Chapter I. — I have recognized in your Charity's letters the affection of fraternal love: in that you suffer with us, with devout grief, concerning the evils which we have endured, many and cruel. But would that these things, which the Lord has permitted or willed us to suffer, might avail for the correction of those preserved, and that the adversities might cease and the offences be ended. Both of which will be of the great mercy of God, if He both remove the scourges and turn the hearts of His own to Himself. But as the hostility which raged among us saddened your Fraternity, so it has made me anxious that in the Church of Constantinople, as far as your letters indicate, the snares of the heretics do not rest, and by contrived occasions those who were defenders of the catholic faith are harassed.
For while Aetius is removed from the office of the archdiaconate under the appearance of promotion, and in his place Andrew—who had been cast out on account of his fellowship with the heretics—is taken up; while honour is restored to the accusers of Flavian of blessed memory, and the partners or disciples of the most pious confessor are dismayed, it is demonstrated all too openly what pleases the bishop of that Church. Against whom, according to the merit of the cause, I am moved to indignation; and I await what he himself may transact with me by his letters, which our son Aetius indicated he would send: giving place to a voluntary amendment, by which I desire my grief to be assuaged. Nevertheless I have written to the most merciful prince and the most pious Augusta concerning those things which pertain to the guardianship of ecclesiastical peace;
whom I do not doubt will make provision by the devotion of their faith, lest against the glory of their own work the condemned heresy be able to sprout up. Chapter II. — Let your Charity therefore be zealous, most dear brother, to bestow devout and necessary care upon the solicitude of the Apostolic See, which entrusts to you—nourished with it—by maternal right the action against the Nestorian and Eutychian heretics, so that, with the aid of divine worship, you may not cease to keep watch over the opportunity of the city of Constantinople; lest the impious whirlwind of the aforesaid dogmas arise anywhere. And since so great is the faith of the glorious princes, that you can confidently suggest to them the things that must be intimated, use their piety for the benefit of the universal Church.
But when your Charity consults me concerning those matters in which you think there is doubt, the instruction of my response will not be wanting to your reports: so that, the treatment of those causes being set aside which in each Church ought to be settled by the cognizance of their own prelates, you may, discharging this special care in my stead, take up the task lest either the Nestorian or the Eutychian heresy revive in any part: because in the bishop of Constantinople there is no catholic vigour, nor is he much solicitous either for the sacrament of human salvation, or for his own reputation: since, if there were in him any spiritual diligence, he ought so to consider both by whom he was ordained, and to what man he succeeded, that he might follow blessed Flavian rather than the authors of his own honour.
And therefore, when the most pious princes, according to my entreaty, have deigned to rebuke brother Anatolius concerning those things which deservedly come into complaint, let your Charity join its diligence, so that all scandals may be cut off by the fullest correction applied, and that he cease from injuries to our son Aetius. For in the case of a catholic bishop, even if there was something in the archdeacon that seemed for whatever cause deserving of anger, on account of reverence for the faith it ought to have been passed over, rather than that a most wicked heretic should obtain the place of a catholic. When therefore I have learned what follows, then I shall estimate more clearly what ought to be done. For meanwhile, my grief being restrained, I have preferred to indulge patience, that there might be room for pardon. Chapter III.
— But concerning the Palestinian monks, who are said to have been already for some time in the tumult of dissension, I am ignorant of what mind they are still moved by. Nor has it been made plain to me by anyone's speech what causes the aforesaid seem to allege for their discord: whether, namely, they serve the Eutychian perversity with such frenzy, or whether they grieve implacably that their bishop could have been led into this impiety, in that, against the testimonies of the holy places themselves—by which the whole world is instructed—he departed from the truth of the Lord's incarnation; and that what in others it pleased to cure by indulgence, in him they think is not to be pardoned. Wherefore I desire to be more fully instructed concerning these matters, so that the correction of such men also may be fittingly attended to:
because it is one thing to be impiously armed against the faith, another to be immoderately stirred on behalf of the faith. The documents also which Aetius the presbyter previously indicated to have been dispatched, and the Breviary of faith, which you signify that you have sent, know that they have not yet reached me. Wherefore, if the opportunity of a readier bearer offers itself, I would gladly have any instruction that seems useful sent to me as soon as possible. Concerning the Egyptian monks, how quiet they are, or of what faith they are, I desire to know, and concerning the peace of the Church of Alexandria what is reported to you by true messengers; to whose bishop or his ordainers, or clergy, what letters I have directed, I wished you to know by copies sent.
To the most merciful prince also, and to the most religious Augusta, what discourse of mine has now been sent, the copies directed to you will fully teach. Chapter IV. — But whether my letter, which concerning the incarnation of the Lord I had sent to your Charity through the deacon Basil, the faith of Flavian of holy memory being then still unharmed, has been delivered to your Fraternity, I desire to know: since I hold it suspect that you have never rendered any indication concerning its text. Of the synodal acts, which were completed on all the days of the council in the city of Chalcedon, an instruction all too little clear is had among us, on account of the diversity of language.
And therefore I especially enjoin upon your Fraternity that you cause all things to be gathered into one codex, translated, namely, into the Latin tongue by a most complete interpretation: so that in no part of the acts may we be able to doubt, nor in any way may there be able to be ambiguity, which by your zealous effort may have been brought to full understanding. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of March, in the consulship of Opilio, a most illustrious man.