Pope Hadrians Letter from Nicea 2 Session 2
“you embrace the judgment of the Church
of blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles, and, as of old your predecessors the holy Emperors acted, so you, too, venerating it with honour,
love with all your heart his
Vicar, and if your sacred majesty follow by preference their orthodox Faith, according to our
holy Roman Church. May the chief of the Apostles himself, to whom the power was given by our Lord God to bind and remit sins
in heaven and earth, be often your protector, and trample all barbarous nations under your feet, and everywhere make you conquerors. For let sacred authority lay open the marks of his dignity, and how great veneration ought to be shown to his, the
highest See , by all the faithful in the world.
For the Lord set him who bears the keys of the kingdom of heaven
as chief over all, and by Him is he honoured with this privilege, by which the keys of the
kingdom of heaven are entrusted to him. He, therefore, that was preferred with so exalted an honour was thought worthy to confess that Faith on which the Church of Christ is founded.” “A blessed reward followed that blessed confession, by the preaching of which the holy universal Church was illumined, and from it the other Churches of God have derived the proofs of Faith. For the blessed Peter himself, the chief of the Apostles, who first sat in the Apostolic See
, left the chiefship of his Apostolate, and pastoral care, to his successors, who are to sit in his most holy seat forever. And that power of authority, which he received from the Lord God our Saviour, he too bestowed and delivered by divine command
to the Pontiffs, his successors, etc.”
“If you persevere in that orthodox Faith in which you have begun, and the sacred and venerable images be by your means erected again in those parts, as by the lord, the Emperor Constantine of pious memory, and the blessed Helen, who promulgated the
orthodox Faith, and exalted the holy Catholic
and Apostolic Roman Church your spiritual mother, and with the other orthodox
Emperors venerated it as the
head of all Churches,” “Faith, and exalted still more
your holy mother, the Catholic
and Roman and spiritual Church, and with the
orthodox Emperors who ruled after them, and so your most pious and heaven-protected name likewise will be set forth as that of another Constantine and another Helena, being renowned and praised through the whole world, by whom the holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church is restored. And especially if you follow the tradition of the
orthodox Faith of the Church of the holy Peter and Paul , the chief Apostles, and embrace their
Vicar, as the Emperors who reigned before you of old both honoured their
Vicar, and loved him with all their heart: and if your sacred majesty honour the most
holy Roman Church of the chief Apostles,
to whom was given power by God the Word himself to loose and to bind sins in heaven and earth. For they will extend their shield over your power, and all barbarous nations shall be put under your feet: and wherever you go they will make you conquerors. For the holy and chief Apostles themselves, who set up the Catholic and orthodox Faith, have laid it down as a written law that all who after them are to be successors of their seats, should hold their Faith and remain in it to the end.”
“For he never could have ranked second, save for the authority of our holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church, as is plain to all. Because if he be named Universal, above the
holy Roman Church which has a prior rank, which is the head of all the Churches of God
, it is certain that he shows himself as a rebel against the holy Councils, and a heretic
.
For, if he is Universal, he is recognized to have the Primacy even over the
Church of our See, which appears ridiculous to all faithful Christians : because in the whole world the chief rank and power was given to the blessed Apostle Peter by the Redeemer of the world himself; and through the same Apostle, whose place we unworthily hold, the
holy Catholic and
Apostolic Roman Church holds the first rank, and the authority of power, now and for ever, so that if any one, which we believe not, has called him, or assents to his being called Universal, let him
know that he is estranged from the orthodox Faith, and a rebel against our holy Catholic
and Apostolic Church.” “Peter and Peter, the God-loved presbyters and legates of the
Apostolic See , said:
Let the holy Synod say whether it receives the letters of the most holy Pope of Old Rome.
The holy Synod said: We follow, we receive, we admit them.”
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CHURCH FATHERS: Second Council of Nicaea
