Sermons & Letters 150

CHAPTER I. — How pleasing to your Love is the most sacred unity of the common faith, and the tranquil concord of ecclesiastical peace, the text of your letters shows, which our sons Marianus the presbyter and Olympius the deacon brought to me — the more welcome to us because through them we mingle mutual addresses, and more and more the grace of God becomes known, whereby it comes to pass that throughout the whole world men rejoice over the manifested light of Catholic truth. Although — which we greatly grieve — certain men, as the report of the messengers indicates, still love their own darkness, and though everywhere the splendour of day has arisen, even now delight in the obscurity of their own blindness, and, having lost the faith, remain Christians in name only and empty;

not having the understanding whereby to discern error from error, and to distinguish the blasphemy of Nestorius from the impiety of Eutyches. For no falsehood of theirs can on that account seem excusable, because they are themselves contrary to one another in their own perversity. For although the disciples of Eutyches detest Nestorius, and the followers of Nestorius anathematize Eutyches, yet by the judgement of Catholics both parties are condemned, and both heresies together are cut off from the body of the Church, because neither falsehood can have concord with us. Nor does it matter by what sacrilege they disagree from the truth of the Lord's incarnation, since that which they most wickedly hold, neither the authority of the Gospel nor the reason of the sacrament admits. CHAPTER II.

— And therefore, dearest brother, your Love must perceive with your whole heart over what Church the Lord willed you to preside with its governance, and must be mindful of that doctrine which the chief of all the apostles, the most blessed Peter, founded — throughout the whole world indeed by uniform preaching, but by special magistracy in the cities of Antioch and Rome:

so that you may understand that he, pre-eminent in the dwelling-place of his glorification, requires back the institutions which he handed down, even as he received them from that very Truth which he confessed. And in no way suffer that in the Eastern Churches — and most of all in those which the Nicene canons of the most sacred Fathers assigned to the see of Antioch — the Gospel be resisted by wicked heretics, and the dogma either of Nestorius or of Eutyches be defended by anyone. For, as I have said, the rock of the Catholic faith, whose surname the blessed apostle Peter received from the Lord, receives no vestige of either impiety;

but evidently and clearly it anathematizes both Nestorius, who, separating the nature of the Word and of the flesh in the conception of the blessed Virgin, and dividing the one Christ into two, willed there to be one person of the Deity and another of the humanity — whereas He is altogether one and the same, who both according to His eternal Deity was born of the Father without time, and according to His true flesh was born of His mother in time; and it likewise execrates Eutyches, who, emptying out the truth of the human flesh in the Lord Jesus Christ, asserts that the Word itself was transformed into flesh, so that to be born, nourished, to grow, to suffer, to die, and to be buried, and on the third day to be raised, belonged to the Deity alone, which took not the truth but the figure of the servile form. CHAPTER III.

— With the utmost vigilance therefore it behoves you to be on guard, lest heretical depravity dare to claim anything for itself: since it becomes you to resist these things by priestly authority, and often to instruct us by your reports of what is being done concerning the progress of the Churches. For it is worthy that you should be a partner of the Apostolic See in this solicitude, and should recognize, for confidence in acting, the privileges of the third see, which in no matter are diminished by anyone's ambition: because so great with me is the reverence for the Nicene canons, that I have neither permitted, nor will I suffer, the things established by the holy Fathers to be violated by any innovation.

For although the merits of prelates are sometimes diverse, yet the rights of the sees remain; upon which, even if rivals may perhaps be able to inflict some disturbance, they nevertheless cannot diminish their dignity. Hence, when your Love shall have thought that something must be done on behalf of the privileges of the Church of Antioch, let it strive to set it forth by its own letters, so that we may be able to answer your consultation absolutely and fittingly. CHAPTER IV. — But now let it suffice to pronounce generally upon all matters, that if anything has been attempted by anyone against the statutes of the Nicene canons, in any synod whatever, or seems to have been extorted for a time, it can inflict no prejudice upon the inviolable decrees;

and it will be easier for the compacts of any agreements whatsoever to be dissolved, than for the rules of the aforesaid canons to be corrupted in any part. For ambition does not omit occasions of stealing advantage, and as often as, on account of occurring causes, a general assembly of priests is held, it is difficult but that the greed of the wicked should attempt to seek something beyond due measure; as also in the Synod of Ephesus, which struck down the impious Nestorius with his dogma, Juvenal the bishop believed that he could make progress toward obtaining the primacy of the province of Palestine, and to confirm his insolent daring by fabricated writings.

Which thing Cyril of holy memory, the bishop of Alexandria, rightly shuddering at, indicated to me by his writings what the aforesaid man's greed had ventured; and with anxious prayer he earnestly begged that no assent be granted to unlawful attempts. For the copies of the letter which you sent to us — of Cyril of holy memory — that letter, sought out in our archive, you may know that we have found to be authentic. This nevertheless is proper to my definition, that however much larger a number of priests may decree something by the subreption of certain persons, which is found to be contrary to those constitutions of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers, it be annulled by the consideration of justice:

since the tranquillity of universal peace cannot otherwise be preserved, unless its own reverence be kept unimpaired for the canons. CHAPTER V. — If indeed anything is reported to have been done by those brethren whom I sent to the holy synod in my stead, beyond that which pertained to the cause of the faith, it shall be of no firmness whatever: because they were directed by the Apostolic See for this alone, that, heresies being cut away, they should be defenders of the Catholic faith. For whatever, apart from the special causes of synodal councils, is brought to episcopal examination, may have some reason of being adjudicated, if nothing concerning it was defined by the holy Fathers at Nicaea.

For that which disagrees with their rules and constitution can never obtain the consent of the Apostolic See. But with how great diligence this is guarded by us, you will be instructed by the copies of that letter which we sent to the bishop of Constantinople, restraining his greed: which you shall cause to come to the knowledge of all the brethren and our fellow-priests, that they may know that ecclesiastical peace ought to be preserved through a concord pleasing to God. CHAPTER VI. — This too it behoves your Love to take precaution against, that besides those who are the Lord's priests, no one dare to claim for himself the right of teaching and preaching, whether he be a monk, or be a layman who glories in the name of some knowledge.

For although it is to be desired that all the sons of the Church should be wise unto those things which are right and sound, yet it is not to be permitted that anyone constituted outside the priestly order should assume to himself the rank of a preacher, since in the Church of God it is fitting that all things be ordered, so that in the one body of Christ both the more excellent members may fulfil their office, and the lower may not resist the higher. Given on the third day before the Ides of June, in the consulship of the most illustrious Opilio.