Those who abandon the Lord shall fall into Him, and He shall burn among them and shall not be extinguished; and He shall be sent into them like a lion, and like a leopard He shall wound them. Fence in your ears with thorns, and do not listen to a wicked tongue; and make doors and bars for your mouth. Melt your gold and silver, and make a balance for your words, and right bridles for your mouth. And take heed, lest peradventure you slip with your tongue, and fall in the sight of enemies lying in wait for you, and your fall be incurable unto death. Do not be slow to turn to the Lord, and do not delay from day to day. For suddenly shall His wrath come, and in the time of vengeance He shall destroy you. Be not anxious in unjust riches, for they shall not profit you in the day of wrath and vengeance. Do not wave yourself in every wind, and do not go in every way; for thus is the sinner proved by a double tongue. Be firm in the way of the Lord, and in the truth of your sense, and in knowledge; and let the word of peace and justice follow you. Be meek to hear the word, that you may understand; and with wisdom bring forth a true answer. If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; but if not, let your hand be upon your mouth, lest you be caught in an undisciplined word, and be confounded. Honor and glory are in the speech of the sensible man; the tongue of the imprudent is his subversion. Be not called a whisperer; and be not caught in your tongue, and confounded. For upon the thief is confusion and repentance, and a very evil mark upon the doubletongued. But to the whisperer, hatred, enmity, and reproach. Justify the small and great alike. Do not become an enemy to your neighbor in place of a friend. For the wicked shall inherit reproach and shame, and every sinner is envious and doubletongued. Do not extol yourself in the thought of your soul like a bull, lest your strength be bruised through folly, and it eat your leaves, and lose your fruits, and you be left as a dry tree in the wilderness. For a wicked soul shall destroy him that has it, and gives him into the joy of his enemies, and brings him into the lot of the impious. Beloved, strive to lift up the oppressed, and always aid those in need; for he who relieveth the afflicted brother, and snatcheth him from bondage, and consoleth the mourner, let him not doubt that he shall be rewarded by Him to whom he expends his all, who says: What you did to one of these my least ones, you did to me. Strive, therefore, to do good works ceaselessly, that you may obtain the fruit of a good work here, and enjoy the grace of God in the future, so that you may merit to enter the hall of the heavenly kingdom later. Given on the fourth day before the Kalends of May, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Severus and Quintianus.
POPE ANTERUS. NOTICE.
(Mansi, Concil., I, 761, from the Pontifical Book of Pope Damasus. - See the volume of the Patrologia Latina cited above, col. 1331.)
Anterus, a Greek by nation, son of Romulus, sat for 12 years, one month, and 12 days. He was crowned with martyrdom in the times of the consuls Maximinus and Africanus. He diligently searched out the acts of the martyrs through notaries, and stored them in the church. Because of this, he was made a martyr by a certain prefect named Maximus. He performed one ordination during the month of December and ordained one bishop in the city of Fundi in Campania. He was buried in the cemetery of Callistus on the Appian Way, on the third day of the Nones of January. And the episcopate ceased for 13 days.
ANOTHER NOTICE
(D. Coustant, *Epistolæ Rom. pont.*, I, 118.)Anterus, as we have already heard from the Fossatense and Bucherian catalogs (in which he is called Anteros) and from the Queen of Sweden’s catalog, was ordained on the 21st day of November, under the consulate of Severus and Quintinianus, that is, in the year 235. And as is read in the same catalogs, after one month and ten days had passed in his pontificate, he fell asleep on the 3rd of January under [Maximinus] and Africanus as consuls, that is, in the year 236—the third day of January, on which day his memory is also honored in the Martyrologies. But so that this calculation of one month and ten days, which are attributed to Anterus, may clearly square, it must be read as the 9th day before the Kalends of December instead of the 11th, and the date of his death should not be counted as Tillemont observes. In the ancient Corbie codex, one month and eleven days are ascribed to Anterus. Eusebius indeed only mentions one month, but nothing is concluded against those days from that. For just as that historian, in the case of other pontiffs, finds it sufficient to indicate how many years each held the apostolic see without adding months or days, so also here, where he omits the days, he does not perform anything alien to his custom. A single epistle of Anterus is circulated, which had Isidore as its author.
POPE ANTERUS: EPISTLE
On the transfer of bishops [of episcopal sees].
To the most beloved brothers constituted as bishops throughout the provinces of Baetica and Toletum, Anterus the bishop sends greeting in the Lord.
I would wish, most beloved brothers, to always hear the joys of your sincerity in love and peace, so that the signs of your well-being might be fostered by letters running back and forth, if the ancient enemy—who from the beginning was a liar, an enemy of truth, and a rival to man, whom he deceived before he could deceive others, an adversary of chastity, and a master of lust; who feeds on cruelties and is punished by abstinence; who hates fasting, while his ministers preach that it is superfluous, having no hope for the future—would allow us to remain free from his onslaught. Rebuffed by the opinion of the Apostle, who says: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." [1 Cor. xv, 32]. O unhappy audacity, O cunning of a desperate mind! For he himself encourages hatred and puts concord to flight. And because the human mind is easily led to the worse path, wishing rather to walk along the broad way than to travel with labor on the narrow path. For this reason, most beloved brothers, pursue the better things, and always abandon the worse. Do good, avoid evil, so that you may truly be found to be disciples of the Lord.
I would wish, most beloved brothers, to always hear the joys of your sincerity in love and peace, so that the signs of your well-being might be fostered by letters running back and forth, if the ancient enemy—who from the beginning was a liar [Jo. VIII, 44], an enemy of truth, and a rival to man, whom he deceived before he could deceive others, an adversary of chastity, and a master of lust; who feeds on cruelties and is punished by abstinence; who hates fasting, while his ministers preach that it is superfluous, having no hope for the future—would allow us to remain free from his onslaught. Rebuffed by the opinion of the Apostle, who says: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." O unhappy audacity, O cunning of a desperate mind! For he himself encourages hatred and puts concord to flight. And because the human mind is easily led into the worse path, wishing rather to walk along the broad way than to travel with labor on the narrow path. For this reason, most beloved brothers, pursue the better things, and always abandon the worse. Do good, avoid evil, so that you may truly be found to be disciples of the Lord.
Regarding the transfer of bishops A, B where holy men are consulted concerning the transferring and changing of episcopal sees, by this epistle he teaches, and by the example of Peter the Apostle and many others he proves, that the translation of an episcopal see is lawful if it is done when the utility and necessity of another Church demands it, with the knowledge and consent of the superior bishops; but if, however, a bishop moves his see out of avarice, or ambition, or presumption, and by his own will alone, it is illicit and forbidden by apostolic law, which exists as the 14th apostolic canon. Whence, when at the time of the Council of Nicaea, among the Antiochenes, some sought Eusebius of Caesarea, and others Eustathius of Beroea as bishop, not without the tumult of the whole people, the most holy synod most holily confirmed that which had already been established beforehand by the apostles: that bishops, presbyters, and
A deacons of the church in which they were ordained are not to be transferred to another, unless necessity or the evident utility of the Church requires it. For, that some eminent bishop of another Church might be placed over a see desolated by heretics, not only did the holy Synod not prohibit, but on the contrary, it taught rather that this should be done, when, with Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis, bishops who were notorious Arians, having been deposed, prelates of other sees were substituted into their own. And because, by the example of Eusebius of Nicomedia, a restless and ambitious man (who, after two transferred sees, took care to have himself moved to Constantinople), it was frequently done by the Arians, that those who, spurred by a lust for human glory, labored to be promoted to greater sees by means of bribes, might create trouble for those bishops who presided over the greater cities; for this reason the Fathers of the B sacrosanct ecumenical council of Sardica decreed that such persons thereafter might not only not be numbered among the bishops, but, being utterly cast down from every rank of the ecclesiastical order, should remain among the laity, and indeed should not be granted even lay communion at the end of their life.
You wished to consult the Apostolic See; know that it is permitted for it to be done for common utility and necessity, but not at the whim or by the tyranny of anyone. Peter, our holy master and prince of the apostles, was translated from Antioch to Rome for the sake of utility, that he might better prosper there. Eusebius also, from a certain small city, was by apostolic authority translated to Alexandria. Similarly, Felix, from the city where he had been ordained by the election of the citizens, because of the doctrine and good life that he possessed, was translated to Ephesus by the common counsel of the bishops and the rest of the clergy and the people. For he does not pass from city to city who does not do this of his own whim or ambition, but is transferred by a certain utility or necessity of others, by the exhortation and counsel of those in higher positions. Nor is one transferred from a smaller city to a larger one who does not do this out of ambition or his own will, but is either forced from his own see by violence, or compelled by necessity, or [transferred] by the utility of the place or the people, not proudly, but with humility, being translated and enthroned by others; because man sees the face, but God sees the heart. And the Lord speaks through the Prophet, saying: *The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain.* He therefore does not change his see who does not change his mind. Nor does he change his city who is not moved by his own accord, but by the counsel and election of others. Therefore, he does not migrate from city to city who does not do so for the sake of avarice, nor abandons his own of his own accord; but (as has already been said) is either driven from his see or compelled by necessity, or is translated to another city by the election and exhortation of the clergy and the people. For just as bishops have the power to ordain bishops and C the rest of the clergy regularly, so as often as utility or necessity demands, they have the power to both move them and enthrone them in the aforementioned manner. These things, as you requested, although they may not be unknown to you, we command to be held, lest by the ignorance of some, better and more useful things be avoided, and more useless things be chosen, just as it is read in the holy Gospel: *Woe to you, hypocrites, because you tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left those things that are weightier of the law, judgment, and mercy and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those others undone. Blind guides, straining at a gnat, but swallowing a camel.* That which is not permitted, is permitted; and that which is not permitted, is permitted. Just as Jannes and Mambres resisted the truth, so also they, reprobate in mind, loving pleasure more than God, teach that what is permitted is not permitted—that is, that bishops migrate from city to city in the previously mentioned manner—and teach that what is not permitted is permitted—that is, not to exercise mercy toward those suffering necessity—this is, that a bishop from another city should not be assigned to those who do not have a bishop and are in need of the sacred episcopal ministry: and they deny that another chair be given to the bishops suffering persecution or necessity. They even contradict the holy Scripture, which testifies that God prefers mercy to sacrifice.
(What, I pray, is a greater charity, or what more effective protection of piety can be granted by anyone to anyone, than if he drive away from him the darkness of ignorance and the mist of lack of skill, and finally restore him with the food of the doctrine of the true faith, not for gain, not for ambition, but for erudition and edification! For as to the maimed person a hand is made, to the lame a foot, to the blind an eye, so to him who is enveloped in the darkness of ignorance, he reveals the treasure of wisdom and science, and kindly opens the splendor of light and the ways of the Lord.)
To both, therefore—that is, to those suffering a famine of the word of God, and to those bishops in need when they are enthroned for common utility in other cities—no small mercy is shown. But those who deny these things, although they may have the appearance of piety, yet deny its power. For in such a matter I recognize no ancestry; yet if anyone of the wise, whom a storm of this tempest has joined to other authors who are unwise, is stained by participation in the crimes, the splendor of the wise man, although he incurs communion in the crimes, does not, however, know how to show himself a leader to those sinning. There is also another cause of utility and necessity, and another of avarice and presumption, or of one's own will. For the sake of avarice, or presumption, or one's own will, it is not D allowed for bishops...
A to change from city to city, but for the sake of utility and necessity. Which no one denies, except those of whom it is said: "They have erred in drink, they have not known him that sees, they have been ignorant of judgment." For if I were compelled by recounting to reveal what has passed, I would show you that no consolation comes from a comparison of [past] deeds. But stand, dearly beloved, upon the ways and see and ask for the old paths of the Lord, and see what is the good and straight way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. And that we may speak according to the voice of Wisdom: Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart; for he is found by them that tempt him not, and he appears to them that have faith in him. For perverse thoughts separate from God, and wisdom, when it is tried, B reproves the unwise. For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins. For the holy spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw itself from thoughts that are without understanding, and shall be cast out when iniquity comes in. For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not set free the cursed from his lips; for God is witness of his reins, and he is a true searcher of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue. For the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world, and that which contains all things has knowledge of the voice. Therefore, he that speaks unjust things cannot be hid, neither shall the chastising judgment pass him by. For in the thoughts of the wicked there shall be an inquiry. And the hearing of his words shall come to the Lord, and to the rebuke of his iniquities; for the ear of jealousy hears all things, and the tumult of murmurings shall not be hid. Keep yourselves therefore from murmuring, which profits nothing; and refrain your tongue from detraction; C for a dark speech shall not go into a void. The mouth that belies, kills the soul. Do not court death in the error of your life, neither heap up destruction upon the works of your hands; for God made not death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he created all things that they might be, and he wished the nations of the world to be curable. There is no poison of destruction in them, nor kingdom of hell upon the earth. Justice is perpetual and immortal; but injustice is the acquisition of death. And the ungodly with hands and words have called it [death] to them; and esteeming it a friend, they have fallen away, and have made a covenant with it; for they are worthy to be the partakers thereof. For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not right: The time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is no remedy, and no man has been known to have returned from hell. For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be D as if we had not been. For our breath is smoke in our nostrils, and speech a spark to move our heart; by which being extinguished, our body shall be ashes, and the spirit shall be poured out as soft air. And our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dissolved as a mist, which is chased away by the beams of the sun, and weighed down with its heat. And our name shall receive oblivion through time, and no man shall have the memory of our works. For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no ending of our end, for it is sealed, and no man returns. Therefore, it must be foreseen by everyone, that he may guard himself with the utmost care, and provide for himself usefully, that when the last day and end of life arrives, he may not pass to eternal death, but to eternal life. For the deeds of subjects are judged by us, but ours are judged by God. But bishops are sometimes depraved by the merit of the people, so that those who follow may fall the more readily. When the head is sick, the other members of the body are infected. They are worse who corrupt the life and morals of good men than those who plunder the substance and estates of others. Let everyone beware that he has not a tongue or ears that are itching, that is, that he neither himself speaks evil of others, nor listens to others speaking evil. "Sitting," he says, "you spoke against thy brother, and didst lay a scandal against thy mother's son," etc. Let individuals refrain from the detraction of the tongue, and keep their own words; and let them know that for all the things they say about others, they shall be judged by their own sentence. No one willingly reports to an unwilling listener. Let it be the office of each, most beloved, not only to keep the eyes chaste, but also the tongue. And let no other house ever know what is done in the house of any man. Let all have the simplicity of the dove, that they may not plot deceit against anyone; and the cunning of the serpent, that they may not be supplanted by the snares of others. It is not of my humility, nor of my measure, to judge of others, and to say anything sinister about the ministers of the Churches. Far be it that I should say anything sinister about those who, succeeding to the apostolic degree, make the body of Christ with a sacred mouth, through whom we are also Christians, who, having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, judge before the day of judgment. It is held indeed in the old law, that whoever did not obey the priests, or being without [the camp] was stoned by the people, or was punished by the sword with neck bared, expiated his contempt with his blood. But now, the disobedient is cut off by spiritual rebuke, and, cast out from the Church, is torn by the mouth of a rabid demon. For it is fitting that those who possess God as their inheritance should serve God without any impediment of the world, that they may be able to say: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance." O how good and sweet is thy Spirit, O Lord, in all things!
because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls. And therefore thou chastisest those who wander, A by parts; and concerning those things in which they sin, thou admonishest and speakest to them, so that having abandoned malice, they may believe in thee, O Lord. But thou, our God, art sweet and true, patient, and in mercy ordering all things. For if we have sinned, we are thine, knowing thy greatness. And even if we have not sinned, we know that we are counted among thine. The spirit of those who fear the Lord will be sought after by him, and in his regard they will be blessed. Wherefore, most beloved brothers, let no corrupt speech proceed from your mouth; but if any is good for the edification of opportunity, that it may give grace to those who hear, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamor, and blasphemy be taken away from you with all malice. But be kind to one another, merciful, forgiving each other, B as God also in Christ forgave you. Be therefore imitators of God, as most beloved children; and walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and delivered himself up for us an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness. But fornication and all uncleanness or avarice, let it not be named among you, as becomes saints, or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which to the matter do not pertain, but rather giving of thanks. For know this, understanding that every fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous man, which is the service of idols, has not inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man lead you astray with empty words. For because of these things the anger of God comes upon the children of unbelief. Be not therefore made participants with them. For you were sometime darkness, but now light in the Lord. As children of light walk (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth), proving what is well-pleasing to God. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. But all things that are exposed, are made manifest by the light. For all that is made manifest is light. Wherefore he says: Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you. See therefore, brothers, how you walk carefully, not C as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not become unwise, but understanding what the will of God is. And do not be intoxicated with wine, in which is luxury; but be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God and the Father, being subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Stand therefore, brothers, and hold the traditions of the apostles and of the apostolic see, that our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Father, who loved us, and gave eternal consolation, and good hope in grace, may exhort your hearts, and confirm you in every work and good word. Furthermore, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, just as it is among you, and that we may be delivered from importunate and evil men; for not all have faith. But God is faithful, who will confirm you, and keep you from evil. Wherefore set your hearts unceasingly in the power of God, and resist always the evils, and narrate these things, according to the voice of the Prophet, to future generations, for this is God, our God for ever and ever, and he himself will lead us for ages. Whence you, who have been appointed by the Lord on the watchtower, ought by all means to compress and repel those who prepare snares for the brothers, or stir up seditions and scandals against them. For it is easy for a man to fall by a word, but not the Lord. Therefore you must reprimand them, and turn yourselves away from them, so that, this kind of darkness being extinguished to the roots, Lucifer may shine upon them, and joy may arise in their hearts. We trust, however, in you, brothers, in the Lord, that the things which we have commanded, you both do, and will do. For as much as you exhibit your benefits to these more abundantly, so much the greater recompense from the omnipotent God, whom they serve, you expect. May omnipotent God keep you with his protection, and grant you to keep his honor and commandment, and may glory and honor be to God the Father omnipotent, and to his only-begotten Son our Savior, with the Holy Spirit for ages of ages. Amen. Given the 12th of the Kalends of April, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Maximianus and Africanus.