Eusebius of Vercelli, Letter 2 Ad Populum

Eusebius of Vercelli, Letter 2, to the People (355-361 AD)

[As I have posted periodically on this blog, here is a translation of a historical document, in this case a letter written by Eusebius of Vercelli to the people of his diocese from exile c. 355-361 AD. This document provides an important firsthand account of episcopal exile under the Roman Emperor Constantius II, and I am using it as such for a current academic project.

St. Eusebius of Vercelli is one of the more obscure members of the group of exiled Nicene bishop-ascetics from the mid-4th century of the Arian Controversy, but perhaps one of the most important. A prominent Italian bishop and ally of the bishop of Rome Liberius, he was exiled by the Emperor Constantius II at the Council of Milan in 355 AD after refusing to subscribe to the condemnation of Athanasius of Alexandra and the Creed of Sirmium offered by the Emperor. According to our one contemporary narrative, this happened after Eusebius arrived late to the Council and demanded that everyone present sign the Creed of Nicaea before proceeding with any more business. He remained in exile in the East until the death of Constantius in 361 AD, when he played a key role in the Council of Alexandria chaired by Athanasius upon the Emperor's death and attempted without success to resolve the bitter schism in Antioch. He then returned home and died circa 370. He also played an important role, like his close ally Hilary of Poitiers, in establishing early monastic and ascetic institutions in the West, likely inspired by Athanasius' ally Anthony of Egypt.]

To my most beloved brothers, and very much desired priests, but also to the holy peoples of Vercelli, Novarium, Hippo Regius, and also Dertonium who stand firm in the Faith: Eusebius the bishop in the Lord wishes eternal salvation. 

1. Although our Lord comforts us, separated in body from you, with many good things, and shows your presence to us at least through the arrival and visits of very many brothers; nevertheless we were sorrowful and sad and not without tears; because for a long interval of time we did not receive writings from Your Holinesses. Indeed we were afraid that either some diabolical subtlety had taken hold of you, or human power had subjugated the unfaithful.

Therefore, while we were afflicted with these thoughts, and I was turning all the consolation of brothers who were coming to us from various provinces more to sorrow at your absence than to joy: the Lord thought it right to bestow this, that I was able to learn the very thing about which I was worried, not only by the letters of your sincerity, but also by the presence of our dear ones Syrus the deacon and Victorinus the exorcist.

And so I have come to know, dearest brothers, that you, as I desired, are unharmed. And, as though I was suddenly snatched up through all the breadth of the earth (as happened to Habakkuk, who was carried by an angel all the way to Daniel [cf. Daniel 14:33-36]), I judged that I had come to you, while I was receiving the letters of each person, while I was racing to your holy friends and the love found in your writings. 

2. Tears were mingling for me with joy: and my mind, eager to read, was constrained by being occupied with tears. And both things were necessary, as each of my senses was desiring to anticipate its duties of loving for this fulfillment of desire. Thus each day while occupied with this I was judging that I was spending time with you, and I was forgetting my past labors: in this way truly joys were encompassing me on every side, offering from here stable faith, from here love, from here fruitfulness; so that in so many and so great established goods, suddenly I was judging, as I said above, that I was not in exile, but with you.

I rejoice therefore, dearest brothers, in your faith: I rejoice in your salvation which follows faith: I rejoice in your fruits, because from this they have not only been established, but also have travelled far. As indeed the farmer has grafted on that good tree, which does not suffer the axe, is not given up to flames, for the sake of its fruits; so also we want and desire not only to show to Your Holinesses service according to the flesh, but also to spend our lives for your salvation.

You have extended, as I said, branches strong with fruit, and you have labored to reach through such long spaces of the earth to touch me. I rejoice as a farmer, and gladly pluck the apples of your labor, because you wanted to do so much: not only I, or those very holy priests and deacons or other brothers who are with me, but also all of us who are longing for you.

For you filled up, as the most blessed Apostle says, my heart when you fulfilled the divine commandments which it is right that Christians fulfill towards a bishop or ecclesiastical men who you know labor in exile because of the Faith. You have fulfilled the things which it is right for brothers to do for brothers, and for sons to show for a father.

But when we were wanting you, according to divine commandments, to produce heavenly fruit from earthly things, stable fruit from fleeting things, eternal fruit from fragile things; in suffering by necessity we began to sow seeds daily. The poor were rejoicing at your fruits: not only were the people of the city itself glorifying God, but also everyone: and these people were able to see from the fruits themselves the love you have for me, and in seeing were glorifying God, and naming us with all honor with your blessing. 

3. The devil seeing this, the enemy of innocence, the rival of justice, the opponent of faith, because God was being blessed in this work, inflamed against us his Ariomaniacs, who now for a long time were raging not only over this work, but also over their own infidelity, to which they were not able to persuade us, so that they violently erupted; in this way that he has always used, those whom he was not able to persuade, he terrified with force and power.

And so he gathered the multitude of his own people, who seize and bring us to the factory of their infidelity and mock us: and they say that all this power has been handed over to them by the Emperor. Therefore when they were saying many things and boasting about their power, in this I wanted to show them that the things they were able to do are nothing, while I handed over in silence as though to executioners my body, which the Lord was saying was able to be handed over in persecutions. How free in mind I was, while I am suffering from these things, and am imprisoned, and am preserved through four days, and hear the insults and persuasions of different kinds of people: in this I have shown that I have not spoken even one word.

They wanted to add to their malice, that my brothers would depart from me, that is, priests and deacons: but also they said they were going to prevent the rest of the people from coming to me. I, in order to not accept food from the hands of unbelievers, or rather of transgressors (which is worse) who are unbelievers, as the Apostle says, made a petition to them in this way. 

‘The Servant of God Eusebius with his fellow servants who labor with me for the Faith, to Patrophilus the prison-guard with his people:

With what violence and rage of many people you carried me off, not only dragged across the ground, but at times even prostrate with a naked body, from this guest-house which you gave to me through your people and agentes in rebus, which I have never left except through your violence, both God knows, and the city knows, nor are you able to deny it now and in the future.

Therefore I reserve my case for God, so that, inasmuch as he himself has ordained it, he may be able to undertake the end. Meanwhile, I want you to know that I have decreed this (so that the reason may be able to stand now and in the future, even here), in the guest-house where you are holding me imprisoned, in which after first carrying me and thrusting me inside very cruelly, you dared to carry me from there in the same way, and to throw me into a single cell, that I will not eat bread nor drink water, until each of you have promised, not only by word, but also by hand, that you will not prevent my brothers who are willingly suffering these things with me from offering me necessary food from the guest-house where they are staying–and also others who have thought it worthy to ask for it.

Indeed, it was right to go out from the body, so that I would not be compelled to often tell those who want to know what a great crime you all have committed against divine and public law. But so that no one from among the unbelievers may call you cruel towards us, and think that we are ignorant of the divine commandments and did not want to avoid confusion more than to obey the Lord, for this reason we wanted to presume this: again I say that unless you make a promise by word and in writing, you will be murderers by preventing [food from being brought to me]. 

5. The omnipotent God knows this: also his Only-Begotten Son, indescribably born from him, knows, who as God of eternal virtue for our salvation put on a perfect man, wanted to suffer, triumphed over death and rose on the third day, sits on the right hand of the Father, is going to come to judge the living and the dead: also the Holy Spirit knows: the Catholic Church is witness, which confesses like this: because I will not be liable in myself, but you all, who have wanted to prevent my fellow-servants from ministering necessary things.

And if you have prepared this, you ought to despise yourselves: not as though I fear death, but so that after my departure you may not say that I wanted to depart by a voluntary death and may not find a certain cloud of accusation for us. Know that I am going to communicate with the Churches which I am able to reach with letters that have been for a time locked up; I am going to communicate also with the servants of God, so that the whole world might be able to recognize, through these persons running together, how the complete faith which has been approved by all the Catholic bishops is suffering from the Ariomaniacs, which it condemned before. I, Eusebius the bishop, have subscribed in the same way [i.e. to the Nicene Creed].

I adjure you who read this letter, through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that you not suppress it but [allow] it to be be read by others.”

6. Therefore these men, softened on barely the fourth day from this letter [libellus] compelled us, hungry, to return to the guest-house in which we had stayed. They saw from within how the people, returning, received us with joy. They surrounded our guest-house with lights.

We begin, with the Lord approving, to again minister to the poor. Their inhumanity did not endure this, and they destroyed our love for their hatred. They were able to tolerate this for around nearly twenty-five days. They break out anew, and with the destroyed hand of many they come to our guest-house armed with clubs, they break the wall through other people’s doors, and they come to us with violence. Again they grab us, and they lock us up in a narrower guard-house with only our dear priest Tegrinus.
Also our brothers, that is all the priests and deacons, they grab and lock up.

After three days by their own power they send them into exile throughout various places. Other brothers who had come to visit us they send in the public jail and hold them locked up through very many days. Rushing again to the guest-house, they destroy everything which had been prepared either for expenses or for the poor.

But because this their public crime was known by all the citizens, they used this argument, that they were returning some less important things, and were trying to return to us our own property. But they kept the expenses in their own possession: and after so great a crime they were seeking, if it was possible, to deny this, that they had permitted nothing from my property to come to me, I who was trying to bring necessary food to my body. Barely on the sixth day, with people everywhere shouting against them, they permitted one to come. In all that pertained to them, they showed that they had the minds of murderers. At first, they sent away this person, so as not to cease from their malice: afterwards, barely on the sixth day, when we were failing, they allowed him to come once with some food. And so these are the works of the Ariomaniacs. 

7. See, most holy brothers, if this is not persecution, when we who keep the Catholic Faith suffer these things: and think more deeply whether this persecution is not very much even worse than that one which happened through the ones who serve idols. Those men were sending people into prison: nevertheless they were not preventing their own from coming to them.

How much, therefore, has Satan wounded the Churches through the cruelty of the Ariomaniacs! People who are obliged to free men send into public guard-houses. People who are taught to suffer for the sake of justice commit violence. People who are taught by the divine law not to demand back their own property when it is stolen steal others’ property. I pass over how much cruelty has invaded them, while they rejoice in their temporal ease. The ability to see their own people is not denied by torturers or judges to bandits shut up in prison: our people are kept from us: and not only are they forbidden from the guest house in which we are held, but they are terrified by threats so that they will not approach the prison. In this way they have subjugated everyone, as I have very plainly known.

I will begin from the bishops: while certain of them fear to lose their office, they themselves have lost the Faith; while they do not not want to lose their earthly faculties and immunities, they have judged the heavenly treasuries and true security to be nothing. In the same way also the rest have been led astray, while they see the bishops fearing these things perish, and have begun to love the things which they cannot have forever.

8. In this way the Ariomaniacs frighten the rich, since they threaten them with proscription: in this way they frighten the poor, since they have the power to shut them up in prison. And how great this insanity is! In the place in which we are held, they not only send the men who serve us into prison, but also they shut up the holy girls [sanctiominales=consecrated religious] in the public guard-houses without any fear of God. But as the the evil old men who sought to violate the chastity of Susanna did not rejoice: so neither will these rejoice always, who try to subject the Church to their infidelity with various persecutions and excessive oppressions. For the holy Daniel said to those men: ‘In this way, because they were afraid, the daughters of Israel slept with you’ [Daniel 13:57].

But let human fear, Most Holy ones, depart from your minds, since you have the consolation of the Lord, who says: ‘Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul’ [Matthew 10:18]. This is the time of testing: the time exists so that those who have been tested and proved may be made known and manifest. Therefore they have received human help, because they do not have divine help: because if they did have it, they would never subjugate innocent souls to themselves with earthly power.

9. We were obliged to write many things about those men’s evil deeds, by which not I alone, but very many are oppressed: but it is so that we might not be able to do this, and communicate their cruelty by letters, that we are kept in this very confined guard-house by them. For this reason also our other people and friends are kept from approaching us.

But the Lord has granted to me to send this letter to you through our most dear deacon Syrus, whom we have in our power to send; because by the providence of our Lord at that time he approached to see the holy places and was not discovered with the rest of the brothers. 

10. As for the rest, we have with difficulty written this letter in whatever way we could, always begging God that he would restrain our guards for a time, and grant that the deacon might bear more the announcement of our labors than what letters of greetings are usually like.

For this reason I beg you all sufficiently that you keep the Faith with all vigilance, that preserve harmony, that you lean on prayers, that you remember us without ceasing: so that the Lord might think it worthy to free his church which labors over the whole earth, and so that we who are oppressed might be able to be freed to rejoice with you: the Lord will think it worthy to grant this since you ask for it through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with him is blessed from the ages and into all the ages of ages. Amen.

Altercatio Heracliani (AD 366)

[I will be trying to get back into the swing of regular writing. In lieu of something original, here is a quick and simple translation of a fun 4th century text I haven't been able to find in translation online. It purports to be the record of a debate between the homoian Germinius of Sirmium and a Nicene layman in the mid-4th century. While clearly written from a Nicene perspective (and so not an official transcript from the diocesan chancery), the content seems highly locally specific and faithfully reflects mid-4th century Trinitarian debates. There is in my judgment little reason to doubt its basic authenticity as a picture of the theological debate within Sirmium at this period.

Also it's a lot of fun I think.]

The debate of Heraclianus the layman with Germinius, the bishop of Sirmium, about the Faith of the Council of Nicaea and the Faith of the Council of Ariminium of the Arians. This occurred in the city of Sirmium before all the people, on Friday, January 13, AD 366.

They led out Heraclianus and Firmianus and Aurelianus before all the people, with the bishop seated on his cathedra with all the clergy before all the people, at least those who were of age of the people. 

Germinius said to Heraclianus: "Why did you see fit to persuade people to support the homoousios, which vain men cobbled together?"

Heraclianus said: "And so three hundred and more bishops were 'vain'?"

Germinius: "What does he want the homoousios to mean?"

Heraclianus: "You, you preach among this people as a stumbling-block, and you learned to speak in Greek."

Germinius: "Eusebius [of Vercelli], that condemned exile, taught you this, and Hilary, who now has come back from exile."

Heraclianus: "I speak by the right and authority of the Divine Scriptures. Why do you dish up these things to me, to drive me out of the way of truth? We are contending about the divine laws! The possibility of speaking and debating is right here."

Germinius: "You as who, wicked slave? Are you a priest, or a deacon?"

Heraclianus: "I am neither a priest nor a deacon, but although I am the least of all Christians, I speak in defense of my life."

Germinius: "See how much he talks! Will no one draw his teeth?"

Then Iovinianus the deacon and Marinus the lector struck him.

Heraclianus: "This adds to my happiness and my glory."

Germinius: "Speak, Heraclianus! I baptized you: what did you receive from me?"

Heraclianus: "I received from you: 'in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.' I did not receive: 'in the greater god and in the lesser god and this created thing.' You also speak like this about the Holy Spirit."

Germinius: "If the Spirit was not created, Paul the Apostle lied, who said: 'All things were created through Christ in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible' [Colossians 1:16]. If, therefore, the Spirit was not created through him, therefore not all things were created through him."

Heraclianus: "If you command, I will speak."

Germinius: "Speak!"

Heraclianus: "It was written in Isaiah the Prophet: 'Hear me, Jacob, and Israel, whom I call. I am the First and I am for eternity: and my hand established the earth, my right hand solidified the sky. I will call them all, and they will come together, and all will be gathered together and listen. Who has announced these things to them? Because I love you, I have done your will against Babylon, that the seed of the Chaldeans be taken away. I have spoken, I have called, I have brought him and made his way prosperous. Come to me and hear these things. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, nor in a shadowy part of the earth: when these things happened, I was there. And now the Lord has sent me and his Spirit. Thus says the Lord, who freed you, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord, who have shown you the way in which you should walk. And if you had listened to my commandments, your peace would have become like the light, and your justice like the waves of the sea, and your seed like the sand' [Isaiah 48:12-18]. Speak, therefore, now, you, bishop: about whom were these things written?"

Germinius: "You speak yourself."

Heraclianus: "It is right for you to speak: it is fitting for me to listen."

Germinius: "These things were written about the Father."

Heraclianus: "And the Father, by whom was he sent?"

Germinius was silent for more than one hour.

Heraclianus: "Evidently they were spoken about the Son of God and the Spirit of the Living God. Look, you have the Trinity proven, its divinity declared through the mouth of the Holy Prophet Isaiah."

And when Heraclianus had said these things, Germinius began to praise him, saying: "You have a good heart and you are wellborn, and we have known you from your infancy; be converted to our Church. 

To which also many others were saying: "Lord bishop! He himself was the one who fought against the heretics of dark Photinus. How now has he himself become a heretic?"

Germinius said: "I myself explained my faith to Eusebius and demonstrated it and satisfied him. As the Son of God himself says, 'The Father, who sent me, is greater than I' [John 14:28]. And: 'I have not come to do my own will, but the will of the Father, who sent me' [John 6:38]. For also about the Holy Spirit it is written: 'Unless I go away to my Father, the Spirit, the Paraclete, will not come to you' [John 16:7]. And: 'He does not speak from himself. He will receive from me and will announce it to you' [John 16:13] (These words he was saying to the people.) I myself have the true Faith, which is like this: I say the Father is unborn, invisible, immortal, without beginning, without end. But the Son I say has a beginning before the ages from the Father, God from God, Light from Light, but I do not say that he is the same as the Father is. For he himself says, 'The Father who sent me is greater than I.' And: 'I have not come to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.' The Holy Spirit I say is the Prince of the Angels and Archangels. For as the Son is not similar to the Father in every respect, so neither is the Holy Spirit to the Son."

Heraclianus: "The Father is greater, but in name only. For Paul the Apostle says: 'Christ is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God' [1 Corinthians 1:24]. Do you not believe that the particular Power of God is both the Son of God and True God? For this Power is also the whole of God, and through this same power we know that all powers were made. For it is written: 'By the Word of God the heavens were made firm, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power' [Psalm 33:6] Understood, therefore, that through one power are all the powers in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth: through one power they came forth out of nothing." 

Germinius: "Therefore do you say that the Son is the same as the Father is?"

Heraclianus: "Thus it is written in the Gospel of John. When Philip the Apostle said, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us,' Jesus responded, 'So much time I am with you, and you have not known me, Philip? Whoever sees me, sees also my Father, and I and the Father are one. How do you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?' [John 14:8-9]. Understand, therefore, that the Son is the same as the Father."

And Germinius was silent. But Theodorus the priest spoke up and said: "It is written where the Son of God says that 'concerning the day and the hour no one knows, neither the Angels, nor the Archangels, nor the Son, but the Father has set it in his own power' [Matthew 24:36]. How, therefore, do you say that the Son is the same as the Father?"

Heraclianus: "What sort of God do you preach, who is ignorant about day and hour?"

Theodorus said in confusion: "Thus it is written."

Heraclianus: "Have you not read that 'the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive?' [2 Corinthians 3:6]

But when this one was silent, confounded and humiliated, Agrippinus said: "It is written in the Apostle Paul: 'When he has handed over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has made vain every principality and every power and virtue. It is right for him to reign until he has put all enemies under his feet; for he puts everything under his feet. Last of all the enemy death will be destroyed. When, however, he says, that all things have been put under him, manifestly this is besides the one who put all things under him. When, however, all things have been put under him, then also the Son himself will be put under him who put all things under him, that God may be all in all' [1 Corinthians 15:24-28]. 

Heraclianus: "If it must be understood like that, as you say, therefore God has a being belonging to a future time, for the end, because it does not now exist. For if thus it is written: 'That God may be all in all'... Therefore your faith is empty, you presume in vain to preach a God before time. How is that? I ask you: Is there one divinity, or two?"

Agrippinus: "There is one."

Heraclianus: "You spoke well. Therefore, the divinity which is subjected is no longer the paternal divinity."

But he said: "You deny that the Son is subject to the Father?"

Heraclianus: "By will, not by necessity. For so that you may know, that it was by will also that he washed the feet of his own disciples. For also in another place it is written: 'The Spirit of the Prophets has been made subject to the prophets' [1 Corinthians 14:32]. Therefore, because it is written, are the prophets greater than the Divine Spirit of God? For also in another place Paul the Apostle writes to Timothy: 'Every divinely-inspired writing is useful for teaching, for correction.' How, therefore, do you say that the Son of God is created, and also say that he speaks through the prophets, and the Paraclete speaks through the Apostles, who is called the Advocate? If therefore the Son has been established as God before the ages, as you say, and the Holy Spirit was created through him, now therefore every Scripture is not divinely inspired. And what will we do about about the multitude of such great testimonies? First Isaiah the Prophet, who says, 'Who will declare his ancestry?' [Isaiah 53:8] For also John the Evangelist says, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' [John 1:1]. Is the Word of God able to be created? If he is a Word, whose Word is he? For also, concerning the Holy Spirit, Paul the Apostle says: 'No one sees the things which are in God except for the Spirit of God, who even discerns the depths of God' [1 Corinthians 2:11]. Who therefore is this Spirit, who knows the things which are in God? Is he not with God? Also it is written in Isaiah: 'Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?' [Isaiah 40:13]. If the Spirit of God is created, then he himself was at one time without spirit, although it is written in the Apostle Paul: 'We have not received a spirit of this world, but a spirit who is from God' [1 Corinthians 2:12]. And again he says, 'You are the letter of God, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God' [2 Corinthians 3:3]. And again he says: 'The Lord is Spirit; where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, there is God' [2 Corinthians 3:17]."

At this Agrippinus did not speak any more.

Germinius: "See how he blasphemes in calling the Holy Spirit God, although it is written: 'That no one is able to say that Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit' [1 Corinthians 12:3]. For also David says: 'The Lord says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make all your enemies your footstool' [Psalm 110:1].

Heraclianus: "I already said a little before that this was by will, not by necessity. For also concerning the Son of God it is written: 'I am going to my God and to your God, to my Father and to your Father' [John 20:17]. And in another place he says: 'I praise you, Lord, Father of Heaven and Earth' [Matthew 11:25]. Therefore is the Son of God not Lord and God, because he calls the Father Lord and God? Therefore, although these things are written, you do not blush to call him Lord and God. Why therefore were you ashamed to say that the Holy Spirit is God, although it is written, 'God is Spirit' [John 4:24]? And if anything human person has blasphemed against him, he will be forgiven neither here, nor in the future. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha than for those who sin against the Holy Spirit. For also Peter the Apostle said that the Holy Spirit is God, saying to Ananias and Saphira, his wife, who had committed fraud about the price of their field which they had sold. Then Blessed Peter said to Ananias: 'Who has persuaded you to lie to the Holy Spirit? You did not lie to a man, but to God' [Acts 5:3]. And immediately he fell down onto the ground and died."

Germinius: "How is the Holy Spirit God when it is written in Jeremiah: 'This is our God, and no other will be esteemed beside him. He has discovered the whole way of discipline and has given it to his own child, Jacob, and Israel, his own beloved. After these things he was seen on the earth and lived with men' [Baruch 3:35-36]. 

Heraclianus: Through ignorance you spoke well, showing that he prophesied that the Son is truly God, that God has lived among men. For so that you know that the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father together with the Holy Spirit, understand that besides this Trinity no god is to be feared, worshiped, or honored."

Germinius: "Therefore Christ is brother to the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit?"

Heraclianus: "We do not believe that. For as the Father is one, one also are the Son and the Holy Spirit, one strength. For also the three are one."

Germinius: "How do you prove this?"

Heraclianus: "Through the Apostle Paul."

Germinius: "Where is this written?"

Heraclianus: "In his Letter to the Ephesians."

Germinius: "Read."

Heraclianus: "'You are one body and one spirit, as you also have been called in your hope of one calling. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God the Father of all, who is above all and in all for us' [Ephesians 4:4-6]."

Germinius: "Heraclianus, how do you arrange these things about the Faith?"

Heraclianus: "For when a ray proceeds from the sun, it is a portion from the whole; but the sun will be in the ray, because it is the ray of the sun, nor is the substance separated, but extended, as light is kindled from light. The material remains whole, undiminished; even if you draw even more portions from it you will have made them share its qualities. In the same way also, because this has been accomplished concerning God, also the Son of God is God, and both are one. In the same way also concerning the Holy Spirit and concerning God as a measure. Therefore he made another step, not a status; he did not divide, but proceeded. Therefore that Son of God, as was always preached before, descended into a certain virgin and in her womb was formed as flesh, is born as a human being mixed with God. Flesh ordered by spirit is born, grows up, speaks, and is Christ. This is my Faith."

When Heraclianus had said these things, Germinius was filled with anger and indignation and began to shout and to say: "He is a heretic, because he says that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the whole of God. He is a homoousian; do not hold his Faith." 

And he demanded of the people, saying: "Let no one, no servant or handmaiden of God, meet with him, breathe upon him, because now he is dead." And he was swearing with an oath that he would banish him into exile. 

Heraclianus said: "The God who freed Israel from the hand of the King of the Amorites and the King of Basan, and who freed Paul from the hand of the Samaritans, he himself will free me from your hands."

And when he said these things, all the priests and deacons further said: "Let him not go out from here unless he has anathematized those bishops whom he named, whose Faith he said he holds." 

For this was said to Heraclianus and Firmanus with all the brothers. But they did not do this thing. 

Germinius said: <...> "It is not written."

And thus they dismissed them. And when they had dismissed them, a part of those comrades were shouting: "Let them be handed over to the governor and let them be killed, because they have made a sedition, and from one people have made two!" 

And they were trying to compel them to subscribe to the Faith of the heretics. And they were repeating this at the top of their lungs, saying: "Let them be handed over to the governor and let them be killed!"

Then Germinius said: "Do not do this, brothers! They do not know what they are saying. If bishops have been led astray, how much more men like this?"

And others were trying to compel them to humiliate themselves under their power. And this is what they did. And they escaped from their hands even to the present day.

Pope Leo I, Sermon 82 (for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul)

 [A quick translation for the feast today, from the "most Roman of Popes," whose Latin eloquentia shines through very strongly in the original. A very important document for understanding Late Antique Rome and the Papacy.]

The whole world, Beloved, truly participates in all the Holy Solemnities: and the piety of the One Faith demands that, whenever any deed, done for the salvation of all, is being recalled in worship, it should be celebrated everywhere with common rejoicings.

Nonetheless, today's feast demands a special honor and exultation unique to our own City, beyond the reverence which this feast merits throughout the whole circle of lands. In this place where the departure of these preeminent Apostles was first glorified, let there be a primacy of joy on the day of their martyrdom!

For these are the men through whom the Gospel of Christ, O Rome, dawned for you in splendor, and through whom you, who were the Teacher of Error, were made the Student of Truth. These are your Holy Fathers and True Shepherds, who founded you in a much better and much more fortunate way, grafting you into the Heavenly Kingdoms, than those men by whose efforts the first foundations of your walls were laid: of whom the one who gave you your name defiled you with his brother's blood.

These are the men who have raised you to this glory: that through the Holy See of Blessed Peter you have been made a Holy Clan, a Chosen People, a Priestly and Royal State, and the Head of World, and now preside over a wider area through divine religion than through earthly dominion. For although you once extended the sway of your Empire throughout land and sea, increasing it by many victories, nevertheless that which violent labor subdued is less than that which the Christian Peace has embraced.

For God is good, and just, and omnipotent, who has never denied his mercy to the human race, who by his most abundant acts of beneficence has always taught all mortals in common to know him, who has had mercy on the blindness and wickedness of those who wandered at their own will, rushing headlong to ever worse things, by his even more discerning prudence and his even deeper piety, and sent his own Word, equal to him and coeternal with him. This one was made flesh, and thus united divine nature to human nature, so that his bending down to the lowest things might become our exaltation to the highest things.

But so that the effects of this unspeakable grace might be diffused throughout the whole world, with his divine providence he prepared the Roman Empire. Additions were gradually made to its borders, so that the totality of all nations everywhere might be made neighbors and acquaintances. For it was suitable for that work which was being divinely prepared that many kingdoms be made allies under one Imperium, so that the universal proclamation might quickly find accessible peoples, held under the discipline of a single state.

This state, however, ignorant of the author of her exaltation, although she was master of nearly all the nations, was herself a slave to the errors of all nations, and believed that she had made religion great because she had rejected no falsehood. But then, as tenaciously as she had been bound fast by the devil, so miraculously was she set free by Christ.

For when the Twelve Apostles, having received the ability to speak all languages through the Holy Spirit, had undertaken to pervade all the world with the Gospel and had distributed the parts of the earth among themselves, Blessed Peter, Primate of the Apostolic Order, was destined for the citadel of the Roman Empire: so that the light of truth which was being revealed for the salvation of all nations might diffuse itself more effectively from the Head itself through the whole Body of the World.

For what nation did not then have people in this City? Or what nations were ever ignorant of what Rome had taught? Here the divergent opinions of Philosophy must be trampled underfoot, here the vanities of earthly wisdom must be dissolved, here the worship of demons must be suppressed, here the impiety of all sacrifices must be destroyed, in the very place where every practice and belief that had ever been established by the varied errors of mankind had been collected and was being maintained with very diligent superstition.

To this city you, Most Blessed Peter the Apostle, were not afraid to come, and while the sharer in your glory, Paul the Apostle, was still occupied with setting the other churches in order, you, far more constant than when you walked upon the sea, entered this forest of raging beasts, this ocean of most turbulent depths. And you, who in the house of Caiphas had trembled at the servant-girl of the High-Priest, did not fear Rome, Master of the World.

For surely neither the power of Claudius nor the cruelty of Nero was a lesser thing than the judgment of Pilate and the fury of the Judeans?

Therefore it was the violence of your love which conquered all the reasons for fear; and you did not think it right to tremble at those whom you had undertaken to love. Indeed you had already conceived this passion of fearless charity at that time when the profession of your love for the Lord was strengthened by the mystery of threefold questioning. For from this intention of your mind he asked nothing else but that, pasturing the sheep of him whom you love, you give out that same food with which you yourself had been filled.

Your confidence had also been increased by so many signs of miracles, so many gifts of charisms, so many experiences of virtues. Already you had taught those peoples who had believed from the circumcision; already you had founded the Antiochene Church, where first the dignity of the Christian Name had arisen; already you had imbued Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithinia with the laws of the Preaching of the Gospel. You were not doubtful about the outcome of your work, nor were you ignorant of the extent of your own life, as you brought to the Roman citadels the Trophy of the Cross of Christ, a Cross through which, by divine pre-ordination, the Honor of Power and the Glory of Suffering awaited you.

To this same place your fellow Apostle, the Vessel of Election and special Teacher of the Gentiles, Paul, arrived and was joined to you at that time when all innocence, all decency, and all liberty were suffering under the Imperium of Nero. The fury of this man, inflamed through his excess in all vices, fell headlong into this fire of his own insanity, so that he was the first to inflict atrocity of a general persecution on the Christian Name, as though the grace of God was able to be extinguished through the murder of the saints, for whom in fact this was the greatest reward, that their contempt for this life become the gaining of eternal happiness.

'Precious,' therefore, 'in the sight of God is the death of his saints': nor is that religion founded on the Sacrament of the Cross of Christ able to be destroyed by any kind of cruelty. The Church is not diminished by persecutions, but increased: and always the Field of the Lord is clothed with richer fruit while the grains, which die alone, are born multiplied.

Thus the thousands of Blessed Martyrs testify to how much offspring those two shoots of divine seed have produced. These thousands of imitators of the Apostolic Triumphs have filled our city with bands robed in purple and shining far and wide with red, and have as it were crowned her with one crown assembled out of the honors of many gems.

In this garrison, Beloved, which has been divinely prepared for us to show us examples of patience and to strengthen our faith, we must indeed rejoice universally by the commemoration of all the saints, but in the preeminence of these fathers we should deservedly glory even more exultantly, whom the grace of God raised to so high a peak among the members of the Church that, in the body for which Christ is Head, he has established them, as it were, as the twin lights of the eyes.

About their merits and virtues, which surpass all ability to speak of, we ought to think nothing different, nothing divergent: because their election made them peers, and their labor made them the same, and their end made them equal.

As we ourselves have experienced and as our ancestors have demonstrated to us, so we believe and have confidence that, among all the labors of this life, in obtaining the mercy of God we will always be helped by the prayers of our special patrons: so that, as much as we beg mercy for our own sins, so much will we be raised up by the merits of the Apostles.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belongs one and the same Power with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one Divinity, forever and ever. Amen.

Pope St Martin I, Epistola XVII

Another quick translation for the feast of Pope St. Martin I:

"We always have every desire of consoling your love with letters and alleviating that anxiety which you have about us: and along with you also all the saints and our brothers who care about us because of the Lord.

Look, I am writing to you for the present about the things that oppress us. I speak the truth in the name of Christ our God. For we have been removed from all earthly disturbance, and separated from our sins, and look, we have even been deprived of life itself.

If only the people who live in this region were all pagans! Indeed the people who are known to dwell here have accepted pagan morals, and no longer have that love, with abundant compassion, which human nature shows even among barbarians. God knows that this is how it is, except in regards to the people from the ships which come from 'Romania,' as those who are here call those regions, that is to say, that is what they call the regions of Greek Pontus. For from this region I have not once been able able to get hold of even a single trimensis of grain or food of any other kind, except, as I said above, from the ships which rarely come here to depart again loaded with salt. In this way we have been able to buy with money three or four measures of grain during the period up to the present month of September. And til now we have not been able to buy any fresh produce except four measures for one coin.

I have been amazed, however, and I still am amazed at the lack of understanding and lack of compassion of all those who once belonged to me, even my friends and family, because they have entirely forgotten my plight, and do not even want to know, as I have learned, whether I am above the ground or not. I have also wondered much more at those who belong to the Most Holy Church of Peter the Apostle, because they have given so little effort about their own body and their own body part--that is, my love--in order to bring us back, and are without concern even for the necessities of my body and my daily needs. For even if the Church of Holy Peter does not have gold, nevertheless by the grace of God she does not lack grain and wine and other necessities, so that she could show her concern by giving me even a little.

What sort of conscience do you think we have to display before the tribunal of Christ, at that time when all people, who have arisen from the same mud and the same mass, will accuse and render accounts? What fear is this which has fallen upon people so that they do not at all do the commandments of God, or what fear can there be where there is no fear? Or have malignant spirits buried us in slander to such an extent? Or have I appeared to be an enemy of the whole fullness of the Church, and their enemy?

Nevertheless may God, who wills that all be saved and come to knowledge of the truth, through the intercession of Holy Peter preserve their hearts in the Orthodox Faith, and strengthen them against every heretic and every person opposed to our Church, and guard them immovable, especially that pastor who is now appointed to preside over them, and therefore let them neither fall away, nor turn away, nor let go of, any of those things which in the sight of God and his Holy Angels they have professed in writing, even to the smallest part, and let them, together with my humility, obtain the Crown of Justice of the Orthodox Faith from the hand of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

For the care for this humble body of mine will belong to the Lord himself, as it pleases him to govern it, whether in unceasing troubles, or in a little respite. For the Lord is near; why am I anxious? I certainly hope in his mercies, because he is not now delaying in bringing an end to my race, to which he ordered me.

Keep safe those who belong to you because of the Lord, and all those who for the love of God have had compassion on my chains. May the Most High God with his powerful hand protect you from every trial, and keep you safe for his kingdom."

 -Pope St. Martin I, Epistola XVII

Pope St. Martin I, Epistola XV

The feast day of Pope St. Martin I, the last Pope to be honored as a martyr by the Catholic Church, was a few days ago. He was deposed and martyred by the Byzantine Emperor Constans II for his opposition to the Monothelite heresy. In honor of that day, here is a quick translation of a letter (XV in Migne) from the early days of his imprisonment, before he reached Constantinople, describing the events of his arrest. 

Martin to Theodore: Your dear love wished to know in what way I was snatched from the See of Saint Peter the Apostle, like a single solitary sparrow from a building. And I wonder that you wished to inquire about this, since Our Lord spoke beforehand about wretched times to his disciples: ‘For in those days there will be tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world even til now; and unless those days were shortened, all flesh would not be able to endure. But the one who perseveres until the end will be saved.’ (Matt 24:22). For also Saint Paul according to the grace of the Spirit given to him announced beforehand those days to Timothy his disciple: ‘In the last days men will fall from the Faith, and will turn their hearing away from the truth, loving themselves, avaricious, etc,” (1 Tim 4:1, 3:4). And believe me, my very longed-for son, since our Lord predicted the coming of Antichrist, we must see no other time except clearly this one, in which are the beginnings of sorrows.

And it seemed necessary to me to speak briefly, before judgment prevails in the whole world and I come to the end of the race, since I have judged that this is expedient for me, and in this, although others are preparing evils for me, I will exalt rather than weep. And so, that you may know how I was taken and led away from the Roman city, you will hear nothing false about what has happened. I knew everything which they were planning beforehand through that whole time, and at my own expense with my whole body of clergy I was staying privately in the Church of Our Savior Jesus Christ, which is named ‘Constantinian,’ which was constructed and founded first in the whole world by the Emperor Constantine of blessed memory, and is near the episcopal residence. There we all were resting separately on the Sabbath day, when Calliopas, with the army of Ravenna and Theodore the chamberlain, entered the city. Therefore I sent to meet him certain men from among the clergy: when these were received in the palace, he thought that I also was with them. But when he had asked them, and had not found me, he said to the leading men of the clergy: ‘We wanted to do homage to him; but tomorrow, which is the Lord’s Day, we will meet him, and will salute him, because we did not succeed today.’ Furthermore, when on the Lord’s Day he sent gifts to us in that holy Church of God, that man, because he suspected that a great crowd had come together there because of the day, announced: ‘We are very fatigued by the journey, and are not able to meet with you today, but tomorrow we will certainly meet with you, and will pay homage to your Holiness.’ But I myself had been severely ill from the month of October all the way to that time, that is, all the way to the sixteenth from the Kalends of July. Therefore on Monday in the morning he sent his Chartularius, and some men from his retinue, saying: ‘You have prepared arms, and are keeping armed men inside, and have collected many stones for fighting; and this is not necessary, nor should you allow something like this to happen.’ And when I had listened to these things in their presence, I judged it good not to make them certain myself but to send them to wander at will through the whole episcopal residence, so that if they had seen any weapons or a stone, they themselves might bear witness. But when they had gone, and found nothing, I told them that never at any time had it been otherwise, but they were always attacking us with lies and false accusations, since even they confessed that at the arrival of the infamous Olympius, a certain vain man, he had been able to drive me away with arms. I then was keeping my little bed, in which I was lying, before the altar of the Church; and when noon was not yet past, behold an army came with them into the Church, all armored and holding their lances and swords, and their bows made ready with their shields: and there were done there things which should not be spoken. For just as in the wintertime leaves struck by a strong wind fall from the trees, so the candles of the Holy Church were being struck with arms, and cut down were falling to the pavement. And a sound was heard in that Church, like some horrible thunder, from the striking of their arms, from the multitude of candles broken by them. And while they were entering in crowds, a message was given by Calliopa to the Priests and Deacons, in which was contained my humility's deposition, because, they said, I had taken the episcopacy irregularly and against the law, and was not worthy to be installed in the Apostolic See, but it would be transmitted to the Royal City when a bishop had been substituted in my place. This has not yet happened, and I hope that it will never happen, because in my absence the Archdeacon and Archpriest and Primicerius keep the place of the Pontiff. Even while, then, these things are happening, since they have been done about the Faith, I have made them clear to you. But indeed we were not prepared to fight, since I have judged it better to die a thousand times than to allow the blood of even one person, anyone, be shed onto the earth. War, indeed, is waged, even without danger, with not a few evil things done which do not please God. Thus at the same hour I gave myself over to obeying the Emperor and not resisting. Furthermore (that I may speak the truth), although certain men from the clergy were shouting to me not to do this, I gave my ear to none of them, so that men would not be killed. But I said to them: ‘Let some from the clergy come with me, who are necessary for me, bishops, priests, and deacons, and whoever seems good to me.’ Callopias responded: ‘However many want to come, let them come. We lay a necessity on no one.’ I responded: ‘The clergy is in my power.’ But certain men from the priests, shouting, were saying: ‘We live with him, and we die with him.’ After these things Calliopas began to say, and those who were with him: ‘Come with us to the Palace.’ Nor did I refuse to do this, but I went with them to the palace on the same Monday. And on Tuesday the whole clergy came to me, and there were many who had prepared to sail with me, who then had put their property on those things which are called levamenta [small boats]; and also some others, clergy and laity, were preparing and were hurrying to come to us. Then on the same night, which dawned on Wednesday, the thirteenth from the Kalends of July, about the sixth, as it were, hour of the night, they took me from the palace, thrusting aside all those who were with me in the palace, and also the various things which were necessary for me on the road and here, and they led us from the city with nothing but six servants and one drinking-vessel; and when they had put us into one of those boats which are called levamenta, about the fourth hour of the day, more or less, we came to the port. In that hour in which we went out from the city of Rome, the gates were immediately bolted, and they also guarded them, and remained there, lest anyone should go out of the city and come to us in the port, until we had sailed from there. For this reason it was necessary that we send away from the port the property of all those who had put their property into the levamenta, and then depart on the same day. And we came to Mesena on the Kalends of July, where there was a ship, which is my prison. But not only in Mesena, but also in Calabria; and not only in Calabria, which is subject to the great city of the Romans, but also on very many islands, on which our sins have impeded us for three months, I have obtained no compassion, except only on the island of Naxos, because I spent a year there, I merited to bathe two or three times, and in the city I stayed in a certain inn. And behold it is now the forty-seventh day since I have merited to wet myself with hot or cold water, and I have wasted away and have been cold all over, because the flowing of my stomach both on the ship and on land has given me no rest even to the present hour; and even in the very hour of my necessity, when I am about to eat, I am shaken in my whole body, I do not have those things which are necessary to enjoy for the comforting of nature, because what I have disgusts me to receive, since it causes me nausea within. But I believe in the power of God who sees all things, that when I will be led out from the present life, these things will be required of those who persecute me, so that at least in this way they may be led to repentance, and converted from their iniquity. [Signature] May God keep you unharmed, most sweet son.