Letter 200: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

Your zeal for ecclesiastical peace and the condemned errors of heretical contention we approve by the very effects of events; a great and immense reward without doubt awaits you for this work. Hence it is that whatever we have deemed necessary for the firmness of the canons and the reverence of the apostolic see, we immediately commit to the execution of your magnitude with confident presumption, because many examples of this kind testify that you receive with great joy things to be done for such causes. Wherefore, omitting the principles of a long preamble, we turn the words of the present page to the matter itself. The Church grieves, and in the great beginning of the longed-for unity, it cannot enjoy the joy that has been bestowed because of the affliction of one cause. That your benefits may remove this concern from us, we entreat with no small prayers. For the present grief oppresses us, and the procured occasion of future struggles, through which both the rules of the venerable fathers are neglected and the authority of the apostolic see is thought capable of being despised. For when, by divine and the most merciful prince's benefit, but also by your own effort, they alone are believed to be bishops and to hold churches by right who consent to return to our communion with their errors condemned, Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus, our brothers and fellow bishops — who gave the good beginning to this cause even under a hostile emperor — not only have their good endeavors profited them nothing for advancement, but they cannot even obtain the offices of the dignity conferred upon them by the Lord, and, exiled from the flocks committed to them, are forced to undergo the miseries of the condemned. Wherefore we beseech you and adjure you through the divine mercy to bestow upon their cause, which is just, the highest patronage and the devotion of your proven energy, clinging to the footsteps of the most pious emperor: so that he may at last restore them to their churches, both out of regard for piety and in contemplation of justice, because in their humiliation it is asserted by enemies that the desired fellowship of our communion has displeased them.

Hormisdae papae ad Jastinianain comitem. ^^Sepit 4. lUiua siudiwn erga ecclesiasticam pacem laudat. Ut Eliae, Thomae et Nicostrati patrocinium suscipiat, enixe precatur. Hormisda Justiniano illustri^). 1. Studium vestrum erga ecclesiasticam pacem et damnatos haereticae contentionis errores ipsis rerum effectibus approbamus; cujus vos operis magna immensaque sine dubio merces exspectat. Hinc est, quod quidquid pro canonum firmitate et pro apostolicae sedis reverentia necessarium duxerimus, magnitudini vestrae secura • peragendum protinus praesumptione mandamus, quia cum magno V08 gaudio pro causis talibus sperata suscipere, multiplicia hujus- modi exempla testantur. Quare omissis in longa circuitione princi- piis ad rem ipsam praeseutis paginae verba convertimus. 2. Moeret Ecclesia^ et in magno votivae unitatis exordio frui praestita non potest pro unius causae afflictione laetitia: hanc ut nobis sollicitudinem beneficia vestra submoveant, non parvis precibus exoramus. Angit nos enim et praesens dolor et futurorum occasio procurata certaminum, per quam et venerabilium patrum regulae neghguntur; et apostolicae sedis putatur auctoritas.posse contemni. Nam quum divino clementissimique principis beneficio sed et vestro simul adnixu hi soli credantur esse pontifices et jure ecclesias con- tinere, qui ad communionem nostram damnatis erroribus redire con- sentiimt: Eliae, Thomati atque Nicostrato fratribus et coepiscopis nostris, qui bonum causae etiam sub adverso imperatore dedere prin- cipium, non solum nihil ad provectum bona studia profuerunt, verum etiam coUatae sibi a Domino obtinere nequeunt officia dignitatis, et extorres a commissis sibi gregibus subire coguntur miserias damna- torum. Quapropter quaesuraus et per divinam vos misericordiam obtestamur, ut eorum causae, quae justa est, smnmum patrocinium et probatae vivacitatis impendatis affectum, piissimi principis hae- rendo^) vestigiis: quatenus eos tandem suis ecclesiis et pietatis in- tuitu et justitiae contemplatione restituat, quia in illorum contu- melia^) ab inimicis asseritur optatum nostrae communionis disph- cuisse consortium. 95 ^) Ed. viro Ulustri; vox viro constanter abest a G^ ') Hoc est demiese ac suppliciter eum exorando.