Letter 201: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

To you, who have kept watch with a commendable purpose for ecclesiastical peace and who burn with so great a fervor of faith, thanksgiving alone does not suffice; because not the prerogative of human praise moves you, but the expectation of divine retribution inflames you. Therefore we discharge what we especially owe, and we daily beseech our God, whose causes you serve, for your well-being, asking that your zeal in every respect concerning the affection for ecclesiastical unity may so burn that no place of good duty be left where the patronage of your defense does not stand by the rules of the fathers. Above all, however, the cause of Elias, Thomas, and Nicostratus, our brothers and fellow bishops, moves us, who, having been the first to follow the concord necessary for the world, have been struck by the deprivation of their churches and are also oppressed with the contempt of the venerable canons, and the glory of their own reconciliation becomes for them the cause of difficulty, as though they had more persistently resisted, and while others return to the unity of the apostolic see, they had rather torn apart the members of the Church. How harsh this is for us and how unworthy of the times of the most merciful emperor, your prudence should consider, and at last provide the remedy which can relieve both their labors and our sadness with welcome comfort.

^^s^^\t Hormisdae papae a<1 Oeriiianum viram illustrem. Pi'0 officiis Ecclesiae praestitis grntias agens, causam Eliae, Tkomae ei Sioh p.tU strati impense commendai. Hormisda Germano viro illustrissimo*). Excubantibus vobis probabili pro ecclesiastica pace proposito et tanto fidei calore ferventibus gratiarum actio sola nen sufficit; quia nec vos liumanae laudis praerogativa sollicitat, sed divinae exspectatio retributionis inflammat. Quod igitur maxime debemus, exsolvimiB, et Deum nostrum, cujus vos causis impenditis, pro incolumitate vestra quotidie deprecamur, rogantes, ut studiura vestrum in omiii pro ecclesiasticae unitatis attectu parte sic ferveat, ut nuUus boni relinquatur locus ofticii, ubi non paternis regulis vestrae patrocinium defensionis assistat. Praecipue tamen Eliae, Thomae atque Xico- strati fratrum et coepiscoponim nostrorum causa nos commovet, qui- primi mundo necessariam secuti concordiam, ecclesiarum suarum privatione perculsi, cum venerabilivmi quoque canonimi coutumelia deprimuntur, fitque illis propriae reconciliationis gloria causa ditfi- cilis, quasi ipsi magis pertinaci mente restiterint, et aliis ad sedis apostolicae redeuntibus unitatem ipsi Ecclesiae magis membra dis- cerpserint. Quod quam nobis durum sit quamque clemeutissimi temporibus imperatoris indignum, pnidentiam vestram convenit aestimare, et tandem praestare remedium, quod et illorum labores et nostram grato possit solamine auferre moestitiam.