Papal Letters 1 part 35/50

My brother and fellow-bishop John, prelate of the city of Nicopolis, complains together with his synod that he is grievously afflicted with various extortions and losses, because, having separated himself from the society of the transgressors, after he had earned communion with the apostolic see, he did not send to the church of Thessalonica the tokens of his ordination. This neglect could have been blameworthy, if there were one single mystery of charity among all. But since many have separated themselves from the solidity of that Rock which is Christ, who would not wish to be distinguished from the fellowship of the erring, so that he may be found worthy to be joined with those who stand fast in the truth? It was therefore not a custom that was neglected, but a contagion that was avoided.

Can anyone, then, object that it was error, when he understands it to be a wholesomely considered caution? But we believed that you could follow, at least after the example of others, in that which you ought first to have undertaken. Is delay in falls not enough, unless, to heap up reproach, envy is also added against those who return to the way? What else is it than to hate the very name of blessed Peter—which cannot be said without impiety—the name that was given him by the Lord, when men persecute those who take refuge at the altars of that same see? With what shame, I ask, do you desire the privileges concerning yourself to remain, whose commands you do not keep, and do you desire that the reverence which you do not show to the faith be paid to yourself under ecclesiastical authority?

If you were treading in the same footsteps upon which the catholics rely, you ought nevertheless to avoid the persecution of your neighbor, knowing according to the ordinances of our Lord and Savior which we cherish, that he who shall have scandalized one of these little ones is liable to great sins. Where is, O Lord, the humility which You taught on the occasion of Your disciples contending over rank of place? You show that he is greatest who has striven to present himself as least. Look down from heaven and behold, visit the vineyard planted by You its cultivator; attend to the least ones concerning Your commandments and to those puffed up over the ambition of honor! Why do you desire recent things and desert the ancient, careless about the highest and anxious over trifles? Is this not to tithe cheap things and to despise the precepts of the law?

Keep those things which are agreeable to God, and easily the things that are of men will follow. Nay rather, take up the care of salvation, and sigh with affection over why another has preceded you in the truth, lest, if you persist in persecuting those who return to the members of the Church, you too be coupled with those whom the catholic sentence condemns by name. Given on the day before the Ides of April, in the consulship of Agapitus. (134.) HORMISDAS TO BISHOPS ENNODIUS AND PEREGRINUS. After your charity had set out, the Nicopolitan deacon, who also met you on the journey, came to Rome. Him we saw without delay, considering lest perchance there might be something we ought to add to the instruction of the legation entrusted to you.

That this was reasonably done, the matter itself clearly shows. For he offered us a letter of his bishop John and another of the synod of the church of Nicopolis subject to him, in which they complain that both principal and judicial powers have been stirred up against them by the bishop of Thessalonica, and that they are being vehemently afflicted with extortions and losses on this account, because he did not send a report to the bishop concerning his ordination according to the ancient examples. For which cause they hoped that we ought to think of a remedy, consulting us also whether we would give them license to send a report to the designated bishop according to custom.

Whence we deliberated, and admonished the Nicopolitan bishop that he should not attempt to dare any such thing, if he wishes to persist in communion with us, lest through him—if he had sought confirmation from one who is estranged from our communion—our communion too should sustain contagion. These things we have instructed you, that you might know all. But what you ought to do concerning this matter, God being propitious, the subjoined instructions declare. Given on the day before the Ides of April, in the consulship of Agapitus. (135.) HORMISDAS TO BISHOPS ENNODIUS AND PEREGRINUS. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the saints interceding and helping, the case of the church of Nicopolis is to be handled thus.

First, when by God's help you shall have come to Thessalonica, deliver our letters, which we have sent in this case, to the bishop of Thessalonica, observing in your salutation of him that order which you know to have been enjoined by us concerning those who do not communicate with the apostolic see—that is, with the catholic Church. But once the letters are delivered, you ought to act urgently that he desist from harassing that church, giving as your reason that one who has returned to communion and to the body of the Church could have nothing in common with those who have not yet returned: that we do not annul the privileges granted by our predecessors, provided that he himself does not desert the ecclesiastical ordinances.

Assuredly, let him return to unity, and we too will insist together with him that all the privileges, whatsoever his church has obtained from the apostolic see, be preserved inviolate. You say also that he openly shows himself an enemy of the faith, if he persecutes those whom he sees returning to catholic communion. But if you should be able there, God being propitious, to compose the case, you shall write to the bishop of Nicopolis what your effort has advanced. But if he should be obstinate and unwilling to cease from persecuting him, then according to the letters which we have sent to the most clement emperor, you shall so plead the cause of the church of Nicopolis before the prince that you say:

'Alcison the bishop gave satisfaction at Constantinople to the catholic Church; he was received and brought back to communion. His successor, bishop John, both keeping God before his eyes and thinking of his own salvation and following the good example of his predecessor, sent to the see of the blessed Apostle Peter, having condemned the heretics and transgressors, and was received. Against this man the bishop of Thessalonica now lies in wait and harasses him, wishing to exact from him things contrary to those which he has done.'

'Hence your father and all the orthodox request that by your commands this molestation be removed from him, lest it should seem to men that he suffers persecution on this account, because he has returned to the communion of the apostolic see, and lest those who await that unity should be brought about through you begin to believe otherwise, if they see your piety dissemble this and receive it negligently.' It has seemed expedient to us that your prudence, in whatever order, cause the letters which we have directed to the Thessalonian in the case of the Nicopolitan to be published in various places, but chiefly in the city of the Thessalonians; because by this being done both the persecution of our people can be made to cease, and, if he amends, we believe it pertains to his own salvation.

(136.) COPY OF THE REPORT OF AVITUS, A GALLIC BISHOP. TO THE HOLY LORD, MOST PRE-EMINENT IN MERITS, MOST GLORIOUS IN CHRIST AND MOST WORTHY OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE, POPE HORMISDAS, FROM AVITUS. While you perceive it to accord with the state of religion and with the full rules of the catholic faith, that a vigilant care of your exhortation should shape the flock committed to you throughout all the members of the universal Church, you visited the province of Vienne last year—if you deign to remember—by letters sent to my lowliness; and these reached me through the clergy of the church of Arles, according as the offered opportunity had afforded, and indeed with the fullest pastoral solicitude.

In these letters, just as you summon us to the communion of joys through the conversion of the provinces—that is, of Dardania, Illyricum, and Scythia—so with most cautious admonition you instruct us, lest anything be able to steal upon us through ignorance. The condemnation, therefore, of Eutyches and Nestorius, whom long ago the authority of your holy see through its most blessed predecessors had trampled underfoot, was long since brought to our knowledge by the provident diligence of the apostolic see toward us.

But this alone now renders us much in suspense and anxious: that although you bade us hang, with all zeal of expectation, upon the outcome of the legation dispatched a second time to Constantinople, you have indicated neither what your holy son, my brother Ennodius, reported back, nor whether the legation returned successful; and you keep your promise in suspense by so long a length of silence, that now the taciturnity of the preacher renders us no less astonished than before the delay of the legation had made us apprehensive.

Wherefore for this sole cause I have dispatched your servants, my sons, Alethius the presbyter and Viventius the deacon, in the name of the whole province of Vienne—which has been committed to me and to my church by all your predecessors and by the apostolic see—with this document of present service, that through them I may learn by the oracle of your most blessed reply whether the fervor of the aforesaid schisms, which within the city of Constantinople had blazed up by the vice of pernicious obstinacy, and to which you say the churches of Alexandria and Antioch are bound, has been, with Christ's favor and by your teaching, extinguished by worthy correction; or whether the returned legation displayed in evident pages what might be plainly read, or perhaps rather reported by word of mouth, so that some suspicion on this account is reserved for you.

For we fear lest the pontifical judgment, while it does not announce prosperous things, may have perceived adverse ones. To these things it is added that we have learned by the trustworthy report of divers persons that Greece boasts of a reconciliation and concord with the Roman church. And just as this is to be embraced, if it is truly said, so it is to be feared lest it be craftily feigned. We all therefore beseech, by my service, that you instruct us what ought to be answered to your sons, my brothers—that is, the Gallicans—if it is fitting. For since, secure not, I would say, of the devotion of Vienne, but of that of all Gaul, I pledge that all seek your judgment concerning the state of the faith, pray that the counterfeit profession of the lost may so not deceive us, as the truth once discovered does not separate us from the unity which you govern.

Received on the third day before the Kalends of February, in the consulship of Agapitus, through Alethius the presbyter and Viventius the deacon. (137.) HORMISDAS TO BISHOP AVITUS, OR TO ALL THE BISHOPS OF THE PROVINCE OF VIENNE RESIDING UNDER YOUR DIOCESE. He who, knowing much concerning those things that pertain to catholic discipline, desires to be instructed, clearly shows what zeal he has concerning the divine commands. For care of this kind cannot exist except where the faith is unfeigned.

And therefore we exult over the sincerity of your resolve, most beloved brother, while we behold you, according to the letters directed through Alethius the presbyter and Viventius the deacon, both recalling the decrees of the apostolic see concerning the impious transgressors Eutyches and Nestorius, and inquiring whether our admonition has advanced anything against them, through whom the Eastern churches are thrown into confusion. A solicitude plainly worthy of the faithful, that they should groan over the falls of the wretched and themselves take precaution lest they be polluted by another's contagion. But do not believe that we ourselves have neglected this, that a suitable instruction should convey to your knowledge whatever had been done. Yet briefly we clear ourselves of the silence by which your beloved charity is stung.

For as to the fact that our admonition does not more often visit you, we trust in the stability of your conscience and faith. Perhaps solicitude ought to be expended on the doubtful; it is enough to have indicated to the perfect what is to be avoided. But as for our legation—which we sent once, not twice, as you write—if a longed-for outcome had befallen, we would forthwith have been eager to share the desired things with you, knowing that this accords with reason, this with our resolve, that those whom we have made partners of our solicitude, with them we should join the joys of unity restored. But as far as concerns the Greeks, they proffer the vows of peace with the mouth rather than with the heart, and they speak more just things than they do; they boast in words that they are willing, which by their works they declare that they are unwilling;

the things they have professed they do not love, the things they have condemned these they follow.

For how comes it that, although through our brother and fellow-bishop Ennodius they had promised that they would send priestly men to confirm those things which the apostolic see had demanded, promising also many things which had been sought by us for the correction of their depravity, they not only did not send religious men in whose keeping the full instruction of the case itself could reside, according to their own decrees, but even—as though a trifling matter were being transacted—by dispatching laymen and men foreign to the ecclesiastical body, they neither once endeavored to extricate themselves from the mire in which they are held submerged, but even believed—which God forbid—that they could darken with their own dryness those who shine with the brightness of the catholic faith?

This was the cause of our silence, which you too have seen by the spiritual prudence revealing it to you. For what could I indicate concerning this matter by directed letters, which I saw persistently guarding in its own state a stubborn perfidy? Let new outcomes carefully seek the diligence of a report: he who indicates nothing about known matters abundantly declares that former things remain in their own state. Wherefore, most beloved brother, we both exhort you with these present words, and through you also—because the occasion has been given—we admonish others throughout the Gauls whom the same faith embraces together with us:

keep the constancy of faith which you have promised and which is dear to God, and, having shunned the society of transgressors, present your constancy to Christ as a chaste virgin to one husband, as you have pledged; and beware lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so the minds of some be corrupted from the simplicity and chastity which is in Christ Jesus. The blandishments of the harmful are pernicious, and therefore it befits you to be vigilant, because the adversary of human salvation goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour: resist him, strong in the faith.

For those cast down from the citadel of heaven, who follow and love the footsteps of their father, have this as their peculiar mark: that, deprived of that light of truth, they rejoice that others are darkened by their own obscurity, and, knowing that they themselves shall pay the penalties of their perversity, they exult if they can join the wretched to their own condemnation. For how comes it that, although they are deserted for the most part by their neighbors, the Thracians, Dardanians, and Illyrians, who have come to know their perversity, they strive by hope, by frauds, or by various arts to allure those set far off in ignorance—except that they may stain others too, by an impious contagion, with a light which they themselves do not possess?

But that you may be able to recognize what are the zealous endeavors of those parts: many of the Thracians, though they are worn down by the assaults of persecutors, nevertheless persist in our communion, knowing that faith is made brighter through adversity. Dardania and Illyricum, neighbor to Pannonia, have sought from us—which we have already done where it was necessary—that bishops be ordained for them, rejoicing so greatly to separate themselves from the fellowship of the lost, that they sought remedies, provided only that they might have nothing in common with the transgressors. The metropolitan of Epirus—that is, the bishop of Nicopolis—together with his synod, lately separated from the impious, betook himself to apostolic communion by the profession which effects this.

These things we have judged should be inserted into the present writing, so that, just as it befits us to grieve over the lot of those perishing, so we may likewise rejoice over the salvation of those returning, and so that the faithful, being established, may be instructed by them at a greater distance with what solicitude the poison of those men ought to be shunned, whom they see avoided by their own people also with so just a detestation.

And we indeed, mindful of our stewardship, must needs approach them by the office of a repeated legation, so that, if they are not moved by regard for their own salvation, if not by regard for God, if not by consideration of reason, they may at least yield to those who knock importunately and persistently, and either, having turned aside from their errors, return to the right way, or, on account of their impenitent heart, be judged inexcusable before all, they who, admonished so often, persist in the obstinacy of perfidy.

Do you pray, and join your prayers and petitions to God together with ours, that through the help of his mercy our effort, labouring for the stability of the catholic faith, may go forward, while you keep yourselves spotless and whole from all fellowship with transgressors, so that either we may join our minds and hearts with those who have been corrected, or may deserve to remain untouched by their poisons. For we — as you yourselves also testify that your conscience is not hidden from you — know that Eutyches and Nestorius were condemned by the authority of the apostolic, that is the catholic, judgement. How then shall we be able to be saved, if we cleave in any part of communion to their followers and successors, since Belial can have no share with our Christ?

We judged it to pertain to your instruction that we should make known to you, by the reading of the documents themselves, those things which were done among us by the Nicopolitans or the Dardanians, and in what order they were received into communion. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Agapitus. (138.) ANASTASIUS AUGUSTUS TO POPE HORMISDA. Although silence is judged to be something great, yet it is necessary that those who marvel at the mercy of God should assiduously frequent discourse; and because the beginning of the faith which our Lord and God the saviour Jesus Christ taught us excels in the remission of sins, it is held unknown to none.

For he himself, through his own passion, cleansed away all the sins of Adam; and this was the business of his humility, that he might free both the aforesaid one and all the fathers from the servitude of sin, voluntarily taking upon himself the person of old age. For the blessed apostle Paul taught us, writing to the Romans: death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned. From which it has in a manner been declared to all that, from the general dispensation and from marvels, particular examples too ought to be received — once confirmed by so great a command of the mighty law and by such devout goodness; and all the teaching which he handed on to his disciples rests upon this foundation.

By his suffering he put to flight the manifold kinds of passions; the knot of sin he loosed by his own passion, as has been said, and, acting to fulfil like deeds, he instructed his disciples by works and by words. But if, as some strive to show, certain ones from among these very apostles neglect through disobedience to fulfil so devout a teaching, we do not know where the mastership of the merciful Lord and great God can meet us. Yet we do not believe on such a ground that we should think those to be unmerciful who have learned mercy; but we restrain our request from the present time by silence, judging it unreasonable to offer the goodness of prayers to those who, obstinately spurning it, are unwilling to be asked.

For we can bear to be injured and brought to nought, but we cannot be commanded. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of July at Constantinople, in the consulship of the most distinguished men Anastasius and Agapitus. (139.) A COPY OF THE REPORT OF THE LEAST ARCHIMANDRITES AND THE OTHER MONKS OF SECOND SYRIA. To the most holy and most blessed Patriarch of the whole world, Hormisda, who holds the see of Peter the chief of the apostles: the entreaty and supplication of the least archimandrites and the other monks of your province of Second Syria. The grace of Christ, the saviour of us all, has moved us to flee for refuge to your beatitude, as from winter and tempest to a harbour of tranquillity; and, being admonished, we now believe that we are no longer held encompassed by the calamities that besiege us.

For even if we suffer, we bear it rejoicing, knowing that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us. But since Christ our God appointed a chief of shepherds and a teacher and a physician of souls, it is fitting that we set forth to your holy angel the sufferings that have befallen us, and show forth the merciless wolves who scatter the flock of Christ, that with the staff of authority he may drive them out from the midst of the sheep, and by the word of teaching may heal the soul, and with the medicines of prayer may soothe it. But who these are, and who has armed them against us, you have surely heard, most blessed ones:

namely that Severus and Peter, who were never reckoned in the number of Christians — who day by day assail with public anathema the holy Council of Chalcedon and our most holy and most blessed father Leo; who, counting the judgement of God as nothing and trampling upon the venerable canons of the holy fathers, cause bishops to be produced by sovereign power and compel us, mocking the aforesaid holy council, afflicting us with unspeakable torments. Whence certain of them, unable to endure the blows inflicted, departed from this life, and no small multitude of ours was slain.

For as we were going to the monastery of the lord Simeon on account of the affair of the church, those aforesaid defiled men lay in wait for us upon the road, and falling upon us slew three hundred and fifty of our men, and wounded certain others; but others, who were able to flee for refuge to the altars, they slew in that very place, and burned the monasteries, sending in by night a multitude of restless men and of hirelings, and by such pestilent men consuming all the poor property of the church. But concerning each matter the documents will instruct your beatitude, brought by the venerable brethren John and Sergius, whom we had sent to Constantinople, thinking that vengeance would be taken for the things that had been committed.

But he did not deem them worthy even of a word; nay, even with great contumely he drove them out, threatening those who should present such petitions. Hence it comes that we recognize, even if late, that all the perversity and audacity of such evils wrought against the churches was contrived by his own instigation. We beseech therefore, most blessed ones, supplicating and entreating that you rise up with fervour and zeal, and grieve justly for the mangled body (for you are the head of all), and vindicate the faith despised, the canons trampled, the fathers blasphemed, and such a council assailed with anathema. To us has been given by God the power and authority to bind and to loose. They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. Rise up, holy fathers, coming to save us!

Be imitators of the Lord Christ, who came down from the heavens upon the earth to seek the wandering sheep — of Peter, that chief of the apostles, whose seat you adorn, and of Paul, who is a vessel of election, who, going about the world, gave it light. For great wounds have need of greater aids. Hireling shepherds, seeing the wolves coming against the sheep, will leave them to be scattered by them; but to you, the true shepherds and teachers, to whom the care for the salvation of the sheep has been committed, the flock itself runs, recognizing its own shepherd, delivered from the most savage beasts and following the voice of the shepherd, as the Lord says: my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Do not therefore despise us, most holy ones, who are daily wounded by ferocious beasts. And for the perfect knowledge of your holy angel, we anathematize — in this same our entreaty, which has force — all the petitions cast out and excommunicated by your apostolic see: we mean, namely, Nestorius, who was bishop of Constantinople; Eutyches; Dioscorus; and Peter of Alexandria, who was surnamed Balbus; and Peter, who was called Fullo, of Antioch; and no less Acacius, who was bishop of Constantinople, their partner in communion; and all who defend any one of those heretics. AND THE SUBSCRIPTIONS. I, Alexander, by the mercy of God presbyter and archimandrite of Saint Maron, have made this entreaty.

Symeon, by the mercy of God presbyter and archimandrite, as above. John, by the mercy of God deacon and steward, as above. Procopius, by the mercy of God presbyter and archimandrite, as above. Peter, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. Eugenius, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. Geladius, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. Bassus, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. Romulus, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. Eusebius, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. Malchus, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. Leontius, by the mercy of God deacon, as above. Stephen, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. Carufas, deacon, as above. Thomas, presbyter, as above. Samuel, deacon, as above.

Theodorus, presbyter, as above. John, by the mercy of God presbyter, as above. John, presbyter, as above. Thomas, deacon, as above. John, deacon, as above. Symeonius, deacon, as above. Saulinus, archimandrite, as above. Eusebius, presbyter, as above. Mucimus, presbyter, as above. Symeonius, presbyter, as above. Thomas, presbyter, as above. Jacob, presbyter, as above. John, presbyter, as above. Paul, presbyter, as above. Priscus, presbyter, as above. Antoninus, presbyter, as above. John, presbyter, as above. Thomas, presbyter, as above. Julian, presbyter, as above. Symeonius, presbyter, as above. Thomas, presbyter, as above. Symeonius, presbyter, as above. Zacchaeus, presbyter, as above.

Thomas, presbyter, as above. Symeonius, presbyter, as above. Thomas, presbyter, as above. Symeonius, presbyter, as above. Thomas, presbyter, as above. Sergius, presbyter, as above. Thomas, presbyter, as above. Eusebius, presbyter, as above. Paul, presbyter, as above. John, presbyter, as above. Sergius, deacon, as above. Again Sergius, deacon, as above. Julian, presbyter, as above. Sergius, presbyter, as above. Ammonius, deacon, as above. Thomas, presbyter, as above. Lucas, presbyter, as above. Thomas, deacon, as above. Symeonius, presbyter, as above. Flavian, archimandrite, as above. Monimus, deacon, as above. John, deacon, as above. John, presbyter, as above. Antonius, deacon, as above.