The same Augustus to Epiphanius, archbishop of Constantinople and patriarch. Always exercising every providence concerning the most holy churches—through which we have believed both that our empire is sustained, and that the common affairs are fortified by the grace of the most merciful God, and likewise being zealous that our own souls and those of all others be saved, and on that account being continually solicitous lest the advantages of the most holy churches, in whatever city they may be established, be in any way diminished; and lest the divine liturgies that are performed in them be hindered by the absence of the most God-beloved priests, or not be fittingly attended to:
acneetiamsanctissimarumecclesiarumconsumanturres, tampropteritiuerumquametiamcommeantiumhucsacerdotumetcomitantiumclericorumimpensas; undesaepeetsubfenoreaccipiendinecessitasemergit, etexeareonusadipsassanctissimasecclesiasvenit: simuletiamneecclesiasticarumrerumnonconvenienterprocedatadministratioperabsentiaeDeoamantissimorumepiscoporumtempus, hisadtuambeatitudinemdivinisapicibusutioportereexistimavimus. — § i.
and also lest the property of the most holy churches be consumed, both on account of journeys and of the expenses of the priests travelling hither and of the clerics accompanying them; whence often the necessity of borrowing at interest arises, and from this matter a burden comes upon the most holy churches themselves: and likewise lest the administration of ecclesiastical affairs proceed unfittingly during the period of the absence of the most God-beloved bishops—we have thought it right to employ these divine missives addressed to your Blessedness. Section 1.
Through these we ourselves order it to be made manifest to all, in each metropolis of every province, to the most holy priests subject to it, that it is not fitting for any of them, or of those bishops who have been ordained in the other cities of the provinces under a metropolitan, according to his own will and without our special divine command, to abandon the most holy church governed by him and to come to this fortunate city, of whatever kind the matter may arise: but rather they ought to send hither one or two of the pious clergy subject to them, and to make manifest to our Piety the things they have need of, either by themselves or through the mediation of your Blessedness, and thus to enjoy our just and expeditious aid;
for if any of the things that have been reported to us shall seem to us to be such as to require the presence of the priests of God themselves, we shall then at once order them to set out; but without such divine command, we permit no one to set out. Section 2. The transgressor of these things being aware—he who passes over the observance rightly and piously introduced by us for the honour of the most holy churches—that he shall experience no small indignation, but shall also be placed under excommunication: namely, if he be a metropolitan, by your Blessedness; but if he be a bishop of a city which is subject to a metropolitan, by his metropolitan himself:
for we have not thought it necessary to define a monetary penalty against those who scorn our divine ordinance, lest the damage that should arise therefrom redound upon the most holy churches, whose property we desire to remain free from all diminution. Section 3. Let your Sanctity therefore be zealous to convey these things to the knowledge of the most God-beloved metropolitan bishops ordained under it, and to refer to our religion the replies sent by each one—both by the metropolitans and by the most God-beloved bishops of the remaining cities of the province—concerning the things they shall have learned in this matter. Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of March, at Constantinople, in the second consulship of our lord Justinian, Perpetual Augustus, in the year 528.