Letter 4: [Fragment 1] ...For the principle of God the Word took upon himself the first fruits of our nature, which he united...

Fragments of Pope Anastasius II to Ursicinus. 1. ... For God the Word, who is the beginning, deigned out of his great goodness to unite to himself these first-fruits of our nature, since he was not commingled but was seen as one and the same in both substances, according to that which is written: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up [John 2:19]. For Christ Jesus is destroyed according to that substance which he took on, and once destroyed he raises up his own temple. Likewise of Pope Anastasius to Ursicinus. 2. We confess, therefore, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, was indeed born of the Father before all ages, without beginning, according to his divinity, but in these last days was made incarnate from the holy Virgin Mary, the very same one, and made a perfect man from a rational soul and the assumption of a body, of the same substance as the Father according to his divinity, and of the same substance as us according to his humanity. For the union of two perfect natures was made ineffably, on account of which we confess one Christ, the same Son of God and Son of man, only-begotten of the Father, and first-born from the dead; knowing that he is indeed coeternal with his own Father according to his divinity, according to which he is the maker of all things, and that, after the consent of the holy Virgin, when she said to the angel: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word, he deigned to build for himself ineffably a temple out of her, and at once united to himself a body which he did not bring down from heaven, coeternal, out of his own substance, but took from the mass of our substance, that is, from the Virgin. Receiving this and uniting it to himself, God the Word was not turned into flesh, nor did he appear as a phantasm, but unconvertibly and immutably preserved his own essence, taking up and uniting to himself the first-fruits of our nature. Likewise of the same pope to the same person. 3. But never, through the resurrection of our union, did he depart from his own temple, nor can he depart, on account of his ineffable kindness.

Anastasii II papae ad Ursiciuuiii rragmenta. 1. . . . Nam principium Deus Verbum has nostrae naturae pri- mitdas per multam sibi bonitatem unire dignatus est, quia non per- mixtus^ sed in utrisque substantiis unus et ipse visus, secundum quod scriptum est: Solvite tejnplum istud^ et in tribus diebus resuscitabo Joh.2yl9. il/ud. Solvitur enim Christus Jesus secundum eam substantiam, quam suscepit, et solutum suscitat proprium templimi. Itemm Anastasii papae ad ITrsicinnm. 2. Confltemur ergo, Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Dei unigenitum ante omnia quidem saecula sine principio ex Patre natum secundum deitatem, novissimis autem diebus de sancta vir- cHxie Maria eumdem incarnatimi et perfectum hominem ex anima ratioiiali et corporis susceptione, homousion Patri secundum deita- tem, et homousion nobis secundum humanitatem. Duarum enim ixatcurarum perfectarum unitas facta est ineffabiliter, propter quod «•) G* refugUe, quod correximus. Baronius ad ann. 492 substituit hibere ne refvffii^- ex quo id effici videtur, utAnastasius noxium dnlce bibendum suadeat. j^fa^i^ placeret hihendum te non fugit. Alludit quippe Anastasius ad Laurentii verba, quibus medicinam his regionibus ministrandam flagitarat ; ac forte auctor fiierat, ut ab asperioribus yerbis temperaret. *•) Augurari hinc licet, Laurentium in epistola sua de legatione, quam Thes- salonicensis antistes tum parabat, quamque brevi postea destinatam esse mox -i sumas, nonnihil Bigniflcasse. t«) Seu eos coerceat, qni suis . . . concinnant. Editi quin . . . concinant. 40* (a. 497.) niiimi Christuni, euradem Filium Dei et hominis unigejiitum a Patre, et primogenitum ex mortuis confitemur; scientes, quod quidem coae- ' ternus sit suo Patri secundum divinitatem, secundum quam opifex est omnium, et dignatus est post consensionem sanctae Virginis, quum dixit ad angelum : Ecce ancilla Domini, /iat mihi secundum ver- bum tvum, ineflabiliter sibi ex ipsa aedificare templum, et statim sibi univit, quod noii coaeternum de sua substautia e coelo detulit corpus, sed ex massa nostrae substantiae, lioc est ex virgine. Hoc accipiens et sibi imiens, non Deus Verbum in carnem versus est, neque ut phantasma apparens, sed inconvertibiliter et incommuta* biliter suam conservavit essentiam, primitias naturae nostrae sosci- piens sibi univit. Itemm ejosdem papae ad enmdem. 3. Nunquam Jiutem per resurrectionem unitionis nostrae disces- sit a proprio templo, nec discedere potest propter ineifabilem suam benignitatem.