A letter of the thrice-blessed Liberius, archbishop of Rome to the most God-loved Athanasius, archbishop of Alexandria, that God the Word took on a complete man.

1. So this is our confession, my longed-for Athanasius: The Word of God is the Son begotten from God the Father by nature, not created, but being eternal he is always without beginning along with God the Father and has the kingdom unceasingly to the endless ages. Amen.

2. And the Holy Spirit is truly from God according to nature, by nature God, undivided from God according to the Scriptures. So there truly is a Father and there truly is a Son and the truly is a Holy Spirit. Under threat of anathema, each name is not turned from that which it properly names. So the Triad is truly a triad in one deity and in one power and in one essence and in one hypostasis.

3. For the Son is not divided from the Father’s hypostasis nor is the Holy Spirit divided from the one who “fills heaven and earth” (Jer 23:24).

4. So as I said before, the Triad is in one hypostasis, not divided, and one in essence and one in deity and one in power and one in kingdom and one in glory and one in image and one in spirit. For the spirit is not divided.

5. So I say that anathema are the teachings of Sabellius and the teachings of Arius and the heresies forbidden before “to eternal punishment,” as the Savior says (Mt 25:46).

6. So if you, brother Athanasius, agree with me in this confession, which is the only true faith in the holy catholic and apostolic church, write to me as under threat of the judgment of God whether you think the same as we and those equal in the true faith do, so that I too may be confident and without doubt concerning the things you deem worthy to ask me.

7. You must also know, beloved, that the sons of truth confess that the deity is impassible and, as for the incarnate stay of God the Word, that he took on a complete man without sin, “born from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary” according to the gospels. In Jesus Christ. Amen.

Translated by AMJ

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