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.