Scripta Dubiae Auctoritatis

Writings of Doubtful Authority. Letter of Saint Athanasius and the Egyptian Bishops to Pope Mark. (From the Councils, vol. II, col. 466, ed. Labbé). Concerning the number of the Nicene canons, on account of the copies of the Nicene council, because the Arians had burned their copies. To the holy lord, venerable in apostolic eminence, of the holy Roman and apostolic see and of the universal church, the pope, Athanasius and all the bishops of the Egyptians. We do not doubt that it has reached you how much and what kind of things we suffer daily from the heretics, and especially from the Arians: since we are so persecuted by them that we are already weary of living. For at the present time, suddenly and unexpectedly rushing upon us, and we, according to the command of the Lord who says: If you are persecuted in one city, flee to another (Matthew 10), fleeing on account of the calamity of the people and avoiding them, they were not able to capture us, but they laid waste to everything. For they so ravaged our possessions that they left us neither books, nor ecclesiastical vestments, nor other ornaments, nor any remaining utensils. They burned our books, even the smallest, leaving not a single one, on account of the faith of the truth; they also burned the Nicene synod, by which the clergy and people were then being instructed, and indeed were already well instructed, to the insult of us and of all Christians.

Therefore we beseech you, most blessed father, for we do not doubt that you have the complete copies of the Nicene Council, that you send us, under a secure guarantee, those which belonged to your predecessor of blessed memory, Sylvester. For when we attended the aforementioned synod in the office of the diaconate, under the care of Alexander of blessed memory, our pontiff worthy of God, that is, bishop of the great city of Alexandria, with our presence as witness, through the blessed men Victor and Vincent, presbyters and apocrisiarii of the apostolic see, seventy chapters were sent to the aforementioned Pope Sylvester with an appended stipulation. Indeed, in our presence, eighty chapters were discussed in the aforementioned synod, namely forty from the Greeks, published in the Greek language, and forty from the Latins, likewise published in the Latin language. But it seemed good to the fathers, filled with the Holy Spirit, gathered in the aforementioned council, and especially to the aforementioned Alexander and the apocrisiarii of the apostolic see, that ten chapters be joined to the others and inserted in suitable places; and that, after the pattern of the seventy disciples, or rather of the languages of the whole world, seventy chapters of so great and so excellent a council be made, which would inform the whole Christian world, and that one faith and one priestly and clerical rule would govern all living under the priestly and Christian name, and that no one would dissent from his (S. Leo, ep. 84) head.

Now therefore, because (as was said above) we are daily attacked, crushed, and oppressed by the enemies of the holy Church of God, and especially by the Arians, the aforesaid seventy chapters of the Council of Nicaea—which I brought from the aforementioned synod already completed, by order of my lord Alexander, by decree of all the bishops, and which I also recited and transcribed in the presence of all—have been burned by fire; we desire that from the authority of your see, which is the mother and head of all churches, we may merit to receive them, through the present legates, for the correction and restoration of the faithful orthodox, so that, supported by your authority and strengthened by your prayers, we may escape unharmed from the aforementioned rivals of the holy Church of God and from our own, and be able to redeem those entrusted to us. We truly know (Council of Rome under Gregory II, year 721) that your apostolic heart is kindled with the grace of the Holy Spirit to aid all the oppressed; how much more so us, who, though of humble rank, are nevertheless yours and obedient to you with all those entrusted to us, and are and always wish to be so.

Therefore it is fitting and necessary that you, without delay, grant us these things which we ask, and others which you, according to the wisdom that the Most High has bestowed upon you, have recognized as necessary, so that the squalors of such great misery may be wiped away from the minds of the faithful, and that, as a wound fixed in the body, the hearing of such great misery, having been blocked, may be hardened with a healing antidote, so that, relying on divine aid and strengthened by your authority and assistance, we may be able to escape the tergiversations of our adversaries, and, with unshaken countenance, struck down by no one’s deceit, may deserve to stand before the eternal judge and hear a voice saying: “Well done, good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many: enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matt. 25). And the subscription. May the Lord preserve your holy apostolate, praying for us, for long ages (John II, pope, to Justinian). THE RESCRIPT OF POPE MARK

To Athanasius and All the Egyptian Bishops. (From the same source). On the mission of the chapters of the Nicene Council. To the venerable lord brothers Athanasius and all the bishops of Egypt, Mark, bishop of the holy Roman and apostolic see, and of the universal Church. I grieve, brothers, and am exceedingly saddened by your affliction, but I am greatly consoled that you are not a reed shaken by the wind (Matthew 11), but are upright in faith, enduring unceasingly amidst all the struggles of storms and whirlwinds. Having therefore read (St. Leo, Epistle 85) the letter of your fraternity, we have recognized the vigor of your constancy, which we knew of old. Congratulating you that, for the guarding of Christ's flock, you diligently pursue pastoral care, lest the wolves, who have crept in under the appearance of sheep, with bestial savagery tear apart the simple ones—those who have not crept in to make any improvement by correction, but to corrupt what is sound. Wherefore I admonish and exhort your belovedness (the same St. Leo, Epistle 2) that you strive, with the help of divine grace, to bring to completion the good work you have begun, as the voice of truth warns: "Blessed is he who perseveres to the end" (Matthew 24). For whence comes blessed perseverance, if not (St. Leo, Epistle 92) from the virtue of patience? For, according to the Apostle: "All who wish to live piously in Christ will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3).

This is not to be reckoned only in what is done against Christian piety by sword, or by fire, or by any kind of torture, since the savagery of persecutions is supplied also by dissimilarities of customs, and by the obstinacy of the disobedient, and by the darts of malignant tongues, with which conflicts the common members are always assailed, and no portion of the pious is free from conflict, so that they lack neither dangers nor leisure nor labor. For these and all increases (Coelest. I, ep. ad Gallos, c. 11) of worthy pursuits, and perseverance in them to the end, and the increments of good will, are always to be referred to the grace of Christ: so that in all things we do, God may be perfectly praised at every time. Concerning the truth and number of the chapters of the Nicene Council, at which you indicated by the letters of your fraternity that you were present, we have inquired with more diligent discussions from our own who were present together with you, who, just as your letters testified, set forth the whole order to us, and testified that your epistle is true in all respects: not that we should think anything adverse on your part. But we would wish that we, and you, and those others, without any future hesitation, should think as one, and that the wounded Roman Church, which has always remained immaculate, and, with the Lord providing and the blessed apostle Peter bringing aid, will remain so in the future, should persist firm and immovable at all times, without any insult from heretics.

After these things were thus completed, diligently searching in the holy archive of my apostolic see, we found those same seventy chapters (as you indicated) unharmed, which were sent to my predecessor of holy memory, Silvester. We did not send these very chapters to you because of the authority and subscription of so many fathers and of that great council, but we have taken care to write back to you, in the presence of your apocrisiarii, other similar ones, containing the same number, the same words, and the same subscription, and to send them to you under a certain stipulation and confirmation. And who is there who would dare to deny such things to his brothers? For the Lord, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, taught us that these things are not to be neglected, but are to be faithfully exercised, handed on to brothers, and taught and distributed. This is the living tradition of the apostles, this is true charity, which is to be preached and especially to be loved and fostered, and to be held confidently by all.

This holy and apostolic mother of all Christ's churches, the Church, which by the grace of almighty God is proven never to have erred from the path of apostolic tradition, nor to have succumbed to being corrupted by the novelties of heretics, but, as at the beginning it received the norm of Christian faith from its authors, the princes of Christ's apostles, remains unimpaired to the end, according to the divine promise of the Lord and Savior himself, who spoke to the prince of his disciples in his Gospels: "Peter," he says (Luke 22), "behold, Satan has sought to sift you, as one who sifts wheat: but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, once converted, confirm your brothers." Let your excellent prudence therefore consider how good it is to persevere in the stewardship entrusted to you, and in right faith, and to resist heretics and rivals of Christ, and never to deviate from the path of truth, since the Lord and Savior of all, whose faith it is, who did not hesitate to die for us and redeemed us with his own blood, who promised that the faith of blessed Peter would not fail, and admonished him to confirm his brothers. That the apostolic pontiffs, my predecessors of little worth, have always done this confidently is known to all; and my own littleness, although unequal and weak, nevertheless desires to be a follower in the ministry undertaken by divine condescension.

Woe indeed will be to us, who have taken up the burden of this ministry, if we neglect to preach the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, which the apostles preached. Woe also will be to us, if we have suppressed the truth by silence, we who are commanded to dispense to the money-changers, that is, to imbue and teach the Christian peoples. What shall we say at the future judgment of Christ Himself, if we are confounded to preach the truth of His word? What will become of us, when the just judge, Christ our God, exacts a strict account concerning the souls entrusted to us and the office we have undertaken? Therefore, brothers, I exhort (St. Leo, ep. 2) your love, I adjure and warn you, that with the diligence you ought and are able, you watch to investigate heretics and enemies of the holy Church of God, and, from sound minds, lest this plague spread more widely, you root them out with whatever severity you can to the best of your ability. For just as he who has more diligently carried out what benefits the salvation of the people entrusted to him will have from God the reward of worthy recompense, so before the tribunal of the Lord, whoever has been unwilling to guard his people against the authors of sacrilegious persuasion will not be able to excuse himself from the guilt of negligence. Given on the eighth day before the kalends of November, in the consulship of the most distinguished men Nepotianus and Secundus.