Letters 111–125

To Modestus the prefect. Otherwise I would not have dared to trouble your greatness, knowing how to measure myself and to recognize authorities; but since I saw a friend in anguish at having been summoned, I ventured to give him this letter, so that, holding it out as a suppliant's branch, he might meet with some humanity. Surely, even if we are worth nothing, moderation itself is enough to move the most humane of prefects and to win pardon for us, so that, if the man has done no wrong, he may be saved for the sake of the truth itself, and if he has erred, he may be forgiven for the sake of us who supplicate. What the state of affairs here is, who knows better than you, who look upon the weak points in each person and hold all things together by your wonderful forethought?

To Andronicus, a general. 1. If I were in such health as to be able easily to endure journeys and bear the hardships of winter, I would not be writing, but would be going myself to your magnanimity, for two reasons: first, to pay the debt of an old promise (for I know that I agreed to come to Sebasteia and to enjoy your perfection; which I did, but I missed the meeting, arriving a little after your excellency); and second, to fulfil in person the embassy which until now I had hesitated to send, judging myself too small to obtain such a favour, and at the same time reckoning that no one, speaking for anyone, could persuade either a ruler or a private person by letter as well as by being present himself, partly clearing away the charges, partly entreating, and partly begging pardon for others; none of which could easily be done by letter. Setting against all these things one thing, you, the divine head, and that it will be enough to show you the opinion we hold about the matter, while you will add the rest of yourself, I did not shrink from the undertaking. … the future; and I would pray that they may count this too among the other good qualities that are yours. I hesitate to stop writing, thinking that anything left out will bring me loss. This much, however, I will add: that although he has letters from many who plead for him, he thought ours more valuable than all, having learned, I do not know where, that we have some standing with your perfection. So that he may not be cheated of the hopes he placed in us, and that we may be able to hold our heads high before the people here, be entreated, unsurpassed master, to nod assent to the request. Surely you have looked into human affairs no worse than any who ever practised philosophy, and you know what a fine treasure is laid up beforehand for all who serve those in need.

To the presbyters at Tarsus. On meeting this man, I gave great thanks to the holy God, because he both comforted me in many afflictions through his presence and clearly showed me your love through him. For in the intention of this one man I learned the zeal of almost all of you for the truth. What we discussed privately with each other he will report to you himself; but what your love ought to learn from me is this. The present time has a strong tendency toward the overthrow of the churches, and we have been observing this for a long time now. Building up of the church, correction of faults, sympathy toward the weak, and protection for the healthy among the brothers: there is not one. There is no help either to cure the disease that has already taken hold or to guard against the one expected. In short, the state of the church now resembles (to use a vivid example, even if it seems rather homely) an old garment, easily torn on any chance occasion, which cannot return again to its original strength. At such a time, then, there is need of great zeal and much care that the churches may receive some benefit. And it is a benefit that what has hitherto been torn apart should be united. Union would come about if we were willing to accommodate ourselves to the weaker in matters in which we do no harm to souls. Since, then, many mouths have been opened against the Holy Spirit, and many tongues have been sharpened for blasphemy against him, we ask you, as far as lies in you, to reduce the blasphemers to a small number, and to receive into communion those who do not say that the Holy Spirit is a creature, so that the blasphemers may be left alone and either be put to shame and return to the truth, or, persisting in their sin, be of no account because of their fewness. Let us then seek nothing more, but propose to the brothers who wish to join us the faith of Nicaea; and if they assent to it, let us ask also that the Holy Spirit must not be called a creature, and that those who say so must not be in communion with them. Beyond this I think nothing should be required by us. For I am persuaded that through longer life together and exercise together without contention, if anything more needs to be added for clarification, the Lord will give it, who works all things together for good for those who love him.

To those at Tarsus with Cyriacus. How great the good of peace is, what need is there to say to men who are sons of peace? Since, then, this great and wonderful thing, so earnestly sought by all who love the Lord, is now in danger of being reduced to a bare name, because lawlessness has multiplied and love has now grown cold in the many, I think it fitting that those who serve the Lord genuinely and truly should have this one concern: to bring back to unity the churches that have been cut off from one another in many parts and in many ways. In attempting this myself I could not justly be accused of meddling. For nothing is so characteristic of a Christian as making peace; therefore the Lord has promised us a very great reward for it. Having met the brothers, then, and seen their great brotherly love and affection toward you, and still much more their love of Christ and their exactness and vigour about the faith, and that they are very eager for both things, not to be separated from your love and not to betray the sound faith, I welcomed their good intention, and I write to your reverence, urging you to hold them united to you genuinely with all love, as partners in all the church's care. For I have assured them too of your orthodoxy, that you also, by the grace of God, stand ready in zeal for the truth for everything one may have to suffer for the word of truth. And the terms which, as I persuade myself, are neither contrary to you and are sufficient to satisfy the aforementioned brothers are these: that you confess the faith set forth by our fathers who once assembled at Nicaea, and reject none of the expressions there, but know that the three hundred and eighteen, meeting without contention, did not speak without the working of the Holy Spirit; and that you add to that faith that the Holy Spirit must not be called a creature, and also that you not be in communion with those who say so, so that the church of God may be pure, having no tares mixed in with it. When this assurance has been set before them by your kindness, they too are ready to show you fitting submission. For I myself guarantee for the brothers' part that they will contradict you in nothing, but will show you every excess of good order, once this one thing that they ask of your perfection has been readily granted. [Letter 115] … distributing these things. For my account is not as you suppose, but as God knows how to judge. And if there is need of witnesses, slaves will not stand up, nor the dishonoured and utterly ruinous race of eunuchs, yes, precisely that: unwomanly, unmanly, mad for women, envious, ill-paid, quick-tempered, effeminate, slaves of the belly, mad for gold, harsh, wailing over their dinner, fickle, ungenerous, taking everything, insatiable, raving, and jealous; and what more is there to say? Condemned to the knife at their very birth. How then can their judgment be straight, whose very feet are crooked? They are chaste without reward, because of the knife, and they rage with lust without fruit, because of their own foulness. Not these will stand as witnesses at the judgment, but the eyes of the righteous and the sight of perfect men, all who will then see with their eyes what they now see with understanding.

To Firminus. Your letters are both rare and short, either because you shrink from writing, or because you are contriving to avoid the satiety that comes from abundance, or perhaps because you are training yourself in brevity. For us, however, nothing is enough; even if a letter were overflowing in length, it would be less than our desire, because we want to learn everything about you: how your body is, how your discipline goes, whether you are holding to what you decided from the first, or have changed your plan somewhat, shifting your mind according to circumstances. If you had remained the same, we would not seek a multitude of letters; this much would suffice for us: 'So-and-so to so-and-so: know that we are well; farewell.' But since we hear what we are ashamed even to say, that you have left the ranks of your blessed forebears, deserted to your paternal grandfather, and are eager to become a Brettanius instead of a Firminus, we want to hear about these very things and learn the reasons by which you were led onto this road of life. But since you yourself have kept silent out of shame at your plan, we urge you not to plan things worthy of shame; and if anything has crept into your mind, drive it out of your thoughts, become yourself again, and, bidding a long farewell to military service and arms and the hardships of the camp, return to your homeland, considering it enough for safety of life and for all distinction to hold the leading place in the city like your ancestors; which we are confident you will attain without toil, looking both to your natural fitness and to the lack of rivals. Whether, then, the intention never arose from the beginning, or having arisen has been laid aside again, let us know quickly; but if (may it not be so) the same plans remain, let the misfortune come to us announcing itself; we need no letters.

Without address, on the ascetic life. I think that I am in debt to your honour in other ways too, and the present concern in which we are engaged necessarily makes us answerable for services in such matters, even if those who give the orders were ordinary people, much more you, who are joined to us by many other just claims. As for bringing the past under examination, there is no need; one may say that we ourselves became the cause of our troubles, having contentiously withdrawn from that good discipline which alone leads to salvation; and perhaps that is why we were handed over to this trouble as a trial. But those things have happened and have been thought worth remembering, so that we may not fall a second time into the like. As for what follows, I very much want your reverence to be fully assured that, God permitting, it will go very easily for us, since the matter is lawful and has nothing burdensome in it, and many of our friends who are in the army are readily doing us favours. A petition will therefore be drawn up by us on the model of the petition presented to the vicar; and if there is no delay, we will send it off at once, giving you the security that the document brings. I am persuaded that in such matters our resolve has more force than imperial orders; if we show it unchanging and unbending from the prime of life, it will be kept for us unassailable and inviolable by the help of God … [Letter 118] To Jovinus, bishop of Perrha. I hold you as debtor of a good debt. For I lent you a debt of love, which I must get back with interest, since our Lord too does not refuse that kind of interest. Pay it, then, dear head, by visiting our country. This is the principal itself. What is the addition? That the one who comes is you, a man as much better than us as fathers are better than children.

To Eustathius, bishop of Sebasteia. Through my most revered and pious brother Peter too I greet your love, and beg you, as on every occasion, so now also to pray for me, that I may be changed from this deplorable and harmful way of life and may at last become worthy of the name of Christ. Surely, even if I say nothing, you will speak with each other about our affairs, and he will inform you exactly of what has been done, so that you may not accept untested the wicked suspicions against us which those are likely to fabricate who have insulted us against both the fear of God and the opinion of men. For what the noble Basil, whom I received from your reverence as a safeguard of my life, has shown toward us, I am ashamed even to say; but you will know the details, learning them from our brother. And I say this not to avenge myself on him (for I pray that it be not reckoned against him by the Lord), but to make sure that your love may remain firm toward me, which I fear they may shake by the excess of their slanders, which they are likely to fabricate in defence of their fault. Whatever they accuse us of, let your sagacity examine them on this: whether they ever made a complaint to us, whether they sought correction of the fault they now charge us with, whether they made their grievance against us plain at all. But as it is, hiding in their soul an untold depth of deceit and bitterness under a bright face and feigned words of love, they have revealed it by their ignoble flight. How much grief they have caused us, and how much laughter to those in this wretched city who always loathe the devout life and maintain that the pretence of chastity is practised as an art to win credit and a disguise for deceit, is surely known to your intelligence, even if we do not tell it; so that to people here no pursuit is now so suspect of wickedness as the profession of the ascetic life. How this ought to be remedied would be for your intelligence to consider. For the charges stitched together against us by Sophronius are no prelude to good things, but the beginning of division and separation, and an effort to make the love among us also grow cold. We beg that he be restrained by your compassion from this harmful impulse, and that he try by his own love rather to bind fast what is coming apart, and not join those bent on division in widening the separation.

… the memorandum to your piety, so that, having read it, and having attended to what is reported by our most beloved brother Sanctissimus the fellow presbyter, you may yourself deign to draw up something about these matters as seems right to you; we are ready both to agree to it and quickly to have it carried round to those in communion, so that the one who is about to set out to the bishops of the West may go off with the signatures of all. Order that what your holiness decides be made known to us quickly, so that we may not be ignorant of your decisions. Concerning what is being plotted, or has already been contrived, against us in Antioch, the same brother will report to your honour, unless the report of what has happened arrives first and makes the deeds known. For the hope of the outcome of the threats is near. I want your piety to know that our brother Anthimus has ordained as bishop Faustus, who is with Papas, without even receiving votes, and ordained him in the place of the most reverend brother Cyril, so as to fill Armenia with factions. So that they may not tell lies about us, and that we may not ourselves bear the blame for the disorder of what has happened, I have made these things known to your reverence. Plainly you will yourself deign to make them known to the rest; for I think this disorder will grieve many.

To Theodotus, bishop of Nicopolis. The winter is severe and drawn out to great length, so that not even the comfort of letters is easily available to us. Hence I know that I have seldom written to your reverence or received letters. But since our most beloved brother Sanctissimus the fellow presbyter has undertaken the journey as far as you, through him I greet your decorum and beg you to pray for me, and to lend your ear to the aforementioned, so as to learn from him in what state the churches are, and to contribute what zeal you can to the matters before you. Know that Faustus came to us with letters from Papas, asking that he be made bishop. But when we asked for a testimony from your reverence and the other bishops, he despised us and went off to Anthimus, and having received ordination from him without our being consulted, came back.

To Poemenius, bishop of Satala. Surely you asked the Armenians for letters when they came back by way of you, and learned the reason why I did not give them the letter. If they told it truthfully, you will have pardoned us on the spot; but if they concealed it, which I do not suppose, then hear it from us. Anthimus, noble in everything, who after a long time had made peace with us, when he found an opportunity both to satisfy his own vainglory and to cause us some pain, ordained Faustus on his own authority and with his own hand, waiting for the vote of none of you and laughing at us for being exact about such things. Since, then, he has upset an ancient good order and despised you too, from whom I was waiting to receive the testimony, and has done a thing which I doubt is pleasing to God, I was grieved with them on this account and gave no letter to any of the Armenians, not even to your reverence. Nor did I receive Faustus into communion, openly protesting that unless he brought me letters from you, I would myself remain estranged from him for all time, and would dispose those of one mind with me to hold the same attitude toward him. If, then, what has happened is curable, be eager both to write yourself, testifying for him if you see that the man's life is good, and to urge the others to do so; but if it is incurable, make this too plain to me, so that I may no longer pay attention to them at all; even though, as they have shown, they are now set on transferring their communion to Anthimus, despising us and this church as stale for friendship.

To Urbicius the monk. You were about to be with us (and the good thing was near), to cool us at least with the tip of a finger as we burn in temptations. Then what? Our sins stood in the way and prevented your setting out, so that we suffer without cure. For as among the waves one subsides, another rises, and another is already dark with ripples, so of our evils some have ceased, some are present, and some are expected; and for the most part our one release from evils is to yield to the time and slip away from those who pursue us. But come to us, to comfort us, or to give us counsel, or to escort us on our way; in any case you will make us easier just by being seen. And, most important, pray and pray more, that our thoughts too may not be swamped by the evil and the surge, but that in all things we may keep our thankfulness to God, so that we may not be numbered among the bad servants, confessing him when he does good, but not holding to him when he corrects us by adversity; rather, let us profit even by the hardships themselves, trusting more when we need him more.

To Theodorus. Some say that those who have been caught by the passion of love, when by some stronger necessity they are taken away from the objects of their desire, if they look at the image of the beloved form, relieve the violence of their passion by the enjoyment of the eyes. Whether this is true or not, I cannot say; but what has happened to me with your goodness is not far from what has been said. For since I have a certain disposition toward your holy and guileless soul that is, so to speak, a lover's, and the enjoyment of what we long for, like no other good thing, is not easily ours because of the penalty of our sins, I thought that I saw a most vivid image of your goodness in the presence of our most devout brothers. And if it had happened that I met your sincerity apart from them, I would have reckoned that I had seen them also in you; for the measure of love, I say, is so great in each of you that a rivalry for the greater share appears equally in each. For this I gave thanks to the holy God, and I pray that, if any time of life still remains, my life may become sweet through you; since for now I count living a wretched thing and one to be shunned, being separated from the company of those dearest to me. For in my judgment there is nothing at which one could be cheerful when parted from those who truly love.

A copy of the faith dictated by the most holy Basil, to which Eustathius, bishop of Sebasteia, subscribed. 1. Those who have previously been committed to another confession of faith and wish to change over to the fellowship of the orthodox, or who now for the first time desire to be instructed in the word of truth, must be taught the faith written by the blessed fathers in the synod once assembled at Nicaea. This same thing would also be useful toward those who are suspected of being opposed to sound teaching and who overshadow the thought of their wrong belief with plausible evasions. For the faith set out there is sufficient for these too. For either they will correct their hidden disease, or, covering it up in the depth, they will themselves bear the judgment of their deceit, and will make our defence light for us on the day of judgment, when the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts. It is fitting, then, to receive them confessing that they believe according to the words set forth by our fathers at Nicaea and according to the meaning soundly expressed by these words. For there are some who even in this faith falsify the word of truth and drag the sense of its words to their own will. Thus Marcellus, in his impiety against the hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ, explaining him as a mere word, dared to claim that he had taken his starting points from there, wrongly interpreting the meaning of 'of the same essence'. And some of those who come from the impiety of Sabellius the Libyan, supposing that hypostasis and essence are the same thing, draw from there their pretexts for building up their blasphemy, from the fact that it is written in the faith: 'If anyone says that the Son is from another essence or hypostasis, the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes him.' For they did not say there that essence and hypostasis are the same. For if the words indicated one and the same notion, what need was there of both? But it is clear that, since some denied that he is from the essence of the Father, and others said that he is not from the essence but from some other hypostasis, they forbade both as alien to the church's mind. For where they set out their own mind, they said that the Son is from the essence of the Father, without adding 'from the hypostasis' as well. So the former phrase stands for the rejection of the wicked mind, while the latter contains the declaration of the saving doctrine. We must therefore confess the Son of the same essence as the Father, as it is written; and confess the Father in his own hypostasis, the Son in his own, and the Holy Spirit in his own, as they themselves have clearly handed down. For by saying 'light from light' they sufficiently and clearly showed that the light which begot is one and the light begotten another, yet light and light; so that the principle of the essence is one and the same. Let the faith composed at Nicaea itself now be added by us. 2. '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 from the Father as only-begotten, that is, from the essence of the Father; God from God, light from light, true God from true God; begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father; through whom all things came into being, the things in heaven and the things on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down, and was made flesh, became man, suffered, rose on the third day, ascended into the heavens, and comes to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. But those who say "There was once when he was not," and "Before he was begotten he was not," and that "he came into being from things that are not," or who claim that the Son of God is from another hypostasis or essence, or changeable or alterable, these the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes.' 3. Since, then, everything else here has been defined sufficiently and exactly, some things for the correction of what had been damaged and others as a precaution against what was expected to spring up, while the doctrine of the Spirit is set down in passing and was not thought to need any elaboration, because this question had not yet been raised at that time and the understanding of him in the souls of believers was unassailed; but since the wicked seeds of impiety, sown earlier by Arius the champion of the heresy and later nourished by those who wickedly succeeded to his views, have little by little grown to the ruin of the churches, and the sequence of impiety has broken out into blasphemy against the Spirit: it is necessary to put this before those who do not spare themselves and do not foresee the inescapable threat which our Lord held over those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, that they must anathematize those who call the Holy Spirit a creature, and those who think so, and those who do not confess that he is holy by nature, as the Father is holy by nature and the Son is holy by nature, but estrange him from the divine and blessed nature. And the proof of right thinking is not to separate him from Father and Son (for we must be baptized as we have received, believe as we are baptized, and glorify as we have believed, Father and Son and Holy Spirit), and to withdraw from the communion of those who call him a creature, as plainly blaspheming; this point being agreed (for the remark is necessary because of the slanderers), that we neither call the Holy Spirit unbegotten, for we know one unbegotten and one principle of beings, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; nor begotten, for we have been taught one only-begotten in the tradition of the faith; but, having been taught that the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, we confess that he is from God, without being created. They must also anathematize those who call the Holy Spirit ministering, as bringing him down by this word to the rank of a creature. For Scripture has handed down to us that the ministering spirits are creatures, saying: 'They are all ministering spirits sent out for service.' And because of those who confuse everything and do not keep the teaching in the Gospels, it is necessary to define this further: that one must also shun those who change the order which the Lord handed down to us, as plainly fighting against godliness, placing the Son before the Father and putting the Holy Spirit before the Son. For it is fitting to keep unmoved and untouched the order which we received from the very voice of the Lord, who said: 'Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' Signature of bishop Eustathius: I, Eustathius, bishop, have read this to you, Basil, and have understood it, and I have assented to what is written above. I signed in the presence of our brothers, our Fronto, Severus the chorepiscopus, and some other clerics.