PG 10 · cols. 159–166
S. Pontianus papa, Epistolae
Letter II
Migne Reading Room
PG 10 · cols. 159–166
Letter II
(1) ‹anchor: studetis› · call in col 159
S. Greg. ep. 99, lib. VII, consule.
Consult St. Gregory, Letter 99, Book VII.
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Symm. in conc. Rom. VI.
Symmachus, in the sixth Roman council.
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ad.
ad. [so printed; abbreviation not certain]
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Fictae itidem ac suppositae doctis viris habentur ex Gregorii et Sixti praesertim laciniis consutae.
Learned men likewise hold these to be fictitious and spurious, stitched together chiefly from scraps of Gregory and Sixtus.
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PONTIANI PAPAE
THE LETTERS
EPISTOLAE
OF POPE PONTIANUS
(MANSI, Concil. collect., I, 735. — Vide notitiam, col. 158.)
(Mansi, Collection of the Councils, vol. I, col. 735. — See the notice, col. 158.)
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(5) ‹anchor: De sacerdotibus› · call in col 160
De sacerdotibus, etc. Docet sacerdotibus Dei ministris summum honorem deferendum esse, ideo quod Dei maximi ministri sint, quodque inter Deum et hominem quasi mediatores exsistant, imaginem Dei gestent, ac demum pro Christo legatione fungantur. Cum igitur injuria et contemptus legatorum cedat in ignominiam superioris legantis, honor legato exhibitus ipsi regi aut superiori exhibeatur; recte hic decernitur sacerdotium Christi in Ecclesiam translatum, venerandum esse ministerium, ejusque gubernatores, qui sunt episcopi et sacerdotes, maximo honore colendos esse. Addo, regale Christi sacerdotium et regnum in apostolos, eorumque successores, ut supra alibi diximus, translatum, non modo omnibus regnis, imperiis ac principatibus dignius et praestantius esse, verum etiam quoslibet reges ac principes quibusvis sacris ministris inferiores esse, adeoque Christi sacerdotes longe majore honore ac reverentia dignos esse. Sacerdotium, inquit S. Ignatius epist. ad Smyrnenses, est omnium bonorum, quae in hominibus sunt, apex; quidni igitur maxime honorandum? Animam corpore, res divinas humanis praestantiores esse, omnium hominum una communis est sententia. Sacerdotium est velut anima, ejusque regnum spirituale est et divinum. Nam vos, inquit Gregor. Nazianz. orat. ad cives Nazianzen., quoque meae potestati, meisque subselliis lex Christi subjicit; imperium enim nosipsi quoque gerimus, addo etiam praestantius et perfectius, nisi vero aequum est spiritum carnis fascibus submittere, et coelestia terrenis cedere. Et pulchre Ambros. De dignit. sacerd. cap. 2: Honor, inquit, et sublimitas episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari. Si regum fulgori compares, et principum diademati, longe erit inferius, quasi plumbi metallum ad auri fulgorem compares; quippe cum videas regum colla ac principum submitti genibus sacerdotum; exosculatis eorum dextris, orationibus eorum se credant communiri. In eamdem sententiam haec Chrysost. in verb. Isaiae hom. 4 et 5: Alii sunt termini regni, alii sacerdotii; sed hoc illo majus est, neque enim ex gemmis et auro aestimari debet. Ille quae sunt in terris sortitus est; sacerdotii jus a supernis descendit. Regi, quae hic, commissa sunt, mihi coelestia. Regi corpora commissa sunt, sacerdoti animae; major hic principatus; propterea rex caput submittit manui sacerdotis. Sacerdotium igitur, cujus arma non sunt carnalia, ut inquit Paulus II Corinth. cap. x, sed Deo potentia, scilicet ad faciendam vindictam in nationibus, et increpationes in populis, ad alligandos reges eorum in compedibus, et nobiles eorum in manicis ferreis, hoc, inquam, sacerdotium quolibet humano imperio praestantius esse, nemo non videt. Unde recte sancti Patres jubent, ut post Deum, episcopi et sacerdotes supra reges ac principes majorem potestatem habentes, ac demum tertio loco saeculares principes ac magistratus honorentur; sic enim ait Ignatius epist. praedicta: Honora Deum, ut omnium auctorem et dominum; episcopum, ut principem sacerdotum, imaginem Dei ferentem; Dei quidem propter principatum, Christi vero propter sacerdotium. Honorare oportet et regem, nec enim rege quisquam praestantior, aut quisquam ei similis in rebus omnibus creatis. Nec episcopo quidquam majus in Ecclesia, etc. Et ut significet, quo loco, quove ordine et honore singuli in Ecclesia habendi sint, ibidem subjungit: Omnia igitur vestra decenti ordine perficiantur in Christo. Laici, e quorum numero sunt omnes etiam reges Christianissimi, diaconis subjiciantur; diaconi presbyteris; presbyteri episcopo; episcopus Christo, ut ipse Patri. Sanctus Chrysostomus homil. 33 in Matthaeum, diaconos altaris ministros allocutus haec ait: Si dux igitur quispiam, si qui diademate ornatur, indigne adeat, cohibe ac coerce; majorem tu illo habes potestatem. Docuit hoc idem exemplo sanctus Martinus episcopus, qui cum a Maximo imperatore convivio exceptus, rogaretur pateram a ministro oblatam, tanquam dignior prius acceptare et regi praebibere, obtemperavit regis petitioni, sumpsit poculum ac praebibit. Sed Martinus ubi bibit (verba Sulpitii in Vita Martini, cap. 25, sunt), pateram presbytero suo tradidit, nullum scilicet existimans digniorem qui post se biberet: nec integrum sibi fore, si aut regem ipsum, aut eos qui a rege erant proximi, presbytero praetulisset. Vide quae diximus in notis ad can. apostol. 73 et 74. Baron. anno Christi 57, n. 31 et 32. Sev. Bin.
"Concerning the priests," etc. He teaches that the highest honour is to be paid to priests, the ministers of God, because they are ministers of the most high God, because they stand as mediators, as it were, between God and man, bear the image of God, and finally act as ambassadors for Christ. Since, then, injury to and contempt of ambassadors redounds to the disgrace of the superior who sends them, and honour shown to an ambassador is shown to the king or superior himself, it is rightly decreed here that the priesthood of Christ, transferred into the Church, is a ministry to be revered, and that its governors, the bishops and priests, are to be held in the highest honour. I add that the royal priesthood and kingdom of Christ, transferred to the apostles and their successors, as we said elsewhere above, is not only worthier and more excellent than all kingdoms, empires and principalities, but also that any kings and princes whatever are lower than any sacred ministers whatever, and so the priests of Christ are worthy of far greater honour and reverence. "The priesthood," says St. Ignatius in the letter to the Smyrnaeans, "is the summit of all the goods that are among men"; why then should it not be honoured most of all? That the soul is more excellent than the body, and divine things than human, is the one common opinion of all men. The priesthood is as it were the soul, and its kingdom is spiritual and divine. "For the law of Christ," says Gregory Nazianzen in the oration to the citizens of Nazianzus, "subjects you too to my authority and to my tribunal; for we ourselves also hold a command, I add, a more excellent and more perfect one, unless indeed it is right for the spirit to bow to the fasces of the flesh, and for heavenly things to yield to earthly." And finely Ambrose, On the Dignity of the Priesthood, ch. 2: "The honour and loftiness of the episcopate," he says, "can be matched by no comparisons. If you compare it to the splendour of kings and the diadem of princes, it will be far inferior, as if you compared the metal lead to the splendour of gold; since you may see the necks of kings and princes bowed at the knees of priests, and, having kissed their right hands, they believe themselves fortified by their prayers." To the same effect Chrysostom, on the words of Isaiah, homilies 4 and 5: "The bounds of kingship are one thing, those of priesthood another; but this is greater than that, for it is not to be valued by gems and gold. The king has been allotted the things that are on earth; the right of the priesthood comes down from above. To the king are entrusted the things here, to me the heavenly. To the king bodies are entrusted, to the priest souls; this is the greater rule; therefore the king bows his head under the priest's hand." Everyone sees, then, that the priesthood, "whose weapons are not carnal," as Paul says in 2 Corinthians ch. 10, "but mighty to God," namely "to execute vengeance upon the nations, and rebukes among the peoples, to bind their kings in fetters, and their nobles in manacles of iron," this priesthood, I say, is more excellent than any human empire. Hence the holy Fathers rightly enjoin that after God the bishops and priests, as holding greater power above kings and princes, are to be honoured, and then in the third place the secular princes and magistrates; for so Ignatius says in the said letter: "Honour God, as the author and lord of all; the bishop, as the prince of the priests, bearing the image of God, of God because of his rule, of Christ because of his priesthood. One ought to honour the king too, for none is more excellent than the king, or like him in all created things. Nor is anything greater than the bishop in the Church," etc. And to show in what place, in what order and honour each is to be held in the Church, he adds in the same place: "Let all your affairs, then, be done in seemly order in Christ. Let the laity, among whose number are even all the most Christian kings, be subject to the deacons; the deacons to the presbyters; the presbyters to the bishop; the bishop to Christ, as he is to the Father." St. Chrysostom, homily 33 on Matthew, addressing the deacons, ministers of the altar, says this: "If then some general, if one who wears a diadem, approach unworthily, restrain and check him; you have greater power than he." St. Martin the bishop taught this same thing by example: when he was entertained at a banquet by the emperor Maximus, and was asked, as the worthier, to take first the cup offered by the servant and drink before the king, he complied with the king's request, took the cup and drank first. "But Martin, when he had drunk" (the words are Sulpicius's, in the Life of Martin, ch. 25), "handed the cup to his presbyter, judging, that is, no one worthier to drink after him, and that it would not be right for him to prefer either the king himself or those who were next to the king to a presbyter." See what we said in the notes on the Apostolic Canons 73 and 74. Baronius, year of Christ 57, nos. 31 and 32. Severinus Binius.
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Hier. ep. 1 et 85.
Jerome, Letters 1 and 85.
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Zach. II, 8.
Zechariah 2:8.
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Luc. X, 16.
Luke 10:16.
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S. Greg. ep. 70, lib. ix, paucis pro more susque deque versis.
St. Gregory, Letter 70, Book IX, with a few things turned upside down, as usual.
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Idem ep. 21 lib. vii.
The same, Letter 21, Book VII.
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Idem ep. 72 ejusdem libri.
The same, Letter 72 of the same book.
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Proprio ore corpus Domini conficiunt. Qui hanc ob causam Pontianum velut blasphemum accusant, iidem sanctum Hieronymum, Augustinum, Chrysostomum, aliosque plures Ecclesiae catholicae Patres orthodoxos de crimine notant, in quo nullum sane crimen demonstrare possunt. Hieron. in epist. ad Heliodorum: Absit, inquit, ut de his quidquam sinistrum loquar, qui apostolico gradu succedentes, Christi corpus sacro ore conficiunt, per quos et nos Christiani sumus, qui claves regni coelorum habentes, quodammodo ante judicii diem judicant. Augustinus epist. 122, ad Victorianum, ubi de feminis captivis inter barbaros: Ora, inquit, Deum pro eis, et roga, ut etiam ipsas doceat talia dicere, qualia S. Azarias inter caetera in oratione et confessione fudit ad Deum; sic enim sunt illae in terra captivitatis suae, quomodo erant illi in terra, ubi nec sacrificare more suo poterant Domino, sicut nec istae possunt vel ferre oblationem ad altare Dei, vel invenire ibi sacerdotem, per quem offerant Deo. Sanctus Chrysost. lib. iii De sacerdotio, comparans sacerdotium novae legis cum sacerdotio veteris legis, postquam dixisset Judaeorum sacerdotes non lepram purgasse, sed de purgata duntaxat judicasse: Nostris, inquit, sacerdotibus, non corporis lepram, sed animae sordes, non dico purgatas probare, sed purgare prorsus concessum est. Quod igitur Pontianus hic scribit, per sacerdotes corpus Domini confici, aliorum hostias a Deo recipi, peccata hominum dimitti, etiam probatissimi auctores praedicti scripserunt, ideoque quod Magdeburgenses in Pontiano reprehendunt, nihil est aliud quam mera calumnia. Bellarm. lib. vi De Roman. pontif., cap. 8. Sev. Bin.
"With their own mouth they make the body of the Lord." Those who for this reason accuse Pontianus as a blasphemer equally charge with a crime St. Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom and many other orthodox Fathers of the Catholic Church, in a matter where they can show no crime at all. Jerome in the letter to Heliodorus: "God forbid," he says, "that I should say anything ill of those who, succeeding to the apostolic rank, make the body of Christ with their sacred mouth, through whom we too are Christians, who, holding the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in a manner judge before the day of judgement." Augustine, letter 122, to Victorianus, where he speaks of women held captive among the barbarians: "Pray to God for them," he says, "and ask that he teach them too to say such things as holy Azarias, among other things, poured out to God in his prayer and confession; for they are in the land of their captivity as those were in the land where they could not sacrifice to the Lord after their custom, just as these women can neither bring an offering to the altar of God nor find a priest there through whom to offer to God." St. Chrysostom, Book III On the Priesthood, comparing the priesthood of the new law with that of the old, after saying that the priests of the Jews did not cleanse leprosy but only judged it cleansed: "To our priests," he says, "it has been granted, not to approve as cleansed the leprosy of the body, but the defilements of the soul, I do not say as cleansed, but to cleanse them outright." What Pontianus writes here, then, that the body of the Lord is made by priests, the offerings of others received by God, and the sins of men forgiven, the most approved authors named above also wrote; and so what the Magdeburg Centuriators find fault with in Pontianus is nothing but sheer slander. Bellarmine, Book VI On the Roman Pontiff, ch. 8. Severinus Binius.
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an. 235.
Year 235.
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(11) ‹anchor: bonae voluntatis› · call in col 162
Luc. II, 14.
Luke 2:14.
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(12) ‹anchor: impiorum videns› · call in col 162
Psalm. lxxii, 1, 2, 3.
Psalm 72 (73):1, 2, 3.
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(13) ‹anchor: Deum videbunt› · call in col 162
Matth. V, 8.
Matthew 5:8.
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(14) ‹anchor: qui fidelis est› · call in col 162
Sixti sent. 205, et ibi.
Sentences of Sixtus, 205, and there.
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Jerem. i, 16.
Jeremiah 1:16.
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Jerem. ii, 9.
Jeremiah 2:9.
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Jerem. xviii, 11.
Jeremiah 18:11.
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Sixti ejusdem sent. 108 et 169. 3, q. 5: Suspectos autem ini.; et 2, q. 7: Quaerendum est; et in decret. Ivon. lib. iv.
Sentences of the same Sixtus, 108 and 169. [Causa] 3, question 5: "Suspectos autem ini."; and [Causa] 2, question 7: "Quaerendum est"; and in Ivo's Decretum, Book IV.
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(19) ‹anchor: dignationem consequaris corrogationis› · call in col 163
Eccli. XXXII, 1, 2, 3.
Ecclesiasticus 32:1, 2, 3.
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(20) ‹anchor: recedere ab injustitia› · call in col 163
Eccli. XXXV, 2, 5.
Ecclesiasticus 35:2, 5.
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(21) ‹anchor: continens erit illorum› · call in col 164
Eccli. XXVII, 18-33.
Ecclesiasticus 27:18–33.
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(22) ‹anchor: mors imminent mandatis› · call in col 164
in mandatis ejus.
[Variant:] "in his commandments."
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(23) ‹anchor: et lingua testificans› · call in col 164
festinans.
[Variant:] "hastening."
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(24) ‹anchor: Civitates divitum munitas› · call in col 164
muratas.
[Variant:] "walled."
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(25) ‹anchor: Lingua tertia mulieres viratas› · call in col 164
veridicas
[Variant:] "truthful"
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habebit amicum in quo requiescat.
[Variant:] "will have a friend in whom he may rest."
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in.
[Variant:] "in."
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Eccli. XXVIII.
Ecclesiasticus 28.
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Eccli. V, 8-18.
Ecclesiasticus 5:8–18.
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Eccli. VI, 1-4.
Ecclesiasticus 6:1–4.
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(1) ‹anchor: Anterus› · call in the full-width Notitia text (col 165)
Anterus. Postquam sedes 13 diebus vacasset, tertio Decemb. an. Christi 237, qui est primus Julii Maximini imperatoris, Anterus Urbano subrogatur. Errant igitur recentiores chronologi, qui post Pontianum, Cyriacum quemdam, cujus neque apud Latinos, neque apud Graecos historicos pontificum seriem contexentes, ulla mentio invenitur, Urbano successisse, male asserunt. Baron. anno praedicto n. 11. Sev. Bin.
"Anterus." After the see had been vacant for 13 days, on the third of December in the year of Christ 237, which is the first of the emperor Julius Maximinus, Anterus is put in the place of Urban [so printed]. The more recent chronologers are therefore wrong who wrongly assert that after Pontianus a certain Cyriacus succeeded Urban, of whom no mention at all is found among either the Latin or the Greek historians who compile the series of the pontiffs. Baronius, the said year, no. 11. Severinus Binius.
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(2) ‹anchor: mensem unum› · call in the full-width Notitia text (col 166)
Sedit annos 12, mensem unum, etc. Vix mensem unum in pontificatu sedisse, praeter auctoritatem Eusebii, consulatus eorum sub quibus martyrio affectus esse scribitur, hic indicat. Qui enim tertio Decembris in sedem pontificiam elevatus, ab ea per violentum persecutoris gladium, tertia die Januarii, ut ex tabulis ecclesiasticis constat, dejicitur, ultra unum mensem pontificiam sedem tenuisse non potest. Id.
"He sat 12 years, one month," etc. That he sat in the pontificate barely one month is shown, besides the authority of Eusebius, by the consulship of those under whom he is recorded to have suffered martyrdom. For one who was raised to the pontifical see on the third of December and thrown down from it by the violent sword of the persecutor on the third day of January, as the church records establish, cannot have held the pontifical see beyond one month. The same [Binius].
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(3) ‹anchor: gesta martyrum› · call in the full-width Notitia text (col 166)
Hic gesta martyrum. Clemens Romanus pontifex certos constituit notarios, qui res a martyribus privatim aut publice gestas describerent, eorumve publice dicta aut facta notis quibusdam consuetis celerrime in tabulis adnotarent; quae vero privatim intra cancellos coram solis judicibus in proconsularia acta relata erant, ab iisdem data pecunia redimerent, et inter Acta martyrum sedulo asservarent. Tanta eorum in excipiendis dictis, etiam prolixis orationibus velocitas erat, ut prius illi sententiam dicendam notassent, quam a dicente et loquente pronuntiata esset. De qua scribendi celeritate Martialis lib. xiv hoc distichon: Currant verba licet, manus est velocior illis: Nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus.
"He [had] the acts of the martyrs." Clement, the Roman pontiff, appointed certain notaries to write down the things done by the martyrs in private or in public, or to note very swiftly on tablets, in certain customary shorthand signs, what they said or did in public; and what had been entered in the proconsular acts privately within the bar before the judges alone, they were to buy back from the same by paying money, and to keep carefully among the Acts of the martyrs. So great was their speed in taking down what was said, even long speeches, that they had noted a sentence before it was uttered by the one speaking. Of this speed in writing Martial, Book XIV, has this distich: "Though the words run, the hand is swifter than they: the tongue has not yet finished its work, the right hand has."
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(31) ‹anchor: eripit› · call in col 166
S. Greg. ep. 125 lib. VII.
St. Gregory, Letter 125, Book VII.
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(32) ‹anchor: fecistis› · call in col 166
Matth. XXV, 40.
Matthew 25:40.
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(33) ‹anchor: Data IV› · call in col 166
III, ut etiam ms.
III [i.e. the third], as the manuscript also has.
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(34) ‹anchor: viris clarissimis consulibus› · call in col 166
anno 235.
In the year 235.
[Anterus papa, Notitia] (printed under page 89)