Letter 42: The case of Coelestinus is this: he was found guilty as an accomplice in the murder of his father and of his bishop,...

Of Pope Gelasius, to Philippus and Cassiodorus. He deprives Coelestinus [...], who [...] the counsel of his own bishop [...], of his office and of communion. Gelasius, to Philippus and Cassiodorus. The case of Coelestinus is of such a kind that I do not suppose it is unknown to you as well. For inasmuch as this man, convicted here as an accomplice in the death of his parent and bishop, in the manner shown by the testimony of the witnesses, was by the judgment of all in no way deemed worthy of the office of the altar, and for so detestable a crime communion was forbidden to him for the space of one year, so that he might take care to cut off [the guilt of] so great a crime by a fitting penitence. And even if this had been ordered by us only in the least degree, he himself, considering all the more the sacrament of the divine Body, ought to have returned to it with a mind the more purified. Yet that period we judge to be either already expired or very nearly fulfilled. After which there is no doubt that the opportunity of communion lies open to him, so that both the synodal sentence may be loosed, and so that it may profit him the more, he may be able to be cleansed by a greater satisfaction. [The following are editorial footnotes accompanying the text, not part of the letter: a note of Baronius for the year 496 observes that Manichaeans are here referred to, concerning whom Leo (Sermon 4 on the Lenten Fast) says: "Whoever of them, to conceal their unbelief, dared to be present at our mysteries, so restrain themselves in the communion of the sacraments that sometimes, lest they be wholly unable to lie hidden, they receive the Body of Christ with an unworthy mouth, but altogether decline to drink the blood of our redemption. This therefore we make known to your holiness, so that men of this kind may be made manifest to you by these signs as well, and that those whose sacrilegious pretense has been detected may by priestly authority be driven from the fellowship of the saints" -- this is what our Gelasius says: "let them be barred from the whole." Indeed Anastasius the librarian, or the Pontifical book, commended in these words the vigilance and diligence of this pontiff in detecting and proscribing those heretics: "In his times Manichaeans were found in the city of Rome, whom he ordered to be deported into exile, whose books also he had burned in a fire before the doors of the basilica of St. Mary." To this account of Anastasius some credibility is also lent by the many writings of the Manichaeans so clearly enumerated in the following decree concerning the apocryphal books. While indeed this comes from an impious superstition; for unless it had been permitted in the times of Leo and Gelasius sometimes to receive the Eucharist under one species, the Manichaeans could never have been able to lie hidden by the artifice described. We shall scarcely err if we take this "parent and bishop" to be that prelate of the Scyllacenses, concerning whose death much has already been treated in Epistles 36 and 37. Thus T.; the other manuscripts omit "in the least degree."] EPISTLES 37 -- 40. Epistle 39. Of Pope Gelasius, to the bishops Majoricus, Serenus, and Johannes. He decrees that certain men, who had brought losses upon the church of Vibo, are to be barred from the sacred communion, and that the presbyter who, against the pontifical judgment, had admitted them, is to be expelled from his office. Gelasius, to the bishops Majoricus, Serenus, and Johannes. 1. Those who, trampling upon human laws with uncivil rashness and casting aside the reverence of religion, strive either to trample upon ecclesiastical privileges or anywhere to leap forth to the loss of the poor, and who, though admonished and convicted, will not even so consent to lay to rest such wickedness and to repair the damages inflicted upon sacred things: these deservedly are to be deprived of participation in the divine gift, so that they may lack the receiving of that which they held in contempt by their sacrilegious presumptions. 2. Wherefore let Dionysius and his associates, who, as the text of your report shows, not only disturbed the rights of the church of Vibo, but also refused to make recompense for what they had wickedly committed, be barred from access to the sacred communion, until they learn to render with devout mind the things that pertain to the divine honor. And against them let not even whatever can be done by the public laws be in the least neglected: so that those who scorned both may, restrained by both, furnish both to themselves and to others the example which necessary discipline demands. 3. But let Coelestinus, the presbyter of our brother and fellow bishop Serenus, who, breaking out against the pontifical judgment and against the mandates of the apostolic see, presumed to administer the sacred communion to the aforesaid men, when he could not be ignorant of the sentence of his own priest, be forthwith expelled from his ecclesiastical office: so that none of the ministers of the Church may strive to go against the pontifical ordinances.

(Jel)isii papae ad Phillppiim ot Casslodornm. ("oelrstinum prrxfiiffrrtitn. ui cavdr epixcnpi siii consriMm conmrtMm^ officio ftuo p ct communionr privat. (lolasius IMiilippo et Cassiodoro. ('oolostini causa talis ost, cpiam vos cpioque non arbitror igncv- raro. Sicpii<lom hic conscius convictus in caetle parentis^) et episcopi, qnomadmodum «jfostorum tonoro monstratur, cunctorum judicio nul- latonus aostimatus <»st officio di^nus altafis, eique pro tam dete- . stando facinoro unius anni interdicta communio est, quatenus poeni- tudino comp<.'t(Miti tanti facinoris cur&ret abmptum. Quod ctiamsi a nobis minini<»'') juborotur, ipso mfigis cogitans divini corporis sa- cramontum, dcd)uit ad hoc monto pnrgatiori romeare. Quod tempus tjimon aut oxph»tum aut propo jam pntamns exactum. Post quod oi coninuinionis facultattMn ])atoro non dubium est, ut et scntentia synodalis possit al)rumpi, ot ut illi ma»i^is prosit, valeat inajori satis- factiono nnindari. '') Karonius ;ul aitnuin 41X> Mani(.'ha(H)s hic noturi obHervat, de quibus Leo sorni. \ dt' (|uadra^. (.•. r> ait : tjitumijuc nd tcijcndam infidcUtntem xuam nostrU an- dcnnt intrrcsse mystrriist ifn in sacrnmcntorum cnmmunionc se temperant^ Mt inter^mm. ne penitux iatere non possint, orc inditjno Christi corpuM accipiant^ sanffuinem autem rcdcmptiunis iiostrne hniirirc omnino deciincnt. Quod ideo vestrae notnm farimms sanctitnti^ ut vnhis hujiiscniiodi homines ct his manifestentur indiciisty et quorwm de- prrhensa fuerit sacrilr/fa simulatio» a sanctorum societnte sacrrdotali auetoriiair pel- inntitr, hoc ost, (luod nosti^r Ciolasius (licit: ah integris arceantiir. Sone hiyil^ pontiticis haoroticis illis (l«>t(?prondis ac prosoribcndis vigilantiam ivc seduUtat^^m Anast^isius bildioth. scu l\)ntitioalis libor connn^^ndavit his verbis: At^tis tempi»- rilius inventi sunt .Mnnirhari in itrbc lioma^ quos in cjcsitium deportari praecrpil, fptoriim f/uoyur codices antr forrs hasiticac s. Mariae incendio coneremamt, Hiiic autom Anastasii narrationi nonnullam otiam iidom faciuut tot Maiiichaeomin sonpta in dooroto soquonti dc libris apocryphis tam ouucleate receneita. *3) Dum soilicot iit istud ox im))ia su]»orstition(*; nisi enim ii^sis Leonia at quo (iohisii tomporibus Iicuiss(>t aliquando oucharistiam sub una ajiocie pcrci- porOf nunquam mox diot^» artiticio latoro so potuisso Manichtvei oonfiAi eitsent ') Vix orravorinnis, si huno parcntrm rt episcopum Scjllacenonini illiini anti- stit4'm popuorimus, «lo oujus oaodo in ojustolis .'^0 (»t 37 jam pbiriliii» traotu- tnm (»st. "■) Ita T*. i'" omitt. miniinr. EPISTOLAE 37 — 40. 453 Epiatola 39. Oelasii papae ad Majoricuiu^ Screuuin et Johanuem episcopos. 43. IHonysios quasdam, qui ecclesiae Vibonetisi delrimenla intu/erant, saira commu- nione usque arcendos, et presbytcrum, qui contra pontificale judicium iltos ad- miscrai, ab officio suo pellcndum decernit. Gelasius Majorico, Sereno et Jolianni episcopis. 1. Qui et^) humanis legibus incivili temeritate ^) calcatis et reverentia religionis abjecta, vel ecclesiastica privilegia calcare con- tendunt vel ubilibet in paupenim prosilire dispeudium, nec hujus- modi saltem commoniti convictique nequitiam sopire cojisentiunt atque illata sacris rebus detrimenta sarcire: merito diviui mimeris suut participatione privandi, ut hujus perceptione careant, quod sacrilegis^) ausibus habuere despectui. 2. Quapropter^) Diouysii, qui, sicut vcstrae textus relationis ostendit; non solum Vibonensis ecclesiae jura turbare, sed etiam rei>ensare quod nequiter admisijrant respuerimt, sacrae communionis arceantur accessu, douec quae honori divino competunt, discant de- vota mente deferre. Contra quos etiam quidquid publicis legibus agi poterit, minime negligatur: ut qui utrumque temi)serunt, utrisque cohibiti^ tam sibi quam ceteris praebeaut quod fiecessaria cUsciplina poscdt exemplum. 3. Coelestinus vero presbyter fratris et coepiscopi iiostri Sereui, qui contra pontificale judicium coutraque aj^ostolicae sedis mandata prorumpens, supradictis commiuiionem sacram ministrare praesum- psit, quum non potuerit ignorare senteutiam proprii sacerdotis, ab officio protinus ecclesiastico pellatur^): ut nullus Ecclesiae ministro- rnm contra pontificalia constituta venire coutendat.