Letter to George, Prefect of Africa 1 part 5/14

But whoever, having cast aside this ordinance, has resolved to reign entirely for himself, and not for God, will fittingly bring about the opposite of these things;

tyrannically shaking off the good men from himself, and setting [them] far from all counsel and power;

but in a spirit of innovation drawing the wicked to himself, and making them masters over the whole of his own authority;

which is the final abyss of destruction for both those who rule and those who are ruled.

May God grant us to be ruled by him willingly, through the fulfillment of his life-giving commandments;

and to honor worthily those who reign on earth in accordance with him, as guardians of his divine ordinances.

By the same [author], to an abbess, concerning a female ascetic who had left the monastery and repented.

The heralds of truth, and those who became ministers of divine grace—as many as, from the beginning until our own time, each in his own age made clear to us the saving will of God—say that nothing is so dear and beloved to God as the return of men to him through true repentance.

Wishing to show that this is, above all other things, more divine, the thearchic Word of God the Father—

or rather, [wishing to show it to be] the first and only token of the infinite goodness—according to a certain ineffable manner of condescension, he deigned to converse with us through flesh, both doing and suffering and saying those things by which it was necessary for us, who were enemies and foes, to be reconciled to God the Father, and, having been estranged from the blessed life, to be led back again to it.

For he not only healed our diseases by miracles, and, having taken up our infirmities through his sufferings, and having, through death, paid off as though he himself were liable—though sinless—our debt, freed us from our many and terrible accusations;

but also, teaching in many ways, he has willed that we, who are willing, should become equal to himself according to [his] disposition of love for mankind, and according to perfect love toward one another.

And, 'Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill.'

And, 'He has come to seek and to save that which was lost.'

And, 'He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'

And through the parable of the drachma he hinted that he had come to restore the royal image, which had come to lie beneath the most foul dung of the passions.

And, 'Amen, I say to you, there is joy in heaven and on earth over one sinner who repents.'

and, having given what sufficed for [his] care, he promised, upon returning, to give also whatever should further be spent;

but, having placed [it] upon his own shoulders, he compassionately brought [it] safely back to the rest of the flock.

And, 'Take my yoke upon you';

and by 'yoke' he means the commandments;

that is, the life rightly directed according to the Gospel;

and by 'burden' [he means] that which seems to be the toilsome part of repentance;

'For my yoke,' he says, 'is easy, and my burden light.'

And again, teaching divine righteousness and goodness, he exhorts, saying:

'Become merciful, as your heavenly Father [is merciful].'

And, 'Forgive, and you will be forgiven.'

And, 'Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do likewise also to them.'

And, simply put, lest by speaking of each instance I should lengthen this letter—for this reason he justifies repentant harlots, and receives tax-collectors who turn back, and appoints them as heralds of the Gospel;

so that we might learn love of mankind and gentleness;

and that we should neither easily despair of ourselves when we sin, nor remain unsympathetic and unfeeling toward those who sin,

having God as [our] example in these matters.

Since, then, we have been taught that these things stand thus in very truth, and that it is the will of God that all men be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth;

and we remember that the sole beginning and purpose of his wondrous sojourn among us in the flesh is our salvation;

I confidently entreat your holiness, presenting to you, in place of a supplication, the very life-giving sufferings of God and our Savior Christ, by which we were redeemed from the dominion of darkness.

I do indeed believe that you, being a genuine disciple of the Son of God, bear within yourself, throughout the whole conduct of [your] life, the Teacher living and active, inasmuch as you have devoted yourself wholly to him from childhood;

so that, through me also—a lowly and sinful mediator, having nothing worthy of your virtue—you may honor his loving self-emptying on your behalf, and may receive this sister, who repents and has dissolved herself in tears.

For great and ineffable is the contrition of her heart, and the humility of her spirit, both over the sin which she has committed, and over her separation from you, which she mourns grievously.

Do not, then, O blessed handmaid of God, spurn a heart contrite and humbled, which God himself has not spurned;

but, becoming compassionate and merciful, tender-hearted and sympathetic, imitate him who willingly accepted to die for us, for the sake of love toward mankind;

and deem it worthy to receive her and embrace her, and consent to ratify [your] love toward her.

And strengthen her with words and deeds of loving-kindness and gentleness, and snatch her from the hands of the tyrant, and compassionately bind up the wounds that have befallen her;

lest, being greatly weighed down by grief, she be impaled upon the thorn of despair;

and we be called to account for the blood of a soul ruined through our fault,

[given over] to the enemy of our life, so that he may hold [her] as a rein, to lead wherever he wishes;

her who ought to have lived on through our patience and gentleness;

and we be justly accused, as having neglected both the divine wills and the divine sufferings.

For likewise—even though the word is harsh, yet it is true—both those who are unwilling to repent, and those who do not receive those who repent, dishonor the good will of God, and, as far as it lies with them, despise his loving self-emptying on our behalf;

because, though obliged to make one another's misfortunes our own, on account of the equal honor of our common nature,

we have not even shown reverence for that very goodness of God toward us;

nor, if in nothing else, have we shown ourselves imitators [of it], at least with respect to our own kind.

As one, then, who knows, O blessed handmaid of God, that divine justice is fittingly applied according to the dispositions of our souls, becoming toward us of such a kind as we have made ourselves toward one another;

and, rendering God toward us such as we have already shown ourselves to be toward those who share our common condition, do not delay to receive with open hands your suppliant and handmaid;

but, without delay, in imitation of God, with all zeal, place the sheep upon your shoulders, and gather it into the safe fold, and preserve it henceforth unassailed by the wolves;

so that you yourself also may obtain such [treatment] from the loving God and Savior Christ, the Judge of all, at his fearful and most glorious appearing, when he shall render to you the eternal fruits of what you have sown.

May we too obtain this, through his gracious mercy and love for mankind.

By the same [author], to John the cubicularius, concerning the correct doctrines of the Church of God,

and against Severus the heretic.

Judging it good, O God-guarded ones, to hold back nothing from reporting to you whatever comes to me concerning yourselves—

for this is what our law of true love commands—and the lawgiver, and Love itself, Christ—

teaching us to make one another our own by means of ourselves;

I have composed the present letter,

declaring that, in the month of November of the current fifteenth indiction, a certain man named Theodore, a chancellor, arrived here.

...truly noble, and not lacking in freeborn manners, as far as I could conjecture from what was observed, bearing a letter from our common lady, the God-guarded Patricia — as he claimed, inscribed by her — to the blessed servant of God, the most-acclaimed eparch here;

for the sake of releasing the nuns who dwell here;

namely those of the monastery of Amma Joannia, from Alexandria, and of the monastery called that of Sacerdos, being of the sect of Severus;

[Severus,] who employed against the truth such madness and abundance of falsehood as to suffice to trouble the holy Church of God even to this day;

But to no other person whatsoever — none of the officials assigned there to serve the God-guarded Patricia — did he convey even a bare syllable of this;

Whence I too, together with many others, marveled — being perplexed within myself as to the reason why my God-guarded lord did not see fit to make anything known to me through him;

and, as is likely — as tends to happen in such matters, as you know, my lord — this letter caused much murmuring among the faithful peoples;

and it nearly diminished the reverence held by the catholic Church of God toward the lady, the most-acclaimed Patricia;

it shook those inhabiting this land of the Africans, who had already been possessed beforehand with good preconceptions concerning her — had not the aforesaid most-acclaimed eparch, employing a method fitting to his own prudence, everywhere proclaimed the letter to be false and spurious;

and he pretended to be indignant against the chancellor, and duly dealt with the heretics who had been emboldened under pretext of such a letter, both those from Alexandria and those from Syria;

disciplining some with imprisonment, others also with blows, saying that they must not insult the good opinion held of our lady Patricia;

For they shamelessly asserted, relying, as I said, upon the letter, that she rejoiced in their doctrines;

and they did not shrink from telling this, falsely, to everyone — among them Thomas, their so-called bishop, who happens to be one of those who come to her freely and are greatly honored by her;

which, above all things, troubled and scandalized everyone;

so that I too was, of necessity, then summoned to go, to refute face to face those who had dared to say this, and to persuade those who heard, that by no means, through the grace of Christ the Savior, had either she, or her husband who is now among the saints, been in any way inclined toward the heretics;

And likewise many others of the most devout monks sojourning here — and especially the blessed servants of God and our Fathers, those surnamed Eukratades — saying the same things, delivered the majority from such a false suspicion;

And, to speak simply, the aforesaid most-acclaimed man went to every length, purposing to demonstrate her pure of all blame, and to make manifest to all that she is faithful to God and honorable;

But I myself have not yet been freed from doubt concerning this — I who am especially devoted to your affairs, I who am small and worthy of nothing, writing to you, the great ones deemed worthy of divine grace;

still vexed about this, and not knowing what to decide and vote for;

For knowing that our common lady, the most-acclaimed Patricia, stands upon the unbroken rock of faith from her forebears, and has been taught to breathe scarcely anything else than the right faith in God proclaimed according to the catholic Church of God, I am unable to believe that the letter is hers;

And again, seeing the chancellor confirming this with dreadful oaths, and affirming that he was sent here by her for this purpose alone, I consider it a fearful thing not to believe;

and I stand in the middle, at the boundary between two thoughts, unable to find the one that prevails and is able to draw the soul's assent to itself;

Nevertheless, my blessed lord, that I may speak the truth and confess everything that I have been able to judge;

and receive me, speaking boldly with much labor of soul because of my love toward you;

if, in truth, the letter on behalf of the aforesaid heretical women was made by her according to the will and mind of you who are God-guarded;

which I marvel at, but I do not accept;

inferring that you yourselves would not be free of the burden [of guilt];

For I hear from the divinely-teaching Scripture, how Jehoshaphat, that pious and faithful king of Judea, having allied himself with Ahab, king of Israel — who was defiled with many pollutions of idolatry — when he once stirred up war against Syria, was rebuked and accused by God, who spoke to him thus through the prophet;

Do you help a man hated by me, and hostile to the Lord God?

But if perhaps, persuaded by others who suggested this, she has done it, not even so do I agree with what has happened, calling to mind that Rehoboam, son of the great Solomon, who, by preferring the counsel of the younger to that of the elders, cut off the greater part of his own kingdom;

and at the same time knowing it to be forbidden by oath for those to whom it is not lawful to undertake canonical matters, and especially for women, for whom the divine word has declared silence to be more fitting than breath;

It is therefore not necessary to help heretics, as heretics, in whatever manner, even if it were permitted to all to pursue all things without fear;

both because of the reasons already stated, that we may not unwittingly offend God;

and because it is not good to grant them license to parade in their own falsehood, and to be stirred up against piety;

lest, having been made manifest through us, in the manner of a serpent, they should be able, by the bite of deceit, to shake some of the more simple-minded from the secure foundation of the faith;

and lest we too be found, though we do not wish it, sharing in the judgment impending over them on this account;

For thus at the beginning the most-acclaimed eparch, employing his customary sympathy also toward them, so far as even to bestow upon them wine worth much gold for their subsistence, together with an abundant provision of their other needs;

but when he found them puffed up with the conceit of pride, he turned away from this favor;

For immediately, as though by command, they began to gather followers, and to entice the daughters of the faithful;

and to hide them and deny them to the parents who sought them for a considerable time;

and to dare to perform propitiatory rites and re-baptisms;

and having often come to them with much exhortation, and having learned these things, and having at length urged them to cease from such deeds and to be united to the holy Church of God, and having accomplished nothing;

Finally, when he saw the evil already great and now uncontrollable, and the crowds of the faithful murmuring about what was happening, fearing lest something disorderly should arise against them — the faithful multitude of the Romans having grown hot with anger against them, not even enduring the bare name of the heretics — he judged it fitting and lawful that royal counsel and judgment be taken concerning this matter, and he referred everything by a formal report, together with the most holy archbishop and the most glorious notables here, to our most pious emperor and to the most holy patriarchs, both of Rome and of Constantinople;

And indeed, having received a serene letter from our most faithful emperor, and a sacred letter from the most blessed patriarchs, commanding that all heretics of the region who persisted in their own false doctrine should be driven out;

but that the aforesaid women, if willing to come to the holy, immaculate, and life-giving communion of the catholic Church, should keep their own monasteries undisturbed;

but that those who refuse the truth, and are not persuaded to yield to the royal edict, should be permanently dispersed, one by one, among the monasteries of the orthodox ascetics; and that their property, according to the law — with which especially they had confidently and abundantly supported those who led them astray — should be transferred to the public treasury;

he did everything zealously, just as he had been commanded;

By the grace of Christ he persuaded all the heretics from Syria, Egypt, Alexandria, and Libya to come to the holy Church of God;

But of the aforesaid women, those from the monastery of Sacerdos — who, on account of their inbred pride, had behaved foolishly toward the command of the pious lord — he distributed among the sacred monasteries of the orthodox ascetics, for the fulfillment of what had been piously commanded, dealing with some by exhortation, with others also by gentle constraint, and becoming all things to all of them for God's sake;

and having at last, though late, taught them anew what was needful, he persuaded them, together with many other monastic communities, to be united to the catholic Church of God;

But those of Amma Joannia, quite sensibly and reasonably indeed, because of the shining forth of the truth of ecclesiastical doctrines, having come with all joy, he restored to all of them — both men and women — their own monasteries;

obtaining a reward worthy of his greatness of soul concerning divine things — namely, to be adorned even with apostolic gifts, and to be styled the genuine mouth of the Lord, according to the divine oracle that says: 'If you bring forth the precious from the worthless, you shall be as my mouth';

or rather, having obtained this great and wonderful work as a prelude to the divine reward awaiting him, and as a most faithful pledge of the glory to be with Christ;

Not wishing the heretics to be afflicted, nor rejoicing in their ill-treatment, do I write these things — far be it! — but rather rejoicing and exulting together in their conversion;

For what is more delightful to the faithful than to behold the scattered children of God being gathered together into one?

Nor am I exhorting you to set harshness before kindness;

but I exhort you, with attentiveness and discernment, to do and work good toward all people, and to become all things to all, as each of them requires of you;

only toward this — namely, cooperating with heretics in any way whatsoever for the establishment of their mind-damaging opinion — do I wish and pray that you be utterly hard and implacable;

For I, at least, define as misanthropy, and as a severance from divine love, the attempt to give strength to error, toward the greater destruction of those already possessed by it;

But before all things and above all, we must be sober and watchful, and guard against the incursions of thieves, lest we be plundered by them unawares;

but rather we shall guard the great and first remedy of our salvation;

I mean the good inheritance of faith, confessed with soul and mouth, with boldness, as the Fathers taught us;

who, following those who from the beginning became eyewitnesses and servants of the Word, confessed the one — of the holy and consubstantial, immaculate and blessed Trinity — the Son of God, God the Word, the effulgence of glory and the exact representation of the paternal hypostasis, the creator of all visible and invisible creation, the infinite, the unbounded, the invisible, the incomprehensible, the inconceivable, who made and holds together all things by the mere inclination of his will;

him who is immeasurable in goodness, they declared to have become man for our sake, and to have been made flesh from the holy, all-glorious, ever-virgin Mary, who is properly and truly Theotokos;

having united to himself, according to hypostasis, flesh from her — consubstantial with us — ensouled with a rational and intellectual soul, which did not pre-exist even for the twinkling of an eye, but received both its being and its subsistence in God the Word himself;

and, being perfect God, to have become perfect man;

neither laying aside being God on account of becoming man, which he was not;

nor being hindered from becoming what he was not — man — on account of having remained what he was and is — God;

but, being this, to have become that also, confirming each as true, so that the divine together with the human is attested by divine wonders and human sufferings; and, according to his own nature and essence in relation to the Father, he is uncreated, invisible, uncircumscribed, unalterable, unchangeable, impassible, incorruptible, immortal, the creator of all things;

but according to the nature of his flesh, which is also yours, the same one is created, passible, circumscribed, containable, mortal;

the same one indeed, yet not in the same respect, on account of the [natures] out of which and in which he has his being;

the same one being consubstantial with God the Father according to divinity, and the same one being consubstantial with us according to humanity;

twofold in nature, that is, in essence;

because he is the mediator of God and men, it is necessary that he properly preserve the natural affinity to those he mediates between, by being both;

so that, in truth itself, in himself and through himself, having joined the earthly things to the heavenly, he might bring near and present to God the Father the material nature of men — which had been made hostile through sin — now saved, befriended, and deified;

not by identity of essence, but by the ineffable power of the incarnation;

so that, through his holy flesh taken from us, as a firstfruit, he might make us also partakers of the divine nature

and is not known to be such merely by designation;

but not twofold in hypostasis, that is, in person;

because, being one and the same, he both existed before the flesh, and has remained [the same] with the flesh;

with not even a single addition or subtraction occurring to the Holy Trinity from the incarnation of the Word;

the same one having suffered in the flesh on our behalf;

yet the same one, according to divinity, being and remaining impassible throughout;

so that our salvation also consists in the death of the only-begotten Son of God;

O the paradoxical and inexpressible mystery!

and [that] the divine glory and identity of his essence with the Father continually remains undiminished

and how it is necessary, in a pious manner, to confess two natures in Christ after the union

Since these things have been so wisely declared, according to sound understanding, by the holy teachers of the Church, it is altogether pious that we too, following them, confess that the two natures which came together for the ineffable union are dissimilar according to essence;

and to confess that these have remained unconfused, even after being united;

saying that they have remained unconfused introduces no division whatsoever;

but signifies that the difference remains unchangeable

For difference and division are not the same thing

and is indicative of the manner in which each exists;

that is, that the flesh is, by nature and by essence, what it is;

and again that God the Word is, by nature and by essence, what he is

If, then, such a principle is preserved even after the union — the principle which shows that the Word has not been changed into flesh, and that the flesh has not departed from its natural boundary —

but confirms that each remains, according to essence, in the manner it is by nature, even though a union has taken place;

how is it not altogether just to confess that the difference of the natures which came together is preserved even after the union?

And if this is not disputed, having truth itself as a faithful witness, it is manifest and evident to all that the things which came together remain unconfused;

neither the divinity having been changed into flesh, nor the flesh having been transformed into the nature of divinity

What reason, then, is left, if all men are led by the fear of God, and if everywhere we wish to hold the truth itself, and not our own fallible surmise, as the rule of the divine doctrines — what reason is left that is able to demonstrate that it is not reasonable to confess the things that are preserved?

In addition to all these things, the Fathers always teach that the principles of the things which came together are preserved;

and that these very things which came together both contribute together toward one person of the Son and one hypostasis

And if this is so, how is it not necessary, again according to the Fathers, on the one hand, by knowing that the principles [of the natures] are preserved, to speak of the difference;

and that even after the union, each of the things that came together is preserved in the property that belongs to its nature;

and, on the other hand, by confessing that both together contribute to one person of the Son and one hypostasis, to know precisely that these are by nature undivided?

...the union, free from all change and confusion — concerning which it will suffice that Cyril, the most holy luminary of the Church (to whom those who vainly war against the holy Church of God pretend with excess to be attached), bears witness, writing thus in the second volume against the blasphemies of Nestorius:

Now that the mystery concerning Christ has been brought forward into our midst, the principle of the union does not indeed ignore the difference, but it banishes division;

not confusing or commingling the natures;

but because the Word of God, having partaken of flesh and blood, is again understood and named one and the same Son. And in the Apology to Andrew, who found fault with the third of the chapters, [Cyril] writes thus:

One might perhaps be free from all blame in knowing that the flesh is other, and according to its own nature, distinct from the Word who is begotten of God the Father;

and again the only-begotten is, according to the principle of his own nature, other;

But to know these things is not to divide the natures after the union. Behold, the phrase "after the union" is also clearly set down by the great Cyril, being both understood and spoken, according to him, piously by the faithful

For [this] shows that the principle of being of the things united has in no way been harmed by the union, and that the one has not been mixed with the other, on account of the one [reality] which pertains to both according to hypostasis;

but rather that each is preserved and remains as, by essence, it is by nature

For knowing this also, the wise Cyril says explicitly:

That the natures are neither confused with one another, by contributing to one hypostasis of the Son;

nor are they divided from one another, by [the fact that] each is one thing and another [namely, according to essence, obviously] and remains and is understood [as such] after the union; and each with its natural property and difference;

according to which the Word is God by nature, and not flesh;

even though he made the flesh his own by way of the economy;

and the flesh is flesh by nature, not God, even though it has become the very own [flesh] of God the Word through the union

How, then, is it not necessary, pious, and fitting, according to the teaching of the Fathers, to say that the difference is preserved after the union;

and to confess that the two natures, from which he also consists, both exist and are preserved in the one Christ after the union — [the natures] whose difference [is likewise preserved]

knowing so much also, that the things which came together for the indivisible union have not undergone any change whatsoever into one another, nor any alteration

For every difference is, in some way, altogether necessarily a difference of certain things that differ;

and wherever it is possible for a difference to be conceived, there the things that differ must also altogether exist

For such things happen to be, in a certain manner, mutually co-implicative of one another;

just as causes and the things caused, being conceived as relatives within the same substance

For if the heterogeneity of essence of the things from which he is constituted is productive of the difference in Christ, as a cause;

then the difference too is altogether indicative, as an effect, of the natural otherness of the things united, [that otherness] being its proper cause

For such things are by nature mutually co-introduced with one another, as has been said;

and when the one is spoken of, it is altogether necessary to confess the other also;

and again, when one is removed, it follows that the other also cannot be said to exist

and that number is employed with regard to this and this alone, for the purpose of showing that the difference of the things that came together has remained, as being preserved after the union, and not divided;

moreover, it is also more readily true that the difference is demonstrated from the more significant expression of the realities themselves, than that the realities are confirmed to be different merely from the word alone

That number neither divides, nor is divided;

nor, according to its own principle, does it introduce division into the whole of those things to which it is applied

But if some, preferring opinion to truth, say that number is divisive, or divisible, or introductive of division;