Decreta Ex Epistolis Excerpta

Decrees Taken from the Letters of Saint Boniface I, Pope. These are, moreover, taken from the Decrees of Gratian and from ancient codices elsewhere. I. A presbyter shall not be ordained before the age of thirty. If anyone has not completed his thirtieth year of age, he shall in no way be ordained a presbyter, even if he is very worthy. And the Lord Himself was baptized in his thirtieth year, and thus began to teach. Therefore, it is fitting that he who is to be consecrated not be consecrated until this lawful age. From Canon II of the Council of Neocaesarea. II. Matters which a metropolitan is unable to resolve are referred to the primate. If a dispute arises among bishops of the same council concerning ecclesiastical law and other matters, first their metropolitan, together with certain others in council, shall consider the matter and judge it; and if both parties do not acquiesce in the judgment, then the primate of that region shall hear them: and whatever is in accordance with the canons and laws, this he shall define. And neither party may contradict his decision. This is an excerpt from Novel 22 of Justinian.

III. Whatever is consecrated to the Lord pertains to the right of the priest. Let no one be ignorant that everything consecrated to the Lord, whether it be a person, an animal, a field, or anything else once consecrated, shall be holy to the Lord and pertains to the right of the priests (Leviticus 27). For this reason, everyone who removes, lays waste, envies, or seizes what belongs to the Lord or the church to which they pertain shall be inexcusable: and until correction and satisfaction are made to the church, he shall be judged a sacrilegious person; and if he refuses to make amends, he shall be excommunicated. This is almost entirely from Book VI of the Capitularies, chapter 405. IV. No bishop shall be brought or produced before any judge, whether civil or military, for either a civil or criminal case. For the magistrate who dares to order this shall be punished by the loss of his belt (i.e., his rank or office). V. Concerning bishops who wish to harm their brothers. Just as everyone who loves his brother is born of God (1 John 4), so too everyone who hates his neighbor is of the devil. For by love alone we discern by whom one is proven to be begotten, as John says: In this the sons of God and the sons of the devil are manifest: everyone who does not do justice, who does not love his brother, is not of God; for this is the proclamation you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another (1 John 3). And a little later: Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.

And: You know that every murderer does not have eternal life remaining in him (ibid.). Behold, one who separates himself from fraternal society is declared to be a murderer in probability. For even if he does not move his hand to kill, yet because he strives to harm, he is already held as a murderer by God. That one lives, and this one is already convicted as a killer. Since, therefore, the blessed Apostle Paul agrees with these precepts in harmonious preaching, saying: Let not the sun set upon your anger; And, Do not give place to the devil (Eph. 4); reports have been brought to us that certain priests have blazed forth into wanton obstinacy of discord, so that not only does the setting of the sun not recall them from anger, but not even the long passage of time bends them back to the good of charity, indeed because in their hearts the same sun of justice, Christ, has set, so that they can scarcely return to the light of charity. We therefore decree that the offerings of these and similar discordant brothers are in no way to be received, according to the definition of the ancient canon. Yet to the discordant persons themselves, we command by this special definition, that true reconciliation must bind them before any of them dares to approach the altar of the Lord or receives the grace of holy communion: but they will compensate by a doubled time of penance for the time they served discord.

But if one of them, with the other despising him, has run to the satisfaction of charity, from that time he will be received as already peaceful within the Church, from the moment he is proven to have hastened toward concord; the earlier sentence, however, being preserved, so that the time which he spent in anger he pays back with a doubled satisfaction of penance. VI. If a bishop, having been expelled, dares to enter the city. If a bishop, having been expelled, dares to enter the city from which he was expelled, or to leave the place in which he was ordered to reside, we order him to be handed over to a monastery established in another province, so that he who sinned in the priesthood may be corrected by living in monasteries. VII. To the Count Eleutherius. Your pious intention has inquired how the offerings and tithes of the faithful ought to be distributed. Therefore, following the statutes of our predecessors, we order that from the tithes and offerings four portions be made, namely: that the bishop have the first for himself, assign the second to the Church, grant the third to the poor, and know that the fourth is to be distributed to the clergy; that is to say, according to person, place, and merit, the distribution of shares be made to them, so that they may serve in the greater churches, whether they minister in cities or in villages. For if they are sons of one Church and have one mother Church, why should not all share in the stipends of one mother?

One mother Church, just as there is one Lord and one faith and one baptism, although it is spread throughout the whole world, although by reason of the diversity of places and the constitutions of the elders it has obtained different dignities, so that some are called mother churches, others, as daughters, are subject to the mother churches as to mothers. Since this is so, why do not all clerics, who are known to minister usefully to the daughters of one mother, share in the goods of that one mother?