Papal Letters 1 part 44/50

some being moved to scandal, while others, as human pursuits are wont, resisted to the contrary, they believed that I ought to be consulted about this ambiguity. I said indeed those things which are disputed by treatise-writers according to the capacity of their own talent — not so that they should be received as canonical or observed as law in place of synodal decrees, but that we have things certain, namely those which have been written in the Old or New Law and decreed by the general judgements of the Fathers, for the foundation of the faith and the entire firmness of religion; whereas these things, which divers prelates have composed, are wont to be reckoned according to their own quality, without prejudice to the faith. But when these things —

as far as I have perceived in their frequent asking — seemed rather to them an excuse, then, whether for their prayer's sake or for the occasion of rendering obedience, I have presumed to bring the lines of my littleness before your Apostolate through my deacon Justinus, in which, chiefly begging the safeguard of your prayers, I beseech that, consulting what seems to be the case concerning the sayings of the aforesaid author, they may learn it by the authority of an apostolic response — especially since your sons also, the masters of the soldiers Vitalian and Justinian, particularly desire likewise to be informed on this matter by a rescript of your Beatitude.

I remember also that I formerly directed a codex to be reviewed, containing expositions of the epistles of the blessed apostle Paul, for which I did not deserve to be gladdened by a reply. Wherefore with like prayer I beg that I may deserve to obtain the prerogative of your blessing by a fitting response. Received on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Rusticius. (231.) HORMISDAS TO BISHOP POSSESSOR. As it accords with reason that those in doubt should consult, so it is fitting to answer those consulted, since he himself drives into error who does not instruct the ignorant; nor is anything more suited to one zealous for religion than the inquiry into truth, since he more easily avoids the wrong path who asks about the way by which he is to walk.

But before I undertake the care of answering the things which your Love inquires about, I gladly confess that in your letters I have found the fervour of your faith, kindled by whose warmth you sigh that the perversity of unbelievers is again flourishing in those parts. Most worthy is the grief that saddens hearts devoted to God; for among them there is no lamentable lapse who have the little fire of charity, since the one desire of spiritual men is the unshaken salvation of all. But such storms, or an unaccustomed tempest of this kind, are not unknown to the churches of God: although by the governance of her Pilot she remains unshaken, yet, harassed, she toils amid the various whirlwinds of surging waves.

For whence comes the voice of the psalmist-prophet, who, taking on the person of the Church herself by the Spirit with which he was filled, often says: 'Often have they fought against me from my youth; yet they could not prevail against me'? They shake her, but they shall prevail in nothing. As yet we are on the threshing-floor; the wheat is mingled with the chaff; the good groan at the fellowship of the wicked; but there remains the flame for the useless, and the barns are already prepared for those approved. Where on earth is there not this admixture? It befits us to stand with fixed footsteps: we shall advance among adversaries by our own goods, if we be not entangled in others' errors; for he proves the valid strength of his virtue who, when he is driven, is not moved. Where are there not the stings of various temptation?

Such as, throughout almost this whole continuous year, we have endured from certain Scythians who put themselves forward as monks in appearance not in truth, in profession not in deed — their cunning craftiness cloaked with subtle guile, and, under the pretext of religion, poisons serving their own hatreds — striving to heal them from their inward wound by the governance of a healing patience, not keeping silent the admonitions of blessed Paul: 'Do not contend with words; for it is profitable for nothing but the subversion of the hearers.' But when is the venom torn out which has penetrated the bowels? When do hearts ill-credulous to themselves obey the ordinances of truth? When does pride, entrenched in its own opinions, put on the humility of obedience? When do they, given over to the zeal of contentions, acquiesce in peace?

Accustomed to loving only conflicts about religion and to neglecting the commandments — never among them is there charity commended by the new precept, never the peace left behind at the Lord's departure: their one care of a stubborn purpose is to wish to command reason, not to yield; despisers of ancient authorities, greedy for new questions; thinking the only right way of knowledge to be a sentence conceived by any lightness whatever; puffed up to such a swelling that they think the judgement of both hemispheres ought to bend to their own will, and reckoning as not among the number of the faithful those who follow the tradition of the Fathers, if they should see them unwilling to yield to their own opinion; skilled to sow crimes, to compound the poisons of detractions.

To hate the whole body of the Church, to contrive seditions, to stir up envy, and, instead of the obedience which holds the primacy of regular discipline in the monasteries, to love the obstinacy of stubborn pride. Neither by admonitions, nor by mildness, nor by authority could we restrain them. They went forth even into a public assembly, clamouring, to the disturbance of the peace, even around the statues of the emperors; and had not the constancy of the faithful people withstood them, through the accursed seeds of diabolical tares they would have stirred up dissension and discord among them — those very ones through whom, by the help of God, dissension has been driven out of their regions.

Too late we have proved that the Apostle said with prophetic voice that in the last days perilous times shall be at hand, and that there shall be men lovers of themselves only, having a form of piety but denying the power thereof; and that therefore they are to be shunned. These things, then, we have believed ought to be indicated to your Love at this occasion, lest, if perchance they should be carried thither, you, not knowing how they conducted themselves in the city of Rome, should be deceived under some pretence of words.

But as for those about whom you indicated in your letters that you had consulted concerning the sayings of a certain Faustus, a Gallic prelate, let them have this for their answer: that neither he nor any whom the examination does not receive into the authority of the Fathers can beget any ambiguity of the Catholic faith or of ecclesiastical discipline, or procure prejudice against religious men. The ordinances which the faithful ought to follow have been fixed by the Fathers; whether an interpretation, or a preaching, or a word composed for the edification of the people — if it agrees with the right faith and sound doctrine, it is admitted; if it disagrees, it is abolished. There is one foundation, outside which whatever structure rises is infirm; upon that foundation let whoever builds, whether cheap things or precious, consider well.

But he errs who strays from the way which the choice of the Fathers has pointed out. Yet diligence that ranges through many things is not condemned, but a mind that turns away from the truth. Often from these very things necessary instruction is provided, by which the rivals themselves may be refuted; nor can it be reckoned a fault to know what you should flee; and therefore they come into blame not by reading unfitting things, but by following them. For if it were not so, that teacher of the nations would never have consented to announce to the faithful: 'Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.' It is not amiss, even though it be worldly, to mingle a discourse not separated from reason.

It is related that a certain man noble in the art of painting, when he wished to render a horse fully finished with his brush, set before himself an ass while painting — asserting that it was not that he might imitate the shapeless beast of burden, but lest, slipping, he should fall into the likeness of some deformed lineament. Not improvidently did the venerable wisdom of the Fathers define for the faithful posterity what the canonical dogmas were, prefixing beforehand, by the instruction of the Holy Spirit, that certain books even of old were to be received into authority — thereby granting indulgence to the reader's own opinion, that he might not assert as edifying to the Church that which his own will had conceived.

What need, then, is there for calumniators to extend questions beyond the appointed bounds of the Church, and to stir up conflicts over things which are thus held to be said, as though they had not been said, when the Christian faith is bounded by a stable and unshaken path by the canonical books, the synodal precepts, and the regular constitutions of the Fathers? Yet concerning free will and the grace of God, what the Roman — that is, the Catholic — Church follows and keeps, although it can be known both in the various books of blessed Augustine and especially in those to Hilary and Prosper, nevertheless there are contained also in the ecclesiastical archives expressly stated chapters; which, if they are wanting there and you believe them necessary,

we will dispatch them — although whoever diligently considers the sayings of the Apostle may clearly recognize what he ought to follow. Given on the Ides of August, in the consulship of the most honourable Rusticius. (232.) JUSTIN AUGUSTUS TO POPE HORMISDAS. With what zeal we have ever been and are, for the reconciling of the opinions of those who cultivate the Catholic faith, so that with one mind all may venerate the indivisible light of the Trinity, we are recognized to have made manifest, now sending of our own accord a legate to your Beatitude for this very purpose — Gratus, the most eminent master of the scrinium — that at length a remedy may be found for the discords of those variously contending; now receiving with a ready and willing affection the most religious men whom your Apostolic See believed ought to be dispatched as intercessors of unity.

For indeed we have looked upon them as upon peace itself with joyful eyes, and with outstretched hands have deemed them to be embraced; nay more, with all our effort we have ordained that the venerable Church of Constantinople, as well as several others, should undertake your wishes — not only in other things, but also in the removing even of names from the sacred diptychs, which you especially demanded to be removed.

But there were not a few cities and churches, both Pontic and Asian, and especially the Eastern ones, whose clergy or peoples, though tried by all threats and persuasions, were nevertheless in no way bent to take away and reject the names of the prelates whose reputation flourished among them; but they esteem a life harder than death, if they should condemn the dead in whose life, while they survived, they used to glory. What, then, shall we do with obstinacy of this kind, which neither exists to hear a word and so despises torments that it reckons it an ample and festive thing if it should cease from bodily life rather than from religious counsel? To us, indeed, it seems there is need of acting more softly and more mercifully. And if these things cannot be found in your Holiness, then they will not be able to be found in any other.

For neither being desirous of blood and punishments — which is grievous even to say — did we receive the document, nor that the desires of concord should remain unfulfilled by a small distinction, but for the prolonging, by whatever order we can, of the joining together of the members of the Church. Whether, therefore, will it be more excellent that, for the sake of the lesser, such great multitudes be wholly cut off from us, or that, small things being conceded and remitted, the greater things — and those to be sought by every reason — be corrected, so that the things which were not permitted in every respect may at least be gathered in from the necessary parts?

We ask, therefore, pardon for the names — not of Acacius, not of either Peter, not of Dioscorus or Timothy, whose designations the letters given by your Holiness contained — but for those whom the episcopal reverence celebrated in other cities, and this with the exception of the cities where the document of your Beatitude has already been fully admitted, unless your benevolence should determine that this part too be more mildly corrected. Yet the matter is not without a judgement of the Apostolic See, so that it should be called not so much a pardon as a definition already deliberated and clearly perceived: for Anastasius of most religious memory, the summit of your Church, has plainly and openly established, when he wrote about this very business to our predecessor,

that it is enough for those who desire peace, if only the name of Acacius be passed over in silence. Therefore he follows the former ordinances of your See, who judges that not all memorials of the dead are to be condemned, so that it would be held unworthy and unfitting if your gentleness were not proclaimed as more gracious to all — not only to the departed but even to the living — throughout every end of the earth. And this indeed we would not doubt will be so gratifying to you, that by a peaceable reply the world may at once be rendered more joyful. Yet your Holiness retains what we wrote some time ago: that supplications have been directed to us from the East, containing their own will and choice, in which they show themselves firmly resolved to persist, and from which they judge that on no account is there to be a withdrawal.

This document, therefore, according to our promises, we have with good reason believed ought to be directed to you at present through the most reverend man, Bishop John, so that, its tenor being admitted by your See also, it may avail toward gathering and uniting everywhere the venerable churches, and especially that of Jerusalem, to which all lavish so great favour as to the mother of the Christian name, so that no one may dare to separate himself from her. It is fitting, therefore, that your Holiness declare your own consent by an epistolary page also, so that, it being known and made manifest to all that the tenor of the same document is praised and tenaciously guarded by you also, the world may exist more joyful. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of September at Chalcedon, in the consulship of Rusticius. Received on the day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship aforesaid.

(232 a.) COPY OF THE PETITION. TO THE GOD-BELOVED AND MOST PIOUS EMPEROR, AUGUSTUS FROM GOD, AND MOST CHRISTIAN PRINCE JUSTIN — A PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION FROM THE CLERGY AND ABBOTS AND LANDHOLDERS OF THE PROVINCE OF SYRIA, OF JERUSALEM AND ANTIOCH AND SECOND SYRIA.

'Draw water with joy out of the fountains of salvation,' the prophet Isaiah cries aloud, manifestly showing the fountains of salvation to be the evangelical preachings of the truth, from which the blessed apostles, and those who in due order were their disciples, and the wise doctors of the Church, drawing the saving water of faith, watered all the holy Church of God — which, resting upon the rock of the chief of the apostles, guarding the right and unbending confession, together with him confidently cries out at all times to the only-begotten Son of God, saying: 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.'

Receiving this saving confession from the four holy synods, which have been honoured by evangelical precepts, we have never, through the grace of Christ, deviated from the right dogmas handed down to us — as the proof of facts attests and the constancy of faith demonstrates in a time of necessity.

If, therefore, as Christians we are partakers of the reason of the faith, most pious lord, and if we hasten both to common peace and to unity, we make our faith — which we received from the beginning — manifest to your piety through this our satisfaction, so that it may be known that we both concur in peace and, with God's help, do not turn aside from the right faith, but with even measure execrate every heresy: anathematizing not only the Eutychianists and the Acephali, but also the Nestorians and those who, worshipping a mere man, we hate with our whole soul.

We, however, most Christian emperor, as has been said above, having been baptized from the beginning into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and believing accordingly, adore one essence of God in three subsistences; and, according to the teaching and creed of the holy Fathers, believing in one God the Father almighty and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten God, the Word, and likewise in one Holy Spirit, we also, in accordance with this divine teaching, understand and receive the definition promulgated by the holy Synod of Chalcedon, confessing and believing.

For there is one substance or person, since the same holy Synod proclaimed God the Word in two natures, that is, in Godhead and manhood, undividedly and unconfusedly; our Lord Jesus Christ is one of the holy Trinity of one essence. For if we accept one God in three subsistences, as has been said, yet the Father was not incarnate, nor the Holy Spirit, but God the Word was made flesh and became man, one of the holy Trinity of one essence according to the property of sonship.

Thus, then, believing in accordance with the aforesaid four holy synods, we do not refuse to confess the second nativity of God the Word according to the flesh (whence she is properly believed to be the Virgin who bore God, inasmuch as by nature and in truth she brought forth by an unchangeable nature the Son of the Father of one essence, God the Word, made man out of her); and confessing the two natures in Christ united by essence or substance, as in one person or substance, we neither remove their diversity or property after the union, nor have we been taught to divide them into two persons and substances through the union; and we acknowledge the same as the only-begotten Son of God both before His incarnation and after, that is, at once God and man, passible in the flesh, impassible in the Godhead, circumscribed in body, uncircumscribed in spirit, that is, earthly and heavenly, whom the world received as man and could not contain as God, mortal and immortal, the diversity of the natures nowhere being abolished, nor dividing the union by essence.

For this is truly the great mystery of godliness: that one of the holy Trinity of one essence, God the Word incarnate and made man, is known and adored in both natures, of Godhead and of manhood, undividedly and unconfusedly, undergoing no conversion or change, but preserving in Himself, in one person, the property of each nature.

On account of this faith, therefore, receiving and guarding the aforesaid holy synods, we anathematize all who at any time or in any way have written anything against them, especially John Egeota, who, like a Nestorian, spewed out many blasphemies against the said holy Synod of Chalcedon; likewise condemning Timothy, surnamed Aelurus, as a Eutychianist barking against it together with his followers. So then, with God's help, we have always believed and even now believe. Wherefore we have offered this satisfaction to your piety;

for you deigned to command us to set forth our own understanding and how we think concerning the sound faith, since certain heretics, while hastening to conceal their own evil faith, attempt to disparage our liberty in Christ and our right faith. We therefore beseech your clemency that you ought to have solicitude for the perfect union of the holy churches, so that the unity which has been made with God's help may be guarded, and that the peace may not thereafter be disturbed by any spark of occasion, reasonable or unreasonable. And may God fulfill the pious desire of you all, unto His own glory and the good order of the commonwealth! (233.) COPY OF THE REPORT OF EPIPHANIUS, BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

To the lord in all things holy and most blessed brother and fellow-minister Hormisdas, Epiphanius, greeting in the Lord. How great eagerness we too had, together with the most pious and most Christian emperor with his most faithful consort, flourishing in all good things, concerning the right and pure union of the holy churches, and how, with the love of God as became us, we received the holy bishops sent to us and held in reverence the devout clergy, we suppose has already been made satisfactorily clear to your blessedness even before, from the things that have been done.

Yet we believed that, if the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ our God should present those same most reverend fellow-ministers of ours safe and sound before your eyes, all the matters that have been stirred up would be made manifest to you most holy ones. And the labour which we were able to sustain you will learn more plainly through these very men: how, through the grace of God and of our most faithful princes, our church of the city of Constantinople has been peacefully governed, and their names have not been recited among the sacred mysteries, which we learned to be profane to your see, but the concord of the four councils for the right faith is proclaimed, and this very thing is manifest to all by the recitation of the sacred diptychs.

Let them therefore report to us, since not few are the priests subject to us, nor again is the multitude subject under the ordination of these bishops small, who embrace the good of this begun union; and let your holiness also recognize that you are constituted no less both the chief and the initiator of this general good. Wherefore your blessedness must be roused by the goads of praise to watch vigorously, lest that which the divine mercy had begun to ordain in your honour should seem not to come to fulfillment, as befits, into the common unity.

Moreover, our most faithful and most pious princes, rejoicing more diligently over the unity and concord of the holy churches of God, have made request concerning these matters to your blessedness, receiving petitions from very many holy priests both of Pontus and of the province of Asia, and especially of the East, among whom it seems difficult and impossible to keep silence about the names of their former priests, and so great is their obstinacy that they are prepared to endure every peril for such a cause.

Therefore, considering beforehand all the causes necessary for the pursuit of peace, since through this way of humility alone we find union and salvation common to all, inquiring, as has been said, and being satisfied by you through those who have been sent by us in this business, may you dispense the matter with that peaceable governance which befits you. For while both are one church, without doubt the good things which come about through vigilance yield thence a glory of common praise to both patriarchal sees, so that, as is customary, the Lord of all and Creator, Christ our true God, may be magnified.

Concerning all these matters, moreover, may John, the most holy bishop, who lays down many sweats with us in the present contest, and Heraclianus, the most reverend presbyter of our holy greater church and our house-companion, and Constantine, the most reverend deacon of the same greater church, entreat you with the highest affection; through whom we have also sent our synodical creeds to your blessedness according to the ecclesiastical laws. Now therefore our most pious emperors, showing their zeal concerning the union of the holy churches, have sent to your blessedness with peaceable letters concerning these causes, and the petitions offered to them by the men of Jerusalem and of the East.

We therefore, wishing to find an occasion of greeting, have made this letter to you, through which we beseech you, setting before you most holy ones this divine word: Behold, the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!

Behold, the Lord of all has entrusted to us a talent, which, being increased, may be restored with the fruit of good work, and may save, through your praiseworthy dispensation, so many holy churches and so many of their priests and an innumerable multitude now indeed united to the holy church, but in peril and going astray should the guiding hand of your blessedness delay; and especially those who dwell in the holy places of Christ our God, everywhere so cleaving to the holy churches that their multitude ought not to be spurned.

For all, at their suggestion, so persist in the evil of their obstinacy that they would rather depart from life than abandon what they have devised; so that if God should command these to be united through your blessedness, the merit of your praise would be ascribed both to present and to future times. Let your holiness therefore pray both for the most pious and most Christian princes and for our littleness and for the universal union, that by the grace of the holy Trinity of one essence and by the intercessions of our lady, the holy and glorious Virgin and Mother of God, Mary, all things may come together into undivided unity and the unshaken foundation of the catholic faith may be confirmed—in all things most holy brother.

As tokens of our charity in Christ our God, we have sent through most reverend men, for the ministry of divine worship and of your holy and apostolic church, a golden chalice set about with gems, a golden paten and another silver chalice, and two veils of pure silk, which we beseech your blessedness to receive with that charity which we do not doubt you have according to God. All the brotherhood in Christ that is with your holiness, we too and those who are with us most heartily greet. Received on the day before the Kalends of December, Rusticius, most excellent man, being consul. (234.) COPY OF THE REPORT OF THE SYNOD OF CONSTANTINOPLE CONCERNING THE ORDINATION OF BISHOP EPIPHANIUS.

To our lord, the holy and most blessed father of fathers, the archbishop and patriarch Hormisdas: Theophilus, Basiliscus, Isaias, Anastasius, Paternus, Marcianus, and the rest of the holy synod which is gathered in the city of Constantinople. Considering the innumerable and unsearchable wisdom of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, so far as it is given to men to understand, we justly marvel at His immense charity and cry out with a great voice: Who shall declare the mighty acts of the Lord, and make heard all His praises?

For behold, through the good will of the holy Trinity of one essence and the intercessions of the glorious Virgin Mary, and also through the zeal and vigilance of our most Christian and most faithful emperor and most pious queen, the members that once were divided have, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, been brought back to unity and perfect charity; and just as Moses and Aaron, named leaders of the true worship of the God of Israel, so now we too, rejoicing, cry out: Let us sing to the Lord! for He is gloriously honoured; He has become my helper and protector unto salvation; and we have been taught to think and proclaim these things with confidence.

Considering, moreover, the charity and the life beloved of God of your blessedness—even from these most reverend legates who have been sent by you—and likewise the peace of the holy churches of God, both of elder and of new Rome, of which we ourselves are shown to have been partakers, we render, as is customary, thanks to the good Shepherd and Prince of all, Christ our God.