Letter 17: [Instructions for Pullio, subdeacon.

[Instructions for Pullio, subdeacon.] With God's help and the prayers of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, when you arrive at Nicopolis, you must proceed as follows: after the bishop of Nicopolis has received our letters, he should gather the bishops who are in his diocese and have them sign the formal statement [libellus] that is attached to our letters. If, however, the aforementioned bishop says it is too burdensome to assemble the bishops, he should send representatives with you to each individual bishop, so that they may sign the statement in your presence. You must do this, with God's mercy, in such a way that the letters we have sent are read publicly. But if you see that the bishops are unwilling to do this out of fear, they should at least read them to their own clergy. Leave the matter in the bishops' hands, and bring back to us — with God's mercy — the written responses of the bishops and of that bishop, that is, the metropolitan John. After this is done, we do not want you to linger there at all, because of the traps and cunning of our enemies.

5 Cum dei adiutorio et orationibus sanctonim apostolorum Petri et Pauli ueniens ad Nicopolim sic debes agere, ut post- quam episcopus Nicopolitauus acceperit litteras nostras, epi- scopos, qui sunt in sua paroecia, colligat et faciat sub- scribere in libellum, quem in epistolis suis babent adnexum. 10 si tamen dixerit praedictus episcopus esse laboriosum episcopos 2 colligere, dirigat tecum personas per singulos episcopos, ut te praesente subscribant in praedictum libellum. sic tamen 3 cum dei inisericordia facere debes, ut epistolae, quae<a> nobis missae sunt, publice legantur, aut si uideris prae timore hoc 15 episcopos facere noUe, saltem uel clericis suis haec relegant. quae tamen in ipsorum dimitte potestatem et scripta episco- porum et illius episcopi, hoc est loliannis metropolitani, ad nos cum dei misericordia reporta. post hoc factum nullas 4 moras te uolumus ibidem facere propter insidias et calliditates 20 inimicorum. 534 Honnisda lohanni Nicopolitano cnm synodo