Letter 21: Felix, bishop of Rome, to the beloved clergy and people of the most holy church of Constantinople.

Letter of Pope Felix to the clergy and people of Constantinople. [Summary: That they should not be disturbed on account of the prevarication of the legates Vitalis and Misenus (n. 1), and that they should avoid the communion of those condemned by Acacius from the Apostolic See (n. 2). They are to declare that the clerics cast down by this man are to remain in their place (n. 3).] Felix, to the orthodox clergy and people established at Constantinople, his most beloved sons, greeting. 1. We judge, not unreasonably, that the firmness of your faith, proven to all, has been disturbed by the prevarication of Vitalis and Misenus: who, in all the things that were entrusted to them, acted not only by neglecting but even by opposing them, so that the Roman Church was believed to consent to condemned heretics; since, contrary to what had been forbidden them, they were convicted of communicating with those who had been sent by that Peter [the heretic, formerly and justly cast down as an associate of parricides and so many times anathematized] and received by Acacius, unmindful of our instructions, with no formal protest having first been made -- the protest which, just as had been enjoined upon them, the piety of your sanctity was to have heard; and it came about that, as we have said before, their excess was believed to be our assent. These men we have deprived both of their orders and of the venerable reception of the divine mystery. Let none of you, therefore, through such an offense, be forgetful of himself, nor let anyone reckon that we are failing in the defense of the apostolic tradition -- we whom he sees to have avenged the insult to the faith upon the traitors and the lost. 2. It was fitting also that you should know of the discovered changeableness and inconstancy of Acacius, once a bishop. He who, concerning that Peter -- as is more fully shown in the documents annexed -- had reported things not to be borne, and had once said that he had been condemned, afterward, through our legates, pursued him with many praises, and so acted against his own conscience; whether anything is to be believed of him, all who set the fear of God before their eyes will judge. Also, defending for himself the rights of provinces belonging to others, he was a presumptuous usurper of ordinations not lawful for him, contrary to the canons of the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers [the Council of Nicaea]. [Editorial note: To use the words of the Third Book of Evagrius, that is III, 21: that many of the simpler folk were thus led into fraud by the heretics, when they said that Peter had been received even by the Roman See. -- That is, Timothy Aelurus. -- We command. By his effort too, without doubt, a law was passed in the same year by Zeno (Codex Justinianus I, 2, law 16), by which he confirmed this same right to him. Thereupon Calendio as bishop. -- In the year 484. ...] For these things he also lies subject to vengeance; nor does he now enjoy the communion of the Roman, that is, the apostolic See, of which he himself deprived himself, since, appearing as the associate and receiver of Peter the Eutychianist, he showed himself a sharer in that man's condemnation. Whom our sentence also has judged to be a stranger to the office of episcopal ministry and to holy communion and to your fellowship, that is, the Christian fellowship, as is found in the annexed documents. 3. But for our son Salomon the presbyter, whom Acacius, that he might please the heretics, thought fit to deprive of his rank, let your sentence preserve his proper rank, or let it declare that all who have perchance been cast down by the aforesaid man remain in their own places and in our communion. And although we know the zeal of your faith, we nevertheless admonish that all who wish to be partakers of the catholic faith abstain from his communion, lest -- which God forbid -- they lie subject to a like vengeance.

Felieis papae ad elerum et plebem Gonstantinopolitanum. -^^'^^ 12. 3'« tyrbentur ob praevaricationem legaiorwn Vitalia ei Miseni (n. 1), atque ui Acacii a sede aposioUca damnaii communionem devitent {u. 2). Clericos ab hoc ^ dejecios in loco manere pronuntient («. 3). Felix clero et pl^bi orthodoxis Constantinopoli constitutis dilectissimis filiis salutem. 1. Probatam cunctis vestrae fidei firmitatem Vitalis atque Mi- seni non irrati(mabiliter opinamur praevaricatione turbatam: qui muYersa^ quae illis mandata sunt, non tantum negligendo verum etiam impugnando fecerunt, ut ecclesia Romana consentire damnatis haereticis crederetur^); quando contra vetitum his, qui a Petro illo I, haeretico^ parricidarum^) socio olim justeque dejecto et toties ana- thematizato, directi^) atque ab Acacio suscepti sunt, nostrorum im- memores mandatorum, coramunicare convicti simt, nulla eontesta- tione praemissa, quam tamen, sicut his praeceptimi fuerat, religio restrae sanctitatiB audiret; actumque est, ut, sicuti praediximus, ex- cessus illorum noster crederetur assensus. Quos et ordinibus suis et Teneranda divini mysterii perceptione privavimus. NuUus ergo Testrum per tale commissum sit immemor sui, nec nos aestimet in apostolicae traditionis defensione deficere, quos videt fidei contume- liam in proditores et perditos vindicasse. 2. Scire vos quoque decuit Acacii quondam episcopi varietatem inconstantiamque detectam. Qui quum de Petro isto, sicut probatiu- adnexiB; non ferenda retulerit, atque olim dixerit'*) fuisse damnatum, per legatos nostros raoltis laudibus prosecutus, contra conseientiam fecit; ntrum ei quidquam credendum sit, omnes qui timorem Dei ante oculos constitmmt, judicabunt. Alienarum quoque provinciarum sibi jnra defendens^), sanctorum trecentorum decem et octo patrum Terjtiis £va(prii h. e. 111, 21 utar, ita multos ex sinipUcioribus in fraudeni inductos esme ab haereiicis, quum dicerent^ Peirum a Honiana etiam sede susceptum essc in «) b. e. Timothei Aeluri. Jubemus. iJjuB etiam opera haud dubie eodem anno lata a Zenone fuit lex (1. 16 Cod. Jufft. ly 2), qua idem jus ipsi confirmavit. Exiude Calendionem episcopmu a. 484. cauones illicitarum sibi ordinationum praesumptor est conatos tcre. Quorum etiam ob Iioc subjacet ultioni; nec Romanae, id apostolicae sedis, qua se ipse privavit, communione jam gaudle^ quando Petri Eutychianistae socius et susceptor apparens^ damzuK' tionis ejus se participem indicavit. Quem nostra quoque sententii niinisterii episcopalis officio et sancta communione vestroque umnero, id est Ohristiano, judicavit alienum, sicut reperitur in «dnexis. 3. Filio autem nostro Salomoni presbytero, quem Acacius^ uk placeret haereticis, suo privare putavit gradu, gradum proprium sea- tentia vestra conservet*% vel onmes, qui forte a memorato propalfli| in locis suis et in uostra communione manere pronuntiet. QuamTtt autem zelum vestrae fidei noverimus, monemus tamen, ut omneB, qui catholicae fidei volunt esse participes, ab illius se communione abstineant, ne, quod absit, simili subjaceant ultioni.