Hilarus, bishop, to his most beloved brother Ascanius.
We must be mindful of the divine grace which, through the mercy of its favor, raised Us to the summit of the priestly office for this purpose: that, adhering to its commands and established as watchmen of its priesthood, We may prohibit what is illicit and teach what must be followed. Through the letters sent by Our subdeacon Trajan, We therefore admonish that what has been done wrongly be corrected. And We are greatly surprised that your charity not only failed to curb the petitions of the Barcinonenses with any authority, but even, by sending letters to Us, sought the approval of their perverse desire — adding a mention of a council in the preamble of your letters, as if the fault of the excess might be diminished through the multitude of the ignorant. For even if each person had reported under his own signature alongside you and commended their personal subscriptions to individuals, your charity would still bear the chief responsibility for a matter that displeases Us — since, given the place and honor due to you, the other priests should have been taught by you, not followed.
Therefore, as We indicated in Our general letter, let Irenaeus return to his own church, and let a bishop from Barcinona’s own clergy be consecrated without delay — one whose life, however, accords with the statutes of the canons and the apostolic precepts. And although those priests who were ordained without the knowledge and consent of your charity deserved to be removed along with their consecrators, lest We decree anything harsh in such necessity, We will that those who have been made bishops remain — 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 is perpetrated as has been done thus far.
It is the duty of your solicitude, dearest brother, to uphold all things with the authority due to you — and not only to refuse consent to illicit acts, but also to restrain everything that you find done against the rule. And above all, by the clemency We decree, compel Irenaeus to return to his church — to which 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 — a matter We delegate to the diligence of the aforementioned subdeacon, whom the authority of Our disposition has also caused to travel to Spain for the preservation of ecclesiastical discipline.
May God keep you safe, dearest brother.
Footnotes
- ↩ The Latin is ad fastigium sacerdotale provexit. Fastigium denotes the apex of a structure. Does this refer to the papal office specifically, or to the episcopate generally? The text answers. First, the verb is in the papal plural — Hilarius speaks of himself (nos… provexit), not of bishops collectively. Second, Hilarius is “established as a watchman of its priesthood” (in quadam sacerdotii ejus specula constituti), placing him over the priesthood, not merely within it. Third, the prohibiting and teaching are being exercised across the Tarraconensis province by a letter dispatched from Rome through a papal agent — a scope no ordinary episcopal office, bounded by a diocese, can account for. The fastigium sacerdotale is the office whose scope matches the reach of Hilarius’s acts — the same office he names with potissimi sacerdotis (“the chief priest”) in Letter I.
- ↩ The PL heading identifies this as privatim scripta — “written privately” — and notes it treats the same subject as the preceding letter. Letter II was the formal synodal decree addressed to all the bishops of the province; Letter III is Hilarius’s private rebuke to Ascanius personally. The combination of a public decree with a private admonition to the metropolitan is a standard pattern of papal governance — Leo employed it routinely, pairing formal letters to entire provinces with private instructions to their leading bishops.
- ↩ The phrase tuæ sollicitudinis est — “it is the duty of your solicitude” — applies the sollicitudo language to Ascanius rather than to the pope. But the reader should note that Ascanius’s solicitude operates within and under Hilarius’s jurisdiction: the standards Ascanius must enforce are those Hilarius has decreed; the authority Ascanius exercises is the authority “due to him” as metropolitan, which Hilarius has just confirmed and defined. The metropolitan’s solicitude for his province is a delegated function, accountable to Rome — the same structure visible in Leo’s delegation to Anastasius of Thessalonica in Letters V and VI.
Historical Commentary