Letters

Contents

Reading pages: 1.0–6.5 · 7.1–10.20

1. 1.0Siricius, newly bishop of Rome, answers the report Himerius of Tarragona had sent to Damasus, claiming to bear the burdens of all as Peter's heir.
2. 1.1Converts baptized by Arians are not to be rebaptized but received by the bishop's laying on of hands.
3. 1.2Solemn baptism is to be given only at Easter and Pentecost to prepared candidates, but infants and those in danger are to be baptized at once.
4. 1.3Apostates who sacrificed to idols are excluded from communion, must do penance for life, and are reconciled only at death.
5. 1.4Siricius forbids a man to marry a girl betrothed to another, since violating the betrothal blessing is like sacrilege.
6. 1.5Penitents who return to military service, the shows, new marriages, or sexual relations are barred from communion except as viaticum at death.
7. 1.6Monks and nuns who have broken their vows and had children are to be expelled and do penance, receiving communion only at death.
8. 1.7Siricius condemns priests and deacons who beget children after ordination, arguing from the Levitical priests' temple service that clergy must be continent, and sets penalties.
9. 1.8Siricius rebukes the Spanish metropolitans for ordaining men married several times, contrary to the law's and Paul's rule of one wife.
10. 1.9Siricius sets the stages and intervals of a clerical career from childhood lector to bishop, for a man married once to a virgin.
11. 1.10An adult convert may be ordained only if married once to a virgin, passing through the lower orders over set intervals.
12. 1.11A cleric who marries a widow or a second wife loses his rank and is reduced to lay communion.
13. 1.12Clerics may have in their houses only the women Nicaea allowed, their close relatives.
14. 1.13Worthy monks may be ordained, but must pass through each grade at the set intervals.
15. 1.14Former penitents may not be ordained; penitents, twice-married men, and husbands of widows ordained in ignorance are not to be promoted.
16. 1.15Penitents, twice-married men, and husbands of widows already ordained may keep their grade without promotion; Himerius is to circulate the decretal through Spain.
17. 4.0Greeting of Siricius's letter to Anysius, bishop of Thessalonica.
18. 4.1Siricius renews his order that no bishop be ordained in Illyricum without the consent of Anysius of Thessalonica, after rival ordinations had produced, in effect, three bishops in one church.
19. 5.0Greeting of the synodal letter of the Roman council of 386 to the bishops of Africa.
20. 5.1The council at Peter's tomb sends the African bishops a reminder of existing apostolic and patristic rules, neglected by some who follow popular will rather than God's judgment.
21. 5.2Eight rules for all catholic bishops: no ordination without the primate's knowledge; no bishop ordained by a single bishop; no former soldiers after baptism, no clerics marrying widows, no laymen married to widows in the clergy; no poaching or receiving of other churches' clerics; Novatianist and Montensian converts received by laying on of hands.
22. 5.3The council urges that priests and deacons abstain from intercourse with their wives, since they must always be ready to offer the sacrifice or baptize; 'husband of one wife' (1 Tim 3:2) is read as looking to future continence.
23. 5.4Keeping these rules will bring unity and the peace Christ left; anyone who departs from them is excluded from communion.
24. 5.5A closing word on mercy, and the date: a council of eighty bishops at Rome, 6 January 386.
25. 6.0Greeting of Siricius's circular letter on ordinations.
26. 6.1Siricius explains that his responsibility for all the churches compels him to speak against innovations.
27. 6.2Some are introducing new practices against the canons; ordinations, above all of bishops, must follow examination of life and service, not favour.
28. 6.3Men who served in the army or the civil service, or who seek office through patrons, are not to be made bishops; candidates should be approved by people and bishop.
29. 6.4Wandering men claiming to be monks, whose life, baptism and faith are unknown, must not be ordained deacons, presbyters or bishops; they should be helped with travel money instead.
30. 6.5Neophytes and laymen are not to be ordained presbyters or deacons directly, as had been done under pressure from heretics; clergy should be chosen from those already serving.
31. 7.1Siricius opens his letter to the church of Milan: the devil, enemy of chastity and fasting, is at work through new preachers.
32. 7.2The new heresy had been spreading in the church like a cancer until God broke its snare.
33. 7.3Jovinian's followers, under a Christian name, perverted the Scriptures' teaching on continence and published their views; a Roman presbytery condemned the writing, while the church accepts marriage and honours virginity more.
34. 7.4The Roman clergy unanimously excommunicated Jovinian and eight of his followers; Siricius sends the decision to Milan by three presbyters.
35. 9.1The writer declines to judge Bonosus himself, since the council of Capua (391) referred the case to the bishops of Macedonia with the bishop of Thessalonica, who act in the council's place.
36. 9.2When Bonosus asked Ambrose whether he might re-enter his church, he was told to do nothing against the Macedonian bishops' sentence; they, not the writer, must judge.
37. 9.3Bonosus was rightly condemned for saying Mary bore other children; her perpetual virginity belongs to the faith in Christ's virgin birth.
38. 9.4Christ's entrusting of Mary to John from the cross testifies to her lasting virginity: Jesus would not have separated her from Joseph if she was to bear Joseph's children.
39. 9.5The writer also defers to the Macedonian bishops on the case of Senecio, given to Bishop Bassus as a colleague, and other matters.
40. 10.1Opening of the Roman synod's replies to the bishops of Gaul: Christ commands us to ask, seek and knock for the truth, so the writer gladly answers their questions.
41. 10.2Some bishops have changed the fathers' tradition and fallen into heresy; the Gallic bishops' questions, first on chastity, will be answered in order.
42. 10.3A consecrated, veiled virgin who falls or marries is guilty of breaking her vow to Christ and must do penance for many years before pardon.
43. 10.4A girl who had resolved on virginity but was not yet veiled, and who marries without the blessing of the veil and the witness of family and clergy, is to do penance, as is the man; the Old Testament's stoning is now a spiritual exclusion.
44. 10.5Bishops, presbyters and deacons, who baptize and consecrate the body of Christ, are bound by Scripture and the fathers to bodily continence; a married cleric who begets children cannot preach chastity.
45. 10.6Presbyters, deacons and bishops must be continent always, since they may at any moment have to baptize or offer the sacrifice; if even pagans and the old priests abstained, married clergy who continue relations are unworthy of the mysteries.
46. 10.7A baptized man who has served in the army is unfit for the clergy, since he can hardly have avoided the shows, violence and injustice.
47. 10.8Only those who have kept chaste since baptism, or who are 'the husband of one wife', may be ordained; a man who sinned sexually after baptism owes penance and cannot become a priest, even if he later married.
48. 10.9One faith requires one tradition and one discipline in all churches; the question is not baptism itself but the fitness of its ministers.
49. 10.10At Easter presbyters and deacons baptize under the bishop; at other times, for the sick, only a presbyter may baptize, not a deacon, except once in necessity.
50. 10.11Anointing with exorcized oil before baptism need be done only once, at the third scrutiny; God's power works through it.
51. 10.12A man may not marry his deceased wife's sister: the levirate law concerned a dead brother's widow only for want of children, the Law curses union with a wife's sister, and the New Testament forbids what the patriarchs did.
52. 10.13Former magistrates who used the sword, torture or public shows must do penance and may not be made bishops; Nicaea excluded eunuchs and men fresh from public office; ordination must not be bought or won by popular favour.
53. 10.14Marrying an uncle's widow (or a cousin) is forbidden as a return to a parent's bed, which is sexual immorality, not marriage; a cleric who does so is deposed unless he puts it right.
54. 10.15Bishops must be chosen from the clergy after service in lower orders, not from neophytes.
55. 10.16A bishop who moves from his church to another is to be treated like a man who leaves his wife for another's and is to be deposed.
56. 10.17A cleric excommunicated by his own bishop may not be received, even to lay communion, by another church; a bishop who receives or promotes him shares his guilt and loses communion with the apostolic see.
57. 10.18Bishops must not ordain in another's diocese; Nicaea requires the metropolitan with at least three bishops to ordain a bishop; intruders risk their own office.
58. 10.19Laymen excommunicated after trial who have been ordained by another bishop must be removed, or their ordainers reported to Rome.
59. 10.20Closing: keeping these rules prevents schism and heresy and makes the nations confess that God is among us.