In pluralitate peccantium vindicta propter difficultatem negligenda vel differenda
The Problem of Public Sin
The author raises the objection that vengeance, while possible against a single sinner, must be neglected or deferred when a multitude of sinners is involved.
And if someone should perhaps say that vengeance can properly be carried out against one person, but that among a multitude of sinners, on account of the difficulty, vengeance must either be neglected or deferred — holy Innocent contradicts them in his Decrees, writing to the bishops of Macedonia (Epistle 11, ch. 11, ch.
Innocent's Counsel on Widespread Sin
Citing Pope Innocent, the text warns that when sin is committed by a crowd, it often goes unpunished, and so past offenses must be left to God's judgment while future ones are guarded with care.
6): "Let your charity therefore perceive that such things have gone this far, and notice that certainly, as you say, necessity has commanded that churches now established in peace cannot presume to act; but, as often happens, whenever sin is committed by peoples or by a crowd, because against all it cannot be avenged on account of the multitude, it is accustomed to pass unpunished. Therefore, I say, former things are to be left to the judgment of God, and for the remainder one must guard with the greatest care.
The Guilt of Consenting to Wrong
A decree of the apostolic see is cited to show that universal consent does not excuse participation in wrongdoing, and that crime grows greater when it spreads from private to public.
And likewise from here in the Decrees of the apostolic see: "If, they say, all priests and the world assent to condemning, condemnation involves the consenting parties; consensus does not absolve it of prevarication. For crime is not lessened, but increases, when it becomes general from being private.
The Flood as Warning
God's judgment on the sinning world through the flood is recalled, and the author humbly defers to the king's wisdom on these matters.
For God, the judge of all, has judged this, who destroyed the sinning world with a general flood. Behold, concerning these things your sublime wisdom has consulted my smallness.
Drawing from the Springs of the Savior
The king is urged to draw from Scripture and the teachings of Catholic doctors, receiving through the Holy Spirit the living water that inspired those writings.
You have the teachings of sacred Scripture and of Catholic teachers: now draw water with joy from the springs of the Savior—that is, the teaching from the words of those through whom the same Savior says: 'Whoever believes in me, as Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from within him.'✦ Now the Evangelist said this about the Spirit that those who believe in him were about to receive (John 7:39).✦ Those who drank by the same Spirit's inspiration have, in writing, poured out for our knowledge what they received.
Read the original Latin
Et si forte quis dixerit, competenter vindicta in una persona fieri potest, in pluralitate autem peccantium, propter difficultatem, vindicta aut negligenda aut differenda esse videtur: contradicit eis sanctus Innocentius in Decretis suis, ad Macedones episcopos (epist. 11, cap. 6): « Pervideat ergo dilectio vestra, hactenus talia transisse, et advertite quod utique, ut dicitis, necessitas imperavit, in pace jam Ecclesias constitutas non posse praesumere: sed ut saepe accidit, quoties a populis aut a turba peccatur, quia in omnes propter multitudinem non potest vindicari, inultum soleat transire. Priora ergo dimittenda dico Dei judicio, et de reliquo maxima sollicitudine praecavendum. » Et hinc item in Decretis apostolicae sedis: « Si, inquiunt, omnes sacerdotes et mundus assentiat damnandis, damnatio consentientes involvit, non praevaricationem consensus absolvit. Non enim crimen minuitur, sed accrescit, cum generale fit ex privato. Hoc enim Deus omnium judicavit, qui mundum peccantem generali diluvio interemit. » Ecce de quibus exiguitatem meam sublimitas sapientiae vestrae consuluit.
Habetis sacrae Scripturae et doctorum catholicorum sententias: haurite nunc aquas in gaudio de fontibus Salvatoris, id est doctrinam ex verbis eorum, quibus idem Salvator dicit: Qui credit in me, sicut dicit Scriptura, flumina de ventre ejus fluent aquae vivae. Hoc autem, inquit Evangelista, dixit de spiritu quem accepturi erant credentes in eum (Joan. VII, 38, 39): qui quod eodem spiritu inspirante hauserunt, scribendo ad nostram notitiam manaverunt.
Scripture echoes
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