Letter 38: Tit. Iohanni comiti: who to be it seems that comes patrimonii to whom fuerunt missae epp.

[To John, comes.] The provident Shepherd willed that Your Excellency should preside over the affairs of the commonwealth, so that through you not only might the excesses of laymen be restrained, but also the schisms of priests separating themselves from the Church might be gathered back together. Although he who is being brought back ought to have understood that he had hitherto erred, given a certain difficulty in receiving him on account of the censure proper to ecclesiastical rigor, nevertheless, because he has been brought back by the one to whom, both for the affection of charity and for the honor of your Excellency, we can deny nothing, we have received him as he returns with the bosom of charity opened wide; and how greatly the unity of ecclesiastical peace has labored to bring forth his return, we show by the very outpouring of pardon. For we have ordered both that he be received and that he be united to the communion of the catholic faith, because, as you have learnedly and truthfully said, the Church grieved over nothing in him at all except his separation from herself alone. For indeed the faith is the same in the creeds, the same the form in the sacrament of baptism, the same the mysteries in the consecration of the Lord's body. But if some too, through ignorance acting upon them, seduced by the error of the schismatics, seem to rise up against their own faith in the defense of the Three Chapters, and on this very account have suspected that we held something otherwise concerning those matters which we have spoken of above, whether in our confession or in our action, we nevertheless, knowing that they have judged these things not by a refined judgment but, as has been said, by error, have with great effort found fault in them with that very thing which has now been corrected in this man.

Tit. Iohanni comiti: Qui esse videtur ille comes patrimonii ad quem fuerunt missae epp. 62 et 75, p. 163 et 189. Idem opinantur P. Ewai^d, 0 . c., coniunxi fragmentis patrimonii vocabulum deerat, quod sane est indicium aliud, ambo ex uno apographo, ubi iam illud non erat, desumpta fuisse, loannes Ravennae probabiliter degebat, nam Pelagius ipsi eadem fere scripsit perinde ac episcopo eiusdem urbis. Cf. adnotationes in ep. 62,1, p. 163. Quoad comitis sacri patrimonii munus et titulum, cf. Th. MommsEN, Ostgotische Studien, l. c., t. XIV, p. 464-465; SEECK, Comites, 67; 87, in Pauly-Wissowa, t. IV, c. 661; 675-677; E. Stein, Histoire ..., p. 206; 424; PEIyAGII i papae prouidus pastor, uestram excellentiam rei publicae uoluit praeesse negodis, per quam non tantum laicorum hominum comprime- rentur excessus, uerum etiam diuidentium se ab ecclesia sacerdo¬ tum colligerentur scismata * *. Quamuis is qui reducitur, errasse 2 se hactenus, aliqua suscipiendi difficultate pro ecclesiastici censu¬ ra uigoris, intelligere debuisset, tamen quia ab illo reductus est, cui et pro affectu caritatis et pro excellentiae honore negare nihil pos<s>umus, expanso caritatis sinu suscepimus reuertentem, et quanto reditum eius parturierit ecclesiasticae unitas pacis, ex ipsa ueniae effusione monstramus. Nam et suscipi eum et catho- 3 licae fidei communioni iussimus adunari, quia sicut docte ueraci- terque dixistis, nihil in illo maxime nisi solam a se diuisionem do- lebat ecclesia. Eadem siquidem fides in symbolis, eadem forma in baptismatis sacramento, eadem in dominici corporis consecrati¬ one mysteria. Quod si et <aliqui>, ignorantia faciente, scismat[h]i- 4 eorum errore seducti, in capitulorum trium defensione contra fidem suam uidentur insurgere, et ob hoc ipsum nos aliter aliquid de his quae praediximus, uel in confessione uel in actu suspicati sunt habuisse, nos tamen scientes eos non elimato iudicio, sed errore, ut dictum est, ista sensisse, hoc in eis magno opere, quod nunc in isto correctum est, culpauimus. negociis I 6 is] ex his B 8 debuisset] corr. vid. ex decuisset B 2 (?) 10 karita- tis B 15 symbolis] sy corr. vid. ex so. B 17 misteria B scismath., an pro schismat. (?) B 18 errore] ex more B 2 correctum] coni. Loewenfeld : correptum B. 432; 761, n. 1. loamies autem noster non videtur comes sacri patrimonii per Italiam, qui Constantinopoli vivebat, verum potius comes quidam, eidem subditus, qui eius personam in Italia gereret. Cf. E. Stein, Untersuchungen..., p. 385-387. 1. Est epistula J-K. 971. 2. pro excellentiae honore: Quod ad titulum refert, cf. notata in ep. 3,7, p. 9. 3. iussimus adunari: Cf. ep. 37,2, p. 107. Eadem siquidem fides: Denuo ostendit papa damnationem Trium Capitulorum fidem non tetigisse, et qui adversus eam insurrexe¬ rint sbismaticorum nota tantummodo posse inuri. 4. et <aliqui): Aut aliud simile, quidam fortasse, addendum. Epistueae -^38,1-4; 39,1-2 Pelagius cuidam episcopo, qui schisma reliquerat, ostendit fieri non posse, ut Ecclesiae pontifex a sedibus apostolicis, et praecipue a Ro¬ mana, recedat.