THE LETTER OF POPE SIRICIUS TO THE CHURCH OF MILAN. [A.D.389.]

The Letter of Siricius was addressed to the Church of Milan to inform them of the sentence of excommunication passed against Jovinian and his followers. Jovinian had been a monk, but had abandoned the ascetic life and rushed into extremes of self-indulgence: there is a good description of him in Tillemont, (Vie de S. Ambr. 63, 61,) who calls him 'cet Epicure des Chretiens.' The false doctrines with which he 'barked at the true doctrines of the Church' are stated in this Letter and in the reply of the Synod of the Church of Milan which follows. Jovinian was answered by S. Jerome, who writes against him with much vehemence.

SIRICIUS TO THE CHURCH OF MILAN.

1. I would fain always, beloved brethren, send you tidings of joys, sincere as you are in love and peace, so that by means of the mutual interchange of letters we might be pleased by the tidings of your welfare  05-6 6. 1 sospitatis indicio.  . Our ancient Adversary however  05-7 7. a This sentence as it stands in the text is incomplete, the 'quia' having no correlative. The 'at vero quia seems like 'at enim' in Classical Latin, or perhaps the 'quia' should be omitted. does not suffer us to be free from his attacks, he who is a liar from the beginning, the enemy of truth, envious of man, in order to deceive whom he first deceived himself, the adversary of chastity, the teacher of sensuality, who is fed by cruelty, punished by abstinence, who hates fasts, asserting, as his followers also give out, that they are superfluous, having no hope of things to come, obnoxious to the censure of the Apostle,  Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die. 

2. O miserable boldness, O craft of a desperate mind! Already was this unknown language of heresy spreading through the Church like a cancer, seeking to fill the breast, and plunge the whole man in destruction: and unless the Lord of Sabaoth had broken through the snare which they had laid, the public exhibition of so much evil and hypocrisy would have led to ruin the hearts of many simple ones, for the human mind is easily drawn aside towards evil, choosing rather to fly through open space, than to travel with pain along the narrow way.

3. Wherefore it was very necessary, most dearly beloved, to commend what has been done here to your notice and consideration, lest through the ignorance of any priest, the Church might he infected by the contagion of these most wicked men who are breaking in upon it under a religious pretext, as it is written and the Lord has said,  Many  come to you in sheeps' clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves; ye shall know them by their fruits. 

These are they who under a mean garb boast themselves as Christians, that walking under the semblance of piety they may enter the house of prayer and utter the words of wily disputation,  that they may privily shoot at them which are true of heart, and, seducing them from Catholic truth, may draw them over, after the example of Satan, to the madness of their own doctrines, beguiling the simplicity of the flock.

4. And indeed from the times of the Apostles up to now we have heard and known by experience of many malignant heresies, but the sacred truth of the Church has never been assailed by the barking of such dogs as those who have now suddenly broken in upon us, with the doctrines of unbelief fully sprouted, enemies of the faith; who by the fruit of their works have betrayed whose disciples they are. For while other heretics misunderstanding single points have proposed to bear away and abstract from the Divine system of teaching, these men,  not having on a wedding garment, wound the Catholics, perverting, as I have said, the continuity of the New and Old Testament, and interpreting it in a diabolical spirit, have by their alluring and false arguments already begun to ruin some Christians, and to make them associates of their madness, not keeping within themselves the poison of their iniquity: but some of their chosen ones have betrayed their blasphemies by writing a rash discourse, which the rage of a desperate mind has led them openly to publish, favouring, as it does, the cause of the Heathens.

5. But of their madness I suddenly received intelligence by means of a shocking writing which certain faithful Christians, men of high rank, and signal piety, caused to be conveyed to me, unworthy as I am, in order that the opposition of these men to the Divine Law might be detected by the discernment of the Clergy and repressed by a spiritual sentence. Assuredly we receive without scorn the vows of those marriages which we assist at with the veil  05-8 8. b See Letter xix, 7. S. Ambrose in De Abraham B 1. c 9, 93 alludes to the use of the veil in Christian marriages. , but virgins, for whose existence marriage is necessary, as being devoted to God, we honour more highly.

6. Having therefore held an assembly of my clergy it became clear that their sentiments were contrary to our doctrine, that is, to the Christian law. Therefore, following the Apostolic precept, we, seeing that they  were preaching another Gospel than that which we received, have excommunicated them. Know therefore that it was the unanimous sentence of us all, as well of the presbyters and deacons as of the other clergy, that Jovinian, Auxentius, Genialis, Germinator, Felix, Prontinus  05-9 9. c This name appears in the reply of the Milan Synod as Plotinus, which is probably the true form. , Martianus, Januarius, and Ingeniosus, who were discovered to be the promoters of the new heresy and blasphemy, should be condemned by the Divine sentence and our judgment, and remain in perpetual exclusion from the Church.

7. Nothing doubting that your Holinesses will observe the aforesaid decree, I have sent you this Epistle by my brethren and fellow-priests, Crescens, Leopardus and Alexander, that they, with a fervent spirit, may perform a religious and faithful service.

EPISTOLA SYRICII PAPAE AD MEDIOLANENSEM ECCLESIAM.

 Mediolanenses docet diaboli factum invidia, ut novae haereses irreperent in Ecclesiam. Quam perniciosae   1121B   illae sint, prodit; et in conventu ecclesiastico eorum auctores, quorum singillatim nomina recensentur, damnatos refert. 

«SYRICIUS Mediolanensi Ecclesiae.

1. «Optarem semper, fratres charissimi, dilectionis et pacis vestrae sinceritati gaudia nuntiare, ita ut vicissim discurrentibus litteris sospitatis vestrae juvaremur judicio. At vero quia 964 non patitur quiete nos vacare ab incursione sua hostis antiquus, ab initio mendax, inimicus veritatis, aemulus hominis, quem ut deciperet, se ante decepit, pudicitiae adversarius, luxuriae magister, crudelitatibus pascitur, abstinentia punitur, odit jejunia, ministris suis praedicantibus, dum dicit esse superflua, spem non habens de futuris, Apostoli sententia repercussus  1121C dicentis:  Manducemus et bibamus; cras enim moriemur (I Cor. XXV, 32).

2. «O infelix audacia! o desperatae mentis astutia! Jam incognitus sermo haereticorum intra Ecclesiam cancri more serpebat, ut occupans pectus,  1122A totum hominem praecipitaret in mortem: et nisi Dominus Sabaoth laqueum, quem paraverant, dirupisset, scena tanti mali, et hypocrisis publicata multorum simplicium corda traxisset in ruinam; quia facile ad deteriorem partem mens humana traducitur, malens per spatiosa volare, quam per arctae viae iter cum labore transire.

3. «Qua de re necessarium satis fuit, dilectissimi, quae hic gesta sunt, ad vestram conscientiam cognoscenda mandare; ne ignorantia sacerdotis cujuspiam pessimorum hominum Ecclesiam irrumpentium sub religioso nomine contagio violaret, sicut scriptum est, Domino dicente:  Multi veniunt ad vos in vestimentis ovium, intus autem sunt lupi rapaces: a fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos (Matth. VII, 15, 16). Hi sunt videlicet, qui sub vestium vilitate christianos  1122B sese jactant; ut sub velamento pii nominis gradientes, domum orationis ingressi, sermonem serpentinae disputationis effundant:  ut sagittent in obscuro rectos corde (Psal. X, 3), atque a veritate catholica avertendo, ad suae doctrinae rabiem diabolico more traducant, atque ovium simplicitatem defraudent.

4. «Et quidem multarum haeresum malignitatem ab apostolis nunc usque didicimus, et experti probavimus: sed numquam tales canes Ecclesiae mysterium latratibus fatiga verunt, quales isti nunc subito irrumpentes, doctrina perfidiae pullulata, hostes fidei, qui cujus sint discipuli, verborum fructibus prodiderunt. Namque cum alii haeretici singula sibi genera quaestionum male intelligendo proposuerint  1122C convellere atque concerpere de divinis institutionibus: isti non habentes vestem nuptialem, sauciant catholicos, novi ac veteris Testamenti, ut dixi, continentiam pervertentes, et 965 spiritu diabolico interpretantes, illecebroso atque ficto sermone  1123A aliquot christianos coeperunt jam vastare, atque suae dementiae sociare, non intra se continentes nequitiae suae virus: verum electi eorum blasphemias suas conscriptione temeraria prodiderunt; et desperatae mentis furore conciti, passim in favorem gentilium publicaverunt.

5. « Eorum autem insania a fidelibus christianis, viris genere optimis, religione praeclaris, ad meam humilitatem subito per scripturam horrificam videtur esse perlata; ut sacerdotali judicio detecta, divinae legi contraria spiritali sententia deleatur. Nos sane nuptiarum vota non aspernanter accipimus, quibus velamine intersumus: sed virgines, quas nuptiae creant, Deo devotas majore honorificentia honoramus.

6. «Facto igitur presbyterio, constitit doctrinae  1123B nostrae, id est, christianae legi esse contrariam eorum sententiam. Unde Apostoli secuti praeceptum, quia aliter quam quod accepimus, annuntiabant, excommunicavimus (Galat. I, 8). Omnium ergo nostrum tam presbyterorum et diaconorum, quam totius etiam cleri unam scitote fuisse sententiam, ut Jovinianus, Auxentius, Genialis, Germinator, Felix, Prontinus, Martianus, Januarius et Ingeniosus, qui incentores novae haeresis et blasphemiae inventi sunt, divina sententia et nostro judicio in perpetuum damnati extra Ecclesiam remanerent.

7. «Quod custodituram sanctitatem vestram non ambigens, haec scripta direxi per fratres et presbyteros meos Crescentem, Leopardum, et Alexandrum, qui religiosum officium fidei spiritu possint  1123C adimplere ferventes.