Letter 247: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

[Editorial heading: Dionysius Exiguus to Pope Hormisdas. He announces to him that the Latin collection of canons, undertaken at the command of Hormisdas, has been completed by him.] To the most blessed lord, Pope Hormisdas, from Dionysius the Humble. I am aware that the rules of the holy pontiffs, which Your Beatitude compels me to set out word for word from the Greek tongue, were long ago brought to completion through some labor of my smallness. But Your Veneration, not enduring the arrogance of certain men who keep boasting that they are most expert in the Greek canons, and who, when consulted about any ecclesiastical ordinance whatsoever, seem to answer as though from a hidden oracle, deigned to give a command by that power with which you excel above the other bishops: namely, that I should strive with what diligence I can so that the Latin should differ as little as possible from the Greek, and that on each and every page, the path being divided in equal parts, I should append both texts side by side, chiefly on account of those men who, with a certain rashness, believe that they can violate the Nicene canons and substitute certain other ordinances in their place. Wherefore, obeying the commands of your apostolic office, I have faithfully unfolded the whole truth of the Greek canons, beginning from the Nicene [canons] [...] and ending with the Chalcedonian ones. But the canons which are called those of the apostles, and those of the Council of Sardica and of the African province, which the universal Church did not admit, I too have passed over in this work; because, as I have mentioned above, I both arranged these in that first translation, and because your paternity sought to recognize, by the authority by which the Eastern churches are bound, [which ones are received]. [The transmitted text here contains interspersed editorial apparatus, footnotes, and a printed running header ("Epistolae 147-149"; page number 987), which are not part of the letter.]

Diouysii Exigai ad Horitiisdam papani. firacvo - lalimnn coUectionem canonufn, Jussu Hormisdae susceptam, a se absoiulam y. li esse ilH nuntiat, Domino beatissimo papae Hormisdae Dionysius exiguus. Sanctorum pontificum regulas, quas ad verbum digerere vestra beatitudo de graeco me compellit eloquio, jamdudum parvitatis meae nonnuUo studio absolutas esse cognosco. Sed quorumdam superciHum, qui se graecorum ctmonum peritissimos esse jactitant, quique scisci- tati de quohbet ecclesiastico constituto respondere se velut ex occulto videntur oraculo, veneratio vestra non sustinens, imperare diguata est potestate, qua supra ceteros exceUit antistites, ut qua possum diligejitia nitar a graecis latina minime discrepare, atque in una- ([uaque pagina aequo divisa tramite utraque e regione subnectam, [)roi)ter eos maxime, qui temeritate quadam Nicaenos canoues cre- duiit se posse violare .et pro eis alia quaedam coustituta suppouere. Quapropter ajjostohitus vestri jussis obtemperans, onmem veritatem graecorum canonum prout qui fidehter expUcui, incipiens a Nicaenis ir«\sta sunt pro vostro desiilerio ac volantate, et qaanta vigilenius sollicitutline circa sanctas ecclesiat*. - Ed. sol/icHudinem. G' viyifaver. •') Kd. uf naturnlem et inferius decun-ens ... ad e/fectum nosirtim dueit et w tcntionem. Locus obscunis et intricatus sic potest clarius enuntiari: Sam or«ti&- niftus vestjac sanctitatis. (/uam naturali bonitale AwJms r« (sc. redintegrationiB ec<*l*- siarum) respicimus^ vigitantissimum haberc studium et t)eo cooperante etc. EPISTOLAE 147 — 149. 987 defuiitis ei iii Calcliedoneiisibus desinens. Canones autem, qui di- cuntur apostoloruni, et Sardicensis concilii atque Africanae provinciae, quos non admisit universitas, ego quoque in lioc opere praetermisi; quia, ut superius memini, ut hos in illa prima digessi translatione, et ut vestra paternitas, auctoritate qua tenentur ecclesiae Orientales, quaesivit agnoscere.