Letter 131: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Of Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, to Pope Hormisdas. (end of the year 516.) [Summary:] He congratulates him on the conversion of the provinces of Dardania, Illyricum, and Scythia, and asks that he be made more certain about the outcome of the legation sent to Constantinople. To the lord pre-eminent in holy merits, in Christ most glorious and most worthy of the apostolic see, Pope Hormisdas, from Avitus. Since to the condition of religion and to the full rules of the catholic faith it is fitting [...] that an ever-watchful care of your exhortation should instruct the flock entrusted to you throughout all the members of the universal Church, last year, if you deign to remember, you visited the province of Vienne and my [...] humility with letters sent; which reached me, as the offered opportunity had afforded, through the clergy of the church of Arles, and indeed letters most full of pastoral solicitude. In them, just as through the conversion of the provinces -- that is, of Dardania, Illyricum, and Scythia -- you summon us to the fellowship of joy, so likewise [...] you instruct us with most cautious admonition, lest anything be able to forestall us through ignorance. The condemnation, therefore, of Eutyches and of Nestorius -- whom already the authority of the most blessed predecessors of your holy see has trodden underfoot -- has been brought to our knowledge long since by the foresight of the apostolic diligence toward us. But this one thing now renders us much in suspense and anxious: that, whereas you bade us hang in expectation, with all eagerness, upon the outcome of the legation a second time dispatched to Constantinople, you have indicated neither what your son, my holy brother, Ennodius, has reported back, nor whether it [the legation] has returned having succeeded; and you suspend your promise by so long a duration of silence that the silence of the herald now renders us no less astonished than before the delay of the legation had rendered us anxious. For this sole cause I have dispatched your servants, my sons, Alexius the presbyter and Viventius the deacon, in the name of the whole province of Vienne -- which has been entrusted to the church belonging to me by all your predecessors and by the apostolic see -- together with the present page of [my] service: through whom, by the oracle of your most blessed reply, I may learn whether the fervor of the aforesaid schisms, which within the city of Constantinople has blazed up with the fault of a destructive obstinacy -- and, what is more to be lamented, by which you say the churches of Alexandria and Antioch are entangled -- has, with Christ favoring you who speak, been quenched by a worthy correction; or whether the returned legation has, in pages [...] something that might be read as straightforward, displayed, or whether perhaps it reported by word of mouth something whence some suspicion or other is still reserved for you. For I fear lest the pontifical judgment, while it does not announce favorable things, should be sensible of [...] adverse ones. To these matters is added this: that, by the faithful report of various persons, we have learned that Greece boasts of itself concerning a reconciliation or concord with the Roman Church -- which, just as it is to be embraced, if it is truthfully said, so is it to be feared, lest it be craftily feigned. We ask, therefore, by my service to all [...], that you instruct what ought to be answered to your sons, my brothers -- that is, the Gallican [bishops] -- if they should consult [you]; because now, secure -- I will not say of the devotion of Vienne, but of that of the whole of Gaul -- I promise that all will seek your judgment concerning the standing of the faith. Pray that, just as truth does not separate [us] from the unity which you govern, so the disguised profession of the aforesaid persons may not deceive us. Received on the third day before the Kalends of February, in the consulship of Agapitus, vir clarissimus [most illustrious man] (516), through Alexius the presbyter and Venantius the deacon.

Ayiti episcopi Yiennensis ad Hormisdam papam. (a. 5i6 c fin.) ^tulatur fie conversione provinciarum Dardaniae , Illyrici el Scythiae petitque^ ut certior fiat de successu legationis Constaniinopolim missae. Domino sanctis meritis praecellentissimo, in Chri- sto gloriosissimo et apostolica sede dignis- simo papae Hormisdae Avitus. Dum religionis statui et plenis catholicae fidei regulis perspi- convenire, ut gregem per tota vobis universalis Ecclesiae mem- commissum pervigil cura vestrae adliortationis informet, Vien- lem provinciam superiore anno, si meminisse dignamini, datis lumilitatem ') meam litteris visitastis, quae ad me, secundum l opportunitas oblata contulerat, per Arelatensis ecclesiae cleri- pervenerunt, et quidem plenissimae sollicitudine pastorali. In us nos sicut per conversionem ^) provinciarum, id est Dardaniae, ici vel Scythiae^), ad communionem gaudii provocatis, sic ad- ') Hic superior epistola 18 ad episcopos Epiri veteris indicatur. — Ed. hahrt. i episcopi, sed et Dardani ; siquidem chartas ac subscriptiones eorum, ut in ola 22 n. 5 visuri sumus, ante mensem Februarium anni 517 penes se ba- •t. ') Ez eo, quod Avitus non generatim ad nos, sed nominatim ad humilitatem t dicat, colligere est, epistolae 9 exemplum proprio ipsius nomine inscriptum am pervenisBe, adeoque epistolam illam ex iis fuisse, quae a pari vulgo upantur. 0 G^ a^ conversationem. Rectius aliae conversionemy sdlicet a schismate ot i Acacii. ') Ita Sirm. G' a^ Sqidciae^ cujus vocis loco Baron. subatituit Thraciae. loarii quippc pro diversa dictantium pronuntiatioue modo Scythiae, modo we, alias, ut epist. 26 n. 3 probaturi sumus, Sciciae nominibus repraescn- it. (a. 516.) monitione cautissima, ne quid per ignorantiam praevenire pofiat instruitis. Eutyclietis igitur Nestoriique damnatiO; quos jam ivAm per beatissimos praedecessores sanctae sedis vestrae calcavit ando- ritas^ ad notitiam jam pridem nostram apostolicae ad nos diligentiae provisione perlata est. Sod illud nos modo suspensos multum redigii et anxios^ quod quum pendere nos ad efifectum legationis secQndo Constantinopolim destinatae omni exspectationis studio jusseritis, nec quid filius vester, sanctus frater meus, Ennodius retulerit, nec utrum secuta^) redierit indicastis: et promissionem vestram ianta silentii diutumitate suspenditis^ ut non minus modo praedicatoris tacitumitas reddat attonitos, quam antea fecerat legationis moia suspectos. Unde sola Iiac causa servos vestros, filios meos AleiimQ. presbytenmi et Viventium diaconum, totius^) Viennensis provinciae nomine, quae ecclesiae ad me pertinenti ab universis praedecessori— bus vestris et ab apostolica sede commissa est, cum praesentis famix— latus pagina destinavi: per quos oraculo beatissimae responsionis agnoscam, utrum fervor schismatum praefatorum, qui intra CoMm- stantinopolitanam urbem vitio pemiciosae obstinationis exarsenh*»} cuique, quod magis dolendum est, Alexandrinam vel Antiochenax* ecclesias dicitis illigatas, vobis Christo favente dicentibus digtJta fuerit correctione restinctus; aut si reversa legatio in paginis dentibus, quod simplex legeretur, exhibuit, an forte nuncio retulit, unde vobis adhuc qualiscunque suspicio reservetur. Verem enim, ne pontificale judiciura, dum non indicat prospera, sensis^^ adversa. His adjicitur, quod diversorum fida relatione comperimt»* de reconciliatione vel concordia ecclesiae Romanae jactitare se 6r»* ciam : quod sicut amplectendum, si veraciter dicitur^ ita metuendc&^ est, ne callide simuletur. Quaesumus ergo servitio meo cuncti*), "■> quid filiis vestris fratribus meis, id est Gallicanis, si consulant, t^ sponderi debeat, instmatis: quia jam') securus, non dicam de Vien- nensi sed de totius Galliae devotione, pollicear, omnes super state fidei vestram captare sententiara. Orate, ut sic nos praedictomrD professio fueata non fallat, sicut ab unitate, quam regitis, verifcfc^ Bccundam legationem post Ennodii reditum deBtinatam crediderat, nt docet Hormisdae responsio. Hinc in c* c' secura prave legi liquet '') His verbis ostenditur , Avito minime probatam ease VienuenaiB profiiid^*-' divisioncm a s. Lconc factam et ab ejus Buccessoribus confirmatam, led eoB) aflFectum fuiBse, ut totam provinciam sui juris esse contenderet. — 6* Fite»!» al. Venantium, • EPI8T0LAE 21. 22. 783 erta non separat. Accepta III Calendas Februarii^ Agapito v. c. (a. 516.) Je, per Alexium presbyterum et Venantiam diaconum.