Letter 85: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

We approve by the very effects of events your zeal for ecclesiastical peace and for the condemned errors of heretical contention; a great and immense reward without doubt awaits you for this work. It is for this reason that, whatever we have deemed necessary for the firmness of the canons and for the reverence of the apostolic see, we immediately command your greatness to carry it out with confident presumption, because many examples of this kind attest that you receive such charges for such causes with great joy. Therefore, omitting any lengthy preamble, we turn the words of the present page to the matter itself. The church grieves and, at the great beginning of the longed-for unity, cannot enjoy the joy that has been granted because of the affliction of a single cause: we pray with no small entreaties that your beneficence may remove this concern from us. For both the present pain presses upon us and the occasion procured for future struggles, through which both the rules of the venerable fathers are being neglected and the authority of the apostolic see is thought capable of being despised. For when by the divine and most clement emperor's beneficence — and indeed by your exertion as well — only those are believed to be bishops and to hold churches by right who consent to return to our communion with their errors condemned, nevertheless for our brothers and fellow bishops Helias, Thomas, and Nicostratus, who gave a good beginning to the cause even under a hostile emperor, not only have their good efforts been of no advantage, but they are even unable to obtain the offices of the dignity conferred on them by the Lord, and, exiled from the flocks entrusted to them, they are forced to endure the miseries of the condemned. Therefore we beseech you and adjure you through the divine mercy to bestow upon their cause, which is just, the highest patronage and the affection of your proven energy, following closely 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 the outrage done to them it is asserted by their enemies that the desired fellowship of our communion has proved displeasing.

HORMiSDA lusTiNiANO iLLusTRi. Studium uestrum erga ecclesiasticam pacem et damnatos haereticae contentionis errores ipsis rerum eflfectibus approbamus; cuius uos operis 2 magna immensaque sine dubio merces expectat. hinc est quod, quicquid pro canonum firmitate et pro apostolicae sedis reue- rentia necessarium duxerimus, magnitudini uestrae secura peragendum protinus praesumptione mandamus, quia cum magno uos gaudio pro causis talibus sperata suscipere multi- plicia huiusmodi eiempla testantur. quare omissis in longa circuitione principiis ad rem ipsam praesentis paginae uerba 3 conuertimus. maeret ecclesia et in magno uotiuae unitatis exordio frui praestita non potest pro unius causae afflictione laetitia: hanc ut nobis soUicitudinem beneficia uesti*a sub- moueant, non paruis precibus exoramus. angit nos enim et praesens dolor et futurorum occasio procurata certaminum, per quam et uenerabilium patrum regulae neglegantur et 4 apostolicae sedis putatur auctoritas posse contemni. nam cum diuino clementissimique principis beneficio sed et uestro simul adnisu hi soli credantur esse pontifices et iure ecclesias continere, qui ad communionem nostram damnatis erroribus redire consentiunt, Heliae Thomati atque Nicostrato fratribus et coepiscopis nostris, qui bonum causae etiam sub aduerso impenitore dedere principium, non solum nihil ad prouectum 1 printipis V Epist. CCVI 5 - CCVIII 3. 667 bona studia profuerunt uerum etiam coUatae sibi a domino obtinere nequeunt officia dignitatis et extorres a commissis sibi gregibus subire coguntur miserias damnatorum. quapropter 5 quaesumus et per diuinam uos misericordiam obtestamur, ut 5 eorum causae, quae iusta est^ summum patrocinium et probatae uiuacitatis impendatis ailectum piissimi principis haerendo uestigiis^ quatenus eos tandem suis ecclesiis et pietatis intuitu et iustitiae contemplatione restituat, quia in illorum contumelia ab inimicis asseritur optatum nostrae communionis displicuisse 10 consortium.