Epistolae

In the Year of the Lord 527. Montanus, Bishop of Toledo. (From the Collection of the Holy Fathers of Toledo.) The Letters of Montanus. First Letter. To the most beloved lords, brothers, and sons of the territory of Palencia, Montanus, bishop, sends eternal greeting in the Lord. I. The most powerful overseers of all the Lord’s churches are shaken by that terrible admonitory utterance of the prophet Ezekiel (Chapter 33) under the name of the watchman, which says: “Son of man, I have set you as a watchman over the house of Israel; therefore, hearing the word from my mouth, you shall announce it to them from me. If, when I say to the impious man, ‘Impious one, you shall die the death,’ you do not announce it to him, nor speak to him so that he may turn from his impious way and live, he indeed will die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand,” and the rest, which the order of this passage shows must be sought out in the minds of the admonisher and the admonished. II. Therefore, moved by this voice, and not unaware that I have taken up the necessity of this office, I have taken care to study, lest Christ require from my hand the soul of any lost man; especially since ancient custom has handed down the metropolitan privilege to the city of Toledo; and all the more so, not only the care of parishes but also of cities solicits the priest of this city. Therefore, as the Apostle says: “Which of these do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and a spirit of gentleness?” (1 Cor. 4:21)?

Now a novel presumption of the presbyters presiding over you has struck our ears—if indeed it can be called merely novel, and not detestable—which is proved never to have crept in from the beginning of the Catholic faith except now, namely that a presbyter ignorant of discipline presumed to confect chrism for himself, which the invocation of the Triune Divinity through the hand of the supreme pontiff is accustomed to sanctify. If this is due to negligence, such a priest ought not to have been so foolish; if it is due to presumption, who does not know that he is a schismatic, who, as the world grows old, introduces such an unheard-of and religion-contrary thing as such a violator does? III. Let the most sacred Book of Numbers (11:16) be turned over in your hands, O presbyters, in which the honor of your office was inaugurated in the persons of the seventy elders; and you will find what prerogative of business has been granted to you. God wished you to be helpers of our labor in the second rank of dignity; He did not permit you to be violators of certain sacred things. Thus Nadab and Abihu, offering alien fire (Leviticus 10:1-2), that is, not due to their office, were consumed by divine fire. Thus Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, envying Moses, who enjoyed the grace of God and divine eloquence, and saying, "The Lord has not spoken to you alone, for the whole holy congregation is holy" (Numbers 16:3), suffered a new destruction for new schismatics, so that the insatiable earth swallowed with gaping mouth those whom divine indignation had condemned. What of me?

the example of Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26 and following), who, not content with royal scepter, lest he also discharge the priestly office, and being raised up by arrogance against law and right from his throne, prepared to offer the expiatory oblation due only to priests, was so struck by heavenly vengeance with leprosy that he remained deprived of both the office of priest and of the kingdom until his death? Likewise, Oza, as far as he himself was concerned, with devoted service, while preparing to support the ark of God from falling by the kicking oxen, was consumed by a divine blow inflicted (2 Samuel 6:7): evidently wishing to show that for no reasons at all, not even under the pretext of humility, may divine offices and heavenly sacraments be touched in any way by one to whom the office does not belong. IV. Therefore let them beware, let them beware who think it is permitted to themselves what they know is not permitted to others, lest a similar punishment strike them as those we have mentioned. Or perhaps you are ignorant of the rules of the holy Fathers and the synodal constitutions, which prescribe that parish presbyters are not to seek chrism from their presiding bishop through lesser persons, but either through themselves or through the rectors of the sacristies in annual turns? I believe that those who ordered them to seek it have entirely removed the power of consecrating.

Your Charity will therefore provide that after this prohibition of our humility, until such time as a bishop accustomed to you is prepared by the Lord, no one shall presume to repeat what is forbidden and begin to undergo a more severe censure of ecclesiastical discipline. Let each one use the conceded privilege of his own honor, which he knows to be proper to the order of the presbyterate; let not an unworthy minister assume what belongs to the supreme pontificate. Whoever after this admonition is detected in any degree in such matters, let him know that he is to be condemned under the indissoluble bond of anathema. In this very matter, not a little humanity is granted to him, in that we now allow him to pass unpunished. V. Indeed, if the Lord wills, when the time of the Paschal feast has arrived, if it is impossible for you to come to ask, you should indicate this by sending your letters, and we will be able to transmit the grace of this sacred liquor of our own accord, provided that what is illicit is not presumed.

VI. By the same reasoning, we have learned that bishops of another jurisdiction are invited by you for the consecration of basilicas, and although they are joined to us by the bond of the same faith in Christ, nevertheless they do not conform to the privileges of the province, nor are they known to serve the interests of the Lord's affairs, since such a report has already reached him. Therefore, by a salutary ordinance, we have decreed that if ever such a necessity arises, you should inform us by letter, and either through us, or through one of our brothers and fellow bishops whom we deem suitable, the consecration of churches may, with God's favor, be celebrated. VII. Moreover, we know that the utterly depraved sect of the Priscillianists is honored by you both in deeds and in name. I ask, what madness is this, to fall excessively into love for him whom you are unwilling to imitate in action? For, to bring a few of his filthinesses to your attention, apart from those things in which he profanely burst forth against the Divinity and blasphemed with a sacrilegious mouth, a heap of all vices in him flowed together as into a cesspool of filth, so that an adulterer, having shattered the modesty of his follower, might snatch her away; and that he might more easily achieve the effect of his nefarious crime, the acts also assign to him the use of sorcery. What, finally, in this is congruent with religion for the soul of any faithful person to venerate, who was not only refuted by holy priests, but also secular princes, by the justice of their laws, condemned him for the quality of the aforementioned crime?

VIII. That such a one he was, one learns more fully from the published books of the most blessed and most religious man, Bishop Thoribius, to the holy pope of the city of Rome, Leo, in which he explained, opened up, and brought into the open this foul heresy, hidden in its own darkness and veiled by a cloud of faithlessness. For from these very books, the pious reader will find how to beware, and what to answer against the sacrilegious. Hence, I beseech you, that condemning and anathematizing the faithlessness together with its author, you hold to the rule of the right faith, and concerning all the above-written matters, you take care to show yourselves more cautious, so that more easily neither can I be condemned for silence, and you, through obedience, can provide the greatest fruit for yourselves before our Savior God. May the peace of the Lord be with all of you. Amen. SECOND LETTER 1. To the distinguished lord and foremost worshiper of Christ, lord and son Thuribius, Montanus the bishop.

I. We have both known and proven you to be a nursling of the Catholic faith and a friend of holy religion, even as you move in worldly affairs. For when you still flourished in the world, your life shone forth with such clarity that, according to the Lord's saying, you neither denied to Caesar what is Caesar's, and you rendered to God what is His with a devoted mind. Rightly, therefore, shall I name you an author of divine worship in this province especially. Do you think how great a reward awaits you with God, by whose diligence or zeal both the error of idolatry has departed and the detestable and shameful sect of the Priscillianists has withered away? If even now they cease to honor him in name, whose works they know have collapsed through your admonition. For what shall I say concerning the faith of earthly lords? To whom you have devoted your labor, so that you might lead the fierce spirits of those dwelling with you to the wholesome rule and norm of regular discipline. Those things, however, which have reached us from the Palentine council, I have taken care to indicate to your Highness: so that more easily, through your rebuke, the nefarious presumption may rest in the future.

II. Certain presbyters, as has been reported to us, with reckless audacity presume not so much to consecrate as to violate sacred things; and they assume for themselves, in some manner—whether I should call it pride or madness I hesitate—the right of consecrating chrism, which has been unheard of throughout all centuries of the Catholic faith for men of their order, being due only to the supreme pontiffs. How sacrilegious this is, I do not believe escapes your most pious conscience; and I earnestly hope that you will use the authority of a most severe priest to suppress this very superfluity, and restrain the violators of this matter with stricter rebuke. If, after being given a warning, they presume to repeat these offenses, their contumacy will be condemned by a fitting sentence. III. By a similar reasoning, we have learned that, due to the necessity of consecrating basilicas, our brother bishops invited from a foreign see gather in those places; and although throughout the whole world the bridal chamber of Christ is one, and its bishops are bound together in the same clasp of charity and union of faith, yet we have sent to your charity, in copies, what privilege your fellow bishop granted to our predecessor, as well as to our lords and brothers the bishops of Carpetania and Celtiberia, so that you may be able to know what success an improper petition could have had.

IV. And indeed, we have granted the towns, that is, Segovia, Brittablo, and Caucum, to him not so much on reasonable grounds as for the dignity of his name: lest the conferred blessing, with the person wandering, should be debased. Know that this was granted to him only for his lifetime. We therefore wish to provide that you should by no means neglect the ancient custom. But if this admonition of ours accomplishes nothing among you, it will be necessary for us to make it known to the ears of our Lord, and likewise to suggest it to our son Erganus, and the authority of his highness or the strictness of the judge will punish such audacity most severely, not without your detriment: for such, by the Lord’s gift, is his piety, that he permits nothing to be changed that is proven to have preserved the ancient law. May the divine Trinity protect you. Amen.