Letter 10: Having recently assumed the pontificate, Gelasius sends this letter as a kind of medicine for orthodoxy and,...

Of Pope Gelasius, to Laurentius of Lychnidus. (Year 496.) [Editorial summary:] Having recently assumed the pontificate, he sends to the churches a formula of faith, as a kind of medicine of orthodoxy and according to the custom of his predecessors. [The letter begins:] "In the length of your beloved's letter," and so forth. [This is in fact Anastasius II's epistle 3, where you may consult it.] [Quoted fragment (column 945):] A small number, he says, does no harm where piety abounds, nor does a large number profit where impiety prevails; and it is not the multitude but the cause that brings about either condemnation or justification.

Gelasii papae ad Laurentium de Lignido. (a. 496.) « pmtifieatum recen* astumptiis pro medicina quadam orthodoxiae el de more decfasorum suorum fidei formulam ad ecclesias mitlit. ^' In prolixitate epistolae dilectionis tuae etc. [est Anastasii II Wfl« epistota 3, ubi videsis.], '•vAUcol.945) : numerus pusillus, ait, nec obest, ubi abundat pietas^ necmultiptex prodest, ^^^S^timpietas; et non multitudo sed causa damnationem vel Justificationem adducit.