Letter 555: Theodore Studite, Letter 555; Greek heading: Βασιλείῳ τῷ ἀοιδίμῳ ἡγουμένῳ σὺν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις πατράσι τῆς σεβασμίας μονῆς τοῦ Ἁγίου Σάβα.

When the doctrines of true religion stand firm, to set them in motion is the work of one who loves disturbance; but when they themselves are in turmoil, as is now especially the case in the Church among us, how is it not necessary to bestir ourselves, sparing nothing-not a long journey, nor the other hardships, but holding even death itself in contempt? This is the reason for the sending to you-most holy ones-of Litoius and Symeon, our spiritual children; this is the manner of our confidence, after God, in their perilous journey abroad to those parts. But, O holy fathers, how could I narrate to you vividly the things that have here been dared and done against the Gospel of Christ? Jeremiah, most mournful of men, says somewhere in his prophecies: "The shepherds have behaved foolishly, and they have not sought out the Lord." [Jeremiah 10:21] But here there is something harsher and quite beyond all measure: for those who deliberately chose to seek Him out, and who held fast to His law, they anathematized with an anathema as though estranged from Him. And to whom, if it is even dreadful to say it, did they refer back this anathema of theirs, except plainly to Him who said: "He who rejects you rejects Me, and he who does not receive you does not receive Him who sent Me"? [cf. Luke 10:16] What then? A synod set in opposition to the laws and words of the Lord-and how I shall say it. When the Lord Himself had said, "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder," [Matthew 19:6] a certain priest who was a monk joined together-against the word of the Lord-the emperor Constantine [Constantine VI], who had committed adultery by casting out his own wife and taking in the adulteress; he crowned him; he warred, through the prayer of invocation, against Him who had forbidden adultery and threatened dread eternal penalties for it, contending irrationally to forbid it [i.e. to nullify the prohibition] and to become, as it were, the corrector of God's own error. For if Christ curses the adulterer, this man pronounced aloud, in the hearing of all, a blessing upon him; and if the One is angered at the unlawful deed, this man declared that He took good pleasure in it; and if the One, through both prophets and apostles, proclaims the transgressor of His law to be inglorious and without honor, this man directed that such a one be crowned. Wherefore also he imparted the final token of union, the undefiled Body and Blood of Christ, to the adulterers as though they were pure and unalloyed. Has there ever, since the beginning of the age, been known so monstrous a drama? Or rather, that this fine fellow referred his invocation not to Christ, the pure Joiner of the pure, but to Satan himself, the fellow-worker and co-author of the adultery-this unholy man calling him god and father, and granting, through the agency of those who in satanic willfulness committed the adultery, the victory-trophies to Christ's rebel adversary, against Christ our true God? This man, then, having so acted against God, and both before and afterward, until his death, having shared table and life with the adulterers and imparted the divine gifts to them-even though he was barred [from ministry] by his predecessor after the dissolution of the adulterous reign-what now is being done by the new president [patriarch], together with fifteen hierarchs, by the inclination of the one who holds power? He is admitted again to perform the sacred rites in the catholic Church itself. And since the Lord has not so wholly abandoned the generation among us that all should bow the knee to Baal, [cf. 1 Kings 19:18] but that some should be found-as also before, in the very matter of the adultery, and now once more-standing firm upon the laws of God, when these men became known to him who declines communion with both, by an imperial command a catholic [general] synod is convened. And indeed, before the synod, having guarded and surrounded with a body of soldiers those who refused to take part in their lawlessness, they set them before the council-chamber of transgression; the adultery-mongers anathematize them, keep them under guard themselves, banish them, confine them securely one apart from another-some they put in iron chains, and some they fasten by both feet in the stocks. These are the dramatic productions of the newly sprung Moechian [adultery] heresy, O fathers. They have therefore decreed that, in the case of emperors, the divine laws are not to prevail nor to govern whenever they [the emperors] do not wish it, but that the lawlessness committed together with them, and the dissolving of the Lord's commandments, is to be called "economy" [oikonomia, dispensation-the lawful relaxation of a rule for a greater good, here abused to justify transgression]. Whence they say it is not even permissible to imitate any of those in the present generation who have, even to the point of blood, spoken out boldly in the face of emperors on behalf of the divine laws. And on this account they said that the Forerunner [John the Baptist] was not a forerunner because of his rebuke directed at Herod, belittling the crown of the saint's virtue-indeed I would say, even thrusting it aside as unnecessary; and concerning Chrysostom, the very luminary of the world, they dared even to say openly, and they do say, that he did not act well in being exiled over the widow's field, in convicting Eudoxia and thereby throwing the Church into turmoil. They have declared that each of the hierarchs may act, in the faults that fall in his way, according to what seems good to him-but not at all as the canon prescribes-even if deposition is the prescribed penalty, and this too they reckon "economy"; for it is not even possible, he says, to keep all the canons. Why speak of the rest and prolong the discourse? They have fabricated a multiform heresy, one that overturns the holy Gospel, dissolves the divine canons, beats back the teachings of the God-bearing fathers, and prepares beforehand the antichristian apostasy-inasmuch as they do not walk according to the Gospel of Christ in all things, nor abide by the apostolic ordinances, nor by the fathers' injunctions, but in one matter thus and in another not thus, on account of the wicked and rejection-working practice they have devised-which is no "economy" at all. For no economy effects a dissolution of these things, nor indeed of the canons, except in those cases where it is permissible to overlook some small matter; certainly not unto the setting aside of a law, or of a necessary or deposition-entailing canon-for this is the mark of apostasy. Having given ear to these things, then, holy fathers, suffer together with us, the lowly, who toil on behalf of the common lot of the faith, and so far as is possible stretch out a hand. We know your life amid the fire of the trials of the nation, and we count blessed your confessor's endurance, and we do not hesitate to address you as martyrs of Christ; but nonetheless, be eager also to become, most holy ones, extinguishers of the fire of false belief that has been kindled among us. Yes, we beseech your fatherly compassion-you who are shoots of one zeal with that divine and Sabaite root, of a faith that, along with the rest, is truly warm and ardent for vindication. It has been known, even in former generations, what struggles the blessed Sabaites [the monks of the Lavra of Saint Sabas] waged on behalf of the truth. Being yourselves, then, of the same grace and the same Spirit, O most venerable ones, do not refuse to display, so far as you are able, the same things as those men did, in this present innovation against the faith, so that you may gladden God-on whose behalf is also this discourse-and the all-blessed Sabas together with all the saints. And it will be sufficient for what is sought, even if nothing else, that you anathematize the adultery-synod which anathematized the saints, and, secondly, that you grant us your sacred prayers, both for endurance under those who do us harm and for the concord and peace of the Churches of Christ.

Τῶν τῆς εὐσεβείας δογμάτων καθεστώτων φιλοτάραχον τὸ κινεῖσθαι, τούτων δὲ στασιαζόντων, ὡς νῦν ἐν τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς μάλιστα ἐκκλησίᾳ, πῶς οὐκ ἀναγκαίως διεγερτέον, φειδομένους οὐδενός, μὴ ὅτι γε μακρᾶς ὁδοῦ, τῶν τε ἄλλων τληπαθημάτων ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοῦ θανάτου καταφρονεῖν; αὕτη ἡ αἰτία τῆς πρὸς ὑμᾶς τοὺς ὁσιωτάτους τῶν πνευματικῶν ἡμῶν τέκνων Λιτοΐου καὶ Συμεὼν ἀποστολῆς, οὗτος ὁ τρόπος τῆς μετὰ θεὸν πεποιθήσεως κινδυνώδους ἐν τοῖς αὐτόθι ἐκδημίας. Ἀλλ', ὦ πατέρες ἅγιοι, πῶς ὑμῖν ἐναργῶς διηγήσαιμι τὰ κατὰ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐνταῦθα τολμηθέντα καὶ πραχθέντα; Ἱερεμίας ὁ πολυθρηνότατος ὧδέ πού φησιν ἐν ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ προφητείαις· ποιμένες ἠφρονεύσαντο καὶ τὸν Κύριον οὐκ ἐξεζήτησαν. ἐνταῦθα δὲ χαλεπώτερόν τι καὶ λίαν ἔκτοπον· τοὺς γὰρ ἐκζητεῖν αὐτὸν προαιρουμένους καὶ ἀντεχομένους τοῦ νόμου αὐτοῦ ὡς ἠλλοτριωμένους αὐτοῦ ἀναθέματι ἀνεθεμάτισαν, τίνι δ' αὐτῶν ἀνενέγκαντες, εἰ καὶ φρικτὸν εἰπεῖν, τὸ ἀνάθεμα ἢ δῆλον ὅτι τῷ εἰπόντι· ὁ ἀθετῶν ὑμᾶς ἐμὲ ἀθετεῖ, καὶ ὁ μὴ δεχόμενος ὑμᾶς οὐ δέχεται τὸν ἀποστείλαντά με; Τί οὖν; σύνοδος ἀντικαθισταμένη τοῖς τοῦ Κυρίου νόμοις καὶ λόγοις· καὶ τὸ πῶς ἐρῶ. αὐτοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου εἰπόντος, οὓς ὁ θεὸς ἔζευξεν ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω, ἱερεύς τις μονάζων τὸν μοιχεύσαντα βασιλέα Κωνσταντῖνον κατὰ τὸν λόγον τοῦ Κυρίου ἐπὶ τῇ ἐκβολῇ τῆς οἰκείας γυναικὸς καὶ εἰσοικήσει τῆς μοιχαλίδος συνέζευξεν, ἐστεφάνωσεν, ἐμαχήσατο διὰ τῆς εὐκτικῆς ἐπικλήσεως τῷ ἀπαγορεύσαντι τὴν μοιχείαν καὶ δεινὰ ἀπειλήσαντι τὰ ταύτης αἰώνια ἐπιτίμια ἀλόγως ἀπαγορεῦσαι καὶ οἱονεὶ διορθωτὴς αὐτῷ τοῦ σφάλματος γενέσθαι πεφιλονείκηκεν, εἴπερ Χριστὸς ἀρᾶται μὲν τὸν μοιχεύοντα, ὁ δὲ εὐλογεῖν αὐτὸν ὑπεφώνησεν εἰς ὑπήκοον πάντων, καὶ ὁ μὲν ὀργίζεται ἐπὶ τῇ ἀθεμίτῳ πράξει, ὁ δὲ εὐδοκεῖν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ ταύτῃ εἰρήκει, καὶ ὁ μὲν ἀκλεᾶ καὶ ἀγέραστον διαγορεύει διά τε προφητῶν καὶ ἀποστόλων τὸν τοῦ νόμου αὐτοῦ παραβάτην, ὁ δὲ ὑπέδειξε στεφανοῦν αὐτὸν τὸν τοιοῦτον· διὸ καὶ τὸ τελευταῖον τῆς συναφείας σύμβολον, τὸ ἄχραντον Χριστοῦ σῶμα καὶ αἷμα, ὡς ἁγνοῖς καὶ ἀκιβδήλοις μετέδωκε τοῖς μοιχωμένοις. Ἔγνωσται ἆρα ἐκ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐκτοπώτατον τοιοῦτον δρᾶμα; ἢ ὅτι οὐ Χριστῷ, τῷ καθαρῷ τῶν καθαρῶν συναρμοστῇ, ἀνήνεγκεν ὁ γεννάδας τὴν ἐπίκλησιν, ἀλλ' αὐτῷ τῷ συνεργῷ καὶ συναυτουργῷ τῆς μοιχείας σατανᾷ, θεὸν αὐτὸν καὶ πατέρα ὁ ἀνίερος ἀποκαλέσας καὶ δοὺς κατὰ Χριστοῦ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν τῷ αὐτοῦ ἀντάρτῃ διὰ μέσου τῶν σατανοθελῶς μοιχευσάντων τὰ νικητήρια; οὕτω τοῦδε κατὰ θεοῦ πεπραχότος, πρότερόν τε καὶ ὕστερον ἕως θανάτου συνδιαιτουμένου τοῖς μοιχωμένοις καὶ μεταδιδοῦντος τῶν θείων δώρων, εἰ καὶ εἴρχθη ὑπὸ τοῦ προηγησαμένου μετὰ τὴν διάρρηξιν τῆς μοιχικῆς βασιλείας, τί νῦν γίνεται ὑπὸ τοῦ νέου προέδρου μετὰ καὶ πεντεκαίδεκα ἱεραρχῶν ἐκ ῥοπῆς τοῦ κρατοῦντος; εἰσκρίνεται πάλιν ἱερουργεῖν ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ οὐκ ἐγκατέλιπε Κύριος τοσοῦτον τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς γενεάν, ὥστε πάντας κλῖναι γόνυ τῇ Βάαλ, ἀλλ' εὑρεθῆναί τινας ὡς καὶ ἐπ' αὐτῆς τῆς μοιχείας πρότερον καὶ αὐτίκα ἐρειδομένους τοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ νόμοις, γνωσθέντων τούτων τῷ δὴ παραιτουμένῳ τὴν κοινωνίαν ἀμφοτέρων κροτεῖται ἐκ προστάγματος βασιλικοῦ καθολικὴ σύνοδος. καὶ δὴ πρὸ τῆς συνόδου φρουρήσαντες καὶ περιστοιχίσαντες στρατιωτικὸν τάγμα τοὺς μὴ συνανομεῖν αὐτοῖς ἀνελομένους ἱστῶσιν ἐπὶ τοῦ συνεδρίου τῆς παρανομίας, ἀναθεματίζουσιν οἱ μοιχοΐστορες, αὐτοφρουροῦσιν, ὑπερορίζουσιν, εἴργουσιν ἀσφαλῶς ἄλλον ἐξ ἄλλου, οὓς μὲν καὶ σιδηροδεσμίους θέμενοι, ἐνίους δὲ καὶ τῷ ξύλῳ τοῖν ποδοῖν συνείραντες. Ταῦτά ἐστι τὰ δραματουργήματα τῆς ἀναφυείσης μοιχειανικῆς αἱρέσεως, ὦ πατέρες. δεδογματίκασιν οὖν ἐπὶ τῶν βασιλέων μὴ κρατεῖν μηδὲ ἄρχειν τοὺς θείους νόμους, ὁπόταν οὐ βούλωνται, ἀλλὰ τὴν σὺν αὐτοῖς παρανομίαν καὶ λύσιν τῶν τοῦ Κυρίου ἐντολῶν οἰκονομίαν προσαγορεύεσθαι. ὅθεν οὐδὲ μιμεῖσθαι θεμιτὸν τοὺς ἐν τῇ παρούσῃ γενεᾷ τινα τῶν μέχρις αἵματος ἐναντίον βασιλέων παρρησιασμένων ὑπὲρ θείων νόμων φασί· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὸν Πρόδρομον μὲν μὴ διὰ τὸν πρὸς Ἡρώδην ἐλεγμὸν εἶναι πρόδρομον ἔφασαν, κατασμικρύνοντες τὴν κορωνίδα τῆς ἀρετῆς τοῦ ἁγίου, εἴπω δὲ καὶ παρωθούμενοι αὐτὴν ὡς οὐκ ἀναγκαίαν, τὸν δὲ Χρυσόστομον καὶ φωστῆρα τοῦ κόσμου καὶ φανερῶς εἰπεῖν ἐτόλμησαν καὶ λέγουσιν οὐ καλῶς πεποιηκέναι ὑπὲρ τοῦ τῆς χήρας ἀγροῦ ἐξορισθέντα, ἐλέγξαντα τὴν Εὐδοξίαν κἀντεῦθεν ταράξαντα τὴν ἐκκλησίαν. ἑκάστῳ τῶν ἱεραρχῶν πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν αὐτῷ ἐν τοῖς παρεμπίπτουσι σφάλμασιν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὡς ὁ κανὼν πάντως διαγορεύει, πράττειν ἐξέφη ναν, κἂν καθαίρεσις πρόκειται, καὶ τοῦτο οἰκονομίαν νομίζοντες· μηδὲ γὰρ ἐγχωροῦν ἐστι φυλάττεσθαι τοὺς κανόνας φησὶν ἅπαντας. Τί τἆλλα λέγειν καὶ μηκύνειν τὸν λόγον; πολυσχεδῆ αἵρεσιν ἐτεκτήναντο, τὸ ἱερὸν εὐαγγέλιον ἀνατρέπουσαν, τοὺς θείους κανόνας διαλύουσαν, τὰς τῶν θεοφόρων πατέρων διδασκαλίας ἀπορραπίζουσαν καὶ τὴν ἀντιχριστικὴν ἀποστασίαν προευτρεπίζουσαν, ἀνθ' ὧν οὐ στοιχεῖν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ κατὰ πάντα οὔτε τοῖς ἀποστολικοῖς διατάγμασιν οὔτε τοῖς πατρικοῖς ἐντάλμασιν ἐμμένουσιν, ἀλλὰ πῇ μὲν οὕτως, πῇ δὲ οὐχ οὕτως διὰ τὴν ἐξευρεθεῖσαν αὐτοῖς πονηρὰν καὶ ἀθετητικὴν ἐργασίαν, ἀλλ' οὐκ οἰκονομίαν· οὐδεμία γὰρ οἰκονομία λύσιν αὐτῶν ἀποτελεῖ, οὐδ' οὐ μὴν κανόνων, ἢ ἐφ' ὧν ἐνδέχεται μικρὸν παρορᾶν τι, οὐ μὴν εἰς ἀθέτησιν νόμου ἢ ἀναγκαίου ἤτοι καθαιρετικοῦ κανόνος· ἀποστασίας γὰρ τοῦτο σημεῖον. Ταῦτ' οὖν ἐνωτισάμενοι, ἅγιοι πατέρες, συμπάσχοιτε ἡμῖν τοῖς ταπεινοῖς ὑπὲρ τοῦ κοινοῦ κλήρου τῆς πίστεως κάμνουσιν, καὶ ἐφ' ὅσον οἷόν τε ὀρέξατε χεῖρα. ἴσμεν ὑμῶν τὴν ἐν πυρὶ τῶν πειρασμῶν τοῦ ἔθνους ζωὴν καὶ μακαρίζομεν ὑμῶν τὴν ὁμολογητικὴν ὑπομονὴν καὶ μάρτυρας ὑμᾶς Χριστοῦ οὐ διακρινόμεθα προσαγορεύειν· ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ τοῦ ἀναφθέντος ἐν ἡμῖν πυρὸς τῆς κακοδοξίας προθυμήθητε σβεστῆρες γενέσθαι ὁσιώτατοι. ναί, δεόμεθα τὰ πατρικὰ ὑμῶν σπλάγχνα, ὑμεῖς τῆς θείας ἐκείνης καὶ Σαβαϊκῆς ῥίζης ὁμόζηλα βλαστήματα τῆς μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ θερμῆς ὄντως καὶ διαπύρου εἰς ἐκδίκησιν πίστεως. ἐγνώσθη κἀν ταῖς ἀνωτέρω γενεαῖς οἷα οἱ μακάριοι Σαβαῗται διηγωνίσαντο ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀληθείας. τῆς αὐτῆς οὖν ὄντες καὶ αὐτοὶ χάριτος καὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πνεύματος, ὦ σεβασμιώτατοι, τὰ αὐτὰ ἐκείνοις ἐν τῇ νῦν καινοτομίᾳ τῆς πίστεως μὴ παραιτήσησθε κατὰ τὸ δυνατὸν ἐνδείξασθαι, ὡς ἂν εὐφράνοιτε θεόν, ὑπὲρ οὗ καὶ ὁ λόγος, καὶ τὸν παμμάκαρα Σάβαν σὺν πᾶσι τοῖς ἁγίοις. ἱκανὸν δὲ ἔσται πρὸς τὸ ζητούμενον, εἰ καὶ μηδὲν ἄλλο, τὸ τὴν μοιχοσύνοδον ὑμᾶς τὴν ἀναθεματίσασαν τοὺς ἁγίους ἀναθεματίσαι καὶ δεύτερον τὸ τὰς ἱερὰς ὑμῶν προσευχὰς χαρίζεσθαι ἡμῖν εἴς τε ὑπομονὴν τῶν κακούντων καὶ ὁμονοίαν εἰρήνην τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ.