Epistolae

Epistles of Pope Hilarius. I. Epistle Hilarius, Deacon of the Holy Roman Church and Legate of Saint Pope Leo, to the Augusta Pulcheria. Concerning the Ephesian conciliabulum, the factions of Dioscorus, and his own flight. To the most glorious and most pious Pulcheria Augusta, Hilarius the deacon. That I have been diligent, etc. (This epistle, which is the 46th among the Leonine epistles, will be found transcribed in our Patrologia, vol. LIV, col. 837.) Epistle I. Of Pope Hilarius to the Bishops of Tarragona. Concerning a Synodal Decree. Under the most illustrious consuls Flavius Basiliscus and Herminericus. Since the religious assembly, gathered by the Holy Spirit, urges that we treat with more diligent care whatever is necessary for ecclesiastical discipline: if it pleases you, brothers, let us so solidify, with the Lord's help, those things which pertain to the tenor of ordinations, according to the precepts of divine law and the statutes of the Nicene canons, that they may endure for all time, so that it may be lawful for no one, without peril to his own status, to violate either the divine constitutions or the decrees of the apostolic see: because we, who administer the offices of the highest priest, will be held accountable for the guilt of such transgressions, if we are found negligent in the causes of God: for we remember what we ought to fear, how the Lord threatens the negligence of priests, since he who enjoys a higher honor sins with greater guilt: and the sublimity of dignities makes the vices of sinners more serious.

II. Care must therefore be taken first of all, that no one who has married a woman not a virgin should aspire to the sacred grades, as was prescribed in earlier times. Also to be repelled is anyone who enters into marriage with a second wife contrary to apostolic precepts. III. Moreover, those ignorant of letters, as well as those who have suffered some loss of limbs, and those who are from among the penitents, should not dare to aspire to sacred orders. Whoever shall have been the consecrator of such a person will annul his own act. IV. But also, whatever anyone has committed unlawfully, or has found to have been admitted by his predecessors, if he wishes to avoid his own peril, he will condemn: for we wish to exercise severity of vengeance in nothing. But whoever has offended in the causes of God either by contumacy or by some excess, or has been unwilling to abolish what he has done wrongly, will find in himself whatever he has not cut away in another. So that this may be able to be observed more tenaciously henceforth, if it pleases, commit all sentences, causes, and your own subscriptions, so that by synodal judgment access may be closed to unlawful acts.

From all the bishops and presbyters it was acclaimed: "Hear, O Christ, Hilarus' life," was said six times. "These things we both confirm and teach," was said eight times. "These things are to be held, these things are to be kept," was said five times. "We give thanks for your teaching," was said ten times. "We ask that these things be preserved in perpetuity," was said fifteen times. "We desire that these things be preserved in perpetuity through Saint Peter," was said eight times. "Let this presumption never occur," was said ten times. "Whoever violates these things will find it in himself," was said seven times. And after silence was made, Hilarus the bishop spoke. Moreover, brothers, new and unheard-of seeds of perversity (as has reached us through letters sent from Spain, under a reliable report) are springing up in certain places. Finally, some think that the episcopate, which is given only on the basis of preceding merits, is not a divine gift but an hereditary shortcut: and they believe that, like transitory and mortal things, the priesthood can be bequeathed as if by legacy or testamentary right. For many priests, when placed at the threshold of death, are reported to substitute others in their place by designating names: so that, evidently, a legitimate election is not awaited, but the gratification of the deceased is taken for the consent of the people.

How serious this is, consider; and therefore, if it pleases, let us also remove this license generally from the churches, lest (shameful to say) anyone think that what is God's is owed to a man. Moreover, so that what has been brought to us may also come to your knowledge, let the writings of our Spanish brothers and fellow bishops be read. Paul the notary read them. In Justellus' manuscript is added: And it was decreed that nothing further of this kind be presumed by priests. LETTER OF THE BISHOPS OF TARRAGONA TO POPE HILARY. Concerning the ordination of a bishop by Silvanus, bishop of Calagurris, against the rules of the Fathers and the Nicene canons, they complain to the Roman pontiff, and consult him as to what in this case they should do, or by what means they ought to counter abuses of this kind. To the most blessed lord, and with apostolic reverence to be venerated by us in Christ, Pope Hilary, from Ascanius, bishop, and all the bishops of the province of Tarragona.

Even if no necessity of ecclesiastical discipline existed, that privilege of your see would truly have been to be sought by us, whereby, after the resurrection of the Savior, having received the keys of the kingdom, the singular preaching of the most blessed Peter provided for the enlightenment of all throughout the whole world; whose vicarial primacy, as it stands out, so it is to be feared and loved by all. Therefore, adoring God deeply in you, whom you serve without complaint, we have recourse to the faith praised by the apostolic mouth, seeking responses from that source whence nothing is commanded by error, nothing by presumption, but everything by pontifical deliberation. Since these things are so, there is nevertheless among us a false brother, whose presumption, just as it was not permissible to keep silent about it longer, so too the necessity of the future judgment has compelled us to speak. A certain Silvanus, bishop of Calagurris, situated in the farthest part of our province, by usurping ordinations not due to him, has driven our humility to this point, that we beg for the unique remedy of your see against his most vain superstition. For this man, already seven or eight years ago or more, setting aside the rules of the Fathers and despising your statutes, ordained a bishop for no petitioning peoples; and when we thought that his premature action could be healed by fraternal and peaceful admonition, he grew worse.

Finally, contrary to the antiquity of the canons, contrary to the decrees of the synod, inflamed solely by the spirit of presumption, he made a presbyter of another brother of ours a bishop in that same place which had been destined for him, upon whom, unwilling and resisting, he had imposed hands, and who had already been joined to our assembly. Hence it came about that our brother, the bishop of the city of Caesaraugusta, reported to us concerning his most wretched temerity, whose diligence and solicitude had foreseen to a great degree, if it had been of any avail. For he very frequently contradicted all the bishops placed in the vicinity, lest they join themselves to a schismatic: but with damnable obstinacy, that whole thing which was unlawful, and which it is shameful for us to mention, he alone did not blush to commit. Therefore, because these presumptions, which divide unity, which create schism, must be swiftly countered: we ask your see, that we may be instructed by apostolic utterances as to what you wish to be observed in this matter; so that, with the brotherhood assembled, and the decrees of the venerable synod brought forward, supported by your authority against the spirit of rebellion, we may be able, with God's help, to understand what ought to be done concerning the ordainer and the ordained. It will certainly be your triumph, if in the times of your apostolate, what the see of Saint Peter holds, the Catholic Church hears, if the new seeds of tares have been uprooted. And the subscription.

May the divine eternity preserve your holy apostolate, praying for us, through the ages. LETTER I OF THE BISHOPS OF TARRACONENSIS TO POPE HILARY To the most blessed and apostolically reverend Pope Hilary, whom we venerate in Christ, Ascanius and all the bishops of the province of Tarraconensis. What care your apostolate bears for the priests of your provinces we have learned through our illustrious son Vincentius, of our province, at whose prompting our desire has arisen into the boldness of writing with ready devotion. Therefore, offering the due respects of a provincial literary style to your crown, we ask that you deign, with the same dignity as you show to others, also to hold our humility in your prayers, most blessed and apostolically reverend father, whom we venerate in Christ; and we especially entreat that you deign to confirm our action, which is brought to your notice by the will of almost the whole province as well as by the example of antiquity, after weighing our assertions. Nundinarius, the bishop of the city of Barcelona, fulfilled the lot of the human condition. He left behind the venerable bishop, our brother Irenaeus, whom he himself had earlier established in his diocese with our consent, bequeathing to him what poverty could have, by the disposition of his last will, and wished that he be substituted in his place; but the judgment of the deceased does not waver in his merit.

For the entire clergy and people of that city, and the best and most numerous provincials, hoped from us that he would hold the same man's place, with consent given. We, considering the judgment of the deceased, and approving his life, and the nobility and multitude of those who were petitioning, and at the same time the utility of the aforementioned Church, deemed it best that for so great a priest, who had departed to the divine, a bishop of no lesser merit should be substituted, especially since the church of that municipality, in which he had previously been ordained, is established always to have been a diocese of this city's Church. Therefore we humbly beseech your apostolate, that you confirm by your authority the decree of our humility, which seems to us to have been rightly made. Indeed, we had already complained in our letters about the presumption of Bishop Silvanus: and we wonder that we have received no responses from your apostolate. Now, suggesting these same matters, we ask that you deign to inform us, by apostolic words, what is to be observed concerning these matters. And lest perhaps through the negligence of the bearer, or through the difficulty of the long journey, the writings of our humility have been unable to reach you concerning this business, we have preferred to repeat our suggestion. And the subscription: May the divine eternity preserve your holy apostolate, praying for us, through the ages, for all of us and for His Church, our truly [venerable] lord and apostolic pope.

Letter 9. Bishop Hilary to Ascanius and all the bishops of the province of Tarraconensis. After we received the letters of your love, by which you asked that the presumptions of Silvanus, bishop of the church of the Calagurritani, be checked, and again you seek to have the utterly illicit desires of the Barcinonenses confirmed: the petitions of the honorati and possessores of the Turiassonenses, the Calcanteses, the Calagurritani, the Virgilienses, the Tricienses, the Legionenses, and the Civitatenses, with the subscriptions of various persons, have been brought before us; through which they excused what your complaint had set forth concerning Silvanus. But their equally just allegation did not lack the most just reproach; because it became clear that priests had been ordained in several cities without the knowledge of the metropolitan, our brother and fellow bishop Ascanius.

Therefore, since we see that whatever has been judged on either side is utterly confused by perversity, having considered the necessity of the times, we decree by this reasoning that what has been done pertains to pardon, so that henceforth nothing be attempted contrary to the precepts of the blessed apostle, nothing contrary to the established decree of the Nicene canons. But this first, according to the rules of those same Fathers, we wish to be observed: that no bishop be consecrated in any way without the knowledge and consent of brother Ascanius the metropolitan; for this the ancient order held, this the authority of the three hundred and eighteen holy Fathers defined; and whoever shall have raised his hands against it declares himself unworthy of the fellowship of those whose precepts he has resisted. II. To the insult of whom, that part is also scorned by a proud spirit whereby it is forbidden [provided] that no one presume to leave his own church and pass to another. Which, too shamelessly with those conniving, and (what is more grievous to lament) with you asserting, Bishop Irenaeus attempts to admit, whom you desire to be strengthened by our authority, you who are proved to be inflamed with great indignation concerning unlawful matters. Therefore, after your letters were read in the assembly of the brothers, which the festivity of my birthday had gathered, concerning the ordination of bishops according to the statutes of the canons or the decrees of my predecessors, the sentence having been pronounced, you will learn from the tenor of the acts, which we have likewise sent.

III. Therefore, with Irenaeus the bishop removed from the Church of Barcelona and sent back to his own place, and with the desires—which through ignorance of ecclesiastical laws seek to obtain what is not permitted—calmed by priestly modesty, let a bishop be ordained forthwith for the people of Barcelona from their own clergy, such a one as it shall be especially fitting for you, brother Ascarius, to choose and proper for you to consecrate: lest, if something similar should happen to have been done, our instruction be rebuked, not without reproach to your name in particular, for having learned that something has been admitted to the injury of God, from whom the grace of priestly dignities is specially conferred. Nor should episcopal honor be thought a hereditary right, which is conferred upon us solely by the benevolence of our God, Christ. IV. Therefore, the bishops now ordained (although those who were promoted without your knowledge, together with their authors, deserved to be removed) we confirm on this condition: if no one has been the husband of a widow, and if he has entered into the marriage and vows of a single virgin, just as the legal constitutions also prescribe, saying: "A priest shall take a virgin as wife, not a widow, not a divorced woman" (Leviticus 21; Ezekiel 44); according to which the blessed apostle Paul, teacher of the Gentiles, also did not remain silent in his own instruction concerning those who desire to become priests, saying: "A husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3).

By the tenor of this sentence you ought certainly to be informed, dearest brothers, that among other things which must be avoided, you should especially study and observe those which you know are commanded before all else. In these matters it must also be provided that there are not two priests at the same time in one church; nor that anyone ignorant of letters, or lacking some part of his limbs, or even someone from among the penitents, be allowed to approach the sacred ministry. Nor should you think that the petitions of the people are so powerful that, when you wish to comply with them, you abandon the will of our God, who forbids us to sin. His indignation is more gravely aroused by this, because his kindness is offended while unlawful acts are committed by those who are the interpreters of appeasement. But so that everything may be corrected according to what we have written, we have sent the present letter with our subdeacon Trajanus coming. But if Irenaeus the bishop should neglect to return to his own church, having laid aside the ambition of impropriety—which will be granted to him not by judgment but by leniency—let him know that he is to be removed from episcopal fellowship. May God keep you safe, dearest brothers. Given on the third day before the Kalends of January (A.D. 495), under the consulship of Basilicus and Herminericus, most illustrious men.

EPISTLE III. Hilary, bishop, to his most beloved brother Ascanius. We ought to be mindful of the divine grace around us, which has advanced us to the priestly summit through the mercy of its condescension, so that, adhering to its commands and placed on a certain watchtower of its priesthood, we may forbid what is unlawful and teach what is to be followed. Hence, by the letters sent through Trajan, our subdeacon, we admonish that what has been done wrongly be corrected. And we greatly wonder that your love not only failed to repulse the petitions of the Barcelonans with any authority, but also, in letters directed to us, sought the consummation of a depraved desire, inserting mention of a council in the preface of the epistles: as if the excess of fault were diminished by a multitude of the inexperienced, even if, with each one having reported his name together with you under a subscription, and they had lent their own subscriptions to individual brothers, nevertheless the sum of the matter which displeases touched your love: because, by reason of the place and honor due to you, the other priests were to be taught, not followed.

Therefore, as I indicated in my general letters, Irenaeus should return to his own church, and a bishop from his own clergy should be consecrated immediately for the Barcelonans, with whom, however, the statutes of the canons and apostolic precepts should be in accord. And although those who were ordained priests without the knowledge and consent of your belovedness ought to have been removed along with their authors, yet, lest we decree anything harsh in such a necessity, we wish those who have been made bishops to remain as they are, provided they are not found liable under the apostolic precepts and the statutes of the holy Fathers, and that henceforth nothing contrary to ecclesiastical discipline, as has been done up to now, be perpetrated. It is your concern, dearest brother, to defend everything by the authority due to you, and not only to withhold assent from illicit acts, but also to restrain everything that you find done contrary to the rule; and above all, to compel Irenaeus to return to his church, which we decree for the sake of unity alone. He ought rather to return willingly, if he does not fear being separated from priestly fellowship. Nor should two bishops be permitted in one church, which we more fittingly delegate to be done by the insistence of the aforementioned subdeacon, whom the authority of our arrangement has also caused to travel to the Spains for the preservation of church discipline. May God keep you safe, dearest brother.

I. EPISTLE IV. Pope Hilarus to the Bishops Leontius, Veranus, and Victurus. He entrusts to them the controversy of the bishops Ingenuus and Auxanius, and decrees that the city of Cemelenum and the fortress of Nicaea should return to the governance of a single bishop. 'To the most beloved brothers Leontius, Veranus, and Victurus, bishops, Pope Hilarus. We are moved by the reason of justice, which, although it ought to be preserved by all who think rightly, is especially not to be carelessly neglected by the priests of the Lord, by whose institutions it is fitting that others be informed. Therefore, our brother and fellow bishop Ingenuus of Ebredunum, always supported by the honor of metropolitan of the province of the Maritime Alps, recalls that, to his prejudice, as the attached documents declare, we decreed certain things at the request of our brother and fellow bishop Auxanius, which would contradict all defenses in this same cause. Indeed, after reviewing the reports in our judgment, which our brother and fellow bishop Veranus sent to my predecessor of holy memory along with the other priests of the province, and after the response of the apostolic see, which had then been sent, was made known, it is clear that nothing ought to have been attempted afterward, nor ought anything to have been established to the injury of synodal rules through the surreptitious action that recently occurred.

For although even this which has been elicited from us may be considered weak, because it has been intimated that the one who deserved it was unwilling to carry it out, yet, lest we be moved by hatred or favor, which ought not to exist in the adjudication of cases, we delegate the examination of the attached complaint to your Charity, so that nothing contrary to the venerable canons, nothing against the judgment of my predecessor of holy memory, may prevail, whatever may be found to have been surreptitiously obtained from us. For we do not wish, dearest brothers, that the privileges of the churches, which must always be preserved, be confounded; nor do we permit one priest to have jurisdiction in another's province, because by this the sanctions of the holy traditions are no less violated than an assault is made upon the injury of the Lord Himself, whose expectation places the fruit of our ministry not in the breadth of regions, but in the acquisition of souls.

Let our brother and fellow bishop Ingenuus therefore hold the pontificate of his own province, he who has long been accused by the apostolic see of an illicit transfer; and with all things preserved which the authority of my predecessor of holy memory decreed concerning the churches of the city of Cemelenensis or the fortress of Nicaea, as we have said, nothing shall harm the right of the churches from the fact that in one of the aforementioned places a bishop was recently consecrated by the aforesaid brother, in order to exclude covetousness, as he claimed, of another’s ambition; but the form of the established correction shall remain, so that the aforementioned places may return to the governance of a single bishop, which it was not fitting to divide between two priests. May God keep you safe, dearest brothers. LETTER V. POPE HILARIUS TO LEONTIUS, BISHOP OF ARLES. Concerning the beginnings of his episcopate. To his most beloved brother Leontius, Pope Hilarus. How much reverence is paid in the Spirit of God, who dwells in the priests subject to him, to the blessed apostle Peter and to his see, I think is known to all to whom the uncorrupted preservation of the traditions of the fathers is dear.

Since we wish them to rejoice with us in the beginnings of our ordination, we have thought it right to indicate to your holiness the works which the dignity of divine mercy has shown toward us: first, so that you yourself may rejoice, with the Lord’s help, in the affection which we have always mutually rendered to each other; and then, so that by the arrangement of your fraternity it may become known to all the brothers and fellow priests throughout the whole province that the right hand of the Lord has deigned to visit my humility and has entrusted to me the governance of the apostolic see, not on account of merit, but by the most abundant generosity of its grace. Therefore, dearest brother, you will deign to bring to the notice of all the brothers, as we have said, what we have disclosed to your holiness in the present letter, so that, as they pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, they may join to us the vows of their prayers, which will be beneficial to the universal Church, just as the joys of exultation are. May God keep you safe, dearest brother. Given on the eighth day before the Kalends of February (in the year of Christ 462), under the consulship of our Lord Severus Augustus.

LETTER OF LEONTIUS, BISHOP OF ARLES, TO POPE HILARY. He congratulates Hilary on his pontificate and asks that the rights of the Church of Arles be protected. That death has taken away your most holy predecessor Leo, who kept watch against heresies and rooted out the tares in the Lord’s field, alas too abundantly sprouting, we grieve; that it has restored you in your holiness, we rejoice. For a son rejoices in the honor of his mother; and since the Roman Church is the mother of all, it was fitting for us to rejoice that in such great upheaval of affairs and weakness of the ages, it has raised you over her, so that you may judge peoples in equity and guide nations on earth. Hence, when that news was brought to us through Concordius, deacon of our church, who was present when your holiness was raised to that summit of honor, we gave thanks to our God and decreed to greet you as soon as possible with this letter of our humility: so that the affection which has long since grown between your holiness and us might be strengthened in the Lord, and henceforth be increased with the due reverence with which it befits sons to follow a father. Blessed, therefore, is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Now you must labor and strain with all your strength for your holiness, so that what the most holy Pope Leo began, you may bring to a finishable limit, and with Gideon’s army, through trumpets blaring in the mouths of the strong, and through lamps brandished and waved in a robust hand, your holiness may cause the accursed walls of Jericho, already so often anathematized and shattered, to be cast down. Moreover, since our Church of Arles has always been adorned with ample favors and privileges by the apostolic see, we ask your holiness that through you nothing may be lost to us, but rather increased, so that we may be able to collaborate with you in the vineyard of the Lord God Sabaoth, and to break the efforts of the envious, who, if there were no restraining authority, would certainly from day to day grow worse in their attacks, because the malice with which they hate us always increases. Given in the consulship of Severus Augustus. LETTER VI. POPE HILARY TO LEONTIUS. He responds to the letter of Leontius, which he had written when he had not yet received Hilary’s previous letter.

To my most beloved brother Leontius, Pope Hilary. My affection, which abounds for the Gallican churches and for all the Lord’s priests in them, even those placed in a lower rank, receives much increase from the fact that through the distinguished man Pappolus, our son, the beginnings of your discourse have been brought to me. From this, however, I infer that my letter, which I sent some time ago concerning the beginnings of my episcopate, had not yet been delivered to you when you wrote: concerning which you would certainly not have remained silent, unless some delay on the part of the bearers had held it back. Hence I indicate that what both custom demanded and affection required, I had already carried out long ago, and I desire you to know this more fully from the copies of the letters themselves which I have sent; so that you may understand that I have been in no way remiss in fraternal duty, and that we may thus strive for mutual exchanges of addresses, so that the care of writing may compensate us for the lack of common presence, dearest brother. Therefore, you have not allowed the grace of your affection to perish, since I recognize you to be intent on that concern, that you wish me to strive to preserve the rules of the paternal canons. No desire can be conceived more salutary than that in one Church, in which there ought to be neither spot nor wrinkle, there should be one observance of discipline in all things.

To which if any instruction or correction is to be added, it will be most rightly provided through your diligence, if, just as you have deigned to write, a person so instructed is sent to us, who can fully inform our inquiry on all points. For I promise, as far as the grace of God grants me to promise, that I will provide for the universal concord of the Lord’s priests, so that all may not dare to seek their own, but strive to obtain what is Christ’s. May God keep you safe, dearest brother. EPISTLE VII. Pope Hilary to Leontius. He urges that a report be sent concerning Hermes, who was said to have rashly usurped the episcopate of the Church of Narbonne. To my most beloved brother Leontius, Pope Hilary. We are astonished that your fraternity is so unmindful of the catholic law that you allow iniquities, and things contrary to the statutes of our Fathers, in the province which pertains to your monarchy, whether you yourself either do not wish or are not able, nor even permit us to correct them through the silence of your taciturnity. For as we have learned both by rumor and, as far as we have diligently inquired from the deacon John, who was made known to us by his letters from the magnificent man our son Fridericus, that with the most iniquitous usurpation a certain Hermes has presumed to the episcopate of the city of Narbonne with abominable temerity. It would have been fitting for your sanctity to indicate this matter to us on the spot.

Concerning this matter, most dear brother, we urge that, if credence is given to what has been asserted, setting aside any excuse, you transmit to us a report subscribed by your own hands—both of your affection and of our brothers—either through the bearer of this letter or through whomever you yourselves choose; so that what we may be able to define, you may be able to recognize by the returning page. May God keep you safe, most dear brother. Given on the third day before the Nones of November (around the year 462 AD). LETTER VIII. Pope Hilary to the Bishops of the Various Provinces of Gaul. I. He permits Hermen to preside over the Church of Narbonne, but without the power of ordaining bishops. II. That councils be held annually from those provinces that are able, and that they be convoked by Leontius. III. That bishops not travel into another province without letters from the metropolitan. But if they are unable to obtain these, the bishop of Arles shall examine the case.

IV. Regarding the parishes of the Church of Arles, which Leontius was reclaiming, he refers judgment to the bishops. V. That ecclesiastical properties shall not be alienated unless the reason for the alienation is first set forth before a council. To the most beloved brother bishops of the provinces of Viennensis, Lugdunensis, Narbonensis prima and secunda, and the Alpes Poeninae. Bishop Hilary. Although the knowledge of your affection—how great or what sort of offenses have long been admitted in the Church of Narbonne and the Church of Béziers—is not hidden, and the shamelessness of presumption, reaching even to us, is without doubt manifest to the Gallic regions, nevertheless it is the concern of apostolic vigilance not to keep silent about faults detected in our examination, lest through inappropriate silence we seem to share in a portion of connivance with those acting unjustly. Long ago, therefore, the presidents of the aforementioned cities brought grief to my predecessor of holy memory no less than to us, even then daring to pursue with improper petitions what could scarcely be alleviated before our patience by the mere lamentation of necessities. For by what examples, as you yourselves also prove, is it established that the deed is done, and by what rebuke is it most worthy, that it contradicts the decrees of the holy Fathers and the very institutions of the canons? Since our brother and fellow bishop Hermes believed he was lawfully received by the Church of Narbonne for this reason: because he said he was unjustly excluded by the people of Béziers, for whom he was ordained.

If he truly grieved that this had been done to him, and had known how to remedy his own injury by lawful means, he ought rather to have hoped for vengeance for those who suffered than for pardon for those who committed the offenses. Finally, if now at least he would employ the common mind of all the Lord's priests, if he would imitate the example, if he would direct the eyes of his heart to those things which have been somewhat soothed for the sake of ecclesiastical peace, and would consider the many errors committed for the sake of the peace or faith of the whole Church: there is indeed nothing that he himself would not also condemn, and blush for himself that he approved in another what he had laudably disapproved. For we know, and have long had no doubt about the conduct of the aforementioned brother, since, as we turn over in our mind the course of his past life and his entire former purpose, we judge that he incurred rather than committed the excesses which we censure in him.

Concerning these matters, with a numerous council of brothers presiding, and gathered from diverse provinces for the day of our birth in honor of the blessed apostle Peter by the grace of God, with our brothers and fellow bishops Faustus and Auxanius presiding, and with many acting who have regard for the vigor and authority of judgment, it was established by us out of love for peace that, in the sentence which we pronounced, under the review of both legations sent there, with our Lord Christ inspiring, neither the charity of evangelical indulgence nor the rod of apostolic discipline should be lacking. For indulgence did not cause us to remit entirely, nor did affection cause us to restrain. I. To him who is now permitted to preside over the Church of Narbonne, we have removed the power of ordaining bishops, on account of those things which have been done wrongly; and we have decreed that this power pertains to our brother and fellow bishop Constantius, bishop of the Church of Ucetia, because he is said to be the first in honor of age, in such a way that if, while Bishop Hermes is still alive, he should die, this care shall devolve upon whomever the episcopal order finds to be the primate. But when Bishop Hermes passes away, the custom of making bishops shall be immediately restored to the Church of Narbonne, which lost it not by the city, but by the cause of presumption.

Therefore, let the sincere love of your fraternity in the Lord, sharing with us the solicitude of pastoral care in your own sees, vigilantly exercise diligence over the churches entrusted to you, and remember those matters which have arisen in the province of Narbonne in such a way that it detests the deed rather than takes it as an example. We do not wish this to be the case hereafter, just as we know it was not the case before. And so, dearest brothers, we must apply ourselves to necessary efforts, lest the error which, with the help of Christ our Lord, we have recently abolished, should ever be able to break forth into similar or new transgressions. This certainly cannot be guarded against otherwise than by carrying out the statutes of the venerable canons in the holding of councils, which until now a certain necessity has caused to be omitted; in these councils, according to the need of emerging cases, both what has been done otherwise can be corrected and what is to be followed can be established, for the observance of ecclesiastical discipline.

II. Therefore, each year, from whatever provinces it can be done, an episcopal council shall be gathered and held: in such a way that it is celebrated at suitable places and times, according to the arrangement of our brother and fellow bishop Leontius, to whom we have delegated the care of gathering the brothers, with the metropolitans having been notified by his letters: so that if anywhere, either in the ordaining of bishops or presbyters, or in the making of clerics of any place, anything is found to have been admitted contrary to the apostolic precepts, or if anything in their conduct is reproved, it may be cut away by the common authority of all. Let them assemble especially for that celebration which, with Christ our Lord presiding, is both to be revered by the holy and feared by the perverse. Nor will it be permitted for anyone to stray from the rules which the united fraternity has set for itself in common according to the definitions of the canons: since with an examination impending each year, each one will so direct his own actions that the scrutiny of judgment ought rather to be desired than feared. In deciding graver cases, moreover, and those which cannot be concluded there, the judgment of the apostolic see shall be consulted.

III. We also cannot pass over that which must be attended to with more diligent care, lest anyone dare to set out for any province without the letters of their own metropolitans; this also ought to be observed in every order of the clerical office throughout individual churches. To these, on the contrary, we make provision in this manner, so that if they have not merited obtaining this through some penalty, the bishop of Arles, with two metropolitans of the provinces that are suitable, shall, after examining everything, establish what is to be observed according to the nature of the case; nor shall he decree that a cleric of another be received to the injury of another, without the testimony of his own bishop, according to the statutes of the canons. But each and every brother shall know that they must obey the present constitutions, to which our admonition also declares that the judgment of our Lord Christ will by no means be lacking against those who, by avoiding the councils through proud rebellion, are refuted by the testimony of their own conscience as not having the confidence of priestly innocence.

IV. Moreover, a petition from the same Crater was presented to us, in which he asserts that the parishes of the Church of Arles were transferred by his predecessor Hilarius to others (which was not lawful), asking that they be restored to their former right by our authority. But mindful of apostolic moderation, we have referred his complaint to your fraternity to be heard: so that in your assembly those things which are hoped for from us may be alleged, and what is consistent with ecclesiastical rules may be decreed. V. At the same time, we also wish the entire fraternity to be admonished concerning this: that estates which are neither abandoned nor unproductive, and which belong to the Church, from which the needs of many are accustomed to be supplied, should not be transferred to another by any right, unless the reason for the alienation itself is first shown before a council, so that what ought to be done may be considered by the common deliberation of all. May God keep you safe, dearest brothers. Given on the third day before the Nones of December (in the year of Christ 1), with G. L. P. Severus Augustus as consul.

LETTER IX. HILARY, POPE, TO LEONTIUS. Concerning Bishop Mamertus, who had ordained a bishop for the Deenses outside his own boundaries, that his case be examined in a synod. To his most beloved brother Leontius, Hilarus. How Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, coming against the constitutions of the apostolic see, has exceeded priestly modesty, we ought to have learned from a report of your love, so that we might bring forth a mature judgment, fitting the order of ecclesiastical rules, upon such audacities. For as has been indicated by the words of our son, the illustrious man, Master of the Soldiers Gunduicus, the aforementioned bishop, against the will of the Deenses, and who in no way belonged to the number of his churches, which the authority of the apostolic see assigned to him, as we have testimony in our archives, occupying the city in a hostile manner, as it is said, presumed to consecrate a bishop. In this, dearest brother, if it is so, how manifold the fault is, we could pronounce, were it not that, as we have said, both moderation and order are to be preserved in judgment.

Therefore, mindful of the concern which you know has been entrusted to your love, whatever has now been brought to our attention by a brief report, you shall be obliged to examine what has been done in the synodal assembly, which according to our statutes is to be convened each year under your presidency, and to demand from the aforementioned an account of his action before the entire gathering of the brotherhood, and then to communicate it to our notice by the letters of all: so that what is to be done by the dictation of the Holy Spirit, we may ordain for the suppression of unlawful attempts. May God keep you safe, most dear brother. Given on the Ides of October (in the year of Christ 463), when the most distinguished man Basilius was consul. LETTER X. HILARY, POPE, TO THE BISHOPS OF THE VARIOUS PROVINCES OF GAUL. That no one should transgress his own boundaries, and that councils be convened each year through the efforts of Bishop Leontius. To the most beloved brother bishops of the provinces of Vienne, Lyons, First and Second Narbonne, and the Alps, Hilarus, bishop.

Even though we remember that your fraternity retains what has been established by us, and conceals nothing of what we have written—namely, that for ecclesiastical discipline and for the causes which often arise among the Lord’s priests, synodal councils are to be celebrated annually, and it has been especially pleasing that the chief authority for these be in our brother and fellow bishop Leontius, priest of the Church of Arelate; and we believe that nothing else can be done than what our ordinance, which will please you, has established for the common house of our Lord—nevertheless, we now decree by repeated letters that the same things are also to be observed, especially since the bishop of the city of Vienna is involved in a very grave offense, by consecrating a bishop in injury to our brother and fellow bishop Leontius, the bishop of Deensihus. Concerning this deed, deferring a sentence of fitting punishment, we have responded to the report of the brothers regarding what had been seen in the meantime. But since such great excesses have brought us greater matter for concern, we have also sent these writings to the whole charity through our brother and fellow bishop Antonius, by which the common vigilance of all, once admonished, shall see to it that no brother, about to rush into injury of another, transgresses the boundaries established by the venerable Fathers.

Therefore, confirming all that has been defined by us through our brothers and fellow bishops Faustus and Auxanius, deign to hold annual gatherings, under the direction of our brother and fellow bishop Leontius, with the metropolitans having been admonished—as must often be said—in those places where there is no difficulty of travel for anyone to assemble. To this diligence, provision must also be made that the suitability of both places and times be established, so that anyone who would think to neglect this necessary and salutary decree of ours might appear all the more inexcusable, dearest brothers. Moreover, the confirmation of that man whom the bishop of Vienne, as an outsider and one not pertaining to him in any way, presumed to ordain gravely, we have left to the will of our brother and fellow bishop Leontius; we trust that he will weigh what is just, not without humanity. May God keep you safe, dearest brothers.

LETTER XI. POPE HILARY TO THE BISHOPS WHO HEARD THE CASE OF MAMERTUS IN SYNOD. A decree of Pope Hilary concerning the Church of Dea, where a bishop was improperly ordained by the bishop of Vienne. I. That Mamertus be warned through Bishop Veranus to abstain in future from improper ordinations, under peril of his rank and privileges. II. That the one consecrated for the people of Dea by Mamertus be confirmed at the discretion of Leontius, bishop of Arles, by whom he ought to have been consecrated. To our most beloved brothers, Victurus, Ingenuus, Idatius, Eustasius, Fonteius, Vivens, Eulalius, Veranus, Faustus, Auxanius, Proculus, Ausonius, Paulus, Memorialis, Coelestius, Projectus, Eutropius, Avitianus, Ursus, and Leontius, Hilary. We, being greatly anxious and suspended in much expectation by what a certain report had recently brought to us, were given the letter of your love, delivered by our brother and fellow bishop Antonius, whom we approve as an interpreter worthy of such an embassy; and this letter saddened us from its very beginning.

For we believed that our concern would be put to rest and greatly alleviated in those matters which were prescribed by my predecessor of blessed memory concerning the bishop of Vienne, but we have learned by clear assertion, and not without grief we marvel, that those definitions, through which the privilege of the Church was shown to have been acquired, could now be transgressed by Bishop Mamertus; especially since the moderation of our brother and fellow bishop Leontius ought to have provided a model of restraint for the ambitious one. Or if, inflamed by a spirit of rivalry, he thought him (which ought not to have been) to be disregarded, at least instructed by the example of his predecessor, he should have imitated the temperance of the one whose honor he enjoys, and not violated by transgression what, even now, unless we held to the restraints of patience, could be lost. To whom has a rebellious mind ever been profitable? Or whom has pride not humbled? The grace of humility is higher, by which the poverty of spirit opens the path of the heavenly kingdom to the reward of promised blessedness. Nor should the transgressor consider what he has done to be of no consequence, if, instructed by ecclesiastical teachings, he recognizes what each one deserves: since one, according to the prophetic voice, is forbidden to dwell in the midst of the Lord's house; the other, with God looking upon him, is always said to be joined, by whose consolation he is saved. Many things from the venerable ancients could be repeated, which are shown to have been spoken in accordance with the truth; but from the same cause, which thrust itself forward for us to speak of, more recent examples are to be taken.

For the dignity of the Viennese Church had grown through the transgression of Mamertus, once bishop of Arles, and for the correction of what was being done perversely, an inviolable definition was later composed, so that one would not be left inglorious, nor the other entirely stripped of his ancient honor through the fault of his predecessor. Therefore, just as the report of your belovedness and the communication of our brother and fellow bishop Antonius have disclosed, it is clear that the aforementioned privileges, confined within fixed limits, are about to be lost by one who wants more than he should, who, abusing the moderation of our brother and fellow priest Leonius, did not fear to consecrate a bishop for the Deensians contrary to divine law, even if he deserved it. In this matter, his action should have been resolved in such a way that, according to the quality of what was perpetrated, not without loss of his own rank, he would see even that man whom he improperly created, and whom he is convicted of having made most unworthily, removed from priestly fellowship, and would feel himself corrected by just retribution, lest unpunished temerity think it has produced an example of license for its conceived audacity. But for the peace of the churches, mindful of apostolic wisdom, we wish to heal the wounds of such a great transgression first with poultices, so that a member of our body that perhaps can be healed may be recalled to its former integrity through milder remedies, and it not be believed that what is not immediately ordered to be cut off is being neglected.

Gentleness always precedes the severity of healing, and not every fault is immediately restrained by the knife, nor is what could easily be beneficial offered without examination. For now the opportunity of time, now the necessity of the one who languishes, now the method and quality of the medicine itself must be sought; so that every care of the healer, undertaken with wisdom in restraining vices, may rejoice in the restoration of what it saves, and not lack moderation in what it cuts away. Therefore, your fraternity, having weighed these matters gravely and prudently, should not think that such things can be overlooked by us, in whose greatest insult the one who is not undeservedly assailed has risen up. For nothing of the right established by my predecessor of holy memory could be abrogated for our brother Leontius, nor could anything due to his honor be taken away: because it has been decreed by the law of Christian princes as well, that whatever the bishop of the apostolic see had pronounced in his examination for the removal of confusions, concerning the peace of all the Lord's priests and the observance of discipline itself, your charity with your congregations would recognize that it should be reverently received and tenaciously preserved; nor could those things ever be overturned which were supported both by priestly and ecclesiastical precept and by royal authority.

Therefore, dearest brothers, the presumption of the aforementioned man, which has proceeded to the injury of our brother and fellow bishop Leontius, must be tolerated for now, free from worthy vengeance, so that if the transgressor abuses the remedies of satisfaction and pardon, and does not promise to cure the fault of the present excess by the diligence of future observance, then, with the complaint renewed, the privileges of the Viennese Church shall be transferred to the bishop of Arles by the same example by which they originally migrated. I. Therefore, holding the name of our moderation, we have sent letters to Veranus, our brother and fellow bishop, so that he may meet with the aforementioned man on our delegation, and learn what you have reported concerning him: because it should not be burdensome to rebuke a delinquent brother for his own excesses, to whom it is known that pardon is frequently granted by command. But it is necessary, if we perceive no sign of his correction (which must be retained by that profession whereby he testifies that the definition of the apostolic see is always to be preserved, without any further transgression, at the peril of his order), that the same four cities, with whose ordination Mamertus the bishop was not or will not be content, be recalled to the Church of Arles. This must also be done then, if any imitator of this presumption ever arises after him, whom we now correct with charity, and whom we trust will henceforth abstain from unlawful acts.

Concerning this man, who, although improperly, is known to have been ordained for the people of Dea, we have judged by reason of justice that his priesthood be confirmed by the judgment of our brother and fellow bishop Leontius, by whom he ought rightly to have been consecrated. May God keep you, dearest brothers, for a longer age. Given on the sixth day before the Kalends of March (in the year of Christ 464), in the consulship of Basilius, a most distinguished man.