answer to the letters sent by his predecessor of blessed memory,
"especially inasmuch as it had bound your majesty, with tremendous vows,
not to allow the see of the evangelist St. Mark to be separated from the
teaching or the communion of his master.... Again, therefore, the reverend
confession of the Apostle Peter, with a mother's voice, renews its
instance. It ceases not with confidence to call upon you as its son. It
cries: O Christian prince, why do you allow me to be interrupted in that
course of charity which binds together the universal Church? Why, in my
person, do you break up the consent of the whole world? I beseech you, my
son, suffer not that tunic of the Lord woven from the top throughout, by
which is signified, as the Holy Spirit rules the whole body, that the
Church of Christ should be one and individual--suffer it not to be broken.
They who crucified our Saviour left it untouched. Do not let it be rent in
your times. My faith it is which the Lord Himself declared should alone be
one, never to be conquered by any assault: He who promised that the gates
of hell should never prevail over the Church founded on my confession. This
Church it was which restored you to the imperial dignity, deprived its
impugners of their power, and opened to you the path of victory in
defending it.[34]

"Look at me, his successor, however humble, as if the Apostle were present.
Look deeper into those ways which concern the reverence due to God and the
condition of man; and be not ungrateful to the Author of your present
prosperity. In you alone survives the name of emperor. Do not grudge us the
saving you. Do not diminish our confidence in praying for you. Look back on
your august predecessors Marcian and Leo, and the faith of so many princes,
you, who are their lawful heir. Once more, look back on your own
engagements, and the words which, on your return to power, you addressed to
my predecessor. The defence of the Council of Chalcedon is expressed in the
whole series." And he ends: "What I could not put in my letter I have
entrusted my brethren and legates to explain. I beseech you to listen, as
well for the preservation of Catholic truth as for the safety of your own
empire."

To Acacius also the legates carried a letter of the Pope, which he opened
by announcing that he had succeeded to the office of Pope Simplicius, and
was forthwith involved in those many cares which the voice of the Supreme
Pastor had imposed upon St.