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| The first from Flavian, Bp. of Constantinople to Pope Leo.
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Letter XXII221
| 221 There are two Latin
versions of the original Gk. of this letter, an older and a
later: the later, as being more accurate, is here translated,
though Canon Bright would seem to be right (n. 139) in saying that we
must think of Leo as writing the Tome (Lett. XXVIII.) with the older
Latin version of Flavian’s letter before him. | .
The first from Flavian, Bp. of
Constantinople to Pope Leo.
To the most holy and God-loving father and
fellow-bishop, Leo, Flavian greeting in theLord.
I. The designs of the devil have led
Eutyches astray.
There is nothing which can stay the devil’s
wickedness, that “restless evil, full of deadly poison222
.” Above and below it
“goes about,” seeking “whom it may” strike,
dismay, and “devour223
.”
Whence to watch, to be sober unto prayer, to draw near to God, to eschew foolish questionings, to follow the fathers
and not to go beyond the eternal bounds, this we have learnt from Holy
Writ. And so I give up the excess of grief and abundant tears
over the capture of one of the clergy who are under me, and whom I
could not save nor snatch from the wolf, although I was ready to lay
down my life for him. How was he caught, how did he leap away,
hating the voice of the caller and turning aside also from the memory
of the Fathers and thoroughly detesting their paths. And thus I
proceed with my account.
II. The seductions of heretics capture
the unwary.
There are some “in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves224
:”
whom we know by their fruit. These men seem indeed at first to be
of us, but they are not of us: “for if they had been of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us225
.” But when they have spewed out
their impiety, throwing out the guile that is in them, and seizing the
weaker ones, and those who have their senses unpractised in the divine
utterances, they carry them along with themselves to destruction,
wresting and doing despite to the Fathers’ doctrines, just as
they do the Holy Scriptures also to their own destruction: whom
we must be forewarned of and take heed lest some should be misled by
their wickedness and shaken in their firmness. “For they
have sharpened their tongues like serpents: adder’s poison
is under their lips226
,” as the
prophet has cried out about them.
III. Eutyches’ heresy
stated.
Such a one, therefore, has now shown himself
amongst us, Eutyches, for many years a presbyter and
archimandrite227
| 227 Viz., head of a
monastery (Gk. μάνδρα) or abbot. | , pretending to
hold the same belief as ours, and to have the right Faith in him:
indeed he resists the blasphemy of Nestorius, and feigns a controversy
with him, but the exposition of the Faith composed by the 318 holy
fathers, and the letter that Cyril of holy memory wrote to Nestorius,
and one by the same author on the same subject to the Easterns, these
writings, to which
all
have given their assent, he has tried to upset, and revive the old evil
dogmas of the blasphemous Valentinus and Apollinaris. He has not
feared the warning of the True King: “Whoso shall cause one
of the least of these little ones to stumble, it was better that a
millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk
in the depth of the sea.228
| 228 S. Matt. xviii. 6, but it will be noticed that the
quotation is confused with xxv. 40, minimis being substituted for
qui in me credunt. | ” But
casting away all shame, and shaking off the cloak which covered his
error229
| 229 Pudorem
(instead of the impudenter of the mss.) omnem abiciens et pellem quæ eum
circumdabat excutiens, the Gk. version of this somewhat obscure
passage running αἰδῶ
πᾶσαν
ἀποβαλὼν καὶ
ἣν
περιέκειτο
τῆς πλάνης
δορὰν
ἀποτιναξάμενος. | , he openly in our holy synod persisted in
saying that our Lord Jesus Christ ought not to
be understood by us as having two natures after His incarnation in one
substance and in one person: nor yet that the Lord’s flesh was of the same substance with us, as
if assumed from us and united to God the Word
hypostatically: but he said that the Virgin who bare him was
indeed of the same substance with us according to the flesh, but the
Lord Himself did not assume from her flesh of
the same substance with us: but the Lord’s body was not a man’s body, although
that which issued from the Virgin was a human body, resisting all the
expositions of the holy Fathers.
IV. He has sent Leo the minutes of their
proceedings that he may see all the details.
But not to make my letter too long by detailing
everything, we have sent your holiness the proceedings which some time
since we took in the matter: therein we deprived him as convicted
on these charges, of his priesthood, of the management of his monastery
and of our communion: in order that your holiness also knowing
the facts of his case may make his wickedness manifest to all the
God-loving bishops who are under your reverence; lest perchance if they
do not know the views which he holds, and of which he has been openly
convicted, they may be found to be in correspondence with him as a
fellow-believer by letter or by other means. I and those who are
with me give much greeting to you and to all the brotherhood in
Christ. The Lord keep you in safety and
prayer for us, O most God-Loving
Father.230
| 230 This was the letter
“which was somewhat unaccountably delayed in its transit to
Rome” (Bright), which reached Leo after XXIII. was written, and
to which Leo refers in the Tome, chap. i., litteris, quas miramur
fuisse tam seras. Bright’s note 139 should be read
throughout as a clear exposition of the preliminary steps in the
controversy. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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