Letter 116: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Hormisdas, bishop, to his most beloved brother, Bishop Dorotheus. 1. Where it is in the interest of charity to keep the precepts, even if something of such a kind should happen as might disturb anyone's mind, nevertheless, that those things which we have spoken of beforehand concerning the practice of concord ought to be guarded, it is fitting that it be passed over with equanimity; for surely, if anything of this sort arises through ignorance, it can receive excuse from that very simplicity. Our God established his Church by his own ordering, and what is known to have been disposed by the divine precepts can in no way be passed over, of which it is not fitting that you should be ignorant of the knowledge or understanding. And we are praised for the good in the doing of it, and then the cultivation of words is adorned, when one rightly joins together the things that are fitting. 2. We have indeed received the letters from your charity through our son Patricius, a man of distinguished rank, in which we hoped to find a work full and worthy of approval, so that there would be nothing which might separate from the integrity of unity. But since in these very letters you promise this affection which can especially provoke us to that which we have spoken of before, we pour out prayers to our Lord, that he himself, whose cause is also being treated, having wiped away or pruned all scandals from his Church, may make them joined together under one consent and one faith; and that he may not allow anything to be found in his priests which it is unlawful to wish to do, whether through anyone's own hatreds or through empty inclinations, or against men to the injury of God, and rather that the whole, according to the blessed Apostle, despising the things of this world, may not be able to stray from the hope of things to come. Therefore I exhort, for the sake of the common remedy; I invite, for the salvation of the faithful; on account of the general welfare I urge the medicine. For who is content to see those at variance, in whose unity he might be able to glory? Hence there is need of common labor, that, preserving this which we have received from our fathers, we may be able to stand in that divine judgment.

^^' l^^j^c Hormisdae papae ad Dorotheum Thessalonicensem episeopuin. Litteris Dorothei quum deprehendisset , eum ita pacii esse studiosum, ut Umen humanis adhuc rationihus duceretur, eum hortatur, ut omni timore ac vano studio ahjecto avitam fidem integram servare laboret, Dilectissimo f ratri Dorotheo episcopo Hormisda^) episcopus. 1. Ubi caritatis interest semare praecepta, etiamsi aliquid tale eveniat quod cujuslibet possit animos commovere, tamen nt ea quae^ concordiae conversatione praediximus debeant custodiri, oportet aequanimiter praetermitti; quia utique si quid ignorantia tale pro- veniat, excusationem potest de ipsa simplicitate recipere. Suam Deus noster Ecclesiam propria ordiuatione constituit, et') quod divinis praeceptis noscitur esse dispositum, nullatenus poterit praeteriri, cujus notitiam vel scientiam te non convenit^) ignorare. In faciendo <) Ita G* a*. b cc emendanmt sub conservatione , et conBentit quod ad cal- ccm epistolae sequentis Bubjicitur: hoc quod a patribus nostris accephmiu conscr vantes, ') Magis placeret quae de concordiae conservatione. Mox post opartel nimiter praetermitti, subintellige scrupulum ilhany quo timeret alicigiis i commovere. Oportet enim, ut apertius epist. 9 n. 3 idem papa docet, M imter- est fidei, quidquid ad gratiam hujus saeculi pertinet respuatur, ') In vulgatis ut quod; orationis series postulat et quod, £t freqQaia quh dem in veteribus libris mutatio particulao et in ut, et vicissim. ' EPISTOLAE 4 — 6. 747 Eoque bona laudamur^ et tunc yerborum culius omatur^ quando (a. 515.) i conyenientia rite conjungii 2. Litteras siquidem per Patricium filium nostrum spectabUem om tuae suscepimus caritatis^ in quibus speramus^) opus plenum probabile reperire^ ut nihil esset quod ab integritate unitatis emeret. Sed quia in his ipsis hunc promittis affectum^ qui nos hoc quod praediximus possit specialiter provocare^ Domino nostro ^ces effiindimuS; ut ipse cujus et causa tractatur^ abstersis yel putatis universis scandalis ex ®) Ecclesia sua, sub uno consensu et "ili faciat fide connexos: nec in sacerdotibus suis quidquam re- iri patiatur^ quod^) cujuslibet aut odiis propriis aut inanibus in- iionibuS; aut hominibus in injuriam Dei^ quod nefas est^ yelle cere^ et non magis universa secundum beatum apostolum saecu- a contemnentem a spe non possit exorbitare futura. Hortor pter commune remedium, invito pro salute fidelium, propter gene- m suadeo medicinam. Quis namque contentus est hos videre M>s, quonnn potest unitate gloriari? Unde opus est labore com- i^ ut hoc; quod a patribus nostris accepimuS; conservantes se- ®) in illo possimus divino adstare judicio.