Epistulae

But we are not reviewing the past; let only the present be healthy. If they persist in the same things, we must necessarily cry out to other Churches as well about the calamity that has befallen you and cause letters from more bishops to reach you, which will break down this great mass of impiety that is being prepared. For either this will be of some use for the effort, or at any rate this present testimony will absolve us of responsibility before the Tribunal. Already they have set down these arguments in their own treatises, which they first sent to the man of God Meletius the bishop, and having received from him the appropriate responses, like mothers of monsters ashamed of the deformities of nature, so they themselves, having hidden the shameful offspring of their own labor in fitting darkness, are nursing them. They also made some attempt by letter against our like-minded brother Anthimus, bishop of Tyana, alleging that Gregory said in an exposition of faith that Father and Son are two in concept but one in hypostasis. But that this was said not dogmatically but polemically in the Dialogue with Gellianus—those who congratulate themselves on the subtlety of their minds were unable to perceive. In that dialogue there are many errors of those who copied it, as we will show from the very words, if God wills. Then, moreover, in persuading the pagan, he did not think it necessary to be precise about expressions, but sometimes even to yield to the custom of the one being refuted, so that he might not resist on the essential points.

Therefore you would find there many expressions which now provide the greatest strength to the heretics, such as "creature" and "product" and anything of that sort. And many things said concerning the connection with man are referred by those who hear the writings without instruction to the discourse concerning divinity, such as this also which is circulated by them. For it is necessary to know well that just as he who does not confess the commonality of substance falls into polytheism, so he who does not grant the particularity of the hypostases is carried away into Judaism. For our mind must, as it were, be supported by some underlying subject and, having impressed its distinct characters upon it, thus come into a state of contemplation of the desired object. For without conceiving the fatherhood and without considering that upon which this particular property is defined, how is it possible to admit the concept of God the Father? For it is not sufficient to enumerate differences of persons, but it is necessary to confess each person as existing in a true hypostasis. Since even Sabellius did not decline the fabrication of persons without hypostasis, saying that the same God, being one in subject, is transformed according to the needs that arise on each occasion, now speaking as Father, now as Son, now as Holy Spirit. This error, long extinguished, is now revived by the inventors of this nameless heresy, who reject the hypostases and deny the name of the Son of God. If they do not cease speaking injustice against God, they must be lamented along with the deniers of Christ. We have necessarily set these things forth to you, so that the

Guard yourselves against harms. For truly, if one must liken evil teachings to deadly poisons, as your dream-interpreters say, these are hemlock and aconite and any other man-killing drug. These are soul-destroying poisons, not our words, which the wine-struck minds cry out, being full of fantasies due to their affliction; whom, if they were sober, they ought to know that the prophetic grace shines upon souls that are pure and cleansed of every stain. For just as it is impossible for a tarnished mirror to receive the reflections of images, so it is impossible for a soul preoccupied with worldly cares and darkened by the passions arising from the mind of the flesh to receive the illuminations of the Holy Spirit. For not every dream is immediately prophecy, as Zechariah says: "The Lord made a vision and a winter rain, because those who spoke uttered toils and spoke false dreams." But these men are also ignorant of that, those who, according to Isaiah, loving their bed, are drowsy with dreams, that often a work of deception is sent upon the sons of disobedience. And there is a false spirit which, entering into the false prophets, deceived Ahab. Knowing these things, they ought not to have been so puffed up as to ascribe prophecy to themselves, who are shown to fall short even of the accuracy of the soothsayer Balaam. He, summoned by the king of the Moabites with very great gifts, did not consent to utter a voice contrary to the will of God nor to curse Israel, whom the Lord does not curse.

If, then, the commandments of the Lord concur with their dreams' phantasies, let them be content with the Gospels, which need no assistance from dreams for their credibility. But if the Lord left us his own peace and gave us a new commandment to love one another, while the dreams suggest strife, division, and the obliteration of love, let them not give the devil an opportunity through sleep to mount their souls, nor let them make the phantasms from him more authoritative than the saving teachings. To Olympius. And having read the letter of your honor, I became more pleasant and cheerful to myself, and having come into conversation with your most beloved sons, I seemed to see you yourself. They, taking my soul, which was quite distressed, so disposed it that I forgot the hemlock among you, which the dream-mongers and dream-peddlers carry around against us for the favor of those who hire them. As for letters, I have written some, and I will give others later, if you wish. Only let there be some benefit from them to those who receive them.

To Hilarius. What do you think I have suffered, or what opinion I hold, when I arrived at Dazimon and learned that a few days after my presence your learnedness had departed? For not only because of the wonder I have had concerning you from childhood, from those very studies, I have always considered your conversation of great worth, but also because nothing is now so earnest as a truth-loving soul possessing a sound judgment of matters—which we believe is preserved in you. For we see that most of the rest, as if in horse races, are divided, some for these, others for those, and join in shouting with the partisans. But you, being above fear, flattery, and every ignoble passion, likely behold the truth with a healthy eye. For I perceive that you are not indifferent to the affairs of the Churches, since indeed you even sent us some letter concerning these matters, as you indicated in your recent writings, and I would gladly learn who received it to deliver it, so as to know the one who wronged me. For I have not yet encountered any letter from you to me on these matters. How much, then, do you think I would pay for your conversation, in order to make known to you what distresses me (for, as you know, even speaking brings some relief to those in pain), and to answer concerning the matters inquired about, not entrusting them to lifeless letters, but myself speaking each point clearly and going through them in person? For living words have more effective persuasion, and are no longer as susceptible to misrepresentation as written ones.

For indeed nothing is now left undared by anyone, since even those who were most trusted by us, whom we perceived, when we saw them among men, as being something greater than human, these have stooped to transmitting certain writings of someone, of whatever sort, as if they were ours, and on the basis of them to slander us among the brotherhoods, as if nothing were more to be fled by the pious than our name. For I, who from the beginning made it my business to be unknown, as I think no one else among those who have considered human weakness has done, now, as if having chosen the opposite, I have made myself known to all men, and am thus talked of everywhere on land, and I will add also on sea. For both those who practice the extreme limit of impiety and bring the godless dogma of dissimilarity upon the churches have their war against me, and those who steer the middle course, as they suppose, and, though starting from the same principles as those, do not follow the sequence of reasoning because it is contrary to the ears of the many, are vexed with me and wash me with reproaches as far as they can, and refrain from no plot, even though the Lord has rendered their attempts fruitless. How are these things not painful? How do they not make life grievous for me? I who consider the weakness of the flesh as the one solace for evils, by which I am persuaded that I will not long remain in this wretched life. And so much for these matters. As for you, I exhort you, in the afflictions of the body, to bear yourself magnanimously and worthily of the God who called us.

who, if he sees us receiving the present circumstances with gratitude, will either praise the things that cause pain, as in the case of Job, or will reward us with the great crowns of patience in our state after this life. The Untitled Letter on a Pious Man: The Lord who has granted me swift relief in my afflictions may himself grant you the relief of the rest which you have given us in the present visitation through your letter, fulfilling the reward for our humility in the true and great joy of the spirit by way of consolation. For I was somehow distressed in soul, having observed in a crowded gathering a certain beastly and utterly irrational indolence of the people and an old and incorrigible habit of evil among those who lead them. But when I saw the letters and the treasure of love in them, I recognized that sweet consolation has shone upon us who live in bitterness, bestowed by the one who manages our affairs. Therefore I also respond to your holiness, urging the customary entreaty, that you not cease praying for my pitiable life, lest I, having been immersed in the illusion of this life, should forget God, who raises the poor from the ground, or, having suffered some arrogance, fall into the judgment of the devil, or, being negligent of the stewardship, fall asleep under the

I may be caught by the master, or even through harmful deeds, adding to and striking the conscience of fellow servants, or being among the drunkards, and in the just judgment of God suffer what is threatened against wicked stewards. Therefore I beseech you, in every prayer, to entreat God that we be sober in all things, so that we may not become shame and reproach to the name of Christ at the revelation of the secrets of our heart on the great day of the appearance of our Savior Jesus Christ. Know that I am in expectation of being recalled to the camp on account of the insolence of the heretics, on the pretext of peace; and that, having heard this, the bishop so-and-so has written to us to hasten to be in Mesopotamia, and, having gathered together those of like mind there who strengthen the affairs of the churches, to set out with them to the Emperor. But perhaps my body itself will not suffice for the journey in winter. For the present, the matter does not appear necessary, unless you yourself advise otherwise. For I will await also the counsel of your reverence, so that my opinion may be strengthened. Therefore I ask that what has occurred to your perfection and godly wisdom be made known to us quickly through one of the zealous brothers. To Count Terentius. When we heard that your dignity had again been compelled to attend to public affairs, we were immediately disturbed (for the truth will be spoken), considering how it is against your will, having once been released from public cares and having devoted yourself to the care of your own soul, to be forced to return to the same.

Then, coming to the thought that perhaps the Lord, wishing to grant this one consolation from the countless pains that now beset the Churches among us, has again arranged for your reverence to appear in affairs, we were indeed more cheerful, as if about to meet with your honor at least once more before departing this life. But another report again seized us, that you are staying in Antioch and jointly administering the matters at hand with the great authorities. In addition to this report, a rumor reached us that the brothers of the party of Paulinus are in discussion with your rightness concerning union with us—and by "us" I mean those of the party of the man of God, Meletius the bishop. And I hear that they now carry letters from the Westerners, entrusting to them the episcopate of the Church of Antioch, while disregarding the most admirable bishop of the true Church of God, Meletius. And I am not surprised at this. For some are completely ignorant of the affairs here, while others, even those who seem to know, explain them to themselves more contentiously than truthfully. However, it is not at all unlikely that those men are ignorant of the truth, or even that the reason why the most blessed bishop Athanasius came to write to Paulinus is concealed. But we ask your perfection, who have those able to relate accurately the events that took place among the bishops during the reign of Jovian, to be instructed by them.

But since we accuse no one, and we pray to have love toward all, and especially toward those of the same faith, we rejoice with those who have received the letters from Rome. And if it contains some venerable and great testimony for them, we pray that it be confirmed as true through the works themselves. Nevertheless, not even for this reason can we ever persuade ourselves either to ignore Meletius or to forget the Church under him, or to consider the questions over which the division originally occurred as small and to think that they have little difference from the goal of piety. For I, not only if someone, having received a letter from men, is proud of it, would I ever submit to draw back on that account, but even if it came from the heavens themselves, if it does not agree with the sound teaching of the faith, I cannot consider it a partner of the saints. Consider, O admirable one, that the counterfeiters of the truth, those who introduce the Arian schism into the sound faith of the Fathers, put forward no other reason for not accepting the pious doctrine of the Fathers than the meaning of homoousios, which they themselves interpret wickedly and to the slander of the faith, saying that we declare the Son to be homoousios according to hypostasis. If we give them any occasion from being carried about by those who speak these or similar things through simplicity rather than wickedness, nothing prevents us from giving against ourselves irrefutable handles, and from constructing for them a strong heresy, for whom there is one study in the discourses of the Church: not to establish their own, but to slander ours.

What could be more grievous than this slander, and more capable of disturbing the many, than if some from among us should appear to say that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one hypostasis? Even if they very clearly dogmatize the distinction of the persons, yet because Sabellius previously said the same thing—that God is one in hypostasis, but is personified differently by Scripture according to the particular need of the occasion, and now puts on the paternal utterances when the time of that person is at hand, now those befitting the Son when he descends to our care or to other economic activities, and now assumes the person of the Spirit when the occasion demands utterances from such a person—if, then, some among us also appear to say that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in subject, while confessing three perfect persons, how will they not seem to provide clear and irrefutable proof that what is said about us is true? And that hypostasis and ousia are not the same, the brothers from the West themselves, I think, indicated in that, mindful of the narrowness of their own tongue, they handed over the name of ousia in the Greek language, so that, if there is any difference of meaning, it might be preserved in the clear and unconfused distinction of the terms. But if we too must state our opinion briefly, we will say this: that the relation which the common has to the particular, this relation ousia has to hypostasis.

Each of us both participates in being by the common definition of essence and is a particular person by the properties around him. So also there the definition of essence is common, such as goodness, divinity, or whatever else might be conceived; but the hypostasis is contemplated in the particularity of fatherhood, or sonship, or sanctifying power. If, then, they say the persons are without hypostasis, the argument has its absurdity on the face of it; but if they concede that they exist in a true hypostasis, let them both confess what they confess and also number them, so that both the doctrine of consubstantiality may be preserved in the unity of the Godhead and the knowledge of piety concerning Father, Son, and Holy Spirit may be proclaimed in the complete and entire hypostasis of each of those named. Nevertheless, I wish to persuade your reverence of this: that both you and everyone who cares for the truth in a manner similar to you and does not dishonor those contending for piety must await the leaders of the Churches, whom I set as pillars and foundation of the truth, to take charge of this union and peace, and I revere them all the more the farther they are banished, since separation is imposed on them as a punishment. I therefore beg you, keep yourself unprejudiced for us, so that we may have you to rest upon, whom God has given to all of us as a staff and support.

To Dorotheus the Presbyter. As soon as I found an opportunity, I wrote to the most admirable man Terentius the Count, thinking it less suspicious to write to him about the matters at hand through strangers, and at the same time wishing that no delay should occur in the matter for the most beloved brother Acacius. I therefore gave the letter to the assessor of the prefects' order, who was traveling by public post, and I instructed him to show the letter first to you. As for the road to Rome, I do not know how it is that none of your intelligence has reported that it is completely impassable in winter, the intervening country from Constantinople to our borders being filled with enemies. But if one must use the sea, there will be an opportunity, only if the most God-beloved bishop Gregory the brother deigns to undertake both the voyage and the embassy concerning such matters. For I myself see neither those accompanying him, and I know him to be completely inexperienced in the affairs of the Churches, and while his company is venerable and of great worth to a man of good will, to one who is lofty and haughty, sitting somewhere above and therefore unable to hear those speaking the truth to him from below, what benefit could the common good derive from the conversation of such a man, whose character is foreign to servile flattery? To Meletius, Bishop of Antioch. Many other journeys have taken us away from our homeland. For we went as far as Pisidia, so as to settle with the bishops there the matters concerning the brothers in Isauria.

From there, the journey to Pontus took us over, after Eustathius had sufficiently disturbed Dazimon and persuaded many there to break away from our Church. We went as far as our brother's little house, which, because of its proximity to the places near Neocaesarea, provided much cause for disturbance there and furnished an occasion for great insult against us. For some fled though no one pursued, and we were thought to be forcing ourselves in uninvited out of desire for the praises among them. When we returned from the rains and the discouragements, having gathered much illness, letters from the East immediately reached us, indicating that some letters from the West had been brought to those around Paulinus as if tokens of some authority, and that the schismatics of that party were greatly elated and exulting over the letters, and then that they were proposing a creed and were ready on this basis to unite with our Church. In addition to these things, this also was reported to us, that they had drawn the altogether excellent man Terentius into their zeal on their behalf, to whom I quickly wrote as far as I was able, restraining him from his impulse and teaching him the deception concerning them. To Amphilochius concerning the Canons. Having returned from a long journey (for I went as far as Pontus for the sake of ecclesiastical needs and for the inspection of necessary matters), and having brought back my body worn out and my soul moderately afflicted, when I took the letter of your reverence in my hands, I suddenly forgot everything, having received symbols of the voice dearest to me of all and of the most beloved hand.

From the letters, then, I became so much more cheerful, you must infer how highly I value your company, which may the Holy One arrange to take place where it is not burdensome and where you yourself may summon us. For it is not difficult for me, if you should come to the house at Euphêmiadês, to be together, both escaping the annoyances here and hastening to your unfeigned love. Perhaps, too, the sudden departure of the most God-beloved bishop Gregory, the cause of which remains unknown until now, makes the journey as far as Nazianzus necessary for me for another reason. As for the man concerning whom I had spoken to your perfection and whom you yourself now hoped was ready, know that he has fallen into a long illness and is now suffering in his eyes, from the old affliction and the disease recently added to it, and has become completely useless for ordinary activities. There is no other with us. So it is better, even if they entrusted the matter to us, that someone from among those very people be proposed. For one must consider these words to be of necessity, but their soul wishes what they sought from the beginning, that the leader be one of their own. If there is any of the newly baptized, whether it seems so to Makedonius or not, let that one be proposed. You will form him as is fitting, with the Lord cooperating with you in all things and granting the grace for this as well. As for the matter of the clerics, the canons have laid down without distinction, ordering that one penalty be defined for those who have fallen, namely the loss of service, whether they are in a rank or persist in a non-ordained service.

The woman who neglected the child on the road, if indeed she was able to save it and disdained to do so, either thinking to conceal the sin thereby or acting from a bestial and inhuman calculation, let her be judged as for murder. But if she was unable to care for it and the child perished through desolation and lack of necessities, the mother is pardonable. The widow who was a slave perhaps did not err greatly, choosing a second marriage under the guise of abduction. So she ought not to be accused on this account. For it is not the outward forms that are judged, but the intention. It is clear, however, that the penalty for digamy remains upon her. The distinctions among involuntary homicides I know I have previously written to your Piety, to the best of my ability, and I can say nothing beyond those; it is for your discernment to increase or diminish the penances according to the particular circumstances. Those who go out against brigands, if they are laymen, are excluded from communion of the good; if they are clerics, they are deposed from their rank. "For," it says, "everyone who takes a sword will die by the sword." He who has committed voluntary homicide and afterwards repented shall be without communion of the sacraments for twenty years. The twenty years shall be managed for him as follows. For four years he must stand outside the door of the house of prayer, weeping, and beseeching the faithful who enter to offer prayer for him, confessing his own transgression. After the four years he shall be received among the hearers and for five years shall depart with them. For seven years he shall depart praying with those in the state of prostration.

She will be admitted only among the faithful for four years, but will not partake of the offering. When these are completed, she will partake of the sanctified elements. The involuntary murderer shall be without communion of the sanctified elements for ten years. The ten years shall be arranged for him thus: for two years he shall weep, for three years he shall remain among the hearers, for four years he shall be a co-stander, and for one year he shall be admitted only, and in the following year he shall be received into the holy things. The adulterer shall be without communion of the sanctified elements for fifteen years: weeping for four years, hearing for five years, being a co-stander for four years, standing without communion for two years. The fornicator shall be without communion of the sanctified elements for seven years: weeping for two years, hearing for two years, being a co-stander for two years, and standing alone for one year; in the eighth year he shall be received into communion. The woman who has professed virginity and fallen from her promise shall fulfill the time of the sin of adultery in the arrangement of her own life. The same applies to those who have professed the monastic life and fallen away. The thief, if he repents of his own accord and accuses himself, shall be barred from communion of the sanctified elements for one year only; but if he is convicted, for two years. The time shall be divided for him into co-standing and standing, and then he shall be deemed worthy of communion. He who commits indecency with males shall be arranged the time of the one who transgresses in adultery. He who confesses his impiety with animals shall observe the same time in confession. The perjurer shall be without communion for ten years.

for two years weeping, for three years hearing, for four years prostrating, for one year standing only, and then deemed worthy of communion. One who confesses sorcery or poisoning will undergo the time of penance for murder, being managed as one who has convicted himself of that sin. A tomb-robber shall be without communion for ten years: weeping for two, hearing for three, prostrating for four, standing for one, and then received. Incest will undergo the time of penance for murder. The union of persons of prohibited kinship in marriage, if discovered to have occurred in sin, will receive the penalties of adulterers. A reader, if he has intercourse with his own betrothed before marriage, after being idle for a year shall be received back to reading, remaining without promotion. But one who marries by stealth without betrothal shall be removed from his service. The same applies to a server. A deacon, if he has defiled his lips and confesses to have sinned only to that extent, shall be suspended from the liturgy, but shall be deemed worthy to partake of the sanctified elements with the deacons. The same applies to a presbyter. But if anyone is discovered to have sinned more than this, whatever his rank, he shall be deposed. One who has known of any of the aforementioned sins and has not confessed, but has been convicted, shall himself be under penance for the same length of time as the perpetrator of the evils has been penalized. One who has given himself over to soothsayers or to persons of that sort shall himself be managed for the time of murderers.

The one who has denied Christ and transgressed the mystery of salvation must weep throughout the whole time of his life, and he owes confession, being deemed worthy of the sanctification at the time when he departs from life, by faith in the philanthropy of God. If, however, each of those who have fallen into the sins previously written becomes zealous in confessing, the one entrusted by the philanthropy of God with the power to bind and loose, if he should become more philanthropic, seeing the exceeding zeal of the confession of the sinner, so as to reduce the time of the penances, he will not be worthy of condemnation, since the history in the Scriptures makes known to us that those who confess with greater labor quickly attain the philanthropy of God. The one who has been defiled with his own sister, whether from the father or from the mother, shall not be permitted to enter the house of prayer until he desists from the unlawful and illicit act. After he comes to an awareness of the terrible sin, let him weep for three years, standing at the door of the oratories and begging the people as they enter for prayer, so that each, with compassion, may make earnest supplications on his behalf to the Lord. After this, let him be admitted for another three years to hearing only, and while hearing the Scriptures and the teaching, let him be cast out and not be deemed worthy of prayer. Then, if he has sought it with tears and prostrated himself before the Lord with contrition of heart and strong humility, let prostration be given to him for another three years.

And thus, when he has shown fruits of repentance worthy of it, in the tenth year let him be received into the prayer of the faithful without the offering, and after standing together in prayer with the faithful for two years, then at last let him be deemed worthy of communion of the good. The same pattern applies also to those who take their own brides. However, the one who abandons the woman lawfully joined to him and takes another is subject to the judgment of adultery according to the Lord's declaration. And it has been canonized by our Fathers that such persons should weep for a year, be hearers for two years, be prostrators for three years, and in the seventh year stand together with the faithful, and thus be deemed worthy of the offering, if they repent with tears. The same pattern shall prevail also in the case of those who take two sisters into marriage, even if at different times. And those who are mad after their own stepmothers are subject to the same canon as those who are mad after their own sisters. Polygamy the Fathers passed over in silence as bestial and utterly alien to the human race. But to us it appears that the sin is something more than fornication. Therefore it is reasonable that such persons be subjected to the canons, namely, after weeping for a year and being prostrators for three, thus to be received. Since many in the barbarian invasion transgressed the faith in God, performing ethnic oaths and tasting some unlawful things among those offered to them in the magical idols, these are to be managed according to the canons already issued by our Fathers.

For those who endured harsh necessity from tortures and, unable to bear the pains and torments, yielded to denial, they are to be excluded for three years, hear the scriptures for two, and after prostrating themselves for three, thus become admissible to communion. But those who betrayed their faith in God without great necessity, touched the table of demons, and swore Greek oaths, are to be expelled for three years, hear the scriptures for two, and after praying in prostration for three years, and standing with the faithful in prayer for another three, thus become admissible to the communion of the good. And concerning perjurers: if they violated their oaths under force and necessity, they are subject to lighter penances, so that after six years they become admissible. But if they betrayed their own faith without necessity, after weeping for two years, hearing the scriptures for two, praying in prostration for five, and being received into the communion of prayer without the offering for another two, then finally, having shown worthy repentance, that is, they shall be restored to the communion of the body of Christ. Those who practice divination, follow the customs of the gentiles, or introduce some into their own houses for the discovery of sorceries and purifications, let them fall under the rule of six years: after weeping for a year, hearing the scriptures for a year, prostrating themselves for three years, and standing with the faithful for a year, thus let them be received. All these things we write so that the fruits of repentance may be tested.

For we do not judge such matters entirely by time, but we attend to the manner of repentance. But if they cling tenaciously to their own habits and prefer to serve the pleasures of the flesh rather than the Lord, and do not accept the life according to the Gospel, we have no common ground with them. For we have been taught among a disobedient and gainsaying people to hear that: "Saving, save your own soul." Let us not, therefore, consent to perish together with such persons, but having feared the heavy judgment and taken before our eyes the fearful day of the Lord's retribution, let us not wish to perish together with the sins of others. For if the fearful things of the Lord have not taught us, nor such great blows brought us to the realization that because of our lawlessness the Lord abandoned us and delivered us into the hands of barbarians, and the people were led away captive into the enemy's hands and given over to dispersion, because those who bore the name of Christ dared these things; if they have not known nor understood that because of these things the wrath of God came upon us, what common ground do we have with them? But we ought to testify to them both night and day, publicly and privately, yet let us not consent to be carried away by their wickednesses, praying above all to win them over and deliver them from the snare of the Evil One; but if we are unable to do this, let us at least endeavor to save our own souls from eternal condemnation. To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium. The need for which brother Aelianus came he accomplished on his own, without requiring any assistance from us.

To us he gave a double grace, both bringing letters of your piety and providing us an occasion for writing to you. So we greet through him your true and inimitable love, and we ask you to pray for us now, if ever, since we are in need of the help from your prayers. For my body, broken by the journey to Pontus, is afflicted with an illness that is unbearable. And I had long wished to make known to your intelligence something (which, as if hindered by another prior cause, I forgot), but now I remind you, so that you may deign to send a zealous man to Lycia and investigate who are the ones of the right faith. For perhaps they must not be overlooked, if what a certain devout person who came to us from there related is true: that they, being altogether alienated from the Asian mindset, consent to be inscribed as our communicants. And if someone is going to go, let him seek out in Corydala Alexander, a bishop from among the monks, and in Limyra Datius, and in Cyra Tatianus and Polemon and Macarius, presbyters, in Patara Eudemus the bishop, in Telmessus Hilarius the bishop, in Phellus Lollianus the bishop. These and yet more were recognized to us by someone as being sound in the faith, and I felt great gratitude to God, if there are any at all in the Asian region who are outside the harm of the heretics. If then it is possible, for the time being let us investigate them without letters; but once persuaded, then we will send a letter and we will be eager to summon some of them to meet with us.

May everything happen in due time concerning the most beloved Church of Iconium to us. We greet through you all the honorable clergy and those who are with your piety. To the clergy of Samosata: The Lord who defines everything for us by measure and weight, and who brings trials that do not exceed our strength, but tests the champions of piety through circumstances, and does not allow them to be tried beyond what they can bear, and waters with tears in measure those who must be shown whether they preserve gratitude toward God in afflictions, has especially manifested his benevolence in the economy concerning you, by not permitting the persecution from the enemies to be brought upon you in such a way as to be able to overturn or shake some from faith in Christ. For having yoked you to light and easily conquerable opponents, he has prepared for you the prize of endurance in the victory over them. But the common enemy of our life, who by his own machinations fights against the goodness of God, when he saw you as a wall

Despising the strong external assault, among yourselves, as I hear, you have devised some griefs and pettiness toward one another, which at first are small and easily remedied, but as time progresses, being increased by contentiousness, they naturally fall into a completely incurable state. Therefore, I have hastened to this exhortation through this letter. If it were possible, I would have come myself and besought you in person. But since the times do not permit this, we present this letter to you as a supplication, so that, respecting our entreaties, you may dissolve all contentiousness toward one another and quickly send me the good news that you have forgiven each other's reproaches. For I wish your understanding to know this: that one is great before God who humbly yields to his neighbor and, without shame, takes upon himself the accusations, even if they are not true, for the sake of granting the great benefit of peace to the Church of God. Let there be, then, among you a good rivalry as to who first is deemed worthy to be called a son of God, by securing this dignity for himself through peacemaking. The most God-beloved bishop has also written to you what is fitting, and he writes again what pertains to him. Nevertheless, because it is still permitted for us to be nearer to you, we cannot neglect matters concerning you.

When the most reverend brother Theodorus the subdeacon arrived and reported that the Church was in grief and turmoil, we were deeply crushed and struck in the heart with profound pain, and we could not bear to remain silent, but we urged you to cast aside every pretext against one another and to achieve peace, so that you might neither give pleasure to your opponents nor betray the boast of the Church, which is now proclaimed throughout the whole world—that you all, as if governed by one soul and heart, live together in one body. We greet and embrace all the people of God, both those in civil offices and powers and the entire fullness of the clergy, through your reverence, and we urge you to remain like yourselves. For we seek no addition, since you have already forestalled every excess by the display of good works. To Those in Beroea. The Lord has given great consolation to those deprived of face-to-face meeting—the converse through letters, from which one may learn not the bodily character but the disposition of the soul itself. Hence now, having received the letters of your reverence, we both recognized you and took up the love for you in our hearts, without needing a long time to create familiarity. For from the very thought contained in the letters we were inflamed with affection for the beauty of your soul. For in addition to what was written, which was of such a nature, the suitability of the mediating brothers showed us your circumstances even more clearly.

For our most beloved and reverend fellow presbyter Acacius, recounting more than what had been written and bringing before our eyes your daily struggle and your vigorous persistence for piety, instilled in us such wonder and aroused such a longing for the enjoyment of the good things among you, that we pray to the Lord that there may come a time when we may know your circumstances through our own experience. For he reported to us not only the precision of you who have been entrusted with the ministry of the altar, but also the harmony of the entire people, and the magnanimity of character and the genuineness of disposition toward God of those who govern the city and have previously held office in it, so that we have blessed the Church completed by such members and now pray all the more that spiritual calm be granted to you, so that you may reap the enjoyment in the time of respite of what you have displayed in the time of struggle. For somehow difficulties by their recollection bring pleasure to those who remember them. But now we exhort you not to lose heart, not to despair at the continuance of your afflictions. For the crowns are near, and the Lord’s help is near. Do not squander what you have previously labored for, do not render useless the toil that has been proclaimed throughout the whole world. The conditions of human affairs are short-lived: “All flesh is grass, and all human glory is like the flower of grass. The grass has withered and the flower has fallen, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” Let us cling to the enduring commandment and despise the passing illusion.

Many churches have been set upright by your example. You have amassed for yourselves, though unnoticed, a great reward through those whom you have called to a similar zeal among the less experienced. The reward-giver is rich, able to bestow upon you prizes worthy of your struggles. To Those in Beroea. We have known you beforehand, most beloved, from your celebrated reverence and the crown of your confession for Christ. And perhaps one of you might say: "And who is it that has conveyed this to such a distant place?" The Lord himself, who, placing those who are pious toward him like a lamp on a lampstand, makes them shine throughout the whole world. Or does not the prize of victory customarily proclaim the champions of the contestants, and the design of the work the engineers? And if, in these and similar matters, memory remains unforgettable, then for those who are pious toward Christ, concerning whom the Lord himself says, "I will glorify those who glorify me," how will he not make them known and conspicuous to all, spreading the radiance of their flashing brightness along with the rays of the sun? You have further increased our longing for you by deigning to send us a letter, and such a letter, in which, in addition to your previous struggles for piety, you have lavished a rich and more vigorous endurance of soul for the true faith. At these things we rejoice with you and pray together that the God of all, whose is the contest and whose is the arena and through whom are the crowns, may instill eagerness, grant strength of soul, and bring your work to a perfect success in his sight.

To the Chalcidians. Your reverent letter has come to us at a time of distress, like what often happens to racehorses in the midday heat, when they are gasping and drawing in dust in the middle of the stadium, and water is poured into their mouths. For we have taken breath from the succession of trials, and at once we have been strengthened by your words and, by the memory of your own struggles, have become more vigorous to bear unflinchingly the contest that lies before us. For the conflagration that has consumed much of the East is already creeping toward our region, and having set fire to everything around, it is eager to lay hold also of the churches in Cappadocia, which until now have been moved to tears by the smoke from the neighborhood. So it presses on to lay hold of us as well, which may the Lord avert with the breath of his mouth and cut short the flame of this evil fire. For who is so cowardly and faint-hearted, or so untrained in athletic labors, as not to be strengthened for the contest by your acclamations and to pray with you to be proclaimed a victor? For you have already stripped for the stadium of piety and have repelled many assaults of heretical wrestlings, and have endured much of the heat of trials—both you, the leaders of the Church to whom the care of the altar is entrusted, and each one of the people, and the more powerful. For this is especially admirable and worthy of all acceptance in you, that you are all one in the Lord, the leaders guiding toward the good, and the followers accompanying with unity of spirit.

Therefore you are superior to the attacks of your opponents, offering no hold from any member to those contending against you. For this reason we pray night and day to the King of the ages to preserve the people in the integrity of the faith, and to preserve for him the clergy, like an unimpaired head placed at the summit, providing its own forethought to the subordinate members of the body. For when the eyes perform their own functions, the hands' works are skillful, the feet's movements are unhindered, and no part of the body is deprived of its proper care. So we exhort you, as you do and will do, to hold fast to one another, and for you who have been entrusted with the care of souls to hold together each individual and cherish them as beloved children, and for the people to preserve for you the reverence and honor owed to fathers, so that in the seemliness of the Church your strength and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ may be preserved, the name of God may be glorified, and the good of love may increase and multiply. And hearing this, let us rejoice in your progress according to God, and if we are still commanded to dwell in this world in the flesh, may we one day see you in the peace of God; but if we are commanded to depart from this life, may we see you in the splendor of the saints, crowned with those who have gained renown through endurance and the display of all good works. To Eustathius the Sebastene. There is a time, it is said, to be silent and a time to speak, a saying of the Ecclesiast.

Therefore, now that the time of silence has been sufficient, it is opportune at last to open the mouth for the revelation of the truth concerning what is unknown, since even the great Job bore his calamities in silence for a long time, displaying his courage precisely by persevering in the most grievous sufferings. But when he had passed enough time in silence and had remained, sealing the pain in the depth of his heart, then, opening his mouth, he uttered those words which all know. For us, then, this third year of silence has become enviable, as the prophet boasts, saying: "I became like a man not hearing and having no reproaches in his mouth." Therefore we have shut up in the depth of our heart the pain arising from the slander against us. For indeed, slander humbles a man, and slander makes a poor man wander. If, then, the evil from slander is so great that it brings down even the perfect man (for the Word hints at this through the appellation "man") from his height, and the poor man, that is, the one deficient in the great doctrines (as also seems to the prophet when he says: "Perhaps they are poor, therefore they do not hear; I will go to the robust," calling "poor" those deficient in understanding, and here, evidently), those not yet fully formed in the inner man, nor having reached the perfect measure of age (these

the proverb says, "to be carried about and tossed"), yet I thought it necessary to bear the painful things in silence, expecting some correction through the deeds themselves. For I considered that those things were said against us not from any malice, but from ignorance of the truth. But since I see that the enmity advances with time, and that they do not repent of what was said from the beginning, nor take any care to heal the past, but rather elaborate and organize themselves toward the original purpose which they set in motion, devising to harm our life and stain our reputation among the brothers, the safety of silence no longer appears to me. But the saying of Isaiah has come upon me: "Have I been silent? Shall I always be silent and endure? I have persevered like a woman giving birth." May it be that we both receive the reward for silence and gain some power in refutations, so that, having refuted, we may dry up this bitter torrent of false accusation that has flowed against us, so that we too may say: "Our soul has passed through a torrent," and: "If the Lord had not been with us when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive, then the water would have drowned us.

I wasted much time on vanity, and consumed nearly all my youth in the fruitless labor I spent on the acquisition of the learning of that wisdom which has been made foolish by God. Then, when at last, as if from a deep sleep, I awoke and looked upon the wonderful light of the truth of the Gospel, and perceived the uselessness of the wisdom of the rulers of this world, which is being abolished, I wept much over my pitiable life and prayed that a guide might be given me for the introduction to the doctrines of piety. And before all else, it was my concern to make some correction of my character, which had long been perverted by association with base men. Therefore, having read the Gospel and seen there the greatest means to perfection in the sale of one's possessions and in sharing with needy brethren, and altogether in being heedless of this life and in having the soul turned back by no sympathy for things here, I prayed to find one of the brethren who had chosen this way of life, so that I might cross with him the deep sea of this life. And indeed I found many in Alexandria, many in the rest of Egypt, and others in Palestine, and in Coele Syria, and in Mesopotamia.

I admired their restraint in diet, I admired their endurance in labors, I was astounded by their vigor in prayers and how they mastered sleep, not being bent by any natural necessity, always preserving the lofty and unenslaved disposition of the soul in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, not turning back to the body, nor deigning to expend any care upon it, but living as in a foreign flesh they showed in deed what it is to sojourn here and what it is to have one's citizenship in heaven. Having admired and blessed the life of those men, because they show in deed the mortification of Jesus, bearing it about in the body, I prayed that I myself, as far as was possible for me, might be an emulator of those men. For this reason, then, when I saw some in my homeland attempting to emulate those practices, I thought I had found some help for my own salvation, and I made the visible things a demonstration of the invisible. Since, therefore, the things in the hidden part of each of us are unclear, I considered the humility of the garment to be sufficient indications of humility of spirit, and the coarse cloak and the belt and the sandals of untanned hide sufficed for my assurance. And although many were leading me away from association with them, I could not bear it, seeing them preferring the ascetic life to the life of pleasure, and because of the distinctiveness of their way of life I was zealously disposed toward them. Hence I did not even [tolerate] the [discussions] concerning the doctrines

I accepted the slanders, even though many insisted that they did not hold correct opinions about God, but, having been disciples of the leader of the present heresy, were secretly sowing his teachings. Since I never heard them myself, I considered those who reported them to be slanderers. But when I was finally called to the leadership of the Church, I kept silent about those who had been entrusted to us as guardians and watchers of life, under the pretense of help and loving fellowship—lest I seem either to be speaking incredible things and slandering myself, or, if believed, to provide an occasion for misanthropy to those who believe. This nearly happened to me, had not the mercies of God quickly forestalled it. For I almost fell into suspicion against everyone, considering nothing trustworthy in anyone, my soul wounded by these treacherous affairs. Yet for a time there seemed to be some form of our customary relationship with them. And there were one or two discussions about doctrines, and we seemed to agree, not being divided. For as they found us uttering the same words about faith in God that they had heard from us all along (for even if other things about us are worthy of lament, yet I dare to boast of this one thing in the Lord, that I never held erroneous opinions about God, nor did I later learn to think differently. But the conception of God that I received from childhood from my blessed mother and my grandmother Macrina, that I held increased within me; for I did not exchange one set of ideas for another in the completion of my reasoning, but I perfected the principles handed down to me by them).

Just as a growing thing becomes larger from small, yet remains the same as itself, not changing in kind but being perfected by increase, so I consider that the same argument has been increased in me through progress... So let them examine their own conscience, and let them consider the judgment seat of Christ, whether they ever heard anything else from us than what we now say—those who have now noised us about for evil doctrine, and have filled every ear with the libelous letters they composed against us. Hence we have come to the necessity of this defense. For we are accused of blasphemy against God, neither from any treatise we have put forward, nor from whatever we have spoken orally and always openly in the churches of God. But not even a witness has been found who says he has heard from us any of the impious things uttered in secret. From what, then, are we judged, if we neither write impiously, nor speak harmfully in public, nor pervert those we meet in private conversations? O what a novel drama! "So-and-so," he says, "in Syria wrote something not piously; and you corresponded with him twenty years ago or more. Therefore you are a partner of that man, and his accusations are also yours." But, O friend of truth, you who have been taught that falsehood is a product of the devil, how were you persuaded that that letter was mine? For you did not send, nor ask, nor were you instructed by me, who could tell you the truth. And even if the writing were mine, how is it clear that this treatise which has now fallen into your hands is contemporary with my letters?

Who told you that this composition is twenty years old? And how is it evident that the treatise belongs to that man to whom my letter was also sent? And if that writer and I, and I sent a letter to him, and the time of my writings and of the treatise is the same, that I received it in my mind and hold that opinion within myself, what is the proof? Ask yourself: how many times did you visit us at the monastery on the Iris River, when the most God-loving brother Gregory was with me, pursuing the same goal in life as I? Did you hear anything of the sort, or did you receive any impression, small or great? And at Eusinoe, when, about to set out for Lampsacus with several bishops, you summoned me, were not the discussions about faith? And throughout the entire time, were not all the shorthand writers present while I dictated the arguments against the heresy? Were not your most genuine disciples with me all the time? And when visiting the brotherhoods and spending the night with them in prayers, speaking and always hearing about God without contentiousness, did I not provide precise proofs of my own thought? How then did the experience of so long a time appear less than such a rotten and feeble suspicion? And who ought to have been a witness of my disposition before you? The things spoken at Chalcedon about faith, the things at Heraclea many times, the things earlier at Caesarea in the suburb—were not all these consistent on our part? Were they not all in harmony with each other?

Besides what I have said, that some increase is observed in the statements through progress, which is not a change from worse to better, but a completion of what is lacking by the addition of knowledge. And how do you not consider this, that a father will not take on the sin of a child, nor a child the sin of a father, but each will die in his own sin? For me, neither is the man you slander a father nor a son. For he has been neither my teacher nor my student. But if the sins of those who gave birth are to become charges against their children, it would be far more just for the sins of Arius to be charged against his disciples; and if someone fathered Aetius the heretic, the charges against the child fall back on the father's head. But if it is not just for anyone to be accused in those cases, then it is surely far more just for us not to be held accountable for things that do not concern us, even if they did sin at all, even if anything worthy of condemnation was written by them. For I am to be pardoned for disbelieving what is said against them, since the experience against me confirms the ease with which the accusers resort to slander. For if, being deceived and thinking that I shared the opinion of those who wrote those Sabellian phrases which they themselves circulate, they came to slander me, even then they would not be worthy of pardon, since without clear proofs they immediately attack and wound with blasphemies even those who have not associated with them, not to mention those bound to them in the closest friendship, and because the fact that they hold false opinions in themselves is proof that they are not led by the Holy Spirit.

One must take much thought and spend many sleepless nights, and with many tears seek the truth from God, one who is about to sever the friendship of a brother. For if the rulers of this world, when they are about to condemn some criminal to death, draw the curtains, summon the most experienced for the examination of the matters at hand, and spend much time, now looking at the severity of the law, now being abashed by the common bond of nature, and after much groaning and lamenting the necessity, they become publicly known to all as serving the law out of necessity, not imposing the sentence according to their own pleasure—how much more worthy of greater zeal, care, and counsel with many should one consider the one who is about to break off a brotherly friendship confirmed over a long time? But there is one letter, and that ambiguous. For you could not say that you recognized it from the signs of the subscription, since you did not receive the original writing, but the copy, into your hands. So from one letter, and that an old one. For it is twenty years up to the present time since something was written to that man. And in this intervening time I have no such witness of my own purpose and life as those who now stand as my accusers. But the letter is not the cause of the separation; there is another reason for the division, which I am ashamed to mention, and I have kept silent about it all this time, unless the things now done have made it necessary for me, for the benefit of the many, to reveal their entire purpose.

Let the good men think that communion with us is an obstacle to their recovery of power. And since they were forestalled by some subscription of faith which we proposed to them—not because I distrust their intention, I confess, but because I wished to heal the suspicions which many of our like-minded brothers had concerning them, so that nothing from that confession might seem to them an obstacle to being accepted by those now in authority—they renounced communion with us, and this letter was devised as the pretext for the rupture. The clearest sign of what I say is that, after separating us and composing the reproaches they wished against us, they sent the letter around everywhere before sending it to us. For the letter appeared in my hands seven days earlier than it had been received from others and was about to be passed on to others. For they devised that one should hand it to one, so that its dissemination throughout the whole country might be rapid. And these things were still being said at that time by those who reported their affairs to us most clearly. We decided to keep silence, until the one who reveals the depths should make their affairs public with the clearest and most irrefutable proofs. To the Presbyter Genethlios: I received the letter of your reverence and praised the title which you aptly gave the book composed by them, calling it a book of divorce. What defense those who wrote it have prepared for it before the impartial tribunal of Christ, I cannot conceive.

Having set forth an accusation against us and vehemently attacked us, relating what they wished, not what the truth holds, they feigned great humility for themselves and ascribed to us a burden of arrogance, as though we had not received those sent by them—all false or at least most of it, that I may not speak dangerously, as men persuading and not God, and seeking to please men and not God, for whom nothing is more honorable than truth—thus they composed their account. Then they appended heretical statements to their writings against us, concealing the author of the impiety, so that the many and the simpler ones, from the preceding accusation against us, might think the attached statements to be ours, because the name of the father of the evil doctrines was silenced by those who skillfully slandered us, while it was left to the suspicion of the more innocent that we were the ones who either conceived or wrote these things. Knowing this, we exhort you not to be disturbed yourselves and to quiet the disturbances of those who are shaken, even though we know that our defense is hard to accept, because our evil blasphemies have been prejudged by trustworthy persons. Concerning the fact that the things circulated as ours are not ours, I think that, even if their anger against us greatly darkens their reasoning for seeing what is beneficial, nevertheless, if they are questioned by you yourselves, they would not come to such hardness as to dare to utter the falsehood with their own mouth and say that the writings are mine. But if they are not mine, why am I judged for the things of others?

But they will say that I am a companion of Apollinarius and that I have within myself the distortion of such doctrines. Let them demand proofs. If they know how to search the heart of a man, let them confess this, and you will recognize their truthfulness in all things. But if they convict me of communion from what is evident and manifest to all, let them show either canonical letters sent by me to him, or from him to me, or the intermingling of clerics with us, if we ever received any of them into the communion of prayer. But if they produce a letter written to him twenty-five years ago, from a layman to a layman (and not even this as it was written by me, but altered, by whom God knows), recognize from this the injustice, that no one who is a bishop is accused of anything he wrote carelessly in lay life without attention, and this concerning nothing about faith, but a bare letter containing a friendly address. Perhaps even they appear to have written to Greeks and Jews and have no accusations. For until today no one has been judged for such a matter as that for which we are condemned by those who strain out gnats. That we neither wrote those things nor agree with them, but even anathematize those who hold that wicked opinion of the confusion of the hypostases, in which the most impious heresy of Sabellius has been renewed, this is known to God who knows hearts, and known also to the whole brotherhood that has experienced our humility.

And those same men, who are now our vehement accusers, let them examine their own conscience and they will know that from childhood we have been far removed from such doctrines. What our own belief is, if anyone seeks to know, he will learn from this very document in which their own handwritten signature is, which they, wishing to deny their own change, conceal in their slander against us. For they do not confess that they repented when they subscribed to the book presented to them by us, but they bring charges of impiety against us, thinking it is unknown that their withdrawal from us is a pretext; but in truth they have withdrawn from the faith which they many times confessed in writing before many, and finally they accepted the faith presented by us, and subscribed to what it is possible for all to read, and to learn the truth from the writings themselves. And their intention will be known, if after the subscription which they gave to us, someone reads the creed which they gave to Gelasius, and knows how great the difference is between that confession and this one. Therefore, those who are so easily turned to the opposite, let them not scrutinize the foreign specks, but let them cast out the beam in their own eye. More fully, through another letter, we both defend ourselves and teach concerning all things, which will satisfy those who seek further. But you, in the present, having received this letter of ours, remove all grief and confirm love toward us, for which I vehemently cling to union with you.

learn what it is, we are ready to teach it, not as something new, but as the apostolic faith. And it is a very great grief and inconsolable pain to our heart, if the slanders against us should so far prevail with you as to cool your love and alienate us from one another. We have always felt great gratitude to God and to the emperors who care for us, whenever we see the government of our country entrusted to a man who is first a Christian, then upright in character and a strict guardian of the laws by which we order our human affairs. But especially during your presence here we have acknowledged this gratitude to God and to the God-loving Emperor. And when we perceived that some of the enemies of peace were about to trouble your august court with accusations against us, we expected to be summoned by your great wisdom, so that the truth might be learned from us, if indeed your great intelligence deigned to concern itself with the examination of ecclesiastical matters. But since the court overlooked us, and your authority, moved by the slanders of Philochares, ordered our brother and fellow minister Gregory to be seized, he obeyed the

to the decree (for how could it not?), but being seized by a pleuritic affliction and at the same time, from the chill that came upon him, the customary weakness of the kidneys having arisen, he was compelled, being unavoidably detained by the soldiers, for the sake of care for his body and relief from his unbearable pains, to be moved to a quiet place. For this reason we have all come to beseech your greatness not to be at all annoyed by the delay in the meeting. For neither has any public matter fared worse because of our postponement, nor has any ecclesiastical matter been harmed on this account. But if the matter concerns money as having been misappropriated, the treasurers of the sacred funds are themselves ready to give an account to anyone who wishes and to show the slander of those who have dared to attack your accurate hearing; for it is easy for them, from the letters of the blessed bishop himself, to make the truth evident to those who seek it. But if there is some other canonical matter requiring examination, and your magnanimity deigns to undertake the hearing and judgment of this as well, we all are needed, because, if anything canonical has been omitted, those who ordained are responsible, not the one who was compelled by every necessity to undertake the ministry. Therefore we beseech you to preserve for us the hearing in our homeland and not to drag us into exile, nor to force us into a meeting with bishops with whom we have not yet resolved the matters concerning ecclesiastical questions. And at the same time we beg you to spare our old age and weakness.

You will know by experience itself, God willing, that neither small nor great is omitted from the canonical requirements in the appointment of the bishop. We pray, therefore, that under your authority both concord and peace with our brothers may be accomplished; which not yet having come to pass, the meeting is grievous to us, because many of the simpler ones are harmed by our division from one another. To the Ascetics under Him: Holy God is able to grant us the joy of meeting, who always desire both to see you and to hear about you; for we have repose of our souls in nothing else than in your progress and in your perfection through the commandments of Christ. Until this is ours, we consider it necessary to visit you through the most genuine and God-fearing brothers and to converse with your love by letters. For this very reason we have sent the most reverend and most genuine brother of ours and fellow worker of the Gospel, Melitius the fellow presbyter, who will relate to you our longing which we have for you and our care for your souls, that night and day we beseech the Lord concerning your good repute, so that we may have boldness on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ through your salvation, and you may shine in the splendor of the saints, your work being tested by the righteous judgment of God. At the same time, the harshness of the present time that has seized us causes us great concern, in which all Churches have been shaken, and all souls are being sifted.

For some have opened their mouths unsparingly against their fellow servants. Falsehood is spoken without fear, truth is concealed. And those accused are condemned without trial, while their accusers are believed without examination. Hence I too, having heard that letters have long been circulated against me, branding and pillorying and accusing me of matters for which I have a ready defense before the tribunal of truth, was moved to keep silence, which I did. For this is now the third year in which, struck by slanders, I bear the lashes of accusation, content that I have the Lord, the knower of hidden things, as witness of the calumny. But since I see that many have already taken our silence as confirmation of the slanders, and have thought that we are silent not out of forbearance but because we cannot open our mouth to the truth, for this reason I have attempted to write to you, entreating your love in Christ that the slanders made from one side not be wholly accepted as true, because, as it is written, the law judges no one unless it first hears and knows what he does. Yet for a fair judge the facts themselves suffice for the revelation of the truth. So even if we are silent, it is possible for you to look through to what is happening. For those who accuse us of heterodoxy have now manifestly attached themselves to the party of the heretics; those who condemn us for the compositions of others are seen to contradict their own written confessions, which they deposited with us.

Understand the habit of those who dare to do these things: it is their custom always to shift to the stronger side, to trample upon those friends who are weak, and to court those who are in power. For those who composed and circulated those much-talked-about letters against Eudoxius and their entire faction, sending them to all the brotherhoods and solemnly testifying that their communion should be shunned as a destruction of souls, and who for that reason did not accept the votes brought forth for their deposition, because they were made by heretics, as they then persuaded us—these same persons, now forgetting everything, have joined with them. And no denial is left to them; for they have openly revealed their intention, embracing in Ancyra the communions in their own houses, since they have not yet been received into the common body by those very persons. Ask them, then, whether Basilides, the communicant of Ecdicius, is now orthodox. Why, when returning from Dardania, did they disturb the altars in the country of the Gangreni and set up their own tables? Why do they still to this very day attack the churches of Amaseia and Zela, and install presbyters and deacons from their own number? For if they commune with them as orthodox, why do they attack them as heretics? But if they consider them heretics, how do they not avoid their communion? Are not these things clear even to a childish mind, most honored brothers, that they always, looking to their own advantage, attempt either to slander some or to promote others?

And so they also broke away from us, not because they were offended that we did not reply (for this is what they most claim provokes them), nor because we did not receive the chorepiscopoi whom they say they had sent. Yet those who contrive this will give an account to the Lord. For a certain Eustathius was sent, distributed letters according to the order of the Vicarius, spent three days in the city, and when he was about to depart for home, late in the evening, while I was sleeping, he is said to have approached my dwelling. But upon hearing that I was asleep, he went away and did not approach us the next day either, but having thus discharged his duty toward us, he returned. And this is the offense of which we are guilty, and the long-suffering ones did not set against this fault our previous service, which we rendered to them in love; but they weighed their anger against us so heavily on account of this sin that, as far as it lay with them, they had us proclaimed excommunicated in all the Churches throughout the world. Yet this is not truly the cause of the division; but because they thought they would then find favor with Euzoius if they alienated themselves from us, they devised those pretexts for themselves, so that they might gain some standing with them through their war against us. These men now also slander the faith of Nicaea and call us Homoousiasts because in that faith the Only-begotten Son is confessed as homoousios with God the Father, not as if from one substance divided into two siblings—far from it—not

For that holy and God-beloved synod understood this, but rather that what the Father is in essence, the Son must also be understood to be. For they themselves interpreted this for us, saying light from light. And the faith of Nicaea, which was brought by them from the West, is the one they presented to the synod at Tyana, by which they were also received. But they have some clever doctrine in their own such changes: that they have used the words of the faith, like physicians, according to the occasion, adapting themselves differently at different times to the underlying maladies. It is not for me to expose the rottenness of this sophism, but for you to understand. For the Lord will give you discernment to recognize which is the straight word and which is the crooked and distorted. For if it is necessary to compose different creeds at different times and to change with the times, then the statement of the one who said, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism," is false. But if those things are true, let no one deceive you with these empty words. They slander us as innovating concerning the Holy Spirit. Ask, then, what the innovation is. For we confess what we also received, that the Paraclete is ranked with the Father and the Son, not numbered with the creation. For we have believed in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we never separate the Paraclete from the conjunction with the Father and the Son. For our mind, illuminated by the Spirit, looks up to the Son and in him, as in an image, beholds the Father.

Neither do we invent names on our own, but we name the Holy Spirit and Paraclete, nor do we accept to deny the glory due to him. These are our words in all truth. On these grounds, let the accuser accuse; let the persecutor persecute us; let the one who believes the slanders against us prepare for the legal defense. The Lord is near; let us be anxious about nothing. If someone in Syria writes, that is nothing to us. "For you will be justified by your words," it says, "and condemned by your words." Let my own words judge me; but let no one condemn us for the errors of others, nor let letters written by us twenty years ago be brought forward as proof that we are now in communion with those who wrote those things. For before those writings, when we were laymen, we wrote to laymen, before any such suspicion was raised against them; and we wrote nothing concerning the faith, nor such things as these men now circulate in the slander against us, but mere titles fulfilling a friendly address. For we alike flee from and anathematize as impious both those who suffer from the doctrines of Sabellius and those who defend the teachings of Arius. If anyone says that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the same, and posits one thing with many names and one hypostasis expressed by three appellations, we place such a person in the company of the Jews. Likewise, if anyone says that the Son is unlike in essence to the Father, or reduces the Holy Spirit to a creature, we anathematize him and consider him near to pagan error.

But it is impossible to restrain the mouths of those who slander us through our writings; rather, it is likely that they will be provoked by our defenses and devise greater and more grievous charges against us. However, it is not difficult to keep your ears guarded. So do what lies within your power. Keep your heart pure and unprejudiced by slanders against us, and demand from us an account of the charges brought forward. And if you find the truth among us, do not give place to falsehood; but if you perceive that we are weak in our defense, then believe our accusers as speaking the truth. They are vigilant in doing us harm; this we do not seek from you. Engaging in a mercantile life, they make our slander a side business; we exhort you to remain at home and live decorously, fulfilling the work of the Lord in quiet, and to avoid their treacherous encounters made for the ruin of hearers, so that you may keep your love for us intact, preserve the faith of the Fathers unbroken, and appear commendable before the Lord as friends of the truth. To the Clerics in Colonia. And what is so good and commendable before God and men as perfect love, which we have been taught by the wise Teacher to be the fulfillment of the whole law? Therefore I approve of your ardent disposition toward your shepherd. For neither is the deprivation of a good father tolerable to a loving child, nor is the withdrawal of a shepherd and teacher bearable to the Church of Christ.

Thus you provide us with a demonstration of a good and noble disposition in your exceeding attachment to your bishop. But this kindness of yours and this inward devotion to your spiritual father, when done with measure and reason, is acceptable; when it exceeds the limit, it is no longer worthy of the same approval. A good arrangement concerning our most God-beloved brother and fellow minister Euphronius has been made by those entrusted with administering the Churches, necessary for the time, beneficial both to the Church to which he was transferred and to you yourselves from whom he was taken. Do not consider this a human matter, nor suppose it to have been set in motion by the calculations of men who think earthly thoughts, but be persuaded that it was done through the cooperation of the Spirit by those who have taken up the care of the Churches of God, and implant this impulse in your mind and hasten to bring it to completion. Therefore accept what has happened quietly and with gratitude, convinced of this: that those who do not accept from the elect of God what is ordained for the Churches resist the ordinance of God. Do not plead your case against your mother, the Church of Nicopolis. Do not become harsh toward those who have undertaken the care of your souls. For if the affairs of Nicopolis are consolidated, your own part will also be preserved together with it; but if any disturbance touches that Church, even if you have countless guardians watching over you, your own portion will be swept away together with the head.

Just as those who live by rivers, when they see some people from afar building fortifications against the currents, know that they are securing their own safety by repelling the attacks of the streams, so also those who have now taken upon themselves the burden of care for ecclesiastical affairs, in guarding others, secure your safety, and you will be under the shelter of every disturbance, while others receive the assaults of the war. Moreover, it is fitting for you to consider this also, that he has not cast you off, but has taken on others. We are not, I suppose, envious persons, so as to compel a man who is able to impart his own gifts also to others to confine his grace to you alone and to restrict it to your single district. For neither is the man who fences in a spring and damages the outflow of water praiseworthy, nor is the man who prevents sufficient teaching from proceeding further free from the passion of envy. Therefore, let him have the care of Nicopolis as well, and let your charge be an addition to those concerns there. For the man has taken on greater labor, but your care is in no way diminished. But that statement grieved me exceedingly and seemed to be said beyond measure: that if you fail to obtain what you seek, we will take over the courts and stir up men against matters for which the ruin of the Churches is the chief object of prayer. Never, then, let anyone, carried away by foolish anger, persuade you to utter anything about these matters in public, and

...may have experienced a reversal from this source, the weight of events may fall upon the heads of those who provided the cause. But receive also our counsel, offered to you with paternal affection, and the arrangement of the most God-beloved bishops, which has come about according to the will of God. And wait for us as well, who, when we arrive, if the Lord assists us, will exhort your reverence in person concerning matters that could not be conveyed by letter, and we will attempt to bring you whatever consolation is possible through deeds themselves. To the Magistrates of Colonia. I received the letter of your propriety and gave thanks to the all-holy God that, though occupied with the care of public affairs, you do not treat the affairs of the Churches as a secondary matter, but each of you has been concerned as for his own personal and vital interest, and you have written to us, distressed at the separation from your most God-beloved bishop Euphronius, whom Nicopolis has not taken from you; but, if it were to plead its case, it might say that it has recovered its own, and if it were to be conciliated, it would utter to you a voice befitting a loving mother, that it will hold the father in common with you, who will impart his grace to each party in part, neither allowing them to suffer anything from the attack of adversaries, nor depriving you of your customary care.

Having considered both the difficulty of the time and the necessity of the arrangement with a prudent mind, forgive the bishops who have entered upon this path for the settlement of the Churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, and exhort yourselves as is fitting for men who possess a mature understanding of their own and also know how to accept the counsels of those who love them. For it is likely that you are ignorant of many of the things that are happening because you are stationed in the remotest part of Armenia; but we, who are in the midst of affairs and are daily assailed from all sides by reports of the Churches being overthrown, are in great anxiety lest the common enemy, envying the long peace of our life, should be able to sow his own tares also in your regions, and the Armenian portion too should become a prey for the adversaries. But for now, remain quiet, having consented to hold the use of a good vessel in common with your neighbors. A little later, if the Lord grants our presence, you will receive a more complete consolation for what has happened, if this should appear necessary to you.

To the Clergy of Nicopolis. And when the work has been accomplished by one pious and second man, it assures us that it is done in obedience to the counsel of the Spirit. For when nothing human lies before the eyes, and the holy men do not set out for their actions with a view to private enjoyment, but have set before themselves nothing other than to please God, it is clear that the Lord is the one who directs their hearts. And where spiritual men initiate the deliberations, and the people of the Lord follow them in harmony of opinion, who can doubt that the counsel has taken place in the communion of our Lord Jesus Christ, who poured out his blood for the Churches? Hence you yourselves have rightly judged that our most God-beloved brother and fellow minister Pomenius was moved by God, who both came to you at the right time and arrived at this manner of consolation. In this I praise not only the discovery of what is beneficial, but I also admire the nobility of his judgment, because he did not lead the matter into delays, which would have relaxed the zeal of those seeking, given opportunity for resistance to the opposing party, and stirred up the plots of those lying in wait, but immediately brought the end to the good counsel. May the Lord preserve him with his grace as a pillar of the household, so that the Church may remain like itself in the equal succession of the one who preceded, and not give place to the Evil One, who now, if ever, is vexed at the settlement of the Churches.

To the Clergy of Nicopolis. The arrangements concerning the Churches are made by those entrusted with their oversight, but they are confirmed by the people. So what was to be done by the most God-beloved bishops has been fulfilled; the remainder now looks to you, if you deign to embrace zealously the bishop given to you and to repel strongly the attempts from outsiders. For nothing so disconcerts either the authorities or the rest who envy your peaceful state as the unanimity regarding love for the one given and the strength of your resistance. For it instills in them despair of any wicked undertaking, if they see that neither clergy nor laity accept their designs. Therefore, make the opinion you hold concerning the good man common to the city.

and to the people and to all who inhabit the region, speak what is fitting, strengthening their good intentions, so that your genuine love for God may be proclaimed among all. If we too should ever be deemed worthy to come and visit the Church, the nurse of piety, we honor it as the metropolis of orthodoxy, because from ancient times it has been administered by most honorable men and chosen of God, who adhered to the faithful word according to the teaching, of whom the one now appearing is worthy, as you have approved and we have agreed. Only may you be preserved by the grace of God, dissolving the evil plans of the enemies, and instilling strength and vigor for the preservation of what has been well given to your souls. To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium. I find few occasions for writing to your reverence, and this grieves me not a little. For it is as if, even if it were possible to see you often and enjoy you, I did this rarely. But it is not possible for me to write, due to the lack of those who travel from here to you; since nothing prevented the letters from being, as it were, a daily journal of my life, recording the events of each day.

announcing to your love. For it brings me relief to share with you our circumstances; and I know that you care for nothing so much as our affairs. But now Elpidius, hastening to his own master to cast off the false accusations fabricated against him by certain enemies, asked us for this letter. Through it we greet your reverence and commend the man to you, both because he is worthy of your protection on account of his righteousness and for our sake; for even if we have nothing else to testify on his behalf, yet that he made much of being a bearer of our letters, hold him among your own and remember us, and pray for the Church. Know that our most God-beloved brother is in exile, unable to bear the disturbances of the shameless ones. Doara is storm-tossed, the many-fleshed monster troubling things there. Our enemies are concocting plots against us in the Camp, as the saying of those who know goes; but the hand of the Lord is with us for the present. Only pray that we not be abandoned in the end. For the brother is living at ease, and Doara has recovered the old mule, but has nothing more; and the Lord will scatter the counsels of our enemies. For us, the solution to all present and anticipated troubles is to see you. So if it ever becomes possible for you, while we are still above ground, deign to let us see you. The book on the Spirit has been written by us and completed, as you yourself know.

But to send it written on papyrus, the brothers with me prevented me, saying that they had instructions from your nobility to write it in a small volume. So, lest we seem to do anything contrary to your command, we have held off for now, but we will send it a little later, only if we find someone suitable to convey it. May you be granted to me and to the Church of God, by the philanthropy of the Saint, strong and cheerful, praying to the Lord on our behalf. To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium. Every day that brings a letter from your piety is a festival for us, and the greatest of festivals. But when it also bears symbols of a festival, what else must one call it but a festival of festivals, just as the ancient law was accustomed to designate Sabbaths of Sabbaths? We therefore give thanks to the Lord, having learned that you are strong in body and that you celebrated the commemoration of the saving economy in the Church at peace. As for us, some disturbances have troubled us; we have not passed the time without dejection, because our most God-beloved brother has been exiled. But pray for him, that God may grant him to see his own Church healed of the wounds of heretical terrors, and deign to visit us very soon, while we are still on earth. Perform a deed worthy of yourself and deserving of the greatest prayer from us. It is also a wonder to consider the meaning of the blessings, that you prayed for us through enigmas for a strong old age. For you showed that through the lamps you rouse us to nocturnal labors, and through the sweetmeats you guarantee that we are braced in all our parts.

For it is not appropriate for me, given my age, to eat solid food, since my teeth have long since been worn away by time and illness. As for the questions asked, some responses have been made in the memorandum, such as were possible for me and as the occasion permitted. To Amphilochius the bishop, who inquired: I myself have heard of this and know, and I recognize the constitution of men. What then shall we say to these things? That the mind is good, and in this we have the image of the Creator, and the activity of the mind is good, and that, being ever in motion, it often forms fancies about things that are not as if they were, and often is borne straight to the truth. But since two powers are attached to it, according to our understanding who have believed in God—the one evil, that of the demons, drawing us along to their own apostasy, and the other more divine and good, leading us up to the likeness of God—when the mind remains by itself, it sees small things and those commensurate with itself; but when it gives itself over to deceivers, having obscured its own criterion, it consorts with strange fancies. Then it considers wood not to be wood, but a god, and gold not to be wealth, but an object of veneration. But if it inclines to the more divine side and receives the graces of the Spirit, then it becomes capable of comprehending more divine things, as much as is commensurate with its nature. There are, then, three states of life, so to speak, and corresponding to these, three activities of our mind. For either our pursuits are evil, and clearly our mind's movements are evil;

such as adulteries, thefts, idolatries, slanders, quarrels, rages, ambitions, conceits, and all that the apostle Paul enumerated among the works of the flesh. Or there is a middle activity of the soul, having nothing either condemned or praiseworthy, like the practice of these vulgar arts which we call neutral, inclining by their own nature neither toward virtue nor toward vice. For what vice is there in the art of navigation or medicine? Yet neither are they virtues in themselves, but they incline toward one of the two opposites depending on the choice of those who employ them. However, the mind that has been mingled with the divinity of the Spirit is already capable of contemplating great doctrines and beholds the divine beauties, to the extent that grace allows and its own constitution can receive. Therefore, let them abandon those dialectical questions and examine the truth not maliciously but reverently. The criterion of the mind has been given to us for the understanding of truth. And the truth itself is our God. So it is primary for the mind to know our God, and to know him in the way that the infinitely great can be known by the very small. For just because eyes are appointed for the perception of visible things, it does not follow that all visible things are brought within sight. For not even the hemisphere of the sky is seen in a single moment, but an appearance of vision surrounds us, while in truth many things—not to say all—in it are unknown.

the nature of the stars, their magnitudes, distances, motions, conjunctions, oppositions, and the remaining relations, the very substance of the firmament, the depth from the concave circumference to the convex surface. But nevertheless we would not say that the heaven is invisible because of what is unknown, but visible because of its moderate comprehension. So also concerning God. If the mind is damaged by demons, it will worship idols or be perverted to some other form of impiety. But if it has given itself over to the assistance of the Spirit, it will recognize the truth and acknowledge God. It will acknowledge, as the Apostle said, in part; in the life thereafter, more perfectly: "For when the more perfect comes, the partial will be abolished." So that the criterion of the mind is good and given for a useful end, the comprehension of God, yet operating only to the extent that is attainable by it. TO THE SAME PERSON, ON ANOTHER QUESTION Do you worship what you know, or what you do not know? If we answer that we worship what we know, their quick reply is: what is the substance of that which is worshipped? But if we confess that we do not know the substance, they turn it back on us and say that

Therefore, you worship what you do not know. But we say that "to know" has many meanings. For we say we know the majesty of God, and the power, and the wisdom, and the goodness, and the providence by which he cares for us, and the justice of his judgment, but not the essence itself. Hence the question is captious. For one who does not claim to know the essence has not confessed to not knowing God, since our conception of God is derived from the many things we have enumerated. But, he says, God is simple, and everything that one may enumerate as knowable about him belongs to the essence. This, however, is a sophism containing countless absurdities. Since the enumerated attributes are so many, are all these names of one essence? And do his terribleness and his philanthropy, his justice and his creative power, his foreknowledge and his retributive power, his majesty and his providential care, all have the same force? Or, whichever of these we mention, do we indicate the essence? For if they say this, let them not ask whether we know the essence of God, but let them inquire of us whether we know God as terrible, or as just, or as philanthropic. These we confess to know. But if they mean something else by "essence," let them not deceive us through the notion of simplicity. For they themselves have admitted that the essence and each of the enumerated attributes are different from one another. But the energies are varied, while the essence is simple. We, however, say that we know our God from his energies, but we do not promise to approach the essence itself. For his energies descend to us, but his essence remains inaccessible.

But if you are ignorant of the essence, he says, you are ignorant of him. You, however, turn it around: that if you claim to know the essence, you do not understand him. For neither does the man bitten by a rabid dog, when he sees the dog in the bowl, see more than those who are healthy, but he is pitiable for this reason, because he thinks he sees what he does not see. Do not, therefore, admire this man for his claim, but judge him pitiable for his madness. Know, then, that this utterance belongs to those who are playing: if you are ignorant of the essence of God, you worship what you do not know. But I know that he exists, while I posit what the essence is as beyond comprehension. How, then, am I saved? Through faith. Faith is sufficient to know that God exists, not what he is, and he becomes the rewarder for those who seek him. Knowledge of the divine essence, therefore, is the perception of its incomprehensibility, and what is venerable is not the comprehension of what the essence is, but that the essence exists. And let them be questioned thus. No one has ever seen God; the Only-Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, this one has expounded. What of the Father did the Only-Begotten expound? The essence or the power? If the power, as much as he expounded to us, so much we know. If the essence, tell me, where did he speak of his unbegotten essence? When did Abraham worship? Was it not when he believed? And when did he believe? Was it not when he was called? Where, then, was comprehension attested to him here by Scripture? And when did the disciples worship him? Was it not when they saw creation subjected to him? For from the sea and winds obeying him, they recognized his divinity. Therefore, knowledge comes from the energies, and worship from knowledge. Do you believe that I can do this?

I believe, Lord," and he worshipped him. Thus worship follows faith, and faith is confirmed by power. But if you say that the one who believes also knows, he knows from that which he believes; or conversely, from that which he knows he also believes. We know God from his power. So we believe in what is known, and we worship what is believed. TO THE SAME PERSON ON ANOTHER QUESTION Which comes first, knowledge or faith? We say that in general, in the case of learning, faith precedes knowledge; but in the case of our doctrine, even if one says that knowledge precedes faith, we do not disagree (knowledge, that is, commensurate with human comprehension). For in the case of learning, one must first believe that alpha is called alpha, and after learning the characters and their pronunciation, later grasp the precise understanding of the power of the letter. But in faith concerning God, the concept that God exists comes first, and we derive this from the works of creation. For we recognize him as wise, powerful, good, and all his invisible attributes by contemplating the creation of the world. Thus we also accept him as our own Master. For since God is the creator of the whole world, and we are a part of the world, therefore God is also our creator. Faith follows this knowledge, and worship follows such faith.

Now, since the term "knowledge" is ambiguous, those who mock the simpler-minded and show off like conjurers—as those in theaters who, before everyone's eyes, steal the pebbles—snatch up everything by asking about the universal. For because the term "knowledge" extends widely, and something is known in one way by number, another by magnitude, another by power, another by the mode of existence, another by the time of generation, another by essence, these people, taking the whole in a question, if they catch us admitting that we know, demand of us the knowledge of the essence; but if they see us cautious about the answer, they turn the reproach of impiety upon us. But we confess that we know the knowable of God, and again that we know something that escapes our comprehension. So, if you ask me whether I know what sand is, and I answer that I know, you will clearly be acting maliciously if you immediately demand also its number, because your first question pertained to the form of sand, while your second piece of malice turned around its number. This sophism is similar to the one that says: "Do you know Timothy? Then, if you know Timothy, you know also his nature; but you admitted that you know Timothy; so give us the account of Timothy's nature." But I both know Timothy and do not know him—not, however, in the same respect and in the same way. For it is not by that by which I know that I also do not know; but in one respect I know, in another I am ignorant.

For I know him by his character and other distinctive features, but I do not know his essence. For I also know and do not know myself by this same reasoning. For I know who I am, but I do not know, in that I am ignorant of my essence. Let them explain to us how Paul said: "Now we know in part." Do we know his essence in part, as if we know parts of his essence? But that is absurd, for God is indivisible. Or do we know it entirely? How then: "When the perfect comes, the partial will be abolished"? And what are the idolaters accused of? Is it not that, having known God, they did not glorify him as God? Or the foolish Galatians, why are they reproached by Paul when he says: "Now having known God, or rather having been known by God, how do you turn back again to the weak and poor elements?" And how was God known in Judea? Was it because in Judea the essence which then existed was recognized? "The ox knows, it is said, the one who acquired it." Clearly, according to you, the ox knew the essence of its master. And "The donkey knows the manger of its master." So the donkey also knew the essence of the manger. "But Israel, it is said, did not know me." This is what Israel is accused of, according to you: that it did not recognize the essence which is ever of God. "Pour out, it is said, your wrath upon the nations that do not know you," that is, those who have not grasped your essence. But knowledge is manifold, as we said. For both the understanding of the one who created us and the perception of the wonders

understanding of him, and the keeping of the commandments, and the intimacy with him. But those who have thrust aside all these things drag knowledge to one signification, the contemplation of the essence of God. "You will place," he says, "opposite the testimonies, whence I shall be known to you from there." Is then "I shall be known" used instead of "I shall make my essence manifest"? "The Lord knew those who were his." Does he then know the essence of those who are his, but is ignorant of the essence of those who disobey? "Adam knew his wife." Did he then know her essence? And concerning Rebecca: "A virgin," it says, "a man did not know her." And: "How will this be, since I do not know a man?" Did no one then know the essence of Rebecca? Does Mary say this, that she had not conceived the essence of any man? Or is it customary for Scripture to use "knew" for marital unions? And that God will be known from the mercy seat, that is, will be manifested to those who worship. And "The Lord knew those who were his" means he accepted them through good works into intimacy with him.

To Amphilochius the Bishop. The evangelical saying concerning our Lord Jesus Christ not knowing the day and hour of the end has already been investigated by many, and is especially put forward continuously by the Anomoeans for the overthrow of the glory of the Only-begotten, as a demonstration of his dissimilarity in essence and of his inferiority in dignity, on the ground that one who does not know everything cannot have the same nature nor be conceived in a single likeness with him who has embraced the knowledge of all things by his own prognostic and comprehensive power over future events. This has now been put before us as a new question by your intelligence. What therefore we have heard from childhood from the fathers, and have accepted without examination because of our love for what is good, these things we have to say, which do not dissolve the shamelessness of the Christ-fighters (for what argument could appear stronger than their impulse?), but perhaps provide sufficient assurance to those who love the Lord and possess a preconception from faith stronger than the answer from reason. The saying "No one" seems to be a universal expression, as if not even one person is excepted by this utterance. But it is not so referred to in Scripture, as we have observed in the case of "No one is good except God alone." For there too the Son does not place himself outside the nature of the good when he says this, but because the Father is the first good, we believe that with the "no one" the word "first" is understood; and likewise "No one knows the Son except the Father." For there too he does not accuse the Spirit of ignorance, but testifies that the knowledge of his own nature belongs first to the Father.

Thus we also consider the saying, "No one knows," to have been spoken by one who refers the first knowledge of both present and future things to the Father, and through all things points out the first cause to men. For how else can the saying be consistent either with the other testimonies of Scripture, or with our common conceptions, if we believe that the Only-Begotten is an image of the invisible God—an image not of a bodily form, but of the divinity itself and of the greatnesses conceived in the essence of God, an image of power, an image of wisdom, as it is said, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God? And knowledge is clearly a part of wisdom, which he does not fully represent, if he falls short of some things. And how is it that the Father, through whom he made the ages, did not show him that least part of the ages, that day and that hour? Or how does the maker of all things fall short of knowledge of the least part of what he has created? And he who says that near the end such and such signs will appear in the sky and in the regions on earth, how does he himself

he does not know the end. For when he says, "Not yet the end," he does not speak as one in doubt, but as one who knows and defines. Moreover, to one who considers it in good will, the Lord speaks much from the human side; for "Give me to drink" is a voice fulfilling a bodily need. And yet the one asking was not soulless flesh, but a deity using ensouled flesh. Thus, if one takes the ignorance as referring to one who progresses in wisdom and grace before God and men, he will not be led outside pious thought. It would be for your diligence to set forth the evangelical sayings and compare them with each other, those of Matthew and Mark. For these alone appear to agree with each other concerning this passage. Now the wording of Matthew is as follows: "Concerning that day no one knows, not even the angels of the heavens, except the Father alone." And that of Mark: "Concerning that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, except the Father." What then is worthy of note in these? That Matthew said nothing about the ignorance of the Son, but seems to agree with Mark in meaning by saying "except the Father alone." And we consider that "alone" is said in distinction to the angels, and that the Son is not included with his own servants in ignorance. For he who said, "All that the Father has is mine," is truthful. And one of the things he has is the knowledge of that day and hour.

Having thus passed over in silence his own person as something agreed upon, in the passage of Matthew the Lord said that the angels do not know, but that the Father alone knows, declaring that the Father's knowledge belongs also to himself by implication, because he has said elsewhere: "As the Father knows me, so I also know the Father." If the Father knows the Son wholly through and through, so as to know all the wisdom stored in him, then by the same measure the Son will evidently be known by the Father along with all the wisdom and foreknowledge of future things present in him. This, then, is the consolation we claim for the passage in Matthew: "Unless the Father alone." As for the passage in Mark, since it seems openly to separate even the Son from knowledge, we understand it thus: no one knows, neither the angels of God, nor would the Son have known, unless the Father—that is, the cause of the Son's knowing is from the Father. And this interpretation is not forced for one who listens in good will, since the word "alone" is not added, as it is in Matthew. The meaning in Mark, then, is this: concerning the day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels of God, nor would the Son have known, unless the Father; for the knowledge was given to him from the Father. And this is most reverent and befitting God to say about the Son, that since he is consubstantial, he has from him both his knowing and his being seen in all wisdom and glory befitting his divinity. Concerning Jeconiah, whom the prophet Jeremiah says was proclaimed an exile from the land of Judea, saying:

Jeconiah was dishonored like a vessel for which there is no further need, and he and his seed were cast off, and from his seed no one shall arise to sit upon the throne of David as ruler in Judah. The word is clear and simple. For when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the royal house was dissolved, and there were no longer paternal successions of leadership, as there had been before; rather, from the beginning of the captivity, the descendants of David lived in exile. When those around Salathiel and Zorobabel returned, they led the people in a more democratic manner, the rule having thereafter devolved upon the priesthood because the priestly and royal tribes were intermingled. Hence the Lord is both king and high priest in relation to God. And the royal tribe did not cease until the coming of Christ; yet the seed of Jeconiah no longer sat upon the throne of David. For the throne is manifestly said to be the royal dignity. You certainly recall from history that all of Judea and the Idumean country and Moabitis and those parts of Syria both near and farther off as far as Mesopotamia, and on the other side as far as the river of Egypt, were tributary to David. If, therefore, no one of such dignity appeared among those after this, how is the prophet’s word not true, that from the seed of Jeconiah no one shall sit upon the throne of David? For no one from his line is seen to have attained this rank.

The tribe of Judah did not, however, cease until the one for whom it was reserved came, who himself did not sit upon the physical throne, since the Jewish kingdom had by then passed to Herod, the son of the Ascalonite Antipater, and to his children, who divided Judea into four principalities, Pilate being governor, while Tiberius held the entire power of the Roman empire. But he speaks of the throne of David, upon which the Lord sat, the indestructible kingdom. "For he is the expectation of the nations," not of the smallest part of the inhabited world. "For it shall be," he says, "the root of Jesse and the one who arises to rule the nations; upon him nations will hope. For I have set you as a covenant of the race, as a light of the nations. And I will place," he says, "for eternity of eternity his seed and his throne as the days of the sky." Thus, therefore, he remained a priest, even if he did not receive the scepter of Judea, and God is king of the whole earth, and the blessing of Jacob was confirmed: "And all the tribes of the earth will be blessed by his seed," and all the nations will bless Christ. To the elegant Encratites, concerning their dignified problem, why we do not eat everything, let this be said: that we also abhor our own excrements. For according to worth, meats are to us as vegetables of the field, but according to the discernment of what is beneficial, just as in vegetables we separate the harmful from the suitable, so also in meats we distinguish the harmful from the useful, since hemlock is a vegetable, just as vulture meat is meat.

But nevertheless, no one in their right mind would eat henbane or touch a dog unless compelled by great necessity, just as the one who ate it did not transgress the law. As for those who say that human affairs are governed by fate, do not seek arguments from us, but pierce them with the barbs of rhetoric proper to them; for the problem is too lengthy for my present weakness. Regarding the act of rising up again in baptism, I do not know what prompted you to ask, if you accept that the immersion fulfills the pattern of the three days. For it is impossible to be baptized three times without rising up that many times. We accent the word "having eaten" with the acute on the penult. Ousia and hypostasis have this difference, which the common has relative to the particular, for example, as animal has relative to a specific human. Therefore, we confess one ousia in the Godhead, so that the definition of being is not given differently; but a distinct hypostasis, so that the conception of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit may be unconfused and clear for us. For if we do not conceive the distinctive characters assigned to each, such as fatherhood, sonship, and sanctification, but confess God from the common notion of being, it is impossible to give a sound account of the faith. It is necessary, therefore, to add the particular to the common, and thus confess the faith: the common is the divinity, the particular is the fatherhood; joining them, say: I believe in God the Father. And again, in the confession of the Son, do likewise, join the particular to the common and say: in God the Son.

Similarly, in the case of the Holy Spirit, following the sequence of the utterance, we shape the pronunciation to say: "I believe also in the divine Holy Spirit," so that throughout both the unity is preserved in the confession of the one divinity, and the distinctiveness of the persons is acknowledged in the separation of the properties conceived about each. But those who say that essence and hypostasis are the same are compelled to confess only different persons, and when they are pressed to say three hypostases, they are found not to escape the evil of Sabellius, who himself, often confusing the concept, attempts to divide the persons by saying that the same hypostasis is transformed according to each need that arises. And concerning what you asked—how intermediate and varied things around us are administered, whether by some automatic chance or by the just providence of God—we say this: that health and sickness, wealth and poverty, glory and dishonor, insofar as they do not make those who have them good, are not among the goods that are according to nature; but insofar as they provide some smooth flow to life, the former are more choiceworthy than their opposites and have some value when spoken of. These things, however, are given by God to some for the sake of economy, as to Abraham and Job and those like them. But to the more base, they are a provocation for improvement in character, so that one who, after such reception from God, persists in injustice unquestionably renders himself liable to condemnation. The just person, however, is neither turned aside by wealth when it is present nor seeks it when it is absent; for he is not one who enjoys what is given, but one who administers it.

No one of sound mind rushes into the business of distributing others' goods, unless they look to the opinion of the many, who admire and emulate those placed in some authority. The righteous, however, accept illness as an athletic contest, awaiting great crowns for their endurance. To set another over the administration of these matters is not incongruous, but impious. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata. I both sent a letter to your Piety through the vicar of Thrace, and wrote other letters through a certain praepositus of the treasuries in the region of Philippopolis, who was crossing from our region into Thrace, and I asked him to take them up when he departed. But the vicar did not receive our letters. For while we were making a visitation of our parish, he arrived in the city in the evening and departed again at deep dawn, so that the stewards of the church escaped notice of the man's arrival, and thus the letters remained with us. The praepositus, perhaps because some unforeseen circumstance detained him, set out without either taking up the letters or seeing us. And there was no one else to meet; hence we remained grieved, because it is neither possible for us to send letters nor to receive letters from your Piety. Yet I wished, if it were possible for me, to report to you the events that befall us each day. For the matters are so many and so extraordinary that they require a daily journal, which I would have compiled, be assured, if the continuity of events did not drive away my thoughts from the matters at hand. A vicar arrived among us, the first and greatest of our evils.

man, whether he is also heretical in his thinking I do not know (for I think he is utterly inexperienced in any discourse and has no zeal or practice in such matters; for I see him occupied elsewhere in soul and body night and day), but he is a partisan and loves them no less than he is hostile to us. For he convened a synod of those who reject us in the middle of winter in Galatia; and he expelled Hypsis, and installed Ecdicius in his place. And he ordered that my brother be arrested by one man, and that an insignificant one, on a charge. Then, after a brief preoccupation with the military camp, he came upon us again breathing rage and murder, and handed over all the clergy of the Church in Caesarea to the City Council with a single voice. In Sebasteia he sat for many days sorting factions, and those who were in communion with us he named councilors and condemned to the service of public works, while those attached to Eustathius he surrounded with the highest honors. Again he ordered a synod to be convened around Nyssa of Galatians and Pontics. They obeyed and, gathering together, sent to the churches someone whom I would not choose to describe, but it is possible for your wisdom to infer what sort of person it is likely to be who serves such choices of men. And now, when I was writing this, this same company set out for Sebasteia, to join with Eustathius and together with him to overthrow the affairs of the Nicopolitans; for the blessed Theodotus has fallen asleep. And for the time being, they repelled the first attacks of the vicarius nobly and steadfastly.

He tried to persuade them to accept Eustathius and through him to receive the bishop. But when he saw that they were not willingly yielding, he now attempts to install the one given by a more violent hand. There is also some rumor of an expected synod, at which they intend to summon us and either take us as partners or employ custom. Such, then, are the affairs of the churches. As for my own bodily condition, I consider it better to be silent than to write, because if I speak the truth I will cause pain, and I cannot bear to lie. To the Presbyters of Nicopolis. I received your reverent letter, and I learned nothing newer from it than what I already knew from them. For the report had already reached the entire surrounding district, announcing the shame of the one among you who fell, who out of desire for empty glory brought upon himself the most disgraceful dishonor and was found to have fallen from the rewards of the faith because of his self-love, and that wretched little reputation, which he desired and for which he sold himself to impiety, he does not have because of the righteous hatred of those who fear the Lord. But that man has brought forth from his present choice the clearest proof of his entire life, that he never lived in hope of the promises laid up for us by the Lord; but whatever he contrived of human things, both words of faith and a pretense of piety, all were practiced for the deception of those he encountered. But why does the event distress you? Have you become worse than yourselves because of this? One has fallen from your number.

But if one or two others have gone away with him, they are pitiable in their fall, while your body remains whole by the grace of God. For what was useless has fallen away, and what remains has not been mutilated. And if it distresses you that you have been cast out of the walls, yet you will lodge under the shelter of the God of heaven, and the angel who is the guardian of the Church has gone away with you. So they recline in empty houses day by day, preparing a heavy judgment for themselves from the dispersion of the people. And if there is any toil in the matter, I am persuaded that for you it will not prove vain in the Lord's sight. So the more trials you undergo, the more precious the reward you await from the righteous Judge. Therefore neither be vexed at present circumstances nor grow weary in hope. For yet a little while, and he who supports you will come to you and will not delay. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata. The Lord has given us now also, through our most beloved and reverend brother Antiochus the fellow presbyter, to address your holiness, and to exhort you to do what is customary, to pray for us, and for ourselves

you might find some consolation for the long absence through conversation by letter. And while praying, this first and greatest thing we ask: beg the Lord to deliver us from the perverse and wicked men who have so prevailed over the peoples that now nothing else is presented to us but the circumstances of the Jewish captivity. For to the extent that the Churches are more weakly declining, to that extent the love of office among men is increasing. And the name of bishop has now come to be attached to miserable men, homebred slaves of homebred slaves, with no one among the servants of God choosing to put himself forward except the desperate, such as are those now sent by Anysius, the nursling of Euippius and of Ecidicus the Parnassian, whom the one who appointed him let loose upon the Churches as an evil provision for his own future life. These men have now driven my brother out of Nyssa and have brought in a man, or rather a chattel, worth a few obols, but equal in corruption of faith to those who appointed him. And to the village of Doara they sent a corrupt man, a servant of orphans, a runaway from his own masters, who through the flattery of a godless woman—who formerly used George for her own will, and now has this man as that one's successor—they sent, outraging the pitiable name of the episcopate. And as for the affairs of the Nicopolitans, who could lament them adequately, with the wretched Phronton first pretending to advocate for the truth, and finally shamefully betraying both the faith and himself, and receiving as the reward for his betrayal a name of dishonor?

They received from them the dignity of episcopacy, as he thinks, but by the grace of God they have become a common abomination to all Armenia. Yet nothing is too daring for them, nor do they lack worthy fellow workers. As for the rest of Syria, our brother Antiochus knows and will relate it better than we do. You yourself met with those from the West, after our brother Dorotheus had related everything; what sort of letters should be given to him when he goes back? For perhaps he will share the journey with the excellent Sangctesimus, who is very zealous and travels throughout the East, collecting subscriptions and letters from each of the notable men. What then should be written through them, or how to come to an agreement with those who write, I myself am at a loss; but if you find those who are coming to us quickly, deign to inform us. For the saying of Diomedes comes to my mind: "You should not have entreated, for, he says, the man is arrogant." Indeed, haughty characters, when flattered, naturally become more contemptuous of themselves. For if the Lord is reconciled to us, what further addition do we need? But if the wrath of God persists, what help is the Western arrogance to us? They neither know the truth nor endure learning it, but, prejudiced by false suspicions, they now do what they formerly did in the case of Marcellus: having contended against those who report the truth to them, they have confirmed the heresy through their own actions. For I myself, without the common form, wished to write to their leader.

Concerning ecclesiastical matters, nothing, except to hint that they neither know the truth among us nor accept the path by which they might learn it; and in general, that one ought not to attack those humbled by trials, nor to judge arrogance as a dignity, a sin sufficient by itself to create enmity toward God. To the Presbyters of Nicopolis. You have done well both in writing to us and in writing through such a man, who even without letters would have sufficed to provide us with ample comfort in our cares and to give an accurate account of affairs. For there were many things we sought to learn from one who knew them most clearly, since reports reach us in a distorted manner; all of which our most beloved and honored brother Theodosius, the fellow presbyter, related to us steadfastly and with experience. Therefore, what we advise for ourselves, we also write to your reverence: that many have experienced these same things as you, and not only in the present time, but in the past as well there are countless examples of such things; some the histories have left in writing, others we have received by unwritten memory from those who knew, that both individually and by cities, trials have beset those who hoped in the name of the Lord. Yet all have passed, and nothing of the gloomy things has had its pain immortal. Like hailstorms and torrents and all such spontaneous evils, they easily harm and damage soft things, but when they encounter resistant things, they suffer more than they act.

Thus the violent trials stirred up against the Church were shown to be weaker than the firmament of faith in Christ. Just as the hail-cloud has passed and the torrent has drained into the ravine—the one dissolved into clear sky, the other vanished into the deep, leaving the path through which it flowed dry and parched—so too what now storms against us will shortly cease to be. Only if we deign not to look at the present, but to fix our hopes on what is a little further off. Whether the trial is heavy, brothers, let us endure the hardships. For no one is crowned without being struck in contests and covered with dust. Or if these are light playthings of the devil and the annoyances sent against us are troublesome, because they serve such a master, yet contemptible, because God has joined weakness to their wickedness, let us avoid the self-reproach of lamenting great things over small sufferings. For there is one thing worthy of grief: the ruin of that man who, for the sake of temporary glory—if indeed one must call public indecency glory—has deprived himself of the eternal honor of the righteous. You are children of confessors and children of martyrs who resisted sin to the point of blood. Let each use the examples of his own family for steadfastness in piety. None of you has been lacerated with blows, no one's house has been confiscated; we have not lived in exile, we have not known prison. What terrible thing have we suffered? Unless perhaps this is grievous: that we have suffered nothing and have not been deemed worthy of the sufferings for Christ.

But if it distresses you that so-and-so occupies the house of prayer while you worship the Master of heaven and earth in the open air, reflect that the eleven disciples were shut up in the upper room, while those who crucified the Lord were fulfilling the Jewish worship in the renowned temple. For Judas, preferring death by hanging to a life of shame, showed himself perhaps more choiceworthy than those who now blush at no human condemnation and therefore shamelessly incline toward base things. Only do not be deceived by their false professions, which promise orthodoxy of faith. For such men are Christ-merchants, not Christians, always preferring what is expedient for them in this life to living according to truth. When they thought to acquire this empty authority, they attached themselves to the enemies of Christ; when they saw the people growing fierce, they again assume the guise of orthodoxy. I know no bishop, nor would I count among the priests of Christ one who has been thrust forward into leadership by profane hands for the overthrow of the faith. This is my judgment. But if you have any share with us, you will evidently think the same as we do; but if you deliberate on your own, each is master of his own opinion, and we are innocent of this blood. I have written this not because I distrust you, but to confirm the uncertainty of some by making known my own opinion.

so that some were not received into communion nor accepted the laying on of their hands, and afterward, when peace came, they forced themselves to be counted among the priestly order. We greet through you the entire clergy, both in the city and in the parish, together with all the people who fear the Lord. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata: Not that we may increase the despondencies—for we often do not spare the unpleasant things in our letters to your Honor—but that we may give ourselves some comfort through our groans, which somehow have the power to disperse the pain deep within when they occur, and to spur your great-mindedness to more earnest prayer on behalf of the Churches. For even Moses prayed always for the people, of course; but when the contest against Amalek was joined, he did not let his hands drop from morning until evening, but the stretching out of the holy one's hands was completed together with the end of the battle. To the Westerners: Since holy God promises deliverance from every affliction to those who hope in him, even if we have been cut off in the midst of a sea of evils and are tormented by the triple waves raised by the spirits of wickedness, nevertheless we hold fast in Christ who strengthens us and have not relaxed the intensity of our zeal for the Churches, nor, as in a storm when the surge overwhelms, do we, despairing of salvation, await dissolution; but we still cling to the zeal possible for us, knowing that even the one swallowed by the whale, because he did not despair of himself but cried out to the Lord, was deemed worthy of salvation.

Thus we ourselves, having reached the extreme of evils, do not abandon hope in God, but from all sides we look around for his help. Hence we have now turned our gaze toward you, most honored brothers to us, whom we often expected to appear to us in the time of our afflictions; but having fallen from that hope, we said to ourselves, "I waited for a sympathizer, and there was none; and for comforters, and I found none." For such are our sufferings that they have reached the very ends of the inhabited world around us, and, if when one member suffers all the members suffer together, then surely your compassion ought to have been affected along with us, who have been afflicted for a long time. For it is not proximity of place, but spiritual connection that naturally produces the closeness which we have believed to exist between us and your love. Why then has there been no letter of consolation, no visit from brothers, nor anything else owed to us by the law of love? For it is the thirteenth year since the heretical war arose against us, in which the churches have suffered more afflictions than any remembered since the Gospel of Christ was proclaimed. We refrain from recounting to you each detail, lest the weakness of our speech diminish the vividness of the evils; and at the same time we do not think you need instruction, since you have long been taught the truth of the facts by report. The chief of the evil is this: the people have abandoned the houses of prayer and gather in the deserts. A pitiful sight.

women and children and old men and those otherwise weak, suffering in the open air under the most violent rainstorms and snowfalls and winds and frost of winter, and likewise in summer under the flame of the sun. And they endure these things because they do not consent to become of the evil leaven of Arius. How could speech vividly set these things before you, unless experience itself and the sight through the eyes should move you to sympathy? Therefore we now at least beseech you to stretch out a hand to the Churches of the East, already brought to their knees, and to send some who will remind them of the rewards laid up for the endurance of sufferings for Christ’s sake. For the customary word is not so naturally effective as a foreign voice in producing consolation, especially when it comes from men known for the noblest things by the grace of God, such as rumor proclaims you to all men, remaining unwounded in faith, guarding the apostolic deposit inviolate. But our affairs are not such; rather we have had some who, with a desire for glory and with that swelling which most destroys the souls of Christians, have taken confidence in certain innovations of words, whence the Churches, weakened, like vessels that have become porous, have received the heretical corruption flowing in. But you, beloved and longed-for by us, become physicians of the wounded and trainers of the healthy: healing the diseased part, anointing the healthy part for piety.

To the Bishops of Italy and Gaul concerning the state and confusion of the churches. To the truly most God-beloved and most longed-for brothers and like-minded fellow ministers, the bishops throughout Gaul and Italy, Basil, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. Our Lord Jesus Christ, having deigned to call the whole Church of God his own body, and having shown each of us to be members of one another, has given to us all the duty to be intimately related to all, according to the harmony of the members. Therefore, even if we are separated from one another by the greatest distances in our dwellings, yet by the bond of connection we are near to one another. Since the head cannot say to the feet, "I have no need of you," surely you will not endure to reject us, but you will sympathize with our afflictions, into which we have been delivered because of our sins, as much as we rejoice with you who are glorified in the peace which the Lord has granted you. Already at other times we have invoked your love for our assistance and sympathy, but surely because our vindication was not fulfilled, you were not permitted to rise up for our assistance. For we seek especially that through your reverence the one who rules over the region subject to you might become aware of our confusion; but if this is difficult, then that some from among you might come for the visitation and consolation of the afflicted, so that they might set before their eyes the sufferings of the East, which it is impossible for the ears to receive, since no account is found that can vividly present to you our circumstances.

Persecution has overtaken us, most honored brothers, and the heaviest of persecutions. For shepherds are being persecuted so that the flocks may be scattered. And the most grievous thing is that while those who are abused receive their sufferings in the assurance of martyrdom, the peoples do not honor the athletes in the rank of martyrs because the name of Christians is attached to the persecutors. There is now one charge vehemently prosecuted: the strict observance of the traditions of the fathers. Because of this, the pious are driven from their homelands and resettled in deserts. Gray hair is not respected by the judges of injustice, nor is the practice of piety, nor a life lived according to the Gospel from youth to old age. But no criminal is condemned without proofs, while bishops are convicted by slander alone and, with no evidence brought for the charges, are handed over to punishments. Some neither knew their accusers nor saw courts nor were even slandered in the first place, but were violently seized in the dead of night and exiled to foreign lands, consigned to the hardships of the desert unto death. And what follows from these things is known to all, even if we are silent: flights of presbyters, flights of deacons, the plundering of the entire clergy. For it is necessary either to bow down to the image or to be handed over to the evil flame of the scourges. There is a groan of the peoples, a perpetual weeping both in homes and in public, all lamenting to one another what they suffer. For no one is so stony-hearted as to bear orphanhood calmly when deprived of a father. There is a sound of mourners in the city, a sound in the fields, on the roads, in the deserts.

A single piteous voice of all uttering lamentable things. Joy and spiritual gladness have been removed. Our feasts have been turned into mourning, houses of prayer have been closed, the altars of spiritual worship are idle. No longer are there gatherings of Christians, no longer presidencies of teachers, no saving teachings, no festivals, no night-long hymns, no that blessed exultation of souls which arises in souls from the assemblies and the communion of spiritual gifts for those who believe in the Lord. It is fitting for us to say: "There is in this time neither ruler nor prophet nor leader nor offering nor incense, no place to make an offering before the Lord and find mercy." We write these things knowing them, because there is no part of the inhabited world that has henceforth been ignorant of our calamities. So it is not for the sake of instruction that we think it proper to make these words, nor to remind your diligence. For we know that you would never forget us, any more than a mother forgets the offspring of her womb. But since, just as those seized by some pain are accustomed to lighten their sufferings somehow through groans, we also do this, as if we are unloading the weight of grief by reporting our manifold misfortunes to your love, so that, if somehow stirred more vehemently to prayers on our behalf, you might entreat the Lord to be reconciled to us.

If then only the afflictions were what oppress us, we would have counseled ourselves to keep quiet and rejoice in the sufferings for Christ, since "The sufferings of the present time are not worthy compared to the glory that will be revealed to us in the future." But now we fear that the evil, growing like a flame that spreads through burning material, when it has consumed what is near, may also touch what is far. For the evil of heresy spreads, and there is fear that after devouring our Churches it may then creep upon the healthy part of your community. Perhaps, then, because sin has abounded among us, we were first handed over to be devoured by the raw-fanged teeth of the enemies of Christ. Or perhaps, and this is more likely to be conjectured, because the Gospel of the Kingdom, beginning from our regions, went out to the whole world, for this reason the common enemy of our souls strives that the words of apostasy, taking their beginning from the same places, be disseminated throughout the whole world. For upon those upon whom the light of the knowledge of Christ shone, upon these he also plans to bring the darkness of impiety. Therefore, consider our sufferings as your own, as genuine disciples of the Lord. We are not warred against for money, nor for glory, nor for any other transitory thing, but we stand fighting for the common possession, the paternal treasure of sound faith.

Grieve with us, O lovers of the brethren, because among us the mouths of the pious have been stopped, while every bold and blasphemous tongue that speaks injustice against God has been opened. The pillars and the foundation of the truth are in dispersion; we, who have been overlooked on account of our insignificance, are deprived of freedom of speech. Be anxious for the peoples, and do not consider only yourselves, that you are moored in calm harbors, the grace of God granting you every shelter from the storm of the spirits of wickedness. But also reach out a hand to the storm-tossed Churches, lest, being abandoned, they suffer a complete shipwreck of the faith. Groan over us, that the Only-Begotten is blasphemed and there is no one to contradict. The Holy Spirit is rejected, and the one who is able to refute is driven away. Polytheism has prevailed. Among them there is a great God and a small one. The Son is considered not a name of nature, but a designation of some rank; the Holy Spirit is not held to be a constituent of the Holy Trinity nor a partaker of the divine and blessed nature, but one of the things from creation, vainly and as it chanced, cast in with the Father and the Son. Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eyelids? And I will weep for the people many days, the people who are being driven to perdition by these wicked teachings. The ears of the more innocent are being swept away; they have come into habit of heretical impiety. The infants of the Church are being reared with the words of impiety. For what are they to do?

Baptisms by them, escorts of the departed, visits to the sick, consolation of the grieving, aid to the distressed, manifold assistance, participation in the mysteries—all these things, when performed through them, become a bond of concord among the peoples toward them, so that after a short time has passed, even if some license should arise, there is no longer any hope that those who have been held by long-standing deceit might be recalled to the knowledge of the truth. For this reason, many of us ought to have come together to your reverence, each to be an expounder of his own affairs. But now let this very fact be a sign to you of the distress in which we live: that we are not even masters of our own travel. For if anyone should depart even for the briefest time from his own Church, he will leave the peoples exposed to those who lie in wait. But by the grace of God we have sent one in place of many, our most reverend and beloved brother Dorotheus, the fellow presbyter, who is able to supply by his own narration whatever has escaped our letters, having followed all matters with accuracy and being a zealot of the right faith. Receive him in peace, and send him back quickly, bearing to us good tidings of the zeal you have for assisting the brotherhood.

To Patrophilus, Bishop of the Church in Aegaeae I have encountered your letter, which you sent through our brother Strategius the fellow presbyter, and I encountered it gladly. For how could I not, with it being written by an intelligent man and by a heart taught to perfect love toward all from the commandment of the Lord? And I have almost recognized the cause of your silence in the past time. For you seemed to be at a loss and astonished: whether that Basil, the one who served from childhood in such a way to such a one, the one who did such things in such times and such things, the one who undertook war against countless for the sake of service to the one, this man has now become other from other and has taken up war instead of love, and all the other things you sent, sufficiently indicating the astonishment of your soul at the paradoxical change of affairs. And if you also reproached me somewhat, I did not receive this with difficulty. For I am not so undisciplined as to be vexed at the loving reproofs of brothers. For I am so far from being annoyed at what was sent that I almost laughed at them; if so many and

by such great matters as seemed to us previously to confirm our mutual friendship, you yourself wrote that you had been so greatly shocked by small things that reached you. So then, have you too suffered the same as the many, who, abandoning the examination of the nature of things, attend to the persons about whom the words are spoken, and become not examiners of the truth, but judges of the difference of persons, forgetting the admonition that "it is not good to know a person in judgment"? Nevertheless, since God does not take the person of a man, I will not decline to make known to you also the defense I have prepared for the great tribunal. That nothing from us, from the beginning, either small or great, has been the cause of the division; but men who hate us, for reasons they themselves know (for I must not say anything about them), kept making continuous slanders. And once and twice we shook these off; but since the matter was endless and there was no benefit from continuous defense, we being far away, and the false accusers being near, wounding with slanders against us a heart that was easily conquered and not taught to keep the other ear pure for the absent one, and since the Nicopolitans were demanding some assurance of faith, which surely you also did not ignore, it seemed good to us to undertake the ministry of the letter. For we reckoned that we would accomplish two things at once: to persuade the Nicopolitans not to think ill of the man, and to stop the mouths of those slandering us, since the agreement in faith would exclude the calumnies from both sides.

And indeed the creed had been composed, and it was presented by us, and it was signed. After it was signed, a place was designated for a second synod and another time, so that the brethren from our parish might come together and be united with one another, and that henceforth the communion might be genuine and sincere. So we arrived at the appointed time, and the brethren with us—some were present, others kept arriving—all cheerful and eager, as if hastening to peace. And there were letters from us and couriers indicating that we were present; for it was our place that had been designated to receive those assembling. But when from the other side no one came—neither a forerunner nor one announcing the arrival of those expected—those sent by us returned, reporting great dejection and murmuring there, as though a new creed had been proclaimed by us. And it was said that they were determined not to permit their bishop to cross over to us. Then someone came bearing a letter to us, which was perfunctory and contained no mention of the original agreements. And the brother Theophilus, who is worthy of all respect and honor from me, sent one of those with him and indicated certain things which he thought it was fitting for him to say and for us to hear. For he did not deign to write, not so much because he feared the refutation from letters as because he was concerned not to be compelled to address us as bishops. Yet indeed the words were vehement and uttered from a heart that had been heated.

At this we dispersed, ashamed and broken in spirit, having nothing to answer to those who questioned us. Not much time passed, and there was a journey as far as Cilicia, and from there a return, and immediately letters containing a prohibition of communion with us. The cause of the rupture was that, they say, we had written to Apollinarius and that we hold our fellow presbyter Diodorus as a communicant. I, for my part, have never considered Apollinarius an enemy, but there are matters for which I even respect the man; yet I have not so attached myself to him as to take upon myself his accusations, especially since I myself have some things to charge him with, having encountered some of his treatises. Nor do I know of having either requested a book from him concerning the Holy Spirit or received one sent. But I hear that he has become the most voluminous of all writers, though I have encountered few of his treatises; for I have no leisure to investigate such things, and at the same time I am somewhat averse to accepting novelties, since my body does not even allow me to remain diligently and in the proper manner with the reading of the divinely inspired Scriptures. What then is this to me, if someone has written something displeasing to so-and-so? Yet if one must bear the responsibility for another, let him who accuses me on behalf of Apollinarius defend to us Arius, his own teacher, and Aetius, his own disciple. But we have neither been taught by nor been disciples of the man whose accusations they turn upon us.