Letters

[To Eustathius the philosopher.] I had already given up in the face of the abuse of what is called fortune, from which some obstacle has always arisen to keep me from meeting you, when you wonderfully called me back and comforted me with your letter. For I had already been turning it over in my own mind whether what most people chatter about might not be true: that there is a certain necessity and fate which drives both the smaller and the greater of our affairs, and that we human beings are masters of nothing; or, if not that, that some chance at any rate drives human life. And you will pardon these reasonings when you learn the causes by which I was led to them. I left Athens because of the report of your philosophy, scorning what was there. I ran past the city on the Hellespont more firmly than any Odysseus ran past the Sirens' songs; and though I admired Asia, I hurried on to the capital of its glories. But when I reached my homeland and looked for you there, my great gain, and did not find you, from then on the many and varied occasions of unexpected hindrances befell me. Either I had to fall ill and be left behind for that reason, or I could not set out with you as you went …; and when at last, after countless labors, I reached Syria, I could not be with the philosopher, who had set out for Egypt. So I had to go again to Egypt, “a long and grievous road,” and not even there to have what I was eager for. But so unlucky in love was I that I had either to go on toward Persia and advance as far as possible into the land of the barbarians (for you had gone there too, so great was the demon's contentiousness), or to sit here in the city of Alexander, which is what in fact happened. For it seems to me that, had I not given up, following you like some beast following a branch held out before it, you would have been led on beyond even Nysa of India, and if there is any farthest spot of our inhabited world, I too would have wandered to it. And why say more? At the last, now that you are living in our homeland, it has not been possible to meet you, since you are kept away by long illnesses; and unless these become milder from now on, I shall not be with your eloquence even this winter. Are these not the work of fate, as you yourself would say? Are these not of necessity? Do they not almost surpass the poets' myths about Tantalus? But, as I said, I have come to myself through your letter, and I am no longer of the same opinion. I say that we must be grateful to God when he gives good things, and not be vexed when he withholds them. And so, if he grants us to be with you, we shall count this both best and sweetest; and if he postpones it, we shall bear the loss gently. For he surely manages our affairs better in every way than we would choose.

Basil to Gregory. 1. I recognized your letter, as people recognize the children of their friends from the likeness to their parents that shows in them. For to say that the setting of the place was no great matter for awakening in your soul some impulse toward the life with us, before you should learn something of our way and manner of living, was truly your thought, and worthy of your soul, which counts all things here as nothing compared with the blessedness laid up for us in the promises. As for what I myself do in this remote place night and day, I am ashamed to write. For I have left the pursuits of the city as the occasions of countless evils, but myself I have not yet been able to leave. Rather, I am like those at sea who, through inexperience of sailing, are distressed and seasick: they are annoyed at the size of the ship because it makes much tossing, and so they move from it into the skiff or the small boat, and everywhere they are seasick and distressed, for their nausea and bile go with them. Ours is something like that. For we carry our indwelling passions around with us, and so everywhere we are with the same disturbances. So we have not gained much from this solitude. Yet what one ought to do, and from what we might have been able to keep to the footsteps of him who has led the way to salvation (for “If anyone,” he says, “wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me”), is this. 2. One must try to keep the mind in quiet. For just as the eye that is continually turned about, now carried round to the sides, now often turned up and down, cannot see clearly what lies before it, but the sight must be fixed on the object if it is to make its view of it clear; so too the human mind, dragged about by the world's countless cares, cannot fix its gaze clearly on the truth. The man not yet yoked in the bonds of marriage is thrown into confusion by raging desires, hard-to-restrain impulses, and certain ill-starred loves; the man already bound to a spouse takes on another tumult of cares: in childlessness, the desire for children; in having children, anxiety over their upbringing; the guarding of his wife, the care of his house, the oversight of his servants, the losses in contracts, the quarrels with neighbors, the entanglements in the courts, the risks of trade, the toils of farming. Every day comes bringing its own darkening of the soul, and the nights, taking over the cares of the day, deceive the mind with the same images. Of these things there is one escape: separation from the whole world. But withdrawal from the world is not to be bodily outside it, but to break off the soul's sympathy with the body, and to become without city, without home, without anything of one's own, without companions, without possessions, without livelihood, without business, without contracts, untaught in human teachings, ready to receive in the heart the impressions that arise from divine teaching. And the preparation of the heart is the unlearning of the teachings that have taken prior hold of it from evil habit. For one cannot write on wax without first smoothing away the letters laid on it, nor plant divine doctrines in a soul without first removing the preconceptions that come from custom. Toward this, solitude gives us the greatest help, lulling our passions and giving reason leisure to cut them out of the soul completely. For as wild beasts are easily mastered when they have been stroked, so desires, angers, fears, and griefs, the venomous evils of the soul, when lulled by quiet and not made savage by continual provocation, become easier to master by the power of reason. Let the place, then, be such as ours is, removed from human intercourse, so that the continuity of the ascetic discipline is not broken by anything from outside. The discipline of godliness nourishes the soul with divine thoughts. What then is more blessed than to imitate on earth the choir of angels: at the very beginning of the day to hasten to prayer, honoring the Creator with hymns and songs; then, when the sun shines out clearly, to turn to work, with prayer everywhere accompanying it, seasoning one's labors with hymns as with salt? For the consolations of hymns bestow on the soul a cheerful and untroubled state. Quiet, then, is the beginning of the soul's cleansing: the tongue not speaking the things of men, the eyes not gazing about at the fine complexions and proportions of bodies, the hearing not slackening the soul's tension with songs composed for pleasure or with the words of witty and joking men, which is above all what loosens the soul's tension. For the mind that is not scattered on things outside, nor poured out over the world through the senses, returns to itself, and through itself ascends to the thought of God; and illumined by that beauty, it forgets even its own nature. It is dragged down neither to concern for food nor to anxiety about clothing; but, having leisure from earthly cares, it transfers all its zeal to the acquisition of eternal goods: how self-control and courage may be achieved by it, how justice and prudence, and the other virtues, which, classed under these general ones, prompt the earnest man to fulfill duly each of the duties of life. 3. The greatest path to the discovery of duty is the study of the divinely inspired Scriptures. For in them are found both the precepts for action and the lives of blessed men, handed down in writing, set before us like living images of the life according to God for the imitation of good works. And so, in whatever respect each person perceives himself deficient, by dwelling on that, he finds, as from a common dispensary, the medicine suited to his ailment. The lover of self-control continually unrolls the story of Joseph, and from him learns the deeds of self-control, finding him not only master of himself toward pleasures but disposed toward virtue as a settled habit. He is schooled in courage by Job, who, when his life turned to its opposite and he became poor instead of rich and childless instead of the father of fine children in one turn of the moment, not only remained the same, keeping the spirit of his soul everywhere unhumbled, but was not even provoked when the friends who had come to comfort him trampled on him and increased his pains. Again, if one considers how he might be gentle and at the same time high-spirited, so as to use anger against sin and gentleness toward men, he will find David, valiant in the brave deeds of war, but gentle and unmoved in requiting his enemies. Such too was Moses, rising up with great anger against those who sinned against God, but bearing with a gentle soul the slanders against himself. And everywhere, just as painters, when they paint pictures from pictures, look often at the model and are eager to transfer its features to their own work, so he who is eager to make himself perfect in every part of virtue must look to the lives of the saints as to statues, so to speak, that move and act, and make their goodness his own by imitation. 4. Again, prayers following on reading take up the soul fresher and more vigorous, stirred by longing for God. And good prayer is that which produces a clear thought of God in the soul. And this is God's indwelling: to have God established in oneself through remembrance. So we become a temple of God, when the continuity of remembrance is not broken by earthly cares, nor the mind disturbed by unexpected passions, but the lover of God, escaping all these, withdraws to God, driving away the things that call him to intemperance, and spends his time in the pursuits that lead to virtue. 5. And first of all one must be eager not to be unskilled in the use of speech: to ask questions without contentiousness and to answer without contentiousness or love of honor, not interrupting the one he is conversing with when he says something useful, nor wanting to throw in his own word for display, setting limits to speech and to hearing; to learn without shame and to teach without grudging; and if he has learned something from another, not to hide it, as worthless women pass off bastard children, but to proclaim gratefully the father of the word. The middle tone of voice is to be preferred, so that it neither escapes the hearing by its smallness nor is burdensome by its great loudness. One should first consider in oneself what is to be said, and then bring the word out in public. Be affable in meeting people, sweet in conversation, not hunting for pleasantness through witticisms, but having kindness through gracious exhortation. Everywhere push away harshness, even if one must rebuke. For by first casting yourself down through humility, you will be well received by the one who needs the treatment. Often the prophet's way of rebuking is useful to us too: when David sinned, he did not bring the sentence of condemnation from himself, but, using an imagined person, made David himself the judge of his own sin, so that, having pronounced the judgment against himself, he could no longer blame the one who had convicted him. 6. To the humble and lowly spirit belong an eye downcast and bent toward the ground, a neglected appearance, unkempt hair, dirty clothing, so that what mourners do deliberately appears in us of its own accord. The tunic is to be fastened to the body by a belt, the belt neither above the hips, for that is womanish, nor slack, so that the tunic slips about, for that is lazy. The gait is to be neither sluggish, so as to betray a slackness of soul, nor again violent and hurried, so as to show its impulses to be frenzied. The one aim of clothing is to be a covering of the flesh, sufficient for winter and summer. Let neither brightness of color be pursued, nor fineness and softness in the making. For to look out for fine colors in clothing is like women's adornment, which they practice by dyeing their cheeks and hair with a borrowed bloom. Yet the tunic ought to be thick enough not to need another to keep its wearer warm. The shoe should be cheap in price, but meet the need adequately. And in a word, as in clothing what is needed is to be sought, so also in food bread will fill the need, water will cure the thirst of the healthy, and whatever dishes from seeds can preserve the body's strength for necessary uses. One should eat without showing a raging gluttony, but keeping everywhere steadiness, gentleness, and self-mastery toward pleasures, not even then keeping the mind idle from the thought of God, but making the very nature of the foods and the structure of the body that receives them an occasion of glorifying him: how varied kinds of food, suited to the particular nature of bodies, have been devised by him who orders all things. Let prayers before food be worthy of God's gifts, both those he gives now and those he has stored up for the future; prayers after food, holding thanksgiving for what has been given and a request for what has been promised. Let there be one hour appointed for food, the same one recurring in its turn, so that of the twenty-four hours of the night and day barely this one is spent on the body, and the ascetic occupies the rest in the activity of the mind. Let sleep be light and easily shaken off, following naturally on the lightness of the diet, and broken deliberately by cares about great things. For to be overpowered by deep drowsiness, with the limbs relaxed, so as to give room to senseless fancies, puts those who sleep so into a daily death. But what dawn is to others, midnight is to the ascetics of godliness, since the quiet of night above all gives the soul leisure, neither eyes nor ears sending harmful sounds or sights into the heart, but the mind alone by itself being with God, correcting itself by the remembrance of its sins, and seeking … from God …

To Candidianus. 1. When I took your letter into my hands, something worth telling happened to me. I was wary of it, as though it announced something official, and while I was loosening the wax I was afraid to look at it, as no Spartan under accusation ever looked at a Laconic dispatch-staff. But when I had opened it and gone through every part, I had to laugh, partly from pleasure at hearing nothing new, partly from comparing your conduct with that of Demosthenes. For he, when he paid for a few chorus-singers and flute-players, no longer thought fit to be called Demosthenes but “the chorus-master”; whereas you are the same whether you are paying or not, though you pay for more tens of thousands of soldiers than the men he furnished with supplies. You do not write to us in accordance with your rank, but in your usual way; and you do not slacken at all in your zeal for letters, but, in Plato's phrase, standing aside as under some strong wall in the winter and storm of affairs, you keep your soul free of every disturbance, or rather you do not even allow others to be disturbed, as far as it lies with you. Such are your affairs: great and wonderful to those able to see them, and yet again not wonderful to one who judges by the whole purpose of your life. Hear now ours, which are strange, and yet what one would expect to befall us. 2. A certain rustic, one of those who live near us at Annesi, after a servant of mine died, without saying he had any contract with him, without coming to me, without making any complaint, without asking to receive anything from me willingly, without threatening to use force if he did not get it, suddenly with some others like himself fell upon my house in his madness, beat and battered the women who were guarding it, broke down the doors, and carried everything off, taking some things himself and leaving the rest for anyone who wanted to plunder. So, that we may not be the last limit of weakness and seem a fit target for every attack, please now bring to bear the zeal you have shown in all our affairs. For only so would our freedom from trouble be preserved, if we are drawn up under your energy. And it would be satisfaction enough for us if, arrested through the district governor, he were shut up in prison for a short time. For we are not only indignant at what we have suffered; we also need security for the future.

To Olympius. What are you doing, my admirable friend, driving out of our remote place our dear Poverty, the nurse of philosophy? For I think you would be sued by her for ejection, if she could find a voice: “This is the man I chose to live with, now praising Zeno, who, having lost everything in a shipwreck, uttered nothing ignoble, but said, ‘Well done, Fortune: you are driving us into the philosopher's cloak’; now Cleanthes, who drew water from the well for pay, from which he both lived himself and paid his teachers. And Diogenes he never stopped admiring, who made it his ambition to be content with the bare gifts of nature, so that he even threw away his cup after he was taught by a boy to drink by stooping and using his hollowed hands.” With these and such words our housemate Poverty might reproach you, now that she has been evicted by your great generosity. And she might add a threat: “If I catch you here again, I will make your former state look like Sicilian or Italian luxury; so exactly will I repay you with what is mine.” So much for that. But I was glad to hear that you have already begun your treatment, and I pray that you may profit from it. May painless service from the body befit your holy soul.

To Nectarius, a letter of consolation. 1. It was not yet the third or fourth day since I had been struck by the report of the unbearable calamity, and I was still in doubt, both because the messenger was not able to tell us clearly what had happened and because, praying that it might not be true, I was slow to accept what was being said, when I received a letter from the bishop that reported the dreaded news exactly. How much I groaned at it, and how many tears I shed, what need is there even to say? For who is so stony of heart, or so wholly outside human nature, as to bear what has happened without feeling, or to have his soul seized by only a moderate grief? The heir of an illustrious house, the prop of a family, the hope of his homeland, the offspring of devout parents, nurtured amid countless prayers, in the very flower of his age, is gone, snatched from the midst of his father's hands. What nature of adamant would these things not be enough to melt and bring to sympathy? So it is no great wonder if the evil has touched us deeply too, who from the beginning have been wholly bound up with you and have made both your joys and your griefs our own. And yet it seemed, at least up to the present time, that the things that grieved you were few, and that in most things your affairs were going with the stream. But suddenly, by the envy of a demon, all that prosperity of the house and all that brightness of soul has vanished, and we have become a sad tale for the world. If, then, we wish to lament and weep over what has happened, the length of our life will not suffice us; and all men, groaning with us, will not be able to make their lament equal to the calamity; even if the streams of the rivers became tears, they would not be enough to fulfill the dirge for what has happened. 2. If, however, we are willing now to bring forward the gift of God that he has laid up in our hearts, I mean sober reason, which knows how to set limits to our souls in prosperity, and in more gloomy circumstances how to open a way to the remembrance of the human condition and to suggest to us what we have seen and what we have heard: that life is full of such sufferings and that there are many examples of human misfortunes; and above all, that it is God's command that those who have believed in Christ should not grieve over those who have fallen asleep, because of the hope of the resurrection; and that great crowns of glory are laid up with the Judge of the contest for great endurance; if we allow reason to sing these things over us as a charm, perhaps we may find some moderate release from the evil. So I urge you, as a noble contender, to stand firm against the greatness of the blow, and not to fall under the weight of grief, nor to let your soul be swallowed up, being convinced of this: that even if the reasons for what God orders escape us, what is ordered by him who is wise and loves us is in every way to be accepted, even if it is painful. For he himself knows how he assigns to each what is for his good, and why he sets unequal ends to our lives. For there is some cause incomprehensible to men by which some are taken away from here more quickly, and others are left to toil longer in this painful life. So in all things we ought to worship his love for mankind and not be vexed, remembering that great and celebrated saying that the great athlete Job uttered when he saw his ten children crushed at one table in a brief turn of the moment: “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so it has come to pass.” Let us make that marvel our own. The reward from the just Judge is equal for those who show equal deeds of valor. We have not been robbed of the boy, but have given him back to the one who lent him; nor has his life been destroyed, but changed for the better; earth has not hidden our beloved, but heaven has received him. Let us wait a little, and we shall be with the one we long for. Nor is the time of separation long, since all of us in this life, as on a road, are hurrying toward the same lodging, where one has already put up, another has arrived, another is hurrying on, but one end will receive us all. For even if he finished the road sooner, we shall all travel the same one, and the same inn awaits us all. Only may it be granted us to be made like him in purity through virtue, so that through the guilelessness of our character we may attain the same rest as the infants in Christ.

To the wife of Nectarius, a letter of consolation. 1. I meant to keep silent toward your Decorum, reckoning that, just as even the gentlest of soothing remedies gives pain to an inflamed eye, so to a soul afflicted by heavy grief a word, even if it brings much comfort, seems somehow troublesome when offered in the midst of the anguish. But when it occurred to me that my word would be to a Christian woman, long schooled in divine things and prepared for the lot of humankind, I did not think it right to neglect what falls to me. I know what a mother's heart is like; and when I consider in particular your kindness and gentleness toward all, I reckon how great your pain must be at what has happened. You have lost a son whom, while he lived, all mothers called blessed, praying that their own might be like him; and whom, when he died, they mourned as though each had buried her own in the earth. His death was a blow to two homelands, ours and that of the Cilicians. With him the great and illustrious family has fallen, shaken down as though its prop had been removed. O encounter of an evil demon, how great an evil it has been able to work! O earth, forced to receive such a calamity! Perhaps even the sun shuddered, if it has any feeling, at that sad sight. And what could one say that matches all that the helplessness of the soul suggests? 2. But our affairs are not without providence, as we have learned in the Gospel, that not even a sparrow falls without the will of our Father. So if anything has happened, it has happened by the will of him who created us. And who has withstood the will of God? Let us accept what has happened; for by chafing at it we neither set right what has occurred and we destroy ourselves besides. Let us not accuse the just judgment of God. We are too ignorant to test his unspeakable judgments. Now the Lord is taking the proof of your love for him. Now you have the occasion, through endurance, to receive the portion of the martyrs. The mother of the Maccabees saw the death of seven sons and did not groan or shed an ignoble tear, but giving thanks to God that she saw them released from the bonds of the flesh by fire and sword and the most cruel tortures, she was judged approved by God and celebrated among men. Great is the calamity, I say; but great also are the rewards laid up by the Lord for those who endure. When you became a mother and saw your child and gave thanks to God, you surely knew that, being mortal, you had borne a mortal. What is strange, then, if the mortal has died? But the untimeliness grieves us. It is not clear whether it was not timely; for we do not know how to choose what is good for souls and to set the limits of human life. Look around the whole world in which you live, and consider that all things that are seen are mortal and all are subject to corruption. Look up to the heaven: it too will one day be dissolved. To the sun: not even it will remain. All the stars, the creatures of land and water, the beauties of the earth, the earth itself, all are corruptible, all will shortly be no more. Let the thought of these things be a consolation for what has happened. Do not measure your grief by itself, for so it will seem unbearable to you; but comparing it with all human things, you will find its consolation there. Above all, I have this strong word to say: spare your husband. Be a consolation to each other. Do not make the misfortune harder for him by wasting yourself in grief. On the whole I do not think words are enough for comfort, but I consider that there is need of prayer in the present circumstances. So I pray that the Lord himself, touching your heart with his imperishable power, may create light in your soul through good thoughts, so that you may have the sources of consolation from within.

To Gregory his companion. Even when I was writing to your Eloquence I was not unaware that every theological utterance falls short of the mind of the speaker, and short of the desire of the inquirer, because speech is by nature somewhat too weak to serve our thoughts. If, then, our understanding is weak, and the tongue is weaker still, what should we have expected from what was said, if not to be charged with poverty of words? Yet it was not possible on that account to pass over in silence what was asked. For there is danger of betrayal in not readily giving answers about God to those who love the Lord. As for what I said, whether it seems sufficient or needs some more exact addition, it requires a proper occasion for correction. But for the present we urge you, as we have urged you already, to devote yourself wholly to the defense of the truth and to the impulses toward establishing the good that God plants in your mind, being content with these and asking nothing more from us; for, falling far short of what is supposed of us, we rather harm the cause by our own weakness than add any strength to the truth by our advocacy.

To the Caesareans: a defense of his withdrawal, and on the faith. 1. I have often wondered what you can have felt toward us, and why you are so taken with our littleness, small and slight as it is and perhaps having nothing lovable about it, and urge us with words, reminding us of friendship and homeland, trying with fatherly affection to turn us back to you like fugitives. I confess that I have become a fugitive, and I would not deny it; but you may now learn the cause, since you long to. Above all, struck at the time by what I did not expect, like those who are suddenly stunned by sudden noises, I did not keep hold of my reasonings, but “I fled far away” and lodged a considerable time away from you; and then a certain longing crept into me for the divine doctrines and for the philosophy concerned with them. “For how,” I said, “could I master the evil that dwells with us? Who will be a Laban to me, freeing me from Esau and training me for the highest philosophy?” But since, with God, we have reached our aim as far as we could, having found a vessel of election and a deep well, I mean Gregory, the mouth of Christ, grant us, I beg you, a little, a little time. We ask it not because we welcome life in the cities (for it has not escaped us that the evil one contrives his deceit against men through such things), but because we judge association with the saints most profitable. For by speaking often about the divine doctrines and hearing about them, we acquire a habit of contemplation that is hard to lose. So much for our own affairs. 2. But you, my divine and of all most beloved heads, beware of the shepherds of the Philistines, lest one of them secretly stop up your wells and muddy the purity of the knowledge of the faith. For this is always their care: not to teach the simpler souls from the divine Scriptures, but to falsify the truth by outside wisdom. For he who brings “unbegotten” and “begotten” into our faith, and teaches that he who always is once was not, and that he who is Father by nature and always became Father, and that the Holy Spirit is not eternal, is he not plainly a Philistine? He envies the sheep of our patriarch, so that they may not drink from the pure water that springs up to eternal life, but may draw upon themselves the prophet's saying: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water.” Whereas one ought to confess God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, as the divine words and those who have understood them more loftily have taught. To those who reproach us with tritheism let this be said: that we confess one God, not in number but in nature. For everything that is called one in number is not truly one, nor simple in nature; but God is confessed by all to be simple and uncompounded. Therefore God is not one in number. What I mean is this. We say that the world is one in number, but not one in nature, nor anything simple; for we divide it into the elements of which it consists, fire, water, air, and earth. Again, a man is called one in number, for we often say “one man”; but he is not anything simple, being composed of body and soul. Likewise we shall call an angel one in number, but not one in nature nor simple; for we conceive the hypostasis of the angel as essence together with sanctification. If, then, everything one in number is not one in nature, and what is one in nature and simple is not one in number, and we say that God is one in nature, how do they bring number in against us, when we banish it altogether from that blessed and intelligible nature? For number belongs to quantity, and quantity is joined to bodily nature: number belongs to bodily nature. But we have believed our Lord to be the Creator of bodies. Therefore every number signifies the things that have been allotted a material and circumscribed nature, while the monad and unity signify the simple and incomprehensible essence. So whoever confesses the Son of God or the Holy Spirit to be a number or a creature unwittingly introduces a material and circumscribed nature. And by circumscribed I mean not only what is contained by place, but also what is encompassed by the foreknowledge of him who was about to bring it from non-being into being, and what can be comprehended by knowledge. Everything holy, then, that has a circumscribed nature and an acquired holiness is not incapable of evil. But the Son and the Holy Spirit are the source of sanctification, by which all rational creation is sanctified in proportion to its virtue. 3. Yet we, according to the true account, say that the Son is neither like nor unlike the Father. For each of these is equally impossible. Like and unlike are said with respect to qualities, and the divine is free of quality. But confessing identity of nature, we both accept the “same in essence” and avoid composition, since the God and Father who is God by essence has begotten the God and Son who is God by essence. From this the “same in essence” is shown; for he who is God by essence is of the same essence as him who is God by essence. Since, however, a man too is called god, as in “I said, You are gods,” and a demon is called god, as in “The gods of the nations are demons,” the former are so named by grace, the latter falsely. But God alone is God by essence. And when I say “alone,” I indicate the holy and uncreated essence of God. For “alone” is said both of a particular man and of a universal nature as such. Of a particular one, as, say, of Paul, that he alone was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter; of the universal nature, as when David says, “Man, his days are as grass.” For here he indicates not a particular man but the universal nature; for every man is transient and mortal. So also we understand these to be said of the nature: “who alone has immortality,” and “to the only wise God,” and “No one is good but one, God” (for “one” here means the same as “alone”), and “who alone stretched out the heaven,” and again, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve,” and “There is no God besides me.” For “one” and “alone” are said of God in Scripture not to distinguish him from the Son or the Holy Spirit, but in contrast to those who are not gods but are falsely so called, as in “The Lord alone led them, and there was no foreign god with them,” and “The children of Israel put away the Baals and the groves of Astaroth, and served the Lord alone”; and again Paul: “As there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.” But here we ask why, having said “one God,” he was not content with that word (for we said that “alone” and “one,” said of God, indicate the nature), but added “the Father” and made mention of Christ. I suppose, then, that Paul, the vessel of election, did not think it enough here merely to proclaim God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, which he indicated by the phrase “one God,” unless by adding “the Father” he also indicated him from whom are all things, and by mentioning the Lord he signified the Word through whom are all things, and again, by including “Jesus Christ,” he announced the incarnation, set forth the passion, and made the resurrection manifest. For “Jesus Christ” conveys such ideas to us. That is why before the passion the Lord Jesus Christ declines to be proclaimed, and charges the disciples to tell no one that he is Jesus the Christ. For he purposed, when he had completed the economy, after the resurrection from the dead and the taking up into heaven, to allow them to preach him as Jesus the Christ. Such also are “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” and “Believe in God, and believe in me,” the Holy Spirit everywhere making our thought secure, lest, approaching the one, we fall away from the other, and, attending to theology, we despise the economy, and impiety arise in us through what is lacking. 4. The words of divine Scripture, then, which our opponents take and twist to suit their own conscience and bring against us to destroy the glory of the Only-begotten, let us examine thus, unfolding their meaning as far as we can. First let “I live because of the Father” be set before us. For this is one of the arrows shot at heaven by those who use it impiously. Here the saying does not, I think, name the life before the ages (for everything that lives through another cannot be life itself, just as what is heated by another cannot be heat itself; and Christ our God has said, “I am the life”), but this life in the flesh that came to be in this time, which he lived because of the Father. For by his will he came to dwell in the life of men. And he did not say, “I lived because of the Father,” but “I live because of the Father,” clearly indicating the present time. He can also mean by “life” the life that Christ lives having the Word of God in himself. And that this is what is meant we shall know from what follows: “and he who eats me,” he says, “will live because of me.” For we eat his flesh and drink his blood, becoming partakers, through the incarnation and the perceptible life, of the Word and of Wisdom. For by “flesh and blood” he named his whole mystical sojourn, and indicated the teaching made up of the practical, the natural, and the theological, by which the soul is nourished and is meanwhile prepared for the contemplation of realities. And this is perhaps what is meant by the saying. 5. And again: “My Father is greater than I.” For this saying too is used by the ungrateful creatures, the offspring of the evil one. But I believe that even from this word it is shown that the Son is of the same essence as the Father. For I know that comparisons are properly made between things of the same nature. We say that an angel is greater than an angel, a man more just than a man, a bird swifter than a bird. If, then, comparisons are made between things of the same kind, and the Father is said to be greater than the Son by comparison, the Son is of the same essence as the Father. But there is also another meaning contained in the saying. What wonder is it if he confessed the Father greater than himself, being the Word and having become flesh, when he was seen to be less than the angels in glory and than men in form? “You made him a little lower than the angels,” it says; and again, “him who was made a little lower than the angels”; and “We saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, but his form was failing beyond all men.” All these things he endured because of his great love for the creature he had formed, to save the lost sheep and bring it back to join the saved, and to lead back healthy to his own homeland the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and so fell among robbers. Or will the heretic reproach him with the manger, in which he who was without reason was fed by the Word? And will he bring up his poverty, that the carpenter's son had no little bed? This is why the Son is less than the Father: because for your sake he became dead, to free you from deadness and make you a partaker of heavenly life. It is as if someone were to blame the physician because, bending over sufferings, he shares in their stench in order to heal the sufferers. 6. For your sake he is also ignorant of the hour and the day of the judgment, though nothing escapes the true Wisdom, for all things came to be through it, and no man is ever ignorant of what he has made. But he arranges this because of your weakness, so that sinners may not fall into despondency at the shortness of the appointed time, as though no time for repentance were left, nor, again, those who are waging a long war against the opposing power desert their post because of the length of time. So by his assumed ignorance he provides for both: for the one, shortening the time for the sake of the good contest; for the other, storing up a time for repentance because of their sins. In the Gospels, then, he numbered himself among the ignorant, as I said, because of the weakness of the many; but in the Acts of the Apostles, conversing privately with them as with the perfect, he speaks excepting himself: “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has set in his own authority.” Let these things be said rather broadly, according to the first approach. Now the meaning of the saying must be examined more loftily, and the door of knowledge must be knocked, if perhaps I may rouse the master of the house, who gives spiritual loaves to those who ask him, since those whom we wish to feast are friends and brothers. 7. The holy disciples of our Savior, having gone beyond contemplation as far as is possible for men, and having been purified by the Word, seek the end, and long to know the final blessedness, which our Lord declared that both his angels and he himself do not know: calling “day” the whole exact comprehension of the purposes of God, and “hour” the contemplation of the One and the Monad, the knowledge of which he assigned to the Father alone. I suppose, then, that God is said to know concerning himself that which he is, and not to know that which he is not. For God is said to know justice and wisdom, being justice itself and wisdom itself, but not to know injustice and wickedness, for the God who created us is not injustice and wickedness. If, then, God is said to know concerning himself that which he is, and not to know that which he is not, and our Lord, according to the aspect of the incarnation and the more elementary teaching, is not the final object of desire, then our Savior does not know the end and the final blessedness. “But not even the angels know,” he says: that is, neither the contemplation that is in them nor the principles of their ministries are the final object of desire. For their knowledge too is coarse in comparison with “face to face.” “But the Father alone,” he says, “knows,” since he himself is the end and the final blessedness. For when we no longer know God in mirrors, nor through things other than himself, but approach him as the one and only, then we shall know the final end. For they say that the kingdom of Christ is all material knowledge, while that of God the Father is immaterial knowledge and, as one might say, the contemplation of the Godhead itself. But our Lord too is himself the end and the final blessedness, according to the aspect of the Word. For what does he say in the Gospel? “And I will raise him up on the last day”: calling “resurrection” the passage from material knowledge to immaterial contemplation, and calling “the last day” this knowledge after which there is no other. For then our mind is raised up and roused to a blessed height, when it contemplates the One and the Monad of the Word. But since our mind, grown coarse, has been bound to the dust and mixed with the clay, and cannot gaze steadily in bare contemplation, it is guided through the worlds akin to its body and observes the workings of the Creator, and meanwhile knows them from their effects, so that, growing little by little in this way, it may one day be strong enough to approach the naked Godhead itself. In this sense too, I think, it was said, “My Father is greater than I,” and “It is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by the Father.” For this is also what is meant by Christ's handing over the kingdom to God the Father, he being the first fruits and not the end, according, as I said, to the more elementary teaching, which is considered with respect to us and not to the Son himself. And that this is so: when the disciples asked again in the Acts of the Apostles, “When will you restore the kingdom to Israel?” he says, “It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father has set in his own authority”; that is, the knowledge of such a kingdom does not belong to those bound to flesh and blood. For this contemplation the Father has laid up in his own authority: by “authority” meaning those under his authority, and by “his own” those who are not held by ignorance of lower things. And do not think of times and seasons as perceptible, but as certain intervals of knowledge brought about by the intelligible Sun. For that prayer of our Master must be brought to fulfillment; for it is Jesus who prayed, “Grant them that they too may be one in us, as I and you are one, Father.” For God, being one, coming to be in each, makes all one; and number is destroyed by the coming of the Monad. This is how I approached the saying in my second attempt. If anyone speaks better, or corrects what is ours in a godly way, let him both speak and correct, and the Lord will repay him on our behalf. For no envy lodges with us, since we have not entered on this examination of the words out of contentiousness or vainglory, but for the benefit of the brothers, so that the earthen vessels that hold the treasure of God may not seem to be led astray by stony-hearted and uncircumcised men armed with foolish wisdom. 8. Again, through the wise Solomon in the Proverbs he is created: “The Lord,” it says, “created me.” And he is named the beginning of the ways of the gospel that lead us to the kingdom of heaven, not a creature in essence, but having become a way according to the economy. For “to have become” and “to have been created” mean the same. For as he became a way, a door, a shepherd, a messenger, a sheep, and again a high priest and an apostle, the names being applied according to different aspects, … What again would the heretic say about the God who is unsubjected, and about him who became sin for our sake? For it is written: “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him.” Are you not afraid, man, of God being called unsubjected? For he makes your subjection his own, and when you resist virtue he calls himself unsubjected. So too he once said that he himself was the one persecuted: “Saul, Saul,” he says, “why do you persecute me?” when Saul was hurrying toward Damascus, wishing to bind the disciples of Christ. And again he calls himself naked when one of the brothers is naked: “I was naked,” he says, “and you clothed me.” And when another was in prison, he said that he himself was the one shut up. For he himself took away our sins and bore our diseases. And one of our weaknesses is insubordination; this too he bore. Therefore the Lord makes his own the hardships that befall us, taking up our sufferings because of his fellowship with us. 9. But the fighters against God also take “The Son can do nothing of himself” to overthrow their hearers. To me this saying too proclaims above all that the Son is of the same nature as the Father. For if each of the rational creatures is able to do something of itself, having a free inclination toward the worse and the better, but the Son cannot do anything of himself, then the Son is not a creature. And if not a creature, he is of the same essence as the Father. And again, no creature can do whatever it wills; but the Son did all that he willed in heaven and on earth; therefore the Son is not a creature. And again, all creatures either consist of opposites or are receptive of opposites; but the Son is justice itself and immaterial; therefore the Son is not a creature; and if not, he is of the same essence as the Father. 10. Let this examination of the sayings put forward suffice us, as far as our power goes. Now let us advance in argument also against those who oppose the Holy Spirit, pulling down every lofty thought raised up against the knowledge of God. You say that the Holy Spirit is a creature. But every creature is the servant of its creator: “For all things,” it says, “are your servants.” If it is a servant, it also has an acquired holiness; and everything that has an acquired holiness is not incapable of evil; but the Holy Spirit, being holy by essence, has been called the source of sanctification; therefore the Holy Spirit is not a creature. And if not a creature, it is of the same essence as God. How, tell me, do you call a servant the one who through baptism frees you from slavery? “For the law of the Spirit of life,” it says, “has freed me from the law of sin.” Nor will you ever dare to call its essence changeable, when you look at the nature of the opposing power, which fell like lightning from heaven and fell away from the true life because it had an acquired holiness, and change followed upon its evil will. Therefore, having fallen from the Monad and cast off the angelic dignity, he was named devil from his conduct, his former blessed state having been quenched and this opposing power kindled. Further, if he calls the Holy Spirit a creature, he makes its nature limited. How then will these stand: “The Spirit of the Lord has filled the world,” and “Where shall I go from your Spirit?” Nor, it seems, does he confess it to be simple in nature, for he calls it one in number. But everything one in number, as I said, is not simple. And if the Holy Spirit is not simple, it consists of essence and sanctification; and such a thing is compound. And who is so senseless as to call the Holy Spirit compound, and not simple, and, by reason of its simplicity, of the same essence as the Father and the Son? 11. If we must go further in argument and look upon greater things, let us consider the divine power of the Holy Spirit above all from this. We have found three creations named in Scripture: the first, the bringing from non-being into being; the second, the change from worse to better; the third, the resurrection of the dead. In these you will find the Holy Spirit working together with the Father and the Son. The heavens are brought into being: and what does David say? “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the Spirit of his mouth.” Again, man is created through baptism: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” And what does the Savior say to the disciples? “Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” You see here too the Holy Spirit present together with the Father and the Son. And what would you say about the resurrection of the dead, when we have passed away and returned to our dust? For we are earth, and to the earth we shall go; and he will send the Holy Spirit and create us, and renew the face of the earth. For what holy Paul called resurrection, David called renewal. Let us hear again the one who was caught up to the third heaven. What does he say? “You are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.” But every temple is a temple of God. If, then, we are a temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is God. It is called Solomon's temple too, but as its builder. If we are a temple of the Holy Spirit in this sense, the Holy Spirit is God; for he who built all things is God. But if as of one who is worshiped and dwells in us, let us confess it to be God; for “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.” If they object to the word “God,” let them learn what this name signifies. For God is named from having set all things or from beholding all things. If, then, he is called God from having set or beholding all things, and the Spirit knows all the things of God as the spirit in us knows ours, then the Holy Spirit is God. And again, if the sword of the Spirit is the word of God, the Holy Spirit is God; for the sword belongs to the one whose word it is also called. And if he is also named the right hand of the Father (for “The right hand of the Lord has wrought power,” and “Your right hand, O Lord, has shattered enemies”), and the Holy Spirit is the finger of God, according to the saying “If I by the finger of God cast out demons,” which in another Gospel is written “If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons,” then the Holy Spirit is of the same nature as the Father and the Son. 12. Let this much be said by us for the present about the worshipful and holy Trinity; for it is not now possible to examine the account of it more broadly. But you, taking seeds from our lowliness, cultivate for yourselves a ripe ear of grain, since, as you know, we are also asked for interest on such things. And I trust in God that you will bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold, because of the purity of your life; for “Blessed,” he says, “are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” And do not think, brothers, that the kingdom of heaven is anything other than the true understanding of realities, which the divine Scriptures also call blessedness. For “the kingdom of heaven is within you.” And concerning the inner man nothing other than contemplation subsists; so contemplation would be the kingdom of heaven. For of the things whose shadows we now see as in a mirror, we shall later, freed from this earthly body and having put on the incorruptible and immortal, see the archetypes. And we shall see them if we steer our life straight and take care for the right faith, without which no one will see the Lord. “For into a malicious soul,” it says, “wisdom will not enter, nor dwell in a body enslaved to sin.” And let no one object, saying, “You do not know what lies at your feet, and you philosophize to us about the incorporeal and wholly immaterial essence.” For I judge it absurd to let the senses fill themselves without hindrance with their own matter, and to bar the mind alone from its own activity. For as perception apprehends perceptible things, so the mind apprehends intelligible things. And at the same time this must also be said: God who created us made our natural faculties of judgment untaught. For no one teaches sight to apprehend colors or shapes, nor hearing sounds and voices, nor smell fragrant and foul vapors, nor taste flavors and juices, nor touch soft and hard, or hot and cold things. Nor could anyone teach the mind to apprehend intelligible things. And just as these, if they suffer something, need only care, and easily fulfill their own activity, so the mind too, bound to the flesh and filled with the images that come from it, needs faith and a right way of life, which make its feet like a deer's and set it upon the heights. This very thing the wise Solomon also recommends: sometimes he sets before us the ant, the worker that need not be ashamed, and through it sketches for us the practical way; sometimes the wax-molded workmanship of the wise bee, and through it he hints at natural contemplation, in which the doctrine of the holy Trinity too is blended, since from the beauty of created things the Creator is proportionately seen. But giving thanks to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us put an end to the letter, since “every measure is best,” as the proverb says. [Letter 9] … the first to supply men with the seeds. The cause, I think, was not wickedness of intention, but his strong wish to oppose Sabellius. I am accustomed to compare him to a gardener straightening the crookedness of a young plant who, by pulling too hard the other way, misses the middle and draws the shoot to the opposite side. We find that something of this sort happened to this man. For in opposing vehemently the impiety of the Libyan, he was carried away unawares by excessive zeal into the opposite evil. It would have been enough for him to show that the Father and the Son are not the same in their underlying subject, and so to carry off the victory over the blasphemer; but he, in order to prevail quite clearly and by a wide margin, posits not only a difference of hypostases but also a difference of essence, a diminution of power, and a variation of glory. So it came about that he exchanged one evil for another and missed the correctness of the doctrine. That is why he is so inconsistent in his writings, now rejecting the “same in essence” because of the one who used it badly to deny the hypostases, now accepting it where he defends himself to his namesake. Besides this he also uttered words about the Spirit most unbecoming to the Spirit, banishing it from the worshiped Godhead and numbering it somewhere below with the created and ministering nature. Such, then, is the man. 3. As for me, if I must state my own view, I accept the phrase “like in essence” if it has “without difference” added to it, as amounting to the same as the “same in essence,” that is, according to the sound sense of the “same in essence.” This is what those at Nicaea had in mind when, having called the Only-begotten “light from light,” “true God from true God,” and the like, they consistently added the “same in essence.” For it is not possible to conceive any variation of light toward light, or of truth toward truth, or of the essence of the Only-begotten toward that of the Father. If anyone, then, takes it in this way, as I said, I accept the phrase. But if anyone cuts off “without difference” from “like,” as those at Constantinople have done, I suspect the expression as belittling the glory of the Only-begotten. For we are accustomed often to think of likeness even in faint resemblances that fall far short of their archetypes. Since, then, I think the “same in essence” less open to misuse, I myself adopt it. But why do you not come to us, my excellent friend, so that we may discuss such things face to face and not entrust such great matters to lifeless letters, especially as we have decided not to publish our views at all? So that you may not say to us what Diogenes said to Alexander, that it is as far from you to here as from here to you: we, because of our illness, are kept almost like plants always in the same place, and we count “living unnoticed” among the first of goods; but you are in good health, as they say, and since you have made yourself a citizen of the world, it would be right for you to come here too, as to a part of your own. For even if peoples and cities suit you men of action, in which you display your virtuous deeds, yet for contemplation and the activity of the mind, through which we are joined to God, quiet is a good fellow-worker; and we cultivate it in abundance in this remote place, with God, be it said, who has granted it to us. But if you must by all means pay court to the powerful and look down on us who lie on the ground, at least write, and so make us happier.

To a free woman. There is a certain art of catching doves, which goes like this. When those who pursue such things get hold of one, they make it tame and accustomed to eat with them; then, anointing its wings with perfume, they let it flock with those outside. And the fragrance of that perfume makes the free flock the property of the owner of the tame one; for the others follow the sweet scent and come to settle in the cote. Why do I begin my letter like this? Because I have taken your son Dionysius, formerly Diomedes, and, anointing the wings of his soul with the divine perfume, I have sent him to your Reverence, so that you yourself may fly up with him and reach the nest that he has built with us. If, then, I should see this in my lifetime, and your Reverence moved to the lofty life, I shall need many persons worthy of God to pay him the honor that is due.

Without address, on friendship. Having spent the holy day by the grace of God with our children, and having kept a truly perfect feast to the Lord because of their exceeding love toward God, we have sent them on in good health to your Nobility, praying God, the lover of mankind, that a peaceful angel may be given them as helper and fellow traveler, and that they may find you in health and in every peaceful condition; so that wherever you may be, serving the Lord and giving thanks to him, you may gladden us, as long as we are in the world, with news of you. And if the holy God grants that you be freed from these cares sooner, we urge you to prefer nothing to life with us. For I think you will not find others who love you so much and lay such claim to your friendship. So, as long as the Holy One orders this separation, deign to comfort us with letters on every occasion.

To Olympius. Formerly you wrote us a little, and now not even a little; and it seems that your brevity, advancing with time, is becoming complete silence. Return, then, to your habit, and we shall no longer blame you for speaking Laconically to us in your letters; indeed, we shall value even short letters highly, as tokens of your great affection. Only write to us.

To Olympius. As each of the other things in season comes at its own time, flowers in spring, ears of grain in summer, and the apple in autumn, so words are the fruit of winter.

To Gregory his companion. 1. When my brother Gregory wrote to me that he had long wished to meet us, and added that you too had decided on the same thing, I could not wait, partly because, having often been deceived, I am slow to believe, and partly because I am distracted by business. For I must now set out for Pontus, where perhaps one day, God willing, we shall put an end to our wandering. For having at last given up the vain hopes I once had of you, or rather the dreams, to speak more truly (for I praise the man who said that hopes are the dreams of the waking), I went off to Pontus in search of a way of life. There God showed me a spot exactly suited to my way of life, so that I actually saw such a place as we have often been accustomed to fashion in our imagination when idle and playing. 2. There is a high mountain, covered with deep forest, watered on its northern side by cool, clear streams. At its foot lies a level plain, continually enriched by the moisture from the mountain. A forest of varied and manifold trees, growing round it of its own accord, almost serves it as a fence, so that even Calypso's island, which Homer evidently admired above all others for its beauty, is small beside it. For indeed it falls not far short of being an island, since it is enclosed on every side by barriers. Deep ravines have broken away around it on two sides, and on the flank the river, flowing beneath a precipice, is itself a continuous and hard-to-cross wall. And since the mountain extends on the other side, joined to the ravines by crescent-shaped spurs, it walls off the passable parts of the lower slope. There is one entrance to it, of which we are masters. The dwelling is set on another neck of land, which holds up a high ridge at its summit, so that this plain is spread out before the eyes, and from the height one can look down on the river flowing around, which gives, to my mind at least, no less delight than the Strymon gives to those who view it from Amphipolis. For the Strymon, spreading into a pool with its more leisurely current, has almost lost the very character of a river through its stillness; but this one, flowing more swiftly than any river I know, is roughened a little against the neighboring rock, and, thrown back from it, rolls round into a deep eddy, offering a most pleasant sight to me and to every onlooker, and a most sufficient resource to the inhabitants, as it nourishes an untold number of fish in its eddies. What need is there to speak of the exhalations from the earth, or the breezes from the river? Another might admire the abundance of flowers or of songbirds; but I have no leisure to turn my mind to these. But the greatest thing we can say of the spot is that, while it is suited to the production of every kind of fruit because of the favorableness of its position, it nourishes for me the sweetest of all fruits, quiet; not only because it is free from the tumult of the city, but because it does not bring us even a traveler, except those who join us for the hunt. For besides its other qualities it also nourishes wild beasts, not bears or wolves like yours, heaven forbid, but it pastures herds of deer and wild goats, and hares, and whatever is like them. Do you not consider, then, what a danger I, fool that I was, escaped when I was eager to exchange such a spot for Tiberina, the pit of the inhabited world? Forgive me, then, as I now hasten to it. For not even Alcmaeon, when he had found the Echinades, would endure further wandering.

To Arcadius, count of the privy purse. The citizens of our metropolis have given a greater favor than they received, by giving me occasion to write to your Honor. For the kindness for which they received the letter from us was theirs even before our letter, because of the gentleness toward all that is habitual and natural to you; while we have counted the occasion of addressing your incomparable goodness the greatest gain, praying the holy God that, as you advance in pleasing him and your renown grows ever greater, we may ourselves rejoice with you and share the joy of those who are benefited by your administration; and that you may also look kindly on those who hand you our letter and send them away, with all the rest, singing the praises of your gentleness, having learned once more that our intercession with your unsurpassed goodness has not been useless to them.

To Eunomius the heretic. He who says that the discovery of realities is attainable has surely advanced his mind by some road and sequence through the knowledge of realities; and, having trained himself on what is easily grasped and smaller by comprehending it, has so advanced his power of comprehension even to what is beyond every thought. So let the one who boasts of having grasped the knowledge of realities explain the smallest of the things that appear, of what nature it is; let him say what the nature of the ant is: whether its life is held together by breath and respiration; whether its body is divided by bones; whether its joints are braced by sinews and ligaments; whether the position of its sinews is held in place by a covering of muscles and glands; whether the marrow extends along the vertebrae of the spine from the crown to the tail; whether, by the enveloping sinewy membrane, it gives the power of impulse to the moving limbs; whether it has a liver, and a gall bladder on the liver; kidneys and heart, arteries and veins, membranes and diaphragms; whether it is smooth or hairy; whether it has a single hoof or divided feet; how long it lives, and what is their manner of generation from one another; how long the offspring is carried; and how it is that ants are neither all walkers nor all winged, but some belong to those that go on the ground and others are borne through the air. Let the one who boasts of knowledge of realities first tell the nature of the ant, and then let him discourse on the nature of the power that surpasses all understanding. But if you have not yet grasped with your knowledge the being of the tiny ant, how do you boast of conceiving the incomprehensible power of God?

To Origenes. It gladdens us both to hear of you and to read you, and through what you write you give us more vivid joys. And many thanks to the good God, who has not let the truth be diminished by the betrayal of those who seem to have the upper hand, but through you has supplied the defense of the doctrine of godliness. They, like hemlock or aconite or any other deadly herb, after flowering for a little while, will quickly wither. But to you the Lord will give a reward ever blooming and ever new for what has been spoken on behalf of his name. Therefore may the Lord grant your house every prosperity and pass on the blessing to your children's children. Your most noble children, clear impressions of your goodness, I saw with pleasure and embraced, and I pray for them all that their father himself would pray.

To Macarius and John. The labors of farming do not surprise farmers, nor is the storm at sea unexpected to sailors, nor is summer sweat strange to hired laborers, nor indeed are the afflictions of this present world unforeseen by those who have chosen to live godly lives. But to each of the occupations mentioned, a proper and familiar labor is joined for those who pursue it, chosen not for its own sake but for the enjoyment of the good things expected. For hopes, holding together and supporting the whole life of men, soften the hardship of each of these. Now of those who labor for the fruits of the earth, or on the earth, some have been entirely cheated of their hopes, having the enjoyment of what they expected only in imagination; and those whose end turned out according to their wish needed again a second hope, since the first had quickly passed and faded. Only for those who have toiled for godliness has no falsehood destroyed their hopes, no end spoiled their contests, since the kingdom of heaven, sure and abiding, takes their place. So do not let false slander trouble you, nor the threat of rulers frighten you; do not let the laughter and insult of acquaintances grieve you, nor condemnation from those who pretend to care for you, putting forward the pretense of advice as the strongest bait for deception, as long as the word of truth fights on our side. Let right reason contend against them all, calling on the teacher of godliness, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be its ally and helper, for whose sake even suffering is sweet and to die is gain.

To Gregory his companion. A letter came to me lately from you, unmistakably yours, not so much by the character of the handwriting as by the peculiar style of the letter. For the words were few, but they conveyed much meaning. We did not reply to it at once, because we ourselves were away, and the letter carrier, having handed the letter to one of our friends, went off. But now we address you through Peter, at once paying the debt of a greeting and giving occasion for a second letter. Surely there is no labor in a Laconic letter, such as those are that come to us from you on every occasion.

To Leontius the sophist. Our letters to you are slow in coming; yet not slower than those from your side, and this although many people have come to us from your parts one after another. If you had given letters to all of them in turn, nothing would have prevented our seeming to be with you ourselves and enjoying you as if we were present and in your company, so continuous was the stream of those arriving here. But why do you not write? Surely writing is no labor for a sophist; or rather, if your hand is idle, you will not even need to write, for another will serve you. Only your tongue is needed; and even if it does not converse with us, it will certainly talk to one of your companions; and if no one is present, it will converse with itself; but it will never be silent, being a sophist's tongue and Attic, any more than the nightingales are when spring rouses them to song. For us, the press of business in which we now are might perhaps furnish an excuse for our lack of letters; and the fact that we have, as it were, been soiled by long familiarity with common speech naturally makes us shrink from addressing you sophists, who, unless you hear something worthy of your own wisdom, will be annoyed and will not bear it. But for you, on the contrary, it is surely fitting to publish your voice on every pretext, since you are the most capable speaker of all the Greeks I know, and I know, I think, the most famous among you; so there is no excuse for your silence. So much for that. I have also sent you my work against Eunomius. Whether it should be called child's play or something a little more serious than child's play I leave you to judge. For your own sake, I think, you no longer need it; but against the perverse people you meet, I expect it will be no ignoble weapon for you; not that we trust so much in the strength of the treatise, but we know well that from slight starting points you are inventive of much. If anything in it seems to you weaker than it should be, do not hesitate to expose it. For in this above all a friend differs from a flatterer: the one converses to give pleasure, the other does not hold back even from what gives pain.

… fourfold has been preferred. For not even the Pythagoreans valued the tetractys as highly as those who now collect the public taxes value the fourfold. And yet perhaps the opposite would have been fitting: that you, a sophist with such abundant wealth of words, should be liable to us for repayment fourfold. And do not think that we write this in annoyance. For I rejoice even in your reproaches, since they say that with the beautiful everything comes with the addition of beauty, so that even griefs and angers become them. At any rate one would more gladly see the one he loves angry than flattering another. So never stop bringing such charges. For the charges themselves will be letters, and there is nothing I hear that is more precious to me or brings more pleasure.

On the perfection of the life of monks. 1. Of the many things shown by the divinely inspired Scripture that must be accomplished by those eager to please God, I have felt it necessary to speak for the present, by way of brief reminder, only of those that have now been raised among you, as I have learned them from the divinely inspired Scripture itself, leaving the testimony about each, which is easy to find, for those occupied with reading to recognize, who will be able to remind others as well. That the Christian must think thoughts worthy of the heavenly calling, and live worthily of the gospel of Christ. That the Christian must not be distracted, nor drawn away by anything from the remembrance of God and of his will and judgments. That the Christian, having become in all things superior to the righteous requirements of the law, must neither swear nor lie. That one must not speak evil; that one must not insult; that one must not quarrel; that one must not avenge oneself; that one must not return evil for evil; that one must not be angry. That one must be long-suffering, whatever one suffers, and rebuke the wrongdoer at the right time, not in a passion for one's own vengeance, but in a desire for the brother's correction, according to the Lord's commandment. That one must not say anything against an absent brother with the aim of slandering him, which is backbiting, even if what is said is true. That one must turn away from the one who backbites a brother. That one must not utter jests. That one must not laugh, nor put up with jesters. That one must not talk idly, saying something that neither benefits the hearers nor serves the necessary use permitted to us by God; so that those who work should be eager, as far as possible, to work in quiet, and good words themselves should be put to them by those who have been entrusted, after testing, with administering the word for the building up of the faith, so that the Holy Spirit of God may not be grieved. That none of those who come in should approach any of the brothers or speak with him on his own authority, before those appointed to care for good order in all things have tested how it pleases God for the common good. That one must not be enslaved to wine, nor be passionate about meat; and in general not be a lover of pleasure in any food or drink; for every contender exercises self-control in all things. That of the things given to each for use, one must not hold anything as one's own or store it up; but, in one's care, attending to all as belonging to the Master, one must not overlook anything that may happen to be thrown aside or neglected. That no one must be his own master, but, as one handed over by God into the service of his like-minded brothers, so must he both think and do everything, each in his own order. 2. That one must not grumble, either in scarcity of necessities or in the weariness of work, since those appointed with authority over these things have the judgment about each. That there must be no shouting, nor any other gesture or movement by which anger is characterized, or distraction from the full assurance that God is present. That one must measure the voice to the need. That one must not answer anyone or do anything boldly or contemptuously, but show reasonableness and respect toward all in everything. That one must not wink the eye with guile, or use any other gesture or movement of a limb that grieves a brother or shows contempt. That one must not adorn oneself in clothes or shoes, which is vanity. That one must use cheap things for the needs of the body. That one must spend nothing beyond need and for extravagance, which is misuse. That one must not seek honor or lay claim to the first places. That each must prefer all others to himself. That one must not be insubordinate. That one who is able to work must not eat in idleness; but even one who is occupied with some task done for the glory of Christ must force himself to diligence in work as far as he can. That each must, with the approval of those set over him, do everything with reason and full assurance, down to eating and drinking itself, as done for the glory of God. That one must not move from one work to another without the approval of those appointed to arrange such matters, unless perhaps some unavoidable need suddenly calls someone to the help of one who has failed. That each must remain in that to which he was appointed, and not, overstepping his own measure, intrude on what has not been assigned to him, unless those entrusted with these matters judge that someone needs help. That no one must be found going from one workshop to another. That one must not do anything out of rivalry or strife with anyone. 3. That one must not envy another's good repute, nor rejoice at anyone's failings. That one must, in the love of Christ, grieve and be broken at a brother's failings, and rejoice at his good deeds. That one must not be indifferent to those who sin, or keep silent toward them. That the one who rebukes must rebuke with all tenderness, in the fear of God, and with the aim of turning the sinner back. That the one who is rebuked or reproved must accept it readily, recognizing his own benefit in the correction. That when someone is being accused, another must not contradict the accuser in his presence or that of others. But if the charge ever seems unreasonable to someone, he should raise the matter privately with the accuser, and either convince or be convinced. That each must, as far as he can, conciliate the one who has something against him. That one must not bear a grudge against one who has sinned and repents, but forgive from the heart. That the one who says he repents of a sin must not only be pricked at heart for what he has sinned, but also bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. That the one who has been corrected for his first sins and been granted forgiveness, if he sins again, prepares for himself a judgment of wrath worse than the first. That the one who, after the first and second admonition, persists in his failing must be made known to the one set over the community, in case, being reproved by more, he may be ashamed. But if he is not corrected even so, he must be cut off from the rest as a cause of stumbling, and regarded as a Gentile and a tax collector, for the safety of those who work at the zeal of obedience, according to the saying, “When the ungodly fall, the righteous become afraid.” But one must also mourn over him as over a limb cut off from the body. That one must not let the sun go down on a brother's anger, lest the night separate the two and leave at the day of judgment an inescapable charge. That one must not wait for an occasion for one's own correction, because there is no security about tomorrow; for many who made many plans did not reach tomorrow. That one must not be deceived by filling the belly, through which come visions of the night. That one must not be distracted by immoderate work and overstep the bounds of sufficiency, according to the Apostle, who said, “Having food and covering, with these we shall be content”; because abundance beyond need displays an image of greed, and greed carries the sentence of idolatry. That one must not be a lover of money, nor store up for no use what one ought not. That the one who draws near to God must embrace poverty in all things, and be nailed to the fear of God, according to him who said, “Nail my flesh with the fear of you, for I am afraid of your judgments.” May the Lord grant that you, having received what has been said with all full assurance, may show fruits worthy of the Spirit to the glory of God, by the good pleasure of God and the cooperation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Commendatory letter to a solitary. So-and-so, as he says, having condemned the vanity of this life and learned that the delights of this life have their end here, preparing only fuel for the eternal fire and passing quickly, has come to me, wishing to withdraw from this toilsome and much-lamented life, to leave the pleasures of the flesh, and henceforth to enter on the road that leads to the dwellings of the Lord. Since, then, if he truly is set on desiring the really blessed life, and has the good and praiseworthy love in his soul, having loved the Lord our God with all his heart, all his strength, and all his mind, it is necessary that the hardships and difficulties of the narrow and afflicted way be shown him by your Godliness, and that he be established in the hope of the good things not yet seen but laid up in the promises for those worthy of the Lord, I therefore write and urge your perfection in Christ, which has no equal, to shape him, if possible, and without me to carry out his renunciation as pleases God, and to have him instructed in the elements according to what was decided by the holy Fathers and set out by them in writing; and then to set before him all that belongs to ascetic strictness, and so to bring him into the life, having freely undertaken the contests for godliness and placed himself under the kindly yoke of the Lord, living in imitation of him who became poor for our sake and bore flesh, and running toward the goal for the prize of the upward call, that he may obtain the Lord's approval. For though he was eager to receive here the crown of love according to God, I put him off, wishing, together with your Godliness, to anoint him for such contests, and to set over him as trainer whichever one of you he himself may seek, who will train him well and make him a proven wrestler by his intense and blessed care, wounding and throwing down the world ruler of the darkness of this age, and …

To Athanasius, the father of Athanasius bishop of Ancyra. That for a man's life to be above slanders is among the hardest things, not to say among the impossible, I myself am convinced, and I think your Goodness does not doubt it. But to give no handle of one's own making, either to those who watch affairs closely or to those who lie in wait spitefully for our slips, this is both possible and characteristic of those who lead their life wisely and with the aim of godliness. Do not suppose us so easygoing or so easily led as to admit without examination the accusations of any chance person. For we remember the spiritual precept that bids us not to receive an empty report. Nevertheless, since you yourselves who are devoted to letters say that what appears is a sign of what does not appear, we ask this (and do not take it ill if something is said by us in the form of teaching, for God has chosen the weak and despised things of the world, and through them often arranges the salvation of those who are being saved): what I say and urge is this, that every word and every fitting action be carried out with circumspection, and, according to the apostolic precept, that we give no offense in anything. For I consider it fitting that the life of a man who has toiled much in the learning of letters, who has governed nations and cities, and who is zealous for the great virtue of his ancestors, should be set forth as an example of virtue. As for your disposition toward your children, you ought to show it now not by word, as indeed you showed it long ago, from the time you became a father, using not only the natural affection that even irrational creatures show to their offspring, as you yourself said and experience shows; you ought also to intensify your love, plainly by choice, in proportion as you see them to be such as are worthy of a father's prayers. So it is not we who need to be persuaded about these things, for the testimony of the facts themselves is sufficient. This, however, it is not out of place to add for truth's sake, that it is not our brother Timothy the chorepiscopus who brought us the rumors. For he does not appear, either in conversation or by letter, to have said anything, small or great, that amounted to slander about you. So we do not deny that we have heard something, but it was not Timothy who contrived the slanders against you. But when we hear, we shall at least do what Alexander did, if nothing else: we shall keep one of our ears unprejudiced for the one slandered.

To Athanasius, bishop of Ancyra. 1. Some of those who have come to us from Ancyra have reported to me (and they are many, not easy even to count, but all saying the same thing) that you, dear head (how shall I put it in words of good omen?), do not remember us very kindly, nor in your usual way. Nothing human astonishes me, be sure of that, and no one's change is unexpected to me, since I long ago learned the weakness of nature and how easily it turns to its opposite. So if something of ours has altered, and instead of the former honor there are now reproaches and insults concerning us, I do not make much of it. But this seemed to me truly strange and extraordinary: that you should be the one so disposed toward us as to be angry and indignant with us, and even, as the report of those who heard it goes, to utter some threat. At the threats, to tell the truth, I laughed outright; I should be a mere child indeed if I feared such bugbears. But this seemed to me both alarming and worthy of much concern: that your exactness, which we believed was preserved, as in few others, as a prop of orthodoxy and a seed of the ancient and true love for the comfort of the churches, should have shared so far in the present state of things as to give more weight to the slanders of chance persons than to your long experience of us, and to be led without proof into suspicion of absurdities. And yet why do I say suspicion? For one who is indignant and utters threats, as they say, seems to have shown the anger not of a man who suspects but of one already clearly and incontestably convinced. 2. But, as I said, we lay the cause on the present times. For how much trouble would it have been, my admirable friend, in a short letter to speak with me about what you wished, as one alone with one alone; or, if you did not trust such things to writing, to send for me to come to you? And if you had to speak out at all costs, and the irrepressibility of your anger allowed no delay, you could surely have used as the bearer of your words to us one of your friends who are by nature able to keep secrets. But as it is, whose ears among those who visit you on any business whatever have not been filled with the report that we write and compose certain mischiefs? For this is the word they say you used, those who report your sayings word for word. For my part, though I have turned my mind in many directions, I find no way out of my perplexity. So that something like this has even occurred to me: that perhaps one of the heretics, maliciously putting my name to his own writings, has grieved your orthodoxy and led you to utter that word. For surely you would not have brought that reproach against what we have written against those who dared to say that the Son is unlike God the Father in essence, or against those who blasphemed that the Holy Spirit is a creature and a thing made, you who have endured those great and famous contests on behalf of orthodoxy. You yourself could resolve our perplexity, if you would openly declare what moved you to your grievance against us.

To Caesarius, brother of Gregory. Thanks be to God, who has shown his wonders in you too, and has saved you from so great a death for your homeland and for us your friends. It remains, then, that we not be found ungrateful or unworthy of so great a benefit, but proclaim God's marvels as far as we can, and sing the praises of the love for mankind that we have experienced in fact; and that we render thanks not by word only, but also become in deed such as we are persuaded you now are, judging by the wonders worked in your case. And we urge you to serve God still more, always increasing in fear and advancing toward perfection, so that we may prove prudent stewards of the life for which God's goodness has preserved us. For if it is a command for all of us to present ourselves to God as alive from the dead, how much more for those who have been lifted up from the gates of death? This would best be accomplished, I am convinced, if we were willing always to keep the same mind that we had in the time of danger. For surely the vanity of life came home to us then, and how nothing human is trustworthy or secure, since it so easily changes. And, as was natural, some repentance arose in us for the past, and a promise for the future, if we were saved, to serve God and to take care of ourselves with all exactness. For if the imminent danger of death prompted any thought in us, I think that you then considered either these things or something very close to them. So we stand liable to pay a necessary debt. Rejoicing at God's gift, and at the same time concerned for the future, I have ventured to remind …

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. When, by the grace of God and the help of your prayers, I seemed to recover a little from my illness and gathered my strength, then winter came on, shutting us up at home and forcing us to stay where we were. For even though it came much milder than usual, it was enough to hinder me, not only from traveling through it, but even from being able to peep out of my room a little. Yet even this is no small thing for me, to be thought worthy to converse with your Godliness by letter and already to find rest in the hope of your replies. And if the season permits, and some time of life is still left us, and the famine does not make the road impassable for us, we may quickly obtain our desire through your prayers, and, finding you at your hearth, fill ourselves at full leisure with the great treasures of the wisdom that is in you.

To the church of Neocaesarea, a letter of consolation. 1. What has happened called for our presence in person, both to join you, his nearest ones, in paying honor to the blessed man, and to share in the dejection at the loss from the very sight of the sadder things, and to take part with you in the necessary deliberations. But since there are many obstacles to bodily meeting, it remained to share the present circumstances with you by letter. The man's marvels, for which we especially reckon the loss unbearable, would not fit within the measure of a letter; and besides, it is untimely to bring our speech to the multitude of his great deeds when our soul has so sunk under grief. For which of his qualities is such as could slip from your memory, or be thought worth passing over in silence? To say everything at once is impossible; and to speak of a part, I fear, would amount to a betrayal of the truth. Gone is a man who most clearly surpassed those of his time in all human goods together: the prop of his homeland, the ornament of the churches, a pillar and ground of the truth, a buttress of faith in Christ, a safeguard to his own people, most formidable to opponents, a guardian of the ancestral ordinances, an enemy of innovation, showing in himself the ancient form of the church, and shaping the appearance of the church under him on the pattern of the ancient constitution, as though from some sacred image, so that those who were with him seemed to be with those who shone like lights two hundred years and more ago. So the man brought forward nothing of his own, no invention of a newer mind; but, according to the blessing of Moses, he knew how to bring forth from the inner shrines of his heart good treasures, “old of old, and old from before the new.” For this reason he was honored with precedence in the assemblies of his peers not by his age, but by the antiquity of his wisdom he enjoyed the first place above all by common consent. How great the profit of such guidance was no one would need to ask who looks at you. For you alone, of those we know, or at least with very few, passed your life without storm under his steering in so great a winter and tempest of affairs. For the gale of heretical spirits, which brings drownings and shipwrecks to easily overturned souls, did not touch you. And may it never touch you, O Master of all, who gave your servant Gregory, who from the beginning laid the foundation of the church, the grace of the longest freedom from disturbance. Do not you betray it in the present time; do not, by excess of lamentation and by giving yourselves up to grief, surrender the times for necessary action to those lying in wait. But if you must lament at all (as I do not say you should, lest we be made like in this to those who have no hope), then, if you think fit, like a mourning chorus that has set its leader at its head, weep over what has happened more harmoniously with him. 2. Yet, even if the man did not reach extreme old age, still, with respect to the length of his presidency over you, his life was not lacking. He had so much of the body as to show the strength of his soul in his pains. Perhaps one of you might reply that time brings to those who have experienced it an increase of affection and an addition of love, not an occasion for satiety, so that the longer you have experienced his benefits, the more you feel his departure; and that to the devout even the shadow of a righteous man's body is worth everything. And may many of you be of this mind (for I myself do not say that you should be indifferent toward the man); but I counsel you to bear the grief as men. For whatever can be said by those bewailing the loss does not escape me either. Silent is the tongue that flooded our ears like rivers; and the depth of a heart hitherto comprehensible to no one has flown away, slighter than dreams, as far as men are concerned. Who foresaw the future more keenly than he? Who, with a character of soul so steady and firm, was able to meet events faster than lightning? O city, already overtaken by many sufferings, but by none so damaged in the very vital points of its life! Now your fairest ornament has faded; the church is mute, the festivals are gloomy, the sacred council longs for its leader, the mystical words await their interpreter, the children their father, the old men their contemporary, the magistrates their chief, the people their champion, those in need their nourisher. All, calling on him by the most familiar names, each raise a lament fitting and proper to him for their own grief. But where is my speech carried by the pleasure of tears? Shall we not come to our senses? Shall we not be ourselves again? Shall we not look to the common Master, who, having permitted each of the saints to serve his own generation, called him back to himself at the appointed times? Now in season remember his words, he who in his preaching to you always warned you, saying, “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers.” Many are the dogs. Why do I say dogs? Rather, grievous wolves, hiding their guile under the appearance of sheep, are tearing Christ's flock apart all over the world. You must guard against them under the oversight of a watchful shepherd. It is yours to ask for him, keeping your souls pure of all contentiousness and love of preeminence; it is the Lord's to reveal him, who, from the great champion of your church Gregory down to this blessed man, adding one to another and always fitting them together, as in a setting of precious stones, has given your church a beauty marvelous indeed. So we must not despair of what follows either. For the Lord knows those who are his; and he may bring forward those perhaps not expected by us. 3. I have long wished to end my words, but the pain of my heart does not allow it. I charge you, by the Fathers, by the right faith, by this blessed man, to rouse up your souls, each judging what is being striven for to be his own concern, and thinking that he himself will be the first to enjoy the outcome of matters either way; not, as happens with most, pushing the care of common things onto his neighbor, so that then, when each in his own mind neglects affairs, all unawares draw on themselves a private evil through negligence. Receive these words with all goodwill, whether as the sympathy of neighbors, or as the fellowship of those who share the same faith, or, what is truer, as from men obeying the law of love and avoiding the danger of keeping silent; being persuaded that you are our boast, as we are yours, for the day of the Lord, and that through the shepherd who will be given you we shall either be united more closely by the bond of love or be wholly separated, which God forbid, nor will it be, by God's grace; nor would I myself now say anything ill-omened. This we want you to know: that although, because of certain prejudices, as he himself assured us, we did not have the blessed man working with us for the peace of the churches, yet in our agreement in faith with him, and in always calling on him as a partner in the contests against the heretics, we have never on any occasion fallen short, as God and the men who have experience of us are witnesses.

… the news of the evil that had happened, most grievous. But when we had recovered a little from the speechlessness we suffered, like those whose ears are stunned by a great clap of thunder, we have now of necessity groaned over what has happened, and in the midst of our lamenting we have sent you this letter: not for the sake of consolation (for what word could be found to heal so great a disaster?), but to signify to you, as far as possible, the pain of our heart by this utterance. Now I needed the lamentations of Jeremiah, or of any other of the blessed men who bewailed with feeling the greatness of a disaster. A man has fallen who was truly a pillar and ground of the church; or rather, he himself has been taken up from us to the blessed life and is gone, but there is no small danger that many may fall with him now that this prop has been removed, and the unsoundness of some may become manifest. Closed is a mouth of just boldness and of gracious words for the building up of what is truly moved in God. Oh, how often (for I will accuse myself) I was indignant with the man because, wholly given over to the desire to depart and be with Christ, he did not prefer to remain in the flesh for our sake! To whom shall we now entrust our cares for the churches? Whom shall we take as a partner in our griefs? Whom as a sharer in our joy? Oh, the terrible and gloomy desolation! How exactly have we become like a pelican of the wilderness! Yet the members of the church that were joined together under his presidency as by a soul, fitted into one fellow feeling and close fellowship, are kept firmly by the bond of peace in their spiritual joining, and will be kept forever, God granting this, so that the works of that blessed soul, all that he labored for the churches of God, remain firm and immovable. But the struggle is not small, lest some strifes and divisions spring up again over the election of a president and overturn all his labor at once through some chance quarrel …

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. If I were to write in order all the causes by which I have been held back until now, though very eager to come to your Godliness, I should fill out a story of endless length. I pass over the successive illnesses, the severity of the winter, and the press of business, as these are known and already made clear to your Perfection. But now I have been deprived, because of my sins, of the only consolation I had in life, my mother. Do not laugh at me for lamenting orphanhood at my time of life; but forgive me for not bearing tolerably the separation from a soul to which I see nothing equal among those left. So my illnesses have returned again, and again I lie on my bed, tossing on a very little strength, and almost every hour awaiting the necessary end of life. The churches are in much the same state as my body: no good hope appears, and affairs are always sliding toward the worse. Meanwhile Neocaesarea and Ancyra seem to have successors to those who departed, and are quiet until now. Nor have those who plot against us been permitted so far to do anything worthy of their rage and bitterness. And we plainly attribute the cause of this to your intercessions for the churches. So do not grow weary of praying for the churches …

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. The famine has not yet released us; so we must stay in the city, either for administration or for sympathy with the afflicted. That is why not even now could I share the journey with our most reverend brother Hypatius, whom I can call brother not merely as a courtesy but because of our natural kinship, for we are of the same blood. How he suffers is not unknown to your Honor; but it grieves us that every hope of relief for him has been cut off, since those who have the gifts of healing have not been allowed to work any of their usual effects on him. So he calls again on the help of your prayers. Be pleased, then, to give your usual protection, both because of your own compassion toward the sick and because of us who intercede for him; and, if possible, to summon the most devout brothers to you, so that he may receive care under your own eyes; or if this is impossible, deign to send him on with letters and commend him to those further on.

… at once arranged them to advantage. And now the matter has come to this: on one side the poverty of a Christian, on the other the meddling of one of the market people. So it occurred to me to make this known to your goodness, praiseworthy in every respect, so that, honoring the man whom you have known of old, glorifying the Lord, who takes to himself what is done to his servants, and honoring us, who are your special friends, you may both speak to the count of the treasury as is fitting about him, and devise, by your own understanding, a way of release from these insolent and intolerable annoyances. 2. Surely no one is so ignorant of the man as to suspect anything unbecoming of him, as though he were putting on a show because he clings to his money. The proof of his generosity is near at hand. He is glad to give up the remains of his property to the treasury, so that his property may be taken over, and the advocate of the treasury may answer those who attack him and demand the proofs, since we are unfit for such things. For your Perfection may learn that, as long as it was possible, no one went away disappointed of what he wanted, but each obtained what he sought without trouble, so that many even regretted not having asked for more from the beginning; and this above all has multiplied his persecutors. For, looking at the example of those who went before, one after another follows on as a false accuser. Against all this, then, we urge your Dignity to take your stand, and, as one checks a stream, to cut off the continuance of these evils. You know how you will help in the matter, so as not to wait to be taught the way by us, who, through inexperience in the affairs of life, do not know even this, how we might obtain release. Be, then, yourself both counselor and protector, finding the form of help by your own great prudence.

To Aburgius. Who knows so well as you how to honor an old friendship, to respect virtue, and to share the pain of the suffering? Since, then, our most God-beloved brother Gregory the bishop has been overtaken by troubles that are hard to bear in any case and especially contrary to his character, it seemed best to us to take refuge in your protection and to try to find from you some release from these distresses. For it is an unbearable misfortune for a man who is neither suited nor willing to be forced to plead in lawsuits, for a poor man to be asked for money, and for one who long ago decided to pass his life in quiet to be dragged into public and made the object of popular clamor. Whether you judge it useful to speak with the count of the treasury, or with some others, is a matter for your understanding. [Letter 34] To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. How could we keep silent at what is happening? Or, unable to endure it, how could we find words worthy of what is taking place, so that our voice may not be like a groan, but a lament that sufficiently expresses the weight of the evil? Tarsus too is lost to us. And this is not the only terrible thing, unbearable as it is; there is something harder still: that a city so great, so well placed that it links the Isaurians, the Cilicians, the Cappadocians, and the Syrians through itself, should have become an incidental casualty of the madness of one or two men, while you delayed, deliberated, and looked to one another. The best course, then, following the device of physicians (and I have great abundance of such examples, because of the illness that lives with me), who, when the greatness of the pain exceeds measure, contrive insensibility to suffering for the patient, would be to pray for our own souls also an insensibility to these evils, so as not to be held in the grip of unbearable pains. Nevertheless, wretched as our state is, we have one consolation: to look to your gentleness, and to soothe what is grieving in our soul by thinking of you and remembering you. For just as for the eyes, when they have looked intently at bright things, it brings some relief to turn back to the blue and green among colors, so for our souls the remembrance of your gentleness and harmony is like a soft touch that takes away the pain; and especially when we consider that you have done all that lay in your power. By this you have shown sufficiently to us men, if we judge matters fairly, that nothing has been lost through any fault of yours; and with God you have gained for yourself a great reward for your zeal for what is good. May the Lord grant you to us and to his churches for the benefit of our life and the correction of our souls, and may he deem us worthy once more of profitable meeting with you.

Without address, on behalf of Leontius. I have written to you about many matters as being my concern, and I shall write about still more. For it is neither possible to fail those who ask, nor can we refuse the favor. Yet there is no one closer to me, nor more able to refresh me by any kindness he receives, than our most reverend brother Leontius. Treat his house as you would if you found me myself, not in this poverty in which I now am, with God, but possessed of some wealth and owning lands. For it is plain that you would not have made me poor, but would either have preserved what I had or increased my wealth. This, then, we urge you to do for the aforesaid house of the man as well. Your reward for everything will be the usual one from me: prayer to the holy God for your labors, since you are good and noble, and anticipate the requests of those who ask.

Without address, asking for help. The presbyter of this place, I think, has long been known to your Nobility as my foster brother. What else, then, must I say to move your kindness to look on him as one of your own and help him in his affairs? For if you love me, as indeed you do, you will plainly choose to refresh with all your power those whom I count as myself. What, then, do I ask? That his old assessment be kept for him. For he toils not a little in serving us for our livelihood, since, as you yourself know, we have nothing of our own but are content with what belongs to friends and relatives. So look upon this brother's house as mine, or rather as your own; and in return for your kindness to him God will give you, your house, and all your family his accustomed help. Know that it is a great concern of mine that the man should suffer no harm from the new assessment.

Without address, on behalf of a foster brother. I am beginning to be wary of the number of my letters. I am forced to speak out against my will, unable to bear the pressure of those who make demands on me. I write nevertheless, having no other way of getting free of them than giving letters to those who keep asking them of me. I fear, then, that since many bring letters, our brother So-and-so may be thought one of the many. For I admit that I have many friends and relatives in my homeland, and that I myself have been placed in the rank of a father, because of this office to which the Lord has appointed us. But this man, the son of my nurse, is my one foster brother, and I pray that the house in which I was brought up may remain in the same state, so that the visit of your Decorum, which benefits everyone, may not become an occasion of grief to this man. But since even now I am supported from that same house, having nothing of my own but being content with what belongs to my dear ones, I urge you to spare the house in which I was brought up as one who preserves for me the supply of my sustenance. And may God count you worthy of eternal rest in return. This, however, most true of all, I wish your Decorum to know: that most of the slaves were given him by us, our parents providing them, as payment for our nurture. And the payment is not an outright gift, but use for life; so that, if any burden falls on them, he may send them back to us …

To his brother Gregory, on the difference between essence and hypostasis. 1. Since many, in the mystical doctrines, do not distinguish what is common in the essence from the meaning of the hypostases, and think it makes no difference whether one says essence or hypostasis (and so it has pleased some who accept such things without examination to speak of one hypostasis just as of one essence; and, conversely, those who accept three hypostases think they must, on the strength of this confession, teach a division of essences in the same number), for this reason, so that you may not suffer the same, I have written you a short memorandum on the subject. The meaning of the terms, to set it out in a few words, is as follows. 2. Of all names, some, used of several things differing in number, have a more general meaning, as “man.” For whoever says this, having indicated the common nature by the name, has not marked off by the word some particular man who is known individually by the name. For Peter is no more a man than Andrew, John, and James. So the commonness of what is signified, extending equally to all who are ranked under the same name, needs a further distinction, by which we shall recognize not man in general but Peter or John. Other names have a more particular reference, by which what is contemplated in the thing signified is not the commonness of the nature but a circumscription of some thing, having, as to its particularity, no community with what is of the same kind, as “Paul” or “Timothy.” For such a word no longer refers to what is common in the nature, but, separating certain circumscribed things from the comprehensive meaning, presents them by the names. When, then, of two or more who are in the same category, as Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, an account of the essence of men is sought, no one will give one account of essence for Paul, another for Silvanus, and another for Timothy; but the terms by which the essence of Paul is shown will fit the others also; and those described by the same account of essence are of the same essence with one another. But when someone, having learned what is common, turns his view to the particulars by which one is separated from another, the account that makes each known will no longer coincide in every respect with that of the other, even if in some points it is found to have something in common. 3. This, then, is what we say: what is spoken of particularly is indicated by the word “hypostasis.” For whoever says “man” produces in the hearer a diffuse idea, because of the indefiniteness of the meaning, so that the nature is indicated by the name, but the thing that subsists and is particularly indicated by the name is not signified. But whoever says “Paul” shows the nature subsisting in the thing indicated by the name. This, then, is the hypostasis: not the indefinite notion of the essence, which finds no standing because of the commonness of what is signified, but that which presents and circumscribes in some particular thing, through the particularities that appear, what is common and uncircumscribed. So Scripture too is accustomed to do this, both in many other places and in the story of Job. For when it was about to tell his story, it first mentioned what is common and said “a man,” and at once marked him off by what is particular with the addition of “a certain.” The description of the essence it passed over in silence, as bringing no gain for the purpose of the narrative; but it characterizes the particular man by his own marks, naming his place and the marks of his character, and whatever external things, taken together, would separate him and set him apart from the common meaning, so that the description of the man narrated becomes clear in every respect: from his name, from his place, from the particularities of his soul, from the external things observed about him. But if it had been giving the account of the essence, there would have been no mention of these things in explaining the nature. For the account would have been the same for Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, and each of the men mentioned there. Transfer, then, the account of the difference between essence and hypostasis that you have learned in our own case to the divine doctrines as well, and you will not go wrong. Whatever your thought suggests the being of the Father to be (for it is not possible to rest the soul on any detached notion, being convinced that it is beyond every notion), this you will think of the Son also, and likewise of the Holy Spirit. For the account of the uncreated and the incomprehensible is one and the same in the case of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For one is not more incomprehensible and uncreated, and another less. But since in the Trinity we must keep an unconfused distinction through the particular marks, we shall not take what is contemplated in common, such as being uncreated, I mean, or beyond all comprehension, or anything of that kind, into our judgment of what is particular; we shall seek only those marks by which the notion of each will be clearly and unmixedly set apart from what is contemplated together with it. 4. It seems to me well to track down the account in this way. Every good thing that reaches us from the divine power we say is the working of the grace that works all things in all, as the Apostle says: “All these things the one and the same Spirit works, distributing to each individually as he wills.” But when we ask whether the supply of good things, taking its origin from the Holy Spirit alone, so comes to those who are worthy, we are again led by Scripture to believe that the source and cause of the supply of the good things worked in us through the Spirit is the only-begotten God. For we have been taught by holy Scripture that all things came into being through him and hold together in him. When, then, we have been raised to that thought too, again, led up by the divinely inspired guidance, we are taught that through that power all things are brought from non-being into being, yet not even from it without origin; but there is a power subsisting without generation and without origin, which is the cause of the cause of all things that exist. For from the Father is the Son, through whom are all things, with whom the Holy Spirit is always inseparably conceived. For it is not possible to come to the thought of the Son without being first enlightened by the Spirit. Since, then, the Holy Spirit, from whom the whole supply of good things to creation springs, is attached to the Son and is apprehended together with him without interval, and has its being dependent on the cause of the Father, from whom it also proceeds, it has this mark that makes known its particularity as to hypostasis: being known after the Son and with him, and subsisting from the Father. The Son, who makes known through himself and with himself the Spirit who proceeds from the Father, alone shining forth only-begottenly from the unbegotten light, has, as to his particular marks, no community with the Father or with the Holy Spirit, but is known alone by the marks mentioned. And the God who is over all alone has, as an exceptional mark of his own hypostasis, being Father and subsisting from no cause; and by this mark again he too is recognized particularly. For this reason we say that in the commonness of the essence the marks contemplated in the Trinity are incompatible and incommunicable, marks by which the particularity of the persons handed down in the faith is presented, each being apprehended distinctly by its own marks; so that through the marks mentioned the separateness of the hypostases is discovered. But as to infinity, incomprehensibility, uncreated being, not being contained by any place, and all such things, there is no variation in the life-giving nature, in the Father, I mean, and the Son and the Holy Spirit; but a certain continuous and unbroken communion is contemplated in them. And by whatever notions one may consider the majesty of any one of those believed in the holy Trinity, by the same he will approach without variation, seeing the glory in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, his mind not walking on emptiness in any interval between Father and Son and Holy Spirit. For there is nothing inserted between them, neither some subsisting thing other than the divine nature, so as to be able to divide it from itself by the intrusion of something foreign, nor the emptiness of some unsubstantial interval, which would make the harmony of the divine essence with itself gape open, breaking its continuity by the insertion of a void. But he who has thought of the Father has thought of him in himself and has also received the Son along with him in his mind; and he who has grasped the Son has not separated the Spirit from the Son, but, in sequence according to order and conjointly according to nature, has formed in himself the faith in the three blended together at once. And he who names the Spirit alone includes in this confession also him whose Spirit it is. And since the Spirit is Christ's and from God, as Paul says, then just as one who takes hold of one end of a chain draws the other end along with it, so he who has drawn the Spirit, as the prophet says, has drawn along through it both the Son and the Father. And if anyone truly receives the Son, he will have him bringing with him on either side his own Father on the one hand and his own Spirit on the other. For he who is always in the Father can never be cut off from the Father, nor will he who works all things in it ever be separated from his own Spirit. Likewise he who has received the Father has potentially received with him the Son and the Spirit. For it is not possible to conceive any cutting or division in any way, so that the Son should be thought of without the Father, or the Spirit separated from the Son; but a certain ineffable and inconceivable communion and distinction is apprehended in them, the difference of the hypostases not tearing apart the continuity of the nature, nor the community of the essence dissolving the particularity of the marks. Do not wonder that we say the same thing is both joined and distinguished, and conceive, as in a riddle, a new and strange distinction that is conjoined and a conjunction that is distinguished. For if one does not listen to the argument contentiously and spitefully, such a thing can be found even among sensible things. 5. And receive my argument as an illustration and shadow of the truth, not as the very truth of the realities. For it is not possible for what is seen in illustrations to fit in every respect the things for which the use of illustrations is adopted. How, then, do we say that what is at once distinct and conjoined can be reasoned out by analogy from what appears to our senses? You have at some time seen in spring the brightness of the bow in the cloud, I mean the bow which common speech is accustomed to call the rainbow. Those skilled in such things say that it forms when some moisture is mixed into the air, the force of the winds squeezing into rain what is moist and thick in the vapors, which has already become cloudy. And they say it forms thus: when the sun's ray, running obliquely under the dense and shadowy part of the cloud, then rests its own circle directly upon some cloud, a kind of bending and return of the light upon itself occurs, the gleam turning back from the moist and shining surface. For since it is the nature of flamelike rays, if they fall on something smooth, to be reflected back upon themselves, and the shape of the sun formed by the ray in the moist and smooth part of the air is circular, of necessity the air next to the cloud is also outlined by the reflected gleam according to the shape of the sun's circle. This gleam, then, is both continuous with itself and divided. For being many-colored and many-formed, it is imperceptibly blended with itself by the varied hues of its dye, secretly stealing from our sight the meeting of the different colors with one another, so that the space between the blue and the flame-colored, which mixes and separates the difference of the colors, cannot be discerned, nor that between the flame-colored and the purple, nor between that and the amber. For the rays of all, seen at once, are both far-shining and, stealing away the signs of their contact with one another, escape testing, so that it is impossible to find how far the fiery or the emerald part of the gleam extends, and where it begins to be no longer such as it is seen in its brightness. Just as, then, in the illustration we both clearly distinguish the differences of the colors and cannot perceive by sense the interval between one and another, so consider that it is possible to reason about the divine doctrines too: that the particularities of the hypostases, like a bloom among those that appear in the rainbow, flash out in each of those believed in the holy Trinity, while no difference of one from another is conceived in the particularity of the nature, but the distinguishing particularities shine on each in the community of the essence. For there too, in the illustration, the essence that shone out that many-colored gleam was one, refracted by the sun's ray, while the bloom of what appeared was manifold; the argument teaching us even through creation not to be disconcerted by the statements of doctrine when, falling upon what is hard to contemplate, we grow dizzy at assenting to what is said. For just as with things that appear to the eyes experience has proved better than an account of the cause, so with doctrines that transcend us faith is better than comprehension by reasoning, teaching both what is separate in hypostasis and what is conjoined in essence. Since, then, the argument has contemplated in the holy Trinity both something common and something particular, the account of commonness is referred to the essence, while the hypostasis is the particular sign of each. 6. But perhaps someone thinks that the account given of the hypostasis does not agree with the meaning of the Apostle's writing, where he says of the Lord that he is “the radiance of his glory and the stamp of his hypostasis.” For if we have given the hypostasis to be the concurrence of the particularities of each, and it is agreed that, as in the Father there is something contemplated particularly by which he alone is recognized, so too the like is believed of the Only-begotten, how is it that Scripture here attributes the name of hypostasis to the Father alone, and calls the Son the form of the hypostasis, characterized not by his own marks but by those of the Father? For if the hypostasis is the particular sign of each one's existence, and it is agreed that the Father's particularity is to exist unbegottenly, and the Son is formed by the Father's particularities, then being called unbegotten no longer remains exceptionally to the Father alone, if the existence of the Only-begotten is characterized by what is particular to the Father. 7. But we say this: that the Apostle's argument here fulfills another purpose, with a view to which he used these words, saying “radiance of glory” and “stamp of hypostasis”; and whoever understands it exactly will find nothing contrary to what we have said, but the argument conducted with a particular thought in view. For the apostolic argument is not concerned with how the hypostases may be distinguished from one another by the marks that appear, but with how the genuineness, the absence of interval, and the conjunction of the Son's relation to the Father may be understood. For he did not say, “who is the glory of the Father” (though that is the truth), but, leaving this aside as agreed, and teaching us not to think of one form of glory in the Father and another in the Son, he defines the glory of the Only-begotten as the radiance of the very glory of the Father, providing from the illustration of light that the Son be conceived together with the Father without interval. For just as the radiance comes from the flame, yet the radiance is not later than the flame, but at the same moment the flame shone out and the light beamed forth with it, so he wishes the Son to be thought of as from the Father, yet the Only-begotten not to be separated from the Father's existence by any extension of interval, but what is from the cause always to be conceived together with the cause. In the same way, then, as if interpreting further the sense already given, he says also “stamp of hypostasis,” leading us by the hand through bodily illustrations to the understanding of invisible things. For as the body is certainly in a shape, yet the account of the shape is one and the account of the body another, and no one giving the definition of each would arrive at the definition of the other, but even if in thought you distinguish the shape from the body, nature does not admit the distinction, but the one is conceived as joined with the other; so the Apostle thinks that, even if the account of the faith teaches the difference of the hypostases as unconfused and distinct, he must also present by these words the closeness and, so to speak, natural union of the Only-begotten with the Father; not as though the Only-begotten were not also in hypostasis, but as not admitting any intermediary in his union with the Father; so that whoever has gazed with the eyes of the soul at the stamp of the Only-begotten comes also to the thought of the Father's hypostasis, without the particularity contemplated in them being exchanged or mixed, so as to attribute begetting to the Father or unbegottenness to the Son, but because it is not possible, separating the one from the other, to apprehend the one left by itself alone. For it is not possible to name the Son without also coming to the thought of the Father, since this appellation, being relative, indicates the Father along with it. 8. Since, then, he who has seen the Son sees the Father, as the Lord says in the Gospels, for this reason he says that the Only-begotten is the stamp of the Father's hypostasis. And so that the thought may be better understood, we shall take in also other words of the Apostle, in which he calls the Son the image of the invisible God, and again the image of his goodness; not because the image differs from the archetype in the account of invisibility and goodness, but to show that it is the same as the prototype, even though it is another. For the account of an image would not be preserved unless it had clearness and no variation in every respect. So he who has considered the beauty of the image comes to the thought of the archetype. And he who has grasped in his mind the form, so to speak, of the Son has formed in himself the stamp of the Father's hypostasis, seeing the latter through the former; not seeing the unbegottenness of the Father in the copy (for then it would be wholly the same and not another), but beholding the unbegotten beauty in the begotten. For just as one who has looked at the reflection of a form produced in a clean mirror has clear knowledge of the face represented, so he who has known the Son has received in his heart, through the knowledge of the Son, the stamp of the Father's hypostasis. For all that is the Father's is seen in the Son, and all that is the Son's is the Father's; since the whole Son abides in the Father and in turn has the whole Father in himself. So the hypostasis of the Son becomes, as it were, the form and face of the knowledge of the Father, and the hypostasis of the Father is recognized in the form of the Son, while the particularity contemplated in them remains for the clear distinction of the hypostases.

Julian to Basil. The proverb says, “You do not announce war”; and I would add from comedy, “O bringer of golden words!” Come, then, show it by deeds, and hurry to us. You will come as a friend to a friend. The common and continual business of affairs seems somehow burdensome to those who make it a side issue; but those who share the care of it are reasonable, as I am persuaded, and sensible, and entirely capable for everything. So I give myself some relaxation, so that I can even rest without neglecting anything. For we live with one another not with the mere play-acting of the court, which I think you have experienced until now, in which men praise while they hate with a hatred greater than they bear toward their worst enemies; but, refuting and rebuking one another when necessary with fitting freedom, we love one another no less than the closest friends. Hence we can (absit invidia) be earnest while relaxed, and not be worn out while being earnest, and sleep without fear; since even when I am awake I am awake, as is fitting, no more for myself than for all the others. Perhaps I have chattered and talked nonsense to you in this, having fallen into something foolish (for I have praised myself, like Astydamas); but I have written this to persuade you that your presence, as a man of sense, will be of some advantage to us rather than take away anything from our time. Hurry, then, as I said, using the public post. And when you have stayed with us as long as you like, you will go wherever you wish, sent on by us as is fitting.

Julian to Basil. Displaying until now the gentleness and love of mankind that have been mine by nature from childhood, I have brought into subjection all who dwell under the sun. For behold, every race of barbarians as far as the bounds of Ocean has come bringing gifts to my feet. Likewise the Sagadares who live by the … , beautiful in form and pure in shape, who have no human appearance but a savage form, these at present are rolling at my footsteps, promising to do whatever befits my kingship. And not in this alone am I engaged, but I must with all speed reach the land of the Persians and rout that Sapor, the descendant of Darius, until he becomes my tributary and subject; and at the same time lay waste the country of the Indians and the Saracens round about, until all these too take second rank as my tributaries and subjects. But you have thought yourself above the power of these, saying that you are clothed in piety but putting forward shamelessness, and spreading it everywhere that I am unworthy of the kingship of the Romans. Do you not know yourself that I am a descendant of the most excellent Constantius? And though these things are known to us about you, we have not departed from our former disposition, which you and I shared when we were still young in age. But with my clemency of mind I decree that a thousand pounds of gold be sent to me by you on my passage through Caesarea, while I am still on the public road, as I hasten with all speed to the Persian war; being ready, if you do not do this, to pull down every place in Caesarea and overthrow its fine buildings raised long ago, and to set up temples and statues in their place, so as to persuade all to submit to the emperor of the Romans and not be puffed up. So count out the gold named, weigh it on the scale, and send it to me safely by one of your trusted people, sealed with your ring, so that I, having learned … the inexorableness of the occasion … [Letter 41] Basil to Julian, in reply. 1. Small are the great deeds of your present fortune, and paltry the prowess with which you have sighed against us, or rather not against us but against yourself. As for me, I am seized with trembling when I consider that you have put on the purple, and that your dishonored head has been adorned with a crown, which, without godliness, makes your kingship not honorable but dishonorable. But you yourself, having gone back and become over-great, now that wicked demons who hate the good have drawn you to this, have begun not only to think above all human nature, but also to exalt yourself against God, and to insult the Church, the mother and nurse of all, by sending notice to me, the most insignificant of men, that a thousand pounds of gold be sent to you from me. The weight of the gold did not dismay my mind, great though it is; but it has made me weep bitterly at so swift a perdition of yours. For I reflect within myself that I myself and your Excellency learned together the sacred and best letters. Both of us went through the holy and divinely inspired Scriptures, and then nothing escaped you; but at present you have become disordered, encamped in such a mind. You knew us until yesterday, most serene one, not to live for greed of money; but now at present you have demanded that a thousand pounds of gold be sent to you from me. Be pleased, then, to spare us, most serene one: we have so little that it will not suffice for what we wish to eat today. For the art of cooks, as is natural, is idle with us, and their knife does not consort with blood. The most important of our foods, in which there is abundance, are leaves of herbs with very coarse bread and sour wine, so that our senses, not dazzled by gluttony, may not live in folly. 2. Lausus, your distinguished tribune, who is loyal to you in what you are eager about, also reported this to me: that a certain woman approached your Serenity about the loss of her son, who had been poisoned; and that it was decided by you that there should be no poisoners anywhere, and that those who exist should be put to death, or only those kept whose fight is with the wild beasts. This, rightly decided by you, seemed strange to me; for it is full of all absurdity that you try to cure the great pains of wounds with small remedies. For, having insulted God, you take care of widows and orphans in vain. The one is the act of a madman and a dangerous one, the other of a compassionate and sympathetic man. It is burdensome for us, private men, to speak to an emperor; but it will seem more burdensome to you to speak to God. For no mediator between God and men will appear. What you read, you did not understand; for if you had understood, you would not have condemned.

To Chilo, his disciple. 1. I shall become the cause of a saving thing for you, my true brother, if you gladly take our advice about what you should do, especially on the matters about which you yourself asked us to advise you. To begin the solitary life has perhaps been ventured by many; but to complete it worthily has perhaps been achieved by few. And the end certainly does not lie in the intention alone, but the gain of what has been labored for lies in the end. So there is no profit in the life of monks for those who do not press on to the end of their aim but stop at the beginning only; rather, they leave their own purpose a laughingstock, being charged by outsiders with cowardice and lack of resolve. For the Lord too says of such people: “Which of you, wishing to build a house, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Lest, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, those passing by begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man laid a foundation and was not able to finish.’” Let the beginning, then, have eager progress toward its accomplishment. For the most noble athlete Paul, wishing us not to rest content with good things already lived, but to advance daily forward, says, “Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call.” For such is the whole life of men: not content with what is past, nor nourished by what is past but rather by what is to come. For what does yesterday's fullness of the belly profit a man, when today his natural hunger does not find its proper comfort in food? So also there is no gain for the soul from yesterday's good deed if today's right doing is lacking. For “as I find you,” it says, “so I will judge you.” 2. So the righteous man's labor is vain and the sinner's way blameless, when a change comes over the one from better to worse and over the other from worse to better. This can be heard from Ezekiel too, laying it down as from the person of the Lord: “If the righteous man turns aside and transgresses, I will not remember the righteous deeds he did before, but in his sin he shall die.” And he says the same of the sinner: “If he turns and does righteousness, he shall surely live in it.” For where were all the labors of Moses the servant, when the gainsaying of a moment cancelled his entry into the land of promise? Where Gehazi's companionship with Elisha, when he drew leprosy on himself through love of money? And what profit was the abundance of wisdom to Solomon, and his former great understanding toward God, when afterward through his madness for women he fell into idolatry? Not even blessed David did his distraction leave blameless, because of his offense regarding Uriah. And the fall of Judas from better to worse should be enough for the safety of one who lives according to God: after being a disciple of Christ for so long, he afterward sold his teacher for a small gain and procured a noose for himself. Let this, then, be known to you, brother: not the one who begins well is perfect, but the one who finishes well is approved before God. So give no sleep to your eyes, brother, nor slumber to your eyelids, that you may be saved like a gazelle from the snares and like a bird from the trap. For see that you are walking in the midst of traps and on top of a high wall, from which a fall is not without danger to the one who falls. Do not, then, stretch yourself at once to the height of discipline; above all, do not trust yourself, lest through inexperience you fall from the height of discipline. Progress little by little is better. Withdraw, then, little by little from the pleasures of life, gradually doing away with every habit of yours, lest by provoking all pleasures at once you bring a crowd of temptations upon yourself. When you have mastered one passion of pleasure by force, take the field against another, and so you will in due time master all the pleasures. For pleasure is one name, but its forms are many. So, brother, be first of all patient under every temptation. And by what sort of temptations is the believer tested? By worldly losses, accusations, lies, disobedience, slanders, persecutions. By these and the like the believer is tested. Then be quiet: not rash in speech, not quarrelsome, not contentious, not vainglorious, not eager to expound but eager in faith; not much in speech, but always ready, not to teach, but to learn. Do not busy yourself with worldly lives, from which no profit will come to you. For it says, “that my mouth may not speak the works of men.” For one who gladly speaks of the deeds of sinners readily awakens the pleasures against himself. Rather inquire into the life of the righteous; for so you will find profit for yourself. Do not be a lover of display, going round villages or houses; flee these as snares for souls. And if someone out of great devotion urges you to his house on many pretexts, let such a person learn to follow the faith of the centurion, who, when Jesus was hastening to him to heal, declined, saying, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” And when Jesus said to him, “Go; as you have believed, let it be done for you,” the servant was healed from that hour. Let this be known to you, brother: that not the presence of Christ but the faith of the one asking freed the sick man. So now too, when you pray in whatever place, and the sick man believes that he will be helped by your prayers, everything will turn out for him as he wishes. 3. Do not love your relatives more than the Lord. For he says, “Whoever loves father or mother or brothers more than me is not worthy of me.” And what does the Lord's commandment mean? “If anyone does not take up his cross and follow me,” he says, “he cannot be my disciple.” If you died with Christ to your relatives according to the flesh, why do you wish to live among them again? And if you are building up again for the sake of your relatives what you tore down for Christ's sake, you make yourself a transgressor. Do not, then, leave your place on account of your relatives; for if you leave your place, perhaps you will also leave your way of life. Do not be a lover of crowds, nor a lover of places, nor a lover of cities, but a lover of the desert, always remaining by yourself without distraction, counting prayer and psalmody your work. Do not neglect the readings, especially of the New Testament, because harm often comes from the Old Testament; not because harmful things were written, but because the mind of those who are harmed is weak. For all bread is nourishing, but harmful to the sick. So all Scripture is divinely inspired and profitable, and nothing in it is unclean, except that to one who considers it unclean, to him it is unclean. “Test all things; hold fast what is good; abstain from every form of evil.” “For all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.” Be, then, toward those you meet in all things without guile, cheerful, loving the brothers, pleasant, humble-minded, not falling short of the aim of hospitality through costly food, but content with what you have; take from no one anything more than the daily need of the solitary life; and above all flee gold as a plotter against the soul, the father of sin, and the servant of the devil. Do not, on the pretext of serving the poor, make yourself liable to love of money. If someone brings you money for the poor, and you know some who are in want, advise the one who owns the money to take it himself to the brothers in need, lest the receiving of money defile your conscience. 4. Flee pleasures, pursue self-control; train the body with labors, accustom the soul to temptations. Counting the separation of body and soul a release from every evil, await the enjoyment of the eternal goods, in which all the saints have become sharers. And you, weighing ceaselessly as on a balance, set the godly reasoning against the devilish thought, especially when, as the pan of the scale gives way to it, the evil thought rises up and says: “What is the profit to you of living in this place? What is the gain of your withdrawal from the society of men? Do you not know that the bishops appointed by God over God's churches usually live with men and continually hold spiritual festivals, at which, surely, great benefit comes to those present? For there are the revelations of the riddles of the Proverbs, the solutions of the apostolic teachings, the exposition of the meanings of the gospels, the hearing of theology, the meetings of spiritual brothers, who give great benefit to those who meet them by the very sight of their face. But you, having made yourself a stranger to such great goods, sit here, perhaps grown savage with the beasts. For you see here much desolation, no little inhumanity, a lack of teaching, estrangement from the brothers, and a spirit much idle about God's commandment.” When, then, the evil thought rises up with such and so many plausible pretexts and seeks to break you down, set against it, through the godly reasoning, the experience of the matter, saying: “Since you tell me that the things in the world are good, therefore I have moved here, judging myself unworthy of the world's goods. For evils are mixed with the world's goods, and the evils rather prevail. For once when I was at the spiritual festivals, I barely met one brother, who seemed to fear the Lord but was held by the devil, and I heard from him clever words and fables made up to deceive those who met him. After him I met many thieves, robbers, tyrants. I saw the unseemly figure of drunkards, the blood of the oppressed. I saw also the beauty of women, which tormented my chastity. I escaped the deed of fornication; but I defiled my virginity in the thought of my heart. I heard many words profitable to the soul; but in none of the teachers did I find virtue worthy of his words. After that again I heard countless tragedies set to effeminate songs. Again I heard the sweet sound of the lyre, the clapping of dancers, the voice of buffoons, much folly and jesting, the shouting of an untold crowd. I saw the tears of the robbed, the pains of those led away by tyranny, the groaning of the tortured. And I looked, and behold, it was not a spiritual festival but a sea tossed by winds and troubled, eager to cover all alike with its waves. Tell me, evil thought, and you, demon of passing luxury and vainglory, what is the profit to me of seeing and hearing these things, when I am able to help none of the wronged, am not permitted either to defend the powerless or to correct those who go astray, and perhaps am about to destroy myself as well? For just as a little clean water is lost under a great storm of wind and dust, so what we think we do well in life is covered by the multitude of evils. For the tragedies are fixed like stakes, with cheerfulness and joy, in the hearts of those who live in the world, so as to darken the purity of psalmody; and the groaning and lamentation of men wronged by their own kind are brought in so that the endurance of the poor may be shown. 5. What, then, is the profit to me, or rather is it not the harm of the soul? For this reason I migrate to the mountains like a sparrow. For like a sparrow I have been delivered from the snare of the hunters. For in this desert, evil thought, I live, in which the Lord lived. Here is the oak of Mamre; here the ladder reaching to heaven, and the camps of the angels that appeared to Jacob; here the desert in which the people, having been purified, received the law, and so, entering the land of promise, saw God. Here is Mount Carmel, on which Elijah, dwelling, pleased God. Here is the plain in which Ezra, having withdrawn, by God's command uttered all the divinely inspired books. Here is the desert in which blessed John, eating locusts, preached repentance to men. Here is the Mount of Olives, which Christ ascended to pray, teaching us to pray. Here is Christ, the friend of the desert; for he says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.” Here is the narrow and afflicted way that leads to life. Here are the teachers and prophets who wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth. Here are apostles and evangelists, and the desert-dwelling life of monks. These things, then, I have willingly accepted, that I may receive what has been promised to the martyrs of Christ and to all the other saints, that I may say without falsehood, “Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways.” For I knew that Abraham, the friend of God, obeying the voice of God, moved into the desert; Isaac was oppressed; Jacob the patriarch was a sojourner; Joseph the chaste was sold; the three youths, discoverers of self-control, fought with fire; Daniel was thrown a second time into the lions' den; Jeremiah, who spoke boldly, was condemned to the pit of mire; Isaiah, the beholder of hidden things, was sawn in two; Israel was led captive; John, the reprover of adultery, was beheaded; Christ's martyrs were put to death. And why should I speak at length? When even the Savior himself was crucified for us, that by his own death he might give us life and anoint and draw us all to endurance. To him I hasten, and to the Father and the Holy Spirit. I strive to be found genuine, judging myself unworthy of the world's goods. Yet I am not for the sake of the world, but the world for my sake.” Reasoning these things within yourself, and carrying them out diligently, as has been said to you, contend for the truth to the death. For Christ too became obedient to the point of death. And the Apostle says, “Take care lest there be in any of you an evil heart, leading you to fall away from the living God; but exhort one another, and build one another up, as long as it is called ‘today.’” For “today” means the whole time of our life. Living thus, brother, you will both save yourself, gladden us, and glorify God for ever and ever. Amen.

Admonition to the young. Listen, you … and faithful man, worker of godliness, and be taught the gospel way of life: the bringing of the body into subjection, a humble mind, purity of thought, the doing away of anger. When you are compelled to go a mile, add another for the Lord's sake; when you are robbed, do not go to law; when you are hated, love; when you are persecuted, endure; when you are slandered, entreat. Die to sin; be crucified to God; cast all your care on the Lord, so that you may be found where there are myriads of angels, assemblies of the firstborn, thrones of apostles, seats of honor of prophets, scepters of patriarchs, crowns of martyrs, praises of the righteous. Long to be numbered with those righteous ones in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.

To a lapsed monk. 1. We do not say “greeting,” because there is no greeting for the ungodly. For unbelief still holds me, and so great an outrage and the great deed you have done do not enter my heart, if indeed it is as it now appears to all. For I wonder how so much wisdom was swallowed up, how so much exactness was dissolved; whence such blindness poured over you; how, considering nothing at all, you have worked such and so great a destruction of souls. For if this is true, you have both handed your own soul over to the abyss and slackened the vigor of all who hear of this impiety. You have set aside the faith; you have missed the mark of the good fight. So I grieve over you. For what priest hears it and does not lament? What churchman does not beat his breast? What layman is not downcast? What ascetic does not mourn? Perhaps even the sun was darkened at your fall, and the powers of the heavens were shaken at your destruction. Even the senseless stones wept at your madness; even your enemies wept for the excess of your lawlessness. O great hardness! O terrible cruelty! You did not fear God, you did not respect men, you did not regard your friends; but you made shipwreck of everything at once, you were robbed of everything at once. So again I grieve over you, wretched man. You who proclaimed to all the strength of the kingdom have fallen from the kingdom. You who implanted fear in all by your teaching did not have the fear of God before your eyes. You who preached holiness are found accursed. You who prided yourself on poverty are found greedy for money. You who displayed the punishment of God by your instruction have procured punishment for yourself. How shall I lament you? How shall I grieve over you? How has the morning star fallen, that rose at dawn, and been crushed upon the earth? Both ears of everyone who hears will ring. How has the Nazirite, who shone above gold, become darker than soot? The precious son of Zion, how has he become a useless vessel? He whose memory of the divine Scriptures was spoken of by all, today his memory has perished with a crash. The sharp-witted has quickly perished. The man of many thoughts has worked a manifold sin. For those who were helped by your teaching have been harmed by your destruction. Those who lent their ears to your preaching have stopped their ears at your destruction. And I, lamenting and downcast, weakened on every side, eating ashes like bread, and throwing sackcloth upon my wound, go through such praises of you, or rather, composing funeral speeches, I remain uncomforted and uncured; for comfort is hidden from my eyes, and there is no salve to apply, neither oil nor bandages. For my wound is painful; whence shall I be healed? 2. If, then, there is still any hope of salvation left to you, any slight remembrance of God, any longing for the good things to come, any fear of the punishments stored up for the unrepentant, come to your senses quickly; lift up your eyes to heaven; come to awareness; cease from your wickedness; shake off the drunkenness that has poured over you; rise up against the one who threw you down. Be strong enough to rise from the earth. Remember the good shepherd, that he will pursue and rescue you. Even if it is two legs or the tip of an ear, leap away from the one who wounded you. Remember the compassion of God, that he heals with oil and wine. Do not despair of salvation. Recall to mind what is written: that the one who falls rises, and the one who turns away turns back; the one who is struck is healed; the one caught by beasts survives; the one who confesses is not cast away. “For the Lord does not desire the death of the sinner, so much as that he turn and live.” Do not, as one fallen into a depth of evils, despise it. It is a time of forbearance, a time of long-suffering, a time of healing, a time of correction. Have you slipped? Rise up. Have you sinned? Be still. Do not stand in the way of sinners, but leap away. For when you turn and groan, then you will be saved. For health comes from labors, and salvation from sweat. Take care, then, lest, wishing to keep agreements with certain people, you transgress the agreements with God which you confessed before many witnesses. So do not, because of any human reasonings, hesitate to come to me. For I will take up my dead and lament him, I will tend him, I will weep bitterly over the ruin of the daughter of my people. All receive you; all will labor with you. Do not lose heart; remember the days of old. There is salvation, there is correction. Take courage; do not despair. There is no law condemning to death without mercy, but grace that postpones punishment and awaits correction. The doors have not yet been shut; the bridegroom hears; sin does not rule. Wrestle again; do not hesitate; and have pity on yourself and on all of us in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.

To a monk who had fallen. 1. A double fear has fallen into the depths of my mind from your case. Either some unsympathetic way of acting, if I begin with it, throws me into the charge of hating my fellow men; or again, if I am willing to sympathize and grow soft toward your passions, it turns me in the wrong direction. So, when about to write this letter of mine, I braced my hand, numbed by these reasonings, but I could not change my face, perplexed by dejection over you, so much shame has been poured over me on your account that the closing of my mouth at once gives way and my lips turn to weeping. Alas, what shall I write, or what shall I think, caught at a crossroads? If I come to remember your former vain way of life, when wealth flowed around you and paltry little glory, I shudder; when a crowd of flatterers followed you, and the passing enjoyment of luxury, with plain danger and unjust gains; when at times fears of the magistrates blew away your thought of salvation, and at times the tumults of public affairs shook your hearth, and the press of evils drove your mind away from him who could help you; when little by little you learned to look to the Savior, who brings fears for our good, but rescues and shelters you, though you mocked him in your security; when you trained yourself for a change to a reverent way of life, counting as dung your perilous wealth, and renouncing the care of a household and the company of a wife; and, wholly raised aloft, like a stranger and wanderer, passing from fields to cities, you ran down to Jerusalem, where I too, staying with you, called you blessed for your athletic labors, when, fasting through weekly cycles, you devoted yourself to God, and at the same time fled the society of men as in a rout, and, fitting quiet and solitude to yourself, you shunned the tumults of the city. Pricking your body with rough sackcloth and girding your loins tightly with a hard belt, you patiently crushed your bones. Hollowing your flanks with want, you emptied them as far as the parts of the spine; you refused the use of a soft bandage, and, drawing in your belly from within like a cupping glass, you forced it to cling to the region of the kidneys; emptying out all the fat of the flesh, you nobly dried up the channels of the lower belly, and, contracting the stomach itself by fasting, you made the ribs overshadow the parts about the navel like the eaves of a roof; and with your whole frame drawn in, confessing to God through the night hours, you smoothed your beard drenched with streams of tears. And why must I list each thing? Remember how many mouths of saints you greeted with a kiss, how many holy bodies you embraced, how many held your hands as undefiled, how many servants of God, like worshipers, ran to you and clasped your knees. 2. And what is the end of all this? The slander of a report of adultery, flying swifter than an arrow, wounds our ears, piercing our heart with a keener sting. What great and skillful cunning of the sorcerer led you round into so ruinous a trip? What tangled nets of the devil, binding you tight, proved the workings of virtue powerless? Where have the stories of your labors gone? Ought we, then, to disbelieve it? And how shall we not accept as credible even what is still hidden, from what is plain, if you bound souls who had fled to God with dreadful oaths, when it has been carefully observed that what is more than “yes” and “no” has been assigned to the devil? So you have at once become the guarantor of ruinous perjury, and, bringing the character of the ascetic life into disrepute, you have sent the shame up as far as the apostles and the Lord himself. You have disgraced the boast of purity; you have brought blame on the profession of chastity; we have become a tragedy of captives; our affairs are made into a play for Jews and Greeks. You have cut the spirit of the monks; you have brought the stricter to fear and cowardice, as they still marvel at the power of the devil; you have moved the careless to zeal for licentiousness. You have undone, as far as lies with you, the boast of Christ, who says, “Take courage, I have overcome the world” and its ruler. You have mixed for your homeland a bowl of ill repute; you have truly fulfilled the saying of Proverbs: “like a stag shot through the liver.” But what now? The tower of strength has not fallen, brother; the remedies of conversion have not been blamed; the city of refuge has not been shut. Do not remain in the depth of evils; do not lend yourself to the man-slayer. The Lord knows how to raise up those who are broken down. Do not flee far, but run back to us. Take up again the labors of your youth, undoing the base and slimy pleasure by second achievements. Look up to the day of the end, which has come so near to life …, and learn how the children of Jews and Greeks are now being driven together into godliness; and do not utterly deny the Savior of the world, lest that most dreadful sentence overtake you: “I do not know you, who you are.”

To a fallen virgin. 1. Now is the time to cry out that prophetic word and say: “Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes, and I will weep for the wounded of the daughter of my people?” For even if a deep silence holds them, and they lie once and for all stupefied by the calamity, robbed by the deadliness of the blow of the very sense of their suffering, yet we must not pass by so great a fall without tears. For if Jeremiah judged those wounded in body in war worthy of countless laments, what could one say at so great a disaster of souls? “Your wounded,” he says, “are not wounded by the sword, and your dead are not dead in war.” But I lament the sting of true death, grievous sin, and the fiery darts of the evil one, which have burned up souls together with bodies like barbarians. Surely the laws of God would groan greatly, beholding so great a pollution on earth, they who always forbid and cry out, of old, “You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,” and through the holy Gospels, “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And now they see the very bride of the Master, whose head is Christ, committing adultery without fear. Even the spirits of the saints would groan: Phinehas the zealot, because it is not permitted him now too to take the spear in his hands and avenge the abomination bodily; and John the Baptist, because he cannot leave the dwellings above, as he once left the desert, and run to rebuke the lawlessness, and, if he had to suffer anything, lay down his head rather than his boldness. Or rather, since for us too, like blessed Abel, “though dead he still speaks,” John now also cries and shouts louder than he did then about Herodias: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” For even if John's body, by the necessity of nature, received the divine limit, and his tongue is silent, yet “the word of God is not bound.” For he who carried his boldness as far as death when the marriage of a fellow servant was being violated, what would he feel on beholding so great an outrage against the holy bridal chamber of the Lord? 2. But you, having thrown off the yoke of that divine union, having run away from the undefiled bridal chamber of the true King, and having fallen shamefully into this dishonorable and impious corruption, since you have no way of escaping this bitter accusation, nor any means or device of covering up this terrible deed, you advance boldly in your daring. And since “when the ungodly man comes into the depth of evils, he despises,” you deny the very covenant with the true Bridegroom, crying that you were not a virgin and never promised it, you who received and displayed many tokens of virginity. Remember the good confession that you confessed before God and angels and men. Remember the reverent company and the sacred choir of virgins, the assembly of the Lord, the church of the holy; and your grandmother, aged in Christ, still young and flourishing in virtue; and your mother in the Lord, vying with her and striving by strange and unaccustomed labors to break down the ways of custom; and your sister likewise, imitating them in some things and ambitious to surpass them in others, outstripping her ancestors' achievements by her virginal advantages, and diligently calling you, her sister, as she thought, to rivalry in the same things by word and life. Remember these, and the angelic choir about God with them, and the spiritual life in the flesh, and the heavenly citizenship on earth. Remember the untroubled days, the illumined nights, the spiritual songs, the melodious psalmody, the holy prayers, the chaste and undefiled bed, the virginal procession, the temperate table, and her who prayed well that your virginity might be kept uncorrupted. Where is that reverent appearance of yours, where the modest character, and the simple dress befitting a virgin, the beautiful blush of modesty, and the comely pallor blooming from self-control and vigils, shining more gracefully than any fine complexion? How often in prayers, perhaps, did you shed tears that you might keep your virginity spotless? How many letters did you write to the saints, asking them to pray for you, not that you might obtain human marriage, or rather this dishonorable corruption, but that you might not fall away from the Lord Jesus? How often did you receive the Bridegroom's gifts? What need is there to speak of the honors you received for his sake from those who are his, of your life with virgins, your processions with them, your welcomes by virgins, the praises of your virginity, the virginal blessings, the letters written to you as to a virgin? But now, having received a little breath of the spirit of the air, “that now works in the sons of disobedience,” you have denied all those things, and have exchanged that precious and much-sought possession for a brief pleasure, which for a while makes your throat smooth, but afterward you will find it more bitter than gall. 3. At this, who would not mourn and say, “How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot?” And how would not the Lord himself say to one of those who now walk in the spirit of Jeremiah, “Have you seen what the virgin of Israel has done to me? I betrothed her to myself in faith and incorruption, in righteousness and in judgment, in mercy and compassion,” as I promised her through Hosea the prophet; “but she has loved strangers, and while I, her husband, am living, she is called an adulteress, and is not afraid of becoming another man's.” And what of the bride's escort, the divine and blessed Paul, both that ancient one and this new one, under whose mediation and teaching you left your father's house and were joined to the Lord? Would not each of them, deeply grieved at so great an evil, say, “The fear that I feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has met me. For I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ, and I was always afraid lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts should one day be corrupted.” That is why I always tried to calm the tumult of the passions with countless charms, and to guard the Lord's bride with countless safeguards; and I always set forth the life of the unmarried woman, that only the unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and spirit; and I explained the dignity of virginity, and, calling you a temple of God, I gave wings, as it were, to your zeal, lifting it toward Jesus; and I helped you by the fear of the dreadful not to fall, saying, “If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.” And I added the safety of my prayers, that your whole body and soul and spirit might be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I have labored over you in vain in all this; the end of those sweet labors has turned out bitter for me; and I must groan again over that in which I ought to rejoice. For behold, you have been deceived by the serpent more bitterly than Eve; not only your thoughts have been corrupted, but with them the body itself; and, that dreadful thing which I shrink from saying and cannot keep silent (for it is like a fire burning and blazing in my bones, and I am weakened on every side and cannot bear it), you have taken the members of Christ and made them members of a harlot. This alone among all evils is beyond comparison; this is a new daring in the world. For “cross over,” it says, “to the islands of Kittim and see, and send to Kedar and consider carefully, whether such things have happened, whether the nations will change their gods, and they are no gods”; but the virgin has changed her glory, and her glory is in her shame. “Heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered greatly.” The Lord says now too: The virgin has done two evils: she has forsaken me, the true and holy Bridegroom of holy souls, and has run away to an impious and lawless corrupter of soul and body alike. She has departed from God her Savior. 4. “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea, than that he should cause” the Lord's virgin “to stumble.” What insolent slave was ever so mad as to throw himself on his master's bed? Or what robber was ever carried to such a pitch of madness as to lay hands on the very offerings dedicated to God, not lifeless vessels, but living bodies with an indwelling soul made in the image of God? Who has ever been heard of who dared, in the middle of a city and at high noon, to paint the shapes of unclean swine on a royal image? Anyone who sets aside a human marriage dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. “How much worse punishment, do you think, will he deserve” who has trampled on the Son of God, defiled the bride pledged to him, and outraged the spirit of virginity? “But she was willing,” he says, “and I did not force her against her will.” Yes, and that lustful Egyptian mistress went mad for the fair Joseph; but the madness of the licentious woman did not overcome the virtue of the chaste man, nor was he forced into lawlessness when she used force with her hands. “But she had decided on it,” he says, “and was no longer a virgin; and if I had not been willing, she would have been corrupted by another.” Yes, the Son of Man too had to be betrayed, but woe to him through whom he was betrayed; and stumbling blocks must come, but woe to him through whom they come. 5. Further: “Shall he who falls not rise? Or shall he who turns away not turn back?” Why has the virgin turned away with a shameless turning, though she heard Christ the Bridegroom saying through Jeremiah, “And I said, after she had committed fornication, after all these things, Return to me; and she did not return”? “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of my people not come up?” Indeed you might find many remedies for the evil in the divine Scripture, many medicines from destruction to salvation: the mysteries about death and resurrection, the words about the fearful judgment and eternal punishment, the teachings about repentance and the forgiveness of sins, those countless examples of conversion: the coin, the sheep, the son who devoured his living with harlots, who was lost and found, dead and alive again. Let us use these remedies for the evil; through these let us heal our souls. Bring into your mind the last day (for you will not live forever, you alone), the distress, the choking, the hour of death, God's sentence pressing on, the angels hurrying, and the soul terribly troubled amid these things, bitterly scourged by its sinful conscience and pitiably turning back toward the things here, and the inexorable necessity of that long journey. Picture to me in your mind the final overthrow of the common life, when the Son of God comes in his glory with his angels. For he will come and will not keep silent; when he comes to judge the living and the dead, and to render to each according to his deeds; when that trumpet, sounding something great and terrible, awakens those who have slept from the beginning of the world, and those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Remember the divine vision of Daniel, how he brings the judgment before our eyes. “I beheld,” he says, “until thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days sat; his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his wheels were burning fire. A river of fire flowed before him. Thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat, and the books were opened,” revealing clearly, all at once, in the hearing of all angels and men, the good, the bad, the open, the hidden, deeds, words, thoughts. What sort of people must those who have lived wickedly be at this? Where then will that soul hide, which is suddenly seen, in the sight of so many spectators, full of shame? With what sort of body will it endure those endless and unbearable scourges, where there is unquenchable fire, an immortal worm that punishes, and the dark and dreadful pit of Hades? … 6. These things can be escaped now. While it is possible, let us recover ourselves from the fall, and not despair of ourselves, if we depart from evil. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. “Come, let us worship and fall down before him, and weep before him.” Calling us to repentance, the Word cries out and shouts, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There is, then, a way of salvation, if we will. Death prevailed and swallowed up; but be sure that God has again wiped away every tear from every face of those who repent. The Lord is faithful in all his words. He does not lie when he says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; though they be red as crimson, I will make them white as wool.” The great physician of souls is ready to heal your affliction, he who is the ready liberator, not of you alone, but of all who are enslaved to sin. His are the words; that sweet and saving mouth said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” What excuse, then, have you, or anyone else, when he cries out thus? The Lord wishes to cleanse you from the pain of your wound and to show you light out of darkness. The good shepherd, who left those that had not strayed, is seeking you. If you give yourself up, he who loves mankind will not hesitate or disdain to carry you on his own shoulders, rejoicing that he has found his sheep that was lost. The Father stands and waits for your return from wandering. Only come back, and while you are still far off, he will run to you, fall on your neck, and embrace with loving kisses the one already cleansed by repentance. He will clothe with the first robe the soul that has put off the old man with his deeds; he will put a ring on hands that have washed off the blood of death, and shoes on feet that have turned from the evil way to the course of the gospel of peace. He will proclaim a day of gladness and joy to his own, both angels and men, and will celebrate your salvation in every way. “For truly I say to you,” he says, “there is joy in heaven before God over one sinner who repents.” And if one of those who seem to stand should find fault because you were quickly received, the good Father himself will defend you, saying, … was lost, and is found. [Letter 47] … No small [fear] took hold, lest those who have long lain in wait for the church of our metropolis, wishing to fill it with heretical tares, should now seize the occasion and root out with their own evil teachings the godliness sown with much toil in the souls of men, and cut its unity in pieces, as they have done in many churches. And since letters have also come to us from the clergy, urging us not to overlook them at such a time, I looked round about and remembered your love, your right faith, and the zeal you always have for the churches of God. For this reason I have sent our beloved fellow deacon Eustathius to entreat your Reverence and to urge you to add the present labor to all your labors for the churches; to refresh my old age by meeting you; and to set right for the orthodox church its celebrated godliness, by giving it with us (if indeed we may be thought worthy to share the good work with you) a shepherd according to the Lord's will, able to direct his people. For we have before our eyes a man whom you yourselves also know; if we are thought worthy to obtain him, I know that we shall gain great boldness toward God and confer the greatest benefit on the people who have called on us. But I urge you again and again, setting aside all hesitation, …

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. We have only with difficulty found someone to carry letters to your Godliness, since the people here have so cowered before the winter that they cannot bear even to peep out of their houses in the slightest. For we have been snowed upon with such a mass of snow that, buried with our very houses, we have now spent two months lurking in our dens. So you will surely pardon us, knowing the timidity of Cappadocian ways and the sluggishness of our bodies, if we did not write sooner, nor bring to your Honor's knowledge the news from Antioch, which it is surely stale and cold to tell you, since you have probably learned it long ago. Still, thinking it no harm to report even what is known, we have sent the letters brought by the reader. So much for that. Constantinople has had Demophilus for a long time now, as these men themselves will report, and as has surely been announced to your Holiness already. And a certain show of orthodoxy and piety on his part is talked of by all who come here alike, so that even the divided parts of the city have come together, and some of the neighboring bishops have accepted union. But our own people have proved no better than our hopes. For, arriving right on the heels of your departure, they said many painful things and did many, and finally withdrew, confirming the schism for us. Whether anything better will come of it, and whether they will cease from their wickedness, is unclear to everyone except God. Such, then, is the present state of things. The rest of the church is steady by the grace of God, and prays to see you again in our region with the spring, and to be renewed by your good teaching. As for me, my body is no better than usual.

To Innocent, a bishop. And to whom else was it fitting both to put courage into the fearful and to rouse the sleeping, if not to the Godliness of you, our master, who have made known your perfection in all things in this too, in deigning to come down even to us lowly ones, as a true disciple of him who said, “I am in your midst, not as one who reclines at table, but as one who serves”? For you yourself deigned to serve us your spiritual gladness, to take up our souls with your precious letter, and to embrace with your own greatness the infancy, as it were, of children. Pray, then (we ask this of your good soul), that we may be worthy to receive the benefits that come from great men like you, and to obtain a mouth and wisdom to dare to answer you, who are led by the Holy Spirit. Hearing that you are his friend and a true glorifier of him, we acknowledge great gratitude for your firm and unswerving love toward God, praying that our portion may be found with the true worshipers, among whom we are persuaded your Perfection is, and the great and true bishop who has filled the whole world with his own wonder; this we ask of the Lord.

To Bosporius, a bishop. 1. How, do you think, did the report of that slander pain my soul, which certain people poured over me who do not fear the Judge who will destroy all who speak falsehood? So that, at your Love's words, I remained almost sleepless the whole night, so deeply did the grief touch the very middle of my heart. For truly, according to Solomon, slander humbles a man; and no one is so insensible as not to suffer in soul and be bowed to the ground when he has fallen among mouths ready for lying. But we must bear all things and endure all things, leaving vengeance on our behalf to the Lord, who will not overlook us, since “he who slanders the poor provokes his Maker.” Those, however, who composed this new drama of blasphemy against us seem altogether to disbelieve the Lord, who declared that we shall give account even for an idle word on the day of judgment. Tell me, did I anathematize the most blessed Dianius? For this is what they reported of us. Where, or when? In whose presence? On what pretext? In mere words, or in writing? Following others, or myself beginning and leading the daring deed? O the shamelessness of those who say anything easily! O the contempt for God's judgments! Unless perhaps they will add to their fiction this tragic touch too, that I was once out of my mind, so as not to know my own doings. For while in possession of my reason, I know that I did no such thing, nor even intended it at all. Rather I am conscious of this: that from my earliest age I was brought up in affection for him, and looked up to the man, so venerable to see, so magnificent, with such priestly dignity in his appearance. And when afterwards reason came to me, then I recognized him by the goods of his soul as well, and rejoiced in his company, learning the simplicity, nobility, and generosity of his ways, and all that was the man's own: the gentleness of his soul, the combination of greatness and mildness, the comeliness, the freedom from anger, the cheerfulness and approachability blended with dignity. So I counted him among the most illustrious in virtue. 2. Toward the end of his life, however (for I will not hide the truth), I was grieved for him with an unbearable grief, along with many in our homeland who fear the Lord, at his signing of the creed brought from Constantinople by George and his party. Then, being the man he was, in gentleness of character and reasonableness, bearing with patience to satisfy all with fatherly affection, when he had already fallen into the illness of which he died, he called us and said, with the Lord as witness, that he had agreed to the document from Constantinople in simplicity of heart, but had chosen nothing to set aside the creed set forth by the holy Fathers at Nicaea, nor did he hold in his heart anything other than what he had received from the beginning; but he even prayed not to be separated from the portion of those blessed three hundred and eighteen bishops who proclaimed the pious preaching to the world; so that we, on this assurance, put away all doubt from our hearts, as you yourself know, came into communion with him, and ceased to grieve. Such, then, were our dealings with the man. But if anyone says that we have been privy to any unlawful blasphemy against him, let him not whisper it in a corner like a slave, but let him stand up openly and convict us with boldness.

To the canonesses. 1. As much as a painful report that rang in our ears formerly grieved us, so much has the most God-beloved bishop, our brother Bosporius, gladdened us, by telling better things about your Piety. For he said that, by the grace of God, all those rumors were contrivances of men who did not know the truth about you exactly. And he added that he had found among you unholy slanders against us, such as might be uttered by those who do not expect to give account even for an idle word to the Judge on the day of his just recompense. So I thanked the Lord, both because I was myself healed of the hurt concerning you which, it seems, I had received from men's slander, and because I heard that you had put away your false suspicions about us, from what you heard our brother affirm; who, in setting forth his own position to you, surely demonstrated ours as well. For the mind of the faith is one in both of us, since we are heirs of the same Fathers who once at Nicaea proclaimed the great preaching of godliness. Of this, all the rest is entirely above slander, but the word homoousios (“same in essence”), having been taken badly by some, there are some who have not yet accepted it. One might justly blame them, and yet again think them worthy of pardon. For not to follow the Fathers, and not to count their word more authoritative than one's own opinion, is worthy of blame, as full of self-will; but again, to hold it suspect because it has been slandered by others seems in some measure to free them from blame. For indeed those who met about Paul of Samosata criticized the word as not of good sound. For they said that the word homoousios suggested the notion of an essence and of what comes from it, so that the essence, divided up, would give the name homoousios to the things into which it was divided. This thought has some reason in the case of bronze and the coins made from it; but in the case of God the Father and God the Son no essence is contemplated as older than both or lying above both; for that goes beyond impiety even to conceive. For what could be older than the unbegotten? By this blasphemy faith in the Father and the Son is destroyed; for things that subsist from one source are brothers to each other. 2. And since there were still at that time those who said that the Son was brought from non-being into being, the Fathers added the homoousios in order to cut off this impiety too. For the conjunction of the Son with the Father is timeless and without interval. The preceding words also show that this was the men's meaning. For having said “light from light,” and that the Son was begotten from the essence of the Father, and not made, they added the homoousios, showing that whatever account of light one gives in the case of the Father will fit in the case of the Son also. For true light compared with true light, as to the very notion of light, will have no variation. Since, then, the Father is light without beginning, and the Son begotten light, but each is light and light, they rightly said homoousios, to present the equal honor of the nature. For things are not called homoousios because they are brothers to each other, as some have supposed; but when both the cause and what has its existence from the cause are of the same nature, they are called homoousios. 3. This word also corrects the evil of Sabellius; for it destroys the identity of the hypostasis and introduces a perfect notion of the persons. For nothing is homoousios with itself, but one thing with another; so that the word is well and piously used, both marking off the particularity of the hypostases and presenting the absence of variation in the nature. And when we are taught that the Son is from the essence of the Father, and begotten, not made, let us not fall into bodily notions of passions. For the essence was not divided from the Father into the Son, nor did it beget by flowing out or by putting forth, as plants put forth their fruits; but the manner of the divine begetting is ineffable and inconceivable to human reasonings. For it belongs to a truly low and fleshly mind to liken eternal things to corruptible and temporary ones, and to think that God begets in the same way as bodily things do; whereas one ought to take occasions for piety from opposites: since mortal things beget thus, the immortal does not beget thus. So we must neither deny the divine begetting nor defile our minds with bodily notions. 4. The Holy Spirit is numbered with the Father and the Son, because it too is above creation; and it is ranked as we have been taught in the Gospel by the Lord, who said, “Go, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” But whoever puts it before the Son, or says it is older than the Father, resists God's ordinance and is a stranger to sound faith, not keeping the form of glorifying that he received, but devising for himself a novelty of speech to please men. For if it is above God, it is not from God. But it is written, “the Spirit which is from God.” And if it is from God, how is it older than him from whom it is? And what madness it is, when the unbegotten is one, to call something else higher than the unbegotten! Nor is it prior to the Only-begotten; for there is nothing between Son and Father. And if it is not from God, but is through Christ, it does not exist at all. So innovation about the order involves the setting aside of its very existence, and is a denial of the whole faith. It is equally impious, then, both to bring it down to creation and to set it above the Son or the Father, whether in time or in order. These are the things I heard were being asked by your Piety; and if the Lord grants us to meet one another, perhaps we may say something more about them, and ourselves find out what we are seeking …

To the chorepiscopi. The outrageousness of the matter about which I write, in that it has been suspected and talked of at all, has filled my soul with pain; and so far it has seemed to me incredible. So let the one conscious of guilt receive this letter about it as a remedy, the one not conscious of it as a safeguard, and the indifferent, which I pray may not be found among you, as a solemn warning. What is it I mean? They say that some of you take money from those being ordained, and cloak it with the name of piety. This is worse. For if someone does evil under the pretext of good, he deserves double punishment, because he both does what is not good and uses, so to speak, the good as an accomplice to accomplish the sin. If this is so, let it not happen in future, but let it be set right; since one must say to the one who receives the money what was said by the apostles to the one who wished to give money to buy a share in the Holy Spirit: “Your money perish with you.” For the one who through inexperience wishes to buy the gift of God is lighter in guilt than the one who sells it. For a sale has taken place; and if you sell what you received as a gift, you will be deprived of the gift, as one sold to Satan. For you are bringing trade into spiritual things, and into the Church, where we have been entrusted with the body and blood of Christ. These things must not be done so. And I will tell you what the trick is. They think they do not sin because they do not take beforehand but take after the ordination. But to take is to take, whenever it is. So I urge you to put away this revenue, or rather this road leading to Gehenna, and not, by defiling your hands with such gains, make yourselves unworthy to celebrate the holy mysteries. Forgive me: first I disbelieved, then, being persuaded, I threaten. If anyone after this letter of mine does any such thing, he will depart from the altars here and seek a place where he can buy the gift of God and sell it again. For we and the churches of God have no such custom. I will add one thing and stop. These things happen through love of money; and love of money is both the root of all evils and is called idolatry. Do not, then, honor idols before Christ for a little money; nor again imitate Judas, betraying for gain a second time the one who was once crucified for us. For both the lands and the hands of those who receive these fruits will be called Akeldama.

To the chorepiscopi. It grieves me greatly that the canons of the Fathers have now lapsed, and all exactness has been driven out of the churches; and I fear that little by little, as this indifference goes on its way, the affairs of the Church may come to complete confusion. The custom of old that prevailed in the churches of God received those who serve the Church after testing them with all exactness; and their whole conduct was carefully inquired into: whether they were not abusive, not drunkards, not quick to quarrel, whether they disciplined their youth so as to be able to achieve the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And this was examined by the presbyters and deacons living with them, who reported to the chorepiscopi; and they, having received the votes of those who truly bore witness, and having informed the bishop, so numbered the minister among the ranks of the clergy. But now, first, you have pushed us aside and do not even deign to refer things to us, and have taken all authority to yourselves; then, growing careless about the matter, you have allowed presbyters and deacons to bring into the Church whomever they wish, from an unexamined life, out of partiality, whether that of kinship or of some other friendship, the unworthy. So many ministers are counted in each village, yet not one is worthy of the service of the altar, as you yourselves bear witness, being at a loss for men at the elections. Since, then, I see the matter now going on to the incurable, especially now that most are enrolling themselves in the ministry for fear of conscription, I have of necessity come to renew the canons of the Fathers; and I instruct you to send me the list of the ministers of each village, and by whom each was brought in, and of what life he is. Keep the list yourselves too, so that yours may be compared with the documents deposited with us, and no one may enroll himself whenever he wishes. And so, if any have been brought in by presbyters after the first indiction, let them be thrown back among the laity. Let their examination be made afresh by you; and if they are worthy, let them be received by your vote. Cleanse the Church, driving away those unworthy of it, and in future examine and receive those who are worthy; … not received into the ministry.

… to be free of every bodily passion. For I am not persuaded that a man who has reached seventy lives with a woman out of passion, nor did we decide what we decided because of some disgraceful act that had taken place; but because we have been taught by the Apostle not to put a stumbling block before a brother as an occasion of falling. And we know that what is done soundly by some becomes for others an occasion of sin. For this reason, following the ordinance of the holy Fathers, we commanded that you be separated from the woman. Why, then, do you accuse the chorepiscopus and bring up an old enmity? And why do you blame us as having ears ready to accept slanders, and not rather yourself, who cannot bear to give up your intimacy with the woman? Put her out of your house, then, and settle her in a monastery. Let her be with virgins, and you be served by men, so that the name of God may not be blasphemed because of you. As long as you do these things, the countless excuses that you write in your letters will be of no use to you; but you will die useless, and give account to the Lord for your idleness. But if you dare …

To Pergamius. I am naturally prone to forgetfulness, and the great number of my occupations has come on top, increasing my natural weakness. So, even if I do not remember receiving a letter from your Nobility, I am persuaded that you wrote to us; for you would certainly not tell a lie. But for not replying I am not to blame, but the one who did not ask for the answer. Now, however, this letter comes to you, both making a defense for what is past and giving a beginning for a second greeting. So when you write to us, do not think of yourself as beginning a second round of letters, but as paying what is owed for the present one. For even if our letter is a return for what went before, yet, by exceeding it more than twofold in measure, it will fulfill both functions. You see what sophistries my idleness forces me to? But you, my excellent friend, stop bringing great charges with small words, charges that admit no excess of wickedness. For forgetting friends, and the contempt that comes from power, have all evils together. For if we do not love according to the Lord's commandment, we do not have the mark impressed on us; and if we have been filled with an empty and boastful mind and puffed up, we fall into the inescapable judgment of the devil. So if you used those words with that opinion of us, pray that we may escape the wickedness you have found in our character; but if your tongue came upon the words from some unexamined habit, we shall console ourselves, and we ask your Goodness to add the testimony of facts. For know well that our present responsibility has become an occasion of humility for us. So we shall forget you only when we forget ourselves. Never, then, make our occupations a sign of character and malice.

… whatever you say in your letters has goodness in it; for from a good heart what overflows is good. And if, through your prayers, we should be thought worthy, while we are on earth, of meeting you face to face, and of receiving from your living voice itself profitable teachings, or provisions for the present age and for the age to come, we should judge this the greatest of goods, and count it a prelude of God's favor. And indeed we were already set on this purpose, had not our most genuine and in every way loving …

To his brother Gregory. How could I fight with you by letter? How could I rebuke you as you deserve for your simplicity in all things? Tell me, who falls a third time into the same nets? Who falls a third time into the same trap? Not even a dumb animal would easily suffer this. You brought me one letter you had fabricated, as from our most reverend bishop and common uncle, deceiving me, I do not know why. I received it as from the bishop, brought by you. Why should I not? In my great joy I showed it to many of my friends; I thanked God. The fabrication was exposed when the bishop himself denied it with his own voice. We were put to shame by it; we prayed that the earth might open for us, clothed as we were with the reproach of trickery, falsehood, and deceit. Again they gave me a second, as sent to me by the bishop himself through your servant Asterius. Not even that one did the bishop himself really send, as our most reverend brother Anthimus reported to us. Again Adamantius came to us bringing a third. How ought I to receive one sent through you and your people? I could have wished to have a heart of stone, so as neither to remember the past nor perceive the present, so as to bear every blow bowed to the ground like cattle. But what am I to do with my own reason, which after one and a second trial can accept nothing without examination? I have written these things rebuking your simplicity, which, unbecoming to Christians in any case, I see is unsuited to the present time; so that at least for the future you may guard yourself and spare me; since (for I must speak to you with frankness) you are an untrustworthy minister in such matters. However, whoever the writers may be, we have replied to them fittingly. So whether you sent the letter yourself to test me, or really received it from the bishops, you have the answers. But it would have been fitting for you to be concerned about other things at present, being my brother and not having yet forgotten nature, nor regarding us in the position of an enemy; since we have entered on a life that wears out our body and afflicts our soul too, because it exceeds our strength. Yet since you have been so hostile, for this reason you ought to be present now and share in our affairs. For “let brothers,” it says, “be useful in necessities.” And if the most reverend bishops really accept a meeting with us, let them make known to us a fixed place and time, and summon us through their own people. For just as I do not refuse to go to meet my own uncle, so, if the invitation is not made in the fitting form, I will not put up with it.

To Gregory his uncle. 1. I have kept silent. Shall I always keep silent, and endure any longer to confirm against myself the most grievous penalty of silence, neither writing myself nor hearing anyone address me? For having held out until now in this gloomy resolve, I think it fitting for me too to say the prophet's words: “I have endured like a woman in labor,” always desiring either a meeting or a word, and always failing because of my sins. For I can think of no other cause for what is happening than to be persuaded that I am paying the penalty for old sins in being separated from your love; if indeed it is right even to use the word “separation” of you and any ordinary person, let alone of us, for whom from the beginning you have been in the place of a father. But my sin now, like some deep cloud settling over me, has made me forget all those things. For when I see that nothing else is accomplished by what is happening except that it brings me grief, how could I not reasonably ascribe the present state of things to my own wickedness? But whether sins are the causes of what has happened, let this be the end of my troubles; or if there was some purpose being arranged, it has surely been accomplished, for the time of the penalty has not been short. So, no longer able to contain myself, I have been the first to break silence, urging you to remember both us and yourself, who throughout life have shown more care for us than kinship would lead one to expect, and now to love the city for our sake, and not to estrange yourself from the city on our account. 2. If, then, there is any consolation in Christ, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and compassion, fulfill our prayer: stop the gloom here; give a beginning to brighter things for the future, yourself leading others to what is best, and not following another to what one ought not. For no feature of the body was ever considered so characteristic of anyone as peaceableness and gentleness are of your soul. It would befit such a man to draw others to himself, and to let all who come near you be filled with the goodness of your character as with the fragrance of a perfume. For even if something is resisting now, a little later it will recognize the good of peace itself. But as long as slanders find room because of our separation, suspicions must always grow toward the worse. It is not fitting even for them to neglect us, but above all for your Honor. For if we are sinning in anything, we shall be better for being admonished; and this is impossible without a meeting. But if we do no wrong, for what are we hated? This is what I put forward in my own defense. 3. What the churches might say for themselves, as they reap no good from our dissension, it is better to pass over in silence. For I use these words not to grieve you but to put an end to grief. Nothing, surely, has escaped your understanding; you would yourself discover in your mind and tell others things much greater and more complete than we perceive, since you saw before us the harm done to the churches, and grieve more than we, having long been taught by the Lord to despise none of the least. But now the harm is not limited to one or two; whole cities and peoples share in the consequences of our misfortunes. For what need is there to say what sort of report about us there will be abroad? It would befit your magnanimity, then, to leave contentiousness to others, or rather to remove it from their souls too, if possible, and yourself to overcome the troubles by forbearance. For to retaliate belongs to anyone who is angry; but to be above anger itself belongs to you alone, and to anyone like you in virtue. I will not say that one who is vexed with us pours out his anger on those who have done no wrong. So whether by your presence, by letter, by a summons to yourself, or in any way you wish, comfort our soul. For it is our prayer that your Godliness may appear in the church and heal both us and the people by your very sight and by the words of your grace. If this is possible, it is best; if something else seems good, we shall accept that too. Only be pleased to make known to us clearly what your prudence decides.

… will make his own. Indeed, I considered the man's presence a consolation both for the illnesses of my body and for the pains of my soul; and I rejoiced greatly at the letter from your Honor brought by him, which I had long desired to receive, for no other reason than that we too might not add a gloomy tale to the world, namely that there was some division between those most closely related to one another, a thing that gives pleasure to enemies and misfortune to friends, and displeases God, who set the mark of his disciples in perfect love. So I reply as I must, asking you to pray for us and in other respects to care for us as your own. And since we ourselves, through ignorance, cannot understand the meaning of what has happened, we have decided to consider true whatever meaning you yourself may deign to explain to us. It remains necessary for your magnanimity to settle the rest: our meeting with one another, a fitting time, and a suitable place. If, then, your Reverence will at all condescend to come down to our lowliness and share some conversation with us, whether you wish the meeting to take place with others or by yourself, we shall obey, having once resolved within ourselves to serve you in love and to do in every way whatever your Piety commands us for the glory of God. We did not compel our most reverend brother to tell us anything by word of mouth, because his word had not before been borne out by deeds. [Letter 61] To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. I have read your Holiness's letter, in which you groaned over the governor of Libya, that man of ill-omened name. And we lamented our homeland, because it is the mother and nurse of such evils; and we lamented also Libya, our neighbor, which reaps the fruit of our evils and has been handed over to the beastly character of a man who lives at once with cruelty and licentiousness. This was the wisdom of Ecclesiastes: “Woe to you, O city, whose king is a youth” (and here there is something even worse) “and whose princes eat,” not after the night is over, but in the middle of the day they act licentiously, raving after other men's wives more irrationally than cattle. The scourges of the just Judge await him, to be measured back to him in equal measure, which he himself first laid on his saints. Our church has been informed from your Godliness's letter, and all will hold him accursed, sharing with him neither fire nor water nor shelter, if indeed there is any profit in a common and unanimous condemnation for those so possessed. The letter itself, read everywhere, is a sufficient pillar of shame for him; for we do not cease showing it to all his relatives, friends, and strangers. In any case, even if the penalties do not touch him at once, as with Pharaoh, they will one day bring him a heavy and painful return.

To the church of Parnassus, a letter of consolation. Following an old custom that has prevailed through a long tradition, and showing you the fruit of the Spirit, love according to God, we visit your Piety by letter, sharing with you both the grief at what has happened and the concern for what lies at hand. About the grief we say this much: that it is time for us to look to the Apostle's precepts, and not to grieve as the rest who have no hope; not, however, to be unfeeling toward what has happened, but to feel the loss without being cast down by grief, calling the shepherd blessed in his end, since he ended his life in a rich old age and has gone to his rest with the greatest honors from the Lord. About the rest we have this advice: that you should put away all dejection, come to yourselves, and rise up to the necessary provision for the church, so that the holy God may care for his own flock and give you a shepherd according to his will, who will shepherd you with knowledge …

To the governor of Neocaesarea. “The wise man, though he dwell in a distant land, though I never see him with my eyes, I judge my friend”: it is a saying of Euripides the tragedian. So if, though meeting face to face has not yet granted us knowledge of your Magnanimity, we say that we are your friends and intimates, do not judge the word to be flattery. For we have report as the broker of our friendship, loudly proclaiming your qualities to all men. Ever since we met the most reverend Elpidius, we have come to know you so well, and have been so completely captured by you, as though we had been together a long time and had knowledge of your good qualities through long experience. For the man did not stop telling us everything about you: the magnificence of your soul, the loftiness of your mind, the gentleness of your manners, your experience in affairs, the soundness of your judgment, the dignity of your life blended with cheerfulness, the power of your speech, and all the rest that he enumerated in his long conversation with us, but which we could not write without carrying our letter beyond measure. How, then, could I not love such a man? How could I master myself so as not to declare aloud the feeling of my soul? Accept, then, this greeting, my admirable friend, offered to you from a true and guileless friendship; for our ways are far from servile flattery; and count us in the list of your friends, showing yourself to us and consoling our absence by frequent letters.

To Hesychius. From the beginning there were many things binding me to your Honor: our common love of letters, which is spread abroad everywhere by those who have experienced it, and our old friendship with the admirable Terentius. But when our most reverend brother Elpidius, excellent in all things and fulfilling for us every claim of kinship, came to talk with us and told us each of your good qualities (and he is most able, if anyone is, both to discern a man's virtue and to present it in words), he kindled in us such a longing for you that we pray that you may one day visit our old hearth, so that we may enjoy your good qualities not only by hearsay but by experience.

To Atarbius. And what end will there be to our silence, if I, claiming the privileges of age, wait for the beginning of the correspondence to come from you, while your Love wishes to persist longer in the harmful decision to keep quiet? Nevertheless, considering that in matters of friendship defeat has the force of victory, I confess that I yield to you the honor of seeming to have prevailed in your own decision; and I myself have come first to writing, knowing that love bears all things, endures all things, never seeks its own, and therefore never fails. For one who submits to his neighbor in love is not humbled. So I urge you too, at least for the future, showing the first and greatest fruit of the Spirit, love, to throw off the sullenness of the angry, which you show us by your silence, and to take up joy in your heart, peace toward your like-minded brothers, and zeal and care for the continuance of the churches of the Lord. For know that, unless we take up for the churches a struggle equal to that of the opponents of sound teaching for their overthrow and complete destruction, nothing will prevent the truth from being swept away by the enemies, and we too from sharing in the condemnation, for not having shown, with all zeal and eagerness, in mutual concord and agreement according to God, all possible care for the unity of the churches. So I urge you, cast out of your soul the thought that you have no need of communion with anyone else. For to cut oneself off from union with the brothers is not the mark of one who walks in love or fulfills Christ's commandment. At the same time I want your good will to consider this too: that the evil of war, going round in a circle, may one day come in upon us as well, and that if we too, with the rest, share in the outrage, we may not find anyone to contribute sympathy to us in our wrongs, since we have not, in our time of comfort, paid our share of sympathy to those who were wronged.

To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. 1. I think no one is so grieved by the present state, or rather, to speak more truly, the confusion, of the churches as your Honor, comparing the present with the past and reckoning how much it has changed from it, and that if affairs keep slipping toward the worse at the same pace, nothing will prevent the churches from being completely transformed into some other shape within a short time. I have often thought about this by myself: if the perversion of the churches appears so pitiable to us, what must be the state of soul of one who has experienced the ancient stability and concord of the churches of the Lord in the faith? But just as the greater part of the grief falls on your Perfection, so we think it fitting that the greater part of the care for the churches should belong to your prudence. I myself, according to my moderate grasp of affairs, have long known one way of help for the churches in our parts: the cooperation of the Western bishops. For if they were willing to show for the church of our region the same zeal that they showed on account of one or two in the West who were detected in heresy, perhaps some benefit might come to our common affairs, as those in power would respect the trustworthiness of the many, and the peoples everywhere would follow them without dispute. Who, then, is more able than your understanding to arrange these things? Who keener to see what is needed? Who more practical in carrying out what is useful? Who more sympathetic toward the sufferings of the brothers? Who more revered by the whole West than your most venerable gray hairs? Leave to the world some memorial worthy of your way of life, most honored Father. Crown those countless contests of yours for godliness with this one work. Send from the holy church under you men strong in sound teaching to the bishops of the West; tell them of the calamities that have overtaken us; suggest a way of helping; be a Samuel to the churches; suffer with the peoples who are being warred against; offer prayers for peace; ask grace from the Lord to leave some memorial of peace in the churches. I know that letters are weak for counsel in so great a matter. But neither do I … from others. 2. For the rest of the East, perhaps you need the cooperation of more, and must wait for those from the West. But the good order of the church at Antioch plainly depends on your Godliness: to arrange matters with some, to calm others, and to restore strength to the Church through harmony. For you yourself know better than anyone that, like the wisest physicians, you should begin the treatment with the most vital parts. And what could be more vital to the churches throughout the world than Antioch? If it should happen to return to concord, nothing would prevent it, like a healthy head, from supplying health to the whole body. Truly the sicknesses of that city need your wisdom and gospel compassion; for it has not only been cut apart by the heretics, but is torn asunder also by those who say they hold the same opinions as one another. To unite these and bring them into the harmony of one body belongs to him alone who by his ineffable power grants to dry bones their return to sinews and flesh. Yet surely the Lord works great things through those worthy of him. So again here too we hope that the service of such great things befits your great nature: to calm the tumult of the people, to put an end to partisan leaderships, to subject all to one another in love, and to give back to the Church its ancient strength.

To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. It seemed to me sufficient in my former letter to show your Honor this much: that all that is sound in the faith among the people of the holy church of Antioch must be brought into one agreement and union, in order to show that the parts now divided into several must be joined to the most God-beloved bishop Meletius. But since this same beloved fellow deacon of ours, Dorotheus, asked for a clearer mention of these things, we necessarily point out that it is the prayer of the whole East, and the desire of us who are joined to him in every way, to see him governing the church of the Lord, since he is irreproachable in faith and admits no comparison with the others in his life, and since he presides over what is, so to speak, the whole body of the church, while the rest are like fragments of parts. So that in every respect it is both necessary and advantageous that the others should join this man, as the lesser rivers join the great; and that some arrangement should be made for the others, one fitting for them, which will pacify the people and which befits your understanding and famous energy and zeal. It has surely not escaped your unsurpassed prudence that the same has already pleased your like-minded brothers in the West, as the letter brought to us by the blessed Silvanus shows.

To Meletius, bishop of Antioch. For a time we wished to keep our most pious brother, the deacon Dorotheus, with us, so that we might send him off when affairs were concluded and inform your Honor through him of each thing done. But since, putting it off from day to day, we have been drawn out over a long time, and at the same time, as in perplexity, some plan of action occurred to us, we have sent the aforesaid man to find your Holiness, to report each thing himself and to show our memorandum, so that, if what we have thought of appears useful, your Perfection may take steps to carry it out. To put it briefly, the opinion prevailed that this same brother of ours Dorotheus should cross over to Rome and rouse some of those from Italy to visit us, using the sea route, so as to avoid those who would hinder them. For I saw that those who are influential with the rulers neither wish nor are able to remind him about those who have been banished, but count it a gain not to see something worse happen in the churches. If, then, the plan seems useful to your prudence too, deign to draft letters and dictate a memorandum of what he should discuss and with whom. And so that the letters may have some weight, you will surely associate with yourself those of the same mind, even if they are not present. Affairs here are still uncertain: Euippius has arrived but has so far declared nothing. They threaten, however, a gathering of those who think as they do, from Tetrapolis in Armenia and from Cilicia.

To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. 1. The opinion we have long had of your Honor, time in its progress always confirms, or rather increases, as particular events are added. For most others it is enough to look after each his own; but for you this is not sufficient: you have as much care for all the churches as for the one entrusted to you personally by our common Master; for you never cease conversing, admonishing, writing, sending on each occasion men to suggest what is best. And now we have received with great joy our most reverend brother Peter, sent from the sacred body of the clergy under you, and have welcomed the good purpose of his journey, which he displays according to your Honor's instructions, winning over those who resist and joining what has been torn apart. So, wishing ourselves to contribute something to the effort in this matter, we thought we would give affairs the most fitting beginning if we had recourse to your Perfection as to the head of all, and used you as counselor and leader of our actions. Therefore we have sent to your Godliness our brother Dorotheus, deacon of the church under the most honored bishop Meletius, who shows good zeal for the orthodoxy of the faith and himself desires to see the peace of the churches, so that, following your suggestions (which you are able to make the safer because of your age, your experience of affairs, and your having, beyond others, counsel from the Spirit), he may thus set his hand to what is being sought. You will plainly receive him, look upon him with peaceful eyes, strengthen him with the help of your prayers, provide him with letters, or rather join to him some of the zealous men there, and guide him on to what lies before him. It seemed to us consistent to write to the bishop of Rome, to look into affairs here and give his judgment, so that, since it is difficult for any to be sent from there by a common synodal decree, he himself might exercise his authority in the matter, choosing men able to bear the labors of the journey, and able, by gentleness and firmness of character, to admonish the perverse among us; men who use speech fittingly and with discretion, and who bring with them all the acts done after Ariminum, for the annulling of what was done there under compulsion; and that this should be done without anyone's knowing it, so that they might arrive here quietly by sea, in order to forestall the notice of the enemies of peace. 2. Some here also ask, of necessity, as it seems to us too, that they should banish the heresy of Marcellus as grievous and harmful and foreign to sound faith. For until now, in all the letters they write, they do not cease anathematizing the ill-named Arius up and down and banishing him from the churches; but they appear to bring no blame against Marcellus, who displayed an impiety diametrically opposed to his, and who was impious against the very existence of the Godhead of the Only-begotten, and understood the name “Word” wrongly. He grants that the Only-begotten was called Word, as having come forth for a need and for a season, and having returned again into him from whom he came forth, and that he neither existed before the going forth nor subsists after the return. And the books of that unrighteous composition kept among us are proof of this. Yet they have nowhere appeared to censure him, and this though they are blamed for having at the beginning, through ignorance of the truth, received him into church communion. The present circumstances, then, require that he be fittingly mentioned, so that those who seek an occasion may not have one, from the fact that the sound are joined to your Holiness and that those who limp toward the true faith are made manifest to all; so that in future we may know those of like mind, and not, as in a night battle, have no means of distinguishing friends and enemies. We only urge that the aforesaid deacon be sent off at once by the first sailing, so that at least by the coming year something of what we pray for may be achieved. And this you understand even before our words and will plainly see to: that when they come, if God wills, they should not throw schisms among the churches, but should bring together into unity by every means those who think the same, even if they find some who have personal grounds for differences with one another, so that the orthodox people may not be cut into many parts by siding with their leaders. For we must count everything secondary to peace, and above all care for the church at Antioch, so that the orthodox party in it may not be weakened by being split over persons. Or rather, you yourself will care for all these things later, when, as we pray, with God's help, you have all entrusting to you the settlement of the churches.

… setting at one those who are divided, or bringing the churches of God back to friendship, or at least making the causes of the disturbance more manifest to you, so that it may be clear to you too in future with whom you ought to be in communion. We are asking nothing new, but what was customary for the blessed and God-beloved men of old, and especially for you. For we know, by the sequence of memory, when we were asked, and taught by the letters of our fathers which are still preserved among us, that that most blessed bishop Dionysius, eminent among you both for orthodoxy of faith and for the rest of virtue, visited by letter our church of Caesarea, and consoled our fathers by letter, and sent men to ransom the brothers from captivity. But our affairs are now in a harder and gloomier state and need more care. For we lament not the overthrow of earthly buildings, but the capture of churches; not bodily slavery, but the captivity of souls worked every day by the champions of heresy …

Basil to Gregory. 1. I received the letter of your Piety through our most reverend brother Hellenius; and all that you indicated to us he himself told us plainly. How we were affected on hearing it, you surely do not doubt. Nevertheless, since we decided to put our love for you above all grief, we received this too as was fitting, and we pray to the holy God that our remaining days or hours may be kept in the same disposition toward you as in the past, in which we are conscious of having failed in nothing, small or great. And if So-and-so, who has lately ventured to take a peep at the life of Christians, and then thinks it brings him some dignity to rub shoulders with us, invents what he has not heard and explains what he has not understood, it is no wonder. But this is wonderful and strange: that he has as his hearers the most genuine of my brothers among you; and not only hearers, but, it seems, disciples. And though it would in any case have been strange that such a man should be the teacher and I the one disparaged, yet the overturning of the times has taught us to be vexed at nothing. For long ago things more dishonorable than these have become usual to us because of our sins. So, if I have not yet given the brothers proof of my choice concerning God, I have nothing to answer now either; for those whom a long time has not persuaded, how will a short letter persuade? But if those proofs are sufficient, let them count the words of the slanderers as nonsense. However, if we allow unbridled mouths and untaught hearts to speak about whatever they wish, and keep our ears ready to receive them, not only shall we accept the stories of others, but others will accept those about us. 2. The cause of this is what I long urged should not happen, but now, having given up, I keep silent about: that we do not meet one another. For if, according to our old agreements and according to the care we now owe to the churches, we spent most of the year together, we would not have given entry to the slanderers. But you, if you think fit, let them go; and yourself be pleased to labor with us in the contest before us, and to meet with us the man who is campaigning against us. For if you are only seen, you will check his onset, and break up those who are being gathered to overturn the affairs of our homeland, by making it known to them that you, by the grace of God, lead our assembly, and that you stop every unjust mouth of those who speak lawlessness against God. If this happens, the facts themselves will show who follows you in all things, and who limps and betrays the word of truth through cowardice. But if the affairs of the Church are betrayed, I care little to persuade by words those who value me at as much as men may value who have not yet learned to measure themselves. For before long, by God's grace, the proof through deeds will refute the slanders; since we expect, for the word of truth, perhaps to suffer something greater, and if not, at least to be driven from the churches and our homelands. And if none of what is expected happens, the judgment seat of Christ is not far off. So, if you seek the meeting for the sake of …

To Hesychius. I know both your love for us and your zeal for what is good. So, needing to prevail upon our most dear son Callisthenes, I thought that if I took you as a sharer in the task, I would more easily achieve what I am eager for. The man has been aggrieved against the most learned Eustochius, and aggrieved with a just grievance. He accuses his servants of insolence and recklessness toward him. We ask that he be urged to be content with the fear with which he has frightened both the insolent servants and their masters, and to end the quarrel by granting this favor. For so he will have both: dignity before men and approval before God, if he is willing to mix long-suffering with fear. So, if you have any previous friendship and acquaintance with the man, ask him yourself for this favor; and whomever you know in the city able to prevail on him, take them as sharers in the task, telling them that what is done will be especially gratifying to me. And send back our fellow deacon having accomplished what he was sent for. For I am ashamed if, when men have taken refuge with me, I cannot be of any use to them.

To Callisthenes. 1. I thanked God on reading your Nobility's letter: first, because a greeting came to me from a man who chooses to honor us (for we set great value on meeting the best men); second, for joy, at obtaining a kind remembrance. A letter is a token of remembrance; and when I received it and learned the sense in it, I admired how truly, as all suppose, you have paid us a father's respect. For that you, inflamed and angry and having set out to punish those who grieved you, should relax much of your vehemence and make us masters of the matter, has given us joy as over a spiritual child. In return, what is left but to pray for good things for you: that you may be most pleasant to friends, formidable to enemies, and respected alike by all, so that those who have failed in any of their duties, perceiving your gentleness, may reproach themselves for having sinned against such a man as you. 2. Since, then, you have ordered the servants to be brought to the place where they showed their disorderliness, I ask to learn the purpose for which your Goodness requires this. If you yourself will be present and exact the penalty for what they dared, the boys will be there; for what else must happen, if you have so decided? But then we do not know what further favor we shall have received, if we are unable to rescue the boys from punishment. But if your business on the highway keeps you yourself away, who will receive the men there? And who will punish them in your place? But if you think they should come into your sight, and this is wholly decided, order them to be presented as far as Sasima, and there show the gentleness and magnanimity of your character. For having the offenders in your hands, and having shown them in this that your dignity is not to be despised, let them go unharmed, as we urged in our former letter, granting the favor to us and awaiting from God the reward for what you do. 3. I say this not as though the matter must be done in this way, but yielding to your impulse, and fearing lest some part of your anger remain undigested, and that, as with inflamed eyes even the gentlest remedies seem painful, so now our words may rather exasperate than calm you. For the most seemly course, able to bring you the greatest credit, and enough for me as a boast before my friends and contemporaries, would have been to entrust the punishment to us. In any case, even if you have sworn to hand them over to punishment according to the laws, neither is our rebuke less effective as punishment, nor is the divine law less honorable than the laws that govern civil life. But it was possible for them, being corrected here by our laws, in which you too have your hope of salvation, both to free you from the necessity of your oath and themselves to pay a penalty proportionate to their offenses. But again I am making my letter long. For in my great eagerness to persuade you, I cannot bear to keep silent about anything that comes to mind, fearing lest my request fail for this reason, that I have not made my instruction complete. But, most honored and genuine nursling of the Church, confirm for me too the hopes I now have of you, and the unanimous testimony of all about your courtesy and gentleness, and write to the soldier to depart from us quickly, who now has omitted nothing of annoyance or insolence, preferring not to grieve you rather than to have all of us as friends and relations.

To Martinianus. 1. What do you think I would give to meet you at last and be with you for a longer time, so as to enjoy all your good qualities? For if it is a great proof of education “to see the cities of many men and know their mind,” this, I think, your conversation grants in a short time. For what difference is there between seeing many men one by one and seeing one who has taken in the experience of them all together? Rather, I would say there is a very great difference, inasmuch as it provides knowledge of good things without toil, and gathers the history of virtue pure of any mixture with the worse. For whether it is a noble deed, or a word worth remembering, or the ways of life of men who have surpassed the rest, all are stored in the treasury of your soul. So not for a year only, like Alcinous with Odysseus, but for all my life I would pray to listen to you, and for this reason I would wish that life to be long, though I am ill disposed toward it. Why, then, do I write now, when I ought to be present? Because my homeland, in its suffering, urges me to itself. For you know, my excellent friend, what it has suffered: like Pentheus, it has been torn apart by some veritable Maenads, demons. For they divide it and divide it again, like bad physicians who make wounds worse by their own inexperience. Since, then, it is exhausted by being cut up, it remains to tend it as one sick. The citizens have written urging us, and we must go, not as though we will be of any use to affairs, but to avoid the blame for staying away. For you know that those in difficulty are quick to hope, and quick also to find fault, turning the blame on what was left undone. 2. And yet for this very reason I needed to meet you and give my opinion; or rather to urge you to think of some vigorous course befitting your own spirit, and not to overlook our homeland brought to its knees, but to go to the court and say with your frankness that they should not think they possess two provinces instead of one. For they have not brought the second in from some other world; but they have done something like a man who owns a horse or an ox and then, cutting it in two, thinks he has two instead of one; for he has not made two, and he has destroyed the one. And to say also to those in power that they should not increase the empire in this way; for strength lies not in number but in substance. For now we think that some, perhaps through ignorance of the truth, others through not wishing to cause pain by their words, and others because it does not concern them, overlook what is happening. If, then, it were possible for you to go to the emperor yourself, that would be best for affairs and fitting for your noble choice of life. But if that is burdensome in any case, both because of the season and because of your age, which, as you yourself said, has idleness as its companion, at least writing is no labor. So by giving the help of letters to your homeland, you will first give yourself the consciousness of having left out nothing in your power; and then you will give sufficient consolation to the sufferers by the very fact of appearing to share their pain. Would that you could come yourself and see the gloomy state of things with your own eyes! For so, moved by the very vividness of what you saw, you would utter some word worthy both of your magnanimity and of the city's dejection. But do not disbelieve us when we tell you, that we truly need a Simonides, or some such lyric poet, who knew how to lament sufferings vividly. Yet why do I say Simonides? I should say Aeschylus, or any other who, like him, set forth the greatness of a calamity vividly and lamented it in a loud voice. … There is the uncouthness of Scythians or Massagetae; and one sound: of those who exact, of those from whom it is exacted, and of those torn by the scourges. The colonnades on either side echo gloomily, and seem to utter a sound of their own as they groan at what is happening. The closed gymnasia and the nights without lamps do not let us think of anything; the struggle to live absorbs us. For there is no ordinary danger that, with those in power removed as if the props had fallen, everything may come down together. And what words could reach our evils? Some have gone in flight, a part of our council, and not the worst, preferring perpetual exile to Podandus. When I say Podandus, think I mean the Ceadas of the Spartans, or any natural pit you may have seen in the world, which some have spontaneously come to call Charonia, breathing out disease-bearing air. Think that the evil of Podandus is something like that. Of three parts, then, some are fleeing, uprooting themselves with their wives and hearths; others are being led away like captives, most of the best men in the city, a pitiable sight to friends, fulfilling the prayer of enemies, if indeed anyone has ever cursed us so much. A third part is left; and these, unable to bear the loss of their friends, and at the same time proved too weak for their needs, have given up on life itself. These things we urge you to make known to all with your own voice and your just frankness, which you have from your life, declaring plainly beforehand that, unless they quickly change their minds, they will not even have anyone on whom to show their kindness. For either you will be of some use to the common good, or you will have done what Solon did, who, unable to defend the citizens who were left, when the acropolis was already occupied, put on his armor and sat before his doors, making it plain by his attitude that he did not agree with what was happening. This I know for certain: that even if someone does not accept your opinion now, a little later he will give you the greatest credit for goodwill and understanding, when he sees things turn out as you foretold.

To Aburgius. Of the many things that have set your character above others, nothing is so much your own as your zeal for your homeland; you rightly repay it, since, starting from it, you have become so great that your renown is known throughout the whole world. This homeland, then, which bore and nourished you, has come to the incredibility of old tales; and no one who visited our city, not even one well acquainted with it, would recognize it. So suddenly has it been changed to utter desolation, many of its citizens having been taken from it before, and now almost all of them having been moved to Podandus. Those left, mutilated by their loss, have themselves fallen into utter despair, and have produced in all such a weight of dejection that the city now lacks even inhabitants, and a dreadful desolation has come over the place, a pitiable sight to friends, but bringing much joy and good cheer to those who have long lain in wait for our fall. Whose part is it, then, to stretch out a hand to us, or to shed a tear of sympathy for us, if not your gentleness, who would sympathize even with a foreign city suffering so, let alone the one that brought you into life? If, then, you have any power, show it to us now in the present need. You surely have great influence from God, who has never forsaken you on any occasion and has given you many proofs of his favor; only be willing to rise up wholly to care for us, and to use the power you have for the help of your fellow citizens.

To Sophronius the master. The greatness of the calamities that have overtaken our homeland was forcing me myself to go to the court and describe to your Magnanimity, and to the others who are in the greatest power in affairs, the dejection that holds our city. But since bodily illness and the care of the churches detain me, I have hastened meanwhile to lament to your Greatness by letter, making known that no ship sunk in the open sea by violent winds ever vanished so suddenly, no city shattered by earthquakes or flooded by waters ever went to such sudden destruction, as ours, swallowed up by this new arrangement of affairs, has gone to complete ruin. Our affairs have become a fable. For our civic body is gone; the whole civic order, abandoning residence in the city from dejection about those in power, wanders through the countryside. Even the supply of necessities has failed, and altogether the city has become a most unseasonable sight, which formerly prided itself on learned men and on the other things in which cities that live without want abound. We thought there was one consolation, as in disasters: to groan over our sufferings to your Gentleness, and to ask you, if you have any power, to stretch out a hand to our city brought to its knees. The means by which you might come to the help of affairs in time I cannot myself suggest; but for you it is surely not hard both to find it by your understanding and to use what you find by the power given you by God.

Without address, about Therasius. This too we enjoyed from the good government of the great Therasius: the frequent presence of your Eloquence with us. And in this very thing we suffered loss when we were deprived of the governor. But since what God has once given us remains secure, dwelling in one another's souls through memory, even if we are separated in body, let us at least write often and say what is needful to one another; especially now that the winter has granted this short truce. We hope that you will not leave the most admirable Therasius, judging it fitting to share in such cares with such a man, … welcoming an opportunity that lets you see your friends and be seen by them. Though I have much to say about many things, I have put it off until our meeting, thinking it unsafe to entrust such things to letters.

Without address, on behalf of Elpidius. Your good zeal for our most reverend friend Elpidius has not escaped us, and how with your usual understanding you gave the governor an occasion for kindness. We urge you now by letter to complete this favor, and to remind the governor by a personal order to establish the man in our homeland, since almost the whole care of public affairs depends on him. So you can suggest many plausible reasons to the governor, from which he may order him to remain in our homeland. What sort of man he is, and how valuable to affairs, you surely need not learn from us, since you yourself by your own understanding exactly …

To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. The more the sicknesses of the churches advance, the more we all turn to your Perfection, believing that your protection is the one consolation left us in our troubles; you who, by the power of your prayers and by knowing how to suggest what is best in affairs, are believed by all alike, who know your Perfection even a little by report or experience, able to save us from this fearful storm. So do not cease praying for our souls and rousing us with your letters. If you knew how great their benefit is, you would never pass over an occasion for writing to us that came your way. And if, by the help of your prayers, we were thought worthy to see you and enjoy your good qualities, and to add to the history of our life a meeting with your truly great and apostolic soul, we would surely reckon that we had received from God's love for mankind a consolation equal to all the afflictions of our whole life.

To Innocent, a bishop. As much as I was cheered at receiving your Love's letter, so much was I grieved that you laid on us the weight of a care that is beyond us. For how can we, from so great a distance, manage such great matters? As long as the church has you, it rests on its own supports; but if the Lord should order anything concerning your life, whom can I send from here, of equal honor with you, to care for the brothers? This is what you asked in your letter, rightly and wisely, wishing to see in your lifetime the one who is to govern after you the Lord's chosen flock, which blessed Moses also both desired and saw. Since, then, the place is great and famous, your work renowned among many, and the times difficult, needing a great helmsman because of the continual storms and the waves rising against the Church, I did not think it safe for my soul to treat the matter perfunctorily, especially remembering what you wrote, that you would stand against me before the Lord, bringing a case against me for neglect of the churches. So that I may not enter into judgment with you, but rather find you a partner in my defense before Christ, I looked round among the council of the presbytery of the city and chose the most honorable vessel, the descendant of the blessed Hermogenes, who wrote the great and unbreakable creed at the great council: a presbyter of the church for many years now, steady in character, experienced in the canons, exact in faith, living until now in self-control and ascetic discipline, though the intensity of his austerity has by now consumed his flesh; poor, having no means of livelihood in this world, so that he does not even have bread in abundance, but earns his living with his hands together with the brothers who live with him. This is the man I wish to send. If, then, you too need such a man, and not merely some younger man fit only to be sent on errands and to carry out the business of life, deign to write to me quickly at the first opportunity, so that I may send you this man, chosen by God and suited to the task, venerable to those who meet him, and correcting opponents with gentleness. I could have sent him at once; but since you yourself first asked for a man good and dear to us in other respects but falling far short of the aforesaid, I wished to make my opinion clear to you, so that, if you need such a man, you may either send one of the brothers … to undergo the toil of the journey as far as us. [Letter 82] To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. When we look at affairs and see the difficulties by which every good activity is held back as though bound by a chain, we come to complete despair of ourselves; but when again we look to your Reverence and consider that our Lord has reserved you as physician for the sicknesses in the churches, we recover our thoughts and rise up from the fall of despair to the hope of better things. The whole Church is broken up, as your prudence is not unaware. And you surely see what is happening everywhere, as from a high lookout of mental contemplation: how, as at sea, when many are sailing together, all are dashed against one another by the violence of the waves, and shipwreck comes partly from an external cause violently stirring up the sea, partly from the confusion of those on board, who oppose and jostle one another. It is enough to leave the argument at the image, since neither does your wisdom allow anything more, nor does the situation allow us frankness. And against these things, who is an able helmsman? Who is trustworthy enough to rouse the Lord to rebuke the wind and the sea? Who else but he who from childhood has contended in the contests for godliness? Since, then, all that is sound in the faith about us is now genuinely eager for communion and union with those of the same belief, we have come confidently to entreat your forbearance to send one letter to all of us, containing advice on what should be done. For so they wish to have from you the beginning of the talks toward communion. But since they perhaps appear suspect to you because of the memory of the past, do this, most God-beloved Father: send the letters for the bishops to me, either by one of the faithful there or by our brother Dorotheus, our fellow deacon; and when I receive them I will not give them out until I have received their replies. If not, “I shall bear the blame before you all the days of my life.” Surely this was no more to be feared by him who first said it to his father than by me now saying it to you, my spiritual father. But if this is in every way refused by you, at least acquit us of blame for our mediation, since we have come to this embassy and mediation without guile or contrivance, from desire for peace and for the union of those who agree in the things of the Lord.

To a censitor. My acquaintance with your Nobility and our meeting face to face have been very brief; but my knowledge of you by report, by which we are connected with many distinguished men, is neither small nor to be despised. Whether you have any account of us from report, you yourself would know better. At any rate your standing with us is such as we have said. Since God has called you to a task that offers a display of kindness, through which it is possible to restore our homeland, utterly razed to the ground, I think it fitting to remind your Goodness, that, in hope of God's recompense, you may deign to show yourself such as to be thought worthy of immortal memory and to become an heir of eternal rest, by making lighter the afflictions of the oppressed. And since I too have some property at Chamanene, I ask you to protect it as your own. Do not wonder if I call my friends' property my own, since with the rest of virtue I have been taught friendship too, and remember him who wisely said that a friend is another self. The property, then, belonging to So-and-so, I commend to your Honor as my own; and I urge you, considering the hardships of the household, both to give them some relief for past times and to make their dwelling desirable for the future, which is now shunned and given up because of the weight of the assessment imposed on it. I too will make an effort to meet you.

… nor to a ruler and a private person alike; but one must try to profit for our affairs from the one by his art and from the other by his authority. As, then, a shadow certainly follows those who walk in the sun, even if they do not choose it, so with conversations with rulers there follows a kind of by-trade, the help of the suffering. Let the first reason for my letter, then, be fulfilled by the mere greeting of your Magnanimity, which, even if there were no other pretext for writing, ought to be considered a good thing in itself. Greetings, then, from us, my excellent friend, and may you be kept safe all your life, passing from office to office, and benefiting now some, now others, by your administrations. For this is both my custom to pray and your due from those who have even slightly experienced your virtue in governing. 2. After the prayer, receive also my supplication for a wretched old man, whom an imperial letter released from public duties; or rather, even before the emperor, his very age gave him the necessary exemption. You yourself confirmed the favor from above, out of respect for nature and, I think, out of care for the public interest, so that nothing of the common affairs might be endangered by a man growing senile through age. But by another road, my admirable friend, how did you unawares bring him back into the midst? For by ordering his grandson, not yet in his fourth year since birth, to belong to the council, what else are you doing but bringing the old man back to public duties through his descendant? Now, however, we implore you to take pity on both ages and release both because of the pitiable state of each. For the one has never seen or known his parents, but came into this life through others' hands, orphaned of both from his swaddling clothes; and the other has been kept so long in life that no form of misfortune has passed him by. He saw his son's untimely death; he saw his house without heirs; and now, unless you devise something worthy of your kindness, the consolation of his childlessness will become for him the occasion of countless evils. For the child, surely, will not contribute to the council, nor collect the taxes, nor supply the soldiers with their rations; but once again the gray hairs of the wretched old man must be disgraced. Grant, then, a favor consistent with the laws and agreeable to nature, ordering that the child be excused until the age of manhood, and the old man left to await death in his bed. Let others plead the press of business and the inexorability of necessity. For it is not your way to overlook those in distress, or to slight the laws, or not to yield to friends who implore you, even if the affairs of men press round you. …

That one ought not to require oaths. We do not cease, at every synod, solemnly protesting, and speaking privately about the same things in our meetings, that oaths should not be imposed on the country people by the collectors over the public taxes. It remained to testify about the same things by letter before God and men, that you ought to stop bringing death to the souls of men, and to devise some other methods of collection, allowing men to keep their souls unwounded. We write this to you, not as though you needed exhortation by words (for you have from within the grounds for fearing the Lord), but so that through you all who are under you may be taught not to provoke the Holy One, nor to reduce a forbidden thing to indifference by evil habit. For they gain nothing from the oaths toward the collections, and they take on an acknowledged evil for the soul. For when men have practiced perjury, they no longer press themselves to pay, but think that the oath has been invented for them as a weapon of deceit and an occasion for delay. If, then, the Lord brings swift retribution on the perjured, they will have no one to obey them, as those liable will have been destroyed by the punishment; or if the Master bears with them in long-suffering, those who have experienced the Lord's forbearance, as I said before, despise his goodness. Let them not transgress the law in vain, nor provoke God against themselves. We have said what falls to us; those who disobey will see. [Letter 86] To the governor. I know that the greatest and first zeal of your Honor is to favor justice in every way, and the second to do good to your friends and to take up the cause of those who flee to the protection of your Magnanimity. All these have come together in the present case. For the matter for which we intercede is just, and dear to us, whom you have deigned to count among your friends, and owed to those who call upon your firmness for help in what they have suffered. For the grain which our most beloved brother Dorotheus alone had for the necessary support of his life has been seized at Berisa by some of those entrusted with administering public affairs, whether they came to the violence of their own accord or at the suggestion of others. In any case the matter is in no way blameless for them. For how does one who is wicked of himself do less wrong than one who serves another's wickedness? And for those who have suffered, the loss is the same. We ask that he recover what he was robbed of, and they may lay the blame for what was dared on others if they wish; and we shall value the favor from your Magnanimity, if you deign to grant it, as much as it is worth to escape the necessity of famine.

Without address, on the same subject. I was astonished how, while you were acting as mediator, so great an evil was dared against our fellow presbyter that the one means of livelihood he had was plundered. And the most terrible thing is that those who dared this lay the blame for what they did on you, whose part it was not only not to allow such things to happen, but to prevent them with all your strength, above all against anyone, but if not, at least against presbyters, and those of them who are of one mind with us and walk the same road of godliness. If, then, you care at all to refresh us, have what has been done quickly set right. For with God you are able to accomplish both this and greater things than these, with whomever you wish. I have also written to the governor of our homeland, so that, if they are not willing to do what is just of their own accord, they may be compelled to do it by the action of the courts.

Without address, to a collector of money. Your Honor knows better than anyone the difficulty of collecting the gold for the trade tax; and we have no witness of our poverty like you, who out of great kindness both sympathized with us and have borne with us as far as possible until now, never disturbing the gentleness of your character because of the pressure laid on you from above. Since, then, a little gold still remains due from the whole amount, and this must be collected from the contribution to which we have urged the whole city, we ask your Gentleness to extend the time limit a little for us, so that those outside the city also may be reminded. For most of the officials are in the country, as you yourself know. If, then, it is possible for so many pounds to be sent (for that is what remains for us), we ask you to let this be done, and the rest will be sent afterward; but if it is absolutely necessary for it to be forwarded to the treasury all at once, which is what we asked from the beginning, that the time limit be made longer for us.

To Meletius, bishop of Antioch. 1. The good God, by giving us occasions to greet your Honor, soothes the vehemence of our longing. For he himself is witness of the desire we have to see your face and enjoy your good and soul-profiting teaching. And now, through our most pious and zealous brother Dorotheus, the deacon, who is coming to you, we urge you first to pray for us, that we may not be a stumbling block to the people nor a hindrance to your prayers in prevailing on the Lord; and then we remind you to deign to arrange everything through the aforesaid brother; and if anything is to be written to those in the West, since letters must of necessity be carried to them by one of ours, to dictate the letters yourself. For we, having found Sabinus, the deacon sent by them, have written to the Illyrians and to the bishops in Italy and Gaul, and to some who wrote to us personally. It is reasonable … 2. And concerning the most reverend bishop Athanasius, we remind your perfect prudence, which knows it exactly, that it is impossible for anything due to be advanced or done by my letters, unless he is in some way received by you too, who at that time postponed communion with him. For he is said to be very eager to be united with us and to contribute what he can, but to be grieved that then too he was sent away out of communion, and that the promises still remain unfulfilled. How things stand in the East has surely not escaped the ears of your Godliness; and the aforesaid brother will tell all more exactly himself. Deign to send him off immediately after Easter, since he is waiting for the replies from Samosata; welcome his zeal, and, strengthening him with prayers, send him on to the tasks before him. [Letter 90] … having told exactly the good things among you, he nourished our souls; and he will report our affairs to you, having learned them clearly by experience, so that first you may contend with us by earnest and diligent prayer to the Lord, and then not refuse to bring what consolation you can to the oppressed churches. For things here are exhausted, most honored brothers, and the Church has given up under the continual assaults of the enemies, like a ship in the open sea tormented by successive blows of the waves, unless some swift visitation of the Lord's goodness should come. As, then, we count your agreement and unity with one another our own good, so we urge you to sympathize with our divisions, and not … but to take us into the harmony of one body. 2. What afflicts us is known even if we do not speak; for it has now sounded out into the whole world. The doctrines of the Fathers are despised; the apostolic traditions are set at nought; the inventions of innovating men are established in the churches; men now practice logic-chopping, not theology; the wisdom of the world carries off the first prizes, having pushed aside the boast of the cross. Shepherds are driven away, and grievous wolves are brought in their place, tearing apart the flock of Christ. Houses of prayer are empty of those who assemble; the deserts are full of mourners. The old men lament, comparing the past with the present; the young are more pitiable, not knowing what they have been deprived of. These things are enough to move to sympathy those taught the love of Christ; yet our word, compared with the reality of things, falls far short of their worth. If, then, there is any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, any affection and compassion, be moved to help us. Take up zeal for godliness; rescue us from this storm. Let that good preaching of the Fathers be spoken among us too with boldness, which overthrows the ill-named heresy of Arius and builds up the churches in sound teaching, in which the Son is confessed to be of the same essence as the Father, and the Holy Spirit is numbered and worshiped with equal honor; so that the boldness for the truth that the Lord has given you, and the boast in the confession of the divine and saving Trinity, he may grant to us too through your prayers and cooperation. The rest the aforesaid fellow deacon himself will tell your Love. And in all that happens …

To Valerianus, bishop of the Illyrians. Thanks be to the Lord, who has given us to see the fruit of ancient love in your Purity; you who, so far separated in body, have joined yourself to us by letter, and, embracing us with your spiritual and holy longing, have produced an unspeakable affection in our souls. For we have learned by experience the force of the proverb, “As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” For there is a terrible famine of love among us, most honored brother. And the cause is plain: because lawlessness has multiplied, the love of many has grown cold. For this reason your letter seemed of great value to us, and we reply to you through the same man, our most pious fellow deacon and brother Sabinus, through whom we also make ourselves known to you, and urge you to be watchful in prayers for us, that the holy God may one day grant calm and quiet to affairs here too, and rebuke this wind and sea, so that we may cease from the tossing and upheaval in which we now are, always expecting to be completely sunk. But in the present circumstances the Lord has granted us this great favor: to hear that you are in exact agreement and unity with one another, and that the preaching of godliness is proclaimed among you without hindrance. For at some time (unless the time of this world has already been closed, and there remain still days of human life) the faith must be renewed for the East by you, and you must in due season give back to it the good things you received from it. For the sound part here, which defends the godliness of the Fathers, is sufficiently … , the devil's craft having shaken it with many and various assaults of contrivances. But by your prayers, who love the Lord, … the evil doctrine of Arius; and the good … will shine out again …

To the Italians and Gauls. 1. To our most God-beloved and most holy brothers and fellow ministers, the like-minded bishops in Italy and Gaul, Meletius, Eusebius, Basil, Bassus, Gregory, Pelagius, Paul, Anthimus, Theodotus, Bithus, Abramius, Jovinus, Zeno, Theodoret, Marcianus, Barachus, Abramius, Libanius, Thalassius, Joseph, Boethus, Iatrius, Theodotus, Eustathius, Barsumas, John, Chosroes, Iosaces, Narses, Maris, Gregory, Daphnus: greeting in the Lord. A groan sent up from the depth of the heart often brings some consolation to afflicted souls, and a tear, when it falls, sometimes disperses much of the affliction; but for us, telling our sufferings to your Love brings more consolation than groans and tears. A better hope warms us too: that perhaps, if we report to you what grieves us, we may rouse you to help us, help which we long expected to come from you to the churches of the East, but have not yet received, God, who orders our affairs in wisdom, having surely arranged, according to the inscrutable judgments of his righteousness, that we should be drawn out longer in these trials. For surely you are not ignorant of our affairs, most honored brothers, the report of which has run out to the ends of the world; nor are you unsympathetic toward your like-minded brothers, being disciples of the Apostle who teaches that love of neighbor is the fulfillment of the law. But, as we said, the just judgment of God held back your impulse, measuring out to us the full affliction appointed for our sins. But now at least we urge you to rise up, both in zeal for the truth and in sympathy for us, having learned everything, including whatever escaped your hearing before, from our most pious brother and fellow deacon Sabinus, who will be able to tell you himself even what escapes the letter; through whom we urge you to put on hearts of compassion, to put aside all hesitation, and to take up the labor of love, taking no account of the length of the road, or business at home, or any other human thing. 2. For the danger is not about one church, nor are two or three the only ones fallen in this grievous storm. For almost from the borders of Illyricum to the Thebaid the evil of the heresy is spreading. Its evil seeds the ill-named Arius sowed first; but, rooted deeply by many in between who diligently cultivated the impiety, they have now sprouted their destructive fruits. For the doctrines of godliness have been overturned and the ordinances of the Church thrown into confusion. The ambition of those who do not fear the Lord leaps at the offices of leadership; and now openly the chief seat is set forth as the prize of impiety, so that he who has blasphemed the more grievously is preferred for the oversight of the people. Priestly dignity is gone; there are no longer those who shepherd the Lord's flock with knowledge, since the ambitious continually spend the funds of the poor on their own enjoyment and on the distribution of gifts. The exactness of the canons has been obscured; there is great license to sin. For those who have come to rule through human effort repay the favor of that effort in this very way, by indulging sinners in everything to please them. Just judgment has perished; everyone walks according to the will of his own heart. Wickedness is beyond measure; the peoples are without admonition; the leaders without freedom of speech. For those who have acquired power for themselves through men are slaves of those who gave them the favor. Already the vindication of orthodoxy, so called, has been devised by some as a weapon of war against one another; and hiding their private enmities, they pretend to hate for the sake of godliness. Others, to avoid conviction for the most shameful things, madden the peoples into contention against one another, so that they may overshadow their own case with the common evils. So this war is truceless, since those who have done evil suspect common peace as something that would uncover the hidden things of their shame. At this the unbelievers laugh, those of little faith are shaken, faith is doubtful, ignorance is poured over souls, because those who adulterate the word with mischief imitate the truth. For the mouths of the godly are silent, and every blaspheming tongue is let loose; holy things are profaned; the sound among the peoples flee the houses of prayer as schools of impiety, and in the deserts raise their hands with groans and tears to the Master in heaven. For what is happening in most of the cities has surely reached even you: that the peoples, with women and children and the very … 3. What lament is worthy of these calamities? What springs of tears will suffice for such evils? While, then, some still seem to stand, while a trace of the ancient state is still preserved, before shipwreck comes completely upon the churches, hasten to us, hasten now, yes, we beg you, most genuine brothers; give a hand to those who have fallen to their knees. Let your brotherly hearts be moved for us; let tears of sympathy be poured out. Do not overlook half the world swallowed up by error; do not allow the faith to be extinguished among those with whom it first shone. What you must do to take hold of affairs, and how you will show your sympathy toward the afflicted, you will surely not need to learn from us, but the Holy Spirit himself will suggest to you. Only there is need of speed, to save those who are left, and of the presence of more brothers, so that those who come may make up a full synod, in order that they may have credibility for correction not only from the dignity of those who sent them but also from their own number; who will renew the creed written by our Fathers at Nicaea, proscribe the heresy, and speak peace to the churches, bringing those who think alike into concord. For this is surely the most pitiable thing of all: that even what seems sound has been divided against itself; and sufferings have come upon us, it seems, like those that once befell Jerusalem in the siege of Vespasian. For they were at once held by the war from outside and consumed by the internal strife of their own people. And for us, besides the open war of the heretics, the war that has risen from those who seem to be orthodox has brought the churches to the last extremity of weakness. For this especially we need your help, so that those who confess the apostolic faith, having dissolved the schisms they have devised, may in future be subject to the authority of the Church; that the body of Christ may become complete, all its members restored to wholeness; and that we may not only call blessed the good things of others, as we do now, but also see our own churches recover their ancient boast of orthodoxy. For truly worthy of the highest blessing is what the Lord has granted your Godliness: to distinguish the counterfeit from the approved and pure, and to proclaim the faith of the Fathers without any reserve; which we too have received, and have recognized as stamped with the apostolic marks, assenting both to it and to all that was canonically and lawfully decreed in the synodal letter.

To the patrician Caesaria, on communion. To communicate every day, and to partake of the holy body and blood of Christ, is good and beneficial, since he himself says plainly, “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” For who doubts that to share continually in life is nothing else than to live abundantly? We, however, communicate four times each week: on the Lord's day, on Wednesday, on Friday, and on the Sabbath, and on the other days if there is a commemoration of some saint. That it is in no way a grave matter if someone is compelled, in times of persecution, when no priest or minister is present, to take communion with his own hand, it is superfluous to demonstrate, because long custom has confirmed this by the facts themselves. For all the solitaries in the deserts, where there is no priest, keep communion at home and partake of it by themselves. And in Alexandria and in Egypt each of those belonging to the laity, for the most part, keeps communion in his own house, and partakes of it by himself when he wishes. For once the priest has completed the sacrifice and given it, he who has received it as a whole at once, and partakes of it each day, ought reasonably to believe that he partakes and receives from him who gave it. For in the church too the priest gives the portion, and the one who receives it holds it with full authority, and so brings it to his mouth with his own hand. It is the same in power, then, whether one receives one portion from the priest or many portions at once.

To Elias, governor of the province. I was eager to come to your Honor myself, so as not to be at any disadvantage against my slanderers through my absence; but since bodily illness prevented me, attacking me much more severely than usual, I have had of necessity to resort to a letter. When I met your Honor the other day, my admirable friend, I was eager both to share with your prudence everything about the affairs of my life, and also to say something on behalf of the churches, so that no room might be left for slanders afterward. But I held myself back, reckoning it altogether officious and beyond measure ambitious to lay further cares, outside what is necessary, on a man on whom so great a mass of affairs depends. At the same time (for the truth shall be told) I also shrank from being forced into disputes with one another that might wound your soul, which ought to reap the full reward of godliness in pure reverence toward God. For truly, if we turn you to ourselves, we shall leave you little leisure for public affairs; and we shall be doing something like a man who burdens a helmsman, steering a newly built ship in a great storm, by adding to its cargo, when he ought to remove some of the freight and lighten it as far as possible. For this reason, I think, the great emperor too, knowing this busy concern of ours, allowed us to manage the churches by ourselves. But I should like those who pester your guileless ears to be asked what harm the public affairs suffer from us, or what, small or great, of the common interests has been diminished by our administration of the churches; unless someone says that it harms affairs to raise to our God a magnificently built house of prayer, and around it dwellings, one generously set apart for the leader, the lesser ones assigned in order to the servants of the divine, the use of which is common to you rulers and to those who attend you. And whom do we wrong by building lodgings for strangers, both for those who visit in passing and for those who need some treatment because of illness, and by establishing for them the necessary comforts: nurses, physicians, beasts of burden, escorts? With these there must also follow trades, both those necessary for living and those invented for a seemly way of life; and again other buildings suited for workshops; all of which are an ornament to the place, and a boast for our governor, since the renown goes back to him. Indeed you were not pressed into governing us for this reason, as one who alone is sufficient by the greatness of his mind to restore ruined works, to people the uninhabited places, and so to change wildernesses into cities? Is it more consistent, then, to drive away and insult one who works with you in these things, or to honor and cherish him? And do not think, my excellent friend, that what we say is only words; for we are already at work, gathering the materials meanwhile. So much for our defense before the governor. What must be answered to the complaints of the faultfinders, as to a Christian and a friend who cares for our reputation, must now be passed over in silence, as too long for the measure of a letter and in no way safe to entrust to lifeless letters. But so that you may not, in the time before our meeting, be led by some people's slanders to relax any of your goodwill toward us, do what Alexander did. For they say that when one of his intimates was being slandered, he left one of his ears open to the slanderer and carefully stopped the other with his hand, showing that one who means to judge rightly must not at once be carried away wholly by those who speak first, but must keep half of his hearing intact for the defense of the one not present.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. Long ago I wrote to your Godliness about several matters and about our meeting each other, but I was disappointed in my hope, since the letter did not reach your Honor's hands: the blessed deacon Theophrastus received our letter when we were away of necessity on a tour, but did not send it on to your Godliness, having been overtaken by the illness of which he died. So I have come to write so much later than the right time that I do not even hope for any benefit from this letter, the time having been completely narrowed. For the most God-beloved bishop Meletius and Theodotus have bidden us cross over to them, making the meeting a token of love and wishing some correction to be made of what now troubles us. They appointed as the time of the meeting the middle of the coming month of June, and as the place Phargamus, a spot famous for the renown of its martyrs and for the crowds at the synod held there every year. Since, after my return, on learning of the falling asleep of the blessed deacon and that the letters were lying idle with us, I could not keep quiet, as thirty-three days still remained to us before the appointed date, I sent this letter in haste to our most reverend brother and fellow minister Eustathius, so that it might be forwarded through him to your Reverence and the replies brought back to us quickly. If it pleases you to come, we too will be present; if not, we ourselves, God willing, will pay last year's debt of a meeting, unless some hindrance of our sins arises again, and we shall put off the conference with the bishops to another time. [Letter 96] To Sophronius the master. And who is such a lover of his city as you are, who honor the homeland that bore and nourished you equally with parents, praying for good things for the whole city in common and for each individually, and not only praying but confirming your prayers by deeds? For you are able, with God, to do such things, and may you be able to the longest time, being so good. Yet under you our homeland has been rich only in a dream, having had as the man entrusted with its care one such as those who know our most ancient history say none other ever mounted the seats of government before; but it was quickly deprived of him by the spite of certain people, who made the man's freedom and refusal to flatter an occasion of war against him and contrived slanders against him, escaping the notice of your Perfection. So we are all, the whole people, downcast at the loss of a governor who alone was able to raise our city, already fallen to its knees: a true guardian of justice, easy of access to the wronged, formidable to lawbreakers, equal to poor and rich, and, greatest of all, restoring the affairs of the Christians to their ancient honor. That he was the most incorruptible of men we know, and favored no one against justice, we have passed over as less than the rest of the man's virtue. We bear this witness late, like those who sing laments to console themselves, doing nothing useful for affairs; yet even this is not useless: that the memory of the man should be laid up in your great soul, that you should feel grateful to him as a benefactor of your native city, and that if anyone attacks him, of those angered at not being preferred to justice, you should fight for him and defend him, making it plain to all that you count the man your own, taking as sufficient ground for intimacy the good testimony about him and his experience in affairs, which exceeds what his years would suggest. For what would not be achieved by another in many years has been achieved by him in a short time. It would be a sufficient favor to us, and consolation for what has happened, if you would also commend him to the emperor and dispel the slanders brought against him. Be sure that the whole homeland speaks this through our one voice, and that it is the common prayer of all that some good may come to the man through your Perfection.

To the senate of Tyana. The Lord, who uncovers deep things and makes manifest the counsels of hearts, has given understanding even to the lowly … of contrivances hard to see through, as some think. Nothing, then, has escaped us, nor is anything of what has been done hidden; but nevertheless we neither see nor hear anything other than the peace of God and whatever leads to it. For even if others are powerful and great and confident in themselves, we are nothing and worth nothing; so that we would never claim so much for ourselves as to think we could master affairs in isolation, knowing exactly that we need the help of each one of the brothers more than one hand needs the other. For from the very structure of our body the Lord has taught us the necessity of fellowship. For when I look at these very members of ours, that none of them is sufficient by itself for its activity, how shall I reckon myself sufficient by myself for the affairs of life? For neither could one foot walk safely without the other supporting it, nor one eye see soundly without having the other as partner and directing itself in harmony with it at what is seen. Hearing is more exact when it receives sound through both passages, and grasping is stronger by the cooperation of the fingers. And in a word, of things accomplished either by nature or by choice, I see none brought about without the cooperation of those of the same kind; since even prayer itself, without those who agree in it, is much weaker than itself, and the Lord promised to be in the midst of two or three who call on him in concord. And the Lord accepted the economy itself in order to make peace through the blood of his cross, whether things on earth or things in heaven. For all these reasons, we pray to remain in peace for our remaining days, and we ask that our falling asleep may be in peace. For the sake of this I have resolved to spare no labor whatever, not to refuse to say or do anything humble, not to reckon the length of a journey, not to shrink from any other troublesome thing, so as to obtain the rewards of peacemaking. And if anyone follows us as we lead in this, that is best, and our prayer is fulfilled; but if he is drawn the other way, I shall not even so depart from my own judgment … [Letter 98] To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. 1. Though very eager to reach Nicopolis, after receiving your Holiness's letter refusing to come, I fell away from my desire and remembered all my weakness at once. It also came into my mind how perfunctorily those who invited us had acted: having made their invitation to us in passing, through our most reverend brother Hellenius, the tax assessor at Nazianzus, they did not deign to send a second to remind us about the same things or to guide us. Since we are suspect to them because of our sins, we were afraid of somehow clouding the brightness of the festival by our presence. For with your Magnanimity we do not shrink from facing even great trials; but without you we are not equal to looking even ordinary afflictions in the face. Since, then, our meeting with them was to take place for ecclesiastical matters, we let the time of the festival pass and put off the meeting to a quiet and untroubled occasion, and we have decided to go to Nicopolis and discuss what is necessary for the churches with the most God-beloved bishop Meletius, if he means to decline the journey to Samosata; and if not, we will run there with him, if this … from both. 2. We were also to meet the bishops from the second Cappadocia, who, because they have been named as of another province, have thought that they have suddenly become foreigners and of another race to us; who have ignored us as completely as those who have never had any experience of us nor ever come to speak with us. Another meeting was also expected, with the most reverend bishop Eustathius, which has in fact taken place for us. For since he is cried down by many as falsifying something in the faith, we came to speak with him, and found him, with God, readily following all orthodoxy. The letters of the bishops were not brought to your Honor through the fault of those very men who ought to have sent on ours; but it also slipped my mind, crowded out of memory by the press of cares. As for our brother Gregory, I too wished him to govern a church proportionate to his nature; and that would have been the whole world under the sun gathered into one. But since that is impossible, let him be a bishop not honored by his see, but honoring his see by himself. For it truly belongs to a great man not only to be sufficient for great things, but also to make small things great by his own power. And what must be done about Palmatius, who after so many exhortations from the brothers still serves Maximus in his persecutions? Yet even now they do not shrink from writing; for they are not permitted to come, both because of bodily weakness and because of domestic business. Know, however, most God-beloved Father, that our affairs greatly need your presence, and that you must once more stir your honored old age, in order to steady Cappadocia, which is now tottering and near to falling.

…to accept. What was actually done by us is this. 2. We had been summoned to a synod being held by our brother Theodotus, and out of love we set out to obey the summons; so that we might not seem to make the meeting idle and fruitless, we were eager to come into discussion with the aforementioned brother Eustathius. We put before him the charges about the faith that those around our brother Theodotus bring against him, and we asked him, if he follows the right faith, to make it plain to us, so that we might be in communion with him; but if he holds otherwise, to know clearly that we too would hold ourselves apart from him. Many words passed between us, and that whole day was spent in examining these things; when evening came on at last, we parted from each other without having brought the discussion to any agreed end. The next day we sat down together again at dawn and discussed the same matters, our brother Poemenius, the presbyter of Sebasteia, having now arrived as well and vigorously pressing the opposite argument against us. Little by little, then, we cleared ourselves of the points on which they seemed to accuse us, and brought them to assent to what we were asking, so that by the grace of the Lord we were found not to differ from one another in the smallest point. So about the ninth hour we rose for prayers, giving thanks to the Lord, who had granted us to think the same thing and to say the same thing. After this I ought also to have obtained from the man a written confession, so that his assent might be made plain to those who oppose him, and the proof of the man's intention might be sufficient for the rest. But out of great carefulness I wished myself to meet the brothers around Theodotus, to receive from them a written statement of faith, and to put this before the aforementioned man, so that both things might be done: the right faith would be confessed by him, and they would be fully satisfied, having no ground for objection, since their own propositions had been accepted. But before learning why we had met and what had been achieved by our conversation, those around bishop Theodotus no longer saw fit to invite us to the synod. So we turned back halfway along the road, disheartened that they were making our labours for the peace of the churches come to nothing. 3. After this, then, when the necessity of the journey into Armenia came upon me, knowing the man's peculiar temper, and wishing before a trustworthy witness both to defend myself for what had been done and to satisfy him, I went to Getasa, the estate of the most God-beloved bishop Meletius, the aforementioned Theodotus also being present with me. And so there, when I was accused by him for my association with Eustathius, I told him the success of the meeting: that I had found him agreeing with us in everything. When he maintained that Eustathius had denied it after leaving us, and was assuring his own disciples that he had agreed with us on nothing concerning the faith, I answered this (and consider, most admirable friend, whether the answers I gave were not most just and unanswerable): that for my part I was persuaded, judging from the man's general good character, that he would not turn round so lightly to the contrary, nor confess at one time and deny at another what he had said; a man who shuns falsehood even about ordinary things as something dreadful would hardly choose ever to oppose the truth on matters so great and so widely talked of by everyone. 'But if what is rumoured among you should turn out true, a written document containing the full proof of the right faith must be put before him. If I find him agreeing in writing, I will remain in communion; but if I find him shrinking back, I will withdraw from association with him.' Bishop Meletius accepted the proposal, and so did our brother Diodorus, the fellow presbyter (for he was present at these proceedings); and the most reverend brother Theodotus agreed there, and urged us to come down to Nicopolis, so that we might both visit his church and take him as companion on the road as far as Satala. But he left us at Getasa; and when we reached Nicopolis, forgetting both what he had heard from me and what he had agreed with us, he sent us away, put to shame with those insults and dishonours which I described a little earlier. 4. How then was it possible for me, most honoured head, to do any of the things commanded, and to give bishops to Armenia, when the partner of my care was so disposed toward me, the very one through whom I expected to find the suitable men, because there are in his district men who are devout and prudent, skilled in the language, and acquainted with the other characteristics of the nation? I know their names, but I will willingly keep silent, so that nothing may hinder Armenia from being served by them at least at some other time. And now, having come as far as Satala in such a state of body, I thought by the grace of God to settle the rest. I made peace among the bishops of Armenia, and … I said to them what was fitting, that they should lay aside their usual indifference and take up the Lord's genuine zeal for the churches; and I gave them rules about the unlawful things done carelessly in Armenia, how they ought to deal with them. I also received resolutions from the church of Satala containing a request that a bishop be given them by us. I also made it my care to investigate the slander poured upon our brother Cyril, the bishop of Armenia; and by the grace of God we found that it had been raised falsely, from the calumny of those who hate him, as they openly confessed before us. And we seemed to have made the people in Satala moderately gentler toward him, so that they no longer shun his communion. If these things are small and worth nothing, still nothing more could be done by us, because of the discord among ourselves brought about by the devil's meddling. I ought to have kept silent about these things, so as not to seem to make my own disgrace public; but since …

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. I saw the letter of your holiness in the country bordering on Armenia as seafarers might see a beacon signalling from far off on the open sea, especially if the sea happened to be somewhat roughened by winds. For the letter of your reverence is by nature pleasant and full of comfort, but at that time the occasion especially increased the pleasure it gave. What that occasion was, and how it grieved us, I would not say, having decided once for all to forget painful things; but our fellow deacon will tell it to your piety. My body has failed me utterly, so that I cannot bear even the smallest movements without pain. Yet I pray that my old desire may now at last be fulfilled through the help of your prayers. I know that this journey has caused me great difficulty, since the affairs of our church were neglected for so long. But if God, while we are still upon earth, deems us worthy to see your piety in our church, we shall truly have good hopes for the future as well, that we are not wholly cast away from the gifts of God. This, then, if possible, we beg may happen at the synod which we hold every year for the memorial of the blessed martyr Eupsychius, now approaching, on the seventh day of September. For matters worthy of attention are pressing upon us which need your cooperation, both for the appointment of bishops and for counsel and examination of what is being devised against us by …

Consolatory. It would have been desirable, when sending a first letter, that its subject should be more cheerful. For then things would have gone for us as we wished, since we want all who choose to live in godliness to prosper in what is good throughout their whole life. But since the Lord who orders our life, according to his ineffable wisdom, has surely arranged for the good of our souls that these things should happen (things by which he has made your life painful, and has brought us, who are joined to you in the way of God, to sympathy, when we learned from our brothers what you have been through), it seemed necessary to us to bring you what comfort we could. If it had been possible to travel as far as the place where your nobility happens to live, I would have counted it of the highest importance; but since the sickness of my body, the great number of affairs that hold us, and this very journey we have undertaken, to the great loss of our churches, prevented it, we were eager to visit your reverence by letter, reminding you that these afflictions do not come idly upon the servants of God from the Lord who watches over us, but to test our true love toward God who created us. For as the labours of the contests bring athletes to their crowns, so testing in temptations brings Christians to perfection, if we accept what the Lord dispenses with fitting patience and with all thanksgiving. All things are ordered by the goodness of the Master. Nothing that happens to us ought to be received as grievous, even if for the present it touches our weakness. For even if we do not know the reasons why each thing that happens is brought on us by the Master as good, yet we ought to be persuaded of this: that what happens is surely for the good either of us, through the reward of patience, or of the soul that has been taken, so that it might not linger longer in this life and be filled with the wickedness that dwells in it. For if the hope of Christians were bounded by this life, it would rightly be thought hard to be separated early from the body; but if, for those who live according to God, the beginning of true life is that the soul be released from these bodily bonds, why do we grieve like those who have no hope? Be exhorted, then, not to fall under your sufferings, but to show that you stand above them and have risen over them.

To the citizens of Satala. Moved by your own appeals and by those of the whole people, I both accepted the care of your church and promised you before the Lord to leave undone nothing that lies within my power. Therefore I was compelled, as it is written, to touch as it were the pupil of my own eye. So far did the greatness of my regard for you allow nothing to come to my mind before the things you asked: neither kinship, nor the familiarity I have had with the man since boyhood. Rather, forgetting every ground of closeness I have with him personally, taking no account of the great groaning with which the people who had him as their leader will groan against me, nor of the tears of all his kin, nor taking to heart the affliction of his aged mother, who depends on his care alone, and disregarding all these things, so many and so great, I became intent on one thing: to adorn your church with the leadership of so great a man, and to help it, since from its long lack of a leader it has now sunk to its knees and needs a great and strong guiding hand to rise again. Such, then, is our part. What we now ask from you is that you should not prove less than our hope and than the promises we made to the man, that we were sending him out to his own people and friends, each eager to outdo the other in honour and love toward him. See then that you show this fine rivalry, and by the abundance of your attentions comfort his heart, so that forgetfulness of his homeland may come over him, forgetfulness of his kin, forgetfulness of a people that hangs on his leadership as a newborn child on its mother's breast. We have sent Nicias ahead … to the Lord, who has deigned through us that your wish be fulfilled.

To the people of Satala. The Lord has brought to fulfilment the requests of his people, and has given them through our lowliness a shepherd worthy of the name, not one who, like the many, peddles the word, but one able to please you exceedingly (you who love the soundness of the preaching and have embraced the life according to the Lord's commandments) in the name of the Lord, who has filled him with his spiritual gifts.

… having received an order from your exalted authority, they registered them, except where some had exemption on other grounds because of age. We ask, then, that this be granted to us as a memorial of your benefaction, preserving a good memory of you for all time to come: that according to the old law those who serve as priests be released from the tax; and that the exemption not be made personal to those now enrolled (for then the favour would pass to their successors, who will not necessarily be worthy of the priesthood), but that, after the pattern in the free register, a general exemption for clergy be made, so that the exemption may be given by those who manage the churches to whoever is serving at any time. This will both preserve for your greatness an immortal glory for good deeds, and provide the imperial house with many who pray for it, and bring great benefit to the public revenue itself, since we give the relief of exemption not to the clergy indiscriminately but to those who are continually in distress; which is what we do also in the case of the free register, as anyone who wishes may learn.

To the deaconesses, daughters of Count Terentius. When I was at Samosata I expected to meet your modesty; and when I missed the meeting, I bore the loss of it not lightly, reckoning whether it would ever be possible for me to come near your district again, or for you to choose to visit ours. But those things lie with the will of the Lord. For now, since my son Sophronius was gladly setting out to you, I gave him this letter, bringing you greeting and showing our remembrance: that by the grace of God we do not cease to remember you and to give thanks for you to the Lord, because you are good shoots of a good root, fruitful in good works, and truly like lilies among thorns. For that you, surrounded by such great perversity of those who corrupt the word of truth, have not yielded to their deceits, nor abandoned the apostolic preaching of the faith to go over to the novelties now prevailing: how is this not worthy of great thanksgiving to God, and does it not most justly win you great praise? You have believed in Father and Son and Holy Spirit: do not betray this deposit. The Father, the principle of all things; the only-begotten Son, begotten from him, true God, perfect from perfect, living image, showing the whole Father in himself; the Holy Spirit, having his existence from God, the fountain of holiness, life-giving power, perfecting grace, through whom man is adopted as a son and the mortal is made immortal, joined with Father and Son in all things, in glory and eternity, in power and kingdom, in lordship and godhead, as the tradition of saving baptism also testifies. But those who say that either the Son or the Spirit is a creature, or who bring the Spirit down altogether to the ministering and servile rank, are far from the truth; it is right to flee their fellowship and to turn away from their words, as poisons of souls. If the Lord ever grants us to be together, we will set out the teaching of the faith for you more fully, so that with proofs from Scripture you may recognize both the strength of the truth and the rottenness of the heresy.

To a soldier. Though we have many things to thank the Lord for, which he granted us during our visit, we judged the greatest good to be our acquaintance with your honour, granted us by the good Master. For we came to know a man who shows that even in military life it is possible to preserve the perfection of love for God, and that a Christian ought to be marked out not by the cut of his clothing but by the disposition of his soul. So then we met you with all eagerness, and now, as often as we remember you, we enjoy the greatest gladness. Be manly, then, and be strong, and be always eager to nourish and multiply your love for God, so that his supply of good things to you may also increase. That you remember us too we need no further proof, having the testimony of your deeds.

To Julitta, a free woman. I was very distressed on reading your nobility's letter, that the same pressures hold you again. And what is one to do with people who show so changeable a character, saying now one thing and now another, and not abiding by their own agreements? For if, after the promises made before me and the former prefect, he now, as though nothing had been said, cuts the time limit so short, the man seems to have lost all shame toward us. Nevertheless I have written to him, rebuking him and reminding him of his promises. I have also written to Helladius, the prefect's friend, so that through him the prefect may be informed of your affairs. For I did not think it fitting for me to be so bold myself with so great a judge, because I have never yet written to him on a private matter, and I suspect some censure, since, as you know, great men are easily provoked by such things. If there is to be any help, it will come through Helladius, a man who is good and well disposed toward us, God-fearing, and with unspeakable freedom of speech before the ruler. The Holy One is able to bring you through all affliction, if only we hope in him with a true and sincere heart.

To the guardian of the heirs of Julitta. I was astonished to hear that, forgetting those kind promises that befitted your liberality, you are now pressing a most severe and inexorable demand on this sister; and what to conclude from what is reported, I do not know. For I know your great liberality, to which those who have experienced you bear witness, and I remember the promises you made before me and him, saying that you would write down a shorter time but would allow a longer one, because you wished to make allowance for the necessity of the case and to show indulgence to the lady, who is compelled to pay out so large a sum from her house all at once. What the cause of so great a change is, I cannot understand. But whatever it may be, I urge you, remembering your own liberality and looking to the Lord who repays good intentions, to give the time of relief that you promised from the beginning, so that they may be able to sell their property and discharge the debt. And plainly I remember this too: that you promised, if you received the agreed gold, to hand over to the aforesaid lady all the agreed documents, both those executed before the magistrates and those made privately. I urge you, then, both to honour us and to gain for yourself a great blessing with the Lord, remembering your own promises, knowing that you are a man and must yourself expect the times when you will need help from God. Do not shut yourself off from it by your present harshness, but make God's compassion ready for yourself by showing all kindness and gentleness to those in distress.

To Count Helladius. Though I very much shrink from troubling your kindness, because of the greatness of the office around you, lest I seem to make immoderate use of your friendship, yet necessity does not allow me to keep quiet. This sister, who is related to us, worn down by widowhood and having the care of the affairs of her orphan child, I saw now held fast beyond her strength by unbearable necessities; and taking pity on her and grieved in soul, I hastened to beg you, if you have any power, to deign to help the man sent by her, so that, having now paid what she promised in person in our presence, she may be released from further harassment. For she was promised that, if she paid the principal, the interest would be remitted. Now, however, those who have charge of her heirs are trying to exact the interest as well, after the principal. As one who knows, then, that it is the Lord who makes the cause of widows and orphans his own, be eager to devote yourself to this matter, in hope of the reward from our God himself. For I think that the gentleness of the most admirable prefect too, when it learns that the principal has been paid, will sympathize with a pitiable and wretched house, now sunk to its knees and no longer able to withstand the harassments brought on it from outside. I beg you, then, both to forgive the necessity for which I have troubled you, and to help in the matter according to the power that Christ has given you, since you are kind and good in character and have used for good what you have received.

To Modestus the prefect. For all the honour and freedom of speech you share with us, bearing with gentleness of character to come down to us, we pray that as great an increase of your eminence, and still greater, may come to you from our good Master throughout all your life. Though I have long desired to write and to enjoy the honour you show, reverence for your superiority held me back, for I was careful not to be thought to make immoderate use of the freedom of speech. But now both the permission to write, received from your incomparable greatness, and the need of those in distress have forced me to take courage. If, then, there is any power in the supplications of small people on behalf of the greatest matters, be entreated, most admirable sir, by a kindly nod to grant safety to a pitiable country people, and to order that the iron levy laid on those who live in iron-bearing Taurus be made bearable, so that they may not be crushed at once, but their service to the public may be lasting. We are persuaded that this, above all things, concerns your admirable humanity.

To Modestus the prefect. Otherwise I would not have dared to trouble your greatness, knowing how to measure myself and to recognize authorities; but since I saw a friend in anguish at having been summoned, I ventured to give him this letter, so that, holding it out as a suppliant's branch, he might meet with some humanity. Surely, even if we are worth nothing, moderation itself is enough to move the most humane of prefects and to win pardon for us, so that, if the man has done no wrong, he may be saved for the sake of the truth itself, and if he has erred, he may be forgiven for the sake of us who supplicate. What the state of affairs here is, who knows better than you, who look upon the weak points in each person and hold all things together by your wonderful forethought?

To Andronicus, a general. 1. If I were in such health as to be able easily to endure journeys and bear the hardships of winter, I would not be writing, but would be going myself to your magnanimity, for two reasons: first, to pay the debt of an old promise (for I know that I agreed to come to Sebasteia and to enjoy your perfection; which I did, but I missed the meeting, arriving a little after your excellency); and second, to fulfil in person the embassy which until now I had hesitated to send, judging myself too small to obtain such a favour, and at the same time reckoning that no one, speaking for anyone, could persuade either a ruler or a private person by letter as well as by being present himself, partly clearing away the charges, partly entreating, and partly begging pardon for others; none of which could easily be done by letter. Setting against all these things one thing, you, the divine head, and that it will be enough to show you the opinion we hold about the matter, while you will add the rest of yourself, I did not shrink from the undertaking. … the future; and I would pray that they may count this too among the other good qualities that are yours. I hesitate to stop writing, thinking that anything left out will bring me loss. This much, however, I will add: that although he has letters from many who plead for him, he thought ours more valuable than all, having learned, I do not know where, that we have some standing with your perfection. So that he may not be cheated of the hopes he placed in us, and that we may be able to hold our heads high before the people here, be entreated, unsurpassed master, to nod assent to the request. Surely you have looked into human affairs no worse than any who ever practised philosophy, and you know what a fine treasure is laid up beforehand for all who serve those in need.

To the presbyters at Tarsus. On meeting this man, I gave great thanks to the holy God, because he both comforted me in many afflictions through his presence and clearly showed me your love through him. For in the intention of this one man I learned the zeal of almost all of you for the truth. What we discussed privately with each other he will report to you himself; but what your love ought to learn from me is this. The present time has a strong tendency toward the overthrow of the churches, and we have been observing this for a long time now. Building up of the church, correction of faults, sympathy toward the weak, and protection for the healthy among the brothers: there is not one. There is no help either to cure the disease that has already taken hold or to guard against the one expected. In short, the state of the church now resembles (to use a vivid example, even if it seems rather homely) an old garment, easily torn on any chance occasion, which cannot return again to its original strength. At such a time, then, there is need of great zeal and much care that the churches may receive some benefit. And it is a benefit that what has hitherto been torn apart should be united. Union would come about if we were willing to accommodate ourselves to the weaker in matters in which we do no harm to souls. Since, then, many mouths have been opened against the Holy Spirit, and many tongues have been sharpened for blasphemy against him, we ask you, as far as lies in you, to reduce the blasphemers to a small number, and to receive into communion those who do not say that the Holy Spirit is a creature, so that the blasphemers may be left alone and either be put to shame and return to the truth, or, persisting in their sin, be of no account because of their fewness. Let us then seek nothing more, but propose to the brothers who wish to join us the faith of Nicaea; and if they assent to it, let us ask also that the Holy Spirit must not be called a creature, and that those who say so must not be in communion with them. Beyond this I think nothing should be required by us. For I am persuaded that through longer life together and exercise together without contention, if anything more needs to be added for clarification, the Lord will give it, who works all things together for good for those who love him.

To those at Tarsus with Cyriacus. How great the good of peace is, what need is there to say to men who are sons of peace? Since, then, this great and wonderful thing, so earnestly sought by all who love the Lord, is now in danger of being reduced to a bare name, because lawlessness has multiplied and love has now grown cold in the many, I think it fitting that those who serve the Lord genuinely and truly should have this one concern: to bring back to unity the churches that have been cut off from one another in many parts and in many ways. In attempting this myself I could not justly be accused of meddling. For nothing is so characteristic of a Christian as making peace; therefore the Lord has promised us a very great reward for it. Having met the brothers, then, and seen their great brotherly love and affection toward you, and still much more their love of Christ and their exactness and vigour about the faith, and that they are very eager for both things, not to be separated from your love and not to betray the sound faith, I welcomed their good intention, and I write to your reverence, urging you to hold them united to you genuinely with all love, as partners in all the church's care. For I have assured them too of your orthodoxy, that you also, by the grace of God, stand ready in zeal for the truth for everything one may have to suffer for the word of truth. And the terms which, as I persuade myself, are neither contrary to you and are sufficient to satisfy the aforementioned brothers are these: that you confess the faith set forth by our fathers who once assembled at Nicaea, and reject none of the expressions there, but know that the three hundred and eighteen, meeting without contention, did not speak without the working of the Holy Spirit; and that you add to that faith that the Holy Spirit must not be called a creature, and also that you not be in communion with those who say so, so that the church of God may be pure, having no tares mixed in with it. When this assurance has been set before them by your kindness, they too are ready to show you fitting submission. For I myself guarantee for the brothers' part that they will contradict you in nothing, but will show you every excess of good order, once this one thing that they ask of your perfection has been readily granted. [Letter 115] … distributing these things. For my account is not as you suppose, but as God knows how to judge. And if there is need of witnesses, slaves will not stand up, nor the dishonoured and utterly ruinous race of eunuchs, yes, precisely that: unwomanly, unmanly, mad for women, envious, ill-paid, quick-tempered, effeminate, slaves of the belly, mad for gold, harsh, wailing over their dinner, fickle, ungenerous, taking everything, insatiable, raving, and jealous; and what more is there to say? Condemned to the knife at their very birth. How then can their judgment be straight, whose very feet are crooked? They are chaste without reward, because of the knife, and they rage with lust without fruit, because of their own foulness. Not these will stand as witnesses at the judgment, but the eyes of the righteous and the sight of perfect men, all who will then see with their eyes what they now see with understanding.

To Firminus. Your letters are both rare and short, either because you shrink from writing, or because you are contriving to avoid the satiety that comes from abundance, or perhaps because you are training yourself in brevity. For us, however, nothing is enough; even if a letter were overflowing in length, it would be less than our desire, because we want to learn everything about you: how your body is, how your discipline goes, whether you are holding to what you decided from the first, or have changed your plan somewhat, shifting your mind according to circumstances. If you had remained the same, we would not seek a multitude of letters; this much would suffice for us: 'So-and-so to so-and-so: know that we are well; farewell.' But since we hear what we are ashamed even to say, that you have left the ranks of your blessed forebears, deserted to your paternal grandfather, and are eager to become a Brettanius instead of a Firminus, we want to hear about these very things and learn the reasons by which you were led onto this road of life. But since you yourself have kept silent out of shame at your plan, we urge you not to plan things worthy of shame; and if anything has crept into your mind, drive it out of your thoughts, become yourself again, and, bidding a long farewell to military service and arms and the hardships of the camp, return to your homeland, considering it enough for safety of life and for all distinction to hold the leading place in the city like your ancestors; which we are confident you will attain without toil, looking both to your natural fitness and to the lack of rivals. Whether, then, the intention never arose from the beginning, or having arisen has been laid aside again, let us know quickly; but if (may it not be so) the same plans remain, let the misfortune come to us announcing itself; we need no letters.

Without address, on the ascetic life. I think that I am in debt to your honour in other ways too, and the present concern in which we are engaged necessarily makes us answerable for services in such matters, even if those who give the orders were ordinary people, much more you, who are joined to us by many other just claims. As for bringing the past under examination, there is no need; one may say that we ourselves became the cause of our troubles, having contentiously withdrawn from that good discipline which alone leads to salvation; and perhaps that is why we were handed over to this trouble as a trial. But those things have happened and have been thought worth remembering, so that we may not fall a second time into the like. As for what follows, I very much want your reverence to be fully assured that, God permitting, it will go very easily for us, since the matter is lawful and has nothing burdensome in it, and many of our friends who are in the army are readily doing us favours. A petition will therefore be drawn up by us on the model of the petition presented to the vicar; and if there is no delay, we will send it off at once, giving you the security that the document brings. I am persuaded that in such matters our resolve has more force than imperial orders; if we show it unchanging and unbending from the prime of life, it will be kept for us unassailable and inviolable by the help of God … [Letter 118] To Jovinus, bishop of Perrha. I hold you as debtor of a good debt. For I lent you a debt of love, which I must get back with interest, since our Lord too does not refuse that kind of interest. Pay it, then, dear head, by visiting our country. This is the principal itself. What is the addition? That the one who comes is you, a man as much better than us as fathers are better than children.

To Eustathius, bishop of Sebasteia. Through my most revered and pious brother Peter too I greet your love, and beg you, as on every occasion, so now also to pray for me, that I may be changed from this deplorable and harmful way of life and may at last become worthy of the name of Christ. Surely, even if I say nothing, you will speak with each other about our affairs, and he will inform you exactly of what has been done, so that you may not accept untested the wicked suspicions against us which those are likely to fabricate who have insulted us against both the fear of God and the opinion of men. For what the noble Basil, whom I received from your reverence as a safeguard of my life, has shown toward us, I am ashamed even to say; but you will know the details, learning them from our brother. And I say this not to avenge myself on him (for I pray that it be not reckoned against him by the Lord), but to make sure that your love may remain firm toward me, which I fear they may shake by the excess of their slanders, which they are likely to fabricate in defence of their fault. Whatever they accuse us of, let your sagacity examine them on this: whether they ever made a complaint to us, whether they sought correction of the fault they now charge us with, whether they made their grievance against us plain at all. But as it is, hiding in their soul an untold depth of deceit and bitterness under a bright face and feigned words of love, they have revealed it by their ignoble flight. How much grief they have caused us, and how much laughter to those in this wretched city who always loathe the devout life and maintain that the pretence of chastity is practised as an art to win credit and a disguise for deceit, is surely known to your intelligence, even if we do not tell it; so that to people here no pursuit is now so suspect of wickedness as the profession of the ascetic life. How this ought to be remedied would be for your intelligence to consider. For the charges stitched together against us by Sophronius are no prelude to good things, but the beginning of division and separation, and an effort to make the love among us also grow cold. We beg that he be restrained by your compassion from this harmful impulse, and that he try by his own love rather to bind fast what is coming apart, and not join those bent on division in widening the separation.

… the memorandum to your piety, so that, having read it, and having attended to what is reported by our most beloved brother Sanctissimus the fellow presbyter, you may yourself deign to draw up something about these matters as seems right to you; we are ready both to agree to it and quickly to have it carried round to those in communion, so that the one who is about to set out to the bishops of the West may go off with the signatures of all. Order that what your holiness decides be made known to us quickly, so that we may not be ignorant of your decisions. Concerning what is being plotted, or has already been contrived, against us in Antioch, the same brother will report to your honour, unless the report of what has happened arrives first and makes the deeds known. For the hope of the outcome of the threats is near. I want your piety to know that our brother Anthimus has ordained as bishop Faustus, who is with Papas, without even receiving votes, and ordained him in the place of the most reverend brother Cyril, so as to fill Armenia with factions. So that they may not tell lies about us, and that we may not ourselves bear the blame for the disorder of what has happened, I have made these things known to your reverence. Plainly you will yourself deign to make them known to the rest; for I think this disorder will grieve many.

To Theodotus, bishop of Nicopolis. The winter is severe and drawn out to great length, so that not even the comfort of letters is easily available to us. Hence I know that I have seldom written to your reverence or received letters. But since our most beloved brother Sanctissimus the fellow presbyter has undertaken the journey as far as you, through him I greet your decorum and beg you to pray for me, and to lend your ear to the aforementioned, so as to learn from him in what state the churches are, and to contribute what zeal you can to the matters before you. Know that Faustus came to us with letters from Papas, asking that he be made bishop. But when we asked for a testimony from your reverence and the other bishops, he despised us and went off to Anthimus, and having received ordination from him without our being consulted, came back.

To Poemenius, bishop of Satala. Surely you asked the Armenians for letters when they came back by way of you, and learned the reason why I did not give them the letter. If they told it truthfully, you will have pardoned us on the spot; but if they concealed it, which I do not suppose, then hear it from us. Anthimus, noble in everything, who after a long time had made peace with us, when he found an opportunity both to satisfy his own vainglory and to cause us some pain, ordained Faustus on his own authority and with his own hand, waiting for the vote of none of you and laughing at us for being exact about such things. Since, then, he has upset an ancient good order and despised you too, from whom I was waiting to receive the testimony, and has done a thing which I doubt is pleasing to God, I was grieved with them on this account and gave no letter to any of the Armenians, not even to your reverence. Nor did I receive Faustus into communion, openly protesting that unless he brought me letters from you, I would myself remain estranged from him for all time, and would dispose those of one mind with me to hold the same attitude toward him. If, then, what has happened is curable, be eager both to write yourself, testifying for him if you see that the man's life is good, and to urge the others to do so; but if it is incurable, make this too plain to me, so that I may no longer pay attention to them at all; even though, as they have shown, they are now set on transferring their communion to Anthimus, despising us and this church as stale for friendship.

To Urbicius the monk. You were about to be with us (and the good thing was near), to cool us at least with the tip of a finger as we burn in temptations. Then what? Our sins stood in the way and prevented your setting out, so that we suffer without cure. For as among the waves one subsides, another rises, and another is already dark with ripples, so of our evils some have ceased, some are present, and some are expected; and for the most part our one release from evils is to yield to the time and slip away from those who pursue us. But come to us, to comfort us, or to give us counsel, or to escort us on our way; in any case you will make us easier just by being seen. And, most important, pray and pray more, that our thoughts too may not be swamped by the evil and the surge, but that in all things we may keep our thankfulness to God, so that we may not be numbered among the bad servants, confessing him when he does good, but not holding to him when he corrects us by adversity; rather, let us profit even by the hardships themselves, trusting more when we need him more.

To Theodorus. Some say that those who have been caught by the passion of love, when by some stronger necessity they are taken away from the objects of their desire, if they look at the image of the beloved form, relieve the violence of their passion by the enjoyment of the eyes. Whether this is true or not, I cannot say; but what has happened to me with your goodness is not far from what has been said. For since I have a certain disposition toward your holy and guileless soul that is, so to speak, a lover's, and the enjoyment of what we long for, like no other good thing, is not easily ours because of the penalty of our sins, I thought that I saw a most vivid image of your goodness in the presence of our most devout brothers. And if it had happened that I met your sincerity apart from them, I would have reckoned that I had seen them also in you; for the measure of love, I say, is so great in each of you that a rivalry for the greater share appears equally in each. For this I gave thanks to the holy God, and I pray that, if any time of life still remains, my life may become sweet through you; since for now I count living a wretched thing and one to be shunned, being separated from the company of those dearest to me. For in my judgment there is nothing at which one could be cheerful when parted from those who truly love.

A copy of the faith dictated by the most holy Basil, to which Eustathius, bishop of Sebasteia, subscribed. 1. Those who have previously been committed to another confession of faith and wish to change over to the fellowship of the orthodox, or who now for the first time desire to be instructed in the word of truth, must be taught the faith written by the blessed fathers in the synod once assembled at Nicaea. This same thing would also be useful toward those who are suspected of being opposed to sound teaching and who overshadow the thought of their wrong belief with plausible evasions. For the faith set out there is sufficient for these too. For either they will correct their hidden disease, or, covering it up in the depth, they will themselves bear the judgment of their deceit, and will make our defence light for us on the day of judgment, when the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts. It is fitting, then, to receive them confessing that they believe according to the words set forth by our fathers at Nicaea and according to the meaning soundly expressed by these words. For there are some who even in this faith falsify the word of truth and drag the sense of its words to their own will. Thus Marcellus, in his impiety against the hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ, explaining him as a mere word, dared to claim that he had taken his starting points from there, wrongly interpreting the meaning of 'of the same essence'. And some of those who come from the impiety of Sabellius the Libyan, supposing that hypostasis and essence are the same thing, draw from there their pretexts for building up their blasphemy, from the fact that it is written in the faith: 'If anyone says that the Son is from another essence or hypostasis, the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes him.' For they did not say there that essence and hypostasis are the same. For if the words indicated one and the same notion, what need was there of both? But it is clear that, since some denied that he is from the essence of the Father, and others said that he is not from the essence but from some other hypostasis, they forbade both as alien to the church's mind. For where they set out their own mind, they said that the Son is from the essence of the Father, without adding 'from the hypostasis' as well. So the former phrase stands for the rejection of the wicked mind, while the latter contains the declaration of the saving doctrine. We must therefore confess the Son of the same essence as the Father, as it is written; and confess the Father in his own hypostasis, the Son in his own, and the Holy Spirit in his own, as they themselves have clearly handed down. For by saying 'light from light' they sufficiently and clearly showed that the light which begot is one and the light begotten another, yet light and light; so that the principle of the essence is one and the same. Let the faith composed at Nicaea itself now be added by us. 2. 'We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father as only-begotten, that is, from the essence of the Father; God from God, light from light, true God from true God; begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father; through whom all things came into being, the things in heaven and the things on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down, and was made flesh, became man, suffered, rose on the third day, ascended into the heavens, and comes to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. But those who say "There was once when he was not," and "Before he was begotten he was not," and that "he came into being from things that are not," or who claim that the Son of God is from another hypostasis or essence, or changeable or alterable, these the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes.' 3. Since, then, everything else here has been defined sufficiently and exactly, some things for the correction of what had been damaged and others as a precaution against what was expected to spring up, while the doctrine of the Spirit is set down in passing and was not thought to need any elaboration, because this question had not yet been raised at that time and the understanding of him in the souls of believers was unassailed; but since the wicked seeds of impiety, sown earlier by Arius the champion of the heresy and later nourished by those who wickedly succeeded to his views, have little by little grown to the ruin of the churches, and the sequence of impiety has broken out into blasphemy against the Spirit: it is necessary to put this before those who do not spare themselves and do not foresee the inescapable threat which our Lord held over those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, that they must anathematize those who call the Holy Spirit a creature, and those who think so, and those who do not confess that he is holy by nature, as the Father is holy by nature and the Son is holy by nature, but estrange him from the divine and blessed nature. And the proof of right thinking is not to separate him from Father and Son (for we must be baptized as we have received, believe as we are baptized, and glorify as we have believed, Father and Son and Holy Spirit), and to withdraw from the communion of those who call him a creature, as plainly blaspheming; this point being agreed (for the remark is necessary because of the slanderers), that we neither call the Holy Spirit unbegotten, for we know one unbegotten and one principle of beings, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; nor begotten, for we have been taught one only-begotten in the tradition of the faith; but, having been taught that the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, we confess that he is from God, without being created. They must also anathematize those who call the Holy Spirit ministering, as bringing him down by this word to the rank of a creature. For Scripture has handed down to us that the ministering spirits are creatures, saying: 'They are all ministering spirits sent out for service.' And because of those who confuse everything and do not keep the teaching in the Gospels, it is necessary to define this further: that one must also shun those who change the order which the Lord handed down to us, as plainly fighting against godliness, placing the Son before the Father and putting the Holy Spirit before the Son. For it is fitting to keep unmoved and untouched the order which we received from the very voice of the Lord, who said: 'Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' Signature of bishop Eustathius: I, Eustathius, bishop, have read this to you, Basil, and have understood it, and I have assented to what is written above. I signed in the presence of our brothers, our Fronto, Severus the chorepiscopus, and some other clerics.

To Atarbius. Having come as far as Nicopolis in the hope of setting right the disturbances that had arisen and of bringing what comfort we could to the things done in a disorderly way and against the church's ordinance, we were very disheartened not to find your kindness, but to learn that you had driven off in all haste, and that while the synod being held by you was almost at its middle. Therefore we have necessarily resorted to writing, through which we remind you to come and meet us, so that you may yourself in person console our grief, with which we have been grieved to death, on hearing that things have been dared in the midst of the church which until this day had never come to our hearing. And these things, though painful and grievous, are still bearable, because they were done to a man who has committed to God the vengeance for what he suffered and is wholly devoted to peace and to seeing that nothing harmful happens to the people of God on his account. But since some honoured brothers worthy of all trust have reported to us that certain novelties are being introduced concerning the faith and things are said by you contrary to sound teaching, we were the more moved by this, and in great anguish lest, besides the countless wounds which the church has suffered from those who have sinned against the truth of the gospel, yet another evil should spring up, with the renewal of the old heresy of Sabellius, the enemy of the church (for the brothers reported to us that what was said is akin to it); for this reason we have written, that you may not hesitate to make a short journey to meet us, and by giving full assurance on these matters may soothe our pain and … grieved by what is rumoured to have been said by you.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. God, who loves mankind, who joins comforts proportioned to afflictions and comforts the humble lest they be swallowed up unawares by excessive grief, has brought us a consolation equal to the disturbances that befell us at Nicopolis, by sending the most God-beloved bishop Jovinus at the right time. How opportunely he appeared to us, let him tell himself. For we, sparing the length of the letter, will keep silent; and also so that we may not seem to brand, as it were, by recalling their fault, those who by their change of mind have become dear to us. But may the holy God grant that you come to our parts, so that we may embrace your reverence and tell you everything in detail. For somehow things that grieved in experience give a certain delight in the telling. However, for the way in which the most God-beloved bishop acted, perfectly as regards his love for us, and above all firmly as regards the exactness of the canons, praise him, and give thanks to the Lord that your nurslings everywhere show the stamp of your reverence.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. 1. My zeal for the peace of the churches of the Lord I have not yet been able to show worthily in deed; but I say that I have so great a desire for it in my heart that I would gladly give up even my own life so that the flame of hatred kindled by the evil one might be put out. And if it was not for the sake of my desire for peace that I endured to approach the region of Colonia, may my life not be at peace. It is the true peace, however, the one left to us by the Lord himself, that I seek; and what I asked to have given me as assurance is the wish of one who desires nothing other than true peace, even if some, distorting the truth, interpret it otherwise. Let them use their tongues for whatever they want; surely they will one day repent of these words. 2. But I beg your holiness to remember the original proposals, and not to be led astray by accepting answers to other questions instead, nor to make effective the sophistries of men who, without any power of speech, by sheer cunning of mind are the cleverest of all at doing harm to the truth. For I proposed simple, clear, and easily remembered words: whether we refuse communion to those who do not accept the faith of Nicaea, and whether we refuse to have our lot with those who dare to say that the Holy Spirit is a creature. But he, instead of answering the questions word for word, strung together for us those things which you sent; and this not from simplicity of mind, as one might think, nor from inability to see what follows. But this is what he is calculating: that by denying our proposal he will make himself plain to the people, while by agreeing with us he will depart from the middle position, than which nothing has been more valued by him until now. Let him not, then, outwit us, nor mislead your prudence along with the rest; but let him send us a short answer to the question, either confessing communion with the enemies of the faith or denying it. If you persuade him to this and send me right answers, such as I pray for, then I am the one who has done wrong in everything up to now; I take all that blame on myself; then demand of me a display of humility. But as long as none of this happens, forgive me, most God-beloved father, if I cannot stand at the altar of God with hypocrisy. For if I did not fear this, why would I have separated myself from Euippius, a man of such learning, so advanced in years, possessing such claims of friendship with us? And if we acted rightly and fittingly on behalf of the truth in that case, it is surely ridiculous to be seen joined, through the middle position of these clever and charming people, with those who say the same things as he. 3. Yet it does not seem to me that we should altogether estrange ourselves from those who do not accept the faith, but should take some care of the men according to the ancient ordinances of love, and write to them with one mind, offering every exhortation with compassion and proposing the faith of the fathers, and so invite them to union; and if we persuade them, be united with them in common; but if we fail, be content with one another, and banish this double-dealing from our character, taking up again the evangelical and guileless way of life in which those who first came to the word lived. For, it says, 'the heart and soul of those who believed was one.' If, then, they are persuaded by you, that is best; but if not, recognize the warmongers, and stop writing to us any more about reconciliations.

… and likewise in the case of the Spirit, in so far as the Trinity is one God.' These are the things being talked about, which I can never believe to be fictions of those who circulate them, even though, after their slander against us, I think nothing is beyond their daring. For in writing to some of their own party and adding their calumny against us, they appended these things, calling them the words of heretics but concealing the father of the writing, so that most people might think that we were the authors. Yet, as I persuade myself, their invention would not have gone so far as to compose the words as well. Hence, in order to repel the blasphemy prevailing against us and to show everyone that we have nothing in common with those who say such things, we were compelled to mention the man as coming close to the impiety of Sabellius. So much for that. 2. Someone came from the court reporting that, after the first move of the ruler, which those who pour slanders on us had stirred up, a second opinion was reached, so that we should not be surrendered to our accusers nor delivered to their will, as had been decided at first, but there should be a delay for the present. If, then, either this stands or something more humane than this is decided, we will let your piety know; and if the former decision prevails, that too will not escape you. 3. Our brother Sanctissimus has surely long been with you, and what he seeks has been made clear to your perfection. If, then, the letter to the Westerners seems to need anything, deign to draft it and send it to us, so that we may have it signed by those of one mind and have the signature ready, written on a separate sheet which we can attach to the one being carried round by our brother the fellow presbyter. For my part, finding nothing coherent in the memorandum, I had nothing to write about to those in the West. For the necessary things have been said already, and to write superfluous things is altogether vain; and to trouble them about the same things, would it not be ridiculous? But this seemed to me a subject not yet worked over, and one that gives room for a letter: to urge them not to receive indiscriminately the communion of those who come from the East, but, having once chosen one party, to receive the rest on the testimony of those in communion with it, and not to join everyone who writes a creed on the pretext of orthodoxy. For in this way they will be found in communion with those who fight one another, who often put forward the same words but fight one another as much as those who differ most. So that the heresy may not be further inflamed while those quarrelling with one another put forward against each other the letters they have received from the West, they ought to be urged to make discriminating both the communions they grant to those who meet them and those made in writing, according to the pattern of the church.

… which he wrote against us and sent round. He himself broke away from our communion, neither consenting to meet us at the appointed place nor bringing his disciples, as he had promised; but he even pilloried us in public synods, together with Theophilus the Cilician, with naked and undisguised blasphemy, as having sown in the souls of the people doctrines alien to his own teaching. These things were enough to dissolve all our connection with him. But when he also went into Cilicia and, meeting a certain Gelasius, set out for him a creed which only Arius could have written, or some genuine disciple of his, then indeed we were still more confirmed in the separation, reckoning that neither will the Ethiopian ever change his skin nor the leopard its spots, nor can one brought up in perverse doctrines rub off the evil of heresy. 2. He has further run riot by writing against us, or rather by composing long discourses full of every abuse and calumny; to these we have so far made no reply, because we were taught by the apostle not to avenge ourselves but to give place to wrath; and also because, considering the depth of the hypocrisy with which he has dealt with us all along, we were held by a kind of speechlessness from astonishment. But even if none of those things had happened, this recent deed dared by him, whom would it not fill with horror and complete aversion to the man? For, as I hear (if the report is true and not a fiction composed for slander), he has dared even to re-ordain some, which no heretic up to today appears to have done. How then can we bear such things mildly, and think the man's sins curable? Do not, then, be led astray by false words, nor be persuaded by the suspicions of men who readily take everything in a bad sense, that we treat such things as indifferent. For know, most beloved and most honoured friend, that I do not know that I ever before received so much grief into my soul as now, when I heard of the confusion of the church's ordinances. But only pray that the Lord may grant us to do nothing in anger, but to have the love that does not behave unbecomingly, is not puffed up. For see how those who do not have it have been lifted up beyond human measure and behave unbecomingly in their life, daring deeds of which past time has no examples.

To Olympius. 1. Truly the report of unexpected things is enough to make both of a man's ears ring. This has now happened to me too. For although these writings circulating against us fell on ears by now well trained (since I had earlier received the letter myself, which befitted my sins, though I never expected it to be written by those who sent it), still the second writings seemed to us to have such an excess of bitterness as to throw the earlier ones into the shade. For how could I not be almost out of my mind on reading the letter to the most reverent brother Dazinas, full of countless insults and unspeakable accusations against us, and of charges of insurrection, as though we had been caught in the most grievous plots against the church? And at once proofs that the blasphemies against us are true were brought forward from a writing composed by I know not whom. For some parts of it I recognized, I confess, as written by Apollinarius of Laodicea, though I had never actually read them, but had heard others report them; and other things I found written there which I have never read nor heard anyone else say; and of these the faithful witness in heaven knows. How, then, those who turn away from falsehood, who have been taught that love is the fulfilment of the law, who profess to bear the weaknesses of the powerless, consented to bring these calumnies upon us and to condemn us from the writings of others, I cannot, after much reflection, find the cause, unless, as I said from the beginning, I judged the grief over these things to be part of the punishments due to me for my sins. 2. For first I mourned in my soul that truths have diminished from among the sons of men; and then I was afraid for myself, lest besides my other sins I should also fall into misanthropy, counting nothing trustworthy in anyone, if those whom I had trusted in the greatest things proved such toward me and such toward the truth itself. Know, then, brother, and let everyone who is a friend of the truth know, that the writings are not mine, and I do not approve of them, since they were not composed with my judgment. And if I wrote many years ago to Apollinarius or to anyone else, I ought not to be accused. For I do not myself accuse anyone if someone from his company has been split off into heresy (and you surely know whom I mean, even if I do not name them), because each will die in his own sin. This is my answer for now to the tome that was sent, so that you yourself may know the truth and may make it plain to those who do not wish to hold the truth in unrighteousness; and if it is necessary to make a fuller defence about each of the things brought against us, we will do this too, with God's help. We, brother Olympius, neither speak of three gods nor are in communion with Apollinarius.

To Abramius, bishop of Batnae. All the time since the autumn I have not known where your reverence is staying. For I found the reports confused: some said that your reverence was at Samosata, others in the country, while others insisted that they had seen you around Batnae itself; so I did not write regularly. But now, having learned that you are staying at Antioch, in the house of the most revered count Saturninus, I gladly gave the letter to the most beloved and pious brother Sanctissimus the fellow presbyter, through whom I greet your love, begging you, wherever you are, to remember above all God, and then us too, whom you chose from the beginning to love, and to keep us numbered among your closest friends.

To Peter, bishop of Alexandria. Eyes are the agents of bodily friendship, and familiarity formed over a long time strengthens it; but true love is constituted by the gift of the Spirit, joining what is separated by a great distance and making those who love known to one another, not by bodily features but by the characteristics of the soul. This the grace of the Lord has done for us too, granting us to see you with the eyes of the soul, to embrace you with true love, and as it were to grow together with you and come into union through communion in the faith. For we are persuaded that you, as the nursling of so great a man who had long companionship with him, walk in the same spirit and follow the same doctrines of godliness. Therefore we greet your honour and beg you, along with the rest, to inherit the great man's disposition toward us, to write to us regularly about your affairs, and to care for the brotherhood everywhere with the same compassion, in truth.

To the presbyter Paeonius. How much you delighted us with your letter you can surely guess from the very things you sent; so exactly did the letter disclose the purity of the heart from which those words came. For a channel of water shows its own spring, and the nature of speech marks the heart that brought it forth. So I confess that I had a strange experience, far removed from what one would expect. For though I am always eager to read letters from your perfection, when I took the letter in my hands and read it, I was not more pleased by what was written than pained, reckoning how great a loss we had suffered during the time of your silence. But since you have begun to write, do not stop doing it. For you will gladden me more than those who send great riches to lovers of wealth. None of my scribes was with me, neither of the calligraphers nor of the shorthand writers. For of those whom I happened to train, some have run back to their former way of life, and others have given up the labour, worn down by long illnesses.

To Diodorus, presbyter of Antioch. 1. I have read the books sent by your honour. With the second I was greatly delighted, not only for its brevity, as was natural for one now sluggish and weak in everything, but because it is dense in thought, and both the objections of the opponents and the answers to them are set out clearly in it; and its simple and unelaborate style seemed to me fitting for the purpose of a Christian, who writes not for display but for the common benefit. The former book, though it has the same force in its matter, is adorned with more costly diction, varied figures, and the graces of dialogue, and seemed to me to need much time to go through and much labour of mind both to gather its thoughts and to hold them in memory. For the slanders against the opponents and the commendations of our own side inserted in between, even if they seem to bring a certain dialectical sweetness into the work, yet by causing leisure and delay they break the continuity of the thought and slacken the tension of the combative argument. For your sagacity surely knows this: that those of the outside philosophers who wrote dialogues, Aristotle and Theophrastus, went straight to the matters themselves, because they were conscious that they lacked the Platonic graces; whereas Plato, by the power of his speech, at once fights the doctrines and also makes fun of the persons, censuring the boldness and recklessness of Thrasymachus, the lightness and emptiness of mind of Hippias, the boastfulness and pomp of Protagoras. But where he brings unnamed persons into the dialogues, he uses the speakers for the sake of clarity in the matters … 2. We too, then, who come to writing not from ambition but having chosen to leave to the brotherhood counsels of useful words, if we bring forward some person notorious to all for arrogance of manner, ought to weave into the argument something drawn from the character of the person too, if it is fitting for us at all to censure people and leave the matters aside. But if the speaker is unnamed, the digressions against persons break the connection and lead to no useful end. I said this so that it may be shown that you did not send your labours into the hands of a flatterer, but have shared your toils with a most genuine brother. And I said it not to correct what is written, but as a caution for what is to come. For surely one who uses such skill and zeal in writing will not shrink from writing, since those who provide the subjects do not cease either. For us it will be enough to read your works; but we fall as far short of being able to write anything as, I almost say, of being healthy, or of having even moderate leisure from affairs. I have now sent back by the reader the larger and earlier book, having gone through it as far as I could. The second I have kept back, wishing to have it copied, and not yet having any shorthand writer. For to such poverty have the enviable Cappadocians come.

… but since it is the scourge of the Lord, increasing the pain with additions according to our deserts, I have acquired weakness upon weakness, so that from this it is plain even to a child that this husk of ours must surely depart; unless perhaps the kindness of God, granting us in his long-suffering times for repentance, should now too, as often before, provide some release and way out of helpless difficulties. These things will be as is pleasing to him and profitable to us. 2. As for the state of the churches, how they have gone and been betrayed, while we for the sake of our own safety overlook the affairs of our neighbours and cannot even see this, that in the common misfortune each one's own interest perishes as well, what need is there even to speak? Especially to a man who, foreseeing each thing from afar, both testified and proclaimed it beforehand, and himself rose up first and roused the others with him, writing, coming in person, doing everything, uttering every word. We remember these things at each event, but we no longer profit from them. And now, if my sins had not kept me away (first our most pious and most beloved brother Eustathius the fellow deacon fell into a grievous illness and held me back two whole months, waiting from day to day for his recovery; then all who were with me fell sick, the rest of which brother Isaac will recount; and finally I myself was seized by this illness), I would long ago have been with your honour, not bringing any benefit to the common affairs, but gaining great profit for myself from meeting you. For I had decided to get out of the way of the church's darts, because we are unguarded against the plots devised by our opponents. May the great hand of God keep you all your life, the noble guardian of the faith and vigilant champion of the churches; and may he deem us worthy, before our departure, to meet you for the benefit of our souls.

To Antipater. Now I seem to feel most the loss I suffer through being ill, when, with such a man governing our homeland, I am myself compelled to be absent for the care of my body. For a whole month now I have been sitting at the cure of the naturally hot waters, as if I would get some benefit from it. But I seem to be toiling in vain in the solitude, or even to appear to many to deserve laughter, not heeding the proverb which says that hot water is of no use to the dead. Therefore, even in this state, I want to leave everything and reach your dignity, so as to enjoy your good qualities and settle properly through your uprightness the affairs of my own house. For the house of our most revered mother Palladia is my own; she is joined to us not only by kinship of family, but the kindness of her character has made her a mother to us. Since, then, some disturbance has arisen about her house, we ask your magnanimity to postpone the inquiry a little and to wait for our arrival, not so that justice may be perverted (I would choose to die ten thousand times rather than ask such a favour of a judge who is a friend to the laws and to justice), but so that you may learn by word of mouth from me what it is not seemly for me to write. For in this way neither will you miss the truth, nor shall we suffer anything we do not wish. I ask, then, since the person in question is in safety and held by the governor's staff, that you grant us this favour, which is neither burdensome nor invidious.

… of matter, lingering round this dry flesh like a burnt-out wick, brought on wasting and a long illness; and next my old affliction, this liver, taking its turn, shut me off from food, drove sleep from my eyes, and held me on the borders of life and death, allowing me to live only enough to feel its hardships. So I used the naturally hot waters and accepted some treatment from physicians. But this vigorous evil overcame everything; when one is used to it, another man might bear it, but when it falls upon one unprepared, no one is so adamantine as to withstand it. Though I have been troubled by it for a long time, I was never so pained as now, when I have been hindered by it from meeting your true love. For what delight we have been deprived of, I know myself, even if last year I tasted with the tip of a finger the sweetest honey of your church. 2. I needed also, for other necessary matters, to come together with your piety, both to consult with you about many things and to learn many. For here one cannot even find true love. And even when one does find someone who loves, there is no one able, like your perfect prudence and the experience you have gathered from many labours for the churches, to give us counsel about the matters before us. Other things it was not possible to write; but those which are safe to divulge are these. The presbyter Evagrius, son of Pompeianus of Antioch, who once set out for the West with the blessed Eusebius, has now come back from Rome, asking us for a letter containing word for word what was written by them (he brought back to us our own letter, as not having pleased the stricter people there), and pressing for an embassy of men of standing to be sent at once, so that the men may have a plausible pretext for their visit to us. Those at Sebasteia who share our views, having laid bare the festering sore of Eustathius's wrong belief, demand some ecclesiastical care from us. Iconium is a city of Pisidia, in old times the first after the greatest, and now it too presides over a part which, gathered from various sections, has received the administration of a province of its own. It too calls us to a visitation, to give it a bishop; for Faustinus has died. Whether, then, we should not shrink from ordinations beyond our borders, what answer we should give the Sebastenes, and how we should be disposed toward Evagrius's proposals, I needed to be taught by meeting your honour myself, all of which I have been deprived of by the present illness. If, then, you find someone coming to us quickly, deign to send me answers on all points; if not, pray that what is pleasing to the Lord may come into my mind. And order that we be remembered at the synod, and pray for us yourself, and take the people with you in prayer, that we may spend the remaining days … in a way pleasing to the Lord.

… services, nor the love of the people; but they also maltreated their bodies, dishonoured them, handed them over to exile, and plundered the property of all they could find, neither respecting the condemnation of men nor foreseeing the fearful recompense of the just Judge. These things astounded us and almost drove us out of our wits. And along with these reflections came this thought too: has the Lord altogether forsaken his churches? Is it the last hour, and is the apostasy making its entrance through these things, so that the lawless one may at last be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship? 2. But whether the temptation is for a season, bear it, noble contestants of Christ; or whether things are being handed over to total ruin, let us not lose heart at the present, but let us await the revelation from heaven and the appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. For if all creation will be dissolved and the form of this world will be changed, what wonder if we too, being part of creation, suffer the common sufferings and are handed over to afflictions, which the just Judge brings upon us according to the measure of our strength, not letting us be tempted beyond what we are able, but with the temptation giving also the way out, that we may be able to endure? The crowns of the martyrs await you, brothers; the choirs of the confessors are ready to stretch out their hands to you and to receive you into their own number. Remember the saints of old, that none who lived in luxury or was flattered was deemed worthy of the crowns of endurance; but all, tried by fire through great afflictions, showed their genuineness. For some had trial of mockings and scourgings, others were sawn asunder, and others died by the slaughter of the sword. These are the boasts of the saints. Blessed is he who has been deemed worthy of sufferings for Christ; more blessed is he who has abounded in sufferings; for the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 3. If, then, it were possible for me to come myself, I would have preferred nothing to meeting you, so as to see the athletes of Christ, embrace them, and share in your prayers and in the spiritual gifts among you. But since my body is now consumed by a long illness, so that I cannot even get down from my bed, and those who lie in wait for us are many, like ravenous wolves, watching for the moment when they may snatch the sheep of Christ, I have necessarily resorted to visiting you by letter, asking first that you make earnest supplications for me, that I may be deemed worthy to serve the Lord according to the gospel of the kingdom at least for the remaining days or hours; and then that you pardon my absence and the slowness of this letter. For I could hardly find a man able to serve our desire; I mean our son Eugenius the monk, through whom I ask you to pray for us and for the whole church, and to write back to us about yourselves, so that, knowing, we may be in better heart.

… the crown of patience and of hope in him. Let us not, then, grow weary in contending in the struggles for godliness, nor through despair throw away what we have laboured for. For it is not a single act of courage nor a short labour that shows the steadfastness of the soul; but he who tests our hearts wishes us to be proved winners of the crowns of righteousness through a long and drawn-out testing. Only let our mind be kept unyielding, let the firmness of faith in Christ be preserved unshaken, and he who will help us will come quickly; he will come and will not delay. For expect affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope; yet a little, yet a little. So the Holy Spirit knows how to cheer his nurslings with the promise of what is to come. For after the afflictions comes hope, and the things hoped for are close at hand. For even if one were to speak of the whole … 2. As for a creed, we neither accept a newer one written for us by others, nor do we ourselves dare to hand on the offspring of our own mind, lest we make the words of godliness human; but what we have been taught by the holy fathers, that we announce to those who ask us. There has been in use in our church since the fathers' time the faith written by the holy fathers who assembled at Nicaea; we think that it is on your lips too, but so as not to incur a charge of sloth we do not decline to set down its very words in this letter. They are these: 'We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father as only-begotten, that is, from the essence of the Father; light from light, true God from true God; begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father; through whom all things came into being, the things in heaven and the things on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down, was made flesh, became man, suffered, and rose on the third day, ascended into the heavens, and comes to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. But those who say "There was once when he was not," and "Before he was begotten he was not," and that "he came into being from things that are not," or who claim that the Son of God is from another hypostasis or essence, or changeable or alterable, these the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes.' We believe these things. But since the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is left undefined, the Pneumatomachi not having appeared at that time, that those must be anathematized who say … created … [Letter 141] To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. 1. I have now received two letters from your inspired and most perfect prudence. One of them described clearly to us how we were expected by the people under the hand of your holiness, and how grieved we were to have missed the most holy synod. The other, older, as I guess from the writing, but delivered to us later, contained teaching befitting you and necessary for us: not to grow careless about the churches of God, nor little by little to give up affairs to the opponents, by which their side will grow and ours be diminished. I think that I have answered both; but now too, since it is uncertain whether those entrusted with the service kept our answers safe, I make my defence on the same matters. For the absence I write the truest excuse, the report of which I think has reached even your holiness: that I was held by an illness that brought me down to the very gates of death. And even now, while I was sending word about these things, I wrote carrying the remnants of the illness; and they are such as would be enough for another man to be hard-to-bear diseases. 2. As to the charge that the affairs of the churches have been betrayed to the opponents by our carelessness, I want your piety to know that the bishops supposedly in communion with us, whether from sloth, or from still regarding us with suspicion and not sincerely, or from the devil's opposition to good actions, will not consent to help us. In appearance, indeed, most of us are with one another, the good Bosporius having joined us as well; but in truth they help us in none of the most necessary things; so that I am hindered for the most part from recovering by this very despondency, my illnesses constantly returning from the severe grief. What could I do alone, when the canons, as you know yourself, do not permit such arrangements to one person? And yet what care have I not taken? Of what judgment have I not reminded them, partly by letter, partly in meeting? For they even came to the city on a report of my death. But since it pleased God that they should find us alive, we spoke to them as was fitting. And when present they are respectful and promise everything fitting; but when they have left they run back again to their own mind. These things we too enjoy from the common state of affairs, the Lord having plainly forsaken us, who have let love grow cold because lawlessness has multiplied. But for all things let your great and most powerful supplication to God suffice us. For perhaps we may either become of some use to affairs, or, failing in our efforts, escape condemnation.

To the accountant of the prefects. I gathered all our brothers the chorepiscopi at the synod of the blessed martyr Eupsychius, to make them known to your honour; but since you were absent, they must be introduced to your perfection by letter. Get to know, then, this brother, who is worthy to be trusted by your prudence because of his fear of the Lord. And whatever he reports to your good will on behalf of the poor, deign to believe as from one who speaks the truth, and to give what help you can to those in distress. You will deign, clearly, also to visit the poorhouse of the district under him and to release it entirely from the tax. For this has already pleased your colleague too, to make the small property of the poor free from public burdens.

To another accountant. If it were possible for me to be with your honour myself, I would certainly have referred to you in person what I wished, and have stood up for those in distress; but since bodily illness and pressure of business draw me away, I commend to you in my place this brother the chorepiscopus, so that, attending to him sincerely, you may use him as an adviser, since he is able to advise about affairs truthfully and wisely. When you deign to see the poorhouse managed by him (and you will see it, I know well, and not pass it by, since you are not inexperienced in the work, but, as someone told me, you maintain one of those in Amasea out of what the Lord has given you), when, then, you see this one too, you will provide him with everything he asks. For your colleague too has already promised me some kindness toward the poorhouses. I say this not that you should imitate another (for you are likely to lead others in good things), but that you may know that others too have been moved by us about these very things.

To the officer of the prefects. You surely know this man from meeting him in the city; nevertheless we introduce him to you also by letter, commending him because he will be useful to you in many of the things you care about, since he is able to suggest what must be done both wisely and piously. What you said to me in my ear, now is the time to show, when the aforementioned brother shows you the affairs of the poor.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. I know the countless labours you have endured for the churches of God; and I am not ignorant of the multitude of occupations, whose management you conduct not as a side matter but according to the will of the Lord. And I consider the man who sits on your borders, so that you must all, like birds cowering before an eagle, each keep from running far from cover. None of this has escaped me. But longing is a forceful thing, both to hope for what cannot be and to attempt the impossible; or rather, hope in the Lord is the strongest of all. For not from irrational desire but from the strength of faith I expect that a way will appear in difficulties and that you will easily overcome all hindrances, so as to see the church dearest to you and to be seen by her; for she prizes above all good things to look on your face and to hear your voice. Do not, then, make her hopes unfulfilled. For last year, when I came back from Syria and brought her the promise I had received, how high do you think I raised her with hope? Do not, then, put off your visit to her to another time, admirable friend. For even if it may be possible to see her at some time, yet not with us, whom illness is pressing to depart at last from this painful life. [Letter 146] To Antiochus. I cannot blame you for sloth or carelessness because you kept silent when an occasion for letters arose. For the greeting you sent through the hand dear to me I value more than many letters. In return for it, then, I greet you, and urge you earnestly to hold fast to the salvation of the soul, disciplining all the passions of the flesh by reason, and keeping the thought of God continually established in your soul as in a most holy temple; and in every action and every word to set before your eyes the judgment seat of Christ, so that your individual deeds, gathered together at that exact and fearful examination, may bring you glory on the day of recompense, when you are deemed worthy of praise before the whole creation. And if the great man would consent to make the journey to us, it would be no small gain to see you with him in our country.

To Aburgius. Until now I thought Homer's tales a myth, when I went through the second part of his poem, in which he tells the sufferings of Odysseus. But the reversal that befell the most excellent Maximus has taught us to think those tales, until now mythical and wholly incredible, quite believable. For he too became governor of no mean nation, like that general of the Cephallenians; and as the other, though he set out with much wealth, came back naked, so misfortune has so treated this man that he was in danger of being seen by those at home in borrowed rags. And he has suffered these things having perhaps provoked some Laestrygonians against himself, and having fallen in with a Scylla in woman's form, with a dog's inhumanity and savagery. Since, then, he has barely managed to swim through this inescapable surge, he beseeches you through us, asking that you respect our common nature and, grieved at his undeserved misfortunes, not hide his case in silence but report it to those in power, so that, if possible, some help may come to him against the harassment contrived against him; or if not, that at least the intention of the one who has run riot against him may be made public. For the exposure of the wickedness of those who plotted against him is sufficient comfort to the wronged man.

To Trajan. It brings much comfort to the afflicted even to be able to lament their misfortunes, especially when they meet men able, from the nobility of their character, to sympathize with what is painful. Hence the most revered brother Maximus, who governed our homeland, having suffered as no other man ever yet has, stripped of all he had, both what came to him from his father and what he had collected from earlier labours, having suffered countless hardships in body in his wanderings up and down, and not having kept unharmed even his civic standing, for the sake of which free men are accustomed to undergo every labour, has lamented much to us about what befell him, and asked that through us the Iliad of evils that surrounds him might be made plain to you in summary. And I, since I could not otherwise relieve him of any of his troubles, readily granted this favour: to report to your decorum a few things out of the many I heard from him, since he himself seemed to me to blush to narrate his misfortunes plainly. For even if what has happened shows the wrongdoer to be wicked, yet it shows the sufferer to belong to the most pitiable lot, since the very fact of falling into god-sent evils seems somehow to be proof of having been handed over to sufferings. But it is enough for him, as comfort for what has happened, that you look on him with a kindly eye, and that the all-sufficient grace which all enjoy and cannot exhaust (I mean your gentleness) be poured out on him too. And we are all firmly persuaded that in the courts too your favour will give him a great start toward victory. And this man himself, who asked for our letter as being of some help, is the most just of all … [Letter 149] To Trajan. You yourself have seen with your own eyes the ill-treatment of Maximus, formerly of good repute, now the most pitiable of all men, who governed our homeland (would that he had not!). For I think the governorship of provinces will be something many will pray to avoid, if their leaderships are to end in such a conclusion. So what need is there for us to report each thing we saw and heard to a man able, through great sharpness of mind, to guess the rest from a few of the facts? Yet I shall perhaps not seem superfluous to you in saying this: that, many and terrible as were the things dared against him before your arrival, what came afterward was such as to make what went before seem humane. Such an excess of insult and loss and of ill-treatment of his very body had the things later devised against him by the man in power. And now he has come under guard to fill up here the remnant of his evils, unless you are willing to stretch your great hand over the distressed man. I know that I am doing something superfluous in urging your kindness to humanity. Yet since I wish to be useful to the man, I beseech your dignity to add something for our sake to your natural zeal for the good, so that the benefit of our appeal on his behalf may be plain to the man.

To Amphilochius, as from Heraclidas. 1. I remember the conversations we once had with each other, and I have not forgotten what I said and what I heard from your nobility. And now public life no longer holds me. For though I am the same in heart and have not yet put off the old man, yet in outward form, and by putting myself far from the affairs of life, I seem now to have set foot, as it were, on the road of the life according to Christ. I sit by myself, like those about to put out to sea, watching what is to come. For sailors need winds for a good voyage, but we need someone to guide us by the hand and conduct us safely through the salt waves of life. For I reckon that I need first a bridle for my youth, then spurs for the race of godliness. The agent of these is clearly reason, now disciplining our disorder, now rousing the sluggishness of the soul. Again I need other medicines, to wash off the dirt of habit. For you know that we, who have long been accustomed to the marketplace, are unsparing of words and unguarded against the imaginings of the evil one that arise in the mind. We are overcome by honour too, and do not easily lay aside thinking something of ourselves. For these things I reckon that I need a great and experienced teacher. And then, to have the eye of the soul cleansed, so that, all the darkening from ignorance being removed like a film, it may be able to gaze on the beauty of the glory of God, I judge to be no small task, nor one whose benefit lasts for a short time. I know well that your eloquence sees these things too and wishes that someone may be found for this help; and if God ever grants me to meet your decorum, I shall clearly learn more about what I ought to care for. For now, from great ignorance, I cannot even know how much I lack; except that I have not at all repented of my first impulse, nor does my soul flag toward the goal of the life according to God, which you feared on my account, doing well and fittingly, lest, turning back, I should become a pillar of salt, as a certain woman suffered, as I hear. Still, the outside authorities hem me in, the magistrates searching for me as a deserter; but my own heart restrains me most, bearing witness to itself of what I have said. 2. But since you mentioned agreements and announced that you would accuse me, you made me laugh in this dejection of mine, because you are still an orator and do not give up your cleverness. For I think thus, unless as an ignorant man I altogether miss the truth: that there is one road leading to the Lord, and all who travel toward him journey together with one another and go by one agreement of life. So where could I go and be separated from you, and not live with you and serve God with you, to whom we fled for refuge together? Our bodies will be separated by places, but the eye of God clearly watches over both of us in common, if indeed my life too is worthy to be overseen by the eyes of God; for I read somewhere in the Psalms, 'The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.' For I pray both for you and for everyone who chooses as you do, to be with you in body too, and every night and day to bend the knees with you to our Father in heaven, and with anyone else who calls on God worthily; for I know that communion in prayers brings much gain. But if, as often as it happens that I groan cast aside in a different corner, the charge of lying is surely to follow me, I cannot fight against the argument, but already condemn myself as a liar, if in my old indifference I uttered anything of the kind that makes me liable to the charge of falsehood. 3. When I came near Caesarea, to learn how things stood, and could not bring myself to go into the city itself, I took refuge in the neighbouring poorhouse, to learn there what I wished. Then, when the most God-beloved bishop visited according to his custom, I referred to him the matters your eloquence had enjoined on us. What he answered could not be kept in our memory, and it went beyond the measure of a letter. But in summary he said this about poverty: that the measure is that each should limit his possessions to his last tunic. And he gave us proofs from the Gospel: one, that John the Baptist said, 'He who has two tunics, let him share with him who has none'; another, that the Lord forbade his disciples to have two tunics. He added to these also: 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give to the poor.' He said that the parable of the pearl also bears on this: that the merchant who found the precious pearl went away, sold all his possessions, and bought it. He added to these that one should not entrust the distribution of goods even to oneself, but to the one entrusted with managing the affairs of the poor. And this he confirmed from the Acts: that they sold their possessions, brought them, and laid them at the feet of the apostles, and by them it was distributed to each as anyone had need. For he said that experience is needed to discern the one truly in need from the one who asks out of greed. And he who gives to the afflicted has given to the Lord and will receive the reward from him; but he who gives to every wanderer has thrown it to a dog, troublesome for his shamelessness, not pitiable for his want. 4. About how we ought to live day by day, he said little in proportion to the greatness of the subject; but I wished you to learn it from him himself, for it is not reasonable for me to spoil the exactness of his teachings. And I prayed to visit him with you some time, so that you might both keep exactly in memory what is said and by your own intelligence find out what is lacking. For this I remember out of the many things I heard: that teaching on how a Christian should live needs not so much speech as daily example. And I know that, if the bond of caring for your father in his old age did not hold you, you would neither yourself have preferred anything to meeting the bishop, nor would you have advised me to leave him and wander in deserts. For the caves and the rocks await us; but the benefits that come from men do not always remain with us. So, if you will bear my advice, you will persuade your father to allow you to leave him for a little and to meet a man who knows much, both from the experience of others and from his own intelligence, and who is able to share it with those who come to him.

To Eustathius the chief physician. If our letters are of any use, do not let any time pass without writing to us and rousing us to write. For we ourselves are plainly made happier by reading the letters of wise men who love the Lord; and whether you for your part find anything in ours worth attention is for you, the readers, to know. If we were not drawn away by the multitude of our occupations, we would not keep ourselves from the delight of writing constantly; but you, whose cares are fewer, charm us with letters as often as you can. For they say that wells become better by being drawn from. Your exhortations drawn from medicine seem to go beside the point, since it is not we who apply the knife, but those whose usefulness is spent who are falling away of themselves. So the Stoic's saying runs: 'Since things do not happen as we wish, we wish them as they happen.' But I do not consent to make my mind agree with the events, though I do not disapprove of people doing unwillingly something that is necessary. For neither do you physicians wish to burn the sick man or otherwise give him pain; yet you often accept it, yielding to the severity of the disease. Nor do sailors willingly throw their cargo overboard; but to escape shipwreck they submit to the jettison, preferring life in poverty to death. So be sure that we too bear painfully and with countless laments the separation of those who stand aloof from us; but we bear it nonetheless, since to lovers of the truth nothing is more precious than God and the hope in him.

To Victor the general. If I failed to write to anyone else, I might perhaps justly incur a charge of carelessness or forgetfulness; but how is it possible to forget you, whose name is spoken among all men? How could I be careless toward you, who surpass almost everyone in the world in the height of your dignities? But the cause of our silence is plain: we hesitate to trouble so great a man. But if, besides your other virtue, you have consented not only to receive letters sent by us but even to ask for those left unwritten, see, we write now with confidence, and we will write in future too, praying to the holy God that you may be given the reward for your honour toward us. On behalf of the church you have anticipated our appeals, doing everything that we could have asked. And you do it not to please men but God, who has honoured you, who has given you good things in this present life and will give others in the age to come, because you have walked his way in truth, keeping your heart unswerving in the soundness of the faith from beginning to end. [Letter 153] To Victor, the former consul. As often as we happen to read letters from your decorum, so often we confess our thanks to God that you continue both to remember us and not to lessen, through any slander, the love which you once consented to take up through a most right judgment or a kindly acquaintance. We pray, then, to the holy God that you may continue in the same disposition toward us, and that we may be worthy of the honour you pay us by your letter.

… Your letter made your disposition sufficiently known to us. For even if it was small in number of syllables, yet by the soundness of its thought it gave us sufficient proof of your intention. For to have been devoted to the most blessed Athanasius is a most clear sign of being sound on the greatest matters. For the joy we had over the letter, then, we are very grateful to our most honoured son Euphemius; and I pray that every help may come to him from the Holy One, and I beg you to pray with us that we may soon receive him back with his most decorous wife, our daughter in the Lord. Be exhorted yourself also not to halt our joy at its beginning, but to write on every occasion that offers, and to increase your disposition toward us by frequent converse, and to tell us about your churches, how they stand in concord; and to pray about things here, that a great calm may come to us too, our Lord rebuking the wind and the sea.

Without address, about a trainer. To the many accusations written in the letter which your nobility deigned to send us, the first and only one, I am at a loss how to answer, not for lack of a just case, but because amid the multitude of charges it is hard to choose the most important and to know where we should first begin the cure. Or perhaps we should follow the order of what is written and meet each one in turn. Those who were setting out from here to Scythia we did not know of to this day; nor did any of your household remind us, so that we might greet you through them; although we make it a great point to greet your honour on every occasion. And it is impossible for us to forget you in our prayers, unless we first forget our work, to which the Lord has appointed us. For being faithful by the grace of God, you surely remember the church's proclamations: that we pray also for the brothers abroad, and for those enrolled in military service, and for those who speak boldly for the name of the Lord, and for those who show spiritual fruits; we make these prayers in the holy church, and we think that your honour is surely included among most or all of them. And privately, how could we forget you, having so many things that move us to remember: such a sister, such nephews, a family so good and so loving toward us, house, servants, friends; by which, even if we did not wish it, we are necessarily reminded of your good intention? As to so-and-so, the brother brought us nothing burdensome, nor has any decision harmful to him been made by us. Turn your displeasure, then, against those who told the falsehoods, acquitting both the chorepiscopus and me of all blame. And if so-and-so the advocate is pressing some lawsuit, there are public courts and laws. I ask you, then, to hold no blame against us in these matters. As for you, whatever good you do, you lay up as treasure for yourself; and the rest you provide to those persecuted for the name of the Lord, you are preparing for yourself in the day of recompense. You will do well also to send relics of martyrs to your homeland, if, as you wrote to us, the persecution there is even now making martyrs for the Lord.

… lack the power. For your perfect prudence is not unaware that passions strengthened by time need, first, time for their correction, and then a strong and more vigorous treatment, if one is to reach to their depth so as to tear out by the roots the sicknesses of the sufferers. You know what I mean; and if I must say it more plainly, there is nothing to fear. 2. Self-love, rooted in souls by long habit, one man cannot remove, nor one letter, nor a short time. For suspicions and the friction from disputes cannot be removed entirely unless someone trustworthy mediates the peace. If the gifts of grace flowed for us, and we were able by word and deed and spiritual gifts to move those on the opposing side, we ought to venture on so great an undertaking; but perhaps not even then would you have advised us to go alone to set things right, since there is the bishop, by the grace of God, to whom the care of the church belongs in the first place. He cannot come to us himself, and for us to travel meanwhile because of the winter is not easy, or rather altogether impossible, not only because my body has given out from long illness, but because the passes of the Armenian mountains soon become impassable even for those in the full vigour of youth. I will not refuse to tell him these things by letter. I do not, however, expect anything worth mention to come of the letter, considering both the man's strictness and the very nature of letters: for a word sent by letter is not by nature able to persuade vividly. One must hear objections in turn, resolve what comes up, and bring counter-arguments to what is lurking beneath, none of which the word in letters can do, lying idle and lifeless, scattered on the paper. Nevertheless, as I said, I will not shrink from writing. Know, however, truly most pious and much-desired brother, that by the grace of God I have no private quarrel with anyone. For I have not busily inquired into the charges to which each is liable or is said to be. So you should regard our mind as one that can do nothing from partiality and is not preoccupied with slander against anyone. Only may it be the Lord's good pleasure that all things be done in a churchly and orderly way. 3. Our most beloved son Dorotheus the fellow deacon grieved us by reporting of your reverence that you hesitated to join him in the synaxis. Yet such was not our conversation, if I remember aright. To send to the West, however, is altogether impossible for me, since I have no one suited to this service. But of the brothers there, if anyone chooses to undertake the labour for the churches, he clearly knows to whom he will set out, for what purpose, from whom he is to be furnished with letters, and of what kind. For I, looking around in a circle, see no one with me. And I pray to be numbered among the seven thousand who have not bent the knee to Baal. Only, those who lay their hands on all seek our life too. Yet not for this will we fall short of the zeal owed to the churches of God. [Letter 157] To Antiochus. How heavily do you think I bore missing a meeting with you in the summer? And yet the meeting with the others was not such as to go on until we had our fill; but even to see in a dream those we long for brings lovers some comfort. But you do not even write, so lazy are you; so that I can attribute your staying away to no other cause than sluggishness about journeys made for love's sake. But let us drop that. Pray for us, and beseech the Lord not to forsake us; but, as he has brought us through the temptations that came upon us, so to rescue us from those we expect, to the glory of his name, on which we have hoped. [Letter 158] To Antiochus. Since my sins stood in the way, so that I could not bring to completion my long-standing desire to meet you, I console my absence at least by letter, and I beg you not to cease remembering us in your prayers, so that, if we live, we may be deemed worthy to enjoy your company; and if not, that through the help of your prayers we may depart from this world with good hope. We commend to you the brother who is in charge of the camels. [Letter 159] To Eupaterius and his daughter. 1. How much joy the letter of your decorum gave me you can surely guess from what you wrote. For what could be sweeter to a man who prays always to converse with those who fear God and to share in the gain they bring than such letters, through which the knowledge of God is sought? For if to us to live is Christ, then our speech ought to be about Christ, our thought and every action ought to hang on his commandments, and our soul ought to be shaped after him. I rejoice, then, to be asked about such things, and I rejoice with those who ask. For us, in a word, the faith of the fathers who assembled at Nicaea is preferred to all those devised later; in it the Son is confessed as of the same essence as the Father and of the same nature as the one who begot him. For 'light from light', 'God from God', 'good from good', and all such things were confessed by those holy men, and are confessed now by us, who pray to walk in their footsteps. 2. But since the question now raised by those always attempting innovation was passed over in silence by the men of old, because it was not disputed, and was left without articulation (I mean the question about the Holy Spirit), we add the teaching about this in accordance with the sense of Scripture: that as we are baptized, so also we believe; as we believe, so also we give glory. Since, then, baptism has been given us by the Saviour into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we offer the confession of faith in accordance with baptism, and the doxology in accordance with the faith, glorifying the Holy Spirit together with Father and Son, because we are persuaded that he is not alien to the divine nature. For what is estranged in nature would not have shared in the same honours. Those who say that the Holy Spirit is a creature we pity, as falling by such a word into the unpardonable fall of blasphemy against him. For that creation is distinguished from the godhead needs no argument for those even slightly trained in the Scriptures. For creation serves, but the Spirit sets free; creation needs life, the Spirit is the one who gives life; creation needs teaching, the Spirit is the one who teaches; creation is sanctified, the Spirit is the one who sanctifies. Whether you speak of angels, or archangels, or all the powers above the world, they receive their holiness through the Spirit. But the Spirit himself has holiness by nature, not receiving it by grace but having it united to his essence; whence he has also received, uniquely, the name 'holy'. What, then, is holy by nature, as the Father is holy by nature and the Son is holy by nature, we neither endure to separate and cut off from the divine and blessed Trinity, nor do we accept those who lightly number him with creation. Let this, as in summary, be enough said to your reverence. For from small seeds you will cultivate the greater part of godliness, the Holy Spirit working with you. For 'give an occasion to a wise man, and he will be wiser.' The more complete teaching we will put off to a meeting face to face, through which it is possible both to resolve the objections, to furnish fuller testimonies from Scripture, and to confirm every sound pattern of the faith. For the present, pardon the brevity. For I would not have written at all, if I had not thought it a greater harm to refuse the request altogether than to fulfil it imperfectly.

… to want to make it credible to his hearers. For when he was asked by someone whether it was lawful for him to take in marriage the sister of his wife who had died, he did not shudder at the question, but even heard it calmly, and very nobly and combatively helped to bring about the licentious desire. If I had the letter by me, I would have sent it to you, and you would have been able to defend both yourself and the truth; but since the man who showed it to me took it back again, and was carrying it round like a trophy against us, who had forbidden the thing from the beginning, saying that he had the permission in writing, I have now written to you, so that we may attack that spurious document with a double hand and leave it no strength, so that it may not easily harm those who read it. 2. First, then, and this is the most important thing in such matters, we have our own custom to put forward, which has the force of law because the rules were handed down to us by holy men. It is this: if anyone, overcome at some time by the passion of impurity, falls into an unlawful union with two sisters, this is not to be considered a marriage, nor are they to be admitted at all into the full membership of the church until they separate from one another. So even if there were nothing else to say, the custom would be sufficient to safeguard what is good. But since the writer of the letter has tried by a counterfeit argument to bring so great an evil into life, we too must not withhold the help of reasoning; although in things that are very clear each person's preconception is stronger than argument. 3. 'It is written,' he says, 'in Leviticus: You shall not take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness in addition to her, while she is still alive.' From this, he says, it is clear that it is permitted to take her when the wife has died. To this I will say first that whatever the law says, it says to those under the law; otherwise we shall be subject to circumcision, the Sabbath, and abstinence from foods as well. For surely we will not, whenever we find something that agrees with our pleasures, put ourselves under the yoke of the law's slavery, and whenever one of its ordinances seems heavy, then run off to the freedom that is in Christ. We were asked whether it is written that one may take a wife in addition to her sister. We said what is safe and true for us, that it is not written. But to deduce what is passed over in silence by inferring a consequence belongs to one who makes law, not to one who reports what the law says; for in that way anyone who wishes will be free to dare to take the sister even while the wife is still alive. For the same sophism fits that case too. For it is written, he says, 'You shall not take a rival', so that it did not forbid taking one who is outside jealousy. And the man who pleads for passion will declare the character of the sisters to be free of jealousy. With the cause removed, then, for which the law forbade the cohabitation of both, what will prevent taking the sisters? 'But that is not written,' we shall say. But neither is the other laid down. And the reasoning from consequence gives the same licence to both. One should, rather, run back a little to what comes before the legislation, and be rid of the difficulty. For the lawgiver seems not to include every kind of sin, but specifically to forbid the practices of the Egyptians, whom Israel had left, and those of the Canaanites, to whom they were moving. For the text runs thus: 'You shall not do according to the practices of Egypt, in which you sojourned; and you shall not do according to the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you, and you shall not walk in their ordinances.' So it is likely that this kind of sin was not then current among the nations, and therefore the lawgiver did not need to guard against it, but was content with untaught custom to condemn the abomination. How, then, having forbidden the greater, did he pass over the lesser in silence? Because the example of the patriarch seemed likely to harm many lovers of the flesh, leading them to cohabit with sisters while both were alive. What then must we do? Say what is written, or work out besides what was passed over in silence? For instance, that father and son must not use one harlot is not written in these laws, but in the prophet it is judged worthy of the greatest accusation: 'For son and father,' he says, 'went in to the same girl.' And how many other kinds of unclean passions has the school of demons invented, which divine Scripture passed over in silence, not choosing to defile its own dignity with the names of shameful things, but condemning impurities with general terms! As the apostle Paul too says: 'But sexual immorality and all impurity must not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints', including under the name of impurity the unspeakable acts of both males and females. So silence by no means brings licence to lovers of pleasure. 4. But I say that this part was not even passed over in silence, but that the lawgiver forbade it very strongly. For 'You shall not approach anyone near of kin of your flesh, to uncover their nakedness' includes this kind of kinship too. For what could be nearer of kin to a man than his own wife, or rather than his own flesh? For they are no longer two, but one flesh. So through the wife the sister passes into kinship with the husband. For as he will not take his wife's mother nor his wife's daughter, because he may not take his own mother nor his own daughter, so neither his wife's sister, because he may not take his own sister. And conversely, neither will it be lawful for the wife to cohabit with her husband's kin. For the rights of kinship are common to both. But I solemnly testify to everyone deliberating about marriage that the form of this world is passing away, and the time is short, so that even those who have wives should be as though they had none. If anyone reads out to me 'Increase and multiply', I laugh at the man who does not distinguish the times of the legislations. A second marriage is a remedy for sexual immorality, not a provision for licentiousness. 'If they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry,' it says; not 'let them break the law in marrying.' 5. But they do not even look to nature, those whose souls are blinded by the passion of dishonour, nature which long ago distinguished the names of kinship. For by what kinship will they name those who are born? Will they call them brothers of one another, or cousins? For both names will fit them because of the confusion. Do not, man, make the aunt a stepmother to the little children; and do not arm with implacable jealousies her who ought to cherish them in a mother's place. For only the race of stepmothers drives its enmity on even after death; or rather, other enemies make truce with the dead, but stepmothers begin their hatred after the death. The sum of what has been said is this: if anyone sets out toward marriage according to law, the whole world is open to him; but if his eagerness is driven by passion, let him be shut out all the more, that he may learn to possess his own vessel in holiness and honour, not in the passion of lust. Though I am eager to say more, the measure of the letter holds me back. I pray that either our exhortation may prove stronger than the passion, or that this abomination may not visit our region, but remain in the places where it was dared.

To Amphilochius, on his ordination as bishop. 1. Blessed be God, who in each generation chooses those who please him, makes known the vessels of election, and uses them for the ministry of the saints; who now too, when you were fleeing, as you say yourself, not from us but from the call expected through us, has caught you in the inescapable nets of grace and brought you into the midst of Pisidia, to catch men alive for the Lord and to draw from the depth into the light those taken captive by the devil to do his will. So you too say the words of blessed David: 'Where shall I go from your Spirit, and where shall I flee from your presence?' For such are the wonders our loving Master works. Asses are lost, so that a king may arise for Israel. But he, being an Israelite, was given to Israel; whereas the country that nourished you and raised you to such a height of virtue does not have you, but sees its neighbour honoured with its own ornament. But since all who have hoped in Christ are one people, and those who are Christ's are now one church, even if it is named from different places, your homeland too rejoices and is glad at the Lord's dispensations, and does not think that it has lost one man, but that through one man it has gained whole churches. Only may the Lord grant us both to see you when you are present and, when you are absent, to hear of your progress in the gospel and of the good order of the churches. 2. Be manly, then, and be strong, and go before the people whom the Most High has entrusted to your right hand. And like a wise man taking the helm, rising in mind above every storm stirred up by the heretical spirits, keep the ship from being swamped by the salt and bitter waves of false doctrine, awaiting the calm which the Lord will make when a voice is found worthy to rouse him to rebuke the winds and the sea. And if you wish to visit us, who are now hastened by long illness toward the necessary departure, wait neither for a season nor for a signal from us, knowing that to a father's heart every time is a good time to embrace a beloved child, and that the disposition of the soul is stronger than any word. Do not lament a burden beyond your strength. For if you yourself were to carry this load alone, even so it would not be heavy, but wholly bearable; and if it is the Lord who carries it with you, 'Cast your care on the Lord, and he will act.' Only be exhorted to watch for this in all things: not to be carried along yourself with bad customs, but to change for the better, by the wisdom given you by God, what has been wrongly established before. For Christ sent you not to follow others but to lead those who are being saved. And we ask you to pray for us, so that, if we are still in this life, we may be deemed worthy to see you with your church; but if we are now ordered to depart, that we may see you there with the Lord, your church flourishing like a vine in good works, and you as a wise husbandman and a good servant, giving your fellow servants their portion of food in due season, receiving the reward of the faithful and wise steward. All who are with us greet your reverence. May you be strong and cheerful in the Lord; may you be kept in good repute in the gifts of the Spirit and of wisdom.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. This same thing seems to me both to make me hesitant to write and, again, to show that writing is necessary. For when I look to the debt of my visit and reckon the benefit of meeting you, I am inclined to disdain letters altogether, as unable to fill even the place of a shadow compared with the reality; but when I reckon again that the only consolation for one who has missed the greatest and first things is to address so great a man and to beg him, as I am accustomed, not to forget us in his prayers, I come to judge letters no small thing. The hope of being with you I neither wish to cast from my soul myself nor to have your piety despair of. For I would be ashamed not to appear so confident in your prayers as to expect to become young instead of old, if there were need, not to speak of becoming a little stronger instead of weak and utterly feeble, as I now am. The reasons why I am not already with you are not easy for me to tell in words, not only because I am shut in by my present weakness, but because I never had such power of speech as to describe a manifold and varied disease. Only, from the day of Easter until now, fevers, diarrhoeas, and upheavals of the bowels, submerging me like waves, do not let me rise above them. What and of what kind the present troubles are, brother Barachus can tell you, if not as the truth deserves, at least enough to testify to the cause of my delay. I am fully persuaded that if you pray sincerely with us, all difficulties will be easily resolved for us.

To Count Jovinus. I saw your soul in your letter. For truly no painter can catch the features of a body so exactly as speech can portray the secrets of the soul. For the steadiness of your character, the genuineness of your honour, and the integrity of your mind in all things, the words in your letter portrayed to us sufficiently; whence the letter also gave us great consolation for your absence. Do not, then, cease to use every occasion that offers for writing, and to grant us this conversation at a distance; since the weakness of the body now makes us despair of meeting face to face. How great it is, the most God-beloved bishop Amphilochius will tell you, who knows it from having been with us longer and is able to set forth in words what he has seen. I want my difficulties to be known for no other reason than to obtain pardon for the future, so as not to be condemned for carelessness if we fail to visit you. And yet this loss needs consolation rather than defence. For if it had been …

To Ascholius, bishop of Thessalonica. 1. How much joy the letter of your holiness filled us with we could not easily show, since speech is too weak for vividness; but you yourself ought to guess it, judging from the beauty of what you wrote. For what did the letter not contain? Did it not contain love for the Lord? Admiration for the martyrs, describing the manner of their contest so vividly as to bring the events before our eyes? Honour and affection toward ourselves? What could anyone name that it lacked? So that when we received the letter into our hands, read it many times, and learned the grace of the Spirit welling up in it, we thought that we had come into the ancient times, when the churches of God flourished, rooted in faith, united in love, as in one body there is one breathing together of various members; when the persecutors were open and the persecuted were open, and the peoples, warred against, became more numerous, and the blood of the martyrs, watering the churches, nourished many times as many contenders for godliness, those who came after stripping for the contest in emulation of those who went before. Then we Christians kept peace with one another, that peace which the Lord left us, of which not even a trace is now left to us, so harshly have we driven it away from one another. Yet our souls returned to that old blessedness when a letter came from far away, blooming with the beauty of love, and a martyr visited us from the barbarians beyond the Danube, proclaiming in his own person the exactness of the faith that is lived there. Who could describe the joy of our souls at these things? What power of speech could be devised that would be able to declare vividly the disposition hidden in our heart? When we saw the athlete, we called his trainer blessed, who also himself will receive the crown of righteousness from the just judge, having strengthened many for the contest for godliness. 2. And since you brought to our memory the blessed man Eutyches, and honoured our homeland as having provided the seeds of godliness, you gladdened us by the memory of the past, but grieved us by the reproach of what we see. For none of us is like Eutyches in virtue; we are so far from taming barbarians by the power of the Spirit and the working of his gifts that even those of gentle disposition have been made savage by the excess of our sins. For we reckon to ourselves and to our sins the cause of the power of the heretics having spread so far. For almost no part of the world has escaped the conflagration of the heresy. Your accounts are of athletic contests, bodies torn for godliness, barbarian rage despised by men of undaunted heart, the varied tortures of the persecutors, the steadfastness of the contenders through everything, the wood, the water, the means by which martyrs are perfected. And what are ours? Love has grown cold; the teaching of the fathers is being ravaged; shipwrecks in the faith are frequent; the mouths of the godly are silent; the peoples, driven out of the houses of prayer, lift up their hands in the open air to the Master in heaven. And the afflictions are heavy, but there is martyrdom nowhere, because those who maltreat us bear the same name as we. For these things pray to the Lord yourself, and take with you all the noble athletes of Christ in prayer for the churches, so that, if any times still remain for the world's existence, and all things are not being driven toward the opposite course, God, reconciled to his churches, may bring them back to the ancient peace.

… to the one who has newly contended in the barbarian land neighbouring you, you have honoured the land that bore him, like a grateful farmer sending the first fruits of the harvest to those who supplied the seed. Truly fitting for an athlete of Christ are the gifts: a martyr of the truth who has just been crowned with the crown of righteousness, whom we received with joy, and we glorified God, who has now fulfilled the gospel of his Christ among all the nations. Be exhorted to remember us too, who love you, in your prayers, and to pray earnestly to the Lord for our souls, that we may be deemed worthy at some time to begin ourselves to serve God, according to the way of his commandments, which he gave us for salvation.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. You gladden us both by writing and by remembering us, and, what is greater than this, you bless us in your letters. If we were worthy of your sufferings and of your contest for Christ, we would have been deemed worthy to come to you, to embrace your piety, and to take a model of endurance in sufferings; but since we are unworthy of this, being held by many afflictions and occupations, we do what is second best: we greet your perfection and ask you not to grow weary of remembering us. For to be deemed worthy of your letters is not only a benefit to us but also a boast and an ornament before the many, that we are of some account with a man so great in virtue and having such intimacy with God that he can bring others too into intimacy …

To Antiochus the presbyter, his nephew, who was with him in exile. As much as I mourn for the church deprived of the oversight of such a shepherd, so much do I count you blessed, who have been deemed worthy at such a time to be with a man fighting the great contest for godliness. For I am persuaded that the Lord will deem you too worthy of the same portion, you who anoint him well and rouse his eagerness. How great a gain it is to enjoy in quiet a man who has gathered so much from learning and so much from experience of affairs! So I am persuaded that you now know the man, how great he is in understanding; because in time past he himself had his mind divided among many things, and you had no leisure from the affairs of life to devote yourselves wholly to the spiritual stream poured forth from the man's pure heart. But may the Lord grant that you be a comfort to him, and that you yourselves may need no consolation from others. And this I am persuaded of concerning your hearts, judging both by my own experience, which I had of you for a little while, and by the great teaching of your good master, a single day's company with whom is sufficient provision for salvation.

… setting himself up as another leader, he has almost turned the whole church upside down, despising his own presbyter, a man revered for both his way of life and his age, despising the chorepiscopus, and us as worth nothing; and always filling the city and the whole clergy with tumults and disturbances. And finally, so as not to be rebuked even a little by word from us and the chorepiscopus for despising them (for he was training the young men too into the same folly), he devises a deed very daring and inhuman. Having carried off as many virgins as he could, and waiting for night, he becomes a runaway. These things will seem very terrible to you. Consider the time too. The synod there was being held, and a great crowd was streaming in. And he, from all sides, as one would expect, led out his own chorus of young women in opposition, dancing around, causing much dejection to the devout and much laughter to the intemperate and those of readier tongue. And these things are not enough, great as they are; but further, as I learn, when the parents of the virgins, not bearing their childlessness and wishing to bring back the scattered ones, fell down before their daughters with laments, as was natural, this admirable youth with his band of robbers insults and dishonours them. Let these things not seem tolerable to your reverence; for the ridicule falls on all of us in common. But above all, order him to return with the virgins. For he would meet with some humanity if he came back with letters from you; and if not, at least send the virgins back to their mother, the church. And if not that, at least do not allow those who wish to return to be held by force, but arrange for them to come back to us; or we solemnly testify to you, as before God and men, that these things are not well done nor according to the ordinances of the church. As for Glycerius, if he returns with understanding and fitting steadiness, that is best; if not, let him be removed from his ministry.

To Glycerius. How long will you be out of your mind, and plan badly for yourself, and provoke us, and disgrace the common order of monks? Come back, then, trusting in God and in us, who imitate his kindness. For if we rebuked you as a father, we will also pardon you as a father. This is what you have from us, since many others are entreating for you, and before the others your own presbyter, whose grey hair and compassion we respect. But if you keep far from us, you have certainly fallen from your rank; and you will fall from God too, with your songs and your dress, by which you lead the young women not to God, but into the pit.

To Gregory. I wrote to you recently too about Glycerius and the virgins. But they have not yet returned even today, but still delay, I do not know why or how. For I would not condemn you of doing this to slander us, or because you yourself have some grievance against us, or to please others. Let them come, then, fearing nothing; you be the guarantor of this. For we grieve when members are cut off, even if they were rightly cut off. But if they resist, the burden falls on others, and we wash our hands of it.

To Sophronius, bishop. How you gladdened us with your letter we need not write; for you will surely guess it from what you wrote, being what it was. For you showed us through the letter the first fruit of the Spirit, love. And what could be more precious to us in the present state of the times, when, because lawlessness has multiplied, the love of many has grown cold? For nothing is now so rare as meeting a spiritual brother, a peaceable word, and spiritual communion; finding which in your perfection we gave abundant thanks to the Lord, asking also to share in perfect joy in you. For if the letters are such, what will the meeting be? And if you so win us from afar, how much will you be worth when you appear to us close at hand? Know well that, if a multitude of countless occupations and these inexorable necessities by which we are bound did not hold me, I would myself have hastened to your perfection. Indeed this old illness of my body is a great hindrance to movement, but I would not have counted it a hindrance for the sake of the expected benefit. For to be deemed worthy to meet a man of the same mind, who holds in honour the faith of the fathers, as the report of the honoured brothers and fellow presbyters says, is truly to return to the ancient blessedness of the churches, when few were sick with questionings, and all were at peace, workmen of the commandments who had no need to be ashamed, serving the Lord through the simple and unelaborate confession, and preserving inviolate and unelaborate the faith in Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

To Theodora, a canoness. What makes us slow to write is that we are not persuaded that our letters are surely delivered into the hands of your love, but rather that, through the wickedness of those who carry them, countless others read them first, especially now when the affairs of the world are so disturbed. Therefore I am waiting, in a way, to be blamed and to have letters forcibly demanded, so as to use this very thing as proof of their delivery. Whether we write or keep silent, we have one task: to keep in our hearts the remembrance of your decorum, and to pray the Lord to grant you to finish the course of the good life, as you have chosen. For truly it is no small struggle for one who has made the profession to carry out what follows from the promise. For anyone may choose the life according to the gospel; but to carry the observance even to the smallest things and to overlook nothing of what is written there has been achieved by very few of those who have come to our knowledge: to use a tongue fettered and an eye disciplined according to the will of the gospel, to work with the hands for the purpose of pleasing God, to move the feet, and to use each of the members as our Creator arranged from the beginning; decorum in dress, guardedness in meeting men, sufficiency in food, absence of superfluity in acquiring necessities. All these, said simply like this, are small, but they need a great struggle to be achieved, as we have found in reality. And also perfection in humility, so as neither to remember the distinction of ancestors, nor, if we have any natural advantage of body or soul, to be lifted up by it, nor to make the opinions others hold of us an occasion of elation and conceit: these belong to the gospel life. Vigour in self-control, diligence in prayers, sympathy in brotherly love, sharing with those in need, lowliness of mind, contrition of heart, soundness of faith, evenness in sadness, never …

To a widow. Though I very much wished to write continually to your nobility, I always restrained myself, lest I should seem to stir up trials for you because of those hostilely disposed toward us, who, as I hear, push their enmity even so far as to pry whether anyone receives a letter from us. But since you yourself, doing well, began the correspondence and wrote to us what was needed, sharing the affairs of your soul, I was moved to write in reply, both making up for what was neglected in past time and answering what your nobility wrote. Blessed is the soul that night and day turns over no other care than how, on the great day when all creation will stand around the Judge, rendering account of deeds, it too may be able to give account of its life lightly. For he who sets that day and hour before his eyes, and always practises his defence before the tribunal that cannot be deceived, will sin either not at all or very little; because sinning happens to us through absence of the fear of God. But those in whom the expectation of what is threatened is vividly present, the fear dwelling with them will give no occasion to fall into unwanted actions or thoughts. Remember God, then, and keep his fear in your heart, and take everyone into the fellowship of your prayers. For great too is the help of those who are able to move God. And do not cease doing these things. For prayer will be a good helper to us while we live this life in the flesh, and a sufficient provision for the age to come when we depart hence. As care is a good thing, so again despondency, despair, and hopelessness about salvation are among the things that harm the soul. Hope, then, in the goodness of God, and wait for his help, knowing that, if we turn to him rightly and sincerely, not only will he not cast us off utterly, but while we are still speaking the words of prayer he will say, 'Behold, I am here.'

To Count Magnenianus. Recently your dignity wrote to me about some other things, and enjoined us to write clearly about the faith. I admire your zeal for the matter, and I pray God that the choice of good things may remain in you unyieldingly, and that you may always advance and be made perfect in knowledge and good works; but because I do not wish to leave behind a treatise on the faith nor to write various creeds, I have refrained from sending what you asked. But you seem to me to be deafened by people there who do nothing, who say things to slander us, as if they would commend themselves by telling the most shameful lies about us. Past time reveals them, and experience as it goes on will make them more evident; but we urge those who have hoped in Christ to meddle with nothing beyond the ancient faith, but as we believe, so also to be baptized, and as we are baptized, so also to give glory. As for names, it is enough for us to confess those which we received from holy Scripture, and to avoid innovation in them. For our salvation is not in the invention of names, but in the sound confession of the Godhead in which we have believed.

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. May the holy God grant that this letter of ours come into your hands while you are strong in body, free from all business, and doing everything according to your mind, so that our appeal may not be fruitless, in which we now beg you to appear in our city, to make more solemn the festival which our church is accustomed to hold every year for the martyrs. For be persuaded, my most honoured and truly beloved friend, that our people, having made trial of many, cling to no one's coming as much as to yours: such a sting of love you left in them from that short meeting. So that the Lord may be glorified, the peoples gladdened, the martyrs honoured, and we old men may receive the attention owed us by a genuine child, deign to cross over to us without hesitation and to come before the days of the synod, so that we may be together at leisure and be comforted together through the communion of spiritual gifts. The day is the fifth of September. Therefore we ask you to arrive three days before, so that you may also make the memorial of the poorhouse great by your presence. May you be kept for me and for the church of God, strong and cheerful in the Lord, praying for me, by the grace of the Lord.

… of our letter, is the most revered brother Eusebius, who has fallen into an unreasonable calumny, which it lies with your uprightness alone to destroy. Therefore we ask you, granting a favour to justice, looking to humanity, and giving us your usual favours, to be everything to the man and to stand by him together with the truth. For he has no small ally in justice, which, unless the present time crushes him, will very easily be shown clearly and incontrovertibly.

To Aburgius. I know that I have often commended many to your honour, and have been of sufficient use at the most critical times to those in distress. But I do not know that I have ever before sent to your decorum anyone more precious to me, or contending for greater things, than our most beloved son Eusebius, who now delivers this letter to you from us. In what kind of affair he is entangled he himself will tell your dignity, if he finds an opportunity; what it is fitting for us to say is this: that the man should not be swept along, nor, because many have been shown to be caught in the most grievous deeds, should he share in the suspicion that attaches to the many; but that he should obtain a trial and his life be brought to examination. For in this way the calumny will very easily be made plain, and the man, having obtained most just protection, will be a perpetual herald of what has been done for him by your gentleness.

To Arinthaeus. That you are liberal and humane, the nobility of your nature and your sociability toward all sufficiently teach us. Therefore we confidently intercede for a man illustrious from of old and from his ancestors, but worthy of greater honour and respect for his own sake, because of the gentleness of character that is in him; so that you, being entreated by us, may stand by him as he contends in a lawsuit, which, for the sake of the truth, is not to be despised, but is otherwise anxious because of the weight of the calumny. For it would be a great weight toward his safety if you would deign to put forth some kind word on his behalf, granting a favour first to justice, and then to us too, your chosen friends, giving us in this also your usual honour and favour.

To Sophronius the master, on behalf of Eumathius. Having met a man of note in an unbearable plight, I was grieved in soul. For how could I not, being a man, grieve with a free man undeservedly entangled in troubles? And considering how I might be useful to him, I found one release from the difficulty that holds him: if I should make him known to your decorum. Yours, then, is what follows: to show him too the zeal which you have shown to many, with us as witnesses. The affair will be made known by the petition he has presented to the emperors; be pleased to take it into your hands and to help the man as far as possible. For you will be favouring a Christian, a man of good birth, and one who brings with him the respect due to much learning. And if we add that we too receive a great favour through your kindness to him, surely, even if our part is otherwise small, yet since your dignity always consents to take account of our affairs, the favour done to us will not seem small.

To Otreius of Melitene. I know that the separation from the most God-beloved bishop Eusebius touches your reverence as much as us. Since, then, both of us need comfort, let us be a consolation to one another. You write to us the news from Samosata, and we will report whatever we learn from Thrace. For to know the steadfastness of the people brings me no small relief from present sorrows, and to your kindness it brings comfort to learn in what condition our common father is. Indeed now too we cannot inform you by letter; but we have presented to you the man himself who knows exactly and reports in what state he left him, and how he bears what befalls him. Pray, then, both for him and for us, that the Lord may bring a speedy release from these terrible things.

To the presbyters of Samosata. As much as we grieve, considering the desolation of the church, so much do we count you blessed, having reached this measure of contest, which may the Lord grant you to pass through with long-suffering, so that you may receive the great reward both of your faithful stewardship and of the noble steadfastness which you have shown for the name of Christ.

To the councillors of Samosata. When I see that the trial has now been poured over the whole world, and the greatest cities of Syria have experienced the same sufferings as you, but nowhere is the council so approved and distinguished for good works as yours is now proclaimed to be for its zeal in good works, I am near to being grateful for what has been arranged. For if this affliction had not happened, your worth would not have been shown. So it seems that what the furnace is to gold, affliction for the sake of hope in God is to those who lay claim to any virtue. Come, then, admirable men, see that you add to what you have already laboured what is worthy of it, and appear as men who set on a great foundation a still more notable top; and stand around the shepherd of the church, when the Lord grants that he appear on his own throne, each telling one or another of the things done for the church of God; and on the great day of the Lord may each receive from the bountiful God a recompense in proportion to what has been laboured. And by remembering us and writing as often as possible, you will both do justly in repaying us with the like and gladden us not a little, sending us through letters vivid tokens of your most sweet voice.

To Eustathius, bishop of Himmeria. I know that bereavement is a gloomy thing and brings much business, because it leaves people without those who preside over them. So I reckon that your reverence, saddened at what has happened, does not write to us, and at the same time is now in greater occupation, going round the flocks of Christ because of the uprising of the enemies on all sides. But since the solace of every grief is conversation with those of like mind, deign, as often as you can, to write to us, both to refresh yourself in speaking to us and to comfort us by sharing your words. This we too will be eager to do, as often as affairs allow. Pray yourself, and urge the whole brotherhood to beseech the Lord earnestly that he may show us at last a release from the dejection that surrounds us.

To Theodotus, bishop of Beroea. I know that, even if you do not write to us, the remembrance of us is in your heart. And I infer this, not because I am myself worthy of any favourable remembrance, but because your soul is rich in the abundance of love. Nevertheless, as far as you can, use the occasions that offer to write to us, so that we may be of better heart learning about you, and may take occasion ourselves to tell you our own affairs. For this is the manner of conversation for those so far separated in body, by letters; let us not deprive each other of it, as far as affairs allow. And may the Lord grant us a meeting face to face, so that we may increase our love and multiply our thanksgiving to our Master for greater gifts from him.

To Antipater the governor. How happy is philosophy, among other things because it does not allow its nurslings to be doctored expensively; with it the same thing is both a delicacy and enough for health. For you called back your exhausted appetite, as I learn, with cabbage pickled in vinegar; which I formerly disliked, both because of the proverb and because it reminded me of the poverty I was brought up with; but now I think I shall change my own mind and laugh at the proverb, seeing it so good a nurse of youth, which has brought our governor back to his prime. And henceforth I shall think nothing comparable to it, not only the Homeric lotus, but not even that ambrosia, whatever it was, that fed the Olympians.

Antipater to Basil. 'Cabbage twice is death,' says the spiteful proverb. But I, though I have asked for it often, shall die once; and surely I shall die even if I had not asked. If, then, I surely must, do not hesitate to eat a sweet relish, slandered in vain by the proverb.

… came. For the ancients judged it right to accept that baptism which in no way departs from the faith. Hence they named some things heresies, some schisms, and some unlawful assemblies: heresies, those who have broken off completely and become alienated in the faith itself; schisms, those who have separated from one another for certain ecclesiastical reasons and over questions that admit of a cure; unlawful assemblies, gatherings held by insubordinate presbyters or bishops and by uninstructed peoples. For example, if someone found guilty of a fault was suspended from his ministry and did not submit to the canons, but claimed the presidency and the ministry for himself, and some went off with him, leaving the catholic church, that is an unlawful assembly. A schism is holding a different view about repentance from those of the church. Heresies are, for example, that of the Manichaeans, of the Valentinians, of the Marcionites, and of these very Pepuzenes; for the difference concerns faith in God itself. It seemed good, then, to those at the beginning to reject altogether the baptism of the heretics, but to accept that of the schismatics, as still being of the church; and that those in unlawful assemblies, having been bettered by worthy repentance and conversion, should be joined to the church again, so that often even those in orders who went off with the insubordinate are received into the same rank when they repent. Now the Pepuzenes are plainly heretics; for they blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, unlawfully and shamelessly giving the title of the Paraclete to Montanus and Priscilla. Whether, then, as making men into gods, they stand condemned, or as insulting the Holy Spirit by comparing him with men, and so liable to eternal condemnation, because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unpardonable, what reason is there for approving the baptism of these men, who baptize into the Father and the Son and Montanus or Priscilla? For those baptized into what has not been handed down to us have not been baptized. So, even if this escaped the great Dionysius, we must not keep the imitation of the error. For the absurdity is obvious at once and plain to all who have even a little share of reasoning. The Cathari too are among the schismatics. Yet it seemed good to the ancients, I mean Cyprian and our Firmilian, to subject all these to one vote, Cathari, Encratites, and Hydroparastatae; because the beginning of the separation came about through schism, but those who withdrew from the church no longer had the grace of the Holy Spirit upon them; for the imparting of it failed because the succession was broken. For those who first departed had their ordinations from the fathers, and through the laying on of their hands they had the spiritual gift; but those broken off, having become laymen, had authority neither to baptize nor to ordain, being no longer able to impart to others the grace of the Holy Spirit from which they themselves had fallen. Therefore they ordered that those baptized by them, as baptized by laymen, should, when they come to the church, be purified by the church's true baptism. But since it seemed good altogether to some of those in Asia, for the sake of economy toward the many, that their baptism be accepted, let it be accepted. But we must perceive the villainy of the Encratites: that, to make themselves unacceptable to the church, they have now undertaken to forestall it with a baptism of their own; so they have even counterfeited their own custom. I think, then, that since nothing has been expressly laid down about them, it is fitting for us to reject their baptism, and if anyone has received it from them, to baptize him when he comes to the church. If, however, this is going to be a hindrance to the general economy, we must use the custom again and follow the fathers who ordered our affairs. For I fear lest, while we wish to make them slow to baptize, we may hinder those being saved by the severity of our decision. And if they keep our baptism, let this not move us. For we are not bound to return the favour to them, but to serve the exactness of the canons. But in any case let it be laid down that those who come from their baptism be anointed, clearly in the presence of the faithful, and so approach the mysteries. I know that we received into the episcopal chair the brothers with Izois and Saturninus, who were of that order. So we can no longer separate from the church those who have joined their company, having laid down a kind of canon of communion with them through our acceptance of the bishops. 2. A woman who has deliberately destroyed the fetus is liable to the penalty for murder. Among us there is no fine distinction between one formed and unformed. For here not only the child that would have been born is avenged, but also the woman herself who plotted against herself, because for the most part women die in such attempts. And to this is added the destruction of the embryo, another murder, at least in the intention of those who dare such things. However, their penance should not be extended until their departure; they should accept the measure of ten years, and the treatment should be determined not by time but by the manner of their repentance. 3. A deacon who commits sexual immorality after entering the diaconate shall be removed from the diaconate, but, thrust down to the place of the laity, shall not be excluded from communion. For it is an ancient canon that those fallen from a rank are subjected to this kind of punishment only; those of the beginning following, I think, that law, 'You shall not punish twice for the same thing'; and for another reason too: that those in the lay order, when cast out of the place of the faithful, are received back into the place from which they fell; but the deacon has once for all the lasting penalty of deposition. Since, then, the diaconate is not given back to him, they stopped at this one punishment. These things come from the rules. But in general the truer cure is withdrawal from sin. So he who has rejected grace for the pleasure of the flesh, if by contrition of the flesh and every bondage of self-control he withdraws from the pleasures by which he was overthrown, will give us complete proof of his cure. We must therefore know both what belongs to strictness and what belongs to custom; and in the case of those who do not accept the severity, follow the pattern handed down. 4. Concerning those married three times and many times, they laid down the same canon, in proportion, as for those married twice: one year for the twice-married (others say two years); those married three times they often exclude for three and four years. They no longer call such a thing marriage, but polygamy, or rather sexual immorality kept within limits. That is why the Lord too said to the Samaritan woman, who had gone through five husbands, 'He whom you now have is not your husband', as though those who exceed the measure of a second marriage were no longer worthy to be called by the name of husband or wife. We have received the custom of five years' exclusion for the thrice-married, not from canons but from the practice of our predecessors. They should not be shut out of the church altogether, but should be allowed to be hearers for perhaps two or three years; and after that be permitted to stand with the others but to abstain from communion of the good; and so, having shown some fruit of repentance, be restored to the place of communion. 5. Heretics who repent at their departure from life must be received; received, clearly, not without discernment, but by testing whether they show true repentance and have fruits that testify to their zeal to be saved. 6. The sexual immoralities of canonical women are not to be reckoned as marriage, but their union is to be broken up by every means. For this is both profitable to the church for its safety and will give the heretics no handle against us, as though we drew people to ourselves by licence to sin. 7. Corrupters of males and of animals, murderers, poisoners, adulterers, and idolaters have been judged worthy of the same condemnation. So keep for these too the pattern you hold for the others. But those who have repented for thirty years of the impurity they committed in ignorance there should be no hesitation to receive. For both their ignorance makes them worthy of pardon, and the voluntary nature of their confession, and its extension over so long a time. For they have been handed over to Satan for almost a whole generation of man, that they may be trained not to behave indecently. So order them to be received now without delay, especially if they have tears that move your compassion and show a life worthy of sympathy. 8. He who used an axe against his own wife in anger is a murderer. But you did well to remind me, and worthily of your intelligence, to speak more fully about these things, because there are many differences among voluntary and involuntary acts. Wholly involuntary and far from the intention of the doer is the case of one who throws a stone at a dog or a tree and hits a man. For the impulse was to drive off the beast or to shake down the fruit, but the one who happened to pass by came under the blow of himself; so such a thing is involuntary. Involuntary too is the case of one who, wishing to correct someone, strikes him with a strap or a rod that is not hard, and the one struck dies. For the intention is considered, that he wished to improve the sinner, not to kill him. Among the involuntary is also this: one who defends himself in a fight with a stick or his hand strikes unsparingly at vital parts, so as to hurt the other, not to kill him altogether. But this already comes close to the voluntary; for one who used such an instrument for defence, or did not strike with restraint, plainly did not spare the man because he was mastered by passion. Likewise one who uses a heavy stick, or a stone too large for human strength, is counted among the involuntary, having intended one thing and done another. For in anger he struck such a blow as to kill the one struck, though his aim was perhaps to bruise him, not to kill him outright. But one who uses a sword or anything of that kind has no excuse, and especially one who has thrown the axe. For he plainly did not strike from the hand, so as to keep the measure of the blow in his own control, but threw it, so that by the weight of the iron, its edge, and its long flight the blow was necessarily deadly. Wholly voluntary, again, and admitting no doubt, are the deeds of robbers and attacks in war. For the former kill for money, avoiding conviction; and those in wars go to slaughter neither to frighten nor to chasten, but openly choosing to kill their opponents. And again, if someone mixes a magical potion for some other purpose and kills, we reckon such a thing voluntary; as women often do, trying to draw some to love of themselves by incantations and love-knots, and giving them drugs that bring darkness on their minds. Such women, then, when they kill, even if they intended one thing and did another, are nonetheless counted among voluntary murderers because of the magical and forbidden nature of the practice. And women who give drugs that cause abortion are themselves murderers, and so are those who take the poisons that kill the fetus. So much for this. 9. The Lord's pronouncement, according to the logic of its sense, applies equally to men and women, that it is not lawful to depart from a marriage except on the ground of sexual immorality. But custom does not hold so; rather, in the case of women we find much strictness, since the apostle says, 'He who joins himself to a prostitute is one body', and Jeremiah, 'If a woman becomes another man's, she shall not return to her husband, but being defiled she shall be defiled'; and again, 'He who keeps an adulteress is foolish and impious.' But custom orders that even men who commit adultery and live in sexual immorality be kept by their wives. So I do not know whether the woman who lives with the man who has been left can be called an adulteress. For the charge here attaches to the woman who put away her husband, according to the reason for which she departed from the marriage. If, being beaten, she did not bear the blows, she ought rather to have endured than to be separated from her husband; or if she did not bear the loss of property, not even this pretext is worth considering. And if it was because he lives in sexual immorality, we do not have this rule in the church's custom; rather, a wife was not even commanded to separate from an unbelieving husband, but to remain, because of the uncertainty of the outcome: 'For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband?' So the woman who has left her husband is an adulteress if she went to another man. But the man who has been left is pardonable, and the woman who lives with such a man is not condemned. If, however, the husband, having departed from his wife, went to another, he too is an adulterer, because he makes her commit adultery; and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself. 10. Those who swear that they will not accept ordination, swearing it off, are not to be compelled to break their oath. For even if there seems to be some canon that makes allowance for such people, yet we have learned by experience that those who break their oaths do not prosper. One must consider the form of the oath, its words, the disposition in which they swore, and the fine additions in the words; so that if there is no relief from any quarter, such people must be let alone altogether. However, the affair of Severus, that is, of the presbyter ordained by him, seems to me to have some such remedy as this, if you also agree. Order that the farm subject to Mestia, to which the man was assigned, be placed under Vasoda. For in this way he will not break his oath by not leaving the place; and Longinus, having Cyriacus with him, will neither leave his church desolate nor condemn his own soul through idleness. And we shall seem to do nothing against the canons in accommodating Cyriacus, who swore to remain with the people of Mindana but accepted the transfer; for his return will be the keeping of his oath. And his yielding to the arrangement will not be reckoned to him as perjury, because it was not added to the oath that he would not leave Mindana even for a short time, but that he would remain there for the future. And to Severus, who pleads forgetfulness, we shall grant pardon, saying that the knower of secrets will not overlook his own church being harmed by such a man, who from the start acted against the canons, bound a man with an oath contrary to the Gospels, taught perjury by the transfer, and now lies in pretending forgetfulness. But since we are not judges of hearts, but judge from what we hear, let us give the vengeance to the Lord, and ourselves receive him without distinction, pardoning a human weakness, forgetfulness. 11. He who has committed involuntary murder has sufficiently fulfilled the penalty in eleven years. For it is clear that in the case of those struck we shall observe the rules of Moses; and one who took to his bed from the blows he received, but walked again upon his staff, we shall not reckon murdered. And even if he did not rise after the blows, yet because the one who struck him did not intend to kill him, he is a murderer, but an involuntary one because of his intention. 12. The canon has excluded the twice-married from the ministry altogether. 13. Our fathers did not reckon killings in wars as murders, granting pardon, it seems to me, to those who defend chastity and godliness. But perhaps it is well to advise that, since their hands are not clean, they abstain from communion alone for three years. 14. One who takes interest, if he agrees to spend the unjust gain on the poor and to be freed henceforth from the disease of love of money, may be received into the priesthood. 15. I am surprised that you require grammatical exactness of Scripture and reckon the expression forced, since the translation gives its own clear sense and does not alter what is properly signified by the Hebrew word. But since a problem raised by an inquiring man should not be passed over lightly, the birds of the air and the fish … [Letter 189] … devising the correction of the sicknesses of souls. I say this not only following the reports of the many, but taught by my own experience, both in many other things and especially now in the indescribable wickedness of our enemies, which, flowing over our life like an evil flood, you have skilfully dispersed, dissipating this grievous inflammation of our heart by pouring on it consoling words. For I, looking at the successive and varied attempts of our enemies against us, thought I ought to keep silent and accept quietly what was brought on us, and not to answer those armed with falsehood, that evil weapon which often drives its point even through the truth. But you, doing well, urged me not to betray the truth, but to refute the slanderers, so that many might not be harmed by falsehood prevailing over truth. 2. Those who have taken up their groundless hatred against us seemed to me, then, to do something like Aesop's fable. For as he made the wolf bring certain charges against the lamb, being ashamed, forsooth, to seem to kill without just pretext one who had done him no harm, and when the lamb easily refuted every charge brought by calumny, the wolf did not slacken his attack at all, but was beaten in justice and won with his teeth: so these, by whom hatred against us has been pursued as though it were a good thing, blushing perhaps to seem to hate without cause, invent causes and charges against us, and abide by none of their statements to the end, but now say that this, a little later that another, and again that something else is the cause of their hostility to us. Their wickedness stands on nothing; but when they are shaken off this charge they fasten on another, and from that again they seize on another; and if all the charges are resolved, they do not cease from hating. They accuse us of preaching three gods, and they fill the ears of the many, and do not cease building up this slander persuasively. But the truth fights for us, as we show both publicly to all and privately to those who meet us that everyone who speaks of three gods is anathematized by us and is not even judged to be a Christian. But when they hear this, Sabellius is ready to hand against us, and the disease that comes from him is noised abroad as our teaching. Against this too, again, we put forward our usual weapon, the truth, showing that we shudder at such a heresy as much as at Judaism. 3. What then? After so many attempts did they grow tired and become quiet? Not so. But they charge us with innovation, framing the accusation against us thus: that, while we confess three hypostases, we are accused of speaking of one goodness, one power, and one godhead. And this is not outside the truth, for we do say it. But they bring this as a charge, that their custom does not have it, and Scripture does not agree. What, then, do we say to this? We do not think it right to make the custom prevailing among them a law and rule of right doctrine. For if custom is strong for the proof of correctness, we too may surely put forward in turn the custom prevailing among us. And if they reject this, we too are surely not bound to follow them. Let the God-inspired Scripture, then, decide between us; and with those whose doctrines are found in harmony with the divine words the vote of the truth will surely rest. What, then, is the charge? Two things are brought forward together in the accusation against us: one, that we divide the hypostases; the other, that we no longer count any of the names befitting God in the plural, but proclaim in the singular, as was said, one goodness, one power, one godhead, and all such things. As to the division of the hypostases, those who teach a difference of essences in the divine nature could not object. For it is not likely that those who speak of three essences do not also speak of three hypostases. So this alone is in the charge: that we proclaim in the singular the names applied to the divine nature. 4. But our answer to this is ready and clear. For he who condemns those who speak of one godhead must necessarily agree either with him who speaks of many or with him who speaks of none. For it is not possible to conceive anything besides what has been said. But the God-inspired teaching does not allow us to speak of many, since wherever it mentions the godhead it mentions it in the singular: 'In him dwells all the fullness of the godhead'; and elsewhere, 'For his invisible things are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity.' If, then, to extend the number of godheads to a multitude belongs only to those sick with the error of many gods, and to deny the godhead altogether would belong to the godless, what reason is there for slandering us for confessing one godhead? But they reveal the aim of their argument more plainly: they accept that the Father is God, and agree likewise that the Son is honoured with the name of godhead; but the Spirit, though numbered with Father and Son, they no longer include in the concept of godhead, but, making the power of the godhead stop at the Son, starting from the Father, they separate the nature of the Spirit from the divine glory. So we too must make a defence, as far as we are able, briefly against this notion as well. 5. What, then, is our argument? The Lord, handing on the saving faith to those who are made disciples to the Word, joins the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son. And what is once joined, we say, has the conjunction throughout. For it is not ranked with them in one thing and cut off in others. But in the life-giving power, by which our nature is transformed from perishable life to immortality, the power of the Spirit is taken together with Father and Son; and in many other things, such as the notion of the good, and the holy and eternal, wise, upright, sovereign, powerful, and everywhere plainly it is inseparable in all the names taken in the higher sense. So we think it right to hold that what is joined with Father and Son in so many lofty conceptions befitting God is separated from them in none. For we know of no difference of better and worse among the names conceived about the divine nature, so that it would be pious to grant the Spirit communion in the lesser names and to judge him unworthy of the higher. For all the conceptions and names befitting God are of equal honour with one another, since they do not differ in their signification of the subject. For the name 'good' does not lead the mind to one subject, and 'wise', 'powerful', and 'just' to another; but whatever names you say, what is signified through all of them is one. And if you say 'God', you have indicated the same one whom you understood through the other names. If, then, all the names applied to the divine nature are of equal force with one another in indicating the subject, leading our mind to the same thing by different emphases, what reason is there, granting the Spirit communion with Father and Son in the other names, to cut him off from the godhead alone? For it is wholly necessary either to grant communion in this too, or not to allow it in the others either. For if he is worthy in those, he is surely not unworthy in this. But if he is too small, by their argument, for communion with Father and Son in the name of godhead, he is not worthy to share in any other of the names befitting God either. For the names, examined and compared with one another by the emphasis seen in each, will be found to have nothing less than the appellation 'God'. Evidence of this: many even of lower things are called by this name; or rather, divine Scripture does not spare this homonymy even in incongruous cases, as when it calls idols by the name of God. For 'The gods,' it says, 'who did not make the heaven and the earth, let them be taken away and cast beneath the earth'; and 'All the gods of the nations are demons.' And the woman with a familiar spirit, calling up for Saul by her sorceries the souls he sought, says that she saw gods. And Balaam, an augur and diviner, carrying the means of divination in his hand, as Scripture says, and having obtained the teaching of demons through the meddling art of augury, is recorded by Scripture to take counsel from God. And many such things can be collected from the divine Scriptures and set forth: that this name holds no primacy over the other names befitting God, since, as was said, we find it used homonymously even of incongruous things. But the names holy, incorruptible, upright, and good, we have been taught by Scripture, are nowhere shared with things unfitting. If, then, they do not dispute that the Holy Spirit shares with the Son and the Father in the names piously said exclusively of the divine nature alone, what reason is there to make out that he has no share in this one only, in which, as has been shown, even demons and idols share by a homonymous use? 6. But they say that this appellation indicates nature, and that the nature of the Spirit has no communion with Father and Son, and therefore he has no share in communion in this name. Let them show, then, by what means they recognized the difference of nature. For if it were possible for the divine nature itself to be contemplated in itself, and to find through what appears what is proper to it and what is alien, we would surely need no arguments or other evidence for grasping what is sought; but since it is higher than the understanding of those who seek, and we reason from certain evidences about things that escape our knowledge, it is wholly necessary for us to be guided by the operations to the investigation of the divine nature. If, then, we see the operations performed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit differing from one another, we shall conjecture from the difference of the operations that the natures that operate are different too. For things that differ in nature cannot coincide in the form of their operations: fire does not chill, nor does ice warm; but with the difference of natures the operations that come from them are separated from one another too. But if we understand the operation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be one, differing or varying in nothing, we must necessarily infer the unity of the nature from the identity of the operation. 7. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit alike sanctify, give life, enlighten, comfort, and do all such things. And let no one assign the power of sanctifying exclusively to the operation of the Spirit, when he hears the Saviour in the Gospel saying to the Father about the disciples, 'Father, sanctify them in your name.' Likewise all the other things are operated equally in the worthy by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: every grace and power, guidance, life, comfort, the change to immortality, the passage to freedom, and whatever other good comes down to us. And the dispensation above us, in the intelligible and the sensible creation, if one must conjecture through what is known to us about what lies above us, is not itself outside the operation and power of the Holy Spirit, each receiving the benefit according to his own worth and need. For even if the ordering and governance of the things above our nature is hidden from our perception, yet one would more reasonably conclude from consistency, through what is known to us, that the power of the Spirit is active in those things too, than that it is estranged from the dispensation of the higher beings. For he who says the latter puts forward a bare and unsupported blasphemy, building up the absurdity by no reasoning; but he who agrees that the things above us too are ordered by the power of the Spirit together with Father and Son maintains it relying on clear evidence from his own life. So the identity of operation in the case of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit clearly shows the unvarying nature. So, even if the name of godhead signifies nature, the commonness of essence agrees that this appellation is properly applied to the Holy Spirit as well. 8. But I do not know how those who contrive everything bring the appellation of godhead to the indication of nature, as though they had not heard from Scripture that a nature does not come by appointment. But Moses was appointed god of the Egyptians, when the one who gave him oracles said to him, 'I have given you as a god to Pharaoh.' So the appellation carries the indication of some authority, either of oversight or of operation. But the divine nature, as it is in itself, remains unsignified in all the names conceived, as our argument holds. For in learning 'benefactor' and 'judge', 'good' and 'just', and all such things, we have been taught differences of operations; but we can know the nature of the one who operates no better through understanding the operations. For when one gives the definition of each of these names and of the nature itself to which the names belong, he will not give the same definition of both. And things whose definition is different have a different nature too. So the essence, for which no word that reveals it has yet been found, is one thing, and the signification of the names about it, which are named from some operation or dignity, is another. That there is no difference in the operations we find from the communion of the names; but we grasp no clear proof of a variation in nature, since, as was said, the identity of the operations indicates the community of the nature. Whether, then, 'godhead' is a name of operation, then, as there is one operation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so we say that the godhead is one; or whether, according to the opinions of the many, the name of godhead indicates nature, then, because no variation is found in the nature, we not unreasonably define the holy Trinity as of one godhead … whenever there was occasion, and privately to those who readily ask …

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. 1. Worthily of your carefulness and zeal, which I always praise, you have been concerned about the affairs of the church of the Isaurians. That it was altogether more profitable for the care to be divided among several bishops is plain at once, I think, even to an ordinary person; nor did this escape your intelligence, but you rightly noted how things stand and made it known to us. But since it is not easy to find worthy men, let us beware lest, while we wish to have the credibility that comes from numbers and to have the church of God managed more exactly by several, we unawares bring the word into contempt through the unfitness of those called, and create in the peoples a practice of indifference. For you know yourself that as those who preside are, so for the most part the characters of those governed tend to become. So perhaps it is better to put forward one approved man, if even this is easy, as leader of the city, and to entrust to his responsibility the management of particulars; only let him be a servant of God, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, not seeking his own good but that of the many, that they may be saved; who, if he knows himself too small for the care, will take on workers for the harvest. If, then, we find such a man, I confess that the one is worth as much as many, and that it is more profitable for the churches and less dangerous for us to arrange the care of souls in this way. But if this is not easy, let us take care first to give leaders to the small towns or villages which have had episcopal sees from of old; and then we will appoint the bishop of the city, lest the one appointed become a hindrance to our later arrangements, and we at once begin to fight with those at home, because he wishes to rule over more and does not accept the ordinations of the bishops. But if this is difficult and time does not permit, let your intelligence take care to have the bishop of Isaura mark out his own district, by ordaining some neighbouring bishops for it. The rest will be kept in reserve for us, to give at the proper time to all the others bishops whom we ourselves judge more suitable, having tested them by much examination. 2. We questioned George, as your piety ordered, and he said what your reverence also reported; at which we must keep quiet, casting on the Lord the care of the household. For I trust in the holy God that he will grant us some other way of escaping these pressures and will procure us a life without grief. If, then, this does not seem right, deign yourself to send me a memorandum about which office we should take pains for, so that we may begin to ask each of our friends in power for this favour, either free or at a moderate price, as the Lord may prosper us. I have written to brother Valerius, as you instructed. The affairs of Nyssa are as your piety left them, and are advancing for the better with the help of your prayers. Of those who then broke away from us, some went off to the court, and others remain, awaiting the news from there. But the Lord is able to make their hopes vain too, and to make the others' return fruitless. 3. Philo, interpreting the manna, said, as though he had learned it from some Jewish tradition, that its quality was such that it changed according to the imagination of the eater; that in itself it was like millet boiled in honey, but it gave now the taste of bread, now of meat, and of meat of this or that kind, bird or land animal; now of vegetables, and of the vegetable each desired; and of fish, so that the peculiar quality of each kind was exactly preserved in the taste of the eater. Scripture knows of chariots with riders three to a chariot, because other chariots have two riders, the charioteer and the armed man; but Pharaoh's had two fighters and one who held the reins of the horses. Sympius has written us a courteous letter of communion; we have written in reply and have sent the letter to your reverence, so that, if you approve it, you may order it to be sent to him, clearly with the addition of a letter from you as well. May you be granted to me and to the church of God, strong and cheerful in the Lord, praying for me, by the kindness of the Holy One. [Letter 191] To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. Having read the letter of your reverence, we gave much thanks to God that we found traces of ancient love in the words of the letter; for you did not do what the many do, nor were you contentious about not beginning the loving correspondence yourself; but as one taught the greatness that comes to the saints from humility, so you chose to be shown before us by taking second place. For this is the law of victory among Christians: he who has consented to have less is crowned. So that we may not fall behind in good zeal, see, we too greet your dignity in return and show our intention: that, the agreement in faith being by God's grace firm among us, nothing else hinders us from being one body and one spirit, as we were called in one hope by our calling. It is for your love, then, to add what follows to the good beginning: to gather around yourself those of like mind, and to indicate the time and place of a meeting, so that, receiving one another by the grace of God, we may manage the churches in the ancient form of love, accepting the brothers who come from either side as our own members, sending them on as to our own, and receiving them again as from our own. For this was once the boast of the church, that the brothers from each church, furnished with little tokens, went from the ends of the world to its ends and found all men fathers and brothers; which now, along with other things, the enemy of the churches of Christ has taken from us, and we are confined within our cities, and each of us holds his neighbour in suspicion. What else is this but that we have let love grow cold, by which alone our Lord said his disciples would be marked out? And if it seems good, first make yourselves known to one another, so that we may know with whom our agreement will be. And so, choosing by common consent a place not burdensome to both and a time suitable for travel, we will hasten to one another, and the Lord will prosper us. May you be strong and cheerful, praying for me, and may you be granted to me by the kindness of the Holy One.

To Sophronius the master. If you yourself received a double favour, as you wrote to us with your unsurpassed eagerness for good works, one in receiving a letter and a second in serving our need, how great a favour must we think we have, who have both read a letter from your most sweet voice and seen the need we asked about fulfilled so quickly? So, while we gladly received what was sent for its own nature, we accepted it much more gladly because you were the one who presided over its making. May the Lord grant us to see you soon, so as to confess the favour by word of mouth and to enjoy all your good qualities together.

To Meletius the chief physician. We have not even what the cranes have, to escape the hardships of winter; in foreseeing the future perhaps we are no worse than the cranes, but in freedom of life we fall as far behind the birds as we do, very nearly, in the ability to fly. For first some business of life's affairs held me back; then continuous and violent fevers so consumed my body that something appeared thinner than me, namely I myself; then attacks of quartan fever lasting more than twenty cycles. Now, when I seem to be rid of the fevers, I am in such a state of weakness that in this I fall nothing short of a spider's web. Hence every road is impassable to me, and every gust of wind brings more danger than heavy seas do to sailors. I must stay hidden in my room and wait for spring, if we are able to last until it and do not first succumb to the evil settled in my bowels. And if the Lord preserves us by his great hand, most gladly will we come to your remote country, and most gladly embrace you, dear head. Only pray that our life may be ordered for the good of the soul.

To Zoilus. What are you doing, admirable friend, getting ahead of us in the measure of humility? You, who are so educated and know so well how to write, as your letter shows, nevertheless ask to receive pardon from us, as though for some too daring undertaking beyond your rank. But give up this irony and write to us on every occasion. For whether we have a share in letters, we will most gladly read the letters of a learned man; or whether we have been taught by Scripture how great the beauty of love is, we count above everything the converse of a man who loves us. And may you write to tell us the good things we pray for you: health of body and prosperity of your whole house. As for our affairs, know that they are in no way more bearable than usual. It is enough to say this much and to show you the weakness of our body. For the extreme of sickness that now holds us is neither easy to show in words nor to be believed in fact, if indeed anything more in the way of sickness could be found in us beyond what you yourself knew. But it is the work of the good God to give us power to bear patiently the blows brought upon our body for our good by the Lord who is our benefactor.

To Euphronius, bishop of Colonia in Armenia. Because Colonia, which the Lord has given you to govern, lies far away from the travelled roads, often, even when we write to the other brothers in Lesser Armenia, we hesitate to send letters to your reverence, expecting that there is no one to carry them so far. But now, expecting either that you will come yourself or that the letter will be sent on by the bishops to whom we have written, we write to your reverence and greet you by letter, both to let you know that we still seem to be on earth and to beg you to pray for us, that the Lord may lessen the afflictions and take from us, like a cloud, this great weight of pain that now lies on our hearts. This will happen if he grants a speedy return to the most God-beloved bishops who are now in dispersion, paying the penalty for godliness.

To Aburgius. Report, the messenger of good things, never ceases telling us that you dart like the stars, rising now in one part of the barbarian land and now in another, now providing soldiers' rations, now appearing before the emperor in brilliant array. We pray God that, as your undertaking advances as it should, you may go on to great things, and appear some time in your homeland while we are still on earth and draw this air. For we share in life only so far as to breathe.

To Ambrose, bishop of Milan. 1. Great always and many are the gifts of our Master, and their greatness cannot be measured nor their number counted. One of the greatest gifts, for those who receive his graces with perception, is this present one: that he has granted us, who are separated very widely by our places, to be joined to one another through address in letters. And he has given us a twofold way of knowing: one through meeting, the other through converse by letter. Since, then, we have come to know you from what you said, and have known you, not by imprinting your bodily features on our memories, but by learning the beauty of the inner man from the variety of your words, because each of us speaks from the abundance of the heart, we glorified our God, who in each generation chooses those who please him; who formerly raised up from the flocks of sheep a ruler for his people, and, strengthening Amos from the goatherd's flock through the Spirit, raised him up to be a prophet; and who now has drawn to the care of the flocks of Christ a man from the imperial city, entrusted with the government of a whole nation, lofty in mind, brilliant in birth, distinguished in life, powerful in speech, admired in every respect in this life. He, casting away all the advantages of life and counting them loss that he might gain Christ, has been entrusted with the helm of the great and famous ship, renowned for faith in God, the church of Christ. Come, then, man of God, since you did not receive or learn the gospel of Christ from men, but the Lord himself transferred you from the judges of the earth to the chair of the apostles, fight the good fight, correct the sicknesses of the people, if the disease of the Arian madness has touched any; renew the ancient footsteps of the fathers, and be eager to build, by frequent greetings, on the foundation of love toward us which you have laid. For so we shall be able to be near one another in spirit, even if in our dwelling on earth we live very far apart. 2. Your munificence and zeal concerning the most blessed bishop Dionysius bear witness to your whole love toward the Lord, your honour toward those who went before, and your zeal for the faith. For disposition toward the loyal among our fellow servants is referred to the Master whom they have served; and he who honours those who have contended for the faith plainly has equal zeal for the faith; so that this one act bears witness to much virtue. We make known to your love in Christ that the most zealous brothers whom your reverence chose for the service of this good work first brought praise on the whole clergy by the gracefulness of their manners, for by their own decorum they showed the steadfastness of all in common; and then, using all zeal and care, they braved an impassable winter, and with all vigour persuaded the faithful guardians of the blessed body to yield to them what had been the safeguard of their own life. And know that neither rulers nor powers of men could ever have forced those men, unless the vigour of these brothers' resolve had prevailed on them to consent. Most of all, the presence of our most beloved and pious son Therasius the fellow presbyter helped to accomplish what was sought. He took on the labour of the journey of his own accord, checked the vehemence of the faithful there, and having persuaded the resisters by argument, took up the remains with fitting reverence in the presence of presbyters and deacons and many others who fear the Lord, and helped the brothers to bring them safely. Receive them with as much joy as the sorrow with which their guardians sent them on their way. Let no one doubt, let no one hesitate: this is that unconquered athlete. These bones, which contended together with the blessed soul, the Lord knows. These he will crown together with it on the day of his just recompense, according to what is written: that we must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive according to what he has done through the body. One coffin received that precious body; no one lay near it; the burial was distinguished; the honour that of a martyr. Christians who had shown him hospitality laid him down then with their own hands and have taken him up now. They wept as men deprived of a father and protector; but they sent him on, putting your joy before their own consolation. … We bear witness. Let the truth be held free of all calumny among you.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. 1. After the letter brought to us by the officials, I received one other, sent to us later. We ourselves have not written many letters, because we did not find people travelling to you, but more than four, among which we also sent, sealed, the letters brought to us from Samosata after the first letter of your piety, to the most revered brother Leontius, the tax assessor of Nicaea, asking that through him they be conveyed to the man who looks after the house of the most revered brother Sophronius, so that he might take care of their delivery to you. Since, then, the letters pass through many hands, it is likely that the business or carelessness of one person has been the reason why your reverence has not received them. So pardon, we beg you, the scarcity of letters. As to our not having sent one of our own people, when we ought to have, you rightly, with your intelligence, asked for it and reproached us; but know that the winter here has been so severe that all the roads were closed until the days of Easter, and we had no one with the courage to face the hardships of the road. For even if our clergy seems in some way numerous, they are men without practice in journeys, because they neither trade nor choose to live away from home, but most of them follow sedentary crafts, from which they have the means of their daily living. So we sent for this brother, whom we have now sent to your reverence, from the country, and have used him for the letter to your holiness, so that he may report our affairs clearly and bring back yours to us clearly and quickly, by the grace of God. And our most beloved brother Eusebius the reader, who has long been eager to go to your piety, we held back, waiting for mild weather … 2. As for the innovations in the East, it is superfluous for us to report them by letter, since the brothers themselves can tell them exactly. But know, my most honoured head, that when I was writing this I was in so bad a state that all my hopes of living had now failed me. For it is not even possible to count the number of the symptoms that came upon me, the weakness, the greatness of the fevers, and how malignant they were; except that the sum of it all is that we are now completing the time of our sojourn in this wretched and painful life. [Letter 199] To Amphilochius, on the canons. Having long ago answered the questions put to us by your reverence, I did not send the letter, being hindered partly by my long and dangerous illness and partly by the lack of people to serve as messengers. For few among us are experienced in travel and ready for such services. So, having learned the reasons for the delay, grant us pardon. We admired your love of learning together with your humility: that you consent to learn, though you have been entrusted with the rank of teacher, and to learn from us, who have nothing great in the way of knowledge. Yet since, for the fear of God, you consent to do a thing not easily done by another, we too must serve your eagerness and … 17. You asked us about Bianor the presbyter, whether he is admissible to the clergy because of his oath. I know that I have already set out a common rule concerning all those who swore with him, for the clergy of Antioch: that they abstain from the public assemblies, but act privately as presbyters. This same thing also gives him freedom for his own ministry, because his priesthood is not at Antioch but at Iconium, which, as you yourself wrote to us, he took in exchange for Antioch as his place of residence. That man, then, is admissible, on being required by your reverence to repent of the readiness with which he swore the oath before the unbelieving man, not being able to bear the trouble of that small danger. 18. Concerning fallen virgins, who professed to the Lord the life of chastity and then, falling under the passions of the flesh, set aside their agreements: our fathers, simply and gently accommodating the weaknesses of those who slip, made a rule that they should be admissible after a year, ordering it on the pattern of the twice-married. But it seems to me that, since by the grace of God the church, as it advances, becomes stronger, and the order of virgins is now multiplied, we should attend exactly both to the matter as it appears to reason and to the sense of Scripture, which can be found by inference. For widowhood is less than virginity; therefore the sin of widows too is far second to that of virgins. Let us see, then, what is written to Timothy by Paul: 'But refuse younger widows; for when they grow wanton against Christ, they wish to marry, having condemnation because they have set aside their first faith.' If, then, a widow is subject to the heaviest condemnation, as having set aside her faith in Christ, what must we think about the virgin, who is the bride of Christ and a holy vessel dedicated to the Master? It is a great sin even for a slave woman, giving herself to secret marriage, to fill the house with corruption and by her wicked life to insult her owner; but much more grievous, surely, for the bride to become an adulteress and, dishonouring her union with the bridegroom, to give herself to licentious pleasures. So the widow is condemned as a corrupted slave, but the virgin is subject to the condemnation of the adulteress. As, then, we call the man who goes with another's wife an adulterer, and do not receive him into communion before he has ceased from the sin, so clearly we shall dispose of the man who has the virgin. But this must be agreed beforehand: that a virgin is the name for her who has voluntarily brought herself to the Lord, renounced marriage, and preferred the life of holiness. And we approve professions from the time when age has its full complement of reason. For it is not fitting to regard childish words as altogether binding in such matters; but she who is over sixteen or seventeen years old, mistress of her reasonings, who has been examined over some time, then has persevered and begged with supplications to be admitted, then she must be enrolled among the virgins, her profession ratified, and its breach punished inexorably. For parents and brothers and some relatives bring many before the proper age, not moved of themselves to celibacy, but arranging some worldly advantage for themselves. These should not readily be received, until we have plainly investigated their own mind. 19. Professions of men we do not know, except where some have enrolled themselves in the order of monks; these by implication seem to have accepted celibacy. But in their case too I think this ought to come first: that they be asked, and a clear profession be taken from them, so that, when they turn to the life of the flesh and of pleasure, they may be subjected to the penance of those who commit sexual immorality. 20. Women who professed virginity while in heresy and afterwards chose marriage I do not think ought to be condemned. For 'whatever the law says, it says to those under the law.' And those who have not yet come under the yoke of Christ do not know the legislation of the Master either. So they are admissible to the church, having forgiveness for these things too, along with all the rest, from faith in Christ. And in general what was done in the catechumen's life is not brought to account. But clearly the church does not receive these without baptism; so the privileges of birth are most necessary in these cases. 21. If a man living with a wife, not being content with his marriage, falls into sexual immorality, we judge such a man guilty of sexual immorality and extend his penances further; we do not, however, have a canon to subject him to the charge of adultery, if the sin was committed with a woman free of marriage. For the adulteress, it says, 'being defiled shall be defiled, and shall not return to her husband'; and 'he who keeps an adulteress is foolish and impious'; but the man who has committed sexual immorality shall not be shut out from living with his own wife. So the wife will receive her husband when he returns from sexual immorality, but the husband will send the defiled wife out of his house. The reason for this is not easy to give; but custom has so prevailed. 22. Men who have wives by abduction, if they carried off women already betrothed to others, must not be received before the women have been taken from them and it has been put in the power of those who first betrothed them to decide whether they wish to take them or to give them up. But if someone takes a woman who is free, she must be taken from him and restored to her own people, and the matter left to the judgment of her own people, whether parents, or brothers, or whoever has charge of the girl; and if they choose to give her to him, the union stands; but if they refuse, no force is to be used. But the man who has a wife from seduction, whether secret or more violent, must acknowledge the penance for sexual immorality. The penance for those who commit sexual immorality is fixed at four years. In the first they must be expelled from the prayers and weep at the door of the church; in the second they are to be received to hearing; in the third to repentance; in the fourth to standing with the people, abstaining from the offering; then they are to be allowed the communion of the good. 23. Concerning men who marry two sisters, or women who marry two brothers, a short letter has been issued by us, a copy of which we have sent to your reverence. He who has taken his own brother's wife shall not be received before he leaves her. 24. A widow enrolled in the number of widows, that is, one supported by the church, the apostle judged should be passed over if she marries. But no law is laid on a man who has been widowed; the penance of the twice-married is sufficient for such a man. A widow, however, who has reached sixty years, if she chooses to live with a husband again, shall not be deemed worthy of the communion of the good until she ceases from the passion of impurity. If, however, we enrol her before sixty, the fault is ours, not the woman's. 25. He who keeps as his wife the woman whom he himself corrupted shall undergo the penance for the corruption, but shall be permitted to keep the wife. 26. Sexual immorality is not marriage, nor even the beginning of marriage. So if it is possible for those joined in sexual immorality to be separated, that is best. But if they are in every way content with the union, let them acknowledge the penance for sexual immorality, but let them be left alone, lest something worse happen. 27. Concerning the presbyter who through ignorance became entangled in an unlawful marriage, I have laid down what was necessary: he is to share in the seat, but abstain from the other functions. For pardon is sufficient for such a man. But that one who ought to tend his own wounds should bless another is inconsistent. For blessing is the imparting of sanctification. But he who does not have this, because of the fault committed in ignorance, how will he impart it to another? Let him bless neither in public nor in private, nor distribute the body of Christ to others, nor perform any other ministry; but, content with his seat of honour, let him weep before the Lord that his sin of ignorance may be forgiven. 28. This seemed ridiculous to me: that someone vowed to abstain from pork. So deign to teach them to abstain from foolish prayers and promises, but allow the use of it as a thing indifferent. For no creature of God is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. So the vow is laughable; the abstinence is not necessary. 29. That rulers should swear to do harm to those under them is something very fitting to cure. The cure of it is twofold: one, that they be taught not to swear readily; the other, that they not persist in wicked judgments. So let one who has been bound by an oath to do harm to another show repentance for the rashness of the oath, but let him not confirm his wickedness under the pretence of piety. For it did not profit Herod to keep his oath, who, forsooth so as not to perjure himself, became the murderer of the prophet. Swearing has been forbidden once for all; much more, surely, is an oath taken for evil condemned. So the one who swore must change his mind, not be eager to confirm his impiety. Examine the absurdity more broadly. If someone swore to dig out his brother's eyes, would it be good for him to carry such a thing into effect? If someone swore to commit murder? If someone at all swore by an oath to transgress some commandment? 'I have sworn and confirmed', not sin, but 'to keep the judgments of your righteousness.' As the commandment ought to be confirmed by unalterable decisions, so sin ought in every way to be annulled and abolished. 30. About abductors we have no ancient canon, but we have formed our own judgment: that for three years both they and those who join them in the abduction be outside the prayers. What is not done by force is not liable to penalty, when no corruption or theft has preceded the deed. A widow is her own mistress, and it is up to her to follow. So we need not concern ourselves with appearances. 31. A woman whose husband has gone away and disappeared, if she lives with another before being persuaded of his death, commits adultery. 32. Clerics who sin the sin unto death are reduced from their rank, but are not excluded from the communion of the laity. For you shall not punish twice for the same thing. 33. A woman who gave birth on the road and neglected the child shall be subject to the charge of murder. 34. Women who have committed adultery and who confess it out of piety, or are convicted in any way, our fathers did not order to be made public, so that we may not give occasion for the death of those convicted; but they ordered them to stand without communion until the time of their repentance is completed. 35. In the case of a man deserted by his wife, one must consider the reason for the desertion; and if she appears to have gone away without reason, he is worthy of pardon and she of penance. The pardon will be given him so that he may communicate with the church. 36. Soldiers' wives who married when their husbands had disappeared are subject to the same rule as those who, when their husbands were away travelling, did not await their return; except that the matter here admits some pardon, because the presumption of death is stronger. 37. He who married after another's wife had been taken from him will be charged with adultery for the first, but will be blameless for the second. 38. Girls who go off with men against their father's will commit sexual immorality; but when the parents are reconciled, the matter seems to receive a remedy; they are not, however, restored to communion at once, but will be under penance for three years. 39. The woman who lives with an adulterer is an adulteress the whole time. 40. A woman who gives herself to a man against her master's will has committed sexual immorality; but she who afterwards entered an open marriage has been married. The former is sexual immorality, the latter marriage. For the contracts of those under authority have no validity. 41. A woman in widowhood, having authority over herself, is blameless in living with a husband, if there is no one to break up the union; since the apostle said, 'If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.' 42. Marriages contracted without those in authority are sexual immorality. So neither, while the father or the master is living, are those who come together free from blame; but if the masters consent to the union, it then receives the validity of marriage. 43. He who gave his neighbour a mortal blow is a murderer, whether he struck first or was defending himself. 44. The deaconess who committed sexual immorality with a pagan is admissible to repentance, and will be received to the offering in the seventh year, clearly, if she lives in chastity. But the pagan who after believing returns again to sacrilege goes back to his vomit. We no longer allow the body of the deaconess, as consecrated, to be put to carnal use. 45. If someone, having taken the name of Christianity, insults Christ, the name is of no use to him. 46. A woman who in ignorance married a man deserted for a time by his wife, and then was dismissed because the former wife returned to him, has committed sexual immorality, but in ignorance. She is not, then, barred from marriage. But it is better if she remains as she is. 47. Encratites, Saccophori, and Apotactites are subject to the same rule as the Novatians … different; but what concerns these has been passed over in silence. We, however, rebaptize such people on one principle. And if among you rebaptism is forbidden, as it is among the Romans, for the sake of some economy, yet let our principle have force: that, since their heresy is a kind of offshoot of the Marcionites, who abhor marriage, turn away from wine, and say that God's creation is defiled, we do not receive them into the church unless they are baptized with our baptism. For let them not say, 'We were baptized into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit', they who suppose God to be the maker of evils, in rivalry with Marcion and the other heresies. So, if this is agreed, more bishops must come together in one place and so set out the canon, so that the one who acts may be free from danger, and the one who answers may have credibility in his answer about such matters. 48. The woman abandoned by her husband ought, in my judgment, to remain as she is. For if the Lord said, 'If anyone leaves his wife except for the reason of sexual immorality, he makes her commit adultery', by calling her an adulteress he shut her off from union with another man. For how can the husband be guilty as the cause of adultery, and the wife be blameless, who has been called an adulteress by the Lord because of her union with another man? 49. Corruptions that happen by force shall be blameless. So also the slave woman, if she was forced by her own master, is blameless. 50. There is no law of third marriage; so a third marriage is not contracted according to law. Such things we regard as defilements of the church; but we do not subject them to public condemnations, as being better than unrestrained sexual immorality.

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. Illnesses succeeding illnesses, and occupations both with church affairs and with those who harass the churches, have held us through the whole winter and up to the time of this letter. So it was not possible for us either to send anyone or to visit your reverence. We guess that your affairs too are of a like kind; I do not mean as to illness, God forbid (may the Lord grant your body to be sufficient for the service of his commandments), but that the care of the churches throws the same distraction on you too. And now I was about to send someone for this very purpose, to let us know about your condition. But since our most beloved son Meletius, escorting the new recruits, reminded us that it was possible to greet you through him, we gladly accepted the occasion for a letter, and seized upon the bearer of it, a man sufficient to serve in place of a letter, both because of the truthfulness of his character and because he is ignorant of nothing about our affairs. Through him we beg your reverence above all to pray for us, that the Lord may grant me release from this burdensome body, his churches peace, and you rest and freedom, when you have ordered the affairs of Lycaonia apostolically, as you have begun, to visit our affairs here too, whether we are still at home in the flesh or have already been ordered to depart to the Lord; so that you yourself may hold fast our affairs as your own, as indeed they are, strengthen what is rotten, rouse what is sluggish, and by the grace of the Spirit who is in you rearrange everything to what is pleasing to the Lord. Our most honoured sons Menetius and Meletius, whom you have known for a long time and judge to be yours, keep as a deposit, praying for them; for this is sufficient for their complete safety. Deign to greet from us those who are with your holiness, and all the clergy and the people shepherded by you, and our most God-beloved brothers. Remember the festival of the most blessed martyr Eupsychius, and do not wait for a second reminder, nor take pains to arrive at the last moment, but come ahead of time and gladden us, if we are still on earth. Until then, farewell in the Lord.

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. For many reasons I desire to meet you, both to use you as an adviser about the matters in hand and, in general, so that, having seen you after a long time, I may have some consolation for your absence. But since the same things have held us both back, the illness that has befallen you and our older sickness, which has not yet left me, let us both, if you will, grant pardon to both, so that each of us may of himself release the other from the charge.

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. At other times it is worth much to meet your dignity, but now especially, when the matter that brings us together is of such a kind. But since the remnants of my illness are such as not to allow me even the shortest movement (indeed, when I travelled by carriage as far as the martyrs, I almost fell back into the same disease), I must obtain pardon from you. If it is possible to put off the matter a few days, I will be with you by the grace of God and share in your cares. But if the matters in hand are urgent, do what is in hand with God's help, but count me with you as present and taking part in what is well done. May you be kept for the church of God, strong and cheerful in the Lord, praying for me, by the grace of the Holy One. [Letter 203] To the bishops of the sea coast. 1. I had a great desire to meet you, but always some hindrance arose to impede my eagerness. For either the weakness of my body hindered me (you surely know how much of it I have had from my first youth to this old age, growing up with me and chastening me by the just judgment of God who orders all things in wisdom), or the harassments of the churches, or the contests with those who rise up against the word of truth. Therefore up to the present I live in much affliction and grief, conscious that my duty toward you has been left undone. For I have heard the Lord, who for this reason accepted the sojourn in the flesh, that he might both regulate our life by the examples of what is to be done and announce to us with his own voice the gospel of the kingdom, saying, 'By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another'; and I have heard that as a parting gift to his disciples, when about to complete the dispensation in the flesh, the Lord left them his own peace, saying, 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you'; and so I cannot persuade myself that without love for one another and without being at peace with all, as far as lies with me, I can be worthy to be called a servant of Jesus Christ. I waited a long time, in case some visit to us might come from your love too. For you are not unaware that, set out publicly before all like rocks projecting into the sea, we receive the rage of the heretical waves, and they, breaking around us, do not flood what lies behind us. And when I say 'we', I do not refer it to human power, but to the grace of God, who shows his power in the weakness of men, as the prophet says in the person of the Lord: 'Will you not fear me, who set the sand as a boundary for the sea?' For by the weakest and most despised thing of all, sand, the Mighty One bound the great and heavy sea. Since our situation is something like this, it was fitting that men be sent continually from your love to visit us, and loving letters more frequently, … partly to strengthen our eagerness, and partly to correct whatever errors we may have. For we do not deny that we are subject to errors, being men and living in the flesh. 2. But since in the time before this, either neglecting to see what was fitting, you left undone what you owed us, most honoured brothers, or, prejudiced by some in favour of the slanders against us, you did not think us worthy of a loving visit, see, now we ourselves begin the correspondence, and we declare that we are ready to clear ourselves before you of the charges brought against us; only let those who insult us be willing to stand face to face before your reverence. If we are convicted, we too shall acknowledge our sin, and you will have your reward with the Lord after the convictions, withdrawing yourselves from communion with us sinners; and those who convicted us will have a reward, as having made public the hidden wickedness. But if you condemn us before the convictions, we shall be no worse off, except for being deprived of what is most precious of all to us, our love for you; but you … and you will seem to fight against the gospel, which says, 'Does our law judge a man unless it first hears him and knows what he does?' He who spreads abuse and brings no proof of what is said will be found to have earned himself a wicked name from his improper use of words. For how else is it fitting to name one who slanders than by giving him the name from the very thing he practises? So let the one who abuses us not be a devil, a slanderer, but an accuser; or rather let him not even take the name of accuser, but let him be a brother admonishing in love and bringing the reproof for correction; and let you not become hearers of abuse but testers of proofs; and let us not be left uncured, our sin not being made plain to us. 3. And let not this reasoning hold you: that we who live on the coast are outside the sufferings of the many and need no help from others, so what need have we of communion with others? For the Lord separated the islands from the mainland by sea, but bound the islanders to the mainlanders by love. Nothing separates us from one another, brothers, unless we accept the separation by our own choice. We have one Lord, one faith, the same hope. Whether you reckon yourselves the head of the universal church, the head cannot say to the feet, 'I have no need of you'; or whether you rank yourselves in another order of the members of the church, you cannot say to us, ranked in the same body, 'We have no need of you.' For the hands need one another, the feet support one another, and the eyes have clearness of perception by agreeing together. We for our part confess our own weakness and seek your concord. For we know that, even if you are not present in body, by the help of your prayers you will give us great benefit in the most critical times. But it is neither seemly among men nor pleasing to God for you to use such words as not even the nations that do not know God use. For we hear that they, even if they inhabit a country sufficient for everything, yet because of the uncertainty of the future embrace alliance with one another and pursue mutual intercourse as bringing some gain. But we, being sons of those fathers who made a law that by little marks the tokens of communion should be carried from the ends of the earth to its ends, and that all should be fellow citizens and kin to all, now cut ourselves off from the world, and are neither ashamed of our isolation nor count the tearing apart of concord as bringing loss; nor do we shudder that the fearful prophecy of our Lord reaches us, who said, 'Because lawlessness is multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.' 4. Not so, most honoured brothers, do not allow this; but even for the past comfort us with peaceable letters and loving addresses, soothing as with a gentle touch the wound of our heart which you made by your past neglect. And whether you yourselves wish to come to us to visit our sicknesses, if they really are such as you hear, or whether our sins are reported to you as heavier by the additions of falsehood, let this be done too: we are ready to receive your coming with open hands and to offer ourselves to exact examination; only let love lead what is done. Or if you wish to name some place among yourselves, coming to which we will both pay the debt of the visit owed to you and offer what proof of ourselves we can, so as both to heal what went before and to leave no room for slanders in future, let this too be done. For surely, even if we carry about weak flesh, as long as we breathe we are bound to leave nothing undone for the building up of the churches of Christ. Do not, then, disregard this appeal of ours; do not force us to tell our pain to others too. For until now, know this, brothers, we have kept the grief within ourselves, ashamed to report your estrangement from us to those far away who are in communion with us, lest we grieve them too and give joy to those who hate us. I have written this alone now; but I sent it with the consent of all the brothers in Cappadocia, who also urged me not to use a chance bearer for the letter, but a man who will be able by his own intelligence, which he has from the grace of God, to fill in what we have left out of the letter for fear of extending our discourse to great excess. I mean our most beloved and pious brother Peter the fellow presbyter, whom receive in love and send back to us in peace, that he may become a messenger of good things to us.

… to extend along with it? So it is to be seen what is happening with us, although there is no just ground for the separation, as far as we ourselves know; but on the contrary, many great things have existed from the beginning to bind us in the closest friendship and union. One, the greatest and first, is the commandment of the Lord, who said expressly, 'By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another'; and again the apostle clearly sets before us the beauty of love, both where he declares love to be the fulfilment of the law, and where he puts the beauty of love before all great things together, saying: 'If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing'; not as though any of the things listed could ever be done without love, but because the Holy One wished, as he himself said, by way of hyperbole to bear witness to the commandment's supremacy over all. 2. Second, if sharing the same teachers contributes greatly to union, the same men are both to you and to us teachers of the mysteries of God and spiritual fathers, those who founded your church from the beginning: I mean Gregory the great, and those who after him succeeded one after another to the throne of the episcopate among you, rising like stars, and walked in the same footsteps, so as to leave the marks of the heavenly way of life plain to all who wish to see them. And if bodily kinships too are not to be cast aside, but contribute greatly to unbroken union and to sharing a common life, these claims too we have toward you. Why, then, most venerable of cities (for through you I speak to the whole city), is there no gentle letter from there, no kindly word, but your ears are open to those who undertake to slander? So I ought to groan the more, the more clearly I see what is being pursued; since the work of slander has an evident leader, who, though known for many wrongs, is marked most of all by this wickedness, so that sin has become his very name. But bear with my frankness: you open both your ears to those who slander us and receive everything into your souls, and no one tests what is true. Who was ever at a loss for wicked charges when contending alone? Who was ever convicted of lying when the one slandered was not present? What word does not sound persuasive to the hearers when the abuser insists that it is truly so, and the one abused is neither present nor hears the blasphemies? Does not the very custom of life teach you this: that one who is to be a fair and impartial hearer must not be carried away wholly by the one who speaks first, but must wait also for the defence of the accused, so that the truth may be shown from setting the arguments of both side by side? 'Judge righteous judgment' is a command among those most necessary for salvation. 3. I say this not forgetting the apostolic words, that the apostle, shunning human tribunals, reserved his whole life for the examination of the tribunal that cannot be deceived, where he says, 'But to me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human day.' But since false slanders have got hold of your ears beforehand, and our life has been slandered, and our faith in God has been called in question, knowing that the slanderer does harm to three persons at once, for he wrongs the one slandered, and those to whom he speaks, and himself, I would have kept silent about my own harm, be sure, not because I despise your opinion of me (how could I, since I am writing this and contending now so as not to lose it?), but knowing that of the three who are harmed I suffer the least loss. For I am deprived of you, but you are robbed of the truth; and the one who causes these things separates me from you, but estranges himself from the Lord, because it is not possible to be made God's own by forbidden means. So I speak for your sake much more than for my own, and to rescue you from an unbearable harm. For what greater evil could one suffer than to lose the most precious thing there is, the truth? 4. What, then, do I say, brothers? Not that I am sinless, nor that my life is not full of countless faults; for I know myself, and I do not cease shedding tears for my sins, if somehow I may be able to propitiate my God and escape the threatened punishment. But I say this: the one who judges our affairs, if he affirms that his own eye is clean, let him pick the speck out of our eye. For we confess that we need much care from those who are healthy. But if he would not say this (and he will say it the less, the purer he is, for it is characteristic of the perfect not to exalt themselves; otherwise they will be liable to the boasting of the Pharisee, who, justifying himself, condemned the tax collector), let him seek the physician with me, and not judge before the time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts. And let him remember him who said, 'Judge not, that you be not judged', and 'Do not condemn, that you be not condemned.' In general, brothers, if our offences are curable, why does he not obey the teacher of the churches who says, 'Reprove, rebuke, exhort'? But if our lawlessness is incurable, why does he not stand against us face to face, and, making our lawless deeds public, free the churches from the harm we do? Do not, then, tolerate the abuse muttered against us under the breath. For even a slave girl from the mill might do that, or any of the market loafers display it to excess, whose tongues are sharpened for every abuse. But there are bishops; let them be called to a hearing. There is a clergy in every district of God; let the most approved be assembled. Let whoever wishes speak with frankness, so that what happens may be a proof and not abuse. Let him bring to light the hidden things of my wickedness; but let him not hate me even then, but admonish me as a brother. We sinners deserve rather to be pitied by blessed and sinless men than to be raged at. 5. And if the fault concerns the faith, let the writing be shown to us; again let a fair and impartial tribunal sit. Let the charge be read. Let it be tested whether it seems a charge rather through the ignorance of the accuser, or whether the writing is condemnable by its own nature. For many good things do not seem so to those who have no exact standard of judgment. For things of equal weight do not seem equal when the pans of the scale are not balanced with one another. And honey has seemed bitter to some, whose sense of taste was corrupted by disease. And an eye that is not healthy has failed to see many things that exist and has imagined many that do not. So also in the power of words I see the same thing often happening, when the judge falls short of the skill of the writers. For the one who judges words and the one who writes them must start from nearly the same preparation. A man who is no farmer cannot judge the works of farming, and one without knowledge of music will not discern what is out of tune and in tune in musical rhythms; but whoever wishes will at once be a judge of words, though he can show neither a teacher of his own, nor a time in which he learned, nor any acquaintance at all, small or great, with the business of discourse. But I see that even in the oracles of the Spirit it was not allowed to everyone to undertake the examination of what was said, but to the one who has the Spirit of discernment, as the apostle taught us in the distributions of the gifts, saying: 'For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another workings of powers, to another prophecy, to another discernings of spirits.' So if our writings are spiritual, let him who wishes to judge ours show himself to have the gift of discerning spiritual things; but if, as he slanders, they come from the wisdom of this world, let him show himself experienced in the wisdom of the world, and then we will entrust him with the votes of judgment. And let no one think that this is contrived by us to escape proofs. For I entrust it to you, most beloved brothers, to make the examination of the charges against us yourselves. Are you so slow of mind as to need advocates for every point in finding out the truth? But if they appear to you of yourselves incontestable, persuade those who wrangle to give up all contention; and if anything seems to be ambiguous, ask us through some intermediaries able to represent our part faithfully; or, if you like, demand the proofs from us in writing. But in any case strive by every means not to leave these things unexamined. 6. And what clearer proof of our faith could there be than that we were brought up by our grandmother, a blessed woman who came from among you? I mean the celebrated Macrina, by whom we were taught the words of the most blessed Gregory, which, preserved down to her by succession of memory, she both kept herself and used to shape and form us, while we were still children, in the doctrines of godliness. And when we ourselves received the power of understanding, reason having been completed in us with age, travelling over much land and sea, whomever we found walking by the rule of godliness handed down, these we enrolled as fathers and made guides of our souls on the journey to God. And up to this hour, by the grace of him who called us with a holy calling to the knowledge of himself, we know of no word hostile to sound teaching that we have received into our hearts, nor have we ever defiled our souls with the ill-named blasphemy of the Arians. But if ever we received into communion some who had set out from that teacher, hiding the disease in their depth and speaking pious words, or at least not opposing what we said, we accepted them on that basis, not taking upon ourselves all the judgment about them, but following the votes previously cast about them by our fathers. For I received letters from the most blessed father Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, which I have in my hands and show to those who ask, in which he plainly declared that if anyone from the heresy of the Arians wished to change over, confessing the faith of Nicaea, he should be received, without making any distinction about him; and he presented to me all the bishops of Macedonia and Achaea as sharers of this decision. Thinking it necessary to follow so great a man because of the trustworthiness of those who laid down the rule, and at the same time wishing to receive the reward of peacemaking, I enrolled those who confessed this faith in the portion of those in communion. 7. It is more just that our affairs be judged not from one or two of those who do not walk straight toward the truth, but from the multitude of bishops throughout the world joined to us by the grace of the Lord. Let inquiry be made of the Pisidians, Lycaonians, Isaurians, the people of both Phrygias, as much of Armenia as borders on you, Macedonians, Achaeans, Illyrians, Gauls, Spaniards, all Italy, Sicilians, Africans, the sound part of Egypt, whatever remnant there is of Syria: all who send letters to us and receive them again from us. From the letters brought from there, and from those sent back from here in turn, you can learn that we are all of one soul, thinking the same thing. So let it not escape your exactness that he who flees from communion with us tears himself away from the whole church. Consider, brothers, with whom you have communion: when you are not received by us, who will acknowledge you any longer? Do not drive us to the necessity of planning something gloomy about the church most dear to us. Do not make me lament to all those in communion with us together what I now hide in my own heart, groaning and lamenting to myself the badness of the times: that, with no cause, the greatest of the churches, which from of old held the rank of sisters toward one another, now stand apart. Do not force me to let out words which until now I have kept hidden within me by the bridle of reason. It is better that we should be out of the way, and the churches be of one mind with one another, than that so great an evil should be brought on the peoples of God through our childish pettiness. Ask your fathers, and they will tell you that, even if the districts seemed divided by the position of their places, yet in mind they were one and were governed by one judgment. Frequent were the mixings of the people, frequent the visits of the clergy …

To Elpidius, bishop. Again we have sent off our beloved fellow presbyter Meletius, carrying our greetings to your love. Though we had resolved to spare him because of the weakness he brought upon himself of his own will, bringing his flesh into subjection for the gospel of Christ, we nevertheless judged it fitting for us to address you through such men, who can easily fill in of themselves whatever escapes the letter, and become, as it were, a living letter for both the writer and the receiver; and also to satisfy his own longing, which he has always had for your perfection since he came to know your good qualities by experience. So now too we persuaded him to come to you; through him we pay the debt of our visit and beg you to pray for us and for the church of God, that the Lord may grant us to lead a calm and quiet life, freed from the harassment of the enemies of the gospel. And if it also seems to your intelligence fitting and necessary that we should come together and meet the other most honoured brothers, the bishops who live on the coast, do you yourself appoint for us the place and time when this shall be, and write to the brothers, so that at a fixed time, each leaving the business in hand, we may do something for the building up of the church of God, remove the griefs that have now arisen between us from suspicions, and confirm love, without which the Lord himself declared the performance of every commandment to be incomplete.

To Elpidius, bishop, a letter of consolation. Now most of all I feel the weakness of my body, when I see it hindering so much the benefit of my soul. For if things went as I wished, I would not greet you by letters or through intermediaries, but would address you myself, paying the debt of love in person and enjoying the spiritual gain close at hand. But now I am in such a state that I can barely bear even the journeys within my homeland, which I must make in visiting the districts of our country. But may the Lord grant you strength and eagerness, and me power in addition to the zeal I now have, so that, as I begged you, we may manage to enjoy each other's company when we are in the region of Comana. But I fear for your decorum, lest grief over your family be a hindrance to you. For I learned that the death of a little child has afflicted you; its loss is naturally painful to you as a grandfather; but for a man who has advanced so far in virtue, and knows human nature from the experience of years and from spiritual teaching, it is fitting that the separation from those dearest should not be wholly unbearable. For the Lord does not demand the same things of us and of ordinary men. They live by custom; but we use the commandment of the Lord as the rule of our life, and the examples of the blessed men who went before us, whose greatness of mind was shown most of all in times of trouble. So that you too may leave to life an example of courage and of a true disposition toward what we hope for, show yourself not bent by suffering, but higher than grief, enduring in affliction and rejoicing in hope. Let none of these things, then, be a hindrance to the meeting we hope for. For little children their age is enough to make them blameless; but we are bound to serve the Master in what has been appointed us, and to be ready for everything in the administration of the churches …

To the clergy of Neocaesarea. 1. The unanimity of your hatred against us, and the fact that all of you to a man have followed the leader of the war against us, persuaded me to keep silent toward all alike, and to begin neither a friendly letter nor any conversation, but to digest my grief in quiet. But since one must not keep silent in the face of slanders, not so as to avenge ourselves by contradiction, but so as not to allow falsehood to prosper and not to leave the deceived in their harm, it seemed necessary to me to set this before all, and to write to your intelligence, even though, when I wrote recently to the whole presbytery in common, I was not deemed worthy of any reply from you. Do not flatter, brothers, those who bring wicked doctrines into your souls; do not consent to look on, with your knowledge, while the people of God is overthrown by impious teachings. Sabellius the Libyan and Marcellus the Galatian alone of all men dared both to teach and to write the things which the leaders of the people among you are now attempting to put forward as their own inventions, stammering with their tongue, and not even able to give these sophisms and fallacies a plausible construction. These men harangue the people with unspeakable things against us and avoid meeting us in every way. Why? Is it not because they suspect that their wicked doctrines will be refuted? They have been so shameless toward us as even to fabricate dreams against us, slandering our teachings as harmful; but even if they take into their heads all the phantoms of the months when the leaves fall, they will not be able to fasten any blasphemy on us, since there are many in each church who bear witness to the truth. 2. And if they are asked the cause of this undeclared and truceless war, they speak of psalms and a manner of chanting different from the custom that has prevailed among you, and such things, at which they ought to hide their faces. We are also accused of having men who practise godliness, who have renounced the world and all the cares of life, which the Lord likens to thorns that do not allow the word to bear fruit. Such men carry about in their body the dying of Jesus, and, taking up their own cross, follow God. I would value it above my whole life that these offences were mine, and that I had men with me, under me as their teacher, who had chosen this discipline. But as it is, I hear that there is such virtue of men in Egypt, and perhaps some in Palestine too achieve the life according to the gospel. I hear also of some perfect and blessed men in Mesopotamia. We are children compared with the perfect. And if women too choose to live according to the gospel, preferring virginity to marriage, bringing the mind of the flesh into subjection, and living in the mourning that is called blessed, they are blessed in their choice wherever on earth they are. But among us these things are small, since we are still learning the elements and being introduced to godliness. And if they bring some charge of disorder against the life of the women, I do not consent to defend them; but this I solemnly testify to you, that things which until now Satan, the father of lies, has not consented to say, these fearless hearts and unbridled mouths always utter without fear. I want you to know that we pray to have companies of men and women whose citizenship is in heaven, who have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires; who are not anxious about food and clothing, but, undistracted and constantly attending on the Lord, continue night and day in supplications; whose mouth does not speak of the works of men, but who sing hymns to our God continually, working with their own hands, so that they may have something to share with those in need. 3. As to the charge about psalmody, with which our slanderers most frighten the simpler people, I have this to say: that the customs now prevailing are in harmony and agreement with all the churches of God. For among us the people rise while it is still night and go to the house of prayer, and in labour and affliction and constant tears confess to God; and finally, rising from the prayers, they pass on to the psalmody. And now, divided into two parts, they sing antiphonally to one another, both strengthening by this their study of the oracles and providing for themselves attention and an undistracted heart. Then again they entrust to one the leading of the melody, and the rest respond; and so, having passed the night in the variety of psalmody, praying in between, when day is already dawning, all together, as from one mouth and one heart, offer up the psalm of confession to the Lord, each making the words of repentance his own. If for these things you shun us, you will shun the Egyptians, you will shun the Libyans of both provinces, the Thebans, Palestinians, Arabs, Phoenicians, Syrians, and those settled by the Euphrates, and, in a word, all among whom vigils, prayers, and common psalmody are honoured. 4. 'But these things,' he says, 'were not so in the time of the great Gregory.' But neither were the litanies which you now practise. And I do not say this to accuse you; for I would pray that all of you might live in tears and continual repentance. For we too do nothing else but make litany for our sins; except that we propitiate our God not with human words, as you do, but with the oracles of the Spirit. And that these things did not exist in the time of the wonderful Gregory, what witnesses have you, who have preserved nothing of his until now? Gregory did not cover his head at prayer. How could he? He was a genuine disciple of the apostle who said, 'Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head'; and, 'A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God.' That pure soul, worthy of the communion of the Holy Spirit, shunned oaths, content with yes and no, because of the command of the Lord, who said, 'But I say to you, do not swear at all.' He could not bear to call his brother a fool, for he feared the Lord's threat. Wrath and anger and bitterness did not come out of that mouth. He hated reviling, as not leading into the kingdom of heaven. Envy and arrogance had been driven from that guileless soul. He would not have stood at the altar before being reconciled to his brother. A false and artful word contrived to slander anyone he abhorred, knowing that falsehood came from the devil, and that the Lord will destroy all who speak falsehood. If none of these things is in you, but you are pure of them all, you are truly disciples of the disciple of the Lord's commandments. But if not, beware lest you strain out the gnat, being precise about the sound of the voice in the psalmody while breaking the greatest of the commandments. The necessity of defence has brought me to these words, so that you may be taught to cast the beam out of your eyes, and then to take out the specks of others. Nevertheless we pardon everything, though nothing goes unexamined before God. Only let the main things stand firm, and silence the innovations concerning the faith. Do not reject the hypostases. Do not deny the name of Christ. Do not misinterpret the words of Gregory. Otherwise, as long as we breathe and are able to speak, it is impossible for us to keep silent at such ruin of souls.

To Eulancius. You have kept silent a long time, although you are very talkative and have made it your study and art always to be saying something and to show yourself off through words. But it seems that Neocaesarea is the cause of your silence toward us. And we seem bound to take it as a favour not to be mentioned among the people there, since the mention made of us, as those who hear it report, is not kind. But you were long ago one of those hated on our account, not one of those who consent to hate us on account of others. Be the same man, then: write to us wherever you are, and remember us as is fitting, if you care at all for justice. It is surely just to repay with equal love those who began it.

Without address, in defence. You have been allotted a share in the griefs and the contests on our behalf. This is proof of a vigorous soul. For God, who orders our affairs, procures greater occasions of renown for those able to bear great contests. And you too have offered your own life as a test of your loyalty to your friends, as the furnace tests gold. We pray God, then, that the others may become better and that you may remain like yourself, and not cease making such charges as you have now made, bringing against us the want of letters as the greatest injustice. For the charge is a friendly one; and go on demanding such debts. For I am not so bad a payer in friendship.

To the notables of Neocaesarea. 1. I had no need at all to make my intention public to you, nor to tell the reasons why I am now in these parts; for I am not otherwise one of those who like to be seen, nor is the matter worthy of so many witnesses. But, I think, we do not do what we wish, but what our leaders challenge us to do. For my part I have been more eager to remain wholly unknown than lovers of glory are to be conspicuous. But since, as I hear, the ears of everyone in your city have been filled with talk, and there are certain story-makers, craftsmen of falsehood, hired for this very purpose, who interpret my affairs to you, I did not think I should look on while you were taught by a wicked mind and a filthy voice, but should tell you myself how my affairs stand. I, both because of the familiarity with this place I have had from childhood (for here I was brought up by my grandmother), and because of my very long stay here afterwards, when, fleeing the tumults of public life and finding this place suitable for the practice of philosophy because of the quiet of its solitude, I spent many years here in succession, and also because of the brothers who now dwell here, having obtained a brief breathing space from the business that holds us, gladly came to this remote place, not to cause trouble to others from here, but to satisfy my own longing. 2. Why, then, must they resort to dreams, and hire interpreters of dreams, and make us into a drunken tale at public feasts? For even if the slanders had been among some others, I would have brought you forward as witnesses of my intention. And now I ask each of you to remember those old days, when the city called us to the care of the young, and an embassy of the men in office among you was present; and how after that you all poured around us in a body, offering everything, promising everything; yet you could not hold us. How, then, could I, who did not obey when I was called then, now be trying to push my way in uninvited? And how should I, who fled from those who praised and admired me, now pursue those who slander me? Do not think, excellent men, that our affairs are so cheap. For no one in his senses would board a ship without a helmsman, nor commit himself to a church in which those who sit at the helm themselves raise the surge and the storm. For whence did the city become full of tumult, when some fled with no one pursuing, and some slipped away with no one attacking, and oracle-mongers and dream-interpreters all scared people with bogeys? Whence else? Is it not plain even to a child that it comes from the leaders of the multitude? The causes of their enmity it is not seemly for me to tell, but it is very easy for you to see them. For when the bitterness and the division admit no excess of harshness, while the explanation of the cause is altogether baseless and laughable, the sickness of the soul is plain: it fastens on the goods of others, but is the first and proper evil of the one who has it. They have another pretty trait besides: stung in their depths and in pain, they are not allowed by shame to speak out their misfortune. This affliction of their soul is known not only from their dealings with us but from the rest of their life; and even if it were unknown, it would be no great loss to affairs. But the truest cause for which they flee meeting us, which perhaps escapes most of you, I will teach you; listen. 3. A perversion of the faith is being practised among you, hostile to the apostolic and evangelical doctrines, hostile to the tradition of the truly great Gregory and of those after him down to the blessed Musonius, whose teachings are surely still ringing in your ears. For the evil of Sabellius, stirred up long ago and quenched by the tradition of the great man, these men are now attempting to renew, who out of fear of being refuted fabricate dreams about us. But you, bidding farewell to the wine-heavy heads, which the fumes rising from the drinking bout, then surging up, fill with phantoms, hear about your harm from us who are awake and cannot keep quiet because of the fear of God. Sabellianism is Judaism brought into the preaching of the gospel under the guise of Christianity. For he who says that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one thing with many faces, and makes the hypostasis of the three one, what else does he do but deny the pre-eternal existence of the Only-begotten? He denies also his sojourn among men in the dispensation, the descent into Hades, the resurrection, and the judgment; he denies also the operations proper to the Spirit. And I hear that among you things even more foolish than those of the vain-minded Sabellius are now being dared. For they say, as those who heard it report, that your wise men insist that the name of the Only-begotten has not been handed down, but the name of the adversary has; and they rejoice in this and are proud of it, as their own discovery. 'For it is said,' he says, 'I have come in my Father's name, and you did not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive.' And because … 4. I blush to write this to you, because … to the man of God, Meletius the bishop, and having received from him the fitting answers, like the mothers of monsters who are ashamed of the deformities of nature, so they too hide their own shameful offspring in fitting darkness and nurse them there. And he made an attempt by letter also on our like-minded Anthimus, bishop of Tyana, on the ground that Gregory said in an exposition of faith that Father and Son are two in thought, but one in hypostasis. That this was said not dogmatically but controversially, in the dispute with Aelian, those who congratulate themselves on the subtlety of their wits could not see. There are many errors of the copyists in that dispute, as we shall show from the very words, God willing. Then, in persuading the pagan, he did not think it necessary to be exact about words; but in places he even made concessions to the habits of the one he was leading, so as not to oppose him on the main points. That is why you would find there many expressions which now give great strength to the heretics, such as 'creature' and 'thing made' and the like. And many things said about the union with man are referred to the account of the godhead by those who hear the writings without learning; like this one which they carry about. For one must know well that, as he who does not confess the commonness of the essence falls into polytheism, so he who does not grant the distinctiveness of the hypostases is carried away into Judaism. For our mind must, as it were, rest upon some subject and impress its clear features on itself, and so come to an understanding of what it seeks. For if we have not understood fatherhood, nor considered the one whom this property marks off, how can we receive the conception of God the Father? For it is not enough to enumerate differences of persons, but one must confess that each person subsists in a true hypostasis. For even Sabellius did not reject an unsubstantial fashioning of persons, saying that the same God, being one in subject, transformed himself according to the needs arising at each time, and spoke now as Father, now as Son, now as Holy Spirit. This error, long extinguished, the inventors of this nameless heresy are now renewing, who reject the hypostases and deny the name of the Son of God. Unless they cease speaking unrighteousness against God, they must be lamented along with the deniers of Christ. 6. We have of necessity laid these things down for you, so that you may guard against the harm of wicked teachings. For truly, if wicked teachings must be likened to deadly drugs, as your dream-interpreters say, these are hemlock and aconite and any other man-killing drug. These are the poisons of souls, not our words, which those wine-struck brains cry out, full of phantasms because of their condition; who, if they were sober, ought to know that the prophetic gift shines on souls that are pure and cleansed of every stain. For neither can a dirty mirror receive the reflections of images, nor can a soul preoccupied with the cares of life and darkened by the passions of the mind of the flesh receive the illuminations of the Holy Spirit. For not every dream is at once prophecy, as Zechariah says: 'The Lord made appearances, and winter rain; for those who utter oracles spoke troubles, and spoke false dreams.' These men, who according to Isaiah dream and love to slumber on their beds, do not know this either: that often a working of error is sent upon the sons of disobedience. And there is a lying spirit, which, coming into the false prophets, deceived Ahab. Knowing these things, they ought not to be so lifted up as to bear witness to prophecy in themselves, since they are shown to fall short even of the exactness of the augur Balaam; who, summoned by the king of the Moabites with very great gifts, would not utter a word against the will of God, nor curse Israel, whom the Lord does not curse. If, then, the phantasms of their sleep agree with the commandments of the Lord, let them be content with the Gospels, which need no help from dreams to be believed; but if the Lord left us his peace and gave us a new commandment, that we love one another, while the dreams lead to strife and division and the destruction of love, let them not give the devil occasion to come upon their souls through sleep, nor make their own phantasms more authoritative than the saving teachings. [Letter 211] To Olympius. When I read the letter of your honour, I became happier and more cheerful than my usual self, and when I came into conversation with your most beloved sons I seemed to see you yourself. Finding my soul very troubled, they so disposed it that I forgot the hemlock among you, which the dream-sellers and dream-peddlers carry about against us, to please those who hired them. Some letters I have sent, and others we will give later, if you wish. Only may there be some benefit from them to those who receive them.

To Hilarius. 1. What do you think I felt, or what thought did I have, when I came to Dazimon and learned a few days after our arrival that your eloquence had left? For not only because of the admiration I have had for you from boyhood, from our very days in the schools, have I always counted converse with you of great worth, but also because nothing is now so valuable as a truth-loving soul that has a sound standard for judging affairs; which we think is preserved in you. For we see most of the rest, as at the horse races, divided, some for these and some for those, and shouting along with the factions. But you, being above fear and flattery and every base passion, are likely to look on the truth with a healthy eye. For I perceive that you do not treat the affairs of the churches as a side matter, since you even sent us a letter about them, as you indicated in this recent letter; who received it to carry I would gladly learn, so as to know who wronged me. For I have never yet read any letter of yours to us about these things. 2. How much do you think I would give for converse with you, to make known to you what grieves me (for, as you know, even speaking out brings some relief to those in pain), and to answer about what you ask, not entrusting it to lifeless letters, but telling everything vividly in person and going through it point by point? For living words have a more effective persuasion; and they are not like written words in being easily attacked and easily caught by calumny. For nothing is any longer beyond anyone's daring, when even those whom we trusted with the greatest things, whom we regarded, when we saw them among men, as something greater than human, have consented to circulate certain writings of someone, of whatever sort, as ours, and on account of them to slander us to the brotherhoods, so that nothing is now more to be shunned by the devout than our name. For though from the beginning I made it my study to be unknown, to a degree I doubt any other of those who have considered human weakness has done, now, as though I had chosen the opposite, to make myself known to all men, I have been talked about everywhere on earth, and I will add, on the sea too. For both those who practise the utmost limit of impiety, and bring the godless doctrine of unlikeness into the churches, make war on me; and those who, as they think, drive along the middle road, setting out from the same principles but not admitting the consequences of their reasoning because they are contrary to the ears of the many, are annoyed with us and wash us with abuse as much as they can, and abstain from no plot, though the Lord has made their attempts fruitless. How do these things not make my life grievous and painful? I count as the one consolation of my evils the weakness of the flesh, by which I am persuaded I shall not remain long in this wretched life. So much for that. You, in the sufferings of the body, I urge to be disposed nobly and worthily of God who called us; who, if he sees us receiving the present things with thanksgiving, will either relieve what grieves us, as with Job, or repay us with the great crowns of endurance in our state after this life. [Letter 213] Without address, to a pious man. 1. May the Lord, who granted me swift help in afflictions, himself grant you help in return for the refreshment with which you refreshed us in the present visit by letter, repaying with the true and great joy of the spirit the reward for the comfort you gave our lowliness. For I happened to be troubled in soul, having perceived in a crowded assembly a bestial and wholly irrational carelessness in the people, and an old and incorrigible habit of evil in those who lead them. But when I saw the letter and the treasure of love in it, I knew that he who orders our affairs had made sweet consolation shine on us who live in bitterness. Therefore I greet your holiness, making my usual request, that you not cease praying for my pitiable life; lest, led astray by the fancy of this life, I forget God, who raises the poor from the earth, and, suffering some elation, fall into the condemnation of the devil; or, growing careless in my stewardship, I be caught sleeping by the Master; or, adding harmful deeds and striking the conscience of my fellow servants, or eating and drinking with the drunkards, I suffer in God's righteous judgment what has been threatened to the wicked stewards. I beg you, then, in every prayer to ask God that we may be sober in all things, so that we may not become a shame and a reproach to the name of Christ at the revelation of the secrets of our heart, on the great day of the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. 2. Know that I am expecting to be summoned to the court through the harassment of the heretics, on the pretext, forsooth, of peace; and that, hearing this, this bishop has written to us to hurry to Mesopotamia and, gathering those there of like mind who strengthen the affairs of the churches, to set out with them to the emperor. But perhaps my body itself will not be equal to the journey in winter; and the matter has not yet seemed necessary, unless you yourself advise it. For I am waiting for counsel from your piety too, so that my judgment may be strengthened. So I beg you to let us know quickly, through one of the zealous brothers, what seems good to your perfection and inspired intelligence.

To Count Terentius. 1. When we heard that your dignity had again been forced into the care of public affairs, we were at once troubled (for the truth shall be told), reckoning how much against your wish it must be, once released from public cares and at leisure for the care of your own soul, to be compelled to return to the same things again. Then, coming to the thought that perhaps the Lord, wishing to grant this one consolation among the countless pains that now hold our churches, arranged that your dignity should appear again in public affairs, we were more cheerful, as being about to meet your honour at least once more before departing this life. 2. But again another report held us back, that you were staying in Antioch and managing the affairs in hand together with the great authorities. And besides this report a rumour reached us that the brothers of Paulinus's party are discussing with your excellency their union with us; by 'us' I mean those of the party of the man of God, Meletius the bishop. I hear that they are now carrying about letters from the Westerners entrusting them with the episcopate of the church at Antioch, but misrepresenting the most admirable Meletius, bishop of the true church of God. And I do not wonder at this. For some of them are wholly ignorant of affairs here, and others, though they seem to know, explain them to them more contentiously than truly. Yet it is not unlikely that they either do not know the truth or conceal the reason why the most blessed bishop Athanasius came to write to Paulinus. But since your perfection has there men able to relate exactly what took place between the bishops in the reign of Jovian, we beg you to be fully informed by them. Nevertheless, since we condemn no one, but pray to have love toward all, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith, we rejoice with those who received the letters from Rome. And if the letter gives them some solemn and great testimony, we pray that it may be true and confirmed by their very deeds. But not for this can we ever persuade ourselves either to ignore Meletius, or to forget the church under him, or to think small the questions over which the division arose from the beginning, and regard them as making little difference to the aim of godliness. For I will never consent to give way merely because someone has received a letter from men and is proud of it; nay, not even if he should come from heaven itself, but did not walk by the sound word of faith, could I regard him as a partaker of the saints. 3. Consider, admirable sir, that the falsifiers of the truth, who brought the Arian schism into the sound faith of the fathers, put forward no other reason for not receiving the pious doctrine of the fathers than the meaning of 'of the same essence', which they wickedly interpret to slander the whole faith, saying that the Son is said by us to be of the same essence in hypostasis. If we give them any occasion, through people who, from simplicity rather than malice, say these things or things like them and are carried about with them, nothing prevents us from both giving incontestable handles against ourselves and building up the heresy strongly for those whose one study, in what they say about the church, is not to establish their own views but to slander ours. And what slander could be more grievous than this, or more able to shake the many, than if some of us were seen saying that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one hypostasis? Even if they very clearly teach the difference of the persons, yet, since Sabellius anticipated them by saying this very thing, that God is one in hypostasis but is represented as a person by Scripture in various ways according to the particular need of each occasion, now putting on himself the words of the Father, when this person is timely, now those befitting the Son, when he comes down to care for us or to some other operations of the dispensation, now putting on the mask of the Spirit, when the occasion requires words from such a person: if, then, some among us too should be seen saying that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in subject, while confessing three perfect persons, how … 4. That hypostasis and essence are not the same, the brothers from the West themselves, I think, indicated, where, suspecting the narrowness of their own language, they handed down the word 'essence' in Greek, so that, if there were some difference of meaning, it might be kept in the clear and unconfused distinction of the words. If we too must say briefly what seems right to us, we will say this: that essence has the same relation to hypostasis as the common has to the particular. For each of us both shares in being by the common account of essence, and by his own properties is this man or that. So there too the account of the essence is common, such as goodness, godhead, or whatever else may be conceived; but the hypostasis is seen in the property of fatherhood, or of sonship, or of sanctifying power. If, then, they say the persons are without hypostasis, the argument is absurd on its face; but if they grant that they exist in true hypostasis, which they confess, let them also count them, so that both the account of 'of the same essence' may be preserved in the unity of the godhead, and the knowledge of godliness, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, may be proclaimed in the perfect and complete hypostasis of each of those named. Nevertheless I want your dignity to be persuaded of this: that both you and everyone who, like you, cares for the truth and does not dishonour those who contend for godliness, must wait for the leaders of the churches to lead this union and peace, whom I hold to be pillars and foundation of the truth and of the church, and whom I revere the more, the further they have been removed, separation having been inflicted on them as a punishment. I beg you, then, keep yourself unprejudiced for us, so that we may at least have you to rest on, whom God has given us as a staff and support in all things.

… travelling by the public post, and I instructed him to show the letter to you first. As to the journey to Rome, I do not know how no one has told your intelligence that in winter it is altogether impassable, since the country between Constantinople and our borders is full of enemies. If one must go by sea, there will be time for it; only if the most God-beloved bishop Gregory, my brother, consents to the voyage and to the embassy on such matters. For I neither see who would go with him, and I know that he is altogether inexperienced in the affairs of the churches; and to a fair-minded man a meeting with him would be respectable and of great worth; but to a lofty and exalted man, seated somewhere on high, and therefore unable to hear those who speak the truth to him from below on the ground, what benefit could come to the common affairs from the …

To Meletius, bishop of Antioch. Many other journeys too have taken us away from home. For we crossed as far as Pisidia, so as to settle with the bishops there the affairs of the brothers in Isauria. And from there the journey to Pontus followed, Eustathius having thrown Dazimon into considerable disturbance and persuaded many there to split from our church. We went also as far as the house of Peter our brother, which, because it is near the region of Neocaesarea, gave the people there cause for much disturbance and procured us occasion for much insult. For some fled with no one pursuing; and we were thought to be pushing in uninvited out of desire for their praises. When we returned, having contracted much sickness from the rains and our despondency, at once letters reached us from the East, indicating that some letters from the West had been brought to those with Paulinus, like the tokens of some authority, and that the faction-makers of that party were proud and boasting of the letters, and then proposing a creed, and on that basis ready to be united with our church. In addition to this it was reported to us that they had drawn to zeal on their behalf the most excellent man Terentius; I wrote to him quickly, as forcefully as I could, checking his impulse and teaching him their deceit.

To Amphilochius, on the canons. Returning from a long journey (for I went as far as Pontus for the needs of the churches and to visit my kinsfolk), and bringing my body back shattered and my soul somewhat afflicted, when I took into my hands the letter of your reverence, I forgot everything at once, having received tokens of the voice that is sweetest of all to me and of the dearest hand. Since then I was so much cheered by the letter, you ought to guess how much I value meeting you, which may the Holy One arrange to happen wherever it is not burdensome and you yourself invite us. For it is not hard for me, if you come to the house at Euphemias, to be together, escaping the troubles here and hastening to your unfeigned love. Perhaps, besides, the sudden withdrawal of the most God-beloved bishop Gregory makes the journey to Nazianzus necessary in any case; for what reasons it happened is unknown until now. As for the man about whom I had spoken to your perfection, and whom you now hoped to be ready, know that having fallen into a long illness, and suffering now in his very eyes, from his old affliction and the sickness that recently befell him, he remains altogether useless for ordinary activities. There is no other with us. So it is better, even though they have entrusted the matter to us, that someone from among themselves be put forward. For one must consider that these are the words of necessity, but that their soul wants what they sought from the beginning, that their leader be one of their own. If there is anyone among the newly baptized, whether Macedonius approves or not, let him be put forward. You will instruct him … (51) As for clerics, the canons have set forth without distinction, ordering that one punishment be fixed for those who have fallen, expulsion from the ministry, whether they happen to be in a rank or continue in a ministry that has no imposition of hands. (52) The woman who neglected her offspring on the road, if, being able to save it, she disregarded it, either thinking thereby to conceal her sin or using a wholly brutal and inhuman reasoning, let her be judged as for murder. But if she could not care for it, and the newborn perished through solitude and lack of necessities, the mother is to be pardoned. (53) The widowed slave perhaps did not greatly offend in choosing a second marriage under the appearance of abduction. So she need not be accused at all on this account. For it is not outward appearances that are judged but the intention. But it is clear that the penalty for a second marriage remains for her. (54) The distinctions between involuntary homicides I know I sent to your piety some time ago, as far as was possible, and I can say nothing more than those; it belongs to your understanding to increase the penalties according to the particular circumstances, or to lessen them. (55) Those who go out against robbers in return, if they are laymen, are kept from the communion of the good thing; if they are clerics, they are deposed from their rank. "For everyone," it says, "who takes the sword shall die by the sword." (56) He who has killed voluntarily and afterward repented shall be without communion in the holy things for twenty years. The twenty years shall be arranged for him thus. For four years he must weep, standing outside the door of the house of prayer, begging the faithful who go in to make prayer for him, and confessing his own transgression. After the four years he shall be received among the hearers, and for five years he shall go out with them. For seven years he shall go out with those in prostration, praying. For four years he shall only stand with the faithful, but shall not partake of the offering. When these are completed he shall share in the holy things. (57) He who has killed involuntarily shall be without communion in the holy things for ten years. The ten years shall be arranged for him thus: two years he shall weep; three years he shall continue among the hearers; four he shall prostrate himself; and for one year he shall only stand with the faithful; and in the next he shall be received to the holy things. (58) He who has committed adultery shall be without communion in the holy things for fifteen years: four years weeping, five hearing, four prostrating, two standing with the faithful without communion. (59) The fornicator shall be without communion in the holy things for seven years: two weeping, two hearing, two prostrating, and one standing with the faithful only; in the eighth he shall be received into communion. (60) She who has professed virginity and fallen from her promise shall fulfill the time of the sin of adultery in the ordering of her own life. The same also for those who have professed the life of monks and fall. (61) The thief, if he repented of himself and accused himself, shall be kept from the communion of the holy things for one year only; if he was convicted, for two years. The time shall be divided for him between prostration and standing with the faithful; and then let him be deemed worthy of communion. (62) He who commits indecency with males shall be dealt with for the time of one who transgresses in adultery. (63) He who confesses his impiety with animals shall complete the same time in confession. (64) The perjurer shall be without communion for ten years: two weeping, three hearing, four prostrating, one year only standing with the faithful, and then deemed worthy of communion. (65) He who confesses sorcery or poisoning shall do penance for the time of the murderer, being dealt with as one who has convicted himself of that sin. (66) The grave-robber shall be without communion for ten years: two weeping, three hearing, four prostrating, one year standing with the faithful; and then he shall be received. (67) Intercourse with a sister shall do penance for the time of the murderer. (68) The union of people within forbidden kinship, if it is detected as having been done as a human sin, shall receive the penalties of adulterers. (69) A reader, if he has had intercourse with his own betrothed before the marriage, after being suspended for a year, shall be received to read, remaining without promotion. … The same also for a minister. (70) A deacon defiled with the lips, who confesses that he has sinned only so far, shall be withheld from the liturgy; but he shall be deemed worthy to partake of the holy things with the deacons. The same also for a presbyter. But if anyone is detected as having sinned beyond this, in whatever rank he may be, he shall be deposed. (71) He who was privy to each of the sins mentioned above, and did not confess but was convicted, shall himself be under penalty for as long a time as the doer of the evil is penalized. (72) He who has given himself over to diviners or any such people shall himself be dealt with for the time of the murderer. (73) He who has denied Christ and transgressed the mystery of salvation must weep for the whole time of his life, and is bound to confess, being deemed worthy of the sanctification at the time when he departs this life, through faith in the love of God for humankind. (74) If, however, each of those who have fallen into the sins written above becomes earnest in confession, he who has been entrusted by the love of God for humankind with loosing and binding, if he becomes more lenient, seeing the abundance of the sinner's confession, so as to lessen the time of the penalties, will not be worthy of condemnation; since the history in the Scriptures makes known to us that those who confess with greater toil quickly obtain the love of God for humankind. (75) He who has defiled himself with his own sister, on his father's or his mother's side, let him not be permitted to be in a house of prayer until he departs from the unlawful and … practice. After he has come to an awareness of that fearful sin, let him weep for three years, standing at the door of the houses of prayer, and entreating the people as they go in to prayer that each with compassion offer fervent supplications to the Lord for him. After this, for another three years let him be admitted to hearing only; and while hearing the Scriptures and the teaching, let him be put out and not deemed worthy of prayer. Then, if indeed he has sought it with tears and has fallen down before the Lord with contrition of heart and strong humility, let prostration be given him for three years. And thus, when he has shown fruits worthy of repentance, in the tenth year let him be received into the prayer of the faithful without the offering; and after standing with the faithful in prayer for two years, then at last let him be deemed worthy of the communion of the good thing. (76) The same pattern also for those who take their daughters-in-law. (77) But he who leaves the wife lawfully joined to him and brings in another is, according to the Lord's sentence, subject to the judgment of adultery. It has been laid down by canon by our Fathers that such people should weep for a year, be hearers for two years, prostrate themselves for three years, and in the seventh stand with the faithful; and so be deemed worthy of the offering, if they repent with tears. (78) Let the same pattern hold also for those who take two sisters in marriage, even if at different times. (79) Those who rage with lust for their own stepmothers are subject to the same canon, and also those who rage with lust for their own sisters. (80) Polygamy the Fathers passed over in silence, as bestial and altogether foreign to the human race. But to us the sin appears to be something more than fornication. Therefore it is reasonable that such people be subjected to the canons: namely, that after weeping for a year and prostrating for three, they then be received. (81) Since many in the inroad of the barbarians transgressed their faith in God, performing pagan oaths and tasting certain unlawful things offered to them at the idols of the Magi, these shall be dealt with according to the canons already issued by our Fathers. For those who endured harsh compulsion from tortures, and could not bear the pains, and were dragged into denial, shall be unreceived for three years, hear for two, and after prostrating for three years shall thus be received into communion. But those who without great necessity betrayed their faith in God, and touched the table of demons, and swore Greek oaths, shall be put out for three years, hear for …, pray in prostration for three years, and after standing with the faithful in prayer for another three years, shall thus be received to the communion of the good thing. (82) And concerning those who have perjured themselves: if they broke their oaths under force and necessity, they are subject to lighter penalties, so that after six years they may be received; but if they betrayed their own faith without necessity, after weeping for two years, hearing for two years, praying for five years in prostration, and being admitted for two more years to the communion of prayer without the offering, then at last, having shown a worthy repentance, they shall be restored to the communion of the body of Christ. (83) Those who practice divination and follow the customs of the nations, or bring people into their own houses to discover sorceries and for purification, let them fall under the canon of six years: after weeping for a year, hearing for a year, prostrating for three years, and standing with the faithful for a year, let them thus be received. (84) We write all this so that the fruits of repentance may be tested. For we do not judge such things simply by time, but we attend to the manner of the repentance. But if they cling stubbornly to their own habits and wish to serve the pleasures of the flesh rather than the Lord, and do not accept the life according to the Gospel, we have no common ground with them. For we have been taught, in the case of a disobedient and contradicting people, to hear: "Save your own soul." Let us not then consent to perish along with such people; but, fearing the heavy judgment and setting before our eyes the fearful day of the Lord's recompense, let us not be willing to perish along with other people's sins. For if the terrors of the Lord have not taught them, nor such great blows brought them to awareness that because of our lawlessness the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of barbarians, and the people was led captive to the enemy and given over to dispersion, because those who bear the name of Christ dared these things; if they have not known nor understood that because of these things the wrath of God has come upon us, what common ground have we with them? But we ought to bear witness to them night and day, publicly and privately; but let us not consent to be dragged along in their wickedness, praying above all to win them and rescue them from the snare of the evil one; but if we cannot do this, let us strive at least to save our own souls from eternal condemnation.

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. The business for which brother Aelianus came he accomplished by himself, needing no help from us; but to us he gave a double favor, bringing a letter from your piety and providing us with an occasion for a letter to you. So through him we greet your true and inimitable love, and we urge you to pray for us, since now, if ever, we need the help of your prayers. For my body, shattered by the journey to Pontus, is held fast by an unbearable sickness. And this I wanted long ago to make known to your understanding (not that, being put off by some other more pressing cause, I forgot it), and now I remind you: that you deign to send an earnest man into Lycia to examine who there are of the right faith. For perhaps they should not be overlooked, if what one of the devout people who came to us from there related is true: that, having become entirely estranged from the Asian way of thinking, they wish to enroll themselves as our communicants. If someone is going to go, let him look for Alexander, the bishop who came from the monks, in Corydala; and in Limyra Diotimus; and in Myra Tatianus, Polemon, and Macarius, presbyters; in Patara the bishop Eudemus; in Telmessus the bishop Hilarius; in Phellus the bishop Lollianus. These and still more someone made known to us as sound in the faith; and we gave great thanks to God that there are any at all in the Asian region free from the harm of the heretics. If it is possible, then, let us for the present examine them through letters; and once we are satisfied, we will then send a letter, and endeavor to invite one of them to a meeting with us. May all things go well in good season for the Church of Iconium, most dear to us. Through you we greet all the honorable clergy and those who are with your piety.

To the clergy of Samosata. 1. The Lord, who determines everything for us by measure and weight, and who brings on temptations that do not exceed our strength, but tests the contenders for godliness through hardship while not allowing them to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear, and who gives tears to drink in measure to those who need to be taught whether in afflictions they keep their gratitude toward God, has shown his love for humankind above all in his dealings with you, not allowing such a persecution from your enemies to be brought upon you as could overturn some or shake them from their faith in Christ. For by matching you with light and easily beaten opponents, he prepared for you the prize of endurance in the victory over them. But the common enemy of our life, who by his wiles fights against the goodness of God, when he saw you, like a strong wall, despising the attack from outside, contrived, as I hear, that certain grievances and petty quarrels should arise among yourselves against one another; these at first are small and easily healed, but as time goes on, growing through contentiousness, they naturally fall into what is altogether incurable. Therefore I have hastened to exhort you through this letter. If it were possible, I would have come myself and entreated you in person; but since the times do not permit this, we hold out this letter to you in place of a suppliant's plea, so that, respecting our entreaties, you may put an end to all contention with one another, and quickly send me the good news that you have forgiven one another your complaints. 2. For I want your understanding to know this: that he is great before God who humbly yields place to his neighbor and without shame takes the charges upon himself, even if they are not true, in order to grant that great benefit, peace, to the Church of God. Let there then be a good rivalry among you, as to who shall first be deemed worthy to be called a son of God, having won this dignity for himself by peacemaking. The most God-beloved bishop too has written to you what is fitting, and will write again what falls to him. Nevertheless we too, because we have been allowed to be still nearer to you, cannot neglect your affairs. Hence, when the most reverent brother Theodorus the subdeacon came and said that the Church was in grief and turmoil, we were deeply crushed and struck to the heart with deep pain, and could not bear to keep quiet; but we have urged you, throwing aside every self-justification against one another, to bring about peace, so that you neither give pleasure to your opponents nor betray the boast of the Church, which has now been proclaimed throughout the whole world: that all of you, as though governed by one soul and heart, live thus in one body. Through your reverence we greet all the people of God, both those in dignities and civic offices, and the whole body of the clergy, and we urge them to remain like themselves. For we seek no addition, because by the display of their good works they have anticipated and shut out every excess. [Letter 220] [To the Beroeans.] … your daily contest and your vigorous resistance on behalf of godliness has produced such admiration in us, and so roused our longing to enjoy the good things among you, that we pray to the Lord that a time may come when we may also come to know your affairs by our own experience. For he reported to us not only the strictness of you who have been entrusted with the ministry of the altar, but also the concord of the whole people, and the magnanimity of character of the leaders of the city and of those who govern it, and the genuineness of their disposition toward God; so that we counted blessed the Church filled up with such people, and we pray that spiritual calm may now be given you all the more, so that what you have shown now in the time of contest you may receive the enjoyment of in the time of rest. For hardships, once experienced, somehow naturally bring pleasure to those who remember them. For the present we urge you not to lose heart nor to give up before the continual ill-treatment. For the crowns are near, near is the help of the Lord. Do not pour away what you have already labored for; do not make useless the toil that has been proclaimed throughout the whole world. Short-lived are the states of human affairs: "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withered, and the flower fell; but the word of the Lord abides forever." Holding fast to the commandment that abides, let us despise the passing show. Your example has set many Churches upright. Without knowing it you have gathered for yourselves a great reward, through which you have [roused] the less experienced to a like zeal …

To those in Beroea. We knew you beforehand as most longed-for, from your far-famed piety and the crown of your confession in Christ. And perhaps one of you might say: And who carried these things across so great a distance? The Lord himself, who, setting those who are devout toward him like a lamp upon the lampstand, makes them shine over the whole world. Or is it not the prize of victory that is wont to proclaim the champions among contestants, and the ingenuity of the work that proclaims engineers? And if for these and the like the memory remains unforgotten, how will he not make known and conspicuous to all those who are devout in Christ, of whom the Lord himself says, "Those who glorify me I will glorify," spreading out the brightness of their flashing radiance together with the rays of the sun? You have further increased our longing for you by deeming us worthy of a letter, and of such a letter, in which, in addition to your earlier wrestlings on behalf of godliness, you have displayed a richer and more vigorous fortitude on behalf of the true faith. At this we rejoice with you, and we join you in praying that the God of all, whose is the contest and whose the arena, and through whom come the crowns, may implant eagerness in you, grant you strength of soul, and bring your work to perfect approval with him.

To the Chalcidians. The letter of your reverence appeared to us in a time of affliction like the water often poured over the mouths of racehorses that, at full noon, gulp down dust with violent panting in the middle of the course. For we have taken breath from the continual temptations, and at the same time we were strengthened by your words, and through the memory of your contests became more vigorous to bear without yielding the contest set before us. For the conflagration that has spread over most of the East is now creeping over our country too, and having burned everything round about, it strives to seize also the Churches in Cappadocia, which until now the smoke from their neighbors moved to tears. And now it is hastening to seize us too; may the Lord turn it back by the breath of his mouth and cut off the flame of this evil fire. For who is so cowardly and unmanly, or so unpracticed in athletic labors, as not to be strengthened for the contest by your prompting, and to pray to be proclaimed a victor along with you? For you were the first to strip for the stadium of godliness, and you have repelled many attempts of heretical wrestlings, and endured much scorching heat of temptations, both you, the leaders of the Church, who are entrusted with the service of the altar, and individually those of the people who are more powerful. For this is especially admirable in you and worthy of all acceptance, that you are all one in the Lord, the leaders leading toward the good, and those who follow them following in harmony. Therefore you are stronger than the attempts of your opponents, offering no hold from any member to those who struggle against you. For this reason we pray night and day to the King of the ages to guard the people in the soundness of the faith, and to guard the clergy for them, like a head unharmed set on high and providing from itself care for the members of the body that lie beneath. For when the eyes do their own work, the works of the hands are skilful, the movements of the feet are free from stumbling, and no part of the body is deprived of fitting care. So we urge you, as you are doing and will do, to hold fast to one another: you who are entrusted with the care of souls, to hold together each individual and cherish them as beloved children; and the people, to keep for you the reverence and honor owed to fathers; so that in the good order of the Church your strength and the firmness of your faith in Christ may be preserved, the name of God glorified, and the good of love may abound and multiply. Hearing of your progress according to God, we rejoice; and if we are still bidden to sojourn in this world in the flesh, may we see you some day in the peace of God; but if we are bidden …

[Against Eustathius of Sebaste.] … to endure the most grievous sufferings; but when he had struggled long enough in silence, and had held out, keeping the pain hidden in the depth of his heart, then he opened his mouth and uttered the words that all know. And for us too, in this third year of silence, the boast of the Prophet has become something to emulate, when he says: "I became like a man who does not hear, and who has no reproofs in his mouth." Therefore we shut up in the depth of our heart the pain that came upon us from the slander. For truly slander humbles a man, and slander carries the poor man about. If then the evil of slander is so great that it brings down from his height even one who is already perfect (for this is what the saying hints at by the word "man"), and the poor man, that is, the one who is lacking in the great doctrines (as the prophet too seems to mean when he says: "Perhaps they are poor; therefore they will not hear. I will go to the great men," calling "poor" those who are lacking in understanding; and here, clearly, the proverb says that those who have not yet been fully formed in the inner man, nor have reached the perfect measure of maturity, are carried about and shaken), still I thought I ought to bear the painful things in silence, awaiting some amendment through the facts themselves. For I supposed that those things had been said against us not from any malice but from ignorance of the truth. But since I see the enmity advancing with time, and that they neither repent of what they said at the beginning nor take any thought how to heal the past, but add to it and keep in line with the aim they set themselves at the beginning, contriving to injure our life and to stain our reputation among the brothers, the safety of silence no longer seems sound to me. But there came into my mind the word of Isaiah, who says: "I have kept silent; shall I always keep silent and bear it? I have endured like a woman in labor." May it be granted to us both to receive the reward of silence and to receive some power for refutation, so that by refuting we may dry up this bitter torrent of falsehood that has flowed against us; so that we too may say: "Our soul has passed through a torrent," and: "If the Lord had not been with us when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive; then the water would have drowned us." 2. I had spent much time in vanity, and wasted nearly all my youth in the vain labor in which I was occupied, in acquiring the lessons of the wisdom that God made foolish. When at last, as if roused from deep sleep, I looked up to the marvelous light of the truth of the Gospel, and saw the uselessness of the wisdom of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing, I wept much over my wretched life, and prayed that guidance might be given me for my introduction to the doctrines of godliness. And before all else it was my care to make some amendment of my character, long perverted by my association with the worthless. And so, having read the Gospel, and having seen there that the greatest starting point toward perfection is the selling of one's possessions, sharing with the needy among the brothers, and in general being free of care for this life, and the soul's not being turned back by any attachment to the things here, I prayed to find one of the brothers who had chosen this way of life, so as to cross with him the brief surge of this life. And indeed I found many in Alexandria, and many in the rest of Egypt, and others in Palestine, in Coele-Syria, and in Mesopotamia. I admired their self-control in diet, I admired their endurance in labors, I was amazed at their vigor in prayers, how they mastered sleep, bowed by no natural necessity, always keeping the temper of their soul lofty and unenslaved, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, not turning to the body nor consenting to spend any care on it; but living as if in flesh not their own, they showed in deed what it is to sojourn among the things here, and what it is to have one's citizenship in heaven. Admiring these things, and counting blessed the life of these men, because in deed they show that they carry about in their body the dying of Jesus, I prayed that I too, as far as it was attainable for me, might be an emulator of those men. 3. For this reason, then, seeing some in my homeland trying to emulate their ways, I thought I had found some help toward my own salvation, and I took what was seen as proof of what was unseen. Since what is in each of us in secret is unknown, I thought the humbleness of their clothing sufficient indication of humility; and the thick cloak, the belt, and the shoes of untanned hide were enough to convince me. And though many tried to draw me away from my familiarity with them, I would not bear it, seeing them prefer the life of endurance to the life of enjoyment; and because of the extraordinary manner of their life I was zealously devoted to them. Hence I did not admit even the slanders about their doctrines, although many affirmed that they did not hold right conceptions about God, but that, having been made disciples of the leader of the present heresy, they were secretly sowing his teachings; since I had never heard these myself, I considered those who reported them slanderers. But when at last we were called to the leadership of the Church, I say nothing of how, under the pretense of help and loving fellowship, they were given to us as guards and watchers of our life, lest I seem either to slander myself by saying incredible things, or, if I am believed, to give occasion for misanthropy to those who believe. Which almost happened to me too, had not the mercies of God quickly come to my aid first. For I nearly fell into suspicion of everyone, thinking that nothing in anyone was trustworthy, my soul having been struck by treacherous wounds. Yet still for a time there seemed to be some appearance of familiarity between us. And attacks were made on us about doctrines once and again; and we seemed not to differ, being in agreement. But they found us uttering the same words about faith in God that they had heard from us all along. For though our other things deserve groans, yet this one thing I dare to boast of in the Lord: that I never held erroneous conceptions about God, nor, after thinking otherwise, learned better later. But the notion of God that I received from childhood from my blessed mother and my grandmother Macrina, this I have held, grown, within me; for I did not take up one set of ideas after another when my reason came to maturity, but I completed the first principles handed down to me by them. For just as the seed, as it grows, becomes larger from small, but is the same in itself, not changed in kind but perfected by growth, so I reckon that the same doctrine has grown in me through progress, not that what I now hold has come into being in place of what I held at the beginning. So let them search their own conscience, and consider the judgment seat of Christ, whether they ever heard anything from us other than what we now say, those who now noise us abroad for false belief, and who have filled every ear with the denunciatory letters they wrote against us; for which reason we too have come to the necessity of a defense. 4. For we are accused of blasphemy against God, though we cannot be convicted either from the writing about the faith that we ourselves published earlier, or from the words that we have always spoken, unwritten, by mouth, in public to the Churches of God. Nor has any witness been found who says he heard anything impious from us in secret. On what ground then are we judged, if we neither write impiously, nor preach harmfully, nor pervert those we meet in conversations at home? O novel spectacle! "So-and-so," he says, "in Syria wrote some things impiously; and you wrote him a letter twenty years ago and more. So you are in communion with the man, and let his charges be yours too." But, O friend of truth, who have been taught that falsehood is the offspring of the devil, how were you persuaded that the letter was mine? For you did not send, nor ask, nor learn from me, who could tell you the truth. And even if the letter is mine, how is it clear that this composition which has now fallen into your hands is of the same date as my letter? Who told you that this writing is twenty years old? And how is it clear that the composition is that man's, to whom my letter was sent? And if he is indeed the author, and I wrote to him, and my letter and the composition are of one time, what proof is there that I accepted it in my mind and hold that opinion within me? [5] Ask yourself: how often did you visit us at the monastery on the river Iris, when my most God-beloved brother Gregory was with me, pursuing the same aim of life as I? Did you hear anything of the kind? Did you receive any impression of it, small or great? How many days did we spend in the village opposite, with my mother, living together as friends, with conversation going on between us night and day? Were we found to have anything akin to it in our thinking? When we visited the blessed Silvanus together, did not the journey hold our conversations about these things? And at Eusinoe, when with several bishops you were about to set out for Lampsacus, and you invited me, were not the conversations about faith? Were not your shorthand writers with me all the time while I dictated against the heresy? Were not the most genuine of your disciples with me all the time? When I visited the brotherhoods, and spent the nights with them in prayers, ever speaking and hearing about God without contention, did I not give exact proofs of my mind? How then did the experience of so long a time appear weaker than so rotten and feeble a suspicion? Who ought to have been a witness of my disposition rather than you? What we said about the faith at Chalcedon, often at Heraclea, and earlier at Caesarea in the suburb: were they not all consistent? Were they not all in agreement with one another? Except, as I said, that a certain growth from progress can be observed in what is said; which is not a change from worse to better, but a filling up of what was lacking by the addition of knowledge. How do you not consider this too, that "the father shall not bear the sin of the child, nor shall the son bear the sin of the father, but each shall die in his own sin"? But the man slandered by you is neither father to me nor son. For he has been neither my teacher nor my disciple. And if the sins of parents must become charges against the children, it is much more just that the sins of Arius be charged against his disciples; and that, if someone begot Aetius the heretic, the charges against the son should go up on the head of the father. But if it is not just for anyone to be accused for those, much more surely is it just that we not be held to account for people who have nothing to do with us, if indeed they sinned at all, if anything worthy of condemnation was written by them. For forgive me for not believing what is said against them, since the experience of what has been said against me shows how ready the accusers are for slander. 6. For even if, being deceived, and thinking me a sharer in the opinion of those who wrote the words of Sabellius that they carry about, they came to slander me, not even so were they worthy of pardon, striking and wounding with blasphemies, before clear proofs, those who had done no wrong; not to say men bound to them in the closest friendship; and that holding false conceptions within themselves is a proof that they are not led by the Holy Spirit. For he who is about to cut off the friendship of a brother ought to take thought, endure many sleepless nights, and seek the truth from God with many tears. For if the rulers of this world, when they are about to condemn one of the criminals to death, draw back the curtains, call the most experienced to the examination of the matter, and spend a long time on it, now looking at the severity of the law, now moved by the fellowship of nature, and, groaning much and lamenting the necessity, make it clear to all that they serve the law under necessity and do not impose condemnation for their own pleasure, how much more earnestness and care and consultation with more people ought he to think it worthy of who is about to break off a friendship of brothers confirmed over a long time? But it is one letter, and that a doubtful one. For they could not say that they recognized it from the marks of the signature, since they received into their hands not the original but a copy. From one letter, then, and that an old one. For it is twenty years up to the present time since something was written to that man. And in the time between I have no witnesses of my purpose and life such as the very men who now stand over me as accusers. 7. But the letter is not the cause of the separation; there is another ground for the rift, which I am ashamed to tell, and I would have kept silent about it all my time, had not what has now been done made it necessary for me to disclose their whole purpose, for the benefit of the many. These good men thought that communion with us was an obstacle to their regaining power. And since they had been bound beforehand by a signature of faith which we put before them (not that we ourselves distrusted their thinking, I confess, but because we wanted to heal the suspicions about them that many of our like-minded brothers held), so that nothing in that confession might seem to them to stand in the way of their being accepted by those now in power, they renounced communion with us; and this letter was devised as the pretext for the breach. The clearest sign of what I say is that, having denounced us and composed the complaints they wanted to make against us, they sent the letters around everywhere before sending them to us. For the letter appeared among others seven days before it reached my hands, others who had received it from yet others and were going to pass it on to others. For this is how they planned to hand it on one to another, so that the distribution to people throughout the whole country might be swift. And this was said even at the time by those who reported their doings to us most clearly. But we decided to keep silent until he who reveals deep things should make their affairs public by the clearest and incontrovertible proofs.

[To the presbyter Genethlius.] … having written a bill of divorce. What defense those who wrote it (in order to separate from our love) have prepared for it before the judgment seat of Christ, which cannot be deceived, I cannot conceive. For having put forward an accusation against us, and attacked us violently, and related what they wished, not as the truth is, assuming great humility for themselves and placing on us a load of arrogance, as though we had not received those they sent, they wrote everything falsely, or at least most of it, not to speak rashly, as men who persuade men and not God, and seek to please men and not God, with whom nothing is more precious than truth. Then they appended heretical sayings to their letters against us, concealing the author of the impiety, so that the many and the simpler, from the accusation of us placed first, might think that what was joined to it was ours; because those who artfully slander us kept silent the name of the father of the evil doctrines, and left it to the suspicion of the more guileless that we are the ones who conceived or wrote these things. Knowing this, then, we urge you both not to be disturbed yourselves and to silence the clamor of those who are shaken, even though we know that our defense is hard to accept … 2. As to the point that the writings carried about as ours are not ours, I think that, even if … darkens their reasonings so that they do not see what is to their advantage, still, if you yourselves ask them, they would not go so far in hardness as to dare to utter the lie with their own mouth and say that the compositions are mine. And if they are not mine, why am I judged for what belongs to others? But they will say that I am in communion with Apollinarius and hold within myself the perversion of such doctrines. Let them be asked for the proofs. For if they know how to search a man's heart, let them admit it, and let them make known their truthfulness in everything; but if they convict my communion from what is visible and plain to all, let them show either letters of communion sent by me to him, or by him to me, or [letters] of the clergy to us, or … that we ever received any of them into the communion of prayer. But if they bring forward the letter written to him now twenty-five years ago, from a layman to a layman, and not even this as it was written by me, but altered (by whom, God knows), you may learn at once the injustice: that no one in the episcopate is accused if, in his life as a layman, he wrote something carelessly and without attention, and that not about the faith, but a mere letter of greeting. Perhaps they too will be found to have written both to Greeks and to Jews without being charged. For until today no one has been judged for such a thing, for which we are condemned by those who strain out gnats. That we neither wrote those things nor agree with them, but … anathematize those who hold that evil opinion of the confusion of the hypostases, in which the … heresy of Sabellius has been renewed: this is known to God, who knows the hearts, and known too to all the brotherhood that has come to know our lowliness by experience. And let those very men who are now our fierce accusers search their own conscience, and they will know that from childhood we were far from such doctrines. 3. What our opinion is, if anyone asks, he will learn from the very document on which their signature stands in their own hand; wishing to set it aside, they hide their own change of mind in their slander of us. For they do not admit that they repented of signing the book we gave them; but they bring charges of impiety against us, thinking it is not known that the separation from us is their pretext, while in truth they have withdrawn from the faith, which they confessed many times in writing before many people, and last of all received when we offered it, and signed; which all may read, and learn the truth from the documents themselves. Their purpose will be plain if anyone, after the signature they gave us, reads the creed they gave to Gelasius, and sees how great the difference is between that confession and this. So let those who turn so easily to opposites not search into others' motes, but cast out the beam in their own eye. More completely, in a letter, we both defend ourselves and teach about everything; it will satisfy those who seek more. But you, receiving this letter of ours for the present, put aside all grief, and confirm your love toward us … and the greatest thing for us is … our union with you …

To Demosthenes, as from the synod. We always give great thanks to God, and to the emperors who care for us, whenever we see the government of our homeland entrusted to a man who is first a Christian, then upright in character, and an exact guardian of the laws by which we live … And this favor we acknowledged to God at your arrival, and [our thanks] … to the God-beloved emperor. But when we learned that some of the enemies of peace were going to trouble your solemn tribunals against us, we expected to be summoned by your magnanimity, so as to be shown our simplicity by you, if indeed your great wisdom consented to take the examination of ecclesiastical affairs upon itself. But since the court passed us by, and your authority, moved against our brother and fellow minister Gregory by the abuse of Philochares, ordered him to be seized, he obeyed the command (for how could he not?), but, seized by pleurisy, and at the same time, from the chill that came upon him, by the kidney trouble that usually arises in him, he was compelled, while held inexorably by the soldiers, to be moved to some quiet place for the care of his body and relief from unbearable pains. For this reason we have all come to entreat your greatness not to be displeased at the delay of his appearance. For no public matter is worse off for our postponement, nor has any ecclesiastical matter been harmed on this account. But if the matter concerns money, as though it had been embezzled, the stewards of the sacred funds are here, ready to give an account to anyone who wishes and to show the slander of those who have dared to impose on your exact hearing; for it is easy for them, from the very papers of the blessed bishop, to make the truth plain to those who inquire. But if there is some other canonical matter needing examination, and your magnanimity consents to take on the hearing and judgment of this too, there is need of all of us; since, if anything required by the canons was neglected, those who ordained are responsible, not he who was forced by every kind of necessity to accept the ministry. So we entreat you to keep the hearing for us in our homeland, and not to drag us beyond the border, nor into the necessity of meeting with bishops with whom we have not yet settled the questions about ecclesiastical affairs. At the same time we ask you to spare our old age and our weakness. For you will learn by experience itself, God willing, that nothing, small or great, of what the canons require was omitted in the appointment of the bishop. We pray, then, that under your government concord and peace with our brothers may be brought about; since that has not yet happened, it is grievous to us even …

To the ascetics under him. 1. The holy God is able to grant us also the joy of meeting you, since we desire always both to see you and to hear about you; because we have the rest of our souls in nothing else than in your progress and your perfection through the commandments of Christ. But until this is granted us, we consider it necessary to visit you through the most genuine and God-fearing brothers, and to converse with your love by letter. For this very purpose we have sent our most reverent and most genuine brother and fellow worker in the Gospel, Meletius, our fellow presbyter, who will tell you of our longing for you and the anxiety of our souls: that night and day we entreat the Lord for your approval, so that we too may have boldness in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ through your salvation, and you may shine forth in the brightness of the saints, when your work is tested by the righteous judgment of God. At the same time the harshness of the present time causes us much anxiety, in which all the Churches have been shaken and all souls are being sifted. For some have opened their mouths unsparingly against their fellow servants. Falsehood is spoken fearlessly; truth has been covered over. Those who are accused are condemned without trial; those who accuse are believed without examination. Hence I too, having heard that many letters are being carried about against me, branding and denouncing me, and accusing me of things for which I have my defense ready before the tribunal of truth, set myself to keep silent, and I have done so; for this is now the third year in which, beaten by slanders, I bear the scourges of accusation, content that I have the Lord, who knows secret things, as witness of the slander. But since I see that many have now taken our silence as a confirmation of the slanders, and have thought that we keep silent not out of long-suffering but because we cannot open our mouth against the truth, for this reason I have tried to write to you, urging your love in Christ not to accept wholly as true the slanders made by one side; because, as it is written, the law judges no one unless it first hears him and knows what he does. 2. And yet for a fair-minded judge the facts themselves are enough to make the truth plain. So, even if we keep silent, you can look closely at what is happening. For those who accuse us of false belief have now been seen openly joining themselves to the party of the heretics; those who condemn us for other people's writings are seen to contradict their own confessions, which they deposited with us in writing. Recognize the habit of those who dare such things: that it is their custom always to shift over to the powerful side, and to trample on those of their friends who are weak and to court those in power. For those who wrote the much-talked-of letters against Eudoxius and his whole party, and sent them around to all the brotherhoods, solemnly warning them to shun their communion as the ruin of souls, and who for this reason would not accept the votes cast for their own deposition, because they had been passed by heretics, as they persuaded us at the time, these men now, forgetting everything, have joined them. And no denial is left to them; for they openly revealed their purpose at Ancyra, embracing private communion with them, since they had not yet been received publicly by those very men. Ask them, then: if Basilides, the communicant of Ecdicius, is now orthodox, why, on their return from Dardania, did they overturn his altars in the territory of the Gangrenes and set up their own tables? Why even now do they invade the Churches of Amasea and Zela, and install presbyters and deacons of their own? For if they communicate with them as orthodox, why do they invade them as heretics? And if they regard them as heretics, how is it that they do not avoid their communion? Is it not plain even to a child's mind, most honored brothers, that, always looking to their own advantage, they set about either slandering some or courting others? And so they withdrew from us, not out of indignation that we did not write back (for this is what they say most provoked them), nor because we did not receive the chorepiscopi whom they say they sent; and yet those who contrive this will give account to the Lord. For a certain Eustathius was sent, and delivered letters to the staff of the vicar; after spending three days in the city, and being about to set off for home, late in the evening, while I was asleep, he is said to have come near our lodging. Hearing that I was asleep, he went away, and did not approach us the next day, but, having thus discharged his duty toward us as a formality, went back. And this is the charge, the wrong we did; and these long-suffering men did not weigh against this one slip the service we had previously rendered them, but so increased their anger against us for this sin that, so far as lay in them, they made us outlaws in all the Churches throughout the world. 3. Yet this is not truly the cause of the rift. But since they thought they would win favor at that time with Euzoius if they estranged themselves from us, they devised those pretexts for themselves, so as to find some commendation with them through their war against us. These men now also slander the faith of Nicaea, and call us homoousiasts, because in that faith the only-begotten Son is confessed to be of the same essence with God the Father; not as though one essence were divided into two brothers (God forbid! for that holy and God-beloved synod did not mean this), but in the sense that what the Father is in essence, this the Son also must be understood to be. For so those very men interpreted it to us, saying, "Light from light." And the faith of Nicaea is the very one that they brought from the West, and gave to the synod at Tyana, by which they were also received. But they have a clever doctrine to cover such changes of theirs: that they use the words of the faith as doctors do, according to the occasion, adapting them differently to the diseases at hand. The rottenness of this sophism it is not for me to refute, but for you to perceive. For the Lord will give you understanding to know which is the straight word, and which the crooked and perverse. For if one must compose different creeds at different times, and change with the times, false is the declaration of him who said: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." But if those words are true, let no one deceive you with these empty words. For they slander us as making innovations about the Holy Spirit. Ask them, then, what the innovation is. For we confess what we also received: that the Paraclete is ranked with the Father and the Son, not numbered with the creation. For we have believed in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and we are baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we never tear the Paraclete away from his conjunction with the Father and the Son. For our mind, enlightened by the Spirit, looks up to the Son, and in him, as in an image, beholds the Father. We neither invent names of our own, but name him Holy Spirit and Paraclete, nor consent to set aside the glory owed to him. These are our views, in all truth. On these let the accuser accuse; let him who persecutes us persecute; let him who believes the slanders against us prepare for the trial. The Lord is near; let us have no anxiety. 4. If someone in Syria writes, this is nothing to us. For "by your words," it says, "you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Let my words judge me; but let no one condemn us for other people's faults, nor bring forward letters written by us twenty years ago as proof that we are now in communion with those who wrote those things. For we wrote before the writings, laymen to laymen, before any such suspicion was raised against them; and we wrote nothing about the faith, nor anything like what these men now carry about to slander us, but mere greetings, fulfilling a friendly salutation. For we shun and anathematize as impious both those who are sick with the doctrines of Sabellius and those who champion the doctrines of Arius alike. If anyone says that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the same, and supposes one thing with many names, and one hypostasis expressed under three appellations, such a person we place in the party of the Jews. Likewise, if anyone says that the Son is unlike the Father in essence, or brings the Holy Spirit down to a creature, we anathematize him, and consider him to be near to the error of the Greeks. But it is impossible to stop the mouths of those who revile us by means of our letters; rather it is likely that they will be provoked by our defenses and contrive greater and harsher things against us; but it is not hard to guard your ears. So do what is in your power. Keep your heart unharmed toward us and unprejudiced by the slanders; and for the charges brought forward, demand an account from us. And if you find the truth with us, give no place to falsehood; but if you perceive that we are weak in our defense, then believe our accusers as telling the truth. They lie awake to do us harm; this we do not ask of you. Living the life of merchants, they make slander of us a sideline of their trade; but you we urge to stay at home and conduct yourselves becomingly, fulfilling the work of Christ in quietness, and to avoid their meetings, which are held deceitfully for the ruin of those who listen; so that you may keep your love toward us unharmed, preserve the faith of the fathers unbroken, and appear approved before the Lord as friends of the truth.

Consolatory, to the clergy in Colonia. And what is so good and so approved before God and men as perfect love, which we have been taught by the wise Teacher to be the fulfilling of the whole law? So I welcome the ardor of your disposition toward your shepherd. For neither is the loss of a good father bearable to a child who loves his father, nor is the departure of its shepherd and teacher tolerable to a Church of Christ. So you give proof of a noble and good purpose in your exceeding affection for your bishop. But this goodness of yours, felt from the heart toward your spiritual father, is acceptable when it keeps measure and reason; when it goes beyond its bounds, it is no longer worthy of the same acceptance. A good arrangement has been made concerning your most God-beloved brother, our fellow minister Euphronius, by those who have been entrusted with the governance of the Churches; it was necessary for the times, and is profitable both to the Church to which he has been transferred and to yourselves, from whom he was taken. Do not think this arrangement human, nor set in motion by the reasonings of men who mind earthly things; but be persuaded that those on whom the care of the Churches of God depends did this through their familiarity with the Spirit. … Accept, then, quietly and with thanksgiving what has been done, being persuaded of this: that those who do not accept what is ordained for the Churches by those … in the fellowship of the Spirit resist the ordinance of God. Do not argue against your mother, the Church in Nicopolis. Do not be harsh toward those who have taken up the care of your souls. For if the affairs of Nicopolis stand firm, your part too will be preserved along with them; but if any storm touches her, though you have countless guards, the part will be destroyed together with the head. As those who live beside rivers, when they see people far off throwing up defenses against the currents, know that they are securing safety for them in advance by repelling the onrush of the waters, so too those who have now taken up the weight of the care of the Churches secure your freedom from fear by guarding others; and you will be sheltered from all disturbance while others receive the assaults of the war. Besides, you ought to consider this too, that he has not cast you off, but has taken on others besides. For surely we are not so envious as to compel one who is able to share his gifts with others also to shut up his grace among you and confine him within your district alone. For neither he who fences in a spring and spoils the outflow of its water, nor he who prevents an abundant teaching from spreading further, is free from the passion of envy. Let him then have the care of Nicopolis too, and let your Church be an addition to his concerns there. For to the man more labor has come, but the care of you is in no way diminished. But this grieved me very much, and seemed beyond all measure: that it was said that, if you fail to obtain what you seek, you will take to the law courts and set over affairs men for whom the overthrow of the Churches is the chief thing they pray for. Let not some, carried away by senseless anger, persuade you to say anything in public, lest some catastrophe should result from it, and the weight of what happens should fall back on the heads of those who gave the cause. But accept both our counsel, offered to you from a father's heart, and the arrangement of the most God-beloved bishops, made according to the will of God. And wait for us too: when we come, if the Lord works with us, [we will tell you] whatever could not be [said] in a letter …

To the magistrates of Colonia. I received the letter of your honors, and gave thanks to the all-holy God that, although you are busy with the care of public affairs, you do not treat the affairs of the Churches as a side matter; but each of you has been as anxious as for his own affair and one on which his life depends, and you have written to us in distress at the separation of your most God-beloved bishop Euphronius. Nicopolis has not taken him from you; rather, if she were defending herself, she might say that she has received back her own; but in comforting you she will speak with a voice befitting a loving mother, that she will have the father in common with you, who will share his grace with each of you in turn, and will neither allow them to suffer anything from the onslaught of their opponents, nor deprive you of his accustomed care. So, reckoning the difficulty of the times, and learning with sound judgment the necessity of the arrangement, forgive the bishops who took this way of settling the Churches of our Lord Jesus Christ; and give yourselves the advice that befits men who possess a mature understanding of their own, and also know how to accept the counsels of those who love them. For you are likely to be unaware of much that is going on, because you are placed at the far end of Armenia; but we, who stand in the midst of affairs, and have reports striking our ears every day from every side of Churches being overthrown, are in great struggle lest the common enemy, envying the long peace of your life, may be able to sow his own tares in your parts too, and the Armenian part also become a haunt of the adversaries. But for now keep quiet, consenting to have him, like a good vessel for use, in common with your neighbors; and a little later, if the Lord grants us to visit you, you will receive a more complete consolation for what has happened, if this appears necessary to you.

To the clergy of Nicopolis. 1. Even a work done by one devout man and a second assures us that it is done by the counsel of the Spirit. For when the holy set out to act with nothing human before their eyes, and not aiming at their own enjoyment, but setting before themselves what is pleasing to God, it is clear that it is the Lord who directs their hearts. And where spiritual men lead the counsels, and the Lord's people follow them with one mind, who will doubt that the counsel was formed in fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, who poured out his blood for the Churches? Hence you too rightly judged that our most God-beloved brother and fellow minister Poemenius was moved according to God, he who came to you at the right time and adopted this way of consolation. I not only praise his finding of what was expedient, but I also admire the nobility of his judgment, in that he did not let the matter drag into delays, and so slacken the zeal of those who were seeking it, give time for precautions to those who were opposing it, and stir up the plots of those lying in wait, but at once brought the good counsel to its end. May the Lord by his grace keep him with all his household, so that the Church may remain like itself in a succession equal in honor to the one before, and give no room to the evil one, who now, if ever, is vexed at the settlement of the Churches. 2. The brothers in Colonia we too have earnestly exhorted by letter; and you ought to welcome their affection rather than provoke them, as though they were overlooked because of their smallness, nor drive them by contempt into contentiousness. For contentious people somehow naturally become more ill-advised, and mismanage many of their own affairs in order to grieve their opponents. And no one is now so small as to be unable to give an occasion for great evils to those who want an occasion. And this we say not by guessing, but taught by the experience of our own evils, from which may God bring us out by your prayers. Pray also with us for a good journey, so that, when we come, we may rejoice with you over your present shepherd and be comforted together over the departure of our common father.

To the magistrates of Nicopolis. The arrangements concerning the Churches are made by those who have been entrusted with their leadership, but they are confirmed by the peoples. So what lay with the most God-beloved bishops has been fulfilled; what remains now depends on you, if you will deign to cling eagerly to the bishop given you, and to repel firmly the attempts of outsiders. For nothing so abashes the rulers and the rest of those who envy you your peaceful state as your unanimous love for the one who has been given, and the strength of your resistance. For it makes them despair of every evil attempt if they see that neither clergy nor people accept their designs. The judgment you hold about what is good, then, make common to the city; speak to the townspeople and to all who live in the countryside, strengthening their good purposes, so that the genuineness of your love for God may be proclaimed among all. And if we ourselves are ever deemed worthy to come and visit the Church that is the nurse of godliness, which we honor as the mother city of orthodoxy, because from of old it has been governed by most honored men, chosen of God, who held fast to the faithful word according to the teaching, of whom both you have tested and we have agreed that the one now appointed is worthy … Only may you be guarded by the grace of God, who frustrates the evil designs of the enemies, and gives your souls strength and vigor to keep what has been well decided. [Letter 231] To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. I find few occasions for writing to your piety, and this grieves me not a little. For it is as if, being able often to see and enjoy you, I seldom did so. But I cannot write, for lack of people going from here to you; otherwise nothing would have prevented my letters from being a diary of my life, reporting to your love what happens each day. For it brings me some relief to share my affairs with you, and I know that you care for nothing so much as for ours. But now Elpidius, setting out for his master in order to clear himself of the slanders falsely contrived against him by certain enemies, has asked us for a letter. Through it we both address your reverence and commend the man to you, as worthy of your protection both for justice's sake and for ours; for even if we had nothing else to testify for him, yet he thought it a great thing to become the bearer of our letter. Keep him among your own, and remember us, and pray for the Church. Know that our most God-beloved brother is beyond the border, not bearing the harassments of the shameless. Doara is in a storm, the fleshy sea-monster throwing everything there into confusion. Against us the enemies are hatching plots at the court, as those who know report; but the hand of the Lord is still with us. Only pray that we may not be forsaken to the end. For the brother is living at ease; and Doara has got back its old muleteer, and he has nothing more; and the Lord will scatter the counsels of our enemies. Yet the release from all our present and expected troubles would be for us to see you. So, if it ever becomes possible for you, while we are still on earth, deign to see us. The book on the Spirit has been written by us and completed, as you yourself know; but the brothers with me prevented me from sending it written on paper, saying that they had instructions from your nobility to write it on parchment. So, lest we seem to do anything contrary to your command, we have held it back for now; but we will send it a little later, if only we find someone suitable to carry it. May you be granted to me in health and good spirits, praying to the Lord for us, and to the Church of God …

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. Every day that brings a letter from your piety is a feast to us, and the greatest of feasts. And when it also brings tokens of a feast, what else should one call it but a feast of feasts, just as the old law is wont to speak of Sabbaths of Sabbaths? We thank the Lord, then, on learning that you are in good bodily health and that you have celebrated the memorial of the saving dispensation with the Church at peace. Some disturbances have troubled us, and we have not passed the time free of dejection, because our most God-beloved brother has been driven into exile. Pray for him, that God may one day grant him to see his own Church healed of the wounds of the heretics' bites; and deign to visit us while we are still on earth. Make it your business to see to it, as is consistent with yourself and worthy of our greatest prayer. One may also admire the meaning of your gifts: that by riddles you wished us a vigorous old age. For you showed by the torches that you rouse us to nightly labors, and by the sweetmeats you vouch that we are strong in all our parts. For chewing is no longer for me, at my age, my teeth having long ago been worn away by time and illness. To your questions some answers have been given in the memorandum, such as were possible for me and as the time allowed …

To Amphilochius, who had asked a question. 1. I know it myself, having heard it, and I recognize the constitution of men. What then shall we say to this? That the mind is a good thing, and in it we have what is according to the image of our Creator. And the activity of the mind is a good thing; and being ever in motion, it often forms images of things that are not as though they were, but often it goes straight to the truth. But since two powers are attached to it, according to the view of us who have believed in God, the one evil, that of the demons, drawing us along with them into their own apostasy, and the other more divine and good, opening the way for us to likeness to God, when the mind remains by itself, it sees small things, things commensurate with itself; but when it gives itself up to those who deceive it, having destroyed its own faculty of judgment, it consorts with monstrous fantasies. Then it thinks that wood is not wood but God, and judges gold to be not money but an object of worship. But if it inclines to the more divine side, and receives the graces of the Spirit, then it becomes able to grasp divine things, so far as is commensurate with its nature. There are, then, three conditions of life, as it were, and equal in number to these are the activities of our mind. Either our pursuits are evil, and clearly the movements of our mind are evil, such as adulteries, thefts, idolatries, slanders, strifes, outbursts of anger, rivalries, puffings up, and all that the apostle Paul enumerated among the works of the flesh; or there is an intermediate activity of the soul, which has nothing either condemned or praiseworthy, such as the acquisition of the mechanical arts, which we call intermediate, since by their own nature they incline neither to virtue nor to vice. For what vice is there in the art of steering, or in medicine? Yet neither are they virtues in themselves, but they incline to one or the other of the opposites according to the choice of those who use them. But the mind that has been blended with the Godhead of the Spirit is now a beholder of the great contemplations, and beholds the divine beauties; yet only so far as grace grants, and as its constitution can receive. 2. So let them leave those dialectical questions, and examine the truth, not maliciously but reverently. The mind's faculty of judgment has been given us for understanding the truth. And our God is truth itself. So the first task of the mind is to know our God; and to know him as the infinitely great can be known by the very small. For it is not the case that, because the eyes are appointed for perceiving visible things, all visible things are at once brought under our sight. For not even the hemisphere of the heaven is seen in one glance; an impression of sight surrounds us, but in truth there are many things in it, not to say all, that are unknown: the nature of the stars, their sizes, their distances, their motions, conjunctions, separations, their other relations, the very essence of the firmament, the depth from its concave circumference to its convex surface. Yet we would not say that the heaven is invisible because of what is unknown, but visible because of our moderate perception of it. So too concerning God. If the mind has been harmed by demons, it will practice idolatry, or be turned aside to some other form of impiety; but if it has given itself up to the help of the Spirit, it will know the truth and come to know God. But it will know him, as the Apostle said, in part, and in the life after this more perfectly. "For when the perfect comes, what is in part will be done away." So the mind's faculty of judgment is both good and given for a useful end, the perception of God; yet it works only so far as it can contain.

To the same, in answer to another question. 1. "Do you worship what you know, or what you do not know?" If we answer, "What we know, that we worship," their reply comes quickly: "What is the essence of the one worshiped?" And if we confess that we do not know the essence, they turn on us again and say, "So you worship what you do not know." But we say that "knowing" has many meanings. For we say that we know the greatness of God, and his power, and his wisdom, and his goodness, and his providence by which he cares for us, and the justice of his judgment; not the essence itself. So the question is a captious one. For he who says that he does not know the essence has not confessed that he does not know God, since our notion of God is gathered from the many things we have listed. "But God is simple," he says, "and everything about him that you might list as knowable belongs to his essence." But this is a sophism containing countless absurdities. When so many things have been listed, are all of these names of one essence? And are his fearfulness and his love for humankind equivalent to one another, his justice and his creative power, his foreknowledge and his recompensing, his majesty and his providence? Or whichever of these we name, do we declare his essence? For if they say this, let them not ask whether we know the essence of God, but let them inquire of us whether we know God to be fearful, or just, or loving to humankind. These we confess that we know. But if they say that the essence is something else, let them not mislead us by appealing to his simplicity. For they themselves have confessed that the essence is one thing and each of the things listed another. The activities are various, but the essence is simple. We say that we know our God from his activities, but we do not undertake to draw near to his essence itself. For his activities come down to us, but his essence remains inaccessible. 2. "But if you do not know the essence," he says, "you do not know him." But you, turn it back on him: "If you say that you know the essence, you do not know him." For the man bitten by a mad dog, who sees the dog in his cup, does not see more than the healthy; rather he is pitiable because he thinks he sees what he does not see. Do not then admire him for his claim, but judge him pitiable for his derangement. Know, then, that the saying is a jest: "If you do not know the essence of God, you worship what you do not know." But I know that he is; what his essence is, I consider to be beyond understanding. How then am I saved? Through faith. And faith is content to know that God is, not what he is; and that he rewards those who seek him. Knowledge of the divine essence, then, is the perception of his incomprehensibility; and what is worshiped is not that whose essence has been comprehended, but that whose essence is known to exist. … [The believer] knows from the things he believes; and conversely, from the things he knows he also believes. And we know God from his power. So we believe in him who is known, and we worship him who is believed.

To the same, in answer to another question. 1. Which comes first, knowledge or faith? We say that, in general, in the case of learning, faith precedes knowledge; but in our teaching, if anyone says that knowledge comes before faith, we do not disagree; knowledge, however, commensurate with human comprehension. For in learning one must first believe that the letter is called alpha, and, having learned the shapes of the letters and their pronunciation, afterwards gain also the exact understanding of the force of the letter. But in faith concerning God, the notion that God exists comes first; and this we gather from his works. For we recognize him as wise and powerful and good, and all his invisible attributes, perceiving them from the creation of the world. So too we accept him as our Master. For since God is the Creator of the whole world, and we are a part of the world, God is our Creator too. Faith follows this knowledge, and worship follows such faith. 2. But now, since the word "knowledge" has many meanings, those who make fun of the simpler sort, and put on displays of paradoxes, like those who in theaters steal the pebbles before everyone's eyes, sweep up the whole by asking in general terms. For since the word "knowledge" extends widely, and something is knowable by number, by size, by power, by its mode of existence, by the time of its generation, by its essence, these men, taking in the whole in a single question, if they catch us confessing that we know, demand of us knowledge of the essence; and if they see us cautious in our answer, they turn the reproach of impiety upon us. But we confess that we know what is knowable of God, and also that there is something that escapes our comprehension. So if you ask me whether I know what sand is, and I answer that I know, you will plainly be slandering me if at once you demand its number too; because your first question bore on the kind of thing sand is, but the second, a slander, has been turned to its number. This sophism is like someone saying: "Do you know Timothy? Then if you know Timothy, you know his nature too. But you have admitted that you know Timothy; so give us an account of Timothy's nature." But I both know Timothy and do not know him; not, however, in the same respect and in the same way. For it is not in the respect in which I know him that I do not know him; I know him in one respect and am ignorant of him in another. I know him by his features and his other properties; but I do not know his essence. For by this reasoning I both know and do not know myself too. I know who I am; but I do not know myself, inasmuch as I am ignorant of my essence. 3. Then let them explain to us how Paul said, "Now we know in part." Do we know his essence in part, as though we knew parts of his essence? But that is absurd, for God is without parts. Or do we know it whole? How then, "when the perfect comes, what is in part will be done away"? And what are the idolaters charged with? Is it not that, "knowing God, they did not glorify him as God"? And why are the foolish Galatians reproached by Paul, when he says: "But now, having known God, or rather having been known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elements?" And how was God "known in Judah"? Was it because in Judah his essence, whatever it was, was recognized? "The ox knows its owner," it says; by your account, then, the ox knew the essence of its Lord; "and the donkey its master's manger": so the donkey knew the essence of the manger. "But Israel has not known me," it says. By your account Israel is charged with this: that it did not recognize the essence of God, whatever it is. "Pour out your wrath," it says, "on the nations that do not know you": that is, those that have not comprehended your essence. But knowledge has many senses, as we have said. For there is understanding of him who created us, and perception of his wonders, and the keeping of his commandments, and intimacy with him. But these men, thrusting all these aside, drag knowledge down to one meaning, the contemplation of the very essence of God. "You shall put it," it says, "before the testimonies, from where I will be known to you." Does "I will be known" mean "I will show you my essence"? "The Lord knew those who are his." Did he then know the essence of his own, and is he ignorant of the essence of the disobedient? "Adam knew his wife." Did he come to know her essence? And of Rebecca it says, "a virgin; no man had known her"; and, "How shall this be, since I do not know a man?" Did no one recognize Rebecca's essence? Does Mary mean, "I have perceived the essence of no man"? Or is it not the custom of Scripture to call marital union "knowing"? And God's being known from the mercy seat means that he will be manifested to those who worship him. And "the Lord knew those who are his" means that he received them, through their good works, into intimacy with himself.

To the same Amphilochius. 1. The Gospel saying about our Lord Jesus Christ's not knowing the day and the hour of the end has already been inquired into by many, and it is especially and constantly put forward by the Anomoeans to destroy the glory of the Only-begotten, as a proof of his unlikeness in essence and his inferiority in dignity; since one who does not know all things could neither have the same nature, nor be thought of in one likeness, with him who has encompassed the knowledge of all things by his foreknowledge and his grasp of what is to come. This has now been put before us by your understanding as though it were something new. What, then, we heard from the fathers from childhood, and accepted without examination because of our love for what is good, this we can say. It will not dissolve the shamelessness of the fighters against Christ (for what argument could appear stronger than their impulse?); but to those who love the Lord, and who possess a conviction from faith stronger than proof from argument, it may perhaps provide sufficient assurance. The word "no one" seems to be universal, so that not even one person is excepted by this term; but it is not used so in Scripture, as we have observed in the saying, "No one is good but one, God." For not even there does the Son say this putting himself outside the nature of the good. But since the Father is the first good, we believe that "no one" is said with "first" understood. And in "no one knows the Son except the Father," not even there does he charge the Spirit with ignorance; he testifies that the knowledge of his own nature belongs first to the Father. So too we think that "no one knows" is said by one who refers the first knowledge of things that are and of things that will be to the Father, and who in everything shows people the first cause. For otherwise how does the saying agree with the other testimonies of Scripture, or how can it accord with the common notions of us who have believed that the Only-begotten is the image of the invisible God, an image not of a bodily form but of the Godhead itself and of the majesties conceived in the essence of God; an image of power, an image of wisdom, inasmuch as Christ is called "the power of God and the wisdom of God"? And knowledge is clearly a part of wisdom; and he does not image it all, if he falls short in some things. And how did the Father, through whom he made the ages, not show him the smallest part of the ages, that day and hour? Or how does the maker of all things fall short of the knowledge of the smallest part of what he has created? And he who says that near the end such and such signs will appear in heaven and in places on earth, how is he ignorant of the end itself? For when he says, "The end is not yet," he defines it not as one in doubt, but as one who knows. Then too, for one who considers fairly, the Lord speaks to people of many things from the human side: for instance, "Give me to drink" is a word of the Lord meeting a bodily need; and yet he who asked was not soulless flesh, but Godhead using flesh endowed with a soul. So now too, if one takes the ignorance as belonging to him who accepted all things in the dispensation, and advanced with God and men in wisdom and grace, he will not go beyond a pious understanding. 2. It would be a task for your diligence to set out the Gospel sayings and to compare with one another those of Matthew and Mark. For these alone appear to agree with each other on this passage. Matthew's wording runs thus: "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but the Father alone"; and Mark's: "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father." What then is worth noting in these? That Matthew said nothing about the Son's not knowing, but seems to agree with Mark in sense by saying, "but the Father alone." We think that "alone" is said in contrast with the angels; but that the Son is not included with his own servants in the ignorance. For he does not lie who said, "All that the Father has is mine"; and one of the things he has is the knowledge of that day and hour. So in Matthew's wording the Lord passed over his own person in silence, as something agreed, and said that the angels do not know, but that the Father alone knows; saying tacitly that the Father's knowledge is his own too, because he said elsewhere, "As the Father knows me, so I know the Father." And if the Father knows the Son wholly and entirely, so as to know all the wisdom stored up in him, then clearly in equal measure he will also be known by the Son, with all the wisdom that is in him and the foreknowledge of things to come. This, then, is the explanation we think fit for what stands in Matthew: "but the Father alone." But Mark's saying, which seems plainly to exclude the Son too from the knowledge, we understand thus: no one knows, neither the angels of God; nor would the Son have known, except the Father; that is, the cause of the Son's knowing is from the Father. And this interpretation is not forced for one who listens fairly, since "alone" is not added, as it is in Matthew. So the sense in Mark is this: "But of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels of God; nor would the Son have known, except the Father"; for the knowledge was given to him from the Father. And this is the most reverent thing, and the one most worthy of God, to say of the Son: that from him with whom he is of the same essence he has both his knowing and his being beheld in all the wisdom and glory befitting his Godhead. 3. Concerning Jeconiah, whom the prophet Jeremiah says was banished from the land of Judea, when he says: "Jeconiah was dishonored like a vessel for which there is no use"; and that he and his seed were cast out, and there shall not rise from his seed one sitting on the throne of David, a ruler in Judah: the meaning is simple and clear. For when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom was dissolved, and there were no longer hereditary successions of rule as before. At first the descendants of David lived in captivity; and when those with Salathiel and Zerubbabel returned, they led the people in a more popular manner, the rule thereafter passing to the priesthood, because of the mingling of the priestly and the royal tribe. Hence the Lord is both king and high priest in things relating to God. And the royal tribe did not fail until the coming of Christ; yet the seed of Jeconiah no longer sat on the throne of David. For clearly the royal dignity is what is called the "throne." You surely remember from the history that all Judea was tributary to David, and the land of Idumea and of Moab, and the neighboring parts of Syria and those further off as far as Mesopotamia, and on the other side as far as the river of Egypt. If then none of those who came after appeared in so great a dignity, how is the prophet's word not true, that no one of the seed of Jeconiah will any longer sit on the throne of David? For no one from him appears to have attained this dignity. Yet the tribe of Judah did not fail until he came for whom it was reserved; and he himself did not sit on the bodily throne, the Jewish kingdom having then passed to Herod, the son of Antipater the Ascalonite, and to his sons, who divided Judea into four principalities, while Pilate was governor and Tiberius held the whole power of the Roman empire. But by the throne of David on which the Lord sat he means the kingdom that cannot be destroyed. For he is the expectation of the nations, not of the smallest part of the world. "For there shall be," it says, "the root of Jesse, and he who rises to rule the nations; in him the nations will hope." "I have given you as a covenant of the race, as a light of the nations." And: "I will establish his seed forever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven." So he remained also a priest, even though he did not take the scepters of Judea; and God is King of all the earth; and the blessing of Jacob was confirmed: "And in his seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed, and all the nations shall call Christ blessed." 4. To the clever Encratites, with their solemn problem, "Why do we too not eat everything?", let this be said: that we also turn in disgust from excrement. For as to dignity, meats are to us like green herbs; but in discerning what is beneficial, just as among vegetables we separate the harmful from the suitable, so among meats too we distinguish the harmful from the useful. For hemlock too is a vegetable, just as vulture's flesh is meat; but no one in his senses would eat henbane, nor touch dog-flesh unless great necessity pressed him; yet he who did eat would not have broken the law. 5. As for those who say that human affairs are governed by fate, do not seek arguments from us, but pierce them with the weapons of their own rhetoric; for the problem is too long for my present weakness. About the rising up in baptism, I do not know what led you to ask, if you have accepted that the immersion fulfills the type of the three days. For it is impossible to be baptized three times without coming up as many times. And we accent φάγος ("glutton") on the next to last syllable. 6. Essence and hypostasis have this difference, which the common has to the particular: as "animal" stands to a particular man. Therefore we confess one essence in the Godhead, so as not to give a different account of its being; but a particular hypostasis, so that our notion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit may be unconfused and clear. For if we do not conceive the distinct characteristics of each, such as fatherhood, sonship, and sanctification, but confess God only from the common notion of being, it is impossible to give a sound account of the faith. We must, then, add the particular to the common, and so confess the faith: the Godhead is common, fatherhood is particular; and joining them we must say, "I believe in God the Father." And again in the confession of the Son we must do the same, join the particular to the common, and say, "I believe in God the Son." Likewise also of the Holy Spirit, shaping the utterance in the same sequence, we must say, "I believe also in the divine Spirit, the Holy." So throughout, the unity is preserved in the confession of the one Godhead, and the particularity of the persons is confessed in the distinction of the properties conceived about each. But those who say that essence and hypostasis are the same are compelled to confess only different persons, and, in shrinking from saying three hypostases, they are found not to escape the evil of Sabellius, who himself, though he often confuses the notion, tries to distinguish the persons, saying that the same hypostasis changes its form according to the need that arises at each time. 7. And as to what you asked, how the intermediate and indifferent things that concern us are governed, whether by some spontaneous chance or by the just providence of God, we say this: that health and sickness, wealth and poverty, glory and dishonor, inasmuch as they do not make those who have them good, are not among the things that are good by nature; but inasmuch as they provide a certain ease to our life, the preferable ones are more to be chosen than their opposites, and are said to have some value. These things are given by God to some for stewardship, as to Abraham and Job and such men; to the worse they are a challenge to improve in character; so that he who after so great a welcome from God persists in injustice makes himself indisputably liable to condemnation. The just man neither turns to wealth when it is present nor seeks it when it is absent; for he is not one who enjoys what has been given, but a steward of it. And no one in his senses runs after the business of distributing other people's goods, unless he looks to the glory that comes from the many, who admire and envy those set in some authority. The just accept sickness as a contest, expecting great crowns for their endurance. To set anyone else over the governance of these things is not only absurd but impious.

[To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.] … but fond of heresy; and not so much loving them as being hostile to us. For he convened a synod of the godless in the middle of winter in Galatia; and he expelled Hypsis and set up Ecdicius in his place. He also ordered my brother to be arrested, on the accusation of one man, and an obscure one at that. Then, after being occupied for a little while at the court, he came back to us breathing anger and murder, and with a single word handed over all the clergy of the Church in Caesarea to the curia; and at Sebaste he sat for many days sorting people out, naming those in communion with us as curials and condemning them to public service, while treating those attached to Eustathius with the highest honors. Again he ordered a synod of Galatians and Pontics to be convened at Nyssa. They obeyed, and having gathered, sent to the Churches a man whom I cannot describe; but your wisdom can guess what sort of man is likely to serve the purposes of such people. And now, as I was writing this, this same assembly set out for Sebaste, to join with Eustathius and with him to overthrow the affairs of the Nicopolitans. For the blessed Theodotus has fallen asleep. So far they have repelled the first attacks of the vicar nobly and steadfastly; for he tried to persuade them to receive Eustathius and to accept a bishop through him; but when he saw that they would not yield, he is now trying to install the man they have chosen with a more violent hand. There is also a whispered expectation of a synod, at which they intend to summon us and either take us as communicants or treat us in their customary way. Such, then, are the affairs of the Churches. As for how I myself am in body …

To the presbyters of Nicopolis. I received the letter of your reverence, and could learn from it nothing newer than what was already known. For the report had already reached the whole surrounding region, announcing the shame of the man who fell among you, who through desire for empty glory brought on himself the most shameful dishonor, and was found to have fallen, through love of self, from the rewards of faith; while that wretched scrap of glory for which he longed and sold himself to impiety he does not have, because of the just hatred of those who fear the Lord. But by his present choice he has given the clearest proof of his whole life: that he never lived in the hope of the promises stored up for us by the Lord; but whatever human advantage he was trafficking for himself, he practiced everything, both words of faith and a pretense of reverence, to deceive those he met. But why does what has happened weigh you down? How are you worse than you were because of it? One is missing from your full number; and if one or two others have gone off with him somewhere, they are to be pitied for their fall, but your body is whole by the grace of God. For what had become useless has dropped off, and what remains has not been mutilated. And if it grieves you that you have been driven out of the walls, yet you will lodge under the shelter of the God of heaven, and the angel who oversees the Church has gone out with you. So they lie down every day in empty buildings, preparing a heavy judgment for themselves from the scattering of the people. And if there is some toil in the matter, I am persuaded in the Lord that this will not turn out in vain for you. So the more trials you are in, the more costly the reward you may expect from the just Judge. Do not then take the present hard, nor grow weary in hope. For yet a very little while, and he who helps you will come to you, and will not delay. [Letter 239] [To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.] … our fellow presbyter, to address your holiness; and to urge you to do as you are accustomed, to pray for us; and to find for ourselves some consolation for our long separation in conversing with you by letter. In praying, we urge you to ask the Lord first and foremost that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, who have so prevailed over the peoples that we now see in ourselves nothing other than the image of the Jewish captivity. For the weaker the Churches sink, the more the ambitions of men flourish. And the name of the episcopate has now come round to wretched men, home-bred slaves, since none of the servants of God chooses to set himself against them, except those who are desperate, such as the men now sent in by Anysius, the creature of Euippius, and by Ecdicius of Parnassus, whom the one who appointed him left to the Churches as an evil provision for his own life to come. These have now driven my brother out of Nyssa, and brought in instead a man, or rather a slave worth a few obols, but equal in corrupting the faith to those who appointed him. And to the village of Doara they sent a ruined man, a servant of orphans, who ran away from his masters, through the flattery of a godless woman, who formerly used George for her own will and now has got this man as his successor, insulting the pitiable name of the episcopate. And the affairs of the Nicopolitans, who could lament them as they deserve? The wretched Fronto, who at first made a show of pleading for the truth, at last basely betrayed both the faith and himself, and received as the reward of his betrayal a name of dishonor. For he received from them the dignity of the episcopate, as he thinks; but by the grace of God he has become the common abomination of all Armenia. Only, nothing is too daring for them, nor do they lack fellow workers worthy of them. As for the rest of Syria, brother Antiochus both knows it better than we do and will relate it. 2. Those from the West you yourself have already met, brother Dorotheus having related everything. What sort of letters should be given him again when he departs? For perhaps he will share the journey with the good Sanctissimus, who is full of zeal and is going around the East collecting signatures and letters from each of the notable men. What we ought to write through them, or how to agree with those who write, I myself do not know; but if you quickly find people coming to us, deign to let us know. For I am inclined to quote the word of Diomedes: "Would you had not entreated him," because, he says, the man is haughty. For indeed haughty characters, when they are courted, naturally become more contemptuous. For if the Lord is propitious to us, what further addition do we need? But if the wrath of God remains, what help to us is Western superciliousness? They neither know the truth nor bear to learn it, but, preoccupied by false suspicions, they are doing now what they did before in the case of Marcellus: quarreling with those who tell them the truth, and by their own act confirming the heresy. For I myself wished, apart from the common letter, to write to their leader, saying nothing about ecclesiastical matters except to hint that they neither know the truth of our affairs nor accept the way by which they might learn it; but in general that one ought not to attack those who have been humbled by trials, nor take haughtiness for dignity, a sin which by itself is enough to make one an enemy of God.

[To the presbyters of Nicopolis.] … what we advise ourselves, this we also write to your reverence: that these things have happened to many; and not in the present time only, but in times past there are countless examples of such things, some of which the histories have left in writing, while others we have received in unwritten memory from those who knew them; that both man by man and city by city trials have surrounded those who hoped in him, for the name of the Lord. Yet all of them passed, and none of the gloomy things had a grief that was immortal. For as hailstorms and torrents and all sudden evils easily harm and ruin what is soft, but, meeting what is resistant, suffer rather than do harm, so too the violent trials stirred up against the Church have proved weaker than the firmness of faith in Christ. As then the hail cloud passed and the torrent flowed by (the one dissolved into clear sky, the other disappeared into the depths, leaving the way along which it flowed dry and without moisture), so too what now storms around us will soon be no more. Only let us consent not to look at the present, but to fix our hopes on what lies a little further on. Whether, then, the trial is heavy, brothers, let us endure the toils; for no one is crowned without being struck in the contests and covered with dust; or whether these are the devil's playthings, and those who … are troublesome because they are his servants, but contemptible because to their wickedness they have joined weakness, let us beware of the reproach of lamenting greatly over small sufferings. For one thing alone deserves grief: the destruction of the man who for the sake of temporary glory (if indeed one should call public disgrace glory) deprives himself of the eternal honor of the just. You are children of confessors, and children of martyrs, who resisted sin to the point of blood. Let each use the examples of his own family for resistance on behalf of godliness. None of us has been torn with scourges; no one's house has been confiscated; we have not lived in exile; we have not known prison. What terrible thing have we suffered? Unless perhaps this is grievous, that we have suffered nothing, and have not been thought worthy of sufferings for Christ. But if it grieves you that he holds the house of prayer while you worship the Lord of heaven and earth in the open air, consider that the eleven disciples were shut up in the upper room, while those who had crucified the Lord fulfilled the Jewish worship in the famous temple. Judas, by preferring death by hanging to living in shame, perhaps showed himself more to be chosen than those who now have lost all blush before the condemnation of all people, and are therefore shamelessly disposed toward base things. 3. Only do not be deceived by their lies, when they profess orthodoxy of faith. For such men are traffickers in Christ, not Christians, always preferring what profits them in this life to living in truth. When they thought they could gain this empty office, they joined the enemies of Christ; when they saw the peoples angry, they again put on a show of orthodoxy. I do not recognize as bishop, nor would I number among the priests of Christ, one who has been put forward to leadership by profane hands for the destruction of the faith. This is my judgment. If you have any part with us, you will clearly think as we do; but if you take counsel by yourselves, each is master of his own opinion; we are innocent of this blood. I wrote this not because I distrust you, but to strengthen the wavering of some by making my judgment known; so that no one may be drawn into communion beforehand, and then, after receiving the laying on of their hands, when peace comes, force their way into being counted among the priestly body. Through you we greet all the clergy, both those in the city and those in the district, with all the people who fear the Lord.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. It is not to increase your dejection that we often do not spare our troubles in our letters to your honor, but both to give ourselves some consolation through groans, which somehow naturally dispel the pain deep within when they are uttered, and to rouse your magnanimity to more earnest prayer for the Churches. For Moses too prayed always for the people; yet when the struggle with Amalek was upon him, he did not let down his hands from morning till evening, but the stretching out of the holy man's hands lasted to the end of the battle.

To the Westerns. 1. Since the holy God promises a way out of every affliction to those who hope in him, even if we have been caught in the midst of a sea of evils and are tormented by waves raised against us by the spirits of wickedness, yet we hold out in Christ who strengthens us, and we have not slackened the vigor of our zeal for the Churches; nor, as in a storm when the surge overwhelms, have we despaired of safety and awaited our dissolution; but we still hold to the zeal possible for us, knowing that he too who was swallowed by the sea-monster, because he did not despair of himself but cried to the Lord, was deemed worthy of salvation. So we too, having come to the extremity of evils, do not let go of our hope in God, but look round on every side for his help. Hence we have now looked to you, most honored brothers, whom we often expected to appear to us in the time of our afflictions; but falling from our hope, we too said to ourselves: "I waited for one to grieve with me, and there was none; and for comforters, and I found none." For our sufferings are such that they have reached the ends of the inhabited world; and if, when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, surely your compassion ought to have been moved toward us, who have long been in distress. For it is not nearness of place but conjunction in the Spirit that naturally creates intimacy; and this we have believed that we have with your love. 2. Why then has there been no letter of encouragement, no visit of brothers, nothing else of what is owed us by the law of love? For this is the thirteenth year since the heretical war rose against us, in which more afflictions have come upon the Churches than are recorded since the Gospel of Christ was proclaimed. We decline to tell you of them one by one, lest the weakness of our words weaken the vividness of the evils; and at the same time we do not think that you need teaching, having long since been taught the truth of the facts by report. The sum of the evil is this: the peoples, having left the houses of prayer, gather in the deserts. A pitiable sight: women, children, old men, and others who are otherwise weak, suffering in the open air in the most violent rains, in snows and winds and the frost of winter, and likewise in summer under the blaze of the sun. And they suffer this because they will not consent to share in the evil leaven of Arius. 3. How could words present these things to you vividly, unless experience itself and the sight of your own eyes should move you to sympathy? So we urge you now at least to stretch out a hand to the Churches in the East, now bowed to their knees, and to send some men to remind them of the rewards stored up for the endurance of sufferings for Christ. For a familiar voice does not naturally work as much as a stranger's voice produces encouragement, especially when it comes from men known everywhere by the grace of God for the noblest things, such as report proclaims you to be to all people: men who have remained unwounded in the faith, and have kept the apostolic deposit inviolate. But our affairs are not such. We have some who, from desire of glory and from the conceit that most of all overthrows the souls of Christians, have boldly ventured on innovations of words; whence the Churches, having become rotten, like porous vessels have received the heretical corruption flowing in. But you, beloved and longed-for, become physicians to the wounded and trainers to the healthy, healing what is sick and anointing what is healthy for godliness.

[To the bishops of Italy and Gaul … Basil,] bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ, having deigned to call the whole Church of God his own body, and having shown each one of us to be members of one another, has granted to all of us to be on terms of intimacy with all, in keeping with the harmony of the members. Therefore, even though we are very far separated from one another in our dwelling places, yet by the principle of our union we are near to one another. Since, then, the head cannot say to the feet, "I have no need of you," surely you too will not bear to disown us; but you will sympathize with us in the afflictions to which we have been handed over for our sins as much as we rejoice with you as you glory in the peace the Lord has granted you. Already on another occasion we called upon your love for help and sympathy; but because the punishment had surely not yet been filled up, you were not permitted to rise up to help us. What we seek above all is that our confusion should be made plain, through your piety, to the very ruler of your part of the world; but if this is difficult, that some of you should come to visit and console the afflicted, so as to put before your eyes the sufferings of the East, which cannot be received by hearing, since no words can be found that would present our condition to you vividly. 2. Persecution has overtaken us, most honored brothers, and the heaviest of persecutions. For shepherds are persecuted, so that the flocks may be scattered. And what is heaviest of all is that neither do those who are ill-treated accept their sufferings with the assurance of martyrdom, nor do the peoples honor the contenders as martyrs, because the persecutors bear the name of Christians. One charge is now severely punished: the exact keeping of the traditions of the fathers. For this the godly are driven from their homelands and removed to the deserts. The judges of injustice have no respect for grey hairs, for the practice of godliness, for a life according to the Gospel lived from youth to old age. No criminal is condemned without proof; but bishops have been convicted on slander alone, and are handed over to punishment without any evidence being brought for the charges. Some have not known their accusers, nor seen a tribunal, nor even been slandered at all; but, seized violently at an untimely hour of the night, they have been driven beyond the frontier into exile, handed over to death by the hardships of the desert. What follows from this is known to everyone, even if we keep silent: banishment of presbyters, banishment of deacons, and the plundering of the whole clergy. For it is necessary either to worship the image or to be handed over to the cruel flame of the scourges. Groans of the peoples, tears without ceasing in homes and in public, all lamenting to one another what they suffer. For no one is so stony-hearted that, deprived of his father, he bears his orphanhood calmly. A sound of mourning in the city, a sound in the fields, on the roads, in the deserts; one voice of all, uttering pitiable and gloomy things. Joy and spiritual gladness have been taken away. Our feasts have been turned into mourning; houses of prayer have been shut; the altars of spiritual worship stand idle. No more assemblies of Christians, no more presidings of teachers, no saving teachings, no festal gatherings, no night hymn-singing, no more that blessed exultation of souls which arises in the souls of those who believe in the Lord at the assemblies and in the fellowship of spiritual gifts. It is fitting for us to say: "There is not at this time ruler, nor prophet, nor leader, nor offering, nor incense, no place to sacrifice before the Lord and find mercy." 3. We write this to those who know it, for there is no part of the world that is still ignorant of our calamities. So you should not think that we are using these words to teach you, but to remind your diligence. For we know that you would never forget us, any more than a mother would forget the offspring of her womb. But since those held fast by great pain naturally lighten their pains somehow through groans, we too do this, as it were unloading the weight of our grief by announcing our many kinds of calamity to your love, in the hope that, moved more strongly to prayer for us, you may prevail on the Lord to be reconciled to us. If, then, afflictions alone were weighing us down, we would have advised ourselves to keep quiet and to rejoice in sufferings for Christ, since "the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." But now we fear lest the evil, as it grows, like a flame advancing through burning material, when it has consumed what is near, may lay hold of what is far off as well. For the evil of the heresy is spreading, and there is fear that, having devoured our Churches, it may then creep on to the sound part of your district too. Perhaps, because sin has abounded among us, we were handed over first to be devoured by the savage teeth of the enemies of God; but perhaps, and this is more likely to be guessed, since the Gospel of the kingdom, beginning from our regions, went out into the whole world, for this reason the common enemy of our souls strives to have the seeds of apostasy, taking their beginning from the same regions, spread throughout the whole world. For on those on whom the light of the knowledge of Christ shone, on them he plans that the darkness of impiety should come too. 4. Count our sufferings, then, as your own, as genuine disciples of the Lord. We are not being warred against for money, nor for glory, nor for any other temporary thing; but we stand contending for our common possession, the inherited treasure of the sound faith. Grieve with us, you lovers of the brothers, because among us the mouths of the godly have been shut, while every bold and blasphemous tongue of those who speak unrighteousness against God has been opened. The pillars and foundation of the truth are scattered; and we, who have been overlooked because of our insignificance, have no freedom to speak. Be in anguish for the peoples; and do not look only to your own affairs, that you are moored in calm harbors, the grace of God having granted you complete shelter from the storm of the spirits of wickedness. But stretch out a hand to the storm-tossed Churches too, lest, being abandoned, they suffer complete shipwreck of the faith. Groan for us, because the Only-begotten is blasphemed, and there is no one to contradict; the Holy Spirit is set at nought, and he who could refute is driven away. Polytheism has prevailed. Among them there is a great God and a small one. "Son" has been held to be the name not of a nature but of some honor; the Holy Spirit is held not to complete the Holy Trinity, nor to share in the divine and blessed nature, but to be one of the creatures, attached to the Father and the Son at random and by chance. "Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes," and I will weep for many days for the people that is being driven to destruction by these evil teachings? The ears of the simpler are being led astray; they have now grown used to the heretical impiety. The infants of the Church are being nurtured on the words of impiety. For what are they to do? Baptisms are with them, escorts for those who depart this life, visits to the sick, consolation of those who grieve, help for the distressed, assistance of every kind, communion in the mysteries; all of which, being performed by them, becomes a bond of concord between the peoples and them; so that in a little while, even if some freedom should come, there will no longer be hope that those who have been held by long-continued error … 5. For these reasons many of us ought to have hastened to your reverence, and each to have become the interpreter of his own affairs. But now let this very thing be a proof to you of the hardship in which we live: that we are not even free to travel. For if anyone departed even for the shortest time from his Church, he would leave the peoples exposed to those lying in wait. But by the grace of God we have sent one in place of many, our most reverent and beloved brother Dorotheus, our fellow presbyter, who is able by his own account to fill in whatever has escaped our letter, since he has followed everything closely and is zealous for the right faith. Receive him in peace and send him back to us quickly, bringing us good news of your zeal to help the brotherhood.

To Patrophilus, bishop of the Church at Aegae. 1. I read the letter that you sent through our brother Strategius, the fellow presbyter, and I read it with pleasure. How could I not, since it was written by a man of understanding, and by a heart that has been taught to practice love toward all according to the Lord's command? And I almost recognized the reason for your silence in the past. For you seemed like someone at a loss and astonished, wondering whether Basil, the man who from boyhood had served So-and-so in such a way, who had done this and that at such and such times, who had accepted war with countless people for the sake of his devotion to one man, has now become another person instead of the one he was, and has taken up war in place of love; and all the other things you wrote, showing sufficiently the astonishment of your soul at the unaccountable change of affairs. And if you also rebuked us somewhat, I did not take it hard. For I am not so incapable of correction as to be vexed at the loving reproofs of the brothers. Indeed I am so far from being annoyed at what you wrote that I almost laughed at it: that, when there were so many and such great things which we thought had earlier confirmed our friendship with one another, you yourself should write that you had been so astonished at the small matters that have reached you. Have you then also suffered what happens to the many, who, giving up examining the nature of things, pay attention to the people the talk is about, and become respecters not of the truth but of persons, though "to respect persons in judgment is not good"? 2. Nevertheless, since God does not respect a man's person in judgment, I will not refuse to make known to you too the defense I have prepared for the great tribunal: that nothing, small or great, was done by us from the beginning to cause the separation; but men who hate us, for reasons they themselves know (for it is not for me to say anything about them), were continually slandering us. Once and again we cleared ourselves of these slanders. But when the matter had no end, and there was no use in continual defense, since we lived far away while the liars were close at hand to wound with their slanders against us a heart easily overcome, and not taught to keep one of its ears untouched for the one who is absent; when the Nicopolitans demanded some assurance about the faith (which surely you too were not unaware of), it seemed good to us to accept the service of writing the document. For we reckoned that we would achieve two things at once: persuade the Nicopolitans not to think badly of the man, and stop the mouths of those who slandered us, since agreement in faith would shut out the slanders on both sides. And so the creed was drawn up, it was presented by us, and it was signed. When it had been signed, a place was appointed for a second synod, and another time, so that the brothers of our district too might meet and be united with one another, and that their communion from then on might be genuine and without guile. We, then, came at the appointed time, and of the brothers with us some were present and others were streaming in, all cheerful and eager, as hurrying to peace; and letters went from us, and couriers announcing that we were there; for the place appointed for receiving those who were gathering was our own. But from the other side there was no one, neither coming ahead nor bringing news of the arrival of those we expected; and those we had sent returned telling of much gloom and murmuring among them, as though a new creed had been proclaimed by us; and they were said to have declared on oath that they would not allow their bishop to cross over to us. And someone came bringing us a letter that was a mere formality, with no mention of what had been agreed at the beginning; and our brother Theophilus, worthy of all respect and honor from me, sent one of those with him and made known certain things which he thought it fell to him to say and fitting for us to hear. For he did not think fit to write, not so much because he feared being convicted by a letter, as because he was anxious not to be obliged to address us as bishops; except that the words were violent, and uttered from a heated heart. Upon this we broke up, ashamed and dejected in mind, having no answer to give those who asked us. Not much time passed in between: a journey as far as Cilicia, the return from there, and at once a letter declaring the renunciation of communion with us. 3. And the cause of the breach is, he says, that we wrote to Apollinarius and have our fellow presbyter Diodorus in communion with us. Now Apollinarius I never considered an enemy; indeed there are respects in which I even respect the man; but I have not so joined myself to him as to take on myself the charges against him; since I myself also have something to charge him with, having read some of his writings. Yet I do not know that I either asked him for a book about the Holy Spirit or received one he sent. I hear that he has become the most voluminous of all writers; but I have read few of his writings; for I have no leisure to search into such things, and at the same time I am somewhat averse to accepting what is new, since my body does not even allow me to persevere diligently and in the proper way in reading the divinely inspired Scriptures. What has this to do with me, if someone has written something that does not please So-and-so? And yet, if one man must give account for another, let him who accuses me on behalf of Apollinarius give account to us on behalf of Arius, his own teacher, and on behalf of Aetius, his own disciple. But we were neither taught anything by, nor were we disciples of, the man whose charges they put upon us. Diodorus, as a nursling of the blessed Silvanus, we received from the beginning; and now we both love and cherish him for the grace of speech that is in him, through which many of those who meet him become better. 4. Affected by this letter as was natural, and astonished at so unaccountable and sudden a change, I could not even reply. For my heart was bound, my tongue failed, my hand was numbed; and I suffered the feeling of an ignoble soul (for the truth shall be told, though it deserves pardon): I almost fell into misanthropy, and every character seemed to me suspect; and I thought that the good of love did not exist in human nature, but was a fine-sounding word providing a kind of ornament to those who use it, and that this disposition did not truly dwell in the heart of man. For if he who seemed from boyhood to deep old age to have taken care of himself has been so easily turned savage on such pretexts, without taking any account of our affairs, nor counting the experience of the past as weightier than so cheap a slander, but, like an untamed colt not yet taught to carry its rider well, has reared up from a small suspicion, and thrown off and cast to the ground those in whom he formerly took pride, what must one suspect of others, with whom we have neither such pledges of friendship nor such display on their part of care for their character? Turning these things over in my soul, and constantly revolving them in my heart, or rather having my heart turned over by them, since they so bit and pricked me through memory, I made no reply to that letter; not keeping silent out of contempt (do not think that, brother; for we are not defending ourselves before men, but we speak in Christ in the sight of God), but out of perplexity and helplessness, and because I could say nothing equal to my grief. 5. While we were in this state, another letter overtook us, written supposedly to a certain Dazizas, but in truth addressed to all people, as is shown by its very rapid distribution, so that in a few days it was sown over the whole of Pontus and ran through Galatia. And some say that the messengers of these good tidings went through Bithynia too and reached as far as the Hellespont itself. What was written against us to Dazizas you surely know. For they do not set you so far from their friendship as to leave you alone without the honor of it. But if the letter did not come to you, I am sending it to you. In it you will find us accused of deceit and knavery, of corrupting the Churches and destroying souls, and, what they think the truest charge of all, that we put forward that creed as a trap, not serving the Nicopolitans, but devising to get a confession from them by deceit. Of these things the Lord is judge. For what clear proof could there be of the thoughts in the heart? But this I marveled at in them: that because they signed the book presented by us, they are in such a state of alienation as to mix up things true and false in order to satisfy those who accuse them; but they do not consider that their written confession of the faith of Nicaea is laid up at Rome; nor that with their own hands they handed to the synod at Tyana the book from Rome, which is preserved with us, containing this same faith. And they have forgotten their own public speech, in which, standing up in the midst at that time, they lamented the deception by which they were led to agree to the tome drawn up by the party of Eudoxius; for they devised this defense of that error: that they would go to Rome and receive the faith of the Fathers from there, so that the harm they had done the Churches by their agreement with evil they might set right by bringing in what is better. But those who endured the longest journeys abroad for the faith, and made those wise speeches, now revile us as walking in deceit, and doing the work of plotters under the guise of love. And what they are now carrying about shows that they have condemned the faith of Nicaea. For they have seen Cyzicus and come back with another creed. 6. And why do I speak of their changeability in words, when I have much greater proofs of their turning to opposites from their actions themselves? For those who would not yield to the decree of five hundred bishops issued against them, nor consent to withdraw from the governance of the Churches, though so many had agreed in the judgment for their deposition, because, they said, those bishops were not partakers of the Holy Spirit, nor governed the Churches by the grace of God, but had seized the leadership by human power and desire for empty glory: these men now receive as bishops those ordained by them. Ask them, instead of me, even if they despise all people as having neither eyes nor ears nor a heart able to perceive, at least so far as to see the inconsistency of what has been done, what thought they have in their own heart. How can there be two bishops, the one deposed by Euippius, and the one ordained by him? For both are the work of the same hand. Unless he had the grace given to Jeremiah, to pull down and to build up, to root out and to plant, he would neither have rooted out the one nor planted the other. And if you grant him the one, you will grant him the other too. But their one aim, it seems, is to seek their own everywhere, and to consider as a friend him who works with their desires, and to judge as an enemy, sparing no slander against him, him who opposes their desires. 7. For what are their present dealings against the Church like? Horrible because of the ease of those who do them, pitiable because of the insensibility of those who suffer them. Children of Euippius and descendants of Euippius, recalled from abroad to Sebaste by a trustworthy embassy, have been entrusted with the people. They have taken over the altar; they have become the leaven of the Church there. By these men we are persecuted as homoousiasts; and Eustathius, who carried the homoousion in the document from Rome as far as Tyana, is now blended with them; even though he could not be received into their much-desired communion, either because they feared the multitude of those who had agreed against him, or because they respected his credibility. For who those assembled were, and how each was ordained, and from what manner of life at the beginning he has now come to this power, may I never have such leisure as to recount their deeds. For I have learned to pray "that my mouth may not speak of the works of men"; but you, if you investigate, will learn; and even if it escapes you, it will certainly not escape the Judge. 8. But what I have felt I will not refuse to tell your love: that last year, having fallen ill of a most violent fever and come near to the very gates of death, and then being recalled by the love of God for humankind, I was distressed at my return, reckoning what evils I was coming back to; and I considered within myself what it could be that is stored up in the depth of the wisdom of God, for which days of life in the flesh were again granted to me. But when I learned these things, I reckoned that the Lord wished us to see the Churches at rest from the agitation they suffered before this at the separation of men who were trusted in everything because of the solemnity they had put on. Or perhaps the Lord wished to strengthen my soul and make it more watchful for the future, so as not to attend to men, but to be perfected by the commandments of the Gospel, which do not change with the times or with the circumstances of human affairs, but remain the same, as they were uttered from that truthful and blessed mouth, enduring forever. 9. But men are like clouds, carried now to one part of the sky and now to another by the changes of the winds. And these men of whom we speak have shown themselves the most changeable of all who have come within our experience. Whether in the other affairs of life, those who have lived with them could say; but such changeability about the faith as I have seen in them I know of in no others until now, neither having seen it myself nor heard of it from others. At first they followed Arius; they went over to Hermogenes, who was the diametrical enemy of the false belief of Arius, as is shown by the very creed that was first pronounced at Nicaea by that man. Hermogenes fell asleep, and again they went over to Eusebius, a leader of the circle of Arius, as those who have experience say. Having fallen from there, for whatever reasons, they ran back again to their homeland, and again kept the Arian opinion hidden. Having attained the episcopate, to omit what lies between, how many creeds have they set forth? Another at Ancyra, another at Seleucia, another at Constantinople, the much-talked-of one, another at Lampsacus, after that the one at Nike in Thrace, and now again the one at Cyzicus; of which I do not know the rest, but I hear only so much: that, passing over the homoousion in silence, they now bring in "like in essence," and write blasphemies against the Holy Spirit together with Eunomius. Of these creeds that I have listed, even if not all are contrary to one another, yet they all alike show the changeableness of their character, because they never stand by the same words. This is the truth, and countless other things are passed over. But since they have now gone over to you too, we ask you to write back through the same man (I mean our fellow presbyter Strategius) whether you have remained the same toward us, or have been altered by meeting them. For it was not likely that they would keep silent, nor that you, who wrote such things to us, would not use the same frankness toward them. If, then, you remain in communion with us, this is best, and worthy of our highest prayer; but if they have brought you over to themselves, it is grievous; for how could separation from such a brother not be? Yet, if nothing else, we have been well enough trained by those very men to bear such losses.

To Theophilus the bishop. Having received the letter from your love long ago, I was waiting to reply by a genuine person, so that whatever escaped the letter the bearer might fill in. Since, then, our most longed-for and most reverent brother Strategius has come to us, I thought it right to use him as minister, since he both knows our mind and is able to deliver our message genuinely and reverently. Know, then, most longed-for and most honored friend, that we value our love for you highly; as to the disposition of our soul we are not conscious of having fallen short of it for a single hour, even though many and great grounds for reasonable grief have arisen. Yet we decided this: setting, as on a balance, the better things against the more unpleasant, to add our judgment to the weight of the better. But since things have been changed by those by whom this should least of all have happened, forgive us too, not for having changed our judgment, but for having shifted our position. Or rather, we shall remain in the same position; it is others who are constantly shifting, and are now even openly deserting to the opponents. How highly we valued communion with them while they were on the sound side, you yourself know. But now, if we do not follow them, and avoid those who think as they do, we may justly obtain pardon, counting nothing more precious than the truth and our own safety. [Letter 246] To the Nicopolitans. When I see wickedness prospering, and your reverence weary and giving up before the continual abuse, I am filled with dejection. But when again I consider the great hand of God, and that he knows how to set up those who are cast down, and to love the righteous, but to crush the proud and to put down the mighty from their thrones, I change again and become lighter in my hopes; and I know that through your prayers the Lord will soon show us calm. Only do not grow weary in praying; but what you teach in words, strive at the present time to set before all as clear examples in deed.

To the Nicopolitans. When I read the letter of your holiness, how I groaned and lamented that these evils too reached my ears: blows and insults to yourselves, plundering of houses and the desolation of a city, the overturning of a whole homeland, persecution of the Church and flight of priests, an uprising of wolves and scattering of flocks. But when I ceased from groaning and tears and looked up to the Master in heaven, I knew and am persuaded, and I want you also to know, that help will come swiftly and that the abandonment will not be to the end. For what we have suffered, we have suffered for our sins; but the Lover of humankind will show his help because of his love and compassion for his Churches. Yet we have not failed both to entreat those in power when present, and to write to those at court who love us, that the raging man may be checked in his anger. And I think that condemnation will come upon him from many, unless perhaps these times, full of turmoil, give those in charge of affairs no leisure for these things.

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. When we look to our own desire, we are vexed at being so far separated from your piety; but when we look to the peacefulness of your life, we thank the Lord who has rescued your reverence from this conflagration, which has spread most over our district. For the righteous Judge has given us, according to our works, an angel of Satan, who buffets us sufficiently and champions the heresy vehemently, carrying his war against us so far as not to spare even the blood of those who have believed in God. For surely it has not escaped your love that a certain Asclepius, because he would not choose communion with Doeg, died under the blows they gave him, or rather was translated through the blows into life. Suppose that all the rest follows consistently with that: persecutions of presbyters and teachers, and whatever else men would do who use the power of office for their own will. But the Lord will give us release from these things through your prayers, and endurance, so that we may bear the weight of the trials worthily of our hope in him. And do you deign to write to us constantly about your affairs. And if you find someone who can faithfully carry the book we have labored over, deign to send for it, so that, emboldened by your judgment, we may also send it into other hands. In health and good spirits in the Lord, praying for us, may you be granted to me and to the Church of the Lord by the grace of the Holy One.

Without address, about a devout man. I rejoice with this brother, both that he is being freed from the turmoil here and that he is reaching your reverence. For he has chosen a good provision for the age to come: good living with those who fear the Lord. We commend him to your honor, and through him I urge you to pray for our pitiable life, so that, delivered from these trials, we may begin to serve the Lord according to the Gospel.

[To Patrophilus, bishop of Aegae.] … to answer, I say only this much: if the good of peace is confined to the mere name of peace, it is ridiculous to pick out So-and-so and So-and-so and share peace with them alone, while shutting out countless others from fellowship in the good. But if agreement with harmful men under the pretext of peace does the work of enemies to those who receive them, consider who those are with whom they have mingled themselves, who have hated us with an unjust hatred: are they not those of the party that is not in communion with us? For I need not now mention them by name. These were invited by them to Sebaste, took over the Church, ministered at the altar, and gave of their own bread to all the people, being proclaimed bishops among the clergy and escorted through the whole country as holy and in communion. If one must choose their party, it is ridiculous to begin with the nails, and not to converse with the very heads. If, then, one must consider no one at all a heretic nor shun anyone, why, tell me, do you separate yourself and hold back from communion with some? But if some are to be shunned according to the principle of strictness, let them tell us, those who are strict in everything, to what party those belong whom they have brought over to themselves from Galatia. If these things seem to you worthy of grief, count the separation against those who caused it; but if you judge them indifferent, forgive us for not consenting to become part of the leaven of those who teach otherwise. So, if you please, drop those fair-seeming words, and with all frankness rebuke those who do not walk straight according to the truth of the Gospel.

To the people of Evaesae. 1. Even though the number of affairs surrounding us is great, and our mind is held fast by countless cares, we have never cast out of our memory our concern for your love, praying our God that you may remain in the faith in which you stand and boast in hope of the glory of God. For truly it is now hard to find and very rare to see a Church that is pure, not harmed at all by the difficulty of the times, but preserving the apostolic teaching unharmed and unbroken, such as he has shown yours to be in the present times, he who shows forth in each generation those worthy of his calling. And may the Lord give you the good things of the Jerusalem above, in return for your sending back the false slanders against us upon the heads of the liars, giving them no entry into your hearts. And I know and am persuaded in the Lord that your reward is great in heaven, for this deed too. For you reasoned wisely among yourselves, as is indeed the truth, that those who repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love toward them, are now slandering me for things to which they themselves are found to have set out written confessions. 2. And not only have they fallen into this contradiction, bringing forward their own documents to you as an accusation; but also, though they were deposed unanimously by those who assembled at Constantinople, they did not accept their deposition, calling it a synod of the godless, and refusing to call those men bishops, so as not to ratify the vote passed against themselves. And they added the reason why those were not bishops: because, they say, they lead an evil heresy. This happened not quite seventeen years ago. The leaders of those who deposed them were Eudoxius, Euippius, George, Acacius, and others who are unknown to you. Those who now hold power over the Churches are their successors: some ordained in their place, others promoted by those very men. 3. Now then, let those who accuse us of false belief tell us how those men were heretics whose deposition they did not accept, and how these are orthodox who were promoted by them and preserve the same mind as their fathers? For if Euippius is orthodox, how is Eustathius, who was deposed by him, not a layman? But if Euippius is a heretic, how is one who was promoted by his hand now in communion with Eustathius? But these are games, played against the Churches of God by men who, for their own advantage, set about now slandering people and now commending them. Eustathius, passing through Paphlagonia, overturned the altars of Basilides the Paphlagonian and ministered on his own tables; and now he is a suppliant of Basilides, to be received by him. He excommunicated the most reverent brother Elpidius for his union with those in Amasea; and now he is a suppliant of the Amaseans, seeking union with them. How dreadful his proclamations against Euippius were, you yourselves know. And now he extols as orthodox those who think as Euippius did, provided only they cooperate in his eagerness to be restored. We are slandered, not because we do any wrong, but because he thought this would win him favor with those in Antioch. And those whom they sent for last year from Galatia, thinking that through them they could recover the freedom of the episcopate, are such men as even those who have been with them a little while know. May the Lord never give me so much leisure as to enumerate their deeds. However, escorted by their most honored bodyguards and fellow initiates, they passed through their whole country receiving the honors and attentions due to bishops; and they were brought into the city with great display and held assembly with authority. For the people was handed over to them; the altar was handed over. And when they had advanced as far as Nicopolis and could accomplish none of what they had promised, how they returned, and how they were seen on the way back, those who were present know. So they always appear to do everything for their own advantage. And if they say that they have repented, let them show their repentance in writing, and an anathema of the creed of Constantinople, and their separation from the heretics; and let them not deceive the simpler. Such, then, are their affairs. 4. But we, beloved brothers, though small and lowly, are always the same by the grace of God, and have never changed along with the changes of affairs. With us there is not one creed at Seleucia, another at Constantinople, another at Zela, another at Lampsacus, and yet another at Rome; and the one now carried about is not different from the earlier ones, but is one and the same always. For as we received from the Lord, so we are baptized; as we are baptized, so we believe; as we believe, so we also give glory: neither separating the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, nor putting him before the Father, nor saying that the Spirit is older than the Son, as the tongues of the blasphemers make out. For who is so daring as to thrust aside the Lord's ordinance and dare to devise his own order for the names? But neither do we call the Spirit created, who is ranked with the Father and the Son; nor do we dare to call servile him who is sovereign. And we urge you, remembering the threat of the Lord, who said, "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men; but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the age to come," to guard yourselves against the harmful teachings against the Spirit. Stand fast in the faith; look around the world and see that this part which is sick is small; but the whole rest of the Church, which from end to end has received the Gospel, is in the sound … [doctrine] …

To the bishops of the Pontic diocese. The honors paid to martyrs are eagerly sought by all who have hoped in the Lord, but especially by you, who lay claim to virtue, and who by your disposition toward the approved among your fellow servants show your good will toward the common Master; and above all because the life of strictness has a certain kinship with those who were perfected through endurance. Since, then, Eupsychius and Damas and the company with them are the most illustrious of martyrs, and their memorial is celebrated every year by our city and the whole surrounding district, the Church reminds you, her own adornment, through our voice, calling on you to resume the ancient custom of your visit. As, then, a great work lies before you among a people that seeks edification from you, and a reward is stored up in the honor of the martyrs, accept our invitation, and consent to the favor at the cost of a little labor …

To the presbyters of Antioch. The anxiety you have for the Churches of God our most longed-for and most reverent brother Sanctissimus, the fellow presbyter, will in part relieve, by telling you of the love and good disposition of the whole West toward us; and in part he will rouse you and stir you up further, by setting before you vividly, in person, how much zeal the present situation requires. For of the others each has told us, as it were, only half of both the opinions of the men there and the state of affairs; but he, being able both to learn men's purposes and to examine the state of affairs exactly, will tell you everything, and will guide your good zeal in everything. So you have an occasion befitting your perfect purpose, which you have always shown in your anxieties for the Churches of God.

To Pelagius, bishop of Laodicea in Syria. May the Lord one day grant me too to come into the sight of your true piety, and to fill up in person what we have left out in our letter. For we have begun to write late, and we have great need of excuse. But since our most longed-for and most reverent brother Sanctissimus, the fellow presbyter, is here, he will tell you everything, both our affairs and those from the West. With the latter he will gladden you; but in telling of the troubles that have held us fast he will perhaps add some grief and anxiety to those already stored up in your good heart. Yet it is not useless for you to grieve, since you are able to prevail upon the Lord. For your anxiety will turn out to our good; and I know that we shall obtain help from God, having the cooperation of your prayers. And if you pray with us for release from our anxieties, and ask for some addition to the strength of our body, the Lord will direct us so that our desire may be fulfilled and we may come into the sight of your decency. [Letter 255] To Vitus, bishop of Carrhae. Would that it were possible for me to write to your reverence every day. For since I came to know your love by experience, I have a great longing, above all to live with you; but if not, at least to send and receive letters, so that I may show you my affairs and learn about your own. But since we do not have as much as we wish, but ought to accept with thanksgiving whatever the Lord gives, we have thanked the holy God for giving us an occasion for a letter to your reverence: the arrival of our most longed-for and most reverent brother Sanctissimus, the fellow presbyter, who, having endured much toil on the journey, will tell you exactly everything he found in the West. For this we ought to give thanks to the Lord and to worship him, that he may give us too the same peace, and that we may receive one another again with freedom. Greet from us all the brotherhood in Christ.

To the most longed-for and most reverent brothers, the fellow presbyters Acacius, Aetius, Paulus, and Silvanus, and Silvinus and Lucius, deacons, and the rest of the brothers, the monks, Basil the bishop. When I heard of that heavy persecution that rose up against you, and that immediately after Easter those who fast for quarrels and strife came upon your dwellings and gave your labors to the fire, preparing for you the house in the heavens not made with hands, while storing up for themselves the fire they used to harm you, I groaned at what had happened; not grieving for you, brothers (God forbid!), but for those so drowned in wickedness as to carry their evil so far. And I expected that you would all at once run to our lowliness as to a ready refuge; and I was in hope that the Lord would give me some breathing space from my continual pains through embracing you, and that, by receiving into this idle body the noble sweat that you shed for the truth, I would have some share in the prizes stored up for you by the Judge of truth. But since this did not even enter your minds, nor did you expect any rest from us, I wished at least to find frequent occasions for letters to you, so that, like those who shout encouragement to contestants, I too might call out something to you by letter to urge on your good contest. But not even this was easy for us, for two reasons: one, that we did not know where you were living; the other, that not many people set out from us to you. But now the Lord has brought us our most longed-for and most reverent brother Sanctissimus, the fellow presbyter, through whom we both address your love and urge you to pray for us, rejoicing and exulting because your reward is great in heaven; and, as having boldness before the Lord, not to cease crying to him night and day, that this storm of the Churches may cease, that the shepherds may be restored to the peoples, and that the Church may return to its own dignity. For I am persuaded that, if a voice is found to prevail upon the good God, he will not delay to show his mercies … Greet the brotherhood from us.

To the monks harassed by the Arians. What I said to myself on hearing of the trial brought upon you by the enemies of God, this I thought it good to report to you by letter: that at a time thought to be one of peace you have gained for yourselves the blessedness stored up for those who are persecuted for the name of Christ. For we must not think that, because a gentle and mild name is attached to those who do evil, their deeds are therefore not those of enemies. For I judge war from those of our own race to be harder, because enemies openly declared can easily be guarded against, but those mingled with us necessarily leave us exposed to every harm; which is what you have suffered. For our fathers too were persecuted, but by idolaters; their livelihood was plundered, their homes overturned, and they themselves banished, by those who openly made war on us for the name of Christ. But the persecutors who have now appeared hate us no less than those did, but put forward the name of Christ to deceive the many, so that the persecuted may not even have the consolation of confession, since the many and simpler people acknowledge that we are wronged, but do not count death for the truth as martyrdom for us. Therefore I am persuaded that a greater reward is stored up for you by the just Judge than for those who bore witness then; since they both had the acknowledged approval of men and awaited the reward from God, while you, for equal achievements, have no honors from the peoples; so it is likely that a recompense many times greater is stored up in the age to come for your labors for godliness. 2. Therefore we urge you not to lose heart in your afflictions, but to be renewed in love for God and to add daily to your zeal, knowing that in you must be preserved the remnant of godliness which the Lord will find on the earth when he comes. And if the bishops of the Churches have been driven out, let this not shake you; and if traitors have sprung up from among the clergy themselves, let not this either weaken your confidence in God. For it is not names that save us, but purposes and true love for him who created us. Consider that in the plot against our Lord, too, high priests and scribes and elders contrived the deceit, and few from the people were found who genuinely received the word; and that it is not the multitude that is saved, but the elect of God. So never let the great crowd of the people frighten you, who are carried about by the winds like the water of the sea. For if even one is saved, like Lot in Sodom, he must remain in right judgment, holding his hope in Christ immovable, because the Lord will not forsake his holy ones. Greet all the brotherhood in Christ from me; pray genuinely for my pitiable soul.

[To Epiphanius the bishop.] … and those who in the most crucial matters … are in agreement are entirely at variance with one another on at least some one point. How then shall we not admire one who in such circumstances shows a pure and guileless love toward his neighbors, and across so great a sea and land, which separate us bodily, bestows on our souls all the care he can? 2. I admired this too in you, that you were grieved at the division of the brothers on the Mount of Olives, and wish for some reconciliation among them. And that the things introduced by some, which caused disturbance in the brotherhood, did not escape you, but that you took on the care of them too, this also I approved. But this I did not think worthy of your understanding: to entrust the correction of such great matters to us, men neither led by the grace of God, because we live with sins, nor possessing any power in speech, because we were glad to withdraw from vain studies and have not yet acquired the proper habit in the doctrines of the truth. We have therefore already written to our beloved brothers on the Mount of Olives, our own Palladius and Innocent the Italian, in reply to what they wrote to us: that we can add nothing to the faith of Nicaea, not even the smallest thing, except the glorifying of the Holy Spirit, because our fathers mentioned this part only in passing, the question about it not having then been raised. But the doctrines woven into that faith about the Lord's becoming man, as being deeper than our comprehension, we have neither examined nor accepted, knowing that once we disturb the simplicity of the faith, we shall find no end of words, being drawn on ever further by the introduction of strange things. 3. As for the Church at Antioch (I mean the one that agrees in the same mind), may the Lord grant us one day to see it united. For it is in danger of receiving the plots of the enemy above all, since he bears it a grudge because the name of Christians first came into use there. And heresy has been cut off from orthodoxy; but orthodoxy too has been cut against itself. We, since the first to speak boldly for the truth, and to fight that good fight in the times of Constantius, is the most reverend Meletius the bishop, and my Church held him in communion, loving him exceedingly for that steadfast and unyielding resistance, hold him in communion until now by the grace of God, and will hold him, if God wills. For indeed the most blessed pope Athanasius, when he came from Alexandria, greatly wished communion between him and Meletius to be brought about; but through the wickedness of counselors their union was put off to another time, as it ought not to have been. Of those who came in afterwards we have not yet accepted the communion of any, not because we judge them unworthy, but because we have nothing to condemn in him. And yet we have heard many things about the brothers, but we did not accept them, because the accused were not set face to face with the accusers, according to what is written: "Does our law judge a man unless it first hears him and knows what he does?" So we cannot yet write to them, most honored brother, nor ought we to be compelled to this. It would befit your peaceful purpose not to join the one and tear away the other, but to bring the separated back to the union that existed before. So first pray, and then, as far as you can, urge them to throw the love of honor out of their souls, and, both to restore strength to the Church and to put down the arrogance of the enemies, to come to agreement with one another. And this too greatly comforted my soul, what your exactness added to the rest that was well and exactly said about God: that it is necessary to confess three hypostases. So let the brothers at Antioch too teach this; surely they have been taught it by you. For you would clearly not have chosen communion with them unless you had secured this point above all. 4. As for the nation of the Magusaeans (which you deigned to tell us of in your other letter), it is numerous among us, scattered over almost the whole country, colonists brought in among us long ago from Babylonia. They follow peculiar customs, not mixing with other people; and to reason with them, inasmuch as they have been taken captive by the devil to do his will, is altogether impossible. For they have neither books nor teachers of doctrine, but are brought up in irrational custom, son receiving the impiety from father. Besides the things that are seen by all, they refuse the sacrifice of animals as a pollution, slaughtering the animals they need by the hands of others; they rage after unlawful marriages; and they consider fire a god, and the like. Of genealogies from Abraham none of the Magi has told us any tale until now; but they claim a certain Zarnuas as the founder of their race. Therefore I have nothing more to write to your honor about them.

To the monks Palladius and Innocent. How much I love you, you ought to guess from your own love for us. And I always desired to become an arbiter of peace; and when I fail, I grieve; how could I not? Yet I cannot be hostile to anyone on this account, knowing that the good of peace was long ago taken away from us. If the cause of the division lies with others, may the Lord grant that those who cause dissensions may cease. Nor do I seek your frequent visits; so you need not excuse yourselves to me on this account. For I know that men who have chosen the life of labor, and always provide their necessities for themselves with their own hands, cannot be away from their own places for long. But wherever you may be, remember us, and pray for us, so that we at least may have peace with ourselves and with God, with no disturbance dwelling in our thoughts.

To Optimus the bishop. 1. I am always glad to see the good boys, both for the steadiness of their character beyond their years and for their kinship with your reverence, from which something great may be expected of them; and since I saw them come to me with a letter of yours too, I doubled my affection for them. When I read the letter, and saw in it both the providence of your disposition toward the Churches and your diligence in reading the divine Scriptures, I gave thanks to the Lord, and prayed for blessings on those who brought us such a letter, and before them on him who wrote it to us. 2. You asked about that much-talked-of saying, carried about up and down by everyone, what its solution is: "Whoever kills Cain will release seven vengeances." By this you have, in the first place, commended yourself as one who exactly keeps the charge of Timothy which Paul handed on to him (for you are plainly attending to reading); and then, as for us, old men, numbed now by time and bodily weakness and the multitude of afflictions which, stirred up in great numbers around us now, have weighed down our life, you have nevertheless roused us; and, fervent in spirit, you bring us back, chilled as we were like animals in their winter dens, to a moderate wakefulness and vital activity. The saying, then, can be understood simply, and it also admits a varied explanation. The simpler meaning, which anyone can see at once, is this: that Cain must pay the penalty for his sins sevenfold. For it is not the part of a just judge to fix repayments equal for equal; but the one who began the evil must pay what he owes with an addition, if he himself is to become better through the punishments, and is to make the rest more prudent by his example. Since, then, it has been ordained that Cain is to pay the penalty for his sins seven times, he who kills him, it says, will annul what has been decreed against him by the divine judgment. This is the sense that strikes us here on first reading. 3. But since the mind of the more diligent naturally searches the depths, it asks how justice is fulfilled in the "seven times," and what the "vengeances" are: whether the sins are seven, or the sin is one and the punishments for the one sin are seven. Now Scripture always limits the number of the forgiveness of sins to seven. "How often," it says, "shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?" (it is Peter speaking to the Lord) "As many as seven times?" Then the Lord's answer: "I do not say to you, as many as seven times, but as many as seventy times seven." For the Lord did not pass to another number, but, multiplying seven, set the limit of forgiveness within it. And after seven years the Hebrew was released from slavery; and seven weeks of years made the famous jubilee in former times, in which the land kept sabbath, debts were cut off, slavery ended, and a new life, as it were, began afresh, the old in some way receiving its completion in the number seven. These are types of this age, which circles round through the seven days and passes us by, in which the payment for lesser sins is made, according to the loving care of the good Master, so that we may not be handed over to punishment in the endless age. "Seven times," then, is because of its kinship with this world, since lovers of the world ought above all to be punished by means of the very things for whose sake they chose to do evil. As for the "vengeances": whether you mean the sins committed by Cain, you will find seven; or the punishments inflicted on him by the Judge, in that way too you will not miss the meaning. Among the deeds Cain dared, the first sin is envy at Abel's being preferred; the second, the deceit with which he spoke to his brother, saying, "Let us go out into the plain"; the third, murder, an addition to the evil; the fourth, that it was a brother's murder, a greater intensification; the fifth, that Cain was also the first murderer, leaving an evil example to human life; the sixth wrong, that he caused grief to his parents; the seventh, that he lied to God: for when asked, "Where is Abel your brother?" he said, "I do not know." Seven vengeances, then, would be released by Cain's being killed. For when the Lord said, "Cursed is the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood," and, "Groaning and trembling you shall be on the earth," Cain says: "If you drive me out today from the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face, and I shall be groaning and trembling on the earth, then everyone who finds me will kill me." To this the Lord says: "Not so: whoever kills Cain will release seven vengeances." For since Cain thought that he would be easily caught by anyone, because he had no safety on the earth (for the ground was cursed because of him), and was bereft of help from God, who was angry with him for the murder, so that no help remained to him either from earth or from heaven, "It will be," he says, "that everyone who finds me will kill me." The word refutes his error, saying, "Not so"; that is, you will not be put to death. For death is a gain to those who are being punished, bringing release from their pains. But you will be stretched out in life, so that punishments may be measured out to you in proportion to your sins. But since "vengeance" is understood in two ways, both as the sin on which vengeance is taken and as the manner of punishment by which vengeance is taken, let us see whether seven kinds of torment were brought upon the evildoer. 4. The seven sins of Cain, then, the discussion has listed above. Now we ask whether the things brought on him for punishment are seven, and we answer thus. After the Lord's question, "Where is Abel your brother?" (which the loving Master put not because he wished to learn, but to give him an occasion for repentance, as the words themselves show; for when he denied, he quickly convicts him, saying, "The voice of your brother's blood cries to me"; so that "Where is Abel your brother?" gave Cain an occasion to become aware of his sin, and did not serve to instruct God. For if he had not received a visitation from God, he would have had an excuse as one abandoned, having received no occasion for repentance. But now the physician appeared to him, so that the sick man might take refuge in him. But he not only does not hide the wound, but works another besides, adding the lie to the murder: "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"), from this point count the punishments. "Cursed is the ground because of you": one punishment. "You shall till the ground": this is the second. For a certain unspeakable necessity was yoked to him, urging him on to the work of the soil, so that he could not rest even if he wished, but must always toil at the ground that was his enemy, which he had made cursed for himself by defiling it with a brother's blood. "You shall till the ground," then: a terrible punishment, to live with those who hate you, to have an enemy as a housemate, a foe without respite. "You shall till the ground": that is, strained by the labors of husbandry you will not slacken at any time, released from your toils neither by night nor by day, but having that unspeakable necessity, harsher than a cruel master, rousing you to your work. "And it shall not again yield its strength." And yet, even if the ceaselessness of the work had some fruit, the toil itself would be no small torment to one always strained and laboring. But since the work was ceaseless and the drudgery on the land fruitless (for it did not yield its strength), this is the third punishment: the fruitlessness of his toils. "Groaning and trembling you shall be on the earth." He added two to the other three: continual groaning, and trembling of the body, since the limbs no longer had the support that comes from strength. For since he had used the power of his body wickedly, its vigor was taken from him, so that he tottered and shook, unable easily to bring bread to his mouth or to raise a drink to it; the wicked hand, after its unholy deed, no longer being permitted to serve even the body's own necessary needs. Another punishment Cain himself revealed, saying: "If you drive me out now from the earth, and I shall be hidden from your face." What is "If you drive me out from the earth"? That is: if you separate me from the benefit that comes from it. For he was not moved to another place, but was estranged from the good things that come from it. "And I shall be hidden from your face": to those who are wise the heaviest punishment is separation from God. "And it will be," he says, "that everyone who finds me will kill me." He infers this from what has gone before: if I have been driven out from the earth, if I shall be hidden from your face, it remains for me to be killed by everyone. What then does the Lord say? "Not so." But he set a sign on him. This is the seventh punishment: that the punishment should not even be hidden, but proclaimed to all by a clear sign, that this is the author of unholy deeds. For to one who reasons rightly the heaviest of punishments is … 5. A related question follows this: what Lamech said to his wives: "I have killed a man to my wounding, and a young man to my bruising; for if vengeance has been taken seven times for Cain, for Lamech it will be seventy times seven." And some think that Cain was killed by Lamech, as though he had lasted until that generation, so as to pay a heavier penalty. But this is not true. For he appears to have committed two murders, of which he himself tells: "I have killed a man and a young man": the man to my wounding, and the young man to my bruising. A wound is one thing and a bruise another; and a man is one thing and a young man another. "For if vengeance has been taken seven times for Cain, for Lamech it will be seventy times seven": I am liable to undergo four hundred and ninety punishments, if indeed God's judgment on Cain was just, that he should pay seven punishments. For as he did not learn murder from another, so he did not see a murderer undergoing punishment; but I, having before my eyes the man groaning and trembling, and the greatness of God's wrath, was not brought to sobriety by the example. Hence I deserve to pay four hundred and ninety punishments. But some have been led to an interpretation of this kind, not out of tune with the Church's doctrine: that from Cain to the flood seven generations passed, and the punishment was brought on the whole earth because sin had spread so widely. But the sin of Lamech needs not a flood for its healing, but him who takes away the sin of the world himself. Count, then, the generations from Adam to the coming of Christ, and you will find, according to Luke's genealogy, that the Lord was born in the seventy-seventh succession. These things, then, have been examined as far as we could, many other points that might be examined being passed over, so as not to carry the discussion beyond the measure of a letter; and even brief seeds are enough for your understanding. For "give an occasion to the wise," it says, "and he will be wiser"; and, "a wise man, when he receives a word, will praise it, and will add to it." 6. The words of Simeon to Mary have nothing varied or deep. "Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against. And a sword will pierce through your own soul too, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." In this I wondered how you passed over the preceding words as clear and asked about this one alone: "And a sword will pierce through your own soul too." And yet to me it seems no less difficult how the same one is set for falling and rising; and what the sign is that is spoken against; and third, how the sword will pierce Mary's soul. 7. I think, then, that the Lord is for falling and rising not in the sense that some fall and others rise, but that the worse in us falls down and the better rises up. For the manifestation of the Lord destroys the bodily passions and rouses the properties of the soul. As when Paul says, "When I am weak, then I am strong": the same man is both weak and strong; but he is weak in the flesh and strong in the spirit. So too the Lord does not give some occasion to fall and others occasion to rise. For those who fall fall from the standing in which they once were. And it is clear that the unbeliever never stands, being always dragged along the ground with the serpent he follows. He has nothing from which to fall, having been cast down beforehand by unbelief. So the first benefit is that he who stands in sin should fall and die, and then live to righteousness and rise, faith in Christ granting us both. Let the worse fall, so that the better may have opportunity to rise. Unless fornication falls, chastity does not rise; unless unreason is crushed, the rational part in us will not flourish. So, then, "for the fall and rising of many." 8. "And for a sign that is spoken against." We know that in Scripture the cross is properly called a "sign." For "Moses," it says, "set the serpent on a sign," that is, on a cross. Or a sign is something that indicates some strange and hidden thing, seen by the simpler, but understood by those keen of mind. Since, then, people do not cease to quarrel about the Lord's becoming man, some declaring that he assumed a body, others that his coming was bodiless; some that he had a body capable of suffering, others that he fulfilled the dispensation through the body by some kind of appearance; and others that his body was earthly, others heavenly; and some that he existed before the ages, others that he had his beginning from Mary: for this reason, "for a sign that is spoken against." 9. By "sword" he means the testing word, which judges the thoughts, which pierces to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and judges the thoughts. Since, then, every soul at the time of the passion was subjected, as it were, to a kind of wavering, according to the word of the Lord, who said, "You will all be made to stumble because of me," Simeon prophesies about Mary herself too, that, standing by the cross, seeing what was done, and hearing the words, after the testimony of Gabriel, after the secret knowledge of the divine conception, after the great display of miracles, there will be, he says, some disturbance about your soul too. For the Lord had to taste death for everyone, and, becoming a propitiation for the world, to justify all by his blood. Some wavering, then, will touch you too, who have been taught from above the things about the Lord. This is the sword. "So that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed": he hints that after the stumbling that took place at the cross of Christ, a swift healing from the Lord will follow for the disciples and for Mary herself, confirming their hearts in faith in him. For so we saw Peter too, after he had stumbled, holding more firmly to faith in Christ. So what was human was shown to be weak, so that the strength of the Lord might be displayed.

To those in Sozopolis. 1. I have read the letter that you sent, most honored brothers, about your affairs. And that you have taken us as partners in your cares, in seeing to what is necessary for you and worthy of zeal, we gave thanks to the Lord. But we groaned on hearing that, besides the disturbance brought upon the Churches by the Arians and the confusion they have caused in the teaching of the faith, still another novelty of language has appeared among you, throwing the brotherhood into great distress, as you wrote to us, since men are introducing things new and unfamiliar to the ears of the faithful, as though from the teaching of the Scriptures. For you wrote that there are some among you who undo the saving dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ, so far as in them lies, and set at nought the grace of the great mystery, which was kept silent from the ages but manifested in its own times, when the Lord, having gone through everything that pertains to the care of the human race, granted us, on top of all, his own coming. For he benefited his creature, first through patriarchs, whose lives were set forth as examples and rules for those who wish to follow in the footsteps of the saints and, with a zeal like theirs, to reach the perfection of good works; then he gave the law as a help, ordaining it through angels by the hand of Moses; then prophets, foretelling the salvation that was to come; judges, kings, righteous men, doing mighty works with a hidden hand. After all these, in the last days he himself was manifested in the flesh, "born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." 2. If, then, the Lord's coming in the flesh did not take place, the Redeemer did not pay death the price on our behalf, nor did he of himself break death's reign. For if what was reigned over by death was one thing, and what was assumed by the Lord another, death would not have ceased doing its own work, nor would the sufferings of the God-bearing flesh have become our gain; he would not have killed sin in the flesh; we who died in Adam would not have been made alive in Christ; what had fallen to pieces would not have been refashioned; what had been broken down would not have been set upright; what had been estranged through the deceit of the serpent would not have been brought back into kinship with God. For all these things are done away with by those who say that the Lord came having a heavenly body. And what need was there of the holy Virgin, if the God-bearing flesh was not to be taken from the lump of Adam? But who is so daring as to renew now again, by sophistical words and supposed testimony from the Scriptures, the doctrine of Valentinus, long since silenced? For this impiety of the "appearance" is not new, but began long ago with the vain-minded Valentinus, who, tearing off a few phrases of the Apostle, constructed for himself his impious fiction, saying that he took "the form of a servant," and not the servant himself, and that the Lord came to be "in fashion," but that the man himself was not assumed by him. These men, whom one ought to lament, who are bringing these innovating disturbances upon you, seem to utter things akin to these. 3. And to say that the human sufferings passed over to the Godhead itself is the part of men who in no way keep consistency in their thinking, and who do not know that the sufferings of flesh are one thing, those of flesh endowed with a soul another, and those of a soul using a body another. It is proper to flesh to be cut, diminished, and dissolved; and again it is proper to flesh endowed with a soul to be wearied, to feel pain, to hunger, to thirst, to be overcome by sleep; and to a soul using a body belong griefs, distress, anxieties, and the like. Of these, some are natural and necessary to the living creature, while others are brought in by an evil choice, through an undisciplined life untrained for virtue. Hence it is clear that the Lord accepted the natural sufferings to confirm his true, and not imaginary, becoming man; but the sufferings that come from vice, all that stain the purity of our life, he rejected as unworthy of the undefiled Godhead. For this reason he is said to have come "in the likeness of sinful flesh": not in the likeness of flesh, as these men think, but in the likeness of sinful flesh. So he took our flesh with its natural sufferings, but "did no sin." But as the death in the flesh, passed on to us through Adam, was swallowed up by the Godhead, so too sin was consumed by the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus; so that in the resurrection we receive back the flesh neither liable to death nor subject to sin. These, brothers, are the mysteries of the Church; these are the traditions of the Fathers. We solemnly charge every man who fears the Lord and awaits the judgment of God not to be carried away by various teachings. If anyone teaches otherwise, and does not agree with the sound words of the faith, but, thrusting aside the oracles of the Spirit, makes his own teaching weightier than the teachings of the Gospel, guard yourselves against such a man. May the Lord grant that we may one day come together with one another, so that whatever has escaped our words we may fill up by meeting face to face. For we have written you a few things out of many, not wishing to go beyond the measure of a letter, and at the same time persuaded that for those who fear the Lord even a reminder in a few words is enough. [Letter 262] To Urbicius the monk. 1. You did well to write to us; for you showed no small fruit of your love; and do it constantly. But do not think that you need to excuse yourself when you write to us. For we know ourselves, and we know that every man by nature has equality of honor with all; and distinctions among us are not according to family, nor wealth, nor the build of the body, but according to the pre-eminence of the fear of God. So what prevents you, if you fear the Master more, from being greater than we are in this very respect? So write to us constantly, and let us know how the brotherhood around you is, and which of those of the Church among you are sound, so that we may know to whom we ought to write and on whom to rely. But since I hear that there are some who falsify the straight doctrine of the Lord's becoming man with perverted notions, I urge them through your love to keep away from that strange notion, which some are reported to us to hold: that God himself was turned into flesh, and did not take from holy Mary the lump of Adam, but was himself, in his own Godhead, changed into material nature. 2. This absurdity is very easy to refute. But since the blasphemy is self-evident, I think that for one who fears the Lord a mere reminder is enough. For if he was turned, he was also changed. But far be it from us to say or think this, since God said, "I am, and I do not change." Then, how did the benefit of the becoming man pass to us, unless our body, joined to the Godhead, became stronger than the dominion of death? For he did not, by being turned, give substance to a body of his own, one that came into existence when the divine nature was thickened into it. And how was the uncircumscribed Godhead circumscribed in the bulk of a small body, if the whole nature of the Only-begotten was turned? But I do not think that anyone who has sense and possesses the fear of God suffers from this sickness. But since the report has come to me that some of those with your love are in this weakness of thought, I thought it necessary not to make a mere greeting, but that our letter should have something that can also build up the souls of those who fear the Lord. So we urge that these things receive the Church's correction, and that you keep away from communion with the heretics, knowing that indifference in these matters takes away our freedom of speech before Christ.

To the Westerns. 1. May the Lord our God, in whom we have hoped, grant to each of you as much grace toward obtaining the hope set before you as the joy with which you yourselves have filled our hearts, both by the letter you sent us through our most longed-for fellow presbyters, and by your sympathy in our troubles, which you felt with us as men who have put on a heart of compassion, as those already mentioned reported to us. For even if our wounds remain the same, yet it brings us some relief to have the physicians ready, able, if they seize the moment, to bring a swift healing of our pains. Therefore we again address you through our beloved brothers, and we urge you, if the Lord grants you freedom to come to us, not to hesitate to visit us; for the visiting of the sick belongs to the greatest commandment. But if the good God, the wise steward of our life, is keeping this favor in store for another time, at least write to us whatever it is fitting for you to write, for the comfort of the afflicted and the restoration of the broken. For many are the fractures of the Church already, and great is our affliction over them; and there is no expectation of help from anywhere else, unless the Lord, through you who serve him genuinely, … 2. The reckless and shameless heresy of the Arians, having openly broken away from the body of the Church, remains in its own error, and harms us little, because their impiety is plain to all. But those who have put on the sheep's skin and present a gentle and mild appearance, while inwardly they tear the flocks of Christ unsparingly, and, because they have gone out from us, easily inflict harm on the simpler: these are the dangerous ones, hard to guard against. These we ask your exactness to make known publicly to all the Churches in the East, so that they may either walk straight and be genuinely with us, or, if they remain in their perversity, may keep the harm to themselves alone, unable through unguarded communion to share their own disease with those who come near them. It is necessary to mention them by name, so that you yourselves may know those who are causing disturbances among us, and may make them plain to our Churches. For our word is suspect to many, as though we had chosen to be petty toward them because of some private quarrels; but you, the further you live from them, the more credibility you have with the peoples, besides the grace of God helping you in your care for the distressed. And if many of you together decree the same things in agreement, it is clear that the number of those who decree will make the decree unanswerable and win its acceptance by all. 3. One, then, of those who cause us much grief is Eustathius of Sebaste in Lesser Armenia, who long ago became a disciple of Arius, and when Arius flourished at Alexandria, composing his wicked blasphemies against the Only-begotten, followed him and was counted among his most genuine disciples. When he returned to his own country, he gave a confession of sound faith to the most blessed bishop Hermogenes of Caesarea, who was judging him for false belief. And having thus received ordination from him, after his falling asleep he ran to Eusebius at Constantinople, who championed the impious doctrine of Arius as much as anyone. Then, driven out from there for whatever reasons, he came and again made his defense to those in his homeland, hiding his impious opinion and putting forward a certain correctness of words. And having obtained the episcopate, however he obtained it, he is at once seen to have written an anathema of the homoousion at the gathering they held at Ancyra. And from there, coming to Seleucia, he did with those of his own opinion what all know. At Constantinople he again agreed to what was proposed by the heretics. And so, driven from his episcopate, because he had previously been deposed at Melitene, he devised his journey to you as a way of restoration for himself. What was put before him by the most blessed bishop Liberius, and what he himself agreed to, we do not know, except that he brought a letter restoring him, which he showed to the synod at Tyana and was restored to his place. This man is now ravaging the faith on which he was received, and is in league with those who anathematize the homoousion, and is the leader of the heresy of the fighters against the Spirit. Since, then, his power of wronging the Churches came from there, and he has used the freedom given him by you for the overthrow of many, it is necessary that the correction too should come from there, and that the Churches be told on what terms he was received, and how now, having changed, he nullifies the favor given him through the Fathers of that time. 4. Second after him is Apollinarius, who also grieves the Churches not a little. For having, through his facility in writing, a tongue sufficient for any subject, he has filled the world with his compositions, disregarding the warning that says, "Beware of making many books." And in the multitude, clearly, much has gone wrong. For how is it possible to escape sin in much speaking? So his writings on theology, too, have their construction not from scriptural proofs but from human premises; and his writings on the resurrection are composed in the manner of myths, or rather Jewishly; in them he says that we shall return again to the worship of the law, and be circumcised again, keep the sabbath, abstain from foods, offer sacrifices to God, and worship in Jerusalem at the temple, and in short become Jews instead of Christians. What could be more ridiculous than this, or rather more foreign to the doctrine of the Gospel? Then too his writings on the incarnation have caused such disturbance in the brotherhood that few of those who have read them now keep the ancient stamp of godliness; but the many, attending to the novelties, have turned aside to questionings and contentious inventions of these unprofitable words. 5. As for Paulinus, whether there is anything blameworthy in his ordination, you yourselves can say; but what grieves us is that he is inclined to the doctrines of Marcellus, and admits his followers into his communion indiscriminately. You know, most honored brothers, that the doctrine of Marcellus sets aside our whole hope, neither confessing the Son in a hypostasis of his own, but as put forth and returning again to that from which he came forth, nor allowing that the Paraclete has a subsistence of his own; so that one would not go wrong in declaring the heresy altogether foreign to Christianity and calling it a corrupted Judaism. We ask that you take care of these matters. It would be done if you would deign to write to all the Churches in the East that those who falsify these things, if they amend, are to be in communion; but if they wish to persist contentiously in their novelties, are to be separated from. And we ourselves are not unaware that we ought to sit in council with your wisdom and settle these matters in common deliberation; but since the time does not permit, and delay is harmful, the harm from them having taken root, we have of necessity sent the brothers, so that, teaching in person whatever escaped the letter's instruction, they may move your reverence to provide the help sought for the Churches of God.

To Barses, bishop of Edessa, in exile. To the truly most God-beloved bishop Barses, worthy of all respect and honor, Basil sends greeting in the Lord. As the most genuine brothers with Domninus were coming to your reverence, we gladly took the occasion for a letter, and through them we greet you, praying the holy God that we may be kept in this life until we are deemed worthy to see you and enjoy the gifts that are in you. Only pray, I beg you, that the Lord may not hand us over to the end to the enemies of the cross of Christ, but may keep his Churches until the time of peace, which the just Judge himself knows when he will restore. For he will restore it, and will not forsake us altogether. But just as he fixed seventy years for the Israelites as the sentence of captivity for their sins, so perhaps the Mighty One, having handed us over for a fixed time, will one day call us back and restore us to our original peace; unless perhaps the apostasy is near, and what is now happening is the prelude to the coming of the Antichrist. But whichever it is, pray that he may either cut short the afflictions or keep us unstumbling through the afflictions, in his goodness. Through you we greet all the company deemed worthy to be with your reverence. All those with us address your reverence. In health and good spirits in the Lord, praying for me, may you be kept for the Church of God by the grace of the Holy One.

[To Eulogius, Alexander, and Harpocration, bishops of Egypt, in exile.] … your good portion, and to join themselves by letter to your reverence. For this reason we have sent our most longed-for son and fellow deacon Elpidius, both to carry the letter and to be able to tell you himself whatever escapes the instruction of the letter. 2. What most strengthened our desire for union with you was hearing of your zeal for the correctness of godliness: that the firmness of your heart was not carried away either by the multitude of writings or by the variety of sophisms, but that you recognized those who innovate against the apostolic doctrines, and did not consent to cover up in silence the harm they are doing. For indeed we have found great grief among all who hold to the Lord's peace over the innovations of every kind made by Apollinarius of Laodicea, who has grieved us all the more because from the beginning he seemed to be one of us. For to suffer something from an open enemy, even if it is extremely painful, is somehow bearable for the one who is afflicted, as it is written, "If the enemy had reproached me, I would have borne it"; but to experience some harm from one of like mind and of one's own household is altogether hard to bear, and has no consolation. For the man whom we expected to have as a fellow shield-bearer of the truth, him we have now found in many ways obstructing those who are being saved, by dragging their minds about and pulling them away from the straightness of the doctrines. For what bold and hot-headed thing has he not done in deeds? And what new and perilous thing has he not devised in words? Has not every Church been divided against itself, especially by men sent by him to those governed by the orthodox, to make a schism and champion some private conventicle of their own? Is not the great mystery of godliness laughed at, with bishops going about without people or clergy, carrying a bare name, and achieving nothing for the advance of the Gospel of peace and salvation? Are not his discourses about God full of impious doctrines, the old impiety of the vain-minded Sabellius having now been renewed by him in his writings? For if what the Sebastenes are carrying about has not been fabricated by enemies, but is truly his writing, he has left no excess of impiety unreached, saying that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are the same, and other dark impieties, which we have not consented to admit even into our ears, praying to have no part with those who have uttered those words. Has not the teaching about the becoming man been confused by him? Has not the saving dispensation of our Lord become doubtful to the many because of his turbid and dark inquiries about the incarnation? To gather all of these and bring them to refutation would need much time and many words. And who has so obliterated and darkened the subject of the promises as his myth-making has? He dared to explain the blessed hope stored up for those who have lived according to the Gospel of Christ so meanly and so abjectly as to turn aside into old wives' fables and Jewish tales. He promises anew the renewal of the temple, the observance of the worship of the law, and again a typical high priest after the true High Priest, and a sacrifice for sins after the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; and partial baptisms after the one baptism; and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the Church, which through faith in Christ has neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing; and the cleansing of leprosy after the impassibility of the resurrection; and the offering of jealousy, when "they neither marry nor are given in marriage"; loaves of the presentation after the bread from heaven; burning lamps after the true light; and in short, if now the law of commandments in ordinances has been abolished, it is clear that then the ordinances of Christ will be annulled in the ordinances of the law. At these things shame and confusion have covered our faces, and heavy grief has filled our hearts. Therefore we urge you, as skilled physicians, taught to correct opponents with gentleness, to try to bring him back to the good order of the Church, and to persuade him to despise the many voices of his writings … 3. It is reasonable also to remind your reverence about the followers of Marcellus, that you should lay down nothing about them without consideration or lightly. But since he went out of the Church because of impious doctrines, it is necessary that his followers be received into communion only after anathematizing that heresy, so that those who join us through you may be received by the whole brotherhood. For now no small grief has seized the many, hearing that when they came to your honor you both admitted them and gave them a share in ecclesiastical communion. And yet you ought to know that by the grace of God you are not alone in the East, but you have many of your own side who champion the orthodoxy of the Fathers who set forth the pious doctrine of the faith at Nicaea; and all those of the West are in agreement with you and with us; we have received their tome of the faith and keep it with us, following their sound teaching. So all who are in the same union with you ought to have been fully informed, so that what was done might be the more confirmed by the consent of more people, and the peace might not be torn apart, with others withdrawing upon the reception of some. So it would have befitted you to deliberate firmly and gently about matters that concern all the Churches throughout the world. For it is not the one who decrees something quickly who is praiseworthy; but the one who settles each thing firmly and immovably, so that his judgment, examined in time to come, appears the more approved, he is acceptable both to God and men, as one who orders his words with judgment. These things, as much as conversation by letter allowed us, we have said to your reverence. And may the Lord grant that we may one day come together with one another, so that, having arranged everything with you for the perfecting of the Churches of God, we may receive with you the reward prepared by the just Judge for faithful and wise stewards. But for now deign to send us the propositions on which you received the followers of Marcellus, knowing that, even if you have secured your own part well, you ought not to entrust so great a matter to yourselves alone; but those in the West and those in communion in the East must also give their votes for their restoration. [Letter 266] To Peter, bishop of Alexandria. 1. You rightly rebuked me, and as befits a spiritual brother taught true love by the Lord, because I do not make known to you all things, small and great, that happen here. For it falls to you to care for our affairs, and to us to refer our affairs to your love. But know, most honored and most longed-for brother, that the continuance of afflictions and this great tumult now shaking the Churches makes us surprised at nothing that happens. For as those whose ears are struck in the smithies become used to the noise, so we, through the frequency of strange reports, have now grown accustomed to keep our heart untroubled and unafraid before the unexpected. What the Arians have long been contriving against the Church, many and great though it is, is still bearable to us, because it comes from open enemies and foes of the word of truth; we wonder at them when they do not do what they are used to, not when they dare something great and violent against godliness. But what grieves and troubles us is what is done by those of like soul and like mind. Yet even these things, because they are many and constantly fall upon our ears, no longer appear strange. Hence we were neither moved by what was done disorderly recently, nor did we trouble your ears, both knowing that report would carry what had been done of its own accord, and expecting that others would become the messengers of the painful news; and then not judging it reasonable for us to be indignant at such things, as though vexed because we had been overlooked. However, to those who did these things we wrote what was fitting, urging them, since the brothers there had suffered some discord, not to depart from love, but to await correction from those able to heal the faults in an ecclesiastical way. Since you did this, rightly and fittingly moved, we praised you, and thanked the Lord that a remnant of the ancient good order is preserved with you, and that the Church has not lost its strength in our persecution. For the canons were not persecuted along with us. So, though often troubled by the Galatians, I have never been able to answer them, awaiting your judgments. And now, if the Lord grants it and they are willing to bear with us, we hope to bring the people to the Church; so that we may not be reproached as having gone over to the Marcellians, but that they may become members of the body of the Church of Christ; so that the evil reproach poured out from the heresy may be wiped out by our receiving them, and we may not be put to shame as having joined ourselves to them. 2. Brother Dorotheus grieved us, as you yourself wrote, by not speaking to your decency altogether gently or mildly. This too I attribute to the difficulty of the times. For it seems that because of our sins we prosper in nothing, if the most earnest of the brothers are not found gentle or suited to their ministries, because they do not carry out everything according to our mind. On his return he told us of the conversations he had with your honor in the presence of the most venerable bishop Damasus, and grieved us by saying that our most God-beloved brothers and fellow ministers Meletius and Eusebius had been reckoned among the Ariomaniacs. Even if nothing else commended their orthodoxy, at least the war waged on them by the Arians gives no small proof of their correctness to those who reason fairly. And the fellowship of sufferings for Christ ought to join your reverence to them in love. But be persuaded of this, truly most honored brother, that there is no word of orthodoxy that has not been proclaimed with all boldness by these men, with God as witness and ourselves as hearers. We would not have accepted their fellowship even for an hour if we had found them limping in the faith. But, if it seems good, let us leave the past, and give a peaceful beginning to what follows. For we all need one another, according to the fellowship of members, and especially now, when the Churches of the East look to us, and will take your concord as a ground of support and firmness; but if they perceive that you are in some suspicion toward one another, they will be weakened and let their hands drop, so as not to stand against the enemies of the faith.

To Barses, bishop of Edessa, in exile. For the sake of the affection I have for your piety, I wished to come myself and embrace your true love in person, and to glorify the Lord who has been magnified in you and has made your honored old age conspicuous to all who fear him throughout the world. But since a heavy weakness of body afflicts me, and an untold care of the Churches lies upon me, and I am not master of myself to travel where I wish and to meet whom I desire, I relieve by letter the longing I have to enjoy the good things in you; and I urge your unsurpassable reverence to pray for me and for the Church, that the Lord may grant us to pass without stumbling the grievous days or hours of our sojourn here; and may he grant us also to see the peace of his Churches, and to hear what we pray for about your other fellow ministers and fellow contestants, and about yourself, what the peoples under you ask night and day of the Lord of righteousness. Know that we have not written often, nor as often as was due; yet we have written to your piety. And perhaps the brothers entrusted with carrying the letters could not deliver our greetings safely. But now, since we have found some of our own people traveling to your honor, we have gladly put the letter into their hands, and we have sent some things, which deign to receive from our lowliness without disdain, and to bless us after the example of the patriarch Isaac. And if, being busy, and having a mind drowned in a multitude of cares, we have overlooked anything that was fitting, do not count it against us, nor be grieved; but imitate your own perfection in all things, so that we too may enjoy your virtue, as the rest …

To Eusebius, in exile. The Lord has shown in our case too that he does not forsake his holy ones, by covering the life of your holiness with his great and mighty hand. For we reckon this almost equal to the holy man's remaining unharmed in the belly of the sea monster, and to those who fear the Lord living unharmed in the raging fire; since he has kept your piety unharmed, though war, as I hear, poured round you on every side. And may the mighty God keep for us hereafter, if we still live, the sight we have so much prayed for; or at least for the others, who await your return as their own salvation. For I am persuaded that the Lover of humankind, attending to the tears of the Churches and the groans that all groan for you, will keep you in life until he grants the favor to those who entreat him night and day. What had been done against you up to the visit of our beloved brother Libanius, the fellow deacon, we learned sufficiently from him as he passed through; but we ask to learn what has happened since then. For we hear that greater and harsher sufferings have occurred in those places in the meantime. May we learn, if possible sooner, but if not, at least through the most reverent brother Paul, the fellow presbyter, on his return, that your life, as we pray, is being kept unharmed and unmolested. Because we heard that the roads are all full of robbers and deserters, we were afraid to put anything into the brother's hands, lest we become a cause of death for him too. But if the Lord grants a moderate calm, as we hear of the passing of the army, we will try to send one of our own people to visit you and report to us all your affairs one by one. [Letter 269] Consolatory, to the wife of Arinthaeus the general. 1. The consistent and due thing for your affection would have been for us to be present ourselves and share in what happened. For so we would have soothed our own grief somewhat, and given your dignity the comfort that was fitting. But since my body no longer bears longer journeys, we have come to conversation by letter, so as not to seem altogether insensible to what has happened. Who did not groan for the man? Who is so stony-hearted as not to shed a warm tear for him? And it filled me with dejection above all, when I considered the man's own honors toward me and his protection of the Churches of God in common. Yet we have reckoned that, being a man, and having done in this life what fell to him, at the appointed time he was taken back by God who orders our affairs. Considering this, we urge your prudence to bear what has happened gently, and as far as possible to bear the calamity with moderation. Time is indeed able to soften your heart and give entrance to reasonable thoughts; but still your great love for your husband and your kindness toward all make us fear lest you give yourself over to the grief, receiving the wound of sorrow deeply through the simplicity of your character. The teaching of the Scriptures is useful always, but especially at such times. Remember, then, the sentence of him who created us, by which all of us who sprang from the earth return again to the earth; and no one is so great as to prove superior to dissolution. 2. That admirable man was indeed noble and great, and I too say that the virtue of his soul matched the strength of his body, the highest excellence in both; but still he was a man, and he has died, like Adam, like Abel, like Noah, like Abraham, like Moses, like anyone you might name who shared the same nature. Let us not then be indignant because he has been taken from us, but let us be grateful to him who joined us that we lived with him at all. For to be deprived of a husband you have in common with other women; but I do not think any other woman can boast of an equal marriage. For truly he who created us fashioned that man as a pattern of human nature, so that all eyes were turned to him, and every tongue recounted his deeds; painters and sculptors fell short of his worth; and historians, in recounting his brave deeds in the wars, fall into the incredibility of myths. Hence the many could not bring themselves to believe the report carrying that gloomy news, nor to accept at all that Arinthaeus had died. Yet he has suffered what will happen to heaven and sun and earth. He has gone, ending his life splendidly, not bowed down by old age, not abated at all in his distinction; great in the present life, great in the life to come, losing nothing of his present splendor in exchange for the hoped-for glory, because at the very departure from life he cleansed every stain of the soul by the washing of regeneration. Since you were the one who brought this about for him and helped him to it, you have the greatest consolation; and transfer your soul from present things to the care of things to come, so as to be deemed worthy through good works to reach a place of rest like his. Spare your aged mother, spare your young daughter, for whose comfort you alone are left. Be an example of courage to the other women; and so measure your grief that you neither cast it out of your heart nor are swallowed up by sorrow. Above all look to the great reward of endurance promised by our Lord Jesus Christ in the recompense for the lives we have lived.

[Without address, concerning abduction.] I am very much grieved that I do not find you indignant at forbidden deeds, nor able to reckon that this abduction which is taking place is a lawlessness and a tyranny against life itself and human existence, and an outrage against the free. For I know that, if you all had such a mind, nothing would have prevented the custom of this evil from being driven out of our homeland long ago. Take up, then, at the present time the zeal of a Christian, and be moved as the wrong deserves. And the girl, wherever you find her, take her away with all vigor and restore her to her parents; and exclude the man himself from the prayers and make him an outcast; and those who joined in the attack with him, according to the proclamation already issued by us, exclude from the prayers for three years with their whole households. And the village that received the abducted girl and guarded her, or fought to keep her, make that too, with all its people, outside the prayers; so that all may learn to regard the abductor as a common enemy, like a serpent or some other wild beast, and so drive him away and help those who are wronged.

To Eusebius, my comrade, commendatory, on behalf of Cyriacus the presbyter. I arrived in the city immediately on the heels of your departure; how dejected I was at missing you, why need I tell a man who needs no words, but knows it by experience, having suffered the like? For how much it would have been worth to me to see Eusebius, excellent in every way, and to embrace him, and in memory to go back again to our youth, and to be reminded of those days in which we had one room, one hearth, the same tutor, and leisure and study, luxury and want, and everything alike between us! How much do you think I would value recovering all this in memory through meeting you, and, shaking off this heavy old age, seeming to have become young again instead of old? But the enjoyment of those things has escaped me; yet I have not been deprived of seeing your eloquence through a letter, and of consoling myself in the way that remains possible, through the meeting with the most venerable Cyriacus, the fellow presbyter. I am ashamed to commend him to you and to make him your friend through me, lest I seem to do something superfluous, in bringing to you what is your own and especially yours. But since I must be a witness to the truth, and must grant to those spiritually joined to me the greatest things I have: the blamelessness of the man in his priesthood I think is plain to you too; and I confirm it, knowing of no harassment against him by those who lay hands on everyone, those who do not fear the Lord. And yet, even if anything had been done by them, the man would not on that account be unworthy. For the enemies of the Lord confirm the ranks of those on whom they make war rather than take away anything of the grace given them by the Spirit. But, as I said, nothing was even devised against the man. So deign to regard him as a blameless presbyter, joined to us, and worthy of all respect, both benefiting yourself and gratifying us.

To Sophronius, master of the offices. 1. Actiacus the deacon reported to me that some had grieved you about us, slandering us as not well disposed toward your dignity. I was not surprised that there are flatterers following so great a man. For somehow these servile attentions naturally grow up alongside great powers; and such people, for lack of any good of their own by which to be recognized, commend themselves through others' ills. And almost, just as mildew is a corruption of the wheat arising in the wheat itself, so flattery, slipping in under friendship, is a ruin of friendship. I was not surprised, then, as I said, if some, like drones round the hives, buzz around your splendid and admirable hearth. But this seemed to me surprising and altogether unaccountable: that you, a man especially distinguished for the gravity of your character, should bear to open both your ears to them and accept slander against me; I who, having loved many from my early youth to this old age, know of no one I have preferred to your perfection in friendship. For even if reason had not persuaded me to love such a man as you are, our familiarity from boyhood would have sufficed to bind me to your soul. You know how much habit can do for friendship. And if I show nothing worthy of this purpose, pardon my weakness. For you yourself do not seek from me any proof of good will … but a purpose, clearly, that prays with you for the best things for you. For may your affairs never come down to needing the benefaction of men so small as I am. 2. How, then, could I have said or done anything against you in the affairs of Memnonius? For this is what the deacon reported to me. And how would I have valued the wealth of Hymetius above your friendship, a man so spending … ? But none of this is true; nothing has been said by me, nor done, against you. But this perhaps gave an occasion to those who tell lies: what I said to some of those causing a disturbance, that "if the man has determined beforehand to carry out his own intention, whether you make a disturbance or not, what he is eager for will certainly happen just the same, whether you speak or keep silent; but if he changes his mind, do not drag about the most venerable name of our friend, nor, under the pretense of zeal for your patron, gain some profit for yourselves by holding out fear and threats." To the man who was writing the will I said nothing, small or great, about this matter, either myself or through another. 3. And you ought not to disbelieve this, unless you consider me altogether desperate and despising the very great sin of falsehood. But do you yourself put away all suspicion about this matter, and for the future make my affection for you higher than all slander, imitating Alexander, who, having received a letter against his physician, saying he was plotting against him, since he happened at that very moment to have taken a potion to drink, was so far from believing the slanderer that at the same time he both read the letter and drank the potion. For I do not think it right to count myself less honorable than any of those known for friendship, since I have never been caught offending against friendship, and besides have received from my God the commandment of love, of which I am a debtor, not only by the common nature of men, but because I recognize you especially as a benefactor both of myself and of my homeland.

Without address, concerning Hera. Being fully persuaded that your honor so loves us as to count our concerns your own, I commend to your extraordinary goodness our most venerable brother Hera, whom we call brother not by some custom but out of the most exact affection of friendship, which admits of no excess; and I urge you to look upon him as your own, and to give him your protection, as far as you can, in whatever he may need from your magnanimity; so that I may number this kindness too among the many good things I have already received from you.

To Himerius, master of the offices. My friendship and familiarity with the most venerable brother Hera, which began in early boyhood and has lasted by the grace of God into old age, you yourself know better than anyone. For the Lord granted us the love of your nobility almost from the time when he also brought about our acquaintance with each other. Since, then, he needs your protection, I urge and entreat you, both as a favor to your old affection for us and in view of the present necessity, so to make his affairs your own that he may need no other protection, but may return to us having accomplished everything as he prays; so that we may number this too among the many kindnesses we have received from you, than which we could find none greater for ourselves nor one that concerns us more.

Without address, concerning Hera. You anticipated our requests in your disposition toward our most venerable brother Hera, and have proved better to him than he could have prayed, both by the excess of honors you showed him and by your protection on each occasion. Nevertheless we too, since we cannot bear his affairs in silence, urge your unsurpassable honor to add, for our sake, to your zeal for the man, and to send him back to his homeland stronger than the abuse of his enemies; since now he is not out of reach of the arrows of envy, many trying to harass his quiet way of life. Against these he would find one unbreakable safety, if you yourself would hold your hand over the man.

To the great Harmatius. The common law of all men makes those who are older in years common fathers; and our law, that of Christians, sets us old men in the rank of parents to those of such an age. So do not think me officious, or meddling in what is not necessary, if I plead with you on behalf of your son. In other things we think it right for you to demand his obedience; he is subject in body both to the law of nature and to this civil law by which we are governed; but his soul, since he has it from a diviner source, it is fitting to consider subject to another, and to God are owed by it the oldest of all debts. Since, then, he has chosen our God, the God of the Christians, the true God, before your many gods worshiped through material symbols, do not be vexed with him, but rather admire the nobility of his soul, that he has set being made God's own, through true knowledge and a life of virtue, before fear and his duty to his father. Nature itself will move you, and the gentleness and mildness of your character in all things, not to allow yourself even a little grief over him; and surely you will not dishonor our plea, or rather that of your city, fulfilled through us, who in their affection for you and their prayer for every good for you think that they have welcomed you too as a Christian. So greatly has the report, suddenly spreading through the city, filled them with joy.

[To the learned Maximus.] … about your dignity, and created in me a longing to meet you, vividly drawing in his account the character of your soul; and he so kindled my affection for you that, if I were not weighed down by old age, and held fast by the weakness that has grown up with me, and fettered by countless cares of the Church, nothing would have kept me from coming to you myself. For it is truly no small gain for one who has passed from a great house and a famous family to the life of the Gospel to bridle youth with reason, to make the passions of the flesh slaves to reason, and to practice the humility owed by a Christian who considers, as is fitting, where he came from and where he is going. For the thought of our nature calms the inflammation of the soul, and banishes all boastfulness and self-will, and in short makes one a disciple of the Lord, who said, "Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart." For truly, dearest of young men, the only thing worth eager pursuit and praise is the good that lasts. And this is the honor that comes from God. These human things are fainter than a shadow and more deceptive than dreams. For youth fades faster than spring flowers, and the bloom of the body withers by disease or time. Wealth is untrustworthy, glory easily overturned; labors in the arts end along with this life. And even what all eagerly pursue, eloquence, has its charm only as far as the hearing. But the practice of virtue is a precious possession to its owner and a most pleasant sight to those who meet him. If you care for these things, you will make yourself worthy of the good things stored up by the Lord in his promises. By what way you might come to gain these good things, and how you might keep them once gained, would take longer to say than the present impulse of my words allows. But it occurred to me to address these very things to you, from what I heard from brother Theotecnus, who I pray always speaks the truth, but especially in his words about you, so that the Lord may be the more glorified in you, who from an alien root are bursting with the precious fruits of godliness.

[To Valerianus.] I desired to see your nobility when I was in Orphanene. For I hoped that, while you were living at Corsagaena, you would not hesitate to cross over to us at Attagaena for the synod we were holding. But since I failed of this, I desired to see you in the hill country; for there again Evesus, being near you, raised my hope. But since I failed of both, I have come to writing, so that you may deign to visit me, both doing what is fitting, a young man visiting an old one, and at the same time receiving some counsel from me at our meeting, since you have affairs with certain people in Caesarea that need our mediation to be set right. If, then, it is not burdensome, do not hesitate to visit us. [Letter 279] To Modestus the prefect. Even if many bring letters from us to your honor, yet because of the greatness of your honor toward us I think that the number of letters causes no annoyance to your magnanimity. Therefore I have gladly given this letter too to this brother, knowing both that he will obtain everything he is eager for, and that we shall be counted by you among benefactors, since we provide occasions of beneficence for your good purpose. The matter for which he needs your protection he will tell you himself, if you deign to look on him with a kindly eye and give him courage to speak out before your great and extraordinary authority. We present our own part by letter: that we consider whatever is done for him our own gain, especially because he set out from Tyana and came to us for this purpose, thinking it a great gain if he could put forward our letter as a suppliant's plea. So that he may not fail of his hopes, that we may enjoy our accustomed honor, and that your zeal for good things may be fulfilled on this occasion too, we ask that he be received kindly, and … [Letter 280] To Modestus the prefect. Even if it is bold to bring entreaties by letter to so great a man, yet the honor you have shown us before takes the timidity out of our heart, and we venture to write on behalf of men related to us by family and worthy of honor for the uprightness of their character. The bearer of this letter stands to me in the place of a son. Since, then, he needs only your favor to obtain what he seeks, deign to receive my letter, which the aforesaid holds out to you as a suppliant's plea; and give him opportunity to tell you his affairs and to speak with those who can help him, so that by your command he may quickly obtain what he is eager for, and I may have occasion to pride myself that such a … has been given me …

To Modestus the prefect. I remember your great honor, that among other things you gave me the boldness to write to your magnanimity. I am using the gift, then, and enjoying your most humane favor, both delighting myself by conversing with so great a man and giving your magnanimity an occasion to honor us with your replies. Since I entreated your gentleness on behalf of our friend Helladius, a leading citizen, that, released from the care of the tax assessment, he might be allowed to labor at the affairs of our homeland, and was deemed worthy of a kindly nod, I renew the same plea, and entreat you that an order be sent down to the governor of the province to release him from the burden.

To a bishop. When not invited you complain, and when invited you do not obey. From the second it is clear that you made the first complaint for nothing. For in all likelihood you would not have come even then, if invited. Obey, then, now that you are invited, and do not again be unfeeling, knowing that a charge added to a charge confirms the first and makes the accusation more credible. I always urge you to bear with us; but if you do not bear with us, it is not right to neglect the martyrs, to share in whose memorials you are invited. Grant the favor, then, first to both; but if this does not seem good to you, at least to those more worthy of honor.

To Eleuthera. We hope to find a suitable day for the synod after the days we have fixed for the hill country; but no other occasion for meeting appears apart from the service at the synod, unless the Lord arranges something beyond what is expected. You ought to judge from your own affairs. For if your nobility, caring for one household, has such a crowd of anxieties, how many occupations do you think we have each day? Your dream I think points to something more perfect: that one should take some care for the contemplation of the soul, and tend those eyes by which God is naturally seen. Since you have the encouragement of the divine Scriptures, you will need neither us nor anyone else to see what is necessary, having the sufficient counsel and guidance of the Holy Spirit toward what is profitable.

Without address, about the protection of the Church. He who cares for the Church and has the management of its property in hand is the one delivering this letter to you, our beloved son So-and-so. Deign to give him freedom of speech about the matters he refers to your decency, and to attend to what he affirms; so that from now on at least the Church may be able to recover itself and be freed from this many-headed hydra. For such is the property of the poor that we are always looking for someone to take it on, because the Church spends more on it than it gets any fruit from the properties.

To the Commentariensis. Since some of those who do evil were caught at this assembly stealing, contrary to the Lord's command, the cheap clothes of poor people, whom they ought rather to clothe than strip, those who take care of the Church's good order arrested them. But since you thought that the custody of such men belongs to you, as one who deals with public affairs, I have written to you, making known that offenses committed in the churches ought to receive fitting correction from us, and that judges should not be troubled about them. Therefore I have ordered their spoils, which the list lying with you shows, and the inventory made in the presence of all who were present, to be received, and some to be stored for those who come later and some distributed to those present; and the men to be turned back in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, whom I think I shall make better for the future in the name of God. For what the blows of the law courts do not effect, we have often known the fearful judgments of the Lord to accomplish. But if you think it good to refer these matters too to the count, we so trust in justice and in the man's uprightness that we permit you to do what you wish.

Without address, concerning the church advocates. The case of this man seems hard to handle. For we do not know what to do with so shifty a character, and, as one may guess from what is seen, a desperate one. When summoned to judgment, he does not obey; and if he does appear, he uses such an abundance of words and oaths that we count ourselves happy to be quickly rid of him. I have often seen him turn the charges round on his accusers. In short, no nature among all that feed on the earth is so variable and so easily moulded to wickedness as this man's, as one may judge from a little experience of him. Why do you ask me, and not persuade yourselves to endure his wrongs as a wrath sent by God? But so that you may not be defiled by sharing in his sins, let him be separated with his whole household from the prayers and from all other communion with the clergy. Perhaps, being made a warning to others, he will be ashamed.

Without address, concerning the church advocates. Those whom the common penalties do not bring to their senses, and whom exclusion from the prayers does not lead to repentance, must be subjected to the canons given by the Lord. For it is written: "If your brother sins, rebuke him between you and him alone; if he does not listen to you, take another with you; if not even so, tell it to the Church; and if he refuses to listen even to the Church, let him be to you thereafter as a Gentile and a tax collector." This is what has happened in his case too. Once he was accused; a second time he was convicted before witnesses; a third time before the Church. Since, then, we have solemnly warned him and he did not accept it, let him henceforth be excommunicated. And let it be announced to the whole village that he is not to be received into any fellowship of everyday dealings, so that, through our not mixing with him, he may become wholly the devil's prey.

Without address, concerning a woman who was being harassed. Judging it an equal sin to leave sinners unpunished and to exceed due measure in punishment, I inflicted on this man the penalty that fell to me, excluding him from ecclesiastical communion; and I advised those who had been wronged not to avenge themselves, but to leave the recompense to the Lord. So, if our injunctions were of any use, I would have been heard then, when I used speech far more persuasive than a letter could be. But since I heard words of great weight, I kept quiet then, and now I do not think it fitting for me to discuss the same matters. "For I," she says, "despised a husband, and childbearing, and the life of the world, to obtain this one thing: approval from God and a better reputation among men. Since a man reared from boyhood in the ruin of households, forcing his way in with his usual shamelessness, once broke into our house and became known to us only as far as a bare acquaintance, and since, through ignorance of his character and a certain untutored modesty, I was ashamed to drive him away openly, he went to such a pitch of impiety and insolence as to fill the whole city with blasphemies against me, and to denounce me by a public placard posted on the doors of the church. For this he met with some indignation from the laws; but he came back again and renewed his blasphemies. Again the market, the gymnasia, the theaters, and the houses of those who receive him because of the likeness of their life, are full of abuse of me. And it fell to me to be known not for better things, in which it would have been fitting, but for the most shameful, because his licentious mind made me notorious to all. At this," she says, "some delight in the blasphemies, because men naturally rejoice in abuse; others say they are vexed, but do not grieve with me; others are persuaded that the abuse is true; others are in doubt, attending to the multitude of his oaths. And there is no one who grieves with me. Now truly I perceive my desolation, and I lament myself, since I have no brother, no friend, no kinsman, no slave, no free man, no human being at all who grieves with me; and, as it seems, I alone am more pitiable than the city, in which there is such a lack of haters of evil, men who do not think that drunken violence goes round in a circle and will some day overtake them too." Having gone through these things, and many more striking ones, with untold tears before me, she went away, not even leaving me free of reproaches, because, when I ought to grieve with her as a father, I am indifferent to so great an evil and philosophize about others' misfortunes. … she could despise the loss of money and bear bodily toils; but she has been harmed in her very reputation, the damage to which becomes a common loss to the clergy. After these words, what do you want me to say to her now, my admirable friend, since I myself hold this judgment: not to hand offenders over to the authorities, and yet not to rescue them when they have been handed over? For these the Apostle long ago declared that they should fear the ruler for an evil deed; "For he does not bear the sword in vain," he says. As, then, handing over is not humane, so rescuing them is nourishing their drunken violence. Perhaps there may be some postponement of the matter until we ourselves are present; and then you will see that we are of no use, since there are none who obey.

To Nectarius. Many blessings be on those who move your honor to constant conversation with us by letter. For do not think that we do such things out of mere custom; out of true affection we value your voice most highly. For what could be more precious to me than Nectarius, who from boyhood was known to us for the noblest qualities, and has now, through every kind of virtue, risen to such distinction? So the dearest of all my friends is whoever brings me letters from you. As for the election of those who are to preside over the community: if I do anything to gratify men, or yielding to entreaties, or giving way to fear, may I not do it. For I would be not a steward but a huckster, trading the gift of God for human friendships. But if the votes are given by men, who can testify only from outward appearance to what they testify, while the judgment of who is more suitable is entrusted by our lowliness to him who knows the secrets of the hearts, perhaps it is in every way better, having given one's testimony, to keep aloof from all partisanship and dissension, as though those testified about were one's own, and to pray God that what is advantageous may not be missed. For in this way we shall no longer blame any man for the outcome either way, but shall thank God for what happens. And yet, if these things are done after the manner of men, they are not done at all; it is an imitation, but falls far short of the truth. Consider, too, that no small danger lies near the one who strives to have his own way by every means: lest we draw upon ourselves a share of the sins committed. For many sins may be committed even by those from whom one would never have expected it, because of the frailty of human nature. Then, when we have often privately advised our friends what is best, even if we seem unconvincing to those taking our advice, we are not angry; but where it is not men's counsel but God's judgment, shall we be vexed at not being preferred even to the judgments of God? If, then, it is given by men, why must one ask it of us, and not take it from himself? But if it is given by the Lord, one ought to pray, not to be indignant; and in prayer not to ask for one's own will, but to entrust what is advantageous to God who orders all things. May the holy God turn away from your house every experience of grievous things, and measure out to yourself and to all who belong to you a life free from disease and harm, in all prosperity.

To Timotheus the chorepiscopus. To write all that I think does not seem to me to fit the measure of a letter, nor otherwise to befit the form of a greeting; and to pass it over in silence is almost impossible for me, since my heart is inflamed with just anger against you. I will take the middle way, then, writing some things and leaving others. For I wish to rebuke you, if it is allowed, with the frankness of a friend. If that Timotheus, whom we have known from boyhood to show such intensity toward correctness and the disciplined life that he was charged with excess in these things, has now given up considering how, by doing in every way what he ought, he may be made God's own, and you look to what So-and-so thinks of you, and have made your life depend on the opinion of others, and think about how not to be useless to your friends nor laughable to your enemies, and fear the disgrace of the many as something terrible, do you not consider that, while you spend your time on these things, you are falling unawares from the life that should come first? For that it is not possible to master both together, the affairs of this world and the life according to God, the divine Scriptures are full of teaching; and nature itself is full of such examples. For in the activity of the mind it is altogether impossible to think two thoughts at the same time; and in the perceptions of sense it is impossible to receive and distinguish at the same moment two voices striking the ears together, even though two passages of hearing are open to us. And the eyes, unless both are directed to one visible object, cannot do their work exactly. These are the examples from nature; to tell you those from the Scriptures would be no less ridiculous than, as they say, bringing an owl to the Athenians. Why, then, do we mix what cannot be mixed, the turmoil of public life and the practice of godliness? Should we not rather withdraw from the turmoil, from having affairs and giving others affairs, and become our own; and confirm by deed the aim of godliness that we set ourselves long ago, and show those who wish to harass us that it is not in their power to grieve us whenever they like? This will be when we show ourselves free of every handle. So much for this. May we some day be together and take counsel more exactly about what is advantageous to our souls, so that we may not be overtaken in our care for vain things when the necessary departure comes upon us. I was greatly pleased with what your love sent; they were most pleasant in their own nature, but the addition of the sender made the pleasure many times greater. As for the things from Pontus, wax candles and herbs, receive them gladly when we send them; for at present we did not have them.

To Palladius. The holy God has fulfilled half our desire by arranging a meeting with our most decorous sister, your wife. And he is able to grant what remains too, so that, when we have seen your nobility as well, we may render God perfect thanks. For we are in great desire, especially now that we have heard that you have been honored with the great honor, the immortal garment, which, enveloping our humanity, has done away with death in the flesh, and what is mortal has been swallowed up in the garment of incorruption. Since, then, the Lord has made you his own through grace, has estranged you from all sin, has opened the kingdom of heaven to you and shown you the roads that lead to the blessedness there, we urge you, a man who so surpasses others in prudence, to receive the grace thoughtfully, and to become a faithful guardian of the treasure, keeping guard over the royal deposit with all care, so that, preserving the seal inviolate, you may stand before the Lord shining in the brightness of the saints, putting no spot or wrinkle on the pure garment of incorruption, but preserving holiness in all your members, as one who has put on Christ. "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ," it says, "have put on Christ." Let all your members, then, be holy, fit to be covered with the holy and luminous garment. [Letter 293] To Julianus. How has your body been in this intervening time? Have you fully recovered the use of your hand? And how are the other affairs of your life? Do they go according to your mind, as we pray, and as is due to your purpose? For those whose mind is easily changed, it is not unlikely that their life too is disordered; but for those whose judgment is firm and always steady, it follows that they live a life in agreement with their purpose. For truly a pilot is not permitted to make calm when he wishes; but for us it is very easy to make our life free of waves, if we silence the turmoil that arises within us from the passions, and set our judgment higher than what strikes us from outside. For neither losses, nor illnesses, nor the other hardships of life will touch the earnest man, so long as he has his mind walking with God and looking to the future, and rising lightly and nimbly above the storm stirred up from below. For those who are violently seized by the cares of life, like fat birds with useless wings, drag themselves along below with the cattle. We were permitted to see you only as much as those who pass one another at sea. But since one can know the whole lion from its claw, we think we have come to know you sufficiently from a brief experience; and so we make much of being held in some account by you, and of not being absent from your mind, but being constantly with you in memory …

To Festus and Magnus. It befits fathers, I suppose, to care for their own children, and farmers for their plants or seeds, and teachers for their pupils, especially when, through good natural gifts, these show better hopes of themselves. For the farmer rejoices in his toil when the ears or the plants grow strong for him; and pupils gladden their teachers, and children their fathers, the one by advancing in virtue, the other in growth. We have so much the greater care for you, and the better hope, as godliness is better than every art, and better than all animals and fruits together; we pray to see it, rooted and nourished by us in your still tender and pure souls, advance to perfect maturity and to ripe fruit, your love of learning cooperating with our prayers. For know well that both our good will toward you and the cooperation of God are stored up in your own purposes; and when these are directed toward what is right, God, called as fellow worker, is present even unbidden, and every God-loving man volunteers to teach. For the eagerness of those who can teach something useful is invincible when the souls of the learners are clear of all resistance. So not even separation of bodies is a hindrance, since he who created us, in his surpassing wisdom and love for humankind, did not confine the mind together with the body, nor the power of words to the tongue, but gave something more, even with respect to time, to those able to benefit others, so that they can pass on their teaching not only to those far away but even to those born much later. And experience confirms this for us: since those who lived many years before teach the young, the teaching being preserved in writing; and we, though so far separated in body, are always with you in mind and converse with you easily, our teaching being hindered neither by land nor by sea, if you have any care for your own souls.

[To monks.] … you ought to provide in deed for one another, through constant conversation and encouragement. Above all we urge you to remember the faith of the Fathers, and not to be shaken by those who try to carry you about in your quiet life, knowing that neither strictness of life by itself, if not enlightened by faith in God, is of any use, nor will a right confession, if it lacks good works, be able to present us to the Lord; but both must go together, that the man of God may be complete, and our life may not limp in what is lacking. For it is faith that saves us, as the Apostle says, "working through love."

To Eleuthera. Conjecturing your disposition toward us, and knowing your zeal for the work of the Lord, we made bold recently, as with a daughter, and kept the mules in use rather longer; sparingly, as though using our own, but nevertheless we did prolong their service. This had to be written to your dignity, so that you may know that what we did is a proof of our affection. At the same time we remind your decency by this letter to remember the Lord, and, always setting before your eyes the departure from this world, to order your life for the defense to be made before the Judge who cannot be deceived, so that you may have boldness on account of good works before him who will reveal the secrets of our hearts in the day of his visitation. Through you we greet your most noble daughter; and I urge her to spend her time in meditation on the oracles of the Lord, so that her soul may be nourished by good teaching, and her mind may advance to growth and greatness more than her body does by nature.

To Eleuthera. Judging it very fitting for me, both because of my advanced age and because of the genuineness of our spiritual affection, to visit your incomparable nobility in bodily presence too, and, when absent, not to fall short, but to fill up what is lacking by letters, since I found this woman a fitting bearer of letters to your dignity, through her I address you, first of all urging you on to the work of the Lord, so that the holy God, having brought you honorably through the days of your sojourn in all godliness and dignity, may make you worthy also of the good things to come. Then I commend to you the aforesaid daughter, that you may receive her as my daughter and your own sister, and that, in whatever she shares with your decorous and pure soul, you may make her concerns your own and help her, having your reward first from the Lord, and then also refreshing us, who fulfill the measure of love toward you in the heart of Christ.

Without address, concerning a devout man. That you deign to use us as counsellors and partners in your cares in everything, you do what befits your perfection; and may God reward you both for your love toward us and for your care in life. But I was surprised that this deception touched you, and that you have believed that some irrational power is present in water; and this, though no testimony confirms the report. For there is no one among those there who has received, small or great, for his body any of the good he hoped for; unless some relief came to someone by chance, such as naturally comes to people while they sleep or go about their other business in life. But he who destroys love persuades the simpler sort to ascribe chance happenings to the nature of the water. That our word is true, you can learn from experience itself. [Letter 299] To a censitor. I know that you wrote to me that you are reluctant to take on the care of public affairs. For it is an old saying that those who lay claim to virtue do not take on offices with pleasure. For I see that what belongs to physicians belongs also to rulers. For they see terrible things and experience unpleasant ones, and reap griefs of their own from the misfortunes of others; I mean those who are truly rulers. For all the merchant sort of men, who look to money and are excited about this kind of glory, count it the greatest of goods to obtain some power, by which they will be able to do good to friends, take vengeance on enemies, and gain for themselves what they are eager for. But you are not such a man. How could you be? You who willingly withdrew even from so great a civic power; and when you could rule the city like a single household, you chose the quiet and peaceful life, valuing having no affairs and giving none to others more highly than the rest value their perversity. But since the Lord has willed that the country of the Iborites should not be under hucksters, nor the assessment be like a slave market, but that each should be registered as is just, accept the task, even if otherwise troublesome, as something that can bring you approval with God. And neither cower before power nor despise poverty, but give those you govern a judgment more unswerving than any balance. For so your zeal for justice will become plain to those who have trusted you, and they will admire you above the others. Or even if it escapes them, it will not escape our God, who has set before us great prizes for good works.

To the father of a student who had died, consolatory. Since the Lord has set us in a second rank of fathers for Christians, entrusting to us the forming in godliness of the children who have believed in him, we have reckoned the calamity that befell your blessed son as our own, and we groaned over the untimeliness of his parting; sympathizing above all with you, and reckoning how great the weight of pain will be for his father by nature, since even in us, who have been made his kin by the commandment, such dejection of heart arose. For in his case there was nothing gloomy to suffer or to say; pitiable are those who have failed of the hopes set on him. And truly they deserve many tears and groans, who sent a son in the very bloom of youth to the study of letters, and received him back silent, with this long and dreaded silence. These things moved us at once, as men; and we shed a hasty tear and let out an undisciplined groan from the midst of the heart, the grief suddenly enveloping our reason like a cloud. But when we came to ourselves, and looked with the eye of the soul at the nature of human things, we made our excuse to the Lord for the way our soul had been affected, as by a sudden seizure, at what had happened, and admonished ourselves to bear moderately these things, which God's ancient sentence has allotted to human life. A boy is gone, of the very age of life's prime, distinguished among the companies of his age-mates, beloved by his teachers, able by a mere meeting to draw even the most savage to good will; quick in learning, gentle in character, composed beyond his age; and one who said more than this would still say less than the truth; but still a man, born of a man. What, then, ought the father of such a son to reckon? What else than to remember his own father, that he died? What wonder, then, that one born of a mortal became the father of a mortal? That it was before the season, before being sated with life, before reaching the measure of his age, and appearing before men, and leaving a succession to his family: these, as I persuade myself, are not an increase of the grief, but a consolation for what has happened. The ordering of God deserves thanks, that he did not leave orphaned children on earth; that he did not leave a widowed wife given over to long affliction, or likely to marry another husband and neglect the former children. As for the boy's life not being prolonged in this world, who is so unfeeling as not to think this the greatest of goods? For a longer stay here is the occasion of more evils. He did no evil; he stitched no deceit against his neighbor; he did not come under the necessity of mixing with companies of evildoers; he was not entangled in the evils of the marketplace; he did not undergo the necessity of sins: no falsehood, no ingratitude, no greed, no love of pleasure, none of the passions of the flesh that naturally arise in undisciplined souls; he departed with his soul branded by no stain, but went away pure to the better lot. Earth has not hidden the beloved, but heaven has received him. God, who orders our affairs, who lays down for each the boundaries of his times, who brought him into this life, has himself removed him. We have as our teacher, in the extremities of calamity, that famous voice of the great Job: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord … blessed forever."

To Maximus, consolatory. How we were affected on hearing of your calamity, no words could suffice to present vividly: now reckoning the loss which the whole body of the devout has suffered, having lost the protectress of her order; now considering into what dejection the cheerfulness of your dignity has fallen; seeing in our mind a house counted blessed by all bowed to its knees, and a common life grown together in the utmost harmony dissolved faster than a dream. How, even if we were made of adamant, could our souls not have been bowed down? From our very first meeting there arose a kinship between us and your dignity, and we became so attached to your virtue as to have your affairs on our tongue at every hour; and when we also came to know that blessed soul, we were truly persuaded that the word of the Proverb was confirmed in you both, that "a wife is fitted to a husband by God." So well suited were you to each other in character, each showing in himself the other's character as in a mirror. And one who said much would not reach even a small part of what is deserved. But what must one feel before a law of God that has long prevailed: that he who has come into being must depart again at the appointed times, and that each soul, having rendered to life its necessary service, is then released from the bonds of the body? We are neither the first to suffer this, admirable friend, nor the only ones; but what our parents and grandparents and all the ancestors of our race experienced, we too have come to experience. And the present life is full of such examples. But you, who so excel others in virtue, ought even amid sufferings to keep the greatness of your soul unhumbled, not vexed at the present loss, but grateful to the giver for the original gift. For to die is common to all who share the same nature; but to live with a good wife has fallen to few of those counted blessed in life; so that even to bear the separation with grief is no small gift of God, to those who reason fairly. For we have known many who received the dissolution of an ill-suited marriage as the laying down of a burden. Look up at this heaven, and the sun, and survey the whole creation round about, that these things, so many and so great, will shortly not appear; and gather from all this that, being part of a creation that dies, we have received what falls to us from our common nature; since marriage itself is a consolation for dying. For since it was not possible to remain forever, the Creator contrived continuance in life through the succession of the race. And if we are grieved that she departed before us too soon, let us not begrudge her, who was not filled for long with the troubles of life, but left us while we still longed for her, like the charm of flowers. Above all let the doctrine of the resurrection console you, since you are a Christian and pass your life in hope of the good things to come. So we ought to think of her as one who has gone ahead along a road that we too must travel. And if she has gone before us, this is not worth lamentation. For perhaps a little later our lot will be more pitiable, if, being stretched out longer in life, we become liable to more punishments. But let care to please the Lord take the place of your grief.

To the wife of Briso, consolatory. How much we groaned at the news of the calamity that befell Briso, the best of men, why need we say? For surely no one has so stony a heart that, having come to know that man and then hearing that he had been suddenly snatched away from among men, he would not reckon the loss of the man a common loss to human life. But our grief was at once succeeded by our concern for you, as we reckoned that, if what happened was so heavy and hard to bear for those far removed in kinship, how was your soul likely to have been affected by the grief: so good by nature and so easily moved to sympathy by the gentleness of your character, and so subject to the grief as to feel, as it were, a cutting in two at the separation from your husband. For if truly, according to the Lord's word, they are no longer two but one flesh, clearly such a separation is no less painful than if half our body were torn away. Such are the grievous things, and greater than these; but what consolation is there for what has happened? First, the law of our God that has prevailed from the beginning: that whoever has come into being must depart this life at the appointed times. If, then, human affairs have been so ordered from Adam until us, let us not be indignant at the common laws of nature, but let us accept God's dispensation concerning us, who willed that that noble and unconquered soul should depart this life, not with its body consumed by disease nor withered by time, but should end its life in the prime of age and in the splendor of its achievements in war. So we ought not to be vexed that we have been separated from such a man, but let us thank the Lord that we were deemed worthy to live with such a man, whose loss almost the whole Roman empire felt; whom the emperor called back, whom soldiers lamented, and whom those in the highest dignities mourned as a genuine son. Since, then, he has left you the memory of his own virtue, consider that you have sufficient consolation for the calamity. Then I want you to know this too: that she who does not succumb to afflictions, but bears their weight through hope in God, has a great recompense for her endurance with the Lord. For we have not been permitted, by the injunction of the Apostle, to grieve over those who have fallen asleep as the rest do. Let your children too be like living images, consoling you for the absence of the one you long for. Let the work of bringing up your children draw your soul away from griefs; and by taking care how you may spend the rest of your time pleasing to the Lord, you will find a good occupation for your thoughts. For preparing our defense before our Lord Jesus Christ, and zeal to be found numbered among those who love him, are enough to overshadow grief, so that we are not swallowed up by it. May the Lord grant your heart the consolation of his Spirit …

To the Count of the Private Estates. The people of this place have, I think, through slander, persuaded your honor to impose upon them a levy of mares. Since, then, what is being done is unjust, and for that reason ought to displease your honor, and is grievous to us because of our close connection with those who are being wronged, we have hastened to urge your goodness not to allow the abuse of those who are attempting to do wrong to go forward.

To Aburgius. This is the man about whom I spoke to you before through the deacon. Since, then, he has come with our letter, may he go away with what he wishes from you.

Without address, about virtuous men. So-and-so is already known to you, as the man's own accounts show. For on every occasion his tongue is full of you: in remembering the orthodox, in hospitality to ascetics, in every virtue the man puts you first. And if anyone mentions teachers, he cannot bear to put others before you; if champions of godliness, able to refute the plausibility of heresy, he would not choose to count anyone else before you, testifying that your virtue is invincible and unrivaled in everything. And he has no great trouble persuading when he says this. For he tells it to people who know more than what one might think he reports with exaggeration. This man, returning to you, asked for a letter, not in order to make himself your friend through us, but to do me a kindness, by giving me an occasion to address my beloved friends; may the Lord reward him for his good purpose. And do you give him, in return, what favor you can, by your prayers and by your good disposition toward all. Let us know how the affairs of the Churches are.

To the governor of Sebaste. I perceive that your honor gladly receives our letters, and I know the reason. For, being a lover of the good and ready for beneficence, since we on each occasion provide you with material enough to receive the generosity of your purpose, you run to our letters as containing occasions for good works. So here comes another occasion, one that can receive the marks of your dexterity in all things and at the same time brings with it a herald of your good deeds. For some men from Alexandria have set out, as was proper, for a necessary purpose, one owed in common by all human nature to the departed; they need your protection, so that you may order that the body of a kinsman of theirs, who ended his life at Sebaste at the time of the army's visit, be allowed by public order to be moved; and then that they be given what help is possible from the public post, so that they may find through your magnanimity some consolation for their long wandering. That this will pass even to great Alexandria, and will make the wonder of your honor known to those there, is plain to your understanding, even if I do not say it. And we shall number this favor too among the many we have already received.

Without address. Contentious natures often thrust away even good counsels, and judge good and useful not what seems so to all others, even if it is profitable, but what pleases themselves alone, even if it is harmful. The cause is folly and awkwardness of character, which does not attend to the counsels of others, but trusts only its own opinions and the reasonings that occur to it. And there occur to such people the thoughts in which they rejoice; and they rejoice in what they want. But he who thinks what he wants is profitable is not a safe judge of what is just, but is like the blind led by the blind. Hence he easily stumbles into losses, and has experience as the teacher of what is advantageous. This is what is now happening to the one who is engaged in dispute with the present man. For whereas he ought to have entrusted the judgment to common friends, having indeed often been judged before many who cared for justice and truth, he has now run to the rulers and to the judgment of the courts, and chooses to gain little at the price of losing much. For judgments before rulers do not bring even victory without loss. Be a helper, then, dear friend, above all to both the litigants (for it is a pious thing), preventing their access to the ruler and becoming their judge in his place. But if one of them will not obey and fights against the decision, assist the one who is wronged, and add your weight to the one who seeks to obtain his rights.

Without address, on protection. When your honor was present I spoke with the brothers about the people from the village of Capralis, and brought them to your gentleness, urging you, keeping before your eyes the recompense from the Lord, to protect them, as people poor and oppressed in every way. And now by letter I renew the same request, praying the holy God that your present distinction and the splendor of your life may be preserved and grow greater, so that from greater power you may do us more lavish kindnesses. For I think you are persuaded that our one prayer is the safety of your whole house.

Without address, on behalf of a needy man. I quite blamed this brother for being anxious about the registration of his house, since he has already obtained the necessary exemption from his poverty. For from an affluent life, the Lord so arranging it for the good of his soul, he has now been turned to extreme poverty, so that he barely has enough for his daily food, and is master of not a single slave, out of the many he formerly had in his possession. Only his body is left to him, and that weak and old, as you yourself see; and three children, an addition of cares for a poor man. That he needed no plea from us, since his poverty is enough to move you because of the humanity of your character, I knew exactly. But since those who make requests are hard to satisfy, I feared that something owed to him might be lacking, and I wrote, knowing that the day on which he first sees your dignity will be the beginning of a cheerful life for the time to come, and will bring some better change in his affairs.

Without address, on behalf of kinsmen. I myself was very eager to meet your … for many reasons: first, to enjoy the good things in you after a long interval; and then also to entreat you about the people of Ariarathia, to whom from of old … the Lord, granting them the oversight of your uprightness as a worthy consolation. There is also another matter: … of mine are very heavily burdened, and almost … of the poverty of Ariarathia; and I urge you, as far as your goodness allows, that the … be made bearable for the owners.

To a leading citizen. Those who do not attend to our assurances, but seek something special and exceptional above the rest, make our letters to your honor numerous. For we testified to them long ago that you would be so common and equal a guardian of the rights of us all that no one would seek more in the way of kindness, unless perhaps he went beyond bounds in insatiability. Nevertheless, to satisfy this man, we have given him the letter, commending him to you and urging you to look on him kindly, and, because his house has been … in public services, to deem him worthy of the consideration befitting him.

To a censitor. You know the losses and damages that come to people from the censuses. So pardon this man, who has taken great pains that no damage should remain, and be eager to help him as far as you can toward what is just.

To a censitor. It is not possible to see the dispensations of God from afar; but through pettiness of soul we men look at what is at our feet, and often, while being led to a good end, we are vexed, and the Master who orders all things in his wisdom bears with our ignorance. For you surely remember how vexed we were then at the burden laid upon you, and how we called upon our friends to drive away the abuse; for so we called the matter. But now you see what the present situation is. For God has given you an occasion to bring the nobility of your character into the light, and to leave grounds for good remembrance to all the life that follows. For as these assessments are, such naturally are the memories of them preserved by those who come after. That not even the Galatians, had they prayed for it, could have obtained a more humane character, I am exactly persuaded. And I can count blessed not only the Galatians for your administration, but myself as well. For I too have a house in Galatia, and a most splendid house, by God's grace; and if I obtain some help for it from you (and I shall obtain it, as long as friendship keeps its own strength), I shall give great thanks to God. If, then, my friendship has any weight with your honor, be persuaded for our sake to provide some acknowledged benefit to the house of the most admirable ruler Sulpicius: to take something off the present registration, preferably something considerable and worthy of your magnanimity, and, I will add, worthy of the plea of us who love you; but if not, then as much as the times allow and the nature of the matter admits; but in any case to reduce it, and not to leave it the same; so that through your dignity we may repay with this one favor the countless kindnesses we have received from that good ruler.

Without address, on behalf of a servant. And how could I overlook a fitting occasion for a letter, and not address your honor, when this man is going to you? He could indeed have told you our affairs by himself and filled the need of a letter; but he wished also to become the bearer of a letter, because he loves us greatly and is devoted to us with his whole soul. In every way he wishes both to bring back your words and to serve you. So we have given him this letter, through which, first, we pray for you all the good things that this life holds, and all that the blessedness stored up in the promises keeps; and then we ask the holy God to arrange a second meeting with you while we are still on earth. That for our sake you will multiply your love for the aforesaid brother, I do not doubt. So be persuaded to give him proof of it in deed.

Without address, on behalf of a kinswoman. Being fully persuaded that I shall not fail in anything I justly ask of your honor, I have gladly given this letter to this most decorous lady, who has charge of orphans and dwells in a house worse than some many-headed hydra. On top of all this, we are also related to one another by family. Therefore we urge your nobility, both honoring us and preserving the honor due to the grandfather of the orphans, to give her some help, so as to make their property bearable for them from now on. [Letter 316] Without address, on behalf of an oppressed man. Being fully persuaded that those who come to your goodness need no letters, because from the nobility of your character you do more than anyone could urge you to do for good by his exhortation, yet, because of my exceeding care for this son, I was led to write to your pure and guileless soul, commending the man to you and urging you, where it is possible, to give him what aid you can for his present business. That he will need no other patron, if you deign to use all the power the Lord has given you in protecting him, I know exactly. … this man, whom we also commend to you, and we ask that he receive some sense of the service of our letter.

Basil, without address, on behalf of a fellow countryman. The very claim of our homeland commends to you those who come from it, even though in the goodness of your character you bring under your care all who in any way need help. So receive this son, who is handing the letter to your decency, both as a fellow countryman, and as one who needs help, and as commended to you by us; and out of all these let this one thing be his: to obtain from you what help is possible for his business. It is clear that the recompense for good works comes not from us small people, but from the Lord, who rewards good purposes.

Likewise, on behalf of a stranger. On the heels of your departure there came to us this son who delivers this letter to you, needing, as a man living in a foreign land, all the comfort that Christians owe to strangers. He will tell you the matter more clearly himself; but you will provide the help, as far as you can and as his business requires. If the governor is present, you will clearly introduce him to him yourself; otherwise, you will obtain what he is eager for through the magistrates. For I care not a little that he return having accomplished everything according to his wish.

Without address, a salutation. It has been a long time before we could address your honor, because the man bringing back the replies spent a long time in our parts and met with rather difficult men and affairs. For he was away from his homeland a whole year. Led on by men's deceits and evasions, thinking that if he overcame the present villainy he would gain everything, he perceived the sum of his loss only late, his perception being stolen from him little by little by the deceit. Since, then, he is returning, freed from the troubles of the weather and the wickedness of men, we greet you through him, urging you to remember us in your prayers (for we need much help from prayers); and at the same time we inform you that those who were left liable by the blessed bishop for paying the debt (he mentioned in his will both the debt and from what source and by whom it should be paid) have disregarded friendly reminders and are waiting for compulsion from the courts. Therefore our friend has returned without success, and asked us to testify to these very things for him, so that he may not incur a charge of idleness or negligence with your honor. So much for this. As for how the affairs of the Churches are, whether they have been allowed to remain as they were, or have fallen into worse, or what hope they have of a change for the better, deign to let us know through one of the genuine brothers.

To Thecla. "The year that has ridden by," and so on.

Without address, inviting a friend to keep Easter together. When I received the letter of your honor I was pleased, as was natural, and gave thanks to the Lord, and I was eager to reply, if anyone had reminded me in good time about replies; for the matter you charged us with was taking time to be settled, and it was not possible to give any safe answer before its end. This is the cause of our silence; not idleness, nor ignorance of what is fitting. For even if we were idle in every other way, we would surely have taken pains to cover our faults before your honor. But it is not possible for us to forget you even for a moment (sooner would one be ignorant of oneself); but whether we write or not, we carry you about settled in our hearts, and we are so distressed at our long separation during the winter that we pray, if it is not possible for you, because of the occupations we hear of, to leave the country people, that some occasion may arise for us to visit those places and enjoy the true steadiness and decency of your character. Above all you will be eager to keep the saving day of Easter with us, with your most decorous wife, whom we greet through you, and whom we urge to join us in hastening you to us.

To Philagrius Arcenus. Thanks be to the holy God; I would almost say that thanks are due to those who wronged you, because they became an occasion for a letter to me. But the Lord who benefits us on every side knows how often to fulfill his consolations even through grievous things. Hence he has made even the rashness of those who ran away from you an occasion of gladness for us. May you write to us on every pretext, writing such things, from so kind a mind and from so pure a tongue. For even if we say that we do not affect delight in style, yet somehow we are naturally charmed by it, and you, graceful in speech, lead us as those do who lead bees by striking cymbals. So send many letters, and as long as possible; for brevity is no more the virtue of a letter than of a man. Write to us about your household, how it is, and how you yourself are in bodily health; and whether the affairs of the Churches are at peace; for you care for these too, as is right. And if you have any power to help toward peace and the union of those who are divided, do not refuse. The good Cyriacus first took up the matter, and then gave us your letter; for what remained of the business he had us as helpers, as far as we could. For we wrote to the chorepiscopus of those parts; and if he does any of what he was charged with, the facts themselves will make it known.

To Pasinicus the physician. It is a proof that you are not indifferent toward us that you address us at once, from the very doors of your arrival, so to speak. To read a friendly letter is in itself worth eagerness; but when it is also written about matters of importance, it becomes worth much more. Know well, then, that the excellent Patricius carries on his lips such drugs of persuasion that, not only because you wrote, but even if he got hold of some Sarmatian or Scythian, he would easily persuade him of whatever he wished. Yet his words of good cheer do not come from the heart. For this pose has long been practiced: to be good-natured as far as the voice goes, and simple, of course, and ready to entrust one's affairs to any court; but when they come to the business itself, may you not be there! But let this be said to you by me, so that you may know something, and, though you are not otherwise easily led astray, may be persuaded of yourself not to attend to the fair appearance of words, but to wait for the proofs that come from the facts.

To Magninianus. The letter of your dignity alone was enough to produce every joy in us. But now the most decorous of women, Icelium, our common daughter, by delivering the letter, has more than doubled our joy; not only by being a living image of your nobility, but also by showing in herself all your care. So we first received her gladly for your sake, and afterward, turning about, counted you blessed for her sake, because such a reward for the rearing of children awaits you from the Master. But may we some day see you yourself too and enjoy your good things, with neither illness nor any other difficulty hindering our meeting.

Without address, monitory. The holy God has given us a most fitting occasion for a letter by making this brother known to us; and on his return to your honor we have used him as the bearer of this written conversation of ours, praying God that you may advance to greater distinction and glory and adorn both us and the whole homeland with your own virtue. And we urge you throughout your life to remember God who created you and honored you, so that, besides the splendor of this life, you may also be deemed worthy of heavenly glory, for whose sake we must do everything, we who direct our life toward the blessed hope.

Without address, hortatory. For the honor you showed us when we were present, and for deigning to remember us when absent (for the report reached us), may you receive recompense from the good Master; and may we see you approved for good works in the great day of the righteous judgment of our God; so that, as you have been deemed worthy of distinction here, so you may enjoy dignity with the heavenly King. We urge you, first of all, to show lasting zeal for the Church of God; and then to increase your kindness toward us, deeming us worthy of all remembrance and protection, and to honor us with letters too, so that, having proof that you are not burdened by our writing, we may make bold to write more often to your magnanimity.

To Hyperechius. I both greet your honor and pray for good things for you; and I inform you, since you are surely eager to know our affairs, that I am faring no better than usual. For I spare you the more ill-omened words, so as not to grieve too much one who prays with us for what is best.

To Phalerius. I was very much pleased with the river fish, though I bore them a grudge for their flight, when they fled away … in the cold. … Your letters are more precious to us than … But if silence is sweeter to you, … but do not cease praying for us.

Without address. That I love you, learn from my writing to you; that you … me, learn from your silence. But write, even with … and ink and a little piece of paper, loving those who love you.

Without address. It is vain to write twice about the same matters. For either the matter by its nature cannot be set right, and those who come to us trouble us in vain, or those who receive our letters disregard us; and so we act foolishly in writing to people who despise us. But since you have already received a letter about the …, we were compelled to write a second time. Set it right, if it is in your power; or let us know the reason why what was ordered has not been done.

To a calligrapher. Write straight, and keep your lines straight; and let your hand neither float up into the heights nor be carried down the cliffs. Do not force the pen to go sideways, like the crab in Aesop; but go straight ahead, as though walking along the carpenter's rule, which keeps everything even and removes every irregularity. For what is slanting is unbecoming, but what is straight is pleasant to those who see it, not making the eyes of the readers nod up and down like swing-beams; which is what happened to me when I read your writing. For since the lines lay ladderwise, when I had to pass from one to another, I had to straighten myself up toward the end of the next; and since the sequence appeared nowhere, I had to run back again and look for the order, retracing my steps and following the furrow, as they say Theseus followed Ariadne's thread. So write straight, and do not lead our mind astray by the sidelong slant of what you write.

Basil to Libanius. I am ashamed to send you the Cappadocians one by one, instead of persuading all who are of age to lay claim to letters and education and to use you as their teacher in the training. But since it is not possible to get hold of all of them at once, as they choose what suits themselves, I send you those who are persuaded from time to time, doing them as great a favor as those who lead the thirsty to the springs. The one who now comes to you will shortly be valued for his own sake, once he has been with you. For now he is known through his father, who has gained a great name among us for uprightness of life and civic authority, and who is joined to me in the closest friendship. In repaying him, I give his son this favor, making him known to you: a thing worthy of the highest prayer for those who know how to judge a man's virtue.

Libanius to Basil. 1. After some time a young Cappadocian has come to us. That is one gain, that he is a Cappadocian. But this Cappadocian is also of the first rank: a second gain. And he brings us a letter from the admirable Basil: and what could one call greater than this? For I, whom you think to have forgotten you, respected you long ago when you were young, seeing you vie with the old in self-restraint, and that in that city which teems with pleasures, and already in possession of a great share of learning. And when you thought you ought to see Athens too, and persuaded Celsus to go, I rejoiced with Celsus, who was so attached to your soul. And when you had returned and were living in your homeland, I said to myself: What is Basil doing now, and to what life has he set out? Is he turning to the law courts, emulating the ancient orators? Or is he making orators of the sons of fortunate fathers? But when some came reporting that you were going by far better roads than these, and considering how you might become more a friend of God rather than how you might collect gold, I counted both you and the Cappadocians blessed: you, for wishing to be such a man; them, for being able to show such a citizen. 2. That Firmus has continually won everywhere I know well; for from here comes his power of speech. But though he has enjoyed many praises, I do not know that he ever received such as I have now heard in your letter. For that you should be the one who says that no one could surpass his fame, how great a thing must one think that? You seem to me to have sent these young men before seeing Firminus; for otherwise the letter would surely have mentioned him. And what is Firminus doing now, or intending to do? Is he still in the longings of marriage, or are these long since over, while the council is heavy on him and it is quite necessary to stay? Or what hopes are there that he will again share in our studies? Let him answer us something; and may it be good. But even if it grieves us, at least it will free us from watching the gates for him. And if Firminus were now at Athens, what would your councillors have done? Would they have sent the Salaminia after him? You see that it is only by your fellow citizens that I am wronged. Yet I shall not cease to love and praise the Cappadocians; I pray that they may become better toward me, but if they remain as they are, I shall bear it. Firminus was with us four months, and was not idle a single day. How much he has gathered you yourself will know, and perhaps you will not find fault. And to enable him to come here again, what ally must I call in besides? For if your councillors are sensible (as befits educated men), they will honor me in the second case, since they grieved me in the first. [Letter 338] … "In beauty of letters," I said, "I have been defeated; Basil has won. But the man is dear to me, and so I am glad." When I said this, they wanted to learn the victory from the letter itself. Alypius read it, and those present listened. The vote was given that I had not been deceived at all. And the reader went out holding the letter, to show it, I suppose, to others too, and returned it with difficulty. So write similar letters, and win; for this is for me to win. You also judge rightly that our services are not measured by money; it is enough for one who cannot give that he wishes to receive. For if I perceive anyone in poverty who loves learning, he comes before the rich. And yet such were not the teachers we experienced; but nothing will prevent us from being better than they in this respect at least. So let no poor man hesitate to come here, if he possesses that one thing only, knowing how to work hard.

Basil to Libanius. What could a sophist not say, and such a sophist, whose art is admitted to have this peculiar power, to make great things small when he wishes, and to clothe small things with greatness? Which is just what you have shown in our case. For that grubby letter of mine, as you who live in the luxury of eloquence would call it, in no way more tolerable than this one now in your hands, you have so exalted in your speech as to be, forsooth, defeated by it, and to yield me the first prize in writing; doing like fathers in their games with their children, when they let the children pride themselves on victories that they themselves give up, neither losing anything themselves and nourishing their children's ambition. Truly your speech must have held indescribable delight in its play with us; as though some Polydamas or Milo were declining a contest in the pancration or wrestling with me myself. For after looking round a great deal, I have found no example of weakness to match; so that those who look for extravagance in speech admire your power more in this, that you could so stoop to play with us, than if you had led the barbarian sailing over Athos. But we, admirable friend, spend our time with Moses and Elijah and such blessed men, who tell us their thoughts in a barbarous tongue, and we utter what we have from them, true in sense but unlearned in diction, as these very words show. For if we did learn anything from you, we have forgotten it with time. But do you write to us, taking up other subjects for letters, which will both show you off and not expose us. I have already introduced the son of Anysius to you as my own son. And if he is my son, the child is his father's: poor, from a poor man. What is meant is well known to a man who is both wise and a sophist.

Libanius to Basil. If you had considered for a very long time how best to reply to my letter about your letter, you could not, I think, have done it better than by writing such things as you have now written. For you call me a sophist; and you say it is characteristic of such a man to be able to make small things great and great things small. And you say that my letter aimed to show that your letter was good, when it was not good, and that it was no better than the one you have now sent; and in short that you have no power of speech, the books now in your hands not producing it, and the eloquence you had before having flowed away. And in trying to persuade me of this you have made this letter too, which you call bad, so fine that those who were with us could not keep from leaping up as it was read. I was surprised, then, that in trying to pull down the former letter with this one, by saying that the former resembled this one, you have adorned the former by this one. If you wished this, you ought to have made this one worse, to slander the former. But it was not like you, I think, to do injustice to the truth. And it would have been wronged, if you had written worse on purpose and not used the powers you have. It would be like you, then, neither to blame what is right to praise, lest the business carry you off among the sophists, as you try to make great things lowly. Keep, then, to the books which you say are worse in diction but better in thought; no one prevents you. But the roots of our studies, which are ever ours and once were yours, remain and will remain as long as you live; and no length of time could ever cut them out, even if you water them very little. [Letter 341] … to tremble as I write. But if you have let go your anger, why do you not write, excellent friend? And if you still hold it, which is foreign to a rational soul and to yours, why, while preaching to others that one must not keep anger until the sun sets, have you kept it yourself through many suns? Or perhaps you have chosen to punish me by depriving me of your voice? Do not, excellent friend; be gentle, and let me enjoy your all-golden tongue.

Basil to Libanius. Those who are fond of the rose, as is natural for lovers of the beautiful, are not vexed even at the thorns out of which the flower grows. And I heard someone say something of this kind about them, perhaps in jest, or perhaps in earnest: that nature grew those slender thorns on the flower like love's pricks for lovers, provoking those who pluck it to greater longing by the well-aimed stings. Why do I bring the rose into my letter? You surely need no teaching, if you remember your own letter, which had the bloom of the rose and opened out the whole spring to us by its fair speech, but was set with thorns of certain complaints and charges against us. But to me even the thorn of your words is a pleasure, kindling me to greater longing for your friendship.

Libanius to Basil. If these come from a sluggish tongue, what would you be if you sharpened it? For on your lips dwell fountains better than the flow of streams; but we, unless we are watered every day, fall silent.

Basil to Libanius. That I do not write constantly to your learning, timidity and ignorance persuade me; but your enduring silence so steadfastly, what will free it from blame? If anyone considers that you, who live among words, are slow to write, he will condemn you for forgetting us. For one to whom speaking is ready is not unprepared for writing. And one who possesses these and then keeps silent clearly does so out of contempt or forgetfulness. But I will repay your silence with a greeting. Farewell, then, most honored friend; and write if you wish, and do not write, if that is dearer to you.

Libanius to Basil. I think I need a defense rather for not having begun to write to you long ago than an excuse now for having begun to do so. For I am that man who used to run up whenever you appeared, and most gladly lent my ears to the stream of your tongue, delighting in you as you spoke, and tearing myself away with difficulty, and saying to my friends: "This man is so much better than the daughters of Achelous, in that he charms as they did, but does not harm as they did." And not harming is a small thing; but this man's songs are a gain to the one who receives them. That I, then, who have this opinion, and think that I am loved, and seem to be able to speak, should not dare to write, would be a mark of extreme idleness, and at the same time of one who punishes himself. For it is clear that you will repay my small and poor letter with a fine and great one, and will surely take care not to wrong me a second time. For I think many will cry out at the word and crowd round the matter, shouting: "Has Basil done any wrong, even a small one? Then so have Aeacus and Minos and his brother too." I grant that you have won in everything else; who, seeing you, does not envy you? But if I remind you of one thing in which you have sinned against us, persuade those who are indignant not to shout. No one who came to you and asked a favor that was very easy to give went away unsuccessful. Yet I am one of those who asked a favor but did not receive it. What, then, did I ask? Often, when I was with you in the camp, I wished to enter, through your wisdom, into the depth of Homer's frenzy. "If the whole is not possible," I said, "at least bring us into some part of the inheritance." And I desired the part in which, when the Greeks had fared badly, Agamemnon courted with gifts the man he had insulted. When I said this, you laughed, unable to deny that you could if you wished, but unwilling to give. Do I seem to you and to those who are indignant to be wronged, because I said that you were wronging me? … [Letter 346] Libanius to Basil. Whether we have added anything in learning to the young men, you yourself will judge. But I hope that this, even if it is small, will gain the reputation of something great, because of your friendship toward us. But what you praise above learning, self-control and not giving over their souls to dishonorable pleasures, they have taken great care of, and have lived, as was fitting, mindful of the one who sent them. So receive what is your own, and praise those who have adorned both you and me. To urge you to help them would be like urging a father to help his children. [Letter 348] … the old man to leap and frisk? But to you, who pride yourself so on your declamations, I have ordered rafters to be supplied equal in number to the soldiers who fought at Thermopylae, all of good length and, as your Homer says, "long-shadowing," which the holy Alphaeus has promised to restore.

Libanius to Basil. Will you not stop, Basil, filling this sacred precinct of the Muses with Cappadocians, and these smelling of frost and snow and all the good things of that place? They have almost made me a Cappadocian too, always chanting to me their "I salute you." But I must bear it, since Basil commands. Know, then, that I am studying exactly the manners of the country, but I will clothe the men in the nobility and harmony of my Calliope, so that they may appear to you doves instead of wood pigeons.

Basil to Libanius. Your ill humor is over; let this be the opening of my letter. But go on mocking and pulling our affairs to pieces, whether laughing or in earnest. Why did you mention snow or frost, when you might revel in jokes at our expense? And I, Libanius, to raise a broad laugh in you, have written this letter covered with a curtain of snow; and when you receive it and touch it with your hands, you will know how cold it is, and how it portrays its sender, burrowed in and unable to peep out of his rooms. For we have our houses as tombs, until spring takes over and brings us back to life from being dead, granting us existence again, as to plants.

Basil to Libanius. Many people from your parts who have met us have admired your excellence in speaking. For they said that there was a very great contest, as they put it, so that everyone ran together and no one else was to be seen in the city but Libanius alone contending, and every age listening. For no one thought fit to stay away from the contests, neither one who held the dignity of rank, nor one distinguished in the military rolls, nor one occupied in the mechanical arts. Even women were hurrying to be present at the contests. What, then, was the contest? What was the speech that gathered this festival of the whole people? And they told me that the speech portrayed the character of a peevish man. Do not hesitate to send me what was so admired, so that I too may become a praiser of your words. For if I praise Libanius even apart from his works, what shall I become now that I have found a subject for praise?

Libanius to Basil. See, I have sent the speech, streaming with sweat. How could I not, when sending my speech to such a man, who by his learning in speech is able to show that the wisdom of Plato and the eloquence of Demosthenes are talked of in vain? Mine is like a gnat jumping beside an elephant. So I shudder and tremble, reckoning up the day on which you will examine the speech; and I have almost lost my wits.

Basil to Libanius. I have read the speech, most wise friend, and admired it exceedingly. O Muses and letters and Athens, what you give your lovers! What fruits they gather who spend even a short time with you! O fountain of copious stream, how great you have shown those who draw from you! For I thought I saw the man himself in the speech, living with a chattering wife. Libanius has written a living speech on the earth, he who alone has given a soul to words.

Libanius to Basil. Now I know that I am what I am said to be; for since Basil has praised me, I hold the prize of victory over all. And having received your vote, I may walk with a proud gait, like some braggart despising everyone. Since, then, a speech against drunkenness has been composed by you too, we wish to come upon it. But I do not wish to say anything clever; the speech, once seen, will teach me the art of speaking.

Libanius to Basil. Are you living at Athens, Basil, and have you forgotten yourself? For the children of the Caesareans could not bear to hear these things. My tongue was not used to them; but, as though traveling along a cliff, struck by the novelty of the words, it said to me, its father: "Father, you did not teach me this: Homer, this man; but Plato, but Aristotle, but Susarion, who knows everything." So much for the tongue. But may you, Basil, praise us in this way. [Letter 356] Basil to Libanius. When we receive what you write, it is a joy; when we are asked to write back to what you write, it is a contest. For what could we say to so Attic a tongue, except that I am a disciple of fishermen, I confess it, and I love it? [Letter 357] Libanius to Basil. What has happened to Basil, that he took offence at the letter, the token of philosophy? We were taught to jest by you; yet your jests are dignified, and, as it were, befitting grey hair. But by friendship itself and our common studies, free me from the dejection that your letter has produced in me … differing in nothing. [Letter 358] Libanius to Basil. O those times in which we were all in all to one another! Now we are bitterly separated: you having one another, I having no one in your place like you. I hear that Alcimus is daring the deeds of the young in his old age, and flying off to Rome, laying on you the labor of being with the boys. But you, gentle as you are in other things, will bear this too without difficulty, since you were not displeased with us either about writing first … [Letter 359] Basil to Libanius. You, who have shut up the whole art of the ancients in your own mind, are so silent that you do not give us any gain even in letters. If the teacher's art had been safe, I would have come to you, making myself a wing like Icarus. But since one cannot trust wax to the sun, instead of the wings of Icarus I send you words, showing our friendship. The nature of words is to reveal the loves of the soul. So much for words. You lead them wherever you wish; and, possessing so great a power, you keep silent. But turn toward us too the springs of words that flow from your mouth.

From his letter to Julian the Apostate. According to the blameless faith of the Christians allotted to us by God, I confess and agree that I believe in one God, the Father Almighty: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit; one God, the three, I worship and glorify. I confess also the dispensation of the Son in the flesh, and holy Mary, who bore him according to the flesh, as Theotokos. I receive also the holy apostles, prophets, and martyrs, and I call upon them for supplication to God, so that through them, that is, through their mediation, the God who loves humankind may be propitious to me, and a ransom for my faults may be granted me. Hence I also honor and venerate the features of their images, especially since these have been handed down from the holy apostles, and are not forbidden, but are depicted in all our churches.

To Apollinarius. To my most venerable master Apollinarius, Basil. Formerly we wrote to you about obscure passages in the Scriptures, and we were delighted both with what you sent and with what you promised. But now a greater anxiety about greater matters has come upon us, for which we have no one else among men today to call upon as so great a partner and protector as God has given us in you, exact and at the same time approachable both in knowledge and in speech. Since, then, those who throw everything into confusion and have filled the world with arguments and questions have cast out the word "essence" as foreign to the divine oracles, deign to show us how the fathers used it, and whether you have found it nowhere set down in Scripture. For they spit at the "daily bread" and the "peculiar people" and anything of the kind as having nothing in common with it. Then also about the homoousios itself (for whose sake I think they contrive these things, slandering "essence" deeply so as to leave no room for the homoousios), be willing to discuss more broadly for us what meaning it has, and how it could soundly be said of things in which neither a common genus is seen above them, nor a material substrate existing before them, nor a division of the first into the second. How, then, one should call the Son homoousios with the Father without falling into any of the notions mentioned, be willing to set out for us more fully. For we have supposed that whatever the essence of the Father is taken to be, by hypothesis, this the essence of the Son must also necessarily be taken to be. So that if someone were to call the essence of the Father intelligible light, eternal, unbegotten, he will call the essence of the Only-begotten also intelligible light, eternal, begotten. And for such a notion the expression "invariably like" seems to me to fit better than "homoousios." For light that has no difference from light in degree, more or less, I think may rightly be said to be not the same (since each is in its own circumscription of essence), but like in essence, exactly and invariably. Whether, then, these notions should be discussed, or other greater ones taken up instead, as a wise physician (for we have laid bare to you what is in our heart), heal what is sick and support what is unsound; in every way confirm us. I greet the brothers who are with your reverence, and I ask you to pray with them for us, that we may be saved. My friend Gregory, having chosen life with his parents, is with them. In health may you be kept for us as long as possible, benefiting us both by your prayers and by your knowledge.

Apollinarius to Basil. You believe as a lover of God and inquire as a lover of learning; and eagerness is owed by us out of love, even if adequacy of argument does not follow, both because of our deficiency and because of the transcendence of the matter. "One essence" is said not only of what is one in number, as you say, and of what is in one circumscription, but also, properly, of two men and of any other things unified by genus; so that in this way two or more are the same in essence, just as all of us men are Adam, being one, and the son of David is David, as being the same as he; just as you rightly say that the Son is in essence what the Father is. For otherwise the Son would not be God, since the Father is confessed to be the one and only God; as there is one Adam, the founder of the race of men, and one David, the founder of the royal race. In this way too the suspicion that there is one genus lying above, or one matter lying beneath, in the case of the Father and the Son will be removed, when we take the property of founder of a race as belonging to the highest principle, and compare the races that come from their founders with the only-begotten offspring from the one principle; for such things come into likeness only in a measure. For neither does one genus lie above Adam, as formed by God, and us, as born of men; but he himself is the principle of men; nor is there a matter common to him and us, but he himself is the foundation of all men. Nor is anything conceived before David and the race from David, insofar as he is David; since the property of David begins from David, and he himself is the foundation of all who come from him. But since these comparisons fall short, inasmuch as there are other things all men have in common with one another, such as belong to brothers, while with the Father and the Son there is nothing of the kind, but the Father is wholly principle and the Son is from the principle; so neither is there a division of the first into the second, as with bodies, but a begetting. For it is not that the property of the Father has been, as it were, divided off into the Son, but that the property of the Son has appeared from that of the Father: the same in otherness, and other in sameness; according as the Father is said to be in the Son and the Son in the Father. For neither will otherness alone preserve the truth of the sonship, nor sameness alone the indivisibility of the hypostasis; but each is interwoven and of one form: the same in another way, and other in the same way … the Lord confirming the notion for us, by presenting the Father in a greater equality, and the Son as having equality in subordination; which he taught us to understand by conceiving the Son in a light of the same form but lessened, not altering the essence, but beholding the same in excess and in lessening. For those who accept the essence in no sameness bring in likeness from outside and attach it to the Son; which indeed extends even to men, who are likened to God. But those who know that likeness befits things made join the Son to the Father in sameness, but a lessened sameness; so that he is neither the Father himself nor a part of the Father, but … another, the Son; thus God, not as he is, but as from him; not the archetype, but the image. This one is homoousios exceptionally above all and peculiarly: not as things of the same genus, not as things divided, but as the one and only offspring from the one genus and form of the Godhead, by an indivisible and incorporeal procession, according to which alone the begetter, in its begetting property, went forth into the begotten property.

To Apollinarius. To my master, my most venerable brother Apollinarius, Basil. We have missed the occasions by which we could have addressed your reverence, although we would gladly have written about that letter of yours. For we perceived that you kept your pleasure at it in silence. For truly you seemed to us "alone to have understanding, while the shadows of the interpreters flit about," so securely do you lead the explanation of the meaning. And now the love of the knowledge of the divine oracles grips my soul still more. I hesitate to put any of my difficulties to you, lest I seem to take my fill beyond the measure of freedom of speech. But again I cannot bear to keep silent, being in travail and longing to learn still more. So it seemed best to me to ask you whether you permit us, admirable friend, to ask about any of our difficulties, or whether I must keep quiet. Whichever you answer, we shall keep to from now on. May we have you always in health and good spirits, praying for us.

[Apollinarius to Basil.] … And a repetition of the same things with explanation was necessary, because of the unsound misinterpretation of what had been laid down, which was introduced by those who formerly contradicted openly but have now contrived their contradiction under the guise of interpretation. There was the knavish removal of the homoousios, on the ground that it ought not to be understood … ; and, in place of the homoousios, the substitution of "like in essence," which was contrived, crudely named and maliciously understood; since likeness of things in essence belongs to … , so that an essence thus likened is understood as essence, as a statue might be to a king. In reply to this it was written by those who know how to be godly and wish to be, that the homoousios signifies not one like God but God, as a genuine offspring and of the same essence as the one who begot him. There was also brought in the matter of the Spirit, as placed by the Fathers in the same faith with God and the Son: that he is in the same Godhead. To whom, then, was it fitting that the advocacy of this godliness should belong so much as to the most earnest, I think, my master Gregory, who himself writes from nowhere and indicates nothing at all? Farewell, most longed-for master.

Basil to the great emperor Theodosius. A calamity has befallen our country, not from any bodily misfortune, but from an inflow of waters. Where it came from, I will explain. There was a great fall of snow on our lake. Before it had frozen, a warm wind arose, and a southerly rain fell upon it. As the thaw came suddenly, streams beyond reckoning were set in motion and mingled with the ever-flowing river Halys, which runs all year round, beyond what tongue or eye can describe. This river, our allotted neighbor, gushes forth from the land of the Armenians and flows out into the most holy lake of the Sebastenes, in which the forty noble soldiers of Christ, true to their name, were frozen when a terrible north wind blew. And from there (believe me, most mighty one, for I speak the truth) this river, encircling us like a hostile nation, terrifies us not a little. For, never to be crossed at any time or in any way, it does not allow the regions that are necessary and profitable to us to convey their merchandise and supplies: I mean the regions of the Galatians, the Paphlagonians, and the Helenopontines, through whom and from whom our necessities come to us, above all an abundance of bread; since the land round about is frosty, and is bound by the surrounding air with a wrath of lightning, thunder, hail, and floods that tames all. And the neglect of our ancestral Argaeus threatens no small harm. Be moved, then, most mighty one, and be willing to show your generosity to the land that pays you tribute, so that, fitting it with a bridge for an abundant crossing, you may show it a new Red Sea that can be traveled. For the Lord, having compassion on the much-lamenting life of the Jews, was pleased that they should walk with dry feet in the Red Sea, as on dry land, giving them Moses as their leader. Great, then, is the river's onslaught upon us; it has become destruction to men; and when it rises like a sea upstream, and presses upon all the green land, and the plowland is covered with mud, the plowing ox must starve, and all the beasts of burden in the land round about. If it were a man doing us wrong, we would not cease to use the courts. But against the greatest of rivers, which does not obey laws, what could one apply? So we must pray to you, most mighty one, who can in one moment check the danger of travelers … [Letter 366] [To Urbicius the monk, on continence.] … heals all that is mortal, having as its body, as it were, the Spirit of God; and it makes one mingle with God, having neither jealousy nor envy. For he who loves a body is envious of another; but he who has not taken the disease of corruption into his heart is strong from then on in every labor, though dead in body, living in incorruption. And to me, as I learn it thoroughly, God seems to be continence, because he desires nothing, but has all things in himself; and he reaches after nothing, and has no passion connected with the eyes or the ears; but, being in want of nothing, he is full through and through. Desire is a disease of the soul; but continence is its health. And one must see continence not in one kind only, as in sexual pleasures, but also in the other things that the soul desires wrongly, not content with what is necessary: envy arises because of gold, and countless wrongs because of other desires. And not to be drunk is continence, and not to burst from overfilling oneself. And to master the body is continence, and to rule over evil thoughts. How often has a thought that is neither good nor true troubled the soul, and divided the heart to care for many things in vain? Continence sets free altogether, being at once healing and power; for it does not teach temperance, but provides it. Continence is a grace of God. Jesus appeared as continence, becoming light upon land and sea. For neither did the earth bear him, nor the seas; but as he walked on the sea, so he did not weigh down the earth. For if dying comes from being corrupted, and not dying from having no corruption, Jesus worked divinity, not mortality. He ate and drank in a peculiar way, not giving back the food; so great a power of continence was in him that the food was not corrupted in him, since he himself had no corruption. If there is even a little continence in us, we are above all things. For we have heard that angels too became incontinent and were drawn down from heaven through desire. For they were caught, not came down; for what would this disease have been doing there, if such an eye had been there? Therefore I said: if we have a little continence, and do not love this life, but the higher ages, we shall be found there where we send up our mind. For this seems to be the eye that is able to see the invisible. For it is said: "Mind sees, and mind hears." These things, though they seem few to you, I have written as many; for each word is a thought; and I know that you will perceive it when you read.