pleasure of the copulation. For there are many things A.D. 597.

which are proved to be lawful, and yet we are somewhat defiled in doing them. As very often by being angry we correct faults, and at the same time disturb our own peace of mind; and though that which we do is right, yet it is not to be approved that our mind should be discomposed. For he who said, "My eye was disturbed with anger," had been angry at the vices of those who had offended. Now, in regard that only a sedate mind can apply itself to contemplation, he grieved that his eye was disturbed with anger; because, whilst he was correcting evil actions below, he was obliged to be withdrawn and disturbed from the contemplation of things above. Anger against vice is, therefore, commendable, and yet painful to a man, because he thinks that by his mind being agitated, he has incurred some guilt. Lawful commerce, therefore, must be for the sake of children, not of pleasure; and must be to procure offspring, not to satisfy vices. But if any man is led not by the desire of pleasure, but only for the sake of getting children, such a man is certainly to be left to his own judgment, either as to entering the church, or as to receiving the mystery of the body and blood of our Lord, which he, who being placed in the fire cannot burn, is not to be forbidden by us to receive. But when, not the love of getting children, but of pleasure prevails, the pair have cause to lament their deed. For this the holy preaching allows them, and yet fills the mind with dread of the very allowance. For when Paul the Apostle said, "Let him that cannot contain, have his wife;" he presently took care to subjoin, "But this I say by way of indulgence, not by way of command." For that is not granted by way of indulgence which is lawful, because it is just; and, therefore, that which he said he indulged, he showed to be an offence.

It is seriously to be considered, that when God was to speak to the people on Mount Sinai, he first commanded

populum abstinere a mulieribus præcepit. Et si illic, ubi Dominus per creaturam subditam hominibus loquebatur, tanta provisione est munditia corporis requisita, ut qui verba Dei perciperent mulieribus mixti non essent; quanto magis mulieres, quæ corpus Domini omnipotentis accipiunt, custodire in se munditiam carnis debent, ne ipsa inestimabilis mysterii magnitudine graventur? Hinc etenim ad David de pueris suis per sacerdotem dicitur, ut si a mulieribus mundi essent panes propositionis acciperent, quos omnino non acciperent, nisi prius mundos eos David a mulieribus fateretur. Tunc autem vir, qui post admixtionem conjugis lotus aqua fuerit, etiam sacræ communionis mysterium valet accipere, cum ei juxta præfinitam sententiam etiam ecclesiam licuerit intrare.

Nona Interrogatio Augustini.-Si post illusionem, quæ per somnium solet accidere, vel corpus Domini quilibet accipere valeat; vel, si sacerdos sit, sacra mysteria celebrare?

Respondit Gregorius.-Hunc quidem Testamentum Veteris Legis, sicut et in superiori capitulo jam diximus, pollutum dicit, et nisi lotum aqua usque ad vesperam intrare ecclesiam non concedit. Quod tamen aliter populus spiritualis intelligens sub eodem intellectu accipiet, quo præfati sumus; quia quasi per somnium illuditur, qui tentatus immunditia veris imaginibus in cogitatione inquinatur, sed lavandus est aqua, ut culpas cogitationis lacrimis abluat; et nisi prius ignis tentationis recesserit, reum se quasi usque ad vesperum cognoscat. Sed est in eadem illusione valde necessaria discretio, quæ subtiliter pensari debet ex qua re accidat menti dormientis; aliquando enim ex crapula, aliquando ex naturæ superfluitate vel infirmitate, aliquando ex cogitatione, contingit ita.

them to abstain from women. And if so much cleanness A.D. 597. of body was there required, where God spoke to the people by the means of a subject creature, that those who were to hear the words of God should not do so; how much more ought women, who receive the body of Almighty God, to preserve themselves in cleanness of flesh, lest they be burdened with the very greatness of that unutterable mystery? For this reason it was said to David, concerning his men, by the priest, that if they were clean in this particular, they should receive the shewbread, which they would not have received at all, had not David first declared them to be clean. Then the man, who, afterwards, has been washed with water, is also capable of receiving the mystery of the holy communion, when it is lawful for him, according to what has been before declared, to enter the church.

Augustine's Ninth Question.-Whether, after an illusion, such as happens in a dream, any man may receive the body of our Lord, or if he be a priest, celebrate the Divine mysteries?

Gregory answers.-The Testament of the Old Law, as has been said already in the article above, calls such a man polluted, and allows him not to enter into the church till the evening after being washed with water. Which, nevertheless, spiritual people, taking in another sense, will understand in the same manner as above; because he is imposed upon as it were in a dream, who, being tempted with filthiness, is defiled by real representations in thought, and he is to be washed with water, that he may cleanse away the sins of thought with tears; and unless the fire of temptation depart before, may know himself to be guilty as it were until the evening. But discretion is very necessary in that illusion, that one may seriously consider what causes it to happen in the mind of the person sleeping; for sometimes it proceeds from excess of eating or drinking; sometimes from the superfluity or infirmity of nature, and sometimes from the thoughts.

Et quidem cum ex naturæ superfluitate vel infirmitate evenerit, omnimodo hæc illusio non est timenda; quia hanc animum nescientem pertulisse magis dolendum est, quam fecisse. Cum vero ultra modum appetitus gulæ in sumendis alimentis rapitur, atque idcirco humorum receptacula gravantur, habet exinde animus aliquem reatum, non tamen usque ad prohibitionem percipiendi sancti mysterii, vel missarum solennia celebrandi; cum fortasse aut festus dies exigit, aut exhiberi mysterium, (pro eo quod sacerdos alius in loco deest,) ipsa necessitas compellit. Nam si adsunt alii, qui implere ministerium valeant, illusio per crapulam facta a perceptione sacri mysterii prohibere non debet; sed ab immolatione sacri mysterii abstinere, ut arbitror, humiliter debet : si tamen dormientis mentem turpi imaginatione non concusserit. Nam sunt quibus ita plerumque illusio nascitur, ut eorum animus, etiam in somno corporis positus, turpibus imaginationibus non fœdetur. Qua in re unum ibi ostenditur ipsa mens rea, non tamen vel suo judicio libera, cum se, etsi dormienti corpore, nihil meminit vidisse, tamen in vigiliis corporis meminit in ingluviem cecidisse. Sin vero ex turpi cogitatione vigilantis oritur illusio dormientis, patet animo reatus suus; videt enim a qua radice inquinatio illa processerit, quia, quod cogitavit sciens, hoc protulit nesciens. Sed pensandum est, ipsa cogitatio utrum suggestione, an delectatione, vel, quod majus est, peccati consensu acciderit. Tribus enim modis impletur omne peccatum, videlicet, suggestione, delectatione, consensu. Suggestio quippe fit per diabolum, delectatio per carnem, consensus per spiritum; quia et primam culpam serpens suggessit, Eva, velut caro, delectata est, Adam

And when it happens, either through superfluity or infirmity A.D. 597. of nature, such an illusion is not to be feared, because it is rather to be lamented, that the mind of the person, who knew nothing of it, suffers the same, than that he occasioned it. But when the appetite of gluttony commits excess in food, and thereupon the receptacles of the humours are oppressed, the mind from thence contracts some guilt; yet not so much as to obstruct the receiving of the holy mystery, or celebrating mass, when a holy day requires it, or necessity obliges the sacrament to be administered, because there is no other priest in the place; for if there be others who can perform the ministry, the illusion proceeding from over-eating is not to exclude a man from receiving the sacred mystery; but I am of opinion he ought humbly to abstain from offering the sacrifice of the mystery; but not from receiving it, unless the mind of the person sleeping has been filled with some foul imagination. For there are some, who for the most part so suffer the illusion, that their mind, even during the sleep of the body, is not defiled with filthy thoughts. In which case, one thing is evident, that the mind is guilty even in its own judgment; for though it does not remember to have seen any thing whilst the body was sleeping, yet it calls to mind that when waking it fell into bodily gluttony. But if the sleeping illusion proceeds from evil thoughts when waking, then the guilt is manifest to the mind; for the man perceives from whence that filth sprung, because what he had knowingly thought of, that he afterwards unwittingly revealed. But it is to be considered, whether that thought was no more than a suggestion, or proceeded to enjoyment, or, which is still more criminal, consented to sin. For all sin is fulfilled in three ways, viz. by suggestion, by delight, and by consent. Suggestion is occasioned by the Devil, delight is from the flesh, and consent from the mind. For the serpent suggested the first offence, and Eve, as flesh, was delighted with it, but

I