V. Christ's flesh is proved real from Scripture.
Therefore in consequence of this unity of person which is to be understood in both natures [288] , we read of the Son of Man also descending from heaven, when the Son of God took flesh from the Virgin who bore Him. And again the Son of God is said to have been crucified and buried, although it was not actually in His Divinity whereby the Only-begotten is co-eternal and con-substantial with the Father, but in His weak human nature that He suffered these things. And so it is that in the Creed also we all confess that the Only-begotten Son of God was crucified and buried, according to that saying of the Apostle: "for if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory [289] ." But when our Lord and Saviour Himself would instruct His disciples' faith by His questionings, He said, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" And when they had put on record the various opinions of other people, He said, "But ye, whom do ye say that I am?" Me, that is, who am the Son of Man, and whom ye see in the form of a slave, and in true flesh, whom do ye say that I am? Whereupon blessed Peter, whose divinely inspired confession was destined to profit all nations, said, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God [290] ." And not undeservedly was he pronounced blessed by the Lord, drawing from the chief corner-stone [291] the solidity of power which his name also expresses, he, who, through the revelation of the Father, confessed Him to be at once Christ and Son of God: because the receiving of the one of these without the other was of no avail to salvation, and it was equally perilous to have believed the Lord Jesus Christ to be either only God without man, or only man without God. But after the Lord's resurrection (which, of course, was of His true body, because He was raised the same as He had died and been buried), what else was effected by the forty days' delay than the cleansing of our faith's purity from all darkness? For to that end He talked with His disciples, and dwelt and ate with them, He allowed Himself to be handled with diligent and curious touch by those who were affected by doubt, He entered when the doors were shut upon the Apostles, and by His breathing upon them gave them the Holy Spirit [292] , and bestowing on them the light of understanding, opened the secrets of the Holy Scriptures [293] . So again He showed the wound in His side, the marks of the nails, and all the signs of His quite recent suffering, saying, "See My hands and feet, that it is I. Handle Me and see that a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have [294] ;" in order that the properties of His Divine and human nature might be acknowledged to remain still inseparable: and that we might know the Word not to be different from the flesh, in such a sense as also to confess that the one Son of God is both the Word and flesh [295] . Of this mystery of the faith [296] your opponent Eutyches must be reckoned to have but little sense if he has recognized our nature in the Only-begotten of God neither through the humiliation of His having to die, nor through the glory of His rising again. Nor has he any fear of the blessed apostle and evangelist John's declaration when he says, "every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh, is of God: and every spirit which destroys Jesus is not of God, and this is Antichrist [297] ." But what is "to destroy Jesus," except to take away the human nature from Him, and to render void the mystery, by which alone we were saved, by the most barefaced fictions. The truth is that being in darkness about the nature of Christ's body, he must also be befooled by the same blindness in the matter of His sufferings. For if he does not think the cross of the Lord fictitious, and does not doubt that the punishment He underwent to save the world is likewise true, let him acknowledge the flesh of Him whose death he already believes: and let him not disbelieve Him man with a body like ours, since he acknowledges Him to have been able to suffer: seeing that the denial of His true flesh is also the denial of His bodily suffering. If therefore he receives the Christian faith, and does not turn away his ears from the preaching of the Gospel: let him see what was the nature that hung pierced with nails on the wooden cross, and, when the side of the Crucified was opened by the soldier's spear, let him understand whence it was that blood and water flowed, that the Church of God might be watered from the font and from the cup [298] . Let him hear also the blessed Apostle Peter, proclaiming that the sanctification of the Spirit takes place through the sprinkling of Christ's blood [299] . And let him not read cursorily the same Apostle's words when he says, "Knowing that not with corruptible things, such as silver and gold, have ye been redeemed from your vain manner of life which is part of your fathers' tradition, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ as of a lamb without spot and blemish [300] ." Let him not resist too the witness of the blessed Apostle John, who says: "and the blood of Jesus the Son of God cleanseth us from all sin [301] ." And again: "this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith." And "who is He that overcometh the world save He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that testifieth, because the Spirit is the truth [302] , because there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and the three are one [303] ." The Spirit, that is, of sanctification, and the blood of redemption, and the water of baptism: because the three are one, and remain undivided, and none of them is separated from this connection; because the catholic Church lives and progresses by this faith, so that in Christ Jesus neither the manhood without the true Godhead nor the Godhead without the true manhood is believed in.
VI. The wrong and mischievous confession of Eutyches. The terms on which he may be restored to Communion. The sending of deputies to the east.
But when during your cross-examination Eutyches replied and said, "I confess that our Lord had two natures before the union but after the union I confess but one [304] ," I am surprised that so absurd and mistaken a statement of his should not have been criticised and rebuked by his judges, and that an utterance which reaches the height of stupidity and blasphemy should be allowed to pass as if nothing offensive had been heard: for the impiety of saying that the Son of God was of two natures before His incarnation is only equalled by the iniquity of asserting that there was but one nature in Him after "the Word became flesh." And to the end that Eutyches may not think this a right or defensible opinion because it was not contradicted by any expression of yourselves, we warn you beloved brother, to take anxious care that if ever through the inspiration of God's mercy the case is brought to a satisfactory conclusion, his ignorant mind be purged from this pernicious idea as well as others. He was, indeed, just beginning to beat a retreat from his erroneous conviction, as the order of proceedings shows [305] , in so far as when hemmed in by your remonstrances he agreed to say what he had not said before and to acquiesce in that belief to which before he had been opposed. However, when he refused to give his consent to the anathematizing of his blasphemous dogma, you understood, brother [306] , that he abode by his treachery and deserved to receive a verdict of condemnation. And yet, if he grieves over it faithfully and to good purpose, and, late though it be, acknowledges how rightly the bishops' authority has been set in motion; or if with his own mouth and hand in your presence he recants his wrong opinions, no mercy that is shown to him when penitent can be found fault with [307] : because our Lord, that true and "good shepherd" who laid down His life for His sheep [308] and who came to save not lose men's souls [309] , wishes us to imitate His kindness [310] ; in order that while justice constrains us when we sin, mercy may prevent our rejection when we have returned. For then at last is the true Faith most profitably defended when a false belief is condemned even by the supporters of it.
Now for the loyal and faithful execution of the whole matter, we have appointed to represent us our brothers Julius [311] Bishop and Renatus [312] priest [of the Title of S. Clement], as well as my son Hilary [313] , deacon. And with them we have associated Dulcitius our notary, whose faith is well approved: being sure that the Divine help will be given us, so that he who had erred may be saved when the wrongness of his view has been condemned. God keep you safe, beloved brother.
The 13 June, 449, in the consulship of the most illustrious Asturius and Protogenes.
[244] The original word (imperitia) implies that a recluse like Eutyches (an archimandrite of a convent) ought never to have entered into a nice controversy like the present: he has not enough savoir faire, and his knowledge is not quite up to date, is a little old-fashioned.
[245] The exact reason of the delay is not altogether certain: we know Flavian had written much earlier than the date of arrival warranted: it is No. XXII. in the series.
[246] Viz., the proceedings of the sunodos endemousa summoned by Flavian at Constantinople.
[247] Ps. xxxvi. 4.
[248] Impia sapere, to think disloyal things against God: cf. the recta sapere, "to have a right judgment" of the Collect for Whitsunday.
[249] Knowledge of and belief in the principles of the Faith as contained in the Creed (symbolum) have of course always been required before Baptism from very early times. Leo here calls catechumens regenerandi, just as those who are being baptized are spoken of as renascentes (e.g. Lett. XVII. 8), those who have been baptized as renati (passim), and the rite itself as sacramentum regenerationis (e.g. Lett. IX. 2).
[250] The Latin unicus is not so exact as the Greek original monogenes: elsewhere, however, unigenitus is used.
[251] N.B. et (and) not ex (out of).
[252] The language of the Nicene Creed.
[253] I.e. by the Devil: the allusion is to Adam's fall in Paradise.
[254] Sua virtute: in patristic Latin virtus is, as is well known, usually the translation of the Greek dunamis and has a much wider meaning than moral excellence, our virtue.
[255] S. Matt. i. 1.
[256] ei. So the Vulgate.
[257] Rom. i. 1-3.
[258] Gen. xii. 3.
[259] Gal. iii. 16.
[260] Is. vii. 14. and S. Matt. i. 23.
[261] Is. ix. 6. "The angel of the great counsel" (magni consilii angelus) is a translation of the LXX. (which in the rest of the verse either represents a very different original text, or contents itself with a loose paraphrase), and is again repeated in the "Counsellor" (Consiliarius), two words farther on (which is also the Vulgate reading).
[262] This was the third dogma of Apollinaris (more fully stated in Lett. CXXIV. 2 and CLXV. 2) that our Lord's acts and sufferings as man belonged entirely to His Divine nature, and were not really human at all.
[263] S. Luke i. 35.
[264] Prov. ix. 1.
[265] In nobis, which he seems from the immediately following words to interpret as meaning "in our flesh," and not "amongst us," as the R.V. and others.
[266] Quam spiritu vitæ rationalis (logikou) animavit.
[267] A famous passage quoted by Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 53, 2, and Liddon Bampt. Lect., p. 267. Compare Serm. lxii. 1, quod...in unam personam concurrat proprietas utriusque substantiæ (Bright), also xxii. 2, xxiii. 2.
[268] Quod nostris remediis congruebat, where remedia must mean the disease which needs remedies (a sort of passive use).
[269] This passage from "Thus in the whole" to "not the failing of power" is repeated again in Sermon xxiii. 2, almost word for word.
[270] The reference, of course, is to Phil. ii. 6: no passage is a greater favourite with the Fathers than this.
[271] Compare S. Aug. ad Catech. § 6, humilitas Christi quid est? manum Deus homini iacenti porrexit: nos cecidimus, ille descendit: nos iacebamus, ille se inclinavit. Prendamus et surgamus ut non in poenam cadamus.