Synodical Letter of the Council of Constantinople to Pope Damasus

It would perhaps be superfluous to recount to your reverences, and to relate as if to those who did not know it, the multitude of evils which have been brought upon us by the power of the Arian madmen. For we do not think your piety holds our affairs so cheap that you should need to learn of matters which it behooved you to grieve over with us. Nor were the tempests by which we have been buffeted of such a kind that they could remain hidden through their smallness. But even the recent time of persecutions still keeps a vivid memory, not only among those who suffered, but also among those who, through charity, count the calamities of others as their own. For yesterday, so to speak, and the day before, some, freed from the bonds of exile, not without countless hardships, returned to their churches. Of others, who ended their life in exile, the remains have been brought back.

Some also, after their return from exile, when the fury of the heretics still showed itself burning, endured at home harsher things than they had suffered abroad, being overwhelmed with a hail of stones, after the manner of blessed Stephen. Others, torn by various tortures, still carry about in their bodies the marks and stripes of Christ. And indeed, who could enumerate the losses of money, and the fines inflicted upon cities, and the proscriptions of individuals, the plots, the insults, and the imprisonments? For in very truth all afflictions have been multiplied against us beyond number; whether it be that we are paying the penalties of our own sins, or that the kind God willed to exercise us through this multitude of evils. For these things, then, we give thanks to God, who has instructed his servants by so many and so great calamities, and who, according to the greatness of his mercies, has again led us out into refreshment.

But for the restoration of the churches we should need a long period of leisure and much time and labor, that we might, by careful tending, gradually restore the body of the Church, as it were from a long illness, to its former soundness of piety. For although we seem to have been fully freed from the violence of persecutions, and to have perfectly recovered the churches long held by heretics, yet the wolves are troublesome to us, who, after being driven from the sheepfolds, tear the flocks of sheep in the wooded pastures, do not fear to hold rival assemblies, stir up seditions among the peoples, and shrink from nothing in their attempts at the ruin of the churches. Accordingly, as we have said, we should need a long time in which we might be able to attend to this business.

But since, showing brotherly charity toward us, you have summoned us also, as being your own members, by the letters of the most pious Emperor, to the synod which by God's will is gathered at Rome; so that, whereas formerly we alone were condemned to bear afflictions, now, when the Emperors are in agreement in the cause of piety, you should not reign without us, but rather, according to the apostolic voice, we should reign together with you: it was indeed our wish that, if it could be done, all of us together, leaving our churches, should comply with this desire, or rather necessity. For who would give us wings like a dove, that we might fly and rest with you?

But since that course would utterly strip bare the churches which are now only beginning to be restored, and since most of us could by no means do this (for we had come to Constantinople according to the letters sent last year by your reverence, after the Council of Aquileia, to the most pious Emperor Theodosius; having been prepared for this journey to Constantinople alone, and bringing the consent of the bishops who were in the provinces for this one synod only; since we had not even suspected, nor heard anything at all beforehand, of undertaking a longer journey before we had assembled at Constantinople; and moreover the shortness of the appointed time was not sufficient either for preparing for a longer journey, or for notifying all the bishops of our communion who are in various provinces, and obtaining their consent); since these and many other things besides prevented most from coming: we did that which was next best, both for the restoration of affairs and for the manifestation of our charity toward you.

We asked our most reverend and most dear brothers and fellow-ministers Cyriacus, Eusebius, and Priscian to undertake willingly the labor of journeying to you. Through them we show both that our will is peaceable and looks toward unity, and we make manifest our zeal for sound faith.

For whether we have endured persecutions, or imperial threats, or the cruelty of governors, or any other trial whatsoever from the heretics, we have sustained it for the evangelical faith which was confirmed at Nicaea in Bithynia by the three hundred and eighteen fathers. This faith it is fitting should be approved both by you and by us and by all who do not pervert the discourse of true faith; inasmuch as it is the most ancient and consonant with baptism, teaching us to believe in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: believing, that is, in one Godhead, power, and substance of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; and likewise an equal dignity and a co-eternal reign in three perfect hypostases, or in three perfect persons.

So that neither may the plague of Sabellius find a place, by which the hypostases are confounded and the proper attributes taken away; nor may the blasphemy of the Eunomians and Arians and Pneumatomachi prevail, which cuts asunder the substance or nature and divinity, and introduces upon the uncreated and consubstantial and co-eternal Trinity a certain posterior created nature, or one of a different substance. We also keep uncorrupted the doctrine of the Lord's incarnation, admitting neither a dispensation of the flesh devoid of soul or mind, nor an imperfect one; but knowing that the whole—he who was, before the ages, the perfect Word of God—became, in the last days, perfect man for our salvation. This, then, is as it were the sum of the faith which is constantly preached by us.

Concerning which, if you desire anything further, it will be sufficiently supplied to you if you deign to read the tome composed by the synod celebrated at Antioch, as well as the one published last year at Constantinople by the ecumenical synod; in which tomes we have set forth our faith more fully, and pronounced the sentence of anathema against the heresies recently arisen.

Concerning, however, the particular administration of the churches, an ancient sanction has, as you well know, prevailed, and the rule of the holy fathers assembled at Nicaea, that in each province the bishops of that province, and, if it please them, the neighboring bishops together with them, should perform ordinations as shall be useful. By the prescript of these laws, know that the rest of the churches are administered by us, and that the priests of the most notable churches have been appointed. Whence also, for the church of Constantinople, newly founded, so to speak, which through the mercy of God we have but recently snatched from the blasphemy of the heretics as from the jaws of a lion, we have ordained as bishop the most reverend and most religious Nectarius, in a universal council, by the common consent of all, in the presence of the most religious Emperor Theodosius, with the assent of the whole clergy and the whole city.

As for the most ancient and truly apostolic church of Antioch in Syria, in which the venerable name of Christians was first heard, the bishops both of that province and of the diocese of the East, assembled together, canonically ordained the most reverend and most religious bishop Flavian, with the whole church consenting and praising the man as if with one voice. This lawful ordination the whole synod also received. As for the church of Jerusalem, which is the mother of all the churches, we make known the most reverend and most religious bishop Cyril, who was both canonically ordained long ago by the bishops of the province, and who underwent very many contests in various places against the Arians.

We exhort your reverence, spiritual charity interceding, to rejoice with us over these men, thus lawfully and canonically appointed; the fear of the Lord suppressing all human feeling, and setting the edification of the churches above private goodwill or favor toward individuals. For in this way, when the word of faith has been established by common consent, and Christian charity has been confirmed among us, we shall cease to say that which was condemned by the Apostles: "I indeed am of Paul, but I of Apollos, and I of Cephas." But while we shall all be seen to be of Christ, who is not divided among us, we shall, with God's help, keep the body of the Church whole without any division, and shall stand with confidence before the tribunal of the Lord.