To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch, on the Faith and the Council of Ephesus

Gregory to Anastasius, and so on. [a]

I received your fraternity’s letter, holding rightly to the profession of the faith, and I gave great thanks to Almighty God, who, when the shepherds of his flock are changed, still guards, even after such a change, the faith he once handed down to the holy fathers. Now the excellent preacher says, “No one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus” (First Corinthians 3, verse 11). Whoever, then, with love of God and of his neighbor, holds firmly the faith that is in Christ has laid for himself this same Jesus Christ, the Son of God and of man, as his foundation. So it is to be hoped that where Christ is the foundation, the building of good works may also follow. The Truth himself also says, “Whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, is a thief and a robber; but whoever enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep” (John 10, verses 1 and 2). And a little later he adds, “I am the door” (John 10, verse 7). He, then, enters the sheepfold through the door who enters through Christ. And he enters through Christ who thinks and preaches what is true about the same Creator and Redeemer of the human race, and holds fast what he preaches; who takes on the highest place of rule for the duty of carrying a burden, not out of desire for the glory of a passing rank. He also watches wisely over the sheepfold he has taken charge of, so that neither perverse men tear the sheep of God by speaking twisted things, nor evil spirits ravage them by enticing them to vicious pleasures.

Indeed, we remember how the blessed Jacob, who had served long for his wives, said, “These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not been barren. I have not eaten the rams of your flock, nor shown you what had been seized by a wild beast. I made good every loss; whatever had been lost by theft, you required of me. By day and night I was consumed by drought and frost; sleep fled from my eyes” (Genesis 31, verses 38 to 40). If, then, the man who feeds the sheep of Laban works and keeps watch like this, to what labor, to what watches should he be devoted who feeds the sheep of God? But in all this let him instruct us who for our sake became man, who was pleased to become what he had made. May he pour the spirit of his own love both into my weakness and into your love, and open the eye of our heart in all care and watchful attention.

But for men of right faith being advanced to sacred orders, thanks must be given without ceasing to the same Almighty God, and prayer always made for the life of our most pious and most Christian lord the emperor, and for his most serene wife, and for their most gentle children. In their times the mouths of heretics are silent; for though their hearts seethe with the madness of perverse thinking, yet in the time of the catholic emperor they do not dare to speak out the evil things they think. [c]

Further, in speaking of your adherence to the holy councils, your fraternity declares that you hold to the first holy Synod of Ephesus. But I have found from the account given in a heretical document, sent to me from the royal city, that according to it certain catholic positions were condemned along with heretical ones. This is because some suppose that the first Synod of Ephesus was one that the heretics gathered at some time or other in the same city. So it is altogether necessary that your love should ask the churches of Alexandria and Antioch for the acts of this synod, and find out how the matter really stands. Or, if you wish, we will send you from here what we have, kept from long ago in our archives. For the synod that was held under the pretense of being the first of Ephesus claims that certain positions put before it were approved, which are the declared teachings of Caelestius and Pelagius. And since Caelestius and Pelagius were condemned at that synod, how could those positions be approved whose authors were condemned? [d]

Further, it has come to our ears that in the churches of the East no one attains a sacred order except by giving bribes. If your fraternity finds this to be so, offer your first offering to Almighty God by restraining the error of the simoniac heresy in the churches under you. For, to pass over other considerations, what kind of men can they be in sacred orders who are raised to them not by merit but by bribes? May Almighty God guard your love with heavenly grace, and grant you to carry with you to eternal joys a multiplied fruit and an overflowing measure from those committed to your care.