Question I

GRATIAN. Part I. That those ensnared by crime cannot accuse others is attested by Pope Anacletus, [letter II to the Bishops of Italy], saying:

If it is commanded that a priest be chosen without crime, he is in no way permitted to be accused or calumniated by criminals, nor by any other persons than those who are without crime, who can be ordained priests by a just election, and who are found in all things to be such as those commanded to be chosen as priests.

Likewise Pope Hadrian, [in the capitularies, c. 21]. We say that all those whom secular laws call infamous are indeed infamous, as are all who, because their faults demand it, cannot be advanced to the priesthood. For it is unworthy that those who cannot be what these men themselves are should accuse them, because, just as greater persons are not judged by lesser ones, so neither can they be criminally charged by them.

Likewise Pope Fabian, [letter II to the Eastern Bishops]. Those who perpetrate those sins concerning which the Apostle says, “Because those who do such things shall not attain the kingdom of God,” are greatly to be guarded against and, if they are unwilling voluntarily, compelled to amendment, because they are sprinkled with the stains of infamy and slide down into the abyss unless aid is given them by priestly authority. § 1. Likewise also those concerning whom he himself says, “Not even to take food with one of this kind,” because they are marked by infamy before they are healed by priestly authority and reintegrated into the bosom of holy mother Church, since those who are outside us cannot communicate with us.

Likewise Pope Fabian, [letter II]. All those whom the Apostle commemorates, saying, “Not even to take food with them,” are to be repelled from an accusation and are not to be received before satisfaction to the Church.

Likewise Clement to James, Bishop of Jerusalem, [letter I]. Blessed Peter, as the Lord taught, prohibited homicides and adulterers and all those bound by criminal bonds, and those who were not their coequals, from the vexation and accusation of bishops; and he taught that no one except coequals ought to bring anything against them. § 1. He also asked that all infamous persons, and those whom primates and secular laws do not receive, as well as laymen, ought always to be repelled from their accusation and vexation; and he commanded all to be subject to them. He taught that the life of all priests is higher, holier, and separated from secular and lay persons, and that spiritual persons and priests ought always to be set over and to be above carnal persons and laymen, because it ought to be a very small thing to us that we are arraigned and judged by such persons or by a human day. But he said that greater persons can in no way be accused or judged by lesser ones, because he taught that not only divine laws but also secular laws prohibit this.

Likewise Pope Hadrian, [in the capitularies, c. 68]. When one brings a criminal charge, it must be ascertained whether he himself was not previously criminal, because the accusation of a defendant against anyone is dangerous and ought not to be admitted. [C. 72:] § 1. Let witnesses, however, be without any infamy, having wives and children, and confessing Christ in every way. GRATIAN. But not only criminals, but also any other persons whatsoever are repelled from the accusation of bishops. Hence Pope Anacletus [letter I] says:

If all things were avenged in this world, there would be no place for divine judgments. One who strives to aid the sun with torches labors at superfluous expense. Therefore, if anyone thinks that in this he pleases God—because he accuses His servants and says that he does this so that they may become better—he labors in vain and is driven more by the goads of envy than of charity, because the fullness of grace does not need an addition, nor does it require any increases of commendation.

Likewise Pope Telesphorus, [sole letter, c. 3]. Priests, who with their own mouth confect the body of the Lord, are to be obeyed and feared by all, not torn apart or disparaged, because the Lord's people ought in no way to arraign those by whom they desire to be blessed, saved, and instructed, nor shall the common people be received in their accusation. For the people are to be taught and corrected by them, not they by the people, because a disciple is not above the master. § 1. Therefore, one who accuses or desires to condemn those who are appointed priests by Him accuses God's ordinance. The same: § 2. Those who are not suitable shall not be received for an accusation; and we determine that all who take up arms against the Fathers, that is, priests, are infamous. For all Fathers, that is, priests, are to be venerated, not rejected, accused, or plotted against.

Likewise Pope Pius, [letter I]. Let sheep not rebuke their shepherd; let the people not accuse the bishop, nor the common people arraign him, because a disciple is not above the master. For bishops are to be judged by God, who chose them as eyes for Himself. For they are not to be accused, arraigned, or torn apart by subjects or persons of a depraved life. And below: § 1. No one doing good wishes to harm another by word or deed; how much less ought a faithful man to come under suspicion that he says or does those things which he does not wish to suffer? For every suspicion is to be repelled rather than approved or received. GRATIAN. But detraction itself, although it arises from the vice of those who disparage, is nevertheless sometimes stirred up against good persons by the just judgment of God, so that detraction may humble those whom either domestic presumption or the favor of others had raised on high. Hence Ambrose, [on Luke c. 22]:

Imitate Peter saying for the third time: “Lord, You know that I love You.” For, because he had denied three times, he confesses three times; but he denied by night and confesses by day. These things were said so that we may know that no one ought to boast of himself. For if Peter too fell because he said, “Even if others shall have been scandalized, yet not I,” who else may rightly presume concerning himself? Finally, because David had said, “I said in my abundance: I shall not be moved forever,” he confesses that this boasting had harmed him, saying: “You turned Your face away from me, and I was made troubled.”

Likewise Gregory, [book IX, letter 39 to Theoctista the Patrician]. There are very many who perhaps praise the life of good persons more than they ought, and, lest some elation creep in from praise, almighty God permits evil persons to burst forth into disparagement and rebuke, so that, if some fault is born in the heart from the mouth of those who praise, it may be suffocated by the mouth of those who censure. Hence it is that the teacher of the gentiles attests that he runs in preaching amid infamy and good reputation, who also says: “As deceivers, and truthful.” GRATIAN. But by this authority spiritual persons are prohibited from being accused by carnal persons, not carnal persons by spiritual ones. This is given to be understood from the words of the same author, which he added in the same chapter, saying: “When the head is ailing, the remaining members of the body are infected more easily, as it is written: Every head is ailing, and every heart grieving; from the sole of the foot even to the crown there is no health in it.” Therefore it is manifest that the devil—who goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour—persuades the hearts of the common people to inflict detractions upon or accuse their own teachers and pastors, so that the ailing peoples, when their pastors do not hold their reins, may run wanton and rush into the depths, so that at least in this way they can be endangered. But damage to morals is very distant from damage to temporal things, since the latter are outside us, the former in us. And below: “I do not think that there is a worse evil than for Christians to envy their priests.” Hence also Felix II says [to the Bishops gathered in the Synod of Alexandria]:

Cease, says the holy Synod of Nicaea, and do not persecute those who rightly serve God, who with a sincere will keep the heavenly commandments of God and are subjected to our laws, because it is not fitting for carnal persons to persecute spiritual ones.

Likewise Pope Anterus, [sole letter]. Bishops are sometimes depraved because of the deserts of the people, so that those who follow may fall more readily. When the head is ailing, the other members of the body are infected. Those who corrupt the life and morals of good persons are worse than those who plunder the substance and estates of others. Let everyone beware lest either his tongue or his ears itch, that is, lest either he disparage others or hear others disparaging. “While sitting,” he says, “you spoke against your brother” by disparaging, “and against the son of your mother you placed a stumbling block,” etc. Let every person abstain from detraction of the tongue and guard his words, and let him know that all the things he says about others will be judged by his own sentence. No one willingly reports to an unwilling hearer. Let the duty of every person be, most beloved, to preserve not only chaste eyes but also the tongue, and let another household never know through them what is done in anyone's household. Let all have the simplicity of the dove, lest they devise deceits against anyone, and the cunning of the serpent, lest they be overthrown by the plots of others. Likewise Pope Lucius, [sole letter, writing to the Bishops of Gaul and Spain]:

Not everyone who harms is wise.

Likewise Pope Anacletus, [letter III]. Those who corrupt the life and morals of teachers are worse than those who plunder the substance and estates of others. For the latter take away those things which, although ours, are outside us; but our detractors, the corrupters of our morals, or those who take up arms against us, properly deceive our very selves, and therefore they are justly infamous and deservedly made exiles from the Church. Therefore, pastors of the Church are often depraved because of the deserts of the people, so that those who follow may collapse more readily.

Likewise Alexander, [letter III]. It is the highest iniquity to disparage and accuse brothers. Hence it is written: “Everyone who disparages his brother is a homicide, and every homicide has no part in the kingdom of God.” GRATIAN. It is therefore evident, as was set forth above, that carnal persons are prohibited from the accusation of spiritual persons, not spiritual persons from the accusation of carnal ones. Part II. § 1. Therefore, since criminals and infamous persons are prohibited from accusations, it must be seen whom the sacred authority of the canons calls infamous. Concerning these Stephen, Bishop of the Roman Church, writes to Hilary, [letter I, c. 1], saying:

We say that those persons are infamous who are marked by infamy for some fault, that is: all who cast aside the norm of Christian law and contemn ecclesiastical statutes; likewise thieves, the sacrilegious, and those ensnared by all capital crimes; violators of tombs also, and all who take up arms against the Fathers, who throughout the whole world are marked by infamy; likewise the incestuous, homicides, perjurers, abductors, sorcerers, poisoners, adulterers, those fleeing from public wars, those who seek to hold places unworthy of themselves, or who unjustly take away the resources of the Church, those who calumniate or accuse brothers and do not prove it, those who provoke the mind of princes to anger against innocent persons, and all who are anathematized or repelled from the Church for their crimes, and all whom ecclesiastical or secular laws pronounce infamous. All these persons, certainly, as well as slaves before lawful freedom, penitents, bigamists, those who serve the curia, those who are not sound in body, those who do not have a sound mind or understanding, those who are disobedient to the decrees of the saints, or those who are shown to be insane—all these, I say, ought neither to be advanced to sacred grades; nor can these persons, nor freedmen, nor suspect persons, nor those who do not possess right faith or worthy conduct, accuse the highest priests, nor can they in any way justly be received for an accusation or testimony.

Likewise Pope Fabian. Part III. Whoever, knowing it, has perjured himself shall do penance for forty days on bread and water and for the following seven years, and shall never be without penance and never be received as a witness; nevertheless, after these things let him receive communion.

Likewise Pope Eusebius, [letter I to the Bishops of Gaul]. Following the footsteps of the Fathers for the salvation of the servants of God, we remove from all persons whom public laws do not admit to an accusation the license to assail another; and let no accusations which are prohibited by secular laws be heard by ecclesiastical judges. GRATIAN. But although infamous persons are prohibited from the accusation of bishops, these persons are nevertheless not to be prohibited from the accusation of this man. For infamous persons are not prohibited from accusing heretics, as was evident above in the cause where the accusation of lesser persons against greater ones was discussed.

Likewise. Since those greater in knowledge and morals are prohibited from being accused by lesser persons, but equals are not prohibited from being accused by equals, nor lesser persons by greater ones, these persons are not to be prohibited from accusations against this man, since a heretic is lesser than a Catholic. But Augustine does not determine whether this is to be understood generally, [book IV On Baptism against the Donatists, c. 5], saying:

I ask, therefore, who sins more gravely: one who has unknowingly fallen into heresy, or one who knowingly has not withdrawn from avarice, that is, from idolatry? According to that rule by which the sins of those who know are set above sins of ignorance, the avaricious person overcomes in wickedness through knowledge. But if perhaps the magnitude of the wickedness in heresy accomplishes what the commission of one who knows accomplishes in avarice, the unknowing heretic is made equal to the knowing avaricious person. Likewise, [c. 20 of the same book]: § 1. Whether we ought to set a Catholic of the worst morals above some heretic in whose life people find nothing to rebuke apart from the fact that he is a heretic, I do not dare to hasten a sentence. Part IV. GRATIAN. But this statement of Augustine and that statement concerning the accusation by infamous persons must be understood of those who are established to be heretics, not of those who deny that they have fallen into heresy. But this man, appearing religious in all things, while he denies that he was ever infected with the stain of heretical communion, himself repels infamous persons and others of this kind from his accusation. § 1. Although these things appear to rest upon reason, they are nevertheless understood to be vain by the example of injured majesty; for, when an accomplice in an undertaken faction is admitted to an accusation of that crime, it is not asked whether to think against the prince's life is to injure his majesty, but whether someone has treated concerning his death. Hence Emperors Honorius and Arcadius are read to have written in the ninth book of the Code, title On the Julian Law of Majesty, [law 5]:

“If anyone has entered into a wicked faction with soldiers or private persons, even with barbarians, or has received or given the oath of that faction itself, or has devised the death of illustrious men who take part in our counsels and consistory, or even of senators—for they too are part of our body—or, finally, of anyone who serves us—for the laws willed the intention of wickedness to be punished with the same severity as its effect—let him indeed, as one guilty of injured majesty, be struck with the sword, all his goods being assigned to our fisc. But as for his sons, to whom by special imperial clemency we grant life—for they ought to perish by their father's punishment, since in them examples of the paternal, that is, hereditary, crime are feared—let them be regarded as strangers to the succession of all their nearest relatives; let them take nothing by the testaments of strangers; let them be perpetually needy and poor; let their father's infamy always accompany them; let them never come to any honors or to any oaths at all; finally, let them be such that, while they are made squalid by perpetual need, death may be a consolation to them and life a punishment. Finally, we command that those who ever attempt to intercede before us for such persons are also to be marked by infamy without pardon. § 1. Certainly, if any of these persons at the beginning of the undertaken faction, kindled by zeal for true praise, has himself betrayed the faction, he shall be presented by us with both a reward and an honor. But one who has participated in the faction, if late, yet while the secrets of its counsels are still unknown, he has disclosed them, shall be regarded as worthy only of absolution and pardon.” GRATIAN. Moreover, an accusation of simony ought to proceed after the pattern of injured majesty, as Emperor Leo is read to have decreed in book I of the Code, title On Bishops and Clerics, law If Anyone—it ought to proceed. This must be understood concerning the accusation, not concerning the penalty. Hence Emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian in book IX of the Code, title On the Julian Law of Majesty, [law Let No One]:

“Let absolutely no one to whom, without our having been consulted and without our knowledge, the torments of cords are applied be prohibited from using the defense of military service, birth, or dignity, with only the case of injured majesty excepted, in which alone the condition is equal for all.” GRATIAN. But since all those who can accuse concerning the crime of injured majesty are admitted in an accusation of simony, it is established that, just as there no doubt is raised concerning the crime of injured majesty, but whether the defendant committed it, so also here heresy is not denied, but the accused is assailed as to whether he committed heresy.