Distinction XXXVIII

GRATIAN. Part I. Since, therefore, voluntary ignorance is harmful to everyone, it is dangerous to priests.

Hence it is read in the Council of Toledo [IV, c. 24]:

Ignorance, the mother of all errors, is especially to be avoided in the priests of God, who have undertaken the office of teaching among the people of God. For priests are admonished to read the sacred Scriptures, the apostle Paul saying to Timothy: “Attend to reading, exhortation, doctrine,” and: “Always remain in these things.” Let priests therefore know the sacred Scriptures and the canons, and let their entire work consist in preaching and doctrine, and let them build up everyone both by knowledge of the faith and by discipline of works.

Likewise from the same [Council of Toledo IV, c. 25]. When priests are ordained in parishes, let them receive the official book from their bishop, so that they may proceed instructed to the churches assigned to them, lest through ignorance they offend even in the divine sacraments themselves. But when they come to litanies or to a council, let them render an account to their bishop of how they celebrate the office they have undertaken, or baptize.

Likewise Leo to the Bishops of Constantinople. If ignorance appears intolerable in laypeople, how much more in those who preside? It is worthy neither of excuse nor of pardon.

Likewise Celestine to all orthodox Bishops. Let none of the priests be permitted to be ignorant of the canons or to do anything that can oppose the rules of the Fathers. For what worthy thing will be preserved by us if the norm of decretal constitutions is broken by license permitted to the peoples at the pleasure of others?

Likewise from the sayings of St. Augustine. The things necessary for priests themselves to learn are these: the book of the sacraments, the lectionary, the antiphonary, the baptismal book, computus, the penitential canons, the Psalter, and homilies suitable for Sundays and for the several feasts throughout the cycle of the year. If one of all these is lacking, the name of priest will scarcely stand in him, because the evangelical threats are very dangerous, in which it is said: “If the blind offers guidance to the blind, both fall into the pit.”

Likewise from the Seventh Synod [c. 2]. All of us who chant promise God: “I will meditate upon your justifications; I will not forget your words.” It is indeed most salutary for all Christians to observe this, but especially for those who have obtained ecclesiastical dignity. Hence we determine that everyone who is to be advanced to the grade of the episcopate must by all means know the Psalter, so that from this all the clergy who will be under him may also be admonished and imbued. Let him, however, be diligently examined by the metropolitan as to whether he is ready to read searchingly and not cursorily both the sacred canons and the holy Gospel, as well as the book of the divine Apostle and all divine Scripture, and to conduct himself according to the commandments and teach the people committed to him. For the substance of our high priesthood is the divinely handed-down utterances, that is, the true discipline of the divine Scriptures, as the great Dionysius declares. But if he has objected and has by no means promised that he will willingly do and teach in this way, let him under no circumstances be consecrated. For God says prophetically: “You have rejected knowledge, and I will reject you, so that you do not exercise the priesthood for me.”

Likewise from the Third Council of Carthage [c. 3]. It was resolved that, when bishops or clerics have been ordained, their ordainers should first impress the decrees of the councils upon their ears, lest they come to regret having done something against the statutes of the council.

Likewise Pope Zephyrinus [epistle I to the Bishops of Sicily]. Just as night does not extinguish the stars of heaven, so worldly iniquity does not obscure the minds of the faithful adhering to the firmament of sacred Scripture.

Likewise Jerome on Isaiah. If, according to the apostle Paul, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.

Likewise Gregory in the Moralia. Those who know the things that are God’s are known by the Lord, and those who do not know the things that are God’s are not known by the Lord, as Paul testifies, who says: “If anyone is ignorant, he will be ignored.” The same: Whoever is foolish in guilt will be wise in punishment.

Likewise Augustine [in the Enchiridion to Laurence, c. 17]. Part II. Although error must be guarded against with as much care as we can, not only in greater but also in lesser matters, and although one can err only through ignorance of things, it does not, nevertheless, follow that everyone who does not know something immediately errs, but rather if anyone thinks that he knows what he does not know. For he approves the false as true, which is proper to error. Nevertheless, it matters very much in what matter each person errs. For in one and the same matter, one who knows is by right reason preferred to one who does not know, and one who does not err to one who errs. But in different matters—that is, when this person knows some things and that person others, and this person more useful things while that person knows less useful or even harmful things—who would not, in the things the latter knows, prefer to him the one who does not know? For there are certain things that it is better not to know than to know. Part III. GRATIAN. But although bishops or priests may through ignorance of grammatical art utter something faulty, they are not on that account to be despised by scholars, because faults of morals are to be guarded against more than faults of words. Hence Augustine in the book On Catechizing the Uninstructed [c. 9]:

Scholars must be diligently admonished that, clothed with Christian humility, they learn not to despise those whom they have recognized as avoiding faults of morals more than faults of words, and that they not dare to compare an exercised tongue with a chaste heart, much less prefer it, as they had been accustomed to do. For it is especially useful for these persons to know that meanings are to be preferred to words just as the soul is preferred to the body. From this it follows that they ought to prefer to hear discourses that are truer rather than more eloquent, just as they ought to prefer to have friends who are more prudent rather than more handsome. Let them also know that there is no voice to the ears of God except the affection of the soul. Thus they will not ridicule if perhaps they notice some prelates and ministers of the Church either invoking God with barbarisms and solecisms, or not understanding the very words they pronounce, and dividing them confusedly—not because these things should by no means be corrected, so that the people may say “Amen” to what they plainly understand, but because they are to be piously tolerated by those who have learned that, just as blessing is given by sound in the forum, so it is given by intention in the Church. And so that forensic diction may perhaps sometimes be good diction, yet it can never be called benediction.

[PALEA.

Likewise Gregory to Leander, Bishop of Seville, at the end of the preface to the Moralia. I consider it exceedingly unworthy that I should confine the words of the heavenly oracle beneath the rules of Donatus.]

[PALEA.

The expression of the divine Scriptures is to be accepted according to the peculiarity of each language. For every language has certain forms of expression proper to itself that, when transferred into another language, appear absurd.]

[PALEA.

Ecclesiastical interpretation, even if it possesses elegance of expression, ought to conceal and flee it, so that it may speak not to the idle schools of philosophers and to a few disciples, but to the whole race of humankind.]

Likewise Pope Clement [epistle III]. Let no bishop, on account of the reproach of old age or nobility of birth, neglect to inquire from educated children or the least whether there is perhaps anything of utility or salvation. For one who lives rebelliously and refuses to learn and to do good things is shown to be a member of the devil rather than of Christ, and is revealed as an unbeliever rather than a believer.