Letter 127: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Hormisda to John, bishop of Nicopolis. By the hand of the deacon Rufinus. 1. We have rejoiced greatly in the Lord, most beloved brother, on receiving your letters, in which you profess that by the grace of God you have undertaken the priesthood. This is a sure faith, this is a hope secure and without ambiguity, by which we believe that the cause of the good rests in the dispensation from above. Of this matter, most beloved brother, already possessing the benefits which you have obtained from our God, you confess your gratitude with a devout spirit; though this too descended from the same fount of clemency, that human lowliness should submit itself to its author. For He says: Upon whom shall my spirit rest, except upon the lowly and the quiet and him who trembles at my words? 2. In these things, therefore, in which you are proved to be of this kind, the future example of this virtue will shine forth the more clearly, since you have been brought even to this by God's appointment, that in you also the glory of the catholic faithful might boast. For just as one instructed by the divine testimonies and, according to the Apostle, formed by the instruction of the sacred letters, you have given this beginning of your ordination: that against those who go astray you should be found in agreement with the sentence of the Apostolic See. For you could not otherwise repay the bestower of so great benefits, unless against His enemies you showed an evident zeal for the catholic confession. For it is well known that they stand outside the enclosures of religion who themselves also profess the faith [only] in the conscience [of faith]; and therefore even an equal sharing in holy communion, however much it agrees with religion, is unfruitful among them, because without doubt one who does not use the liberty which it has merited is shown to be subject to iniquities. Why should we boast of those disciplines which we do not follow? He falsely names a master who does not prove himself to be his disciple by his teachings. 3. But since you have now resumed all things alike in confession and the affection of your own liberty, take up again the grace of the ancient tradition, that you may be sharers of your paternal inheritance, and persist in the stability of that unshaken foundation, not changing your hearts along with the times (for such mutability is wont to be that of an inconstant purpose, and therefore it is fitting to cleave to things well founded, since divine clemency knows how to foster honorable endeavors): so that the firmness of your faith may bear fruit for you in the salvation of others, and that by the fervor of your zeal the mind of others too may be able to be roused to the resumption of their own good things; so that of you also the holy Apostle may be believed to have said: Your emulation has provoked very many. Therefore, having condemned the impieties of Nestorius and Eutyches according to the synodal decrees, and likewise execrating their followers, let us say with exultation: Go out from the midst of them and be separated, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. For how shall anyone detest the leaders of evil inventions, if he does not turn away from their followers? 4. For how does he hate the origin who does not execrate also the offspring? In the disciples the fame of the teachers is proclaimed, and as long as the root of the seeds, ill-cast, has flourished through the successors who cultivate it, so long shall the memory of the authors not perish. Let it be added that, among the lost disciples of Eutyches and Acacius, under the communion of Peter [Mongus] [there were] also those of all the condemned, mingled in error: which your charity, in its letters, while it asserted its faith, evidently expressed. 5. For the fuller instruction of your faith, in what order it is fitting that those returning be received into our communion, we have appended a schedule below, hoping in God the bestower of all good things that, by the praiseworthy persistence of your charity concerning the faith, this may profit not only the salvation of those who are joined to you by nearness, but also of those to whom the swift fame of your faith and religious will shall have come. And indeed the deacon Rufinus, who presented your letters to us, we have received in the charity of Christ, and, commending him by the prayers of the apostles, we have sent him back with peace, having exhorted that the letters directed by you both to your charity and to the synod be read aloud to the people; which you should know that we also have done for the commendation of your faith. Given on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Petrus.

a. 516(1. Hormisdae papae ad Johannem Nicopolitauum episcopom^ « JUius commendai humUitatem ac fidem. Carpit eos, qtd conscientia wtkod^m^ ^ fidem suam Ubere profiteri non audent. Quo ordine recipiendi sinl quiad Ecd^^ siam revertuntur, monet. Hormisda Johanni episcopo Nicopolitano. Per finnm diaconam. 1. Gavisi sumus in Domino valde, frater carissime^ accep^* litteris tuis, in quibus te profiteris sacerdotium Dei gratia suscepijE^^ Haec fides certa, haec spes sine ambiguitate secura, qua credi'^^ ^') Ideo rursus, quia superiorcm propno nomine miserat. Subnexam precem, Incolumem me ora etc. hic et iuferius Baron. expungit. >») a» Butroiti. Hacnanopoleos , sed Hadrianopolis episcopus Hjpatius subscribitur, eaque lecii^ ex Bubscriptionibus concil. Calchedon. act. 4 (Hard. II, 393) confirmator. '•) Coiyectura est, hic restituendum esse Phoenices et mox Phoctmris^ loco Pkoticensis: ut nimirum consensio sit cum epistola laudata ad Leonem Aog^ cui subscribunt Valerianus Phoeniciae et Didacus Phocae (Hard. Diadoekst ... Photices) episcopi. EPISTOLAE 16. 17. 775 boni causa in superna dispensatione consistere. Cujus rei (a. 516.) iam habens^ frater carissime^ beneficiorum; quae a Deo uostro cutus es^ religioso animo gratiam confiteris; licet hoc quoque dem clementiae fonte descendit^ ut se auctori suo humana sub- } humilitas. Ait enim: Super quem requiescit spiriius meus, nisi humiiem ei quietum et tremeniem sermones meos? . In his ergO; in quibus hujusmodi probaris; clarius elucescet itiam yirtutis hujus futurum exemplum^ quando ad hoc etiam ustituente perductus es, ut et in*) te catholicorum glorietur da. Nam sicut divinis testimoniis eruditus et juxta apostolum um litterarum institutione formatuS; hoc auspicium tuae ordi- ds edidisti; ut adversus deviantes^ cum sedis apostolicae senten- mvenires. Neque enim remunerari aliter tantorum beneficio- loteras largitorem, nisi adversus inimicos ejus evidentem zelum Jicae confessionis ostenderes. Notum est enim, eos extra reli- septa consistere, qtii et ipsi profitentur conscientiam') fidei km; atque ideo et infructuosa est apud eos quamvis cum reli- congrua sanctae communionis aequalitaS; quia procul dubio . quam meruit libertate non utitur^ subjectum se iniquitatibus jtur. Quid gloriemur his quas non sequimur disciplinis? Falso at magistrum, qui se institutionibus ejus non probat esse ilum. . Sed quia nobis nunc omnia in confessione similia et liber- propriae resumpsistis affectum; paternae rursus haereditatis tes esse consortes, amplectimini gratiam traditionis antiquae^ illius inconvulsi fundamenti stabilitate persistite^ non cum ribus corda mutantes (inconstantis enim mutabilitas ista solet ropositi, atque ideo bene fundatis oportet inhaerere, quando Qodi studia clementia seit fovere divina): ut fidei vestrae fir- vobis de aliorum salute fructificet, et fervore vestri studii alio- [uoque animus ad resumptionem bonorum suorum possit ac- quatenus et de vobis quoque sanctus apostolus dixisse creda- lemuiatio vestra provocavit plurimos. ^aJ' Ergo Nestorii et Eutychetis impietatibus juxta synodalia :uta damnatis; sectatores quoque eorum similiter exsecranteS; xsultatione dicamus: Exite de medio eorum et separamini, ^/Levit. dum ne tetigeritis, dicit Dominus. Quemadmodum enim quis * un inventionum detestabitur principes, si non declinat sequaces. ) c' c^^ de te. Moxquc b Juxta Apostolorum sacrarum litterarum institU' ) cc conscientiain fidei atque fiduciam sed infructuosa: praeter mcntem Hor- 608 bic notaniis, qui profitcri timcnt cxtcrius, quod intra conscieutiam . Quocirca mallemus consvientiam non fiduciam, scd G' GP reddidisse satius st. • a. 510. Hut quemadraodum odit originem, qui non exsecratur et sobolem? In discipulis praedicatur fama docentium^ et donec male jactoram seminum radix per succedentes culta floruerit, tamdiu auctorum memoria non peribit. Addatiir perditis *) Eutychetis et Acaeius dis- cipulis^ sub communione Petri omiiium quoque damnatorom mixtos errori: quod vestra dilectio litteris suis, dum fidem suam asserit, evidenter expressit. 5. Ad instructionera vestrae fidei pleniorem, quo ordine ad coramunionem nostram suscipi deceat revert^ntes, indiculum^) subter ^*V,*J "'4' adjecimus, sperantes in Deum bonorum omnium largitorem, qucxl Gi n. '2. laudabili circa fidem vestrae dilectionis ^) instantia, non solum hoc eonim qui vobis vicinitate junguntur saluti prosit, sed eorom quo- que, ad quos fidei vestrae et religiosae voluntatis velox fama per- venerit. Rufinum siquidem diaconum, qui nobis litteras vestras ob- tulit, in Christi caritate suscepimus, quem apostolorum oratiombus commeiidantes cum pace remisimus hortiuit^s, litteras a uobis tam ad caritatem tuam quam ad synodum directas populo relegatis; quod et nos pro fidei vestrae commendatione fecisse cognosce. Data XVII ^ Calendas Decembris, Petro consule. Acacius praeter veritatem dicatur Eutychetis discipulus, tum quia idem aeque ])roxime ccterorum damnatorum atque Petri Mongi communione poUutus indu- catur. Ita vero intelligeudus cst, quasi dizisset: Perditis Eutychetis ditcipM addatur el Accaciits, qui cum Petro Mongo dum communicavit , omniwm qmoqme dtm- natorum mixius esi errori. Avcllana subditus cst (cf. Horm. ep. 7 n. 9, 26 n. 2). £^'u8dem et imagincm Hoi^ misdae ep. 61 n. 2 praebet. EP18T0LAE 17. 18. 777