Letter 41: Because of the double murder of bishops in the church of the Scyllacians (Squillace), Gelasius deprives that church...

Gelasius to the bishops Majoricus and Johannes. 1. The doubled slaughter of the bishops [pontiffs] of the people of Scyllacium [Squillace], with the atrocity of so horrendous a crime, has thus thrown us into confusion, that for a long time the resolve of our deliberation has wavered, while we both detested bringing anyone forward to a parricidal example [...] and yet we did not so judge that the bishop and the church, however bereft, should on that account be abandoned. Wherefore, now turning aside as it were from a sacrilegious usage and custom, we have thought it proper to provide for religion to this extent: that the offices of the parish be governed by priests stationed outside it, since this city [Squillace], dwelling there, has learned to kill its pastors with the sword; and that by an unheard-of crime, which has nowhere at all happened even in any of the provinces that are afflicted by the continual and various incursions of wars, this city should be found which, without persecution, strikes down the prelates appointed to administer the Christian faith to it. Care must therefore be taken that there the deadly destruction be healed by the cessation of its own bishops, and that thus at least the material of so great a frenzy be withdrawn, if the person resident there, upon whom this bitterness might be perpetrated, be lacking: and in this way either that city, having none against whom it may rage, may desist from such a cessation, or else may not offer its dire contagion to others who might imitate it. Let that city therefore go without episcopal aids, which are to be supplied to it from elsewhere on its own account, seeing that it has cruelly defiled with shed blood the sacred dignity established in its own bosom; for in either case it is to be punished with this chastisement, whether namely it commits this wickedness at domestic instigation or driven by furies from without. Let your charity [your Dilection] therefore furnish to the church, placed in this condition, the ministry of visitation, and, either by meeting together at the same time or in turn, as the nature of affairs and the cause shall require, present the divine ministries to the ungrateful, lest, while we avoid the tares, we should seem to pass over the Lord's wheat. 2. We have learned, moreover, that certain persons in that same region, having received only a portion of the sacred body, abstain from the cup of the sacred blood. These persons, without doubt, since they are taught to be bound by I know not what superstition, must either receive the sacraments entire, or be debarred from them entire: because the division of one and the same mystery cannot come about without grave sacrilege, and care must be taken lest such a pestilence, creeping in, lead many into consent to depravity.

Gelasii papae ad Majorfcnm et Johannem. Ecctesutm Scyllaccnorum posi gcminalam caedem poniificwn Jure proprii pMiaris p. privat et itlorum visitaiioni committit (n. 1). Divisionem sanclissimi eucharisiiae - sacramenti a quibusdam superstitiose teiitatam omnino interdicit (fi. 2). Gelasius^) Majorico et Johanni episcopis. 1. Ita nos Scyllacenorum^) caedes geminata poutificum hor- rendi sceleris atrocitate confudit, ut diu constitutio uostrae delibe- rationis haesitaret, dum et ingerere quempiani'*) parricidialibus exem- Asolli archidiaconi) autem ad conscientiam refercnda. EPISTOLAE 36 — 37. 451 V»ia detestaremtir antistitem et ecclesiam utcunque destitutam iion ^ue adeo jndicaremus relinquendam. Quapropter jam velut usum ^nsuetudinemque sacrilegam declinantes, eatenus religioni duximus consulendum, ut paroeciae vices*) ab extrinsecus positis sacerdoti- bus gubementur, quae ibidem commanentes ferro didicerit necare . pastores, inauditoque facinore, quod etiam nullis provinciis nusquam prorsus acciderit''), quae bellorum continuis diversisque incursioni- bua affliguntur, haec reperta sit civitas, quae praesules ministran- dae*) sibi fidei- Christianae sine persecutione prosternat. Curandura est igitur, ut illic funesta pernicies cessation6 propriorum sanetur antistitum, atque ita saltem furoris tanti materies subtrahatur, si') in qua haec possit acerbitas perpetrari, consistens ibidem persona defaerit: eoque modo vel illa civitas, dum in quos saeviat non habeat, ab hujusmodi cessatione desistat vel aliis imitantibus dira contagia non praebeat. Egeat ergo episcopalibus subsidiis sibimet aliunde depensis®), quae sacram in suo gremio collocatam fuso crudeliter macularat sanguine dignitatem; quia in utroque hac est ultione plectenda, sive scilicet instinctu domestico seu furiis incitata nefas hoc committit extemis^). Praebeat ergo dilectio vestra in hoc statu positae ministerium visitationis ecclesiae, et aut conveniendo pariter ant vicissim, prout qualitas rerum causaque poposcerit, divina mi- nisteria***) repraesentet ingratis, ne quum devitamus zizania, dominica videamur praeterire frumenta. 2. Comperimus'*) autem, quod quidam in eadem regione sumpta ubieunque ecclesiam destitutam judicaremus non usque adeo nuUatenus reiinquendam, qaod T c*° oranino omittunt, nos ex recensione Q' X' Z restituimus. Harbixrici» hactenus doiebamus incursibus maxime vicinas Urbis provindas et bellorum saeva tempestate vastari, Sic vero de iis loquitur, ut nccdum incursiones illae ac l>clla quievisse videantur. Quodsi ita est, ad initia pontificatus ojus haec epi- stola referenda est. •) Z ministrantes sibi fidei Christianae sacramentUy T c^*^ ministrando sibi fidem Christianam; castigantur ex Q* Q' X*. Quomodo superius epist. 12 n. 2 episcopi rerum praestdes dimnarum^ ita et hic praesutes ministrandae fidei dicuntur. "^) T c*® #< bi quam (X* qua) — defuerit, ac deinde civilas omittunt. Mox T Z c«® habebU. •) Ita Q T X' ; Z pensandis. Mox T c^» collatam fuso, et deinde X* haec est. ») Q T.X* exterius'^ Z externis. Sequentia {Praeiwat — frumenta) non habet T. erffo epiMeopaUlfus subsidiis aliunde depensis postulat, ut hic ministeria cnm U Z praeferamoB. '*) Quod sequitur, cUi alio diBtractum, T Z reterunt; id imo tamen tenore cnm superioribuB conjunctum atque continuatum Q S X* repraesentant. 29* i:y> s. (;klasii PArAK tiintiiiu corporis sacri portioiK' a calicis sacri cniore abstineani *•). iini prociil ilubio iiuoniani noscio (iua suporstitione docentnr ol)- strin^i^**), ant intocrra sacranienta porcipiant, ant ab integris arce.iii- tur: cpiia divisio unius ojusdtMu mystorii sino «(raiiili sacrilcgio iiou potost provcniro, cavondumque^^) est, no pestiloiitia talis obrepens multos iu consonsum pravitatis adducat.