Letter 161: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

We have indeed, brother, rendered a fitting response to your letters with ecclesiastical freedom, and we have clearly expressed what in them we rejoiced at, and what we passed over in silence. And although frequent legations and the long-standing familiarity of your experience in the Church have by now instilled all things into your mind, yet it helps to open our counsel more broadly by repeated reasoning: because then the matter of the firmness of the faith is well discussed, when the desire for establishing peace is explained in simple words. Your desires, by which you testify that you hasten toward ecclesiastical concord — we have always wished that those regions would have such desires; nor were we content with mere aspiration in our prayers, but we also employed entreaties. What we say is confirmed by your testimony and the testimony of the world: for we submit our authority to the integrity of the inviolate faith so that the restoration of Catholic unity may come about. May the divine mercy incline its ear to our prayers, so that what you believe must be sought, you may also follow and love when it is offered. We have one concern for the cause, one watchfulness: to desire peace in such a way that the constitutions of religion and of the venerable fathers may be preserved, since matters which do not disagree by a harmonious faith ought properly to subsist with a similar observance. But why do we tarry longer? You yourself know what the cause of unity requires; you yourself know by what way you ought to come to the fellowship of the blessed apostle Peter. You have for a guide on your journey the one whom you declare you already follow: the council held at Chalcedon in defense of religion. And the teaching of blessed Leo, which you have also testified you embrace, will accompany you on your return. If these things are pleasing, let the defense of the condemned Acacius not be pleasing: this is what suspends the fulfillment of good endeavor. For if those decrees of the venerable fathers, assembled against the enemies of God and his law, were established so that whoever followed those condemned in communion would at that time undergo the sentence already pronounced in his own condemnation, then the things we steadfastly carry out are not new; rather, we preserve in those times the just judgments of the fathers made according to their own constitution. We therefore exhort you, brother, and with the mercy of our God helping us, we press upon your mind: that, separating yourself from all contagion of heretics by condemning Acacius with his followers, and disjunctive from them, you may feed together with us on the participation of the Lord's body. If you proclaim all things with us, why do you not condemn all things with us? For then you embrace with us what we venerate, if with us you abhor what we detest. Perfect peace knows no distinction, and the worship of the one God cannot be true except in unity of confession. Wherefore, greeting you with the affection of fraternal love, we communicate that your petition has been fulfilled by the dispatch, as you hoped, of the most religious men Germanus and John, bishops, Felix, deacon, Dioscorus, deacon, and Blandus, presbyter. What mandates they have been instructed with, you will clearly recognize from their representations, before they make them, if you reflect. They will receive your peace under the profession which we have often written back. Fulfill therefore, dearest brother, our joy, and send back to us through them the proclamation of your right faith, so that through you an example may be given to all.

Hormisdae papae ad Johannein Constantinopolitanum (a.5i9in. episcopum. ^^-^ Pacem, quam laudabUUer desiderat, perfici non posse, nisi Acacium cum sequaci- bus ejus condemnety idque suhscriplione libelli per legaios Iransmissi profileatur. ' Hormisda Johanni episcopo Constantinopolitano. 1. Reddidimus quidem frater, congrumn litteris tuis sub eccle- ep. 43. siastica libertate responsum ^) ; et quid in his gratulati fuerimuS; in- ep. 47. sertum^ quid taciturnitate praeteritura, evidenter expressimus. Ac licet cuncta sensibus tuis nunc crebra legatio, nunc usu in Ecclesia diuturnae conversationis tuae vetustas infuderit, juvat tamen adhuc latius aperire nostrum repetita ratione consilium: quia tunc bene de fidei firmitate disseritur, quando simplicibus verbis conciliandae pacis cupiditas explicatur. 2. Desideria quippe tua, quibus te ad ecclesiasticam testaiis festinare concordiam, ut haberent partes illae, semper optavimus; nec sola votorum ambitione contenti; usi etiam precibus sumus. Vestro sunt haec et mundi testimonio roborata quae loquimur: quia ut catholicae unitatis reparatio fiat, auctoritatem nostram inteme- rata^) fidei integritate submittimus. Inclinet orationibus nostris aurem suam divina miseratio; ut quod creditis postulandum; sequa- mini et ametis oblatum. Nobis una causae sollicitudo; una custodia est: ita pacem cupere; ut sic religionis; sic venerabilium patrum constituta serventur; quoniam quae inter se consona credulitate non discrepant; aequum est; ut simili observatione subsistant. Sed cur diutius immoramur? Scis ipse, unitatis causa quid exigat; scis ipse, qua via ad beati Petri apostoli debeas venire consortium. Habes itineris tui ducem, quem te jam sequi asseris; Calchedone habitum pro religione conventum. Jam te quoque, quod idem amplecti te- status es; beati Leonis redeuntem dogma comitabitur. 3. Haec si placent, Acacii defensio damnati non placeat: hoc est, quod boni studii a perfectione vota suspendit. Si sunt enim iila adversum Dei et legis ejus inimicos venerabilium patrum con- gregatione disposita, ut quisquis eos communione sequeretur, jam tunc latam subiret in sua damnatione sententiam: non sunt igitur nova quae constanter exsequimur, sed temporibus illis facta judicia justa patrum constitutioue servamus. Hortamur itaque, frater, et mentem tuam Dei nostri misericordia adjuvante pulsamus, ut ab omni te haereticorum contagione, Acacium cum sequacibus suis con- demnando; disjungenS; una nobiscum dominici corporis participa- 62 •) Sdl. quae supra epistolae 43, 47. Mox ed. congralulati, ') Ed. omitt. intemcrata fidei, Mox 0' quo te Jam sequi. (a. 619.) tione pascaris. Si nobiscum universa praedicas, cur nobiscum non universa condemnas? Tunc enim nobiscum quae veneramur am- plecteris, si nobiscum quae detestamur homieris. Pax int^pra ne- scit aliquam habere distantiam, et unius Dei vera esse non potest nisi in confessionis unitate cultura. 4. Quapropter salutantes te fratemae caritatis affectu, petiiio- nem tuam, missis, sicut sperasti, religiosissimis viris Germano ac Johanne episcopis, Felice diacono, Dioscoro diacono atque Blando presbytero, significamus^) esse completam. Hi vero quibus faerint mandatis instructi, ante allegationes eorum, si cogites, evidenter agnosces. Hi pacem tuam sub ea, qua saepe rescripsimus*), pro- fessione suscipient. Imple ergo, frater carissime, gaudium nostrmn, et tuum ad nos per eos rectae fidei tuae remitte praeconium, ut per te universis detur exemplum.