Letters 147

To John, bishop of Germanicia.

Your holiness's earlier letter I answered as soon as I received it. As for the present situation, there is nothing good to hope for; I take these things to be the preludes of complete apostasy. For when those who lament what was done at Ephesus by force, as they say, do not repent but persist in the lawless acts they dared, and build both injustice and impiety on top of them at the same time, and when the others do not advise them to flee communion with those with whom they acted lawlessly, what good does that allow us to hope for? If they praised what was done as well and rightly done, they would reasonably persist in what they praise. But if they lament, as they say, and claim they did these things under necessity and force, why do they not renounce what they did lawlessly, instead of preferring the present, short-lived as it is, to the future? And why do they lie openly, saying that no innovation has been made concerning doctrine? For what murders and sorceries was I expelled? What adulteries did so-and-so dare? What tombs did so-and-so break open? It is plain even to the barbarians that it was for doctrines that they expelled both me and the others. For the lord Domnus was deposed, as not having accepted the Chapters, by those who had confessed …; I have read their depositions. Me they proscribed as the leader of the heresy, and the others they likewise expelled for the same reason. That they supposed practical virtue to have been legislated by the Saviour for the wagon-dwelling nomads rather than for themselves, the facts themselves cry out. When some … against …, accusing him of many adulteries and other lawless acts, they say the president of the synod said: 'If you are bringing charges about doctrines, we accept the petitions; we did not come to judge adulteries.' That is why they ordered Athenius and Athanasius, who had been expelled by the synod of the East, to recover their own churches, as though the Saviour had legislated nothing about life and had ordered only the doctrines to be kept, which these most wise men corrupted before everything else. Let them not play games, then, nor … what they confirmed even with their hands. If this is not so, let them state the reasons for the slaughter; let them confess in writing the difference of the natures of our Saviour and the unconfused character of the union; let them say that even after the union both the Godhead and the … remain pure … Let them now deny the Chapters, which they often proscribed but have now confirmed at Ephesus. Let them not deceive your holiness with lying words. They used to praise what I said at Antioch, both as brothers and when they became readers and were ordained deacons and presbyters and bishops; and at the end of the discourse they would embrace me and kiss my head and breast and hands, and some of them even clasped my knees, calling our teaching apostolic; and this teaching they have now proscribed, this they have anathematized. And I, whom they called the luminary not of the East only but of the whole world, have been proscribed, and do not even share in bread, as far as it depends on them; for they have anathematized those who converse with us. But the man whom a little while ago they deposed, saying that he held the views of Valentinus and Apollinarius, they have honoured as a victor for the faith; they rolled at his feet, asked his pardon, and called him their spiritual father. What octopuses change their colour to match the rocks, or chameleons their hue to match the leaves, as these men change their mind to suit the times? We yield to them thrones and dignities and the luxury of the moment; with the apostolic doctrines we await the exiles that are reckoned hard, having the Master's tribunal as sufficient comfort. For we hope that because of this injustice the Master will forgive many of our sins. I beg your holiness to guard against communion with impiety: to propose to them that they renounce what was done, and if they will not, to flee them as betrayers of the faith. That your godliness has waited meanwhile to see whether there will be some change in the storm, we have in no way blamed. But after the ordination of the president of the East, each man's mind will become entirely plain. Deign, master, to pray for us; for now especially we need this help, so that we may be able to hold out against what is being plotted against us.

[Letter 148] … sent by him to Rome … (only part of the heading survives)

[Letter 149] Letter of John, bishop of Antioch, to Nestorius.

To my master the most God-beloved and most holy bishop Nestorius, John sends greeting in the Lord. My purpose concerning your godliness … (the rest is lost in the scan)