Folio 105

St. Hormisdas, 514-523

printed p. 73 · pdf p. 105

has given warning of it. Therefore, through the vine-branch what is transmitted by the parents evidently appears, and what God has operated from the beginning even to the end, and what He is operating is shown.

St. Symmachus 498-514

ST. HORMISDAS 514-523

The Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff1

["Libellus professionis fidei" added to the epistle "Inter ea quae" to the bishops of Spain, April 2, 517]

171. [Our] first safety is to guard the rule of the right faith and to deviate in no wise from the ordinances of the Fathers; because we cannot pass over the statement of our Lord Jesus Christ who said: "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church" . . . [Matt. 16:18]. These [words] which were spoken, are proved by the effects of the deeds, because in the Apostolic See the Catholic religion has always been preserved without stain. Desiring not to be separated from this hope and faith and following the ordinances of the Fathers, we anathematize all heresies, especially the heretic Nestorius, who at one time was bishop of the city of Constantinople, condemned in the Council of EPHESUS by the blessed CELESTINE, Pope of the City of Rome,2 and by the venerable man Cyril, high priest of the City of Alexandria. Similiarly anathematizing both Eutyches and Dioscorus of Alexandria condemned in the holy Synod of CHALCEDON [see n. 148] which we follow and embrace, which following the sacred Council of NICEA proclaimed the apostolic faith, we detest both Timothy the parricide, surnamed the Cat, and likewise his disciple and follower in all things, Peter of Alexandria. We condemn, too, and anathematize Acacius, formerly bishop of Constantinople, who was condemned by the Apostolic See, their con-

  1. Th 795 f.; Jf 788; W. Haacke, Die Glaubensformel des Papstes Hormisdas in Acacianischen Schisma [Rome 1939] p. 10 ff. This rule of faith, after it was proposed to the bishops who had been sharers of the Acacian schism, was subscribed to by all the bishops of the Orient, by the emperor Justinian, and by the Constantinopolitan patriarchs Epiphanius, John, Menna, and finally in the eighth ecumenical Synod (Constantinople IV), act. 1, by the Greek and Latin Fathers [cf. n. 1833 and Bar(Th) to 869 n. 19 (15, 153 a f.)]. That "Libellus" in almost the same words occurs in various epistles of that age. The formula placed above is that which HORMISDAS proposed to the bishops of Spain for receiving the oriental clerics into the communion of the Church. It almost agrees with that which John the Patriarch of Constantinople sent signed to HORMISDAS [CSEL 35, 608 ff.; cf. ibid., 338, 340, 520, 800]. ↩

  2. Epistolae 22 ff. [ML 50, 537 ff.]. ↩