Chapter I. — What we have always presumed of the holy mind of your Piety, this we have most fully come to know by experience: that the Christian faith, though it be assailed by the divers snares of the wicked, cannot yet be thrown into disorder while you are present and prepared by the Lord for its defense. For God deserts neither the sacrament of His own mercy nor the merit of your labor, whereby you long ago drove the crafty enemy of holy religion from the very bowels of the Church; since the Nestorian impiety could not maintain its heresy, because it did not deceive her who is the handmaid and disciple of truth, however much of its poison might be poured into the simple through the specious falsehoods of that garrulous man.
From this contest of virtues it came to pass that, through your solicitude, the things which the devil contrived through Eutyches did not lie hidden, and that those who had each chosen for themselves the several parts of a twofold impiety fell prostrate before the one power of the catholic faith. This, then, is your second victory over the extinguished error of Eutyches; who, had he possessed any soundness of heart, could easily have shunned that which had long ago been struck down and cast low in its authors, and not have attempted to stir up a revived conflagration from buried ashes, so as to pass into the fellowship of those whose example he had followed, O most glorious Augusta.
Libetigiturexsultarecumgaudio,etprovestraeclementiaeprosperitatedignaDeovotapersolvere, quitibiperomnesmundipartesinquibusDominiEvangeliumprædicaturduplicemjametpalmamcontulitetcoronam. CAP. II.
It is therefore fitting to exult with joy and to pay to God worthy vows for the prosperity of your Clemency, who has already bestowed upon you both a double palm and a crown throughout all parts of the world in which the Lord's Gospel is preached. Chapter II.
— Let your Clemency therefore know that the whole Roman Church greatly rejoices over all the works of your faith: whether because you have aided our legation with an affection pious in every respect, and because you have brought back the catholic priests who had been cast out from their churches by an unjust sentence, or because you have caused the relics of the holy memory of Flavian, an innocent and catholic priest, to be recalled with due honor to the Church over which he well presided. In all which things assuredly the increase of your glory is multiplied, while you both venerate the saints according to their merits and desire that the thorns and briars be taken away from the Lord's field.
But that certain bishops of those who seem to have given consent to impious deeds are seeking reconciliation and desiring the communion of the Catholics, we have learned by the report both of our own men and of my brother and fellow-bishop Anatolius, to whom you deign to bear witness; to whose desires we so grant our assent, that, when they are corrected and by their own subscription condemn what has been ill done, communion be granted them, for the sake of peace, with the shared care of those whom we have sent together with the aforesaid bishop: because it is the mark of Christian devotion on both sides, that just truth should restrain the obstinate, and charity should not reject the converted. Chapter III. — But since we know how much your gentleness deigns to expend of pious solicitude upon the catholic priests...
...we have taken care that it should be made known that my brother and fellow-bishop Eusebius is staying with us and is a partaker of our communion, whose Church we commend—the Church which he is said to be ravaging who is asserted to have been unjustly substituted in his place. We ask this also of your Piety (which we do not doubt you will do of your own spontaneous will), that you cherish with the grace you owe both my brother and fellow-bishop Julian and the Constantinopolitan clerics who clung with faithful services to Flavian of holy memory. And concerning all things we have instructed your Piety, through our men, as to what ought to be done or ordained. Given on the Ides of April, in the consulship of the most illustrious man Adelphius. Chapter.
I. — We rejoice in the Lord and glory in the gift of His grace, who—as we have learned both from the letters of your Charity and from the report of our brethren whom we had sent to Constantinople—has shown you to be a follower of evangelical learning; so that through the approvable faith of the priest we may rightly presume that the whole Church committed to him will have neither wrinkle nor stain of anyone's error, as the Apostle says: 'For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ' (2 Cor. 11:2). For that virgin is the Church, the spouse of the one husband Christ, who suffers herself to be corrupted by no error: so that throughout the whole world there may be for us one integrity of one chaste communion, in which we embrace the fellowship of your Charity;
and we approve the series of the acts which we have received, fortified, as was fitting, with the necessary subscriptions. Therefore, in order that your Charity's mind might in turn be confirmed by our addresses, we have sent back, after the venerable day of the Paschal feast, together with our letters, our sons Casterius the presbyter, and the deacons Patricius and Asclepiades, who brought your writings to us; indicating that we, as we have said above, rejoice over the peace of the Constantinopolitan Church, upon which we have always bestowed this care, that we should wish it to be violated by no fraud of the heretics. Chapter II.
But concerning those brethren whom, both from your letters and from the report of our legates, we have learned to be desirous of our communion—because they grieve that against the powers and against terrors they exhibited not a firm constancy, but yielded consent to another's crime, since dread had so disturbed them that with trembling and servile compliance they subserved the condemnation of a catholic and innocent bishop and the reception of a detestable depravity—that which was determined in the presence and by the action of our men we approve, namely, that for the time being they should be content with the communion of their own Churches; but with our legates whom we have sent, and with solicitude shared with you, we wish it to be arranged.
...so that these who by full satisfactions condemn what was ill done, and choose rather to accuse themselves than to defend themselves, may rejoice in the unity of our peace and communion; yet in such wise that first, by a worthy anathema, the things which were received against the catholic faith be condemned. For otherwise in the Church of God, which is the body of Christ, neither are the priesthoods valid nor the sacrifices true, except in the property of our nature the true Pontiff reconcile us, the blood of the true immaculate Lamb cleanse us. Who, although He is set at the right hand of the Father, yet in the same flesh which He assumed of the Virgin, carries out the sacrament of propitiation from Himself, as the Apostle says: 'Christ Jesus who died, yea rather who is risen again, who is at the right hand of God,'
who also maketh intercession for us' (Rom. 8:34). For our benignity cannot in any respect be reproached, when we receive back those making satisfaction whom we have grieved to have been deceived. Therefore the grace of our communion is neither to be harshly denied nor rashly bestowed; because, JUST AS it is full of piety to render back the Lord's charity to the oppressed, so it is just that all things be imputed to the authors of the disturbance. Chapter III. — But concerning the names of Dioscorus, Juvenal, and Eustathius to be recited at the sacred altar, it becomes your Charity to observe this, which our men there stationed said ought to be done, and which does not conflict with the honorable memory of Flavian to be honored...
...and does not turn away from your grace the hearts of the Christian people. For it is too iniquitous and unfitting that those who by their persecution vexed the innocent and the catholic should be mingled without distinction among the names of the saints: since, not forsaking the condemned impiety, they condemn themselves by their own depravity; whom it behooves either to be struck down for their perfidy or to labor for pardon. Chapter IV. — But our brother and fellow-bishop Julian, and the clerics who clung with faithful services to Flavian of holy memory, we wish also to cling to your Charity; that they may recognize as present to them in you the man whom we know by the merits of his faith to live with our God.
This also we wish your Charity to know, that our brother and fellow-bishop Eusebius, who for the cause of the faith has endured many perils and labors, is for the time abiding with us and now persists in our communion: whose Church we wish to be defended by your solicitude, so that nothing may perish while he is absent, and no one may presume to prejudge him in anything, until he arrive with the escort of our letters to you. And that a greater affection toward you may be aroused, whether ours or that of the whole Christian people, we wish this which we have written to your Charity to come to the notice of all: that they who serve our God may rejoice over the peace of the apostolic see confirmed with you.
But concerning the other causes and persons, your Charity will be more fully instructed by the letters which you will receive through our men. Given on the Ides of April, in the consulship of the most illustrious man Adelphius. I have received the letters of your Fraternity through our sons the Constantinopolitan clerics, bearing tidings of your greeting; by which you signify that you had been burdened with great tribulations: since indeed there has been no lack of matter for solicitude and labor which might weary a mind cleaving to the truth amid the insolent adversaries of the catholic faith; and such was your mind, as you write, that through the occasion of necessity you would present yourself both to us and to your fatherland. Which indeed I had hoped would come to pass, that I might more openly recognize from your own mouth the evasions of all the heretics.
But thanks be to God, that both your safety and the cause of the Church have so advanced that it has been free for you to abide meanwhile among those whose approvable consent has become known to us, as both the writings of brother Anatolius profess and the acts which were composed in his presence before our men demonstrate, most dear brother. Therefore, as the aforesaid men return, I render back the interchange of greeting, and I confidently exhort you to hold fast a persevering diligence against the cunning of falsehood; since to this end both your own mind and our authority give you their support.
For although better things have been reported concerning many—namely, that they grieve to have been deceived, and, condemning perfidy together with its authors, they earnestly beg the grace of our communion (which we have so gladly received, being ready to render to them this communion which they desire, when they shall have fulfilled their promises)—yet some, as we have learned, persist in their obstinacy; whom it behooves to be more strictly restrained, if they cannot be healed by benignity. In which matter we will direct our men after the venerable day of Pascha, who, having shared counsel with you, may carry out the things that shall have been determined by us. Given on the Ides of April, in the consulship of the most illustrious man Adelphius.