TESTIMONIA VETERUM
becomes God. For He was not made man with the loss of deity, nor was He made God from man through growth; but being the Word, because of His impassibility, He was made flesh, His own immutable nature remaining.
~SAINT AUGUSTINE, ON NATURE AND GRACE, A Item, John, bishop of Constantinople, whose position he stated, says that sin is not a substance, but an evil act. Who denies this? And because it is not natural, for that reason a law was set against it, and because it descends from the freedom of the will. Who denies this too? But now the issue is human nature, by which it was corrupted; the issue is the grace of God, by which it is healed through the Physician Christ, who would not be needed if it were healthy; that which is defended by this man as if it were healthy, or as if its own will were sufficient for it to be able not to sin.
From the same, against Julian the Pelagian, vol. X, book I, c. 6, p. 509 and 510, a. Do you dare to oppose these words of holy Bishop John, as if contrary to the opinions of so many and such colleagues of his, and to separate him from their most harmonious society, and to constitute him their adversary? Far be it, far be it to believe or say such evil of so great a man. Far be it, I say, that John of Constantinople B should resist on the matter of the baptism of infants, and their liberation from the father’s hand-written bond through Christ, so many and such great fellow bishops of his, and especially Innocent of Rome, Cyprian of Carthage, Basil of Cappadocia, Gregory of Nazianzus, Hilary of Gaul, Ambrose of Milan, etc. Afterward, he brings forward certain things from his epistle to Olympias and from his sermon on Lazarus.
From the same, in the unfinished work against Julian, book X, ch. 7, p. 4296 and 1297. And you object to me the greatness of the first man’s sin, which was the cause of such great evil for all men, as if I alone or first had said this? Listen to John of Constantinople, of excellent glory: “Adam,” he says, “sinned that great sin and condemned the whole race of men in common.” Listen also to what he says on the resurrection of Lazarus, so that you may understand that bodily death came from that great sin: “Christ was weeping,” he says, “because those who could have been immortal, the devil made mortal,” etc.
*CASSIAN, ON THE INCARNATION OF THE LORD, BOOK VII, c. 30. John, the glory of the prelates of Constantinople, whose sanctity reached the merits of martyrdom without any storm of gentile persecution, etc.
From the same, book VII, c. 30. Whence even I myself, humble and obscure in name as in merit, although I cannot usurp the place of a master among the excellent prelates of the city of Constantinople, yet I claim the zeal and affection of a disciple. For, adopted by John, bishop of most blessed memory, into the sacred ministry, and offered to God, although I am absent in body, I am there in affection: and with that people of God, most dear and most venerable to me, although I am not now mingled in presence, I am nevertheless conjoined in mind. ... Remember the ancient masters and your priests, Gregory, noble throughout the world, Nectarius, distinguished for holiness, John, marvelous in faith and purity—John, I say, that John who, truly in the likeness of John the Evangelist, lay back as both a disciple and apostle of Jesus, as it were, always upon the chest and the affection of the Lord. Him, I say, remember; follow him; ponder his purity, his faith, his doctrine, and his holiness: remember him always, your doctor and nourisher; in whose bosom, as it were, and embrace you have grown; who was a common master to me and to you; whose disciples and formation we are. Read his writings, etc.
C LETTER OF POPE CELESTINE TO THE CLERGY AND PEOPLE OF CONSTANTINOPLE, CONCILIORUM TOMO III, P. 365. What did the doctrine of the bishop of holy memory, John, not instill into your souls? His sermon, setting forth the Catholic faith, has been spread throughout the whole world, which was nowhere wanting in doctrine because everywhere it was read, it preached.
THEODORET, DIALOGUE I, T. IV, P. 31 AND 32. But John, the great light of the world, who first indeed irrigated the Church of the Antiochenes with great honor, and then wisely cultivated the royal city; D do you not think that he kept the apostolic rule of faith? ... This man, therefore, by far the most excellent, interpreted this apostolic passage: he speaks thus: “Wherefore, when you hear, ‘The Word was made flesh,’ will you not be disturbed nor cast down your soul? For the substance was not changed into flesh; for to say this would be of the extreme of impiety; but remaining what He was, thus He accepted the form of a servant,” etc.
SAINT LEO THE GREAT, POPE, TO BISHOP ANATOLIUS, EPISTLE 106. If your love had had the care for the common grace with a firm and immutable purpose, there would surely have resulted nothing that could cause you any anxiety. For reason would not have allowed that I should despise his charity, whom I had helped, out of love for peace and zeal for repairing the Catholic faith, during the very rudiments of his episcopate, wishing to have such a companion in ecclesiastical cares, so that I might feel that neither John’s spiritual and copious doctrine, nor the authority of Atticus, nor the industry of Proclus, nor the faith of the blessed Flavian was wanting to me from your holy predecessors: and I would use your zeal in such a way that no one would dare either to result against the Catholic faith or to go against the decreed rules of the venerable fathers, etc.