Letter 1

From: Hormisdas, Pope of Rome To: Dorotheus, bishop Date: ~515 AD Context: Hormisdas urges Dorotheus to maintain church unity despite provocations, during negotiations to end the Acacian Schism. Hormisdas to his dearest brother Dorotheus. Where love requires us to keep its commandments, even if something happens that might upset anyone, we must still let it pass with patience, so that the principles of harmony we have already laid down are upheld. After all, if something like this comes from ignorance, the very simplicity of the offense can serve as its own excuse. Our God established his church by his own arrangement, and what has been ordered by divine command can never be set aside. I know you are not ignorant of this: good deeds earn praise, and eloquence is truly adorned when it properly joins what belongs together. I received a letter from Your Charity through our son Patricius, a man of distinction. In it we had hoped to find a complete and praiseworthy work — one that would leave nothing to separate us from the integrity of our unity. But since you promise in this very letter the kind of devotion that can draw us toward what we have already described, we pour out our prayers to our Lord that he himself — whose cause is at stake — will clear away and cut off every scandal from his church, binding us together under one mind and one faith. May he not allow anything to be found among his bishops that could serve anyone's personal hatreds or empty quarrels, or that might, God forbid, be aimed at injuring God in order to please other people. Instead, let each one, following the blessed apostle, despise all worldly things and never swerve from the hope of the life to come. I urge this for the sake of our common healing. I plead for the salvation of the faithful. I press the case for a universal remedy. Who could be content to see divided those whose unity is our glory? We need a shared effort, so that by preserving what we received from our fathers, we may stand secure before that divine judgment.

DiLECTissiMO FRATRi DOROTHEO HORMisDA. Ubi caritatis iuter- est seruare praecepta, etiamsi aliquid tale eueniat, quod cuius- libet possit animos commouere, tamen, ut ea, quae <de> concordiae conseruatione praediximus, debeant custodiri, oportet aequanimiter praetermitti, quia utique, si quid ignorantia tale proueniat, excusationem potest de ipsa simplicitate recipere. suam deus noster ecclesiam propria ordinatione constituit et, quod diuinis praeceptis noscitur esse dispositum, nullatenus 2 poterit praeteriri. cuius notitiam uel scientiam te non cognoui ignorare: in faciendo namque bona laudantui- et tuuc uerborum cultus ornatur, quando sibi conuenientia rite con- iungit. litteras siquidem per Patricium filium nostrum specta- bilem uirum tuae suscepimus caritatis, in quibus spera<ba>mus opus plenum et probabile reperire, ut nihil esset, quod ab 3 integritate unitatis secerneret. sed quia in his ipsis hunc promittis affectum, qui nos <ad> hoc <quod> praediximus possit specialiter prouocare, domino nostro preces effundimus, nt ipse, cuius et causa tractatur, abstersis uel amputatis uniuersis scandalis ex ecclesia sua sub uno consensu et parili faciat fide conexos nec in sacerdotibus suis quicquam reperiri patiatur, quod cuiuslibet aut odiis propriis aut inanibus inten- tionibus aut hominibus in iniuriam dei, quod nefas est, uelle 2 die] d o: ci V Ki ap V Batione T', corr. 8 ptermiti V 10 noster compendio nt pinxit V et p^: ut F 12 cognoui scripsi: cognouit F, conuenit 13 lau- daniur Edit. reg. 14 fort. conuenientia <facta ' 16 sperabamus Coust.: speramus V 18 fort. integritate <te> IH ad et quod inseruit o 21 causa y, corr. o 22 ex p^: et V 23 repperiri V 24 sq. patiatur quo . . intentionibus hominibus . . uelint placere . . contemnentes . . pos- sint Thiel; at ferri possunt tradita quamuis satis contorta 25 iniuria T', corr. 0 nefa F, corr. o Epist. CV 7 — CVII 2. 499 placere et non magis uniuersa secundum beatum apostolum saecularia contemnentem ab spe non possit exorbitare futura. hortor propter commune remedium, inuito pro salute fidelium, 4 propter generalem suadeo medicinam. quis namque contentus 5 est hos uidere diuisos, quorum potest unitate gloriari? unde opus est labore communi, ut hoc, quod a patribus nostris accepimus, conseruantes securi de his in illo diuino possimus asstare iudicio.