Letter 29: Gelasius commends to Zeja the case of the clergymen Silvester and Faustinianus, who are pressing their claim to...

[Letter of Pope Gelasius to Count Zeia, 496. He commends to him the aforesaid clerics in the pursuit of their case.] Gelasius the pope [bishop of Rome] to Count Zeia. It ought always to be welcome to Christians that something is asked of them [...]. [The summary adds:] It is unseemly that the acts of an authority should be torn down, which he has judged necessary in accordance with his counsel and deliberation, since it is more fitting that, out of reverence for him, the things that seemed good to him be preserved inviolate. But if he has determined this concerning those who have been transferred, how much more concerning those who have been manumitted and, after manumission, consecrated to God. [Editorial note: In Sirmond's appendix to the Theodosian Code, chapter 3, this is the law: "By a standing law let it be enacted [...] of bishops, or of those who serve the necessities of the Church, that none be dragged to the tribunals of ordinary or extraordinary judges. Let those judges have nothing in common with these public matters, as regards the law, so far at least as concerns the cases [...] which it is fitting be decided by episcopal authority." The same Theodosius and Valentinian confirmed in the same place, chapter 6, in the year 424. But Gelasius seems chiefly to have had regard to the first preceding words, where he says: which the ancient princes confirmed by continual [law]. Nor is there any doubt that this case was ecclesiastical, in which there was at issue the [...] of the sacred office, in which Silvester and [Faustinianus] had served God almost from the cradle, and certain persons, less favorable to the bishops and clerics and being far from [...], desiring others to be substituted, were laying snares against their reputation. Wherefore the law of Gelasius pertains to the case of Faustinianus and Silvester, and the demand of Gelasius is just, that [they not] be dragged before a public administrator or judge.] [EPISTLES 23-25.] [...] a benefit [is] to be granted in keeping with [their] dignity; because it is not fitting to deny a benefit to those who serve God. Silvester therefore and Faustinianus, who confess that from their cradle [...] they are clerics, complain that they are being oppressed through violence by Theodora, because they say that, being freeborn and released by the author of their former condition from the bonds [of that condition], they are again being consigned to the lot of the most wretched servitude, and that through royal authority, contrary to the public laws, although they were held bound by the clerical girdle, they have been summoned through the archdeacon of the city of Grumentum, although it is established that he who answers the heavenly muster ought to follow no other court than its own. And therefore, beloved son, having rendered the address of greeting, I commend to you the aforesaid clerics, so that, if their adversary scorn to come to the judgment of those delegated to them, they may be fortified by the protection of your eminence, lest either deception or a violent compulsion hostile to the laws impose anything upon them: for he who flees judgment shows plainly that he distrusts his own justice.

(*-fP^ Gelasil papae ad Zejam comltem. — 496.) , Praedictos clericos in causa sua agenda ei commendat, p.] Qelasios papa Zqae comiti. Christianis gratum semper debet esse, quod ab eorum poscitur Bubdit: indecorum est auctoris facta convelli, quae pro consilio suo et iraetaiu m^ nessaria Judicaverit, quum magis deceat, ad ejus reverentiam, quae iUi visa Mn/, m* violata servari. Si vero id de tranalatis, quanto magis de manumiflgis et port manumissionem Deo consecratiB censuerit. Sirmondum append. cod. Theod. c. 3 ea lex est: Continua lege sandwaa^ episcoporum vel eorum, qui Ecclesiae necessitatibus serviunt,' newe ad judleia ordinariorum sive extraordinariorum Judicum pertrahatur. Habeni illijudiee§ quidquam his publicis commune cum legibus^ quantum ad causas tamen et pertinet, quas decet episcopali auctoritate decidi. Idem et ibid. cap. 6 TkeodKNni et ValentinianuB anno 424 firmarunt. Sed maxime ad prima praecedentb verba re8pexia3e videtur Gelasius,- ubi ait: quae vetusti principes assidua firmarunt. Nec dubium, quin ecclcBiastica fuerit haec caosa, in qua de ji sacri muneris, in quo paene ab incunahUis Deo Berviebant Silvester ao nnfi, agebatur, ac nonnulli episcopis et clericis minns foyentes et procnl da%^ alioB Buffectos cupientes eonim famae insidiarentnr. Quodrca ad Fiiiiilliiii^"* et Silvestri causam lex ejus pertinet, ac justa est Gelasii ezpoftolaiiO) qnod ^ moderatorem seugudicem publicum pertrahantur. EPISTOLAE 23 — 25. 391 dignitate praestandam; quia Deo servientibus beneficium negare non (a- 494 convenit. Silvester itaque atque Faustinianus , qui se a cunabulis '^ clericos confitentur, a Theodora se opprimi per violentiam conque- nmtar, qnia dieunt se ingenuos atque ab^) auctore pristinae con- ditionis nexibus absolutos^ in sortem deterrimae iterum servitutis addici^ et per auctoritatem regiam contra leges publicas, quum cleri- cali cingulo tenerentur adstricti, per archidiaconum urbis Grumen- iinae esse conventos*, quum constet eum, qui coelestem militem pulsat, nonnisi ejus forum debere sectari. Et ideo, dilecte fili, depenso salntationis affatu supradictos clericos tibi^) commendo, ut si ad delegatorum judicium eorum adversaria^) venire contempgerit, subli- mitatis tuae tuitione vallentur, ne quid illis aut subreptio, aut ini- mica legibus violenta necessitas imponat: quia qui judicium refugit, apparet eum de justitia diffismu.