Papal Letters 1 part 43/50

But that you may more fully instruct our understanding concerning all things that have been done—by what persons or in what places you were received well, as we believe, or where or under what festival of the Lord's resurrection your charity kept the day, and what you did thereafter—declare it all through letters sent in due course, so that you may relieve our anxiety concerning your prosperity and that of your actions; and if anything be lacking to the case for the instruction which you received, we may be able, with the consolation of our God, to add it. Given on the seventh day before the Kalends of May, in the consulship of Eutharic. (220.) HORMISDAS TO THOSE ABOVE. Our mind is rendered anxious by long expectation;

especially, having been sent to so great a prince, you ought to have made us more certain with all speed. For before the day of the Lord's Ascension we believed that we could receive your letters. Therefore, desiring to know both the tokens of your safety and the progress of the case which you undertook to carry through with the help of our God, we took care to dispatch, with these present writings, Paulinus, defender of the Roman church, sending letters both to the prince and to each of those to whom it was fitting.

Wherefore we beseech our God with fitting prayers, that He Himself may guard your safety by His propitiation and deign to grant to the case such an outcome as we desire; for nothing greater is inscribed among the titles of an excellent emperor than if the grace of the Church, present and future, may deserve to proclaim him the author of peace. Given on the third day before the Kalends of May, in the consulship of Eutharic. (221.) HORMISDAS TO OUR LEGATES, THOSE ABOVE. It is necessary that we think either of the state of the enjoined action or of the absence of your dilection, and for these matters our solicitude does not suffer us to omit any occasions of writing.

Previously, through the magistrianus who returned into the service of the patrician Symmachus, we sent letters to your charity, exhorting that you should not omit to instruct us concerning all things that have been done or are being done in the ecclesiastical cause: this you ought also to do for the relief of our thought. For it is our prayer that Almighty God may deign to grant your labor its desired outcome. Assist Stephen the trader, through whom our words will be delivered to you, with the appropriate aids wherever reason shall require, since you recall that he has always been ours. Given on the same day. (222.) LIKEWISE THE REPORT OF DIOSCORUS THE DEACON.

It was desirable and befitting our prayer to announce harmony with the things past—namely, that John, the pontiff of the church of Constantinople, was surviving and had issued his confession in a libel. His merits are without doubt pleasing to God, who deserved to depart from this life to the other among the Catholics and communicators of the Apostolic See. In his place a certain Epiphanius, a presbyter who was formerly his syncellus, has succeeded. His beginnings seem good, for he speaks reasonable things and promises that he will keep the rules of the Fathers and not dissipate the peace and ordained unity but rather increase it. These are the things he promises; yet what he may be able to fulfill in deed we do not yet know;

for these letters we transmitted, an occasion having been found, on the fourth day after his ordination, nor have we yet communicated with him—not as though resisting, but because we have not yet been invited by him. It remains that the prayer of Your Beatitude persist, so that by the aid of divine grace such a one may come forth through whom we may be able to rejoice over a perfect unity. Received on the seventh day before the Ides of April, in the consulship of Rusticius. (223.) LIKEWISE THE REPORT OF GERMANUS AND JOHN THE BISHOPS, FELIX AND DIOSCORUS THE DEACONS, AND BLANDUS THE PRESBYTER. We do not wonder that by the prayers of your apostolate all things have turned out prosperously for us, knowing that your prayer on our behalf labors more than our ministry.

For the whole outcome of the ecclesiastical business bore itself so, that it cannot be doubted that a miracle of the blessed Peter came forth in every particular: first, that we found so great an ardor of religion in the very men who hold dignity, that Vitalian, Pompeius, and Justinian met us at the tenth milestone and did not deem it unworthy to glory in our arrival with thanksgiving to you; then, that so great was the devotion even among the common people, that the greatest part of the populace awaited our arrival with tapers and with your praises.

Under this festivity, therefore, on the second day of Holy Week we arrived safe and joyful at Constantinople, and on the following day, being presented to the most pious prince, we were relieved by so great an affection of his that, if nothing else had preceded, the grace of the most pious prince alone would have sufficed us for consolation. But by your prayers greater things followed; for on that day, in the presence of the whole Senate, there were present also the four bishops whom John, prelate of Constantinople, had sent in defense of his party: to whom we showed the libel of the Apostolic See and proved that everything in it was rightly canonical.

Finally, on the fifth day, that is, the Lord's Supper, the bishop came to the palace in a general assembly, and, the libel having been read through, consenting, with the utmost devotion he subscribed. Who could unfold how great was the joy there of the prince alike and of the Senate, what tears the joys begot there, what voices the favor of the whole assembly and clergy sent forth, whether in praise of the prince or of your See? These things cannot be unfolded by narration, but we leave to your consideration and to the bearer what we are not able to utter. From the palace we came into the church with the utmost solemnity, that it might also strengthen by communion the concord of faith and of minds. It can scarcely be believed what weeping there was of the rejoicing, what an immensity and overflowing there was of the peoples:

the very throng marveled at its own joy, nor could it be doubted that a heavenly hand had been present, which conferred such unity upon the world. We signify that the name of Acacius the prevaricator, anathematized, has been erased from the ecclesiastical diptychs under our own inspection, and also that of the rest of the bishops who followed him in communion; likewise the names of Anastasius and Zeno have been removed from the recitation at the altar. Peace has been restored to the minds of Christians by your prayers; there is one soul of the whole Church, one joy; the enemy of the human race alone laments, dashed to pieces by the assault of your prayer.

Pray that a like felicity may also illumine the church of Antioch, concerning whose prelate the discussion is still seen to waver, since amid the diverse desires of the peoples nothing is settled about the election of the person. Yet we believe that by the prayers of Your Beatitude a worthy ordination may speedily come forth for it also, so that the peace begun in your times may be directed alike throughout the whole world, and, all parts coming together into apostolic communion and faith, the Church, perfected as it once was, may be connected in all its members to its own head. Received . . . (224.) LIKEWISE THE REPORT OF DIOSCORUS THE DEACON. Through Eulogius, man of distinction,

we received the letters of Your Beatitude, in which you signified the intention of the Scythian monks and how it had seemed good to your apostolate to delegate the case to the bishop of Constantinople, that he himself might hear between them and those who are assailed by them. To me indeed it had not displeased, because where the conscience, with God's help, is terrified by no fear, it ought to shrink from no one, but rather to hasten, so that through examination what is true may be made manifest to all. You signified to me that a protestation had been given by them, that heretics should not be joined to me. Whom they call heretics, I do not know, unless perhaps those who accept the Council of Chalcedon, whom I call Catholics. Victor the deacon is said:

certain persons together with him, before we entered Constantinople, held a contention about 'one of the Trinity crucified' and about 'Christ composite' and about other articles. When we were placed here, they presented a libel against him both to us and to the bishop of Constantinople: we met in the house of the bishop, that we might take cognizance of the contention which was being turned among them. The aforesaid bishop brought forth the Council of Chalcedon; he read before all everything that is established in that same council, saying, 'Let nothing else besides these be said to me: he who follows these can be among the Catholics.'

The aforesaid Victor answered, 'I likewise accept both the letters of Pope Leo and the synodal letters of holy Cyril, which are cited in the Council of Chalcedon, and I subscribe with my own hand and confirm by oaths that I accept these and preach nothing else besides these; and if I am ever found preaching anything else beyond these, I ask no mercy concerning myself.' The Scythians on the contrary began to say, 'Let there also be added, one of the Trinity!' We on the contrary said, 'What is not defined in the four councils nor in the letters of the blessed Pope Leo, we can neither say nor add.' This saying displeased them. Yet whether Victor said these things with a sincere mind or a deceitful one, who can know, save Him who knows hearts?

These words we heard: it is God's to judge the mind. Afterward, without us, the magnificent man Vitalian the Master of the Soldiers and the bishop of Constantinople summoned the aforesaid Victor between themselves; they spoke with him: what they determined between themselves, we do not know. Afterward neither did Victor come to us, nor was the case argued. Yet let Your Beatitude know that these Scythians call all who accept the Council of Chalcedon Nestorians, saying, 'The synod does not suffice against Nestorius,' and that the synod ought to be accepted only as they themselves have expounded it.

What sort of men these are, or what intentions they have, and what they wish to introduce into the Catholic faith, has by God's help been made manifest to all Catholics, nor does the case need my labor, which God in His mercy has brought forth into the light. I, what I learned from the Fathers, what the Catholic Church has always kept, I have not kept silent, I have not hidden. There is one God, of whom Moses speaks, saying: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God,' and in another place he says: 'The Lord alone led them.'

We believe the Trinity to be of one substance, as I said before—one deity, three persons—for we neither speak of several gods, believing there to be one God, that is, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, nor do we deny the three persons, lest we should seem to follow the dogma of Sabellius. The person of the Son, that is, of the Word of God, is truly consubstantial with the Father: that very one was made flesh, that very one dwelt in the womb of Mary, that very one took on human nature without sin, whence the Son of God, made man, was born of the Virgin Mary. On which account we call and believe her the God-bearer (Theotokos), because the union of divinity and humanity, which began to be made from the time when the angel Gabriel announced to Mary, saying:

'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Holy Spirit shall come upon you' and the rest—not only was it not divided in the womb, but neither in the birth, nor in the nourishments, nor in the passion, nor in the sepulchre, nor in the resurrection, nor in heaven was it separated; because there is one Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, not divided in persons, not separated in natures, nor diverse in power. For the same is also the one who sustains the passion, since all heresies—whether dividing, as Nestorius; or denying, as Eutyches; or believing the incarnation less fully, as Apollinaris; or introducing a phantasm, as Manes—have been cut off from the Catholic faith: men workers of iniquity and enemies of the doctrine of the apostles.

These things I have learned, these things I have heard from our elders; and if perhaps I am ignorant of what we ought to follow beyond these, it is necessary for me to follow it when Your Beatitude expounds it. As for Maxentius, however, who under the title of abbot said that he had a congregation—if he be asked either with what monks he lived, or in what monastery, or under what abbot he was made a monk, he cannot say. Likewise, if I should wish to speak about Achilles, I do a superfluous thing; for him it suffices always to lie hidden on account of his conscience, condemned by all Catholics. Given on the Ides of October, in the consulship of Eutharic. Received on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of December, in the same consulship. (225.) LIKEWISE THE REPORT OF GERMANUS THE BISHOP, FELIX AND DIOSCORUS THE DEACONS, AND BLANDUS THE PRESBYTER.

Great is the mercy of God and inestimable His judgments, who leaves nothing hidden, that the conscience of each one may be tested. Dorotheus of Thessalonica appeared no novelty, nor showed himself by a present deed the man whom true report long ago proclaimed. He was always entangled in his evil desires. Given the occasion, he perpetrated the crime which he was ever bringing to birth against the Catholic faith. In other letters we signified to Your Beatitude in what order, passing through Thessalonica, we could not receive the libels;

yet it had been arranged that, after the ordination of the holy church of Constantinople, one of us should be dispatched to him, because the aforesaid had hoped that one of us, after the libels were received, should hold masses with him, as though having in the general reckoning a testimony that he was joined to the unity of the Apostolic See. Though tardily, it was nevertheless done, that we should dispatch the venerable bishop John to him; there was dispatched with him, by common election, Epiphanius the presbyter, brother of the venerable illustrious bishop; there was with them also Licinius, count of the school, by the ordinance of the most clement Emperor.

This Licinius, however, since he had earlier been dispatched to Thessalonica for another cause, was found there—a synod having been gathered from the parish of the church of Thessalonica—awaiting, according to the promise, one of us. They wished, with him present, to make and subscribe the libels. Which was done: the aforesaid man signed those very libels, and, coming to Constantinople, announced the deed; it was said to us by the apocrisiarius of Dorotheus, 'Command someone to be dispatched who may receive the libels.' It was decided, as we said before, that the venerable bishop John should go, and, that he might have testimony of their subscription, we asked the most pious Emperor that count Licinius also should go with him. Which also was done.

And when they arrived in the city, the presence of our men was announced to Dorotheus by count Licinius. He dispatched Aristides the presbyter with two other bishops, whom he alone knew to be adversaries of the business, to see our men. With whom they wished at first to make contentions about the libels, saying, 'There are articles which ought to be corrected.' Our men said it was not in their power to do this: 'If you wish to do it, thanks be to God; if you do not wish to do it, we have come, we have greeted you, we take our leave.' After these words they departed.

On another day they met again, speaking these same things; and before they had made the proposal of their words—where no contention has been generated, no wrong has followed—suddenly the mad populace rushed upon him, and they killed two of the bishop's servant-boys, broke the bishop's head in two places, and crushed his loins; and, had not the mercy of God and the defense of the basilica of Saint Mark rescued them from their hands, they would have perished there. They were freed, however, as it is said, because the public authority came upon them, which was able to rescue them. These things, and the machinations of these men, the malice of Dorotheus contrived—he who, two days before our men reached Thessalonica, baptized above two thousand.

He dispensed such great sacraments among the people as could suffice them for the time being, signifying to the common folk that the true faith was being altered. How could these things fail to stir up the people? Whom did they not invite to sedition? After this he even tore up before the people the very document which he had drawn up with the bishops, saying, 'This I will never do so long as I live, until my death, nor do I consent to those who do it.' They also slew John, a venerable Catholic, who had received us into his house when we came, and who had always kept himself separate from communion with Dorotheus on account of the Council of Chalcedon; upon him they inflicted such a death as those men had inflicted who slew the holy Proterius.

These matters came to the ears of the most merciful emperor, and there was mourning among the Catholics in almost the whole city on account of such crimes as had occurred. His holy clemency promises to punish and to cast down Dorotheus, since we solemnly protested before his piety, saying, 'On no account can the most blessed pope receive Dorotheus among the bishops or into the communion of the Apostolic See'; and on the contrary, those who should be willing to receive him into their communion should know that they are guilty before ecclesiastical authority. These things we have hastened to report to the notice of your Beatitude, so that nothing which is being done in these parts should be hidden from you. Received on the fourth day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Eutharicus.

(226.) HORMISDAS TO THE BISHOPS GERMANUS AND JOHN, TO THE DEACONS FELIX AND DIOSCORUS, AND TO THE PRESBYTER BLANDUS. While the joys of the Church's prosperity were lifting us up, and we were daily gathering almost the full fruit of your labour, suddenly a rumour, hostile to all the things that had prospered according to our wishes, threw us into confusion. Although, since you have not yet reported it, we suspect the course of this report to be uncertain, nevertheless, on account of the very magnitude of the matter, we deemed that it ought not to be passed over in silence.

For it has been reported that our brother and fellow-bishop John, while he was approaching Thessalonica merely to receive the documents which had been promised, was so battered by an irrational sedition of the populace that, when first the man who had offered him lodging on his arrival had been slain, he himself too, struck down by a like violence, barely escaped, saved only by reverence for the sacred font. The beginning of this sedition is said to have arisen from the pretext of a deceitful interrogation put forward by the presbyter Aristides. But we, if these things are clear, do not on that account complain of the populace: it will be within the power of the venerable prince to cut back, by whatever sentence he may command, the injury done to a bishop of his own time who is Catholic.

But as for what concerns us, we desire, by God's favour and through your ever-watchful care, that this be accomplished: for we wish no one either to be converted without being given a rational account, or so to profess the right way of the faith that he may complain that something has been imposed on him by the prince without the remedy of teaching. Bring this to pass, therefore, by the presentation of your petition: that the bishop of Thessalonica, who under the pretext of an interrogation strives to shatter the Church's peace by dragging out the affair at length — a peace which he was unwilling to receive from you — be directed by the prince to the City, that he may receive teaching from the Apostolic See, and, coming hither, may learn by present inquiry from us whatever he thinks doubtful;

for thus he can prove that he preserves the caution of Catholic profession, and does not maliciously champion conflicts he has conceived. Let him know that we are ready both to instruct those who inquire aright and to recall the erring to the right path of the faith with knowledge as guide; for if, being in doubt, he is unwilling to test the teaching that is ready for him, nor again to accept in simplicity of heart the things that are commanded for the sake of peace and religion, it is plain with what mind he either resists the precepts of our God or despises the examples of an orthodox prince. In this matter, therefore, let the whole effort of your representation press hard, since neither can such men be saved by any other means, nor can the cause of the agitated populace be better calmed than under this governance.

Let the most merciful prince also command Aristides the presbyter to come to us together with him, since, as we have said before, we desire that all whose ecclesiastical peace is divided by ambiguity should, once the sickness of evil error has been dispelled, together perceive the medicine of Catholic knowledge unto our communion. Moreover, as soon as it befalls you to receive the present letter, you ought to send some one of your own men to us with a report that shall contain everything, whereby you may relieve our anxiety concerning what has been done or is being done. Add also the date to your letter, lest the tardiness of the bearer be ascribed to you. Given on the third day before the Ides of October, in the consulship of Eutharicus.

(227.) HORMISDAS TO THE BISHOPS GERMANUS AND JOHN AND TO THE PRESBYTER BLANDUS. The death of John the Catholic, whom you report to have been done away with by the madness of the heretic Dorotheus, has grievously afflicted us. For we have learned that this same Dorotheus has been summoned to Constantinople by command of the prince. Against him you ought to press upon our lord and son, the most merciful prince, that he should not return again to that city, but, having laid aside the honour of the episcopate — which he never rightly administered — be banished from that place to a more distant church, or else be certainly directed hither to the City under suitable escort.

To this end also you ought to be watchful, that in his place Aristides — the instigator and accomplice of all the mischief — be not ordained by any surreptitious devices; for it profits nothing to change the person if his deformed wickedness persists; but you ought to choose such a man that at your judgement the whole assembly of Catholics may rejoice. These things, then, being observed, the aim of your love ought to press vehemently on behalf of the persons of Thomas and Nicostratus, our brothers and fellow-bishops. For what does it profit to have restored the Church, if we should see priests excluded from her body — men whom you, with caution and reason, well knew to have been received into our communion?

Wherefore this matter grieves us not lightly, if those who are received into her faith and consent should be neglected by those who follow the preaching of the Apostolic See. Therefore, as we have exhorted, press vehemently upon the most serene prince on behalf of their communion and their place; for in the same cause we have directed letters to our lord and son, the most merciful prince, and to our son, the illustrious man Justinian, exhorting them that, together with you, in so far as pertains to the reception of their churches, they should deal with charity. On this article of our ordinance we suspect you to be forgetful:

for we said that, once the usurpers had been excluded, those of whom we speak should return to their own churches, so that those others, if indeed they be of right faith, may be ordained elsewhere. Concerning the persons of the Scythian monks the illustrious man Justinian has written to us, copies of whose letters we have directed to your Fraternity. These men, since they were unwilling to await the coming of your Love and said that they could not endure the delays of the observances, attempted to depart secretly from the City. Yet we caused them to be guarded rather carefully, wishing to learn those things which they said against you, so that, when by God's favour you have returned, their error may be corrected by reasonable exhortations. Given on the third day before the Nones of December, in the consulship of the most honourable Eutharicus.

(228.) HORMISDAS TO THE SAME AS ABOVE. So does the care for your safety and your undertakings trouble us, that, although with frequent occasions, we do not neglect to exhort — being assured concerning those things which are being done around you — that letters be dispatched. For both when, through a man of the illustrious and magnificent patrician, our son Agapitus, we sent messages in keeping with our desires, and now too, we have deemed it a solace for our anxiety if we should send the present writing to you: only let it be that, at a suitable occasion of a bearer, you relieve us by your addresses concerning your doings and welfare, and also concerning the delay by which we grieve much that you are detained. Given on the sixth day before the Ides of July, in the consulship of the most honourable Rusticius.

(229.) HORMISDAS TO BISHOP GERMANUS, TO THE DEACONS FELIX AND DIOSCORUS, AND TO THE PRESBYTER BLANDUS. So long a silence of your Love saddens our hearts, as does the absence of so long a time, especially since the magnificent man, the patrician Symmachus, and the illustrious man Romanus, master of the soldiers, our sons, promised us the return of your charity without delay; and we know not whether it be the nature of the affairs there, or indeed some feigned deceit under the guise of necessity, that detains you, since to us — who bear our anxiety without ceasing and question almost all the men of those parts — divers and dissimilar things are reported.

And therefore, since you can better detect and understand and recognize the causes of so great a delay, you ought to have signified to us these things, over which our soul is tormented; or, if there be a suitable cause of delay, then, as was appointed, one of your own men ought to have been dispatched to us. Wherefore, lest perchance by cunning artifices or some contrivance delay and hindrances be created for you, write to us with speed, so that, under a reasonable arrangement, we may direct petitions on your behalf to our son the most merciful emperor. Therefore, both concerning the persons and concerning the cause of the faith, for which you have long been delayed — what is being done —

write back to us all things fully and in detail, so that, all being known, with our God's favour we may consider how mercy may be brought to aid your persons and the very cause whose matter is at issue. Given on the Ides of July, in the consulship of the most honourable Rusticius. (230.) COPY OF THE REPORT OF POSSESSOR, AN AFRICAN BISHOP, THROUGH HIS DEACON JUSTINUS. TO THE MOST BLESSED LORD, INEFFABLY WONDERFUL AND TO BE PREFERRED IN THE GRACE OF CHRIST, POPE HORMISDAS, POSSESSOR SENDS ETERNAL WELFARE IN THE LORD. It is fitting and expedient to have recourse to the medicine of the head, as often as the health of the members is at stake.

For who bears greater solicitude for those subject to him, or from whom is the stability of a wavering faith more to be sought, than from the president of that See, whose first ruler, appointed by Christ, heard: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church'? I judge that it is not hidden from your Beatitude with how great snares the Church in the city of Constantinople labours, and how, after the manner of an old disease, the wound again seeks to burst forth into corruption, which was believed to be closed over with a scar. Whence, since the minds of certain brethren were being moved to scandal over the codex of a certain Faustus, a Gaul by nation, bishop of the city of Reii — who on divers matters, and more frequently on the grace of God, was seen to dispute eloquently —