To the Church (Against Avarice) 1.1–1.51
Latin text: CSEL 8 (Latin text: CSEL, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (csel-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0).
Chapter 1
1.1CSEL 8:224–225
Timotheus minimus seruorum dei ecclesiae catholicae toto orbe diffusae: gratia tibi et pax a deo patre nostro et Christo Iesu domino nostro cum spiritu sancto. Amen. Inter ceteros graues atque mortiferos exitialis pestilentiae morbos, quos tibi antiquissimus ille ac fetidissimus serpens grauissima letiferae aemulationis inuidia et taeterrimo illo uirosi oris spiritu inalat, nescio an ullus te acerbiore animarum fidelium peste et taetriore filiorum tuorum labe conficiat, quam quod plerique ex tuis parum existimant, si in hac uita rebus sibi ad opus sanctum a deo traditis sine fructu misericordiae atque humanitatis incumbant, nisi auaritiam, id est idolatriae seruitutem, etiam in futura post mortem tempora extendant.
Timothy, least of the servants of God, to the catholic church spread throughout the whole world: grace to you and peace from God our Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord, with the Holy Spirit. Amen. Among the other grave and deadly diseases of ruinous pestilence which that most ancient and most foul serpent breathes into you, with the most grievous envy of his death-bringing jealousy and with the most hideous breath of his venomous mouth, I do not know whether any wastes you with a more bitter plague upon faithful souls and a more hideous stain upon your children than this: that most of your own think it a small thing if in this life they cling, without any fruit of mercy and kindness, to the goods that God entrusted to them for a holy work, unless they also extend their greed, that is, the slavery of idolatry, into the times to come after death.
1 Tim 1:2 (allusion, medium confidence) · Col 3:5 (allusion, high confidence) · Eph 5:5 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Writing as “Timothy” to the whole catholic church, Salvian names greed carried even beyond death as the church’s worst plague.
- Salvian writes under the pseudonym “Timothy”; he explains the name in his Letter 9 to Salonius. The greeting echoes 1 Tim 1:2. “Greed, that is, the slavery of idolatry” echoes Col 3:5 and Eph 5:5. The heading “Book 1, chapter 1” in the digital text is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (book and chapter headings leaked into the text): LIBER I. I. Timotheus → Timotheus.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.1 (CSEL 8:224–225; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-1). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-1
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.2CSEL 8:225
circumspicis fortasse et circumspectas, qui isti ex tuis sint, quos appellem. non longa tibi inquisitione opus est ad inueniendum. omnes, inquam, omnes paene hoc sunt quod loquor. abiit quippe illa egregia ac supereminens dudum, primitiuae plebis tuae beatitudo, qua omnes Christum agnoscentes caducas rerum mundialium facultates in sempiternas. caelestium possessionum opes conferebant, multantes se usu. praesentium in praeclaram spem futurorum, inmortales diuitias.. praesenti paupertatis ambitu ementes. quid?
Perhaps you look around and keep looking around to see which of your own they are whom I am addressing. You need no long search to find them. All, I say, almost all are what I speak of. For that outstanding and surpassing blessedness of your first people has long since departed, by which all who acknowledged Christ turned the perishable means of worldly things into the everlasting wealth of heavenly possessions, fining themselves of the use of present things for the splendid hope of things to come, buying immortal riches at the present cost of poverty. What then?
Acts 4:34 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Almost all the church’s members are greedy; the first believers’ readiness to exchange earthly goods for heavenly wealth has vanished.
- Allusion to the community of goods in Acts 2:44–45 and 4:32–35.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slips): circumspieis fortasse et drcumspectas → circumspicis fortasse et circumspectas.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.2 (CSEL 8:225; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-2
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.3CSEL 8:225
quod nunc pro his omnibus auaritia cupiditas rapina quaeque eis sociae et quasi germana unitate coniunctae sunt, inuidiae inimicitiae crudelitates, luxuriae inpudicitiae perditiones, quia superiora illa istorum. usibus militant, successerunt. ac sic nescio quomodo pugnante contra temet ipsam tua felicitate, quantum tibi auctum est populorum, tantum paene uitiorum, quantum tibi copia accessit. tantum disciplina recessit, et prosperitas uenit quaestuum cum magno faenore detrimentorum.
What of the fact that now, in place of all these, greed, covetousness, plunder, and their companions, joined to them as if by kinship, have taken their place: envies, enmities, cruelties, debauchery, unchastity, ruin, because those former goods now serve the uses of these men? And so, by your prosperity somehow fighting against yourself, the more peoples have been added to you, the more vices almost; the more abundance has come to you, the more discipline has gone away; and prosperity has come with gains at a great interest of losses.
Notes and citation
Summary: With the church’s growth in numbers and wealth, vices and indiscipline have grown in step.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; words run together): coniunctaesunt → coniunctae sunt; succesaerunt → successerunt; pugpante → pugnante.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.3 (CSEL 8:225; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-3
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.4CSEL 8:225–226
multiplicatis enim fidei populis fides imminuta est et crescentibus filiis suis mater aegrotat, factaque es, ecclesia, profectu tuae fecunditatis in-, firmior atque accessu relabens et quasi uiribus. minus ualida. diffudisti siquidem per omnem mundum religiosi nominis membra religionis uim non habentia ac sic esse coepisti turbis opulens fide pauper, quanto ditior multitudine tanto egentior deuotione, latior corpore angustior mente, eademque, ut ita dixerim, et in te maior et in te minor, nouo paene et inaudito genere processus et recessus crescens simul et:de-; crescens.
For as the peoples of the faith have multiplied, faith has diminished, and as her children grow the mother sickens. You have become, O church, weaker through the increase of your fruitfulness, and by your growth you have slid back, as if less strong in strength. You have spread through the whole world members bearing the name of religion without the power of religion, and so you have begun to be rich in crowds and poor in faith: the richer in multitude, the needier in devotion; broader in body, narrower in mind; and, if I may say so, at once greater and smaller in yourself, by a new and almost unheard-of kind of advance and retreat, growing and shrinking at the same time.
2 Tim 3:5 (echo, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The church has grown in numbers but shrunk in faith and devotion.
- “Members bearing the name of religion without the power of religion” echoes 2 Tim 3:5.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.4 (CSEL 8:225–226; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-4
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.5CSEL 8:226
ubi enim est illa nunc eximia forma tua et totius corporis pulchritudo? ubi illud de uiuis uirtutibus tuis diuinorum apicum testimonium dicens: multitudinis autem credentium erat cor et anima una, et nemo quicquam ex eo quod possidebat suum esse dicebat. cuius tu nunc o dolor ac lamentatio! lectionem tantum habes uirtutem non habes, cuique tu scientia tantum interes conscientia abes.
Where now is that outstanding beauty of yours and the loveliness of the whole body? Where is the testimony of the divine letters concerning your living virtues, which says: “Now the multitude of those who believed was of one heart and soul, and no one said that anything of what he possessed was his own”? Of this, O grief and lamentation, you now have only the reading, not the virtue; in this you are present in knowledge only and absent in conscience.
Acts 4:32 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The church now reads of the apostolic community of goods but no longer lives it.
- Acts 4:32.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.5 (CSEL 8:226; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-5). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-5
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.6CSEL 8:226
maxima quippe nunc filiorum tuorum portio mortiferarum rerum negotiatrix est propolisque et cauponibus similis terrenis, immo tartareis, perituris simul atque perdentibus studet nundinis. lucro enim pecuniae damnum uitae ementes, ut adquirant quae non sunt sua, prodigunt quae sunt sua, mandantes terrae thesauros luctuosos heredibus breue gaudium auctoribus longum maerorem adlaturos, fraudantes usu rerum praesentium tam alios quam se ipsos, condentes profundis specibus infernas opes, simul pecuniam suam ac spem suam infodientes secundum illud scilicet domini nostri dictum, quo ait: ubi fuerit thesaurus tuus, ibi erit et cor tuum.
For the greatest part of your children is now a trader in deadly wares, and, like hucksters and tavern-keepers, it busies itself with earthly, or rather hellish, markets, which perish and destroy at once. Buying loss of life with the gain of money, to acquire what is not their own they squander what is their own; they commit to the earth mournful treasures that will bring brief joy to their heirs and long grief to those who gathered them; they defraud both others and themselves of the use of present things; they hide hellish wealth in deep caverns, burying at once their money and their hope, according, of course, to that saying of our Lord in which he says: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Matt 6:21 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Most Christians trade their souls for buried wealth, burying their hope with their money.
- Matt 6:21.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.6 (CSEL 8:226; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-6). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-6
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.7CSEL 8:226
inuident itaque saluti suae animasque proprias, quae uocantur ad caelum, terrenis ponderibus in terram premunt. mens enim thesaurizantis thesaurum suum sequitur et quasi in naturam terrestris substantiae demutatur, nec solum nunc sed etiam in futuro atque perpetuo. nam cum, ut Scriptum est, ante hominem uita pariter ac mors sint et ad quod uult manum porrigat, necesse est ea unusquisque hominum in aeternitate possideat, quae hic quasi manu sua ipse peruaserit, uoluntatique ac sententiae suae deditus his in futuro adhaereat condicione, quibus hic adhaesit affectu.
So they begrudge their own salvation and press down into the earth with earthly weights their own souls, which are called to heaven. For the mind of the one who lays up treasure follows his treasure and is changed, as it were, into the nature of an earthly substance, not only now but also in the future and forever. For since, as it is written, life and death are set alike before man, and he stretches out his hand to whichever he wishes, each man must possess in eternity what he has here seized, as it were, with his own hand; and, given over to his own will and judgment, he will cling in the future by his condition to the things to which he clung here by desire.
Notes and citation
Summary: The hoarder’s soul is weighed down to the earth, and in eternity each keeps what he chose here.
- Sir 15:17 (with 15:16): life and death are set before man.
Extrabiblical texts: Sir 15:17 (Sirach [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; allusion)
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.7 (CSEL 8:226; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-7). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-7
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.8CSEL 8:226–227
Sed uidelicet immunes se ab hoc piaculo quidam putant, qui fortasse aurum ac facultates suas in terra non habent et tamen ubicumque abstrusas habent. nemo se ridiculis opinionibus fallat. quicumque augendis opibus terrena cupiditate famulantur aurum terrae semper infodiunt. hoc est enim illud, quod saluator in euangelio docet dicens:, nolite thesaurizare uobis thesauros in terra. et iterum: thesaurizate autem uobis thesauros in caelo. intellegi iuxta carnalem auditum ista non possunt. numquid enim aut omnes mali in terra corporales thesauros suos aut omnes boni in caelo locant? non utique.
But some, no doubt, think themselves free of this offense because perhaps they do not keep their gold and wealth in the ground, though they keep it hidden somewhere. Let no one deceive himself with ridiculous opinions. Whoever serve earthly desire by increasing their wealth are always burying gold in the earth. For this is what the Savior teaches in the gospel, saying: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth”; and again: “but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” These words cannot be understood according to a fleshly hearing. Do all the wicked place their bodily treasures in the earth, or all the good in heaven? Certainly not.
Matt 6:19 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 6:20 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Laying up treasure on earth means serving earthly desire, wherever the money is kept.
- Matt 6:19–20. The chapter numeral “II” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral (misread) leaked into the text): IL Sed uidelicet → Sed uidelicet.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.8 (CSEL 8:226–227; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-8). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-8
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.9CSEL 8:227
et ideo effectus spiritalium rerum atque uirtutes uis sacrae locutionis expressit. scilicet ut, quia cupiditati et auaritiae terrena atque tartarea, misericordiae autem ac largitati caelestia ac sempiterna debentur, idcirco diuersitas terreni et caelestis thesauri posita est, ut qui cupiditati et auaritiae thesaurizarent in inferno se opes locare cognoscerent, qui uero misericordiae et humanitati caelestes thesauros praeparare gauderent. loca itaque thesaurorum de meritis thesaurizantium nominauit; ibi enim dicuntur esse iam thesauri, ubi sunt thesaurizantes futuri.
And so the force of the sacred saying expressed the effects and powers of spiritual things. Because earthly and hellish things are owed to covetousness and greed, but heavenly and everlasting things to mercy and generosity, the difference between earthly and heavenly treasure was set down, so that those who lay up treasure for covetousness and greed might know that they place their wealth in hell, while those who lay up for mercy and kindness might rejoice that they are preparing heavenly treasures. Thus he named the places of the treasures from the merits of those who lay them up; for the treasures are said to be already there, where those who lay them up will be.
Matt 6:19 (allusion, medium confidence) · Matt 6:20 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Earthly and heavenly treasure are named for where the givers and hoarders will end up.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): effeetus → effectus.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.9 (CSEL 8:227; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-9). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-9
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.10CSEL 8:227
Sed austera forsitan uideatur esse sententia cunctos aequaliter ad perfectionem uocans et una omnes lege conpellans, cum utique non sit uniuersorum una conditio. rectissime quidem dici ad ista poterat, quod cum omnes perpetuo uelint uiuere, omnes id agere deberent, ut uitam participare possint, quia inconsultissimum ac stultissimum est id quosdam agere, ut quod affectu ac uoto uolunt, id ipsum re atque actu nolle uideantur.
But perhaps the judgment may seem severe that calls all equally to perfection and binds all by one law, since the condition of all is certainly not one. To this it could most rightly be said that, since all wish to live forever, all ought to act so that they can share in life, because it is most ill-advised and most foolish for some to act so that what they want by desire and prayer they seem not to want in fact and deed.
Notes and citation
Summary: Since all wish to live forever, all should act accordingly, whatever their condition.
- The chapter numeral “III” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): III. Sed austera → Sed austera.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.10 (CSEL 8:227; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-10). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-10
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.11CSEL 8:227–228
sed tamen uideamus eam maxime Christianorum, id est filiorum tuorum partem, quae certis rerum inpedimentis et inexpugnabilibus, ut putat, necessitudinum uinculis a perfectione reuocatur. ac primum in hac parte illi, opinor, sunt, qui ad quaerendas pecunias et ampliandas latissime opes conpelli se pignorum cura et quasi uiolento filiorum amore causantur. quasi uero quicumque patres sunt nequaquam aut possint aut debeant omnino esse nisi diuites et amare filios suos sine opum multiplicatione non ualeant, aut uero uirtus ac medullae affectuum auaritia et cupiditates sint: quia scilicet, ut illi putant, sicut corpus sine medulla, sic amor sine cupiditate esse non possit.
Yet let us consider that part of the Christians, that is, of your children, which is called back from perfection by certain hindrances of circumstance and, as it thinks, by unbreakable bonds of family ties. First in this group, I think, are those who claim that they are driven to seek money and to enlarge their wealth very widely by care for their dear ones and, as it were, by a violent love of their children. As though whoever are fathers neither can nor ought to be anything but rich, and cannot love their children without multiplying wealth; or as though greed and covetousness were the strength and marrow of affection, because, as they think, just as a body cannot exist without marrow, so love cannot exist without covetousness.
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian takes up the excuse that love for one’s children compels the pursuit of wealth.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): Ghristianorum → Christianorum; sient corpus → sicut corpus.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.11 (CSEL 8:227–228; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-11). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-11
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.12CSEL 8:228
quod si ita est, omnia absque dubio pietas mali causa est, neque in ea sensus sunt affectuum bonorum sed incentiua uitiorum. et ubi illud sacrum diuinae auctoritatis oraculum: pietas ad omnia utilis est? hoc enim modo non solum non ad omnia utilis sed paene in omnibus insalubris. si enim generatrix cupiditatum est, plus in se multo malorum continet quam bonorum secundum illud scripturae sacrae:
If this is so, then without doubt family affection is the cause of every evil, and in it are not the feelings of good affection but the incitements of vices. And where then is that sacred oracle of divine authority: “Godliness is profitable for all things”? For in this way it would not only not be profitable for all things but harmful in nearly all. For if it is the mother of covetousness, it contains in itself far more evil than good, according to that word of sacred Scripture:
1 Tim 4:8 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: If affection bred greed, Scripture’s praise of pietas would be false.
- 1 Tim 4:8. Salvian plays on pietas, both “family affection” and “godliness” (the word in the Latin Bible).
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.12 (CSEL 8:228; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-12). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-12
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.13CSEL 8:228
radix omnium malorum est cupiditas. itaque si radix malorum omnium est cupiditas atque haec pietatis matrice gignitur et quasi uiroso eiusdem lacte nutritur, non tam cupiditas reprehendenda, quae ex pietate parente nascitur, quam ipsa pietas, ex qua talis filia procreatur. quo fit ut, si tam pestilens est pietas ac tam nocens, nec amare expediat nec amari, quia nec parentes amorem debent adpetere sibi noxium nec desiderare filii parentibus offuturum.
“The root of all evils is covetousness.” Therefore, if covetousness is the root of all evils, and it is born from the womb of family affection and nourished, as it were, on its poisonous milk, then it is not so much covetousness, born of affection as its parent, that must be blamed as affection itself, from which such a daughter is produced. It would follow that, if affection is so pestilent and so harmful, it is profitable neither to love nor to be loved, since parents ought not to seek a love harmful to themselves, nor children to desire one that will injure their parents.
1 Tim 6:10 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Reductio: if affection bred covetousness, affection itself would be to blame and love would be harmful.
- 1 Tim 6:10.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.13 (CSEL 8:228; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-13). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-13
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.14CSEL 8:228–229
quamuis ille non parentibus tantum sed etiam filiis morbum ferat, quia et illis grauis est, qui perniciosas pariunt hereditates, et illis, qui inter inprobissimum quaestum inprobi educantur heredes. et hinc est, quod paene omnes parentibus suis filii non magis in patrimonia quam in uitia succedunt nec magis facultates paternas sumunt quam prauitates, ac sic transeuntes semper in mores patrum ante eorum incipiunt nequitiam quam substantiam possidere. bona enim parentum nonnisi mortuis eis possident, uiuentibus autem adhuc et ualentibus mores: ac sic priusquam in dominio suo habere incipiant res paternas, habent in animis ipsos patres, et ante quam habeant illa, quae falso dicuntur bona, habent illa, quae uere probantur mala.
And yet that disease harms not only the parents but also the children, for it is grievous both to those who beget ruinous inheritances and to those who are brought up as wicked heirs amid most wicked gain. Hence it is that nearly all children succeed their parents no more in their estates than in their vices, and take up no more their fathers’ means than their depravities; and so, passing always into the ways of their fathers, they begin to possess their wickedness before their substance. For they possess the goods of their parents only when these are dead, but their ways while they are still alive and strong; and so, before they begin to hold their fathers’ property in their own ownership, they hold their fathers themselves in their minds, and before they have the things falsely called goods, they have the things truly proved to be evils.
Notes and citation
Summary: Children inherit their parents’ vices before their wealth.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.14 (CSEL 8:228–229; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-14). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-14
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.15CSEL 8:229
Quid ergo? cum haec ita sint, interdicere forsan parentibus filiorum uideor affectum? minime. quid enim tam ferum tam inhumanum tam legi aemulum, quam si non amandos dicamus filios qui amandos fatemur inimicos? aut si affectum, quem natura praestat, prohibeamus qui etiam eum, quem natura prohibet, inpendimus? aut si caritatem menti extorqueamus quam habet, qui etiam illam ei conamur inserere, quam non habet?
What then? Since this is so, do I seem perhaps to forbid parents’ affection for their children? Not at all. For what would be so savage, so inhuman, so contrary to the law, as for us to say that children should not be loved, when we confess that enemies are to be loved? Or for us to forbid the affection that nature supplies, when we spend ourselves to instil even the one that nature forbids? Or to wrench from the mind the love it has, when we try to plant in it even the love it does not have?
Matt 5:44 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian does not forbid love of children; Christians are commanded to love even enemies.
- Allusion to Matt 5:44. The chapter numeral “IIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; question mark read as P): IIII: Quid ergo? → Quid ergo?; inpendimus P aut → inpendimus? aut.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.15 (CSEL 8:229; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-15). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-15
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.16CSEL 8:229
non ita est: non solum enim amandos dicimus filios sed praecipue ac super omnia amandos nec quicquam his omnino anteponendum nisi deum solum. nam et hoc est praecipue amare, illum filiis anteponere, quem non expediat omnino postponere. quid est ergo aut quomodo amandos dicimus filios? quo absque dubio nisi quo deus ipse constituit? neque enim est ullus melior filiorum amor, quam quem ille docuit, qui ipsos filios dedit. neque possunt pignora melius amari quam si in eo ipso, a quo data sunt, amentur. quo modo igitur deus amari filios iussit?
It is not so. We say that children are to be loved, and loved especially and above all things, with nothing at all set before them except God alone. For this too is to love them especially: to set before the children him whom it is never profitable to set after them. How then, and in what way, do we say children are to be loved? Surely in no other way than as God himself has appointed. For there is no better love of children than the one taught by him who gave the children themselves; nor can dear ones be better loved than if they are loved in him by whom they were given. How, then, has God commanded children to be loved?
Notes and citation
Summary: Children are to be loved above all except God, and in the way God commands.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.16 (CSEL 8:229; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-16). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-16
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.17CSEL 8:229
non dico ego: dicat sermo ipse diuinus, qui ad patres omnes generaliter ita loquitur: ut tradant mandata dei filiis suis, ut ponant in deo spem suam et non obliuiscantur operum dei sui et mandata eius exquirant. alibi quoque: et uos; inquit, patres, nolite ad iracundiam prouocare filios uestros, sed educate illos in disciplina et correptione domini.
I do not say it; let the divine word itself say it, which speaks thus to all fathers in general: “that they should hand on the commandments of God to their children, that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of their God, and seek out his commandments.” Elsewhere also: “And you, fathers,” it says, “do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and correction of the Lord.”
Ps 78:7 (77:7 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Eph 6:4 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Scripture tells parents to hand on God’s commands and raise children in the Lord’s discipline.
- Ps 78:5–7 (LXX 77:5–7); Eph 6:4.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): l>rouocare → prouocare.
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.17 (CSEL 8:229; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-17). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-17
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.18CSEL 8:229–230
uidetis quas parari opes a parentibus filiis deus iubeat, non pecuniarios thesauros nec graues metallo aureo saccos, habentes quidem multum ponderis sed plus tamen iniquitatis, non superbas ac praeminentes excelsis urbibus domus, non supra humanos uisus elata culmina nec inserta nubibus aerio habitatore fastigia, non denique fundos interminabiles et notitiam possessoris sui excedentes, qui consortes pati indignum aestiment et uicinitatem iniuriam putent.
You see what wealth God commands parents to prepare for their children: not treasures of money nor sacks heavy with gold, which have much weight indeed but still more iniquity; not proud houses towering over lofty cities; not roofs raised above human sight, nor gables thrust into the clouds with a dweller of the air; not, finally, boundless estates exceeding even their owner’s knowledge, which think it unworthy to endure partners and regard neighbourliness as an injury.
Notes and citation
Summary: God does not command parents to amass gold, mansions, or vast estates for their children.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): pararf → parari.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.18 (CSEL 8:229–230; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-18). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-18
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.19CSEL 8:230
non ergo haec deus praecipit nec in seruilia terrenae procurationis officia curam patriae pietatis extendit. pauca sunt quae mandat sed salutaria, expedita sed sancta, praecepto parca sed fructu grandia, scripto breuia sed beatitudine sempiterna. parentes enim, inquit, nolite ad indignationem prouocare filios uestros, sed educate illos in disciplina et correptione domini: ut ponant scilicet, sicut propheta dixit, ut ponant in deo spem suam et non obliuiscantur operum dei sui et mandata eius exquirant.
God does not command these things, nor does he extend the care of fatherly affection into servile duties of earthly management. Few are the things he commands, but saving; easy, but holy; sparing in precept, but great in fruit; brief in writing, but everlasting in blessedness. “Parents,” he says, “do not provoke your children to indignation, but bring them up in the discipline and correction of the Lord,” so that, as the prophet said, “they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of their God, and seek out his commandments.”
Eph 6:4 (quotation, high confidence) · Ps 78:7 (77:7 LXX) (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God’s commands to parents are few but saving: to raise children in hope in God.
- Eph 6:4; Ps 78:7 (LXX 77:7).
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.19 (CSEL 8:230; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-19). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-19
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.20CSEL 8:230
en quales diuitias deus diligit, en quas pignoribus recondi exigit opes, en quas parari imperat facultates, fidem scilicet ac timorem dei, modestiam sanctimoniam disciplinam, non terrena non uilia non pereuntia non caduca: praeclara utique. cum enim deus uiuorum sit non mortuorum, recte illa parari filiis iussit, per quae in aeternum uiuerent non per quae in aeternitate morerentur. nemo enim dubitat omnibus ferme malis et infidelibus diuitias mundiales causam mortis magis esse quam uitae secundum illud quod deus dicit: quam difficile hi qui pecunias habent introibunt in regna caelorum. et iterum facilius est, inquit, camelum per foramen acus transire quam diuitem intrare in regna caelorum. unde et illud est, quod specialiter iubet dicens: nolite thesaurizare uobis thesauros in terra, thesaurizate autem uobis thesauros in caelo.
See what riches God loves, see what wealth he requires to be stored up for our dear ones, see what means he commands to be prepared: faith, of course, and the fear of God, modesty, holiness, discipline; not earthly, not cheap, not perishing, not fleeting things, but things truly splendid. For since God is the God of the living, not of the dead, he rightly commanded that those things be prepared for children by which they would live forever, not those by which they would die for eternity. For no one doubts that for nearly all the wicked and unbelieving, worldly riches are a cause of death rather than of life, according to what God says: “How hard it is for those who have money to enter the kingdom of heaven!” And again: “It is easier,” he says, “for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Hence also is that which he specially commands, saying: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
Matt 22:32 (allusion, high confidence) · Mark 10:23 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 19:24 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 6:19 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 6:20 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The wealth God wants for children is faith and holiness, since riches lead most to death.
- Matt 22:32; Mark 10:23 (Luke 18:24); Matt 19:24; Matt 6:19–20.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.20 (CSEL 8:230; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-20). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-20
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.21CSEL 8:230–231
superioribus ac sequentibus dictis duo thesaurorum genera monstrantur, unum scilicet quo filiis thesaurizent patres, aliud quo sibi. filiis quo modo? ut erudiant illos officio ac timore diuino: sibi quo modo? ut thesaurizent sibi thesauros in caelo. mirifice scilicet, ut, quia pecunia caduca est disciplina inmortalis, et omnes ferme parentes plus amant filios, quam se ipsos, sibi conferant bona caduca filiis sempiterna, ac sic et pietati suae consulant et saluti, cum duplici atque inmortali bono et per ea, quae aeterna sunt, aeternos esse filios suos faciant et ad conquirendam sibi beatitudinem ea, quae naturaliter caduca sunt, bonis operibus in aeterna conuertant. quid ergo aestuas, paterna pietas?
By the words before and after, two kinds of treasure are shown: one which fathers lay up for their children, the other which they lay up for themselves. For their children, how? By instructing them in the service and fear of God. For themselves, how? By laying up for themselves treasures in heaven. Wonderfully so: because money is fleeting and discipline immortal, and nearly all parents love their children more than themselves, let them bestow fleeting goods on themselves and everlasting goods on their children. So they will provide both for their affection and for their salvation with a double and immortal good: through things that are eternal they will make their children eternal, and, to gain blessedness for themselves, they will turn by good works into eternal things those things that are by nature fleeting. Why then are you inflamed, fatherly affection?
Matt 6:20 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents should give children the eternal treasure of discipline and turn their own fleeting goods into heavenly treasure by good works.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.21 (CSEL 8:230–231; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-21). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-21
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.22CSEL 8:231
quid ad conquirenda. terrena et peritura distenderis? nihil maius: praestare filiis potes, quam si hoc bonum per te habeant, quod, numquam penitus amittant. non necesse est ergo ut filio tuo terrenos thesauros recondas: nulla re eum facies ditiorem; quam si ipsum filium tuum thesaurum dei feceris.
Why are you stretched to gain earthly and perishing things? You can give your children nothing greater than that through you they should have a good which they will never wholly lose. There is no need, then, for you to store up earthly treasures for your son: by nothing will you make him richer than if you make your son himself a treasure of God.
Notes and citation
Summary: The best gift to a son is to make him God’s treasure.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray mark): filio tuo! terrenos → filio tuo terrenos.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.22 (CSEL 8:231; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-22). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-22
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.23CSEL 8:231
Quamquam haec licet se ita habeant et sint uera ac saluberrima, tamen non ita dicam, quasi filios bonis et facultatibus paternis penitus excludam. sed de hoc postea disputabimus. interim quia reos se quidam futuros non putant, si substantias suas non ad euangelii honorem non ad salutem suam non ad ullum officium dei conferant, sed pro libidine et infidelitate quibuscumque heredibus passim uel inreligiosis uel locupletibus inpia et paganica (uanitate) transcribant, uideamus breuiter uel a quo sint datae facultates ipsae uel ob quid datae, ut cum et auctorem et causam datae rei ostenderimus, facilius et ad quem referenda et in quem usum conferenda sit adprobare possimus.
Although these things are so, and are true and most wholesome, I will not speak as though I were wholly excluding children from their fathers’ goods and means. But of this we will argue later. Meanwhile, since some do not think they will be guilty if they bestow their substance not on the honor of the gospel, not on their own salvation, nor on any service of God, but out of whim and unbelief transfer it, with impious and pagan vanity, to any heirs at all, irreligious or rich, let us briefly see by whom these means were given and why they were given, so that once we have shown the giver and the reason for the gift, we may more easily prove to whom it should be returned and to what use it should be put.
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian proposes to show who gave wealth and why, to establish how it should be used.
- The chapter numeral “V” is removed. The word “vanity” is printed in round brackets as the editor’s supplement.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): V. Quamquam haec → Quamquam haec.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.23 (CSEL 8:231; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-23). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-23
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.24CSEL 8:231–232
omnem substantiam mundialem diuino cunctis munere dari nullus homo, ut reor, ambigit,, qui modo in hominum numerum referri potest. nisi forte quis tantae sit sapientiae, ut cum humano, generi mundus ipse a deo datus sit, ea quae in mundo sunt non a deo hominibus -data arbitretur. igitur si omnia omnibus deus tribuit, nemini dubium est, quod ea, quae dei dono accepimus, ad dei cultum referre debemus et in eius opere consumere quae eiusdem sumpsimus largitate.
No man, I think, doubts that all worldly substance is given to all by God’s gift, if only he can be counted among men; unless perhaps someone is so wise as to think that, while the world itself was given by God to the human race, the things in the world were not given by God to men. Therefore, if God has granted all things to all, no one doubts that what we have received by God’s gift we ought to return to God’s worship, and spend in his work what we have received from his generosity.
Notes and citation
Summary: All wealth is God’s gift and should be spent in his service.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.24 (CSEL 8:231–232; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-24). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-24
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.25CSEL 8:232
hoc enim est agnoscere munus dei et diuinis beneficiis bene uti, ut datis suis illum honores, a quo data ipsa acceperis: quod quidem etiam humanarum rerum exempla edocent. si enim usus rerum aliquarum cuipiam homini alterius hominis beneficio ac largitate tribuatur isque inmemor illius, a quo fructum rerum indeptus est, auertere ab eo ipso proprietatem praestitae rei atque alienare conetur, nonne ingratissimus omnium atque infidelissimus iudicetur, qui oblitus scilicet hominis benefici ae liberalissimi. spoliare. illum iure dominii sui uelit. qui eum ipsum usus possessione ditauerit?
For this is to acknowledge God’s gift and to use the divine benefits well: to honor with his gifts the one from whom you received them. Examples from human affairs also teach this. For if the use of certain things is granted to a man by the kindness and generosity of another, and he, forgetful of the one from whom he obtained the enjoyment of them, tries to divert the ownership of the thing lent from the very one who lent it and to alienate it, would he not be judged the most ungrateful and faithless of all, who, forgetting a kind and most generous man, wishes to strip of his right of ownership the very man who enriched him with the possession of its use?
Notes and citation
Summary: An analogy: one who tries to steal the ownership of property lent to him for use is the most ungrateful of men.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): boc enim est → hoc enim est.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.25 (CSEL 8:232; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-25). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-25
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.26CSEL 8:232
et nos itaque usum tantum earum rerum accepimus, quas tenemus; commodatis enim a deo facultatibus utimur et quasi precarii, possessores sumus. denique egredientes e mundo isto, uelimus nolimus, hic cuncta relinquimus. cur ergo cum possessores usufructuarii simus, quod nobiscum auferre non possumus auertere a proprietate domini atque alienare temptamus? cur non bona fide datis a deo resculis utimur? tenuimus quoad licuit, tenuimus quoad permisit ille qui praestitit.
So we too have received only the use of the things we hold; for we use means lent by God and are possessors, as it were, on sufferance. In short, when we depart from this world, willing or not, we leave everything here. Why then, since we are holders of a life-interest, do we try to divert from the owner’s title and alienate what we cannot take with us? Why do we not use in good faith the little things God has given? We held them as long as we were allowed; we held them as long as he who lent them permitted.
Notes and citation
Summary: We hold wealth only as a loan for life from God and should not try to alienate it from him.
- Salvian uses Roman property law: precarium (possession on sufferance) and usufruct (a life-interest).
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.26 (CSEL 8:232; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-26). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-26
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.27CSEL 8:232–233
quid rectius quid honestius, quam ut ubi res ab eo discedit, qui usum habuit, reuertatur ad eum possessio, qui utendam concessit? denique etiam ipsae hoc dei uoces per linguas litterarum sacrarum iubent dicentes ad unum quemque nostrum: honora dominum de tua substantia. et alibi redde, inquit, debitum tuum. quam pius et indulgens dominus deus noster, inuitans nos ad erogandam terrenae substantiae facultatem! honora, inquit, dominum de tua substantia. cum totum suum sit quod ab eo accepimus, nostrum esse dicit ut demus, ideo scilicet nostram appellans proprietatem possessionis, ut maior sit merces operantis, quia plus fructuum necesse est largitor habeat, ubi de suo uidetur esse largitio.
What is more right, what more honorable, than that, when the property departs from the one who had its use, the possession should return to the one who granted it to be used? Indeed, the very voices of God through the tongues of the sacred writings command this, saying to each one of us: “Honor the Lord from your substance.” And elsewhere: “Pay your debt,” he says. How kind and indulgent is the Lord our God, inviting us to spend the resources of our earthly substance! “Honor the Lord,” he says, “from your substance.” Though all that we have received from him is his, he calls it ours so that we may give, calling the property of the possession ours precisely so that the reward of the one who acts may be greater, since the giver must have more fruit when the gift appears to come from his own.
Prov 3:9 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Scripture commands honoring God from one’s substance; God calls it ours so that the giver’s reward is greater.
- Prov 3:9; “pay your debt” is Sir 4:8.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray marks): esse largitio.-. → esse largitio..
Extrabiblical texts: Sir 4:8 (Sirach [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; quotation)
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.27 (CSEL 8:232–233; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-27). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-27
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.28CSEL 8:233
Sed tamen ne hoc ipso humana mens insolesceret, quod substantiam hanc dominus nostram esse dixisset, adiecit: redde debitum tuum: hoc est, ut quem deuotio non inliceret ad largiendum necessitas cogeret ad exsoluendum, et quem ad opus sanctum fides sua ipsa non traheret saltim necessitas coartaret. prius ait: honora dominum de tua substantia, deinde redde, inquit, debitum tuum. hoc est dicere: si deuotus es, da quasi tuum, si indeuotus, redde quasi non tuum. bene itaque posuit et dandi uoluntatem et soluendi necessitatem.
But lest the human mind grow insolent precisely because the Lord had said this substance was ours, he added: “Pay your debt”; that is, the one whom devotion did not entice to give, necessity would compel to pay; and the one whom his own faith did not draw to the holy work, necessity at least would constrain. First he says: “Honor the Lord from your substance”; then he says: “Pay your debt.” That is to say: if you are devout, give as though it were yours; if undevout, pay back as though it were not yours. So he rightly set down both the willingness to give and the necessity to pay.
Prov 3:9 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God both invites the devout to give and obliges the undevout to repay.
- Prov 3:9; Sir 4:8. The chapter numeral “VI” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray hyphen): VI. Sed tamen → Sed tamen; d-einde → deinde.
Extrabiblical texts: Sir 4:8 (Sirach [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; quotation)
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.28 (CSEL 8:233; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-28). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-28
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.29CSEL 8:233
hoc est utique dicere omni homini: ad opus sanctum et hortatione innitaris et exactione constringeris: da, si uis, redde, si non uis. apostolus quoque id ipsum monens diuitibus praecipit, ne superbe sapiant neque sperent in incerto diuitiarum sed in deo uiuo: qui praestat nobis, inquit, omnia ad fruendum in uoluntate operum bonorum. uno dicto utrumque docuit, hoc est et qui daret diuitias et cur daret.
This is to say to every man: toward the holy work you are both urged by exhortation and bound by exaction: give, if you will; pay back, if you will not. The apostle too, urging the same thing, commands the rich not to be haughty nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches but in the living God, “who supplies us,” he says, “with all things to enjoy, in the will to do good works.” In one saying he taught both who gives riches and why he gives them.
1 Tim 6:17 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Tim 6:18 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Paul teaches that God gives riches, and gives them for good works.
- 1 Tim 6:17–18, in the form of the Latin text Salvian used.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (Greek omicron in a Latin word): quόque → quoque.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.29 (CSEL 8:233; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-29). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-29
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.30CSEL 8:233–234
dicens enim sperandum a deo, qui praestet omnia, ostendit a deo diuites fieri, addens autem in uoluntate operum bonorum docet id ipsum, quod dixit a deo tribui, propter bona tantum opera praestari: praestat enim, inquit, omnia in uoluntate operum bonorum: hoc est, ad hoc facit homines substantia esse locupletes, ut bona operatione sint diuites, id est ut commutent diuitias, quas acceperunt, et facultates ipsas in bonis operibus conlocantes dei opes, quas habent in hoc saeculo temporarias, bene utendo faciant sempiternas, ac sic agnoscentes munera dei duplici bono gaudeant, cum qui sunt diuites in hoc saeculo esse quoque diuites mereantur in caelo.
For in saying that one must hope in God, who supplies all things, he showed that the rich are made rich by God; and in adding “in the will to do good works,” he teaches that what he said is granted by God is supplied only for the sake of good works. “For he supplies all things,” he says, “in the will to do good works”: that is, he makes men rich in substance for this purpose, that they may be rich in good working; that is, that they may exchange the riches they have received and, placing these means in good works, may by using them well make everlasting the wealth of God which they have temporarily in this age; and so, acknowledging the gifts of God, they may rejoice in a double good, since those who are rich in this age may deserve to be rich also in heaven.
1 Tim 6:17 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Tim 6:19 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: God makes some rich so that by good works they may turn temporal wealth into heavenly wealth.
- 1 Tim 6:17–19.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray mark): operum bonorum* docet → operum bonorum docet.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.30 (CSEL 8:233–234; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-30). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-30
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.31CSEL 8:234
Sic ergo habendae sunt diuitiae sic petendae, sic tenendae sic propagandae: alioquin inaestimabile malum est bonis a deo datis non bene uti; auaro enim, inquit scriptura sacra, nihil est scelestius, et pessimum ac feralissimum morbi genus diuitiae conseruatae in malum domini sui. uerum est. quid enim peius aut quid miserius, quam si quis praesentia bona in mala futura conuertat, et quae ad hoc a deo data sunt, ut pararetur ex eis uitae beatitudo perpetua, per haec ipsa quaeratur mors ac damnatio sempiterna?
In this way, then, riches are to be had, to be sought, to be kept, to be increased. Otherwise it is an incalculable evil not to use well the goods given by God. For “nothing is more wicked than the miser,” says sacred Scripture, and the worst and deadliest kind of disease is “riches kept to the harm of their owner.” It is true. For what is worse or more wretched than for someone to turn present goods into future evils, and through the very things God gave so that everlasting blessedness of life might be won from them, to seek death and everlasting damnation?
Eccl 5:13 (5:12 Vulg.) (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Misusing God-given wealth turns present goods into eternal ruin.
- Sir 10:9 (Vulgate 10:9–10); Eccl 5:13 (Vulgate 5:12).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked; OCR slip): VII. Sic ergo hauendae → Sic ergo habendae.
Extrabiblical texts: Sir 10:9 (Sirach [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; quotation)
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.31 (CSEL 8:234; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-31). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-31
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.32CSEL 8:234
in quo et illud considerandum quod, si seruatae diuitiae ad malum hominis conseruantur, quanto utique ad maius malum coaceruantur. quotus enim quisque nunc diuitum tantae est continentiae, qui opes custodire contentus adcumulare iam nolit? o miseria temporis et ecclesiasticae plebis, ad quid redacta est! ubi cum scriptum sit, quod seruare opes genus sit magni criminis, non augere iam genus putatur esse uirtutis.
In this we must also consider that, if riches kept are kept to a man’s harm, how much more are they heaped up to greater harm! For how many of the rich now are of such restraint as to be content to guard their wealth and not wish to pile it up further? O the misery of the times and of the church’s people, to what has it been reduced! Though it is written that to keep riches is a kind of great crime, not to increase them is now thought a kind of virtue.
Eccl 5:13 (5:12 Vulg.) (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Now even refraining from increasing wealth is counted a virtue, though Scripture condemns merely keeping it.
- Eccl 5:13 (Vulgate 5:12).
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.32 (CSEL 8:234; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-32). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-32
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.33CSEL 8:234–235
ergo, ut supra diximus, quo modo se quidam reos omnino non putant, si nec in morte sibimet per dispensationem substantiae consuluerint, cum etiam ex hoc rei sint, quod usque ad mortem cuncta seruauerint? aut quo modo rei non erunt, qui facultates suas ad quoscumque homines infidelissima uanitate transmiserint, cum etiam illi rei futuri sint, qui non se ipsos in uita ista aliqua ob honorem dei rerum suarum parte priuauerint? ostendente id ipsum etiam per apostolum domino nostro atque dicente: age nunc, diuites, plorate in miseriis, quae aduenient uobis: diuitiae uestrae putrefactae sunt et uestimenta uestra a tineis comesta sunt, aurum et argentum uestrum aeruginauit, et aerugo eorum in testimonium uobis erit et manducabit carnes uestras sicut ignis. thesaurizatis in nouissimis diebus.
Therefore, as we said above, how can some think themselves not guilty at all if they have not provided for themselves even at death by disposing of their substance, when they are guilty even from this, that they kept everything until death? Or how will they not be guilty who have passed on their means to any men at all with most faithless vanity, when even those will be guilty who did not deprive themselves in this life of some part of their goods for the honor of God? Our Lord shows this through the apostle, saying: “Come now, you rich, weep in the miseries that will come upon you: your riches have rotted and your garments have been eaten by moths, your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be a testimony against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.”
Jas 5:1 (quotation, high confidence) · Jas 5:2 (quotation, high confidence) · Jas 5:3 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Those who keep all their wealth until death, or leave it to unworthy heirs, stand condemned by James’s warning to the rich.
- Jas 5:1–3.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.33 (CSEL 8:234–235; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-33). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-33
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.34CSEL 8:235
praeter illam, quae in mysterio latens maior est multo ac terribilior diuinorum uerborum seueritatem, sufficere ad metum ac tremorem omnibus puto illa, quae prompta sunt; ad diuites enim peculiariter loquitur. plangere eos praecipit mala futura nuntiat ignem perpetuum comminatur. et hoc, quo minae ipsae magis timendae sint, non propter homicidia non propter fornicationes, non ob sacrilegas inpietates aut alia postremo uitia letali gladio animas et perenni occisione iugulantia, sed propter solas tantummodo opes propter insanam cupiditatem propter auri atque argenti famem, ut ostenderet scilicet sufficere haec homini ad aeternam damnationem, etiamsi reatus alii non fuissent. quid dici simplicius quid euidentius potest?
Apart from that severity of the divine words which, hidden in the mystery, is far greater and more terrible, I think what is plain is enough to bring fear and trembling to all. For he speaks specially to the rich. He commands them to lament, he announces future evils, he threatens everlasting fire. And, so that the threats themselves may be feared the more, this is not on account of murders, not on account of sexual immorality, not for sacrilegious impieties or other vices that slay souls with a deadly sword and perpetual killing, but on account of wealth alone, on account of mad covetousness, on account of the hunger for gold and silver, to show that these things are enough for a man’s eternal damnation even if there were no other guilt. What could be said more simply, what more plainly?
Jas 5:1 (allusion, high confidence) · Jas 5:3 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: James threatens the rich with eternal fire for greed alone, apart from any other sin.
- On Jas 5:1–3. “The severity of the divine words” is printed in the accusative (seueritatem); translated by sense.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.34 (CSEL 8:235; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-34). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-34
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.35CSEL 8:235
non dicit diuiti: torquendus es, quia homicida es, torquendus es, quia fornicator, sed torquendus tantummodo, quia diues, hoc est quia diuitiis male uteris, quia datas tibi ad opus sanctum diuitias non intellegis. non enim ipsae diuitiae per se noxiae, sed mentes male utentium criminosae, nec ipsae opes homini poenae causa sunt, sed de opibus sibi poenas diuites faciunt, quia dum uti diuitiis bene nolunt, ipsas sibi diuitias in tormenta conuertunt. thesaurizatis, inquit, in nouissimis diebus.
He does not say to the rich man: “You must be tormented because you are a murderer, you must be tormented because you are a fornicator,” but “you must be tormented” solely “because you are rich,” that is, because you use riches badly, because you do not understand that riches were given to you for a holy work. For riches are not harmful in themselves, but the minds of those who use them badly are guilty; nor is wealth itself the cause of a man’s punishment, but the rich make punishment for themselves out of wealth, because while they refuse to use riches well, they turn those very riches into torments for themselves. “You have laid up treasure,” he says, “in the last days.”
Jas 5:3 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Riches are not evil in themselves; the rich are condemned for misusing them.
- Jas 5:3.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.35 (CSEL 8:235; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-35). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-35
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.36CSEL 8:235–236
bene, cum dixisset thesaurizatis, addidit in nouissimis diebus, hoc est, ut maior thesaurizantium reatus esset, cum thesaurorum inuidiam etiam saeculi extrema cumularent. thesaurizatis., inquit, in nouissimis diebus. per thesauros cupiditas per nouissimos dies infidelitas accusatur. ac per hoc duplex et cupiditatis noxa est et infidelitatis, quia thesauros, quos iuxta id quod deus dicit non concupisces crimen utique fuit et alio tempore concupiscere, maius absque dubio per infidelitatem ipsam crimen est etiam in mundi fine cumulare.
Well did he add, after saying “you have laid up treasure,” the words “in the last days,” so that the guilt of those who lay up treasure might be greater, since they heaped up the odium of treasures even at the end of the age. “You have laid up treasure,” he says, “in the last days.” By “treasures” covetousness is accused, by “the last days” unbelief. And so the offense is double, both of covetousness and of unbelief: for while to covet treasures was certainly a crime at any other time, according to what God says, “You shall not covet,” it is without doubt a greater crime, through unbelief itself, to pile them up even at the end of the world.
Jas 5:3 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 20:17 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Hoarding in the last days adds unbelief to covetousness.
- Jas 5:3; Exod 20:17.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): dicit cnon concupisces → dicit non concupisces.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.36 (CSEL 8:235–236; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-36). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-36
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.37CSEL 8:236
Durum fortasse aliquis sermonem meum hactenus iudicauit. et uere durus est, si aliquid non ex testimoniorum sacrorum auctoritate commonuit: durus existimetur, si aliquid tale habuit, quale hic apostolus praedicauit: ut non addamus illud domini nostri dictum, quo omnes penitus indignos se esse dixit, qui non renuntiassent omnibus quae possederint.
Perhaps someone has judged my discourse so far to be harsh. And truly it is harsh if it has urged anything not drawn from the authority of the sacred testimonies; let it be thought harsh if it contains anything such as the apostle preached here. And we do not add that saying of our Lord in which he declared all wholly unworthy of him who had not renounced all that they possessed.
Luke 14:33 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian’s teaching is no harsher than Scripture, which demands renouncing everything.
- Luke 14:33. The chapter numeral “VIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray letter): VIII. Durum fortasse → Durum fortasse; durus est, I si → durus est, si.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.37 (CSEL 8:236; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-37). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-37
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.38CSEL 8:236
quae cum ita sint, nonne, quaeso, indulgentissimum ac mollissimum existimari conuenit quod locuti sumus, scilicet qui hominibus, quibus perfectam incolumitatem tribuere non possumus, opem saltim desperatae salutis inquirimus, et quorum uitam sanare non possumus, mortem leuare temptamus? quid est enim perfecta sanitas? quid nisi in uita hac bene agere? quid postrema curatio? quid nisi uel in extremis bonum uiaticum conparare? quid est perfecta sanitas? quid nisi rebus a deo traditis bene uti? quod ultimum remedium? quod nisi saltim postea facere quod paeniteas te non ante fecisse?
Since this is so, ought not what we have said, I ask, to be thought most indulgent and most gentle, since for men to whom we cannot give perfect health we seek at least help for a despaired-of salvation, and whose life we cannot heal we try to ease in death? For what is perfect health? What but to act well in this life? What is the last remedy? What but to procure a good provision for the journey at least at the end? What is perfect health? What but to use well the things God has entrusted? What is the last remedy? What but at least afterwards to do what you regret not having done before?
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian’s counsel is mild: if a man has not lived well, he should at least use his wealth well at the end.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.38 (CSEL 8:236; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-38). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-38
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.39CSEL 8:236–237
dura aliquis putat esse quae dico: dura, plane dura existimentur, nisi talia sunt, ut in comparatione apostolicae seueritatis mollia ac remissa uideantur. apostolus enim ad planctum diuites uocat, nos ad remedium: apostolus diuitias ignem nominat, nos facere ex diuitiis aquas cupimus ignem extinguentes secundum illud: sicut aqua extinguit ignem, sic eleemosyna peccatum.
Someone thinks what I say is harsh. Let it be thought harsh, plainly harsh, unless it is such as to seem soft and lenient in comparison with the apostle’s severity. For the apostle calls the rich to lamentation, we to remedy; the apostle names riches fire, we wish to make from riches waters that put out the fire, according to that saying: “As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sin.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian is gentler than James: he wants riches turned into alms that quench sin.
- Sir 3:30 (Vulgate 3:33).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): aqua «xtinguit → aqua extinguit.
Extrabiblical texts: Sir 3:30 (Sirach [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; quotation)
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.39 (CSEL 8:236–237; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-39). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-39
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.40CSEL 8:237
apostolus in diuitiis male conseruatis damnationem esse testatur, ego ex his, quae dicit ille mortem aeternam, omnibus facere, uitam opto perpetuam conparare: non quidem quod ulli uitiis carnalibus inplicato sufficere ad uitam aeternam putem, si, cum usque ad mortem in. flagitiis consenuerit, in obitu bene cuncta dispenset, nisi antea et peccatis renuntiauerit et sordidam illam criminum tunicam lutulentamque proiecerit et nouam conuersionis ac sanctimoniae uestem de manu apostoli praedicantis acceperit.
The apostle testifies that there is damnation in riches badly kept; I desire to win everlasting life for all from the things which he says bring eternal death. Not, indeed, that I think it enough for eternal life for anyone entangled in fleshly vices if, having grown old in shameful deeds until death, he disposes of everything well at his death, unless he has first renounced his sins, cast off that filthy and muddy tunic of crimes, and received the new garment of conversion and holiness from the hand of the preaching apostle.
Eph 4:22 (allusion, medium confidence) · Col 3:10 (allusion, low confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Bequests at death do not suffice without prior renunciation of sin and conversion.
- Allusion to putting off the old self and putting on the new (Eph 4:22–24; Col 3:9–10).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): nonam conuersionis → nouam conuersionis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.40 (CSEL 8:237; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-40). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-40
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.41CSEL 8:237
alioqui peccare non desinit, quem in extremis situm recedere a criminibus sola tantum facit inpossibilitas non uoluntas. qui enim a malis actibus tantum morte discedit non relinquit scelera,: sed relinquitur a sceleribus, ac per hoc necessitate exclusus a uitiis et tum, puto, peccat, quando cessauerint, quia, quantum ad animum, necdum desiit qui adhuc uelit peccare, si possit. non bonis itaque spebus innititur qui ad hoc tantum peccat in uita, ut peccatorum molem redimat in morte, et ideo se euasurum putat, non quia bonus sed quia diues sit.
Otherwise the man does not cease to sin whom, placed at the end, only impossibility, not will, makes withdraw from crimes. For he who departs from evil deeds only by death does not leave his crimes but is left by them; and so, shut out from vices by necessity, he still sins, I think, even when they have ceased, because as far as his mind goes he has not yet stopped who would still wish to sin if he could. So he does not rest on good hopes who sins in life only to buy off the mass of his sins at death, and thinks he will escape not because he is good but because he is rich.
Notes and citation
Summary: One who stops sinning only at death has not truly renounced sin.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): quem m extremis → quem in extremis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.41 (CSEL 8:237; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-41). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-41
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.42CSEL 8:237
quasi uero deus non uitam quaerat hominum sed pecuniam, atque a cunctis malorum redimendorum spe male agentibus accipere solos pro criminibus nummos uelit et corruptorum iudicum more argentum exigat, ut peccata uendat.
As though God sought not men’s life but their money, and wished to receive from all who do evil in the hope of buying off their wickedness only coins in exchange for crimes, and like corrupt judges demanded silver so as to sell sins.
Notes and citation
Summary: God is not a corrupt judge who sells pardon for money.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.42 (CSEL 8:237; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-42). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-42
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.43CSEL 8:237–238
non ita est. prodesse enim largitionem plurimum certum est, sed non illis, qui ultima futurae largitionis spe male uiuunt, qui fiducia redimendae immunitatis scelera committunt, sed illis,.. qui decepti aut lubrico aetatis aut nubilo erroris aut uitio. ignorantiae aut postremo lapsu fragilitatis humanae resipiscere tandem quasi post mortem grauissimae infirmitatis aut quasi post luctum turbatae mentis incipiunt, et sicut ad sensum suum insani homines post furorem, sic isti redeunt post errorem, in uno tantummodo a se dispares, quod illi gaudent, postquam euaserint aegritudinem, isti plangunt, postquam acceperint sanitatem.
It is not so. For it is certain that generosity is of very great benefit, but not to those who live badly in the final hope of future generosity, who commit crimes trusting to buy themselves immunity, but to those who, deceived by the slipperiness of youth, or the cloud of error, or the fault of ignorance, or finally by a lapse of human frailty, begin at last to come to their senses, as if after the death of a most grievous sickness or the grief of a troubled mind; and as madmen return to their senses after their frenzy, so these return after their error, differing from them in one thing only: the former rejoice after they have escaped sickness, the latter lament after they have received health.
Notes and citation
Summary: Generosity helps those who repent of sins of weakness, not those who sin counting on buying pardon.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; page number leaked into the text): non ita - 25 est. → non ita est.; postqHam → postquam.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.43 (CSEL 8:237–238; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-43). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-43
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.44CSEL 8:238
nec inmerito. illi enim tanto plus gratulantur, quanto plus incolumitatis indeptos esse se sentiunt, isti tanto plus confunduntur, quanto euidentius morbum sui erroris agnoscunt. quo fiat necesse est ut illi exultent et isti lugeant, quia illi quod aegrotarunt inputant ualitudini, isti quod errauerunt sibi, ac sic illi laeti sunt de remedio et isti anxii de reatu.
And not without reason. For the former rejoice the more, the more health they feel they have gained; the latter are the more ashamed, the more clearly they recognize the disease of their error. So it must be that the former exult and the latter mourn, because the former blame their sickness on their health, the latter blame their errors on themselves; and so the former are glad of the remedy and the latter anxious about their guilt.
Notes and citation
Summary: The repentant mourn because they recognize their guilt as their own.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.44 (CSEL 8:238; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-44). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-44
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.45CSEL 8:238
Vnde admoneo cum omnes tum praecipue eos, quos grauium delictorum terror exagitat et in quibus infelicior conscientia peccatorum poenalium recordatione suspirat, primum ut, licet lapsi sint, non commorentur in lapsu nec in uolutabris suis sordentium suum more uersentur, qui cum aestuantes aluos caeno inmerserint, nequaquam sordidis uoluptatibus satisfaciunt, nisi tota penitus luto membra conuoluant. non ergo horum naturalem sequantur inluuiem nec male blandis lapsibus adquiescant, aut in barathro libidinum commorantes in ipsis se sepeliant ruinis suis, sed ilico, ubi concidere, consurgant et eleuationem protinus meditentur in lapsu, ac, si fieri ullo modo pernicitate paenitudinis potest, tam uelox sit remedium resurgentis, ut uix possit uestigium apparere conlapsi.
Therefore I admonish all, and especially those whom the terror of grave sins torments and in whom a more unhappy conscience sighs at the memory of sins deserving punishment: first, that though they have fallen, they should not linger in their fall, nor wallow in their mire like swine, which, when they have plunged their heated bellies in the mud, are in no way satisfied in their filthy pleasures unless they roll every limb wholly in the muck. Let them not follow these creatures’ natural filth, nor rest content in falls that flatter wickedly, nor, lingering in the abyss of lusts, bury themselves in their own ruins; but let them rise at once where they fell, and in their very fall at once think of rising; and, if it can in any way be done by the swiftness of repentance, let the remedy of the one rising be so quick that scarcely a trace of his collapse can appear.
2 Pet 2:22 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Those who have fallen into grave sin should rise again at once by quick repentance.
- Allusion to 2 Pet 2:22. The chapter numeral “VIIII” is removed; “sordentium suum” is read as “suum” (swine).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): VIIII. Vnde admoneo → Vnde admoneo.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.45 (CSEL 8:238; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-45). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-45
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.46CSEL 8:238–239
ergo in huiusmodi causis hoc primum medellae opus est, ut morbos suos languentes horreant, curare plagas, festinent saucii et ilico e corporibus sagittas rapiant uulnerati. optime enim malagma uel fibula calidis adhuc uulneribus inponitur, et citius sibi plagarum caro sociatur, quae non diu hiare permittitur. ulcus quippe in corpore, si conputruerit, dilatatur, et si plagas cancroma sequitur, cancrum necesse est consequatur occasus.
So in such cases the first work of healing is that the sick should dread their diseases, that the wounded should hasten to treat their wounds, and that those struck should pull the arrows from their bodies at once. For a poultice or a clasp is best applied to wounds while still warm, and the flesh of a wound knits more quickly when it is not left gaping long. For an ulcer in the body spreads if it festers, and if gangrene follows the wound, death must follow the gangrene.
Notes and citation
Summary: Like wounds, sins must be treated at once before they fester.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.46 (CSEL 8:238–239; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-46). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-46
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.47CSEL 8:239
fugienda itaque primum haec peccatoribus mala sunt nec dandus diabolo locus, ut qui stantes inpulit in ruinam lapsos praecipitet in mortem. quodsi aut tanta uis morbi aut tanta aegrotorum fuerit incuria, ut ualitudinis labem usque ad dies ultimos trahat, quid dicam nescio quid promittam penitus ignoro. reuocare ab inquisitione ultimi remedii periclitantes durum et impium, spondere autem aliquid in tam sera curatione temerarium.
These evils, then, sinners must first flee, and no place must be given to the devil, so that he who pushed them while standing into ruin may not hurl them, once fallen, into death. But if the force of the disease, or the neglect of the sick, is so great that it drags out the corruption of health to the last days, I do not know what to say and I am wholly at a loss what to promise. To call back those in danger from seeking a last remedy is harsh and impious; but to promise anything in so late a cure is rash.
Eph 4:27 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Salvian hesitates to promise anything to those who delay repentance to the end, yet will not forbid a last attempt.
- Eph 4:27.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.47 (CSEL 8:239; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-47). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-47
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.48CSEL 8:239
sed melius tamen est absque dubio quamuis diuturna paralysi aridas manus aliquo tamen nisu ad caelum erigi quam letali penitus desperatione dissolui: melius est nihil inexpertum relinquere quam morientem nulla curare, maxime quia nescio an in extremis aliquid temptare medicina sit, certe nihil temptare perditio. et unum scio, quod quicumque in hanc miseriam longi languoris extrema perduxerit ineffabile dictu est quantum lamentationis erroribus suis debeat, qui numquam errata cognouit.
Yet it is without doubt better that hands withered by long paralysis should be lifted to heaven with some effort than be wholly undone by deadly despair; better to leave nothing untried than to treat a dying man with nothing at all; especially because I do not know whether to try something at the end is a cure, but to try nothing is certainly ruin. And one thing I know: whoever has brought the last stage of a long illness into this misery, it is beyond words how much lamentation he owes his errors, who never acknowledged his faults.
Notes and citation
Summary: A last attempt at repentance is better than despair, though great lamentation is owed.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.48 (CSEL 8:239; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-48). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-48
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.49CSEL 8:239–240
Et quid inter haec fiet? quando lugebit qui dies lugendi perdidit? quando satisfaciet qui tempus satisfactionis amisit? ad ieiunia uidelicet longa confugiet. est quidem hoc aliquid, si eleemosynis misceatur, secundum illud: bonum est ieiunium cum eleemosyna. sed quomodo ei exomologesis diuturna opitulabitur in extremis sito? sed cilicio carnes conteret ac fauilla et cinere sordidabit, ut mollitiem uidelicet praeteritae uoluptatis praesentium asperitatum dura conpensent et reatum longarum deliciarum officio patrocinantis soluat iniuriae. sed quando haec tam grandia faciet, uicino: iam exitu etiam a mediocrium actione disclusus?
And what will happen meanwhile? When will he mourn who has lost the days of mourning? When will he make satisfaction who has lost the time of satisfaction? He will take refuge, no doubt, in long fasts. This is indeed something, if mixed with almsgiving, according to that saying: “Fasting with almsgiving is good.” But how will a long confession help one placed at the end? He will wear down his flesh with sackcloth and soil it with ashes and dust, so that the hardships of the present may make up for the softness of past pleasure, and the service of an injury that pleads for him may discharge the guilt of long luxuries. But when will he do such great things, when, his death already near, he is shut out even from doing moderate ones?
Notes and citation
Summary: A man at death’s door has no time for the fasts and penances that would make satisfaction.
- Tob 12:8. Exomologesis is the church’s penitential confession. The chapter numeral “X” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): X. Et quid inter haec → Et quid inter haec.
Extrabiblical texts: Tob 12:8 (Tobit [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; quotation)
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.49 (CSEL 8:239–240; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-49). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-49
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.50CSEL 8:240
crucibus denique diuersarum aerumnarum reum in suo corpore hominem iudex fidei seueritas subiugabit, ut indulgentiam scilicet absolutionis aeternae praesentis poenae ambitione mereatur. sed fatiscente iam corpore ubi exercebit districtionis officium censor animus? uti enim seueritatis arbitrio iudex non potest, quando reus iam non sustinet iudicari.
In short, the severity of faith, as judge, will subject the guilty man in his own body to the crosses of various hardships, so that he may earn the indulgence of eternal pardon by courting present punishment. But when the body is already failing, where will the mind as censor exercise its office of strictness? For a judge cannot exercise the decision of severity when the accused can no longer bear to be judged.
Notes and citation
Summary: A failing body cannot undergo the self-punishment of penance.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.50 (CSEL 8:240; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-50). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-50
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.
1.51CSEL 8:240
unum ergo est, quod amissis omnibus adiumentis atque subsidiis nutanti ac destituto opitulari queat, ut confugiat scilicet ad illud beatissimi Danielis sacrum ac salubre consilium:, qui Babylonio regi mederi uolens ulceribus de offensione contractis malagma de miseratione conposuit dicens: propter quod, rex, consilium meum placeat tibi, et peccata tua in misericordiis redime et iniustitias tuas in miserationes pauperum: fortasse erit patiens dominus delictis tuis. ita ergo et iste faciat, ut ille dixit.
There is one thing, then, which, when all other aids and supports are lost, can help one who is tottering and forsaken: that he take refuge in that holy and wholesome counsel of the most blessed Daniel, who, wishing to heal the Babylonian king of the sores he had contracted by offense, compounded a poultice of mercy, saying: “Therefore, O king, let my counsel please you: redeem your sins by mercies and your iniquities by compassion to the poor; perhaps the Lord will be patient with your offenses.” Let this man, then, do as Daniel said.
Dan 4:27 (4:24 Vulg.) (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The only recourse left to the dying sinner is Daniel’s counsel to redeem sins by almsgiving.
- Dan 4:27 (Vulgate and LXX 4:24).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): quod stmissis → quod amissis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 1.51 (CSEL 8:240; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-51). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/1-51
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of the staged edition (corrections logged). No public-domain English translation is available to us and no FOTC volume covers Salvian, so each batch was re-read against the Latin.