Letters 1 part 12/32

We shall number you among these, and, insofar as it lies within our power, we shall proclaim this abroad — if indeed we should not be thought altogether too insignificant to be heralds of so great a man.

But this above all must be said: that we punish those who commit any wrong not for the sake of what has already happened (for what device could there be to make what has been done not to have happened?), but so that either they themselves may become better for the future, or others may have examples for learning self-restraint.

One could say, then, that in the present case neither of these purposes is lacking;

for he himself will remember these things even beyond death, and I think that the rest, looking upon him, have already died from fear.

So that whatever we might add to his punishment, we would seem to be satisfying only our own anger;

This, I myself would say, is far from true in your case, and I would not have been prompted to say any of these words, had I not perceived that the favor is greater to the one who gives it than to those who receive it.

For the magnanimity of your character will be manifest to not a few.

For all the Cappadocians are looking toward the future, and for their sake I would pray that this too be numbered among the other good qualities you possess.

But I am reluctant to stop writing, considering that whatever I might pass over in silence would bring me loss.

This much, however, I will add: although he had letters from many requesting him, he judged the one from us to be preferable to all of them, having learned, I know not how, that we have some regard in the esteem of your Perfection.

And indeed you have surveyed the human condition no worse than any who have ever philosophized, and you know what a fine treasure it is, laid up in advance, to be of service to all who are in need.

TO THE PRESBYTERS AT TARSUS. Having met with this man, I gave much thanks to the holy God, because through his presence He consoled me from many afflictions, and clearly manifested your love through him.

For in the disposition of this one man I have come to recognize, almost in full, the zeal for truth of all of you.

Now the things which we discussed privately with each other he himself will report to you; but the things which ought to be made known to your charity by me are these.

The times have a great tendency toward the overthrow of the Churches, and this we have already been observing for a long while.

But as for building up the Church, correcting faults, showing sympathy to the weak, and giving protection to the healthy among the brethren—not a single person is to be found.

But there is no help at all, neither a cure for the disease already present, nor a preventive for the one expected.

...(to use an illustration, even if it may seem too humble) like an old garment, easily torn by any chance occasion, which is no longer able to return to its original strength.

As, then, in such a time, there is need of great zeal and much care, that the Churches may be benefited in some way.

And the benefit is this: that the things which have until now been scattered apart should be united.

And union would come about, if we were willing, in matters where we do no harm to souls, to bear with and accommodate the weaker.

Since, then, many mouths have been opened against the Holy Spirit, and many tongues sharpened for blasphemy against Him, we ask you, so far as it is in your power, to reduce to a small number those who blaspheme, and to receive into communion those who do not say the Holy Spirit is a creature, so that the blasphemers may be left alone, and either, being put to shame, may return to the truth, or, persisting in their sin, may be discredited on account of their small number.

Let us therefore seek nothing further, but let us set before the brethren who wish to be joined with us the faith set forth at Nicaea; and if they assent to that, let us further inquire whether they hold that the Holy Spirit must not be called a creature, and that those who so call Him must not be in communion with them.

But beyond these things, I ask that nothing more be required of us.

For I am persuaded that, through longer companionship and unrivalrous joint exercise, even if something more should need to be added for clarity, the Lord will grant it—He who works all things together for good for those who love Him.

TO THE MEN AT TARSUS, CONCERNING CYRIACUS. What need is there to speak of how great a good peace is, to men who are sons of peace? Since, then, this great and wondrous thing, so eagerly sought by all who love the Lord, is now in danger of being reduced to a mere name—because lawlessness has increased and the love of the many has consequently grown cold—I think it fitting that this should be the one concern of those who genuinely and truly serve the Lord: to bring back to unity the Churches which have been cut off from one another in many parts and in many ways.

And in attempting to do this myself, I would not justly incur the charge of being a meddler.

For nothing is so proper to a Christian as peacemaking.

Wherefore the Lord also promised us the greatest reward for it.

Having therefore met with the brethren, and having observed in them much brotherly love and affection toward you, and much more still their love of Christ and their exactness and vigor concerning the faith, and that they take great care in both respects—neither to be separated from your love, nor to betray the sound faith—having accepted their good resolve, I write to your reverence, exhorting you to hold them united with you in genuine and complete love, and as partners in every ecclesiastical concern, having also guaranteed to them your rectitude, that you too, by the grace of God, are prepared in every respect, through zeal for the truth, to suffer whatever it may be necessary to suffer for the word of truth.

And these things, as I persuade myself, are neither contrary to you nor to what has been said by the aforementioned brethren, but sufficient for full assurance: that you confess the faith set forth by our Fathers who once assembled at Nicaea, and reject none of the words there, but know that the three hundred and eighteen, having come together without contentiousness, spoke not without the working of the Holy Spirit; and that you add to that faith also this—that the Holy Spirit must not be called a creature, and, moreover, that you must not be in communion with those who say so—so that the Church of God may be pure, having no tare mixed in with itself.

For I myself vouch for the brethren's part, that they will raise no objection whatsoever, but will display to you the utmost degree of good order, this one thing that is required of them by your Perfection being readily granted.

TO SIMPLICIA THE HERETIC. Without reflection, men both hate the better and love the worse.

For even if one pours out wealth as abundant as the sand, he still harms his soul if he has trampled upon justice.

For God always seeks sacrifice—not, I think, because He is in need—but receiving as a costly sacrifice the pious and just disposition.

But whenever a person transgresses and tramples upon himself, he renders his prayers profane.

Remind yourself, then, of the last day; but as for us, if you please, do not teach us.

We know more than you do, and we are not so choked by the thorns within us, nor do we mix ten times as much evil into a little good.

You have stirred up against us lizards and toads—creatures supposedly of spring, yet unclean nonetheless.

But a wing shall come from above, that which feeds upon these things.

For my reckoning is not as you suppose, but as God knows how to judge.

But if witnesses are also needed, slaves shall not stand as witnesses, nor this dishonorable and utterly ruinous race of eunuchs—neither female nor male, mad for women yet an object of envy, mercenary, fickle, ungenerous, all-receiving, insatiable, tearful at table, quick-tempered, mad for gold, cruel, effeminate, a slave to the belly—and what more shall I say?—condemned by the knife from its very birth.

For how can the judgment of men be sound, whose very feet are crooked? These indeed are made chaste without merit, by the knife, yet they rage fruitlessly on account of their own disgrace.

These shall not stand as witnesses of the judgment; rather, the eyes of the righteous and the sight of perfect men, as many as at that time see, beholding with understanding.

TO FIRMINUS. Your letters are both rare and short—either from reluctance to write, or else managing somehow to avoid the surfeit that comes from abundance of words, and accustoming yourself to brevity.

Yet nothing suffices for us; rather, even if it should exceed all measure in quantity, it would still fall short of our desire, because we wish to learn absolutely everything, each and every detail, about you.

How your body is faring, how your ascetic discipline stands, and whether you continue in what was resolved from the beginning, or whether you have changed your mind, altering your resolve in response to circumstances.

If, then, you had remained the same as yourself, we would not seek a multitude of letters, but this much would suffice for us:

"Know that we are in good health, and farewell." But since we hear things which we are ashamed even to utter—that you have abandoned the rank of your blessed forefathers to go over to the ways of your paternal grandfather, and are eager to become "a Breton" instead of Firminus—we desire to hear these very things and to learn the reasoning by which you have been led onto this path of life.

But since you yourself have kept silent out of shame for the plan, we exhort you neither to devise things worthy of shame, and, if any such thing has crept into your mind, to drive it out of your thinking and become yourself again, and, bidding a long farewell to the army and to arms and to the hardships of camp life, to return to your homeland, considering it sufficient for the security of your life and for all distinction to hold rank in the city equal to your ancestors.

Whether, then, the intention never arose from the start, or, having arisen, has again been cast out, let us know quickly.

But if—which may it never happen—the same intentions still remain, let the calamity come to us self-announced; we have no need of letters.

UNTITLED, ON ASCETIC DISCIPLINE. I myself consider that I am indebted to your honor in other respects as well, and this present concern in which we now find ourselves necessarily renders us liable to render service in such matters, even if it is ordinary people who give the orders—let alone you, who are bound to us by many just claims and by other ties as well.

Now it is not necessary to bring past events to examination, since it might be said that we ourselves became the cause of our own troubles, having contentiously insisted on departing from that good discipline which alone leads to salvation.

Wherefore perhaps we were also delivered over to this disturbance as a trial.

But those things happened and were deemed worthy of remembrance, so that we might not fall into the same things a second time.

As for what follows, I very much wish your Reverence to be fully assured that, God permitting, it will come to us most easily, since the matter is both lawful and has nothing burdensome about it, and many of our friends in the army are ready to grant the favor.

A petition, therefore, will be drawn up by us after the pattern of the memorandum submitted to the vicar; and if no delay arises in it, we will send it off at once, thereby providing the permission that results from the document.

But I am persuaded that in such matters our own resolve carries more weight than imperial decrees; and if we display it unshaken and unswerving from the very prime of life, then, through the help of God, the guarding of our virginity will be for us untouchable and inviolable.

As for the brother entrusted to us by you, we have gladly received him, and we hold him among our acquaintances, praying that he may be worthy of God and of your testimony.

TO JOVINUS, BISHOP OF PERRHA. I hold you as a debtor of a good debt.

For I lent you a debt of love, which I must receive back with interest, since our Lord also does not reject this kind of interest.

Repay it, then, O beloved friend, by coming to visit our homeland.

This, then, is the principal itself.

And what is the interest? That you, the man who comes, should be as superior to us as fathers are better than their children.

TO EUSTATHIUS, BISHOP OF SEBASTEIA. Through the most reverend and most devout brother Peter also, I address your love, exhorting you, as on every occasion, so also now, to pray for me, that, being changed from this detestable and harmful manner of life, I may at last become worthy of the name of Christ.

But surely, even if I do not say so, you will confer with one another about our affairs, and he will make known to you the precise details of what has happened, so that you may not accept without examination the wicked suspicions against us, which it is likely that those who have insulted us—contrary both to the fear of God and to human reputation—are contriving.

having been instructed by our brother.

And I say this not to take vengeance on him (for I pray that it not be reckoned against him by the Lord), but in order to secure that your love toward me might remain firm for us, which I fear they may shake by the excesses of the slanders which they are likely to fabricate in defense of their offense.

But whatever they may accuse us of, let it be examined by your keen discernment, whether they ever brought a charge against us, or sought correction for the fault which they now impute to us, or ever made their grievance against us manifest at all.

But now, with a cheerful countenance and words dressed up in love, while concealing some unspeakable depth of deceit and bitterness of soul, they have revealed it through their ignoble silence.

In this matter, how much occasion for laughter we furnish to those who forever abhor the devout life in this wretched city, and who insist that the pretense of humility is practiced as an art to gain credibility and as a device for deception—this, even if we do not narrate it ourselves, is surely well known to your understanding.

...so that no profession is thereafter so suspect of wickedness among the people here as the profession of the ascetic life.

But how this must be remedied would be a matter for your understanding to consider.

For the accusations stitched together by Sophronius against us are not preludes to good things, but the beginning of division and separation, and an effort that the love between us also should grow cold.

Whom we entreat your compassion to restrain from this harmful impulse, and to endeavor by your own love rather to draw together what is being divided than to intensify the separation along with those who are rushing toward division.

And he wished that the letter be drafted by us, and signed by all who are in communion.

Bid that what seems best to your holiness be made known to us quickly, so that we may not be ignorant of what you have decided.

Concerning the things being contrived, or already devised, against us in Antioch, the same brother will report to your honor, unless the rumor of what has happened should already have made known beforehand what has been done.

For indeed the hope of the outcome of the things that are threatened is near at hand.

I wish your piety to know that our brother Anthimus has ordained Faustus, who was with Papas, as bishop, without even receiving votes, and having ordained him for the see of our most reverend brother Cyril, so that he has filled Armenia with factions.

Therefore, in order that they may not falsely accuse us, nor that we ourselves bear the blame for the disorder of what has taken place, I have made these things known to your dignity.

For I think that this disorder will grieve many.

The winter has been severe and prolonged to the utmost, so that not even the comfort of letters has easily been available to us.

Hence I know that only a few times have I written to your piety, or received letters.

But since our most beloved brother Sanctissimus, our fellow presbyter, has undertaken the journey to you, through him I greet your propriety and beg you to pray for me, and to give ear to the aforesaid brother, so that you may be instructed by him concerning the affairs of the churches in which he is involved, and may bring to bear whatever zeal you can upon the matters at hand.

Know that Faustus came to us bearing letters from Papas, requesting that he be made bishop.

But since we asked for the testimony of your piety and of the other bishops, he, despising us, went off to Anthimus, and having received ordination from him, returned without any reminder from us.

TO POEMENIUS, BISHOP OF SATALA. You surely asked for letters from the Armenians when they returned by way of you, and learned the reason why I did not give them the letter.

If, then, they spoke truthfully, you have on that very account granted us your pardon;

but if they concealed it, as indeed I suspect, then hear it from us.

Anthimus, that man noble in every respect, who after a long time made a treaty of peace with us, since he found an occasion both to satisfy his own vainglory and to cause us some grief, ordained Faustus by his own authority and with his own hand, waiting for the vote of none of you, and laughing at us for being so scrupulous about such matters.

Since, therefore, he has confounded the ancient good order, and has despised you also, from whom I was expecting to receive testimony, and has done a thing which I do not know is pleasing to God, on this account, being grieved at them, I gave no letter to any of the Armenians, nor to your piety.

Nor indeed did I receive Faustus into communion, openly declaring that, unless he should bring me letters from you, I myself would remain estranged from him for all time, and would dispose those who are of one mind with me to be of the same disposition toward him.

If, then, what has happened is curable, be earnest both to write yourself, bearing witness to him, if you see that the man's life is good, and to urge on the others as well.

But if it is incurable, make this too clear to me, so that I may no longer pay any attention to them at all, seeing that, as they have shown, they have now set out to transfer their communion to Anthimus, having despised our friendship and that of this church as something stale and outworn.

TO URBICIUS THE MONK. You were about to come to us (and the good thing was near at hand) to cool us, at least with the tip of your finger, as we burned in our trials.

Then what happened? Our sins stood in the way and hindered your setting out, so that we should suffer without remedy.

For just as among the waves, one subsides while another rises, and yet another already grows dark with the shudder of what is coming, so also of our evils, some have ceased, some are present, and some are expected; and for us, for the most part, the one deliverance from evils is to yield to the occasion and to withdraw quietly from our pursuers.

Yet even so, do come to us at last, either to console us, or to give us counsel, or to escort us on our way — but in any case, by your very appearing you will make things easier for us.

...being added, but let us rather be benefited even through these very difficulties, trusting in him all the more, when we have the greater need.

Whether these things are true or not, I am not able to say;

but what has happened to me in relation to your goodness is not far from what has been said.

For since a certain disposition has arisen in me toward your sacred and guileless soul — an affection, if I may so put it, of love — and since, like no other good thing, the enjoyment of what we long for is not easy for us, on account of the opposition arising from our sins, I considered that I had seen a most vivid image of your goodness in the presence of our most devout brothers.

For indeed, even if it had happened that I met your genuine self apart from them, I would have reckoned that I had seen them also in you, because, I say, the measure of love in each of you is so great that in each alike there is manifested a rivalry over who possesses more of it.

For these things I gave thanks to the holy God, and I pray that, if any time of life yet remains to me, my life may become pleasant through you; for as it is now, I consider living, when separated from the company of those most dear to me, to be a wretched thing and something to be shunned.

For there is nothing, in my judgment, in which one who truly loves could take cheer, when separated from those he loves.

COPY OF THE STATEMENT OF FAITH DICTATED BY THE MOST HOLY BASIL, WHICH EUSTATHIUS, BISHOP OF SEBASTEIA, SUBSCRIBED. Those who, having previously been ensnared by another confession of faith, wish now to transfer to union with the orthodox, or who, now for the first time, desire to be instructed in the catechesis of the word of truth, must be taught the faith written by the blessed Fathers in the council once convened at Nicaea.

And this same thing would also be useful in regard to those who are suspected of holding views contrary to sound doctrine, and who conceal their disposition toward false belief under fair-seeming pretexts.

For to these also the faith here set forth is sufficient.

For either they will correct their hidden sickness, or, concealing it in the depths, they themselves will bear the judgment of their deceit, while providing an easy defense for us on the day of judgment, when the Lord will uncover the hidden things of darkness and manifest the counsels of hearts.

It is fitting, then, to receive them upon their confessing that they believe according to the words set forth by our Fathers at Nicaea, and according to the sense soundly conveyed by these words.

For there are some who, even in this very confession, adulterate the word of truth and twist the meaning of the words contained in it to suit their own purpose.

Indeed, even Marcellus dared, impiously, regarding the hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ — expounding him as a mere word — to allege from that very source that the notion of homoousios had taken its origin, wrongly interpreting it.

And some of those who follow the impiety of Sabellius the Libyan, supposing hypostasis and ousia to be the same thing, draw from that same source occasions for the construction of their own blasphemy, from the fact that it is written in the confession that:

...there, both ousia and hypostasis...

For if the terms signified one and the same concept, what need was there for both? But it is clear that, since some deny that he is of the substance of the Father, while others say that he is neither of the substance, but of some other hypostasis, they thus forbade both alike as alien to the mind of the Church.

For when they were declaring their own mind, they said that the Son is of the substance of the Father, no longer adding also the phrase 'of the hypostasis.'

So that the former stands for the rejection of the wicked opinion, while the latter provides a manifestation of the saving doctrine.

But we must confess the Father in his own hypostasis, the Son in his own, and the Holy Spirit in his own, just as they themselves have clearly set forth.

For they demonstrated this sufficiently and clearly by saying 'Light of Light,' meaning that the begetting Light is one thing and the begotten Light another, yet Light and Light nonetheless, so that the account of the substance is one and the same.

Let there also be set before us this very faith that was written at Nicaea.

We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the Only-begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father;

God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made;

of one substance with the Father, through whom all things came into being, both those in heaven and those on earth;

who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh, was made man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into the heavens, and is coming to judge the living and the dead.

...that there was a time when he was not, and that before he was begotten he was not, and that he came into being out of things that did not exist, or who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance, or that he is subject to change or alteration — such persons the catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes. Since, then, in this creed the other points have been sufficiently and precisely determined — some for the correction of what had been harmed, others as a safeguard against what was expected to arise — but the statement concerning the Spirit lies there only in passing, deemed worthy of no elaboration, because this question had not yet at that time been stirred up, but rather the understanding concerning him existed unassailed in the souls of believers; and since, as time went on, the evil seeds of impiety, which were first sown by Arius, the champion of the heresy, and were later nourished, to the ruin of the churches, by those who wickedly succeeded to his views, and the sequence of that impiety issued forth into blasphemy against the Spirit — it is necessary, for the sake of those who do not spare themselves nor foresee the inescapable threat which our Lord held out against those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, to set forth this: that they must anathematize those who call the Holy Spirit a creature, and those who think so, and those who do not confess him to be holy by nature, as the Father is holy by nature and the Son is holy by nature, but who instead alienate him from the divine and blessed nature.

The proof of right thinking is not to separate him from the Father and the Son (for we must be baptized as we received, believe as we are baptized, and glorify, as we have believed, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and to withdraw from communion with those who call him a creature, as ones who openly blaspheme — it being agreed (for this clarification is necessary because of the slanderers) that we call the Holy Spirit neither unbegotten — for we know one unbegotten and one first principle of all things that are, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — nor begotten, for we have been taught in the tradition of the faith to confess one Only-begotten;

but having been taught that the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, we confess him to be of God, uncreatedly.

And we must also anathematize those who call the Holy Spirit 'ministering,' as bringing him down, by that very term, into the rank of a creature.

For it is fitting to preserve, unmoved and untampered with, the order which we received from the very voice of the Lord himself, when he said:

'Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.' Subscription of Bishop Eustathius.

I, Eustathius, bishop, having read this to you, Basil, have acknowledged and assented to what has been written above.

And I have signed in the presence of the brothers who were with me, our own Fronto, and the chorbishop Severus, and certain other clergy.

TO ATARBIUS. Having come as far as Nicopolis, in hope both of setting right the disturbances that had been stirred up, and of bringing whatever consolation was possible to those who had acted disorderly and contrary to ecclesiastical order, we were greatly discouraged not to find your kindness there, but instead learned that you had ridden off in great haste, and this while the synod being held among you was nearly at its midpoint.

Now these things, though grievous and burdensome, are still bearable, since they were done against a mere man, who, having entrusted to God the vengeance for what he has suffered, is wholly devoted to peace, and to seeing that nothing harmful should come to the people of God on his account.