The Apologetic of Symmachus, Bishop of Rome, against Anastasius the Emperor.

Chapter I: The Precedent of Ambrose’s Response to Gratian; The Christian Prince Must Patiently Hear the Apostolic Prelate’s Voice

To a letter of the emperor Gratian of august memory, blessed Ambrose responded in eight books, since on behalf of the Catholic faith it did not vex him to preach at length, nor did the emperor disdain to receive it gratefully. I have said this so that, if I have observed measure in the production of this libellus, I may not be thought to have spoken what ought not to have been said. If I were obliged, emperor, to speak on behalf of the Catholic faith before foreign kings, and those ignorant of the entire Divinity, whatever should be in accord with its truth and reason, I would deliver it through to the end even with death set before me. Woe to me will be, if I have not preached the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:16); and it is better to incur the loss of the present life than to be punished with eternal damnation. But if you are a Roman emperor, you ought clemently to admit even the legations of the barbarian peoples; if you are a Christian prince, whatever the voice of the Apostolic Prelate may be, you ought patiently to hear it.

Chapter II: Insults Repaid with Charity; The Lord’s Warning Against Scandalizing the Least

Your insults, emperor, which you yourself weigh under the divine judgment — whether you have poured them out upon me with religious mind — I confess that, both for my sake and for yours, I cannot dissemble. For my own sake, recalling the Lord’s promise saying: When they shall persecute you, and shall say all evil against you for the sake of righteousness, rejoice (Matt. 5:11). For your sake, because I would not wish my glory to come about in such a way as to burden you greatly. And I indeed, instructed by the teachings of the Lord and the apostles, am eager to repay your curses with blessing, your insults with honor, and your hatreds with charity. But take care, I beseech you, that from Him who says: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay (Rom. 12:19), as much as is forgiven by me may be exacted more abundantly from you. For what Christ says concerning those who shall scandalize even the least one believing in Him, let the Gospel report — let it not be uttered by my voice.

Chapter III: The Whole Christ as the Test of Orthodoxy; Believing in the Half-Christ Is Not to Believe in Christ at All

But perhaps you say, emperor, that you rather are the least one who believes in Christ, and that this is more rightly received concerning you, and that I am the one scandalizing your faith. Christ therefore is truly wholly God, and wholly man: thus conceived, thus did He live in the world, thus suffered, thus was He among the dead, thus was He raised, thus did He appear with the disciples, thus was He taken up into heaven, thus was He said from there to come again, thus today does He persist in the region of heaven, the apostle saying: In whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9); and surely he says of Him what He Himself now is. He therefore is the least who so believes in Christ, who believes in such a Christ as this, who believes in the whole Christ, not in a Half-Christ, and so not in Christ at all — for Christ is not Christ except whole, and the whole Christ is not anything other than this. Of such a one, then, believing in Him, He says: this one is therefore His least and small one; and what He has promised on behalf of one so scandalized is better shown, as has been said, in His own words.

Chapter IV: Communion with Heretics Is Consent with Heretics

Perhaps you say, emperor: “But I too believe in such a Christ, and so am rightly numbered among His least.” This is more grievous still, if you both believe in such a Christ, and yet are mingled in communion with those who do not believe in such a Christ. For not only, says the apostle, those who do, but also those who consent to those doing (Rom. 1:32). Or is it not consenting, to be in communion with such? Therefore, either teach that they are not such, or, far more grievously, as has been said, it will be a straining against truth known to oneself.

Chapter V: It Does Not Befit an Emperor to Be an Accuser; No One Can Be at Once Accuser and Judge

The insults, therefore, emperor, which you suppose should be hurled against my person — would that, glorious as they are to me, they could not at the same time burden you! It was said by some to my Lord: You have a demon, glutton, born of fornication (John 8:48; Matt. 11:19); and do you suppose that I ought to grieve on my own account? How careful one ought to be in advancing such things, by both divine and human laws! In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand (Matt. 18:16). What, when even by human judgment, examined with human procedure, falsehoods have been approved? What will you do, emperor, in the divine judgment? Or because you are emperor, do you suppose there is no judgment of God? I say nothing of the fact that it does not befit an emperor to be an accuser. Finally, by these same divine and human laws, no one can be at once accuser and judge. Will you then plead your case under another’s judgment, or stand as accuser?

Chapter VI: The Charge of Manichaeism Refuted; Rome and Her Archives Bear Witness to Symmachus’s Orthodoxy

You say I am a Manichaean. Am I then a Eutychian, or do I defend Eutychians, whose fury most aids the error of the Manichaeans? Rome is my witness, and the archives bear testimony, whether from the Catholic faith — which, coming from paganism,1 I received in the see of the blessed apostle Peter — I have in any part deviated. Let someone come forth, and convict me by any reasoning whatsoever: otherwise these are insults, not crimes — and I do not know whether they are more hostile to those against whom falsehood is alleged, or to false accusers themselves.

Chapter VII: The Charge of Irregular Consecration Refuted; Survival Under Rains of Stones as God’s Verdict; Peter’s Intervention Imposed the Papal Honor; Trampling Peter in His Vicar

You say I was not consecrated in due order. Among rains of stones I escaped safely:2 God has judged. Or because you are emperor, do you suppose the divine judgment ought to be despised? But perhaps you say that even an angry God for the most part allows things harmful. It is written: By their fruits you shall know them (Matt. 7:16). Show, then, what you think should be argued, so that you may demonstrate that an enraged God allowed what was unfitting. Or because I in no way acquiesce to the Eutychians? These things, indeed, do not wound me, but they openly and plainly demonstrate you. You have thought to drive out my honor, which the blessed Peter has imposed by his own intervention. Or because you are emperor, do you strive against the power of Peter? And you who receive Peter the Alexandrian,3 do you strive to trample the blessed apostle Peter in his vicar of whatever kind? Or would I be made well, if I were to favor the Eutychians, if I were to communicate with the name of Acacius? It cannot be hidden why you put forward these things.

Chapter VIII: The Two Honors Compared — The Pontiff’s Honor at Least Equal to the Emperor’s; The Two Offices by Which the Human Race Is Ruled; The Reciprocal Accountability of Pope and Emperor

Let us compare, however, the honor of the emperor with the honor of the Pontiff: between whom there is as much distance as that the one bears the care of human things, the other of divine. You, emperor, receive baptism from the Pontiff, take the sacraments, ask for prayer, hope for blessing, beg for penance. Finally, you administer human things; he dispenses to you the divine. Therefore, not to say superior, certainly the honor of the Pontiff is equal.4 Nor think yourself preeminent by the pomp of the world: For what is weak of God is stronger than men (1 Cor. 1:25). See, therefore, what befits you. Yet when you have rushed into accusation, by both divine and human laws, you stand on equal terms with me; in which I shall be deprived of the highest honor, if I am convicted (because that is what you prefer) by your accusation, and you shall by equal reasoning be deprived of your dignity if you do not convict me. Let this judgment be in the world, with God and His angels watching, that we may be a spectacle to every age, by which either a priest of good life, or an emperor of religious modesty, may attain its example: because by these two offices principally is the human race ruled, and nothing of these ought to come about by which the Divinity may be offended, especially since both honors are seen to be perpetual, and so the human race is provided for by each.

Chapter IX: The Power Set Over Divine Things Is Greater Than the Power Over Human Things; Mutual Deference to God

I beseech you, emperor — by your peace let me say it — remember that you are a man, that you may make use of the power divinely granted to you: for even if these things have prevailed under human judgment, under the divine they must be examined. Perhaps you will say it is written that we ought to be subject to every power. We indeed receive human powers in their place, until they raise their wills against God. But if every power is from God, then more so that which is set over divine things. Defer to God in Us, and We shall defer to God in you. Otherwise, if you do not defer to God, you cannot use His privilege whose laws you despise.

Chapter X: The Self-Excommunication of the Emperor — Rome Did Not Excommunicate the Emperor; By Communicating with Acacius the Emperor Excommunicates Himself

You say that the Senate, conspiring with me, has excommunicated you. This indeed I did not do; but what was reasonably done by my predecessors I follow without doubt. You say that the Roman Senate treats you badly. If We treat you badly by persuading you to depart from the heretics, do you treat Us well, you who would associate Us hastily with heretics? “What is it to me,” you say, “what Acacius did?” Then withdraw from him, and it is nothing to you! For if you do not withdraw from him, it pertains to you. Let us both leave the dead behind! And We ask this very thing, that nothing of what Acacius did should pertain to you. You make Us cast Acacius up against you — you who would have what Acacius did pertain to yourself. We avoid what Acacius did; you avoid it too: and what Acacius did pertains to neither of us, so that, without those things which Acacius did, you may be joined in cause with what pertains to Us, and without Acacius you may be associated with Our communion. We have not excommunicated you, emperor, but Acacius: depart from Acacius, and you depart from his excommunication.5 Do not mingle yourself with his excommunication, and you are not excommunicated by Us. If you mingle yourself, you are not excommunicated by Us but by yourself. So it happens that in either case: if you depart, you are not excommunicated by Us; and if you do not depart, you are not excommunicated by Us either.

Chapter XI: That Confession and Chief See, to Which the Care of the Whole Church Was Delegated by the Lord’s Own Mouth; Catholic Princes Have Always Anticipated New Apostolic Prelates with Letters

Catholic princes have indeed always anticipated newly installed Apostolic Prelates with their letters, and have sought, as good sons in the affection of due piety, that confession and Chief See,6 to which — as you know — the care of the whole Church was delegated by the very mouth of the Lord Savior Himself7 (John 21:15ff.). And since perhaps Your Tranquility is believed to have passed over this on account of public occupations, lest I be judged to seek my own honor more than the care of the Lord’s flock, I have not ceased to address you of my own accord through my letters, indicating that it had been published abroad that Your Serenity, with a military hand directly applied, was compelling those who had chosen to abstain from the contagion of the perfidious for many seasons, by force and arms, into the detestable associations of a perverted communion.

Chapter XII: The Vicar of the Apostolic See Calls the Emperor to Bear Witness; The Suppression of Catholic Communion Alone in the Eastern Regions

Wherefore I, vicar of the Apostolic See of whatever kind, do not cease to call you to witness with my voice — you, prince of human things — that you may remember that you are a man, however much you may be supported by the power of the world, and that you may look around at all those who, from the beginning of the Christian dogma, with various propositions tried to persecute or afflict the Catholic faith: in what way, by the persecution of devastation — whose contrition has been pleased to be inflicted — those who brought it on by prevailing have failed, and orthodox truth has prevailed all the more by which it was thought oppressed; just as truth is shown to have grown up under its persecutors, so it is known to have crushed those who pursued it. I marvel if human sense does not see — especially in him who wishes to be called by the Christian name — that he is to be reckoned without doubt among those who tried to attack right confession and Christian communion with various superstitions, when he himself in whatever way is striving to overthrow this. For what difference is there, whether a pagan, or, what is worse, under the Christian name, attempts to break the true and sincere rule of the apostolic tradition, and to break out into this blindness: that since in those regions all the opinions of every heresy whatsoever have public license to profess [their views], only the freedom of Catholic communion is thought, by those who consider themselves religious, to be undermined? If it is thought to be an error, why is it not allowed to operate freely with the other errors which have license there? But if it is reckoned to be integrity, it ought rather to have been followed than devastated by violent persecution: nor can these men be shown to have been able to pursue it, except by following crooked ways. But lest they themselves should be convicted of erring, they thought to drive out that by which they were marked as erring — preferring not to seek what is just, but rather to remove that by which they were taught to be unjust.

Chapter XIII: The Certainty of Divine Judgment; The Roman See Has Not Been Silent

So God has thus withdrawn from human minds, that wills obstinate against His order do not see that even in this present age the divine judgment cannot be lacking, and that after the course of this life they will not be absent from that fearful examination, under which the studies of pernicious actions, examined by every means, will be made plain, and once made plain will be punished — unless because they entirely do not believe these things, who are confident that they have perpetrated those things with impunity. We, however, do not by any means cease, in such voice as We can, to attest before the conscience of the human race, that omnipotent God will in no way be lacking to His own causes, and that however great human presumption may be, however great the power, under the divine nod the censure of this atrocity will undoubtedly be vindicated. For We trust that such audacity will not escape here, and that in that great judgment of God it will receive what is owed to such temerities by divine retribution. Let it suffice that We have by no means been silent in these matters, so that, when the supernal vengeance has followed, human consideration may know that We have advanced what is true, and that We have not vainly announced the punishment to come, and have set forth a form of warning by which from now on such precipices may be tempered.

Chapter XIV: All Catholic Princes Send Their Writings to the Apostolic See on Accession and on the Election of New Prelates; Those Who Do Not Profess Themselves Alienated From It

If indeed you decree such men to be left to their own judgment, on the grounds that it does not befit Christians to vex those confessing Christ under any title, nor does it befit Romans to tear apart those living under Roman law: it is consequently shown that he who attacks Roman men of any Christian profession whatsoever can in no way be called either Christian or Roman. Therefore, either all should have been repelled by you, or none whatsoever attacked; and what in one kind you judge should be removed, repel in all, if you can. If all are to be allowed, none whatsoever is to be excluded. Otherwise, while by sparing all errors you become friend [to all], it will be shown that only what is true has displeased you alone. All Catholic princes — whether when they have taken up the helms of empires, or when they have recognized newly installed prelates of the Apostolic See — have at once sent their writings to it, so as to teach themselves to be its associates. Therefore those who have not done this profess themselves alienated from the same — which We might prove from your own writings before Us, except that We should be avoiding you as rival, and defendant, and enemy, and judge. It is not surprising if the patrons of the Manichaeans persecute Catholics, since falsehood cannot but persecute truth. It is not surprising if they rage against the orthodox, those to whom it is possible to agree with all heresies, and friends to all errors cannot but be enemies only to those who are not erring. If it is an error, it ought truly to be convicted; if it is not an error, recognize that the truth is lacking to you who persecute that by which you profess to err. But the accomplice of perversity cannot but persecute him who is free from perversity.