Letter against the Soldiers of Coroticus (3)

Therefore, let every God-fearing person know that they – the murderer of kin, the fratricide, the ravening wolves who devour God’s people like a meal of bread – are strangers to me and to my God, Whose ambassador I am. As it is said, “The wicked have destroyed Your Law, O Lord” – that law which at the end of time He has graciously planted most successfully in Ireland, so that it has been firmly founded there with God’s favour.

I do not exceed my jurisdiction. I am one of those whom He called and predestined to preach the Gospel even to the end of the earth, in spite of no small persecution, although the Enemy shows his resentment through the petty tyrant Coroticus who fears neither God nor God’s bishops whom He chose and to whom He gave that highest divine power, that those whom they bind on earth are also bound in heaven.

Therefore I most solemnly enjoin those of you who are holy and humble of heart to take heed that it is not permitted to show any honour to the likes of them, nor to eat or drink with them; nor ought their alms be accepted until they have done the most severe penance with shedding of tears to satisfy God, and until they free the servants and handmaids of Christ on whose behalf He died and was crucified. The Most High rejects the gifts of the wicked. He who offers sacrifice from the goods of the poor is like him who sacrifices the son in the sight of the father.

Translation Liam De Paor, St. Patrick’s World

We do not have a very high view of church discipline these days, even though the Lord Jesus taught it and the Apostles practiced it faithfully. Somehow we have come to regard this exercise of judging with righteous judgment (Jn. 7.24) to be something we ought not take seriously. 

But Patrick took it seriously. And he expected every believer within his ecclesiastical jurisdiction to take it seriously as well.

Church discipline proceeds by stages. Doubtless some among those who were attacked by the soldiers of Coroticus protested their actions and called them to repent. That’s the first level of discipline: church members approach those guilty of sin and call them to repent. The next level is to take the offenders before the authorities of the church. Patrick received the report of this incident, and he made an effort to call the soldiers of Coroticus to return their captives and stolen property and to repent of their sins. His emissaries were laughed to scorn. The only step of discipline left to him was to excommunicate from his fellowship and that of the Body of Christ those so-called Christians who had committed this terrible sin.

The offenders were to understand that, having been excommunicated from the Body of Christ, they were also cut off from fellowship with God.

Note the obligations of excommunication: Those upon whom it falls are to seek repentance with tears, and to restore justice to the community, so that they might be renewed in fellowship with God and His Church. Those who read this letter and heard this act of discipline were to participate in it responsibly. They must have no fellowship with the excommunicated, nor receive any gifts or alms from them. They must show by their actions in relation to those excommunicated that they were, indeed, cut off from Christ’s Body and from Christ.

Patrick understood his authority as a bishop. He had been entrusted with the oversight of the flocks of God in Ireland, but the only power he could wield was spiritual. But Patrick knew how truly effective that power could be. He had seen the Gospel transform the pagan peoples of Ireland. He had endured persecution, trusting in the power of God’s presence and grace. And he believed the enemy of the saints could be thwarted by the proper exercise of the spiritual authority entrusted to him.

There is power in doing God’s work God’s way. Patrick understood this. He did not send a posse after the soldiers of Coroticus. He did not send an arbitration team. He sent the Word of God and the authority of the Body of Christ.

We do not know how this situation turned out, but, for the better part of the Celtic Revival, church leaders continued to rely on the authority of God’s Word rather than of princes or swords or simony for carrying out the work appointed to them. Patrick had set the example, and two centuries of faithful leaders followed it well.

Want to learn more about Patrick and the impact of his ministry? Order T. M.’s book, The Legacy of Patrick, from our online store.