Letter 21

From: [Lombard bishop] To: [colleagues] Date: ~635 AD Context: A letter on the Three Chapters controversy from a Lombard bishop who supports the schism. To my beloved brothers who remain faithful to the tradition of Chalcedon. I write to you at a moment when the pressure to return to communion with Rome has become more intense, and when I believe our resolve needs strengthening. Let me say again what we are holding to and why. The Council of Chalcedon defined the orthodox faith about Christ. It did so in terms that all subsequent generations of Christians are bound to accept. The Councils of Constantinople that followed — the first and second — confirmed Chalcedon's authority and built on it. What Justinian did — condemning Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and Ibas of Edessa after their deaths, in a political move designed to appease the Monophysites — was a violation of the principle that councils' decisions, once made, are not to be reversed by subsequent political pressure. Theodore, Theodoret, and Ibas were all received into communion by Chalcedon. To condemn them posthumously is to say that Chalcedon was wrong to receive them. Rome has accepted this condemnation. We have not. We are not schismatic in theology — we accept everything Rome accepts, and more, since we also accept the Chalcedonian tradition without reservation. We will continue to hold this position until Rome finds a way to acknowledge the problem it has created. Your brother in the faith of Chalcedon.