Epistolae Et Decreta

Monuments of Old Pertaining to the Doctrine of the Arians. In the Year of the Lord 336. First Letter of Constantius to Athanasius. Constantius Victor Augustus to Athanasius. The humanity of our clemency has not permitted you to be long tossed and harassed by the monstrous storms of the waves; for our indefatigable piety did not abandon you, stripped as you were of your paternal sees, despoiled of your goods, and wandering in trackless and desolate places. For although I have for some time refrained from writing to you, according to the intention of my mind, because I expected you to come of your own accord and to seek a remedy for your ills, nevertheless, since perhaps fear has hindered the will of your intention, we have sent letters most full of our munificence to your constancy, so that you may safely offer your presence to our sight as soon as possible, that you may become a participant in your wish, and, having experienced our humanity, be restored to your own. For this reason, indeed, I have approached my lord and brother Constans, the victorious Augustus, with exhortations on your behalf, so that he might grant you the opportunity to come, whereby, by the nod of both of us, you may be restored to your fatherland, and hold this as a pledge of our grace.

Second Letter of the Emperor Constantius to Athanasius. Although we signified in our earlier letter that you should come securely to our court, because we greatly desire to send you back to your own people, nevertheless we have now also sent this letter to your solidity, by which we exhort you, without any distrust or fear, to mount the public conveyances and hasten to us, so that you may obtain what you desire. Third Letter of the Emperor Constantius to Athanasius. When we were staying at Edessa, in the presence of your presbyters, it was decided that, a presbyter having been sent to you, you should hasten to come to our court, so that when you had seen our countenance, you might immediately cross over to Alexandria. But because a very long time has intervened since you received our letter and you did not come, we therefore wish you to be admonished now anew, that you now at least betake yourself to us as quickly as possible, so that you may thus be restored to your fatherland, and we may be able to enjoy your prayers. For fuller information, however, we have sent the deacon Achita to you, from whom it will be possible to learn both the will of our mind and that you can obtain what you desire by your vows.

First Letter of Constantius to the Clergy of Alexandria. Victor Constantius, Maximus, Augustus, to the bishops and presbyters of the Catholic Church, greetings. The most reverend Athanasius has not been abandoned by the grace of God, although for a brief time he was subjected to human trial; for the just and proper reckoning has now been rendered by the all-bearing and all-sustaining Providence, in that, by the will of the Most High and by our own judgment, he receives back his homeland and the church which he previously held by divine command. For it is fitting that appropriate things be conveyed to him by our humanity; so much so that I wish all things previously decreed against those who celebrated communion with him to be consigned to oblivion, and every subsequent suspicion against them to be abolished; and the immunity which his clergy once had is to be preserved for them, firm and ratified, as is proper. Moreover, we have deemed it just to add this for his sake, that it be promulgated among all men of sacred order that security has been given to all who adhered to Athanasius, whether they be bishops or clergy. For it will be abundant proof of each one’s upright character, even by the sole fact that they were associated with Athanasius. For all those who, by better judgment and party, chose his communion, we have ordered, according to the pattern of the higher Providence and in accordance with our will, that the grace granted by the most high God be securely enjoyed. May God keep you.

Second Letter of the Same to the Same. Victor Constantius, Maximus, Augustus, to the people of the Catholic Church of Alexandria, greetings. Since we have before our eyes your discipline in all things, and are by no means unaware that you have for some time now been deprived of episcopal oversight, we have decreed to send back to you Athanasius the bishop, a man renowned among all for his uprightness and probity of character. If, therefore, you receive him willingly and fittingly, and employ him as an intercessor with God through poured-out prayers, you will preserve both a harmony becoming to yourselves and most pleasing to us, and at the same time perpetual peace and the law of the Church. For it is absurd that discord or sedition should be stirred up among you, and this very thing is alien to the integrity of our times. We therefore wish that this fault be entirely absent from you, and that you perpetually use him, as I have said, as your president and intercessor with God in your prayers, and that you persevere in that practice according to your custom; so that, with such a purpose celebrated by the voice of all of you, the Gentiles, who even now cling to the errors of idols, may most readily hasten to the knowledge of the sacred religion.

He asks that Athanasius be received.—Wherefore we again admonish you, that, acquiescing in our earlier statements, you willingly receive the bishop, who, by the suffrage of the Best and by our will, has been sent back here, and that you consider him inseparable from your minds and judgments: for this befits you and is consistent with our clemency. Indeed, to eradicate every source of disturbance and sedition, of which those eager for evils gladly avail themselves, we have instructed our judges among you by letter to restrain with the penalties and punishments of the laws whomever they find to be seditious. Therefore, keeping all these things before your eyes—our judgment, joined with that of the most high God, and your care together with concord, and the penalty established for the immodest—and preserving what is fitting and proper to the laws of the sacred religion, venerate the aforementioned Athanasius with all reverence and honor, and offer your prayers, together with him, for the sanctity of our life and of each one's life to God, the parent of all.

Letter of the same to Nestorius. Victor Constantius Augustus to Nestorius, and in the same form to the prefects of Augustamnica, the Thebaid, and Africa. If any decree is found that was ever enacted to the harm or insult of those who communicated with Athanasius, we wish it to be entirely annulled. For we wish that the office which his clerics previously held, they should hold again. For we order this decree to be observed, that with Athanasius restored to his church, his communicants should have the same office which they previously possessed, so that they too may rejoice that they have been completely restored. Fourth letter of the same to Athanasius. Victor Constantius Augustus to Athanasius, greeting. That it was my wish that everything should proceed according to the judgment of my brother Constans, neither does your conscience fail to know. But in how great grief I was, when I learned that he had been removed by certain impious men, your prudence will easily have divined again. Moreover, because there are some in this mournful time who strive to frighten you, we have thought that this letter should be delivered to your steadfastness, by which I authorize you, that, as befits a bishop, you teach the peoples those things which pertain to the sacred religion, and devote yourself to your customary prayers, and not believe those bearing vain rumor, whoever they may be. But it is fixed in our mind that, according to our will, you should remain perpetually in your see as bishop. May divine providence preserve you for many years, dearest parent.

In the year of the Lord 337. Letter of the Emperor Constantine the Younger to the Alexandrians. Constantine Caesar to the people of the Catholic Church of Alexandria, greeting. I think it is not hidden from your sacred mind that Athanasius, the interpreter of the venerated law, was sent to the Gauls so that at no time might the savagery of bloodthirsty enemies threaten his sacred head as greatly as possible, and, entangled in a boundary of evils, he might suffer something intolerable, for which there would be no remedy. Therefore, to elude this savagery, withdrawn from so many gaping jaws, he was ordered to live under my care. And thus he has remained in this city, so that he might abound in all necessary things, although his reverend virtue, relying on divine aid, would despise the burdens of harsher fortune. Now, since our lord and father Constantine especially wished to restore this bishop to your piety toward God and to his own see, and, prevented by human fate, rested before he could fulfill this wish, I think it fitting for me, having taken up the will of the emperor of sacred memory, to fulfill that very thing which he could not. Therefore, when Athanasius has made his way into your sight, then at last you will understand how great was the reverence in which he was held by us. Nor should this seem remarkable, if I have done anything of this kind in his favor; for to do this, my mind was spurred both by the image of your desire and by the character of so great a man. Divine providence preserve you, beloved brothers.

Given at Treveri on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of July. In the year of the Lord 349. Letter of Ursacius and Valens to Athanasius. To the lord and brother Athanasius, bishop, Ursacius and Valens, bishops, send greetings. Having seized the opportunity through our brother and fellow presbyter Museum, who is going to you there to your beloved self, dear brother, we have wished, by his agency, to greet you from Aquileia, and we desire that you, safe, read our letters: concerning which you will give us confidence, if you also observe the reciprocal in writing. For we wish you to know that peace exists between us and you, and that ecclesiastical communion obtains: of which matter we wish our greeting, inscribed in these letters, to be the proof. May divine providence preserve you, beloved brother. In the year of the Lord 355. Letter of Constantius to Eusebius. Constantius, victor and triumphator, always Augustus, to Eusebius, bishop. That your gravity can easily measure, with the magnitude of the matter prompting, that I pass over in silence, in the presence of the supreme religion, all things pertaining to my diligence, and that this excels and preeminently occupies my mind, I trust; nevertheless, this is known to your prudence, also frequently disclosed by documents, since you perceive that I act night and day for that which I trust can advance the venerable worship. For what is more pleasing or more useful to me than to have devoted my mind to God, to such an extent that I feel all facility is subject to a study of this kind?

Therefore, I always regard the venerable churches with deep affection of the mind, and I desire to recover and firmly maintain their unity, which is beneficial to all. For this reason, it was decided that a gathering of holy bishops should take place in the city of Mediolanum, especially those who could easily reveal (or overturn) events elsewhere. Indeed, councils of bishops were convened in various provinces, but what the most prudent bishops decreed with unanimous agreement in each was clearly declared in the synod of Mediolanum. Finally, a few coming from each province, with common will, declared unanimously and confirmed what was due according to the veneration of the law. Therefore, what was consistent with religion was ratified by their decision, so that they determined that four from their company should be sent to your sanctity, likewise admonishing that your gravity follow what is not abhorrent to the utility of the Church. We, who glory in being servants of God, both exhort and admonish you not to delay in adhering to the consensus of your brothers. Indeed, we trust that when this is done, the churches can rejoice in the most firm unity. May God always protect you for many years, most dear and beloved brother.

In the year of the Lord 359 or 360. Letter of Constantius to the Synod of Ariminum. Constantius warned that they should not presume to define anything concerning the Eastern bishops, who were to meet separately at Seleucia. Victor Constantinus (Constantius) Maximus, always Augustus, to the bishops. The earlier decrees, venerable ones, have shown us sufficiently and more than sufficiently that the sanctity of the law rests upon ecclesiastical matters, as we indicated in letters given to your prudence, that it is necessary to devote effort to these same matters: since indeed this both befits the office of the bishops and the safety of all peoples far and wide is strengthened by this foundation. But the matter has again prompted that the decrees be insisted upon. For no one will judge it superfluous for defined matters to be repeated, since repeated admonition in affairs is accustomed to increase the fullness of diligence. These things being so, your sincerity should recognize that there must be deliberation concerning faith and unity, and that effort must be given so that a fitting order is provided for ecclesiastical affairs. For the posterity of all peoples everywhere will run their course, and faithful concord will be preserved, when, with all such questions completely cut off and not stirring up pursuit, this matter ought not to prolong the intention of the mind further. For reason does not permit anything to be defined in your council concerning the Eastern bishops.

Therefore, concerning only those matters which pertain to you, your gravity ought to deliberate; and, having quickly completed everything, with unanimous consent, send ten to my court, as we previously indicated in our earlier letter to your prudence. For the aforementioned will be able to respond to all matters which they propose to those Easterners, or to treat concerning the faith, so that by a suitable outcome every question may be terminated and ambiguity laid to rest. Since this is the case, you ought to decree nothing against the Easterners; or if you wish to define anything against them in the absence of the aforementioned, that which has been usurped will vanish without effect. For that definition will be able to have no force, to which our statutes already now testify that strength (or: abundance) is denied. Since this is the case, with the moderation of religion befitting venerable bishops, you ought to accomplish venerable things, so that what religion demands may be set forth, and what reason forbids to be heard, no one may usurp. May the Divinity preserve you for many years, dearest parents. Given on the sixth day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Eusebius and Hypatius.

First Letter of the Synod of Ariminum to Constantius. We have obeyed the command of your piety, and, in accordance with your pious edict, we have judged that the doctrines once handed down should be confirmed by our votes, just as they were handed down. For we assembled at Ariminum from all the cities situated in the West, so that the faith of the Catholic Church might be known, and those who were of another opinion might be made manifest. And there, after a long deliberation, that faith seemed best which has endured up to the present from ancient times, which the prophets, the evangelists, and the apostles preached through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the guardian of your empire and the defender of your health. It was therefore decreed that we should cherish it while retaining it, and, while cherishing it, preserve it to the end. For it is unseemly and impious to wish to change anything from the decrees rightly and justly established, and from those publicly set forth at Nicaea with the most illustrious prince Constantine, your father, after careful deliberation, in which there is so much doctrine and wisdom that, preached everywhere, it has reached the ears and minds of all, which alone is the enemy and destroyer of the Arian heresy, and through which not only that heresy, but the remaining heresies have been abolished: in which, certainly, to add anything is rash, and to remove anything is dangerous; if either of these is done, the enemies will have free opportunity to do whatever they wish.

Concerning the condemnation of Ursacius and Valens.—And for that reason Ursacius and Valens, long since associates and supporters of the Arian dogma, were separated from our communion by a sentence given: and in order that they might recover it, they sought penance and pardon for their sins, in which they acknowledged themselves conscious, as their written statements testify; and on that account pardon and grace for their offenses was granted to them. These things, however, were done at the time when the Synod of Milan was in session, with the presbyters of the Roman Church present there; and it was therefore most fully our conviction that it is unjust, since the Emperor Constans, from his death worthy of all remembrance, promulgated this faith, written with all care and diligence, that then, after he was baptized and translated from among men to the rest due to him, anyone should wish to attempt something new in that faith, and to despise so many holy confessors and martyrs, the writers and authors of this decree, who persisted in that opinion according to the ancient law and rite of the Church: whose faith God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, has conferred upon the times of your reign, through whom you rule so widely that you also command our world.

Of the inconstancy of Ursacius and Valens.—But again these wretched men of lamentable spirit, with nefarious audacity, show themselves heralds of an impious sentence, and strive to overturn all the decrees of truth. For at that time, when a synod was being convened by your edict, they laid bare the plans of their own deceit: for they attempted, through craftiness and tumult, together with the associates of that faction—Germinius, Auxentius, Gaius—sowing contentions and discords, to create a revolution. Their single and same doctrine surpasses every kind of blasphemy. But when they saw that there were no men there of the same zeal, nor did they assent to their depraved opinions, they transferred themselves into our council, so as to appear to write something else: but they themselves, not long afterward, revealed their mind. Lest, therefore, ecclesiastical affairs fall into the same troubles, and lest disturbance and tumult again envelop and confound everything, it has seemed steadfast that the decrees once established are to be kept inviolate as legitimate, and that these men are to be removed from our communion.

Concerning the embassy sent to Constantius.—And therefore we have sent our legates to your fairness, to show you the synod's judgment from the letter; and it was enjoined upon our legates above all to prove the truth by ancient and just allegations of the facts, and to demonstrate to your holiness that peace will not come about, as Ursacius and Valens claim, if any just things are overturned. For how can those who take away peace act peacefully? Rather, from this, contention and disturbance will arise both in the remaining cities and in the city of Rome. Wherefore we beseech your humanity, that you look upon our legates with kindly ears and a serene countenance, and that you not permit anything new to be introduced to the dishonor of the dead, but allow us to remain in the institutions and decrees of our ancestors, who, we have affirmed, did everything with great talent, prudence, and the Holy Spirit. Certainly, the new things which these men are attempting induce unbelief among believers, and credulity among unbelievers.

The bishops seek permission to return.—Again we approach you with our supplications, that you order the bishops who are staying abroad, whom the weight of age and poverty afflicts, to be brought back to their homeland as easily as possible, lest the churches, with the bishops absent, be left deserted. We also add this to our prayers, that nothing of the ancient customs be lacking, nothing be excessive, but that all things remain firm, as observed from the times of your blessed father down to the present day; that you not permit us to be harassed hereafter and separated from our dioceses; but that the bishops, together with their peoples, may have peace for prayers, divine worship, and leisure, praying for your rule, health, and peace, which the Divinity may grant you in perpetuity. Moreover, our legates bring the subscriptions and greetings of the bishops, who will instruct your holiness concerning this matter from the sacred scriptures themselves. LETTER OF CONSTANTIUS TO THE SAME SYNOD.

The emperor orders the bishops at Ariminum to await his return from the barbarian expedition. Constantius, victor and triumphator Augustus, to all the bishops who have been assembled at Ariminum, greeting. Although it is by no means unknown to your sanctity that we have always had the greatest care for the divine and venerable religion of Christ, nevertheless, we have not had leisure at this time to admit to our presence the twenty bishops whom your prudence sent to fulfill your embassy; for the expedition which we are currently undertaking against the barbarians keeps us occupied. And it is fitting (as you know) that one who is to treat the affairs of the sacrosanct religion should have a mind free from all care and disturbance. Therefore, we have commanded the bishops to await our return at Hadrianople, so that, when those things which pertain to the republic have been duly taken care of, we may then diligently hear and weigh what they are to propose to us. Meanwhile, let it not be burdensome for your gravity to await their return; so that when they have returned and have reported our responses to you, you may be able to bring to completion those things which will be in accordance with the usage of the Catholic Church.

Letter of the Second Synod of Ariminum to Constantius. The synod asks permission to depart from Ariminum before the harshness of winter. We have received the letter of your Clemency, most holy Emperor, from which we learned that, due to the necessary affairs of the state, you did not have sufficient leisure at that time to admit our legates into your presence, and that you command us to await their return until such time as your Prudence shall have understood those things which have been fittingly decided and decreed by us in accordance with the institutions of our predecessors. Moreover, through this present letter we confess and confirm to you that we will by no means depart from our purpose and opinion; we have also commanded the same to our legates. Wherefore we ask you to cause these letters, written by our Modesty to you, to be read with a placid countenance; and furthermore, to consider with equity and goodness those things which we have imposed upon our legates to be delivered.

Moreover, your Clemency understands with us how sad and bitter a thing it is that so many churches, in these most blessed times of yours, are deprived of their bishops. And therefore we again beseech your Clemency, most august Emperor, that, if it should seem good to your Piety, you grant us the power to return to our churches before the harshness of winter, so that we may pour forth the customary prayers with the people to Almighty God the Father, and to our Lord and Savior Christ, His only-begotten Son, for your reign, as we have always done before and still do not cease to do. In the year of our Lord 365. Letter of the Bishops of Italy and Illyricum rejoicing that the Nicene faith has been accepted. To the most beloved brothers throughout Illyricum who retain the paternal faith, the bishops of Italy, eternal salvation in the Lord. It is by the grace of divine bounty that, according to the Apostle, we have all begun to think alike, all to confess alike. And as far as Italy is concerned, since it has returned to the paternal faith, that is, the faith written at Nicaea, recognizing the deception it suffered at Ariminum, we rejoice that Illyricum also, by the merciful nod of God, has looked back, and we congratulate it that, having cast off the fellowship of faithlessness with which it was burdened, it has begun to approve what is of right opinion. Therefore, most beloved brothers, receive our one and same sentence, confirmed by subscription.

blessed emperor, that you order the bishops who are now in exile to be recalled, and that you command those who are to be judged concerning the faith to be heard in a general council, so that the peace of the whole church may be restored. We preserve the decrees of the Nicene council against Arius and Sabellius, whose heresy Photinus inherits in part. We annul by right the statutes of the council of Ariminum, corrupted by the tergiversation of certain persons, with the consent of all the provinces; and we have judged that copies of these should be sent, so that there might appear to be no condescension either in retaining the faith or in refuting the council of Ariminum. Therefore, whoever wishes to have a share in our unanimity, whoever desires to have undivided peace with us, let him hasten to approve our sentiments, and to send without ambiguity his subscription to the faith we have mentioned and his annulment of the council of Ariminum. This certainly we ask, which we ourselves extend as the consent of many of these provinces. Moreover, that the authors of the Arian or Actian heresy, Valens and Ursacius, and the rest of their associates, were not now first beginning to be exposed in Illyricum, but were condemned long ago, is manifest.

Letter of the Synod of Singedunum to the Semi-Arian Germinius. To the most religious lord brother Germinius, Valens, Ursacius, Gaius, and Paulus, greeting. Since concern for hope and salvation presses upon us, those who are anxious ought to be more praised than to undergo any reproach. Salvation and hope, however, consist principally in the catholic faith: and therefore, although when summoned to all our brothers and our fellow bishops, our Valens and Paulus, admonished, he was unwilling to respond to what rumor conceals concerning you, most religious lord, nevertheless, because you have testified in your letters that you persevere in the same charity, and that you are prepared to show unimpaired affection toward us; for this reason, gathered together at Singedunum, we again admonish your sanctity, that, with every occasion of ambiguity excluded, you deign to write back to us, whether you signify openly that you will not depart from the catholic faith which was set forth and confirmed at Ariminum by the holy council, to which also all the bishops of the East consented, as you have already professed. This, however, is as is provided in it: We say that the Son is like the Father according to the Scriptures, not according to substance, or in all respects, but absolutely. For if this exposition is changed, the perfidious assertion of the late Basil, on account of which the synod was held, and by which it was also deservedly condemned, will be restored.

Deign, therefore, to declare clearly in your letter what is sought: that you have not said, do not say, nor will say that the Son is similar to the Father in all respects except for being unbegotten, lest what the bearers of the letter, the deacon Jovianus and the subdeacon Martyrius, asserted by way of their entreaty before my aforementioned lords, brothers, and fellow bishops Valens and Paulus, should seem more credible—namely, that you profess the Son to be similar to the Father in all respects. For if you make known in your writings that you think as we have desired, the complaint concerning the injury made by certain of your clerics, Palladius and Gaius, our brothers and fellow bishops, even if you were unwilling, as you were admonished in the first meeting, to investigate, pertains to your judgment, with those clerics, of course, rendering an account for their temerity. We have sent these things through Secundianus the presbyter, Pullentius the lector, and Candidianus the exorcist to your Charity, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of January, in the consulship of the most noble Gratianus and Dagalaifus, retaining a copy with us.

Letter of Germinius the Semi-Arian against the Arians. To their lordships, the most religious brothers Rufianus, Palladius, Severinus, Nichas, Heliodorus, Romulus, Mucianus, and Stercorius, Germinius sends greetings in the Lord. We have learned through Vitalis, now serving in the office of the sublime prefecture, that your holiness desires to be clearly informed what it is about our faith that displeases Valens, Ursacius, Gaius, and Paulus. I have deemed it necessary to disclose to your holiness in this letter, and to state what I trust has been in you from the beginning, that we hold what we have received as handed down from the fathers and from the divine scriptures, what we have once learned and daily teach: that Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, is in all respects similar to the Father, except for being unbegotten, God from God, light from light, power from power, whole from whole, perfect from perfect, begotten before the ages and before all things that can be understood or spoken, whose nativity no one knows except the Father alone, as the Son Himself asserts: “Because no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him” (Matthew 11); through whom all things were made, without whom nothing was made (John 1), according to the divine words of our Savior the Son Himself, saying: “My Father works until now, and I work” (John 5). And again: “For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does similarly” (Ibid.). And again: “I and the Father are one.

And again: "He who sees me sees also the Father." And again: "Just as the Father has life from himself, so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself" (John 14). And again: "Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills." And again: "Believe in God, and believe in me" (John 5). And again: "For the Father does not judge anyone; but he gave all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father." And again, to whom the Father said: "Let us make man in our image and likeness" (Genesis 1): and he did not say, "in your image," or "in my image," lest he show any dissimilarity in the divinity of his Son, but for this reason he joined "in our image and likeness," so that he might manifest his Son as God similar to himself in all things. Again the Evangelist: "We saw his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1). And the Apostle to the Corinthians: "In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they would not shine with the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, which is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4). And again the same Apostle: "And he transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of love, in which we have redemption and remission of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (1 Thessalonians 1).

And again the same Apostle: "For think this in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 4). Who does not understand that, just as according to the form of a servant our true flesh was in Christ, so also in the form of God the true divinity of the Father is in the Son? And again: "See that no one leads you astray through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ, because in him dwells the whole fullness of divinity bodily" (Colossians 2:8). Therefore, if the whole fullness of divinity dwells in Christ, then it is no longer partly similar and partly dissimilar, as those now assert who, on account of the contentiousness of their own lust, turning backward, separate themselves from us.

For what they think they are putting forward as something great from the divine scriptures, when they say that Christ is a making and a creation: we on the contrary say, according to the scriptures, that he is the way, and the door, and the stone of offense, and the rock of scandal, and the foundation, and the arm, and the hand, and wisdom, and the word, and the lamb, and the sheep, and the shepherd, and the priest, and the life, and the day, and other things. But we understand and say all these things in such a way that we understand them as the powers and operations of the Son of God, not that we compare his divine nativity from the Father with names of this kind, because all things were made from nothing through the Son, but the Son was not from nothing, but was begotten from God the Father. The craftiness of Valens noted.—But I am surprised that the aforementioned Valens has either forgotten, or certainly is cunningly dissembling, what was done and defined in the past. For under the emperor Constantius of blessed memory, when a disagreement about the faith had begun among certain persons, in the presence of the same emperor, with George bishop of the church of Alexandria, the bishop of the Pelusians, Basil then bishop of Ancyra present, and with Valens and Ursacius themselves also present, and in that depravity, after a disputation about the faith had been held until night and brought to a definite rule, Mark, ejected by all of us, dictated a faith, in which faith it was written thus: the Son similar to the Father in all things, as the holy scriptures say and teach; to which entire profession we all consented and subscribed with our own hand.

If, however, the spirit of this world now suggests something, we cannot yet know it from what is clear. For, as we have professed from the scriptures that the Son is in all things like the Father except for being unbegotten, let them also set forth from the scriptures in what respect he is partly like and partly unlike. And therefore, most beloved brothers, I have sent this profession fearlessly and without delay to the conscience of your love, through Cyriacus the official, whose first available opportunity has arisen after the deacon Carinius, whom I sent to you, so that through your most vigilant devotion before God it may be made known to the whole brotherhood, lest anyone, being ignorant, be ensnared by the snares of the devil’s deceit. It is now for your unanimity to write back to me what the Holy Spirit suggests to you. I do indeed confide to your love that I was unable to subscribe to this letter because my hand was sore; but I ordered our brothers and fellow presbyters Innocentius, Octavius, and Catulus to subscribe.

In the year of our Lord 370. A decree of the Emperor Valentinian to Pope Damasus. (From Coust. p. 473.) That ecclesiastics and continent persons may receive nothing from the goods of widows, either by will or by donation. The Emperors Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, Augusti, to Damasus, bishop of the city of Rome. Ecclesiastics, or those from among ecclesiastics, or those who wish to be called by the name of continent persons, shall not approach the homes of widows and orphans; but they shall be punished by public judgments, if hereafter their relatives or kinsmen think them worthy of being denounced. We also decree that the aforementioned persons may obtain nothing from the liberality, of whatever kind, or from the last will, of that woman to whom they have privately attached themselves under the pretext of religion: and everything that has been left to them by these women shall be so entirely ineffective that they cannot receive anything, even through a substituted person, either by donation or by will. Moreover, if, after the warning of our law, these women should think to leave something to them, either by donation or by last will, the treasury shall claim it. But if those who receive by the will of these women are aided by civil law or by the benefits of the edict to their succession or goods, let them take as relatives. Read in the Roman churches on the fourth day before the Kalends of August, in the consulship of Valentinian and Valens, consuls for the third time.

In the year of our Lord 378 or 381. Letter of a Roman Council held under Damasus to the Emperors Gratian and Valentinian. That they may provide for the execution of the law which they had enacted, that the pontiff of religion, together with his associates, should judge concerning religion, and that a priest should not easily be subject to the sentence of any profane judge. (Coust. p. 523.) That what the emperors had already spontaneously granted may not lack effect.—And this is a glorious testimony to your glory, most clement princes, and to your piety, that we, almost countless, gathered from the widespread parts of Italy at the sublime sanctuary of the apostolic see, when we were seeking what should be asked of you for the state of the churches, could find nothing better than what your spontaneous providence has already conferred. We see that there ought no longer to be any shame in asking; page 78, this letter has been published. Therefore, as it seems, it is inscribed in the name of the Roman Council, not of Damasus, because although he participated in this council, he did not sit in it as a judge, but so that his innocence, already attested by the emperor's sentence, might also be proven by the judgments of the priests. Nevertheless, he is its principal author by right, nor is it now for you to obtain benefits already granted, and the series of imperial decrees intercedes for us. For as regards the equity of the petition, we have long since deserved to obtain what we ask; but as regards the necessity of praying, we so lack the effect of what has been obtained that we desire to obtain it again.

This indeed, most clement emperors, exposes the madness of lost men, but heaps up a tribute to your justice, so that benefits may be conferred more often in your Church. A law granting the power of judging in matters of religion to the Roman pontiff.—For from the beginning, filled with divine spirit, and preserving the precept in the Lord's religion, with the support of the holy Apostles, whose suffrage you hold in your honor, you decreed, for the restoration of the body of the Church, which the fury of Ursinus, who attempted to seize an undeserved honor, had cut into various parts, that, with the author condemned, and the others whom he had joined to himself as incitements to disturbances, having been, as was fitting, separated from the association of the lost, the Roman bishop should hold an examination concerning the remaining priests of the churches: so that the pontiff of religion, with his associates, might judge concerning religion, and no injury should appear to be done to the priesthood, if a priest is deemed profane by no one anywhere. Surely no one will deny that whatever is sought in that matter is at least demanded by his prompting and consent. Rightly, therefore, is a place assigned to this among the letters of Damasus.

This indeed, most clement emperors, exposes the madness of lost men, but heaps up a tribute to your justice, so that benefits may be conferred more often in your Church. A law granting the power of judging in matters of the priest, which could for the most part happen, would easily be subject to the arbitrary will of the judge. Praise of this law. This is clearly a splendid sentence, worthy of religious princes, which greatly defers to the divine ministry and does not lie open to error. For what is more worthy than that he should finally judge concerning the error of a priest who knows that he cannot produce favor for his own inner conscience without danger to himself; and that he entangles himself in guilt, whether he absolves the unworthy or condemns the innocent; who, finally, when avenging an injury to religion, seeks it not in the sides of the innocent, but in the morals of the accused? For how many has it often been evident that those whom the courts have absolved have been condemned by bishops, and those whom the courts have condemned have been absolved? So that the cause of those is better who, considering not secular judgments but divine ones, have removed their own punishment, lest the innocent be harassed, than of those who have proven their own life by the tortures of the innocent. We would weave together many things, most tranquil princes, were it not an injury to assert imperial decrees more than to hold them.

So that the same law may be confirmed. Ursinus, though already long ago relegated by the judgment of your Clemency, secretly stirs up commotion. But since, as they gather from the period between the ninth day of August and the nineteenth day of January of the year in which Valens died and Theodosius was hailed emperor, he sacrilegiously ordained the basest of men, illicitly, and secretly tries to solicit them, and by that example some bishops who wickedly brood over churches, with the rashness of their own audacity and the contempt of a profane conspiracy, do not cease to provoke the judgment of the Roman priest; so that even those who understand that they ought to be condemned according to the measure of their own merits, or have seen themselves condemned, by bribing a mob of the common people, harass their judges with the terror of death, and, having despised or put to flight their examiners, obtain an illicit priesthood: therefore we demand not a novelty, but the firmness of an imperial decree. For it is unworthy that any assembly, by employing a hired hand, should be the more fortified the more criminal it has been.

Deposed bishops retain churches.—Just as the bishop of Parma, cast out by our judgment, nevertheless impudently retains the church. The condemned Florentius of Puteoli, after he was deposed, having troubled the ears of your Serenity and having obtained a rescript of this kind, that if he had been deposed by the judgment of priests in the city of Rome, he ought not even to utter a word in legal proceedings, after the sixth year crept back to the city, held the church, and stirred up many seditions in the town of Puteoli, from which he had been deposed, by his insolence. Restitutus, ordered to plead his case, evades the command. Throughout Africa also, your Clemency ordered a certain Restitutus by name to plead his case before the bishops. He ought to have complied: but the same man, with a savage and insolent band, fled from the necessity of pleading his case. Claudianus, a Donatist pseudo-bishop, dares unspeakable acts in Rome.—Throughout Africa again, by the will of God, you ordered the sacrilegious rebaptizers to be expelled: but Claudianus was ordained by the expelled, and is sent to disturb the city of Rome as a bishop. He, contrary to the precepts of divine Scripture, contrary to evangelical laws, declares all bishops, whether of past or present time, to be empty of mysteries, and, to use his own word, "pagans." Him, indeed, your Serenity ordered, once driven from Rome, to return to his own country.

But, despising the judgments, and indeed often bound by them, he nevertheless remains, frequently bribing the poorer ones with money, and does not hesitate to rebaptize those he has bought off. He robs them more of what they had obtained than he bestows what clearly cannot be conferred twice. Ursinus suborns Isaac as an accuser of Damasus.—Thus, finally, the faction of Ursinus succeeded to such an extent that, having suborned Isaac the Jew, who, having made recourse to the synagogue, profaned the celestial mysteries, he attacked the head of our holy brother Damasus, the blood of the innocent was shed, deceits were contrived, which by divine instinct the providence of your Piety plainly forestalled, and the church was nearly stripped of all its ministries, by that fraud, namely, that while the one who had been appointed judge over all was pleading his case, there would be no one who could judge concerning the lapsed, or certainly concerning the factious usurpers of the episcopate. Damasus is proven innocent: Isaac suffers the penalties for his calumnies.

Resisting ecclesiastical judgment, by what means he is to be restrained.—Since, therefore, the innocence of our aforementioned brother Damasus has been proven by the judgment of your Tranquillity, and his integrity has been proclaimed, and Isaac himself, where he could not prove the charges he brought, has borne the lot of his own merits: we beseech your Clemency, lest we again appear burdensome in very many matters, that your Piety deign to order that whoever, whether by his judgment or by ours, who are Catholics, has been condemned, and unjustly wishes to retain a church, or, having been summoned by a priestly judgment, fails to appear through contumacy, shall come to the city of Rome, either summoned by the illustrious men, the Praetorian Prefects of your Italy, or by the Vicar: or if a question of this kind arises in more distant regions, it shall be brought to the examination of the metropolitan through the judgments of the local authorities: or if he himself is the metropolitan, he shall be ordered to contend without delay at Rome, or before those whom the Roman bishop has given as judges: so that those who have been deposed shall be segregated only from the boundaries of the city in which they exercised the priesthood, lest they again impudently usurp what has been rightfully taken away. Certainly, if either the metropolitan or any other priest is suspected of partiality or injustice, it shall be permitted to appeal either to the Roman bishop or to a council of at least fifteen neighboring bishops.

Whoever has thus deserved to be excluded, let him be silent and remain quiet; and if he does not fear the judgment of God, let him at least be compelled by necessity to sin less: so that at least from now on, being peaceful and harmonious, we may be able to offer fitting thanks to our Lord on behalf of your Serenity. That it was lawful for Damasus to use the right by which the case of priests is assigned to the judgments of priests. Our aforementioned brother Damasus, since in his own case he holds the distinguished judgment of yours, should not be made inferior to those whom, although he is equal to them in office, he nevertheless excels by the prerogative of the apostolic see, so that they appear subject to public judgments, from which your law has removed the priestly head. In this, after the sentence, he does not seem to decline judgment, but to demand the honorificence conferred by you. For as pertains to public laws, what could be more fortified against fault than your clemency, on which the judgment rests? But as for proclaiming the conscience of the bishop, he has submitted himself to the more severe judgments of priests, by whom not only the name but also the standard of morals is weighed, lest any slanderer again arise, and while attempting to attack the aforementioned man, although he cannot harm the man himself, whom his innocence protects, yet injury may be done to religion through the harassment of its ministers.

Let the Roman bishop defend himself either before his own council or before an imperial council. It is permitted to investigate the acts of a judge, not to pass sentence concerning them. The priestly office abhors torture.—Accept also this other point, which the holy man desires to contribute more to your piety than to secure for himself, and not to detract from anyone, but to claim for the emperors; for he seeks nothing new, but follows the examples of his predecessors: that the Roman bishop, if his case is not believed by his council, may defend himself before an imperial council. For Pope Silvester, when accused by sacrilegious men, prosecuted his own case before your parent Constantine. And from the Scriptures similar examples are supplied: that when the holy apostle suffered violence from the governor, he appealed to Caesar, and was sent to Caesar (Acts 25 and 12). Certainly let your clemency first examine the case, and if a question arises, let the points of inquiry be distinguished: so that, as you have recently deigned to judge, the account of the judge’s deeds may be sought, not the decision of the sentence claimed. For thus it will come about that no lost or infamous person will have the illicit power either to accuse a high priest or to testify against him: since not only concerning a bishop, but not even concerning a presbyter, is an accusation to be readily accepted, unless with suitable witnesses, as sacred reading prescribes (1 Tim. 5:19).

Neither should mercy be shown to an enemy, nor to a slanderer, nor to men of that sort, such as the accusers have recently been shown to be, whose life does not deserve trust, and whose torments the priestly office abhors. A.D. 380. Rescript of the Emperor Gratian to Aquilinus, Vicar of the City, by which almost everything requested in the previous letter is granted. (Coust. p. 530.) Gratian and Valentinian, Augusti, to Aquilinus, Vicar. Gratian complains about neglected commands. Edicts against Ursinus have already been given to Simplicius.—The sentences of ordinary judges, or those which the limit of time, or the pronouncement of contumacy, or the examination held before the fathers has sanctioned, are not to be shaken and overturned by moderate authority, nor are they feared by the more powerful, nor by the shameless. Our commands, abandoned through your negligence, what sentence will be able to confirm them? Indeed, while you despise it, do not provoke it to take effect in long tolerance toward the desperate, and let fear compel the office to be acknowledged.

But is it not more absurd what Ursinus’s madness commanded, than what our Serenity persuaded by gentle edicts, that all who attempted impious gatherings with profaned religion should be driven to the hundredth milestone of the City, where stubborn fury, abandoned by followers, would rush only to the destruction of him who alone erred; and that those condemned by the judgment of rightly thinking priests should afterwards have no return to the churches they had polluted, nor vainly beg from us with shameless pertinacity for a renewal of the trial? Let your laudable and tested sincerity recall what letters our Clemency once sent to the most distinguished man, Simplicius, the former vicarius, and cease to hope for a repetition of the mandate: because the shame of our mildness is grieved to renew the command. They disturb the Church: Ursinus, Parmensis the bishop, Florentius of Puteoli. Indeed, Gaul restrains Ursinus, and the seclusion of Agrippina keeps him from exercising any restless movements; yet we have heard him himself, more often importuning than warning through those he meets, to the end that he might cast off his followers. A remote corner of Spain has enclosed Isaac within the title of condemnation; his head is not well provided for, if his insane mind should stir up any disturbances.

The bishop of Parma is all the more dangerous because he is very close to a city renowned throughout the world, and he stirs up the ignorant multitude all the more, and disturbs the Church from which he was deposed by the judgment of holy bishops, evidently awaiting a harsher sentence for empty glory. If your predecessor had possessed any of that devoted vigor, he ought to have thrust him out beyond the boundaries immediately. And Florentius of Puteoli, after the condemnation he received when convicted by a just judgment, attempted to disturb our clemency, and received a fitting response in the course of events. After the fifteenth year, he tries again to contaminate the Church from which he had been expelled; he strives to hold unlawful gatherings, and corrupts the multitude, lacking counsel, by the persuasion of his depraved mind. He relies, of course, on the negligence of our judges, who condone imperial commands for private favor, and patiently accept that the religion which we rightly venerate, and which they themselves perhaps neglect, is disturbed.

Claudianus the Donatist. Claudianus, summoned by those who, contrary to divine precepts, restore the vices of religion—by those, I say, whom we had ordered to be expelled—is said to have insinuated himself at Rome, as if he had undertaken too little crime if he had persisted in Africa; and, as a false teacher, he either profanes the mystery with a devious path for those still inexperienced, or attempts to corrupt those already initiated anew with a greater outrage: since the iteration of the most holy discipline of religion does not augment it, but overturns it. We, pursuing this Claudianus with a penalty unlike what he deserved, have so far ordered him only to return to his homeland, with severity set aside. But he is said to remain even now, stirring up the ignorant and demanding a wholly empty reward, and he destroys the souls of those whose bodies have been redeemed. The innocence of Damasus proven to Valentinian I. Hence those persecutors of the most holy see, not only by the divine will of God, which was sufficient, but also by the examination of judgments, a man of the most holy mind having been scrutinized—so that the machinations about which they had been warned were also proven to the divine father Valentinian by their own means—they did not fear to disturb Bishop Damasus with the foulest calumnies, after they despaired of being able to overthrow him; they disturb the people for whom he is a hostage to the divinity. But so far the inert dissimulation of the judges lies dormant, nor is it necessary to remind them to what extent the disregarded sanction may proceed: so far, I say, the supine idleness of the attendants lies dormant.

The authors of the disturbances, up to C. thousands, are to be expelled from the City. After this, unless you have driven beyond the hundredth milestone from the City all those whom the sum of our order specifically names, or whom the councils of holy bishops, by common consent, have shown to be fomenting such disturbances, and have ordered them to be exiled from the territories of those cities whose people or churches they disturb, either by themselves or through a mob like themselves, then, besides the injury to your reputation, which among good men is no light loss, you will incur the guilt of a neglected decree. The order of ecclesiastical judgments, by which the obstinate are restrained.

We wish, however, that whoever has been condemned by the judgment of Damasus, which he has held with the counsel of five or seven bishops, or by the judgment or council of those who are Catholic, if he unjustly wishes to retain a church, as one who, summoned to a priestly judgment, did not go through contumacy; and that by the authority of the illustrious men, the praetorian prefects of Gaul and Italy, or by proconsuls or vicars, he be sent back to the episcopal judgment, or come to the city of Rome under prosecution; or if in more distant parts such ferocity of someone arises, the entire pleading of his case be brought to the examination of the metropolitan bishop in that same province; or if he himself is the metropolitan, he must without delay contend necessarily at Rome, or before those whom the Roman bishop has given as judges; yet in such a way that whoever have been deposed are separated only from the boundaries of that city in which they were priests. For we punish the less deserving more lightly, and we avenge sacrilegious obstinacy more leniently than it deserves. But if the iniquity or partiality of either the metropolitan bishop or any priest is suspected, it shall be permitted to appeal to the Roman bishop or to a council of fifteen neighboring bishops summoned; provided that after the examination has been held, what has been decided is not reopened.

Those who speak against a bishop are not easily to be heard. But indeed that which, in matters also of lesser affairs and in light legal pleadings, natural justice has instilled in our minds, we wish to prevail much more diligently in the most just causes: lest anyone endowed with notable depravity of character, or marked by infamous calumny, easily assume the person of an accuser, or profess to give testimony in an accusation against a bishop. A.D. 381. LETTER OF THE COUNCIL OF AQUILEIA TO THE EMPEROR GRATIAN. (D. Coust. col. 551.) Lest he allow Ursinus to creep in upon him, but by the rejection of a most importunate man, he should provide for the peace of the Church. To the most clement emperors and Christian princes, the most glorious and most blessed Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, the holy council which met at Aquileia. I. The Arian plague suppressed by imperial decree. It has indeed been provided for, most clement princes, by the statutes of your tranquility, that the perfidy of the Arians can no longer lie hidden or creep forth. For we think that the effect of the decrees of the council will by no means be lacking. For as far as the parts of the West are concerned, only two have been found who would dare to oppose the council with profane and impious voices, accustomed to disturb only a corner of Ripensis Dacia.

II. Let the emperor not allow Ursinus to insinuate himself into his presence. There is another matter by which we are more greatly distressed, which, since we have assembled, ought to have been duly treated, lest a washed body be able to disturb the Churches spread throughout the whole world and everything in general. For although we have frequently discovered that Ursinus has not been able to insinuate himself into your Piety—though he allows nothing to remain quiet, and amid so many necessities of war an untimely insinuation is attempted—nevertheless, lest your holy mind and the tranquility of your spirit, which has sought to provide for all, be swayed by the feigned flattery of an importunate man, we consider that you are to be entreated and besought, if you deign to do so: not only foreseeing future events, but also shuddering at past ones, which have already been done by his own rashness. For if he has contrived some path for his audacity, what would he not throw into confusion? But if the pity of one can bend you, much more should the entreaty of all priests move you. For who among us will be joined to him in the fellowship of communion, when he has attempted to usurp a rank not due to him, nor has been able to attain it lawfully; and what he has importunately sought, he now most importunately strives to reclaim?

III. Ursinus, allied with the Arians. Though condemned so often for disturbances, he still proceeds as if not to be dreaded by past examples. What of the fact that, as we have learned and seen in this council, many were allied and joined with the Arians at the time when they were attempting to disturb the Milanese Church with a detestable gathering, while he, with Valens, now before the doors of the synagogue, now in the houses of the Arians, mingling secret plans and joining his own to them; and, since he could not openly come forth in their assembly, instructing and informing how the peace of the Church might be disturbed? With what madness did he hope that he could earn their favor and alliance? IV. He must be shunned.—Since therefore it is written, “Avoid a heretic after one correction” (Titus 3:11); and since another man, speaking with a holy Spirit, has said, “Shun such beasts” (2 John 10), not receiving them with greeting or meeting: how can it be that we do not judge as an advocate of perfidy one whom we have seen inserted into their fellowship? Even if that were lacking, still your clemency ought to have been entreated not to allow the head of the whole Roman world, the Roman Church, and that most sacred faith of the Apostles to be disturbed; for from there the rights of venerable communion flow to all. And therefore we ask and beg that you deign to remove from him the opportunity to insinuate himself.

V. That the peace of the Church be consulted by the rejection of a most importunate man.—We know the holy modesty of your Clemency. Lest he thrust unworthy things upon your hearing, let him not clamor with things alien to the office and name of priest, let him not speak shamelessly to you, he who ought to have testimony even from those who are outside (1 Tim. 3:7). With what testimony his own fellow citizens have pursued him, your Clemency may deign to remember. For it is shameful to say, it is shameless to recount, with how base a rumor he has been wounded by slander. At which shame, at least, he ought to have fallen silent; and if he had any consciousness of a priest, he would prefer the peace and concord of the Church to his own ambition and zeal. But far removed from all shame, through the cut-off man Paschasius, the standard-bearer of his fury, by sending letters, he strikes the crowds, and tries to stir up pagans and lost men. We therefore pray that you now grant to the Roman people, who after the report of the Prefect of the City hang uncertain, and to us priests, the security denied by the rejection of this most importunate man; and when this is obtained, we may celebrate thanks to God the Father Almighty and Christ His Son with a continual stream of gratitude.

In the Year of the Lord 385. A Letter of the Emperor Maximus to Pope Siricius. (D. Coust., col. 640.) Maximus promises care for the Catholic faith. He also promises that the case of Agricius, whom Siricius had written was improperly advanced to the rank of presbyter, will be examined in a synod. He again professes his zeal for the Catholic faith; and he sends the acts by which the crimes of the Manichaeans or Priscillianists have recently been revealed. Victor Maximus, perpetual Triumphator, Augustus, to the truly holy and apostolic man Siricius, bishop, greeting. I. Siricius’s letter befitting his own dignity.—We have received the letter of Your Sanctity, which was most gratifying to us, and which clearly befits both the name of a priest and the dignity of the most splendid City. Concerning the Catholic faith, about which you wished to consult our Clemency, the greater the special judgment of the divinity I experience regarding myself, the greater the care I confess I have; for I ascended to the empire from the very font of salvation, and in all my endeavors and successes God has always been present as a supporter, and may He deign to be my protector and guardian today and, I hope, perpetually, most dear father.

II. The case of Agricius is to be judged in a Gallic council. —As for Agricius, whom you mention as having improperly ascended to the grade of presbyter, what more reverent thing can I offer to our Catholic religion than that Catholic priests should judge what sort of man he appears to be? I will convene their council, at a suitable time, in whatever city they choose, of all those who dwell either within Gaul or within the five provinces; so that, with them sitting and hearing the case, it may be judged what custom holds and what the law is. For these matters, which are to be asserted from books and from the most religious decrees of our ancestors, they themselves can better establish, who know them. III. Moreover, we profess that this is our mind and will: that the Catholic faith, with all dissension removed, with all priests in agreement and unanimously serving God, may remain unharmed and inviolate. For our arrival found and discovered everything so polluted by some stain of wicked men that, unless our provision and remedy, which came from fear of the highest God, had quickly brought aid to these matters, a vast division and ruin would surely have arisen, and vices would have grown that would have been scarcely healable afterward.

IV. The unspeakable crimes of the Manichaeans.—As for the rest, what has recently been disclosed concerning the crimes that the Manichaeans commit, I prefer that Your Holiness learn not from our mouth, but from the very records of the proceedings, through the confession of the Manichaeans themselves made during judicial examinations, because such things—not only shameful deeds, but even foul to speak of—we cannot utter without blushing. May the Divinity preserve you for many years, by the hand of the Emperor. LETTER OF EMPEROR MAXIMUS TO VALENTINIAN AUGUSTUS. (Labb. Concil. tom. II. col. 1031.) Valentinian the Younger Augustus, at the instigation of his mother Justina, who was devoted to the Arian heresy, bitterly persecuted St. Ambrose and the other Catholics at Milan. Upon learning of this, Maximus urges Valentinian to imitate the religion of his father and to refrain from inflicting violence on churches and priests. If the faith of our Clemency concerning Your Serenity were not simple, and full of the grace of concord, I would also trust that these things which are now said to be happening in the regions of your Tranquillity—the disturbance and upheaval of the Catholic law—could be advantageous to my interests. For what could be so desirable to an enemy as to attempt something against the churches of God, that is, against God Himself, and to wish to sin where error is not excusable?

But since Our Serenity has a greater reverence for God—which we consider not even to be violated by the most hostile person—and since Our care for Your Most Serene Youth is so close and so diligent that we take more delight in your right actions than in your errors, therefore we have believed it necessary to admonish Your Perpetuity, so that, having considered the meaning of the Supreme Name and the power of His Majesty, you may ponder with a sound mind what you ought to do. For I have heard (since rumor does not allow to be hidden, especially what is done among the people) that by new edicts of your clemency violence has been inflicted upon the Catholic churches, that priests have been besieged in the basilicas, a fine has been imposed, the death penalty has been added, and the most holy law has been overturned under the name of some law. How serious this is, you will be able to perceive if you wish to consider the greatness of God. I would blush if I thought I needed to construct an argument for Your Serenity and plead the cause of God. For what if this were the only thing? For if you were to see that what has been united and confirmed for so many centuries is changed, would you not see that a small discord is stirred up? Even human laws in this mortal state have reverence for custom, and to have done something new in a matter already ancient and customary is a reproach. All Italy and Africa believe in this sacrament, Gaul, Aquitaine, all of Spain, and venerable Rome itself, whose primacy in this matter is also established, glory in this faith, having recognized God as it wished to follow.

I myself confess that it was not said without sorrow: only Illyricum dissented. Would that its error had not left behind an example! Would that the town of Mursa, that stronghold of the Arian law, had remained unharmed, and that the wretched ones had not fallen as a judgment for their former error, because they had taught their authors, lest they be struck down by the chief vengeance of an angry deity. Believe me, it is dangerous to tamper with divine matters. Valentinian, of venerable memory, the father of Your Clemency, ruled faithfully with this faith. He wished to touch nothing that he saw was well established. These same bishops were certainly under him. What great change is this, that those who were once priests are now judged sacrilegious? Certainly, consecrated by the same precepts, the same sacraments, they believe in the same faith as those who believed before. Does Your Venerable Serenity think that a religion once conceived in the minds of men, which God Himself established, can be overthrown? What great discords will be stirred up from this! What great contentions will arise! How frequent and pestilent seditions! How many and what vows of the just will reach God! When among Christians (which is unspeakable to say) some image of persecution is born. You will see in which part you interpret this diligence of mine. Certainly, by no greater means could I prove my care for Your Clemency to you than if I urge you to desist. For I think you will recognize that no enemy would advise this.

I desire that you understand, and I hope that you believe, that these things have been said by us in a spirit of goodwill: hence it is entirely just that you not tear asunder what has been consecrated to the holy name. Restore all of Italy, and venerable Rome, and the other provinces to their churches and their priests, and do not interpose yourself as a mediator, since it is more just that those who have departed from the Catholic Church by the interpretation of the Arians should change their error for the true religion, than that they should impose their own perversity upon those who think rightly. A LETTER OF THE EMPEROR VALENTINIAN TO PINIANUS. (From D. Coust. Ep. Pont., col. 639.) In which he approves the election of the Roman bishop Siricius. Farewell, Pinianus, most dear to us. That the people of the eternal city rejoice in concord, and choose the best priest, we believe to be the custom of the Roman people, and we congratulate ourselves that it has come in our times. Therefore, since the religious Siricius, a bishop of sanctity, was so desired to preside over the priesthood that they assailed the wicked Ursinus with acclamations, let the aforementioned bishop himself remain with our joy, Pinianus, most dear and most pleasant: for it is a great example of innocence and probity that in one acclamation he himself is chosen, and the others are rejected. Given on the seventh day before the Kalends of March.