We
shall declare, then, that in the holy and great ecumenical synods this issue
was not raised, nor it is possible to find any definition on this question in
any of the orthodox councils. We know that several of the approved Fathers, and
particularly the most holy Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, spoke in some of
their writings of one life-giving activity of Christ our true God (Χριστου του αληθινου θεου ημων). Moreover, Means, too, [now] among the
saints, archbishop of this God-protected and imperial city, composed a document
addressed to Vigilius, who was then the most holy pope of Older Rome, in which
he too in the same way define that the will of our great God and Saviour (Titus
2:13) (του <μεγαλου θεου και σωτηρος ημων ‘Ιησου>
Χριστου) Jesus Christ is one and also that there is
one life-giving activity. (Sergius, First Letter to Cyrus, in Sophronius of
Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy: The Synodical Letters and Other Documents
[trans. Pauline Allen; Oxford Early Christian Texts; Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2009], 165)
We
have received the sacred letter of Your God-honoured Holiness, proclaiming how,
by the grace of the all-holy Spirit and the zeal pleasing to God of our
God-protected and victorious emperor, and with the godly admonition, filled
with all orthodoxy, of Your All-sacredness, a union has been effected
throughout the Christ-loving great city of Alexandria and all her districts, of
those formerly called Theodosians with the catholic and apostolic orthodox
church. On account of this, we are filled with spiritual and ineffable joy
(1 Pet. 1:8) and have offered up wholeheartedly hymns of thanksgiving to our
great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13) (τω μεγαλω θεω και σωτηρι ημων
‘Ιησου Χριστω),
because the late in the day, with the assistance of God, the dividing wall of
discord (cf. Eph. 3:6) has gone from our midst, through which the common enemy
of human beings formerly divided brothers from brothers, and all have appeared
and become fellows of the same body and fellow heirs (Eph. 3:6). As one
mouth and one tongue, they make both the fitting confession and the doxology,
as is pleasing, to the glorified, life-giving Trinity, and one Lord, one
faith, one baptism (Eph. 4:4) is proclaimed by all with one voice (και κηρυσσεται παρα παντων ομοφωνως εις κυριος, μια πιστις, εν βαπτισμα). (Sergius, Second Letter to Cyrus, in Sophronius
of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy: The Synodical Letters and Other
Documents [trans. Pauline Allen; Oxford Early Christian Texts; Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2009], 177)
