Epistulae

If we are then ordered to depart, let us see you there with the Lord, you flourishing like a vine in good works, and you as a wise farmer and good servant, distributing the grain ration to your fellow servants in due season, receiving the reward of a faithful and prudent steward. All those with us greet your reverence. May you be strong and cheerful in the Lord, and may you be preserved, prospering in the gifts of the Spirit and of wisdom. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata. This seems to me both to produce hesitation in writing and again to show it necessary. For when I look to the duty of my own presence and consider the benefit of meeting, I am strongly inclined to disregard letters as unable to fulfill even the shadow of reality. But when I consider again that the only consolation for having missed the greatest and primary things is to address so great a man and to entreat the usual things, so that you do not forget us in your prayers, it seems to me no small matter to judge the letters. I therefore wish neither to cast out the hope of your presence from my own soul nor to have your piety despair of it. For I would be ashamed if I did not appear so confident in your prayers as to become young from old, if there were need of this, not to mention somewhat stronger from weak and from utterly failing, as I now am. But the reasons for not being present already are not easy to state in words, not only because I am hindered by my present weakness, but also because I have never had such power of speech as to clearly describe so manifold and varied a disease.

Yet from the day of Pascha until now, fevers, diarrheas, and upheavals of the bowels, like waves submerging me, do not allow me to rise above. What the present circumstances are and of what sort, brother Barachus could tell, if not worthily of the truth, yet enough to bear witness to the cause of the matter. And I am fully persuaded that if you would genuinely join in prayer with us, all our difficulties would be easily resolved. To Jovinus the Count: I have seen your soul in your letters. For truly no painter could so accurately capture the form of the body as speech can depict the hidden things of the soul. For then the stability of your character, the truth of your honor, and the timeliness of your judgment in all things were sufficiently characterized for us by the speech in your letters; whence it provided us great consolation for your absence. Do not, therefore, cease to use every occasion that presents itself for writing and granting us this long-distance conversation, since for the future the weakness of my body causes us to despair of face-to-face conversation. How great this weakness is, the most God-beloved bishop Amphilochius will tell you, who both has known it from having been with us for a longer time and is able to present in speech what he has seen. I wish my own difficulties to be known, not for any other reason than for your future forbearance, so that you may not condemn me for negligence if I should fail in visiting you. Yet indeed, what is needed for this loss is not so much an apology as consolation. For if it were possible to be with your reverence, I would consider this far more honorable to myself than the things pursued by others.

To the Bishop of Thessalonica, Ascolius. With what joy the letter of your holiness filled us, we could not easily indicate, our speech being too weak for the task, but you yourself ought to infer it from yourself, judging by the beauty of what you wrote. For what did the letter not contain? Did it not contain love for the Lord? Did it not contain wonder at the martyrs, so vividly depicting the manner of their nature as to bring the events before our eyes? Did it not contain honor and affection toward us? Did it not contain whatever one might mention of the finest things? So that when we received the letter into our hands and read it many times and perceived the grace of the Spirit welling up in it, we thought ourselves to have been set in the ancient times, when the Churches of God flourished, rooted in faith, united in love, as if in one body of a single breath of different members existing; when the persecutors were manifest, the peoples under attack became more numerous, and the blood

from the martyrs watering the Churches, it nurtured more numerous champions of piety, the successors emulating the zeal of those who had gone before. At that time we Christians kept peace with one another, that peace which the Lord left us, of which now not even a trace remains to us, so harshly have we driven it away from each other. But still, that our souls have returned to that ancient blessedness, since letters came from a distant land, blooming with the beauty of love, and a martyr visited us from the barbarians beyond the Ister, proclaiming through himself the precision of the faith practiced there. Who could describe the joy of our souls at these things? What power of speech could be devised that could clearly declare the disposition in the secret of our hearts? When, indeed, we saw the athlete, we blessed his trainer, who will himself receive the crown of justice from the righteous Judge, having strengthened many for the contest on behalf of piety. And since you brought to our memory the blessed man Eutychius and honored our fatherland as providing the very seeds of piety, you gladdened us with the recollection of ancient times, but grieved us with the reproach of what is seen. For none of us is like Eutychius in virtue, we who are so far from taming barbarians by the power of the Spirit and the energy of his gifts that even those who are gentle have been made savage by the excess of our sins.

We attribute the cause of the heretics' dominion having spread so far to ourselves and to our own sins. For almost no part of the inhabited world has escaped the conflagration of heresy. Your narratives, however, are an athletic resistance: bodies lacerated for piety, barbaric rage despised by the undaunted in heart, the varied tortures of the persecutors, the steadfastness of the contestants through all things, the wood, the water, the martyrs' consummations. But what are our circumstances? Love has grown cold. The teaching of the Fathers is being ravaged, shipwrecks concerning the faith are frequent, the mouths of the pious are silent, peoples driven from their houses of prayer raise their hands in the open air to the Master in the heavens. And while the afflictions are severe, there is martyrdom nowhere because those who oppress us bear the same name as we do. For these matters, beseech the Lord yourself, and enlist all the noble athletes of Christ in the prayer for the Church, so that, if any time still remains for the continuance of the world and all things are not being driven to the contrary course, God, reconciled to his own Churches, may restore them to their ancient peace.

Since the distance of place and the circumstances that separately occupy each of us prevent this, it is worthy of a second prayer that the soul be nourished by frequent letters of love in Christ. This has now been granted to us, when we took into our hands the letter of your understanding. For we became more than double in the enjoyment of what was sent. For indeed it was as if we were beholding your very soul, as through some mirror, shining through the words. And it made our joy manifold not only that you are such as the testimony of all presents you, but also that the good things in you are the proud boasts of our fatherland. For like a flourishing branch sprung from a noble root, you have filled the foreign land with spiritual fruits. So naturally our fatherland rejoices in its own offshoots. And when you were contending in the struggles for the faith, it glorified God, hearing that the good inheritance of the Fathers is preserved in you. And what of your present deeds? You have honored the land that bore you with a new martyr who blossomed in the neighboring barbarian territory, like a grateful farmer sending the firstfruits of the crops to those who provided the seeds. Truly the gifts are fitting for an athlete of Christ: a martyr of the truth, who has just bound on the crown of righteousness, whom we received with joy and glorified God, who has now filled all nations with the Gospel of his Christ.

But you are also entreated to remember us who love you in your prayers and to pray earnestly to the Lord for our souls, that we may at last be deemed worthy to begin ourselves to serve God, according to the path of his commandments which he gave us for salvation. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata. Being altogether honorable to us and among genuine friends, our most venerable brother Eupraxius appeared even more honorable and more genuine because of his disposition toward you; for he now hastened toward your piety (to speak the words of David) as a deer, very thirsty and unendurable, cools itself at a drinkable and pure spring. And blessed is he who has been deemed worthy to approach you. And more blessed still is he who, by sufferings for Christ and by sweats for the truth, has placed such a crown as few of those who fear God have attained. For you did not display virtue without trial, nor did you sail rightly only in fair weather and steer the souls of others, but in the difficulties of trials you appeared and became higher than the persecutors by nobly departing from the land that bore you. And others have their ancestral soil, but we have the city above; and others perhaps have our throne, but we have Christ. O what a transaction! Having overlooked such things, what things we have obtained! We have passed through fire and water, and I believe that we shall also come out into refreshment. For God will not abandon us to the end, nor will he overlook right reason persecuted, but according to the multitude of our pains, his consolations will gladden us. This, then, we both believe and pray for.

But you, I entreat, pray earnestly for our humility, and whenever occasion arises, do not hesitate to bless us through letters and to make us more cheerful by revealing your own circumstances, which you have now deigned to do. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata. Both by writing and by remembering you gladden us, and, what is greater than this, by blessing us in your letters. As for us, if we were worthy of your sufferings and of your contest for Christ, we would pray to see your reverence and to receive a pattern of endurance in sufferings. But since we are unworthy of this, being entangled in many afflictions and occupations, we do what is second best: we greet your perfection and ask that you not grow weary of remembering us. For it is not only benefit for us to be deemed worthy of your letters, but also a boast before many and an ornament, that we are spoken of by a man of such virtue and possessing such intimacy with God that he is able to make others intimate both by word and by example.

To Antioch the presbyter living with his sister in exile. As much as I lament the Church which has been deprived of the oversight of such a shepherd, so much do I count you blessed for having been deemed worthy at such a time to be with a man who is contending the great struggle for piety. For I am persuaded that the Lord will also deem you worthy of the same portion, you who anoint him well and rouse his zeal. What great profit it is to enjoy in deep quiet a man who has gathered so much from learning and so much from experience of affairs! So I am persuaded that you have now come to know the man, how great he is in understanding, because in past time his mind was divided among many things, and you had no leisure from the affairs of life, so as to devote yourselves wholly to the spiritual stream flowing from the man's pure heart. But may the Lord grant that you be a consolation to him and that you yourselves not need the comfort of others. This I am persuaded of concerning your hearts, judging from my own brief experience of you and from the great teaching of the good teacher, whose association for a single day is sufficient provision for salvation.

To Gregory from Basil. You undertook a matter that was reasonable, gentle, and humane, by gathering together the captivity of the contemptible Glycerius (for now we write thus) and by covering up our common disgrace, as far as was possible. But nevertheless your reverence, having learned the facts about him, must resolve the dishonor in this way. This Glycerius, now haughty and solemn in your eyes, was ordained by us as deacon of the Church in Venessa, to serve the presbyter and to attend to the work of the church. For the man is, even if otherwise intractable, not without aptitude for manual tasks. But when he was installed, he neglected the work to such an extent as if it had never begun. Gathering together wretched virgins under his own authority and power, some willingly running to him (you know how readily the young do such things), others unwillingly, he attempted to act as a leader of a flock and, having put upon himself the name and appearance of a patriarchate, suddenly became arrogant, not coming to this from any sequence or piety, but setting this up as a means of livelihood, just as another might set up some other pursuit, and he nearly threw the whole Church into confusion, despising his own presbyter, a man venerable in both conduct and age, despising the bishop and us as worth nothing, and always filling the city and the entire priesthood with disturbances and tumults. And finally, in order that he might be rebuked a little in word by us and the chorepiscopus so as not to be contemptuous (for he was also training the young men in the same madness), he devised a very reckless and inhuman deed.

Having plundered as many of the virgins as he could and watched for night, he becomes a fugitive. This will seem very grievous to you. Consider also the occasion. The synod there was being convened, and the multitude was flowing in from everywhere, as was natural. But he led out his own chorus, followed by youths, dancing around, causing much dejection among the pious and much laughter among the intemperate and those readier of tongue. And these things are not enough, though they are of such magnitude, but also the parents of the virgins, as I hear, unable to bear their childlessness and wishing to bring back the scattered ones, and falling down with lamentations, as is natural, before their own daughters, are grossly insulted and dishonored by the admirable young man with his band of brigands. Let these things appear intolerable to your reverence; for the laughter is common to all of us. But above all, command him to return with the virgins. For he might meet with some humanity if he returns with your letter; but if not, at least send the virgins back to their mother, the Church. But if not, at least do not allow those who wish to be tyrannized, but arrange for them to return to us, or we protest to you before God and men that these things are not right nor according to the canons of the Church. As for Glycerius, if he returns with knowledge and proper stability, this would be best; but if not, let him be removed from service. To Glycerius: How long will you be deranged and counsel badly concerning yourself? You provoke us, but you disgrace the common order of monks. Return, therefore, trusting in God and in us, whose philanthropy we imitate.

For even if we have rebuked you as a father, we will also forgive you as a father. These things we say to you, since many others are entreating us, and before all others, your presbyter, whose gray hair and compassion we respect. But if you distance yourself from us, you will certainly fall from your rank, and you will also fall from God together with your members and your stole, with which you lead the young women not toward God, but into the abyss. To Gregory the Companion: I wrote to you also earlier about Glycerius and the virgins. But they have not yet returned even today, but are still delaying, I know not from where or how. For I would not suspect you of doing this because of slander against us, or because you yourself suffer something toward us, or because you gratify others. Let them come, then, fearing nothing; be their guarantor. For we grieve when members are cut off, even if they were cut off rightly. But if they resist, let the burden fall on others; we wash our hands of it. To Sophronius the Bishop: How you delighted us with your letter, we need not write. For you surely infer from the letter itself, since it is of such a kind. For you showed us the first fruit of the Spirit, love, through your letter. And what could be more precious to us than this in the present state of affairs, when because lawlessness has multiplied, the love of many has grown cold? For nothing is so rare now as the meeting of a spiritual brother and a word of peace and spiritual communion, which having found in your perfection, we gave great thanks to the Lord, praying also to partake of the perfect joy in you. For if the letters are such, what must the meeting be like?

And if you are so valuable from afar, how much more worthy will you be when you appear to us from nearby? Be well assured, if I were not encompassed by a multitude of countless occupations and these unavoidable necessities to which I am bound, I myself would have hastened to your perfection. And yet, this old infirmity of my body is a great hindrance to my movements, but nevertheless I would not have considered this an obstacle in view of the expected benefit. For to be deemed worthy of meeting a man who thinks the same things and upholds the faith of the Fathers, as the report of the honorable brothers and fellow presbyters indicates, is truly to return to the ancient blessedness of the Churches, when few were sick with inquiries, and all were at peace, being unashamed workers of the commandments, serving the Lord through a simple and unstudied confession, and preserving the faith inviolate and the confession regarding Father, Son, and Holy Spirit unstudied. To Theodora the Canoness. Slowness in writing is caused in us by the lack of assurance that our letters are certainly delivered to your love, but that through the malice of those who serve, countless others intercept them, especially now when affairs throughout the world are so disturbed. Therefore, I wait in a way to be blamed and forcibly demanded to write letters, so that I may use this very thing as evidence of their delivery. And indeed, whether writing or keeping silence, we have one task: to preserve in our hearts the memory of your decorum and to pray to the Lord to grant you to complete the course of your good way of life as you have chosen.

Indeed, it is no small struggle for one who has made the profession to bring forward what follows. For to choose the polity according to the Gospel is possible for anyone; but to carry the observance even to the smallest details and to overlook nothing of what is written there—this has been accomplished by very few of those who have come to our knowledge, so as to use a tongue that is trained, an eye that is disciplined according to the will of the Gospel, hands that act in accordance with the purpose of pleasing God, to move the feet, and to use each of the members as our Creator originally ordained: decorum in attire, guardedness in encounters with men, sufficiency in food, simplicity in the acquisition of necessities. All these things, when spoken of simply in this way, are small, but we have found in truth that they require a great struggle to be accomplished. And indeed, also, perfection in humility, so as neither to recall the distinction of ancestors nor, if any advantage exists in us by nature, either in body or in soul, to be elated by it, nor to make the external opinions about us an occasion for pride and vanity—these belong to the evangelical life: the vigor in continence, the diligence in prayers, the compassion in brotherly love, the sharing with those in need, the lowliness of spirit, the contrition of heart, the soundness of faith, the evenness in gravity, with the thought of the fearful and inexorable tribunal never leaving us, toward which we all hasten, but very few remember it and are anxious about its outcome.

To Eleuthera. I myself, though very much wishing to write continuously to your nobility, have always restrained myself, lest I should seem to be stirring up some trials for you because of those who are ill-disposed towards us and who, as I hear, carry their enmity even to the point of meddling to see whether anyone receives a letter of ours. But since you yourself, doing well, have taken the initiative in writing and have communicated to us what was necessary concerning the matters of your soul, I have been prompted to reply, at once correcting what was omitted in the past and also answering what has been written by your nobility. That blessed is the soul which night and day turns over no other care than how, on the great day when all creation will stand before the Judge rendering account of deeds done, it may be able lightly to lay down the account of its life. For he who keeps that day and hour before his eyes and always meditates on his defense before the impartial tribunal will either commit no sins or only the very smallest, because sinning occurs for us through absence of fear. In those in whom the expectation of threatened things is vividly present, the fear that dwells with them will give no opportunity for falling into thoughtless actions or thoughts. And so remember God and keep fear in your heart, and take everyone into the fellowship of your prayers. For the help of those who are able to appease God is great. And do not cease doing these things.

For even while we live this life in the flesh, prayer is a good helper, and for those departing from here it is a sufficient provision for the future age. And just as care is a good thing, so again despondency, despair, and being hopeless about salvation are things that harm the soul. Therefore, hope in the goodness of God and await his assistance, knowing that if we turn to him rightly and sincerely, he will not only not cast us off entirely, but while we are still uttering the words of prayer, he will say, "Behold, I am here." To Magninianus the Count. Previously your reverence wrote to me about other matters, and also clearly commanded me to write to you concerning faith. But I, while I rejoice in your zeal for the matter and pray to God that the choice of good things may dwell in you unceasingly, and that you may always advance and be perfected in both knowledge and good works, yet because I do not wish to leave behind a treatise on faith nor to write different creeds, I refrained from sending what you requested. However, you seem to me to be influenced by those there who do nothing, who for the sake of slandering us say certain things, as if by this they will establish themselves if they utter the worst falsehoods about us. For past time reveals those men, and advancing experience will make them more evident.

We, however, exhort those who have placed their hope in Christ to investigate nothing beyond the ancient faith, but as we believe, so also to be baptized, and as we are baptized, so also to give glory, and to be content to confess those names which we have received from Holy Scripture and to avoid innovation in these matters. For our salvation lies not in the invention of appellations, but in the sound confession concerning the Divinity in which we have believed. To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium. May holy God grant that this letter of ours come into your hands when your body is strong and you are free from all occupation and doing everything according to your mind, so that our exhortation may not be in vain, which now we urge you to appear in our city, in order that the festival which it is our custom to celebrate annually for the martyrs in our Church may be made more solemn. For be assured, my most honored and truly beloved one, that our people, having had experience of many things, cling to no success so much as to your presence, such a sting of love you implanted from that brief meeting. So that the Lord

be glorified and the peoples rejoice and the martyrs be honored, and we, the elders, receive from a true son the care that is due to us, deign to come to us without delay and anticipate the days of the synod, so that we may be together at leisure and be mutually comforted through the communion of spiritual gifts. The day is the fifth of September. Therefore we ask you to arrive three days beforehand, so that you may make the memory of the poorhouse great by your presence. May you be kept strong and cheerful in the Lord, praying for me, for me and for the Church of God by the grace of the Lord. To Sophronius the Magistrate. To enumerate all those who have been benefited by us through your magnanimity is not easy, so many do we know to have been well treated by themselves through your great hand, which the Lord granted us as an ally in the greatest times. But the most just of all is the one now brought forward through our letter, our most venerable brother Eusebius, who has fallen into an unreasonable calumny, which only your rectitude can dispel. Therefore we ask, both gratifying justice and looking to the human and granting us the usual favors, to be everything to the man and to stand by him with the truth. For he has no small alliance from justice, which, if the present time should not harm it, will be shown very easily, clearly, and incontrovertibly. To Aburgius. I know that I have often commended many to your honor and have been sufficiently useful in the greatest times to those who are oppressed.

I know of nothing more honorable or more worthy of your dignity that I have previously entrusted to you than the case of the most beloved son Eusebius, who now delivers this letter to you from us. As for the nature of the matter in which he is entangled, if he finds an opportunity, he will himself relate it to your reverence. What it is fitting for us to say is this: that the man should not be swept away, nor, because many have been convicted of the most grievous offenses, should he himself suffer some share of the suspicion of the multitude, but that he should obtain a trial and that his life should be subjected to examination. For in this way both the slander will easily be exposed, and the man, having received the most just protection, will be a perpetual herald of the benefits conferred upon him by your gentleness. That you are both freedom-loving and philanthropic, your nobility of nature and your sociability toward all sufficiently teach us. Therefore we confidently intercede on behalf of a man who is illustrious from his ancestors, but worthy of even greater honor and respect on his own account because of the gentleness of his character that resides in him; so that you, having been entreated by us, may stand by him as he contends in a case which, on account of the truth, is contemptible, but otherwise urgent because of the weight of the slander. For it would be a great advantage to him for his salvation if you should deign to utter some philanthropic word on his behalf, gratifying first of all justice, and then also bestowing upon us, your special friends, the customary honor and favor in this matter as well.

To Sophronius, Master of the Soldiers, on behalf of Eumatheus. Having encountered a man of worth who is involved in an unbearable situation, I was deeply affected in my soul. For how could I not, being human, sympathize with a free man entangled in affairs beneath his dignity? And after considering how I might be of use to him, I found one solution to the distress that holds him: to make the matter known to your decorum. It is therefore your part henceforth to extend to him also that zeal which you have displayed toward many under our witness. The matter itself will be made known by the petition he has presented to the Emperors; be entreated to take it in hand and to assist the man as far as possible. For you will be granting a favor to a Christian, a man of noble birth, and one who commands respect by his great learning. And if we add that we too receive great gratitude through the good deed done to him, then surely, even if our own part is otherwise small, yet to your dignity, which always deigns to take our concerns into account, what is granted to us will not appear small. To Otreius, Bishop of Melitene. I know that the separation from the most God-beloved bishop Eusebius touches your reverence as much as it does us ourselves. Since therefore we both need consolation, let us become comfort to one another. Do you write to us the news from Samosata, and we shall report whatever we learn from Thrace. For knowing the steadfastness of the people brings me no small relief from present sorrows, and your goodness is instructed as to where our common father is.

with a man in such a plight? But now we have no need to indicate this by letter; rather, we have presented to you the man himself, who knows exactly and can report in what state he left him and how he is bearing up under the circumstances. Pray, therefore, both for him and for us, that the Lord may speedily bring an end to these troubles. To Paulinus the Presbyter. As much as we are grieved when we consider the desolation of the Church, so much do we count you blessed for having reached this measure of struggle, which may the Lord grant you to pass through with patience, so that you may receive the great reward both for your faithful stewardship and for the noble resistance you have displayed for the name of Christ. To the Citizens of Samosata. When I consider that the trial has now spread over the whole world, and that the greatest cities of Syria have experienced sufferings equal to yours, yet not everywhere is the council so renowned and distinguished for good works as yours is now celebrated for its zeal in good deeds, I am near to feeling gratitude for what has been arranged. For if this distress had not occurred, your worth would not have been made manifest. So it seems that what the furnace is for gold, this distress for the hope in God is for those who lay claim to some virtue. Come then, O admirable ones, so that you may bring to your previous labors a worthy sequel, and show yourselves to be placing a more notable crown upon a great foundation, and stand around

the shepherd of the Church, when the Lord grants him to appear upon his own throne, each of you recounting one or another of the things you have done for the Church of God, and on the great day of the Lord each receiving recompense from the bountiful God according to the proportion of your labors. And if you remember us and write to us as often as possible, you will do what is just, repaying us with like, and at the same time you will delight us not a little, sending us through your letters clear tokens of your voice, which is most sweet to us. To Eustathius, Bishop of Immeria I know that bereavement is a gloomy thing and full of business, because it brings a lack of those in charge. Hence I reckon that your reverence, being gloomy at what has happened, does not write to us, and at the same time is now in greater occupation, running about among the flocks of Christ because of the uprising of enemies from all sides. But since for every grief the consolation is communion with those of like mind, deign, as often as possible, to write to us, and yourself to find rest in speaking to us, and to comfort us by imparting to us your own words. And this we too shall endeavor to do, as often as circumstances permit. Pray yourself, and exhort the whole brotherhood earnestly to beseech the Lord, that he may at last show us a release from the dejection that surrounds us.

To Theodotus, Bishop of Beroea. I know that even if you do not write to us, yet in your heart the memory of us abides. And I infer this not because I myself am worthy of any favorable remembrance, but because your soul abounds in the wealth of love. Nevertheless, as far as it is possible for you, avail yourself of the occasions that arise to write to us, so that we may be more encouraged by learning of your affairs and may take the opportunity to inform you of ours. For this is the manner of converse for those so separated in body—that by letters—and let us not deprive each other of it, as far as circumstances permit. May the Lord also grant us a meeting face to face, so that we may increase our love and multiply our thanksgiving to our Master for the greater gifts from him. To Antipater, Governor. How excellent philosophy is, among other things, because it does not permit its devotees to be treated with expensive remedies, but the same thing serves both as a relish and suffices for health. For I have learned that you revived your jaded appetites with cabbages pickled in vinegar, which I formerly disliked both because of the proverb and because they were a reminder of the poverty I grew up with. But now I think I will persuade even myself and laugh at the proverb, seeing that it is such a good nourisher of youth, which restored our governor to his prime. And henceforth I will consider nothing equal to it—not even Homeric lotus, nor that ambrosia, whatever it was, that fed the Olympians. To Antipater from Basil.

Twice cabbage is death, says the spiteful proverb. But I, having asked many times, will die once, and certainly even if I had not asked. And if it is certain, do not hesitate to eat a pleasant dish, unjustly reviled by the proverb. To Amphilochius on the Canons. To a fool who asks, it is accounted wisdom, it is said. But of a wise man, it seems, the question makes even the fool wise; which happens to us by the grace of God whenever we receive the letters of your industrious soul. For we become more attentive and more prudent than ourselves, being taught many things we do not know from the very questioning, and our concern for accuracy becomes our teacher. Indeed, even now, having never before taken your questions into consideration, we have been compelled both to examine them accurately and to recall whatever we heard from the elders and to consider the related matters we were taught by ourselves. Now the question concerning the Cathari has been discussed before, and you have rightly recalled that one must follow the custom of each region, because those who then deliberated about these matters expressed different opinions regarding their baptism. But that of the Pepuzians seems to me to have no validity, and I marveled how Dionysius, being a canonist, overlooked it. For the ancients decided to accept baptism that deviates in nothing from the faith; hence they named heresies, schisms, and parasynagogues.

Heresies are those who have completely broken away and are alienated even in the faith itself; schisms are those who have been at variance with each other due to certain ecclesiastical causes and curable issues; and parasynagogues are the assemblies held by insubordinate presbyters or bishops and by uneducated laity. For example, if someone, after being examined for a fault, was suspended from the liturgy and did not submit to the canons, but usurped for himself the presidency and the liturgy, and some followed him, abandoning the Catholic Church, such a thing is a parasynagogue. A schism is to differ from those of the Church regarding repentance. Heresies, for instance, are those of the Manichaeans, Valentinians, Marcionists, and these very Pepuzians; for the difference is immediately concerning faith in God itself. It seemed good, therefore, to the early authorities to reject the baptism of heretics entirely; to accept that of schismatics, as they are still of the Church; and to reunite those in parasynagogues with the Church after they have been improved by worthy repentance and conversion, so that often even those in rank who followed the insubordinate, when they repent, are received back into the same order. The Pepuzians, then, are manifestly heretics; for they blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, unlawfully and shamelessly ascribing the title of the Paraclete to Montanus and Priscilla. Therefore, whether as deifying humans, they are condemned.

Heresies are those who have completely broken away and are alienated even in the faith itself; schisms are those who have been at variance with each other due to certain ecclesiastical causes and curable issues; and para—whether as those who insult the Holy Spirit by comparison with men, and thus are liable to eternal condemnation, because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable. What reason, then, is there for the baptism of these to be approved, of those who baptize into Father and Son and Montanus or Priscilla? For those who have been baptized into things not handed down to us have not been baptized. So, even if this escaped the notice of the great Dionysius, we must not preserve the imitation of the error. For the absurdity is immediately evident and clear to all who have even a small share in reasoning. The Cathari are themselves among those who have broken away. Nevertheless, it seemed good to the ancients, I mean those around Cyprian and our own Firmilian, to subject all these to a single vote, Cathari and Encratites and Hydroparastatae, because the beginning of the separation occurred through a schism; and those who had separated from the Church no longer had the grace of the Holy Spirit upon themselves; for the transmission ceased when the succession was interrupted. For the first seceders received ordinations from the Fathers, and through the laying on of their hands they had the spiritual gift; but those who broke away, having become laymen, had authority neither to baptize nor to ordain, being no longer able to provide the grace of the Holy Spirit to others, of which they themselves had fallen. Therefore, they ordered that those baptized by them, when coming to the Church, be purified by the true baptism of the Church, as being baptized by laymen.

Since it has seemed entirely appropriate to some in Asia, for the sake of economy regarding the many, to accept their baptism, let it be accepted. But we must understand the mischief of the Encratites, that in order to make themselves unacceptable to the Church, they subsequently attempted to preempt it with their own baptism; hence they also corrupted their own custom. I think, therefore, that since nothing has been explicitly decreed concerning them, it is fitting for us to reject their baptism; and if anyone has received it from them, when approaching the Church, he should be baptized. If, however, this would be an obstacle to the general economy, we must again follow custom and the Fathers who have managed our affairs. For I fear that, while we wish to make them reluctant about baptizing, we might hinder those who are being saved by the severity of the proposition. But if they preserve our baptism, let this not trouble us. For we are not obliged to return the favor to them, but to serve the precision of the canons. In any case, let it be established that those who approach that baptism are to be anointed among the faithful, clearly, and thus approach the mysteries. I know that we have received the brothers around Izoz and Saturninus, who were of that order, into the episcopal see. So those joined to that order can no longer be separated from the Church, as if we had set forth some rule of communion with them through the reception of the bishops. The woman who corrupts by design undergoes the penalty for murder. There is no precise distinction among us between the formed and the unformed.

Here, not only the future act is punished, but also the one who has plotted against herself, because for the most part women die in such attempts. In addition to this, there is also the destruction of the embryo, another murder, at least according to the intention of those who dare these things. However, one must not extend their confession until the point of death, but rather accept the measure of ten years; yet the remedy should be defined not by time, but by the manner of repentance. A deacon who has committed fornication after his diaconate will be deposed from the diaconate, and when thrust back into the place of the laity, he will not be excluded from communion, because there is an ancient canon that those who have fallen from their rank are subjected to this sole form of punishment, those from the beginning, I think, having followed that law, "You shall not punish twice for the same thing," and for another reason as well, that those who are in the lay order, when cast out from the place of the faithful, are again taken up into the place from which they fell, but the deacon once for all has the lasting penalty of deposition. Therefore, since his diaconate is not restored to him, they have settled on this single form of punishment. These things, then, are from the types. But in general, the truer remedy is the withdrawal from sin. So that he who, through fleshly pleasure, has rejected grace, by the crushing of the flesh and by every servitude of continence, having withdrawn from the pleasures by which he was corrupted, will provide us with the complete proof of his healing. Therefore, we must know both, both the things of precision and the things of

of custom, and in the case of those who do not accept the extreme, to follow the transmitted type. Concerning trigamists and polygamists, they defined the same rule as for digamists proportionally: for digamists one year, others two years. They excommunicate trigamists for three, and tetragamists often for four years. They call this not marriage, but polygamy, or rather restrained fornication. Hence the Lord said to the Samaritan woman who had changed five husbands: "The one you now have is not your husband," as those who exceed the measure of digamy are no longer worthy of being called by the title of husband or wife. We have received a custom of five years' excommunication for trigamists, not from canons, but from the sequence of those who preceded. It is necessary not to entirely exclude them from the Church, but to deem them worthy of hearing for about two or three years, and after that to permit them to stand together, but to abstain from communion of the good, and thus, after they have shown some fruit of repentance, to restore them to the place of communion. Those heretics who repent at the point of death must be received, but received, of course, not without judgment, but by testing whether they show genuine repentance and whether they have fruits testifying to their zeal for salvation. The fornications of the canonical clergy are not to be counted as marriage, but their union is to be broken up by every means.

This is beneficial for the security of the Church and will not give the heretics a handle against us, as if we were drawing people to ourselves by granting license to sin. Male fornicators, bestial fornicators, murderers, poisoners, adulterers, and idolaters have been deemed worthy of the same condemnation. So keep the same rule you have for the others also for these. As for those who repented after thirty years for the impurity they committed in ignorance, we ought not even to hesitate to receive them. For ignorance makes them worthy of pardon, and the voluntariness of the confession, and the length of time that has elapsed—nearly a whole generation of a man—during which they were delivered to Satan, so that they might be taught not to behave shamefully. So order that they be received without delay, especially if they also have tears that move your compassion and show a life worthy of sympathy. The man who used an axe against his own wife in anger is a murderer. You have reminded me well and in a manner worthy of your understanding to speak more fully about these matters, because there are many differences between voluntary and involuntary acts. Involuntary is entirely and far from the agent's intention when someone throws a stone at a dog or a tree and hits a man. For the impulse was to ward off the beast or shake down the fruit, but the person who happened by was struck accidentally by the blow, so that such an act is involuntary. Involuntary, however, is also when someone, intending to correct another with a strap or a not-too-hard rod, strikes him, and the one struck dies. For the intention here is considered: he wished to improve the sinner, not to kill him.

Among the involuntary acts is also this: someone defending himself in a fight, with a club or with his hand, strikes a blow unsparingly at the vital parts, so as to injure him, but not so as to kill him outright. But this already approaches the voluntary. For one who uses such an instrument for defense, or who delivers the blow without restraint, is clearly shown, by being mastered by passion, to be reckless of the man. Similarly, one who uses a heavy club or a stone larger than human strength can wield is counted among the involuntary, having intended one thing but done another. For under the influence of anger he delivered such a blow as to kill the one struck, although his effort was perhaps to crush him, not to kill him outright. However, one who uses a sword or any such weapon has no excuse, especially one who hurls an axe. For he does not even appear to have struck with his hand, so that the measure of the blow would be under his control, but he hurled it, so that by the weight of the iron, the edge, and the trajectory over a great distance, the blow necessarily becomes deadly. But completely voluntary and admitting no doubt is such a thing as the actions of bandits and of military attacks. For these kill for money, avoiding exposure, while those in wars proceed to slaughter, intending not to frighten or to discipline, but openly to kill their opponents. And indeed, even if for some other reason someone mixes a harmful drug and kills, we consider such a thing voluntary.

Such things women often do, trying by means of incantations and love charms to draw their own lovers to themselves, and giving them drugs that produce a darkening of the mind. Such women, even if they intended one thing and did another, are nevertheless counted among voluntary murderers because of the meddlesome and forbidden nature of their practice. And so those who give abortifacient drugs are themselves murderesses, as are those who receive the embryo-killing poisons. So much for that. The Lord's pronouncement, according to the sequence of thought, applies equally to men and women, concerning the fact that it is not permitted to depart from marriage except on the ground of fornication. But custom does not hold thus; rather, in the case of women we find great strictness, while the Apostle says: "He who cleaves to a harlot is one body," and Jeremiah says: "If a woman goes to another man, she will not return to her husband, but will be defiled and defiling," and again: "He who has an adulteress is foolish and impious." But custom also prescribes that men who commit adultery and are engaged in fornication are to be retained by their wives. So the woman who lives with a man who has been dismissed—I do not know if she can be considered an adulteress. For the charge here attaches to the woman who dismissed her husband, according to the reason why she left the marriage. For whether she was beaten and could not bear the blows, she ought to have endured rather than be separated from her husband; or whether she could not bear the financial loss, this pretext is not worthy of consideration either.

If it is because he lives in fornication, we do not have this observation in ecclesiastical custom; nor has a woman been commanded to separate from an unbelieving husband, but to remain because the outcome is uncertain. "For what do you know, woman, whether you will save your husband?" So the woman who leaves is an adulteress, if she goes to another man. The man who is left behind is pardonable, and the woman who lives with such a man is not condemned. If, however, the man, having left his wife, goes to another, he too is an adulterer, because he causes her to commit adultery; and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself. Those who swear not to accept ordination, taking an oath to that effect, should not be compelled to perjure themselves. For even if there seems to be a canon that allows such persons, we have learned from experience that those who perjure themselves do not prosper. One must also consider the form of the oath, the words, the disposition from which they swore, and the minute additions to the words; so that, if there is no consolation from any quarter, such persons should be left entirely alone. As for the matter concerning Severus, that is, the presbyter ordained by him, it seems to me to have some such consolation, if you also agree. Order that the field which is subject to Mestia, to which the man was publicly summoned, be made subject to the Vasodoi. For in this way he will not perjure himself by not leaving the place, and Longinus, having Cyriacus with him, will not leave the church deserted, nor condemn his own soul through idleness.

And we will seem not to be acting contrary to the canons, accommodating ourselves to the one who swore by the Lord to remain with the Mindani, but who accepted a transfer. For the return will be the keeping of the oath. And his yielding to the economy will not be counted as perjury against him, because it was not added to the oath that he would not depart from the Mindani even for a short time, but that he would remain for the future. But to Severus, who pleads forgetfulness, we will grant indulgence, saying that the knower of hidden things will not overlook his own Church being ravaged by such a one, who acts uncanonically from the beginning, binds himself by an oath contrary to the Gospels, teaches perjury by the very fact of his transfer, and now lies by feigning forgetfulness. Since we are not judges of hearts, but judge from what we hear, let us leave vengeance to the Lord, and ourselves receive him without discrimination, granting pardon to the human passion of forgetfulness. And the one who committed involuntary homicide has sufficiently fulfilled the penalty in the eleven years. For it is clear that in the case of those who are struck, we will observe the Mosaic rules, and we will not consider the one who lay down from the blows he received but then walked again with his staff to have been killed. But even if he did not rise after the blows, nevertheless, because the striker did not intend to kill, he is a murderer, but involuntary because of the intention. The canon has entirely excluded digamists from service. The fathers of our church did not count killings in war as murders, it seems to me, granting pardon to those who defend chastity and piety.

Perhaps it is well to advise that those who are not clean-handed should abstain from communion alone for three years. The usurer, if he consents to apply the unjust gain to the poor and to be freed from the disease of avarice in the future, is admissible to the priesthood. I am surprised at your demanding grammatical precision in Scripture and thinking that the wording of the translation is constrained, giving its own clear meaning, not transferring the literal sense of the Hebrew term. But since the problem raised by an inquiring man must not be passed over idly, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea received the same origin in the creation account. For both kinds were brought forth from the waters. The reason is that each has the same property. For some swim through the water, others float in the air. Therefore they were mentioned together. The figure of speech, however, is applied incongruously to fish, but quite appropriately to all creatures that live in waters. For the birds of the air are subject to man, and the fish of the sea, and not only these, but also all that traverse the paths of the seas. For not everything aquatic is a fish, such as the cetaceans, whales, hammerheads, dolphins, seals, and also sea-horses, sea-dogs, sawfish, swordfish, sea-cattle, and if you will, sea-nettles, scallops, and all shell-bearing creatures, none of which is a fish, and all that traverse the paths of the seas.

But Naaman was not great in the eyes of the Lord, but in the eyes of his own lord, that is, he was among those who held power alongside the king of the Syrians. Pay close attention, therefore, to the Scripture, and you will find the solution to the question from it itself. To Eustathius the Chief Physician. It is indeed the case that for all of you who practice medicine, philanthropy is your profession. And it seems to me that among all the pursuits in life, one who places your science first would hit upon the proper judgment and not miss what is fitting, since the most precious thing of all, life, is to be shunned and painful unless it can be had with health; and health is provided by your art. But for you especially, your science is ambidextrous, and you set greater boundaries for yourself in philanthropy, not limiting the grace of your art to the body, but also devising correction for the ailments of the soul. I say this not only following the reports of the many, but also taught by my own experience in many other matters and especially now, in the indescribable malice of our enemies, which, like a stream of evil flowing against our life, you skillfully dispersed, dissipating this grievous inflammation of our heart by the application of comforting words. For I, looking at the successive and varied attack of our enemies against us, thought it necessary to be silent and to accept what was brought against us in quiet, and not to speak against those armed with falsehood, that evil weapon which often drives back the edge even through the truth.

You, doing well, urged not to betray the truth, but to refute the slanderers, lest many be harmed while falsehood prevails over truth. It seemed to me, then, that those who have taken up an unprovoked hatred against us are doing something similar to the Aesopic fable. For just as that fable made the wolf bring certain charges against the lamb, apparently ashamed to seem to destroy without a just pretext one who had done no prior harm, while the lamb easily dissolved every accusation brought by slander, yet the wolf did not abate his attack at all, but was defeated by justice and conquered by his teeth; so those for whom hatred against us has been pursued as something good, blushing perhaps to seem to hate without cause, fabricate causes and accusations against us, and do not persist in any of their statements to the end, but now say this, a little later another, and again another as the cause of their hostility against us. Their malice rests on nothing, but when they are shaken off from this accusation, they cling to another, and from that they again seize upon another; and even if all accusations are dissolved, they do not cease from hating. They accuse us of advocating three gods, and they din this into the ears of the many, and plausibly constructing this slander, they do not stop. But the truth fights for us, and both publicly to all and privately to those who encounter us, we show that every one who says three gods is anathematized by us and is not even considered a Christian.

But when they hear this, Sabellius is ready at hand against us, and the disease from him is noised about in connection with our teaching. Again, against this we deploy our customary weapon, the truth, showing that we abhor such a heresy equally with Judaism. What then? After so many attempts, have they grown weary and fallen silent? Not at all. But they bring a novel charge against us, constructing the accusation thus: that we confess three hypostases, and they accuse us of saying one goodness, one power, and one divinity. And this is not far from the truth; for we do say so. But they bring this as a charge because their custom does not include this 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 the law and rule of correct teaching. For if custom is strong as a proof of correctness, we too are certainly entitled to set against them the custom prevailing among us. But if they reject this, we certainly ought not to follow them. Therefore, let the inspired Scripture arbitrate for us, and among those with whom the doctrines are found to be in harmony with the divine words, the verdict of truth will surely fall. What then is the charge? For two things have been brought forward at once in the accusation against us: one is the division of the hypostases, the other is that we no longer number any of the divine names in the plural, but, as was said before, we declare one goodness, one power, one divinity, and all such things in the singular.

Now, as for the division of the hypostases, those who dogmatize a difference of substances in the divine nature would not be averse to it. For it is not likely that those who speak of three substances would not also speak of three hypostases. Therefore, this alone is subject to accusation: that the names applied to the divine nature are proclaimed in a unitary manner. But we have a ready and clear argument for this. For whoever condemns those who speak of one divinity will necessarily agree either with one who speaks of many or with one who speaks of none. For it is not possible to conceive of anything other than what has been said. But the divinely inspired teaching does not permit speaking of many, since wherever it mentions divinity, it does so in the singular: "that in him dwells the whole fullness of divinity," and elsewhere, "for his invisible things, understood from the creation of the world through his works, are seen, both his eternal power and divinity." If, therefore, extending the number of divinities into a plurality belongs only to those who are sick with polytheistic error, and to deny divinity altogether would be the part of atheists, what reason is there to slander us for confessing one divinity? But they reveal the purpose of the argument more clearly: they accept that the Father is God, and they agree that the Son is likewise honored with the name of divinity; but the Spirit, when numbered with the Father and the Son, is no longer included in the concept of divinity, but the power of divinity, stopping from the Father to the Son, separates the nature of the Spirit from divine glory.

Therefore, we too must offer a defense, as briefly as we can, even against this notion. What, then, is our account? The Lord, when handing down the saving faith to those being instructed in the word, joins the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son. And we affirm that what is once conjoined has its conjunction through all things. For it is not that it is coordinated in one respect but separated in others; rather, in the life-giving power by which our nature is transformed from corruptible life to immortality, the power of the Spirit is taken together with the Father and the Son, and in many other respects as well, such as in the concept of the good, the holy, the eternal, the wise, the upright, the governing, the powerful, and evidently everywhere it has its inseparability in all the names understood as referring to what is superior. Therefore, we consider it proper to think that what is conjoined with the Father and the Son in so many lofty and God-befitting concepts is in no way separated. For we know of none of the names conceived concerning the divine nature that admit a difference of superior and inferior, so as to suppose it pious to grant the Spirit communion in the more deficient names while judging it unworthy of the more exalted ones. For all God-befitting thoughts and names hold equal status with one another, in that they do not disagree in their signification of the subject. For the appellation of the good does not lead the mind to one subject, and that of the wise, the powerful, and the just to another; rather, whatever names you may utter, the thing signified through all of them is one.

Even if you say "God," I will show you the same one that you understood through the other names. And if all the names applied to the divine nature are equivalent to each other in their indication of the subject, while guiding our mind to the same thing, each according to a different connotation, what is the reasoning that, while granting to the Spirit communion with the Father and the Son in the other names, separates it alone from divinity? For it is absolutely necessary either to grant communion in this name as well, or not to grant it in the others either. For if it is worthy in those, it is certainly not unworthy in these. But if, according to that reasoning, it is too small to share in the name of divinity in communion with the Father and the Son, then it is not worthy to partake of any other of the names befitting God either. For when examined and compared with each other, the names, through the connotation observed in each, will be found to have nothing less than the appellation "God." And a proof that to this name many

and is also applied to lesser things—or rather, the divine Scripture does not refrain from this homonymy even in the case of incongruous objects, when it names idols with the appellation of God. For it says, "Let the gods who did not make the heaven and the earth be removed and cast beneath the earth." And it says, "All the gods of the nations are demons." And the ventriloquist, in her sorceries, leading the souls sought by Saul, says she has seen gods. But also Balaam, being some sort of augur and seer and carrying his divinations in his hand, as Scripture says, and having achieved for himself the teaching from demons through the curiosity of augury, is recorded by Scripture as being counseled by God. And there are many such things that one could collect from the divine Scriptures to set forth, that this name has no primacy over the other godlike appellations, since, as has been said, we find it spoken homonymously even of incongruous things. But the name "holy," and "incorruptible," and "upright," and "good"—we have been taught by Scripture that these are nowhere made common to improper objects. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit shares with the Son and the Father in the names that are piously spoken exclusively of the divine nature, and they do not deny this, what reason is there to construct that only this one is incapable of communion, of which it has been shown to partake, according to some homonymous usage, even demons and idols?

But they say that this appellation is indicative of nature, and that the nature of the Spirit is incapable of communion with the Father and the Son, and that for this reason it does not share even in the communion of this name. Let them then show by what means they have recognized the difference of nature. For if it were possible for the divine nature itself to be contemplated in itself, and to find what is proper and what is foreign through the phenomena, we would certainly have no need of other words or proofs for the comprehension of what is sought. But since it is too lofty for our understanding of the things sought, and we reason about things that escape our knowledge from certain indications, it is absolutely necessary that we be led by the energies to the investigation of the divine nature. Therefore, if we see the energies performed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit differing from one another, we infer from the difference of the energies that the natures which energize are also different. For it is not possible that things which are separated in the principle of nature should be brought together in the form of their energies; fire does not cool, nor does ice heat, but with the difference of natures, the energies from them are also separated from one another. But if we conceive of one energy of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, differing in nothing and not varying, then by the identity of the energy we must infer the union of the nature. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit alike sanctify, give life, illuminate, comfort, and do all such things.

And let no one assign exclusively to the activity of the Spirit the power of sanctification, having heard the Savior in the Gospel saying to the Father concerning the disciples: "Father, sanctify them in your name." Likewise, all other things are equally effected for the worthy by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: every grace and power, guidance, life, consolation, the change to immortality, the transition to freedom, and whatever other good comes down to us. And the economy above us, both in the intelligible creation and in the sensible, if it is necessary to conjecture about things above us from what is known to us, is not itself outside the activity and power of the Holy Spirit, each partaking of benefit according to its own worth and need. For even if the discourse and administration concerning things above our nature is imperceptible to our senses, yet from the sequence one would more reasonably agree, through things familiar to us, that the power of the Spirit is active also in those realms, than that it is excluded from the economy in the higher things. For the one who says the former puts forward a bare and unsubstantiated blasphemy, constructing the absurdity with no reasoning. But the one who agrees that even things above us are administered by the power of the Spirit together with the Father and the Son relies on a clear proof based on his own life in asserting these things. Therefore, the identity of activity in the case of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit clearly demonstrates the unalterable nature.

Thus, even if the name of divinity signifies nature, the commonality of essence agrees that this appellation is properly applied also to the Holy Spirit. But I do not know how those who contrive everything bring the appellation of divinity to an indication of nature, as if they had not heard from Scripture that nature is not subject to appointment. Moses was appointed god of the Egyptians, when the one delivering the oracle said to him: "I have given you as a god to Pharaoh." Therefore, the appellation bears an indication of some authority, whether of oversight or of activity. The divine nature, however, in all the names conceived concerning it, remains unexpressed as to what it is, as our argument holds. For learning of Benefactor and Judge, Good and Just, and all such things, we are taught differences of activities; but we are no more able to know the nature of the one acting through the understanding of the activities. For when one gives an account of each of these names and of the nature itself about which the names are, he will not give the same account of both. And things whose account is different also have a different nature. Therefore, the essence is one thing, for which no revealing account has yet been found, and the meaning of the names about it is another, named from some activity or dignity. Now, that there is no difference in the activities we find from the commonality of the names; but of the variation according to nature we apprehend no clear demonstration, since, as has been said, the identity of the activities suggests the commonality of nature.

Whether, then, divinity is a name of activity, so that, as there is one activity of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, we say that divinity also is one; or whether, according to the opinions of the many, the name of divinity is indicative of nature, because we find no variation in the nature, it is not unreasonable that we define the Holy Trinity as one divinity. To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium. You have worthily, with your own diligence and zeal, of which I am always an admirer, taken thought concerning the affairs of the Church of the Isaurians. That it would be more beneficial for all if the care were divided among more bishops is, I think, evident even to anyone at all. For this did not escape your intelligence, but you have both well indicated how matters stand and made them known to us. Since, however, 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 administered more precisely by more persons, we, through the unsuitability of those called, inadvertently cast the matter into contempt and instill in the people a practice of indifference. For you yourself know that, for the most part, the characters of those who are ruled become like those of their rulers. So perhaps it is better to put forward one approved man, if indeed this too is easy, as protector of the city and to entrust to his risk the management of each detail, provided only that he is a servant of God, a blameless worker, not looking to his own interest but to that of the many, that they may be saved; who, if he knows himself to be too small for

the care, he will take on workers for the harvest. If, then, we find such a man, I confess that one is worth many and more beneficial to the Churches and safer for us to manage the care of souls in this way. But if this is not easy, let us first make haste to give leaders to the small townships, that is, the mother-villages that have from ancient times held a bishop's throne, and then we shall set up the bishop of the city, lest the one put forward become an obstacle to our subsequent arrangement, and we immediately begin to fight among ourselves because we wish to rule over more, and he does not accept the ordinations of bishops. But if this is burdensome and time does not permit, let your wisdom make this effort: to have the Isaurian define his own circle, so that he may ordain some of the neighboring people. The remainder will be kept in store for us, to give at the appropriate time to all the rest bishops whom we ourselves judge to be more authoritative, after testing them through much examination. We asked George, as your piety commanded, and he said what your reverence also reported, concerning which we must keep silence, casting the care of the house upon the Lord. For I trust in the holy God that he will give understanding to deliver us from the difficulties in another way and to provide us a life free from grief.

If, then, this does not seem good, deign yourself to send me a memorandum concerning what rank it is necessary to exert effort for, so that we may begin to ask each of our friends who are in power for this favor, either gratis or at a moderate price, as the Lord may prosper us. I wrote to brother Valerius, as you commanded. The affairs of Nyssa are similar to those left by your Piety and are progressing for the better through the cooperation of your prayers. However, those who then broke away from us, some went to the camp, others remain awaiting the news from there. But the Lord is able to render their hopes vain and to make their return ineffective. Philo, interpreting the manna, said, as if taught from some Jewish tradition, that its quality is such that it changes according to the imagination of the eater, and that it is in itself like a grain boiled in honey, but provides now the taste of bread, now of meat, and of meat of such a kind, whether of bird or land animal, now of vegetable, and of the vegetable according to each one's desire, and of fish, so that the specific quality of each kind is accurately preserved in the taste of the eater. The Scripture knows chariots having three riders, because the other chariots have two riders, the charioteer and the armed man; but those of Pharaoh had two fighting men and one holding the reins of the horses.

Symposius sent us a therapeutic and communitarian letter, to which we replied and sent the letter to your reverence, so that, after approving it thoroughly, you might order it to be sent to him, clearly with the addition of your own letter as well. Be strong, cheerful in the Lord, praying for me, and may you be granted to me and to the Church of God by the philanthropy of the Saint. To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium: Upon encountering the letter of your reverence, we felt great gratitude to God, because we found traces of ancient love in the words of the epistle. For you did not suffer what the many do, nor did you act contentiously by not beginning the affectionate communication yourself, but, as one educated in the greatness that comes from humility to the saints, you chose to appear before us through second place. For this is the law of victory among Christians: even the one who accepts having less is crowned. So that we may not fall short of this good zeal, behold, we too respond to your dignity and show our intention, that, with the harmony in faith being strengthened for you by the grace of God, there is nothing else hindering us from being one body and one spirit, as we were called in one hope through the calling.

It is therefore for your love to add to the good beginning what follows: to gather around yourself those of one mind, and also to indicate the time and place of the meeting, so that, by the grace of God, having recovered one another in the ancient form of love, we may administer the Churches, welcoming the brothers coming from each side as our own members, sending them forth as to our own people and receiving them again as from our own. For this was once the boast of the Church, that from the ends of the inhabited world to the ends, supplied with small tokens, the brothers from each Church found all as fathers and brothers; which now, along with other things, the enemy of the Churches of Christ has taken from us, and we are confined to cities, and each of us holds the neighbor in suspicion. And what else have we done but cooled the love by which alone our Lord said his disciples are characterized? And if it seems good, first get to know one another among yourselves, so that we may know with whom our agreement will be. And thus, by common consent, having chosen some place unobjectionable to both and a time suitable for the journeys, we shall 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 philanthropy of the Saint.

To Sophronius the Magistrate. If you received a double grace, in that you wrote to us with unsurpassable zeal for good works—one grace for receiving the letter, and another for serving our need—how great must we consider the grace we have, having encountered the letters of your most delightful voice and seeing the requested need fulfilled with such speed? So we gladly received what was sent because of its own nature, and we welcomed it much more gladly because you are the one who presided over its composition. May the Lord grant us to see you soon, so that we may confess the grace from the tongue and enjoy all the good things in you together. To Meletius the Chief Physician. We do not even have the means to escape the hardships of winter that the cranes have, but perhaps we are no worse than the cranes in foreseeing the future; yet in the freedom of life we fall short of the birds as much as we are barely short of being able to fly. For first, some preoccupations with worldly affairs detained me; then continuous and violent fevers so consumed my body that something even thinner than me appeared—I myself of myself. Then attacks of quartan fevers lasting for more than twenty cycles. And now, when I seem to have been freed from the fevers, I am so weakened that I fall short of a spider's web in this respect. Hence every road is impassable for me, and every gust of wind brings more danger than the high seas do to sailors.

It is necessary, therefore, to be hidden in a chamber and to await the spring, if indeed we can endure until then, and not fail beforehand because of the evil that is established in our vitals. But if the Lord preserves us with his great hand, we will most gladly reach your remote abode, and most gladly embrace you, our dear head. Only pray that our life be ordered for the benefit of the soul. To Zoilus. What are you doing, O admirable one, anticipating us in the measure of humility? For you, who are so accomplished in education and know how to write, as your letters show, nevertheless deem it worthy to seek pardon from us, as if for some bold undertaking that exceeds your worth. But ceasing this irony, write to us on every pretext. For if we have any share in letters, we will most gladly encounter the writings of a learned man; and if we have been taught by Scripture how great the good of love is, we consider the conversation of a man who loves us to be of utmost value. May it be that you write of the good things we pray for you: health of body and prosperity of your whole household. As for our affairs, know that they are no more tolerable than usual. It is enough to say this and to show you the weakness of our body. For the excess of illness that now holds us is neither easy to describe in words nor to be believed in deed, if indeed something more than what you yourself knew has been found in us regarding illness. But it is the work of the good God to give us strength to bear with patience the blows inflicted on our body for our benefit by the Lord who benefits us.

To Euphronius, Bishop of Colonia in Armenia. Because Colonia, which the Lord has given to be governed by you, is far removed from the regions that are traveled, often, even when we write to the other brothers throughout Lesser Armenia, we send letters to your reverence reluctantly, expecting no one to be there to convey them as far as those places. But now, either expecting you to be present or that the letter will be forwarded by the bishops to whom we have written, we write to your reverence and greet you through this letter, at once indicating that we seem still to be above the earth, and at once exhorting you to pray for us, that the Lord may lessen the afflictions and lead away from us this great weight of pain now pressing upon our hearts, like some cloud. This will happen, if he grants a swift return to the most God-beloved bishops who are now in dispersion, paying penalties for piety. To Aburgius. That you dart about like the stars, rising now in one part of the barbarian country, now in another, at one time providing rations for the military, at another appearing before the Emperor with splendid array—the rumor, messenger of good things, does not cease announcing to us. And we pray to God that your enterprise proceed according to plan, that you advance to great heights, and that you appear at some time to the fatherland, while we are still above the earth and draw in this air. For we have as much share in life as merely to breathe.

To Ambrosius, Bishop of Milan. Great and many are the gifts of our Lord, and neither their magnitude is measurable nor their number countable. One of the greatest gifts, for those who receive the graces with discernment, is this present one: that, although we are separated by the distance of place, He has granted us to be joined to one another through address in letters. And He has bestowed upon us a twofold mode of acquaintance: one through personal encounter, the other through the converse of the letter. Since, then, we have come to know you through what you have uttered, and we have come to know not the bodily character impressed upon our memories, but the beauty of the inner man learned through the variety of your words—because each of us speaks from the abundance of the heart—we have glorified our God, who in every generation chooses those who are pleasing to him: who formerly raised up a ruler for his people from the flocks of sheep, and strengthened Amos from the goat-herd through the Spirit and elevated him to be a prophet, and now has drawn a man from the imperial city, entrusted with the rule of an entire nation, lofty in thought, in splendor of lineage, in distinction of life, in power of words, conspicuous in all things pertaining to life, into the care of the flocks of Christ. He, having cast aside all the advantages of life and considered them a loss in order to gain Christ, has taken up the helm of the great and renowned Church of Christ, famous for its faith in God.

Lead on, then, O 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 presidency of the Apostles. Strive in the noble contest, correct the infirmities of the people, if the passion of Arian madness has touched anyone, renew the ancient footprints of the Fathers, and on the foundation of love toward us which you have laid, be eager to build by the continuity of your addresses. For thus we shall be able to be near one another in spirit, even if we are separated by a vast distance in our earthly dwelling. Your ambition and zeal concerning the most blessed Dionysius the bishop bear witness to your entire love for the Lord, honor toward those who have gone before, and diligence concerning the faith. For the disposition toward the faithful among fellow servants refers back to the Master whom they have served, and he who honors those who have contended for the faith is manifestly possessed of equal zeal for the faith, so that this one act bears witness to much virtue. We also make known to your love in Christ that the most zealous brothers, who were preferred by your reverence for the service of the good work, first brought praise to the whole clergy through the propriety of their conduct; for in their own decorum they indicated the stability of all. Then, with all zeal and diligence, they dared to venture upon an impassable winter, and with all vigor they persuaded the faithful guardians of the blessed body to yield to them the safeguards of their own life.

And know that neither the authorities nor the powers of men would ever have been able to compel those men, had not the steadfastness of purpose of these brothers prevailed upon them to grant permission. The presence of our most beloved and reverend son Therasius the fellow presbyter contributed especially to the accomplishment of what was earnestly sought; he voluntarily undertook the labor of the journey, and he both checked the vehemence of the zeal of the faithful there and, persuading the opponents by argument, took up the relics with the presbyters and deacons and many others who fear the Lord, with due reverence, and preserved them for the brothers. Receive them with as much joy as the keepers sent them forth with sorrow. Let no one doubt, let no one question: this is that invincible athlete. The Lord recognizes these bones, which contended together with the blessed soul. He will crown them together with her on the day of his just recompense, according to what is written: that we must stand before the tribunal of Christ, so that each may receive according to what he did through the body. One coffin received that precious body; no one lay near him; the burial was distinguished; the honor was that of a martyr. Christians, those who hosted him, with their own hands both laid him to rest then and took him up now. They wept as for a father and protector lost, but they set your joy above their own consolation. Those who handed over

Therefore, the reverend men who received you are precise. Nowhere is there falsehood, nowhere deceit; we bear witness. Let the truth be free from slander on your part. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata. After the letter that was brought to us by the officials, I received one other that was sent to us after that. We ourselves have sent letters, not many, because we did not meet with those traveling to you, but more than four, in which we also forwarded the letters brought to us from Samosata, sealed with the first letters of your piety, to the most venerable brother Leontius, the exisotes of Nicaea, asking through him that they be conveyed to the one caring for the house of the most venerable brother Sophronius, so that he might attend to their delivery to you. Since, then, the letters pass through many hands, it is likely that the preoccupation or negligence of one person becomes the cause of your reverence not receiving them. Therefore, we ask you to pardon the scarcity of letters. As for the fact that we did not send someone from among ourselves, you yourself rightly sought this with your own understanding and reproached us. But know that the winter with us has been so severe that all roads were blocked until the days of Easter, and we had no one who was confidently disposed toward the difficulties of the journey.

For even if our clergy seems to be somewhat populous, yet the men are unpracticed in traveling, because they neither engage in commerce nor choose to spend time abroad, but the majority ply sedentary trades, deriving from them their daily livelihood. For instance, this brother whom we have now sent to your reverence, having summoned him from the countryside, we have employed him as a bearer of our letters to your holiness, so that he may clearly report our affairs and bring back from there to us, swiftly and clearly by the grace of God, what is needed. And we have held back the most beloved brother Eusebius the reader, who has long been eager to go to your piety, waiting for the mildness of the weather. And now, indeed, I am in no ordinary concern, lest his unfamiliarity with travel cause him distress and provide an occasion for illness to a body that is readily prone to weakness. As for the innovations that have occurred in the East, it is superfluous for us to indicate them by letter, since the brothers themselves can accurately report them from their own knowledge. Know, my most honored head, that when I was writing this, I was in such a poor state of health that all hopes of living have now abandoned me. For it is not even possible to enumerate the multitude of symptoms that have come upon me, and the weakness, and the magnitude of the fevers, and their malignancy—what they are like; except that from all this one thing is gathered: that we have now completed the time of our sojourn in this wretched and painful life.

To Amphilochius on the Canons. Having long ago answered the questions proposed to us by your reverence, I did not send the letter, being occupied partly by the long and dangerous illness, and partly by the lack of those who serve as couriers. For even among us there are few who are both experienced in travel and prepared for such services. So, having learned the reasons for the delay, grant us your forgiveness. We admired both your love of learning and your humility, that you, entrusted with the office of teaching, deign to learn, and to learn from us, to whom no great knowledge belongs. But nevertheless, since you deign, out of fear of God, to do a thing not easily done by another, it is necessary that we also join with your zeal and good earnestness, even beyond our strength. You asked us about Bianus the presbyter, whether he is acceptable for the clergy on account of the oath. But I know that a certain common rule has already been set forth concerning all those who swore together with the clergy of Antioch, namely, that they should abstain from public assemblies, but privately perform the functions of presbyters. And this same provision grants him freedom for his own ministry, because the priesthood is not in Antioch, but in Iconium, which, as you yourself wrote to us, he exchanged for residence in Antioch. Therefore, that man is acceptable, provided that by your reverence he is required to repent of the facility of the oath which he swore before the unbelieving man, not being able to bear the annoyance of that small danger.

Concerning virgins who have fallen away, who have professed to the Lord a life of chastity, and then, because they have succumbed to the passions of the flesh, repudiate their own covenants: our fathers, gently and mildly accommodating the weaknesses of those who slip, legislated that they be received after a year, ordering it similarly to the case of those who marry a second time. But it seems to me, since by the grace of God the Church, as it advances, becomes stronger and the order of virgins is now increasing, to attend carefully both to the matter as it appears in intention and to the meaning of Scripture, which it is possible to discover from the context. For widowhood is inferior to virginity; therefore, the sin of widows is much less than that of virgins. Let us then see what is written by Paul to Timothy: "Refuse younger widows. For when they have become insolent against Christ, they wish to marry, having the condemnation that they have repudiated their first faith." If, then, a widow is subject to a very heavy condemnation as having repudiated her faith in Christ, what must we consider concerning the virgin, who is a bride of Christ and a sacred vessel dedicated to the Lord? It is a great sin even for a slave to give herself in secret marriages, to fill the house with corruption, and to insult the owner through a wicked life; but how much more grievous it is for the bride to become an adulteress and, having dishonored the union with the bridegroom, to give herself over to licentious pleasures. Therefore, the widow, as a corrupted slave, is condemned; but the virgin is subject to the condemnation of an adulteress.

Just as we call a man who has intercourse with another's wife an adulterer, and do not admit him to communion until he has ceased from the sin, so evidently we shall act also in the case of the man who has a virgin. But it is necessary for us now to stipulate beforehand that a virgin is one who has voluntarily offered herself to the Lord, renounced marriage, and chosen a life in sanctity. We accept the professions only from the age at which the person has the full use of reason. For it is not proper to regard childish utterances as binding in such matters, but one who has reached the age of sixteen or seventeen, being mistress of her own judgment, after being examined at length, and then persisting and earnestly entreating to be received, should then be enrolled among the virgins, and her profession should be confirmed, and its violation must be punished without fail. For many parents, brothers, and other relatives bring girls forward before the proper age, not because the girls are themselves moved toward celibacy, but for some worldly advantage of their own. Such persons we must not readily accept, until we have clearly examined their own intention. As for professions of men, we know of none, except that some have enrolled themselves in the order of monks, who are understood, by tacit consent, to have accepted celibacy. However, even in their case, I think it proper that this should take precedence: that they be questioned and that their

we require from them a clear confession, so that when they turn to a flesh-loving and hedonistic life, we may subject them to the penalty for fornicators. As for women who, while in heresy, professed virginity and then afterwards chose marriage, I do not think these should be condemned. For whatever the law says, it speaks to those within the law. But those who have not yet submitted to the yoke of Christ do not even recognize the legislation of the Lord. So they are acceptable to the Church, having along with all others the forgiveness for these things through faith in Christ. And in general, matters that occurred during the catechumenate are not brought to account. These, of course, the Church does not receive without baptism. So the priority of birth is most necessary in these matters. If a man living with a woman, when, not content with marriage, falls into fornication, we judge such a man a fornicator and extend his penance longer; but we have no canon to subject him to the charge of adultery, if the sin is with a free woman not bound by marriage; because the adulteress, it is said, "is polluted and will be polluted," and will not return to her husband, and "He who keeps an adulteress is foolish and impious"; but the fornicator will not be excluded from cohabitation with his own wife. So the wife will receive her husband returning from fornication, but the husband will send away the woman polluted from his house. And the reasoning for these things is not easy, but custom has so prevailed.

Those who have women by abduction, if they have taken them from others to whom they were previously betrothed, must not be received before they are taken from them and placed at the disposal of those who originally betrothed them, whether they wish to take them or to withdraw. But if someone takes a woman who is free, she must be taken away and restored to her relatives, and it must be left to the judgment of her relatives, whether they be parents or brothers or any others who have authority over the girl; and if they choose to give her to him, the marriage stands, but if they refuse, he must not be forced. However, the man who has a woman through seduction, whether secret or more violent, must necessarily undergo the penalty for fornication. The penance is defined as four years for those who fornicate. In the first year they must be expelled from the prayers and weep at the door of the church; in the second year they are to be admitted to the hearing; in the third year to penance; in the fourth year to standing with the people while abstaining from the offering; and then they are to be permitted communion of the good. Concerning those who marry two sisters or are married to two brothers, a short letter has been issued by us, a copy of which we sent to your reverence. But the man who takes his own brother's wife will not be received before he separates from her. A widow who has been enrolled in the number of widows, that is, one who is served by the Church, the Apostle judged to be disregarded if she marries. But for a man who is widowed, no law is imposed, but the penalty for digamists is sufficient for such a one.

A widow who has reached the age of sixty, if she chooses again to cohabit with a man, shall not be deemed worthy of communion of the good until she ceases from the passion of impurity. If, however, we count her as under sixty years, the fault is ours, not the woman's. He who keeps as wife a woman he has corrupted himself shall undergo the penalty for the corruption, but shall be permitted to keep the woman. Fornication is not marriage, nor even the beginning of marriage. Therefore, if it is possible to separate those united in fornication, this is best. But if they are wholly attached to the cohabitation, let them acknowledge the penalty for fornication, but let them be dismissed, lest something worse occur. Concerning the presbyter who inadvertently became entangled in an unlawful marriage, I have prescribed what was necessary: he is to share in the seat of honor, but to abstain from the other functions. For such a one, pardon is sufficient. But to bless another, when one ought to tend his own wounds, is inconsistent. For blessing is the transmission of sanctification. And how shall one who does not have this because of a transgression from ignorance transmit it to another? Therefore, let him bless neither publicly nor privately, nor distribute the body of Christ to others, nor perform any other liturgy, but content with the presidency, let him weep before the Lord that the lawless act from ignorance be forgiven him. Moreover, that matter of someone vowing to abstain from pork seemed to me ridiculous. Therefore, deign to teach them to abstain from such uneducated prayers and promises; but permit the use to be indifferent. For no creature of God is to be rejected when received with thanksgiving.

Thus the prayer is laughable, not the abstinence necessary. Rulers, however, who swear to do evil to their subjects ought to be treated with every care. The treatment for these is twofold: one, that they be taught not to swear rashly; the other, that they not persist in their evil judgments. So if someone is bound by an oath to do evil to another, let him show repentance for the rashness of the oath, but let him not, under the pretense of piety, confirm his own wickedness. For even Herod did not benefit from keeping his oath, who, in order not to be perjured, as it were, became the murderer of the prophet. Since oath-taking is forbidden altogether, much more is an oath taken for evil purposes to be condemned. Therefore the one who swears must change his mind, not strive to confirm his own impiety. Consider the absurdity more broadly: if someone were to swear to gouge out his brother's eyes, would it be good for him to carry this out? Or to kill? Or in general to transgress some commandment by an oath? For I have sworn and I have kept, not the sin, but to guard the judgments of your righteousness. Just as the commandment ought to be confirmed by immutable judgments, so sin ought in every way to be invalidated and obliterated. Concerning those who abduct, we have no ancient canon, but we have made our own judgment: that they and those who abduct with them be excluded from prayers for three years. But what is not done by force is blameless, when there is no corruption and no theft is involved in the matter. The widow is self-determining, and it is up to her to follow. So we need not be concerned about the outward forms.

If a woman, after her husband has departed and is missing, before she is certain of his death, cohabits with another man, she commits adultery. Clerics who commit a sin that incurs the death penalty are deposed from their rank but are not excluded from communion with the laity. "For you shall not exact vengeance twice for the same thing." A woman who conceives on the road and neglects the offspring shall be subject to the charge of murder. Our fathers did not order that women who have committed adultery and either confess out of piety or are in any way convicted be publicly exposed, lest we provide a cause of death for those convicted; but they ordered them to stand without communion until the time of penance is completed. In the case of the woman who has been abandoned, one must examine the cause of the abandonment; and if she is found to have departed without reason, the man is worthy of pardon, but the woman of a penance. Pardon will be given to him for the purpose of communing with the Church. Women soldiers who marry while their husbands are missing are subject to the same rule as those who, due to their husbands' absence, do not await their return; however, the matter has some leniency here because the presumption of death is stronger. After the other woman has been removed, the man who married her will be charged with adultery for the first marriage, but for the second he will be free from liability. Daughters who follow a man against their father's will commit fornication; but if the parents are reconciled, the event is considered to receive a remedy; however, they are not immediately restored to communion, but will be subject to a penance of three years. A woman who lives with an adulterer is an adulteress for the entire time. A woman who gives herself to a man without her master's consent has committed fornication.

She who afterward entered into a marriage with full publicity was married. So that the former is fornication, this is marriage. For the agreements of those under authority have no stability. A woman who has authority over herself in her widowhood may cohabit with a man without reproach, if there is no one to break up the cohabitation, the Apostle having said: "But if the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord." Marriages without the consent of those in authority are fornications. Therefore neither while the father is alive nor while the master is alive are those who come together blameless, but if the masters consent to the cohabitation, then it receives the stability of marriage. Whoever gives a fatal blow to his neighbor is a murderer, whether he struck first or in self-defense. The deaconess who committed fornication with a pagan is admissible to communion, and she will be admitted to the offering in the seventh year, provided she lives in chastity. But a pagan who after faith again resorts to idolatry returns to his vomit. We, however, no longer permit the body of the deaconess, as consecrated, to be used for carnal purposes. If anyone, having taken the name of Christianity, insults Christ, he derives no benefit from the appellation. A woman who, in ignorance, married a man temporarily abandoned by his wife, and was then dismissed because the former wife returned to him, committed fornication, but in ignorance. Therefore she will not be barred from marriage. Yet it is better if she remains as she is. Encratites, Sackbearers, and Apostolics are subject to the same rule as Novatians, because a canon was pronounced concerning the latter, though a different one, while matters concerning these have been passed over in silence. We, however, rebaptize such persons.

If among you the practice of rebaptism is forbidden, just as among the Romans it is for the sake of some economy that it is required on account of their baptism, let our argument have force, that, since just as the heresy according to them is a shoot of the Marcionists, who abhor marriage and reject wine and say that the creation of God is defiled, we do not receive them into the Church unless they are baptized into our baptism. For let them not say, "We were baptized into Father and Son and Holy Spirit," since they posit God as a maker of evils, in rivalry with Marcion and the other heresies. So, if this is agreed, it is necessary that several bishops come together and thus set forth the canon, so that there may be safety for the one who acts and credibility for the one who gives the answer concerning such matters. The woman abandoned by her husband ought, in my opinion, to remain. For if the Lord said, "If anyone leaves his wife, except for a reason of fornication, he makes her commit adultery," by calling her an adulteress he excluded her from communion with another. For how can the husband be liable as the cause of adultery, while the woman is blameless, she who is called an adulteress by the Lord on account of communion with another man? Violations that occur under compulsion are to be without liability. So also the female slave, if she was forced by her own master, is without liability. There is no law of trigamy. So a third marriage is not contracted by law.

Such things we regard as filth of the Church, but we do not subject them to public condemnation, since they are preferable to unrestrained fornication. To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium. Illnesses follow one after another upon us, and preoccupations with both ecclesiastical affairs and matters that trouble the Churches have held us throughout the whole winter and up to the time of this letter. Therefore it has not been possible for us either to send someone or to visit your reverence. We suppose that your circumstances are also similar, not in respect to illness—may it not be so; may the Lord grant lasting health to your body for the service of his commandments—but because the care of the Churches imposes the same distraction upon you as well. And now I was about to send someone for this very purpose, so that you might inform us about your condition. But since the most beloved son Meletius, while escorting the newly enlisted, reminded us that we might greet you through him, we gladly accepted the occasion for writing and hastened to the deacon of letters, a man sufficient even in place of a letter, both because of the truthfulness of his character and because he is ignorant of nothing concerning us.

Through this we entreat your reverence, first of all, to pray for us, that the Lord may grant to me release from this burdensome body, to His Churches peace, and to you quiet and the opportunity, when you have arranged matters in Lycaonia in apostolic fashion as you have begun, to visit also our region, whether we are still abiding in the flesh or have already been bidden to depart to the Lord, so that you, as your own—which indeed it is—may uphold our places, and may strengthen what is unsound, rouse what is sluggish, and refashion everything by the grace of the Spirit that is in you to what is pleasing to the Lord. Hold our most honored sons Meletius and Melitius, whom you know from afar and consider your own, as a deposit, praying for them. For this is sufficient for them for all security. Deign also to greet from us those who are with your holiness, and the entire clergy and the people shepherded by you, and our most God-beloved brothers and fellow ministers. Remember the memory of the most blessed martyr Eupsychius, and do not wait for a second reminder, nor make your response a matter of fixed term, but anticipate and gladden us, if indeed we are still on earth. Until then, may you be preserved for us and for the Churches of God, strong in the Lord, praying for us, by the grace of the Holy One.

To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. For many reasons I desire to meet with you, so that I may use you as a counselor concerning the matters at hand, and generally so that, having seen you after a long time, I may have some consolation for your absence. But since the same things have hindered us both—the illness that befell you and my more chronic infirmity, which has not yet left me—let us both grant forgiveness to each other, if you wish, so that we may release one another from the charge through ourselves. To Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. In any case, meeting with your reverence is of great value to me, but now especially so, when the matter that brings us together is of such a kind. But since the remnants of my infirmity are such that they do not permit me even the slightest movement—for, having traveled by carriage the road as far as the martyrs’ shrines, I again relapsed into the same illness after a short time—it is necessary that I obtain forgiveness from you. If it is possible to postpone the matter for a few days later, I will be with you, by the grace of God, and will share in your concerns. But if the matters being pursued are urgent, then act, with God’s cooperation, on the things at hand, and count me among yourselves as present and as one who takes part in the things that are well done. Be strong and

cheerful in the Lord, and praying for me, may you be preserved for the Church of God by the grace of the Holy One. To the Bishops of the Coastlands. I have had a great desire for meeting with you, and always some obstacle has arisen to hinder my eagerness. For either the weakness of my body has hindered me (which you certainly are not unaware is present with me from my early youth until this old age, having grown up with me and disciplining me according to the just judgment of God who orders everything in wisdom) or the cares of the Churches or the struggles against those who rise up against the word of truth. Therefore up to the present I live in much distress and grief, knowing that what pertains to you has been neglected by me. For I, having heard from the God who for this reason condescended to the sojourn through flesh, that he might both regulate our life by the examples of what is to be done and announce to us through his own voice the Gospel of the Kingdom, that: "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another," and that as a farewell gift to his own disciples, when about to complete his economy in the flesh, the Lord left his own peace, saying: "I leave peace to you, I give you my peace," I cannot persuade myself that without love for one another and without being at peace with all as far as it concerns me, I can be called a worthy servant of Jesus Christ. For I have waited a long time to see if ever from your love also some visitation to us might occur.

For you are not unaware that, being publicly exposed to all, like rocks thrust out into the sea, we receive the fury of the heretical waves, and as they break around us they do not flood what lies behind us. And when I say "we," I do not refer to human power, but to the grace of God, who shows his own might 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 the Mighty One has bound the great and heavy sea with the weakest and most contemptible thing, sand. Since, then, something of this sort is also our situation, it would have been fitting that from your love some of your genuine members be sent frequently to visit us who are hard pressed, and that affectionate letters come to us; permit them more often, both to sustain our zeal and, if we are in any error, to correct it. For we do not deny that, being human and living in the flesh, we are subject to countless errors. But if in the time before this, either because you did not perceive what was proper you omitted what was due to us, most honored brothers, or because you were prejudiced by some slanders against us you did not consider us worthy of affectionate visitation, behold, now we ourselves take the initiative in writing, and we are ready to strip off the accusations brought against us in your presence, only if those who insult us will consent to stand face to face with us before your reverence.

For if we are refuted, we will recognize our sin, and you, after the refutations, will have forgiveness from the Lord by separating yourselves from communion with us sinners, and those who refute us will have a reward for having made public our hidden wickedness. But if you condemn us before the refutations, we will suffer no harm except the loss of our most precious possession, our love for you, while you will both suffer the loss of us and appear to fight against the Gospel, which says: "Does not our law judge a man, unless it first hears and knows what he does?" And he who heaps abuse upon us without bringing proof of what is said will appear to have brought an evil name upon himself by the improper use of words. For how else should one name a slanderer, if not by applying to him the name which he himself practices from the very deed? Therefore, let not the one who reviles us be a "slanderer," but an accuser; rather, let him not even accept the name of accuser, but let him be a brother admonishing in love and bringing reproof for correction. And let you not become hearers of revilings, but examiners of proofs; and let us not be left incurable, our sin not being made manifest to us. For do not let this reasoning hold you, that we who dwell on the coast are outside the passion of the many and have no need of assistance from others; so what need have we of communion with others? For the Lord separated the islands from the mainland by the sea, but bound the islanders to the mainlanders through love.

Nothing separates us from one another, brothers, unless we undergo the separation by our own choice. One is our Lord, one the faith, the same the hope. Whether you consider yourselves the head of the universal Church, the head cannot say to the feet: I have no need of you. Or whether you place yourselves in another order of the ecclesiastical members, you cannot say to us who are assigned to the same body: We have no need of you. For hands have need of each other, and feet support one another, and eyes, in their harmony, possess the clarity of perception. For our part, we confess our own weakness and seek your concord. For we know that, even if you are not present in body, you will provide us great benefit in the most critical times through the assistance of your prayers. But for you, it is neither seemly before men nor pleasing to God to employ such expressions as even the nations that do not know God do not use. But even those peoples, we hear, even if they consider their own country self-sufficient in all things, at least on account of the uncertainty of the future, embrace mutual alliance with one another and pursue intercourse as having some profit.

We, however, who belong to those fathers who legislated that the tokens of communion be carried from the ends of the earth to the ends of the earth through small characters, and that all be citizens and kin to all, now cut ourselves off from the inhabited world, and we are neither ashamed of our isolation nor do we consider the rending of concord a loss, nor do we shudder that the terrible prophecy of our Lord reaches us, who said, "Because lawlessness has multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold." No, most honored brothers, do not allow this, but even for the past, exhort us with peaceful letters and affectionate addresses, soothing the wound of our heart, which you inflicted upon us through past neglect, as if with some gentle touch. And if you yourselves wish to meet with us and investigate our infirmities through your own presence, whether they are truly as you hear, or whether our sins are reported to you as heavier by the additions of falsehood, let this also happen. We are ready to receive your presence with open hands and to submit ourselves to exact scrutiny; only let love precede what is done. Or if you wish to designate some place among yourselves where, having come, we may fulfill the debt of visitation owed to you and provide the possible experience of ourselves, so as to heal what has preceded and leave no room for slanders in the future, let this also happen.

For certainly, even if we bear a weak flesh, yet as long as we breathe we are obligated to omit nothing that contributes to the edification of the Churches of Christ. Do not, therefore, disregard this entreaty of ours, nor bring us to the necessity of disclosing our grief to others. For up to now, you know, brothers, we have kept the sorrow within ourselves, ashamed to announce to our far-off fellow communicants your alienation from us, lest we both distress them and give joy to those who hate us. I have sent this letter alone now, but I have written with the mind of all the brothers in Cappadocia, who also urged me not to employ just any chance deacon for the letter, but a man who will be able, through the epistle, to supply what we have omitted, fearing lest we cast the discourse into great excess, by his own understanding, which he has from the grace of God. We mean our most beloved and most reverend brother Peter the fellow presbyter, whom receive in love and send forth to us in peace, so that he may become for us a messenger of good things.

To the Neocaesareans We have been silent toward one another for a long time, most honored and beloved brothers, as if we had risen up in anger. Yet who is so resentful and implacable toward the one who has caused offense as to extend the anger of hatred over almost an entire human generation? This is what can be seen happening among us, though no just cause for our separation exists—at least as far as we ourselves know. On the contrary, many great things from the beginning have contributed to our extreme friendship and unity: first and foremost, the commandment of the Lord, who said explicitly, "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another"; and again, the Apostle clearly presenting to us the beauty of love, both when he declares that love is the fulfillment of the law, and when he sets the beauty of love above all great things together, in the words: "Even if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a resounding brass or a clashing cymbal. And even if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And even if I distribute all my possessions and give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing"—not as though each of the enumerated things could ever be accomplished without love, but because the saint wished, as he himself said, to ascribe to the commandment, in an extraordinary manner, its preeminence over all things.

Second, because if it is a great contribution to unity to have shared the same teachers, the same teachers of the mysteries of God and spiritual fathers are yours and ours—those who from the beginning founded your Church. I mean Gregory the Great and all those who in succession after him received the throne of the episcopate among you, one after another, like stars rising one after another, they trod in the same tracks, so as to leave discernible signs of their heavenly citizenship for those who wish to see. And if even bodily relationships are not to be rejected, but contribute greatly to unbreakable unity and communion of life, these rights also we have had toward you. For what reason, then, O most venerable of cities (for through you I address the whole city), has no gentle letter come from you, no friendly word, but your ears are open to those who attempt to slander? So that I must groan all the more, the more I see their endeavor succeeding, since the work of slander has its leader clearly visible; he who is known for many injustices is especially characterized by this wickedness, so that the sin has become his very name. Nevertheless, bear with my frankness: having thrown open both ears to those who slander us, you receive everything without examination into your souls

you accept, and no one distinguishes falsehood from truth. Who has ever struggled alone against wicked accusations? Who has been proven a liar in the absence of the slandered party? What statement is not plausible to the hearers, if the slanderer insists that it is so, while the slandered is neither present nor hears the blasphemies? Does not even the custom of life teach you in these matters that one who is to become an impartial and common hearer must not be wholly carried away by the one who speaks first, but must await the defense of the accused, so that truth may be revealed from the comparison of both sides? "Judge a righteous judgment" is one of the most necessary commandments for salvation. And I say these things not unmindful of the apostolic words, that he, fleeing from human tribunals, reserved his entire life for the judgments of the infallible court, in which he says: "But it is of the least concern to me whether I am judged by you or by a human day." Nevertheless, since false accusations made in advance have occupied your ears, and both our life and our faith concerning God have been slandered, knowing that the slanderer inflicts harm on three persons at once—for he wrongs the slandered, those to whom he speaks, and himself—I would have kept silent about my own harm, you well know, not because I despise your opinion (for how could I, since I am writing and struggling now to avoid losing it?), but because I see that among the three who are harmed, I am the one who suffers the least.

I am deprived of you, and you are deprived of the truth, and the one responsible for this separates me from you and alienates himself from the Lord, because it is not possible to be united with God through forbidden means. Therefore, I make these words more for your sake than for my own, and to rescue you from an intolerable harm. For what greater evil could one suffer than to be deprived of the truth, the most precious of all things? What then do I say, brothers? Not that I am without sin, nor that my life is not full of countless faults. For I know myself, and I do not cease to shed tears over my sins, if only I might somehow appease my God and escape the threatened punishment. But as for the one who judges our affairs, if he insists that his eye is pure, let him pick the specks from our eye. For we confess that we need much care from those who are healthy. But if he would not say this, and all the more he will not say it the purer he is (because it is characteristic of the perfect not to exalt themselves, since otherwise they will be liable to the pride of the Pharisee, who, justifying himself, condemned the publican), let him seek the physician with me and not judge prematurely, until the Lord comes who will reveal the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts. And let him also remember the one who said: "Do not judge, that you may not be judged" and "Do not condemn, that you may not be condemned." In any case, brothers, if our transgressions are curable, why does he not obey the teacher of the Churches who says: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort"?

If our lawlessness is incurable, why does he not confront us face to face and, by making our transgressions public, free the Churches from the harm we cause? Do not, therefore, tolerate the slander spoken against us under the breath. For even a single maidservant from the mill could do this, or one of the market-place rabble could display it with excess, those whose tongue is whetted for every kind of abuse. But they are bishops: let them be summoned to a hearing. There is a clergy in every parish of God: let the most approved be gathered. Let anyone who wishes speak with frankness, so that what occurs may be a refutation and not slander. Let him bring before our eyes the hidden wickedness of mine; but even then let him not hate, but admonish as a brother. We sinners are more deserving of pity from blessed and sinless men than of harsh treatment. But if the error concerns the faith, let the writing be shown to us; let an equal and common tribunal be established again. Let the accusation be read. Let it be examined whether the letter appears to be an accusation through the ignorance of the accuser rather than being condemned by its own nature. For many good things do not appear such to those who do not possess an accurate criterion of judgment, since even weights of equal heaviness do not seem equal when the scales are not balanced against each other. And honey has even seemed bitter to some whose sense of taste has been corrupted by disease. Likewise, an eye that is not healthy has not seen many of the things that exist, and has imagined many of the things that do not exist.

And so I often see the same thing happening with the power of words, when the judge falls short of the disposition of those who have written them. For the one judging the words and the one writing them must almost set out from the same preparation. Or is it that the works of farming cannot be judged by one who is not a farmer, and the discordant and harmonious in musical rhythms will not be discerned by one who does not possess the knowledge of music, but a judge of words will immediately be anyone who wishes, even if he can show neither a teacher of his own nor a time in which he learned, nor any understanding at all, small or great, of matters concerning words? I observe that also in the oracles of the Spirit it was not permitted to everyone to apply themselves to the examination of what was said, but only to one possessing the Spirit of discernment, as the Apostle taught us in the divisions of the gifts, saying: "For to one is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom, to another a 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 discernment of spirits." So, if our matters are spiritual, let the one wishing to judge our matters show himself to possess the gift of discernment of spiritual things. But if, as he himself reviles, they are from the wisdom of this world, let him show himself experienced in the wisdom of the world, and then we will entrust to him the votes of judgment. And let no one think that these things are devised by us as an escape from refutation. For I entrust to you, most beloved brothers, to conduct the examination of the charges against us yourselves.

Are you so slow of understanding that you need all advocates for the discovery of the truth? But if the matters appear to you indisputable on their own, persuade those who are contentious to abandon all strife. If, however, something seems to you also ambiguous, question us through some intermediaries capable of faithfully conveying our views, or even demand from us written proofs, if you wish. In any case, by every means, take care not to leave these matters unexamined. And what clearer demonstration of our faith could there be than that we were raised by a blessed woman who came from you? I mean the renowned Macrina, from whom we were taught the sayings of the most blessed Gregory, which were preserved through the continuity of memory; she herself kept them and, while we were still infants, molded and formed us with the doctrines of piety. And when we ourselves received the power of understanding, our reason being completed through age, having traversed much land and sea, if we found any who adhered to the transmitted rule of piety, we enrolled them as fathers and made them guides of our souls on the journey to God. And up to this very hour, by the grace of the one who called us with a holy calling to the knowledge of himself, we know that we have received no word hostile to sound teaching into our hearts, nor have we ever polluted our souls with the ill-named blasphemy of the Arians. But if we ever admitted into communion some who originated from that teacher, concealing the disease deep within and words

we received them, whether they spoke piously or at least did not oppose what was said by us, not because we entrusted to ourselves the entire judgment concerning them, but because we followed the verdicts previously delivered about them by our Fathers. For I, having received letters from the most blessed Father Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria—which I still hold in my hands and produce for those who inquire—in which he clearly prescribed that if anyone from the heresy of the Arians wished to convert, confessing the faith of Nicaea, such a person should be received without making distinctions about him, and having as partners in this doctrine all the bishops of Macedonia and Achaia, I considered it necessary to follow so great a man because of the trustworthiness of those who legislated, and at the same time, desiring to receive the reward of peacemaking, I enrolled those confessing this faith in the communion of the faithful. It is more just that our affairs be judged not by one or two who do not walk uprightly toward the truth, but by the multitude of bishops throughout the world united with us by the grace of the Lord. Let them be examined: Pisidians, Lycaonians, Isaurians, both Phrygias, as many Armenians as are your neighbors, Macedonians, Achaeans, Illyrians, Gauls, Spaniards, all Italy, Sicilians, Africans, the healthy part of Egypt, whatever remnant of Syria there is—who both send letters to us and receive them from us.

Of this you may learn both from the letters carried from there and be taught by those sent back to them from here, that we are all of one mind, holding one opinion. Therefore let him who flees communion with us not escape your notice, for he severs himself from the whole Church. Look about you, brothers, to whom your communion is directed; if you are not received by us, who will recognize you afterwards? Do not bring us to the necessity of devising something grievous concerning the Church so dear to us. Do not make me, who now hide in my own heart, groaning and lamenting to myself the evil of the times, that without cause the greatest Churches, which from ancient times held the rank of sisters to one another, are now divided; do not make me bewail these things to all the communicants together. Do not force me to utter words which until now I have kept hidden within myself by the bridle of reason. It is better for us to be removed from the scene, and for the Churches to be in harmony with one another, than for such great evil to be brought upon the peoples of God through our puerile pettiness. Ask your fathers, and they will tell you that, even if the parishes seemed to be divided by the location of place, yet in sentiment they were one and were governed by a single mind. The interminglings of the people were constant, the visits of the clergy were constant, and the shepherds themselves had such an abundance of mutual love that each of them used the other as teacher and guide in matters pertaining to the Lord.

To Elpidius the Bishop. Again we have moved our beloved fellow presbyter Meletius to journey to your love, carrying our salutations. Even though we had fully resolved to spare him because of the weakness he voluntarily brought upon himself by enslaving the flesh for the sake of the Gospel of Christ, nevertheless we judged it fitting for ourselves to address you through such persons as can easily supply from themselves whatever escapes the letter, and become, as it were, a living letter for both writer and receiver. And also fulfilling his own longing, which he has always had for your perfection ever since he came to experience the good things in you, we have now prevailed upon him to come to you. Through him we both discharge the duty of visitation and entreat 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 seems to your wisdom both fitting and necessary for us to come together and meet with one another and with the other most honored brother bishops who dwell along the coast, do you yourself indicate to us a place and time when this may be, and write to the brothers, so that, leaving behind each his own immediate occupation at the appointed time, we may be able to do something for the edification of the Church of God, and to remove the griefs now arising between us from suspicions, and to confirm the love, without which the Lord himself has defined that the working of every commandment is incomplete.

To Elpidius the Bishop, a consolatory letter. Now especially I am aware of the weakness of the body, when I see it so greatly hindering me in the benefit of the soul. For if things were proceeding according to my mind, I would not be addressing you through letters nor through intermediaries, but I myself in person would both fulfill the debt of love and enjoy the spiritual profit from nearby. But as it is, I am in such a state that I even willingly undergo the movements from my homeland which we necessarily make when visiting the parishes in our country. But may the Lord grant both to you strength and eagerness, and to me, in addition to the zeal I now have, also power, so that, as I have urged you, you may procure for us the enjoyment of coming to the Comanican territory. But I am afraid concerning your dignity, lest the grief over your own people become an obstacle for you. For I have learned that the death of a child has distressed you; the loss of this child, while it is naturally grievous to you as a grandfather, yet for a man who has already advanced so far in virtue and who knows the nature of human affairs both from experience over time and from spiritual teaching, it is fitting that the separation from even the dearest ones should not be entirely unbearable. For the Lord does not require the same of us as of ordinary people. For they live by custom, but we use the commandment of the Lord as the rule of our conduct, and the examples of the blessed men who have preceded us, whose greatness of mind was especially shown in times of crisis.

would have wished to be with you in person, sharing in your grief and offering what comfort I could. But since this is impossible, I do so by letter. Therefore, that you yourself may leave to life an example of courage and of true disposition toward the things hoped for, show yourself not bent by the affliction, but higher than the sorrows, enduring in distress while rejoicing in hope. Let none of these things become an obstacle to the meeting we hope for. For children, their age is sufficient to be blameless, but we are responsible to serve the Lord in the things appointed to us and to be fit in all respects for the administration of the Churches, for which our Lord has stored up great rewards for faithful and prudent stewards. To the Clergy of Neocaesarea. The unanimity of the hatred against us and the fact that all to a man followed the leader of the war against me persuaded me likewise to remain silent toward all, and to initiate neither a friendly letter nor any conversation, but to digest my own grief in quiet. But since one must not remain silent in the face of slanders—not that we may defend ourselves through contradiction, but that we may not allow falsehood to succeed and leave the deceived in their harm—it seemed necessary to me to add this to everything and to write to your

with understanding, even though we previously wrote jointly to the entire presbytery and were deemed worthy of no response from you. Do not flatter, brethren, those who bring evil doctrines upon your souls, nor consent to overlook, with your knowledge, the people of God being corrupted through impious teachings. Sabellius the Libyan and Marcellus the Galatian alone among all dared both to teach and to write these things which now among you, as their own discoveries, those who lead the people, stammering in tongue and not even sufficient to bring these sophisms and fallacious arguments to a plausible construction, attempt to set forth. These men declaim against us both speakable and unspeakable things and avoid our company in every way. For what reason? Do they not fear the refutation of their own evil teachings? They have so far lost shame before us as even to fabricate certain dreams against us, slandering our teachings as harmful; they, even if they should take into their own heads all the phantasms of the months of falling leaves, will be able to affix no blasphemy to us, since there are many in each Church bearing witness to the truth. And if they are asked the cause of this undeclared and implacable war, they speak of psalms and a manner of melody different from the custom prevailing among you, and some such things for which they ought to hide their faces.

We are accused, moreover, of having men who are practitioners of piety, who have renounced the world and all worldly cares, which the Lord compares to thorns that do not allow the word to come to fruition. Such men bear the deadness of Jesus in their body and, taking up their own cross, follow God. For my part, I would count it an honor for my whole life that these wrongs were mine and that I had men with me, under me as teacher, who had chosen this asceticism. Now, I hear that in Egypt there is such virtue among men, and perhaps some in Palestine also achieve the polity according to the Gospel. I hear also that there are some perfect and blessed men in the region between the rivers. But we are children in comparison with the perfect. And if women, having chosen to live evangelically, prefer virginity to marriage, enslave the pride of the flesh, and live in mourning for the blessed one, blessed is their choice, wherever they may be on earth. But from us, these things are still elementary and introductory to piety. If any disorder in the life of women is brought forward, I do not deign to defend them. But this I testify to you: that what Satan, the father of lies, has not deigned to say until now, these things fearlessly utter with unbridled mouths and fearless hearts.

I wish you to know that we pray to have companies of both men and women, whose citizenship is in the heavens, who have crucified the flesh together with its passions and desires, who do not concern themselves about food and clothing, but being undistracted and constant attendants upon the Lord, they apply themselves night and day to supplications. Their mouth does not speak the works of men, but they sing hymns to our God continually, working with their own hands in order to have means to give to those in need. As for the accusation concerning psalmody, by which our accusers especially frighten the simpler ones, I have this to say: that the customs now prevailing in all the Churches of God are harmonious and consistent. For from night our people rise early to go to the house of prayer, and in toil and affliction and with a gathering of tears they make confession to God, and finally rising from the prayers they proceed to psalmody. And now, divided into two parts, they sing antiphonally to one another, both strengthening the study of the Scriptures thereby and also

attention and the unswerving steadiness of their hearts. Then, having allowed one to begin the melody, the rest respond; and thus, having passed the night in the variety of psalmody, praying in the intervals, when day is already dawning, all together, as with one mouth and one heart, they offer the psalm of confession to the Lord, each making the words of repentance his own. If you flee from us on these grounds, you will flee from the Egyptians, you will flee from both Libyas, the Thebans, the Palestinians, the Arabs, the Phoenicians, the Syrians, and those settled near the Euphrates, and all without exception among whom vigils, prayers, and common psalmody are honored. But, it is said, these things were not so in the time of the great Gregory. But neither were the litanies which you now practice. And I do not say this to accuse you; for I would wish that all of you live in tears and constant repentance, since we too do nothing other than offer litanies for our sins, except that we do not propitiate our God with human words, as you do, but with the oracles of the Spirit. That these things were not so in the time of the wondrous Gregory—what witnesses do you have? You who have preserved nothing of his practices until now. Gregory did not cover his head during prayers. How could he? He was a genuine disciple of the Apostle who said: "Every man praying or prophesying who has a covering on his head disgraces his head," and "A man ought not to cover himself, being the image and glory of God.

That pure soul fled from oaths, being worthy of communion with the Holy Spirit, content with "yes" and "no" because of the command of the Lord who said, "But I say to you, do not swear at all." That man could not bear to call his brother a fool, for he feared the Lord's threat. Anger, wrath, and bitterness did not issue from that mouth. He hated slander as something that does not lead into the kingdom of heaven. Envy and pride were banished from that guileless soul. He would not stand before the altar before being reconciled with his brother. A false word, artfully contrived for the slander of some, he abhorred, knowing that falsehood is born of the devil and that the Lord will destroy all who speak falsehood. If none of these things are in you, but you are pure of all, you are truly disciples of the disciple of the Lord's commandments. But if not, see that you are not straining out the gnat, being precise about the sound of the voice in psalmody while dissolving the greatest commandments. I have been led to these words by the necessity of defense, so that you may learn to cast out the beam from your own eyes and then remove the foreign specks. Yet we concede everything, even though nothing is unexamined by God. Only let the former things be strong, 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. But if not, as long as we breathe and are able to speak, it is impossible for us to be silent over such ruin of souls.

To Eulangius. You have been silent for a long time, and this though you are most talkative and have made this your practice and craft, always to speak and to show yourself through words. But Neocaesarea seems to be the cause of your silence toward us. And we seem to receive it as a favor to be remembered by those there, since the memory is not good, as the talk of those who hear goes. But you were long ago among those hated because of us, not among those who endure to hate us because of others. Be the same, then, in your letters, wherever you are, and remember us as is fitting, if you care at all for justice. And justice is, I suppose, to repay with equal love those who have taken the lead. An Untitled Letter of Apology. You have been allotted a share in our griefs and struggles on our behalf. This is evidence of a vigorous soul. For the God who administers our affairs provides greater contests of distinction to those capable of bearing great things. And you, then, have set your own life as a test of your virtue toward friends, like the furnace for gold. We pray, therefore, to God that the rest may become better and that you may remain like yourself; and that you may not cease to make such accusations as you have now made, charging us with lack of letters as a very great injustice. For this is the complaint of a friend, and expect to demand such debts. For I am not so unreasonable a debtor of friendship.

To the Most Learned Men in Neocaesarea. I had no need at all to make public my own opinion to you, nor to state the reasons why I am now in these parts. For I am not otherwise one of those who seek to show off, nor is the matter worthy of so many witnesses. But I think we do not do what we wish, but rather what our leaders urge us to do, since for my part, to be completely unknown has been more zealously sought than the desire to be conspicuous is for the ambitious. But since, as I hear, the ears of everyone in your city have been filled with talk, and there are some tale-makers, craftsmen of falsehood hired for this very purpose, who interpret my affairs to you, I did not think it right to allow you to be taught by a malicious opinion and a sordid voice, but rather to tell you myself how my affairs stand. I, both because of my childhood familiarity with this place (for I was raised here by my grandmother), and because of my subsequent lengthy sojourn here, when, fleeing the disturbances of the city, I learned that this place was suitable for philosophizing due to the quiet of the wilderness, and spent many successive years here, and because of the present dwelling of my brothers, having obtained a brief respite from the occupations that beset us, I gladly came to this remote spot, not to provide others with matters to deal with from here, but to attend to my own desire. What then is the need to resort to dreams and to hire dream-interpreters, and to make us the subject of a drunken story at public feasts? For I, even if the slanders were among others, would have presented you as witnesses of my own opinion.

And now I ask each of you to recall those ancient events, when the city summoned us to the care of the young, and an embassy of your men in authority was present; and after that, how all of you, pouring around us in a body—what did you not offer? What did you not promise? Yet you were unable to detain us. How then would the one who was then called and did not obey now attempt to force his way in uninvited? And how would the one who fled 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 sensible person would board a pilotless ship, nor approach a Church where those sitting at the helm themselves create the storm and the squall. For whence has the city become full of tumult, when some fled with no one pursuing, others withdrew with no one attacking, and all were terrified by oracle-mongers and dream-interpreters? Whence else do these things come? Or is it not clear even to a child that they come from the leaders of the multitude? The reasons for their enmity toward me it is not seemly for me to state.

to speak, and for you to perceive is very easy. For when the bitterness and the division have no excess in severity, and the explanation of the cause is utterly baseless and ridiculous, it is clear that the sickness of the soul occurs at the good of others, and is a private and primary evil for its possessor. To these things another pleasant feature is added. For, being scratched in the depth and pained, they are not permitted by shame to speak out their misfortune. This, then, is known not only from their dealings with us, but also from the rest of their life, as the affliction of their soul. And if it were unknown, it would be no great loss to the matters. But the truest reason for which they consider our company avoidable, perhaps hidden from most of you, I will teach. But listen. A distortion of faith is being contrived among you, hostile to the apostolic and evangelical doctrines, and hostile to the tradition of the truly great Gregory and of those after him down to the blessed Musonius, whose teachings are still ringing in your ears, evidently. For the evil of Sabellius, long ago set in motion but extinguished by the Fathers, these men now attempt to renew, who out of fear of refutations fabricate the dreams against us. But you, leaving aside the wine-laden heads, which the vapor rising from the hangover, then surging, deludes, hear from us who are awake and, because of the fear of God, cannot rest, the harm to you. Sabellianism is Judaism introduced under the guise of Christianity into the evangelical proclamation.

For the one who speaks of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as a single thing with many aspects, and sets forth the three as one hypostasis, what else does he do but deny the pre-eternal existence of the Only-Begotten? He also denies his economic sojourn among men, his descent into Hades, his resurrection, his judgment; and he denies the distinctive energies of the Spirit. But among you now I hear even more audacious things being dared than those of the vain-minded Sabellius. For they say—as those who have heard report—that the wise men among you insist and declare that the name of the Only-Begotten has not been handed down, but that the name of the Adversary exists, and that they exult and take great pride in this as in their own discovery. For it is said, they claim: "I came in the name of my Father, and you did not receive me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him." And because it is said: "Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," it is clear, they say, that the name is one. For it is not said "into the names," but "into the name." I write these things to you with a blush, because those guilty of these things are of our own blood, and groaning over my own soul, because I am compelled, like one boxing against two opponents, to strike down the perversions of the argument on both sides with refutations and to assign the proper force to the truth. For on one side the Anomoean tears us apart, and on the other, as it seems, Sabellius. But I exhort you not to pay attention to these abominable sophisms, which are capable of perverting no one.

But one must know that the name of Christ, which is above every name, is precisely that he is called Son of God, and according to Peter’s saying, “There is no other name under heaven given among men in which we must be saved.” As for the statement, “I came in the name of my Father,” one must understand that he says this because he ascribes to the Father the beginning and cause of himself. And if it is said, “Go and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” one must not suppose from this that a single name has been handed down to us. For just as one who says Paul and Silvanus and Timothy has spoken three names and bound them together with a conjunction, so too one who says “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” having spoken three, has linked them with a conjunction, teaching that a distinct meaning is subjoined to each name, because names are indicative of realities. And no one who partakes even a little of reason doubts that these realities have a distinct and self-complete existence. The nature of Father and Son and Holy Spirit is the same and the divinity is one, but the different names present us with defined and complete concepts. For it is impossible, unless the mind becomes unconfused in the particular properties of each, to fulfill the doxology to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If, then, they deny that they say and teach these things in this way, what we have striven for is accomplished. Yet I see that denial is difficult for them, because these words have many witnesses.