Letter 137: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

[Editorial heading, April: From Pope Hormisdas to Timothy, bishop of Constantinople. He exhorts him, since love compels him to address him with a letter although he is not yet corrected, that he should not put off his correction, and that he should wash away and make amends for past things by means of future ones.] Hormisdas to Timothy, bishop of Constantinople. 1. Your Beloved will not wonder at the reason for my past silence, if he considers all the things that have gone before; nor will he wonder at the present address, if he weighs what the force of love is. For we have learned, taught by the master of the nations [the Apostle Paul], that love endures all things; and if that doctrine itself contains its own teaching and does not seek what is its own, do I make an unfitting use of my privilege if I display [it] in a way that may rather profit you? For it was fitting that I should wait until you were free from association with those who err, and so love one who has been corrected: to see you separated from the things to be condemned, and so embrace you in epistolary discourse. But why should you delay to summon back one whom you desire returned and who is slow? Why should not room be given to moderation, when nothing is withdrawn from equity? Those things must be expended which profit the labouring, if they are not polluted by the contagion of fellowship. 2. This was the cause for me of the present letter, that I might exhort, that I might admonish, lest we suffer our land to lie untilled through negligence. The diligent farmer does not long permit an unfruitful tree to occupy the soil: he waits patiently; but does it endure under that prolonging? Called to things that bring salvation, you do not delay. He does not depart far from innocence who returns to it without slowness. Be moved by fatherly admonitions, and, treading upon faithful footsteps without lapse or error, wash away the things that went before by means of those to come. It lies near to you now, sometimes by stirring up the people toward just things, sometimes by making supplication for the faith at the chief footsteps [that is, prostrate at the footsteps of the prince Anastasius], to set straight what is astray, to make solid what is doubtful. It befits you to provide with great labour, so that an upright diligence of action may cover over the cases of the time now past. He indeed renders good to his own soul through whom something is conferred upon the universal Church: and the matter so stands that, if you press on zealously, if untiringly, the common cause may become useful to you. Given as above. [Apparatus / footnotes: On "whom you desire returned, why should you delay": in manuscript b it reads "whom you may desire returned, why you should delay"; but contrary to Hormisdas's sentence, which by a general expression elegantly says "whom anyone may desire returned, why he should delay," it reads "you desire" etc. On "the chief footsteps": that is, prostrate at the footsteps of the prince Anastasius. Further, the edition has "confers" ... Epistles 27-29.]

^April' Hormisdae papae ad Tiinotheum Constantinopolitanum episcopum. Caritate cogente se eum litterix convenire quamvis nondum correrlum; ui cor- ^.\^\ rectionem ne differat ac praeterita per futura diluat compensetque, hortatwr. Hormisda Timotheo episcopo Constantinopolitano. 1. Non mirabitur dilectio tua rationem praeteriti silentii mei, si quae praecesserint universa consideret: non mirabitur praeseutis 23^^' alloquii; si quae sit vis caritatis expendat. Sustinere enim omnii» caritatem, magistro gentium docente cognovimus; quae si sua, aica^fc continet doctrina ipsa^ non quaerit, an incongrue abusus privilegi^ meO; quod tibi potius prodesse possit; exhibeo? Exspectare emc^ me decuit ab errantium conjunctione te liberum^ et sic amare coK — rectum: videre ab improbandis dividi, atque ita litterario sermoim.^ complecti. Sed quem optes^) reducem, cur differas yocare tardaK».- tem? Cur non detur locus moderationi^ quum nihil detrahitur aeqimi- tati? Impendenda sunt quae laborantibus prosunt^ si noe societatais contagione non poUuunt. 2. Haec causa mihi fuit praesentium litterarum^ ut horter, ut moneam^ ne terram nostram jacere patiamur negligentius infecan- dam. Non diu infructuosam arborem occupare solum diligens per- mittit agricola: patienter exspectat; sed numquid sub continuatioin^ perdurat? Yocatus ad salutaria^ non moreris. Prope ab innocentia» non recedit; qui ad eam sine tarditate reverterit. Movere patnm monitis^ et insistens fidelibus sine lapsu aut errore vestigiiS; pne^ cedentia dilue per futura. Adjacet tibi modo ad justa populoe ift" citando, modo pro fide principalibus vestigiis^) supplicando, dirigcp^ (|uod devium est, solidare quod dubium. Magno te convenit labor^ providere, ut causas transacti temporis rectae tegat sedulitas actw^— nis. Praestat quidem animae suaC; per quem universali aliquid coi^'' fertur Ecclesiae: et ita se res habet, ut si studiosus, si indefeaw^ institeris; fiat tibi utilis causa communis. Data ut supra^). 28 *) b cc optem reducem^ cur di/feras: praeter Hormisdae sententiam» quip'* generaJi locutione: quem quisque optet reducem, curdifferat, eleganter dicitfv^* optes etc. ^^ •) H. e. principis Anastasii vestigiis provolutus. — Mox ed. confert ..* f^' EPI8T0LAE 27 — 29. 801