Petition to the Emperors

Contents

Reading pages: 1–14 · 15–28 · 29–36

1. 1An account of the Roman schism: when Liberius was exiled for refusing to condemn Athanasius, the clergy broke their oath and accepted the archdeacon Felix in his place; Liberius returned after consenting to the emperor's faith, and Felix was driven out.
2. 2After Liberius's death in 366 his loyal clergy elected Ursinus, while the former partisans of Felix chose Damasus, who, according to this account, used hired gangs and bribery to seize the Lateran, be ordained, and have Ursinus exiled.
3. 3Damasus's partisans stormed the basilica of Liberius on 26 October 366, killing 160 of Ursinus's supporters; the survivors appealed to the emperor and the bishops to depose him.
4. 4Ursinus was briefly recalled in 367 but exiled again; Damasus's men attacked his followers at Saint Agnes, the Italian bishops refused to condemn Ursinus unheard, and the presbyters Faustinus and Marcellinus, scattered in exile, addressed their petition to the emperors.
5. 5Faustinus and Marcellinus open their petition by asking the emperors, who defend the Catholic faith by law, to protect truth even in the lowly against the powerful many.
6. 6The petitioners complain that bishops who once persecuted the church on behalf of heresy, or yielded to it, now persecute them in the name of Catholic faith, though they are not heretics.
7. 7The petition recalls the condemnation of Arius at Nicaea and the story of his sudden and shameful death in a privy at Constantinople, after bishop Alexander prayed that he not be received into the church.
8. 8Arius's death shows God's judgment on his doctrine and on all who revive it, and confirms as true Catholics those who suffer for the Nicene faith; but Arius left heirs, like worms bred from his corpse.
9. 9The heirs of Arius, with Constantius's support, persecuted Catholic bishops and summoned the councils of Seleucia and Ariminum (359); at Ariminum the bishops at first upheld Nicaea and condemned the formula of Ursacius and Valens, but their envoys to the emperor gave way under pressure.
10. 10The bishops at Ariminum and Seleucia, fearing exile more than eternal punishment, signed the Arian formula; the petitioners ask why they should be punished for refusing communion with such bishops.
11. 11The petitioners list the few bishops who suffered rather than betray the faith: Paulinus of Trier, Lucifer of Cagliari, Eusebius of Vercelli, Dionysius of Milan, Rhodanius, Hilary (though he later compromised), Maximus of Naples, and Rufinianus, run to death by Epictetus of Centumcellae.
12. 12To sign a heresy out of fear is as much a sacrilege as sacrificing to idols; in matters of faith the few who suffer for the truth must be preferred to the many who gave way, and God has shown his judgment on the prevaricators by present punishments.
13. 13Potamius of Lisbon and the aged Ossius of Cordova both betrayed the Nicene faith under Constantius; Ossius, returning to Spain with an imperial order, had Gregory of Elvira, who refused his communion, summoned to Cordova.
14. 14At Cordova Ossius tried to have Gregory of Elvira deposed and exiled, but when Gregory appealed to Christ, Ossius collapsed as he was pronouncing sentence, and the terrified pagan vicar begged Gregory's pardon.
15. 15Potamius died on the way to the estate he had been given for his subscription, and Florentius of Emerita, who knowingly communicated with Ossius and Potamius, was thrown from his throne three times and died; the petitioners present both as God's judgment.
16. 16These present punishments confirm the eternal punishments Scripture threatens on prevaricators, so those who refuse communion with them should not be blamed.
17. 17In the East the Arians deposed and reordained bishops who had signed their formula, and the exiled Nicene bishops decreed by letter that such bishops could be received only to lay communion as penitents.
18. 18Under Julian the exiled bishops returned, and under Jovian the bishops who had signed at Ariminum returned to the Nicene faith; some confessors received them, but the petitioners hold that this contradicts Scripture.
19. 19A peace that restores bishops who denied the Son of God to their honor is not Christ's peace and makes the martyrs' sufferings vain; yet the petitioners are persecuted, under the emperors' laws, for refusing it.
20. 20Zosimus, set up at Naples in place of the exiled Maximus, was condemned by Maximus and by Lucifer of Cagliari; his tongue, the petitioners say, hung out of his mouth whenever he tried to celebrate, until he gave up the see.
21. 21The inconstancy of the bishops who changed their faith with each emperor led Valens to favor the Arians, and robs such bishops of authority to preach against heresy.
22. 22Truth is not decided by numbers: Noah, Lot, Elijah and Jehu each stood against an impious multitude, and God approved them.
23. 23The petitioners disclaim any wish for bloodshed, which the old covenant permitted but Christian law forbids, yet complain that their churches have been seized and their clergy imprisoned, exiled and beaten to death.
24. 24In Baetica the bishops Luciosus and Hyginus, with hired crowds and imperial officials, attacked the congregation of the presbyter Vincentius, a follower of Gregory of Elvira, killing clergy and a decurion and finally placing their altar beneath an idol.
25. 25The petitioners recount the persecution of their adherents at Trier and Rome, above all of the ascetic presbyter Macarius, who, arrested at a night vigil by Damasus's clergy and dragged over the stones, died of his wound in exile at Ostia.
26. 26Damasus used imperial laws against heretics to have the petitioners' adherents exiled, and tried to prosecute their bishop at Rome, Ephesius, as a "Luciferian", but the prefect Bassus refused to treat Lucifer's followers as heretics.
27. 27The petitioners reject the name "Luciferians": they follow Christ, not a man, and Lucifer taught nothing new; his books against Constantius were praised and translated by Athanasius.
28. 28Lucifer wrote and lived by the Scriptures and worked miracles, as Gregory of Elvira recognized, so to brand the defenders of the true faith with his name is sacrilege.
29. 29At Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, bishop Theodore, after being demoted and reordained by the Arian George, persecuted the strict Nicene congregation and its bishop Heraclidas, finally sending his clergy to demolish their church and altar.
30. 30Heraclidas is one of the saints "of whom the world was not worthy"; Theodore persecuted not only him but his people, his consecrated virgins and his monks.
31. 31Theodore, reordained by an Arian and long in communion with the Meletian bishop Apollonius, has nevertheless been handed Apollonius's basilica as a Catholic under the emperors' edict, and now reordains Meletian clergy himself.
32. 32At Eleutheropolis in Palestine the consecrated virgin Hermione and the house of the former tribune Severus, refusing communion with compromised bishops, received the visiting Luciferian bishop Ephesius.
33. 33After Ephesius left for Africa, Turbo, bishop of Eleutheropolis and formerly deacon of the Arian Eutychius who had persecuted Lucifer, threatened the petitioners, Severus's household and Hermione for celebrating the sacraments in private houses.
34. 34The petitioners recall how Lucifer's congregation at Eleutheropolis was attacked, warn that the blood of the faithful brings plagues on the empire, and charge that many bishops now protected by the emperors' edicts hold heresies (Origenist, Anthropomorphite, Apollinarian, and others).
35. 35The bishops tolerate many heresies among themselves for the sake of a false peace that preserves their possessions and honors, a peace the prophets condemned.
36. 36The petitioners ask only to be allowed to worship Christ in peace, even in humble places, and sign their petition; the emperors' rescript to the prefect Cynegius praises their petition and orders that Gregory of Elvira, Heraclidas and like-minded priests be protected from harassment.