The First Session: The Emperor’s Letter

In the name of our Lord God Jesus Christ. The emperor Flavius Justinian, Germanicus, Gothicus, and the rest, ever Augustus, to the most blessed bishops and patriarchs, Eutychius of Constantinople, Apollinarius of Alexandria, and Domninus of Theopolis; to Stephen, George, and Damian, the most religious bishops who are taking the place of that man of singular blessedness, Eustochius, the archbishop and patriarch of Jerusalem; and to the other most religious bishops from the different provinces who are staying in this royal city. [a]

What follows is the letter in shortened form, with Hefele’s summary of it worked in. [c]

My predecessors, the orthodox emperors, always worked to settle the disputes that arose about the faith by calling synods. That is why Constantine gathered three hundred and eighteen fathers at Nicaea. He was present at the council himself, and he supported those who confessed that the Son is of one substance with the Father. Theodosius gathered a hundred and fifty at Constantinople; Theodosius the Younger, the synod of Ephesus; the emperor Marcian, the bishops at Chalcedon. But after Marcian’s death, disputes about the synod of Chalcedon broke out in several places, and the emperor Leo wrote to all the bishops everywhere, so that each of them might state in writing what he thought of this holy council. Soon afterward, however, the followers of Nestorius and Eutyches rose up again and caused great divisions, so that many churches broke off communion with one another. Now when the grace of God raised us to the throne, we counted it our chief business to unite the churches again, and to bring the synod of Chalcedon, together with the three before it, to universal acceptance. We have won over many who had opposed that synod before. Others, who kept up their opposition, we banished, and so we restored the unity of the church again. [d]

But the Nestorians want to force their heresy on the church. Since they could not use Nestorius for that purpose, they hurried to bring in their errors through Theodore of Mopsuestia, the teacher of Nestorius, who taught blasphemies even worse than his. He held, for example, that God the Word was one, and Christ another. For the same purpose they made use of those impious writings of Theodoret which were aimed against the first synod of Ephesus, against Cyril, and against his Twelve Chapters, and also of the shameful letter that Ibas is said to have written. They claim that this letter was accepted by the synod of Chalcedon, and in that way they would free from condemnation Nestorius and Theodore, who are praised in the letter. If they were to succeed, it could no longer be said that the Word was “made man,” nor could Mary be called the Mother of God.

So, following the holy fathers, we first asked you in writing to give your judgment on the three impious chapters we have named, and you answered and joyfully confessed the true faith. But since, even after you condemned them, there are still some who defend the Three Chapters, we have called you to the capital, so that here, in a common assembly, you may set out your view again in the light of day. Vigilius, pope of Old Rome, for example, when he came here, anathematized the Three Chapters in writing again and again in answer to our questions. He showed how firmly he held this view in many ways, even by condemning his own deacons, Rusticus and Sebastian. We still have his declarations in his own hand. Then he issued his Judicatum, in which he anathematized the Three Chapters in the passage that begins with the words, “And since.” You know that he not only deposed Rusticus and Sebastian because they defended the Three Chapters, but also wrote to Valentinian, bishop of Scythia, and to Aurelian, bishop of Arles, that nothing should be undertaken against the Judicatum. Later, when you came here at my invitation, letters passed between you and Vigilius with a view to a common assembly. But now he had changed his mind. He would no longer have a synod, but demanded that only the three patriarchs and one other bishop should decide the matter, in communion with the pope and the three bishops with him. In vain we sent him several commands to take part in the synod. He also rejected both of our proposals: either to call a tribunal to decide the matter, or to hold a smaller assembly in which, besides him and his three bishops, each of the other patriarchs would have a place and a vote, with three to five bishops of his own diocese.

We declare further that we hold fast to the decrees of the four councils, and in every way follow the holy fathers Athanasius, Hilary, Basil, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Theophilus, John Chrysostom of Constantinople, Cyril, Augustine, Proclus, and Leo, and their writings on the true faith. But the heretics are determined to defend Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius with their impieties, and they claim that that letter of Ibas was received by the synod of Chalcedon. So we urge you to turn your attention to the impious writings of Theodore, and especially to his Jewish Creed, which was brought forward at Ephesus and at Chalcedon and anathematized by each synod, along with those who had held it or still held it. We urge you further to consider what the holy fathers have written about him and his blasphemies, what our predecessors have decreed, and what the church historians have recorded about him. From all this you will see that he and his heresies have since been condemned, and that for this reason his name was struck long ago from the diptychs of the church of Mopsuestia.

Consider the absurd claim that heretics ought not to be anathematized after their death. In this matter we urge you further to follow the teaching of the holy fathers. They not only condemned heretics while they were living, but also anathematized after death those who had died in their wickedness; and in the same way, those who had been unjustly condemned they restored after death and wrote their names in the sacred diptychs. This was done in the case of John and of Flavian, of pious memory, both of them bishops of Constantinople. We urge you also to examine the writing of Theodoret and the supposed letter of Ibas. In them the incarnation of the Word is denied, the title “Mother of God” and the holy synod of Ephesus are rejected, Cyril is called a heretic, and Theodore and Nestorius are defended and praised. And since they say that the Council of Chalcedon received this letter, you must compare what that council declared about the faith with what the impious letter contains.

Finally, we urge you to hurry the matter on. For anyone who is asked about the right faith and puts off his answer for a long time is doing nothing other than denying the right faith. In questions and answers about matters of faith, what is acceptable to God is not who is found first or second, but who is the readier with a right confession. May God keep you, most holy and religious fathers, for many years. Given on the 4th of May at Constantinople, in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of the imperial lord Justinian, the perpetual Augustus, and in the twelfth year after the consulship of the most illustrious Basil.