Letter 146: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

When I consider the depths of your wisdom, most merciful emperor, I do not suppose that those who provide for their own salvation displease you. For neither divine admonitions nor human institutions require that one who counsels good hope should be blamed with any reproach, especially since your piety also confesses that it burns with desire for unity and peace. This circumstance has compelled me, whether from confidence in your conscience or from the duty of the stewardship entrusted to me, not to stand aside when an affair emerges. John, my brother and fellow bishop, the prelate of the city of Nicopolis, following the example of his predecessor Alcyson of holy memory, sought the communion of the blessed apostle Peter together with his synod, condemning those whom the Church detests. He is now wearied by grievous plots. I beseech your clemency: oppose those who contrive wickedness, remove their troubles, and favor the one who has been corrected — he whom they should have urged to correct himself. For those who have delayed will know that they will be held guilty, when they see that those already returned are favored by you. I confess, most merciful emperor, I am astonished at the persistence of those who plot, unmoved by regard for either God or you. For those who hate in a person the pursuit of good desire persecute what they judge said about themselves. Those who bring people back to the right path are rightly to be blamed if they do not convert the wayward. Let the bright testimonies of your faith be rendered effective, if you have been present to those brought back to unity, and consider with every exhortation what can be accomplished.

a.5i7d. Horitiisdae papac ad Anastasinm Augustum. l/l Jokannem Nicopolitanum a molestiU infestantiwn tueatur, rogat. Hormisda Anastasio Augusto per Ennodium et Peregrinum episcopos. Dum sapientiae vestrae, clementissime imperator, profunda con- sidero, providentes saluti propriae vobis displicere non aestimo. Neque enim aut divina mouita aut humana continent instituta, nt qui consulit bonae spei, qualibet debeat reprehensione eulpari : quum maxime pietas quoque vestra affectu se unitatis et pacis flagrare fateatur. Quae res me quoque vel pro fiducia conscientiae vesfrae vel pro creditae quoque mihi dispensationis officio, emergente com- pulit non supersedere negotio. Johannes frater et coepiscopus meas Nicopolitanae civitatis antistes, praedecessoris sui sanctae recordatio- nis Alcysonis secutus exemplum, beati Petri apostoli commumonem cum synodo sua, damuatis his, quos Ecclesia detestatur, expetiit. Is nunc gravibus fatigatur insidiis. Precor mansuetudinem vestram, iniqua molientibus obviate, et removete molestias, et correctum fovete, cui, ut corrigeret *), debuisset insisti. Scient enim qui tar daverint, se reos futuros, quum a vobis foveri viderint jam reversoi. Fateor, clementissime imperator, miror insidiantium pertinaciam neque Dei neque vestro intuitu permoveri. Nam qui odenmt in ') Ed. Serva . . . subsequentur . . . aposloHca sententia et omitt. affecdome, 37 *) Supple se. Sic et in aliis superiorum praesulum epistolis corrigentes pto se corrigentes non semel offendimus. Quocirca Baron. scbstitaens carr^erttat ab Hormisda potius littera quam mcnte discessit: sed in atioqae peccat, qood subjicit debuisset assistere. EPISTOLAE 36 — 38. 813 homine studium desiderii boni; quod de se aestimant judicari^ in-a. 517. sequuntur. Ad recta reduces jure culpandi, si non converterint deviantes. Datae^) fidei vestrae clara documenta, si aflfueritis ad xinitatem reductis, effici, omni adhortatione cogitetis.