First Petition to the Emperor from Chalcedon

It was greatly to be wished that the word of true religion would not be corrupted by ridiculous explanations, and least of all by men who have obtained the priesthood and high office in the churches. Yet they have been led, we do not know how, by ambition, by the lust for power, and by certain paltry promises, to despise all the commandments of Christ. Their only motive has been the wish to court the favor of a man who presumes to hope that he and his accomplices will be able to carry the whole business through successfully. I mean Cyril of Alexandria. Out of his own frivolity he has thrust heretical doctrines into the holy churches of God, doctrines that he believes he can defend by argument. He expects to escape the punishment due to sinners with no other help than Memnon and the bishops of the conspiracy already mentioned. [a] We are lovers of silence, and as a rule we advise a philosophic course of action. Now, however, we are aware that to keep silent and to cultivate philosophy would be to throw away the faith. So we turn in supplication to you, who, next to the Goodness on high, are the one preserver of the world. We know that the care of true religion belongs to you in a special way, since up to this very day you have constantly protected it, and in turn have been protected by it. [b]

So we beg you to receive this statement as though our defense were being pleaded in the presence of the most holy God. We do this not because we are less active in the sacred cause, but because we are devoted to true religion and are speaking on its behalf. For in Christian times the clergy have no more binding duty than to bear witness before so faithful a sovereign, however ready we might have been to give up our bodies and lay down our lives a thousand times in the battle for the faith. So we implore you, by God who sees all things; by our Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge all people in righteousness; by the Holy Spirit, by whose grace you hold your empire; and by the chosen angels who are your guardians, and whom one day you will see standing by the awe-inspiring throne, ceaselessly offering to God that fearful hymn of praise which men are now trying to corrupt. We implore your piety, besieged as you now are by the craftiness of certain men who are keeping others from reaching you and who are backing the introduction into the faith of heretical Chapters, utterly at odds with sound doctrine and tainted with heresy, to order all who sign these Chapters or agree with them, and who wish to dispute further after the pardon you have promised, to come forward and submit to the discipline of the church. Nothing, sir, is more worthy of an emperor than to fight for the truth. It was for the truth that you hurried to join battle with the Persians and other barbarians, when Christ granted you to win glorious victories in acknowledgment of your zeal for him. We beg that the questions at issue be put before your piety in writing, for in this way their meaning will be more easily seen, and those who have gone wrong will stand convicted for all time to come. If, however, anyone, careless of the statements for which he will be found at fault, wants his teaching to prevail over the right faith, it will be for your justice and judgment to consider this. Have not such men thrown away the very name of teachers? They are unwilling to take any risk over the doctrines they bring in. They refuse to obey your orders, so as to escape being convicted of wrongdoing. Nor do they think it worth answering, so that their joint conspiracy may not be shown to have come to nothing. For it is now clear, from the men they have ordained, that some of them, in return for this impiety, have thought of winning certain persons over by granting them high positions, and have devised certain other means as well. This will become clearer still, and your piety will soon see them hand out the rewards of their treachery as though they were the spoils of the faith of Christ. [c]

But we, some of whom were ordained long ago by the most pious Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, have kept silent, although it was our duty to contend for the canon, so that we might not seem to be troubled for the sake of our own reputation. We are now perfectly well aware of his busy trickery throughout Second Phoenicia and Arabia. We really have no time to attend to such things. We are men who have chosen to be deprived of the very places whose ministry was entrusted to us, and so of our lives, rather than of our ready zeal for the faith. Against the attempts of those men we will set the sentence of God and of your piety. [e] Now too we beg that true religion may be your one and chief care. The brightness of orthodoxy at last blazed out, with difficulty, in the days of Constantine of holy name. It was kept up by your blessed grandfather and father, and it was spread by your majesty among the Persians and other barbarians. Do not let it grow dim in the very innermost courts of your imperial palace, or be scattered in the days of your serenity. [f] You will not send a divided Christianity into Persia, sir. Nor will there be anything great here at home while we are troubled by disputes, and while there is no one on their side to settle them. No one will share in a divided Word and divided sacraments. No one will cut himself off, without losing his faith, from such famous fathers and saints, who have never been condemned. No imperial successes will be granted to a people at odds among themselves. A burst of mockery will rise from the enemies of true religion, and all the other harmful results of their malicious controversy are too many to count. If there is anyone who thinks little of the knowledge of theology, let it be anyone in the world rather than the man to whom the Lord has given the supreme government of the world. Our petition is that your piety will give judgment, for God will guide your understanding to an exact grasp of the matter. Finally, should this be impossible, for we cannot know all the engagements of your piety, we beg your serenity to give us leave to travel home in safety. We know that so long a delay gives cause for offense to the dioceses entrusted to us, because of those men who, even in sacred matters, look for opportunities for quarrels from which no good can come.