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| To the Catholic Bishops of Egypt Sojourning in Constantinople.
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Letter
CLVIII586
| 586 One of three
Letters, the other two being CLIV. and CLX., first printed by Quesnel
on the authority apparently of a single ms.
(Codex Grimanicus), and addressed to the bishops (and clergy) who had
fled out of Egypt to Constantinople in consequence of the recent
disturbances. Letter CLX. mentions fifteen of them by name but is
not otherwise so interesting as CLVIII., the one selected for
translation. | .
To the Catholic Bishops of Egypt
Sojourning in Constantinople.
Leo to the catholic Egyptian bishops sojourning in
Constantinople.
He encourages them in their sufferings for the Faith,
and in their entreaties for redress to the Emperor.
I have before now been so saddened by tidings of
the crimes committed in Alexandria, and my spirit has been so wounded
by the atrocity of the deed itself, that I know not what tears to show
and what lamentation to utter over it, and am fain to use the
prophet’s language, “who will give waters to my head and a
fountain of tears to my eyes587
?”
Yet anticipating your complaint, beloved, I have entreated our most
clement and Christian Emperor for a remedy of these great evils, and by
our sons and assistants Gerontius and Olympius have at a different time
demanded that he should make haste to purge of a heresy already
condemned the church of that city, in which so many Catholic teachers
have flourished, and not allow murderous spirits whom no reverence for
place or time588
| 588 Proterius had been
slain in the baptistery die Cænæ Domini (? Thursday in
Holy Week). | could deter
from shedding their ruler’s blood, to gain anything from his
clemency, more particularly when they desire to reconsider the council
of Chalcedon to the overthrow of the Faith. Accordingly the same
reason, beloved, which drove you from your own Sees, ought to console
you for your sufferings; for it is certain that afflicted souls, that
suffer adversity for His name, are in no wise deprived of the
Lord’s protection. Bear it
therefore bravely, and mindful of that country which is yours, rejoice
over your present sojourn in a strange land. Abstain from
grieving over your exile and indulge not in sorrow for your present
weariness, ye who know that the Apostle glories even in his many perils
on behalf of the Lord’s Faith. You
have One who knows your conflicts and has prepared the rewards of
recompense. Let no one shrink from this labour, whose guerdon is
to reign and589
| 589 The
ms. reads vel here, but I think
the Ball. are right in maintaining that Leo does at times use
vel for et. | live for
ever. Let the feet of all who fight be fixed in the halls of
Jerusalem; for in the hope of that retribution they will have no cause
to fear the camp nor the onsets of the enemy. Victory is never
hard nor triumph difficult over the remnants of an abject foe who has
been routed by the whole world alike, especially over those whose
ringleaders you see already prostrate. With unceasing prayers,
therefore (even as I also have not failed to do), entreat the favour of
the most Christian Emperor, who in God’s
mercy is ready to hear: that in accordance with the letter I have
sent590
, he may strengthen the cause of the common
Faith with that devotion of mind, which we are well assured he
possesses, and in his piety may remove all the harmful charges which
the madness of heretics has invented, and arrange for your return,
beloved, and so may cause each several province and all the churches
with their priests to rejoice in the unshaken peace of Christ.
Dated the 1st of Dec. in the consulship of Constantine and Rufus
(457).E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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