Concerning these matters, moreover, it is certain that the Greeks were frequently convicted by the Apostolic See, both through the holy Leo of blessed memory and through his successors, as is shown without ambiguity by their own documents, which we have in our keeping. But now, although they do not dare to profess that very pestilence, yet those who have communicated with such men, and have been deservedly condemned by the Apostolic See according to the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon, and who died obstinate in that same condemnation—these they defend with a pernicious fury, and they contrive to force the recitation of them upon the Catholic Church.
But if these men are received—which God forbid—the contagion of the depravity with which they associated themselves in communion is consequently incurred; just as—which may the Lord avert—if the name of Arius or of any heretic is admitted to ecclesiastical recitation, at once the fellowship of the detestable error is also assumed. Wherefore, since indeed they confess the error, yet think that catholic communion is to be relaxed to them on this condition, that the names of those who have prevaricated may lawfully be recited by them in church, and they strive not so much to correct themselves as to infect catholic sincerity with the contagion of the faithless—we have not ceased to admonish your Charity with the affection of brotherly love.
so that, if any who sow such things should chance to come into your regions, they may by every means be shut out, and that communion with the see of the blessed apostle Peter, as it was handed down by our fathers, may endure among you unimpaired and in every part unshaken. Assuredly, if anyone should believe that your ears ought to be assailed concerning this deceit, make haste with pastoral solicitude to report it to us as quickly as possible, so that by a common zeal and a catholic deliberation all catholic priests may confer together on behalf of the house of the one Lord: that both those things which accord with the orthodox definition may be preserved inviolate, and, in so far as it is fitting that aid be given to those who err, it may be determined by reasonable deliberation.
Moreover, let this your charity prudently cause these things to reach the several provinces adjacent to it and the neighboring bishops, so that the prelates of the churches, all having received instruction in the truth, may be able to shun the death-dealing falsehood. AND THE SUBSCRIPTION: May God keep you safe and sound, most beloved brethren. (80.) TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC LORD AND MOST BLESSED FATHER OF FATHERS GELASIUS, POPE OF THE CITY OF ROME, THE HUMBLE BISHOPS OF DARDANIA.
We have received the most salutary precepts of your apostleship, delivered by the religious man Trypho, our son, with such devotion as was fitting, and we render the greatest thanks to almighty God and to your beatitude, because you have deigned to visit us with pastoral admonition and evangelical doctrine, holy apostolic lord and most blessed father of fathers. For it is our desire and vow to obey your commands in all things, and, just as we received from our fathers, to preserve inviolate our loyalty to the apostolic see, which has been assigned to your life and merits, and to guard the orthodox religion, of which you are the heralds, with faithful and blameless devotion, in so far as our rustic understanding allows.
For the followers and associates of Eutyches, of Peter and Acacius, and of all their number, we have shunned as certain pestilential contagions even before your command; and much more now, after the admonition of the apostolic see, is it necessary for us to keep ourselves from that same defilement; and if any others have either followed or shall follow the sect of that same Eutyches or of Peter and Acacius, or reckon themselves to be mingled with their accomplices and associates, they must by every consideration be shunned by us, who desire to serve the apostolic see blamelessly according to the divine precepts and the statutes of the fathers.
And if any, perchance with perverse intent (which we neither suppose nor desire), should believe that they ought to separate themselves from the apostolic see, we declare ourselves to be strangers to their fellowship; since, as has been said, keeping the precepts of the fathers in all things and following the inviolable institutions of the most sacred canons, we strive to obey with common faith and devotion that apostolic and singular see of yours.
And since your beatitude, out of the kindness innate in you, has granted us occasion for making a suggestion, we have committed certain things to be suggested to the aforesaid Trypho, the religious man, our son, the bearer of your precepts; and we entreat with outpoured prayers that your apostleship may deign, in accordance with our supplication, to admit with willing mind his suggestion, which we judge to be just and reasonable. And if our supplication merits its effect, be pleased to send us with all speed one from your angelic see together with the oft-named religious man, so that in his presence those things may be ordered which the orthodox faith and the sincerity of your command require. AND THE SUBSCRIPTION:
I, John, bishop of the most sacred church of the metropolitan city of Scupi, consenting to all things which are contained above in this rescript given by us, have subscribed with my own hand. I, Samuel, bishop, have subscribed as above. I, Bonosus, bishop, have subscribed as above. I, Verianus, bishop, through Valentinus the archdeacon, have subscribed as above. I, Faustinus, bishop, have subscribed as above. I, Ursicinus, bishop, have subscribed as above. (81.) HERE BEGINS THE LETTER OF POPE GELASIUS TO LAURENTIUS OF LYCHNIDUS.
In the length of the letter of your charity you have filled us with great joy in that part in which it was said that in the church of Thessalonica, and likewise in others, when the letter of our predecessor concerning the excesses of Acacius had been read, all pronounced anathema upon him, and no one mingled himself in the communion of the prevaricator. Whence, since you admonish us with fraternal charity that we ought to administer, as a kind of medicine of the faith, to the bishops throughout Illyricum and to others—
although this was most abundantly done by our predecessor of blessed memory, and since it is the custom of the Roman church that a priest newly appointed should send forth the form of his faith to the holy churches, I have taken pains to renew these same things in a most concise brevity, so that, under what faith one ought to live, according to the statutes of the fathers, the reader in this our letter—by reason of its brevity—may recognize without weariness.
We confess therefore our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born indeed before all ages without beginning from the Father according to the deity, but in the last days from the holy Virgin Mary made incarnate, and perfect man, of a rational soul and by the assumption of a body; consubstantial with the Father according to the deity, and consubstantial with us according to the humanity. For a unity of two perfect natures was made ineffably.
On which account we confess one and the same Christ, the only-begotten Son of God and of man, first-born from the dead; knowing that he is indeed coeternal with his Father according to the divinity, according to which he is the maker of all things, and that he deigned, after the consent of the holy Virgin—when she said to the angel, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word'—ineffably to build for himself a temple out of her, and to unite this to himself: a body which he did not bring down coeternal from heaven out of his own substance, but out of the mass of our substance, that is, out of the Virgin.
Taking this and uniting it to himself, God the Word was not turned into flesh, nor appeared as a phantom, but inconvertibly and immutably preserved his own essence, and united to himself the first-fruits of our nature. For God the Word, the beginning, deigned out of his great goodness to unite to himself these first-fruits of our nature: who, not commingled but one and the same in both substances, was seen according to that which is written: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' For Christ Jesus is destroyed according to my substance, which he assumed, and, being destroyed, he raises up his own temple—this he does according to the divine substance, according to which he is also the maker of all things.
But never after the resurrection did he depart from his own temple of the union of our nature, nor can he depart, by reason of his ineffable kindness; but he is the same Lord Jesus Christ, both passible and impassible—passible according to the humanity, impassible according to the divinity. God the Word therefore raised up his own temple, and wrought in himself the resurrection and renewal of our nature. And this the Lord Christ, after he rose from the dead, showed to his disciples, saying: 'Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me to have.'
1:532
nondixit \'quemadmodummedicitisesse\' sed \'habere\', utetquihabetetquihabeturconsiderans, nonpermixtionem, nonconuersionem, nonmutationemsedunitatemfactamrespicias. proptereaetfixurasclauorumetpunctionemlanceaedemonstrauitetcumdiscipulismanducauit, utperomniaresurrectionemnostraenaturaeinserenouatamdoceret, et, quiasecundumbeatamdiuinitatissubstantiaminconuertibilis, incommutabilis, impassibilis, inmortalis, nulliusindigens, perficiensomnespassiones, etpermisitproprioinferritemplo, quoduirtutepropriasuscitauit, etperpropriamperfectionemtemplisuirenouationemnostraenaturaeoperatusest.
He did not say 'as you say me to be,' but 'to have,' so that, considering both him who has and that which is had, you may behold not a commingling, not a conversion, not a change, but a unity that has been made. Therefore he also showed the marks of the nails and the piercing of the lance, and ate with his disciples, that through all things he might teach the resurrection of our nature renewed in himself; and, because according to the blessed substance of the divinity he is inconvertible, immutable, impassible, immortal, needing nothing, accomplishing all sufferings, he both permitted them to be inflicted upon his own temple, which by his own power he raised up, and through the perfection proper to his temple wrought the renewal of our nature.
But those who say that Christ was a subtle man, or a passible God, or was turned into flesh, or did not have a body united to himself, or brought this down from heaven, or that it was a phantom, or, calling God the Word mortal, say that he needed to be raised up by the Father, or that he assumed a body without soul or a man without sense, or that the two substances of Christ, confused according to a commingling, were made one substance, and who do not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is two natures unconfused but one person, according to which he is one Christ, one and the same Son—these the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes.
These therefore, most beloved brother, are the things which you have urgently demanded that we ought to send as an antidote, that no one might flee from beholding it as bitter, nor as a harmful sweet. For from our own assembly we had determined to dispatch certain men, if the circumstance of the time had permitted it to be done.
This we believe we shall do opportunely, when the correction of those parts shall have been announced to us, with the Lord's help, by a most full embassy, as we are confident; hoping also from the mercy of our God that to this our preaching the most clement and most Christian emperor may join his unanimity and aid, so that, by the faith in which he is strong, he may restrain in those regions those who, with new little questions and according to the elements of the world—as the vessel of election foretold—contrive superfluous and vain things, being unwilling to be held by the wholesome disciplines.
But you, as the same apostle says, have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and been taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus—which truth he assuredly will be able to lay hold of who observes, as has already been often said, the institutions of the orthodox fathers. May God keep you safe and sound, most dear brother. (82.) BISHOP AGAPITUS TO JUSTINIAN AUGUSTUS. We rejoice, venerable emperor, that you are kindled with so great an ardor of the catholic faith, that in all the seasons of your most pious life you clemently apply pious solicitude toward preserving and increasing the concord of the churches, and that you desire one faith, made everywhere consistent by its own firmness, to be preached to all Christian peoples.
Nor is it any wonder that your clemency persists in such a purpose pleasing to God, since no advancement of your empire is more blessed than the increase of religion. Wherefore with willing and prophetic voice I shall sing this: 'Our mouth is filled with joy and our tongue with exultation,' because we daily behold your most flourishing sovereignty being adorned with divine benefits. For you desire, venerable emperor, that we should confirm also by our authority the letter of your piety concerning the exposition of your faith, lately directed through the bishops Hypatius and Demetrius to our predecessor of blessed memory John, prelate of the Roman see, and strengthened by the aforesaid prelate: we praise it, we embrace it;
not because we admit to laymen the authority of preaching, but because we confirm and strengthen your zeal for the faith as agreeing with the rules of our fathers—through which zeal both the unity of the church has already come about, and we are confident that the remaining members of the catholic church will return, by the constancy of your Christianity, to its structure.
Appending below the tenor of your profession and letter, we confirm by our authority the zeal which you wholly maintain toward God, declaring that a faith of this kind agrees with all the rules of our fathers and accords with the dogmas of the apostolic see, and establishing that, if anyone shall attempt to go against our catholic faith—which, as consonant with the paternal rules, we confirm by this present definition for the removing of the suspicion of heretics—he shall be made a stranger to the holy communion.
Whence also Cyrus and his followers, already before this suspended for this madness from the communion of the catholic church and hitherto remaining in their perfidy, unless under canonical satisfaction they shall have followed the apostolic doctrine, we by no means suffer to be restored to the sacred communion, but rather subject them, as heretics, to anathema. For we judge it fitting that whoever shall have scorned to obey our constitutions should not stain the ecclesiastical order and purity. Now the text of the letter is this. (83.) TO THE MOST GLORIOUS AND MOST CLEMENT SON JUSTINIAN AUGUSTUS, BISHOP VIGILIUS.
Among the innumerable solicitudes with which the imperial dignity is burdened, we recognize that your clemency's proposal is praiseworthy, whereby, when all the seeds of discord which the enemy of the human race had scattered in the Lord's field have been removed, you have hastened to restore all the Lord's priests to unity and concord, by first requiring professions in testimony of their conscience, through which they might be shown to adhere to the definitions and judgments of the holy fathers and of the venerable four synods and of the prelates of the apostolic see. And that the form of these professions may be handed down to posterity as an example of ecclesiastical peace to be embraced, we set it forth, inserted into the present page just as it stands.
A COPY OF THE FIRST PROFESSION WHICH THEY MADE AT HOLY EPIPHANY. All the faithful indeed, but most especially the priests of God, ought to follow peace and sanctification with all men, without which no one, according to the apostle, shall see the Lord. We therefore, following the apostolic doctrine and hastening that the concord of the churches be preserved, make the present document.
In the first place we receive the four holy synods and the fathers who sat in those same synods: that of Nicaea, of the three hundred and eighteen; that of Constantinople, of the one hundred and fifty; the first of Ephesus, of the two hundred (in which the most blessed Pope Celestine of elder Rome is known to have presided through his legates and vicars, that is, the most blessed Cyril, bishop of the city of Alexandria, and the bishops Arcadius and Projectus and the presbyter Philip); and that of Chalcedon, of the six hundred and thirty holy fathers; and we accept them in all things and in all matters, whatsoever in all the acts of the Council of Chalcedon and of the other aforesaid synods—as is found written in those same four synods—was defined by common consent together with the legates and vicars of the apostolic see,
(in which, each according to his own time, the most blessed popes of elder Rome, predecessors of your holiness, presided over those synods,) whatsoever things were defined or adjudged or established or arranged, both concerning the faith and concerning all other causes, judgments, constitutions, or dispositions—these we promise to follow unshaken, inviolate, irreprehensible, and irretractable, without any addition or change; and to admit nothing contrary that might pertain to their reprehension and retraction or alteration or injury under any occasion or novelty whatsoever, nor to consent to any who presume such a thing:
but whatsoever things were there declared to be orthodox by common consent together with the legates and vicars of the apostolic see, these as orthodox we venerate and receive; whatsoever things they anathematized or condemned, these we also anathematize and condemn; and all things which are found in those same synods, read as adjudged or defined or established or arranged by common consent together with the vicars of the apostolic see, we preserve irretractably and immutably.
Moreover, the letters of Pope Leo of blessed memory and the constitutions of the apostolic see, which proceeded both concerning the faith and concerning the firmness of the aforesaid four synods, we promise to follow and observe in all things, anathematizing every man pertaining to ecclesiastical orders and dignities who, under any occasion or altercation, shall attempt to come against those things which we have promised above. But as for the document in the cause of the Three Chapters, concerning which a question has arisen, contrary to the constitution of the most pious prince and of your beatitude, I indeed made none; but I will and consent that all the documents which have been made be returned under this form to your beatitude.
But concerning the injuries, whatsoever were done to your beatitude and to your see, these indeed I did not commit; but, because for the peace of the church one must hasten by every means, I ask pardon as though I had committed them. And because in the time of discord I received into communion those excommunicated or not received by your beatitude, I likewise ask pardon. In this form there made it: Menas, bishop of Constantinople; Theodore of Caesarea in Cappadocia; Andreas of Ephesus; Theodore of Antioch in Pisidia; Peter of Tarsus; and many others also did the same. LIKEWISE A COPY OF THE PROFESSION WHICH THE REMAINING BISHOPS MADE FOR US ON THE DAY OF THE THEOPHANY.
Knowing of how great goods the peace of God is the cause, guarding the hearts and minds of the faithful and gathering them so that they may think one and the same thing in the right confession of the faith, and unto the accomplishing of the divine commandments, and rendering God propitious among those who agree in the things that are right: therefore, hastening to preserve unity, we make manifest to the apostolic see of your beatitude that we have always preserved and do preserve the faith handed down from the beginning by the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ to the holy apostles, and by them preached in all the world, and expounded by the holy fathers, and most especially by those who were gathered in the four holy synods:
whom in all things and in all matters we follow and receive; that is, the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers who were gathered at Nicaea and set forth the holy symbol, or creed, of the faith, and anathematized the Arian impiety and those who held or hold it; and we receive also the one hundred and fifty holy fathers gathered at Constantinople, who expounded the same holy creed and made clear the deity of the Holy Spirit and condemned the Macedonian heresy assailing the Holy Spirit and the impious Apollinaris, together with those who held or hold the same as they;
and we receive also the two hundred holy fathers assembled in the first synod of Ephesus, who in all things followed the same holy symbol, or creed, and condemned the impious Nestorius and his wicked dogmas, and those who at any time held or hold things similar to him;
and in addition to these we receive also the six hundred and thirty holy fathers gathered at Chalcedon, who themselves also in all things agreed with the aforesaid three holy synods, and followed the aforesaid symbol, or creed, set forth by the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers and expounded by the one hundred and fifty holy fathers, and anathematized those who presume to teach or expound or hand down to the holy churches of God anything besides the aforesaid symbol; and they condemned and anathematized both Eutyches and Nestorius and their impious dogmas, and those who held or hold things similar to them.
These things being so, we make it certain that all things which have been adjudged and defined by the aforesaid four holy synods we have both preserved and do preserve; because, although the aforesaid four holy synods were held at diverse times, nevertheless they preserved and preached one and the same confession of the faith. And we receive and embrace also the letters of the prelates of the Roman apostolic see, both of others and of Leo of holy memory, written concerning the right faith and concerning the four holy councils, or concerning one of them.
Since therefore we have both preserved and do preserve all the aforesaid things, and agree in them mutually among ourselves, it is necessary that there be a conference concerning the Three Chapters, whence a question has arisen for certain persons; and therefore we ask that, with your beatitude presiding over us, in tranquillity and priestly meekness, with the holy Gospels set before us, in a common deliberation those same chapters be brought into the midst to be examined and conferred upon, and that an end be put to the question—an end pleasing to God and befitting those things which have been defined by the four holy councils—since it pertains to the increase of peace and the concord of the churches that, all dissension being removed from the midst, those things which have been defined by the aforesaid four holy councils may be preserved unshaken, the reverence of the holy synods being guarded in all things.
And to these things we also subscribed. In this manner our brethren and fellow bishops Eutychius of Constantinople, Apollinaris of Alexandria, Domninus of Antioch in Syria, Helias of Thessalonica, and also the rest who did not make the first profession, in this second profession either subscribed or made the same separately.
These things being thus disposed, we indeed wished, venerable emperor—as most frequently we begged with suppliant prayer—that, going to some place in Italy, or at least to Sicily, with the priests of Africa and of the other provinces of the Latin tongue summoned to us, or the consecrated orders of our church, we might, according to custom, treat the matter and render to your piety, after full deliberation, a response concerning the questions of the Three Chapters. But because your serenity did not assent that this be done, this has meanwhile been determined: that, the names of the bishops from the above-written provinces who were to be engaged with us in the treatment being offered by us to your mildness, your clemency should cause those prelates to come.
To which disposition we likewise gave our consent, out of love of ecclesiastical peace. But afterward, rather with the consent of our brethren the bishops of these parts, lately before the holy day of Easter, your piety determined that, an equal number being reckoned with those pontiffs who are present in the city of Constantinople, we ought to enter upon a treatment concerning the Three Chapters, from which the question is turned, according to the above-designated profession of our brethren the bishops.
But because, while we were hastening to fulfill those things which by your disposition had been agreed to be done with our brethren for the preserving of the peace of the churches—so that, a wholesome deliberation having been held in common, and (for the instructing of the universal church) all things which were transacted among us having been reduced to writing and set down in the records, our judgment concerning the Three Chapters brought into question, gathered from these, might come forth—your piety, immediately after that volume,
which you directed to us not many days before Easter through our brother Benignus, bishop of Heraclea in Pelagonia, again sent yet another document after the holy day of Easter through the magnificent man Theodore, decurion of the palace, in which you, meanwhile expounding what you thought concerning the Three Chapters, demanded that our response ought to be given on the same cause; and those same brethren of ours would neither sit with us in equal number nor permit the things which we did or treated to be reduced to writing—as though (which God forbid!) we were speaking things not befitting rectitude, which we feared to write—and moreover, when the most glorious nobles had been dispatched to us, your clemency insisted that our response concerning the business of the Three Chapters ought to be brought forth as speedily as possible:
Not even so did we cease to be willing to obey your clemency, asking only this: that, on account of the infirmity of our body, which is unknown to no one, you would grant us a respite of twenty days, so that, having with God's help held deliberation among ourselves, we might on an appointed day pronounce our judgment in writing as our definition.
To our brothers and fellow bishops, from whom you said you likewise demanded a response on the same matter, we dispatched our son the deacon Pelagius with a mandate of this kind, saying that, since the established manner of holding the conference had been passed over, they ought at least to wait twenty days—on account of the aforesaid weakness of my body, which they know—for our definitive response concerning the Three Chapters, keeping the ancient and canonical order, lest before the promulgation of the sentence of our see, that is, of the Apostolic See over which by God's grace we preside, they should attempt to put forth anything whence an occasion of scandal, which had been laid to rest, might again arise.
Accordingly, when there had been set before us and diligently examined—so far as the reason of each chapter brought into question required—the synodal codices and acts, and when there had been brought forward the other writings of those same Fathers who are shown to have sat either in the four holy synods or in one of them, together with the synodal letters; and when we had likewise inspected the constitutions of our predecessors, the bishops of the Apostolic See, and treated the other necessary instructions of approved Fathers—we took care, mindful of the professions of faith designated above, to investigate whether any of these matters brought into question had been examined, settled, and determined among our Fathers.