Old Papal Profession Required Condemnation of Pope Honorius

Patrologia Latina, Volume 105, fol. 52, Liber Diurnus, Excerpt from the Profession of Faith required upon the Consecration of a new Bishop of Old Rome, used from the late 7th century until sometime in the 11th century:

"Auctores vero novi haeretici dogmatis Sergium, Pyrrhum, Paulum, et Petrum Constantinopolitanae, una cum Honorio, qui pravis eorum assertionibus, fomentum impendit."

"Also the authors of the new heretical dogmas: Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, and Peter of Constantinople, together with Honorius, who paid incentive to their depraved assertions."
https://books.google.com/books?id=sH_YAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Additionally, Pope St. Leo II (+683), in a letter to the Emperor states:

"Anathematizamus--nec non et Honorium, qui hanc apostolicam ecclesiam non apostolicae traditionis doctrina lustravit, sed profana proditione immaculatam subvertere conatus est."

"We anathematize also even Honorius, who did not purify this Apostolic Church with the Doctrine of the Apostolic Tradition, but by wicked betrayal sought to subvert the Immaculate [Faith]." (Letter to Emperor Constantine IV, Patrologia Latina Volume 96, fol. 408)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ij18R__FCysC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

St. Columba of Cordoba on Slander and Idle Tales

 The Holy Virgin-Martyr Columba of Cordoba (+853) on why she never listened to slander and idle tales:

"I know the wiles of the demons and I know the insolence of men, who sometimes attack with the scorn of their maledictions someone whom God Omnipotent regards as being approved by most worthy merits. Many things approved and sanctified by Divine Consideration are condemned by human judgment. Frequently men transgress against Divine Meaning with their own opinions when they are ignorant of the merits by virtue of which someone stands in His Presence. They praise him as worthy or they defame him as reprehensible, as if they have knowledge of hidden things; certainly they would judge themselves to be innocent if they were to turn their attention to themselves. If they considered the size and type of burden to which any given person may be subject or what may have been destined for the one accused, by no means would they so culpably argue about things they do not know. Some do these things so that the Divine Censure that was formerly brought against us may be truly confirmed, the One that says: 'Attend, and hearken; no man speaketh what is good, there is none that doth penance for his sin, saying: What have I done?' [Jer. 86] They who, ignoring the beam of their own sin, remain anxious about other peoples' motes, [Matt. 7:3] accept as true and by no means unbelievable that which they have gathered from the most trivial whisper."
[From the "Life" of St. Columba of Cordoba, as recorded by the Holy Martyr Eulgoius of Cordoba (+857), in "Memoriale Sanctorum", Book III, Chapter 10, section 5]

Bishop Ulrich of Imola's "Apology (Defense) of the Married Clergy)

 

Apology of the married clergy

a real letter from XI century

by Ulrich, Bishop of Imola

________________________________

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND THE LETTER

We know very few things concerning the author of this letter-apology. Ulrich was bishop of Imola (near Ravenna, Italy) from 1053 to 1074, year of his death. In AD 1059 the bishop wrote this letter to Pope Nicholas II, in order to defend his married clergy from the new pro-celibate reforms in the breast of the Roman Church. The epistle's style is redundant and rethoric, typical of some Patristics. In the letter many public people are called to remembrance but without their name, perhaps to not scandalize the Pope, or maybe for they were already well known to the corrispondent.

ULRICH - BY GOD'S GRACE BISHOP OF IMOLA

TO HIS HOLYNESS NICHOLAS THE SECOND, POPE OF OLD ROME

Me, Ulrich, bishop by name, son in love but servant in fear, to the guardian of the Roman See.

As I Had found no sense of the measure, oh father and lord, in your decrees on the continence of clerics, which had recently come to me, fear and sadness troubled me a single feeling. Fear, since it is written: "the opinion of those who command, both right and wrong, must be respected" (St. Gregory the Great, Homily in Evang., II 26,6). In fact, I was worried for those who find it difficult to stick to the Scriptures, because they, who barely obey a just prescription, once they have transgressed the unjust - an oppressive, indeed intolerable disposition of their pastor - would no longer feel bound from the commandments. I was sad and in pain as I thought how much the members needed their head, invalidated by such a large body. What is more serious, what is more worthy of the compassion of the whole Church than you, bishop of the highest See, which is called to herd everyone, you have lost the sense of moderation (1)? And not just from this you have deviated, when you wanted to force the clerics to abandon the marriage with a certain violence, while you should have only exhorted them. Is it not, in the judgment of all the masters of the faith, violence that compels us to obey arbitrary decisions, taken against the gospel rule and the teaching of the Holy Spirit? Since there are plenty of examples of the Old and New Testaments in favor of moderation, you know, after all, and I beg your paternity of not bothering to have anyone mentioned in these pages.

Baptismal Prayers in Ancient Sacramentaries

 

After someone is Baptized by Triple Immersion in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, the Priest proceeds to anoint the newly baptized on the top [crown] of the head with Holy Chrism, saying:

“God Almighty, the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath regenerate thee by water and the Holy Ghost, and Who hath granted thee remission of all thy sins, it is He that anointeth thee with the Chrism of salvation in the Same His Son Our Lord Jesus Christ, unto life everlasting. Amen.”

In the 5th century treatise “De Sacramentis”, traditionally attributed to St. Ambrose [though, nowadays, attributed to the mysterious figure known as “Ambrosiaster”], the following is said likewise:

“Therefore thou didst dip, thou camest to the priest. What did he say to thee? ‘God the Father Almighty,’ he saith, ‘Who hath regenerated thee by water and the Holy Ghost, and hath forgiven thee they sins, Himself anoint thee unto eternal life.’ See whereunto thou art anointed; ‘unto eternal life,’ he said. Do not set this life before that life. For example, if any foe arise, if he wishes to take away thy faith, if he threatens death to make some one transgress, see what thou choosest. Do not choose that wherein thou wast not anointed, but choose that wherein thou was anointed, so as to prefer eternal life to temporal life, through Christ Our Lord. Amen.” [De Sacramentis, Chapter 7, sec. 24]

Reading through the “De Mysteriis” of St. Ambrose, and the “De Sacramentis” of Ambrosiaster, we can see that the texts and prayers of our ancient Baptismal rite are relatively unchanged.

11th Century Mainz Manuscript Credo without Filioque

One of the important areas of study in Church History that many have taken an interest in [myself included] is that involving early Latin liturgical manuscript, particularly of the first 1000 or so years.  One area of study is the exact text of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith [or "Mass Creed" as the Old English would have called it].  For example, how and when did the infamous "Filioque" interpolation find itself into it?  

One can also find an un-interpolated Credo in the 8th Century Salaberga Psalter; however, thanks to the article "Confessing the Faith in Anglo-Saxon England," by Miranda Wilcox, published by the University of Illinois Press, contained in the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 113, No. 3 (July 2014), pp. 308-341, I was able to access an easily available listing of Latin manuscripts of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of Anglo-Saxon provenance [i.e. they were either made in England, or by English scribes].  

Translation of Hincmar of Rheims' 852 Capitularies Now Available Online

 

The 852 Capiularies promulgated by Archbishop Hincmar of Rheims are translated online for free here:

http://hincmar.blogspot.com/2016/03/hincmar-of-rheims-first-episcopal.html

The advice given by Archbishop Hincmar in 852 for the conduct of priests is as valuable and necessary now as it was then.

In regards to the Eulogia [Antidoron], express mention is made in Capitulary 7. The oblations of bread which were not used for the Consecration, and therefore, were unconsecrated, but left over, were blessed to be given out at the end of Mass:

"That the priest should cut up in a clean and suitable container the oblations which were offered by the people and were left over after consecration, and the bread which the faithful brought to church, or his own bread. After the service of Mass, those who were not prepared for Communion may take them as gifts [*eulogia*], on every Sunday and on feast days. And let the priest bless it with these words before he gives it out as *eulogia *to those who take it, and let him take care the crumbs do not carelessly fall out:

PRAYER
“O Lord, holy Father, omnipotent eternal God, deign to bless this bread with your holy and spiritual blessing, so that to all those eating it with faith, reverence and gratitude to you, it shall be the safety of mind and body, and a defence against all diseases and all attacks of their enemies. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, the bread of life, who descended from heaven and gives life and salvation to the world, and lives and reigns with you as God, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.”