講道與書信 第 103 章

Chapter I. — When the things which were done at Ephesus against the opinion of all had been brought to our notice, we confess that our mind was confounded with great sorrow: nor could we easily have believed that so much was permitted to iniquity, had not our son the deacon Hilarus, who had been sent by us in our stead with others to be present at the synod, returned in flight, turning aside lest he should be a partaker of an unjust sentence. For, when a voice of contradiction was there uttered by our men, which the Alexandrian prelate — who alone claimed the whole for his own violence — scorned to hear, dragging the priests unwilling into the fellowship of his will, so that, forced by violence, they should subscribe, though they had found no fitting cause of condemnation.

But we trust that these audacities will by no means please a pious and Christian prince. Now, since we have learned that your Church has been scattered in this manner, we have thought that you must be consoled and exhorted by our letters, so that for the defence of the catholic faith you may resist the wickedness of the perfidious. For we do not wish your Charity to be struck down by this sorrow, since greater glory will follow upon your constancy, if no threats, no fear tear you away from your approved priest. For whosoever, while your bishop Flavian is safe and surviving, shall have dared to invade his priesthood, shall never be held in our communion, nor can be numbered among the bishops.

For as we anathematized Nestorius in his perversity, so with equal execration we condemn those who deny the truth of our flesh in the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter II. — Stand therefore in the spirit of catholic truth, and receive the apostolic exhortation through the ministry of our mouth: For to you it has been granted, on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him (Phil. 1:29). Do not think, most beloved, that the divine protection is or will be lacking to His holy Church. For the purity of faith shines forth when the filth of errors is separated from it.

Wherefore again and again we beseech you before the sight of the Lord, and likewise admonish, that from the faith in which you were founded, and in which we know the most Christian prince to remain, you be moved neither by snares nor by anyone's persuasions; but that in the person of your bishop you hold him in the eyes of your heart, for whom the same man fears not to suffer all things whatsoever that shall have been inflicted: whose imitators in all things we desire you to be, that you may be able to have with him the common reward of faith. Given on the Ides of October. In the consulship of the most illustrious men Asturius and Protogenes.

Although the things which we wrote to the Church of Constantinople could not be hidden from the solicitude of your devotion, we have nevertheless thought that your Charity also ought to be exhorted by special letters, that, mindful of your holy profession, which consists properly in faith and charity, you may repel from your hearts all the scandals which have arisen against the peace of the Church, holding with pious mind the sentence of the blessed Apostle: If anyone shall have preached to you a gospel besides that which you received, let him be anathema (Gal. 1:9); and keeping unanimity with our brother Bishop Flavian, whom the Lord permitted for a time to be tried by the faction of the impious, that He might deservedly make His approved priest more illustrious by perseverance.

But these disturbances must necessarily, with the help of God's grace, be swiftly destroyed, and everything that is reprobate must be spurned from the purity of the Church, which admits neither spot nor wrinkle (Eph. 5:27): especially since insane ignorance has burst forth to such a point that, against the sacrament of human salvation, the truth of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ is denied, and the preacher and defender of the ancient faith, because he did not acquiesce in the blasphemies which of old our holy Fathers condemned in many heretics, is subjected to injuries; in whom indeed the reverence of all the Lord's priests is cut down, and all the members of the body of Christ are beaten.

But since it is glorious for us to endure for the truth whatever God shall have willed us to suffer, we call you by paternal exhortations into fellowship of patience, so that through your Charity the things we have written may become known to all who serve God, and, resisting the enemies of the Gospel, you may abandon neither the love of your pastor nor the unity of the catholic faith. For those things which lately were done at Ephesus against justice and the discipline of the canons through the violence of one man, no reasoning of the catholic faith permits to be ratified. Given on the Ides of October, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Asturius and Protogenes.