But behold — what remained to us last for demonstrating the reasoning of the whole cause — we have also taught, abundantly and more than enough, concerning the praise of Theodore of Mopsuestia, that this letter cannot justly be censured as heretical; we nevertheless, as has been foretold, establish our firmness not in our own reasoning, although it may seem invincible, but in the authority of the holy council by which it was received. Let it suffice, therefore, for the instruction of our little ones, that they be not scandalized in those things which have been fabricated concerning that letter, that we have refuted them all by a diverse and manifold kind of defense, concurring from every side in homage to the truth.
Nor let them reckon with themselves, saying: why did that council, which deservedly judged the letter itself orthodox for the right faith it contains, not insert into the acts a reckoning of all the things in it which the heretics calumniate? — since they ought to understand that, the accusers of Ibas's letter bringing nothing forward against it, there was no need to dwell on such matters. But if for this reason the great synod is thought to be blamed, because it did not forestall the future calumnies of heretics, then necessarily the prophets and apostles too must be blamed, since there are many things in their writings of which, though they themselves could without any difficulty have laid open the reason, now with the greatest study and labour they are expounded by the most ingenious and most learned men.
Let them know, therefore, that by these difficulties Christ exercises the faith and piety of his Church. For surely the prophets, surely too the apostles, would have either avoided or resolved the future questions of calumniators or of those who would not understand, which they foresaw. Let them attend to what the apostle Peter says: 'Our most beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are certain things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable pervert, as also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, most beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest, led away by the error of the senseless, you fall from your own steadfastness' (2 Pet. 3:15-17).
Behold, not only when they foresaw them did they not avoid the future ones, but even when they saw them present, they did not resolve for us the questions of the unlearned and unstable which they bring forward against the Church out of their writings. Nor does any Christian dare to impute it to them that they spoke such things as those same unlearned and unstable men would pervert through the difficulty of understanding; but rather one trembles at the judgment of God in this, that by such temptations that is fulfilled, namely, that he who is in filth may grow yet more filthy, but the just man do yet more justly, and the holy man yet more holily (Rev. 22:11).
Whence, if we render any reverence even to synodal decrees received by the universal Church, in all things which we find obscure in them and difficult to understand, we ought to recognize and approve the divine will. But you know, most serene Emperor, that not without reason the most blessed Leo restrained the rash from any reconsideration of the aforesaid synod, when he wrote to the Emperor Leo, saying: 'Let nothing at all of what is well composed be reconsidered.' And again, when the said Augustus demanded of him by his letters that, coming to the royal city, he should either correct or supplement something in the decrees of that same synod — which could not be done without detestable prevarication — he wrote back to him thus (Epist. 123):
'The letters of your Clemency, full of the strength of faith and the light of truth, I have received with veneration; in which I could wish to obey in that wherein your Piety deems my presence necessary, that with greater fruit I might attain the sight of your splendour; but I judge that what reason has shown ought to be chosen will be more pleasing to you. For since by holy and spiritual zeal you fortify the peace of the universal Church, and since nothing is more fitting for the defending of the faith than to adhere to those things which, by the Holy Spirit instructing in all things, have been irreproachably defined:'
we ourselves would seem to be tearing down what was well established, and to be infringing, at the will of a heretical petition, the authorities which the universal Church has embraced, and thus to set no limit to the colliding of churches, but, license to rebel being given, rather to spread abroad than to lull the contentions. Whence, since after those impieties of the synod of Ephesus, by which, through the crime of Dioscorus, the catholic faith was repudiated and the Eutychian perversity received, nothing could be ordained more useful for the preservation of the Christian faith than that the holy synod of Chalcedon should abolish the crime of the aforesaid, and so great heavenly care for doctrine should be had there, that nothing should remain in anyone's opinion which differed from the preachings either prophetic or apostolic:'
with this moderation being preserved, namely, that only the rebellious and obstinate being rejected from the unity of the Church, pardon should be denied to none who was corrected: what more commendable, what more religious could your Piety decree, than that those things which have been established not so much by human as by divine decrees should no longer be allowed to be assailed by anyone; lest those be truly worthy to lose so great a gift of God, who have dared to doubt concerning his truth?' You perceive how he admonishes the Emperor Leo to adhere to and to decree those things which, by the Holy Spirit instructing in all things, were irreproachably defined in the said synod, so that what has been established not so much by human as by divine decrees no one be any longer allowed to assail.
How then are not the divine decrees profanely reconsidered — not to say reproved? But who would not proclaim the gravity of this Roman bishop? Who would not honour so great a constancy? Could secular power in any way move this man from his resolve not to reconsider what had been divinely established — him whom it could not move bodily from his place? The sun, indeed, would assuredly shine wherever it might be; but in heaven the sun is far more honourably and far more becomingly placed, where its station is supreme and suitable for illuminating all things alike, lest it desert the many when it inclines toward a few. Finally, moved by the authority of his liberty and reason, even the most religious prince lays aside his superfluous —
— nay rather, the desire that would harm many, and like a son of peace he too follows this, which reason has shown ought to be chosen. He, however, as though fixed by an eternal law upon a certain firmament of his dignity and faith, so irradiates with the light of truth, and like a most clear trumpet of his authority sounds forth for the restraining of the assaults of the restless, and says (Epist. 78): 'To seek out what has been laid open, to reconsider what has been perfected, and to tear down what has been defined — what else is it than not to give thanks for things obtained, and to extend wicked appetites of deadly desire toward the food of the forbidden tree?'
But by these and other utterances of this kind, which that man of God very often wrote to the Emperor Leo, I have shown less than I wish, and less than I owe to my affection, how great was his solicitude and caution for guarding the reverence of the synodal decrees. For in all those things mentioned above, he professed that he could neither further reconsider nor discuss those things which had once been defined by the Council of Chalcedon, as things which he knew to have been established not so much by human as by divine spirit. But in those things which I have yet disposed to recall, he also forbade others to enter into any kind of disputation whatsoever with heretics concerning the said synod.
For when he wrote not only to the bishops, but also to the catholic clergy and confessors from Egypt established at Constantinople, he thus admonished them: 'With all the zeal and labour of your love, then, you must strive that no disputation of those who lie in wait may be admitted, nor that this be obtained by the heretics, by which it is manifest that the evangelical faith is assailed. For of things defined, which the authority of so great a synod and of the most Christian prince has sanctioned, and the assent of the apostolic see has confirmed, nothing ought to be discussed, lest something seem to be infringed contrary to right; and much is derogated from the faith and the priestly'
constancy is much derogated, if a conflict of superfluous and most harmful altercation be held with those who are filled with murders and madness, and who wish to subvert the Gospel of Christ, and by their crime are proven hateful to God.' Leo, so strong and so powerful, neither trusts in his own strength, nor permits others, to wrangle or even contend about the things defined at Chalcedon as it pleased God; and I know not who presume, gathered together, even to decree, and to call impious the letter which that holy and great synod judged catholic. Writing also to the presbyters, deacons, and clergy of the Church of Constantinople, he says: 'We have, by the favour of God, the great and divinely prepared help of the most Christian Emperor:'
whom I have besought by my writings, as far as the cause requires, that he grant no assent in anything to the wicked petitions of the parricides, nor in any way allow the definitions of the holy synod of Chalcedon — which assuredly proceeded from heavenly decrees — to be violated by an alleged necessary reconsideration: since it is manifest that the liers-in-wait against the pious wish to creep in to this end, that they may by a new judgment make infirm the things consonant with the evangelical preachings and the traditions of the Fathers, so that, while disputation is admitted, authority may be taken away.'
Why then do these contrivers of a novel diligence, themselves novices, claim that by their own decree they have confirmed the Council of Chalcedon — whose statutes, in harmony with the preaching of the Gospel and the traditions of the Fathers, this great priest of Christ judged ought rather to be weakened by a new verdict? Yet just as those statutes have no need of being confirmed, so neither can they be weakened. Nevertheless, so far as it lay in these presumptuous men, they rendered them weak by a new verdict, even though they had decreed nothing contrary to them.
Hence Marcian the emperor too judged it impious and sacrilegious to debate anything after the verdict of the priests, nor did he permit anyone to reopen what had once been judged and rightly settled, or to dispute publicly about these matters; for by his edict, forbidding to all the discussion of those things which had been judged at Chalcedon, he said: «Truly impious and sacrilegious is the man who, after the verdict of so many priests, leaves anything to be debated according to his own opinion. For it is the height of madness to seek a fabricated light in the midst of broad and clear daylight: whoever, after the truth has been found, discusses anything further, is seeking a lie.»
«Therefore let no one, whether cleric or soldier or of any other condition whatsoever, presume henceforth to debate concerning the Christian faith before assembled crowds of people who listen, seeking thereby an occasion for tumult and treachery. For he does injury to the judgment of the most religious synod, whoever strives to reopen and publicly dispute what has once been judged and rightly settled.» And further on, after he had appointed various penalties according to the condition of the transgressors: «Therefore,» he says, «let all the things that have been decreed by the holy synod at Chalcedon be kept, nothing thereafter being called into doubt. By this edict, then, of our common tranquillity, abstain from profane utterances and cease henceforth to dispute about divine things, which is wicked:»
«because this sin will not only be punished, as we believe, by the divine judgment, but will also be restrained by the authority of the laws and of the judges.» Behold, the prince Marcian, true father of the commonwealth and true son of the Church, not the leader but the follower of priestly decrees, declares by his edict that whoever discusses anything further after the truth has been found is seeking a lie; and after this verdict of his, received by the Church of God, I know not who they are that boast of having found, by their insolent discussion, another truth. He says: He does injury to the judgment of the most religious synod, whoever strives to reopen and publicly dispute what has once been judged and rightly settled; and these men say they have honored the synod, upon whose judgment they have passed judgment:
nay rather, dissolving its judgment, they called impious the letter which that synod pronounced catholic; and these bishops endeavor to undermine the verdict of the holy Fathers, concerning which the prince Marcian permitted no one even to dispute. May his memory be among the blessings, and may this acclamation ever be rendered to him by all for such merits: through whom there was given not only the salvation of a despaired-of commonwealth, but also rest to the Church so long shaken.