Letter 24: Gelasius praises the constancy of these bishops in preserving the faith and in avoiding the neighboring...

[a. 494. Letter of Pope Gelasius to the bishops of Dardania and Illyricum. He praises their steadfastness in keeping the faith and avoiding the contagion of their neighbors (n. 1).] [Editorial note: In Regino, book 1, chapter 18, the reading is: "That if any, which God forbid, the properties of the church and the dioceses are possessed by other bishops, etc." The text would not be displeasing if read: "that if, which God forbid, they are possessed by certain others." Certainly after the word "dioceses" something must be supplied, or the word "of another" must be read. This opinion of Gelasius is illustrated by canon 34 of the Fourth Council of Toledo held in the year 633, in which it is laid down: "Whatever bishop has possessed the diocese of another for thirty years without any challenge, since by the law of his right it now seems to be his diocese, he is not to be admitted against him when he again demands it back." Looking to the same matter, already in the year 617 the Second Council of Seville had decreed: "The objection of a thirty-year term imposes silence; for both the edicts of secular princes prescribe this and the authority of the Roman pontiffs has decreed it." See also the Council of Chalcedon, canon 17, and likewise the Theodosian Code, book 4, title 14, the single law of Theodosius (law 3 of Code book 7, title 39), and the interpretation of Anianus, and the Novel of Valentinian, title 91. Nor should it here be passed over that in chapter 18 of the Eighth Synod held under Hadrian II in the year 870, in which the thirty-year prescription is confirmed, it is cited by Gratian (canon 8, Causa 16, question 3) under the name of Gelasius, as found in the Josaphat manuscript copied about the year 500, with a threefold variation, however: of which the first is that Z and II have "granted in writing," where the synod adds "or without writing"; the second, that they present "and by the command of the bishop," whereas in the synod it stands "and by the use of the bishop"; the last, that whereas the synod set forth "or shall restore the matter and shall reserve it," from these is absent "shall reserve it."] [Editorial note: Regino and the Capitularies read as in the manuscripts in its place. Then only manuscripts O [...] "to appeal those whom," and in one, by second corrections: for these (X for id) "to appeal those whom."] EPISTLES 17. 18. 383 [a. 494. That they should avoid communion with those who do not separate themselves from the fellowship of the Eutychians (n. 2), and that they should write to him more frequently about those who press upon the faith, and make his admonitions known to the neighboring provinces (n. 3). That the bishops should beware of the arts of the Thessalonican bishop, who, being unwilling to abstain from reciting the name of Acacius, did not earn the communion of the apostolic see (n. 4). That they should not let themselves be persuaded that the crime of his prevarication was remitted to Acacius, or that the apostolic see would be pursuing its own private injury rather than the cause of the faith and of catholic communion (n. 5).] Gelasius the bishop to all the bishops established throughout Dardania or throughout Illyricum. 1. Hearing of the orthodox steadfastness of your loving-kindness in Christ, and that you so cling to the traditions of the ancient faith and of sincere communion that the neighboring contagions of the prevaricators have in no way infected a mind devoted to Christian truth, we have magnified the Lord, and with the whole eagerness of our heart we have taken care to address your charity by letters sent through the religious men, our sons Cyprian and Macarius, deacons: since, on behalf of the primacy of the apostolic see, whose solicitude, delegated by God, is owed to all the churches, we live, if you stand fast in the Lord, and we triumph with great joys, when we recognize that the Lord of Sabaoth has left in every land throughout the world a seed of pure confession, which, not falling upon stony ground, was not parched by the heat of temptation, nor fell beside the wayside exposed to the wandering enemies, nor rushed in among the thorns to be choked, but, scattered in the good ground of your pious devotion by heavenly sowing, advanced into the thirtyfold and sixtyfold and hundredfold fruit, designating by mystical expression the increase, namely, of the Lord's grain. 2. Wherefore, with exultant spirits we more confidently urge you on, that, with your breasts wisely kept undefiled, you may keep guard against the assault of the Eutychian plague: since now "he who perseveres unto the end, he shall be saved" [Matthew 10:22]. "The Lord is near, be anxious for nothing" [Philippians 4:5-6]; since indeed greater is he "who is in us than he who is in this world" [1 John 4:4], and it is certain, as Scripture testifies, that the kingdom of the Lord is within us [Luke 17:21]. But that you may beware of the harmful fellowship of those who are set in error, you should receive into your fellowship none who communicate with such persons by any underhanded means: for just as in each heresy catholic integrity ought to avoid those mingled in polluted communion with the condemned author of the depravity, together with his successors and accomplices and followers of this kind, so with Eutyches, Dioscorus, and likewise Timothy Aelurus and Peter of Alexandria, and his fellow-communicant Acacius, and also Peter of Antioch [...] together with their associates, are altogether to be renounced. Nor should anyone, even though he promise that he will lay aside his depravity, yet consenting to the reciting of the names of the lost, or in no way set apart from communion with those reciting the same, be permitted in any manner whatsoever to enter the spotless sheepfolds with their sacrileges, so that the Church of our God, which "endures spot and wrinkle" with difficulty, may remain inviolate [Ephesians 5:27]. Let there be far from the faithful of Christ the dread dealings with the viper's head, and let the death-bearing poisons be driven far from the heavenly pastures, so that the saving nourishment of that bread which "comes down from heaven" [John 6:50] may lead the faithful who partake of it to eternal life. 3. That we may be able to provide for these things by mutual exhortation, let your loving-kindness take care that you do not cease more frequently to disclose to us both the longed-for well-being of your charity and the perseverance of the common faith: so that, rousing one another by alternating instructions, we may be able to find the reward of the lawful priests of the Lord. Let your charity also vigilantly insist on making these same things known throughout the neighboring provinces, so that both those who stand firm in the sincerity of catholic communion may be strengthened by fitting addresses, and those who have perhaps deviated from the rectitude of this may be brought back by wholesome admonitions to the integrity of Christian doctrine. 4. Let your brotherhood know, moreover, that the bishop of the church of Thessalonica, though often urged on by our exhortations, has never been willing to shun the contagions of external communion, nor to condemn before us, with fitting profession, the name of Acacius or of the rest of the like faithless men and of those communicating with them. Wherefore it is manifest that he has not received the communion of the apostolic see, since unless with pure feelings and set apart from every wicked fellowship, we can neither nor ought to offer to him the dealings of the Church of blessed Peter the apostle. Therefore one must act the more cautiously with the aforesaid man, lest, as is wont to happen, he creep upon catholic minds by a reconciliation with the apostolic see: which, just as he is not able to deceive and circumvent by deceitful arts, so he cannot obtain it under [false pretense]. Our authority too, which has been directed to the bishops of the Dalmatias, we believe is to be directed also to you, so that you may know that we hold everywhere a uniform opinion in catholic truth according to the form of the ancient tradition. But if you learn that any new disturbances are arising, you ought with brotherly solicitude to disclose them to us, so that thereupon, with the Lord granting, we may procure remedies which accord with the rules of the fathers. [Editorial note: It is manifest from the legate of the church of Alexandria presented to the legates of Pope Anastasius II (below, Anastasius II, epistle 5), whom Baronius assigns to the year 497. And from the cited letter of Felix it is gathered that this Andrew had already then deceitfully attempted to capture the communion of the apostolic see.] EPISTLES 18. 19. 385 5. Nor let anyone at all persuade you that the crime of his prevarication was remitted to Acacius, because he who, after falling into the fellowship of depravity and by right deserving to be shut off from apostolic communion, persisting in this same condemnation died, cannot now, being dead, obtain the absolution which, while surviving, he neither sought at all nor deserved; since indeed it was delegated by Christ's voice to the apostles themselves: "Whatever you shall bind upon earth, and whatever you shall loose upon earth" [Matthew 18:18]. As for the rest, concerning him who is set in the divine judgment, it is not lawful for us to decree anything other than that in which his last day found him; and therefore, unless his name be repudiated and the others associated in his error, you ought by no means to share with any one of them the purity of the Lord's table, which our forebears always greatly kept separate from heretical pollution. 6. But neither let anyone attempt to circumvent you by saying that the contest is not about religion but about morals, or that the apostolic see is not pleading the cause of catholic communion and of the faith, but is grieving over an injury, because it seems to have been despised by Acacius; since those who are set in error do not cease to scatter these and things of this kind, in order to deceive any simple persons whatsoever. For you see, as has already been said above, that through the names of the prevaricators, if, which God forbid, they are believed to be recited in the Church, the contagion of prevarication is at the same time introduced. But the apostolic see, so far from grieving over the affront, defends the faith and sincere communion, so that today it would receive all those who have been seen to break forth into contempt of it, if they should return to the integrity of the faith and of catholic communion, coming according to the course of the fatherly rules with the whole affection of the heart and with full charity. Given on the third day before the Nones of August, in the consulship of Asterius and Praesidius, most illustrious men.

a.494d. Gelasii papae ad episeopos Dardaniae et IUyrici. Praedicat iHorum comtantiam in servanda fide ac vitandis vicinis contagiig («. 1). pi; Apud Reginonem autem lib. 1 eap. 18: Ut si qui, quod absit, facuHates Eerledm ei diocceses ah aliis quibus possidentur episcopis etc, Non dispHceret: ut #i, qnoi ahsit^ ah aliis quihusdtim possidcntur. Certe post verbum dioeeeses supplendom aut dicendum atterius. Hanc Cielasii sententiam illustrat Toletani IV concfla anno 633 habiti .canon 34, in quo praecipitur: Quicunque episcopus aiierims e^ scopi dioeccsim per triyinta annos sine aliqua interpeltatione possederii , quia seemn- dum Jus tegis ejus Jam videtur esse dioecesis^ admittenda non esi conira eum meii§ reposcendi. Ad eamdem re8])icien3 jam amio 617 concilium Hispaleiue II c t sanxerat: Tricennatis oftjectio sitentium ponit; hoc enim et saecularium prineipnm edictn praecipiunt et praesutum liomanorum decrevit auctoritas. Vide et COncflillM Calchedonense c. 17 nec non cod. Theod. hb. 4 tit. 14 uuicam Theodoflii legca (l. 3 C. Vll, 39) et Aniani interpretiitionem atque Valentiniaui noYell. tit. 91 Silendimi hic non eBt, syuodi VIII ab lladriono II anuo 870 habitae captinbui 18, iu quo praescriptio tricennalis finnatur, quum a Gratiano (c. 8 C. XVI qa. ^ tum in ms. Josaphateo ab aimis circiter 500 descripto sub Qelaaii nomna citari cum triplici tanieu varietate: quarmn prima est, quod Z /I' habeni tum t;i scriptis donatay ubi Bynodus addit vel sine scriptis; altera, qnod exliibent ac Jussu praesutis, in synodo exstat ac usu praesulis; pottreina, qiiod quum synodus prae se ierat seu res restituerit et reservaverii , ab iUia abett il reservaverit . -') Regino et Capitularia ut in niB». pro eo. Deinde soli mss. O iieemi mpfff* lare quos, et in uuo secundis curis: pro his (X* pro id) appellare quos, EPIStOLAE 17. 18. 383 Ut earwmy qui ab EutycManorum consortio se non segregant, communionem vitent a. 494. {«. 2), ad ipsum autem de fidei instantibus crebrius scribant^ ipsiusque monita vicims provinciis nota faciant (n. 3). Ut ab artihus caveant episcopi Thessa- lomicensis, qui a recitando nomine Acacii abstinere nolens apostoKcae sedis com- nutnwnem non meruit (n. 4). , Ne persuaderi sibi sinant, Acacio praevaiicationis Muae crimen fuisse laxatum, aut ab apostoiica sede propriam injuriam, non fidei et conmunionis catholicae causam tracturi (n. 5). Gelasius episcopus universis episcopis per Dar- daniam*) sive per Tllyricum constitutis. 1. Audientes orthodoxam vestrae dilectionis in Christo con- stantiam^ atque ita vos antiquae fidei connnunionisque sincerae tra- ditiouibus inhaerentes, ut meutem Christianae deditam veritati nul- latenus infecerint praevaricatorum vicina contagia, magnificavimus Dominum^ caritatemque vestram missis litteris alloqui per religiosos viros filios nostros Cyprianum atque Macarium diacones tota cordis aYiditate curavimus: quoniam pro sedis apostolicae principatu, cujus sollieitudo delegata divinitus cunctis debetur ecclesiis, nos vivimus, - si vos statis in Domino, magnisque gaudiis triumphamus, quum ubi- que terrarum Dominum Sabaoth semen purae confessionis reliquisse cognoscimus, quod non in petrosa deveniens aestu tentationis exa- jl 3^^ Txnty nec viae proximum cecidit vagantibus'^) inimicis expositum, nec in spinis irruit suffocandum, sed in bonam terram piae devotio- nis vestrae coelesti satione dispersum in trigesimum et sexagesimum fructum centenariumque profecit, profectionemque scilicet frumenti clominici mystica locutione designans. 2. Quapfopter exsultantibus animis confidentius incitamus, ut ab Eutychianae pestis incursu pectora vestra sapienter intemerata,, nervetis: quoniam jam qut perseverat usqtte tn fincm, mc saivus eni. 10,22. Jkminus prope esi, nihti soliiciii sitis; siquidem major est, qui'*) in I^*^i*ip- nobis est, quam qui in hoc mundo, regnumque Domini intra nos ' esse Scriptwa testante sit certum. Ut auteni ab eorum, qui in er- ^Y^^' rore sunt positi, uoxia societate caveatis, nullum talibus communi- emntem ad vestrum recipiatis qualibet subreptione consortium: quia flieut in uuaquaque haeresi cum pravitatis auctore damnato succes- sores ejus et complices atque Imjusmodi sectatoribus polluta com- munione permixtos cathdlica vitare debet integritas, ita cum Euty- ehete Dioscorus simulque Timotheus Aelurus et Petrus Alexandrinus ejusque communicator Acacius nec ' non etiam Antiochenus Petrus ■) lia G\ nt jam a^ suspicatus fuerat; at editi vacantibus ... coelesti faclione a. 494. cum Buis sunt omnino participibus abdicandi. Nec qnisquam, etii praTitatem deponere se promittat^)^ recltandis tamen nominibi consentiens perditorum vel eadem recitantium minime communioi discretus, ad immaculata sacrilegiis ovilia quibuscunque modis iJph. 5,27. permittendus intrare, ut Ecclesia Dei nostri, quae maculam rugamq tiori sustinet, inviolata permaneat. Absint ergo a fidelibus Chris^ viperae capitis dira commercia, et procul a coelestibus pascuis mor^ Foh.G,50. tifera venena pellantur, ut salutaris alimonia panis illius, qui d^^ coelo descetiditj fideles hanc sumentes ad vitam perducat aetemam! 3. Quae ut mutua valeamus exhortatione prospicere, det operam vestra dilectio, ut et sospitatem vestrae caritatis optatam et fidei conmiimis instantia nobis crebrius aperire non desin^t: quatenuB alternis nos instnictionibus excitantes, legitimorum Domini sacer- dotum possimus invenire mercedem. Per vicinas quoque provincias haec eadem patefacere v^stra caritas vigilanter insistat, ut et qui catholicae communionis sinceritkte subsistunt, competentibus robo- rentur alloquiis, et quiforsitan ab hujus rectitudine deviarunt, ad integritatem dogmatis Christiani salubribus monitis reducantur. 4. Noverit autem vestra fratemitas, ecclesiae Thessalonicensis antistitem, nostris ^) iidhortationibus saepius incitatum, contagia com- munionis externae nunquam declinare voluisse, nec apud nos noqieu Acacii vel ceterorum similium perfidorum hisque communicantium congma professione damnasse. Quapropler eum communionem sedis apostolicae non recepisse manifestum est, quoniam nisi puris sensi- Jiirrrr) ^® et ab omni nefanda*^) societate *beati Petri apoatoli nec poe- sumu^ nec debemus Ecclesiae praebere commercia. Propterea cautius /fr/fl) agendum est cum praefato, nec catholicis mentibus, *ut fit, apo- stolicae sedis reconciliatione subrepat: quam sicut dolosis artibus ^/^^ ^j„, f allere et circumvenire non praevalet, ita^) *sub cujus non potest obtinere. Auctoritatem quoque nostram, quae ad Dalmatiarum est Alexandrinae ecclesiae lcgatis Anastasii II papae oblato (infra Anast. II ep. 5), quem BaroniuB ad annum 497 refert, manifeBtum est. £x dtata autem FelidB opistola hunc Andream jam tum apostolicae sedis communionem dolose captare conatum esse coUigitur. ') G< ab omni nefande sodetatis, quo sermo etiam mandor apparet (snpplen- dum tunc eonsortio discretis). EPISTOLAE 18. 19. 385 (iijrecta ^ntifices, etiam ad yos credimus dirigendam^ quatenus ina. 494. veiritate catholica secundum formam traditionis antiquae tenere nos cou.so]iam noveritis ubique sententiam. Si quos vero novos didice- ritds motus exsnrgere^ nobis fratema debetis sbllicitudine reserare^ qiio subinde^ quae patrum regulis congruant; praestante Domino remedia procuremus. 5. Nec quisquam onmino vobis persuadeat, Acacio praevaricatio- Tiis suae crimen fuisse laxatum^ quia qui postquam in collegium r^cidens pravitatis jureque meruit ab apostolica communione secludi, w bac eadem persistens damnatione defunctus est, absolutionem^ qTvam superstes nec quaesivit omnino nec meruit, mortuus jam non potest impetrare; siquidem ipsis apostolis Christi voce delegatum €st: Quae ligaveritis super terram, et quae soiveritis super terram. j[g ^g Ceterum jam de eo, qui in divino est judicio constitutus, nobis fas non est aliud decernere praeter id, in quo eum dies supremus in- venit; atque ideo nisi ejus nomine refutato ceterisque consortibus Aojns erroris, cum nullo prorsus eorum participare debetis mensae dominicae puritatem, quam majores nostri semper ab baeretica magnopere servaverunt pollutione discretam. 6. Sed neque vos quisquam^) circumvenire pertentet, quod dicat, non de religione sed de moribus esse certamen, vel aposto- Ucam sedem non causam conununionis catholicae fideique tractare, sed ijijuriam dolere, cur videatur ab Acacio fuisse contempta; quo- niam liaec et hujusmodi, quatenus simplices quosque decipiant, hi qui in errore sunt positi, spargere non quieseuiit. Videtis enim, sicut supra jam dictum est, per nomina praevaricatorum, si, quod absit^ in Ecclesia reeitanda credantur, simul et contagium praevari- catioiiis induci. Sedes autem apostoliea in tantum non contumeliam dolet, sed fidem defendit, communionem sineeram, ut hodie euncti, qui in ejus visi sunt prorupisse despectum, si ad integritatem fidei commumonisque^) catholicae revertantur, secimdum regularum trami- tem patemarum toto cordis afiectu venientes et plena caritate su- acipiat. Data III Nonas Augusti, Asterio et Praesidio viris claris- simis consulibus.