To Queen Theodelinda, on the Four Councils

Gregory to Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards. [a]

We have learned from the report of certain people that some bishops have led your glory so far as to offend against the holy church by withdrawing yourself from the communion of catholic unity. Now the more sincerely we love you, the more deeply we are troubled about you, because you believe unskilled and foolish men. They not only do not know what they are talking about, but can hardly understand what they have heard. They neither read for themselves nor believe those who do, and so they remain in the very error they have invented for themselves about us. For we venerate the four holy synods: that of Nicaea, in which Arius was condemned; that of Constantinople, in which Macedonius was condemned; the first of Ephesus, in which Nestorius was condemned; and that of Chalcedon, in which Eutyches and Dioscorus were condemned. And we declare that whoever thinks otherwise than these four synods is a stranger to the true faith. We also condemn whomever they condemn, and acquit whomever they acquit. And we strike with anathema anyone who presumes to add to or take away from the faith of these four synods, and especially that of Chalcedon, about which doubt and an occasion of superstition have arisen in the minds of certain unskilled men. [b]

Since, then, you know the soundness of our faith from my plain statement and profession of it, it is right that you should have no further scruple of doubt about the church of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. Rather, hold fast to the true faith, and make your life firm on the rock of the church, that is, on the confession of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles. Otherwise all those tears of yours and all those good works may come to nothing, if they are found to be strangers to the true faith. For as branches dry up without the strength of the root, so works, however good they may seem, are nothing if they are cut off from the solid ground of the faith. So it is fitting for your glory to send word with all speed to our most reverend brother and fellow bishop Constantius, of whose faith and life I have long been well assured. Let your letters to him make known how gladly you accept his ordination, and that you are in no way separated from the communion of his church, so that we may truly rejoice with a common gladness, as over a good and faithful daughter. Know also that you and your works will please God if, before his judgment comes, they are approved by the judgment of his priests. [d]