Letter 139: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Of Pope Hormisdas, to the orthodox bishops of the East. [3 April.] [Editorial summary: He exhorts them that, in order to find eternal rewards, they should bravely endure adversities and not fail to offer to others constant examples of faith (sections 1-3). He announces that he himself has ceased neither from solicitude nor from labor, and that now, on a repeated mission, he has sent Ennodius and Peregrinus into the East (section 4).] Hormisdas to the orthodox bishops. 1. God is indeed the special consolation of the faithful, nor do those ever fail amid any hardships whatsoever who have betaken themselves to Him with the whole effort of their mind. Nevertheless I confess that I owe this prayer to your resolve: that, just as I exult over the sincerity of your faith, so I may deserve to rejoice over the firmness of your constancy. Hence, beholding you also with my inner gaze, I readily rise to the desire of conversing with you, that I may both repay your love toward God with a letter's discourse, and confirm your hope with the exhortation of a page, and thus render to those, with whom I have the fellowship of holy communion, a joyful testimony of charity. For it does not suffice my soul to be secure concerning you, unless I show also that affection with which I embrace you. Indeed, he who cannot fail to love those joined to Him declares that he does not, by judgment, hate those divided from the love of God. 2. I bless God, therefore, while I consider the fervor of your faith amid the various storms and the adversities of tempests. You also I urge, with fuller exultation, to glorify His mercy over these things; for He examines the minds of His elect in order to render them more acceptable to Himself, and, although they are known to Him, He nonetheless tests them by certain difficulties, that He may show that justice too is present in the gift which He bestows. And therefore it befits you persistently to press upon your good resolve, and not to fail on the way that leads to the kingdoms of heaven. He who looks upon the gifts of the Lord's promise, which are not to be measured, can hold the regard of no peril. For the consideration of present evils does not break a man, unless the forgetfulness of future goods prevails: when he excludes all the bitterness of toil who has admitted the sweetness of the hope which is awaited. For what difficulty is equal to blessedness, or what sufferings are worthy of the rewards, that is, with respect to the glory to come, which, as the apostle announces, will be revealed in us? Far be it that anything should separate us from the love of Christ! How great is the tribulation, if it brings forth glory? That which is reckoned adversity is the material of prosperity. While we are bowed down, we are raised up. No one would have the reward to come, unless he endured the necessities of present things. See with how great labor the earthly harvest of men rises up. With how great toil, therefore, must it be procured that the heavenly gifts not perish! Quiet is the life of the negligent, but their substance is not abundant: The laborer is worthy that he should receive the fruit of his wages [Luke 10:7]. Indiscriminate piety would languish on every side together with impiety, if the examination that is to divide the good from the bad were to cease. Most pleasing is the spectacle to the Lord in the contest of the just, nor does anything so win heavenly grace for a man as the assaults of adversities patiently received. What soldier earns his pay under the security of peace? It is not arduous to have fixed secure footsteps on dry ground, nor does the calm of the sea display the skill of the helmsman. It is enough to advance undaunted amid wars, not to slip amid slippery places, to despise the waves in the tempest. Let worldly temptation rage and exercise its motions, so long as those who are tested appear manifest! 3. Knowing these things, most beloved brethren, hold fast the constancy of your faith, and love even those very perils themselves, if they should befall, since they war on behalf of your merits. Announce the things you worship, and share also throughout the whole world the evangelical commands which you hold. Above your own wages let the correction of others too be ascribed to you. Among the enumeration of sins, by which the prophet, full of the Spirit of God, wins for himself the divine grace, among those things by which he beseeches the mercy whereby he may be preserved, he proclaims that he will teach the wicked the ways of the Lord, and that through him the conversion of the impious will come to pass [Psalm 50:15-16]. Blessed are they to whom a life lived innocently gives reward: blessed are they through whom an example is furnished to others also! 4. And we indeed, as far as is in us, cease neither from solicitude nor from labor, that we may ask of the humility which our Lord taught us those things which befit their salvation: so that, when the care of the stewardship entrusted to us is recognized, our offices may be approved. For on a repeated occasion we have sent Ennodius and Peregrinus, our brothers and fellow bishops, with a commissioned legation, conducting reasoning, exhortations, prayers, and tears, so that, separated from the contagion of the impious, they may betake themselves to the true faith and to the apostolic decrees by the same means as you, or at least that the world may recognize that we have not been wanting to the proclamation, but that they have been wanting to their own salvation.

Hormisdae papae ad episcopos Orientis orthodoxos. ^\^^lA 3 Apnl.) Ui praemia aeierna iniuenies adversa foriiier perferani ei consianier fidei exeni' pla aliis praebere ne omiiiani, horiainr (n. 1 — 3). Seipsum nec soUiciiudine nec Inbore cessasse, ei nunc repeiiia vice Ennodium ei Peregrinum in Orieniem mi- sisse nuniiai (n. 4). Hormisda episcopis orthodoxis. 1. Est quidem fidelium speciale solatium Deus, nec unquam inter quaelibet dura deficiunt, qui se ad eum toto mentis studio con- tulerunt. Verumtamen hoc votum proposito vestro debere me fateor, ut sicut exsulto de sinceritate fidei vestrae, ita de firmitate merear gaudere constantiae. Unde et adspectu interiore vos iutuens, ad de- siderium coUoquendi vobiscum promptus assurgo, ut et dilectionem circa Deum vestram litterario sermone remunerer, et spem paginali adhortatione confirmem, atque ita his, cura quibus mihi est con- sortium sanctae communionis, jucundum reddam testimonium cari- tatis. Non enim sufficit animo meo de vobis esse securum, nisi ostendero illum quoque, quo vos complector, afiectum. Siquidem declarat se non ex judicio odisse a Dei dilectione divisos, qui potest non amare conjunctos. 2. Benedico igitur Deum, dum fervorem fidei vestrae inter pro- cellas varias et tempestatum adversa considero. Vos quoque, ut super his pietatem ejus glorificetis, uberiore exsultatione suadeo; qui ele- ctorum suorum mentes quo acceptiores sibi reddat, examinat, et licet cognitos sibi, quibusdam tamen difficultatibus probat, ut justitiam quoque inesse dono quod largitiu: ostendat. Atque ideo pertinaciter bono vos convenit imminere proposito, nec in via quae ducit ad coeli regna deficere, Qui intuetur dominici^) munera non aesti- manda promissi, nuUius potest respectum habere periculi. Non enim frangit consideratio praesentium malorum, nisi futurorum bonorum 30 *) Ed. dominica, G' dnlce^ uude restituendum duximufl dominici, Deinde b CC aesiimanda promissa, 51* (a. 517.) vincat oblivio: quando oiiiuem amaritudiiiem laboris exckdit, qui dulcedinem spei, quafe exspectatur, admiserit^). Quae enim difficul- tas beatitudini par est^ aut quae condignae praemiis passioues ad g J^ futuram scilicet gloriam, quae in nobis apostolo aununtiante revela- bitur? Absit, ne quidquam a Christi caritate nos separet! Quanta ost tribulatio, si gloriam parit? Materia prosperorum est quae puta- tur adversitas. Dum indinamur, erigimur. Nemo haberet futuram remunerationem, nisi necessitates praesentium sustineret. Videte, quanto opere hominum terrena messis assurgat. Quanto est igitur labore procurandum, ut coelestia dona non pereant! Quieta est Luc.10,7. negligentium vita, sed non opulenta^) substantia: Dignus est opera- rius, ut fructum 7ncrcedis accipiat, Indiscreta passim pietas cum im- ])ietate languesceret, si examinatio bonos a malis divisura cessaret. rrratum admodum spectaculum Domino est in agone justorum, nec ({uidquam ita supornam gratiam conciliat homini, sicut adversorum impetus patienter excepti. Quis miles^) sub pacis securitat^ mere- tur? Non est arduum in sicco secura fixisse vestigia, nec artem gubematoris ostendit marina tranquillitas. Satis est intrepidum inter bella j^rocedere, inter lubrica non labare, fluctus in tempestate contemnere. Saeviat et motus suos exerceat mundana tentatio, dum raanifesti appareant qui probantur! 3. Haec seientes, carissimi fratres, fidei vestrae tenete con- stantiam, et ipsa etiam, si inciderint, militantia meritis vestris amate pericula. Annuntiate quae colitis, et participate ^) etiam per univer- sum orbem mandata evangelica quae tenetis. Supra stipendia vestra correctio quoque vobis adscribatur aliena. Inter peccatorum*) enu- merationem, quibus sibi divinam gratiam plenus spiritu Dei pro- pheta conciliat, inter ea, quibus misericordiam , qua conservetur, Psalm. exorat : docere se iniquos vias Domini , et conversionem per se fieri * praedicat impiorum. Beati, quibus vita innocenter acta dat prae- inium: beati, j^er quos ah*is quoque praestatur exemplum! 4. Et nos quidem, quantum in nobis est, nec sollicitudine neo Eadem verbi ejusdem vis ac potest:is est in his epistolae 143 n. 2: Quidquid cm Orientalihns actuni fuerit, repetilv: vobiscum participamus indiciis. Hoc eteniin rilB vult: participes vos facimus eorum omnium, quae cum Orientalibus acta arait Antea id quod dicitur Amate pericula, nou cst distrahendum a temperam^ntiit quae Hormisda sententiae huic adjungit; adeo ut non quaerantur pericola, »ei si inciderint, aequo animo ferantur, ut ubi meritis uostris militant, amentwr, EPISTOLAE 30. 31. 805 £ibore cessamus, ut humilitatem^ quam uos Domiuus noster docuit^ (a. 617.) Qiitati^ quae saluti eorum conveuiunt postulemus: ut dispensationis aihi creditae, dum agnoscitur cura, probentur officia. Nam repetita ice Ennodium atque Peregrinum fratres et coepiscopos nostros man- lata legatione direximus, rationem, adhortationes , preces, lacrymas ugerentes, ut ab impiorum contagione separati, ad veram fidem isdem, quibus vos, modis et apostolica scita') se conferant, aut certe lon nos defuisse praedicationi , sed illos propriae saluti mundus kgnoscat^).