Letter 33: Theodore Studite, Letter 33; Greek heading: Λέοντι πάπᾳ Ῥώμης Τῷ ἁγιωτάτῳ καὶ κορυφαιοτάτῳ πατρὶ πατέρων Λέοντι τῷ δεσπότῃ μου ἀποστολικῷ πάπᾳ Θεόδωρος ἐλάχιστος πρεσβύτερος καὶ ἡγούμενος τῶν Στουδίου.

Since to the great Peter Christ our God gave, after the keys of the kingdom of heaven, also the dignity of chief shepherd of the flock, it is necessary that to Peter, that is, to his successor, whatever is newly innovated in the catholic Church by those who have strayed from the truth be referred. Having therefore been taught this, even we, the humble and least, from our holy fathers of old, since now too a certain innovation has arisen in the Church among us, both earlier through the agency of the most reverent archimandrite [head of monasteries], namely our brother and fellow-servant Epiphanius, and now through our humble letter, have deemed it our duty to bring this report to the angel [the bishop, as in Revelation] of your supreme Beatitude. There has occurred, then, O most divine head of all heads, according to the prophet Jeremiah, a synod truly of those who set aside [the Lord] and a council of adulterers. For what was there spoken of through the fornication after idols, this here has been displayed through the ratification of the adulterous marriage-yoking [the "moechian" controversy: the validation of the emperor Constantine VI's second marriage]; for both alike have set aside the same Lord, the one party through transgression of the Law, the other through transgression of the Gospel. And indeed they did not stop at this point, having become, through their earlier assembly, a counter-synagogue in their acceptance of the adulterous-yoker [the priest Joseph, who blessed the union] and in concelebrating with him, according to the divine Basil; but, so that they might procure for themselves the name of a complete heresy, through another, public synod they have subjected to anathema those who did not assent to their lawless false doctrine, or rather the whole catholic Church, having already, before their faces, sent some far off into ostracism, holding others in prisons, again renewing a persecution after the customary fashion of those here. And the legal justification they have is the bulwark of an evil argument. They dogmatize, then, that the adulterous-yoking is a dispensation [oikonomia: a concession from strict rule]; they decree that in the case of emperors the divine laws have no force; they forbid the imitation of those who have stood firm to the point of blood for the sake of truth and righteousness, such as the Forerunner [John the Baptist] and Chrysostom; they declare that each of the hierarchs has authority over the divine canons contrary to what has been canonically prescribed in them. And on this account, whenever it happens that any of the ordained is convicted, whether secretly or openly, under deposing canons, it remains in the power of him who so wishes to leave him undeposed. And a witness to this argument is the adulterous-yoker, held bound along with others under various canons, yet concelebrating with them publicly. Those who commit acts of lawlessness as though they were dispensations they name as holy, both others and themselves on this account, and those who do not admit these things they anathematize as estranged from God; and here too a witness to the argument is the very persecution of those people. What, then, is there to say in these matters, O blessed one, except that apostolic saying, that now many antichrists have come into being, if indeed all men are not held subject to authority by the divine laws and canons? These things having now been truthfully reported by our humble person, that cry which the chief [of the apostles] together with the rest of the apostles brought to Christ, when the surge of the sea was rising up, we offer to your Christ-imitating Beatitude: save us, archshepherd of the Church under heaven, we are perishing. Imitate your teacher Christ, and stretch out a hand to the Church among us, as he did to Peter, inasmuch as the one was beginning to be submerged in the sea, but it [our Church] is already submerged in the depth of heresy. Be zealous, we beseech you, of your namesake the pope, and as he then, when the Eutychian heresy [the monophysite heresy of Eutyches, condemned at Chalcedon] sprang up, was somehow roused up lion-like in spirit, as all know, by his dogmatic letters, so you also, I dare to say, true to your name [Leo = lion], roar divinely, or rather thunder against the present false doctrine what is fitting. For if these men, having usurped authority over themselves, did not fear to bring to completion a heretical synod, although, even if it were orthodox, they have no authority without your knowledge, as is the custom that has prevailed from of old, how much more reasonable and necessary would it be, we remind you in fear, that a lawful synod be convened by your divine primacy, so that the orthodox doctrine of the Church may drive back the heretical one, and that neither your supremacy together with all the orthodox be anathematized by the new babblers, nor again that those who so wish, finding the adulterers' synod a base of operations for lawlessness, slide down easily into sin. Having announced these things as befits our nothingness, as the least members of the Church, and yielding to the divine shepherding exercised by you, for the rest we beg that her holy soul [your holy soul] account us as her own sheep, and that from afar she enlighten and strengthen us by her sacred prayers; and if also by teachings, that would be of your divine condescension. For Christ also wrote a letter to Abgar [the king of Edessa], and many of those of lower rank were deemed worthy to receive letters from apostles and holy men. The letter comes from me alone, the sinner, kept under guard, because my father and fellow-servant the recluse, as also the archbishop of Thessalonica and our brother, are likewise being kept on other islands. Yet they too, through me and together with me, both utter the same things and embrace the sacred footsteps of your Beatitude.