Letter 4

From: Pope Anastasius II, bishop of Rome To: Ursicinus [Eastern bishop] Date: ~497 AD (fragments) Context: Pope Anastasius II, letter 4 (fragments); a fragmentary letter to an Eastern bishop on theological matters, specifically on the relationship between the divine and human in Christ. [Fragment 1] ...For the principle of God the Word took upon himself the first fruits of our nature, which he united to himself through his great goodness, because he did not... [Fragment 2] ...This is the teaching of Chalcedon, which we maintain: that in Christ the divine nature and the human nature are united in one person, each complete, neither confused with the other nor separated from the other. What God the Word assumed was not an incomplete humanity but the whole of it, so that the whole of it might be redeemed... [Fragment 3] ...We therefore hold fast to what the holy council determined, and we ask all who seek the truth to do the same. The formula that attempts to avoid this clear determination, however artfully constructed, is not an alternative expression of the same faith; it is an evasion of the question that the faith requires us to answer... [These are fragments of a longer letter on the incarnation and the Chalcedonian definition, preserved in an incomplete state in the manuscript tradition.]

Anastasii II papae ad Ursiciuuiii rragmenta. 1. . . . Nam principium Deus Verbum has nostrae naturae pri- mitdas per multam sibi bonitatem unire dignatus est, quia non per- mixtus^ sed in utrisque substantiis unus et ipse visus, secundum quod scriptum est: Solvite tejnplum istud^ et in tribus diebus resuscitabo Joh.2yl9. il/ud. Solvitur enim Christus Jesus secundum eam substantiam, quam suscepit, et solutum suscitat proprium templimi. Itemm Anastasii papae ad ITrsicinnm. 2. Confltemur ergo, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Dei unigenitum ante omnia quidem saecula sine principio ex Patre natum secundum deitatem, novissimis autem diebus de sancta vir- cHxie Maria eumdem incarnatimi et perfectum hominem ex anima ratioiiali et corporis susceptione, homousion Patri secundum deita- tem, et homousion nobis secundum humanitatem. Duarum enim ixatcurarum perfectarum unitas facta est ineffabiliter, propter quod «•) G* refugUe, quod correximus. Baronius ad ann. 492 substituit hibere ne refvffii^- ex quo id effici videtur, utAnastasius noxium dnlce bibendum suadeat. j^fa^i^ placeret hihendum te non fugit. Alludit quippe Anastasius ad Laurentii verba, quibus medicinam his regionibus ministrandam flagitarat ; ac forte auctor fiierat, ut ab asperioribus yerbis temperaret. *•) Augurari hinc licet, Laurentium in epistola sua de legatione, quam Thes- salonicensis antistes tum parabat, quamque brevi postea destinatam esse mox -i sumas, nonnihil Bigniflcasse. t«) Seu eos coerceat, qni suis . . . concinnant. Editi quin . . . concinant. 40* (a. 497.) niiimi Christuni, euradem Filium Dei et hominis unigejiitum a Patre, et primogenitum ex mortuis confitemur; scientes, quod quidem coae- ' ternus sit suo Patri secundum divinitatem, secundum quam opifex est omnium, et dignatus est post consensionem sanctae Virginis, quum dixit ad angelum : Ecce ancilla Domini, /iat mihi secundum ver- bum tvum, ineflabiliter sibi ex ipsa aedificare templum, et statim sibi univit, quod noii coaeternum de sua substautia e coelo detulit corpus, sed ex massa nostrae substantiae, lioc est ex virgine. Hoc accipiens et sibi imiens, non Deus Verbum in carnem versus est, neque ut phantasma apparens, sed inconvertibiliter et incommuta* biliter suam conservavit essentiam, primitias naturae nostrae sosci- piens sibi univit. Itemm ejosdem papae ad enmdem. 3. Nunquam Jiutem per resurrectionem unitionis nostrae disces- sit a proprio templo, nec discedere potest propter ineifabilem suam benignitatem.