Third Demand to the Sovereigns, from Chalcedon

We never expected the summons of your piety to come to this. We were summoned with honor, as priests by their sovereign. We were summoned to ratify the faith of the holy Fathers, and so, in due obedience to a pious sovereign, we came. After our arrival we were no less faithful to the church and no less respectful of your edict. From the day we arrived at Ephesus until this moment we have followed your commands without a break. [a] It seems, however, that in these times our moderation has been of no use to us at all. No, rather, as far as we can see, it has stood very much in our way. We who have behaved in this way have been kept in Chalcedon until now, and now we are told that we may go home. But those who have thrown everything into confusion, who have filled the world with uproar, who are striving to split churches in two, and who are open enemies of true religion, carry out priestly duties and crowd the churches. As they imagine, they have authority to ordain, though in truth they claim it unlawfully. They stir up riots in the church, and what ought to be spent on the poor they throw away on their thugs. But you are not only their emperor; you are ours too. For the East is no small part of your empire, the East where the right faith has always shone, and besides it there are the other provinces and dioceses from which we have been summoned.

Let your majesty not despise the faith that is being corrupted: the faith in which you and your forefathers were baptized; on which the foundations of the church are laid; for which the most holy martyrs rejoiced to suffer countless kinds of death; by whose help you have conquered barbarians and destroyed usurpers; and which you need now in your war to bring Africa under your rule. For the God of all will fight on your side if you struggle on behalf of his holy doctrines and forbid the tearing apart of the body of the church. And torn apart it will be, if the opinion prevails that Cyril has brought into the church and other heretics have confirmed. [b] We have often borne witness to these truths before God already, both in Ephesus and here. I have given information to your holiness, giving an account as though before the God of all. For this is required of us, as the divine Scripture teaches through both prophets and apostles. So the blessed Paul says, “I charge you in the sight of God, who gives life to the dead, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate.” And so God charged Ezekiel to announce to the people, adding threats and saying, “When you do not warn him, … I will require his blood at your hand.” [c] In awe of this sentence, we inform your majesty once again that those who have been allowed to hold churches, and who teach the doctrines of Apollinarius, Arius, and Eunomius, carry out all sacred duties irregularly and against the canons, and destroy the souls of all who come to them, if indeed any are found willing to listen to them. For by the grace of God, whose providence is over all and who wants all people to be saved, most of the people are sound and warmly attached to pious doctrines. It is for their sake that we grieve. In our anguish and alarm, lest the plague, creeping on little by little, attack more people and the evil become general, we instruct your serenity in this way and go on urging you. We implore your majesty to yield to our prayers and to forbid any addition to be made to the faith of the holy Fathers who met in council at Nicaea. And if after this plea of ours your piety rejects this doctrine, which was given in the presence of God, we will shake off the dust of our feet against you and cry out with the blessed Paul, “We are clean of your blood.” For from the moment we arrived at this distinguished council we have not stopped, night and day, bearing witness to the emperor, the nobles, the soldiers, the priests, and the people that we hold fast the faith handed down to us by the Fathers. [f]