Papal Letters 1 part 38/50

let the priests who desire catholic peace not refuse the catholic profession. For it is not needful that error be corrected in parts, but that it be cut out by the roots. Press on therefore, as you have begun, that your reward with God, which has its beginning from the inception of a good work, may attain its effect from perfection. Indeed, the discourses sent to us testify that your mind is such that, for the fullness of a good purpose, you have no great need of exhortation; nevertheless, the reason of our desire, which has given hope, kindles our ardor the more, and we more eagerly long for the joys to be fulfilled, which we now judge to be at hand by divine ordinance.

Hence it is that we daily beseech the blessed Apostle Peter in supplication, that to you, through whom the holy Church now hopes her members to be made whole, God may grant both a speedy effect and a longer salvation. We indeed, in obedience to our own resolve, have directed men to consolidate concord under the ordinance of apostolic disposition: it is yours to see that, just as we were unwilling to be wanting to a good intention, so you may make them bring back to us the desired effect. The venerable sanctuaries have received your gift; but you will do what is yet more acceptable to the blessed Apostle Peter, if through you they receive the desired unity of the Church. (155.) HORMISDAS TO THEODOSIUS, ARCHDEACON OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND TO ALL CATHOLICS, LIKEWISE.

We have fittingly paid our thanks to the divine mercy, which has not suffered your faith to labor long. For a time has been offered in which the catholic Church may recover her sons, her soldiers. For what greater gladness can possess our mind than the recorded expulsion of evils? Compensate with present joys the inconveniences of affliction, because our God, who was a remedy, did not wish your Charity to be crushed by adversities, but to be proved. For if you compensate the evils of the past time with the present retribution—which is not doubted to be divine—who doubts that you have attained greater rewards than adversity could have harmed?

And although our solicitude has never ceased for the state of the catholic faith, nevertheless, incited by the sacred addresses of the most serene Prince, we have taken care to appoint legates, by whose service we do not doubt, with God as author, that the effect will follow in those things which we have often enjoined. And therefore strive fittingly, that you may be able to offer to the catholic Church this excellent gift of your liberation, so that, all things being repelled which have hitherto done harm, we may, rejoicing in the one communion which we have always desired, be able without ceasing to render praises to our God. (156.) HORMISDAS TO EUPHEMIA, THE AUGUSTA.

The peace of the Churches is now being composed by heavenly ordinance, since God has chosen you for the empire, among whom He has recognized the affection of His religion always to be intact. For just as in private life you always worshipped God with right doctrine, so that you now take thought for the concord of religion, many things indeed have been done in the very beginnings of your reign which promise us the hope of full correction. Whence, because we rejoice that the love of the faith burns in you, giving thanks to God, we daily supplicate the blessed Apostle Peter on your behalf, that he may intercede with the Lord for your vows and may fulfill the course of your good will. Nor is there any doubt that you are aided by divine helps, because with such zeal of religion you obey the heavenly commands.

Hence it is that, because the purpose of your marriage is established to be holy, we confidently direct these letters to your Clemency, that through you the piety of your husband may be the more incited toward accomplishing the peace of the Church. You have taken up a great work, a great cause has been committed to you. For through you Christ wishes to recall to the covenants of the Church those peoples whom through Himself He willed to redeem from death. A great occasion for praise is also prepared for your sex, if, at your insistence, Christ may join to His Church the members which had been divided. For no greater is the glory of her who searched out the wood of human salvation and alone found the Cross, which all the world venerates:

nay rather, you will surpass her merits, because the unity of the Church, which through her found its sign, is through you to have its remedy. Let therefore the religious clemency of your consort act, that our brothers and fellow-bishops may deign, under that tenor of the libellus which we lately sent, to assert their faith, so that the correction which has been begun may be able to be perfected. For any confession in the worship of God is void which lacks the fullness of faith. For this, which we ask to be done by the rest, is established to have been accomplished already by many priests, and unity cannot be just in communion, if it is not preserved in the return. (157.) HORMISDAS TO ANASTASIA AND PALMATIA, LIKEWISE.

The effect of divine prosperity always accompanies the zeal of a good will. By the providence of our God the opportunity of a time has been offered, in which you ought to strive for the reward of your faith.

Presuming first upon the supernal mercy, and thereafter upon the conscience of the most clement Prince, we have directed legates on behalf of the cause of the catholic religion, through whom we greet your Magnitude with the office of due reverence, asking that you not deny your labor and effort for the reintegration of ecclesiastical concord, so that, when those whom the authority of the Apostolic See has condemned have been repelled and removed, and the Christian people has returned to the one communion which is right, you may be able to have the blessed Apostle Peter—for whose faith we strive—as a helper in your acts. (158.) THE INSTRUCTION WHICH OUR LEGATES ABOVE-MENTIONED RECEIVED.

When, God being propitious, you have entered the Eastern parts, if any bishops meet you and wish to offer the libellus—whose contents you have received—subscribed by themselves, receive them and grant them the fellowship of holy communion. But if the bishops who meet you are unwilling to profess in that order which we have said above, let them indeed be treated by you with priestly affection, yet let there be no common table between you and them, nor may you presume to accept from them either provisions—except only conveyance, if the cause should require it, and hospitality—lest they believe themselves to be altogether contemptuously despised.

But when, God helping, you have come to Constantinople, take up your lodging in the residence which the Emperor shall provide, and permit no one to approach for your greeting beforehand, except those whom the Emperor himself has sent or those whom you know to be of our communion, until you see the Prince himself. Being presented to him and greeting him, offer our letters, suggesting that we have received great joy concerning his empire and rejoice exceedingly that Almighty God has [chosen] him for this—according to his sacred letters—that, in accordance with those things which have been established by the Apostolic See for prelates, with God as author and his reign striving together, the peace and unity of the Churches, so long desired throughout these times, may come to pass.

But if he shall exhort you to see the bishop of Constantinople, intimate that you have things predetermined, which have also often been known to them: what profession ought to be celebrated by all bishops embracing catholic communion. If the bishop of Constantinople is prepared to fulfill these things, we gladly meet him; but if he disdains to follow the exhortation of the Apostolic See, what need is there that our greeting should proceed to an occasion of contention, since there is in our instructions no cause for disputation or contest? But if the Emperor should wish it to be opened to him what it is that you require to be done by the bishop, show the form of the libellus which you carry.

But if, consenting to the anathema of Acacius, he shall say that his successors must be recited, on this ground—that some of them were deported into exile for the defense of the Chalcedonian synod—you shall insinuate that you can detract nothing from the form of the libellus, in which the followers of the condemned are likewise contained. But if you cannot deflect them from this intention, at least acquiesce in this: that, Acacius being specially anathematized by the libellus which we have given you, silence be kept concerning the names of his successors, their appellations being erased from the inscription of the diptychs. This being done, receive the bishop of Constantinople into our communion.

But the libellus, whether of the bishop of Constantinople or of others whom, God willing, it may befall you to receive, first arrange that it be recited in the presence of the people. But if this cannot be done, at least let it be read in the sacristy in the presence of the clergy and archimandrites. If all these things shall have been completed, God willing, ask the Emperor that, sacred letters being dispatched through the metropolitan bishops, with the letters of the bishop himself adjoined, it may be made known that the bishop of Constantinople, by his own consent also, the profession which the Apostolic See appointed having been celebrated, has been received into the unity of communion. By which letters let him also exhort those very men to profess like things.

But if in this part the Emperor should bring any difficulty, let the bishop of Constantinople, by precepts directed to his parochial bishops or to the other metropolitans, in the presence of those who have likewise been directed by you, make known what he himself has done. This you ought by all means to exact from him, that, by the traveling testimony of this deed, it may not be able to be hidden even from all, or from those who are placed far off. (159.) THE COPY OF THE LIBELLUS OF IOHANNES, BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE. TO MY LORD IN ALL THINGS MOST HOLY AND MOST BLESSED BROTHER AND FELLOW-MINISTER HORMISDAS, IOHANNES, GREETING IN THE LORD.

The letters of your Holiness having been rendered to me, dearest brother in Christ, through Gratus the most illustrious count, and now through Germanus and Iohannes the most reverend bishops, Felix and Dioscorus the most holy deacons, and Blandus the presbyter, I have rejoiced concerning the spiritual charity of your Holiness, in that you seek the unity of the most holy Churches of God according to the ancient tradition of the Fathers, and hasten with resolve to repel the manglers of the reasonable flock of Christ. Know therefore for certain, O in all things most holy one, that, according to what I have written to you, thinking with you in truth, I too, loving peace, reject all the heretics repudiated by you.

For the most holy Churches of God, that is, of your superior Rome and of this new Rome, I accept to be one; that See of the Apostle Peter and of this august city I define to be one;

to all things enacted by these holy four synods, that is, of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, concerning the confirmation of the faith and the state of the Church, I assent, and I suffer nothing to waver concerning things well judged; but I know also that those attempting or striving to disturb their decrees, even to a single tittle, have fallen from the holy, general, and apostolic Church of God. And rightly using your words rightly spoken, through the present writing I say this: that the first salvation is to keep the rule of right faith and in no wise to deviate from the tradition of the Fathers, because the sentence of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be passed over, saying: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.

These things which have been said are proved by the effects of the facts, because in the Apostolic See the catholic religion is always preserved inviolable. Desiring therefore not to fall from this faith, and following in all things the ordinances of the Fathers, we anathematize all heresies, especially Nestorius the heretic, who was once bishop of the city of Constantinople, condemned in the Council of Ephesus by the blessed Caelestinus, pope of the city of Rome, and by the venerable man Cyril, bishop of the city of Alexandria; and together with him we anathematize Eutyches and Dioscorus, bishop of the city of Alexandria, condemned in the holy Synod of Chalcedon, which, venerating, we follow and embrace, which, following the holy Synod of Nicaea, preached the apostolic faith.

Joining to these Timothy the parricide, surnamed Elurus, we anathematize; and likewise condemning his disciple and follower in all things, Peter of Alexandria, we in like manner anathematize Acacius, once bishop of the city of Constantinople, who became their accomplice and follower, as also those persevering in their communion and participation: for whoever embraces the communion of any of them, incurs a like judgment with them in condemnation. In like manner, condemning Peter of Antioch also, we anathematize him with his followers and all the aforementioned. Whence we approve and embrace all the epistles of the blessed Leo, pope of the city of Rome, which he wrote concerning the right faith.

Wherefore, as we have said before, following in all things the Apostolic See, we both preach all things which have been decreed by it, and therefore I hope to be in the future in one communion with you, which the Apostolic See preaches, in which is the whole and perfect solidity of the Christian religion; promising in the time to come that the names of those sequestered from the communion of the catholic Church—that is, of those not consenting in all things to the Apostolic See—are not to be recited among the sacred mysteries. But if in anything I shall attempt to deviate from my profession, I profess myself, by my own condemnation, to be a partner with those whom I have condemned.

To this profession I have subscribed with my own hand, and I have directed it in reply to you, Hormisdas, holy and most blessed brother and pope of great Rome, through the aforewritten Germanus and Iohannes, venerable bishops, and Felix and Dioscorus, deacons, and Blandus the presbyter. AND IN ANOTHER HAND: I, Iohannes, by the mercy of God bishop of the new Rome, Constantinople, consenting by this my profession to all the aforesaid, have subscribed, sound in the Lord. Pray for us, most holy and most blessed brother. Given in the month of March, on the 28th day, in the 12th indiction, at Constantinople, our lord Iustinus, perpetual Augustus, and Eutharicus, most illustrious man, being consuls. (160.) IUSTINUS AUGUSTUS TO HORMISDAS.

VICTOR IUSTINUS, PIOUS, FORTUNATE, RENOWNED TRIUMPHER, EVER AUGUSTUS, TO HORMISDAS, MOST HOLY AND MOST BLESSED ARCHBISHOP AND PATRIARCH. Know, most religious father, that what was long sought with the utmost zeal has been effected for us; know that it has been made manifest, even before those who have been directed by you have arrived, that Iohannes, the most blessed man, prelate of our new Rome, together with his clergy, thinks with you, varying by no ambiguities, divided by no discords; know that the libellus subscribed by him, which you had judged should be offered, is congruent with the council of the most holy Fathers. All hasten with eager work to take up the vows both of your See and of that of Constantinople, whom the flashing splendor of truth illuminates;

all most willingly make haste, whom the clear way delights; they follow the most holy decrees of the Fathers, the most approved laws; and, the counsels of certain men being confirmed who held the right path, and others corrected who wandered uncertain, the matter is gathered to this: that they too may worship the unity of the undivided Trinity by a unity of minds. It has been denied that memory should be made in the future, among the divine mysteries, according to the tenor of the libellus which we have mentioned, of Acacius, the sometime prevaricator, bishop of this royal city, and also of other priests who either first came against the apostolic ordinances or became successors of the error, corrected by no penitence up to their last day.

And since all our regions are to be admonished to imitate the example of the royal city, we have judged that principal precepts should be sent everywhere: with so great a zeal of religion do we burn, with so great a care do we strive after the peace of the catholic faith, for the sake of the peace of our commonwealth to be recompensed from heaven, for the sake of the supernal protection to be reconciled to my subjects. For what more pleasing can be found, what more just, what more illustrious, than that those whom the same realm contains and whom the worship of the same faith irradiates, should not contend in diverse ways, but, with their minds gathered into the same purpose, should venerate ordinances brought forth not by a human mind, but by the prudence of the divine Spirit?

Let therefore the holiness of your religion pray, that what by ever-watchful zeal is procured for the concord of the Churches of the catholic faith, the succor of the divine gift may grant to be preserved in perpetual continuance. Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of May, at Constantinople. (161.) THE COPY OF THE REPORT OF IOHANNES, BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE. TO MY LORD IN ALL THINGS HOLY AND BELOVED OF GOD, BROTHER AND FELLOW-MINISTER HORMISDAS, IOHANNES, GREETING IN THE LORD. When God works His own wonders in His people, then it is fitting to proclaim confidently, with the very voices of Scripture, those things which are contained in the divine writings: Who shall speak the mighty acts of the Lord, or make heard all His praises at all times?

For behold, He has raised up for the Roman commonwealth such a pious Prince as both the catholic Church long before had need of and every kind of men longed to see; and therefore He so also inclined the horn of grace from heaven upon him, that mercy was abundantly poured out upon his sacred head, and all, at the time of his proclamation, with a great voice glorified God, the Prince of all, because He adorned such a summit with my hands with such a crown. This greatest Emperor, therefore, clearly displayed the first palm of his contests by the enemy being vanquished; the second by the merit of his virtue: he most wisely procured union for the most holy Churches; the third good of his reign: he joined together things dissipated and most wisely procured the peace of the world.

Therefore, in all things rendering thanks to the great God who governs all things most wisely, I did not hesitate to announce peace to you, son of peace, in all things most beloved of God, so that you may leap with that joy with which David, indeed, according to the Law, figuratively exulted at the recall of the ark of God, but the Apostles, through grace, truly rejoiced. Rejoice therefore in the Lord with a joy befitting your Holiness, and write those things which become your kindly mind, O man of God! For the things which had been divided are joined together, and the things dispersed are gathered.

Things that were far apart have been united to one another; and, as it is fitting to say and as I wrote long ago, I clearly perceive that both Churches, that of the elder as well as that of the new Rome, are one, and rightly defining that of both of them there is one indivisible See and a harmonious confirmation of us both, I acknowledge it together with the integrity of my judgment. Wherefore I pray God that it may ever remain inseparable, through the prayers of the holy apostles and through the supplications of your holiness; through which he beseeches that there be granted to us and to the whole world the most merciful and most Christian prince Justin and his most pious consort—but our daughter—Euphemia, in peace for many seasons, most blessed and most beloved brother in all things.

Rejoicing therefore at the presence of your most reverend bishops and also of your clerics, we give thanks, since according to our request you have sent such peaceable men, worthy of your apostolic See, who keep the rule of the Fathers without confusion and guard the faith undivided. Embracing their mind in all things, we have transacted everything through them to the satisfaction of your holiness. All the brotherhood in Christ, which is with your holiness—I too and my people—greet you most heartily. (162.) COPY OF THE LETTER OF JUSTINIAN. TO MY MOST HOLY LORD HORMISDAS, FIRST HIGH PONTIFF AND POPE OF THE CITY OF ROME, JUSTINIAN THE COUNT.

The proclamation of the rules of your venerable holiness, which continually supplicates Christ our God for the peace of the Churches and for the concord of the people—whatever it now grants to be accomplished through its most blessed priests, by the favouring Godhead all these things have been joined to their effect, with no discord of any parties whatever prevailing. Therefore, fortified by your sacred prayers and by the injunctions of the orthodox in the faith, we as suppliants ask that you may deign to offer, as is your wont, prevailing prayers to the eternal King on behalf of our most holy Augustus, the patron of the whole faith, and on behalf of his commonwealth, and on behalf of us also, the keepers of your commands; and that you visit us, faithfully your suppliants, with your saving rescripts. (163.) COPY OF THE LETTER OF POMPEIUS.

TO MY MOST BLESSED AND APOSTOLIC LORD AND FATHER HORMISDAS, ARCHBISHOP OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH, POMPEIUS. The mercy of almighty God, entreated by the holy prayers of your beatitude, has deigned to grant us a prince of so great a faith, that by the most religious merits of his clemency the restoration of ecclesiastical peace, which was sought by the prayers of all the faithful, is rightly seen to have been bestowed. In the accomplishment of this matter he has, by the working of the Holy Spirit, established the most solid foundations of his principate, which possess as great a strength of unconquered stability as the excellence of the action is judged to be singular and admirable.

And therefore, greeting the reverend beatitude of your pontificate with the homage of a reciprocal address, we beseech you that you would more and more deign to pray for the prosperity of our most merciful and most invincible lord the prince, that the pity of the ineffable almighty God may guard his own gifts—among which the fruit of your husbandry too abounds—by the aid of a righteous grace; and that to us also, your sons, bound to you by a spiritual affection, whom the solicitude of this work has always most greatly constrained, the assisting intercession of your pontifical sanctity may stand at hand. (164.) COPY OF THE LETTER OF ANICIA JULIANA. TO THE MOST BLESSED LORD AND FATHER HORMISDAS, JULIANA ANICIA.

By the prayers of your beatitude, at the coming of the legates of the chief apostolic See, the errors of the heretics being shattered, we have come together in the unity of the catholic faith, gathered at once to the maternal breasts of the Church on the day of the holy Resurrection. Wherefore, addressing your holiness with the pen of veneration, we admonish you that you charge the most reverend men sent by you by no means to depart until, as you shall perceive to be fitting, those things be made firm which have been well arranged by them; so that, all the remnants of the by-gone error being cut off at your expense, the strengthened unity of your beatitude may be brought to a perpetual effect. (165.) COPY OF THE LETTER OF ANASTASIA.

TO THE HOLY AND MOST BLESSED LORD, FATHER OF FATHERS, HORMISDAS, ARCHBISHOP OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH, ANASTASIA. We rightly confess that the grace of the divine gift has shone upon us, knowing—by the assertion of this page—that we hold in our holy heart the memory of the reverence of your apostleship; for by a truthful hope it is trusted that the propitiation of the heavenly mercy subsists from your pontifical intercession, O most blessed lord and father to be received with apostolic honour.

The ever-watchful vigils of your prayers and the wondrous faith of our most victorious prince, ever radiant with catholic splendour, have restored to the most sacred Churches the long-sought concord of peace; which, when all his triumphs were most firmly established, he rightly exults to have preferred as an unconquered standard. And therefore let the unblemished sanctity of your paternity persist with unceasing continuance to offer to almighty God vows and prayers for the safety and prosperity of our aforesaid lord Augustus, that he may deign to preserve the ineffable grace of so great goods—which he himself inspired into the prince's pious senses—unto the increase of the beatitude that is to come as well.

Let a prayer also be graciously bestowed by your pontificate upon my wedded lord, your son, and upon me, your particular handmaid, together with the offspring which the Lord has deigned to grant us; that by its intercession the protection of divine favour may mercifully breathe upon us. (166.) COPY (OF THE LETTER) OF THEODORITUS, BISHOP OF LYCHNIDUS. TO THE HOLY, BLESSED, LAUDABLE, AND ADORABLE APOSTOLIC LORD AND FATHER HORMISDAS, POPE OF THE CITY OF ROME, YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT THEODORITUS. It would indeed not befit my littleness to presume things so great, and to send these present little pages, by the speech of a tiny man, to your pious and holy apostleship.

But because, in accordance with the humanity implanted in you—being appointed with a pious mind of propitiation to protect all things by the nod of the Godhead—you have rendered to the whole world a bright day, filled with all festivity, and by your praiseworthy prayers have recalled all things to the former state of unity, and by your laudable and adorable merits have granted them to be in concord and to be brought under one yoke:

and therefore, although overwhelmed by my own iniquities and pressed down by them on every side, being restored out of those very depths of hell, when my fellow-servant, the religious man Pullio, was hastening back to your glorious footsteps, I took upon myself to present myself to your praiseworthy and adorable footsteps both through him and also by these little and slender pages, imploring with all my strength the divine favour, and singing with a clear voice together with all men whatsoever:

'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and among men of good will,' who, in his incomprehensible pity, has by your marvellous prayers illumined and delivered all things, and by your prayers worthy of God has bestowed on the whole world a bright day filled with all festivity, and has driven out all iniquity, and loosed every knot of binding, and opened every path. This prayer, therefore, full of thanksgiving, I offer to your pious apostleship, beseeching that you would deign to be mindful, by your pious prayers, of the littleness of my lamentable state, O holy, blessed, apostolic lords and fathers. Received on the 13th day before the Kalends of July, through Pullio, in the consulship of Eutharicus. (167.) THE REPORT OF DIOSCORUS THE DEACON. THROUGH PULLIO THE SUBDEACON.

The ineffable mercy of almighty God and his pity, which he mercifully pours forth upon the human race, cannot be measured by human powers nor unfolded in words; but it is enough only to admire his wonders with devout senses and to know that all good things depend solely upon the remedies of his grace. This is a daily proof; yet I boldly presume to say, my most blessed lord Pope, that the present cause surpasses all past things—the cause which God has reserved for your times and merits. What was done at Aulon, what at Scampae, what followed at Lychnidus, I reported in a previous notice. We arrived at Thessalonica.