Timothy Aelurus - Profession of Faith

The Profession of Faith of Saint Timothy, which he sent to the Emperor Leo by the Count Rusticus; and a partial history of that which happened to him afterwards.

Seeing that the illustrious Count Rusticus asked of me that I have regard to the Orthodox Faith, I make known my point of view in testifying that I anathematise all heresy, and those who say that the flesh of Our Lord came from heaven, or that it is an appearance, or that he did not have a rational soul. I also distance myself from the letter of Leo, governor of the Church of the Romans, who introduced a division into the one indivisible Our Lord Jesus Christ; because of which, I do not subscribe to the council of Chalcedon. For I was baptised, and I baptise, in accordance with the confession of the 318 holy Fathers of Nicaea; it is this that I preach and it is this that I believe, without any addition or subtraction, and those who believe in such a manner are in communion with me, for the Faith does not grow old and has no need of renewal with the passage of time.

I do not presume to say two natures in God who took a body and who was made man of the holy Virgin Mother of God. I confess above all the Faith, while I marvel with rapture at the indivisible, un-shakeable, and life-giving mystery of the Incarnation. It is a terrible thing indeed if the doctrines of each heresy stay as they are, and those of the Orthodox Christians change over time. It becomes an object of derision to the unbelievers if, in the last days of the world – while we wait for Christ our Saviour to come from heaven, in a frightening manner, for the second time – we are divided concerning the subject of the confession of his preaching. What will be made of those who, since the coming of Christ, baptised according to the symbol of the Faith? For me, therefore, in accordance with the divine Scriptures, this is the way I will live in Christ, with the same Faith which has been passed to me by the Spirit of holiness since the the first times; and this would be to me a blessing, of dying while keeping the profession of faith of the holy Fathers who recalled it without change, such as I received it and of which here are the contents: “I believe etc.”.

And after that finished, he said: Here is my faith; It is with this profession of faith that I request death and resurrection before the fearsome tribunal of Christ our Saviour, on the fearsome day of judgement when he comes in His glory, to judge the living and the dead. To Him be glory in the ages. Amen.

This holy faith and Divine teaching had been delivered in writing, by me Timothy, to Rusticus, the illustrious count, on the order of the merciful Emperor Leo, who required of me what I held with regard to the Orthodox Faith, every heresy was also denounced, and thus I anathematised the council of Chalcedon which disavowed in writing our Lord Jesus Christ by the impious teaching of two natures. After the Emperor had known my profession of the Orthodox Faith, those who had disavowed Our Lord drove him to make a judgement to condemn me to a painful exile, which was carried out against me, who taught, by the grace of God, the Orthodox Faith, while every heresy was confident, in general, across all the universe, with its teachers, who are the Antichrists, as John has said, the disciple of Our Lord, so that, in the imperial city itself, many heresies lived in confidence, with nobody to suppress them, and they progressed because of the evil of those who say two natures, misled and misleading in these last days. Those only who confessed the Orthodox Faith in piety: the Orthodox, were persecuted by the impious who spoke of two natures, in Alexandria and throughout all Egypt, and Libya and Palestine, because they wanted to live in piety in Christ.

When this condemnation had been carried out against me, I was delivered into the hands of my enemies and the enemies of Christ who disavowed him in writing, so that I was kept by them as seemed right to them, although since the beginning the law of the Romans and that of God had not ordered it thus: the Romans, indeed, did not have habit, as the Book testifies, to condemn a man while the indicters had not appeared before the defendant, and before the one who was accused had an opportunity to answer any irreligious person.

When the enemies of God had taken me away, they imposed upon me all that angers Christ whom they disavowed, and who will come with justice to judge the living and the dead before the fearsome tribunal to render to each according to his works. But nothing can separate me from the love of Christ, not even death, since the sufferings of this age are nothing in comparison with the glory which is to be revealed in us.

For they performed and imposed all these things when they pursued the flock of Christ and carried them away. They also used the secular force against us and sought to kill us in order to confidently take the churches, without there being anybody to reproach them for their corrupt practice which took place as I have written. They seemed to have strayed to the bad faith and the opprobrium of the Nestorians, that is to say, of those who say two natures, and they had the authority to do what they wanted without anybody being able to answer them.

As for us, we rejoice to be persecuted for Christ, who ordered us to be persecuted for Him and to rejoice; but the others will be in sadness and will weep, those who transgress the precepts of the Lord and obey the desires of the demon which taught them how to persecute us and to kill us, and they think, by our murder, of offering a sacrifice to God, according to the word of Our Lord.

We ask them: Which of your signatures do we give credence to? That given at the Second Council of Ephesus, where you anathematised and drove out as Nestorians those who dare speak of two natures in one Christ and who do not confess “one nature of God the Word incarnate”; or that given at Chalcedon, where you anathematised yourselves in writing by saying: “Anathema to those who do not confess two natures in one Christ after the union, but confess one nature of God the Word incarnate”?

Since they destroyed what they had built, they were revealed in writing like corrupt officials: because the same ones preached different things to us from those which they themselves had preached and which we had received from the beginning, from the holy Apostles and the blessed teachers of the holy churches. They will be anathema according to the judgement of saint Paul, that is to say of Jesus, Our Lord, who spoke in him and who will disavow them in front of His Father and His holy angels, when Our Lord sits on the throne of His glory to judge the universe in justice. By Him and with Him be glory with God the Father and with the Holy Ghost and Life-Giver, in the ages of ages. Amen.