Letter 142: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

After your love departed, a deacon from Nicopolis [city in Epirus, northwestern Greece], who also met you on the road, came to Rome. We received him unexpectedly, considering whether perhaps there was something we ought to add to the instructions given for the embassy entrusted to you, which reason itself clearly demonstrated. For he brought us a letter from his bishop John and another from the synod of the church subject to Nicopolis, in which they complain that the bishop of Thessalonica [Dorotheos] has stirred up against them both imperial and judicial powers, and that they are severely afflicted by harassments and losses, for this reason: that he had not sent a report of his ordination to the bishop according to ancient precedent. For which cause they hoped that we ought to consider a remedy, consulting us also whether we would give them permission to send a report to the designated bishop according to custom. Wherefore we deliberated, and we admonished the bishop of Nicopolis not to dare attempt any such thing, if he wished to remain in communion with us: lest through him, if he had sought confirmation from one who is estranged from our communion, our communion too should sustain contamination. We have informed you of these things so that you might know everything. What, however, with God's favor, you should do about this matter, the appended instructions declare. Given on the day before the Ides of April [April 12], in the consulship of Agapitus [517 AD].

)rmisdae papae ad Enuodium et Peregrinum episcopos. 12 A^rU t profectis se episiolas a Johanne Nicopolitano ejusque synodo accepisse, qui- se a Dorotheo Thessalonicensi vehementer affligi querebantur ei utrum ad tdem relationem suhindehniiiere sibi ticeret consulebant. Se id negasse nuntiat ei de aliis instructionem insinuat. Hormisda Ennodio et Peregrino episcopis. Posteaquam profecta est caritas vestra, Nicopolitanus diaconus, vobis etiam occurrit in itinere, Romam venit^). Quem praeter un vidimus, cogitantes, ne forte esset quod ad instructionem datae vobis legationis adjicere deberemus; quod et rationabiliter im ipsa res evidenter ostendit. Obtulit enim nobis epistolam nnis episcopi sui et aliam synodi subjacentis') ecclesiae Nicopoli- J, qua queruntur ab episcopoThessalonicensi excitatas adversum se ^rincipales quam judiciarias potestates : concussionibus et dispen- te vehementer affligi propter hoc, quia de ordinatione sua ad ^pum relationem secundum^) prisca exempla non miserit. Pro Adeoque intra 5 Aprilis diem, quo legati profecti sunt. £d. add. sihi. Moxque prindpales potestates idem est, quod imperatoris ties, nisi quis hoc verbo malit intelligi IHyrici praefecturam et sublimissi' nter mundanos apices poiestatem, quam Leonis temporibus Anastasium pa- rhessalonicensem antistitem adiisse atque Attico ejusdem ecdesiae !Nico- iiae episcopo indignissima intulisse, Leo ipse epist. 14 c. 1 testatur. Johannem episcopum Nicopolitanum una cum sjnodo Epiri veteris rela- a de ordinatione ad Hormisdam misisse testes sunt superiores epistolae 15 In libro autem V de concordia sacerd. et imp. c. 25 n. 9 Steph. Baluzius ff^at, id contra morem veterem factum fuisse, ac de ordinatione Nicopoli* piscopi ad Thessalonicensem antistitem, non ad Romanum referri debuisse. ter etiam arbitratur, hac discordia Hormisdae datam esse occasionem di- a. 617. qua causa speraverunt, ut de remedio cogitare deberemiis, consu- lentes etiam nos , utrum *) daremus eis licentiam relationem ad de- signatum ejnscopum secundum consuetudinem destinandi. Unde ep. 35. tractavimus , et episcopum quidem Nicopolitanum admonuimus, ne tale aliquid audere tentaret, si nobiscum velit in communione per- sistere : ne per illum , si ab eo qui a communione nostra alienus est, confirmationem petiisset, nostra quoque communio contagium snsti- neret. Haec vos, ut omnia sciretis, instruximus. Quid autem pro- pitio Deo vobis de hac causa agendum sit, subjecta declarant. Data pridie Tdus Aprilis, Agapito consule.