how can they think they are being helped? Where sins abound, grace shall also abound. For with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. With the Lord is the abundance of all things, because the Lord of hosts Himself is the King of glory. For the Apostle says: "All have sinned, and need the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to the shewing of his justice, for the remission of former sins, through the forbearance of God, for the shewing of his justice in this time; that he himself may be just, and the justifier of him, who is of the faith of Jesus Christ." For David says: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." A man is therefore cleansed from sin, and he who had fallen rises again by the grace of God, and remains in his former office, according to the aforesaid authorities. Let him see to it that he sin no more, so that the sentence of the Gospel may remain in him: Go, and sin no more. Hence the Apostle says: "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin; but present yourselves to God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of justice unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey, whether it be of sin unto death, or of obedience unto justice?" But thanks be to God, that you were the servants of sin, but have obeyed from the heart, unto that form of doctrine, into which you have been delivered. Being then freed from sin, we have been made servants of justice. I speak a human thing. For is not the sin of the one judging greater than that of the one who is judged? "Or thinkest thou, O man, that judgest them who do such things, and dost them, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and patience, and longsuffering? Knowest thou not, that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath, against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works: to them indeed, who according to patience in good work, seek A glory and honour and incorruption, eternal life; but to them that are contentious, and who believe not the truth, but believe iniquity, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek. But glory, and honour, and peace, to every one that worketh good." Avoid, brethren, not only holding the opinion which forbids mercy, but even hearing it, because mercy is better than all holocausts and sacrifices. We have replied briefly to your consultations, because your letters found us overburdened and preoccupied with other judgments. Given on the 8th day before the Ides of October, in the consulship of the most illustrious men, Antoninus and Alexander. B
YEAR OF OUR LORD CCXXXI. ST. URBAN I ROMAN PONTIFF NOTICE FROM THE LIBER PONTIFICALIS OF POPE DAMASUS
Urbanus, by nation a Roman, out of his father Pontianus, sat for four years, 10 months, and 12 days. C He succeeded to the see on 21 October, in the year of Christ's birth 226, which is the third year of the Emperor Alexander. Baronius, in the aforesaid year, last number. During his pontificate, Demetrius, Bishop of the Alexandrian Church, rightly and justly complains that Origen, who was subject to the Alexandrian Church, had been ordained by Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, as a voluntary eunuch against the canons of the apostles; and he correctly decrees and admonishes that Origen himself be reduced D to the rank of the laity and be suspended from the exercise of the presbyterate; later, he finally excommunicates him, because certain writings were thenceforth broadcast by him, or, as Origen himself excused it, published in his name, which were teeming with many heresies. See Baronius in the aforesaid year and those following. SEV. BIN.
[he] made all the sacred vessels of silver A, and added 25 silver patens. By his teaching he converted many to baptism and the faith; he brought even Tiburtius and Valerianus, a most noble man, the spouse of Saint Cecilia, as far as the palm of martyrdom. And through his admonitions and doctrine, many were crowned in martyrdom. He performed five ordinations in the month of December: nine priests, five deacons, and eight bishops for various places. He was buried in the cemetery of Praetextatus, on the Appian Way, on the 25th of May, and the episcopate ceased for 30 days.
ANOTHER NOTICE
(D. Coustant, *Epistolae Rom. pont.* I, 114.)Eusebius records in his *Chronicle* that this pope succeeded Callistus in the time of the Emperor Alexander. The same writer shows in *Hist.* lib. VI, c. 23, that he held the Roman pontificate for eight years. And we learn from the Bucherian catalogue that he governed the Church from the consulate of Maximus and Aelianus up to that of Agricola and Clementinus, that is, from the year of Christ 223 to 230. It is believed that he died on May 25th, the day on which the Church celebrates his memory. All these things, however, can be conveniently reconciled with each other, and with those matters we stated above regarding Callistus, if by the eight-year period of Eusebius we understand eight different consulships. For from the month of October in the year 223, around the end of which Callistus is thought to have been created pope, to the 25th day of the month of May in the year 230, when the death of Urban is recorded, eight A consulships are reckoned. But in the Bucherian Catalogue it is noted that he sat not only for 8 years, but also for 11 months and 12 days; in the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden, 8 years, 10 months, and 12 days; and in the Corbie manuscript, 9 years, 1 month, and 11 days. But because error easily creeps into numerical notes—so much so that for the eight years of Pope Urban, four are read in one Colbert manuscript and only three in a Fossatensis—it seems better to adhere to the consular note, by which Urban’s pontificate is defined in the Bucherian catalogue from the consulate of Maximus and Aelianus to the consulate of Agricola and Clementinus.
No genuine writing of Urban has reached us. Indeed, the letter circulating under his name has Isidore Mercator as its author, and therefore it should not be separated from his collection.
Baronius, in the year 233, no. 1, ascribes nine years to him.
(3) *[He] made all the sacred vessels of silver.* At this time the Church, besides the fact that it is asserted elsewhere, was accustomed to using not only glass but also silver chalices, in which it abounded, as may be learned from the little commentary of Gregory of Tours, which he wrote *On the Glory of the Martyrs*, where he says: “Many sacred ministerial vessels made of silver were found when that crypt was being re-excavated in which the faithful had been shut up while performing sacred rites.” Indeed, that the Roman pontiffs were accustomed at that time to offer the unbloody sacrifice of the Body and Blood of the Lord not only in silver but also in gold chalices, Prudentius indicates in his hymn on the deeds of Saint Lawrence, in the verses with which the persecutors questioned Saint Lawrence, as follows:
That this is the custom and art of your rituals, Handed down; this is the law of your covenant, That the priests delight to offer in gold, In silver cups, the smoking sacred blood: And with gold to stand by the nightly rites With fixed tapers.
Since, therefore, the glory of the Christian Church was increasing on this account, and Christ’s royal priesthood was being illuminated by these splendors and ornaments, it happened not without the divine B nod and counsel that the Emperor Alexander took it ill that gold and silver were being brought into the temples of the Gentile gods, and, as Lampridius reports, he frequently whispered those words of Persius: *In the temple, what does gold do?*
And finally, it seems to be a work of singular divine providence that gold and silver, already before then brought into the temples of the heathens, should be taken from there by Maximinus, the successor of Alexander, and that he should permit all that material suitable for coinage to be melted down: and so he willed to be done what is written in 1 Kings ch. 5, namely, that as the Ark of God drew near, Dagon, the god of the Philistines, should be broken; that the former should be exalted and the latter cast down; that the former should be filled with glory and honor, while the latter, cast down, should be stripped and despoiled of all its ornament and beauty; that the glory of the Christian religion should increase, and the honor of Gentile superstition diminished and utterly obscured. Baronius, year of Christ 233, nos. 2 and 3. See what we said above in the notes to the *Life of Zephyrinus*. Id.
(4) *Many were crowned in martyrdom.* He had instructed in the faith, baptized, and strengthened by his exhortation against the blow of the sword Tiburtius, Valerianus, and Maximus, along with Saint Cecilia; finally, he himself also, having suffered many things for the Church, was crowned with martyrdom by beheading, in the year of Christ 233, in the 10th year of the Emperor Alexander, on the 25th day of C May. Baronius, at the aforementioned place. Id.
POPE URBAN I
EPISTLE TO ALL CHRISTIANS
(Mansi, Concil. Collect., vol. I, p. 748.)
Regarding the fact that the Church now receives the possessions of the faithful and not the price of those same things as in the times of the apostles; and why high seats are prepared for bishops in churches; and that no one should communicate with those whom bishops excommunicate; and that no one should receive those whom they have in any way cast out. II. On personal life and for what reason the Church began to have possessions. III. If anyone tried to tear away the right of possession from the Church. IV. On episcopal chairs. V. That no one should communicate with those with whom the bishop does not communicate, nor receive those whom he has rejected. VI. On the pledge made in baptism, and on those who have taken up the communal life. VII. On the imposition of the bishop's hand.
URBAN, bishop, to all Christians, unto the sanctification of the Spirit, in obedience and sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, greeting. A It is fitting for all Christians, most beloved, to imitate Him whose name they have received. What does it profit, my brethren, says the apostle James, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Do not become many teachers, my brethren, knowing that you receive a greater judgment. For we all offend in many things. Whoever is wise and disciplined among you, let him show his operation from good conduct in the meekness of wisdom.
1. We know that you are not unaware B that a communal life has heretofore flourished among good Christians, and still the grace of God flourishes—and especially among those who are chosen into the Lord’s inheritance, that is, the clergy—just as it is read in the Acts of the Apostles: "And the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul, nor did anyone say that anything of what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them. And with great power did the apostles give witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And great grace was in them all. Neither was anyone needy among them. For as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things they sold, and laid them down before the feet of the apostles. And it was distributed to everyone, according to as anyone had need. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is by interpretation, the son of consolation, a Levite, a Cyprian born, having land, sold it, and brought the price and laid it at the feet of the apostles," and so forth. Seeing, therefore, the chief priests and others, and the Levites, and the rest of the faithful, that it could yield more utility if they handed over the inheritances and lands they were selling to the churches over which the bishops presided, in that by the expenses of these— C together with the 48 cities and their suburban lands—He granted them to them as His own heirs. It would certainly be ridiculous, that intense prohibition of the alienation of ecclesiastical goods decreed by many pontiffs and councils, if the Church had hitherto possessed no thing lawfully. Wherefore, what Christ says in Luke 14, that one cannot be His disciple unless he has renounced all that he possesses, is to be understood in the same way as that which follows: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." It is certain that any man is bound by divine law, not to hatred, but rather to the love of parents, children, wife, and his own life, if the love of these does not obstruct or prejudice the charity of God, whom we must love above all things; thus, if the possession of things calls the soul away from the worship of God, it is evil, and in that case clearly to be abandoned; but if, by providing food for the ministers, it promotes the same worship of God, the Church most usefully retains and exercises the ownership and possession of temporal goods for itself. See what we have said above in the notes to the 2nd epistle of Pius I. Bellarmine, lib. 1, *De clericis*, cap. 26. SEV. BIN.
A both for the present time and for future times, many more excellent things could be provided for the faithful who hold the common faith, than from their price; they used to sell estates and fields, and transfer them to the mother Churches, and live from their proceeds.
II. These assets have always been, still are, and must always be in the future, under the governance of individual parishes and the bishops who hold the place of the apostles. From these, the bishops and their faithful stewards, to all who wish to live a common life, ought to provide all things necessary, as best they can, so that no one among them might be found in need. For these assets are called offerings of the faithful, because they are offered to the Lord. Therefore, they ought not to be diverted to other uses than those that are ecclesiastical and for the aforementioned Christian brethren or the needy: because they are the vows of the faithful, and the price of sins, and the patrimony of the poor, and they were handed over to the Lord to fulfill the aforementioned work. If anyone (which God forbid) acts otherwise, let him see that he does not receive the condemnation of Ananias and Sapphira, and become guilty of sacrilege, just as those who defrauded the price of the aforementioned things, about whom it is written in the aforementioned Acts of the Apostles: *But a certain man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a field and kept back part of the price of the field, his wife being privy to it: and bringing a certain part, laid it at the feet of the apostles. But Peter said to Ananias: Why has Satan tempted your heart, that you should lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the field? While it remained, did it not remain to you? And after it was sold, was it not in your power? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. And Ananias hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost. And there came great fear upon all that heard. And the young men rising up, removed him; and carrying him out, buried him. And it happened about the space of three hours after, and his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in. And Peter answering her, said: Tell me, if you sold the field for so much? And she said: Yes, for so much. Peter* B *said to her: Why have you agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold the feet of them who have buried your husband are at the door, and they shall carry you out. Immediately she fell down at his feet and gave up the ghost. And the young men coming in, found her dead, and carried her out, and buried her by her husband. And there came great fear upon the whole Church, and upon all that heard these things.* These things, brothers, must be greatly avoided and feared: because the goods of the Church are not as if they were private property, but as common goods offered to the Lord, and must be faithfully administered with the utmost fear for no other uses than the ones mentioned above, lest those who divert them from the source where they were assigned incur the guilt of sacrilege, and lest they incur the punishment and death of Ananias and Sapphira, and (which is worse) become anathema maranatha, and even if they do not fall down dead in body, as Ananias and Sapphira did, the soul, which is more important than the body, falls dead and alienated from the fellowship of the faithful and sinks into the depths of the abyss. Whence all must be attentive, and faithfully guard, and beat back the insult of such usurpation, lest estates dedicated to the secrets of heaven be vexed by certain intruders. But if anyone does this, after the severity of the due punishment, which rightly ought to be brought against the sacrilegious, let him be condemned to perpetual infamy, and be handed over to prison, or suffer the exile of perpetual deportation. Since, according to the Apostle, one must deliver such a man to Satan, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
III. Therefore, due to the aforementioned augmentations and acts of worship, the Churches C over which bishops preside have grown with the Lord’s assistance, and the greatest part of them abound in so many goods that there is no one among them, choosing the common life, who is in need; but he receives all necessities from the bishop and his ministers. Therefore, if any person shall exist in modern or future times who attempts to tear these away, let him be struck by the aforesaid condemnation.
IV. Now as to the fact that seats in the bishops’ churches...
are found established and prepared like thrones, they teach both the contemplation and the power of judging, and of binding and loosing, given to them by the Lord. Whence the Savior Himself says in the Gospel: Whatever you bind upon earth shall be bound and in heaven; and whatever you loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. And elsewhere: Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose you shall retain, they are retained.
V. Therefore we have set these things forth, dearly beloved, that you may understand the power of your bishops, and in them venerate God, and love them as your own souls; and to those with whom they do not communicate, do not communicate; and those whom they have cast out, do not receive. For the sentence of a bishop is deeply to be feared, even if he should unjustly bind someone; which, however, he ought to take the greatest care to avoid.
VI. But as we exhort you, we warn all who have undertaken Christianity, and have taken the name of Christians from Christ, that you should not in any way make your Christianity void, but firmly keep the vow which you made to the Lord in baptism, lest you be found reprobates, and not worthy before Him. And whoever among you has undertaken the common life, and has vowed to have nothing of his own, let him see to it that he does not make his profession void: but let him faithfully keep what he has promised to the Lord, so that he may acquire for himself a reward, and not damnation; for it is better not to vow, than not to fulfill a vow as best one can. For they are more severely punished who have made a vow, or have received the faith, and have not fulfilled the vow, or have ended their life in evils, than those who have ended their life without a vow, or have died without faith, and yet have done good works. For to this end we have received the rational sense by the gift of nature, and the reparation of the second birth, so that according to the Apostle, we may mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth: because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. But what does the wisdom of this world persuade, dearly beloved, if not to seek harmful things, and to love things that perish, to neglect saving things, to hold as nothing things that are eternal? It commends covetousness, of which it is said: The root of all evils is covetousness. Which has this evil above all, that while it heaps up transitory things, it hides the eternal. And while it gazes upon things placed without, it does not look into the things that lie within, and while it seeks things alien, it makes itself alien to its own follower. Behold what the wisdom of the world persuades: to live in delicacies. Whence it is said: A widow who lives in delicacies is dead while she lives. It persuades, therefore, to nourish the flesh with the softest pleasures, sins, vices, and flames, to oppress the soul with the intemperance of food and wine, and to shut off the life of the spirit, and on the other hand to provide to its enemy a sword from itself. Behold what the wisdom of this world persuades: that those who are good should prefer to be evil, and through the error of the mind, should even strive to become sinners, and not think of that terrible voice of God, when sinners are burned up like hay.
VII. For all the faithful, through the laying on of the hands of the bishops, receive the Holy Spirit after baptism.