Receive, most serene emperor, by how many further testimonies of holy and venerable Fathers the synod of Chalcedon is blamed even for not having contradicted them—Fathers by whom Theodore of Mopsuestia, even when dead, was praised far more than in the letter of the venerable Ibas. Hence let us first return to those letters of holy John of Antioch and of the Eastern council, as we promised in the second book. For the blessed Proclus had sent synodical letters to the East, having composed a tome to the Armenians, which, as we have already taught, the Eastern synod approved.
On the occasion of that legation certain men attempted to creep in, so that some excerpts from the sayings of the ancient teachers of the Church, with their names also prefixed, might be subjected to anathema. Moved therefore by such audacity, the synod of the East—since it had supposed this to have been mandated by the same blessed Proclus—after it had responded that it approved the tome directed to it, wrote to him on behalf of Theodore those things which we recalled in the second book, and many others which, omitted then, we now arrange to recall, saying: 'Our souls are exceedingly wounded, because we continually endure such slanders, not only as concerns those not living, from those who wish to disturb the churches;
but also that he who departed well from life, the blessed Theodore—who for forty-five years shone brightly in doctrine, and vanquished every heresy, and, receiving nowhere any disparagement from the orthodox in his life, after his departure hence after a long time, and after many contests, and after ten thousand books written against errors, and after he was approved in the sight of priests and emperors and peoples—is now imperiled to endure the lot of heretics, and to be proclaimed the first of them.' And they add the things which had been omitted, saying:
'They have filled us with this confusion and these tumults—not only us alone, but also the Christian peoples, who, learning of these things, by no means permit the ecclesiastical celebrations to be carried out without disturbance, but stir up seditions against us, not even enduring so much as to hear of the anathema they were plotting against the fathers who are asleep, and they threaten ten thousand evils against us, if any such thing be presumed by anyone. But let your holiness know this also: that searching the writings of the ancient teachers of the Church, we have found ten thousand such things and the like, of the very sort which certain men, by an evil practice, gathering from the books of blessed Theodore and cutting off the remaining body, have offered to your holiness.
For both in the great martyr Ignatius, who, second after Peter the first of the apostles, set in order the church of the see of Antioch, and in the most blessed Eustathius, who, being the first of the holy Fathers gathered at Nicaea, confirmed the orthodox faith, and in the most holy and most blessed Athanasius, who suffered thousands upon thousands of contests for the evangelical dogmas; and besides these, in Basil, and both Gregories, who were of the same opinion, and in the most blessed Flavian, Diodore, and John, who were bright luminaries of the whole East; and again in the most blessed Ambrose, who illumined all the western regions;
and in the most blessed Amphilochius, that most approved teacher, and also in the blessed Atticus your father, and in ten thousand others—not to run through them one by one—we have found things consonant with these excerpted chapters. And if these are anathematized, it is necessary also to embrace the things said by the aforesaid Fathers. And who henceforth would stand by our doctrines, with men so admirable and most renowned condemned after death? It is not ours, therefore, to insult the glorious opinions of those who have gone before, nor to judge those who have honorably departed, but it belongs to the sole judge of the living and the dead.
Here I would wish to be taught by the Eutychians what the holy synod of Chalcedon ought to have done, when in its presence, in the letter of the venerable Ibas, the praises of Theodore were recited—praises far greater than those by which (to say nothing of John of Constantinople and Gregory of Nazianzus) he was praised by the Eastern Fathers. Would it justly have condemned the letter for its praise of Theodore, this letter of the Easterners not being condemned, in which it was confirmed that one of the Trinity was crucified for us? Or could it justly condemn Theodore alone, apart from Ignatius and Eustathius, and Athanasius and Basil, and both Gregories, and Flavian, and Diodore, and John, and Ambrose, and Amphilochius, and Atticus, and ten thousand others;
if, as John of Antioch and all the Eastern bishops say, in their sayings things consonant with certain particular chapters of Theodore are found? But if they are not found, and these men, restraining Theodore, wished to deceive us—could the synod of Chalcedon even thus justly condemn Theodore alone, apart from John of Antioch and all the Eastern bishops, who, restraining the errors of the same Theodore, incriminated Ignatius the martyr—who, second after Peter the apostle, set in order the church of the see of Antioch—and the rest of the most glorious Fathers whom they commemorated, as having thought things consonant with Theodore?
For if the letter of Ibas is judged impious because it contains his light suspicions concerning the blessed Cyril, much more—nay rather—John of Antioch and all the Eastern bishops would have to be charged with incomparably greater impiety, who, assembled in council by careful deliberation, incriminating Fathers so many and so great by name, and others, as he said, ten thousand, feigned that they had written things consonant with Theodore, whom these men call a heretic. Since Theodore of Mopsuestia could not otherwise be justly condemned by the synod of Chalcedon, except either together with Ignatius the martyr and the rest of the most glorious Fathers commemorated with him, if they wrote things consonant with certain of his chapters;
or together with John of Antioch and all the Eastern bishops, if they lied that these men wrote things consonant with Theodore. But neither must this be omitted: that he could not justly condemn even those same Eastern Fathers apart from Proclus of Constantinople. For if those men, writing to him, lied that Ignatius the martyr and the others commemorated with him had written things similar to Theodore, who is now accused as a heretic, he ought not by a treacherous and pernicious dissimulation to keep silent, but rather at once to oppose them with great detestation, since the things they said were not true:
especially because it was not by a light and passing word, but by a synodical opinion, confirmed by the subscription of all the Easterners, that to so many blessed Fathers a horrible crime was being fastened, to the prejudice of the Church. Since these things are so, let them cease to incriminate the great synod for not having condemned Theodore—whom it could not justly condemn either without the martyr Ignatius, and Eustathius, and Athanasius, and Basil, and both Gregories, and the rest likewise enumerated, or without John of Antioch and the Eastern council, and Proclus of Constantinople. But first let them say with which of these Theodore ought first to have been condemned, and only then let them accuse the negligence or restraint of the synod of Chalcedon.