Letter 144: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

We would wish, dearest brothers, that you might pass your life free from all the storms of troubles, in the serenity of tranquility, and that your minds might be devoted to our God with the disturbance of worldly tempests removed: because what we do not wish to happen, we must necessarily grieve when it has happened. But the world abounds in hardships and temptations: this age in which we are pilgrims is exposed on all sides, like a great mass, to the storms of winds. Thus the minds of the faithful are assailed by diabolical snares, and, as it has been said, "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" [2 Timothy 3:12]. But the hope of reward promised by the just one consoles us: for "blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me" [Matthew 11:6]. Let not the fragile and fleeting assaults cast down the soldiers of God. He who stands by the valiant takes no delight in the cowardly. Those things which pass away are easily despised, if those which are to endure are contemplated. The occasion of testing must be embraced: for although the burdens of labors are heavy, the rewards of virtue are greater. How will one be equal to the recompense who shows himself unequal to the trial? Let us not be sluggish toward brave deeds, if we desire to attain what has been promised. Who would wait for a human voice on this matter, when the sentence of truth daily resounds for us: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake" [Matthew 5:10]! But lest you believe, dearest brothers, that I comfort you with spiritual encouragement alone, great as that is among the faithful: I have not rested from providing remedies for your tribulation, as far as lay within human power. For through legates dispatched to the prince of the East, I admonished the bishop of Thessalonica to cease from harassing you, and through letters sent ahead, I directed that the emperor be petitioned. These are the provisions made for the present situation; but those things which pertain to future hope ought rather to be kept before your minds. Yet I confess I was amazed that amid your representations of distress, this concern could creep into your religious prudence: that permission to send formal letters to the bishop of Thessalonica was sought from me under the guise of consultation. Should I become the author of a thing which, if I learned it had been done without my knowledge, I would condemn? Away with such perversity! Hear the apostolic voice, but fittingly adapted to my own person: "If I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor" [Galatians 2:18]. Do not, I beg you, return to the contagion barely avoided, nor suffer the feet, torn from the mire that held them, to be badly plunged in again. Let what has passed be forgotten. "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" [Luke 9:62]. Those who look back with turned eyes at what they leave behind are impeded from the progress of their intended journey. The strict discipline of the Church does not love those in whom any memory of faithlessness remains: it is necessary to cut off completely from those who err, because those who return to what they have spurned are considered so detestable that the apostle Peter proclaimed it better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them [2 Peter 2:21]. It is plain with what persistence the constancy of the delivered faith must be guarded, if it is more tolerable to persist in error than to be entangled again in the defilements one has fled. Given on the day before the Ides of April [April 12], in the consulship of the most distinguished Agapitus [517 AD], by the hand of Pullio the subdeacon.

Hormisdae papae ad Johanuem Nieopolitanum et synodum ejus. a. 5i7 d. 12 April. De angusiiis, quas perpessi, consolatur {n. 1), se legationem ad principem et episcopum Thessalonicensem pro iliorum sublevatione misisse nuntiat (w. 2); ipsi ail Thessalonicensem litteras ne dirigant {n. 3). Hormisda Johanni episcopo Nicopolitano cum syiiodo. 1. Optaremus, dilectissimi fratres, ab omnibus vos molestiarum fluctibus alienos vitam sub tranquillitatis serenitate transigere, et Deo nostro remota mundanarum tempestatum mentes *) perturbatione restras devotas esse: quia quae fieri nolumus, necesse est, ut facta Joleamus. Sed abundat mundus incommodis et tentationibus : sae- 3ulum istud, in quo peregrinamur, expositum est passim^) veluti nagna moles ventorum procellis. Ita fidelium mentes diabolicis ') G* sec. manu passionibus. Deinde ed. par erit ei remuneratiQ. a. 517. pulsantur insidiis, et, sicut dictum est, qui volunt pie vivere in Chri' ^'^i^' ^^^> persecutiones patiuntur. Sed consolatur spes a justo retribatee Matth. promissa : quia beatus estj qui non fuerit scandalizatus in Domm, '^>^- Non dejiciant milites Dei impetus fragiles et caduci. Qui assistit strenuiS; non delectatur ignayis. Facile contemnuntur ista qnae transeunt, si illa quae sunt mansura cogitentur. Amplectenda est probationis occasio: quia licet sint dura onera laborum, praemiA tamen majora virtutum. Quemadmodum par erit remunerationi, qui se imparem monstrat examini ? Non simus segnes ad fortia, si per- venire cupimus ad promissa. Quis super hoc exspectet vocem homi- . ^^' nis, quum quotidie nobis insonet sententia veritatis: Beatiy qm pas- siones patiuntur propter justitiam! 2. Sed ne me, fratres carissimi; licet apud fideles magna sit'), spirituali tantum vos* credatis confirmatioue solari : a providendis pio vestra tribulatione remediis, quantum in homine esse potuit, noD quievi. Nam per legatos ad Orientis principem destinatos et Thes- salonicensem episcopum, ut ab infestatioue vestra cessaret, admonni, et prorogatis paginis; ut imperatori supplicaretur, injunxi. 3. Haec quantum ad praesentia sunt provisa; sed illa, qoaeid spem futuram pertinent^ haec sunt potius mentibus intuenda. Sane hoc me fateor fuisse miratum; quod inter allegationes angustianim religiosae prudeutiae vestrae haec potuit cura subrepere, ut a me sub consultationis ^) colore dirigendi ad Thessalonicensem episcopQm solidas litteras licentia posceretur. Egone hujus rei auctor exsiste- rem, quam si inscio me cognoscerem factam esse, culparem? Abat ista perversitas ! Audite apostolicam vocem, sed personae meae con- Gal.2,t8. venienter aptandam: Si quae destruxiy haec iterum reaedifico, pro^ varicatorem me constituo, Nolite, obsecro, ad evitata vix redire con- tagia, nec pedes luto, quo tenebantur, avulsos patiamini male wT" Luc.9,62. sus immergi. Sinite obliterata esse transacta. Nemo mittens mainm suam in aratrum et adspiciens retro aptus cst regno Dei. Impediontiff a processu propositi itineris , qui reflexis oculis respiciunt quod le- linquunt. Non amant Ecclesiae ^) strictae disciplinae eos, in quilwtf remanet memoria uUa perfidiae: totos ab errantibus oportet abscind^ quia iu tantum detestabiles existimantur ad spreta redeuntes, ^ HormiBdae de Johanue ac synodo ejus epist. 33 sic loqaentds: comsHienUt i^ nos, utrum daremus eis licentiam rclationem ad designatum episcopum secunim ^ suetudinem destinandi. £t vero hoc mendum antiquariis valde esi fjBuniliara, 91^ etiam ahas, quoties consultationis vocabulum orationis evidentia postalat, e tc^ ribus libris aliquem vix reperire sit, in quo consolationis voz nou ejns loeoit* hibeatur. '') Ita G*. £d. ecclesiasticae disciplinae ... memoria illa ... iii tradita. EPISTOLAE 35. 36. 811 apostolus Petrus melius illis esse praedicaverit, ut non cogno- a. 517. i viam justitiae, quam cognoseentes retrorsum reflecti a tradito ^ li^ ncto mandato. In aperto est, qua pertinacia traditae fidei constantia custodiri, si tolerabilius est in errore persistere, coinquinationibus rursum, quas quis fugerit, implicari. Data [dus Aprilis, Agapito viro clarissimo consule, per^) Pullionem )onum.