Letter 10: It is right and beneficial that Your Serenity exercises the sharp focus of imperial authority not only in...

Hormisdas to Anastasius Augustus, through the bishops Ennodius and Fortunatus, the priest Venantius, the deacon Vitalis, and the notary Hilarus. Well and profitably does Your Serenity exercise the care of your princely keenness not only in the office of administering the commonwealth, but also, ennobling it with better practices, you propitiate the Author of the venerable empire through your care for restoring unity. For rulers are assured of their protection if, while they preside, no chastity of the Church is defiled by any unseemly admixture of the devil. For how can it come about that a people direct pure prayers to our God on behalf of their princes, if that people be fatally corrupted by faithlessness? For just as, before all good things, perfect wisdom according to God comes first in emperors, so from the sanctuary of pure hearts supplication on their behalf ought also to proceed with a faithful abundance of souls. No occasion of triumphs, most sublime lord, will be able to be more joyful for you than the subjugation of faithlessness. This too we suggest confidently, and by the prerogative of the office committed to us, because he is near to suffering his own splendor to be darkened by an alien cloud who, though with God's granting he might remove it, permits the darkness of errors to remain among his subjects. Therefore, since Your Gentleness has announced in most sacred writings the synod to come, and by the same pages has admonished us—God, as we believe, prompting you to it—that we ought to take part in it, we rejoice, knowing that it belongs to upright minds to seek out the teachers of the venerable Church; for only those decline the examination of conscience who do not hold to the things that are just. For even with a mouth at rest one proclaims the splendor of good will, who through the apostolic and immaculate faith and through competent preachers desires either to be confirmed or to be corrected. Nevertheless, although in these matters no example of the preceding age exists, nor is the character of any earlier deed held, whether committed to books or inserted into records, this is nothing to us, for whom it is sweet, by the gift of God and at the invitation of Your Piety, to begin better things, and to impose upon ourselves the institution of so distinguished a work—this which we did not receive from our forebears: because we gladly embrace doing the whole thing for the reintegration of the faith and the peace of the churches, provided nevertheless that the definition of our elders and of the holy fathers remains unshaken in its own roots, provided that Nestorius be anathematized together with his partners, who, emptying out the mysteries of the divine nature, falsely makes the blessed Virgin Mary to be the mother of a mere man, forgetful of the angelic annunciation, through which it became known to the world that what should be born of her was to be called holy, the Son of God. Let so insulting an honoring of the impious toward God cease, since the Godhead so wrought in the womb of the Virgin that there proceeded from her, united to itself, a substance of human flesh and soul, by a connection indistinct indeed yet not confused; and so in both natures, for the love of our redemption, the person of our Christ Jesus is one, the mystery building it up [...] he might have been able to undergo death by [...] restoration [...] he might have availed to repair the frailty of [our] nature by the power of the heavenly empire, or so that, for the unity of the person, both the Lord of majesty be believed to have been crucified and the Son of Man to have descended from heaven. Let the ignorance of Eutyches likewise [...] of all good things, and let him with his associates, by his very detestable name, now be repudiated for his dullness—he who testified that our God and Lord Jesus Christ had only the figure of flesh and had not the truth of our substance, not knowing of whom it was promised that his persecutors shall look upon him whom they pierced. For thus in one and the same person does each nature persist, so that as God and man, one Son of God, Jesus Christ may appear to the hearts of the faithful. For what did the presence of him who for forty days after the Lord's resurrection lived and ate together with men accomplish, except that by these dealings he might make the age of healing older than the wound for those who were going to deny the truth of his flesh? For thus he said to the disciples: Why do you ponder in your hearts? Handle and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me to have. Nor would it have been a mystery that he entered to them when the doors were shut, if he had not had the integrity of a human body. We could from this gift of the word bring forth a discourse extending further, but we believe it enough to entreat your learned clemency, through our God, with brief suggestions, hoping that, following the model of the labor and care of the pastoral office shown by your venerable predecessors Marcian and Leo, you may also support it by the participation of your princely power. With God favoring, you will have a hope of victories that does not lie prostrate, if you fortify the pontifical contest against the devil's stealthy assaults with a peaceful provision for the struggle. Never in the memory of the holy churches let the commemoration of Dioscorus, the partner of Eutyches, and of Timothy and Peter the parricides revive; let the definition of the venerable Synod of Chalcedon, with God working through you, be preserved by all; let Acacius, polluted by communion with Peter, the son of darkness, have as partners those whom he chose, who even amid his own transgressions did not endure to show himself unstained as regards Peter of Antioch and his accomplices; let the curses heaped upon the doctrines of Pope Leo, of pious and holy memory, cease—curses which punish only those who utter them, while he remains untouched in his own. In these matters which we have set forth above, we summon the solicitude of your empire: for your piety, by guarding this, will be able to possess its diadems and scepters, transferred after many years into another age. Receive our prayers, sent for the sake of your love, through Ennodius and Fortunatus, our brothers and fellow bishops, and also Venantius the priest and Vitalis the deacon and Hilarus the notary, our sons, whose faith in the fear of God and whose zeal have shone forth conspicuously before us; and grant a calm conscience to those who supplicate in our stead. For we hope, and having confidence in God we promise, that the zeal which you shall have devoted to true religion will not be without recompense and reward. Given on the third day before the Ides of August, in the consulship of the most distinguished Florentius.

HORMTSDA ANASTASIO AUGUSTO. PER ENNODIUM ET FORTUNATUM EPISCOPOS UEXANTIUM PRESBYTERUM UITALEM DIACONa'S ET HILARUM NOTARirM. Bene atque utiliter serenitas uestra curam prin- cipalis acuminis non tantum in administrando rei publicae 6 exercet officio sed melioribus eam nobilitans institutis per curam redintegrandae unitatis auctorem uenerandi placat imperii. certi sunt enim de tutela regnantes, si nulla isdem praesi- dentibus ecclesiae castitas importuna diaboli commixtione 2 maculetur. unde enim potest fieri, ut nitidas <pro> princi- lo pibus ad deum nostrum preces dirigat, si sit letaliter popuhis perfidia corruptus? nam sicut ante bona omnia est perfecta iuxta deum in imperatoribus sapientia, ita de sacrario mundorum pectorum pro his supplicatio debet et fideli animarum ubertate procedere. nuUa uobis, sublimissime domine, i5 triumphorum materia poterit esse iocundior quam de subiu- gatioue perfidiae. hoc etiam fiducialiter et pro commissi nobis officii praerogatiua suggerimus, quia prope est, ut suum splendorem aliena patiatur nube fuscari, qui cum deo tribuente amouere possit, in subditis tenebras manere permittit eiTorum, 20 3 ergo quia mansuetudo uestra futuram synodum scriptis sacratissimis indicauit, cui nos interesse debere isdem paginis deo, ut credimus, sibi imperante commonuit, gaudemus scientes, quoniam directarummentium est uenerabilis ecclesiae magistros expetere; soli enim declinant examen conscientiae, quae iusta 25 12 cf. Sapient 6—9 passim Epist. CXV 2—7. 511 sunt, non tenentes. nam et feriato ore splendorem bonae nolantatis enuntiat, qui per apostolicam inmaculatamque fidem et per competentes praedicatores aut confirmari se optat aut corrigi. uerumtamen licet in his nuUum saeculi 4 s praecedentis exsistat exeniplum neque senioris facti qualitas aut commissa libris aut memoriis inserta teneatur, niliil ad nos, quibus dulce est beneficio dei pietate uestra inuitante inchoare meliora et hoc, quod non accepimus a parentibus, tam clari operis institutum nobis ipsis imponere: quia totum 5 wpro redintegratione fidei <et> ecclesiarum pace facere libenter amplectimur, si tamen maiorum nostrorum definitio et sanctorum patmm in suis radicibus inconcussa permaneat, si anathema- tizetur Xestorius cum participibus suis, qui euacuans diuinae sacramenta naturae beatam Mariam uirginem nudi hominis u mentitur esse genetricem oblitus angelicae annuntiationis, per quam mundo innotuit, quia quod ex ea nasceretur, uocan- dum esset sanctum, filius dei. facessat impiorum tam contu- 6 meliosa in deo honorificentia, quoniam sic est in utero uirginis operata diuinitas, ut ex ea unita sibi procederet carnis animaeque » humanae indiscreta quidem sed non confusa conexione substantia, et sic in utrisque naturis pro nostrae redemptionis dilectione Christi lesu nostri persona una est aedificante mysterio » * restitutione mortem subire potuisset « « naturae fragilitatem caelestis imperii ualuerit uirtute reparare uel ita pro unitate «personae et dominus maiestatis crucifixus et filius hominis credatur descendisse de caelo. Eutvchetis quoque ignor * • 7 bonorum omnium et ipso cum sociis detestanda iam nomine 16 Luc. 1, 35 1 non tenentes V: continentes o^, non continentes Car., non conti- tinentis Binius 7 est p^: et F 8 apparentibus V, corr. 10 et add. Bar. 13 suis] ^88. V 19 unitas ibi F, corr. Thiel 20 indiscreta Coust.; increata V 22 <domini> nostri Car. 22 sq.] post m^-sterio lacunam 24fere Utterarum, post potuisset fere 14 litterarum reliquit V 26 ignor relicto fpatio 8 fere Utter, V: ignorantia o, ignorantia diuinorum Bar., igno- rantia expers Coust. XXXy pan 2. 33 512 Indiculus datus Ennodio Fortunato etc. abdicetur hebetiido, qui deura et dominum nostrum lesum Christura figuram tantum carnis habuisse testatus est et nostrae ueritatem non habuisse substantiae, nesciens de quo promissum sit, quia uidebunt persecutores eius, in quem pupugerunt. ita enira in una eademque persona persistit & utraque natura, ut deus atque homo unus dei filius lesus 8 Christus fidelium cordibus apparescat. quid enim quadraginta dierum post resurrectionem domini cum hominibus conuiuentis et conuescentis egit praesentia, nisi ut istis negotiis illorum, qui ueritatem carnis eius negaturi erant, seniorem faceret lo aetatem curationis esse quam uulneris? sic enim dixit ad discipulos: quidcogitatis in cordibusuestris? palpate et uidete, quia spiritus carnem et ossa non habet, sicuti me uidetis habere. neque fuisset mysterium, quod ostiis ad eos clausis ingressus est, si integritatem humani 15 Ocorporis non habebat. possumus ex hoc dono uerbi proce- dentem longius proferre sermonem, sed satis esse credimus per deum nostrum eruditae clementiae uestrae strictis supplicare suggestionibus sperantes, ut laborem curamque pastoralis officii uenerabilium decessorum uestrorum Marciani et Leonis ao formam secuti etiamprincipalis potentiae participatione fulciatis. habebitis deo propitio spem de uictoriis non iacentem, si pontificalem contra diaboli subreptiones congressionem pacifica 10 ad decertandum instructione muniatis. numquam in sanctarum ecclesiarura memoria Dioscori, participis Eutychetis, Timothei 25 et Petri parricidanim commemoratio reuiuescat; seruetur ab omnibus suspiciendae Calcedonensis sjnodi deo per uos operante definitio; Acacius Petri tenebrarum filii communione poUutus habeat participes, quos delegit, qui etiam inter suos excessus nec de Petro Antiocheno et complicibus eius nitidum 30 se esse perpessus est; cessent maledicta piis sanctae recor- 4 loh. 19, 37 12 Luc. 24, 88 sq. Epist. CXV 7 — CXVI 3. 513 dationis papae Leonis ingesta dogmatibus, quae solos quidem illo in suis manente puniunt irrogantes. in his, quae praefatill sumas, sollicitudinem uestri aduocamus imperii: poterit enim pletas uestra hoc custodiens apices et sceptra sua post multos 5 anDOs ad alium saeculum possidere translata. suscipite preces 12 Dostras per Ennodium atque Fortunatum fratres et coepiscopos Dostros nec non Uenantium presbyterum atque Uitalem diaconum uel Hilarum notarium filios nostros, quorum apud D08 fides in dei timore studiumque perclaruit, pro uestro 10 amore transmissas et placidam uice nostra supplicantibus conscientiam commodate! speramus enim et de deo habenteslS fiduciam poUicemur studia, quae a uobis uerae religioni impensa fuerint, sine retributione et praemio non futura. Data III. Id. Aug. Florentio u. c. cons.