Letters 1.0–6.5

Siricius to Himerius, bishop of Tarragona, greeting. The report of your brotherliness addressed to our predecessor Damasus, of holy memory, found me already established in his see, because the Lord so ordained. When we read it with great care in an assembly of the brothers, we found as many things deserving rebuke and correction as we would have wished to learn were praiseworthy. And because it was necessary for us to succeed to the labours and cares of him whom by the grace of God we succeeded in honour, having first given notice, as was fitting, of my promotion, we do not refuse to give your inquiry a fitting answer on each point, as the Lord has deigned to inspire. For in view of our office we have no freedom to dissemble or to keep silent, on whom a greater zeal for the Christian religion lies than on all; we bear the burdens of all who are weighed down. Indeed, the blessed apostle Peter bears these things in us, who, as we trust, protects and guards us in all things as heirs of his administration.

In the very first part of your letter, then, you indicated that very many who had been baptized by the impious Arians are hastening to the Catholic faith, and that some of our brothers wish to baptize them again. This is not lawful, since the Apostle forbids it to be done, the canons oppose it, and the general decrees sent to the provinces by my predecessor Liberius, of venerable memory, after the council of Ariminum was annulled, prohibit it. Such persons we join to the assembly of Catholics, together with the Novatianists and other heretics, as was laid down in the synod, through the invocation of the sevenfold Spirit alone, by the laying on of the bishop's hand; this the whole East and West also keeps, and from this path it is by no means fitting for you to deviate hereafter, if you do not wish to be separated from our fellowship by synodal sentence.

There follows the unacceptable confusion, needing correction, about the different times for baptizing, as it has pleased each one. This is presumed by our fellow bishops (we say it with emotion) not on the ground of any authority but by rashness alone: so that indiscriminately and freely, on the feasts of the Nativity of Christ or of the Epiphany, and also of the Apostles or the Martyrs, innumerable people, as you assert, receive the mystery of baptism; whereas both with us and with all the churches the Lord's Pascha, together with its Pentecost, specially claims this privilege for itself. On these days alone in the year it is fitting for the general sacraments of baptism to be given to those who flock to the faith; and only to those chosen who have given in their names forty days or more beforehand and have been purified by exorcisms and daily prayers and fasts, so that the apostolic precept may be fulfilled, that the old leaven being purged out, a new lump may begin. Just as, then, we say that the reverence due to Pascha is in no way to be diminished, so we wish that infants, who cannot yet speak because of their age, or those who in any necessity have need of the sacred water of baptism, be helped with all speed, lest it tend to the ruin of our souls if, the saving font being denied to those who desire it, each one leaving this world lose both the kingdom and life. Whoever, too, has fallen into the danger of shipwreck, the attack of an enemy, the uncertainty of a siege, or despair in any bodily sickness, and asks to be helped by the one aid of faith, let them obtain the reward of the regeneration they seek at the very moment they ask. Let it suffice that there has been error on this point until now; now let all bishops hold the rule stated above who do not wish to be torn from the solidity of the apostolic rock on which Christ built the universal church.

It has been added too that some Christians, passing over to apostasy (which is wicked to say), have been profaned by the worship of idols and the pollution of sacrifices. These we order to be cut off from the body and blood of Christ, by which they had once been redeemed in being reborn. And if, coming to their senses, they should perhaps at some time be turned to lamentation, they must do penance as long as they live, and the grace of reconciliation is to be granted them at their very end; because, as the Lord teaches, we do not wish the death of the sinner, but only that he turn and live.

You asked further about the violation of marriage: whether a man may take in marriage a girl betrothed to another. We forbid this to be done in every way, because that blessing which the priest lays on a bride is, among the faithful, like a kind of sacrilege if it is violated by any transgression.

Your love has, not inappropriately, thought that the apostolic see should be consulted about those who, after doing penance, like dogs and swine returning to their former vomit and wallowing places, have again sought the belt of military service, the pleasures of the shows, new marriages, and forbidden intercourse, whose professed incontinence the sons born after their absolution have revealed. Concerning these, since they no longer have the refuge of penance, we have thought it should be decreed that they be joined with the faithful within the church only in prayer, and be present at the sacred celebration of the mysteries, though they do not deserve it, but be separated from the banquet of the Lord's table; so that, rebuked at least by this deprivation, they may both punish their own errors in themselves and give an example to others, that they may be drawn back from obscene desires. Yet to these, since they have fallen through the frailty of the flesh, we wish that help be given by the gift of the viaticum, through the grace of communion, when they begin to set out to the Lord. We judge that the same form is to be kept concerning women who after penance have bound themselves to such pollutions.

Moreover, some monks and nuns, having cast off their purpose of holiness, have sunk into such wantonness of licence that at first they mingled secretly, as if under the pretext of the monasteries, in unlawful and sacrilegious union, and afterwards, led into the abyss by despair of conscience, freely begot children from their unlawful embraces, which both the public laws and ecclesiastical rights condemn. We order, then, that these unchaste and detestable persons be expelled from the company of the monasteries and the assemblies of the churches, so that, shut up in their cells and bewailing so great a crime with continual lamentation, they may burn it away in the purifying fire of penitence, so that at least at death, out of regard for mercy alone, pardon may come to their help through the grace of communion.

Let us come now to the most sacred orders of the clergy, which, as your charity informs us, we find so trampled upon and confounded throughout your provinces, to the injury of our venerable religion, that we must say with the voice of Jeremiah: “Who will give water to my head, and to my eyes a fountain of tears, and I will weep for this people day and night?” If, then, the blessed prophet says that tears could not suffice him to mourn the sins of the people, with what grief can we be struck, when we are compelled to deplore the crimes of those who are in our own body, on whom above all, according to blessed Paul, the daily pressure and the care of all the churches unceasingly lie? “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” For we have learned that very many priests of Christ and Levites, long after their consecration, have begotten offspring both from their own wives and from shameful intercourse, and defend their crime by this plea: that in the Old Testament the power of begetting is read to have been granted to priests and ministers. Let whoever that follower of lusts and teacher of vices is tell me now: if he thinks that in the law of Moses the reins of luxury were loosed indiscriminately by our Lord for the sacred orders, why does he warn those to whom the holy of holies was entrusted, saying, “Be holy, because I too am holy, the Lord your God”? Why also were the priests commanded to live in the temple, far from their homes, in the year of their turn? For this reason, obviously: that they might not have carnal intercourse even with their wives, so that, shining with integrity of conscience, they might offer an acceptable gift to God. To them, when the time of their service was completed, the use of their wives had been relaxed solely for the sake of succession, because no one except from the tribe of Levi had been commanded to be admitted to the ministry of God. Hence also the Lord Jesus, when he had enlightened us by his coming, testifies in the Gospel that he came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it. And therefore he willed that the church, whose bridegroom he is, fair in form, should shine with the splendour of chastity, so that on the day of judgment, when he comes again, he may find her without spot or wrinkle, as he instituted through his apostle. By the indissoluble law of these ordinances all of us priests and Levites are bound, so that from the day of our ordination we give over both our hearts and our bodies to sobriety and chastity, provided that we please our God in all things in the sacrifices we offer daily. “But those who are in the flesh,” as the Vessel of election says, “cannot please God; but you are not now in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.” And where can the Spirit of God dwell except in holy bodies, as we read? And because some of those of whom we speak (as your holiness has reported) lament that they fell through ignorance, we say that mercy is not to be denied them on this condition: that without any advancement in honour they remain, as long as they live, in the office in which they were found, provided that hereafter they strive to show themselves continent. But those who rely on the excuse of an unlawful privilege, and assert that this was granted them by the old law, let them know that by the authority of the apostolic see they are cast down from every ecclesiastical honour which they have used unworthily, and can never handle the venerable mysteries, of which they deprived themselves while they gaped after obscene desires. And because present examples warn us to take precautions for the future, if any bishop, presbyter, or deacon (which we do not wish) is found such hereafter, let him understand now that every approach to indulgence through us is closed to him; for wounds that have not felt the medicine of poultices must be cut out with the knife.

We have learned also that men of unexamined life, who have even had numerous marriages, aspire licentiously and freely to the dignities mentioned, as it pleases each. We impute this not so much to those who reach these things by immoderate ambition as especially to the metropolitan bishops, who, while they connive at forbidden presumption, despise, as far as in them lies, the precepts of our God. And to say nothing of what we suspect more deeply, where is that which our God established in the law given through Moses, saying, “My priests are to marry once”? And in another place, “Let the priest take a virgin as wife, not a widow, not one divorced, not a harlot.” Following this, the Apostle, from persecutor become preacher, commanded that both a priest and a deacon must be made the husband of one wife. All these things are so despised by the bishops of your regions as if they had rather been established to the contrary. And because we must not neglect usurpations of this kind, lest the just voice of the indignant Lord rebuke us, which says, “You saw a thief and ran with him, and put your portion with adulterers,” we decree by a general pronouncement what is to be followed and what avoided by all the churches hereafter.

Whoever, then, has vowed himself to the service of the church from his infancy ought to be baptized before the years of puberty and associated with the ministry of the lectors. If he has lived approvedly from the onset of adolescence up to the thirtieth year of his age, content with one wife only, and her a virgin whom he received with the common blessing through the priest, he should be an acolyte and subdeacon; after which let him come to the grade of the diaconate, if he has first proved himself worthy by continence going before. If he has ministered there laudably for more than five years, he will fittingly obtain the presbyterate, and thence after ten years he may attain the episcopal chair, provided that through these periods the integrity of his life and faith has been approved.

But one who, already advanced in age and called by the conduct of a better purpose, hastens from being a layman to come to the sacred service, will not obtain the fruit of his desire unless, at the very time he is baptized, he is at once joined to the number of the lectors or exorcists; provided that it is established that he has had or has one wife, and that he took her as a virgin. When he has been initiated, after two years have passed, let him become an acolyte and subdeacon for another five years, and so let him be promoted to the diaconate, if he has been judged worthy through these periods. Thence, with the passage of time, he will not undeservedly obtain the presbyterate or the episcopate, if the choice of the clergy and people calls him.

Any cleric indeed who marries either a widow or a second wife is to be stripped at once of every privilege of ecclesiastical dignity, being granted lay communion only, which he may keep only if he commits nothing afterwards for which he would lose it.

We do not allow women to be in the houses of clerics other than those only whom the Nicene synod permitted to live with them solely for reasons of kinship.

Monks too, provided that seriousness of character and a holy ordering of life and faith commend them, we both desire and wish to be added to the offices of the clergy; in such a way that those who are under the thirtieth year of age are promoted in the lesser orders through each grade as time goes on, and so arrive at the insignia of the diaconate or presbyterate by consecration at a mature age, and do not at once ascend by a leap to the summit of the episcopate, unless the same intervals which we have set above for each dignity have been kept in their case.

It was right for us also to provide this: that, just as no cleric is allowed to do penance, so also after penance and reconciliation no layman may ever be allowed to obtain the honour of the clergy; because, although he has been cleansed from the contagion of all sins, those who were once vessels of vices ought not to take up any instruments for administering the sacraments. So if, through ignorance, a penitent, or a twice-married man, or the husband of a widow has been made a cleric, let them not be promoted.

And because for all these things that come under rebuke only the excuse of ignorance is put forward, which for the present we must mercifully acknowledge out of regard for compassion alone: any penitent, any twice-married man, any husband of a widow who has crept into the sacred service undeservedly and improperly, let him understand that pardon is granted him by us on this condition, that he should count it a great kindness if, every hope of promotion taken from him, he remains with lasting stability in the order in which he is found. And let the chief bishops of all the provinces know hereafter that if they think anyone of such men is to be taken into the sacred orders any more, a fitting sentence will be pronounced by the apostolic see both on their own standing and on that of those whom they have promoted against the canons and our prohibitions. We have set out, I think, dearest brother, everything that was laid out in complaint, and to each of the matters which you referred to the Roman church, as to the head of your body, through our son Bassianus the presbyter, we have given sufficient answers, as I believe. Now we urge the mind of your brotherliness more and more to keep the canons and to hold the decretal ordinances; so that you bring what we have written in reply to your inquiry to the notice of all our fellow bishops, and not only of those established in your diocese, but also that these things which we have arranged by a salutary ordinance be sent, accompanied by your letters, to all the Carthaginians and Baeticans, Lusitanians and Gallicians, and those who border on you in the neighbouring provinces on either side. And although no bishop of the Lord is free to be ignorant of the statutes of the apostolic see or the venerable definitions of the canons, yet it will be very glorious for your love, also in view of the antiquity of your episcopate, if the things that have been written to you by name but for all are brought through the care of your unanimity to the notice of all our brothers; so that what has been established by us not inconsiderately but providently, with great caution and deliberation, and for salvation, may remain inviolate, and access for all excuses in future, which can now lie open to no one with us, may be shut off. Given on the third day before the Ides of February, in the consulship of Arcadius and Bauto, most distinguished men (AD 385).

Siricius to his dearest brother Anysius.

Some time ago, dearest brother, through Bishop Candidianus, who has gone before us to the Lord, we had sent a letter to this effect: that no one should have licence to presume to ordain bishops in Illyricum without your consent. Whether it reached you I have not been able to learn. For many things have been done there through contention by bishops in carrying out ordinations, as your charity knows better. And therefore you must act with care, lest, as has happened, while they vie with one another in presuming to ordain unworthy men in one church, they appear to have made, as it were, three bishops. Your diligence must watch to suppress every audacity of this kind, with the Holy Spirit burning in you: so that either you yourself, if you can, or bishops whom you judge fit, sent with letters once your consent has been given, may ordain in the place of one who has died or been deposed a catholic bishop approved in life and conduct, according to the statutes of the synod of Nicaea, or a deserving cleric of the Roman church from the clergy.

Siricius to his dearest brothers and fellow bishops throughout Africa.

When many of us brothers had come together at the relics of the holy apostle Peter, through whom both the apostolate and the episcopate in Christ took their beginning, it was resolved, because of the very many cases that were arising, which in some instances were not cases but crimes, that for the future each one in the church should take care of matters of this kind, as the apostle Paul preaches, that a church must be presented to God "having no spot or wrinkle," lest our conscience should seem defiled by the breath of some diseased sheep. On this matter the better counsel prevailed. Chiefly for the sake of those who could not be present on this occasion because of bodily ill health or tired age, so that a perpetual pattern of this kind may be kept, it was resolved to send such a letter: not one that commands any new precepts, but one by which we desire that those things be observed which have been neglected through the sloth and idleness of some, things which nevertheless were established by apostolic and patristic constitution, as it is written: "Stand firm and hold our traditions, whether by word or by letter." This certainly ought to stir your minds more strongly, dearest brothers, so that we may come free from every stain of this world, and without anxiety, into the sight of God. For we shall not be free from guilt because we preside over peoples, since it is written: "To whom much has been entrusted, more will be required of him." Since, then, we are compelled to render account not for ourselves only but for the people entrusted to us, we must instruct the people to be humble by a godly discipline. For there have been some who, not holding to the statutes of our forefathers, have violated the chastity of the church by their presumption, following the will of the people and not fearing the judgment of God.

So, lest we seem in like manner to connive by silence and give our consent to such men, whereby we could incur the punishments of Gehenna, as the Lord says, "You saw a thief and ran with him, and you put your portion with adulterers," these are the things which henceforth, in view of the divine judgment, it is expedient for all catholic bishops to keep. I. First, that no one dare to ordain without the knowledge of the apostolic see, that is, of the primate. For that judgment is sound which is confirmed by the sentence of many. II. That one bishop should not presume to ordain a bishop, because of arrogance, lest the favour seem to have been granted by stealth. For this was laid down and defined in the synod of Nicaea (canon 4). III. Likewise, if anyone after the remission of sins has worn the belt of secular military service, he ought not to be admitted to the clergy. IV. That a cleric should not take as wife a woman, that is, a widow. V. That one who as a layman has married a widow should not be admitted to the clergy. VI. That no one should usurp the ordaining of a cleric from another church (Council of Nicaea canon 7, Antioch canon 22, Sardica canons 18 and 19). VII. That another church should not admit a cleric who has been cast out (Council of Nicaea canon 5, Antioch canon 6, Sardica canon 16). VIII. That those coming from the Novatianists or the Montenses be received by the laying on of hands, except those whom they rebaptize.

Besides this, we urge what is worthy and chaste and honourable: that priests and Levites should not have intercourse with their wives, because in the ministry they are occupied with the daily necessities of the ministry. For Paul writes thus to the Corinthians, saying: "Abstain, so that you may be free for prayer." If, then, abstinence is commanded to laymen so that they may be heard when they pray, how much more must a priest be ready at every moment, secure in the purity of cleanness, lest he have to offer the sacrifice or to baptize? If he has been defiled by carnal desire, what will he do? Will he excuse himself? With what shame, with what mind will he take it upon himself? With what conscience, by what merit does he believe that he will be heard here, when it has been said: "To the clean all things are clean, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean"? Therefore I exhort, I admonish, I ask: let this reproach be taken away, which even the Gentiles can rightly charge. Perhaps this is believed because it is written, "the husband of one wife." He did not say this of one persisting in the desire of begetting, but on account of the continence to come. For he who says, "I would that all men were as I myself am," did not refuse to admit those who were unmarried. And he declares it more plainly, saying: "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit."

If these things, then, brothers, are observed by all with full vigilance, ambition will cease, dissension will be quieted, heresies and schisms will not arise, the devil will find no room to rage, unanimity will remain, iniquity will be overcome and trodden underfoot, love will blaze with spiritual fervour, the peace proclaimed by the lips will agree with the will: the peace, surely, of our God, which the Saviour himself, when already near to his passion, commanded to be kept, and left us by hereditary right, saying: "My peace I give you, my peace I leave you"; and the saying of the Apostle, that we should remain in Christ of one mind, thinking the same thing, claiming nothing for ourselves through contention or empty glory, and pleasing not men but God our Saviour. If we are willing faithfully to obey all these precepts, the Lord will guard our bodies and our souls unto the day on which he will render to each according to his works. But if anyone, puffed up by the mind of his flesh, wishes to stray from this rule of the canon, let him know that he is cut off from our communion and will have the punishments of Gehenna.

Moreover, mercy must go with judgment. For we ought to stretch out a hand to those who are falling, and such as do not drag the one running into ruin. Given at Rome in a council of eighty bishops, on the eighth day before the Ides of January, after the consulship of Arcadius Augustus and Bauto, men of the highest rank.

Pope Siricius to the orthodox throughout the various provinces.

As we think on the fear of the divine judgment, dearest brothers, and that after this life each will receive according to what he has done, it was not lawful to keep silent about what comes up for complaint, but necessity commanded us to speak, as the prophet says: "Lift up your voice like a trumpet." And if I, who have the care of all the churches, should dissemble, I would hear the Lord saying: "You reject the commandment of God, so as to establish your traditions." For what else is it to reject the commandment of God than to delight more freely in establishing new things by private judgment and human counsel?

It has been reported, then, to the knowledge of the apostolic see, that against the church's canon some presume to introduce certain new observances of their own in matters that were so ordered by our forefathers that they ought not to be violated even by a light whisper, and, leaving aside the foundation, to wish to build on sand, though the Lord says: "You shall not move the boundaries which your fathers set." The holy Apostle too, the preacher of the New and Old Testaments, in whom Christ spoke, warns of this: "Stand firm," he says, "and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word or by letter." Therefore your sincerity sees how much great care and diligent concern priests ought to observe in the sacred ministries, or in our ordinations. Finally he says to Timothy: "Lay hands hastily on no one, nor share in other men's sins." This is recalled so that, after examination has been held, he who is called forward to receive the high priesthood may be the more commended by uprightness of conduct and by labour in the church: approved by judgment, not by favour; received by truth, not by influence; supported by apostolic order, not by headlong will.

On this matter, dearest ones, a letter of this kind came before your sincerity with the agreement of many brothers and fellow priests, so that, confirmed by your subscription, the regulation of the church's canon which was dealt with at Nicaea might remain confirmed and most firmly founded on its own merit: namely, that such men should be allowed to approach the church's order as apostolic authority commands, not such as I describe, or those who once gloried in being bound by the belt of secular military service. Men who, after they have exulted in worldly pomp, or have chosen to serve in the affairs of the state, or to handle the care of the world, having engaged the help of certain people and surrounded by the favour of their neighbours, are often thrust upon my ears so that they may be bishops, men who by tradition and the discipline of the gospel cannot be. With what strength has this been fought over on several occasions! But nothing of the kind could be extracted that reason does not compel. Let those to be ordained come even from far away, so that worthy men may be approved by the judgment both of the people and of ourselves.

How unlawful it is cannot be estimated, that some, instead of helping travellers (whether they pretend to be, or are, monks, as they call themselves), whose life we cannot know nor their baptism, whose faith is unknown and unproved to us, with their expenses, hasten at once either to make them deacons or to ordain them presbyters, or, what is more serious, do not fear to appoint them bishops. To them it seems a dearer thing to give a traveller expenses than the priesthood. Not being held back, they are lifted up into pride, and then quickly fall into faithlessness, because, as wanderers through the whole world, they are not taught the true faith in the churches.

Certainly this too should not be passed over: that what necessity caused by heretics once or twice brought in against the apostolic precepts is beginning to be presumed lawful as if by law, namely, to ordain inconsiderately as presbyter or deacon a neophyte or a layman who has held no church office: as if they were better than the apostles, whose precept they dare to change. And he who has not learned is compelled already to teach. Is no one of the clergy found fit? Is no one found among the deacons or among the other clerics who is held worthy of the priesthood, but a layman is asked for, to the condemnation of the church? I admonish that this be done no more. I proclaim that, having one faith, we ought also to think one thing in tradition, proving ourselves to have love, of one mind and in concord, peaceful in Christ and in the apostolic observances. And so, with the Father and his only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity of one divinity, as witness, I call on you to see that in these things the catholic faith and our discipline remain. Nor let anyone think that ordinations are made like earthly ones, since the priesthood is heavenly, so that the glory of the same dignity may remain to the faithful, and that, from now on, he may have nothing to accuse before the judgment seat of Christ.