Leonard against Silvester; the fifth argument: perpetual alms and the colleges

If, I say, with such evangelical exhortations Silvester had provided more securely for the future churchecclesia: church, then in all likelihood he would have profited both parties more, as blessed Leonard profited the king of France more by drawing him back from worldly affection through refusing the office 369of prelacy than he would have done by retaining that office and procuring from the king half of his kingdomregnum: kingdom.¹ Therefore he acted more in conformity with the gospel and (as I believe) more usefully for both parts of the church than blessed Silvester acted in receiving that charter from Caesar, as the chronicle hints concerning the voice of the angel saying that on the day of that endowmentdotacio: endowment poison was poured into the holy church of God.² Nor is Caesar’s charter more credible than that chronicle; indeed it is more evident, from the faith of scriptureex fide: as faith teaches; with a genitive, from the faith of [scripture] and the law of the church, that Nabuchodonosor, who destroyed the synagogue and the priests of Jerusalem, was saved, than that Constantine will be saved; because the decree, with Augustine, asserts the first from the testimony of scripture, but the second is left without any to urge it.³ But the doctor argues that Silvester was bound, of necessity of salvation, to receive the aforesaid endowment from Caesar, on the ground that [Caesar], having despoiled Christians of their goods, was bound to restore [them] to them.⁴ But if that evidenceevidencia: evidence held, it would move [one], first, to believe that Constantine, through defect of full satisfaction, was damnable; second, since blessed Silvester ought under pain of mortal [sin] to receive that restitution, it follows that the whole empire was owed principally to the Roman pontiffRomanus pontifex: Roman pontiff, and by the same token, when any secular chief lordcapitalis dominus; tenere de: chief lord; to hold of of any kingdom is extinct, the bishopepiscopus; dominus episcopus: bishop; the lord bishop ought to be its civil chief lord, as was deduced and disproved in the previous chapter. Third, it follows that secular exercise of lordshipdominacio: exercise of lordship is owed principally to Christ and to each vicar of his, since otherwise Caesar could have renounced all civil standingcivilitas: civil standing and distributed his goods to the poor, as Saint Thomas the apostle and Saint Laurence did; for, the opposite being granted, it was not necessary that Caesar should resign the empire to Silvester, and consequently it was not necessary under pain of mortal [sin] that blessed Silvester should have received that endowment from Caesar.⁵ 370Hence I believe that it would have been more meritorious for both parties that the goods had been distributed to the poor, and a continual ministry ordained by lay people in aid of the needy; for then the clergyclerus; clericus: the clergy; cleric could stand in its degree, living without propertyexproprietarii / exproprietarie: the propertyless / without property as at first, and, with alliance, assurance and occupation with the world taken away, the fruit of the clergy would grow on every side. Nor is it to be believed that, for the satisfaction of a tyrant, it is required that he give the clergy civil exercise of lordship; but it is needful that one making satisfaction to the chief lord should help his church, by conferring on others as being needy, and by withdrawing from those who have superabundance or abuse [it]. For so Nabuchodonosor is said, on greater evidence than our Caesar, to have merited.⁶

Fifth, it is argued by appeal toarguitur per: it is argued by appeal to [an argument] leading to a familiar absurdityinconveniencia; inconveniens: CONTEXTUAL: an absurdity (in argument) · troubles, ill consequences (in affairs), namely: if blessed Silvester sinned in receiving the endowment of the church in perpetuity, it follows by parity that the colleges of our university would in all likelihood sin in receiving temporal goodstemporalia: temporal goods for the perpetual sustenance of poor clericsclerus; clericus: the clergy; cleric; and so it follows that both the clerics of the lord of Winchester and other collegiates are bound not to be perpetuated, and consequently [are bound] to urge the patronspatronus: patron to dissolve perpetual privilegesprivilegium / privilegiare / privilegiacio: privilege / to privilege / privileging, as is the case with the perpetual privileges granted to our university by the king; and so with chantries and other perpetual almselemosina: alms.⁷ "Let this heresy be revoked," he says, "since it would extinguish the devotion of the people, the perpetual alms of the clerics, and consequently would turn to the greatest detriment of the poor in future."⁸

To this I say, first, that the inferenceconsequencia: inference does not hold, since a man can do not only what is good in its kind but what is morally good, and yet with this and in this sin venially, as this party has to say in a more familiar 371example.⁹ For lord Simon Islep, archbishop of Canterbury, founded a college in Oxford with a more pious intention (as is more evidently believed) than [is believed] of the foundation of any abbey in England, and he ordained that in it purely secular clerics should study, under a laudable form, for the utility of the church; which was also done. And when he was dead, the purpose of so pious a patron was overthrown simoniacally with the devices of a lie, and, those [clerics] being expelled, a few others, not needy but abounding in riches, [were] irregularly brought in, against the decree taken from the sayings of blessed Jerome, placed in [Causa] 12, q. 2: "It is the glory of a bishop to provide for the wealth of the poor; it is the shame of a priestsacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter to study his own riches."¹⁰ And since, under pretext of that sophistical paint, the bishop and his chapter are one person, from whom it is not lawful to alienate the goods of that church, that person claims to possess the goods of that college as property. Hence it seems that the lord of Winchester should be counselled to beware of this wilecautela: wile.¹¹ Now I believe that the said Simon sinned in founding the said college, but not so much as the Anti-Simon who dissolved it; but, as I believe, never was a church appropriatedappropriare; appropriacio: to appropriate; appropriation in England, or a possession amortized in perpetual alms, but that the appropriationappropriare; appropriacio: to appropriate; appropriation savoured of sin on both sides. Further, for the matter of the argument, I would desireaffectare: to desire that God should decree that there should not be in our kingdom such appropriation of churches or amortizationmortificacio: amortization of temporal revenuesreditus: revenue(s), but that the whole clergy, living purely without property, should be content with tithesdecime; pars decima: tithes; the tenth part, offerings and private alms; for although I would not say this by way of conclusionconclusio: conclusion, but by way of condition and 372prayer, yet its reasonableness can be urged in three ways.¹²