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

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 helped; whether themselves by themselves be present at the same time in so different places, and by so great distance lying apart one from another, either where their Memorials are, or beside their Memorials, wheresoever they are felt to be present: or whether, while they themselves, in a place congruous with their merits, are removed from all converse with mortals, and yet do in a general sort pray for the needs of their suppliants, (like as we pray for the dead, to whom however we are not present, nor know where they be or what they be doing,) God Almighty, Who is every where present, neither bounded in54    Concretus with us nor remote from us, hearing and granting the Martyrs’ prayers, doth by angelic ministries every where diffused afford to men those solaces, to whom in the misery of this life He seeth meet to afford the same, and, touching His Martyrs, doth where He will, when He will, how He will, and chiefest through their Memorials, because this He knoweth to be expedient for us unto edifying of the faith of Christ for Whose confession they suffered, by marvellous and ineffable power and goodness cause their merits to be had in honor. A matter is this, too high that I should have power to attain unto it, too abstruse that I should be able to search it out; and therefore which of these two be the case, or whether perchance both one and the other be the case, that sometimes these things be done by very presence of the Martyrs, sometimes by Angels taking upon them the person of the Martyrs, I dare not define; rather would I seek this at them who know it. For it is not to be thought that no man knows these things: (not indeed he who thinks he knows, and knows not,) for there be gifts of God, Who bestows on these some one, on those some other, according to the Apostle who says, that “to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal; to one55    Alii, ἄλλῳ indeed,” saith he, “is given by the Spirit discourse of wisdom; to another56    Alii, ἄλλῳ discourse of science according to the same Spirit; while to another57    Alteri, ἑτέρῳ faith in the same Spirit; to another58    Alteri, ἑτέρῳ the gift of healings in one Spirit; to one59    Alii, ἄλλῳ workings of miracles; to one60    Alii, ἄλλῳ prophecy; to one61    Alii, ἄλλῳ discerning of spirits; to one62    Alii, ἄλλῳ kinds of tongues; to one63    Alii, ἄλλῳ interpretation of discourses. But all these worketh one and the same spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will.”64    1 Cor. xii. 7–10 Of all these spiritual gifts, which the Apostle hath rehearsed, to whomsoever is given discerning of spirits, the same knoweth these things as they are meet to be known.

20. Quanquam ista quaestio vires intelligentiae meae vincit, quemadmodum opitulentur martyres iis quos per eos certum est adjuvari; utrum ipsi per se ipsos adsint uno tempore tam diversis locis, et tanta inter se longinquitate discretis, sive ubi sunt eorum memoriae, sive praeter suas memorias ubicumque adesse sentiuntur: an ipsis in loco suis meritis congruo ab omni mortalium conversatione remotis, et tamen generaliter orantibus pro indigentiis supplicantum (sicut nos oramus pro mortuis, quibus utique non praesentamur, nec ubi sint vel quid agant scimus), Deus omnipotens qui est ubique praesens, nec concretus nobis, nec remotus a nobis, exaudiens martyrum preces, per angelica ministeria usquequaque diffusa praebeat hominibus ista solatia, quibus in hujus vitae miseria judicat esse praebenda; et suorum merita martyrum ubi vult, quando vult, quomodo vult, maximeque per eorum memorias, quoniam hoc novit expedire nobis ad aedificandam fidem Christi, pro cujus illi confessione sunt passi, mirabili atque ineffabili potestate ac bonitate commendet. Res haec altior est quam ut a me possit attingi, et abstrusior quam ut a me valeat perscrutari: et ideo quid horum duorum sit, an vero fortassis utrumque sit, ut aliquando ista fiant per ipsam praesentiam martyrum, aliquando per Angelos suscipientes personam martyrum, definire non audeo; mallem a scientibus ista perquirere. Neque enim nemo est qui haec sciat, non qui sibi scire videatur et nesciat: dona enim Dei sunt, his alia, et illis alia largientis, secundum Apostolum, qui dicit unicuique dari manifestationem Spiritus ad utilitatem: Alii quidem, inquit, datur per Spiritum sermo sapientiae; alii sermo scientiae secundum eumdem Spiritum; alteri autem fides in eodem Spiritu; alteri donatio curationum in uno Spiritu; alii operationes virtutum; alii prophetia; alii dijudicatio spirituum; alii genera linguarum; alii interpretatio sermonum. Omnia autem haec operatur unus atque idem Spiritus, dividens propria unicuique prout vult (I Cor. XII, 7-11). Horum omnium spiritualium donorum, quae commemoravit Apostolus, cuicumque data est dijudicatio spirituum, ipse scit ista sicut scienda sunt.