1. К Иннокентию, епископу римскому письмо 1-е **

The first letter to Innocent was written after Easter, before the second exile of the saint. It tells of everything that happened in Constantinople since the arrival of Theophilus. The saint was deposed by the Council of Chalcedon, then again restored to his see; then he was again persecuted, accused and expelled from the Church. The soldiers invaded the church itself and the baptismal sanctuary, which is how the letter ends. To my most venerable master, most God-loving Bishop Innocent, John - (wants) to rejoice in the Lord. Even before receiving our message, your reverence, I think, had already heard about the lawlessness that has occurred here. The calamity is so great that there is hardly a place left in the entire universe where the rumor of this sad tragedy has not penetrated, and everywhere this rumor, spreading to the very ends of the earth, aroused sorrow and grief. But since it is only necessary not to grieve, but to try to improve matters and take measures to calm this most regrettable church storm, we considered it necessary to beg my most venerable gentlemen, the most reverent bishops: Demetrius, Pansophius, Pappus and Eugene, leaving their flocks, to set sail into this vast sea, to make such a long journey, to resort to your love and, having explained to you in detail everything, if possible, to speed up the correction of what has happened. Together with them we also sent the most honest and beloved deacons Paul and Cyriacus; and at the same time, we ourselves, as if in the form of a private letter, want to briefly outline the whole matter to your love. Namely, the primate of the Alexandrian church, Theophilus, as a result of various complaints against him that reached the ears of the most pious emperor, having received an order to personally appear (in Constantinople) as one of his own, arrived here, taking with him a very significant number of Egyptian bishops, and thus, as if he wanted to show from the very beginning that he had arrived actually for the war, for the battle. Then, having arrived in the great and God-loving city of Constantine, he did not go first of all to church, as required by custom and the long-established order, did not visit us and did not take part with us either in word, or in prayer, or in communion; but, having disembarked from the ship and passed by the church vestibule, he stopped to live somewhere outside the city, and although we earnestly asked both him and those who arrived with him to stay with us (because everything was ready for him - both the premises and everything that was needed), neither he nor the others agreed. Seeing all this, we were greatly embarrassed, especially since we could not guess the reason for such undeserved hostility towards us; however, on our part we did everything that decency required of us, urgently begging him to come to us and tell us why, from his very first step, he waged war against us so decisively and outraged the whole city. When he did not want to explain the reasons for his discontent, and his accusers, on the other hand, insisted on their demand, the most pious emperor, calling us, ordered us to cross to the other side of the strait, where he stopped, and examine the complaint filed against him there. It spoke of forced entry, of murder, and many other things of that sort; but we, knowing the paternal laws, respecting and honoring (such a highly placed) person and, moreover, already having a message from him that said that legal proceedings should not be transferred outside the dioceses and that in each diocese diocesan affairs should be conducted by its own court, did not undertake to judge him and resolutely refused. Meanwhile, as if continuing his first attacks, he called my archdeacon to himself and through him, with complete autocracy, as if the church was already widowed and did not have a bishop, he lured the entire clergy to himself: the churches, of course, stood empty, since first from one or the other the clergy were brought to him, incited to submit petitions to us and encouraged to denounce. Having arranged this, he turned to us and sent us a summons to trial, not yet clearing himself of the charges that existed against him, which was completely contrary to both church rules and all laws. 2. Knowing that we were not called to the court (here we would be ready to appear a thousand times), but to the enemy and the enemy, as could already be seen from what had gone before and as was confirmed later, we sent bishops to him: Demetrius of Pisinuntus, Eulysius of Apamea, Lupikin of Appiaria, also presbyters Hermanus and Severus, and responded with our characteristic compliance, saying that the courts were not we avoid, but we avoid the obvious enemy and the open enemy. In fact, who, even before receiving petitions against us, treated us as he did from his first step, who removed himself from the church, from communion, from prayer, who encouraged accusers, attracted the clergy to himself and led to the desolation of the church, can he with the right ascend to the throne of our judge, which in no way befits him? And it is incongruous (with the regulations) for a stranger from Egypt to judge those living in Thrace; moreover, he is a stranger who is himself subject to judgment, an enemy and adversary. But, not paying attention to anything, he decided to definitely carry out what he had in mind. Although we announced that we were ready to justify ourselves from accusations in the presence of at least a hundred, at least a thousand bishops and prove that we are innocent, since we really are innocent, he did not want to hear anything, and, despite our absence, our appeal to the council, an appeal to justice, despite the fact that we were avoiding trial, but obvious hostility, accepted (our) accusers, allowed those who were deprived of communion from me, accepted petitions against us from such persons, who had not yet cleared themselves of the accusations, and drew up a protocol in all this, from beginning to end, acting illegally and inconsistently with church rules. Do I need to say much more? Using all measures, all means, he did not calm down until that minute until he forcibly and autocratically ejected us from the city and from the church - in the late evening, with the whole people following us. The city kurios 1 dragged me through the entire city, brought me by force, threw me into a ship, and I sailed at night; - all this because I dared to make an appeal to the council about justice. Who is able to listen to this without tears, even if he has a heart of stone? But, as I said above, since one should not only mourn disastrous events, but try to correct them, I beg your love to be aroused, imbued with compassion and do everything to stop this evil. However, our enemies did not end their criminal actions with this, but even after they continued to act as before. Then the most pious emperor in disgrace expelled those who, in our absence, shamelessly broke into the church, and many of the bishops present in the city, seeing their lawless course of action, hastened to retire to their bishoprics so as not to participate in their violence, which was crushing everything like some all-destroying fire; Meanwhile, we were again called to the city and to the church from which we had been so unjustly expelled: more than thirty bishops introduced us, and the most God-loving emperor, for his part, sent a notary for this; he (Theophilus) instantly fled. Why and for what? When we entered, we asked the most God-loving emperor to convene a council to retaliate for what had happened before. So, knowing the matter behind him and fearing exposure, he, when the royal letters were already sent out everywhere and everyone was summoned from everywhere, secretly, in the middle of the night, boarded a ship and left with all his people. 3. However, despite this, with the full boldness of our clear conscience, we again turned to the most pious emperor with an urgent request for the same thing, and the sovereign, acting with the piety due to him, sent a letter to him, again summoning him, along with all his associates, from Egypt, so that he would give an account of what had happened and not think that what was so unfair and willful, despite our absence, done by one party, was enough for his excuses. But he did not listen to the tsar’s letter, and stayed at home - under the pretext of the otherwise possible indignation on the part of the people and the inappropriate, sometimes burdensome, attachment of some of his admirers to him, although before receiving the tsar’s letter the same people had repeatedly showered him with countless reproaches. However, we will not retell everything now, since with what we have said, we only want to show that he was suffocated in atrocities. Suffice it to add that even after this we did not calm down and urgently asked that a court be drawn up in which it would be possible to ask and answer; we said that we are ready to prove that we are innocent, and they are extremely criminal. There were still a few Syrians left here, who at that time sat with him and did everything together with him; we approached them with the readiness to sue them, we insistently demanded this many times, asking them to hand over to us the protocol, or the indictments - at least to tell us what kind of charges they were, or who these accusers were; but they achieved nothing of the kind, and were again expelled from the church. Will I be able to tell now all the circumstances that accompanied this, which already surpass any tragedy? What word would describe this? Whose ears hear about this without a shudder? While we were making proposals of this kind, as I said above, suddenly, on Holy Saturday itself, when the day was already approaching evening, a huge mass of soldiers burst into the church, forcibly dispersed all the clergy who were with us and surrounded the altar with weapons in their hands. The women, who at this time had undressed in the houses of worship to receive baptism, fled naked out of fear of this terrible invasion, since they were not given time to take care of the decency due to women; many of them were pushed out even by the wounded - the fonts filled with blood and the holy water in them turned bloody. But the horrors did not end there. The soldiers, some of whom, as we know, were not baptized at all, even penetrated into the place where the holy gifts lay, examined the entire interior of the sanctuary - the holy blood of Christ, as is understandable in such a pogrom, spilled on the clothes of the above-mentioned soldiers, and everything fell into such a terrible disorder, as if a barbarian invasion had taken place. The residents were driven out; all the people got out of the city; On such a holiday, the churches remained empty, without parishioners, and more than forty bishops who had fellowship with us were expelled along with the people and the clergy without cause or reason; everywhere there are groans, screams, tears - in squares, in houses, in secluded shelters, and in the whole city there is no place left where traces of this disaster are not visible; the crime was so enormous that we had compassion not only from those who suffered from it, but also from those who were not its victims, not only from fellow believers, but also from heretics, Jews, and pagans; in a word, it was as if the city had been taken by storm - everything was in such confusion, excitement and horror! And this was done without the knowledge of the most pious emperor, under the cover of darkness, by order, and in many cases under the leadership of bishops, who were not ashamed to go, having detachment commanders in front of them instead of deacons. With the onset of day, all the inhabitants moved outside the city walls, settling under the trees in the forests, and there they spent the holiday like scattered sheep. 4. From what is described here, it is easy for you to guess about everything else, because, as I said above, it is impossible to cover everything in detail in words. What is especially regrettable is that all these so numerous and so severe disasters have not yet ended, and there is no hope that they will end; on the contrary, evil is spreading every day, and we have become a laughing stock for many, or rather, no one laughs, even the most immoral people, but everyone mourns this, as I said, the enormity of evil, this unprecedented desecration of the laws. Is anyone able to describe the unrest that arose in other churches? The evil, of course, did not stop here, but also penetrated to the east. Just as if a severe pain forms in the head, then the other members relax, so now, as soon as the described disasters began in this great city, confusion immediately spread everywhere, and everywhere the clergy rebelled against the bishops, the bishops were divided or intend to be divided with the bishops, the flocks with the flocks, everywhere there were terrible disasters and the death of the entire universe. So, my most honest and reverent gentlemen, now knowing all this, show your due courage and zeal to stop this desecration of the laws that has spread in the churches. If this custom comes into force, if it is permissible for anyone, regardless of any distance, to invade other people’s neighborhoods, to disgorge everyone, to do whatever they want according to their own will, then know that everything will perish, a kind of merciless war will embrace the entire universe, everyone will disgorge everyone and, in turn, will be disgorged by others. Therefore, so that such confusion does not engulf the entire sunflower, take the trouble to declare by message that everything that was so illegally done in our absence by one party, when, moreover, we did not at all evade the court, has no force, as it really does not have any substance on the merits of the matter, and to punish those convicted of such a crime according to church laws; and for us, since we have not been convicted of any guilt, have not been exposed, and no guilt has been proven against us, allow us to continuously use your messages, your love and everything else, as before. If these lawbreakers now decide to bring any charges for which they unjustly cast us out, without informing us of either the protocol or the accusatory complaints, without even indicating who is accusing us, then let an incorruptible court be formed, and we are ready to sue, defend ourselves, and prove that we are innocent of what is accused of us, as we are truly innocent; Now what they did is completely inconsistent with anything, neither with the laws, nor with the church canon. But what am I talking about the church canon? Such injustice has never been allowed even in worldly courts, - I will say more: in any barbaric court; Of course, neither the Scythians nor the Sauromatians ever pronounced a sentence in this way, having heard the case from only one side, in the absence of the accused, who evades not the trial, but from hostility, who agrees to appear before a thousand judges, who says that he is innocent, that he is ready in the face of the entire universe to refute the accusations against himself and prove his complete innocence in them. Having discussed all this from my masters, our most pious brethren, the mentioned bishops, having found out everything in more detail, try to give us the help possible on your part. By this you will please not only us, but the entire body of churches, and you will earn a reward from God, who does everything for the sake of the world of churches. Always in good health, pray for me, most honorable and holy bishop. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” Written shortly after Easter 404. Job title for the Metropolitan Police Department. The kurios had the responsibility to carry out investigations into crimes and misdeeds committed in the capital, and to report the perpetrators to the highest authorities. You might be interested in: