Note 659 — Chapter III
Reading edition
They are to be found in Bibliotheca Maxima Pontificia (Rome, 1790), pp. 178 ff. The contents of the second letter are condensed in the phrase which occurs near the end: “in legibus voluntas non debet regula esse” (p. 183). The first letter urges the Pope to make an end of the scandals caused by the sale of dispensations: “Dispensator non potest vendere id quod non suum est sed Domini. Neque etiam potest transgredi in dispensatione mandatum Domini.... Expresse Christus in Evangelio præcipit: Gratis accepistis, Gratis date” (p. 79). It closes with an urgent appeal: “Pater Sanctissime ingressus es viam Christi, audacter age.... Dens onmipotens diriget gressus tuos, et tuorum omnium. Familiæ tuæ Protector crit, et super omnia bona sua constituet te, ut ipse in Evangelio pollicetur servo fideli, quem constituit super familiam suam. Dominus diu nobis servet Sanctitatem tuam incolumem.”