starts from ignorance, and ending—as I have already said—in an involuntary madness of soul. But a prophet possessed by such a spirit they will never be able to demonstrate in either the Old or the New Testament; they will praise A neither Agabus, nor Judas, nor Silas, nor the daughters of Philip, nor Ammia of Philadelphia, nor Quadratus, nor indeed any others who have nothing to do with them.
X. For if, as they preach, those women of Montanus succeeded in the gift of prophecy after Quadratus and Ammia of Philadelphia, let them show us who succeeded Montanus and the women among them. For the Apostle is witness that the gift of prophecy must remain in the whole Church until the final advent of the Lord. But they will be utterly unable to show any, B even though this is already the fourteenth year since the death of Maximilla.
ANNO DOMINI CCXXXIV
PONTIANUS PAPA
NOTITIA
(Mansi, Concil., I, 755, from the *Liber Pontificalis* of Pope Damasus. — For various readings of this location in the *Liber Pontificalis*, see Anastasius the Librarian, *Patrologia Latina*, vol. CXXVII, col. 1337.)
Pontianus, by nation a Roman, son of Calfurnius, occupied the see for 9 years, 5 months, and 2 days; he was crowned with martyrdom. He was in office in the times of Alexander, from the consulship of Pompeianus and Pelagianus. At that same time, Pontianus the bishop and Philippus the presbyter were deported into exile by Alexander to Sardinia, to the island of Buccina, in the consulship of Severus and Quintianus. Afflicted on that same island, he died on the 13th day before the Kalends of December. He made two ordinations during the month of December: six presbyters, five deacons, and six bishops for various places. The blessed Fabianus brought him back by ship with the clergy and buried him in the cemetery of Callistus on the Via Appia. And the episcopate ceased for 13 days from the day of his deposition, the 11th before the Kalends of December.
SECOND NOTITIA
(D. Coustant, Epistolæ Rom. pont., tom. I et unic., p. 115)A 1. In the Bucherian Catalogue, as also in that of Fossanova and another of the Queen of Sweden, the following is held concerning Pontianus: "Pontianus [served for] five years, two months, seven days. He was in the times of Alexander, during the consulship of Pompeianus and Pelignianus. In that time, Nepotianus (read: Pontianus) and the presbyter Hippolytus were deported as exiles to the harmful island of Sardinia, under the consuls Severus and Quintinianus. On that same island, he was deposed on the fourth day before the Kalends of October, and in his place was ordained Anteros on the eleventh day before the Kalends of December, under the aforementioned consuls."
2. What is meant there by "deposed," although not agreed upon among the learned, they nevertheless do not hesitate to use this word to declare the death of Pontianus. And indeed, if *discingere* means, among grammarians, to be deprived of office and dignity, it is not ineptly said that the pope was *discinctus* [deprived of his belt/office], whom death deprived of pontifical dignity. This being posited, it follows that Pontianus, ordained on July 22, 230, a Thursday, lost the dignity he had received, along with his life, on September 28, 235. Nor is it an objection that in the year 230 it was not Pompeianus and Pelignianus, but Agricola and Clementinus who held the consulship. For thus, as I have already observed in the case of Telesphorus, the Bucherian catalogue was composed, and the others in its imitation, such that the one who wrote it, content to have noted once the consuls under whom each pontiff ended his life, took care to repeat them in designating the beginning of his successors. And although it is established that most succeeded to the same consuls under whom their predecessors died, yet he was accustomed to consign the beginning of these [terms] not to the same, but to the following consuls. By the aforementioned calculation, Eusebius is reconciled with himself, who writes in his *Chronicle* that Pontianus held the episcopate for five years, but in his *History* for six. For he administered the Church for five complete years and six incomplete ones. In passing, I note here that in the Victorian canon in Bucherius, p. 34, not Pelignianus but Felicianus is added as colleague to the consul Pompeianus. Truthfully, this canon must be corrected not only from the catalogue of Roman pontiffs but also from an ancient fragment of consular fasti in the same Bucherius, p. 247.
Concerning the condemnation of Origen, and concerning the epistles of Pontianus
1. After Origen was condemned by Bishop Demetrius at Alexandria, the city of Rome consented to his condemnation. It gathered the senate against him, not on account of the novelty of doctrines, nor on account of heresy, as rabid dogs now simulate against him, but because they could not bear the glory of his eloquence and science. This stain of envy, moreover, is inflicted by Jerome upon the Alexandrian, not the Roman pontiff. Nor undeservedly does one distinguished in religion and erudition accommodate to the Roman pontiff and his clergy that which Augustine said for another, but similar cause: "One must believe the letters of the council; for it was not fitting to act otherwise... For they had believed the letters of the council with a clear conscience: for nothing incredible was said by some men about other men, nor was anything believed by them contrary to the Gospel..." Indeed, the concord of the Churches demands, just as the Council of Nicea, can. 5, subsequently decreed, that someone excommunicated by their own bishop should not be received by others, unless his innocence be discovered elsewhere, provided his cause is discussed and absolved in its entirety. From this, furthermore, is excused the agreement of the Romans with Demetrius in the condemnation of Origen, because, as Rufinus testifies in his *Apology for Origen*, books attributed to Origen had been brought to Rome, or indeed, as Jerome narrates in epistle 65 to Pammachius, c. 5, certain ones of his own were not sufficiently corrected, in which there were some things to be reprehended, and which Origen, as he himself later confessed in a letter to Fabianus, regretted having written. When, however, the death of Demetrius is consigned to the year 231, or more lately to the year 232, this condemnation of Origen must be said to have happened under Pontianus, and in his first years. Regarding this matter, Pontianus did not pronounce alone, but with the senate, that is, with the clergy. Nor is that assembly of the clergy, which the ancients are accustomed to call the *presbyterium*, wrongly called a senate by Jerome. For in Latin, *senatus* aptly corresponds to the Greek word πρεσβυτέριον. Otherwise, that assembly is named *presbyterium* from the more worthy part, although clerics inferior to the presbyters were also accustomed to gather into it.
Two epistles standing for Pontianus were fabricated by Isidore the Architect, and therefore they are to be sent away into the class of those things which he likewise concocted.
THE EPISTLES OF POPE PONTIANUS
FIRST EPISTLE TO FELIX SUBSCRIBONIUS
On the honor with which priests are to be treated
PONTIANUS, Bishop, to FELIX SUBSCRIBONIUS, greetings.
Our heart greatly rejoices in your charity because you strive with the utmost effort to fulfill the zeal of holy religion, and you strengthen the grieving and destitute in faith and in religion. Whence we beseech the mercy of our Redeemer that His grace may assist us in all things, and that He may grant us to fulfill in effect what He has granted us the will to desire. In this good, therefore, the rewards of recompense increase just as the pursuit of labor increases. And because in all these things there is need for the aid of divine grace, we beseech the clemency of almighty God with constant prayers, that He may grant you both to desire these good works which are ever to be done, and to have the power to carry them out; and that He may direct you on that way, with the fruit of good work, which He who is the Shepherd of pastors has testified that He is, so that you may be able—without whom nothing can be done—to fulfill through Him the good things which you have begun. B Concerning the priests of the Lord, however, regarding whom we have heard that you... C ...that the highest honor should be deferred to the ministers, because they are the ministers of the greatest God, and because they exist as if mediators between God and man, bearing the image of God, and finally perform the embassy for Christ. Therefore, since injury and contempt toward ambassadors redounds to the ignominy of the one sending them, while honor shown to an ambassador is shown to the king himself or the superior; it is correctly decided here that the priesthood of Christ, transferred to the Church, is a venerable ministry, and its governors, who are bishops and priests, are to be honored with the greatest respect. I add that the royal priesthood and kingdom of Christ, translated—as we have said elsewhere above—to the apostles and their successors, is not only more worthy and excellent than all kingdoms, empires, and principalities, but that any kings and princes are inferior to whatever sacred ministers, and so Christ's priests are worthy of far greater honor and reverence.
Sacerdotium, says S. Ignatius in his epistle to the Smyrnaeans, is the apex of all good things that are among men; why, therefore, should it not be honored above all? That the soul is more excellent than the body, and divine things more excellent than human, is the one common opinion of all men. The priesthood is like the soul, and its kingdom is spiritual and divine. "For," says Gregory Nazianzen in his oration to the citizens of Nazianzus, "the law of Christ subjects even my own power and my own seats to you; for we too wield an empire," I would add, one more excellent and perfect, unless it were equitable to submit the spirit to the burdens of the flesh, and for celestial things to yield to terrestrial. And Ambrose says beautifully, *De dignitate sacerdotali*, ch. 2: "The honor and sublimity of the episcopate can be equaled by no comparisons. If you compare it to the splendor of kings and the diadem of princes, it will be far inferior, just as if you compare the metal of lead to the luster of gold; especially when you see the necks of kings and princes submitted to the knees of priests; they believe themselves to be fortified by the prayers of those whose right hands they have kissed."
To the same effect are these words of Chrysostom in his homilies 4 and 5 on Isaiah: "Different are the boundaries of a kingdom and those of the priesthood; but this is greater than that, for it should not be valued by gems and gold. The former is allotted those things which are on earth; the priesthood's authority descends from above. To the king are committed the things that are here, to me the heavenly. To the king are committed bodies, to the priest souls; this principate is greater; therefore, the king submits his head to the hand of the priest."
Therefore, that this priesthood, whose weapons are not carnal, as the Apostle Paul says in II Corinthians ch. x, but powerful in God—namely, for inflicting vengeance upon the nations and rebukes upon the peoples, for binding their kings in fetters and their nobles in iron shackles—is more excellent than any human empire, no one can fail to see. Whence the holy Fathers rightly command that after God, bishops and priests, having greater power over kings and princes, and finally in the third place secular princes and magistrates, are to be honored; for thus does Ignatius say in the aforesaid epistle: "Honor God as the author and lord of all; the bishop as the prince of priests, bearing the image of God; God indeed because of the principate, but Christ because of the priesthood." It is necessary to honor the king as well, for no one is more excellent than the king, nor is anyone like him among all created things. Nor is there anything greater than the bishop in the Church, etc. And to signify in what place, or in what order and honor, each is to be held in the Church, he subjoins in the same place: "Let all your things, therefore, be performed in decent order in Christ. Let the laity, of whose number even all most Christian kings are, be subject to the deacons; the deacons to the presbyters; the presbyters to the bishop; the bishop to Christ, as He Himself is to the Father."
Saint Chrysostom, in homily 33 on Matthew, having addressed the deacons of the altar, says this: "If, therefore, any leader, if any who is adorned with a diadem, should approach unworthily, restrain and coerce him; you have greater power than he." Saint Martin the bishop taught this same thing by his example, who, when he was received at a banquet by the Emperor Maximus and asked to accept the cup offered by an attendant, to drink first and then offer it to the king, he obeyed the king's request, took the cup, and drank. But when Martin had drunk (the words are those of Sulpitius in *Life of Martin*, ch. 23), he handed the cup to his own presbyter, believing, of course, that no one was more worthy who should drink after him: nor would it be right for him, if he had preferred the king himself, or those who were closest to the king, to the presbyter. See what we have said in the notes to canons 73 and 74 of the Apostles. Baronius, A.D. 57, n. 31 and 32.
to assist in their plots and to bear their causes, know that you greatly please God in this, since He has taken them to Himself for service, and has willed that they should be so familiar to Him that He even accepts the sacrifices of others through them and forgives their sins and reconciles them to Himself. They also consecrate the body of the Lord with their own mouths and deliver it to the people. For it is said of them: *He who will vex you, will vex me; and he who does you injury, will receive that which he has unjustly done.* And elsewhere: *He who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me; and he who despises me, despises him who sent me.* For they are not to be harassed, but honored. In them also the Lord is honored, whose embassy they discharge. These men, therefore, if by chance they fall, are to be raised up and borne by the faithful. Moreover, they are not to be accused by infamous or wicked persons, or by enemies, or by men of another sect or religion. If they have sinned, let them be rebuked by the other priests; but let them be constrained by the supreme pontiffs, and let them not be rebuked or restrained by laymen or by men of evil life. Therefore, we are compelled by no little sorrow A to hear that you are saddened by the passing of your brother. Hence, we pray to the omnipotent God that He may console you with the aspiration of His grace, and keep you under His heavenly protection both from malignant spirits and from perverse men. For even if you suffer some disturbances from certain adversaries after his death, do not wonder if you, who seek to enjoy good things in your land, that is, in the land of the living, bear the evils of men in a foreign land. For the present life is a pilgrimage; and to him who sighs for the fatherland, the place of pilgrimage is a torment, even if it seems pleasant. But for you who seek the fatherland, amid the sighs that you have, I also hear the groans of human oppression arise. Because this happens by the wondrous disposition of the omnipotent God, that while Truth calls through love, the present world may reject your soul through the tribulations which it inflicts; and the mind may go forth from the love of this age the more easily, in that it is driven as it is being called. Therefore, fulfill what you have begun, the care of hospitality, B working most insistently in prayers and tears; and with the alms which you have always loved, now give labor more liberally and bounteously, so that later, in the retribution, the fruit of the reward will grow for you as much as the exertion of labor has grown here. C
Furthermore, greeting your goodness with paternal sweetness, we ask that you do not fail in the good works which you have begun. Nor let anyone be able to turn you away from them, but let the clerics and servants of God, and all Christians who dwell in those regions, fully find in all things the affection of your charity, for the love of Christ and St. Peter, and let them enjoy the comforts of your favor, in whatever way it may be necessary; so that, defended and aided by your help, all may be able to be debtors of thanks to you, and Christ Jesus our Lord may compensate you with eternal glory, and the blessed apostle Peter, prince of the apostles, in whose causes you expend yourselves, may open to you the gate of his glory. Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of February, when the most illustrious Severus and Quintianus were consuls.
LETTER II. TO ALL BISHOPS.
De fraterna dilectione et vitandis malis.
PONTIANUS, bishop of the holy and universal Church, to all who rightly worship the Lord and love divine worship, greeting.
*Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.* These words, most beloved, are not of men, but of angels; and they were not devised by human sense, but announced by the angels at the birth of the Savior. From which it can undoubtedly be understood by all that peace is given by the Lord not to men of evil will, but of good will. Hence the Lord speaks through the Prophet, saying: *How good is God to Israel, to those who are of a right heart! But my feet had almost moved, my steps had almost slipped, because I envied the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners.* But concerning the good, Truth Itself says: *Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.* For they are not clean of heart who devise evil or harmful things D against their brothers; for he who is faithful wills no evil.
It is better to avoid saying what ought not to be said than to speak it. And if any man A is faithful, let him see to it that he does not speak evil, nor lay snares for anyone. In this, therefore, are the children of God and the children of the devil distinguished. For the children of God always reflect upon and strive to perform those things which are of God, and they unceasingly help their brothers, and wish to harm no one. The children of the devil, on the contrary, always meditate upon evil and harmful things, because their works are evil. Of whom the Lord speaks through the prophet Jeremiah, saying: "I will speak my judgments with them, concerning all their wickedness." Therefore, "I will contend in judgment with you still, saith the Lord, and I will plead with your children." "Behold I devise a device against you, and think a thought against you." These things, brothers, are greatly to be feared and to be shunned by all, since the man upon whom the judgment of God has fallen will not go unpunished. And therefore let every man take care not to plot or do against a brother that which he would be unwilling to suffer himself. And let not a faithful man even come under suspicion, such that he says or does those things which he does not wish to suffer. Wherefore, B those who are suspected, or enemies, or those who easily litigate, and those who are not of good conduct, or whose life is accusable, and who do not hold and teach the faith rightly—as accusers and witnesses, our predecessors have rejected them by apostolic authority, and we remove them and exclude them for future times, lest they be able to slip willingly, those whom we ought to hold and save: lest (which God forbid) the aforementioned judgment of God come not only upon both parties, but lest we also perish by their vice (which God avert). For it is written: "They have set themselves as rulers; have care for them, that you may rejoice because of them, and receive a crown as an ornament of grace, and obtain the dignity of the priesthood." For a wicked word changes the heart, from which four parts arise: good and evil, life and death, and the tongue is the constant mistress of them. Because of such, the aforementioned are strictly to be avoided, and before their aforementioned opinions are examined clearly and they are found to be alien from them, they are not to be received, since it is a salutary sacrifice to attend to the commandments and to depart from all iniquity. It is well-pleasing to the Lord to depart from iniquity; and C it is a propitiation to depart from injustice. Since it is written: "Love your neighbor, and be joined to him in faith." But if you have laid bare his secrets, do not follow after him. For as a man who loses his friend, so he who loses the friendship of his neighbor. And as one who lets a bird go out of his hand, so you who have abandoned your neighbor, and will not capture him. Do not follow him, for he is far away. For he has fled like a gazelle from a snare, because his soul is wounded. You will not be able to bind him again, and there is a curse in agreement. But to reveal the secrets of a friend is the desperation of an unhappy soul. He who winks with his eye fashions wicked things, and no one will cast him off. In the sight of your eyes he will pervert his mouth, and in your words he will give an occasion for scandal. "Many have I hated, and I have not been made equal to him, and the Lord will hate him." He who casts a stone on high, it will fall upon his own head, and the deceitful blow of the deceitful man will divide the wounds. He who digs a pit will fall into it; and he who sets a stone for his neighbor will stumble upon it; and he who lays a snare for another will perish in it. For the one who makes a most wicked plan, it will be rolled back upon him; and he will not know from where it will come to him. Illusion and reproach are for the proud, and vengeance will lie in wait for him like a lion. They will perish in a snare who are delighted by the fall of the just; but sorrow will consume them before they die. Anger and fury, both are execrable; and the sinful man will be keeping them. He who wishes to be revenged will find vengeance from the Lord, and He will surely keep his sins. "Forgive your neighbor the hurt that he has done to you, and then, if you pray, your sins will be forgiven." Does a man reserve wrath for man, and seek medicine from God? Does he have no mercy for a man like himself, and does he pray for his own sins to the Most High? He, being flesh, reserves wrath, and asks for propitiation from God? Who will pray for his offenses? Remember your last things, and cease to be at enmity; for filthiness and death abide in his commandments. Remember the fear of God, and do not be angry with your neighbor. Remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook the ignorance of your neighbor. Abstain from strife, and you will diminish your sins. For an irritable man kindles strife, and a sinful man will disturb friends, and will introduce enmity in the midst of those who have peace. For according to the wood of the forest, so will the fire burn; and according to the D strength of a man, so will be his anger; and according to his substance he will exalt his anger. A hurried contest will kindle fire, and a hurried quarrel will shed blood, and a testifying tongue will bring death. If you blow on a spark, it will burn as if it were fire; and if you spit upon it, it will be extinguished, and both come from the mouth. The whisperer and the double-tongued are cursed, for he has disturbed many who had peace. A third tongue has moved many and dispersed them from nation to nation. It has destroyed the fortified cities of the rich and has dug up the houses of the great. It has cut down the virtues of peoples and dissolved strong nations. A third tongue has cast out valiant women and deprived them of their labors. He who looks upon it will not have rest, nor will he dwell with quiet. The blow of a whip makes a mark, but the blow of the tongue will break bones. Many have fallen by the edge of the sword; but not so as those who have perished by their own tongue. Blessed is he who is protected from a wicked tongue, who has not passed into its anger, and who has not drawn its yoke, and has not been bound in its chains. For its yoke is an iron yoke, and its chain is a brazen chain. Its death is a most wicked death, and the netherworld is more useful than it. Its perseverance will not abide, but it will obtain the ways of the unjust, and its flame will not burn the just.