Letter to Emperor Jovian

1) It is fitting for a God-loving King to prefer love to all things and to desire heavenly things; for in this case your heart will truly be “in the hand of God” (Proverbs 21:1). So, since your piety desired to learn from us about the faith of the universal Church; then, having thanked the Lord for this, we intended above all to remind your piety of the faith confessed by the Fathers in Nicaea. Some, having rejected this faith, plotted many different intrigues against us because we did not agree to the Arian heresy, and they became the culprits of heresy and schisms in the universal Church. True and pious faith in the Lord is obvious to everyone; it is known and studied from the divine Scriptures; The Saints secretly guided by her became martyrs, and now, having been separated from the body, they abide in the Lord. This faith would always be preserved intact if the cunning of some heretics did not dare to distort it. A certain Arius and his followers attempted to corrupt her, and instead introduce their own wickedness, saying that the Son of God, of non-existent things, is a creature, a work, and changeable. And with these speeches they deceived many, which is why people, even significant ones, are carried away by their blasphemy, although our Holy Fathers, as we said before, having gathered at the Council in Nicaea, had previously anathematized it, and confessed the faith of the universal Church in writing, so that, preached everywhere, it would extinguish the heresy inflamed by heretics. Therefore, it was preached and known everywhere, throughout the entire Church, without deception. But since now some, intending to renew the Arian heresy, have dared to reject this faith, confessed by the Fathers in Nicaea, and pretend to profess it, but deny the very truth, reinterpreting the saying: “consubstantial”, and blaspheme the Holy Spirit, saying that He is a creature and the work of the Son: then we, of necessity, having seen how much these blasphemies are harmful to people, took pains to inform your reverently the faith confessed in Nicaea, so that your piety may know what is written with all accuracy, and how many people err in defiance of the Nicene faith. 2) Know, most God-loving Augustus, that this has been preached from time immemorial, this faith was also confessed by the Fathers who met at Nicaea, it was confirmed by all the local Churches everywhere in Spain, Britain, Gaul, throughout Italy, Dalmatia, Dacia, Mysia, Macedonia and throughout Hellas, also in all Africa, Sardinia, Cyprus, Crete, Pamphylia, Lycia, Isauria, Egypt, in Libya, in Pontus, in Cappadocia, and the Churches closest to them, and the Eastern, with the exception of the few who philosophize in the Arian way. We know the opinion of all the above-mentioned Churches from experience, and we have their messages. Let it be known to you, most God-loving Augustus, that although some, a few in number, will contradict this faith, this cannot serve as a condemnation when the whole universe contains the apostolic faith. These few, having long been infected with the Arian heresy, now resist piety with great tenacity. And so that your piety may know (which is no longer unknown to you), we tried to apply here the faith confessed by the Bishops of Nicaea. So this faith, confessed by the Fathers at Nicaea, is this: 3) We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of everything visible and invisible. And in the one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only begotten, that is, from the Father's essence, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father - the Son by whom all things in heaven and on earth were brought into being - for the sake of us men and our salvation, who came down from heaven, became incarnate, became man, who suffered, who rose again on the third day, who ascended into heaven, who was to come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. But those who assert that it was when the Son was not, that He was not until He was born, that He came from non-existent things, or who believe that the Son of God is from another hypostasis or essence, or that He was created, or converted, or changeable, is anathematized by the universal and apostolic Church. 4) In this faith, as divine and apostolic, it is necessary for us all to abide, Augustus, and no one should pervert it with cunning speculations and verbal disputes, as the Arians do, claiming that the Son of God is from non-existent, what was when He was not, that He was created, is a work and made manifold. For for this, as we said before, the Council of Nicaea anathematized such heresy, but confessed the true faith. At the Council they did not call the Son simply like the Father, so that they would confess Him not just like God, but true God from God; They wrote that He is Consubstantial, as is characteristic of the sincere and true Son of the true Father by nature. And the Holy Spirit was not recognized as alien to the Father and the Son, but on the contrary, they glorified Him with the Father and the Son in the same faith in the Holy Trinity; because in the Holy Trinity the Divinity is one. You might be interested in: