Even though the formidable and age-old evil serpent and common adversary of the human race,  Satan, has not ceased to war against the holy Church of Christ from time to time and to willingly study the extermination of pious and Orthodox Christians by utilizing (as instruments befitting this malice of his) certain malevolent powers, albeit on the contrary, the Grace and the Providence of the most benevolent God are not absent (given that He at times sends bold and willing opponents within His holy Church who fight bravely against all satanic influences and designs of the common enemy of our generation), the devil, by recognizing as the primary boast and unspoiled treasure of the soul and a necessary weapon for salvation and an amulet the healthy and proper and blameless faith of us pious Christians as well as the unalterable and unadulterated element found in our sacred dogmas which has been preserved unfalsified and unadulterated (especially in this part) as  most important and necessary, strives to conspire against our generation, hence the sprouting anew of so many different heresies and blasphemies and from the beginning within Christ's Church regarding our orthodox respectfulness, hastening to cast the more simple people into the pit of spiritual downfall, after the providential wisdom of the most merciful God through the Church's sacred Fathers had overthrown them and had introduced piety.

However even during our present times, we hear in these places - that is, in the provinces and the cities of Orthodox Christians that are under the jurisdiction of the most sacred patriarchal and apostolic throne of Antioch - that there are nestled and secretly sown in the souls and the minds of Christians the Latin cacodoxy and dogmas of perfidy (or, rather, of innovations and beliefs that are erroneous and rejected by the true faith), the leaders and teachers of which Latin dogmas - having found in those same places some easily fooled Christians (on account of their ignorance of the proper dogmas of the Church) and having deceived them by means of various sophistries, machinations and bad workmanship, did convince them to both apostatize from the Eastern Church of Christ and the proper dogmas and patristic traditions, as well as to believe in and accept the innovations of the Latin deceit as truths. 

Thus, having received the ecclesiastic office from God and elected to this patriarchal throne, the Most Holy Patriarch of Antioch, beloved in the Holy Spirit brother of ours and co-officiator, His Beatitude Athanasius, feeling the pain and the suffering for such a spiritual loss of those Christians subject to him, and coming here in person to the regnant of all cities and joining us as a brother along with the Most Holy Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Chrysanthus who is already preoccupied in the regnant city, and having tragically narrated and stressed to us and to our brethren hierarchs this misfortune and spiritual harm to the said Christians, also provoked in us a more than slight sorrow and sympathy, in order to jointly and synodically with His Beatitude deliberate and decide about the evil in question and about the cure thereof, making provision to write and to reveal to all the local Christians not to be fooled deceitfully, neither to open their ears to the vacant voices of the Latins, nor to accept their innovations and everything that through false deceit and disastrous dogmas through arguments of sophistry they are hastening to spread in your souls; instead, by being equipped with the upright dogmas and meanings of piety, fend off the falsehood and remain in your true and paternally-delivered tradition of the Faith.

As for the chief reason that forces the Latins to make such innovations and novelties, it is none other than to introduce the monarchy of the Pope and to prove that only the Pope - as they claim - is the universal head of the universal Church and the vicar of Christ and the only lord and bishop of the entire world, and above all the other Patriarchs and all the other High Priests, and that he can never sin and fall into any heresy, and that he is above the Synods - both ecumenical and local - and all else that the providence of a tyrannical authority assigns to it - which we shall elaborate on, further down; they also hasten to show that the Pope is capable of everything, and that everything he legislates and teaches is true and certain and not to be examined by anyone, and that it is imperative that all the pious do obeisance to him and accept these things without examination, and also base upon this weird and conceited authority of the Pope's all of their innovations and novelties and deceive the simple-minded folk, drawing them away from the pious dogmas of Christ's Church and dragging them wretchedly into the pit of perdition.

[Epilogue]

But, as we have said, that the all-innovating Latins not only overthrew and corrupted the dogmas of the pious faith, but also the traditions and the order of the Church, opposing themselves even to the Gospel teaching and the Apostolic Canons and the sacred Synods, and - said quite simply - to the Fathers of the Church and to the traditions of the Church that have been guarded from the beginning by all of us pious; also, that they have wittingly sinned maliciously against and opposed the truth (as they have made it abundantly evident to this day), no-one who has a mind can doubt it.

Nevertheless, if the evil had remained in their words only, we would not have cared in the least to judge them and condemn them, inasmuch as it would not have been of any benefit to them, who, out of stubbornness and illogical passion had excised themselves from the whole Church and had concocted so many innovations and novelties in the dogmas and the traditions of the pious faith. 

But, because we can also see that they hasten to impart their evil and the poison of their cacodoxy like pernicious serpents to even the simplest of the Christians of our generation - that is, to the Eastern Church of Christ - and with deceitful means corrupt them and drag them wretchedly to the precipice and the pit of perdition, it is for this reason that we sorrow, and in caring for our own Christians, we have written and revealed in brief in this present (text) those things that the Eastern Church of Christ believes and glorifies - as well as Her healthy and upright dogmas - and have likewise revealed the innovations and the deceits of the Latin cacodoxy, so that pious people might be supported in their piety and not be fooled by the Latin prattlings.

Therefore do we paternally and spiritually advise all Christians who are under the patriarchal throne of Antioch, both young and old, and of any and all ranks and situations, to pay good attention and guard your paternally-delivered faith, and remain steadfastly within the boundaries of the Eastern Church of Christ, which has preserved and continues to preserve - unshakably and unadulterated - everything that was delivered and taught to Her from on high and from the beginning by Jesus Christ and the holy Apostles, holy Synods and holy Fathers, and all the traditions of Christ's holy Church, both in writing and unwritten, and to stay far away from the innovations and the novelties of the Latins who have left no Dogma and Mystery and Tradition of the Church that they have not corrupted and adulterated; and, having done thus, and persevering in your paternally-delivered piety, you shall have multiple wages from God and eternal life and salvation of your soul, and from all the Fathers of the Church and by us, spiritual wishes and blessings. 

But, whosoever of you dares to violate the Dogmas of the Eastern Church of Christ and stir any of them and accept any innovation and deceit and falsehood of the Latin cacodoxy, let it be known with certainty by that person that he is sinning mortally, both for departing from the boundaries of piety and also for becoming accused of and responsible for eternal damnation, and shall be considered an irreverent and a heretic by God, receiving the curses of Christ and the Apostles and the Synods and all of the Saints of the Church, as a transgressor and a despiser of their teaching and tradition.

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Identical to what is equal to the Patriarchal signatures and those of the other hierarchs:

† Jeremiah, by the mercy of God archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch, do opine and confess that this is the glory and the confession of the Holy Eastern Church of Christ regarding the problems reported herein.

† Athanasius, by the mercy of God Patriarch of the great city of God, Antioch, do co-opine and confess this to be the glory and the confession of the Holy Eastern Church of Christ regarding the problems reported herein.

† Chrysanthus, by the mercy of God Patriarch of the city of Jerusalem and all Palestine, do opine that this is the glory and the confession of the Holy Eastern Church of Christ regarding the problems reported herein.

† I,  Kallinikos, having been proposed and accepted as representative of Heracleia and Redestos, hereby co-believe and co-speak with the most holy Patriarchs, and thus confess and glorify, with heart and mouth, that which the holy, catholic and apostolic church of Christ preaches.

† Auxentius of Kyzikos, in acceptance of the aforementioned, do hereby co-believe and co-speak with the most holy Patriarchs, and thus confess and glorify, with heart and mouth, that which the holy, catholic and apostolic church of Christ preaches.

† Paisios of Nicomedia, in acceptance of the aforementioned, do hereby co-believe and co-speak with the most holy Patriarchs, and thus confess until my dying breath

† Gerasimus of Nicaea, regarding those things that are included herein, am entirely of the same belief as the most holy Patriarchs.

† Parthenius of Chalcedon, in acceptance of the aforementioned, do hereby co-believe and co-speak with the most holy Patriarchs,  and thus confess and glorify, with heart and mouth, that which the holy, catholic and apostolic church of Christ preaches.

† Gregorius of Ganou and Chora, in acceptance of the aforementioned, do hereby co-believe and co-speak with the most holy Patriarchs,  and thus confess and glorify, with heart and mouth, that which the holy, catholic and apostolic church of Christ preaches.

† Anastasios of Sofia, in acceptance of the aforementioned, do hereby co-believe and co-speak with the most holy Patriarchs,  and thus confess and glorify, with heart and mouth, that which the holy, catholic and apostolic church of Christ preaches.

 

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