Distinction LXXXIV

GRATIAN. Part I. A bishop also ought to be solicitous and vigilant concerning the defense of the poor, the relief of the oppressed, and the protection of monasteries. But if they neglect to do this, they are to be harshly corrected. Hence Gregory to Anthemius, Subdeacon of Campania, [book XI, epistle 29]:

It has reached us that Paschasius, our brother and fellow bishop, is so idle and negligent in all things that in no respect is he recognized as a bishop, to such an extent that neither his church nor the monasteries, nor his sons or the oppressed poor, feel the zeal of his affection toward them; nor does he furnish any aid of defense to those supplicating him in matters in which it is just; and—what is still more grievous to say—he does not suffer in any way the counsels of wise men and those persuading what is right to be received, so that he might at least be able to learn from another what he is unable to attend to by himself. If this is so, know that you are not without fault, since you deferred rebuking and restraining him as is fitting. Therefore, we will that you ought, in the presence of other priests or certain noble men among his sons, to call him to account concerning this matter and exhort him. But if—which we do not believe—after this our exhortation he still attempts to be negligent in his customary manner, he is in every way to be sent to us, so that, placed here, he may be able to learn what and in what manner it befits a priest to do according to the fear of God.

The same to the same, [in the same book, epistle 33]. It has been reported to us that the bishops of Campania are so negligent and unmindful of their honor that they display neither the care of paternal vigilance toward the churches or toward their sons, nor exercise solicitude for the monasteries, nor devote themselves to the protection of the oppressed or of the poor. And therefore by this authority we command you that, when they have been summoned to you, you strictly admonish them by our mandate, so that they may be vigilant in those things which it is fitting for them justly to do according to God, lest any complaint concerning them provoke us again. But if after these things you know any one of them to be negligent, send him to us without any excuse, so that he may be able to feel in himself, by regular strictness, how grave it is to be unwilling to be corrected from those things which are reprehensible and greatly deserving of censure. Part II. GRATIAN. But what is commanded to priests concerning the purity of chastity is also to be understood concerning any persons serving at the altar. Hence in the Second Council of Carthage, [c. 2], Bishop Aurelius is read to have said:

When in the previous council the rule of continence and chastity was treated, these three grades were bound by a certain written enactment of chastity through their consecrations; I say bishops, priests, and deacons: it pleased us that, as befits sacred prelates and priests of God, as well as Levites and those who serve the divine sacraments, they be continent in all things, whereby they may obtain without hindrance what they ask from the Lord, so that we too may guard what the apostles taught and antiquity itself preserved. It was said by all the bishops: It pleases all that bishops, priests, deacons, and those who handle the sacraments, as guardians of chastity, abstain even from their wives. It was said by all: It pleases us that chastity be guarded in all things and by all who serve the altar.

Likewise from the Fifth Council of Carthage, [c. 3]. When the incontinence of certain clerics, although with their own wives, was reported, it pleased the council that bishops, priests, and deacons, according to the prior statutes, abstain even from their wives; and unless they do this, they are to be removed from ecclesiastical office. The other clerics, however, are not to be compelled to this, but the custom of each church ought to be observed. Part III. GRATIAN. Likewise, what commands that a bishop be the husband of one wife ought also to be extended to the other ecclesiastical orders. Hence Bishop Siricius writes to Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona, [epistle I, c. 11]:

Whichever cleric takes a widow or a second wife shall immediately be stripped of every privilege of ecclesiastical dignity, with lay communion alone conceded to him. He will then be able to possess it only if afterward he commits nothing for which he ought to lack it. Part IV. GRATIAN. Although the name of priests is taken from old age, nevertheless it indicates maturity of wisdom rather than grayness of body. Hence Anacletus, [to the Bishops of Italy, epistle II]:

Moreover, Moses is commanded to choose priests, that is, elders. Hence it is also said in Proverbs: “Gray hair is the glory of old men.” But this gray hair designates wisdom, concerning which it is written: “The gray hair of men is prudence.” And although we read that men lived nine hundred and more years from Adam down to Abraham, no other man was earlier called a priest, that is, an elder, except Abraham, who is shown to have lived far fewer years. Therefore they are called priests not because of decrepit old age but because of wisdom.