Letter 228: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

A sacred letter of Justinus Augustus to Pope Hormisdas. [He excuses the delay, because he has not yet fulfilled the promise concerning certain chapters to be dispatched through Bishop John.] Justinus Augustus to Pope Hormisdas. While we were dismissing from this royal city the most blessed Bishop Germanus, and those who had been sent by you together with him, we delivered to them instructions of this kind: that the chapters which pertained to the perfect unity of the churches we would subsequently make manifest to your apostolate through the most reverend Bishop John. These things had nevertheless been declared to those men here while they were present; but it has come about that the aforesaid prelate John is detained by a long illness. Therefore, lest any adverse opinion enter your reverence, as though we were bringing the promises we made to you less to effect through some willful negligence, we have judged it necessary to set out to you the cause of the delay through Eulogius, the [most] honorable [vir spectabilis] tribune and notary, whom we have sent over to the most exalted king Theodoric concerning certain matters; adding this also, that when the favorable majesty of our Lord and God shall have willed to restore that same most religious man John to his former health, just as we once promised, we shall straightway send him on to your sanctity. It remains that your holiness deign to obtain for us by your prayers the divine protection. Given on the day before the Kalends of September [August 31] at Constantinople. Received at Rome on the Kalends of October [October 1], in the consulship of Rusticus, the most illustrious man [vir clarissimus]. Letter 127 A copy of the letter of Justinian, the most illustrious man, to Hormisdas. [He earnestly asks that Hormisdas labor on toward the concord of the churches, and that he not defer dispatching a complete and unhesitating reply concerning those two matters which were even then in dispute.] To the most blessed lord and apostolic father Hormisdas, pope of the city of Rome, Justinian. With how great reverence we venerate your beatitude you have learned from many letters, ever since the most serene emperor, your son, has reigned. At present too, greeting your sanctity with due modesty, we earnestly request that with assiduous entreaties and most frequent prayers you labor for the concord of the venerable churches, and that, just as we wrote after everything through your legates as well, your apostolate deign to dispatch a complete and unhesitating reply to us, both concerning the discourse over which the controversy turns and concerning the names of the bishops who died under Acacius, through Eulogius, the eminent man [vir sublimis], tribune and notary; all things, namely, which were ordained in the presence of your legates being destined to endure firmly in perpetuity. For the religious man, Bishop John, who is to come to Rome, is detained by bodily illness. For nothing prevents concord from coming to pass even before his arrival, once the doubt concerning religion has been removed (and yet we shall soon send him off, with the Divinity favoring it, since he is already better), since neither are the matters that have fallen into ambiguity difficult, nor is it expedient that the cause of eternal life be drawn out any longer, lest, the times being deferred, something more uncertain arise. Therefore, not unmindful of the supernal eternity and of the dread judgment, let your sanctity hasten to deliver to effectiveness the things that have been committed to it, so that all may understand that you rightly have obtained the primacy of the apostolic see. These things, therefore, which are written by sons, command with a fatherly affection to be fulfilled as quickly as possible. For you know how admirable a glory it is that the errors of so many years be abolished root and branch in the time of your pontificate. Letter 128 [A report of Dorotheus, bishop of Thessalonica.] [He strives to clear himself of the crime of which he was being accused.] To the most holy and most blessed father and fellow-minister Hormisdas, Dorotheus, greeting in the Lord. It is the highest zeal of our purpose and of our prayer, in all things most blessed and thrice-blessed father, both to write frequently to you most holy men and to merit mutual conversations; and at no time is it becoming for me to be without a share in joy of this kind. Since therefore I have manifestly learned that certain men are disturbing your holy ears, and I know beyond doubt that you are perfect in all things, and that you can hear nothing without judgment nor lend your mind utterly to anyone: that I may not seem any longer through silence to grant time to those who indeed have in no way been harmed by us, but have armed themselves against us without cause and superfluously, I nevertheless give satisfaction to God and to your sanctity, because on behalf of John, the most reverend man and bishop, who a little before was directed hither by your venerable crown, I destined myself for perils and endured death, and I know that I exposed my own soul on his behalf: and this is shown by the records, and from those things, who, although through my absence, appear to have been most sharply examined. And what need is there to use a long discourse, when our Lord God Jesus Christ can lay open and give satisfaction to you in all things; for also when I learned that you were summoned to the headship of the apostolic see, I judged it to be the common joy of the whole world. For from that time, writing this very thing to you, as far as it lies in me, whatever pertains to the honor and satisfaction owed to you and to the apostolic see, I have omitted nothing, nor do I omit it. But a little later you shall know, most venerable men, with our Lord Jesus Christ assenting, that these things were devised by me from the beginning, and, when the Lord God gave the time, these things were brought to effect. I too, and very many of mine, greet all the brotherhood in Christ together with your sanctity.

seu ai^Auff Saora Justini Augusti ad HormiBdam papam. ^^M Excusat moram, qna de destinandis per Johannem episcopum quibusdam capitulis p. 13 promissa nondum complerit, Justinus Augustus Hormisdae papae. Dum beatissimum Germanum episcopum vel eos, qui cum eo a vobis fuerant destinati, de hac dimitteremus ^) regia civitate^ hujus- modi illis mandata tradidimus^ quod capitula^), quae ad perfectam unitatem ecclesiarum pertinebant, apostolatui vestro per reverentis- simum Johannem ^) episcopum sequenter manifesta faceremus. Quae tamen ipsis hic praesentibus fuerant declarata; sed evenit, praefatum Johannem antistitem longa aegritudine detineri. Ne qua igitur ve- stram reverentiam ingrediatur adversa sententia, quasi uobis^) pro- missa nostra desidia quadam ultronea minus ad effectom perducenti- bus, necessarium esse perspeximus dilationis causam vobis exponere per Eulogium v.^) s. tribunum et notarium, quem ad praecelsum regem Theodoricum super negotiis quibusdam transmisimus: hoc quoque adjicientes, quod dum propitia Domini et Dei nostri majestas eumdem virum religiosissimum Johannem pristinae voluerit reddere 126 ') EoB VII Idus Julii inde dimissos fuiBse, ex epistola 116 dididmus. ') Isne intelligendus sit, qui Thessalonicae factione Dorothei laesos vix baptisterii praesidio necem evaserat, uti epist. 100 et 102 narratur, in episto- lam 129 excutiemus. ■') H. e. , ut in epistola sequenti conceptis verbis legitur, vtnuit sMmem. Eumdem infra epist. 133 Hormisda virum spectabilem vocat. Ansvero is ipee sit Eulogius magistrianus et agens in rebus, qui epist. 77 vtr spedabUU, epist 9S et 93 vir sublimis (iu ep. 92 al. vir carissimus), epidt. 99 vir strenmts et epist 91 vir clarissimus coguominatur, alioruin judicio i>ermitto. EPI8T0LAE 125 — 127. 939 sauitati^ sicut seniel promiseramus, statim illum ad tuam sanctitatem a 520. transmittemus. Superest^ ut sanctitudo tua divinum nobis praesidium orationibus suis dignetur acquirere. Data pridie Galendas Septem- bris Constantinopoli. Accepta Bomae Calendis Octobris, Rustico viro claris^imo consule. EpisMa 127 Beu Exemplum epistolae Justiniani viri olarissimi ad Hormisdam. aiAofr) '•20. Enixius rogat, ut Hormisda pro ecclesiarum concordia usque laborei, atque ad duo illa, de quibus eiiam tunc controveriebatur , integrum et indubitatum desti- nare responsum ne differat, Domino beatissimo atque apostolico patri Hor- misdae papae urbis Romae Justinianus. Quanta reverentia vestram beatitudinem veneremur, multis epi- stolis, ex quo serenissimus imperator filius yester regnavit, cogno- scitis. In praesenti quoque debito pudore salutantes tuam sancti- tatem, postulamus enixius, ut assiduis precibus et frequentissimis orationibus pro concordia laboretis ecclesiarum ^) venerandarum, nobisque, sicut per legatos etiam vestros post omnia scripsimus, tam ep- 120 de sermone, de quo vertitur controversia, quam de nominibus epi- scoporum sub^) Acacio defuuctorum per Eulogium virum sublimem tribunum et notarium dignetur apostolatus vester integrum indubi- tatiunque destinare responsum, onmibus videlicet, quae praesentibus legatis vestris ordinata sunt, in perpetuo firmiter duraturis^). Vir uamque religiosus Johannes episcopus, qui venturus est Romam, detinetur aegritudine corporali. Nihil enim prohibet ante ejus quoque adventum concordiam provenire, sublata dubitatione religionis, (et eum tamen mox dimittemus favente Divinitate, quia jam melius ha- bet), quoniam nec difficilia sunt quae ceciderunt in ambiguitatem, nec expedit diutius causam vitae protrahi sempiternae, ne dilatis temporibus aliquid nascatur incertius. Aeteruitatis igitur supemae tremendique judicii non inimemor, sanctitas vestra, quae sibi com- missa sunt, efficaciae tradi deproperet, ut intelligant cuncti recte 127 b cc ecclesiarum vestrarum: renitente G*. Sed et Justiniauo ac Justino sol- lemnc est, hoc epitheto ecclesias exornare, ut eas vel venerandas vel venerabiles praedicent, ut videre est epist. 115 n. 2, epist. 116, opist. 120 n. 4 et epist. 129 n. 4. ') H. e. quod idem Justinianus cpist. 120 n. 2 ait episcoporum post Acacium defunclorum. •) Hoc est, at in sacra diptycha nunquam revocentur Timothei, Macedonii, Euphemii aliorumque uomina, quao ex iis sub teraporibus Johannis Constan- tinopoli cxpuncta suut, uti Justinus epist. 116 declarat. (a. 520.)vos apostolicae sedis esse primatum sortitos. Haee igitnr, quae^) scribuntur a filiis, affectu patemo jubete quantocius adimpleh. Scitis namque^ quam sit admirabilis gloria^ tantorum errores annorum ve- stri pontificatus tempore stirpitus aboleri. * Epistola 128 sen (a. 520 m. Belatio Dorothei episoopi ThessalonicensiB. Aug.) A fadnorey quo insimulabaiur ^ purgare se niiitur. p. l^. Sanctissimo ac beatissimo patri ac comministra- tori Hormisdae Dorotheus inDomino salutem. Propositi nostri et orati(mis est summum studium, per omnia beatissime et ter beate pater, et scribere frequenter ad vos sanctis- simos, et mutua mereri coUoquia; et nullo tempore exsortem') me ab hujusmodi laetitia esse condecet. Quoniam igitur manifeste co- gnovi quosdam sanctas aures vestras perturbare, et scio procul dubio vos in omnibus esse perfectos, et quia nihil sine judicio andire pos- sitis nec ulli penitus vestrum animimi accommodare: ut non am- plius per taciturnitatem largiri tempus videar illis, qui nihil quidem a nobis laesi sunt, sed sine causa et superflue adversus nos armati sunt, Deo tamen et vestrae satisfacio sanctitati, quia pro Johanne viro reverendissimo episcopo, qui paulo ante a vestra venerabili co- rona directus est, praedestinavi me periculis et mortem sustinui^) et meam pro ejus scio me objecisse animam: et hoc ostenditur gestis, et ex his, qui quamquam per meam absentiam acerrime videantor esse discussi^). Et quid longo sermone opus est uti, quum vobis omnia Dominus Deus noster Jesus Ohristus patefacere et satisfacere possit; quia et quando cognovi vos ad apostolicae sedis praesulatum advocari, commune gaudium totius mundi esse judicavi. Ab illo cp. 3. euim tempore hoc ipsum scribens ad vos, quantum ad me, quidquid ad honorem et satisfactionem vobis et apostolicae sedi pertinet, nihil praetermisi sed nec praetermitto. Paulo post autem scietis, per- ') b cc guae a nobis scrihuntur vel quae scHhuniur a nobis omisBO filHs, qao verbo et se et Justinum, qui eimilia scripsit, Justiniauus intelligit. Estqne inter verba a filiis et nffectu paterno elegans antithesis aut potius aequa relatio , quarc primigenia lectio retinenda. 128 *) b cc extorrem ... animum commodare ei ut. Constantinopolim tantas delatas esse pecunias, ut non homines sed possini ange- tos excaecare. Unrlc mirum non est, gesta tunc confecta nunc a Dorotheo vcnditari. EPISTOLAE 127 — 129. 941 venerabiles *), annuente Domino Jesu Cbristo, quia haec ab exordio (a. 520.) mibi sunt excogitata^ et quando Dominiis Deus tempus dedit^ ad effectum baec sunt perducta. Omnem cum vestra sanctitate in Cbristo fraternitatem ego quoque et mei plurimum salutamus.