Letters to the Emperor Arcadius

The voice of the blood of my brother John cries out to God against thee, O emperor, just as once did the blood of righteous Abel against his fratricide brother Cain; and it will be avenged in every way. Nor was it enough that you should have committed this deed, but even in time of peace you stirred up a great persecution against God and His Church. You cast out from his episcopal see, without any judgment having been made, the great Teacher of the whole world, and along with him you persecuted Christ himself. Nor do I complain so much on his account (for he has obtained his lot and inheritance with the holy Apostles in the kingdom of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ), although that loss is intolerable; but I am afflicted first for the salvation of your souls, and then for those who, deprived of his most wise and spiritual and divine teaching and instruction, are now compelled to suffer famine.

For not only has the church of Constantinople suffered the loss of that honey-sweet tongue, but the whole earth beneath the sun has been widowed, having lost so divine a man through the persuasion of one woman, who allowed this outrage to be committed. But she shall receive both present punishment here, and everlasting punishment hereafter, which shall not long delay in coming upon her. For although the blessed John, after having kept the faith and confirmed those who wavered, departed this life, yet he has obtained for the eternal ages the inheritance of everlasting delights and immortal life. But Eudoxia, that new Delilah, who little by little shaved thee with the razor of imposture, has drawn upon herself the curse from the mouths of many, and has bound upon herself a heavy and unbearable burden of sins, adding it to her former sins.

Wherefore I, the least and a sinner, as one to whom the see of the great Apostle Peter has been entrusted, do separate thee and her from the reception of the immaculate mysteries of Christ our God. And also every bishop or cleric of the order of the holy Church of God who shall have dared to administer or deliver these mysteries to you from the hour at which this bond, wherewith I bind you, shall have become known to you, let it be known that he has fallen from his own dignity. But if, as men of power, you shall have compelled anyone thereto by force, and shall have transgressed the canons handed down to you by the Saviour through the holy Apostles, on the dreadful day of judgment you shall find, first, that this shall be no small sin for you, and then, that no one shall then be able to be helped by any dignity of this world; but the secrets of hearts shall break forth and be displayed before the sight of all.

But Arsacius, whom you have thrust into the episcopal see in the place of the great John, we remove from his order even after death, together with all the bishops who deliberately communicated with him. Nor let his name be inscribed in the sacred registers; for he is unworthy of this honor, seeing that he polluted the episcopate with a kind of adultery. For every planting that has not been planted by our Father who is in heaven shall be rooted up. But Theophilus we declare not only deposed from his see, but also punished with excommunication and anathema, wholly alienated from the fellowship of Christians.

All men of sound mind know that offenses committed through ignorance are punished neither by divine law nor by human laws; nor does anyone pay the penalty in another's name. Wherefore I have written this, that I might make your Mildness certain (of which fact I implore the good God as witness) that I had no knowledge of those things which befell our bishops and clerics, and that I am wholly innocent of their condemnation. For since I had been in communion with them, there was no reason why I should have afflicted them. But as regards your daughter Eudoxia, know that I have exacted from her no small punishment in proportion to her offense, so that, overcome by grief and distress of this kind, she now lies stricken with a most grievous illness. But I beseech you to free us from the separation, and not to punish us in many ways. For the Lord Himself does not strike twice for the same offense.

Altogether, O pontiff of God, nothing of what was boldly perpetrated against the legates was done with my knowledge; and this can be seen from the fact that I have severely punished those from whom these things arose. Nor does any fault for the deposition of that great man John cling to me, but to the unhappy bishops, who, while pretending to uphold the sacred canons, turned the judgment of his deposition upon their own profane heads—by whose speech, I know not how, being led astray, I myself also assented to their sentence, which I would that I had never done. Wherefore they themselves are the more to blame. Of these, both those who are still here—Acacius and Severianus—and those who followed the wicked Theophilus, I have ordered to be seized with the greatest possible speed, as well as those who are there, that they may pay the penalties due to their presumption. But may your paternal kindness be appeased toward us; and do not forsake us, deprived as we are of the undefiled mysteries.

Then also I have punished my daughter Eudoxia for her sin, who also, on account of these things, lies stricken in bed with a most grievous illness. Do not, then, O most reverend father, exact punishment too often; for the Lord does not exact punishment twice for the same offense, as it is written. But where shall be the good of repentance, unless pardon is granted to those who repent? Therefore if we were not among the penitent, the way to pardon would rightly be closed; but since we have accused and condemned ourselves for the wrongs we have done, let us not be deprived even of the good of repentance, which indeed is pardon.

I have approved your zeal, consonant with the will of God, which you have shown for His name's sake. Wherefore, being loosed from the sacred bonds, approach with confirmed souls the Lord's symbols.