A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

655the notary and John the abbot arrive, she will seek in all ways thecommunion of the fraternity.(e) Gregory the Great, Ep. ad Constantium, Reg. IV, 39. (MSL,77:713.)In reply to a letter from Constantius of Milan informing Gregorythat the demand had been made upon him by the clergyof Brescia that he should take an oath that he, Constantius,had not condemned the Three Chapters, i.e., had not acceptedthe Fifth General Council, Gregory advises him to take nosuch oath.But lest those who have thus written to you should be offended,send them a letter declaring under an imposition of an anathemathat you neither take away anything from the faith of the synodof Chalcedon nor receive those who do, and that you condemnwhatsoever it condemned and absolve whatsoever it absolved.And thus I believe that they may soon be satisfied.… As towhat you have written to the effect that you are unwilling totransmit my letter to Queen Theodelinda on the ground that thefifth synod is named in it, for you believed that she might beoffended, you did right not to transmit it. We are therefore doingnow as you recommended, namely, only expressing approvalof the four synods. Yet as to the synod which was afterwardcalled at Constantinople, which is called by many the fifth, Iwould have you know that it neither ordained nor held anythingin opposition to the four most holy synods, seeing that nothingwas done in it with respect to the faith, but only with respectto three persons, about whom nothing is contained in the actsof the Council of Chalcedon; 250 but after the canons had been250 Gregory is not correct here. In the eighth, ninth, and tenth sessions of theCouncil of Chalcedon, the cases of Theodoret and Ibas were examined, theywere heard in their own defence and were acquitted or excused without censure.