78. Ye who have begun to be eager for apostolic and evangelical doctrine, kindled by the fire of faith amid the thick darkness of a night of heresy, with how great a hope of recalling the true faith have you inspired us by consistently checking the bold attack of infidelity! In former days it was only in obscure corners that our Lord Jesus Christ was denied to be the Son of God according to His nature, and was asserted to have no share in the Father’s essence, but like the creatures to have received His origin from things that were not. But the heresy now bursts forth backed by civil authority, and what it once muttered in secret it has of late boasted of in open triumph. Whereas in former times it has tried by secret mines to creep into the Catholic Church, it has now put forth every power of this world in the fawning manners of a false religion. For the perversity of these men has been so audacious that when they dared not preach this doctrine publicly themselves, they beguiled the Emperor to give them hearing. For they did beguile an ignorant sovereign so successfully that though he was busy with war he expounded their infidel creed, and before he was regenerate by baptism imposed a form of faith upon the churches. Opposing bishops they drove into exile. They drove me also to wish for exile, by trying to force me to commit blasphemy. May I always be an exile, if only the truth begins to be preached again! I thank God that the Emperor, through your warnings, acknowledged his ignorance, and through these your definitions of faith came to recognize an error which was not his own but that of his advisers. He freed himself from the reproach of impiety in the eyes of God and men, when he respectfully received your embassy, and after you had won from him a confession of his ignorance, shewed his knowledge of the hypocrisy of the men whose influence brought him under this reproach.

78. Orientalium laus ob haeresim coercitam.---O 0530C studiosi tandem apostolicae atque evangelicae doctrinae viri, quos fidei calor in tantis tenebris haereticae noctis accendit! Quantam spem revocandae verae fidei attulistis, constanter audacis perfidiae impetum retundendo! Antea enim in obscuro atque in angulis Dominus Christus Dei esse secundum naturam filius negabatur: et essentiae inops paternae, accepisse cum creaturis originem de non exstantibus praedicabatur. At vero nunc publicae auctoritatis professione haeresis prorumpens, id quod antea furtim 0531A mussitabat, nunc non clam victrix gloriabatur. 506 Quibus enim antea cuniculis in catholicam Ecclesiam non tentavit irrepere? Quas non exseruit, falsae religionis blandimento, saeculi potestates? Homines enim perversi eo usque proruperant, ut cum hoc ipsi praedicare publice non auderent, Imperatorem tamen fallerent ad audiendum. Fefellerunt enim ignorantem regem, ut istiusmodi perfidiae fidem bellis occupatus exponeret, et credendi formam Ecclesiis nondum regeneratus imponeret. Contradicentes episcopos ad exsilium coegerunt. Coegerunt enim nos ad voluntatem exsulandi, dum impietatis imponunt necessitatem. Sed exsulemus semper, dummodo incipiat verum praedicari. Domino enim gratias, quod ignorationem per vos admonitus 0531B Imperator agnovit, et errorem non suum, sed adhortantium, per has fidei vestrae sententias recognovit: et se invidia apud Deum atque homines impiae voluntatis exemit, cum legationem vestram honorifice habens, falsitatem eorum, quorum auctoritate in invidiam deducebatur, coacta a vobis ignorantiae suae professione, cognovit.