APENDIX AD EPISTOLAS FELICIS IV.

APPENDIX TO THE LETTERS OF FELIX IV. LETTER II. POPE FELIX IV TO ALL BISHOPS. (These and the following letter suffer from a defect.) I. That the celebration of Masses should not take place elsewhere than in places dedicated to God unless great necessity compels it. II. What is to be done concerning the jubilation of the consecration of churches. To his most beloved brothers, all bishops established throughout the various provinces, Felix, bishop, sends greetings in the Lord. By the great gift (S. Leo, ep. 51) of the mercy of God, the joys of the whole Catholic Church have been multiplied, since the state of the Churches flourishes in that order which the successors of the apostles established from the beginning. And when we perceive that the cunning of the ancient enemy disturbs it, we are saddened with no slight grief. For which reason (brothers) we exhort, admonish, and entreat that you in no way depart from the path of apostolic institution (Idem, ep. 84), nor dissent from the head, but hold without any hesitation the faith and order which the apostles and apostolic men established. For if the columns of some great house fall, the house itself will afterwards scarcely stand. So also you, who are the columns of the Church, if you begin to be shaken, the holy Church, which is governed through you, wastes away and falls. These things (brothers) which I say are greatly to be feared, and to be weighed with the utmost moderation, and to be guarded against lest they happen. For truth itself says: You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted (Matt. 5)?

Therefore (dearest ones), I admonish you, because I am indebted to you and love you very much. And when I hear good things about you, I am exceedingly joyful; and on the contrary, when I hear bad things, I am exceedingly troubled. Indeed, although I am separated from you by long intervals of lands and seas, I am nevertheless entirely joined to you in heart. And I trust this fully concerning your blessedness toward me, because when you love me in turn, you are not far from me. Hence we give thanks to that grain of mustard (Luke 14; Matthew 13), which from the appearance of a small and contemptible seed, with branches rising from the same root and spreading themselves everywhere, so that the birds of the sky (all) nest in them; and thanks to that leaven which sprinkled the mass of the whole human race with three measures of flour into unity; and to the small stone, which was cut from the mountain without hands and occupied the entire face of the earth, which spread itself everywhere to this end, that with the whole human race brought into unity, the entire body of the Church might be perfected, and thus this partial distinction might pertain to the advantage of the members of the whole structure. Hence we also are not far from you: because in Him who is everywhere, we are one (John 20).

Let us therefore give thanks to him, because with enmities resolved, he has made it so that in the whole world there is one flock and one fold under himself, one shepherd, always mindful of what the distinguished preacher admonishes us, saying: "Be eager to preserve the unity of spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4). I have gladly received the writings of your holiness, which you sent to the apostolic see concerning certain consultations, as to the head, so that you might receive responses from the very source from which the whole Church of all religion took its beginning, and I have taken care to reply to you briefly. I. Concerning the consecration of churches and the celebration of masses, that these ought not to be done anywhere except in places consecrated to the Lord without great necessity, is clear to all to whom the precepts of the New and Old Testaments are known. For we read that Moses made and consecrated the tabernacle at the Lord's command, with its table and altar and the other vessels and utensils for carrying out divine worship (Num. 7); and we know that he consecrated them not only by divine precepts and prayers, but also anointed them with the unction of holy oil, at the Lord's bidding. How these things were done, and how these sacred objects were handled, carried, erected, and taken down only by priests anointed with sacred unction and consecrated to the Lord with holy vestments, and by Levites, is found in those institutions which, at the Lord's command, were written down through Moses, in the law of the Lord.

How, then, the most pious King David wished to amplify the worship of God and to build the temple of the Lord, but was forbidden because of the great amount of blood he had shed, and he himself had collected the expenses, and his son Solomon, with God commanding and assisting, completed that same thing which he himself had desired to do, and consecrated the temple with the altar and the rest for the performance of divine worship, is read among other things in the Book of Kings thus: "Building," says Solomon to the Lord, "I have built for your dwelling, your most firm throne forever." And the king turned his face and blessed the whole church of Israel. For the whole church of Israel was standing, and he said: "Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who spoke by his mouth to my father David, and completed it through his hands, saying: 'From the day I led my people Israel out of Egypt, I did not choose a city from all the tribes of Israel, that a house might be built and my name be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel. And my father David wished to build a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel, and the Lord said to my father David: "What you have thought in your heart to build a house for my name, you have done well, pondering this same thing in your mind. Nevertheless, you will not build the house, but your son, who will come forth from your loins, he will build the house for my name." The Lord confirmed his word.'

of which he spoke, and he stood in place of my father David, and I sat upon the throne of Israel, as the Lord spoke. And I built a house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. And I placed there the place of the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord, which he made with our fathers when they came out of the land of Egypt. Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the sight of the assembly of Israel, and he stretched out his hands to heaven, and said: Lord God of Israel, there is none like you in the heaven above, and on the earth below, who keeps the covenant and mercy to your servants who walk before you with their whole heart. You have kept for your servant David, my father, what you spoke to him. You spoke it with your mouth, and you fulfilled it with your hands, as this day proves. Now therefore, Lord God of Israel, preserve for your servant David, my father, what you spoke to him, saying: A man shall not be taken from you before me, who sits upon the throne of Israel, provided that your sons keep their way, so that they walk before me, as you walked in my sight. And now, God of Israel, let your words be confirmed, which you spoke to your servant David, my father. Should it then be thought that God truly dwells upon the earth? For if heaven and the heavens of heavens cannot contain you, how much less this house which I have built? But look upon the prayer of your servant, and upon his supplications, my Lord God.

Hear, O Lord, the hymn and prayer which your servant prays before you today: that your eyes may be open over this house night and day, over the house of which you said: My name will be there, so that you may hear the prayer which your servant prays to you in this place; that you may hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, whatever they may pray in this place, and that you may hear in the place of your dwelling in heaven, and when you have heard, you will be propitious. If a man has sinned against his neighbor, and has been bound by some oath, and has come before the altar into your house because of the oath, you will hear in heaven, and you will act, and you will judge those servants, condemning the impious and returning his way upon his head, and justifying the just and rewarding him according to his justice. If your people Israel should flee from their enemies (because they are about to sin against you) and, doing penance and confessing your name, they should come and pray and supplicate you in this house, hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and lead them back into the land which you gave to their fathers.

If the sky is closed and it does not rain because of their sin, and those praying in this place have done penance to your name and have been converted from their sins because of their affliction, hear them in heaven, and forgive the sins of your servants and of your people Israel, and show them the good path by which they may walk, and give rain upon the land which you gave to your people as a possession. If famine has arisen in the land, or pestilence, or corrupted air, or blight, or locust, or rust, and if his enemy afflicts him by besieging the gates, every plague, every infirmity, and every curse and imprecation that has befallen any man of your people Israel; if anyone has acknowledged the plague of his heart and has stretched out his hands in this house, you will hear in heaven, in the place of your dwelling, and you will become propitious again, and you will cause that you give to each one according to all his ways, as you see his heart (because you alone know the heart of all the sons of men); so that they may fear you all the days they live upon the face of the earth, which you gave to our fathers.

Moreover, if a foreigner, who is not from your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name (for your great name, your strong hand, and your outstretched arm are heard everywhere), when he comes, therefore, and prays in this place, you will hear him in heaven, in the firmament of your dwelling, and you will do all things for which the foreigner has invoked you, so that all the peoples of the earth may learn to fear your name, as the people of Israel do: and they may prove that your name has been invoked over this house, which I have built. If your people go out to war against their enemies, by whatever road you send them, they will pray to you facing the city which you have chosen, and facing the house which I have built for your name, and you will hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, and you will execute their judgment.

But if they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin), and you, angered, deliver them to their enemies, and they are led captive into the land of their enemies, far or near, and they do penance in their heart in the place of captivity, and, converted, they beseech you in their captivity, saying: We have sinned, we have acted wickedly, we have done impiously, and they have returned to you with their whole heart and their whole soul, in the land of their enemies, to which they were led captive, and they have prayed to you facing the way of their land, which you gave to their fathers, and of the city which you chose, and of the temple which I built to your name; you will hear in heaven, in the firmament of your throne, their prayer and their supplication, and you will render their judgment, and you will be propitious to your people, who sinned against you: and to all their iniquities, by which they transgressed against you: and you will give mercy before them to those who have held them captive, that they may have mercy on them. For they are your people, and your inheritance, whom you led out of the land of Egypt, from the midst of the iron furnace, that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant and your people Israel, and you will hear them in all things for which they invoke you. For you separated them as an inheritance from all the peoples of the earth, as you spoke through your servant Moses, when you led our fathers out of the land of Egypt, Lord God.

Now it came to pass, when Solomon had completed this entire prayer and supplication to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord. For he had fixed both knees on the ground and stretched his hands toward heaven. Then he stood and blessed the whole church of Israel with a loud voice, saying: Blessed is the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he spoke; not one word of all the good things he spoke through his servant Moses has fallen to the ground. May our Lord God be with us, as he was with our fathers, not abandoning nor casting us off, but inclining our hearts toward himself, so that we may walk in all his ways and keep his commandments, his ceremonies, and his judgments, whatever he commanded our fathers; and may these words of mine, with which I have prayed before the Lord, be ever present before our Lord God day and night, that he may do justice to his servant and to his people Israel each day, and that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord himself is God, and there is none beyond him. May our heart also be perfect with our Lord God, so that we may walk in his decrees and keep his commandments as we do today. Therefore the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the Lord. And Solomon slaughtered peace offerings, which he offered to the Lord: twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred twenty thousand sheep, and the king and the children of Israel dedicated the temple of the Lord.

On that day the king sanctified the middle of the court, which was before the house of the Lord. He made there a holocaust, a sacrifice, and the fat of peace-offerings, because the bronze altar that was before the Lord was too small and could not contain the holocaust, the sacrifice, and the fat of the peace-offerings. Therefore Solomon held at that time a solemn festival, and all Israel with him, a great multitude from the entrance of Hamath as far as the brook of Egypt, before the Lord our God for seven days and seven days, that is, fourteen days, and on the eighth day he dismissed the peoples. The Jews, therefore, consecrated the places in which they offered divine supplications to the Lord with supplications (they consecrated with supplications), nor did they offer gifts to the Lord in places other than those dedicated to God. For if the Jews, who served the shadow of the law, did these things, much more ought we, to whom the truth has been revealed, to build temples to the Lord, and (as well as we can) to adorn them, and to consecrate them devoutly and solemnly with divine prayers and their holy anointings, together with altars and vessels, also vestments and the other utensils for fulfilling divine worship, and not to celebrate masses nor offer sacrifices to the Lord in places other than those consecrated to the Lord by bishops, and not by chorepiscopi, who have often been forbidden, unless (as has been said) the utmost necessity demands it.

And if the utmost necessity compels this, it should not be done in houses, because in the sacred canons sacrifices are forbidden to be offered in houses, but in tents, consecrated by divine prayers of the pontiffs, and on tables consecrated to the Lord, and anointed with sacred unction by the pontiffs, for the utmost (as previously stated) necessity, and not for the whim or laziness of anyone. (Decree) Therefore, it is better not to sing Mass (Council of Paris, Book I, Chapter 47; and Capitulary VII, 534), or not to hear it (St. Gregory, Epistle 18, Book III), than to do so in places where it ought not to be done: unless (as has often been said) it happens from the utmost necessity, because necessity has no law. Whence it is written: "See that you do not offer your holocausts in every place that you see, but in the place which the Lord your God has chosen" (Deuteronomy 10). And in Exodus it is read: "You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven: You shall not make silver gods, nor shall you make golden gods for yourselves; you shall make me an altar of earth, and upon it you shall offer your holocausts and your peace-offerings; your sheep and your oxen in every place in which there shall be a memorial of my name" (Exodus 20). And just as no other than priests consecrated to the Lord ought to sing Mass or offer sacrifices upon the altar, so neither shall it be permitted to sing Mass or offer sacrifices in places other than those previously mentioned as consecrated to the Lord.

If, however, as is read in the Council of Laodicea (according to the version of Dionysius Exiguus), chapter 26, that those who are not ordained by bishops cannot exorcize either in churches or in houses, much less (or rather, more so) may the ministries of a higher grade, or the offering of sacrifices, be performed or offered except by those who have been consecrated to those grades to which the duties they must discharge belong. Moreover, that (as has been briefly mentioned a little above) oblations ought not to be offered in houses is found prohibited in the same council, chapter thus: "Bishops and presbyters ought not to celebrate oblations in houses." The solemnities of the dedications of churches and of priests are to be celebrated solemnly each year, the Lord Himself setting an example, who, giving a pattern to all by doing so at the feast of the dedication of the temple, came to celebrate that same festivity with the rest of the people, as it is written: "The Encænia took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter; and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the Portico of Solomon" (John 10). Moreover, that the Encænia are to be celebrated for eight days, in the book of Kings (1 Kings 8), after the completion of the dedication of the temple, you will find (you will find).

II. Concerning the consecration of churches (St. Leo, Epistle 92, ch. 15): whenever doubt arises, and neither certain writings nor certain witnesses exist by which the consecration is known, they are to be consecrated anew without any hesitation, lest such trepidation cause deterioration; for what is not known to have been done is not shown to be repeated. With these testimonies of the Scriptures, confirmed by apostolic authority, let it suffice to have briefly responded to your inquiries. Yet it is for you to foresee and to preach to all, that unlawful acts not be committed, and that the Lord’s precepts be preserved and faithfully carried out. Moreover, we ask you, brothers, to repeat the apostolic sayings: rebuke the restless, console the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient with all. See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone; but always pursue what is good toward one another and toward all. Always rejoice, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for all of you. Do not extinguish the Spirit, do not despise prophecies; but test all things, hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every evil appearance. May the God of peace Himself sanctify you in all things, so that your whole spirit, soul, and body may be kept without complaint at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 5). Given on the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Lampadius and Orestes, most illustrious men (in the year of Christ 550).

EPISTLE III (FORMERLY II). TO SABINA. It praises in her the zeal and devotion toward the Church, and that she places the honors of her lineage and empty pomp after religion. That you are a singular member of the Church, that the breadth of your religious devotion exists, and that you are most reverently cultivated by us, is sufficiently manifest to all. For at the very summit of nobility, you devote a much nobler devotion to the Church, and you more gladly obey the precepts of Christ in the joy of knowing Him, and you exult more in faith than you boast in the flower of such a lineage. The highest virtue is to have conquered the glory of the flesh, and it is a great grace of Christ to have surpassed nobility by one's character, O lady daughter, by that deserved title. Therefore, being certain, most beloved, of the spaces of this life, whatever they may be, strive to illuminate them with eternal and divine offices, so that He who made you illustrious may render you more glorious to Himself through the ages. Wherefore we exhort your love, that you not delay to always fulfill the good which you have begun; because it is not the beginning that is praised, but the end. For we exhort you to love and to scrutinize wisdom, so that you may rationally and wisely arrange and judge those things which have been entrusted to you, as the Lord says through the prophet: "Be instructed, you who judge the earth." Therefore fear the Lord, and keep his commandments, and love him with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself.

The most high God created wisdom in the Holy Spirit, and saw it, and counted it, the earth, and measured it, and poured it forth over all his works, and over all flesh according to his gift he offered it to those loving him. The fear of the Lord is glory and glorification, and a crown of exultation. The fear of the Lord will delight the heart, and will give gladness and joy for the length of days. To one fearing the Lord it will be well in the end, and on the day of his death he will be blessed. The love of God is honorable wisdom; but to those to whom it has appeared in a vision, they love it in vision, and in the knowledge of its great works. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; and it was created together with the faithful in the womb, and it walks with elect women, and is known with the just and faithful. The fear of the Lord is the religiousness of knowledge. Religiousness will guard and justify the heart, and will give cheerfulness and joy. To one fearing the Lord it will be well, and in the days of his consummation he will be blessed. The fullness of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and fullness from its belchings. It will fill every house of his from generations, and the storehouses from his treasures. The crown of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, filling with peace and the fruit of salvation; and it saw and counted it, but both are gifts of God. Wisdom will share knowledge and the understanding of prudence, and exalts the glory of those holding it. The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and its branches are long-lived.

In the treasuries of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge is piety; but the execration of sinners is wisdom. The fear of the Lord expels sin; for he who is without fear cannot be justified. For the wrath of that animosity is its own subversion. The patient man will endure for a time, and afterwards there is a return of joy. A good sense will hide his words for a time, and the lips of many will recount his sense. In the treasuries of wisdom is the signification of discipline; but the execration of the sinner is the worship of God. Son, desiring wisdom, keep justice, and God will provide it to you. For wisdom and discipline are the fear of the Lord; and this, which is pleasing to him, is faith and meekness, and it will fill his treasuries. Do not be contumacious, and do not be incredulous toward the fear of the Lord, and do not approach him with a double heart. Do not be a hypocrite in the sight of men, and do not be scandalized by your lips. Attend to them, lest you fall and place a scandal upon your soul, and bring dishonor upon yourself, and God reveal your hidden things. For faith and justice, and for the salvation of your soul, always contend, and for the help of your brothers act manfully, so that you may receive recompense from the Lord. For it is written (Eccli. IV): Son, preserve time, and shun evil. For your soul, do not be ashamed to speak the truth. For there is a confusion that brings sin, and there is a confusion that brings grace and glory.

Do not accept a face against your own face, nor a lie against your own soul. Do not revere your neighbor in your own fall, nor withhold a word in the time of salvation. Do not hide your wisdom in its adornment. For wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and doctrine are recognized in the tongue, through words of truth (the word of a wise man), and steadfastness in works of justice. Do not contradict the truth in any way, and be ashamed of the lie of your own ignorance. Do not be ashamed to confess your sins; and do not subject yourself to every man on account of sin. Do not resist against the face of the powerful; nor strive against the force of a river. Strive for justice for your soul, and fight for justice unto death, and God will fight your enemies for you. Do not be hasty in your tongue; nor useless and remiss in your works. Do not be like a lion in your own house, overthrowing your household and oppressing those subject to you. Let not your hand be stretched out to receive, and closed to give. Supported by these authorities of the Scriptures, always stand upright, and do not turn aside from the path of truth, so that you may acquire the grace of God and enjoy the friendship of good men; and so that your will (mind) may more easily depart from the love of this world, as it is both impelled and called. For we desire to see you both when present, and when absent we wish at least to converse with you through a letter.

Hence we also pray that the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, may lead you happily to his threshold, so that we may deserve to enjoy your presence in the grace of the Almighty. Given on the twelfth day before the Kalends of November (in the year when Boniface, not Felix, was seated at Rome at the end of October), Lampadius and Orestes, most distinguished men, being consuls.