126 St.

Leo IV, 847-855

ST. LEO IV 847-855

COUNCIL OF TICINUS 1 850

The Sacrament of Extreme Unction 2

315 (8) That saving sacralnent also which James the Apostle commends
saying: If anyone is sick . .. it will be remitted him [Jas. 5:14], must
be made known to the people by skilful teaching; a truly great mys­
tery and one exceedingly to be sought, through which, if the faithful ask,
and their sins are forgiven, it may even follow that health of body is
restored. . . . This, however, must be known, that, if he who is sick has
not been freed from public penance, he cannot receive the remedy of this
mystery, unless first by the prescribed reconciliation he has merited the
communion of the body and blood of Christ. He to whom the other sacra·
ments have been restricted, is by no means permitted to use this one.

COUNCIL OF QUIERSY 3 853

(Against Gottschalk and the Predestinarians)

Redemption and Grace 4

316 Chap. I. Omnipotent God created man noble without sin with a free
will, and he whom He wished to remain in the sanctity of justice, He
placed in Paradise. Man using his free will badly sinned and fell, and be­
came the "mass of perdition" of the entire human race. The just and good
God, however, chose from this same mass of perdition according to His
foreknowledge those whom through grace He predestined to life [Rom.
8:29 fl.; Eph. 1:11], and He predestined for these eternal life; the others,
whom by the judgment of justice he left in the mass of perdition,5 however,
He knew would perish, but He did not predestine that they would perish,
because He is just; however, He predestined eternal punishment for them.
And on account of this we speak of only one predestination of God,
which pertains either to the gift of grace or to the retribution of justice.
317 Chap. 2. The freedom of will which we lost in the first man, we have
received back through Christ our Lord; and we have free will for good,
preceded and aided by grace, and we have free ""'ill for evil, abandoned by

1 Pavia.
2 Msi XIV 932 E f.; Hrd V 27 A; d. Hfl IV 77.
3 Quiersy in Gaul.
4 Msi XIV 920 D fl.; Hrd V 18 C fl.; Hfl IV 187; ML 125, 49 (129) fl.
5 C£' St. Augustine, Ep. 190, 3, 9 [ML 33, 859]; de dono persev. 14, 35 [ML 45,
101 4] .
 Council of Valence Ill, 855 12 7
grace. Moreover, because freed by grace and by grace healed from corrup­
tion, we have free will.
Chap. 3. Omnipotent God wishes all men without exception to be 318
saved [I Tim. 2:4 J although not all will be saved. However, that certain
ones are saved, is the gift of the one ""ho saves; that certain ones perish,
however, is the deserved punishment of those ""ho perish.
Chap. 4. Christ Jesus our Lord, as no nlan \vho is or has been or ever 319
will be whose nature will not have been assumed in Him, so there is, has
been, or will be no man, for whom He has not suffered; although not all
will be saved by the mystery of His passion. But because all are not re­
deemed by the mystery of His passion, He does not regard the greatness
and the fullness of the price, but He regards the part of the unfaithful
ones and those not believing in faith those things tuhich He has worked
through love [Gal. 5:6], because the drink of human safety, which has
been prepared by our infirmity and by divine strength, has indeed in
itself that it may be beneficial to all; but if it is not drunk, it does not
heal.

COUNCIL OF VALENCE 1 III 855

(Against John Scotus)

Predestination 2
Can. I. We have faithfully and obedient!y heard that Doctor of the 320
Gentiles warning in faith and in truth: "0 Timothy, guard that which
has been entrusted to you, avoiding the profane novelties of words, and
oppositions under the false nanle of knowledge, which some promising
concerning faith have destroyed" [II Tim. 6:20 f.]; and again: "Shun
1 Valence in Gaul.
2 Msi XV 3 A ff.; Hrd V 88 E ff.; Hfl IV 193 ff.; cf. ML 125, 49 ff.; Bar(Th) ad
855 n. I ff. (14, 422 a ff.). These canons were taken up by the Synod of Tulle I
at Saponariae in the year 859 and repeated. It is not to be denied that they were
directed against the chapters of Quiersy. But when the entire difference caIne out of
this, namely that the Fathers of both councils thought that two or one predestination
should be mentioned with a different sense, and that the Valentinians thought that
Hincmar, the president of the meeting at Quiersy, favored the errors of John Scotus,
as soon as the mistake was detected) at the Synod of Langres 859 the same bishops
who had been present at that of Valence removed from canon 4 of Valence the note
attached to the chapters of Quiersy, which we have included in the text within
square brackets [ ], and both parties in the Council of Tulle II nleeting at Tusiacum
in the year 860 entered an agreement and accepted a synodal letter written by Hincmar
and some chapters of Quiersy and Valence. On the relation of this council to the
Council of Quiersy In. 3 I 6 ff.], cf. Book on maintaining the truth of Scripture
without change [ML 121, 1083 ff.], composed by St. Remigius, Bishop of Lyons, who
himself is the author of the canons of the Council of Valence. Cf. "Gregorianum" 3
(19 22 ) 78.
 128 Council of Valence Ill, 855
profane and useless talk; for they contribute much toward ungodliness,
and their speech spreadest like an ulcer" [II Tim. 2: 16 f.]; and again:
"Avoid foolish and unlearned questions, knowing that they beget strifes;
but the servant of the Lord must not quarrel" [II Tin1. 2:23 f.] and again:
"Nothing through contention, nothing through vain glory" [Phil. 2:3]:
desiring to be zealous for peace and charity, in so far as God has given,
attending the pious counsel of this same apostle: "Solicitous to preserve the
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace" [Eph. 4: 3], let us with all zeal
avoid novel doctrines and presumptuous talkativeness, whence rather the
smoke of contention and of scandal between brothers can be stirred up,
than any increase of the fear of God arise. Without hesitation, however, to
the doctors piously and correctly discussing the word of truth, and to those
very clear expositors of Sacred Scripture, namely, Cyprian, Hilary, Am·
brose, Jerome, Augustine, and others living tranquilly in Catholic piety,
we reverently and obediently subtnit our hearing and our understanding,
and to the best of our ability we embrace the things which they have
written for our salvation. For concerning the foreknowledge of God, and
predestination, and other questions in which the n1inds of the brethren
are proved not a little scandalized, we believe that we must firmly hold
that only which we are happy to have drawn from the maternal womb of
the Church.
321 Can. 2. We faithfully hold that "God foreknows and has foreknown
eternally both the good deeds which good men will do, and the evil which
evil men will do," because we have that word of Scripture which says:
"Eternal God, who are the witness of all things hidden, who knew all
things before they are" [Dan. 13 :42 ]; and it seems right to hold "that the
good certainly have known that through His grace they would be good,
and that through the same grace they would receive eternal rewards; that
the wicked have known that through their own malice they would do
evil deeds, and that through His justice they would be condemned by
eternal punishment"; 1 so that according to the Psalmist: "Because power
belongs to God and mercy to the Lord, so that He will render to each
man according to his works" [Ps. 61: 12 f.], and as apostolic doctrin~ holds:
"To them indeed, who according to patience in good works, seek glory
and honor and incorruption, eternal life; but to them that are contentious,
and who obey not the truth, but give credit to iniquity, wrath and in­
dignation, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man doing evil"
[Rom. 2:7 fI.]. In the san1e sense, this same one says elsewhere: "In the
revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of His power,
in a flame of fire, giving vengeance to them who do not know God, and
who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer
eternal punishment in destruction . . . when He shall come to be glorified
1 Florus the Deacon, Sermon on Predestination [ML 119, 97 A-B].
 Council of Valence III} 855 129

in His Saints, and to be made wonderful in all them who have believed
[II Thess. 1:7 ff.]. Certainly neither (do we believe) that the foreknowl­
edge of God has placed a necessity on any wicked man, so that he cannot
be different, but what that one would be from his own will, as God, who
knew all things before they are, He foreknew from His omnipotent and
immutable Majesty. "Neither do we believe that anyone is condemned
by a previous judgn1ent on the part of God but by reason of his own
iniquity." 1 "Nor (do we believe) that the wicked thus perish because
they were not able to be good; but because they were unwilling to be
good, they have remained by their own vice in the mass of damnation
either by reason of original sin or even by actual sin." 2
Can. 3. But also it has seemed right concerning predestination and 322
truly it is right according to the apostolic authority which says: "Or has
not the potter power over the clay, from the same lump, to n1ake one
vessel unto honor, but another unto dishonor?" [Ron1. 9:21] where also
he immediately adds: "What if God willing to show His wrath and to
make known His power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath
fitted or prepared for destruction, so that He n1ight show the riches of
His grace on the vessels of mercy, which He has prepared unto glory"
[Rom. 9:22 f.]: faithfully we confess the predestination of the elect to
life, and the predestination of the impious to death; in the election, more­
over, of those who are to be saved, the mercy of God precedes the n1erited
good. In the condemnation, however, of those who are to be lost, the
evil which they have deserved precedes the just judgment of God. In
predestination, however, (we believe) that God has determined only
those things which He Himself either in His gratuitous n1ercy or in His
just judgment would do 3 according to Scripture which says: "Who has
done the things which are to be done" [Isa. 45:11, LXX]; in regard to evil
men, however, we believe that God foreknew their malice, because it is
from them, but that He did not predestine it, because it is not from Him.
(We believe) that God, who sees all things, foreknew and predestined that
their evil deserved the punishment vvhich followed, because He is just, in
whom, as Saint Augustine 4 says, there is concerning all things everywhere
so fixed a decree as a certain predestination. To this indeed he applies the
saying of Wisdom: "J udgn1ents are prepared for scorners, and striking
hammers for the bodies of fools" [Prov. 19: 29 ] . Concerning this unchange­
ableness of the foreknowledge of the predestination of God, through which
in Him future things have already taken place, even in Ecclesiastes the
saying is well understood: "I know that all the works which God has made

1 Florus the Deacon, Sermon on Predestination [ML 119,99 B].

2 Florus the Deacon, ibid. [ML "119, 100 A].
3 Florus the Deacon, ibid. [ML 119, 99 D].
4 cf. On Predestination 17, 34 [ML 44, 986].
 13° Council of Valence Ill} 855
continue forever. We cannot add anything, nor take away those things
which God has made that He may be feared" [Eccles. 3:14]. "But we do
not only not believe the saying that some have been predestined to evil
by divine power/' namely as if they could not be different, "but even if
there are those who wish to believe such malice, with all detestation," as
the Synod of Orange, "we say anathema to then1" [see n. 200].
323 Can. 4. Likewise concerning the redemption of the blood of Christ,
because of the great error which has arisen from this cause, so that some,
as their writings indicate, declare that it has been shed even for those
impious ones who from the beginning of the world even up to the passion
of our L,ord, have died in their vvickedness and have been puni~hed by
eternal damnation, contrary to that prophet: "0 death, I will be Thy
death, 0 hell, I will be thy bite" [Osee 13: 14]; it seems right that we
should simply and faithfully hold and teach according to the evangelical
and apostolic truth, because we hold this price to have been paid for those
concerning whom our Lord Himself says: "As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the desert, so it is necessary that the Son of man be lifted up, that all,
who believe in Him, may not perish, but may have eternal life. For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son: that all, who be­
lieve in Him, may not perish but may have eternal life" [John 3: 14 ff.],
and the Apostle: "Christ," he said, "once has been offered to exhaust the
sins of many" [Heb. 9:28]. Furthern10re, although they are becoming
widely spread, we completely remove from the pious hearing of the faith­
ful the chapters (four, which by the council of our brothers have been
unwisely accepted, because of the uselessness or even the harmfulness,
and the error contrary to truth, and other reasons) absurdly concluded
\vith nineteen syllogisms, and not outstanding in learning, in which the
machination of the devil rather than any tenet of faith i~ found, and that
such and similar things may be avoided through all (chapters), we by
the authority of the Holy Spirit forbid (them); we believe also that those
\vho introduce these novel doctrines must be punished lest they become
too harmful.
324 Can. 5. Likewise we believe that we n1ust hold most firmly that all the
multitude of the faithful, regenerated "from the water and the Holy
Spirit" [John 3: 5], and through this truly incorporated in the Church,
and according to the apostolic doctrine baptized in the death of Christ
[Rom. 6:31, in His blood has been absolved from its sins; that neither for
these could there have been true regeneration unless there were true
redemption; since in the sacraments of the Church there is nothing false,
nothing theatrical, but certainly everything true, dependent upon truth
itself and sincerity. Moreover, from this very multitude of the faithful
and the redeemed some are preserved in eternal salvation, because through
 Council of Valence Ill} 855 131

the grace of God they remain faithfully in their redemption, bearing in

their hearts the voice of their God Himself: "Who . . . perseveres even
unto the end, he will be saved" [Matt. 10:22; 24:13]; that others, because
they were unwilling to ren1ain in the safety of faith, which in the beginning
they received, and because they choose by \vrong teaching or by a wrong
life to make void rather than to preserve the grace of redemption, came in
no way to the fullness of salvation and to the reception of eternal beatitude.
In both certainly we have the doctrine of the holy Doctor: "We who are
baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in His death" [Rom. 6: 3 J, and: "All
you who are baptized in Christ have put on Christ" [Gal. 3:27], and
again: "Let us approach with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean
water let us hold unwavering the confession of our hope" [Heb. 10:22],
and again: "For to us sinning willfully after the accepted knowledge of
the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins" [Heb. 10:26], and again:
"He who making void the law of Moses, dies without n1ercy with two or
three witnesses. How much n10re do you think he deserves worse punish­
ments, who has crushed under foot the son of God, and has considered
the blood of the testament unclean, by which he was sanctified, and has
offered insult to the Spirit of grace?" [Heb. 10: 28 J.
Can. 6. Likewise concerning grace, through which thos ~ who believe 325
are saved, and without \vhich never has a rational creature lived happily,
and concerning free will weakened through sin in our first parents, but
reintegrated and healed through the grace of our Lord Jesus for I-lis
faithful, we most constant and in complete faith confess the san1e, which
the most Holy Fathers by the authority of the Sacred Scriptures have left
for us to hold, which the Synod of Africa and the Synod of Orange [n.
174 ff.] have professed, which the most blessed Pontiffs of the Apostolic
See in the Catholic faith have held; but also concerning nature and grace,
we presume in no manner to change to another way. We thoroughly re­
fute, however, the foolish questions, and the utterly old wives' tales,
the porridge of the Scoti bearing nausea to the purity of faith, which in
these n10st dangerous and grave times, to the summit of cur labors even
up to the dividing of charity wretchedly and tearfully have arisen, lest
Christian n1inds henceforth be corrupted and cut off even from the purity
of faith, which is in Christ [II Cor. I I :3] Jesus, and we warn by the love
of our Lord Christ that brother!y charity, by being on its guard, protects
the hearing from such things. Let the brotherhood recall that it is hard
pressed by the very grave evils of the world, by the excessive harvest of
iniquity, and that it is most cruelly suffocated by the chaff of light men.
Let it have zeal to conquer these things; let it labor to correct these things;
and let it not burden the assembly with the inanities of those who grieve
 132 St. Nicholas l~ 858-867
and weep piously, but rather in certain and true faith, let that be embraced
which has been sufficiently determined by the Holy Fathers concerning
these and similar things.

BENEDICT III 855-858

ST. NICHOLAS I 858-867

ROMAN COUNCIL 860 AND 863

Primacy, the Passion of Christ, Baptism 1

326 Chap. 5. If anyone condemns dogmas, mandates, interdicts, sanctions
or decrees, promulgated by the one presiding in the Apostolic See, for the
Catholic faith, for the correction of the faithful, for the emendation of
criminals, either by an interdict of threatening or of future ills, let him
be anathen1a. 2
327 Chap. 7. Truly indeed we must believe and in every way profess that
our Lord Jesus Christ, God and Son of God, suffered the passion of the
Cross only according to the flesh; in the Godhead however, he remained
impassible, as the apostolic authority teaches and the doctrine of the Holy
Fathers most clearly shows.
328 Chap. 8. Let these however be anathema, who say that our Redeemer
Jesus Christ and Son of God sustained the passion of the Cross according
to His Godhead, since it is impious and detestable to Catholic minds.
329 Chap. 9. For all those who say that these who believing in the most
holy font of baptism are reborn in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy
Spirit, are not equally cleansed from original sin, let it be anathema.

The Immunity and Independence of the Church 3

[From epistle (8) "Proposueramus quiden1." to Michael
the Emperor, 865]

330 • Neither by Augustus, nor by all the clergy, nor by religious, nor by
the people will the judge be judged 4 • • • • "The first seat will not be
judged by anyone" 5 [see n. 352 fI.].
1 Msi XV 652 E 658 f.; If 2692; Hrd V 574 E; d. Hfl IV 260, 272 fl.
2 This chapter is due to the council of the year 863, the following to the council
of the year 86 I­
3 Msi XV 196 D ff.; d. If 2796 c. Add; Hrd V 154 C fl.; ML 119, 938 D fl.; d.
Hfl IV 334 f.
4. These are alleged to be the words of St. Sylvester.
5 From the acts of the apocryphal synod of Sinuessa (between Rome and Capua) J
303 [cf. Hfl I 143 ff.].