Letter 29: Felix, bishop, servant of the servants of God, greetings.

[The text begins mid-sentence; the opening is lost.] ...the bishop, whether for the character of our own office or for the sake of your security, we judged that things of this kind should accordingly be set forth, so that, admonished not so much through any vicar of his as by the authority, as it were, of the apostle himself here present, and looking more deeply into the ways both of divine reverence and of the human condition, you may not be seen-which God forbid from your mind-to prove ungrateful to the author of the felicity conferred upon you. Let there return, I beseech you, into the inmost deliberation of your soul the recollection of those deeds that cast down your enemies, of those things that brought you back, with God accompanying you, to the imperial summit: how those men, together with their abominable reception of the [heretical] doctrine, fell; and in what manner your glory was restored by the expulsion of the heretics; so that those who came against the venerable enactments of the Synod of Chalcedon and the writings of the most blessed Pope Leo collapsed by their own contrivance, and by what means their own reformations restored to its former state your reverence's sovereignty. 5. Allow me, I pray, to set forth confidently before you what it is fitting not to keep silent. In you alone there survives the name of the ancient empire. Do not, I beg, begrudge us your own salvation, pious emperor; do not diminish our confidence in supplicating on your behalf! The causes by which the Lord may be made favorable are to be sought out, not those by which his indignation is provoked. I appeal, I call to witness, I implore; for I fear, I shudder, I dread, lest by a change of the causes-and, which God forbid, of those very things-the outcome too be changed. Look rather to your predecessors of august memory, namely Marcian and Leo, and, as their lawful successor, embrace the faith of such great princes. You owe agreement to their religion, you owe reverence to their memory: far be it from your devotion, far be it from your power, that you should be believed to have spurned the judgment of such men! 6. Finally, I urge upon the perceptions of your piety that your profession and your conscience be called to mind. Have the archives of your palace reviewed. [a. 483.] And let those writings be more diligently traced out which, as you advanced to the pinnacle of the highest power, your piety directed to my predecessor in shared congratulation. In them, surely, you attend him with great praise, because he had worn down the heretical tyranny by the vigor of catholic preaching; which preaching of that man assuredly, through the whole sequence of its text, declared nothing other than concerning the utter abolishing of the error of the Eutychian taint and the excluding of its followers, and concerning the preserving of the definition of the Synod of Chalcedon, and the bringing back of Timothy, of holy memory, as a priest of the right faith. This your gentleness certainly knows, nor could your clemency have put forward matters unknown to it, having both plainly and openly professed what you confirmed by the testimony of your praises. 7. Let those things also be sought out which the pages of your serenity addressed to Timothy of holy memory, the orthodox bishop of Alexandria, and observe from the very acts whether-once Peter had been removed from the aforesaid city, who at that time was squatting upon that church-the above-mentioned Timothy was not recalled. You presently gave your sacred and venerable letters to that same pontiff of venerable remembrance, now restored, in which you glory with faithful heart that, for the holy church of the great city of Alexandria, our Lord and Savior, providing for the orthodox faith, had once again restored a true priest. Whereby it is manifest that, since you call this man true, you show that the other, who was driven out, was false; and since you bear witness that in the venerable Timothy the Lord provided for the orthodox faith, you declare that the doctrine usurped in every way under Peter was refuted: for no other reason than because both he who is pronounced orthodox and true was in agreement with the Synod of Chalcedon, just as his profession then sent attests, and that other man... [the text breaks off here; what follows are the editors' manuscript-variant notes, not part of the letter]. [Editorial apparatus follows. The substantive historical note (on 5) reads:] Felix recalls to Zeno's memory how Basiliscus, condemning the Synod of Chalcedon and the writings of Leo, fell from his sovereignty, while he himself, taking the contrary path to regaining it, returned. That he in truth complied with these things is witnessed by his law, given at the end of the year 476, Codex Justinianus 1.2.16: "We have decreed that, all things which were in a manner done against orthodox religion's God being annulled and utterly invalidated, they be wholly restored to their integral state," etc. [The remaining footnotes are collation notes recording manuscript readings (sigla E, F, H) and editors' variants, e.g.: thus read E and E*; the editions, with F and H, read 'integra'; then E by a second hand has 'conspectus qui...', etc. These are textual apparatus and not letter content.]

antistitem^ yel pro mei ordinis qualitate vel pro tiiae securitatis in- a. 483. taitn hujuscemocli ideo promenda judicavit, ut non tam per ejus qualemcunque vicarium quam praesentis apostoli velut auctoritate commouitas^ altius vias et divinae reverentiae et humanae conditionis adspicienSy quod absit a tua mente, non ingratus exsistere videaris collatae felicitatis auctori. Redeat, obsecro, in anirai tui intima^'^) deliberatione conspectum, quae inimicos tuos facta dejecerint, quae te ad imperiale fastigium Deo cpmitante revexerint: qualiter illi cum nefanda dogmatis receptione conciderint, et quemadmoduni gloria tua haereticorum fuerit depulsione reparata; ut illi contra (Jalche-. donensis synodi venerabilia constituta et beatissimi papae Leonis Bcripta venientes, ipsa sui molitione collapsi sint, et quibus modis eoruni reformationes ad pristinum remeaverint^*) tuam reverentiam principatum. 5. Liceat, oro, apud te fidenter exserere^^), quae convenit non tacere. Unicum in te superest prisci nomen imperii. Ne, quaeso, nobis salutem tuam, pie imperator, invideas, ne fiduciam j)ro te mi- nnas supplicandi! Causae, quibus Dominus sit propitius, inquiren- dae sunt, non quibus ejus indignatio provocetur. Convenio, con- testor, obtestor; quoniam metuo, horresco, fonnido, ne mutatione cau8arum'^)'et earum, quod absit, mutetur eventus. Respice potius ad decessores tuos augustae memoriae Marcianum scilicet et Leonem, et tantorum principum fidem, legitimus eorum successor, amplectere. Debes illorum religioni consensum, debes memoriae reverentiam: absit a tua devotione, absit a tua potestate, ut talium credaris re- spuisse judicium! 6. Postremo professionem tuam conscientiamque recolendam sensibus tuae pietatis insinuo. Palatii tui facito scrinia recenseri. ") Ita E' E*; editi cum F* H'* iniegra. Deinde E* sec. manu conspectus qui iuorvm facta dejecerait quum prima manu cum E' F* H" et editis con- MpeeiWM quae dejeceruni (E* dejecerini ... conciderint^ F* ... evexerini ,., condiderint). Mox editi in haereiicorum. Felix ZenoDi in memoriam revoca^, quomodo Basiliscua Calchedonensem syno- dnm et Bcripta Leonis condemnans e principatu exciderit, ipse yero contrariam liam iniens ad eomdem capessendum redierit. Qjiem revera his obsecutum esse, testis est lex ejosdem anno 476 exeunte data 1. 16 Cod. Just. 1,2: Decemi- wtUM,' ui anitquati» ac in/irmaiis funditus, quae conira ipsum orthodo.rne religionis Deum quodam modo faeia suni, in iniegrum resiiiuaniur universa etc. •*) Ita E' E?; F* H^ exercere quae, editi exponere quem. Deinde E* E* impe- rii, abi alii imperaioris. '•) Ita E* E* F*. Editi ei earum omittunt, moxque scribunt: Hespice propi- tiuM (£' poiius) .. amplecti debes illorum in religione consensum. quorum dehes (E* correxit sec. manu religionis consensum eorumque dehes). mriBTOLAM BOMAH. POHTIF. I. 15 a. 483. et scripta illa diligeiitiiis * ' ) vestigari, quae ad apicem summae r^ "^ gredieiis potestatis ad decessorem memn pietas tua pro commmii gratulatione direxerit. His*^) eum nempe magna laude prosequeriSy quod haereticam tyrannidem praedicationis catholicae vigore contari- verit; quae utique illius viri praedicatio nihil aliud, quam de Ehity- chianae labis errore prorsus abolendo ejusque sequacibus exclndendis ac pro synodi Calchedonensis definitione servanda reducendoque sanctae memoriae Timotheo rectae fidei sacerdote, tota sna teztus serie prolocuta est. Haec certe tua mansuetudo cognoscit '•), nec res incognitas tua clementia proferre potuisset, et palam aperteque professa, quod laudum tuarum testificatione firmasti. 7. Requirantur illa quoque, quae ad sanctae memoriae Timo- theum orthodoxum Alexandrinum episcopum serenitatis tuae paginae sunt locutae, atque ex ipsis actibus intuere, nisi^^) Petro ex memo- rata urbe secluso, qui ejus ecclesiae tunc temporis incubabat, supra- . dictum Timotheiuu non fuisse revocatum. Vos ad eumdem veueran- dae reeordationis pontiticem jam reductum sacras venerabiles mox dedistis^ quibus tideli pectore gloriamini, quod sanctae ecclesiae magnae civitatis Alexandrinae, providens orthodoxae fidei, Dominus > noster ac Salvator verum rursus^") restituerit sacerdotem. Ubi ma- nifestum est, quia quum hunc verum dicitis, illum fuisse falsum, qui est depulsus, ostenditis; et quum in venerando Timotheo oriha- doxae'^'^) fidei Dominum testamini providisse, pervasam modis om- nibus in Petro perhibetis refutasse doctrinam: non ob aliud, niai quia et ille, qui orthodoxus pronuntiatur et^^) verus, Calchedonensi synodo, sicut ejus timc missa tenet professio, consentiebat, et isiey ") Ita K« E* F». Editi diligenier investigari ... direxit. *^) Ita E' E* F*. Editi his cum semper ... contriveris^ contra contextus ethi- storiae veritatem. Similiter in sequentibus editi prorsus corrupte: qua utique istius veritatis praedicatione nihii aliud quam de Eutychiano tahores errore . . . exetm^ dendis. Haec pro . . . serie pie locuta est. Codicum nostrorimi auctoritatem ■eqm- mur, nisi quod consueto more hac pro synodi pingunt, F* etiam laboriB errare, '*) Ita E' E- F*, nisi quod E' I/ic certe ... tuam clementiam proferre potuMese .. . professam (F* professe). Editi cognovit. '*') Ita codices nostri; consentiunt viilgati, nisi quod ex ea memorata ... W ecclesiae ... gloriabmnini habent. E' secundis curis nisi Petrus ... eectusue ... « supradicto Timotheo non fuissct&evocatus. F* sint locutae ... ex ejus memoratae urbU . . . ^«i ejus . . , provocatum. ^') Ita E* E^ F<. Editi omittunt rursus et deinde hunc; subinde iidem fui pulsus est. '•) Ita E' E*F^, nisi quod E* secundis curis refuisse (fortasse pro futsee re- pctita a priore voce littera s, quae apud veteresprorsus similis iitterae r). Editi orthodoxo fidem . , . testamini rcduxisse pervcrsam in omnibus, *"^) E* post. manu est verus Catchedonensis synodi observator sirui, quum antea nobtra et aliorum lectio. Moxque E* F* ejus sumissa (F* suum missa) tenet pro- feasio congregabut. ac deinile ctiiti perver.^us ejicitur.