Letter 199: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

That we pray and offer our vows to our God for your safety, together with the whole assembly of Catholic pontiffs, without ceasing — not your eagerness for entreaty invites this, but our devoted and persistent purpose in the ecclesiastical reconciliation urges it. For who, separated from the heretical conspiracy, would restrain himself, who would employ other principles in his own prayer, except that for you and the most serene prince, your husband, life may be longer, and divine grace closer to the increase of prosperity — you who have consecrated the beginnings of your happy reign by branding the hateful errors, and have driven out by your peaceful intention the discord that was dear to the devil? Whence it is now fitting for you to persist in your laudable undertakings and to spread the perfect medicine throughout the whole world, because a greater number of the flock offered to Christ confidently demands a more generous reward. Among which matters, let it be your care that Satan, long since cast down, should inflict no wound; but that the unity of communion may be a great support for obtaining justice. We ask, therefore, that at last concerning our venerable brothers and fellow bishops — Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus — what the authority of the most sacred canons dictates may be fulfilled at your decree: lest they appear, like authors of some evil, to have merited punishment alone in the common joy of all because they were the first to hasten to the unity of the apostolic see, and that in a praiseworthy deed, justice has yielded, overcome by personal hatred. Join therefore your prayers to ours before the most merciful Augustus, so that the fruit which the rules of the fathers command to be given and preserved to them may not be taken away by hostile evasion.

^2 S^cptt Hormisdae papae ad Enphemiam Aogustam. Perpetuas pro ejus et imperatoris salute ad Deum se 'et catholicum quemque P-^ , preces effundere. Elitan^ Thomam et Nicostratum commendat. Uormisda Euphemiae Augustae. 1. Orare nos et pro vestra ineolumitate Deo nostro vota per- solvere cum catholicorum etiam coetu sine cessatione pontificum, non vestrae studium exorationis invitat; sed devotum atque persidieiis in ecclesiastica stimulat reconciliatione propositimi. Quis enim ab haeretica segregatus conspiratione se teneat^ quis aliis in sua utator deprecatione principiis, nisi ut vobis serenissimoque principi jugali vestro et vita sit longior, et ad prosperitatis augmentum graiia di- vina proximior: qui initia felicis imperii plectendi exsecrationibos consecrastis erroris; et amicam diabolo pacifica expulistis intentione discordiam? Unde nunc decet vos laudabilibus coeptis insistere et per totum orbem perfectam spargere medicinam^ quia Christo major numerus gregis oblatus mercedem confidenter exigit largiorem. Inter quae curae vestrae sit^ ut nullum Satanas jamdudum prostratus vul- nus efficiat^); sed communionis unitas magnum sit justitiae impe- trandae sufiragium. 2. Quaesumus namque^ ut tandem de venerabilibus fratribus et coepiscopis nostris^ Elia^ Thomate atque Nicostrato^ quod sacratisai- morum caiionum dictat auctoritaS; vobis decernentibus impleatur: ne videantur ut auctores alicujus mali^ quod primi ad unitatem sedis apostolicae festinarunt, in communi omnium gaudio soli meruisse percelli, et in facto laudabili victam personali odio cessisse justitiam. Nostris ergo precibus apud clementissimum Augustum vestras ad- jungite, ut fnictum, quem illi^ patrum regulae tribui et conservari praecipiunt, inimica tergiversatio auferre non possit. atpimus, errorem omnes relinquant^ nemini quidem perrre suus honor debeat^ sedHKt, qui pro fide laboraverunt, cum omni privilegio suo oporteat Jus proprium reforaurt Cum his confer Hormisdae dicta infra epist. 95. EPISTOLAE 93 — 95/. 891