Quae exsequi debeat episcopus
1087AHaec specialiter exsequi debet episcopus juxta sacras regulas. Missas publicas celebrare, sacrum chrisma regulariter consecrare, sanctum baptisma juxta traditionem ecclesiasticam agere, et ut a presbyteris agatur providere. Presbyteros et diaconos, et reliquos ecclesiasticos ministros, statutis temporibus, quales praecipiunt regulae, sine ullius muneris acceptione ordinare. Synodos presbyterorum secundum sacros canones sine venalitate habere. Ad provincialem episcoporum synodum, et ad ordinationem episcopi, vocatus convenire, vel pro se presbyterum aut diaconem, cum tractoria causas suae impossibilitatis exponente, vel cum regulari suo consensu dirigere. Clerum regulariter gubernare, et sicut sanctus Gregorius in pastorali Regula 1087Bdicit, eidem clero, tam in interioribus, quam et in corporalibus rebus, necessaria providere. Ecclesiae, tam in luminaribus et ornamentis, quam et in aedificiis, et in sartatectis, curam habere. Hospites et pauperes in constitutis singillatim hospitalibus recipere, et dicente Apostolo: Qui suorum, et maxime domesticorum, curam non habet, fidem negavit, et est infideli deterior (I Tim. V, 8), suorum domesticorum in ministrando necessaria curam habere. Monasteriorum in sua parochia, et ecclesiarum rusticanarum parochiarum, atque matriculariorum, secundum sacras regulas sollicitudinem gerere. Populo suae parochiae verbum Domini nuntiare, et verbo atque exemplo subjectos sibi docere, et oratione consulere. In consignatione eorum, qui necdum 1087Cin frontibus ministerio episcopali sunt consignati, regulariter satagere, et in hujus negotii circuitione, parochiae, ultra debitum et necessarium modum, sicut sanctus decrevit Gregorius, presbyteros non gravare. Bonum testimonium etiam ab his qui foris sunt habere. Peccantibus et poenitentibus secundum modum culparum regulariter poenitentiam indicere, et post satisfactionem regulariter eos reconciliare. Omnis possessionis, quae sub ejus est potestate, providentiam gerere. Militiam ad defensionem sanctae Ecclesiae, secundum possibilitatis quantitatem, juxta antiquam consuetudinem regiae dispositioni exhibere, et secundum Domini jussionem, quae Caesaris sunt Caesari, et Deo quae Dei sunt reddere (Matth. XXII, 21). Quia sicut sanctus Gelasius 1087Dfacundissimus papa in decretis suis scribens ad Anastasium imperatorem dicit (epist. 10): « Duo sunt quibus principaliter mundus hic regitur, auctoritas sacra pontificum, et regalis potestas. Sed anto gravius est pondus sacerdotum quam regum, 1088Aquanto etiam pro ipsis regibus hominum in divino reddituri sunt examine rationem. » Et tanto in humanis rebus regum cura est propensior quam sacerdotum, quanto pro honore et defensione ac quiete sanctae Ecclesiae, et rectorum ac ministrorum ipsius, et leges promulgando, ac militando, a Rege regum est eis curae onus impositum: sic actionibus propriis dignitatibusque distinctis, ut et Christiani reges pro aeterna vita pontificibus indigerent, et pontifices pro temporalium rerum cursu regum dispositione uterentur; quatenus spiritalis actio carnalibus distaret incursibus, et militans Deo minime negotiis saecularibus se implicaret, ac vicissim non ille rebus divinis praesidere videretur, qui esset negotiis saecularibus implicatus. Sanctus namque 1088BSpiritus per eos qui cum Christo in coelo regnant, et in terris miraculis coruscant, dixit, et usque ad nos scriptis pervenire fecit dicens (Urban. epist. 1): « Res et facultates ecclesiasticae oblationes appellantur, quia Domino offeruntur, et vota sunt fidelium, ac pretia peccatorum, atque patrimonia pauperum. Si quis illa rapuerit, reus est damnationis Ananiae et Saphirae, et oportet hujusmodi tradere Satanae, ut spiritus salvus sit in die Domini. Quod nostri gloriosi imperatores Carolus et Ludovicus in primo libro Capitulorum suorum ita inseruerunt (cap. 83): Quia, inquiunt, juxta sanctorum Patrum traditionem novimus res Ecclesiae vota esse fidelium, pretia peccatorum, et patrimonia pauperum, cuique non solum habita conservare, 1088Cverum etiam multa, Deo opitulante, conferre optamus. Tamen ut ab ecclesiasticis de non dividendis rebus Ecclesiae suspicionem dudum conceptam penitus amoveremus, statuimus ut neque nostris, neque filiorum et Deo dispensante successorum nostrorum temporibus, qui nostram vel progenitorum nostrorum voluntatem, vel exemplum imitari voluerint, ullam penitus divisionem aut jacturam patiatur. » Sanctus quoque Anacletus papa, ab ipso beato Petro apostolo presbyter ordinatus, postea in sede Romana successor illius factus episcopus, cum totius mundi sacerdotibus judicavit (epist. 1): « Qui abstulerit, inquiens, aliquid patri vel matri, homicidae particeps est. Pater noster sine dubio Deus est, qui nos creavit; mater vero nostra Ecclesia, 1088Dquae nos in baptismo spiritaliter regeneravit. Ergo qui Christi pecunias et Ecclesiae rapit, aufert vel praedatur, homicida est, atque homicida ante conspectum justi judicis deputabitur. Qui rapit pecuniam proximi sui, iniquitatem operatur: qui autem 1089Apecuniam vel res Ecclesiae abstulerit, sacrilegium facit, et ut sacrilegus judicandus est. » Item sanctus Urbanus papa et martyr (epist. 1): « Res et facultates ecclesiasticae oblationes appellantur, quia Domino offeruntur, et vota sunt fidelium, ac pretia peccatorum, atque patrimonia pauperum. Si quis illa rapuerit, reus est damnationis Ananiae et Saphirae, et oportet hujusmodi tradere Satanae, ut spiritus salvus sit in die Domini. » Et sanctus Lucius papa (epist. 11): « Rerum ecclesiasticarum et facultatum raptores a liminibus sanctae Ecclesiae anathematizatos apostolica auctoritate pellimus et damnamus, atque sacrilegos esse judicamus: et non solum eos, sed et omnes consentientes eis, quia non solum qui faciunt rei judicantur, sed etiam qui facientibus 1089Bconsentiunt. Par enim poena et agentes et consentientes comprehendit. A qua poena consensus liberi esse non possunt illi, quorum ministerium est, et qui talia possunt prohibere, comprimere et emendare, et ea non student corrigere. » Et sanctus Gregorius in epistola ad Sabinum subdiaconum (lib. VIII, epist. 7): « Sacrilegum, inquit, et contra leges est, si quis quod venerabilibus locis relinquitur, pravae voluntatis studiis, suis tentaverit compendiis retinere. » Et S. Augustinus in sermone Evangelii sancti Joannis dicit: « Fur sacrilegus loculorum sacrorum et Dominicorum est Judas, et qui aliquid de Ecclesia furatur et rapit, Judae perdito comparatur. » Et item in sacris canonibus, sancto Spiritu dictatis, et Christi sanguine confirmatis, 1089Cscriptum est (conc. Tol. I, can. 11): « Si quis de potentibus clericum, aut quemlibet pauperiorem, aut religiosum exspoliaverit, et mandaverit ad ipsum episcopus ut eum audiat, si contempserit, invicem mox scripta percurrant per omnes provinciae episcopos, et quoscunque adire potuerit, excommunicatus habeatur, donec audiat et reddat aliena. » Et item scriptum est (conc. Agath., can. 4): « Clerici etiam, vel saeculares, qui oblationes parentum, aut donatas, aut testamento relictas, retinere praesumpserint, aut id quod ipsi donaverunt ecclesiis vel monasteriis crediderint auferendum, sicut synodus sancta constituit, velut necatores pauperum, quousque reddant, ab ecclesiis excludantur. » Unde summopere caveant potentiores quique, unusquisque in ordine et dignitate 1089Dsua, ne praesumant, in damnationem suam res sibi ecclesiasticas, neque fatigent vel affligant inconsuetis consuetudinibus Dei ecclesias et loca sanctorum, scientes quia ut praemisimus res ecclesiasticae vota sunt fidelium, patrimonia pauperum, pretia peccatorum, et in tuitione atque defensione Christi consistunt, qui eas terrae principibus, atque primoribus ad defendendum et conservandum, non affligendum vel usurpandum sive praesumendum commisit. Nam quaecunque praetendatur a quocunque utilitatis sive necessitatis occasio, ille corda omnium conspicit, qui novit cogitationes hominum, et remunerat actiones, et etiam cogitationes irremuneratas nullatenus derelinquet. Quocirca omnis qui vult 1090Asalvus fieri, et ab aeterna morte liberari, et ad aeternam vitam pervenire, attentissime cordis aure exaudiat quid sanctus Spiritus per eos locutus est, quibus dixit Dominus: Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem saeculi (Matth. XXVIII, 20); et: Non vos estis qui loquimini, sed Spiritus Patris vestri qui loquitur in vobis (Matth. X, 20); et: Quaecunque alligaveritis super terram, erunt ligata et in coelo, et quaecunque solveritis super terram, erunt soluta et in coelo (Matth. XVIII, 18); et: Accipite Spiritum sanctum: quorum remiseritis peccata, remittuntur eis, et quorum retinueritis retenta sunt (Joan. XX, 22); et: Qui vos audit me audit, et qui vos spernit me spernit (Luc. X, 16). Dicunt enim illi, qui in coelo regnant, et in terra miraculis coruscant, 1090Bqui et usque hodie nobiscum vivunt, et cum successoribus nostris usque in perpetuum vivent, quoniam apud Deum est merces eorum: « Si quis oblationes Ecclesiae extra Ecclesiam accipere vel dare voluerit, praeter conscientiam episcopi, vel ejus cui hujusmodi officia commissa sunt, nec cum ejus voluerit agere consilio, anathema sit (conc. Ancyr. can. 7). » Anathema autem interpretatur in Romana lingua alienatio, quia omnis talia faciens, quandiu in illis peccatis manet, licet nos episcopi, qui in apostolis et cum apostolis non nostro merito sed gratia divina ligandi et solvendi potestatem accepimus, interdum tardi, interdum divini sensus ignari, interdum quae committuntur nescientes, aliquando etiam commissa ut expedit 1090Ccorrigere non valentes, quae statuta sunt exsequi dissimulemus, vel etiam negligamus, ut talem hominem ab Ecclesia et fidelium societate excommunicantes non segregemus, jam tamen a sacris canonibus excommunicatus et praedamnatus est, donec peccatum illud deserat, et per satisfactionem ecclesiasticam, et sacerdotalem reconciliationem, Domini gratiam et fidelium societatem recipiat. Et quicunque in peccatis suis et talibus sceleribus implicatus ante satisfactionem necessariam vitam istam finierit, communionem et societatem cum electis in regno Dei habere nullatenus poterit, nec de inferni poenis et daemonum societate unquam liberari valebit. Denique duo capitula quae sequuntur, ex edicto assumpta sunt ab Ansegiso 1090Dabbate, capitulorum imperialium ex diversis synodis et placitis collectore, causa brevitatis in primo libro capitulorum, septuagesimo septimo et septuagesimo octavo, de non dividendis rebus ecclesiasticis, et episcoporum electione, ex suprascriptis excerpta, in praefato libro inveniuntur. Quod edictum ex integro domnus Carolus Magnus imperator, cum interrogatione de chorepiscopis, per Arnonem archiepiscopum ad Leonem papam direxit, et ad ejus consultum aliud edictum de non dividendis rebus ecclesiasticis, et de episcoporum causis edidit, et apostolicae sedis atque auctoritate sua confirmavit, et per omnes metropolitanas ecclesias imperii sui perpetuo servanda direxit. Memorata itaque capitula 1091Aita se habent (lib. I, c. 83): « Quia juxta sanctorum Patrum traditionem novimus res Ecclesiae vota esse fidelium, pretia peccatorum, et patrimonia pauperum, cuique non solum habita conservare, verum etiam multa, Deo opitulante, conferre optamus. Tamen ut ab ecclesiasticis de non dividendis rebus illius suspicionem dudum conceptam penitus amoveremus, statuimus ut neque nostris, neque filiorum et Deo dispensante successorum nostrorum temporibus, qui nostram vel progenitorum nostrorum voluntatem, vel exemplum imitari voluerint, ullam penitus divisionem aut jacturam patiatur (cap. 84.) Sacrorum quoque canonum non ignari, ut in Dei nomine sancta Ecclesia suo liberius potiatur honore, assensum ordini ecclesiastico praebemus, ut scilicet episcopi per electionem cleri et populi 1091Bsecundum statuta canonum de propria dioecesi, remota personarum et munerum acceptione, ob vitae meritum et sapientiae donum eligantur, ut exemplo et verbo sibi subjectis usquequaque prodesse valeant. » Et in eodem edicto unde haec fuerunt assumpta subsequitur: « Praecipimus etiam omnibus ditioni nostrae subjectis, ut nullus privilegia ecclesiarum, monasteriorum, aut ecclesias diripere pertentet, quia sicut a sanctis Patribus instructi sumus, gravissimum peccatum hoc esse dignoscitur, » et caetera quae sequuntur. Et in privilegio Belvacensis Ecclesiae, ab episcopis quatuor provinciarum consensu domni Caroli nuper defuncti confirmato, haec continetur ad locum: « Potestas autem saecularis, sive sit sublimitate donata aliqua, sive 1091Cin humili constituta loco, nullam in eis, nec in praesenti nec in futuro, suscipiat contra sacras regulas dominationem, nec violenter invadens, nec oblata suscipiens. Si quis vero regum, sacerdotum, et judicium, atque saecularium personarum, hanc constitutionis paginam cognoscens, contra eam venire tentaverit, potestatis honorisque sui dignitate careat, reumque se divino judicio existere de perpetrata iniquitate cognoscat. Et nisi vel ea quae ab illo sunt male ablata restituerit, vel digna poenitentia illicita acta defleverit, a sacratissimo corpore ac sanguine Dei Domini Redemptoris nostri Jesu Christi alienus fiat, atque in aeterno examine districtae ultioni subjaceat. Cunctis autem eidem loco justa servantibus sit pax Domini nostri 1091DJesu Christi, quatenus hic fructum bonae actionis recipiant, et apud districtum judicem praemia aeternae pacis inveniant. » Et in privilegio ejusdem Ecclesiae a domno Nicolao papa confirmato haec continentur ad locum (Nicolaus Odon. episc. ): « Nullus itaque regum, nullus judicum, nullus cujuscunque saecularis potentiae dignitate fultus, in rebus praefatorum coenobiorum, vel villis, vel agris, vel mancipiis, vel quidquid ad eadem monasteria collatum fuerit, potestatem habeat vel dominandi, vel accipiendi, vel auferendi, praeter episcopum Belvacensis Ecclesiae, qui per tempus fuerit eidem praelatus Ecclesiae. Sed quidquid vel in auro, vel in argento, vel in quacunque supellectili, vel in omni facultatis substantia, 1092Aipsis est monasteriis hodie delegatum, vel futuris temporibus fuerit collatum, episcopi Belvacensis distributioni et ordinationi fiat subjectum, nec alterius potestatis jus vel dominatio super eis potestatem aliquam, nisi quantum divina auctoritas et lex et justitia permittet, obtineat. Si quis autem temerario ausu, magna parvare persona, contra hoc nostrum apostolicum decretum agere praesumpserit, sciat se anathematis vinculo esse innodatum, et a regno Dei alienum, et cum omnibus impiis aeterni incendii supplicio condemnatum. At vero qui observator exstiterit praecepti hujus, gratiam atque misericordiam vitamque aeternam a misericordissimo Domino Deo nostro consequi mereatur. » Et sanctus Gregorius in decretali epistola, 1092Bin partes Graeciae pro quibusdam commotionibus directa, ita dicit ad locum: « Si qui vero sunt, qui dicunt, quia compulsus quispiam necessitate, si anathematizaverit, anathematis vinculo non tenetur, ipsi sibi testes sunt quia Christiani non sunt, quia ligamenta sanctae Ecclesiae vanis se aestimant conatibus solvere, ac per hoc nec absolutionem sanctae Ecclesiae, quam praestat fidelibus, veram putant, si ligaturas ejus valere non aestimant. Contra quos diutius disputandum non est, quia per omnia despiciendi et anathematizandi sunt, et unde se fallere veritatem credunt, inde in peccatis suis veraciter ligantur. Eosque et ego, et omnes catholici episcopi, atque universa Ecclesia anathematizamus, quia veritati contraria sentiunt, et contraria loquuntur. » 1092CUnde magnopere dilectissimo domno nostro regi curandum est, ne suggestione vel postulatione quorumcunque hominum contra haec sancti Spiritus decreta faciat, vel fieri de ecclesiasticis rebus consentiat: maxime post hanc visitationem Dei, qua per confessionem, et poenitentiam, et reconciliationem sacerdotalem illum credimus emendatum: quia magna est contra peccatum virtus poenitentiae, sed ei qui in eadem poenitentia perseverat, quia scriptum est: Qui perseveraverit usque in finem hic salvus erit (Matth. XVIII, 22); et item scriptum est: Qui baptizatur a mortuo, et iterum tangit eum, quid proficit lavatio illius (Eccli. XXXIV, 30)? Mortuum quippe est omne opus perversum quod pertrahit ad mortem, quodque justitiae non vivit. Baptizatur ergo a 1092Dmortuo et iterum tangit eum, qui prava opera, quae se egisse meminit, deplorat, sed in eisdem se iterum post lacrymas implicat. Anima itaque quaelibet ejusdem mortui lavatione non proficit, quae hoc iterum faciendo quod planxit, nec per lamenta poenitentiae ad rectitudinem justitiae exsurgit. Poenitentiam enim vere agere est commissa plangere, et iterum plangenda declinare. Providendum est igitur charissimo domno nostro regi, quod Dominus dominorum et Rex regum etiam ipsi et unicuique nostrum, quin et omni homini sine exceptione alicujus personae, quia ut Scriptura dicit: Non est personarum acceptor Deus (Act. X, 34), dicit, quod longe ante cuidam in Evangelio dixerat: Ecce sanus factus es: jam noli peccare, 1093Ane deterius tibi aliquid contingat (Joan. V, 14). Sed et prava sibi suggerentes non obaudiat, dicente Apostolo: Non solum qui faciunt, sed qui consentiunt facientibus, digni sunt morte (Rom. I, 32). Episcopo etiam nuper ordinato agere talia vel talibus consentire non praecipiat, unde se ipsum perdat, et coram Deo ecclesiasticam gratiam amittat. Cum coram omnibus et electoribus et ordinatoribus suis districtissime professus ante ordinationem suam fuerit, et propria manu subscripserit sacras regulas sanctorum conciliorum, quantum scierit et potuerit, servaturum. Qui sacri canones spiritu Dei conditi, et totius mundi 1094Areverentia consecrati ita decernunt: Si quis contra suam professionem vel suam scripturam venerit in aliquo, ipse se honore privabit. Qui autem res et facultates ecclesiasticas Belvacensis Ecclesiae ipsius consensu vel favore pessumdare praesumpserint, qui auctoritatem eas illis dare vel consentire non habuit, sollicitissime caveant, ne suprascriptas sacrorum canonum sententias, ab omnibus nobis episcopis, ad quorum notitiam ipsorum sacrilegia pervenerint intentatas, suscipiant, et ab omni Christianorum societate modis omnibus separentur.
What a Bishop Ought to Carry Out
1087AThese things in particular a bishop ought to carry out, according to the sacred rules. To celebrate public Masses; to consecrate the holy chrism in the regular manner; to administer holy baptism according to the tradition of the Church, and to provide that it be administered by the priests. To ordain priests and deacons and the remaining ministers of the Church at the appointed seasons, of such quality as the rules prescribe, without the acceptance of any gift. To hold synods of the priests according to the sacred canons, without venality. When summoned, to attend the provincial synod of bishops and the ordination of a bishop, or else to send in his stead a priest or a deacon with a tractoria setting forth the grounds of his inability to come, or with his consent given in the regular form. To govern the clergy according to rule, and, as St. Gregory says in the Pastoral Rule, 1087Bto provide that same clergy with what is needful both in inward and in bodily things. To have a care for the church, both in its lights and ornaments and in its buildings and sartatecta. To receive guests and the poor in the hospices severally established; and, since the Apostle says, He that hath not care of his own, and especially of his household, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel (I Tim. V, 8), to have care of his own household in ministering to them what is needful. To exercise solicitude, according to the sacred rules, over the monasteries in his diocese, and over the churches of the country parishes, and over the matricularii. To announce the word of the Lord to the people of his diocese, and to teach those subject to him by word and by example, and to counsel them by prayer. To be diligent in the regular manner in the confirming of those who have not yet 1087Cbeen signed on their foreheads by the episcopal ministry; and in the circuit of the diocese for this business not to burden the priests beyond the due and needful measure, as St. Gregory decreed. To have a good testimony also from them that are without. To enjoin penance in the regular manner upon those who sin and repent, according to the measure of their faults, and after satisfaction to reconcile them in the regular manner. To exercise foresight over every possession that is under his authority. To furnish military service for the defense of holy Church, according to the measure of his ability, to the royal disposition after the ancient custom; and, according to the Lord's command, to render the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God (Matth. XXII, 21). For as St. Gelasius, 1087Dthat most eloquent pope, says in his decrees, writing to the emperor Anastasius (epist. 10): « There are two by which this world is principally ruled: the sacred authority of pontiffs, and the royal power. But the burden of priests is heavier than that of kings by so much as 1088Athey must render an account at the divine examination even for the kings of men themselves. » And by so much in human affairs is the care of kings the more weighty than that of priests, by as much as the burden of that care has been laid upon them by the King of kings — for the honor and defense and quiet of holy Church and of her rulers and ministers, both by promulgating laws and by making war: their proper actions and dignities being so distinguished that Christian kings should have need of pontiffs for eternal life, and pontiffs should make use of the disposition of kings for the course of temporal affairs; to the end that spiritual action should stand apart from carnal incursions, and that he who wars for God should in no wise entangle himself in secular business, and that in turn he should not be seen to preside over divine things who was entangled in secular business. For the Holy 1088BSpirit spoke through those who reign with Christ in heaven and flash with miracles on earth, and caused it to come down even to us in writing, saying (Urban. epist. 1): « The goods and resources of the Church are called oblations, because they are offered to the Lord; and they are the vows of the faithful, and the price of sins, and the patrimonies of the poor. If anyone seizes them, he is guilty of the condemnation of Ananias and Sapphira, and such a one must be delivered to Satan, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Which our glorious emperors Charles and Louis inserted thus in the first book of their Capitularies (cap. 83): Since, they say, according to the tradition of the holy Fathers we know that the goods of the Church are the vows of the faithful, the price of sins, and the patrimonies of the poor, we desire not only to preserve to each what it has, 1088Cbut even, with God's help, to confer much upon it. Yet, that we might utterly remove from churchmen the suspicion long since conceived concerning the non-division of the Church's goods, we have decreed that neither in our own times, nor in those of our sons and, by God's dispensing, of our successors who shall be willing to imitate our will or that of our forebears, or our example, shall it suffer any division or loss whatsoever. » St. Anacletus also, the pope who was ordained priest by the blessed Apostle Peter himself, and afterwards was made bishop as his successor in the Roman see, judged together with the priests of the whole world (epist. 1): « He that takes away anything, he says, from father or mother is partaker with a murderer. Our father, beyond doubt, is God, who created us; and our mother is the Church, 1088Dwho regenerated us spiritually in baptism. Therefore he who seizes, carries off, or plunders the moneys of Christ and of the Church is a murderer, and shall be accounted a murderer before the sight of the just Judge. He that seizes the money of his neighbor works iniquity; but he that 1089Atakes away the money or goods of the Church commits sacrilege, and is to be judged as one guilty of sacrilege. » Likewise St. Urban, pope and martyr (epist. 1): « The goods and resources of the Church are called oblations, because they are offered to the Lord; and they are the vows of the faithful, and the price of sins, and the patrimonies of the poor. If anyone seizes them, he is guilty of the condemnation of Ananias and Sapphira, and such a one must be delivered to Satan, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. » And St. Lucius, pope (epist. 11): « The plunderers of the goods and resources of the Church we, by apostolic authority, drive out and condemn as anathematized from the thresholds of holy Church, and we judge them to be guilty of sacrilege — and not them only, but also all who consent to them; because not only they who do such things are judged guilty, but also they who consent 1089Bto those who do them. For an equal punishment takes hold of both the doers and the consenters. From which punishment of consent those cannot be free whose office it is, and who are able to forbid, restrain, and amend such things, and are not zealous to correct them. » And St. Gregory, in his letter to the subdeacon Sabinus (lib. VIII, epist. 7): « It is sacrilege, he says, and against the laws, if anyone by the pursuits of a depraved will attempts to retain for his own profit what is left to venerable places. » And St. Augustine, in a sermon on the Gospel of St. John, says: « Judas is the sacrilegious thief of the sacred purses that belonged to the Lord; and whoever steals and seizes anything of the Church's is likened to Judas the lost. » And likewise in the sacred canons, dictated by the Holy Spirit and confirmed by the blood of Christ, 1089Cit is written (conc. Tol. I, can. 11): « If any of the powerful despoils a cleric, or any poorer man, or a religious, and the bishop sends word to him that he should hear him, and he holds it in contempt, then let letters run at once from one to another through all the bishops of the province; and by whomsoever he can be approached, let him be held excommunicate until he gives a hearing and restores what is another's. » And likewise it is written (conc. Agath., can. 4): « Clerics also, or laymen, who presume to retain the oblations of their parents, whether given or left by testament, or who suppose that what they themselves have given to churches or monasteries may be taken away, are, as the holy synod has determined, to be excluded from the churches as murderers of the poor, until they make restitution. » Wherefore let all the more powerful, each in his own order and dignity, 1089Dtake the utmost heed that they do not presume upon the goods of the Church, to their own condemnation, nor wear out or afflict the churches of God and the places of the saints with unaccustomed customs — knowing that, as we have said above, the goods of the Church are the vows of the faithful, the patrimonies of the poor, the price of sins, and that they stand under the protection and defense of Christ, who committed them to the princes and chief men of the earth to be defended and preserved, not to be afflicted or usurped or presumed upon. For whatever occasion of utility or of necessity may be alleged by anyone, he beholds the hearts of all who knows the thoughts of men, and who rewards deeds, and who will by no means leave even thoughts unrewarded. Wherefore everyone who wishes 1090Ato be saved, and to be freed from eternal death, and to attain to eternal life, let him hear most attentively with the ear of the heart what the Holy Spirit has spoken through those to whom the Lord said: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world (Matth. XXVIII, 20); and: It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you (Matth. X, 20); and: Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven (Matth. XVIII, 18); and: Receive ye the Holy Spirit: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose you shall retain, they are retained (Joan. XX, 22); and: He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me (Luc. X, 16). For they say — they who reign in heaven and flash with miracles on earth, 1090Bwho both live with us to this day and shall live with our successors unto perpetuity, since their reward is with God: « If anyone wishes to receive or to give the oblations of the Church outside the Church, without the knowledge of the bishop or of him to whom offices of this kind have been committed, and is unwilling to act upon his counsel, let him be anathema (conc. Ancyr. can. 7). » Now anathema is interpreted in the Roman tongue alienation; because everyone who does such things, so long as he remains in those sins — although we bishops, who in the apostles and with the apostles have received the power of binding and loosing, not by our own merit but by divine grace, are sometimes slow, sometimes ignorant of the divine meaning, sometimes unaware of what is committed, and sometimes also unable to correct as is expedient 1090Cthe things committed, and so dissemble or even neglect to carry out what has been decreed, so that we do not separate such a man by excommunicating him from the Church and from the fellowship of the faithful — is nevertheless already excommunicated and forecondemned by the sacred canons, until he forsakes that sin and, through ecclesiastical satisfaction and priestly reconciliation, receives again the grace of the Lord and the fellowship of the faithful. And whoever, entangled in his sins and in such crimes, ends this life before the necessary satisfaction, can in no wise have communion and fellowship with the elect in the kingdom of God, nor shall he ever be able to be freed from the punishments of hell and the fellowship of the demons. Lastly, the two chapters which follow were taken from an edict by Ansegisus 1090Dthe abbot, the collector of the imperial capitularies out of various synods and assemblies; and for the sake of brevity they are found in the first book of the capitularies, in the seventy-seventh and seventy-eighth, on the non-division of ecclesiastical goods and on the election of bishops, excerpted from the passages written above, in the aforesaid book. Which edict the lord Charles the Great, emperor, sent in its entirety, together with an inquiry concerning chorbishops, by Arno the archbishop to Pope Leo; and upon his counsel he issued another edict on the non-division of ecclesiastical goods and on the cases of bishops, and confirmed it both by the authority of the apostolic see and by his own, and sent it to be observed perpetually throughout all the metropolitan churches of his empire. The chapters mentioned, then, 1091Arun thus (lib. I, c. 83): « Since according to the tradition of the holy Fathers we know that the goods of the Church are the vows of the faithful, the price of sins, and the patrimonies of the poor, we desire not only to preserve to each what it has, but even, with God's help, to confer much upon it. Yet, that we might utterly remove from churchmen the suspicion long since conceived concerning the non-division of its goods, we have decreed that neither in our own times, nor in those of our sons and, by God's dispensing, of our successors who shall be willing to imitate our will or that of our forebears, or our example, shall it suffer any division or loss whatsoever. (cap. 84.) Being also not ignorant of the sacred canons, in order that in the name of God holy Church may the more freely enjoy her own honor, we give our assent to the ecclesiastical order: namely, that bishops be chosen, by the election of clergy and people 1091Baccording to the statutes of the canons, out of their own diocese, all acceptance of persons and of gifts being put away, for the merit of their life and the gift of wisdom, that by example and by word they may be able to profit in every way those subject to them. » And in the same edict, from which these things were taken, there follows: « We command also all who are subject to our dominion that no one attempt to plunder the privileges of churches or of monasteries, or the churches themselves; because, as we have been instructed by the holy Fathers, this is discerned to be a most grievous sin, » and the rest that follows. And in the privilege of the Church of Beauvais, confirmed by the bishops of four provinces with the consent of the lord Charles lately deceased, this is contained in the relevant place: « But let the secular power, whether it be endowed with some high station, or 1091Cset in a lowly place, take no lordship over these things, either in the present or in the future, contrary to the sacred rules — neither invading them by violence, nor receiving them when offered. But if any of kings, of priests, of judges, or of secular persons, knowing this page of our constitution, shall attempt to go against it, let him be deprived of the dignity of his power and honor, and let him know himself to stand guilty before the divine judgment for the iniquity he has perpetrated. And unless he either restores those things which have been wrongly taken away by him, or bewails his unlawful deeds with worthy penance, let him become a stranger to the most sacred body and blood of God our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, and let him lie under strict vengeance at the eternal examination. But to all who preserve what is just toward that same place, let there be the peace of our Lord 1091DJesus Christ, so that here they may receive the fruit of good action, and before the strict Judge may find the rewards of eternal peace. » And in the privilege of the same Church, confirmed by the lord Pope Nicholas, these things are contained in the relevant place (Nicolaus Odon. episc. ): « Let no king, therefore, no judge, no one upheld by the dignity of whatever secular power, have power either of lording it over, or of receiving, or of taking away, in the goods of the aforesaid monasteries — whether farms, or fields, or bondservants, or whatever shall have been conferred upon those same monasteries — save only the bishop of the Church of Beauvais, who shall for the time be set over that same Church. But whatever, whether in gold or in silver, or in furnishings of any kind, or in the whole substance of its resources, 1092Ais this day assigned to those monasteries, or shall in times to come be conferred upon them, let it be made subject to the distribution and ordering of the bishop of Beauvais; nor let the right or lordship of any other power obtain any authority over these things, save so far as divine authority and law and justice shall permit. But if anyone with rash daring, be he a great or a small person, shall presume to act against this our apostolic decree, let him know that he is bound with the bond of anathema, and is a stranger to the kingdom of God, and condemned with all the ungodly to the punishment of eternal burning. But he who shall show himself an observer of this precept, let him be counted worthy to obtain grace and mercy and eternal life from our most merciful Lord God. » And St. Gregory, in a decretal letter 1092Bsent into the regions of Greece on account of certain disturbances, speaks thus in the relevant place: « But if there are any who say that a man compelled by necessity, if he has pronounced an anathema, is not held by the bond of the anathema, they are witnesses against themselves that they are not Christians — since they reckon that they can loose the bonds of holy Church by empty efforts, and thereby they do not think even the absolution of holy Church, which she grants to the faithful, to be true, if they judge her bindings to have no force. Against such men there is no need to dispute at length, since they are in all things to be despised and anathematized; and in the very point where they believe that they deceive the truth, therein are they truly bound in their sins. And these both I, and all catholic bishops, and the whole Church do anathematize, because they think things contrary to the truth and speak things contrary to it. » 1092CWherefore our most beloved lord the king must take the greatest care that he does not, at the suggestion or the demand of any men whatsoever, act against these decrees of the Holy Spirit, or consent that anything be done against them concerning ecclesiastical goods — especially after this visitation of God, by which, through confession and penance and priestly reconciliation, we believe him to have been amended. For great is the power of penance against sin — but for him who perseveres in that same penance, since it is written: He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved (Matth. XVIII, 22); and again it is written: He that is baptized from a dead body, and toucheth it again, what doth his washing avail him (Eccli. XXXIV, 30)? For every perverse work is dead which drags a man down to death and does not live unto justice. He therefore is baptized from 1092Da dead body and touches it again who bewails the depraved works which he remembers having done, but after his tears entangles himself again in those same works. And so any soul whatever gains nothing by the washing away of that same dead thing, which by doing again the thing it bewailed does not rise up through the laments of penance to the uprightness of justice. For truly to do penance is to bewail the things committed, and to shun the things that must be bewailed again. Provision must therefore be made by our most dear lord the king for this: that the Lord of lords and King of kings says to him also, and to each one of us, indeed to every man without exception of any person — since, as the Scripture says, God is not a respecter of persons (Act. X, 34) — that which long before he had said to a certain man in the Gospel: Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, 1093Alest some worse thing happen to thee (Joan. V, 14). But let him also not give ear to those who suggest depraved things to him, since the Apostle says: Not only they that do them, but they that consent to them that do them, are worthy of death (Rom. I, 32). Neither let him command the bishop lately ordained to do such things, or to consent to those who do them, whereby he should destroy himself and lose the grace of the Church before God. For before all his electors and his ordainers he has most strictly professed, before his ordination, and has subscribed with his own hand, that he would keep the sacred rules of the holy councils, so far as he should know and be able. And these sacred canons, established by the Spirit of God and 1094Aconsecrated by the reverence of the whole world, thus decree: If anyone shall in any point go against his own profession or his own writing, he shall himself deprive himself of his honor. But those who shall presume to ruin the goods and resources of the Church of Beauvais with his consent or favor — he who had no authority to give them to them or to consent thereto — let them most carefully take heed, lest they incur the sentences of the sacred canons written above, brought against them by all of us bishops to whose notice their sacrileges shall have come, and lest they be by every means separated from all fellowship of Christians.