1

Ad Innocentium papam ii

TO INNOCENT, BISHOP OF ROME, John in the Lord, greeting.

52.535 Our body is indeed fixed in one place, but the wing of love flits about everywhere in the inhabited world. Whenever we are separated by so great a length of journey, we are near your reverence, and we are with you each day, seeing with its eyes the courage of your soul, the genuineness of your disposition, its firmness, its immovability, your great and lasting and permanent consolation. For the more the waves rise, and the more reefs and rocks emerge, and the many the storms, so much more does your watchfulness increase; and neither so great a length of journey, nor the passage of time, nor the difficulty of affairs has made you become supine; but you remain, imitating the best of pilots, who are most aroused when they see the waves cresting, the sea surging higher, the great crash of the waters, the deepest night in the day. Therefore we give you many thanks, and we desire to send you even snowstorms of letters, doing ourselves the greatest favor. But since we have been deprived of this by the desolation of the place; for not only of those arriving there, but not even of those dwelling in our part of the world, could anyone easily meet with us, both because the place in which we are confined is far away and situated at the very ends of the earth, and because of the fear of robbers walling off every road; we ask you to pity us for our long silence, rather than to condemn us for negligence on this account.

For that we have not been silent out of carelessness, having now after a long time availed ourselves of the most honorable and beloved presbyter John, and the deacon Paul, we both write, and do not cease giving thanks to you, because you have surpassed tender-hearted fathers in your good-will and zeal for us. And as far as it concerned your reverence, all things have received their proper correction, and the rubbish heap of evils and the scandals have been removed, and the Churches have enjoyed peace and white calm, and all things are running smoothly, and the despised 52.536 laws have been vindicated, and the transgressed ordinances of the fathers. But since in actual deeds none of these things has happened, as those who dared the former things still strive on in their former lawless acts, I pass over recounting one by one all the things done by them after this; for the narrative exceeds the measure of a history, not only of a letter; but this I ask of your watchful soul, that even if those who have filled everything with disturbances are impenitently and incurably sick, those who have chosen to heal them should not lose heart, nor give up, considering the magnitude of the achievement. For the present struggle lies before you on behalf of almost the entire inhabited world, on behalf of Churches brought to their knees, on behalf of scattered peoples, on behalf of clergy under attack, on behalf of exiled bishops, on behalf of the transgressed ordinances of the fathers. Therefore we ask your diligence, once and twice and many times, the greater the tempest, to show the greater zeal. For we expect that there will be some further result for correction. But if this should not happen, still you have your perfect crown from the man-loving God, and for those who are wronged this will be no small consolation: the persistence of your love; since for us too, passing this third year in exile, by famine, plague, wars, constant sieges, unspeakable desolation,

1

Ad Innocentium papam ii

ΙΝΝΟΚΕΝΤΙΩ, ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΩ ΡΩΜΗΣ, Ἰωάννης ἐν Κυρίῳ χαίρειν.

52.535 Τὸ μὲν σῶμα ἡμῖν ἐν ἑνὶ ἵδρυται χωρίῳ, τῆς δὲ ἀγάπης τὸ πτερὸν πανταχοῦ τῆς οἰκουμένης περιίπταται. Ὅταν καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁδοῦ τοσούτῳ διῳκισμένοι μήκει, πλησίον τῆς εὐλαβείας ὑμῶν ἐσμεν, καὶ καθ' ἑκάστην ὑμῖν συγγινόμεθα τὴν ἡμέραν, ὀφθαλμοῖς τοῖς ἐκείνης βλέποντες ὑμῶν τὴν ἀνδρείαν τῆς ψυχῆς, τὸ γνήσιον τῆς διαθέσεως, τὸ στεῤῥὸν, τὸ ἀπερίτρεπτον, τὴν πολλὴν ὑμῶν παράκλησιν καὶ διαρκῆ καὶ μόνιμον. Ὅσῳ γὰρ τὰ τῶν κυμάτων ἐπὶ πλεῖον αἴρεται, καὶ πλείους ὕφαλοι καὶ σπιλάδες φύονται, καὶ πολλαὶ αἱ καταιγίδες, τοσούτῳ καὶ τὰ τῆς ἀγρυπνίας αὔξει τὰ τῆς ὑμετέρας· καὶ οὐχ ὁδοῦ μῆκος τοσοῦτον, οὐ χρόνου πλῆθος, οὐ δυσκολία πραγμάτων ὑπτίους γενέσθαι ὑμᾶς παρεσκεύασεν· ἀλλὰ μένετε μιμούμενοι τοὺς ἀρίστους τῶν κυβερνητῶν, οἳ τότε μάλιστα διεγείρονται, ὅταν ἴδωσι τὰ κύματα κορυφούμενα, τὴν θάλατταν ἐπὶ μεῖζον φερομένην, πολὺν τῶν ὑδάτων τὸν πάταγον, βαθυτάτην ἐν ἡμέρᾳ νύκτα. ∆ιὸ καὶ χάριτας ὑμῖν ἴσμεν πολλὰς, καὶ ἐπιθυμοῦμεν καὶ νιφάδας ὑμῖν πέμπειν γραμμάτων, ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς τὰ μέγιστα χαριζόμενοι. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τοῦτο ἀφῃρήμεθα παρὰ τῆς τοῦ τόπου ἐρημίας· οὐδὲ γὰρ μόνον τῶν ἐκεῖσε ἀφικνουμένων, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τῶν ἐν τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένῃ διατριβόντων, δύναιτ' ἄν τις ῥᾳδίως ἡμῖν συγγενέσθαι, διά τε τὸ πόῤῥω καὶ πρὸς αὐτὰς τὰς ἐσχατιὰς κεῖσθαι τὸ χωρίον ἐν ᾧ καθείργμεθα, καὶ διὰ τὸν λῃστρικὸν φόβον πᾶσαν ἀποτειχίζοντα τὴν ὁδόν· παρακαλοῦμεν ἐλεεῖν μᾶλλον ἡμᾶς τῆς μακρᾶς σιγῆς, ἢ ῥᾳθυμίαν ἐντεῦθεν καταγινώσκειν ἡμῶν.

Ὅτι γὰρ οὐκ ὀλιγωροῦντες ἐσιγήσαμεν, ἐπιλαβόμενοι διὰ πολλοῦ τοῦ χρόνου νῦν τοῦ τιμιωτάτου καὶ ἀγαπητοῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου, καὶ Παύλου τοῦ διακόνου, καὶ γράφομεν, καὶ εὐχαριστοῦντες ὑμῖν οὐ διαλιμπάνομεν, ὅτι πατέρας φιλοστόργους ἀπεκρύψατε τῇ περὶ ἡμᾶς εὐνοίᾳ τε καὶ σπουδῇ. Καὶ τὸ μὲν εἰς τὴν εὐλάβειαν ἧκον τὴν ὑμετέραν, τὴν προσήκουσαν διόρθωσιν εἴληφεν ἅπαντα, καὶ ὁ φορυτὸς τῶν κακῶν καὶ τὰ σκάνδαλα ἀνῄρηται, καὶ αἱ Ἐκκλησίαι εἰρήνης ἀπήλαυσαν καὶ λευκῆς γαλήνης, καὶ πάντα κατὰ ῥοῦν φέρεται, καὶ καταφρονηθέντες 52.536 ἐξεδικήθησαν νόμοι, καὶ θεσμοὶ πατέρων παραβαθέντες. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐπὶ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν οὐδὲν τούτων γέγονε, τῶν τὰ πρότερα τολμησάντων τοῖς προτέροις ἐπαγωνιζομένων ἔτι παρανομήμασιν, ἅπαντα μὲν τὰ παρ' αὐτῶν μετὰ ταῦτα γεγενημένα καθ' ἕκαστον διηγήσασθαι παρίημι· καὶ γὰρ ἱστορίας ὑπερβαίνει μέτρον, οὐκ ἐπιστολῆς μόνον, ἡ διήγησις· ἐκεῖνο δὲ παρακαλῶ τὴν ἄγρυπνον ὑμῶν ψυχὴν, κἂν οἱ πάντα θορύβων ἐμπλήσαντες ἀμετανόητα νοσῶσι καὶ ἀνίατα, αὐτοὺς τοὺς θεραπεῦσαι αὐτὰ ἑλομένους μὴ περικακῆσαι, μηδὲ ἀπαγορεῦσαι, τὸ μέγεθος τοῦ κατορθώματος ἐννοήσαντας. Καὶ γὰρ ὑπὲρ τῆς οἰκουμένης σχεδὸν ἁπάσης ὁ παρὼν ὑμῖν ἀγὼν πρόκειται, ὑπὲρ Ἐκκλησιῶν εἰς γόνυ κατενεχθεισῶν, ὑπὲρ λαῶν διασπαρέντων, ὑπὲρ κλήρων πολεμουμένων, ὑπὲρ ἐπισκόπων φυγαδευομένων, ὑπὲρ θεσμῶν πατέρων παραβαθέντων. ∆ιὸ καὶ παρακαλοῦμεν ὑμῶν τὴν ἐμμέλειαν, καὶ ἅπαξ καὶ δὶς καὶ πολλάκις, ὅσῳ πλείων ἡ ζάλη, τοσούτῳ πλείονα ἐπιδείξασθαι τὴν σπουδήν. Προσδοκῶμεν γὰρ καὶ ἔσεσθαί τι πλέον εἰς διόρθωσιν. Εἰ δ' ἄρα μὴ τοῦτο γένοιτο, ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς ἀπηρτισμένον ἔχετε τὸν στέφανον παρὰ τοῦ φιλανθρώπου Θεοῦ, καὶ τοῖς ἀδικουμένοις οὐ μικρὰ τοῦτο ἔσται παράκλησις, τῆς ὑμετέρας ἀγάπης ἡ ἔνστασις· ἐπεὶ καὶ ἡμᾶς τρίτον ἔτος τοῦτο ἐν ἐξορίᾳ διατρίβοντας, λιμῷ, λοιμῷ, πολέμοις, πολιορκίαις συνεχέσιν, ἐρημίᾳ ἀφάτῳ,