To the most beloved brethren, the bishops Nestorius, Athanasius, Paul, Peter, Theonas, Isaias, Apollonius, Harpocras, Isidore, Isaac, Apollonius, Maximus, Mario, Poemenius, and Helpidius, and to the Catholic clergy from Egypt established at Constantinople, LEO. CHAP. I. — The tribulation which the spirit of diabolical temptation has brought upon your Charity, believe confidently that it is to be lightened by Him for whose sake you endure such things; and presume that you are to be consoled by the help of Him to whose love you devote the things you bear. Who, although He permits adverse things to happen for a time, yet wills not that the constancy of faith be shaken off, but that it be proved.
Bearing the hope of the promised blessedness, bring to bear upon your minds the long-suffering of patience: for God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor. 10:13). Nor let the seeming peace of sinners dislodge your feet, which you ought to keep fixed upon that Rock against which, as you have read, not even the gates of hell shall prevail (Matt. 16:18). Since therefore, most beloved brethren, the most Christian emperor has again addressed writings to us, in which he exhorts that we send someone from our regions;
and although there is no lack of instruction on your part there, able to withstand the obstinacies of the heretics, he nevertheless desires that one be sent by us who may be able to affirm the faith to those who condemn it and, in a diabolical spirit, do not receive it, as though it were still doubtful—that faith which, just as it is necessarily preached, so it is willingly received: I admonish your charity that, all saying the very same thing, you shun by the virtue of unanimity that contention of vainglory.
For you know what palm is owed to you in this contest, whose same judge, who beholds it, is also its helper, and He Himself supplies strength for the victory, who has already prepared a reward for those who love Him. Let no one complain that he is banished from his own dwellings, or lament that he is driven out from his ancestral bounds. None of you is an exile from God, whom you may trust to aid you everywhere. Bear all things patiently, and with strengthened heart faithfully endure the Lord. Brief is the tribulation which the present time inflicts; nor let those things seem strange to your confession which we know you endure from the enemies of the Lord. For so also they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matt. 5:12).
With all the zeal and labor of your charity, therefore, effort must be made that no discussion of the plotters be admitted, nor that this be able to be obtained by the heretics, whereby it is manifest that the evangelical faith is assailed. For concerning those things which were defined, which the authority of so great a synod and of the most Christian prince has sanctioned, and which the assent of the Apostolic See has confirmed, nothing ought to be disputed, lest against divine law anything should seem to be weakened. And much is derogated from the faith and from priestly constancy, if with those who are filled with murder and frenzy, and wish to overturn the Gospel of Christ, and by their crime are proven detestable, a conflict of superfluous and most harmful wrangling be held.