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| To Bishop Romulus.
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CXXXV. To Bishop
Romulus.1972
| 1972 Romulus, bishop of Chalcis in Cœle Syria, sided with the
dominant Hæretical party through pusillanimity. He was at
Chalcedon in 451. Who may have been his crab-gaited friend can only be
conjectured.
It would appear that
edicts anathematizing Eutyches were published soon after the accession
of Marcian. |
You have reminded me of the
ancient story, and remarked how the King of the Syrians, bethinking him
of the loving kindness of the kings of Israel, assumed the form of a
suppliant and failed not to obtain his petition. Remember therefore,
sir, the divine wrath. God delivered Ahab to utter destruction for
using mercy, and delivered his sentence through the mouth of the
prophet, saying “Thy life shall go for his life and thy people
for his people.”1973
We are thus
commanded to temper mercy with justice, since not every kind of mercy
is pleasing to the God of all. The present state of affairs specially
requires prudent council; for we are contending on behalf of the divine
doctrines, wherein we have the hope of our salvation. But herein, too,
may be seen the great difference between man and man. Some men are
verily infected with the common impiety; while others, without
distinction, advance at one time one doctrine, and at another its
opposite. Some who know the truth conceal it in the secret chambers of
their soul, while they preach impiety with the rest; others again who
are filled with envy have made their private ill-will an occasion of
waging war against the truth, and wreak all kinds of mischief against
the prophets of the truth. Again, there are who embrace the truth of
the apostolic doctrines, and yet because they are afraid of the power
of the dominant party are too cowed to proclaim it, and though they
lament at the abundance of our misfortunes, nevertheless side with them
that set the mighty surge a-rolling. It is in this last category that
we place your reverence. We have believed you to be sound in the divine
doctrines, and think that you keep your affection for me, and are borne
along with the time for no other reason than your cowardice. Under
these circumstances though I am not writing to any of the rest, I write
to your holiness, and receive your reply. I see your drift and to some
extent I pardon your pusillanimity. But the loving Lord has now removed
all occasions of cowardice, by exhibiting the new-fangled impiety, and
shewing the plain truth of the gospels. I, even though my mouths were
as many as my hairs, cannot praise as I ought the loving-kindness of
the Lord for compelling my strongest opponents openly to preach what
has been preached by me. For I have heard that he who shares your
holiness’s roof, when he heard that anathemas had been published in the
great cities, ceased to imitate the crooked gait of crabs, and, after
disputing in a certain assembly about doctrines, walked in the straight
road. Never must we suit our words to the season, but ever preserve the
unbending rule of truth.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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