Letter XXXII.
To the Archimandrites of
Constantinople
326
.
To his well-beloved sons Faustus, Martinus, and the rest
of the archimandrites, Leo the bishop.
He acknowledges their zeal and refers them to the
Tome.
As on behalf of the faith which Eutyches has tried
to disturb, I was sending legates
de latere
327
to assist the defence of the Truth, I
thought it fitting that I should address a letter to you also,
beloved: whom I know for certain to be so zealous in the cause of
religion that you can by no means listen calmly to such blasphemous and
profane utterances: for the Apostle’s command lingers in
your hearts, in which it is said, “If any man hath preached unto
you any gospel other than that which he received, let him be
anathema
328
.”
And we also decide that the opinion of the said Eutyches is to be
rejected, which, as we have learnt from perusing the proceedings, has
been deservedly condemned: so that, if its foolish maintainer
will abide by his perverseness, he may have fellowship with those whose
error he has followed. For one who says that Christ had not a
human, that is our, nature, is deservedly put out of Christ’s
Church. But, if he be corrected through the pity of
God’s
Spirit and acknowledge his wicked error, so as
to condemn unreservedly what catholics reject, we wish him not to be
denied mercy, that the
Lord’s
Church may
suffer no loss: for the repentant can always be readmitted, it is
only error that must be shut out. Upon the mystery of great
godliness
329
, whereby through
the Incarnation of the Word of
God
comes our
justification and redemption, what is our opinion, drawn from the
tradition of the fathers, is now sufficiently explained according to my
judgment in the letter which I have sent to our brother Flavian the
bishop
330
: so that through the declaration of
your chief you may know what, according to the gospel of our
Lord
Jesus Christ, we desire to be fixed in
the hearts of all the faithful. Dated 13th June, in the
consulship of the illustrious Asturius and Protogenes
(449).
326
It will be
remembered that 23 abbots signed the condemnation of Eutyches:
cf. Lett. XXI. chap. 2.
327
De latere
meo
. This is interesting as an early instance of the use of
this expression for the legates of the pope (now so familiar):
even though Quesnel is incorrect in saying for certain that Leo is the
first Bishop of Rome who employed them. He himself quotes Concil.
Sardic., canon 7, where the fathers ask the Roman bishop to send some
one
e latere suo
(
a.d.
347).
328
Gal. i. 9
.
329
I cannot doubt he
has
1 Tim. iii. 27
,
μέγα ἐστί
τὸ τῆς
ἐυσεβείας
μυστήριον
(here
sacramentum
as usual) in his mind, though the Gk. translator
apparently did not see it, his version being utterly inaccurate
(
περὶ δὲ
τῆς
ἁγιότητος
τῆς μεγάλης
πίστεως
).
330
Viz., Letter XXVIII.
(The Tome).