Encyclical Letter (complete)

What we have suffered is terrible and unbearable, and it is not possible to recount it worthily. But so that the dreadfulness of what has happened may be grasped more quickly, I thought it good to recall a story from the Scriptures. A Levite once was wronged in the person of his wife; and seeing the enormity of the abomination (for the woman was a Hebrew, and belonged to the tribe of Judah), and appalled at the lawless deeds dared against her, as the divine Scripture of Judges relates, he divided his wife's body and sent it throughout every tribe of Israel, so that such a wrong might be believed to concern not him alone but all in common; and so that, if they felt with him, they might avenge it, but if they overlooked it, they might be put to shame as being themselves guilty of the wrong from then on. Those who were sent reported what had happened; and those who heard and saw said that such things had never happened since the day the children of Israel came up out of Egypt. So every tribe of Israel was stirred, and all came together against the offenders as though they themselves had suffered; and in the end those who had committed the lawless deeds were defeated in war and became accursed by all. For those who assembled did not look to their kinship, but kept their eyes on the offense. You know the story, brothers, and what Scripture records about it in detail; I do not wish to elaborate on it further, since I am writing to those who know it, and I am eager to make known to your piety what is happening now, which exceeds those things. For this is why I have recalled this story: that comparing what happened then with what is happening now, and recognizing that these things have surpassed the cruelty of those, you may be more indignant than they were against the lawbreakers of that time. For what has been done against us has surpassed even the bitter deeds of the persecutions; and the Levite's calamity is small compared with what has now been dared against the Church; or rather, such things were never heard of in the world, nor has anyone experienced such evils. For then it was one woman who was wronged, and one Levite who suffered violence; but now the whole Church has been wronged, the priesthood insulted, and, what is greater, piety is persecuted by impiety. And then each tribe was appalled at seeing a part of one woman's body; but now the members of the whole Church are seen divided, and sent, some to you and some to others, reporting the outrage and injustice they have suffered. Be moved, then, I beg you, as though not we alone but you also had been wronged, and let each one help as if he himself had suffered, lest in a short time the Church's canons and the Church's faith be corrupted. For both are in danger, unless God swiftly sets right through you what has been done wrong, and the Church obtains redress. For canons and rules were not given to the churches only now, but were handed down well and securely from our fathers; nor did the faith begin only now, but it has come down to us from the Lord through his disciples. So that what has been kept in the churches from ancient times down to us may not perish in these present days, and what has been entrusted to us be required of us, be moved, brothers, since you are stewards of the mysteries of God, and you see these things being seized by others. You will hear more from the bearers of this letter; but I too have hastened to write briefly, so that you may know in truth that such things have never been done against the Church since the day when the Savior, as he was taken up, commanded his disciples, saying, “Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The lawless deeds done against us and against the Church happened thus. While we were holding our assemblies as usual in peace, and the people were rejoicing in the gatherings and advancing in a godly way of life, and our fellow ministers in Egypt, the Thebaid, and Libya were in love and peace with one another and with us, suddenly the prefect of Egypt publicly posted a letter in the form of an edict, announcing that a certain Gregory from Cappadocia was coming from the court as my successor. This report troubled everyone, for such a thing was new and heard then for the first time; and the people gathered in the churches all the more, especially because they knew that neither they themselves, nor any bishop or presbyter, nor anyone at all had ever made a complaint against us. They saw that only Arians were with him, and recognized that he himself was an Arian, sent to the Arians by Eusebius and his party. For you know, brothers, that Eusebius and his party have always been patrons and partners of the impious heresy of the Ariomaniacs, and through them have always plotted against us, and were the cause of our banishment into Gaul. For these reasons the people were rightly indignant and cried out, calling the other magistrates and the whole city to witness that this innovation and lawlessness had been perpetrated against the Church although no complaint had been made by the church's members, but the heretical Arians had contrived it against us. For even if there had been some complaint against us that had prevailed, it would have been necessary, not that an Arian, or one of those who hold the views of Arius, be brought in, but that, according to the church's canons and the saying of Paul, when the people were gathered together, and the spirit of those who appoint, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, everything should be examined and done in common, in the presence of the people and clergy who were making the request; and not that one brought from outside by Arians, as if trafficking in the name of bishop, should thrust himself, with the patronage and force of outside magistrates, upon people who had not asked for him, did not want him, and did not even know what had happened. This dissolves the church's canons, and compels the heathen to blaspheme and to suspect that appointments are made not by divine ordinance but by trafficking and patronage.

Such, then, was the remarkable appointment of Gregory by Arians, and such was its beginning. What lawless deeds his entry into Alexandria brought about, and how many evils it caused, you may learn by inquiring from what is written and from those who are staying among you. When the people were distressed at such an innovation, and for this reason gathered in the churches, so that the impiety of the Arians might not be mixed into the faith of the Church, Philagrius, who long ago wronged the Church and its virgins and is now prefect of Egypt, an apostate and a fellow countryman of Gregory, a man of no decent character who moreover has Eusebius and his party as patrons and is therefore zealous against the Church, won over the heathen mobs, the Jews and the disorderly, with promises which he afterward made good, and stirred them up, and let them loose in a body with swords and clubs against the people in the churches. What happened as a result it is no longer possible to tell simply; for it cannot be described worthily, nor could anyone recall even a few of the things without tears and lamentations. What tragedies of the ancients have told of such things? Or what such thing has ever happened in persecution or in war? The church and the holy baptistery were set on fire; at once there were groans and shrieks and lamentation throughout the city, the citizens too being indignant at what was happening, crying out against the governor and protesting against the violence. For holy and undefiled virgins were stripped naked and suffered what is not lawful to speak of; and if they resisted, they were in danger of their lives. Monks were trampled underfoot and died; some were hurled down, others were killed with swords and clubs; others were wounded and beaten. And at the holy table what impiety and lawlessness was committed! They sacrificed birds and pine cones, praising their idols and blaspheming, in the very churches, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God; and the divine books of the Scriptures which they found in the church they burned. Into the holy baptistery itself (alas for the audacity!) the Jews, slayers of the Lord, and the godless heathen went in without restraint, and stripping themselves did and said such shameful things that one is ashamed even to tell them. And certain impious men, imitating the bitter deeds of the persecutions, seized virgins and ascetics by the hands and dragged them off, and, mauling them, tried to force them to blaspheme and to deny the Lord …

And in addition to this, the remarkable and splendid entry of Gregory the Arian, delighting in such evils, as though offering a prize and reward for so lawless a victory to the heathen and the Jews and to those who had done such things against us, gave the church to them as plunder. And once such lawlessness and disorder had been permitted, things worse than wars and more savage than the deeds of robbers took place. Some plundered whatever they came upon; others divided among themselves the deposits that some had stored there; the wine, of which there was much, they either drank or poured out or carried off; they seized the oil that was stored there; each took the doors and the chancel railings as spoils; the lampstands they at once set aside in the wall, and the church's candles they lit to their idols; in short, there was plunder and death in the church. And the impious Arians, when these things happened, were not ashamed, but added still worse and crueler deeds: presbyters and laymen had their flesh torn; virgins, stripped of their veils, were led away to the governor's tribunal and thrown into prison; others had their property confiscated and were scourged; the bread allowance of the ministers and the virgins was withheld. And these things were done during the holy Forty Days themselves, around Easter, when the brothers were fasting, while the remarkable Gregory, taking on the manner of Caiaphas, raged drunkenly, together with Pilate the governor, against those who worship devoutly in Christ. On the Friday, at any rate, entering one of the churches with the governor and the heathen mobs, when he saw the people turning away from his violent entry, he made the most cruel governor in one hour publicly scourge thirty-four virgins, married women, and men of good birth, and throw them into prison; among them he had one virgin, who was devoted to study and was still holding the psalter in her hands, scourged publicly …

When this had happened, they did not keep quiet, not even afterwards, but planned to do the same as before in the other church too, where I was mostly living in those days; and they were eager to extend their madness into that very church, in order to hunt me down and kill me. And I would have suffered this, had not the grace of Christ helped me, so that I escaped, if only to be able to dictate even these few things. For seeing them raging to the utmost, and reckoning that the church must not be harmed, nor the virgins in it suffer, nor deaths occur again, nor the people be outraged a second time, I withdrew myself from the people, remembering the Savior who said, “If they persecute you in this city, flee to the other.” For I knew, from the evils they had done to the other church, that they would shrink from none of the horrors against this one too; since they did not respect even the Lord's Day of the holy feast, but on it too shut up the church's people in prison: on the day when the Lord set all free from the bonds of death, Gregory and those with him, as if fighting against the Savior and emboldened by the governor's patronage, turned the day of freedom into mourning for the servants of Christ. For the pagans rejoiced, since the day vexes them; but Gregory, perhaps carrying out the commands of Eusebius and his party, compelled the Christians to mourn through the affliction of bonds. By such violence, then, the governor seized the churches, and having seized them, handed them over to Gregory and the Ariomaniacs. And those who had been excommunicated by us because of their impiety boast in the seizure of the churches, while the people of God and the clergy of the catholic Church are forced either to share in the impiety of the heretical Arians or not to enter the churches. For Gregory has also put no small force and compulsion on the shipmasters and the others who sail the sea, through the governor torturing and scourging some, and binding others and throwing them into prison, so that … they may not oppose his lawlessness but may even accept letters from him. And not content with this, but to glut himself with our blood as well, he made the most cruel governor, his accomplice, write a decree against me, as if in the name of the people, to the most pious Emperor Constantius, containing invidious words, so that one must not only flee but expect countless deaths. And the one who wrote the decree is an apostate from the Christians, who shamelessly worships idols; and those who signed it are heathen and temple-keepers of the idols, and Arians with them. And not to be lengthy in writing: there is persecution here, and a persecution such as has never been against the Church. For in the persecution before this, one who fled could at least … cruelty, and has imitated the godlessness of Babylon. For as the men of that time did against Daniel, so the remarkable Gregory now denounces to the governor those who pray in their houses, and watches the ministers with every insult, so that through such violence many are in danger of dying unbaptized, and many are sick without anyone to visit them, and lament, considering such a calamity bitterer than the sickness. For the ministers of the Church …

Gregory, then, is an Arian, and was sent to the Arians; for no one asked for him except them alone. And so, as a hireling and a stranger, he works terrible and bitter things through the governor upon the people of the catholic Church, since they are not his own. For since Pistus, whom Eusebius and his party had earlier appointed for the Arians, after we had written about him (all of you bishops of the catholic Church know how you rightly anathematized and excommunicated him for his impiety), for this reason they have now sent Gregory to the Arians in the same way. Then, so that they might not incur shame a second time, if we wrote against them again, they used outside violence against us, so that, having taken control of the churches, they might seem to escape the suspicion of Arianism. But in this too they failed; for no one of the Church's people is with them, except the heretics alone, and those expelled for cause, and those who pretend because of the governor's compulsion. This is the drama staged by Eusebius and his party; these things Eusebius and his party long ago rehearsed and put together, and now they have been able to carry them out because of the slanders with which they slandered us to the emperor. Indeed, even so they do not keep quiet, but even so seek to kill us, and show themselves fearsome to our acquaintances, so that all are fleeing and expecting death from them. But you must not cower before their lawlessness for this reason, but rather avenge it, and be indignant at the innovations so made against us. For if, when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and according to the blessed Apostle we must weep with those who weep, then, when so great a Church suffers, let each one avenge the matter as though he were suffering himself. For the Savior, who is blasphemed by them, is common to all, and the canons, which are being dissolved by them, belong to all. For consider: if, while you were seated in your church and the people were assembling without any complaint, someone suddenly came by imperial command as successor against one of you, and such things were done against you, would you not be indignant? Would you not demand to be avenged? Therefore it is right for you to be indignant, so that …

You know, beloved, the doings of the Ariomaniacs; for you have all often condemned their impiety, individually and together; and you know too that Eusebius and his party, as I said before, are of the same heresy as they, and for its sake they plotted against us long ago. What has now been done because of them and by them, more bitter than wars, I have made known to you, so that, taking up a zeal that hates evil, after the example of the story told at the beginning, you may cut off those who have done such evils against the Church. For if last year the brothers at Rome, before these things had happened but on account of the earlier ones, wrote that a council should be held so that those too might be avenged (and Eusebius and his party, fearing it, hastened to throw the Church into confusion beforehand and wished to kill us, so that from then on they might do what they wished with impunity and have no one to refute them), how much more ought you to be indignant at such great lawless deeds and to condemn them, since they have added these to the former? I beseech you, do not overlook such great things, and do not allow the renowned Church of the Alexandrians to be trampled underfoot by heretics. For this reason the people and the ministers, naturally, stay apart, silent because of the prefect's violence and turning away because of the impiety of the Ariomaniacs. If, then, Gregory writes to you, or anyone else on his behalf, do not receive his letters, brothers, but tear them up, and put to shame those who bring them, as ministers of impiety and wickedness. And if he dares to write in a peaceful tone, do not receive even that; for those who carry the letters carry them out of fear of the governor, because of his many acts of violence. And since it is likely that Eusebius and his party too will write to you about him, I have hastened to remind you beforehand, so that in this too, imitating the impartiality of God, you may drive out those sent from them, because at such a time, for the sake of the Ariomaniacs, they contrived that persecutions, violations of virgins, deaths, plundering of the churches' goods, burning, and blasphemies in the churches should be carried out by heathen and Jews. And the impious and frenzied Gregory cannot deny that he is an Arian, since the one who writes his letters is proof of it. For this Ammon who writes them was long ago expelled from the Church by the blessed Alexander, bishop before me, for many evil deeds and for impiety. On all these accounts, then, be pleased to write back to us and condemn the impious, so that now the ministers here and the people, seeing your orthodoxy and your hatred of evil, may rejoice in your unanimous faith in Christ, and those who committed such lawless deeds against the Church, being corrected by your letters, may be able to repent, even if late. … the brotherhood among you. All the brothers with me greet you. Farewell, and remember us; may the Lord keep you, my lords …