To Anatolius the Patrician, Asking for a Council

I have gladly welcomed the rest that has fallen to my lot, and I am harvesting its useful and pleasant fruits. Our Christ-loving emperor, having reaped the empire as the fruit of his true piety, has offered to the one who gave it, as the first fruits of his reign, calm for the storm-tossed churches, triumph for the faith that was under attack, and victory for the doctrines of the Gospel. To these he has added the righting of the wrong done to me. Who ever heard of a wrong so great and of such a kind? What murderer was ever condemned in his absence? What adulterer was ever condemned without a hearing? What burglar, grave robber, sorcerer, church robber, or doer of any other unlawful deed, when eager to appeal to the law, was ever prevented, and then slain far away by the sentence of his judge? In their cases nothing of the kind was ever known. For under our law, plaintiff and defendant are told to stand face to face before the judge, while the judge must wait until the plain truth is brought out, and then and only then either release the accused as innocent or punish him as caught by the charge. In my case the very opposite course was taken. The emperor’s letter forbade me to come near that famous synod, and the most righteous judges condemned me in my absence, not after a fair trial, but after lavish praise of the documents produced to incriminate me. Neither the law of God nor shame before men held back that deed of blood. The orders were given by the president, who flung the truth to the winds and courted the power of the hour. He was obeyed by men who think as I do, whose doctrines are my doctrines, and who had expressed admiration for me and mine. Even so, that day convicted some men of treachery and some of cowardice, while to me my sufferings for the truth’s sake gave confidence. And on me Christ our Master has bestowed the gift “not only of believing in him, but also of suffering for his sake.” For the greatest of all gifts of grace are sufferings for the Master’s sake, and the divine apostle ranks them even above great wonders. [a]

In these gifts I too glory, humble and insignificant as I am, with nothing else to boast of. And I beg your excellency to offer thanks on behalf of my poor self to the emperor, lover of Christ, and to the most pious Augusta, dear to God and teacher of the good, because she has repaid our generous Lord with such gifts and has made her zeal for true religion the foundation and groundwork of her rule. Besides this, ask their godly majesties to complete the work that has been so well laid out, and to summon a council: not, like the last, one made up of a turbulent rabble, but one kept entirely clear of all such people, made up of men who judge divine things and value them highly, and who count all human affairs as of less account than the truth. If their majesties wish to bring back the ancient peace of the churches, and I am sure they do, ask their pious graces to take part in the proceedings, so that their presence may overawe those who think otherwise, and the truth may have no one to contradict her, but may by her own unaided powers examine the state of affairs and the nature of the apostolic doctrines. [e]

I make this request to your excellency not because I long to see Cyrrhus again, for your lordship knows what a lonely town it is, and how I have somehow managed to hide its ugliness by spending a great deal on all kinds of buildings. I make it so that what I preach may be shown to agree with the apostolic doctrines, while the inventions of my opponents are shown to be counterfeit and base. Once this comes about, by God’s help be it said, I will spend the rest of my days in cheerful contentment, wherever the Master may tell me to live. For you, who have been brought up in true religion and are endowed with a wealth of goodness, it is fitting to make this effort, and by your urgent counsel to make our most pious emperor and the Christ-loving Augusta even more zealous, eager as they already are to strengthen their glorious empire by worthy and rightful action. [f]