Distinction XXI

GRATIAN. Part I. Ecclesiastical affairs, therefore, as was shown above, are settled by the decrees of the Roman pontiffs and the sacred canons of councils. But the ministers of the sacred canons and of the decrees of the pontiffs are the supreme pontiffs and, below them, the prelates and the remaining priests, whose institution was begun in the Old Testament and more fully completed in the New. §1. For the supreme pontiffs and the lesser priests were instituted by God through Moses, who at the Lord’s command anointed Aaron as supreme pontiff and his sons as lesser priests. Afterward David, when he enlarged the ministries of the house of the Lord, instituted doorkeepers and singers. Further, Solomon discovered a certain method of exorcizing by which demons, when adjured, were driven from possessed bodies; those assigned to this office were called exorcists. Concerning them the Lord says in the Gospel: “If I cast out demons in Beelzebub, in whom do your sons”—the exorcists, namely—“cast them out?” Imitating all these things in the New Testament, the Church has her doorkeepers, whom we call ostiaries. In place of the singers she instituted readers together with singers. Exorcists, however, she received with their ancient name and their office remaining. In place of the sons of Aaron, all those administering the priesthood below the supreme pontiff were consecrated. §2. Among them a certain distinction was preserved, so that some are called simply “priests,” some “archpriests,” some “chorepiscopi,” some “bishops,” some “archbishops” or “metropolitans,” some “primates,” some “patriarchs,” and some “supreme pontiffs.” §3. The distinction among these was especially introduced by the gentiles, who called some of their flamines simply flamines, others archflamines, and others protoflamines. But the distinction simply between greater and lesser priests took its origin in the New Testament from Christ himself, who instituted the twelve Apostles as though greater priests and the seventy-two disciples as though lesser priests. He chose Peter as though to be supreme priest when, before all and for all, he bestowed upon him the keys of the kingdom of heaven, imposed upon him the name Peter from himself, the rock, testified that he had prayed specially for his faith, and added that he should confirm the others, saying: “I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail; and you, once converted, confirm your brothers.” Following this same form, the Apostles ordained bishops and priests in individual cities. Moreover, we read that Levites were ordained by the Apostles, of whom blessed Stephen was the greatest; in the course of time the Church established subdeacons and acolytes for herself. Blessed Isidore also writes concerning these things in Book VII of the Etymologies, c. 12, explaining their names and the causes of the names, saying thus:

We believe that the clergy and clerics are so called because Matthias, whom we read to have been the first ordained through the Apostles, was chosen by lot. For kleros in Greek is called sors or inheritance in Latin. Therefore they are called clerics because they are of the Lord’s lot or because they have the Lord as their portion. Generally, however, all who serve in the Church of Christ are named clerics; their grades and names are these: ostiary, psalmist, reader, exorcist, acolyte, subdeacon, deacon, priest, bishop. §1. The order of bishops is fourfold: that is, in patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans, and bishops. §2. Patriarch is interpreted in the Greek language as highest of the fathers, because he holds the first—that is, the apostolic—place; and because he exercises the highest honor, he is designated by such a name, as the Roman, the Antiochene, and the Alexandrian. §3. An archbishop is so called by a Greek word because he is the highest of the bishops; for he holds the apostolic place and presides over both metropolitans and the other bishops. §4. Metropolitans, however, are called from the measure of cities; for they preside over the individual provinces, and the other priests are subject to their authority and teaching. Without them the remaining bishops are permitted to do nothing, for the solicitude of the whole province is committed to them. §5. All the orders designated above, however, are named by the one and same designation “bishops”; but certain ones use a particular name because of the distinction of powers that they individually received. §6. A patriarch is the prince of the fathers, for archon means prince; an archbishop is the prince of bishops; a metropolitan is named from the measure of cities. §7. The word episcopate is so called because one who is made a bishop superintends, namely by bearing care for his subjects; for skopein in Greek is called intendĕre in Latin. Bishops in Greek are interpreted as overseers in Latin; for the overseer is said to be one placed over the Church because he watches and observes the morals and life of the peoples placed below him. §8. A pontiff is the prince of priests, as though the way of those who follow. He is also named the supreme priest and the chief pontiff. For he makes priests and Levites; he disposes all ecclesiastical orders; he shows what each one ought to do. Before this, however, pontiffs were also kings. For this was the custom of the ancients: that a king should also be a priest and a pontiff. Hence the Roman emperors too were called pontiffs. §9. A seer is named from the force of the mind; the signification of the word is manifold, for sometimes it signifies a priest, sometimes a prophet, and sometimes a poet. §10. A prelate is called a priest from the fact that he stands before, for he is first in the order of the Church, so that he has no one above him. Or, in Latin, a priestly leader. §11. Sacerdos, moreover, has a name compounded from Greek and Latin, because it is “one giving a sacred thing”; for just as a king is so called from ruling, so a priest is so called from sacrificing, for he consecrates and sacrifices. The priests of the gentiles, however, were called flamines. They had upon the head a cap in which there was a short rod, having some wool above it. Because on account of the heat they could not bear this, they began to bind only a thread upon the head; for it was unlawful for them to walk with their heads entirely bare. Hence they were called flamines from the thread that they used, as though filamines. But on feast days, after putting aside the thread, they placed the cap upon the head because of the eminence of the priesthood. §12. Presbyter in Greek is interpreted “elder” in Latin. They are named presbyters not only on account of age or decrepit old age, but because of the honor and dignity that they received. Priests, moreover, are also called sacerdotes because they give a sacred thing, as bishops do. Although they are priests, they nevertheless do not have the summit of the pontificate, because they neither sign the forehead with chrism nor give the Paraclete Spirit, which the reading of the Acts of the Apostles demonstrates to be owed to bishops alone. Hence among the ancients bishops and priests were the same, because that name is one of dignity and not of age. §13. Levites are called from the name of their founder. For the Levites arose from Levi, and by them the ministries of the mystical sacrament were fulfilled in the temple of God. They are called deacons in Greek and ministers in Latin, because just as consecration is vested in the priest, so the dispensation of ministry is vested in the deacon. §14. Hypodeacons in Greek are those whom we call subdeacons; they are so called because they are subject to the precepts and offices of the Levites. For they themselves receive the offerings from the faithful in the temple of God and carry them to the Levites to be placed upon the altars; among the Hebrews they are called Nathinaeans. §15. Readers are called from reading, and psalmists from singing psalms; for the former proclaim to the peoples what they are to follow, while the latter sing so that they may stir the minds of the hearers to compunction—although some readers pronounce so piteously that they compel certain persons to weeping and lamentation. They are also called pronouncers because they announce from afar. For their voice will be so great and so clear that they fill the ears even of those placed far away. §16. A singer, however, is so called because he modulates the voice in song. Two kinds of him are named in the art of music, as most learned men were able to say them in Latin: precentor and succentor; the precentor, namely, who sends the voice ahead in song, and the succentor, who responds by singing afterward. One is called a concentor because he sounds together; but one who does not sound together neither sings together nor will be a concentor. §17. Acolytes in Greek are called candle-bearers in Latin from carrying candles when the Gospel is to be read or the sacrifice offered. For then lights are kindled by them and carried, not to put darkness to flight while the sun gleams at the same time, but to demonstrate a sign of gladness, so that under the figure of bodily light that light may be shown concerning which it is read in the Gospel: “He was the true light who illuminates every man coming into this world.” §18. Exorcists are called adjurers or rebukers when rendered from Greek into Latin, for over catechumens, or over those who have an unclean spirit, they invoke the name of the Lord Jesus, adjuring through him that it depart from them. §19. Ostiaries are the same as doorkeepers, who in the Old Testament were chosen for the guardianship of the temple so that no one unclean in any respect might enter it. They are called ostiaries because they preside over the doors of the temple. For they themselves, holding the key, guard all things within and without; and, having judgment between the good and the evil, they receive the faithful and reject unbelievers.

Likewise Anacletus [to the bishops of Italy, epistle II]. In the New Testament, after Christ the Lord, the priestly order began from Peter, because the pontificate in the Church of Christ was first given to him, the Lord saying to him: “You are,” he says, “Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and I shall give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” He therefore first received from the Lord the power of binding and loosing and was the first to lead the people to the faith by the power of his preaching. But the other Apostles received honor and power together with him in an equal fellowship and willed him to be their prince; at the Lord’s command, they too were dispersed throughout the whole world and preached the Gospel. §1. When they died, bishops arose in their place, whose ordination ought to be made according to the order and manner stated above. One who receives them and their words receives God; but one who spurns them spurns him by whom they were sent and whose embassy they discharge, and he himself will undoubtedly be spurned by the Lord. §2. Moreover, the Apostles themselves, seeing that the harvest was great and the laborers few, asked the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. Hence seventy-two disciples were chosen by them; priests bear their figure and are established in their place in the Church.

Likewise Gelasius, bishop of the city of Rome, to all the orthodox. Although all the Catholic churches throughout the world are one bridal chamber of Christ, nevertheless the holy Roman Catholic and apostolic Church was placed before the other churches by no synodal enactments, but obtained the primacy by the evangelical voice of our Lord and Savior: “You are,” says the Lord, “Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my Church.” To him was also given the fellowship of most blessed Paul, the vessel of election, who—not at a different time, as the heretics prattle, but at one time, on one and the same day—contending in the city of Rome under Caesar Nero, was crowned with a glorious death together with Peter. They equally consecrated the aforesaid Roman Church to Christ the Lord and, by their presence and venerable triumph, placed it before all the cities in the whole world. The first see of the Apostle Peter, therefore, is the Roman Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor anything of this kind. Part III. GRATIAN. In all these, the more elevated the grade, the greater the authority is found. For in superiors there is the power of ruling and commanding; in inferiors, the necessity of obeying. Hence Pope Nicholas [I] writes to the bishop of Constantinople, saying:

An inferior see cannot absolve a superior. For only a superior fittingly absolves an inferior. From this it is clearly discerned that an inferior cannot bind in judgment the superior whom it cannot absolve. Hence the Prophet says: “Shall the axe glory against him who cuts with it? Or shall the saw be exalted against him who draws it?” Having thus recalled these things from divine Scripture, we have shown more clearly than the sun that no one of lesser authority can consign to his own judgments, or subjugate to his own determinations, one who is of greater power.

The same [in the same epistle]. Do not suppose that we wish to defend in any of our neighbors those things that are worthy of reproof, but that I wish sons to be so devoted and sober toward a spiritual father, and disciples toward a master, that with absolutely no rashness should they leap forward, I do not say to judge their life, but even to reprove it lightly.

Likewise Pope Nicholas [in the same epistle]. Finally, if we read in the epistle to the Hebrews that the lesser is blessed by the greater, it certainly remains that, when reason requires, he is also cursed by him. For those who were before us, foreknowing these perilous times, handed down a provident custom in the churches; and today it is preserved without omission in the Roman Church, which is the teacher of all churches, so that no priest, unless his fellow priest who is his superior has given the sign, attempts to give a blessing of any matter. But one standing before him to pronounce some reading indeed asks for a blessing, yet no inferior dares to bless him. Why is this? Is blessing a sin? Far from it. For the Apostle says of those who curse, not those who bless, “that they shall not possess the kingdom of God.” But through this it is indicated by how great a bridle of censure all inferiors are to be restrained from judging their prelates, if they possess absolutely no right even to bless them.

The same to Emperor Michael. Now, however, by divine inspiration, it will neither weary us nor be impossible for us to show you—if only you wish to hear—that no one can rightly be subjected to judicial determinations by those who are of inferior dignity or order. For in the time of the Augusti Diocletian and Maximian, Marcellinus, bishop of the city of Rome, who afterward was made a distinguished martyr, was so far compelled by the pagans that he entered their temple and placed grains of incense upon the coals. Because of this matter, when a council of numerous bishops had been gathered and an inquiry made, this same pontiff confessed that he had done it. Yet none of them dared pronounce sentence against him, while they all said to him repeatedly: “Judge your cause by your own mouth, not by our judgment.” And again: “Do not be heard in our judgment, but gather your cause into your bosom.” And again they say: “For from yourself you shall be justified, or from your mouth you shall be condemned.” And again they say: “The first see shall be judged by no one.” Likewise in the same epistle: §1. But also when certain persons at one time had attempted to charge certain things of evil report against Pope Xystus, and it had been said in a council at which Valentinian Augustus was present that it was not permitted to give sentence against the pontiff, the same emperor immediately arose and entrusted the judgment of his own case to the decision of the aforesaid pontiff. For no pontiff of lesser or inferior cities is found subjected to judgments.

Likewise Nicholas [in the same epistle]. Ignatius is subjected to the deliberations of lesser, inferior, and subject persons, although the sacred canons command, and the examples of the holy fathers show, that one must always go where the greater authority is, and that in all controversies recourse is to be directed to the judgments of the superior see. It is established that this was observed not only by Catholics but even by the heretics themselves. Otherwise it is evident that a council is headless where a person of such importance is treated and the judgment of the superiors is not awaited, since even in the cause of clerics of an inferior grade the judgment of their bishop alone is not merely to be sought.

The same to Emperor Michael. The holy fathers at Chalcedon so greatly detested this presumption that, among other things, they condemned Dioscorus, prelate of Alexandria, without any restoration especially for this reason: that, placing his mouth in heaven while his tongue passed over the earth, he dictated an excommunication against Saint Leo the pope. Thus, in the sentence pronounced against him, they appear to recall this especially, saying: “Because by his second transgressions he greatly surpassed his former iniquity; for he presumed even to dictate an excommunication against the most holy and blessed archbishop Leo of great Rome,” etc. Is it read there that an inquiry was made whether Dioscorus had dictated that excommunication justly? Certainly not; but without any controversy they avenged this upon him because, although he was an inferior, he attempted to assail a superior with injuries of any kind, as Anatolius, prelate of Constantinople, testifies, saying: “Dioscorus was not condemned because of the faith, but because he made an excommunication against the lord Archbishop Leo.”