The Council’s Letter to Agatho

A copy of the letter sent by the holy and ecumenical sixth council to Agatho, the most blessed and most holy pope of Old Rome. [a] The holy and ecumenical council, which by the grace of God and the pious sanction of the most pious and faithful Constantine, the great emperor, has been gathered together in this God-preserved and royal city of Constantinople, the New Rome, in the Secretum of the imperial palace called Trullus: to the most holy and most blessed pope of Old Rome, Agatho, health in the Lord. [b]

Serious illnesses call for greater remedies, as you know, most blessed father. And so Christ our true God, the creator and governing power of all things, gave a wise physician, your God-honored Holiness, to drive away by force the contagion of the heretical plague with the remedies of orthodoxy, and to give strength and health to the members of the church. Therefore to you, as to the bishop of the first see of the universal church, we leave what must be done, since you gladly take your stand on the firm rock of the faith. We know this from having read your true confession in the letter your fatherly Beatitude sent to the most pious emperor. We acknowledge that this letter was divinely written, as if by the chief of the apostles, and through it we have cast out the heretical sect of many errors that had lately sprung up. We were urged to make a decree by Constantine, who reigns divinely and wields a most merciful scepter. With his help we have overthrown the error of impiety, laying siege, as it were, to the wicked doctrine of the heretics. Then, tearing up the foundations of their detestable heresy, attacking them with spiritual and fatherly weapons, and confusing their tongues so that they could not speak consistently with one another, we overturned the tower built up by the followers of this most impious heresy. And we slew them with anathema, as fallen in the faith and as sinners, in the morning, outside the camp of the tabernacle of God, to put it in the manner of David, in keeping with the sentence already passed on them in your letter. Their names are these: Theodore, bishop of Pharan, Sergius, Honorius, Cyrus, Paul, Pyrrhus and Peter. Moreover, in addition to these, we justly subjected to the anathema of heretics those also who live in the impiety they have received from them, or, to speak more accurately, in the impiety of those God-hated men Apollinaris, Severus and Themistius. These are: Macarius, who was bishop of the great city of Antioch, whom we also deservedly stripped of his pastor’s robes because he would not repent concerning the orthodox faith, and for his obstinate stubbornness; Stephen, his disciple in madness and his teacher in impiety; also Polychronius, who was inveterate in his heretical doctrines, and so lived up to his name; and finally all who without repentance have taught or do teach, or now hold or have held, similar doctrines. [c]

Up to now grief, sorrow and many tears have been our portion. For we cannot laugh at the fall of our neighbors, nor exult with joy at their unbridled madness; nor have we grown proud, which would only make us fall the more grievously for it. That is not how we have been taught, O venerable and sacred head, we who hold Christ, the Lord of the universe, to be kind and loving toward humankind in the highest degree. For he urges us to imitate him in his priesthood as far as we can, as befits the good, and to take as our pattern his shepherding and reconciling way of governing. Moreover, the most serene emperor and we ourselves urged them in various ways to true repentance, and we have handled the whole matter with great reverence and care. Nor were we moved by gain or by hatred, as you can easily see from what was done in each session and recorded in the minutes, which are sent to your blessedness with this letter. You will also learn it from your holiness’s representatives, Theodore and George, presbyters beloved of God, and from John, the most religious deacon, and from Constantine, the most venerable subdeacon, all of them your spiritual children and our well-loved brothers. So too you will hear the same things from those sent by your holy synod, the holy bishops who rightly and uprightly, in keeping with your discipline, made decrees with us in the first chapter of the faith. [e]

So, enlightened by the Holy Spirit and instructed by your teaching, we have cast out the vile doctrines of impiety and made smooth the right path of orthodoxy, encouraged and helped in every way in doing so by the wisdom and power of our most pious and serene emperor Constantine. Then one of our number, the most holy presiding bishop of this reigning city of Constantinople, first gave his assent to the orthodox writings you sent to the most pious emperor, as in every respect in agreement with the teaching of the approved and God-instructed fathers and of the five holy universal councils; and then all of us, by the help of Christ our God, easily accomplished what we were striving for. For as God was the mover, so God also crowned our council. [f]

Then the grace of the Holy Spirit shone on us through your diligent prayers, displaying his power to uproot all the weeds and every tree that did not bear good fruit, and commanding that they be burned in the fire. And we all agree, in heart and tongue and hand, and by the help of the life-giving Spirit we have put forth a definition free from all error, certain and infallible. We have not been “removing the ancient landmarks,” as it is written (God forbid!), but have stood firm on the testimonies and authority of the holy and approved fathers. We have defined that Christ our true God is preached by us as of two natures and in two natures, namely the divinity and the humanity, of which he is composed and in which he exists, and that he is glorified inseparably, unchangeably, without confusion and without division. And in just the same way we say of him that there are two natural operations, without division, without change, without confusion, and without separation, as has been declared in our synodal definition. The majesty of our God-imitating emperor assented to these decrees and signed them with his own hand. And, as has been said, we rejected and condemned that most impious and baseless heresy that affirmed only one will and one operation in the incarnate Christ our true God. In doing so we have pressed hard on the crowd of those who confuse and those who divide, and have put out the blazing storm of other heresies; and together with you we have set forth clearly the shining light of the orthodox faith. We ask your fatherly Holiness to confirm our decree by your honored written reply. Through it we trust, with good hope in Christ, that his merciful kindness will freely grant stability to the Roman state, which is committed to the care of our most merciful emperor, and will adorn his most serene clemency with daily yokes and victories. And we trust that, beyond the good things he has given us here, he will set your God-honored Holiness before his awesome judgment seat as one who has sincerely confessed the true faith, kept it unstained, and kept good watch over the orthodox flocks entrusted to him by God. [g]

We, and all who are with us, greet all the brothers in Christ who are with your blessedness.