From Theodoret of Cyrrhus to Leo

To Leo, bishop of Rome.

Paul, the herald of the truth, the trumpet of the Holy Spirit, went to the great Peter to obtain a decision from him for those at Antioch who were disputing about living by the Law. How much more, then, do we, small and humble as we are, run to the Apostolic See to receive healing from you for the sores of the churches. For it is fitting that you should have the first place in all things, since your see has many special privileges. Other cities get a name for their size or beauty or population, and some that lack these advantages are compensated with certain spiritual gifts. But your city has the fullest abundance of good things from the Giver of all good. She is of all cities the greatest and most famous, the mistress of the world, teeming with people. Besides this, she has created an empire which still rules, and has given her own name to her subjects. But her chief adornment is her faith, to which the divine apostle is a sure witness when he exclaims, “Your faith is proclaimed in all the world.” And if, immediately after receiving the seeds of the saving gospel, she bore such a weight of wonderful fruit, what words could be enough to express the piety now found in her? She has, too, the tombs of our common fathers and teachers of the truth, Peter and Paul, to give light to the souls of the faithful. This blessed and divine pair rose indeed in the East and shed their rays in every direction, but they willingly met the sunset of life in the West, and from there they now light up the whole world. These have made your see so glorious; this is the chief of all your blessings. And their see is still blessed by the light of their God’s presence, since in it he has placed your holiness to spread abroad the rays of the one true faith. [a]

Of this there are many other proofs, but your zeal against the infamous Manichaeans, which your holiness has shown in recent years, is proof enough; it reveals how intense your devotion to God is in divine things. Proof enough, too, of your apostolic character is what you have now written. For we have come upon what your holiness has written about the incarnation of our God and Savior, and we have admired the careful exactness of the work. It has proved both points equally well: the eternal Godhead of the only Son of the eternal Father, and at the same time his manhood, of the seed of Abraham and David, and his taking of a nature like ours in all things except this one, that he remained free from all sin. For sin springs not from nature but from free will. This too was in your letter: that the only Son of God is one, and that his Godhead cannot suffer, cannot be turned and cannot change, just like the Father who begot him and the all-holy Spirit. And since the divine nature could not suffer, he took the nature that could suffer for this purpose: that by the suffering of his own flesh he might give freedom from suffering to those who believed in him. These points, and everything related to them, the letter contained. And we, admiring your spiritual wisdom, praised the grace of the Holy Spirit which spoke through you. We ask and pray, we beg and beseech your holiness, to come to the rescue of the churches of God, which are now tossed by the storm. [d]

For when we expected the waves to be stilled by those your holiness sent to Ephesus, we have fallen into a still worse storm. The most righteous prelate of Alexandria was not satisfied with the illegal and most unrighteous deposition of the Lord’s most holy and God-loving bishop of Constantinople, Flavian, nor was his anger appeased by the slaughter of the other bishops as well. He murdered me too with his pen, in my absence, without calling me to trial, without judging me face to face, without questioning me on what I hold about the incarnation of our God and Savior. Yet even murderers, tomb robbers and those who defile other men’s marriage beds are not condemned by those who sit in judgment until they either confirm the accusations themselves by confessing, or are clearly convicted by others. But he, though brought up on divine laws, has condemned us at his own will when we were thirty-five days’ journey away. And he has done this not only now. Last year too, after two men infected with the Apollinarian disorder came here and laid false information against us, he stood up in church and anathematized us, and this when I had written to him and set out what I hold in a letter. [f]

I mourn the distress of the church and long for its peace. Through your prayers I have governed the church entrusted to me by the God of the universe for twenty years. Neither in the time of the blessed Theodotus, president of the East, nor in the time of those who succeeded him in the see of Antioch, have I received the slightest blame. With divine grace working with me, I have freed more than a thousand souls from the disease of Marcion, and have won over many others from the company of Arius and Eunomius to the Master, Christ. I have had eight hundred churches to shepherd, for that is the number of parishes in Cyrrhus, and in them, through your prayers, not a single weed has been left. Our flock has been freed from every heretical error. He who sees all things knows how I have been stoned by the infamous heretics sent against me, and what struggles I have had in many cities of the East against Greeks, Jews and every heretical error. And after all these toils and troubles I have been condemned without a hearing. [h]

But I await the verdict of your Apostolic See. I beg and pray your holiness to help me as I appeal to your upright and just tribunal, and to bid me come to you and show that my teaching follows in the footsteps of the apostles. For there are writings of mine from twenty years ago, from eighteen, from fifteen and from twelve: some against the Arians and Eunomians, some against the Jews and Greeks, some against the Magi in Persia, some about the providence that governs all things, and others about the nature of God and about the divine incarnation. By divine grace I have interpreted both the writings of the apostles and the sayings of the prophets, and from these it is easy to gather whether I have kept unswervingly to the rule of faith or have turned aside from its straight path. And I beg you not to spurn my petition, nor to overlook the insults heaped on my poor white hairs. [j]

First of all, I beg you to tell me whether I ought to accept this unrighteous deposition or not. For I await your verdict, and if you bid me abide by my condemnation, I will abide by it. I will trouble no one from then on, but will await the unerring verdict of our God and Savior. As for me, the Master God is my witness, I care nothing for honor and glory, but only for the stumbling block that is put in people’s way. For many of the simpler folk, and especially those whom we have rescued from various heresies, will believe those who have condemned us, and will perhaps count us heretics, since they cannot discern the exact truth of the teaching. I say this also because, after so long a time as bishop, I have acquired neither house, nor land, nor an obol, nor a tomb, but only a poverty I chose for myself; for I at once gave away even what came to me from my parents after their death, as all who live in the East know. [k]

And before all things I entreat you, holy and God-loved brother, give your help to my prayers. I have brought these things to your holiness’s knowledge by the most devout and God-beloved presbyters Hypatius and Abramius, the chorepiscopi, and Alypius, the head of the monks in our district. For I was prevented from coming to you myself by the emperor’s letter restraining me, and so were the others. I entreat your holiness to look on them with a father’s regard and to listen to them with sincere kindness; to count my slandered and falsely attacked position worthy of your protection; and above all to defend with all your might the faith that is now being plotted against, and to keep the inheritance of the fathers intact for the churches. So will your holiness receive a full reward from the generous Master. (Written about the end of the year 449.) [l]