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a p p e n d i x i Pope Gelasius to Augustus Anastasius 1. O my son, when the servants of Your Piety, the Illustrious Faustus Magister and Irenaeus, had returned to the city after fulfilling their public embassy, they said that Your Clemency had asked why I had not sent formal greetings to you after my election as Bishop of Rome. I must say that it was not my intention to avoid sending you a letter. However, because new representatives from the East made it known throughout the whole City that on your orders I was not allowed to see them, I decided that I ought to refrain from writing you because I was afraid that if I were to write I would be burdensome rather than dutiful to you. And so you can see that this situation did not arise from a desire to conceal my election from you, but rather from my precaution: I did not want to annoy one who rejects me. But when I discovered, as the aforementioned persons indicated to me, that Your Serenity’s goodwill had already mercifully asked a word of my humility, then I clearly realized that I would be acting unjustly if I were to remain silent, because, o glorious son, I, as one Romanborn , love, cherish, and highly esteem you both as a Roman Prince and as a Christian, alongside him who has zeal for God, desire that you have that zeal according to the knowledge of truth, and I, the vicar of the apostolic see, for whatever it is worth, fight in my own little way by timely suggestions if I find that anything of the full catholic faith is lacking anywhere. Indeed, the stewardship of the divine word has been imposed on me: woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel!1 Now, since the blessed Apostle Paul trembled to call himself a vessel of election, how much more ought I fear to subtract from the divinely inspired ministry of preaching that has been handed down to me by fatherly devotion? 174 appendix i 2. I beg Your Piety not to consider my obedience to the divine economy to be arrogance. For I think that a Roman prince should not consider the truth that he knows in his heart to be an offense. For, as you know, Emperor, there are two primary means by which this world is ruled: the hallowed authority of the pontiff and royal power. Now, if we were to compare the two of them, the sacerdotal burden is as much heavier as the responsibility [for priests] is more serious for they will render an account even for the kings of men at the divine judgment. Of course, as you know, Most Merciful Son, you have been allowed to preside over humankind in dignity. However, devoutly incline your head2 to those who rule in the divine sphere, wait for your source of salvation from them, and recognize that you should be placed under the rule of religion rather than rule over it when the question concerns receiving or setting aside heavenly mysteries. Furthermore, you know that these affairs depend on those ruling in the divine sphere and they are certainly not willing to be reined in by your will. Now, regarding the sphere of public discipline, those bishops know that imperium has been taken from the ends of the earth and given to you by a heavenly arrangement. Now then, the bishops who are the leaders in the sacred sphere obey your laws in such a manner that their opinions concerning the world (and these opinions are distinct from the world) do not seem to be opposed to those laws. How much more, I ask you, should you lovingly obey those who have been assigned to administer the venerable mysteries? So it is right for the pontiffs to have kept silent, because a heavy judgment rests on them because of their place in the divine cult. However, there is a great danger to those who (God forbid!) despise the pontiffs when they ought rather to obey them. If all the priests are essentially handling divine affairs correctly and it is deemed appropriate that the faithful submit their hearts to them, how much more should everyone follow the opinion of him who presides in the chair, he whom the most high God desired to preside over all the other priests, whom the whole pious Church has celebrated without ceasing? 3. Your...

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