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embrace the sacred footsteps of your beatitude. 34 {1To the same. To the angel-like, most blessed, and apostolic father of fathers, Leo, pope of Rome, Plato the recluse and Theodore the presbyter and abbot of the Stoudios.}1 It is truly a great thing for us the humble and a matter of prayer from the Most High, who have been deemed worthy to receive from your apostolic beatitude a word of greeting, and indeed a note of its spirit-moved sacred sayings through Epiphanius our fellow-servant and beloved child, and this while being shut up by the heterodox and having seen the letter-bearer in person. At which things we leaped, we rejoiced, we gave thanks to the Lord, who by its divine prayers has paradoxically granted us unworthy ones things beyond hope, as we almost imagined seeing its sacred person through the words. But it, in imitation of Christ, has both addressed the lowly and rekindled our spirit, and it has strengthened what was weak and made firm what was inactive, as if anointing us with exhortatory and admonitory sayings beyond our measure, enjoining us to stand firm in the orthodox faith without swerving to the end (and may this happen for us through its merciful supplications), but we who are nobodies have thought it good again, just as before through this most faithful letter-bearer of ours and again through Eustathios his companion and our child, so now also to report to it the fitting things. A synod has taken place in our parts, O most blessed one, a general one, with the chief magistrates also sitting in session; and the synod was for the setting aside of the gospel of Christ, whose keys you received from him through the chief of the apostles and those in succession down to the one who preceded your most sacred highness. And so that your God-imitating clemency might bear to hear of it, let us begin from the law and the prophets. And so it says, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And Jeremiah, foolish and impious is he who keeps an adulteress, and Malachi, the lips of a priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty. Let us pass on to the gospel; whoever divorces, he says, his wife and marries another, commits adultery. And again, what God has joined together, let not man put asunder. And how great the difference is between law and grace, we shall know from the very words of the Lord who says, and behold, something greater than the temple is here; then also from the words of the apostle who says, Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses; how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant, and has outraged the grace of the Spirit? Since these things are so, then, those who with a lawless tongue disobey the things of the Lord have proclaimed the dissolution of both the law and the gospel (that is, the adultery of the former ruler in the expulsion of his lawful wife and the installation of the adulteress, and the transgression greater and more grievous than this, namely the adulterous union, because of bearing false witness against God and taking his name upon the unlawful act during the sacrament, and indeed giving to the adulterers the crowns of victory against Christ upon participation in the divine gifts, which were profaned as common things by the priest who performed the adulterous union, who was shown, in truth, to be a messenger not of God almighty, but of Satan the ruler of this world, and moreover of all those who through their complicity and approval in this transgression cast their lot with the adulterer and the priest who performed the adulterous union) to be a saving economy for the church of God, one so strong and divinely sanctioned that they synodically subjected those who did not yield and agree with them to anathema, along with imprisonments and other sufferings, on the grounds that they did not accept this economy to be a holy act. Hear, O heaven, says Isaiah, and give ear, O earth, for

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προσπτύσσονται τοῖς ἱεροῖς τῆς μακαριότητός σου ἴχνεσιν. 34 {1Τῷ αὐτῷ Τῷ ἰσαγγέλῳ μακαριωτάτῳ καὶ ἀποστολικῷ πατρὶ πατέρων Λέοντι πάπᾳ Ῥώμης Πλάτων ἐγκλειστὸς καὶ Θεόδωρος πρεσβύτερος καὶ ἡγούμενος τῶν Στουδίου.}1 Μέγα ἡμῖν τοῖς ταπεινοῖς ὡς ἀληθῶς καὶ εὐχῆς ἔργον τῆς ἀνωτάτῳ, ἀξιωθεῖσι δέξασθαι παρὰ τῆς ἀποστολικῆς ὑμῶν μακαριότητος πρόσρησιν προσαγορευτικήν, καὶ μὴν ἀποσημείωσιν τῶν πνευματοκινήτων αὐτῆς ἱερῶν λογίων δι' Ἐπιφανίου τοῦ συνδούλου καὶ ἀγαπητοῦ ἡμῶν τέκνου, καὶ ταῦτα κεκλεισμένοις οὖσιν ὑπὸ τῶν κακοδόξων καὶ ὄψει θεασαμένοις τὸν γραμματηφόρον. ἐφ' οἷς ἐσκιρτήσαμεν, ἠγαλλιασάμεθα, ἀνθωμολογησάμεθα τῷ Κυρίῳ, τῷ ταῖς θείαις αὐτῆς προσευχαῖς τὰ παρ' ἐλπίδα παραδόξως ἡμῖν τοῖς ἀναξίοις χαρισαμένῳ, μονονουχὶ καὶ ὁρᾶν αὐτῆς τὸν ἱερὸν χαρακτῆρα διὰ μέσου τῶν φωνῶν φανταζομένοις. Ἀλλ' αὐτὴ μὲν χριστομιμήτως καὶ προσηγόρευκε τοὺς εὐτελεῖς καὶ ἀνεζωπύρησεν ἡμῶν τὸ πνεῦμα, ἐπέρρωσέν τε τὸ ἀσθενὲς καὶ ἐστιβάρωσεν τὸ ἀδρανές, οἱονεὶ ἐπαλείψασα τοῖς ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς παρακλητικοῖς καὶ νουθετικοῖς φθέγμασιν στήκειν τε ἐν τῇ ὀρθοδόξῳ πίστει ἀκλινῶς μέχρι τέλους παρεγγυοῦσα (καὶ γένοιτο ἡμῖν ἱλέοις αὐτῆς ἱκετηρίαις), ἡμεῖς δὲ οἱ οὐθενεῖς καὶ πάλιν εὖ ἔχειν νενομίκαμεν, ὥσπερ τὸ πρότερον δι' αὐτοῦ τοῦδε τοῦ πιστοτάτου ἡμῶν γραμματηφόρου καὶ αὖθις δι' Εὐσταθίου τοῦ ἑταίρου αὐτοῦ καὶ ἡμῶν τέκνου, οὕτω καὶ νῦν ἀνενεγκεῖν αὐτῇ τὰ εἰκότα. Σύνοδος γέγονεν ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς, ὦ μακαριώτατε, πάνδημος, συγκαθεσθέντων καὶ ἀρχόντων τῶν ἐν τέλει· καὶ ἡ σύνοδος ἐπ' ἀθετήσει τοῦ εὐαγγελίου Χριστοῦ, οὗ σὺ τὰς κλεῖς ἐδέξω πρὸς αὐτοῦ διὰ μέσου τοῦ τῶν ἀποστόλων προστάτου καὶ τῶν ἀμοιβαδὸν μέχρι τοῦ προηγησαμένου τὴν ἱερωτάτην σου κορυφήν. καὶ ὅπως ἀνάσχοιτο ἐπακηκοέναι ἡ θεομίμητος ἐπιείκειά σου, ἀρξώμεθα δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου καὶ τῶν προφητῶν. καὶ γοῦν φησίν, οὐ μοιχεύσεις, οὐ ψευδομαρτυρήσεις, οὐ λήψῃ τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ σου ἐπὶ ματαίῳ. καὶ Ἱερεμίας μέν, ἄφρων καὶ ἀσεβὴς ὁ κατέχων μοιχαλίδα, Μαλαχίας δέ, χείλη ἱερέως φυλάξατε γνῶσιν, καὶ νόμον ἐκζητήσουσιν ἐκ στόματος αὐτοῦ, διότι ἄγγελος Κυρίου παντοκράτορός ἐστιν. μετέλθωμεν ἐπὶ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον· ὁ ἀπολύων, φησίν, τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ καὶ γαμῶν ἑτέραν μοιχεύει. καὶ πάλιν, οὓς ὁ θεὸς συνέζευξεν, ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω. ὅσον δὲ τὸ διάφορον νόμου καὶ χάριτος, ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν λόγων τοῦ Κυρίου εἰσόμεθα λέγοντος, καὶ ἰδοὺ πλέον τοῦ ἱεροῦ ὧδε· εἶτα καὶ ἐκ τῶν τοῦ ἀποστόλου φωνῶν φάσκοντος, ἀθετήσας τις νόμον Μωσέως χωρὶς οἰκτιρμῶν ἐπὶ δυσὶν ἢ τρισὶ μάρτυσιν ἀποθνήσκει· πόσῳ δοκεῖτε χείρονος ἀξιωθήσεται τιμωρίας ὁ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ καταπατήσας καὶ τὸ αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης κοινὸν ἡγησάμενος καὶ τὴν χάριν τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐνυβρίσας; Τούτων τοίνυν οὕτως ἐχόντων, οἱ μετὰ γλώσσης ἀνόμου τὰ πρὸς Κύριον ἀπειθοῦντες τὴν λύσιν τοῦ τε νόμου καὶ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου (ἤγουν τὴν μοιχείαν τοῦ πρὶν κρατήσαντος ἐπὶ τῇ ἐκβολῇ τῆς νομίμου καὶ εἰσοικίσει τῆς μοιχαλίδος καὶ τὴν ταύτης μείζονα καὶ χαλεπωτέραν παρανομίαν, ἤτοι τὴν μοιχοζευξίαν, διὰ τὸ ψευδομαρτυρῆσαι κατὰ θεοῦ καὶ τὸ τούτου ὄνομα λαβεῖν ἐπὶ τῇ ἀθεμίτῳ πράξει κατὰ τὴν μυσταγωγίαν, καὶ μὴν καὶ δοῦναι τοῖς μοιχωμένοις νικητικοὺς κατὰ Χριστοῦ τοὺς στεφάνους ἐπὶ μεθέξει τῶν θείων δώρων, τῶν ὡς κοινῶν ἐνυβρισθέντων παρὰ τοῦ μοιχοζεύκτου, καὶ ἀγγέλου οὐ τοῦ παντοκράτορος θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τοῦ κοσμοκράτορος σατανᾶ ἀποφανθέντος κατὰ τὸ ἀληθές, ἔτι μὴν καὶ πάντων τῶν διὰ συνδρομῆς καὶ εὐδοκίας ἐν τῇδε τῇ παραβάσει τὴν μερίδα θεμένων μετὰ μοιχοῦ καὶ μοιχοζεύκτου) οἰκονομίαν σωτήριον τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ προηγορεύκασιν, τοσοῦτον ὀχυρὰν καὶ θεοκύρωτον ὑπάρχουσαν, ὡς τοὺς μὴ εἴξαντας καὶ συνθεμένους αὐτοῖς ἀναθέματι συνοδικῶς ὑποβάλαι μετὰ φυλακῶν καὶ ἑτέρων παθημάτων, ὡς μὴ δεξαμένους ταύτην τὴν οἰκονομίαν ἁγιόπρακτον εἶναι. Ἄκουε, οὐρανέ, φησὶν Ἠσαΐας, καὶ ἐνωτίζου, γῆ, ὅτι