Epistulae

We received Diodorus from the beginning as a nursling of the blessed Silvanus, and now we both love and cherish him for the grace of speech that is present in him, through which many of those who encounter him become better. Disposed as I was by these letters, and as was natural, and struck by such an irrational and sudden change, I was unable even to utter a word in reply. For my heart was bound, my tongue was paralyzed, my hand had grown numb, and I suffered the experience of an ignoble soul (for the truth will be spoken, yet it is worthy of forgiveness): I nearly fell into misanthropy, and every character seemed suspect to me, and I thought that the good of love does not exist in human nature, but is a fair-sounding word providing some adornment to those who use it, and that this disposition does not truly exist in the heart of a man. For if one who from childhood to deep old age seemed to have taken care of himself, from such pretexts was so easily made savage, taking no account of our affairs nor deeming the experience of the past more authoritative than such a cheap slander, but like some untamed colt not yet taught to bear its rider well, from a small suspicion reared up and threw off and cast to the ground those in whom it formerly took pride, what must one suspect of others, towards whom we have neither so many pledges of friendship nor from them such a display of care for character?

I unroll these things in my own soul and constantly turn them over in my heart—or rather, my heart is turned over by them, as they bite and scratch me through memory—and I answered nothing to those letters, not from disdainful silence (do not think this, brother; for we are not defending ourselves before men, but speaking before God in Christ), but from perplexity and helplessness and from having nothing to say worthy of the grief. While we were in this state, other letters overtook us, ostensibly written to some Dazizas, but in truth dispatched to all men, as their very swift dissemination shows, for in a few days they were scattered throughout all Pontus and overran Galatia. Some say that these messengers of good things, passing through Bithynia, reached as far as the Hellespont itself. What was written against us to Dazizas you surely know. For they do not place you so far from their friendship as to leave you alone without that honor. But if the letters did not come to you, I am sending them to you. In them you will find us accused of deceit and knavery, corruption of Churches and destruction of souls, and the most true of all, as they think, that we made that presentation of the faith as a covert operation, not serving the Nicopolitans, but devising to obtain a confession deceitfully. Of these things the Lord is judge. For what clear proof could there be of the thoughts in the heart?

I wondered at this in them, that although they subscribed to the book presented by us, they have employed such a distance that they confuse both what is and what is not for the satisfaction of those accusing them; but that their written confession of the faith of Nicaea is deposited in Rome, this they do not consider, nor that by their own hand they presented to the synod at Tyana the book from Rome, which lies with us, containing this same faith. And they have forgotten their own harangue, which, having then stood in the midst, they lamented the deceit by which they were induced to agree to the tome composed by the party of Eudoxius; because they devised this apology for that error: that they went to Rome and from there received the faith of the Fathers, so that the harm they caused to the Churches by their agreement to evil might be corrected by the introduction of the better. But those who undertook the longest journeys for the faith and delivered these wise harangues now revile us as proceeding deceitfully and, under the guise of love, doing the work of plotters. And the documents now circulated show that they have condemned the faith of Nicaea. For they saw Cyzicus and returned with another faith. And why do I speak of changeableness in words, when I have much greater proofs of their reversal to the contrary from the facts themselves?

For those who did not yield to the decree issued against them by the dogma of five hundred bishops, nor consented to stand down from the administration of the Churches when so many agreed on the opinion of their deposition, because, they say, they were not partakers of the Holy Spirit nor administering the Churches by the grace of God, but seized the presidencies by human power through desire for vainglory—these same persons now accept those ordained by those men as bishops. Ask them on my behalf, if they also despise all men as having neither eyes nor ears nor a perceptive heart, at least insofar as they are able to perceive the inconsistency of what is happening, what thought they have in their own heart? How can there be two bishops, both the one deposed by Euippius and the one ordained by the same man? For both are the work of the same hand. If he did not have the grace given to Jeremiah, to tear down and rebuild, to uproot and to plant, he would neither have uprooted that one nor planted that one. But if you grant him the one, you will also concede to him the other. But the purpose is one, as it seems: to seek their own interest everywhere, and to consider as friend the one who cooperates with their desires, but to judge as enemy and spare no slander against him who resists their desires. For what are their present administrations of the Church? They are dreadful because of the ease of those who act, and pitiable because of the insensibility of those who suffer.

The children of Euippius and the grandchildren of Euippius, summoned from exile through a trustworthy embassy to Sebasteia, were entrusted with the people. They took over the altar and became the leaven of the Church there. By them we are persecuted as Homoousians; but Eustathius, who carried the Homoousion in the document from Rome as far as Tyana, has now been mixed in with them, although he could not be admitted into their much-desired communion, either because they feared the multitude of those who had agreed against him, or because they respected his trustworthiness. For who those assembled were, and how each was ordained, and from what original life each passed to this present dominion, I would never have such leisure as to recount their deeds. For I have learned to pray, "That my mouth may not speak the works of men." But you, by inquiring, will learn; and even if it escapes you, it will certainly not escape the Judge. However, I will not refrain from telling your love the suffering I endured: that last year, having fallen ill with a very severe fever and having come almost to the very gates of death, then recalled by the philanthropy of God, I was reluctant to return, considering into what evils I was coming again; and I pondered to myself what in the depth of wisdom lies hidden of

of God, for which reason days of life in the flesh were again granted to me. But when I learned these things, I reflected that the Lord wished to see the Churches cease from the disturbance which they suffered before this over the separation of those who, because of the feigned dignity attributed to them, were entrusted with everything. Or perhaps the Lord wished to strengthen my soul and make it more wakeful for the future, so that I might not pay heed to men, but be formed through the evangelical commandments, which are altered neither by times nor by circumstances of human affairs, but remain the same, enduring forever as they were delivered from the truthful and blessed mouth. Men, however, are like clouds, carried now to one part of the air, now to another, according to the changes of the winds; and especially these men of whom I speak proved to be the most versatile of any who have come within my experience. Whether they were so also in the other affairs of life, those who have lived with them might say; but what appeared to me—their instability concerning the faith—I have neither myself observed nor heard from others in any other case up to the present. From the beginning they followed Arius; then they transferred to Hermogenes, who was diametrically opposed to the evil doctrine of Arius, as is shown by the faith itself according to Nicaea, which was originally proclaimed by that man. Hermogenes died, and they again changed to Eusebius, a leading man of the Arian circle, as those who have experienced it say. Expelled from there, for whatever reasons, they again ran back to their homeland and again concealed the Arian sentiment.

Having gone into the episcopate—to omit what lies in between—how many creeds they have set forth! Another at Ancyra, another at Seleucia, at Constantinople the much-talked-of one, another at Lampsacus, after that the one at Nice in Thrace, and now again the one from Cyzicus, of which I do not know the rest, but I hear this much, that after silencing the homoousion, they now circulate the homoion kat' ousian and compose blasphemies against the Holy Spirit along with Eunomius. Of these creeds which I have enumerated, even if not all are opposed to one another, yet they equally exhibit the fickleness of their character by the fact that they never stand by the same expressions. These things are true, while countless others are passed over in silence. Since they have now also reached you, we ask you to reply through the same man (I mean our fellow presbyter Strategius), whether you have remained the same towards us or have been changed by the encounter. For it was not fitting for them to be silent, nor for you, who wrote such things to us, not to use frankness also with them. If, then, you remain in communion with us, this is best and worthy of the highest prayer. But if they have won you over to themselves, it is grievous. How could it not be? The separation from such a brother. Yet, if nothing else, at least we have been sufficiently trained by them to bear such losses. To Theophilus the Bishop. Having long ago received the letter from your love, I waited to reply through a trustworthy person, so that the deacon of letters might supply whatever the letter omitted.

Since our most beloved and reverend brother Strategius has come to us, I thought it right to employ him as a deacon, as one who both knows our mind and is able to convey our words genuinely and reverently. Know then, most beloved and honored one, that we set great store by our love for you, for the sake of which, on account of our disposition of soul, we have forgiven ourselves for not having been in contact with you for any day, even though there have been many and great occasions for reasonable grief. Nevertheless, we have decided this: as if in a balance, setting the more pleasant against the more disagreeable, we have inclined our judgment toward the weight of the better things. But since circumstances have changed, and from those from whom this least ought to have happened, forgive us also, not for having changed our mind, but for having altered our order. Rather, we will remain in the same order, while it is others who are constantly changing, and now even openly deserting to the opposite side. How highly we valued communion with them, as long as they were on the healthy side, you yourself know. But now, if we neither follow them nor associate with those who think as they do, we would justly obtain pardon, setting nothing as more honorable than the truth and our own safety. To the Nicopolitans: Whenever I see both the evil prospering and your reverence weary and despairing at the continuous assaults, I am filled with despondency.

But when I again consider the great hand of God, and that He knows how to raise up the broken, to love the righteous, to crush the proud, and to cast down potentates from their thrones, I am again changed and become lighter in my hopes, and I know that through your prayers the Lord will quickly show us calm. Only do not grow weary in praying, but, being teachers in word, in the present time strive to add to all the clear examples in deed. To the Nicopolitans. When I received your holiness's letter, how I groaned and lamented that I had received these evils with my own ears—blows and insults against yourselves, plundering of houses, desolation of the city and overthrow of the whole fatherland, persecution of the Church and flight of priests, uprising of wolves and scattering of flocks. But when I ceased from groaning and tears, looking to the Master in the heavens, I know and am persuaded, and I wish you also to know, that help will be swift and that the abandonment is not final. For what we have suffered, we have suffered because of our sins, but His help, because of His love and compassion for His Churches, the Lover of mankind will show. However, we have not omitted, while present, to supplicate those in power, and from the camp to write to those who love us, that the raging one be restrained from his wrath. And I think that condemnation will come to him from many, unless the time, filled with turmoil, gives no leisure for these matters to those in charge.

To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium. When I look to our own desire, we are grieved to be so far separated from your reverence; but when I look to the peacefulness of your own conduct, we give thanks to the Lord, who has delivered your reverence from this conflagration which has more extensively consumed our own community. For the Righteous Judge has given us according to our works an angel of Satan, sufficiently buffeting us and vigorously avenging the heresy, and has waged war against us to such an extent that he has not even spared the blood of those who have believed in God. For surely it has not escaped your love that a certain Asclepius, because he would not choose communion with Doeg, was beaten by them with blows and died, or rather through the blows was translated into life. And consider all the rest to follow accordingly: persecutions of presbyters and teachers, and all else that men would do, using the power of office for their own will. But the Lord will give us release from these things through your prayers, and endurance, so that we may bear the weight of trials worthily of the hope we have in him. And deign yourself to write to us continually about your own affairs, and if you find someone able faithfully to convey to us the book you have composed, deign to send it, so that, emboldened by your judgment, we may also send it into the hands of others. Be strong, cheerful in the Lord, praying earnestly that you may be granted to me and to the Lord’s Church by the grace of the Holy One.

Untitled. For a Pious Man. I rejoice with this brother, both because he is being freed from the disturbances here and because he is coming to your reverence. For he has chosen a good provision for the life to come, the good conduct of life with those who fear the Lord. We commend him to your honor and ask you to pray through him for our pitiable life, that we may be delivered from these trials and begin to serve the Lord according to the Gospel. To Patrophilus, Bishop of Aegae. I received the replies to my earlier letters late; but I did receive them, nevertheless, through the most beloved Strategius, and I gave thanks to the Lord that you remain the same in your love for us. What you have now deigned to write concerning the same subject is a proof of your good intention, that you think what is proper and advise us what is beneficial. However, since I see my discourse becoming long if I were to reply to each of the points sent by your wisdom, I say only this: that the good of peace, if it is circumscribed merely by the name of peace, is ridiculous—for certain persons to choose so-and-so and so-and-so and to share the peace only with them, while excluding countless others from communion in the good. But if agreement with harmful persons, under the pretense of peace, produces the effects of enemies for those who accept it, consider who are those with whom have mingled themselves those who have hated us with unjust hatred—but they are of the party of those with whom we have no communion; for I do not need now to mention them by name.

These men were summoned by them to Sebasteia, took over the Church, and performed the liturgy at the altar, and from their own bread they gave to the entire people, being proclaimed as bishops by the clergy there and sent throughout the whole region as holy and in communion by them. If one must choose their party, it is ridiculous to begin from the nails and not to address their very heads. If, then, no one at all is to be considered heretical nor to be shunned, why, tell me, do you separate yourself and shrink from communion with some? But if there are some who are to be avoided according to the principle of exactness, let those who are exact in everything tell us of which party are those whom they brought over from Galatia to themselves. If these things seem to you worthy of grief, attribute the separation to those responsible for them; but if you judge them indifferent, pardon us for not consenting to become leavened with those who teach otherwise. Therefore, if you please, of the plausible

Leaving aside those words, with complete frankness rebuke those who do not walk straight toward the truth of the Gospel. To the Eusebians: Even though the multitude of affairs surrounding us is great and our mind is constrained by countless cares, nevertheless we have never cast out of our memory the concern for your love, beseeching our God that you may remain in the faith in which you stand and boast in the hope of the glory of God. For indeed it is now hard to find and very rare to see a Church that is pure, not at all damaged by the severity of the times, but preserving the apostolic teaching intact and unbroken, such as yours has shown itself in the present times, as the one who reveals those worthy of his calling in each generation. And may the Lord grant you the good things of the heavenly Jerusalem, in return for the fact that you have sent back the false slanders against us onto the heads of the false speakers, not giving them entrance into your hearts. And I know and am convinced in the Lord that your reward is great in this action. For you have wisely considered among yourselves this, which is indeed true, that those who repay me with evil for good and hatred for my love toward them now slander me concerning those things for which they themselves have produced written confessions.

And not only have they fallen into this contradiction, offering our own written documents against us as an accusation, but also, having been deposed by a unanimous vote of those who assembled in Constantinople, they did not accept their deposition, calling it a council of those who reject [the decision] and refusing to call them bishops, so as not to confirm the sentence passed against them. And they added the reason that they were not bishops because, they say, they presided over a wicked heresy. These events took place not quite seventeen years ago. The leaders of those who deposed them were Eudoxius, Euippius, George, Acacius, and the rest of those unknown to us. But those who now hold those churches are their successors: some were ordained in their place, others were promoted by those very men. Now, then, let those who accuse us of heterodoxy tell us how those men whose deposition they did not accept were heretics, and how these men, who were promoted by those heretics and preserve the same mindset as their fathers, are orthodox. For if Euippius is orthodox, how is Eustathius, who was deposed by him, not a layman? But if that man is a heretic, how is the one promoted by his hand now in communion with Eustathius? But these are games played against the churches of God for their own advantage, by men who attempt both to slander people and then to reinstate them. Eustathius, while passing through Paphlagonia, overturned the altars of Basilides the Paphlagonian and celebrated the liturgy on private tables, and now he is a suppliant of Basilides to be received.

He excommunicated Elpidius, the most reverend brother, because of his connection with those in Amaseia, and now he is a suppliant of the Amaseians, seeking their connection. The proclamations concerning Euippius—you yourselves know how dreadful they were—and now he extols those who hold his views as orthodox, provided only that they cooperate in his zeal for restoration. We are slandered not because we have done any wrong, but because he thought this would bring him approval among those in Antioch. As for those whom they summoned last year from Galatia, thinking that through them they could recover the freedom of the episcopate, they are such as those who have associated with them even briefly know. May the Lord never grant me so much leisure as to enumerate their deeds. Nevertheless, escorted by his most honored companions and fellow initiates, they passed through his entire country, receiving the honors and attentions due to bishops. They were brought conspicuously into the city, having conducted church services with authority. For the people were handed over to them, the sanctuary was handed over. When they advanced as far as Nicopolis and were unable to accomplish any of what they had promised, how they returned and how they appeared during the return—those present know. Thus they are always seen acting for their own advantage. If they say they have repented, let them show a written document of their repentance and an anathematization of the faith of Constantinople and a separation from the heretics, and let them not deceive the more simple-minded. Such are their affairs.

We, beloved brothers, though small and humble, yet always the same by the grace of God, have never been swayed by the changes of circumstances. Among us, the faith is not one thing in Seleucia, another in Constantinople, another in Zela, another in Lampsacus, another at Rome, and another now current, different from the former, but one and the same. For as we received from the Lord, so we are baptized; so we believe as we are baptized; as we believe, so we also glorify; neither separating the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, nor saying that the Spirit is set before the Father or is older than the Son, as the tongues of the blasphemers contrive. For who is so bold as to thrust aside the Lord’s legislation and dare to devise a private order of names? But we neither call the Spirit, which is ranked with the Father and the Son, a creature, nor do we dare to call the governing principle servile. And we exhort you, mindful of the Lord’s threat, who said: “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven to men, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, neither in this age nor in the coming one”; guard yourselves against harmful teachings against the Spirit. Stand firm in the faith, look around at the whole world and see that this part which has fallen ill is small; but the entire rest of the Church, which has received the Gospel from one end to the other, is in this sound and uncorrupted teaching.

We pray that we ourselves may not fall from communion with them, and we join you in praying that you may receive your portion on the just day of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes to give to each of us according to his deed. To the Bishops of the Pontic Diocese: Honors of martyrs are eagerly sought by all who have set their hope on the Lord, but especially by you who cultivate virtue, who through your disposition toward the esteemed among your fellow servants display your goodwill toward the common Master, and also because the life of strictness has some kinship with those perfected through endurance. Since, therefore, the most notable martyrs Eupsychius and Damas and the chorus around them, whose memory is celebrated annually by our city and the whole surrounding district, remind you of her own adornment, the Church through our voice entreats you to recover the ancient custom of your visitation. So then, as a great work lies before you among a people seeking edification from you, and rewards are stored up in the honor of the martyrs, accept our entreaty and consent to the grace, providing us a great benefaction with little effort.

To the Presbyters of Antioch The concern which you have for the Churches of God will in part be relieved by our most beloved and reverend brother Sanctissimus, the fellow presbyter, when he relates to you the love and disposition of the entire West towards us; and in part it will be aroused and further stimulated, when he sets before you clearly through his own account how much zeal the present circumstances demand. For each of the others has reported to us only partially, both the opinions of the men there and the state of affairs; but he, being capable both of discerning the intention of men and of accurately investigating the state of affairs, will tell you everything and will guide your good zeal in all things. So you have material befitting your perfect intention, which you have always shown in your concerns for the Churches of God. To Pelagius, Bishop of Laodicea in Syria May the Lord grant that I myself might one day come into the presence of your true piety, and that what we have omitted in our letter we might supply by our presence. For we began to write late, and we have need of much apology. But since our most beloved and reverend brother Sanctissimus, the fellow presbyter, is present, he will relate to you everything, both our affairs and those from the West. And in those matters he will give you joy; but in telling of the disturbances that have overtaken us, he will perhaps add some grief and concern to those already stored up in your good heart. Yet it is not useless for you, who are able to appease the Lord, to be grieved.

To the Bishop of Carrhae Would that it were possible for me to write to your reverence every day. For since I came to know your love, I have a great longing, above all to live with you, but if not, at least to write and receive letters, so that I may both indicate my own circumstances and learn about your disposition. Since, however, not what we wish is at our disposal, but what the Lord gives, we ought to accept these with gratitude. We gave thanks to the holy God for providing us with an occasion for writing to your reverence, namely the arrival of our most beloved and most reverend brother Sanctissimus, the fellow presbyter, who, having endured much toil on the journey, will relate to you with accuracy all that he encountered in the West. For these things we ought both to give thanks to the Lord and to worship him, that he may grant us the same peace and that we may receive one another with freedom. Greet the whole brotherhood in Christ on our behalf.

To the Most Beloved and Most Pious Brother Presbyters, Akakios, Aetios, Paulos, and Silouanos, and to the Deacons Silouinos and Loukios, and the Rest of the Brother Monks, Basileios the Bishop. When I heard of that grievous persecution which arose against you, and that immediately after Pascha those who had fasted for strife and conflict attacked your tents and consigned your labors to fire—preparing for yourselves the house in the heavens not made by hands, but storing up for themselves the fire which they used to your harm—I groaned at the event, not grieving with you, brothers—far from it—but for those so immersed by wickedness as to extend their depravity to such a degree. I immediately expected that all of you would run to our lowliness as a ready refuge, and I was in hope that the Lord would give me respite from my continuous pains in embracing you, and, receiving the noble sweat which you shed for the truth into this idle body of mine, I would have some share in the prizes laid up for you from the Judge of truth. But since this did not even enter your minds, nor did you expect to have any rest from us, I desired at least to find constant occasions for letters to you, so that, like those who whisper encouragement to the contestants, I might myself cry out to you through letters for the encouragement of your noble struggle. Yet this was not easy for us for two reasons: first, because we did not know where you were staying; second, because not many are those departing from us to you.

But now the Lord has brought to us the most beloved and most reverent brother Sanktesimos the fellow presbyter, through whom we both address your love and exhort you to pray for us, rejoicing and exulting that your reward is great in the heavens, and that, having boldness before the Lord, you do not cease night and day crying out to him for the cessation of this storm of the Churches, for the return of the shepherds to the peoples, and for the Church to be restored to its proper dignity. For I am persuaded that, if a voice is found that moves the good God, he will not long delay his mercies, but will grant us henceforth both the trial and its outcome, so that we may be able to endure it. Greet from us the entire brotherhood in Christ. To the Monks Harassed by the Arians What I uttered to myself upon hearing of the trial imposed upon you by the enemies of God, I thought it good to communicate to you also in writing, because at a time thought to be peaceful, you have acquired for yourselves the blessedness reserved for those persecuted for the name of Christ. For it is not because a gentle and mild name is attached to those who do evil deeds that one should therefore consider their actions not to be those of enemies. For I judge war from one's own kind to be more grievous, since it is easy to guard against proclaimed enemies, but against those mingled with us, one is necessarily exposed to every harm; and this is what you have suffered.

Your fathers were indeed persecuted, but by idolaters; and their property was plundered, their houses overturned, and they themselves were exiled by those who openly warred against us because of the name of Christ. But the persecutors who have now arisen hate us no less than those did, yet for the deception of the many they put forward the name of Christ, so that the persecuted may not even have the consolation of confession, since the many and the more simple acknowledge that we are wronged but do not count death for the truth as martyrdom for us. Therefore I am convinced that a greater reward is laid up for us from the righteous Judge than for those who then suffered martyrdom, since they had both the acknowledged approval of men and awaited the reward from God, while for us, with equal achievements, the honors from the people do not exist; so that it is likely that in the future life a manifold recompense for the labors on behalf of piety is stored up. Hence we exhort you not to lose heart in your afflictions, but to renew yourselves in love for God and to add daily to your zeal, knowing that in you the remnant of piety must be preserved, which the Lord will find upon the earth when he comes. And if bishops have been driven from the churches, let this not shake you; and if traitors have arisen from among the clergy themselves, let not this undermine your confidence in God. For it is not names that save us, but our choices and the true love for our Creator.

Consider that in the conspiracy against our Lord, the high priests and scribes and elders contrived the treachery, while few from among the people were found who genuinely accepted the word, and that it is not the multitude that is saved, but the elect of God. Therefore, let the great throng of people never frighten you, who are like the water of the sea driven by the winds. For even if only one is saved, like Lot in Sodom, he must remain steadfast in right judgment, holding his hope in Christ immovable, because the Lord will not abandon his holy ones. Greet the entire brotherhood in Christ on my behalf; pray sincerely for my wretched soul. TO BISHOP EPIPHANIUS What was long expected from the Lord's prophecy, and now is confirmed by the experience of events—that "because lawlessness has multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold"—having already prevailed among us, seemed to dissolve the letters brought by your Honor. For indeed, it is no ordinary sign of love first to remember us, who are so small and of no account, and then to send brothers for our visitation, fitting as deacons of peaceful letters. For nothing is rarer than this sight, when all are now suspicious of all. Nowhere is there compassion, nowhere sympathy, nowhere a brotherly tear for a suffering brother. No persecutions for the truth, no churches groaning in their entirety, no this long list of the difficulties surrounding us can move us to care for one another.

But we leap upon the corpses, we scratch open the wounds, we who seem to share the same conviction intensify the insults from the heretics, and those who are in agreement on the most essential points are completely at variance with one another over some single matter. How then could we not admire the one who, amid such circumstances, displays pure and guileless love toward his neighbors, and who, across so great a sea and continent that separates us physically, bestows the possible care upon our souls? I also admired this in you: that you took the division of the brethren in the Olive Grove grievously and wish some reconciliation to be brought about among them. And that the things devised by some and causing disturbances among the brotherhood did not escape you, but you undertook concern for these as well—this too I approved. But that I did not consider worthy of your wisdom is your entrusting to us the correction of such great matters, to men who neither are led by the grace of God because they live amid sins, nor possess any power in discourse because, while they have gladly withdrawn from vain things, they have not yet acquired the proper disposition regarding the doctrines of truth. We have therefore already written to our beloved brethren in the Olive Grove, to our Palladius and to Innocentius the Italian,

Regarding what has been written to us by them, that we are able to add nothing to the faith of Nicaea, not even the smallest thing, except the doxology to the Holy Spirit, because our Fathers mentioned this part only in passing, since the question concerning it had not yet been raised at that time. As for the doctrines woven into that faith concerning the Incarnation of the Lord, as being deeper than our comprehension, we have neither examined nor accepted them, knowing that once we disturb the simplicity of the faith, we will find no end of words, since contradiction always leads us further, and we will disturb the souls of the simpler ones by the introduction of strange notions. As for the Church of Antioch (I mean the one that agrees with the same opinion), may the Lord grant that we see it united. For it is especially this church that is in danger of having received the plots of the enemy, who bears a grudge against it because it was there that the name of Christians was first established. And heresy is divided from orthodoxy, and orthodoxy itself is divided against itself. But we, since the one who first spoke freely on behalf of the truth and underwent that noble struggle in the times of Constantius is the most venerable Meletius the bishop, and my Church has held him in communion, loving him exceedingly for that steadfast and unyielding resistance, and we have him in communion up to now by the grace of God, and we will have him, if God wills.

Since the most blessed Pope Athanasius, when he came from Alexandria, very much desired that communion with him be accomplished for him, but due to the malice of his advisors, their union was deferred to another time, as ought not to have happened. Of those who have recently entered, we have not yet accepted the communion of any, not judging them unworthy, but having nothing to condemn in this. And yet we have heard many things about the brothers, but we have not accepted them, because the accused have not confronted their accusers according to what is written, that "Our law does not judge a man unless it first hears him and knows what he does." So we are not yet able to write to them, most honorable brother, nor ought we to be compelled to do so. But it would be fitting for your peaceful intention not to join some while separating others, but to bring the separated parts to the pre-existing union. So first pray, then also, as much as you are able, exhort them to cast out of their souls the love of honor and, for the sake of restoring strength to the Church and humbling the arrogance of the enemies, to come to agreement with one another. And that also greatly comforted my soul, which was added by your precision to the other things well and accurately theologized: that it is necessary to confess three hypostases. So let the brothers in Antioch also be taught this by you, and surely they have been taught somewhere. For you would not have chosen communion with them, evidently, without having secured this part most of all.

The nation of the Magousaeans (which you deigned to indicate to us through your other letter) is numerous among us, scattered throughout almost the entire country, having been brought in as settlers long ago from Babylonia. They employ peculiar customs, being unmixed with other people; but to engage with them in discourse, since they are captured by the devil for his will, is utterly impossible. For they have neither books nor teachers of doctrines, but are reared in an irrational custom, succeeding one another from father to son in impiety. Apart from these things, which are observed by all, they reject animal sacrifice as a defilement, slaughtering the animals necessary for their needs through the hands of others; they are mad for unlawful marriages, and they consider fire to be God, and other such things. As for the genealogies from Abraham, none of the Magi has recounted them to us up to the present, but they claim a certain Zarnouas as the founder of their race. Therefore, I have nothing further to write to Your Honor concerning them.

To Palladius and Innocentius, monks. How much I love you, you ought to infer from how much you yourselves love us. I have always desired to be an arbiter of peace, and when I fail, I am grieved. For how could I not be? Yet I cannot bear enmity toward anyone on this account, knowing that the good of peace was taken from us long ago. But if the cause of the division lies with others, may the Lord grant that those who create dissensions cease. I do not, however, seek your constant presence. So do not apologize to me on this account. For I know that men who have chosen a life of labor and always provide for themselves the necessities by their own hands cannot be away from their own homes for a long time. But wherever you are, remember us and pray, so that we at least may have peace with ourselves and with God, with no disturbance dwelling in our thoughts. To Optimus, bishop. I gladly look upon good children both because of the stability of their character beyond their years and because of their closeness to your reverence, from which much is to be hoped for in them. Since I saw them approaching me with your letter, I doubled my affection for them. But when I read the letter and saw in it both the providential care for the Churches that comes from your disposition and the diligence concerning the reading of the divine Scriptures, I gave thanks to the Lord and prayed for good things for those who bring us such letters, and above all for the one who wrote to us.

You asked about that much-discussed saying, bandied about everywhere by everyone, what solution the phrase "Whoever kills Cain will undo the seven avengers" has. Through this, you have for now both commended yourself as one who accurately preserves the teaching of Timothy, which Paul delivered to him (for you are clearly attentive to reading), and also roused us, the old and sluggish, already enervated by time, bodily weakness, and the multitude of afflictions that have now been stirred up around us and weighed down our life—yet you have awakened us, boiling with spirit, as though we were hibernating animals, and brought us back to moderate wakefulness and vital activity. Now, this saying can be understood simply in this way, and can also admit of a more elaborate interpretation. The simpler meaning, which can be readily apparent to anyone, is this: that Cain must pay a sevenfold penalty for his sins. For it is not the part of a just judge to assign equal penalties for equal offenses, but it is necessary that the one who first committed evil pay what is owed with an addition, if he is both to become better through the punishments and to make the rest more prudent by the example. Therefore, since it has been ordained that Cain is to fulfill the penalty for his sins seven times over, "he will undo," it says, this decree of divine judgment upon him, whoever kills him. This is the sense that strikes us from the first reading. But since the mind of the more diligent is naturally inclined to explore depths, it inquires how justice is fulfilled in the sevenfold penalty, and what the "avengers" are, whether...

The sins are seven, or is the sin one, but the punishments for the one are seven? Now, Scripture always limits the number of remission of sins to the number seven. "How many times," it says, "will my brother sin against me, and I will forgive him?" (It is Peter speaking to the Lord.) "Up to seven times?" Then the Lord's answer: "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." For the Lord did not pass to another number, but by multiplying the seven he set the limit of remission in it. And after seven years the Hebrew was released from slavery. And seven weeks of years made the famous Jubilee in former times, in which the land lay fallow, there were cancellations of debts, release from slavery, and a new life was established from above, as it were, the hebdomadic number in a way receiving the conclusion of the old. These are types of this world, which runs past us, revolving through the seven days, in which the expiations of the more moderate sins occur, according to the benevolent care of the good Master, so that we are not handed over to the endless age for punishment. Now, the "seven times" is because of its kinship with this world, since worldly people ought especially to be penalized by the very things for the sake of which they chose to do evil. And as for "the avengers," whether you speak of the sins committed by Cain, you will find seven, or of the penalties determined by the judge upon him, and thus you will not miss the meaning. Now, among the deeds dared by Cain, the first sin is envy at the preference of Abel; the second is the deceit with which he spoke to his brother, saying:

Let us go into the plain." The third is murder, an addition of evil; the fourth, that it is also the murder of a brother, a greater intensification; the fifth, that Cain, being the first murderer, left a wicked example for life; the sixth, an injustice because he caused grief to his parents; the seventh, that he lied to God, for when asked, "Where is Abel, your brother?" he said, "I do not know." So there were seven offenses being avenged, which were dissolved when Cain was killed. For since the Lord said, "Cursed is the earth that opened to receive your brother's blood," and "You will be groaning and trembling on the earth," Cain says, "If you cast me out from the earth today, I will hide from your face and be groaning and trembling on the earth, and everyone who finds me will kill me." To this the Lord says, "Not so; everyone who kills Cain will dissolve the seven avenged offenses." For Cain thought he was vulnerable to anyone, because he had no security from the earth (for the earth was cursed by him) and was deprived of help from God, since God was angered with him over the murder, so that he had no support from either earth or heaven. "It will be," he says, "that everyone who finds me will kill me." The word refutes his error, saying, "Not so," that is, you will not be killed. For death is a gain for those being punished, bringing release from sufferings. But you will be prolonged in life, so that the punishments may be measured out in accordance with the sins committed. Since "the avenged offense" is understood in two ways—both the sin for which the vengeance is exacted and the manner of punishment through which the vengeance is carried out—let us see if seven modes of torture were inflicted upon the evildoer.

The seven sins of Cain the discourse has enumerated in what follows. Now we inquire whether there are seven punishments brought upon him, and we say thus: after the Lord's question, "Where is Abel, your brother?" which He asked not wishing to learn, but offering him an occasion for repentance, the benevolent Master presented, as the words themselves show. For when he denied, He quickly makes the refutation, saying, "The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me." So that "Where is Abel, your brother?" gave him an occasion for awareness of the sin committed, not that it became a means of instruction for God. For if he had not met with God's oversight, he would have had a pretext as one abandoned and having received no occasion for repentance. But now the physician appeared, that the sick man might take refuge with him. He, however, not only hides the wound, but also adds another to the murder, attaching the lie: "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" From this point then it enumerates the punishments. "The earth is cursed because of you." One punishment. "He tills the earth." This is a second. For some ineffable necessity was joined to him, pressing him to the work of the earth, so that not even if he wished could he rest, but he always toils with his hostile earth, which he made cursed for himself by defiling it with brotherly blood. "He tills the earth, then." A terrible punishment: living with those who hate, having an enemy as a housemate, an unceasing foe.

Work the earth," that is, straining at agricultural labors you will have no rest, neither by night nor by day, being released from toils, but having a more grievous compulsion than some bitter master rousing you to the works. "And it will not give its strength." Yet even if the unceasing labor had some fruit, the toil itself is no moderate torment for one always straining and laboring. But since the labor is both unceasing and fruitless—the misery concerning the earth (for it did not give its strength)—this is the third punishment, the fruitlessness of the toils. "Groaning and trembling you will be upon the earth." He added two others to the three: perpetual groaning and trembling of the body, the members not having the support of strength. For since he used the power of the body badly, his tone was taken away, so that he is shaken and convulsed, unable easily to bring bread to his mouth or to convey drink, the wicked hand after the unholy act no longer being permitted to serve even the body's own necessary needs. Another punishment which Cain himself revealed, saying: "If you cast me out now from the earth, I will also hide from your face." What is this: "If you cast me out from the earth"? That is, if you separate me from the benefit from it. For he was not transferred to another place, but was alienated from the goods upon it. "And I will hide from your face." The heaviest punishment for the prudent, separation from God. "And it will be, he says, everyone who finds me will kill me." He conjectures from the consequence of what precedes.

If I am cast out from the earth, if I am hidden from your face, it remains to be removed from everything. What then does the Lord say? "Not so." But he set a sign upon him. This is the seventh punishment, that the punishment is not even hidden, but by a clear sign it is proclaimed to all that this one is the author of unholy deeds. For to one who reasons correctly, shame is the heaviest of punishments, which we have also learned concerning the Judgment, that these will rise to eternal life and these to eternal shame and reproach. A related question follows, that spoken by Lamech to his wives: "That I have killed a man for a wound and a young man for a bruise to me; that it has been avenged seven times from Cain, and from Lamech seventy-seven times." And some think that Cain was killed by Lamech, as he lasted until that generation in order to give a longer punishment. But this is not true. For he appears to have committed two murders, which he himself recounts. "I killed a man and a young man": the man for a wound and the young man for a bruise. So a wound is one thing and a bruise another. And a man is one thing and a young man another. "That it has been avenged seven times from Cain, and from Lamech seventy-seven times." I am liable to undergo four hundred and ninety punishments, if the judgment of God concerning Cain is just, so that he underwent seven punishments. For he, just as he did not learn murder from another, so he did not see a murderer undergoing punishment. But I, having before my eyes the one groaning and trembling and the magnitude of the wrath of God, was not made prudent by the example.

Therefore I am worthy to undergo four hundred and ninety punishments. But some have set forth a reasoning not discordant with the ecclesiastical doctrine: that from Cain until the flood seven generations have passed, and immediately punishment was inflicted upon the whole earth because of the great outpouring of sin. But the sin of Lamech does not require a flood for its remedy, but rather the one who takes away the sin of the world. Count, then, from Adam until the coming of Christ the generations, and you will find, according to the genealogy of Luke, that the Lord was born in the seventy-seventh succession. These matters, then, have been examined as far as possible, with many things that could be examined left aside, so that we may not extend the discourse beyond the measure of the letter; but even these brief seeds suffice for your understanding. For it is said, "Give a wise man a starting point, and he will become wiser," and "A wise man, receiving a word, will praise it and add to it." But the words of Simeon to Mary contain nothing intricate or profound. "For Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother: 'Behold, this one lies for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a disputed sign. And your own soul will be pierced by a sword, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.'" In these matters I marveled at this: that, passing over the preceding things as clear, you inquired about this one thing: "And your own soul will be pierced by a sword.

Yet it seems to me no less perplexing how the same one lies in fall and resurrection, and what the disputed sign is, and third, how a sword will pass through the soul of Mary. I therefore consider that the Lord is for fall and resurrection not because some fall and others rise, but because the worse part in us falls and the better part rises up. For the Lord's manifestation is destructive of bodily passions and rousing of the soul's proper qualities. As when Paul says, "When I am weak, then I am strong," the same person is both weak and strong, but weak in the flesh and strong in the spirit. So also the Lord does not provide occasions for falling to some and for rising to others. For those who fall obviously fall from the state in which they once stood. But the unbeliever, always crawling low with the serpent, has never stood. He therefore has no place from which to fall, because he has been cast down by unbelief. Thus the first benefit is for the one standing in sin to fall and die, then to live in righteousness and rise, with faith in Christ granting us both. Let the worse fall, so that the better may have opportunity for resurrection. If unchastity does not fall, chastity does not rise. If irrationality is not crushed, the rational element in us will not flourish. So then, "For the fall and resurrection of many." "And for a disputed sign." We know that in Scripture the cross is properly called a sign.

For Moses placed the serpent upon a sign, that is, upon a cross, which sign is indicative of some paradoxical and hidden matter, visible to them but understood by those who are shrewd in their thinking. Since, therefore, they do not cease contending concerning the Incarnation of the Lord, some asserting that he assumed a body, others that his sojourn was bodiless, and some that his body was passible, others that he fulfilled the economy through the body by some phantasm, and still others that the body was earthly, others that it was heavenly, and some that his existence was pre-eternal, others that he had his beginning from Mary, for this reason it is called "the disputed sign." And he calls the sword the testing word, the critical word of thoughts, the one penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrows. Since, therefore, every soul at the time of the Passion was subjected, as it were, to some division, according to the Lord's voice saying, "You will all be scandalized in me," Symeon prophesies also concerning Mary herself that, "Standing by the cross and seeing what was happening and hearing the voices, after the testimony of Gabriel,

After the ineffable knowledge of the divine conception, after the great display of miracles, there will arise some disturbance also concerning your soul. For it was necessary that the Lord taste death for the sake of all and, having become the expiation of the world, justify all in his own blood. And so of you yourself, who have been taught from above the things concerning the Lord, some discrimination will touch, that is, a sword. "So that the thoughts may be revealed from many hearts" he hints that after the scandal that occurred at the cross of Christ, both to the disciples and to Mary herself, some swift healing will follow from the Lord, confirming their heart in faith toward him. For thus we saw also Peter, after being scandalized, cling more firmly to faith in Christ. The human weakness was exposed, so that the strength of the Lord might be shown. TO THOSE IN SOZOPOLIS I have read your letter, most honored brothers, which you sent concerning your affairs. And that you have taken us as partners in your concerns for the care of what is necessary and worthy of zeal for you, we gave thanks to the Lord. But we groaned upon hearing that, in addition to the disturbance brought by the Arians to the Churches and the confusion they have caused concerning the word of faith, yet another empty talk has appeared among you, casting the brotherhood into great distress, as you wrote to us, of men introducing new and unfamiliar things to the ears of the faithful, supposedly from the teaching of the Scriptures.

You wrote that there are some among you who dissolve the salvific economy of our Lord Jesus Christ, as far as it depends on them, nullifying the grace of the great mystery, which was hidden from the ages and revealed in its own times, when the Lord, having passed through all things pertaining to the care of the human race, finally granted us his own presence. For he benefited his own creation first through patriarchs, whose lives were set forth as examples and canons for those wishing to follow in the footsteps of the saints and, by zeal similar to theirs, to attain the perfection of good works. Then he gave law as an aid, ordaining it through angels in the hand of Moses; then prophets foretelling the salvation that was to come, judges, kings, righteous men, working wonders by a hidden hand. After all these, in the last days he himself appeared in the flesh, "born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law, in order that we might receive adoption." If, then, the Lord's presence in the flesh did not happen, the redeemer did not pay the price for us to death, nor did he break the kingdom of death through himself.

For if that which was ruled by death were one thing, and that which was assumed by the Lord another, then death would not have ceased to work its own effect, nor would the sufferings of the God-bearing flesh have become our gain, nor would sin have been slain in the flesh, nor would we who died in Adam have been brought to life in Christ, nor would that which had fallen have been refashioned, nor that which had been broken have been restored, nor would that which had been alienated through the deceit of the serpent have been reconciled to God. For all these things are abolished by those who say that the Lord came having a heavenly body. And what need was there of the Holy Virgin, if the Christ-bearing flesh was not to be taken from the lump of Adam? But who is so bold as to renew now, through sophistical words and the supposed testimony of the Scriptures, the dogma of Valentinus which was long ago silenced? For this impiety of docetism is not recent, but began long ago from the vain-minded Valentinus, who, tearing off a few phrases of the Apostle, constructed for himself his impious fabrication, saying that the form of a servant, and not the servant himself, was assumed, and saying that the Lord came in appearance, but not that the man himself was taken up by him. Those who utter such things seem akin to these; it befits them to lament the newer blasphemies you are introducing. But to say that the passions of men pass over to the divinity itself is in no way the part of those who preserve logical consistency in their thoughts, nor of those who know that the passions of flesh are one thing, those of ensouled flesh another, and those of a soul using a body another.

It is proper to flesh to be cut, diminished, and dissolved, and again to ensouled flesh to be wearied, pained, hungry, thirsty, and overcome by sleep; while to soul using a body belong griefs, distresses, cares, and all such things. Of these, some are natural and necessary to the living being, while others are introduced from a depraved choice, through the undisciplined and untrained-for-virtue character of life. Hence it appears that the Lord admitted the natural affections for the confirmation of the true and not imaginary incarnation, but repelled as unworthy of the undefiled divinity those affections from wickedness which befoul the purity of our life. For this reason it is said that he was made in the likeness of the flesh of sin. So he assumed our flesh with its natural affections, but he did not commit sin. But just as the death transmitted to us through Adam in the flesh was swallowed up by the divinity, so also sin was consumed by the righteousness in Christ Jesus, so that we in the resurrection receive back the flesh neither subject to death nor liable to sin. These, brothers, are the mysteries of the Church, these the traditions of the Fathers. We testify to every man who fears the Lord and awaits the judgment of God not to be carried away by various teachings. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not approach the sound words of the faith, but, thrusting aside the oracles of the Spirit, makes his own teaching more honorable than the evangelical doctrines, beware of such a one.

May the Lord grant that we come together with one another at some time, so that whatever has escaped our discourse may be filled in through personal meeting. For we have written to you few things out of many, not wishing to exceed the measure of a letter, and at the same time being persuaded that for those who fear the Lord, even a brief reminder suffices. To Urbicius the Monk. You have done well to write to us; for you have shown no small fruit of love, and continue to do this frequently. Do not, however, think that you need excuses when you write to us. For we know ourselves and understand that every human being has equality with all others according to nature; and preeminences among us are not by birth, nor by abundance of wealth, nor by the constitution of the body, but by the preeminence of fear toward God. So what prevents you, fearing the Master more, from being greater than us in this very respect? Therefore write to us continually and inform us how the brotherhood around you is, and which members of the Church in your region are sound, so that we may know to whom we should write and on whom to rely. Since I hear that there are some who corrupt the straight doctrine concerning the Incarnation of the Lord with distorted opinions, I exhort them through your love to abstain from that absurd notion which some are reported to us to hold, namely that God Himself was changed into flesh and did not, through Mary, assume the mixture of Adam, but that He Himself was transformed in His own divinity into material nature.

This absurdity is very easy to refute. But since the blasphemy is self-evident, I think that for one who fears the Lord, even the mere reminder is sufficient. For if He changed, He was altered. But may it be far from us even to say or conceive this of God, who said, "I am and I have not changed." Then how would the benefit of the Incarnation have passed to us, unless our body, united with the divinity, became superior to the dominion of death? For one who changed would have undergone a body of his own, which came to be because the divine nature was thickened for him. And how could the incomprehensible divinity be circumscribed within the bulk of a small body, if the entire nature of the Only-Begotten was changed? But I consider that no one who has understanding and possesses the fear of God suffers from this sickness. However, since a report has come to me that some of those with your love are in this sickness of reasoning, I considered it necessary not to provide a mere greeting, but that our letter should have something that can also edify the souls of those who fear the Lord. Therefore we urge that these matters receive ecclesiastical correction and that you abstain from communion with the heretics, knowing that indifference in these things deprives us of our freedom of speech before Christ.

To the Westerners. May our Lord God, in whom we have placed our hope, grant to each of you such grace as to attain the hope set before you, as much joy as you have filled our hearts, both from the letters you sent us through our most beloved fellow presbyters and from the sympathy for our sorrows which you felt for us as if clothed in bowels of compassion, as those aforementioned reported to us. For even if our wounds remain the same, still it brings us some relief to have ready physicians who, if they should seize the opportunity, could quickly bring healing to our pains. Therefore we address you again through the beloved ones and beseech you, if the Lord grants you the freedom to come to us, do not hesitate to visit us; for the visitation of the sick is a matter of the greatest commandment. But if the good and wise steward of our life reserves this grace for another time, at least write to us whatever it is fitting to be written by you for the consolation of the afflicted and the correction of the broken. For many are already the fractures of the Church, and great is our distress over them, and there is no expectation of help from anywhere else, unless the Lord through you who serve him genuinely sends forth the healing. Now the boldness and shamelessness of the Arian heresy, having openly broken away from the body of the Church, remains in its own error and harms us little because its impiety is evident to all.

Those who have put on the sheep's skin and present a gentle and mild exterior, but within mercilessly tear apart Christ's flocks, and because they have originated from among us easily inflict harm on the simpler ones—these are the dangerous and hard-to-guard-against ones. We deem it right that they be publicly denounced by your precision to all the Churches in the East, so that either they may genuinely walk uprightly with us, or, remaining in their perversity, they may have the harm confined to themselves, unable to transmit their own disease to those who approach them through unguarded communion. It is necessary to mention them by name, so that you too may recognize those who are causing disturbances among us and make them known to your Churches. For our word is suspect to many, as if we had chosen to be petty toward them because of some private quarrels. But you, being so far removed from them, have all the more credibility among the peoples, besides the fact that the grace of God assists you in your care for the oppressed. And if, in agreement, a greater number together decree the same doctrines, it is clear that the multitude of those who have decreed will secure the acceptance of the doctrine for all without dispute.

There is, then, one of those who cause us great grief: Eustathius, from Sebasteia in Lesser Armenia, who long ago was a disciple of Arius, and when the wicked blasphemies against the Only-Begotten were being composed in Alexandria, he followed him and was numbered among his most genuine disciples. When he returned to his own country, he gave a confession of sound faith to the most blessed bishop Hermogenes of Caesarea, who judged him for his false doctrine. And thus, having received his ordination from him, Eustathius, immediately after Hermogenes' death, ran to Eusebius of Constantinople, who was no less than anyone else a proponent of the impious doctrine of Arius. Then, having been driven away from there for whatever reasons, he came and again defended himself before those in his homeland, concealing his impious mindset while putting forward a certain correctness of words. And having obtained the episcopate, as he did, he immediately appears to have written an anathema against the homoousion in the synod held by them at Ancyra. And from there, going to Seleucia, he wrote with those of like mind what everyone knows. In Constantinople, he again agreed with the propositions put forward by the heretics. And thus, having been expelled from the episcopate because he had been previously deposed in Melitene, he devised for himself a path to restoration by coming to you. And what was proposed to him by the most blessed bishop Liberius, and what he himself agreed to, we do not know, except that he brought a letter restoring him, which, having shown it to the synod at Tyana, he was restored to his place.

This man now ravages the faith on account of which he was received, and associates with those who anathematize the homoousion, and is the chief of the heresy of the Pneumatomachi. Since, then, from that place his power to injure the Churches has arisen, and he has used the freedom given him by you for the overthrow of many, it is necessary that correction also come from that place, and that letters be sent to the Churches stating on what terms he was received, and how, having now changed, he invalidates the grace given him through the Fathers of that time. Second after him is Apollinarius, who himself also troubles the Churches not a little. For with the facility of writing, having his tongue sufficient for every subject, he has filled the world with his own treatises, having disregarded the charge which says: "Beware of making many books"; and in the multitude, evidently, many errors have been committed. For how is it possible to escape error from much speaking? There are, then, his works on theology, which have their construction not from scriptural proofs but from human starting points. And there are also his works on the resurrection, composed in a mythical, or rather Jewish, manner, in which he says that we shall again return to the legal worship, and that we shall again be circumcised and keep the Sabbath and abstain from foods and offer sacrifices to God and worship in Jerusalem at the temple, and altogether become Jews from Christians. Than which what could be more ridiculous, or rather more alien to the evangelical doctrine?

Then, concerning the Incarnation, he caused such disturbance among the brotherhood that few of those who have encountered him now preserve the ancient character of piety; the majority, attending to innovations, have turned aside to inquiries and contentious inventions of these useless terms. As for Paulinus, if he has anything blameworthy concerning his ordination, you yourselves would say. But what grieves us is that he has become attached to the doctrines of Marcellus and admits those who follow him indiscriminately into his communion. You know, most honored brothers, that the doctrine of Marcellus involves the rejection of all our hope, since it neither acknowledges the Son in his own hypostasis—but as having been brought forth and then returned to that from which he came—nor allows the Paraclete to subsist individually, so that one would not err in declaring this heresy entirely alien to Christianity and calling it a corrupted Judaism. We seek that you take care of these matters. This would come about if you should deign to write to all the Churches in the East, that those who corrupt these things, if they should correct themselves, are to be in communion; but if they should obstinately persist in their innovations, they are to be separated from them. And that we ought to have been in session with your wisdom in common deliberation to discuss these matters, we ourselves are not unaware.

But since the time does not permit and delay is harmful because the harm from them has taken root, we have necessarily sent the brothers, so that what escaped the teaching of the letter may be taught by them in person, and they may stir your reverence to provide the sought-for help to the Churches of God. To Barses, Bishop of Edessa, in Exile. To the truly most God-beloved and worthy of all respect and honor, Bishop Barses, Basil sends greetings in the Lord. As the most genuine brothers around Domninus were coming to your reverence, we gladly took the opportunity for writing and greet you through them, praying to the holy God that you be preserved in this life until we are deemed worthy to see you and enjoy the gifts in you. Only pray, I beseech you, that the Lord not finally hand us over to the enemies of the Cross of Christ, but preserve his own Churches until the time of the peace which the just Judge himself knows when he will grant. For he will grant it and will not abandon us entirely. But just as he appointed the seventy years for the Israelites for their sins as the penalty of captivity, so perhaps the Mighty One, having handed us over for a certain time, will one day recall us and restore us to the original peace, unless perhaps the apostasy is near and the present events are preludes to the coming of the Antichrist. If that is the case, pray that either he may avert the afflictions or that the Good One may preserve us unharmed through the afflictions.

We salute through you the entire company that has been deemed worthy to be with your reverence. All of us here greet your reverence. May you be kept strong and cheerful in the Lord, praying for me, and preserved for the Church of God by the grace of the Holy One. To Eulogius, Alexander, and Adelphocratio, bishops of Egypt in exile. We find in all things the great economy of the good God concerning his Churches, so that even what seems gloomy and does not happen entirely according to our wish is also administered for the benefit of the many in the inscrutable wisdom of God and his unfathomable judgments of righteousness. For behold, the Lord, having raised up your love from the regions of Egypt, has brought you into the midst of Palestine and established you there, in imitation of the Israel of old, whom he led through captivity into the land of the Assyrians and extinguished the idolatry there by the sojourn of the saints. And now, therefore, we find, upon reflection, that the Lord, setting before you the prize for piety, has opened for you through exile a stadium of blessed contests, and has granted to those who encounter your good purpose clear examples for salvation.

Since, therefore, by the grace of God we have learned of the correctness of your faith, we have learned of your diligence concerning the brotherhood, and that you do not pass over in a casual or negligent manner matters that are beneficial and necessary for salvation, but if there is anything you choose to do for the building up of the Churches, we have considered it right to become partners in your good portion and to join ourselves through this letter to your reverence. For this reason we have also sent our most beloved son Elpidius the fellow deacon, both to deliver the letter and also to be able to report to you from himself whatever escapes the teaching of the letter. What especially strengthened us in our desire for union with you was the report of your zeal for the correctness of your piety, that neither by a multitude of treatises nor by a variety of sophistries was the steadfastness of your heart carried away, but you recognized those who innovate against the apostolic doctrines, and you did not consent to suppress by silence the harm being wrought by them. For indeed we have found great grief among all who adhere to the peace of the Lord over the manifold innovations of Apollinarius of Laodicea, who grieved us all the more in that he seemed from the beginning to be one of us. For to suffer something from an open enemy, even if it exceeds in painfulness, is somehow bearable to the one afflicted, as it is written: "For if an enemy had reproached me, I would have endured it." But to experience some harm from one of like mind and from a close associate, this is completely unbearable and admits of no consolation.

The one whom we expected to have as a fellow champion of the truth, we have now found to be in many ways an obstacle to those who are being saved, by distracting their minds and drawing them away from the correctness of the doctrines. For what deed of his has not been hot and rash? What word of his has not been devised as something novel and dangerous? Has not every Church been divided against itself, especially those governed by the orthodox, with persons sent by him to cause schism and to champion a private conventicle? Is not the great mystery of piety held up to ridicule, as bishops wander about without people or clergy, carrying an empty title, accomplishing nothing for the advancement of the Gospel of salvation? Are not his discourses concerning God full of impious doctrines, the old impiety of the vain-minded Sabellius having now been renewed through his treatises? For if the writings which the Sebastenes circulate have not been fabricated by enemies, but are truly his compositions, he has left no excess of impiety, calling the same one Father and Son, and again Son and Father, and other dark and impious expressions which we have not deigned to admit even to our ears, praying to have no share with those who uttered those words. Has not his account of the Incarnation been thrown into confusion? Has not the saving economy of our Lord become ambiguous to the many because of his turbid and obscure inquiries concerning the incarnation? To gather all these things together and bring them to refutation requires much time and much discourse.

The place of the promises—who has so obscured and obliterated it as the mythology of this man? For he dared to expound the blessed hope reserved for those who have lived according to the Gospel of Christ in so lowly and abject a manner that he fell into old wives' tales and Jewish myths. From the beginning he promises the renewal of the temple and the observance of the legal worship, and again a typical high priest after the true high priest, and a sacrifice for sins after the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world, and partial baptisms after the one baptism, and the ash of a heifer sprinkling the Church, which through faith in Christ has no stain or wrinkle or anything of the sort, and purifications of leprosy after the impassibility of the resurrection, and an offering of jealousy, when neither do they marry nor are they given in marriage, loaves of proposition after the bread from heaven, lamps burning after the true light, and altogether, if now the law of commandments is abrogated in doctrines, it is clear that then the doctrines of Christ will be invalidated in the legal precepts. At these things shame and confusion covered our faces, and heavy grief filled our hearts. Therefore we exhort you, as skilled physicians taught to instruct those who are opposed with gentleness, to try to lead him back to the good order of the Church and to persuade him to despise the many-voicedness of the treatises (for he confirmed the saying of Proverbs that:

It is not possible to escape sin by verbosity," but to set before him the doctrines of orthodoxy in a narrow way, so that both his correction may become evident and his repentance be made known to his brothers. It is also reasonable to remind your reverence concerning the followers of Marcellus, so that you may not rashly or lightly decide anything about them. But since that man left the Church on account of impious doctrines, it is necessary that those who follow him, after anathematizing that heresy, be received into communion in such a way that those who are joined to us through you may be accepted by the whole brotherhood, because at present no small grief has affected the many who heard that when they came to your honor, you both received them and granted them ecclesiastical communion. Yet you ought to have known that by the grace of God you are not alone in the East, but you also have many of your own party who uphold the orthodoxy of the Fathers who set forth the pious doctrine of faith at Nicaea, and all those of the West are in agreement with you and us, whose tome of faith we have received and keep among ourselves, following their sound teaching. Therefore, all those who are in the same communion with you ought to have been fully informed, so that what was done might be more firmly established by the consent of the many, and peace might not be disrupted by the reception of some while others secede. Thus it was fitting for us to deliberate firmly and gently concerning matters that concern all the Churches throughout the world.

For not the one who has quickly dogmatized is praiseworthy, but the one who has established each matter firmly and unshakably, so that his opinion, when examined in later time, appears more approved—this one is acceptable both to God and to men, as "managing his words with judgment." These things, which the conversation through the letter gave us, we have addressed to your reverence. May the Lord grant that we also come together with one another at some time, so that after managing everything with you for the restoration of the Churches of God, we may receive with you the reward prepared by the righteous Judge for faithful and prudent stewards. For now, however, deign to send us the proposals on the basis of which you received the followers of Marcellus, knowing this: even if you secure yourselves very thoroughly, you ought not to entrust so great a matter to yourselves alone, but it is necessary that both those in the West and those in the East who are in communion become co-voters in their restoration.

To Peter, Bishop of Alexandria You have rightly reproached me, and in a manner befitting a spiritual brother taught true love by the Lord, because I do not make all things, both small and great, clear to you from here. For it is fitting both that you should be concerned with our affairs and that we should report our matters to your love. But know, most honored and beloved brother, that the continuous nature of the afflictions and this great upheaval now shaking the Churches makes us wonder at nothing that happens. For just as those in bronze workshops, with their ears battered by the din, become accustomed to the noises, so we, by the frequency of absurd reports, have become habituated to keeping our heart untroubled and unalarmed at the irrational. The machinations of the Arians against the Church, long since contrived, even if many and great and noised about throughout the whole world, are nevertheless bearable to us because they come from manifest enemies and adversaries of the word of truth; we are surprised when they do not do their usual deeds, not when they dare some great and vigorous act against piety. But what grieves and disturbs us are the things done by those of like mind and like faith. Yet even these, because they are many and continually fall upon our ears, no longer appear strange to us.

Therefore we were neither disturbed by the previous disorderly events nor did we trouble your ears, knowing on the one hand that rumor would spontaneously convey what had been done, and on the other hand expecting others to become messengers of the grievous matters, and further judging it unreasonable for us to be indignant at such things as though we were aggrieved because we had been overlooked. To those who did these things we ourselves wrote, urging what was appropriate, since the brothers there had suffered some discord, that they not abandon love but await correction from those able to heal transgressions in an ecclesiastical manner. Since you acted well and appropriately in this, being moved as you were, we praised you and gave thanks to the Lord that some remnant of the ancient good order is preserved in you and that the Church has not lost its strength in our persecution. For the canons were not persecuted along with us. Often importuned by the Galatians, I was never able to answer them, awaiting your judgments. And now, if the Lord grants and they are willing to bear with us, we hope to bring the people to the Church, so that we ourselves are not reproached for having gone over to the Marcellians, but that they become members of the body of the Church of Christ, so that the evil reproach spread by the heresy may be obliterated by our reception of them, and that we not be shamed as having joined them. We were grieved by brother Dorotheus, as you yourself wrote, because he did not converse with your decorum in a wholly gracious and gentle manner. And this I attribute to the difficulty of the times.

For we seem to be succeeding in nothing because of our sins, if the most zealous of the brethren are found neither agreeable nor suitable for the ministries, because not everything is accomplished according to our judgment. The one who returned related to us the discussions he had with your honor in the presence of the most reverend bishop Damasus, and he distressed us by saying that our most God-beloved brethren, the fellow ministers Meletius and Eusebius, are being numbered among the Ariomaniacs. Even if nothing else establishes their orthodoxy, at least the war waged against them by the Arians provides no small proof of correctness to those who consider it with good judgment. Your reverence ought to unite them in love, also because of their shared sufferings for Christ’s sake. And be assured of this, most truly honored one, that there is not a single word of orthodoxy that has not been proclaimed with complete frankness by these men, with God as witness and with us as hearers. We would not have accepted their communion even for an hour, if they were limping concerning the

we found faith. But, if it seems good, let us leave the past behind and give a peaceful beginning to what follows. For we all need one another, as in the communion of the members, and especially now when the Churches of the East look to you, and they will take your concord as a foundation for support and stability; but if they perceive that you are in some suspicion toward one another, they will be weakened and will let their hands fall, so as not to resist the enemies of the faith. To Barses, Bishop of Edessa, in Exile For the sake of the disposition I have toward your piety, I desired to come myself and through my own person to embrace your true love and to glorify the Lord who has been magnified in you and has made your honorable old age conspicuous to all in the world who fear him. But since a heavy weakness of the body oppresses me and an unspeakable care of the Churches lies upon me, and I am not master of myself to travel where I wish and to meet with those I desire, I relieve through this letter the longing I have for the enjoyment of the good things in you, and I entreat your unsurpassable reverence to pray for me and for the Church, that the Lord may grant us to pass without hindrance the remaining days or hours of our sojourn; and may he grant us also to see the peace of his Churches and to hear concerning your fellow ministers and fellow athletes what we pray for, and concerning you yourself what the peoples under you seek night and day from the Lord of righteousness.

Know that often we did not write, nor as often as was owed, yet we did write to your reverence. And perhaps the brothers entrusted with the delivery of the letters were unable to preserve our names. But now, since we have met some of our own traveling to your honor, we have both eagerly entrusted the letters to them and sent certain things which you may deign to receive from our humility without pride and to bless us in imitation of the patriarch Isaac. And if, being occupied and having our mind immersed in a multitude of cares, we have overlooked some of the proper things, do not count it against us nor be grieved, but imitate your own perfection in all things, so that we too may enjoy your virtue as all others do. May you be strong, cheerful in the Lord, praying for me, and be granted to me and to the Church of God. To Eusebius in Exile. The Lord has shown also in our case that he will not abandon his holy ones, having sheltered the life of your holiness with his great and mighty hand. For we consider this almost similar to the holy one remaining unharmed in the belly of the whale and those fearing the Lord dwelling unscathed in fierce fire, since indeed your reverence, as I hear, was preserved safe when war poured around you from all sides. And may the mighty God preserve for us, if we still live, the much-prayed-for sight, or at least for others who await your return as their own salvation.

For I am persuaded that the compassionate one, having heeded the tears of the churches and the groans with which all groan for you, will preserve you in life until he grants the grace to those who beseech him night and day. Now, the events up to the arrival of our beloved brother Libanius the fellow deacon concerning you we were sufficiently informed of through him during his passage, but the events from that time onward we desire to learn. For we hear that in the meantime greater and more grievous sufferings have occurred in your regions; these, if possible, we would learn quickly, or if not, at least through the most reverend brother Paul the fellow presbyter upon his return, so that we may know, as we pray, that your life is kept unharmed and unmolested. But because we heard that the roads are filled with bandits and deserters, we feared to entrust anything to the hands of the brother, lest we become accessory to his death. If the Lord grants a moderate calm, as we hear of the army's passage, we shall hasten to send one of our own, both to visit and to report to us each matter among you. To the Wife of Arinthaeus, Consolatory The fitting and owed course would have been for us to be present in person and to share in the events. For thus we would have soothed our own grief and fulfilled the due of consolation to your dignity. But since my body no longer bears longer journeys, I have resorted to discourse through a letter, so that we might not seem entirely estranged from what has happened. For who did not lament that man?

Who is so stony-hearted as not to shed a warm tear over him? As for me, I have been filled with particular dejection, considering both the man's personal honors toward me and his common guardianship of the Churches of God. Yet nevertheless we have reflected that, being human and having served this life with what was incumbent upon him at the appropriate times, he has been taken back by the God who administers our affairs. We urge that your prudence, reflecting on this, bear the event calmly and, as far as possible, endure the misfortune with moderation. Time is indeed sufficient to soften the heart and give passage to reason; but still we suspect your excessive affection for your husband and your kindness toward all, lest you ever surrender yourself to passion through tenderness of character, having received a deep wound of grief. At all times the teaching of the Scriptures is useful, but especially in such circumstances. Remember, then, the decree of our Creator, by which all of us, sprung from the earth, return again to earth, and no one is so great as to appear superior to dissolution. That remarkable man was indeed good and great, and his soul's virtue was a match for his body's strength—I myself say so, and indeed he had no excess in either respect—but still he was human and died as Adam, as Abel, as Noah, as Abraham, as Moses, as any you might name of those sharing the same nature. Let us not, then, be indignant because we have been deprived of him, but let us be grateful to the one who joined us together, that we lived together at all.

For the loss of a husband is common to you and to other women, but for such a marriage as yours I think no other woman can boast of having the equal. For that man was truly a single exemplar of human nature, created by Him who fashioned us, so that all eyes were turned toward him, every tongue recounted his deeds, painters and sculptors fell short of his worth, and historians, narrating his exploits in war, lapse into the incredibility of myths. Hence most people could not bring themselves to believe the gloomy report that was circulating, nor accept at all that Arinthaeus had died. Yet he has suffered what will also befall the sky, the earth, and the sun. He has departed, having ended brilliantly, not bent by old age, not having yielded any of his splendor; great in this present life, great also in the life to come, having lost nothing of his present brightness for the glory he hopes for, because he washed away every stain of the soul at the very exit of life through the bath of regeneration. Since you became the agent and helper for him in this, you have the greatest consolation; and turn your mind from present concerns to care for the future, so that you may be deemed worthy, through good works, to reach a place of rest like his. Spare your aged mother, spare your young daughter, for whom you alone are left as consolation. Become an example of courage to the other women, and measure your grief so that you neither cast it out of your heart nor are swallowed up by it.

Above all, look to the great reward of patience, which has been promised to us by our Lord Jesus Christ in the recompense for our lives. The Untitled Letter Concerning Abduction: I am greatly distressed that I do not find you either indignant at the forbidden acts or able to reason that this very abduction and outrage against free persons is lawlessness and tyranny in life and human existence. For I know that if all of you held such an opinion, nothing would have long since prevented the custom of this evil from being driven out of our fatherland. Therefore, now take up the zeal of a Christian and be moved in a manner worthy of the injustice. And as for the girl, wherever you find her, having taken her away with all vigor, restore her to her parents; and as for that man himself, excommunicate him and make him an outcast; and as for those who accompanied him, in accordance with the proclamation already issued by us, excommunicate them from the prayers for three years, along with their entire household. And as for the village that received the abducted girl and sheltered her or defended her, excommunicate it as a whole from the prayers, so that all may learn to regard the abductor as a snake, as some other wild beast, as a common enemy, and thus to drive him away and to stand up for those who are wronged. To Eusebius, a Companion, a Letter of Recommendation on Behalf of the Presbyter Cyriacus: Immediately on the heels of your departure, having arrived in the city, how much I was disheartened at missing you—what need is there to say to a man who does not need words, but knows by experience, having suffered the same things?

For how worthy it would have been for me to see the most excellent Eusebius, to embrace him, and to return again in memory to youth, and to be reminded of those days when we shared one room, one hearth, the same teacher, and when relaxation and diligence, luxury and want, and everything between us were equal. How great do you think I would value all this, to take up again through your company in memory, and, having scraped off this heavy old age, to seem to have become young again from an old man? But the enjoyment of those things escaped me, yet I was not deprived of seeing through your letter your eloquence and your characteristic manner, and of consoling myself through the meeting with the most venerable Cyriacus the fellow presbyter; whom I am ashamed to commend to you and to make my own through myself, lest I seem to do something superfluous in bringing to you what is your own and exceptional. But, since I must also be a witness to the truth and bestow upon those spiritually joined the greatest of the things that belong to me, I consider the man's integrity concerning the priesthood to be manifest also to you, and I myself confirm that I know no accusation against him from those who lay hands on all, from those who do not fear the Lord. And yet, if anything had been done by them, not even thus was the man unworthy. But the enemies of the Lord rather confirm the ranks of those whom they attack than take away any of the grace that belongs to them from the Spirit. Nevertheless, as I said, not even

I have considered the man's character. Therefore, as an elder who is free from reproach, united with us, and worthy of all respect, so deem him worthy to see, both benefiting yourself and gratifying us. To Sophronius the Magistrate. Actiacus the deacon reported to me that some persons have grieved you by slandering us to you, alleging that we are not well disposed toward your dignity. I, however, was not surprised that there are some flatterers attending so great a man. For these servile attentions naturally spring up, as it were, around great powers; they, because they lack any personal good through which to become known, establish themselves by means of others' evils. And almost as rust is a corruption of wheat arising within the wheat itself, so flattery, assuming the guise of friendship, is a corruption of friendship. Therefore I was not surprised, as I said, if some, like drones around beehives, buzz around your brilliant and admirable hearth. But this seemed to me astonishing and utterly irrational: that you, a man most distinguished for the weight of your character, should have allowed both ears to be opened to them and to admit slander against me, who, having loved many from early youth until this old age, know that I have preferred no one to your perfection in friendship. For even if reason had not persuaded me to love you, being such as you are, the habit from childhood would have sufficed to bind me to your soul. And you know how powerful custom is for friendship. But if I show nothing worthy of this choice, pardon my weakness.

For you do not even seek from me a deed as proof of goodwill, but clearly a disposition that prays for the best for you. May your affairs never decline to such a point as to need benefaction from those as insignificant as I am. How then could I have said or done anything contrary to you in the matters concerning Memnonius? For the deacon reported these things to me. And how could I have considered Hymetius's wealth more honorable than your household, a man who so squanders his property? But none of this is true: nothing has been said by me nor done contrary. That remark, however, perhaps gave occasion to those who speak falsehoods—what was said by me to some of those who were causing an uproar: "If the man has resolved to bring his own opinion into effect, whether you make an uproar or not, it will happen in any case, and whether you speak or remain silent, the things he is eager for will come about no less. But if he has changed his mind, do not drag the revered name of our friend into it, nor under the pretense of zeal for our patron secure some gain for yourselves from this, by means of the fear and threat you brandish." But to that very man who was writing the testament, I uttered nothing, either through myself or through another, whether small or great, concerning this matter. And you ought not to disbelieve these things, unless you consider me utterly beyond hope and think that I would despise the great sin of falsehood.

But you yourself utterly dismiss even the suspicion regarding this matter, and from now on make my disposition toward you superior to any slander, imitating Alexander, who, upon receiving a letter against his physician as if he were plotting against him, when it happened that at that very moment he took a drug to drink, was so far from believing the slanderer that he simultaneously read the letter and drank the drug. For I do not deem myself more dishonorable than any of those known for friendship, since I have never been caught erring in friendship, and I have moreover received from my God the commandment of love, of which I am a debtor not only by the common nature of humanity, but also because I recognize you specifically as a benefactor of myself and of my homeland. The Untitled Letter concerning Heras: Being precisely convinced that your honor loves us in such a way that you consider our interests as your own, I commend to your extraordinary excellence our most venerable brother Heras—whom we address as our brother not by some custom, but with the most exact (and with no exaggeration) disposition of friendship surpassing all—and I urge you to regard him familiarly and to provide him, to the best of your ability, your protection in whatever matters may require your magnanimity, so that among the many good things I have already obtained from you, I may count this benefaction as well.

To the Magistrate Himerius. That the friendship and intimacy with the most venerable brother Heras began from earliest childhood and continued into old age by the grace of God, you yourself know better than anyone. For almost the love of your greatness also the Lord granted to us from the time when he procured for us mutual acquaintance. Since therefore he needs your protection, I beseech and entreat you, both gratifying your ancient disposition toward us and attending to the present necessity, so to appropriate his affairs that he may need no other protection, but return to us having accomplished everything according to his prayers; so that among the many benefactions we have received from you we may count this one also, which we would not find greater for ourselves nor more pertinent to us. An Untitled Letter concerning Heras. You anticipated our entreaties in your disposition toward our most venerable brother Heras and have become for him better than prayer, both by the excess of honors you have shown him and by your protections on each occasion. Nevertheless, since we cannot bear to keep silent about his affairs, we entreat your unsurpassable honor, for our sake as well, to add to your zeal for the man and to send him back to his homeland stronger than the spite of his enemies, since now he is not beyond the shafts of envy, many attempting to harass him because of the inaction of his life. Against them we shall find one unbreakable security, if you yourself should be willing to extend your hand over the man.

To the Magistrate Himerius. The common law of all men makes elders common fathers, and our own Christian custom places us old men in the position of parents for such as these. So do not consider it superfluous or beyond what is necessary for me to be meddling if I intercede with you on behalf of your son. We ask you to require of him obedience in other matters; for he is subject in body both to the law of nature and to this civil law by which we are governed. But his soul, as having come from more divine origins, it is fitting to consider subject to another and to owe to God the most ancient of all debts. Since, therefore, he has chosen our God of the Christians, the true one, before the many among you who are worshipped through material symbols, do not be displeased with him, but rather admire the nobility of his soul, that he has set what is more honorable than fear and paternal service, to be united with God through true knowledge and a life of virtue. Nature itself will move you, and the gentleness and mildness of your character toward all will not permit you even a little grief over him. And certainly you will not dishonor our intercession, but rather that of your city fulfilled through us, which, by its affection for you and its prayer for all good things for you, thinks that you yourself have become a Christian, so greatly has the rumor suddenly falling upon the city filled them with joy.

To Maximus the Scholastic. The excellent and good Theotecnus reported to me concerning your reverence and instilled in me a desire for your company, vividly depicting in his speech the character of your soul, and he so kindled my affection for you that, had I not been weighed down by old age and held back by my chronic infirmity and bound by countless cares for the Church, nothing would have prevented me from coming to you myself. For it is truly no small gain that from a great household and illustrious lineage you have passed over to the evangelical life, reining in your youth with reason, making the passions of the flesh subject to reason, and practicing the humility befitting a Christian who reflects on himself, as is fitting, whence he came and whither he will go. For the awareness of nature quells the inflammation of the soul, banishes all arrogance and self-will, and, in sum, makes one a disciple of the Lord who said: "Learn from me that I am meek and lowly in heart." For truly, dearest of children, the only thing earnestly to be sought and praised is the enduring good. This is the honor from God. But these human things are fainter than a shadow and more deceptive than dreams. For youth flows away more swiftly than spring flowers, and the beauty of the body withers either by disease or by time. Wealth is untrustworthy, and glory is easily overturned. And the labors devoted to the arts are completed with this present time. Moreover, the much-prized learning of all has its grace only up to the hearing. But the practice of virtue is a precious possession to its holder and a most delightful spectacle to those who encounter it.

By taking care of these things, you will make yourself worthy of the goods stored up in the promises of the Lord. But by what means you might attain to the recovery of good things, and how you might preserve what has been acquired, would require a longer account than the present impulse of my discourse allows. It occurred to me, however, to address you also with these very words, which I heard from the brother Theotecnus; whom I always pray to speak the truth, and especially in his words concerning you, so that the Lord may be more glorified in you, who from an alien root burst forth with the most precious fruits of piety. To Valerian. I desired to see your nobility even when I was in Orphanene. For I expected that you, being in Corsagena, would not hesitate to cross over to us while I was attending the synod in Attagena. But since I missed that synod, I desired to see you on the mountain. For again there, Euesas, being nearby, heightened the hope of meeting. But since I missed both opportunities, I have resorted to writing, so that you may deign to come to me, both doing what is fitting, a young man attending upon

to the elder, and at the same time, through the meeting, receiving some counsel from us because you have matters with some of those in Caesarea that require our mediation for correction. Therefore, if it is not burdensome, do not hesitate to come to us. To Modestus the Prefect: Even if many are those presenting letters from us to your Honor, yet because of the exceeding honor you have for us, I consider the multitude of letters to cause no annoyance to your Magnificence. For this reason, I have readily given this letter to this brother as well, knowing that he will obtain all that he seeks, and that we will be counted among your benefactors, providing occasions for good deeds to your good intention. Now, the matter for which he needs your patronage he himself will state, if you deign to look upon him with a favorable glance and give him courage to utter a word before your great and extraordinary authority. We, for our part, present through this letter that what is done for him we consider our own gain, especially because he has come to us from the region of the Tyaneans for this very reason, as if he would have some great profit if he were to present our letter as a supplication. Therefore, so that he may not fall short of his hopes, and we may enjoy our customary honor, and your zeal for good things may be fulfilled also in the present case, we ask that he be received kindly and be counted among your most intimate associates.

To Modestus the Prefect. Even if it is bold to bring a supplication in writing to so great a man, nevertheless the pre-existing honor you have for us removes the timidity from our heart, and we take courage to write on behalf of men who are our kinsmen by race and worthy of honor for the excellence of their character. The one, then, who delivers this letter of ours stands in the place of a son to me. Since he needs only your goodwill for what he seeks to be accomplished, deign to receive my letter, which the aforementioned man presents to you in place of a suppliant branch, and give him an opportunity to relate his own circumstances and to converse with those who can assist him, so that by your order he may quickly obtain what he is eager for, and that I may have the boast that such a patron has been given to me by the grace of God, who considers those belonging to me as his own suppliants and refugees. To Modestus the Prefect. I remember your great honor, that among other things you gave me also the confidence to write to your magnanimity. I have, then, used the gift and enjoy the most humane grace, both delighting myself by conversing with so great a man, and at the same time giving occasion to your great mind to honor us with your responses.

Since I supplicated your clemency on behalf of our companion Helladius the Protos, that he be released from the concern over the equalization and be permitted to labor in the affairs of our fatherland, and I was deemed worthy of some favorable nod, I renew the same intercession and beseech you that an order be sent down to the governor of the province to permit him the exemption from annoyance. TO A BISHOP You accuse when not summoned, and when summoned you do not obey. From the second matter you are revealed to have used the first pretext in vain. For you would not have come, in all likelihood, even then if summoned. So hearken now to those who summon you, and do not again become ungrateful, knowing that adding a charge to a charge confirms and renders the accusation more credible than the first. I always exhort you to bear with us; but if you do not bear with us, it is at least not right to neglect the witnesses, to whose remembrances you are called to partake. Grant therefore the favor first to both, but if this does not seem good to you, at least to the more honorable.

We hope to find a suitable day for the synod after the matters in the high country are settled by us. But no other opportunity for meeting presents itself apart from the service connected with the synod, unless the Lord should arrange something beyond our expectations. You ought to infer from your own circumstances. For if for your nobility, with a single concern, there is such a crowd of anxieties, how many distractions do you think we have each day? I consider your dream to indicate more perfectly that you ought to take some care for the contemplation of the soul and to tend those eyes by which God is naturally seen. Having the consolation of the divine Scriptures, you will need neither us nor anyone else to discern what is fitting, since you have sufficient counsel and guidance from the Holy Spirit for what is beneficial. CONCERNING MONKS, TO THE CENSITOR I think that some arrangement has already been established by your honor regarding the monks, so that we need not ask for a special favor on their behalf, but it suffices for them if they enjoy the common benevolence with all. Nevertheless, considering it incumbent upon myself to care, as far as possible, for such persons, I write to your perfect understanding that those who have long renounced the world and have mortified their bodies, so that they are able to provide nothing useful to the public from either money or bodily service, should be released from the contributions.

For indeed, if they live according to their profession, they have neither money nor bodies, having disposed of the former for the communion of the needy, and worn out the latter in fasts and prayers. But I know that you will hold such as have lived thus in greater reverence than anyone, and you will wish to acquire for yourself powerful helpers by shaming the Lord through a life according to the Gospel. The one who cares for the Church and has in hand the management of the properties is the same one who delivers this letter to you, the beloved son so-and-so. Deign to grant him freedom of speech concerning what he reports to your decorum, and to attend to what he affirms, so that from now on the Church may be able to recover itself and be delivered from this many-headed hydra. For the possession of the poor is such that we always seek someone to receive it, because the Church consumes more than it yields any fruit from the properties.

To the Comentarienses. Since some have been arrested in this synod who are among those who do evil and steal, contrary to the Lord's commandment, the cheap garments of poor men whom it was rather necessary to clothe than to strip, those who care for ecclesiastical order have arrested them. But thinking that it concerns you, as one who handles public matters, to receive such persons, I have written to you, informing you that the sins committed in the churches by us ought to receive the correction that is fitting, and that judges are not to be troubled about these things. For this reason I have ordered that their spoils, which the document lying with you and the copy made in the presence of all present indicate, be received, and that some be stored for those who come, and others be distributed to those present; and that the men be turned back through the discipline and admonition of the Lord, whom I think I will make better in the name of God for the future. For what the blows of the courts do not accomplish, we have often known the terrible judgments of the Lord to set right. But if it seems good to you also to report these things to the Count, we have so much confidence in the justness and the uprightness of the man that we permit you to do what you wish.

To the Advocates. The case of this man seems difficult to handle. For we do not know what to do with such a versatile character, who from what is seen appears to be desperate. When summoned to judgment, he does not obey; and if he does appear, he uses such an abundance of words and oaths that we are glad to be quickly rid of him. I have often seen him turn the accusations back upon his accusers. In short, no creature that grazes the earth is so varied and so easily molded to evil as this man, as one may infer from even a little experience of him. But why do you ask me, and not persuade yourselves to endure the injustices from him as some god-sent wrath? That you may not be polluted in communion with his sins, let him be separated from the prayers and from all other communion with the priests, household and all. Perhaps, being made a spectacle, he will be shamed. To the Advocates. Those whom the common penalties do not correct, nor exclusion from the prayers lead to repentance, must be subjected to the canons given by the Lord. For it is written: "If your brother sins, reprove him between yourself and him; if he does not hear you, take another with you; if not even then, tell the Church; and if he disobeys the Church, let him be to you thereafter as a heathen and a publican." This is what has been done also in this man's case. He was once accused, was convicted before one and a second, and a third time before the Church. Since we testified to him and he did not accept it, let him henceforth be excommunicated.

And let it be announced to the whole village that he is to be refused all participation in the necessities of life, so that from our not associating with him, he may become entirely a prey of the devil. AN EPISTLE CONCERNING A WOMAN WHO IS OPPRESSED. Having judged that it is an equal offense both to leave sinners without penalty and to exceed the measure of punishment, I imposed upon this man the penalty that fell to me, excommunicating him from ecclesiastical communion, and I exhorted those who had been wronged not to avenge themselves, but to entrust the requital to the Lord. So if there is any benefit from my instructions, I would have been heard then with much greater credibility, having employed the word as much as it could persuade the letters. But since I heard many words that carried weight, I remained silent then, and now I do not think it proper for me to discuss the same matters. "For I," he says, "disregarded a husband and childbearing and life, in order to obtain this one thing: to be approved by God and to be deemed worthy of a better reputation among men. But since a man, reared from childhood in domestic corruptions, once forced his way in with his customary shamelessness, he entered our house, and became known to us through mere casual encounter, and through ignorance of his character and some uneducated shame that was manifestly ashamed to drive him away, he went so far in impiety and insolence as to fill the entire city with blasphemies against me, and to post a public notice set up at the doors of the church. At which, having met with some indignation from the laws, he returned and renewed his blasphemies.

Again the marketplace, the gymnasia, the theaters, the houses of those who receive him because of the similarity of their life, are full of my slanders. And it was not even for the better things, in which it would have been becoming, that I became known, but for the most shameful things, because I became conspicuous to all for my licentious opinion. In addition to this, he says, some take pleasure in the blasphemies because men naturally rejoice in slanders; others say they are vexed, but do not sympathize; others are persuaded that the slanders are true; others are in doubt, paying attention to the multitude of his oaths. But there is no one who sympathizes, and truly now I have perceived my desolation and I lament for myself, having no brother, no friend, no relative, no slave, no free man, no human being at all who sympathizes with me, and, as it seems, I find myself alone more pitiable than the city in which there is such a scarcity of those who hate evil, who do not think that the violence done to one another goes in a circle and will one day overtake them as well. These things and many more that were even more striking, with countless tears, she related to me and departed, not leaving me free from blame either, because, while I ought to sympathize with her in a fatherly way, I am indifferent to such an evil and philosophize in the sufferings of others. "For you do not command me to overlook the loss of money nor to endure bodily pains, but to suffer damage to my very reputation, the harm of which becomes a common loss to the clergy.

With these words, what do you wish me now to say to her? Judge for yourself, O admirable one, having such a judgment within yourself: not to hand over wrongdoers to the authorities, but also not to rescue those who have been handed over, to whom it was long ago foretold by the Apostle to fear the ruler in the work of wickedness: "For not in vain," he says, "does he bear the sword." Just as handing over is not an act of philanthropy, so also rescuing is characteristic of one who fosters violence. Perhaps there might be some postponement of the entry until our own presence, and then we will show that we are of no use because there are none who obey. To Nectarius. May many good things come to those who stir your honor toward continuous communication with us through letters. Do not think that such things are said by us out of habit, but from genuine disposition we consider your voice to be of the greatest worth. For what could be more precious to me than Nectarius, who from childhood was known to us from the best beginnings, and now has risen through every virtue to such renown? So that among all friends, the one who brings me your letters is dearest to me. Concerning the selection of those who will preside over the association, if I do anything by gratifying people, or yielding to entreaties, or giving way to fear, may I not do these things. For I will be not a steward but a huckster, exchanging the gift of God for human friendships.

If, on the one hand, the votes that are given are given by men who, from external appearance, are able to testify to what they testify, and, on the other hand, the judgments concerning those who are more suitable are entrusted by our lowliness to the one who knows the secrets of hearts, then perhaps it is better for all to lay aside the testimony, to abstain from all zeal and contention as if for one's own kin who have been testified for, and to pray to God not to miss what is beneficial. For in this way we will no longer blame a human being for the outcome on either side, but we will acknowledge to God the grace of what happens. And yet, if these things happen according to human judgment, they do not even happen, but are an imitation of the truth, and fall far short of the truth itself. Consider also that no small danger is attached to the one who strives by every means to maintain his own position, lest we draw upon ourselves the share of the errors. For many errors might be committed even by those who would never have been expected to, because of the fickleness of human nature. Then, when we have privately given the best advice to friends, even if we seem unconvincing to those who are deliberating, we are not angry; but in matters where there is not human counsel but the judgment of God, shall we be annoyed if we are not preferred even to the judgments of God? If, then, it is given by men, what need is there to ask from us, and not rather for him to take it from himself? But if it is from the Lord, it is fitting to pray, not to be indignant, and in prayer not to ask for one's own will, but to entrust to God, who administers what is beneficial.

May holy God remove every experience of painful things from your house, and may He measure out for you and for all who are close to you a life without sickness and without harm, in complete prosperity. To Timothy, Chorepiscopus. To write everything I think I see neither suits the measure of a letter nor is otherwise fitting to the form of address, and to pass over in silence is both petty and impossible for me, with my heart inflamed by righteous anger against you. So I will take a middle course, writing some things and omitting others. For I wish to take you to task, as is proper, in the frankness of friendship. If that Timothy whom we have known from childhood, using such intensity for uprightness and an ascetic life that his lack of moderation in these things was censured, have now ceased to consider every means of what one must do to become intimate with God, and you look to what so-and-so thinks about you, and you have your life dependent on the opinion of others, and you ponder how you may be neither useless to friends nor laughable to enemies, and you fear shame from many as something terrible, and you do not realize that, while you waste time on these things, you are unknowingly neglecting your former life? For that it is impossible to master both at once—the affairs of this world and the life according to God—the divine Scripture is full of what it has taught us, and nature itself is full of such examples. For in the activity of the mind

It is utterly impossible to conceive two thoughts at the same time. In the perceptions of sense, it is impossible to receive and distinguish two voices simultaneously striking the ears, even though two auditory passages are open to us. And the eyes, unless both are directed to a single object of vision, cannot perform their function accurately. These are matters from nature; to relate to you those from the Scriptures is no less ridiculous than, as they say, bringing owls to Athens. Why then do we mix the unmixable—political tumults and the practice of piety—instead of withdrawing from tumults and from having and giving business to others, becoming our own masters, and confirming by deed the goal of piety which we long ago set before us, and showing those who wish to slander us that it is not in their power to grieve us whenever they wish? This will be the case when we show ourselves free from every handle. So much for this. May we some day be together and deliberate more precisely about what is beneficial for our souls, so that we may not be overtaken by the necessary departure while occupied with vain concerns. I rejoiced greatly at the things sent by your love, which were pleasant in themselves, but the pleasure was multiplied by the addition of the sender. As for the things from Pontus, the unguents and waxes, receive them gladly when we send them; for now they were not at hand for us.

To Palladius. The holy God has fulfilled half of our desire by arranging the meeting with our most modest sister, your wife. He is able also to supply what remains, so that we, having seen your nobility as well, may render complete thanks to God. For we are in great desire, especially now when we have heard that you have been honored with the great honor, the immortal garment which, encompassing our humanity, obliterated death in the flesh, and the mortal was swallowed up in the garment of incorruption. Since, therefore, the Lord has made you his own through grace, has alienated you from all sin, has opened the kingdom of heaven and has pointed out the paths leading to that blessedness, we exhort you, a man so surpassing others in wisdom, to receive grace with reflection and to become a faithful guardian of the treasure, keeping with all care the guard of the royal deposit, so that, having preserved the seal inviolate, you may stand before the Lord shining in the brightness of the saints, casting no stain or wrinkle upon the pure garment of incorruption, but preserving sanctification in all your members as one who has put on Christ. "For as many of you," it says, "as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." Let all your members therefore be holy, so that they may be fitting to be covered by the holy and luminous garment. To Julian. How has your body fared during this intervening time, and whether you have fully recovered the use of your hand? And how are the other affairs of your life, whether they proceed according to your wish, as we pray and as is owed to your purpose?

For those whose mind is easily given to change, it is not unlikely that their life is also disordered; but for those whose judgment is fixed, always stable and the same, it follows that they conduct their life in harmony with their purpose. For in truth, it is not granted to a pilot to make calm whenever he wishes; but for us, to render our own life waveless is very easy, if we quiet the tumults arising within us from the passions and set our judgment higher than the things that strike us from without. For neither losses nor illnesses nor the other hardships of life will touch the earnest man, as long as he keeps his mind journeying with God, looking to the future, and lightly and steadily rising above the storm that stirs up from below. Since those who are violently seized by the cares of life, like heavy birds that have wings in vain, are dragged down somewhere with the cattle. But we have been permitted to see you only as much as those who pass each other on the sea. Nevertheless, since even from a claw it is possible to recognize the whole lion, from this brief experience we consider that we have known you sufficiently. Hence we make much of the fact that you count us in your speech, and that you are not absent from your mind, but that you are continually with us through memory. A token of memory is writing; and the more continuously you do this, the more you will gratify us.

To Festus and Magnus. It is fitting, I suppose, that fathers take thought for their own children, and farmers care for their plants or seeds, and teachers have concern for their students, especially when, by reason of natural aptitude, they show better hopes for themselves. For the farmer rejoices in his labor when his ears of grain ripen or his plants grow, and students delight teachers and children delight fathers, the one as they advance in virtue, the other as they increase in stature. But we have so much greater concern for you, and so much better hope, as piety is superior to every art and to all animals and fruits together, which piety we pray to see rooted by us in your still tender and pure souls, nurtured, and advanced to full maturity and to timely fruits, with your love of learning cooperating with our prayers. For you well know that both our goodwill toward you and the cooperation of God are stored up in your minds, and when these are directed toward what is right, God, when invoked as a helper, will be present even uninvoked, and every God-loving man will be self-appointed for teaching. For the eagerness of those able to teach something useful is invincible, when the souls of the learners are free from all resistance.

Therefore, separation of the body does not hinder this, since the one who created us, through an excess of wisdom and love for humanity, did not confine the mind to the bodies, nor the power of words to the tongue, but gave something more, even from time, to those capable of benefiting others, so that they might transmit teaching not only to those far distant, but also to those born very late. And experience confirms this account for us, since those who lived many years earlier teach the young, with the teaching preserved in writing, and we, though separated so much in body, are always together in mind and converse easily, with teaching hindered neither by land nor by sea, if you have any care for your own souls. To the Monks. I think that, by the grace of God, you need no other exhortation after the words we ourselves addressed to you, urging you all to adopt the common life in imitation of the apostolic way of life, which you accepted as a good instruction and gave thanks for it.

to the Lord Himself. Since, therefore, what was spoken by us was not mere words, but teachings that must proceed to action for the benefit of you who endure them, for the repose of us who set forth the opinion, and for the glory and praise of Christ whose name has been invoked upon us, for this reason I have sent our most beloved brother, so that he may make known the zeal, rouse the sluggish, and reveal to us what is opposed. For great is the desire both to see you assembled and to hear concerning you that you do not love a life without witness, but rather you all accept being both guardians of each other's precision and witnesses of the things accomplished. For in this way each one will receive both the perfect reward for himself and that for the brother's progress, which it is fitting for us to provide to one another both in word and deed through continuous association and exhortation. Above all, we exhort you to remember the faith of the Fathers and not to be shaken by those who attempt to lead you astray during our quietude, knowing that neither precision of conduct by itself, unless illuminated by faith in God, is beneficial, nor can right confession, if devoid of good works, present us to the Lord, but both must be present together, so that the man of God may be complete and our life not limp in what is lacking. For it is faith that saves us, as the Apostle says, "working through love.

Considering your disposition toward us and recognizing the zeal you have for the work of the Lord, we took courage, as toward a daughter, and we made further use of the mules, sparingly indeed, as using our own, but we nevertheless extended their service. Therefore, it was necessary to write this to your reverence, so that you may know that what is done is a proof of affection. At the same time, we also remind your modesty through this letter to remember the Lord and, keeping the departure from this world always before your eyes, to regulate your own life for the defense before the impartial Judge, so that you may have confidence in your good works before Him who is to reveal the secrets of our hearts on the day of His visitation. We greet your most noble daughter through you, and I exhort her to spend her time in the study of the Lord's oracles, so that her soul may be nourished by good teaching and her mind may increase and grow in magnitude rather than her body by nature.

I consider it very much incumbent upon myself, both because of the presbyteral dignity of my age and the genuineness of my spiritual disposition, to visit your incomparable nobility even in bodily presence, and when you are absent not to be remiss, but to supply the deficiency by letters. Since I have found a suitable bearer for my letter to your reverence in this person, I address you through her, first of all urging you on to the work of the Lord, that the holy God may bring you honorably through the days of your sojourn in all piety and dignity, and render you worthy of the good things to come. Then also I commend to you the aforementioned daughter, that you may receive her as my daughter and your own sister, and that concerning whatever she may communicate to your seemly and pure soul, you may sympathize with her and assist her, as having your reward primarily from the Lord, and also as giving rest to us who in the bowels of Christ fulfill for you the measure of love. That you deign to use us as counselors and partners in your concerns for all things is fitting to your own perfection, and God will reward you for your love toward us and for your care in the conduct of life. But that the deception of this man has touched you, I am astonished, if you have believed that some irrational power resides in water, and this when no testimony confirms the report.

Therefore, there is no one from that place who has received into his body, whether small or great, the good he hoped for, unless some comfort has come to him spontaneously, of the sort that naturally occurs even to those who are asleep and to others engaged in various activities in life. But the one who destroys love persuades the simpler folk to attribute these spontaneous events to the nature of water. That our account is true, you can learn from experience itself. You wrote to me, knowing that you are reluctant to attend to public affairs. For there is an old saying that those who pursue virtue do not take up offices with pleasure. For I see that the same things belong to rulers as to physicians. They see terrible things, experience unpleasantness, and reap personal grief from others' misfortunes—those who are truly rulers, since the mercantile sort of people, who look to money and are infatuated with this kind of glory, consider it the greatest of goods to take up some position of power from which they will be able to benefit friends, harm enemies, and acquire for themselves what is sought after. But you are not such a person. How could you be? For you, although political power was so great, willingly withdrew, and it was possible for you to rule a city as if it were a single household; but you chose the inactive and quiet life, considering it more worthy of effort neither to have troubles nor to cause them for others than the value others place on being troublesome.

But since the Lord wished the land of the Ibōrites not to be under the control of hucksters nor to have its valuation as in a slave market, but, as is just, for each to be registered, accept the matter, even if it is otherwise burdensome, yet as something capable of becoming for you a means of good standing before God. And neither cower before power nor despise poverty, but provide to those under your administration an impartiality of judgment more unwavering than any balance. For in this way your zeal for justice will become evident even to the faithful, and they will admire you above others. Or even if it escapes their notice, it will not escape our God, who has set before us great rewards for good works. To the Father Scholastikos, a Consolation Since the Lord has placed us in the second rank of fathers to Christians, entrusting to us the formation through piety of our children who have believed in him, we have considered the misfortune that befell your blessed son as our own, and we have groaned at the untimeliness of his departure, sympathizing especially with you and reckoning how great the weight of grief will be for a father by nature, when even for us, who are bound to you by the commandment, so much of the heart...

a dejection came about. For in that case there was no need to suffer or utter anything gloomy, but pitiable are those who have failed in their hopes regarding him. And truly it is worthy of many tears and groans, to have sent a boy in the very flower of his age for the training of words and then to receive him back silent with this long and abhorred silence. But these things at once moved us as human beings, and we shed a hasty tear and sent forth an untaught groan from the midst of our heart, the passion suddenly encompassing our reason like some cloud. But when we came to ourselves and looked with the eye of the soul upon the nature of human affairs, we made apology to the Lord for how our soul was disposed by seizure toward the event, and we admonished ourselves to bear these things moderately, as they were allotted to human life by the ancient decree of God. The boy is gone, bearing the very liveliness of his age, excelling in choruses of his peers, longed for by teachers, able by mere intercourse to draw even the wildest into goodwill, sharp in studies, gentle in character, composed beyond his years, and saying more than these would still fall short of the truth, yet he was a man born of a man. What then was it fitting for the father of such a one to consider? What else but to recall that his own father is dead? What wonder then that one born of a mortal should become the father of a mortal?

But that he was taken before his time, before he had his fill of life, before reaching the measure of his age, before appearing among men and leaving a succession of his race—this is not an increase of the calamity, as I persuade myself, but a consolation for what has happened. The ordinance of God ought to be thanked, that he did not leave orphan children on earth, that he did not abandon a widow to long distress or to a life with another husband who would neglect the former marriage. And that the child's life was not prolonged in this world—who is so ungrateful as not to consider this the greatest of goods? For a longer sojourn here is a source of more evils. He did no wrong, he wove no deceit against his neighbor, he did not come under necessity to join with wicked factions, he was not entangled in the evils of the marketplace, he did not endure the compulsion of sins, no falsehood, no ingratitude, no greed, no love of pleasure, no passions of the flesh such as naturally arise in undisciplined souls; he departed with his soul unstained by any such blemish, but pure he withdrew to the better portion. It is not earth that has hidden the beloved, but heaven that has received him. God, who orders our affairs, who prescribes the boundaries of time for each, who brought him into this life, has also transferred him. We have a lesson in the extremes of calamities from that famous utterance of the great Job: "The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord, so it came to pass. May the name of the Lord be blessed forever.

The Consolatory Letter. How we were affected by the news of the calamity, no speech of ours would suffice to represent the vividness of it, now that we consider the loss which the community of the devout has suffered, having lost the protectress of her own order, and now that we reflect upon the brightness of your dignity, into what dejection it has fallen, seeing in our mind a house blessed by all brought to its knees, and a union through supreme harmony dissolved more quickly than a dream. How could we not, even if we were made of adamant, have our souls bowed down? For us, from the very first conversation, a certain intimacy arose with your dignity, and we became so attached to your virtue that at every hour we have your affairs on our lips. And when we also became familiar with that blessed soul, we were truly persuaded that the saying of Proverbs is confirmed in your case, that a wife is joined to a man by God. Thus you were suited to each other in character; as in a mirror, each displayed the other's character in himself. And one might say many things and yet not attain even to a small part of your worth. But what is one to suffer against the law of God, which has long prevailed, that what has come into being should, at the appropriate times, depart again, and that each soul, having served life with the necessities, should then be released from the bonds of the body? We are neither the first to have suffered, O admirable one, nor the only ones; but what parents have experienced, and grandfathers, and all those above in the lineage, these things we too have experienced. And the present life is full of such examples.

You, who so far surpass the rest in virtue, ought even in the midst of your afflictions to preserve the magnanimity of your soul unhumiliated, not resenting the present loss, but feeling gratitude to the giver for the gift from the beginning. For death is common to all who have partaken of the same nature, but to have lived with a good wife has been granted to few of those blessed according to God, and even the painful endurance of the separation is itself one of the gifts from God to those who consider it gratefully. For we have known many who received the dissolution of an unsuitable marriage as a relief from a burden. Look up at this heaven and the sun and survey all creation around, that these things, so great and so many, will shortly disappear; from all this gather that, being part of the perishing creation, we have received what falls to us from the common nature, since even marriage itself is a consolation for death. For because it was not possible to remain permanently, the Creator devised the succession of the race to provide continuity for life. But if we are distressed that she departed before us, let us not begrudge her who was not long filled with the troubles of life, but rather let us be like those who, in the grace of flowers, are left still longing for them. Above all, let the doctrine of the resurrection console you, who are a Christian and conduct your life in hope of the good things to come. Thus it is fitting to think, as of a road that has been traversed, which we too must travel. And if she has gone before us, this is not worthy of lamentation.

For a little later, perhaps, our condition would be more pitiable if, having been prolonged further, we became liable to more punishments. But let our reason shake off the weight of grief and take up the concern for how we ought henceforth to please the Lord. To the Wife of Briso, Consolatory How much we groaned at the news of the calamity that befell that best of men, Briso—what need is there even to say? For surely no one has a heart so stony that, having come to know that man and then heard that he was suddenly snatched from among men, would not count the loss of that man as a common loss to life. But in our case, our grief was immediately succeeded by concern for you, as we reflected that, if the event is so heavy and hard to bear for those far from kinship, how likely it is that your soul is affected by the suffering—you who are by nature so good and easily moved to compassion because of the gentleness of your character, and so subject to this affliction that you feel as if some kind of division were taking place in the separation from your spouse. For if, indeed, according to the Lord’s word, they are no longer two, but one flesh, clearly such a separation is no less painful than if half of us

was being torn from the body. But such are the painful things, and even greater than these; what consolation is there for what has happened? First, there is the legislation of our God which has prevailed from the beginning, that one who has come into being must necessarily depart from life at the appropriate times. If, then, human affairs have been so ordered from Adam down to us, let us not be indignant at the common laws of nature, but let us accept the economy of God over us, who commanded that noble and invincible soul to depart from life not when the body was wasted by disease or withered by time, but in the prime of age and in the brilliance of military achievements, ending life. Therefore, we ought not to be distressed that we were separated from such a man, but let us thank the Lord that we were deemed worthy of living together with such a man, whose loss was felt by almost the entire Roman Empire, whom the Emperor recalled, soldiers mourned, and those in the highest offices lamented as a true son. Since, then, he has left you the memory of his own virtue, consider that you have sufficient consolation for your grief. Moreover, I want you to know this as well: that the one who does not succumb to afflictions but bears the weight of grief through hope in God has a great reward from God for his endurance. For we have not been permitted by the Apostle's legislation to grieve equally with outsiders over those who have fallen asleep. Let your children be like living images, consoling you for the absence of the one you long for.