Letter to Archbishop Heribert on Simony
Epistola ad Heribertum Archiepiscopum
Guido of ArezzoEPISTOLA WIDONIS AD ARCHIEPISCOPUM MEDIOLANENSEM.
Fraternae mortis crimen incurrit quisquis, cum potest, fratrem a morte non rependit. Nos quoque, qui excellentiae vestrae summum discrimen audivimus, summi reatus poenam incurrimus, si tacemus, Domino per prophetam terribiliter intonante, quod profecto sanguinem fundit, qui impiorum iniquitatem tacendo dissimulat. Audivimus enim, quod valde miramur, quia sacri apud vos ordines pecuniis distrahuntur, dum quicumque tale aliquid attemptaverint omnino heretici comprobentur sancto Spiritu per Gregorium intonante, quia quisquis per pecuniam ordinatur ad hoc, ut fiat hereticus, promovetur. Et ut nostrae huius paginulae non praesumptionem sed timorem Dei causam fuisse monstremus, beatus idem prosequitur Gregorius: Quisquis contra symoniacam et neofitorum heresim pro officii sui loco vehementer non arserit, cum eo se non dubitet habiturum portionem, qui prius commisit hoc piaculare flagitium. Quibus in verbis cum hereticus symoniacae et neofitorum heresis exprimatur, quod aeterna morte damnandus sit, apertissime declaratur protestante per Augustinum divino oraculo ac dicente: Firmissime tene et nullatenus dubites omnem hereticum et scismaticum, quamvis multas elemosinas faciat vel etiam si pro Christo sanguinem fundat, cum diabolo et angelis eius aeterni ignis incendio mancipandum nisi ante finem huius vitae catholicae fuerit incorporatus et redintegratus ecclesiae. Hinc est quod Dominus vendentes et ementes de templo eiecit, Dathan et Abiron primatum sacerdotii ambientes terra deglutivit, Symonem eadem temptantem Petrus damnavit omnesque symoniacos ecclesiastici iaculi petra perpetuo anathemate condemnavit. Et turpe nimium est, ut plenissimo iam vigore confirmata ecclesia tam ferali inimico succumbat, de quo in primordio suae infantiae tanta virtute triumphavit. Iudei fiunt, qui pro triginta argenteis aeterni filium vendidit Parentis. Audiat hoc here-
ticus, audiat et Christianus, audiat et ille, qui hanc heresim vult rabido ore auctorizare. Isti dico: Ubi est quod accepisti? Illis dico: Ubi est quod dedistis? Infelices infeliciter sibi invicem concampserunt: hic, ut consuleret suae philargyriae, ille, ut satisfaceret propriae nequitiae. Quapropter nec ille habet pretium, nec illi habent Christum. Sic quoque vendentes et ementes Paraclitum nec perpetuo pretium possident et sine fine, nisi poenituerint, perdent sibi Christum. Exulta christiane! quia quod Iudas vendidit et Iudaeus emit, tu acquisisti, grande bonum suo malo operati sunt nobis ambo. Si tali exterminio traditus est, qui vendidit Christum, quid erit de sociis eius, qui emunt vel vendunt Paraclitum? Numquid non pares sunt in ultione, qui pares sunt in crimine? Ille vendidit Filium, isti, quantum in se ipsis est, Spiritum sanctum conantur vendere.
Numquid maledictus sua benedictione panem in Christi carnem poterit vertere? maxime, cum quicquid benedixerit, Dominus se maledicturum asserit? Si heretici sacerdotes voces exhortationum non possunt fari, quomodo valeant vinum in Christi cruorem vertere? Et si Dominus praecepit nequaquam dari homicidis, adulteris, rapacibus et ceteris criminalibus peccatis irretitis corpus et sanguinem suum usque ad satisfactionem: quomodo ipse dabit sacerdotium usurpanti per symoniacam heresim ubique dampnatam?
eorum missas audiamus, cum quibus si vel simul oramus excommunicationis subimus. Quos quidem sacerdotes esse saltem credere omnino errare est, cum Petrus Simoni dicat: Pecunia tua tecum sit in perditionem, quia existimasti donum Dei pecuniis possideri. Ubi cum 'existimasti' dicitur, patet, quia non pro eo quod fecerit sed quod facere se posse crediderit, condemnetur, cum tamen minus sit existimare quam credere. Cum itaque hereticorum qualemcumque esse sit certa et indubitata damnatio, quid valet Arrianos, Sabellianos, Photinianos impurosque Manicheos toto orbe pepulisse, si symoniaca et neophytorum heresis, quae, ut beatus Gregorius dicit, ante omnes in sancta ecclesia diabolica fraude surrepserit, quasi primam et maximam ecclesiae castitatem foeda nimium pollutione contaminet. Igitur in Deo et propter Deum vestram excellentiam et omnes fideles Christi rogamus et obtestamur, si habere partem cum Christo cupitis, summopere instate, ut tam saeva pestis, quae innumeros iam populos usquequaque saeviendo aeterna morte multavit, vestra auctoritate et exemplo penitus destruatur, ne ulterius — quod absit! — in Spiritum sanctum peccare neque hic neque in futuro saeculo remittatur.
THE LETTER OF GUIDO TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF MILAN.
Whoever fails to rescue his brother from death, when he has the power to do so, incurs the guilt of fraternal homicide. We likewise, who have heard of the grave peril threatening your Excellency, incur the punishment of a most serious offense if we remain silent — for the Lord thunders terribly through the prophet that he who conceals the wickedness of the impious by his silence does in truth shed blood. For we have heard — and are greatly astonished — that sacred orders are being sold among you for money, since all who have attempted any such thing are proven utterly heretical, the Holy Spirit declaring through Gregory that whoever is ordained for money is promoted to the end that he may become a heretic. And to show that the cause of this little letter of ours is not presumption but the fear of God, the same blessed Gregory continues: Whoever does not burn with fierce zeal against the heresy of simony and of neophytes, in the place proper to his office, let him not doubt that he will share the portion of the one who first committed this heinous sin. In these words, since the heretic of the simoniac and neophyte heresy is described as one who must be condemned to eternal death, this is most plainly declared — the divine oracle attesting through Augustine and saying: Hold most firmly and doubt not at all that every heretic and schismatic, however many alms he may give or even if he shed his blood for Christ, is to be handed over to the burning of the eternal fire with the devil and his angels, unless before the end of this life he has been incorporated into and restored to the Catholic Church. Hence it is that the Lord drove out those who sold and bought in the temple; that the earth swallowed up Dathan and Abiron [see Numbers 16] as they sought the highest priesthood; that Peter condemned Simon for attempting the same; and that the rock of ecclesiastical censure has condemned all simoniacs with perpetual anathema. And it is deeply shameful that the Church, now confirmed in the fullest vigor, should succumb to so ruinous an enemy — an enemy over whom, in the very beginning of her infancy, she triumphed with such great power. They become Jews, those who sell the Son of the eternal Father for thirty pieces of silver. Let the heretic hear this, let the
heretic hear, and let the Christian hear, and let him who wishes to authorize this heresy with raving mouth also hear. To these I say: Where is what you received? To those I say: Where is what you gave? These wretches have wretchedly made exchange with one another — the one to serve his love of money, the other to satisfy his own wickedness. Therefore neither does the one possess the price, nor do the others possess Christ. So too those who sell and buy the Paraclete neither possess the price in perpetuity, nor — unless they repent — will they possess Christ without end. Rejoice, O Christian! For what Judas sold and the Jew bought, you have acquired; both have worked great good for us at their own cost. If he who sold Christ was delivered to such destruction, what will become of his fellows who buy and sell the Paraclete? Are those who are equal in crime not equal in punishment? He sold the Son; these, insofar as they are able, endeavor to sell the Holy Spirit.
Can one who is accursed transform bread into the body of Christ by his blessing — especially when the Lord declares that he will curse whatever such a one blesses? If heretical priests cannot even speak words of exhortation, how could they be able to turn wine into the blood of Christ? And if the Lord has commanded that his body and blood are by no means to be given to murderers, adulterers, robbers, and others entangled in grave sins until they have made satisfaction — how will he himself grant the priesthood to one who usurps it through the simoniac heresy, which is condemned everywhere?
[Are we to] hear the Masses of such men, when even praying together with them subjects us to excommunication? Indeed, to believe them to be priests at all is altogether erroneous, since Peter says to Simon: May your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be possessed by money [Acts 8:20]. When he says “you thought,” it is clear that he is condemned not for what he did but for what he believed himself able to do — and yet to “think” is a lesser thing than to “believe.” Since therefore the damnation of heretics, of whatever kind they be, is certain and beyond doubt, what has been gained by driving Arians, Sabellians, Photinians, and the unclean Manicheans from the whole world, if the simoniac and neophyte heresy — which, as blessed Gregory says, crept in ahead of all others into the holy Church through the devil’s fraud — defiles, as it were, the primary and greatest chastity of the Church with most foul pollution? Therefore in God and for God’s sake we beg and implore your Excellency and all the faithful of Christ: if you desire to have a share with Christ, press forward with all your might so that so savage a pestilence — which has already punished countless peoples everywhere with eternal death by its rampaging — may be utterly destroyed by your authority and example, lest henceforth, God forbid, the sin against the Holy Spirit be committed, which is forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come [cf. Matthew 12:32].