Letter 218: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

[Editorial heading:] The report of Bishop Possessor. 18 July. Relating what he answered when consulted about the sayings of Faustus of Riez, he desires to be instructed by the Apostolic See what ought to be answered. To the most blessed lord, ineffably wonderful and to be set foremost in the grace of Christ, Pope Hormisdas, Possessor the bishop sends eternal greeting in the Lord. 1. It is fitting and expedient to have recourse to the remedy of the head, as often as the health of the members is at stake. For who bears greater solicitude concerning his subjects, or from whom is the stability of a wavering faith more to be sought, than from the president of that See whose first holder heard from Christ: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church? I judge that it is not hidden from your beatitude with how great snares the Church labors in the city of Constantinople, and how, after the manner of an old disease, the wound seeks once more to break out into corruption, which had been believed to be closed over by a scar. Hence, when the mind of certain of the brethren [Editorial note:] Certainly Justin uses the same word in letter 116, at the beginning of which he praises the work of Hormisdas toward gathering and uniting the venerable churches: We beg and admonish that my name never fail to be in your prayers. [Note on letter] 115: In the printed editions here is added: through Justinus his deacon, which should be absent from [manuscript] G, and is superfluous to prefix here, since Possessor states this below. This letter was sent to Constantinople, where Possessor was already held from the beginnings of the year 517, and where he merited to receive Hormisdas's letter 31 of the same year, written to him in the month of April. But since this [letter] is noted as received on 18 July in the year 520, it is certain that it is earlier than [the letter] given on the 9th day of the same month, although in the earlier editions it is placed after it. For those who hastened from Constantinople to Rome with great haste are found to have consumed at least a month in completing this journey. LETTERS 114. 115. 917 [Editorial note, A.D. 520, on the matter:] concerning the codex of a certain Faustus, a Gaul by nation, bishop of the city of Riez, who was seen to dispute eloquently about various matters and more frequently about the grace of God, was moved into scandal, while others, as human zeal goes, resisted to the contrary, they believed that I should be consulted about this ambiguous point. 2. I said indeed those things which are disputed by the expositors according to the grasp of their own ability, not that they should be received as canonical, or kept as law in the place of synodal [decrees]; but that we hold as certain, namely those things which, written by the old law or the new, have been decreed by the general judgments of the fathers, for the foundation of the faith and the entire firmness of religion; whereas these things, which various prelates have written, are wont to be assessed according to their own quality, without prejudice to the faith. But since these things, as far as we perceived in their frequent petition, seemed rather to them an excuse, whether for their entreaty or for the occasion of rendering homage to your apostolate, through Justinus my deacon I presumed to bring forward the brief lines of my littleness. In which, chiefly imploring the defense of your prayers, I beg that, taking counsel, what may seem [right] concerning the sayings of the aforesaid author, they may learn it by the authority of an apostolic response; especially because your sons also, the masters of the soldiers Vitalianus and Justinianus, particularly desire to be informed in like manner on this matter by a rescript of your beatitude. 3. I remember also that before this I had sent a codex to be reconsidered, containing explanations of the epistles of the blessed apostle Paul, for which I did not merit to be congratulated by a rescript. Hence with a similar entreaty I beg that I may deserve to obtain the prerogative of your blessing by a fitting response. Received on the 15th day before the Calends of August [18 July], Rusticus, most illustrious man, being consul. [Editorial note:] Possessor was the foremost one [among those] who vindicated the books of Faustus as catholic. [Editorial note:] Concerning his [Vitalianus's] death Victor of Tunnuna speaks thus: Vitalianus is said to have been killed at Constantinople within the palace, in the place which they call by the Greek word Delphicum, by the faction of the patrician Justinianus.

Beu ^ ^^'^ Belatio Possessoris episcopi AM^). 18 Julu yjg Fausti Regiensis dictis constdtus quid responderit referens, quid responden- dum sit a sede apostolica doceri cupit. Domino beatissimo et ineffabiliter mirabili et in Ohristi gratia praeferendo papae Hormisdae Possessor episcopus in Domino aeternam sa- lutem. 1. Decet et expedit ad capitis recurrere medicamentum, quoties agitur de sanitate membrorum. Quis enim majorem circa subjectos sollicitudinem gerit^ aut a quo magis est nutantis fidei stabilitas expeteuda^); quam ab ejus sedis praeside^ cujus pnmus a Ghristo 16*18 ^®^^^ audivit: Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificaho Ecde- siam meam'i Arbitror vestram beatitudinem non latere, quantis in Constantinopolitana urbe Ecclesia laboret insidiis, et ad morem ve- teris morbi in saniem vulnus iterum quaerat erumpere, quod ob- ductum creditur cicatrice. Unde quum quorumdam fratrum animus Certe vcrbum idem usurpat et Justinus epist. 116, c^jus initio Hormisdae laa- dat operaui ad coUigendas adunandasque venerabiles ecclesias, Poscimus ac monemus, ut orationihus vestris nunquam excedat nomen meum, 115 <) In vulgatis liic additm: per Justinum diaconum ejus, quod abeat a 6', ac 8uper\'acaueum est hic praefigere, quum Possessor infra id enontiat Mist ost haec epistola ConstautinopoU , ubi Posscssor jam ab initiis anni 517 Tenr batur, ubi et Hormisdae cpistolam 31 ejusdem anni mense Aprili ad se ■cnpttB susciperc meruit. Quum autem haec anno 520 JuHi 18 die accepta notetor, ccrtum est, eam sequentibus ejusdem mensis 9 die datis, licet eid in prioBTiil- gatis postponatur, esse anteriorcm. Qui enim Constantinopoli Romam gommi festinatione contenderuut, in hoc itinere conficiendo mensem ut miniti^iini coa- sinnpsisse deprehenduntur. EPISTOLAE 114. 115. 917 de codice Fausti cujusdam natione Galli Reginae^) civitatis episcopi, a. 520. qui de diversis rebus et frequentius de gratia Dei diserte visus est disputarC; in scandalum moveretur, aliis, ut se habent humana stu- dia, in contrarium renitentibus, me crediderunt de hoc ambiguo consulendum. 2. Dixi quidem ea, quae a tractatoribus pro captu proprii in- genii disputantur, non ut canonica recipi, aut ad synodalium vicem pro lege servari; sed habere nos certa, scilicet quae veteri lege vel nova conscripta et generalibue patrum sunt decreta judiciis, ad fun- damentum fidei ac rehgionis integram firmitatem; haec autem, quae antistites diversi conscripserunt, pro qualitate sui sine praejudicio fidei solere censeri. Sed quum haec, quantum in eorum frequenti postulatione persensimus, magis eis excusatio videretur, vel pro eonmi prece vel pro obsequii occasione reddendi apostolatui vestro, per Justinum diaconem meum praesumpsi apices parvitatis meae in- gerere. Quibus principaliter orationum vestrarum munimeu expo- scens quaeso, ut consulentes, quid de praefati auctoris dictis videa- tur, auctoritate apostolicae responsionis agnoscant, maxime quod filii quoque vestri magistri militum Vitalianus^) et Justinianus prae- cipue super hac re rescripto beatitudinis vestrae similiter informari desiderant. 3. Codicem quoque retractandum^) antehac direxisse me memini, continentem beati Pauli apostoli epistolarum explanationes, pro quo rescripto gratulari non merui. Unde simili prece®) deposco, ut prae- rogativam benedictionis vestrae competenti responsione merear adi- pisci. Accepta XV Calendas Augusti, Rustico') viro clarissimo consule. Fausti libros ut catholicos vindicabant, Possessor princeps fuit. De nece illius Victor Tununensis ita loquitur: Vitalianus Constantinopoli intra palatium loco, quem Delphicum graeco vocabulo dicunt, Justiniani patricii factione dicitur interfectus fuisse.