Epistola et Decreta Dubia

Saint Eutychianus, Pope and Martyr: Letter and Dubious Decrees. Letter I. To John and to All the Bishops of the Province of Boeotia. On the Faith of the Incarnation of the Lord. That Christ, while preserving the distinct property of each nature, existed as true God and true man. To our dearest brothers John and all the bishops established throughout the province of Boeotia, Eutychianus, bishop, sends greetings in the Lord. The equity of your request urges us to assent willingly to the desire of your fraternity (Symm., ep. 5, to St. Caesarius) and to reply briefly to your inquiries. And although I know your love to be devoted to every good work (St. Leo, ep. 40), yet so that it may become more effective against those who do not think rightly, we instruct you on how you should inform them concerning the Incarnation of our Savior. Therefore, this one immovable foundation, this one blessed rock of faith, confessed by the mouth of Peter: "You are," he says, "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (St. Matthew 16), contains within itself as many arguments of truth as the questions of perversity and the calumnies of unbelief that will be raised (St. Leo, p. 97, from St. Hilary's books on the Trinity, which he cites). As for the rest, let it be a matter of the dispensation of the Father's will.

Therefore, the birth and the body, and afterwards the cross, the torments of hell, our salvation, is for the sake of the human race: the Son of God was born of the Virgin and the Holy Spirit, with Himself serving in this operation, and overshadowing with His own, that is, divine, power, He sowed the beginnings of a body for Himself and instituted the origins of flesh, so that, made man from a virgin, He might receive in Himself the nature of flesh, through which, by this mixture of association, the sanctified body of the entire human race would exist in Him. And just as all are contained in Him through that by which He willed to be corporeal, so again He is referred back into all through that which is invisible in Him. Therefore, the invisible image of God did not refuse the shame of human origin, and passed through conception, birth, crying, and the cradle, and all the indignities of our nature. What, finally, worthy of such great condescension can be repaid by us? Therefore, the one only-begotten God, of ineffable origin from God, inserted into the womb of the holy Virgin, grows in the form of a human body: He who contains all things, within whom and through whom all things exist, is brought forth by the law of human birth. At whose voice archangels and angels tremble, heaven and earth and all the elements of this world are dissolved, we hear the crying of infancy. He who is invisible and incomprehensible, not to be touched by sight, sense, or touch, is wrapped in swaddling clothes.

If anyone considers these things unworthy of God, he confesses himself bound by so much the greater a benefit, as these things were the less fitting to the majesty of God. He did not need to become man, through whom man was made; but we needed God to become flesh and to dwell in us, that is, by the assumption of flesh, one would inhabit the inner being of all flesh. His humility is our nobility; his disgrace is our honor. That he, God, consists in flesh, this we in turn, renewed from flesh into God. Plainly, he does not know his own life, who does not know Jesus Christ as true God and also as true man. And it is a matter of equal danger not to believe Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit to be God, or to deny the flesh of our body in Christ (Idem S. Leo, ibidem, ex eodem S. Hilario). Therefore, he says, everyone who will confess me before men, I will also confess before my Father, who is in heaven; but whoever will deny me before men, I will also deny before my Father, who is in heaven (Matt. X). The Word made flesh (S. John I) spoke these things, and the man Jesus Christ, the Lord of majesty, taught, the mediator himself constituted in himself for the salvation of the Church, and by that very sacrament of the mediator between God and men, being one on both sides, while he himself from one into the same thing by natures, the thing of each nature is the same; yet so that he would lack neither in each, lest perhaps, by being born man, he would cease to be God; and again, by remaining God, man would not exist.

Therefore, this is the true faith of human blessedness: to proclaim God and man, to confess the Word and the flesh: neither that God is ignorant that He is man, nor that the flesh is unaware that it is the Word. Thus the only-begotten God was born man from a virgin (the same, the same letter, from the same Hilary), and according to the fullness of time, about to advance in Himself into God, He maintained this manner of evangelical speech throughout, teaching that He should be believed to be the Son of God, and proclaiming and admonishing that He is the son of man, speaking and doing as man all things that are of God, and then speaking and doing as God all things that are of man; yet in such a way that in that very speech of both kinds, He never spoke except with the signification of both man and God. Therefore, for the simple and ignorant, this is the occasion for heretics to falsely claim that what was said by Him according to man was said according to the infirmity of the divine nature: and because He is one and the same, speaking all that He speaks about Himself, they contend that He spoke everything about His divinity. Nor do we indeed deny that the whole of Him, who remains in Him, is the speech of His nature. But if Jesus Christ is both man and God, and neither when He is man is He then first God, nor when He is both man and God is He then not also God, nor after man in God, not the whole man and the whole God, it is necessary that the same sacrament be said to be of that kind.

And when in him you distinguish man from God according to time, then discern the speech of God and of man. And when you confess God and man in time, then judge the sayings of God and of man in time. But when it is a matter of man and God, you again understand the time of the whole man, the time of the whole God: since that was said for the demonstration of time, adapted to time, what was said: so that, since before man God is one thing, man and God is another, after man and God is another, the whole man and the whole God, you do not confuse the mystery of the dispensation with times and kinds, since according to the quality of kinds and natures, one speech was necessary for the mystery of man when not yet born, another for him still about to die, and another for him also eternal. Therefore, for our sake, Jesus Christ, bearing all this and born a man of our body, spoke according to the custom of our nature, yet not omitting that by his nature he is what God is. For although in birth and passion and death he accomplished the thing of our nature, yet he performed all those things themselves by the power of his own nature. Do you see that he so preached God and man that death is assigned to the man, but the raising of the flesh to God? Yet not that one is he who died, and another is he through whom the dead one rises. For Christ died, stripped of flesh: and again, raising Christ from the dead, it is the same Christ, stripping himself of flesh. Understand the nature of God in the power of the resurrection: recognize the dispensation of man in death.

And since both are done according to their own natures, remember that one and the same Christ Jesus is he who is both. These things, therefore, had to be shown by me briefly, so that we might recall that the form of each nature is treated in our Lord Jesus Christ: because he who, remaining in the form of God, took on the form of a servant, in no way lost his divinity. Moreover, brothers, we exhort you to urge them to be converted to him. Whence it is written: "Son, do not delay in being converted to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day. For his wrath will come suddenly, and at the time of vengeance it will destroy you. Do not be anxious about unjust riches: they will profit you nothing on the day of seizure and vengeance. Do not fan yourself in every wind, and do not go on every road. For thus the sinner is proven by a double tongue. Be steadfast in the way of the Lord, and in the truth of your understanding and knowledge; and let the word of peace and justice follow you. Be gentle in hearing the word of God, so that you may understand; and with wisdom give answer. If you have understanding, answer your neighbor; if not, let your hand be over your mouth, lest you be caught in an undisciplined word and be confounded. Honor and glory are in the speech of the wise; the tongue of the imprudent, however, is his undoing. Do not be called a whisperer, and let your tongue not be caught, and you be confounded. For upon the thief go confusion and penitence, and a most evil denunciation upon the double-tongued; for the whisperer, however, hatred, enmity, and contumely. Justify the lowly and the great alike.

Do not become an enemy of your neighbor for the sake of a friend. For reproach and insult will be inherited by the evil man, and every sinner who is envious and double-tongued. Do not exalt yourself in the thought of your soul like a bull, lest your strength be dashed to pieces through folly; and it will consume your leaves, and destroy your fruits; and you will be left like a withered tree in the desert. For a wicked soul destroys him who possesses it, and delivers him into the joy of his enemy, and leads him into the lot of the impious (Eccl. VI). With such exhortations, brothers, admonish one another in turn, and always pursue good things, and avoid evil ones. For with great zeal (according to the blessed Apostle) it must be carefully guarded against, lest the faith and discipline of the Lord be blasphemed (I Timoth., VI). And if sometimes those things are to be permitted which (if the integrity of the rest stands firm) alone cannot harm, yet those things are greatly to be guarded against which cannot be received without manifest discoloration. But if even those things, which are believed to be sometimes indulged without any detriment, are excused either by the consideration of circumstances of time and things, or by the regard for accelerated provision, how much more are those things not to be mutilated at all, which neither any necessity nor any ecclesiastical utility whatsoever extorts? Therefore, brothers, we have set these things forth, so that these species, which it is not permitted to offer upon the altar according to the constitution of the apostles and their successors (Canon.

3, 4, 5, apostolic (from the version of Dionysius Exiguus), are to be brought to the house of the priests, and are to be blessed by the priests, and after being blessed by a simple blessing, are finally to be taken by the people: only beans and grapes, and the other things which the apostles established, are to be offered upon the altar. Therefore we wish (St. Gregory, ep. 52, book IV), dearest brothers, and we beseech almighty the Lord with all our prayers, that He may make your love grow more and more in the constancy of His love, and may grant that you remain in one concord in the peace of the Church. We also admonish your fraternity (St. Gregory, ep. 25, book 11), that you diligently watch over the souls committed to you, and that you attend more to the gains of souls than to the advantages of the present life. In managing and arranging ecclesiastical matters, be diligent guardians, so that the coming judge, when he comes to judge, may approve that you have worthily discharged the office of pastor undertaken by you. May almighty God protect you with His protection (St. Gregory, ep. 50, book IV), and may He grant that you preserve the honor conferred upon you by God through your conduct, and may He help you to lead the souls committed to you, with manifold fruit, to the eternal pastures, and to present them worthily to Him, and may He deign to place you among His saints and elect. Given on the Ides of April, in the consulship of Aurelian and Marcellus, most illustrious men.

LETTER II. To the Bishops Established throughout Sicily. I. On the manner of receiving an accusation against clerics. II. Who are not to be admitted to the accusation of religious persons. III. On the manner of proceeding in ecclesiastical matters, since it ought not to proceed in a secular manner. To the most beloved brothers, all the bishops established throughout Sicily, Eutychianus. Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us (Ephes. 1, from a mixed version of the Italic and Hieronymian) in every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ, as he chose us in him before the constitution of the world, that we might be holy and immaculate in his sight in charity, predestining us to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ into himself, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has favored us in his beloved Son in whom we have redemption through his blood, remission of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which has abounded in us in all wisdom and prudence, that he might make known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, to renew all things in Christ, which are in the heavens and which are on earth in him.

In which also, called by lot, one, predestined according to his purpose, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we may be for his praise and glory, we who first hoped in Christ: in which also you, when you had heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in which also believing you are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, which is the pledge of our inheritance, for the redemption of the acquisition, for the praise of his glory. Therefore I also, hearing of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making remembrance of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation for the knowledge of him, illuminating the eyes of your heart, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the preeminent magnitude of his power in us, who have believed according to the operation of the power of his might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead, and placing him at his right hand in the heavens above every principality, and power, and virtue, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the future. And he subjected all things under his feet, and gave him as head over the whole Church, which is his body, and his fullness: who fills all things in all.

And you, when you were dead in your offenses and sins (Ephesians 2), in which you once walked according to the world of this age, according to the prince of the power of this air, the spirit which now works in the sons of unbelief, in which we also once lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of thoughts, and we were by nature sons of wrath, like the rest. Now, brothers, because from sons of wrath, by his grace and gratuitous mercy God has made us his sons: and we, who were not worthy servants, with no preceding merits, but by his (as we have said) grace have been made his sons: in which we cry out, Abba, Father (Romans 8), following his examples, at once sons of mercy and of justice and of love, so that as true sons of God we may be able to be and to be called, with his help, putting aside (according to the apostle Peter) all malice and all deceit, and pretenses, and envies, and all detractions (1 Peter 2). But those who do such things are proven not to be sons of God, but rather wicked sons, as the Apostle Paul says: The works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, impurity, luxury, servitude to idols, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, angers, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, homicides, drunkennesses, gluttonies, and things similar to these, which I proclaim to you, as I have proclaimed, because those who do such things will not attain the kingdom of God (Galatians 5).

Grave, brothers, is the word, and exceedingly dreadful, which says: "For those who do such things will not obtain the kingdom of God." And Truth itself says: "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, if he suffers loss to his own soul?" (Matthew 16). Very grave are the things we have set forth, and exceedingly to be avoided. For those to whom the kingdom of God is closed, without doubt the Church is also denied. Concerning these, the Lord in the Gospel, announcing the power of the apostles and their successors, says: "Those whose sins you have loosed are loosed to them; and those whom you have bound will be bound" (John 20; Matthew 18): that is, those to whom you have forbidden the Church, unless they have been reconciled through satisfaction, for them the gate of the heavenly kingdom will also be closed. I. — Hence, guarding against these things (2 q. 6, Not so in ecclesiastical matters), and foreseeing the minds of the foolish, with pastoral care, together with all the bishops and the faithful of both orders of the holy Roman and universal Church, we decree that it is not to be done in ecclesiastical affairs as it is in secular ones. For in secular laws, after someone summoned has come and begun to contend in court, it is not permitted for him to withdraw before the case is completed; in ecclesiastical matters, however, it is permitted to withdraw from the case once it has been stated, if necessary, or if he sees himself being unduly burdened.

We decree and order that the order of accusation be as follows: that is, if any cleric is charged with a crime, he should not immediately be considered guilty merely because he could be accused, lest we render innocence suspect. But whoever it is who brings the charge must come into court: he must indicate the name of the accused, take up the bond of the indictment, maintain the likeness [of the charge], yet enjoy consideration of his dignity, and he should not suppose that he has license to lie, since the likeness of the penalty demands vengeance against slanderers. For all heretics, and those suspected, and excommunicated persons, also murderers and sorcerers, thieves, sacrilegious persons, plunderers, poisoners, adulterers, and those who have committed abduction, or have given false testimony, or those who have resorted to soothsayers and magicians, are by no means to be admitted to accusation. II. - No infamous or sacrilegious person is ever permitted, in any matter whatsoever, to give testimony against a religious Christian, however humble or servile that person may be, nor to attack a Christian in any case, action, or indictment. Likewise, the license to accuse or to testify shall be denied to all who have neglected the dignity of the Christian religion and name, and the norm of their own law or profession, or things regularly prohibited.

III. — Similarly, we forbid that any cases be heard by ecclesiastical judges which are not contained in the laws, or which are known to be prohibited. Not only ecclesiastical laws, but also the laws of the secular world command that these be observed. For the accusation of priests ought not to be made indiscriminately and vaguely (Council of Carthage II). For if it were admitted without restriction, very few would be found; because all who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice. Whence Truth itself says (1 Timothy; Matthew 5; John 17): "Father, I have manifested your name to men, whom you gave to me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you gave to me are from you: because the words which you gave to me, I gave to them, and they received them: and they have truly known that I came forth from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you gave to me, because they are yours. And all my things are yours, and your things are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, whom you gave to me, and let them be one, just as we are. When I was with them, I kept them in your name. I guarded those whom you gave to me: and none of these perished, except the son of perdition, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

Now I come to you, and I speak these things in the world, so that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from evil. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And for them I sanctify myself, so that they too may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask only for them, but also for those who will believe through their word in me, that all may be one, and the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave to me, I gave to them, so that they may be one, just as we are one. I in them, and you in me, so that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me, and I loved them, just as you loved me. Father, those whom you gave to me, I wish that where I am, they also be with me, that they may see my glory, which you gave to me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Just Father, the world did not know you, but I knew you, and these have known that you sent me. And I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them. And the same John the apostle and evangelist, in his first epistle, speaks, saying (1 John.

IV): Beloved, let us love one another, because charity is from God: and everyone who loves is born from God, and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, because God is charity. In this the charity of God has appeared in us, because God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is charity, not as though we have loved God, but because He Himself loved us, and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and His charity in us is perfect. In this we understand that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He gave us of His Spirit. And we have seen and we testify that the Father sent His Son as the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in Him. And we have seen and believed the charity which God has in us. God is charity: and he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him. In this charity is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment, because just as He is, so we are in this world. Fear is not in charity, but perfect charity casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears, however, is not perfect in charity. Therefore let us love God, because God first loved us.

If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can one who does not love his brother, whom he sees, love God, whom he does not see? And we have this commandment from God, that whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is Christ is born from God. And everyone who loves the one who begot also loves the one who was born from him. In this we know that we will love the children of God, when we love God and do his commandments. For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5). And through the prophet, the Lord, warning that his disciples and their successors should not be harmed, says (Psalm 23, from the version of St. Jerome, which he mixes with the Old Latin and the Italic): The angel of the Lord surrounds those who fear him, and will deliver them. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who hopes in him. Fear the Lord, all his saints, for there is no want for those who fear him. Lions have lacked and hungered; for those who seek the Lord, every good thing will not be lacking. Walk, children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life, who loves to see good days? Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Withdraw from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears are open to their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, so that He may destroy their memory from the earth. The righteous cried out, and the Lord heard them, and freed them from all their tribulations. The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and He will save those crushed in spirit. Many are the evils against the righteous, and from all of them the Lord will free him. The Lord protects all his bones; not one of them will be broken. The wicked will be destroyed by their own malice, and those who hate the righteous will be held guilty. The Lord will redeem the souls of His servants and will free them. Therefore, brothers (Psalm 54), place your hearts upon the Lord, and He will nourish you, for He will not give the righteous over to eternal wavering. Moreover, our Lord God will lead our enemies, according to the voice of the Prophet, into the pit of destruction, for men of blood and deceit will not complete their days. But always hope in the Lord, and have confidence in Him, for He will free you... For He is blessed from eternity to eternity, and of His kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1). Given on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of October (in the year), under Carus the Second and Carinus, most illustrious men, consuls.