Epistle XLIX

Epistle XLIX.

To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch ³⁵ .

Gregory to Anastasius, &c.

I received the letters of thy Fraternity, rightly holding fast the profession of the faith; and I returned great thanks to Almighty God, who, when the shepherds of His flock are changed, still, even after such change, guards the faith which He once delivered to the holy Fathers.  Now the excellent preacher says, Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus (1 Cor. iii. 2).  Whosoever, then, with love of God and his neighbour, holds firmly the faith that is in Christ, he has laid for himself the same Jesus Christ, the Son of God and man, as a foundation.  It is to be hoped therefore that, where Christ is the foundation, the edifice also of good works may follow.  The Truth also in person says, He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber; but he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep (Joh. x. 1).  And a little after He adds, I am the door.  He, then, enters into the sheep-fold through the door who enters through Christ.  And he enters through Christ who thinks and preaches what is true concerning the same Creator and Redeemer of the human race, and holds fast what he preaches; who takes upon him the topmost place of rule for the office of carrying a burden, not for the desire of the glory of transitory dignity.  He also watches wisely over the sheep-fold of which he has taken charge, lest either perverse men tear the sheep of God by speaking froward things, p. 14 or malignant spirits ravage them by persuading to vicious delights.

Of a truth we remember how the blessed Jacob, who had served long for his wives, said, This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not been barren.  The rams of thy flock have I not eaten, nor shewn unto thee that which had been seized by a beast.  I made good every loss; whatever had been lost by theft, from me didst thou require it.  By day and night I was consumed by drought and frost; sleep fled from mine eyes (Gen. xxxi. 38).  If, then, he who feeds the sheep of Laban labours and watches thus, on what labour, on what watches, should he be intent who feeds the sheep of God?  But in all this let Him instruct us who for our sake became a man, who vouchsafed to become what he had made.  May He pour both into my weakness and into thy charity the spirit of His own love, and in all carefulness and watchfulness of circumspection open the eye of our heart.

But for men of a right faith being advanced to sacred orders thanks are to be paid without cease to the same Almighty God, and prayer ever made for the life of our most pious and most Christian lord the Emperor, and for his most tranquil spouse, and their most gentle offspring, in whose times the mouths of heretics are silent; since, though their hearts seethe with the madness of perverse thought, yet in the time of the Catholic Emperor they presume not to speak out the bad things which they think.

Furthermore, in speaking of your maintenance of the holy councils, your Fraternity declares that you maintain the first holy Ephesine synod.  But, seeing that from the account given in an heretical document which has been sent me from the royal city, I have found that, according to it, certain Catholic positions had been censured along with heretical ones, because some suppose that to have been the first Ephesine synod which was got together at some time or other by the heretics in the same city, it is altogether necessary that your Charity should apply to the Churches of Alexandria and Antioch for the acts of this synod, and find how the matter really stands.  Or, if you please, we will send you hence what we have here, preserved from of old in our archives.  For that synod which was held under pretence of being the first Ephesine asserts that certain positions submitted to it were approved, which are the declared tenets of Cœlestius and Pelagius.  And, Cœlestius and Pelagius having been condemned in that synod, how could those positions be approved, the authors of which were condemned ³⁶ ?

Further, since it has come to our ears that in the Churches of the East no one attains to a sacred order except by giving of bribes, if your Fraternity finds it to be so, offer your first oblation to Almighty God by restraining in the Churches subject to you the error of simoniacal heresy.  For, to pass over other considerations, what manner of men can they be in sacred orders who are raised to them not by merit, but by bribes?  May Almighty God guard thy Love with heavenly grace, and grant to you to carry with you to eternal joys multiplied fruit and overflowing measure from those who are committed to your charge.

Footnotes

13:35

This was the younger Anastasius, who succeeded the patriarch of the same name to whom previous epistles are addressed.

14:36

Cf. VI. 14.