Second Letter from Chalcedon, Claiming Victory Too Soon

Through the prayers of your holiness, our most pious sovereign has granted us a hearing, and by God’s grace we have gotten the better of our opponents, since the most Christ-loving emperor has accepted all our views. The reports of others were read, and he rejected whatever seemed unfit to be received and was of no further importance. They were full of Cyril, and asked that he be summoned to give an account of himself. So far they have not succeeded. Instead they have had to listen to discourses on true religion, that is, on the whole ordered teaching of the faith, and to hear that the faith of the blessed Fathers was confirmed. We also refuted Acacius, who had laid it down in his commentaries that the Godhead can suffer. At this our pious emperor was so shocked by the enormity of the blasphemy that he threw off his cloak and stepped back. We know that the whole assembly welcomed us as champions of true religion. [a]

Our most pious emperor has decided that everyone should set out his own views and report them to his piety. We replied that it was impossible for us to make any statement other than the one made by the blessed Fathers at Nicaea, and his majesty was pleased with this. So we presented the statement of faith that your holiness had signed. What is more, the whole population of Constantinople keeps coming out to us, begging us to fight bravely for the faith. We do our best to hold them back, to avoid giving offense to our opponents. We have sent a copy of the statement, so that two copies may be made and you may sign them both.