Letter 230: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

To the lord holy in all things and most blessed brother and fellow-minister of ours, Hormisdas, Epiphanius the bishop sends greeting in the Lord. 1. How great was the eagerness which we too felt, together with the most pious and most Christian emperor [Justin I] along with his most faithful consort, flourishing in all good things, concerning the right and pure union of the holy churches; and in what manner, with the love of God as became us, we received the holy bishops sent by you and held in reverence the religious clergy: we suppose indeed that your beatitude has already been satisfied by these things which have been done. We have believed, nevertheless, that since the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ our God has presented these same most reverend fellow-ministers of ours, unharmed, to your gaze, all the things that have been stirred up should be made manifest to you most holy ones, and the labor which we were able to sustain. Through these very men you will recognize more clearly in what manner, through the grace of God and of our most faithful princes, our church of the city of Constantinople has been peacefully governed; and that the names of those whom we have known to be profane to your see have not been restored among the sacred mysteries, but that the agreement of the four councils is proclaimed for the right faith, and this very thing is made manifest to all by the recitation of the sacred diptychs. Let them therefore announce to you that the priests subject to us are not few, nor again is the multitude subject under the ordination of those bishops a small one, which embraces the good of this union now begun: let your sanctity also recognize that you have nonetheless been established as both the chief author and the originator of this general good. 2. Wherefore your beatitude must be stirred up by praises as by goads to keep watch strongly, lest that which the divine mercy had begun to ordain in honor of you should seem not to come, fully and as is fitting, to the common union. But our most faithful and most pious princes, rejoicing more diligently over these matters concerning the unity of the holy churches of God, have given charge to your beatitude about them, receiving petitions from very many holy priests both of the province of Pontus and of Asia and especially of the East, among whom it seems difficult and impossible to be silent about the names of their former priests, so great is their obstinacy that they are prepared to endure every danger for such a deed. Therefore, considering all the foregoing causes necessary to the pursuit of peace, since it is through this way of humility alone that we have found union and salvation common to all, inquiring, as has been said, and being satisfied on your behalf by those who have been sent by you in this affair, may you dispense the matter with the peaceful governance that befits you. For while both churches are one, without doubt the good things also which come about through vigilance, the glory of the common praise of both is thereafter traced out for both patriarchal sees, so that, as is customary, the Lord and creator of all, Christ our true God, may be magnified. Concerning all these matters there entreat you with the utmost affection John, the most holy bishop, who lays down many labors together with us in the present contest, and Heraclianus, the most reverend presbyter of our great church and our fellow-dweller, and Constantinus, the most reverend deacon of the same great church, through whom we have also dispatched our synodal symbols according to the ecclesiastical laws of your beatitude. Now therefore, showing the zeal of our most pious emperor concerning the union of the holy churches, and using peaceful letters to your beatitude about these matters, he has also dispatched the petitions offered to him by the people of Jerusalem and of the East. We therefore, wishing to find an occasion for greeting, have made this letter to you, through which we supplicate, setting before you most holy ones this divine voice: Behold, the acceptable time; behold, now the day of salvation! Behold, the Lord of all has entrusted to us a talent, which, increased, may be restored with the fruit of good work, and saved through your praiseworthy dispensation: namely so great holy churches and so many of their priests and an innumerable multitude, now indeed united to the holy Church, but in peril and going astray if the helm of your beatitude should delay, and especially those who dwell in the holy places of Christ our God, thus everywhere cleaving to the holy churches, so that their multitude ought not to be rejected. For all of them, by their suggestion, so persist in the evil of their obstinacy that they would rather depart from life than abandon what they have devised: so that if God should command these to be united through your beatitude, the merit of your praise will be ascribed both to present and to future times. 3. Let your sanctity therefore pray both for the most pious and most Christian princes and for our littleness and for the universal union, that by the grace of the holy and one-essenced Trinity and by the intercessions of our lady the holy and glorious virgin and Mother of God Mary, all things may come together into an undivided unity; and that the unshaken foundation of the catholic faith may be confirmed, most holy brother in all things! 4. The tokens of our love according to Christ our Lord we have dispatched through the most reverend men, for the ministration of divine worship and of your holy apostolic church: namely a chalice set round with gems, a golden paten and another silver chalice, and two veils of pure silk; which we supplicate your beatitude to receive with that love which we do not doubt you have according to God. We too, and those who are with us, most greatly greet all the brotherhood in Christ which is with your sanctity. Received the day before the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Rusticus, most distinguished man.

seu Kelatio Epiphanii episcopi Constantinopolitani ad Homiisdam. ^ogept 120. Q^^ ConstanlinopoU secundum Hormisdae voluntatem peracta sint atque etiam acc. d. nunc observentur, brevibus perstringit^ utque ille libelli supplicis provinciarum ^^ Nov.) Ponti, Asiae et maxime Orientis rationem habeat, rogat. Preces pro se et pro ecclesiarum unitione ab eodem flagitat et munera pro s. Petri ministerio destinat. Domino per omnia sancto ac beatissimo fratri et 3^) Ita corrigendum duximus, quamvis nostri codices ut supra prae se ferant et unius essentia Trinitatis. ^°) G* Aegrotam, W Egotamen^ al. Egotam. Forte legendum Nicaeotam, quem TheophaneB pag. 127 (ed. Bonn. p. 229) alteri Johanni Alexandrino praesuli successisse tradit, quique, eodem Theophaue pag. 130 (ed. Bonn. p. 234) auctore, synodo Calchedonensi ita infestus erat, ut Anastasio imperatori ducentas auri libras datunun se pollicitus sit, si eam funditus abrogaret. De eodem Johanne Liberatus c. 18 hoc memoriae prodidit, quod cum Timotheo episcopo Constanti- nopolitano unitatem iniri non posse existimaret, eo quod iile eamdem synodum non anathematizavit. Is in vulgatis quidem Liberati codicibus Machiota, sed in exemplari Corb. Niciota cognominatur. ^O Sic cum mss. h< c'. Posteriores et ut Jubere dignata. 60* a.520. comministratori uostro Hormisdae Epiplia- nius episcopus in Domino salutem. 1. Quantam habuimus alacritatem nos quoqne et piissimQS et Christianissimus ^) imperator una eum fidelissima et in omnibus bonis ilorente conjuge sua circa rectam et puram sanctarum ecclesiarQm unitionem^ et quemadmodum cum caritate Dei^ qua nos decebat, de- stinatos a vobis sanctos episcopos et religiosos suscepimus et yene- randos habuimus clericos^); existimamus quidem et ante ex his, quae acta sunt^ satisfactum yestrae beatitudini. Credidimus tamen, quodsi Dominus et Salvator Jesus Ghristus Deus noster idem') ipsos reverendissimos comministratores nostros incolumes vestris obtutibus praesentavit; omnia quae excitata sunt, yobis sanctissimis manifesta fieri^ et laborem^ quem potuimus sustinere. Per hos ipsos manife- stius cognoscetisy quemadmodum per Dei gratiam et fidelissimorum principum nostrorum Constantinopolitanae civitatis nostra ecclesia pacifice est gubernata; et nomina eorum inter sacra non sunt red- tata mysteria^ quae sedi vestrae profana cognovimuS; sed quatuor conciliorum pro^) recta fide consonantia praedicatur^ et hoc ipsum omnibus sacrorum diptychorum recitatione manifestum est. Annun- tient igitur vobiS; quia non parvi nobis subjecti sacerdotes^ nec ror- sus sub eorum ordinatione episcoporum parva est subdita multitudo, quae bonum hujus coeptae unitionis amplectitqr: yestra etiam sanctitas cognoscat, istius se generalis boni et principem et incepto- rem nihilominus constitutum^). 2. Unde fortiter ad vigilandum beatitudo yestra laudibus est stimulis excitanda; ne^ id quod divina in honorem vestri coeperat ordinare misericordia; non ad plenum ita^ ut condecet; communis unitas pervenire videatur. Diligentius autem de his fidelissimi et piissimi nostri principes de sanctarum Dei ecclesiarum unitate et ep. 116 concordia gaudenteS; ad vestram mandaverunt beatitudinem; suppli- ' catioues a plurimis sanctis sacerdotibus suscipientes tam Ponti quam Asiae provinciae et maxime OrientiS; apud quos nomina quondam sacerdotum suorum tacere difficile et impossibile esse videtur, tan- 130 ') b Christo amantissimus. Idem imperator ab eodem Epiphanio supn epist. 121 Chrhtianissimus item appellatur. Romam pervenisse ex epistolae 120 clausula colligitur. Epiphauius, quatuor synodorum in sacrorum diptychorura recitatione mentia- nem fieri. Mox b cc pauci (loco parvi). taque eorum obstinatio est^ ut omne periculum pro tali faeto parati a. 520. sint sustinere. Igitur praecedentes omnes circa pacis studium ne- cessarium causas considerantes^ quia per solam istam humilitatis viam communem omnibus unitionem et salutem invenimus, interro- gantes^ sicut dictum est^ et satisfacientes vobis ab illis^ qui a vobis in hoc negotio sunt destinati^ causam cum pacifica^ qua vos decet^ gubematione dispensetis. Nam dum una utraque sit ecclesia^ procul dubio et bona^ quae per yigilantiam eveniunt; communis exinde laudis gloria utrisque^) patriarchalibus sedibus rimatur^ ut consuete omnium Dominus et conditoff Christus yerus Deus noster magnificetur. De his autem omnibus summo vobis supplicentur afifectu Johannes sanctissimus episcopus^ multos nobiscum sudores in praesenti depo- nens certamine^ et Keraclianus reyerendissimus presb^rter sanctae nostrae majoris ecclesiae et cohabitator^) noster^ et Oonstantinus reyerendissimus diaconus ejusdem majoris ecclesiae^ per quos et nostra synodalia symbola^) secundum ecclesiasticas yestrae beatitudinis de-ep. I3t stinavimus leges. Nunc igitur piissimi nostri imperatoris studium circa sanctarum ecclesiarum unitionem ostendentes^); pacificis ad yestram beatitudinem de his causis utendo litteris^ et oblatas sibimet ab Hierosolymitanis et Orientalibus petitiones destinayit. Nos ergo occasionem salutationis inyenire volentes^ hanc ad vos fecimus epi- stolam^ per quam supplicamus^ proponentes vobis sanctissimis hanc vocem divinam: Ecce tempus acceptabile, ecce nunc dies saluiis! Ecce '^^^^* credidit nobis omnium Dominus talentum^ quod augmentatum^^) possit restitui boni operis fructu, et*^) salyare per laudabilem ve- ®) b cc Vtriusque. Mox forte legendum (pro rimatur) derivatur, et paiilo anto una utraque fit (non sit). Neque vero existimandum, utrasque patriarchales sedes ab Epiphanio Bomanam et Constantinopolitanam dici. Quippe qui studiose adeo cavebat, ne quid quod Hormisdae offensioni csse posset proferret, procul aberat, ut sedem suam patriarchalem cognominaret, quam Eomani pontifices hactenus ne inter sedes quidem, ut ait Gelasius epist 26 n. 10, recenseri possc contendissent. Sed utramque ecclesiam iutelligit Orientalem et Occidentalem, graecam et latinam. Buccessisse nuntiat. Eum autem Johannem, qui hic proxime laudatus est, Clau- diopolitanae civitatis episcopum fuisse, sequens epistola n. 3 docet. ^o) Ita G* c'' sq.; a^ b^ a' augmentum. ") G' a* ut salvati, h cc et salvari, orationis series postulat et salvare, Tum per dispensationem , quae flagitatur, indulgentia et remissio severioris discipHnae, illa Graecorum ^tarvTraxTtg , olnovofiia vel avynaToipccatg , significatur. a. 520. stram dispensationem tanias quidem sanctas ecclesias tantosque eorum sacerdotes et multitudinem innumerabilem, nunc quidem unitam sanctae Ecclesiae^ periclitantem autem et errantem^^)^ si yestrae beatitudinis gubemaculum commoretur^ et maxime his, qui in sanctis locis habitant Christi Dei nostri^ ita ubique sanctis adhaerentes ec- clesiis, ut eorum respui non debeat multitudo. Nam omnes per suggestionem eorum ita in obstinationis suae malo perdurant, ut velint ante e vita recedere, quam excogitata relinquere: ut si Deus hos per yestram beatitudinem adunari praeceperit, yestrae laudis meritum et praesentibus et futuris adscribatur temporibus. 3. Oret igitur yestra sanctitas tam pro piissimis et Christia- nissimis principibus^ quam pro nostra parvitate et universali unitione^ ut gratia sanctae et unius essentiae Trinitatis et intercessionibus dominae nostrae sanctae et gloriosae virginis et Dei genitricis Mariae omnia ad imitatem indivisam conveniant; et fundamentum incon- cussum catholicae fidei confirmetur^ per omnia sanctissime frater! 4. Indicia autem nostrae secundum Christum Dominum nostrum caritatis per viros reverendissimos destinavimus ad^^ ministrationem divinae culturae et sanctae apostolicae vestrae ecclesiae calicem autem gemmis circimidatum^ patenam auream et alium calicem argenteum^ vela holoserica duo : quae suscipere yestram beatitudinem supplica- mus cum illa caritatC; quam vos habere secundum Deum non dubi- tamus. Omnem in Christo fraternitatem^ quae cum vestra est san- ctitate^ nos quoque et qui nobiscum sunt plurimum salutamus. Ac- cepta pridie Calendas Decembris^ Rustico viro clarissimo consule.