Letter 44: Hormisdas to all the catholic faithful, jointly.

To all Catholics alike. We duly render thanks to the divine mercy, which has not allowed your faith to labor for long. For a time has been granted in which the Catholic Church may recover her sons, her own soldiers. For what greater joy can take hold of our mind than the recollected driving-away of evils? Make up for the hardships of affliction with present joys, because our God, who was a remedy, did not wish your charity to be crushed by adversities but to be tested. For if you weigh the evils of time past against the present recompense, which it is not doubted to be divine, who doubts that you have obtained rewards greater than the harm adversity could have done? And although our solicitude for the standing of the Catholic faith has never ceased, nevertheless, spurred on by the sacred addresses of the most serene prince, we have taken care to dispatch legates, by whose office, with God as author, we do not doubt that effect will follow in those matters which we have often enjoined. And therefore strive fittingly, so that you may be able to offer to the Catholic Church this chief gift of your liberation, to the end that, all things which have hitherto harmed being driven off, we may, giving thanks in the one communion which we have always longed for, render praises to our God without ceasing. Hormisdas to Euphemia Augusta. The peace of the churches is now being established by heavenly ordination, since God has chosen for the imperial office you, in whom He has known the affection of His religion to be ever whole. For just as in private life you always worshiped God with right doctrine, so that you take thought for concord in religion, and many things indeed have been done in the very beginnings of your reign which promise us the hope of an entire correction. Whence, because we rejoice that the love of the faith burns warm in you, giving thanks to God, we daily make supplication for you to the blessed Apostle Peter, that he may favor your wishes before the Lord and fulfill the course of your good will. Nor is it doubtful that you are aided by divine helps, since with such great zeal of religion you obey the heavenly commands. Hence it is that, because it is established that the purpose of your marriage is holy, we direct these letters in confidence to your clemency, so that through you the piety of your husband may be the more incited to the perfecting of the peace of the Church. You have undertaken a great work; a great cause has been committed to you. For through you Christ wishes to recall to the covenants of the Church those peoples whom through Himself He willed to redeem from death. A great occasion of praise also is prepared for your sex, if, through your insistence, Christ should join together the members of His Church which had been divided. For not greater is the glory which searched out the wood of human salvation and alone found the cross which all the world venerates: you will rather surpass her merits, because the unity of the Church, which through her found its sign, through you is to have its remedy. Let therefore the religious clemency of your consort act, so that our brothers and fellow-bishops may deign to assert their faith under that tenor of the document which we sent some time ago, to the end that the correction which has been begun may be perfected. For any confession in the worship of God is void which lacks the fullness of faith. For this which we demand to be done by the rest is established to have already been accomplished by many priests, and unity cannot be just in communion if it has not been preserved in the return.

uNiuERSis cATHOLicis A PARi, Gratias misericordiae diuinae u competenter exsoluimus, quae fidem uestram diu laborare non passa est. nam tempus oblatum est, quo filios, milites suos, catholica recuperare possit ecclesia. quae enim 1 ad inseruit testantur F, corr, 2 nota p caepistis V Epist. CLIIII 3 — CLVI 3. 603 maior animum nostnim potest obtinere iu<cun>ditas quam 2 malorum commemorata depulsio? gaudiis praesentibus com- peosate afflictionis incommoda, quia deus noster, qui remedio fnit, aduersis opprimi caritatem uestram noluit sed probari. i nam si transacti temporis mala cum praesenti, quae diuina esse non ambigitur, retributione compensetis, quis dubitat ampliora uos praemia consecutos, quam nocere potuisset adaersitas? et quamuis pro statu fidei catholicae numquam 3 sollicitndo nostra cessauerit, tamen serenissimi principis sacris 10 affatibus incitati legatos destinare curauimus, quorum officio deo aactore in his, quae saepe mandauimus, subsequi non dnbitamus effectum. et ideo competenter enitere, ut ecclesiae 4 catbolicae hoc praecipuum uestrae liberationis munus possitis offerre, quatenus repulsis omnibus, quae hactenus nocuemnt, » in una quam semper optauimus communione gratulantes deo nostro laudes referre sine cessatione possimus. (1560 HOBMiSDA EUFiHiAE AUGUSTAE. Ecclosiarum pax iam caelesti ordioatione componitur, cum uos ad imperium deus elegit, i) apud quos esse integrum semper religionis suae cognouit affectum. nam sicut in priuata uita deum semper recto dog- mate coluistis, ut de religionis concordia cogitetis, et multa quidem inter ipsa imperii uestri primordia facta sunt, quae spem nobis correctionis integrae pollicentur. unde, quia in 2 n uobis amorem feruere fidei gratulamur, agentes deo gratias cotidie pro uobis beato Petro apostolo supplicamus, ut uotis uestris apud dominum sufiragetur et cursum bonae uoluntatis adimpleat. nec dubium est diuinis uos auxiliis adiuuari, quia tauto religionis studio mandatis caelestibus oboeditis. hinc 3 1 nestnim ji iaditas F, earr. 4 caritate F, carr. o 12 efFectu F, corr. 0 14 acteniis V 15«. Dat ut ep. 148. Edd. Car. P 485; Bar. ad a. 519, 15; CoUect. Condl; BTA I 414; Thiel 844. 22 ut . . cogitetis V: ita . . cogitatis o^; fortasse ante ut aliqua exciderunt uelut eo indicantes (Hartel) uel ita ex quo ad imperiale culmen peruenistis seniper id agitis 24 integre V 604 Hormisda Anastasiae et Palmatiae; indiculus est, quod quia sanctum coniugii uestri constat esse propositum, has fiducialiter ad uestram clementiam litteras destinamus, ut per uos ad perficiendam ecclesiae pacem mariti uestri 4 pietas amplius incitetur. magnum opus arripuistis, magna uobis causa commissa est. per uos enim populos Christus uult 5 ad ecclesiae foedera reuocare, quos per se uoluit a morte redimere. magna etiam uestro sexui parata est laudis occasio, si uobis instantibus ecclesiae suae Christus, quae diuisa 5 fuerant, membra coniungat. nec enim maior est gloria, quae humanae salutis lignum scrutata est et sola crucem, quam 10 omnis ue<ne>ratur mundus, inuenit: superabitis quin immo illius merita, quia ecclesiae unitas per illam suum inuenit 6 signum, per uos est habitura remedium. agat igitur iugalis uestri religiosa clementia, ut fratres et coepiscopi nostri sub eo libelli tenore, quem dudum misimus, fidem suam dignentur » adserere, quatenus perfecta possit esse, quae est inchoata, correc- tio. quia irrita est quaelibet in cultura dei confessio, cui deest fidei plenitudo. hoc enim, quod a reliquis fieri poscimus, a multis iam sacerdotibus constat effectum et unitas esse iusta in communione non poterit, si non fuerit in reuersione 20 seruata.