Letter 20001: BOOK ONE OF THE VARIAE

OF MAGNUS AURELIUS CASSIODORUS SENATOR [THE THEODERICIAN VARIAE: LETTERS.] I. GELASIUS TO KING THEODERIC. [1] It is manifest, in the course of your magnanimity's deliberations, that a bishop, by the very nature of his ministry, is bound to intervene on behalf of any persons whatever. Trusting in the piety of your Christian mind, I have thought it right to commend to you by my letter the respectable man Constantius, inasmuch as I am called upon, by reason of the priestly office, to make supplication on behalf of any man whatever. II. GELASIUS TO COUNT TEIA. [1] If Eucharistus has a clear conscience, then either he ought not to have come here ahead alone, when his accuser was held back by illness, or, after his accuser came here, he ought rather to have remained here, until, his accuser being most plainly refuted in his presence, he might most plainly prove his own innocence to us. We, however, reserving justice for his case, although we understand that he is evading by his subterfuges a hearing in which he could in no way deceive, have sent the defender Anastasius with an instruction, that, if he trusted that he could be cleared, he should hasten to our examination, where, fittingly freed from the accuser's objections, he might be able to stand acquitted before us; and that if he did not do this, he should know that he had thereby confessed himself out of his own conscience. [2] Likewise. As to what you say, that the words of Faustus accusing Eucharistus ought not to be brought forward before me, because Faustus himself had formerly praised him: all the more is this man to be believed, who was able to learn of his crime more truly from that very familiarity. And that this is true is shown to such a degree that he by no means presumes to come to confront Faustus; which surely, if he were confident that he had a conscience free from Faustus's objections, he ought to have done even with no one bidding him. [3] Likewise. Your nobility says that certain kinsmen of Faustus, I know not who, have already been convicted there. All the more confidently ought Eucharistus to have hastened here, so that he might convict Faustus, just as he did those near to him, of the fabrication of a lie, which has often been mentioned. For it was not the kinsmen of Faustus who raised a complaint against Eucharistus before us, but it is Faustus, stationed here, who accuses him. It therefore does not pertain to us if he has convicted those who had made no mention of him before us, or who even now decline to come to accuse Eucharistus, unless he convict, in our examination, Faustus, who persists in his accusation. But what has seemed good to your nobility, that you should do me an injury, I do not know, while you suppose that the case ought to be taken away from our jurisdiction and transferred to the bishops stationed within the province in accordance with the will of Eucharistus and his associates: which can by no manner of reasoning be done. [4] Likewise. We admonish your nobility more and more, that you would deign to abstain from ecclesiastical cases and affairs, and that you would permit, all agitation ceasing, the rule of religion to be kept; especially since it is not in doubt that you are of another communion, and you ought not to mix your person, by any intent whatever, in matters that do not pertain to you, lest you compel us, as we said above, to refer all these things by a dispatched report to my lord and son the king; because, since he himself, by his own wisdom, wishes in no way to be opposed to ecclesiastical cases, it is just that whoever lives under his reign should imitate what the magnificent king does, lest he seem to strive beyond that king's will. III. [GELASIUS] TO KING THEODERIC. [1] Your magnificence weighs that I am bound by the necessity of the priestly office, so that I should come as an intercessor before your clemency, which, it is agreed, weighs all things wisely. IV. GELASIUS TO QUEEN HERELEUVA. [1] In order that one might make supplication, together with my letter, to my lord and son the most excellent king for the sustenance of the poor, I have hastened to send Peter, defender of the church. On his coming, I have not failed to greet your sublimity as well, earnestly entreating that, for the increase of your salvation and prosperity, you would deign to aid the causes of the needy. Given on the fifth day before the Kalends of March. V. GELASIUS TO ERELEUVA. [1] I am astonished that Felix and Peter, clerics of the church of Nola, were able to steal upon the feelings of your sublimity, so that, against divine and human laws, spurning ecclesiastical privileges, with their clerical name suppressed, they ran off to the public courts, when by imperial constitutions it had been decreed that, among persons of this kind, whatever the apostolic see should have determined ought to be observed; not only mocking my lord and son the magnificent king, as if, like laymen, they were demanding royal commands against their own priest, but also, with barbarians called in under the name of your house, raging to the ruin and slaughter of that same bishop of theirs; although, for just causes, having previously been convicted, in that they were compelled to repay ecclesiastical money, a great sum was remitted to them by the kindness of their bishop. Since, therefore, your sublimity perceives that they have proceeded even to an insult against the apostolic see, the office of my greeting being received, we pray that you would not suffer the privileges of the blessed apostle Peter, which antiquity granted by divine and human laws, to be torn away by any underhanded seizure. VI. GELASIUS TO KING THEODERIC. [1] It is certain that your magnificence wishes the laws of the Roman princes, which it has commanded to be kept in the affairs of men, to be observed all the more concerning reverence for the blessed apostle Peter, for the increase of your own felicity. VII. POPE GELASIUS TO THE BISHOPS GERONTIUS AND JOHN. [1] Our brother and fellow bishop Serenus has been assailed with such great insults that he was not provoked without injury to us, because he has been compelled to come to the court of our lord and son the king on account of the enormity of the deed. It therefore befits that he be aided by all with comfort from us, since whatever in such a case is shown to have been bestowed grows to the benefit of all. VIII. GELASIUS TO THE BISHOPS QUINIGESIUS AND CONSTANTINUS. [1] Felix and Peter, clerics of the church of Nola, contumaciously and rebelliously against the constitution, thought that they ought to hasten to the court of my son the king, saying that violence had been done to them with the office of their clerical state passed over in silence; and, with the authority they had thus earned, against civility, having hired barbarians for themselves, they afflicted the above-written bishop of theirs with grave injuries and losses. Accordingly it was necessary that the above-said brother of ours, Bishop Serenus, should hasten to that same lord and son of mine; and, the fraud being made plain, the most excellent man my son King Theoderic, according to the blessedness of his times, sent the contumacious clerics back to our examination. IX. DECREE OF KING THEODERIC. [1] To the tamer of the world, the protector and restorer of liberty, the senate of the city of Rome, Flavius Theoderic the king. There has come to us, conscript fathers, a representation concerning the dispatched advantage of the church, and the welcome ordinance of your sacred assembly has struck the heart of our gentleness. And although, after the venerable synod, your single ordinance of judgment suffices for decrees of this kind, nevertheless we have given, for your consultation of this sort, a response by the present oracles, so that it be lawful for no bishop of any church whatsoever to make any contract of alienation regarding the property. Their own usufruct, indeed, they shall grant, with equity preserved, to whomever they will. For property bequeathed to the establishment of the church, owed by all to pilgrims of the clergy, ought not to be frustrated by the will of the bishop alone. For what is so profane as that, in this matter, the will of the giver should be violated, when persons claim for themselves privately, as the usufruct of a thing, a contract concerning that which each man wished to belong to the church? Therefore, if anyone, by wicked daring, shall have presumed upon what is forbidden, and desires to hold the property beyond the usufruct, the bishop or clergy granting it, let the alienated property forthwith, together with its fruits, be reclaimed by the venerable prelate. And so forth. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of March at Ravenna, Venantius, most distinguished man, being consul.

MAGNI AURELII CASSIODORI SENATORIS [EPISTULAE THEODERICIANAE VARIAE.] I. GELASIUS THEODERICO REGI. [1] Apud magnanimitatis tua excursus constare manifestum est pro quibuslibet intervenire pontificem ministerii sui qualitate constringi. Christianae mentis vestrae pietate confisus virum spectabilem Constantium credidi vobis meis litteris intimandun, utpote qui pro quolibet homine supplicare sacerdotalis officii ratione convenior. II. TEIAE COMITI GELASIUS. [1] Si conscientia secura est Eucharisti, aut solus huc ante venire non debuit, cum accusator eius aegritudine teneretur, aut postea quam accusator eius huc venit, hic potius debuit permanere, donec in praesenti accusatore suo manifestissime confutato suam nobis innocentiam manifestissime conprobaret. nos tamen eius causa iustitiam reservantes, quamvis intellegamus tergiversationibus eum suis audientiam declinare, in qua fallere omnino non posset, defensorem Anastasium cum praeceptione direximus, ut, si se confideret posse purgari, ad nostrum properaret examen, ubi convenienter ab accusatoris obiectionibus expeditus liber apud nos posset existere; quod si non fecisset, sciret de conscientia sua se esse confessum. [2] Item. quod dicis non apud me Fausti debere verba proferri accusantis Eucharistum, quia ipse eum ante laudaret, tanto magis huic credendum est, qui scelus eius ex ipsa verius potuit familiaritate cognoscere. quod in tantum verum esse monstratur, ut ad Faustum convincendum nullatenus venire praesumat: quod utique, si conscientiam ab obiectionibus Fausti liberam se habere confideret, etiam nullo mandante facere debuisset. [3] Item. dicit tua nobilitas nescio quos illic parentes Fausti iam fuisse convictos. tanto magis fiducialius huc Eucharistus properare debuerat, ut et Faustum sic ut proximos de mendacii concinnatione, quod dictum est saepe, convinceret. neque enim parentes Fausti contra Eucharistum apud nos querimoniam commoverunt, sed eum hic Faustus positus accusat. non ergo ad nos pertinet, si illos convicit, qui eius apud nos non fecerant mentionem aut nunc etiam ad accusandum Eucharistum venire dissimulant, nisi Faustum, qui in eius accusatione persistit, in nostra examinatione convincat. quid autem visum fuerit nobilitati tuae, ut mihi iniuriam faceretis, ignoro, dum putatis, quia de nostro iudicio causa deberet auferri, et ad episcopos intra provinciam positos pro Eucharisti et sociorum voluntate transferri: quod non poterit ulla omnino ratione fieri. [4] Item. nobilitatem tuam magis ac magis commonemus, ut se ab ecclesiasticis causis et rebus abstinere dignetur et permittas omni exagitatione cessante religionis regulam custodiri, praecipue cum te alterius communionis non dubium sit, nec personam tuam debeas rebus ad te non pertinentibus qualibet intentione miscere, ne nos conpellas, ut supra diximus, ad domnum filium meum regem haec omnia missa relatione referre, quia, cum ipse pro sua sapientia causis ecclesiasticis in nullo velit esse contrarius, iustum est, ut quicumque sub illius regno vivit, quod facit rex magnificus imitetur, ne videatur supra illius tendere voluntatem. III. [GELASIUS] THEODERICO REGI. [1] Magnificentia vestra perpendit sacerdotalis me officii necessitate constringi, ut apud clementiam vestram, quam constat omnia librare sapienter, intercessor accedam. IIII. GELASIUS HERELEUVAE REGINAE. [1] Qui pro victu pauperum domino filio meo excellentissimo regi cum meis litteris supplicaret, Petrum ecclesiae defensorem dirigere properavi. quo veniente sublimitatem quoque tuam salutare non destiti, plurimum deprecans, ut pro vestrae salutis et prosperitatis augmentis egentium causas iuvare dignemini. data V. k. Mar. V. GELASIUS ERELEUVAE. [1] Felicem et Petrum Nolanae ecclesiae clericos surripere potuisse sensibus vestrae sublimitatis admiror, ut contra divinas humanasque leges ecclesiastica privilegia respuentes suppresso nomine clericali ad iudicia publica convolarent, quando imperialibus constitutis inter huiusmodi personas quicquid sedes apostolica censuisset, decretum fuerit oportere servari, non solum domno filio meo, magnifico regi illudentes, veluti laici contra proprium praecepta regia deposcerent sacerdotem, sed etiam adhibitis barbaris sub nomine domus vestrae in eiusdem praesulis sui perniciem necemque saevierint, cum iustis ex causis ante convicti, quod ecclesiasticam pecuniam reddere cogerentur, magna sit eis sui humanitate pontificis quantitas relaxata. quia ergo pervidet vestra sublimitas etiam in apostolicae sedis contumeliam eos fuisse progressos, officio meae salutationis accepto precamur, ut privilegia beati apostoli Petri, quae divinis humanisque legibus concessit antiquitas, nulla patiamini subreptione convelli. VI. GELASIUS THEODERICO REGI. [1] Certum est magnificentiam vestram leges Romanorum principum, quas in negotiis hominum custodiendas esse praecepit, multo magis circa reverentiam beati Petri apostoli pro suae felicitatis augmento velle servari. VII. GELASIUS PAPA GERONTIO ET IOHANNI EPISCOPIS. [1] Frater et coepiscopus noster Serenus tantis est contumeliis appetitus, ut non sine nostra fuerit lacessitus iniuria, quia ad comitatum domini filii nostri regis pro immanitate facti venire compulsus est. hunc ergo omnibus decet a nobis solacii adiuvari, quia cunctis crescit, quicquid in tali causa probatur impensum. VIII. GELASIUS QUINIGESIO ET CONSTANTINO EPISCOPIS. [1] Felix et Petrus ecclesiae Nolanae clerici contumaciter et contra constitutum rebelles ad comitatum filii mei regis putaverunt esse properandum dicentes sibi vim fuisse generatam tacito clericatus officio; et auctoritate promerita contra civilitatem redemptis sibi barbaris supra scriptum episcopum suum gravibus iniuriis et dispendiis affecerunt. proinde necessarium fuit, ut ad eundem dominum filium meum supra dictus frater noster Serenus episcopus convolaret ostensaque fraude secundum beatitudinem temporum suorum vir praecellentissimus filius meus Theodoricus rex ad nostrum contumaces clericos remisit examen. VIIII. PRAECEPTUM REGIS THEODERICI. [1] Domitori orbis, praesuli et reparatori libertatis senatui urbis Romae Flavius Theodericus rex. Pervenit ad nos, patres conscripti, de ecclesiae missa utilitate suggestio et nostrae mansuetudinis grata sacri coetus vestri ordinatio corda pulsavit. et licet post venerabilem synodum ad huiusmodi decreta vestri sufficiat ordinatio sola iudicii, tamen pro vestra huiusmodi praesentibus oraculis dedimus consultatione responsum, ut nulli fas sit ecclesiae cuiuslibet antistiti sub qualibet alienatione de proprietate contractus. usumfructum plane suum cui salva voluerint aequitate praestabunt. neque enim frustrari [debet] sola pontificis voluntate vel cleri peregrinis debita omnibus vel statui ecclesiae res delata. quid enim tam profanum est quam ut in hac largientis parte violetur arbitrium, dum quod ad ecclesiam quisque voluit pertinere, privatae sibi vindicent pro usufructu rei personae contractum. ergo si quis scelestis ausibus interdicta praesumpserit et ultra usumfructum rem tenere cupit episcopo vel clero largiente, alienata res protinus cum fructibus a venerando praesule vindicentur. et cetera. Data V idus Martias Ravenna Venantio v. c. consule. Cassiodorus Christian Latin The Latin Library The Classics Page