Papal Letters 1 part 10/50

Let baneful contagions be far from the innocent, that through you sincerity may enter within the sheepfold of the Lord's flock—a sincerity which imperial authority alone can maintain. Given on the eighth day before the Ides of October, in the consulship of the aforesaid distinguished man. (63.) Bishop Simplicius to Acacius, by the same bearer as above. How great and how abundant fruits the steadfastness of faith and the fortitude of minds devoted to the catholic religion ever bear, has been shown by the labour of your Charity and of those who likewise were long being suddenly troubled by the devil.

For when the enemy of Christ and of the kingdom, soon to fall, was invading the ever-Christian court and shaking the faithful of the Lord and his people with impious persecution, by prayer and vigils he overcame the sacrilegious assaults, and the heavenly victory extended itself so far that, upon the return of the most religious prince, a catholic prelate was restored even to the church of Alexandria. Concerning this we soon shared our joys with exultation at the divine grace, and by mutual letters congratulated one another.

And although the fullness of that gladness has never been wanting to itself, yet our brother and fellow-bishop Timothy, made more approved by persecution and not unmindful of his former resolve, sent through our brother and fellow-bishop Isaiah, and our sons Nilus the presbyter and Martyrius the deacon, the solemn letters of the church of Alexandria, in which he recorded both that he had undone that which, terrified, he had earlier done concerning the name of Dioscorus, and sought pardon for that very error, and made us congratulate the church upon its peace; having found toward himself—as much as your Charity sees together with us—the affection of divine mercy: that which we then reproved in him not left unpunished, and now reconciled to him, most dear brother.

When those mentioned had been established in the city, whither they had soon come, we embraced the occasion of our son Peter, a man of distinction and a Count, who was setting out as if according to our wish; and, as much from our own purpose as from the petition of our brother and fellow-bishop Timothy and the prayers of his own legates, we willed this very thing to come to your knowledge: that even now you might be made a partaker of our common joys, and, in the tranquillity of the aforesaid church, might—as we have said—together with us reap the fruit of your labour, and might offer our letters to our most Christian and most clement prince concerning this matter also, so that he too might rejoice, God protecting him, in the gifts of his own devotion and faith, and, your Charity pressing on, might deign to fortify the churches by sending salutary writings with greater zeal for the catholic religion.

Lest—as we have experienced—in some region that ancient serpent should pour forth the venom of his head so often cut off, and should again find occasion of infecting some (which God forbid), let him dispose it by the provident ordinance of his piety's precepts; let him sanction by religious laws (as he has more evidently proved himself commended to God) that they may neither lie hidden in darkness and, walking unseen, strike men in the light, nor lie in wait for those whom they shall find poor in faith—as the prophet testifies—to seize them;

and above all, let him decree by special precept, for the sake of ecclesiastical peace, that Peter—who is cherished in the hiding-places of certain households and of men like himself, and whom he removed from the episcopate out of zeal for the faith—be cast out into foreign lands (as we too have written to his Piety), since it is again asserted that he is ceaselessly contriving something against the ordinance of the faith itself. Since, therefore, we have judged it fitting to indicate these things by the opportunity of a most faithful bearer, or rather to admonish more particularly, we exhort you: that when the messenger begins to return, or if perchance some other occasion is found, you make us more certain as soon as possible, and hasten to relieve our care.

But that we might rejoice with perfect joy, the same our brother and fellow-bishop Timothy has likewise sent to us a copy of the document of satisfaction of those whom both Timothy and Peter, being both condemned, had drawn away from the truth of the catholic faith by the terror of domination—men now seeking pardon; desiring by sacerdotal piety to come to the aid of the lapsed: which, in the regard of divine mercy—which wills no one to perish—we do not think ought to be refused. Given on the eighth day before the Ides of October, in the consulship of the aforesaid distinguished man. (64.) Bishop Simplicius to Zeno Augustus. Recently indeed, when to the city our brother and fellow-bishop, prelate of the city of Alexandria—Timothy—had, by a renewed practice, sent word, I learned of the victory of your faith in his restoration;

for, supported by your piety and by the aid of the Godhead, both the tranquillity of the empire and the integrity of the catholic religion returned, its splendour having dispersed the cloud of scandals. Concerning which I remember that I gave thanks, after God, to your Clemency; and now too I could not keep silent the reverence owed to your reign, lest I should in some way seem ungrateful, if on any occasion I ceased to praise your so many triumphs, whether of the empire or of the churches.

Therefore, rendering the office of due veneration, I pray that you would bestow the aid of your protection more zealously upon all priests of the right faith, and above all upon the bishop of Alexandria, of whose contest you were both witnesses and judges; and that you would decree by most pious enactments that Peter, the usurper of that see—one who could not hold his rank even in the diaconate—be banished farther from so illustrious a city, lest perchance he seduce some of weaker faith and stir up again in that church (which God forbid) the scandals that have been laid to rest. You have proved in this work that He has granted us the succour of His right hand, who, for the joy of the whole world and for the exultation of the universal church, preserves the Roman empire in your Clemency. Given on the twelfth day before the Kalends.

November, in the consulship of the aforesaid distinguished man. Through the legates of the Greeks. (65.) Bishop Simplicius to Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople. Recently indeed, at the request of those who had been sent to us from our brother and fellow-bishop Timothy, prelate of the church of Alexandria, I made known to your Charity by letters our common joy, and recorded that we likewise rejoiced at the fruit of that most pious work—that a catholic priest has been restored to the aforesaid church. This we have hastened to signify now also, that you might recognize that joys do not love silence.

Wherefore, ever exulting in the Lord and desiring the vows of our common prayers to be joined, I exhort you, most dear brother: that, matters having been settled by our most clement and most Christian prince, God being the author, the solicitude of diligence may not be wanting; but that Peter, cast down from the honour not due to him, be not permitted to dwell in the region of Alexandria, but that you request, by frequent representation, that he be banished far beyond the borders of his native land (as we too have demanded), lest by the persuasion of his depravity he seduce any of the untrained and turn them away from the path of catholic truth.

And whatever you shall obtain from the most religious empire, let the care of your Charity cause it to come to my knowledge, and grant that we be sharers of the acts pertaining to the safeguarding of evangelical doctrine. Given on the twelfth day before the Kalends of November, in the consulship of the aforesaid distinguished man. By the same bearers as above. (66.) Bishop Simplicius to Zeno Augustus. Concerning the church of Antioch.

With joy I have received the ever-venerable letters of your piety, in which we find—by the zeal for the catholic religion inborn in you, after the defence of the faith which, being kept, keeps you—the audacity of impiety and the crimes perpetrated at Antioch restrained; and we exult that there is in you the mind of a most faithful priest and prince, so that imperial authority, joined to Christian devotion, might become more acceptable to God, and its integrity appear, when those who were engaged in the sacrilegious slaughter of bishops are ordered to perish by worthy punishments.

In which you will provide both for the peace of the church and for your own empire, since when the outrage against God has been avenged, it belongs to the grace of Him who avenges, and the aid of divine favour is procured for those whose care has not left the sacrilege unpunished. But that I may speak confidently to a Christian prince: if the tenor of the former letters—which I remember I wrote long ago concerning the name of Peter and others to my brother and fellow-bishop Acacius—had been kept, it could not have come to this, which now has justly deserved to be avenged.

For I had directed that, a representation having been made to your Piety, the aforesaid man—as well as the others who, through the occasion of tyrannical domination, had invaded the churches of God—should be driven beyond the bounds of your empire, lest a pestiferous mind should with sacrilegious mouth pour its venom into any of the simpler folk, and with impious words wound the more innocent souls against the orthodox faith. But, so far as appears, since these matters were less cared for and were believed to be trifling, it came about that—as you report—among the altars, not now the common people alone, but the very prelates and preachers of the faith, the priests, perished by deadly swords.

Wherefore, if any remnants of such men are found under your empire, command that they be driven even now into foreign lands, lest there be hereafter any necessity and cause of punishment against them; for it is better to have blocked the approach than to have exacted the penalty of sin.

And since you judged that the Antiochene seditions could not otherwise be quelled by your most religious resolve, except that—without prejudice to that venerable council of Nicaea—a prelate be ordained at Constantinople at the request of the same people (which you declared to be assumed only in respect of his person, so that henceforth, according to the definitions of the fathers, the creation of the Antiochene pontiff should be reserved to the Eastern synod), and you do not wish it to be held as a matter of injury, since it was done for the sake of removing dissension: blessed Peter the Apostle holds this pledge of your Piety, and holds that the mind of the most Christian and most faithful prince has sworn to these words—that hereafter, in the city of Antioch, the ancient custom being preserved, a bishop shall be ordained by his own fellow-provincials;

lest what our brother and fellow-bishop Acacius has now carried out at your command should pass into the practice of posterity and confound the statutes of the fathers, which you above all keep inviolate. Wherefore, those things which you have out of love of peace holily and religiously ordained we cannot reprove, lest the state of the church of Antioch should seem ambiguous under our doubting—especially since he who is read to have been ordained is upheld by the testimony of your Clemency with such great commendation, that in him both the grief of past wounds may be suppressed and the church which merited him may glory.

These things I have weighed, and taken care to respond by the office of due reverence, that you would command such great frauds and crimes of the heretics—to be pursued by divine and secular laws, which you have often proved to be so harmful—to be removed from the memory and intercourse of men, whose impiety can be checked by no authority, as far as you see. Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of July, after the consulship of the aforesaid distinguished man. (67.) Bishop Simplicius to Acacius, concerning Kalendion, ordained by him as Bishop of Antioch. Wounded by the letters of the most clement prince and of your Charity concerning the sacrilegious and most deadly slaughter which was committed at Antioch, and exceedingly affected with grief, I respond, adding:

if that which I had long ago written concerning Peter and his other accomplices, and which I had requested you to suggest to his Piety together with the other brethren who were present, had been ordained as it ought, the rashness of the heretics would not have come to so great a crime, nor would any necessity have arisen, such that the aforesaid church could not otherwise be aided except by that very remedy diminishing something of its right. For although it has profited unto peace that a bishop was ordained for the Antiochenes by your Charity, at the command of the most Christian prince and even without prejudice to the canons, yet it was not done without odium, of which the example must henceforth be guarded against—as even he who commanded it testifies.

In which it is fitting that we render thanks to his Piety, since he so tempered the power of his own glory that with most faithful devotion he submitted to the rules of the fathers the things he commanded, and did not receive into authority that which he decreed should be prohibited in a following age—namely, that in this person only, whom by his command and out of zeal for peace you consecrated as prelate for the Antiochenes, not by your own usurpation, and which was done by necessity, it should suffice. In which we recognize that your Charity's service was not unreasonable, since, regarding the rights of the churches, you testify that you long and not without reason held back, lest you should seem to be soliciting that which you could not deny to so great a prince and in so grave a cause.

Wherefore, most dear brother, not unmindful of the ancient institutions which are approved in you, just as you thoroughly perceive that we judge to be pardonable that which is certain to have been commanded you, so do you yourself, giving honour to the fathers, strive that there be no necessity of doing that which you now desire to be purged by satisfaction. (68.) Bishop Simplicius to Acacius, through Uranius.

We wonder and likewise grieve that the care of charity and faith should lie so neglected in the mind of your Charity, that, when the most Christian emperor, by the prompting of piety and religion, sent faithful and diligent messengers to address me and to consult concerning ecclesiastical causes, you yourself—forgetful both of mutual grace and of pastoral vigilance—were unwilling either to speak with us or to think it right that we should be instructed concerning those things which pertained to the safeguarding of catholic truth. And therefore, most dear brother, learn that those things which you perceive to be blamed by us with not undeserved and free affection must be weighed with better diligence;

accordingly, exercising the office delegated to you, prudently raise up your senses, and vigorously keep watch for the safeguarding of the statutes of the synod of Chalcedon, lest through our negligence and sloth a deadly loss creep upon the flocks of the Lord. Recently, from the Egyptian synod—which was both very great in number and supported by the communion of the catholic faith—and from almost the whole clergy of the see of Alexandria, a report sent to us according to custom disclosed that our brother of holy memory and former fellow-bishop Timothy had died, and that in his place, by the harmonious will of the faithful, John had been substituted, in whom all things were believed to be established for the priesthood.

Nothing at all seemed to remain, except that—as we gave thanks to our God and rejoiced that a catholic prelate had succeeded to the ministry of the deceased without disturbance—it should take its longed-for confirmation by the assent also of apostolic moderation; when behold, as I was disposing such things according to custom, writings of the most tranquil prince were delivered to me, in which he declared the aforesaid man unworthy of the priesthood, as one guilty of perjury (which he said was not unknown to your Fraternity also). At once I drew back my foot and recalled my sentence concerning his confirmation, lest I should be judged to have acted too hastily against so great and such a testimony.

But this made me not a little astonished: that in those same letters of his, he should think that Peter—who is proved to have long since been an associate and leader of the heretics (which we remember is not hidden from your Charity's conscience, and we trust you know the very instructions by which he was refuted, and of whom there is no doubt that he still remains outside catholic communion, and it is certain that we have often written concerning his being expelled from that city)—should be promoted to the governance of the aforesaid church, and should promise that he agrees with the definitions of the right faith; from whose fellowship, as I said above, he lives as much a stranger as he is separated from her communion.

To which if he now answers that he would return, he cannot enter except through satisfaction befitting the Christian rules, and accordingly cannot ascend to the summit of sacerdotal dignity, but should be fitted, consequently, for the remedy which is to be applied after penitence, desiring, as one reconciled, the aid of his own soul—not aspiring to the rank of the highest honour, he who is convicted of having long been perverse—lest, under the appearance of one returning, he seek not the remedy of sincere salvation but find the means of propagating depravity: which being done, we do not so much draw such a man from error as inflict ruin upon the faithful, and in that manner, violating the statutes of the synod of Chalcedon, we open an approach into the church for ravening wolves to prowl by a savage joining.

Finally, he is said to be demanded as pontiff by those very same men from whom he was long ago divided from catholic participation—so that it may appear plainly enough that they do not wish the right faith, but seek in their own prelate the power of a wicked dogma; nor can a trustworthy peace be generated between them and those who truly believe, from that source whence the deadly domination of heretical minds grows and the pitiable captivity of catholics ensues.

By so great evils, therefore, and dangers, for the sake of the quality of the priesthood and in regard for catholic preaching, you are bound on every side by the greatest concerns wisely to resist by whatever means you can; nor is it lawful for your Charity to work more slothfully at that which you do not doubt pertains to the cause of your soul, in respect of your honour and estimation. Therefore, opportunities being found, cease not incessantly, by supplicating for the catholic faith, to recall the most clement prince's will from those things which are harmful to Christian dogma, and to inform it diligently according to these things which we command, and rather to press upon it toward that part which is friendly to truth.

These things—as the venerable Apostle Paul instructed holy Timothy—'in season, out of season,' by insinuating, beseeching, and expounding, you shall by no means cease to urge; and to indicate to us truthfully, from time to time, what things are being done and what ought to be done, so that in the multiplying of the Lord's talents committed to your dispensation you may show yourself a faithful servant, if you refuse not to persuade, not only in the church over which you preside, but wherever you can, for catholic unity and for the paternal definitions. Given on the Ides of July, in the consulship of the distinguished Severinus. (69.) Bishop Simplicius to Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople.

By what reason the beginning of the Antiochene priest was indicated somewhat late, though it could by no means be hidden from us, yet both he himself and his own synod indicated it. Which, just as we did not wish it to happen, so we were ready to excuse that which necessity caused, since that which is not voluntary cannot be called into a charge of guilt. And therefore, through our brother and fellow-bishop Anastasius, who was sent from the aforesaid region, and the letters of your Charity being received, we render to your Charity the interchange of mutual discourse: having necessarily embraced the priesthood of our brother and fellow-bishop Kalendion in the bosom of the apostolic see, we number the prelate of so great a city into our fellowship, by the grace of Christ our God, in the union of the college.

But we wonder that we have learned nothing from your instruction concerning the state of the church of Alexandria, which we have never found to be as it is now held, so that wicked men, through the occasion of the death of Timothy of holy memory, attempt to hold that same church captive. Wherefore your Charity must act with the most clement prince, lest under his empire that be overthrown which could be obtained in the times of a tyrant. Given on the Ides of July, in the consulship of the distinguished Severinus. (70.) The Holy Synod gathered at the shrine of blessed Peter the Apostle, to all the orthodox presbyters and archimandrites established at Constantinople and in Bithynia, most beloved sons: greeting in the Lord.

Long ago and from the beginning, the faith of your holiness was approved to us and to the apostolic see, the head of us all; nor can it be doubted that you so hold the constancy of true piety toward God, that you have, by the gift of the divine Spirit, the diligence even of discerning the just from the impious, the faithful from the unfaithful, the catholics from the heretics. Glorying in the Lord concerning this, although there is nothing in the cause of faith which we know to be hidden from you, yet, lest anyone perchance be of little mind, for the solicitude of our ministry we bring forth the words specially spoken by the Lord through the prophet Ezekiel:

'If,' He says, 'the watchman see the sword coming and sound not the trumpet, and the people keep not themselves, and the sword come and take a soul from among them, he indeed is caught in his own iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.' Behold, you see what care constrains us, what commands terrify us, that what must be guarded against we may not keep silent even to peoples that are hostile, since it is the more to be feared to be subject to divine punishments; and, since whoever guards himself can without doubt be saved by hearing the heavenly voice, the watchman's guilt becomes graver if his silence should lose anyone.

Wherefore we record what things have been done, when Vitalis and Misenus, established in our judgement, were setting forth the causes of the legation for the faith entrusted to them. Since the sons of darkness are more astute than the sons of light, they were found to be prevaricators of the legation entrusted to them, Acacius circumventing and rather oppressing them. So that—as far as was foreknown by the mobility of rumour—it was established that they, contrary to the form of the precept, had rendered their forbidden service to the aforesaid man:

for whereas they had been specially sent for this, that in the church, with you listening, they should reprove him, and, Peter being shut out of the city of Alexandria (whom holy Pope Simplicius had often demanded to be banished into distant exile), the catholic bishops and clerics and peoples should be aided; these men, before you, among the venerable altars, not only communicated with Acacius, who was perpetrating things contrary to what had been forbidden, but with those very men whom they had been sent to avoid—saying they did so unknowingly—nor did they wish to aid the catholic bishops and clerics whom Acacius was persecuting, translated away by cunning seduction; and when they lied that they had done all things as had been commanded them, upon the reading of Acacius' letters, which they themselves had brought, it was made manifest that they had without excuse seen Peter and Acacius to hold one and the same view—Acacius, who had reported that Peter was condemned under holy Simplicius even before his episcopate, and had been driven from the honour of that episcopate.

It was also then added, when these matters were being examined, that Acacius had made that John preside over the church of the Tyrians, who had been ordained bishop of the Apameans by Peter, the tyrant of the church of Antioch, but, in no way received, his own ordainer being expelled, did not fear to occupy that same see. Whom then the hypocrite Acacius so caused to be condemned by the apostolic see, that from them even the name of Christians was taken away, as the acts held before him make manifest. These things, therefore, and worse being ascertained, we have suspended Vitalis and Misenus from the sacerdotal college and from the sacrosanct communion.

Acacius also, clinging more perniciously to the members of Christ and scattering the one catholic church of God throughout cities and provinces, we have judged not to be held among the holy bishops nor among Christians. For how could it be that he who rends the tunic of Christ—which not even those crucifying Him dared to divide—should be reckoned in the number of the faithful? Therefore, pondering all things that befit us in the fear of God, and perceiving clearly, lest the so-often-extinguished plague of the Eutychian heresy—of which Acacius is defender and patron—creeping like a cancer should scatter the members of Christ, we record that he is even now, by the sentence of anathema, cut off from the ecclesiastical body as a putrid part, obeying the words of the Lord:

If your eye or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it from you. And that your Charity may recognize that we hold the venerable synods — Nicaea, the earlier Ephesus, and Chalcedon — against Nestorius and the most impious Eutyches, after that sentence which was pronounced against Acacius, the disturber of the whole Church of the East, now once more assembled we make use of these letters to you, appending the aforementioned sentence which it was resolved to direct to Acacius through Tutus, defender of the church, lest any who wish to circumvent the truth with the most malignant flatteries should lead astray the simpler folk.

For if snares had not been set for the orthodox by land and sea, very many of us could have come with that same sentence against Acacius. Whence now, gathered again for the cause of the Antiochene church before the most blessed apostle Peter, we have hastened to make known to your Love the custom which has always prevailed among us: as often as within Italy the lord priests are assembled for ecclesiastical causes, especially those of the faith, this custom is kept, that the successor of the presiding pontiffs of the apostolic see, in the person of all the priests of the whole of Italy and according to the solicitude for all the churches belonging to him, should determine all things — he who is the head of all, the Lord saying to blessed Peter the apostle:

You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Following this voice, the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers gathered at Nicaea conferred upon the holy Roman church the confirmation of affairs and its authority, both of which — by the grace of Christ that bestows them — she guards through all successions even unto our own age. What therefore was resolved by the holy synod before blessed Peter the apostle, as we have said, the most blessed man Felix, our head, pope and archbishop, made known through Tutus the defender of the church, and it is contained in what follows.

But Acacius so extended the impiety of his pestilent domination that even when cast down he still insults, and when cut off he ceases not to rage; and though he is held altogether outside the body of the church, yet he tears at her members and testifies that it is written of him: 'The impious man, when he has come into the depth of evils, despises,' adding worse to what went before by persecuting the living though he is already dead. His soul, by grievous transgression, has incurred the condition of the second death, because — the holy bishop Calendio having, as we have learned, lately been driven out — he sent into his church that Peter whom he had himself so often before condemned, so that very many catholic priests, if it be true, have withdrawn and abandoned their sees, and our pearls have been cast to swine and dogs.