Letters and Decretals

INNOCENT to VICTRICIUS, Bishop of Rouen, greeting.

1. Although to you, most beloved brother, in accordance with the merit and honor of the priesthood in which you very greatly excel, all things concerning the rule of ecclesiastical living and teaching are known, nor is there anything from the sacred readings which seems to you to be gathered too little; nevertheless, because you have earnestly requested the norm and authority of the Roman Church, greatly complying with your wish, I have sent, annexed to my letter, the ordered disciplines of life and approved morals, by which the peoples of the churches of your region may learn by what matters and rules the life of Christians ought to be contained in each one's profession, and what discipline is kept in the churches of the city of Rome.

It will be for your charity, through the neighboring peoples and our fellow-priests who preside over their own churches in those regions, diligently to instill this book of rules as a kind of teaching manual and monitor; so that they may both come to know our practices, and be able, by diligence in teaching, to form the morals of those flocking to the faith. For either they will recognize their own duty from this fitting reading of ours, or if anything is still lacking, they will easily be able to supply it from good imitation.

2. The beginning of apostleship and episcopate from Peter.—Let us begin, then, with the help of the holy apostle Peter, through whom both apostleship and episcopate took their beginning in Christ, since often many matters have arisen which in some cases were not merely matters but crimes, so that henceforth it may be the concern of every priest to have care of this kind in his own Church, just as the apostle Paul preaches, that such a Church is to be presented to God, not having spot or wrinkle, lest our conscience be defiled by contact with some diseased sheep. Therefore, on account of those who, either through ignorance or through negligence, do not keep ecclesiastical discipline, and presume many things not to be presumed, you have rightly requested that in those parts the form which the Roman Church holds should be observed.

Not that any new precepts are being imposed, but that we desire those things which through the negligence of some have been neglected to be observed by all, which nevertheless have been established by apostolic and patristic tradition. For it is written to the Thessalonians, Paul admonishing: Stand firm, and hold the traditions which we have delivered to you, whether by word or by letter. This certainly ought to stir your mind the more vehemently, that being free from every stain of this present age, you may be found secure before the sight of God. For to whom much is entrusted, from him more is required, with the interest of penalties. Therefore, since we are compelled to render account not for ourselves alone, but for the people of Christ, we ought to instruct the people in divine discipline. For there have arisen some who, not holding the statutes of their elders, have by their own presumption violated the chastity of the Church, seeking the favor of the people, and not fearing the judgment of God.

Therefore, lest by our silence we be thought to give consent to these things, the Lord saying: You saw a thief and you ran with him; these are the things which it is fitting, henceforth, in view of the divine judgment, for every catholic bishop to observe.

First, that outside the knowledge of the metropolitan bishop no one dare to ordain; for the judgment is sound which is confirmed by the opinions of many: nor should a single bishop presume to ordain; lest the benefice conferred should seem to be furtive. This has also been established and defined in the Nicene synod.

Likewise, if anyone, after the remission of sins, has worn the belt of secular military service, he ought by no means to be admitted to the clerical order.

But if any causes or contentions have arisen among clerics, whether of higher or of lower rank, let the quarrel be settled, according to the Nicene synod, by the bishops of the same province assembled together, nor let it be lawful for anyone (yet without prejudice to the Roman Church, to which reverence must be preserved in all causes) to abandon those priests who by divine will govern the Church of God in the same province, and fly off to other provinces. But if anyone should presume to do so, let him both be removed from the office of the clerical order, and be judged by all as guilty of injuries. 6. If greater causes are brought forward, let them, according as the synod has decreed and blessed custom requires, be referred to the Apostolic See after the episcopal judgment.

That a cleric should not take a woman as wife; because it is written, Let the priest take a virgin as wife, not a widow, not a divorced woman. Certainly he who strives for the priesthood by his labor and uprightness of life ought to take care lest, hindered by this prejudice, he be unable to attain it.

That he who, even as a layman, has taken a woman as wife, whether before baptism or after baptism, is not to be admitted to the clergy; because he is seen to be excluded by the same fault. For in baptism sins are forgiven, but the fellowship of a wife once taken is not dissolved.

That he who has taken a second wife should not become a cleric: because it is written, The husband of one wife. And again: Let my priests marry once. And elsewhere: My priests shall not marry again. And lest it be supposed by some that if perchance someone took a wife before baptism, and, she departing from this world, married another, this is dismissed in baptism, he errs greatly from the rule who thinks this is dismissed in baptism: sins are forgiven, but the number of wives taken is not abolished: since indeed a wife is taken by the precept of the law to such an extent that even in paradise, when the parents of the human race were joined, they were blessed by the Lord Himself; and Solomon says, A wife is prepared for a man by God. And usage itself shows that all priests observe this form of the Church.

For it is quite absurd to believe that a wife taken before baptism should not be counted after baptism; since the blessing which is imposed by the priest upon those marrying is shown not to have given occasion for wrongdoing, but to have kept the form of the law instituted by God of old. But if the wife who was married before baptism is not to be reckoned, then neither will the children who were born before baptism be held as children.

That no one presume to ordain a cleric from another's Church, unless that one's bishop, moved by entreaties, has been willing to grant it. This too the Nicene synod established, that another church should not receive a cleric rejected by another.

That those coming from the Novatians or the Montanists be received only by the imposition of hands; because although they came from heretics, yet they were baptized in the name of Christ: except those who, if perchance passing from us to them, were rebaptized. These, if repenting and considering their ruin, prefer to return, are to be admitted only under long satisfaction of penance.

Moreover, what is fitting and modest and honorable, the Church ought in every way to hold: that priests and levites should not come together with their wives; because they are occupied with the necessities of the daily ministry. For it is written, Be holy, for I also am holy, the Lord your God. For if in ancient times priests did not depart from the temple of God during the year of their turn, as we read concerning Zacharias, nor did they touch their houses at all—men to whom, for the sake of the succession of offspring, the use of a wife had indeed been permitted, because it had been ordained that none but those of the tribe and seed of Aaron should approach the priesthood—how much more ought these priests or levites to preserve chastity from the day of their ordination, men to whom either priesthood or ministry belongs without succession, and for whom there is no day free from either divine sacrifices or the office of baptism!

For if Paul writes to the Corinthians, saying, Abstain yourselves for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer, and this he indeed enjoins even upon laymen: how much more ought priests, whose continual office is both to pray and to sacrifice, always to abstain from such intercourse. And if he has been contaminated by carnal concupiscence, with what shame will he presume to sacrifice? Or with what conscience, or by what merit does he believe himself to be heard, since it is said: All things are pure to the pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure? But perhaps he believes this to be lawful, because it is written, The husband of one wife: he did not mean one persisting in the concupiscence of begetting, but for the sake of future continence. For he did not exclude those who were whole in body, who says: But I would that all men were even as I myself. And he declares this more openly, thus saying: For they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

And XI.—13. Concerning monks who, having long remained in monasteries, if afterward they attain to the order of the clergy, ought not to deviate from their former resolve.

For either, as he was in the monastery, and what he long observed, being placed in a better rank, he ought not to lose; or if, having been corrupted, afterward baptized, and residing in a monastery, he should wish to come to the order of the clergy, he will not be able to have a wife at all; because, being already corrupted, he cannot be blessed together with a bride. This form is observed among clerics, especially since the ancient rule holds that whoever, having been corrupted, then baptized, wished to be a cleric, should pledge that he would by no means take a wife.

Moreover, frequently certain of our brethren strive to make clerics of curial officials, or of persons occupied with any public functions whatsoever; from whom afterward greater sorrow arises, when something is ordered by the emperor concerning their recall, than the joy which arose from their admission. For it is well known that in those very offices they even provide entertainments, which there is no doubt were invented by the devil, and that they either preside over, or take part in, the arrangements of games or shows. Let there indeed be, as an example, the anxiety and sorrow of the brethren, which we have often endured, when, the Emperor being present, we repeatedly made petitions on their behalf—which you yourself, being present with us, witnessed—for men not only among the lower clergy drawn from the curial class, but even those already established in the priesthood, upon whom a great trouble was impending, that they should be given back.

Likewise, those who have spiritually married Christ, and have merited to be veiled by the priest, if afterward they either marry publicly or corrupt themselves secretly, are not to be admitted to do penance, unless he to whom they had joined themselves has departed from this world. For if in the case of all women this rule is observed, that whoever marries another while her husband is living is held an adulteress, nor is she granted leave to do penance unless one of the two has died: how much more is this to be held in the case of her who had first joined herself to an immortal spouse, and afterward passed over to human marriage!

But those who, not yet covered with the sacred veil, have nevertheless as maidens been permitted to undertake the resolve of virginity, and have promised to remain in the resolve of virginity, although they have not been veiled, if perchance they marry, must do penance for some length of time; because their pledge was held by God. For if among men a contract made in good faith is not wont to be dissolved for any reason: how much more ought this promise, which she made with God, not be dissolved without punishment! For if the apostle Paul said of those who departed from the resolve of widowhood, that they incur condemnation, because they made void their first faith: how much more shall virgins, who break faith with their prior promise!

17. This rule, then, dearest brother, if it be observed with full vigilance by all the priests of God, ambition will cease, dissension will grow quiet, heresies and schisms will not arise, the devil will find no place for raging, unanimity will remain, iniquity will be overcome and trodden underfoot, truth will blaze with spiritual fervor, and the peace proclaimed by the lips will be in accord with the will of the soul. And the saying of the Apostle will be fulfilled, that being of one mind, thinking the same thing, we may remain in Christ, claiming nothing for ourselves through contention nor through vainglory; pleasing not men, but God our Savior, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Given the fifteenth day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Honorius Augustus for the sixth time and Aristenetus.

INNOCENT to all the bishops assembled in the synod of Toledo, most beloved brethren, greeting in the Lord. 1. Schism in Spain. And contempt of the canons.—Since I have often been troubled with excessive concern over the dissension and schism of the churches, which report declares is creeping ever more widely through the Spains day by day and advancing at a quickened pace, a time has arisen in which so great a correction could not be deferred, and a fitting remedy ought to be provided.

For our brothers, our fellow bishop Hilary, and the presbyter Elpidius, moved partly by love of unity, and partly aroused, as was fitting, by the ruin under which the province labors, came to the apostolic see, and with grief and groaning reported that within the very bosom of the faith, within the province, peace had been violated, that the order of discipline had been thrown into confusion, and that many things had been done contrary to the canons of the fathers, with order despised and rules neglected, in the usurpation of churches, and that concord, in which the whole stability of our faith consists, could not be maintained: which matters are recorded in the minutes of the presbytery's proceedings, and can be shown to you by reading.

The bishops of Baetica separate themselves from the others on account of the Gallicians received.—First of all, as regards the faith itself, dissension has arisen because the bishops of Baetica or of Carthage, on account of communion with the Gallicians, withdrew from the peace of all; which dissension is not only not diminished, but is even increased day by day through zeal for contention, since each one, with the purpose of maintaining what he wanted, has made of it an endless circle of evil and a kind of round from such animosity: whereas surely it is better for every good man in such matters to be overcome, than in evil fashion to hold to a perverse purpose once it has pleased him. For what other cause, even in earlier times, was there for that Lucifer's obstinacy, which drew him back from the concord of those who had condemned the Arian heresy by a prudent conversion?

By the same zeal, when the detestable sect of Priscillian had been condemned by the deserved consent of all, we have learned that some bore it very ill that those who had been converted by sounder counsel were received into the catholic faith: it is discovered that these same men were displeased by a useful deed and by the very peace of the churches. For since Symphosius and Dictinius themselves also, condemning the wicked heresy, were received with a view to unity, so that, such persons being cut off, the innate dissension might be utterly extinguished; there were found those to whom this very correction, rightly done, was displeasing. And now the churches are at variance, concealing no small animosity toward one another. But if the correction had been kept by the priests with sounder counsel, both the state of the catholic faith would have remained whole, and no scandal would have corrupted the concord that is useful in all things.

3. Some bear with an unjust spirit the honors preserved to those men.—For I ask, why did they grieve that Symphosius and Dictinius, and others who condemned the detestable heresy, were then received into the catholic faith? Was it because they had not lost something of the honors which they held? But if this pricks or goads anyone, let them read that Peter the apostle, after his tears, was what he had been before: let them consider that Thomas, after that doubt of his, lost nothing of his former merits: finally, that the prophet David, that excellent one, after his manifest confession, was not deprived of the merits of his prophecy. But if the amendment of conversion cuts away the errors themselves while retaining the dignities; what evil reasoning is it, out of a resolve of obstinacy, to refuse to hold to the way of righteousness and the path that leads to salvation?

4. The strength of unity, and the ruin of schism.—Wherefore your charity must apply itself, and good priests must strive, that, with doctrine going before, all who are scattered may be gathered together into the unity of the catholic faith; and that the one body, which if it be divided into parts will lie open to all the injuries of laceration, and will suffer from itself an inward plague, when its very framework is in conflict with itself, may begin to be unassailable. But let all priests receive these things generally concerning the restoration of unity, as though they were written to each one individually. Then let your charity turn its mind to the particulars concerning all the matters which are set forth.

Rufinus and Minicius usurped ordinations in other men's churches.—For it could not remain hidden that the bishops Rufinus and Minicius presumed to ordain bishops in other men's churches, contrary to the Nicene canons. That no one may dare to claim this for himself, provision must at least now be salutarily made by us: lest by dissembling wrongful usurpation it grow worse, and a rule be made out of custom, which does not come from the discipline itself that has been committed to writing. In this matter let the complaint of our brother and fellow priest Hilary first be heard, who asserted that Rufinus had engaged in every kind of attack against the peace of the churches, and had already at the council of Toledo sought pardon for his error, and now, when the office of ordaining priests was owed to the metropolitan bishop, had, contrary to the will of the people and the order of discipline, ordained a bishop in remote places, and had mingled the churches with scandals.

Then the case of the bishops of Tarragona must be dealt with, who likewise complained that Minicius had ordained a bishop in the church of Gerona; and according to the Nicene canons a sentence must be passed on such usurpation. Let there also be a full inquiry held concerning those bishops who were ordained by Rufinus or by Minicius contrary to the rules: so that, since they were wrongly made, they may understand that what they obtained from a defective beginning they cannot hold much longer.

That John is to be cast out, if he does not cease to resist the decree concerning the reception of those returning to the Church, which he had subscribed.—Concerning JOHN also, the bishop whose consent, given through legates, was added in the synod of Toledo to the reception of SYMPHOSIUS and DICTINIUS, and to whom that correction seemed approvable, let what followed afterward be examined. And indeed concerning all those whose communion has come into doubt on account of a cessation, let a full inquiry be pursued, so that, according to the decree of the synod of Toledo, they may either be joined in the fellowship of communion, so as to abolish suspicion of schism, or, if any are found who refuse concord and the terms agreed upon, let them be cast out of the communion of the catholic faith by the sentences of your charity: so that no longer the inward evil, which, though silent, never ceases, but rather the manifest profession and contagion of schismatics, may be avoided.

Certain ordinations contrary to the canons are to be tolerated for the sake of peace. But henceforth they shall be void, and their authors deposed.—For concerning the ordinations which we know the Spanish bishops to have celebrated by the fault of a wicked custom, something ought to have been decreed according to the tradition of our forebears, had we not weighed lest we stir up very many disturbances for the churches. Their deed we censure in such a way that, on account of the number of those who would need correction, we do not call into doubt the things that have in whatever manner been done, but rather leave them to the judgment of God. For how many of those who, after receiving grace, engaged in forensic practice, and undertook a stubborn pursuit of advancement, have we found admitted to the priesthood! Among whose number Rufus and Gregory are reckoned; how many from some military service, who obeyed the authorities, of necessity carried out orders!

How many from the ranks of the curiales, who, while obeying the authorities, did what was commanded them! How many who celebrated public spectacles and shows for the people, have attained to the honor of the high priesthood! None of all of whom ought to have been permitted to come even into fellowship with the order of clergy. If we should order each of these cases to be examined, we would bring about, out of zeal for correction, no small disturbances or scandals for the Spanish provinces, which we desire to heal. Therefore we think these matters should rather be let pass. But that similar things may not be committed hereafter, the maturity of your charity ought to provide, that an end be at least now necessarily set to such great usurpation: it being established, namely, that if any hereafter attempt to come, contrary to the forms of the canons, either into the ecclesiastical order or into the priesthood itself, they, together with those who ordained them, shall be deprived of that order and honor in which they are found.

Let the complaint of Gregory of Mérida be heard.—Let the complaint of GREGORY, bishop of Mérida, who was ordained in place of PATRUINUS of venerable memory, be heard, if there is one: and if he has suffered injury against his deserving, let him be vindicated against those who envy another's honor: nor let a spirit of faction rise up hereafter against any good man.

The Nicene rules are to be kept in ordinations. Who are to be barred from orders.—And although the Nicene rules, dearest brethren, are known to your charity, according to which you decree by your judgment that ordinations should be made; nevertheless I thought it fitting to insert some part concerning what has been provided regarding ordinations, so that ordinations may be celebrated hereafter according to this, lest anyone be left free to interpret otherwise. And first, the things that are forbidden are set forth in order. That no one who has served in the military after baptism should be admitted to the order of the clergy; nor anyone who has pleaded causes after receiving baptism; or who has held administrative office after receiving the grace of God: nor can any of the curiales come to the ecclesiastical order, who after baptism have either received a crown or held what is called a priesthood of the imperial cult, and have celebrated public shows.

For this too must be guarded against in the case of the curiales, lest those very men who were from the curiales be at some time reclaimed by their curiae, which we frequently see happen. All these things, being reasonably forbidden, ought in every way to be observed. 10. Who are to be chosen. That the baptism of wives is not annulled.—But what sort of persons ought to be chosen for the order of clerics, a clear form declares: namely, those who from earliest age have been baptized, and joined to the office of readers; or if they are older, when they shall have obtained the grace of God, let them at once devote themselves to the ecclesiastical orders. And if they have had wives, it must be inquired whether they took a virgin wife: because it is written in the Old Testament, "Let the priest take a virgin wife"; and elsewhere, "My priests shall marry once." Nor should he who has had two wives be admitted, since the apostle Paul says, "The husband of one wife".

Nor ought that be admitted which certain persons, in defense of a depraved error, put forward and assert, namely that a wife taken before baptism ought not to be reckoned, since in baptism all things are remitted; not understanding that by baptism only sins of this kind are remitted, nor is the number of wives thereby abolished. For if, as it is written, a wife is prepared for a man by God, and what God has joined, let not man separate; and the very authors of the human race were themselves blessed by the Lord at their origin: how can these things be believed capable of being remitted among sins? But if, according to those who believe thus, this is true; then all righteousness which was wrought by catechumens before baptism would be taken away by baptism. Therefore let no one hold or admit any such thing contrary to the Apostle: but let him faithfully understand that "the husband of one wife" is named whether before baptism or after baptism.

For if a wife taken before baptism is not counted in the number, neither can the children born of her be numbered among the children. How absurd and foreign this is, your prudence will judge better. Wherefore let no one be permitted to interpret the divine Scriptures otherwise than right reason allows: lest, while preparing for themselves iniquitous remedies as an excuse, they be judged to have corrupted the law and overturned the rules. But those things are to be held which both the course of the divine Scriptures contains, and which have been established by the priests on useful grounds. And in another hand. Farewell, dearest brothers.

The heads of the letter: On Disorderly Ordinations in Spain, and the Exclusion of Advocates, Curiales, and the Twice-Married from the Clergy

Brother Theophilus, we hold both you and brother John in communion with us, as we made our mind clear also in our earlier letters. And not even now departing from that same purpose, we write the same things to you again, and as often as you write back to us, that it cannot be, unless a fitting judgment follows concerning those things which were done in mockery, that we depart from communion with John without reason. You therefore, if you trust in judgment, present yourself at a synod which shall be according to Christ, and there, the accusations having been set forth before witnesses under the canons of the Council of Nicaea (for the Roman Church admits no other canon), you will have security free from contradiction.

INNOCENT to EXSUPERIUS, bishop of Toulouse, greeting. 1. To you consulting me, dearest brother, as to what I might think concerning each proposed matter, I have replied according to the capacity of my understanding as to what seemed right, whatever teachable reason might persuade should be followed, or the authority of reading might show, or the order of times, carefully observed, might demonstrate. And indeed your affection, following the practice of the wise, preferred to refer to the apostolic see what it ought to observe concerning doubtful matters, rather than by presumed usurpation to hold to what might seem right to itself on individual points. For why should we think it more shameful to learn something than to be wholly ignorant? To me also there accrues teachableness from this exchange, since, having scrutinized the reasons, I am compelled to answer to what is proposed: and so it comes about that he who is asked to teach always learns something himself. I shall therefore set forth each point, and append my answer.

You have proposed the question of what ought to be observed concerning those who, placed in the ministries of the diaconate or in the office of the presbyterate, have been shown by the begetting of children to be, or to have been, incontinent. Concerning these both the manifest discipline of the divine laws exists, and the clear admonitions of the bishop of blessed memory Siricius have gone forth, that those placed in such offices who are incontinent be deprived of all ecclesiastical honor, nor be permitted to approach the ministry, which ought to be fulfilled by continence alone.

For there is a very ancient authority of the sacred law, observed already from the beginning, that the priests were commanded to dwell in the temple during the year of their course; so that, serving the sacred oblations, they might claim the divine ministries for themselves pure and cleansed from every stain: nor is it lawful for those to be admitted to the sacrifices who exercise carnal intercourse even with a wife, because it is written: "Be holy, because I also am holy, the Lord your God". To these indeed, for the sake of the succession of offspring, the use of a wife had been allowed, because no one from another tribe had been commanded to come to the priesthood; how much more ought these priests or Levites, who have neither priesthood nor ministry with succession, and for whom no day passes on which they are free either from the divine sacrifices or from the office of baptism, preserve chastity from the day of their ordination!

For if Paul writes to the Corinthians, saying, "Abstain yourselves for a time, that you may be free for prayer"; and this indeed he commands even to laymen; how much more ought priests, whose office of praying and sacrificing is continual, always to abstain from such intercourse. But if he has been contaminated by carnal concupiscence, with what shame will he presume to sacrifice, or with what conscience or by what merit does he believe himself to be heard, since it is said: "All things are pure to the pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure"?

3. But perhaps he believes this is permitted, because it is written, "the husband of one wife". He did not say this of one persisting in the concupiscence of begetting, but with a view to future continence. For neither did he who said, "But I would that all men were even as I myself", fail to admit those whole in body: and he declares more openly, saying, "But they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit": and he said "having children", not "begetting."

4. But this judgment is plainly diverse and divided. For if that form of ecclesiastical life and discipline alike, which went forth from bishop Siricius to the provinces, shall not be proved to have reached certain persons, to these the pardon of ignorance shall be granted, so that for the future they may begin wholly to abstain. And thus let them retain the grades in which they are found, so that it is not lawful for them to ascend to higher ones. It ought to be counted as a benefit to them that they do not lose the very place which they hold. But if any shall be discovered to have known the form of living sent by Siricius, and yet not immediately to have cast off the desires of lust; these are to be removed by all means, who, after the admonition became known, judged pleasure to be preferred.

This also was asked, what ought to be observed concerning those who, after baptism, given over their whole lives to the pleasures of incontinence, at the very end of their life demand penance together with reconciliation of communion. 6. Concerning these, the earlier observance was harsher; the later, mercy intervening, more inclined to leniency. For the earlier custom held that penance should be granted, but communion refused. For since in those times persecutions were frequent, lest an easy concession of communion, by making men secure of reconciliation, should fail to recall them from lapse, communion was rightly denied; penance was granted, lest everything be utterly refused: and the circumstance of the time made the remission harsher. But after our Lord restored peace to His churches, terror now being banished, it was decided that communion be given to the departing, both because of the mercy of the Lord, as a kind of viaticum for those about to set forth, and lest we seem to follow the harshness and hardness of the Novatian heretics, who deny pardon.

Therefore final communion shall be granted together with penance: so that men of this sort, even at their last hour, by the permission of our Savior, may be delivered from perpetual destruction.

It was asked also concerning those who, after baptism, held administrative office, and either carried out torments alone, or even pronounced a capital sentence. 8. Concerning these we read nothing defined by our elders. For they remembered that these powers had been granted by God, and that the sword had been permitted for the punishment of the guilty, and that he is given as God's minister, an avenger for such purposes. How then could they reprove an act which they saw to have been granted with God as its author? Concerning these, therefore, we hold as has been observed hitherto, lest we seem either to overturn discipline or to come against the authority of the Lord. But for them all their deeds will be preserved for the rendering of account.

And it was desired to know this: why husbands who are in communion do not associate with adulterous wives, while, on the contrary, wives are seen to remain in the company of adulterous husbands. 10. On this point, the Christian religion condemns adultery in either sex by equal reasoning. But women do not easily accuse their husbands of adultery, and hidden sins do not incur punishment.

Husbands, however, are more freely accustomed to bring adulterous wives before the priests: and therefore, their crime having been disclosed, communion is denied to the women. But of men, when the offense lies hidden, no one is easily kept back on the basis of suspicions. He, however, will certainly be removed, if his crime is discovered. Since therefore the case is equal, sometimes, when proof is lacking, the process of punishment rests quiet.

You wished also to inquire this: whether it is permitted to those who dictate petitions, at any rate after the regeneration of baptism, to ask of princes the death of someone, or blood on account of guilt.

This matter princes never grant without investigation; but they always remit the very crimes committed to judges, so that, the case being examined, they may be punished. When these have been delegated to the investigator, either absolution or condemnation is pronounced according to the quality of the matter. And while the authority of the laws is exercised against the wicked, the one who dictated the petition will remain free of guilt.

Your affection also inquired concerning those who, a divorce having intervened, joined themselves in marriage to others. That these are adulterers on both sides is manifest.

But those who, while the wife is still living, although the marriage seems to have been dissolved, have hastened to another union, cannot but appear adulterers, to such a degree that even those persons to whom such are joined seem themselves also to have committed adultery, according to that which we read in the Gospel: "Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, commits adultery; and likewise he who marries her that is put away, commits adultery.". And therefore all such are to be kept from the communion of the faithful. But concerning parents, or their relatives, nothing of the kind can be decreed, unless they are discovered to have been instigators of the unlawful union.

13.

But which books are received into the canon, a brief appendix shows. These are the things which you wished to be informed of by your request: the five books of Moses, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua the son of Nun, one book of Judges, four books of Kings, together with Ruth, sixteen books of the Prophets, five books of Solomon, the Psalter. Likewise of the historical books, one book of Job, one of Tobit, one of Esther, one of Judith, two of Maccabees, two of Esdras, two books of Chronicles.

Likewise of the New Testament: Four books of the Gospels, fourteen epistles of Paul the apostle, three epistles of John, two epistles of Peter, the epistle of Jude, the epistle of James, the Acts of the Apostles, the Apocalypse of John. But the rest, whether under the name of Matthias or of James the Less, or under the name of Peter and John, which were written by a certain Leucius, or under the name of Thomas, and if there are any others, you should know are not only to be rejected, but even to be condemned. Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Stilicho, for the second time, and Anthemius, most illustrious men.

INNOCENT, bishop, to the presbyters and deacons, and to the whole clergy and people of the church of Constantinople, who are under Bishop John, beloved brethren, greeting.

1. For the things which are suffered, there is one consolation of patience. From the letters of your charity, which you sent through Germanus the presbyter and Cassian the deacon, I have learned with anxious concern the scene of evils which you have set before my eyes: and by repeated reading I have perceived with how many calamities and hardships the faith is laboring. Indeed, only the consolation of patience can heal this matter. For our God will soon give an end to such great tribulations, and it will have profited to have endured these things.

Indeed, this very necessary consolation, placed at the beginning of your charity's letter, praising your resolve, we recognized as confirmed by many testimonies exhorting to patience. For the consolation which we owed to you through our letters, you yourselves anticipated through your own letters. For our Lord is wont to grant this patience to those who labor: that the servants of Christ, even in tribulations, may console themselves, reflecting within themselves that these things which they themselves suffer have already befallen the saints before them. But we too are able to draw consolation for ourselves from your very letters. For we are not strangers to the fellowship of your sorrow; indeed we are afflicted in you.

2. How unjustly a bishop was substituted for John while he was still living.—For who could bear those things which are left behind by those who, above all others, ought to have been zealous for tranquility and peace and concord? But now, in a perverse manner, innocent priests are being driven out from the seats of their churches.

This indeed our brother and fellow-priest John, your bishop, first suffered unjustly, when he had not been heard by any process. No crime is brought forward, nor is any heard. And what is this ruinous plan? That there be, or that there be sought, no semblance of judgment, and that others be substituted in the place of priests who are still living: as though those who have begun with such a crime could be judged to have anything right, either in possession or in action. For we do not find that such things were ever done by our fathers, but rather that they were forbidden; since license has been given to no one to ordain another in the place of one still living. For a reprobate ordination cannot take away the honor of a priest: since indeed he who is unjustly substituted cannot be a bishop at all.

3. Which canons are to be received or repudiated.—But as to what pertains to the observance of the canons, we say that only those must be obeyed which were defined at Nicaea; which alone the Catholic Church ought to follow and acknowledge. But if others are put forward by certain persons, which disagree with the Nicene canons, and are proved to have been composed by heretics, these are rejected by Catholic bishops. For what has been devised by heretics may not be joined to the Catholic rules. Indeed those men, through contrary and unlawful decrees, continually strive to undermine the judgment of the Nicene fathers. These canons, therefore, we say must not only not be followed, but must also be condemned together with heretical and schismatic doctrines, just as they have already been condemned in the Synod of Sardica by the bishops who preceded us. For it were better that things rightly done be condemned, than that things done against the canons should obtain any firmness, dearest brothers.

4. That the evils can be healed by a single ecumenical synod.—But what shall we do against these things at present? A hearing by synod is necessary, which we have already long since said must be assembled. For it alone is able to calm the movements of such storms. That we may attain it, it will be useful meanwhile to await, for the healing of these evils, the will of the great God and of Christ our Lord himself. All things which have now been thrown into confusion through the envy of the devil, for the testing of the faithful, will be pacified. We ought to hope for nothing less from the Lord, through the firmness of faith. For we too have long and much considered in what manner an ecumenical synod might be gathered, so that the turbulent movements may at last, by the nod of God, come to rest.

Let us therefore endure for a little while; and fortified by the rampart of patience, let us hope that all things will be restored by the help of our God. Moreover, all the things which you said you were enduring, we had already learned before, through careful inquiry, from our fellow-bishops who fled to Rome, though at different times—that is, Demetrius, Cyriacus, Eulysius, and Palladius, who are with us.

Although concerning the womanly image, carried about through the provinces after a new example, and the report of detractors spread through the whole world, I have admonished by other letters that, by repentance for such a deed and the intermission of the design, the rival rumor might grow old, and that the public tongue might have nothing to carp at in the customs of the times: although also concerning the ruin of perishing Illyricum I have declared to you, with dutiful affection, that it is a grief to us why you were unwilling to acknowledge these losses to the state, and why they were reported by other informants rather than by the letters of your piety: yet not even this is it right for us to conceal from your serenity, which has very lately happened in divine matters, not without fear of public danger, and which rumor, ever swift to announce evils, has not kept silent; and as is the nature of men, which is always roused to detraction by new occurrences, having found opportunity for carping, it exercises its malice upon the times with the zeal of savage loquacity.

For it has lately been reported that at Constantinople, on the most sacred and venerable day of Easter, when religion had gathered together in almost the same place the peoples of the neighboring cities, to be celebrated with more disciplined rite under the presence of the princes, the Catholic churches were suddenly closed, the priests dragged off into custody, so that precisely at that time, when by imperial indulgence the sad prisons of the guilty are unlocked, a savage prison should shut in the ministers of the pious law and of peace, and all the mysteries were thrown into confusion as in the manner of war, some persons killed within the very sanctuaries of the church, and such violence raged around the altars, that even venerable bishops were driven into exile, and human blood—which it is impious to say—drenched the heavenly sacraments. Having suddenly learned these things, I confess we were troubled. For who would not fear the offense of Almighty God in so bloody a crime?

Or how could one think this outside the utmost peril of the Roman world and of all mortals? Since it was believed that Almighty God himself, the author of our empire and the omnipotent governor of the state which He entrusted to us, was angered by deeds so deadly and execrable, when the venerable brother and nephew of our holy lord Augustus were concerned; since if anything concerning the cause of religion were to be transacted among the bishops, the judgment ought to have been episcopal. For to them belongs the interpretation of divine matters, to us the obedience of religion. But suppose that the imperial care presumed something further for itself concerning mystical and Catholic questions. Ought it to have gone as far as exile for priests, as far as the slaughter of men, that the indignation once aroused should proceed to such an extent; that where chaste prayers, where sincere vows, where undefiled sacrifices are offered, there the sword should be drawn, hardly even fit to be drawn against the throats of the guilty?

2. Finally, by the very events themselves it is shown what the divine majesty has felt about these things. First indeed this was the judgment of the present commotion, and would that it were the only one! For human dread, conscious of so great a crime committed, causes us to fear something more grievous—which may almighty God avert—after the experience of such a terrible vengeance.

I hear that the most sacred church, adorned by the resources of so many emperors, noble with precious ornaments, most august by the prayer of so many suppliant princes, was set on fire, and that that unique light of the city of Constantinople crumbled into ashes and smoked, God not preventing it (for He seems to abhor the polluted mysteries, and to have turned His eyes away from that place which blood had already stained, lest anyone should be able to entreat heavenly piety over bloodied altars); and that the divine buildings, no less splendid and noble, were consumed by the spreading flame of the raging fire, and that the ornaments, wrought by our ancestors, which adorned the public face of the city, were burned as it were in a kind of funeral of the city itself.

3. Although I ought to have kept silence about these things, provoked though I am by frequent injuries, and though I ought not so faithfully to admonish so closely joined a brother and partner in the realm, yet, preferring the bond of blood to the sting of silent grief, I exhort and urge that these things, if it can be done, be corrected by amended conduct for the future, and that the divine wrath, aroused as much as the matter shows, be appeased by the diligence of prayers. Receive from me the highest proof of simplicity. I have thought it necessary to intimate this to your clemency, lest my very silence should make me suspected by anyone, as though of secret congratulation, nor should anyone believe that I give consent to such deeds, and that I, who often warned that they should not happen, did not grieve after they were committed.

4. For who could be free of grief, who remembers that he is a Christian, seeing so sudden a disturbance of religion introduced, that the whole state of the Catholic faith must necessarily waver? There was a cause between bishops which ought to have been settled by counsel gathered and discussed together. Legates were sent to the priests of the eternal city and of Italy from both sides: a decision was awaited from the authority of all, to form a rule of discipline (it surely ought to have remained untouched, nor should anything have been altered, while the deliberated decision was proceeding), when meanwhile a certain strange precipitation of haste blazed up, so that, without waiting for the letters of the priests who had been consulted by mutual embassy of the parties, without the matters being examined, the bishops were driven into exile, condemned to punishment before they had experienced the sentence of episcopal judgment. Finally, how premature that condemnation was, the outcome proved.

For those whose authority was awaited, having granted peaceful communion to Bishop John, decreed that concord should be established, and did not think that anyone should be repelled from fellowship before judgment.

5. What now remains, except that schisms, torn apart in opposite directions, should tear apart the Catholic faith, that heresies, always hostile to communion, should be born from so great a variety of things done, so that it ought now hardly to be imputed to the people, if perchance they should fall away into discordant parties through the diversity of sects; since from public authority the material of discord has been sent ahead, and a certain kindling for nourishing sedition has been set alight. That this may not break out again into some great destruction of the human race, vows must be made, that God, patient toward human failings, may prosper and favor a matter ill-managed.

For as far as it is in our power, we can fear what has been done; but as far as concerns the piety of God, ever placable, there will not be granted impunity for merit, but pardon.

Now for the third time I write to your mildness, asking that the things done by agreement against John, bishop of Constantinople, be corrected: and, as it seems, it has not yet been accomplished. Wherefore I have written again through these bishops and presbyters, being greatly solicitous concerning ecclesiastical peace, through which our empire also obtains peace; that you would deign to order the bishops of the East to assemble at Thessalonica. For indeed our bishops of the West, having chosen men who know not how to turn aside to evil or falsehood, have sent five bishops, two presbyters, and one deacon of the great Roman church, whom I would wish you to honor in every way; so that if they should be persuaded that John was justly expelled, they may teach me to withdraw from his communion; or if they should convict the bishops of the East of acting from a wicked disposition of mind, let them turn them away from their communion.

As for what the judgment of the Westerners is concerning Bishop John, out of all the letters which have been written to me, I have appended two containing what the rest contain, one from the Roman bishop, the other from the bishop of Aquileia. Furthermore, this above all I beg of your clemency, that you order Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, who is said to be the author of all these evils, to present himself even against his will: so that nothing may hinder the synod of bishops who shall be present from establishing a peace fitting for our times.

Innocent to aurelius and augustine, BISHOPS. The most welcome recourse of our fellow-presbyter Germanus ought not to have been empty of our office. For to greet the dearest through the dear seems to us in a certain natural manner both fitting and consequent. We desire, therefore, most beloved, that your brotherhood rejoice in the Lord, and we pray that you render equal vows to God on our behalf: for, as you well know, we accomplish more by common and mutual prayers than by single or private ones.

Innocent to his beloved brother john. Although an innocent man ought to expect all prosperity and to seek mercy from God, nevertheless a suitable letter has also been sent from us, who urge patience, through Cyriacus the deacon, lest reproach avail more to oppress than a good conscience to relieve hope. For you need not be taught, you who are the teacher and pastor of so many peoples, that the best men are always and continually being tested, whether they remain firm in patience, and do not yield to any labor or trouble. And indeed conscience is a firm defense against all things which happen unjustly: which, unless one overcome by patience, gives an argument of evil suspicion about himself. For he ought to endure all things who relies first on God, and then on the confidence of conscience. Indeed a good and upright man can indeed be exercised unto patience, but cannot be overcome; since the divine Scriptures fortify and guard his mind.

For the sacred readings which we deliver to the peoples abound in examples, which testify that almost all the saints were vexed in various ways, and tested as by some ordeal, and thus arrived at the crown of patience. May your charity, then, most venerable brother, be consoled by that very conscience, which in calamities has the consolation of virtue. For, with the Lord Christ watching, a pure conscience abides in the harbor of peace.

To his most beloved brother RUFUS, INNOCENT.

1. To the most chosen and most glorious Moses, in freeing and ruling Israel, the Lord committed all things in such a way that he enjoined upon him, under a manifest report, that the counsel of his father-in-law Jethro should be followed: namely, that he should appoint men of a rank suited to judicial dignity, who might settle the multitude of causes among the people according to the place entrusted to them, while he himself should be free chiefly for divine consolations. Nor was the pattern of the Apostles set forth otherwise, than that they, having been established as the princes of the Gospel, should commit to their disciples the causes and necessities of other matters to be attended to and dispatched. So finally, with wonderful compassion in all things, Paul committed to Titus what he was to attend to in Crete, and to Timothy what he should arrange throughout Asia, as we know from the reading of the sacred epistles.

2. This grace, therefore, proceeding by divine appointment, must learn that provision is to be made by me for the churches separated by long distances, in such a way that they may judge that the care and the causes, if any should arise, through the churches of Achaia, Thessaly, Old Epirus, New Epirus, and Crete, Mediterranean Dacia, Riverine Dacia, Moesia, Dardania, and Praevalitana, are to be committed to the prudence and gravity of your reverence, with Christ the Lord granting his consent. For truly, by his most sacred admonitions, we enjoin this solicitude upon the providence and virtue of your most chosen sincerity; not establishing these things now for the first time, but imitating our apostolic predecessors, who willed that this charge be enjoined, according to their merits, upon the most blessed Acholius and Anysius. For it is most just that those who have deserved well should be honored in this way, so that the arrogant may, as seems necessary, be checked.

It is pleasing, therefore, that reward be given to the good, and censure to the less good: for thus both the one is corrected, and the other ennobled.

3. Take up, therefore, most beloved brother, in our stead, care over the aforementioned churches, their primacy being preserved: and among the primates themselves be first, so that whatever it may be necessary for them to send to us, they may not seek without your judgment. For thus either through your experience whatever the matter is will be settled; or by your counsel we direct that it be brought all the way to us.

Know also that it is lawful, and permitted by the favor of the apostolic see, to your fraternity, that when any ecclesiastical matter must be handled and examined either in your own or in the aforementioned provinces, you may take with you as companions whatever bishops you wish from whatever churches, by whose faith and moderation you may, as the best arbiter, direct whatever the necessity or the case demands, and, as the chief intercessor—chosen indeed by us—determine it. We have ordered that the whole preparation of the documents in the matter of the archives be made with the presbyter Senecio, a man of great maturity. Therefore, reviewing well both from our former letter and from these documents what you ought to do, take note of it. For we have made this our will sufficiently manifest, as was fitting, by letters to each province. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of July, in the consulship of Honorius for the ninth time and Theodosius for the fifth.

The duty of our charity is broken off by no interval, even if the paper bears no letters. For spiritual grace lives mutually in our hearts, and the very fellowship of the priesthood nourishes our love. Take care, as is fitting, to guard the unity of the Church; and let us all alike both feel and declare the same thing, dearest brother. I have therefore written this letter concerning the Paschal reckoning of the coming (I mean, the next) year. For since before the eleventh day before the Kalends of April the sixteenth moon is nearly reached (for it is a little less), and likewise since on the fourth day before the Kalends of the same month it comes to the twenty-third: I have judged that the Paschal feast should be celebrated on the eleventh day before the said Kalends; since we know that no Easter has ever before this been kept on the twenty-third moon. I have set forth and declared the tenor of my judgment.

It will now be for your prudence, brother and companion to me, when you are of one mind with our fellow-priests, to reconsider this very matter in a most religious synod: so that, if nothing opposes our arrangement, you may write back to us fully and openly, so that we may in due time prescribe, as is customary, by letters beforehand, the Paschal day thus determined, to be observed. As for our fellow-presbyter Archidamus, although I know that you will most gladly receive him according to your usual custom, yet, out of abundant care, I ask that you deign to count him among your own.

That the greatness of your religion is a singular member of the Church, and is most reverently cherished by us, is sufficiently manifest to all. For in the very summit of your nobility you render a devotion to the Church much more noble, and, rejoicing rather in the knowledge of Christ, you obey his precepts, and exult rather in the faith than boast in the flower of so great a lineage. It is a mark of the highest virtue to have conquered the glory of the flesh: and it is a great grace of Christ toward you, lady daughter, deservedly illustrious, to have surpassed nobility by your character. Being assured, therefore, most beloved one, strive to illumine whatever the spans of this life are with eternal and divine services: so that he who has made you distinguished may render you more illustrious to himself throughout the ages.

At an earlier time, if indeed I recall rightly, I remember that I sent a letter of this kind concerning the clerics of Naissus, both to your affection and to our brothers and fellow-bishops Rufus and the others, namely to those who asserted that, before the condemnation of Bonosus, they had been ordained by him, both presbyters and deacons, so that, if, having abandoned and condemned his error, they wished to be joined to the Church, they should be gladly received, lest perchance those who were worthy of recovering salvation should perish in that same error.

But now, since I am established in the city of Ravenna, on account of the most frequent needs of the Roman people, Germanius, who asserts himself to be a presbyter, and Lupentius, who calls himself a deacon, having undertaken as it were an embassy of many such men, with prayer poured out, were eager to express their own griefs, asserting indeed that they retain the churches established in the parishes of your affection, but that they could not merit your communion, for this reason, namely, that a certain man named Rusticius had received the presbyterate by a repeated ordination. And it is no light impediment, since either they grieve that such a man is kept in the Church, or he thinks that sin ought thus to be committed against others, just as he recognizes it to be sin in himself.

And although my letter, which I mentioned above, contains this matter more fully; yet even now we have thought it right to admonish your fraternity, that if it is truly established that some, ordained by him before the condemnation of Bonosus, afterward wished, or now wish, to return, we judge that they are to be received; especially since the aforesaid men assert that they were ordained at so early a time that the man of holy memory, Cornelius, bishop of the city of Sirmium, as well as our brother Niceta, and several others, were present, when they were being advanced in the honors which they claim to hold. Whence, dearest brother, if their assertion admits the credit of truth, you ought not to doubt that they are to be received, whom you have allowed to retain the churches entrusted to them for so long a time.

Innocent to rufus, EUSEBIUS, EUSTATHIUS, CLAUDIUS, Cyriacus, Nicetas, Aciologus, Martianus, bishops of Macedonia, and to the deacons, greeting in God.

To maximianus, EUGENIUS, GERONTIUS, JOHN; POLYCHRONIUS, SOPHRONIUS, FLAVIAN, HILARY, MACEDONIUS, CALICRATIUS, ZOSIMUS, PROFUTURUS, NICETAS, HERMOGENES, VINCENT, ASIOLOGUS, TERENTIANUS, HERODIANUS, And marcian, bishops of Macedonia, and to the deacons, greeting in the Lord. 1. Great joy possessed me, when, after so many perils of the whole world, so to speak, Vitalis the archdeacon, the bearer of your letters, arrived, sent to us from those parts. When we had seen him, we straightway, as was fitting, inquired about your condition. But when we found that you were living according to our wish, we gave abundant thanks to our God, that he both protects his servants and those serving at his altars in adversity, and deigns to guide them in prosperity. When he had delivered the letters, I ordered them to be reviewed at once: in which I perceived many things set forth that induced amazement in our minds, and caused us to doubt not a little whether we should think otherwise, or whether those things were set down just as they sounded.

When I had these repeated several times, I perceived that some injury was being done to the apostolic see, to which the report was sent as though to the head of the churches, a judgment on which was still being led into uncertainty. Whence, concerning those matters about which I remember having already written long ago, the doubled inquiry of your report now compels me to repeat the form with more evident arguments.

I have learned that those who are reported to have taken widows as wives have not only been made clerics, but have even attained to the fillets of the high priesthood: which no one is ignorant is contrary to the precepts of the law. For since Moses the lawgiver cries out: Let the priest take a virgin wife; and, lest anything in this precept should be thought ambiguous, he added, not a widow, nor one that is put away. Against this precept, laid down by divine authority, no defense of another mandate is set up, except your custom: which, as you yourselves confess, was established out of ignorance—to speak more modestly—not out of apostolic tradition and sound reasoning. But let your affection know that we, and all the churches throughout the East and the West, do not admit these things at all; nor do they take up such men even to the lowest place of ecclesiastical order, and if they are found, they remove them.

Then it is proposed that a man ought not to be called a digamist who, as a catechumen, had and lost a wife, if after baptism he took another; and that this latter should be regarded as the first, since she was joined to the new man: because that former marriage was washed away, together with his other sins, through the sacrament of baptism. Since this is said of one wife certainly, surely, if he had three wives while established in the old man, the one who is the fourth after baptism will, on this interpretation, be reckoned the first: and she who was taken as the fourth will receive the name of a virgin. Who, I ask, does not see that this is contrary to the precept of the Apostle, who says that a priest ought to be the husband of one wife?

4. But it is objected that in baptism whatever was done in the old man is entirely dissolved.

Tell me, I speak with your peace: are only sins forgiven in baptism, or also those things which are accomplished according to the precepts of the Law and the institutions of God? To take a wife is either a crime, or it is not a crime. If it is a crime, then, by the aforesaid pardon I would say, the author of the crime is at fault, who, in order that men might commit crimes, blessed them in paradise when he himself joined them thus. But if it is not a crime, since what God has joined it would be wicked to call a crime; and Solomon added: For a wife is prepared for a man by God: how can it be believed to have been dismissed among sins, that which is read to have been accomplished with God as its author?

5. What is to be reckoned concerning the children of such men? Are they not to be admitted to the sharing of the inheritance, they who were begotten of her who was a wife before baptism?

And are they to be called either natural children or bastards, since, as it seems to you, there is no lawful marriage except that which is taken up after baptism? The Lord himself, when he was asked by the Jews whether it was lawful to put away a wife, and explained that it ought not to be done, added: What therefore God has joined, let no man separate. And lest he be believed to have spoken of those unions which are contracted after baptism, let it be remembered that this was both asked by Jews, and answered to Jews.

I ask, and I ask with concern, whether, if a man who was formerly a catechumen and afterward a believer has one and the same wife, and has begotten children by her while he was a catechumen, and afterward others while he was a believer: whether they are to be called brothers, or whether, after the death of the father, they will not have a share in the division of the inheritance, from whom spiritual regeneration is believed to have taken away the name of sons? Since it is absurd to think and judge thus, what reasoning is it that this be defended, and be boasted of rather by empty opinion, than strengthened by any authority, since what the Law commanded, and God joined, cannot be reckoned among sins?

6. What if a catechumen has pursued virtues, has followed humility, has kept patience, has given alms, has by whatever means rescued those destined to death, has abhorred adulteries, has kept chastity; I ask whether, when he is made a believer, he loses these things, because through baptism whatever the old man did is thought to be taken away? Let us look at the Gentile man Cornelius, who by his prayers and alms merited a revelation, and saw Peter himself: were these things taken away from him by baptism, on account of which baptism seems to have been granted to him? If this is believed, believe me, one errs not a little: because whatever has been well done, and kept according to the precepts of the law, cannot perish for the one who did it, since, because it is done by God's command, it cannot be called sin: and what is not sin ought by no means to be dissolved among sins.

And it will be sound to judge that the name of the former wife cannot be abolished, since she was not dismissed on account of sin, because she was joined by the will of God.

7.

We have come to the third question, which by reason of its difficulty demands a longer discussion: since we say that those ordained by heretics have a wounded head through that imposition of hands, and that where the remedy of penance is necessary, the honor of ordination cannot have a place there. For if, as it is read, that which an unclean man has touched shall be unclean: how shall that be granted to him which purity and cleanness are accustomed to receive? But on the contrary it is asserted that he who has lost the honor cannot give the honor, nor that the other received anything, because there was nothing in the giver which the other could receive. We agree, and it is true. Certainly, because what he did not have he could not give—yet the condemnation which he had, he indeed gave through the wicked imposition of hands; and how he who has been made a partaker of condemnation ought to receive honor, I cannot discover.

But it is said that the true and just blessing of a lawful priest takes away every vice which had been imposed by a vicious one. Therefore if it is so, let sacrilegious men, adulterers, and those guilty of every crime be admitted to ordination, since by the blessing of ordination crimes or vices are thought to be taken away. Let there be no place for penance, since ordination can supply what long satisfaction has been accustomed to supply. But it is the law of our church, to those coming from heretics who nevertheless were baptized there, to grant communion only through the lay imposition of hands, and not to promote any of them to even the least honor of the clerical office. But indeed those who have passed from the Catholic Church to heresy, who ought not to be received otherwise than through penance—among you they not only do not undergo penance, but are even heaped with honor.

But the supreme deliberation of Anysius, formerly our brother, and of the other fellow-priests, was this: that those whom Bonosus had ordained should be received as ordained, lest they should remain with him, and no small scandal should arise. We have overcome, as I think, the ambiguities.

Now therefore it is agreed that what was established as a remedy and for the necessity of the time was not so from the beginning, and that there were ancient rules, which the Roman church, having received them from the Apostles or apostolic men, guards, and commands to be guarded by those who are accustomed to heed her. But the necessity of the time greatly demanded that this be done. Therefore what necessity devised as a remedy ought, when the necessity ceases, likewise to cease along with what was pressing; because lawful order is one thing, and usurpation, which the present time forces to be done, is another.

10. But the canons established at Nicaea permitted this to be done concerning the Novatians. First that canon instituted by the fathers must be set forth, so that we may perceive what, or in what manner, was thought or commanded by them.

Concerning those, it says, who call themselves Cathari, that is, the pure, and who at some time come to the Catholic Church, it has pleased the holy and great synod that, having received the imposition of hands, they thus remain in the clergy. I can indeed say that this was ordained only concerning the Novatians, and does not pertain to the clergy of other heresies. For if they had indeed so determined concerning all, they would have added that those returning from the Novatians and other heretics ought to be received in their own order. That this is so, that saying especially which was said concerning the Paulianists can confirm—from whom those coming over they even command to be baptized. For if, when they command concerning the Paulianists, all who return from heretics were, by this example, to be baptized, who would dare to do this?—the reasoning itself shows that the command was made concerning them alone. Finally, those rightly baptized by the evangelist Philip, Peter and John completed by the imposition of hands alone.

But those whom the apostle Paul found baptized with the baptism of John, and asked whether they had received the Holy Spirit, and who confessed that they had not even heard that name, he commanded to be baptized. You see, therefore, that those rightly baptized cannot be repeated with that gift; and otherwise, those washed with water alone, it is seen to be necessary that they be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Thus it is read with clear demonstration that this was commanded only concerning the Novatians.

That this is distinct from these two heresies manifest reason declares, because the Paulianists do not baptize at all in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and the Novatians baptize with those same tremendous and venerable names, nor among them has any question ever been raised concerning the unity of the divine power, that is, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and therefore, all others being set apart, this one alone was chosen, to which it was believed this concession should be granted, because they sinned in no way concerning the sacrament of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

11. But if anyone, passing from the Catholic Church to heresy, or a believer having returned to apostasy, wishes, upon coming to his senses, to return, can he by the same reasoning be permitted into the clergy, whose offense can be blotted out only by long penance?

Nor do the canons themselves, by their own authority, permit one to become a cleric after penance. Whence it is clear that those who passed from the Catholic Church to the condemned Bonosus, and allowed themselves, or desired, to be ordained by him, ought not to have received the dignity of ecclesiastical ordination—they who, forsaking the common judgment of all the churches, judged that they ought to follow their own particular vanity in Bonosus.

12. But it is agreed that many suffered force, and were drawn unwillingly, and ordained by him while resisting. Let whoever believes this tell me, I ask: if after the ordination of Bonosus he was not present when he confected the sacraments; if he did not partake of his communion; if, departing at once from his most wicked conventicle, he returned to the Church—such a one can have some semblance of excuse.

But those who returned to the Church after a year, or after months, are understood—because they knew that in the Catholic Church they could not, on account of their vices, receive ordination—for that reason to have gone to him who freely and without any examination performed unlawful ordinations, believing that through this institution they could find in the Catholic Church the place of which they had before despaired. Now what remains I ask: he who returned after a month or more, while trusting himself to have been ordained presbyter by Bonosus—if he did not confect the sacraments, if he did not administer to the people, if he did not complete the Masses according to custom—what do you judge concerning these, I ask you to declare more openly. In sum, certainly those who received nothing from Bonosus are guilty of usurped dignity, who claimed for themselves, or did not claim, the authority of confecting the sacraments, and thought themselves to be that which had been granted to them by no regular reasoning.

Let your charity therefore see that such things have passed until now, and observe that, indeed, as you say, necessity commanded this, that the churches, now established in peace, not presume it further. But, as often happens, whenever sin is committed by peoples or by a crowd—because, on account of the multitude, vengeance cannot be exacted upon all—it is accustomed to pass unpunished; I say that former things are to be left to the judgment of God, and that for the rest the greatest care must be taken beforehand.

I shall now come to that greatest topic, as it were, concerning Photinus, and, as it is a matter of anxiety and great difficulty to me, I shall review the opinions of my predecessors. Concerning him too, as you yourselves also recall, something rather more severe had been established by agreement. But since, as you assert, this was smuggled in and elicited by deceit through a false rumor upon this See, and since you show that the matter has returned to a sound state; and since we, with you striving for it, grant this pardon after condemnation by apostolic word, to so great extent—we consider it harsher than all harsh things not to give our consent to such great assertions of yours, you who are so good, so dear to us. On account of your approval therefore, dearest brothers, and your judgment and request, hold Bishop Photinus to be lawfully established, as you request, and receive, by your labor and testimony, the fulfillment of your wish, our judgment having been converted to the better.

15. And as for Eustathius, so often approved by me, do not expect that he be despoiled of the grace of the diaconate. For I gladly hear that you are solicitous for salvation: but if it must be done against the head, I do not gladly admit it. To whomever you extend your hand, I extend mine with you; to whomever I extend mine, extend yours with me. For this apostolic kindness was declared to the Corinthians, that good men should always, without distinction, follow a judgment pronounced and brought back in one spirit. For I confess this thing pleases me well concerning Eustathius the deacon: that he has said nothing against the faith, nor admitted one speaking against it, nor have I recognized that he committed, or that there was ever alleged or fabricated against him, any capital crime.

And he who is safe in these matters, if in some manner he does not have amiable ways, is to be regarded as less beloved for the time, not to be reckoned as an enemy to be handed over forever to the devil. I know that he, amid those rivalries and storms, against the zeal of many—I do not say of what sort—held differing views, and that from this, though the matters and misfortunes themselves have been amended, up to now he has not been able to revive, by commendation, before you, from the affair of the subdeacons Dizonianus and Cyriacus. Extinguish, I beg, from him and from the aforementioned, whatever spirited and unjust rivalries you see in anyone, so that he himself, whole before us, restored before you along with his own, perceiving profound peace, not feigned charity, may meet all of you, and each severally, with bonds of charity by which, connected in no other way, he may rejoice in the Lord. Given on the Ides of December, Flavius Constantius, most illustrious man, being consul.

Innocent to rufus, GERONTIUS, SOPHRONIUS, FLAVIAN, MACEDONIUS, Prosdocius and aristaea, bishops established throughout Macedonia.

1. The delay of our fellow bishops Maximian and Eumenius, or rather the untowardness of the times, has caused you to repeat the complaint concerning Bubalius and Taurianus, and us again to rise up against most depraved men. But, as best I can, I will measure out in fewer words a summary of such great evils, and briefly go back over what I have observed in the volume of your letters. It ought not to seem burdensome to your most pious minds that anyone's judgment be reconsidered: because truth, when more often examined, shines forth more in the light; and destructive wickedness, called back into judgment, is condemned more severely and without pardon. For it is a divine fruit, dearest brothers, that justice be reviewed more often.

2. But I see that this has moved your minds: that Bubalius, having often been caught in many deceits, objected copies of letters supposedly fabricated by us—although, given the man's habits, nothing that he might bring forward now seemed worthy of any credence. But let all murmuring now about such a matter be silenced, and let the very breaths of the convicted devil be suppressed. We have moreover appended to these the former letters, which we had sent through the aforementioned bishops, in which our full opinion is so set forth, that when you have read them again, you may ask nothing further, nothing doubtful, concerning this matter hereafter. But be careful to send this our little document to be read again to the Cretan bishops, so that they may know most fully what has been pronounced concerning Bubalius and Taurianus and the others; so that those who are worthy of administration may know to guard against such men, lest they fall into such things.

Recalling what was done at Antioch for the sake of peace, having attained the fullness of his wishes, he willingly grants communion, and offers it to Acacius, provided he maintain the same conditions.

1. By the grace of apostolic favor, the beauty of a great peace has shone forth even unto us: and it has poured such light and joy upon the faithful, that while giving the greatest praises to God, we confess that we owe still greater. And we have been the more gladdened by God, because, having examined all the sides of your fraternity's actions, we have learned that the whole matter was conducted with such piety and patience, that in all things we might praise the Lord.

And we see that this very success has been granted to your labors for this reason, that being wholly a lover of peace with all your strength, you sought it out and found it, and having found it preserved it with the greatest charity, both toward all, but especially toward those who were once reckoned under the name of the bishops Paulinus and Evagrius. (I have the sum of my desires, that the purging of the ancient stain should be accomplished in your times and by your merits.) Of these also, those who received the merits of the clerical office in Italy, I have judged should retain, by good grace, the peace they had received. And because our fellow-presbyter Cassianus said it would be pleasing to your worthiness if, by my counsel, they were judged worthy to hold the rank of clergy in your city, I have decreed, on account of your benevolence, and the promises of the aforesaid, that they be numbered among the other priests and ministers who are in the city, dearest brother.

I have moreover learned with pleasure concerning the bishops Elpidius and Pappus, that they recovered their churches without dispute; and I have inquired with much care in the records, as the following documents attest, whether all the conditions had been satisfied in the case of the blessed and truly God-worthy priest John. And since the assertion of the legates declared that everything had been fulfilled point by point as desired, giving thanks to the Lord, I have received the communion of your Church in such a way that I may proclaim that the fellow-disciples of the apostolic see were the first to give to the rest the way of peace, in which may the kindness of the Lord Christ so embrace and strengthen you and us, once confirmed therein, that it may henceforth be assailed by no tickling temptation, nor by even the slight shame of any contention.

2. But the letters of bishop Acacius, since they were presented along with yours, we have accepted, lest through your injury that man, who had once been suspended by us, should be repudiated: and yet we have determined quite abundantly in the records, as you will take care to read again with due regard, what must be observed in his case, so that if in all things he shall have asked, through your counsels and such holy actions, to be in communion, the grace of communion and of letters may be granted to the old man by your favor and our judgment. Twenty bishops of Italy have subscribed.

Innocent testifies, by sending the acts, that the delegation sent to him by Alexander, bishop of Antioch, was most pleasing to him.

Innocent to bishop alexander.

How pleasing, how pious, how necessary a delegation was sent to us from your holiness, dearest brother, you will know from the repeated reading of the acts themselves. For our fellow-presbyter Cassianus wished that this little page of our friendship be written through our fellow-presbyter Paul, the deacon Nicholas, and Peter the subdeacon, our sons, as it were the firstfruits of our peace. I therefore greet both your brotherhood toward me in Christ, and that whole church which thinks so well with you. And I ask that you, as you do, both address us more frequently by letters, and gladden us more often with news of your welfare. For the Lord will grant, I trust, that we may make up for all the losses of past time by the most loving exchange of letters.

We have learned by letter that your fraternity rejoices over the clergy and peoples of the bishops Paulinus and Evagrius having been received back, and over the restoration of the fellow-bishops Elpidius and Pappus, and we have seen that you, having laid aside all contention, foster, though somewhat late, the grace of the peace received.

Wherefore we have sent to your unanimity these letters, to be delivered to our most excellent brother and fellow-bishop Alexander: namely, that if all enmity, all rivalry, both concerning the name of the holy and admirable bishop John, and concerning all the partakers of that same communion, has departed from your spirit, you may receive these letters of our fellowship, dearest brother; provided only that you confess with your own mouth, before our beloved mediator Alexander, as is fitting for one in communion, all that has been confirmed here in the acts. For as this is venerable to us for the sake of unanimity and charity, so it clings with anxious care, lest anything crooked or left over be found to remain in anyone.

Innocent to bishop maximian.

We are amazed that your prudence should ask of us, both by your own pursuit and by a petition given which is annexed below, letters to bishop Atticus of the city of Constantinople, from whom you have brought us not even any letters sent, whether to us or to your synod; and you should reckon that what you see granted to those who plead, after examination of the reasoning, ought to be granted also to one who does not ask. For a suspended communion is restored to one who demonstrates that the causes on account of which it happened have now been wiped away, and who professes that the conditions of peace have been fulfilled. Since neither with you, nor with us, as I said before, has Atticus, by sending any of his own men, wished either to declare or to demonstrate this fulfilled, in the manner that our brother and fellow-bishop Alexander of the church of Antioch has both pursued by a worthy embassy and proved.

Having been present at all these matters, you have learned how point by point they discussed all that our letters had previously said concerning the cause of the most blessed John, once our bishop, and how they showed to him quite plainly in all things, that everything which ought to have been done at Antioch had been fulfilled. Having embraced the peace of these men, we have indeed given assurance, and we have shown a great path to all who shall hereafter seek the same; provided only that those things which have been discussed and fulfilled, they too show that they have at some time done or fulfilled for their own part, and that they ask to have communion restored to them, as these have done, by solemnly sending an embassy.

We await, therefore, both the profession of the aforesaid man concerning all the conditions fulfilled, which we have stated at various times, and the petition for communion, so that we may rightly restore it both to one who asks and to one who proves that he deserves the same, dearest brother. For concerning all these matters you received long ago the fullest letters to the holy synod of our brothers.

The church of Antioch, which the blessed apostle Peter illustrated with his presence before he came to the city of Rome, as a true sister of the Roman church, has not long suffered itself to remain estranged from the same. For, having sent legates, it so sought and merited peace, that it received back the Evagrians into their own ranks and places, the ordination which they had received from the aforesaid remaining unimpaired; and that it gathered and assembled into one the clergy and laity of John of holy memory, my brother Alexander, bishop of that same city, promising that even if anyone should come to them of a later ordination, whether from us or from elsewhere, he would receive them without controversy, and would recite the name of the aforesaid bishop among the bishops at rest. To this matter, know that we have given our hands, dearest brother, and have received them into our inmost affection, lest for long the members that had sought health should be held estranged from the unity of the body.

But all things which were done in order, my son the deacon Paul, the bearer of this letter, will be able to relate to your charity, so that he may be seen, being content, even to demand a solemn embassy; yet this was not required, that each should send legates in his own name, but, as is clear from the example of Maximian, it was enough if anyone, through legates sent by whomever, offered his writings to him. But as regards Atticus, who had been substituted in the place of John after Arsacius, the matter of proving his ordination was then also at issue. Now indeed, that custom had begun to be introduced, that the Roman pontiffs would not consider the ordination of the bishops of the royal city ratified until they had been made certain of it by a solemn embassy. You may have common joy with us, and inform those who are accustomed to intervene on Atticus's behalf.

Innocent to bishop alexander.

Both the burden and the honor laid upon us by your fraternity have brought about the necessity of a treatment, whereby, as the grace of the Holy Spirit grants, we may respond to your letter or memorandum. Reviewing therefore the authority of the Nicene synod, which explains the mind of all the priests throughout the world with one voice, which decreed concerning the church of Antioch that it is necessary for all the faithful—not to say the priests—to observe, since we recognize that the aforesaid church is established over its own diocese, not over any province.

Whence we perceive that this was attributed to it not so much for the magnificence of the city, as because it is shown to be the first see of the first apostle, where the Christian religion received its name, and which merited that the most celebrated assembly of the Apostles be held within it, and which would not yield to the see of the city of Rome, except that Rome earned it in the passing through, while Antioch rejoiced to have it undertaken and completed within itself. We consider, therefore, dearest brother, that just as you ordain metropolitans by your singular authority, so too you should not allow other bishops to be created without your permission and knowledge. In these matters you will rightly observe this manner: that you judge those situated far off to be ordained, with letters given, by those who now ordain them only by their own judgment; but those nearby, if you think fit, you should establish to come to the laying on of your hand.

For those over whom your greatest care extends ought especially to deserve your judgment.

As for what you ask, whether, when provinces are divided by imperial judgment so that two metropolises are made, two metropolitan bishops ought likewise to be named—it does not truly seem right that the Church of God should be changed according to the fluctuation of worldly necessities, and should undergo the honors or divisions which the Emperor, for his own reasons, has judged should be made. Therefore it is fitting that metropolitan bishops be numbered according to the ancient custom of the provinces.

3. You assert indeed that the Cypriots, once wearied by the power of Arian impiety, did not hold to the Nicene canons in ordaining bishops for themselves, and have up to now presumed that they ordain by their own judgment, consulting no one. Wherefore we urge them to take care to think in accord with the catholic faith, according to the canons, and to be of one mind with the other provinces, so that it may appear that they too, like all the Churches, are governed by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

4. Chap.

As for the Arians, moreover, and other such plagues, since we receive their laymen, converted to the Lord, under the image of penance and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands, it does not seem that their clergy ought to be received with the dignity of the priesthood or of any ministry: since to those to whom we grant only that their baptism is valid—which indeed is performed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—we do not judge that they have the Holy Spirit from that baptism and those mysteries: because when their authors fell away from the catholic faith, they lost the perfection of the Spirit which they had received. Nor can they give the fullness of the Spirit, which operates especially in ordinations, which they have lost rather through the faithlessness of their impiety than, as I would say, through faith.

How can it come about that we should judge their profane priests worthy of the honors of Christ, whose laymen, as I said, imperfect, we receive to the grace of the Holy Spirit only with the image of penance? Let your gravity, therefore, bring these things to the notice of your fellow bishops, either through a synod, if possible, or through the reading of this letter: so that what you yourself have so necessarily inquired about, and what we have answered so carefully, may be observed by the common consent and zeal of all.

INNOCENT to Decentius, Bishop of Eugubium, greeting.

1. If the priests of the Lord wished to keep whole the ecclesiastical institutions as they have been handed down by the blessed Apostles, no diversity, no variety would be found in the very rites and consecrations. But since each one judges that what ought to be kept is not what has been handed down, but what has seemed good to himself, thence it happens that different things seem to be observed or celebrated in different places or churches; and scandal arises among the peoples, who, not knowing that the ancient traditions have been corrupted by human presumption, think either that the churches do not agree with one another, or that a contrariety has been introduced by the Apostles or apostolic men.

2. For who does not know, or fails to notice, that what was handed down to the Roman Church by Peter, the prince of the Apostles, and is kept to this day, ought to be observed by all; and that nothing ought to be superadded or introduced which has no authority, or which seems to derive an example from elsewhere? Especially since it is manifest that throughout all Italy, the Gauls, the Spains, Africa, and Sicily, and the islands lying between, no one founded churches except those whom the venerable apostle Peter or his successors established as priests. Let them read, if in these provinces any other of the Apostles is found, or is read, to have taught. And if they do not read this, because nowhere do they find it, it behooves them to follow what the Roman Church observes, from which it is not doubtful that they received their beginning, lest, while they devote themselves to foreign assertions, they seem to overlook the head of their institutions.

3. It is not doubtful that your love has often come to the City, and met with us in the church, and has learned what custom is kept either in consecrating the mysteries, or in the other sacred rites performed. We would consider this sufficient for the instruction of your church, or for its correction, if your predecessors held anything less fully or otherwise, were it not that you have judged that we should be consulted about certain matters. To which we therefore reply, not because we believe you to be ignorant of some things, but so that with greater authority you may either instruct your own people, or, if any stray from the institutions of the Roman Church, may either admonish them or not delay to point them out, so that we may be able to know who they are who either introduce novelties, or think that the custom of some other church than the Roman one is to be observed.

You assert, then, that peace is commanded to the people by certain persons before the mysteries are completed, or that the priests exchange it among themselves, whereas, after everything—which I ought not to disclose—the peace must necessarily be given, by which it may be established that the people have given their consent to all that is performed in the mysteries and celebrated in the church, and it may be shown that these things are concluded by the seal of the peace that closes them.

As for the reading out of names before the priest makes the prayer, and commends by his prayer the offerings of those whose names are to be read—how superfluous this is, you yourself, with your own prudence, recognize; that one should insinuate beforehand the name of him whose offering you have not yet offered to God, although nothing is unknown to Him. Therefore the offerings must first be commended, and then the names of those to whom they belong must be pronounced; so that they may be named amid the sacred mysteries, not among the other things which we set forth beforehand, in order that by these very mysteries we may open the way for the prayers that follow.

Concerning the sealing of infants, it is clear that it is lawful for none but the bishop to do this. For presbyters, although they are priests of the second rank, do not possess the summit of the pontificate. That this pontifical right belongs to bishops alone—that is, to seal, or to bestow the Paraclete Spirit—not only ecclesiastical custom shows, but also that reading of the Acts of the Apostles which asserts that Peter and John were sent to bestow the Holy Spirit upon those already baptized. For presbyters, whether apart from the bishop or in the bishop's presence when they baptize, are permitted to anoint the baptized with chrism, provided it has been consecrated by the bishop, but not to sign the forehead with that same oil, which is owed to bishops alone, when they bestow the Paraclete Spirit. But I cannot say the words, lest I seem rather to betray them than to answer the consultation.

That one must fast on the Sabbath, the most evident reason demonstrates.

For if we celebrate the Lord's Day not only at Easter, on account of the venerable resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also frequent the image of that same day throughout each cycle of weeks, and fast on the sixth day (Friday) on account of the Lord's passion, we ought not to pass over the Sabbath, which seems to be included between the sorrow and the joy of that time. For indeed it is certain that the Apostles were in mourning during those two days, and hid themselves for fear of the Jews. And it is not doubtful that they fasted so much during those two days remembered, that the tradition of the Church holds that during these two days the sacraments are not celebrated at all. This form, indeed, must be observed each week, because the commemoration of that day must always be celebrated.

But if they think that one must fast only once, on a single Sabbath, then likewise the Lord's Day and the sixth day would have to be celebrated only once, at Easter. But if the image of the Lord's Day and of the sixth day is to be renewed each week, it is a madness to observe the custom of the two days while omitting the Sabbath; since it has no different cause, namely from the sixth day, on which the Lord suffered, when He also went down to the dead, so that rising on the third day He might restore joy after the preceding sorrow of the two days. We do not, therefore, deny that one must fast on the sixth day; but we say that this must also be done on the Sabbath, because both days imposed sorrow upon the Apostles, or upon those who followed Christ. These, made joyful on the Lord's Day, wished not only that day itself to be most festive, but judged that it should be frequented throughout all the weeks.

Concerning the leaven which we send on the Lord's Day through the tituli (parish churches), you wished to consult us superfluously, since all our churches are established within the city. Their presbyters, because on that very day, on account of the people entrusted to them, they cannot come together with us, therefore receive through the acolytes the leaven confected by us, so that they may not judge themselves separated from our communion, especially on that day. But I do not think this ought to be done through the parishes (parœcias), because the sacraments are not to be carried far (nor do we send them out to presbyters established at the various cemeteries), and their presbyters have the right and license to confect them themselves.

Concerning those who, having been baptized, are afterward seized by a demon, some vice or sin intervening, your love is anxious whether they may or ought to be designated by a presbyter or deacon. This is not permitted unless the bishop has ordered it. For hands are not to be laid on them at all, unless the bishop has given authority for this to be done. But that it may be done, it belongs to the bishop to command that hands be laid on them either by a presbyter or by other clerics. For how could it be done without great difficulty, that one possessed, living far away, should be brought to the bishop, when, if such a case should befall him on the road, he could not easily be carried to the bishop, nor brought back home?

Concerning penitents, whether they bear penance for graver or for lighter offenses, if no illness intervenes, the custom of the Roman Church shows that they are to be released on the fifth day (Thursday) before Easter. As for weighing the gravity of the offenses, it belongs to the priest to judge, so that he attend to the confession of the penitent, and to the weeping and tears of the one making amends, and only then order release, when he sees fitting satisfaction has been made. But if someone falls ill and comes even to the point of despair of life, he must be released before the time of Easter, lest he depart from the world without communion.

Indeed, since your love has wished to consult about this, as about the other matters, my son the deacon Coelestinus has also added in his letter that your love has raised the point written in the epistle of the blessed Apostle James: If any one among you is sick, let him call for the presbyters, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the one who is laboring, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. This, without doubt, ought to be received or understood of the faithful who are sick, who can be anointed with the holy oil of chrism, which, being confected by the bishop, may be used not only by priests but also by all Christians for anointing in their own necessity or that of their household.

But we see that it was superfluously added, that there should be any doubt concerning the bishop, since it is not doubtful that it is permitted to presbyters. For it was said to presbyters for this reason, that bishops, being hindered by other occupations, cannot go to all the sick. But if the bishop either is able, or judges it fitting, to visit someone himself, he can both bless and touch with chrism without hesitation, since it is his to confect the chrism. For it cannot be poured upon penitents, because it is a kind of sacrament. For how can one kind be thought able to be granted to those to whom the other sacraments are denied? 12. To all these things, then, dearest brother, which your love wished to be set forth by us, we have taken care to answer as we were able, so that your Church may be able to keep and preserve the Roman custom, from which it takes its origin.

As for the remaining matters, which it was not right to write, when you are present and asked, we shall be able to declare them. It will, moreover, belong to the power of the Lord to bring it about also that you may well instruct both your Church and our clergy, who serve the divine offices under your pontificate, and that you may give to others a model which they ought to imitate. Given on the 14th day before the Kalends of April, in the consulship of Theodosius Augustus for the seventh time and Palladius, a most illustrious man.

To the most blessed lord and most honorable holy brother Pope Innocent, Aurelius, Numidius, Rusticianus, Fidentinus, Evagrius, Antonius, Palatinus, Adeodatus, Vincentius, Publianus, Theasius, Tutus, Pannonius, Victor, Restitutus, another Restitutus, Rusticus, Fortunatianus, Ampelius, Ambivius, Felix, Donatianus, Adeodatus, Octavius, Serotinus, Majorinus, Posthumianus, Crispulus, Victor, another Victor, Leucius, Macianus, Fructuosus, Faustinianus, Quodvultdeus, Candorius, Maximus, Megasius, Rusticus, Rufinianus, Proculus, Severus, Thomas, Januarius, Octavianus, Prætextatus, Sixtus, Quodvultdeus, Pentadius, Quodvultdeus, Cyprianus, Servilius, Pelagianus, Marcellus, Venantius, Didymus, Saturninus, Bizacenus, Germanus, Germanianus, Invenitus, Majorinus, Invenitus, Candidus, Cyprianus, Æmilianus, Romanus, Africanus, and Marcellinus, and the rest of us who were present at the council of the Church of Carthage.

1. When we had come, according to custom, solemnly to the Church of Carthage, and a synod gathered from us was being held for various causes, our fellow-presbyter Orosius gave us the letters of our holy brothers and fellow-priests Heros and Lazarus, the text of which we have decided must be appended below.

When these had been read, we observed that Pelagius and Coelestius were the authors of an utterly wicked error, to be anathematized by all of us. Whence it came about that we sought to have reviewed what, about five years earlier, had been discussed here at the Church of Carthage concerning the name of Coelestius. When this had been recited, as your holiness will be able to observe from what is appended below, although a manifest judgment was established, by which at that time this wound alone seemed to have been cut off from the Church by episcopal judgment; nevertheless we determined, by common deliberation, that the authors of a persuasion of this kind—although the same Coelestius is said afterward to have attained even to the presbyterate—unless they most openly anathematize these things, ought themselves to be anathematized, so that if it cannot be done for them, at least for those who have been deceived by them or can be deceived, health may be procured once the sentence pronounced against them is known.

This proceeding, therefore, lord brother, we have thought fit to bring to the notice of your holy charity, so that the authority of the Apostolic See also may be applied to the decrees of our mediocrity, for the preservation of the salvation of many, and also for the correction of the perversity of certain persons.

2. For this is what these men accomplish by their damnable disputations, that, not defending but rather exalting free will into a sacrilegious pride, they leave no place for the grace of God, by which we are Christians, by which also this very judgment of our will is truly made free, while it is freed from the dominion of carnal concupiscences, the Lord saying: If the Son shall have made you free, then you shall be free indeed. This help is obtained by faith, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But these men assert, as we have learned from the brethren who have also read their books, that the grace of God is to be reckoned in this, that He instituted and created such a nature of man as could, through its own will, fulfill the law of God, whether that law be naturally written in the heart, or given in letters. They also assert that this same law pertains to grace, in that God gave it as a help to men. But that grace by which, as has been said, we are Christians, of which the Apostle is the preacher, saying, For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord—this they refuse altogether to acknowledge, nor indeed do they dare openly to oppose it.

3. But what else are they doing, when they do not cease to persuade animal men, who do not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, that human nature alone can suffice for them to work and accomplish righteousness, and to fulfill the commands of God?

They do not attend to what is written: The Spirit helps our infirmity; and, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; and that we are one body in Christ Jesus, and each members one of another, having different gifts according to the grace which is given to us; and, By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace in me was not void, but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God with me; and, Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ; and, Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God; and, We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us; and countless other things, which, if we wished to gather from all the Scriptures, no volume would suffice.

And we fear that in reminding you of these very things, which you preach with greater grace from the apostolic see, we may seem to be acting unsuitably. But we do this because, the weaker each of us is thought to be, the more attentive we are held to be in preaching the word of God on every side, and the more frequently and boldly we suffer them rising up against us.

4. If, therefore, Pelagius shall have seemed to your veneration justly absolved by the episcopal proceedings, which are said to have been drawn up in the East, nevertheless that very error and impiety, which already has many defenders scattered through diverse places, must be anathematized even by the authority of the apostolic see.

For let your holiness consider, and have compassion with us in pastoral affection, how pestilential and deadly to the sheep of Christ is that which necessarily follows from the sacrilegious disputations of these men: that we ought not even to pray that we enter not into temptation—which the Lord both admonished his disciples and set in the prayer which he taught; nor that our faith fail not, which he himself testified he had prayed for on behalf of the apostle Peter.

For if these things are established in our power by the possibility of nature and the choice of the will, who does not see that they are vainly sought from the Lord, and falsely prayed for, when in praying we ask for things which are already obtained by the sufficient powers of a nature so constituted; nor ought the Lord Jesus to have said, Watch and pray, but only, Watch, lest you enter into temptation; nor ought he to have said to the most blessed Peter, first of the Apostles: I have prayed for thee, but rather, I admonish thee, or I command and enjoin thee, that thy faith fail not?

By the contention of these men our benedictions also are contradicted, so that we would seem to speak in vain over the people whatever we pray from the Lord for them, that by living rightly and piously they may please him; or that which the Apostle prays for the faithful, saying: I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit. If, therefore, in blessing we wish to say over the people: Grant him, Lord, to be strengthened with might by thy Spirit—the disputation of these men contradicts us, affirming that free will is denied, if this is asked of God which is in our own power. For, they say, if we wish to be strengthened with might, we can, by that possibility of nature which we do not now receive, but received when we were created.

5. They also deny that little ones ought to be baptized for the sake of the salvation which is given through Christ the Savior; and thus by this death-bringing doctrine they kill them eternally, promising that even if they are not baptized they will have eternal life, and that it does not pertain to them, of whom the Lord says, For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost: because, they say, these had not perished, nor is there anything in them to be saved, or redeemed at so great a price; because nothing is corrupted in them, nothing is held captive under the power of the devil, nor was blood shed for them, which is read to have been shed for the remission of sins. Although Coelestius has already confessed in his little book in the church of Carthage that redemption is accomplished even for little ones through the baptism of Christ.

But many, who are said to be or to have been their disciples, do not cease to affirm, by whatever means they can, these evils by which they attempt to overturn the foundations of the Christian faith.

6. Whence even if Pelagius and Coelestius have been corrected, or say that they never held these views, and deny that whatever writings have been brought forth against them are their own, and there is no way by which they can be convicted of lying: nevertheless, generally, whoever dogmatizes and affirms that human nature can suffice by itself for conquering sins and doing the commands of God, is found to be, in that way, an adversary of the grace of God, which is more clearly declared by the prayers of the saints; and whoever denies that little ones are freed from perdition through the baptism of Christ, and receive everlasting salvation, let him be anathema.

But as for whatever other things are objected against them, we do not doubt that your veneration, when you have examined the episcopal proceedings, which are said to have been drawn up in the East in this same cause, will judge accordingly, whence we may all rejoice in the mercy of God. Pray for us, most blessed lord pope.

To the most blessed lord, deservedly venerable, and to be honored in Christ, Pope INNOCENT, SILVANUS the elder, VALENTINUS, AURELIUS, DONATUS, RESTITUTUS, LUCIANUS, ALYPIUS, AUGUSTINUS, PLACENTIUS, SEVERUS, FORTUNATUS, POSSIDIUS, NOVATUS, SECUNDUS, MAURENTIUS, LEO, FAUSTINIANUS, CRESCONIUS, MALCHUS, LITTORIUS, FORTUNATUS, DONATUS, Ponticanus, Saturninus, Cresconius, Honorius, Lucius, Adeodatus, Processus, Cresconius, Secundus, Felix, Asiaticus, Rufinianus, Faustinus, Servus, Terentius, Cresconius, Sperantius, Quadratus, Lucillus, Sabinus, Faustinus, Cresconius, Victor, Gigantius, Possidonius, Antoninus, Innocentius, Praesidius, Crescentius, Felix, Antoninus, Victor, Honoratus, Donatus, Petrus, Praesidius, Cresconius, Lampadius, Delphinus, from the council of Milevis, greeting in the Lord.

1. Since the Lord has set you in the apostolic see by a special gift of his grace, and has shown you to be such in our times, that it would rather redound to us as a fault of negligence if we should keep silent before your veneration on matters that ought to be suggested for the Church, than that you might receive them either disdainfully or negligently; we beg that you deign to apply pastoral diligence to the great dangers of the weak members of Christ.

2. For a new and exceedingly pernicious heresy attempts to rise up among the enemies of the grace of Christ, who by impious disputations try even to take away from us the Lord's Prayer.

For when the Lord taught us to say, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors, these men say that a man, in this life, once the commandments of God are known, can attain to such perfection of righteousness by free will alone, without the help of the grace of the Savior, that it is no longer necessary for him to say, Forgive us our debts; and that what follows, Lead us not into temptation, should not be understood as though we ought to ask for divine help lest, being tempted, we fall into sin; but that this is placed in our own power, and that the will of man alone suffices to fulfill this—as though the Apostle had said in vain, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; and, God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

In vain also would the Lord have said to the apostle Peter, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and to all his own, Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation—if this is all in the power of man. They also contend, with Christian presumption, that little children, even if imbued with no sacraments of Christian grace, will have eternal life, thereby emptying what the Apostle says: By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, in that all have sinned; and in another place, as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

To omit, then, the many other things which they discuss against the holy Scriptures, let these two points meanwhile suffice, by which they attempt utterly to overturn all that we are as Christians—that faithful hearts should hold that God is not to be asked to be our helper against the evil of sin and for the working of righteousness, and that the sacrament of Christian grace does not assist little ones toward attaining eternal life.

3. In insinuating these things to your apostolic breast, we do not need to say much, or to exaggerate so great an impiety with words; since without doubt these things move you so, that you cannot altogether dissemble about correcting them, lest they creep further and contaminate many, or rather destroy them, while under the name of Christ they utterly alienate them from the grace of Christ.

The authors of this most pernicious error are said to be Pelagius and Coelestius, whom indeed we would rather have healed within the Church, than cut off from the Church with their salvation despaired of, if no necessity compels it. One of these, that is, Coelestius, is said to have attained even to the presbyterate in Asia. Concerning him, what was done a few years ago your holiness is better instructed by the church of Carthage. But Pelagius, as letters sent by certain of our brothers report, is asserted, while established at Jerusalem, to deceive not a few. Nevertheless many more, who have been able to investigate his views more carefully, contend against him on behalf of the grace of Christ and the truth of the catholic faith, but especially your holy son, our brother and fellow-presbyter Jerome.

But we trust, with the help of the mercy of the Lord our God, who deigns both to guide you as you take counsel, and to hear you as you pray, that those who hold such perverse and pernicious opinions will more easily yield to the authority of your holiness, drawn from the authority of the holy Scriptures; so that we may rejoice rather in their correction than be saddened by their destruction, most blessed lord. But whichever they choose, your venerableness discerns that provision must be made instantly and swiftly, at least for others—as many as they can—lest, if this is disregarded, they be entangled in their snares. We have directed these things, written from the council of Numidia, to your holiness, imitating the church of Carthage and our fellow bishops of the province of Carthage, whom we have learned to have written on this matter to the apostolic see, which you, blessed one, illumine.

Mindful of us, may you increase in the grace of God, most blessed lord, deservedly venerable and to be honored in Christ, holy pope.

they show is understood by the faithful in one sense. Likewise what he says, that man can be without sin if he wills, in what sense it is truly said, or in what sense, though not without error, it may nonetheless be tolerably said, they explain. To the most blessed lord and deservedly most honorable brother Pope INNOCENT, AURELIUS, ALYPIUS, AUGUSTINE, EVODIUS, and POSSIDIUS, greeting in the Lord.

1. Concerning two councils of the province of Carthage and of Numidia, we have sent to your holiness letters subscribed by no small number of bishops against the enemies of the grace of Christ, who trust in their own strength and say, in a certain manner, to our Creator: Thou didst make us men, but we ourselves have made ourselves just; who call human nature free for this reason, that they may not seek a liberator: who call it saved, that they may judge a savior superfluous.

For they say that it is so strong, that having received its powers once at the origin of its creation, it can, through free will, with no further help from the grace of Him who created it, tame and extinguish all desires, and overcome temptations. And many of them rise up against us, and say to our soul: There is no salvation for him in his God. The household of Christ, which says, When I am weak, then am I strong; and to which its Lord says, I am thy salvation, with heart in suspense, in fear and trembling, awaits the help of the Lord, even through the charity of your reverence.

2. For we have heard that there are in the city of Rome, where he lived for a long time, not a few who favor him for various reasons: some indeed, because he is reported to have persuaded them of such things; but more, who do not believe that he holds such views; especially because in the East, where he now resides, ecclesiastical proceedings are boasted to have taken place, by which he is thought to have been cleared; where indeed, if the bishops pronounced him catholic, it must be believed that this was done for no other reason than that he said he confessed the grace of God, and that in this way man could live justly by his own labor and will, provided he did not deny that he was helped toward this by the grace of God.

For upon hearing these words, the catholic bishops could understand no other grace of God than that which they were accustomed to read in the books of God, and to preach to the people of God, namely that of which the Apostle says, I do not make void the grace of God; for if righteousness come by the Law, then Christ died in vain: without doubt the grace by which we are justified from iniquity, and by which we are saved from infirmity; not that by which we were created together with our own will. For if those bishops had understood that he spoke of that grace which we have even in common with the impious, with whom we are men; but denied that grace by which we are Christians and sons of God: who would not merely say that he would hear him patiently among catholic priests, but that he would even bear him before his own eyes?

Wherefore the judges are not to be blamed, because they heard, according to ecclesiastical custom, the word "grace," not knowing what men of this kind are accustomed to sow, either in the books of their teaching, or in the ears of their followers.

3. The matter concerns not one Pelagius alone, who has perhaps now been corrected—would that it were so!—but so many, by whose wordy contending, and by whose dragging along of weak and unlearned souls as if bound, and by whose wearying, through the very contention, of firm souls stable in the faith, everything everywhere is now full. Therefore either he must be summoned to Rome by your veneration, and diligently questioned as to what grace he means, by which he confesses—if indeed he now confesses—that men are helped toward not sinning and living justly: or this same matter must be dealt with him by letter.

And when he shall be found to say that grace which the ecclesiastical and apostolic truth teaches, then, without any scruple of the Church, without any hiding-place of ambiguity, he must be absolved, then indeed there will be true cause to rejoice over his clearing.

4. For whether he says that grace is free will, or that grace is the remission of sins, or that grace is the precept of the law; he says nothing in any of these that pertains, through the ministration of the Holy Spirit, to the conquering of concupiscence and temptations, which He most richly poured out upon us who ascended into heaven, and leading captivity captive gave gifts to men. For it is on this account that we pray that we may be able to overcome the temptation of sins, that the Spirit of God, from whom we have received the pledge, may help our infirmity.

But he who prays and says, Lead us not into temptation, does not pray that he may be a man, which he already is by nature; nor does he pray that he may have free will, which he already received when nature itself was created; nor does he pray for the remission of sins, since this is said above, Forgive us our debts; nor does he pray to receive a commandment: but plainly he prays that he may fulfill the commandment. For if he is led into temptation, that is, if he fails in temptation, he certainly commits a sin which is against the commandment. He prays, therefore, that he may not sin, that is, that he may not do anything evil: which the Apostle prays for the Corinthians, saying: Now we pray to God that ye do no evil. Whence it sufficiently appears that, for not sinning, that is, for not doing evil, although the free choice of the will is not doubted to exist, its power is nevertheless not sufficient, unless its weakness be helped.

This prayer itself, then, is the clearest testimony of grace. Let him confess this, and we shall rejoice over him, whether upright or corrected.

5. Law and grace must be distinguished. The law knows how to command, grace how to help. Nor would the law command, if there were no will; nor would grace help, if the will alone were sufficient. It is commanded that we have understanding, where it is said, Be ye not as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding; and yet we pray that we may have understanding, where it is said, Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. It is commanded that we have wisdom, where it is said, O ye fools, be wise at last; and yet it is prayed that we may have wisdom, where it is said, But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all abundantly, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

It is commanded that we have continence, where it is said, When I knew that no one can be continent, unless God grant it, and this itself was a mark of wisdom, to know whose gift it was: I went to the Lord, and besought him. Finally, lest it be too tedious to go through everything, it is commanded that we not do evil, where it is said, Turn away from evil; and yet it is prayed that we do no evil, where it is said: Now we pray to God, that ye do no evil. It is commanded that we do good, where it is said, Turn away from evil and do good; and yet it is prayed that we do good, where it is said, We do not cease to pray and ask for you, and among other things which he prays for them, he says: That ye may walk worthy of God unto all pleasing, in every good work and word.

Therefore, just as we recognize the will when these things are commanded, so let him too recognize grace when these things are sought.

6. We have sent to your reverence a book, which certain devout and honorable young servants of God gave us, whose names also we do not withhold; for they are called Timasius and James. These, as we have heard, and as you also deign to know, having, at the exhortation of Pelagius himself, abandoned the hope which they had in the world, now serve God in continence. When these, after some while, by whatever effort of ours the Lord inspiring, had at last been freed from that same error, they brought forth this same book, saying that it was Pelagius's, and earnestly asked that a reply be made to it. It was done: to them the reply itself was written back; giving thanks, they wrote back. We have sent both—the one to whom the reply was made, and what was replied.

And lest we be too burdensome, we have made marks in those places where we ask that you not be reluctant to look, as to how, when the question was put to him that he denied the grace of God, he answered in such a way as to say that it was nothing but the nature in which God formed us.

7. But if he denies that this is his book, or that these are the passages in the book, we do not contend: let him anathematize, and let him confess most openly that grace which Christian doctrine demonstrates and proclaims to be the proper possession of Christians, which is not nature, but that by which nature is saved: which does not cherish nature by the sound of teaching in the ears, or by any visible assistance, as a planter and waterer does in a certain manner from without, but by the ministration of the Spirit and hidden mercy, as He does who gives the increase, God.

For although by a certain not-to-be-rejected reasoning it is called the grace of God by which we were created, so that we should not be nothing, nor be something merely, like a corpse which does not live, or a tree which does not feel, or a beast which does not understand; but men, who both are, and live, and feel, and understand; and are able to give thanks to our Creator for so great a benefit; whence this too can rightly be called grace, because it was given not by the merits of any preceding works, but by the free goodness of God: yet there is another grace, by which we who are predestined are called, justified, glorified, so that we may say: If God be for us, who can be against us? He who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.

8. It was concerning this grace that the question turned, when those whom Pelagius gravely offended and disturbed said to him that he was attacking it by his disputations, in which he asserted that human nature was sufficient for itself, through free will, not only for doing but even for perfecting the divine commandments. This is the grace which apostolic teaching calls by this name, by which we are saved and justified through faith in Christ. Of this it is written: I do not make void the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the Law, then Christ died in vain. Of this it is written, Ye are emptied of Christ, who are justified by the Law; ye are fallen from grace. Of this it is written, But if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.

Of this it is written, But to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt: but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. And many other things, which you yourself can better remember, and understand more prudently, and preach more brilliantly. But that grace by which we were created men, even though we do not wrongly understand that it may be so called, it is nonetheless remarkable if we read it so called in any of the canonical, prophetic, evangelical, or apostolic writings.

9. Since therefore this question was put to him concerning this grace, well known to Christian and catholic believers, that he should cease to attack it; what is the meaning of this, that when he had himself put this very objection to himself in his book, as though from an adversarial person, so that he might clear himself by responding, he answered nothing else but that the nature of created man reflects the grace of the Creator; and thus he says that righteousness can be fulfilled without sin through free will, with the help of divine grace, because God gave this to man by the very possibility of nature?

10. To which it is rightly answered: Then is the scandal of the cross made void. Then Christ died in vain. For if he had not died for our offenses and risen again for our justification, and had not ascended on high and, leading captivity captive, given gifts to men, would this possibility of nature, which he defends, not exist in men?

Or perhaps was God's commandment lacking, and therefore Christ died? Nay, this too already was holy and just and good. Already it had been said, Thou shalt not covet; already it had been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. In which saying the Apostle says the whole law is fulfilled. And since no one loves himself unless he loves God; therefore the Lord says that the whole Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. These two commandments had already been given to men by God. Or was the eternal reward of righteousness not yet promised? This he himself does not say, who in his own writings stated that even in the Old Testament the kingdom of heaven was promised. If therefore the possibility of nature, through free will, for doing and perfecting righteousness already existed, if the holy and just and good commandment of the law of God already existed, if the everlasting reward already was promised: then Christ died in vain.

11. Therefore justice comes neither through the law, nor through the possibility of nature; but from faith and the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, the one mediator of God and men. Unless he had died in the fullness of time for our sins, and risen for our justification, surely both the faith of the ancients and our own would be made void. But if faith is made void, what justice would remain to man, since the just man lives by faith?

For since through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and thus it passed into all men, in whom all sinned: without doubt, from the body of this death, where another law fights against the law of the mind, no one has been or is freed by his own possibility, which, being lost, needs a redeemer; being wounded, needs a savior: but rather by the grace of God through the faith of the one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who, being God, made man, and remaining God, having been made man, himself remade what he had made.

12. I think, moreover, that it does not escape him that the faith of Christ, which afterward came into revelation, was hidden in the times of our fathers; through which nevertheless they too were freed by the grace of God, whoever in any time of the human race could be freed, by the hidden judgment of God, yet not one that deserves blame.

Whence the Apostle says: Having the same spirit of faith (indeed the same as they had), according to what is written, I believed, therefore have I spoken; and we believe, therefore also we speak. Hence it is that the mediator himself says: Abraham desired to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad. Hence Melchisedech, having brought forth the sacrament of the Lord's table, knew that he was prefiguring his eternal priesthood. Now indeed, once the Law was given in letters, which the Apostle says entered in besides, that sin might abound, and of which he says: If then the inheritance be of the Law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise. What then is the Law? It was set forth on account of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, arranged through angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not of one, but God is one. Is the Law then against the promises of God? God forbid.

For if a law had been given which could give life, justice would certainly be of the Law. But the Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise, by the faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to them that believe. Is it not sufficiently shown that this was brought about by the Law, that sin might be recognized, and transgression increased? For where there is no law, neither is there transgression; and thus, against the victory of sin, one might take refuge in the divine grace which is in the promises: and so the Law would not be against the promises of God, because through it comes the knowledge of sin, and from the transgression of the Law the abundance of sin, so that for deliverance the promises of God might be sought, which is the grace of God; and justice might begin to be in man, not his own, but God's, that is, given as a gift of God.

13. This justice even now certain persons, ignorant of the justice of God, just as was said then of the Jews, and wishing to establish their own, are not subject to the justice of God. For they too suppose themselves justified through the Law, free will sufficing for them to keep it, that is, their justice being brought forth from human nature, not given from divine grace, on account of which it is called the justice of God. Whence again it is written: For by the Law is the knowledge of sin. But now, without the Law, the justice of God is made manifest, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. When he says "is made manifest," he shows that it was already there then, but as that rain which Gideon obtained, then as it were hidden in the fleece, now as it were manifest upon the threshing-floor.

Since then the Law without grace could not have been anything but the strength of sin, not its death; for so it is said, The sting of death is sin, but the strength of sin is the Law: just as many now flee from the face of reigning sin to grace, as it were now open upon the threshing-floor; so few then fled to it as it were hidden then in the fleece. This distribution of times, however, is referred to the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, of which it is said, How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

14. Wherefore, if both before the time of the Law and in the very time of the Law, the just fathers, living by faith, were justified not by the possibility of a weak, needy, vitiated, and sold-under-sin nature, but by the grace of God through faith, and now that same grace, coming already into the open, justifies as revealed; then let Pelagius anathematize his own writings, where against this—though not through obstinacy, yet through ignorance—he argues, defending the possibility of nature for overcoming sins and fulfilling the commandments. Or if he denies these to be his own, or says they were inserted into his writings by his enemies—those which he denies to be his—let him nevertheless anathematize and condemn them, by the fatherly exhortation and authority of your holiness. If therefore he wishes, let him learn to remove a scandal burdensome and pernicious to himself, a scandal to the Church: which scandal his hearers, and those who love him perversely, do not cease to spread everywhere.

For if they come to know that this same book, which they either suppose or know to be his, has been anathematized and condemned by himself, by the authority of the catholic bishops, and especially of your holiness, whose weight with him we do not at all doubt to be greater; we do not think they will dare any further, by speaking against the grace of God which has been revealed through the passion and resurrection of Christ, to disturb faithful and simply Christian hearts: but rather, with the help of the Lord's mercy, your prayers striving together with us, burning with charity and piety, we trust that they will be not only blessed forever, but also just and holy, not by their own strength, but trusting in that same grace.

Whence also, a letter written by one of us to him, to whom, through a certain Oriental deacon, but a citizen of Hippo, he sent certain writings as if in his own defense, we have thought it better to direct to your beatitude, judging and asking rather that you yourself deign to send it to him. For thus he will not disdain to read it, attending more to him who sent it than to him who wrote it.

15. But as to what they say, that man can be without sin, and can easily keep the commandments of God if he will, although this is said along with the help of grace, which nevertheless was revealed and given through the incarnation of his Only-begotten—this seems more tolerable to say: yet since it may not unreasonably raise the question, where and when through that same grace it is brought about in us that we are altogether without sin—whether in this life, when the flesh lusts against the spirit, or rather in that life, when the word that is written shall come to pass: Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?

For the sting of death is sin—this must be handled more carefully, on account of certain others, who have held, and have committed to memory in their writings, that even in this life man can be without sin, not from the beginning of his birth, but by conversion from sins to justice, and from a wicked way to a good life. For thus they understood what is written of Zachary and Elizabeth, that they walked in all the justifications of the Lord without blame. This word "without blame" they took as meaning "without sin," not indeed denying—rather, as is found in other places in their writings, piously confessing—the help of the grace of our Lord, not through the natural spirit of man, but through the principal Spirit of God. But they seem to have considered too little that Zachary himself was indeed a priest. Now all priests then were bound by the law of God first to offer sacrifice for their own sins, then for the people's.

Just as now, through the sacrifice of prayer, we are convicted of not being without sin, since we are commanded to say, Forgive us our debts: so then too, through the sacrifices of animal victims, the priests were convicted of not being without sin, since they were commanded to offer for their own sins. But if the matter stands thus, that through the grace of the Savior we indeed make progress in this life, cupidity diminishing, charity increasing; but are made perfect in that life, cupidity extinguished, charity completed: certainly that which is written, He who is born of God does not sin, is said with reference to that very charity, which alone does not sin. For to the birth which is of God belongs the charity that is to be increased and perfected, not the cupidity that is to be diminished and consumed: which, however, as long as it is in our members, by its own law fights against the law of the mind.

But he who is born of God, neither obeying its desires, nor yielding his members as weapons of iniquity to sin, can say, Now it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me.

16. But however this question stands, since even if man is not found in this life without sin, yet it is said that this can come about through the help of grace and the Spirit of God, and that for this to happen one must strive and pray; each one who errs in this is tolerably deceived; nor is it diabolical impiety, but human error, to affirm things to be striven for and hoped for, even if what he affirms he cannot demonstrate. For he believes that to be possible which it is certainly praiseworthy to wish for.

But it is enough for us that no one among the faithful in the Church of God is found, at whatever degree and excellence of righteousness, who dares to say to himself that the petition of the Lord's Prayer, Forgive us our debts, is not necessary; and to say that he has no sin, lest he deceive himself, and the truth not be in him, even though he already lives without blame. For it is not any sin whatsoever, even of human temptation, but a grave sin, that comes into blame.

17. As for the other matters objected against him, just as he will have seen them defended in the proceedings, so without doubt your beatitude will judge concerning these. Surely the most gentle sweetness of your heart will grant us pardon, in that we have sent to your holiness a letter perhaps longer than you would wish.

For we do not pour back our little stream to increase your great fountain; but in this not small temptation of the time, from which may he free us to whom we say, Lead us not into temptation, we wish this to be approved by you—whether even our own, though small, flows from that same source from which yours also, abundant, flows—and to be consoled by your reply concerning the common participation in the one grace.

Innocent to aurelius, NUMIDIUS, RUSTICIANUS, FIDENTIANUS, EVAGRIUS, ANTONIUS, PALATINUS, ADEODATUS, VINCENTIUS, PUBLIANUS, THEASIUS, TUTUS, PANNONIUS, VICTOR, RESTITUTUS, another RESTITUTUS, RUSTICUS, FORTUNATIANUS, AMPELIUS, AMBIVIUS, FELIX, DONATIANUS, ADEODATUS, OCTAVIUS, SEROTINUS, MAJORINUS, POSTHUMIANUS, CRISPULUS, VICTOR, another VICTOR, LEUCIUS, MARIANUS, FRUCTUOSUS, PROCULUS, FAUSTINIANUS, QUODVULTDEUS, CANDORIUS, MAXIMUS, MEGASIUS, RUSTICUS, RUFINIANUS, PROCULUS, SEVERUS, THOMAS, JANUARIUS, OCTAVIANUS, PRAETEXTATUS, SIXTUS, QUODVULTDEUS, PENTADIUS, QUODVULTDEUS, CYPRIAN, SERVILIUS, PELAGIANUS, MARCELLUS, VENANTIUS, DIDYMUS, SATURNINUS, BIZACENUS, GERMANUS, GERMANIANUS, INVENITUS, MAJORINUS, INVENITUS, CANDIDUS, CYPRIAN, ROMANIANUS, AEMILIANUS, AFRICANUS, MARCELLINUS, and the rest who were present at the Council of Carthage, most beloved brothers, greeting in the Lord.

1. In inquiring into the things of God, which it is fitting should be handled by priests with all solicitude, and above all in a true, just, and catholic council, keeping the examples of ancient tradition, and mindful of ecclesiastical discipline, you have confirmed the vigor of your religion by true reasoning, no less now in consulting than before when you were pronouncing judgment, in that you have approved that the judgment should be referred to us, knowing what is owed to the apostolic see, since all of us placed in this office desire to follow the Apostle himself, from whom this very episcopate and the whole authority of this name has emerged. Following him, we know how to condemn evil things as well as to approve things worthy of praise.

Or indeed this too, that you, keeping the institutions of the fathers in your priestly office, do not judge them to be trampled underfoot, since those fathers decreed by no human but by a divine judgment, that whatever matter, even one arising from separated and remote provinces, should not be considered finished until it came to the knowledge of this see, so that whatever just pronouncement had been made might be confirmed by the whole authority of this see; and that from it the other churches might take (as though all waters flowed from their natal source, and pure streams from an uncorrupted head might flow through the diverse regions of the whole world) what they should enjoin, whom they should wash, whom, as defiled with unclean filth, the water fit for clean bodies should avoid.

2. I rejoice therefore, dearest brothers, that you have directed letters to us through our brother and fellow bishop Julius; and that together with those you bear a care for the churches over which you preside, you show your solicitude for the benefit of all; and that you request that through all the churches of the whole world one and the same thing, which is beneficial to all, be decreed, so that the Church, established by her own rules, and this decree of just pronouncement, by which she may guard against them, being confirmed, may not be open to such men, who, instructed—or rather destroyed—by perverse subtleties of words, disputing under the appearance of the catholic faith, as though breathing out a pestilential venom, in order to corrupt for the worse the hearts of men who think rightly, seek to overturn the whole discipline of true doctrine.

It must therefore be healed the more quickly, lest the accursed disease creep further into souls: just as a physician, when he sees some ailment of this earthly body, reckons it a great proof of his art if by his intervention someone despaired of quickly recovers; or when he beholds a putrid wound, applies fomentations or other things by which the wound that has arisen may be closed up; and if, remaining, it cannot be healed, lest it corrupt the rest of the body with its decay, he cuts away with the knife what was doing harm, so that he may keep the rest whole and untouched. That, therefore, must be cut off which has crept in as a wound upon a body otherwise altogether pure and sound; lest, when it is too slowly wiped away, an unexhaustible sink of this evil settle almost in the very inward parts.

3. For what should we henceforth rightly think of the minds of those who suppose that they owe to themselves the fact that they are good, and do not consider him whose grace they obtain daily? But now these, being such as they are, obtain no grace of God at all; who trust that they can attain by themselves as much—without him—as scarcely those attain who ask of him and merit to receive. For what could be so iniquitous, so barbarous, so ignorant of all religion, so hostile to Christian minds, as to deny that you owe to him whatever you obtain by daily grace, to whom you yourself confess you owe the fact that you were born? Will you then be more excellent in providing for yourself than he can be, who brought it about that you should exist? And to whom you think you owe the fact that you live, how do you not think you owe to him the fact that, by obtaining his daily grace, you thus live?

And you who deny that we need divine aid, as though we were altogether perfect from our own capacity, how do we not call forth his aid upon us, since we can even be such as we are only through him?

4. For whoever denies the aid of God—I should like to ask him what he means: that we do not deserve it, or that God cannot bestow it, or that there is nothing on account of which each one ought to ask for it? That God can do this, his works themselves testify. And that we need daily aid, we cannot deny. For whether we live well, we call it forth so that we may live better and more holily; or whether, thinking wrongly, we are turned away from good things, so that we may return to the right way, we need his help all the more.

For what could seem so deadly, so headlong toward a fall, so exposed to every peril, as if, thinking that this alone suffices for us—the free will which we received at our birth—we should seek nothing further from the Lord, that is, forgetful of our author, we should abjure his power in order to show ourselves free; as though he who made you free at your birth no longer had anything more to give; not knowing that unless grace, implored by great prayers, descends upon us, we shall by no means be able to overcome the errors of earthly failing and mortal body, since it is not free will but the help of God alone that can make us equal to resisting them?

5. For if that man cries out that he has need of divine help, who would not rightly seek this if free will were of more profit to anyone; since indeed that blessed man, already chosen by the Lord, needed nothing, yet he thus entreats God, asking: "Be thou my helper, forsake me not, neither despise me, O God my salvation": we ask for ourselves free will as helper, he asks God as helper; we say that it suffices us to have been born capable, he prays God that he not be forsaken. Do we not, I ask, plainly learn what we should pray, when that man, so blessed, as we said above, desires not to be despised? For those who confirm these things must necessarily be refuted by those very things.

For David would have to be accused as ignorant of prayer and unaware of his own nature, if, knowing that so much lay in his own nature, he still—needing God as helper, and a constant helper, and not even content with constant help, but praying that he never at any time be despised by him—desires this, bowed in prayers; and through the whole body of the psalter both proclaims and cries this out. If therefore that man, so great, knew this so well as to say it constantly, and confessed it so necessary as to teach it: how do Pelagius and Coelestius, setting aside all the answer of the psalms, and repudiating such teaching, trust that they are wiser than some others, saying that we ought neither to seek nor to need the aid of God; when all the saints testify that they can do nothing without it?

6. For that man of old, having suffered through free will, while he used his goods too imprudently, falling, was plunged into the depths of transgression, and found no way thereafter to rise; and, deceived by his own liberty forever, would have lain oppressed by the weight of this ruin, had not the coming of Christ, for the sake of his own grace, raised him up again; who, through the purification of new regeneration, cleansed every past vice by the washing of his baptism; and, confirming his state, so that he might proceed more rightly and more firmly, nevertheless did not deny his grace for the time to come. For although he had redeemed man from past sins, yet knowing that man could sin again, he reserved many things for his restoration, by which he might correct him even after this: he grants daily remedies, relying and trusting in which alone we shall be able in any way to overcome human errors. For it is necessary that by whose aid we conquer, by his not aiding again we be conquered.

7. But I could say more, were it not certain that you have said everything. Whoever, then, seems to agree with this opinion, saying that we have no need of divine help, professes himself an enemy of the catholic faith and ungrateful for the benefits of God. For such men are not worthy even of our communion, which they have thus defiled by their preaching. For they themselves, of their own will, while following what they say, have fled far from true religion. For since our whole profession consists in this, and by our daily prayers we do nothing except seek how we may obtain the mercy of God, how can we bear them while they boast of such things? What error, I ask, so blinds their breast, that if they themselves feel no grace of God, because they are neither worthy nor deserving, they do not consider what divine grace daily bestows upon others?

These men are indeed most worthy of every blindness, who have not even left themselves this—to believe that they can be called back from their errors by divine help. For in denying help, they have utterly taken this away not from others but from themselves; and they must be torn away farther and removed far from the bosom of the Church; lest, long unpunished and occupying much ground, an incurable error grow afterward. For if they have long continued under this impunity, they will necessarily lead many into this depravity of mind and deceive the innocent, or rather the imprudent, who now follow the catholic faith. For they will think that those are rightly thinking whom they still see persisting in the Church. Let the diseased wound therefore be separated from the sound body, and, the breath of the raging disease removed, let those things which are sincere persist the more cautiously, and let the flock be purified, the purer for it, from the contagion of this diseased herd.

Let there be an unblemished perfection of the whole body, which we know you follow and hold in this pronouncement against them, and which, in equal assent with you, we too preserve.

8. If, however, they should call forth in themselves some help of God, which up to now they have denied, and should recognize that they need his aid, so that they might be freed from that ruin into which they had fallen by the perversion of their own heart, and, as though drawn into the light out of foul darkness, with all the things removed and repudiated by which their whole sight was defiled and darkened lest it behold the truth, should condemn what they have thought up to now; and, at some point applying their mind to right disputations, somewhat corrected from this ruin, should entrust and submit themselves to be healed by true counsels—if they do this, it shall be in the power of the bishops to come to their aid to some extent, and to afford some care for such wounds, as the Church is accustomed not to refuse to the fallen, when they have come to their senses: so that, recalled from their headlong course, they may be brought back within the fold of the Lord; lest, placed outside, and excluded from so great a stronghold of the fortification of faith, they be exposed to every peril, to be devoured by the teeth of wolves and harassed, being unable to resist these, by that very perversity of doctrine by which they had provoked them against themselves.

9. But it is proven that a sufficient response has been given by your admonitions, so abounding in examples of our law. Nor have we thought that anything remains to be said, since it is certain that nothing has been omitted by you, nothing left unspoken, by which they might be refuted and thoroughly recognized as convicted. And therefore we set forth no testimonies, because in these there is a full account, and it is quite certain that so many most learned priests have said everything: nor is it fitting to believe that you have passed over anything that could profit the case. And in another hand: Fare well, brothers. And at the side: Given the 6th day before the Kalends of February, after the consulship of Theodosius Augustus for the 7th time and of Junius Quartus, Vir Clarissimus.

INNOCENT to SILVANUS the elder, VALENTINE, and the rest who were present at the synod of Milevis, most beloved brothers, greeting in the Lord.

1. Amid the other cares of the Roman church and the occupations of the apostolic see, by which we handle the deliberations of various matters with faithful and healing discussion, our brother and fellow bishop Julius unexpectedly brought to me the letters of your affection, which you sent from the council of Milevis with a more zealous care for the faith, adding also the writings of the Carthaginian synod, which lodged a like complaint.

The Church rejoices, indeed, that the shepherds show such solicitude for the flocks entrusted to them, that they suffer none among them to err; but if the harsh grass of some evil delight has seduced any of the sheep, and if they have remained in error, either they wish them to be wholly separated, or, avoiding those who have long sought entry, to guard them with the circumspection of former custody: providing in either case, namely, lest by receiving such men the rest be led by a similar example, or by spurning those who return they seem cast to the bites of wolves. A consultation exceedingly prudent and full of the catholic faith. For who could either tolerate one erring, or refuse to receive one correcting himself? For as I judge it harsh to grant connivance to sinners, so I judge it impious to deny a hand to those who turn back.

2. Diligently, therefore, and fittingly have you consulted the hidden matters of apostolic honor (of that honor, I say, of him upon whom, besides those things which are external, remains the solicitude of all the churches) concerning the anxious things, as to what opinion should be held: following, namely, the form of the ancient rule, which you know has always been observed with me throughout the whole world. But this I pass over; for I do not believe this escapes your prudence. What else have you confirmed by this very action, except knowing that through all the provinces responses always emanate from the apostolic source to those who ask? Especially whenever a question of faith is agitated, I judge that all our brothers and fellow bishops ought to refer it to none other than Peter, that is, to the author of his name and honor, just as your love has now referred it, in a matter that can profit all the churches in common throughout the whole world.

For it is necessary that the devisers of evils become more cautious, when, at the report of a double synod, they see themselves cut off from ecclesiastical communion by the decrees of our judgment. Your charity, therefore, shall enjoy a twofold benefit. For you shall obtain the grace of the canons observed, and the whole world shall enjoy your benefit. For what catholic man would wish any longer to exchange speech with the adversaries of Christ? Who would even share the very light of life in communion with them? Let the authors of a new heresy assuredly be shunned. 5. For what could they have devised more bitterly against the Lord than to nullify the divine helps, and to remove the reason for daily prayer? This is to say, What need have I of God? Rightly does the psalmist say against these: Behold men, who did not set God as their helper.

Denying, therefore, the help of God, they say that man can suffice for himself, and that he has no need of divine grace: deprived of which, he must necessarily fall entangled in the snares of the devil, while he strives to fulfil all the commandments of life by freedom alone. O perverse doctrine of most depraved minds! Let one consider at last how liberty itself so deceived the first man, that while he used its reins too indulgently, he fell through presumption into transgression, nor could he be rescued from this, unless the providence of regeneration had, through the coming of the Lord Christ, restored the state of pristine liberty: let him hear David saying: Our help is in the name of the Lord; and, Be thou my helper, forsake me not, neither despise me, O God of my salvation. Which he would have said in vain, if that which he sought from the Lord with tearful speech had been placed solely in his own will.

4. Since these things are so, and since throughout all the divine pages we read that free will must be joined only with the help of God, and that it can do nothing when deprived of heavenly aid; in what way, then, do Pelagius and Coelestius stubbornly defend this possibility for the will alone, as you assert, persuading it to themselves—nay, what is more grievous for the common sorrow, to very many others already? Indeed we might use manifold examples to destroy such teaching, did we not know that your holiness is fully versed in all the divine Scriptures; especially since your report is so filled with such and so many testimonies, that this dogma might be rescinded by these alone; and there is no need for hidden proofs, since not even the ones you have set forth as readily occurring to you can they dare to oppose, nor are they able.

Therefore he attempts to take away the grace of God, which we must seek even though the liberty of our pristine state has been restored to us; since we cannot avoid the other machinations of the devil except with the same grace helping us. 5. But that which your fraternity asserts they preach, that little children can be granted the rewards of eternal life even without the grace of baptism, is utterly foolish. For unless they shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, they shall not have life in themselves. But those who maintain this for them without regeneration seem to me to wish to nullify baptism itself, since they preach that these have what is believed to be conferred upon them only by baptism. If, therefore, they wish that not being reborn should be no hindrance, they must necessarily confess that even the sacred waters of regeneration are of no profit.

But, that the depraved doctrine of superfluous men may be quickly stripped away by the reasoning of truth, the Lord proclaims this in the Gospel, saying: Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. 6. Wherefore we judge, by the authority of apostolic vigor, that Pelagius and Coelestius—that is, the inventors of new words which, as the Apostle said, are wont to produce nothing of edification, but rather most vain questions—be deprived of ecclesiastical communion, until they come to their senses from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will; and that meanwhile they not be received into the Lord's fold, which they themselves, following the path of a perverse way, chose to desert. For they must be cut off who trouble you, and wish to pervert the Gospel of Christ.

At the same time we command that whoever strives to defend the same view with like obstinacy be bound by an equal penalty; for not only they that do such things, but they also that consent to them that do them: since I judge there is not much difference between the mind of the one who commits and the favor of the one who consents. I add further: he for the most part unlearns to err with whom no one agrees. Let this sentence, therefore, dearest brothers, stand fixed against the aforesaid: let them be absent from the courts of the Lord, let them at least be deprived of pastoral care, lest the dire contagion of two sheep perchance creep through the unwary flock, and the wolf rejoice in his rapacious heart within the Lord's fold over so many scattered troops of sheep, while the wound of the two is dissembled by the keepers. We must take care, then, lest by permitting the wolves we seem rather hirelings than shepherds.

We command indeed (since Christ our Lord signified with his own voice that he willeth not the death of him that dieth, but only that he return and live), that if ever, having laid aside the error of depraved doctrine, they return to soundness, and condemn those things by whose transgression they had condemned themselves, the usual remedy—that is, their own reception—not be denied them by the Church: lest, while we perhaps forbid them as they return, remaining truly outside the fold, they be swallowed by the greedy jaws of the waiting enemy with the very darts of evil disputation with which they had armed themselves against their own souls. Fare well, brothers. Given the sixth day before the Kalends of February, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Honorius and Constantius.

INNOCENT, to the bishops AURELIUS, ALYPIUS, AUGUSTINE, EVODIUS, POSSIDIUS, greeting.

1. The letters of your fraternity, full of faith, and confirmed with the whole vigor of catholic religion, sent from two councils through our brother and fellow-bishop Julius, we have received with a most grateful mind, because their tenor and whole texture rests, with entire soundness of reasoning, upon consideration of the daily grace of God, and upon the correction of those who think otherwise: so that they can both remove all error from those men, and, by the example of our law given, offer a fitting teacher whom they ought to follow. But of these matters we have already, I think, said enough above, when, replying to your reports, we wrote back what we thought both of their perfidy and of your judgment. But continually there occurs and suggests itself something to be said against them: nor can there ever be anything that prevails, since that which is conquered by the virtue of our faith, and by the fuller truth itself, is so wretched and impious.

For he who rejects and despises all hope of life, confounding his heart with a hostile and damnable dispute, since he believes there is nothing that he receives from God, nor anything left for him to ask in order to be healed—he who has taken this away from himself, what has he left further?

2. If, therefore, there are any whom such perversity has bound in its own defense, who give themselves over to and join with this dogma, hoping that this pertains to catholic doctrine, which, utterly and thoroughly detestable, is proved to be the very opposite, being led astray by the affection, admonitions, and words of those men, they will hasten to return to the straight path of the way, lest error, feeding as it were on their perceptions, invade the mind besieging it any longer.

For if Pelagius, in whatever place he has resisted, has deceived by this affirmation the minds of those who would readily or simply believe him disputing, whether they are in this city—which, not knowing, we can neither manifest nor deny, since, even if they exist, they lie hidden, and would never dare either to defend such things while he is preaching, or to boast of such things in the presence of any of our men, and it is not easy for anyone to be detected in so great a multitude of people, nor could he anywhere be recognized—or whether they dwell in any part of the world, we believe, by the mercy and grace of our God, that they will easily be corrected, once the condemnation is heard of him who was found the obstinate and resisting author of this dogma. Nor does it matter where these men may be, since, wherever they can be found, they must be healed.

3. Yet we cannot be persuaded that he has been cleared, although records were brought to us by I know not what laymen; by whom he believed that he had been both heard and absolved. Whether these things are true, we doubt, since they came to us without any accompanying attestation of that council, nor have we received any letters from those in whose presence he pleaded his case in this matter. But if he could have been confident of his own vindication, we believe he would rather have done this, which could have been far truer, namely, to compel them by his own letters to declare what they had judged. But since there are certain things set down in the records themselves, which he partly suppressed by evading the charges, partly confused with utter obscurity by twisting many words back upon himself, and partly cleared, as it seemed for the time, by false arguments rather than by true reasoning, denying some things, and turning others by false interpretation.

4. But would that—which is rather to be desired—he might now turn himself from the error of his own path to the true way of the catholic faith, so that he might wish and desire to be cleared, considering the daily grace of God, and acknowledging its help, that he might be seen truly, and approved by all, corrected by manifest reasoning, not by the evidence of records, but with heart turned to the catholic faith! Whence we cannot either approve or blame their judgment, since we do not know whether the records are true; or if they are true, it is plain that he rather evaded than cleared himself with the whole truth. If he is confident, and knows that what he says is not worthy of our condemnation, that he has already refuted all that he had said; let him not be summoned by us, but rather himself hasten, that he may be absolved.

For if he still thinks in such a way, when will he submit himself to our judgment, however summoned by letters, since he knows he must be condemned? But if he must be summoned, it would be better done by those who are nearer, and seem not separated by a great distance of lands. But there will be no lack of care, if he offers material for a remedy. For he can condemn what he had held, and, having sent letters, ask pardon for his error, as befits one returning to us, dearest brothers.

5. We have indeed unrolled the book which was said to be his, sent to us by your charity: in which we read many things written against the grace of God, many blasphemous things, nothing that pleased, almost nothing that did not utterly displease, to be condemned and trampled upon by anyone whatever, the like of which no one but the man who wrote them could conceive or entertain in his mind.

For we have not thought it necessary to dispute here at greater length concerning the law, as though Pelagius were present and resisting; since we speak with you who know the whole matter, and rejoice with equal assent along with us. For examples of this kind are better set forth when we deal with those who are unversed in these matters. For concerning the possibility of nature, concerning free will, and concerning all the grace of God, and daily grace, to whom that thinks rightly is it not most abundant matter for discussion? Let him, then, anathematize what he has held: that those who by his words had been led, as it were, to fall, may at last know what the true faith holds. For they will be more easily recalled, when they perceive these things condemned by their own author.

But if he should choose to persist obstinately in this impiety, we must act so that at least those may be helped whom not their own but rather his error has led astray; lest for them too this remedy be lost, the care of which he neither admits nor asks for himself. May God keep you safe, dearest brothers. Given the sixth day before the Kalends of February, after the consulship of the most glorious Theodosius Augustus for the seventh time, and of Junius Quartus Palladius, a man of consular rank, for the fifth time.

INNOCENT to AURELIUS, bishop of Carthage.

True affection consists in familiar letters. For indeed the firmer right of charity better earns for itself the offices of separate correspondence. Wherefore I was eager to reply, through our brother Julius, to the letter sent apart from the rest, lest perchance there remain with me the particular offense of a greeting withheld, dearest brother. I therefore restore to your love our aforementioned brother, along with the judgments of the apostolic see upon the report of the double synod. It remains that the Lord, entreated by us, may deign to grant that every stain of his Church may be wiped away by our continual labors. May God keep you safe, dearest brother. Given the sixth day before the Kalends of February.

To his most beloved brother AURELIUS, INNOCENT.

Our fellow-presbyter Jerome has well trusted your most dutiful affection in coming to us. We share the suffering of a member of our flock, and what we thought ought to be done, or were able to do, we have swiftly carried out. Let your kinship, dearest brother, hasten to deliver the letter to the aforementioned Jerome the sooner.

To his most beloved son JEROME the presbyter, INNOCENT.

The Apostle testifies that no good thing has ever come from contention in the Church; and therefore he commands that the correction of heretics be carried out promptly, rather than prolonged through lengthy discussion. When this rule is disregarded, the evil which ought to be avoided is not shunned, but rather increased. Nevertheless, since your grief and lamentation so shake our inmost being that reason for deliberation and counsel is scarcely left: I address first the faith of your constancy. You have often told many that whoever is struck down by injury, or, as you say, by peril, for the sake of truth, should look forward to blessedness, and we recall well your preachings on this point. And so, roused by so great a spectacle of evils, we hastened to invoke the authority of the Apostolic See to suppress every wickedness; but we have not read the name of him against whom we should rise up, nor has he been charged with any specific crime. What we can do, therefore, is to grieve with you.

But if you should lay before us an open and manifest accusation against certain men, I will either appoint competent judges, or, if anything more urgent and careful can be done by us, I will not delay, most beloved son. Nevertheless I have written to my brother bishop John, that he act more circumspectly: lest anything of this kind should again occur regarding the church entrusted to him, which he ought to have foreseen and averted so that it might not happen, or that it not happen now—lest it prove most troublesome to himself as well hereafter.

That John of Jerusalem ought to have taken care that Paula and Eustochium should not be overwhelmed by so many and so great evils as have afflicted them, and that unless these things are henceforth either corrected or checked, he will have to render an account for them.

INNOCENT to his most beloved brother JOHN. Plunderings, slaughters, fires, every kind of crime—the noble and holy virgins Eustochium and Paula, of the utmost gentleness, have lamented that the devil perpetrated these in the places of your Church: for they have kept silent as to the name and the cause of the man. Although it is not doubtful by whom this was committed, your brotherliness ought nonetheless to have kept watch, and provided more carefully for that flock, lest anything of this sort should arise, which through your negligence exposes others to danger by admitting into the Lord's flock such a one; and we have heard that such lambs, after fire, weapons, and persecutions, stripped and weakened, after the slaughter and death of their own, scarcely survive. Does nothing move the piety of your priesthood, that so great a power of the devil has been let loose against you and yours?

Against you, I say; for indeed the gravity of a bishop's office altogether condemns that so great a wickedness should have been carried out within the Church. Where were your provisions? Where indeed, if such things had occurred, your help or your consolations, since they say they still fear more than they complain of having suffered? I would judge more severely, had they spoken with me more openly about this matter. Take heed, brother, of the snares of the ancient enemy, and keep watch with the spirit of a good shepherd, so that these things, which have been reported to us more by rumor than by manifest accusation, may either be corrected or checked: lest ecclesiastical law compel him who has not defended these matters to render account for causes now undermined.

INNOCENT to PROBUS.

The disturbance of the barbarian storm brought a mishap upon the effect of the laws. For although the marriage between Fortunius and Ursa had been rightly established, the incursion of captivity would have caused a blemish upon it, had not the statutes of holy religion made provision. For when the aforesaid woman Ursa was held in captivity, the said Fortunius is known to have entered into another marriage with Restituta. But by the favor of the Lord, Ursa having returned, came to us, and, with no one denying it, proved herself to be the wife of the aforesaid man. Wherefore, lord son, deservedly illustrious, we have determined, with the support of the Catholic faith, that that marriage is valid which was first founded by divine grace; and that the union with the second woman, while the first still lives and has not been put away by divorce, can by no means be lawful.

INNOCENT to FELIX, bishop of Nuceria.

1. We cannot but marvel that your charity follows the institutions of our forefathers, and refers to us, as to the head and summit of the episcopate, all matters that admit of any doubt, so that the Apostolic See, being consulted, may pronounce something certain and to be done concerning these doubtful matters. This we gladly accept, and we approve your charity as mindful of the canons.

2. You have written, then, that by the fervor of faith, in which you excel, and by love for the holy people, you have either restored churches of God, or built new ones: but that in these you do not have clerics whom you might appoint, some being mutilated, others twice-married. At this we were astonished, that a prudent man should wish to consult us on matters which are certainly known to all by settled reason. So we do not speak as to the ignorant; but we say that you, being perhaps occupied with other things, have forgotten this.

Whoever, then, of his own will cuts off part of any finger, the canons do not admit such a one to the clergy. But whoever it has happened by some accident, while attending to rustic labor, or doing something else, wounded himself unintentionally—such men the canons command both to be made clerics, and, if found already in the clergy, not to be cast out. For in the former case the will is judged, which dared to lay violent hand upon itself, so that another too might not hesitate to do the same; but in the latter, accident has deserved pardon.

Concerning the twice-married, however, there ought not even to have been need of consultation, since the reading of the Apostle is manifest, that a man who is the husband of one wife should be admitted to the priesthood or to the clerical state, and this one wife, moreover, if he received her a virgin. For a woman whom he had had as a former husband, even though he be dead, if she is afterward joined to a cleric, the cleric who takes her cannot remain a cleric, because it is provided in the law that a priest may not have as wife a widow, nor one that has been cast off. Concerning laymen, your reverence has asked whom the canons forbid to be ordained. It is certain indeed that the ecclesiastical rules contain this, but it is not so defined as to apply to all laymen indiscriminately.

For clerics cannot be born such, but must become such: yet certain classes are designated, from which men cannot attain to the clerical state, namely, if any believer has served in the army, if any believer has pleaded causes, that is, has acted as an advocate, if any believer has held public administration. Concerning curiales, however, the reasoning is manifest; for even if such men are found who ought to be made clerics, still, because they are often recalled to the curia, one must be cautious about them on account of the trouble which often arises for the Church because of them. Laymen, however, who had wives when they were baptized, and have so conducted themselves that their reputation wavers in nothing—whether they are joined to the clergy, or have remained attached to monasteries from the time of their baptism—and if they have known no concubine, no mistress, and if they have been vigilant in every good work, such men are not forbidden to be admitted to the lot of the clerical office.

Provided, indeed, that the times fixed by our forefathers be observed for them. Nor let anyone hastily be made a lector, hastily an acolyte, hastily a deacon, hastily a priest: because if they persevere long in the lesser offices, and both their life and their service are thereby proved, they may afterward come to the priesthood, the merits of their service having been measured out, and not snatch beforehand what a proven life deserves to receive. 7. Since, therefore, it has been shown by a certain definition who ought to be admitted, and who rejected: from all these, whom your worthiness sees cannot be rejected, you ought to choose those whom you make clerics. For if we wish to grant no favor or benefit to men, we can find such men, in the choosing of whom we may neither incur scandal nor need to blush.

INNOCENT to MAXIMUS and SEVERUS, bishops among the Bruttii. The rule of the ecclesiastical canons ought to be unknown to no priest: because it is quite unbecoming that these things be unknown to a bishop, especially since they are known even by religious laymen, and are considered worthy of observance. Recently indeed our son Maximilian, serving among the agentes in rebus, brought forward a complaint of this kind, as the attached text of his petition declares. Moved by zeal for the faith and for discipline, he does not suffer the Church to be defiled by unworthy priests, whom he asserts to have begotten children while in the presbyterate. I would not have explained that this is not lawful, had I not known that your prudence has knowledge of the whole law.

And therefore, dearest brothers, having examined the tenor of the petition subjoined, you will order that those who are said to have committed such things be brought forward; and, the charges brought against these same priests having been examined, if they can be convicted, let them be removed from priestly office: because those who are not holy cannot handle holy things; and let them be made strangers to the ministry which they have polluted by living unlawfully. We marvel, moreover, that their bishops dissemble these things, so that they are judged either to connive at them, or not to know that they are unlawful.

INNOCENT to AGAPITUS, MACEDONIUS, and MARIANUS, bishops of Apulia. Many things are being usurped in the province by very many persons, contrary to the ecclesiastical canons and the decrees of our forefathers, as the reports of various persons and most trustworthy suggestions have made known: which indeed could easily be cut off, were bishops not found to be the authors of these things, who, in seeking to grant favor either to friends or to those obsequious to them, violate religion and corrupt the orders.

And thus it comes about that unworthy men receive ecclesiastical honors, and are admitted to the clergy, who would not deserve to hold even a worthy place among the laity: as has been shown in the petition now given to us, that a certain Modestus, entangled in many crimes, on account of which he is even said to have done penance, has not only been made a cleric—which is not lawful—but is even aspiring to the summit of the episcopate; whereas the canons established at Nicaea exclude even penitents from the lowest offices of the clergy. And therefore, dearest brothers, having examined the tenor of the petition, you will order him to be presented; and if it is truly established that he is such as the petition asserts, let him be removed not only from his ambition, but also from the office of the clergy.

INNOCENT to FLORENTINUS, bishop of Tivoli. Not once, but many times, does divine Scripture cry out that the boundaries set by the fathers ought not to be moved: because it is wicked that one should invade what another has always possessed, which your goodness, our brother and fellow-bishop Ursus asserts you have done. For he has complained, not without grief, that you have invaded the parish of Nomentum or Feriae, belonging by right of our forefathers to his diocese, and have there celebrated the divine mysteries, without consulting him and without his knowledge. If this is true, know that you have not lightly incurred blame. Wherefore, if you wish to avoid the odium of so great a usurpation, it behooves you, admonished by our letter, to abstain from it.

Certainly, if you believe that justice is on your side in any respect, all things remaining intact and in their former state, you ought to be present after the venerable days of Easter, so that you may be able to answer to the aforesaid charges; and, the parties having been brought together, we shall inquire what antiquity or truth may hold.

INNOCENT to LAURENTIUS, bishop of Siena. We have long marveled, having read the letters of your charity, that heretics following the poison of Photinus are not only present in the territory of your charity, but even openly prepare their conventicles for themselves in the possessions of certain persons; whereas from nearly the whole world nowhere have so many chosen to dwell as among you. The author of whose nefarious doctrine, Marcus, formerly expelled from the City, has been led by such boldness of temerity that he claims the first place among them for himself.

But lest they should have further opportunity to run riot, and drag along with them into the hell to which they are destined the souls of the simple and the rustic, action has been taken against them by the defenders of our Church, whereby they may be able to expel them: so that those who deny that Christ God was begotten of the substance of the Father before all ages may share in condemnation together with the Jews, who denied his deity and still deny it even now. It is for you, dearest brother, to carry out without delay what has been commanded: lest by dissimulation you lose the people entrusted to you, and begin to render to God an account for the lost.

Among these things, as Augustine testifies, Pelagius says, are those concerning which men attempt to defame him: one, that he denies to little ones the sacrament of baptism, and promises the kingdom of heaven to some without the redemption of Christ: the other, that he so speaks of man being able to avoid sin, that he excludes the help of God, and trusts so much in free will, that he repudiates the assistance of grace.

2. Augustine proceeds: When he had mixed in these invidious complaints about his enemies, he came to the matter thus: Behold, before your Beatitude let this letter clear me, in which purely and simply we say that we have free will whole and entire both for sinning and for not sinning, which in all good works is always aided by divine help.

3. Then, says Augustine, when he had interposed certain things concerning the condition of man, and his natural possibility both for sinning and for not sinning, he added: Which power of free will we say is in all generally, in Christians, in Jews and in Gentiles. In all there is free will equally by nature: but only in Christians is it aided by grace. In those it is a bare and unarmed good of condition: but in those who belong to Christ, it is fortified by the help of Christ. The former are therefore to be judged and condemned, because although they have free will, by which they could come to faith and merit the grace of God, they make ill use of the liberty granted them. The latter, however, are to be rewarded, who, using free will well, merit the grace of the Lord, and keep His commandments.

4. Likewise he challenged his adversaries to the reading of the books which he had formerly written, with these words: “Let them read that letter which we wrote to the holy man Paulinus, bishop, about twelve years ago, which in perhaps three hundred verses confesses nothing else than the grace and help of God, and that we can do nothing good at all without God. Let them read also the letter to the holy bishop Constantius, where indeed briefly, but plainly, I have joined the grace and help of God with man’s free will. Let them read also the one which we wrote in the East to the sacred virgin of Christ, Demetrias: and they will find that we so praise the nature of man, that we always add to it the help of God’s grace.

Let them read also my recent little work, which I was lately compelled to publish on behalf of free will: and they will recognize how unjustly they have striven to defame us with the denial of grace, we who throughout almost the whole text of that very work confess perfectly and entirely both free will and grace.” 6.

Moreover in that letter, “which,” says Augustine, “he sent to Rome to the Pope of blessed memory, Innocent, and, because they did not find him in the body, it was given to holy Pope Zosimus, and directed to me, that is, in that same letter, he complained” that he was defamed by men, on the ground that he denies to little ones the sacrament of baptism, and promises the kingdom of heaven to some without the redemption of Christ.” And when he had said, “that he had never heard even any impious heretic say this concerning little ones,” he added: “For who is so ignorant of the reading of the Gospel, that he would attempt not only to affirm this, but could even lightly say or even think it? Then who is so impious as to wish little ones to be excluded from the kingdom of heaven, while forbidding them to be baptized and to be reborn in Christ, and forbidding him to be reborn unto perpetual and certain life who was born unto an uncertain one.”

When the divine Word came from the heavens, and dwelt in the womb of the holy Virgin Mary, from whom He took flesh, He by no means brought His body down from heaven with Him, nor did He acquire His divinity on earth; but He Himself was God, He Himself formed His own body in the Virgin’s womb; nor did He have any partner in the fashioning of His body, but He alone accomplished it. We confess, however, that in all things which were done by the humanity, the divinity was a companion, which was never at any, even the smallest, moment of time separated from the humanity. We confess also that at that very time when our Savior came from the heavens, and descended into the womb of the Virgin Mary, He joined divinity with humanity, which were never in any matter or action divided, since they were indivisible. And just as His divinity is without end, so also His humanity, after the resurrection, remains forever.

He sucked milk from a woman, and nonetheless divinity and humanity constituted one.

Nor let anyone think that at the time when the divine Word on earth came to receive baptism from John, that was the beginning of His divinity, namely when John heard the voice of the Father coming forth from heaven. It is by no means so; rather, at that very moment of time when He descended into the Virgin’s womb, it was made one indivisible thing with the body and the divinity; and the divinity was a partner of the body, and by an unchangeable and inseparable reckoning was made a single unity. The divinity was not separated from the humanity. While Christ was on the cross, the divinity did not withdraw from His humanity. He ascended into heaven with the body which He took from the Virgin Mary, and sat at the right hand of His most excellent Father. This is our faith. But those who do not believe thus, the catholic Church expels them, indeed the very Author of that same Church, God, excommunicates them. Praise be to God forever! Amen.