Letter 15: Blessed be God, who joins together the members of his church!

Hormisdas to the synod of Old Epirus. <Through the deacon Rufinus.> Blessed be God, who joins together the members of His Church! Blessed be God, who, when the malicious one had instigated division, makes those who once were divided joined together in the same solidity in which they formerly stood! For although the enemy has long screeched in the manner of a partridge and gathered those whom he did not beget, as the prophet declared, nevertheless he will without doubt be left desolate by them; for the Lord's sheep do not follow a stranger, nor do they heed the voice of another shepherd. We are therefore not surprised that you too have returned to the way of salvation, though we would rather find fault with the slowness shown in this restoration. We ought, dearest brothers, to make use in this stability which we seek of examples from our own household. For indeed at that time Timothy of Cherson [the Cat], grave when he was a learner, graver still when he was a teacher (for he was a follower of Dioscorus and no less an instructor of Peter), exercised the savagery of his rashness against Proterius of blessed memory and exceeded the utmost limit of cruelty, working the murder of a religious man amid the very altars, with his own jaws barely held back from that pious blood; then the universal Church, roused to hatred of the parricide, separated the author of so great a crime not only from communion but also from the very name of Christian, and the minds of all men were stunned with a certain strange amazement at the audacity of so great a presumption. Then blessed Eugenius, holding the primacy of your province, together with the holy synod subject to him, showed a certain zeal of the kind by which Phinehas commended himself to God. The memory of this deed not only cannot time conceal, but from day to day its great renown is multiplied among the orthodox. To neglect zeal so well proven, and not to love such judgments, is to fail in the very confession of our Lord. And for us indeed now, after your profession and your letters, all the doctrines of the faith are alike, since God joins His own together: we must pray that your will, by which it has relieved our spirits, may persist in that confession. But there is need, without any regard of fear, to pursue the madness of those who strive against the faith; for the more the error of the unbelievers boils up, the more our security commends itself, if it resists. For these things are not to be neglected through patience, since this evil, animated by the fault of a depraved habit, has grown strong among many under a certain pretext of law, while either depraved zeal converges into one, or right zeal withdraws itself. For, to speak of the matter that is imminent, Eutyches, as the inventor of a wicked heresy, is excluded even by those by whom his doctrines are cherished, being among those very men so hateful and so to be shunned that they hate even the mention of his name; but the perverse ministers of religious institutions embrace by another path, as a true orthodox man, the very one whom, as a true heretic, they detest. For indeed in the holy Synod of Chalcedon Dioscorus, holding the same views, was condemned by like reasoning, and since one sentence has persecuted both alike, if anyone should follow or cherish either of these, let someone tell how he may except himself from the sentence which condemned those designated, since the equality of transgression or impiety that binds them together draws them also without doubt into one bond of condemnation. Timothy and Peter, the followers of these men, are people corrupt in mind and a certain pestilence to be detested by the catholic name: and Acacius, having embraced their communion in Peter, likewise also deserved to undergo the same sentences. He, esteeming so great an evil as a small thing and never turning his purpose toward better things, did not abstain even from those things which we detest at Antioch, being there too joined in communion to the transgressor Peter, and behaving no less in hostile fashion toward the church of Apamea, and also disposing the church of Tyre with less integrity than was fitting. On account of which, dearest brothers, releasing ourselves from being entangled with them, as though leaving behind a certain pestilential region, let us preserve the apostolic discipline; and providing for our own salvation with all diligence and solicitude, let us decline the errors of the wicked Nestorius with that same care with which we pursue the impious inventions of Eutyches. For especially now the doctrines of the religious faith are assailed by the varied onset of the snares of those who have been mentioned, since these wicked men, according to the times, weave together their arguments, to see whether by any means they can insert the fraud of their impiety into the ways of the innocent; and therefore, like skilled money-changers and prudently instructed, separating the praiseworthy from what is to be rejected, you will be able to multiply the substance of the talent entrusted to you. These things, dearest brothers, we have written under the impulse of full charity, because we have presumed upon the hope of your faith, first from the gift of God, and then also from the profession of our brother John, who presides over you, by which he declared that all those by name whom the apostolic and general Church of catholics condemns are detestable to him. This you too ought to have expressed clearly in your letters, and not to think it can suffice, especially under such great snares of crafty men, whom it is fitting to pursue man by man and singly and to condemn, to enclose them under a certain general condemnation. Old wounds seek a careful medicine, nor is whatever is applied for the integrity of the faith and the stability of religion believed to be excessive. Whence we have sent a document together with our letters, into which you ought to insert your own subscriptions, so that your faith, which the writings sent through the deacon Rufinus attest, may become among us yet more manifest by the addition of this repetition also. Given on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Petrus.

HORIISDA SYNODO EPIRI UETERIS. <PER RUFINVM DIACONUM.> Benedictus deus ecclesiae suae membra consocians ! benedictus deus, qui maligno instigante diaisos sub eadem, qua olim ^ fuerunt, facit soliditate coniunctos ! etsi enim diu perdicis modo uociferauit inimicus et eos, quos non genuit, sicut asseruit propheta, collegit, tamen ab his sine ambiguitate desolabitur; neque enim oues dominicae sequuntur alienum aut alterius uocem pastoris exaudiunt. unde nec uos ad salutis iter 2 w redisse miramur, cum tarditatem magis in hac redintegratione culpemus. debemus, karissimi fratres, domesticis uti<in>hac, quam quaerimus, stabilitate documentis. siquidem tunc 3 Timotheus Cersonensis, grauis cum disceret, grauior cum doceiet (nam Dioscori sectator et idem Petri nihilominus institutor), aduersum beatae recordationis Proterium saeuitiam suae temeritatis exeruit et totius iinem crudelitatis excessit religiosi uiri caedem inter ipsa operatus altaria uix faucibus suis ab illo pio cruore suspensis; tunc excitata uniuersalis 4 ecclesia iu odium parricidae auctorem facinoris tanti non » solum communione uerum etiam ipsa quoque Christiani « « omnium mentes noua quadam admiratione stupuerunt tantae praesumptionis audaciam; tunc beatus Eugenius paroeciae uestrae obtinens principatum cum subiecta sibi sancta synodo 6 cf. Hierem. 17, 11 8 cf. loh. 10, 5 34* 530 Horniisda synodo Epiri ueteris zelum quendam, quali Finees se deo comraendauit, ostendit. cuius rei memoriam non solum non potest tempus abscondere uerum etiam de die in diem magua apud orthodoxos fama multiplicat. horum studia sic probata neglegere et sententias non amare id est in ipsa domini nostri confessione delinquere. 5 et nobis quidem nunc post professionem ac litteras uestras omnia fidei dogmata deo suos coniungente similia: oranduni est, ut in ea uoluntas uestra, qua nostros animos releuauit, confessioue permaneat. sed opus est citra respectum timoris insectari eorum rabiem, qui fidei aduersa nituntur; quanto enim infidelium error exaestuat, tanto magis se, si resistat, securitas nostra commendat. neque enim haec sunt per patien- tiam neglegenda, quando malum hoc uitio prauae consuetu- dinis animatum apud plures sub quodam colore legis inoleuit, dum aut praua studia in unum congruunt aut recta se 6 subtrahunt. nam ut eam quae imminet rem loquamur, Eutyches ut nefandae haeresis inuentor excluditur etiam ab his, a quibus eius dogmata diliguntur, apud eos ipsos ita exosus atque fugiendus, ut nominis quoque ipsius oderint mentionem; sed peruersi religiosarum institutionum ministri, quem sicut uerum detestantur haereticum, hunc alia uia tamquam uerum amplexantur orthodoxum. siquidem in sancta €halcedonensi synodo Dioscorus eadem sentiens pari ratione damnatus est et, cum una persecuta sit utrumque sententia, horum alterum si quis sequatur aut diligat, dicat aliquis, <]nemadmodum se a sententia, quae designatos damnauit, •excipiat, cum eos, quos transgressionis aut impietatis conectit aequalitas, sine dubio unum quoque uinculum damnationis 7 adatringat. Timotheus et Petrus horum sequaces homines mente corrupti et pestis quaedam nominis detestanda catholici: 1 cf. Num. 25, 11 1 fine esse F, corr. 5 id est Thiel: idem est V 7 <per> omnia Thiel, omnia . . dogmata <uenerantes> . . similiter Bull. Taur. 8 nostros p^: nos 13 malo V, corr. Bar. 18 deliguntur F, cotr. o* 23 scen- tiens V 26 scencia F, corr. Epist. CXX 5—10. 531 quorum communionem in Petro amplexus Acacius similiter quoque meruit subire sententias. qui tantum malum quasi panio aestimans et propositum numquam ad meliora conuertens ne ab illis quidem se, quae in Antiochia detestamur, abstinuit, ibi qiioque transgressori Petro commu(nio>ne conexus, in Apa- menam nihilominus hostiliter uersatus ecclesiam, Tyriam quoque non ea qua decuit integritate disponens. propter 8 quae, dilectissimi fratres, ab eorum innodatione soluentes uelut regionem quandam pestiferam relinquentes seruemus apostolicam disciplinam; saluti nostrae omni diligentia et sollicitudine prouidentes ea cura nefandi Nestorii declinemus errores, qua Eutychetis impia inuenta persequimur. maxime enim nunc religiosae fidei dogmata diuerso incursu horum, qui praedicti sunt, incursantur insidiis, scelestis pro ratione temporum sua argumenta nectentibus, si quo modo possint innocentium uiis fraudem suae impietatis inserere, atque ideo sicut docti nummularii et prudenter instructi ab improbandis laudata separantes talenti uobis crediti poteritis multiplicare substantiam. haec, dilectissimi fratres, scripsimus plenae 9 caritatis impulsu, quia et spem fidei uestrae primum de dei dono, deinde et fratris nostri lohannis, qui uobis praesidet, professione praesumpsimus, qua nominatim omnes, quos apostolica et generalis catholicorum condemnat ecclesia, eiecrabiles sibi esse declarauit. quod uos quoque in litterislO uestris oportuit euidenter exprimere nec arbitrari posse suffi- cere sub tantis praesertim insidiis callidorum, quos uiritim et singulos insecrari conuenit atque damnari, sub quadam generali eos damnatione concludere. diligentem quaerunt uulnera antiqua medicinam nec abundans esse creditur, 2 sententiam p 4 anthiocia V 5 commune V, corr. 6 osti- liter V thyriam V 8 inodacione V 9 reliquentes V 10 dissi- plinam V 13 religise F, corr. Car.: religiosa Bar. 14 insidiis V: insidiose istis Coust. 15 posint F, corr. a 17 prudentes V, corr. Bar. 18 laudanda p 22 praesumsimns F 25 suficere V 26 sub- stantis F, corr. 27 insectari o Bar. damnare Bar. 532 Hormisda lohanni Nicopolitano; indicalas quicquid pro integritate fidei et stabilitate religionis adhibetur. llunde libellum cuin litteris misimus, cui uos subscriptiones proprias <oportet> inserere, ut fides uestra, quam directa per Eufinum diaconem scripta testantur, apud nos fiat huius quoque repetitionis adiectione manifestior. Data XVIL Kal. s Decembr. Petro cons.