Pope Hyginus: Letters

we must be vigilant, and we are to be armed with celestial weapons, lest we fall into his fetters or be ensnared in his pits. For it is fitting that in such ^A causes this should be provided for above all: that without the clamor of contentions, charity may be preserved, truth defended, and the innocent and the ministers of the Lord be delivered unharmed. Concerning, therefore, the good and those who keep the law of the Lord, and who assist their brothers and do not harm them, but support them, the Lord says through the Prophet: “I have not sat with the men of vanity, nor will I enter with the proud. I have hated the assembly of the wicked, and with the ungodly I will not sit. I will wash my hands in innocence, and I will go about thy altar, O Lord, that I may proclaim with a voice of praise and recount all thy wondrous works. ^B O Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place of the tabernacle of thy glory. Do not take away my soul with the wicked, nor my life with men of blood. In whose hands are iniquities, and their right hand is filled with gifts. But as for me, I will walk in my innocence; redeem me and have mercy on me. My foot hath stood in the right way; in the churches I will bless the Lord.” Let these sentiments of charity, in which we judge you to be fixed and firm, therefore be in agreement with all the priests of God. May God keep you safe, most dearly beloved sons. Given on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of March, in the consulship of Antoninus and Marcus, most illustrious men.

HYGINIUS PAPA

NOTITIA

Hyginus, by nation a Greek, formerly a philosopher from Athens, whose genealogy I have not discovered, sat for four years, three months, and four days. He lived in the times of Verus and Marcus, from the consulship of Magnus and Camerinus until that of Orphitus and Priscus. He organized the clergy and distributed the ranks. He performed three ordinations during the month of December, [ordaining] fifteen presbyters, five deacons, and six bishops for various places. He was buried near the body of blessed Peter in the Vatican, on the third day before the Ides of January. The episcopacy was vacant for three days.

LETTERS OF POPE HYGINUS

LETTER I (25). AD OMNES CHRISTI FIDELES.

I. On the mission of the Son by the Father. Most beloved, “God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and of sin condemned ^B sin in the flesh, that the justice of the law might be fulfilled.” The Son was not sent by the Father according to his divinity alone, but according to the flesh, which he did not deign to assume for our sake in mercy and piety. For that the Son himself emptied himself of the power of his majesty, [and] that he likewise sent himself, the Apostle bears witness and says: “He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.” And Isaiah: “Not a messenger, nor an angel, but God himself will come, and he will save us.” Item elsewhere: “Pa—

I have appeared to those not seeking me.” And Jeremiah: “I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage; I came, and I have become a reproach to them.” And in Micah: “Behold, the Lord will come, and the mountains will be moved under him.” And in Zechariah: “Rejoice and be glad, O daughter Zion, for behold I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord.” And the Apostle to Timothy: “It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.” And Malachi: “Behold, the Lord who you seek will suddenly come into his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire.” ^A In the Gospel: “I did not come to call the just, but sinners to repentance.” Item elsewhere: “What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come hither before the time to torment us?” “The Son of man has come to save and to seek what was lost.” Item elsewhere: “I have come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly.” Item elsewhere: “No one has ascended into heaven, except he who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.” Can anyone, in the face of such great and such testimonies, by which the Son of God has testified that he came of his own accord, say that he came from another and not from himself, ^B when it is manifest that he who graciously assumed our flesh came voluntarily, and was not sent by another? For he who remaining in the Father, exists everywhere by his power, had no place to which he could be sent by the Father, since no part of heaven and earth is hidden from the sight of the Father, to which, according to you, he might be sent by the Father? And Paul: “Be renewed,” he says, “in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth.” And to the Hebrews: “For in that, wherein he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is mighty to help those who are tempted.” Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly vocation, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, being faithful to him who called him. And to the Colossians: “But now do you also put away all: anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, and filthy speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.” Can he who created and made the entire creation, visible and invisible, by the power of his own might, have created himself, or could he have been able to make himself, either before or after—which is impious to say? And the Lord in ^C the Gospel says: “I and the Father are one.” And again: “He who sees me, sees also the Father.” And again: “He who hates me, hates my Father also.” And again: “That all may honor the Son, as they honor the Father.” And again: “That they may be one in us, as we are one; you in me, and I in them.” And again: “All mine are yours.” And again: “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” And again: “The Father remaining in me, does these works.” And John the evangelist says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And again, he himself to the Parthians: “There are three,” he says, “who bear witness on earth: the water, the blood, and the flesh; and these three are in us; and there are three who bear testimony in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Spirit: and these three are one.” We therefore, regarding the nature of the divinity, because the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, do not believe that the Father preceded in any time, so that he might be greater than the Son; nor that the Son was born afterwards, so that he might be diminished in divinity by the Father.

II. On the causes of bishops.

^D Furthermore, brethren, while keeping the privilege of the Roman Church in all things, let no metropolitan, without the instance of all other comprovincial bishops, hear the causes of any, because they will be void if handled otherwise than in the presence of all of them; and if he himself does so, let him be restrained by his brethren.

III. On the accusations against those of greater age.

Accusations against those of greater age should not be made by others, unless by those who lodge the charges, if they themselves appear worthy and blameless, and have proven by public acts that they are devoid of all suspicion and enmity, and hold a blameless faith and conduct.

IV. On foreign trials.

Neither do we allow foreign trials, because it is unworthy that those who ought to have provincial and locally selected judges should be judged by outsiders. We indeed, by harvesting from every side, cut off occasions. We, mindful of heavenly discipline, reach out a right hand to any who are falling, and we desire to relieve from the precipice of ruin those whom we can, and to provide the support of our defense with all our strength. Certainly, if there be a mind of correct...

^A judgment, he is worthy of retribution who becomes a cause of danger to others. But he who persecutes an innocent man or a brother by any artifice thrusts the blade of death into himself, as the divine and blessed preacher says: “Do not detract, lest you be rooted out; do not accuse, lest you be accused; do not judge, lest you be judged: for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.” No one is believed to hate us whose account is not harmed by it. For the Lord says: “Every kingdom divided against itself shall not stand”; every knowledge or rule divided against itself shall not stand. And therefore it is necessary that you receive these wholesome exhortations harmoniously, doing nothing through contention, but being of one mind in every zeal of devotion, that you may obey the divine and apostolic constitutions. Given the 16th day before the Kalends of October, in the consulship of Magnus and Camerinus.

EPISTLE II. TO THE ATHENIANS.

FROM THE DECREES OF POPE HYGINUS ACCORDING TO GRATIAN.

FROM THE SAME DECREES.