To his ever lord, the emperor Justinian, Nicetius, humble with his own, but by the mercy of the Lord a bishop. I. We already foresee, as the evangelical word foretold, that we are in the last times; and although our time is ever prepared, nevertheless we perceive the end, as Scripture has announced, to be coming. But blessed is that man whom, when Christ shall come, He shall find watching. The sun is turned into darkness from the east, that is from on high, that is, from the holy life. In the whole world you were shining like the sun; and while we all, the rulers of the Church, by the grace of the Lord, were rejoicing in all his counsel, fame divulging it, on account of your fall—which we ought never to have reached—we have been grieved and humbled even to the ground.
Our sweet Justinian, who has so deceived you? Who persuaded you to pursue such things? Who taught you to confess Christ a mere man? Who circumvented you to enroll yourself in the company of Judas? Who taught you that He who said: I came forth from the Father, and came into this world (John 16:28), grew through circumcision, through baptism, through the passion? Who suddenly oppressed you, who before had no wretched heart? Who provoked you to send to slaughter, to diverse torments, the fathers whom you ought to have venerated? Who provoked you to destroy those things for which Christ was crucified and all the apostles suffered?
Who admonished you even to adore that which had already once, twice, and three times been condemned by all the rulers of the Church—the sect of Nestorius and Eutyches, as we have said, already anathematized again and again—so that you might destroy yourself by it? Who commanded this? He, he who persuaded Adam to touch the tree of life, who by his own zeal devised death, has circumvented you; he who, when he made Judas treat Christ as a mere man and betrayed Him for a man, cast him into the fire which God prepared for the devil and his angels. II. Our sweet, sweet Justinian, recall what you promised when you were baptized, what you said you believed point by point.
You testified to one Son abiding in two substances, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, not two Christs. When you departed from it, what did you do? What did you prepare for yourself? Examine it, and it will well take heed for you, and see whether you have not bound yourself in the place of perdition. Still, if you will, you live: if you will, by returning. Be converted, He says, to me, and I will be converted to you (Zech. 1:3). The fathers from whom you ought to have awaited a blessing, you sent into exile. Then, when in your last old age you ought to have composed and joined yourself to your Redeemer, you yourself—not another, but you—deceived both yourself and your own. When Lactantius, as he says, a presbyter, was visiting the holy places throughout Gaul for the sake of the Lord's mercy, he appeared before us;
the things which you read, we entreated, and through Jesus Christ our Redeemer we adjured him. Therefore by the present letter we have adjured our God, and moreover we testify, that you both may return, and may provoke to return as many as you persuaded to perish in that horrible persecution. But if you do not do this, let Him be judge between us and you; but how much the sooner—He to whom you took away honors and made a mere man? When you read, I and the Father are one (John 10:30): but such a Father as is the Son, because the Father is even as the Son; since it is true—how, by coming to circumcision, to baptism, to martyrdom, is He proved to be made better, who is also convicted to be the creator of all things? III. Hasten, hasten, but at once.
For if the last day shall find you thus, such as you now today appear, descending to the lower parts of the earth, you shall be among the portions of foxes. Let the holy Church rejoice over your return, for she vehemently mourns over your fall. Make us rejoice in the last age, whom you have made to mourn after your joy because of your perdition. Do not say even in your heart: I have done, I have done; I have conquered, I have conquered. You are conquered and bound; but thence whence you are the son of the devil and the enemy of justice. For let it be known to you that all Italy, all Africa, Spain, and all Gaul anathematize your name, while they weep over your perdition. And unless you shall destroy what you have taught, and shall cry out with a public voice: I have erred, I have erred; anathema to Nestorius, anathema to Eutyches;
otherwise you have delivered yourself over to everlasting torments together with them. We greet you most warmly, adjuring you by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; by Him who appears one in three, and is acknowledged one in three, that you withdraw yourself from the horrible sect and the abominable persecution, and that you study to bring to a better way those who, at your persuasion, have believed in it.