If for gathering sticks one could be stoned to death, much more, it may be argued, ought he be stoned for committing sacrilege. This money was sacred. For the person who withdraws his possessions after he has chosen to sell them and distribute them would be guilty of sacrilege. And if this person, who is taking from his own possessions, is sacrilegious, much more so is he who takes from what is not his own. And do not think that because the consequence now is not the same, the crime will go unpunished. Do you see that this is the charge brought against Ananias, that having made the money sacred, he then took it? For were you not able, says Peter, even after the sale to use the proceeds as your own? For you were not forbidden, were you? Why then after you had promised? See how the devil made his attack from the very beginning, how in the midst of such signs and wonders this man became insensible as a rock! . . . For sacrilege is a most grievous crime, insolent and full of contempt. We neither forced you to sell, says the apostle, nor to give the money after you have sold. You chose to do so of your own free will. Why then did you steal from the sacred treasury?

Why has Satan filled your heart? he says. If it was Satan who did this, why is the man responsible? Because he admitted the influence of Satan and was filled with it. He must be set right, he says. But he could not be set right. For the one who has seen such things and gained nothing from them, neither would he gain much by anything else. Therefore the matter could not simply be passed over, but, like gangrene, had to be excised to prevent it from infecting the rest of the body.

And of the Holy Spirit also, Peter says to Ananias, Why has Satan filled your heart, to lie to the Holy Spirit? showing that the Holy Spirit was a true witness, aware of what Ananias had dared to do in secret, and by whom the secret was made known to Peter. For Ananias became a thief of his own goods, secretly, as he thought, from all people and concealing his sin. But the Holy Spirit at the same moment was in Peter, and detected his intent, dragged down as it was to avarice, and gave to Peter from himself the power of seeing the secret, while it is clear that the Spirit could not have done this had it not been able to behold hidden things.

Why has Satan filled your heart? Here it must be noted that the soul and mind of a person can be filled according to substance by no creature but only by the creating Trinity, because only according to the operation and instigation of the will is the soul filled by those things which are created. Now Satan fills someone’s mind and the core of his heart, not, to be sure, by going into him and into his senses—if I may put it this way, entering the doorway of the heart—since this is a power of divinity alone. But like a crafty, wicked, deceitful and fraudulent deceiver, he draws the human soul toward dispositions for malice by thoughts and enticements of vices, of which he is full.^[1] Therefore Satan filled the heart of Ananias, not by his own entering in, but by the injection of the venom of his malice.

For having made a vow they offered their money to God as if it were their own and not his to whom they had vowed it; and keeping back for their own use a part of that which belonged to another, through fear of famine which true faith never fears, they drew down on themselves suddenly the avenging stroke, which was meant not in cruelty toward them but as a warning to others. In fact, the apostle Peter by no means called down death upon them, as Porphyry foolishly says. He merely announced God’s judgment by the spirit of prophecy, that the doom of two persons might be a lesson to many.

But inasmuch as a changed intention bears the crime of deceit, and when there is, moreover, confirmation of a promise, it is proper to stand firm and not wish to violate what was first [promised] by what follows; it is more just to preserve a permanent right than to withdraw it. The punishment of the two established a warning for all, lest anyone should call [back] gifts which a solemn promise requires him to owe. Reflect, you of true faith, and consider the words of Peter, which are bright with blessed teaching, Whoever persuaded you to be deceitful? And he concluded by judging, You do not deceive people by saying such things; you lie to God. The teaching that condemns the wicked strengthens the holy.

Peter said above that Ananias had lied to the Holy Spirit. It is therefore clear that the Holy Spirit is God and that the error of Macedonius had been condemned before he was born.

Peter’s words to Sapphira—How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? You did not lie to men, but to God—show that sins against the Holy Spirit and against God are the same. And thus you might learn that in every operation the Spirit is closely conjoined with, and inseparable from, the Father and the Son. While God works the differences of operations and the Lord the diversities of administrations, the Holy Spirit is present also, administering in his own power the distribution of the gifts according to each recipient’s worth.

It was not on account of [this] accusation that Peter gave such a severe sentence to the transgressors, but in the Spirit he foresaw future weeds that would by their deformed character adulterate the simplicity of the church. For from these the worst type of Sarabaits^[1] reportedly arose. Although by no means did they give up their possessions, they pretended to preserve apostolic discipline.^[2] He did not allow the culprits to be healed by any repentance, but in order to strike fear into the generations to come, he took care to cut the noxious shoot out by its roots.

And so if against those who did not covet other persons’ goods but tried to be sparing of their own, and had no desire to acquire but only the wish to retain, there went forth so severe a sentence, what should we think of those who desire to amass wealth, without ever having had any of their own, and, making a show of poverty before people, are before God convicted of being rich, through the passion of avarice?

None groaned, none lamented, all were terrified. For as their faith increased, the signs also multiplied, and great was the fear among their own company. For things from without do not war against us so much as things within. If we are welded firmly to each other, no war will be difficult to bear; what would be terrible is to be separated and divided. Now they went about in the marketplace, and that with boldness. They even waged an attack and prevailed in the midst of enemies and so fulfilled that saying, Rule in the midst of your foes.^[1] This was a great miracle, that they, arrested and cast into prison, were able to do such things.

Earth was becoming like heaven, for their way of life, boldness of speech, wonders, for all besides. Like angels were they looked upon with wonder. They were unconcerned about ridicule, threats, perils. They were compassionate and beneficent. Some of them they helped with money, and some with words, and some with healing of their bodies and of their souls; they accomplished every kind of healing.

At that time Peter visibly relieved the infirm by the shadow of his body. Now, he does not cease to strengthen the infirm among the faithful by the invisible screen of his intercession. And because Peter is a type of the church, it is beautifully appropriate that he himself walked upright, but by his accompanying shadow he raised up those who were lying down. So the church, concentrating its mind and love on heavenly things, passes like a shadow on the land, and here [on earth], with sacramental signs and temporal figures of heavenly things, it renews those whom there [in heaven] it rewards with everlasting gifts. Some^[1] relate to this passage that saying of the Lord in the Gospels: He who believes in me, the works that I do he also will do, and greater than these he will do.^[2]

We dwell in the church on earth, which, no one may doubt, signifies a heavenly [church]; but that is more truly [the church] which, at rest above the stars, is called celestial and high. This [earthly church], which is seen in the brief career of an uncertain world, is appointed as the way of life and in this [present] time directs to the eternal [church] those whom it gathers, and to those found acceptable it is the road for going from here to heavenly things. Peter rules both armies, and for their lot he gives the stars to those squadrons led from here, as has been revealed by the words of God, What you have loosed, he said, and what you bind on earth thus remain bound or loosed in heaven.^[1] This [church] that we see cultivated on soil, therefore, will be a type; what the clouds carry is firm. Peter, ruling both, designs there the body and here the shadow, in order that those sick people whom he freed from vices and offenses might be led unharmed to it [the church above], which endures in heaven [and] will receive the holy throngs cleansed by this [earthly church].

For had they not borne a king’s image and their radiance been unapproachable, their garments and shadows had not wrought so mightily. For the garments of a king are terrible even to robbers. Would you see this beaming even through the body? Looking steadfastly, he said, upon the face of Stephen, they saw it as if it were the face of an angel.^[1] But this was nothing to the glory flashing within.

Look how their life is woven. First there was dejection because Christ was taken from them; then came joy through the descent of the Spirit; then dejection again because of the scoffers; then joy because of the believers and the sign; then dejection again because of the imprisonment, followed by joy in the result of their defense. And here again both dejection and joy: joy because they were well-known and God made revelations to them, dejection because they made away with some of them. Again, joy from their success and dejection because of the high priest. And the same pattern could be seen throughout.

Therefore the Sadducees, whose name is interpreted as ‘righteous’ for they claim to be what they are not (as we read below), entirely denied the resurrection of the body and said that the soul perishes with the flesh. Indeed, they did not even believe that there are any angels or spirits, and accepting only the five books of Moses, they scorned the honoring of the prophets.^[1]

But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, ‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.’ And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught. This was done for the encouragement of the disciples and for the benefit and instruction of the others. For notice how what Christ once did happened again here: he does not allow them to witness the miracle in action but provides that from which they may learn of it. This is what happened on the occasion of his resurrection: he did not let them see how he rose again. When wine is made from water, the guests do not see it (for they were drunk); the judgment he entrusts to others. Likewise in the present case, they do not see them being led out, but the evidence, from which they might understand what happened, they saw. And it was by night that the angel put them outside. Why? Because in this way they were more believed than they would have been otherwise. They would not have come to ask questions. They would not have believed otherwise.

So that Thomas would not doubt that the Lord bore flesh and blood when he had seen him entering with the doors closed,^[1] behold, he himself, while he was still clothed in mortal flesh, made his departure with his companions though the doors were closed.

If anyone in addition considers Thomas, with his feeble heart, let him seek teaching from this: seeing that the closed door, being penetrated, admitted God then,^[1] is it astonishing if [Christ], in the flesh, approaches a gate in this manner, [he] whom a virgin bore, whom the unviolated womb of his mother conceived? What reason, I ask, was there to take human flesh unless it was to resurrect it? Returning after that, he presents his side for a witness and teaches that the ashes of our body must be made new by the example of his own, proving they are his limbs by their wounds.

This symbol does not lack a voice [to explain] why the holy men left this darkness [of prison]. Endowing them richly, he said that these are the ministers of light and that they shine in the whole house just like lamps set atop a stand.^[1] No night holds back those whom the Light himself calls a candle, who have merited the God who bears gifts and is a witness [to the question] by what law that place concealed in its caverns so many suns in the [apostolic] order, [suns] by which [that place] had a chance to know the eternal light so that with the expulsion of error the world might conquer darkness.

And observe, by report of others they are apprised of all the circumstances: they see the prison remaining closed with safety, and the guards standing before the doors. A twofold security is here, as was the case at the sepulcher, having both the seal and the men to watch. See how they fought against God! Say, was this, that befell them, of human doing? Who led them forth when the doors were shut? How did they come out with guards standing before the door? In truth, they must be mad or drunken to talk so. Here are men whom neither prison nor bonds nor closed doors had been able to keep in; and yet they expect to overpower them. Such is their childish folly! Their officers come and confess what has taken place, as if on purpose to debar them from all show of reason. Do you mark how there is miracle upon miracle, differing in kind, some wrought by them, others on them, and these more illustrious than the others?