Letter 25: Felix, bishop of Rome, to Fravitas, bishop of Constantinople, greetings.

Felix to Flavita [Phravitas], bishop of Constantinople. 1. There are many things which afford us joy concerning the ordination of your Charity, and which encourage us to hope, by the divine favor, for the achievement of ecclesiastical peace. First indeed, that heavenly grace has chosen such a one as you, whose life is attested as praiseworthy from boyhood, and whose devotion to the catholic faith - which above all things we desire - is proclaimed. Next, that among these gifts the Lord has bestowed upon your Charity also the goodwill and favor of our lord, the son also of our most glorious prince: so that, supported by power and with God supplying His aid, you may more easily pursue those things which according to truth you have wisely intended. Finally, that almost all the things which attend the beginning of your honor show forth as much the benevolence of the princely clemency toward us as they betray the disposition of your own will: namely, while you are regularly directed to the apostolic see; through which, by Christ's bounty, the whole dignity of the priesthood is made firm; which very letters of your Charity confess the blessed apostle Peter to be the chief of the apostles, both the rock of faith and the dispenser of the heavenly mystery committed to him; which finally, that we may be the more able to be of one mind, testify that your Charity wishes to hold together with us the assent of the orthodox faith. 2. Since these things seem to be no slight indications, by which we may believe that what we have prayed for is proceeding from your mind, there was added a greater testimony, namely that our sons, the religious monks, strong in the confession of the right faith, should likewise come hither. Having seen them, we judged that they had been sent for no other reason than that the names of the condemned - from whose communion these men stood apart - had already been removed from the church of Constantinople. And so we perceived that nothing remained except that these men, who were bearing the synodical letter of your Charity, should enjoy participation in the apostolic communion. But while we were dealing with them more carefully, that they might answer whether they preferred to receive with a faithful heart the communion of the blessed apostle Peter, or that they or your Charity would henceforth be in every way estranged from the recitation of Peter of Alexandria and of Acacius: they, declaring that no such mandate had been given to them, were unwilling to consent to the grace of ours that had been salutarily offered. Moved by this hesitation of theirs, since the letters that came, or the very arrangement of affairs, seemed to promise something else, and the report of the aforesaid men brought forth a far different result than was hoped for, we, grieved, deferred our communion - which, with doubts removed, we desired to be full of the catholic faith - and we judge that this, which he promised to hold together with us concerning agreement in the orthodox faith, will come to pass. Otherwise, nothing will be able to be imputed to us, if to those embracing the covenants of love the fellowship of Peter of Alexandria is preferred to the company of the blessed apostle Peter. For it will be manifest before God and men that those who perpetrate such things are separated not by our fault but wholly by their own choice, and that the same matter is in every way to be judged terribly before the tribunal of Christ. 3. We are not obstinate, but we defend the doctrines of the fathers: just as the page of your Charity also has indicated that we ought to show zeal for the orthodox. At the Council of Chalcedon, which the universal Church has sanctioned and guards, were not Eutyches and Dioscorus proved to be condemned? Are not their accomplices, Timothy and Peter, taught by very many fitting instructions, just as those also whom your Charity sent have thoroughly seen? Has not Acacius, while we frequently and regularly forbade their communion, followed the communion of those whom he himself had once called heretics in his own letters and had condemned, and, building again badly what he himself had before well destroyed, appeared a transgressor according to the apostle? And therefore, according to the line of the aforesaid synod, all who chose to be partakers of this rightly underwent a punishment equal to that condemned perfidy; just as the synod established against each heresy binds also all those cast down who are like in depravity, lest that should at all have to be repaired in the successors which in its authors is justly shown to have been overthrown. But Peter could in no way be absolved without the assent of the apostolic see, by whose mandate he had been shut out, just as the rule of the bishops testifies concerning the receiving of such persons. And this Peter too, if he had been healed by a lawful treatment, ought to be received unto pardon, not unto the dignity of the priesthood: one who, having been instituted by the condemned and by heretics, could by no reasoning be set over the catholic peoples. 4. You yourself also have perceived along with us that the things we say are salutary. Whence also in your letters, when you speak of the faith of blessed Peter - which we read with all rejoicing - you have set down with a catholic mind: and that in him we believe just as you do, glorying with one consonant voice, we may be able to gather together the things that are scattered. I ask therefore, what are those scattered things, or by what disturbance of affairs are they scattered? Nor do any others now occur at all, except those that have been devised by the mad ravings of the Eutychian plague and of its followers. But let your Charity give labor along with us, that the things which - you yourself also confessing - have been scattered, may be gathered. I use the voice of the apostle: I beseech you, you have done me no wrong. I do not impose this as one domineering; but I exhort you, that I may fittingly discharge my conscience, lest the reasonable sheep divinely committed to you be allowed to perish - which God forbid - not without your peril. Consider all together, you who are reckoned of pastoral dignity: for the Christian faith, which is then Christ's if it be true, we must both live and, if it should be necessary, die for love of the most sacred religion. Weigh therefore the ever-uncertain time of life itself, lest, suddenly snatched away, we be dragged to the examination of that fearful judgment. 5. Whence the more earnestly, as though present, we vehemently bind your Charity by the right of love, that, shuddering at the lot of the unhappy Acacius - who, as it is written, that he might go to his own place, was not permitted to be absolved even though we strove - by what resolve you can you may strive to be shown rather an imitator of the catholic bishops of that city, and that you may not cease suppliantly to entreat our lord, our most glorious son the prince, and his consort, with my prayer joined to yours, that, as devoted sons of the Church, they may both clemently admit our supplications, and decree them to be carried out for the consideration of their kingdom and of perpetual salvation. Nor let your Charity plead the slowness of the deferred apostolic communion. We would not wish to be suspended by any difficulty whatsoever, were it not that regard for catholic truth stood in the way - to which I both wish and admonish your Charity also to cleave with all your might. Let the name therefore of Peter and of Acacius be taken from the midst, and let us not be mingled either with the legates or with the letters of the condemned Peter. And as the apostle says: Let those who trouble you be cut off; and again, as he himself declares: Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump; let the past cause be blotted out together with its names and persons: while we, with God inspiring, reasonably provide, as we have written, if all things shall agree, that of those whom Acacius ordained or baptized, with the catholic confession preserved, for the love and reintegration of the Church nothing may perish: so that that peace may come forth which has made both one, not that which the prophet condemns: Peace, peace, and there is no peace; and that love which your Charity has often asked for in its letters may succeed pure - of which it is said: Love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned. 6. Let there be nothing common to light with darkness, since we cannot and ought not to partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons: so that, when the sheep committed to you are cleansed by the gathering away of past things, there may be made one flock and one shepherd. You remember it is written: If you offer rightly but do not divide rightly, you have sinned; and the prophet cries out: Between the clean and the unclean you did not discern. All which things in sum we touch upon briefly with that circumspection, that, with hearts salutarily purified, we may be able to hold a concord as firm as it is true without doubt, as perpetual as it is unfeigned. The sooner therefore concerning these matters let your Charity make us more certain, that, with our God completing what He has begun, we may be able to consent in full reconciliation in the framework of the body of Christ.

(a.49o c. Folicis papac dd Flavitam episcopum Constantinopolitannin. mit.) Gratulaiionem suani de aucupata ah illo sede Constantinopotitana exsuHantem inde p valde turhaiam, quod de suhtaiis Peiri Acaciique nominibus nifnt mandaiwm au- diissei (n. 1 ei '2). Quod ui praesiei, muHis enixe insisiii (ii. 3 — 5). Felix Flavitae episcopo Constantinopolitano. 1. Multa simt, quae nobis praebeant de tuae dilectionis ordi« natione laetitiam, et sperare divino beneficio cobortentur ecclesi»- sticae pacis effectimi. Primum quidem, quod talem te gratia coe- lestis elegerit, cujus a puero vita probabilis asseratur, et catholicae fidei, quod ante omnia cupimus, praedicetur intentio. Deinde qaia iuter haec munera tuae Domiuus caritati domini quoque filii nostii gloriosissimi principis votum^) contuUt et favorem: quatenus pote- statis fultus Deo praestante subsidio, facilius valeas expetere, quae secundum veritatem sapienter intenderis. Postremo quod onmia propemodum, quae tui sequuntur honoris exordium, tam benevolen- tiam nobis clementiae principalis ^) ostendunt, quam tuae produnt *') Editi fideliter, rcfragantibiis mss. «) H' 2H8 H» P K» TSihidio, aUus H^ mO^ Sividio, H'o SimiHo/ i^ ad maig. „Diony8. Sibilio"'. Verba aut<,'m proxima Deus custodiat vos, dileciissimi fratree ftb omnibus mss. H absunt. [a^] ') De hoc voto agens Nicephorua Callisti h. e. XVI, 18 narrat, imperatoiem chartam puram in sacro altari reponi jussisse, indictoque jejunio 40 diemm a Deo postulasse, ut uomen ejus, quem vellet ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae pni^ esse, angeli manu adscriberet. Ac tandem reperto in charta Flavitae nomiiw sese voti sui compotem existimasse; quod tamen poatea fraude factum agno- visset et perfidia templi custodis ejusdemque cubiculariorum imperialiam prat- ci2)is, quem Flavita^ multo aur6 corruperat. Hic aut^m Felix hugusmodi Nioe* phori n^tirrationi suttragari videtur. Quae si denique admittatur, josto jadicio illudi meruit Zeno, qui Deum temere tt^utiire ausus sit, et Flavitas dignos pror- sus fuit, qui statim episcopali sede, quam impio dolo occaparat, interreidjaiie morte dejicerctur. ') i. e. priucipis Zenonis. Mox Flavitae ordinatio regulariter indicata did- tur, quia uon solis litteris sed per legatos siguiiicata. ^, ^ _ BPlSTOIiAE 13. 14. 267 ^^t J «peciem yoluntatifi: dum scilicet ad apostolicam sedem regulariter (a.490.) t^ J deBfinatar; per qnam largieute Christo omnium solidatur diguitas ^'^tx;^^» Mcerdofain; quod ipsae dilectionis tuae litterae apostolorum sum- ^: .J **" petramque fidei et coelestts dispensatorem mysterii creditis sibi cimlm beatum Petrum apostolum confitentur; quod denique, ut ampJiiw esse uuanimes valeamus, nobiscum dilectioneni tuam ortho- doxse fidei habere velle testantur^) assensum. 2. Quae quum non mediocria videantur indicia^ quibus de tua inente nobis procedere votiva credamus, ad testiraoniuni majus ac- cessit^ ut filii nostri religiosi monachi, rectae fidei confessione pol- leRteSj pariter huc venirent. Quibus utique visis^) aestimaviraus non aliter destinatos, nisi nominibus damnatorum, a quoruin isti communione distabant, de Constantinopolitana ecclesia jam repulsis. /taque nihil superesse perspeximus, nisi ut hi, qui dilectionis tuae sjnodica bajulabant, communionis apostolicae participatione frue- rentnr. Sed dum cum ipsis sollicitius ageretur, ut si raallent l)eati Petri apostoli communionem fideli corde suscipere, responderent, vel se vel dilectionem tuam ab Alexandrini Petri Acaciique deinceps recitatione futuram modis oranibus alienani: illi nihil sil)i tale raan- datum foisse perhibentes, oblatae salubriter gratiae nostrae consen- tire noluerunt. Qua eorum cunctatione permoti, quura litterae ve- nientes vel ipsa rerum dispositio aliud proraittere videretur, et relatio praedictorum longe aliter quam sperabatur efferret, comraunionera ^ qnidem nostram contristati distulimus, quara remotis dubietatibus optabamus plenam catholicae fidei, et hoc, quod circa orthodoxam fidem consensum nobiscum se habere proraisit, arbitramur esse ven- turam. Alioqui nihil nobis poterit iraputari, si coraplectentibus foedera caritatis beati apostoli Petri consortio Alexandrini Petri j ^ societas praeferatur. Erit enim apud Deura horainesque raanifestura, f talia perpetrantes non nostro vitio sed suo prorsus arbitrio separari, idemque ante tribunal Christi modis oranibus terribiliter judicandum. 3. Non sumus pertinaces, sed dogmata paterna defendimus: qnemadmodum etiam tuae dilectionis pagina designavit, zelura pro •) Diim haec ad Felicem scriberet homo versipellis, contrarias ad Petrum mittebat litteras, quas Evagrius III, 23 ob nimiam prolixitatcm se testatof. De his litteris Felicem priufl ab orthodoxiB certiorem factum qoam illi reecriberet, auctor est Theophanes chronograph. pag. 206 etNi- cephonis Callisti h. e. XVI, 19. Quod tamem ))rudcns pontifex hic dissimulat. ^ L e. qnorum audito adventu, et antequam ad colloquium admitterentur, non alia de causa eos venisBe existimavimus , nisi ut uomina damnatorum Petn Alexandrini ei infelicU Acaciiy ut epistola 16 exponitur, e sacris ecclesiae dipty- cIdb remota eaee testarentur. Quippe verbum vidcre de quolibet sensu dici no- tiim eet. MiBsi aatem fuerant iUi monachi, ut Flavitae ad Mongum litteris pro- ditia fiaadem ejus mamfeBtam facerent, quod tamen Felix sibi detectum callide diaidmulat. ■ (a. 490.) orthodoxis ostendere nos debere. Calchedonensi concilio, quod lU*^' versalis sanxit et eustodit Ecclesia, Eutyches et Dioscorus non pt^ bantur esse damnati ? An eorum complices Timotheus atque PetT**^ instnictionibns plurimis convenientibus non docentur, sicut Li qU^ que, quos niisit tua dilectio, perviderunt? An eorum communionelS^ frequenter et regulariter interdicentibus nobis, non est secutns kcBf cius, quos ipse suis epistolis haereticos dixerat olimque damnatoi>F Gal.2,i8.et male rursus aedificansy quod bene ante ipse destrtixerai, secandoSl^ 1 apostolum praevaricator apparuit? Ideoque juxta praefatae sjnaA ; tramiteni merito illie damiiatae perfidiae parem cuncti subiere viii' dictam, qui hujus maluerunt esse participes; quemadmodum contrft unamquamque haeresim synodus constituta cunctos etiam dejecbie similes pravitatis adstringit, ne in successoribus omnino reparandm esset, quod in auctoribus juste monstratur esse prostratum. Absolfi autem Petrus nuHa ratione potuit sine apostolicae sedis assensQ, qua fuerat mandante seclusus, sicut de recipiendis talibus formaT»- tenun testatur antistitum. Qui etiam Petrus, si de legitima fuisaot curatione saniituS; ad indulgentiam suscipi deberet; nou ad sacer* dotii dignitatem: qui a damnatis atque haereticis institutus^ catiuK licis plebibus nulla posset ratione praeponi. 4. Perspexisti et ipse nobiscimi, sahitaria esse quae dicimut» ITnde etiam in tuis litteris, quum de beati Petri fide loqueris, qnod cum tota gtatulatione legimus, catholica mente posuisti: et qm eo sicut vos credimus^), consona voce gloriantes dispersa colligere leamus. Quaero igitur, quaenam illa sint vel qua rerum p^rtarbft» tione dispersa? Nec alia nunc prorsus occurrunt, nisi quae pcr-; Eutychianae pestis ejusdem sequacium sunt excogitata vesaE Dilectio vero tua operam det nobiscum, quatenus possiut^ quae ti Gal. 4, 12. quoque fatente dispersa sunt, colligi. Voce utor apostoli : Ob$eqr$ vos, nihil me iaest^tis. Non hoc vehit imperiosus impouO; sed nft. conscientiam meam convenienter expediam, ne commissae vobil divinitus rationabiles oves non sine vestro discrimine, quod ^hat, perire sinantur, exhortor. Cogitate simul omnes, qui dignitate par storali censemini: pro Christiana fide, quae tunc est Cliristi si veim est, et vivendum nobis et, si oportuerit, sacrosanctae religionii amore moriendum. Perpendite igitur ipsius vitae semper tempoi incertum, ne repente rapti ad eognitionis illius formidaudae traha»; mur examen. 5. Unde propensius tamquam praesentem dilectiouem taaflnl i Flavitae epistola legeuB non advertit, hic latiuc reddendum ^ut credimuMy non, • . ut usitatius solet, qni crcduni. BPISTOLA 14. 269 jure caritatis vehementer adstringimus, ut sortem infelieis Acacii per-(a.490.) horreseens, qui, sieut scriptum est, ut ireiin locum suum, etiam nobis Act. 1,15. eonantibus non est permissus absolvi: quo vales tenore contendas, ut catholicorum illius urbis antistitum magis monstreris esse imitator^ et dominum filium nostrum gloriosissimum principem conjugemque ejus, adjuncta tecum mea prece, non desinas suppliciter exorare, ut sicut devoti Ecclesiae filii et obsecrationes nostras clementer admit- tsLnty et pro sui regni salutisque perpetuae perfici consideratione de- ceraant. Nec dilatae communionis apostolicae tua causetur dilectio tarditatem. Nollemus qualicunque difficultate suspendi, nisi respectus catholicae veritatis obsisteret, cui dilectionem quoque tuam summis Tiribus inhaerere vel opto vel moneo. Nomen igitur Petri et Acacii tollatur e medio, nec apocrisiariis damnati Petri misceamur aut ^ litteris. Et sicut ait apostolus: Abscindaniur qui vos conturbani, Ga,\.6,l2. iterumque ut ipse pronimtiat: Expurgate vetus fennentum, ut siiisiQot.b,!. nova conspersio; cum nominibus personisque suis praeterita causa deleator : nobis Deo inspirante provisuris ratioiiabiliter, ut scripsimus, si cuncta convenerint, ut eorum, quos ordinavit vel baptizavit Aca- cius*), salva confessione catholica pro caritatis Ecclesiae redinte- gratione nihil pereat: quatenus pax illa proveniat, quae fecit uiraqueEnh.2,U. unum, non illa, quam propheta condemnat: Pax, pax, et non ^a/Ezech. pax; et caritas, quam tua dilectio suis saepe litteris postulavit, pura ' succedat, de qua dicitur: Caritas de corde puro et conscieniia bona^^^' et fide non ftcia. 6. Nihil sit commune luci cum tenebris, quia non possumus nec debemus mensae Domini pariicipare ei metisae daemoniorum : ut L «[ * tibi creditis ovibus praeteritorum congregatione mundatis, fial unus Joh. grex et unus pasior. Scriptum esse meministi: Si recie offeras ^^A^'^47 recie non dividas, peccasii; et propheta clamat: Inter mundum ^/Ezech! immundum non discemebaiis. Quae universa summatim illa circum- -'^^^^- speetione perstringimus, ut cordibus salubriter expiatis, tam firmam aine dubitatione quam veram, tam perpetuam quam \mitam possimus tenere concordiam. Quantocius ergo super his tua nos reddat dile- ctio certiores, ut Deo nostro perficiente quod coepit, in compage corporis Christi plena valeamus reconciliatione consentire. Feiid concinere innnit. Unde palam est , Anastasium II iu epistola ad Anasta- nmn imperatorem n. 8 nihil decessorum suorum decretis contrarium scripsisse.