Letter 2: never boni aliquid contentionem fecisse in the church testifies apostolus and therefore haereticorum correptiones...

Innocent to his most beloved son, the presbyter Jerome. The Apostle testifies that contention has never produced anything good in the Church, and for that reason he commands that corrections of heretics be made first, rather than that the matter be drawn out by prolonged debate. So long as this rule is regarded negligently, the evil that ought to be guarded against is not avoided but increased. Nevertheless, since your grief and groaning so shake our inmost being that there is no [time] for deliberating and taking counsel, we address ourselves first to the faithfulness of your constancy. You have often related to many that anyone may, on behalf of the truth, be struck down by injury or, as you say, by peril, because he looks for blessedness; and we remind you to be well mindful of your own preachings. Likewise, roused by so great a [scene] of evils, we hastened to take up the authority of the Apostolic See for the suppressing of every wickedness; but the one against whom we were to rise up we have read neither named by name nor charged on any account of a crime. Therefore, what we can do, we do: we suffer together with you. But if you should set forth an open and manifest accusation against certain persons, either I will assign competent judges, or, if anything more urgent and more pressing can be done by us, I will not delay, most beloved son. Nevertheless I have written to my brother the bishop John, that he act more circumspectly, lest anything further of such a kind be done concerning the church entrusted to him, the sort of thing which to foresee and to ward off, that it not happen, will be afterward most troublesome even to him.

DILECTISSIMO FILIO HIERONYNO PRESBYTERO INNOCENTIUS. Num- quam boni aliquid contentionem fecisse in ecclesia testatur apostolus et ideo haereticorum correptiones primas fieri iubet magis quam diuturna duci conlatione. quae regula dum neg- legenter aspicitur, malum non uitatur, quod cauendum est, sed augetur. tamen quoniam dolor gemitusque tuus ita ui- scera quatit nostra, ut non « « tractandi consulendique sit, pri- 14 sq. Tit. 8, 9 sq. 1 anathematizet g* editiones 2. sentit V 8. hat V D illi perti- natia V uoluerint V 6 persistere Q 7 suos Q iliV 8cum V: cuius Q 9 et alia manu om. Q 10 VI Q (cf. epistulas Innocentii eodem die daias quae extant apud Ballerin. III 144 et 164): om. V febroarii gt Ῥ cohf cheodofin aug' & iunn qr: palladí uc. V: om. Q 15 10 15 Epist. XXXXI 12 — XXXXIII 2. 97 mum constantiae tuae adloquor fidem. pro ueritate quisque iniuria aut, ut dicis, periculo percelletur, quia expectet beati- tudinem, multis saepe narrasti et tuarum te praedicationum bene memorem commonemus. item excitati tanta malorum 3. Scena arripere auctoritatem sedis apostolicae ad omne com- primendum nefas festinauimus, sed, in. quem insurgeremus, . nec nomine appellatum legimus nec criminis aliqua ratione taxatum. quod ergo possumus, condolemus. si deposueris.. autem apertam manifestamque in homines aliquos accusationem, :. aut iudices conpetentes tribuam aut, si aliquid urgentius sollicitiusque nobis fieri potest, non retardabo, fili dilectissime. tamen episcopo fratri meo Iohanni scripsi, ut. cireumspectius agat, ne quid circa ecclesiam sibi creditam adhue tale aliquid fiat, quale prouidere et propellere ne accidat etiam ipsi sit et ὁ postea molestissimum. |