Letter 30: Simplicius rebukes Acacius sharply for his conduct.

Simplicius to his most beloved brother Acacius. We have no holidays from our cares; for the cause does not permit us to rest, and if we were to abandon it, we would be without excuse before Christ our Lord, whose concern it is. And it is astonishing that, through so many seasons that have passed and so many opportunities arising from them, your Charity has been unwilling to inform us at all about the Church of Alexandria, which is so gravely afflicted; although our rebuke has not ceased to admonish you, that, sharing in our anxiety, you should support my letters before the most Christian and most merciful prince [emperor] with the present addresses of your Charity, and, mindful of the old practice, should apply yourself to the defense of the orthodox as you always have: lest any of us, while the Christian people perishes, should incur the guilt of surrender, and seem to be a hireling rather than a shepherd. Wherefore we exhort your Charity that, in season and out of season, you do not cease to instill this into pious ears: so that, the scandals being removed which have rushed upon the Church of Alexandria with recurring assaults, the longed-for peace may be restored, and that the advancement won by your vigilance may swiftly be made known, the difficulties having been set aside. Given on the eighth day before the Ides of November [6 November], in the consulship of Severinus. Dispatched by Restitutus.

Simplicii papae ad Aeaciuin. 6 No v * >. 8. increpat SimpHcius Acacii de rebus Alexandrinae ecrlesiae siientiwn, eumque ut pristinum pro orthodoxorum defensione studium suscitet hortatur. Dilectissimo fratri Acacio Simplicius *). Cogitationum ferias non^) habemus; nec enim quiescere nos causa permittity quam si relinquamus, apuil Christum dominum no- strum, cujus interest^ inexcusabiles ^) sumus. Et miruni est, dile- ctionem tuam tot eraensis temporibus et tot opportunitatibus inde * venientibus, nil nos de Alexandrina ecclesia, quae tam graviter qua- titur, instruere voluisse; quum monere te nec increpatio nostra desti- terit, ut participata soUicitudine litteras meas apud Christianissimum et clementissimum principem praesentibus tuae dilectionis proseque- reris alloquiis, et instituti veteris^) memor in orthodoxorum defen- :«ionem sicut semper incumberes: ne^) quisquam nostrum Christiaua plebe pereimte reatum deditionis incurrat, et mercenarius potius videatur esse quam pastor. Unde hortamur dilectionem tuam, ut opportune atque importune piis auribus insinuare non desinas: qua- tenus remotis scandalis, quae in Alexancbiuam ecclesiam recidivis ausibus irruerunt, pax optata reddatur, et celeriter vigilantiae tuae provectus*) posthabitis difficultatibus indicetur. Data octavo^) Idus Novembris Severino consule. Directa per Eestitatiun.