but for others. But we read that some of the saints stood before a judge for others and petitioned the judge for them. These persons, however, stand not for themselves but for the poor, for whose necessities they reclaim things that will be profitable; and thus they are not prohibited from standing before a judge. § 2. But that statement of the Gospel, “If anyone takes your tunic from you, etc.,” belongs not to one commanding but to one exhorting. Hence Augustine says, [book XIX Against Faustus, c. 25]:

What is owed, although it is kindly remitted, is nevertheless not unjustly reclaimed. But one who exacts beyond what is owed sins, and therefore the law, fixing a measure, established the penalty of retaliation. But you are as far from the sin of an unjust exactor as you do not exact at all what is owed, and therefore the good Master says: “To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also,” especially lest we ourselves also be compelled to render what is owed by Him who owes nothing. [GRATIAN.] Thus you will understand the other things also.

The same, On the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. Whoever does not obey precepts is guilty and liable to punishment. And a little later: § 1. Not to obey a precept of the Lord is a sin; and if you are unwilling to use a counsel, you will attain less good. Likewise Gregory in the letter to Jovinian: § 2. That which is prescribed is commanded; that which is commanded must necessarily be done; if it is not done, it has punishment. § 3. Where counsel is given, there is the choice of the one making an offering; where there is a precept, there is the necessity of the one serving.