The Council’s Letter to the Bishops at Rome

To our most honored lords, our most reverend brothers and colleagues Damasus, Ambrose, Britton, Valerian, Ascholius, Anemius, Basil, and the rest of the holy bishops assembled in the great city of Rome: the holy synod of the orthodox bishops assembled in the great city of Constantinople sends greeting in the Lord. [a]

To recount all the sufferings the power of the Arians has inflicted on us, and to try to inform Your reverences of them as though you did not already know them well, might seem unnecessary. For we do not suppose that Your piety regards what is happening to us as of so little importance that you need to be told about things that cannot fail to stir your sympathy. Nor were the storms that beset us so slight as to escape notice. Our persecutions are only of yesterday. Their sound still rings in the ears both of those who suffered them and of those whose love made the sufferers’ pain their own. It was only a day or two ago, so to speak, that some, released from chains in foreign lands, returned to their own churches through many afflictions. Of others who had died in exile, the relics were brought home. Others again, even after their return from exile, found the passion of the heretics still at boiling heat; they were stoned to death by them, as was the blessed Stephen, and met a sadder fate in their own land than in a stranger’s. Others, worn down by various cruelties, still bear in their bodies the scars of their wounds and the marks of Christ. Who could tell the tale of the fines, the loss of civil rights, the confiscations from individuals, the plots, the outrages, the prisons? In truth, every kind of trouble beyond number was brought upon us, perhaps because we were paying the penalty for sins, perhaps because the merciful God was testing us by the multitude of our sufferings. For all these things thanks be to God, who through such afflictions trained his servants and, according to the multitude of his mercies, brought us again to refreshment. [c]

We indeed needed long leisure, time and toil to restore the church once more, so that, like physicians healing the body after a long sickness and driving out its disease by gradual treatment, we might bring her back to her ancient health of true religion. It is true that on the whole we seem to have been delivered from the violence of our persecutions, and to be only now recovering the churches that have long been the prey of the heretics. But wolves trouble us. Though they have been driven from the fold, they still harry the flock up and down the glades, daring to hold rival assemblies, stirring up sedition among the people, and shrinking from nothing that can do harm to the churches. So, as we have already said, we must labor all the longer.

You, however, showed your brotherly love to us by inviting us, as though we were your own members, through the letters of our most religious emperor, to the synod which by God’s permission you are gathering at Rome. You did this so that, since we alone were then condemned to suffer persecution, you should not now, when our emperors are at one with us in true religion, reign apart from us, but that we, to use the Apostle’s phrase, should reign with you. So our prayer was, if it were possible, to leave our churches all together, and to satisfy our longing to see you rather than attend to their needs. For who will give us wings like a dove’s, and we will fly away and be at rest? But this course seemed likely to leave the churches, which were only just recovering, quite undefended, and for most of us the undertaking was impossible. For in keeping with the letters that Your holiness sent a year ago, after the synod at Aquileia, to the most pious emperor Theodosius, we had journeyed to Constantinople equipped only for travel as far as Constantinople, and bringing the consent only of the bishops remaining in the provinces belonging to this synod. We had not expected any longer journey, nor heard a word about one, before we arrived at Constantinople. On top of all this, the appointed time was too short to allow any preparation for a longer journey, or for communicating with the bishops of our communion in the provinces and obtaining their consent. So for most of us the journey to Rome was impossible. We have therefore taken the next best course open to us in the circumstances, both for the better administration of the church and to show our love toward you. We have strongly urged our most venerated and honored colleagues and brother bishops Cyriacus, Eusebius and Priscianus to agree to travel to you.

Through them we wish to make it plain that our whole disposition is for peace, with unity as its only aim, and that we are full of zeal for the right faith. For whether we suffered persecutions, or afflictions, or the threats of emperors, or the cruelties of rulers, or any other trial at the hands of heretics, we have endured it all for the sake of the faith of the gospel, confirmed by the three hundred and eighteen fathers at Nicaea in Bithynia. This is the faith that ought to be enough for you, for us, and for all who do not twist the word of the true faith. For it is the ancient faith; it is the faith of our baptism; it is the faith that teaches us to believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. According to this faith there is one Godhead, power and substance of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the dignity being equal and the majesty being equal, in three perfect hypostases, that is, three perfect persons. So there is no room for the heresy of Sabellius, which confuses the hypostases, that is, does away with the distinct persons. So too the blasphemy of the Eunomians, the Arians and the Pneumatomachi is made void, which divides the substance, the nature and the Godhead, and imposes on the uncreated Trinity, which is of one substance and coeternal, a nature that is later, created, and of a different substance. We also keep undistorted the teaching of the Lord’s incarnation. We hold to the tradition that the flesh he took in the plan of salvation is neither without a soul, nor without a mind, nor imperfect; and we know full well that God’s Word was perfect before the ages, and became perfect man in the last days for our salvation. [e]

Let this be enough as a summary of the teaching we preach fearlessly and openly. You will be able to satisfy yourselves about it still further, if you will be so good as to read the tome of the synod of Antioch, and also the tome issued last year by the ecumenical council held at Constantinople. In these we have set out our confession of the faith at greater length, and have added an anathema against the heresies that innovators have recently put in writing. [h]

Now as to the particular administration of individual churches: an ancient custom, as you know, has held, confirmed by the decree of the holy fathers of Nicaea, that in every province the bishops of the province, and with their consent the neighboring bishops with them, should carry out ordinations as need may require. Know that, in keeping with these customs, we have administered the other churches and have publicly appointed the priests of the most famous churches. Accordingly, over the newly made church at Constantinople, if the expression may be allowed, which by God’s mercy we have lately snatched from the blasphemy of the heretics as though from a lion’s mouth, we have ordained as bishop the most reverend and most religious Nectarius. This was done in the presence of the ecumenical council, by common consent, before the most religious emperor Theodosius, and with the assent of all the clergy and of the whole city. And over the most ancient and truly apostolic church in Syria, where the noble name of Christians was first given them, the bishops of the province and of the eastern diocese have met together and ordained as bishop, according to the canons, the most reverend and most religious Flavian, with the consent of the whole church, who as though with one voice joined in expressing their respect for him. This lawful ordination also received the approval of the General Council. As for the church at Jerusalem, the mother of all the churches, we make known that the most reverend and most religious Cyril is its bishop. He was ordained according to the canons some time ago by the bishops of the province, and has fought a good fight against the Arians in various places. [i]

We ask Your reverence to rejoice at what has thus been rightly and canonically settled by us, through the working of spiritual love and the influence of the fear of the Lord, which masters human feelings and makes the building up of the churches more important than goodwill or favor toward individuals. So, since there is agreement in the faith among us and Christian love has been established, we will stop using the phrase the apostles condemned, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas.” We will all show ourselves to be Christ’s, who is not divided among us; and by God’s grace we will keep the body of the church untorn, and will stand boldly at the judgment seat of the Lord.