Page:Orthodox Eastern Church (Fortescue).djvu/122

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THE ORTHODOX EASTERN CHURCH

heresies, especially the heretic Nestorius, sometime Bishop of the City of Constantinople, who was condemned at the Council of Ephesus by the blessed Celestine, Pope of the City of Rome, and by Cyril, Bishop of the City of Alexandria. We also anathematize both Eutyches and Dioscur of Alexandria, condemned by the holy Synod of Chalcedon, which we follow and embrace and which, following the holy Nicene Synod, taught the Apostolic Faith. We detest that parricide Timothy, called the Cat,[1] also his disciple and follower Peter of Alexandria. We likewise condemn and anathematize Acacius, some time Bishop of Constantinople, who was condemned by the Apostolic See, and who was the accomplice and follower of those others, and all who remained in their communion; because Acacius justly deserves the same condemnation as theirs for having mixed himself up in their society. Further, we condemn Peter of Antioch with all his followers and the followers of all the abovementioned. We receive and approve all the letters of the blessed Pope Leo, which he wrote about the Christian religion; and, as we have said, we follow the Apostolic See in everything and teach all its laws. Therefore, I hope that I may deserve to be with you in that one Communion taught by the Apostolic See, in which Communion is the whole, real and perfect solidity of the Christian Religion. And I promise that in future I will not say in the holy Mysteries the names of those who are banished from the Communion of the Catholic Church, that is, who do not agree with the Apostolic See. And if in any way I ever attempt to depart from this my profession, I acknowledge that by my own sentence I shall become an accomplice of those whom I have condemned. This my profession I sign with my own hand and address to you, Hormisdas, the holy and venerable Pope of the City of Rome."[2] We may, then, end our list of evidences of the Roman Primacy in the East with this formula of the early 6th century, than which certainly nothing could be plainer.

  1. See p. 14. He is only called a parricide because he was a Monophysite.
  2. Denzinger, xx. n. 141. The text of Hormisdas's formula often recurs in Acts of councils and letters: cf. e. gr. Deusdedit: Coll. Canonum, i. 112, pp. 89, 90, &c.