orthodox faith, and when thou heardest admired, for so the bishop related to us of your blessedness. And since thou art such and so great a priest, I therefore in my poverty salute thee, honouring thy head and kissing thy hands and arms. Mayst thou be joyful and protected by the supreme hand of God, and may God Almighty grant good order to thee, thy spirituals, and us. I know not whence heresies have arisen respecting the true way of salvation and redemption; and I cannot sufficiently wonder what devil was so malignant and envious, so hostile to the truth, and such an adversary to our mutual good-will, as to alienate our brotherly love from the whole Christian congregation, by saying that we are not Christians; we for our parts have from the beginning acknowledged that by the grace of God ye are Christians, although ye do not keep the faith of Christ in all things, and are in many things divided,—a fact which I will show from the seven great synods by which the orthodox Christian faith has been established and definitely confirmed, in which also the wisdom of God has built herself a house as it were upon seven pillars. Moreover, all the popes who sat in these seven synods were held worthy of the chair of St. Peter, because they agreed with us. In the first synod was Pope Sylvester;[1] in the second, Damasus;[2] in the third, Celestinus;[3] in the fourth, the most blessed Pope Leo;[4] in the
- ↑ Sylvester held the first œcumenical Council of Nicæa, A.D. 325, against Arius, who ascribed different substances to the Trinity, and denied the divinity of the Word.
- ↑ Damasus held the first Council of Constantinople, A.D. 381, against Macedonius and Eudoxus, who denied that the Holy Ghost was God.
- ↑ Celestine held the first Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431, against Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, who declared that the Virgin was only the mother of Christ’s manhood, and that the Word consisted of two persons, God and man.
- ↑ Leo the Great held the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451, against Eutyches, Abbot of Constantinople, who asserted that Christ, after becoming incarnate, had not two natures, but only the divine nature.
