Procli Constantinopolitani Ad Armenios De Fide Epistola [Interprete Dionysio]

The Letter of Proclus of Constantinople to the Armenians on the Faith, Translated by Dionysius Exiguus. To the most beloved of God and venerable bishops and presbyters, and to the archimandrites of the orthodox holy Church throughout all Armenia, Proclus sends greetings in the Lord. Not a little, brothers, has it confounded our mind and wounded it with the deepest grief, the rumor of the novel tares of error which the most cunning enemy of the common nature has recently sown in your region. For an unbearably sad report is accustomed to wound souls which have not been exercised by meditations of this kind, and it hurls its darts all the more perniciously, fixing them deep, inasmuch as the danger does not attack the body, but strives to storm the state of the mind, disseminating the opinion that the venerable garment of faith is either lamentably torn or completely stolen away. Indeed, every virtue is to be sought after by those for whom reason is not obscured by material things, and every malice is rightly judged to be fled from by the right-minded, as that which stands opposed to essence, itself subsisting without doubt contrary to nature: for just as that which is most useful must necessarily be guarded, so that which is not expedient but is proven adverse must either be repelled when it is present, or, if it is feared that it may happen, be carefully forestalled. Therefore, the hopes of virtue are many.

Now the pagans, whom error stifles and whose ignorance of divinity obscures the light of discernment, have defined these virtues in various ways; as have Christians, who, having the eyes of their mind illumined by right faith, behold the salt of justice more clearly through confession. For the former, wandering in their counsels as if in darkness, and possessing a headlong sense, strive after uncertain thoughts, scrutinizing nothing in their decrees beyond the flowing and unstable nature of visible things, their gaze either entangled in temporal causes or blinded by errors. They say, indeed, that there are four species of virtue: justice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance. Although these are good, they nevertheless creep along the ground and are cast down toward earthly things, while they are judged inferior to the heavenly summit. For they have called fortitude the struggle against the flesh; temperance, the victory derived from the subjugation of the affections; prudence, the desired institutions contained in civil life; justice, the best proportion. Now, as they supposed, they sanctioned the order of life by law, restraining immoderate and illicit appetite by such definitions.

But they have been unable to conceive or express anything lofty and higher than the present life; rather, with foolish and darkened hearts, they have striven to confine virtue, as far as they themselves are concerned, only to visible things, attributing to it nothing exceptional or worthy of a heavenly abode. Those, however, who have the eyes of their heart illumined through faith—whose leader and teacher is the most blessed Paul—define virtue as that which, always raising us toward God, guides us in an orderly manner on earth. Therefore, this venerable Apostle in all things enumerates many species of virtue, but especially commends faith, hope, and charity. Among these, faith bestows good merits upon men beyond nature, mingling them with invisible beings while they still bear garments subject to manifold passions. For those who do not know the nature of angels and the other corporeal powers by the sublimity of their purpose, faith attributes to them a discipline for men who walk on the ground and wallow in dust; it presents us to the throne and to the invisible one who lacks all form, and it suggests a certain illumination of the uncreated nature that always exists without beginning. This faith also, by its radiance, dispels material sense and, assaulting the thick and cloudy intuition of our mind, enables us to see clearly those things which can then be perceived in part when they are considered invisible, and to comprehend them when they are believed to be inaccessible.

Hope, however, does not deign to cling to dreams, as the saying goes, but, firmly retaining what it has believed, already prepares the future for itself in the present, and, to exclude doubt, embraces what is not yet present as if it were present in thought, bringing almost before the eyes the things that are awaited, even adverse ones. Overcoming the obstacles concerning these things, hope almost joins the things that are desired to visible realities, entirely surpassing the fleeting emptiness of time through the love of future things. Charity, however, is the summit and head of our holy religion. For through it, God, although He was always present on earth, deigned to come to us through the flesh. Both, therefore, rightly agree with each other: for faith is the mirror of charity, and charity is proven to be the firmament of faith. We believe that God the Word was incarnate without suffering; and we believe piously: for this faith is known to be the foundation of our salvation. Therefore, we love Him who for our sake took on the form of a servant, who neither suffered any change in His own nature, nor did any increase accrue to the Trinity. Every Christian, therefore, who is not rich in faith, hope, and charity, is not what he is called; but, even if he seems to discipline his own little body and to be free from the passions of the soul, advancing only in moral virtue, he by no means attains the crown of victory, as one who has not extended himself to that constant knowledge of the Divinity which bestows crowns on those who struggle bravely through virtue.

Therefore you see that which is the head of all goods, as I said before, is preserved intact, bearing nothing discordant with human inventions, disturbed by no profane novelties of words: which, remaining within the evangelical and apostolic boundaries, is violated by no one's stubborn fury. For on account of this we have been saved, and to this we have subscribed with our tongue in baptism. Indeed, the depth of faith lays low all rising audacity and rashness, not only human, but also that of those who are exalted by nature and incorporeal, as the blessed Paul says (Galatians 1): "Whether we, or an angel from heaven evangelizes to you beyond what you have received, let him be anathema." For it is commanded to the angel to minister, not to compose dogma. And it is exceedingly dangerous for individuals not to remain in the order assigned to them, but to desire to reach beyond the measure that is least granted to nature. Therefore, even if a substance should present something that seems worthy of belief, it will not be acceptable unless it answers to the proclamation. Let us therefore keep what we have received with unwearied care, ever raising the eyes of the mind to the gold of faith. But what have we received from the Scriptures, except that God created the world with his word, and produced from nothing the creature that did not exist? And because he honored the rational animal with natural law, a commandment is given to him, so that what was best might not lie hidden from his judgment, but that he might avoid harmful things by a better purpose.

And that he, by his own free will having lapsed into worse things, was cast out from the lands of paradise through disobedience; and that finally, through the fathers, patriarchs, the law, judges, and prophets, the one who formed nature instructed them, so that they might indeed avoid sins, and apply diligence to doing what is right, in such a way that transgressions also obtained dominion over us even against our will, and on account of these things, dialogues raged to the destruction of nature: as when the natural law grew obsolete and foul, and written prevarication grew sluggish; the prophets also, as men, warned what ought to be done, but could not deliver from imminent destruction; God, the eternal singer, without beginning, uncircumscribed, and omnipotent Word, coming in the flesh (for the power to do what he wills is present to him), took on the form of a servant, made flesh, born of a Virgin, wishing to show everywhere that, according to truth, he deigned to become man. For corporeal nature, and beginnings, and habits, and passions necessarily follow. For the evangelist does not say (John 1) that God entered into a perfect man, because he was made flesh, touching the very beginnings of our nature.

Just as a man born naturally does not immediately proceed to perfect operation, but first the very deposit of the seed is drawn forth as flesh, then over the course of time it acquires the power that contains the completion of senses and operations; so God the Word, touching the very beginnings and root of human institution, first became flesh, not being converted, which would be unthinkable, into flesh. For the divinity remained superior to all mutability, because change of nature is a passion of that which flows; but it is proper to that perpetual and everlasting essence, which is so constituted, that it perseveres unchangeable. Therefore, using both expressions of divine Scripture, we say that he both became flesh and took the form of a servant. From both, piously understood, the seeds of salvation exist for us: for by the fact that the Word became flesh, the evangelist declares the indivisibility of his supreme union. For just as a singularity cannot be divided into two singularities (otherwise, divided into these, it would no longer be a singularity, but a duality), so that which is one according to supreme union can in no way be divided into two by any reasoning. But by the fact that he assumed the form of a servant, the unchangeability of the divine nature is intimated: because everything that is made either is made from that which did not exist, like the heaven which previously was not, or is converted from that which is into something else, like the streams of the Nile river changed into blood.

But each mode is shown to be incongruous with the divine substance: for it neither proceeded from any pre-existing things, always remaining without beginning; nor was God the Word converted from some material, persisting in his own immutability. Therefore, through these things, divine Scripture attests both the immutability of the Godhead and the indivisible mystery, showing what was done and indicating what was assumed: so that, by the first, it commends the singularity of nature of each person, and by the other, it declares the immutability of the divine substance. God the Word, therefore, became perfect man, not by a change of the nature of the Godhead, with the miracle that exceeds the understanding of our mind bearing witness: we perceive this same thing by faith, we gather it not by inquiry. And having become man, kindred according to the flesh, he bestows salvation upon the race through the likeness of passions, indeed paying the debt of sin, while, having suffered the things of man, he dies for all, destroying the one who held the power of death, that is, the devil; as the most just God: also making possible what was impossible for the law, fulfilling all justice, and restoring the former nobility and clarity of our substance through this, that he became man, he honored the one whom he himself had formed from the earth.

Therefore, the Son is one, the Lord is one: for we confess a Trinity of one essence, admitting no fourth person in the Trinity whatsoever. But, as we have said, the Son is one, born without beginning from the Father, through whom we believe the ages were made: a branch from the root, coeternal, born from the Father in an ineffable manner, the word of the mind proceeding inseparably and remaining intimately. For even if He was seen on earth, He was not separated from the begetter: He willed to save whom He had created, nay more, He saved, deigning to inhabit the womb, the common gateway of nature, which He sanctified by His presence, and marked by birth the offspring, which is above nature, showing Himself incomprehensibly as a man made. Therefore, Christ is not one and God the Word another, which God forbid; for divine nature knows not two sons: the only-begotten one gave birth to one; for where there is no copulation of begetters, there you will not be able to find a quality of those being born. In the name of Jesus Christ every knee bends of the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal (Phil. 2). If Christ were other than God, it would be necessary that Christ be a mere man, and how would the celestial beings venerate him beyond the merit of nature, and bend the knee to one who is lesser? How also would we heed the prophetic oracles crying out that our God was seen on earth and conversed with men (Baruch 3)?

For the prophet calls "vision" the manifestation which was made in the flesh, and the sojourn wherein he dwelt for a time among men, whose advent the ungrudging goodness of his piety declared: because, as omnipotent, he remained what he was for his own sake, and became what he willed for our sake. But if ever the rudiments of infancy, and the reclining in the manger, and the growth in time according to the flesh, and also that he slept in the ship, that he was weary from the journey, that he was hungry after fasts, and all those things which truly happened to the man he became, should cause a scandal: let those who reproach these things know that they deny the human nature in Christ; and denying the nature, they do not believe in the dispensation; and not believing in the dispensation, they suffer the loss of salvation: and if, from the foundation of the world, by which man is cast into this life, anyone has entered upon another path besides this entrance of the flesh, let the contentious show it, and then at last weave their ravings. But if these are the beginnings of common nature: and God the Word truly became man: why, while confessing the nature, do they revile the passion? Therefore, let them choose one of two: either, blushing at the insults, let them abjure the nature and, afflicted with the diseases of the Manichaeans, be numbered among the impious; or, if they accept the gain which comes from the incarnation, confessing the substance, let them not be ashamed of the passions which follow the substance.

I marvel also at the madness of those who tread new paths of deception: for I, as I have been piously taught, acknowledge one Son, whom I profess to be the substance of the incarnate Word of God; but since the one who endured the passions and performed the miracles is the same, on what ground do they pass over the more divine matters in silence and disparage the humbler ones? For in order that the Word might give assurance that it remained what it was, it became flesh (John 1), that is, an infant and a perfect man, with no conversion violating so great a mystery; the same one both performed miracles and suffered injuries, by the divine signs indeed indicating that he remained what he was, and by the passions manifesting that he had become what he had formed. Therefore we proclaim one and the same Son, both coeternal with the Father and incarnate in the last times, inserting nothing spurious into the divine nature: for there can be nothing superfluous on the throne. But perhaps they will object to me that oft-repeated commonplace, weaving syllogisms weaker than a spider's web: If the Trinity is of one essence, then the Trinity remains impassible. But if the Trinity and God the Word are seen as the Trinity, he remains impassible, and God the Word is proved impassible. But if God the Word is impassible, then the one who was crucified will be found to be other than the impassible God the Word.

They truly weave spiders' webs who bring forth such things; they write on water who devise the most foolish propositions; and those who called themselves wise have become fools, and their foolish heart has been darkened (Rom. 1): for a bleary eye does not purely receive the rays of the sun, and a weak mind cannot gaze upon the depth of the faith. What then do we say to these things? That according to the principle of the Godhead, the holy Trinity is both of one essence and remains impassible. For when we say that the Son suffered, we do not mean that He suffered according to the principle of the Godhead, since the divine nature admits of no passion whatsoever; but confessing that God the Word, one of the Trinity, was incarnate, we provide material for understanding to those who faithfully inquire why He deigned to become incarnate. For since God the Word had decreed to destroy the passions, whose end was held to be death, but the inviolable nature could not undergo passion (because every passion is shown to bring struggle to composite things, but in a spiritual and singular substance there is no composition: nor did that passion reach where there was no composition), wishing, as I said, to destroy the passions which had oppressed the rational body, whose destruction was the supreme fortification (as God the Word knows), He is incarnate from the Virgin, and is found in a habit, as a man: since He thus wished to empty Himself, in a certain way taking the form of a servant (Phil.

n) yet admitting no circumscription of his own divinity, through which he also conferred salvation upon the whole human race, destroying passions by his flesh, preserving his own divinity impassible. Therefore Gabriel, indicating the authority and power of the one being born, said to Mary, saying: "He will save his people from their sins" (Matt. i). But a people cannot belong to a man, but to God; nor does one who entered this life together with corruption, having no blameless beginning of birth, rescue the world from iniquities, but necessarily God and man at the same time, not divided into two, but remaining one, by that which is born from a woman showing himself man, by that which without a husband and keeps the mother intact, indicating God completely, saved his people. Who? Jesus Christ, who came into the lands and dwelt with men (Bar. iii). But if Christ is a mere man, and is not himself the Word of God, how did he create all things in the beginning, since then, as the impious assert, he did not exist? Since man, born later, is the last among creatures, if Christ is a mere man, it is clear that he could not have created those things which were before him, as one made afterwards. And how did Paul say, "One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things"?

If, however, all things were made through Christ, it is manifest that Christ is God the Word, as the Evangelist testifies: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him" (John 1). And Paul himself, interpreting, says: "One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things" (Colossians 1). Therefore it is said that Christ is God the Word. But if they bring forth those utterances published in the divine Scriptures by which Christ is called a man—as Peter says: "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God among you" (Acts 2), and Paul similarly testifies: "In a man in whom he predetermined faith, providing it to all" (Acts 17), and the Lord himself cries out concerning himself: "Why do you seek to kill me, a man?" (John 8)—let them know that either through carelessness they are deprived of the understanding of Holy Scripture, or certainly through malice they are abandoned, because they twist what is well written to their own perversity. For Christ is called a man according to truth, but he became this, which he previously was not, except that he is God in such a way that, just as he is uncreated God, so the same is perfect man, admitting no suspicion of phantasy whatsoever. And just as he is consubstantial with the Father according to divinity, so the same is proven to be consimilar to the holy Virgin according to flesh, the truth of the mystery shining forth everywhere, and all falsehood being entirely removed.

If, however, the Virgin did not give birth to God, she was not considered a great miracle, for many other women have brought forth righteous men into the world. For the prophetic tongues, foretelling the ineffability of this mystery, said: Behold, a virgin will conceive in her womb, and will bear a Son, and His name will be called Emmanuel. Which Gabriel interpreted, saying, God with us (Isa. 7; Matt. 1; Luke 1). Why do they diminish the glory of the one giving birth because of the inclination of the one being born? But perhaps they object, saying: Everything that is born is proved similar to its begetter. Therefore, if He whom she bore is a man, necessarily He who was born from her is a man. As if you were setting forth these things with plausible reasoning. But then the one giving birth brings forth one equal to herself in all respects when the birth is according to nature. However, the beginning of natural parturition is corruption, because it also precedes the union. But when there is not even a suspicion of this injury, it is evident that the miracle is above human understanding; where the birth is above nature, there the one who is born is God. Therefore we confess that He made the world from nothing, gave the law, inspired the prophets, and was incarnate in the last times, and also sent the apostles for the salvation of nations and peoples.

Let us therefore flee the counsels of seduction—I mean the pernicious streams of heretics and the contagions hostile to God: the madness of Arius, who divides the inseparable Trinity into substances; the audacity of Eunomius, who confines the incomprehensible nature within the scope of human knowledge; the rage of Manichaeus, who separates the Holy Spirit from the essence of the Godhead, even as it proceeds inseparably. Nor should we overlook this most recent and novel blasphemy, which is recognized to surpass manifold the impiety of the Jews. For the latter, denying the Son, attempt to tear the branch from the root; but these, introducing another over and above the one who is, strive to defame the inviolable substance as though it were multiplied into offspring. Let us therefore say with Paul (Ephesians 2): Christ is our peace, who has made both one. For He has reformed the Jew and the Gentile through baptism into a new man, joining by virtue those whom their manner of life had separated. For this reason, let the inventors of this new impiety tremble at the condemnation that hangs over them, when they have returned to a single divided harmony, and the one who united in two, as far as they are concerned, is drawn apart. But now, having set aside prolixity of speech, let us come to the summary of right doctrine.

If anyone wishes to know truly how the same person is one and the same, remaining not only the Son of Abraham, and in the last times, according to the flesh, advancing in wisdom and age—for his divinity always possesses that which is perfect—let him question Paul, and he will immediately proclaim the mystery of piety, showing that even though born from the Jews according to the flesh, he exists as the eternal God. For speaking of the Hebrews and praising the rebellious and entered nation, on account of the root, namely Abraham, and on account of the seed, Christ, he pronounces thus: "Of whom," he says (Rom. IX), "is the adoption of sons." For he cries out in the prophets: "My firstborn son Israel and glory." For the divine miracles conferred infinite glory upon those who were then of proven character, and the testaments through which the multiplication of Abraham's seed was promised, and the legislation which was written on the mountain by the finger of God, and the service by which they attended to divine worship, and the promises by which either the land of Palestine or certainly the blessing was conferred upon all the peoples in the seed of Abraham: whose fathers, who in this night of ignorance are proven to have arisen like lights of faith, and from whom Christ. Nor did the most blessed Paul stop there. For not from the time of the birth from Mary is the essence of the Word, which exists without beginning. But he immediately added "according to the flesh," so that he might signify the manifestation which took place in the flesh, not that divine and eternal nativity.

Who, then, is this Christ, who was born of the Virgin, whom the cave received as something of no value, who lay in the manger, who grew in age according to the flesh, and who, descending to the lower parts of the earth, endured all things of the flesh with wondrous condescension, in order to make it credible that he truly became man, and that he is none other than the one who descended, but the same who descended is the one who ascended? For he did not ascend first, but descended, as one who is not God by promotion, but who, out of the mercy we needed, deigned to become man. Who is he? Let him not ask me or anyone else, but the Apostle, who says the Son is revealed by the Father, when he says (Gal. 1): "But when it pleased him who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me." For who this is, Jesus Christ will truly teach, exclaiming (Rom. 9): "From whom Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever." These words of Paul—what opportunity for the slander of those who love perversity do they allow?

For he said "Christ" to show that in truth God became man; he said "from the Jews according to the flesh" to intimate that he did not begin to exist from the time of his incarnation; he said "who is" to declare him without beginning; he said "above all" to proclaim him Lord of the whole creation; he said "Lord" lest, misled by his passions and condition, we dare to deny his inviolate substance; he said "blessed" that we might worship him humbly as omnipotent, and not assail him with slanders as a fellow servant; he said "for ever" to demonstrate that he who created us by his word, by reason of his divinity, should be honored by us with perpetual veneration. Therefore, having Christ as both existing and God and blessed for ever, let us venerate him as Lord, saying to the advocates of foreign doctrines: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his" (Rom. 8); but we have the mind of Christ: therefore we also await the advent of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who will piously bestow the crown of glory on those who live righteously, but will render to those who provoke him a fitting return for their audacity. We send these things to your Charity in response to your booklets, which you sent to us, asserting that certain pestilent men, uttering monstrous words, have burst into your province, wishing by certain writings and objections of falsely named knowledge to pervert the simple and unadulterated beauty and constancy of the right faith.

But I again admonish you with the words of blessed Paul (Colossians 2:8). See that no one deceives you through philosophy and empty fallacy according to the tradition of men who consult vain things, and not according to Christ. Moreover, no one can lay another foundation of the holy faith besides that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. Therefore stand in one spirit, unanimous, laboring together for the faith of the Gospel, and be terrified by no adversaries (Philippians 1), preserving the traditions which you have received, whether from the holy and most blessed Fathers who are known to have promulgated the faith at Nicaea, or from the holy and venerable Basil, Gregory, and the others who held the same opinions: whose names are written in the book of life. I and those who are with me send very many greetings to the whole brotherhood which is with you in Christ. [These things are lacking in the Greek.] Given at Constantinople, in the consulship of the most pious Theodosius Augustus for the fifth time and Valentinian for the fourth.