Letter 223: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

To the most holy and most blessed lord, brother, and fellow minister Hormisdas, Epiphanius sends greeting in the Lord. 1. God, who dwells on high and looks upon lowly things, and who abundantly provides all things for the salvation of men, in His goodness and mercy has looked upon my littleness, and after the death of John of holy memory, the former archbishop and patriarch, He has deigned to confer upon me the priestly seat of the holy catholic church of the royal city, by the judgment and election of our most Christian and most just prince Justin and of the most pious queen, who shares with him in every pursuit of the divine, and of those who follow them. To these was joined the consent of those who lead a good manner of life and who are more exalted in royal honors, and likewise of the priests and the monks and the most faithful people. Therefore I judged it necessary to insert this first token in my letter, so that I might show what disposition I have toward your apostolic see. 2. It is my earnest desire [the Greek word renders both "prayer" and "longing"], most blessed one, that I be united to you and embrace the divine doctrines which were handed down from the blessed and holy disciples and apostles of God, and chiefly from the highest of the apostles, Peter, to your holy see, and that I esteem nothing more precious than these. For I am not ignorant of the constitutions of the holy Church, as one coming in from outside elsewhere, but, nourished by the will of God from my tenderest years [literally, from tender nails] in the holy catholic Church, I obeyed through the years the most holy priests and patriarchs. For very often, set over those who through the most sacred and ineffable baptism put off their sins, I taught the right and true faith of the Trinity of one essence, which, as I said before, proceeding from the disciples of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, the assembly of all priests and of all [embraces]. For I adore and proclaim the divine, truly holy, and God-given symbol [creed] of the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers gathered at Nicaea, and I announce it to be the manifest judgment of Christian splendor; and I myself have learned, and have known myself to teach others, that the venerable synod made in this royal city by the hundred and fifty holy priests, and likewise the assembly of the two hundred fathers who love God made at Ephesus, and the synod of the six hundred and thirty most reverend fathers and priests made at Chalcedon, are one [by this word Epiphanius asserts that the faith of this council and of the three earlier ones is one and the same], and in agreement with, and joined to, the aforesaid holy councils. In these four holy and sacred synods, therefore, the great mystery of piety was proclaimed, and the salvation of all men was deposited. For those who were or are of the same mind, I both receive and embrace, and I love to be united with them. But on the contrary, those who hold or proclaim anything beyond these, or who in time past attempted anything, I consider to be exiles from the assembly of the orthodox. Likewise I fully embrace and receive the upright and truly most religious letters of the venerable pope Leo, written in a faith brought forth aright. 3. Let the holy brotherhood of your blessedness, therefore, hold this opinion concerning me. For I have made it manifest to you, and I proclaim these things to the churches under me, hastening that in all things they be united to me and to your blessedness by the bond of charity, churches which altogether ought to be united and inviolable, and to preserve forever one body of the common apostolic Church and the same. For how great is the love that exists in all things toward your venerable brotherhood, bid it be weighed: for those whom your apostolic see, in condemning them, ordered not to be recited in the sacred diptychs, neither do I cause to be named among the sacred mysteries. And this is known also to those reverend men who have been sent by you, that is, to the most holy bishop Germanus, to the deacons Felix and Dioscorus, and to the presbyter Blandus, who effectively carried out the things that were enjoined upon them by you. Let your holiness therefore pray both for me and for the priests subject to me, that we may be perpetually preserved, holding the right confession of God; likewise also for our most serene prince and for the most Christian Augusta, because their welfare is the common stay, profitable everywhere to the holy churches. We holding this intention, therefore, in no way will it any longer be permitted that the holy Church of God be torn asunder, through the grace of the Holy Spirit and the intercessions of the holy and glorious Mother of God, the Virgin Mary. I too and my people most heartily salute all your brotherhood, whatever it is. And in another hand: Being unharmed in the Lord, pray for us, most holy brother, lover of God! Received on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of October, in the consulship of Rusticus, a most illustrious man.

seu Belatio Epiphanii episoopi Ck>n8tantinopolitaiii ad Homiisdam. ^^^jg^^P 17. Has Uiteras eleciionis suae vuU esse indices (n. 1). Se cum Hormisda fide con- ^"8.^. d. 9 .111 1 j junctum ipsius fidei suae expositione testatur (n, 2). Ejusdem rei legatos illius '' testes appellat, et jam ejus preces pro se suisque sacerdotibus ac principe et Augusta rogat (n. 3). Sanctissimo ac beatissimo domino fratri et com- ministratori Hormisdae Epiphanius in Domino salutem. 1. DeuSy qui in alto hahiiat et humilia respicit, et omnia pro sa- ^flJ^* lute hominum affluenter providet, pro sua bonitate et misericordia meam respexit parvitatem, et post obitum sanctae memoriae quon- dam archiepiscopi et patriarchae Johannis sedem sacerdotalem sanctae ecclesiae catholicae regiae urbis mihi conferre dignatus est, sententia et electione Christianissimi et justissimi principis nostri Justini et piissimae reginae, quae ei ad omne studium communicat divinum, sequentiumque *) eorum. His, quibus est bona conversatio et qui regiis honoribus sunt sublimiores, simul et sacerdotum et monacho- rum et fidelissimae plebis consensus accessit. Quapropter necessarium duxi hoc primum indicium meis inserere litteris, ut ostendam quam circa vestram apostolicam sedem habeo voluntatem. 2. Est mihi oratio^) magnopere, beatissime, uniri me vobis et divina amplecti dogmata, quae ex beatis et sanctis discipulis et apo- stolis Dei praecipue summi Petri apostolorum sedi sanctae vestrae sunt tradita, et nihil eis pretiosius existimare. Neque enim extra^) aliunde veniens sanctae Ecclesiae constituta ignoro, sed nutritus per Dei voluntatem ex teneris unguibus in sancta catholica Ecclesia, parui per tempora sanctissimis sacerdotibus et patriarchis. Nam saepius praepositus his, qui per sacratissimum et ineflfabile baptisma sua exuunt peccata, rectam^) et veram unius essentiae Trinitatis docui fidem, quam, sicut praefatus sum, ex discipulis Dei magni et Salva- toris nostri Jesu Christi procedentem omnium sacerdotum et omniimi 121 ^) Legendum yidetur seguentiumque eos: adeo ut interpres graecam phra- sim, qua verbum Bnsa^ai cum gignendi casu coi\jungitur, latine imitatus sit. BvxVy qtiod vocabulum aliquando quidem orationem sed saepe etiam, nominatim- que hic, votum ac desiderium sonat. a. 520. quam^) aniplectitur coetus. Divinum enim revera sanctum et aDeo datum symbolum trecentonmi decem et octo sanctonun patrum in Nicaea congregatorum adoro et praedico, et Christiani splendoris . manifestum judicium esse annimtio; et quinquaginta et centum san- ctorum sacerdotum in hac urbe regia factam venerabilem synodmn, similiter et ducentorum Dei amatorum patrum conventum in Ephe- sina factum, triginta et sexcentorum reverendissimorum patrum et sacerdotum synodum factam Calchedone unam®) esse et convenien- tem et compaginatam praedictis sanctis concih"is, ipse ego didici, aliosque docere cognovi. In his ergo quatuor synodis sanctis et sacris magnum pietatis praedicatum mysterium, et omnium hominmn est reposita salus. Eos enim, qui fuerunt vel sunt ejusdem senten- tiae, et suscipio et amplector et unire me eis diligo. E contra antem eos, qui praeter istas quid sentiunt aut praedicant vel praeterito tempore aliquid conati sunt, a coetu orthodoxorum extorres esse existimo. Similiter rectas et revera religiosissimas epistolas venera- bilis papaeLeonis prorectafide conscriptas circumamplector et suscipio. 3. Habeat igitur hanc sententiam circa me vestrae beatitudinis sancta fratemitas. Vobis enim manifestum feci, et sub^) me ecele- siis haec praedico, festinans per omnia eas mihique et vestrae bea- titudini vinculo caritatis adunari, quas onmino oportet esse unitas et inviolabiles, et corpus unum communis apostolicae Ecclesiae idemque perpetuo custodire. Quantus enim circa vestram venerabilem frater- nitatem in omnibus sit amor, jubete perpendere^): quia quos vestra ") b praetuht veram, rejecto ad marg unam: quo verbo Epiphanins muun et camdem hujus concilii atque trium superiorum fidem esse adstmit. ") Concinnius legeretur exinde perpendite, ac mox: non recUari jussiL Hoc EPISTOLAE 121. 122. 925 apostoUca sedes condemnans in sacris diptychis non recitare jussit, a. 520. eos nec ego inter sacra facio nominari mjsteria. Hoc autem et^) his notum est, qui a vobis sunt directi viri reverendissimi, id est Germano sanctissimo episcopo^^), Felici et Dioscoro diaconibus, et Blando presbytero, qui efficaciter exsecuti^*) sunt ea, quae eis sunt a vobis injuncta. Oret igitur vestra sanctitas tam pro me quam pro subjectis meis sacerdotibus , ut perpetue custodiamur, rectam Dei tenentes confessionem; similiter et pro serenissimo principe nostro et pro Christianissima Augusta, quia eorum aalus communis sancta- rum ubique est ecclesiarum profuturum firmamentum. Istam igitur nobis ^2) habentibus intentionem, nuUo modo jam licebit sanctam Dei dilacerari Ecclesiam, per gratiam sancti Spiritus et intercessiones sanctae ac gloriosae Dei genitricis virginis Mariae. Omnem quam- cunque vestram fraternitatem ego quoque et mei plurimum saluta- mus. Et alia manu: Incolumis in Domino ora pro nobis, Dei amator sanctissime frater! Accepta XV Calendas Octobris, Rustico viro cla- rissimo consule.