The three degrees of clerical heresy

Further, let Christ’s disciple consider whether this so-calledvocatus (vocata bona, vocata ecclesia): so-called worldly security assures, on either side, the almsgivers and the almsmenelemosinare; elemosinatus: to give alms to; almsman of the acceptance of their works of mercy as regards God.¹ Does not this mundanitymundialitas / secularitas: mundanity / worldliness hold back Christ’s presbyterssacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter from climbing to the watchtower of scripture, from which they could watch for all the dangers of the churchecclesia: church, from the beginning of the world to the end, forewarning the church (as scripture notes in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 33)?² Let him note secondly whether this copious worldly security makes these watchmenspeculator: watchman drowsy and ignorant for foreseeing these dangers of the church, and makes those others fearful of foretelling the dangers of the people’s damnation, and makes others, who would be fatted fowl, creeping things,³ unfitindispositus; (se) indisponere: unfit; to make (oneself) unfit to pray for the salvation of their subjects, mediating between God and the people, or to merit for themselves and others by ministering the sacraments or preaching the gospel. Hence we should note Christ’s parable in Luke 12, where he commands us to beware of all covetousness, because a man’s life is not in his riches, as he proves of a certain rich man who busied himself about storing his goods in barns, and that same night his soul was snatched away by demons.⁴ We should consider moreover that word of Ezekiel 16:49: "This was the iniquity of Sodom thy sister, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and idleness"; and if these four 295are in the clergyclerus; clericus: the clergy; cleric by occasion of endowmentdotacio: endowment, danger hangs over [them] from it.⁵ And if the occasion is given or taken by accident from such perpetual endowment, where temporary almsgiving would be more secure, the danger is clear both in the almsgiverelemosinans: almsgiver and in the almsman who leans upon this secular rite.⁶ But God constrains the rich of this world to minister continually to the clergy in the necessaries of life, as much of the clergy as is necessary to the church militantecclesia militans / triumphans / dormiens: the church militant / triumphant / sleeping.

And it is clear that there is no security for a secular lorddominus; dominari: lord; to exercise lordship / to lord it in bestowing his almselemosina: alms in such a way, since the Truth commands him in Luke 16:9 to "make unto [him] friends of the mammon of iniquity," not spiritual and most dangerous enemies. But in Matthew 10:36 Christ says: "His enemies, they of his own household."⁷ For none make schism in holy mother church more craftily, as more dangerous heretics, than those who seem to be the chief men of the church, clothed in the garments of sheep. Hence, although there are many heretics among the laity as well as among the clergy, as is clear of the three foreknownprescitus, -i: the foreknown persons who will be left at the final judgment (of whom Matthew 24:1), a more dangerous and commoner heresy sprouts in the clergy, of which (as I have set out elsewhere) there are three degrees.⁸ The first is when someone in the clergy aspires to an ecclesiastical dignity simoniacallysimonia: simony, rather for gain and pomp, with what follows on them, than for the meritorious office of serving spiritually. Of this heresy the Decretum speaks at 1 q. 1, under the authority of Gregory, who says thus: "The simoniac heresy, which first crept in against the church of God by the devil’s supplanting, and at its very birth was struck and condemned by the zeal of apostolic vengeance, is reported to lord itdominus; dominari: lord; to exercise lordship / to lord it within the borders of our kingdom."⁹ 296For such heretics the superior in the church, and especially the true vicar of Christvicarius Christi: vicar of Christ, must root out; for every simoniac is a heretic (as is clear from 1 q. 1, Quisquis).¹⁰ Nor does there seem a more apt destruction of this heresy than to take away the ownership of the temporal goodstemporalia: temporal goods for whose sake such dignity is simoniacally desiredaffectare: to desire.

The second degree of heresy, to be hunted down by prelatesprelatus: prelate and destroyed by both arms, is when the endowed person of the church, who ought to be the proctorprocurator; procuratrix: proctor, not the lord, of the alms given to the poor (as is clear at the beginning of this chapter and in book III of the Decretals, De donationibus, chapter Fraternitatem) — when, I say, such a one spends the goods of the church prodigally in the pomp of the world, or consumes them on kindred or carnal affection, or thirdly withholds the treasure of the poor through avaricious affection for earthly advantage: then he is a dangerous heretic, but most dangerous is a conventual person stained with these conditions of heresy.¹¹ This heresy, indeed this antichristian madness, is clear from the saying of blessed Gregory placed in the Decretum at 16 q. 7, who says thus: "An ill report has reached us that certain of the bishops confer the tithesdecime; pars decima: tithes; the tenth part and the oblations of christians not on the priestssacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter of their own diocese but rather on lay persons, namely knightsmilicia; milites: knighthood; knights or servants, or (what is graver) even on kinsmen. Hence if any bishopepiscopus; dominus episcopus: bishop; the lord bishop henceforth shall be found a transgressor of this divine precept, let him be held not the least among the greatest heretics and worst antichrists; and as the Nicene synod decreed concerning simoniacs, both the bishop who gives 297and the laymen who receive from him, whether by bargain or by favour, are to be assigned to the fires of eternal burning."¹² And much more [is] a community [a heretic] which ought to be more religious and is more pertinacious in this sin and a deeper antichrist: such would be the religiousreligiosi: the religious living in a secular manner, distributing the goods of the poor to their kindred, so that it may become renowned to the world, [and] to military men and lawyers, so that they may defend their revenuesreditus: revenue(s), and (what would be worst) if they gave to their carnal kindred and to unqualifiedinhabilis: unqualified (to hold office) servants presentation to ecclesiastical beneficesbeneficium ecclesiasticum: ecclesiastical benefice by virtue of the right of patronageius patronatus: right of patronage.¹³ And blessed Gregory hints at all these things. The third degree of clerical heresy is when a priest occupies the estate and goods of the church without repaying the due ministry to which he is bound by reason of the alms and of his acceptance of a solemn office; and such a one, as such, is excommunicated by the Lord; for if a layman is excommunicated by man because he unjustly withholds tithes or alms due to the priest, much more is the priest excommunicated by the Lord who unjustly, after a greater obligation, withholds the spiritual alms of his subjects. The obligation, I say, is greater, since it is not lawful for him to withdraw spiritual alms even when the subject withdraws bodily alms. For the priests of Christ must do good to those who persecute [them] and love their enemies; and again, the withdrawal of spiritual alms is more dangerous, since it threatens perpetual perdition of body and soul, but the withdrawal of bodily alms [threatens] neither so evidently.¹⁴ Hence it is said in Jeremiah 48:10: "Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully"; and much more cursed is he who receives the burden of leading the Lord’s flock, which he either treacherously leads to the precipice or from which he fraudulently withdraws [his] ministry altogether, of which it was said in book VI, 298chapter 20 and the three following.¹⁵ Now everyone excommunicated by man, even duly, is a heretic, and more evidently everyone excommunicated by God. Hence at 4 q. 1, Quod autem, under the authority of the second synod, popepapa: pope Nicholas speaks thus: "'We call heretics,' they say, 'both those who were long ago cast out of the church and those who after this were anathematized by us.' Further, if even so you do not yet believe, hear. 'And besides these,' they say, 'those also who feign to confess the faith are schismatics, and those who hold assemblies apart from the bishops in communion with us. Lastly, also if some have been reproved by the church over certain causes and cast out and excommunicated, whether of the clergy or of the lay order. We call all such heretics and schismatics.'"¹⁶ Hence the glossglosa: gloss says there that everyone excommunicated is a heretic, and allegesallegare / allegacio: allege / allegation the Decretum, 23 q. 4, Ipsa pietas, and 24 q. 3, Illi.¹⁷ And what was said of heresy in book VI agrees. For everyone [excommunicated], or sinning mortally, is as such divided from the communion of holy mother church, which is what "heretic" signifies.¹⁸ Again, everyone who strives to take away the privilegeprivilegium / privilegiare / privilegiacio: privilege / to privilege / privileging of the Roman church is as such a heretic; and those who scatter the law on the office of priests do this most of all in effect.¹⁹

Again, such men are perjurers,²⁰ not only because they deny the faith which they had promised to Christ in baptism, in receiving the priestly order and in receiving that office, but [because] they are specially sworn to defend and retain (as far as they are able) the rightsius: right / law of the Roman church and the rules of the holy fathers (as is clear from book III of the Decretals, De iure 299iurando, Ego episcopus).²¹ And if in this they incur perjury against the Roman church, how would the pope not be the first to divide them from his church, which they so treacherously mock? The heresy of simoniacs, therefore — in their entry, not by the door; in their progress, in which they prodigally consume the goods of the poor; and above all in the omission of the due office of curatescuratus: curate — seems to infect both the church and the Roman empire.²²