Canonical Order and the Case of Peter
Canonical Letter to Domnus
By Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria.
Cyril to Domnus.
1. On a deposed bishop also ceasing from sacred ministry.
When each of our affairs moves straight along the path of canonical good order, it stirs up no turmoil for us; it also frees us from the slanders of some, and, better still, wins us the good word of right-minded people. For who would not welcome an impartial verdict, whomever it may concern? Or how could judging rightly and lawfully be anything but beyond reproach, or rather full of every praise? I write this now because your piety, in the letters you sent to me and to our most holy and most God-beloved brother and fellow bishop Proclus, calls the most reverent and most God-fearing Peter a bishop, while he weeps and says that he has been removed without reason from the church assigned to him.
It would have been consistent either for him to hold the name of the priesthood together with its reality, or at least, if he truly deserved not to preside at the divine altar, not even…
Greek
ΤΟΥ ΕΝ ΑΓΙΟΙΣ ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ ΑΡΧΙΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΕΙΑΣ Κύριλλος ∆όμνῳ Α Περὶ τοῦ ἐπίσκοπον καθαιρεθέντα καὶ τοῦ ἱερουργεῖν παύεσθαι. Ἕκαστα τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς πραγμάτων, ὅταν εὐθὺ φέρωνται κανονικῆς εὐταξίας , οὐδένα μὲν ἡμῖν ἐντίκτει θόρυβον, ἀπαλάττει δὲ καὶ τῆς παρά τινων δυσφημίας , μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ τὰς παρὰ τῶν εὖ φρονούντων εὐφημίας ἡμῖν προξενεῖ. Τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ἀποδέξαιτο ψῆφον ἀπροσκλινῆ, ἥ 277 περ ἂν γένοιτο περί τινων, ἢ πῶς τὸ κρίνειν ὀρθῶς καὶ ἐννόμως οὐκ ἀνεπίπληκτον ἔσται, μᾶλλον δὲ παντὸς ἐπαίνου μεστόν; Καὶ ταῦτα γράφω νυνί, τῆς σῆς θεοσεβείας ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτῆς γράμμασι, τοῖς σταλεῖσι πρὸς ἐμέ τε καὶ τὸν ὁσιώτατόν τε καὶ θεοφιλέστατον ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν καὶ συνεπίσκοπον Πρόκλον, ἐπίσκοπον μὲν ὀνομαζούσης τὸν εὐλαβέστατον καὶ θεοσεβέστατον Πέτρον, αὐτοῦ δὲ κλαίοντος καὶ τῆς ἐκνεμηθείσης ἐκκλησίας αὐτῷ παραλόγως κεκινῆσθαι λέγοντος. Ἦν δ' ἀκόλουθον, ἢ τὸ τῆς ἱερωσύνης ὄνομα μετὰ τοῦ πράγματος ἔχειν αὐτόν, ἢ γοῦν, εἴπερ ἦν ἄξιος τοῦ μὴ προεστάναι θείου θυσιαστηρίου, μηδ' αὐτῇ