Distinction V

GRATIAN.

Likewise Pope Urban to all Christians, [letter I, c. 7]. PART I. All the faithful ought to receive the Holy Spirit after baptism through the imposition of the bishops’ hands, so that they may be found full Christians, because when the Holy Spirit is poured in, the faithful heart is enlarged toward prudence and constancy.

Likewise Pope Melchiades, [in the letter to the bishops of Spain, c. 2]. The Holy Spirit, who descends with saving descent upon the waters of baptism, gives fullness at the font for innocence and in confirmation supplies increase for grace. And because those who will live their whole age in this world must walk among invisible enemies and dangers, in baptism we are regenerated for life; after baptism we are confirmed for battle. In baptism we are washed; after baptism we are strengthened. And although the benefits of regeneration suffice for those who will pass on immediately, nevertheless the aids of confirmation are necessary for those who will live. Regeneration by itself saves those who are soon to be received in the peace of the blessed age; confirmation arms and equips for the contests of this world and battles those who are kept back. But one who after baptism arrives at death unstained, with the innocence acquired, is confirmed by death, because after death he can no longer sin.

The same to the bishops of Spain. Concerning those things about which you asked to be informed, that is, whether the sacrament of the bishops’ imposition of a hand or baptism is greater, know that each is a great sacrament; and just as the one has been assigned to the greater persons, that is, the supreme pontiffs, and cannot be completed by lesser persons, so also it is to be venerated and held with greater veneration. But these two sacraments are so joined that, unless death intervenes, they can in no way be separated from one another, and one cannot be perfected without the other.

Likewise Pope Eusebius, [letter III to the bishops of Tuscany and Campania]. The sacrament of the imposition of a hand is also to be held with great veneration, because it cannot be completed by others except the supreme priests; nor in the time of the Apostles is it read or known to have been performed by others than the Apostles themselves; nor can it ever be completed or ought it to be done by others than those who hold their place. For if it is presumed otherwise, let it be regarded as ineffectual and empty, nor shall it ever be reckoned among the ecclesiastical sacraments.

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 30]. Finally, through the imposition of a hand by the supreme priest, the Paraclete is handed to the baptized person so that he may be strengthened through the Holy Spirit to preach to others the same gift which he obtained in baptism, having been endowed through grace with eternal life. For the baptized person is signed with chrism by the priest upon the crown of the head, but by the pontiff upon the forehead, so that in the first anointing the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him may be signified for consecrating a dwelling to God; and in the second, that the sevenfold grace of the same Holy Spirit, with every fullness of holiness, knowledge, and power, is declared to come into the human being.

Likewise from the Council of Orléans, c. 3. Let those of mature age come fasting to confirmation, and let them be admonished first to make confession so that, clean, they may be able to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; and because one will never be a Christian unless he has been chrismated in episcopal confirmation.

Likewise from the Council of Meaux, c. 6. Let bishops hand on the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands only while fasting, except to the sick and those in danger of death. But just as baptism ought to be celebrated by those fasting at two times, namely Easter and Pentecost, so it is fitting that the handing on of the Holy Spirit be celebrated by fasting pontiffs.

Likewise from the Council of Tarragona, c. 6. It was reported to us that certain persons among the people are confirmed twice or three times or more by the same bishops, although the bishops are ignorant of this. Hence it seemed to us that the same confirmation, just like baptism, ought by no means to be repeated, because it was decreed that those baptized or confirmed twice or more are to serve most religiously not the world but God alone under a regular or clerical habit.

Likewise Gregory II, [letter IV to Boniface]. Concerning a human being who has been confirmed by a pontiff, such repetition anew is to be prohibited.

Likewise Stephen. PART II. Surely all chrismations of the priestly ministry are perfected by the figure of the cross? Surely the water of baptism, unless sanctified by the cross, does not release sins? And, to pass over the rest, without the sign of the cross who ascends to a grade of the priesthood?

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Carthage, [c. 90 and following]. PART III. Every day let exorcists impose hands upon the possessed, but let the possessed sweep the floors of the houses of God. While they sit in the house of God, let daily sustenance be ministered to them by the exorcists at the proper time.

Likewise from the same, [c. 86]. Let neophytes abstain for some time from richer feasts, spectacles, or spouses.

Likewise from the Council of Agde, [c. 30]. PART IV. It is fitting that the order of the Church be preserved equally by all. Hence it is to be established that, as is done everywhere, after the antiphons, conferences are to be spoken by bishops or presbyters; the morning or evening hymns are to be sung every day; and at the conclusion of the morning or evening masses, after the hymns, short passages from the psalms are to be said; and after a collect the people are to be dismissed by the bishop at evening with a blessing.

Likewise from the Council of Girona, [c. 10]. It has always been resolved that this be observed: that on all days after matins and vespers the Lord’s prayer is to be pronounced by the priest. Likewise Gregory VII in a general synod:

On the day of the Resurrection through Saturday in albis, and on the day of Pentecost through its Saturday, we sing and read at nocturns only three psalms and three lessons according to ancient custom. On all other days throughout the whole year, if there is a feast, we say nine lessons. But on other days we recite twelve psalms and three lessons. On Sundays—except Easter and Pentecost—we celebrate eighteen psalms and nine lessons. But those who on ordinary days wish to celebrate only three psalms and three lessons are proved to do this not from the rule of the holy Fathers but from weariness. But we, both investigating the Roman order and imitating the ancient Fathers according to the ancient custom of our Church, establish that it be done as we have noted above.

Likewise from a homily of Pope Gregory. PART V. Lent is to be observed with the highest observance, so that the fast during it—apart from Sundays, which are subtracted from abstinence—is in no way relaxed unless sickness impedes someone, because those days are the tithe of the year. Therefore, from the first Sunday of Lent until the Lord’s Easter, six weeks are counted, which assuredly make forty-two days; when six Sundays are subtracted from them for abstinence, no more than thirty-six days remain in abstinence. For example, if the year revolves through 365 days and we afflict ourselves for thirty-six days, we give God as it were the tithes of the year. But so that the sacred number of forty days, which our Savior consecrated by a sacred fast, may be completed, let the four days of the preceding week be taken to supply the forty days, that is, Wednesday, which is designated the head of the fast, and the following Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Unless we join these four days to the preceding thirty-six, we do not have forty days in abstinence. We are also commanded by almighty God to give tithes of all our goods.

Likewise Pope Eusebius. Fasts established in the Church by priests are not to be relaxed without reasonable necessity.

Likewise Jerome. I do not prescribe weeks, I do not prescribe doubled fasts, but let us at least pass individual days without the luxury of foods.

The same. Let your fasts be daily, with refection fleeing satiety. For it profits you nothing to carry an empty belly after two or three days have passed if it is stuffed to the same degree.

The same. Let your fasts be pure, continuous, and moderate, that is, to hunger daily and dine daily. The Apostle says: “Do not still drink water, but use a little wine on account of your infirmities.” Fasting heals the wounds of the offender and sanctifies those who have been healed.

Likewise Ambrose on Psalm 130. PART VI. The precepts of medicine are contrary to the divine condition. They call one back from fasting, do not permit one to keep vigil, and draw one away from every application of meditation. Therefore, one who has given himself to physicians denies himself to himself.

Likewise Gregory in the exposition of blessed Job, [book XXX, c. 27]. The vice of gluttony tempts in five ways. For sometimes it anticipates the times of need; sometimes it does not anticipate the times but seeks richer foods; sometimes it demands that the things to be consumed be prepared more carefully; sometimes both the quality of the foods and the time are fitting, but in the very quantity of consuming it exceeds the measure of refection. Sometimes what it desires is even more contemptible, and yet it sins worse by the very heat of immeasurable desire.

Likewise Pope Pius, [letter I]. For it profits a human being nothing to fast and pray and perform other good works of religion unless the mind is restrained from iniquity and the tongue from detractions.

Likewise Jerome. One errs not moderately who prefers a moderate good to a great good. Does not a rational human being lose his dignity if he prefers either fasting to charity or vigils to soundness of sense, so that, on account of immoderate and indiscriminate abstinence and the singing of psalms or offices, he incurs the mark either of madness or of sadness? Can God be swayed by a multitude of words like a human being? For God is to be prayed to not only with words, but with the heart. Consequently, the singing of five psalms with purity and serenity of heart and spiritual cheerfulness is better than the chanting of the psalter with anxiety and sadness of heart. Therefore, when a psalm or mass is said for one hundred souls, each receives nothing less than if it were said for any one of them. Accordingly, let those who withdraw from the body the things that are necessary hear what the Lord speaks through the Prophet: “I am the Lord, hating robbery in a holocaust.” One offers a holocaust from robbery who immoderately afflicts the body either by excessive want of foods or deprivation of sleep.

Likewise Augustine on John, [tractate XVII]. The great and general fast is to abstain from iniquities and from the illicit pleasures of the age; this is the perfect fast. § 1. In this age we celebrate, as it were, a Lent of abstinence when we live well, when we abstain from iniquities and illicit pleasures. But because this abstinence will not be without reward, we await that blessed hope and the revelation of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. In that hope, when the reality has been made from hope, we shall receive the denarius as reward. § 2. Therefore the denarius, which receives its name from the number ten, is rendered and, joined to forty, makes fifty. Hence with labor we celebrate Lent before Easter, but with gladness, as though the reward has been received, the Fifty Days after Easter. For to this saving labor, as it were, of good work, which pertains to the number forty, is added the ten of rest and happiness so that fifty may be made. The Lord himself signified these things much more openly when, after the resurrection, he dwelt with his disciples for forty days, but on the fortieth day, when he had ascended into heaven, after ten days had passed he sent the reward of the Holy Spirit.

Likewise from the sayings of Apollonius. When the disciples, passing through the fields, plucked ears and ate them, Christ’s own voice calls them innocent because they did this compelled by hunger.

Likewise Jerome, [on c. 7 of Hosea]. Whatever is done from necessity is quickly dissolved; what is seized by will perseveres.

Likewise John Golden-Mouth, [homily XXIX on c. 12 of the Letter to the Hebrews]. Nothing is so pleasant as food well digested or thoroughly cooked. Nothing so produces health, nothing so produces keenness of the senses, nothing so puts sickness to flight, as moderate refection; for sufficiency together with nourishment produces both health and pleasure, but from abundance it makes disease, introduces troubles, and generates and produces illnesses. For what hunger does, fullness of foods also does—but much worse. Hunger indeed carries off a human being in a few days and frees him from this penal life; but excess of foods consumes the human body, causes it to putrefy, and wastes it with prolonged sickness, and then consumes it with a cruel death.

Likewise Jerome, [Against Jovinian, book II]. Let us not take such foods as we either digest with difficulty or, once they have been eaten, grieve to have acquired with great labor and lost. Vegetables, fruits, and legumes are both easier to prepare, do not need the art and expenses of cooks, and sustain the human race without care when taken moderately—because that which lacks enticements of gluttony is not devoured greedily—and they are thoroughly cooked with easier digestion. For no one is burdened to the swelling of the belly by one or two foods, and those cheap, which swelling is conceived from a diversity of meats and pleasure of flavor. When dishes smoke with various odors, they draw persons as though captive to their consumption by hunger that must be filled. Hence illnesses too are stirred up by excessive satiety; many are remedied from the impatience of gluttony by vomiting, and what they shamefully ingested they cast out more shamefully. Hippocrates teaches in the Aphorisms and Epidemics that thick and obese persons who have fulfilled the measure of growth, unless they are quickly diminished by the letting of blood, break forth into paralysis and the worst kinds of diseases; and that for this reason a reduction is necessary, so that they may again have room into which they can grow. For the nature of bodies does not remain in one state but always either grows or decreases, and an animal cannot live unless it is capable of growing. Hence Galen also, a most learned man and interpreter of Hippocrates, says in his Exhortation to Medicine that athletes, whose life and art is fattening, can neither live long nor be healthy, and that their souls, enveloped by excessive blood and fat as though by mud, breathe forth nothing subtle, nothing heavenly, but always think about meats, belching, and the maw of the belly.

The same. We read that certain persons laboring from articular disease and the humors of gout recovered when, by the confiscation of their goods, they were reduced to a simple table and poor foods. For they lacked solicitude for managing a household and profusion of feasts, which break both body and soul. Horace mocks the appetite for foods which, once consumed, leave repentance.

Likewise Gregory VII, [in the synod celebrated at Rome in the sixth year of his pontificate, c. 8]. PART VII. Because Saturday was held by our holy Fathers to be celebrated in abstinence, we, following their authority, salutarily admonish that whoever desires himself to be a participant in the Christian religion abstain from the eating of meats on that day, unless a greater feast intervenes or infirmity impedes.

Likewise Bishop Fructuosus. PART VIII. Permission neither to taste nor consume meat is granted to any monk, not because we judge God’s creature unworthy, but because abstinence from meat is considered useful and fitting for monks, with the moderation of piety toward the sick nevertheless preserved. § 1. But if any monk violates this and presumes to eat meats contrary to the sanction of the rule and the usage of the ancients, he shall be subjected to confinement and penance for the space of six months.

Likewise Jerome to the monk Rusticus. Let the book of the psalter never depart from your hand or your eyes; let prayer without interruption be repeated word for word. Let the sense keep vigil, not lying open to wandering thoughts; let body and mind alike be stretched toward the Lord. Conquer anger by patience. Love the knowledge of the Scriptures, and you will not love the vices of the flesh. Nor let your mind be vacant for various disturbances which, if they settle in your breast, will rule you and lead you to the greatest offense. Do some work so that the devil may always find you occupied. If the Apostles, having the power to live from the Gospel, labored with their hands so as not to burden anyone and bestowed relief upon others from whom they ought to reap carnal things for spiritual things, why do you not prepare what will serve for your own uses? Either weave a little basket from rushes, or plait a basket from pliant twigs. Let the earth be hoed; let little plots be divided by an even boundary, in which, when the seeds of vegetables have been cast or plants set in rows, channels of water may be led. Here you shall stand as spectator of those most beautiful verses: “Behold, from the brow of the sloping path he draws forth the wave; falling, it stirs a hoarse murmur over smooth stones and tempers the parched fields with springs.” § 1. Let fruitful trees be grafted either with buds or shoots, so that a short time afterward you may pluck the sweet fruits of your labor. Construct hives for bees, to which the Proverbs of Solomon send you; learn the order of monasteries and royal discipline in their little bodies. Let linen nets for catching fish also be woven. And let books be written, so that the hand may both work for food and the soul be satiated by reading. “Every idle person is in desires.” The monasteries of the Egyptians hold this custom: that they receive no one without work and labor, not so much on account of the necessities of sustenance as on account of the soul’s salvation, lest they wander through pernicious thoughts and, in the likeness of fornicating Jerusalem, spread their feet to every passerby. And in what follows. § 2. What, then? Will all who dwell in cities perish? Behold, they enjoy their own goods, minister to churches, go to baths, do not disdain ointments, and live amid the flower of all things. To this I answered before and now answer briefly: in the present little work I am not discussing clerics, but instructing a monk.

Likewise in book V of the Capitularies, [c. 115]. PART IX. In all things, therefore, insofar as human frailty permits, we decree that canonical clerics live canonically, observing the teaching of divine Scripture and the instructions of the holy Fathers, and presume to do nothing in a disorderly way without the license of their bishop or their master. In each episcopate let them eat and sleep together where they have the means of doing this. Let those who receive stipends from ecclesiastical goods remain in their cloister; and each day in the morning at prime let them come to the reading and hear what is commanded them. Likewise, at table let them hear the reading and render obedience according to the canons to their masters.

Likewise from the Council of Nantes, [c. 10]. PART X. Whenever presbyters assemble for the anniversary, thirtieth, or third day of someone deceased, or when presbyters gather for a collection on any summons, let none of them presume in any way to become drunk; nor, when entreated, to drink for love of the saints or of the soul itself, or to compel another to drink, or to gorge himself at another’s entreaty; nor let him presume to bring forth or sing disorderly applause and laughter or empty tales there; nor are they to permit shameful jests to be performed before them with a bear or dancing women; nor are they to consent for masks of demons to be carried before them, because this is diabolical and prohibited by the sacred canons.

Likewise from the Council of Laodicea, [c. 54]. Ministers of the altar or any clerics ought not to be present at any spectacles which are exhibited either at weddings or dinners, but before the theatrical performers enter they ought to rise from the banquet and depart.

Likewise from the same, [cc. 42 and 41]. PART XI. A minister of the altar or any cleric ought not to set out on pilgrimage apart from the bishop’s command. § 1. Likewise, a layperson ought not to set out anywhere without canonical letters, that is, a formata.

Likewise Augustine to Possidius and the brothers who are with him, [letter LXXIII]. PART XII. To color oneself with pigments so as to appear either redder or whiter is an adulterous deception by which I do not doubt that even husbands themselves do not wish to be deceived; for women are permitted to adorn themselves for their husbands alone, by indulgence, not by command. For the true adornment, especially of Christian men and women, is not only no lying cosmetic and not even the display of gold and clothing, but good conduct. § 1. But the execrable superstition of amulets—which are reckoned to include even those hung from the top of one ear of men—is employed not to please human beings but to serve demons.

Likewise from the Creed of the Council of Ephesus of two hundred bishops, which was held against Nestorius. PART XIII. Concerning the Spirit, the Lord says in the Gospel: “He shall glorify me.” Understanding this most rightly, we confess that the one Christ and Son attained glory from the Holy Spirit not as though needing the glory of another, because his Spirit is neither better than nor superior to him; but because, when performing human works for the demonstration of his divinity, he used the power of his own Spirit, he is said to have been glorified by him, because his own power or any discipline glorifies each person. For although his Spirit is in his own substance and a property is understood in the person according to the fact that he is the Spirit and not the Son, nevertheless he is not alien to him. For he has been called the Spirit of truth, and Christ is the truth. Hence he proceeds from him similarly as from God the Father. Finally, this same Spirit, also performing glorious miracles through the hands of the holy Apostles, glorified the Lord Jesus Christ after he ascended into heaven. For Christ is believed by nature to exist as God, effecting power through his Spirit; and therefore he said: “He shall receive of mine and announce it to you.”

Likewise Didymus in book II On the Holy Spirit, against the error of the Greeks. The Savior, who is also the truth, says: “For he shall not speak from himself,” that is, without me and without my judgment and that of the Father, because he is inseparable from my will and the Father’s. And further. § 1. Because he is not from himself but is from the Father and from me. For this very thing—that he subsists and speaks—is from the Father and from me. “I speak the truth,” that is, I inspire the things he speaks, since he is the Spirit of truth. But “to say” and “to speak” in the Trinity is to be understood not according to our custom by which we converse and speak to one another, but according to the form of incorporeal natures, and especially of the Trinity, which brings its will into the hearts of believers and implants it in the hearts of those who are worthy to hear it. § 2. Therefore, plainly, for the Father to speak and the Son to hear, or conversely for the Father to hear the Son speaking, signifies that the Father and the Son are of the same nature and that there is agreement in the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of wisdom, cannot hear the Son speaking things he does not know, since he is that very thing which is uttered by the Son, that is, God proceeding from God, the Spirit of truth proceeding from truth, the consoler flowing from the consoler. Finally, lest anyone separate him from the fellowship and will of the Father and the Son, it is written: “For he does not speak from himself, but as he hears, so he speaks.” Similar to this the Savior also says of himself: “As I hear, I judge,” and elsewhere: “The Son can do nothing from himself except what he sees the Father doing.”