New Advent
 Home   Encyclopedia   Summa   Fathers   Bible   Library 
 A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z 
New Advent
Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > L > Libellatici, Libelli

Libellatici, Libelli

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99...

The libelli were certificates issued to Christians of the third century. They were of two kinds:

  1. certificates of conformity, to attest that the holders had conformed to the religious tests required by the edict of Decius;
  2. certificates of indulgence, in which the confessors or martyrs interceded for the lapsi (i.e. those who had apostatized).

The opprobrious term libellatici is applied only to holders of the former kind. The edict of Decius (Dec., 249, or Jan., 250), coming as it did after a comparatively long period of peace, frightened many Christians into submission. But the methods and extent of submission were of several kinds: the lapsi might be:

Three such libelli are extant, all of them of Egyptian origin ("Oxyrhynchus Papyri", IV, 658; Gebhardt, "Acta Martyrum Selecta"). Therein the petitioner declares that he was ever constant in sacrificing to the gods, and has actually performed the test of conformity, in attestation of which he begs the pagan commissioners to sign this certificate. However, it seems that the declaration was sometimes accepted for the deed, or the deed itself performed by proxy; and no doubt the document might be bought from amenable commissioners without any declaration of paganism.

It was in connexion with the reconciliation of these libellatici as well as other lapsi that the libelli pacis, or letters of indulgence, were introduced. The lapsi were in the habit of seeking the intercession of the confessors, who were suffering for the Faith; and the latter would address to the bishop libelli pacis petitioning for the reconciliation of the apostates. The libelli were, however, more than mere recommendations to mercy; the confessors were understood to be petitioning that their own merits should be applied to the excommunicated, and procure them a remission of the temporal punishment due to their defection. And this indulgence was not simply a remission of the canonical penance; it was believed that it availed before God and remitted the temporal punishment that would otherwise be required after death (Cyprian, "De Lapsis", ad fin.). This custom does not seem to have been established in Rome, but it was particularly prevalent in Carthage, and was not unknown in Egypt and Asia Minor. Even in the time of Tertullian, the lapsi of Carthage were in the habit of thus appealing to the intercession of the confessors ("Ad Mart.", i; On Pudicity 22). In the letters that Saint Cyprian wrote from his place of exile he has frequent occasion to complain of the abuse of the libelli. There was a party of laxists who ignored the necessity of the bishop's sanction, and their leader actually promulgated a general indulgence to all the lapsi (Cyprian, "Epp.", xxxiv, 23). The confessors themselves seem to have lacked discretion in the petitions they presented. Cyprian's letter to them (ep. xv), couched though it is in the tenderest of terms, begs them to be more judicious, to avoid vague petitions, such as "Let him and his people be received into communion", and not to lend their services to the schemes of the seditious or the avarice of traffickers. The bishop's own method of treating the petitions for indulgence varied according to circumstances. Ep. xviii contains instructions that the lapsi who held such letters should be reconciled in case of sickness. Subsequently, however, owing no doubt to the above-mentioned abuses and the need for wider methods, the libelli were not given any special mention in the general conditions of reconciliation (African Councils, I, 38).

Sources

See the Letters of ST. CYPRIAN, e.g. in P.L., IV and V; and notably his treatise De Lapsis; Vita S. Cypriani per Pontium diaconum ejus scripta; EUSEBIUS, Church History IV.42; BENSON, Cyprian (London, 1897); ALLARD, Histoire des Persécutions, II (2nd ed., Paris, 1896), viii.

About this page

APA citation. Bridge, J. (1910). Libellatici, Libelli. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09211a.htm

MLA citation. Bridge, James. "Libellatici, Libelli." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09211a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Douglas J. Potter. Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

Copyright © 2023 by New Advent LLC. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

CONTACT US | ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT