Having learned what was committed at Alexandria by the fury of the Eutychians — which I do not doubt is known to your Fraternity — out of that solicitude which I owe to all the Churches of God, I have directed these writings, by which I have judged that your Charity should be admonished, that you may resist their wicked audacities with holy constancy, lest in any of us the common faith be found either trembling or lukewarm; since, by the favor of the Lord — who does not desert His Church in any tribulation — we have so religious and so Catholic a mind in the most pious emperor, that nothing else is to be believed of him than what we proved of Marcian of august memory.
Since indeed, even now while our action was still ceasing, the most faithful emperor so abhorred the parricidal crime that he granted no access to the action of the heretics; who, after the enormity of the crime perpetrated, believed this to be possible for them: that, the definitions of the holy Synod of Chalcedon being dissolved, the episcopal council should be summoned into other discussions.
And because this, most illustrious brother, is abruptly hostile to the Christian faith, and is demanded with such great wickedness for no other cause than that the preaching of the Gospel and the mystery of the Lord's Incarnation may be overthrown, I beseech your Charity that you relax your minds in nothing from the definitions of the Synod of Chalcedon, and that you suffer the things composed by divine inspiration to be defiled by no novelty. For I am certain that the most clement emperor and the magnificent man Patricius, together with the whole assembly of the illustrious powers, will suffer the heretics to obtain nothing to the disturbance of the Church, if they see the pastoral minds wavering in nothing.
But that this exhortation may reach the notice of all our brethren and fellow-bishops throughout Illyricum, let the care of your diligence provide; because — as must often be said — the whole Christian religion is disturbed, if anything of the things established at Chalcedon be shaken. Given on the Kalends of September, in the consulship of Constantine and Rufus. We gratefully acknowledge the faith and constancy of your Charity, with which you have withstood the snares of the heretics; and therefore, with the more secure confidence, we exhort you to stand fast constantly by the matters even defended by you.
Since indeed our writings testify the religious purpose of your Charity both before the most clement prince and before the most magnificent man Patricius — by which writings we have made plain that we were in all respects informed by your diligence. Let your Fraternity therefore act first that the Church of Constantinople may be cleansed of every stain of the heretics, and that Catholic purity — which is to be preserved even in the laity — may be found unharmed above all in the clergy, most dear brother. For although we do not rashly believe the report of tale-bearers, nevertheless, because, where the cause of souls is at stake, we strive to block the entry for diabolical frauds, we forewarn your Charity that Atticus the presbyter, who is said to cherish the error of the Euty-
-chians' error by open disputations within the Church — that you should first examine him by a secret inquiry; and if you perceive in his heart anything of the admixture of heretical poison, either make him Catholic by correcting him, or, by necessary severity, expel him from the Church: lest, while by useless leniency one is spared, many be harmed by the unpunished error. Given on the Kalends of September, in the consulship of Constantine and Rufus. The occasion existing of our son Gerontius returning to Constantinople, it was fitting to direct writings to your Charity, by which we may spur on your zeal in ecclesiastical causes and in the things that pertain to the faith;
that you may constantly resist the attempts of the heretics, trusting that the mercy of God will grant that worthy [recompense] be rendered to their wicked audacities even in this time. But let your Charity know that we have given letters to several of our brethren and fellow-bishops the metropolitans, which — that they may reach each one without delay — your diligence, or that of our son Aetius the presbyter, ought to provide. For if episcopal constancy does not recede from the definitions of the holy Synod of Chalcedon, I am certain that the most clement and most Christian prince will gladly protect his own sentence, and what he has already of his own accord bestowed he will, being asked, all the more accomplish — lest things well finished and composed be able to be violated by any novelty.
I truly wonder that to the vanity of the calumniators something should still seem obscure in my letter — which has pleased the whole world — so that they think it should be more openly expounded: since the assertion of that preaching is so plain and solid that it admits nothing of novelty either in sense or in speech; for whatever was then written by us is proved to be drawn from apostolic and evangelical doctrine. Given on the Kalends of September, in the consulship of Constantine and Rufus. CHAP. I. — We have received the letters of your Charity, which testify to your diligence in the cause of the Church; and briefly, for the present, we exhort you to persist vigilantly in what you have begun, lest the perversity of the heretics obtain anything whereby the Church of the Lord may be disturbed.
But we, according to our diligence, have transmitted the necessary writings in the cause of the faith both to the most clement prince and to the magnificent man Patricius Aspar, which without doubt will be able to obtain a fitting effect, if your care also keeps watch. It has also pleased us to send general letters to the metropolitan bishops, which may strengthen and corroborate their mind, that they may know that they must strive, with equal zeal and concordant unity, to defend the Synod of Chalcedon. Of these letters, you shall direct one to the bishop of Antioch, another to the bishop of Jerusalem, if it seem good to you in common; and we have already transmitted similar writings to the Illyrian bishops.
CHAP. II. — Concerning the sacrament of the Catholic faith we must now engage in no contentions, because nothing can be more diligently investigated, nor more truly defined. We have likewise sent copies of the letters which the Gallic and Italian bishops directed to us with concordant conviction, that it may not be hidden how their faith too is one with ours. Furthermore, the writings which we sent, both to the most clement prince and to the necessary persons, through our son Gerontius, we wish to be presented either by your Charity or by our son Horatius (if he is still with you), and to be supported with such discourse as is fitting. But that you may know what we have written, we have directed copies, so that you may be instructed concerning all things.