Letter 170: To our most godly and holy fellow minister Rufus,

To our most godly and holy fellow minister Rufus, Johannes, Himerius, Theodoret, and the rest send greetings in the Lord. True religion and the peace of the Church suffer greatly, we believe, from the absence of your holiness. Had you been present, you might have stopped the disturbances, resisted the violence, and fought alongside us for the defeat of the heresies introduced into the orthodox faith -- that teaching of the apostles and evangelists which has been handed down from generation to generation and has now reached us. We do not assert this without grounds. We have learned your holiness's mind from the letter you wrote to the godly and holy Julian, bishop of Sardica, in which you rightly charged him to fight for the faith laid down by the blessed Fathers at the Council of Nicaea, and not to allow any corruption of those invincible definitions, which are sufficient both to reveal the truth and to refute falsehood. Your holiness advised rightly, justly, and piously, and the recipient of your letter followed your counsel. But many members of the council, to use the prophet's words, "have gone aside and have altogether become filthy" [Psalm 14:3]. They have abandoned the faith received from the holy Fathers and subscribed to the Twelve Chapters of Cyril of Alexandria, which are full of Apollinarian error, agree with the impiety of Arius and Eunomius, and anathematize all who refuse to accept their blatant heterodoxy. Against this plague striking the Church, vigorous resistance has been offered by us who assembled from the East, and by others from various dioceses, with the goal of ratifying the faith delivered by the blessed Fathers at Nicaea. For in it, as your holiness knows, nothing is lacking -- whether for the teaching of Gospel doctrine or for the refutation of every heresy. For the sake of this faith we continue to struggle, despising alike all the joys and sorrows of mortal life, if only we may preserve untouched this inheritance of our fathers. For this reason we deposed Cyril and Memnon: the former as the prime mover of the heresy, the latter as his partner and accomplice in all that has been done to ratify and uphold the Chapters. We beg your holiness to join us in condemning the heretical Chapters and in defending the faith of Nicaea. The future of the Church depends on the steadfastness of men like you.

Letter 170