Epistola ad Titum
by Anselm of Laon and his school
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/114/epistola-ad-titum/
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## THE ARGUMENT.

[0637D]

He admonishes Titus and instructs him concerning the constitution of the presbytery and concerning spiritual manner of life, and concerning heretics to be shunned, who believe in Jewish traditions, writing to him from Nicopolis.

## CHAPTER ONE.

VERS. 1.-- *Paul a servant,* etc. By condition, yet not by the wretched servitude of sin. but *of God.* Certain men by nobility, in the manner in which Moses and David were called servants, and Mary a handmaid. *According to the faith of the elect.* [var: Vulg. *electorum Dei*, "of the elect of God"] That [0638D] is, the faith which the elect of God hold, or by which they are saved, and therefore one must labour the more through these things.

VERS. 2.-- *Unto the hope of life everlasting.* This is the matter. this the fruit of the apostolic office. By this he commends the apostolic office, as not to be carried on the more lukewarmly. *Before the times,* etc. Not a recent promise, but before the times of all the ages.

VERS. 3.-- *He hath manifested.* This was done at fitting times, namely the Word, that is, the Son: *This is life everlasting.*

[0639A]VERS. 4.-- *To a son according to the common faith.* That is, catholic, not the private faith of anyone. Catholicon in Greek is called in Latin common or universal.

*For this cause.* First he says what he ought to do and what sort of presbyters he ought to ordain, beginning thus, *for this cause.* While he recalls these things, he admonishes him to carry them out as he had appointed for him.

VERS. 5.-- *Presbyters.* He says presbyters in the plural, and not in the singular, so that, namely, the burden of pastoral care may be more easily borne, being divided among many.

VERS. 6.-- *Without crime.* If he had said, without sin, no one in the Church could rightly be ordained a minister. For many baptized faithful are without crime, but without sin in this life I would call no one; not because anything of sin remains which is not remitted in baptism, [0639B] but because in us, who remain in the infirmity of this life, they do not cease to be committed daily, which are daily remitted to those who pray faithfully. However exceedingly just a man thou mayest examine in this life, yet he is not without sin.

*The husband of one wife.* [n: (HIERON. Epist. ad Oceanum. )] After baptism, etc., *as far as* because it is to apostatize from the one God, and to go over into the superstition of another.

*Having faithful children.* That is, not so much as accused of wantonness, or not subject to him. Otherwise there is neither hope in him of correcting others, nor has one who dwells with such persons the face to confront others.

VERS. 7.-- *For it behoveth.* Such a man ought to be appointed: for it is necessary, for the handling of the office, that he *be without crime,* that is, a blameless bishop. [0639C] Here he plainly shows that under the name of presbyters bishops were designated above.

VERS. 9.-- *To reprove those who contradict.* Those who contradict are not to be understood in one manner only, for very few contradict us by speaking, but many by living ill. For who dares, by speaking most openly, to contradict the truth. Many contradict not with the tongue, but with the life: to confute whom is a good work, a great burden, a steep slope.

VERS. 12.-- *A certain one of them said. [n: (AUG., lib. II contra adversarium leg. et prophet.)]* This was Epimenides the Cretan, in whose books this is found, etc., *as far as* it is to be taken up unto the ministry of the house of God.

VERS. 14.-- *Commandments.* Because the commandments of the law, after the truth has been made manifest, are now the commandments of men, not of God [0639D].

VERS. 15.-- *All things are clean to the clean.* This they deny for this reason, that in the law Moses forbade certain things, and separated clean things from unclean. But he willed this to be understood not according to the natures which God created, but according to significations: all things therefore are clean to the clean according to nature; whence in Genesis: *God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good.* According to significations certain things are unclean to the Jews: nor are all things fitting for us, either for the health of bodies, or for the custom of human society.

VERS. 16.-- *But by deeds.* If denial is made not only with the tongue, but also by deeds, certainly we find many [0640A] Antichrists, who confess Christ with the mouth, and in their manners dissent from him. Whosoever denies Christ by deeds is an Antichrist. Such are all evil Catholics, who deny not with words, but by deeds. Do not therefore be as though secure concerning the faith; join to right faith a right life, that you may confess Christ, both by teaching true things in words, and by living well in deeds. For if you confess with words and not with deeds, the faith only of my own is properly the faith of devils.

## CHAPTER II.

VERS. 1.-- *But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine.* These are the things which pertain to good morals.

VERS. 2.-- *That the aged men be sober. [n: (CHRYS.)]* Old age has certain vices of its own, and diseases which youth lacks. And old age itself also is a disease; [0640B] yet there is besides in it a certain sluggishness and slowness, deep forgetfulness, dullness of the senses, and irascibility. For there are very many things which at an age of this kind scarcely suffer themselves to be done.

VERS. 3.-- *In holy habit.* So that, namely, their gait, their movement, their countenance, their speech may display holiness. *Not in much wine.* For there are wont to be certain women who, the wantonness of the body growing cold, have given themselves to wine in place of lust.

VERS. 4.-- *That they may love their own husbands.* Whom they love naturally with a natural affection, let them love also with a chaste love, so that, namely, with modesty they may rather render the debt to their husbands than exact it.

VERS. 5.-- *That the word of God be not blasphemed.* This can be referred to the aged men and to all the foregoing, as if he should say: Exhort the aged men, and the aged women, and the young women, that they so conduct themselves [0640C] as I have said, which they ought therefore to do that it be not blasphemed, etc.

VERS. 7.-- *In all things,* etc. For everyone who lives ill in the sight of those over whom he is set, as far as in him lies, kills them; and even if they live, they live of the mercy of God.

VERS. 10.-- *That they may adorn the doctrine of the Saviour.* This is referred to all the aforesaid, namely to the aged men, and the aged women, and the servants, as if he should say: Exhort all the aforesaid, that they so conduct themselves as has been prescribed, that so they may adorn in their acts the doctrine of the Saviour, etc. *Let them adorn.* The ornament of the teacher is the honourable life of the disciple.

VERS. 11.-- *For there hath appeared.* As if he should say: All are to be admonished, because Christ was born for all; he excluded no one. Or, *Grace,* that is, Christ who is [0640D] the grace of God. Or, *the grace of God and of the Saviour,* [var: Vulg. *gratia Dei Salvatoris nostri*, without *et*] etc., that is, God and our Saviour, namely the Son of God, who, although he be invisible in the form of God, yet by grace hath appeared in the form of a servant.

VERS. 13.-- *And the coming of the glory of the great God,* etc. Who will come not in infirmity as before, but in glory and power, about to give rewards according to merits: who in his first coming was so humble that he not only instructed, but even gave himself. *A pursuer of good works,* etc. Because for this Christ redeemed us, that, pursuing a pure life and filled with good works, we may be able to be heirs of God.

VERS. 15.-- *Reprove with all,* etc. That it be not taken harshly, since it is known to be done for the sake of salvation.

## CHAPTER III.

[0641A]

VERS. 1.-- *Unto every work,* etc. As if he should say: Admonish, that they be slow to evil, but ready to good, knowing that it must be paid out to each, because it is prepared for each.

VERS. 3.-- *For we also were once.* Even if certain of us were philosophers, yet they lacked true wisdom.

VERS. 4.-- *Benignity,* etc. Through which he bestowed spiritual gifts upon us abundantly.

VERS. 10.-- *A heretical man.* A heretic is he who through the words of the law assails the law: for he builds up his own meaning out of the words of the law, that he may confirm the depravity of his mind [0641B] by the authority of the law; who are to be avoided: [0642A] because, being the more frequently corrected, they would be the more practised for evil.

VERS. 11.-- *By his own judgment.* He condemns himself who praises error and blames truth.

VERS. 13.-- *Zenas the lawyer.* This he says, not because he is more skilled than Apollo, but because he was of this profession in the Synagogue. *Apollo.* He was bishop of the Corinthians, who, on account of the sedition stirred up against him by the false apostles, had departed with Zenas his companion to Titus the bishop of Crete. But the Corinthians being now quieted through the epistles of Paul, he charges Titus that, before he come to Nicopolis, he send them on ahead so customarily that nothing be lacking to them in provision for the journey. *That nothing,* etc. Therefore he commands that the necessary expenses be given them, because it was fitting that to those who imparted spiritual things [0642B] carnal things should not be lacking.
