all the holy Fathers who condemned them and their infidelity, and in addition fell from one error into another, since when you wrote to us asking that we should answer the enemies of the Church, you did not hesitate to call that abominable letter orthodox. A And that they should accept Theodore and the heretics, and reject all the holy Fathers who condemned them and their infidelity; and thus they fall from one error into another; since when writing to us to answer the enemies of the Church, you did not hesitate to call that abominable letter orthodox.
Strive, therefore, first to correct yourselves, and then to teach others. For if anyone defends Theodore, or the letter called after Ibas, or the writings of Theodoret which were set forth against the true faith, he is numbered among the heretics and makes himself an alien to the Catholic Church, whose head is the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, from whom you separate yourselves by defending that impious letter and Theodore; and for this reason it is fitting for you to refrain from the impiety of the letter and from defending Theodore, that manifest heretic. For if the holy apostle Paul forbids B anyone to be called by his own name, or by the name of the rest of the apostles, and rebukes those who said, "I am of Paul, but I of Cephas," etc. *Not a few things are missing.*
THE CONSTITUTION OF EMPEROR JUSTINIAN AGAINST ANTHIMUS, SEVERUS, PETER, AND ZOARAS.
(MANSI Concil., tom. VIII.)
In the name of our Master Jesus Christ our God, Emperor Caesar Flavius Justinianus, Alemanicus, Gothicus, Francicus, Germanicus, Anticus, Alanicus, Vandalicus, Africanus, Pious, fortunate, glorious, victor, triumpher, ever-Augustus, to Menas the Patriarch.
Against the Severians
A It is not an unusual matter for the imperial power, and we ourselves acting in accordance with it, that we have come to the present law. For as often as the judgment of priests has deposed from the sacred sees those unworthy of the priesthood—such as Nestorius, and Eutyches, and Arius, and Macedonius, and Eunomius, and certain others who were not inferior to them in wickedness—so often has the Empire been of the same mind as the authority of the priests, so that divine and human things, running together, have caused one harmony with the correct judgments. We also know of the investigation which took place concerning Anthimus, who was indeed driven from the see of this royal city by Agapetus, of holy and renowned memory, who was the prelate of the most holy Church of elder Rome, as he had intruded himself into the throne in a way that was in no way fitting for him and contrary to all the holy canons; and he was condemned and deposed by the common vote both of that man of holy memory beforehand, and indeed also by the B holy synod which occurred here, because he departed from the correct dogmas, and those things which he previously appeared to cherish from many sources, he later avoided by various shifts; pretending indeed to follow the four holy synods—that of the 318 Fathers in Nicaea, that of the 150 in this fortunate city, that of the 200 gathered at Ephesus in the first instance, and that of the 630 venerable Fathers in Chalcedon. But in truth, he did not follow the dogmas of these, nor was he willing to accept our clemency and condescension, which we had for the sake of his own salvation, nor did he himself renounce the authors of the impious dogmas who had been cast out by the former holy synods; but he considered that it was right to hold those who had been condemned, and those who had condemned them, in the same and equal position. For once he had been enslaved to ideas foreign to the most holy Church, and had become estranged from the correct dogmas, he was naturally unable to return to their correctness, even though he was exhorted and guided by us, who used all diligence for his salvation.
For all these reasons, therefore, our Empire makes sovereign the decree of deposition brought against him by the holy synod, passed by reason of the illegal seizure—which is not witnessed by the holy canons—of the priestly thrones of this royal city, and his turning away from the correct and true dogmas; and on these grounds our Empire writes the present law. We forbid him also to dwell in this fortunate city, or in its suburbs, or in any other of the major cities, decreeing that he shall be at peace and content with those things to which he justly subjected himself, and that he shall neither communicate with others nor imbue them with the ruin of the forbidden dogmas. Furthermore, we do not leave without imperial confirmation the decree justly passed against Severus, that which proceeded from all, so to speak—from the episcopal and patriarchal thrones, together with the consent of the monks—and which brings an anathema upon him, since he, having previously taken the throne of the most holy church of the Theopolitans against the sacred institutions, so disturbed all things, and so transformed them into D confusion, that he produced a common and abominable war against the holy
Churches, and this, too, was written against him by the scepters that were before us; for he used various frauds and figments of doctrines alienated from rectitude, and blasphemies, and threw all things into disorder. And while maintaining only the error and the abominable and unholy dogmas of the two heresiarchs, Nestorius and Eutyches, and the leaders of each of these, who seem in some way to be opposed to one another, yet who hasten toward one and the same end of impiety, he also branded their characteristic arguments into himself. For since there are two doctrines opposed to each other, both of which lead equally to the destruction of the soul—that of Nestorius and that of Eutyches—as we have already said in our discourse, which consist of the contagion of the Arians and Apollinarians, he himself, suffering some strange delusion, has fallen into both alike. And while B at one time championing the one, and at another the other, he appeared to have made himself and his own words a common receptacle for such great transgressions. Let him, therefore, also be under the aforementioned anathema, which the entire patriarchal, priestly, and monastic assembly of our commonwealth, so to speak, has justly brought upon him; having been cast out of the Church of the Theopolitans, because the throne there removed him, in that he had not rightly assumed its primacy, but while him who held the priesthood before him was still alive and being commemorated in the most holy churches, he had yet fallen from the priesthood for the sake of him who came after him; nor did he stop this progress here, but having already come under the common anathema of the orthodox and catholic Church, he filled the commonwealth with many books, both blasphemous and forbidden. Wherefore we forbid all to possess any of his books. And just as it is not lawful to write, or to possess, the books of Nestorius (because it seemed good to our predecessors, the Emperors, in their constitutions, to ordain things similar to those which were said and written by Porphyry against the Christians), so let neither the sayings nor the writings of C Severus remain with any Christian, but let them be profane and alien to the catholic Church, and let them be burned with fire by those who possess them, unless those who have them wish to suffer the peril. Let them, therefore, be written by no one henceforth, neither for the sake of beauty, nor of speed in writing, nor for any other reason at all, knowing that the punishment for those who write his works shall be the cutting off of the hand. For we do not wish for blasphemy to be drawn from them in the future. Similarly, we also entirely forbid this man to enter the royal city, or its suburbs, or any other of the prominent cities, but let him sit in some solitude and in silence, and not corrupt others, nor lead them into blasphemy, nor always be finding something new against the true dogmas, by which he might again hasten to disturb the most holy Churches for us. D CAP. II. But neither does the Empire admit Peter, the one who was bishop of Apamea, and who was at the same time deposed, and at the same time placed under the aforementioned anathema by those same persons by whom Severus was; but let the things decreed against him be valid. And as he who is placed under the common anathema, let him be under the same;
and let the decision of the most holy archbishops which preceded against them remain in force. A Nor do we permit him to inhabit this royal city, or its surrounding territory, or any of the more distinguished places, but let him imitate the mode of life of those whose error he has followed, dwelling as far away as possible, and concealing himself, since for such men it is more profitable to be hidden than to be seen. For while they are unknown, they harm only themselves; but those who publish their own dogmas provide an occasion of perdition to many of the simpler folk, a thing which is not just to happen in any way in the Christian fold of God and among the orthodox people, nor is it permitted by the empire.