The Presbyters Project

LXXIC

INCREPATIO AD POPVLVM.

Cum semper, fratres, non cessauerim uos paterna pietate corripere, miror nihil uos tot meis conmotionibus profecisse, et doleo quod frequens praedicatio mea non uos profectu aliquo salutis corrigat, sed quadam contestationis poena constringat. Praedicatio enim sacerdotis in plebe saluandis est correctio contestatio iudicandis. Contestamur enim illis ante iudicii diem, quid illos maneat in ipso iudicio, ut tunc omni excusatione submota et rei sint de peccatis et obnoxii de contemptu. Vnde et ego interdum parcens uobis tacere uelim, sed malo uos contumaciae causas reddere quam me neglegentiae sustinere iudicium. Conperi enim, fratres, quod per absentiam meam ita rari quique ad ecclesiam ueniatis, ita pauci admodum procedatis, quasi me proficiscente me cum pariter ueniretis; et quasi, cum necessitatibus ego pertrahor, uos me cum traxerit ipsa necessitas. Pariter ergo a domo dei absentes sumus, sed hoc interest, quod me absentem necessitas efficit uos uoluntas. Nescitis quia, etsi ego ab ecclesia desum, christus tamen ab ecclesia sua, qui est ubique, non deest? venis, frater, ad ecclesiam, non inuenis ibi episcopum; sed si fideliter uenis, inuenis ibi episcoporum episcopum saluatorem. Nam christianus qui tunc tantum procedit ad ecclesiam, quando episcopus praesens est, non tam dei causa uidetur processisse quam hominis; nec inplesse christiani timentis officium sed amici deferentis obsequium. Quid autem ego uos arguo, cum possitis me uno sermone conuincere? conuincor enim, cum in hac parte clericos uobis magis uideo neglegentes. Quomodo enim possum corrigere filios, cum fratres emendare non possim? aut qua fiducia suscenseam laicis, cum a consortibus pudoris uerecundia conticiscam? ego autem, fratres, non de omnibus loquor. Sunt certe quique deuoti, sunt et alii neglegentes. Ego neminem nomino, conscientia sua unumquemque conueniat!

(ed. Mutzenbecher 1962: 327)

Sermon 79

A Rebuke to the People

Since, brethern, I have never ceased to rebuke you with fatherly concern, I am amazed that you have made no progress for all my admonitions, and I grieve that my frequent preaching does not set you aright by some increase of salvation but that it restrains you, as it were, by the pain of witness. For the bishop's preaching to the people is a corrective for those who are to be saved but a witness against those who are to be judged. We bear witness to them before they may be without excuse then and may be accused of sins and held liable for contempt. For this reason I would also like to keep silent occasionally and to spare you, but I prefer to give you an account of your arrogance than to subject myself to a sentence of negligence. For I have discovered, brethern, that during my absence so few of you came to church, so very few of you were present, that it was as if you had gone off together with me; it was as if, since I was taken away by things that needed attending to, the same obligation dragged you along with me. We are equally absent form God's house, then, but there is this difference: obligation causes me to be absent, but choice you. Do you not know that even if I am away from the church, nonetheless Christ, who is everywhere, is not away from His Church? You come to church, brother, and you do not find the bishop there, but if you come in faith you find there the Saviour, the bishop of bishops. For a Christian who only goes to church when the bishop is present seems to have fulfilled the obligation of a God-fearing Chrisitian so much as to have acted obsequiously like a false friend. But why do I reproach you when you can convict me with a word? For I am convicted when, in this regard, I see that the clerics are more negligent than you. How can I convict sons when I cannot convict brothers? Or with what assurance may I be angered with layfolk when I keep silent for shame before my confreres? However, brethern, I am not speaking to everyone. There are, to be sure, some devoted persons, and others who are negligent. I name no one: let everyone's conscience speak for itself.

(trans. B. Ramsey 1989: 191-192)

Place of event:

Region

Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia

City

Turin

About the source:

Author: Maximus of Turin
Title: Sermones
Origin: Turin (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Maximus is the first known bishop of Turin. He held this see already in May 397 because he mentions the martyrdom of three clerics in Anaunia as the event from his episcopacy (Sermons 105–6). According to Gennadius of Marseille, Maximus died during the reign of Honorius and Theodosius II, that is between 408 and 423. He should not be confused with another Maximus of Turin attested in the middle of the fifth century (PCBE, Italie, v. 1, Maximus 10 and Maximus 14).

The collection of the sermons of Maximus of Turin were first edited by Bruno Bruni in 1784 (included in Patrologia Latina 57). Now, however, many sermons attributed by Bruni to Maximus are considered dubious or spurious. Most recent editor, Almut Mutzenbecher, decided to include in her edition 121 sermons. According to Mutzenbecher, 89 of those constituted the collection ascribed to Maximus already in the fifth century, though seven of those are spurious. Of the remaining sermons which are "out of order" (sermones extravagantes) she considers 30 to be genuine (Mutzenbecher 1962: xv–xxxvi).

Edition:

Mutzenbecher Almut ed., Maximi Taurinensis Collectio sermonum antiqua nonnullis sermonibus extrauagantibus adiectis, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 23, Turnhout 1962

Translation:

Boniface Ramsey trans., Sermons of Maximus of Turin, Ancient Christian Writers 50, New York 1989

Bibliography:

A. Mutzenbecher, "Bestimmung der echten Sermones des Maximus Taurinensis", Sacris Erudiri 12 (1961), 197-293.

Categories:

Described by a title - Clericus

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Ritual activity

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1512, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1512