Defence of His Flight

I hear that Leontius, now at Antioch, and Narcissus of the city of Nero, and George, now at Laodicea, and the Arians with them, are spreading many reports about me and reviling me, charging me with cowardice because, when I was sought by them to be put to death, I did not deliver myself into their hands. To their revilings and false accusations, though I could write much that they themselves cannot deny, and that all who hear it against them recognize, I shall nevertheless be moved to say nothing to them but the word of the Lord and the saying of the Apostle: “Falsehood is from the devil,” and, “Nor will revilers inherit the kingdom of God.” For it is enough that these show them to think and do nothing according to the Gospel, but to suppose that whatever they themselves wish is good, according to their own pleasures.

But since they pretend to charge me with cowardice, it is necessary to write a little about this; for by this too they will be shown to be wicked in character, and either not to have read the divine Scriptures, or, having read them, not to believe that the oracles in them are inspired by God. For if they believed, they would not dare to act against them, nor emulate the malice of the Jews who killed the Lord. For when God had given the commandment, “Honor your father and your mother,” and, “He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die,” they too legislated against it, turning honor into dishonor and exchanging for money the duty children owe their parents. And reading the deeds of David, they practiced the contrary, and blamed the guiltless disciples for plucking ears of grain and rubbing them on the sabbath day. They cared neither for the laws nor for the sabbath—for on it above all they broke the law—but, being wicked in character, they envied the disciples who were being saved and wished only that their own opinion should prevail. They, then, have the wages of their own lawlessness, having become unholy and being called thereafter rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. And these men, it seems to me, already have no less a penalty than those: ignorance of their own folly. For they neither understand what they say, but even think they know what they do not know; the only knowledge in them is of doing evil and of inventing each day worse things upon worse. For they slander our present flight not because they wish us to show courage in virtue—for whence would such a prayer come from enemies on behalf of those who do not run with them in their evil-mindedness?—but, being malicious, they put on this show of buzzing such things about, thinking, simpletons that they truly are, that for fear of their reviling we shall at some time give ourselves up to them. This is what they want, and for this they run about everywhere; they pretend to be friends, but search as enemies, so that, glutted with blood, they may put us too out of the way, because we have always held and hold against their impiety, and, refuting their heresy, expose it publicly.

For whom have they ever pursued and caught without insulting him as they pleased? Whom have they sought and found without treating him so that he either died miserably or was maimed in every way? For what the judges seem to do is their work; or rather the judges are servants of their purpose and wickedness. What place, then, has no memorial of their malice? Whom that opposed them have they not entrapped, fabricating pretexts as Jezebel did? What church does not now lament because of their plots against its bishops? Antioch for Eustathius, the confessor and orthodox; Balaneae for the most admirable Euphration; Paltus and Antaradus for Cymatius and Carterius; Adrianople for Eutropius, the lover of Christ, and for Lucius after him, who often wore chains at their hands and so died; Ancyra for Marcellus, Beroea for Cyrus, and Gaza for Asclepas. These, after insulting them much beforehand, the crafty men caused to be exiled; but Theodulus and Olympius, bishops from Thrace, and us and our presbyters, they caused to be sought in such a way that, if we were found, we should suffer capital punishment. And perhaps we would have died so, if we had not fled then too, against their will. For such were the letters given against Olympius and those with him to the proconsul Donatus, and against us to Philagrius. For having pursued and found Paul, bishop of Constantinople, they openly had him strangled at the place called Cucusus in Cappadocia, having as their executioner for this Philip, who had been prefect; for he was both a patron of their heresy and the servant of their wicked designs. [4] Have they then had their fill of so much, and are they at last at rest? By no means. They have not ceased; but, like the leech in the Proverbs, they rather run riot in their evils, fastening on the great dioceses. For who could worthily tell what they have done even now? Who can recall as much as they have done? Just now, when the churches were at peace and the people were praying in their assemblies, Liberius the bishop of Rome, Paulinus of the metropolis of the Gauls, Dionysius of the metropolis of Italy, Lucifer of the metropolis of the islands of Sardinia, and Eusebius from Italy, all good bishops and heralds of the truth, are seized and exiled, on no pretext except that they did not assent to the Arian heresy, nor sign against us in the slanders and false accusations they fabricated.

As for the great Hosius, of so happy an old age, truly a confessor, it is superfluous for me even to speak; for perhaps it is known to all that they caused him too to be exiled. For the old man is not obscure, but of all men most and especially famous. Over what council did he not preside? And speaking rightly, did he not persuade all? What church does not have the finest memorials of his patronage? Who ever came to him in grief and did not go away from him rejoicing? Who asked in need and did not depart having obtained what he wished? And yet they have dared even against him, because he too, knowing the false accusations they make because of their impiety, did not sign the plots against us. For even if afterwards, because of the many blows inflicted on him beyond measure and the conspiracies against his kinsmen, he yielded to them for an hour, as an old man and weak in body, yet their wickedness is shown by this too, since they were zealous in every way to show that they are not truly Christians.

From there they fastened again on Alexandria, seeking again to kill us, and the present things have become worse than the former. For soldiers suddenly surrounded the church, and the deeds of war took place instead of prayers. Then George, sent by them from Cappadocia, entered in Lent and increased the evils he had learned from them. For after the week of Easter, virgins were thrown into prison, bishops were led away bound by soldiers, the houses and bread of orphans and widows were seized, attacks were made on houses, Christians were carried off by night, houses were sealed, and brothers of clergy were endangered on behalf of their brothers. These things were terrible, but more terrible were the outrages after them. For in the week after holy Pentecost, the people, having fasted, went out to the cemetery to pray, because all turned away from communion with George. But that most wicked man, learning this, incited the general Sebastian, a Manichaean; and he himself, with a multitude of soldiers carrying arms, drawn swords, bows, and missiles, rushed out on the Lord’s day itself against the people. And finding few praying—for most had already withdrawn because of the hour—he did such things as it was fitting for one who had listened to them to do. For he lit a fire, set virgins beside it, and tried to compel them to say they were of the faith of Arius. But when he saw them prevailing …

Seizing forty men, he beat them in a new manner; for he had rods cut at once from palm trees, with the thorns still on them, and so flayed their backs that some had to undergo surgery many times for the thorns embedded in them, and some, unable to bear it, died. All who were taken, together with the virgin, they exiled at once to the Great Oasis; and the bodies of the dead they would not at first even give to their own families, but hid them as they wished, throwing them out unburied, so as to seem to conceal such cruelty. But the madmen do this with a deluded mind; for when the families of the dead rejoiced at their confession but lamented over their bodies, the proof of their impiety and cruelty resounded the more against them. And immediately they exiled from Egypt and the Libyas the bishops Ammonius, Muis, Gaius, Philo, Hermes, Plenius, Psenosiris, Nilammon, Agathus, Anagamphus, Mark, Ammonius, another Mark, Dracontius, Adelphius, Athenodorus, and the presbyters Hierax and Dioscorus; and they drove them so harshly that some of them died on the road, and some in the place of exile itself. And they put to flight more than thirty bishops; for their zeal was, like Ahab’s, to root out the truth if possible. See, these are the deeds of the impious.

Doing these things, and not ashamed of the evils they formerly wove against us, they still accuse us even now of having been able to escape their murderous hands; or rather they lament bitterly that they did not put us completely out of the way. And so they make a pretext of reproaching us with cowardice, not knowing that by this very murmuring they turn the blame rather on themselves. For if it is bad to flee, it is much worse to persecute; for the one hides so as not to die, but the other persecutes seeking to kill. And fleeing is written in Scripture; but he who seeks to kill transgresses the law, and is himself rather the one who gives the reason for flight. If, then, they reproach the flight, let them be ashamed rather of themselves for persecuting; let them stop plotting, and those who flee will stop at once. But they do not stop their own wickedness, and do everything in order to catch us, not knowing that the flight of the persecuted is a great proof against the persecutors. For no one flees the gentle and humane, but rather the man who is savage and wicked in character. At any rate, everyone in distress and in debt fled from Saul and took refuge with David. For this reason these men too are eager to kill those who are hiding, so that they may not seem to have the proof of their wickedness. But in this too they seem blind, being always astray; for the more evident the flight, the more manifest will be the killing or the exile they bring about by plotting. For if they kill, death will resound the more against them; and if again they exile, they themselves send out everywhere memorials of their own lawlessness against themselves.

If, then, they kept their senses, they would see themselves caught in these things and stumbling over their own reasonings; but since they have lost even their soundness of mind, for this reason they are carried away in persecuting, and, seeking to kill, they do not see their own impiety. For perhaps they dare to blame Providence itself (for nothing is beyond their daring) because it does not hand us over to them, though this is plain according to the Savior’s word, that not even a sparrow can fall into a snare without our Father in heaven. For indeed, when the wretches do take someone, they at once forget all else, and before all else themselves; and, raising their brows only in arrogance, they neither recognize the time, nor, in wronging men, do they respect their common nature; but, like the tyrant of Babylon, they fasten on them more savagely, and pity no one, but even make the yoke of the aged heavier, and, as it is written, the pitiless add to the pain of the wounds. If, then, they had not done these things, if they had not exiled those who spoke for us against their false accusation, they might have seemed to some to speak plausibly; but since they have plotted against so many other bishops of such standing, and spared neither the great confessor Hosius, nor the bishop of Rome, nor so many bishops from the Spains and the Gauls, Egypt and Libya, and the other regions, but have done so much against those who have at all refuted them on our behalf, how did they not rather plot against us before the others, and now desire, after them, to kill us miserably? For they lie awake for this, and think themselves wronged if they see those preserved whom they did not wish to live.

Who, then, does not see their villainy? To whom is it not evident that it is not for the sake of virtue that they reproach us with cowardice, but that, thirsting for blood, they use their own evil devices like nets, thinking to catch in them whomever they seek to kill? For their deeds have shown them to be such, and convicted their character, more savage than wild beasts and more cruel than the Babylonians. And though the proof against them from these things is sufficient, yet since, after the manner of their father the devil, they put on a show with soft little words, so as to charge us with cowardice, though they themselves are more cowardly than hares, come, let us consider also what is written in the divine Scriptures about such things. For they will be shown no less to be fighting against these, and slandering the virtues of the saints. For if they revile those who hide from those who seek to kill them, and slander those who flee from their persecutors, what will they do when they see Jacob fleeing from his brother Esau, and Moses withdrawing to Midian for fear of Pharaoh? What defense will they make, talking such nonsense, to David, who fled from Saul out of his house when Saul sent to have him killed, and hid himself in the cave, and changed his appearance until he got away from Abimelech and escaped the plot? What would those who say anything so readily say, seeing the great Elijah, who called upon God and raised the dead, hiding because of Ahab and fleeing because of the threats of Jezebel? For at that time the sons of the prophets too, when sought, hid themselves, lying concealed in caves through Obadiah. [11] Or have they not read these, as being ancient? Have they no memory even of what is in the Gospel? For the disciples too, for fear of the Jews, withdrew and hid themselves; and Paul at Damascus, sought by the ethnarch, was let down from the wall in a basket and escaped the hands of him who sought him. Since, then, Scripture says such things about the saints, what excuse for their own rashness will they be able to find? If they reproach them with cowardice, theirs is the audacity of madmen; and if they slander them as acting against the will of God, they are utterly ignorant of the Scriptures. For in the law there was a command to flee, and cities of refuge, so that those sought to be put to death might in some way be saved; and at the consummation of the ages, the very Word of the Father who spoke to Moses, having come, again gives this commandment, saying, “When they persecute you in this city, flee to the other”; and a little after he says, “So when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand—then let those in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his clothes.” Knowing this, the saints held such a course of life. For what the Lord has now commanded, this he spoke in the saints even before his coming in the flesh; and this is the rule for men that leads to perfection: to do whatever God commands.

For this reason the Word himself, having become man for our sake, deigned, when sought, to hide as we do; and again, when persecuted, to flee and avoid the plot. For it was fitting that, as by hungering and thirsting and suffering, so also by hiding and fleeing he should show that he bore flesh and had become man. For at the very beginning, as soon as he became man, when he was a child, he himself commanded Joseph through the angel: “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt; for Herod is about to seek the child’s life.” And when Herod died, he is seen withdrawing to Nazareth because of Archelaus his son. And later, when he was showing himself to be God and made the withered hand whole, the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him how to destroy him; but Jesus, knowing it, withdrew from there. And when he raised Lazarus from the dead, “From that day,” it says, “they took counsel to kill him. Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went away from there to the region near the wilderness.” Then, when the Savior said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” the Jews took up stones to throw at him …

Seeing these things, then—or rather even hearing them, since they do not see—how will they not wish, as it is written, to be burned up, because they plan and speak contrary to what the Lord does and teaches? For when John had been martyred and his disciples had buried the body, Jesus, hearing it, withdrew from there in a boat to a desert place apart. The Lord, then, did these things and taught thus. Would that these men might at least be ashamed in this way, and limit their rashness to men, and not, going madder still, charge even the Savior with cowardice, having once practiced blaspheming against him! But no one will bear them in their madness; rather, they will be convicted of not understanding the Gospels either. For the reason for such withdrawal and flight is reasonable and true, which the evangelists have recorded as applying to the Savior himself. And from this we must reckon the same in the case of all the saints (for what is written humanly of the Savior ought to be referred to the common race of men; for he bore our body and showed human weakness): the reason which John wrote thus: “They sought to seize him, and no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” For before it came he himself said to his mother, “My hour has not yet come,” and to those who were called his brothers, “My time is not yet here.” And again, when the time had come, he said to the disciples, “Sleep now and take your rest; for see, the hour has drawn near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” [14] As God, then, and Word of the Father, he had no time; for he is himself the maker of times. But having become man and saying this, he shows that each man has a measured time; and a time not by chance, as some of the Greeks imagine in their myths, but one which he himself, being the maker, appointed for each as the Father willed. And this is written and has become plain to all; for though it is hidden, and all men do not know how much is measured to each and how, yet everyone whatsoever knows that, as there is a season of spring and summer, autumn and winter, so, as it is written, there is a time to die and a time to live. For this reason the time of the generation of Noah was cut short, and their years were shortened, as though the time of all had come; and to Hezekiah fifteen years were added. And as God promises to those who serve him truly, “I will fulfill the number of your days,” Abraham dies full of days, while David besought, saying, “Do not take me away in the midst of my days.” And Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, knowing this well, said, “You will come to the grave like ripe grain reaped in its season, or like a heap on the threshing floor gathered in at its hour”; and Solomon, confirming his word, says, “The souls of the lawless are taken away untimely.” Therefore he exhorts in Ecclesiastes, saying, “Do not be very wicked, and do not be harsh, lest you die before your time.” [15] And as these things are written, the passage shows that the saints knew that a time is measured to each. But that no one knows the end of his time is shown by David’s saying, “Declare to me the fewness of my days”; for what he did not know, he asked to learn. For this reason the rich man, thinking he would yet live a long time, heard, “Fool, this night they require your soul of you; and what you have prepared, whose will it be?” And the Preacher declares, confident in the Holy Spirit, and says, “Indeed man does not know his time.” For this reason too the patriarch Isaac said to his son Esau, “See, I have grown old, and I do not know the day of my death.” The Lord, then, though he was God and Word of the Father, and knew the time measured to all through himself, and knew the time he had appointed for his own body to suffer, yet, since he had become man for our sake, in the days before that time came he too, like us, hid when sought, fled when persecuted, and so passed through, avoiding the plots, and went through the midst of them. But when he had brought the time appointed by himself, in which he willed to suffer bodily for all, he addresses it to the Father, saying, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son.” And then he no longer hid from those who sought him, but stood, willing to be seized by them. For he said, it says, to those who came to him, “Whom do you seek?” and when they answered, “Jesus the Nazarene,” he said to them, “I am he whom you seek.” And this he did not once but a second time; and so they led him away to Pilate. Neither did he let himself be seized before the time came, nor did he hide when the time was present, but gave himself up to those who plotted against him, to show all that the life and death of men depend on the judgment from above, and that without the Fa…

The Lord, then, thus offered himself for all, as was said before; and the saints, having learned this pattern too from the Savior (for from him all were taught both before this and always), when contending against the persecutors fled lawfully, and when sought by them hid themselves. And not knowing, as men, the end of the time appointed for them by Providence, they did not wish simply to give themselves up to those who plotted against them; but knowing again what is written, that the lots of men are in the hands of God, and that the Lord kills and the Lord makes alive, they rather endured to the end, as the Apostle said, going about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, wandering in deserts, and hiding in caves and the holes of the earth, until either the appointed time of death should come, or God who appointed the time should speak to them and stop those who plotted, or else hand over the persecuted to the persecutors, as it seemed good to him. And this one may learn well from David concerning all: for when Joab provoked him against Saul, he himself said, “As the Lord lives, unless the Lord strikes him, or the day of his death comes, or he goes down to battle and is added to the enemy, I will not lay my hand on the Lord’s anointed.”

And if at any time, having fled, they came forward to those who sought them, they did not do even this simply; but when the Spirit spoke to them, they went to meet them, being dear to God, and so again showing their own obedience and readiness. Such was Elijah, who, hearing from the Spirit, showed himself to Ahab; and Micaiah the prophet, who came to Ahab himself; and the prophet who cried out against the altar in Samaria and rebuked Rehoboam; and Paul appealing to Caesar. For it was not from cowardice that they fled—God forbid!—but rather they held flight as a contest and a training against death. But they guarded these two things and took good counsel: that they should not give themselves up simply—for this was to kill oneself and become guilty of death, and to act against the Lord who says, “What God has joined, let no man separate”—nor be willing to bear the reproach of negligence, as though they had grown faint at the afflictions in flight, which involve a greater and more terrible toil than death. For he who has died has ceased from toil; but he who flees, expecting every day the attacks of his enemies, considers death the lighter thing; so that those also who were perfected in flight did not die ingloriously, but they too have the boast of martyrdom. For this reason Job was known as great in courage, since while living he endured toils so many and so great, of which he would have had no perception if he had died. For this reason the blessed Fathers themselves held such a course of life: when persecuted they were not cowardly, but rather showed the courage of their soul, shutting themselves up in stifling and dark places and leading a hard life; and again, when the time of death was present, they did not refuse it. For they took care neither to cower at it when present, nor to anticipate the judgment appointed by Providence, nor again to act against its ordering, for which they knew they were being kept; lest, acting rashly, they should bring terror on themselves; for “He who is rash with his lips will terrify himself.” [18] Certainly they were so prepared in the virtue of courage that not even an ordinary person could doubt it. For the patriarch Jacob, who earlier fled from Esau, did not fear death when it was present; rather, at that very time he blessed each of the patriarchs according to his worth. And the great Moses, who earlier hid from Pharaoh and because of him went abroad to Midian, when he heard, “Go to Egypt,” was not afraid; and again, when commanded to go up into the mountain of Abarim and die, he did not hold back in cowardice, but even set out for it gladly. And David, who earlier fled from Saul, did not fear to run danger in the wars on behalf of the people; and when he heard the choice between death and flight, though he might have fled and lived, the wise man rather chose death. And the great Elijah, who once hid from Jezebel, was not afraid when he heard from the Spirit that he should go to meet Ahab and rebuke Ahaziah. And Peter, who hid for fear of the Jews, and the apostle Paul, who was let down in a basket and fled, when they heard, “You must bear witness at Rome,” did not put off the journey, but rather went away rejoicing; and the one exulted at being slain, as hastening to his own, while the other did not cower at the time when it was present, but even boasted, saying, “For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure has come.”

These things show neither that their earlier flight came from cowardice, nor that their present action was an ordinary one; they proclaim the great virtue of their courage. For they did not take their withdrawal as an occasion for idleness, but then stretched the tension of their discipline even more; nor were they condemned for fleeing, nor accused of cowardice by such men as these fault-finders now are; but rather they were blessed by the Lord, who says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” Nor was such toil unprofitable to them; for, tested like gold in a furnace, as Wisdom said, God found them worthy of himself. And they then shone out all the more like sparks, saved from those who persecuted them, delivered from the plots, and for this reason kept for the people as teachers; so that their flight too, and their escape from the rage of those who sought them, came about by the Lord’s ordering. For then they became dear to God in this way too, and had the finest testimony of their valor.

The patriarch Jacob, at any rate, while fleeing was granted many visions, and divine ones; and, himself rather keeping quiet, he had the Lord on his side, rebuking Laban and hindering Esau; and afterwards he became the father of Judah, from whom the Lord sprang according to the flesh, and he ministered the blessings to the patriarchs. And Moses, beloved of God, when he fled, then saw the great vision, and, preserved from his persecutors, was sent as a prophet into Egypt, and, becoming the minister of so many signs and of the law, led so great a people in the wilderness. And David, while persecuted, taught: “My heart has poured forth a good word,” and, “Our God will come openly, our God, and will not keep silence.” And he was the stronger, saying, “My eye has looked upon my enemies,” and again, “In God I have hoped; I will not fear what man can do to me.” And fleeing and escaping from the presence of Saul into the cave, he said, “He sent from heaven and saved me; he gave over to reproach those who trampled on me. God sent forth his mercy and his truth, and delivered my soul from the midst of the lions’ whelps.” So he too, preserved by God’s ordering, afterwards became king, and received the promise that our Lord would spring from his seed. And the great Elijah, withdrawing to Mount Carmel, called upon God, and destroyed at once the prophets of Baal, who were four hundred and more; and the two captains of fifty with their hundred sent against him he rebuked by this too, saying, “Let fire come down from heaven”; and he himself was preserved, so as to anoint Elisha in his own place and to become a pattern of discipline for the sons of the prophets. And the blessed Paul, writing, “What persecutions I endured, and from them all the Lord delivered me, and will deliver,” was the stronger, saying, “But in all these things we are more than conquerors, for nothing will separate us from the love of Christ.” For it was then that he was caught up even to the third heaven, and carried into paradise, where he also heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man …

The flight of the saints, then, was neither blameworthy nor idle. For if they had not avoided their persecutors, how would it have come about that the Lord sprang from the seed of David? Or who would have preached the word of truth? For the persecutors sought the saints for this very reason, that there might be no one to teach—just as the Jews charged the apostles; but they endured everything for this reason, that the Gospel might be preached. See, then: even contending thus, they did not keep the time of flight idle, nor, when persecuted, did they forget the benefit of others; but, being ministers of a good word, they did not begrudge sharing it with all. Rather, even while fleeing they preached the Gospel, and foretold the villainies of those who plotted, and strengthened the faithful by their exhortations. The blessed Paul, then, having learned by experience, foretold, “All who wish to live godly in Christ will be persecuted,” and at once anointed those who flee, saying, “Through endurance we run the race set before us.” For even if afflictions are continual, yet affliction produces endurance, and endurance proven character, and proven character hope, and hope does not put to shame. And the prophet Isaiah, when such a crisis was expected, reminded them and cried: “Go, my people, enter your chambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a little while, until the wrath passes.” And the Preacher, knowing the plots against the godly, and saying, “If you see oppression of the poor and robbery of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for one high above the high watches, and there are higher over them, and the abundance of the land,” had his father David, who had himself learned by experience what happens in persecutions, and who strengthened the sufferers by saying, “Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord.” For those who endure thus, not man, but the Lord himself, it says, will help, and will deliver them, because they hoped in him. “For I too waited patiently for the Lord, and he attended to me and heard my prayer, and brought me up out of the lowest pit and from the miry clay.” The flight of the saints, then, is shown to be profitable to the people and not fruitless, even if the Arians do not think so.

So, then, the saints, as has been said, when they fled were preserved over and above, and by God’s ordering, like physicians for the sake of those in need. But for others, and for all of us men generally, this is the law: to flee when persecuted and to hide when sought, and not to be rash in tempting the Lord, but to wait, as I said before, until the appointed time of death comes, or the Judge decides something about them, whatever seems good to him; yet to be ready, so that when the time calls, and they are seized, they may contend for the truth even to death. This the blessed martyrs too observed in the successive persecutions: when persecuted they fled, and while hidden they persevered, but when found they bore witness. And if some of them came forward of themselves to the persecutors, they did not do even this simply; for they bore witness at once, and it became plain to all that their eagerness and their so great advance came from the Spirit.

Since, then, such are the Savior’s commands and such the deeds of the saints, let these men tell us—who deserve to hear worse than anything one could say of them—from where they learned to persecute. From the saints they could not say; but from the devil—for this is all that is left to them—who says, “I will pursue and overtake.” And the Lord commanded us to flee, and the saints fled; but persecuting is a devilish enterprise, and he asks for it against all. To whom, then, must we adhere? Let them say again: to the words of the Lord, or to their fables? Whose deeds must we imitate: the saints’, or whatever they devise? But since perhaps they cannot even discern these things (for they have been maimed in mind and conscience, as Isaiah said, and think the bitter sweet and light darkness), let some Christian among us come forward and put them to shame, saying with a loud voice, “It is good to trust in the Lord” rather than to heed the follies of these men. For the words of the Lord have eternal life, but what these men utter is full of villainy and blood.

These things, then, are enough to overturn the madness of the impious and to show that they are eager for nothing else but to contend in revilings and blasphemies. But since, having once dared to be fighters against Christ, they have become busybodies too, let them nevertheless examine the manner of my withdrawal, and learn it from their own people. For there were Arians who ran together with the soldiers to incite them and to point us out to those who did not know us. And though they are so without sympathy, yet let them at least be quiet with shame when they hear it. It was already night, and some of the people were keeping vigil, a synaxis being expected; and the general Syrianus suddenly came upon us with more than five thousand soldiers, having arms, drawn swords, bows, missiles, and clubs, as was said before; and he surrounded the church, stationing the soldiers close by, so that no one leaving the church could get past them. But I, thinking it unreasonable to abandon the people in such confusion and not rather to face the danger before them, sat down on the throne and told the deacon to read a psalm and the people to respond, “For his mercy endures forever,” and all then to withdraw and go home. But when the general had at last forced his way in, and the soldiers surrounded the sanctuary in order to seize us, the clergy who were found there and those of the people cried out and begged us too to withdraw now; but I rather refused, and said I would not withdraw before all of them, one by one, … had gone out. So I stood up, had a prayer said, and in turn asked that all should leave first, saying it was better that I should be in danger than that any of you should be harmed. When, then, most had gone out and the rest were following, the monks who were with us there and some of the clergy came up and drew us out; and so, the truth being witness, while some of the soldiers stood around the sanctuary and others went round the church, we passed through …

Since, then, Providence delivered us so wonderfully, who could justly bring blame on us because we did not give ourselves up to those who sought us, or turn back and show ourselves to them? For this would be plainly to be ungrateful to the Lord, to act against his commandment, and to fight against the deeds of the saints. Or let him who blames this dare to accuse the great apostle Peter too, because, though shut in and guarded by soldiers, he followed the angel who called him, and, having gone out of the prison and been saved, did not go back and give himself up, though he heard what Herod had done; let the Arian in his madness blame Paul the apostle, because, having been let down from the wall and saved, he did not repent and go back and give himself up; or Moses, because he did not return from Midian to Egypt to be seized by those who sought him; or David, because he did not show himself to Saul in the cave; and also the sons of the prophets, because they stayed in the caves and did not give themselves up to Ahab. For this would again be to act against the commandment, since Scripture says, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” [26] Being wary of this, then, and having learned these things, I too conducted myself so, and I do not set aside the grace and help that came to me from the Lord, even if these men in their madness gnash their teeth at us. For such was the manner of our withdrawal, and I think it has no blame at all with those whose reasoning is sound, since according to the divine Scripture this pattern was handed down to us by the saints for our instruction. But these men, it seems, neither shrink from anything outrageous nor wish to leave anything out that shows their wickedness and cruelty. For their life is such as they are in their thinking and their babbling; and no one could say such and so many things against them as they themselves do without shame. For Leontius, accused over a certain younger woman named Eustolium, and forbidden to live with her, castrated himself for her sake, so that he might be free to stay with her. Yet he did not wash away the suspicion, but rather for this reason, being a presbyter, he was deposed, even though Constantius the heretic forced him to be called bishop. And Narcissus, besides having many other evils, has been deposed three times in different councils, and now he is the most wicked among them. And George, both as a presbyter was deposed for his wickedness, and, having named himself bishop, was deposed again no less at the great council of Serdica; and he has something more, that his dissolute life did not escape notice; but he is condemned even by his own people, measuring the end of life and its cheerfulness by the most shameful things. [27] Each of them, then, surpasses the other in his own vices; but the common stain upon them is that in their heresy they are fighters against Christ, and are no longer called Christians but rather Arians. See, these are the things they ought to have been accused of; for they are foreign to faith in Christ. But these they hide for their own sakes; and it is no wonder if, being such in their thinking and entangled in such evils, they persecute and seek those who do not run with them in their most impious heresy; and they rejoice when they kill, but when they do not obtain what they pray for they grieve, and think themselves wronged when, as I said before, they see alive those whom they wish to die. May they be so wronged that they themselves grow weak in their injustices, and those persecuted by them give thanks to the Lord and say the words of the twenty-sixth psalm: “The Lord is my light and my Savior; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers drew near against me to eat my flesh, those who afflict me and my enemies, they grew weak and fell”; and again in the thirtieth psalm: “You have saved my soul out of distresses, and have not shut me up into the hands of enemies; you have set my feet in a broad place.” In Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom to the Father in the Holy Spirit … Amen.