[103]

The Pope wrote letters to the emperor, to the empress, to the count
Justinian, especially to the bishop of Constantinople, recommending his
legates, and exhorting the bishop to complete the work which was begun by
condemning Acacius and his followers; also to the archdeacon Theodosius and
the clergy of Constantinople.[104] He points out especially that he wants
nothing new, or unusual, or improper, for Christian antiquity had ever
avoided those who had associated with persons condemned; whoever teaches
what Rome teaches, must also condemn what Rome condemns; whoever honours
what the Pope honours, must likewise detest what he detests. A perfect
peace admits of no division. The worship of one and the same God can only
hold its truth in the unity of confession which embodies the belief.

The papal legates were received honourably on their journey, and found the
bishops in general disposed to sign the formulary issued by the Pope. In
March, 519, they came to Constantinople, where they found the greatest
readiness. The patriarch John took the formulary, and gave it the form of
a letter, which seemed to him more honourable than a formulary such as
those who had fallen would sign. He prefixed to the document which the Pope
required to be subscribed the following preface:

"Brother most dear in Christ, when I received the letters of your Holiness,
by the noble count Gratus, and now by the bishops Germanus and John, the
deacons Felix and Dioscorus, the priest Blandus, I rejoiced at the
spiritual charity of your Holiness, in bringing back the unity of God's
most sacred churches, according to the ancient tradition of the fathers,
and in hastening to reject those who tear to pieces Christ's reasonable
flock. Be then assured that, as I have written to you, I am in all things
one with you in the truth. All those rejected by you as heretics I also
reject for the love of peace. For I accept as one the most holy churches of
God, yours of elder, and this of new Rome; yours the See of the Apostle
Peter, and this of the imperial city, I define to be one. I assent to all
the acts of the four holy councils--that is, of Nicaea, Constantinople,
Ephesus, and Chalcedon--done for the confirmation of the faith and the
state of the Church, and suffer nothing of their good judgments to be
shaken; but I know that those who have endeavoured to disturb a single iota
of their decrees have fallen from the holy, universal, and apostolical
Church;