Epistula ad monachos

By the same author, to those everywhere who practice the solitary life in each place and are established in faith in God, sanctified in Christ, and who say, "Behold, we have left everything and followed you," beloved and most longed-for brothers in the Lord, very many greetings. Persuaded by your disposition and often urged by you, I wrote briefly about what we and the church have suffered, and as far as I was able, refuting the abominable heresy of the Ariomanites and showing how alien it is to the truth. But what I experienced while writing, I considered it necessary to disclose to your piety, so that from this you may learn how truly the blessed apostle said, "O the depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God," and so that you may also forgive me, a man weak by nature. For as much as I wished to write and forced myself to think about the divinity of the Word, so much did knowledge recede far from me, and I recognized myself as falling short to the same degree that I seemed to grasp it. For indeed, I could not even write what I seemed to think, but what I wrote was less than even a brief shadow of the truth that had occurred in my mind. Therefore, seeing that as it is written in Ecclesiastes, "I said, I will become wise, and it was far from me, farther than it was, and a deep depth; who will find it?" and in the Psalms, "Your knowledge has been made wonderful from me, it has been strengthened, I cannot approach it," and Solomon says, "The glory of God hides the word," I often resolved to stop and cease writing; yes, believe me.

Lest I should seem either to grieve you or to wear down those among you who have sought and contended, driving them into impiety by my silence, I forced myself to write a few things and sent them to your piety. For even if, as is the apprehension of truth, it is now far from us because of the weakness of the flesh, yet it is possible, as the Preacher himself said, "to know the folly of the impious and, having found it, to declare it more bitter than death." For this reason, therefore, knowing this and being able to find it, I wrote, knowing that for the faithful the condemnation of impiety is sufficient knowledge for piety. For even if it is not possible to comprehend what God is, yet it is possible to say what He is not. We know that He is not like a human being and that it is not lawful to conceive anything of created things in Him. So also concerning the Son of God, even if we are far by nature from comprehending, yet it is possible and easy to condemn what is put forward by the heretics and to say that these things are not the Son of God, nor is it lawful to conceive such things about His divinity as those men say, let alone to utter them with the lips. Thus, then, as far as I was able, I wrote; and you, beloved, receive these things not as having a complete interpretation concerning the divinity of the Word, but as only refuting the impiety of the Christ-fighters, and as having and giving to those who wish an occasion for piety of the sound faith in Christ.

If anything has been omitted (and I think everything has been omitted), forgive me with a clear conscience and accept only the boldness of the intention toward piety. For the judgment concerning the death of Arius, which occurred by the Lord, is sufficient for the complete condemnation of the heresy of the Arians, a judgment which you have already learned of, having arrived at it and from others. "For what the holy God has resolved, who will scatter?" And whom the Lord has condemned, who will justify? For who, from such a sign having occurred, does not henceforth know that the heresy is hateful to God, even if it has human protectors? Having read this, pray and urge one another to do this on our behalf, and immediately send these things back to us. And give out no copy at all to anyone, nor transcribe them for yourselves, but be satisfied, like trustworthy bankers, with the reading, even if you wish to read it many times. For it is not safe for those after these things, the letters from us who are stammering and unlearned. Greet one another in love and all who come to you in piety and faith. "For if anyone," as the apostle said, "does not love the Lord, let him be anathema. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.