Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Cornelius, a Roman centurion, is instructed in the faith of Christ and baptized by St. Peter, by the command of God, through the vision of the sheet and the four-footed creatures, which signified this; and thus the door to the Gospel and the Church is openly opened to all the Gentiles.
Vulgate Text: Acts 10:1-48
1. And there was a certain man in Caesarea, named Cornelius, a centurion of the cohort which is called Italian, 2. religious and fearing God with all his house, giving many alms to the people, and always praying to God: 3. he saw in a vision manifestly, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God entering to him and saying to him: Cornelius. 4. And he, gazing upon him, seized with fear, said: What is it, Lord? And he said to him: Thy prayers and thy alms have ascended as a memorial in the sight of God. 5. And now send men to Joppa, and call hither a certain Simon, who is surnamed Peter: 6. he lodges with a certain Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea: he will tell thee what thou must do. 7. And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his household servants, and a soldier fearing the Lord, of those who were under his command. 8. To whom when he had related all things, he sent them to Joppa. 9. Now on the next day, while they were on their journey, and were drawing near to the city, Peter went up to the upper rooms to pray about the sixth hour. 10. And being hungry, he wished to eat. But while they were preparing, an ecstasy of mind fell upon him: 11. and he saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending, as it were a great sheet, let down by four corners from heaven to earth, 12. in which were all four-footed creatures, and serpents of the earth, and birds of the sky. 13. And there came a voice to him: Arise, Peter, kill and eat. 14. But Peter said: Far be it, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common and unclean. 15. And the voice came to him again a second time: What God hath cleansed, do not thou call common. 16. Now this was done thrice: and immediately the vessel was taken up into heaven. 17. And while Peter doubted within himself what the vision which he had seen might be, behold the men who were sent by Cornelius, inquiring for Simon's house, stood at the gate. 18. And when they had called, they asked if Simon, who is surnamed Peter, were lodging there. 19. And as Peter was thinking of the vision, the Spirit said to him: Behold, three men seek thee. 20. Arise therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them. 21. Then Peter going down to the men, said: Behold, I am he whom you seek: what is the cause for which you are come? 22. They said: Cornelius the centurion, a just man and one fearing God, and having testimony from the whole nation of the Jews, received an answer from a holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words from thee. 23. So bringing them in, he received them as guests. And on the next day, rising up, he set out with them: and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him. 24. And on the following day he entered Caesarea. And Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his kinsmen and intimate friends. 25. And it came to pass that when Peter entered, Cornelius came to meet him, and falling down at his feet, adored. 26. But Peter raised him up, saying: Arise, I myself also am a man. 27. And speaking with him he entered, and found many who had assembled, 28. and he said to them: You know how abominable it is for a man who is a Jew to join himself or come near to a foreigner; but God hath shown me that I should call no man common or unclean. 29. Wherefore I came without doubting when I was sent for. I ask therefore, for what reason have you sent for me? 30. And Cornelius said: From the fourth day past until this hour, I was praying at the ninth hour in my house, and behold a man stood before me in a white garment, and said: 31. Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thy alms have been remembered in the sight of God. 32. Send therefore to Joppa, and call Simon, who is surnamed Peter; he lodges in the house of Simon a tanner by the sea. 33. So I sent to thee at once, and thou hast done well in coming. Now therefore we are all here present in thy sight, to hear all things whatsoever are commanded thee by the Lord. 34. And Peter, opening his mouth, said: In truth I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons; 35. but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh justice is acceptable to Him. 36. God sent the word to the children of Israel, announcing peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all). 37. You know the word which has been made known throughout all Judaea: for beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, 38. Jesus of Nazareth: how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. 39. And we are witnesses of all things which He did in the region of the Jews, and in Jerusalem, whom they killed, hanging Him on a tree. 40. Him God raised up on the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, 41. not to all the people, but to witnesses preordained by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. 42. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43. To Him all the prophets give testimony, that all who believe in Him receive remission of sins through His name. 44. While Peter was yet speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45. And the faithful of the circumcision who had come with Peter were astonished, because the grace of the Holy Spirit was poured out also upon the Gentiles. 46. For they heard them speaking in tongues and magnifying God. 47. Then Peter answered: Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? 48. And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain with them for some days.
Verse 1: A Certain Man in Caesarea
1. IN CAESAREA, — not Caesarea Philippi, but Caesarea of Palestine, which was situated on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and was strongly fortified: hence it was also called the Tower of Strato, for it was like a citadel and bulwark of Palestine: whence it was guarded by the Romans with a strong garrison, in which Cornelius was Centurion. Caesarea, converted to Christ, became the metropolis of the Churches of Palestine, having under itself the Church of Jerusalem, both because at Caesarea, with the conversion of Cornelius, the door of the Church was opened to the Gentiles; and even more because Caesarea was originally under the Romans the metropolis of Palestine, and the greatest of the cities of Judaea, as Josephus testifies, book III On the War, ch. xv. But afterwards, in the year of Christ 553, Pope Vigilius in the Council of Constantinople made the Church of Jerusalem patriarchal, and subjected the Caesarean to it. Thus Baronius in the year already mentioned.
BY NAME CORNELIUS. — He seems to have been an Italian (for he was centurion of the Italian cohort) and a Roman. For at Rome the Cornelii were illustrious and renowned, and the house, indeed the clan, of the Cornelii was most noble: just as in Belgium the family of the Cornelii is large, from which I myself am sprung: whence all those descended from it are surnamed Cornelii. For at Rome there was the illustrious Cornelius Cossus, military tribune, who killed Tolumnius Lars, king of the Veientes, and a second time brought back the spolia opima to Jupiter Feretrius, as Livy testifies, book IV, Decade I. And Cornelius Centimalus, who, when Hannibal was approaching the walls and the city was trembling, met him and pitched camp outside the city, as Plutarch testifies. And Cornelius Merula the Consul, who, sent against the Boii into Gaul, slew twelve thousand enemies, as Livy testifies, On the Macedonian War, book V. And Cornelius Merula, nephew of the former, Flamen Dialis, who, when Marius entered the city, lest he should fall into his power as that of an enemy, in the temple of Jupiter cut his veins and brought death upon himself, and the most ancient hearths were soaked with the blood of their priest, says Valerius Maximus, book IX, ch. XII. There were many similar men, among whom shone forth the Cornelii Scipiones, especially St. Cornelius Scipio, surnamed Africanus from Africa conquered, twice consul and censor, and triumphator, three times Prince of the Senate; who had a brother who was consul and triumphator, and a nephew by his son's adoption who was twice consul, twice triumphator, and censor, and augur: whose sister Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, was a woman of great spirit, prudence and eloquence, whom Quintilian praises, book I, ch. I, and Cicero in the Brutus. There was therefore at Rome not one family of the Cornelii, but many, so that they could form an entire clan. For of this family, and as it were branches, were the Scipios, the Lentuli, the Cinnae, the Balbi, the Merulae, the Rutuli, the Cethegi, the Mamerci, the Dolabellae, the Mammulae, the Severi, and many others, which Antonius Augustinus enumerates at length in his book On the Roman Families. From these therefore this Cornelius Centurion seems to have sprung. For from the first illustrious Cornelius, all his sons, grandsons, and posterity were called Cornelii.
Furthermore, to some learned men they seem to have been so called from cornu (horn), as if hornlike, robust and constant. Whence St. Cornelius, Roman Pontiff and Martyr, who was a familiar friend of St. Cyprian by letters, is depicted with a horn in his hand, because he most steadfastly resisted the Emperors Decius and Volusianus, as St. Cyprian relates; for the horn is the strength of animals: whence the horn is the symbol of fortitude, victory, kingdom, glory and triumph, according to that saying of Joseph: "His horns are the horns of the rhinoceros," Deut. XXXIII, 17. And Psalm XLIII, 6: "Through Thee we will toss our enemies with the horn." And Psalm XCI, 11: "My horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn." And Psalm CXXXI, 17: "There will I bring forth a horn for David." And Psalm CXI, 9: "His horn shall be exalted in glory." And Zechariah I, 21: "These are the horns which have winnowed Judah." Hence Psalm XCVII says: "Sing praise to the Lord on a ductile trumpet, and with the voice of the horn trumpet," that is, mystically, in the strength of virtue. "Have," says St. Jerome there, "two trumpets, both silver and horn. The silver, that you may have speech; the horn, that you may have virtue. We read in Leviticus: Let no animal be offered, unless it has horns, etc. And so we, as long as we have a horn, deserve to be a victim of God. But if our horn is broken off, we are as it were weak, and cannot come among the priests of God." And St. Augustine, in the same place: "The horn surpasses flesh; it is necessary that, by overcoming the flesh, it be firm to endure, and capable of voice. He who wishes to be a horn trumpet, let him overcome the flesh, let him transcend carnal affections." And below: "Let the horn trumpet rouse you against the devil, not the horn trumpet against your brother." Wherefore St. Cornelius, as it were the bishop of strength and the primipilus of the Martyrs, is wont to be invoked by the faithful for obtaining strength as well as the glory of martyrdom. Thus, to pass over others, Cornelius Musius, the laureate poet among the Belgians, used to invoke him as his namesake for the cause of martyrdom, and accordingly often sang this hymn to him:
Blessed Pontiff of Christ, and renowned Martyr of Christ,
Graciously obtain this favor for thy Cornelius,
That, whom I express by name, I may also express by charity, by faith,
And by the boldness of asserting the truth.
And he obtained his vow from him: for at Leiden in Holland, about the year of the Lord 1572, having been mutilated by the Calvinists in nose, ears, and the fingers of his hands and feet, fastened to a beam in the marketplace, and strangled with a noose, in the 72nd year of his age, he met a glorious martyrdom, as Aubertus Miraeus relates in his Belgian Eulogies.
Or certainly Cornelius is said to be from cor (heart), as if cordate (heart-wise), as one might say: Cornelius, do not leave thy heart on the ground: let thy heart be in the upper air, not in the lower; in the sun and the sky, not in the soil and the sea. For such it was fitting that this Cornelius should be, the primipilus of the Gentile Church, who as it were as leader and standard-bearer to all the Gentiles would open up the way to the Church, indeed the path to heaven; namely a noble Roman, a leader of soldiers, who would give to the noble Romans, the soldiers and princes, an example of faith and virtue: whence soon afterwards so many ranks of Romans followed him, especially of soldiers and nobles, not only to the faith, but also to martyrdom. He was therefore himself the glory of Gentilehood, and the firstfruits of the Gentiles, says Origen, homily 11 on Numbers; and St. Jerome, to Salvina: "First did Cornelius dedicate the salvation of the Gentiles."
CENTURION. — He who was set over a century of soldiers, which originally consisted of one hundred soldiers: but for various reasons this number was subsequently increased. Cajetan thinks that this Cornelius was the Centurion of the first of the ten cohorts of which the legion consisted, who was therefore called primipilus, before whom was carried the standard of the eagle, which was the ensign of the Romans, and he commanded 400 soldiers in the front line, as the leader of the first rank, according to Vegetius, book II, ch. 6. Whence he was adorned with equestrian ornaments and rank, as Lipsius teaches in book II On the Roman Military.
OF THE COHORT. — In Greek ἐκ σπείρης, that is, out of the cohort: for the cohort had several centuries and centurions, of whom Cornelius was one. For the cohort was originally the tenth part of a legion, consisting of fifty maniples, and the maniple of 25 soldiers: wherefore the cohort consisted of 1,250 soldiers; the legion of 12,500, as is clear from Caesar, book VI On the Civil War; Velleius, book II, and others. Now the cohort is commonly called by the French a regiment, and he who commands it is called Tribune or Chiliarch. But afterwards, as the number of the legion, so also of the cohort was diminished, and that variously according to the variety of times and places. The legion was finally reduced to six thousand and six hundred.
ITALIAN, — from the Italian soldiers of whom it consisted. Baronius thinks that this cohort was the sixth in order, and was surnamed Ferrata (Iron-clad): for Dio writes that it was stationed in Judaea by Augustus.
Verse 2: Religious and Fearing God
2. RELIGIOUS AND FEARING GOD. — Vatablus: pious and religious towards God. Here is a problem. Whether Cornelius, before he sent for Peter, was justified or not? St. Chrysostom, Oecumenius and Stapleton here deny it, and St. Basil, in his Shorter Rules, Rule 224. St. Augustine favors this view, in his book On the Predestination of the Saints, ch. 7. The view is supported by what is said in verses 5, 43, 44, and the following chapter, verse 14.
Far more truly do St. Gregory affirm, homilies 3 and 19 on Ezekiel; Bede, Dionysius and Lorinus here; the Master [Peter Lombard], in book III, distinction XXV, and there Albert, Bonaventure, and St. Thomas in the same place, as well as in part III, Question LXIX, article 4, ad 2; Ruardus Tapperus, article 7; Alfonsus a Castro, on the word Baptismus, heresy 10; Gregory of Valencia, II II, disputation 1, Question II, point 4. St. Jerome favors this, on chapter v of the epistle to the Galatians.
It is proved first, because Cornelius is here called "religious and fearing God;" therefore he was not only just, but also pious and religious. Second, because in verse 4, his works and alms are said to have ascended as a memorial in the sight of God. Third, because St. Peter seems to assert this expressly in verse 34, saying: "In truth I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons; but in every nation he who fears Him and works justice is acceptable to Him:" and he speaks about Cornelius. Therefore Cornelius was acceptable and pleasing to God: therefore he was just: for no one is pleasing to God except the just. For the first effect of justifying grace is to make a man pleasing and acceptable to God. Furthermore, he who works justice is just: but Cornelius, by the testimony of St. Peter, was working justice; therefore he was just. Fourth, because in verse 22, it is said of him: "Cornelius, a just man and one fearing God, and having testimony from the whole nation of the Jews, received an answer from a holy angel, to send for thee." Finally in verse 2, it is said of him: "Doing many alms to the people, and always praying to God." But these two cannot coexist with sin, but presuppose sanctifying grace. Wherefore Cornelius, before the coming of St. Peter, learned and drew from the Jews with whom he lived at Caesarea the explicit faith in one God, and the implicit faith in Christ the Mediator, and worshipped the true God, like Job and his friends: for not only the Jews before Christ, but also some Gentiles worshipped the true God, who keeping the law of nature and of charity, were justified, and thence performed alms and other pious works. But they could not do this by the strength of nature alone, as the Pelagians thought, but for this they needed the grace of God exciting and cooperating, as St. Prosper rightly teaches in his book On Free Will.
You will say: If he was just, what need was there to send St. Peter to him? I reply: There was need for this, that through him he might learn the explicit faith of Christ and all His mysteries: for implicit faith was not sufficient. For the promulgation of the new law and of the explicit faith concerning Christ the Mediator had already been made at Pentecost in Jerusalem; and it was gradually creeping to other neighboring cities, so that Cornelius had heard of it, as is clear from verse 22. Wherefore his obligation was beginning to be everywhere imposed, and consequently to bind Cornelius, who hitherto had labored under invincible ignorance of it: but that ignorance was now beginning to become vincible, and therefore culpable; if he had neglected to dispel it and to satisfy the obligation now imposed, he would have sinned and lost justice. Whence, that he might not lose it, but retain and increase it, he is commanded by the angel to send for Peter, who would explicitly teach him those things which it was necessary to know and believe about Christ, not only for acquiring or increasing, but for retaining justice: necessary, I say, not only by necessity of precept, as Andreas Vega holds, book VI On the Council of Trent, ch. xx, and Dominicus Soto, book II On Nature and Grace, ch. xi and xii, but also by necessity of means. For after the sufficient promulgation of the Gospel, no one can be justified and saved except through explicit faith in Christ the Mediator, as the truer and more common opinion of the Theologians holds. For Melchior Canus, and after him Dominicus Banez, II II, Question II, article 8, wrongly separate salvation from justice, and say that Cornelius and the like could have been justified without explicit faith in Christ, but not saved. For salvation indivisibly adheres to justice: for justice and grace is the seed of glory, so that whoever dies in grace is certain of salvation and eternal glory. This is what St. Gregory says in the place cited, that Cornelius "merited faith by good works," that is, explicit faith concerning Christ: and at the same time "by faith," that is, implicit faith, "came to good works." Again, that he came to good works through faith, but was strengthened in faith through works.
Furthermore, Peter baptized Cornelius, that he might initiate him into Christianity, and might increase and confirm the grace he had received: for now baptism was beginning to bind him and all others. Therefore he was not baptized to receive the remission of sins, which he had already received before, except perhaps of venial ones, if any remained unremitted, as also of the penalties due to preceding mortal sins, if any still remained to be remitted. Add to this, that the guilt of mortal sins had been remitted to him through contrition, which included the implicit vow of baptism: whence he had to be baptized, that he might fulfill this vow, for in view of which his sins had been remitted.
You will say secondly: At the words of St. Peter, verse 44, the Holy Spirit descended upon him: therefore He had not descended before. I reply: He then visibly descended, who had previously descended into him invisibly; and He conferred upon him an increase of grace, and moreover gratuitously given graces, such as the gift of tongues, etc., of which in verse 44. Less correctly therefore do some think that he was then first justified. The arguments of the adversaries drawn from the verses cited will be dissolved in their explanation.
PRAYING TO GOD ALWAYS, — namely, as far as his domestic and military affairs permitted; "always" therefore, that is, frequently, assiduously. Note here the four virtues of Cornelius, to be imitated by every Christian, especially by a superior, if he wishes to satisfy his vocation and office. The first is religion: for he himself was a man religious toward God. The second is the fear of God. The third is mercy and almsgiving: for he who is merciful to his neighbor will in turn experience God merciful to him, according to that promise of Christ: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," Matt. v. Whence Nazianzen, oration On the Care of the Poor: "Be a god to the calamitous, that God in turn may be God to thee in thy calamity."
Thus Cornelius by his alms merited to be visited by the angel and by St. Peter, and from him to receive the faith of Christ, as the angel says to him in verse 4. The fourth is frequent prayer: for this is, as it were, a pipe drawing down from heaven every shower of graces.
Tropologically, St. Jerome, in epistle 9 to Salvina, applies all this to Nebridius, her now-deceased husband, who had been a kinsman of the Emperors, born from the sister of Augusta: "Whatever is said of him (Cornelius), with the name changed, I claim for my Nebridius. He was so religious, and a lover of chastity, that he obtained as wife a virgin; so fearing God with all his house, that, forgetful of his rank, he kept all fellowship with monks and clerics, and gave such great alms to the people, that throngs of the poor and infirm besieged his doors: certainly he so always prayed to God, that whatever was best might happen to him. He was snatched away, lest malice should change his mind, because his soul was pleasing to God." And shortly: "The military cloak, and the belt, and the bands of attendants did him no harm: because under the habit of one he was serving another. We read also in the Gospel, Matt. viii, the Lord's testimony of another Centurion: Not even in Israel have I found such great faith. Joseph after Pharaoh, adorned with the insignia of the king, was so dear to God that above all the patriarchs he was made father of two tribes. Daniel and the three young men so presided over the wealth of Babylon, that in the dress of Nebuchadnezzar, they served God in mind. Mordechai and Esther amid the purple, silk and gems, conquered pride by humility; and were of such great merit that being captives they ruled the victors." And below: "Wonderful to say: nourished in the palace, a tent-mate and fellow-disciple of the Augusti, whose tables the world serves and earth and sea provide for, amid the abundance of all things, in the first flower of his age he was of such great modesty that he conquered virginal shame, and did not give even the slightest occasion for any obscene rumor about himself. Then a kinsman, companion, cousin of those clad in purple, instructed in the same studies as both, he was not puffed up by pride; but lovable to all, he loved the princes themselves as brothers, venerated them as lords. Their ministers, however, he had so joined to himself in charity, that those who were rightly inferiors thought themselves equals in service." Let princes, courtiers, leaders, soldiers note this, note and imitate.
Verse 3: About the Ninth Hour of the Day
3. HE SAW IN A VISION MANIFESTLY. — This vision therefore was bodily and ocular; for this alone is manifest. Add to this, that it was made not at night, but during the day at the ninth hour while keeping vigil, when Cornelius was praying: therefore it was bodily: for when something is seen merely through an imaginary vision, it is wont to happen at night. Therefore the angel appeared to Cornelius in an assumed body. There were four causes. First, lest Cornelius or his household members should think it had been a nocturnal illusion. Second, lest the Jews, thinking that the Messiah, the faith, and the Gospel pertained to themselves alone, should object to St. Peter that the vision and calling of Cornelius to the faith had been surreptitious, as they protested about this with him, ch. xi, 3. Third, that the Gentiles might know certainly and manifestly from Cornelius that the door of the Gospel was opened to them. Fourth, because Christ and the faith of Christ were to be manifestly revealed to the Gentiles; while the Jews were to be blinded and consigned to the shadows of their own law.
ABOUT THE NINTH HOUR OF THE DAY, — which begins from the third hour of the afternoon, and extends until evening. Whence the ninth hour was the evening hour of prayer; just as the first was the morning hour, as I said in ch. III, verse 1. It seems therefore that Cornelius, after the manner of the Jews among whom he lived, observed both times of prayer; and as he was performing the evening prayer of the ninth hour, the angel appeared to him. For angels insert themselves with those who pray, stand by and appear, whose work and delight is prayer. So Cassianus, book III On the Institutes of Renunciation, ch. III. And St. Chrysostom, who also gives the reason why the angel appeared at the evening hour rather than the morning: "Because this was the last hour, when cares are dismissed, and one is at leisure for prayers and compunction." For a heart free from cares and wounded with compunction is capable of illuminations and of heavenly things, and is best disposed for them.
Bede gives a mystical reason: "Because he was to be baptized in the death of Him (Christ) who delivered up His spirit at the ninth hour." Hence Alcuin, in his book On Divine Offices, ch. On Holy Saturday, teaches that catechumens are baptized at the ninth hour, because at that hour the Angel came to the first catechumen from the Gentiles, namely to Cornelius, commanding that Peter be called, who would baptize him.
Tropologically St. Chrysostom: "Cornelius established for himself times of religious life: for he is not a pious man who does not set fixed times for himself to pray and to devote himself to good works." And St. Jerome, in his epistle to the widow Salvina, gives her this admonition: "Let divine reading always be in your hands, and prayers so frequent that all the arrows of the thoughts by which youth is wont to be struck may be repelled by such a shield." Among the Apophthegms of St. Thomas Aquinas this is recorded as primary: "He is not religious who is not always conversing with God, or thinking of God." Wherefore he himself was so assiduous in prayer that he attributed all his knowledge rather to it than to study, to which nevertheless he diligently devoted himself, and he said that his knowledge was more divinely infused than humanly acquired. Again: "The soul," said St. Thomas, "does not progress without prayer. A religious without prayer is like a naked soldier who fights without arms," and so being unarmed is easily overcome by the enemy.
AN ANGEL OF GOD. — Lyranus and Dionysius probably think that this angel was the Guardian of Cornelius. For it is the office of the Guardian Angel to care for the catechesis, baptism, and salvation of his client. Wherefore what Origen thought is false, in homily 6 on Matthew, that the Guardian Angel begins to guard his client from the time of baptism. For even the unbaptized infidels have a Guardian angel, who calls them away from sins and leads them to virtues, especially faith and baptism, as the common opinion of Theologians holds.
Verse 4: Seized with Fear
4. SEIZED WITH FEAR. — For the majesty and glory of an angel strikes the one who sees, as I said in ch. VII, 32.
WHAT IS IT, LORD? — So the Roman, Greek and Syriac, as if to say: What dost Thou ask of me, Lord? what dost Thou wish me to do? Some Latin codices read: "Who art Thou, Lord?" as Saul said, ch. ix, 5. But that the former reading is the genuine one is clear from the angel's response. For he says: "Thy prayers and thy alms have ascended as a memorial," in Greek, εἰς ἀνάμνησιν, that is, that as a memorial sent up by thee to God, they may be preserved and always be present before the sight of God. Vatablus: "the Lord has remembered thy prayers and alms," and therefore wishing to repay them with a worthy reward, He sends me to thee, to show thee the way to faith and salvation. Tertullian, in his book On Fasting, ch. viii, adds, "and fasts:" for almsgiving and fasting are like two wings by which prayer is borne up and flies to heaven to God. For it is credible that Cornelius mixed fasting with prayer and almsgiving. For from the Jews he had learned that counsel of the angel given to Tobit, ch. xii, 8: "Prayer is good with fasting and almsgiving, rather than to lay up treasures of gold: because almsgiving delivers from death, and it is what purges sins and makes one find mercy and eternal life." Note: the word ascenderunt alludes to the rite of sacrifices, especially the holocaust, which ascended whole to God through fire and smoke, and is therefore called עולה ola, that is, ascension. For prayers are like a holocaust: hence they are called calves of the lips, the sacrifice of praise, etc.
Verse 5: And Now Send
5. AND NOW SEND. — He does not say: "Go thou to Peter;" because he wanted his whole family to be catechized and baptized along with him: this however could not be done by going from the whole house. So Hugh. Again, the angel does not himself perform these things, because men are ordained by God to be ministers of the word of God and of baptism, not angels. Thus Saul was baptized by Ananias, the Eunuch of Candace by Philip. Furthermore, God willed Peter to be summoned, not John or any other, because it was fitting that Peter, as the head of the Church, just as he had first of all preached to the Jews after Christ, in Acts ii and iii, so should first preach to the Gentiles, namely to Cornelius and his family. For he himself, as Pastor of the whole Church, was bound to gather into it, as into one fold of Christ, both Gentiles and Jews, that both might recognize him as a common father, worship, obey and follow, and in him both, though different from one another, indeed opposed, might be united.
Verse 8: He Sent Them to Joppa
8. HE SENT THEM TO JOPPA, — to search out and summon Peter not by commanding, but by asking that he would deign to come to the house of Cornelius.
Verse 9: Peter Went Up to the Upper Rooms
9. PETER WENT UP TO THE UPPER ROOMS, — εἰς δῶμα, that is, to the roof of the house: for the roofs in Palestine are flat, so that one can walk, sit, and pray on them, which are called dōmata in Greek, and at Rome solaria or maeniana, says St. Jerome, epistle 135 to Sunia. He went up therefore and withdrew, so that he might more freely behold heaven, and might lift his eyes and mind from earth in order to pray. For prayer is the ascent of the mind to God, which is helped by the ascent of the body. Hence Christ, Moses, Elijah, Elisha, St. Francis and other Saints, when about to pray, ascended into the mountains, that just as in place, so also in thought they might be made near to heaven, says St. Ambrose, sermon 11.
ABOUT THE SIXTH HOUR. — Note here the sixth hour of prayer: because at that hour, just as man was created and sinned, so also was he recreated by Christ affixed to the cross; and because at that hour lunch is usually taken, before which, by the example of Peter and the Church, prayer is to be sent. See what is said in I Timothy IV, 3 and 4.
Verse 10: And When He Was Hungry
10. AND WHEN HE WAS HUNGRY, — for bodily food; for the hunger for this is wont to come on as the time of lunch approaches. Wherefore what St. Ambrose, sermon 40, Bede and others take of the spiritual hunger of souls, because he saw few Jews being converted to Christ, is mystical, not literal, as is clear from what follows.
HE WISHED TO TASTE. — The word taste indicates the sobriety of St. Peter, as if he wished not to fill himself with food, but only to taste it for necessity, and as it is said, to sip with the very tip of his lips. Again, that in this life there is only a taste and sip of pleasure, but in the future, satiety, according to that of Psalm xvi, 15: "I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall appear." Wherefore a wise man said that our heart is pyramidal, so situated in man that its base is upward, its cone downward, to signify that we ought to touch and taste the earth and earthly things which are below only in passing and lightly, as if at a single point, but the whole bosom and capacity of heart and mind we ought to raise and extend upward to heavenly things. Whence mystically St. Jerome, epistle 4 to Rusticus: "Peter, hungering among the Jews, is filled with the faith of Cornelius, and he extinguishes the hunger of their unbelief by the conversion of the Gentiles; and in the four-cornered vessel of the Gospels, which descended from heaven to earth, he is taught and learns that all men can be saved; and again what he had seen, in the form of a most white sheet, is transferred to the upper regions, and snatches the multitude of believers up to heaven, that the promise of the Lord may be fulfilled: Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God."
AN ECSTASY OF MIND FELL UPON HIM, — as if to say: He was carried away into ecstasy. The word fell signifies that this ecstasy was not natural, of the kind that is born from vehement anger, fear, love, study and contemplation, but divine, namely that this vision was sent to St. Peter from heaven and divinely impressed upon his mind.
Verse 11: And He Saw Heaven Opened
11. AND HE SAW HEAVEN OPENED. — "He saw," namely in the ecstasy of mind, of which mention was made above. Hence it follows that this vision was not of the eyes, but of the imagination and of the mind. Symbolically, it is here signified, first, that the hidden mystery of the heavens and of God's predestination, regarding the calling of the Gentiles to Christ, must now be unsealed and disclosed to the whole world, says Bede. Secondly, that to Peter, as the keeper of the keys of heaven, the keys were given to open and to close the heavens, Matthew xvi, 19.
AND A CERTAIN VESSEL DESCENDING. — "Vessel," that is, a receptacle, not of bronze, nor of iron, nor of wood, but of linen. Hence it follows "like a great sheet." Therefore this sheet or cloth was like a linen wineskin, containing every kind of food, hollow and closed below, open above, which was let down from heaven by its four corners to Peter, and offered all these foods to him, hungry, to eat.
You will ask, what does this vessel or sheet signify literally? The Interlinear Gloss replies first, that it signifies the body of Christ, which is like a sheet, because, conceived without seed, it preserves the whiteness of chastity; and because it died: but great because of the fellowship of the divinity, and because it rose again. So also Cassian, bk. III On the Institutes of Renunciants, ch. III.
Secondly, others, more aptly, understand the word of God and the preaching of the Gospel, in which the souls of sinners rest softly in the inflowing of heavenly grace, and in hope of supernal glory. So St. Ephrem, sermon On St. Basil, vol. V, and St. Gregory, bk. XXXIII Morals, ch. xvi, or xx.
Hence it is plain that it is less probable, what some hold, that these animals were seen in the sheet not whole and solid, but as it were painted or stamped on the sheet itself as on paper. This is proved from St. Cyril, bk. IX Against Julian, where he teaches that these animals in the sheet were not real, but represented and pictured. But St. Cyril only means that they were not real and living, but were sculptured and figured like statues, so that they had the figure of true and living ones. For of these, and not of those impressed and painted on the cloth itself, it is fittingly and rightly said to Peter in the vision: "Kill and eat."
Tropologically: by this vessel many understand the state of Religion, which is composed of linen, that is, of the mortification of the flesh and the chastening of the appetites. For flax is variously soaked and carded, that it may become linen: the four corners are the four rules of the four ancient Orders, namely the rule of St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Benedict and St. Francis: in it are unclean animals, that is, sinners who, in order to expiate the sins committed in the world, dedicate themselves to Religion as a cause of penance. So the Gloss. Moreover, how linen and the linen cloth are a symbol of purity, of penance, of patience, of fortitude, of religion, etc., I have said at Exodus xxviii, 39, and Jeremiah xiii, 1. This linen vessel is like the inviolate vessel which our Causinus speaks of, Parabolic History, bk. XII, ch. LXXI, from Pausanias. For Pausanias relates that in Arcadia there is the river Styx, whose water is so sharp and potent that it shatters all vessels, whether of bronze, iron, or stone, except a vessel made from a horse's hoof, which is therefore called the inviolate vessel; and it is a hieroglyphic of the Blessed Virgin, who could be infected or harmed by no sin, whether original or actual (of which the Styx is a symbol). In a similar way Religion is an inviolate vessel, because it removes and excludes all sins and the occasions of sins, so far as human frailty allows.
Symbolically Oecumenius says: The linen vessel denotes the whole globe, which is called to Christ: the four corners are the four elements, of which this lower world is composed and is propagated; the various animals are the various states of men. Consequently the linen vessel is man, who is a microcosm composed of four elements; therefore let him consider that, just as he is welded together out of them, so before long he must be resolved into them and return through death. Hence the prelates in Ethiopia, when going in procession with the cross, take care to have an urn of ashes carried before them, which constantly reminds them of their mortality, and silently cries out to them: "Remember, man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." So Nicolas Causinus, bk. V of Parabolic History, ch. IV, from Sabellicus, bk. IV, ch. IV.
BY FOUR CORNERS. — The Syriac and Vatablus: by four corners; the Zürich Bible: by four extremities. In Greek δεδεμένον is added, that is, bound: for since this cloth was square, and was not spread out like a coverlet, but bound up like a vessel or a wineskin to hold the animals, it had necessarily to be tightened and tied together at its four extremities, lest the animals should slip out or fall away. These four corners signify the four Gospels to be scattered through the four quarters of the world, as I have already said.
Verse 12: In Which Were All Four-Footed Creatures
12. IN WHICH WERE ALL FOUR-FOOTED CREATURES, — that is, every kind of four-footed creature. So the Syriac; for here is a distribution by genera of individuals, not by individuals of genera: for indeed not all the individuals of all animals could be contained in a single vessel and cloth. In Greek θηρία is added, that is, wild beasts. St. Jerome, in chapter xxxviii of Ezekiel, and Origen, homily 2 on chapter II of Genesis, hold that in this vessel were contained all kinds of animals.
Thirdly, and most fittingly, St. Augustine, sermon 26 On Diverse Subjects; St. Ambrose, sermon 10; St. Cyril, or rather Origen, homily 7 on Leviticus; St. Jerome, in epistle 89 to St. Augustine; Gregory, in the place already cited, Bede and others understand the Church of Christ. For she is, as it were, a linen vessel, that is, pure, on account of her incorruptible truth and faith; because she is most pure and most holy both in faith and in life and morals, having no spot or wrinkle, Ephesians v, 27. This is let down from heaven, because she herself is the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, Apocalypse xxi, 2. The four corners are the four Gospels, by which through the four regions of the world and the four parts of the earth the Church is disseminated. This vessel is let down three times from heaven, because by the faith and sacrament of the Most Holy Trinity the faithful are renewed and admitted into the Church. In it are unclean and wild beasts, that is, all the nations, who were previously of foul and brutish morals, and alien from the legal cleanness of the Jews. Hear St. Gregory: "What is signified by the linen sheet, if not the subtle weaving of holy preaching, in which one rests softly, because the mind of the faithful is refreshed in it by hope of things above."
Tropologically: Let the prelate and the preacher consider that he ought to be a lion, strong and magnanimous in slaying errors, depraved morals and loves, and that to him as well as to St. Peter it is said: "Kill and eat." So St. Gregory, bk. XXX Morals, ch. vii or xi. Therefore he ought to have a leonine and most fervent stomach, so that, like an ostrich, he may digest iron, and indeed convert serpents and other venomous animals into the good juice of the Church. Physicians distinguish three kinds of stomach. The first weak and infirm, which converts foods of good juice into bad, namely into bile or phlegm. The second good, which converts foods of good juice into good nourishment. The third best, which by the force of heat changes things of bad juice into good. So symbolically, firstly, those who, wishing to convert worldly people, are perverted by them and put on their morals, are weak in charity and virtue. Secondly, others there are, who preserve the good in their goodness. Thirdly, the best are those who, by the force of charity, convert wicked men, serpentine, indeed stony, into good men, sheep-like and pliant as wax. Such was Christ, who converted Magdalene and Paul. Such Paul and the other Apostles. Therefore let the apostolic man be such, a zealot for souls and for the glory of God.
Verse 14: Far Be It, Lord
14. BUT PETER SAID: BY NO MEANS, LORD; FOR I HAVE NEVER EATEN ANYTHING COMMON AND UNCLEAN. — "Common," that is impure and profane, as St. Cyril reads, bk. IX Against Julian, namely that which could be commonly eaten by any Gentiles and unclean persons. For the Jews, lest they should offend the Gentiles, did not call their foods, forbidden by the law of Moses and unclean, unclean, but "common." Here to communicate, or to make common, is to defile or render unclean, as in Matthew xv, 11: "Not what enters the mouth defiles a man," in Greek κοινοῖ, that is "communicates." Peter says this because he still observed, with the faithful — namely the Jewish-Christians — the law of Moses, and the distinction of clean and unclean foods prescribed for them in Leviticus xi, whose reasons and causes for the distinction I have assigned in that place. Note the Hebraism, "not all," that is, "none": I have not eaten anything common, that is, nothing common.
Verse 15: What God Has Cleansed
15. WHAT GOD HAS CLEANSED, YOU SHALL NOT CALL COMMON (that is, profane, polluted and unclean). — As if to say: God has purified all foods by this very fact, that by the new law of Christ He abolished the old law forbidding certain foods as if legally unclean. Hence Rabbi Moses and Rabbi Solomon, cited by Lyra, Genesis IX, 4, hand down that in the time of the Messiah no animals would be unclean, as previously under Moses, but all would be clean, just as they were in the time of Noah, who therefore brought into the ark both unclean and clean, Genesis vii, 28.
Symbolically, Irenaeus, bk. III, ch. XII, holds that all things have been purified by the blood of Christ: because the blood of Christ wiped away the old law, with all its uncleanness. And St. Ambrose, bk. VII on Luke ch. x, holds that they were purified by baptism: for through it we are grafted into Christ, the Church, and the new law, in which all things are clean; just as in the time of the flood all things in Noah's ark were clean, even those which Moses afterward declared unclean.
DO NOT SAY. — In Greek μὴ κοίνου, that is, do not make common, that is, do not contaminate, do not pollute, that is, do not call or judge contaminated and polluted. It is a Hebraism: for the deed is put for the saying, or for the judgment. So in Leviticus xiii, it is often said of the leper: "The priest shall contaminate him," that is, he will judge and declare him contaminated.
Verse 16: This Was Done Three Times
16. THIS WAS DONE THREE TIMES. — As if to say: Three times in ecstasy Peter saw the vessel let down from heaven to him. Three times he heard: "Kill and eat." Three times he answered: "I have never eaten anything common and unclean." Three times again he heard: "What God has cleansed, do not call common." So St. Cyril, bk. VII on Leviticus. The threefold repetition, first, confirms the vision, and shows that it was true and truly sent by God, not dreamed, says Cyril, in the place already cited. Secondly, it is a symbol of the Most Holy Trinity, in whose name the Gentiles were to be baptized and regenerated. So St. Augustine, Ambrose, and the others cited above. Whence in the life of this St. Cornelius, which is preserved in Surius for September 13, it is said that by this thrice-repeated vision was prefigured the threefold immersion of Cornelius and of the others in baptism.
AND IMMEDIATELY THE VESSEL WAS RECEIVED UP INTO HEAVEN, — whence it had originally been let down. To signify that the Church of Christ, into which the Gentiles were to be enrolled, comes down from heaven, and leads and transfers her faithful into heaven. So Lyra and others.
Verse 17: Behold, Men
17. BEHOLD, MEN. — God by His sweet providence so directed these things that, when Peter was inquiring into the meaning of his vision, immediately the men whom this vision signified should come up, and at the same time He showed him that this vision had been sent to him on account of them, and that they were what it represented. Hence He so directed their steps that, without knowing it, they went straight to Simon's house, in which Peter was: "And there they stood at the door; for," says St. Chrysostom, "it was a humble house; below they enquired, not of the neighbors." St. Gregory, homily 1 on Ezekiel, notes that there are various modes and species of prophecy, and among them one in which God touches the mind of the Prophet in part and in part does not touch it, as here He touched Peter's mind by the vision of the sheet and by sending the messengers of Cornelius to him; but He did not indicate to him what these things meant, except by the actual outcome of the matter. For the Holy Spirit wished gradually, through occasions and events, in a human manner, to teach Peter and the Apostles. For He wills the Church to imitate the boy Jesus, who grew in age and in wisdom, says Hilary.
Verse 18: And When They Had Called
18. AND WHEN THEY HAD CALLED — some one of the residents of the house, or one of the household, or "had called," that is, had knocked at the door; which phrase the Spanish commonly use, says Mariana.
Verse 19: The Spirit Said
19. THE SPIRIT SAID, — namely the Holy Spirit by inward inspiration. So St. Chrysostom; St. Cyril, Catechesis 47; St. Ambrose, bk. II On the Holy Spirit, ch. xi, and St. Gregory, bk. XXVIII Morals, ch. ii. Differently Dionysius and the Gloss: for by "Spirit" they understand an angel as vicar of the Holy Spirit, who outwardly with a sensible voice said: "Behold, three men are seeking you." But in that case the angel would have appeared to Peter in an assumed body, of which there is no mention here — rather, the contrary is implied when He is called "spirit": "For a spirit has not flesh and bones," Luke xxiv, 39; and when it is added: "I have sent them," for the Holy Spirit was sending them.
Verse 20: Go With Them
20. GO WITH THEM. — Peter is bidden to pass from prayer and from God to the works of the active life with his neighbor, just as Moses, Exodus xxxii, 7; that we may be taught to do the same, and, when duty, necessity, or charity demands, to pass from Mary to Martha, that is, from contemplation to action.
I HAVE SENT THEM, — I moved Cornelius to send them.
Verse 21: Behold, I Am He Whom You Seek
21. BEHOLD, I AM HE WHOM YOU SEEK. — By the prompting of the Holy Spirit Peter went down, and offered himself to strangers before he had heard their question, that they might know him to be a divine man and a Prophet taught by God, and therefore believe him. Moreover, that they might admire and imitate his promptness, humility, kindness, and charity in serving. So St. Chrysostom.
Verse 22: Having Testimony from the Whole Nation of the Jews
22. AND HAVING TESTIMONY FROM THE WHOLE NATION OF THE JEWS. — As if to say: All the Jews bear witness that Cornelius is an upright man, just and fearing God, as said before, and therefore they love and venerate him, although a Gentile (from whom by nature the Jews are accustomed to shrink). They say this, first, in order to bring forward witnesses of their assertion that he is just and fearing God; secondly, to win the favor of Peter, as a Jew, for the Gentile Cornelius; thirdly, that the Jewish-Christians who had come with Peter, and others who were in Jerusalem and were going to hear that Cornelius the Gentile had been admitted to the faith and to the Church, might not take it ill, since the rest of the Jews loved and revered him.
HE RECEIVED AN ANSWER, — namely an oracle: for this is what ἐχρηματίσθη means. So elsewhere "response" is often taken for "oracle."
AND TO HEAR WORDS FROM YOU. — "Words," namely of Christ, of the Gospel, of salvation and of eternal life, as is explained in the following chapter, verse 14. For these are "words" by antonomasia and by excellence. Hence "word" in the Epistles of St. Paul is often taken for the Gospel and its preaching, just as "Scripture" is taken for the sacred and divine.
Verse 23: He Received Them as Guests
23. HE RECEIVED THEM AS GUESTS, — ἐξενοδόκει, that is, he received them with hospitality, treated them sumptuously, and gave them gifts and presents as guests. Note here the remarkable hospitality of St. Peter, which he himself, a guest and a pilgrim, exercised toward strangers in another's house, and which he taught to other believers by word and example, but above all transmitted into the Roman Church, in which therefore even now hospices and hospitals are seen so many and so great, that this one thing seems the wonder of the city and of the world. So in former times in the same place similar institutions were erected by Pammachius, the son-in-law of St. Paula, by Fabiola and by Gallicanus, the son-in-law of Constantine the Great, who with his own hands ministered to pilgrims, and consecrated his whole life and wealth to guests and to hospitality: on which account he merited the laurel of martyrdom under Julian the Apostate. Rightly, therefore, does Pope Martin I, epistle 46, give this praise to the Roman Church, that whoever in misery comes to her, she receives him with hospitality, offers him everything for his use, drives no one away, and gives him purest bread and various wines. The same praise of hospitality the Roman Church receives from Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, in Eusebius, bk. IV, ch. xxiii. So indeed in this year 1622, when Italy was afflicted first by famine, then by diseases, Rome received with hospitality, fed, and tended, not only her own native inhabitants, but also all who flocked together from the rest of Italy and from other provinces; and when the old guest-houses and hospitals could not contain the throng, she instituted new ones, the cardinals and others liberally bearing the costs. This dowry, then, of charity and mercy, breathed upon Rome from the beginning by St. Peter, still endures in her, and is a great indication of true faith and ancient virtue. I have said more about hospitality at Genesis xviii, 1, and at Hebrews ch. xiii, verse 2.
AND CERTAIN OF THE BRETHREN. — At least six, as is had in chapter xi, 12. Certain manuscripts add: "that they might be witnesses to Peter;" but these words, added by someone in the margin for explanation's sake, afterward crept into the text. So the Gloss.
Verse 24: And on the Next Day He Entered Caesarea
24. AND ON THE NEXT DAY HE ENTERED CAESAREA. — For this is distant from Joppa by a journey of fifteen leagues, or hours, as appears from the maps of Adrichomius: hence this distance could conveniently be accomplished in two days by Peter and his companions, even on foot, as it seems.
Morally: let preachers, doctors, and the like, note here that they ought not to look to the abundance and nobility of their hearers, but with the same eagerness to approach and teach the few and the many, the rustic and the noble, barbarians and the civilized. Behold, here is St. Peter, the Supreme Pontiff, who does not disdain to approach one Gentile soldier, Cornelius — and on that account hateful to the Jews, for in the name of the Romans he was holding the Jews under the yoke. In his house, in his presence and that of a few of the family, he teaches and preaches. The reason is manifold.
First, because in the few and unlearned often greater fruit is produced than in the many and rich. And God is wont to reward the humility and charity of the Teacher, and to bring it about that from the few the fruit is scattered to the many. Behold, through Cornelius the door of the Gospel was opened to the Gentiles: for soon the other Apostles, following the example of St. Peter, dispersed themselves among the nations and converted them. The conversion, therefore, of the one Cornelius was the beginning and cause of the conversion of so many millions among the Gentiles. The Annals of Spain relate that St. James about the same time converted in that land nine, or, as others report, only seven: but through these the faith was spread, and gradually all Spain was converted, which then through other provinces and both Indies propagated the same faith, and still propagates it, so that she may rightly be called a pillar and column of the Church. Thus Christ preached to the one woman of Samaria, but through her converted Samaria, John iv.
Secondly, even if there were no fruit of the sermon, or only a small one, the preacher will yet receive from God the entire reward of his labor and charity, who will render to each according to his works, not according to the fruit that follows from his works: for the latter is often in God's hand, not ours. For this reason, St. Francis, says St. Bonaventure in his Life, preached with the same eagerness of spirit to few and to many, to the common people and to the noble.
Thirdly, it pertains to the magnificence of God and of the Church to have many teachers and preachers who celebrate God, even if the hearers be few; just as it makes for the beauty of a city to have many fountains always gushing, even if few of them draw water. The fountain does not cease to pour forth water with the same abundance, even if no one draws: and do you, in the same spirit, pour forth the word of God, even if few hear. Otherwise you will be restless and wretched throughout your whole life, hanging as it were upon the fancy and inconstancy of your hearers.
Fourthly, such men justify God, and plead His cause: for they take pains in the name of God to teach all, and to convert all sinners. Therefore, if they are not converted, the fault is theirs and they are inexcusable. For God on the day of judgment will justify Himself through these teachers, and will say: Behold, I gave you so many and so great preachers; I did whatever I could to tear you from your sins. But you despised them as well as Me: therefore you are worthy of malediction and eternal fire. Therefore let preachers console themselves, when they have few or stubborn hearers, by the example of Christ, who had such, and of God, who makes the sun to rise upon the good and the evil, rains upon the just and the unjust, and pours forth so many and so great goods upon men day by day, even if few attend to them and give thanks to God for them. Do not, therefore, let your spirit fall, do not let your tongue be tied when the audience grows smaller; nay, then preach more vigorously: show that you seek the glory of God, not of men. If you set yourself to please and satisfy God alone, you will not care whether many or few hear. It is a sign of less than upright intention to desire or seek honored and crowded chairs, namely because you seek the applause of men more than to please God alone. And this is vanity, from which may truth deliver us. True is that French proverb: Beaucoup de bruit, peu de fruit (much noise, little fruit). Those things which have applause have little of lamentation and of fruit. We see in many universities professors of Medicine and Law have few hearers, and yet teach with energy for many years — indeed for their whole life — for this reason: that the University requires such men, and that they always receive their full stipends. Let the preacher resolve the same with himself. Plato, content with the one disciple Aristotle, when he was present in the schools, even if the others were absent, taught, saying: "The audience is here." We have God as a great hearer; what more do we require? The musician Stratonicus, when in his school he had nine Muses painted and one Apollo, but had only two disciples, being asked by someone how many disciples he had, said: "With the gods, twelve": so Athenaeus, and from him Brusonius, bk. V, ch. II. You, if you have six, think that you have just as many angels for hearers, their guardians.
Fifthly, God does not so much consider how much we do, as out of how much we do it, namely out of how great humility, charity and zeal; for from these the work derives its force, value and merit. In which matter most go astray: for they think merit consists in the greatness of works, when it does not consist in this, but in the greatness of charity. Do a small work with great charity, you will merit more than he who does a great work out of little charity; for the root, the rule and the measure of merit is charity. This is more and more purely exercised before few than before many; before plebeians and rustics, than before the rich and noble, where often carnality and cupidity mingle themselves, while in those there is a sheer and pure charity. Just as the mathematician considers a line in itself, and abstracts from the fact that it is golden or bronze, and does not contemplate a golden one more gladly than a bronze one: so the holy teacher and preacher looks to God alone: he intends to please Him alone, he toils to fulfill His will, and does not care whether it be done in splendid or in common offices and pulpits; whether before many or few. Finally, St. Monica had one disciple, her son St. Augustine: how many and how great labors and sorrows did she endure for forming this one? But through the one Augustine, how many and how great did she teach, and does she still teach and convert? Most of the anchorites had only one or two disciples, in polishing and perfecting whom they spent their whole life, that they might leave him as the heir of their life and doctrine, just as of their cell. But that one or that other turned out a perfect man, and was equal to a thousand, who therefore instructed many others in religious and perfect life, as may be seen in the Lives of the Fathers.
TO HIS NEAR FRIENDS. — As if to say: Not to all his friends, but to the more intimate, namely those joined to him by close relationship and kinship.
Verse 25: Falling Down at His Feet, He Adored
25. HE ADORED, — not with latria, but with civil and religious adoration, as Abraham adored the sons of Heth, Genesis xxiii, 7; and Alexander the Great Jaddus, the pontiff of the Jews, as Josephus testifies, bk. XI Antiquities viii; and as now, after the example of Cornelius, the faithful adore the pontiff, and on bended knee venerate him with a kiss of the foot; which let heretics note. A learned man adds that Cornelius properly adored Peter; for he supposed there was something divine in Peter, and that he was something above man, indeed above the angels, inasmuch as he had been sent to him by an angel, to hear from him words of salvation, and greater things than he had heard from the angel. Hence also St. Jerome, in his book Against Vigilantius, says that Cornelius labored under the same error as the Lycaonians, who supposed Paul to be Mercury, but Barnabas Jupiter, Acts xiv, 11. For so the Gentiles, especially the Platonists, held heroes to be certain inferior, terrestrial gods, midway between God and the rest of men. But this seems hardly credible of Cornelius, who knew and worshiped one God — indeed a religious, just and holy man — especially since he himself did all these things in God's presence, with God leading and governing him. For he knew that there is one God, not many, as Salmeron here rightly notes, and Suarez, Part III, vol. I, disp. LIII, sect. 1, and Vasquez, bk. I On Adoration, ch. III, no. 161.
You will say: Why then does Peter refuse this adoration, alleging the reason and saying: "Rise, and I myself am a man"? I answer: He does it out of zeal for humility and modesty, for the example of the faithful; especially because among the Jews, who adore one God, any adoration of a man was unusual and suspected: for which reason Mordecai refused to adore, that is, to bend the knees before Haman. Hence to Peter, in those very early and slight beginnings of his pontificate, this honor seemed too great and immoderate, as St. Gregory says, bk. XXI Morals, ch. x or xi. The sense is therefore, as if to say: Rise, Cornelius: for I am a man like you, and therefore I will not have you prostrate yourself before me. For this prostration is unaccustomed for us Jews, and is hardly wont to be made except to an angel, or to God, of which I am not one. So although your reverence and veneration toward me — that is, toward your spiritual Father — be good and holy, yet at this time I do not wish it to be shown to me: both that I may give an example of humility, and lest I offend my Jewish companions, to whom this can seem too much, and owed not to a man, but to an angel or to God: for so deep a casting down of mind, countenance and body before me seems to them to belong to a divine being rather than to a man: therefore, for the sake of modesty and to avoid scandal, I decline this honor, and confess that I am a man, and as a man I wish to deal with you in a friendly and familiar way. For a similar reason the angel did not wish to be adored by John on bended knee, Apocalypse xix, 10, as I have said there.
It might more tolerably be said that Cornelius supposed Peter to be an incarnate angel, and as such adored him, and that on this account he was forbidden by Peter, saying: "And I am a man." But that Cornelius knew Peter to be a man, not an angel, is clear from what has been said and from the circumstances and signs about Peter, which the angel also indicated, ordering him to be called in verses 5 and 6. He therefore adored him as a man, but as a Prophet and one full of the Spirit of God: but Peter modestly refused this honor, concerning which see St. Basil, in Morals, LIX.
Verse 28: How Abominable It Is
28. THAT IT IS AN ABOMINATION. — The Greek ἀθέμιτον, that is, unlawful (as the Gothic Bibles have it, according to Mariana), iniquitous, nefarious, abominable, is derived from θέμις, that is, law, right, fas, and from a privative: as if to say, It is contrary to law and to right. For the Jews abhorred and shunned foreigners, that is, Gentiles, as infidels, impious, lawless, impure, polluted; just as in turn the Gentiles despised the Jews, as base, peculiar, different in law and religion and separated from the rest of peoples; and called them in contempt verpi, recutiti, apellae (circumcised ones).
BUT GOD HAS SHOWN ME THAT I SHOULD CALL NO MAN COMMON OR UNCLEAN. — That is, no man, as unclean and polluted, is to be abominated and shunned. God showed this through the vision of the linen vessel and of the unclean animals, which signified the Gentiles, saying: "Kill and eat: what God has cleansed, do not call common," that is, polluted and unclean.
Verse 29: Without Doubting
29. WITHOUT DOUBT, — ἀναντιρρήτως, that is, without contradiction, as the Zürich Bible renders; the Syriac, readily; Pagninus and Vatablus, without hesitation.
I ASK. — Peter knew, from the vision of the sheet, and from the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and from the messengers sent on, what Cornelius wanted. Yet he asks him, that he may more fully search out Cornelius's mind, and sharpen his desire of hearing the things of faith and salvation. So St. Chrysostom.
Verse 30: From the Fourth Day Past
30. FROM THE FOURTH DAY AGO, — ἀπὸ τετάρτης ἡμέρας, that is, on the fourth day from now. So the Zürich Bible, Pagninus and the Syriac. "On the first day he had seen the angel, and had sent messengers; on the second they reached Joppa; on the same they set out from there with Peter; on the fourth they returned to Caesarea," says Lyra.
Moreover, the Greek and Syriac have it thus: On the fourth day from now until this hour I was (for this is ἤμην, although the Zürich Bible and others in Gagneius read ἤμινυν, that is, "I was sitting") fasting, and at the ninth hour I was praying in my house: of which words the sense is clear, as if to say: Four days ago I was fasting up to this evening hour, when, praying after my custom at the ninth hour, I saw the angel. St. Chrysostom translates differently, namely: "for four days I had been fasting, when, praying at the ninth hour, I saw the angel." For he holds that these four days of Cornelius's fast preceded the angel's apparition, as if Cornelius had merited it by a previous four-day fast. Others again interpret it differently from our Vulgate version, as if to say: From the ninth hour four days ago, when the angel appeared to me as I was praying, even until now I have remained fasting and praying. For this sense seems to be required by the force of "from the fourth day ago." Hence it follows that Cornelius persisted, fasting in prayer (as the Greek and Syriac have it), for four days, namely until the coming of St. Peter, and so prepared himself to receive the faith and Baptism of Christ. He says "I was," rather than "I am," or "I remained," or "I remain," because most of all there is urgency about the beginning of his prayer, when the angel appeared to him, and because already a little before he had ceased from prayer, namely as soon as Peter arrived. But this sense dissents from the Greek and the Syriac: therefore, that our Latin version may agree with them, it must be expounded thus, as if to say: "Four days ago," that is, on the fourth day from now, I was praying at the ninth hour up to this hour, namely the evening: for it seems Peter arrived at Joppa in the evening, and entered Cornelius's house, as travelers are accustomed to do. The first sense, therefore, is the genuine one. For "nudius quartus," as Festus says, is composed of "nunc" (now) and "day fourth." As if to say, Now is the fourth day. Whence "a nudiusquarta die" is the same as "from now the fourth day," or "four days from now," as the Greek and Syriac have it: for "nudius" is the same as "now-day."
I WAS PRAYING AT THE NINTH HOUR. — Bede and the Gloss note that several Latin and Greek manuscripts read thus: "I was adoring from the sixth even unto the ninth." Hence Oecumenius holds that he prayed for three hours before the angel came; but the true reading and exposition is the one I have just given.
IN WHITE CLOTHING. — In Greek λαμπρά, that is, splendid; for the color white is bright and splendid. Hence in former times the white garment was that of nobles and of those seeking a magistracy, who from this were called Candidati.
Verse 31: Your Prayer Has Been Heard
31. YOUR PRAYER HAS BEEN HEARD, — by which you prayed for the salvation of yourself and your own: hence I prompt you, that you call Peter: he will teach you the faith of Christ, which will lead you to salvation and beatitude.
AND YOUR ALMS HAVE BEEN REMEMBERED, — as if to say: God has remembered your alms, and on account of them will impart to you the light of the Gospel. See what was said at verse 4.
Verse 33: We Are All Here Present Before You
33. NOW THEREFORE WE ARE ALL HERE PRESENT BEFORE YOU, — as it were prompt and ready to hear and to do whatever you shall have commanded from God. The Greek now has "in the sight of God," which the Zürich Bible renders "God being witness"; Vatablus, "We are all present, with God conscious of it," as if to say: We call God to witness and we swear that we are ready to hear and to do those things which have been enjoined upon you by God.
Verse 34: God Is No Respecter of Persons
34. IN TRUTH I HAVE FOUND, — καταλαμβάνομαι, that is, I find out, I perceive, I see.
BECAUSE GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS, — In Greek it is elegantly said in one word, οὐκ ἔστι προσωπολήπτης, as if to say: God is no respecter of persons, namely such as to choose the Jews (as they themselves think) above the Gentiles, just as for the Synagogue of Moses, so also for the Church of Christ; but He is prepared to receive into grace all who are willing to believe in Christ, whether they be Gentiles or Jews. For God does not regard this distinction of nation in this election to grace, to the Church and to salvation. Note: This "respect of persons" in this place is not that which is the vice opposed to distributive justice; for God by this justice is not bound, because men have no right to God's grace, faith, and salvation. Hence God, without any injury and without the fault of respect of persons, could have chosen the Jews for Christianity and excluded the Gentiles from it. Therefore this respect of persons here means the one which occurs in matters of pure gift, which depend on the mere liberty of the giver, as when a rich man wishes to give alms but only to certain persons, e.g., his fellow citizens or subjects. As if to say: God in distributing the gifts of His faith and grace does not regard the person, namely whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, but offers it to either, and especially, "in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh justice is accepted with Him," as you, O Cornelius, although a Gentile, because you fear God and work justice (for in this very thing you are more worthy than the Jews), are accepted by Him, and therefore through me He will impart to you the explicit faith of Christ, baptism, and Christianity. See what I said about respect of persons at Romans II, 11.
Verse 35: And Worketh Justice
35. AND WORKETH JUSTICE. — "Justice" here can be taken in three ways. First, generally, so as to contain all the virtues and be their complex, from which one is denominated just. So it is also taken by Aristotle, Ethics V, I.
Secondly, "justice" can be taken for almsgiving: for Cornelius's justice consisted chiefly in distributing alms; so it is taken in Psalm CXI, 9: "He hath distributed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever and ever;" justice, that is, the alms which he distributed to the poor. The reason is that through almsgiving we fulfill a threefold right and debt, namely what we owe to our neighbor, to ourselves, and to God: for man owes man humanity; he owes it to himself, that he should help one who shares his nature and is of his body and blood, as if his brother; he owes it to God, that since he cannot do good to Him in Himself, he should do it to His image, namely man, whom God created in His image and likeness, that he might be as a kind of earthly God; especially since God in all Scripture commands and recommends this so much, and considers it done to Himself, and will demand an account of this matter on the day of judgment, and will adjudge the merciful to heaven and the unmerciful to hell, Matthew XXV, 33; hence in Hebrew the words are kindred, and by metathesis almost the same: חסד chesed, that is, piety, mercy; and צדק tsedec, that is, justice, and so חסיד chasid, that is, pious, merciful, is the same as just and holy. I have given the reasons at II Corinthians IX, 9, and Daniel IV, 24.
Thirdly, "justice" here can be taken antonomastically, namely not as any kind of justice, but illustrious, exceptional, and heroic. So it is taken in Ecclesiasticus XX, 30: "He who works justice shall be exalted." And Hebrews XI, 33: "The saints by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice:" for there the Apostle commemorates the heroic deeds of the fathers, as illustrious effects and praises of faith. In the same way Cornelius was not only just, but performed illustrious deeds of justice and almsgiving. Hence beyond others he deserved to be visited by an angel, and to be the first of the Gentiles publicly initiated into Christianity by St. Peter. Wherefore St. Chrysostom proposes Cornelius to all as an example of justice and of good works, as well as of divine reward.
Verse 36: God Sent the Word
36. GOD SENT THE WORD. — Here Peter, having finished the preface, begins the matter, and catechizes the Centurion with his household, as Tertullian says, On the Soldier's Crown, chap. XI. For the first sermons of the Apostles were catecheses: of which our catechists may glory and be their imitators. For Peter teaches that Jesus Christ was sent by the Father in the flesh to redeem men, and therefore suffered, was crucified, rose again, will come as judge; that through His merits sins are remitted, and grace and salvation given.
Note: This "Word" can be taken in three ways: first, for the discourse and preaching of the Gospel; secondly, for the eternal Word, that is, the Son of God incarnate, that is, Jesus of Nazareth, as Peter explains in verse 38. For so John says of Him in the beginning of his Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, etc. And the Word was made flesh." So Hugh, the Gloss, and Dionysius here, and St. Athanasius, oration Against the Arians, on the words "God of God." Thirdly, and plainly, you may take "word" here for the thing signified by the word, namely for the things said and done by Christ, of which more presently. Peter alludes to Isaiah IX, 8: "The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it lighted upon Israel." For it is the same phrase in both places, but with a different scope and sense. See what is said there.
ANNOUNCING PEACE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, — namely peace and reconciliation with God, and thence with our neighbors, as well as peace of conscience. Hence the Angels at Christ's birth at once sang: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will," Luke II. The Apostle often commends this peace brought by Christ, and especially in Ephesians II, 14: "For He is our peace, who hath made both one," etc. See what is said there.
HE IS LORD OF ALL. — "He," namely Jesus Christ, who has just been mentioned. Hence St. Athanasius, in the place already cited, and others, prove Christ's divinity against the Arians from this passage.
Verse 37: You Know What Word Was Made
37. YOU KNOW (that is, you heard by rumor, from common report confusedly; for they did not know it distinctly and particularly: hence they are taught here by Peter; you came to know) WHAT WORD WAS MADE. — "Word" here is taken a little differently by some than in the preceding verse; for there in Greek it was λόγος, but here it is ῥῆμα. For the eternal Word, namely the Son of God, is in Scripture called λόγος, not ῥῆμα: ῥῆμα therefore signifies the preaching of the Gospel made by Christ throughout all Judaea. So Hugh, the Gloss, and Dionysius.
Secondly, and more plainly, "word" here is taken metonymically for the thing, namely for the sum of the sayings and deeds of Christ, which the Greeks call the "economy" of Christ: for Peter explains and recounts this in what follows. So Lyranus, Cajetan, Gagneius, and our Lorinus, as if to say: You have heard the report of Christ's preaching, miracles, and deeds. That this is the meaning is clear from the Greek text, which reads thus: ὑμεῖς οἴδατε τὸ γενόμενον ῥῆμα καθ' ὅλης τῆς Ἰουδαίας, ἀρξάμενον ἀπὸ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, μετὰ τὸ βάπτισμα ὃ ἐκήρυξεν Ἰωάννης, Ἰησοῦν τὸν ἀπὸ Ναζαρὲτ, ὡς ἔχρισεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, etc., that is: You know the word which was made through all Judaea, having arisen from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. So Pagninus, the Zürich version, Vatablus, Gagneius, and others everywhere. From this it appears, first, that this "word" is "Jesus of Nazareth," namely the sayings and deeds of Jesus the Nazarene, which after His baptism by John and after receiving the testimony from him that He was the Messiah, He began to teach and to do, beginning from Galilee and continuing through all Judaea. Hence, explaining this, Peter adds: "How God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the Devil." Wherefore Vatablus, by transposition of the single word "how," expounds it thus: "You know the word that was made, namely how God anointed Jesus the Nazarene with the Holy Spirit," etc., so that the pronoun "Him" is redundant by a Hebrew pleonasm. Secondly, it is clear that "word" in this verse signifies the same as in the preceding verse, namely the sayings and deeds of Christ. Thirdly, it is clear that τὸ ἀρξάμενον, "beginning," or as others translate, "having arisen," refers to the word that preceded, not to God: although therefore the Latin version has "for beginning from Galilee," understand: it was; yet the Greek does not have the "for" (enim): with this omitted, the sense flows plainly.
AFTER THE BAPTISM WHICH JOHN PREACHED. — The pronoun "which" refers to the baptism, because just as in Greek βάπτισμα is in the neuter gender and βαπτισμός in the masculine, so also in Latin baptismus is masculine, and baptismum neuter, as St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and others often use it as neuter. Rabanus and Bede read this differently, namely thus: "You know how John preached Jesus of Nazareth."
Verse 38: How God Anointed Him
38. JESUS OF NAZARETH. — Namely, you know that He is the word already spoken: for from this all these things hang together connectedly, as I have already shown from the Greek. About the name Nazarene I have spoken at chapter II, 22.
HOW GOD ANOINTED HIM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. — Concerning this anointing I have spoken at chapter IV, 27. See Eusebius, Demonstration IV, chap. XV, where he teaches that the grace of the Holy Spirit is rightly called oil and anointing, because like oil it makes one shining, bright, strong, vigorous, and cheerful.
AND WITH POWER, — δυνάμει, that is, might. For Christ showed this divine power in working miracles, casting out demons, and converting souls.
WHO WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD, — εὐεργετῶν, that is, doing good; so that Christ could rightly be surnamed Evergetes, that is, benefactor, indeed far more truly than that Ptolemy, king of Egypt, third in order. It is therefore proper to Christ and His followers to do harm to no one, but good to all, so that wherever He dwells, He may scatter the rays of His beneficence like the sun, which constantly runs and passes through, to communicate its light, heat, and influence to men and plants scattered throughout the whole world.
Truly St. Bernard, epistle 253 to Guarinus: "He went about, as not unfruitfully, so not slackly, not lazily, not with slow step, but as it is written of Him: He rejoiced as a giant to run His course. Now one who does not himself likewise run does not lay hold of Him who runs. And what does it profit to follow Christ, if it should not happen to attain Him? Therefore Paul said: So run that you may obtain. There, O Christian, fix the goal of your course and progress, where Christ has set His. He was made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." The same, sermon 11 among the lesser sermons: "Justice is in two things, in innocence and in beneficence. Innocence begins justice, beneficence completes it." The same, epistle 181 to Haimericus: "The benevolent man esteems nothing dearer to himself than benevolence itself, by which he is called benevolent and is beneficent." St. Chrysostom, homily 27 on Genesis: "To do good to a man is to lay up a great benefit with God." For it is proper to God to do good, as it is to the devil to do harm. Therefore the beneficent imitate God their Father. Hear Christ, Matthew V, 44: "Do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute and calumniate you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and rains upon the just and the unjust."
Wherefore that saying of Cicero is heathen, not Christian: "A benefit is to be conferred neither on a young man nor on an old man: not on the latter, because he will perish before the opportunity of returning thanks is given; not on the former, because he will not remember." More piously the Emperor Titus Vespasian used to say: "It is not lawful for anyone to depart sad from the emperor's countenance." The same man, recalling that he had done good to no one that day, said: "Friends, we have lost a day;" so Suetonius, in his Life. Pythagoras was asked, "by what means men could be considered like the gods? He answered: If they embraced truth and did good to all." So Aelian, book XII. Theophrastus was asked, "what preserves human life? He answered: Beneficence." So Stobaeus, sermon 41. Anaxilaus was asked "what was in the kingdom most blessed? He answered: Never to be conquered by benefits." Publius Mimus: "He who does not know how to give a benefit unjustly demands one." The Emperor Alexander Severus, asked: "Who would be the best king? He answered: He who keeps friends by gifts, and wins enemies and reconciles them to himself by benefits." So Maximus, sermon 9 On the Magistrate. Epictetus: "As the sun does not wait for prayers in order to rise, but at once shines and is greeted by all; so neither should you wait for applause, noise, and praises in order to do good, but spontaneously confer benefits, and you will be sought after just like the sun," as Stobaeus testifies, sermon 14 On the Magistrate. More excellently St. Gregory of Nyssa, oration On Loving the Poor: "Beneficence is the most excellent of all praised virtues. This is the companion of happiness. This sits beside God, and is joined with Him by great kinship."
AND HEALING ALL THAT WERE OPPRESSED BY THE DEVIL, — καταδυναστευομένους, that is, those reduced into his power by the might and tyranny of the devil, oppressed and brought under his yoke, namely those possessed by the devil, either in body, or in soul, or in both. For the devil was the prince of the world; but Christ cast him down from his tyrannical principality, Luke XI, 22.
BECAUSE GOD WAS WITH HIM: — first, through the hypostatic union; secondly, through exceptional, singular, and capital grace, such as befitted God's only-begotten; thirdly, through the powerful working of miracles and healings, and through the efficacious preaching by which He illumined men's minds and converted them to God. Hence He was called Emmanuel, that is, God with us, Isaiah VII, 14. Let Nestorius therefore be gone, who from this passage and similar ones inferred that Christ is a mere man, not God, because God was with Him, namely with the man Christ: therefore the person of the man Christ was one, and the person of God who was with that man was another. For I respond by denying the consequence: for the word "He" signifies the man Christ existing, not subsisting in His own person, but in the person of the Word, and therefore does not signify the person of the man, but the nature and existence of the man in the concrete: for in this God was by hypostatic union, and consequently was communicating to it His divine hypostasis and subsistence. God therefore is in us in one way, in Christ in another: for in us He is only through grace and operation; in Christ also through substance.
Verse 41: Not to All the People
41. NOT TO ALL THE PEOPLE. — "None of the impious saw Christ raised up," says St. Augustine, tract 76 on John.
Verse 42: Judge of the Living and the Dead
42. WHO IS CONSTITUTED (ὡρισμένος, that is, defined, destined, designated) BY GOD JUDGE, — namely as man, "because He is the Son of Man," as John says in chapter V, 27, namely that in His glorious human nature He may visibly judge all men in the valley of Josaphat on the last day of the world. For this judicial power is due to the humanity of Christ on account of His union with the Word: St. Peter speaks primarily of the universal judgment, secondarily of the particular: for the latter is annexed and subordinate to the universal. For Christ judges individual men one by one when they die, not in the sense that the souls of individuals are carried into heaven and presented to Christ the Judge to be judged, as St. Augustine seems to wish in his book On the Vanity of the World, chapter I; St. Chrysostom, homily 46 to the People, and St. Bernard, Meditation, chapter II: for it is not fitting that sinners be lifted up to heaven; nor that Christ personally descends to earth to judge each one dying, as Innocent III seems to wish, On the Contempt of the World II, chapter XLIII; for thus Christ at every moment would have to descend from heaven to earth, indeed into various places of the earth at once: but rather that the soul of the deceased speaks intellectually right after death, and He represents to it its deeds, and according to merits or demerits dictates and pronounces a sentence to each one as a judge. For just as an angel in the East can speak to another angel in the West by mental locution, so Christ, glorious in heaven, can speak mentally to a soul existing on earth. So Francisco Suárez, Part III, vol. II, disputation 52, section 2; although some think that Christ carries out the particular judgment of each through his guardian angel, as I said at chapter VII, 58.
Note: Christ had this judicial power in first act from the first instant of His conception and union with the Word. From then on He had the right and power of judging all, as well as dominion of the universe and of all creatures; but He received the use and exercise of this power at the resurrection: for then He received the glory of the One reigning and the state of the One ruling, while as long as He lived He had the state of One humbling Himself and suffering, of One sorrowing and dying.
OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD, — that is, of the just and the unjust, says St. Chrysostom, homily 1 On the Creed, and St. Augustine, Enchiridion, chapter LI; of souls and of bodies, says Rufinus on the Creed. But these are mystical and symbolic interpretations. I say therefore that literally those are here called the living who will be found alive on the day of judgment, and the rest are called the dead, not because the former too are not going to die, but because they are at once going to rise from death, so that death will be for them rather a passage to life than a destruction. See what is said at I Thessalonians IV, 15.
From this it is clear that absolutely all men will rise, will be present to Christ on the day of judgment, and will be judged by Him, even infants who died unbaptized in original sin, as St. Gregory teaches in Moralia IX, chap. XII or XVI, and St. Augustine in On Free Will III, chap. XXIII, and most of the Scholastics in Book IV, distinction XLVII; for all are subject to Christ the Judge, as He was born and died for all. Christ therefore will pronounce a middle sentence on infants: for He will neither admit them into heaven as blessed, nor condemn them to the fire of Gehenna as damned. He will therefore punish them with the pain of loss, that is, the privation of heavenly glory because of original sin, but not with the pain of sense: for this corresponds to actual sin, which infants do not have.
Verse 43: To Receive Remission of Sins
43. TO RECEIVE REMISSION OF SINS, — that is, that he is going to receive remission of sins through His name, whoever shall believe in Him, as the Zürich version translates, namely, whoever shall believe in Him with faith — not dead, but living — which exerts itself in acts of hope, fear, invocation, charity, and the other virtues, namely so that he may believe Christ to be the mediator between God and men, and that by the merit of His Passion God remits sins; and so that he may invoke Him as such, love, venerate Him, and obey His law and precepts in all things. Thus St. James explains and teaches against the heretics of this time, chap. II, 24. Why the Apostles everywhere inculcate the benefit of the remission of sins, I have given the reasons at chap. V, 31, and chap. II, 38; for although Cornelius was already justified, yet even the just man falls seven times a day, at least into venial sin. Add that in Cornelius's house there were many who had not yet received the remission of sins, but were now about to receive it from St. Peter through faith in Christ. Finally, St. Peter here teaches the power of baptism, namely that it remits sins, and therefore no one is justified unless he actually receives it, or has it in desire, as Cornelius had.
Verse 44: The Holy Spirit Fell
44. THE HOLY SPIRIT FELL, — in a visible appearance, namely in fiery tongues, resting on the head of Cornelius and his household. For He had descended on the Apostles in this same form. This is clear from the following chapter, verse 16, where it is said: "The Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us also in the beginning," namely at Pentecost, in fiery tongues. Hence it also follows: "For they heard them speaking with tongues." Furthermore, the Holy Spirit fell upon them before they were baptized: from which it follows that they had conceived faith in Christ and contrition for their sins at the catechesis of St. Peter, when they heard that remission of sins was to be hoped for and asked from Christ, and that through it they would be justified. Thus God arranged it, so that the Jews could not accuse Peter of having baptized them as Gentiles and initiated them into Christianity, since they had seen the Holy Spirit had already descended upon them, who by His descent was adopting them to Himself as sons, and so signified that they were to be co-opted into His Church. Thus St. Chrysostom. Wherefore in this passage the heretics argue ineptly: Cornelius received the Holy Spirit before baptism, therefore baptism does not confer Him, but it is only a sign of the justice and grace received through faith: for it is just as if they were to argue thus. Contrition confers the Holy Spirit; therefore baptism does not confer Him. For both consequences are inept. For the same effect, namely the grace of the Holy Spirit, can come from several causes, namely from contrition and from baptism. Add that contrition includes the vow of baptism, and without that does not confer the Holy Spirit, as I said above. Finally, this descent of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius before baptism was a special privilege granted to him alone, which does not prejudice the common rule and law, according to which through baptism are given the remission of sins and the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 45: The Faithful of the Circumcision
45. THE FAITHFUL OF THE CIRCUMCISION (of Judaism); — it is a synecdoche: for circumcision is put for the whole law of Moses, because it was its beginning and profession, as baptism is of the new law and of Christianity. Secondly, "of the circumcision," that is, circumcised, namely the Jewish faithful and Christians. It is a Grecism, of which I have spoken, Romans IV, 12.
BECAUSE EVEN UPON THE NATIONS (ἔθνη, that is, Gentiles and pagans) THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS POURED OUT. — For the Jews thought that Christ, the grace of Christ, and the Church had been promised by God and destined for the Jews alone, and that the Gentiles were to be excluded from it.
GRACE, — δωρεά, that is, a gratuitous gift, and therefore grace.
Verse 46: And Magnifying God
46. AND MAGNIFYING GOD. — Speaking the great works of God, both bestowed on the whole world and on themselves before the other Gentiles through Christ, and therefore from the innermost feeling of the heart, of devotion, and of gratitude. See what is said at chap. II, 11.
Verse 47: Can Any Man Forbid Water?
47. THEN PETER ANSWERED, — that is, he began to speak. For "to answer" in Scripture is to begin a discourse, even if no question has preceded, as none preceded here.
CAN ANY MAN FORBID WATER? — Peter contradicts the Jews who would forbid it, says St. Chrysostom, as if to say: You, O Jewish Christians, think that Christ and Christ's baptism pertain to the Jews alone, and therefore you wish to forbid the Gentiles to be washed in it; but you could not forbid the Holy Spirit from gliding down upon them: therefore neither can you forbid them to be baptized with His baptism, for baptism is the Sacrament of the Holy Spirit. Hence St. Augustine, homily 23 among the 50: "By the very attestation of so great a matter, it was as if proclaimed (by the Holy Spirit and Christ) to Peter: Why do you hesitate about the water? I am already here." Hence secondly, by transposition of the word "water," Pagninus and the Zürich version translate it plainly thus: can anyone forbid that they be baptized with water, etc., namely so that through this Sacrament they may be initiated into Christianity and become citizens of the Church?
AS WE ALSO, — visibly through fiery tongues, receiving the gift of tongues.
Verse 48: He Commanded Them to Be Baptized
48. HE COMMANDED THEM TO BE BAPTIZED, — by his companions: for it belonged to the Apostles to evangelize, and to lesser priests to baptize, as Paul teaches, I Corinthians I, 17. Thus Christ Himself preached; through the Apostles He baptized, Luke IV, 18, and John IV, 2.
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS, — namely with the baptism of Christ. See what is said at chap. II, 38. That this Cornelius, after Zacchaeus, was made bishop of Caesarea by St. Peter is attested by the Roman Martyrology on February 2, and by Clement, Constitutions VII, chap. XLVI. Moreover, that Cornelius's house was converted into a church, and that it still existed in the time of St. Jerome, he himself teaches, epistle 27, where, describing the voyage and journey of St. Paula, he says that she at Caesarea visited the house of Cornelius now made a church of Christ. Furthermore Cornelius is entered in the catalog of saints on February 2, where the Roman Martyrology has thus: "At Caesarea in Palestine, of St. Cornelius the Centurion, whom Blessed Peter the Apostle baptized and at the aforesaid city raised to the episcopal honor." The life of this St. Cornelius is found in Surius from Metaphrastes on September 13, but in it our Lorinus thinks certain apocryphal things are contained, and something of the kind is suggested.
You will ask first here, whether Peter and the Apostles up to Cornelius's calling were unaware that the Gentiles were to be called to Christ and that the Gospel was to be preached to them? And whether Cornelius is absolutely the first of all the Gentiles to be converted and baptized? Some affirm this, because the vision and narrative of this chapter seem to signify it.
But many modern learned men hold the contrary, and this seems truer. First, because Christ, when about to ascend into heaven, had expressly told and commanded the Apostles to evangelize the Gentiles: "Going into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature," that is to every man, Matthew XXVIII. And: "You shall be witnesses to Me in Judaea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth," Acts I.
Secondly, because the Apostles had seen Gentiles led to Christ and received by Him, John XII, 20; again, that the daughter of the Canaanite woman, certainly a Gentile, was healed by Him, Matthew XV, 22. Besides, they had heard at first that three Magi from the East were called by God, with a star as their guide, to the manger of Christ: now these were the first-fruits of the Gentiles. Moreover they had seen Christ heal the servant of a Roman Centurion, Matthew VIII, 5, whom Lucius Dexter in his Chronicle writes was a Spaniard by origin, and that he preached Christ to the Spaniards. For thus he says: "C. Cornelius, centurion of Capernaum, master of the servant whom the Lord healed, also father of C. Oppius the centurion, was a Spaniard: he flourishes wonderfully in Spain." And of his son: "C. Oppius, the Spanish Centurion, believed in Christ dying on the cross. From among the Gentiles he was the first to believe at Christ's death; he was a Roman citizen, and being baptized by St. Barnabas was made the third Bishop of Milan. He was indeed an Apostolic man, who first of all reported to the Spaniards, his own people, the death of Christ and the wondrous eclipse, to the astonishment of those who heard him."
Thirdly, because for this purpose the Apostles at Pentecost had received the Holy Spirit in fiery tongues, that they might go and preach with them to all the nations of the whole world. For this is what St. Peter cites and professes from Joel, ibid., verses 17 and 21: "I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, etc. And it shall be: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Hence it is also probable that at Pentecost, among so many nations of so many languages and regions as are listed in Acts II, there were some Gentiles mingled in, who at St. Peter's sermon along with the Jews and Proselytes were converted to Christ; just as in another sermon of St. Peter, in which he himself converted five thousand men, Acts IV, 1, it is probable that some of them were Gentiles. Again, the eunuch of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, converted by Philip, chap. VIII, is by many thought to have been a Gentile, since he was an Ethiopian and prince of the Ethiopians. To this same point: Saul, now converted, "was also speaking to the Gentiles and disputing with the Greeks," as we heard at chap. IX, 29. And in chap. XI, 2, the faithful of the circumcision, that is the circumcised and Jews, are said to have murmured against Peter, that he had turned aside to Cornelius the Gentile: by which he sufficiently signifies that there were other faithful from the uncircumcision, that is uncircumcised and Gentiles, who praised Peter's deed, and applauded Cornelius as a Gentile and one of their own people and lot. In the same chapter, verse 20, Cypriots and Cyrenians are said to have evangelized the Greeks, that is, the Gentiles.
Fourthly, because the same Lucius Dexter asserts that the Apostles divided the provinces of the world among themselves for evangelizing, in the year of Christ 34, a little after His ascent into heaven, namely on the last day of June, 36 days after Pentecost and the reception of the Holy Spirit, and that James in the year of Christ 37, which was the third year from the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, set out for Spain and there evangelized: for granted that at that time there were many Jews there, as the same author asserts, who would yet deny that he also preached to the Gentiles, who were far more numerous?
You will say: How then is it commonly asserted that, through the conversion of Cornelius, the door of the Gospel and of the Church was first opened to the Gentiles? I respond that this is to be understood and limited to the public, solemn, and professed preaching of the Gospel among the Gentiles, which Peter, having received a heavenly vision, was commanded publicly to announce to the Jewish Christians, lest they themselves resist the Apostles who were going to the Gentiles and drive the Gentiles away from the Church. St. Chrysostom expressly teaches this in this place, namely that St. Peter secretly knew that he and the Apostles ought to preach to the Gentiles: but he had not done it, lest he offend the Jews, until being admonished by the heavenly vision, he persuaded the Jews that this was God's will, especially when they themselves saw the visible descent of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and his household. So also L. Dexter in his Chronicle, in the year of Christ 40, which was the sixth from Christ's ascent into heaven: "Cornelius, Centurion of Italica, while Peter is preaching, is filled with the Holy Spirit, and after the solemn conversion of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ has been announced at Jerusalem, Cornelius is baptized and flourishes." The same is taught at length by Gaspar Sanchez, in his Appendix to the Acts of the Apostles, or treatise I On the Preaching of St. James in Spain, chap. IX. Furthermore this Flavius L. Dexter was praefect of the praetorium, who dedicated this Chronicle to St. Jerome, as he himself reports in the book On Ecclesiastical Writers; but the latter being snatched away by death, he dedicated it to St. Paulinus. In turn, St. Jerome inscribed to this Dexter the book On Ecclesiastical Writers, in which he places him and praises him. This Chronicle of Dexter, recently found at Fulda, is cited and praised by our Gaspar Sanchez, On the Departure of St. James to Spain II, chap. II, and by Christopher a Castro, History of the Mother of God, chap. XVIII. See what is said at the end of the Chronotaxis.
You will ask secondly, in what year from the death and ascent of Christ Cornelius was converted, and the Gospel publicly opened to the Gentiles? I respond that this cannot be defined. For the chronologists vary. First, the Alexandrian Chronicle, and Gaspar Sanchez, On the Departure of St. James to Spain I, chap. X, judge that Cornelius was converted in the year of Christ 36, which was the second from His death. Secondly, Adrichomius, in his Chronology, judges that he was converted in the year of Christ 38, which was the fourth from His death. Thirdly, other moderns judge that it was in the year of Christ 39, which was the fifth from His death. Fourthly, L. Dexter, in his Chronicle, writes that Cornelius was converted in the year of Christ 40, which was the sixth from His death; and in the year of Christ 41, that the Apostles went to their provinces; and finally in the year of Christ 42, that St. James was killed by Herod. Fifthly, Baronius and our Gordon, in his Chronology, judge that Cornelius was converted in the year of Christ 42, which was the seventh from Christ's death, and the second of the Emperor Caius Caligula, in which St. Matthew also wrote his Gospel.
It seems more probable that Cornelius was converted in the year of Christ 39; although Baronius, whom many follow, judges that the Apostles were dispersed throughout the world after James was killed by Herod in the year of Christ 44, on which more at Acts XII, 1. Therefore this opinion is greatly confirmed a posteriori from the fact that all agree that St. Peter sat at Antioch for seven years, namely up to the second year of Claudius, which was the year of Christ 44, in which he transferred his see to Rome. For if you reckon these seven years backwards from the year of Christ 44, you will find that the first of them, in which he began to sit at Antioch, falls in the year of Christ 37. Therefore in the same year, or certainly the preceding, namely 36, Cornelius was converted. These things will become clearer from what I shall say at chap. XII, 1.
Or how would the Jews have looked on it with equal eyes and minds, namely the head of the Church being torn away from them and going to the Gentiles, and the primacy and Pontificate of the Church being transferred to them? especially since St. Clement, Recognitions X, hands down that St. Peter set up this seat at Antioch in the house of Theophilus, to whom St. Luke dedicates these Acts, chap. I, 1, who was a Gentile, not a Jew, as is clear from his name: for Theophilus is a Greek name, signifying "lover of God"; and because this Theophilus was exercising magistracy at Antioch, as Œcumenius testifies. In the same year of Christ 37 also it seems St. James departed for Spain, as I shall say at chap. XII. For thus all things hang together best. For with Cornelius now converted by St. Peter, St. James could without note and contradiction of the Jews publicly preach to the Spanish Gentiles, and after five years returning to Jerusalem, in the year of Christ 43, or as others wish 44, be killed by Herod: so certain very recent but very judicious chronologists. Hence too some judge that under the same year of Christ 37 the Apostles set out for their provinces, since they were heavenly admonished through Peter to preach to the Gentiles. Hence Cajetan, on Acts IX, 32 and elsewhere, writes that the Apostles were divided throughout the world within the three years which Paul spent in Arabia; now this three-year period began at his conversion soon after, which took place in the year of Christ 36, and ended in the year of Christ 39. For in that year St. Peter founded the Church of Antioch, since the door of the faith and of the Church had now been publicly opened to the Gentiles. Hence also it is in the Life of this St. Cornelius, that he himself, when converted, set out with St. Peter for Antioch. For though the Alexandrian Chronicle hands down that St. Peter set his seat at Antioch in the 4th year after Christ's death, which was the year from Christ's nativity 38 or 39, and the same is judged about the year of Christ 39 by Baronius and all his followers, and many others; yet I shall presently show that this took place in the year 37. But who would believe that St. Peter set up his seat in Antioch, since it was a Gentile city, before the door of faith was opened to the Gentiles, which was done through the conversion of Cornelius.