Letters 1 part 29/32

Hence the many could not even bring themselves to believe the rumor that was spreading that gloomy report, nor could they at all accept that Arinthaeus had died.

Yet nevertheless he has suffered what will also befall heaven and earth and sun.

He is gone, having brought his life to a splendid close, not bent by old age, not yielding anything of his distinction.

...to have the stain of his soul washed away, at the very close of his life, by the bath of regeneration.

Since you yourself became the sponsor and helper of these things for him, hold this as your greatest consolation; and turn your soul from present concerns to care for what is to come, so that through good works you may be deemed worthy to attain the same place of rest as he.

Spare your aged mother, spare your young daughter, for whom you alone remain as their consolation.

Become an example of courage to the rest of women, and so measure your suffering as neither to banish it from your heart nor to be swallowed up by grief.

Above all, look to the great reward of endurance, promised by our Lord Jesus Christ in the recompense for the life we have lived.

WITHOUT ADDRESS, CONCERNING AN ABDUCTION. I am greatly grieved that I do not find you indignant at the things forbidden, nor able to consider that this abduction which has taken place is a lawless act and a tyranny against life itself and human existence, and an outrage against the free.

For I know that, if you all held such a resolve, nothing would have hindered the practice of this evil from having long ago been driven out of our homeland.

Take up, then, for the present occasion a Christian's zeal, and be moved in a manner worthy of the wrong done.

And the girl, wherever you find her, take her away with all vigor and restore her to her parents;

and banish that man himself from the prayers and make him publicly proclaimed excommunicate;

and those who joined with him in this, in accordance with the decree already previously issued by us, banish them together with their whole household from the prayers for three years.

And the village that received the abducted woman and sheltered her, or rather championed the deed, put it too, in its entirety, outside the prayers, so that all may learn to regard the abductor as a common enemy, like a serpent or some other wild beast, and thus to drive him away and to stand up for those who are wronged.

TO EUSEBIUS, FRIEND, LETTER OF COMMENDATION ON BEHALF OF KYRIAKOS THE PRESBYTER. Immediately, arriving in the city hard on the heels of your departure, how despondent I was at missing you!

But what need is there to say this to a man who needs no words, but who knows by experience, having suffered the same things? For how greatly worthwhile it would have been for me to see the altogether excellent Eusebius and embrace him, and to return again in memory to our youth, and to be reminded of those days in which we had one chamber and one hearth and the same tutor, and relaxation and diligence and luxury and want, and everything, were shared equally between us.

How much do you suppose I would count it worth to recall all these things to memory through meeting you, and, shedding off this heavy old age, to seem to become young again out of an old man? But while the enjoyment of those things escaped me, I was not deprived of the means to console myself by seeing, through a letter, your eloquence and the character within it, through the meeting with the most reverend Kyriakos, our fellow presbyter;

whom I am ashamed to commend to you and to make familiar to you through myself, lest I should seem to be doing something superfluous, bringing to you what is already your own and exceptional.

But, since I must be a witness to the truth and grant to those bound to me in the Spirit the greatest of what is mine to give, I consider that this man's blamelessness with regard to the priesthood is evident to you as well, and I too confirm it, knowing of no slander against him from those who lay hands on everyone without fearing the Lord.

And yet, even if something had occurred at their hands, the man was not so unworthy as to deserve it.

For the enemies of the Lord rather confirm the dignity of those against whom they fight, than take away anything of the grace that is theirs from the Spirit.

Something was contrived against the man.

As a presbyter, then, blameless and united to us and worthy of all respect, deign to regard him thus, both benefiting yourself and doing us a favor.

TO SOPHRONIUS THE MAGISTER. Aktiakos the deacon reported to me that certain persons have grieved you by slandering us, as though we were not well disposed toward your excellency.

But I was not surprised that there are flatterers accompanying so great a man.

For, in some way, these servile attendants naturally grow up alongside great positions of power;

who, for lack of any good quality of their own by which to become known, commend themselves through the misfortunes of others.

And just about as blight is a corruption of wheat occurring within the wheat itself, so too flattery, creeping in under the guise of friendship, is the ruin of friendship.

I was not surprised, then, as I said, that some, just as drones buzz around the hives, so these buzz around your bright and wondrous household.

But this seemed to me astonishing and utterly unreasonable: that you, a man renowned above all for the weight of your character, should endure opening both your ears to them and should accept a slander against me — I who, having loved many from earliest youth up to this old age, know of no one I have preferred above the friendship of your perfection.

For even if reason had not persuaded me to love you, being such as you are, the familiarity from childhood would have sufficed to bind me to your soul.

You know how much habit can accomplish toward friendship.

But if I show nothing worthy of this resolve, forgive my weakness.

For you yourself do not seek from me any deed as proof of goodwill, but evidently a disposition that joins in praying for what is best for you.

May your affairs never sink so low as to require any benefit from such small people as myself.

How then was I likely to say or do anything contrary to you in the matter concerning Memnonius? For this is what the deacon reported to me.

And how could I have esteemed the prosperity of Hymetius preferable to your household — a man who so squanders his substance? But none of this is true at all;

neither has anything been said by me nor done contrary to you.

But perhaps this gave occasion to those who speak falsehoods — namely, what was said by me to some of those who were making a disturbance, that:

"If the man has resolved to carry his own intention into action, then whether you make a disturbance or not, it will happen regardless — whether you speak out or remain silent, the matter being pursued will occur no less."

"But if he has changed his mind, do not drag along the venerable name of our friend, nor, under the pretext of zeal for our patron, secure for yourselves some gain from this through the fear and threats you hold out and enforce." As for that man himself who draws up the deeds, I have said nothing, whether small or great, concerning this matter, either through myself or through another.

And you ought not to disbelieve these things, unless you consider me utterly reprobate and think that I hold the great sin of falsehood in contempt.

But please, do yourself let go of the suspicion regarding this matter, and henceforth hold my disposition toward you above every slander, imitating Alexander, who, having received a letter accusing his physician of plotting against him, at that very moment happened to have taken a medicine to drink, and was so far from believing the accuser that he simultaneously read the letter and drank the medicine.

For I do not deem myself worth setting below any who are known for friendship, since I have never been caught sinning against friendship, and moreover I have received from my God the commandment of love, of which I am a debtor not only by the common nature of mankind, but because I also personally recognize you as a benefactor both of myself and of our homeland.

WITHOUT ADDRESS, CONCERNING HERAS. Being firmly persuaded that your honor loves us so much as to count what concerns us as your own, I commend to your extraordinary goodness our most reverend brother Heras — whom we call our brother not by some mere custom, but in the strictest sense, and with no exaggeration, surpassing even in disposition of friendship — and I entreat you both to regard him as your own and to provide him, as far as lies in your power, with the protection which your magnanimity affords in whatever he may need, so that I may count this benefit also among the many good things I have already received at your hands.

TO HEMERIUS THE MAGISTER. That my friendship and familiarity with the most reverend brother Heras took its beginning from earliest childhood and, by the grace of God, has remained until this old age — you yourself know this better than anyone.

For it was almost from that very time that the Lord graciously granted us the love of your greatness of nature, from the time when he first brought about our acquaintance with one another.

Since, then, he stands in need of your protection, I entreat you and beseech you, granting favor to your longstanding disposition toward us, and attending to the present necessity that has overtaken him, so to take his affairs to heart that he may need no other protection, but may return to us having accomplished everything according to our prayers;

so that we may reckon this benefit too among the many kindnesses we have received from you — a kindness than which we could find none greater for ourselves, nor any that concerns us more, and which we therefore claim as our own.

WITHOUT ADDRESS, CONCERNING HERAS. You have anticipated our entreaties by your disposition toward our most reverend brother Heras, and have proved better than any prayer for him, both by the excessive honors you have shown him and by the protection you have offered on every occasion.

Nevertheless, we too, since we cannot bear his affairs in silence, entreat your incomparable honor to add, for our sake, to your zeal on the man's behalf, and to send him back to his homeland superior to the malice of his enemies, since at present he is not beyond the arrows of envy, many attempting to do him harm because of the quiet, unassuming manner of his life.

Against them we shall find one unbreakable security, if you yourself should be willing to hold your hand over the man.

TO HARMATIUS THE GREAT. The common law of all mankind makes those advanced in age common fathers to all, and our own law, peculiar to Christians, establishes us elders in the rank of parents to those of such young age.

So do not consider me to be acting superfluously or meddling beyond what is necessary, if I intercede with you on behalf of your own child.

In other matters, we consider it right for you to require his obedience;

for as regards the body, he is subject both to the law of nature and to this civil law by which we are governed.

But his soul, since it has come to him from a more divine source, it is fitting to consider as subject to another authority, and that from it debts are owed to God — the most venerable of all debts.

He has preferred our God, the true God of us Christians, above the many gods among you that are worshiped through material symbols; do not be displeased with him for this, but rather admire the nobility of his soul, in that he has valued becoming united with God through true knowledge and a life of virtue more highly than fear and paternal reverence.

Surely you will not dishonor our embassy either — or rather that of your own city, fulfilled through us — which, out of affection for you and out of praying every good thing for you, even hopes to welcome you yourself as a Christian; a report that suddenly fell upon the city filled them with such joy.

TO MAXIMUS THE SCHOLASTIC. The good and noble Theoteknos reported to me the things concerning your excellency, and stirred in me a longing to meet you, vividly sketching in words the character of your soul; and he so inflamed my affection for you that, if I were not weighed down by old age and held fast by my accustomed infirmity and fettered by countless cares concerning the Church, nothing would have kept me from coming in person to you.

For indeed it is no small gain, for one who has come from a great house and illustrious lineage and has passed over to the evangelical life, to bridle youth with reason, and to make the passions of the flesh subject to reason, and to practice the humility owed by a Christian who thinks of himself as is fitting, considering whence he sprang and whither he shall go.

For the consideration of nature restrains the inflammation of the soul, and banishes all arrogance and self-will, and, in short, makes one a disciple of the Lord who said:

"Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart."

For in truth, dearest of children, the only thing worthy of earnest pursuit and praise is the good that endures.

And this is the honor that comes from God.

But these human things are fainter than a shadow and more deceptive than dreams.

For youth fades away more quickly than spring flowers, and bodily beauty withers either by illness or by time.

And wealth is unreliable, and glory is easily overturned.

And the labors expended on the arts end together with this present life.

But even that which is eagerly sought by all — eloquence — has its charm only as far as the ear.

But the practice of virtue is a precious possession for the one who has it, and the most delightful of sights for those who encounter it.

By attending to these things, you will render yourself worthy of the good things laid up by the Lord in his promises.

But in what manner you might attain to the acquisition of good things, and how you might preserve what you have gained, would take longer to say than the present impulse of this letter allows.

It occurred to me, then, to address even these very things, on the basis of what I heard from our brother Theoteknos;

whom I always pray speaks the truth, but especially in the things he has said about you, so that the Lord may be glorified all the more in you — you who, from an alien root, abound with the most precious fruits of piety.

TO VALERIANUS. Even when I was in the region of Orphanene, I longed to see your excellency.

For I expected that you, while staying at Korsagainoi, would not hesitate to cross over to us, since I was holding a synod at Attagainoi.

But since I failed to meet you at that synod, I longed to see you on the mountain.

For there again, Euesa being nearby, heightened my hope of a meeting.

...to an old man, and at the same time, through that meeting, to receive some counsel from us, since you have affairs with certain persons in Caesarea that require our mediation for their settlement.

So if it is not troublesome, do not hesitate to come to us.

As for the matter in which he needs your patronage, he will state it himself, if you will deign to look upon him with a kindly eye and give him courage to speak out before your great and extraordinary authority.

For our part, we make clear through this letter that whatever benefit is done to him we regard as our own gain, especially since he set out from Tyana and came to us for this very reason, expecting to gain something great if he might offer our letter in place of a petition.

So that he may not fall short of his hopes, and we may enjoy our accustomed honor, and your zeal for good deeds may also be fulfilled in the present matter, we ask that he be received kindly and be numbered among those closest to you.

The one, then, who delivers this letter of ours to you stands to me in the rank of a son.

Since, then, he needs only your kindness for what he seeks to be accomplished, deign to accept my letter, which the aforesaid man presents to you in place of a petition, and grant him an opportunity to relate his own affairs and to converse with those able to assist him, so that by your command he may quickly obtain what he is seeking, and so that I may have cause to boast that such a patron has been given to me by the grace of God—one who considers those who belong to me his own suppliants and refugees.

I have therefore made use of the gift and enjoy your most kind favor, at once delighting myself in conversing with so great a man, and also giving your magnanimity opportunity to honor us with your replies.

Since I besought your gentleness on behalf of our companion Helladius, the leading man of the council, that he might be relieved of the responsibility for the tax assessment and be permitted to labor in the affairs of our homeland, and I was deemed worthy of a favorable nod, I renew the same petition and earnestly beseech you that an order be sent down to the governor of the province permitting him relief from this trouble.

Though not summoned, you bring accusations; and though summoned, you do not obey.

And from the latter, it is clear that you also employed your former excuse in vain.

For in all likelihood, you would not have come even then, had you been summoned.

Listen, then, to those who now call you, and do not again be unreasonable, knowing that a charge added to a charge confirms it, and the second makes the former accusation more credible.

I entreat you also always to bear with us;

but if you will not bear with us, still it is not right to neglect the martyrs, in whose commemorations you are summoned to take part.

TO ELEUTHERA. We hope to find a suitable day for our meeting, after the affairs in the hill country that we are about to arrange.

No other occasion for a meeting, apart from the duty connected with the synod, appears to us—unless the Lord should arrange something beyond what we hope for.

You ought to judge from what pertains to your own affairs.

For if such a crowd of cares besets your excellency, who is concerned with but a single matter, how many occupations do you suppose we have each day? Your dream, I believe, points more perfectly to the fact that one 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 that comes from the divine Scriptures, you will need neither us nor anyone else in order to discern what is needful, since you have sufficient counsel and guidance from the Holy Spirit toward what is beneficial.

CONCERNING MONKS, TO THE CENSITOR. I suppose that a certain regulation has already been established by your honor concerning monks, so that we need not ask any special favor on their behalf, but it suffices for them if they enjoy the general kindness shown to all.

Nevertheless, considering it also my own duty to take thought, as far as possible, for such persons, I write to your perfect understanding asking that those who long ago renounced the world and have mortified their own body—so that they are able to contribute nothing useful to the public treasury either from money or from bodily service—be released from the tax payments.

For indeed, if they are living according to their profession, they have neither money nor bodies of their own—the former having been given away for the benefit of those in need, the latter having been worn away in fastings and prayers.

I know that you will hold those who have lived in this way in the highest regard, and that you will wish to gain for yourself powerful helpers, able through their manner of life according to the Gospel to move the Lord on your behalf.

UNTITLED. CONCERNING THE STEWARDSHIP OF THE CHURCH. The one who takes care of the Church and personally manages the oversight of its properties is the very one delivering this letter to you—my beloved son, So-and-so.

Deign to grant him freedom of speech regarding the matters he reports to your worshipfulness, and to give heed to what he affirms, so that from now on, at least, the Church may be able to recover herself and be delivered from this many-headed hydra.

...since the Church is being made to spend more than it gains any profit from its properties.

TO THE COMMENTARIENSIS. Since certain persons among those who do evil were apprehended at this synod, stealing—contrary to the Lord's commandment—the cheap garments of poor people, whom they ought rather to have clothed than stripped, those charged with maintaining ecclesiastical good order arrested them; but thinking that the reception of such persons pertained to you, as one engaged in public affairs, I have written to inform you that offenses committed within the churches ought properly to receive correction from us, and that judges ought not to be troubled concerning these matters.

...but that these persons be turned back through the discipline and admonition of the Lord, whom I believe will, in the name of God, be made better for the future.

For what the blows of the courts fail to accomplish, we have often known the fearful judgments of the Lord to bring about successfully.

But if it seems best to you also to report these matters to the count, we have so much confidence in what is just and in that man's rectitude that we permit you to do as you wish.

For we do not know what to do with a character so versatile, which, as one may conjecture from what is observed, seems to be past hope of reform.

For when summoned to judgment, he does not obey;

and even if he does appear, he makes such abundant use of words and oaths that we are glad to be rid of him quickly.

I have often seen him even turn the accusations back upon his accusers.

Indeed, of all the creatures that graze upon the earth, none has a nature so manifold and so pliable toward wickedness as that of this man, so far as one can judge concerning him from even a brief experience.

Why do you ask me, instead of persuading yourselves to endure his injustices as some divinely-sent affliction? But so that you may not be defiled by sharing in his sins, let his whole household be excluded from the prayers and from the rest of fellowship with the clergy.

Perhaps, becoming an object to be shunned as a warning, he will be shamed into reform.

If your brother sins, rebuke him between you and him alone;

if he does not listen to you, take another with you;

and if not even then, tell it to the Church;

and if he refuses to hear even the Church, let him be to you as a pagan and a tax collector.

This, then, is exactly what happened in this man's case.

He was accused once; he was convicted before one witness and then a second; a third time, before the Church.

Since, then, we solemnly warned him and he did not accept it, let him henceforth be publicly excommunicated.

And let it be proclaimed to the whole village that he is not to be accepted into any fellowship of daily dealings, so that by our refusal to associate with him he may become wholly given over as prey to the devil.

UNTITLED. CONCERNING A WOMAN WHO IS BEING WRONGED. Judging it an equal fault both to leave sinners unrebuked and to let punishment exceed due measure, I imposed on this man the penalty that falls to me, banishing him from ecclesiastical communion, and I exhorted those who had been wronged not to avenge themselves, but to leave retribution to the Lord.

So that, if my instructions are of any use at all, I would have been heard with far greater credibility, having used such language as letters can employ, to the utmost of their power, to move one to shame.

But since I heard many words of a grave and harsh character, I kept silent then, and now too I do not think it fitting for me to speak again about the same matters.

"For I," she said, "disregarded a husband, and childbearing, and worldly life, that I might obtain this one thing alone: approval from God, and among men to be deemed worthy of a better report."

But since a man, reared from childhood in the corruption of households, having once forced his way in with his customary shamelessness, intruded into our house, and became known to us only through a bare social encounter—this happening both through ignorance of what sort of man he was, and through a certain unschooled sense of modesty that plainly shrank from openly disgracing him—he proceeded to such a pitch of impiety and insolence that he filled the whole city with slanders against me, and pilloried me by a public placard set up before the doors of the church.

For which, having incurred some measure of the law's indignation, he nevertheless came back again and renewed his slanders.

Once again the marketplace is full of abuse against me, as are the gymnasia, the theaters, and the houses of those who receive him because of the similarity of their way of life.

And it has befallen me, because of the most shameful acts, not even to be known for the better things in which it would have been fitting, since I have become notorious among all for a licentious character.

"In the face of this," she said, "some take pleasure in the slanders, because by nature men delight in abuse directed at others;

others say they are grieved, but do not truly share in the suffering;

others are persuaded that the slanders are true;

still others remain uncertain, giving heed to the multitude of his oaths."

"But there is no one who truly shares my suffering; rather, I have now truly felt my desolation and mourn for myself, having no brother, no friend, no kinsman, no slave, no free person—no human being at all—who shares my pain; and, it seems, I find myself alone more pitiable than the city itself, in which there is so great a scarcity of those who hate evil, who do not suppose that this drunken outrage committed against one another, moving in a circle, will one day overtake them too." Having recounted these things to me, and things still far more piercing, with unspeakable tears, she departed—not leaving even me free of her reproaches, saying that, though it was fitting for me to grieve with her as a father, I am indifferent to so great an evil and play the philosopher amid another's sufferings.

For you do not bid me overlook a forfeiture of money, nor to endure bodily hardships, but to suffer loss in reputation itself, the damage to which becomes a common loss for the clergy.

In the face of these words, do you yourself judge, O admirable friend, what you would now have me say to her, since I hold this judgment within myself: neither to hand over wrongdoers to the authorities, nor yet to rescue them once they have been handed over—wrongdoers to whom it was long ago said by the Apostle that they who do evil should fear the ruler.

"For not without reason," it is said, "does he bear the sword."

Just as, then, to hand him over is not an act of kindness, so also to rescue him is the act of one who nurtures his outrage.

Perhaps, though, there might be some postponement of his admission until our own arrival, and then we shall show that we are of no use, since there is no one who obeys.

May many blessings come upon those who move your honor to continual conversation with us by letter.

Do not suppose that such things are said by us merely out of custom, but rather, out of a true disposition of affection, we count your voice as of the greatest worth.

For what could be dearer to me than Nectarius, who from childhood was known to us for the noblest qualities, and who has now, through virtue of every kind, risen to such distinction? Hence of all my friends the dearest to me is the one who excels in writing me letters.

Concerning the choice of those who are to preside over the guild—if indeed I should act so as to gratify men, or yield to entreaties, or give way to fear, may I never do any such thing.

For I shall not be a steward, but a huckster, bartering the gift of God for human friendships.

But if the votes given by men are given on the basis of outward appearance, having only the capacity to testify to what they testify, while the judgments concerning who is more suitable are entrusted by our humility to him who knows the secrets of hearts, then it is perhaps altogether better, having laid down one's testimony, to withdraw from all zeal and partisanship as though for one's own kin regarding those testified for, and to pray to God that what is expedient may not be missed.

For thus we shall no longer hold man responsible for the outcome either way, but shall know that the grace of what comes to pass belongs to God.

And yet if these things happen merely according to man, they do not really happen at all, but are only an imitation of the truth, falling utterly short of the truth itself.

Consider too that no small danger lurks for one who strives by every means to have his own way prevail, lest we ever draw upon ourselves a share of the sins committed.

For many sins might be committed even by those never expected to commit them, on account of the pliability of human nature.