§ 1. The duties of ecclesiastics relate either to God, to their neighbor, or to themselves. The first and holiest duty is to sacrifice to God, to pray, to sing psalms to the Lord, and to devote oneself to divine reading. The second is to teach, admonish, and judge, whether concerning ecclesiastical or secular matters. The third is to exhibit integrity of life in all these things toward God, oneself, and one’s neighbor. These duties must therefore be treated in order. First, concerning sacrifice.
§ 2. A sacrifice has been offered to the divine majesty in every age. Concerning Christian times also, the Prophets said that a sacrifice was to be offered in every place, and indeed a clean oblation, Malachi 1:10–11. Justin in the Dialogue with Trypho, Irenaeus in book 4, chapter 31, Cyprian in book 1 Against the Jews, Jerome, Augustine, and the others interpret this as referring to the true Eucharistic sacrifice. Dionysius the Areopagite himself, a disciple of the Apostles, calls it θεοτάτην καὶ ἱερὰν τελετήν, a most divine and sacred sacrifice.
With the same meaning Blessed Andrew calls it ἄρτον θεόσωμον and says:
Κύριος ὢν τῶν ὅλων, ὁ ποιητὴς Θεός, τὸ πάσχα ἐκείνοις ὑφ’ ὧν θνήσκειν ἔμελλες, αὐτὸς ὢν, σεαυτὸν προέθηκας, “φάγετε” βοῶν, “τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ σῶμά μου,” καὶ πίστει θεμελιοῦσθε. Συνήθης γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἀρχὴν τῆς ὑπουργίας, εὐλογήσας τὸν θεόσωμον ἄρτον καὶ καινὸν καθαγιάσας ποτήριον, τὸ δεσποτικὸν αἷμα, μετέδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἀχράντων καὶ ἀθανάτων τοῦ Χριστοῦ μυστηρίων.
Existing as Lord of all and God the Creator, you proposed yourself as the pasch to those who had delivered you to death, crying, “Eat; this is my body,” and “Be established in faith,” says Andrew. But in the ministry customary among them, when he had blessed the bread changed into the body of God and had consecrated a new chalice of the Lord’s blood, he made them participants in the undefiled and immortal mysteries of Christ.
§ 3. It must be earnestly ensured that the sacrifice is offered to God rightly and with the worship that is owed.
For if the divine majesty required purity of soul and integrity of body in the ministers who slew victims of bulls and sheep, what innocence and sanctity are required in those who offer to God the Holy of Holies, the Son of God, the eternal splendor, born of the Virgin? Certainly the blood of God’s Son demands hands purer than the blood of animals. John Chrysostom speaks truly in his commentary on John:
Τὸ “ἔνοχος τοῦ σώματος καὶ αἵματος” τοῦτο δηλοῖ, ὅτι καθάπερ παρέδωκε μὲν αὐτὸν ὁ Ἰούδας, παρῴνησαν δὲ εἰς αὐτὸν Ἰουδαῖοι, οὕτω ἀτιμάζουσιν αὐτὸν οἱ τὸ πανάγιον αὐτοῦ σῶμα χερσὶν ἀκαθάρτοις δεχόμενοι· ὡς Ἰουδαῖοι κρατήσαντες, οὕτω καὶ οἱ ἀναξίως προσφέροντες στόματι. Διὰ τί δὲ τὸ εἰπεῖν πολλάκις τὸ σῶμα καὶ τὸ αἷμα τοῦ Κυρίου δηλοῖ; Ὅτι οὐχ ἁπλὸς ἄνθρωπος, ψιλὸς ὁ θυόμενος, ἀλλ’ αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος, ὁ ποιήσας τὰ ὅλα, ὡς δῆθεν διὰ τούτων ἐκφοβῶν αὐτούς· καὶ “τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ Κυρίου,” ὡς αὐτὸς ὁ ἐκχέας αὐτό· οἱ γὰρ ἐφόνευσαν αὐτόν, ὁ δὲ τῇ ἀναξιότητι φονεύειν δοκεῖ.
The words, “he will be guilty of the body and blood,” signify this: just as Judas betrayed him and the Jews mocked him, so those who receive his most holy body with impure hands are injurious to him, just as were the Jews when they held him; such are those who bring it to a polluted mouth. But the fact that he repeatedly uses the words “the body and blood of the Lord” shows that the one who is sacrificed is not a mere human being, but the Lord himself, the creator of this universe. By this he terrifies us: “He will be guilty of the body of the Lord,” as one who has shed his blood. For the Jews killed him, but this man who eats unworthily appears to kill him.
§ 4. God killed the sons of Eli together with their father and on one day delivered the camp of Israel and the ark into the hands of the enemies because they had kicked away the victim of the Lord, 1 Kings 2:29 and following. “Why,” he says, “have you kicked away my victim and my offerings which I commanded to be offered in the temple?” In Hebrew: למה תבעטו בזבחי, “Why have you kicked at my victim?” For it is a great contempt to trample something under one’s feet, and a greater one to strike it with the back part of the feet. The Septuagint rendered the sense: Καὶ ἵνα τί ἐπέβλεψας ἐπὶ τὸ θυμίαμά μου, καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν θυσίαν μου ἀναιδεῖ ὀφθαλμῷ; “Why did you look contemptuously upon my incense and my victim with a shameless eye?” How much more gravely, therefore, do those sin who look with a shameless eye upon the highest and most divine mystery?
I think that this shamelessness caused the exiles and deaths of so many priests, the devastation of temples, and the demolition of altars, while in the place of reconciliation, in the sanctuary of holiness, the Son of God is crucified again by impious priests and the blood of the covenant is held up to mockery. One ark was captured, two priests fell, and Eli, falling, broke his neck because the typological sacrifices, shadows of the true ones, had been despised, because the blood of bulls and calves had not been offered according to rite. The Christian world mourns that so many temples have been burned, changed into profane workshops, and converted into Turkish mosques and schools of heresies; and it fears for the others, because the evil life of priests had already dishonored them beforehand. Let us blame the errors and frenzies of manifold heresies in such a way that we nevertheless know that they arose from the vice of priests. The impious life of the sacrificing priest drove the people of God away from God’s temple, and drives them away today. Yet together with bad priests the people is punished, as is the parent who dissembles crimes and thrusts badly reared sons upon the Church.
§ 5. Therefore the Supreme Pontiff, Metropolitans, Archbishops, Bishops, Provosts, Deans, official Vicars, and the rest bind themselves by mortal sin when they are negligent in this class of matters. For they permit God to be afflicted with insult, turn the people away from the temple, and furnish enemies an occasion for cursing and insulting. For what was less fitting than that those whose eyes are full of adultery and of unceasing sin should offer the blood of the Lamb and feed upon it? Why do they permit the bellies and crimes of impious human beings to be fattened from Christ’s patrimony? Why do they not prevent them from eating and drinking judgment for themselves every day? Formerly, if anyone unworthy approached the table of the Lord, he was frequently punished with sickness and death. “Therefore,” says the Apostle, “among you many are weak and feeble, and many sleep,” 1 Corinthians 11, because God pursues an insult inflicted upon his body with swift punishment.
St. Cyprian, in On the Lapsed, testifies that this was customary in his own time:
Still almost belching forth the death-bearing food of idols, their jaws even now breathing out their crime and reeking of deadly contagion, they invade the Lord’s body, although the divine Scripture meets them, cries out, and says: “Everyone who is clean shall eat the flesh, and whatever soul eats of the flesh of the saving sacrifice, which belongs to the Lord, while his uncleanness is upon him, that soul shall perish from his people.” The Apostle likewise testifies and says: “You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord and the chalice of demons; you cannot share the Lord’s table and the table of demons.” He likewise threatens and denounces the obstinate and stubborn, saying: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the chalice of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” All these things having been spurned and despised, violence is inflicted upon his body and blood; and now they sin against the Lord more with their hands and mouth than when they denied the Lord. Before their offenses have been expiated and confession of the crime made, before their conscience has been cleansed,
by the sacrifice and hand of the priest, before the offense of the indignant and threatening Lord has been appeased, they think there is peace—the peace which certain men sell with deceptive words. That is not peace but war; nor is the man joined to the Church who is separated from the Gospel.
If these things are said concerning all Christians, why are they not said still more concerning priests, who both confect the Lord’s body, receive it, and distribute it to others? With defiled hands and a polluted mouth they invade the Lord’s body; to others, who detest them, they hand it with scandal. They ought not to give it to the unworthy, but they themselves handle it most unworthily.
St. Cyprian admonished this long ago:
Behold what punishments we discern among those who denied! What mournful ends of theirs do we lament! Nor can they be here without punishment, although the day of punishment has not yet come. Certain persons are punished meanwhile so that others may be corrected. The examples belong to all; the torments, to a few. One of those who voluntarily ascended the Capitol to make a denial, after he denied Christ, became mute. The punishment began from the place where the crime also began, so that he who did not have words with which to entreat mercy could no longer entreat. Another woman, stationed in the baths—for this was lacking to her crime and evils, that she who had lost the grace of the life-giving washing should proceed at once to the baths—was seized there by an unclean spirit, unclean as she was, and fell. With her teeth she tore the tongue which had either fed or spoken impiously. After the criminal food was consumed, the madness of her mouth was armed for her own destruction. She became her own executioner and could not survive long thereafter; tortured by pains of the belly and entrails, she died.
Receive what happened with me myself present and as witness. Parents, perhaps fleeing, while in their fear they took too little counsel for themselves, left their little daughter under a nurse’s care. The nurse took the abandoned child to the magistrates. At the idol where the people were assembling, because on account of her age she could not yet eat flesh, they handed her bread mixed with wine, which nevertheless was itself left over from the sacrifice of those who were perishing. Afterwards the mother received her daughter. But the girl was as unable to speak and disclose the crime committed as she had been unable to understand or prevent it. It therefore happened through ignorance that the mother brought her with herself when we were sacrificing. But the girl, mingled with the holy ones, unable to bear our prayer and supplication, now began to be shaken with weeping, now to be tossed about, wavering in an agitation of mind; and, as if under the compulsion of a torturer, by such indications as she could give, her untaught soul in its still innocent years confessed consciousness of the deed.
But when the solemn rites had been completed and the deacons began to offer the chalice to those present, and, after the others received it, her place came, the little girl, by an instinct of the divine majesty, turned her face away, pressed her mouth closed with resisting lips, and refused the chalice. The deacon nevertheless persisted and, although she struggled against him, poured into her from the sacrament of the chalice. Then there followed sobbing and vomiting. The Eucharist could not remain in a violated body and mouth. The drink sanctified in the Lord’s blood erupted from the polluted entrails. So great is the Lord’s power, so great his majesty. The secrets of darkness were detected beneath his light; not even hidden crimes deceived the priest of God.
This occurred concerning an infant who did not yet have the age to speak of another’s crime concerning her. But a woman of mature age and advanced years, who crept in secretly among us while we were sacrificing, took for herself not food but a sword, and, as if admitting certain deadly poisons between her jaws and breast, then began to be strangled and shut in by a soul boiling over. Having suffered the pressure not of persecution but of her own offense, she fell down trembling and palpitating. The crime of a dissembled conscience did not long remain unpunished or hidden. She who had deceived a human being perceived God as her avenger.
And when a certain woman attempted with unworthy hands to open her chest in which the Lord’s holy thing had been, she was frightened away by fire rising from it, so that she did not dare to touch it. And another man, who was himself defiled, after the sacrifice had been celebrated by the priest, dared secretly to receive his portion with the others. He could not eat and handle the Lord’s holy thing; when he opened his hands, he found himself carrying ashes. By the example of one it was shown that the Lord withdraws when he is denied, and that what is received does not profit the undeserving unto salvation when, while the sanctity shines forth, saving grace is changed into ash.
How many every day, not performing penance nor confessing their consciousness of their offense, are filled with unclean spirits? How many, mindless even to insanity of mind, are shaken by the fury of madness? Nor is it necessary to go through the ends of individuals, since throughout the manifold ruins of the world the punishment of offenses is as varied as the number of offenders is numerous. Let each person consider not what another has suffered, but what he himself deserves to suffer. Let him not believe that he has escaped if meanwhile his punishment has been deferred, since the man whom the sentence of God the judge has reserved ought to fear all the more.
§ 6. Thus Christ the Lord, by the terror of the few whom the tower crushed and whose blood Pilate mingled with sacrifices, reveals the punishments of all who sin: “Unless you do penance, you will all perish in like manner.”
St. Dionysius testifies in his Hierarchy that this occurred not only in the time of Cyprian but also in the most ancient times—namely, that many persons were vexed by demons on account of receiving the Eucharist unworthily. After Cyprian, Chrysostom says in homily 3 on 1 Timothy: “Very many things of this kind occur even now. For because the priests do not know those persons who, being liable to sins, receive the venerable mysteries unworthily, God frequently acts and hands those same persons over to Satan. Finally, how often illnesses, how often losses, how often griefs and calamities occur; they occur on account of this matter. Paul also expressed this pointedly: ‘Therefore among you,’ he says, ‘many are weak,’” and so forth.
Indeed, wicked priests are now frequently punished with diseases, death, and in other ways, but more frequently through the despoliation of temples and loss of all revenues, so that they may be corrected by poverty. Many have fallen into heresies because they rejected conscience. Nor must the end of the punishments be awaited.
§ 7. The canons which bar impious and concubinary priests from the altars must not only be praised, but recalled into use and vigor. For if matters come to such a point that laws are overcome by vices, they are consumed by sedition, war, famine, and pestilence.
There are various canons, and I shall set down some of them, so that prelates may have a norm according to which they may reform their clergy; for unless they do so, either the heretic or the Turk will do it, or some barbarian fouler than the Turk.
Canon 24 of the Apostles:
Ἐπίσκοπος, ἢ πρεσβύτερος, ἢ διάκονος, ἐπὶ πορνείᾳ, ἢ ἐπιορκίᾳ, ἢ κλοπῇ ἁλούς, καθαιρείσθω, καὶ μὴ ἀφοριζέσθω· λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή· οὐκ ἐκδικήσεις δὶς ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό. ὁμοίως καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ κληρικοὶ τῇ αὐτῇ αἱρέσει ὑποκείσθωσαν.
A bishop, presbyter, or deacon who has been caught in fornication, perjury, or theft is to be deposed; nevertheless, he is not to be deprived of communion. For Scripture says: “The Lord will not avenge twice for the same thing.” Likewise, let the remaining clerics be subject to the same penalty.
Although only deposition is commanded by that canon, excommunication is nevertheless often added because of the nature of the offense, or its circumstances, or certainly the neglect of amendment, as the most learned Severinus Binius shows in his most exact notes on the Councils.
There are other canons which deny clerics the use of a wife; how much more do they detest fornication? Thus Distinction 32, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 17, and Distinction 81, chapter 3 and following.
Much more severely, however, they forbid not only consorting with harlots but even cohabitation with women. The Council of Nicaea, canon 3, Distinction 22, chapter 16: “In every respect the holy Synod has forbidden a bishop, presbyter, deacon, or anyone at all who is in the clergy to be permitted to keep a woman introduced into his household, unless perhaps a mother, sister, or paternal aunt, or also those suitable persons who escape suspicion.”
To this I also refer Distinction 33, chapter 2. There orders are denied to a bigamist; how much more to adulterers, if they commit adultery while in those very orders? And Distinction 34, chapter 7. There also a man who, before he was named Bishop, is said to have had a concubine is commanded to withdraw from office if the report was true; thus Gregory to Andrew of Tarentum:
When the truth was disclosed, we learned that you had had a concubine, concerning whom suspicion against you has also arisen among certain persons. But because there ought not to be an absolute judgment in doubtful matters, we choose to entrust this to your conscience. Therefore, if you remember that, while constituted in sacred order, you were stained by union with her, lay aside the honor of the priesthood and presume in no way to approach to minister; knowing that you minister at the peril of your soul and will without doubt render an account of yourself to our God, if, conscious of this crime, you wish to remain in the order in which you are by concealing the truth.
But let us hear those who wished sacrifice to be offered by good and chaste priests. The canon of the Roman Synod of 113 Bishops reads thus: “Let no one hear the Mass of a presbyter whom he knows without doubt to have a concubine or a woman introduced into his household.” Hence the holy Synod itself also established this chapter under pain of excommunication, saying: “Whoever among the priests or deacons,” and so forth. Who will restore to us, if not the practice, at least the fear of the ancient discipline?
Yet this is not forbidden as though the sacrifices were not true sacrifices and the sacraments true sacraments, but in order that impious priests may be corrected; thus Augustine, tractate 5 on John, 1, question 1, chapter 30:
If the minister is just, I reckon him with Paul, who does not seek his own glory, saying, “I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase.” But if the minister is proud, he is reckoned with the devil; yet the gift of Christ is not defiled, because through him the pure river passes and comes to fertile soil. I know that a stone cannot bear fruit from water; and if water passes through stone channels to the garden-plots, nothing is generated in the stone channel, but nevertheless the garden bears very abundant fruit. For the spiritual virtue of the sacrament is received as pure light by those who are to be illuminated; but in passing through the unclean it is not polluted.
Since, therefore, the cause of the law still persists, there is no doubt that the obligation of the law also remains. For why, if citizens, nobles, and farmers have a concubinary parish priest, should they not rather betake themselves to those by whom the sacrifices are performed without scandal? For in the sacrifice itself it occurs to the hearer that God is being offended by the sacrificer with mortal crime—with manifold crime.
What, then, is to be done with those clerics who cast the sacrifice away with their heel? The Third Synod of Orléans, chapter 7, defined this long ago, as it stands in Distinction 81, chapter 10: “If any cleric shall have confessed or been convicted of having committed adultery, let him be deposed from office, be granted communion, and be thrust into a monastery for the whole time of his life.” Deservedly is he thrust back into hiding who, placed upon the lampstand, did not shine but poured the darkness of offenses over the Church.
And in the same Distinction, chapters 11, 13, 14, 16, and 17, they are commanded to be deposed. Indeed, Gregory VII forbids them to enter the church, Distinction 81, chapter 15:
If there are any presbyters, deacons, or subdeacons who lie in the crime of fornication, on behalf of almighty God and by the authority of St. Peter we forbid them entrance into the church until they repent and amend. But if any prefer to persevere in their sin, let none of you presume to hear their office, because their blessing is turned into a curse and their prayer into sin, as the Lord testifies through the Prophet: “I shall curse,” he says, “your blessings.” But whoever refuses to obey this most salutary precept incurs the sin of idolatry, as Samuel testifies and Blessed Gregory confirms: “Not to obey is the sin of divination, and not to acquiesce is like the crime of idolatry.” Therefore, whoever, while asserting that he is a Christian, disdains to obey the Apostolic See incurs the sin of paganism.
Even conversation and suspicion are forbidden in Distinction 81, chapters 26 and 27. The same judgment of the Church remained also in the times of our forefathers; for in the Lateran Council under Leo X it was established as follows, chapter 1, in the Septimum, book 5, title 1, constitution 16:
We establish that every cleric, of whatsoever condition, status, religious order, or dignity, even if he be of pontifical or some other preeminence, who, after obtaining knowledge of the present decrees—which he is presumed to have obtained after two months following the publication of these same present decrees in the cathedral churches, which the diocesan bishops themselves are absolutely bound to effect after the present decrees have come to their knowledge—is a public concubinary, shall by the very fact be suspended for the space of three months from the receipt of the fruits of all his benefices; his superior shall convert these fruits to the fabric, or to another evident utility, of the churches from which those fruits are received. Moreover, as soon as his superior knows him to be such a public concubinary, he shall at once be bound to admonish him to dismiss his concubine within the shortest term; and if he does not dismiss her, or publicly takes back the woman dismissed or another, we command that the superior deprive him altogether of all his benefices.
And nevertheless, until their superiors have dispensed with these public concubinaries after the dismissal of the concubines and the manifest amendment of their lives, they shall be ineligible to receive any honors, dignities, benefices, or offices whatsoever. If, after dispensation, they return like the dog to its vomit, to public concubinage of this kind, they shall be altogether ineligible for the aforesaid things, without hope of any dispensation. And if those to whom the correction of such persons belongs neglect to punish them as aforesaid, their own superiors shall in every way punish with a worthy penalty both them for their neglect and those others for concubinage. In provincial and synodal councils as well, action shall be taken against those who neglect to punish such persons, or who are accused of this crime, even by suspension from the conferral of benefices or by another fitting penalty. And if those whose removal belongs to us and the aforesaid See are found by provincial Councils or superiors to be worthy of deprivation because of public concubinage, they shall immediately be brought before us together with the inquisitorial proceedings. The same diligence and inquiry shall be observed regarding them in all general and provincial chapters, while the other penalties established by law against the aforesaid and other public concubinaries remain in their force.
Those, however, are to be understood as public concubinaries not only whose concubinage is notorious through a sentence, a confession made at law, or evidence of the fact which can be concealed by no evasion, but also those who keep a woman suspected and accused of incontinence and, having been admonished by their superior, do not effectually dismiss her. But because, in certain regions, some persons possessing ecclesiastical jurisdiction
are not ashamed to receive monetary gain from concubinaries, allowing them to wallow in such foulness, under penalty of eternal malediction we command that henceforth they neither tolerate nor dissemble such things in any way under an agreement, composition, or hope of other gain. Otherwise, in addition to the aforesaid penalty for negligence, they shall be bound and compelled to restore twice what they received on that account and to convert it entirely to pious uses. But the prelates shall take care by every means to keep the concubines themselves, or suspect women, entirely away from their subjects, invoking the help and arm of the secular power if necessary; and they shall not permit sons begotten from such concubinage to live with their fathers. We command in addition that the aforesaid things be published in the aforementioned Synods and chapters, and we diligently enjoin them to admonish each of their subjects to dismiss these concubines.
Furthermore, we command all secular men, even if they shine with royal dignity, not to bring any impediment whatsoever, under any color sought, against prelates who by reason of their office proceed against their subjects for concubinage of this kind and in other cases permitted them by law. And since every crime of fornication is prohibited by divine law and must necessarily be avoided under penalty of mortal sin, we admonish all laymen, married as well as unmarried, similarly to abstain from concubinage. For he is exceedingly blameworthy who has a wife and approaches another wife or woman; but he who is unmarried, if he is unwilling to remain continent, should take a wife according to the Apostle’s counsel. For the observance of this divine precept, those to whom it belongs shall labor with every zeal, both by such salutary admonitions and by other canonical remedies. Rome, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of January, 1516.
§ 8. Likewise the Council of Trent, session 25, chapter 4, On Reformation:
How shameful and unworthy of the name of clerics, who have devoted themselves to divine worship, it is to live amid the filth of immodesty and unclean concubinage, the thing itself sufficiently attests, to the common offense of all the faithful and the supreme disgrace of the clerical soldiery. Therefore, so that the ministers of the Church may be recalled to that continence and integrity of life which befits them, and so that the people may thereby learn to reverence them the more, the more honorable they have recognized them to be in life, the holy Synod forbids all clerics whatsoever to dare to keep concubines or other women concerning whom suspicion can be entertained, either in or outside the house, or to have any association with them; otherwise, let them be punished by the penalties imposed by the sacred canons or the statutes of the Churches.
But if, after being admonished by their superiors, they have not abstained from them, by the very fact let them be deprived of a third part of the fruits, emoluments, and revenues of all their benefices whatsoever, and of their pensions; this part is to be applied to the fabric of the church or to another pious place at the discretion of the Bishop. But if, persisting in the same offense with the same or another woman, they have still not obeyed a second admonition, not only shall they by that very fact lose all the fruits and revenues of their benefices and their pensions—which shall be applied to the aforesaid places—but they shall also be suspended from the administration of the benefices themselves for as long as the Ordinary, acting also as delegate of the Apostolic See, shall judge proper. And if, thus suspended, they nevertheless do not expel the women or continue to associate with them, then let them be deprived in perpetuity of their benefices, portions, offices, and all ecclesiastical pensions, and be rendered ineligible and unworthy of all honors, dignities, benefices, and offices in future, until, after manifest amendment of life, their superiors shall for cause judge it proper to dispense with them.
But if, after they have once dismissed the women, they dare to renew the discontinued association or attach to themselves other scandalous women of this kind, in addition to the aforesaid penalties let them be struck with the sword of excommunication. Nor shall any appeal or exemption whatever impede or suspend the aforesaid execution. Cognizance of all the aforesaid matters shall belong not to Archdeacons, Deans, or other inferiors, but to the Bishops themselves, who may proceed without the clamor and formality of a trial, considering the truth of the fact alone. But clerics who possess no ecclesiastical benefices or pensions shall, according to the nature of their offense and their persistence in contumacy, be punished by the Bishop with imprisonment, suspension from order, ineligibility to obtain benefices, or in other ways according to the sacred canons. Bishops also—God forbid—if they have not abstained from a crime of this kind and, after being admonished by the provincial synod, have not amended themselves, shall by the very fact be suspended; and if they persist, they shall also be reported by that same Synod to the most holy Roman Pontiff, who shall punish them according to the nature of the fault, even by deprivation if necessary.
Nor is it strange or novel that superiors pay the penalties for the faults of their subjects, for in truth these faults are imputed to them, Distinction 86, chapter 1: “The faults of the lower orders are to be referred to none more than to sluggish and negligent rulers, who often nourish a great pestilence while they dissemble from applying a harsher medicine.” If a physician betrays his duty when, through cruel mercy, he allows a contagious plague to increase unto the destruction of the sick man, how great is the sin of a prelate who idly watches the destructions of souls?
All these things tend to this end: that sacrifices may be offered purely, chastely, and uprightly by holy priests, and that because of contempt for it the Church and the state may not come into danger.
§ 9. Nor ought it to be a matter of little care to us that the external majesty of ceremonies, churches, and sacred furnishings should be such as, turning minds away from earthly thoughts, may lead them by the hand, as it were, to the contemplation of heavenly things, and as is fitting for the divine majesty. It is therefore fitting that these things be done in a well-ordered state.
There ought to be daily sacrifices, lest the Christian Church be less pleasing to Christ than the Hebrew Church had been. For in the latter, besides the morning and evening sacrifices, the altars glowed with perpetual fire.
It has furthermore been provided by law—and indeed by a most ancient law—that the mysteries be celebrated and received by those who are fasting, although Christ himself gave them to men who had eaten supper. For it was established thus from Apostolic times, after some were approaching the table of the Lord hungry and others drunk.
Let him who celebrates the mysteries have an assistant and minister. The canons profess that they establish this because of the various contingencies which arise.
Let the chalices and the other instruments and vestments be becoming, and indicative of the mysteries; and let there be that ornament which displays a modest magnificence. For it is not fitting that the furnishings of the church be squalid, since they are accustomed to shine upon tables.
But if cemeteries must be fenced lest the places in which Christians rest be disturbed by the incursion of animals—see volume 4 of the Councils, part 2, folio 437, and the Fourth Council of Milan, section On the Ornament, Beauty, and Cleanliness of Sacred Places—if, I say, such great cleanliness and ornament are required, how much more the purity of souls, without which the splendor of walls cannot be pleasing to God?
Concerning external ornament it was established thus in the Fourth Council of Milan: “Let no animals, larger fish, or members of them be hung in churches, except those which the Bishop shall judge should be permitted for the sake of a vow or pious signification.”
Let the consecrated tables of the altars, even if in some part they are made of brick, be entirely covered with waxed cloth in such a way that the cloth cannot easily be removed from the table.
When the doors of the Church are open, let each altar be clothed with three clean cloths—one long one which reaches to its lowest part, and the other two shorter—in such a way that even the wooden step placed behind upon the altar is not bare of covering, but is entirely spread with a clean cloth. Let each altar likewise always be fittingly adorned with a frontal of the color proper, insofar as this can be done, to the feast-day or feria, and covered with a green cloth so that the cloths may not be soiled by dust or other filth; and let it furthermore be furnished and adorned with a cross placed in the middle and two candlesticks, one placed on the right and the other on the left. Let this be done daily in churches which are frequented, but in other churches at least on feast-days.
Let there likewise be a tablet of the secrets upon each altar, but on this condition: that when Mass is completed it is not to remain upright, but is to be laid down and concealed beneath the covering or cloth.
In those Churches in which, on the Thursday of Holy Week, a sepulcher is adorned or erected where the body of Christ the Lord is reserved, since Isaiah foretold that it would be glorious, just as it must be decorated with precious ornament, so care must be taken in them that the arrangement of the ornaments not be profane and little becoming. Therefore, let no coverlets, curtains, canopies, or tents employed for profane use in bedchambers be used to clothe and adorn it, unless they have been offered to the Church, have already become its property, and have been dedicated to sacred use.
The same is established concerning the garments and ornaments with which the sacred images of male and female saints are clothed.
Let neither Churches nor oratories become filthy with mold, dust, or other squalor.
Where, moreover, a place of no great space, however small, which does not contain the choir, is given or left between the high altar and the wall which is behind it, let that place also be kept pure and clean from every mold, squalor, and filth.
Let no box, small vessel, table, or any other thing of that kind be placed, even extraordinarily, in a Church, before its doors, in oratories, or in another sacred place for the sake of collecting alms—not even in the name of that Church, its fabric, or its rector—or, if already placed, be permitted in future, except by the Bishop’s permission expressed in writing. Then let two keys, fashioned with different workmanship, be fitted to that box or other object prepared for this purpose; one of them shall be kept by the person whom the Bishop has named, and the other by those in whose name the alms are collected. If it is done otherwise, let the penalty be at the Bishop’s discretion; likewise, let the alms collected be assigned to pious places at his discretion.
If, by the Bishop’s permission, any chests are placed in the Church, into which—as happens in very many places through the devotion of the faithful—grain, pulses, or anything else is cast as alms, let them not be placed inside the rails or iron lattice of the chapel or altar to which the faithful who offer things of this sort resort, so that it would be necessary for the faithful who are to contribute alms to enter the rails.
In order both that provision may be made for the cleanliness of Churches and that the disturbances and quarrels which often arise from the placing in Churches of women’s seats, which they call bradellae, may be forestalled, and at the same time that more space may be given to the throng of the people in those Churches which especially are very narrow, let all those seats be removed wherever they have been placed, and let none ever be placed in future. But with the Bishop’s permission it shall be lawful to place and set up certain common seats, low and fashioned with simple workmanship, in the measure and form prescribed in the book of our instructions. These common seats may be made at the expense either of the confraternities established in the Churches or of money contributed by the people, or in any other way which shall seem preferable to the Bishop.
Likewise let the altars, sacred panels and images, and the walls themselves perpetually shine; then let the windows be not somewhat dark but translucent; and let the pavement be carefully swept at least every eighth day. Let it be the care of the rector of each Church that all these things are performed.
Let diligence likewise be applied, and action taken with grave punishment and fine, so that the walls of the Church, oratory, and cemetery may be kept clean from urine or any other kind of filth.
Let trees, stocks, and other shrubs of that kind be removed from all Churches and oratories, lest their spreading roots damage the walls or their extended branches cover the roofs, whence damage may arise to those roofs themselves. But if any branches of this kind already damage the roofs, let them be cut away completely.
Furthermore, let vines, ivy, and other plants of this kind which, as they grow, cling to the exterior walls of churches or oratories be entirely pulled up.
Moreover, let those same walls be kept clean of brambles, thorns, and other things of that kind which are accustomed to grow up outside them, and free also from heaps of rubble and stones.
From cemeteries, moreover, let vines, fruit-bearing trees, and also other trees of every unfruitful kind, or shrubs and stocks, be entirely pulled up and cut down.
And let nothing be planted or sown in these sacred places in future.
Nor let hay be cut from them, nor likewise let the green grass which may serve as fodder be given to beasts.
Nor let anything with a heavy or foul odor be cast within their boundaries, nor let anything else be done there dishonorably toward those sacred places.
Let stables of cattle and animals of every kind also be far from them.
In these same places, let no stack of wood be made; let no beams be heaped up; let there be no pile of rubble or stones; finally, let there be nothing opposed to the beauty, cleanliness, religious character, and sanctity of that place.
On Removing Profane Use from Sacred Places
Let no notices or writings concerning houses, fields, and other things of this kind which are commonly offered or publicly advertised for lease or sale, nor indeed concerning any profane thing whatever, be affixed in future to any doors, leaves, or walls of churches, oratories, or cemeteries, or in any sacred place.
Likewise, let no goods for sale be hung upon the walls of churches, oratories, or cemeteries, nor within the space which is sprinkled with holy water when a Church is consecrated, or within the limits of the drip from the eaves, or within another greater interval of ground to be prescribed by the Bishop’s judgment.
Likewise, let no workshops or shops, made from material of any kind, even boards or planks, either adhering to the walls themselves or situated in cemeteries or sacred places—or indeed anywhere within the limits of that space or interval—be erected or placed in any way. But let those which have already been built or placed be removed entirely from there as soon as possible.
Let the roofs of a Church, chapel, or even an oratory in which the sacrifice of the Mass is sometimes performed not be burdened with heaps of straw or any stack of wood; and let them not have above them any upper room, bedchamber, or indeed any place in which people sleep or dwell or anything profane is done. But let places which are already of this kind be removed altogether.
Let it be lawful for no person whatsoever to store or preserve in a Church, even one not consecrated, or in an oratory or cemetery, wheat, millet, barley, or any kind of grain,
or pulse; likewise fruit, implements prepared for the use of rural estates, or household furnishings of any profane kind—as was established by Pope Innocent III in the Lateran Council—or finally anything foreign to the house of God. Furthermore, unless the Bishop shall at times judge that it should be done otherwise, let it be forbidden for the key of that Church or oratory, whether diocesan or rural, to be entrusted to, kept by, or preserved by lay persons, but especially by tenants or lessees of the houses or estates of that Church. Let no bells be cast in them, nor anything soldered; and let no smith’s work or anything else of this kind be done there, except those things for the use or ornament of that same church or oratory which cannot be done elsewhere.
Let no grain be winnowed in a cemetery as if on a threshing-floor; let no threshing be done; let no straw, grain, or produce be spread out; nor indeed let linen cloths or fabrics, soaked with lye or water, be exposed there to the sun. Let neither women nor men spin anything there with the distaff, sew, or do any other work foreign to the character of those sacred places. Let the entrances of Churches and likewise cemeteries not be used either by the rector or by others who, carrying profane things or burdens, pass this way and that through the Church and sacred places as if along a public road; and in order that this may be entirely prevented, let the Bishop employ every precaution.
Let neither the rudiments of grammar and humane letters, which are often handed down in the empty fables of the gentiles, nor indeed any other letters besides sacred ones be opened and explained to boys in a church as in a literary school; but only the rudiments of Christian doctrine and the other things customarily handed down to boys in those schools.
If, however, in any place, for reasons approved by this council, it has been permitted to the parish priest to teach other things, we do not forbid it; if the narrowness of the parish house necessarily demands it, this office may be performed by him in the Church on weekdays with the permission of the same Bishop.
Let this faculty of permission be given in writing; then, moreover, let a definite place, as far removed as possible from every altar and especially the high altar, be selected for that duty. Let the boys not wander outside the bounds of that place, nor indeed remain in the Church on that account unless the parish priest who has taken them under his discipline is present.
It seemed good to set down these things as an example, on account of the memory of the most holy Bishop Charles Borromeo, so that the other Bishops may have something to imitate.