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 gathered in the great city of Rome: the holy synod of the orthodox bishops gathered in the great city of Constantinople sends greeting in the Lord. [a]

“To recount all the sufferings that the power of the Arians brought on us, and to try to inform your reverences of them as though you did not already know them well, might seem superfluous. For we do not suppose that your piety regards what is happening to us as so unimportant that you need to be told about matters that cannot fail to move your sympathy. Nor indeed 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, set free from chains in foreign lands, came back 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. Stoned to death by them, as the blessed Stephen was, they 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. [b] “Who could tell the tale of the fines, the loss of civil rights, the confiscations of individuals’ property, the plots, the outrages, the prisons? In truth every kind of distress was worked out on us beyond counting, perhaps because we were paying the penalty for our 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. “We certainly needed long leisure, time and toil to restore the church once more, so that, like physicians who heal the body after a long sickness and drive out its disease by gradual treatment, we might bring her back to her ancient health in true religion. It is true that on the whole we seem to have been freed from the violence of our persecutions, and that we are just now recovering the churches that have long been the prey of the heretics. But wolves still trouble us. Though they have been driven out of the fold, they harry the flocks up and down the woodland glades. They dare to hold rival assemblies, stir up riots among the people, and shrink from nothing that can do damage to the churches.

“So, as we have already said, we must labor all the longer. You, however, showed your brotherly love toward us by inviting us, as though we were your own members, through the letters of our most religious emperor, to the synod that you are gathering at Rome by God’s permission. Your purpose was 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 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 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 traveled to Constantinople equipped only for the journey as far as Constantinople. We brought the consent of the bishops who remained in the provinces for this synod alone. We had not expected any longer journey, nor had we heard a word about one before we arrived at Constantinople. “Besides all this, the narrow limits of the appointed time allowed no preparation for a longer journey, nor any chance to consult the bishops of our communion in the provinces and obtain their consent, so the journey to Rome was impossible for most of us. We have therefore taken the next best course open to us in the circumstances, both for the better management 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 Priscian to consent to travel to you. [c] “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, ratified 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. [d]

“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 and three perfect persons. So there is no room for the heresy of Sabellius, which confuses the hypostases and does away with what is proper to each. So too the blasphemy of the Eunomians, of the Arians and of the Pneumatomachi is made void, which divides the substance, the nature and the Godhead, and brings into the uncreated Trinity, which is of one substance and co-eternal, a nature that came later, a created nature of a different substance. “We also keep undistorted the teaching of the Lord’s incarnation, holding to the tradition that in the plan of salvation the flesh he took was neither without a soul, nor without a mind, nor incomplete. 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 suffice as a summary of the teaching that we preach fearlessly and openly. You will be able to satisfy yourselves still further about it if you will be so good as to read the statement of the Synod of Antioch, and also the one 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 drawn up. [g]

“Now as to the particular administration of each church, an ancient custom has held, as you know, confirmed by the decree of the holy fathers at 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, the other churches have been governed by us, and the priests of the most famous churches have been publicly appointed. “So over the church at Constantinople, newly made, if the expression is allowable, 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 to them, the bishops of the province and of the Eastern diocese met together and canonically ordained as bishop the most reverend and most religious Flavian, with the consent of the whole church, which as though with one voice joined in expressing its respect for him. This lawful ordination also received the approval of the general council. “Of the church at Jerusalem, mother of all the churches, we make known that the most reverend and most religious Cyril is bishop. He was canonically ordained some time ago by the bishops of the province, and he has fought a good fight against the Arians in several places. “We beg your reverence to rejoice at what has thus been rightly and canonically settled by us. It was done through the intervention of spiritual love and the influence of the fear of the Lord, which overrules the feelings of men and makes the building up of the churches more important than favor or goodwill toward any individual. 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 appear as belonging to Christ, who is not divided among us, and by God’s grace we will keep the body of the church untorn and stand boldly before the judgment seat of the Lord.” [h]

This is what they wrote against the madness of Arius, Aetius and Eunomius, and also against Sabellius, Photinus, Marcellus, Paul of Samosata and Macedonius. In the same way they openly condemned the innovation of Apollinarius in the words, “We also keep undistorted the teaching of the Lord’s incarnation, holding to the tradition that in the plan of salvation the flesh he took was neither without a soul, nor without a mind, nor incomplete.” [j]