radiance, appeared to those who were zealously gathered in piety; similarly, those cast into the sea, sent forth by the successive surge of the waves onto the sandy shore, and discovered through divine demonstrative signs by pious men, received public honors at common expense. Many also, who in more remote times had received the intact burial of their bodies, could not endure to be hidden forever beneath the earth, but manifesting themselves through the revelatory vision of appearances, they came forth for universal veneration, granting thaumaturgic power to those who invoke them. And these are the forms of the holy relics found in manifold ways; by running to which, we find the healing of souls and bodies. For they cure the weak, heal the sick, deliver the demon-possessed, and cleanse the lepers, by faith in Jesus Christ, the true God of us all, together with his co-eternal Father and the life-giving Spirit, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. A B
THEOGNOSTUS' MEMORIAL TO NICHOLAS I, POPE, CONCERNING THE CAUSE OF IGNATIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
(In Mansi, *Concil.* vol. XVI, col. 293, among the Acts of the Council of Constantinople IV.)C A memorial on the whole cause of the great Ignatius, sent to the Roman Pope Nicholas, written in the name of Ignatius the Patriarch by Theognostus, monk and archimandrite of Old Rome and exarch of Constantinople.
Ignatius, oppressed by tyranny and struggling with many hardships, and those who with me have experienced these unhappy times—ten metropolitans, fifteen bishops, as well as an infinite multitude of abbots, presbyters, and other monks—to our master, the most holy and most blessed president and patriarch of all the sees, successor of the holy Peter, prince of the apostles, the ecumenical Pope Nicholas, and to his most holy bishops, and to all the most wise Roman Church, greeting in the Lord.
Who will give my head water, as it is in the Holy Scriptures, and to my eyes a fountain of tears? And I will bewail the D evils that have happened to me, and the barbarous inhumanity of those who persecute me. For by cold and nakedness, and by famine and every extreme evil, my enemies and tormentors have harassed me. For fifteen days they shut me up in the bitterest cold, in a most frozen place, in a dark, hidden dungeon, stripped of all things, and bound with chains, so that it was allowed for no one to approach me for the sake of visiting me, though I was already laboring under a grave illness; moreover, they beat me in a cruel manner and struck all my limbs with lashes. Furthermore, the cause from which these evils have overflowed upon me, behold, I now set forth in full.
I lived in the arena and in conflict with Caesar’s uncle, Bardas, who was exercising tyranny, whom I...
A did not cease to smite with the sword of the Spirit, that is, with the word of God; for he attacked me with threats and treachery. The reason was that I rebuked him for his Herodian lechery, and because he would not repent, I cast him out of the Church. Over these things the ruler sometimes besought me, and sometimes threatened me with terrible things if I would not be persuaded to receive his uncle back into favor. But when, persuaded by him, the ruler wished to banish both his mother and his sisters from the palace, he commanded me to tonsure them; but I did not comply, because the women were unwilling to be tonsured. For these reasons, therefore, I was thrust from the throne, and then also beaten, and exiled, and I have been bound and kept in confinement B before the arrival of your judges. And those who were with me have suffered the same. The written testimonies, that is, the letters, which we gave to the bishops—through the presbyter Laurentius and the two Stephanos, one a subdeacon and the other a layman, whom we also put under oath to deliver them with their own hands to your Holiness—have remained of no effect.
When we were ordered to appear at that Caiaphan tribunal, we shouted out, challenging that we be judged before your Holiness. But there was no one who would listen. After this, being summoned again, we asked: "How do you bid us appear, O Fathers, before you? As monks and condemned men, or as those who are to be judged?" And they sent back to us, "As you deserve." Therefore, we donned our priestly vestments and thus proceeded C to the council, or rather, to speak more truly, the brigandage. And when we were close by, the tyrant sent out onto the public road those who would strip us of our sacred garments. And when we had been thrust inside the church, aforementioned messengers of the judges, Laurentius and the two Stephanos, were sent to us, and said to me, "Why, when you have been condemned for so many crimes and deposed, have you dared to put on the sacred stole?" Then, having torn me by force from those with me, they brought me alone before the ruler; and the ruler immediately showered me with insults. But as I replied that insults were somewhat milder than tortures, he repressed his anger a little, and ordered me to sit on a wooden bench. In the meantime, as words were exchanged D back and forth, I asked if it might be permitted for me to greet your legates, Rhodoaldus and Zacharias; and having received permission, I greeted them and inquired for what purpose they were present. "We are legates," they said, "of Pope Nicholas of Rome, sent for the sake of investigating your case." When I asked again if they had a letter for me from your Holiness, they replied that they had none, because (they said) they were not coming to a patriarch, but to someone who had been condemned in a provincial council, and they were prepared to define all things according to the canons. "Therefore," said I, "first remove the adulterer; but if you cannot do this, then you are not even judges." They, pointing with their hand to the ruler, replied, "So he wills it." Thereupon the men around the emperor turned to me, urging and demanding my abdication, sometimes by counseling, sometimes by threatening; but they did not persuade me. Therefore, they turned to the metropolitans, and by other slanders and accusations they harassed them, asking why those who had not previously resisted my deposition were now again [calling] me patriarch...
To whom the metropolitans replied, saying: A Since two evils were set before us, namely, the emperor's wrath and the uprising of the populace, we chose the lesser one at that time; but you, who are about the emperor, restore the throne to the patriarch and do not concern yourselves with us. But in these matters the imperial party returned again to entreaty, asking me to resign clearly, and so let the adulterer securely possess the Church. As I was not persuaded, that day passed by. On these terms the assembly was dissolved, and they continued doing the same for many days. But when they failed to achieve what they were aiming at, they turned to another kind of machination, and having sent the aforementioned ministers of the judges, they summoned me to the council. But I said, that I would not go there either; for I do not recognize you as judges doing anything according to the prescription of the Church, since you have not even cast out the usurper from the midst, but instead you even eat with him, and you accepted his gifts even while standing at a distance. For at the city of Raedestus they met you—garments, and chasubles, and pectorals. Such judges as you I do not accept, but convey me to the Pope, and from thence I shall gladly accept the judgment. This also all those who were with me cried out with a loud voice. Then we asked them to read the aforementioned letters. For in them were contained the canonical proofs of Pope Innocent on behalf of the holy Chrysostom, that John ought not to enter the court before he was restored to his proper throne. And the fourth canon of the Council of Sardica: If any bishop has been deposed, and says that he has a defense, no other [person] is to be appointed in his place until the bishop of the Roman Church makes a decision concerning him. And many other such things were inscribed in the letters, which we beseech you, most reverend Father and bishop, and most loving of brothers, to seek out and read. But since they still pressed us nonetheless to come to them, we thus testified: As is apparent, my Fathers, you have neither read the canons nor do you know the ecclesiastical decree. B For the rule is such: That let a bishop who is called by a synod be summoned by two bishops, and let this be done twice and thrice. But you summon me by two, one a deacon and the other a layman. And we indeed made these excuses. But they produced witnesses who said they were ready to confirm under oath that I was not created and consecrated rightfully and by law. To this I again replied: Who are these, I say? And who will believe them? And what canon decrees that the emperor should produce witnesses? Therefore, if I am not an archbishop, neither are you emperor, nor are these bishops, nor indeed the adulterer; for all you are the product C of my unworthy hands and prayers. If the adulterer were a member of the Church, I would perhaps willingly have yielded; but now, how shall I establish a stranger as shepherd of the sheep of Christ? Many things stand against this man. One is that he is of those condemned and cut off by anathema from the Church. And not only have they suffered this from us D and from other patriarchs as well, but even from your own authority, since with them by
the wretched Zacharias he was forbidden to perform sacred rites, or to take communion, or to perform ordinations; yet they have done all things contrary to this before they were absolved from the censure. A Another point is that he was a man of the world, belonging to the secular order, and before he was a sheep, he acted as a shepherd. Furthermore, he was ordained by one who had been excommunicated and deposed. But also, when he persuaded the metropolitans to side with him, he gave those who requested it a signed document concerning me, and, having sworn an oath, he wrote that he would do nothing contrary to my dictates as if he were receiving a father. And not even forty days had passed since his inauguration when he publicly deposed me, though I was absent, and condemned me with anathema. To the Archbishop of Cyzicus, moreover, at the mandate of Photius, his fingers were broken, and the copy of the signed document—which he believed had been stolen from him—was taken, and he himself was cast down from his throne. Others, meanwhile, he oppressed, and others he won over with gifts so that they might destroy the signed document which they had written concerning me. To these things the tyrant replied nothing, but he brought forward witnesses suborned to swear an oath against me, as though I had not been regularly and holily promoted and consecrated. B Here I called out to the bishops present in a loud voice: "Admit, Fathers, the one request of your lowly old man, and come to us." Therefore, the judges and the tyrants took me aside from the rest, and once they had separated me from the others, they begged me again to renounce my right and to yield. As I refused, they began to make threats. Then those executioners left the bishops with me and withdrew. The bishops, however, began to treat with me again (concerning the document of renunciation, of course), to whom I replied that it was necessary for them to understand the state of my case, and only then to demand from me what they were requesting; and that they could learn of my situation from no other source than from me alone; for no one else from such a great multitude of hegumens, priests, monks, and laymen dared to speak freely. C For they had seen the Metropolitan of Ancyra, because he had spoken more freely for the truth in the council, struck by that nefarious parricide himself with the scabbard of his sword upon his head, so that it drenched his vestment in blood, and they had seen what other savage deeds he had dared against others. When I had recounted these things, they appointed a meeting for the following day. And being separated, we went home. But after the tenth day, they seized me and dragged me to the Caiaphan tribunal, and brought forward witnesses who would say that I had not been legitimately created. What need I say here of my being afflicted with so many blows? For seven days they forced me to remain without food, without sleep, and without rest. I have explained these things in brief. D Do you, my most holy lord, show toward me the bowels of your mercy, and as the great Apostle said, [Ps. CXVII. 20 (sic) / II Cor. XI, 29] say also yourself: "Who is weak, and I am not weak?" Look upon your predecessors, the patriarchs—I mean Fabian, Julius, Innocent, and Leo—and simply all who struggled manfully for the faith and for the truth, and emulate them, and arise as a champion for us who have suffered such indignities.