Papal Letters 1 part 31/50

Let us judge faith herself to say: 'Behold the desirable time, behold the longed-for gathering of the fruits of the faithful, that by small sufferings they may repay great gifts!' We would wish to exhort your charity at greater length, for the dispensation entrusted to us; but what need is there of the goads of our voice, where we are taught by the examples of the apostles and Fathers to endure sufferings for Christ with magnanimity—examples that through the losses of human things have shown us the increases of heavenly virtues? Let us therefore proclaim undaunted, with great confidence, the clear disciplines of the Church; far be from us the word of the prophet who says: 'and the priests have concealed the truth.'

For from whom is it hidden that knowledge is to be required of the disciples from their teachers, and that what harms the followers by not being declared is perilous for those who keep silence? For the truth must labor among those with whom, undisclosed, a lie lurks under the color of truth; great is the strength of those who assail the faith, so long as the sentences pronounced against them are not manfully asserted. But of you I wish to say better things: that those things which have been thrown into confusion by the wicked may through you obtain the remedy of correction. It is not so hard that anyone be deceived as that the deceived one persist in error. This is an evil, and heavier than all evils, when the members dissent from their own body;

For even if weakness does not seize every feature one by one, yet, according to the apostolic word, the whole body must be weighed down in part. Wherefore the communion of the condemned is to be shunned; according to the blessed apostle, let no one blush at the profession of faith, for it is the power of God to everyone who believes. Let us turn away from the sacrilegious error of Eutyches, which agrees with Manichaean malice; let us also with equal purpose avoid the communion of those who have been reared by such men, which now, like a diseased contagion, attempts to creep into the churches of your regions. For let no one dissemble that he is borne by the same storm as the aforesaid, until, separated from their communion, he enters the harbor of the true faith. These things indeed I admonish as one who loves, not accuse in the hatred of a persecutor.

For he who censures what is blameworthy but supplies nothing useful has rather the zeal of one reproaching than the affection of one loving; and he who exhorts to profitable things more vehemently portrays the image of a good purpose, inviting them so that useful things may be more fervently sought. Wherefore, brethren, desiring that good unity of the Church and presuming upon the blessed comeliness of sacred concord, let us say with holy David: 'How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity'; that the apostle Paul may also say of us: 'but you all are one in Christ.' For until that unity returns, let no one doubt that the same things will nonetheless come which lately happened in the Church of Constantinople.

Concerning these things I must alike groan and keep silence: for those who believed that the admonition of the apostolic see was to be neglected have deservedly fallen into those things which are wont to come upon those destitute of consolation. If anyone therefore, thinking of his own salvation, desires to keep the apostolic judgments, when he has separated himself from the defilement of the aforesaid, let him know without doubt that he is a partaker of our communion:

But whoever does not remove himself from the fellowship of those whom the apostolic see has condemned, let him know that by no pretense, no fabrication, and no cunning can he escape the vigilance of the Church; for just as we gladly embrace those who dissociate themselves from the poisons of the above-written—that is, of Eutyches, Dioscorus, Timothy, Peter, and Acacius—so our care and solicitude ever keeps watch concerning the followers of these men, lest they be able to escape. And in another hand: May God keep you safe, most dear brethren. Given on the eighth day before the Ides of October, after the consulship of Felix, vir clarissimus. (105.) To the sacred and most blessed father and fellow-minister Hormisdas, Dorotheus, greeting in the Lord.

Solomon, that most blessed man setting forth all the marvels of the divine precepts, says in a certain place: 'As cold water to a thirsting soul, so is good news from a far country'; and holy David, striking the spiritual lyre, sings: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings of good things!' But indeed you all also will say the same.

But what is so sweet to the soul of man, or what so fattens the bones, as to learn by beautiful tidings that the nourisher of true peace and the never-erring champion of the right faith is passing to the helm of the holy churches, and, as from some citadel, is summoning the scattered to concord—the members of the church, hastening at once into the primacy of its see, which Christ our God entrusted to you, granting to the supplications of the venerable father—members that formerly despised concord now coming to unity, and doing away with the preceding division and envy by the reckoning of your ordination alone, and now that every bound of that holy church stands in concord and serenity?

These things we learned not long ago; and I was hoping, both knowing the ancient custom of the Church and hearing of your fellowly and blameless manner, to learn things more firm and more manifest by your letters.

But since I have considered that you were detained by the winter season from fulfilling these things, and since it was fitting and due that a full and God-loving charity should pass over even scrupulous matters, I write and address the blessed head of your holiness, signifying that I rejoice together with the blessed see of the most holy apostle Peter, that it is governed by such a hand—one that took up the office of prince, not as one who would snatch the honor, but as one who was snatched to it by that see—and, as manifold report hands down and as we believe it to be, a nourisher of peace and a contender for the right faith, crowned as with precious stones by the kindness of mind and the charity that is toward all.

For I wish you, venerable father, to know all this: that, receiving from the ancient, holy, and venerable Fathers affection for that blessed see, and guarding this as a paternal heritage, I desire and hasten to add this—that in this zeal there may come a useful end, by the kindness indeed of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, and by the intercessions in all things of the most blessed apostle Peter and of Paul most wise in all things, so that to their venerable see and to your beatitude the honor justly due may be guarded and rendered; that in your times the apostolic see may, as it were, receive its primacy with fitting honor, and that all discord may depart from the Church, which is catholic to us all, by our common will, and by that of our Lord and God Jesus

Christ, depart from the Church—as we ever anathematize both the impious Nestorius and Eutyches, and those who keep their teachings, and those who were or still are their followers, and every heresy, and hold the right and uncontaminable faith unshaken like a sure and firm anchor, and are ready for peace, nothing—far be it—hindering, especially since your venerable head, as we have learned, abhors contentious men, for whom both life and food is the separation of God's priests wrangling among themselves; so that these, not being swiftly recognized by all as wolves in sheep's clothing, may nonetheless easily be driven from the apostolic Church.

These things I have now written to your blessed head through Patricius, the vir spectabilis, our common son, both surpassing reason by the affection of custom, and bound by charity toward that blessed see, and desiring every day to see the fitting and due veneration preserved for it. Write, therefore, O blessed one in all things, as to one who is of one mind and wishes even to offer his very soul for the orthodox faith and the peace of the holy churches, and that the things befitting blessed Peter may be preserved in all things for the venerable see. This will easily come to pass by the ordered unity of all, all hastening to you as to a firm harbor; for such men are wont to make light of divisions and the rest, and do not keep the things becoming to order.

All the brotherhood that is joined to your holiness, I and those who are with me greatly salute in the Lord. And in another hand: Pray that I be saved in the Lord, most holy and most blessed fathers! Received: the letter of Dorotheus, bishop of the church of Thessalonica, sent through Patricius, vir spectabilis, on the fifth day before the Kalends of April, in the consulship of Florentius, vir clarissimus. (106.) To the most beloved brother Dorotheus, Hormisdas. Where it is in the interest of charity to keep the commandments, even if something should occur of the kind that could stir anyone's feelings, nevertheless, in order that the things we have said above concerning the preservation of concord may be kept, it is fitting that it be passed over with equanimity; for surely, if anything of the sort should arise from ignorance, it can receive excuse from that very simplicity.

Our God has established His Church by His own ordering, and what is known to be arranged by divine precepts can in no way be passed over. I have not known you to be ignorant of the knowledge or understanding of this: for good things are praised in the doing, and then the cultivation of words is adorned, when it duly joins together things befitting one another. For we have received the letters of your charity through Patricius, our son, a vir spectabilis, in which we hoped to find a full and commendable work, such that there would be nothing to separate you from the integrity of unity.

But since in these very things you promise that affection which can especially call us to what we have foretold, we pour out prayers to our Lord that He Himself—whose cause is also being handled—having wiped away or cut off all scandals from His Church, may make His people joined under one consensus and equal faith, and may not suffer anything to be found in His priests such that anyone, by his own hatreds, or by empty intentions, or by wishing to please men to the injury of God—which is a sacrilege—might wander from the future hope, rather than, according to the blessed apostle, despising all worldly things. I exhort for the sake of the common remedy, I invite for the salvation of the faithful, I urge for the general medicine.

For who is content to see divided those in whose unity he might glory? Hence there is need of a common labor, so that we, preserving what we have received from our Fathers, may be able, secure concerning these things, to stand in that divine judgment. (107.) The victor Anastasius, pious, fortunate, renowned, triumphant, ever Augustus, to Hormisdas, most holy and religious archbishop and patriarch. We do not think it unknown to your beatitude that, according to the quality of the time, what is to be spoken and what kept silent has been arranged even by the provident admonition of divine Scripture. The time of silence being now completed, it has granted us incitements to speak; and therefore we have perceived it to be opportune to commit to your hearing the things that are being stirred up among us under the appearance of religion.

Before this, indeed, the harshness of those to whom was committed the care of the episcopate which you now bear made us refrain from sending letters; but now the sweet report running about you has brought to our memory the goodness of paternal affection, so that we seek those things which God our Saviour taught the holy apostles by His divine word, and especially blessed Peter, in whom He established the strength of His Church. With these aforesaid beginnings, therefore, we exhort that your apostolate make itself a mediator concerning the things that have been stirred up from the regions of Scythia—whence we have judged it fitting that a council also be held—so that, contentions being cut away, the unity of the holy Church may be restored.

But all our wishes are granted to us, if by your prayers and by frequent addresses of writing you are mindful of us. Given the day before the Ides of January at Constantinople, and received on the fifth day before the Kalends of April, in the consulship of Anthemius and Florentius, viri clarissimi, through Patricius. (108.) Hormisdas to Anastasius Augustus. Thanks to the heavenly Power, which through the addresses of your piety has deigned to end a long silence, granting such a beginning of colloquy that we both rejoice at the prosperity of your clemency and trust that the holy Church can, by God's gift, return to unity.

This is the work of heavenly clemency, and this was ever the prayer of our predecessors, whom the very course of events declares to have been ministers of the paternal tradition and guardians of the right faith. For peace is the beginning of all goodness, than which, as regards the worship of the catholic faith, nothing ought to be esteemed more powerful, nothing more exalted: for this, indeed, it is fitting both to do all things and to endure all, for whoever desires to be an approved disciple of the holy Scriptures; this mother and nurse of all good things it is established that Christ our Lord proclaimed to His disciples, saying: 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you.'

Providing for this by the religious care of our purpose, God inspiring us, we, keeping the divine precepts specially in reverence for the blessed apostle Peter, think upon the concord of the orthodox Church. This matter procures for your empire a greater defense of heavenly favor; for veneration rightly offered to God grants to devout minds an impregnable wall of defense. Accordingly, with poured-out prayers we beseech Almighty God, that He who granted to you the zeal of seeking the peace of the churches may Himself also, under the consecration of the catholic faith, grant to your desire the effect in this matter. Moreover, by the sacred addresses directed to us, your piety has deigned to make mention of a holy council.

Concerning which matter we shall then be able to give a fullest reply, when you shall have willed that we clearly know the cause of the assembly. But now, since by the gift of our Lord the opportunity for address has been given, we shall render, with fitting reverence, the due offices of discourse. Given the day before the Nones of April, in the consulship of Florentius, vir clarissimus, through Patricius. (109.) Anastasius Augustus to Pope Hormisdas. Divine matters are to be preferred to all business; for with Almighty God favorable, we trust that the commonwealth is both to be preserved and to be improved.

Since, therefore, certain doubts concerning the orthodox religion seem to have been stirred up in the regions of Scythia, it has especially pleased our clemency that a venerable synod be celebrated in the city of Heraclea in the province of Europa, so that, with minds in concord and all truth discussed, our true faith may become more manifestly known to the whole world, so that henceforth there can be no doubt or discord. Wherefore let your holiness, with such most reverend bishops as shall please you—whom, from the churches established under the care of your priesthood, you shall have proved to be suitable and instructed toward the orthodox religion—deign to come to the aforesaid city of Heraclea within the day of the Kalends of July. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends

of January, at Constantinople, in the consulship of Senator, vir clarissimus. Received the day before the Ides of May, in the consulship of Florentius, vir clarissimus. (110.) Hormisdas to Anastasius Augustus. Through Severianus. Your clemency rightly trusts, as you signified by the glorious addresses sent to me, that it especially profits your commonwealth if the cause of the orthodox faith be preferred to all business. For this, venerable emperor, is the more wholesome care of a ruler concerning the governance he has undertaken: that by good works he win for himself the favor of Him who both bestows and rules the whole empire.

It befits me therefore to make supplication also to our Lord Jesus Christ, that He who willed your Piety to take thought for the concord of His Church may deign to grant this effect in this matter, so that in your times the whole round world, endowed with orthodox faith, may exult. But concerning those things which you have commanded regarding the synodal assembly, what ought to be done I have appointed to be conveyed to your Glory through my brethren and fellow-bishops, who will follow speedily; by whose report, if divine favour attends my wishes, you will be able to learn all things more fittingly. Given on the eighth day before the Ides of July, in the consulship of Florentius. (111.) ANASTASIUS AUGUSTUS TO POPE HORMISDAS. THROUGH THEOPOMPUS AND SEVERIANUS, MOST DISTINGUISHED MEN.

All things which kindness has conceived are propagated with a sweet eagerness of spirit and a praiseworthy haste, nor do they think that any rest can be granted them until they have brought the things desired to a most wholesome effect; and then there comes a certain rest of that very haste, when the hope of one's vows has been attained. This in the present we have borne with sure reasoning, until heavenly favour should grant both an opening to our petition and a serene effect to your promise. Therefore, because either the very great length of the journey or the harshness of winter beyond the accustomed measure made uncertain to us what we were hoping for, we have meanwhile compressed our desires within our minds, laying hold of the divine benefits, which by their intervention determine the good outcome of a matter.

Acknowledging therefore that His piety bestowed on us the first grace, that the legation sent to your Beatitude might happily return, we proceeded to the second, that the promised legation might be directed from us, through which there might both be a commemoration of those things which we conferred in long deliberation with the most holy men, and likewise, with God as author, the serene light both of our petition and of your grace might shine forth to the full, and the awaited joys be granted to the whole world. And so, in place of commemoration or as an honour of salutation, we have appointed Theopompus, an illustrious man, count of the domestics, administering the school of our sacred palace, faithful to us both for his character and for his very affection toward our native province, and likewise Severianus, a most distinguished man,

count of our sacred consistory, whom we have directed to your Holiness, that, attesting the tenor of the letters with their own voice, they may urge on to speed the things looked for, which we also believe have been pleasing to heavenly mercy. Given on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of August at Constantinople, in the consulship of Petrus, most distinguished man. (112.) HORMISDAS TO ANASTASIUS AUGUSTUS. THROUGH THEOPOMPUS AND SEVERIANUS. You relate, most clement emperor, that your mind is troubled with an ambitious avidity until the desired restoration of the hoped-for unity should come to pass. Good are the desires of salvation, and praiseworthy is the intention that thus commends itself to God; for it is a special proof of prudence when one impatiently seeks that which it believes useful to itself.

For if in diseases of the body a slow cure is harmful, how much more grievously in the health of the soul is a too-late appetite for faithful remedies to be borne? Let us be admonished by spiritual precepts, lest the things which can profit be deferred to a later day, as the most wise Solomon cries out: 'Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and put it not off from day to day' (Sir 5:8); for as the times of life are in uncertainty, so the remedies of the soul ought to be in safety, that he may enter into the joy of his lord (Mt 25:21), whom the Lord at His coming may find working those things that please Him. Whence I confess that I too was astonished why the promised legation should have delayed so long, since force must be applied that the kingdoms of heaven may be seized (Mt 11:12).

Yet the very impulse which the address of your Meekness declares promises hope of supernal mercy; for it is from above, even the very willing of that which is good. And I am confident, since He who has begun a good work in you will perfect it unto the end (Phil 1:6). Therefore persist in the way which you have begun, and, spurning the slippery paths of those who err, keep with us firm footsteps upon the rock. By such consent the holy Church grew, as the history of the Acts of the Apostles attests in these words: 'Of the multitude of believers there was one heart and one soul' (Acts 4:32). For how shall they be able to be bound together by the bonds of grace, whose hearts stand apart in their opinions? Grant, lord emperor, that the effect of deeds may prove the faith of words.

For the hearts of men are known not by speeches but by fruits, since also Abraham our father pleased God not by bare faith but by a work commending his faith. Whence, whether for the dispensation entrusted to me, or weighing the kindness of your Piety toward me, lord son, I exhort and beseech you, that the zeal for peace which you display through your writings you may direct, with God as helper, toward settling together with us those matters in which the churches labour; for according to the prophet, 'Much peace to them that love thy name, and there is no stumbling-block for them' (Ps 119:165). It is not unknown to your Meekness what things separate us from that unity which we desire to restore.

Give heed that, by praising, the things you profess may be fulfilled in effect, and with all your strength follow the discipline of the apostle, whose communion you believe must be sought. Wholly avoid the ruinous contagions of the harmful, knowing that the impious have no portion with the religious, nor is there any fellowship of faith with perfidy. It follows that he who detests the authors of errors should hate their followers; let that be held execrable in the flower which is condemned in the seed. Offer this gift to God; for your times, I pray, offer it; long already has Christ awaited this victim from you, for the great things which He has bestowed upon you. What need is there to employ prayers with Him who is Himself a suppliant? You enjoin the senate of the city of Rome to exhort me to peace;

yet I not only turn words of supplication to you together with these, but I prostrate myself at your feet together with the universal Church. Hear me discharging a legation on Christ's behalf: do not suffer the members of Christ to be torn apart by wicked dogs; cut off what you see is incurable, and cure what is sick. Why should the sound parts, joined to the invalid, be shaken? Keep the order which Truth itself prescribes, and you have given back to the world the peace which you demand. This I both demand under the present occasion, and again and more often I shall take care to supplicate, hoping that this importunity of mine will both be pleasing to God and, among you also, through assiduous petitions—since the Lord has taught us this—will not prove to be in vain. Given...

(113.) ANASTASIUS AUGUSTUS TO THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME. THROUGH THEOPOMPUS AND SEVERIANUS, MOST DISTINGUISHED MEN. Emperor Caesar Flavius Anastasius, Pontifex, renowned Germanicus, renowned Alamannicus, renowned Francicus, renowned Sarmaticus, renowned, holding the tribunician power for the twenty-fifth time, consul for the third time, pious, fortunate, victor and triumpher, ever Augustus, father of the fatherland, to the proconsuls, consuls, praetors, tribunes of the plebs, and his senate, says greeting. If you and your children are well, it is good; I and my army are well. As often as the public affairs of both parties are consulted with favourable will, not only exhortation but also demand is believed to be fitting, so that, with two causes concurring into one, the mind, being incited, [may attain] what is happy and good for the parties,

may be able to attain it. For if Christ our God and Lord, both by His most gentle will and by a certain petition of dispensation, has called us back to Himself and, having redeemed us by His own blood, restored us to liberty, that He might grant salvation to mortality, it does not seem absurd that the conscript fathers, joined to the imperial petition both before the most glorious king and before the most blessed pope of the fostering city of Rome, should hope for those things which, God assenting, may profit us and them in common; that is, that they may not listen to the concocted speeches of fugitives, composed of mere lies, but, having received the satisfaction which both truth and the inquiry of the legates who were sent have laid open, may concur toward the desired peace with a will acceptable to God.

For it is undoubted that from a long series of years your constancy vindicates a great part of the commonwealth. Therefore your most holy assembly ought with skilful zeal and provident labour to strive both before the exalted king, to whom the power or care of ruling you is committed, and before the venerable pope, to whom the faculty of interceding with God has been granted, that they may deign to expend the goodness of their mind in that part in which the members of each commonwealth may be saved with hoped-for health. For you will fulfil the ancient custom, well known to your counsel, if the things which are fitting to the public utility you shall cause, by treating, hoping, and demanding, to attain their effect, with God as author. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends of August

at Chalcedon, in the consulship of Petrus. (114.) RESCRIPT OF THE SENATE OF THE CITY OF ROME TO ANASTASIUS AUGUSTUS. THROUGH THEOPOMPUS AND SEVERIANUS, MOST DISTINGUISHED MEN. If the devotion of suppliants is always first regarded by rulers, invincible emperor, if grace is won by the obedience of subjects alone, you will undoubtedly recognize with how great rejoicing the oracles of your sacred command were received by your senate, especially since to this there was added also the mind of our lord the most invincible king Theoderic, your son, enjoining obedience to your mandates; and since we know that above all your benefits we are then the more exalted, when you deem us worthy to whom command ought to be given.

Soon therefore, in zeal to fulfil the sacred command, we believed that the most blessed pope Hormisdas must be entreated. Of whom it is too little to say that he anticipated the vows of the suppliants with his kindness; but he also joined his prayers with ours, that what you exhort might be done, asserting his own will by evangelical testimonies, showing that the world is weighed down, above the multitude of its sins, more heavily by their scandals, since this is that dominical voice: 'Woe to the world because of scandals' (Mt 18:7); and that men ought to cut off the scandalizing part of the members, rather than that, by not renouncing scandals, they be cast into the eternal fire (Mt 18:8).

But also after these things, by examples of the divine reading, he showed how good are the fruits of peace, when he said that even the apostle Paul, full of the grace of God, yet found nothing better which he might wish for those to whom he wished well, than that the peace of God, which is above all excellence, might abound in their minds (Phil 4:7); and that in the Gospel of the Lord there is this voice saying: 'For the peacemakers shall be called the sons of God' (Mt 5:9). And again, returning to that same teacher of all the scriptures, he showed how much greater is charity than even that faith itself—by which we both presume upon the heavenly kingdoms and, by believing, are saved from the torments of sins—adding such a testimony: 'Hope, faith, charity; but the greatest of all is charity' (1 Cor 13:13).