Papal Letters 1 part 33/50

But my desire is to follow your teaching, as did among the saints my predecessor Alcison, and I anathematize Dioscorus and Timothy, called Aelurus, and Peter their successor, and Acacius, mingled with these by communion with Peter, and Peter who disturbed the Church of Antioch, following in all things the synodical and properly apostolic letters written by the true prelate of the Roman Church, Leo. But I ask:

instruct me more fully and more perfectly in what things ought to be observed, and make known through your protecting letters from what things I ought to abstain, so that even if perhaps, still untrained, I be assigned to the order of readings, or if I have said or done anything unbecoming to your apostolic teachings, being instructed by your discourses I may be able to withstand the machinations of the heretics. For by doing this, most holy ones, you will find the bishops of our holy synod firmer, and you will confirm the clergy and people of good works, rendering the holy Church of Nicopolis, as it were, a household one to you.

But receive kindly, as befits you, when asked, the venerable deacon Rufinus, sent for so necessary a cause, and, granting him confidence, deign to secure his swift return to us, bearing your spiritual and apostolic ordinances, most holy one in all things. I and those who are with me most heartily greet all the brotherhood of Your Beatitude in the Lord. (Year 118.) HORMISDAS TO JOHN, BISHOP OF NICOPOLIS, THROUGH RUFINUS THE DEACON. We rejoiced greatly in the Lord, dearest brother, on receiving your letters, in which you profess that you have received the priesthood by the grace of God. This is sure faith, this hope secure without ambiguity, whereby it is believed that the cause of every good consists in the heavenly dispensation.

Having knowledge of this thing, dearest brother, you confess with a religious mind your gratitude for the benefits which you have obtained from our God—although this too descends from the same fount of clemency, that human humility submit itself to its Author: for He says, 'Upon whom does my Spirit rest, if not upon the humble and quiet and him who trembles at my words?' In these things, therefore, in which you prove yourself such, there will shine forth more clearly even to others a future example of this virtue, since you have been brought even to this by God's ordaining, that in you also the Church of the Catholics may glory.

For as one learned in the divine testimonies and, according to the Apostle, formed by the instruction of the sacred writings, you gave this omen of your ordination, that against those who go astray you should agree with the sentences of the Apostolic See. For neither could you otherwise requite the bestower of such great benefits, unless against His enemies you showed a manifest zeal of apostolic confession. For it is known that those stand outside the religious enclosures who, even though they themselves profess a conscience of faith, [lack] confidence...; and therefore even fruitless among them is the equality of holy communion, however congruous with the religious, since without doubt he who does not use the liberty which he has deserved confesses himself subject to iniquities.

Why should we glory in those disciplines which we do not follow? Falsely does he call one master who does not prove himself a disciple of his instructions.

But since you have now resumed with us all things alike in confession and the affection of your own liberty, again desiring to be sharers of the paternal inheritance, embrace the grace of the ancient tradition and persist in the stability of that unshaken foundation, not changing your hearts with the times (for such changeableness is wont to belong to an inconstant purpose, and therefore one ought to cleave to things well founded, since the divine clemency knows how to cherish such endeavours), so that the firmness of your faith may bear fruit for you from the salvation of others, and by the fervour of your zeal the mind of others also may be kindled to the recovery of their own good things, so that concerning you too the holy Apostle may be believed to have said: 'Your emulation hath provoked very many.'

Therefore, having condemned the impieties of Nestorius and Eutyches according to the synodical decrees, and likewise execrating their followers, let us say with exultation: 'Go out from the midst and be separated, and touch not the unclean thing,' says the Lord. For how shall anyone detest the authors of evil inventions, if he does not turn away from their followers? Or how does he hate the origin who does not execrate also the offspring? In the disciples is preached the fame of the teachers, and so long as the root of ill-scattered seeds, tended by successors, shall have flourished, so long the memory of their authors shall not perish. Let Acacius also be added to the ruined disciplines of Eutyches, mingled under the communion of Peter with the error of all those condemned;

which your Charity, insofar as it asserts its faith, has clearly expressed in its letters. For the fuller instruction of your faith, in what order it is fitting that those returning be received into our communion, we have subjoined a brief statement, hoping in God the bestower of all good things, that by the praiseworthy earnestness of your Charity concerning the faith, it may profit not only the salvation of those who are joined to you by nearness, but also of those to whom the swift fame of your faith and religious will shall have reached. Rufinus indeed, the deacon who presented your letters to us, we have received in the charity of Christ;

and, commending him to the prayers of the Apostles, we have sent him back in peace, urging that you read out to the people the letters directed by us both to your Charity and to the synod. Know that we too have done this for the commendation of your faith. Given on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Peter. (Year 119.) A COPY OF THE REPORT OF THE SYNOD OF OLD EPIRUS. TO OUR LORD, IN ALL THINGS MOST HOLY AND MOST BLESSED, FATHER OF FATHERS, FELLOW-MINISTER AND PRINCE OF BISHOPS, HORMISDAS: THE SYNOD OF OLD EPIRUS—JOHN, MATTHAEUS, CONSTANTINE, CHRISTODORUS, HILARIUS, PHILIP, JULIAN, AND CHRYSIPPUS. If we should attempt to use fitting prefaces, it is necessary to compose the expression of these things with many tears.

For very many of us were in reigning Constantinople, while your most holy vicars, the bishops Ennodius and Fortunatus, the priest Venantius, the deacon Vitalis, and the notary Hilarus were residing there, holding fast the contest of piety they had undertaken. And with us also was our father and archbishop Alcison, now made among the saints, who, using supplicatory libelli with all boldness, was deemed worthy before Your Beatitude to be in communion with your Apostolic See together with us. But since suddenly He who holds the power over all things called him to Himself, we, restrained by unrestrained weeping, nevertheless reached our homeland, by no means enduring error, because of the grace of God, but everywhere following your decrees.

But while we were weeping and lamenting with those fellow-ministers who were left with us in the diocese—as to who among the orthodox might rightly guide the sheep of Christ—He who comforts the lowly comforted us also through your prayers, showing to the metropolitan city, in all respects, the most holy John, who from boyhood was nurtured in the Church without blame—nay rather, living praiseworthily in it—so that no one surpasses him in character, while in zeal for orthodoxy, according to your apostolic admonitions, he yields to no one at all.

Him therefore, by God's providence, we have ordained prelate of the most holy Church of the Nicopolitans, and we ask that, according to ancient custom, you also embrace him with your paternal affections, and that you become for us and for him, by the grace of God, invincible arms through your admonitions and teachings; and that you incline your ear to us as we pray, and find the affection of concord according to the apostolic providence divinely inspired in you, so that in the peace which is beloved to Him, all the most holy churches, fitted together, weaving for you an unfading crown, may be embraced in all piety and humility in Christ.

But the venerable deacon Rufinus, sent for this so necessary cause, when asked, look upon willingly, and send him back to us with speed, bearing your apostolic teachings, most holy in all things. AND IN ANOTHER HAND: Pray for my well-being, most holy father of fathers. I, John, bishop of Euroea, have reported. Pray for my well-being in the Lord, most holy and most blessed father of fathers. I, Matthaeus, bishop of Buthrotum, have reported. I, Constantine, bishop of Hadrianopolis, have reported. Pray for my well-being in the Lord, most holy and most blessed father of fathers. I, Christodorus, bishop of Anchiasmus, have reported. I, Hilarius, bishop of Photice, have reported. I, Philip, bishop of Phoenice, have reported. I, Julian, bishop of Dodona, have reported.

I, Chrysippus, bishop of Corcyra, have reported. (Year 120.) HORMISDAS TO THE SYNOD OF OLD EPIRUS, THROUGH RUFINUS THE DEACON. Blessed be God, who joins together the members of His Church! Blessed be God, who, when the malignant one instigated their division, makes them united under the same solidity in which they once were! For although the enemy has for a long time cried out after the manner of the partridge, and gathered those whom he did not beget (as the prophet asserted), yet he will without ambiguity be desolate of them; for neither do the Lord's sheep follow a stranger, nor hear the voice of another shepherd. Whence we do not wonder that you too have returned to the way of salvation, since we would rather blame the tardiness in this restoration. We ought, dearest brethren, to use domestic proofs in this stability which we seek.

For indeed at that time Timothy of Cherson—grievous when he learned, more grievous when he taught (for he was a follower of Dioscorus and no less an instructor of Peter)—exerted the savagery of his rashness against Proterius of blessed remembrance, and exceeded the limit of all cruelty, working the slaughter of a religious man amid the very altars, his throat scarcely spared from that pious blood; then the universal Church, stirred to hatred of the parricide, [pursued] the author of so great a crime not only with communion but also with the very [name] of Christian... the minds of all were struck with a certain strange amazement at the audacity of such great presumption;

then the blessed Eugenius, holding the primacy of your diocese, together with the holy synod subject to him, showed a certain zeal such as that by which Phinehas commended himself to God. The memory of this thing not only cannot time hide, but day by day the great fame of it multiplies among the orthodox. To neglect their endeavours thus approved, and not to love their sentences, is to fail in the very confession of our Lord. And for us indeed now, after your profession and letters, all the dogmas of the faith being made alike by God who joins His own together: it must be prayed that in that confession by which your will has relieved our minds, it may remain. But it is needful, without regard of fear, to prosecute the fury of those who strive against the faith;

for the more the error of the unbelievers boils up, the more does our security commend itself, if it resists. For these things are not to be neglected through patience, when this evil, animated by the vice of a depraved custom, has grown among many under a certain colour of law, while either depraved zeal converges into one, or the upright withdraw themselves. For, to speak of the matter which is at hand, Eutyches, as the inventor of a nefarious heresy, is excluded even by those by whom his dogmas are loved—so hateful and to be shunned among these very men that they hate even the mention of his name; but the perverse ministers of religious institutions, whom they detest as a true heretic, this same man they embrace by another way as a true orthodox.

Since indeed in the holy Council of Chalcedon Dioscorus, holding the same opinions, was by like reasoning condemned, and since one sentence has pursued both, if anyone should follow or love one of these, let someone say how he excepts himself from the sentence which condemned those named, since without doubt one bond of condemnation also binds those whom an equality of transgression or impiety connects. Timothy and Peter, their followers, are men corrupt in mind and a certain detestable pest of the Catholic name: whose communion Acacius, having embraced in Peter, likewise deserved to undergo the same sentences.

He, esteeming so great an evil as though it were small, and never turning his purpose to better things, did not abstain even from those things which we detest at Antioch, there too being joined in communion to the transgressor Peter, and behaving no less in hostile fashion toward the Church of Apamea, and disposing the Church of Tyre also not with that integrity which was fitting. On account of which, most beloved brethren, loosing ourselves from their entanglement, as though leaving behind a certain pestilential region, let us preserve the apostolic discipline; providing for our salvation with all diligence and solicitude, let us shun with that care the errors of the nefarious Nestorius, with which we pursue the impious inventions of Eutyches.

For now above all the dogmas of the religious faith are assailed by the diverse onset and snares of those who have been mentioned, who, wicked as they are, weave their arguments according to the opportunities of the times, if by any means they might insert the fraud of their impiety into the ways of the innocent; and therefore, like skilled money-changers and prudently instructed, separating the praiseworthy from what is to be rejected, you will be able to multiply the substance of the talent entrusted to you. These things, most beloved brethren, we have written from the impulse of full charity, because we presumed the hope of your faith, first from the gift of God, then also from the profession of our brother John who presides over you, by which he has declared that all those, by name, whom the apostolic and general Church of the Catholics condemns, are execrable to him.

This it behoved you also to express clearly in your letters, and not to think it can suffice—especially under such great snares of crafty men, who ought to be assailed and condemned man by man and individually—to enclose them under a certain general condemnation. Ancient wounds require a diligent medicine, nor is whatever is applied for the integrity of the faith and the stability of religion believed to be too abundant. Whence we have sent a libellus with our letters, into which you ought to insert your own subscriptions, so that your faith, which the writings directed through the deacon Rufinus attest, may become still more manifest with us by the addition of this repetition. Given on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Peter. (Year 121.) HORMISDAS TO JOHN, BISHOP OF NICOPOLIS.

THROUGH PULLIO THE SUBDEACON. The series of the letters which you directed, and the exposition of your faith agreeing with the judgments of the Apostolic See, have relieved our minds. Stirred by so many joys, we were not content unless, through Pullio, subdeacon of the Roman Church, we might desire to learn what was being done more fully concerning you—especially because in the report of the bishops living under the ordination of your Charity, not all the things which pertain to the ecclesiastical ordinances are, as in yours, read to be clearly expressed.

Whence, both for our solicitude and for their whole conjunction with us, we have directed a libellus, in which they ought to subscribe, since all the priests of your regions also, who have returned to the communion of the Apostolic See, have subscribed in the same profession. This charity, this ambition of common salvation has stirred us up: which I believe your Fraternity too gladly receives, since where the matter of the salvation of souls is conducted, you ought to lend the labour of your zeal and intention, so that by going before you may be able to receive the fruit of such praise. Send back to us the aforesaid Pullio, with the rescripts of your Charity, with God's help and with speed, so that our desires may not be long kept in suspense. Given on the thirteenth day before the Kalends.

December, in the consulship of Petrus (122). MEMORANDUM. THROUGH PULLIO THE SUBDEACON. With the help of God and the prayers of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, when you come to Nicopolis you must proceed thus: after the bishop of Nicopolis has received our letter, let him gather the bishops who are in his province and have them subscribe to the document which is attached to their letters. If, however, the aforesaid bishop should say that it is burdensome to gather the bishops, let him send with you persons to each individual bishop, so that in your presence they may subscribe to the aforesaid document.

Yet with God's mercy you must so act that the letters which have been sent to us be read publicly; or, if you see that the bishops out of fear are unwilling to do this, let them at least read them over to their clergy. But leave these matters within their own power, and with God's mercy bring back to us both the writings of the bishops and of that bishop, namely John the metropolitan. When this has been done, we do not wish you to make any delay there, because of the plots and cunning of enemies. (123.) HORMISDAS TO JOHN, BISHOP OF NICOPOLIS, WITH HIS SYNOD, AS ABOVE. THROUGH JOHN HIS DEACON.

We could wish, most beloved brethren, that free from all the surging waves of tribulation you might spend your life in the security of tranquillity, and, with all disturbance of mind arising from worldly tempests removed, might serve our God. But things have moved us, for what we would not have come to pass, we must needs grieve when it has happened. Yet the world abounds in hardships, and this age, in which we sojourn as pilgrims, lies open on every side to temptations; even as great masses are buffeted by the gales of the winds, so are the minds of the faithful assailed by the snares of the devil; and, as it is said, those who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution. But there is consolation in the hope promised by the just Rewarder, for blessed is he who has not been scandalized in the Lord. Let not weak and fleeting assaults cast down the soldiers of God.

He who stands by the valiant takes no delight in the slothful. These things which pass away are easily despised, if those things which are to abide be pondered. The occasion of trial is to be embraced, for although the burdens of toils be hard, yet greater are the rewards of virtues. How shall he be equal to the recompense who shows himself unequal to the trial? Let us not be sluggish for brave deeds, if we desire to attain to the promises. Who would wait upon the voice of a man in this matter, when daily the verdict of the Truth resounds in our ears: Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake!

But do not believe, dearest brethren, that though it be great among the faithful, I would console you only with spiritual encouragement; for I have not rested from providing remedies for your tribulation, so far as it lay within a man's power. For through the legates dispatched to the prince of the East, and through the bishop of Thessalonica, I admonished that he should cease from your persecution, and by letters sent forward I enjoined that supplication be made to the emperor. These things have been provided so far as regards the present; but those things which pertain to the hope of the future, these rather are to be gazed upon by our minds.

Indeed, I confess I was astonished at this, that amid the pleas of your straits your religious prudence could let this concern slip in, that a licence should be sought from me, under the pretext of consultation, to send the customary letters to the bishop of Thessalonica. Should I become the author of this thing? A thing which, were I to learn it had been done without my knowledge, I would condemn? Far be such perversity! Hear the apostolic voice, yet one to be fittingly applied to my own person: If the things I have destroyed I build up again, I make myself a transgressor. Do not, I beseech you, return to contagions scarcely escaped, nor suffer your feet, once torn from the mire that held them, to be plunged back into it evilly. Let the things transacted be forgotten and blotted out.

No one putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. They are hindered from the progress of their intended journey who, with eyes turned back, look upon what they are leaving. Ecclesiastical discipline does not love those in whom any memory of perfidy remains; those who go astray must be wholly cut off, for those who return to the things they have spurned are deemed so detestable that the blessed apostle Peter proclaimed it were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, having known it, to be turned back from the holy commandment delivered to them. It is manifest with what firmness the constancy of the faith once delivered ought to be guarded, if it is more tolerable to persist in error than to be entangled again in the defilements which one has fled.

Given on the day before the Ides of April, in the consulship of Agapitus. (124.) HORMISDAS TO JOHN, BISHOP OF NICOPOLIS. THROUGH PULLIO THE SUBDEACON. On the return of our subdeacon Pullio we received the letters of your Charity, rejoicing at the constancy of faith and at the resolve which you maintain toward communion with the Apostolic See; but we were saddened that you report you are enduring certain troubles. These, however, cannot have any lasting substance, for where God is purely worshipped, even if adversities befall, they are turned into prosperity, according to the Apostle who says: Hope does not disappoint. The prince of the apostles, doubting as he walked upon the sea, laboured;

yet presently, having invoked his Lord, he found Him ready, who with outstretched hand would not suffer him to endure the peril. Therefore, following the examples of our forefathers and abiding in their faith, let us implore the help of Him of whom it is written: Who does not let us be tempted above what we are able. And so, greeting your Charity, we exhort you that, as we have said before, you persevere in those things which have been well begun, for he who shall have persisted unto the end, he shall be saved. Do not cease frequently to relieve our solicitude by your words; strengthen also your parish priests with fitting exhortation, for by doing this you will be able daily to multiply the talent entrusted to you.

We are also giving thought to that matter which your Love requests, that our prayers may reach the most clement emperor on behalf of the peace of the whole community. It is for you not to cease aiding our vow and zeal with fitting prayers, for we shall by no means be able to be at leisure in accomplishing these things with God as their author. Given on the fifth day before the Nones of March, in the consulship of Agapitus. (125.) COPY OF THE SACRED LETTER OF ANASTASIUS AUGUSTUS TO POPE HORMISDAS. THROUGH ENNODIUS AND FORTUNATUS THE BISHOPS, VENANTIUS THE PRESBYTER, VITALIS THE DEACON, AND HILARUS THE NOTARY.

We render thanks to Almighty God, that Your Sanctity, instructed in the heavenly disciplines, as we requested, has dispatched as legates of the faith the venerable bishops Ennodius and Fortunatus, and also the religious men Venantius the presbyter, Vitalis the deacon, and Hilarus the notary, such as the loftiness of the cause demanded, men who can fulfil the greatness of the affair by the light of ecclesiastical discourse, and who, God working, inquiring subtly into all things that pertain to the right and true faith of Christians, both themselves declared as was fitting, and learned from us as was proper, that the Church of God is one, everywhere established upon the apostolic doctrines.

Whence who would dare to think concerning the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ otherwise than Truth itself holds, unless he confess the Son, equal and consubstantial with the Father, for the sake of our salvation, according to the annunciation of the archangel, taking flesh from her in the womb of the Virgin, made man, and, as the Apostle says, in the form of a servant, that in the flesh He might take up the cross for us? Of whom the blessed apostle Peter says to the Jews: You asked for a murderer to be released to you, but you slew the Author of life; of whom also it is read in the apostle Paul: He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

For we confess that the Mother of God, the blessed Virgin Mary, in true flesh and with a rational and intelligent soul, bore for us God the Saviour, whom we believe and affirm to be homoousios with God the Father and the Holy Spirit before all ages, and the same to have been begotten for us also as homoousios, apart from our sins, at the end of times, as the prophet David says: From my mother's womb You are my God. Yet our substance was so assumed, without any defect or confusion of our body, that in that same flesh the Son of God shall come to judge the world, presenting to the eyes of all the marks of His wounds and nails, as it is written: And they shall look upon Him whom they pierced.

Together with all the orthodox we likewise shun the most impious Nestorius and Eutyches, and abhor them, condemning and anathematizing both their persons and their doctrines, to be compared to detestable sacrileges, who alike either would not know the divine dispensation and the remedies of human infirmity, or, having known them, would blaspheme them. Such then is the purpose regarding the faith which the most high God has, from the very beginning of our life, instilled into our senses, whereby also we believe our empire to be preserved.

But we wonder why you wished to write to us anything concerning the most blessed Fathers who assembled at Chalcedon, since the things which were established by them are shown to be confirmed by the manifold decrees of our predecessors, and since neither has any other synod been held whereby the things ordained by that one might be rendered void, nor has any law proceeded from us by whose novelty the decrees of the aforesaid episcopal council might be annulled, especially since that very synod declared that whosoever should wish to teach or alter another faith than that which the three hundred and eighteen venerable Fathers established at Nicaea, ought to be anathema.

To this end also they condemned those whom we have named above, that is, Nestorius and Eutyches, whom we too condemn. For in this cause the divine writings sent to Alexandria not once but many times bear witness to us, through which we reproved them, why they did not judge that the right doctrine of the faith could suffice for them while departing from the anathema of the Chalcedonian synod or of Leo the bishop of venerable memory. Whence no small zeal and intent endures with us at present also, that we may be able to draw those same men away from the superfluous anathema and join them to the holy universal Church.