Letter 168: Third Petition of the Eastern Commissioners to the Emperor,

Third Petition of the Eastern Commissioners to the Emperor, We never expected your piety's summons to produce this result. We were honorably convened -- as priests by a prince -- to ratify the faith of the holy Fathers. In obedience to our pious emperor, we came. On our arrival, we were no less faithful to the Church and no less respectful of your edict. From the day we reached Ephesus to the present moment, we have followed your commands without interruption. Our moderation, however, seems to have been of no use to us. Indeed, it appears to have worked against us. We who have behaved properly have been detained in Chalcedon until now, and are now told we may go home. But those who have thrown everything into confusion, who have filled the world with turmoil, who are striving to tear the churches apart and are openly assaulting true religion -- they perform priestly functions, fill the churches, and claim the authority to ordain (though it is illegally claimed), stir up riots in the Church, and throw away on their thugs money that should be spent on the poor. But you are not only their emperor -- you are ours as well. No small part of your empire is the East, where the true faith has always shone, along with the other provinces and dioceses from which we have been summoned. Do not, your majesty, despise the faith that is being corrupted -- the faith in which you and your forefathers were baptized, on which the Church's foundations rest, for which the holy martyrs rejoiced to suffer countless forms of death, by whose aid you have conquered barbarians and destroyed tyrants, and which you need now in your campaign for the subjugation of Africa. The God of all will fight on your side if you struggle for His holy doctrines and prevent the dismemberment of the Church's body -- for dismembered it will be if the doctrine Cyril has introduced and other heretics have confirmed is allowed to prevail. We have borne witness to these truths many times -- before God, both in Ephesus and here in Chalcedon. We have given your holiness a full account, as though standing before the God of all. For this is required of us, as the blessed Paul teaches: "I give you charge in the sight of God, who gives life to all things" [1 Timothy 6:13].

Letter 168