Epistola 03 ad Omnes Generaliter Episcopos

LETTER OF POPE LIBERIUS TO ALL BISHOPS IN GENERAL. (Conc., t. ii, col. 670.) That no one, for as long as persecutions can endure, should abandon his own church, nor choose quietude rather than intend to labor for the people entrusted to him. To the most holy and most God-beloved all bishops, Liberius, bishop, in Dimanus, greeting. There is nothing that will make us stand firm for long, except the grace of God. Moreover, the wickedness of the devil, a contemptible evil, full of deadly poison, rages, who goes up and down, seeking whom he may devour. Wherefore we must be watchful and sober for prayers (1 Peter 5:8), and draw near to God, and, with the Lord's help, spurn the foolish snares of men, as far as the Lord has given power, and follow the Fathers, and not transgress the boundaries of the Fathers (that is, that we should not abandon our own churches, as long as we are in any way able to persist in them, in order to hasten to others), nor neglect the peoples entrusted to us, so as to choose quietude (for.

...rest, but rather to labor for those for whom we ought even to lay down our lives, let us strive lest we be found reprobate in the sight of God, but that we may be able, with His help, to present fruitful sheaves from the flocks entrusted to us. Although many persecute us and desire to tear apart the sheep of Christ, who appear as if in sheep's clothing but within are rapacious wolves, whom we recognize by their fruits: these at first seem to be of us, but they are not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us. When, however, they have spewed forth their impiety, the deceit that is in them bursting forth, and seizing the weaker ones and those who have unexercised senses regarding the divine words, they draw them along with them to perdition, subverting and doing violence to the teachings of the fathers as well as to the sacred Scriptures, to their own ruin. It is necessary to beware of them with foresight, lest some, seduced by their malice, be cut off from their own steadfastness. For they sharpen their tongues, according to the voice of the prophet (Psalm 139), like serpents; the venom of asps is under their lips. Nor should we be reluctant to labor through temporal torments for the name of Christ (Pope Martin, epistle to St. Amandus), but let the rewards of future recompense persuade us to endure the vexations of this age. For it is written: What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has rendered to me (Psalm 115)? I will take the cup of salvation and invoke the name of the Lord.

So much is required of us as we are able to offer by the service of our ministry. Hence it is necessary for us to insist with unremitting preaching, in proportion as the doubled assignment of talents is entrusted to us for the perfect transaction, and the assertion of the Lord’s voice persuades us to undertake His rest. For it has been suggested to us that, on account of past labors and persecutions, some of you abandon the peoples assigned to you and entrusted to you by God, and in the future wish to abandon even more the churches which you ought to protect, and neglect to labor for the sheep committed to you, and hasten to surrender themselves to the quiet of monasteries, and choose a vacation from the labors of the episcopate, and prefer to spend their life in silence and leisure rather than to remain in those things which have been committed to them, the Lord saying: “Blessed is he who has persevered to the end.” For whence is blessed perseverance, if not from the virtue of patience? Since, according to the apostolic preaching, all who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution. Therefore, dearest brothers, let not the bitterness of afflictions draw you back from the pious purpose of your mind.

Consider, then, how much our Creator, Lord, and Redeemer endured for our absolution and liberation, and to what insults He delivered Himself to be subjected, that He might free us from the bonds of diabolical power. Attend, therefore, to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has established you as bishops to rule the Church of God, which He acquired with His own blood (Acts 20); so that there may be none who deceives or seduces you with subtlety of speech, that you might abandon the peoples entrusted to you (St. Martin in the synodal letter after the Lateran Council), and, on account of the reproach of evil men, deliver yourselves to quiet, and save only yourselves, leaving your children as orphans. For the Holy Spirit says most clearly through the Apostle that in the last times some will recede from faith and charity, attending to seductive spirits and the doctrines of demons, having their conscience cauterized in the hypocrisy of lying eloquence (1 Tim. 4). On account of this, watch and pray, that you do not enter into temptation (Mark 14; Luke 22). What, indeed, does transgression of the mind work in those who have not believed the words of the Lord, and have receded for their own quiet from the service committed to them, and have subjected themselves to their own pleasures? For such as these, and for other necessities constricted for the people of God, lest you perish together with all those entrusted to you, but be saved on the day of eternal retribution, we exhort your charity (Martin).

papa in cit., ep., ad S. Amandum), by the example of Him who willed to suffer for us, be ready in all His services, nor in any way withdraw from the care entrusted to you, but with all your strength persevere stoutly in the matters committed to you until the end: for blessed is he who has persevered to the end (Matt. x): neither is the beginning praised, but the end. Let no one seduce you with empty words. For this reason the wrath of God has come upon the sons of faithlessness. Do not, therefore, become partakers of their teachings, nor communicate with their fruitless words (the same in the cited synodical letter almost to the end), but rather refute them: for they are gatherings of transgressors, and they have stretched out their tongue like a bow of falsehood, and not of truth. It is fulfilled in them, who have gone from evil to evil, and have not known me, says the Lord. They will not speak the truth (Jer. vi). For they have taught their tongue, the persecutors of churches and of their priests, to speak falsehood. They have labored to act impiously, and have refused to know me, says the Lord. Stand therefore, dearest ones, upon the ways, and see. Inquire about the ancient paths of the Lord, and see which is the good way of the holy Fathers, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls. But if you suffer for Christ, you will be blessed (1 Pet. iii). But do not fear their fear, nor be disturbed.

Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, as He Himself says: "Do not fear those who kill the body, for they cannot kill the soul; but rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and will not one of them fall to the ground without your Father? Moreover, all the hairs of your head are counted. Therefore do not fear, for you are better than many sparrows (Matt. 10). Remember, then, brothers, Him who endured such contradiction from sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and fail. For we have not yet fought to the blood, struggling against sin (Heb. 12). We are confident concerning you, dearest brothers, of better and nearer things of salvation, because neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor strength, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, with the teacher of the Gentiles teaching (Rom. 8), will be able to separate us from the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and from the right faith which is in Him. Therefore do not lose your confidence, which has a great reward.

Patience is indeed necessary for us in the struggles against adversaries, so that, preserving our faith inviolate to the end, we may receive the promise which He promised to those who hasten to contend lawfully. For still a little while, and He who is to come will come, and will not delay (Heb. 10). Behold, the judge stands before the door (James 5), cheerfully promising crowns to those who undergo sufferings for Him. But if anyone should withdraw himself, his soul will not be pleasing (Vulg., to me), but he will fall from the promise, because of denial. Let us not, however, be sons of withdrawal unto perdition, but of faith unto the acquisition of the soul. Therefore, take up the arms of God, so that you may be able to resist on the evil day against all enemies of the holy Church of God and your own: and put on the breastplate of justice, your feet shod 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 (or, burning) darts of the most wicked one: and receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, through every prayer and supplication (Eph. 6), rooted and founded in the solace of brothers for Christ Jesus our Lord. But now also, brothers, we commend you all to the Lord, and to the word of His grace, who is able to perfect and give you an inheritance with all the saints.

May God himself, the God of peace and consolation, grant that you all think the same among yourselves, so that you may assist one another and not be divided; that with one mind, one voice, and one pure heart we may honor him in the concord and consolation of the brethren, who is able to confirm us according to his gospel, in accordance with the revelation of the eternal mystery, in the perpetually silent times (Acts 20 and Romans 16), in which the gifts of future joys are to be bestowed upon you. You must also consider most earnestly that those who envy their brethren and desire to condemn or destroy them, by their own actions destroy their own teachings. For the Lord says: Every kingdom divided against itself will not stand; and every science and law divided against itself will not stand (Matthew 12). Therefore it is necessary that you harmoniously accept wholesome exhortations (St. Leo, ep. 87, c. 2), and do nothing through contention, but with one mind for every zeal of devotion, obey the divine and apostolic constitutions, and in no way suffer the most provident decrees of the canons to be violated, so that the constitutions of the Nicene canons, and those things which have been providently and wholesomely decreed by us or by our predecessors (Siricius, ep. 1), may remain inviolate in the future. (In the manuscripts of Justellus, after several fragments of letters ineptly stitched together from Ennodius or another orator of the same period, this subscription is read): Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Belius and Julianus, most illustrious men.