Synodical letter from the Western Fathers to Mar Papa catholicos

Again, the letter of the synod that was written from the Western Fathers to Mar Papa, Catholicos [Patriarch], which contains the solution of the matters that occurred against him from the house of Milis and his companions. To the excellent brother and son of your service, Sabis, in the canons. Elias the second, in the fervor of his zeal in Christ, Mar Papa Patriarch and Metropolitan ... Gaius and Peter and Paul and Claudius and Clement and Philip and Alexander and Eusebius and Gregory. [And Magnus and Gaudius. And Gregory] and Eutychius and Basilicus, together with the rest of all the brother bishops who are with them, in the ecclesiastical order, in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Greetings [abundant to you. While] with one accord we write this letter to your piety, O Lord, because while we were grieved that you were not in unity with one another, and it was found that through internal counsel deliverance was found for the Church of God that is with you, because when it was not delivered from the schisms and tumults of heresy, before the ship had yet reached the harbor, the Arian parties fell upon you, for like destructive fathers they fell upon the flock of Christ. And when these things happened, you were in mourning, and were being troubled and weeping, that through these things the seeds of discord, prayers, and supplications might guard for the Church the truth of its faith. And while yet you had not found consolation for your mourning, there was added to you an evil blow in a harsh and bitter affliction, from the reading of the two letters that were sent to you from the holy brother Mar Jacob, bishop of Nisibis, and from the holy Mar Ephrem the Syrian, who appeared like a prophet in the generation.

And when their letters were thrown to the Jews, they came out and were read in public, and from them it became known to you about the arrogance that the vain heretics committed in the ordination of holy men, from whom bishops were consecrated. Those who were inexperienced in knowledge and unskilled in discovery through labor and inquiry, in the name of excellence, they promised them that they were authorized to do everything. And they gave a hand to the audacious and the arrogant, those who, through the cause that was with your holiness, were abolished and destroyed. And others who were restrained within the bounds of the service of their ranks. And they formed a faction like the heretic fathers, and they sought to destroy the persecuted church in the East through the machinations of their father Satan. And they thought that first they would cast a hand against the great one and the head of the opinions. And they were not wearied by your gentle labors and by the depth of your old age, and by the extent and burden of your governance over them. For behold, six and eight years have passed under the governance of your patriarchal house within the church of God. And your priestly eminence has been stirred to the East and the West together. And they did not fear and tremble before the just judgment of God. Those arrogant ones before the altar and the Gospel. From them were the accusers. And from them, the witnesses who, in the midst of the Gospel, learned the language of exile. Because they are without God and without fear. And without shame, they dared to show the rottenness of their words through the accusations against your priestly eminence. And they erred and transgressed before their eyes all the great and glorious things that were accomplished among them, through your hands and those things that are impossible, which are entrusted to your holy body.

they said, wrote, and read in the synagogue of Aphrahat, the gate of one of the villages that was for your fathers, the sixty and two hundred elders, who were bound to keep the covenant with your workers on their behalf. How much more guilty are they now, who have taken away the honor of the whole East, and have endured the grievous pains of their error, and because of them the hour has been separated from your eyes, and the spirit from your body. And now that your limbs have been freed from toil, how guilty they were to repay good deeds to your fatherhood, which you received like a compassionate father. And in return for these good things from you, they, like venomous snakes, attacked your venerable old age, which, with their venomousness of demons, they bound and turned back behind themselves from the sight of the glorious crown of your old age. And they also stretched out a hand against the greatness of your priesthood, because for this they were prepared and ready. Your holiness, why was it not like the Gospel that was life-giving? And a little less, you were compared to the prophet Habakkuk, who, because of the injustice he saw against his son, was ready to judge. And because of this, you received a judgment of condemnation in your person. And not as one who is defiled was you persuaded by the foolish: because of the drunkennesses that were in him, Papa received the imposition of the hand on the head. Enough that he sinned like them in the gate. If, however, they spat in the face of Christ and struck him on his cheeks, and slapped him on his head and mocked him, and afterwards they uprooted the altars and killed the priests, and trampled the sanctity which is his blessed body: and these things were done not only by enemies, but also by the household, especially by those who call themselves pastors, whose evil is still fresh in the churches. And they are not satisfied with the killing and destruction of their own. And the orthodox of your people and the imposition of the hand did not receive.

Your Holiness, do not think that these things were said about you because of the imposition of hands. For they are manifest and clear: all these are works of iniquity and of the tyranny of their arrogance before the altar and the Gospels. And a pursuit of force was bound for them on that day of judgment of the covenant. But your Holiness, when you were purified from the anger of their tyranny, you became arrogant over the Gospels. The Lord did not wish that your good servants err. And the injustice of your fair conduct: and this was preserved for you, for the day of judgment like them. For just as they are judged in their arrogance, so also you with them and like them will be judged. But that merciful one, your Lord, with a pure heart you served him; and at all times he receives your prayers which you offered before him for a hundred years and more. He took your face, pardoned, and forgave you your follies. With a slight imposition of hands, which went out over your holy body, and with a small, passing, and transient judgment, he passed with you to the future judgment. And when the darkness was good in it, all the partners ceased to exist. But you have a consolation in this: that you have heard that at the very hour, in the wake of folly, the imposition of hands on your body was seen. It is a faithful testimony of God concerning you, that you were raised a faithful and true one. And in the conduct of the shepherd you were raised for God, up to that beginning. And even to that one, as to a beloved son, he struck you with the rod of his discipline. And those who are strangers and not sons, because of this, discipline was not given to them as it was given to your fathers. You, because the Lord loved you, he disciplined and chastised you. And also concerning those who are hostile to you, that they are bound for eternal torment.

Concerning the affliction, moreover, which, on account of the whole of your flock, your Holiness has suffered—that the Adversary cast into your diocese, by night, disturbances, tumults, and divisions, when the domestics were not sufficient to do battle with the outsiders—even they fell one upon another. And the internal war became more grievous than the external. And it is known that, in the end, the great force of the outsiders prevailed over this internal war. For those who were destroyers and vain showed them evil paths and ways. And it is for you to see the great persecution which is being raised against the Church of God in your diocese. And concerning these things, it is necessary to say: it would have been fitting that the great gift of the patriarchate not have been given to the see of your Holiness. And because metropolitans were not appointed in the eastern diocese, all the bishops were subject to the see of your Holiness. And now, on account of the patriarchate, your honor has been diminished. And it is evident that, on account of the pride and the insubordination of the metropolitans whom you appointed, your honor has been diminished. And it is known that the metropolitans, if they had remained subject shepherds to their own patriarchs, would not have permitted rebels to increase in your diocese. But it became known from the folly, and also from the letters of our brother Mar Jacob, that they themselves give birth to them and they themselves raise them. For the metropolitans, without the knowledge of their patriarch, become the cause and the occasion of their follies, and from time to time, in the rebellion against their patriarch, they press upon my fathers. And when their districts were commanded and examined, not only were the patriarchs found guilty in the districts concerning them, but the metropolitans and bishops were found guilty. And from them they were destroyed and annulled, together with their ranks.

And on account of the distress and the troubles in which you were raised, they accepted no discipline and made no order. And behold, they have smitten the church of your diocese with the roots of their schisms and with the wound of their divisions. And this which you have seen and considered in yourself, that a helper for the church of God of your diocese and of your patriarchate—that which the first fathers decreed when they gave the authority of the patriarchate to that eastern see of yours in the church of the Cocheans, which is established with metropolitans—wherever it is known that there is a helper, and he is empowered over them [and also] for their deposition when they are equal, and for their annulment on account of their follies—so also over all the bishops of the East: the patriarch is to be the petitioner and the judge in the whole church of God of the eastern diocese. He is to rule and to take hold. We also, when we have assented to this, we have done rightly. For every person who is disturbed and agitated and who removes his face from the obedience of the authority of the patriarch, the patriarch is to depose that person and to appoint another in his place. And he is empowered over all ordinations and dismissals and annulments [of judges] and ordinances and the ordination of priests. And to increase and to diminish churches and monasteries. And also the dioceses of bishops, and even if it is necessary to diminish them on account of the stability and benefit of other churches and of the dioceses of bishops that are complete [which he is].