Sermons & Letters 152

Chapter 1. — We have often proved the faith of the most Christian prince by the clearest documents, and I give thanks to our God, who has deigned in His own goodness to grant to human affairs such a ruler as would guard with the utmost vigilance both the causes of the faith and of the commonwealth, ever resisting the audacities of heretics and permitting nothing of their madness to be lawful against the catholic faith;

to whose benefits, after God, this is owed, that both the bishop of Jerusalem has been received back, and that by his august authority he has recalled to soundness the monks whom the perfidy of heretical falsehood had invaded. As soon therefore as I received your letters, containing such things, I hastened to give a reply not only on the same day, but almost at the same hour, so that you might be made more certain concerning all that you had written. That our brother Proterius, bishop of the city of Alexandria, has directed to us congratulatory letters, full of the satisfaction of his faith, and has indicated more plainly what he holds;

to whom it is necessary that I render worthy thanks for the sincerity of his faith, so that he may in nothing lose the honour of his own Church, but may possess the privileges of his own see, after the example of paternal antiquity, according to the inviolate rights of the canons. Chapter 2. — Concerning the present year's Pascha there could be no doubt for us, but concerning that of the future we have raised the question which Theophilus, bishop of the city of Alexandria, believed should be assigned to the eighth day before the Kalends of May — a day on which it was never so celebrated from the time of the Lord's resurrection. Whence it is more carefully fitting that this be inquired into, so that all occasion of error may be removed. For in our annals the fifteenth day before the Kalends of May is most plainly read to have been both established and celebrated by our Fathers.

And lest on this point any diversity should arise either among us or among the Orientals, let your Charity deign to treat this the more urgently in our name with the most Christian prince: although that most clement prince has himself deigned to indicate by his letters that with most solicitous inquiry he has entrusted this care to the Egyptians. Chapter 3. — You reported in your letters that my letter, sent to the synod of Chalcedon, was read in the presence of the bishops and clergy; but only up to that chapter in which my agreement appears to have confirmed the things done concerning the faith. Whence I was astonished that the remaining things which followed were not brought equally to the knowledge of those to whom they were read;

since it ought most of all to have become known to all, that a dishonourable ambition had been censured by us, and that new usurpations had been opposed: so that the antiquity which is established by the canons might be preserved inviolate, as we have always written. But concerning the presbyter Actius, whom you assert to have been examined, we rejoice that, an investigation having been held, he was in all things cleared. Know also that I have sent a letter to the most Christian prince, in which I gave him thanks, because he deigned to indicate to me his care, both for the cause of the faith and for the security of the commonwealth.

He also gave us another letter, interceding on behalf of the bishop Anatolius, that the favour of our goodwill might be extended to him, since he promises his correction, and pledges that in all things he will give satisfaction in what pertains to the observance of the faith. Given the fifth day before the Ides of January, in the consulship of Aetius and Studius, most distinguished men.