Papal Letters 1 part 9/50

But since to the increase of this intention there is added also the care of sacred religion, the concern of a weightier business lies upon me, that I may at once discharge honour to you with a prone mind and confidently insinuate the causes of the faith, because either the devoted affection of your Clemency ever draws me to both, or the respect of my order and the solicitude of apostolic governance compels me. Having therefore performed, most glorious and most clement son, Emperor Augustus, the office of saluting you, I neither ought nor am able to be silent about the scandals which are said to be stirred up anew in the churches of the East by the brigandage of heretics as recurring;

for as the writings of monks fervent for the Catholic faith brought to my knowledge, I have learned that Timothy the parricide, who of old was the devastator of the Egyptian church after the manner of Cain, that...

as divine reading attests, having been cast out from the face of God — that is, shut off from the dignity of the Church — and wandering as it were through the wilderness, destined long to suffer the torments of a guilty conscience, he was led away into the exile of his own error; yet, rekindling the fires of his former madness, he has none the less gathered together bands of the lost, and has now himself, once more bloodstained, again violated by the expulsion of the lawful bishop that very Church of the city of Alexandria which he had before stained with priestly blood. Thus, whereas the lowliness of his banishment ought to have driven into him, out of the things he had impiously done, the sting of repentance, it seems rather to have furnished him leisure for nourishing a still more atrocious insanity. Whereby, beyond all doubt, he is proved far more detestable than Cain himself:

for that man, once condemned for a single crime committed, refrained from more; but this one, after his punishment, advances to greater crimes. Yet not content even with this measure of wickedness, he is said to have boldly entered besides the city of Constantinople — ever aflame with love of right doctrine — lest this despoiler of human salvation should leave anything undefiled; and there he gladly heard from the accomplices of his depravity that voice which is owed to Christ alone, whereby he was plainly shown to be, not one who comes blessed in the name of the Lord, but a usurper of the divine summit, manifestly an antichrist. And when he had been so laudably excluded even from catholic communion, in the private houses of certain persons, with hands sprinkled with human blood, he is recorded to have celebrated not divine sacrifices but sacrileges.

In this indeed it was not his acceptance that was confirmed, but the treachery of his accomplices that was made public — men who, together with him, are in every way destined to fall from that seat of iniquity unless they repent; a seat which, like the devil his father, making himself equal to the Most High, the faithless one does not cease to build for himself unto ruin. These things, venerable Emperor, though the mind shudders that they should even have been attempted by so great a gladiator, yet I confess I am held by the utmost astonishment that they could have been committed under the very gaze of your Piety. For who could be ignorant, or in doubt, that the mind of your Clemency is ever devoted to God and given over to orthodox rules?

For inasmuch as, by the arrangement of heavenly providence, just as for the public good the men of august memory, Marcian and likewise Leo, were endowed with virtues, so too, thirsting for these same virtues, they were formed in their minds toward catholic truth; nor let it be at all doubtful to anyone that your Piety is a follower of the faith of those whose successor you are in empire. And since these things are held certain and fixed by all concerning the mind of your Tranquillity, far be it that in your times the integrity of divine worship, or the sincerity of the catholic faith, strengthened from antiquity, should be thought fit to be tampered with. Look, I pray, to the divine benefits, and weigh well what has been conferred upon you; and, that these blessings may be able to endure prosperously, judge that the Author of the gift is to be propitiated, not offended.

For amid whatever public occupations, it must be earnestly seen to by a religious prince that which protects his sovereignty; and the height of heavenly observance is to be set before all things, without which nothing rightly stands. There are abundantly at hand for your Clemency — if you order the archives of your own palace to be searched — copious documents of our forefathers, agreeing in their definition.

For it is not to be believed that there is hidden from your conscience what has been spread abroad through all the provinces of the East from the very citadel of your empire — namely those things which my predecessor Leo, of blessed memory, directed as counsels either to Marcian and Leo of august memory, or to the Council of Chalcedon of blessed remembrance, and in which he so fully and lucidly set forth the mystery of the Lord's incarnation that no one there can be called not merely catholic but not even a Christian, whoever does not clearly acknowledge the causes of his own redemption. And assuredly, that the needful instruction may the more easily not be lacking to you, I have sent copies of those same letters to my brother and fellow-bishop Acacius, to be offered to your understanding.

If therefore your Piety deign to review these things, or what the bishops of the whole East have written back concerning their agreement with this preaching, you will surely see that they were both diligently examined and truthfully promulgated, and therefore by no means ought to be assailed by the ambiguities of pestilent falsehood; because in truth those things which have flowed sincere and clear from the most pure fountain of the Scriptures can be shaken by no arguments of cloudy cunning.

For there remains in his successors this same rule of apostolic doctrine, to whom the Lord entrusted the care of the whole flock, to whom he promised that he himself would in no wise be lacking even unto the end of the world, to whom he promised that the gates of hell should never prevail, and by whose sentence he attested that what should be bound on earth could not be loosed even in heaven. Wherefore your Clemency — to whom, in my stead, my brother and fellow-bishop Acacius will more earnestly make supplication — I beg and beseech, that as imitators of the deeds of so great and so eminent predecessors, spurning with a catholic heart the workers of unspeakable presumption, you may deem fit that they be restrained by royal power. Whosoever, as the Apostle foretold, strives to sow anything besides what we have received, let him be anathema.

Let no access be opened to your ears for those who would filch anything by their pernicious minds; let no confidence be granted for revising aught of the ancient constitutions; because, as must be said again and again, what by apostolic hands, with the assent of the universal Church, has deserved to be cut off by the edge of the evangelical sickle, cannot take on the vigour of being reborn, nor can it return into the fruitful shoot of the Lord's vine — that which is established to be assigned to the eternal fire. Thus at last the contrivances of all heresies, laid low by ecclesiastical decrees, are never allowed, once crushed, to renew the struggles of their assault.

But before all things I pray that the see of the blessed Evangelist Mark (I speak of the Church of Alexandria), delivered from the brooding occupation of a most bloody robber, may be restored to a catholic prelate, and may alike recover its own freedom and its peace. But that wicked parricide, who is guilty at once of divine and human laws, being led back to the same place from which by that same right he had before been thrust down, let him be drawn away from the slaughter of innocent souls; let the venoms of that deadly head depart far from the realm of your Piety — venoms which, since with stopped-up ears they could not receive the healing words of salutary preaching, being led away from the deadly ruin of human company, may waste away in the solitude befitting their own virulence.

Wherefore all the more, by the voice of the blessed Apostle Peter, I, whatever kind of minister of his see, adjure your Piety, that you do not suffer the enemies of the ancient faith to rage with impunity — you who desire to have your foes as subjects; that you may decree the peace of the true confession to be preserved for all the Churches of the Lord — you who long to hold the world of your empire in peace; that you may allow in no part to be violated the one hope of salvation, which leads the human race to the heavenly kingdom and to eternal life — you who desire God to be appeased both for your kingdom and for your salvation. May Almighty God preserve your kingdom and your salvation with perpetual protection, most glorious and most clement Emperor. Given on the fourth day before the Ides of January, in the consulship of Basiliscus Augustus.

(57.) Bishop Simplicius to Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople. When our sons, the illustrious man Latinus, patrician, and the honourable Madusius, were being sent on a public embassy, we could not neglect that which with all our attention we take care for.

For lately, when a complaint had come from the presbyters and monks concerning Timothy, long since separated from the universal Church, we wrote both to the most Christian prince and to your Charity, that in every way resistance be made, lest the audacity of the heretics attempt anything against the Council of Chalcedon, dearest brother; and, praising the constancy of your Charity, we recorded that it greatly pleased us — nay, the Lord himself — that you permitted a man condemned not only for the cause of faith but also of parricide to enter no church in Constantinople.

Which now again we admonish, that when these same writings reach your Charity — nay, even until they come — you may not cease to act suppliantly and to make representation, in our name also, before the most Christian prince, that those things which have so often and so well been established be violated by no stealthy encroachment; because the sure and singular support of his kingdom is to preserve inviolate the council of priests gathered in the cause of the faith by the divine Spirit for the true and eternal King. (58.) Bishop Simplicius to Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople.

As has been made plain by the report of presbyters and of monks serving the Lord from divers monasteries, the devil again disturbs the Churches of the Lord, so that, the priest of Alexandria being expelled, a heretic condemned by the universal Church is said to have seized that same place from which he had been driven out; and moreover, with certain persons abetting, he dared to strive at Constantinople that the city excelling in devotion around the truth of the catholic faith of Christian princes, and the Christian people, stunned in defence of religion, should be troubled by the depravity of the heretics which had already been lulled to rest. But the mercy of God, whose cause it is, was not lacking.

that Timothy, who by priestly sentences and imperial constitutions is by law segregated from the universal Church, should not be permitted to approach the church of your Charity, nor even the thresholds of the houses of the faithful. Him we have learned to be threatening new assemblies on his own behalf, deeming that to be dissolved which the universal authority decreed concerning him.

Wherefore, since with the doctrine of our predecessors of holy memory standing firm — against which it is sacrilege to dispute — whoever seems to be rightly wise needs not to be taught by new assertions, but all things are full and perfect whereby one either deceived by heretics may be instructed, or, to be planted in the Lord's vineyard, may be trained: imploring the faith of the most clement prince, cause the demand for holding a synod to be rejected, and let there be, before the Christian ears of the empire, no sluggish suggestion, because his salvation and the strength of his very kingdom is Christ. Therefore, together with the aforesaid presbyters and monks, in season and out of season, supplicate his Piety in our name also, and commend this embassy on our behalf to his Clemency, that nothing be filched away.

Let him be instructed by the prayers of all alike, that the enemy may not, through public occupations, contrive any snares against ecclesiastical quiet; that he may grant the Church of Alexandria be restored to its integrity, and drive the enemy and parricide from the see of the blessed Evangelist Mark; and that he may deign to inquire in what manner the integrity of the catholic faith is upheld in the inner chambers of his court. And lest perhaps these things be corrupted by some fraud of the rivals of the faith, although they can be found in the archives of your church, nevertheless we have sent copies which you will hasten to offer to his Piety.

For let him recognize what things are known and celebrated by all the authorities there — the things which my predecessor Leo of holy memory wrote in response to the consultation of Leo of august remembrance, and how reverently they were received; let him appear, as we trust, an imitator of the faith of that man whose worthier successor in empire he is by God's favour; and let him deem written to himself whatever has been handed down by pious reading to the princes before him. For that is the perpetuity of a kingdom, which through the series of a posterity to be propagated shall find in the successor what descended from the predecessor.

I exhort you therefore, dearest brother, that in every way resistance be made to the attempts of the perverse for holding a synod — which was never proclaimed at other times save when something new arose in depraved minds, or something ambiguous in the assertion of doctrines, so that, as men treated it in common, if there were any obscurity, the authority of priestly deliberation might illuminate it, as first the impiety of Arius, then of Nestorius, and lastly of Dioscorus and Eutyches compelled to be done. And — which may the mercy of Christ our God and Saviour avert — it must be intimated that it is abominable, against the sentences of the Lord's priests and princes of the whole world, rulers of both estates, that the condemned be restored, exiles be brought back, and those relegated in causes of nefarious conduct be absolved.

Therefore — which must often be repeated — intimate all these things suppliantly to his most clement ears. Without doubt God will come to our aid, who, holding the king's heart established in his hand, knows the beginning of his power to be from no other source. Given on the fourth day before the Ides of January, in the consulship written above. (59.) Bishop Simplicius to the presbyters and archimandrites established at Constantinople. Through our son, the praiseworthy man Epiphanius, the letters of your Charity being received later than you wished, we were moved with great grief that there, within the Church of God, the fires of scandals are being born anew, where so often, by the authority of the apostolic see and the sentence of the universal synod, they had been extinguished.

For to whom in the whole world is not known, together with the perversity of unspeakable doctrines, the condemnation of Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus? To whom is not known the deposition, again, of Timothy, the usurper of the Alexandrian Church? The earlier Council of Ephesus is witness, the recent Council of Chalcedon is witness — which if anyone desires to have reviewed, he pronounces himself not to be counted in the number of the faithful; since the impiety of the aforesaid was, with even Christian princes as authors, segregated by diverse exiles not only from the body of the Church but from the assembly of men, and struck by the condemnation of a united sentence.

Concerning whose error nothing is now to be said, because after the tradition of so many of the Lord's priests — who long before us, in every part of the world, refuted these heresies also — our predecessor Leo, of blessed remembrance, asserted by manifold discourse of doctrine what the integrity of catholic truth follows and what it detests. This teaching being laid as a foundation, there is need not of contention, as though it were still being judged concerning doubtful matters, but, as we rejoice that your Charity is doing, stand with firm footsteps against the deposed, and let not the adversary terrify you, nor deem that the victory comes slowly from above. He has learned to fall who resists.

Briefly we have written these things to your Charity for consultation, nay rather for consolation, wishing to send some persons, as you desire, for the need of the cause — were it not that, for all the fullness not of a faith to be defended (which is solidly founded), but for repelling heretics and the condemned, those things would suffice which you retain that I wrote both to Flavian of holy memory, and to the holy Council of Chalcedon, or to Marcian of august remembrance and to Leo, my predecessor of blessed memory; and which the bishops of the whole East intimated in their own rescripts to the prince Leo of that time.

Whence it is beyond doubt to be insoluble, both what so many of the Lord's priests, coming together in one, before decreed, and what individuals, established throughout their own churches, nonetheless holding the same, said with diverse voices but with one mind, condemning alike the authors of execrable errors and their followers. Wherefore, among so many forms of preaching what things are right, one must strive not by a new assertion but by constancy in what is already approved. And what this has profited, the Lord aiding you, the fruit of your labour, pleasing to God, has shown, when, with you resisting, it was not permitted to the robber to enter his house — the robber who, with some meeting him, has made public those still perhaps hidden who were like himself. For good things are not joined to the worst, nor right things to perverse.

Nor can wholesome things come together with harmful, because light has no communion with darkness, nor the unbeliever a portion with the believer. Whence of necessity those will accompany the ruin of the condemned who have chosen the fellowship of such — unless perhaps, with minds returning to their senses, and especially those who have lately been deceived, seeing into what precipices they have been led, they betake themselves to the splendour of the true faith, the cloud of falsehood being dispelled. And that this may be able to come about through the piety of the apostolic see, we desire, because we know our life is in the will of the Lord.

To the most Christian prince also, and to my brother and fellow-bishop Acacius, we have directed suitable letters at the same time; whose silence in so great a matter we do not think blameworthy, because, knowing the faith of a most approved priest, we hold it certain that what he kept silent is not his own. But that your Charity may more fully know the sequence of our letters which we sent to the most Christian prince, we have directed copies by the returning envoy whom you sent. Given on the fourth day before the Ides of January, in the consulship written above. (60.) Bishop Simplicius to Zeno Augustus. Among the works of divine providence, which are ever pious and just, scarcely can any human tongue suffice to declare the mighty acts of the Lord in our times also.

For who could avail either to embrace in thought or to utter in voice, that in the very crisis of both matters in travail — both the public vows and holy religion — he restored you to quiet, save what, in consideration of so great a miracle, must be cried out with the prophet: This is the changing of the right hand of the Most High, which mightily humbles those who exalt themselves, and clemently exalts those who humble themselves?

In which also, if the measure of the heavenly dispensation be more shrewdly weighed, it surely appears clearly that the ruin of the faithless crept in for this reason: that the faith of your Clemency might be proved even amid adversities, and, the more you were believed to be pressed by hostile affairs, the more brightly your magnanimity might shine forth; and that for this reason your departure from the city of Constantinople came about — that, sought by the desires of all, you might return with greater glory, and from the perils of your adversaries it might be known to all what in you was profitable:

after the example, indeed, of that Davidic virtue, whereby, with singular patience yielding a little to the furies of the parricide, he straightway returned to the kingdom as victor, entreated by the prayers of the peoples, at a more excellent summit. Rejoice therefore, venerable Emperor, that those were your enemies who stood forth as the enemies of Divinity; and rejoice that you have both laboured together with the Church, and, with the liberty of the catholic faith, been restored to empire; and, that in all things you may teach that your cause is common to you with God, relying manfully on his help, press on, that through him by whom he subdued the public occupiers, he may also drive off the tyrants of the Church.

For just as your Piety rightly and justly trusts that at that time we suppliantly implored our God for nothing else than that rulers of the Roman empire, such as those of whom we now speak, should be restored to us, so you perceive that it is looked for that you show yourselves to be such by the very quality of your deeds. Look, I pray, to the constancy in catholic devotion, conspicuous to all the world, of Marcian and Leo of august memory; and with wholesome consideration weigh well that, since those who deviated from their rectitude could not stand in the same place, he beyond doubt shall be the legitimate and divinely-appointed successor of royal power who has persevered as an imitator of their faith.

You owe, most glorious and most clement son and Emperor, reverence to such and so great men of august memory; you owe a return for the gifts of God. He led you back to their empire: do you render to these a service like theirs to God. And because these things, by the teaching of the blessed Apostle Peter — as I lately preached in my humility — were refuted by those about to fall, may they, God favouring, advance among those about to abide in the solidity of the kingdom. I indeed, receiving in the letters which your Clemency sent an immense pledge of venerable religiousness, both breathe again with immense congratulation, and altogether do not doubt that your mind, in divine matters, is about to accomplish far greater things than I desire;

but mindful of my office, I therefore exhort your Clemency to this part with a somewhat lengthier address, because out of affection for your empire and your salvation alike, I ever desire that you cleave always to those causes by which alone both the stability of the present kingdom is guarded and the glory of the eternal one is procured.

Wherefore before all things I pray that the Church of Alexandria, delivered by your Clemency's dispositions no less from a deadly than from a heretical usurper, you may deem fit to be restored to a catholic and lawful bishop; and that, for those also whom by diabolical rashness he is reported to have ordained in divers churches, you may appoint bishops of the right faith to be substituted, the others being cast out; and that, just as you have purged your commonwealth from tyrannical domination, so everywhere you may strip the Church of God of the brigandage and contagions of heretics; nor rather suffer that to prevail which the iniquity of those times — men whom not only against your empire but against God also a rebel spirit stirred up — than what so many and so great pontiffs, together with distinguished and orthodox princes, the assent of the universal Church decreed.

May you command that the constitutions of the Council of Chalcedon, and those things which my predecessor Leo of blessed memory taught thoroughly by apostolic erudition, flourish inviolate; because in no way can that be reviewed which was laid to rest by their definition, nor in any manner can he be received who, of the whole catholic truth, was with one voice on every side condemned. This indeed is, as you have experienced, the catholic faith which deposed the powerful from a wounded throne, and, being kept, preserved the humble to be exalted. Wherefore your Piety must take sufficient pains that he who is to you the author of this gift may himself be its propagator. Given on the seventh day before the Ides of October, after the consulship of Basiliscus and Armatus. (61.) Bishop Simplicius to Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople.

How efficacious is the perseverance of priests supplicating the Lord, and with how joyful an effect is that zeal rewarded which with sincere minds is displayed for the defence of the faith, is recognized from the letters of your Charity; since, after so great contests, in which the mercy of God, appointing servants and ministers of his own power in the cause of true religion, made them to be for himself most approved victors. For the Alexandrian Church, at length delivered by divine judgement, calling us into fellowship of common joys, you attest that he who had been put to flight by the heretic has returned to its see.

Whence with exulting minds, for the quiet of the universal Church, we supplicate Christ our God first for the salvation of the most faithful prince, to whom, for the devotion by which he surpasses all priests, this divine piety is granted — piety which renders us free interpreters on behalf of the Christian peoples before the heavenly Omnipotence. As therefore we rejoice in the return of our brother and fellow-bishop Timothy, so we desire him, with your Charity admonishing, to be found irreproachable; because you remember that he did not long ago have the constancy of a faithful prelate, when it was extorted from him that the name of the condemned Dioscorus should be recited among the altars. Given on the eighth day before the Ides of March, in the consulship of that most distinguished man. (62.) Bishop Simplicius to Zeno Augustus.

Through Peter, an honourable man, count of the most noble lady Placidia.

Formerly, when by the exultation of divine gifts the triumphant glory of your kingdom in the Lord was enlarged, I remember that, with the joy of the universal Church, I offered the letters of my mediocrity; nor, among all the priests of the catholic faith, could I either alone keep silent about the works of our God, or be the first to do so, because, according to the blessed Apostle Paul, bearing the care of all the churches, I claimed for myself especially the highest of joys concerning the quiet restored to them through your Clemency: that, with the enemies of religion and of the kingdom cast down by the aid of Divinity, we deserved to have you as victors, and in one and the same outcome, with Christ conquering everywhere in you, both the worship of the true faith and the state of the empire was repaired; both of which had for this reason been troubled, with the devil for a time inserting himself, that, the adversaries of each being scattered, the heraldings of the victor might become greater.

Whence, having obtained the fruit of so illustrious a victory, now also, with the joy of the universal Church — as I do without ceasing — I cannot keep silent, but without doubt render perennial thanks, that to the ancient and true faith, in my brother and fellow-bishop Timothy, you have restored the Church of Alexandria; whose letters, lately coming to me, recorded that, the profanity of Eutyches and Dioscorus the condemned having been expelled, he had recovered — as was formerly ascertained — the see of the blessed Apostle and Evangelist Mark for the governing of the orthodox, urging us, who are willing, to report these very things to the understanding of your Piety.

In order, therefore, that the tranquillity of your reign may be perpetual and secure, guard with ever-watchful protection the peace which you have bestowed upon all in the aforesaid church; and what, with the Lord's help, you have done for the salvation of innocent souls, protect it with more religious zeal and more attentive diligence, since it is no less a matter of glory to preserve what you have founded than to found it, and it is proved to all that as much divine favour has been lavished upon you as your piety has shown of assiduity toward the Christian religion.

And although your providence, which shall profit in every part of your realm, does not fail in fostering the one true worship, and you set the tranquillity of the church before the cares of state, yet I beseech you: that which is earnestly requested through us, nay rather which we ourselves more particularly implore—that you would command by your most pious decree that Peter, the usurper of the church of Alexandria and for this reason justly condemned (because, as has been written to us, he is said to be secretly contriving certain things in the city of Alexandria against those things which have been established by you), be removed to distant parts, lest he infect any of little faith (which he is reported to be doing) and draw them over as instruments of his perversity.