Distinction XXXII

GRATIAN. Part I. Continence is therefore to be observed by all established in sacred orders. Hence Pope Leo [to Anastasius, epistle LXXXII, cc. 3 and 4] says:

Since the selection of priests is so excellent that those things which in other members of the Church are not accounted as fault are nevertheless held illicit in them. For although it is free for those established outside the order of clerics to devote themselves to the partnership of marriage and the procreation of children, nevertheless, for displaying the purity of perfect continence, not even carnal marriage is conceded to subdeacons, so that both those who have wives may be as though not having them, and those who do not have wives may remain single. If it is worthy that this be guarded in this order, which is fourth from the head, how much more is it to be observed in the first, second, or third, lest anyone should be considered suitable either for Levitical or priestly honor or for episcopal excellence who is discovered not yet to have restrained himself from the pleasure of lust.

[PALEA.

We have learned from the report of many that this custom was maintained among you long ago, that subdeacons lawfully mingled with their wives. Lest anyone presume this again, it was prohibited in this manner by Servusdei, deacon of our see, by the authority of our predecessor: that at that time those who had already been joined to wives should choose one of two things, that is, either abstain from their wives or certainly in no way presume to minister. And as is said, Speciosus, then a subdeacon, on account of this matter suspended himself from the office of administration and, until the time of his death, indeed discharged the office of notary and ceased from the ministry that a subdeacon ought to have displayed. And after some things: §1. But henceforth let your fraternity be altogether solicitous that, concerning those who happen now to be promoted to this office, it especially inspects this diligently, lest, if they have wives, they obtain license to mingle with them; but let it establish by its own strictness that, after the likeness of the apostolic see, they are nevertheless to observe all things.]

Likewise Gregory to Augustine, bishop of the English [c. 2, to the second question]. But if there are any clerics established outside sacred orders who cannot remain continent, they ought to take wives and receive their stipends outside, because we also know it to have been written concerning those same fathers that it was divided to each one according as each had need. Therefore thought and provision are to be made concerning their stipend, and they are to be held under the ecclesiastical rule so that they may live with good morals, be vigilant in singing psalms, and, with God as author, preserve heart, tongue, and body from all illicit things.

Likewise Pope Nicholas [I] to Ado, archbishop of Vienne. Concerning that cleric named Alwic, whom you say lived through the ecclesiastical orders as far as the subdiaconate, we wonder why by your authority he took a wife, since we grant no one license to take a wife, except those whom the ecclesiastical rule permits to have one.

Likewise Pope Nicholas [II] to all bishops. Part II. Let no one hear the Mass of a priest whom he knows undoubtedly to have a concubine or a woman secretly introduced. Hence the holy synod itself also established this chapter under excommunication, saying: “Whoever of the priests or deacons,” etc., as is contained in the following c. of Alexander [II].

Likewise Alexander II. Beyond this, however, we command by precept that no one hear the Mass of a priest whom he knows undoubtedly to have a concubine or a woman secretly introduced. Hence the holy synod also established the following from its beginning under excommunication, saying: §1. Whoever among priests, deacons, or subdeacons, after the enactment of our predecessor of blessed memory, holy Pope Leo or Nicholas, concerning the chastity of clerics, has openly taken a concubine or has not abandoned one already taken, by the authority of almighty God and the authority of the princes of the Apostles Peter and Paul, we command and altogether prohibit him from singing Mass, reading the Gospel, or reading the Epistle at Mass; from remaining in the presbytery for the divine offices with those who have obeyed the aforesaid enactment; and from receiving a portion from the Church. §2. We also command and establish that those of the aforesaid orders who, obeying these our predecessors, have preserved chastity are, beside the churches as befits religious clerics, to eat and sleep together and to possess in common whatever is due to them from the Church. Then, that tithes and first fruits or offerings of the living and dead are faithfully to be rendered to the churches of God by laymen, and are to be in the disposition of the bishops; those who retain them are to be separated from the communion of the holy Church. Part III. GRATIAN. Yet the beginnings of these authorities appear to contradict Jerome, Augustine, and the others who demonstrate that the sacraments of Christ are to be shunned neither in a good nor in an evil man, as the following causa concerning simoniacs shows more fully. But Urban II, in an epistle sent to the provost of Saint Vincent, determines this contradiction, saying: §1. As to what is added in the same epistle, namely whether ordinations and the other sacraments displayed by criminals, as by adulterers, violators of religious women, or persons of this kind, are to be used, to this, I say, we reply: If they are not separated from the Church by schism or heresy, we do not deny that their ordinations and other sacraments are holy and venerable, following blessed Augustine, who upon John discusses persons of this kind as copiously as truthfully. For he says: “A good servant baptizes or an evil servant baptizes; let the one who is baptized know himself to be baptized by no one except him who gave that servant the power of baptizing.” And a little afterward: “Let the dove not shudder at the ministry of evil men; let it look to the Lord’s power.” §2. Nevertheless our predecessors Nicholas and Gregory decreed that the faithful should abstain from the Masses of priests who are established truly to be such persons, both to take away from others the license of sinning and to recall persons of this kind to the lamentations of worthy penance. For our predecessor Gregory writes, among other things, to the dukes Rudolf and Berthold: “Knowingly receive in no way the office of simoniacs and of those lying in fornication, and, insofar as you can, prohibit such persons from the sacred ministries, as may be fitting,” etc. §4. Further, as to these things that are objected to you syllogistically in the same epistle—if they are not the body and blood of Christ, and if the other things we said before do not have the effect of their power, how do they harm those performing them? But if they have it, why are they spurned if they are presumed by the unworthy?—to these things, I say, we reply thus: They indeed possess the dignities of their own power, as the aforesaid Augustine says upon John against the Donatists; but those same sacraments so greatly harm those performing or receiving them contrary to the enactments of the aforesaid pontiffs—unless perhaps death alone intervenes, namely lest anyone depart from human affairs without baptism or communion—that, I say, they are true idolaters, since both the confection of ordinations and sacraments with such persons and their knowing reception otherwise than was set forth above are vehemently prohibited by the holy canons. For Samuel the prophet says: “For to resist is as the sin of divination, and to be unwilling to acquiesce is like the crime of idolatry.” These things concern evil Catholics who are within the Church. §4. But we profess that the sacraments of schismatics and heretics, since they are outside the Church, according to the traditions of the holy fathers—namely Pelagius, Gregory, Cyprian, Augustine, and Jerome—indeed have the form of sacraments but not the effect of their power, unless they themselves, or those initiated by their sacraments, return to Catholic unity through the imposition of a hand. It is to be known, however, that the canons of the Apostles—whose authority the eastern Church uses, and the Roman Church in part—and the distinguished martyr Cyprian and eighty bishops with him call the baptism of heretics the bath of the devil. But Stephen and Cornelius, martyrs and Roman pontiffs, and the venerable Augustine in the book On Baptism vehemently reprove the same Cyprian and the aforesaid bishops for this cause, affirming that baptism celebrated in the ecclesiastical manner, whether by a heretic or schismatic, is valid; and deservedly, because there is one consideration in baptism and another in the remaining sacraments, since it is both prior in order and more necessary. For one who is about to die suddenly is aided by baptism before the communion of the Lord’s body or the other sacraments, and when perhaps no Catholic is found, it is better to receive the sacrament of baptism from a heretic than to perish eternally. Siricius, Innocent, Leo, Anastasius, Gregory the Great, and the whole Catholic Church followed this judgment of the aforesaid pontiffs Cornelius and Stephen and of Augustine. Part IV. §5. Therefore the reception of sacraments from the hands of such priests is prohibited, not because they are not true as to form and effect, but because, when priests of this kind see themselves despised by the people, they are more readily provoked to penance by the blush of shame.

Likewise from the Sixth Synod [c. 6]. If anyone among those who approach the clergy wishes to be joined to a woman by the law of marriage, let him do this before the order of the subdiaconate.

Likewise from the Third Council of Carthage [c. 19]. When readers reach the years of puberty, let them be compelled either to take wives or to profess continence.

Likewise Gregory to Boniface, bishop of Reggio [Book III, epistle 5]. We have decreed that this which we established concerning the individual subdeacons is to be observed by your subdeacons; nor are you to permit that determination of ours to be corrupted by anyone’s contumacy or rashness.

Likewise Urban II in the Synod at Melfi [c. 12]. We remove from every sacred order those who after the diaconate have wished to devote themselves to wives, and decree that they are to lack the office and benefice of the Church. But if, after being admonished by the bishop, they do not correct themselves, we grant license to princes to subject their women to servitude. If, however, the bishops consent to their depravities, let them themselves be punished by interdiction from office.

Likewise to Dominicus, patriarch of Grado. Let the impious blush and understand openly that, by the judgment of the Holy Spirit, those who, placed in the three sacred grades—priesthood, diaconate, and subdiaconate—have not cast off their women and have not lived chastely are to be excluded from the dignity of those grades. We indeed speak concerning manifest things; God, however, is the knower and judge of secret things. The same, presiding over the Synod of Meaux, says [c. 3]:

Let no one be permitted to approach sacred order unless either a virgin or of proved chastity, and one who up to the subdiaconate had one wife and a virgin.

Likewise in the Council of Carthage [V, c. 3]. It pleased the council that bishops, priests, deacons, and subdeacons, according to the preceding enactments, are to abstain even from their wives; and unless they do so, let them be removed from ecclesiastical office. But the other clerics are not to be compelled to this, and the custom of each church ought to be observed.

Likewise Leo [IX], against the epistle of Abbot Nicetas. Let us set forth in order and openly what the holy Roman Church says concerning the grades of clerics. It permits clerical ostiaries, readers, exorcists, and acolytes, if they are found outside a vow and the habit of a monk and are unwilling to profess continence, to take a virgin as wife with a priestly blessing, but not a widow or a repudiated woman, because on account of this they will thereafter be unable to be advanced to the subdiaconate. Nor can a layman, unless he has obtained a virgin as wife, or a twice-married man, be advanced to the clerical state; nor, if any of the aforesaid orders desires it, can he ascend to the subdiaconate without the consent of his wife, so that thereafter a spiritual marriage may be made from the carnal one, with no one compelling them. Nor is the wife afterward permitted to be joined carnally to the same husband or to marry anyone during his life or after his death.

Likewise from the Council of Chalcedon [c. 14]. Since in certain provinces it is conceded to readers and psalmists to take wives, the holy synod established that none of them is permitted to take a wife of another sect.

Likewise from the Council of Nicaea [c. 3]. Part V. The holy synod entirely prohibited a bishop, priest, deacon, subdeacon, or absolutely anyone who is in the clergy from being permitted to have a woman secretly introduced, unless perhaps a mother, sister, paternal aunt, or also those suitable persons who escape suspicion.

[PALEA.

Let the feet of women tread your little lodging either rarely or never. §1. One who is joined to the visits of women cannot dwell with God with his whole heart. §2. A woman burns the conscience of the one dwelling together with her. §3. Never discuss the beauty of women. §4. Let women know your name; let them not know your face. §5. Love in your mind a woman whom you have seen conducting herself well, not by bodily frequentation. §6. If it is good not to touch a woman, it is therefore evil to touch one.]

Likewise Gregory in Book IV of the Dialogues [c. 2]. A certain priest governed the church committed to him with great fear of the Lord. From the time he received his order, loving his presbytera as a sister but guarding against her as an enemy, he did not permit her to approach him more closely; permitting her to draw near him on no occasion, he utterly cut off from her the communion of familiarity with himself. GRATIAN. The Council of Laodicea [c. 11] shows whom we ought to understand as a presbytera, saying:

Women who among the Greeks are called presbyterae, but among us are called widows, elder women, women of one husband, and matriculariae, ought not to be established in the Church as though ordained.