Sermons & Letters 110

That we desire to visit Rome with frequent journeys is due to the cause of the religion to be embraced, so that we might present our presence at the shrines of the saints, who, it is certain, according to their virtue are established in the heavens, nor do they despise lower things. We therefore believe it to be sacrilegious if we should refuse the order of the solemnities. When therefore we had given our presence to the blessed apostle Peter, there the most reverend Pope Leo, surrounded by a multitude of priests, according to the dignity of his place, approached us first:

who, on account of the interposed sorrow of his groaning, could scarcely so much as intimate his desire by words. Yet the constancy and wisdom of the priest prevailed, so that he restrained his tears a little, and set forth the cause of the violated faith in plain speech, as its avenger. In which discourse we learned that in our times the catholic faith has been disturbed, which our forefathers, of our own race, have preserved until now from our divine father Constantine. For according to the will of a certain man, something depraved is said to have been stirred up against the priest of Constantinople.

We therefore have learned that in the Ephesine council, in which no one preserved the order of the priesthood, nor measure, all things were done without regard for the Divinity, so that presumption and injustice are said to hold sway toward the condemnation of certain men — things which in our times appear terrible. The faith ought therefore rightly to prevail, most holy and venerable daughter Augusta.

Therefore may your clemency, according to the catholic faith, which it has always shown together with us, now likewise deign to conspire, so that whatever was established by that tumultuous and most wretched council may with all strength be removed, and, all things remaining intact, the cause of the episcopate may be sent to the apostolic see, in which the first of the apostles, blessed Peter, who also, receiving the keys of the heavenly kingdoms, held the primacy of the priesthood. For we ought to grant the primacy in all things to that immortal way of life, which has filled the whole world with the dominion of its own virtue, and has committed the world to our empire to be governed and preserved. Chapter

Chapter 1. — Although concerning the things which are reported to have been recently done in the council of priests at Ephesus much grief afflicts us, in that, as consistent report has spread abroad, and as is shown by the very outcome of events, there neither the moderation of justice nor the religion of the faith was preserved; yet concerning the piety of your devotion we rejoice, and in the acclamations of the holy people, examples of which have been brought to us, we have proved the affection of you all: because there lives and abides among the good sons of the best Father a just love, and you suffer the instruction of catholic doctrine to be corrupted in no part.

For without doubt, as the Holy Spirit has disclosed to you, they league themselves with the error of the Manichaeans, who deny that a true man of our nature was assumed by the only-begotten Son of God, and want all his bodily actions to have been of a counterfeit phantasm. That you might in no way lend assent to this impiety, we have already, through my son Epiphanius and Dionysius, notary of the Roman Church, directed exhortatory writings to your love, in which we have freely given the confirmation which you sought: so that you may not doubt that we bestow a fatherly care upon you, and labor in every way that, with the mercy of God helping, all the scandals which have been stirred up by the unskilled and foolish may be destroyed.

Nor let anyone dare to flatter himself concerning priestly honor, who could be convicted in the impiety of an execrable understanding. For if ignorance seems scarcely tolerable in laymen, how much more in those who preside is it worthy neither of excuse nor of pardon: especially when they even presume to defend the fabrications of perverse opinions, and draw over into their consent, whether by error or by favor, all the unstable ones? Chapter 2. — Let such men be spurned by the holy members of the body of Christ, nor let catholic liberty suffer the yoke of the unbelievers to be imposed upon itself. For beyond the gift of divine grace and beyond the sacrament, those are to be counted outside of human salvation, who, denying the nature of our flesh in Christ, both contradict the Gospel and struggle against the Creed.

Nor do they perceive that by this they are led by their own blindness into a precipice, so that they stand firm neither in the truth of the Lord's passion nor in that of the resurrection: because both are emptied out in the Savior, if in him the flesh of our race is not believed. In what darkness of ignorance, in what torpor have these men hitherto lain, that they should learn neither by hearing nor recognize by reading what in the Church of God is so harmonious in the mouths of all, that not even from the tongues of infants is the truth of the body and blood of Christ passed over silence amid the sacraments of communion? For in that mystical distribution of spiritual nourishment this is imparted, this is received: that, receiving the power of the heavenly food, we may pass over into the flesh of him who became our flesh.

Whence also, for the confirmation of your charity, by which with praiseworthy faith it strives against the enemies of the truth, aptly and opportunely I shall use the speech and affection of the Apostle, and shall say: 'For this reason I also, hearing of your faith which is in the Lord Jesus, and of your love toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened;'

'that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength, which he wrought in Christ, raising him from the dead, and setting him at his right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and he has put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all the Church, which is his body and the fullness of him who fills all in all' (Ephesians 1:15-23). Chapter

Chapter 3. — Let the adversaries of the truth say here when the omnipotent Father, or according to what nature, advanced his Son over all things, or to what substance he subjected all things. For the Deity of the Word is equal in all things and consubstantial with the Father, and there is eternally and timelessly one and the same power of the begetter and of the begotten. For as the Creator of all natures — since through him all things were made, and without him was made nothing (John 1:3) — he is superior to all things which he created, nor were the things which he founded ever not subject to their Creator: to whom it is proper and eternal to be neither from any other source than from the Father, nor other than what the Father is.

To him, if power was added, if dignity was made illustrious, if sublimity was exalted, then he who grew was lesser than the one who advanced him, nor did he have the riches of that nature whose bounty he needed. But Arius carries off into his own company one who thinks such things, whose perversity this impiety greatly abets, denying that human nature is present in the Word of God, so that, while it disdains humility in the majesty of God, it either asserts a false image of a body in Christ, or says that all his actions and bodily sufferings were rather of the Deity than of the flesh. But whichever of these one dare to defend, it is utterly insane: because neither the piety of faith nor the reason of the sacrament admits that either the Deity should suffer anything,

or that the truth should have lied in anything. The impassible Son of God, therefore, to whom, together with the Father and with the Holy Spirit in the one essence of the unchangeable Trinity, that which is his is to be eternal: in that fullness of time which had been foreordained by eternal counsel, and promised by the prophetic signification of words and deeds, was made the son of man, not by a conversion of his own substance, but by the assumption of our nature, and came 'to seek and to save that which had perished' (Luke 19:10). And he came not by local approach, nor by bodily motion, as though he would be present where he had been absent, or would depart from there whence he had come;

But He came in order to be made known through that which was visible and shared by those who beheld Him, namely by taking human flesh and soul within the womb of the Virgin Mother, so that, while remaining in the form of God, He might unite to Himself the form of a servant and the likeness of sinful flesh — through which He would not diminish the divine by the human, but would rather increase the human by the divine. For such was the condition of all mortals, inherited from the first parents, that, original sin passing on to their descendants, none could escape the penalty of damnation unless the Word were made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14) — namely, in that nature which was of our blood and of our race. On account of which the Apostle says:

As by the trespass of one man judgment came upon all men unto condemnation, so also by the righteousness of one man the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one man shall many be made righteous (Rom. 5:18-19). And again: For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:21-22). All these indeed, who though they were born in Adam are nevertheless found reborn in Christ, having the testimony of faith both concerning the justification of grace and concerning the fellowship of nature:

and whoever denies that this nature was assumed by the only-begotten Son of God in the womb of the Davidic Virgin is a stranger to the whole mystery of the Christian religion; and, acknowledging neither the Bridegroom nor understanding the Bride, he cannot take part in the nuptial banquet. For the flesh of Christ is the veil of the Word, with which everyone who confesses Him wholly is clothed. But he who is ashamed of it and rejects it as though unworthy shall have no adornment from it; and although he may thrust himself into the royal feast and, importunate, may mingle himself with the sacred banquet, yet the shameless guest cannot deceive the discernment of the King; but, as the Lord Himself declared, he shall be cast out, and bound hand and foot shall be sent into the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt.

22:13). Wherefore whoever does not confess a human body in Christ, let him know that he is unworthy of the mystery of the Incarnation and has no share in that sacrament which the Apostle proclaims, saying: For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. And expounding what was thereby signified, he added: This is a great sacrament; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:30-32). From the very beginning, therefore, of the human race, Christ was announced to all men as about to come in the flesh.

In which, as it was said, And they two shall be one flesh (Gen. 2:24), assuredly there are two: God and man, Christ and the Church, which came forth from the flesh of the Bridegroom when, from the side of the Crucified with the flowing of blood and water, it received the sacrament of redemption and regeneration. For it is the very constitution of a new nature, which in baptism is stripped not of the garment of true flesh but of the contagion of the condemned old man, so that man may be made the body of Christ, since Christ also is the body of man. Wherefore we do not call Christ only God, as the Manichaean heretics do; nor man only, as the Photinian heretics do;

nor do we so call Him man that anything should be lacking to Him which is known certainly to belong to human nature — whether soul, or rational mind, or flesh — flesh which was not taken from a woman, but made of the Word converted and changed into flesh: which three false and empty errors the three various sects of the Apollinarist heretics brought forth. Nor do we say that the blessed Virgin Mary conceived a man without the Godhead, who, being created by the Holy Spirit, was afterwards assumed by the Word — which we have justly and rightly condemned as the preaching of Nestorius; but we say that Christ, the Son of God, is true God, born of God the Father without any beginning of time, and the same is true man, born of a human mother in the sure fullness of time;

nor does His humanity, than which the Father is greater, diminish anything of that nature of His which is equal to the Father. Yet both of these are the one Christ, who most truly said, both according to His Godhead: I and the Father are one (John 10:30); and according to His manhood: The Father is greater than I (John 14:28). This faith, dearly beloved, true and indissoluble, which alone makes true Christians, and which, as we understand and approve, you defend with pious zeal and praiseworthy love, hold ye perseveringly and assert ye constantly.

And since, after divine aid, it also behoves you to win the favour of the catholic princes, ask ye humbly and wisely that the most clement emperor may deign to grant our petition, by which we have requested that a plenary synod be summoned; that thereby, the more speedily, with God's mercy helping, both strength may be increased for the sound, and to the sick, if they consent to be cured, medicine may be afforded. The writings of your piety have made me greatly to rejoice and to exult in the Lord, by which it is plainly shown how much you love the catholic faith and how much you detest heretical error.

For this heresy is exceedingly impious and hostile to the Gospel of truth, which strives not to wound some part but to overthrow the very foundations of the Christian religion, denying that the eternal Son of the eternal Father took from the womb of the blessed Virgin Mother the true flesh of our nature, and striking with condemnation those who could be led away by no error from the evangelical and apostolic faith, and vainly pretending that it holds the faith of the Nicene synod, from which it is manifest to be a stranger, O most glorious Augusta. Wherefore, since the divine protection does not forsake His Church, the Lord saying: Behold, I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the world (Matt. 28:20);

by the same work and at the same time the Spirit of God has kindled both the solicitude of your Clemency and the care of our heart, so that we both desired the same things concerning the remedies to be procured. What I first asked, that also do I now more urgently seek, using greater confidence in my entreaty, since I have received the support of your venerable exhortation. And I hope that the mercy of God will be at hand, so that, with your Clemency co-operating, the disease of pestilent error may be taken away; that whatever, by His inspiration and help, can be done for our salvation may be accomplished with praise to your faith: since human affairs cannot otherwise be safe, unless both the royal and the priestly authority defend those things which pertain to the divine confession.

Given on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April, in the seventh consulship of Valentinian Augustus, and of Avienus, the most illustrious, being consuls.