Report to the Emperor, Sent by Count Irenaeus

When we received the letter of your piety, we hoped that the Egyptian storm which has lately struck the churches of God would be driven away. But we have been disappointed. Those men have been made even more daring by their madness. They have paid no attention to the sentence of deposition passed on them justly and in due form, and they have not become any more moderate because of your majesty’s rebuke. They have trampled down both the laws of your piety and the canons of the holy Fathers. Some of them are deposed and some excommunicated, and yet they keep festivals and celebrate communion in houses of prayer. As for us, as we have already told your Christ-loving majesty, when we received the kind letter of your clemency, though our only desire was to pray in the church of the Apostles, we were not only prevented but actually stoned and chased for a good distance, so that we were forced to save ourselves by running away at full speed. Our opponents, on the other hand, think they may do just as they please. They have refused to look into the questions at issue and to undertake the defense of Cyril’s heretical Chapters, and they reject the plain proofs of the impiety the Chapters contain. They are brazen out of sheer brazenness, while the examination of the questions before us calls not for brazenness but for calm, knowledge, and skill in matters of doctrine. [a]

In these circumstances we have been obliged to send the most honorable Count Irenaeus ahead to come before your piety and explain how matters stand. He has accurate information about all that has happened, and he has learned from us many ways of curing the trouble, by which it may be possible to bring peace back to the holy churches of God. We beg your clemency to give him a patient hearing, and to order that whatever measures your piety thinks good be carried out promptly, so that we are not crushed here beyond all endurance. [c]