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

Your affection will not marvel at the reason for my past silence, if it considers all that has preceded: it will not marvel at the present address, if it weighs what the power of charity is. For we have learned from the teacher of the nations [Paul] that charity endures all things [1 Cor. 13:7]; and if, as that same teaching holds, charity does not seek its own, am I improperly using my privilege in offering what can rather benefit you? I ought indeed to have waited until you were free from the fellowship of those who err, and thus to love you once corrected; to see you divided from what must be disapproved, and thus to embrace you in a letter. But why should you delay to call back one whom you desire to see returned? Why should there be no place for moderation, when nothing is taken from equity? What benefits the struggling must be offered, if it does not pollute us with the contagion of fellowship. This was my reason for the present letter: to urge, to admonish that we not suffer our land to lie neglected and unfruitful. A diligent farmer does not long permit an unfruitful tree to occupy the ground: he waits patiently; but does he permit it under continual [unfruitfulness]? [The letter continues with Hormisdas urging Timothy, patriarch of Constantinople (a different Timothy from the earlier heretical one), to correct himself and not delay his reconciliation, to wipe out the past through the future, and to compensate by prompt action.]

^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