Pope Evaristus: Letters and Decrees

He was arrested, moreover, by Herod, under the high priest Philip of Tralles, when Statius Quadratus was proconsul; but Jesus Christ reigns for ever, to whom be glory, honor, majesty, ^A a throne eternal, from generation to generation. Amen.

XXXII. Salutation. Letter of the transcribers.

We pray that you may be well, brethren, walking according to the word of Jesus Christ in the Gospel; with whom be glory to God, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of the holy elect; just as the blessed Polycarp bore witness, to whose footsteps may we be found in the kingdom of Jesus Christ!

These things Gaius transcribed from the manuscripts of Irenaeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, and who also lived with Irenaeus. I, Socrates, transcribed these in Corinth from the copies of Gaius. Grace be with you all. ^B

And I, Pionius, again wrote these things from the previously written record, having sought them out, as the blessed Polycarp, by revelation, manifested them for me; as I shall declare in what follows; having gathered them—already almost worn away by length of time—that the Lord Jesus Christ might gather me also with His elect into His heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

EVARISTUS POPE

NOTICE

(From the Pontifical Book of Pope Damasus, in Mansi, *Concil.*, I, 621. — For various readings and notes to this passage of the *Liber Pontificalis*, see *Patrologia Latina*, vol. CXXVII, col. 1135.)

Evaristus, by nationality a Greek, from a Jewish father named Judas, of the city of Bethlehem, sat for nine years, ten months, and two days. He lived, moreover, in the times of Domitian and Nerva Trajan, from the consulship of Valens and Vetus until the consuls Gallus and Bradua. He was crowned with martyrdom. He distributed titles in the city of Rome to the priests. And he ordained seven deacons, who would guard the bishop as he preached, for the sake of the style of truth. He performed three ordinations in the month of December: six priests, two deacons, and five bishops for diverse places. He was also buried next to the body of blessed Peter in the Vatican on the twenty-seventh of October. And the episcopate was vacant for seventeen days.

POPE EVARISTUS: EPISTLES

FIRST EPISTLE. TO ALL AFRICAN BISHOPS. Concerning the order of deacons and lawful marriage, and concerning the faith, and that bishops are not to be injured or slandered.

Evaristus to all his most beloved brothers, the bishops of the African region.

As you, most beloved brothers, have requested, we write back concerning those matters which were contained in your letters—namely, what our view was, what a docile reason would suggest, or what has been handed down to us by the holy apostles and held fast—wishing, as you have related, that you be instructed by our documents. Since your love has followed the norm of the prudent and has preferred to refer to the apostolic see, as to the head, what should be observed in doubtful matters, rather than to presume by way of usurpation.

I. How many deacons there ought to be in a city.

^A Deacons, who seem to be, as it were, the eyes of the bishops, must be seven in number in every city, according to the ordinances of the apostles, so that they may guard the bishop as he preaches, lest he himself be harassed in any way by plotters, or harmed by his own people, or the divine words be polluted or despised through disparagement or plotting; but rather that the truth may exhale with spiritual fervor, and that peace, preached by the lips, may accord with the will of the soul.

II. Concerning the taking of a wife.

^B We likewise hold that it has been guarded and handed down that a wife should be united to her husband lawfully. For a marriage is not to be considered lawful (as we have received from the fathers and find to have been handed down by the holy apostles and their successors) unless the wife be sought from those who appear to have authority over the woman and by whom she is guarded, and be betrothed by her parents or kin, and be dowered according to the laws, and in her own time be blessed by a priest with prayers and oblations, as is the custom, and be guarded and joined by those nearby, as custom teaches, and dowered according to the laws when sought at the proper time, and be taken solemnly, and they abstain for two or three days for prayers and keep themselves in chastity, so that good offspring may be generated and they may please the Lord in their actions. For thus they will both please the Lord and will generate children who are not spurious but legitimate and inheritable. Wherefore, most beloved and deservedly illustrious sons, know that marriages thus accomplished, with the Catholic faith assisting, are legitimate. But do not doubt that things presumed otherwise are not marriages, but rather adulteries, or concubinages, or rapes, or fornications, rather than legitimate marriages, unless personal consent has supported them and lawful vows have ensued. For it is a divine fruit to keep divine precepts. There is no doubt that to abandon them is to commit a presumption. Why, therefore, is it an unworthy thing to guard the unity of the Church? Let us all alike both feel and pronounce the same. For if it be presumed otherwise, the transgressors surely destroy themselves, who— ^C

(1) Supporters of the school of the Jesuits, in the manuscript of the Paris Isidorean collection, omit what follows; and concerning "not," etc.

... themselves are deceived. These things are to be recited to everyone by all...

African Churches; send out the letters and attach to them the letters of the prefects ^A which we have joined, so that regarding these things which are iniquitously praised, if any such thing can be proven, a judgment may be made, and those things which have been forbidden may be restrained, and past evils and illicit marriages, if it be taught that they were admitted, may be corrected with due severity. For the rest, let such things be guarded against throughout all the Churches, lest the sanctity of the Church, wearied by our negligence, lose the privileges which it has attained through venerable men.

But regarding those things by which you are wearied by insidiators, concerning which you both wished to consult and be taught by us among other things, because there are some who think that it was said of the Father alone (3), “because he alone has immortality and inhabits unapproachable light,” ^B strike them with apostolic rods and refute them with divine precepts. For the Father does not dwell in unapproachable light without the Son, because where the Father is, there also must it be believed indubitably that the Son is. For if the Father alone, without the Son—which it is a sin to say—dwells in unapproachable light, it must be that the Father has a dwelling separated from the Son.

But if this is so, in what way is the same Son said to be seen by the blessed martyr Stephen standing at the right hand of the Father, if the Father, according to them, is held alone to be contained in the seats of light? Far be this from the mind of the faithful who cling to Christ in the unity of the faith; for just as it does not hinder the Son when it is said that the Father alone dwells in unapproachable light, so it does not hinder the Father when ^C Wisdom, which is the Son, is said to circle the circuit of heaven alone. The Father, therefore, since he is invisible and unbegotten in himself, is proven to have been seen in the Son by the testimony of the Apostle, and in the Son, begotten of him ineffably, he is shown to have remained and rested, the Son himself speaking in the prophet: “He who begat me, has rested in my tabernacle.” And in the Gospel: “The Father remaining in me, does these works.” And: “No man has seen God at any time, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father.” For if the Son was in the bosom of the Father from the beginning, and the good word was brought forth from the heart of the Father, how is he not to be believed to have dwelt in the unapproachable light with him, being situated in the paternal heart? Could the Father have remained without any light in the Son, or could he have rested in the tabernacle of the Son without the same, when the same Son is ^D “the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of the divinity,” whom Solomon says he loved more than his own salvation, in whose beauty he ever rejoiced to delight? “I preferred to have her for light, because her light is inextinguishable.” The prophet David, desiring this light, anxiously proclaims, saying: “Send forth thy light and thy truth.” Again: “In thy light we shall see light.” Therefore, in the brightness of this light, the Son showed himself beforehand on the mountain to the three disciples; who, terrified by the fear of death and prostrated on their faces, felt that the end of life was at hand. The Son, demonstrating that this light was in himself, was proclaiming, and was warning the disciples that they should walk in the same: “When you have the light,” he says, “walk in the light.” And again: “I am the light of this world: he who follows me does not walk in darkness, 1050 but will have the light of eternal life.” And the Evangelist: “It was the true light, he says, which illuminates every man coming into this world.” If this light, which is promised to those who believe, is proven to be in the Son, and is said to be eternal with the Eternal, how is the Son separated by you from the unapproachable light of the Father? For if the Son is “the true God and eternal life,” without doubt he must be believed to dwell in this light together with the Father, which none of us, constituted in this mortal body, can in any way behold; but when he shall have appeared, then he will truly see him as he is, who shall have been deemed worthy to be conformed to his gaze. And not as Moses and the rest of the prophets through riddles and figure, but he will behold the image of the deity truly in the Son, according to the Apostle. For if you wish to investigate this same one under the testimony of the prophets, with a calm intuition of the mind following, you will find that the Son cannot be completely separated from this light of the Father; because when he has said that only the Son has walked with men on earth, it is not to be believed that the Father was made foreign to him. For if we accept the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God which is greater, because he has testified of his Son. He who believes in the Son of God, has the testimony of God in himself. He who does not believe in the Son, makes him a liar, because he does not believe in the testimony which God has testified of his Son. And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son, has life; he who does not have the Son of God, does not have life. I write these things to you, that you may know, that you who believe in the name of the Son of God have eternal life. And this is the confidence which we have toward him, that whatsoever we ask according to his will, he hears us.

And we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. He who knows his brother to sin a sin not unto death, let him ask, and life will be given to him who sins not unto death. There is a sin unto death; I do not say that anyone should ask for that. All iniquity is sin, and there is a sin unto death. We know that everyone who is born of God does not sin, but the generation of God preserves him, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is placed in the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know the true God, and be in his true Son. This is the true God and eternal life. These things, brothers, preach; these things announce to all. But you, exhort one another; be perfect; always rejoice; pursue peace with all, and the God of peace and love will be with you; but to God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Given on the ninth day before the Kalends of April, in the consulship of the most illustrious Valens and Veter.

EPISTLE II.

Evaristus, bishop of the city of Rome, to all the brothers in the Lord bound together throughout Egypt, greeting. ^A It behooves us, brothers, to think and act as one, so that, as we read, it may be proven that we are of one heart and one soul. For we know, as we have also received from the fathers, that Christ is the head, whose members we also are. For he himself is the spouse, and the Church is the bride, whose children we are; and therefore we have one Father, God in heaven. But priests discharge their office in the Church in the stead of Christ. And just as his bride, that is, the Church, is joined to him, so are churches joined to bishops, each to their own, according to their portion. And just as a man ought not to neglect his wife, but to love and chastely guard and cherish and prudently rule her, so a bishop, and much more so, ought to guard and love and prudently rule the Church. And just as a wife, who is under the hand of her husband, ought to obey her husband, and love and cherish him, so much more ought the Church to obey her bishop in all things, and to love and cherish him as her own soul, because the former is done carnally, the latter spiritually. ^B And just as a man ought not to commit adultery against his wife, so neither should a bishop against his Church; that is, that he should not dismiss her to whom he has been consecrated, without inevitable necessity or apostolic or canonical change, and, through ambition, join himself to another. And just as it is not permitted for a wife to dismiss her husband so that she may join herself in marriage to another while he is living, or to commit adultery, even if her husband has been fornicator, but, according to the Apostle, "either she must be reconciled to her husband, or remain unmarried"; so it is not permitted for the Church to dismiss her bishop, or to separate herself from him so as to receive another while he is living; but she must either hold him or remain unmarried—that is, she may not receive another bishop while he is living, lest she incur the crime of fornication or adultery. For if she has been defiled—that is, if she has joined herself to another bishop, or has brought in another bishop over herself, or has caused this to be done or has desired it—she must, through most severe penance, either be reconciled to her own bishop or remain unmarried. Whence also the Lord speaks in the Gospel, saying: "If anyone has looked upon a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

^C But a bishop ought to teach his Church fittingly and unceasingly, and to rule and love her prudently, so that she may abstain from vices and be able to attain eternal salvation. And she ought, with such great reverence, to receive his doctrine and to love and cherish him as the legate of God and the preacher of the truth; because, as the Truth bears witness: "Whatever you bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loosen upon earth shall be loosened also in heaven." This sentence, brothers, is much to be feared, and you must take heed lest you offend those who have such great power from the Lord. And therefore they are rather to be obeyed, loved, and revered above all, not disparaged, or torn apart, or ejected, but supported and loved, the Lord himself saying: "He who hears you hears me; and he who rejects you rejects me." Therefore we write these things to you and to all the faithful, brothers, that you may beware of these things, and that you may leave to your descendants not a bad, but a good example; since the injury of bishops pertains to Christ, in whose stead they act. ^D For we have heard that certain bishops have been defamed and torn apart by you, and driven from their own cities, because elsewhere bishops cannot be constituted except in cities of no small size; and that others have been constituted in them while they were still living. Therefore we write these things to you, that you may know that this is not permitted, but that they must be recalled and most completely restored to their own. But those who hold their spouses—which we understand to be their wives, according to the stated tenor—in the filth of adultery, them we decree to be ejected and made infamous, and we order them to be barred from ecclesiastical honors. If, however, you have any complaint against them, once these things have been performed it must be inquired into, and it must be terminated by the authority of this holy see. And that we may not now speak of all things one by one, charity itself, if it be in you, will teach you to do every good thing, just as, on the contrary, it will teach those who are aliens to the Lord to do every evil, to hate, to...

teach discord. Hence, you too, who are the true disciples of God, cast away from your hearts before all else discords and dissensions of soul, from which every evil work proceeds, and preserve kindness and simplicity with your whole mind. ^A Verily, however, know you all that a bishop labors above you all; for each of you bears his own proper labor, but he bears both his own and that of all of you. And therefore, as he ought to labor exceedingly for you all, so also ought you all to labor for him, to such an extent that, if it should even be necessary, you should lay down your lives for him, just as he himself ought, if it should be necessary, to lay down his life for you, the Savior Himself saying: "The good shepherd gives his life for his sheep." But you obey them, and watch for them, because they keep watch, as being about to render an accounting for your souls, that they may do this with joy, and not with groaning. ^B Therefore, a bishop is not to be reprehended or accused by the laity or common people, even if he be disorderly; because the life of leaders is disposed by God for the merits of the subjects, by the example of David sinning and by comparison with princes who are corrupted due to the merit of the people. For priests ought to inquire into the sins of the peoples, and with sagacious solicitude to test each one, according to the testimony of the Lord speaking to Jeremiah: "I have given thee," He says, "a robust examiner to my people, and thou shalt know and test their way." I say these things, therefore, because the deceiver is very often accustomed to turn good things into evil, and places a blemish on those who are chosen. Hence, if there are any who are detractors or accusers of bishops or of the rest of the priests, it is not fit that they be heard by the judges of the Church before the suspicion or opinion of their assessment is discussed: with what intention, with what faith, with what rashness, with what life, with what conscience, or with what merit—whether they have presumed these things for God, or for vain glory, or through enmity, or hatred, or greed, or not.

^C All these things are to be faithfully scrutinized and diligently handled. For there are some who perversely reprehend their superiors, if they have even been slightly troublesome to them. Therefore, let the primates of the churches provide usefully with a straight eye, lest any innocent one of them be vexed or scandalized, intending the sentence of the Lord, where He says: "If anyone shall have scandalized one of these little ones, it is better for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck, and he be drowned in the depth of the sea," etc. But God Almighty, ^D so that He might restrain us from the pronouncement of a hasty sentence (although all things are naked and open to His eyes), yet did not wish to judge the evils of Sodom when heard, before He clearly knew what they were learning. Then He Himself says: "I will descend, and see whether they have finished by their works the clamor that comes to me; or is it not so, that I may know?" God Almighty, to whom nothing is hidden, but all things are manifest, even before they happen, did not deign to inquire into these and many other things (which we do not insert here, avoiding prolixity) through Himself, except to give us an example that we should not be hasty in discussing and judging matters, and that we should not presume to believe the evils of some before we prove them. By whose example we are admonished that we should never be hasty to deliver a sentence, or rashly and indiligently judge any undiscussed things in any way, with the voice of Truth saying: "Do not judge, that you may not be judged. For with what judgment you shall have judged, you shall be judged," and the rest. Let not heard evils move anyone, nor let anyone ever believe things said here and there without certain proof, but let him diligently inquire into the things heard, lest by being hasty someone should do anything. For if the Lord of all, knowing all the evils of the Sodomites, whose clamor had reached as far as heaven, did not wish to believe or judge them before He Himself, by investigating them diligently with faithful witnesses, truly recognized by their deeds what He had heard: much more ought we, human and sinful men to whom the hidden judgments of God are unknown, to guard against these things and judge or condemn no one before a true and just probation, the Apostle Paul manifestly saying, who says: "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own lord he stands or falls." Whence also through the prophet David the Lord speaks, saying: "Do not lift up your horn on high, speaking against the neck of the old; for neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the solitude of the mountains, but God is judge, He will humble this one, and He will exalt that one, because a chalice is in the hand of the Lord, full of pure wine mixed, and He shall pour out from it. Nevertheless, the dregs thereof all the sinners of the earth shall drink. But I will announce forever, I will sing to the God of Jacob." And elsewhere the same prophet says: "At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, the chariot and the horse have fallen asleep. Thou art terrible, and who shall stand against thee? From that time thy wrath. From heaven thou shalt announce judgment; the earth trembling shall be silent, when God shall have risen to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth." And the Apostle says: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And elsewhere the same apostle says: "It is sufficient for each one that the rebuke which is made by many, so that you should rather forgive and console him, lest perhaps the one who is in anguish be absorbed by a more abundant sadness. For which reason I beseech you, that you confirm charity in him." And the Lord says in the Gospel: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with-

thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and thy neighbor as thyself." For "love worketh no evil to his neighbor." ^A Wherefore, according to the Apostle, "thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou doest the same things which thou judgest. For we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that do such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them who do such things, and doest 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 glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life; but to them that are contentious, and who obey not the truth, but give credit to 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 honor, and peace, to every one that worketh good." And elsewhere ^B the same Apostle saith: "For we have charged, that all are under sin, as it is written: There is not any man just, there is not any man that understandeth, there is not any that seeketh after God. All have turned out of the way; they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, there is not so much as one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have dealt deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know, that what things soever the law speaketh, it speaketh to them who are in the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be made subject to God. Because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before him. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now without the law the justice of God is made manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the justice of God, by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned, and do 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, ^C 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." The same also says: "Who shall accuse against the elect of God? God that justifieth. Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus that died, yea that is risen also again, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? As it is written: For thy sake we are put to death all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." We ought also, as the same apostle says, to support the weaknesses of the feeble, and not to please ourselves. Every one of you should please his neighbor unto good, to edification. For Christ did not please himself, but, as it is written: "The reproaches of them that reproached thee, fell upon me." Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, who comforteth us in all our tribulation; that we also may be able to comfort them who are in all distress, by the exhortation wherewith we also are exhorted by God; ^D for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also by Christ doth our comfort abound. Now whether we be in tribulation for your exhortation, and salvation, or whether we be exhorted for your exhortation, which worketh the enduring of the same sufferings, which we also suffer, our hope is firm for you; knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation. God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it. For which cause, most beloved, follow after charity, and seek to have the better gifts, and those that are spiritual, and help one another, that you may be able to please God always in all things. The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Given on the Kalends of November, in the consulship of the most illustrious Gallus and Bradua.

FROM THE DECREES OF POPE EVARISTUS