(
Wherefore, for this our indulgence, they ought to pray to their God for our
safety, for that of the republic, and for their own, that the republic may
continue uninjured on every side, and that they may be able to live securely in
their homes.
(c.35)This edict is published at
from Lactantius, De Mort. Pers. ch. 34, 35. Opera, ed. O. F.
Fritzsche, II, P. 273. (Bibl. Patt. Ecc. Lat. XI,
available online from The Internet History Sourcebook Project (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/index.html)
When I, Constantine Augustus, as well as I Licinius Augustus
d fortunately met near Mediolanurn (Milan), and were considering everything
that pertained to the public welfare and security, we thought -, among other
things which we saw would be for the good of many, those regulations pertaining
to the reverence of the Divinity ought certainly to be made first, so that we
might grant to the Christians and others full authority to observe that
religion which each preferred; whence any Divinity whatsoever in the seat of
the heavens may be propitious and kindly disposed to us and all who are placed
under our rule And thus by this wholesome counsel and most upright provision we
thought to arrange that no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to
give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion, of that religion
which he should think best for himself, so that the Supreme Deity, to whose
worship we freely yield our hearts) may show in all things His usual favor and benevolence.
Therefore, your Worship should know that it has pleased us to remove all
conditions whatsoever, which were in the rescripts formerly given to you
officially, concerning the Christians and now any one of these who wishes to observe Christian religion may do so freely and
openly, without molestation. We thought it fit to commend these things most
fully to your care that you may know that we have given to those Christians
free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this
has been granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also
conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of their
worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may have the free
opportunity to worship as he pleases ; this regulation
is made we that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any religion.
Moreover, in the case of the Christians especially we esteemed it best to
order that if it happems anyone heretofore has bought from our treasury from
anyone whatsoever, those places where they were previously accustomed to
assemble, concerning which a certain decree had been made and a letter sent to
you officially, the same shall be restored to the Christians without payment or
any claim of recompense and without any kind of fraud or deception, Those,
moreover, who have obtained the same by gift, are likewise to return them at
once to the Christians. Besides, both those who have purchased and those who
have secured them by gift, are to appeal to the vicar if they seek any
recompense from our bounty, that they may be cared for through our clemency,.
All this property ought to be delivered at once to the community of the
Christians through your intercession, and without delay. And since these
Christians are known to have possessed not only those places in which they were
accustomed to assemble, but also other property, namely the churches, belonging
to them as a corporation and not as individuals, all these things which we have
included under the above law, you will order to be restored, without any
hesitation or controversy at all, to these Christians, that is to say to the
corporations and their conventicles: providing, of course, that the above
arrangements be followed so that those who return the same without payment, as
we have said, may hope for an indemnity from our bounty. In all these
circumstances you ought to tender your most efficacious intervention to the
community of the Christians, that our command may be carried into effect as
quickly as possible, whereby, moreover, through our clemency, public order may
be secured. Let this be done so that, as we have said above, Divine favor
towards us, which, under the most important circumstances we have already
experienced, may, for all time, preserve and prosper our successes together
with the good of the state. Moreover, in order that the statement of this
decree of our good will may come to the notice of all, this rescript, published
by your decree, shall be announced everywhere and brought to the knowledge of
all, so that the decree of this, our benevolence, cannot be concealed.
from Lactantius, De Mort. Pers., ch. 48. opera,
ed. 0. F. Fritzsche, II, p 288 sq. (Bibl Patr. Ecc.
Lat. XI).
Both texts translated in
available online from The Internet History Sourcebook Project (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/index.html)
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father. By whom all things were made, both which be in heaven and in earth. Who for us men and for our salvation came down [from heaven] and was incarnate and was made man. He suffered and the third day he rose again, and ascended into heaven. And he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead. And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost. And whosoever shall say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, or before he was begotten he was not, or that he was made of things that were not, or that he is of a different substance or essence [from the Father] or that he is a creature, or subject to change or conversion---all that so say, the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes them.
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.
I. If anyone does not confess that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one nature or essence, one power or authority, worshipped as a trinity of the same essence, one deity in three hypostases or persons, let him be anathema. For there is one God and Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit, in whom are all things.
II. If anyone does not confess that God the Word was twice begotten, the first before all time from the Father, non-temporal and bodiless, the other in the last days when he came down from the heavens and was incarnate by the holy, glorious, God-bearer, ever-virgin Mary , and born of her, let him be anathema.
III. If anyone says that God the Word who performed miracles is one and Christ who suffered is another, or says that God the Word was together with Christ who came from woman, or that the Word was in him as one person is in another, but is not one and the same, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, incarnate and become human, and that the wonders and the suffering which he voluntarily endured in flesh were not of the same person, let him be anathema.
IV. If anyone says that the union of the Word of God with man was only
according to grace or function or dignity or equality of honor or authority or
relation or effect or power or according to his good pleasure, as though God
the Word was pleased with man, or approved of him, as the raving Theodosius
says; or that the union exists according to similarity of name, by which the
Nestorians call God the Word Jesus and Christ, designating the man separately
as Christ and as Son, speaking thus clearly of two persons, but when it comes
to his honor, dignity, and worship, pretend to say that there is one person,
one Son and one Christ, by a single designation; and if he does not
acknowledge, as the holy Fathers have taught, that the union of God is made
with the flesh animated by a reasonable and intelligent soul, and that such
union is according to synthesis or hypostasis, and that therefore there is only
one person, the Lord Jesus Christ one of the holy Trinity -- let him be
anathema. As the word "union" has many meanings, the followers of the
impiety of Apollinaris and Eutyches, assuming the disappearance of the natures,
affirm a union by confusion. On the other hand the followers of Theodore and of
Nestorius rejoicing in the division of the natures,
introduce only a union of relation. But the holy
V. If anyone understands the expression -- one hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ -- so that it means the union of many hypostases, and if he attempts thus to introduce into the mystery of Christ two hypostases, or two persons, and, after having introduced two persons, speaks of one person according to dignity, honor or worship, as Theodore and Nestorius insanely have written; and if anyone slanders the holy synod of Chalcedon, as though it had used this expression in this impious sense, and does not confess that the Word of God is united with the flesh hypostatically, and that therefore there is but one hypostasis or one person, and that the holy synod of Chalcedon has professed in this sense the one hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ; let him be anathema. For the Holy Trinity, when God the Word was incarnate, was not increased by the addition of a person or hypostasis.
VI. If anyone says that the holy, glorious, and ever-virgin Mary is called God-bearer by misuse of language and not truly, or by analogy, believing that only a mere man was born of her and that God the Word was not incarnate of her, but that the incarnation of God the Word resulted only from the fact that he united himself to that man who was born of her; if anyone slanders the Holy Synod of Chalcedon as though it had asserted the Virgin to be God-bearer according to the impious sense of Theodore; or if anyone shall call her manbearer or Christbearer, as if Christ were not God, and shall not confess that she is truly God-bearer, because God the Word who before all time was begotten of the Father was in these last days incarnate of her, and if anyone shall not confess that in this pious sense the holy Synod of Chalcedon confessed her to be God-bearer: let him be anathema.
VII. If anyone using the expression, "in two natures," does not confess that our one Lord Jesus Christ is made known in the deity and in the manhood, in order to indicate by that expression a difference of the natures of which the ineffable union took place without confusion, a union in which neither the nature of the Word has changed into that of the flesh, nor that of the flesh into that of the Word (for each remained what it was by nature, even when the union by hypostasis had taken place); but shall take the expression with regard to the mystery of Christ in a sense so as to divide the parties, let him be anathema. Or if anyone recognizing the number of natures in the same our one Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word incarnate, does not take in contemplation only the difference of the natures which compose him, which difference is not destroyed by the union between them -- for one is composed of the two and the two are in one -- but shall make use of the number two to divide the natures or to make of them persons properly so called, let him be anathema.
VIII. If anyone confesses that the union took place out of two natures or
speaks of the one incarnate nature of God the Word and does not understand
those expressions as the holy Fathers have taught, that out of the divine and
human natures, when union by hypostasis took place, one Christ was formed; but
from these expressions tries to introduce one nature or essence of the Godhead
and manhood of Christ; let him be anathema. For in saying that the
only-begotten Word was united by hypostasis personally we do not mean that
there was a mutual confusion of natures, but rather we understand that the Word
was united to the flesh, each nature remaining what it was. Therefore there is
one Christ, God and man, of the same essence with the Father as touching his
Godhead, and of the same essence with us as touching his manhood. Therefore the
IX. If anyone says that Christ ought to be worshipped in his two natures, in the sense that he introduces two adorations, the one peculiar to God the Word and the other peculiar to the man; or if anyone by destroying the flesh, or by confusing the Godhead and the humanity, or by contriving one nature or essence of those which were united and so worships Christ, and does not with one adoration worship God the Word incarnate with his own flesh, as the Church of God has received from the beginning; let him be anathema.
X. If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified in the flesh is true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the Holy Trinity; let him be anathema.
XI. If anyone does not anathematize Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, Apollinaris, Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen, together with their impious, godless writings, and all the other heretics already condemned and anathematized by the holy catholic and apostolic Church, and by the aforementioned four Holy Synods and all those who have held and hold or who in their godlessness persist in holding to the end the same opinion as those heretics just mentioned; let him be anathema.
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