Letter 76: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Copy of the report of Epiphanius, bishop of Constantinople. To the most holy and most blessed lord, brother, and fellow-minister Hormisdas, Epiphanius sends greeting in the Lord. God, who dwells on high and looks upon lowly things and abundantly provides all things for the salvation of men, of His own goodness and mercy has looked upon my smallness, and after the death of John of holy memory, formerly archbishop and patriarch, 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 divine endeavor, and of those who follow them. To these was added the consent of those who have a good way of life and who are exalted by royal honors, and likewise of the priests and of the monks and of the most faithful people. For this reason I have thought it necessary first to insert this notice in my letter, that I may show what disposition I have toward your apostolic see. It is greatly my prayer, most blessed one, that I may be united to you and may embrace the divine doctrines which, from the blessed and holy disciples and apostles of God, and especially from Peter the chief of the apostles, have been handed down to your holy see, and that I may esteem nothing more precious than these. For I am not unacquainted with the institutions of the holy church as one coming from elsewhere, but, nourished by the will of God from my tender nails [that is, from earliest childhood] in the holy catholic church, I have for a long time been subject to the most holy priests and patriarchs. For having often been set over those who, through the most sacred and ineffable baptism, put off their sins, I have taught the right and true faith of the Trinity of one essence, which, as I have said before, proceeding from the disciples of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, the assembly of all priests and of all fathers embraces. For in very truth I adore and proclaim the divine, holy, and God-given creed of the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers gathered at Nicaea, and I declare it to be a manifest token of Christian splendor; and the venerable synod made by the hundred and fifty holy priests in this royal city; likewise the gathering of the two hundred God-loving fathers made at Ephesus; and the synod of the six hundred and thirty most reverend fathers and priests made at Chalcedon, I myself have learned to be one, and in agreement, and joined together with the aforesaid holy councils, and I have come to know how to teach others the same. In these four holy and sacred synods, therefore, is laid up the great proclaimed mystery of piety and the salvation of all men. For those who have been or are of the same mind, I both receive and embrace, and I love to be united to them; but, on the contrary, those who beyond these hold or proclaim anything otherwise, or in time past attempted anything, I judge to be outcasts from the assembly of the orthodox. Likewise I embrace and receive the truly right and most religious letters of the venerable pope Leo, written round about in defense of the right faith. Let, therefore, the holy brotherhood of your blessedness hold this judgment 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 ought altogether to be one and inviolable, and to preserve perpetually one body of the common apostolic church and the same. For how great is the love in all things toward your venerable brotherhood, bid yourselves to consider, since those whom your apostolic see, condemning them, has 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 have effectively carried out the things which were enjoined upon them by you. Let, therefore, your holiness pray both for me and for the priests subject to me, that we may be perpetually kept holding the right confession of God; likewise also for our most serene prince and for the most Christian Augusta, since their welfare is the profitable foundation, common to the holy churches everywhere. We holding, therefore, this intention, it will in no way henceforth be permitted that the holy church of God be torn apart, through the grace of the Holy Spirit and the intercessions of the holy and glorious Mother of God, the virgin Mary. The whole brotherhood which is with your holiness, I also and my own people greatly salute. And in another hand: Safe and sound in the Lord, pray for us, most holy brother, lover of God. Received on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of October, Rusticius being consul, a man of clarissimus rank.

EXEIIPLUM RELATI0NI8 EPIPHANII EPISCOPI COXSTANTINOPOLITAXI. SANCTISSIMO AC BEATISSIMO DOMNO FRATRI ET COMMINISTRATORI HORMISDAE EPIPHANIUS IN DOMINO SALUTEM. DcUS, qui iu altO habitat et humilia respicit et omnia pro salute hominum affluenter prouidet, pro sua bonitate et misericordia meam respexit paruitatem et post obitum sanctae memoriae quondam archiepiscopi et patriarchae lohannis sedem sacerdotalem sanctae ecclesiae catholicae regiae urbis mihi conferre dignatus est sententia et electione Christianissimi et iustissimi principis nostri lustini et piissimae reginae, quae ei ad omne studium communicat diuinum, sequentiumque eorum. his, quibus est bona conuersatio et qui regiis honoribus sunt sublimiores, simul et sacerdotum et monachorum et fidelissimae plebis 2 consensus accessit quapropter necessarium duxi hoc primum indicium meis litteris inserere, ut ostendam quam circa ue- 3 strara apostolicam sedem habeo uoluntatem. est mihi oratio magnopere, beatissirae, uniri me uobis et diuina amplecti U Psalm. 137, 6 194. BaL ut ep. 192. Edd. Car. P 535; Collect. Concil.; Thiel 919. 2 AUti V 4 caelebrat V 9 nostrorum F, corr. Thiel Epist. CLXXXXIV 1 — CLXXXXV 6. 653 dogmata, quae ex beatis et sanctis discipulis et apostolis dei. praecipue Fetri summi apostolorum, sedi sanctae uestrae sunt tradita, et nihil eis pretiosius existimare. neque enim eitra aliunde ueniens sanctae ecclesiae constituta ignoro sed nutritus h per dei uoluntatem ex teneris unguibus in sancta catholica ecclesia parui per tempora sanctissirais sacerdotibus et patri- archis. nam saepius praepositus his, qui per sacratissimum et ineifabile baptisma sua exuunt peccata, rectam et ueram unius essentiae trinitatis docui fidem, quam, sicut praefatus 10 sum, ex discipulis magni dei et saluatoris nostri lesu Christi procedentem omnium sacerdotum et omnium patrum amplec- titur coetus. diuinum enim re uera sanctum et a deo datum 4 symbolum trecentorum decem et octo sanctorum patrum in Xicaena congregantium adoro et praedico et Christiani splendoris manifestum indicium esse annuntio et quinquaginta et centum sanctorum sacerdotum in hac urbe regia factam uenerabilem svDodum, similiter et ducentorum dei amatorum patrum coDuentum in Ephesena factum, triginta et sexcentorum reue- reDtissimorum patrum et sacerdotum synodum factam Chalcedone >o uDam esse et conuenientem et compaginatam praedictis sanctis coDciliis ipse ego didici aliosque docere cognoui. in his ergo 5 quattuor sanctis et sacris synodis magnum pietatis praedicatuni mysterium et omnium hominum est reposita salus. eos enim, qui fuerunt uel sunt eiusdem sententiae, et suscipio et w araplector et uniri me eis diligo ; e contra autem eos, qui praeter istas quid sentiunt aut praedicant uel praeterito tempore aliquid conati sunt, a coetu orthodoxorum extorres esse existimo. similiter rectas re uera et religiosissimas epistolas ueoerabilis papae Leonis pro recta flde conscriptas circum- 80 amplector et suscipio. habeat igitur hanc sententiam circa 6 me uestrae beatitudinis sancta fraternitas; uobis enim mani- 654 lustinianas Hormisdae festam feci et sub me ecclesiis haec praedico festinans per omnia eas mihique et uestrae beatitudini uinculo caritatis adunari, quas omnino oportet unitas esse et inuiolabiles et corpus unum communis apostolicae ecclesiae eundemque Tperpetue custodire. quantus enim circa uestram uenerabilem fraternitatem in omnibus sit amor, iubete perpendere, quia quos uestra apostolica sedes condemnans in sacris diptychis recitare non iussit, eos nec ego inter sacra facio nominari mysteria. hoc autem et his notum est, qui a uobis sunt directi uiri reuerentissimi, id est Germano sanctissimo episcopo, Felici et Dioscoro diaconibus et Blando presbytero, qui efBcaciter exse- S cuti sunt ea, quae eis sunt a uobis iniuncta. oret igitur uestra sanctitas tam pro me quam pro subiectis meis sacerdotibus, ut perpetue custodiamur rectam dei tenentes confessionem, similiter et pro serenissimo principe nostro et pro Christianis- sima Augusta, quia eorum salus communis sanctarum ubique ^ est ecclesiarum profuturum fir<ma>mentum. istam igitur nobis habentibus intentionem nuUo modo iam licebit sanctam dei dilacerari ecclesiam per gratiam sancti spiritus et intercessiones lOsanctae ac gloriosae dei genetricis uirginis Mariae. omnem quae cum uestra est <sanctitate> fratemitatem ego quoque et mei plurimum salutamus. et alia manu: Incolomis in domino ora pro nobis, dei amator sanctissime frater. Accepta XV. Kal. Octobr. Kusticio u. c. cons. 4 idemque edit. reg., sed qui e graeco hanc uertit epistulamy tam multa peccauit, ut nihil mutauerim 5 perpetu^ V: perpetuo 7 dypticiis V recitari Thiel 14 perpetue V 17 firmentum F, <?orr. 0 18 habentibus o': absentibus V 21 quae cum scripsi: qoi- cumque F, ^uamcumque Car, uestra est <sanctitate> fratemitatem ■scripsi: ura e fratemitate F, uestre fratemitate a, uestram fratemitatem Car. 22 incolomes F 24 octub F Epist. CLXXXXV 6 — CLXXXXVI 5. 655