Letters

Translated by Claude from Anonymous ancient translator (Latin collection compiled by Rusticus, mid-6th c.)'s Latin translation (ca. 550) of the Latin (the Greek original is lost); neither is shown

Christ the Lord has given you to us as great fathers and teachers, to defend us, to teach us, to guide the whole soul. It is necessary, then, for us to be importunate and to learn what we ought, and for your holiness not to take our entreaties ill and to give fatherly counsel. What now does not allow me to keep silent is this. I have read the letter of the Alexandrian, which contains many other unfitting things, an evil obstinacy against the doctrine, and some impious propositions. About these I judged it right to show what my humility thought, so that either what is well may be confirmed by your holiness's assent, or what has perhaps seemed contrary through ignorance may be corrected. First, concerning the chapters, I suspect this: that we should not be united to their author unless he has altogether rejected, by his own voice and signature, those that especially contain blasphemy. Or will they remain as he prescribed? But if we grant him this and, moreover, excuse what he has done with so many praises and acclamations, we shall put ourselves beyond every excuse. For if then we judged them so evil that we unanimously deposed their writer and excommunicated those who had accepted them, but now judge them so tolerable that we are united to their writer while he does not correct what then seemed to us worthy of condemnation, who will free us from just reproach, who then deposed him as justly placed under guilt and now receive him again as innocent? For these judgments fight each other and make us subject to the guilt which the apostle pronounces, saying: “For if what I destroyed I build again, I make myself a transgressor.” But the unfittingness of the chapters too — to whom will it appear acceptable? Who would accept the holy virgin as mother of God in a fleshly sense? Who would accept a natural union, and hence a compelled one, which is above all nature and mind? Who one nature of God and of the form of the servant? Who would presume to anathematize those who piously ascribe the lofty things to the divinity and the lowly things to the humanity, without dividing the union in any way, as the apostles and evangelists do, who are anathematized by this legislation? Who would agree with the terrible sentence against the holy and glorious bishop Basil, who called the Lord's flesh God-bearing, and who is anathematized together with those who presume to call him God-bearing? Who would communicate with one who anathematized Paul, the vessel of election, by the words in which he says: “If anyone says that Jesus as a man was moved to act by God the Word, let him be anathema,” when Saint Paul clearly says: “according to the working of the might of his power which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead”? Who would cut off the flesh from the Word and so offer the due adoration, as this man commanded, who says: “If anyone presumes to say that the assumed man ought to be co-adored with God the Word and co-glorified, let him be anathema”? Who, hearing from the Lord himself that he casts out demons by the Spirit of God, and learning from Paul that he “who was manifested in the flesh was justified in the Spirit,” would refuse to confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is glorified by the Spirit? Indeed, who would presume even to anathematize those who confess it? Who would dare, with this man's unspeakable novelty of words, to pronounce that God the Word became apostle and high priest, so as thereby to declare him also a thing made, when the thrice-blessed Paul cries: “Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus Christ, who is faithful to him who made him”? Or who would choose to say or to hear that the Lord's flesh was not taken from our nature but was the Word's own, as if it had subsisted from elsewhere? Who would put all the saints together under an anathema, who did not say that God the Word suffered in the flesh and was crucified in the flesh and was the firstborn from the dead — he who always lives and is immortal? [4] It would be easy to refute these things at greater length, as has been done in the refutations made by many and by ourselves; but now, as in a letter, we must note them briefly. Even if they were entirely without manifest impiety, they ought nonetheless to be refuted as novelties, and not accepted to the injury of what went before, which is perfect and needs no correction from them. But you will say: the exposition of doctrine he has now made is good. Yet you will by no means stop the plague and sickness of the world as it runs thus, unless you empty out the matter that produces the sickness. In vain you heal from outside, if you have planted and rooted the destruction within. For if the worse are thrown out and the better brought in, the better will hold the place; but while the blasphemies brought in remain, the excellent things will suffer injury and become worthless. For “what communion has light with darkness, or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?” For the establishing of the second is the abolishing of the first; hence the apostle says: he abolishes the one to establish the other. For thus, in signing, he added that the divinity is impassible, and that there are two natures, which none of those now living in Pontus has hitherto either said or thought. And these things are the clearest refutation against them. And would that the one who is among your neighbours might come to this confession, and the others who are beyond the Taurus, and that all things might be resolved for them too. For you see that these statements are altogether contrary to what they say, and to what he himself put in the chapters. But not to lengthen my discourse, I come to another of the things that seemed good to us. I was in Beroea; and after much exertion had taken place for us there, and our common father, my lord Acacius, the most holy bishop, was setting every good in motion so that the state of the churches might return to itself, it was decided that, at our request, my lord the most religious bishop and our common brother Paul should undertake the journey to Egypt for universal peace, so that there, in debate face to face and by the living voice, what is said may come to greater manifestation and clarity, and that may happen which is said by the wise among those outside: the things said about God, when often heard, are at last, with difficulty, purged like gold. Do not then be faint-hearted, I beg. For God is able to make the sweetness that has begun both clearer and firmer, once this journey has been made, for the good, as I think, of the church of God. And truly it is a great thing that my lord Paul takes courage to disregard the weakness of his body and his old age and many thousand tossings, which it is not easy to count, and to commit himself to a foreign province and to a man not a little exasperated by us, though not by our doing. But if you say that you are crucified to the world and the world crucified to you, for you indeed that is well, but for the world it is nothing. For it is now the time neither for philosophy nor for martyrdom, but of the corruption of the whole world and of the confusion of the church. I signify to your love of God that the fisherman has been dismissed, or rather removed, and has gone quiet in disgrace; this brings no small consolation. For Egypt itself curses him greatly, as we learned from the magistrianus who came, who ascribes even more trouble to him. These things we have written by letter with care, so that we may have something with which to soften our griefs. So stand these things. But the most God-beloved bishop Archelaus, although through your prayers he has suffered nothing for doctrine, has nonetheless been fined eight thousand solidi by the augustal prefect of Seleucia, and it was decided that it be shared out among all. Prepare therefore as much as your devotion suggests; if nothing else, at least provide him what is lawful. For peremptorily …

Translated by Claude from Anonymous ancient translator (Latin collection compiled by Rusticus, mid-6th c.)'s Latin translation (ca. 550) of the Latin (the Greek original is lost); neither is shown

As much as the letters of others wounded us — some of whom shamelessly attack the right faith, while others have betrayed the doctrine for the most part — so much has yours … being present also with those three young men in the midst of the furnace, leading the choirs, who had one great consolation, the breeze of the Holy Spirit, which both scattered the force of the flame and changed his furnace into dew. And so much be said by us of your holiness's contests; for the good report of your contests exceeds not only the measure of a letter but even the longest writing. As for the murmur about peace, we signify to your holiness that, although we are certainly very near, we know nothing fully, but only as much as is reported to us by those who return here to their own homes; we make our intention plain to your holiness. Reading the letters that have now been sent from Egypt, and discussing them often among ourselves, we found them in agreement with the church's doctrine and contrary to the twelve chapters, which we have continued to attack up to the present; and we deliberated that, if your holiness receives …

Translated by Claude from Anonymous ancient translator (Latin collection compiled by Rusticus, mid-6th c.)'s Latin translation (ca. 550) of the Latin (the Greek original is lost); neither is shown

[1] The Lord Christ, exercising great providence over the human race in each age, prepared at different times different lights for the guidance of those who are of good will, and for the refutation of their opponents, the destruction of falsehood and the confirmation of the truth: as under that ancient Pharaoh he raised up blessed Moses, also going against Jannes and Jambres, and Peter, nobly conquering Simon Magus, so too against the enemies who have now risen up he has brought forward your holiness, through whom we too are in good hope that the world will be freed from the Egyptian error: you, being a new Moses, will strike every Egyptian heretic and save every orthodox Israelite. Since, then, many thousands of things have been done against the truth, and the orthodox, a most pure pearl, have suffered many enmities, more than any history has ever recorded, from those who invented this novelty of words against the apostolic faith of the fathers, it is for us, who suffer threefold and manifold storms and have almost fallen among pirates, to cry to him who has been brought forward by God as helmsman, and to inform him as fully as possible, for love of the truth; and it belongs to your grace and wisdom not to despise or idly pass over such a question and so great a cause, but to examine it with love of good labour and to impose correction with all constancy and God-beloved confidence. [2] And formerly, indeed, when such heretical tares often sprang up from Alexandria, your apostolic see sufficed through all that time to refute falsehood, to restrain impiety, to correct what needed correcting, and to fortify the world for the glory of Christ, both under the thrice-blessed bishop Damasus, to be counted among the saints, and under many other glorious and admirable men. For this reason we too presume to offer these supplications, that you may help the world, both the part which errs and the part which suffers tyranny and is attacked in order to make it assent to what is not fitting, because it neither wishes nor judges it right to receive the various novelties of words in the chapters of the Egyptians. For Cyril of Alexandria, writing a blasphemous novelty of words in twice six chapters, contrary to all divinely inspired Scripture and anathematizing the lawful and ancient traditions of the holy fathers, and especially of those who ascribe the lofty things to the divinity of Christ and the lowly things to his humanity, never dividing his union, proposed them to the man who then governed the holy see of the city of great name, a man approved and known from the beginning for his faith, his life, his teaching of the word and in all things, Nestorius: that he should either consent to his chapters, subscribe them, and remain bishop, or else be endangered in his rank and driven from the holy church. He, however, setting the fear of God before the wicked proposal, chose rather to give himself up to many thousand dangers unjustly brought upon him than to consent to heretical guile and confirm the error of the whole world. For this a synod met at Ephesus; and, convicted of nothing and not asked to give account, before all who were awaited had gathered, he was subjected to punishment because he had opposed the blasphemy of those chapters, and with all cruelty was subjected to the so-called condemnation and to certain other things, although Cyril had not the authority of a judge but the standing of one to be judged, since they had raised the question against each other. And the defendant was presiding, and the leader of the sentence was he who was himself liable to many sentences. When these things had been done, to some all that had been done seemed worthy of tears, to others ridiculous; so that he who held the church of God at Antioch, arriving after these things, subjected Cyril together with Memnon to condemnation by a common decree of the most God-beloved and holy bishops, as many as twenty-two metropolitans and the others who were present with them, who judged them leaders of heresy and sedition and enemies of the church's ordinances; and the others, who had been their accomplices in all unfitting things, they put out of communion. But those excellent men, against the truth and the canons alike, granting themselves indulgence, at once irreverently presumed to celebrate the consecration of the awesome mysteries, and made others communicate with them at their peril, so that all are subject to the decree of the divine canon, which altogether condemns those who govern in this way. Learning these things, the most God-beloved, good and victorious emperor at once decreed that what had been done so disorderly and inconsistently against one convicted of nothing, but sentenced abruptly and furiously, was void, and that the question of doctrine should be examined anew, with love of truth, by question and answer and a demonstration that would persuade all, not by what tyrannical authority would command. But they, to the breaking of the canons, added this too: that they did not obey even these pious letters; and, refusing to say or hear anything further about the faith, they all betook themselves to obstinacy alone, striving to draw others into consent to the unjust judgment, some by fraud, some by violence, some by bribes. About these things we for a long time kept asking, adjuring with all confidence, and appealing that nothing be done or maintained without reason, but that a common discussion and council be held on the question of doctrine and on Cyril's chapters, and that what pleased all be confirmed by one sentence; and that on him who had so openly suffered tyranny a true and lawful judgment be made, so that, if convicted of corrupting the truth, he would receive sentence from all in agreement; but if proved wholly innocent, he would renounce in writing, together with us, whatever unfitting things some had put about, whether in his name or in that of others, from suspicion or accusation. But this displeased those who wished to win by authority alone, and neither to persuade nor be persuaded; and they commanded all abruptly to anathematize and to subscribe the condemnation. Whoever reserved himself for a sounder deliberation was condemned by them, subjected to calumnies, called a teacher of evil doctrine; others were ordained in place of such men, because they would not praise chapters worthy of condemnation and condemn him who, as far as we know, said nothing other than what was manifestly handed down by the holy prophets and evangelists and apostles through the Holy Spirit. For they wished to accuse even the apostles, when they needlessly condemned him who preached what was theirs. Such indeed was the conduct of what are called the acts, that they brought forward discordant and uncertain things against that man, and often reproved what was irreproachable (“Wickedly,” they say, “Nestorius said that the suffering touched not the deity but the humanity of Christ”), and at times wrote falsehoods, setting down as said by him words that no unbeliever, nay not even the wildest demons, would have presumed to say: that the Lord Christ was Christ as Saul was, as David, as the unbelieving Cyrus; in which it is easy for anyone who wishes to expose the calumny. What was done concerning John of Antioch we would wish, if it were possible, to pass over in silence, so irrational has his changeableness appeared to us, and so manifest his transgression and betrayal of the truth, carried out without warning. For he who, before we came to Ephesus, discovered the heretical fraud of the chapters and made it known by letters to very many throughout First and Second Cappadocia and in various places, warning them to guard themselves against them as agreeing with Eunomius and Arius and Apollinaris; who sharply and fervently leapt to the condemnation of Cyril and urged all to it; who went even to the imperial city to resist this impiety, and wrote to us from there while we were still at Ephesus, first saying: “Learning that he,” that is Nestorius, “had been dismissed from Ephesus, our souls grieved greatly, because what was done without judgment and unjustly seems for the time to be strengthened”; then: “even if Cyril rejects those blasphemous chapters, we promised by oaths not even then to receive him, because he himself became the leader of an unjust heresy” — taking another heart from we know not where, he opposed all his own former movements and became a communicant of Cyril, who did not reject what he had wickedly written, though he had sworn he would never receive him even if he refuted them in writing. And he alone loosed the bond which, with so many, he had laid in consequence on Cyril and Memnon as guilty men; and, procuring no security for those who had suffered for piety, he himself was reconciled with him whom he had branded so bitterly, but allowed the churches to be troubled and some bishops to remain driven out and others still to be harassed in many ways. He even wrote remarkable letters, in which he says that he has condemned Nestorius and anathematizes whatever he impiously said or thought. So he failed both in accusation and in demonstration, that he did not say “I anathematize this or that or that opinion,” but said: “whatever was said impiously by him,” when he certainly ought to have said it openly, so that everyone might be made more cautious about that sense; as we too clearly abhor the chapters of Cyril and ask all to guard themselves from the malice inborn in them, refuting beforehand the blasphemies in them and making them clearly known to all. These few things out of many we have written with much abridgment, knowing that the excess of these evils is not only worthy of the lamentations of Jeremiah but has surpassed all tragedy. We ask, and we fall at the holy feet of your religiousness, that you stretch out a saving hand and take away the world's shipwreck, and order an inquiry into all these things, and bring a heavenly correction upon these unlawful acts, so that the holy shepherds who were unjustly driven from their sheep may be recalled, and their former order and ancient concord restored to the flocks, and that laments and bellowing may no longer be offered in place of vows and psalms, while many are scattered and are in danger to no purpose in the chief things, avoiding receiving from heretics either the bath of regeneration or the mystical communion, which they are by no means permitted to receive from the orthodox for their salvation. Seeing part of this and hearing part, we who are from various regions, that is from Euphratensis and both Cilicias and Second Cappadocia and Bithynia and Thessaly and Moesia, would long since have hastened to your holiness to pour out fountains of tears and publicly bewail the strange and unwonted evils of this life, had not the terror of the wolves held us back, who lie in wait for the flocks for plunder, for error and every adversity; for which reason we were compelled to send in our stead most religious clergy and monks to fill our place. We ask, therefore, that you rise without delay and with fervent zeal raise a great trophy of victory against the ranks of the adversaries, having before your eyes the diligence and zeal of the good shepherd for the sheep that had strayed, and that you consider it not without danger if anything is done disdainfully regarding so many shepherds and sheep, while some go astray there and others suffer tyrannical violence. Imitate rather Paul, the great herald of piety, the eye of the world, whom we believe we hold as a pledge of our closeness to your holiness: for, being our fellow citizen, when the error of the whole world had been extinguished, he became the chief ornament of that apostolic see, and he received from blessed Peter the right hand of fellowship, so that it might appear that the same exactness of doctrines is guarded by both. We ask also that we, whom so many evils surround, may not be despised by you. For we contend not for money or glory or any other temporal thing, but for the common possession of piety, for the ancestral treasure of the faith, for the common hope of the faithful, for the good confession of the apostles, for the immortal contest of the martyrs, and above all for the coming and clemency of the Lord, whose invincible power we invoke as we cry without ceasing: “Spare, Lord, your people, and do not give your inheritance to reproach.”