Letter 12: Copy of the report of John, bishop of Nicopolis.

Copy of the report of John, bishop of Nicopolis, conveyed through the deacon Rufinus, the same bishop's man. To my lord, in all things most holy and most blessed, father of fathers, fellow-minister and chief of bishops, Hormisdas, John sends greeting in the Lord. My care has always been to seek nothing further than to attend to my own affairs and to consign my familiar manner of life to the anxiety of solicitude. But because the judgments of God are a great deep, as I also know your blessedness teaches, when our father and former archbishop Alcison had been summoned by Christ, the prince of shepherds, to the dwellings on high, by that reckoning which he himself knows who is the lord of all that is possible, the holy synod and the clergy of good deeds transferred to me the lot of the shepherd. But I, referring all things to God, who makes free the tongues of those who stammer, fittingly run to your prayers, that according to the custom of your apostolic see you may deign to have care of all the churches, and of the Nicopolitans, in accordance with your ancient spiritual ordering. For when I ask that an answer be given to me for the opening of my mouth, as the blessed apostle taught and as the Lord himself also commanded, ask together with me for the giver of these things, and seek alike with one who seeks, and with your spiritual hand receive the one who knocks. For when you do this, most holy one, I shall be able both to receive and to find, and, with Christ opening the way, to walk rightly through the word of truth. But since certain persons, pretending to believe and to follow along with us the holy synods which were gathered at Nicaea, at Constantinople, and at Ephesus -- in which the chief figures were the most holy bishops of blessed memory, Celestine of your apostolic see and Cyril of Alexandria, and besides that also the synod which was gathered at Chalcedon against the impious Eutyches, which confirmed in itself all the aforesaid synods by the principle of truth and of orthodoxy -- nevertheless they dare to assail us, shunning without reason as it were the bond of concord. But it is my vow to follow your teaching, just as my predecessor among the saints, Alcison, had done, and I anathematize Dioscorus and Timothy, surnamed Aelurus, and Peter their successor, and Acacius, who was mingled by communion with Peter together with these men, and Peter who disturbed the church of Antioch, following in all things the synodal and properly apostolic letters written by the true presiding bishop of the Roman church, Leo. And I ask: more fully and more perfectly admonish me of those things which ought to be kept, and by your guardian letters make known to me the things from which I ought to abstain, so that, even if perhaps I am still untrained and assigned to the order of readings -- whether I have said or done anything incongruous with your apostolic teachings -- being steeped in your discourses I may be able to withstand the engines of the heretics. For when you do this, most holy ones, you will find the bishops of the holy synod of Bostra stronger, and you will confirm the clergy of good deeds and the people, rendering back the holy church of the Nicopolitans as one familiar to you. And as for the venerable deacon Rufinus, sent for so necessary a cause, when you are asked, receive him peaceably, as befits you, and granting him confidence deign to provide for his swift return to us, bearing the spiritual and apostolic ordinances, in all things most holy one. All the brotherhood in Christ, I and those who are with me, salute your blessedness greatly in the Lord.

EXEMPLUM RELATIOXIS lOHANNIS EPISCOPI NICOPOLITANI. PER RUFINUM DIACONUM EIUSDEM. DOMINO MEO CUNCTA SANCTISSIMO AC BEATISSIMO PATRI PATRUM 10 COMMINISTRO AC PRINCIPI EPISCOPORUM HORMISDAE I0HANNE8 IN 2 DOMiNO SALUTEM. Cura mihi extitit semper nihil amplius quaerere nisi agere propria et familiarem conuersationem sollicitudinis anxietati mandare. sed quia dei iudicia abyssus multa est, sicut et uestram cognosco docere beatitudinem, 15 patre nostro quondam atque archiepiscopo Alcisone a pastorum principe Christo ad supernas mansiones euocato ea ratione, qua ipse cognoscit qui est possibilium dominus, in me sancta synodus bonorum actuum ac clerus pastoris transtulit sortem. 3 ego autem cuncta referens deo, qui balbutientium linguas 20 liberas facit, decenter ad uestras orationes concuiTO, ut iuxta consuetudinem apostolicae sedis uestrae cunctarum ecclesiarum curam et Nicopolitanorum habere dignemini secundum antiquam 4 spiritalem dispositionem uestram. petenti etenim mihi dari 14 Psalm. 35, 7 5 die p: di V 117. Dat (stmul cton ep. 119) a. 516 initio mensis Octobr. per Bufinum, Edd. Car. P 448; Bar. ad a. 616, 44; Collect. Concil; Thiel 770. 8 per Rufinum diaconum eiusdem charactere miniUiore V in marg. 13 propria et scripsi: propriam et V (propria et . . anxietate mundare Thiel. propria et . . conuersationem <uacuam> sollicitudinis <et'' anxietatis mundanae Bar.) 16 a pastorum scripsi (cf. Petr. 15, 4): apostolorum V, episcoporum Car, a> Christo Car, 17 euocatum F, corr. o2 19 pastoris ex pastorum V 20 balbutientium 0: balbutaen- tium ex balbutantium V 22 sq. uestiae <quae/ . . curam <habet> Car. Epist. CXVI b 5 — CXVII 7. 523 . responsum ad apertionem oris, sicuti docuit beatus apo- stolus atque ipse etiam dominus praecepit, mecum petite horum datorem et cum quaerente pariter quaerite et pulsantem spiritali manu uestra suscipite. hoc enim uobis facientibus 5 potero, sanctissime, et accipere et inuenire et adaperiente Christo recte per uerbum ueritatis incedere. quoniam uero 5 quidam dissimulantes nobiscum credere atque sectari sanctas synodos, quae Nicaeae Constantinopoli at<}ue Ephesi congregatae sunt, in quibus principes extiterunt sanctissirai <beatae> 10 memoriae episcopi Caelestinus apostolicae sedis uestrae et Cyrillus Alexandrinae, insuper etiam quae Calcedone aduersus Eutychem impium congregata est, quae omnes praedictas ueritatis atque orthodoxiae in se ratione lirmauit: tamen aadent nos impugnare tamquam uinculum concordiae sine lii ratione uitantes. uotum autem mihi est uestram sequi 6 doctrinam, sicut inter sanctos praecessor meus Alcison extiterat, et anathematizo Dioscorum ac Timotheum appellatione Ellurum et Petrum horum successorem et Petri communione cum his permixtum Acacium et Petrum, qui Antiochenam perturbauit 20 ecclesiam, sequens in omnibus synodicas ac proprie apostolicas epistolas scriptas a uero praesule Romanae ecclesiae Leone. rogo autem: plenius atque perfectius, quae seruari oportet, 7 commonete et, quibus abstinere debeam, uestris custodibus litteris intimate, ut etsi fortassis adhuc inexercitatus ordini 85 deputor lectionum seu dixi siue egi apostolicis doctrinis uestris incongruum, uestris imbutus sermonibus possim haereticorum obsistere machinis. hoc enim facientes, sanctissimi, firmiores 1 Ephes. 6, 19 5 aperiente p 6 recta Bar. in marg, incidere corr. Bar, 6 quoniara V: quamquam Hariel 7 dissimulantes] 8C. sunt 9 quibus V: qua Bar. in marg. sanctissimae o; ego addere malui beatae 12 eu- tichem V 13 ueritatis acripsi: ueritates F, quod retinentes atque ortho- doia Car., aeque orthodoxiae Thiel 19 antiocenam V 21 uiro F, carr. Bar. 24 etsi V: si Bar. 27 macinis V sanctissinie Car. 524 Hormisda lohanni Nicopolitano Bostrae sanctae synodi inuenietis episcopos et bonorum actuum cleiiim ac populum confirmabitis tamquam familiarem uobis 8 reddentes sanctam Nicopolitanorum ecclesiam. uenerabilem uero diaconum Rufinum ad tam necessaiiam causam directum pacifice, sicut uos decet, rogati suscipite et fiduciam tribuentes celerem 6 eius recursum ad nos praestare dignemini portantem spiritalia 9 atque apostolica constituta, cuncta sanctissime. omnera in Christo fratemitatem uestrae beatitudinis ego et qui mecum sunt plurimum salutamus in domino.