Letter 201: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

[Editorial heading:] Of Pope Hormisdas to Germanus [Oerm(an)um], a man of illustrious rank. Giving thanks for the services rendered to the Church, he warmly commends the cause of Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus [Sicostrati]. Hormisdas to Germanus, a most illustrious man. When you keep watch with a commendable resolve on behalf of the peace of the Church and burn with so great an ardor of faith, the giving of thanks alone is not sufficient; for it is not the prerogative of human praise that prompts you, but the expectation of the divine recompense that inflames you. Therefore we discharge that which we most owe, and we daily beseech our God, to whose causes you devote yourselves, for your safety, asking that your zeal may so burn in every quarter for love of the Church's unity, that no place may be left for any good office where the patronage of your defense does not stand by the rules of the fathers. Yet above all the cause of Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus, our brothers and fellow bishops, stirs us, who, being the first to follow the concord necessary for the world, were struck by the deprivation of their churches, and are now also crushed by the affront to the venerable canons, and the glory of their own reconciliation is made a difficult cause for them, as though they themselves had rather resisted with stubborn mind, and, while others return to the unity of the apostolic see, they themselves had rather torn apart the members of the Church. How hard this is for us, and how unworthy of the times of a most merciful emperor, it befits your prudence to weigh, and at last to provide a remedy that may, with welcome solace, both reward their labors and take away our sorrow.

^^s^^\t Hormisdae papae a<1 Oeriiianum viram illustrem. Pi'0 officiis Ecclesiae praestitis grntias agens, causam Eliae, Tkomae ei Sioh p.tU strati impense commendai. Hormisda Germano viro illustrissimo*). Excubantibus vobis probabili pro ecclesiastica pace proposito et tanto fidei calore ferventibus gratiarum actio sola nen sufficit; quia nec vos liumanae laudis praerogativa sollicitat, sed divinae exspectatio retributionis inflammat. Quod igitur maxime debemus, exsolvimiB, et Deum nostrum, cujus vos causis impenditis, pro incolumitate vestra quotidie deprecamur, rogantes, ut studiura vestrum in omiii pro ecclesiasticae unitatis attectu parte sic ferveat, ut nuUus boni relinquatur locus ofticii, ubi non paternis regulis vestrae patrocinium defensionis assistat. Praecipue tamen Eliae, Thomae atque Xico- strati fratrum et coepiscoponim nostrorum causa nos commovet, qui- primi mundo necessariam secuti concordiam, ecclesiarum suarum privatione perculsi, cum venerabilivmi quoque canonimi coutumelia deprimuntur, fitque illis propriae reconciliationis gloria causa ditfi- cilis, quasi ipsi magis pertinaci mente restiterint, et aliis ad sedis apostolicae redeuntibus unitatem ipsi Ecclesiae magis membra dis- cerpserint. Quod quam nobis durum sit quamque clemeutissimi temporibus imperatoris indignum, pnidentiam vestram convenit aestimare, et tandem praestare remedium, quod et illorum labores et nostram grato possit solamine auferre moestitiam.