[Context: Cuthbert of Canterbury, said to have been of noble lineage, first appears as Abbot of Liminge in Kent. In 736 he was consecrated Bishop of Hereford and translated to Canterbury four years later. He went to Rome for the pallium and received it from Gregory III some time before 29 November 741. He presided at the Council of Cloveshoe, where every priest was ordered to learn and explain to the people in their own tongue the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Offices of Mass and Baptism. He sent the proceedings of this council to Boniface by his deacon Cynebert and thus encouraged him to follow his example.]
To his brother and fellow-bishop, Cuthbert [of Canterbury], raised to the dignity of the archiepiscopate, and united to him by the bond of spiritual kinship, Boniface, Legate for Germany and the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome, sends greetings of intimate love in Christ.
It is written in the book of Solomon: "Happy is the man who has found a friend with whom he can speak as with himself." [Ecclus xxv.12] We have received by the hand of your son, the deacon Cynebert, together with your generous gifts, a delightful and affectionate letter. You have also sent me by him verbally a welcome discourse concerning our fraternal relations. I hope that as long as life shall last this exchange of spiritual counsel may go on, if God wills, from whom alone " all holy desires, all good counsel, and all just works do proceed". May you and I be bound together in the golden bonds of heavenly love which cannot be broken, you better and more fully because God has endowed you with greater gifts of knowledge and power, I striving to be instructed as your devoted vassal, " faithful in many things ".
The work of our ministry is in one and the same cause: an equal supervision over Churches and people is entrusted to us, whether in teaching or in reproving or in admonition or in protecting all classes of clergy and laity. For this reason I humbly request that if at any time God shall inspire you or your synods with wholesome counsel you will not hesitate to share it with me. And I likewise, if God will impart to me in my weakness anything useful or profitable to you, will do the same by you. Our responsibility towards Churches and peoples is greater than that of other bishops on account of the pallium entrusted to us and accepted by us, while they have the care of their own dioceses only. And hence, dear friend (not that you, who are so wise, need to hear or read the decisions of us simple folk), we feel that on account of your holy and humble good will towards us you would like to be informed about the decisions we have taken here and so submit them to you for correction and improvement.
We decided in our synod that we will maintain the Catholic faith and unity and our subjection to the Roman Church as long as we live: that we will be loyal subjects of St. Peter and his vicar; that we will hold a synod every year; that our metropolitan bishops shall ask for their palliums from that see; and that in all things we shall obey the orders of St. Peter according to the canons, so that we may be numbered among the flock entrusted to his care. To these declarations we have all agreed and subscribed, and we have forwarded them to the shrine of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles. The Roman clergy and Pontiff have gratefully accepted them. We have decided that every year the canonical decrees, the laws of the Church, the rule of regular life, shall be read and renewed at the synod. We have decreed that the metropolitan, having received his pallium, shall exhort the other bishops and admonish them and make enquiry as to who among them is watchful over the people's welfare and who is negligent. We have forbidden the clergy to hunt, to go about in the woods with dogs and to keep falcons or hawks.
We have ordered every priest annually during Lent to render to his bishop an account of his ministry, the state of the Catholic faith, Baptism and every detail of his administration. We have decreed that every bishop shall make an annual visitation of his diocese confirming and instructing the people, seeking out and forbidding pagan rites, divination, fortune-telling, soothsaying, charms, incantations and all Gentile vileness. We have forbidden the servants of God to wear showy or martial dress or to carry arms.
We have decreed that it shall be the special duty of the metropolitan to enquire into the conduct of the bishops under him and their care for the people. He shall require them, on their return from the synod, each to hold a meeting in his own diocese with his priests and abbots and urge them to carry out the synodal decrees. And every bishop finding himself unable to reform or correct some fault in his own diocese shall lay the case openly in the synod before the archbishop for correction, just as the Roman Church at my ordination bound me by oath that if I found priests or people wandering from the law of God and could not correct them I would always faithfully report the case to the Apostolic See and the vicar of St. Peter for settlement. Thus, if I am not mistaken, should every bishop do to his metropolitan and to the Roman Pontiff if the case cannot be settled among themselves. So shall they be guiltless of the blood of lost souls.
Furthermore, dear brother, our labour is the same but our responsibility greater than that of other priests. The ancient canons prescribe, as everyone knows, that the metropolitan is to have charge of a whole province, and I fear that we have, so to speak, undertaken to steer a ship through the waves of an angry sea and can neither control it nor without sin abandon it, for as a certain wise man says:"[] If it is dangerous to be negligent in steering a ship in the midst of the sea, how much more perilous to abandon it to the storm with the waves running high; and even so, the Church which makes its way through the ocean of this world like a great ship, buffeted in this life by diverse waves of temptation, is yet not to be abandoned but controlled."
Julianus Pomerius, De Vita Contemplativa , P.L. 59, Col. 431.
As examples we have the early Fathers, Clement and Cornelius and many others in Rome, Cyprian in Carthage, Athanasius in Alexandria, who under pagan emperors guided the ship of Christ, nay his dearest spouse the Church, teaching, defending, labouring and suffering even to the shedding of blood. Of myself I can surely say, in the words of the Song of Songs: " The sons of my mother have fought against me. They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept ". According to Nahum, the prophet, the vineyard is the house of Israel: but at the present time it is the Catholic Church.
By command of the Roman Pontiff and with the sanction of the princes of the Franks and Gauls, I have undertaken to bring together and address a synod in the hope of renewing the law of Christ. In that Church I have dug the ground round about, I have enriched it with manure, but I have not guarded it. While I waited for it to bear grapes it brought forth wild grapes, and according to another prophet: "The labour of the slave shall fail and the fields yield no harvest."[Hab. Iii.17] But, alas, my labour seems like the barking of a dog that sees thieves and robbers break in and plunder his master's house, but, because he has none to help him in his defence, can only whine and complain.
But now, finding myself in this position and asking your wholesome advice as to what seems right and prudent, I suggest that it is time to speak freely. I say like the Apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles[Acts xx.2-8]: " I testify to you this day that I am pure from the blood of all men ", etc. He says: "I have walked among you preaching the kingdom of God that I might keep myself guiltless of the destruction of all." The Apostle calls the priest " bishop ", and the prophet calls him " watchman", the Saviour of the world calls him " shepherd of the Church ". All agree that the teacher and guide who conceals the sins of the people in silence becomes thereby guilty of the blood of lost souls.
For this reason a dread necessity compels us to present ourselves as an example to the faithful according to the word of the Apostle; that is, if I am not mistaken, the teacher is to live so well that his deeds shall not contradict his words, and that while he himself may Eve prudently, he shall not be silently condemned for the sins of others. He is set over the Church to this end that he may set not only an example of right living to others but through his dutiful preaching may bring every man's sins before his eyes and show him what punishment awaits the hard of heart and what reward the obedient. For, according to the word of God to Ezechiel, when a man is entrusted with the preaching of the Gospel, even though he live a holy life, nevertheless if he is afraid or ashamed to rebuke those who live wickedly, he shall perish together with all those who perish by his silence. And what shall it profit him to escape the penalty of his own sins if he is to be punished for those of others.[]
I have omitted here a long passage from Scripture on the responsibilities of bishops. (Ed.).
Finally, I will not conceal from Your Grace that all the servants of God here who are especially versed in Scripture and strong in the fear of God are agreed that it would be well and favourable for the honour and purity of your Church and a sure protection against vice if your synod and your princes would forbid matrons and nuns to make their frequent journeys back and forth to Rome. A great part of them perish and few keep their virtue. There arc many towns in Lombardy and Gaul where there is not a courtesan or a harlot but is of English stock. It is a scandal and a disgrace to your whole Church.
As to the point that any layman, be he emperor or king, official or courtier, relying upon secular force, may wrest a monastery from the power of a bishop, abbot or an abbess and begin to rule there in place of the abbot, have monks under him and hold property bought by the blood of Christ, the ancient Fathers called such a man a robber, sacrilegious, a murderer of the poor, a satanic wolf entering the sheepfold of Christ, to be condemned with the extreme anathema before the judgment seat of God. Remember the words of St. Paul, the Apostle, about such men, when he said to Timothy: " Charge them that are rich in this present world that they be not high-minded nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who gives all things." If such men receive not the correction of the Church they are heathens and publicans and the Church of God refuses all communion to them alive or dead. Against such men let us sound the trumpet of God that we may not be condemned for our silence.
Strive with all your might against foolish superstitions in dress, a thing hateful to God. These ornaments, as they call them, but which others call foulness, with their wide embroidered purple stripes, are sent by Antichrist to herald his coming. Through his craftiness he introduces into monasteries his own servants, fornication and lust, sinful friendships of youths in purple garments, distaste for study and prayer, and the ruin of souls. Such attire shows the wickedness of their souls, giving proof of arrogance and pride, luxury, vanity, of which Wisdom says: " Pride and arrogance and the evil way of the froward mouth I hate."
It is said also that the vice of drunkenness is far too common in your parishes and that some bishops not only do not prohibit it but themselves drink to the point of intoxication, and by offenng large drinks to others force them into drunkenness. There can be no doubt that this is a grave offence in any servant of God, for the canons of the Church Fathers order a drunken bishop or priest to reform or be degraded. And the Truth Itself says: " Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness."[Luke xx1.34] And St. Paul[Eph v.18] and the prophet Isaiah.3[Is. V.22] This is an evil peculiar to the heathen and to our race, for neither the Franks nor the Gauls, nor the Lombards, nor the Romans, nor the Greeks practise it. Let us, if possible, put a check upon it by synodal action and the commands of Scripture. At all events by avoiding it ourselves and prohibiting it we shall declare our souls free from the blood of the damned.
As to the forced labour of monks upon royal buildings and other works, a thing unheard of anywhere except in England, let not the priests of God keep silence or consent thereto. It is an evil unknown in times gone by.
May God's hand preserve you safe, reverend and beloved brother, against all adversity to make intercession for us.
Cuthbert of Canterbury, said to have been of noble lineage, first appears as Abbot of Liminge in Kent. In 736 he was consecrated Bishop of Hereford and translated to Canterbury four years later. He went to Rome for the pallium and received it from Gregory III some time before 29 November 741. He presided at the Council of Cloveshoe, where every priest was ordered to learn and explain to the people in their own tongue the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Offices of Mass and Baptism. He sent the proceedings of this council to Boniface by his deacon Cynebert and thus encouraged him to follow his example.
To his brother and fellow-bishop, Cuthbert [of Canterbury], raised to the dignity of the archiepiscopate, and united to him by the bond of spiritual kinship, Boniface, Legate for Germany and the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome, sends greetings of intimate love in Christ.
It is written in the book of Solomon: "Happy is the man who has found a friend with whom he can speak as with himself." [Ecclus xxv.12] We have received by the hand of your son, the deacon Cynebert, together with your generous gifts, a delightful and affectionate letter. You have also sent me by him verbally a welcome discourse concerning our fraternal relations. I hope that as long as life shall last this exchange of spiritual counsel may go on, if God wills, from whom alone " all holy desires, all good counsel, and all just works do proceed". May you and I be bound together in the golden bonds of heavenly love which cannot be broken, you better and more fully because God has endowed you with greater gifts of knowledge and power, I striving to be instructed as your devoted vassal, " faithful in many things ".
The work of our ministry is in one and the same cause: an equal supervision over Churches and people is entrusted to us, whether in teaching or in reproving or in admonition or in protecting all classes of clergy and laity. Wherefore I humbly request that if at any time God shall inspire you or your synods with wholesome counsel you will not hesitate to share it with me. And I likewise, if God will impart to me in my weakness anything useful or profitable to you, will do the same by you. Our responsibility towards Churches and peoples is greater than that of other bishops on account of the pallium entrusted to us and accepted by us, while they have the care of their own dioceses only. And hence, dear friend (not that you, who are so wise, need to hear or read the decisions of us simple folk), we feel that on account of your holy and humble good will towards us you would like to be informed about the decisions we have taken here and so submit them to you for correction and improvement.
We decided in our synod that we will maintain the Catholic faith and unity and our subjection to the Roman Church as long as we live: that we will be loyal subjects of St. Peter and his vicar; that we will hold a synod every year; that our metropolitan bishops shall ask for their palliums from that see; and that in all things we shall obey the orders of St. Peter according to the canons, so that we may be numbered among the flock entrusted to his care. To these declarations we have all agreed and subscribed, and we have forwarded them to the shrine of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles. The Roman clergy and Pontiff have gratefully accepted them. We have decided that every year the canonical decrees, the laws of the Church, the rule of regular life, shall be read and renewed at the synod. We have decreed that the metropolitan, having received his pallium, shall exhort the other bishops and admonish them and make enquiry as to who among them is watchful over the people's welfare and who is negligent. We have forbidden the clergy to hunt, to go about in the woods with dogs and to keep falcons or hawks.
We have ordered every priest annually during Lent to render to his bishop an account of his ministry, the state of the Catholic faith, Baptism and every detail of his administration. We have decreed that every bishop shall make an annual visitation of his diocese confirming and instructing the people, seeking out and forbidding pagan rites, divination, fortune-telling, soothsaying, charms, incantations and all Gentile vileness. We have forbidden the servants of God to wear showy or martial dress or to carry arms.
We have decreed that it shall be the special duty of the metropolitan to enquire into the conduct of the bishops under him and their care for the people. He shall require them, on their return from the synod, each to hold a meeting in his own diocese with his priests and abbots and urge them to carry out the synodal decrees. And every bishop finding himself unable to reform or correct some fault in his own diocese shall lay the case openly in the synod before the archbishop for correction, just as the Roman Church at my ordination bound me by oath that if I found priests or people wandering from the law of God and could not correct them I would always faithfully report the case to the Apostolic See and the vicar of St. Peter for settlement. Thus, if I am not mistaken, should every bishop do to his metropolitan and to the Roman Pontiff if the case cannot be settled among themselves. So shall they be guiltless of the blood of lost souls.
Furthermore, dear brother, our labour is the same but our responsibility greater than that of other priests. The ancient canons prescribe, as everyone knows, that the metropolitan is to have charge of a whole province, and I fear that we have, so to speak, undertaken to steer a ship through the waves of an angry sea and can neither control it nor without sin abandon it, for as a certain wise man says:"[] If it is dangerous to be negligent in steering a ship in the midst of the sea, how much more perilous to abandon it to the storm with the waves running high; and even so, the Church which makes its way through the ocean of this world like a great ship, buffeted in this life by diverse waves of temptation, is yet not to be abandoned but controlled."
Julianus Pomerius, De Vita Contemplativa , P.L. 59, Col. 431.
As examples we have the early Fathers, Clement and Cornelius and many others in Rome, Cyprian in Carthage, Athanasius in Alexandria, who under pagan emperors guided the ship of Christ, nay his dearest spouse the Church, teaching, defending, labouring and suffering even to the shedding of blood. Of myself I can surely say, in the words of the Song of Songs: " The sons of my mother have fought against me. They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept ". According to Nahum, the prophet, the vineyard is the house of Israel: but at the present time it is the Catholic Church.
By command of the Roman Pontiff and with the sanction of the princes of the Franks and Gauls, I have undertaken to bring together and address a synod in the hope of renewing the law of Christ. In that Church I have dug the ground round about, I have enriched it with manure, but I have not guarded it. While I waited for it to bear grapes it brought forth wild grapes, and according to another prophet: "The labour of the slave shall fail and the fields yield no harvest."[Hab. Iii.17] But, alas, my labour seems like the barking of a dog that sees thieves and robbers break in and plunder his master's house, but, because he has none to help him in his defence, can only whine and complain.
But now, finding myself in this position and asking your wholesome advice as to what seems right and prudent, I suggest that it is time to speak freely. I say like the Apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles[Acts xx.2-8]: " I testify unto you this day that I am pure from the blood of all men ", etc. He says: "I have walked among you preaching the kingdom of God that I might keep myself guiltless of the destruction of all." The Apostle calls the priest " bishop ", and the prophet calls him " watchman", the Saviour of the world calls him " shepherd of the Church ". All agree that the teacher and guide who conceals the sins of the people in silence becomes thereby guilty of the blood of lost souls.
For this reason a dread necessity compels us to present ourselves as an example to the faithful according to the word of the Apostle; that is, if I am not mistaken, the teacher is to live so well that his deeds shall not contradict his words, and that while he himself may Eve prudently, he shall not be silently condemned for the sins of others. He is set over the Church to this end that he may set not only an example of right living to others but through his dutiful preaching may bring every man's sins before his eyes and show him what punishment awaits the hard of heart and what reward the obedient. For, according to the word of God to Ezechiel, when a man is entrusted with the preaching of the Gospel, even though he live a holy life, nevertheless if he is afraid or ashamed to rebuke those who live wickedly, he shall perish together with all those who perish by his silence. And what shall it profit him to escape the penalty of his own sins if he is to be punished for those of others.[]
I have omitted here a long passage from Scripture on the responsibilities of bishops. (Ed.).
Finally, I will not conceal from Your Grace that all the servants of God here who are especially versed in Scripture and strong in the fear of God are agreed that it would be well and favourable for the honour and purity of your Church and a sure protection against vice if your synod and your princes would forbid matrons and nuns to make their frequent journeys back and forth to Rome. A great part of them perish and few keep their virtue. There arc many towns in Lombardy and Gaul where there is not a courtesan or a harlot but is of English stock. It is a scandal and a disgrace to your whole Church.
As to the point that any layman, be he emperor or king, official or courtier, relying upon secular force, may wrest a monastery from the power of a bishop, abbot or an abbess and begin to rule there in place of the abbot, have monks under him and hold property bought by the blood of Christ, the ancient Fathers called such a man a robber, sacrilegious, a murderer of the poor, a satanic wolf entering the sheepfold of Christ, to be condemned with the extreme anathema before the judgment seat of God. Remember the words of St. Paul, the Apostle, about such men, when he said to Timothy: " Charge them that are rich in this present world that they be not high-minded nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who giveth all things." If such men receive not the correction of the Church they are heathens and publicans and the Church of God refuses all communion to them alive or dead. Against such men let us sound the trumpet of God that we may not be condemned for our silence.
Strive with all your might against foolish superstitions in dress, a thing hateful to God. These ornaments, as they call them, but which others call foulness, with their wide embroidered purple stripes, are sent by Antichrist to herald his coming. Through his craftiness he introduces into monasteries his own servants, fornication and lust, sinful friendships of youths in purple garments, distaste for study and prayer, and the ruin of souls. Such attire shows the wickedness of their souls, giving proof of arrogance and pride, luxury, vanity, of which Wisdom says: " Pride and arrogance and the evil way of the froward mouth I hate."
It is said also that the vice of drunkenness is far too common in your parishes and that some bishops not only do not prohibit it but themselves drink to the point of intoxication, and by offenng large drinks to others force them into drunkenness. There can be no doubt that this is a grave offence in any servant of God, for the canons of the Church Fathers order a drunken bishop or priest to reform or be degraded. And the Truth Itself says: " Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness."[Luke xx1.34] And St. Paul[Eph v.18] and the prophet Isaiah.3[Is. V.22] This is an evil peculiar to the heathen and to our race, for neither the Franks nor the Gauls, nor the Lombards, nor the Romans, nor the Greeks practise it. Let us, if possible, put a check upon it by synodal action and the commands of Scripture. At all events by avoiding it ourselves and prohibiting it we shall declare our souls free from the blood of the damned.
As to the forced labour of monks upon royal buildings and other works, a thing unheard of anywhere except in England, let not the priests of God keep silence or consent thereto. It is an evil unknown in times gone by.
May God's hand preserve you safe, reverend and beloved brother, against all adversity to make intercession for us.
◆
[Context: Cuthbert of Canterbury, said to have been of noble lineage, first appears as Abbot of Liminge in Kent. In 736 he was consecrated Bishop of Hereford and translated to Canterbury four years later. He went to Rome for the pallium and received it from Gregory III some time before 29 November 741. He presided at the Council of Cloveshoe, where every priest was ordered to learn and explain to the people in their own tongue the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Offices of Mass and Baptism. He sent the proceedings of this council to Boniface by his deacon Cynebert and thus encouraged him to follow his example.]
To his brother and fellow-bishop, Cuthbert [of Canterbury], raised to the dignity of the archiepiscopate, and united to him by the bond of spiritual kinship, Boniface, Legate for Germany and the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Rome, sends greetings of intimate love in Christ.
It is written in the book of Solomon: "Happy is the man who has found a friend with whom he can speak as with himself." [Ecclus xxv.12] We have received by the hand of your son, the deacon Cynebert, together with your generous gifts, a delightful and affectionate letter. You have also sent me by him verbally a welcome discourse concerning our fraternal relations. I hope that as long as life shall last this exchange of spiritual counsel may go on, if God wills, from whom alone " all holy desires, all good counsel, and all just works do proceed". May you and I be bound together in the golden bonds of heavenly love which cannot be broken, you better and more fully because God has endowed you with greater gifts of knowledge and power, I striving to be instructed as your devoted vassal, " faithful in many things ".
The work of our ministry is in one and the same cause: an equal supervision over Churches and people is entrusted to us, whether in teaching or in reproving or in admonition or in protecting all classes of clergy and laity. For this reason I humbly request that if at any time God shall inspire you or your synods with wholesome counsel you will not hesitate to share it with me. And I likewise, if God will impart to me in my weakness anything useful or profitable to you, will do the same by you. Our responsibility towards Churches and peoples is greater than that of other bishops on account of the pallium entrusted to us and accepted by us, while they have the care of their own dioceses only. And hence, dear friend (not that you, who are so wise, need to hear or read the decisions of us simple folk), we feel that on account of your holy and humble good will towards us you would like to be informed about the decisions we have taken here and so submit them to you for correction and improvement.
We decided in our synod that we will maintain the Catholic faith and unity and our subjection to the Roman Church as long as we live: that we will be loyal subjects of St. Peter and his vicar; that we will hold a synod every year; that our metropolitan bishops shall ask for their palliums from that see; and that in all things we shall obey the orders of St. Peter according to the canons, so that we may be numbered among the flock entrusted to his care. To these declarations we have all agreed and subscribed, and we have forwarded them to the shrine of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles. The Roman clergy and Pontiff have gratefully accepted them. We have decided that every year the canonical decrees, the laws of the Church, the rule of regular life, shall be read and renewed at the synod. We have decreed that the metropolitan, having received his pallium, shall exhort the other bishops and admonish them and make enquiry as to who among them is watchful over the people's welfare and who is negligent. We have forbidden the clergy to hunt, to go about in the woods with dogs and to keep falcons or hawks.
We have ordered every priest annually during Lent to render to his bishop an account of his ministry, the state of the Catholic faith, Baptism and every detail of his administration. We have decreed that every bishop shall make an annual visitation of his diocese confirming and instructing the people, seeking out and forbidding pagan rites, divination, fortune-telling, soothsaying, charms, incantations and all Gentile vileness. We have forbidden the servants of God to wear showy or martial dress or to carry arms.
We have decreed that it shall be the special duty of the metropolitan to enquire into the conduct of the bishops under him and their care for the people. He shall require them, on their return from the synod, each to hold a meeting in his own diocese with his priests and abbots and urge them to carry out the synodal decrees. And every bishop finding himself unable to reform or correct some fault in his own diocese shall lay the case openly in the synod before the archbishop for correction, just as the Roman Church at my ordination bound me by oath that if I found priests or people wandering from the law of God and could not correct them I would always faithfully report the case to the Apostolic See and the vicar of St. Peter for settlement. Thus, if I am not mistaken, should every bishop do to his metropolitan and to the Roman Pontiff if the case cannot be settled among themselves. So shall they be guiltless of the blood of lost souls.
Furthermore, dear brother, our labour is the same but our responsibility greater than that of other priests. The ancient canons prescribe, as everyone knows, that the metropolitan is to have charge of a whole province, and I fear that we have, so to speak, undertaken to steer a ship through the waves of an angry sea and can neither control it nor without sin abandon it, for as a certain wise man says:"[] If it is dangerous to be negligent in steering a ship in the midst of the sea, how much more perilous to abandon it to the storm with the waves running high; and even so, the Church which makes its way through the ocean of this world like a great ship, buffeted in this life by diverse waves of temptation, is yet not to be abandoned but controlled."
Julianus Pomerius, De Vita Contemplativa , P.L. 59, Col. 431.
As examples we have the early Fathers, Clement and Cornelius and many others in Rome, Cyprian in Carthage, Athanasius in Alexandria, who under pagan emperors guided the ship of Christ, nay his dearest spouse the Church, teaching, defending, labouring and suffering even to the shedding of blood. Of myself I can surely say, in the words of the Song of Songs: " The sons of my mother have fought against me. They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept ". According to Nahum, the prophet, the vineyard is the house of Israel: but at the present time it is the Catholic Church.
By command of the Roman Pontiff and with the sanction of the princes of the Franks and Gauls, I have undertaken to bring together and address a synod in the hope of renewing the law of Christ. In that Church I have dug the ground round about, I have enriched it with manure, but I have not guarded it. While I waited for it to bear grapes it brought forth wild grapes, and according to another prophet: "The labour of the slave shall fail and the fields yield no harvest."[Hab. Iii.17] But, alas, my labour seems like the barking of a dog that sees thieves and robbers break in and plunder his master's house, but, because he has none to help him in his defence, can only whine and complain.
But now, finding myself in this position and asking your wholesome advice as to what seems right and prudent, I suggest that it is time to speak freely. I say like the Apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles[Acts xx.2-8]: " I testify to you this day that I am pure from the blood of all men ", etc. He says: "I have walked among you preaching the kingdom of God that I might keep myself guiltless of the destruction of all." The Apostle calls the priest " bishop ", and the prophet calls him " watchman", the Saviour of the world calls him " shepherd of the Church ". All agree that the teacher and guide who conceals the sins of the people in silence becomes thereby guilty of the blood of lost souls.
For this reason a dread necessity compels us to present ourselves as an example to the faithful according to the word of the Apostle; that is, if I am not mistaken, the teacher is to live so well that his deeds shall not contradict his words, and that while he himself may Eve prudently, he shall not be silently condemned for the sins of others. He is set over the Church to this end that he may set not only an example of right living to others but through his dutiful preaching may bring every man's sins before his eyes and show him what punishment awaits the hard of heart and what reward the obedient. For, according to the word of God to Ezechiel, when a man is entrusted with the preaching of the Gospel, even though he live a holy life, nevertheless if he is afraid or ashamed to rebuke those who live wickedly, he shall perish together with all those who perish by his silence. And what shall it profit him to escape the penalty of his own sins if he is to be punished for those of others.[]
I have omitted here a long passage from Scripture on the responsibilities of bishops. (Ed.).
Finally, I will not conceal from Your Grace that all the servants of God here who are especially versed in Scripture and strong in the fear of God are agreed that it would be well and favourable for the honour and purity of your Church and a sure protection against vice if your synod and your princes would forbid matrons and nuns to make their frequent journeys back and forth to Rome. A great part of them perish and few keep their virtue. There arc many towns in Lombardy and Gaul where there is not a courtesan or a harlot but is of English stock. It is a scandal and a disgrace to your whole Church.
As to the point that any layman, be he emperor or king, official or courtier, relying upon secular force, may wrest a monastery from the power of a bishop, abbot or an abbess and begin to rule there in place of the abbot, have monks under him and hold property bought by the blood of Christ, the ancient Fathers called such a man a robber, sacrilegious, a murderer of the poor, a satanic wolf entering the sheepfold of Christ, to be condemned with the extreme anathema before the judgment seat of God. Remember the words of St. Paul, the Apostle, about such men, when he said to Timothy: " Charge them that are rich in this present world that they be not high-minded nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who gives all things." If such men receive not the correction of the Church they are heathens and publicans and the Church of God refuses all communion to them alive or dead. Against such men let us sound the trumpet of God that we may not be condemned for our silence.
Strive with all your might against foolish superstitions in dress, a thing hateful to God. These ornaments, as they call them, but which others call foulness, with their wide embroidered purple stripes, are sent by Antichrist to herald his coming. Through his craftiness he introduces into monasteries his own servants, fornication and lust, sinful friendships of youths in purple garments, distaste for study and prayer, and the ruin of souls. Such attire shows the wickedness of their souls, giving proof of arrogance and pride, luxury, vanity, of which Wisdom says: " Pride and arrogance and the evil way of the froward mouth I hate."
It is said also that the vice of drunkenness is far too common in your parishes and that some bishops not only do not prohibit it but themselves drink to the point of intoxication, and by offenng large drinks to others force them into drunkenness. There can be no doubt that this is a grave offence in any servant of God, for the canons of the Church Fathers order a drunken bishop or priest to reform or be degraded. And the Truth Itself says: " Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness."[Luke xx1.34] And St. Paul[Eph v.18] and the prophet Isaiah.3[Is. V.22] This is an evil peculiar to the heathen and to our race, for neither the Franks nor the Gauls, nor the Lombards, nor the Romans, nor the Greeks practise it. Let us, if possible, put a check upon it by synodal action and the commands of Scripture. At all events by avoiding it ourselves and prohibiting it we shall declare our souls free from the blood of the damned.
As to the forced labour of monks upon royal buildings and other works, a thing unheard of anywhere except in England, let not the priests of God keep silence or consent thereto. It is an evil unknown in times gone by.
May God's hand preserve you safe, reverend and beloved brother, against all adversity to make intercession for us.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.