Letters 1

I wished, most pious brothers, that your venerable synod had been gathered in such a state of affairs that we too, having chosen by common decision some of our brothers and fellow bishops, might have sent a properly instructed embassy rather than an excuse worthy of lament; but various causes have hindered this desire of our mind. First, the letter of our lord and son, the most religious emperor Theodosius, when it was brought to our hands, was such that it particularly requested the presence of our brother and fellow bishop Augustine of blessed memory. But since that letter found that he had already departed from the living, I received that royal notice, though it seemed to be addressed chiefly to the said Augustine, and, sending suitable letters and the customary messages to all the provinces of Africa, I wished to convene a fitting synod, so that some of the number of our brothers and bishops might be chosen to be sent to the venerable synod of your beatitude. But at this time every approach by road has been closed. For the outpoured multitude of enemies and the vast devastation of the provinces everywhere, which, with the inhabitants partly killed and partly driven to flight, presents to the eyes a miserable sight of desolation stretching far and wide in every direction, prevents the ready possibility of coming. Hindered by these obstacles, the bishops who intended this could not assemble together from the whole circuit of Africa. Added to these difficulties was the fact that the emperor's letter was brought to us in the days of Easter, when scarcely two months remained before the universal venerable synod. That interval of time, even if no difficulty had at present been put in the way by enemies, was scarcely enough even to convene an African synod. Hence it came about that, though we could by no means send a solemn embassy, yet, out of the reverence and observance due to ecclesiastical discipline, we have sent to you, venerable brothers, my son the deacon Besula with this letter of excuse. [II.] Therefore I desire your holiness to be asked again and again (even though I am confident that, with the help of our God, the catholic faith will be stable and firm in all things through so great a synod of venerable bishops) that, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, who I do not doubt will be present to your hearts in all that you are to do, you may, armed with the strength of ancient authority, drive out new doctrines hitherto unheard of by the ears of the church, and so resist any new errors whatever; lest those errors which the church long ago attacked, and which, sprouting again in these times, the authority of the apostolic see and the harmonious sentence of the bishops have crushed, should seem to be revived, a voice long since silenced, under the pretext of a second discussion. For if any new controversy should happen to arise, it must be subjected to examination, so that what was rightly said may be approved, or what deserves condemnation may be rejected. But if anyone allows what was judged long ago to be called again into dispute, he will certainly be thought to be doing nothing else than doubting himself of the faith that has prevailed until now. Further, as an example for posterity, so that what has now been defined for the catholic faith may obtain perpetual firmness, all that was established in former times by the holy fathers must be kept unshaken and unmoved. For whoever wishes what he has decided concerning the catholic faith to retain perpetual stability ought to strengthen his sentence not by his own authority but by the judgment of the ancient fathers; so that, approving his decisions in this way by the decrees and sentences partly of the old and partly of the more recent fathers, he may show that he asserts, teaches and holds the one truth of the church, running from the beginning to the present time with simple purity and unconquered constancy and authority. These things I wished to suggest to your venerable ears in place of a present embassy of the Africans, which the necessity mentioned above has prevented; earnestly asking meanwhile that, considering the calamities of affairs and of the present times, you will ascribe our absence not to pride or negligence but to this manifest necessity. Cyril, bishop of the church of Alexandria, said: "Let this letter too of the most reverend and most pious Capreolus, bishop of Carthage, which has been read, be inserted in the Acts, since it contains a clear sentence. For he wishes the ancient dogmas of the faith to be confirmed, and the new ones, absurdly devised and impiously spread, to be rejected and proscribed." All the bishops cried out together: "These are the words of all; this we all assert; this is the wish of all."