Letter 234: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Of Pope Hormisdas, to Dorotheus, bishop of Thessalonica. Would that what report announces concerning him were not true! That in the reconciliation of the faith he may follow the example of the others who have returned. Hormisdas to Dorotheus, bishop of Thessalonica. Considering that the church of your fraternity was once, before the evils of the passing discord, joined to the Apostolic See in special charity, we believed that you had lately been made an author of the peace restored from above. But because you delay even to follow those whom you ought to have anticipated, we lament, not lightly, on behalf of your fraternity, the tardiness of a correction so deferred. For you write that our ears have been disturbed by the atrocity of a certain crime. Would that the detestable report had run only as far as us, and did not, throughout the whole world, announce to Christian minds a deed as lamentable as it is execrable, so that those who do not know you to be innocent should believe that you have likewise strayed from the path of Christianity! For in what part of the world does the odium of this monstrosity not both sadden the catholic churches and gladden the depraved desires of the heretics, desires which we wish to be shown alien to the conscience of your love, as you intimate by your letter! For what better accords with our wishes than that bishops desiring to return to the catholic peace should ever be proved free of cruelty and crimes. We wait, therefore, if there are not lacking to your fraternity the defenses of truth known to God, that you may both repel from yourself the odium of so great a crime, and in the reconciliation of the faith may at last follow the examples of those who have returned. Given on the fourth day before the Kalends of November [29 October], Rusticus, most illustrious man, being consul [520].

^23^*Q^^' Hormisdae papae ad Dorotheum Thessalonicensem episcopum. ^" Ulinam quae de illo fama nunliat vera non sint! Ut in recondKatione fidei aliorum, qui reversi, sequatur exempbm, Hormisda^) Dorotheo episcopo Thessalonicensi. Considerantes tuae fratemitatis ecclesiam ante praetereuntis mala discordiae olim cum sede apostolica praecipua fuisse caritate con- junctam, te nuper pacis desuper^) redditae esse credebamus aucto- 133 ^) Superiori Justiui epistolae 126, quam Eulogius detolerat, rescribitar, eidemque Eulogio Constantinopolim redeunti creditur. ') Ita G'. Ed, nec mutatione ... credimus. 134 *) Ipsius Dorothei epistolae 128 reapondet. Ut eodem die quo proiimA, ita et eidem Eulogio videtur tradita. EPI8T0LAE 133 — 135. 957 rem. Sed quia quos praevenire debueras ^ sequi etiam remoraris^ a. 520. non leviter pro fratemitate tua dilatae correctionis ingemiscimus tarditatem. Scribis enim aures nostras cujusdam sceleris atrocitate ep. 128. turbatas. Utinam usque ad nos tantum detestabilis fama percurre- ret, et non toto orbe Christianis mentibus tam dolendum quam ex- secrabile facinus nuntiaret, ut^) qui te innocentem nesciunt, a Chri- stianitatis ^imul credant tramite deviasse! In qua enim mundi parte immanitatis hujus invidia non et catholicas contristat ecclesias^ et haereticorum prava vota laetificat^ quae nos a dilectionis tuae con- scientia^ sicut litteris intimas^ ostendi cupimus aliena! Quid enim Yotis nostris magis conyem*t, nisi ut redire ad pacem catholicam volentes episcopos a crudelitate et criminibus contingat semper in- noxios comprobari. Exspectamus igitur^ si non desunt fratemitati tuae veritatis Deo nota praesidia^ ut et tanti sceleris a te repellas invidiam^ et in reconciliatione fidei tandem eorum qui reversi sunt sequaris exempla. Data IV Calendas Novembris, Rustico viro cla- rissimo consule.