Distinction XLIV

GRATIAN. Part I. When he is prohibited from being given to wine, he is by no means permitted to have intemperance of gluttony; for drunkenness is not prohibited while voracity is permitted. The Apostle numbers both among the works of darkness, writing to the Romans: “Not in revelings and drunkenness.” For the voracity of the belly easily provokes toward lust and dissolves every good work. Hence the belly and the genitals are near to one another, so that from the proximity of the members the alliance of the vices may be understood. Hence also Nebuzaradan, the chief of the cooks, is read to have destroyed the walls of Jerusalem, because the belly, which the multitude of cooks serves, levels the edifices of the virtues to the ground. Therefore, let a priest seek to live from the altar, not to live luxuriously. Hence Jerome says: “You, O priest, are permitted to live from the altar, not to live luxuriously.” §1. Revelings, moreover, are harmful not only to priests but also to laypeople, who think that they celebrate festive and solemn days worthily in no other way unless they serve revelings. Hence Augustine writes to Bishop Aurelius [epistle LXIV]:

Revelings and drunkenness are thought to be so conceded and lawful that in honor of the most blessed martyrs they are celebrated not only on solemn days—something that everyone who does not behold these things with fleshly eyes sees is to be lamented—but even daily. And a little later: Therefore, as I judge, these things are removed not harshly, not severely, not in an imperious manner, but more by teaching than by commanding, more by admonishing than by threatening. For one must act thus with a multitude. Severity, however, is to be exercised against the sins of a few. And if indeed we threaten, let it be done with sorrow, by threatening the future vengeance from the Scriptures, so that not we ourselves in our power but God in our discourse may be feared. Thus the spiritual, or those near to the spiritual, will first be moved, and by their authority and indeed very gentle but most persistent admonitions the remaining multitude may be broken.

Likewise from the Council of Laodicea [c. 24]. Clerics serving from priests down to subdeacons, and thereafter all of ecclesiastical order down to ministers, or readers, or exorcists, or ostiaries, or psalmists, or even those who are in a profession of continence, ought not to enter taverns.

Likewise from the Sixth Synod [c. 9]. No cleric is permitted to keep a tavern or workshop. For if he is prohibited from entering a tavern of this kind, how much more from ministering to others in it? But if anyone does such a thing, let him either cease or be deposed.

Likewise from the Third Council of Carthage [c. 27]. Let clerics not enter taverns for the sake of eating or drinking unless compelled by the necessity of travel.

Likewise Gregory to Bishop Natalis [Book II of the Register, indiction X, epistle 14]. Part II. From many persons coming from your city, dearest brother, I learned that, having abandoned pastoral care, you are occupied only with banquets. I would not believe the things heard unless I proved them by the evidence of your actions. For the fact that you by no means devote yourself to reading, by no means watch over exhortation, but are ignorant even of the very practice of ecclesiastical order, is testified by the fact that you do not know how to preserve reverence toward those under whom you are placed.

Likewise to the same [Book II, epistle 37]. Your fraternity rightly praises in its letters banquets that are held with the intention of expending charity. Yet it must be known that they truly proceed from charity when the life of no absent person is bitten in them, no one is reproved in mockery, and in them not the empty tales of secular affairs but the words of sacred reading are heard; when the body is served no more than necessary, but only its infirmity is refreshed, so that it may be maintained for the exercise of virtue. Therefore, if you do these things at your banquets, I confess that you are masters of those who abstain.

[PALEA.

Let none of the priests, when he has gathered at the annual day, the thirtieth, seventh, or third day of any deceased person, or when priests have gathered at a collection by any invitation, presume in any way to become intoxicated, nor, having been entreated, to drink for love of the saints or of the soul itself, or to compel others to drink, or to gorge himself at another’s entreaty. Nor let him presume to make disorderly applause and laughter, to recount empty tales there, or to sing; or permit shameful entertainments to be performed before him either by a bear or by dancing women; nor consent that masks of demons be carried before him, because this is diabolical and prohibited by the sacred canons.]

[PALEA

Likewise from the same. When priests gather at any banquet, let one who is their prior begin a verse before the table and bless the food. Then let them sit according to order, one offering honor to another; and let them bless the food and drink by turns, and let one of their clerics read something from holy Scripture. And after the refreshment, let them similarly say a holy hymn after the example of the Lord, as he is read to have done at the supper; and let all priests conduct themselves in such a way, especially in places of this kind, that their ministry may not be reviled.]

[PALEA

Likewise from the same. When priests gather together at the Kalends, after the divine mystery has been completed, for a necessary conference, let them sit there at the tables not as though for a full refreshment but as though for a breakfast, lest through such dishonorable banquets they burden one another, because this is unbecoming and burdensome. Often, moreover, when they return late to the church they obtain greater loss from reproof, contracted from the burden they impose upon one another, than the profit they make there. For concerning an assembly of this kind Paul reproves the Corinthians, who came together to eat the Lord’s supper in an unfitting manner. So also those who come together for the Lord’s supper, that is, for a conference upon the word, under that pretext, while in truth they unite for the sake of the belly, are held reprehensible before God and human beings. And therefore, when all things have been completed, let those who wish break bread with charity in the house of their brother together with the brethren, and let each cause each to drink, and especially let them not touch the cup beyond a third time; and so let them return to the churches.]

Likewise from the Council of Laodicea [c. 55]. Part III. Ministers of the altar or any clerics, or even Christian laypeople, ought not to celebrate banquets from contributions, which the common people call drinking parties.

Likewise from the Third Council of Toledo [c. 7]. For reverence toward God and the priests, the universal synod established that, because idle tales are frequently accustomed to be interposed at tables, a reading from the divine Scriptures should be mingled with every priestly banquet. For through this both souls are built up toward the good and unnecessary tales are prohibited.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin [cc. 61 and 66]. Let priests or clerics, or even religious laypeople, not be permitted to hold banquets from contributions. §1. Nor ought clerics or religious laypeople to enter banquets before the sacred third hour of the day, nor at any time ought clerics to eat bread unless a hymn has been said, and after food to return thanks to God the author. GRATIAN. Therefore, if revelings are damnable for laypeople, much more are they imputed to priests unto Gehenna. For a fat belly, as Jerome says, generates a gross understanding, whereas priestly understanding ought, on the contrary, to be watchful and subtle; and therefore those subject to the vice of gluttony ought not to be anointed as priests. For those, as Gregory says in the Moralia, who are still subject to the warfare of vices ought by no means to preside over the teaching of others through the practice of preaching.