Epistola Ad Episcopos Germaniae Et Galliae

A letter from Pope John III To the Bishops of Germany and Gaul. I. First, he argues against certain rash chorepiscopi, already condemned long ago, because they assumed too much authority in the imposition of hands. II. Next, he shows that Clement I ruled the apostolic see after blessed Peter, and that this was handed down by Peter himself. III. Third, he sets forth how great care and solicitude must be undertaken by one who pastures the flock of Christ. John the bishop to all those established throughout the provinces of Germany and Gaul, greeting in the Lord. I had indeed wished, dearest ones, for the sake of the love of our college, that all the Lord’s priests would persist in one devotion, and that no one would pursue forbidden grace or favor of priests, or depart from the straight path. And although we believe that Your Belovedness is prepared [devoted] for every good work, yet so that it may become more effective, it has seemed fitting to us to admonish you by letters of the apostolic see (so that we may also imitate the footsteps of our predecessors), to carry out manfully the divine precepts and the institutes of the apostolic see, and not to touch forbidden things, but to beware of them; nor may it ever be lawful for anyone to abandon the teaching of the Fathers and to enjoy priestly honor.

It has been reported to the Apostolic See that a reprehensible and deeply ingrained practice, which was prohibited and completely eradicated by the holy Damasus and the holy Leo, apostolic men, and by all the bishops with synodal authority, has emerged and revived anew: namely, that certain chorepiscopi (who were forbidden by the aforementioned holy apostolic fathers and predecessors, and by apostolic men, and by them or by us, as their decrees have hitherto testified) are exceeding their proper office, bestowing the gift of the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands, and performing other things which are due only to pontiffs, contrary to law; especially since none of the seventy disciples, whose likeness they bear in the Church, is recorded to have conferred the gift of the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands. That it is the proper office of the apostles alone, and of their successors, to confer the Holy Spirit, the book of the Acts of the Apostles teaches. In the Council of Caesarea, moreover, it is written thus concerning chorepiscopi: "Chorepiscopi also seem to be after the example and form of the seventy; but as co-ministers, they are to be honored on account of the zeal they show for the poor." For if you think yourselves better and holier than the holy apostles, do what they did not do, and exalt yourselves above them.

If you are of the same order and wish to equal yourselves to them, do not do what they did not do; but imitate, as best you can, the examples and footsteps of them. They, however, with the Lord commanding and declaring to them that they and their successors were to transmit the Holy Spirit only through the imposition of hands, never permitted any of the seventy to transmit the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands to anyone, knowing it would be illicit for them (whose type, as was said before, the chorepiscopi, before they were prohibited, bore in the church), giving an example to their successors never to presume such things. Whence in the Acts of the Apostles it is written (Acts 8): When the apostles who were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. When they had come, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For it had not yet come upon any of them, but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Therefore (as has already been said) they did not send any of the seventy, although the apostles were few, to accomplish this work, but sent Peter and John, apostles, to transmit the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands: whose place the bishops hold in the church, and not the chorepiscopi (Nicholas I, in the letter to Rudolph of Bourges), who bore the form of the seventy disciples before their prohibition.

What they did not do, do not you do, lest you appear unlike them and unworthy of their succession and ministry: because (as the Lord says in the Gospel) he who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters (Luke 11:23). II. But if Peter, the prince of the apostles, associated Linus and Cletus with himself as helpers, he did not, however, hand down to them the norm of pontifical power, whether of binding or of loosing, but to his successor, the holy Clement, who after him deserved to hold the apostolic see and the pontifical power, the blessed Peter entrusting it to him. Linus and Cletus, however, attended to external matters, while Peter, the prince of the apostles, devoted himself to word and prayer—which not incongruously pertain to the tradition of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. Whence also it is written in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 6): It is not fitting that we should abandon the word of God and serve tables. For this reason seventy disciples were chosen to perform external duties, while the apostles themselves devoted themselves to word and prayer; whence also in the Gospel according to Luke it is written thus: After this, however, the Lord designated another seventy-two, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was about to come. And he said to them: The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the lord of the harvest that he may send laborers into his harvest. Go. Behold, I send you like lambs among wolves.

Do not carry a purse, nor a bag, nor shoes; and greet no one along the way. Into whatever house you enter, first say: Peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you. In that same house remain, eating and drinking what they have. For the worker is worthy of his wage. Do not pass from house to house. And into whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat what is set before you, and care for the sick who are in that city, and say to them: The kingdom of God will draw near to you. But into whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, going out into its streets, say: Even the dust that has clung to us from your city we shake off upon you. Yet know this, that the kingdom of God will draw near. I tell you, that Sodom on that day will be more lenient than that city (Luke 10). And in the Gospel of Matthew it is: Behold, I send you like sheep among wolves. Therefore be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves. But beware of men. For they will betray you in their councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you; and you will be led before kings and governors on my account, as a testimony to them and to the nations. But when they betray you, do not think about how or what you should say. For it will be given to you in that hour what to say.

For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father who speaks in you. Moreover, brother will hand over brother to death, and father son, and sons will rise up against their parents and put them to death. And you will be hated by all because of my name. But whoever perseveres to the end, this one will be saved (Matthew 10). For Linus and Cletus are nowhere recorded to have ever exercised any pontifical ministry by their own authority: but only as much as was commanded them by blessed Peter, that alone they did. For it is also read in the Nicene canon (Canon 4 of the Council of Nicaea): For it is fitting that a bishop be ordained especially by all the bishops who are in the province. But if this is difficult, either because of pressing necessity or because of the length of the journey, yet by three bishops in all cases coming together in the same place, and with the absent also deciding in like manner and consenting in writing, then the ordination is celebrated. Moreover, the authority of those things which are done in each province is to be granted to the metropolitan bishop. All the greatest councils also affirm that he is not a bishop who has been made bishop by fewer than three bishops, with the authority also of the metropolitan. Therefore, those whom you call chorepiscopi, because they are made bishop by one bishop (as we have heard), it is clear that they are not bishops, nor ought they to perform any pontifical privilege. For if they do not have the name, how can they have [perform] the office?

If, therefore, they are not bishops, and they despise being presbyters (whose role they fill, because they were once made in the image and form of the seventy), what will they be? Certainly, that which lacks reason is either nothing or very little. If anyone wishes to know more about these matters, and that they ought not to be done, let him read the decrees of the aforementioned apostolic men (namely, Damasus and Leo), and he will find it there. We have thought it worthy to insert some of these things here as well. III. If we desire to be disciples of the Lord, let us imitate his footsteps, so that it may be said of us: "I am the good shepherd, and I recognize my sheep, and I call them by name, and my sheep know me," and so forth (John 10). And again, by the command of the Lord's voice, by which the most blessed apostle Peter is instructed with a threefold repetition of a mystical sanction (John 21), so that the sheep of Christ, who loves Christ, may be diligently and with great care shepherded, because we are constrained by the love and reverence of that same holy see (over which we preside by the abundance of divine grace) to avoid, as much as we can, the danger of such great superstition, which is supported by no authority (as has often been said), lest the love of our blessed master Peter, the chief apostle, by which he testified himself to be a lover of God, be found vain in us: since anyone who negligently shepherds the Lord's flock so often commended to him is proven not to love the supreme shepherd, nor to wish to become his disciple, whose examples he neglects to imitate.

For grace is acquired all the more fully if the shepherd's solicitude offers profit to the Lord from the sheep entrusted to him. For we recall that blessed Jacob, who had served long for his wives, said (Genesis 31): "I have been with you twenty years: your sheep and goats have not been barren; I have not eaten the rams of your flock, nor have I shown you one taken by a beast; I made good every loss, and whatever perished by theft, you demanded from me. Day and night I burned with heat and froze with cold; sleep fled from my eyes." If, therefore, he who tends Laban's sheep labors and watches thus, with how much labor and how many vigils must he who tends the sheep of God be intent? But in all these things, let him who gave his life for his sheep instruct us, and help us, so that from those who are entrusted to us, He may multiply the fruit and grant us to carry back an overflowing measure to eternal joys. And may such great love of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, inflame you, that in his fold, to which all creatures are entrusted, you hasten with your holy zeal and with the utmost desire to restore all those who wander thus and presume upon unlawful and forbidden things, so that souls redeemed by the precious blood of Christ may not perish by their deception. It remains, moreover, that they have by no means entered through the door, because they had no door through which to enter: because (as has been said) if they are neither bishops, and they ambitiously seek to be more than presbyters, through what door will they enter?

since only these two orders are read of in the Church, and no further door lies open to the pastoral office through which a pastor may enter. Hear, brothers, not me, but the Truth itself saying (John 10): "He who does not enter through the door into the sheepfold of the sheep, but climbs in from elsewhere, he is a thief and a robber," and so forth. And since the distinguished preacher also says: "No one can lay any other foundation than the one that has been laid" (1 Corinthians 3), and the aforesaid two foundations are found to have been placed in the Church alone, whatever is found placed beyond these can by no means stand. And therefore it is necessary that it be uprooted with all its foundations, actions, and roots, so that it may no longer sprout or germinate. Therefore, let it not generate, and let this oft-repeated speech not cause you, brothers, weariness: because there is the utmost need that what is so often unlawfully usurped be the more frequently forbidden; and because truth, when more often agitated, shines forth more brightly into the light; and what is admonished by so much repetition is less usurped. For many things have already been said on these matters by our predecessors; by whom they themselves, just as now by us, were once condemned and prohibited. Therefore, repeating it more often, we warn all to avoid such things, and to abstain from such practices, those who do not wish, together with them, to be made alien from the priestly ministry, as rebels.

We will be able to prove this finally, if you strive to root out such men and not to favor them; and thus afterward complaint about such a matter will cease: because whatever is so often usurped despite being forbidden is sought after out of a zeal for insult. All these decretals and the constitutions of all our predecessors, which have been promulgated concerning ecclesiastical orders and the disciplines of the canons, we command to be observed by you and all bishops, and by all priests generally, so that if anyone commits an offense against them, he shall know that pardon is thereafter denied him: because truth would come to meet us if falsehood displeased. And we, who must hold the highest helm of the Church, are justly concerned by this matter if we favor error by our silence. Given on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Justinus [Justinian] the sixth and Narses, most illustrious men.