Commonitory 31–33

After all this we added also the judgment of blessed Cyril, which is contained in the church acts themselves. For when the letter of holy Capreolus, bishop of Carthage, had been read, who sought and prayed for nothing else than that novelty should be overthrown and antiquity defended, Bishop Cyril spoke thus and gave his decision; and it does not seem out of place to insert it here too. For he says at the end of the acts: "And this letter of the venerable and most religious Capreolus, bishop of Carthage, which has been read, shall be inserted in the record of the acts; its meaning is plain. For he wishes the doctrines of the ancient faith to be confirmed, and new things, superfluously invented and impiously published, to be reproved and condemned." All the bishops cried out: "These are the voices of all, this we all say, this is the wish of all." What, then, were the voices of all, or the wishes of all, but that what had been handed down of old should be held, and what had been lately invented should be rejected? After this we admired and proclaimed how great the humility and holiness of that council was: that so many bishops, most of them metropolitans, of such erudition and learning that almost all could dispute about doctrines, to whom their very gathering together might seem for that reason to give confidence to dare and to establish something of their own, yet innovated nothing, presumed nothing, arrogated nothing at all to themselves, but took every care not to hand down to posterity anything that they had not themselves received from the fathers; and not only arranged the present matter well, but also gave an example to those who would come after, that they too should honour the doctrines of hallowed antiquity and condemn the inventions of profane novelty. We also inveighed against the wicked presumption of Nestorius, in that he boasted that he was the first and only one to understand holy Scripture, and that all those had been ignorant who before him, endowed with the office of teaching, had treated the divine words: that is, all the bishops, all the confessors and martyrs, of whom some had explained the law of God and others had agreed with and believed those who explained it; and finally that he asserted that the whole church was even now in error and had always erred, since, as it seemed to him, it had followed and was following ignorant and erring teachers.

Although all this would be abundantly and more than enough to overwhelm and extinguish every profane novelty, yet, so that nothing should seem lacking to such fullness, at the end we added the twofold authority of the apostolic see: that of holy Pope Sixtus, namely, who now adorns the Roman church with honour, and that of his predecessor, Pope Celestine of blessed memory, which we have judged it necessary to insert here too. Holy Pope Sixtus, then, says in the letter which he sent to the bishop of Antioch about the case of Nestorius: "Therefore, since, as the Apostle says, the faith is one, which has evidently prevailed, let us believe what is to be said and say what is to be held." What, then, are these things to be believed and said? He goes on: "Let nothing more be allowed to novelty, since it is not fitting that anything be added to antiquity. Let the clear faith and belief of the forebears not be troubled by any mixture of mud." Altogether apostolic: he adorned the belief of the forebears with the light of clearness, and described the profane novelties as a mixture of mud. Holy Pope Celestine, too, in like manner and with the same judgment. For he says in the letter which he sent to the bishops of Gaul, reproving their connivance in that, abandoning the ancient faith by their silence, they allowed profane novelties to rise up: "Rightly the matter concerns us, if by silence we foster error. Therefore let such people be rebuked; let them not be free to speak as they please." Here someone may perhaps doubt who they are whom he forbids to be free to speak as they please, the preachers of antiquity or the inventors of novelty. Let him say it himself; let him himself remove the readers' doubt. For he goes on: "Let novelty cease," he says, "if this is so" (that is, if it is so, as certain people accuse your cities and provinces before me, that by harmful dissimulation you make them consent to certain novelties), "let novelty cease, then," he says, "if this is so, to attack antiquity." This, then, was the blessed judgment of blessed Celestine: not that antiquity should cease to overwhelm novelty, but rather that novelty should cease to attack antiquity.

Whoever opposes these apostolic and catholic decrees must first of all insult the memory of holy Celestine, who decreed that novelty should cease to attack antiquity; then deride the definitions of holy Xystus, who ruled that nothing more should be allowed to novelty, since it is not fitting that anything be added to antiquity; and also despise the statutes of blessed Cyril, who praised with great commendation the zeal of the venerable Capreolus in wishing the ancient doctrines of the faith to be confirmed and new inventions condemned; and trample on the synod of Ephesus too, that is, the judgments of the holy bishops of almost the whole East, who were pleased by God to decree nothing else to be believed by posterity than what the sacred antiquity of the holy fathers, agreeing with itself in Christ, had held; who also, shouting and acclaiming, testified with one voice that these were the voices of all, that this all wished, this all judged; so that, just as almost all the heretics before Nestorius, despising antiquity and asserting novelty, had been condemned, so Nestorius himself too, the author of novelty and assailant of antiquity, might be condemned. If anyone is displeased with their most holy consent, inspired by the gift of heavenly grace, what else follows but that he asserts that the profanity of Nestorius was not justly condemned? Finally, he must also despise as so much refuse the whole church of Christ and its teachers, the apostles and prophets, and especially the blessed apostle Paul: the church, because it has never departed from the religion of honouring and cultivating the faith once handed down to it; Paul, because he wrote: "O Timothy, guard the deposit, avoiding profane novelties of words", and again: "If anyone announces to you other than what you have received, let him be anathema." But if neither the apostolic definitions nor the church's decrees are to be violated, by which, according to the most holy consent of universality and antiquity, all heretics, and lastly Pelagius, Caelestius, and Nestorius, have always been rightly and deservedly condemned, then it is surely necessary for all catholics hereafter, who are eager to prove themselves legitimate sons of mother church, to cling to the holy faith of the holy fathers, to be glued to it, to die in it, and to detest, shudder at, attack, and pursue the profane novelties of profane men. These are, more or less, the things which, set out more fully in the two Commonitories, have now been compressed somewhat more briefly by the law of recapitulation; so that my memory, to aid which I have composed this, may both be restored by the constancy of reminding and not be overwhelmed by the tedium of length.