Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/535

 CELEBRET

477

OELESTINE

work so comprehensive in character was made possi- ble by the assistance which Ceillier received from his confreres. The most valuable portion of the work is that dealing with the Fathers of the first six centu- ries. Here the author was able to draw upon the writings of Tillemont. and to use the scholarly Bene- dictine editions of the Fathers. Charges of Jansen- ism made against Ceillier in his lifetime and after- wards find no substantiation in his writings, and the treatment accorded to the author and his works by Benedict XIV shows that the pope had no doubts as to his orthodoxy.

Calmet, Bibliothequc lorraine (Nancy, 1751); Michaud, BiograpkU universelle, VII; Guxllatjmb, Notice sur le prieuri de Flaviffnu-tur-Moselli (Nancy, 1N77, extract from the M,m,,,r, ,!, '■ > - Vara ■ <:■■ lorraine); Hcrter, Nomen- clator, II, l:!7.">: Bsugnbt, Eiwle hmumphique et critique sur Dom Rum i u nu Mar-le-I)uc, 1S91); Idem in Did. de thiol, cnth.. II, 2049-2051; Ziegelbaueb, Hist. Littcraria Ord. S. Bcnedicli, I, 640, IV, 516 sq.

Patrick J. Healy.

Celebret, a letter which a bishop gives to a priest, that he may obtain permission in another diocese to say Mass, and for this purpose bears testimony that he is free from canonical censures. The Council of Trent (Sess. XXIII, chap, xvi on Reform) lays down the rule that "no cleric who is a stranger shall without letters commendatory (q. v.) from his own ordinary be admitted by any bishop to celebrate the divine mysteries". Ordinarily permission is not to be given to a priest from another diocese to say Mass without this certificate signed and duly sealed. The seal is obviously the more important requisite, as it is the safer guarantee against forgery. The celebret should be officially recognized by the diocesan authority of the place where a priest may wish to say Mass. One who has his celebret in due form, or who is certainly known to be in good stand- ing in his own diocese, may be allowed to celebrate till he has had a sufficient time to comply with this rule. A priest with proper credentials cannot reasonably be prevented from saying Mass, though he will be expected to comply with reasonable re- strictions which may be imposed.

The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, as a regulation against collectors of funds for other dioceses or countries, enacted a decree (No. 295) that priests on such a mission should not be allowed to celebrate Mass even once till they had received permission from the ordinary. This rule has generally been enforced in diocesan synods. The absence of the celebret does not suffice for the refusal of permission to say Mass, it persons worthy of belief bear positive testimony to the good standing of the priest. If the per- mission were unreasonably refused, the priest may say Mass privately, if no scandal is given. Yet the rectors of churches are not obliged to incur any ex- penses the celebration may involve (S. C. O, 15 Dec, L703).

Craisson, Man. Jul". Can., I. r>e Potest. Episc. (Poitiers, 1892). Punctum II. N'nmerus 1012. et s<iq.; Taunton, The

I Ion, St. Louis, 1!)06), s. v.; Andre-

W i'.neb, Did. de droit canon (Paris, 1901).

R. L. BtJRTSELL.

Celenderis, a titular see of Asia Minor. — Celenderis was a port and fortress in Isauria, founded by the Phoenicians or, according to legend, by Sandacos, son ot VstynoOa and grandson of Phaethon. It figures in I'arthev's "Notitise episcopatuum" as late as the twelfth or thirteenth century, as a suffragan of Seleuceia. Lequien (II, 1015) gives four titulars: Musonius in 3sl. .lulianus, or Julius, in 451 and 458, Piter at the Trullan Council in 692, and Eustathius at Nicsea in 787. Another, whose name is unknown, was amongst the friends of Photius in 878. We must add two names: Asterius, a correspondent of Severus in .".0s and 511. and Pelagius in 518 (E. W. Brooks, "The Sixth Book of the Select Letters of Severus", 11,4;

"Vita Severi", 2S; "Chronique de Michel le Syrien", ed. Chabot, 267). Celenderis is to-day a little village, commonly called Kilindria, the chief centre of the caza of Gulnar in the vilayet of Adana, with 210 inhabitants, mostly Greeks. It has a pretty road- stead, but of difficult approach. There, are Roman and medieval ruins, among them those of an aque- duct, a castle, beautiful sarcophagi, etc.

Ramsay, Hist. Oeog. of Asia Minor (London, 1S90); Ctinet, Turquie d'Asie, II, SO; Alishan, Sissouan (Venice, 1899), 3S4-385.

S. Petrides.

Celestine I, Saint, Pope. — Nothing is known of his early history except that he was a Roman and that his father's name was Priscus. He is said to have lived for a time at Milan with St. Ambrose; the first notice, however, concerning him that is known is in a document of St. Innocent I, in the year 416, where he is spoken of as Celestine the Deacon. In 418 St. Augustine wrote to him (Epist. lxiii in very reverential language. He succeeded St. Boniface I as pope, 10 Sept., 422 (according t o Tillemont, t hough the Bollandists say 3 Nov.), and died 26 July. 432, having reigned nine years, ten months, and sixteen days. In spite of the troublous times at Koine, he was elected without any opposition, as is learned from a letter of St. Augustine (Epist. eclxi), written to him shortly after his elevation, in which the great doctor begs his assistance in composing his difficulties with Antonius, Bishop of Fessula in Africa. A strong friend- ship seems to have existed between Celestine and Augustine, and after the death of the latter in 430, ( ielestine wrote a long letter to the bishops of Caul on the sanctity, learning, and zeal of the holy doctor, and forbade all attacks upon his memory on the part of the Semipelagians, who, under the leadership of the famous ascetic, John Cassian, were then begin- ning to gain influence. Though his lot was cast in stormy times, for the Manicha'ans. Donatists, Nova- tians, and Pelagians were troubling the peace of the Church, while t he barbarian hordes were beginning their inroads into the heart of the empire, Celestine's firm but gentle character enabled him to meet suc- cessfully all the exigencies of his position. We see him everywhere upholding the rights of the Church and the dignity of his office. In this he was aided by Placidia, who, in the name of her youthful son. Val- entinian III, banished from Rome the .Manicha'ans and other heretics who were disturbing the peace. Celestine not only excluded Ccelestius, the companion and chief disciple of Pelagius, from Italy, but pro- cured the further condemnation of the seci from the Council of Ephesus, while through his instrumentality St. Germanus of Auxerre and St. Lupus of Troyes, who had been sent to Britain in 129, the native land of Pelagius, by the Gallic bishops, succeeded in cxtir- pating the error from its native soil.

A firm upholder of the ancient canons, we find Celestine writing to the bishops of Illyria, bidding them observe the canons and their old allegiance to the Bishop of Thessalonica, the papal vicar, without whom they are not to consecrate any bishop or hold any council. He also writes to the Bishops of Vienne and Narbonne, whom he warns to keep the ancient canons, and, in accordance with the warning of his predecessor, to resist the pretensions of the See of Aries. .Moreover they must not refuse to admit to penance those who desire it at the moment "i death; bishops, too, must not dress as monk-, and severe action is to be taken against a certain Daniel, a monk from the Orient who had been the can-.' o_i serious disorders in the Church of Caul. To tin- Bishops oi Apulia and Calabria he writes that the clergy must not remain ignorant of the canon-, neither are the laity to be advanced to the episcopate over l lie heads of the clergy, nor i- t he popular "ill. no matter how strong, to be humoured in this matter — populus docenr