John, Bishop of Antioch

ANNO DOMINI CDXLI

JOHN OF ANTIOCH, BISHOP

NOTITIA

(Oriens Christianus, tom. II, col. 721.)

John, educated from his early youth in the monastery of St. Euprepius not far from Antioch alongside Theodoret and Nestorius, was made bishop of Antioch after Theodotus in the year 428. For Acacius of Berrhoea, writing to Cyril of Alexandria concerning the new dogma of Nestorius, signified that John had recently attained the episcopate. While he was administering the Church of Antioch, the third general synod of Ephesus was celebrated against Nestorius in the year 431, from which he, when he had come to Ephesus, defected with his Easterners, taking up the defense of the heretic, whom he held to be a man of sounder opinion, more keenly than was fitting; on whose account, after his return to his homeland, he held many synods in his diocese. Afterwards, having discovered the truth more fully, he was brought to better fruit in the following year and was reconciled with Cyril of Alexandria, having sent to him Paul of Emesa with a confession of faith, which Cyril approved together with his entire Church. This compact of his was gradually embraced by the rest of the Churches of the East, with the exception of a few bishops who, on account of their obstinate spirit, were proscribed. All these things can be read in the many extant records of the Council of Ephesus, and especially in the *Synodicon* regarding the tragedy of Irenaeus, which Christian Lupus published. He died in the thirteenth year of his episcopate completed, namely in the year of Christ 441, since it is established by the testimony of Theodoret that the seventh year of Domnus, John's successor, fell in the year of Christ 448.

LETTERS OF JOHN OF ANTIOCH

(Ex Actis concilii Ephesini, ap. Mansi Concil. tom. V, passim.)

Letter I

^ACopy of a letter written by John, Bishop of Antioch, to Nestorius.

To my master, most God-fearing and most holy Bishop Nestorius, John, greeting in the Lord.

1. I have made known my purpose regarding your reverence, in all truth, through my lord, the most magnificent Count Irenaeus, to your disposition. And since, as I think, I am now free from all suspicion among you, having used a true justification, I use from now on a frank counsel toward your sincerity. You may take from these things which I am about to advise, a not light proof of our sincerity toward you, and at the same time how great is that charity which is according to

God; which they who keep fulfill the divine laws, while they who neglect it and act craftily toward their own members, harm themselves before those whom they assault. Since, therefore, these things have been suitably prefaced, as I believe, I ask you to receive me as one who will be for you no bad counselor, and not to reject that which is useful in what is said by me, spoken as it is with all the disposition that is according to God.

^B 2. It was fitting that we should hold our deliberations concerning good things with one another. But since our sins have afforded great opportunity for ecclesiastical disturbances, for this reason I was spurred to make known to your holiness those things recently written to me from the city of Rome and Alexandria. For clerics of the Alexandrians, arriving suddenly, gave us various letters sent concerning piety: one from the most holy bishop Celestine, and others from the most God-beloved bishop Cyril. Sending the copies of these, I implore your disposition to read them in such a way that you neither suffer any perturbation in your understanding, from which frequent contentions and harmful disputes arise, nor yet despise the matter; for you know that the devil, through pride, knows how to amplify many things that do not have their beginning rightly, and to raise them to such a height that later they reject all care and all medicine. But bring a benevolent and studied affection to the reading of the letters; and join to yourself as associates some men of sound mind and benevolent to you for the consideration of the matters proposed; and grant them the power to speak not what is pleasant, but what is useful. For if there be many judges, and those not dissembling, who have obtained free power to say what they think, the investigation of the present matter, if they are brought to it, will most easily be turned by that deliberation, so that that which is now thought complex, difficult, and sad, may soon become light and joyful.

^C 3. For even if my lord, the most God-beloved bishop Celestine, has set a very narrow term in his letters, limiting the reply to only ten days, as his letters contain; yet it is possible to accomplish the work in even one day, or perhaps even in a few hours. For what is easier than to use a convenient name, one habitual to many holy Fathers, and nevertheless appropriate to the saving birth from the Virgin, in the dispensation of Christ our King for us? Since, therefore, this is not dangerous, it is not just that your holiness should refute it. Nor let it be thought by you now that it is shameful for you to teach things contrary to yourself. For if your mind holds the same sentiment as the holy Fathers and the teachers of the Church (for this, my lord, we have learned about you from many and from common friends), why do you fear to publish a pious sentiment with a suitable term? Especially when so many and such great tumults and disputes have arisen from you before our eyes. And since such great disturbance and such great inquiry hangs upon you. For know this, most God-beloved, that the point has been moved, and to those both far and near, it is considered very...

^A much a subject of talk. And a great storm has unexpectedly seized the Churches over this, as the believers everywhere are breaking off from one another daily for this reason. And that this is true, may be clear from the facts themselves. For the West and Egypt, and perhaps even Macedonia, have decided to break away from the union which, by the manifold labors and toils of holy and eminent bishops, and especially by the sweat and troubles of our holy and common Father, the great Acacius, the grace of God has bestowed upon the communion of the Churches. For who would blame you, if you were to show forth in speech what you think? Or rather, who would not welcome it, if you were to receive the title whose meaning, as we have learned, your reverence possesses, and this for the sake of stability and ^B ecumenical peace? But if it seems good, I will remind you of a beautiful example, appropriate to the occasion, which I wish you to keep in mind. For not much time has passed since it happened among us, such that it could now have fallen into oblivion. You surely remember the blessed Paul the bishop, who, when something had slipped out in an exposition of his that did not seem to have been well-said—to you first, who also spoke plainly at that time, and then to all who had heard it—how he, perceiving the damage and the disturbance which that small uproar had caused, and considering that the disturbance would create division, or rather even opposition, since men, if they should grasp such an opportunity, are given to splitting hither and thither and increasing the opposition—that which seemed to be a small spark of scandal—has now also come about among us; how that noble man arose not many days later and shamelessly corrected on behalf of the utility of the Church what had been brought forth by him; and having corrected it, straightway wiped away the slander that had arisen against him, not regarding the correction as something unstable. And although all knew how that which was said had been said unstably by him, yet, because he had corrected his immediate change, they accepted him. ^C

4. I, however, do not urge your God-belovedness toward a discredited change of position, nor to a childish palinode, as one might say; but since it has often been reported to me, as we have learned, that you do not turn away from this pious thought itself, but only reject the term; and if some of the eminent men in the Church should suggest this to you, you would not refuse to call the holy Virgin, without hesitation, Theotokos. For this reason, I urge you to this extent to bring it forward, calling upon that which we have learned ^D that you do not err in your thinking, but rather add the term to the reality and the name to the...

what many of the Fathers have both composed, and written, and spoken; and that you do not decline a term which at all tests the pious disposition of the soul. For no one of the ecclesiastical teachers has declined this name. For both many illustrious men have used it, and those who have not used it have not accused those who did use it. And it is in vain, as it seems, that we, for the sake of a superfluous precision, one looking only to heretical false doctrine, overlook the consciences of the brethren being troubled in an unfitting manner, ^B by refusing a name whose meaning we well and rightly accept. For if we do not accept the meaning derived from it, it remains for us to be lead into many errors, or rather to be in danger concerning the ineffable economy of the only-begotten Son of God. For there will follow immediately upon the removal of this name, or rather of that which is signified by it, that neither is He God who undertook the ineffable economy for our sake, nor did the Word of God empty Himself into the form of a servant, to display an unspeakable magnitude of philanthropy towards us—things which the divine Scriptures confirm above all regarding the philanthropy ^C towards us, when they relate the pre-eternal and co-eternal and only-begotten Son of God to the birth from the Virgin in an impassible manner, according to what is said by the divine Apostle: "God sent his Son, born of a woman" (Gal. IV, 4), clearly demonstrating the birth of the Only-begotten from the Virgin as being without beginning, as I have said before. Since from this birth the Virgin is called "Deipara" by the Fathers, just as she is indeed rightly called by this name, I know not for what reason we should have undertaken to stir up this enquiry, which is not at all necessary—pardon the expression—and which is, as you see, against ourselves and against the ecclesiastical peace. For there is no danger in saying and thinking the same things as the teachers who have been highly esteemed in the Church ^D of God, whose names it is superfluous to recount; for you know them no less than we do, since you glory, as we all do, in being their disciple.

5. Undertake these things, I beseech you, when asked by us; be persuaded to do these things; do not give room or footing for a creeping discord to introduce novelties. For consider that if, before the letters now sent were dispatched, many were unbridled and almost intolerable against us, what sort they will be now, having seized the boldness from these letters, and what kind of boldness they will use against us in the future. These things I, having with me many most religious bishops and lovers of your piety, who at that time happened to be present with us [when] those letters...

...when at last these hateful letters were delivered, I decided to write; thinking it the duty of a true friend, and not inconsistent with my promise, were I to endeavor somewhat to relieve your reputation, which is laboring gravely at this time, by means of brotherly counsel. Wherefore I beseech your piety to receive with a tranquil mind those things which, for the sake of the Church’s tranquility, I have set forth with the fear of God and true charity toward you. For I did not dictate these things alone, but, as I was just saying, in the presence of many bishops—namely, my lord the most pious Bishop Archelaus, Apringius, Theodoret, Heliades, Meletius, and Macarius, who by the grace of God has most recently been appointed to the Church of God in Laodicea. ^A All of them, being both most instructed in the doctrine of the faith and most devoted to you, entreat you together with me, my lord, that you may use a compliant disposition to arrest the force of these letters, which are rushing upon us like a whirlwind; for if we resist them obstinately, they will bring trouble, whereas if we are obedient, they will be able neither to disturb nor to confound us. ^B Having these things at heart as if they were your own, we wished to advise you: it is now yours to embrace our admonitions with an equitable and benevolent mind, unless perhaps someone less fond of us should persuade you to despise these things, to the detriment of yourself and of the Christian commonwealth. I beseech you, write back not what may seem fitting—or rather, not entirely what may seem fitting, but what is useful.

LETTER II

TO CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA

LETTER III

TO XYSTUS, BISHOP OF ROME, CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, AND MAXIMIANUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE

LETTER IV

TO CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

LETTER V

OF POPE XYSTUS II TO JOHN

LETTER VI

OF THE EMPERORS TO JOHN

Imperators Caesars, victors, triumphers,