Epistola Ad Justinianum Imperatorem

In the year of the Lord 540, Pontianus, African bishop. Letter of Bishop Pontianus to the Emperor Justinian. Concerning the Three Chapters. To the most clement and most pious son, the Emperor Justinian, Pontianus, bishop, sends greetings in the Lord. From the very cradle you have principally taken up the name of justice; and the just Lord so provided that He granted the name before justice, to whom He afterwards entrusted the reins of empire. Therefore the grace of the Creator has been united not only in name, but also in merit, whose life has been exalted by ruling, and whose rule by living justly. You have deigned to admonish us, dwelling in the African regions, by letter, as to what faith you hold and defend. We have learned what the Lord established for the blessed Peter, saying: "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 16). Our spirit has rejoiced that you, most pious emperor, firmly hold what the apostolic faith preaches, believing that you will not deviate from the path of right belief. For such an emperor ought to be—pious, just, faithful—as we have known you to be. At the end of your letter, however, we learned—which gnaws at us not a little—that we ought to condemn Theodore, and the writings of Theodoret, and the letter of Ibas. Their statements have not reached us at all up to now.

But even if they have reached us, and we have read there some apocryphal things which are said against the rule of faith, we can reject the statements, not condemn the authors of the statements, who are already dead, by a hasty sentence. If they were still alive, and, when corrected, did not condemn their own error, they would most justly be condemned. Now, however, to whom shall we recite our sentence of condemnation? There is nothing in them that can be corrected. But I fear, most pious emperor, that under the pretext of condemning these men, the Eutychian heresy may be raised up; and while we do not spurn the smallest indications, we may come to a greater heresy and collision. And what have we to do with waging war against the dead, where no victory is found in the conflict? They are already held before the true judge, from whom no one appeals. Through him, in whom you honor and love us, we beseech your clemency, that peace may endure in your times, lest while you seek to condemn the dead, you kill many living disobedient men, and thereafter be compelled to render an account to him who is coming to judge the living and the dead.