how much more is it not in doubt that what is recognized to have been presumed — by laymen, even with some bishops consenting (who nevertheless could not bring prejudice upon the pontiff by whom they are proved to be consecrated) — at a time when the apostolic see had no prelate (who, holding the primacy throughout the whole world by the prerogative of the blessed merit of the apostle Peter, was wont to grant firmness to synodal statutes of the priesthood) — lacks all force, and can in no way be reckoned among ecclesiastical statutes. III. The holy synod said:
Although, according to the prosecution of our venerable brethren — Laurentius, Petrus, Eulalius, Cresconius, Maximus, and Stephanus — it is held by us as not uncertain that this very document is of no moment, which, even if it could subsist by any reasoning, ought by all means in the synodal assembly to be enervated by the provident judgment of Your Beatitude, and reduced to nullity, lest it should remain as a precedent for any laymen — however religious or powerful — in any city whatsoever, to decree anything in any manner concerning ecclesiastical resources, the care of disposing which is taught to have been committed by God, without dispute, to priests alone. Bishop Symmachus said:
Now, since God has granted me your longed-for presence upon whatever occasion, I wish, if it please you, that a thing be made firm which I believe to be fitting for ecclesiastical resources, so that all those whom an empty fury has roused against me may recognize that I strive after nothing more than that there may be kept safe what has been committed to me by God under stewardship; and that it ought also to be welcome to any successors who fear God, and to pertain to the safeguarding of the ecclesiastical patrimony. The holy synod said: We know that your provision strives after things necessary, and therefore it is in your power to arrange the things to be followed. Symmachus, bishop of the catholic Church of the city of Rome, said:
Great cultivation is indeed owed to a venerable and priestly purpose, to which it falls to dispose what is right out of zeal, not out of necessity. But since, in some who demand the goods of others, avarice — the mother of vices — having rejected the barriers of honesty, thinks all that is permitted to be expedient, and thus, while it gapes after plunder, abuses the patience of the supreme Mercy; men awaiting correction while heaven governs, they reckon themselves not bound by judgments, and it is clear that, among certain men, the delay of the divine sentence becomes an occasion for plundering.
But for us, whom pastoral care, and the reckoning that must be rendered for the dispensation of the ecclesiastical substance entrusted to us, constrain, it is needful that we extend our solicitude not only to present, but also to coming ages, lest it come to pass, to the detriment of our soul, if those who are able, by the statutes due, should fail through the license of innocence presuming; since by religious power both we and our successors can be supported, serving the ecclesiastical laws. IV.
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llisergoperpensis, mansurocumDcinostriconsiderationedecretusancimus, utnulliapostolicæsedispræsuliapræsentidiedonecdisponenteDominocatholicaefideimanscritdoctrinasalutaris, Ii • ceatprædiumrusticumquantecunquefueritvelmagnitudinis, velexiguitatis, subperpetuaalienationevelcommutationeadcujuslibetjuratransferre, neccujusquamexcusenturnecessitatisobtentu.
These things therefore having been weighed, by a decree that is to abide with the consideration of our God, we ordain: that to no prelate of the apostolic see, from the present day — so long as, by the Lord's disposition, the saving doctrine of the catholic faith shall remain — shall it be lawful, by perpetual alienation or by exchange, to transfer to the rights of anyone any rural estate, of whatever magnitude or smallness it may be, nor let any be excused under the pretext of necessity.
Indeed, since what we speak of is not personal, nor let any of the clerics or laymen, under this received occasion, defend himself, but neither let it be lawful for the rights to be given to any in usufruct, nor for what has been given to be retained — except to clerics, and captives, and pilgrims — lest occasion of ill dealing be furnished, since for that liberality other paths are reserved. Truly, only houses situated in any cities whatsoever, whose condition must needs be sustained by no small expense, may, with the revenues received — if it should happen that they be taken away — be exchanged under a just estimation and with the fear of the divine judgment. V.
By a like law we wish the keepers — that is, the presbyters who exist throughout all the titles of the churches of the Roman city, or whoever they shall be — to be bound, because it is unspeakable that, by the obligation by which the supreme pontiff binds himself through the charity of Christ, a man of the second order in the Church should not be held.
Whoever, however, forgetful of God and unmindful of this decree — by which we wish the priests of the Roman city to be bound by religious bonds — committing against the present enactment, shall in any manner whatsoever attempt to alienate anything of the right of the titles, or of the Church aforesaid above, apart from gold, silver, or gems, vestments also, if there be any, or if they have accrued, or any movable goods in no way pertaining to the divine ornaments — excepting only, under the aforesaid condition, the houses — let the donor, the alienator, and the seller be punished by the loss of his honor. VI.
Moreover, he who shall have sought, or received, or who of the presbyters, or deacons, or defensores shall have subscribed for the giver — whereby God, being angered, smites souls — let him be smitten with anathema; and let there be, for the receiver, or the subscriber, among the persons comprised above — that is, those whom we have decreed to be smitten with anathema — fellowship in the established penalty, the same vengeance being preserved which we have set forth above in the case of the alienator. Unless perhaps both the alienator, while he reclaims, and he who shall have received, by speedy restitution shall have made provision for himself. VII.
But if anyone, with too little care for his soul, should perchance neglect the remedy offered, then, over and above those kinds of penalties which are written above, if any document shall have been conceived against right, let it be made of no effect by all means (although from the beginning it had none). But let it also be lawful for any ecclesiastical persons whatsoever to bring the voice of objection, and to be supported by ecclesiastical authority, in such wise that one may demand back another's goods together with their fruits; nor let him fortify himself with any obstacle before the tribunal of Christ, because what was left by religious souls for the substance of the poor, against right, without any consideration of piety, he scatters abroad.
Moreover, we wish the law of this constitution to be observed in the apostolic see only; for all the churches throughout the provinces, let the custom be preserved, according to the consideration of souls, which the rulers of those churches shall have seen to befit the purpose of religion. And they subscribed. Caelius Symmachus, bishop of the Church of Rome, have subscribed to this constitution, made by us. Caelius Laurentius, bishop of the holy Church of Milan, have subscribed to this constitution, made by the venerable pope Symmachus. Petrus, bishop of the catholic Church of Ravenna, have subscribed to this constitution, made by the venerable pope Symmachus. Eulalius, bishop of the holy Church of Syracuse, have subscribed to this constitution, made by the venerable pope Symmachus.
Felix of Interamna, Aemilianus of Vetulonia, Tigridius of Turin, Bassus of Mutina, Maximus of Blera, Rufentius of Ignatium, Martinianus of Ostia, Fortunatus of Vessa, Eucarpus of Messana, Stephanus of Venusia, Romulus of Praeneste, Vindemius of Antium, Fortunatus of Fulginium, Martianus of Aecae, Chrysogonus of Alba, Laurentius of Bovianum, Paschasius of Vulturnum, Aprilis of Nuceria.
Innocentius of Forum Sempronii, Felix of Nepe, Amandus of Potentia, Colonius of Forum Clodii, Projectus of Forum Novum, Bonifacius of Forum Flaminii, Rusticus of Bursentum, Victor of Duna, Sylvianus of Velitrae, Areston of Ostia, Felix of Nepe, Asterius of Aquinum, Eusebius of Fanum, Cresconius of Tuder, Jocundus of Augusta, Vitalis of Fundi, Pacatianus of Coanilium, Martyrius of Terracina, Basilius of Tollentinum, Benignus of Aquaviva, Severinus of Tundarium, Joannes of Spoletium, Valentinus of Amiternum.
Probus of Carmeianum, Candidus of Tibur, Proculeianus of Sepinum, Maximianus of Perusia, Eutychius of Trani, Fortunatus of Anagni, Marcus of Samnium, Memor of Canusium, Florentius of Blestium, Concordius of Misenum, Asellus of Populonium, Elpidius of Volaterrae, Veneriosus of Pellae, Sebastianus of Sora, Venantius of Sena Gallica, Innocentius of Tifernum, Justus of Signia, Augustus of Lipara on behalf of Ursus, Propinquus of Trebia, Romanus of Nomentum. The Roman Synod, in the year of Christ 501, in the consulship of those most illustrious men Rufus Magnus and Faustus Avienus, on the tenth day before the Kalends of November. The holy synod, gathered together at the city of Rome by the command of the most glorious king Theodoric out of diverse regions, declared in the name of Christ:
When the royal authority had commanded that priests from diverse provinces should assemble at the city of Rome, so that the holy council might judge concerning those things which were being charged against the venerable Pope Symmachus, prelate of the apostolic see, by his adversaries, a necessity pressed upon the bishops of Liguria, Aemilia, and Venetia—whom the conduct of his own journey had drawn into the presence of the prince—to consult the king as to why he had wished these men, broken with age and feeble through bodily weakness, to be gathered for this cause. The aforesaid most pious king replied with the affection of one of good conduct, that many dreadful things concerning the deeds of Pope Symmachus had been reported to him, and that it behoved them to be dealt with in synod, so that it might be established by judgment whether the objection of his enemies were true.
The aforementioned pontiffs, upon whom the occasion for pleading pressed, suggested that he who was said to be accused ought himself to have convoked the synod, knowing that the merit, or primacy, of the apostle Peter belongs first to that see, and then, following the command of the Lord, the authority of the venerable councils has handed down to it a singular power in the Churches, and that the aforesaid bishop of that see was not subject to the judgment of lesser men—as in a similar matter he might readily attest by some precedent. But the most powerful prince signified that the pope himself had also shown his will by letters concerning the gathering of the synod.
The documents that had been requested from his clemency, which it was established had been issued by him, he appointed to be given to the priests without delay; and whatever had been done in the same business reached Rome in writing from diverse parts of the lands and regions through God's furtherance. And while, in that venerable assembly, the business of how to begin was being treated, as the cause for deliberation demanded, the holy Pope Symmachus, with such care as he had taken, swiftly entered the basilica of Julius, in which the gathering of the pontiffs was held, and gave thanks to the most clement king for the synodal summons, and testified that the matter of his desire had come to pass.
Therefore the anxiety in the minds of the priests, which the council not yet being firmly settled had been ministering, was cut away; he professed that he gave authority for marshalling the order, as the ecclesiastical statutes demanded, in the presence of all the bishops who had there assembled—hoping that the visitor, who had been demanded contrary to religion, contrary to the statutes of the ancients, and contrary to the rules of the elders, by a part of the clergy or by certain laymen, would by the appointment of the bishops, as befitted the holy purpose, withdraw at the very outset; and that all things which he had lost through the suggestions of his enemies might be restored to his authority by the honourable council; and that the prelate of so great a place might first be lawfully restored to his pristine standing, and then come to the cause, and, if so it rightly seemed, answer the charges of his accusers.
The matter seemed worthy to the very great number of priests, and that it should obtain its effect. Yet the synod did not presume to decree anything without the royal cognizance; but the just proposal, through the negligence of the legates, did not merit a response according to its wishes. Pope Symmachus was, by the king's commands, ordered to contend in dispute with his assailants before the recovery of the patrimony or of the Churches which he had lost—he who refused even on this occasion to take back the privileges of his power, and the things which (so far as we justly estimate) he had submitted for the amendment of conscience.
But while the synod was constituted in the basilica of Jerusalem of the Sessorian palace, it seemed good to some of the priests that the libel which the accusers had prepared—who daily appealed with seditions—should be received by the synod. In this libel, once received, there were two things which were either hostile to truth, or (as far as is shown) repugnant to the assembled body in its ecclesiastical purpose. The one, that they said the crimes of the aforementioned Pope Symmachus had been established to the royal cognizance—which he declared to be false; for he would not have committed it as though to one hearing a new cause, if his conscience, convicted of error, knew that it awaited only the sentence.
The other, that through slaves he was saying he could convict him of the things they were objecting, adding that he himself should hand over the bond-servants by whom, as much as they alleged, he might be overcome in judgment. This matter was hostile to the canons and to the public laws themselves, since the statutes of the Fathers had sanctioned that those whom the laws of the world do not admit to accusation should not be granted license of speaking in an inquiry or of accusing anything. And while amid these things it was being deliberated what should be done, the aforesaid pope was hastening to come, that he might plead his cause:
and as he came, he was so handled by the rushing mobs of his rivals that for many of the presbyters who were with him that very slaughter became the occasion of death; and the illustrious count Aligernus, and the exalted men Gudila and Vedeulfus, stewards of the royal household, beheld the still-fresh traces of the wounds—so that he betook himself, from whence he had set out, back to the enclosures of the blessed apostle Peter. When these things had been thus done, and matters thrown into manifold confusion, we again betook ourselves to the princely justice, knowing that the Lord by His own divinity governs those things which He should provide for the helm of Italy; to whose clemency we laid out all things in the order of a report, as the matter demanded.
Intimating also that the oft-named pope, after the slaughter to which he with his own had been subjected, had been admonished, if he should again have the will to go out to judgment; but that he had pleaded, through bishops sent for the purpose, that the canons had granted him to lay low the summit of his purification by the desire of his vindication—by how great perils they had been all but overwhelmed. That the lord king might do as he wished; that he himself meanwhile, resisting in the cause of justice, could not by canonical statutes be compelled. To these things the most serene king, by God's inspiration, answered thus:
That it lay within the synodal judgment to prescribe what was to be followed in so great a business, and that nothing pertained to himself in ecclesiastical affairs beyond reverence; committing it also to the power of the pontiffs, that whether they wished to hear the proposed business or did not, they should deliberate what they thought the more useful—provided only that, by the provision of the venerable council, there should be peace in the Roman city for all Christians; which when it is justly offered, the commandments of God are fulfilled.
Acknowledging that to give a ruler to his Italy, no other labour remained to us but that we should with the humility of our purpose exhort the dissenting to concord; for there remained but one thing in so great a matter wherein we might obey God—namely, that to the will of the holy prince, we invite the most ample senate, an embassy being dispatched in such manner as was fitting, admonishing and instructing that the causes of God should be committed to His own judgment, who is able to kill the body, and to send the soul into Gehenna (Matt. x); who says, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay (Ezek. ix [Deut. xxxii]); with whom the conscience is naked (Rom.
xii [ii]), from whom hidden things are not concealed: that it behoves prudent men to consider how great things had happened unfittingly and prejudicially at the beginning of this business; and that we, by this which they themselves called remission, do not open the way to sins but close it—we who reserve what was being said to a greater judgment; instructing them that through us Christ became known to them (John x), that it belongs not to the wolves to foresee the snares against the sheep, but to the shepherd: especially because in the aforesaid cause error had involved many whom they deigned to recognize and to give satisfaction to God. And because under this occasion the members of the Church could not be further scattered, but rather sustained through gentleness, as Paul our master had instructed us in good work (II Tim.
iv), saying that very many are to be healed through patience and teaching. And whosoever are thought guilty and involved in grievous sins—although there is none who lacks fault, as the apostle John testifies (I John i), If I say that I have no sin, I am a liar—these rather should be supported by the pressures of men, and these passions struck with terror, the divine judgments being suspended: especially since those things which we set forth above, among others concerning the authority of the see, stood in the way; because what its possessor, the once blessed Peter, merited, accrued in the nobility of possession, and gives you the ancient brightness—may Christ give it to the rulers by His endowment: crying aloud that it is written through the prophet in the person of God (Isa. l).
Is not my hand able to consume those who have erred? Admonishing these same things very often, as was fitting: that they might depart with their intention set, and not dispute our deed, which God had inspired, in accordance with the command of the prince, but should follow it, as befitted the sons of the Church; nor under this remission contend, and increase the detriments of the Church. This matter demanded to be aided with haste, and upon us pressed the necessity of this swiftness, and upon them the necessity of obedience: especially since we perceive almost the whole people to have clung indissolubly to his communion—whose care no small concern goaded us, lest he should in any way fall into error.
These things having been pleaded, with the solemn invocation of our God we decree—being bound by the consideration of these necessities and of the claims of religion, and having weighed in inspiration of secret things all that was in the cause—that Pope Symmachus, prelate of the apostolic see, assailed by accusations of this kind, so far as it pertains to men (since the whole is established by the obstructing causes designated above), has been dismissed to the divine judgment, and is immune and free; and that to the Christian people, without any oblation concerning the things objected, in all his Churches pertaining to the right of his see, he may both administer and hand on the divine mysteries; because we have recognized that, on account of the accusation of his assailants and on account of the causes designated above, he could not be bound.
Whence, according to the princely commands which grant this to our power, we restore to him whatever is of ecclesiastical right within the sacred city of Rome or without it, reserving the whole cause to the judgment of God; and we exhort all that they receive the holy communion from him, as the matter requires, and that they be mindful of God and of their own souls; because He is both a lover of peace and is Himself peace, who admonishes, My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you (John xiv; Matt. x); and affirming that peace is to be confirmed in every city, He calls the peacemakers blessed (ibid., v).
Whosoever, out of our instruction (which we do not suppose), either does not admit these things, or believes they can be retracted, let him see that in the divine judgment he must render an account of his contempt, as we trust concerning God. Concerning the clerics of the aforesaid pope, who some time ago departed from their bishop contrary to the rules and made schism, we have decreed that this be done: that mercy follow them when they make satisfaction to their bishop, and that they rejoice to be restored to ecclesiastical offices; because our Lord and Redeemer rejoices over lost sheep found again from their straying, and the heavenly Physician extends paternal liberty over the fugitive son (Luke xv).
But whatsoever cleric, after this form approved by us, shall presume to celebrate Mass in any place consecrated to God in the Roman Church, apart from the cognizance of Pope Symmachus while he lives, let him be struck down by the canonical statutes as a schismatic. Let it suffice to have set forth these things sincerely, with the cognizance of God. And they subscribed. I, Laurentius, bishop of the Church of Milan, have subscribed to this our statute, in which we committed the whole cause to the judgment of God. I, Peter, bishop of the Church of Ravenna, have subscribed to this our statute, in which we committed the whole cause to the judgment of God.
Felix of Interamna, Maximus of Blera, Maximus of Ticinum, Gerontius of Fundi, Laurentius of Boa, Mercurius of Sutri, Hilarus of Tempsa, Innocentius of Fertinum, Vitalis of Fundi, Aristus of Ostia, Victor of Luna, Chrysogonus of Albanum, Romanus of Nomentum, Cresconius of Tudertum, Joannes of Spoletium, Laurentius of Bergomum, Rufentius of Agnatum, Martianus of Acae, Fortunatus of Agnanum.
Innocentius of Forum Sempronii, Hilarus of Tempra, Severinus of Tyndaris, Sebastianus of Sora, Felix of Atella, Propinquus of Trebia, Bonifacius of Camerinum, Vindemius of Antium, Valentinus of Amiternum, Bonifacius of Aquaviva, Aemilianus of Sora, Cassianus of Mutina, Stephanus of Venusia, Fortunatus of Fulginium, Stephanus of Neapolis, Maximianus of Perusia, Concordius of Misenum, Castus of Pratum, Martyrius of Terracina, Asterius of Aquinum, Amantius of Potentia, Ursus of Reate, Innocentius of Mevania, Eustasius of Cremona, Eucarpus of Meresape, Serenus of Nola, Eutychius of Trani, Paschasius of Volturnum, Felix of Nepe, Innocentius of the Tiberine Cities, Sylvanus of Velitrae, Mercurius.
Gabinus's see, Rusticus of Buxentum, Adeodatus of Formiae, Justus of Signia, Augustus of Lipara, Fortunatus of Suessa, Jocundus of Augusta, Viticanus of Celene, Proculeianus of Sepinum, Aprilis of Lateranum, Memor of Canusium, Elpidius of Volaterrae, Adeodatus of Silva Candida, Rogatus of Tauromenium, Probus of Carmeianum, Tigridius of Tauriana, Joannes of Ariminum, Candidus of Tibur, Asellus of Populonium, Collonicus of Forum Clodii, Joannes of Turris, Venerius of Pellae, Servus Dei of Ferentum, Dulcitius of Saint Antimus.
THE DECREES OF POPE HORMISDAS. Justinus Augustus to Pope Hormisdas. With what zeal we have always been, and now are, for reconciling the views of those who cultivate the Catholic faith, so that with one mind all may venerate the indivisible light of the Trinity, we are recognized to have made plain: now of our own accord directing a legate to your Beatitude for this very purpose—Gratus, an honourable man, master of the records—that a remedy may at last be found for the discords of those contending in various ways: now receiving with prone and willing affection the most religious men whom your apostolic see judged should be sent as mediators of unity. For indeed, as peace itself, we have both looked upon them with joyful eyes, and with outstretched hands have deemed them worthy to be embraced.
Moreover, with all intent we shall ordain that the venerable Church of Constantinople, and likewise very many others, may take up your wishes, not only in other matters, but also in the removal of the names from the sacred diptychs, which you especially requested to be removed. Yet there were certain cities and Churches, both of Pontus and of Asia, and chiefly of the East, whose clerics or peoples, though assailed with all threats and persuasions, were nevertheless by no means bent to take away the bishops and to reject the names whose reputation flourished among them; but they esteem a life harder than death, if they should condemn the dead in whose life, while surviving, they had gloried.
What then shall we do with obstinacy of this kind, which shows itself heedless of the word, and so despises torments that it judges it ample and festive if it should perish in body sooner than desist from a religious resolve? To us indeed it seems there is need to act more gently and more clemently—which, if not in your Holiness already, will not be able to be found in another; for neither (which is even grievous to say) are we eager for blood and punishments, that we should accept the libel; nor that the unfulfilled desires of concord should remain through a small distinction: but rather for prolonging, in what order we can, the conjunction of the members of the Church.
Whether therefore it will be more excellent, for the sake of lesser matters, to have such great multitudes wholly opposed to us, or, slight things being conceded and remitted, that the greater things, to be sought by every reckoning, should be corrected—so that what could not be obtained in all things might at least be pleaded in the necessary parts? We therefore request indulgence of names—not of Acacius, not of either Peter, not of Dioscorus or Timothy, whose appellations the letters of your given Holiness contained—but of those whom episcopal reverence celebrated in other cities; and this with the exception of the cities where your Beatitude's libel has now been admitted in full, unless your benevolence should determine that this part too be more mildly corrected.
Nay, the matter is not even without a judgment of the apostolic see, so that it should be called indulgence rather than a definition already deliberated and discerned. For Anastasius indeed, the summit of the Church of your most religious memory, had plainly and openly established this—when he was writing this same business to our predecessor—that it was enough for those affecting peace, if only the name of Acacius be passed over in silence. Therefore he follows the prior constitutions of your see, who judges that not all memories of the dead are to be despised, so that it might be held unworthy and incongruous if your lenity, not more placid to all, not only to the departed but even to the surviving, be not made known in every end of the earth:
and this indeed we should not doubt to be so gracious to you, that by a pacific reply the world may at once be rendered the more joyful. But let your Holiness retain what we wrote a while ago: that from the East supplications have been directed to us, containing their own will and judgment, in which they show that they will firmly persist, and from which they think there must by no reason be desisting. This little document, therefore, according to our promises, we have rightly believed should be sent to you at present through John, a most reverend man, bishop: that the tenor of it, admitted by your see also, may avail for gathering and uniting everywhere the venerable Churches, and chiefly that of Jerusalem: