To the Church (Against Avarice) 3.16–3.63
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 3
3.16CSEL 8:273
infelicissime omnium, quid tibi est cum his neniis quid tibi cum his deliramentis, quid cum stultitia huius erroris quid cum perditione istius uanitatis? numquid succurrere hoc tibi inter supplicia summa poterit, si is, qui res tuas prodige comedit, lautus et pransus bene eructarit?
Most unhappy of all, what have you to do with these dirges, what with these ravings, what with the folly of this error, what with the perdition of this vanity? Will it be able to help you amid the supreme torments if the man who prodigally eats up your goods belches well after a lavish meal?
Notes and citation
Summary: An heir’s feasting will be no help in hell.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.16 (CSEL 8:273; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-16). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-16
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-16) · Report an error
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.
3.17CSEL 8:273–274
Sed de his, unde nunc loquimur, si res ac ratio postulauerint, etiam post haec aliqua subdemus. interim hoc specialiter dico et peculiari admonitione conmoneo, ne ullum omnino aliquis quamuis carissimum pignus animae suae praeferat. neque enim iniquum est, ut quilibet Christianorum etiam legitimis heredibus in hoc saeculo minus congerat, dummodo sibimet in aeternitate succurrat multis modis, quia et facilius est hic deesse filiis quippiam quam parentibus in futuro, et multo leuior praesens tenuitas quam aeterna paupertas, maxime quia, cum illic non paupertas tantum sed etiam mors ac poena timeantur, facilius est utique hic heredibus deesse quiddam de patrimonio quam illic testatoribus de salute, idque et ipsi, quibus hereditas derelinquitur, si modo pietatis aliquid in se habent, specialiter uelle debeant, ne illi pereant qui relinquunt. quod utique si nolunt, multo minus digni sunt quibus aliquid relinquatur, quia. non iniuste testator sapiens non relinquit quod heres inpius non meretur.
But on the matter of which we are now speaking we will add something later too, if the matter and reason require. Meanwhile I say this specially and warn with a particular admonition, that no one at all should prefer any dear one, however dear, to his own soul. Nor is it unjust for any Christian to amass less in this age even for lawful heirs, provided he helps himself in many ways in eternity; because it is easier for children to lack something here than for parents in the future, and present scarcity is much lighter than eternal poverty. Especially since there not only poverty but also death and punishment are feared, it is certainly easier for heirs to lack something of the patrimony here than for testators to lack salvation there; and those to whom the inheritance is left, if they have any affection in them, ought especially to wish this, that those who leave it may not perish. If they do not wish it, they are much less worthy to have anything left to them, because the wise testator does not unjustly withhold what an impious heir does not deserve.
Notes and citation
Summary: No one should prefer his heirs to his own soul; heirs should rather wish their parents’ salvation.
- The chapter numeral “IIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): IIII. Sed de his, unde → Sed de his, unde.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.17 (CSEL 8:273–274; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-17). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-17
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-17) · Report an error
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.
3.18CSEL 8:274
itaque optimum est, ut unusquisque sibi consulat et animae ac saluti suae omnia derelinquat, sint quamuis interdum non filii tantum, quibus uidetur naturaliter plus deberi, sed etiam pignora alia eius uel meriti uel condicionis, ut eis ad inpertiendum quiddam ac largiendum iustitia ipsa ac dei cultus patrocinetur, et quibus non solum pie aliquid relinquatur sed etiam inreligiose non relinquatur:
So it is best that each provide for himself and leave all to his soul and salvation, even though there may sometimes be not only children, to whom more seems naturally owed, but also other dear ones whose merit or condition is such that justice itself and the worship of God speak for giving and bestowing something on them, and to whom something is not only piously left but would be irreligiously withheld:
Notes and citation
Summary: One should leave all for one’s soul, though some relatives may justly receive something.
- The sentence continues in 3.19.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.18 (CSEL 8:274; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-18). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-18
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-18) · Report an error
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.
3.19CSEL 8:274
scilicet si aut parentes sint calamitosi aut germani fideles aut sanctae coniuges aut, ut longius denique munus pietatis extendam, si aut propinqui inopes aut adfines egestuosi aut denique cuiuslibet necessitudinis indigentes, uel certe, quod super omnia est, deo dediti. hoc enim est praecipuum ac supereminens, si id ipsum, quod agit aliquis pietatis officio, religionis faciat affectu.
namely, if there are parents in calamity, or faithful brothers, or holy wives, or, to extend the gift of affection further, poor kinsmen or needy in-laws, or finally the destitute of any relationship, or certainly, what is above all, those devoted to God. For this is the chief and supreme thing: that what someone does from the duty of family affection he does from the love of religion.
Notes and citation
Summary: Needy relatives and especially those devoted to God may rightly receive bequests.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.19 (CSEL 8:274; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-19). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-19
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-19) · Report an error
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.
3.20CSEL 8:274–275
beatus enim ille, qui suos ipsos diuini amoris spiritu amat, cuius caritas Christi cultus est, qui in naturae uinculo deum cogitat naturarum patrem, et amoris munera in sacrificia conuertens tantum sibi inmortalis lucri et beatorum fructuum parat, ut dum id quod pignoribus suis praestans domino suo faenerat, hoc ipso, quod suis liberalitatem tribuit temporariam, sibi mercedem pariat sempiternam.
For blessed is he who loves his own with the spirit of divine love, whose love is the worship of Christ, who in the bond of nature thinks of God the Father of natures, and, turning the gifts of love into sacrifices, prepares for himself so much immortal gain and blessed fruit that, while he lends to his Lord what he gives his dear ones, by the very fact that he gives his own a temporary liberality he brings forth for himself an everlasting reward.
Notes and citation
Summary: Love of family offered to God becomes a sacrifice with eternal reward.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.20 (CSEL 8:274–275; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-20). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-20
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-20) · Report an error
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.
3.21CSEL 8:275
at uero nunc diuersissime et inpiissime nullis omnino a suis minus relinquitur, quam quibus ob dei reuerentiam plus debetur, nullos pietas minus respicit, quam quos praecipue religio commendat. denique si qui a parentibus filii offeruntur deo, omnibus filiis postponuntur oblati: indigni iudicantur hereditate, quia digni fuerint consecratione, ac per hoc una tantum re parentibus uiles fiunt, quia coeperint deo esse pretiosi. ex quo intellegi potest, quod nullus paene apud homines uilior est quam deus, cuius utique fit despectione, ut eos praecipue parentes filios spernant, qui ad deum coeperint pertinere.
But now, quite contrariwise and most impiously, to none is less left by their own than to those to whom more is owed out of reverence for God; family affection regards none less than those whom religion especially commends. In short, if any children are offered to God by their parents, those offered are put after all the other children: they are judged unworthy of inheritance because they were worthy of consecration; and so they become cheap to their parents for this one reason, that they have begun to be precious to God. From this it can be understood that almost nothing among men is cheaper than God, through contempt of whom it comes about that parents especially despise those children who have begun to belong to God.
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents often give least to the children they have dedicated to God.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.21 (CSEL 8:275; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-21). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-21
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-21) · Report an error
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.
3.22CSEL 8:275
Sed praeclaram uidelicet qui haec faciunt rationem consilii sui reddunt dicentes: quid opus est ut filiis iam religiosis aequa hereditatis portio relinquatur? nihil ergo iustius nihil dignius quam ut, quia coeperunt religiosi esse, mendicent, non quidem quod eos haec res mendicitate oppressura sit, quod a terrenis facultatibus abdicantur, caelum spe possidentes cito etiam re possessuros, regente illos deo suo ac protegente, qui eos cum immortali spe aeternorum etiam sufficientia temporalium muneratur; sed tamen, quantum ad inhumanitatem parentum pertinet, egent, a quibus sic relicti sunt ut egerent: certe etiam si qui non penitus domu eliminantur et quibus non omnino extorribus quasi aqua et igni interdicitur, tanto inferiores fratribus relinquuntur, ut etiamsi paupertate non egeant, conparatione tamen egere uideantur.
But those who do this give, no doubt, a splendid account of their plan, saying: “What need is there for an equal share of the inheritance to be left to children already religious?” Nothing, then, is more just, nothing more fitting, than that, because they have begun to be religious, they should beg; not that this will crush them with beggary, that they are cut off from earthly means, since, possessing heaven in hope, they will soon possess it in fact, with their God ruling and protecting them, who rewards them with the immortal hope of eternal things and also with sufficiency of temporal ones; but, as far as the inhumanity of their parents goes, they are in want, being left by them so as to be in want. Certainly even those who are not wholly cast out of the house, and are not, as it were, banished and forbidden fire and water, are left so far below their brothers that, even if they do not lack by poverty, they seem to lack by comparison.
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents excuse leaving less to children in religion, reducing them to want.
- “Forbidden fire and water” is the Roman formula of banishment. The chapter numeral “V” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): V. Sed praeclaram → Sed praeclaram.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.22 (CSEL 8:275; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-22). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-22
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-22) · Report an error
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.
3.23CSEL 8:275–276
dicitis, quid opus sit religiosis iusta patrimonii portione? respondeo: ut religionis fungantur officio., ut religiosorum rebus religio ditetur, ut donent ut largiantur ut illis habentibus cuncti habeant non habentes, immo, si tanta est eorum fides atque perfectio, ut habeant cito non habituri, beatius utique, postquam habuerint, non habentes.
You ask what need the religious have of a fair portion of the patrimony? I answer: so that they may perform the duty of religion; so that religion may be enriched by the goods of the religious; so that they may give, may be generous, so that by their having, all who do not have may have; or rather, if their faith and perfection are so great that they soon will not have what they have, more blessed indeed, after having, in not having.
Notes and citation
Summary: The religious need their share so that they can give it away.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray bracket): non habentes,] immo → non habentes, immo.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.23 (CSEL 8:275–276; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-23). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-23
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-23) · Report an error
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.
3.24CSEL 8:276
cur eis, quaeso, o inhumanissimi parentes, necessitatem indignissimae paupertatis inponitis? permittite hoc religioni ipsi, cui filios tradidistis: rectius pauperes a se fiunt. si tantum eos inopes esse cupitis, concedite id ipsorum deuotioni. liceat eis, quaesumus, ut uelint pauperes fieri: eligere inopiam debent non sustinere. postremo, etiamsi sustineant, deuotione eam tolerent non damnatione patiantur.
Why, I ask, O most inhuman parents, do you impose on them the necessity of a most unworthy poverty? Leave this to religion itself, to which you handed over your children: it is more fitting that they become poor by their own act. If you so want them to be needy, grant it to their own devotion. Let them, we beg, be allowed to want to become poor: they ought to choose poverty, not endure it. Finally, even if they endure it, let them bear it by devotion, not suffer it as condemnation.
Notes and citation
Summary: The religious should choose poverty freely, not have it imposed by parents.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.24 (CSEL 8:276; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-24). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-24
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-24) · Report an error
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.
3.25CSEL 8:276
cur eos uelut a natura expellitis et quasi a iure sanguinis abdicatis? et ego esse eos pauperes nolo, sed ut habeat tamen praemium suum ipsa paupertas, ac praeclara demutatione eligant inopiam ex copia, ut ex inopiae electione copiam consequantur. quamquam quid ego uos per ipsum sanctissimae rationis officium trahere ad humanitatem pietatemque contendo, cum id maxime obsistat et haec res parentes inpios faciat, quae pios facere deberet?
Why do you drive them out, as it were, from nature and disown them from the right of blood? I too do not want them to be poor, except that poverty itself may have its reward, and that by a splendid exchange they may choose want out of plenty, so that from the choice of want they may obtain plenty. And yet why do I strive to draw you to humanity and affection through the very office of a most holy reason, when that very thing most stands in the way, and the thing which ought to make parents pious makes them impious?
Notes and citation
Summary: Voluntary poverty has a reward, yet religion itself is what makes these parents unjust.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.25 (CSEL 8:276; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-25). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-25
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-25) · Report an error
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.
3.26CSEL 8:276–277
nam cum uos ideo plus relinquere ex patrimonio uestro religiosis filiis deberetis, ut aliquid ad deum ex facultatibus uestris saltim per filios perueniret, ideo filiis non relinquitis, ne illi deo habeant quod relinquant. praeclara uidelicet ratione atque cautela contenti estis uos filios non agnoscere, ne illi se filios dei esse cognoscant, magnificam repensantes beneficiis sacris uicissitudinem, dum id studiosissime procuratis, ne uel per uestros aliquid honor dei habere possit, cum omnia uos per dei munus habeatis. cur, rogo, tam infideliter cur tam inpie?
For though you ought to leave more of your patrimony to religious children precisely so that something of your means might reach God at least through your children, you leave nothing to your children precisely so that they may have nothing to leave to God. By a splendid reasoning and caution, no doubt, you are content not to acknowledge them as your children, so that they may not recognize themselves as children of God, making a magnificent return for sacred benefits, while you most carefully see to it that the honor of God may not get anything even through your own, when you have everything by God’s gift. Why, I ask, so faithlessly, why so impiously?
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents disinherit religious children to keep anything from reaching God.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.26 (CSEL 8:276–277; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-26). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-26
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-26) · Report an error
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.
3.27CSEL 8:277
non exigimus ut uestra domino largiamini: aliquid deo de suo reddite. cur tam. auare cur tam impie agitis? non est uestrum quod denegatis. iniquum igitur arbitramini, ut saecularibus filiis religiosos substantia pares esse faciatis? id ergo agitis, ut paeniteat eos coeptae religionis, quos religio apud uos fecerit uiles. pius itaque ac bonus dominus, qui semet in eis propositum ac professionem suam: ceterum, quantum in uobis est, id agitis, ut saeculi eos cultores esse faciatis, quibus saeculares filios antefertis. quid est enim aliud quam religionem interdicere ob religionem despectui habere?
We do not require you to give your own to the Lord: return something of his own to God. Why do you act so greedily, so impiously? What you deny is not yours. Do you think it unjust, then, to make your religious children equal in substance to your worldly ones? You act, then, so that those whom religion has made cheap in your eyes may regret the religion they have begun. The Lord is good and kind, who preserves in them their purpose and profession; but, as far as lies in you, you act so as to make worshippers of the world of those to whom you prefer your worldly children. For what is this but to forbid religion, to hold it in contempt for religion’s sake?
Notes and citation
Summary: Favoring worldly children over religious ones discourages religion itself.
- The digital text lacks a verb after “profession” (probably “preserves”, seruat); translated by sense.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.27 (CSEL 8:277; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-27). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-27
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-27) · Report an error
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.
3.28CSEL 8:277
Sed iniusti fortasse uideamur cunctos parentes in hoc negotio aequaliter accusando, cum scilicet non omnes pari agant iniquitate cum filiis. sunt enim, inquit aliquis, sunt ex parentibus multi, qui aequales filiis suis faciant portiones, nisi quod una tantum eos condicione discernunt, quod in iis ipsis partibus, quae religiosis uidentur adscribi, usum iubent ad eos proprietatem ad alios pertinere.
But perhaps we may seem unjust in accusing all parents equally in this business, since not all deal with their children with equal iniquity. “For there are,” someone says, “there are many parents who make equal portions for their children, except that they distinguish them by one condition only: that in the very portions which seem to be assigned to the religious, they order the use to belong to them and the ownership to others.”
Notes and citation
Summary: Objection: some parents give religious children equal shares, but only for life use.
- The chapter numeral “VI” (printed “YI”) is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): YI. Sed iniusti → Sed iniusti.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.28 (CSEL 8:277; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-28). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-28
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-28) · Report an error
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.
3.29CSEL 8:277
at uero hoc multo est peius et infidelius. tolerabilioris quippe inpietatis uidetur esse cum proprietate aliquem filiis suis minus relinquere quam proprietatem his rerum penitus auferre. potest enim aliquatenus ferri ista condicio, si aut amicis aut adfinibus aut propinquis hac lege aliquid relinquatur: filiis uero qui proprietatem rerum non tribuit nil relinquit. sed inuenit iniquissima infidelitas parentum, quomodo a patrimonio suo deum penitus excluderet, proprietatem rerum religiosis filiis auferendo. usum enim his dedit, ut esset quo ipsi uiuerent, proprietatem his tulit, ut quod deo relinquerent non haberent.
But this is much worse and more faithless. For it seems a more tolerable impiety to leave less to one’s children with ownership than to take ownership of the goods from them altogether. That condition can be tolerated to some extent if something is left under this law to friends or in-laws or relatives; but he who does not give his children ownership of the goods leaves them nothing. But the most unjust faithlessness of parents has found how to exclude God wholly from their patrimony, by taking ownership of the goods from their religious children. For it gave them the use, so that they might have something to live on; it took away ownership, so that they might have nothing to leave to God.
Notes and citation
Summary: Leaving religious children only the use of property is designed to keep it from God.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.29 (CSEL 8:277; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-29). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-29
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-29) · Report an error
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.
3.30CSEL 8:277–278
o nouum inreligiosae mentis ingenium! inuenit quo uideretur filiis suis maiore erga deum sua inpietate consulere. fecit enim ut sancta suboles usum rerum habens ius rerum non habens quasi locuples quidem uiueret, sed quasi mendica moreretur, ac sic testator infidelissimus plena de hoc mundo posset securitate discedere, cum sciret de suo ad deum penitus peruenire nil posse. quamuis in hoc ipso, quod supra dixi, per usum rerum aliquam filios religiosos opum imaginem possidere, ne hoc sit quidem, quia etsi usus uidetur aliquid habere, conscientia tamen non habet; nemo enim potest se uel breui diuitem credere, qui scit se proprium nil habere.
O new ingenuity of an irreligious mind! It has found how to seem to provide for its children by a greater impiety toward God. For it has made the holy offspring, having the use of the goods but not the right to them, live as if rich but die as if beggars; and so the most faithless testator can depart this world in full security, knowing that nothing at all of his can reach God. And yet even what I said above, that religious children possess some image of wealth through the use of the goods, is not really so; for though use seems to have something, the conscience has nothing: no one can believe himself rich even briefly who knows he has nothing of his own.
Notes and citation
Summary: Life-use without ownership lets children live rich but die beggars, and keeps all from God.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.30 (CSEL 8:277–278; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-30). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-30
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-30) · Report an error
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.
3.31CSEL 8:278
Quid agis, miserrima infidelitas et paganicae, ut ita dixerim, inreligiositatis error? itane tantum odisti deum, ut possis etiam filios tuos ob hoc tantum, quia ad deum pertinent, non amare? meliore enim condicione quidam relinquunt libertos suos quam tu relinquis filios tuos. in usu siquidem cotidiano est ut serui, etsi non optimae certe non inprobae seruitutis, Romana a dominis libertate donentur, in qua scilicet et proprietatem peculii capiunt et ius testamentarium consequuntur, ita ut et uiuentes cui uolunt res suas tradant et morientes donatione transcribant: nec solum hoc, sed et illa, quae in seruitute positi conquisierant, ex dominorum domo tollere non uetantur. tantum eis interdum gratia patronae liberalitatis inpertit, ut etiam iuri suo detrahat quod libertorum dominio largiatur.
What are you doing, most wretched unbelief, error of a, so to speak, pagan irreligion? Do you so hate God that you can fail to love even your children only because they belong to God? Some leave their freedmen in a better condition than you leave your children. For it is in daily practice that slaves, if not of the best, at least of no bad service, are granted Roman freedom by their masters, in which they both take ownership of their savings and gain the right to make a will, so that while living they may hand their goods to whom they wish and at death transfer them by gift; and not only this, but they are not forbidden to take from their masters’ house what they acquired while in slavery. Sometimes the kindness of patronal generosity grants them so much that it takes from its own right what it bestows on the freedmen’s ownership.
Notes and citation
Summary: Masters give freedmen full rights of ownership, more than such parents give their children.
- Roman freedom (full citizenship on manumission) gave the freedman full rights of property and testament. The chapter numeral “VII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): VII. Quid agis → Quid agis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.31 (CSEL 8:278; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-31). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-31
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-31) · Report an error
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.
3.32CSEL 8:278–279
quanto, o quisquis ille es infidelissime pater, quanto domini illi melius cum libertis agunt quam tu cum liberis! illi quae donant perpetuo iure donant tu temporario: illi testamenti faciendi arbitrium dant libertis tu tollis liberis: illi postremo seruos suos dant libertati tu quasi addicis filios seruituti. nam quid est aliud quam seruituti addicere quos non uis aliquid quasi ingenuos possidere?
How much, O most faithless father, whoever you are, how much better do those masters deal with their freedmen than you with your children! They give what they give by perpetual right, you by temporary; they give their freedmen the choice of making a will, you take it from your children; they, finally, give their slaves to freedom, you, as it were, sentence your children to slavery. For what else is it to sentence to slavery than not to want them to possess anything as freeborn?
Notes and citation
Summary: Such fathers treat their children worse than masters treat freedmen.
- Salvian plays on liberti (freedmen) and liberi (children).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (digit for the letter o): quanto, 0 quisquis → quanto, o quisquis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.32 (CSEL 8:278–279; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-32). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-32
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-32) · Report an error
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.
3.33CSEL 8:279
more ergo illorum uteris, qui seruos suos non bene de se meritos, quia ciuitate Romana indignos iudicant, iugo Latinae libertatis addicunt: quos scilicet iubent quidem sub libertorum titulo agere uiuentes, sed nolunt quidquam habere morientes. negato enim his ultimae uoluntatis arbitrio, etiam quae superstites habent morientes donare non possunt.
You follow, then, the custom of those who, judging slaves who have not deserved well of them unworthy of Roman citizenship, sentence them to the yoke of Latin freedom: they order them to live under the title of freedmen, but do not want them to have anything when dying. For, being denied the choice of a last will, they cannot give at death even what they have while alive.
Notes and citation
Summary: Like masters who grant only Latin freedom, such parents deny their children the right to bequeath.
- “Latin freedom” is the status of Junian Latins: freedmen who could not make a will; their property returned to the patron at death.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.33 (CSEL 8:279; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-33). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-33
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-33) · Report an error
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.
3.34CSEL 8:279
ita ergo et tu religiosos filios tuos quasi Latinos iubes esse libertos, ut uiuant scilicet quasi ingenui et moriantur ut serui, et iuri fratrum suorum quasi per uinculum Latinae libertatis adstricti, etiamsi uidentur arbitrii sui esse, dum uiuunt, quasi sub illorum tamen positi potestate moriantur. quid tantum, quaeso, sceleris in titulo esse religionis putas, ut ideo eos, qui religiosi sunt, filios tuos esse non credas, quia filii dei esse coeperunt? in quo tibi bonae uoluntatis quasi piaculo rei facti sunt, ut idcirco eos putes habendos esse peiores, quia optant esse meliores?
So you too order your religious children to be, as it were, Latin freedmen, so that they live as freeborn and die as slaves, and, bound to their brothers’ right as by the chain of Latin freedom, even if they seem their own masters while they live, they die as though placed under the others’ power. What great crime, I ask, do you think lies in the title of religion, that you do not believe those who are religious to be your children because they have begun to be children of God? In what way have they been made guilty before you of good will, as if of a sin, so that you think they must be held worse because they wish to be better?
Notes and citation
Summary: Religious children are treated as Latin freedmen and punished for seeking to be better.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray mark): quasi sub illorum tamen positi. potestate → quasi sub illorum tamen positi potestate.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.34 (CSEL 8:279; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-34). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-34
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-34) · Report an error
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.
3.35CSEL 8:279–280
Sed dicitis non eo a uobis animo hoc agi. quod unum est, ac si quispiam dicat malas res bono animo a se fieri et inpietatis facinus pia mente committi. quid prodest, o inhumanissimi parentes, quod filios religiosos bono a uobis dehonorari animo adseueratis? res ipsa hoc respuit res refellit. parum est quod nudis adsertionibus dicitis, ipsi actibus uestris contra uos testes estis. indignum ergo arbitramini, ut sancta ac placita deo pignora filiis mundo seruientibus conparentur? uerum est et bene arbitrabamini, si tamen arbitrio isto iuste et in diuersum uteremini, id est, ut conparandos bonis filiis. malos et peccatores sanctis non putaretis, et qui apud deum uita ac meritis antecellerent, idem apud uos gratia atque honore superarent.
But you say this is not done by you in that spirit. Which is just as if someone said that evil things are done by him with a good intention and a crime of impiety committed with a pious mind. What does it help, O most inhuman parents, that you assert your religious children are dishonored by you with good intention? The fact itself rejects this; the fact refutes it. What you say with bare assertions counts for little: you yourselves by your acts are witnesses against yourselves. Do you think it unfitting, then, that holy dear ones pleasing to God should be put on a level with children serving the world? That is true, and you would think rightly, if you used that judgment justly and in the opposite direction: that is, if you thought bad children not to be compared with good ones nor sinners with saints, and those who excel before God in life and merits also surpassed others before you in favor and honor.
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents claim good intentions, but their acts reverse the right order of honor.
- The chapter numeral “VIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): VIII. Sed dicitis → Sed dicitis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.35 (CSEL 8:279–280; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-35). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-35
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-35) · Report an error
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.
3.36CSEL 8:280
quid enim rectius quid magis iustum, quam ut qui meliores sunt idem etiam honoratiores essent, qui uincunt iudicio idem uincerent praemio, qui antistant in euangelio sacro idem quoque in testamento humano antistarent, et hac saltim re concordaret cum uoluntate Christi parentum pietas ac uoluntas, ut quos deus praeposuisset electione eosdem etiam parentes anteponerent dignitate. sed non solum hoc non agitur, sed in diuersum omnia aguntur. praeponuntur enim puris commaculati praeponuntur fidelibus inpii, praeponuntur lumini tenebrae praeponitur terra caelo, praeponitur mundus deo. et euasuros se huiusmodi parentes uel in hoc solo iudicium dei aestimant, qui cultum dei et dignitatem iudicii sui indignitate conculcant?
For what is more right, what more just, than that those who are better should also be more honored, that those who win by judgment should also win in reward, that those who stand first in the sacred gospel should also stand first in a human will, and that in this at least the affection and will of parents should agree with the will of Christ, so that those whom God had set first by choice parents too would set first in dignity? But not only is this not done; everything is done the opposite way. The defiled are set before the pure, the impious before the faithful, darkness before light, earth before heaven, the world before God. And do parents of this kind think they will escape the judgment of God even in this alone, who trample on the worship of God and the dignity of his judgment by such indignity?
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents reverse God’s order by preferring worldly children to holy ones.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): concordaret cram uoluntate → concordaret cum uoluntate.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.36 (CSEL 8:280; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-36). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-36
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-36) · Report an error
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.
3.37CSEL 8:280
Sed uidelicet non contemptu dei dicunt parentes haec a se fieri sed causa atque ratione. quibus enim, inquiunt, relictam substantiam relicturi sunt filios non habentes? dicam quibus, nec nominabo eos, quos supra dixi, pauperes dei, non alienos aut longe positos, ne durum aut inhumanum forte uideatur. illos dico caros et indiuiduos et quos recte etiam uos, qui multas suboles habetis, filiis antefertis: ipsos se inquam homines o infidelissimi parentes, ipsos se inquam dicimus. numquid potest cuilibet quidquam se ipso propius numquid carius inueniri? suam unicuique uestrum animam suam salutem suam spem commendamus.
But, no doubt, parents say that they do this not from contempt of God but for cause and reason. “For to whom,” they say, “will they leave the substance left them, since they have no children?” I will say to whom, and I will not name those I mentioned above, God’s poor, not strangers or those far off, lest it seem harsh or inhuman. I mean those dear and inseparable ones whom even you who have many offspring rightly prefer to your children: themselves, I say, O most faithless parents, themselves, I say, we mean. Can anything closer, anything dearer to anyone be found than himself? We commend to each of you his own soul, his own salvation, his own hope.
Notes and citation
Summary: The religious have heirs: their own souls.
- The chapter numeral “VIIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text; stray mark): VIIII. Sed uidelicet → Sed uidelicet; dicunt parentes. haec → dicunt parentes haec.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.37 (CSEL 8:280; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-37). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-37
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-37) · Report an error
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.
3.38CSEL 8:280–281
et pios uos esse dicitis, qui filios diligatis? nihil plane durius uobis nihil inhumanius, nihil tam ferum, nihil tam inpium dici potest, a quibus inpetrari omnino non potest ut uos ipsos ametis. pellem, inquit diabolus in scripturis sacris, pellem pro pelle et cuncta quae habet homo dabit pro anima sua. dilectissimam esse animam suam homini etiam diabolus non negauit, et qui auertere omnino cunctos ab affectu animarum suarum nititur, idem tamen carissimas esse debere cunctis animas confitetur.
And do you call yourselves affectionate because you love your children? Nothing can plainly be called harder, nothing more inhuman, nothing so savage, nothing so impious than you, from whom it cannot be obtained at all that you love yourselves. “Skin,” says the devil in the sacred Scriptures, “skin for skin, and all that a man has he will give for his soul.” Even the devil did not deny that his soul is most dear to man; and he who strives to turn all away from love of their souls confesses nevertheless that souls must be most dear to all.
Job 2:4 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Even the devil admits that a man values his soul above all.
- Job 2:4.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; words run together): esae dicitis → esse dicitis; ut uos ipsos ametispellem → ut uos ipsos ametis. pellem.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.38 (CSEL 8:280–281; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-38). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-38
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-38) · Report an error
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.
3.39CSEL 8:281
quis ergo furor est uiles a nobis animas uestras haberi, quas etiam diabolus putat esse pretiosas? quis. furor est uiles a nobis haberi, quas etiam ille caras uobis debere esse dicit, qui uiles facere conatur? ac per hoc quicumque animas suas neglegunt, etiam infra iudicium diaboli se amant. quae cum ita sint, uidete uos, qui putatis religiosos homines non habere quibus relinquant substantiam suam, uidete uel iuxta diaboli opinionem, uidete si non habent, qui se ipsos habent.
What madness, then, is it that your souls are held cheap by you, which even the devil thinks precious? What madness that they are held cheap by you, which even he who tries to make them cheap says ought to be dear to you? And so all who neglect their souls love themselves even below the judgment of the devil. Since this is so, see, you who think the religious have no one to leave their substance to, see, even by the devil’s opinion, see whether they have no one, who have themselves.
Notes and citation
Summary: Those who neglect their souls value themselves less than the devil does.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.39 (CSEL 8:281; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-39). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-39
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-39) · Report an error
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.
3.40CSEL 8:281–282
Sufficere quidem ad hanc negotii portionem, de qua nunc agitur, haec quae iam diximus satis arbitror: sed ostendi id nobis forsitan non solis uirtutibus rerum sed etiam auctoritatibus exemplorum desideretis. possim quidem dicere maiora exemplis omnibus dei esse mandata nec interesse ad augendam diuinorum uerborum auctoritatem, inpleant ea homines an non inpleant, quia uirtutem eorum ex domini certum est constare persona non ex seruorum oboedientia, nec addi eis nec decedere aliquid per nos potest, quorum honor per auctorem deum semper aequalis est.
I think what we have said is quite enough for this part of the business now in hand; but perhaps you may want this shown to us not only by the force of the facts but also by the authority of examples. I could indeed say that the commands of God are greater than all examples, and that it makes no difference to increasing the authority of the divine words whether men fulfil them or not, because their force is certainly grounded in the person of the Lord, not in the obedience of servants, and nothing can be added to them or taken from them by us, whose honor through God their author is always the same.
Notes and citation
Summary: God’s commands need no human examples, though Salvian will give some.
- The chapter numeral “X” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): X. Sufficere quidem → Sufficere quidem.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.40 (CSEL 8:281–282; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-40). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-40
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-40) · Report an error
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.
3.41CSEL 8:282
sed tamen si adiuuari se etiam exemplis hominum humana optat infirmitas, scilicet quo facilius etiam ipsa nunc faciat quae alios fecisse ante cognoscat, ostendimus primo libro haec, quae etiam nunc ab aliquantis Christi imitatoribus fiunt, non mediocriter sed abundanter, nec a paucissimis sed a populis, nec ab antiquissimis sed paene a recentissimis nuper esse conpleta. quid enim noui et adhuc prope in oculis constituti apostolorum actus loquuntur? omnes inquam qui credebant, habebant in unum omnia communia. et iterum: gratia quoque magna erat in illis omnibus; nec enim quisquam egens erat inter illos. quicumque enim possessores praediorum ac domorum erant, uendentes adferebant pretia uenditorum et ponebant ante pedes apostolorum. alibi quoque: et nemo ex eo quod possidebat suum proprium esse dicebat.
Yet if human weakness wishes to be helped also by the examples of men, so that it may more easily do now what it knows others did before, we showed in the first book that these things, which are still done even now by some imitators of Christ, were fulfilled not moderately but abundantly, not by very few but by whole peoples, not in the most ancient times but almost in the most recent. For what do the Acts of the Apostles, new and still almost before our eyes, say? “All,” I say, “who believed had all things in common.” And again: “Great grace was upon them all; for there was no one needy among them. For whoever were owners of lands and houses sold them and brought the price of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Elsewhere also: “And no one said that anything of what he possessed was his own.”
Acts 2:44 (quotation, high confidence) · Acts 4:33 (quotation, high confidence) · Acts 4:34 (quotation, high confidence) · Acts 4:35 (quotation, high confidence) · Acts 4:32 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The apostolic church held all things in common.
- Acts 2:44; 4:33–35; 4:32.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (line-break hyphen; stray mark): imita-toribus → imitatoribus; s.uum proprium → suum proprium.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.41 (CSEL 8:282; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-41). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-41
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-41) · Report an error
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.
3.42CSEL 8:282
atque hoc non paruus credentium numerus, ne quem forsitan minus scriptorum auctoritas moueat, dum putant exempla esse paucorum. quae fuerit quippe tunc multitudo ecclesiae principalis uel ex hoc solo agnosci potest, quod in principiis statim ipsis octo hominum milia biduo ecclesiae accessisse referuntur, pateatque aestimationi, quae ceteris diebus uniuersi generis multitudo concreuerit, ubi duo tantummodo dies praeter disparem aetatem pariter ac sexum tantam uirorum copiam procrearunt.
And this was no small number of believers, lest the authority of the writings move someone less because he thinks these are the examples of a few. How great the multitude of the first church was then can be known from this alone, that at the very beginning eight thousand men are reported to have joined the church in two days; and it is open to estimate what a multitude of every kind grew on the other days, when only two days, apart from differences of age and sex, produced so great a number of men.
Acts 2:41 (allusion, high confidence) · Acts 4:4 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The first church was very large: eight thousand joined in two days.
- Acts 2:41 (three thousand) and 4:4 (five thousand men).
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.42 (CSEL 8:282; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-42). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-42
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-42) · Report an error
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.
3.43CSEL 8:282–283
unde cum et tam innumerabilis iam tunc et tam perfecta plebs fuerit, quaero a uobis, cum quibus loquor, cuncti parentes, in illis tot ac tantis tunc credentium milibus, tanta fidei perfectione uiuentibus, omnesne cum filiis an omnes sine filiis fuerint? neutrum, opinor; nulla enim ecclesiae plebs est non de utroque permixta. intellegere ergo possunt quicumque ex Christianis filios non habent, cui relinquere substantias suas debeant, cum uideant cui reliquerint tunc illi filios non habentes. sin autem habent, discant quid etiam ipsos oporteat facere, cum uideant tunc parentes amorem dei filiis praetulisse.
Since the people was then already so innumerable and so perfect, I ask you, all parents with whom I am speaking: among those so many thousands of believers then, living in such perfection of faith, were all with children, or all without children? Neither, I think; for no church congregation is not mixed of both. So whoever among Christians has no children can understand to whom they ought to leave their substance, when they see to whom those without children then left it. And if they have children, let them learn what they too ought to do, when they see that parents then preferred the love of God to their children.
Notes and citation
Summary: The first believers, with or without children, gave up their goods for God.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.43 (CSEL 8:282–283; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-43). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-43
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-43) · Report an error
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.
3.44CSEL 8:283
habet igitur omnis aetas habet omnis condicio quod sequatur: quicumque est particeps fidei participem se beati faciat exempli. si illi tunc ob deum donantes omnia sua etiam se ipsos exheredauere uiuentes, discite uos, quaesumus, bona uestra uel ipsi hereditare morientes. oportet quippe uos, mihi credite, etiam inter filios uestros salutis animarumque uestrarum non obliuisci. propinqua enim uestra pignora esse uobis et coniunctissima satis certum est: sed, mihi credite, nemo uobis propinquior, nemo coniunctior quam uos ipsi. amate itaque, non obsistimus, amate filios. uestros, sed tamen secundo a uobis gradu: ita illos diligite, ne uos odisse uideamini; inconsultus namque et stultus amor est alterius memor et sui inmemor. non accipiet, inquit scriptura sacra, iniquitatem patris filius, neque pater accipiet iniquitatem filii sui. et apostolus unus quisque, inquit, proprium onus suum portabit.
Every age, then, every condition has something to follow: whoever shares in the faith should make himself a sharer in the blessed example. If they then, giving all they had for God, disinherited even themselves while alive, learn, we beg, at least to make yourselves heirs of your own goods when dying. For you must, believe me, not forget your salvation and your souls even among your children. It is certain enough that your dear ones are near and very closely joined to you; but, believe me, no one is nearer to you, no one more closely joined, than yourselves. Love, then, we do not oppose it, love your children, but in the second rank after yourselves: love them so that you do not seem to hate yourselves; for that love is ill-advised and foolish which remembers another and forgets itself. “The son,” says sacred Scripture, “shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of his son.” And the apostle: “Each one,” he says, “will bear his own burden.”
Ezek 18:20 (quotation, high confidence) · Gal 6:5 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents may love their children, but second after their own souls.
- Ezek 18:20; Gal 6:5.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip): habet igitur omms → habet igitur omnis.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.44 (CSEL 8:283; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-44). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-44
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-44) · Report an error
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.
3.45CSEL 8:283–284
Relictae itaque filiis diuitiae parentes non liberant de mendicitate, immo relicta inmoderate filiis facultas parentum est sempiterna mendicitas, ac per hoc nulli parentibus magis noxii quam filii nimis amati. dum enim illi patriis bonis afluunt, parentes in sempiternitate cruciantur. etiamsi tam pius sit filius, ut refrigerandi supplicii paterni gratia communicare cum patre postea bona relicta cupiat, non ualebit: reddere siquidem post mortem patri pietas filii non poterit quod unicuique indeuotio sua et infidelitas denegarit.
So riches left to children do not free parents from beggary; rather, means left immoderately to children are the parents’ everlasting beggary, and so none are more harmful to parents than children loved too much. For while they abound in their father’s goods, the parents are tormented in eternity. Even if a son is so devoted that, to cool his father’s punishment, he wishes afterwards to share the goods left with his father, he will not be able: for a son’s devotion cannot give back to a father after death what each man’s own lack of devotion and unbelief has denied him.
Notes and citation
Summary: Riches left to children cannot help parents after death.
- The chapter numeral “XI” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): XI. Relictae itaque → Relictae itaque.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.45 (CSEL 8:283–284; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-45). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-45
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-45) · Report an error
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.
3.46CSEL 8:284
ideoque iuxta apostolum unus quisque sarcinas suas cogitet, quia unus quisque hominum sua onera portabit. flammae infelicium mortuorum diuitiis non refrigerantur heredum. diues ille in euangelio, qui purpura induebatur et bysso, absque dubio qui locuples in hoc saeculo ipse fuerat, etiam heredes suos morte ditarat. sed nequaquam hoc ei proderat, quod opibus ac talentis eius germani diuites incubabant, et ille guttam refrigerii inpetrare non poterat. illi erant in abundantia sed ille in egestate, illi in gratulatione sed ille in dolore, illi in diuitiis sed ille in tormentis, illi fortasse iugiter in luxuria sed ille semper in flamma.
So, according to the apostle, let each consider his own loads, because each man will bear his own burdens. The flames of unhappy dead men are not cooled by the riches of their heirs. That rich man in the gospel who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who no doubt had been wealthy in this age himself, had also enriched his heirs by his death. But it helped him not at all that his rich brothers brooded over his wealth and talents, and he could not obtain a drop of refreshment. They were in abundance but he in want, they in rejoicing but he in pain, they in riches but he in torments, they perhaps continually in luxury but he always in flame.
Gal 6:5 (allusion, high confidence) · Luke 16:19 (allusion, high confidence) · Luke 16:28 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The rich man of Luke 16 left wealth to his brothers but could not obtain a drop of water.
- Gal 6:5; Luke 16:19–28.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.46 (CSEL 8:284; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-46). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-46
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-46) · Report an error
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.
3.47CSEL 8:284
O infelix et miseranda condicio! bonis suis aliis praepararat beatitudinem sibi adflictionem, aliis gaudia sibi lacrimas, aliis uoluptatem breuem sibi ignem perennem. ubi erant tunc adfines ubi propinqui, ubi uel filii, si habuerat, uel germani, quorum meminerat et quos certe tanto amore dilexerat, ut eorum ne in supplicio quidem positus obliuisceretur? quid ei proderant quid suffragabantur?
O unhappy and pitiable condition! With his goods he had prepared blessedness for others and affliction for himself; joys for others and tears for himself; brief pleasure for others and everlasting fire for himself. Where then were his in-laws, where his relatives, where his children, if he had any, or his brothers, whom he remembered and whom he certainly loved with such love that he did not forget them even when placed in torment? What did they help him, what support did they give?
Luke 16:28 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The rich man’s relatives, whom he remembered even in torment, could not help him.
- Luke 16:27–28.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (digit for the letter O): 0 infelix et miseranda → O infelix et miseranda.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.47 (CSEL 8:284; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-47). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-47
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-47) · Report an error
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.
3.48CSEL 8:284–285
torquebatur infelix et opes suas aliis deuorantibus ille refrigerii guttam ardens petebat et inpetrare non poterat. et hoc, si quid addi ad poenam potest, per illum sibi tribui postulabat, quem aliquando contempserat, per illum, qui in pure ac sanie conputruerat, per illum, cuius faetorem ac squalorem longe refugerat, qui membrorum suorum ulceribus canes pauerat, quem scatentes uermium globi etiam intra recessus peresi corporis exararant. o grauis nimium et lugenda condicio!
The unhappy man was tormented, and while others devoured his wealth, burning, he begged a drop of refreshment and could not obtain it. And, if anything can be added to the punishment, he asked that it be given him through the one he had once despised, through the one who had rotted in pus and gore, the one whose stench and filth he had shunned from afar, who had fed dogs with the sores of his limbs, whom swarming masses of worms had furrowed even in the recesses of his eaten body. O condition too grievous and lamentable!
Luke 16:21 (allusion, high confidence) · Luke 16:24 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The rich man begged relief through the very Lazarus he had despised.
- Luke 16:20–24.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.48 (CSEL 8:284–285; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-48). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-48
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-48) · Report an error
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.
3.49CSEL 8:285
pauper beatitudinem emit mendicitate diues supplicium facultate: pauper, cum penitus nil haberet, emit aeternas diuitias egestate. o quanto, has facilius tam multa rerum possessione diues potuerat conparare, qui inter tormenta aestuans et inter supplicia proclamans: pater, inquit, Abraham, miserere mei et mitte Eleazarum, ut intinguat extremum digiti sui in aqua, ut refrigeret linguam meam, quia crucior in hac flamma. non horrebat tunc scilicet diues ille Eleazari quondam pauperis manum nec dedignabatur auxilium: inseri eius digitos ori suo et mitigari intolerandas faucium flammas illius pridem faetidae ac squalentis manus munere postulabat. o quanta rerum mutatio facta fuerat! tangi tunc ab eo desiderabat, quem etiam uidere ante despexerat.
The poor man bought blessedness by beggary, the rich man punishment by his means; the poor man, though he had nothing at all, bought eternal riches by want. O how much more easily could the rich man, with so great a possession of goods, have purchased them, who, burning amid torments and crying out amid punishments, said: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.” Then, no doubt, that rich man did not shudder at the hand of Lazarus, once a poor man, nor disdain his help: he asked that his fingers be put into his mouth and that the unbearable flames of his throat be soothed by the service of that once foul and filthy hand. O how great a change of things had taken place! He then desired to be touched by one whom he had before disdained even to look at.
Luke 16:24 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The rich man now longed for the touch of the poor man he had despised.
- Luke 16:24 (the Latin text names him Eleazarus).
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.49 (CSEL 8:285; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-49). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-49
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-49) · Report an error
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.
3.50CSEL 8:285
Haec ergo diuites cogitent, qui redimere facultatibus suis nolunt, ne ista patiantur. diues fuit ille, de quo nunc loquimur, diuites sunt et isti, ad quos nunc loquimur. unius sunt nominis: caueant ne sint etiam condicionis unius. non liberabunt enim filii diuites parentes reos, nec restinguet flammas miseri testatoris deliciis afluentibus opulentus heres. durum est ab aliquo filiis ac propinquis parum relinqui:
Let the rich, then, think of these things, who will not redeem themselves with their means so as not to suffer them. He of whom we now speak was rich; rich too are these to whom we now speak. They share one name; let them beware lest they share one condition too. For rich children will not free guilty parents, nor will the opulent heir, abounding in delights, put out the flames of the wretched testator. It is hard for someone to leave little to children and relatives:
Notes and citation
Summary: Today’s rich share the name of the rich man and risk his fate.
- The sentence continues in 3.51. The chapter numeral “XII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): .XII. Haec ergo diuites → Haec ergo diuites.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.50 (CSEL 8:285; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-50). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-50
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-50) · Report an error
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.
3.51CSEL 8:285–286
multo est durius in aeternitate torqueri. opinor enim diuitem illum, cum torqueretur, non tantum delectabant opes heredis. sui quantum angebant tormenta corporis sui, non tantum delectabat quod heres suus bene epulabatur quam angebat quod ipse male cruciabatur, non tantum delectabat quod heres suus in exquisitis deliciis afluebat quam angebat quod ipse intolerandis ignibus defluebat, non tantum delectabat quod heres suus pascebat parasitos et helluones copiis suis quantum angebat quod ipse pascebat flammas medullis suis.
it is much harder to be tormented in eternity. For I think that rich man, when he was tormented, was not so much delighted by his heir’s wealth as he was tortured by the torments of his own body; not so much delighted that his heir feasted well as tortured that he himself was cruelly racked; not so much delighted that his heir abounded in exquisite delights as tortured that he himself was melting in unbearable fires; not so much delighted that his heir fed parasites and gluttons with his supplies as tortured that he himself fed the flames with his own marrow.
Notes and citation
Summary: In torment, the rich man’s pain far outweighed any pleasure in his heirs’ wealth.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.51 (CSEL 8:285–286; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-51). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-51
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-51) · Report an error
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.
3.52CSEL 8:286
et puto, si quis ei tunc optionis copiam praestitisset, utrumne mallet diuites heredes suos esse an se in miseriis tormentisque non esse, uoluerat profecto illos omnibus bonis alienari, dummodo ille posset malis omnibus liberari, uoluerat offerre omnia quae possederat, dummodo euaderet quae perferebat, uoluerat cunctam illam substantiam quam habuerat temporales argenti et auri thesauros pro se dare, ut iuges suppliciorum inmortalium cruces et perenne illud incendium superiecta, si quo modo posset, diuitiarum suarum mole restingueret et exundantes ignium globos opposita ingentium facultatum inmensitate prohiberet.
And I think that, if someone had then given him the choice whether he would rather his heirs be rich or himself not be in miseries and torments, he would certainly have wanted them stripped of all goods, provided he could be freed from all evils; he would have wanted to offer all he had possessed, provided he could escape what he was enduring; he would have wanted to give for himself all that substance he had, the temporal treasures of silver and gold, so that, if in any way he could, he might put out the continual crosses of immortal punishments and that everlasting burning by throwing the mass of his riches upon them, and hold back the overflowing balls of fire by setting against them the immensity of his huge means.
Notes and citation
Summary: Given the choice, the rich man would have given all his wealth to escape torment.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.52 (CSEL 8:286; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-52). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-52
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-52) · Report an error
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.
3.53CSEL 8:286
et quid dicam uoluisse eum, ut interminabile illud malum redimeret facultatibus suis? plus dico aliquid: uoluerat omnem substantiam suam tradere, ut posset sibi in flammis situs unius saltim horae requiem conparare. desiderans enim ad mitigandas faucium flammas uel tinctum aqua pauperis digitum quomodo non quantolibet pretio mercari requiem praeoptauerat, qui paruam refrigerii guttam tam magno ambitu postulabat?
And why should I say he would have wanted to redeem that endless evil with his means? I say something more: he would have wanted to hand over all his substance if, placed in the flames, he could have bought himself the rest of a single hour. For desiring, to soothe the flames of his throat, even the poor man’s finger dipped in water, how would he not have chosen to buy rest at any price at all, who begged a small drop of refreshment with such great entreaty?
Luke 16:24 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: He would have paid anything for even an hour’s relief.
- Luke 16:24.
Topics: Ethics, Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.53 (CSEL 8:286; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-53). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-53
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-53) · Report an error
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.
3.54CSEL 8:286–287
sed iam ista quid proderant aut quid iuuabat miserum quod tunc pro se offerre omnia uolebat, qui male ante noluerat? uel quid tunc proderat quod dare cuncta cupiebat, quae iam amiserat, qui nihil tunc pro se dederat, quando omnia possidebat? sera quippe, ut ait in scripturis spiritus sanctus, sera est paenitentia mortuorum. quomodo? non est enim, inquit ad deum patrem sermo diuinus, non est in morte qui memor sit tui: in inferno autem quis confitebitur tibi?
But what use were these things then, or what did it help the wretch that he then wished to offer all for himself, who earlier had wickedly refused? Or what use was it then that he desired to give everything, which he had already lost, who had given nothing for himself when he possessed everything? For late, as the Holy Spirit says in the Scriptures, late is the repentance of the dead. How so? “For there is no one,” says the divine word to God the Father, “there is no one in death who remembers you; and in hell who will confess to you?”
Ps 6:5 (6:6 Vulg.) (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Repentance after death is too late.
- “Late is the repentance of the dead” is not found in the Bible in this form; its source is uncertain. Ps 6:5 (Vulgate 6:6).
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.54 (CSEL 8:286–287; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-54). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-54
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-54) · Report an error
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.
3.55CSEL 8:287
excludi penitus a confessione peccati peccatorem mortuum protestatur nec posse esse quemquam postea dei memorem, qui in hac uita sui fuerit oblitus. adeo omnis ei spes penitus absciditur et omnis uitae aditus obseratur, ut, cum una sit reo salutis uia preces ad deum fundere et caelestem misericordiam incessabiliter orare, etiam hac peccator letiferae obliuionis animaduersione damnetur, ut ei nec memoria quidem dei, a quo sperare debeat, relinquatur.
It declares that the dead sinner is wholly shut out from confession of sin, and that no one can afterwards remember God who forgot himself in this life. So completely is every hope cut off from him and every approach to life barred, that, since the one way of salvation for the guilty is to pour out prayers to God and unceasingly to beg heavenly mercy, the sinner is condemned even from this by the punishment of a deadly forgetfulness, so that not even the memory of God, from whom he should hope, is left to him.
Ps 6:5 (6:6 Vulg.) (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The dead sinner cannot even remember God to pray to him.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR slip; stray mark): obserate, ut → obseratur, ut; a quo sperare debeat. relinquatur → a quo sperare debeat, relinquatur.
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.55 (CSEL 8:287; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-55). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-55
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-55) · Report an error
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.
3.56CSEL 8:287
haec ergo cogitent qui, dum filios habere post mortem diuites cupiunt, futurorum suppliciorum nec in morte meminerunt: haec cogitent qui, ut in hac caduca et breui uita heredes diuites habeant, aeterna se ipsos morte condemnant. in quo quidem non tam illos amant quam se oderunt, quia non tam salubris amor est, qui breui consulit, quam graue odium, quod in aeternitate cruciabit. et ideo deus noster, ut in primo dudum libello diximus, disciplinam parentes thesaurizare iubet filiis non pecuniam, perennia praecipit non peritura conferre. scilicet quia res istiusmodi atque opus sanctum et filiis pariter et parentibus prosunt, filiis utique per disciplinae institutionem parentibus per munificentiae largitatem. et filiis enim hoc disciplina praestat, ut salutem capiant perpetuam, et parentibus largitas, ut mortem effugiant sempiternam.
Let them think of these things, then, who, while they desire to have rich children after death, do not remember future punishments even in death; let them think of these things who, to have rich heirs in this fleeting and brief life, condemn themselves to eternal death. In this they do not so much love them as hate themselves, because a love that provides for a short time is not as wholesome as a hatred that will torment in eternity is grievous. And so our God, as we said long ago in the first book, commands parents to lay up discipline for their children, not money; he directs them to bestow everlasting, not perishing, things. For such things, a holy work, profit children and parents alike: children through training in discipline, parents through the generosity of munificence. For discipline gives children this, that they gain perpetual salvation, and generosity gives parents this, that they escape eternal death.
Eph 6:4 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Parents should give children discipline and give their wealth for their own salvation.
- Refers back to 1.17–1.21; Eph 6:4.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.56 (CSEL 8:287; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-56). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-56
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-56) · Report an error
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.
3.57CSEL 8:287–288
Sed cui haec dicimus aut cur dicimus? ubi apertas aures aut uidentes oculos inuenire poterimus? omnes enim, ut de inpiis legimus, paene omnes declinauerunt, simul inutiles facti sunt; non est qui faciat bonum, non est paene usque ad unum. noua quippe amentia tam saeculares quam etiam quosdam religionem professos incessit homines. siquidem, ut dudum dicere coeperamus, iam non tantum filiis aut nepotibus, quod ob naturae necessitudinem ferri potest, sed etiam agnatis et cognatis, neque solum, ut - aiunt, ex directo sed etiam ex obliquo et ex transuerso, immo potius ex auerso peruersoque uenientibus res propriae facultatis, id est pretium suae redemptionis addicunt.
But to whom do we say this, or why do we say it? Where shall we be able to find open ears or seeing eyes? For all, as we read of the impious, almost all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is almost not even one. For a new madness has seized men, worldly ones and even some who profess religion. As we began to say before, they now assign the goods of their own means, that is, the price of their redemption, not only to children or grandchildren, which can be tolerated because of the bond of nature, but even to relatives on the father’s and on the mother’s side, and not only, as they say, in the direct line but also in the oblique and collateral lines, or rather to those coming from the averse and perverse line.
Ps 14:3 (13:3 LXX) (quotation, high confidence) · Rom 3:12 (quotation, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Even religious people now leave their redemption-price to distant relatives.
- Ps 14:3 (LXX 13:3); Rom 3:12. Salvian plays on the legal terms for lines of kinship. The chapter numeral “XIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): .XIII. Sed cui haec → Sed cui haec.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.57 (CSEL 8:287–288; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-57). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-57
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-57) · Report an error
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.
3.58CSEL 8:288–289
nec interest paene iam apud homines quibus consulant, dummodo sibi omnino non consulant. si qui enim ex istis, de quibus loquimur, morte adpropinquante filios non habent, quaerunt infidelissime quos aut propinquos aut adfines suos dicant, aut, si id forte deest, quaerunt saltim aliqua nouarum necessitudinum ficta nomina. nec interest, ut dixi, apud eos quorum meminerint, dummodo sui obliuiscantur: non interest quos amare se dicant, dummodo animas suas oderint, nec interest quos diuites faciant, dummodo se aeterna mendicitate consumant.
And now it makes almost no difference to men for whom they provide, as long as they do not provide for themselves at all. For if any of those of whom we speak have no children as death approaches, they most faithlessly seek people to call their relatives or in-laws, or, if perhaps these are lacking, they seek at least some feigned names of new relationships. Nor does it matter to them, as I said, whom they remember, as long as they forget themselves; it does not matter whom they say they love, as long as they hate their own souls; nor does it matter whom they make rich, as long as they consume themselves in eternal beggary.
Notes and citation
Summary: The childless invent relatives to inherit rather than provide for their souls.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.58 (CSEL 8:288–289; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-58). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-58
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-58) · Report an error
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.
3.59CSEL 8:289
O infelicitas o insania! quid tantum, quaeso, de se miserrimi omnium male promeruerunt, ut dum aliorum uoluptatibus seruiunt, se perpetuo persequantur! uideas enim a quibusdam infelicissima uanitate inuestigari quosdam nouos ac nobiles propinquos, uideas incognitarum agnationum pudenda nomina et recentium ac praepotentium adfinitatum ridicula commenta, cum dicat quis de aliquo adoptiuo ac subitaneo propinquo: illum heredem facio parentem meum: aut quaecumque sanctae professionis uidua uel puella: illum heredem scribo proximum meum. ac sic quidam quos in omni uita quasi extraneos alienosque habuerant subito in extremis propinquos habent, et qui extranei semper fuere uiuentium parentes esse incipiunt mortuorum.
O unhappiness, O madness! How, I ask, have these most wretched of all deserved so ill of themselves that, while serving the pleasures of others, they persecute themselves forever! For you may see some, with most unhappy vanity, searching out new and noble relatives; you may see the shameful names of unknown kinships and ridiculous inventions of recent and very powerful connections, when someone says of some adopted and sudden relative: “I make that man my kinsman my heir”; or some widow or girl of holy profession: “I write that man, my nearest, as heir.” And so some suddenly at the end have as relatives those whom all their life they had held as outsiders and strangers, and those who were always strangers to the living begin to be kin of the dead.
Notes and citation
Summary: People invent noble kinships at death to choose heirs, even widows and virgins of holy profession.
- The chapter numeral “XIIII” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked; digit for the letter O): XlIII. 0 infelicitas → O infelicitas.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.59 (CSEL 8:289; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-59). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-59
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-59) · Report an error
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.
3.60CSEL 8:289
introducunt enim repente in testamentum quos numquam introduxere in affectum, et hoc maxime, ut dixi, aut locupletes aut nobiles aut honoratos et qui nisi potentes essent, parentes forsitan non fuissent. ridicula miseri testatoris ambitio, dans censum propriae facultatis ad conparandum mendacium propinquitatis, emens pretio hereditatis nomen heredis et totis patrimonii sui uiribus hoc elaborans, ne se ille, qui heres scribitur, parentem neget, et ut testator infelicissimus stultissima ac miserrima uanitate facto herede nobili, qui in uita sua humilior esse uisus est, honoratior in morte esse uideatur. o caecitas o insania!
For they suddenly bring into their will those whom they never brought into their affection, and this especially, as I said, the rich or noble or holders of office, who, if they were not powerful, would perhaps not have been relatives. Ridiculous ambition of the wretched testator, paying out the value of his own means to purchase a lie of kinship, buying the name of heir at the price of the inheritance, and laboring with the whole strength of his patrimony that the one who is written heir may not deny being his relative, and that the most unhappy testator, by the most foolish and wretched vanity of making a noble his heir, may seem more honored in death who seemed lower in his life. O blindness, O madness!
Notes and citation
Summary: Testators buy noble pseudo-relatives with their inheritances to gain honor in death.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray bracket; stray mark): nomen heredis) et → nomen heredis et; ne se ille,. qui → ne se ille, qui.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.60 (CSEL 8:289; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-60). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-60
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-60) · Report an error
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.
3.61CSEL 8:290
quanto studio, infelicissimi homines, id efficitis, ut miseri in aeternitate sitis! quanto minore cura minore ambitu id uobis praestare potuistis, ut semper beati esse possitis! cuius quidem rei causam aliam omnino inuenire non possum nisi solam tantummodo incredulitatem atque perfidiam, id est, quod aut iudicandos se a deo homines esse non putant aut resurrecturos omnino esse non credunt. nemo est enim qui resurrecturum se et iudicandum a deo de operibus bonis ac malis certus sit, qui non uel spei ac beatitudini suae praestet, ut pro bonis rebus perennia bona capiat, uel timori atque discrimini, ne pro malis mala aeterna patiatur.
With what zeal, most unhappy men, you bring it about that you are wretched in eternity! With how much less care, less effort, you could have ensured that you might always be blessed! I can find no other cause of this at all except only unbelief and faithlessness: that is, that men either do not think they will be judged by God or do not believe they will rise at all. For there is no one who is certain that he will rise and be judged by God for good and evil works who does not attend either to his hope and blessedness, so as to receive everlasting goods for good deeds, or to his fear and danger, so as not to suffer eternal evils for evil deeds.
Notes and citation
Summary: The cause of such conduct is unbelief in judgment and resurrection.
Topics: Eschatology
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.61 (CSEL 8:290; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-61). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-61
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-61) · Report an error
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.
3.62CSEL 8:290
Sed abhorrere hoc uidelicet a Christiano nomine uidetur, ut dicatur futura non credere. quid ergo causae est ut, si credit quae dixit deus, non timeat quae minatur deus? si non credit uerbis quae dixit deus, non credat praemiis quae promittit deus? neque enim se probat promissionibus dei credere qui non sic agit, ut possit ad promissa a deo praemia peruenire.
But it seems, no doubt, abhorrent to the Christian name to be said not to believe in things to come. What reason is there, then, that, if he believes what God said, he does not fear what God threatens? If he does not believe the words God spoke, will he not believe the rewards God promises? For he does not prove that he believes God’s promises who does not act so as to be able to reach the rewards promised by God.
Notes and citation
Summary: Not acting on God’s promises and threats proves unbelief.
- The chapter numeral “XV” is removed.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (chapter numeral leaked into the text): XV. Sed abhorrere → Sed abhorrere.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.62 (CSEL 8:290; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-62). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-62
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-62) · Report an error
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.
3.63CSEL 8:290
in ipsa quippe hac vita hominum, si iudicandum se aliquis ab humana hac potestate et rapiendum ad tribunal terrenum esse cognouerit, aduocatos requirit patronos adhibet officialium gratiam fauoremque mercatur, et haec omnia metu iudicii futuri agit, cum tamen euentum iudicii conparare non possit. adeo etsi uictoriam emere ipsam non ualet, spem tamen uictoriae magno emit.
For in this human life itself, if someone knows that he is to be judged by this human power and dragged before an earthly tribunal, he seeks advocates, engages patrons, buys the favor and goodwill of the court officials, and does all this from fear of the coming judgment, although he cannot purchase the outcome of the judgment. So, though he cannot buy the victory itself, he buys the hope of victory at a great price.
Notes and citation
Summary: Men spend heavily to prepare for human trials whose outcome they cannot buy.
Topics: Ethics
Cite (SBL): Salvian, Eccl. 3.63 (CSEL 8:290; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-63). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/salvian-ad-ecclesiam/3-63
BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-salvian-ad-ecclesiam-3-63) · Report an error
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.