The Synod’s Letter Against Paul

The shepherds who had gathered for this purpose drew up one letter by common consent, addressed to Dionysius, bishop of the Romans, and Maximus of Alexandria, and sent it to all the provinces. In it they make plain to everyone their own zeal and Paul’s twisted false teaching, as well as the refutations and questions they had put to him, and they also describe the man’s whole life and conduct. For the record, it may be well to go through these words of theirs here: [a] “To Dionysius and Maximus, and to all our fellow ministers throughout the world, bishops, presbyters and deacons, and to the whole universal Church under heaven: Helenus, Hymenaeus, Theophilus, Theotecnus, Maximus, Proclus, Nicomas, Aelianus, Paul, Bolanus, Protogenes, Hierax, Eutychius, Theodorus, Malchion and Lucius, and all the others, bishops, presbyters and deacons, who live with us in the neighboring cities and peoples, together with the churches of God, to our beloved brothers in the Lord, greetings.” [b]

A little further on they go on to say this: “We wrote to many bishops, even those far away, and called on them to come and treat this deadly teaching, among them Dionysius of Alexandria and Firmilian of Cappadocia, those blessed men. The first of these wrote to Antioch, not counting the leader of the error worthy even of a greeting, and not writing to him in person but to the whole church community. We have attached a copy of his letter below. Firmilian came twice and condemned Paul’s innovations, as we who were there know and testify, and as many others are aware. But when Paul promised to change, Firmilian believed him and hoped that the matter could be set right without any slander falling on the word, and so he put it off. He was deceived by the man who denies even his own God and Lord, and has not kept the faith that he himself once held. Now Firmilian was about to cross over to Antioch again, and had come as far as Tarsus, since he had learned by experience the man’s God-denying wickedness. But in the meantime, while we had gathered and were calling for him and waiting until he should come, his life came to an end.”

After other things they describe once more what kind of life Paul led, in these words: “Since he has left the rule and gone over to counterfeit and spurious teachings, there is no need for us to judge the conduct of a man who is outside. [c] We need not judge how, though he was formerly poor and a beggar, and neither inherited any wealth from his fathers nor gained any by a trade or business, he has now come to excessive wealth through his lawless acts and sacrileges and what he demands and extorts from the brothers. He cheats those who have been wronged, promising to help them for a fee; then he lies to them too, and profits, giving nothing in return, from the readiness of people in trouble to pay to be rid of those who harass them, thinking that godliness is a way of making money. [d] Nor need we judge how he thinks high thoughts and is puffed up, putting on worldly dignities and wishing to be called ducenarius rather than bishop. He struts through the marketplaces, reading letters and dictating them as he walks in public, escorted by bodyguards, with crowds going ahead of him and following behind, so that the faith is envied and hated because of his pomp and the arrogance of his heart. [f] Nor need we judge the charlatanry he stages in the church assemblies, hunting for glory, making a show, and dazzling the minds of the more simple with such things. He has had a platform and a high throne built for himself, unlike a disciple of Christ, and he has a secretum, like the rulers of the world, and calls it that. He slaps his thigh with his hand and stamps on the platform with his feet. He rebukes and insults those who do not applaud him or wave their handkerchiefs as in the theaters, or shout and jump up and down like the partisans around him, the men and silly women who listen in this disorderly way; he rebukes, that is, those who listen reverently and in good order, as in the house of God. In public he abuses, like a drunkard and in a vulgar manner, the interpreters of the word who have departed this life, and he boasts about himself, as though he were not a bishop but a sophist and a conjurer. He has stopped the psalms to our Lord Jesus Christ, as being too new and written by men too recent, [h] and he trains women to sing psalms to himself in the middle of the church on the great day of the Passover, which would make anyone shudder to hear. He lets loose the bishops of the neighboring country districts and cities, and the presbyters, who flatter him, to say the same sort of things in their sermons to the people.

“For he will not acknowledge that the Son of God has come down from heaven. (We say this to anticipate something of what is to be written below, and it will not be merely asserted; it is shown in many places in the records we have sent you, and not least where he says that Jesus Christ is ‘from below.’) But those who sing psalms to him and praise him among the people say that their ungodly teacher has come down from heaven as an angel. He does not stop this; the arrogant man is even present while it is said. [k] And there are the women ‘brought in,’ as the people of Antioch call them, his own and those of the presbyters and deacons around him. With these men he joins in covering up this and their other incurable sins, though he knows of them and has convicted them, so that he may keep them in his debt, and they may not dare, out of fear for themselves, to accuse him of the wrongs he does in word and deed. He has even made them rich, and for this he is loved and admired by those who covet such things. But why should we write about all this? [l] We know, beloved, that the bishop and the whole priesthood ought to be an example of all good works to the people. Nor are we unaware of how many have fallen through bringing women in to live with them, and how many have come under suspicion. So even if one were to grant that he does nothing indecent, he still ought to have guarded against the suspicion that grows out of such a practice, so as not to make anyone stumble, and not to encourage others to copy him. For how could he rebuke or warn another not to keep company too closely with a woman, guarding himself so as not to slip, as it is written, when he himself has already sent one away, and now has two with him, in the bloom of youth and good to look at, and takes them along wherever he goes, and all this while he lives in luxury and gorges himself? [n] Because of these things everyone groans and laments in private; but they are so afraid of his tyranny and power that they do not dare to accuse him. But, as we said before, one might call a man to account for these things if he at least held the universal faith and was counted as one of us. But since he has made a mockery of the mystery, and parades about in the foul heresy of Artemas (for why should we hesitate at last to name his father?), we do not think it necessary to ask him for an explanation of these things.” [o]

Then, at the end of the letter, they add this: “We have therefore been compelled to expel him, since he sets himself against God and will not yield, and to appoint another bishop in his place for the universal Church. By God’s providence, as we are convinced, we have appointed Domnus, adorned with every good quality fitting in a bishop, the son of the blessed Demetrianus, who before Paul led the same church community with distinction. We have informed you of this so that you may write to him and receive letters of communion from him. As for Paul, let him write to Artemas, and let those who think as Artemas does be in communion with him.” [q]

So Paul fell from the office of bishop, together with the right faith, and Domnus, as has been said, succeeded to the ministry of the church at Antioch. But Paul refused absolutely to leave the church building. An appeal was made to the emperor Aurelian, and he gave a most fitting ruling on what should be done: he ordered the building to be given to those with whom the bishops of the faith in Italy and in the city of the Romans were in correspondence. And so the man we have described was driven out of the church in utter disgrace by the worldly authority. [r]

Such was Aurelian’s attitude toward us at that time. But as his reign went on he came to think differently about us, and was already being stirred by certain advisers to raise a persecution against us. There was much talk about this everywhere. But just as he was about to do it, and was, one might say, already signing the decrees against us, divine justice came upon him and all but tied his arms back at the elbows as he set about the deed. It showed clearly for all to see that the rulers of this life can never have an easy time against the churches of Christ, unless the hand that fights for them permits it to happen, by divine and heavenly judgment, for the sake of discipline and turning back, at whatever times it judges best. [t]

After Aurelian had ruled for six years, Probus succeeded him. When he too had held power for about the same number of years, Carus succeeded, together with his sons Carinus and Numerian. And when these in turn had lasted not quite three full years, the government passed to Diocletian and those he took into partnership after him. Under them the persecution of our own time was carried out, and the pulling down of the churches that went with it. [u] But a little before this, Dionysius, bishop of Rome, after nine years in the ministry, was succeeded by Felix. [v]