To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 41
41 PL 23, 392
41. No one must blame the translator for this verbiage: the Greek is the same. Meanwhile I rejoice that whereas I thought I was beheaded I find my presbyterial head on my shoulders again. He says that we are utterly incapable of conviction, and he draws back from the encounter. If the cause of discord is not due to discussions about the faith, but springs from the ordination of Paulinianus, is it not the extreme of folly to give occasion to those who seek occasion by refusing to answer? Confess the faith; but do it so as to answer the question put to you, that it may be clear to all that the dispute is not one of faith, but of order. For so long as you are silent when questioned concerning the faith, your adversary has a right to say to you: “The matter is not one of order but of faith.” If it is a question of order, you act foolishly in saying nothing when questioned concerning the faith. If it is one of faith, it is foolish of you to make a pretext of the question of order. Moreover, when you say your aim was that they might be subject to the Church, that they might not rend it, nor set up an authority of their own; who they are of whom you speak I do not well understand. If you are speaking of me and the presbyter Vincentius, you have been asleep long enough, if you only wake up now, after thirteen years, to say these things. For the reason why I forsook Antioch and he Constantinople, both famous cities, was, not that we might praise your popular eloquence, but that, in the country and in solitude, we might weep over the sins of our youth, and draw down upon us the mercy of Christ. But if Paulinianus is the subject of your remarks, he, as you see, is subject to his bishop, and lives at Cyprus: he sometimes comes to visit us, not as one of your clergy, but as another’s, his, namely, by whom he was ordained. But if he wished even to stay here, and to live a quiet, solitary life sharing our exile, what does he owe you except the respect which we owe to all bishops? Suppose that he had been ordained by you; he would only tell you the same that I, a poor wretch of a man, told Bishop Paulinus of blessed memory. “Did I ask to be ordained by you?” I said. “If in bestowing the rank of presbyter you do not strip us of the monastic state, you can bestow or withhold ordination as you think best. But if your intention in giving the name presbyter was to take from me that for which I forsook the world, I must still claim to be what I always was; you have suffered no loss by ordaining me.”
Pauliniani ordinatio. -- « Quando autem coeptum est de ordinatione Pauliniani, et aliorum qui cum eo sunt, ventilari, videntes se reprehendi, cum propter charitatem atque concordiam concederentur eis omnia; hoc autem solum expeteretur, ut licet ab aliis contra regulas ordinati essent, tamen subjicerentur Ecclesiae Dei; ut non scinderent eam, atque proprium sibi facerent principatum: in hoc non acquiescentes, coeperunt proponere de fide, et omnibus notum facere, quod si non arguerentur hi qui cum Hieronymo presbytero erant, nihil culparent in nobis. Sin autem arguerentur erroris, 451 et culpae, cum penitus non queant de istiusmodi quaestionibus disputare, satisfactionem errati proprii non invenientes, ad ista confugerent: non quo sperarent nos posse convinci, sed famam nostram laedere niterentur. »
41 *. Paulinianus presbyter Cypri versabatur. Hieronymus ordinatus a Paulino. --Quod perplexa oratio est, nemo vitium interpretationis putet. Talis enim et Graeca est. Interim ego gaudeo, quod qui me decollatum putabam, subito mihi presbyterii caput video repositum. Dicit nos omnino convinci non posse, et venire ad praelium perhorrescit. Si causa discordiae, non ex dissensione fidei est, sed ex Pauliniani ut dicis, ordinatione descendit, quae tanta stultitia est volentibus occasionem dare, nolle respondere? Confitere fidem; sed tamen responde quod quaereris, ut omnibus luceat, non de fide, sed de ordinatione esse certamen. Quamdiu enim interrogatus de fide, tacueris, potest tibi adversarius dicere: Non est ordinationis causa, sed fidei. Si ordinationis causa est, stulte facis de fide interrogatus, tacere. Si fidei, stulte praetendis ordinationem. Porro quod dicis te petisse, ut subjicerentur Ecclesiae Dei, et non scinderent eam, neque proprium sibi facerent principatum, de quibus dicas, non satis intelligo. Si de me et de presbytero Vincentio, satis multo dormisti tempore, qui post annos tredecim, nunc excitatus haec loqueris. Ob id enim et ego Antiochiam, et ille Constantinopolim, urbes celeberrimas deseruimus, non ut te in populis praedicantem laudaremus: sed ut in agris et in solitudine adolescentiae peccata deflentes, Christi in nos misericordiam deflecteremus. Sin autem de Pauliniano tibi sermo est: vides eum Episcopo suo esse subjectum, versari Cypri, ad visitationem nostram interdum venire: non ut tuum, sed ut alienum; ejus videlicet, a quo ordinatus est. Quod si hic etiam esse voluerit, et in exsilio nostro quietus in solitudine vivere, quid tibi debet, nisi honorem quem omnibus debemus episcopis? Fac a te ordinatum: idem ab eo audies, quod a me misello homine sanctae memoriae 452 episcopus Paulinus audivit. « Num rogavi te, ut ordinarer? Si sic presbyterium tribuis, ut monachum nobis non auferas, tu videris de judicio tuo. Sin autem sub nomine presbyteri tollis mihi, propter quod saeculum dereliqui: ego habeo quod semper habui: nullum dispendium in ordinatione passus es.