When, to the prejudice of the holy Council of Chalcedon, its assailants the Acephali secretly procured through certain persons that the letter of Ibas, bishop of Edessa, which the said synod had judged catholic when it was laid before it, together with Theodore of Mopsuestia and his teaching, which is praised in that same letter of Ibas, as well as certain writings of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, who in the aforesaid Council of Chalcedon vindicated the dogmatic letter of Pope Leo, should be condemned under anathema, I wrote this work at the urging of the brethren, to the emperor at Constantinople. When it was not yet finished nor fully treated, the bishop of Rome was brought in; and when in his examination we were debating the proceedings on this cause, in the midst of the dispute he ordered the records to be interrupted;
and he demanded of all the bishops who were present that each should answer in writing what seemed to him concerning these chapters. Since therefore through the master of the offices I was constrained under grave necessity to reply, a respite of seven days was granted me, among which were also two feast-days. Hence, in order to say all that I judged more necessary, I excerpted somewhat from these books; for I had no time to say everything anew, seeing that that reply exceeds three thousand verses. Indeed, since, as I said, those same books had not yet been fully revised by me, certain testimonies, owing to the faultiness of the codices from which we had taken them, or owing to the carelessness of the translators, contained matters otherwise than they should; and these have been transcribed thus also into that reply.
For this reason, therefore, I have taken care to speak beforehand and to forewarn, so that no one who happens upon these books after having read the aforesaid reply may be offended by this divergence; but let him there pardon one in haste, and rather give credence to this work. For some things which were there set forth with disorder are here handled more moderately and more orderly.