Chapter I. — Great confidence in writing to your Clemency has been afforded me both by your letters, which I received with veneration, and by my fellow-bishops returning from Constantinople, demonstrating—not by the mere assertion of words, but now by the very effects of deeds—that a divine protection is vigorous in you for the defense of the catholic faith. Whereby assuredly not only the state of the Church, but also the strength of your empire is fortified: so that you may deservedly expect the protection of Him whose truth you worship, O most glorious emperor. For, that both the integrity of my brother Anatolius might the more quickly be made manifest, and that the revived asserter of an error once condemned might have no place in the Church of Christ:
that the catholic bishops, whom the persecution of the heretics could not lately pervert, might be recalled from unjust exiles; and that, the relics of the blessed memory of Flavian being received with worthy honor, his condemner might acknowledge his own impiety: this is the title of your virtue, this is the fruit of your piety. To which I trust that the insignia of other palms also are to be added: so that, just as the Constantinopolitan Church, its apostolic liberty recovered, rejoices, so all the provinces of your realm may glory that they have been cleansed from the contagion of the diabolical dogma.
As therefore in preceding letters I indicated, I have dispatched my brethren Lucentius the bishop and Basil the presbyter, who can fulfill the parts of my solicitude: commending them to the favor of your Piety in all things that are to be done. For since I have learned, both from the writings of my brother Anatolius and from the discourse of our men, that many of those who at Ephesus, compelled by the faction of Dioscorus, gave a consent to be repented of to the detestable decrees, are asking pardon for their inconstancy and seeking catholic communion through the satisfaction of correction, the conversion of such men was not to be neglected—men who are known to have fallen into these things not by their own judgment, but by the impulse of a wicked usurper, in which they had had no free judgment. Chapter.
II. — Therefore, lest either a too long delay should weary the desires of those recovering their senses, or an uncurious facility should rashly and without discretion receive some, it has been enjoined upon those sent by the apostolic see that, the bishop of the city of Constantinople being taken into fellowship of their deliberation, both the contagions of pestilence be not admitted and the remedies of health be not denied. Which diligence in amending all things that have been wickedly done shall, with the Lord's help, obtain a speedy effect, if your Piety deign to add its aid to the restoration of ecclesiastical peace: so that, you thus reigning, you may both deserve to have the kingdom of God within you, and no falsehood violate the catholic faith, no heresy disturb it;
nor let it be permitted to anyone to forsake the evangelical doctrine and yet to rejoice in priestly honor. But that a synod should be held, as your Clemency mentions, we ourselves also have requested. But the necessity of the present time by no reasoning permits the priests of all the provinces to be gathered together; since those provinces from which they are especially to be summoned, being disturbed by war, do not suffer them to depart from their Churches. Wherefore let your Clemency command it to be reserved for a more opportune time, the Lord being propitious, when a firmer security shall have been restored. (Concerning which matter Quesnel emended more fully 'the more ancient ones gave consent by repenting' from the Grimanic codex and three others, to which may be added our eight and the exemplar of Sichardus.)
...among other things, those whom I have sent will be able to plead before your Piety. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of June, in the consulship of the most illustrious man Adelphius. Chapter I. — The religious solicitude of your Piety, wherewith, God inspiring, you take counsel for the whole world, I presume to urge on by more frequent addresses, that the necessary completion may follow upon the advance of your works; and that, just as we rejoice over the state of the Constantinopolitan Church—whose priest and people are now known to hold the faith of catholic purity—so also there may be, in concord with us, the confession of others concerning the incarnation of the Word.
Wherefore what I had indicated in other letters that I would do, I have hastened to dispatch my brethren Lucentius the bishop and Basil the presbyter, who, the devotion of my brother Anatolius being associated with them, may carry out my dispositions according to the rules which they have received, O most glorious Augusta. For, as has been made plain by the writings of the aforesaid bishops and by the suggestion of his clerics, there are many things which are to be cared for more indulgently, many which are to be more justly restrained: so that in the cause of so great a disturbance neither should the severity be too harsh, nor the remission too incautious; since one thing is owed to those making satisfaction, another to the obstinate. Chapter II.
— There is therefore offered to your Piety a worthy matter, which may exercise the care of a holy heart pleasing to the Lord, and may multiply the crowns of preceding merits even by the abolition of the present error. For just as the Nestorian impiety, so also the Eutychian blasphemy is to be eliminated from the fellowship of all catholics. Because it is as impious to deny that the Deity of the Son, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father, was even brought forth by a bodily birth from the womb of the Virgin mother, as it is to affirm one nature in the Son of God after the sacrament of the incarnation: namely, so that either His humanity or His Deity be refuted; whereas, by the union of both essences, neither is the one turned into the other, nor is the assumed finished in the assuming;
but both the immutability of the Word, and the truth of the flesh and of the soul remain inseparably in the unity of the person. Which they who—though the Law testifies, the patriarchs believe, the prophets announce, the Gospel preaches, the apostles teach, and the whole world confesses—believe not, are outside the sacrament of the body of Christ, outside the unity of the Christian name. Chapter III. — Whose ruin as we lament, so their perfidy we detest. But that concerning the persons of such men a sincere judgment may everywhere be preserved, and one thing be repaid to the corrected, another to the obstinate, let your Piety deign to cherish our men who have been sent from the apostolic see;
and assist all the actions which we have enjoined upon them; that the more quickly and the more easily, with the Lord's help, they may carry out the things which profit your glory and the peace of the whole Church. But concerning Eutyches, the author of the whole scandal and depravity, let your Clemency command this: that he be transferred farther away from that place which is too near to the city of Constantinople, lest he make use of the more frequent solaces of those whom he has drawn to his impiety. Over his monastery also, which he has ruinously and unworthily presided over, command a catholic abbot to be set, who may be able both to free that congregation of the servants of God from the depraved dogma, and to imbue it with the institutes of truth. Given on the fifth day before the Ides of June, in the consulship of the most illustrious man Adelphius.