On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

 1. Long time, my venerable fellow-bishop Paulinus, have I been thy Holiness’s debtor for an answer even since thou wrotest to me by them of the house

 2. But this being the case, how to this opinion that should not be contrary which the Apostle says, “For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat o

 3. Possibly thy inquiry is satisfied by this my brief reply. But what other considerations move me, to which I think meet to answer, do thou for a sho

 4. “But” (say I) “in such a slaughter-heap of dead bodies, could they not even be buried? not this, either, doth pious faith too greatly dread, holdin

 5. Yet it follows not that the bodies of the departed are to be despised and flung aside, and above all of just and faithful men, which bodies as orga

 6. If this be true, doubtless also the providing for the interment of bodies a place at the Memorials of Saints, is a mark of a good human affection t

 7. When therefore the faithful mother of a faithful son departed desired to have his body deposited in the basilica of a Martyr, forasmuch as she beli

 8. We read in the Ecclesiastical History which Eusebius wrote in Greek, and Ruffinus turned into the Latin tongue, of Martyr’s bodies in Gaul exposed

 9. And yet, by reason of that affection of the human heart, whereby “no man ever hateth his own flesh,” if men have reason to know that after their de

 10. This affection the Martyrs of Christ contending for the truth did overcome: and it is no marvel that they despised that whereof they should, when

 11. In regard to that woful compassion which I have mentioned, are those praised, and by king David blessed, who to the dry bones of Saul and Jonathan

 12. Stories are told of certain appearances or visions, which may seem to bring into this discussion a question which should not be slighted. It is sa

 13. Such, however, is human infirmity, that when in a dream a person shall see a dead man, he thinks it is the soul that he sees: but when he shall in

 14. Like dreams, moreover, are also some visions of persons awake, who have had their senses troubled, such as phrenetic persons, or those who are mad

 15. Similar to this is also that condition when persons, with their senses more profoundedly in abeyance than is the case in sleep, are occupied with

 16. Why should we not believe these to be angelic operations through dispensation of the providence of God, Who maketh good use of both good things an

 17. Some man may say: “If there be not in the dead any care for the living, how is it that the rich man, who was tormented in hell, asked father Abrah

 18. So then we must confess that the dead indeed do not know what is doing here, but while it is in doing here: afterwards, however, they hear it from

 19. Hence too is solved that question, how is it that the Martyrs, by the very benefits which are given to them that pray, indicate that they take an

 20. Howbeit it is a question which surpasses the strength of my understanding, after what manner the Martyrs aid them who by them, it is certain, are

 21. Such, we may believe, was that John the Monk, whom the elder Theodosius, the Emperor, consulted concerning the issue of the civil war: seeing he h

 22. Which things being so, let us not think that to the dead for whom we have a care, any thing reaches save what by sacrifices either of the altar, o

 23. Here, to the things thou hast thought meet to inquire of me, thou hast such reply as I have been able to render: which if it be more than enough p

9. And yet, by reason of that affection of the human heart, whereby “no man ever hateth his own flesh,”24    Eph. v. 29 if men have reason to know that after their death their bodies will lack any thing which in each man’s nation or country the wonted order of sepulture demandeth, it makes them sorrowful as men; and that which after death reacheth not unto them, they do before death fear for their bodies: so that we find in the Books of Kings, God by one prophet threatening another prophet who had transgressed His word, that his carcase should not be brought into the sepulchre of his fathers. Which the Scripture hath on this wise: “Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast been disobedient to the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the charge which the Lord thy God commanded thee, and hast returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place in which He commanded thee not to eat bread, nor drink water, thy carcase shall not be brought into the sepulchre of thy fathers.”25    1 Kings xiii. 21, 22 Now if in considering what account is to be made of this punishment, we go by the Gospel, where we have learned that after the slaying of the body there is no cause to fear lest the lifeless members should suffer any thing, it is not even to be called a punishment. But if we consider a man’s human affection towards his own flesh, it was possible for him to be frightened or saddened, while living, by that of which he would have no sense when dead: and this was a punishment, because the mind was pained by that thing about to happen to its body, howsoever when it did happen it would feel no pain. To this intent, namely, it pleased the Lord to punish His servant, who not of his own contumacy had spurned to fulfill His command, but by deceit of another’s falsehood thought himself to be obeying when he obeyed not. For it is not to be thought that he was killed by the teeth of the beast as one whose soul should be thence snatched away to the torments of hell: seeing that over his very body the same lion which had killed it did keep watch, while moreover the beast on which he rode was left unhurt, and along with that fierce beast did with intrepid presence stand there beside his master’s corpse. By which marvellous sign it appeareth, that the man of God was, say rather, checked temporally even unto death, than punished after death. Of which matter, the Apostle when on account of certain offenses he had mentioned the sicknesses and deaths of many, says, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord. But when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”26    1 Cor. xi. 31, 32. [See R.V.] That Prophet, truly, the very man who had beguiled him, did with much respect bury in his own tomb, and took order for his own burying beside his bones: in hope that thereby his own bones might be spared, when, according to the prophecy of that man of God, Josiah king of Judah did in that land disinter the bones of many dead, and with the same bones defile the sacrilegious altars which had been set up for the graven images. For he spared that tomb in which lay the prophet who more than three hundred years before predicted those things, and for his sake neither was the sepulture of him who had seduced him violated. By that affection namely, which causes that no man ever hateth his own flesh, this man had taken forethought for his carcase, who had slain with a lie his own soul. By reason then of this, the natural love which every man hath for his own flesh, it was both to the one a punishment to learn that he should not be in the sepulchre of his fathers, and to the other a care to take order beforehand that his own bones should be spared, if he should lie beside him whose sepulchre no man should violate.

CAPUT VII.

9. Cura sepulturae ex naturali affectu erga corpus. Et tamen ex illo humani cordis affectu, quo nemo unquam carnem suam odio habet (Ephes. V, 29), si cognoscant homines aliquid post mortem suam suis corporibus defuturum , quod in sua cujusque gente vel patria poscit solemnitas sepulturae, contristantur ut homines; et quod ad eos post mortem non pertinet, ante mortem suis corporibus timent: ita ut inveniatur in Regnorum libris Deus per prophetam minari alteri prophetae, qui ejus transgressus est verbum, quod non inferretur cadaver ejus in sepulcrum patrum ejus. Quae Scriptura sic habet: Haec dicit Dominus, Quoniam inobediens fuisti ori Domini, et non custodisti mandatum quod praecepit tibi Dominus Deus tuus, et reversus es, et comedisti panem, et bibisti aquam in loco in quo praecepit tibi ne comederes panem, neque biberes aquam, non inferetur cadaver tuum in sepulcrum patrum tuorum (III Reg. XIII, 21 et 22). Quanti haec poena pendenda sit, si secundum Evangelium cogitemus, ubi post corpus occisum nihil metuendum esse didicimus ne membra exanima patiantur, nec poena dicenda est. Si autem humanum erga suam carnem consideremus affectum, potuit inde terreri vel contristari vivus, quod sensurus non erat mortuus: et haec erat poena, quoniam dolebat animus id de suo corpore futurum, quamvis cum fieret non doleret. Hactenus enim voluit Dominus servum suum plectere, qui non sua contumacia spreverat praeceptum ejus implere, sed aliena decipiente fallacia obedire se credidit, quando non obedivit. Neque enim putandum est ita fuisse interemptum morsu bestiae, ut ad supplicium tartareum ejus deinde anima raperetur: quandoquidem ipsum ejus corpus idem leo qui occiderat custodivit, jumento etiam quo vehebatur illaeso, et simul cum illa immani fera intrepida praesentia ad sui domini funus astante. Quo mirabili signo apparet hominem Dei coercitum potius temporaliter 0599 usque ad mortem, quam punitum esse post mortem. De qua re Apostolus, cum propter quasdam offensas commemorasset infirmitates mortesque multorum: Si enim nos ipsos, inquit, judicaremus, a Domino non judicaremur. Cum judicamur autem, a Domino corripimur, ne cum mundo damnemur (I Cor. XI, 31 et 32). Eum sane ipse qui deceperat in monumento proprio satis honorifice sepelivit, seque sepeliendum juxta ossa ejus curavit: ita sperans parci posse quoque ossibus suis, cum veniret tempus quando secundum illius hominis Dei prophetiam Josias rex Juda in illa terra multorum eruit ossa mortuorum, eisdemque ossibus sacrilega altaria, quae sculptilibus constituta fuerant, funestavit. Pepercit quippe illi monumento ubi jacebat Propheta, qui ante annos amplius quam trecentos ista praedixerat; et propter ipsum nec illius qui eum seduxerat, sepultura violata est (III Reg. XIII, 24-32, et IV Reg. XXIII, 16-18). Affectu namque illo, quo nemo unquam carnem suam odio habet, providerat cadaveri suo, qui occiderat mendacio animam suam. Ex hoc igitur quod carnem suam quisque naturaliter diligit, et illi poena fuit addiscere non eum futurum in sepulcro patrum suorum; et huic cura prospicere, ut parceretur ossibus suis, si juxta eum jaceret, cujus sepulcrum nemo violaret.