The letter links civic legal officials to church discipline and anti-Chalcedonian synodal identity. Source id I.27; Brooks page 87; source-facing English extracted by body markers from the Archive OCR text; original Syriac source-text backfill remains pending.
It would have been best if both of you had come to us and refreshed my eyes by the sight of you. Since public business prevents that, I feed instead on the spiritual sight of you and lessen the loss. As a token of undivided affection, I write one letter to you both.
The whole synod of the God-loving bishops of the East is united in the right doctrines and anathematizes every heresy, including those who divide our one Lord and God Jesus Christ after the union into two natures, together with the gathering at Chalcedon and Leo's impious Tome. We have drawn up a synodal letter for the archbishop of Alexandria.
You also bear witness that the monk in question loves the orthodox faith and has repented. I rejoice in that, but he should remain where he is and not desire to return to Antioch. This is not anger. It is a judgment made to avoid the old harmful pursuit and the injury that could follow from it.
It would have been best if you had both come to us and also gladdened our eyes by the bodily sight of you, and by this sight comforted me more. But, since you have public ^ business on your hands, and are thereby prevented from so doing, I support the sorrow thus caused by feeding on the spiritual sight only, and so lighten the loss. Wherefore also, as a token of p- 98. undivided affection towards you, I have composed this one letter to both of you: in which I make known to ^ StJfJiOCTLUyi'. you that the whole synod of the God-loving bishops of the East is united in the right doctrines and anathema- tizes all the heresies: amono- which are included those who divide our one Lord and God Jesus Christ after the union into a duality of natures, and the vain con- course of those who assembled at Chalcedon, the stronghold of this evil heresy, and the impious Tome of Leo (if one called him a cleaver of peace, the ex- pression would be a fitting one). These things having thus passed in order (to speak with the permission of God), we have now drawn up a synodal letter addressed to the God-loving archbishop of the city of the Alexandrines John, inviting him to unanimity and pure communion. And we will write epistles in the same way to the others also, keeping everywhere to ■ the royal road, and not turning aside to the right or to the left,'^ guided as we are by the great love of Him who is the guide and leader along this road. Con- cerning the faith and communion with the others, as far as it was possible to give information in a letter, will know everything in greater detail and with greater clearness from actual experience. As to Martyrius the poet, whom you made the occasion " of the letter, I wish you to know that he is a trouble to me, and a nuisance. Indeed in the case of the others also who follow the same profession, and were enrolled in the holy clergy of the church that is with us, I have debarred them from practising- sucii poetry: and I am talvino;" much trouble to sever this theatrical pursuit from ecclesiastical gravity and modesty, a pursuit that is the mother of laxity, and is also capable of causing youthful souls to relax and casting them into the mire of fornication, and carrying them away to bestial passions. But because of his repentance I rejoice with him, and because of the fact that he is a lover of the orthodox faith: especially since you who are careful scrutinizers bear witness in his favour. Let him therefore stay where he is, and not desire to return to this city. It is not possible for him to do so in my judgment: not from anger against him (far be it!), but because of the evil pursuit and the desire of avoiding the aforesaid injury
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It would have been best if both of you had come to us and refreshed my eyes by the sight of you. Since public business prevents that, I feed instead on the spiritual sight of you and lessen the loss. As a token of undivided affection, I write one letter to you both.
The whole synod of the God-loving bishops of the East is united in the right doctrines and anathematizes every heresy, including those who divide our one Lord and God Jesus Christ after the union into two natures, together with the gathering at Chalcedon and Leo's impious Tome. We have drawn up a synodal letter for the archbishop of Alexandria.
You also bear witness that the monk in question loves the orthodox faith and has repented. I rejoice in that, but he should remain where he is and not desire to return to Antioch. This is not anger. It is a judgment made to avoid the old harmful pursuit and the injury that could follow from it.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Original text not yet available in this corpus.
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