Sermons & Letters 231

1. The cause of Eutyches, in the year of Christ the Lord 448, when Zeno and Posthumianus were holding the consulship, was examined by the public and solemn judgment of the Church of Constantinople. Namely, when on the sixth day before the Ides of November, thirty bishops of that metropolis coming together into one to settle a suit that had arisen between Florentius bishop of the Sardians and John and Cassinus bishops of the same province of Lydia, Eusebius bishop of Dorylaeum in Phrygia offered to the assembled meeting certain libels containing the blasphemies of Eutyches.

Eutyches presided over a Constantinopolitan monastery as presbyter and archimandrite, who, outwardly feigning to profess sanctity and piety, being imbued with depraved doctrines, abused his faith and monastic institute, endeavoring to overthrow the most solid foundations of the Church by commingling both natures in Christ after the union, and by fabling that from two only one had been made. These errors he taught at first within the private walls of his monastery, insinuating them to the monks. Then, made bolder on account of the favor of princes and magnates, he communicated them with friends who were lovers of novelties;

so that, this wickedness of his having been discovered by the same Eusebius bishop of Dorylaeum, between whom and Eutyches there existed a friendship, he took care to correct him amicably several times; but understanding that he was wasting time and effort, he accused him before Flavian in council, lest this pestilent heresy should acquire greater strength day by day. 2. Eusebius therefore, having made libels of canonical accusation, offered them to the Council of Constantinople, at which he himself was also present, conjuring them to be read again and inserted into the monuments of the Acts.

But the Fathers, upon hearing what was contained in those documents, asked Eusebius once and again to go himself to the monastery of Eutyches and, in order to forestall greater disturbances, to urge the heretic to come to his senses and to renounce with a sincere heart the blasphemies into which he had broken out. Yet the accuser did not yield to these persuasions of the Fathers, and of Flavian in particular, because he had more than once gone to the monastery for this cause with fruitless efforts. Therefore, lest the crime of heresy should remain unpunished, and lest judgment should proceed while the other party remained unheard, it was decreed that John the presbyter and Andrew the deacon should be sent;

who, setting out for the monastery, having read the document to Eutyches and given him a copy of it together with the name of the accuser, were to announce that he was summoned to the council in order to clear himself. He, however, utterly refused to appear and to give satisfaction, saying that this had been decreed for him and that he was bound by a certain fixed resolve from the beginning, never to depart anywhere from his brotherhood, for he was in a manner dwelling in the monastery as though in a tomb. He also maintained that Eusebius of Dorylaeum was suspect to him, and that Eusebius could not fulfil the role of a legitimate accuser: for (as he said), being long since his enemy, he had contrived this accusation against him for the sake of detraction and injury.

At length Eutyches himself confessed that he was prepared to consent and to subscribe to the exposition of the holy Fathers who defined the faith in the Councils of Nicaea and Ephesus, and that he was willing to search the Scriptures alone, as being more firm than the expositions of the Fathers. And therefore that after the Incarnation of God the Word (that is, after the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ) he adored one nature, and this the nature of God incarnate and made man. These propositions he read out from a certain book. When, therefore, this account had been heard by the Fathers,

and it had been confirmed by Athanasius, deacon of Basil of Seleucia, who was present as one sent for this purpose, Eutyches, at the demand of the same Eusebius of Dorylaeum, was called to come to the council a second time according to the rules of law, a schedule of citation being sent to him through the presbyters Mamas and Theophilus, in which it was enjoined upon him to come to the council without delay: lest, by evading it (they said) and being convicted to his face, he should become subject to the severity of the divine rules. For it is not (they added) a reasonable satisfaction to say that you have resolved not to go forth from the monastery.

Meanwhile, when the new envoys were setting out, Eusebius, rising up in the midst, said that it had been reported to him for certain that Eutyches was turning everything upside down, sending a volume around through the monasteries, stirring up the monks to sedition; and in order to ascertain more certainly these disturbances and tumults, he asked that Abraham, presbyter of the Martyrium of Constantinople—which is in the seventh (that is, in the suburb)—be summoned. Therefore, while deacons and presbyters were being sent to various monasteries to explore more thoroughly the truth of the matter,

that they might more diligently inquire whether Eutyches had extorted from the monks subscriptions in agreement with his depraved sayings, Mamas and Theophilus now returned to the council, reporting that the monks who had met them at the gates of the Eutychian monastery had said that the archimandrite was ill and that no one could see him. These men at length, when the cause of the new arrival was known, after various contentions, brought the legates of the council to Eutyches. He therefore, having scarcely seen and read the schedule of citation, answered that under the pretext of infirmity and old age he had determined not to go forth from the monastery. Thirdly, the Fathers deliberated that Eutyches must be summoned to justice, so that the rules of the canons might be most fully observed.

Therefore, having summoned Memnon, keeper of the sacred vessels, and the deacons Epiphanius and Germanus, they sent a new schedule to the accused Eutyches. Yet he, that he might not be held as contumacious, nor lest the council should pronounce sentence against him in his absence, attempted to mock the Fathers, by sending a certain Abraham with two other monks, who should make excuses for him and, if it were lawful, coming into court on his behalf, answer the charges. Flavian wished these men to be received most kindly: but he at once rejected their petition, saying that they could not plead the cause of Eutyches there, because it was not possible for one accused to speak on behalf of another. Yet that the archimandrite Abraham said many and various things to the Fathers of the council,

in order that they might be moved by a certain compassion toward Eutyches—things which by no reasoning were approved by that sacred assembly of bishops—has now been ascertained from the collection of the Councils. Fourthly, in what manner Eutyches received the third schedule of summons presented by Memnon and two other deacons must be discussed. Having therefore received the document and read it, he said that he had sent the presbyter and archimandrite Abraham to the archbishop Flavian and to the council, so that in his own person he might consent to all that was said by the holy Fathers gathered at Nicaea and Ephesus, and to all that had been written by blessed Cyril.

He then took refuge in his customary excuse, adding that he was detained by infirmity, and that for this reason he had sent the archimandrite Abraham. When Memnon more vehemently refuted this excuse, saying that you ought to come and present yourself in the holy synod and give satisfaction to those by whom you are charged, he, recognizing himself pressed hard, at last subjoined: because I await Father Abraham; perhaps he will prevail upon the Lord and the holy synod. Memnon was consulting with him and with Eutyches about not departing from the monastery until Abraham should return. But Eutyches answered that it would be more pleasing to him rather that supplication be made to the lord archbishop Flavian and to the holy synod, that they might grant a respite of the present week;

on the second day of the week, God willing, I will enter and give satisfaction to the Lord and to the holy synod. While these things were being transacted between Eutyches and the appointed legates of the synod, the Fathers were detained in the sixth session, hearing the reports of those whom they had sent to various monasteries as to what and of what sort Eutyches had contrived for stirring up the monks to disturbances and for seducing them into subscribing to his depraved sayings. Eusebius, the accuser of Eutyches, confessed that he had learned that Mamas and Theophilus, who had carried the second schedule of summons to Eutyches, had heard many things from the heretical man which they had not declared under the sanction of a formal record. Wherefore, if these things were made manifest, sure proof would be held of Eutyches' injured faith.

Eusebius therefore asked that these men be summoned, so that under oath upon the books of the Gospels they might relate what they had heard. Only Theophilus was then present; for Mamas had not yet come to attend the session. Being asked, therefore, Theophilus sincerely confessed that when Eutyches received the second admonition, by which he was summoned to court, he began to wish to dispute, in the presence of the presbyter Narses, the archimandrite Maximus, and other monks. For he was saying: In what Scripture are two natures held? And then again, which of the holy Fathers set forth that God the Word has two natures? To which questions Mamas countered, answering that it is not held only in the Scriptures. But Eutyches said: that this word does not lie in the expositions of the holy Fathers.

By like reasoning Mamas steadfastly maintained that two natures are proclaimed by the holy Fathers, since the Son born of Mary ought to be called perfect God and perfect man. This argument Mamas closed with the following proposition: What then hinders us from saying that of two natures there is one Son? But Eutyches, although he was pressed by these sayings, more obstinately denied that he could assent; preferring rather to be subject to deposition or to any other evil and inconvenience, than to confess two natures in Christ after the union. But why Mamas and Theophilus had not narrated these things in the preceding session Flavian inquired. To him Theophilus replied:

Your holiness knows that we were not sent for this cause, but only to summon the presbyter Eutyches. On which account, not being at all questioned, we deemed it superfluous to say these things, concerning which we had no mandate. When Mamas afterward arrived, he added credence to the foregoing statements. Fifthly, when the time of respite which Eutyches had requested for coming into court was ended, the Fathers again convened for the seventh session on the twenty-first day of November.

And when search had been made by many, at Flavian's command, both throughout the church and around the church, whether Eutyches had arrived, and they had found him nowhere, at length John the presbyter announced that he was surrounded by a great multitude of soldiers, monks, and officers of the praetorian officials, who were refusing to allow him to enter the council, unless first a promise were made by the Fathers that they would restore his person. A Grand Silentiary too, sent by the emperor, himself also earnestly desired to enter the council. Therefore, power being granted to this man to enter the council, he at once testified that he had received certain mandates set down in writing from the emperor, to be made known to the sacred assembly.

The sum of these was that the emperor had a solicitude for the peace of the Churches and for the guarding of the faith which had been established in the synods of Nicaea and Ephesus. For which cause he wished Florentius, a man faithful and approved by testimonies as being of right faith, to be present at the audience of that synod. Then acclamation of many years was made to the emperor, and they gave him thanks. Afterward, coming forward into the midst, Eusebius, the accuser of Dorylaeum, and Eutyches—his cause was brought to its conclusion; and when the letters of St. Cyril written to the Orientals had been read, and Aetius the reader had come to that part in which it is said that Jesus Christ is perfect

God and perfect man, born of the Virgin Mary according to His humanity, consubstantial with the Father according to His Divinity, but with us according to His humanity, and the rest that follows—at once Eusebius said that Eutyches by no means assented to these things. And that the truth of this matter might become known without any appearance of ambiguity or suspicion of falsehood, appeal was made to those things which had already been recorded in the Acts.

Then indeed they questioned Eutyches repeatedly, and receiving his public confession, they fully understood that he upheld a new and heretical dogma against the mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and defended it more obstinately, not unlike the errors and perversity of Valentinus and Apollinaris; and therefore, weeping and groaning over his complete perdition, they deprived him of every ecclesiastical rank, of the primacy of the monastery, and of communion. That these were the beginnings of the Eutychian heresy, and that the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople more religiously observed this form of judgment according to the rules of the canons, is by no means to be doubted—things which we indeed have described somewhat more fully from the Acts which survive.

Although in truth this would have been by no means necessary for us, since the most learned and most eminent Cardinal Baronius, with the highest erudition in which he excelled, reviewed with greater and more accurate study all the things which we have thus far narrated concerning the Council of Constantinople and the beginnings of the Eutychian heresy. Let us therefore make our advance to the rest.