XII.
608
The Encyclical Letter of Gennadius,
Patriarch of Constantinople and of the Holy Synod Met with Him to All
the Holy Metropolitans and to the Pope of the City of Rome.
609
To the most beloved of God, fellow-minister, Gennadius
and the most holy synod assembled in the royal city which is New Rome,
sendeth greeting.
As our Lord without money and without price ordained his
Apostles, so should we ordain the clergy, for the Lord has placed us in
their grade and in their stead (
ἐις τὸν
ἐκείνων
βαθηόν τε καὶ
τόπον
). Nor should we use any
ingenious sophisms to avoid this plain duty, explicitly laid upon us,
not only by the words of the Gospel but also by a canon of the great
Ecumenical Synod of Chalcedon.
608
The Greeks speak of
the canons of The Thirteen Holy Fathers, counting in the number St.
Cyprian’s canon, but as this was really Synodal I have placed it
in that category.
609
In this I have not
followed Johnson, but translated from Beveridge,
Synod
., Tom.
II., p. 181.