Ad S. Cornelium appendices

To Saint Cornelius, Appendices. First Appendix. Letters Falsely Attributed to Him. Letter I. Bishop Cornelius to his brother Lupucinus, Archbishop of Vienne, greeting. Know, most blessed brother, that the Lord's threshing-floor is violently shaken by the wind of persecution, and that by the edicts of the emperors Christians everywhere are afflicted with various torments. For in the city of Rome a prefect has been appointed for this purpose. Hence it is not permitted for Christians to celebrate Mass either publicly or in the more well-known crypts. Therefore let your charity exhort all believers in Christ not to fear those who kill the body, but rather Him who has the power to destroy both body and soul (Matthew 10:28). Already many of the brethren have been crowned with martyrdom. Pray that we may complete our course revealed to us by the Lord. Farewell, brother in the Lord, and greet all who love us in Christ. Letter II. Of Pope Cornelius to Cyprian. I have received your writings, which are not pleasing to my affection and are contrary to the rule of faith, in which I have recognized a nausea, and I have not praised the poisons of your words, the horrible tares you have sown against the Catholic Church spread throughout the whole world. I ask that you quickly remove and condemn these things. Indeed, you ought to have done this before the lethal poison spread among the minds of the simple and innocent in the world. Therefore, it is not fitting to rebaptize.

Therefore, root out and eradicate, as we have said, with flowery and worthy discourses through the later letter the earlier writings, which, contrary to the Catholic faith, the offspring of vipers have presumed to preserve. For it is not fitting for the bishop of so great a city and the most excellent teacher that, while you think the baptism of heresy is to be condemned beforehand, you should hear the true baptism being stained by words, which you lament as clearly contradicting the Apostle who says: One God, one faith, one baptism. Second Appendix. Decretal Letters Falsely Attributed to Saint Cornelius. First Letter. On the Translation of the Bodies of the Apostles Peter and Paul: and on Novatus and Other Heretics. To the dearest and most beloved brothers, the sons of the holy Church of God, and to all serving the Lord in right faith, Cornelius the bishop. Seeing your charity’s goodwill, because you are lovers of the Apostles and hold to their faith and doctrine, I have decided to write to you, with the Lord as author, certain things which are now necessary to be known, and which among us in the Roman Church, with the Lord’s help and by the merits of the Apostles, have recently been done or are being done: since, under the patronage of charity, I believe that you will gladly receive the writings of the apostolic see with fatherly grace, and carry out its commands, and rejoice in its progress: because whoever grafts himself into the root of charity neither withers from greenness, nor becomes empty of fruits, nor loses the effective work through love of fruitfulness.

For charity itself exercises the hearts of the faithful and strengthens their minds, so that nothing is burdensome, nothing difficult, but everything that is done becomes entirely sweet, since it is its own property to nourish concord, to keep the commandments, and to join what is separated, to straighten what is crooked, and to fortify the other virtues with the support of its perfection. Therefore I ask you to rejoice with us, because at the request of a certain devout woman and most noble matron, Lucina, the bodies of the Apostles Peter and Paul have been raised from the catacombs. And first indeed the body of blessed Paul, raised in silence, was placed on the estate of the aforementioned matron, on the Via Ostiensis, at the side where he was beheaded. Afterwards, indeed, we received the body of blessed Peter, the chief of the Apostles, and we placed it fittingly next to the place where he was crucified, among the bodies of holy bishops, in the temple of Apollo, on the Mons Aureus, in the Vatican of the Neronian palace, on the third day before the Kalends of July, praying to God and our Lord Jesus Christ that, through the intercession of His holy Apostles, He might cleanse the stains of your sins, and preserve you in His will throughout the days of your life, and render you persevering in the fruit of good work. Do you, however, rejoice in these things, because the holy Apostles themselves rejoice in your joy. Always praise God, and let Him be glorified in you. For it is written: What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me? I shall take the cup of salvation, and I shall invoke the name of the Lord. (Psalm)

115. For only so much is required of us as we are able to commend by the service of our attendance. Hence it is indeed necessary for us to insist upon importunate preachings, to the extent that the doubled assignment of talents is entrusted to us for the perfect transaction, and the assertion of the Lord’s voice urges us to undertake His rest. Envying this, the ancient enemy has stirred up against us the adversary Novatus, a rival of right faith and holy teaching, who ordained Novatian outside the Church, and in Africa Nicostratus, both heretics, as he himself was. These, by whatever efforts they could, have caused many to withdraw from the right and catholic faith by persuasion, and have induced them to fall into a perverse and God-hating doctrine. But just as we are greatly saddened by the tergiversations of these men and grieved by their perdition, so we are rejoiced, with the Lord’s help, by the conversion of others. Moreover, Almighty God, who mingles joyful things with sad, has greatly delighted us in that certain confessors, who were formerly faithful, separating themselves from us and from the right faith at the instigation of the devil, have returned to the Catholic Church and the right faith together with the presbyter Maximus, and have again become faithful confessors, as before.

Therefore, dearest ones, we exhort and beseech you through our Lord Jesus Christ, strive to convert the aforementioned heretics and all whom you have learned have apostatized from the right faith and doctrine, by your exhortations and good efforts, to the Catholic faith and right doctrine, and persuade them to persist in the will of God. And not only these, but also all who have not yet received the right faith, hasten to lead them to the Catholic faith. For neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor the present, nor the future, nor strength, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, with the Teacher of the Gentiles teaching, will be able to separate us from the love of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. VIII), and from the right faith which is in Him. Therefore do not lose your confidence, which has a great reward. For patience is necessary for us in the struggles against adversaries, so that, preserving the faith inviolate to the end, we may obtain the promise which He promised to those who hasten to contend lawfully. For still a little while, He who is to come will come, and will not delay (Hab. II). Behold, the judge stands before the door (James V), cheerfully promising crowns to those who submit to sufferings for His sake. But if anyone withdraws himself, he will not please my soul (Heb. X), but will fall from the promise because of denial.

We, however, are not children of subtraction unto perdition, but of faith unto the acquisition of the soul. For this reason, take up the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day against all enemies of holy Church and your own, and clothe yourselves with the breastplate of justice, and shoe your feet in the preparation of the Gospel of peace, in all things taking up the shield of faith, in which you may extinguish all the fiery darts of the Evil One. And take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, through every prayer and supplication (Eph. VI), rooted and founded in the solace of brothers for Christ Jesus our Lord. But now also, brothers, we commend you to the Lord, and all to the word of his grace, who is able to perfect and give us inheritance with all the saints (Acts XX). May the God of peace and consolation himself grant that you think the same thing toward one another (Rom. XV), that you may succor each other in turn, and not be divided, so that with one mind, one voice, and one heart you may honor him, in concord and consolation of the brothers, who is able to confirm you according to his Gospel, according to the revelation of the eternal mystery, namely in perpetual times (Rom. XVI), in which the gifts of future joys are to be bestowed upon you. You must also consider most earnestly that those who envy the brothers and desire to condemn and destroy them destroy their own teachings through themselves.

For the Lord says: Every kingdom divided against itself will not stand; and all knowledge and law divided against itself will not stand. Therefore it is necessary that you receive in concord the salutary exhortations, doing nothing through contention, but being of one mind in all zeal for devotion, obeying the divine and apostolic constitutions. Given on the seventh day before the Ides of September, in the consulship of Decius and Maximus, most distinguished men. LETTER II. TO RUFUS, FELLOW BISHOP OF THE EAST. ARGUMENT: That priests of the Lord, as the common people are wont to do, should not presume to swear or be compelled to swear. 1. Whether an oath should be taken by bishops. 2. Concerning the cases of bishops, and that whatever is done against those who are absent should be considered void. CORNELIUS, BISHOP, TO RUFUS, FELLOW BISHOP, GREETINGS IN THE LORD. Your love demands, dearest brother, that we should respond to your consultations by the authority of the Apostolic See. Although we would hasten to do this not at length but succinctly, on account of certain importunities which, our sins hindering us, have come upon us, we nevertheless permit you to investigate more broadly and search out your pursuits through the remaining institutes of the holy Fathers. For a mind worn down and weighed down by burdens and importunities cannot accomplish as much good as one delighted and freed from oppressions. We have not, therefore, put this forward so that we might wish to deny to your holiness these and other things which we have recognized as necessary; but that what is found lacking here may be sought out more broadly.

We have not known, however, that the Sacrament has been demanded from high priests or ministers of God, except for the sake of right faith, nor have we found that they swore voluntarily. Therefore the blessed apostle James, forbidding the oath, speaks most emphatically, saying: Above all, my brothers, do not swear, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath whatsoever. Let your speech be, Yes, yes, No, no: so that you do not fall under judgment (James 5). And the Lord in the Gospel: You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not perjure yourself, but you shall render your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God; nor by earth, because it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king; nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. Let your speech be, Yes, yes. No, no: but whatever is more than this is from evil (Matthew 5), that is, from the one demanding and from the one swearing. These things, dearest brother, the Lord himself forbids, that is, that one ought not to swear. These things all the apostles especially, these things our holy predecessors, who presided over this holy universal apostolic Church before us, these things the Prophets and the rest of the holy teachers, scattered throughout the whole world for preaching, forbid oaths to be made.

If we should begin to enumerate their examples or insert them in this schedule, the hour of the day would fail before their examples in this forbidden matter. Following them, we confirm the rights of the holy apostles and their successors, and we forbid oaths to be made rashly. Whence the Lord Himself, in the stone tablets which He gave to Moses, wrote with His own hand, saying: "See that you do not take the name of your Lord in vain" (Exod. 20). And the rest. We, however, as we have touched upon a little above, do not know that an oath has been offered to bishops, nor ought it ever to be done: because, as has been recalled above, it is commanded by the Lord not to swear, neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of His feet; nor by one's own head, because no one can create a single hair (Matt. 5; James 5). For each one, as he stands before the altar, has the fear of God before his eyes, and keeps his own conscience pure for God, which he retains in memory, he ought by no means to neglect, because the mouth that lies kills the soul (Wis. 1). And the Apostle says: "Speak the truth each one with his neighbor, because we are members of one another" (Eph. 4). And elsewhere: "Do not lie to one another" (Col. 3).

These are the precepts of the Saviour, these of the Prophets, these the institutions of the holy Fathers. If anyone should hold them in vain, he is an enemy of his own soul: because no one acts against the prophets, no one against the apostles, no one against the Gospel without peril (Council of Carthage I, canon 13). And it must be most carefully foreseen that the sheep which were entrusted to him do not presume to reproach their own pastor (unless he has strayed from the faith) nor to accuse him: for such accusations have no force, nor can they harm him. But one thing, dearest, as the blessed apostle Peter says, should not escape you: that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord does not delay with promises, but acts patiently for your sake, not wishing any to perish, but all to return to penance. However, the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with great force, and the elements will be dissolved by heat (2 Peter 3). Since all these things are to be dissolved, from these you can consider what sort you ought to be in holy ways of life and pieties, waiting and hastening for the coming of the day of God, through which the burning heavens will be dissolved, and the elements will waste away with the heat of fire. "But you, dearest," said the apostle Jude (in his canonical Epistle, verse...).

17), be mindful of the words which were foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to you that “in the last time deceivers will come, walking according to their own desires in impieties. These are they who separate themselves, being animal-like, having no Spirit. But you, dearest ones, exalting yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. And reprove those who have been judged, but snatch those others from the fire and save them. For others, have pity in fear, hating even the fleshly, stained tunic.” For no priest shall commit his own cause to another’s judgment, unless an appeal has been made to the Apostolic See. But each one shall have fellow-provincial judges, and known ones, unless he has feared some force of a reckless multitude there, or has had hostile or suspect judges in that place, for which reasons it is permitted to appeal and to come to judges of greater authority and to other provinces.

II. Therefore, let everything that is done or judged against absent persons in any business or place be entirely annulled, since no one condemns an absent person, nor does any law convict him. A man can easily deceive another man, but not God, to whose eyes all things are naked and open. Hence the Prophet says: "The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain" (Psalm 93). Therefore, he who harms is not wise. Nor does anyone who is faithful wish any evil or plot snares against anyone. We exhort and admonish your love, brother, that you always help, strengthen, and console everyone as best you can. And forbid the sacraments, concerning which you wished to consult this holy Roman and universal Church, from being performed, and never harass or harm anyone. Let your holiness, brother, bring this to the notice of the remaining brothers, so that all may avoid these evils. And just as they have been generally forbidden by the Lord Himself, by the saints, by the other apostolic men, and by the other Fathers, so let them be generally observed by all. We always wish your blessedness to fare well, and we desire you to advance in sacred virtues, dearest and most loving brother. Given on the eleventh day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Maximus and Decius, most illustrious men.

A decree, taken from Gratian's Decretum, not found in the earlier Decretals. That oaths be taken by those who are fasting. It also seems proper that those who dare to swear in sacred matters should do so while fasting, with all propriety and fear of God, and that boys under the age of fourteen should not be compelled to swear. THIRD APPENDIX. NOTE. Although the Councils have their own special and particular collection, and do not by themselves pertain to our Library of the Fathers, since they would already render it, large enough as it is, vastly greater, nevertheless it was necessary to insert some of them incidentally among the writings of the Fathers, whenever, as is the case with those which follow, they have a necessary and inseparable connection with the works of the Fathers. EDD.