Zachariah of Mitylene, Syriac Chronicle (1899).  Book 9.

BOOK IX

ALSO this ninth Book, concerning the reign of Justinian, states how he became Anti-Caesar¹ on the fifth day of the week in the last week of the fast; and, after he had governed for three months in conjunction with Justin his uncle, who died at the end of July, when the year five was now ending,² this Justinian became emperor, in the year eight hundred and thirty-eight of the Greeks, in the three hundred and twenty-seventh Olympiad. And the events which happened during his reign down to the year fifteen,³ a space of ten years, which is contained in the sections below, are set down in this ninth Book, consisting of twenty-six chapters. Behold! they are set down below, and are as follows :—

The first chapter of the ninth Book deals with the fighting which went on in the summer of the year five before Nisibis and Thebetha, a Persian fortress.

The second chapter of the Book treats of the battle which was fought in the desert of Thannuris.

The third chapter of the Book gives an account of the battle which was fought before the city of Dara on the frontier.

The fourth chapter of the Book gives information about the battle which was fought on the Euphrates in the year nine.

The fifth chapter tells of Gadar the Kadisene, a Persian general, how he was killed; and Izdegerd, who was with him, a nephew of the Ptehasha of Arzanene, was taken prisoner.

The sixth chapter deals with the battle which was fought before Martyropolis on the frontier, and the large numbers |219 of Huns who invaded the territory of the Romans in the year ten.

The seventh chapter explains how in the summer of the year eleven peace was made between the Romans and the Persians by the ambassadors, Rufinus and Hermogenes, the master of the offices.

The eighth chapter of the ninth Book treats of the Samaritans who rebelled and set up a tyrant of their own in the country of Palestine.

The ninth chapter of the Book, concerning the heresy of Julian the Phantasiast, bishop of the city of Halicarnassus,⁴ how it appeared.

The tenth chapter sets forth the first epistle of Julian to Severus, with a question about the body of Christ our God.

The eleventh chapter of the Book treats of the answer to the epistle of Julian, which the doctor Severus, the chief priest, wrote to him.

The twelfth chapter of the Book imparts information about the second epistle of Julian, which he wrote to Severus.

The thirteenth chapter tells of the answer made by Severus the patriarch to this second epistle of Julian.

The fourteenth chapter of the Book treats of the riot which took place in the royal city, and describes how Hypatius and Pompeius were put to death, and large numbers of the people were massacred in the circus in the year ten.

The fifteenth chapter treats of the request contained in the petition which the believing bishops who had been summoned from exile to the royal city presented to King Justinian concerning their faith.

The sixteenth chapter of the ninth Book sets forth the defence made by Severus the chief priest in his epistle to King Justinian, refusing to come, when summoned by him to the royal city.

The seventeenth chapter of the ninth Book treats of Carthage, the chief city of the country of Africa, how it was |220 taken by Belisarius the general and a Roman army, and made subject to King Justinian.

The eighteenth chapter of the ninth Book deals with Rome and Naples in the country of Italy, and how they were taken by Belisarius the general and a Roman army.

The nineteenth chapter of the ninth Book again treats of Severus the patriarch, who went up to the royal city and appeared before the king, and was received in the palace, and remained there till the end of the month of March in the year fourteen, and then departed.

The twentieth chapter of the ninth Book treats of the epistle of Severus the patriarch to the order of priests and the society of monks in the East, dealing with his expulsion from the royal city.

The twenty-first [chapter] of the ninth Book sets forth the canonical epistle of union and concord which was sent by Anthimus, chief priest of the royal city, to Severus the patriarch.

The twenty-second chapter of the ninth Book treats of the epistle of concord and union canonically sent by Severus in answer to Anthimus, chief priest of Constantinople, the royal city.

The twenty-third chapter of the ninth Book introduces the epistle of concord and union which was canonically sent by Severus to Theodosius of Alexandria.

The twenty-fourth chapter of the ninth Book treats further of the canonical epistle of union and concord which was sent by Theodosius the patriarch in answer to Severus the doctor.

The twenty-fifth chapter of the ninth Book gives information about the canonical epistle of concord which was sent by Anthimus, chief priest of the royal city, to Theodosius, patriarch of the great city of Alexandria.

The twenty-sixth chapter of the ninth Book records the answer to the epistle, which was canonically sent by |221 Theodosius, archbishop of Alexandria, to Anthimus, chief priest of the royal city, in concord and brotherhood.

There is inserted also in it, at the end of this ninth Book, the prologue given above, which was composed concisely under heads by the holy Moro, bishop of Amicla, a man deserving of blessed memory, upon the Gospel and the dispensation of Christ in the flesh, and also a story which is contained in the eighty-ninth canon, taken from the Gospel of John and mentioned by him alone, about a woman with child by adultery, who was brought to Him by the Jewish doctors.⁵

CHAPTER I

THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, TREATING OF THE ACCESSION OF JUSTINIAN, AND OF THE FIGHTING WHICH WENT ON BEFORE NISIBIS AND THE FORTRESS OF THEBETHA

In the year five,⁶ when Justin was king, that old man of whom we related above ⁷ that he came from the country of Illyricum, he made his sister's son, who was general, Anti-Caesar;⁸ and Justinian became Anti-Caesar on the fifth day of the week in the last week of the fast. And,⁹ after he had governed for three months, his uncle died, at the end of July, and he became emperor, in the year eight hundred and thirty-eight of the Greeks,¹⁰ in the three hundred and twenty-seventh Olympiad. And¹¹ as to his own Castra Mauriana he gave orders, and a great city was built, and privileges were granted to it, and a military force was also stationed in it; and water was brought into it from a distance,¹² because its own water was bad. |222 

And, behold! from the beginning of his reign down to this day he has indeed devoted attention to building, refounding cities in various countries, and repairing walls in various places for the protection of his dominions.

But, since the Persians and the Romans were at enmity with one another in those times, while Timus ¹³ (?), the master of the soldiers, was duke on the frontier, the army with its officers was mustered round him to fight against Nisibis; and they fought, but could not take it, and retired thence to the fortress of Thebetha; and the army came close up to the wall and made a breach in it; and it was the hottest part of the summer. And through some cause or other they were prevented from effecting their purpose, and did not get possession of the fortress, which was about fifteen parasangs from Dara. And the army was ordered to return to Dara; and, because they greedily ate honey and the flesh of large numbers of swine, some of the infantry died of thirst on the march and were lost to the army, and others threw themselves into the wells of the desert and were drowned, and the rest were burnt up by the heat on the march, but the cavalry reached Dara; and so the army was broken up.

CHAPTER II

THE SECOND CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, CONCERNING THE BATTLE WHICH WAS FOUGHT IN THE DESERT OF THANNURIS

During the lifetime of Justin ¹⁴ the king, who had learned that Thannuris was a convenient place for a city to be built as a place of refuge in the desert, and for a military force to be stationed to protect 'Arab against the marauding bands of |223 Saracens, Thomas the silentiary, a native of Aphphadana, had been sent to build such a city. And, when he had made but inconsiderable progress, then the works which had begun to be carried out were destroyed by the Saracens and Kadisenes from Singara and Thebetha. Now, because the Romans, as we have stated above, had taken the field and fought against Nisibis and Thebetha, therefore afterwards the Persians also similarly came and made an entrenchment (?) in the desert of Thannuris. And, Duke Timus, the master of the soldiers, having died, Belisarius had succeeded him; and he was not greedy after bribes, and was kind to the peasants, and did not allow the army to injure them. For he was accompanied by Solomon, a eunuch from the fortress of Edribath (?); ¹⁵ and he was an astute man, and well-versed in the affairs of the world; and he had been notary to Felicissimus the duke, and had been attached to the other governors; and he had gained cunning through experience of difficulties.

Accordingly, a Roman army was mustered for the purpose of marching into the desert of Thannuris against the Persians under the leadership of Belisarius, Cutzes, the brother of Butzes, Basil, Vincent, and other commanders, and Atafar, the chief of the Saracens. And, when the Persians heard of it, they devised a stratagem, and dug several ditches among their trenches, and concealed them (?) all round outside by triangular stakes of wood, and left several openings. And, when the Roman army came up, they did not perceive the Persians' deceitful stratagem in time, but the generals entered the Persian entrenchment at full speed, and, falling into the pits, were taken prisoners, and Cutzes was killed. And of the Roman army those who were mounted turned back and returned in |224 flight to Dara with Belisarius; but the infantry, who did not escape, were killed and taken captive. And Atafar, the Saracen king, during his flight was struck (?) from a short distance off, and perished; and he was a warlike and an able man, and he had had much experience in the use of Roman arms, and in various places had won distinction and renown in war.

CHAPTER III

THE THIRD CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, CONCERNING THE BATTLE BEFORE DARA

The Persians were proud and puffed up and boastful; and, indeed, the Mihran and the marzbans assembled an army and came against Dara and encamped at Ammodis, being fully confident in the expectation of taking the city, because the Roman army had been diminished by their sword. And their cavalry and infantry approached and came up on the south side of the city, intending to encompass it all round for the purpose of blockading it; but a Roman force met them by the help of our Lord, who chastises but does not utterly deliver over unto death. For a certain Sunica, a general, who was a Hun, and, having taken refuge with the Romans, had been baptized, and Simuth (?),¹⁶ a Roman tribune, and their armour-bearers with twenty men each drove the whole Persian army away from the city several times, passing boldly and vigorously from one part of the field to another, and cutting men down right and left with the lance. And they were practised in the use of the sword; and their cry was loud and terrific, and made them appear terrible to the Persians, so |225 that they fell before them : and two of their leaders were killed, besides no small number of horsemen; while of the faige, who are the Persian infantry, many were cut down and hurled back by the Helurians,¹⁷ under Butzes, to the east of the city.

And the Persians, when they saw how great the number of the dead was, acted craftily, and sent to Nisibis, asking them to bring as many baggage-animals as possible and come at once to Dara, and take as much spoil as they could. And, when large numbers came, they laded them with the bodies of their slain, and then they returned in shame. However, the rest of the Persian force invaded Roman 'Arab, and burned it with fire.

CHAPTER IV

THE FOURTH CHAPTER, CONCERNING THE BATTLE WHICH WAS FOUGHT ON THE EUPHRATES IN THE YEAR NINE ¹⁸

The Persians, having learned wisdom by experience through the great injury which they had suffered from the attacks of the Romans whenever they approached the city and went out against them, went up into the desert portion of the Roman territory and encamped on the Euphrates; and according to their usual practice they made a trench. And Belisarius at the head of a Roman force and tribunes came up against them to battle; and they arrived in the last week of the fast. And the Persians were found to be as a little flock, and so they appeared in their eyes : and Asthebid their commander was afraid of them, and those who were with him; and he sent ¹⁹ to the Romans, asking them to respect the feast, |226 "for the sake of the Nazarenes and Jews who are in the army that is with me, and for the sake of yourselves, who are Christians." And, when Belisarius the general had considered this, he was willing to agree; but the commanders murmured greatly, and would not consent to wait and respect the day. And, when they went out to battle on the eve of the first day of the week, the day of unleavened bread, it was a cold day, with the wind in the face of the Romans; and they showed themselves feeble, and turned and fled before the Persian attack; and many fell into the Euphrates and were drowned, and others were killed; but Belisarius escaped, while the nephew of Butzes was taken prisoner (for he himself was ill at Amida, and did not go to the battle, but sent his army to Abgersatum under Domitziolus), and went down to Persia, but eventually returned : and how this happened I will relate in this next chapter.  

CHAPTER V

THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, CONCERNING GADAR THE KADISENE, A PERSIAN GENERAL, HOW HE WAS KILLED; AND IZDEGERD, WHO WAS WITH HIM, AND WAS NEPHEW OF HORMIZD, PTEHASHA OF ARZANENE, WAS TAKEN PRISONER

The Romans, when Belisarius was duke, in the year five,²⁰ having been prevented from building Thannuris on the frontier, wished to make a city at Melebasa; wherefore Gadar the Kadisene was sent with an army by Kawad; and he prevented the Romans from effecting their purpose, and put them to flight in a battle which he fought with them on the hill of Melebasa. And he was high in the confidence of Kawad, |227 and had been stationed with an army to guard the frontier eastwards from Melebasa in the country of Arzanene as far as Martyropolis. And this man uttered many boasts and vain words against the Romans, and blasphemed like Rab Shaken, who was sent by Sennacherib. And he brought about seven hundred armed cavalry, and some infantry, who accompanied them for the sake of amassing plunder; and they crossed the Tigris into the district of Attachae in the territory of Amida. And Bessa was duke in Martyropolis; and it was summer time in this year nine.²¹ And with Gadar was Izdegerd, the nephew ²² of the Ptekasha,²³ who, as a neighbour, knew the region of Attachae. And when Eessa heard of it he went out against him with about five hundred horsemen from Martyropolis, which was about four (?) ²⁴ stades distant. And he met him at Beth Helte and routed his army on the Tigris, and killed Gadar, and took Izdegerd prisoner and brought him to Martyropolis. This man after the peace, which was made in the year ten,²⁵ was given in exchange for Domitziolus, who returned from Persia. But Bessa the duke after routing Gadar and the Persian cavalry, who were guarding the frontier of Arzanene, entered the country and did much damage there; and he carried off captives and brought them to Martyropolis.

CHAPTER VI

THE SIXTH CHAPTER INFORMS US IN THIS NINTH BOOK ABOUT THE FIGHTING WHICH WENT ON BEFORE MARTYROPOLIS, AND ABOUT THE GREAT HOST OF HUNS WHICH INVADED THE TERRITORY OF THE ROMANS

The villages in the country of Arzanene are the property of the Persian crown, and no small sum is collected as poll-tax |228 from their inhabitants for the king's treasury and for the office of the Ptehasha, who is stationed there (he is the king's prefect). To this country, as related above, Bessa the duke did much injury; who took the nephew of the Ptehasha captive, and also kept him prisoner in Martyropolis. And King Kawad was much distressed when he heard from the Ptehasha about the devastation of the country: which same Hormizd left no stone unturned, ²⁶ using force and cunning (?) against Martyropolis, in order to get possession of it, for it acts as an ambush and a place of refuge for a Roman army, enabling it to ravage Arzanene. And an army was, so to speak, equipped by the Persian army: Mihr Girowi was sent to hire a large number of Huns and bring them to their assistance. And they came and were gathered together against Martyropolis at the begining of the year ten; ²⁷ and they made a trench against it, and a "mule" ²⁸ and many mines; and they made assaults upon it, and pressed it hard. And in it was Butzes and a Roman force of no small size, and they drove large numbers of Persians back in battle. But Nonnus also, the bishop of the city, had died.

Now Belisarius, being held culpable by the king on account of the rout which had been inflicted on the Roman army by the Persians at Thannuris and on the Euphrates, had been dismissed from his command, and went up to the king; and he was succeeded at Dara by Constantine.

And a large Roman army was mustered, and Sittas was general; and Bar Gabala, the Saracen king, was with them. And they reached Amida in November ²⁹ (?) of the year ten;³⁰ and John, the hermit of Anastasia, a man of honourable character, who had been elected to the bishopric, accompanied |229 them. And, when they had gone to Martyropolis and the winter came on (and the country is northerly and cold), the Persians were impeded by rain and mud, and underwent hardships, while they were also afraid of the numbers of the Roman army; and Kawad their king also had died while they were there; and they made a compact with the Romans to withdraw from the city.

And, soon after they had withdrawn and Martyropolis had been freed from blockade, and the Roman army had returned, the Huns,³¹ who had been hired by the Persians, arrived. This great people suddenly attacked the territory of the Romans, and massacred and slew many of the tillers of the soil, and burned villages and their churches; and they crossed the Euphrates and advanced as far as Antioch; and no one stood before them or did them any harm except only the same Bessa, the duke of Martyropolis, who fell upon a detachment of them during their retreat and killed them, and captured about five hundred horses and much spoil; and the man became rich. And at the fortress of Citharizon the duke there repulsed a party of them, consisting of about four hundred men, and captured their baggage-animals.

Now³² after Kawad Khosru his son became king. His mother during the lifetime of Kawad her husband had been vexed by a demon; and all the magians and sorcerers and enchanters, who had been summoned by Kawad her husband, who loved her greatly, did her no good, but, to say the truth, added demons to demons in her. She in the year four,³³ in the days of Liberius the duke, was sent to the blessed Moses, who was a monk close to Dara, about two parasangs' space distant, and was a famous man. And she was with him a few days, and was cleansed, and returned to her own land, |230 having received from this holy Moses of the monastery called Tarmel an amulet taken from the bones of Cyriac the martyr to protect her, that in it she might find refuge, so that the spirit should not return upon her. And, to do him honour, she, under a certain symbolical form (?), built him a house of prayer in her own country, and he is worshipped there. And, remembering the grace wrought in her through this blessed Moses of Tarmel, she did a service to the land of the Romans in the manner and on the occasion set forth below.

CHAPTER VII

THE SEVENTH CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, HOW PEACE WAS MADE BETWEEN THE ROMANS AND THE PERSIANS, AND LASTED SIX OR SEVEN YEARS, IN THE DAYS OF RUFINUS AND OF HERMOGENES, THE MASTER OF THE OFFICES.

Justinian the king, considering the things which had happened in his dominions between the rivers, and the forces which had at various times been destroyed by the Persians, and the tillers of the soil who had been slain and made captive by the Huns, and the land which had been burnt with the villages upon it, was not inclined again to send an army to contend in war with Khosru, who became king after Kawad his father. And, since this man was friendly to Rufinus, and it was he who had advised his father to make him his successor, he used to make assertion to the king, and encourage him, and to undertake that, if he showed himself before him in his own country, he would for the sake of the |231 peace desired by the king accept what he justly asked of him. And so this Rufinus and Hermogenes, the master of the offices, were sent as ambassadors to Khosru in the year eleven;³⁴ and they had much speech with him. And, because this Rufinus was well known there, inasmuch as he had been several times sent to Kawad, and was his friend, and used to give many presents to the magnates of his kingdom, and the queen, the mother of Khosru, was friendly to him, because he had advised Kawad to make her son king, and she owed gratitude to Moses the blessed monk of Tarmel after God for her healing, she earnestly entreated Khosru her son, and on consideration of a sum of gold which he received, which was sent by King Justinian according to the message transmitted to him by Rufinus and Hermogenes his ambassadors, he made peace; and a written treaty was drawn up and ratified. And³⁵ the stars in the sky had appeared dancing in a strange manner, and it was the summer of the year eleven.³⁶ And it lasted about six or seven years, until the year three.³⁷

CHAPTER VIII

THE EIGHTH CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, CONCERNING THE SAMARITANS, WHO REBELLED AND SET UP A TYRANT OF THEIR OWN IN THE COUNTRY OF PALESTINE.

The Samaritans in the country of Palestine who live near the city of Neapolis, not far from Caesarea, having heard that |232 the Persians had from time to time attacked and invaded the Roman territory, and supposing that they had shown themselves weak before them, were emboldened by the thought that they had been sent from Khuth and Babylon, and from 'Awa and from Hamath and from S'farwayim by Shalman'asar, king of Assyria, and settled in the land of Samaria; and, having rebelled, they set³⁸ a tyrant at their head; and they entered Neapolis, and killed Mommuno the bishop there; and they made an insurrection, and wrought havoc in the country, wishing to help the Persians, because it was out of their country that they had been settled in the territory of the Romans; and they burnt many temples of the saints; and they occupied the city and amassed spoil.

And, when the king heard of this, he sent Hadrian the tribune; and there were gathered together also the duke of the country, who was with him, and an army of Romans, and the Saracens of Arabia; and they marched against the Samaritans. And they were cut to pieces by the Romans; and they killed the tyrant, and took the city and restored it to its former normal condition of subjection to their authority. And a bishop was also appointed in it; and a military force was stationed there, to guard it and to keep order among the inhabitants of the country.

CHAPTER IX

THE NINTH CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, CONCERNING THE PHANTASIASTIC HERESY OF JULIAN OF HALICARNASSUS, HOW IT APPEARED

Julian,³⁹ bishop of the city of Halicarnassus, withdrew from his see through zeal with the other believing bishops; and he was an old man. and he was zealous in the faith: and in his desire to avoid speaking of two natures he, like Eutyches and |233 the monks who have not a right knowledge of the true order of things, fell into the heresy of Eutyches. (And he was an acquaintance and a friend of the learned Severus the chief priest; and once this same Julian on being questioned by someone composed a treatise against the Diphysites, and he produced it (?) at no great length without cause of offence.) However, though that wise combatant Severus had heard of it, he had kept this knowledge hidden, fearing lest, if he corrected it, house should be divided against house, and he should cause a division in love, which no man had been able to separate, being patiently determined to accept his poverty, which is according to right (?).

And, when in this way ⁴⁰ reason was added to reason, as our Lord brought it about, in order, that is, that the learning of Severus might be made manifest, the beauty of his true faith, for the benefit of the discerning and of those who love instruction, [he was compelled to expose the matter].⁴¹

And, to show the nature of the original subject of contention, I insert some epistles, which, taken in order, supply information to the reader, in the following chapters of this ninth Book. |234 

CHAPTER X

THE TENTH CHAPTER, CONCERNING THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JULIAN TO SEVERUS, WITH A QUESTION ABOUT THE BODY OF CHRIST ⁴²

"Certain ⁴³ men have appeared here who say that the body of our Lord was corruptible, making use of testimony from the holy Cyril; in the first place from what he wrote to Succensus, saying, 'After the Resurrection it was the body which had suffered, though it no longer supported human infirmities but was incorruptible';⁴⁴ and from this they wish to prove that before the Resurrection it was corruptible, inasmuch as it was of our nature, but after the Resurrection it received incorruptibility: and in the second place from what he wrote to Theodosius the king, saying, 'It is a marvel and a miracle that a body naturally subject to corruption rose without corruption.'⁴⁵

"And they quoted such things as these by way of extracts; but I, who set down the whole passage, made it my endeavour to show the opinion held, by numerous doctors. But they brought me also his sixty-seventh treatise, which was written by him on the subject of the holy Virgin, the Theotokos, and in it are contained the words, 'The body of our Lord was in no way subjected to the sin which belongs to corruption, hut was susceptible of death and of true burial, and He destroyed them in it.' ⁴⁶ And I indeed considered it to be an error in |235 writing. And so, in order that the dispute may be solved by our being examined by you, I have also sent what I have written,⁴⁷ and I am convinced that our fathers agree with it. And write to me at once, that I may know what opinions to hold on these matters, because I do not consider it right that we should again say that that which was not corrupted was susceptible of corruption. And pray that our life may be in unison with the grace of God."

CHAPTER XI

THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER, THE RESPONSE TO THIS EPISTLE OF JULIAN, WHICH SEVERUS WROTE TO HIM, AS FOLLOWS

"When first I received your piety's epistle, I rejoiced in accordance with my custom at your greeting, with which I was well pleased. Since in it you urge me to read the tome composed by you, which you sent with it, written to those who, you say, think and say concerning the body of our Lord and God, Jesus Christ our Saviour, that it was corruptible, and you ask me to write a criticism of it and send it to the love of God that is you, in obedience to you I have readily done this, I, a man who change about from one place to another and have no convenient time even for other things that are required. Still, so far as it was possible for it to be written, I have written it, partly by collecting in my memory passages from the teaching of the fathers, partly also from the few volumes of their works which were here. For I know well that there was a similar question in the royal city also, and by means of the proofs from the fathers drawn up by me the controversy and dispute were brought to an end. And so, since there appeared to me to be something unseemly in the things written by you, |236 since I find that the doctors of the holy Church, who have been from time to time, have instructed me differently on these matters, I have delayed sending what I have written to your piety (as indeed was right), lest some in ignorance should suppose that the controversy conducted in these words was a strife between us, and, although a discussion such as I knew it was would abound in love, yet some might suppose it to be hostility. Accordingly, let me know at once what your pleasure is upon these things, for I am ready to perform whatever is agreeable to your affection, holding as my warrant the saying of the apostle, who said, 'Let everything that is done by you be done in love.'"⁴⁸

CHAPTER XII

THE TWELFTH CHAPTER, THE SECOND EPISTLE OF JULIAN TO SEVERUS, WRITTEN IN ANSWER TO THE PRECEDING, AS A RESPONSE TO IT

"You ⁴⁹ write that there appeared to you to be something unseemly in the things which I have written; and you ought to have informed me at once in the epistle, and released me from anxiety. But I believe that in all that I have written I have truly confessed the Incarnation derived from us, and I have exerted myself to prove that the fathers were in accord with one another; for I do not consider it possible for us to believe and hold that which is corruptible and that which is incorruptible to be the same. And, while we confess Him who by His stripes healed all men to be passible, yet we also know Him to be raised and exalted above passions; and, if He was mortal, yet we also confess that He trampled on death, and gave life to mortals through His death. Accordingly you have only caused me anxiety by saying that I have written |237 something that is unseemly, and not telling me what it is, that I may defend it. But condescend to write and tell me what is stated by the fathers, by Athanasius ⁵⁰ and Cyril and others, for I wish to know your mind also. But⁵¹ I believe that I have followed the intention of the fathers, who are not at variance with themselves or at variance with one another, even as Paul, who says that salvation is not by works but by faith, is not at variance with James, who says that faith without works is dead. They did not say these things in opposition to one another, but in concord.⁵²

"But pray that we may be enlightened by God, and may not through passion yield to our own wills, while at the same time you cause the word in a brief compass to shine upon us.

"The holy Cyril writes, 'It is not easy for us to say that corruption can ever take hold of the flesh which was united to the Word';⁵³ and five lines lower down, 'It is a wonder and a miracle that a body naturally subject to corruption was raised.' ⁵⁴ And what is the idea which he wishes to bring out (for he is not at variance with himself in these things), if he was not in these words thinking of the corruption of universal nature? For He bore our infirmities of His own will and not by compulsion of nature ; and He took up our sins in His body on the tree, dying for our sin."

CHAPTER XIII

THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER, THE RESPONSE TO THIS EPISTLE, ADDRESSED TO THE SAME JULIAN BY SEVERUS

"It ⁵⁵ seems to me a very strange thing, when I call to |238 mind the few words which I wrote, that the love of God that is in you says that you were in great anxiety; since I performed your request for no other reason than to free you from anxiety and disturbance. For, if you had sent me a small question and problem, then I might perhaps have used few words in making answer; but, since it is a tome of many lines and a fully-completed work that you have sent me to examine, after considering the things contained in it every day according to my ability, I will make my opinion clear to you.

"Now in respect of what is fitting I have found much which I will do readily for your piety; and, to show that I am not speaking falsely, listen to what you wrote, as follows: 'In order to bring about an understanding of the matter in dispute, I have sent what I have written; but test it to see whether it is in accord with the Holy Scriptures, because I believe that our fathers were in accord with these. Write and tell me what opinion I am to hold.' Since, therefore, you have given me matter for much discussion, how is it that in your second epistle you have required me to treat of many matters in a few lines and in a single utterance, as you say, a thing which needs many words and proofs from the fathers, who spoke under the inspiration of God? For the Holy Scripture says, 'It is the Lord that teacheth intelligence and knowledge';⁵⁶ and again in another place, 'The Lord giveth wisdom; and from His presence cometh knowledge and understanding. And lie giveth salvation to the righteous.'⁵⁷ For, if your piety and we endeavour in this way to prove with respect to these fathers that they are not in opposition to one another, there is nothing to prevent us from examining the matter carefully and knowing that they have never in anyway shown |239 themselves to be in opposition either to one another or to themselves.

"For ⁵⁸ you rightly and justly say that the doctors are not in opposition to one another, even as Paul is not in opposition to James when the one says, 'By faith is a man justified without works,'⁵⁹ while the other wrote, 'Faith without works is dead';⁶⁰ because Paul spoke of faith before baptism, which is the perfection of confession out of a pure heart, when it has not previously displayed good works in the world, but such a man is justified by believing and confessing and being baptized; while James referred to faith after baptism, when he said that it is dead without works, if a man does not confirm it by right action. For baptism is the earnest of a good conversation; since even our Lord, who was to us an instructor, after He had hallowed the water and been baptized by John and given us the institution of baptism, Went up to the mountain and underwent a struggle with the tempter and destroyed all his power, thereby guiding us, that we might know that after the divine cleansing we ought to display a contest in deed and to struggle according to law with the adversary, therein displaying our virtues.

"But someone will object, and say, 'Behold! Paul took Abraham as a proof that a man is justified by faith without works, saying, "Therefore they that are in the faith are blessed with the believing Abraham";⁶¹ and, "To him that hath not worked but hath believed on Him that can justify sinners his faith is reckoned for righteousness";⁶² while James proved by the case of Abraham that a man is not justified |240 by faith only, but by works confirmed by faith.⁶³ And how are these not contradictory? for the same Abraham is an example of those who have not worked but believed, and of those who have shown faith by works.'

"I am ready to explain from the Holy Scriptures. For he who examines the periods of Abraham's life [will see] that he is an instance of both, of the faith which before baptism confesses salvation by believing in Christ, and of that after baptism which is joined with works, which is a reproduction of the old circumcision of the flesh, which drives away the denial of uncircumcision and brings to us the adoption as sons by God; wherefore Moses also was ordered to say thus to Far'oh; 'And say thou unto Far'oh, "Israel is my son, my firstborn."'⁶⁴ Wherefore Paul writes to the Colossians and says, ' In whom ye were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the flesh of sins and in the circumcision of Christ, and ye were buried with Him in baptism.'⁶⁵ Wherefore he said of Abraham also that he was justified by faith without works while he was in uncircumcision, before he was circumcised, thus pointing to confession before baptism without works, writing to the Romans, 'To Abraham his faith was reckoned for righteousness. How? Not through circumcision, but in uncircumcision.' ⁶⁶ And he did not speak falsely; for the words of Moses are witness, which say of God that He said to Abraham, 'Look toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou. be able to tell them'; and He said, 'So shall thy seed be': |241 and Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.⁶⁷

"But again our master James also took the same Abraham as an example in the faith which saves by works after baptism, he being then circumcised and not in uncircumcision. And we may learn from the Scripture; for he writes thus : 'Wilt thou know, O man, that faith without works is dead? For our father Abraham was justified by works, when he offered Isaac his son as a burnt-sacrifice. Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was made perfect. And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness: and He was called his friend."'⁶⁸ It is easy again for one .who reads the writings of Moses to learn from the book of Genesis that Abraham, after he was circumcised, offered Isaac as a burnt-sacrifice and fulfilled the commandment and was justified by works, giving us an instance of faith after baptism, which is a spiritual circumcision, justifying a man by works; for it is written, 'Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son, and those born in his house, and those bought with his money from strange peoples';⁶⁹ and then God, trying Abraham, said to him, 'Take thy son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee to the high land; and offer him there as a burnt-sacrifice.'⁷⁰ Accordingly these words of the apostles and those written in the old law do not seem to be in opposition to one another, but to be one, and to have been spoken by one spirit concerning faith before baptism, which justifies the man who presents himself upon a short confession only without action, baptism |242 being full salvation if a man depart from the world forthwith, and another faith, which is after baptism, which requires the proof of good works and also raises the man to the measure of perfection and to high place.⁷¹ And so also James very properly says of it that faith is made perfect by works; since the wise Paul also in another place gives similar teaching respecting faith, saying that it is made perfect through works: for the Galatians, after they had been baptized and been reckoned sons of God through the Spirit, were perverted to Judaism and were circumcised, since they vainly supposed that by the circumcision of their flesh they gained something in Christ beyond the uncircumcised; and he wrote to reprove them, saying, 'In Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything; but faith which is worked out by love.'⁷² From this also, therefore, it is plain that that kind of faith after baptism is of avail and saves with which work is joined and united in love; and what work done in love is Paul declares and says, 'Love is long-suffering and kind; love is not envious and excited and puffed up, nor is it ashamed; and it seeketh not its own, and is not provoked; and it imputeth no evil; and rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; and it hopeth all things, and endureth all things. Love doth not quickly fail.'⁷³ These things are for the direction of action and labour and toil, that many may be profited and be saved, when united to faith. And who will dare to find fault? for respecting this our Lord also said, 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments.'⁷⁴ |243

"As, therefore, the Holy Scriptures and our fathers have been consistent in the teaching given to us, so upon this question too they are in accord in teaching those who do not read negligently: wherefore, as it is written, 'Everything is known to the understanding, and plain to them that find knowledge';⁷⁵ which knowledge I have endeavoured to send in a discreet manner to your affection, as is the duty of Christians.⁷⁶

"But, since I have learned from several quarters that you have published the tome containing your work, which was addressed to me, not only in the great city of Alexandria but also in various places, in accordance, as I am persuaded, with Christ, even God the Lawgiver, I have in love again sent and written to our brother the presbyter Thomas not to publish my work, but to keep it to himself, because I hoped that by the counsel of two persons, as by one mouth and soul, my writings and those of your Holiness might be made known. For after this fashion I once and again examined the teaching of the memorable Akhs'noyo⁷⁷ and Eleusinus the bishops, and the books which they composed upon abstruse matters concerning the faith; and I never found in their case any declaration of the relations which we had with one another in love during our discussions, when by the help of our Lord we were alike of one mind. For I never produced either book or treatise in order to gain distinction with men, or to win renown beyond the measure of my feebleness, but in the rectitude of the Gospel in accordance with the teaching and legislation of the apostles. However, it is also unseemly that at such a time as this we should abandon the struggle against the heretics and contend and write against one another, lest the saying of the apostle be |244 fulfilled against us, who says, 'If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.' ⁷⁸ Such contentions it is the duty of those who love our Lord to shun with all their power, and to love one another, that peace may abound and may visit the Israel of God. Greet the brotherhood that is with you. The one that is with me salutes you in our Lord."

When Julian received this epistle also from this learned Severus, he was very indignant, and was moved with anger; and he wrote, saying that his request had been refused by him for a year ⁷⁹ and a month, and he had not received the respect due to him, and he had been tricked (?). And then Severus again wrote a long treatise abounding in proofs from the true doctors of the holy Church, who say that the body of Christ which He received from us was susceptible of innocent passions except sin until the Resurrection.⁸⁰ And for this reason, in order that it may be known, I have set down the above epistles for the discerning.

There were many books addressed to Julian and Felicissimus and Romanus and others who shared his opinions, and in them there is also much material for profit in study for those that love instruction. And they became known to the sagacious and intelligent of the true party of the faith concerning the Incarnation of our Saviour, and the simple were preserved and enlightened so as not to become Eutychianists, and especially the monks. |245 

CHAPTER XIV

THE FOURTEENTH CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, CONCERNING THE RIOT WHICH HAPPENED AT CONSTANTINOPLE, AND HOW HYPATIUS AND POMPEIUS WERE KILLED, AND LARGE NUMBERS OF THE PEOPLE WERE MASSACRED IN THE CIRCUS

In the year ten ⁸¹ the slaughter wrought by the many Huns who invaded the territory of the Romans, and harried it, and killed many people who were in the country, and burned, as recorded above, was not enough, but in the royal city also many persons perished there in a riot which broke out. For, when John of Caesarea in Cappadocia was prefect there, by sedulously inventing pretexts against persons by the use of trickery and cunning, there and in various cities, he amassed a large quantity of gold for the royal treasury from all classes, both magnates and craftsmen; and he was listened to with attention in the palace, and was formidable to everyone, since he stood so high in the confidence of the king that he made false accusations against many persons; and he was surrounded by flatterers and informers. And there were present in the royal city no small number of people from every quarter who had complaints against him, and favoured and supported one of the factions. Wherefore there were constant outcries against him and against the king; and the factions united and were in accord with one another for several days; and the workshops were shut, and they began to plunder everything that came in their way, and to burn. And the king |246 was alarmed ; and at last the palace was shut. And the parties collected in the circus and raised a great riot; and they kept crying out that Hypatius should be king; and, if not, they would burn the city. And Hypatius was compelled to come out, and Pompeius accompanied him. And they took a necklace belonging to one of the soldiers and set it on his head and enthroned him king, and they cried out at him and praised him. And, when this happened, by the advice of certain persons they set fire to the great church of the city, in order that upon receiving the news of the disaster the assembled people might be scattered; for King Justinian was in distress and alarm in the palace. And Mundus, a general, and his troops were present there; and he and the Scholarians and all the troops who were at hand received orders, and they shut the door of the circus, and they massacred and slew all classes of people who were present there; and there were no means of fleeing and escaping from the massacre. And more than 80,000 persons perished there in this riot. And Hypatius and Pompeius were at last arrested, and came in before the king. And, when he understood the state of the case, he wished to spare the men's lives; but he was not able to do so, for his consort was enraged, and swore by God and by him, and adjured him also to have the men put to death. And they were sent to the seashore and killed and thrown into the sea.

CHAPTER XV

THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER, CONCERNING THE BELIEVING BISHOPS WHO WERE RECALLED FROM EXILE TO THE ROYAL CITY AND PRESENTED A SUPPLICATION TO THE KING CONCERNING THEIR FAITH, WHICH RUNS AS FOLLOWS

"Various⁸² other men crown your believing head, O victorious king, with a crown of praises—men who take |247 occasion from the case of other persons to write words about your favours towards them; but we, who have been ourselves judged worthy to experience your virtues, render thanks to you with a crown of laudation, which we weave with splendour. And, while in the desert, and, so to speak, at the end of the world, we have been this long time dwelling in quietness, praying to the good and merciful God during such days as those on behalf of your Majesty and on behalf of our sins: and your tranquillity has inclined towards our vileness and in your believing letters summoned us to come to you. And the thing is a wonder to us that you did not receive this our request with scorn, but, with the kindness innate in you, sympathised with us, so as to bring us out of affliction, making the pretext that this or that man had interceded for us.

"Now we, since it is our duty to obey when commanded, immediately left the desert, and, journeying quietly along the road in peace without our voice being heard, have come before your feet; and we pray God, the bountiful giver, on our behalf to reward your serenity and the God-loving queen with good gifts from on high, and to bestow peace and tranquillity upon you, and to set every rebellious people as a stool beneath your feet.

"However, now that we have come, we present a supplication to your peacefulnesses containing our true faith, not wishing to hold an argument with any man on any matter that is not profitable, as it is written,⁸³ lest we annoy your ears; for it is very hard for a man to convince persons of a contentious disposition, although he make the truth manifest. And so, as we have said, we refuse to engage in a dispute with the contentious, who will not receive instructors; for our master |248 the apostle said, 'We have no such custom, neither the Churches of God.' ⁸⁴

"Accordingly, victorious king, we do now also declare the freedom of our faith, although in the desert, when we received your edict at the hands of Theodotus the duke, we wrote and declared what we think, and your Majesties gave us a message of truth free from affliction in that you were graciously moved and summoned us to your presence. And, since we have been judged worthy of the mercies of God, we do in this supplication inform your orthodoxies that by the grace of God we have from our earliest infancy received the faith of the apostles, and have been brought up in it and with it, and we think and believe even as our three hundred and eighteen God-inspired holy fathers, who drew up the faith of life and salvation, which was confirmed by our one hundred and fifty holy fathers who once met here, and ratified by the pious bishops who assembled at Ephesus and rejected the impious Nestorius. And so in this faith of the apostles we have been baptized and do baptize, and this saving knowledge is grounded in our hearts, and this same doctrine alone we recognise as a rule in the faith, and beyond it we receive no other; because it is perfect in all points, and it does not grow old nor need renovation.

"Now we acknowledge a worshipful and holy Trinity of one nature, power, and honour, which is made known in three persons; for we worship the Father and His only Son, God the Word, Who was begotten of Him eternally beyond all times, and is with Him always without variation, and 'the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father, and is of the nature of the Father and of the Son. One of the persons of this holy Trinity, that is, God the Word, we say by the will of the Father in the last days for the salvation of men took flesh of the Holy Spirit and of the holy Virgin the Theotokos Mary in a body endowed with a rational and intellectual soul, passible after our nature, and became man, |249 and was not changed from that which He was. And so we confess that, while in the Godhead He was of the nature of the Father, He was also of our nature in the manhood. Accordingly He Who is the perfect Word, the invariable Son of God, became perfect man, and left nothing wanting for us in respect of our salvation, as the foolish Apollinaris said, saying that the Humanisation of God the Word was not perfect, and deprives us, according to his opinion, of things that are of prime importance in our salvation. For, if our intellect was not united with Him, as he absurdly says, then we are not saved, and in the matter of salvation have fallen short of that which is of the highest consequence for us. But these things are not as he said; for the perfect God for our sake became perfect man without variation, and God the Word did not leave anything wanting in the Humanisation, as we have said, nor yet was it a phantom of Him, as the impious Mani supposes, and the erring Eutyches.

"And, since Christ is truth and does not know how to lie and does not deceive, because He is God, therefore God the Word truly became incarnate, in truth again, and not in semblance, with natural and innocent passions, because of His own will He for our sake among the things which He took upon Himself in the passible flesh of our nature of His own will endured also our death, which He made life for us by a Resurrection befitting God, for he first restored incorruption and immortality to human nature.

"And, indeed, as God the Word left nothing wanting and was not phantasmal in the Incarnation and Humanisation, so He did not divide it into two persons and two natures according to the doctrine introduced by Nestorius the man-worshipper and those who formerly thought like him, and those who in our day so think.

"And the faith contained in your confession refutes the doctrine of these men and contends with it, because in your |250 earnestness you said thus : 'God appeared, Who became incarnate. He is in all points like the Father except the individuality of His Father. He became a sharer of our nature, and was called Son of Man. Being one and the same, God and man, He showed Himself to us, and was born as a babe for our sake; and, being God, He for men and for the sake of their salvation became man.' ⁸⁵

"If those who dispute with us adhered to these things in truth and were not content to hold them in appearance only, but rather consented to believe as we do and you do and as our holy God-inspired fathers did, they would have abstained from this stirring of strife. For that Christ was joined by composition, and that God the Word is joined by composition with a body endowed with a rational and intellectual soul the all-wise doctors of the Church have plainly stated. Dionysius, who from the Areopagus and from the darkness and error of heathendom attained to the supreme light of the knowledge of God through our master Paul, in the treatise which he composed about the divine names of the Holy Trinity says, 'Praising it as kindly, we say, as is right, that it is kindly, because it in truth partook perfectly of our attributes in one of its persons, drawing to itself and raising- the lowliness of our manhood, out of which the simple Jesus became joined by. composition in a manner that cannot be described; and He who was from eternity and beyond all times took upon Him a temporal existence, and He who was raised and exalted above all orders and natures became in the likeness of our nature without variation and confusion.'⁸⁶ And Athanasius again in the treatise upon the faith named the unity of God the Word with soul-possessing flesh a composition, speaking thus : 'What is the relationship to the unbelief of those who |251 call it an indwelling instead of an Incarnation, and instead of a union and composition a human energy? ' ⁸⁷

"If, therefore, according to our holy fathers, whom your peacefulnesses have followed, God the Word, who was before simple and not composite, became incarnate of the Virgin, the Theotokos Mary, and united soul-possessing and intellectual flesh to Himself personally and made it His own and was joined with it by composition in the dispensation, it is manifest that according to our fathers we ought to confess one nature of God the Word, who took flesh and became perfectly man. Accordingly God the Word, who was before simple, is not recognised to have become composite in a body, if He is again divided after the union by being called two natures. But, just as an ordinary man, who is made up of various natures, soul and body and so forth, is not divided into two natures because a soul has been joined by composition with a body to make up the one nature and person of a man, so also God the Word, who was personally united and joined by composition with soul-possessing flesh, is not divided into or in two natures because of His union and composition with a body. For according to the words of our fathers, whom the fear of God that is in you has followed, God the Word, Who was formerly simple, consented for our sake to be united by composition with soul-possessing and intellectual flesh and without change to become man. Accordingly one nature and person of God the Word, Who took flesh, is glorified, and there is one energy of the Word of God which is made known, which is exalted and glorious and fitting for God, and is also lowly and human. How is it that some are not corrected?"

And they are urgent and refuse to accept what Leo wrote in the Tome in opposition to these things, he and those of his opinions; and they produced quotations from him, and from |252 Nestorius and Theodore and Diodorus and Theodoret and the Synod of Chalcedon, who speak of two natures after the Incarnation of God the Word, and two persons; and they provided a copious refutation of these with proofs drawn from the fathers who have at various times held opinions contrary to these and taught one nature and person in the Church, saying that God the Word was in truth humanised without change and became perfect man, and the same remained perfect God, besides things which I forbear to record here on account of their length, and because they were everywhere to be found in works against the Diphysites.

And at the end of their petition they said thus: "And for this reason we do not accept either the Tome or the definition of Chalcedon, O victorious king, because we keep the canon and law of our fathers who assembled at Ephesus and anathematised and deprived Nestorius and excommunicated any who should presume to compose any other definition of faith besides that of Nicaea, which was correctly and believingly laid down by the Holy Spirit. These we reject and anathematise. And this definition and canon those who assembled at Chalcedon deliberately set at naught and transgressed, as they state in the Acts of that Synod;⁸⁸ and they are subject to punishment and blame from our holy fathers in that they have introduced a new definition of faith, which is contrary to the truth of the doctrine of those who from time to time have been after a pure manner doctors of the Church, who, we believe, are now also entreating Christ with us, that you may aid the truth of their faith, honouring the contests undergone by their priesthoods, by which the Church has been exalted and glorified. For thus shall peace reign in your reign by the power of the right hand of God Almighty, to whom we pray on your behalf that without toil or struggle in arms He will set your enemies as a stool beneath your feet." And, when the letter of defence for the faith, as given |253 above, had been presented to the king and been read, and many words had been spoken during the no small space of one year and more by the believing bishops who had come thither to the royal city by the king's command, as recorded above, with whom was the learned John the archimandrite, the son of Aphthonia, (and he wrote a record of the discussions), the king would not banish the Synod of Chalcedon from the Church, while he summoned by letter the holy Severus the chief priest, who was hiding in various places. And, since he rejected the king's request and refused to come to him, the believing bishops who were in Constantinople returned each one of them to any place he chose to hide himself, according as he judged convenient for him.

And ⁸⁹ then after a time, in the year thirteen,⁹⁰ after many letters from the king, the holy Severus also came to him and was received, and he was in the palace till March of the year fourteen,⁹¹ while the Diphysite bishops everywhere were disturbed and annoyed and also alarmed, and especially Ephraim of Antioch, until in their anxiety they stirred up Agapetus, chief priest of Rome, who shared their opinions, and invited and brought him to the royal city. Moreover, how it came about and what happened will be made known in a chapter which I am going to write below.

The end of the petition contained in the fifteenth [chapter]⁹² concerning the monks who assembled at Constantinople.⁹³ |254 

CHAPTER XVI

THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK TREATS OF THE DEFENCE, WHICH SEVERUS, WHEN REFUSING TO COME TO THE ROYAL CITY, WROTE IN AN EPISTLE TO THE KING, AS FOLLOWS

"The ⁹⁴ eternal Word of the Father, the Son of God, Who had in the end taken flesh and was not changed, and, moreover, became perfectly man by the Holy Spirit and Mary the holy Virgin, the Theotokos, and in everything was truly made like unto us except sin, fulfilling the teaching of salvation in parables, [sowed] the seed from it in His disciples, that they too and all throughout the whole world who by their means received the word, if anything that was good sprang up from it in the way of righteousness and pious deeds, might ascribe this not to themselves but to the power of that which He sowed in the beginning, as by grace, and, when among valleys and boulders and stone rocks in the wilderness, might with loud and strong voices cry out, making utterance. Similarly, therefore, has your serene Mightiness also sown the seed of kindliness that is in my vileness, and has caused this letter to spring forth from me; not as the offspring of presumption, for how was it possible that in answer to the powerful and strong voice of your Majesty, which reached my ears, an utterance should not be emitted by me? For, when those who bitterly despised my vileness thought that they had everywhere shut the doors in my face without mercy, then indeed, as by an unexpected miracle, you by your letter summon me to yourself, me, a man who am, as it were, driven about and banished by enemies. And this same thing is like God, who to them that were pursued by foemen, when they thought themselves |255 shut in and caught by them, provided a broad way of safety, worthy of His wisdom and His great might; a way which worked a miracle upon Far'oh, who had let them go after their long time of subjection, and again pursued after them to bring them into subjection to his. hard yoke, and with his horsemen surrounded them in the wilderness of the Sea of Rushes and barred the way, thinking in his heart and saying, 'These men are entangled in the land, for the wilderness hath shut them in."⁹⁵ But the marvellous God to those who thought themselves hemmed in by warriors made a way of grace over the sea dry, that they might cross it on foot; who commanded Moses to raise his staff over the sea and cause it to be divided. And so in close resemblance to these things you also with your Majesty's wand of peace have divided the sea in the wilderness which hemmed me in; and the way which, it was thought, could not be traversed you have again caused to be traversed by me.

"And it is a great proof of your gentleness that you unhesitatingly indited your letter to me even with oaths, promising me immunity from injury; in this also after the manner of God, because He too, condescending to the weakness of men, oftentimes sent forth His promises with oaths, as Scripture teaches, and Paul made mention of it, saying, 'When God made promise to Abraham, because He had none greater than Himself by whom He could swear, He sware by Himself and said, "Blessing, I will bless thee; and multiplying, I will multiply thee."'⁹⁶ But I, the vile one, am bold to say that I was in no need of such security, since I trust the word that comes out of your mouth only, believing it to be a perfect safeguard to me, even as the wise Koheleth said, 'Observe the mouth of the king, and be not anxious in regard to the word of the oaths of God.'⁹⁷ But I have confidence in the test which springs from the deeds which in truth bear witness more than oaths to your peacefulness as well as to your inclination to the mercies which belong to a gentle |256 soul. For, as soon as you have taken upon yourself the cares of the kingdom, you release from sorrow all classes of men sentenced to exile, chief priests and magnates and common people, having regard to that which is equally esteemed by all men, the light of the sun, and rain, and the temperate air which it brings, and the other things which are required for and conduce to the life of men.

"But I will not, by drinking from the copiousness of this rich stream of your gentleness, cause myself to err, and be rendered proud; but I have determined to declare what is in my mind. For I am afraid lest, if my meanness be openly seen in the royal city, many persons may be alarmed, and, though I am in truth nothing but merely a vile person bound under this heavy yoke of sins, when they hear of this, many persons may be roused to anger and inflamed by this paltry anxiety, as by a little coal of fire, so as to trouble and annoy even your Mightiness owing to your affection towards me : and I think that it will not seem to you fitting nor to others profitable. Now this I say, not as though I had any power against your Majesty's Mightiness, for it is written, 'When a righteous king sitteth upon a throne, no evil riseth up against his eyes,'⁹⁸ but because I am persuaded that, as this power belongs to you by grace from on high, so you are clad in understanding and wisdom, and make it your endeavour to do many things, not by this sword, but by sagacity befitting kingship. And this we are taught by the Scripture, which says, 'A wise king winnoweth and scattereth the wicked.'⁹⁹ And, just as it is easy for those who are winnowed by the wind, which blows away the chaff, to hold aloof from sinners, so also is it simple for your serenity, my lord, with the all-considering heart and with |257 the mercy of a gracious father, to separate those that are under subjection to you from those of the contrary part, in order that the Churches in union may be reckoned worthy of friendship. For I know that it was for this reason also that you judged it right that my feebleness too should come to your feet, because, when also you reckoned this same thing worthy of a letter from you to the pious bishops of the East, who are men that pray for the safety and preservation of your Majesty, they also, after they had written to you what they thought, informed my feebleness of this your will, urging us according to the custom of the Church to help you by prayer on your behalf.

"Now in your great city of Alexandria nothing has been done by me of the things falsely asserted against me. And it is easy for me to show the folly of the informers; for they have slandered me, saying that by means of a large sum of gold which I distributed there, I stirred up riotous contention. And this same thing is known to those who hate me greatly that, though involved in the passions of other sins, I do not seek hastily to amass money; and this by no light reasons, but my life is habitually frugal, insomuch that not even the renowned bishopric drew me away from this habit. For, as it is the approved custom for a priest to perform priestly functions, in the same way it is the approved custom for him to be poor: wherefore also the law given by Moses ordained that the chosen tribe of Levi should have no inheritance in the land, but for their necessary food the appropriated oblation should be sufficient, being associated in this with |258 the widows and the needy and the orphans, because they are accustomed to poverty, saying, 'And the Levite shall come (because he hath no part or inheritance with thee), and the stranger and the orphan and the widow, which are in thy villages, and they shall eat and rejoice; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all thy works which thou cloest.' ¹⁰⁰ But, since, as it is written, 'Righteous lips are acceptable to the king, and he loveth upright speech,'¹⁰¹ your Mightiness may learn from the governors who have been at any time in Alexandria, and now from their officials, whom nothing escapes, whether anything of the kind has been done by me even in word, or has been reported to have been done, as they have falsely and maliciously asserted of me. But about these informers I will not say anything, because it does not escape your knowledge what kind of men they are: but I await a judgment with them, after we have been separated from this world of toil, before the tribunal of Christ, where we shall give an account for idle words and for vain thoughts; and especially shall we bishops, to whom much has been intrusted, be judged, although here we delight in bodily things and dally in them.

"But, if some apply the term turbulence to what I wrote to Julian, bishop of Halicarnassus, who has been perverted to the heresy of the Manichees and reckons the voluntary saving passions of Christ, the great God, as a phantasy, I do with ten thousand mouths and tongues confess and do not deny what I wrote, even as no one will hastily order me to deny my faith: for this is the opinion of your orthodoxy also, who more than the affairs of the world care to hold fast the things which belong to the Spirit. And I was not impelled to do this by my own will or my own motion, but I was greatly pressed by him to write, because he thought that I agreed with his doctrine. For, when I had gone through what he sent to me (and I am far away from Alexandria), in the things which |259 he wrote I found that under the name of incorruptibility he covered, as it were with a sheepskin, the blasphemies of Mani, because there are many things which I will forbear to mention. "This foolish man, who confesses the passions with his lips only, hiding his impiety, wrote thus: 'Incorruptibility was always attached to the body of our Lord, which was passible of His own will for the sake of others.' And in brotherly love I wrote and asked him : 'What do you mean by "incorruptible," and "suffered of His own will for the sake of others," and "was attached to the body of our Lord," if without any falsehood you confess it to be by nature passible? For, if by the incorruptibility possessed by it you mean holiness without sin, we all confess this with you, that the holy body from the womb which He united to Himself originally by the Holy Spirit of the pure Virgin, the Theotokos, was conceived and born in the flesh without sin and conversed with us men, because "He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth," ¹⁰² according to the testimony of the Scriptures. But, if you call impassibility and immortality incorruptibility, and say that the body which suffered in the flesh on our behalf was not one that was capable of suffering with voluntary passions and dying in the flesh, you reduce the saving passions on our behalf to a phantasy; for a thing which does not suffer also does not die, and it is a thing incapable of suffering.' ¹⁰³ And upon receiving such remarks as these from me he openly refused to call the holy body of Emmanuel passible in respect of voluntary passions; and therefore he did not hesitate to write thus, without shame and openly: 'We do not call Him of our nature in respect of passions, but in respect of essence. Therefore, even if He is impassible, and even if He is incorruptible, yet He is of our nature in respect of nature.'" |260 

And the rest of the erring fatuity of Julian, which is contained at great length in the epistle, I forbear to record now, matters which are to be found in the many books which this holy Severus composed against Julian.

But at the end of the epistle he wrote, saying thus : "I therefore entreat you and take hold of your feet, again repeating the request that you will leave my meanness alone, and not again bring me forth among men, because I am enfeebled in my body and in my mind; wherefore also I am weak, since true are the words of Scripture which say, 'The mind falleth among blows(?).' And there are now many white hairs on my head, which bear witness to me of death, the departure from this weary life, and it appears to me to be a thing very good and beneficial to sit hidden in a corner and bear in my mind the separation of soul from body, awaiting my grave; for 'the earth is the home of everyone that dieth,'¹⁰⁴ as Job said; because in the case of other animals who live on the earth their hair does not change, but in the case of this rational animal, man, because he was destined to come to judgment and have his deeds examined in the future world, as soon as he reaches old age, the hair of his head turns white, such appearance making announcement to him and inciting him, as far as those who have delayed are concerned, to prepare his deeds for his departure; and the Scripture also bears testimony to him, saying, 'Lift up thine eyes and look on the fields, for they are white and prepared for harvest';¹⁰⁵ for the separation of the soul from the body is in truth a harvest, and, as with a sickle, He cutteth it away from it, and it is bereft. So I beg that your Mightiness will grant me this simple request, that I may dwell hidden where I am, because the |261 rest of my days in the world I am determined to live in secret, as in a corner; for such is the life of a monk.

"May Christ, who is God over all, give you dominion over your enemies, with perfect peace and concord among the Churches, that you may be crowned with this also. And, if I am committing any fault or presumption in this my letter of petition, I entreat you to forgive me, as on other points; for it is very becoming in a Christ-loving king to overcome evil with good, as the apostle said,¹⁰⁶ a duty which you display in deed, and are therefore rightly called Victorious."

The signature of Severus to the epistle—

"May the only Trinity, for that is our God, preserve your orthodoxy many years, keeping the dominion of the commonwealth of the Romans in peace, and may He bring every nation of Romans and barbarians into subjection to you, and grant to the holy Churches by your means perfect concord in sound faith; and may He reckon you worthy to receive a crown in the kingdom of heaven."

Now after this epistle the holy Severus remained till the year thirteen,¹⁰⁷ and then came to the royal city, because he was pressed by letters from the king.

CHAPTER XVII

THE. SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER, CONCERNING AFRICA, WHICH WAS CONQUERED BY BELISARIUS THE GENERAL

When in the summer of the year eleven¹⁰⁸ Rufinus and Hermogenes, the master of the offices, had by the help of our Lord made peace between the Romans and the Persians on the terms contained in the written treaty, and the Roman generals and army in the East had come to the royal city, they received blame from the king and incurred his displeasure, |262 because they had not acted worthily of the high honour and rank which he had bestowed on them by showing themselves brave and astute in the struggle against the Persians, and especially Belisarius, because of the loss of the army under his orders, which had been defeated in battle at Thannuris and on the Euphrates; and he made his defence to the king on the ground of the impatience of the army, and the lack of discipline among the men under him.

Now there were in Constantinople certain magnates from Africa, who, owing to a quarrel which they had with the prince of the land, had left their country and taken refuge with the king, and they gave him information about the country and incited him, saying that it was very extensive and very peaceful, and that it had no thought of a war with the Romans, but was engaged in a struggle with the Moors, a people who are settled in the desert and live by robbery and devastation like the Saracens. And they pointed out to the king that this country had been torn and snatched from the Roman Empire since the days of Zirzeric, who took Rome, and also carried off valuable objects of gold and silver and other precious substances, and withdrew to Carthage in Africa, a distinguished city, which he took and occupied; and he settled there, and stored and placed the treasures in it.

And so the king made ready an army under Belisarius and Martin and Archelaus the prefect, and many ships carrying arms and accoutrements (?) for the army; and they sailed over the sea; and, because God willed this expedition and assisted it, they arrived in a few days and suddenly appeared before the royal city of Carthage. And the prince of the land was not there, |263 but was engaged in war with the Moors in the desert; but a small force, which was in the city, which came out and met the Romans, was defeated in battle and was vanquished and retreated. And the city was surrendered, and the Romans entered and occupied it. And they collected spoil; and the prince's treasure was kept for the king of the Romans.

Now the Romans also occupied a few of the cities of the country, because they were betrayed to them by certain men who were with them, who betrayed the country and knew it well; and it¹⁰⁹ is a spacious land, extending over about fifty days' journey, and contains more than one hundred and thirty cities, and is rich and fertile. But the king and the chief priests of the land and the magnates of the people were Arimenites.¹¹⁰

Now, when the prince heard it and came with an army, it was found to be small and contemptible before the Romans; and, when he understood that his kinsmen had been taken, and his magnates had surrendered, and his treasure had been carried away, he was weakened, and on condition that his life should be spared he surrendered. And he was taken away in company with Belisarius in the year twelve,¹¹¹ and was publicly presented to the king in the circus before the people, with the treasure¹¹² and his kinsmen and his magnates. And an ambassador of Khosru, king of the Persians, was there and was present and saw these things. And from that time Africa has been subject to the Romans. And gradually the other cities in the region of Africa were reduced : only the Moors continue their accustomed hostilities there. |264 

CHAPTER XVIII

THE EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, CONCERNING ROME, WHICH WAS TAKEN BY BELISARIUS

Alimeric ¹¹³ the tyrant held possession of Rome by rebellion in the days of Zeno and Anastasius; and he was a warlike man and an able, and he added great strength to the country of Italy, and he rebuilt Rome and kept the barbarians out of it. And he had died, and his successors one after another held and governed the country of the Romans in rebellion against the kingdom of Constantinople.

Now a certain Dominic,¹¹⁴ one of the chief men of the country, had a quarrel with the tyrant, and took refuge with King Justinian, and gave him information about the country. And he was an old man, well read in the Scriptures,¹¹⁵ a Diphysite; and he often engaged in disputation, and I know him. Now the king, having conquered Africa in the manner described above, was eager to conquer Rome also. And, observing that Belisarius had been successful in the war in Africa without doing any injury to the population of the country or diminishing it by bloodshed, but had been content with the necessary demands of tribute, taxes, and subjection, he made ready an army for him and sent him to Rome. And John the chief priest there had died during those days, and Agapetus had succeeded him.

And, when the army had reached a place called Naples, a celebrated city, not far from Rome, and had taken it, the Senate in Rome and their council, together with their chief, were disturbed and afraid, because they had already heard how Carthage and the tyrant of that country of Africa had been conquered; and, observing these things, they anticipated |265 matters by sending a petition, asking for peace, and promising to surrender the city; and later they also sent hostages. And afterwards Belisarius arrived there with the army and was received in the city with the praises of its inhabitants, and he occupied it and did no injury in it. And he was there for a time, while occupying the other cities also and bringing them into subjection to the king, without doing any hurt by slaying or destroying the population. And the king gained renown by these things and rejoiced in the year fourteen.

CHAPTER XIX

THE NINETEENTH CHAPTER, CONCERNING SEVERUS, WHO AGAIN WENT UP TO CONSTANTINOPLE AND APPEARED BEFORE THE KING

Now ¹¹⁶ the well-tried Severus, after receiving pressing summonses from the king, at last came to Constantinople in the year fourteen,¹¹⁷ and was received in a friendly manner in the palace by the king, who was disposed ¹¹⁸ and incited thereto by Theodora the queen, who was devoted to Severus, and he was honourable and venerable in her eyes. And, Epiphanius, the chief priest of the city, having died, Anthimus had succeeded him; and he was an ascetic man and a practiser of poverty, and a friend of the needy and a believer. He was bishop of Trebizond, and, happening for some reason to be present there, and being a man of virtuous character and known to the king and the magnates for his chastity, he was appointed patriarch; and he would not receive the Synod of Chalcedon into the faith. |266 

And in Alexandria, after Gaian had been driven out, who was a Julianist, and was there for three months after the death of Timothy, Theodosius became bishop, a man of conspicuous faith and learned and kind and gentle; and he was an acquaintance and a friend of the holy Severus.

When these three chief priests were joined together in love, and in faith were not divided from one another, Ephraim ¹¹⁹ of Antioch was alarmed and greatly disturbed, and yet more so because Peter of Jerusalem was not of his own inclination a lover of discord or a heretic, although through weakness and lack of energy and vigour he conducted himself according to the times.

Now¹²⁰ it happened that in those days Sergius,¹²¹ an archiatros of Rhesaina, went up to Antioch to make a complaint against Asylus,¹²² the bishop of that city, telling Ephraim the patriarch that he had been injured by him. And this man was a man of eloquence and practised in the reading of many books of the Greeks and in the teaching of Origen, while for some time he had been reading commentaries on the Scriptures by other doctors in Alexandria (and he was skilled in the Syriac tongue, reading and speaking) and books of medicine. And of his own inclination he was a believer, to which evidence is also borne by the prologue and the very apt translation of Dionysius which he made ¹²³ and the treatise composed by him on the faith in the days of the illustrious Peter, the believing bishop. However, as regards his character, this Sergius was very |267 wanton in the lust of women, and he was incontinent and not chaste, while he was greedy in respect of the love of money.

Of this man Ephraim made trial, and, finding him to be a man of experience, promised to do for him anything that he asked, if he would go as his emissary to Rome with an epistle to Agapetus, the chief priest there, and return. And he accepted. And he was furnished with presents by Ephraim, and received a letter for the man, while he was accompanied by a lad named Eustace, an architect, from Amida, who spreads about a strange story about Sergius; but, lest it should do harm to the reader, I do not record it.

These men also accordingly came to Rome to Agapetus, and they delivered the epistle and were received; and the man was pleased with their epistle, in which he found agreement with his opinions. And he came with them to Constantinople in the month of March in the year fourteen; and Severus was there, and Anthimus was chief priest. And the whole city was disturbed at the arrival of Agapetus;¹²⁴ and the earth with all that is upon it quaked; and the sun began to be darkened by day and the moon by night, while ocean was tumultuous with spray (?) from the 24th of March in this year till the 24th of June in the following year fifteen.¹²⁵ And Agapetus, when he appeared before the king, had a splendid reception from him, because he spoke the same language and was chief priest of the country of Italy, which had been |268 conquered and brought into subjection to him. And he was instructed in the outward words of Scripture but did not understand its meaning; and he held an ignoble opinion upon the Incarnation of Jesus, our Lord Christ, God the Word, and he would not consent to call the Virgin Mary the Theotokos, and divided the unity into two natures, since he held the priority of the conception of the babe, like those of the school of Diodorus and Nestorius. And he abstained from communion with Anthimus and Severus, and they yet more from communion with him; and one of them he called an adulterer and the other a Eutychianist: and he perverted the love of the king towards them and made him hostile to them; and he drove them from the city.

And ¹²⁶ Anthimus and Severus and Theodosius of Alexandria made union with one another ¹²⁷ in epistles, which we have set down below; and Anthimus and Severus left the city to live each of them in hiding wherever was convenient for him.

Now Menas became bishop in the royal city after Anthimus. And Sergius the archiatros died suddenly there, and Agapetus died after him in those days by a miracle, his tongue being eaten away and rending him in his lifetime;¹²⁸ and Silverius became bishop in Rome after him.

CHAPTER XX

THE TWENTIETH CHAPTER, THE EPISTLE OF SEVERUS TO THE ORDER OF PRIESTS AND MONKS IN THE EAST, TREATING OF HIS EXPULSION FROM THE ROYAL CITY

"To¹²⁹ the God-loving presbyters and deacons and |269 archimandrites and priors and all the holy order of monks in the East Severus greeting in our Lord.

"That I have passed outside the city which is ruler among cities and beyond the pursuit of men, some of you, O holy ones, being present, have seen with their own eyes, I who have reckoned it right to indite this short letter on my part and to stir you up to the expression (?) of thanksgiving for what I even reckon as my glory (?), and to state clearly that the actions of the divine providence towards us are in truth beneficial to us for the preservation of the orthodox faith and the formation of a new will, with which, as one may say, it is right to clothe oneself after the fashion of a new garment, and for shunning every heretical opinion and contention. For Jacob also the patriarch, the great in endurance of labours and in trust in God, when he fled from intercourse with the barbarians in Sh'khem and from the dangers that surrounded him there, urged those that dwelt with him to the same course to which I have urged you, as he says in Scripture: 'And Jacob said to his household and to all them that were with him, Put away from among you the strange gods, and be clean, and change your garments: and let us arise and go up to Beth El and build there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of distress and delivered me in the way which I went.'¹³⁰ For he has in truth delivered me from all the expectation of the adversaries, who hate me without a cause, and mocked at me and wagged their heads and said, as in Job, 'His foot hath fallen into a gin, and he hath been caught in a net. Let gins come upon him, and they shall prevail against him, as thirsting for him. His noose is hid in the |270 ground, and the net is over his paths.' ¹³¹ But, as for the wickedness of these men, it is not sated with blood; the Christ-worshipping queen was a sufficient protection for me, and God, who through your prayers directed her to that which is good in His sight, even as He cries in Isaiah the prophet to those that trust in Him, 'Fear not, because I have delivered thee. I have called thee by thy name, because thou art Mine. If thou pass through water, I am with thee, and rivers shall not overflow thee; and in fire thou shalt not be burned, and flame shall not scorch thee. Because I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, that delivereth thee.' ¹³²

"And He that said these things has not only given me a marvellous deliverance, but has further also added an addition to the portion of the believers, to say truth, to the portion of the Lord and to the possession of His inheritance, Israel, that it may not be as those whom the Scripture blames, saying, 'Ye shall sow your seed in vain.'¹³³ For the pious Anthimus, archbishop of the royal city, who received the chief chair, even when he was in possession of it, would not retain it, but in upright fashion and with true judgment and knowledge hated the impiety of these men, and accepted the communion of us and of Pope Theodosius of Alexandria and of all the pastors who belong to our confession. Accordingly they vainly lead men astray who say that they do not receive the Synod of Chalcedon in respect of the definition of faith, but in respect of the rejection of Eutyches and Nestorius, clokes which Flavian also used but did not succeed in leading your zeal astray, and you were not overreached by Satan, and are able to say like Paul, 'His devices do not escape us.'" ¹³⁴

And so on with the rest of the epistle. |271 

CHAPTER XXI

FIRST CHAPTER, THE EPISTLE OF ANTHIMUS TO SEVERUS OF ANTIOCH

"To¹³⁵ our pious and holy brother and fellow-minister, the patriarch, my lord . Severus, Anthimus greeting in our Lord.

"Bearing in my mind the utterance of the Lord which says, 'To whomsoever much has been committed, from him shall much be required,' ¹³⁶ and the saying of the Psalmist, 'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in His holy place?'¹³⁷ and the apostle, who ordains of what sort a man must be who is set apart for God, I have been in no small fear. For, if those great patriarchs called themselves, one 'dust and ashes'¹³⁸ and another 'a worm and no man,' ¹³⁹ what shall I say, the small and contemptible, who have attained to the height of this ministry without being worthy of it? For the disturbance of the holy Churches also agitates my soul greatly; for certain men, being held fast in sins and, as if displaying an appearance of avoiding variation and confusion, which does not exist, wantonly divide God the Word, who is one and indivisible, and became incarnate without variation. And for this reason I am in great sorrow, as it is said in the Psalmist, 'Sorrow hath taken hold upon me because of the sinners that have forsaken Thy law.'¹⁴⁰ But trust in God gives me joy, and I believe that He will surely perform His promises and will give us all that we mean creatures need, not because we are His friends but because of importunity, and He will make requisition for all His elect; who has also for a long time preserved your Holiness from sins |272 through your apostolic contests and labours and your spiritual teachings, which by grace have been vouchsafed unto you, as a stone that cannot be moved, as well as us, His holy Churches, to be an invariable foundation of the faith. It is therefore the same God who assigns exaltation to the lowly and greatness to the small and strength to the weak, as the divine apostle says, 'By grace are we all justified.' ¹⁴¹ And these things, being by divine power made strong in weakness, have by an ineffable judgment brought our weakness also to be ruler in the holy Church in this royal city. Acknowledging therefore His grace, we beg you, pious one, to entreat Christ our God to assist our worthlessness; and, because different men have different marks, the mark of priests is also the preaching of the gospel, for, 'Speak,' He says, 'priests, and, when you go up upon the high mountains, make proclamation.' ¹⁴²

"In this first spiritual and love-abounding greeting I communicate with you, O holy one; for, while rejoicing in union and. also in conjunction with you and in spiritual ties in accordance, with the laws of the Church, I declare that I cleave to the one only definition of faith, that which was laid down by the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers who assembled at Nicaea under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and to this I pray that I may cleave unto the end; which definition was ratified by the Synod of one hundred and fifty holy fathers which assembled in this royal city against the impious fighters against the Spirit; and not only so, but also by the holy Synod which assembled at Ephesus against the impious Nestorius, the leaders of which were the archbishops, memorable for piety and love of God, Celestine of the Romans and. Cyril of Alexandria, who in his twelve chapters overthrew Nestorius the man-worshipper. To these chapters I assent together with all his writings and embrace |273 them as a holy law, while together with these holy teachings of Cyril I receive also the formula of. Zeno uniting the Churches, which aims at the consummation of religion for the annulling of the Synod of Chalcedon and the impious Tome of Leo. I confess that God the Word, who was begotten before the ages of God the Father, the only Son, connatural and coeternal with the Father, through whom all things were made and through whom all things were established, the Light of Light, the invariable image and invisible will of the Father, in the last days became incarnate and became perfectly man of the Holy Spirit and of the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, and united to Himself personally flesh of our nature, having a rational and intellectual soul, and without variation and confusion and sin took our resemblance upon Him. For He remained immutable as God, and even in assuming our attributes He did not at the same time also diminish His own divine properties; and that which was derived from us He made His own by dispensation by a junction consisting in a natural union. For He who was begotten without time and without a body of God the Father, the same submitted to a second birth in a body; and, after He had in an ineffable manner become incarnate of a virgin mother, she that bore Him also continued a virgin even after the birth. Wherefore also we truly confess her to be the Theotokos, and that He who was born of her in the flesh is perfect God and perfect man, the same out of two natures one Son, one Lord, one Christ, and one nature of the incarnate Word; and He became perfectly man, while each one of the natures remained without confusion in its sphere of manifestation, the natures which combined to form an indivisible unity. So also He is very rightly one of the holy and connatural Trinity, before the Incarnation and after the Incarnation, inasmuch as He did not add a number to the Trinity, the number of a quaternity; and He is impassible in that He is of the nature of the |274 Father, but passible in the flesh in that He is of our nature. For God the Word did not suffer in His own nature, but in flesh of our nature; and He who personally united this to Himself suffers in our likeness. And Gregory the Theologian defined the matter and called Him impassible in the Godhead, passible in the assumption of flesh.¹⁴³ And He is one and the same in the miracles and also in the passions; and by dispensation He made our passions His own, voluntary and innocent ones, in flesh which was passible and mortal and of our nature, intellectually and rationally possessed of a soul. And this all the time of the dispensation He allowed to be passible and mortal for the purpose mentioned above with respect to His Humanisation, I mean that He suffered not in semblance but in reality. For in the flesh that was capable of suffering He endured voluntary and natural and innocent passions and the death by the Cross; and by a miracle befitting God, that of the Resurrection, He made and rendered it impassible and immortal and in every way therefore incorruptible, since it came from the union and existence in the womb, which was holy and without sin. While recognising, therefore, the distinction between the elements which have combined to form the unity of nature, I mean the divine and the human nature, we do not separate them from one another; also we do not cut the One and ineffable into or in two natures, nor yet do we confound Him by rejecting the distinction between the Godhead and the manhood, but we confess Him to be one out of two, Emmanuel.

"And, thus believing and taking my stand upon this belief, as upon a rock, I also anathematise the deviations from the truth which have been made by both sides, and the impious and erring men who went before them as their |275 leaders (I refer to Valentine and Marcion and Arius and Macedonius and Eunomius and Apollinaris and Eutyches), and those also who owing to the union with the Word have vainly and impiously confessed the flesh which was derived from us and was personally united to God the Word to be impassible and immortal, and have introduced a semblance and a phantasy as belonging to the great mystery of the immutable and veritable Humanisation of the Lord; and I anathematise also Paul of Samosata and Photinus and Diodorus and Theodore and Nestorius, and also Theodoret and Andrew and Hibo and Eutherius and Alexander of Hierapolis and Irenaeus the twice-married and Cyrus and John ¹⁴⁴ and Bar Tsaumo the Persian and the Synod of Chalcedon and the Tome of Leo and those who say that He is made known and exists in two natures, i.e. our Lord Jesus Christ after the ineffable union, and do not confess that there is one aspect, one person and nature of God the Word, who became incarnate and became man. On the basis of these apostolic and divine and blameless doctrines, holy brother ours, I give you the right hand of communion, a communion which I will hold fast till my last breath, while I will not consent to hold communion with any man who thinks differently from this, because Basil says, 'He who communicates without discrimination with the foolish is separated from the freedom of Christ.' ¹⁴⁵ For I know that you also, pious one, hold these things fast, and have for a long time laboured. For who is there who in our times has undergone such a contest, removing from place to place, that his faith may not be shaken? And in you I see the doctors of the Church, because you have duly set the lamp |276 visibly on a stand, shining, as you do, in deed and word. It will be worthy therefore of your piety in consideration of these things to gladden us by instruction in return for our letter." And the rest, consisting of the greeting of the epistle.¹⁴⁶

CHAPTER XXII

THE TWENTY-SECOND CHAPTER, THE EPISTLE OF SEVERUS TO ANTHIMUS

"To¹⁴⁷ our all-pious and all-holy brother and fellow-minister, the patriarch Anthimus, Severus greeting in our Lord Jesus Christ our God.

"For the letter ¹⁴⁸ of your chastity Paul the apostle shall give me a precedent for crying aloud in very opportune time, 'Thanks be unto God for His ineffable gift': ¹⁴⁹ for immediately upon your accession to the see of the patriarchal throne of the. Church in the royal city you determined in the exaltation of the primatial see for the sake of the right religion to despise that which to others is an occasion for betraying their faith. For in those who wish to follow the divine commandments and, as it is written, to go after the Lord, the wisdom of the Most High places fitting thoughts, in deacons and presbyters and patriarchs according to the order of their priesthood; insomuch that the patriarch Abraham, after he had settled in many and divers countries, came to a certain country and drank copiously from a well that sprang from it, which was named the Well of Oaths, because he made oaths and treaties with the barbarians who lived near the country, and he planted fair and fruitful plantations; and, lest his thoughts should be dissipated in them, he called there upon the name of the Lord, the everlasting God, and, as he said to Him, 'Thy thoughts shall not go after the beauty of things that are seen and forget God in the pleasant delight of the sight, |277 for He alone is from everlasting, and hath made the things that are seen bright to the eyes and pleasant to the taste': and Scripture goes on to relate thus: 'Abraham planted a piece of land by the Well of Oaths and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God' ¹⁵⁰ (and some have explained it to be wood-land and some plantation-land). In the same way, therefore, your piety after having settled in other countries has come to the head of the oaths, as to a piece of land fair in produce, I mean the see of the royal city, which is rich in the pomp of the world, and drinks from the plentiful abundance of the stream. And, when you perceived that certain men wish to be perverted to a reprobate mind, differing from the pure unadulterated coinage, well tried in the orthodox faith, you did not allow the eyes of your mind to go astray through the beauty of the world and the splendour of its vanities, which pass away; but, after the pattern of the patriarch Abraham, you called there upon the name of the Lord, the everlasting God, whose merciful Word became incarnate and became man, that is, in order that the second Adam might in truth die the death that had prevailed over us and overthrow its eternal dominion, a death which it was not possible for impassible and immortal flesh to endure, because that which is impassible and immortal is not capable of suffering and dying. For, if He did not die our death for our sins and destroy this |278 death in flesh resembling our passions ¹⁵¹ when He rose from the dead, we are strangers and alien to the benefit of the Resurrection. For 'Christ died for our sins,' ¹⁵² cries Paul; and again, 'Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For, as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all live';¹⁵³ and again, 'Since the children partook of flesh and blood, He also in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, Satan, and might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime under subjection to bondage. For He received not of angels, but of the seed of Abraham did He receive. Wherefore it was right that in all things He should be made like unto His brethren.'¹⁵⁴ Now the seed of Abraham was the passible body of our race, which God the Word, the Ruler of All, united to Himself personally from the Holy Virgin, in order that with Him He might raise our race, which had fallen under the power of death, inasmuch as He was the firstfruits of our race. So also, since He is one nature and person, it is manifest that the incarnate Word of God of His own will endured the assay and assault of human and natural and innocent passions. And the signs, even the human ones, He utters in a divine fashion (?),¹⁵⁵ and performs some of them in a manner befitting God and some in human fashion. And we do not on account of the difference of the energies and the utterances and the miracles and the passions fall into the division of the two natures after the ineffable union and divide these things, the utterances and tokens and energies, forasmuch as we know that it is the same who wrought the miracles and who suffered and spoke in a divine manner and after the dispensation. |279 

"These, to speak briefly, are the foundations on which the faith and confession of Christ rest, and 'to them nothing can be added, and from them nothing can be taken away.' ¹⁵⁶ I ¹⁵⁷ use opportunely in connexion with these things the holy words of Koheleth, and with application to those who have swerved from the king's highway and have gone in a crooked way and rejoice in evil perversity, but, as the Scripture said, 'in the Spirit which speaks parables,' ¹⁵⁸ according to the law which was before delivered unto the Church by the apostles."

And again a little lower down in the epistle he says,¹⁵⁹ "On these terms I undertake to participate in communion and also in inseparable conjunction with your piety and with those only who hold and also preach these things with you, and those who hold or say anything different I reject as strangers and aliens to our communion; and I avoid the foolishness that is in these men, as also your messenger said, as a thing that makes us alien to the boldness of Christ and supplies many with an occasion to sin. But, as one of those men of wisdom in divinity also says, 'By reason of foolishness many have sinned.'¹⁶⁰ For, if so be that we stand upon this watch-tower and place of observation and proclaim this to those who are under our power, we shall hear from them combs of honey, even good words, and the sweetness of them is healing to the soul.

"Since therefore you have chosen for yourself to contend in a good struggle and have confessed a good confession, cry out like the prophet Habakkuk, ' I will stand upon my watch |280 and walk upon a rock,' ¹⁶¹ and despise them that strive below. And, if so be they place you under curses and anathemas, say to God with David with great fitness, 'They shall curse, and Thou shalt be blessed: let them that rise up against me be ashamed, but Thy bond-servant shall rejoice.'¹⁶² For also those who profess a sound faith according to the utterance of the apostle 'are come unto Mount Tsiyon, and unto the city of the living God, unto Jerusalem in heaven, and to innumerable companies of angels, and to the Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.' ¹⁶³ Now, how can a man, shooting from the earth, hit those that are in the Church that is in heaven and mingle with it? For in vain will he toil and without profit will he stretch his bow, even if he dare to shoot upwards; for upon himself will the arrows that are shot come down : for we listen also to one of the wise men, who says thus: 'He that casteth a stone upwards casteth against his own pate';¹⁶⁴ only if so be we continue unto the end, armed in the breastplate of the right faith and girt about in every place with all kinds of spirits. Now of this conjunction with your piety, which has been brought about for us by this canonical letter, tending both to unity of spirit and to be a bond of peace, as the apostle said,¹⁶⁵ I will send information to our fellow-minister my lord Theodosius, the holy Pope and archbishop of the 'great and Christ-loving city of Alexandria, who labours in apostolic fashion, and undergoes a contest and stands in danger on behalf of the true word, and increases the efficacy of the talents intrusted to him every day by means of industry, and rejoices constantly in the manifestation of them. And do you write to him, |281 even as you have written to us, and grasp him with the same hands of concord, and write and enter into communication with him by a communicatory letter in accordance with the rules and laws of the holy Church. Wherefore the love of God that is in you should take care to perform your part towards him also, and it shall be to you, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, 'a wall and an outwork'; ¹⁶⁶ as shall come to pass. And greet your brotherhood. That which is with me greets you in our Lord."

CHAPTER XXIII

THE TWENTY-THIRD CHAPTER, THE EPISTLE OF SEVERUS TO THEODOSIUS

"To ¹⁶⁷ our all-pious and all-holy brother and fellow-minister, the chief priest", my lord Theodosius, Severus greeting in our Lord.

"In the Book of the Judges, which is the Book of the Tribes, he said that the tribe of Judah invited the tribe of Simeon his brother to community of lots, urging him, as to brotherly assistance, in these words: 'And Judah said unto Simeon his brother, Come with me into my lot, and let us fight with the Canaanites; and I likewise will go into thy lot. And Simeon went with him.'¹⁶⁸ But I invite your person, holy brother, not to the community of war and fighting and to give a helping hand for the sake of lots of inheritance, but rather to the community of peace and concord, and on account of a gain made by the Church which Christ, even God, purchased with His own blood, a wonderful addition. For the holy Anthimus, the chief priest, who has been judged worthy to tend the Church of the royal city, severing the bonds and snares of the bitterness of the heretics, and repelling now their deceitful arts, now his open attacks,¹⁶⁹ has embraced our |282 communion, holding the sound and pure faith. And to my meanness he has sent a letter, containing a covenant of communion upon a perfectly orthodox confession, and he has anathematised by name everyone who is a heretic and an alien; and his mind is not estranged from the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, which our spiritual fathers left as holy laws, upon which we all ought to gaze earnestly and say, like the enduring Job, 'Gazing upon righteousness, I will not turn away.' ¹⁷⁰ So I eagerly and with goodwill welcomed this event which has happened as the gift of God, and I repeated the saying of the divine Scripture, 'This day we know that the Lord is with us, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the power of God is mighty.' ¹⁷¹ For this is written in Joshua the son of Nun.

"And it would indeed have been right that the holy archbishop Anthimus should first apply to your evangelical throne and offer to you the firstfruits of concord; but the necessity of this time and the distance of the country and the hurry of events changed the due order of things; and because this was done in secret; for as a wise doctor of divine doctrines you know what is written in the record by John the Theologian rather than Evangelist,¹⁷² that the disciples were assembled with the doors shut for fear of the Jews, and that the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, while the doors were shut, appeared inside by a miracle, and stood in the midst and said, ' Peace be with you.'¹⁷³

"I have therefore attached to this letter a copy of my own letter of concord and that of the God-loving chief priest, the man above mentioned, which were composed under fear of the Jews, and have sent them to your Holiness. But the religious presbyter and steward, Theopompus,¹⁷⁴ also has certainly already given you an account of this proceeding (for he also has communicated with you ¹⁷⁵ in this counsel and |283 action), because I believed that the love of God that is in you would rejoice and exult over it, especially when you met with the canonical letters containing the covenants.

"But know, O pious brother, beloved by me above all things, that these demands of the Chalcedonians differ in no way whatever from the promised covenant of Nahash the Ammonite, which he wished to make with the Children of Israel, who said to him, 'Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee'; but he cruelly and barbarously returned answer, 'On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that you pluck out all your right eyes; and I will lay a reproach upon Israel.' ¹⁷⁶ We are therefore in need of 'much watching and of immutable faith, and of prayers and entreaties that He that keeps Israel will not slumber nor sleep, and that He will turn the reproach upon those that are rich and boastful, and we may not become 'a scorn and a reproach to them that are round about us,'¹⁷⁷ as David somewhere sings, while falling from divine things, they also confess human things; for no trust is to be placed in unbelievers and enemies of God. But to you, who are understanding in divine things, what is here said is matter of knowledge."

CHAPTER XXIV

THE TWENTY-FOURTH CHAPTER, THE EPISTLE OF THEODOSIUS TO SEVERUS

"To ¹⁷⁸ our all-pious and all-holy brother and fellow-minister, the patriarch, my lord Severus, Theodosius greeting in our Lord.

"O being beloved by me above all things, rock of Christ, and guardian of the pure faith who cannot be shaken, very excellent is the blessing granted to our time, which has displayed your spiritual constancy to the holy Churches of God. We are also in good hope and are confident that the blameless pattern of your virtue, which we possess, will be preserved |284 for you. But I do not know which of your virtues to admire; for what is there among your qualities which is either defective or which stands in need of superfluous description? If so be I admire the severe manner of your lovely life, the virtue of chastity attracts me to it, and the glorious purity of right faith, which justly demands to be placed before them all, and your life of labours endured for a long time for God's sake, and your flight from place to place, and the fact that in everything you have chosen to suffer, in order that we may not be perverted from the right faith. In the same faith how many times have you under stress of events boldly cried with Paul, 'Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution?' ¹⁷⁹ But in what category shall we place the exactitude of your teaching, whereby those that err are reproved and deceit is plucked out by the roots, while those that believe are delivered and are planted into the right faith? And it seems to me as if I heard Christ, even God, saying to you what He said to Jeremiah the divine prophet: 'Behold! I have put My words in thy mouth. Behold! I have this day set thee over nations and over kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant'; ¹⁸⁰ and again what He said about Paul: 'He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the nations, and before kingdoms, and before all Israel.' ¹⁸¹

"These are your qualities, O divine father,— qualities which it is perhaps easy to admire, but difficult to carry fully into action, even as now also by the watchful labours of your pious soul good deeds have been done to the Church of God. For in Christ Jesus those who were before far off have become near. The pious Anthimus, who will be henceforth renowned for character and faith, the chief priest and true pastor of the Church of the royal city, has of his own will become a communicator with you, pious one, and with us, and walked after our right faith; who has banished and rejected snares and disturbances, and has trampled on transitory and unstable |285 profit, inasmuch as he has learned to believe that human greatness is nothing, and has boldly proclaimed the right and unfailing faith; so that on account of this which has happened how we rejoiced and how we gave thanks to God and what spiritual festival we celebrated, O honoured father ours, it is not possible to say in words.

"Now he has made a firm covenant in a canonical letter and sent it to our evangelical throne, as indeed your Holiness also has already stated even in your honoured letter. And in the things which he has written he has declared the whole exactitude of the sound and right faith, while he has spurned with the anathemas everything that is deceitful and heretical, professing that he holds and proclaims these things with us, and says these things, since he is a communicator with those in whose communion our holy Church also rejoices, and professing that from those from whom we turn away he also turns away. He has therefore mentioned by name and anathematised those other names of the impious heresy, and the impious Synod held at Chalcedon, and the epistle of Leo. And, when we had with all possible care considered the things written to us by the pious man and minutely examined them all, and had found that nothing in them was alien from the right faith, and we saw that there also everyone who is opposed to us was attacked,¹⁸² we all the more admired your judgment upon them; for with the things which were canonically written to you, holy one, by the pious Anthimus upon the divine doctrines we found those also which were written to us to be in accord. Since, therefore, we have found the letter of concord and communion of the holy Anthimus to be of such sort, I will, like the prophet, cry out in due season, 'Let the heavens rejoice from above, and let the clouds sprinkle righteousness,' ¹⁸³ because the Lord has had mercy on His people, and such good reforms have been brought to pass for the holy Church of God.

"With outstretched hand, therefore, we have accepted the event, and on our own part also hasten to conclude similar |286 covenants; and we have admitted the pious man to the closest communion with us, and have indited a return letter to him, in which we have clearly set forth the right faith of the fathers and exposed the evil character of the faith which pollutes feeble understandings. And of the document on account of which we have entered into communion with him, and will give it to any who shall be hereafter, of this we have sent a copy to your fatherhood, because we did not wish that any of your rights should cause you jealousy, and especially those which have to do with our holy Church. And then of necessity I say that the fact that you observe towards the evangelical see the prime honour which is due to it, and express the same in writing, as the things written to me declared you to do, was in truth worthy of your holy soul, which is careful to do everything with judgment and in accordance with the will of God. But I plainly declare my feeling that my chief honour, and one which gives me great joy, is that honour which is justly paid to you by everyone. With confidence, therefore, pious father ours, I unhesitatingly assent to whatever rightly seems good to you with regard to the holy Church, considering that, as befits your fatherhood, you will not cease from action and advice which will be of benefit to the Church.

"But so much for these things. But as to ourselves, O honoured father ours, by what distresses and human humiliation we are now surrounded, every kind of plot being concerted against us, in order that we may either flee of our own accord, or that we may be expelled by force by others, while they may be granted time here also to do their own deeds and lead astray the holy Church, I wished to declare in this letter |287 also (for thus especially should we incite you, who sympathise with us, to prayer on our behalf), but it is not right for us to add load to load and burden to burden. But by only saying this much about the greatness of the stress I make it plain that we are in very truth in need of your pious prayers."

And so on with the rest of the epistle.¹⁸⁴

CHAPTER XXV

THE TWENTY-FIFTH CHAPTER, THE EPISTLE OF ANTHIMUS TO THEODOSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA

"To ¹⁸⁵ our all-pious and all-holy brother and fellow-minister, the patriarch, my lord Theodosius, Anthimus greeting in our Lord.

"Christ Jesus our God, who called simple and unlearned men and fishermen to be apostles and teachers, and called those who were before these from feeding a flock to be kings and prophets, who has chosen weak things and despised things, as the divine apostle said,¹⁸⁶ He it is who has now called me also, the mean one, to the work of this spiritual ministry in the judgments which He knows, to be the head of this holy Church of Constantinople. I therefore, the sinner, remembering the utterance of the Lord spoken through Ezekiel, 'As for thee, son of man, I have given thee as a watchman unto them of the house of Israel; and, if thou hear the word at My mouth, and give forewarning from Me, saying unto the sinner, If thou sin, thou shalt die the death, and thou tell not the sinner, that he may take warning, nor yet the impious, that he may turn from his way and live, the wicked man shall die in his |288 wickedness, but his blood will I require at thine hands,' ¹⁸⁷ and the commandment of the apostle to Timothy about the blameless-ness of the bishop's office, am beset with fear and trembling. And, when besides these things I contemplate also the turmoil which is increasing in the holy Churches and on the side of those who do not believe rightly, because they have reckoned religion as a means of profit for a time, and speak wickedness on high against their head, and divide God the Word, who became incarnate without variation and became perfectly man, I am beset with weeping and groans, and I mourn over myself, because I am unworthy. But trust in God comforts me, as it is said, 'Look at the generations of old and see; who hath trusted in the Lord and been confounded? or who hath abode in His fear and been forsaken? or hath called upon Him and He turned away from him? Because the Lord is compassionate and merciful, and forgiveth sins and saveth in time of affliction.' ¹⁸⁸ Therefore all my hope and my thoughts are set upon Him, that He will see our state and will hear, He who made the eyes and planted the ears, and that He will reprove the turbulence of those who prevent right ways, and will call like the true shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep, because He said, 'No man shall snatch them out of mine hands': ¹⁸⁹ for He foreordained your Holiness to stand at the head of the people of Alexandria the great, and established you as a tiller of the Church, not in calm, but in the turmoil of storms, that you might guide the ship above the waves into the peace of the harbour of Christ our God by the holy and adored Spirit. ¹⁹⁰ For by the prayers of your holy fathers, the former rulers, you have, as it were, received the trust of standing at the head of a people which walks after the teaching of the fathers, and contends for its pastor unto death in word and deed. |289 

"Embracing, therefore, union with you and brotherly unanimity in Christ and the laws of the Church, we declare by this Synodical epistle that we cleave to the one definition of faith, that of our three hundred and eighteen holy fathers at Nicaea, which also the one hundred and fifty who assembled here against the fighters against the Spirit ratified, and to the holy Synod which met at Ephesus with the assent of Celestine and in the presence of Cyril, who in the twelve chapters demolished the doctrine of Nestorius. To these I assent, and I embrace the rest of his writings; and I receive the formula of Zeno uniting the Churches, which aimed at the annulling of the Synod of Chalcedon and of the Tome of Leo. And I confess that God the Word, the only Son, who was begotten of the Father in eternity, through whom all things were made, Light of Light, living image of the Father and sharing His nature, in the last times became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and of Mary the Virgin, and became a man perfectly without variation and confusion, in everything like unto us except sin; and He remained God immutable, and, when He assumed our attributes, He was not diminished in His Godhead; and that which was derived from us He made His own by dispensation by a natural union. For He who was begotten without time and without a body of God the Father, the same underwent a second birth in flesh, inasmuch as in an ineffable manner He became incarnate of a virgin mother; and, after she had borne Him, she continued in her virginity; and we justly confess her to be the Theotokos, and that He who was born of her in the flesh is perfect God and perfect man, the same out of two natures one Son, one Lord, and one Christ, and one nature of God the Word who became incarnate; and each one of the natures which combined to form an indivisible unity remained without confusion. And so He is very rightly one of the holy and connatural Trinity, both before He took flesh and after He took flesh, and a fourth number was not added to the Trinity; and He is impassible in that He is of the nature of the Father, but passible |290 in the flesh in that He is of our nature. For God the Word did not suffer in His own nature, but in flesh of our nature; and He who personally united this to Himself suffered in our likeness. And Gregory the Theologian defined the matter and called Him impassible in His Godhead, passible in the assumption of flesh. ¹⁹¹ And He is one in the miracles, and also in the passions, and by dispensation He made our passions His own, voluntary and innocent ones, in flesh which was passible and mortal after our nature, endowed with a soul and an intellect, and passible and mortal all the time of the dispensation; for He suffered not in semblance but in reality, and in flesh that was capable of suffering He suffered and died on the cross; and by a Resurrection befitting God He made and rendered it impassible and immortal, and in every way incorruptible, since it came from the union of the womb, which was holy and without sin. While recognising, therefore, the distinction between the elements which have combined to form the unity of nature, I mean between the Godhead and the manhood, we yet do not separate them from one another; also we do not cut the One into or in two natures, nor yet do we confound Him by rejecting the distinction between the Godhead and the manhood, but we confess Him to be one out of two, Emmanuel.  

"And, thus believing and taking my stand upon this belief, as upon a rock, I also anathematise the deviations from the truth of such and such men."

And the rest, consisting of the greeting in the epistle. |291 

CHAPTER XXVI

THE TWENTY-SIXTH CHAPTER OF THE NINTH BOOK, THE EPISTLE OF THEODOSIUS TO ANTHIMUS THE CHIEF PRIEST

"To ¹⁹² our all-pious and all-holy brother and fellow-minister, the archbishop and patriarch, my lord Anthimus, Theodosius greeting in our Lord.

"And how else could it have come about that you, a chief priest wise and watchful towards the Creator of all things and their Saviour and God, should in the midst of events openly show yourself crying out like Jeremiah the divine prophet, 'I have not wearied of going after thee, and the day of a man have I not desired,' ¹⁹³ except that you despised such human honour, and placed the observance of religion before all things? The thing, therefore, which has been thus done by your Holiness is great without controversy, and all the believers who have heard of it are already wondering at it, while hereafter also all the bond-servants of the Lord who shall be hereafter will wonder at it, when it is duly proclaimed in all the holy Churches. But it is no higher than the rest of your apostolic and truly sublime and holy life. For it was truly fitting for you, who by unceasing energy in ascetic exercise have mortified your earthly members, that you might speak in the words of Scripture, and with Paul are able to say, 'I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet now not I, but Christ liveth in me,' ¹⁹⁴ after the manner of Moses the great to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of this world, and to choose rather to be afflicted with the people of God than to enjoy the temporal pleasure of sin.¹⁹⁵

"For I, who am feeble, judge that it is on account of my shortcomings that I endure all the troubles which befall me; |292 but, since I am bound to represent the Church which is under the evangelical throne, which is now enduring many ills (and how many it is enduring is not easy to say), therefore in due season I say as the divine Paul said, 'As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also is our consolation great in Christ.' ¹⁹⁶ For the fact that you, the pious chief priest and patriarch of the royal city, should use boldness on behalf of the right and apostolic faith, and should be eager to show that in respect of the strict observance of the divine doctrines you are of one mind and one accord with Severus, the holy patriarch of the Eastern Churches, has almost made me forget in the evangelical see and acceptation of the divine Mark the whole of the troubles which are upon us. For, 'what thanks can we render to God?' ¹⁹⁷ For this apostolic saying also do I use on account of the help with which He has helped His holy Churches, who has now stablished you as a stablisher of these, and as a foremost fighter in the danger to religion. For you have shown, O pious man, that you have dwelling in you the holy utterance of the Lord, which says, 'Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him which is able to destroy soul and body in hell,' ¹⁹⁸ and that you 'reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' ¹⁹⁹ While, therefore, your spiritual light so shines before men, God is glorified in this great increase of those that are being saved, which His true Church receives.

"So it is with joyful exultation and delight that I have canonically received your piety's letter of concord and union, which has just been brought to me, ²⁰⁰ because the holy patriarch Severus above mentioned told me beforehand that it was coming to me, who is the cause of all blessings and benefits to the Church of Christ and to me; and he has also sent me, as befitted him, a copy of what you canonically wrote to one |293 another, which also made it clear that your communion was brought about with great caution and great benefit. And, while inditing this letter with my whole heart, I say the same things to your Holiness which also I wrote to him, ²⁰¹ that I confess as the one definition of faith and accept that which was laid down by our three hundred and eighteen holy fathers at Nicaea through the Holy Spirit, and ratified by the Synod of one hundred and fifty and by that at Ephesus, which was assembled by our father Cyril, who in the twelve chapters rejected Nestorius; and I accept also the formula of Zeno uniting the Churches, which aimed at the annulling of the Synod of Chalcedon and of the Tome of Leo, while I confess that God the Word, of the nature of the eternal Father, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, became incarnate and also became man by the Holy Spirit and of Mary the ever-virgin, in flesh endowed with a soul and an intellect after our nature, and was made like unto us in everything except sin, for, 'sin He did not, neither was guile found in His mouth,' ²⁰² as the Scripture said. For it was right and just that the nature which was vanquished in Adam should in Christ put on a crown of triumph over death. And so also the apostle said, 'Since the children partook of flesh and blood, He also in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, Satan, and might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to sin.' ²⁰³ But, if we were vanquished in another nature, and the Word of God did not partake of it or make the same flesh which was assumed from us and personally united to Him impassible and immortal through the union with Him, as some foolishly say, our faith is vain, because it is no great thing that Satan |294 should be vanquished by the Lord; but in a body which was passible and of our nature He suffered innocent passions, and underwent death, and trampled on the sting of sin, and dissolved the power of death. Now, if He received the seed of Abraham, and in everything was made like unto us His brethren except sin, as the wise Paul said, and through death, which He underwent in His own flesh, vanquished Satan, who had the power of death, while He remained beyond the assault of passions in that He is recognised to be and is justly God, on account of His victory we glory, because we have been delivered from the yoke of bondage. Who is there, therefore, who will not marvel at the accuracy of the divine words, which everywhere supply due direction and in the same words refute the 'semblance' of Eutyches, and those who are like him, and the doctrine of Nestorius? For he says that Christ partook of our likeness in flesh and blood; and, that no one might think that He did so in phantasy, he went on to say that He partook of the same that through death He might bring to naught the power of death.

"Moreover they contend against those who divide the one Christ into two natures by the example of children. For,²⁰⁴ as the child and the man, who is made up of soul and body, is one out of two, and the two are called one nature, though the soul was not converted into flesh nor the body changed into the essence of the soul; so also Christ, who consists of the two elements, the Godhead and also the manhood, which have a perfect existence, each in its proper sphere, is one and is not divided; and the union is not confused in Him in that [He united to Himself personally flesh of our nature and] ²⁰⁵ allowed it in all the dispensation to be passible and mortal (but the same was holy without sin), and by the Resurrection made and rendered it impassible and immortal and in every |295 way incorruptible. For our former father Cyril said, 'He first raised His body in incorruption, and He first exalted it to heaven.' ²⁰⁶ So believing therefore, I anathematise such and such."

And the rest, consisting of the greeting in the epistle.

[Note to the online edition: footnotes have been moved to the end.  Footnotes concerned only with bits of Syriac and Greek have been omitted because of the time it would take to transcribe it.]

1. ¹ Cf. bk. 6, ch. 6.

2. ² 526-7. 

3. ⁴ 537.

4. ¹ The text has "Alexandria," but Halicarnassus is obviously meant, as in the heading of the chapter below.

5. ³ This seems to refer to the MS. from which the scribe was copying, as the prologue of Moro is not inserted at this place in our MS.

6. ⁴ 527.

7. ⁵ Bk. 7, ch. 14; 8, 1.

8. ⁷ See bk. 6, ch. 6.

9. ⁸ Mich. fol. 167 v, 168 r; Greg. p. 78.

10. ¹⁰ 527.

11. ¹¹ Mich. fol. 162 r. 

12. ¹³ Mich. fol. 161 r.

13. ² Probably Timostratus (Wright, C. B. M. p. 559).

14. ⁶ The text has "Justinian," but clearly Justin must be meant.

15. ⁴ Perhaps Hieriphthum (Gelzer, Geo. Cypr, p. 159).

16. ⁴ Perhaps the "Simas" of Procopius {Bell. Pers. i. 13).

17. ¹ ...The Herulians, whom the Greeks frequently called Helouroi, are meant.

18. ³ 531.

19. ⁸ Mich. fol. 168r; Greg. pp. 78, 79,

20. ⁴ 527.

21. ¹ 531.

22. ² Syr. " sister's son."

23. ³ The native title of the tribal chief: Arm. bdeashkh. See Noeldeke, I.e. note 2.

24. ⁴ This number cannot be right, as Martyropolis was N. of the Tigris, 240 stades from Amida and 100 from Attachae (Proc. Bell. Pers. i. 21).

25. ⁵ 532.

26. ³ Lit. "was moving all the stones."

27. ⁷ 531-2.

28. ⁹ Seebk. 7, ch. 3 (p. 153).

29. ¹¹ Or October. It is not stated whether it was the 1st or the 2nd Theshrin. 

30. ¹² 531.

31. ³ The rest of this chapter and the following chapter are contained in Cod. Rom.

32. ⁵ Mich. fol. 168 r.

33. ⁶ 526.

34. ³ 532-3.

35. ⁴ "Dion." fol. 182 v*; cf. Jo. Mal. p. 477. 

36. ⁵ 533.

37. ⁶ 540.

* In the Paris transcript. I take the reference from the analysis of " Dionysius," published by M. Nau in the Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, Suppl. trim. 1897, fasc. 4.

38. ² Mich. fol. 168 r; Greg. p. 79.

39. ⁴ Mich. fol. 181 r; Greg. H. E. p. 211.

40. ⁴ Perhaps something has fallen out before this sentence. Mich. has "but, after Julian had written that it was his opinion, and the holy man had answered him twice, and he would not obey."

41. ⁵ I supply these words from Mich.

42. ¹ These letters are contained in Add. MS. 17,200 and in Cod. Syr. Vat. 140, from which last extracts are given by the Assemani (Bibl. Vat. MSS. Catal. vol. iii. p. 323 ff.). Both these give the Syriac translation of Paul of Callinicus. Our author's translation is independent.

43. ² Mich. fol. 181 r.

44. ³ Cyr. Ep. 45 (Migne, Patrol. Graec. vol. lxxvii. p. 236).

45. ⁴ Cyr. de Rect. Fid. ad Theod. Imp. 22.

46. ⁶ I cannot find this in the Quod Beata Maria Sit Deipara.

47. ¹ Possibly something has dropped out here. See the quotation in ch. 13 (p. 238); and so Paul. Call. Mich., however, has the same as our text, so that no alteration should be made in it.

48. ³ i Cor. xvi. 14. 

49. ⁵ Mich. fol. 181 v.

50. ¹ Text, "Theodosius." Paul of Callinicus, however, has "Athanasius," and so Mich.

51. ² Here begins a short extract in Cod. Rom.

52. ³ Here the extract in Cod. Rom. ends.

53. ⁴ Cyr. de Rect. Fid. ad Theod. Imp. 21.

54. ⁶ Cyr. op. cit. 22.

55. ⁸ Mich. fol. 181 ff.

56. ⁵ Job xxi. 22.

57. ⁶ Prov. ii. 6, 7.

58. ¹ Here begins an extract in Cod. Rom.

59. ³ Rom. iii. 28.

60. ⁴ Jas. ii. 20.

61. ¹⁰ Gal. iii. 9.

62. ¹¹ Rom. iv. 5.

63. ¹ Jas. ii. 21-24.

64. ⁶ Ex. iv. 22.

65. ⁷ Col. ii. 11, 12.

66. ⁹ Rom. iv. 9, 10.

67. ¹ Gen. xv. 5, 6. 

68. ³ Jas. ii. 20-23.

69. ⁶ Gen. xvii. 26, 27.

70. ⁷ Gen. xxii. 2.

71. ¹ Cod. Rom. here inserts in the margin a sentence from bk. 10, ch. 9 (see p. 313), which Mai prints as if it were part of the text.

72. ⁴ Gal. v. 6.

73. ⁶ I Cor. xiii. 4-8.

74. ⁸ John xiv. 15.

75. ³ Prov. viii. 9.

76. ⁴ Here the extract in Cod. Rom. ends.

77. ⁶ Paul. Call. has "Felicissimus."

78. ¹ Gal. v. 15.

79. ² Ep. III. ad Sev. (Add. 17,200, fol. 9 r).

80. ⁵ Add. 17,200, fol. 38 ff. (Latin translation in Mai Spicilegium Romanum, x. p. 169).

81. ² 532.

82. ⁴ Mich. fol. 171 ff.

83. ³ Tit. iii. 9.

84. ¹ i Cor. xi. 16.

85. ² I do not know whence this is taken.

86. ⁵ Dion. Areop. de Div. Nom. i. 4.

87. ² This is not in the extant portions of the Sermo de Fide.

88. ⁴ Mansi, vii. pp. 456, 457.

89. ¹ Jo. Eph. Frag. (Anecd. Syr. ii. p. 386).

90. ² 534-5. 

91. ³ 536.

92. ⁴ This is not in the text. 

93. ⁵ According to the heading the petitioners were not monks but bishops. In Mich., however, they are called "bishops and monks."

94. ¹ Cf. Evag. iv. ii.

95. ² Ex. xiv. 3.

96. ³ Heb. vi. 13, 14. 

97. ⁵ Eccles. viii. 2.

98. ³ Prov. xx. 8. 

99. ⁶ Prov. xx. 26.

100. ¹ Deut. xiv. 29.

101. ² Prov. xvi. 13.

102. ³ i Pet. ii. 22.

103. ⁴ Quoted shortly from the third letter of Severus to Julian (Add. MS. 17,200, fol. 17).

104. ⁴ Job xxx. 23.

105. ⁵ John iv. 35.

106. ¹ Rom. xii. 21.

107. ⁵ 534-5.

108. ⁷ 533.

109. ² The rest of this sentence is contained in Cod. Rom. Instead, however, of "and is rich and fertile," it has "and the chief city and capital of the country is called Carthage."

110. ³ I.e. Arians—followers of the Synod of Ariminum.

111. ⁴ 534.

112. ⁷ Cf. Jo. Mal. p. 479.

113. ¹ I.e. Theodoric; see bk. 7. ch. 12.

114. ² Or Demonicus.

115. ³ Lit. "from the reading of the Scriptures." Possibly some words have fallen out.

116. ² Jo. Eph. Fragm. (Anecd. Syr. ii. p. 386).

117. ³ 535-6. In chs. 15 and 16 the date is rightly given as the thirteenth year of :he Indiction (534-5).

118. ⁴ Cf. Evag. iv. 10.

119. ² Mich. fol. 170.

120. ⁵ What follows is contained in an abbreviated form in Add. MS. 12,154, fol. 151.

121. ⁶ Mich. I.e.; Greg. H. E. p. 205 ff.

122. ⁷ ... Asylus of Rhesaina is mentioned in Elijah's life of John of Constantia (ed. Kleyn, p. 59), whence I follow the reading of 17,202.

123. ¹⁰ Wright, C. B. M. pp. 493-501.

124. ⁴ This sentence is not in 17,202, but, being in 12,154 (which, however, omits the portents following) and in Mich., it must be presumed to have formed part of the original text.

125. ⁶ 537.

126. ¹ Cf. Evag. iv. 11.

127. ² Here the extract in 12,154 breaks off owing to the loss of a leaf in the MS.

128. ⁴ This passage is repeated in a ninth cent, chronicle in Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 14,642, fol. 29 v, which, however, in place of ... has ..., "and he tore it with his teeth."

129. ⁵ Mich. fol. 178.

130. ⁵ Gen. xxxv. 2, 3.

131. ¹ Job xviii. 8-10.

132. ² Isa. xliii. 1-3. 

133. ³ Lev. xxvi. 16.

134. ⁴ 2 Cor. ii. 11.

135. ¹ Mich. fol. 174.

136. ² Luke xii. 48.

137. ⁴ Ps. xxiv. 3.

138. ⁵ Gen. xviii. 27.

139. ⁶ Ps. xxii. 6.

140. ⁸ Ps. cxix. 53.

141. ² Tit. iii. 7.

142. ⁴ The reference seems to be to Isa. xl. 9.

143. ² Greg. Naz. Or. xl. 45.

144. ² After this name the names of Theodoret and Andrew are accidentally repeated in the MS.

145. ⁷ I do not know from what part of Basil's works this quotation is taken.

146. ¹ Given by Mich.

147. ² Mich. fol. 174.

148. ³ The sentence, as it stands, is ungrammatical, but this is clearly the meaning; there is the same difficulty in Mich.

149. ⁴ 2 Cor. ix. 15.

150. ¹ Gen. xxi. 33.

151. ¹ This is an awkward construction, and we should perhaps insert a word, rendering "resembling us in our passions."

152. ² I Cor. xv. 3.

153. ³ i Cor. xv. 21, 22.

154. ⁵ Heb. ii. 14-17.

155. ⁷ Probably some words have dropped out in this sentence.

156. ¹ Eccles. iii. 14. I owe this reference and the translation of the difficult sentence which follows to Dr. Hamilton. I can scarcely think that this sentence represents what Severus wrote, but, as Mich. has practically the same, any corruption must be older than our author. See p. 277, note 2.

157. ² Mich. fol. 175.

158. ⁴ The reference is probably to I Cor. xiv. 2, as Dr. Hamilton suggests.

159. ⁵ A fragment of the letter not contained in our author is found in Add. MS. 12,155, fol. 110, and the whole intervening portion, including this fragment, is given in Mich.

160. ⁷ Sir. xxvii. 1.

161. ¹ Hab. ii. 1.

162. ³ Ps. cix. 28.

163. ⁶ Heb. xii. 22, 23.

164. ⁷ Sir. xxvii. 25.

165. ¹⁰ Eph. iv. 2.

166. ¹ Isa. xxvi. 1.

167. ² Mich. fol, 175 ff.

168. ³ Judg. i. 3.

169. ⁵ Severus must have written "their open attacks"; but, as Mich. also has the singular possessive, we must not emend. See p. 277, note 2.

170. ² Job xxvii. 6.

171. ³ Josh. xxii. 31, iv. 24.

172. ⁶ Mich. "beyond the other evangelists."

173. ⁷ John xx. 19. 

174. ⁸ MS. Theopomptus.

175. ¹⁰ Mich. " with us."

176. ² I Sam. xi. 1, 2.

177. ³ Ps. lxxix. 4.

178. ⁴ Mich. fol. 176, 177 r.

179. ³ Rom. viii. 35.

180. ⁴ Jer. i. 9, 10.

181. ⁵ Acts ix. 15.

182. ³ Lit. "shot at with arrows." 

183. ⁵ Isa. xlv. 8.

184. ² Given in Mich.

185. ³ Mich. fol. 177.

186. ⁴ I Cor. i. 27, 28.

187. ¹ Ezek. iii. 17, 18.

188. ⁵ Sir. ii. 10, 11.

189. ⁸ John x. 29.

190. ⁹ Or, "wind."

191. ¹ Greg. Naz., Or. xl. 45.

192. ¹ Mich. fol. 177 v.

193. ² Jer. xvii. 16.

194. ⁴ Gal. ii. 20.

195. ⁶ Heb. xi. 25, 26.

196. ² 2 Cor. i. 5.

197. ³ I Thess. iii. 9. 

198. ⁵ Matt. x. 28.

199. ⁶ Rom. viii. 18.

200. ⁸ What follows in our text is omitted by Mich.

201. ¹ Not in the letter given above (ch. 24), but in the letter of Theodosius to Severus upon his election to the see (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 14,602, fol. 2-4).

202. ² I Pet. ii. 22.

203. ⁴ Heb. ii. 14, 15.

204. ² Mich. fol. 177 v, 178 r.

205. ⁴ The sentence, as it stands in the text, is unintelligible, and from a comparison with the letter to Severus in Add. 14,602 it is clear that the bracketed words have fallen out.

206. ² I do not know the source of this quotation.

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