Letter 23

Hilary of RomeUnknown|pope hilary
From: Pope Hilary, bishop of Rome
To: Ascanius and the other bishops of Tarraconensis
Date: ~465 AD
Context: Pope Hilary's letter 16; Hilary writes to the Spanish bishops with formal guidance on the disputed episcopal elections.

Hilary, bishop of Rome, to Ascanius and the other bishops of the province of Tarraconensis, greetings.

Having considered carefully the situations you have brought before us, we give the following guidance.

First: no bishop is to be ordained in your province without the consensus of the metropolitan. This has always been the rule; it continues to be the rule; the specific cases you have described are exactly the kind of situations the rule was designed to prevent.

Second: the specific cases you have described — the irregular ordination by Silvanus of Calahorra and the disputed succession at Barcelona — are both to be addressed through the following process: a provincial synod is to be convened, the relevant facts are to be examined, and a determination is to be reached that follows the canonical procedure. Whatever the synod determines through proper process will have our support.

Third: going forward, we ask that all episcopal elections in your province follow the established procedure without exception, and that any case where pressure is applied to bypass that procedure be reported to us promptly.

We also confirm the right of the metropolitan to participate in all episcopal ordinations within the province.

Hilary, bishop of Rome

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.