Letter 16: Having heard much-celebrated report of Succonius's steadfast faith in Christ and fervent teaching, Gelasius is...

Of Pope Gelasius, to Succonius, an African bishop established at Constantinople. That bishop, who, fleeing the persecution of the Arians, was charged with having improvidently entered into communion at Constantinople with the adversaries of the truth, he begs to correct himself as quickly as possible. 1. When a most widely-spread report spoke of the fervent constancy in Christ of your Charity and of your teaching, it cannot be told with what great rejoicings we exulted in the Lord, that divine grace had prepared an outstanding vessel destined to be of the greatest use in the time of war; and, courting you with all our prayers and as though you were stationed close at hand, we accompanied you, though absent, with the whole affection of our heart. But suddenly struck by a grievous rumor, we confess that we collapsed in dismayed mind, and we long hesitated whether we should send a letter to your Charity concerning these matters; for grief forbade us to speak, and affection for Christ did not permit us to be silent. Wavering amid these things, divine knowledge prevailed, by which throughout the whole body of the Scriptures we are fully taught to admonish, with free charity, those who have been forestalled, by some stealthy creeping-in of temptations. 2. For first rumor reported, and then the not-to-be-despised account of very many made plain, that your Charity had entered into communion in the regions of the East with the adversaries of the truth. And lest you charge that we have rashly believed this: if it is false, grant pardon to a devotion anxious on your behalf; if it is true, receive patiently, we beseech you, the wholesome wounds of friends who chastise you - you who have undergone the pernicious kisses of fawning friends. Could you indeed, most loving and most beloved, have taken up fellowships opposed to the Catholic rule, and has so great an impiety found its effect in you - a thing that is not believed could even have crept upon your thoughts? Did you indeed choose to bear the pleasantness of the present time rather than to be afflicted together with the people of God? The mind is stupefied, the wounded spirit gives way, the grieving hearts fail, and yet no lamentation equal to so great a sorrow is to be found. Are you not that man who, despising the threats of kings and scorning the deadly decrees of raging barbarians, laid down at once your homeland, your resources, and the privileges of priestly honor, that you might deserve to receive them as everlasting in Christ? 3. What then are we now to do? You have tarnished your glory, you have violated your confession, you have intercepted your victory; and the more that confidence and favor concerning your name were growing at the Apostolic See, by so much now does a pitiable confusion attach to it. Did you not then perceive that, by goring with two horns, at one and the same time Antichrist was striving to dissolve Jesus no less in the East than in Africa? - since the former so confess Him to be God that He is not man, and the latter so proclaim Him man that they strive to empty Him of His manhood. Amid such deadly perils, what does it profit to have escaped the precipice, if one withdraws into the abyss? Did it not return before your eyes, that not only those who do these things, but also those who consent to those who do them, are judged with a like condemnation? Woe, if so great a crime lay hidden from your learning! Woe yet more, if it did not lie hidden, and was done! For if nothing else, this one thing could have sufficed for your Charity to guard against these things: that you should not mingle yourself with the communion of those whom you knew blessed Peter had refused his communion. But when we behold you stuffed with the Scriptures and strong in Catholic instruction, we have by so much no outcome of consolation, by how much we weigh that you, knowing, sought the covenants of the lost. Who therefore will give water to our head and to our eyes a fountain of tears? Now truly there has been a departure from the homeland's way of life, now truly is exile felt; for that departure is for the sake of salvation, this for ruin. Nor do we vainly cast all these sufferings upon you alone; since, according to the Apostle, in the glory of any one member all the members rejoice together, and in whatever part of the body that is wrenched the whole frame is shaken. And we indeed, out of the affection which we owe you, have judged that the torment of our inmost parts should be made known to your prudence. It will concern your conscience in what manner you do not refuse to be freed from these snares. For our fruit in either case will not be empty: whether, which we implore with all our desires, we rejoice over the restoration of your salvation and reputation; or whether, which God forbid, you despise our writings, that we may be seen at least not to have failed in the least to aid a brother.

Gelasii papae ad Succoniam episcopnm Afrnm apud ^\tf^^ Constantinopolim constitutum. Kpiscopum iUum, qui persecutionem Arianorum fugiens Constantinnpoli improvide adversarUs veritaiis communicasse arguebatur^ ut quantocius corrigat obsecrut. 1. Quum^) tuae dilectionis in Christo constantiam ferventem- que doctrinam celeberrima loqueretur opinio, dici non potest, quan- tis ^udiis exsultavimus in DominO; quod vas egregium belli tem- pore^) maxime' profuturum divina gratia praeparasset; teque votis omnibus ambientes^ et quasi cominus constitutum toto cordis afiectu comitabamur absentem. Sed tristi subito rumore percussi conster- nata, fatemnr^ mente concidimus, haesimusque diu, utrum ad cari- tatem tuam super his litteras mitteremus; nam loqui prohibebat dolor, tacere Christi* aflfectio non sinebat. Inter quae^)"ista fluctu- antes vicit divina scientia, quo toto Scripturarum corpore perdoce- =>y Maff. Beqa. omitt. ab. Calchedonensis synodi arguiiur corruisse: ut corrigat. ') Scilicet non solum in Africa sed etiam nunc Constantinopoli. ^y Editi omitt. quae» Deiude forte legendum ita, Moz editi sic praeventos, 22* (a.403.)inur, aliqua tentationum subreptione praeventos caritate libera per- monere. 2. Commimicasse*) enim dilectionem tuam in partibus OrientiB adversariis veritatis primum fama detulit, deinde plurimonim relaiio non spernenda patefecit. Quod ne temere credidisse nos argoaSy si falsum est, optamus^ da veniam de te soUicitae pietati; si ▼emm est, accipe salubria quaeso patienter amicorum vulnera castigantmn; ^^g' qui pemiciosa subiisti amicorum^) oscula blandientum. Itane ta, amantissime et dilectissime^ adversantia catholicae regulae consortim suscipere potuisti, tantumque nefas in te invenit effectum, quod vd cogitationibus tuis obrepere potuisse non creditur? Ttane tu delegisti praesentis temporis ferre jucunditatem magis^ quam affligi cum po- pulo Dei ? Stupet animus, mens sauciata succumbit^ moerentia corda deficiunt, nec tamen dolori tanto par lamentatio reperitur. Nonne tu ille es, qui spretis regum minis et saevientium barbarorum fera- lia jura despiciens, simul. patriam, facultates et honoris sacerdotalis privilegia posuisti, ut ea perpetua recipere merearis in Christo? 3. Quid igitur nunc agimus? Decolorasti gloriam, violasti con- ^ fessionem, intercepisti victoriam, quantoque apud apostolicam sedem de tuo nomine fiducia gratiaque crescebat, tanto nunc aecedit mi- j seranda confusio. Itane non senseras, quod duobus comibus prae- hidendo uno eodemque tempore non minus in Oriente quam in Africa Jesum solvere niterotur Antichristus? quum et illi sic Deam fateantur, ut Deus non sit, et isti sic hominem praedicent, ut ho- minem vacuare contendant. Inter quae funesta pericula quid prod- est evasisse praecipitium , si recedatur in baratnun? Ante ocolos uon redibat, quod non solum qui ea faciunt, sed etiam qui ^nsen- tiunt facientibus, simili damnatione censentur? Vae si eraditiQnaB tuam tantum latuit scelus! Yae amplius, si non latebat^ et gestum est! Nam si nihil aliud^ hoc imum dilectioni tuae potoit ad haee praecavenda sufficere: ne te illomm communioni misceres, qmbos communionem suam beatum Petmm noveras denegasse. Sed qumn te Scripturis refertum et catholica institutione pollentem concti*) respicimus, tanto consolationis exitmn non habemas, quanto te per- pendimus scientem petisse foedera perditomm. Jerem. "^- 0^^^ itaque dabti capiti nostro aquam et oculis nasiris ftmUm ^^1 lacrymarumY Nunc vere de patria conversatione discessom est, nnne ; Pseudo-Felicis ad Petrum Antiochenum (Mansi 1. c. VII 1039) incipit, tamen mliil inde coutra hiyus epistolae geuuitiitem eflBcitur, quia verba illa scriptorae •»»•< EPISTOLAE 9. 10. 341 ^ ■ Terum sentitar eksiliam; nam illud salutis causa est^ hoc ruinae. (a. 493.) Nec noe inaniter in te uno perpeti cuncta jactamus; quum secun- dom apostolmn et in cujuslibet membri gloria cuncta membra con- }^o^' gandeant^ et in quacunque parte corporis convulsa omnis compago yexetnr. Et nos quidem pro affectu, quem tibi debemus, prudentiae toae cruciatum nostrorum viscerum duximus intimandum. Tuae con- scientiae intererit^ quemadmodum ab his laqueis expediri non renuas. Nobis enim in utroque fructus non vacuus erit, si vel, quod deside- riis onmibus imploramus^ de tuae salutis et famae redintegratione gratulemur^ vel si^ quod absit^ nostra scripta contempseris, ,adju- yando f^tri minime defuisse videamur.