Letters (first part: Migne letters 1-55) 76–85

On reading what your God-belovedness sent me, I learned that the name of John has been entered in the sacred tablets. When I asked those who came from there, I found that it had been placed not in the lists of laymen but in those of bishops. Examining this and considering by myself whether those who have done it follow the opinions of the fathers at Nicaea, and raising the eye of my mind a little toward that great synod, I see the whole assembly of those holy fathers shaking their heads, as it were, with their eyes, and with all their strength forbidding us to run to consent in this. For how shall one who was cast out of the priesthood be ranked with the priests of God and wear their lot? How shall one who was put outside the precincts of the church be in the lists of ministers? For it is unworthy of us either to say that the name of the priesthood is nothing, and that what has been kept for those alone who are called to it is a thing common to all; or, if there is a great wall between priesthood and people, not to mix what may not be mixed, but to keep each of those mentioned in his own rank and count him worthy of the honour that befits him. How, then, is a layman among bishops, or how is one shown not to be genuine among the genuine? Honour, I beg you, those who were attested for brilliant and great achievements; do not insult the holy choir of the fathers. Imagine them still present and living with us: how would they be disposed at what has happened? Would they not rightly say that they were filled with every grief, when one who had been deposed was brought into a rank equal to theirs? But I think your Godliness too is persuaded of this. Therefore quench the occasion of displeasure both for them and for us. Remove the cause of everyone's dejection. For to manage what comes up in a manner easy to handle I would call good and wise; but it will be wise when it brings no harm. For it is not the case that, because we make the flock of Christ larger by taking in the swarms that are in the heresies, even if they do not change from their own error, we must for that reason by all means embrace a managed and superficial peace with those against whom war is better. The true work of management is sometimes to seem to depart a little from the proper rule, while declining loss in useful things. So the blessed Paul too became all things to all, not so that he might gain a little and lose a part, but so that he might gain all.

Let us see, then, walking through this inquiry into the facts, whether the matter does not hold more harm than what seemed to be advantageous. So long a time has already run by since your Godliness has administered the throne, and there is no one who refuses to assemble. But even if, at the beginning, some acting more contentiously separated themselves, these too have been called back through the power and grace of our Saviour. And of those in authority, who does not listen to your Reverence? Who has remained outside for this reason? There is no one; God forbid. Whom, then, are you saving, or calling to assemble, when you put outside the precincts of the church the whole of Egypt, Augustamnica, Arcadia, the Thebaid, Libya, and the Pentapolis, and grieve so many churches? So that you gain no one; for the grace of the Saviour has already gained them all. And I ascribe the labour in this to the teachings of your Godliness. Do not, then, accuse yourself of those who have separated from a contentious mind and never accept the just judgment passed on him. Or has your Godliness supposed that we are so far asleep as not to try earnestly to learn of your good repute and how the flocks of the Saviour are guided? For the care of the priests is one, even if we are divided by place. But so that I may not seem to strain too much on this point and to think contrary to the views of your Reverence: suppose there are a few who are quite at odds, still running risks for that man's wickedness; but there are so many churches with us that insist that what was decided about him must stand. To whom, then, is it just to assign the vote? Whom is it more pleasing to God to gladden: those who plead for the one who did such things, or those who have decided on censure, by whom causing grief is reckoned as nothing? If, then, preserving the concord of the churches seems no light thing, remove, I beg you, what cuts it. "Put the sword back into its sheath." Order the name of John to be taken out of the list of bishops. For if we reckon this as nothing, let the traitor not grieve the choir of the apostles by being ranked with them; but if the name of Judas is brought in, where then will Matthias lie for us? If, then, no one would cast out Matthias and write Judas into the choir of the apostles, let the second rank, I beg you, after Nectarius of illustrious memory, remain and be preserved for the all-praiseworthy Arsacius, so that nothing brought in by force may push out the blessed man's memory.

But perhaps a few are displeased at this. Allow me to speak with freedom. We pray that all be saved; but if someone separates himself through his own ignorance and resists the ordinances of the church, what is the loss from this? Did not the Saviour himself, teaching us such a thing and setting a pattern in all things, speak what was profitable to those who came to him, but let the disobedient and those who shook their heads depart? And he was so far from taking any account of such people that he said even to the disciples themselves: "Do you also wish to go away?" It is just that much care be given by us to the obedient; but let the hostile and disobedient one blame his own ill will, since he hated being healed. He will hear from the just judge: "Because I spoke and you did not listen, and I stretched out words and you did not attend," and what follows. For it befits us who teach to introduce very earnestly the things by which one may be well approved by God, and to say to those who resist, with Paul: "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God"; but to commit the disobedient thereafter to the power of God, saying: "We healed Babylon, and she was not healed; let us leave her, for her judgment has drawn near to heaven." It is not consistent, then, because of the objections of some, if there are any at all, to shake the ordinances of the church as it were from their foundations, by ranking a layman with those who have been distinguished in the priesthood and admitting him to an equal measure of honour. For let no one call this a peace of the whole world, but rather a cutting apart. For I say that the name and the reality of peace are strengthened when we do not set ourselves against the judgments of the saints nor act against their definitions. For if the blessed Alexander, being truly "bold of mouth," as your Godliness put it, deceived some of the most reverent brothers and fellow bishops in the East, and carried them off and brought them to consent in this, it does not follow that the disease must by all means prevail and feed on the souls of all; but rather, like a rheum that disables the eye of the church, it should be cleansed away by you, so that, looking again rightly to the definitions of the fathers, it may justly hear concerning Christ: "Your eyes are doves."

I too have received a letter from the most venerable in old age and most God-beloved Acacius, in which he affirms that the most reverent bishop of Antioch was compelled by some to celebrate the memory of John, and that he is much stung by this, seeking to find some release from what was done rashly, and wishing to receive letters about this from us and from your Godliness, plainly declaring that he should not be carried away by some, nor yield to those who advise such things. But let us who have been called to healing (allow me to speak with freedom, being pained in soul) not become an addition to wounds, so that we may also escape being a consequence of others' rashness. I wonder at this too: if the said Alexander, being so great at talking, and having spent no little time there, evidently could in no way persuade any to this, how one carrier of a letter had such power, as is rumoured, as to set so great a populace ablaze and to stir up again a matter that had been put to rest for a long time: which is altogether incredible. But let this too be so, and let it be believed to have happened; yet I know that your Godliness excels in words. You will surely teach what is needful to those who have been disturbed. You have sufficient grace of sacred preaching. You will persuade, I know, the most pious emperors too to love, as is their custom, what seems good to the canons. For being pious and Christ-loving, they will allow the churches to be governed by their own ordinances, and, being zealous for their father's virtue, they will imitate what he did. Let not, then, Jeconiah, who was cast out, be ranked with David and Samuel the prophets; nor, if it seemed good to some, unjustly, that the remains of Eudoxius be laid in those places, should we for this reason bring in the unholy as holy. For surely that matter too ought rather to have been sought to be corrected by us, not to shape the second case on it. And we say these things not as trampling on one who lies dead (God forbid), nor rejoicing, as it is written, at the misfortunes of others (for this is not the aim of Christians), but, out of compassion for a man, doing what profits the church and counting nothing more precious than its canons. If it were possible to rank the deposed man among bishops without damaging these in any way, one might reasonably call those who prevent it savage and untamed. But since, when one prevails, the force of the other must necessarily be undone, let the ordinances of the church prevail, and let one who is not a minister withdraw from the priestly lists. For this joins the churches in peace; this would work all unity of soul for us. Grant us, then, to assemble purely with your Godliness, setting your love toward those still living, or rather toward the ordinances of the church, above one man, and him dead.

To my lord, beloved brother and fellow minister Domnus, Cyril: greeting in the Lord.

It is necessary for us to grieve with our brothers, and with those of our fellow ministers who affirm that they have suffered something, and this at the hands of their own clergy, who ought to bow the neck to them as to a father and be subject as God wills and as the canons of the church declare. How is it not among the most shameful things that such a thing should be dared? The most reverent bishop Athanasius says he has suffered such things; he even shed tears before the synod assembled in the imperial city of Constantinople. For he says that some of the clergy under him took so much authority upon themselves that, as far as the force of their attempts went, they both pushed him out of the priesthood and brought a vote of deposition against him. For they want to throw out the stewards of the church, that is, the managers of church affairs, and themselves to set up men of their own choosing; and besides this, to remove his name from the sacred diptychs, and to do other things that are offensive and full of unholiness, which the force of the attached petitions also contains. Since it is outrageous that such things should be dared by clergy against their own bishops, and it is impossible to overlook them, let your Holiness deign (if the city which the said most God-fearing bishop Athanasius was allotted to govern is far from Antioch) to entrust the hearing to certain persons by your own letters, so that those who are under the charge may be summoned and make their defence, and if they are found guilty of the charges, may be removed from the sacred ministry. For they would justly suffer what they themselves have dared against their own father, having disregarded all due order, overstepped every ordinance, and counted it nothing to dishonour a father. They are also said to have been such not only now for the first time, but to have been condemned already for many still worse and bolder attempts. He says that he regards as suspect the one who now holds the metropolitan right over the district from which he comes; and, as I have already said, there is nothing grievous in allowing those under suspicion not to judge his case.

Greet the brotherhood with you; the brotherhood with me greets you in the Lord.

Canonical letter of the same Cyril.

When each of our affairs is carried straight according to canonical good order, it breeds no disturbance for us, frees us from slander by some, and rather procures for us the good report of those who think rightly. For who would not accept an impartial verdict, if one were given by anyone? How will judging rightly and lawfully not be beyond reproach, or rather full of all praise? I write this now to your Godliness, because in your letters sent to me and to our most holy and most God-fearing brother and fellow bishop Proclus, you name the most reverent and most God-beloved Peter a bishop, while he weeps and says that he has been removed without reason from the church assigned to him. It followed either that he should have the name of the priesthood together with the reality, or, if he was not worthy to preside over the divine altar, that he should not be honoured with the very title of the episcopate. But perhaps what I say might seem to your God-belovedness harsh and unbrotherly. In truth it is not so. For we perhaps think we have shown mercy to the old man by leaving him only the title; but it would have been far better to consider the other thing too. For he says that he cannot defend his own reputation, and that he was given no opportunity of defence, nor was a canonical hearing set before him. If anything of the kind had taken place, the very drawing up of the minutes would have shown him either convicted of the charges, as declared guilty and with nothing left to say as one wronged, or, declaring him free, would have given him back the presidency of the church that had been under his hand. But since nothing of the kind was done, he cries out against the affair, says he has suffered intolerable injustice and been cast out unlawfully, and adds that all the money he had was also seized. Let your Holiness, then, considering both what the divine canons decree and what befits the church and those appointed to sacred ministry, and moreover out of regard for our letters, stop the old man's tears. And if he chooses to go to judgment against those who bring the charges against him, let him be judged before your Godliness in the customary way, in the presence, of course, of the most God-fearing bishops under your hand, unless he declines some as suspect. For we believe that none of the most God-fearing bishops is hostile to a brother. But so that this may not become a pretext undoing the judgment that will be given on him, as though it seemed not to have been done in justice, there is nothing grievous in some of those under suspicion being absent from the council. And it is just that the money unjustly taken from him be given back, for two reasons: first, because no such thing ought to have happened at all; and because it greatly grieves, and brings into extreme despondency, the most God-fearing bishops everywhere on earth to be required to give account of the management of the expenses that fall to them, whether from church revenues or from the offerings of some. For each of us will give account of his own misdeeds to the judge of all. Treasures and immovable properties must be preserved for the churches; but those who from time to time administer the divine priesthood must be trusted with the management of the expenses that fall to them. He says that he handed in the petitions of resignation not by his own choice but as from necessity and fear and the threats of some. It is another thing, too, not pleasing to the ordinances of the church, that some of those in sacred office should present petitions of resignation. For if they are worthy to minister, let them remain in it; but if unworthy, let them not go out by resignation, but rather be condemned on the facts, against which one may cry out loudly as men running outside all due order.

Greet the brotherhood with you; the brotherhood with us greets you in the Lord.

We must take care for everything that is useful and necessary for the building up of the peoples and that also bears on the good repute of the holy churches. For it is written: "Make the sons of Israel reverent." Fathers of monasteries in the province of the Thebaid, then, reverent men with a way of life not without admiration, came to Alexandria, and when I asked them about the state of the monasteries there, they informed me that many are scandalized for the following reason. Some who have recently married, and come down, as it were, straight from the bridal chambers, carry off some of the most God-beloved bishops, and, perhaps because no one reports their circumstances, are ordained clergy, that is, presbyters. And certain others, who have been expelled from the monasteries themselves as disorderly, again slip in for ordination, and, having become clergy, enter the very monasteries from which they were expelled and wish to offer and to do whatever it is the custom for clergy to perform; so that some who know them refuse even the assemblies and will not bear to communicate while those men are ministering. Since, then, as I said, everything must be done by us for the building up of the peoples, let your Godliness watch over these things; and if anyone is to be ordained a cleric, let his life be looked into: whether he has a wife or not, how and when he married her, and whether he is one of those expelled, either by another most God-fearing bishop or from a monastery; and then let him be ordained, when he has been found blameless. For so we shall keep both our own conscience clean and the sacred and venerable ministry blameless. And if some who have undergone separation, being censured for their faults, are then about to die while they are catechumens, let them be baptized, and let them not depart from human affairs without a share in grace, that is, out of communion. For this too seems to accord with the ordinances of the church.

Greet the brotherhood with you; the brotherhood with us greets you in the Lord.

To the monks in Phua. Against those who say that there is no resurrection of bodies.

They say, then, that some among you deny the resurrection of human bodies, which is part of our confession, which we make when we come to saving baptism. For in confessing the faith we add that we believe also in the resurrection of the flesh. If we do away with this, and do not believe that Christ has been raised from the dead in order to raise us together with himself, we have a lame faith, and, leaving the royal road, we walk the crooked one. Such a false doctrine belongs to the madness of Origen, whom our fathers too proscribed and anathematized as perverting the truth. For he did not think as a Christian, but went astray following the nonsense of the Greeks. The beginning of his disease came to him from this: he says that souls pre-exist bodies, and that they were carried away from holiness into evil desires and departed from God; and for this reason he condemned them and embodied them, and they are in the flesh as in a prison.

From the same author's letter to the monks in Phua. The church, following the divinely inspired Scriptures, does not know a soul that pre-exists bodies, nor one that sinned before them. For how could one that did not exist even sin? We say that the Creator of all fashioned the body from earth and ensouled it with a rational soul; and this is the constitution of man.

And after other things: That the soul of man has not been condemned for earlier sins, as they say, and sent down into this world, the all-wise Paul too will confirm when he writes: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive what was done through the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." For why does he say that only the things done through the body will be made manifest, and not rather also those before the body, if he knew that the soul pre-existed and sinned beforehand? But if we are judged only for what was done through the body, we plainly have no sin earlier than the body; for the soul of man did not exist at all before it. The force of the letter of the law too assures us of this. For if, as the misguided Origen says, the soul received the body by way of punishment or penalty for earlier sins, for what reason did he threaten death to sinners? For rather the righteous ought to have died, so as to be released from the bonds and the punishment, and the guilty to live, so as to be punished by not being released from the bonds.

I know that your Godliness, being all-understanding, will count nothing better than friendship and love toward brothers, and will count the best management in everything that is done a skilful thing. For this reason I write to your Godliness what is friendly, and ask for what you know how to do: namely, not to use too great exactness against those who wish to change their minds and leave the most unholy heresy of the Messalians, or Euchites, and run to the right doctrines of the church. For it is enough for those who come to this to confess: "I anathematize the heresy of the Messalians, or Euchites." But one who very minutely, after this, sometimes also sets readings from books before them, troubles one who does not have much exactness of mind; for most are unlearned and cannot understand in such a way as to condemn by all means what deserves condemnation. It is enough, then, that they anathematize the heresy, and let names not by all means be set before them, lest the contentiousness of some, arising from lack of learning, often turn them away even from wishing to think rightly. And I write this not to do some a favour, but knowing that in these matters management is better; for exactness generally troubles many, even of the most sensible.

To my most honoured and most holy lords, brothers and fellow bishops Aurelius, Valentinus, and the whole most holy synod assembled at Carthage, Cyril, greeting your love in the Lord.

I received with all joy, through our son the presbyter Innocent, what your Honour wrote, full of much religion. Since you hoped from us that we would send your love, from the archive of our church, the most true copies of the authentic synod in the metropolis of Nicaea in Bithynia, what was defined and confirmed by the holy fathers beneath the confession of our faith, I thought it necessary, most honoured lords and brothers, with greeting first, to send to your love through the same son of ours, the presbyter Innocent, the most faithful copies containing the authentic synod in the city of Nicaea in Bithynia; which you will find if you look in the Ecclesiastical History. Concerning the Pascha, as you wrote, we announce to you that we shall celebrate it on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May in the coming indiction.

The subscription: May our God and Lord keep your holy synod, as we pray, most honoured brothers.