簡史 第 13 章

In these times a certain Eutyches, a presbyter and archimandrite, presiding over a most celebrated monastery at Constantinople, with Satan urging him on, was preaching that our Lord Jesus Christ was not consubstantial with us according to the flesh, but had had a body from heaven; and again, varying, he was saying that before the union there had been two natures in Christ, but after the union one had been made. Hearing him teach and preach such things, Eusebius, bishop of the city of Dorylaeum in the province of Phrygia Salutaris, since he was orthodox and pure, and indeed a friend, forbade him to think and teach such things. But as Eutyches obstinately refused to listen, Eusebius referred the matter to Flavian, bishop of Constantinople.

Indeed he even entered his council, which had been assembled on behalf of Florentius, metropolitan of Sardis, against the bishops set under him, John (of the Hyrcani) and Cassinius (of Hierocaesarea); and a settlement having been reached concerning some of their cases, Eusebius presented petitions to Flavian and to the whole council, adjuring all to come forward against the presbyter Eutyches, so that in their presence he might be convicted of holding and teaching heretical doctrines. When the bishop Flavian had heard these things, through John the presbyter and defensor, and Andrew the deacon, he commanded Eutyches to come to his council. As they were going to him, Eutyches gave this reply:

'This had been decreed by him, that he would never depart from his brotherhood, but as in a tomb would dwell in the monastery.' But in the second session Eusebius demanded that two synodical letters of Cyril be recited, one which he had directed to Nestorius, whose beginning is: 'Certain men speak against me before your fraternity,' etc., and the other directed by him to John of Antioch, whose beginning is: 'Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth exult,' etc., which the Council of Chalcedon also afterwards received. When this had been done, Eutyches was again summoned in writing to the council through the presbyters Mamas and Theophilus: who, having by no means entered to him, heard from his monks that he was ill, and that therefore they could not see him.

They nevertheless entered to him afterwards, and presented him the synodical document. To whom again he gave reply: 'I have it as a fixed resolve with me, apart from the necessity of death, not to leave the monastery: but receive this document written by my own hand, and present it to the synod.' And after these things, as he refused, they reported his excuse to the council. Eutyches directed tomes through the monasteries, with his doctrines, to the abbots, that they might subscribe to them. This became known to the council through the bishop Eusebius. And again Flavian, together with his council, through Memnon the presbyter, and Epiphanius and Germanus the deacons, summoned him in writing with a third summons;

to whom, when Eutyches again and again excused himself on account of infirmity, yet the men who had been sent compelling him, he requested a delay of one week, that after the number of seven days he might present himself for the hearing. He, fleeing to the emperor Theodosius, obtained from him, as is reported, through the eunuch Chrysaphius—whom Eutyches had received from holy baptism—that he should enter that council of Flavian's together with the patrician Florentius and Magnus the Silentiary; for he said that he feared the calumnies of Flavian. After he had obtained that Magnus the Silentiary should go with him, with the emperor's writing he also received both the escort of the excubitors and of the chlamydati, and he came to the council:

into which, having entered, Magnus the Silentiary, who was with him, recited in the synod the emperor's mandate, which ran thus: 'If we have a care for the peace of the holy Churches, and wish to guard the right faith of the Catholic faith, and the faith preached by God's inspiration by our fathers who were gathered at Nicaea, of the three hundred and eighteen bishops, and by those who were present at Ephesus at the condemnation of Nestorius; this therefore we wish, that no scandal be introduced into the aforesaid Catholic faith. And since we know the most magnificent patrician Florentius to be faithful, and approved, and of right faith, we wish him to be present at the hearing of the synod, since the discourse is about the faith.

' And the patrician Florentius having arrived, and he being seated, the bishops demanded of Eutyches that he confess that our Lord Jesus Christ was consubstantial with us according to the flesh, in the union of the two natures. But he kept asking that his own statement be read, and said that he believed according to the faith of the Nicene Council. When the patrician Florentius asked Eutyches whether he said that Christ, who is from the Virgin, was consubstantial with us, and that two natures were united in Him; he said that he confessed this indeed before the union, but after the union he said that he confessed one. And when the synod said to him:

'You ought to confess this, and to anathematize every doctrine contrary to this faith,' he replied that he had not said this before, but that he could say it, because they said it; yet he said that he followed the Fathers, since he had not found this explained in the Scriptures, nor had the Fathers so said. But the holy synod, rising, anathematized him. To whom again the patrician Florentius said: 'He who does not confess two natures in Christ does not believe rightly.' But he said that he held the law of holy Cyril and of Athanasius, who indeed spoke to him of two natures before the union, but after the union and Incarnation, not two natures, but one; and the holy synod, rising, again anathematized him.

But the venerable Flavian, since Eutyches had been sick with the error of the heretics Valentinus and Apollinaris, stripping him of the honor of the presbyterate, anathematized and condemned him; and the proceedings being concluded, the council subscribed to his condemnation. To these proceedings the venerable Flavian, joining his own letter, directed it to Pope Leo, and faithfully set forth what had been done in the council. And Eutyches, writing to Pope Leo concerning his condemnation, posted edicts at Constantinople, and protested to the people that he had suffered injustice. But Leo directed to Flavian a Tome, containing the sound doctrine of Christ's Incarnation, and wonderfully destroying the assertions of Eutyches, whose beginning, after the preface, is:

'Your beloved letters having been read,' etc. But Eutyches presented petitions to the emperor, complaining of the falsity of the proceedings, as if some things had been added by the notaries, while some things indeed had been said but not inserted into the proceedings. And he requested that, in the presence of Thalassius the bishop and Florentius the patrician, again in the palace, with Flavian appearing, that same council be assembled, so that by the interrogation of the persons the truth might be disclosed. The emperor consented that it be done, and subscribed those same petitions with his own hand thus: 'Let them lay them down before the most reverend bishops, not only those who lately convened, but also before the most reverend Thalassius, so that, all these being present, the truth of the matter which the supplication speaks of may be inquired into.

' And when the council was assembled, Eutyches, having become absent, sent in his stead the deacon Constantine to the council, that, answering on his behalf to the examining judges, the falsity of the proceedings might be censured: but the proceedings being discussed, with the notaries insisting, with bishops fearing God, while some favored Eutyches for the time, no falsity could be found: but only this was done, that before the master of the offices proceedings should be drawn up concerning the falsity of the notaries, with some laymen of the prince's office standing by, who had been present at those very proceedings at the time of the council. Afterwards the emperor demanded from Flavian a confession of his faith, written and subscribed by his hand;

Flavian therefore wrote his faith with his own hand, and directed it to the emperor in this form: 'Flavian, bishop of Constantinople, to the lover of Christ, our emperor Theodosius, greeting. Nothing so befits a priest of God, instructed in the divine doctrines, as to be ready to make satisfaction to everyone who asks a reason concerning the hope and the grace which is in us (1 Pet. 3:15); for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of God; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth (Rom. 1:16).

'Since therefore we also, by the mercy of Christ the God of all, our King, have obtained such a priesthood, we hold sound and blameless views, always following the divine Scriptures, the exposition of the holy Fathers who convened at Nicaea, and of the hundred and fifty who were gathered here, and of those at Ephesus under Cyril of holy memory, who was bishop of the Alexandrians. And we proclaim our Lord Jesus Christ, before the ages indeed born of God the Father without beginning according to His divinity; but in these last days the same One, for our sake and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary according to His humanity.

'Confessing therefore Christ to be of two natures after the Incarnation from the holy Virgin and made man, in one substance and in one person, we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. And we do not deny saying one nature of God the Word, yet incarnate and made man, because from both He is one and the same, our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who announce either two sons, or two substances, or two persons, and do not proclaim one and the same our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, we anathematize and judge to be alien from the Churches. And before all we anathematize the impious Nestorius, and those who hold and speak the things that are his:

let such persons be cut off from the adoption of sons, which is promised to those who believe rightly.' And the subscription: 'Lord Jesus Christ, help us'; and again: 'These things I have written with my own hand for the satisfaction of your power, that those calumniating our simple manner of life may be confounded.' In these times.] That is, in the year 448, namely after the year 447, in which Flavian ascended the see of Constantinople, and before the year 449, in which Ibas was summoned to judgment: for when Eutyches had been made a defendant in Flavian's council, he contrived an accusation against Ibas, who complained of this matter in the Council of Chalcedon, session 10.

A certain Eutyches.] Concerning the history of Eutyches it is worth the trouble, besides Liberatus, to consult the Breviculus of the history of the Eutychianists published by Father Sirmond, the Chronography of Theophanes, the Council of Constantinople under Flavian, the Ephesine Robber-Council, the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, the second Council of Constantinople which is the fifth universal, the letters, both the mutual ones of Leo the Great and Flavian, and others pertaining thereto, etc. He preached the Lord.] What Eutyches really thought can scarcely be definitely known, on account of the ignorance and inconstancy of the doting old man, for these have led different authors in different directions. He wished to follow the catholic opinion of Cyril concerning the one nature, after the union, of the incarnate Word of God, but on account of the slowness of his wit he could not attain it;

wherefore he seemed to decline into the heresy of Apollinaris, with which nevertheless that which he asserted clashes capitally, namely that Christ is from two natures, but not in two, that is, that there were two natures before the union, one afterward; for this savors rather of the confusion of Polemius than of the formation of Apollinaris: the hatred of Nestorius moved the mind of the ignorant man, inflamed with which he had some years before fervently labored for the faith with the Ephesine fathers, as did also the rest of the archimandrites of the royal city, whose leader was Dalmatius. But that which is related by men of great name in this matter, namely that he himself carried the letters of the Fathers from Ephesus to Constantinople, is neither credible, nor affirmed as handed down by any of the ancients:

for when John and Andrew summoned him to the council, he replied that from the beginning of his conversion he had resolved not to leave the monastery. Eusebius bishop of the city of Dorylaeum.] The Breviculus of the history of the Eutychianists published by Sirmond after the appendix of the Theodosian Code: 'When Eusebius, bishop of Dorylaeum, had found Eutyches, presbyter and abbot of the city of Constantinople, advocating such things, with zeal for the faith, which he showed even when he was an agent in public affairs (for he himself also in time reproved Nestorius preaching sacrilegious things in the church), he referred it to the bishop Flavian, and provoked him to judgment.' And afterwards, where it treats of the Ephesine Robber-Council:

'Eusebius the bishop, accuser of the same presbyter, is also condemned as a Nestorian, who before, while he was still a layman, had been the accuser of Nestorius.' The author of this Breviculus, from whom Liberatus profited, when he was writing in the year 486, manifestly confirms what we said in the preface and in the notes to the second part of the works of Marius Mercator concerning this Eusebius, that then, while he was still a layman, he publicly arraigned Nestorius, both in a sermon and by a posted protestation. And a settlement having been reached.] In Greek, that is, the case easily dispatched, which had been moved between Florentius the metropolitan and his two subject bishops. His council.] That council was an ordinary one, held indeed according to the prescription of the Nicene synod, in the autumn season.

It held seven sessions, as is clear from the acts which are inserted, both in the Ephesine acts under Dioscorus, and in the Chalcedonian acts, session 1, volume V of the last collection of the Greek Councils, where the note of time has been rightly corrected, 'after the consulship of Zeno,' etc., which was in the earlier editions: the correction is demonstrated by manifest reasoning through the letters of Pope Leo to Flavian, and others of the same, both before the Ephesine Robber-Council, and given after that council, under the consuls Asterius and Protogenes, who succeeded Zeno and Posthumianus: there convened thirty-one bishops and twenty-two archimandrites. But in the second session.] It was held on the day before the Ides of November, which was a Friday;

but the first was on the 8th of November according to custom, namely the second weekday (Monday), for in this leap year the dominical letter was DC; the third on the 15th, which was the second weekday; the fourth on the following day, the fifth on the 17th; the sixth on the 20th, that is the Sabbath; the seventh on the 22nd, which was the second weekday; and thus the synod lasted fifteen days. Cyril's synodical letters.] Read what we have said copiously concerning this matter, to overturn a certain popular opinion, in dissertation 2 to the second part of the works of Mercator, which is entirely about the synods held in the case of Nestorius. He directed tomes.] Through Constantine and Eleusinius his deacons, men of no excellent advancement; but they said that there were contained in the tomes only those things which had either been defined at Nicaea and Ephesus, or had been written by Cyril;

But it was necessary that they be falsified, since the deacons were unwilling to permit those who requested it to compare them with the copies preserved in the monasteries. 'A delay of one week.'] So that all may hang together properly, this petition ought to belong to the third session, held on the 15th of November; while in the sessions that followed it was either requested again or confirmed. For Eutyches was present on the 22nd. 'The synod rising up.'] Note the custom of standing up when a sentence of excommunication is pronounced, a custom which you will see observed in all the councils. 'He directed it to Pope Leo.'] He seems to hint that the letters of Flavian reached the holy Leo before those of Eutyches, although the pontiff in his eighth epistle testifies that the matter was otherwise.

8, although it may be said that Flavian, immediately upon holding the council, sent the acts to Rome, but that they were forestalled by the letters of Eutyches; for this is gathered from two epistles of Flavian to Leo, one of which contains the report concerning the proceedings, the other a reply to Leo's complaint that no report concerning the proceedings had been made by Flavian. 'Edicts.'] Saint Leo names them protest-petitions: 'He asserts that he had presented the document of his appeal, and that it had not been received, and for this reason he was compelled to post up protest-petitions in the city of Constantinople.' Epistle 8. 'That the council itself be convened.'] That second council was forced together in the larger portico of the holy church in the year 449; the first session was on the Ides of April, the later one [text uncertain].