Epistolae Duae

Saint Nicetius's Two Letters. The First Letter. To Queen Chlodosvinda of the Lombards. To the most clement daughter in Christ, Queen Chlodosvinda, Nicetius, a sinner. I. When we see your legates going through the lands of the Franks, your brothers, we are anxious about your prosperity. But from there we hear those things which we always confess resound and resound again: how great, how lofty, how praiseworthy, how useful, how humane or munificent you are; how solicitous for the poor, how astute for the region, how splendid in pious conduct among all the people. May He grant this, who has already given you the spirit of wisdom and understanding. We rejoice in this: may Christ make us rejoice concerning King Alboin whom you have, and concerning his triumph in his own happiness. We are astonished that, while peoples tremble before him, while kings pay him veneration, while powers praise him without ceasing, while even the emperor himself sets him above his own men, he does not quickly seek a remedy for his soul. We read in Scripture: "Seek first the kingdom of God, and all things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33). He who shines so brightly in reputation, I wonder that he investigates nothing concerning the kingdom of God and the salvation of his own soul; but he receives those, he acquiesces to those, who rather destroy the soul into Gehenna than lead it to the path of salvation.

They preach that there are two Gods: one, the Father, in the deity; the other, the Son, in the deity, but as a creature; whereas Scripture says: "I am the Savior, and there is no other besides me" (Isa. 45:14). II. I adjure you, Lady Chlodosvinda, by the terrible judgment of God, that you both read this letter well and diligently and frequently set it forth to him, and that you ask him: Who is the Savior? Do they say the Father is the Savior, or the Son? How do they proclaim that there are two, when there is one and there is no other? If they say the Son, then the Father is not the Savior; and if they say the Father, then the Son is not the Savior: because one who is not the Savior can save no one. If they say: There are two Saviors, they will find that written nowhere, except, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30); that is, the Father in the Son and with the Son, and the Son in the Father and with the Father. God, on account of his greatness, cannot be seen by the human eye, who is so great, so shining, and also so fiery. We read: "His tabernacle is around heaven and earth" (Ps. 17:12); which also, on account of that greatness and splendor, cannot be seen by man. He brought forth from himself the one whom he always had with himself; who made a hiding-place for himself from flesh; and therefore Scripture says: "He placed darkness as his hiding-place" (Ibid.). And so in the Gospel the Word of God, which John says was in the beginning, says (John

I, 1), "The Word was made flesh" (John 1:14); and that which was from Mary, He so joined to Himself that it was one. And through Scripture it says: "From Zion the beauty of His splendor" (Ps. 49:2): that is, man will pass over into God. III. In the Gospels He Himself said: "I came forth from the Father, and came into this world" (1 John 16:28). In the forty-seventh psalm He said: "Distribute His steps" (Ps. 47:14). He said "His," not "theirs": because it is most openly known that He is one, but not alone: "So that you may recount in the other generation": for on the day of resurrection, he who has not believed in the Trinity in unity will be able neither to recount nor to appear. And on account of this, the whole host of angels cries out each day: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts" (Isa. 6:3). It did not say three Holies, but thrice Holy, Lord God of hosts. Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit. One Holy, as one Lord. Whence also the evangelist John said: "He Himself is who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Savior" (Rev. 1:8). If I go by the names, they seem to be degrees. When you hear "Father," He seems greater by name; and therefore He said: "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28); but only by name. In the deity, however, it is most evidently recognized through Christ and His apostles that He is one. Because when He was asked by a disciple: "Lord, show us the Father"; and He replied: "You see Me, and do you ask about the Father?" (John 14:8-9)?

You see that He is invoked in the Trinity, and is found to be in one divinity. When you hear "Father," do not believe that He is without the Son: when you hear "Son," do not doubt that He is with the Father: nor doubt that there are three in persons; for He is acknowledged to be one in divinity. And therefore He said to His disciples: "Go, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19). He said "in the name," not "in the names"; because He spoke of one divinity, not three. Moreover, the Holy Spirit cannot be separated; because from where the grace of God is known to be, from there it is recognized to be a gift. From Him all good things breathe, as the Apostle said: "For from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things" (Rom. 9:5?). But only the Most High is the Savior in every land (Ps. 82:19). Joshua the son of Nun beheld Him, and therefore said: "Is He ours, or of the adversaries" (Josh. 5:13)? But He, answering, said: "I am who I am, and there is no other besides me" (Exod. 3:14). Abraham, who is called the friend of God (2 Chron. 20:7?; Sir. 41:8; Jas. 2:23), and is proven so, saw three, and believed in one (Gen. 18:2, 5). When he adores three, he commemorates the Trinity, as I said: when he prays that the one enter the house, he declares that there is one power. For to Moses, how many times and how many times did He say, "I am who I am, and there is no other besides me"?

IV. Why is it necessary for us to go through each detail? Let us come to the twelve disciples whom He had, because the Goths themselves today pay veneration to them and secretly steal their relics; but they have nothing there, since they presume to annul their faith. What is it that in their basilicas they venerate the bodies of these same men today, yet do not enter? What is it that they dare to presume nothing there, except stealthily, like dogs from outside, they deceive souls? When their own king Alboinus sends his faithful to them, and leads them to the thresholds of the Lord Peter, and Paul, John, or the other saints, so that they may deliberate there whether they dare to celebrate Mass—but they do not dare, because they do not appear as disciples of the Lord Peter, and are proven to be adversaries of Christ; indeed, they are found to destroy, wretches, what He Himself redeemed through the cross. "Why does such a king and such an age receive their poisons?" If he here commands them to be sent to the Lord Martin on his feast day, which he celebrates on the eleventh day of November, and there, if they dare, they may presume something, where we see the blind illuminated today, where we see the deaf receive hearing and the mute receive health. For what shall I say of lepers or of very many others, who, struck by whatever debility, are healed there year after year, one after another? Perhaps they say that they touch or even the blind, who appear blind from birth. What shall I say, when we see them illuminated from there and, by God's mercy, we see them return to their own?

For what shall I yet say of lord Germanus, Hilarius, or Lupus, bishops: where so many miracles appear today, as many as I am unable to express in words: where those afflicted, that is, those having demons, are suspended in the air and tormented, and confess the lords I have named to exist? Do they do thus in their churches? They do not, because they do not perceive that God and the holy lords dwell there. A demon does not exorcise a demon. For where the saints dwell, a demon is not permitted to wander: therefore it happens that the place where God is, is shown. What of lord Remigius and lord Medardus, bishops, whom you, I believe, have seen? We cannot set forth so many wonders as we see God perform through them. IV. You heard from your grandmother of blessed memory, Rodhildis, how she came into Francia, how she led lord Clovis to the Catholic law; and although he was a most astute man, he would not acquiesce before he recognized the truth. When those things which I have mentioned above were proven and known, he humbly fell at the threshold of lord Martinus, and permitted himself to be baptized without delay. Once baptized, what great deeds he did against the heretics, kings Alaric and Gundobadus, you have heard; what good things he himself or his sons possessed in the world, you are not ignorant. Such a man, such a person as Alboinus is said to be, such a reputation, whom the world so extols, why is he not converted, or why does he appear slow to seek the way of salvation? Good God, who are the glory of the saints and the salvation of all, send yourself into him.

And you, Lady Chlodosvinda, when you speak, give comfort, so that we may all rejoice over such a star, such a gem, in such a way as we are able to please God. I greet you as much as I am able: I beg that you not be idle: cry out incessantly, sing incessantly. You have heard the saying: An unfaithful man will be saved by a faithful woman. (1 Cor. 7:14). For know that the first salvation, the first remission, is for one who has caused a sinner to be converted from his error. Watch, watch, because you have God propitious. I ask that you act in such a way that you make the nation of the Lombards strong against enemies, and that you allow us to rejoice concerning your salvation and that of your husband. LETTER II. TO THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. He recalls him, fallen into heresy, from error. To his always lord, the Emperor Justinian, Nicetius, humble with his own, but by the mercy of the Lord a bishop. I. In these last times already, as the evangelical word foretold, we look forward; and although our time is always ready, yet we feel that the end, as Scripture announced, is coming. But blessed is that man whom, when Christ comes, he finds him watching. The sun is turned into darkness from the east, that is, from on high, that is, from holy life. In the whole world you shone like the sun; and while we all, by the grace of the Lord, rejoiced over you, the rectors of the whole Church of his counsel, with the rumor spreading from your fall, which we should never have reached, we are saddened and humiliated to the ground. Our sweet Justinian, who has so deceived you?

Who persuaded you to pursue such things? Who taught you to confess Christ as a mere man? Who tricked you into enrolling yourself in the fellowship of Judas? Who taught you, concerning Him who said, “I came forth from the Father and came into this world” (John 16:28), that He grew through circumcision, through baptism, through passion? Who suddenly oppressed you, who before had no wretched heart? Who provoked you to send the fathers you ought to have venerated to slaughter, to various crosses? Who provoked you to destroy those things for which Christ was crucified and all the apostles endured? Who urged you to adore what had already been condemned once, twice, and a third time by all the rulers of the Church? The sect of Nestorius and Eutyches, as we have said, already anathematized again and again—who commanded you to destroy yourself by it? He, he who persuaded Adam to touch the tree of life, who by his own zeal devised and contrived death; who made Judas, when he made Christ a mere man and handed Him over for a man, cast him into the fire which God prepared for the devil and his angels.

II. Our sweet and sweet Justinian, recall what you promised when you were baptized, what you said you believed concerning each article. You testified to one Son abiding in two substances, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, not two Christs. When you departed, what did you do? What did you prepare for yourself? Examine it, and look well and see if you have not bound yourself in a place of perdition. Still, if you wish, you live: if you wish, by returning. “Turn to me,” he says, “and I will turn to you” (Zech. 1:5). The fathers from whom you ought to have expected a blessing, you sent into exile. Then, when in your extreme old age you ought to have composed and joined yourself to your Redeemer, you yourself, not another, but you deceived both yourself and yours. When Lactantius, as he says, a presbyter, visited the holy places throughout Gaul for the mercy of the Lord, he appeared before us; what you read, we begged, and we conjured by Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Therefore, by the present letters we have conjured our God, and moreover we testify, that you also return, and that you urge to return as many as you persuaded to perish in the horrible persecution. But if you do not do this, let that judge be between us and you; but how much sooner, to whom did you bear honors, and whom did you make a mere man? When did you read, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30)?

(10, 50): such a Father as is also the Son, because the Father is as the Son; since it is true, how, when coming to circumcision, to baptism, to martyrdom, is a better one proven, who is also proved to be the creator of all? III. Hurry, hurry, but at once. For if this day finds you as you now appear, you will descend to the lower parts of the earth, and you will be among the parts of the foxes. Let the holy Church rejoice at your return, because she vehemently mourns your departure. Make us rejoice in the last age, you who made us mourn after your joy at your loss. Do not say even in your heart, "I have done, I have done, I have conquered, I have conquered." You are conquered and bound; but from that place whence you are a son of the devil and an enemy of justice. For let it be known to you that all Italy, the whole of Africa, Spain, and all Gaul, while they weep over your loss, anathematize your name. And if you do not destroy what you have taught, and proclaim with a public voice: "I have erred, I have erred; anathema to Nestorius, anathema to Eutyches," you have consigned yourself with them to eternal punishments. We greet you greatly, conjuring you by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; by him who appears in three and is recognized as one in three, that you remove yourself from the horrible sect and abominable persecution, and that you strive to bring those who, at your urging, believed in it, to a better way.