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To All the Bishops Everywhere, Beloved in the Holy
Spirit, Our Venerable, Most Dear Brethren; and to their Most Pious Clergy;
and to All the Genuine Orthodox Sons of the One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church: Brotherly Salutation in the Holy Spirit, and every Good
from God, and Salvation.
§ 1. The holy, evangelical and divine Gospel of
Salvation should be set forth by all in its original simplicity, and
should evermore be believed in its unadulterated purity, even the same as
it was revealed to His holy Apostles by our Savior, who for this very
cause, descending from the bosom of God the Father, made Himself of no
reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7); even the
same, also, as those Apostles, who were ear and eye witnesses, sounded it
forth, like clear-toned trumpets, to all that are under the sun (for their
sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the
world); and, last of all, the very same as the many great and glorious
Fathers of the Catholic Church in all parts of the earth, who heard those
Apostolic voices, both by their synodical and their individual teachings
handed it down to all everywhere, and even unto us. But the Prince of
Evil, that spiritual enemy of man's salvation, as formerly in Eden,
craftily assuming the pretext of profitable counsel, he made man to become
a transgressor of the divinely-spoken command. So in the spiritual Eden,
the Church of God, he has from time to time beguiled many; and, mixing the
deleterious drugs of heresy with the clear streams of orthodox doctrine,
gives of the potion to drink to many of the innocent who live unguardedly,
not giving earnest heed to the things they have heard (Heb. ii. 10), and
to what they have been told by their fathers (Deut. xxxii. 7), in
accordance with the Gospel and in agreement with the ancient Doctors; and
who, imagining that the preached and written Word of the LORD and the
perpetual witness of His Church are not sufficient for their souls'
salvation, impiously seek out novelties, as we change the fashion of our
garments, embracing a counterfeit of the evangelical doctrine.
§ 2. Hence have arisen manifold and monstrous
heresies, which the Catholic Church, even from her infancy, taking unto
her the whole armour of God, and assuming the sword of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God (Eph. vi. 13-17,) has been compelled to combat. She has
triumphed over all unto this day, and she will triumph forever, being
manifested as mightier and more illustrious after each struggle.
§ 3. Of these heresies, some already have entirely
failed, some are in decay, some have wasted away, some yet flourish in a
greater or less degree vigorous until the time of their return to the
Faith, while others are reproduced to run their course from their birth to
their destruction. For being the miserable cogitations and devices of
miserable men, both one and the other, struck with the thunderbolt of the
anathema of the seven Ecumenical Councils, shall vanish away, though they
may last a thousand years; for the orthodoxy of the Catholic and Apostolic
Church, by the living Word of God, alone endures for ever, according to
the infallible promise of the LORD: the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it (Matt. xviii. 18). Certainly, the mouths of ungodly and
heretical men, however bold, however plausible and fair-speaking, however
smooth they may be, will not prevail against the orthodox doctrine
winning, its way silently and without noise. But, wherefore doth the way
of the wicked prosper? (Jer. xii. 1.) Why are the ungodly exalted and
lifted up as the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. xxxvii. 35), to defile the
peaceful worship of God? The reason of this is mysterious, and the Church,
though daily praying that this cross, this messenger of Satan, may depart
from her, ever hears from the Lord: My grace is sufficient for thee, my
strength is made perfect in weakness (2. Cor. xii. 9). Wherefore she
gladly glories in her infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
her, and that they which are approved may be made manifest (1. Cor. x.
19).
§ 4. Of these heresies diffused, with what
sufferings the LORD hath known, over a great part of the world, was
formerly Arianism, and at present is the Papacy. This, too, as the former
has become extinct, although now flourishing, shall not endure, but pass
away and be cast down, and a great voice from heaven shall cry: It is cast
down (Rev. xii. 10).
§ 5. The new doctrine, that "the Holy Spirit
proceedeth from the Father and the Son," is contrary to the memorable
declaration of our LORD, emphatically made respecting it: which proceedeth
from the Father (John xv. 26), and contrary to the universal Confession of
the Catholic Church as witnessed by the seven Ecumenical Councils,
uttering "which proceedeth from the Father." (Symbol of Faith).
i. This novel opinion destroys the oneness from the
One cause, and the diverse origin of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity,
both of which are witnessed to in the Gospel.
ii. Even into the divine Hypostases or Persons of
the Trinity, of equal power and equally to be adored, it introduces
diverse and unequal relations, with a confusion or commingling of them.
iii. It reproaches as imperfect, dark, and
difficult to be understood, the previous Confession of the One Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church.
iv. It censures the holy Fathers of the first
Ecumenical Synod of Nice and of the second Ecumenical Synod at
Constantinople, as imperfectly expressing what relates to the Son and Holy
Spirit, as if they had been silent respecting the peculiar property of
each Person of the Godhead, when it was necessary that all their divine
properties should be expressed against the Arians and Macedonians.
v. It reproaches the Fathers of the third, fourth,
fifth, sixth, and seventh Ecumenical Councils, which had published over
the world a divine Creed, perfect and complete, and interdicted under
dread anathemas and penalties not removed, all addition, or diminution, or
alteration, or variation in the smallest particular of it, by themselves
or any whomsoever. Yet was this quickly to be corrected and augmented, and
consequently the whole theological doctrine of the Catholic Fathers was to
be subjected to change, as if, forsooth, a new property even in regard to
the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity had been revealed.
vi. It clandestinely found an entrance at first in
the Churches of the West, "a wolf in sheep's clothing," that is,
under the signification not of procession, according to the Greek meaning
in the Gospel and the Creed, but under the signification of mission, as
Pope Martin explained it to the Confessor Maximus, and as Anastasius the
Librarian explained it to John VIII.
vii. It exhibits incomparable boldness, acting
without authority, and forcibly puts a false stamp upon the Creed, which
is the common inheritance of Christianity.
viii. It has introduced huge disturbances into the
peaceful Church of God, and divided the nations.
ix. It was publicly proscribed, at its first
promulgation, by two ever-to-be-remembered Popes, Leo III and John VIII,
the latter of whom, in his epistle to the blessed Photius, classes with
Judas those who first brought the interpolation into the Creed.
x. It has been condemned by many Holy Councils of
the four Patriarchs of the East.
xi.
It was subjected to anathema, as a novelty and augmentation of the Creed,
by the eighth Ecumenical Council, congregated at Constantinople for the
pacification of the Eastern and Western Churches.
xii. As soon as it was introduced into the Churches
of the West it brought forth disgraceful fruits, bringing with it, little
by little, other novelties, for the most part contrary to the express
commands of our Savior in the Gospel commands which till its entrance into
the Churches were closely observed. Among these novelties may be numbered
sprinkling instead of baptism, denial of the divine Cup to the Laity,
elevation of one and the same bread broken, the use of wafers, unleavened
instead of real bread, the disuse of the Benediction in the Liturgies,
even of the sacred Invocation of the All-holy and Consecrating Spirit, the
abandonment of the old Apostolic Mysteries of the Church, such as not
anointing baptized infants, or their not receiving the Eucharist, the
exclusion of married men from the Priesthood, the infallibility of the
Pope and his claim as Vicar of Christ, and the like. Thus it was that the
interpolation led to the setting aside of the old Apostolic pattern of
well nigh all the Mysteries and all doctrine, a pattern which the ancient,
holy, and orthodox Church of Rome kept, when she was the most honoured
part of the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
xiii. It drove the theologians of the West, as its
defenders, since they had no ground either in Scripture or the Fathers to
countenance heretical teachings, not only into misrepresentations of the
Scriptures, such as are seen in none of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic
Church, but also into adulterations of the sacred and pure writings of the
Fathers alike of the East and West.
xiv. It seemed strange, unheard of, and
blasphemous, even to those reputed Christian communions, which, before its
origin, had been for other just causes for ages cut off from the Catholic
fold.
xv. It has not yet been even plausibly defended out
of the Scriptures, or with the least reason out of the Fathers, from the
accusations brought against it, notwithstanding all the zeal and efforts
of its supporters. The doctrine bears all the marks of error arising out
of its nature and peculiarities. All erroneous doctrine touching the
Catholic truth of the Blessed Trinity, and the origin of the divine
Persons, and the subsistence of the Holy Spirit, is and is called heresy,
and they who so hold are deemed heretics, according to the sentence of St.
Damasus, Pope of Rome, who says: "If any one rightly holds concerning
the Father and the Son, yet holds not rightly of the Holy Spirit, he is an
heretic" (Cath. Conf. of Faith which Pope Damasus sent to Paulinus,
Bishop of Thessalonica). Wherefore the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic
Church, following in the steps of the holy Fathers, both Eastern and
Western, proclaimed of old to our progenitors and again teaches today
synodically, that the said novel doctrine of the Holy Spirit proceeding
from the Father and the Son is essentially heresy, and its maintainers,
whoever they be, are heretics, according to the sentence of Pope St.
Damasus, and that the congregations of such are also heretical, and that
all spiritual communion in worship of the orthodox sons of the Catholic
Church with such is unlawful. Such is the force of the seventh Canon of
the third Ecumenical Council.
§ 6. This heresy, which has united to itself many
innovations, as has been said, appeared about the middle of the seventh
century, at first and secretly, and then under various disguises, over the
Western Provinces of Europe, until by degrees, creeping along for four or
five centuries, it obtained precedence over the ancient orthodoxy of those
parts, through the heedlessness of Pastors and the countenance of Princes.
Little by little it overspread not only the hitherto orthodox Churches of
Spain, but also the German, and French, and Italian Churches, whose
orthodoxy at one time was sounded throughout the world, with whom our
divine Fathers such as the great Athanasius and heavenly Basil conferred,
and whose sympathy and fellowship with us until the seventh Ecumenical
Council, preserved unharmed the doctrine of the Catholic and Apostolic
Church. But in process of time, by envy of the devil, the novelties
respecting the sound and orthodox doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the
blasphemy of whom shall not be forgiven unto men either in this world or
the next, according to the saying of our Lord (Matt. xii. 32), and others
that succeeded respecting the divine Mysteries, particularly that of the
world-saving Baptism, and the Holy Communion, and the Priesthood, like
prodigious births, overspread even Old Rome; and thus sprung, by
assumption of special distinctions in the Church as a badge and title, the
Papacy. Some of the Bishops of that City, styled Popes, for example Leo
III and John VIII, did indeed, as has been said, denounce the innovation,
and published the denunciation to the world, the former by those silver
plates, the latter by his letter to the holy Photius at the eighth
Ecumenical Council, and another to Sphendopulcrus, by the hands of
Methodius, Bishop of Moravia. The greater part, however, of their
successors, the Popes of Rome, enticed by the antisynodical privileges
offered them for the oppression of the Churches of God, and finding in
them much worldly advantage, and "much gain," and conceiving a
Monarchy in the Catholic Church and a monopoly of the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, changed the ancient worship at will, separating themselves by
novelties from the old received Christian Polity. Nor did they cease their
endeavours, by lawless projects (as veritable history assures us), to
entice the other four Patriarchates into their apostasy from Orthodoxy,
and so subject the Catholic Church to the whims and ordinances of men.
§ 7. Our illustrious predecessors and fathers,
with united labour and counsel, seeing the evangelical doctrine received
from the Fathers to be trodden under foot, and the robe of our Savior
woven from above to be torn by wicked hands, and stimulated by fatherly
and brotherly love, wept for the desolation of so many Christians for whom
Christ died. They exercised much zeal and ardour, both synodically and
individually, in order that the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Catholic
Church being saved, they might knit together as far as they were able that
which had been rent; and like approved physicians they consulted together
for the safety of the suffering member, enduring many tribulations, and
contempts, and persecutions, if haply the Body of Christ might not be
divided, or the definitions of the divine and august Synods be made of
none effect. But veracious history has transmitted to us the
relentlessness of the Western perseverance in error. These illustrious men
proved indeed on this point the truth of the words of our holy father
Basil the sublime, when he said, from experience, concerning the Bishops
of the West, and particularly of the Pope: "They neither know the
truth nor endure to learn it, striving against those who tell them the
truth, and strengthening themselves in their heresy" (to Eusebius of
Samosata). Thus, after a first and second brotherly admonition, knowing
their impenitence, shaking them off and avoiding them, they gave them over
to their reprobate mind. "War is better than peace, apart from
God," as said our holy father Gregory, concerning the Arians. From
that time there has been no spiritual communion between us and them; for
they have with their own hands dug deep the chasm between themselves and
Orthodoxy.
§ 8. Yet the Papacy has not on this account ceased
to annoy the peaceful Church of God, but sending out everywhere so-called
missionaries, men of reprobate minds, it compasses land and sea to make
one proselyte, to deceive one of the Orthodox, to corrupt the doctrine of
our LORD, to adulterate, by addition, the divine Creed of our holy Faith,
to prove the Baptism which God gave us superfluous, the communion of the
Cup void of sacred efficacy, and a thousand other things which the demon
of novelty dictated to the all-daring Schoolmen of the Middle Ages and to
the Bishops of the elder Rome, venturing all things through lust of power.
Our blessed predecessors and fathers, in their piety, though tried and
persecuted in many ways and means, within and without, directly and
indirectly, "yet confident in the LORD," were able to save and
transmit to us this inestimable inheritance of our fathers, which we too,
by the help of God, will transmit as a rich treasure to the generations to
come, even to the end of the world. But notwithstanding this, the Papists
do not cease to this day, nor will cease, according to wont, to attack
Orthodoxy, a daily living reproach which they have before their eyes,
being deserters from the faith of their fathers. Would that they made
these aggressions against the heresy which has overspread and mastered the
West. For who doubts that had their zeal for the overthrow of Orthodoxy
been employed for the overthrow of heresy and novelties, agreeable to the
God-loving counsels of Leo III and John VIII, those glorious and last
Orthodox Popes, not a trace of it, long ago, would have been remembered
under the sun, and we should now be saying the same things, according to
the Apostolic promise. But the zeal of those who succeeded them was not
for the protection of the Orthodox Faith, in conformity with the zeal
worthy of all remembrance which was in Leo III, now among the blessed.
§ 9. In a measure the aggressions of the later
Popes in their own persons had ceased, and were carried on only by means
of missionaries. But lately, Pius IX, becoming Bishop of Rome and
proclaimed Pope in 1847, published on the sixth of January, in this
present year, an Encyclical Letter addressed to the Easterns, consisting
of twelve pages in the Greek version, which his emissary has disseminated,
like a plague coming from without, within our Orthodox Fold. In this
Encyclical, he addresses those who at different times have gone over from
different Christian Communions, and embraced the Papacy, and of course are
favourable to him, extending his arguments also to the Orthodox, either
particularly or without naming them; and, citing our divine and holy
Fathers (p. 3, 1.14-18; p. 4, 1.19; p. 9, 1.6; and pp. 17, 23), he
manifestly calumniates them and us their successors and descendants: them,
as if they admitted readily the Papal commands and rescripts without
question because issuing from the Popes is undoubted arbiters of the
Catholic Church; us, as unfaithful to their examples (for thus he
trespasses on the Fold committed to us by God), as severed from our
Fathers, as careless of our sacred trusts, and of the soul's salvation of
our spiritual children. Usurping as his own possession the Catholic Church
of Christ, by occupancy, as he boasts, of the Episcopal Throne of St.
Peter, he desires to deceive the more simple into apostasy from Orthodoxy,
choosing for the basis of all theological instruction these paradoxical
words (p. 10, 1.29): "nor is there any reason why ye refuse a return
to the true Church and Communion with this my holy Throne."
§10. Each one of our brethren and sons in Christ
who have been piously brought up and instructed, wisely regarding the
wisdom given him from God, will decide that the words of the present
Bishop of Rome, like those of his schismatical predecessors, are not words
of peace, as he affirms (p. 7,1.8), and of benevolence, but words of
deceit and guile, tending to self-aggrandizement, agreeably to the
practice of his antisynodical predecessors. We are therefore sure, that
even as heretofore, so hereafter the Orthodox will not be beguiled. For
the word of our LORD is sure (John x. 5), A stranger will they not follow,
but flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.
§11. For all this we have esteemed it our paternal
and brotherly need, and a sacred duty, by our present admonition to
confirm you in the Orthodoxy you hold from your forefathers, and at the
same time point out the emptiness of the syllogisms of the Bishop of Rome,
of which he is manifestly himself aware. For not from his Apostolic
Confession does he glorify his Throne, but from his Apostolic Throne seeks
to establish his dignity, and from his dignity, his Confession. The truth
is the other way. The Throne of Rome is esteemed that of St. Peter by a
single tradition, but not from Holy Scripture, where the claim is in
favour of Antioch, whose Church is therefore witnessed by the great Basil
(Ep. 48 Athan.) to be "the most venerable of all the Churches in the
world." Still more, the second Ecumenical Council, writing to a
Council of the West (to the most honorable and religious brethren and
fellow-servants, Damasus, Ambrose, Britto, Valerian, and others),
witnesseth, saying: "The oldest and truly Apostolic Church of
Antioch, in Syria, where first the honoured name of Christians was
used." We say then that the Apostolic Church of Antioch had no right
of exemption from being judged according to divine Scripture and synodical
declarations, though truly venerated for the throne of St. Peter. But what
do we say? The blessed Peter, even in his own person, was judged before
all for the truth of the Gospel, and, as Scripture declares, was found
blameable and not walking uprightly. What opinion is to be formed of those
who glory and pride themselves solely in the possession of his Throne, so
great in their eyes? Nay, the sublime Basil the great, the Ecumenical
teacher of Orthodoxy in the Catholic Church, to whom the Bishops of Rome
are obliged to refer us (p. 8, 1.31), has clearly and explicitly above (§
7) shown us what estimation we ought to have of the judgments of the
inaccessible Vatican: "They neither," he says, "know the
truth, nor endure to learn it, striving against those who tell them the
truth, and strengthening themselves in their heresy." So that these
our holy Fathers whom his Holiness the Pope, worthily admiring as lights
and teachers even of the West, accounts as belonging to us, and advises us
(p. 8) to follow, teach us not to judge Orthodoxy from the holy Throne,
but the Throne itself and him that is on the Throne by the sacred
Scriptures, by Synodical decrees and limitations, and by the Faith which
has been preached, even the Orthodoxy of continuous teaching. Thus did our
Fathers judge and condemn Honorius, Pope of Rome, and Dioscorus, Pope of
Alexandria, and Macedonius and Nestorius, Patriarchs of Constantinople,
and Peter Gnapheus, Patriarch of Antioch, with others. For if the
abomination of desolation stood in the Holy Place, why not innovation and
heresy upon a holy Throne? Hence is exhibited in a brief compass the
weakness and feebleness of the efforts in behalf of the despotism of the
Pope of Rome. For, unless the Church of Christ was founded upon the
immovable rock of St. Peter’s Confession, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the Living God (which was the answer of the Apostles in common, when
the question was put to them, Whom say ye that I am? (Matt. xvi. 15,) as
the Fathers, both Eastern and Western, interpret the passage to us), the
Church was built upon a slippery foundation, even on Cephas himself, not
to say on the Pope, who, after monopolizing the Keys of the Kingdom of
Heaven, has made such an administration of them as is plain from history.
But our divine Fathers, with one accord, teach that the sense of the
thrice-repeated command, Feed my sheep, implied no prerogative in St.
Peter over the other Apostles, least of all in his successors. It was a
simple restoration to his Apostleship, from which he had fallen by his
thrice-repeated denial. St. Peter himself appears to have understood the
intention of the thrice-repeated question of our Lord: Lovest thou Me, and
more, and than these?. (John xxi. 16;) for, calling to mind the words,
Thou all shall be offended because of Thee, yet will 1 never be offended
(Matt. xxvi. 33), he was grieved because He said unto him the third time,
Lovest thou Me? But his successors, from self-interest, understand the
expression as indicative of St. Peter's more ready mind.
§12. His Holiness the Pope says (p. viii. 1.12.)
that our LORD said to Peter (Luke xxii. 32), I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Our LORD so prayed because Satan had sought to overthrow the faith of all
the disciples, but the LORD allowed him Peter only, chiefly because he had
uttered words of boasting, and justified himself above the rest (Matt.
xxvi. 33): Though all shall be offended, because of thee, yet will I never
be offended. The permission to Satan was but temporary. He began to curse
and to swear: I know not the man. So weak is human nature, left to itself.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It was but temporary, that,
coming again to himself by his return in tears of repentance, he might the
rather strengthen his brethren who had neither perjured themselves nor
denied. Oh! the wise judgment of the LORD! How divine and mysterious was
the last night of our Savior upon earth! That sacred Supper is believed to
be consecrated to this day in every Church: This do in remembrance of me
(Luke xxii. 19), and As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye
do show the LORD's death till he come (1 Cor. xi. 26). Of the brotherly
love thus earnest1y commended to us by the common Master, saying, By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciple, if ye have love one to another
(John xiii. 35), have the Popes first broken the stamp and seal,
supporting and receiving heretical novelties, contrary to the things
delivered to us and canonically confirmed by our Teachers and Fathers in
common. This love acts at this day with power in the souls of Christian
people, and particularly in their leaders. We boldly avow before God and
men, that the prayer of our Savior (p. ix. l.43) to God and His Father for
the common love and unity of Christians in the One Holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church, in which we believe, that they may be one, ever as we
are one (John xvii. 22), worketh in us no less than in his Holiness. Our
brotherly love and zeal meet that of his Holiness, with only this
difference, that in us it worketh for the covenanted preservation of the
pure, undefiled, divine, spotless, and perfect Creed of the Christian
Faith, in conformity to the voice of the Gospel and the decrees of the
seven holy Ecumenical Synods and the teachings of the ever-existing
Catholic Church: but worketh in his Holiness to prop and strengthen the
authority and dignity of them that sit on the Apostolic Throne, and their
new doctrine. Behold then, the head and front, so to speak, of all the
differences and disagreements that have happened between us and them, and
the middle wall of partition, which we hope will be taken away in the time
of is Holiness, and by the aid of his renowned wisdom, according to the
promise of God (St. John x. 16): "Other sheep I have which are not of
this fold: them also 1 must bring and they shall hear my voice (Who
proceedeth from the Father "). Let it be said then, in the third
place, that if it be supposed, according to the words of his Holiness,
that this prayer of our LORD for Peter when about to deny and perjure
himself, remained attached and united to the Throne of Peter, and is
transmitted with power to those who from time to time sit upon it,
although, as has before been said, nothing contributes to confirm the
opinion (as we are strikingly assured from the example of the blessed
Peter himself, even after the descent of the Holy Spirit, yet are we
convinced from the words of our LORD, that the time will come when that
divine prayer concerning the denial of Peter, "that his faith might
not fail for ever" will operate also in some one of the successors of
his Throne, who will also weep, as he did, bitterly, and being sometime
converted will strengthen us, his brethren, still more in the Orthodox
Confession, which we hold from our forefathers; and would that his
Holiness might be this true successor of the blessed Peter! To this our
humble prayer, what hinders that we should add our sincere and hearty
Counsel in the name of the Holy Catholic Church? We dare not say, as does
his Holiness (p. x. 1.22), that it should be done "without any
delay;" but without haste, utter mature consideration, and also, if
need be, after consultation with the more wise, religious, truth-loving,
and prudent of the Bishops, Theologians, and Doctors, to be found at the
present day, by God's good Providence, in every nation of the West.
§ 13. His Holiness says that the Bishop of Lyons,
St. Irenaeus, writes in praise of the Church of Rome: "That the whole
Church, namely, the faithful from everywhere, must come together in that
Church, because of its Primacy, in which Church the tradition, given by
the Apostles, has in all respects been observed by the faithful
everywhere." Although this saint says by no means what the followers
of the Vatican would make out, yet even granting their interpretation, we
reply: Who denies that the ancient Roman Church was Apostolic and
Orthodox? None of us will question that it was a model of orthodoxy. We
will specially add, for its greater praise, from the historian Sozomen (Hist.
Eccl. lib. iii. cap. 12), the passage, which his Holiness has overlooked,
respecting the mode by which for a time she was enabled to preserve the
orthodoxy which we praise: "For, as everywhere," saith Sozomen,
"the Church throughout the West, being guided purely by the doctrines
of the Fathers, was delivered from contention and deception concerning
these things." Would any of the Fathers or ourselves deny her
canonical privilege in the rank of the hierarchy, so long as she was
guided purely by the doctrines of the Fathers, walking by the plain rule
of Scripture and the holy Synods! But at present we do not find preserved
in her the dogma of the Blessed Trinity according to the Creed of the holy
Fathers assembled first in Nicaea and afterwards in Constantinople, which
the other five Ecumenical Councils confessed and confirmed with such
anathemas on those who adulterated it in the smallest particular, as if
they had thereby destroyed it. Nor do we find the Apostolical pattern of
holy Baptism, nor the Invocation of the consecrating Spirit upon the holy
elements: but we see in that Church the eucharistic Cup, heavenly drink,
considered superfluous, (what profanity!) and very many other things,
unknown not only to our holy Fathers, who were always entitled the
catholic, clear rule and index of Orthodoxy, as his Holiness, revering the
truth, himself teaches (p. vi), but also unknown to the ancient holy
Fathers of the West. We see that very primacy, for which his Holiness now
contends with all his might, as did his predecessors, transformed from a
brotherly character and hierarchical privilege into a lordly superiority.
What then is to be thought of his unwritten traditions, if the written
have undergone such a change and alteration for the worse? Who is so bold
and confident in the dignity of the Apostolic Throne, as to dare to say
that if our holy Father, Sr. Irenaeus, were alive again, seeing it was
fallen from the ancient and primitive teaching in so many most essential
and catholic articles of Christianity, he would not be himself the first
to oppose the novelties and self-sufficient constitutions of that Church
which was lauded by him as guided purely by the doctrines of the Fathers?
For instance, when he saw the Roman Church not only rejecting from her
Liturgical Canon, according to the suggestion of the Schoolmen, the very
ancient and Apostolic invocation of the Consecrating Spirit, and miserably
mutilating the Sacrifice in its most essential part, but also urgently
hastening to cut it out from the Liturgies of other Christian Communions
also, his Holiness slanderously asserting, in a manner so unworthy of the
Apostolic Throne on which he boasts himself, that it "crept in after
the division between the East and West" (p. xi. 1.11) what would not
the holy Father say respecting this novelty ? Irenaeus assures us (lib.
iv. c. 34) "that bread, from the ground, receiving the evocation of
God, is no longer common bread," etc., meaning by
"evocation" invocation: for that Irenaeus believed the Mystery
of the Sacrifice to be consecrated by means of this invocation is
especially remarked even by Franciscus Feu-Ardentius, of the order of
popish monks called Minorites, who in 1639 edited the writings of that
saint with comments, who says (lib. i. c. 18, p. 114,) that Irenaeus
teaches "that the bread and mixed cup become the true Body and Blood
of Christ by the words of invocation." Or, hearing of the vicarial
and appellate jurisdiction of the Pope, what would not the Saint say, who,
for a small and almost indifferent question concerning the celebration of
Easter (Euseb. Eccl. Hist. v. 26), so boldly and victoriously opposed and
defeated the violence of Pope Victor in the free Church of Christ? Thus he
who is cited by his Holiness as a witness of the primacy of the Roman
Church, shows that its dignity is not that of a lordship, nor even
appellate, to which St. Peter himself was never ordained, but is a
brotherly privilege in the Catholic Church, and an honour assigned the
Popes on account of the greatness and privilege of the City. Thus, also,
the fourth Ecumenical Council, for the preservation of the gradation in
rank of Churches canonically established by the third Ecumenical Council
(Canon 8), following the second (Canon 3), as that again followed the
first (Canon 6), which called the appellate jurisdiction of the Pope over
the West a Custom, thus uttered its determination: "On account of
that City being the Imperial City, the Fathers have with reason given it
prerogatives" (Canon 28). Here is nothing said of the Pope's special
monopoly of the Apostolicity of St. Peter, still less of a vicarship in
Rome's Bishops, and an universal Pastorate. This deep silence in regard to
such great privileges nor only so, but the reason assigned for the
primacy, not "Feed my sheep," not "On this rock will I
build my Church," but simply old Custom, and the City being the
Imperial City; and these things, not from the LORD, but from the Fathers
will seem, we are sure, a great paradox to his Holiness entertaining other
ideas of his prerogatives. The paradox will be the greater, since, as we
shall see, he greatly honours the said fourth Ecumenical Synod as one to
be found a witness for his Throne; and St. Gregory, the eloquent, called
the Great (lib. i. Ep. 25), was wont to speak of the four (Ecumenical
Councils [not the Roman See] as the four Gospels, and the four-sided stone
on which the Catholic Church is built.
§14. His Holiness says (p. ix. 1.12) that the
Corinthians, divided among themselves, referred the matter to Clement,
Pope of Rome, who wrote to them his decision on the case; and they so
prized his decision that they read it in the Churches. But this event is a
very weak support for the Papal authority in the house of God. For Rome
being then the centre of the Imperial Province and the chief City, in
which the Emperors lived, it was proper that any question of importance,
as history shows that of the Corinthians to have been, should be decided
there, especially if one of the contending parties ran thither for
external aid: as is done even to this day. The Patriarchs of Alexandria,
Antioch, and Jerusalem, when unexpected points of difficulty arise, write
to the Patriarch of Constantinople, because of its being the seat of
Empire, as also on account of its synodical privileges; and if this
brotherly aid shall rectify that which should be rectified, it is well;
but if not, the matter is reported to the province, according to the
established system. But this brotherly agreement in Christian faith is not
purchased by the servitude of the Churches of God. Let this be our answer
also to the examples of a fraternal and proper championship of the
privileges of Julius and Innocent Bishops of Rome, by St. Athanasius the
Great and St. John Chrysostom, referred to by his Holiness (p. ix. 1.
6,17), for which their successors now seek to recompense us by
adulterating the divine Creed. Yet was Julius himself indignant against
some for " disturbing the Churches by not maintaining the doctrines
of Nice" (Soz. Hist. Ec. lib. iii. c. 7), and threatening (id.)
excommunication, "if they ceased not their innovations." In the
case of the Corinthians, moreover, it is to be remarked that the
Patriarchal Thrones being then but three, Rome was the nearer and more
accessible to the Corinthians, to which, therefore, it was proper to have
resort. In all this we see nothing extraordinary, nor any proof of the
despotic power of the Pope in the free Church of God.
§15. But, finally, his Holiness says (p. ix. l.12)
that the fourth Ecumenical Council (which by mistake he quite transfers
from Chalcedon to Carthage), when it read the epistle of Pope Leo I, cried
out, "Peter has thus spoken by Leo." It was so indeed. But his
Holiness ought not to overlook how, and after what examination, our
fathers cried out, as they did, in praise of Leo. Since however his
Holiness, consulting brevity, appears to have omitted this most necessary
point, and the manifest proof that an Ecumenical Council is not only above
the Pope but above any Council of his, we will explain to the public the
matter as it really happened. Of more than six hundred fathers assembled
in the Counci1 of Chalcedon, about two hundred of the wisest were
appointed by the Council to examine both as to language and sense the said
epistle of Leo; nor only so, but to give in writing and with their
signatures their own judgment upon it, whether it were orthodox or not.
These, about two hundred judgments and resolution on the epistle, as
chiefly found in the Fourth Session of the said holy Council in such terms
as the following: "Maximus of Antioch in Syria said: 'The epistle of
the holy Leo, Archbishop of Imperial Rome, agrees with the decisions of
the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers at Nice, and the hundred and
fifty at Constantinople, which is new Rome, and with the faith expounded
at Ephesus by the most holy Bishop Cyril: and I have subscribed it."
And again:
"Theodoret, the most religious Bishop of
Cyrus: 'The epistle of the most holy Archbishop, the lord Leo, agrees with
the faith established at Nice by the holy and blessed fathers, and with
the symbol of faith expounded at Constantinople by the hundred and fifty,
and with the epistles of the blessed Cyril. And accepting it, I have
subscribed the said epistle."'
And thus all in succession: "The epistle
corresponds," "the epistle is consonant," "the epistle
agrees in sense," and the like. After such great and very severe
scrutiny in comparing it with former holy Councils, and a full conviction
of the correctness of the meaning, and not merely because it was the
epistle of the Pope, they cried aloud, ungrudgingly, the exclamation on
which his Holiness now vaunts himself: But if his Holiness had sent us
statements concordant and in unison with the seven holy Ecumenical
Councils, instead of boasting of the piety of his predecessors lauded by
our predecessors and fathers in an Ecumenical Council, he might justly
have gloried in his own orthodoxy, declaring his own goodness instead of
that of his fathers. Therefore let his Holiness be assured, that if, even
now, he will write us such things as two hundred fathers on investigation
and inquiry shall find consonant and agreeing with the said former
Councils, then, we say, he shall hear from us sinners today, not only,
"Peter has so spoken," or anything of like honour, but this
also, "Let the holy hand be kissed which has wiped away the tears of
the Catholic Church."
§16. And surely we have a right to expect from the
prudent forethought of his Holiness, a work so worthy the true successor
of St. Peter, of Leo I, and also of Leo III, who for security of the
orthodox faith engraved the divine Creed unaltered upon imperishable
plates a work which will unite the churches of the West to the holy
Catholic Church, in which the canonical chief seat of his Holiness, and
the seats of all the Bishops of the West remain empty and ready to be
occupied. For the Catholic Church, awaiting the conversion of the
shepherds who have fallen off from her with their flocks, does not
separate in name only, those who have been privily introduced to the
rulership by the action of others, thus making little of the Priesthood.
But we are expecting the "word of consolation," and hope that
he, as wrote St. Basil to St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (Epis. b6), will
"tread again the ancient footprints of the fathers." Not without
great astonishment have we read the said Encyclical letter to the
Easterns, in which we see with deep grief of soul his Holiness, famed for
prudence, speaking like his predecessors in schism, words that urge upon
us the adulteration of our pure holy Creed, on which the Ecumenical
Councils have set their seal; and doing violence to the sacred Liturgies,
whose heavenly structure alone, and the names of those who framed them,
and their tone of reverend antiquity, and the stamp that was placed upon
them by the Seventh Ecumenical Synod (Act vi.), should have paralyzed him,
and made him to turn aside the sacrilegious and all-daring hand that has
thus smitten the King of Glory. From these things we estimate into what an
unspeakable labyrinth of wrong and incorrigible sin of revolution the
papacy has thrown even the wiser and more godly Bishops of the Roman
Church, so that, in order to preserve the innocent, and therefore valued
vicarial dignity, as well as the despotic primacy and the things depending
upon it, they know no other means shall to insult the most divine and
sacred things, daring everything for that one end. Clothing themselves, in
words, with pious reverence for "the most venerable antiquity"
(p. xi. 1.16), in reality there remains, within, the innovating temper;
and yet his Holiness really hears hard upon himself when he says that we
"must cast from us everything that has crept in among us since the
Separation," (!) while he and his have spread the poison of their
innovation even into the Supper of our LORD. His Holiness evidently takes
it for granted that in the Orthodox Church the same thing has happened
which he is conscious has happened in the Church of Rome since the rise of
the Papacy: to wit, a sweeping change in all the Mysteries, and corruption
from scholastic subtleties, a reliance on which must suffice as an
equivalent for our sacred Liturgies and Mysteries and doctrines: yet all
the while, forsooth, reverencing our "venerable antiquity," and
all this by a condescension entirely Apostolic! "without," as he
says, "troubling us by any harsh conditions"! From such
ignorance of the Apostolic and Catholic food on which we live emanates
another sententious declaration of his (p. vii. 1. 22): "It is not
possible that unity of doctrine and sacred observance should be preserved
among you," paradoxically ascribing to us the very misfortune from
which he suffers at home; just as Pope Leo IX wrote to the blessed Michael
Cerularius, accusing the Greeks of changing the Creed of the Catholic
Church, without blushing either for his own honour or for the truth of
history. We are persuaded that if his Holiness will call to mind
ecclesiastical archaeology and history, the doctrine of the holy Fathers
and the old Liturgies of France and Spain, and the Sacramentary of the
ancient Roman Church, he will be struck with surprise on finding how many
other monstrous daughters, now living, the Papacy has brought forth in the
West: while Orthodoxy, with us, has preserved the Catholic Church as an
incorruptible bride for her Bridegroom, although we have no temporal
power, nor, as his Holiness says, any sacred "observances," but
by the sole tie of love and affection to a common Mother are bound
together in the unity of a faith sealed with the seven seals of the Spirit
(Rev. v. 1), and by the seven Ecumenical Councils, and in obedience to the
Truth. He will find, also, flow many modern papistical doctrines and
mysteries must be rejected as "commandments of men" in order
that the Church of the West, which has introduced all sorts of novelties,
may be changed back again to the immutable Catholic Orthodox faith of our
common fathers. As his Holiness recognizes our common zeal in this faith,
when he says (p. viii. l.30), "let us take heed to the doctrine
preserved by our forefathers," so he does well in instructing us (l.
31) to follow the old pontiffs and the faithful of the Eastern
Metropolitans. What these thought of the doctrinal fidelity of the
Archbishops of the elder Rome, and what idea we ought to have of them in
the Orthodox Church, and in what manner we ought to receive their
teachings, they have synodically given us an example (§ 15), and the
sublime Basil has well interpreted it (§ 7). As to the supremacy, since
we are not setting forth a treatise, let the same great Basil present the
matter in a few words, "I preferred to address myself to Him who is
Head over them."
§ 17. From all this, every one nourished in sound
Catholic doctrine, particularly his Holiness, must draw the conclusion,
how impious and anti-synodical it is to attempt the alteration of our
doctrine and liturgies and other divine offices which are, and are proved
to be, coeval with the preaching of Christianity: for which reason
reverence was always bestowed on then, and they were confided in as pure
even by the old orthodox Popes themselves, to whom these things were an
inheritance in common with ourselves. How becoming and holy would be the
mending of the innovations, the time of whose entrance in the Church of
Rome we know in each case; for our illustrious fathers have testified from
time to time against each novelty. But there are other reasons which
should incline his Holiness to this change. First, because those things
that are ours were once venerable to the Westerns, as having the same
divine Offices and confessing the same Creed; but the novelties were not
known to our Fathers, nor could they be shown in the writings of the
orthodox Western Fathers, nor as having their origin either in antiquity
or catholicity. Moreover, neither Patriarchs nor Councils could then have
introduced novelties amongst us, because the protector of religion is the
very body of the Church, even the people themselves, who desire their
religious worship to be ever unchanged and of the same kind as that of
their fathers: for as, after the Schism, many of the Popes and Latinizing
Patriarchs made attempts that came to nothing even in the Western Church;
and as, from time to time, either by fair means or foul, the Popes have
commanded novelties for the sake of expediency (as they have explained to
our fathers, although they were thus dismembering the Body of Christ): so
now again the Pope, for the sake of a truly divine and most just
expediency, forsooth (not mending the nets, but himself rending the
garment of the Savior), dare to oppose the venerable things of antiquity,
things well fitted to preserve religion, as his Holiness confesses (p. xi.
l.16), and which he himself honours, as he says (lb. 1.16), together with
his predecessors, for he repeats that memorable expression o one of those
blessed predecessors (Celestine, writing to the third Ecumenical Council):
"Let novelty cease to attack antiquity." And let the Catholic
Church enjoy this benefit from this so far blameless declaration of the
Popes. It must by all means be confessed, that in such his attempt, even
though Pius IX be eminent for wisdom and piety, and, as he says, for zeal
after Christian unity in the Catholic Church, he will meet, within and
without, with difficulties and toils. And here we must put his Holiness in
mind, if he will excuse our boldness, of that portion of his letter (p.
viii. L.32), "That in things which relate to the confession of our
divine religion, nothing is to be feared, when we look to the glory of
Christ, and the reward which awaits us in eternal life." It is
incumbent on his Holiness to show before God and man, that, as prime mover
of the counsel which pleases God, so is he a willing protector of the
ill-treated evangelical and synodical truth, even to the sacrifice of his
own interests, according to the Prophet (Is. lx. 17), A ruler in peace and
a bishop in righteousness. So be it! But until there be this desired
returning of the apostate Churches to the body of the One, Holy, Catholic,
and Apostolic Church, of which Christ is the Head (Eph. iv. 15), and each
of us "members in particular," all advice proceeding from them,
and every officious exhortation tending to the dissolution of our pure
faith handed down from the Fathers is condemned, as it ought to be,
synodically, not only as suspicious and to he eschewed, but as impious and
soul-destroying: and in this category, among the first we place the said
Encyclical to the Easterns from Pope Pius IX, Bishop of the elder Rome;
and such we proclaim it to be in the Catholic Church.
§ 18. Wherefore, beloved brethren and
fellow-ministers of our mediocrity, as always, so also now, particularly
on this occasion of the publication of the said Encyclical, we hold it to
be our inexorable duty, in accordance with our patriarchal and synodical
responsibility, in order that none may be lost to the divine fold of the
Catholic Orthodox Church, the most holy Mother of us all, to encourage
each other, and to urge you that, reminding one another of the words and
exhortations of St. Paul to our holy predecessors when he summoned them to
Ephesus, we reiterate to each other: take heed, therefore, unto
yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit hath made
you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His
own Blood. For know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore, watch. (Acts xx.28-31.) Then our predecessors and Fathers,
hearing this divine charge, wept sore, and falling upon his neck, kissed
him. Come, then, and let us, brethren, hearing him admonishing us with
tears, fall in spirit, lamenting, upon his neck, and, kissing him, comfort
him by our own firm assurance, that no one shall separate us from the love
of Christ, no one mislead us from evangelical doctrine, no one entice us
from the safe path of our fathers, as none was able to deceive them, by
any degree of zeal which they manifested, who from time to time were
raised up for this purpose by the tempter: so that at last we shall hear
from the Master: Well done, good and faithful servant, receiving the end
of our faith, even the salvation of our souls, and of the reasonable flock
over whom the Holy Spirit has made us shepherds.
§ 19. This Apostolic charge and exhortation we
have quoted for your sake, and address it to all the Orthodox
congregation, wherever they be found settled on the earth, to the Priests
and Abbots, to the Deacons and Monks, in a word, to all the Clergy and
godly People, the rulers and the ruled, the rich and the poor, to parents
and children, to teachers and scholars, to the educated and uneducated, to
masters and servants, that we all, supporting and counselling each other,
may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For thus St. Peter
the Apostle exhorts us (1 Pet.): Be sober, be vigilant because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour. Whom resist, steadfast in the faith.
§ 20. For our faith, brethren, is not of men nor
by man, but by revelation of Jesus Christ, which the divine Apostles
preached, the holy Ecumenical Councils confirmed, the greatest and wisest
teachers of the world handed down in succession, and the shed blood of the
holy martyrs ratified. Let us hold fast to the confession which we have
received unadulterated from such men, turning away from every novelty as a
suggestion of the devil. He that accepts a novelty reproaches with
deficiency the preached Orthodox Faith. But that Faith has long ago been
sealed in completeness, not to admit of diminution or increase, or any
change whatever; and he who dares to do, or advise, or think of such a
thing has already denied the faith of Christ, has already of his own
accord been struck with an eternal anathema, for blaspheming the Holy
Spirit as not having spoken fully in the Scriptures and through the
Ecumenical Councils. This fearful anathema, brethren and sons beloved in
Christ, we do not pronounce today, but our Savior first pronounced it
(Matt. xii. 32): Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not
be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. St.
Paul pronounced the same anathema (Gal. i. 6): I marvel that ye are so
soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto
another Gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you,
and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed. This same anathema the Seven Ecumenical
Councils and the whole choir of God-serving fathers pronounced. All,
therefore, innovating, either by heresy or schism, have voluntarily
clothed themselves, according to the Psalm (cix. 18), ("with a curse
as with a garment,") whether they be Popes, or Patriarchs, or Clergy,
or Laity; nay, if any one, though an angel from heaven, preach any other
Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Thus our
wise fathers, obedient to the soul-saving words of St. Paul, were
established firm and steadfast in the faith handed down unbrokenly to
them, and preserved it unchanged and uncontaminate in the midst of so many
heresies, and have delivered it to us pure and undefiled, as it came pure
from the mouth of the first servants of the Word. Let us, too, thus wise,
transmit it, pure as we have received it, to coming generations, altering
nothing, that they may be, as we are, full of confidence, and with nothing
to be ashamed of when speaking of the faith of their forefathers.
§ 21. Therefore, brethren, and sons beloved in the
LORD, having purified your souls in obeying the truth (1 Pet. i. 22), let
us give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should let them slip. (Heb. ii. 1.) The faith and confession
we have received is not one to be ashamed of, being taught in the Gospel
from the mouth of our LORD, witnessed by the holy Apostles, by the seven
sacred Ecumenical Councils, preached throughout the world, witnessed to by
its very enemies, who, before they apostatized from orthodoxy to heresies,
themselves held this same faith, or at least their fathers and fathers'
fathers thus held it. It is witnessed to by continuous history, as
triumphing over all the heresies which have persecuted or now persecute
it, as ye see even to this day. The succession of our holy divine fathers
and predecessors beginning from the Apostles, and those whom the Apostles
appointed their successors, to this day, forming one unbroken chain, and
joining hand to hand, keep fast the sacred enclosure of which the door is
Christ, in which all the orthodox Flock is fed in the fertile pastures of
the mystical Eden, and not in the pathless and rugged wilderness, as his
Holiness supposes (p. 7.1.12). Our Church holds the infallible and genuine
deposit of the Holy Scriptures, of the Old Testament a true and perfect
version, of the New the divine original itself. The rites of the sacred
Mysteries, and especially those of the Divine Liturgy, are the same
glorious and heart quickening rites, handed down from the Apostles. No
nation, no Christian communion, can boast of such Liturgies as those of
James, Basil, Chrysostom. The august Ecumenical Councils, those seven
pillars of the house of Wisdom, were organized in it and among us. This,
our Church, holds the originals of their sacred definitions. The Chief
Pastors in it, and the honorable Presbytery, and the monastic Order,
preserve the primitive and pure dignity of the first ages of Christianity,
in opinions, in polity, and even in the simplicity of their vestments.
Yes! verily, "grievous wolves" have constantly attacked this
holy fold, and are attacking it now, as we see for ourselves, according to
the prediction of the Apostle, which shows that the true lambs of the
great Shepherd are folded in it; but that Church has sung and shall sing
forever: " They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but
in the name of the Lord I will destroy them (Ps. cxviii. l1). Let us add
one reflection, a painful one indeed, but useful in order to manifest and
confirm the truth of our words: All Christian nations whatsoever that are
today seen calling upon the Name of Christ (not excepting either the West
generally, or Rome herself, as we prove by the catalogue of her earliest
Popes), were taught the true faith in Christ by our holy predecessors and
fathers; and yet afterwards deceitful men, many of whom were shepherds,
and chief shepherds too, of those nations, by wretched sophistries and
heretical opinions dared to defile, alas! the orthodoxy of those nations,
as veracious history informs us, and as St. Paul predicted.
§ 22. Therefore, brethren, and ye our spiritual
children, we acknowledge how great the favour and grace which God has
bestowed upon our Orthodox Faith, and on His One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic Church, which, like a mother who is unsuspected of her husband,
nourishes us as children of whom she is not ashamed, and who are excusable
in our high-toned boldness concerning the hope that is in us. But what
shall we sinners render to the LORD for all that He hath bestowed upon us?
Our bounteous LORD and God, who hath redeemed us by his own Blood,
requires nothing else of us but the devotion of our whole soul and heart
to the blameless, holy faith of our fathers, and love and affection to the
Orthodox Church, which has regenerated us not with a novel sprinkling, but
with the divine washing of Apostolic Baptism. She it is that nourishes us,
according to the eternal covenant of our Savior, with His own precious
Body, and abundantly, as a true Mother, gives us to drink of that precious
Blood poured out for us and for the salvation of the world. Let us then
encompass her in spirit, as the young their parent bird, wherever on earth
we find ourselves, in the north or south, or east, or west. Let us fix our
our eyes and thoughts upon her divine countenance and her most glorious
beauty. Let us take hold with both our hands on her shining robe which the
Bridegroom, "altogether lovely," has with His own undefiled
hands thrown around her, when He redeemed her from the bondage of error,
and adorned her as an eternal Bride for Himself. Let us feel in our own
souls the mutual grief of the children-loving mother and the mother-loving
children, when it is seen that men of wolfish minds and making gain of
souls are zealous in plotting how they may lead her captive, or tear the
lambs from their mothers. Let us, Clergy as well as Laity, cherish this
feeling most intensely now, when the unseen adversary of our salvation,
combining his fraudful arts (p. xi. 1. 2-25), employs such powerful
instrumentalities, and walketh about everywhere, as saith St. Peter,
seeking whom he may devour; and when in this way, in which we walk
peacefully and innocently, he sets his deceitful snares.
§ 23. Now, the God of peace, "that brought
again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep," "He that
keepeth Israel," who "shall neither slumber nor sleep,"
"keep your hearts and minds," "and direct your ways to
every good work."
Peace and joy be with you in the LORD.
May, 1848, Indiction 6.
+ ANTHIMOS, by the Mercy of God, Archbishop of
Constantinople, new Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch, a beloved brother in
Christ our God, and suppliant.
+ HIEROTHEUS, by the Mercy of God, Patriarch of
Alexandria and of all Egypt, a beloved brother in Christ our God, and
suppliant.
+ METHODIOS, by the Mercy of God, Patriarch of the
great City of God, Antioch, and of all Anatolia, a beloved brother in
Christ our God, and suppliant.
+ CYRIL, by the Mercy of God, Patriarch of
Jerusalem and of all Palestine, a beloved brother in Christ our God, and
suppliant.
The Holy Synod in Constantinople:
+ PAISIUS OF CAESAREA
+ ANTHIMUS OF EPHESUS
+ DIONYSIUS OF HERACLEA
+ JOACHIM OF CYZICUS
+ DIONYSIUS OF NICODEMIA
+ HIEROTHEUS OF CHALCEDON
+ NEOPHYTUS OF DERCI
+ GERASIMUS OF ADRIANOPLE
+ CYRIL OF NEOCAESAREA
+ THEOCLETUS OF BEREA
+ MELETIUS OF PISIDIA
+ ATHANASIUS OF SMYRNA
+ DIONYSIUS OF MELENICUS
+ PAISIUS OF SOPHIA
+ DANIEL OF LEMNOS
+ PANTELEIMON OF DEYINOPOLIS
+ JOSEPH OF ERSECIUM
+ ANTHIMUS OF BODENI
The Holy Synod in Antioch:
+ ZACHARIAS OF ARCADIA
+ METHODIOS OF EMESA
+ JOANNICIUS OF TRIPOLIS
+ ARTEMIUS OF LAODICEA
The Holy Synod in Jerusalem:
+ MELETIUS OF PETRA
+ DIONYSIUS OF BETHLEHEM
+ PHILEMON OF GAZA
+ SAMUEL OF NEAPOLIS
+ THADDEUS OF SEBASTE
+ JOANNICIUS OF PHILADELPHIA
+
HIEROTHEUS OF TABOR
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