Papal Letters 1 part 42/50

This Israel was commanded to adore, whose inseparable and undivided substance cannot be divided, cannot be severed by any sacrilegious distinction—the property of each person being nevertheless preserved. These things, meanwhile, thinking of the limit of an epistolary style, we believe should be commended to your faith with a fitting brevity, being more fully to be discussed when, under the flourishing reign of the most merciful prince, it shall befall us both to receive the promised legation—God being favourable—and, when all things are known, with the aid of our God, having rendered a reply, to send it back for the instruction of the whole. (207.) HORMISDAS TO JUSTINIAN THE ILLUSTRIOUS. Your zeal toward ecclesiastical peace and the condemned errors of heretical contention we approve by the very effects of the deeds;

for this work a great and immeasurable reward without doubt awaits you. Hence it is that whatever we shall have judged necessary for the firmness of the canons and for the reverence of the Apostolic See, we entrust to your Magnitude to be carried out forthwith with confident assurance; for that you receive with great joy the things hoped for in such causes, many examples of this kind bear witness. Wherefore, omitting beginnings in a long circuit, we turn the words of the present page to the matter itself. The Church mourns, and in the great inception of the longed-for unity it cannot enjoy the gladness afforded it, because of the affliction of one cause: that your benefits may remove this anxiety from us, we entreat with no small prayers.

For both the present grief and the occasion, now procured, of future contentions torment us—through which both the rules of the venerable Fathers are neglected, and the authority of the Apostolic See is thought able to be contemned. For whereas, by the gift of God and of the most merciful prince, and by your endeavour together, these alone are believed to be bishops and by right to hold their churches, who consent to return to our communion with their errors condemned,

to Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus, our brothers and fellow-bishops, who gave a good beginning to the cause even under a hostile emperor, not only did their good endeavours profit nothing toward advancement, but they cannot even obtain the offices of the dignity conferred on them by the Lord, and, exiled from the flocks committed to them, they are compelled to undergo the miseries of the condemned. Wherefore we beseech, and by the divine mercy we adjure you,

that you bestow upon their cause, which is just, the highest patronage and the affection of a proven vigour, cleaving to the footsteps of the most pious prince, so that at last he may restore them to their churches, both out of regard for piety and out of consideration for justice; for in their humiliation it is asserted by our enemies that the longed-for fellowship of our communion has proved displeasing. (208.) COPY OF THE REPORT OF DOROTHEUS, BISHOP OF THESSALONICA. TO THE MOST HOLY AND MOST BLESSED FATHER AND FELLOW-MINISTER HORMISDAS, DOROTHEUS, GREETING IN THE LORD.

It is the highest zeal of our purpose and of our prayer, O most blessed and thrice-blessed Father in all things, both to write frequently to you, most holy men, and to merit mutual converse; and it befits me at no time to be a stranger to a gladness of this kind. Since, therefore, I have clearly learned that certain men trouble your holy ears, and I know beyond doubt that you are perfect in all things, and that you can hear nothing without judgement nor lend your mind at all to any man, and lest I seem, by my silence, to grant time any longer to those who indeed have been in no way injured by us, but without cause and superfluously have armed themselves against us:

I nevertheless give satisfaction both to God and to your holiness; for on behalf of John, the most reverend man and bishop, who a little before was sent by your venerable crown, I destined myself to perils and endured death, and I know that I set my own life at stake for his—and this is shown by the records and by those who, although by my absence they seem to have been most sharply examined. And what need is there to use a long discourse, when the Lord our God Jesus Christ can disclose and give satisfaction to you in all things? For also, when I learned that you were being called to the presidency of the Apostolic See, I judged it to be the common joy of the whole world.

For from that time, writing this very thing to you, so far as in me lay, in whatever pertains to the honour and satisfaction due to you and to the Apostolic See, I have omitted nothing, nor do I omit it. A little later, however, you shall know, most venerable men, with the Lord Jesus Christ granting it, that these things were devised by me from the beginning, and, when the Lord God gave the time, they were brought to effect. All brotherhood in Christ, together with your holiness, I too and mine most heartily salute. (209.) HORMISDAS TO DOROTHEUS, BISHOP OF THESSALONICA. Considering that the church of your fraternity, before the evils of the passing discord, was of old joined to the Apostolic See with a preeminent charity, we lately believed you to be the author of the peace restored from above:

but because you also linger to follow those whom you ought to have gone before, we sigh not lightly, on behalf of your fraternity, over the tardiness of a correction deferred. For you write that our ears were disturbed by the atrocity of a certain crime: would that so detestable a report ran only as far as us, and did not announce to Christian minds throughout the whole world a deed as lamentable as it is execrable, so that those who do not know you to be innocent believe you at the same time to have strayed from the path of Christianity! For in what part of the world does the odium of this savagery not both sadden the catholic churches and gladden the depraved wishes of heretics? These things we desire to be shown to be alien from the conscience of your love, as you intimate by your letters:

for what more accords with our wishes than that bishops willing to return to catholic peace should always be proved untouched by cruelty and crimes? We wait, therefore, if the supports of the truth known to God are not lacking to your fraternity, that you may both repel from yourself the odium of so great a crime, and, in the reconciliation of the faith, at last follow the examples of those who have returned. Given on the fourth day before the Kalends of November, in the consulship of Rusticius, most honourable man. (210.) HORMISDAS TO THE BISHOPS ELIAS, THOMAS, AND NICOSTRATUS. How greatly our mind is wearied by sharing in your grief, it is superfluous to establish by words among those who prove our mutual charity;

but may He who, as searcher and foreknower, beholds both our mind and your labours, turn our sorrow into joy by your prosperity. But that we may never cease, on behalf of your affair, with a most just plea and gentle intercession, know that we have addressed letters both to the most merciful prince and to the most excellent Augusta, and also to the illustrious and magnificent men Justinian and Germanus, our sons, containing your affair in particular, which we have so handed over to the sublime man Eulogius that he should place it first in your judgement, whether you choose to offer them through yourselves, or whether they be presented rather through him as bearer, both to the prince and to the other persons whom we have designated above. (211.

) HORMISDAS TO GERMANUS THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS. While we are keeping watch with a laudable purpose for ecclesiastical peace, and are glowing with so great an ardour of faith, the giving of thanks alone does not suffice; for it is not the prerogative of human praise that solicits you, but the expectation of divine recompense that inflames you. Therefore what we most owe, we discharge, and we daily entreat our God, in whose causes you spend yourself, for your safety, asking that your zeal may so glow in every part with affection for ecclesiastical unity, that no room for a good office be left where the patronage of your defence does not stand by the paternal rules.

But above all the cause of our brothers and fellow-bishops Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus moves us, who, having first followed the concord necessary for the world, are stricken by the deprivation of their own churches, and are cast down together with an affront to the venerable canons; and thus for them the glory of their own reconciliation becomes a cause of difficulty, as though they themselves had rather resisted with a stubborn mind, and, while others return to the unity of the Apostolic See, they themselves had rather torn asunder the members of the Church. How hard this is for us, and how unworthy of the times of the most merciful Emperor, it befits your prudence to weigh, and at last to furnish a remedy which may, with welcome solace, take away both their labours and our sadness.

(212.) JUSTIN AUGUSTUS TO POPE HORMISDAS. The illustrious man, the most reverend bishop, we received with a grateful mind, not only for the honour which is due to priests, but also for affection toward your holiness. For whosoever has been approved by your judgement is with us also judged most approved. Concerning the assistance, however, and the favour which is to be given to their churches, it shall then more opportunely be determined, when the legates, whom we are known to have lately sent to the magnificent king Trasamund, having returned by favouring divinity, shall have brought back to us a reply. But may your Beatitude deign, with unwearied prayers, to request for us the aid from on high. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of December.

At Constantinople, in the consulship of the lord Justin, perpetual Augustus. Received on the eleventh day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Rusticius. (213.) COPY OF THE SUGGESTION OF THE BISHOPS GERMANUS AND JOHN, THE DEACONS FELIX AND DIOSCORUS, AND THE PRESBYTER BLANDUS. In what order, with God's help, we arrived at the city of Aulona, and how we were received by the bishop of that city, and what was done, or what kind of answer they gave, and that he promised this—that he would make a memorial when he made his metropolitan—we have signified to your Beatitude in another letter. For what was done in the city of Scampae, by your prayers we have not omitted to keep silence about.

Before we entered that city, the venerable bishop Troius, with his clergy and people, went forth to meet us; and how God was blessed on that very day, and what festivity ensued through his piety, we report to the knowledge of your apostolate. In our presence, and that of his clergy and the noble men of the city, he wrote a memorial. He presents it: we received it, and, in the presence of all the clergy and people, in the choir it was read out by your servant Peter, notary of the holy Roman Church. There was an assembly in the basilica of Saint Peter. We confess to your Beatitude: such devotion, such praises to God, such tears, such joys, we have hardly seen in another people.

Nearly all, men with women, received us with candles in the city, soldiers with crosses. Masses were celebrated; the name of no one liable in religion was recited, but only that of your Beatitude. Our venerable bishop Germanus celebrated the Mass, and they promised that henceforth none should be recited save those whom the Apostolic See has received. How great things have been wrought for you, may God in His favour preserve in you. This letter we composed thirty miles before Lychnidus, hoping on that very day, with God's help, to arrive in that city, and, in the manner that it came to us, we hope that the bishop of that city too will do the like. And if it shall have been done, given the occasion, we will write again.

When we were stationed at Scampae, after the Masses, at the dinner hour, Stephanus and Leontius, most distinguished men sent by the Emperor, had come to meet us, not yet knowing that we were stationed in the regions of the Greeks; for such mandates had been given to the count Stephanus, that he should cross over to the regions of Italy to meet us. (This Stephanus is, as it is said, of the kindred of your son, Vitalianus, master of the soldiers.) They announced to us that Patricius the senator had been proscribed and sent into exile; yet for what cause, unless in the manner it may have come to us, we cannot say, because it is not easy to deliberate about such matters. It is said, however, that the apocrisiaries of the Church of Thessalonica are being held. Among them letters are said also to have been found;

for what cause, we do not know. With them are also held Philuminus and Demetrius the magistrian, and other persons whose names we do not know. These are, as we said before, the things which we have heard. Concerning the ecclesiastical cause, however, by God's mercy, prosperous things are reported. As for Cosmas the physician, for what cause he came into Italy we could not at all understand, save only this, that perhaps he complains. About him you ought to be solicitous, that you may know for what cause he came thither. (214.) LIKEWISE THE SUGGESTION OF THE SAME MEN AS ABOVE. In another letter we signify to your Beatitude concerning the city of Scampae, concerning the venerable bishop Troius, in what order he gave a memorial and what kind of festivity was celebrated in that city. By God's mercy we came to Lychnidus.

Theodoritus, the venerable bishop, the man of that city, likewise gave a memorial; which memorial was read out in the church, and everything was done according to your constitution. Pray to God, hope from His apostles, the most blessed Peter and Paul, that God, who has granted such beginnings to your prayers, may likewise cause prosperous things to follow, so that the seasons of your crown may always be proclaimed in the correction of the churches. This letter we directed to your apostolate on the day of the Nones of March. (215.) COPY OF THE REPORT OF ANDREAS, BISHOP OF PRAEVALIS. TO THE LORD, EVER NEW AND MOST BLESSED, AND TO BE SET FORTH WITH THE INMOST VENERATION FOR THE APOSTOLIC SEE, AND TO BE MADE EQUAL TO ANGELIC MERITS, THE FATHER OF FATHERS, POPE HORMISDAS, ANDREAS.

Commending myself most humbly to your most pious footsteps, I make known, concerning the synod of New Epirus, that they feigned to anathematize among themselves certain persons. This trick only did they employ, that they might catch us in their malice. To them the divine Trinity, through your holy prayers, made resistance; and when they had been caught in their malice, we could never persuade their archbishop to be bent toward the way of truth and toward your precepts. But now,

when the most blessed and most holy lord bishops and deacons, sent by your holy crown, arrived, the bishop of Scampae, the most blessed man Troius, met them with all joy and with lamps, and, a memorial having been presented according to your instruction, they were at once received in the peace of Christ, and celebrated Masses with him in the city of Scampae. And the men of Lychnidus, seeing what Troius of Scampae had done, in like manner followed him also. For while we were arranging these letters, there arrived a magistrian from the city of Constantinople, who announced that, by God's favour, through your holy prayers, the people of Constantinople also had sent an anathema against Acacius and celebrated Easter in peace.

Now, whatever may follow, may your intercession labour before God, that we may be found perfect servants of the Apostolic See. But the letters which the aforesaid most blessed men, the bishops, addressed to my humility, I have transmitted joined to your piety. Received on the day above. (216.) SUGGESTION OF DIOSCORUS THE DEACON. It is true that there are no joys, especially spiritual ones, from which tribulation is not ready at hand. We rejoice over the unity of the Church of Constantinople, which has been made with the Apostolic See; we are glad daily that the memorials of divers bishops of their satisfaction are offered to us. A small scandal occurred in the city of Ephesus, where the Council of Chalcedon was contemned and outraged:

it belongs to the most merciful Emperor, when appealed to, to correct this, which we also hope, with God's help, will be done. Now, even though after labours, even though after many exertions, the Church of Antioch has been ordained: a certain man named Paul, a presbyter of the Church of Constantinople, was chosen, whom the testimony of the Emperor proved most fit for this honour. They wished and attempted to ordain him here; I, not unmindful of your command, contradicted, saying, 'Our lord the most blessed Pope has commanded that, according to ancient custom, he be ordained bishop there.' This prevailed, which you had enjoined. Pray that God, by the prayers of the Apostle Peter, may cause that city too to receive its elected priest in peace.

And because these things are being carried out and the Catholic Church makes daily progress in them, the ancient plotter has stirred up monks from Scythia, who belong to the household of Vitalian the Master of the Soldiers, as adversaries to the desires of all Christians; their restlessness has bred no small delays for the unity of the churches, and especially concerning the ordination for the aforesaid church of Antioch. These monks, among whom is also Leontius, who claims to be a kinsman of the Master of the Soldiers, are hastening to Rome, hoping that certain articles may be confirmed by Your Beatitude. Among the rest there is in them a point where they wish to say that one of the Trinity was crucified, which was neither declared in the holy synods, nor in the letters of the holy Pope Leo, nor in ecclesiastical custom.

For if this is permitted to happen, it seems to me that dissensions or no small scandals will arise among the churches. This the Emperor Anastasius greatly strove to impose upon the Catholics; this too the disciples of Eutyches put forward in the Council of Chalcedon, for as often as the Fathers disputed concerning the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, they called the Son of God the Word consubstantial with the Father, homoousion with the Father. But this expression was never introduced into the synods by the Fathers, because without doubt it could in no way be made to accord with the Catholic faith.

If the intent of this expression be carefully weighed—to how many heresies it lies open, and what evils could through it be introduced into ecclesiastical disputations—since this would be long, we shall be able to explain it in person. Hence it seems to me sound and useful and conducive to the peace of the churches to give no other answer than this: 'The holy Council of Chalcedon suffices, in which the other synods are also contained; the letters of Pope Leo suffice, which the synod confirmed: we neither wish nor ought to introduce novelty into the Church.' There is also in their proposal a cunning point, to say this too: 'We have accepted the Council of Chalcedon; this we hope, that you would command it to be expounded to us,

because it does not suffice as it stands expounded against the Nestorian heresy.' Not as though they do not understand, but as trying by subtlety to bring us to this, that there be a disputation about the Council of Chalcedon. And if this were done, it would be shown doubtful and infirm, and would lie open to the error of all the heretics. Among other things, if after the Council of Chalcedon, if after the letters of Pope Leo, if after the libels which the bishops have given and give, and by which they have made satisfaction to the Apostolic See, something new be again added, so it seems to me, that whatever was done is undone. Given on the third day before the Kalends of July, at Constantinople. (217.) LIKEWISE THE REPORT OF GERMANUS AND JOHN THE BISHOPS, FELIX AND DIOSCORUS THE DEACONS, AND BLANDUS THE PRESBYTER.

By the mercy of God, in what order and with what caution we entered into communion in the church of Constantinople, Your Beatitude has already learned in the other letters sent by your servant Pullio, and likewise in other letters not once but a second time we took care to signify what sort of things the enemies of religion attempt, so that nothing be either done or contrived that should escape Your Beatitude: whatever has been ordained in the church of Constantinople stands firm with us by the help of God; the spiritual joys which the Catholics have celebrated and do celebrate do not falter.

The matter of the ordination of the church of Antioch has caused us not only toils but great tribulations, because men eager to hinder the general unity have in various ways raised various obstacles. Our proposal was, concerning those who had suspended themselves from the anathema, to ordain a priest in the aforesaid church: they did not set before their eyes the coming judgment, openly declaring, 'All who were in communion with the Apostolic See are Nestorians,' and that credence ought rather not to be given to those who now seem to have been recalled to the communion of the Apostolic See.

After many afflictions and struggles drawn out on all sides for nearly three months, the most pious Emperor by his own authority chose a presbyter named Paul from the church of Constantinople to be made bishop in the church of Antioch, giving among other things this testimony about him, that during two years spent at Antioch he resisted the heretic Severus not in a mediocre manner. All the Catholics likewise agreed. Yet the Emperor promised that he would report all these things concerning the person of the aforesaid to Your Beatitude. But the contrivers and accomplices of these tribulations, and the hindrances to the unity of the churches, were the monks from Scythia:

who afterward, when they had failed here, marked by all as contemplating nothing peaceable, ran to Your Beatitude, hoping to obtain by stealth and to confirm their designs through letters of your See. These men accuse the bishops of their own province, among whom is Paternus, prelate of the city of Tomi.

They presented petitions, and, compelled by the command of the most pious prince and of the lord Vitalian the Master of the Soldiers, we frequently convened for the hearing of the case—not as though wishing to occupy ourselves in these affairs, since Your Beatitude's precepts are before our eyes, by which you enjoined that we should attend only to the case for which we had come and mingle in no other business, but hoping that their intentions could be pacified, we condescended to this. And because, though we labored long and they accepted no reasoning, nothing was profited in what we aimed at, the most clement Emperor, in a public assembly at which he ordered us also to be present, restored the aforesaid bishop Paternus and the magnificent man Vitalian to favor;

he also commanded his accusers to make supplication to their bishop. But the monks, when they likewise were being sought for concord, slipping away in flight preferred to depart from the city rather than come to concord. Especially the aforesaid monks, coming to Italy, have certain articles to propose, among which is contained also the one about 'one of the Trinity was crucified,' hoping thus to have it confirmed by the authority of Your Beatitude. As we signified also in other letters, and now we say this, that no novelty be written from the Apostolic See, for we too have declared this before the Emperor and before the Senate, saying: 'Beyond the four synods, beyond the letters of Pope Leo, we neither say nor admit anything;

whatever is not contained in the aforesaid synods or what is not written by Pope Leo, we do not accept; for if our lord should wish to write any novelty whatsoever, that beginning will be worse than the one that was made through Eutyches. It ought to suffice for the Church that for sixty years, from Eutyches until now, it has endured.' We have written what seemed good to us; it is in your power to decide what God shall have commanded you, since they strive to assert this, desiring in this manner to satisfy themselves, that we should so profess and say that one of the Trinity suffered, which neither the Fathers nor the synods said. These things we have therefore set forth one by one, lest their subtlety should glory in our simplicity:

on account of these new designs of theirs they beguiled the magnificent man Vitalian into claiming such things and into bringing against us, for the sake of such matters, whatever obstacles he could—whose change of mind the whole Church laments together with us. Wherefore we ask that, with the accustomed caution and with the vigilance which our lord is wont to employ, you would consider both how those are to be received who have thus withdrawn from us and been separated from our communion, and what answer should be given them, or how their articles should be rejected, since the Catholic Church of Constantinople abhors them all. Given on the third day before the Kalends of July, at Constantinople. (218.) LIKEWISE THE REPORT OF THOSE ABOVE.

Your son, the magnificent man Justinian, doing things befitting his faith, has established a basilica of the holy apostles, in which he desires also that there be relics of the blessed martyr Laurence: he hopes, through our littleness, that you would quickly grant the relics of the aforesaid saints. Indeed, the petition of the aforesaid man was according to the custom of the Greeks, and we on the contrary set forth the custom of the Apostolic See. He accepted the reasoning. And because such is the fervor of his faith, that he deserves whatever he should ask of the Apostolic See, and such is that which he hopes—whence both the salvation of the soul and the affection of faith may increase—it befits us not to deny what is requested by such desires.

Wherefore, if it also seems good to Your Beatitude, command that the sanctuaries of the blessed Peter and Paul be bestowed on him according to custom, and, if it can be done, to deposit those sanctuaries as far as the second cataract—it is for you to decide. He asks also concerning the chains of the holy apostles, if it be possible, and concerning the gridiron of the blessed martyr Laurence. These are the desires of the aforesaid man; toward these his faith has been kindled. On this account he has dispatched to your city the man of distinction Eulogius the magistrianus, judging that this would satisfy him, if from that very source, whence throughout all the earth the sanctuaries of the apostles have been given, from there he too might deserve to receive relics.

And you do well to entrust the ecclesiastical cause, especially in the invocation of God, to such a man, whose sincerity and integrity concerning the Catholic religion is known to all men. Hence they wished to make and dispatch little silver caskets, but afterward they considered that this too should be received from your See as a blessing. Yet we suggest that individual caskets should be made for the relics of each individual apostle. Given on the third day before the Kalends of July, at Constantinople. (219.) HORMISDAS TO GERMANUS AND JOHN THE BISHOPS, FELIX AND DIOSCORUS THE DEACONS, AND BLANDUS THE PRESBYTER.

The diversity of opinions long makes us anxious about your prosperity and about the quality of the action undertaken, especially since for so long a time we could learn nothing certain by any reply from your dilection. Nevertheless, having found the occasion of a bearer, we have preferred to signify these very things; wherefore, greeting you, know that by the help of Almighty God we are safe and sound, which we also desire to hear concerning you.