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# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle/Canon III

Canon III.
Behold, did not Achar the son of Zara transgress in the accursed thing, and trouble then lighted on all the congregation of Israel? And this one man was alone in his sin; but he was not alone in the death that came by his sin. And by us, too, everything of a gainful kind at this time, which is ours not in our own rightful possession, but as property strictly belonging to others, ought to be reckoned a thing devoted. For that Achar indeed took of the spoil; and those men of the present time take also of the spoil. But he took what belonged to enemies; while these now take what belongs to brethren, and aggrandize themselves with fatal gains.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Josh. vii.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle/Canon IV

Canon IV.
Let no one deceive himself, nor put forward the pretext of having found such property. For it is not lawful, even for a man who has found anything, to aggrandize himself by it. For Deuteronomy says: “Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ox or his sheep go astray in the way, and pay no heed to them; but thou shalt in any wise bring them again unto thy brother. And if thy brother come not nigh thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring them together, and they shall be with thee until thy brother seek after them, and thou shalt restore them to him again. And in like manner shalt thou do with his ass, and so shalt thou do with his raiment, and so shalt thou do with all lost things of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou mayest find.” Thus much in Deuteronomy. And in the book of Exodus it is said, with reference not only to the case of finding what is a friend’s, but also of finding what is an enemy’s: “Thou shalt surely bring them back to the house of their master again.” And if it is not lawful to aggrandize oneself at the expense of another, whether he be brother or enemy, even in the time of peace, when he is living at his ease and delicately, and without concern as to his property, how much more must it be the case when one is met by adversity, and is fleeing from his enemies, and has had to abandon his possessions by force of circumstances!

## Footnotes

* ↑ Deut. xxii. 1–3.
* ↑ Ex. xxiii. 4.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle/Canon VI

Canon VI.
Moreover, it has been reported to us that a thing has happened in your country which is surely incredible, and which, if done at all, is altogether the work of unbelievers, and impious men, and men who know not the very name of the Lord; to wit, that some have gone to such a pitch of cruelty and inhumanity, as to be detaining by force certain captives who have made their escape. Dispatch ye commissioners into the country, lest the thunderbolts of heaven fall all too surely upon those who perpetrate such deeds.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Concerning those who forcibly detain captives escaped from the barbarians.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle/Canon IX

Canon IX.
Now, those who have found in the open field or in their own houses anything left behind them by the barbarians, if they have once been put on their trial and convicted, ought to fall under the same class of the repentant. But if they have declared themselves and made restitution, they ought to be deemed fit for the privilege of prayer.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Concerning those who have found in the open field or in private houses property left behind them by the barbarians.
* ↑ [Partially elucidated below in (the spurious) Canon XI. See Marshall’s Penitential Discipline of the Primitive Church.]
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle/Canon VII

Canon VII.
Now, as regards those who have been enrolled among the barbarians, and have accompanied them in their irruption in a state of captivity, and who, forgetting that they were from Pontus, and Christians, have become such thorough barbarians, as even to put those of their own race to death by the gibbet or strangulation, and to show their roads or houses to the barbarians, who else would have been ignorant of them, it is necessary for you to debar such persons even from being auditors in the public congregations, until some common decision about them is come to by the saints assembled in council, and by the Holy Spirit antecedently to them.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Concerning those who have been enrolled among the barbarians, and who have dared to do certain monstrous things against those of the same race with themselves.
* ↑ ξυλῳ.
* ↑ ακροάσεως.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle/Canon I

Canonical Epistle.
Canon I.
The meats are no burden to us, most holy father, if the captives ate things which their conquerors set before them, especially since there is one report from all, viz., that the barbarians who have made inroads into our parts have not sacrificed to idols. For the apostle says, “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them.” But the Saviour also, who cleanseth all meats, says, “Not that which goeth into a man defileth the man, but that which cometh out.” And this meets the case of the captive women defiled by the barbarians, who outraged their bodies. But if the previous life of any such person convicted him of going, as it is written, after the eyes of fornicators, the habit of fornication evidently becomes an object of suspicion also in the time of captivity. And one ought not readily to have communion with such women in prayers. If any one, however, has lived in the utmost chastity, and has shown in time past a manner of life pure and free from all suspicion, and now falls into wantonness through force of necessity, we have an example for our guidance,—namely, the instance of the damsel in Deuteronomy, whom a man finds in the field, and forces her and lies with her. “Unto the damsel,” he says, “ye shall do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter: the damsel cried, and there was none to help her.”

## Footnotes

* ↑ Of the holy Gregory, archbishop of Neo-Cæsareia, surnamed Thaumaturgus, concerning those who, in the inroad of the barbarians, ate things sacrificed to idols, or offended in certain other matters. Gallandi, iii. p. 400. [Written a.d. 258 or 262.] There are scholia in Latin by Theodorus Balsamon and Joannes Zonaras on these canons. The note of the former on the last canon may be cited:—The present saint has defined shortly five several positions for the penitent; but he has not indicated either the times appointed for their exercise, or the sins for which discipline is determined. Basil the Great, again, has handed down to us an accurate account of these things in his canonical epistles. [Elucidation II.] Yet he, too, has referred to episcopal decision the matter of recovery through penalties [i.e., to the decision of his comprovincial bishops, as in Cyprian’s example. See vol. v. p. 415, Elucidation XIII.; also Elucidation I. p. 20, infra.
* ↑ [Elucidation III. p. 20.]
* ↑ 1 Cor. vi. 13.
* ↑ Matt. xv. 11.
* ↑ Deut. xxii. 26, 27.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle/Canon II

Canon II.
Covetousness is a great evil; and it is not possible in a single letter to set forth those scriptures in which not robbery alone is declared to be a thing horrible and to be abhorred, but in general the grasping mind, and the disposition to meddle with what belongs to others, in order to satisfy the sordid love of gain. And all persons of that spirit are excommunicated from the Church of God. But that at the time of the irruption, in the midst of such woful sorrows and bitter lamentations, some should have been audacious enough to consider the crisis which brought destruction to all the very period for their own private aggrandizement, that is a thing which can be averred only of men who are impious and hated of God, and of unsurpassable iniquity. Wherefore it seemed good to excommunicate such persons, lest the wrath (of God) should come upon the whole people, and upon those first of all who are set over them in office, and yet fail to make inquiry. For I am afraid, as the Scripture says, lest the impious work the destruction of the righteous along with his own. “For fornication,” it says, “and covetousness are things on account of which the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth), proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them; for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light.” In this wise speaks the apostle. But if certain parties who pay the proper penalty for that former covetousness of theirs, which exhibited itself in the time of peace, now turn aside again to the indulgence of covetousness in the very time of trouble (i.e., in the troubles of the inroads by the barbarians), and make gain out of the blood and ruin of men who have been utterly despoiled, or taken captive, (or) put to death, what else ought to be expected, than that those who struggle so hotly for covetousness should heap up wrath both for themselves and for the whole people?

## Footnotes

* ↑ Gen. xviii. 23, 25.
* ↑ Eph. v. 5–13.
* ↑ τοῦ φωτός for the received πνεύματος.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle/Canon V

Canon V.
But others deceive themselves by fancying that they can retain the property of others which they may have found as an equivalent for their own property which they have lost. In this way verily, just as the Boradi and Goths brought the havoc of war on them, they make themselves Boradi and Goths to others. Accordingly we have sent to you our brother and comrade in old age, Euphrosynus, with this view, that he may deal with you in accordance with our model here, and teach you against whom you ought to admit accusations, and whom you ought to exclude from your prayers.

## Footnotes

* ↑ ὧν δεῖ τὰς κατηγορίας προσίεσθαι.
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Gregory Thaumaturgus/Acknowledged Writings/Canonical Epistle
## Contents

* Canon I
* Canon II
* Canon III
* Canon IV
* Canon V
* Canon VI
* Canon VII
* Canon VIII
* Canon IX
* Canon X
* Canon XI
* Elucidations
# Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Arnobius/Adversus Gentes/Book II/Chapter VIII

8. And since you have been wont to laugh at our faith, and with droll jests to pull to pieces our readiness of belief too, say, O wits, soaked and filled with wisdom’s pure drought, is there in life any kind of business demanding diligence and activity, which the doers undertake, engage in, and essay, without believing that it can be done? Do you travel about, do you sail on the sea without believing that you will return home when your business is done? Do you break up the earth with the plough, and fill it with different kinds of seeds without believing that you will gather in the fruit with the changes of the seasons? Do you unite with partners in marriage, without believing that it will be pure, and a union serviceable to the husband? Do you beget children without believing that they will pass safely through the different stages of life to the goal of age? Do you commit your sick bodies to the hands of physicians, without believing that diseases can be relieved by their severity being lessened? Do you wage wars with your enemies, without believing that you will carry off the victory by success in battles? Do you worship and serve the gods without believing that they are, and that they listen graciously to your prayers?

## Footnotes

* ↑ The ms. has a-t-tor-o-s, corrected by a later writer a-c-tor-e-s, which is received in LB. and by Meursius and Orelli.
* ↑ Lit., “unite marriage partnerships.”
* ↑ Lit., “be safe and come.”
* ↑ Or, “in successive battles”—præliorum successionibus.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 254

254.—A BOLD PUPIL.
It is to Ferdinand Ries that we are indebted for many particulars as to the life and habits of Beethoven. This great master lived a solitary life, and for this reason our records of him are not so complete as to details as are the accounts of some of the other great composers. It is said that Ries, who, by the way, was a pupil of Beethoven, gave way to the temptation to "draw the long bow" occasionally, and that some of his statements concerning Beethoven are more or less tinged by his imagination.
​However, here is one little story that probably may be accepted: "Upon Ries' first appearance in public as Beethoven's pupil, he was to play the C minor concerto from manuscript. This was the first performance of a work which has since become a general favorite with concert pianists, though it is not so great as the E flat concerto. Ries asked his teacher to write a cadenza for the work, but Beethoven, in a particularly genial mood, told the young man he might compose one himself and insert his own cadenza.
This was a high honor. Ries wrote his cadenza, but, on presenting it to Beethoven, the latter objected to one passage which was so difficult that its correct performance was doubtful, and advised the substitution of an easier passage. This Ries did until the time of the concert. When he came to the cadenza, instead of playing the easier passage he dashed into the forbidden one and completed it with great success.
"Bravo," cried Beethoven, and the audience took up the applause. After the performance Beethoven, remembering the disobedience said to Ries, "You are always obstinate. I would never have given you another lesson had you missed one note of that passage," and we may well believe Beethoven would have kept his word.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 256

256.—AN OPERA SACRIFICED.
The pages of manuscript that lie on the composer's desk may represent to him the thoughts, ideas, aspirations of years. It is no wonder, then, that his first thought should be for his beloved score, and that he should be ready to risk a good deal in order to preserve it from destruction. Lulli once ran a terrible risk to save the score of his best opera, no less a risk than that of incurring eternal damnation—according to his father confessor.
It happened this way: Lulli was ill, so ill as to fear death. He hurriedly sent for a priest and asked for absolution, but the priest would not grant it unless he would promise to destroy the score of his latest opera. It seems the church did not regard his operas as being conducive of a rapid moral growth among the people.
Finally the composer gave in, and pointed to his desk where the lately finished work lay in rough score. The priest secured the doomed manuscript, burnt it, and then granted the desired safe conduct to paradise. But Lulli was not so sick as he thought, and proceeded to get better. Some time after, he was visited by one of the ​young princes, who, when he heard of the destruction of the opera protested vigorously.
"What," said he, "you have burnt your beautiful opera. You are a fool to have given way to so gloomy a priest and to have destroyed so much music!"
"Don't get angry," whispered the sick man, "I knew what I was about; I have another copy of it laid away."
Unfortunately, the recovery was not permanent and Lulli suffered a relapse. He was now told that it was impossible for him to recover. Again he sent for the priest and this time delivered to him the remaining copy of the opera and begged forgiveness for his deceit.
The priest prescribed as penance that he should be laid on a heap of ashes with a cord around his neck! Lulli gladly submitted and died happy.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 26

26.—SOUTHERN PASSION.
We of the Northern nations often think of the mock tragedies of the operatic stage as being overdrawn and untrue to the life. Such incidents and plots are often said to be exaggerated and of the blood-and-thunder "stagey" sort.
But we must remember that blood flows much more rapidly through Southern veins than through Northern, and that we, with our cold calculating way of looking at things, do not take into consideration the fiery temperament of the Southern climes that makes such plots but representative of the real passions of the Italian and Spanish nations.
The plots of the Mascagni and Leoncavallo school may not be elevating or over refined, but they undoubtedly do picture one phase of life.
This is not saying, however, that it is well to dwell on that phase, or that it has in it much that can ennoble the listener. Passion and pain and the lower emotions need not be continually served up to the opera-goer simply because the method of representing them is artistic. There is enough that is good and beautiful in the world out of which to make our operatic plots, without descending to the slime and filth of life, however artistically it may be dressed up.
But the other, the lower side, exists, not only in opera plots, but in the real life. The little incident here given, if presented on the stage, would be classed as a mere bit of melo-dramatic Italian opera; yet it is one of many such things that continually happen.
Leonardo Vinci was one of the numerous talented composers of the old school. In the midst of his successful career at Rome, he made the acquaintance of a noble Italian lady who was possessed of great beauty, and who conceived quite a passion for this distinguished musician. The admiration was mutual. All went well ​until the lady granted the composer some particular favors, and he (with an absence of discretion unusual to musicians) boasted to his friends of his good fortune in securing the lady's regard.
His words coming to the ears of the fair damsel, and disliking to have her private affairs made public talk (she would never have made a modern opera songstress), she determined to be revenged for his gossiping about her, and gave him his quietus, not with a bare bodkin, but in a cup of poisoned chocolate!
This summary method will doubtless commend itself to all who suffer from indiscreet friends.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 262

262.—GOAT HAIR FOR HERO WORSHIPERS.
Notwithstanding his gruffness, which frequently became out-and-out rudeness, Beethoven was a favorite with such ladies as happened to know him intimately, and many who were deprived of this privilege worshiped at a distance.
He frequently received requests for a lock of his hair; in fact, so numerous were they that his tangled locks would have showed a sad decimation had he granted all these requests. Some of his intimate lady friends and pupils were thus highly favored, but others were not so well treated, as the following incident will show.
The wife of a Vienna musician, desiring very much to possess one of his shaggy locks, one day induced her husband to ask a friend of the great composer's to intercede for her, and procure her the relic she desired.
This friend told Beethoven of her wish, but persuaded him to send her a wisp of hair from a goat's beard, ​which Beethoven's coarse gray hair nearly resembled. Some time later, when the lady was exhibiting this peculiar souvenir as a lock of Beethoven's hair, another friend, who was a party to the joke, acquainted her with the deception.
The husband of the hero worshiper wrote a letter to Beethoven charging him with discourtesy and unkindness; and Beethoven, feeling ashamed of the trick, wrote a letter of apology to the aggrieved lady, enclosing in it a real lock of his hair, and refused to receive further visits from the gentleman who had prompted the deception.
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 259

259.—SARCASM.
Porpora, the most celebrated singing master of all time, lived and flourished in the last century. He it was who had no less a person than young Haydn as pupil, and Haydn paid for his tuition in acting as valet for the tyrannical old teacher. How many students of to-day would black their teacher's shoes to pay for their tuition?
Porpora was very quick of tongue, and he did not spare even his intimate friends and his best pupils. As a specimen of his sarcasm we may quote the following:—
He one day visited a certain German monastery, and the monks, being proud of the skill of their organist, begged him to stay to service and give them his verdict. He remained, and at the close of the service they were eager to hear his testimony as to the organist's ability.
"Well—" began Porpora.
"Well," interrupted the prior, "he is a clever man, isn't he? and likewise a good man, quite pure and simple."
"Oh! as to his simplicity," Porpora hastened to remark—"as to his simplicity, I readily perceived that; he even carries it so far that his left hand knoweth not what his right hand doeth!"
Alas, poor anecdotes! How many times they have to do duty in the world. It is not enough to pass through one life, but they must be reincarnated by succeeding story tellers, generation after generation. Or are the musicians to blame? Is it their lack of originality? Witness the following from a late paper:—
"The French composer, Massenet, had accepted an invitation to dinner; the hostess begged him to listen to her daughter's playing. When she had finished, he was, of course, asked for his judgment; and he, with the earnest face of a weighty critic, declared that the ​young lady was a perfect Christian. 'Why?' 'Because she follows strictly the teaching of the New Testament: 'Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.'"
# Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 260

260.—A PRIMA DONNA'S PETS.
The operatic ladies with high voices and higher salaries are credited with having more whims and peculiarities than other mortals. But along with them must be ranked the gentlemen with the high "C." The prime donne and the primi tenori are the plague of the operatic manager's life.
Nearly all of the great sopranos and contraltos have some pet animal that they continually carry with them and on which they lavish their surplus affection. It may be a parrot, a dog, or a monkey, but all the same, it must have the best of care and accommodations.
Generally the ladies are satisfied with one or two traveling companions of the animal kind, but Ilma di Murska was not content with less than a number which would be considered a fair start for a zoological garden. First, there was an immense Newfoundland, who regularly had his plate placed at the prima donna's table and dined at her side.
Then there was a monkey; and in order that the proverbial "time" could be had, there were also two parrots. The last member of the aggregation was an Angora cat, and it was between this long-haired beauty and the monkey that the enmity was greatest. The expression "to make the fur fly" could literally be applied to di Murska's caravan. But in spite of the annoyance, the expense, and the trouble with hotelkeepers, she was willing to have it all rather than part, even temporarily, with one of her beloved pets.