Pastor

ON ST. PASTOR, PRESBYTER.

AT ROME.

SECOND CENTURY, ABOUT THE MIDDLE.

Pastor, presbyter, at Rome (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR P. B.

[1] This Saint the Roman Martyrology exhibits to us today in these words: Likewise at Rome, of St. Pastor the presbyter, in whose name a title exists on the Viminal at St. Pudentiana. Concerning this title we said enough in the preliminary Commentary to the Acts of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedes on the 19th of May. Baronius, in his annotations on the cited text of the Martyrology, subjoins this, among other things: The present cult from the Martyrologies Not only in the old Roman Martyrology, but also in ancient manuscripts, therefore of him on this day. But which does he here call the old Roman Martyrology? The Belinian of the year 1498? This is certain, that there is here no question of the Little or old Roman, which Rosweyde published: for that was neither seen by Baronius, nor does it anywhere mention St. Pastor. Nay, that that Roman one which is cited in the Baronian observation is not very old, one may conjecture from this, that the present-day announcement of St. Pastor, there, as is asserted, expressed, was known to none of the ancient Martyrologists. Deep certainly, on this day, is the silence concerning Pastor in the Hieronymian copies, even those often augmented; on the same day are silent Bede, Florus, Wandelbert, Rabanus, Ado, Usuard, Notker: so that the name of St. Pastor does not seem to have begun to be ascribed to the ecclesiastical Fasti on this day before the tenth century; if, indeed, it even then began: for the age is not sufficiently ascertained by us either of the Vatican codex, which we cited in the appendices of Bede and Florus today, before the second volume of March, or of the appendices of Usuard published by us, in which on this day the memory of St. Pastor, presbyter and confessor, is celebrated; but the manuscript Florarium of the Saints, which thus announces him today, At Rome, of Pastor, presbyter and confessor, was written about the middle of the fifteenth century.

[2] But neither do we know those ancient manuscripts in which St. Pastor is said to be treated on this day; and the manuscript lessons cited by Baronius: unless either the appendices already praised be understood; or that one manuscript, concerning which, in the same annotations, Baronius asserts: We have in our library the deeds of St. Pastor, or rather a panegyric, wont to be read on his birthday somewhere in a church. Its beginning is: The footsteps of the Saints, etc. For this we asked to be copied for us at Rome from the Vallicellian library, because it had been praised by so great a man: but we received it so wretchedly copied that sometimes some things must be completed by conjecture, by changing or adding, for the sense. But then the style, I am mistaken if it savors of a long antiquity. But the very matter of this panegyrical oration touches the history of the Saint moderately and rarely; nor even so, however, happily enough. It is divided, for ecclesiastical use, into nine lessons; of which the two former contain a prologue, suiting, as is wont to be said, every subject and none: the third exhorts to the imitation of the examples of Blessed Pastor, and teaches that he was sprung of a noble Roman stock; then a disciple of the Apostle Paul, together with Timothy; then by the same Apostle

consecrated a presbyter; suffered many things under the emperor Antoninus, learned, a diligent shepherd of souls; which last is amplified by an enumeration of the virtues pertaining to the office of a true shepherd, all of which together are attributed to our Pastor, without mention being made even of one singular or historical deed, up to the ninth lesson: concerning which, therefore, let it suffice to have noted this: since they contribute nothing to illustrating the Acts. But the ninth lesson thus runs:

[3] of which only the last is here recited. It befits, therefore, that we celebrate with the highest reverence the illustrious feast of so great a Confessor and Priest of the Most High, dearest brothers; through whom God wrought many miracles, that he may be for us a pious intercessor: whom pious devotion joined to the Apostle Paul so dear and singular that in the street which is called Latericius he consecrated a church of his name. This most blessed Man secretly carried off and buried many bodies of the Saints, relying on the counsel and help of the holy virgins Pudentiana and likewise Praxedes: whose bodies, of the virgins, he delivered to honorable burial, and becomingly wrote their Life. The whole time, therefore, while blessed Pastor lived in this world, he dedicated himself to God, and, incessantly persevering in His service, showed himself a mirror to all the Christians at Rome, fulfilling that which the Lord says: So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Therefore the excellent Pastor of Christ passed to the joys of the heavens on the seventh day before the Kalends of August, the reward of all the Saints thus calling him: Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many: enter into the joy of thy Lord. Whose body was buried in the aforesaid title with spices: where up to the present day God imparts many benefits for his merits and prayers; our Lord Jesus Christ reigning, to whom be praise, and honor, and power, and might, with the Father and the holy Spirit, through infinite ages of ages. Amen.

[4] The more ancient monuments of his acknowledged sanctity. What is here said, that St. Paul the Apostle consecrated the title of Pastor, this, Pastor himself being witness, is false; for this is ascribed to St. Pius the Pope, not to Paul the Apostle, in the Acts of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedes. But that St. Pastor was buried in the church of his title, perhaps from this history, Aringhi also affirms, in the Roma Subterranea, volume 2, book 4, chapter 43, number 1; as also Piazza, in the Sanctuario Romano, on this day the 26th of July. It seems, therefore, that the body of a certain holy Pastor, and indeed a martyr, is another, which, recently found with others, with an inscription of the name, was translated from Rome to Bologna to us in the year 1614, on the 20th of April. But that some relics of our Pastor are in the monastery, or church, of St. Silvester de Capite at Rome, Giacchetti asserts, in the Italian History of the same church and monastery, chapter 13, on the 26th of July. Moreover, to assert the public veneration of our St. Pastor, but not likewise his present-day celebrity, that seal also makes, expressed in the Commentary on the Acts of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedes, with these little verses subjoined:

O holy Pastor, I pray, be for us an intercessor. Here the Pastor gives to all the doctrines of the sacred life.

These our Papebroch, in the same place, judged should be referred to the twelfth century. To the same purpose makes the most ancient inscription which Aringhi exhibits, in the place cited, number 3, in which mention is made of the chapel of this our St. Pastor. Nay, did not Ado too acknowledge him Blessed under this name? Indeed he treats of ours in the eulogy of SS. Praxedes and her sister, on the 21st of July, thus noting: But in the title which their father Pudens dedicated in the name of BLESSED Pastor, etc. His birthday, however, under that name, he commemorates neither in this place, nor on the 26th of the same month, as we have already said, nor on any other day.

[5] But this ought to seem strange to no one; since Ado adhered to the opinion of those who confused St. Pastor with that St. Hermas The confusion of SS. Pastor and Hermas, of whom the apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, makes mention, and who is believed to be the author of the book which is entitled Pastor. This confusion he openly betrays in the Little book on the festivities of the Apostles, which you have prefixed to his Martyrology, page 36; where, on the 9th of May, which he establishes as the birthday of St. Hermas, A title, he says, in his name, near which a baptistery was built from the resources of St. Praxedes, and consecrated by the operating zeal of blessed Pius, disciple of the Apostles, was venerably established for him. This is the same church or title which a little before he called blessed Pastor's: he therefore makes blessed Pastor the same as St. Hermas, and so the same the birthday of each; although in the birthday he expressly expresses only the name of Hermas, not of Pastor. By Ado's example Baronius confused the same Saints in the Annals, at the year of Christ 159; but not likewise the birthday of each in the Martyrology or the notes to it: since, however, the one ought to follow from the other; so that the day of death is the same, if the Saint is the same; or the Saints are different, if the birthdays are different.

[6] Namely, the greatest man had nowhere read the name of St. Pastor consigned on the 9th of May, but constantly that of Hermas; it conflicts with the different birthday of each, and their age, as neither on the 26th of July had the name of Hermas anywhere occurred among the Martyrologists, but only that of Pastor; he did not dare, therefore, in composing the modern Martyrology, to depart from the consent and credit of the earlier copies, confirmed by the very usage of the Roman Church, doubtless ancient: and thus he distinguished the birthday of St. Hermas from the birthday of St. Pastor, not in the Martyrology only, but also in the annotations added to each birthday; in which he neither mentions Pastor on the 9th of May, nor Hermas on the 26th of July. Why, then, did he not use the same argument in the Annals? Especially since to it there was added also another, assuredly by no means lighter, which is drawn from the age of St. Pastor, who, at least according to the most Eminent founder of the Annals, passed the year of Christ 164 living. But who, without evident demonstration, would believe that St. Hermas, who is to be reckoned to have already been a man of mature age when the Apostle, in the Epistle to the Romans, bade him be saluted, survived a whole century after Paul's death? This certainly is one of the causes for which Cardinal Bellarmine thought that Hermes, the brother of St. Pius Pope I, as is in the Bucherian Catalogue of Pontiffs, and the contemporary of St. Pastor, must be distinguished, and the learned afterward followed him, from St. Hermas, the disciple of the Apostle, and author of the little book which is called Pastor. Finally, it does not seem that the name of Pastor was proper to Hermas himself, but to his book, as we shall presently say: yet grant that from the book the surname of Pastor clung to the writer; can it at length be believed that the same author was afterward so delighted with the surname of Pastor that he cast off the proper name of Hermas, which had been consecrated by the Apostle? This reason ought to have weight, at least with Baronius, who approves the epistle, and exhibits it, at the year 162, inscribed with the name of Pastor alone.

[7] nay, even in name. We judge, therefore, that St. Pastor was one, St. Hermas another, and the latter older than the former; and that the confusion of the two, which came from Ado, must accordingly be removed; which he perhaps seized from the ambiguous words of Eusebius, who, speaking of St. Hermas, Ecclesiastical History, book 3, chapter 3, Οὗ φασιν ὑπάρχειν, he says, τὸ τοῦ ποιμένος βιβλίον, That is: of whom they say is the book of the Pastor; whence it is easy to gather that Pastor is not the name of the book, but of the author: thus Ado might easily have taken Hermas and Pastor for the same. But this ambiguity ought to have been removed both by the inscription of the book itself still extant, and by the testimony of St. Jerome, inscribing it in exactly the same manner, in the book on ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 10: Hermas … they assert to be the author of the book which is called Pastor; which therefore can be reckoned the genuine interpretation of the Eusebian text, which Valesius rightly followed, when he thus renders the adduced words of Eusebius: Whose is said to be that book which is inscribed Pastor. Pastor, therefore, is called not Hermas, but the book of Hermas, because it contains the revelations of an angel appearing in a shepherd's habit. What, then, has St. Pastor in common with St. Hermas? Not even the name: although this too may be the same to several; who by this reason alone can by no means be confused: as it has hitherto come into no one's mind to establish our Blessed Pastor the presbyter to be the same as that one of whom mention is made in the Acts of SS. Marius, Martha, and their sons, on the 19th of January, page 216; although he too was at Rome, and is called blessed Pastor the presbyter, yet about a hundred years younger than ours.

[8] Whence arose the confusion of St. Pastor with Hermes. Moreover, the same most learned author of the Annals, at the year of Christ 159, inclines to believe that Hermes also, the brother of St. Pius the Roman Pontiff, is the same as St. Hermas and Pastor: although he confesses that he is in doubt about him. The foundation of this opinion he thought to be twofold; the one, that the words Hermas and Hermes seemed to differ so little that they were sometimes read attributed to the same man; the other, that in Anastasius the Librarian, under St. Pius Pope I, it is related concerning Hermes: Hermes wrote a book, in which is contained the commandment which the angel of the Lord enjoined him, when he came to him in the habit of a shepherd, and enjoined him that the holy Pasch be celebrated on the Lord's day. The likeness of name, and the apparition of the angel dictating the book under a shepherd's habit, seemed to Baronius to prove Hermas and Hermes to be the same writer, and so also Pastor, whom he confuses with Hermas. He only stuck at this, that in the Pastor of Hermas there is no treatment of the Pasch to be celebrated on the Lord's day; then, that it was written long before the times of Pope Pius. And so he at length descends to this; that it is necessary to say (if we wish there to be one and the same author) that these commentaries were different from one another, written at different times. But since our St. Pastor is confused with Hermes only so far as Hermes himself is confused with St. Hermas: there is no need here to raise anew a controversy long since settled. That St. Hermas and this Hermes are not the same, Bellarmine showed, as I noted, and others after him, among whom may be consulted Tillemont, volume 2 of the Ecclesiastical Monuments, page 521, Nicolas le Nourry in the Apparatus to the greatest library of the ancient Fathers, dissertation 4, article 2, Ambrose Gardebosc in the Synopsis of ecclesiastical history, volume 1, part 5, book 3, dissertation 1, question 1.

[9] As concerns the Acts of St. Pastor, nothing at all certain remains. They are contained chiefly

in the Acts of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedes, [The chief things known of St. Pastor he himself wrote in the Acts of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedes;] which we gave on the 19th of May, to which I refer the reader. They were written in the name of Pastor himself (of Pastor, I say; not of Hermas Pastor, as Baronius has it, year 159, number 8;) nor indeed are they recent; since they are read even in most ancient manuscript codices, and those very many; nay, they were already read of old in the ninth century by Ado; as may be seen in his Martyrology, on the 19th of May, the 20th of June, the 21st of July, in the eulogies of St. Pudentiana, St. Novatus, and St. Praxedes. For the rest, that they are not altogether sincere, but interpolated here and there, we ourselves openly enough confessed, in the preliminary Commentary and the annotations; but that they ought to be reckoned wholly unworthy of all credit, Tillemont has not yet persuaded us, volume 2, note 5 on St. Pius the Pope: for, to pass over the minutiae which he there heaps up, to carp at certain words and phrases of the Acts, as not used in the second century, or by no means suited to the time in which the Acts are said to have been written (for what would those, even if Tillemont should demonstrate them all to be adulterine, which he does not, so far incommode the substance of the Acts?)—to omit, I say, those, his chief arguments, directed against the whole fabric and credit of those Acts, by no means prove what he boasts. That you may perceive this, consult the Acts themselves: you will find that they are contained almost entirely in two epistles, of which the former is Pastor's to Timothy, the other Timothy's to Pastor. Both, the adversary contends, are supposititious to the authors inscribed, nay, even inept.

[10] The former he thinks is chiefly overthrown by this weapon, that it wanders utterly wide from the aim and purpose of Pastor: which Tillemont could indeed prove, for a certain Christian, he says, had died, Novatus by name, who a little before had committed his goods to our Pastor and to the virgin Praxedes, to be dispensed at his death. Pastor writes this to Timothy, the brother of the deceased Novatus, and consults him what he thinks should be done with the goods left. Be it so indeed. What then afterward? But this, he says, Pastor asks with only one word, and that in the two last little lines of a fairly long epistle; but all the rest not only tends to explain the sickness and death of Novatus (which could seem consonant with reason;) but also to bring into the open whatever Praxedes had done, for two years, after the death of SS. Pudentiana and Pudens. What did these things pertain to Timothy; what to a letter by which the brother was to be informed of his brother's death? So he. I answer that whatever Pastor narrates to Timothy concerning St. Praxedes seems to me most apt to the present matter; but the criticism of Tillemont, which is objected to them, inept. For what? Novatus had written as heirs Pastor and Praxedes, external persons, as we suppose, without consulting and passing over his brother Timothy. The matter could be subject to difficulties, unless the inheritance were seen to be with the good will of the brother: his assent, therefore, was needed for the heirs. Tell me, then, in what way could this be more forcibly extorted from Timothy, who was a presbyter and a most holy man, than if such heirs were depicted to him in birth, life, virtues, and deeds, that he should quite understand that whatever was left to them ought to seem so bestowed as if it had been consigned into the hands of God Himself, so to speak, or of the Church? This, then, Pastor does, when he explains the deeds of St. Praxedes to St. Timothy, and does it the more opportunely to his purpose the more copiously. For of himself he had to say nothing, being long most well known to Timothy; although neither of himself, so far as modesty allowed, was he silent.

[11] that they are interpolated here and there; Lighter are the things which Tillemont subjoins and turns against the same epistle: Neither do I see, he says, why Pastor narrates to Timothy things past for a year not only concerning St. Pudens and each of his daughters (of which matter we have already, I think, said enough;) but also concerning his brother Novatus: for even if Timothy had been in the farthest bounds of the empire, would he for a whole year have learned nothing of his family? I answer that it is not rare that brothers, even not far distant from one another in dwelling, are strangers to a frequent commerce of letters. Let us here, however, concede something to Tillemont: let Timothy have known, either from Novatus' or from others' letters, nearly all that his brother had done. Cannot the same things often be announced by different persons? Was there not here a most just cause for Pastor to at least refresh the memory of those things which had passed between Novatus and Praxedes, whence Timothy might learn that his brother's munificent disposition toward her had arisen from no other source than from most holy offices and divine reasons? What the adversary adds, that it seems strange that no expression of urbane and liberal courtesy is prefixed to this epistle, no prologue, but that the discourse begins at once from the things themselves; this indeed appears not even worthy of refutation. Namely, he complains that those things are absent which would have been quite superfluous; but contends that those things abound which alone make for the matter which Pastor was treating. Urbane and sufficient in a grave letter is this preface: Pastor the presbyter to Timothy the presbyter, greeting. And these are the things by which this acute censor attacks Pastor's epistle in general.

[12] but not wholly unworthy of all credit. The other epistle, which is Timothy's, he assails only with these words: The letter by which Timothy answered Pastor has nothing either of those things which one would say to him from whom the death of his brother had been announced to him. He requires here, I think, laments for the brother, or at least something of that kind. But I ask, whence it is established that these were not written by Timothy in the same epistle, even if they are here omitted by Pastor, and rather deliberately cut off, because they contributed nothing at all to the history of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedes? Which could also have been done deliberately in the former epistle. This persuades me especially, that neither of these epistles is found written separately, but joined only with the Acts of the holy Virgins whom I have named; so that they make by far the greatest part of them, and a very few things are added to them by Pastor himself, to complete the narration of the Acts. For it is the mark of a historical writer not to bring forward whole documents everywhere, but, superfluities being cut off, to exhibit faithfully only those texts of them which are to his purpose. But, you say, if the epistle is mutilated, why is the inscription of the whole epistle prefixed to it, Timothy the presbyter, etc.? I answer; that it may be established to the reader from what monument the narration was drawn. And thus in various of our membrane codices, in which the Acts of St. Praxedes, but not likewise of Pudentiana, are handed down, only the latter and smaller part of Pastor's epistle is brought, with the rest which follow in the Acts published by us from number 5: since, however, to that shred is prefixed the inscription of the whole epistle; which one may also observe in the Eminent Baronius, at the year of Christ 162; although, as he himself gave it, the epistle may seem complete and whole; whereas in all our manuscript codices it appears that it is only a part torn from the preceding text, and to be referred to it: some thus begin: Praxedes the virgin of Christ dwelt in the SAME title, vehemently afflicting herself, etc.; others thus: Praxedes the venerable virgin dwelt in the ABOVE-SAID title, afflicted on account of the passing of her sister, etc. But why do I say more here? It is hence sufficiently evident, as I judge, how weak are the assaults of Tillemont, to show that the said Acts are not only interpolated, which we of our own accord had admitted, but also wholly unworthy of all credit.

[13] I know not whether the sources are purer, from which the other few things which can be said of St. Pastor are drawn. whether he was the brother of St. Pius the Pope; then when he died. That he was the brother of St. Pius the Pope, Anastasius the Librarian teaches, more recent than the Acts already cited, from which rather the contrary seems able to be gathered: here follow him meanwhile one and another codex of the Martyrology, reported among the appendices of our Usuard. I fear lest it be a hallucination of Anastasius, arisen from this, that he confused Pastor with Hermes, who in the most ancient catalogue of Pontiffs is called the brother of Pius. Of the age of our Saint we have found nothing. In the second epistle of Pope Pius I to Justus, bishop of Vienne, it is read: The presbyter Pastor founded the title, and worthily died in the Lord. He should therefore be said to have died under the pontificate of St. Pius, and so toward the middle of the second century; if one could rely on the authority of this epistle; which I add, because, however much Baronius may judge it to be sincere in the Annals, at the year 166, yet certain others do not approve this, according to our Labbe, volume 1 of the Councils, column 576; Tillemont tries by many reasons to show that it is supposititious, in the Ecclesiastical Monuments, volume 2, note 4 on St. Pius; and, to omit many others, Peter Constant lately reported it among the adulterine epistles of the Roman Pontiffs, in the appendix to volume 1 of the Epistles of the Roman Pontiffs, column 18 and following.

ON ST. PASTOR, ABBOT

IN SCETIS.

From the Catalogue of Peter de Natalibus.

Pastor, abbot in Scetis (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR J. B. S.

This St. Pastor, noted on the preceding day by Ferrari from the Catalogue of the bishop of Equilino, we have deferred to this day, not sufficiently certain who was called by that name in the Usuardine Appendices, on account of the various announcements sufficiently doubtful Reported in the manuscript Florarium and elsewhere to which they are to be referred. Celebrated indeed in the said Appendices is the name of St. Pastor, but of whom they treat is not altogether established, and it seems more probable that everywhere is indicated that Pastor, most well known by his Roman title, of whom also this day treats, although the several codices do not express it. In most it is simply read; Likewise the birthday of St. Pastor the confessor, or, Likewise of St. Pastor the confessor. A little more clearly others speak, and certainly intimate St. Pastor, the brother of St. Pius, presbyter, nay Cardinal, as it is among the said Appendices in the Florentine codex: so that from these nothing much can be drawn for the ancient cult of this our St. Pastor the abbot, unless Equilino went before, and there were added our manuscript Florarium thus expressly announcing: Likewise the birthday of blessed Pastor the abbot and confessor. He, afflicting himself for many years in great abstinence, flourished in the desert with much religion. See his deeds elsewhere. This especially I ask, whence Equilino or others drew that this Saint put off mortality on the 7th day before the Kalends of August, unless perhaps, on account of that other synonym, they judged he should be placed on that day.

[2] To this also makes the addition of the Brussels Charterhouse manuscript to Greven, he is praised at length in the Lives of the fathers. placed on this same very day: Likewise of blessed Pastor the abbot and prelate, according to the Catalogue (I think that of Equilino already cited by us), concerning whom several things said and done are narrated in the Lives of the fathers. Assuredly also in various places of book 5 in Rosweyde, the author uncertain, the interpreter Pelagius, from page 563. From which book some unknown anonymous writer collected that eulogy which the praised bishop Equilino, in book 6, chapter 141, reported, to be here transcribed by us, rather than from the Utrecht manuscript, prepared for the press by Rosweyde, as being much more imperfect. Nor certainly can the Equilinian one be called sufficiently complete, since it omitted several things, not so much deeds as sayings, which I should have thought should be added here, unless the very volume on the Lives of the fathers were in everyone's hands, so that it is enough to have assigned the places in which the rest of the apophthegms of St. Pastor may conveniently be found. Let there be seen, therefore,

therefore, the cited page 563, from number 12 to 15; then page 570, from number 29 to 33; likewise page 593, numbers 13 and 14. Finally pages 600, 601, and 602, from number 37 to 64. Let it suffice here to set forth the eulogy of Equilino, determining nothing concerning the age of the Saint, since it seems quite uncertain whether he lived in the fourth or fifth century.

EULOGY FROM THE LIVES OF THE FATHERS

In Equilino, book 6, chapter 141.

Pastor, abbot in Scetis (S.)

Pastor the presbyter was illustrious in the desert of Scetis in the time of the holy anchorite Fathers, who, afflicting himself with great abstinence, He refuses to let himself be seen by his mother; flourished with much sanctity and religion. But when his mother took care to see him, the abbot, and his monks; and had watched them going to the church: Pastor with the brethren, entering the cell, closed the door in her face. But when she, weeping, cried out at the door, and more earnestly demanded to see her son: he forbade her to see him; exhorting her to bear it with equanimity: because, if not in the present world, at least she would see him in the future: who, comforted, departed, and cared not to behold him further.

[2] The judge of the province, when he desired to see the abbot Pastor, but could not, and to intercede for his sister's son before the judge. imprisoned the son of his sister, as a malefactor: saying that, if Pastor should come to intercede for him, he would release him. The mother, therefore, of the youth, and the sister of the abbot, went to the door: and with tears earnestly asked that he would go to the judge for him. To whom he sent word, saying: that Pastor did not beget sons. And when she departed with sorrow, the judge said that he should at least command it by word; and he would release him. But he sent back word; that he should examine the cause according to law: and if he were worthy of death, should slay him: but if not, should do as he willed.

[3] He teaches the custody of the soul. But he taught the brethren, saying, that to keep one's soul from sin, and to consider oneself, and to have discretion, are the perfections of the soul. Tribulation and discretion are the operations of the solitary life.

[4] He restores an expelled solitary. When a certain brother from a certain congregation had offended; the abbot, on the counsel of a certain solitary, expelled him: whom, weeping, the abbot Pastor summoned to himself, and sent for that solitary. And when the abbot had come, he said to him: that there were two men; who both had their dead, of whom one left his own dead, and went to weep for the dead of the other. Which the solitary, understanding to be said of himself, was compunct.

[5] He who has moved himself is not easily scandalized. A certain brother said to the abbot Pastor that he was disturbed, and wished to desert the place: because he had heard certain words concerning a brother, which greatly scandalized him. Pastor said that he should not believe these words, because they were not true. But he affirmed that the words were true, because a faithful brother had told him. And he answered; That if he were faithful, he would not have told him. But to him affirming that they were altogether true: he proposed to him the parable of the Gospel concerning the beam and the mote: admonishing him to put in his heart; that his own sins were the beam, and another's the mote.

[6] He is gentle toward the penitent. A certain brother, who had committed a great sin, wishing to do penance, asked Pastor whether a penance of three years were enough? Who said that it was much. Being asked whether a year would suffice? he answered that it was much. Being asked, forty days: he answered that it was much. Adding that if he repent this from his whole heart, and do a three days' penance, God will receive him.

[7] When one may be angry. Being asked concerning that word: Whosoever is angry with his brother without cause, etc.: What it was to be angry without cause: he answered; From every matter by which a man is aggrieved by his brother, to be angry without cause: even to plucking out his eye. But if anyone should wish to separate one from God, for this he ought to be angry.

[8] On driving away evil thoughts. A certain brother complained to him that, having many thoughts, he was in peril among them: who led him out under the open sky, bidding him spread out his bosom, and hold the wind: who answered that he could not. So, said he, since thoughts cannot be repelled, that they enter not: but it is man's part to resist them. But the holy Man rested in the Lord on the 7th day before the Kalends of August, conspicuous for sanctity and life, and illustrious for miracles.