Letters 2.6–2.46

To Eustathius the presbyter. [On patience.] Whoever wishes to win a brilliant victory must not only bear insult and injury nobly, but also give the wrongdoer more than he wants to take, and surpass the bounds of that man's evil desire by the abundance of his own generosity. If this seems paradoxical to you, we will bring the verdict from heaven and read this law from there. For the Saviour did not say, "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, bear it nobly and keep quiet"; some who shone in philosophy and lived by the natural law achieved this even without precepts. But he added that one should hold out the other cheek too to the striker, ready for the blow. This is the brilliant victory: the one is philosophical; this is supernatural and heavenly.

To Athanasius. [On chastity.] Whoever has beheld the admirable and surpassingly fair beauty of chastity and has not been overcome by its love-charm, let him be recorded, with me as judge, as no lover of beautiful things. [Letter 2.8] [On virgins.] Not by bodily purity only, wise friend, but also by freedom from worldly cares does the divine Paul define virginity.

To Joseph the presbyter. [On virtue.] With all your strength, excellent friend, you must practise virtue, and not think it enough to seem to practise it. [Letter 2.10] To Chaeremon, Anatolius, Gothius, and Ron. [To ascetics.] Since your life has become a subject of ever-flowing tears to the saints, as they consider why, while claiming to be Christians, you live an Epicurean life, leaving no deed of licentiousness undone and no shameful word unspoken, I have written to admonish you, so that, changing your minds, you may free yourselves from shame and reproach and from the coming impartial judgment, the saints from their grief over you, and the Church from a stain hard to wash out. [Letter 2.11] To Strategius, newly appointed bishop …

[Letter 2.11, continued: To Strategius, newly appointed bishop.] Know, most honoured friend, that in all of life, but especially now as you step within the bounds of what seems to be a position of rule but is in fact a ministry, you ought to chastise your own desires, so as to be overcome by none of the faults found among those under you. For it is most shameful if, wishing to give orders to those you govern, you are caught unable even to govern yourself. [Letter 2.12] You know, most renowned friend, that vice has a pleasure that is deadly, while virtue has a toil that is also glorious (for good repute is watered pleasantly with sweat). One must therefore flee the one and cling fast to the other.

To Eutonius the deacon. Those who live with virtue differ from those who have no share in it as much as men differ from beasts, and angels from men. Indeed they walk through the marketplace like lights suddenly appearing in darkness, turning the eyes of everyone else toward themselves. Since you are one of them, hold fast to the possession.

To Hierius. The genuine lovers of virtue both set their cities upright while they live in the body and, when they have laid it aside, leave behind a goad of longing. So their tombs are famous, their families held in honour, and their memory unbroken. Rightly so, for they acquired virtue, which death by its nature cannot touch. And if you were also of one mind with us in belief about God, I would have given you still stronger wings for the love of virtue by reminding you of the glory to come.

To Serapion the corrector. You know that nothing makes a man so glorious among men and so approved by God as being able to do what he wills and yet always both willing and doing what is humane. Since, then, you have the power in your office, let humanity be mixed with it, so that you may be celebrated even after your office ends. But if you indulge your anger and misuse your authority, you will put out your own fame and carry off a name for savagery. For to grant pardon to those who stumble is divine; to punish on the spot without mercy is beastly and snakelike. Who, then, passing by the imitation of God, would wish to become like the creatures that crawl on the ground? No one, unless he despises both the fear of God and the good opinion of men.

To Maron. The physician Hippocrates advised against taking in hand those already overcome by disease. Some, obeying him, have given you up as altogether past feeling, or rather as dead, and they mock us who urge you to repentance, as if we were trying to wash an Ethiopian white. But I, hearing of many changes in people that have happened, seeing them happen, and expecting them to happen, thought it right to rouse and direct you, nourished by good hope. And if (may it not happen) I should fail, I will at least gain this, that I need not blame myself, and I will not be harsher than those who sail the sea: whenever they see someone fallen from the ship, they lower the sails and try to haul him up. If he does not wish to be saved, no one will blame them as unwilling to save. Lift your head, then, out of the depth of wickedness; stop your licentiousness; consider how perishable the life here is, and the inexorable punishment there. Why do you spend your time in vain, or rather for evil? Consider that, having one soul, you have defiled it with all the shameful passions. Free yourself from wickedness, shame, mockery, and punishment; the Church from pollution; the altar from stain; the one who ordained you from accusations; us from grief; and the saints from ever-flowing tears. [Letter 2.17] Hope in God is an unbreakable tower, promising not only release from troubles but also not allowing one to be disturbed while they are present. For whoever has been freed from human things and has hung himself on the hope from above not only brings on the swiftest release from troubles, but is not even troubled or disturbed while they are present, held upright by the expectation of that sacred anchor. Use it, then, and you will be above all that grieves. [Letter 2.18] Deign to put the finishing touch to the matter concerning the most God-fearing Hesychius, so that you may be celebrated and I greatly pleased, and he may again proclaim all your deeds; for he is a man who knows how to be grateful.

To Eutocius the deacon. That not needing many things is agreed to be a very great good is clear. That to be above and superior to the need of the things that exist would be a much greater happiness is also agreed. Let us, then, care most of all for the soul, for the body as much as is necessary, and for outward things not even that much. For so, even here, we may reach the highest blessedness, which is in labour with the kingdom of heaven itself. If to some who hear this it does not seem true, it seems so to me. For I am not so eager that what I say should seem true to my hearers (unless as a side matter) as that it should seem true to me.

To Maron. You seem not to know how much gladness the life free from affairs holds; and perhaps not you alone, but also those who have chosen the same life as you, since they have never tasted it purely. Stop, then, not only meddling and slandering, but also gathering slanderers together. For, having fallen into insensibility, you are in danger of cherishing vice and trampling virtue in the mud.

To Hermogenes the bishop. Your Godliness, I learn, has made a grave complaint against us before certain friends, that I ought to have come with more outspoken letters (since kind admonitions achieved nothing), able to correct Eusebius the bishop even against his will. Know, then, holy head (for I must make my defence), that I have tried every way of healing, as far as I could, both the gentler and the harsher, and have left out nothing that ought to have dislodged the disease; and I have not been able, since the affliction proved stronger than the remedies and had fallen into insensibility. One ought not to make public what deserves oblivion and deep silence; yet I disclose a few of the things written to him privately and with frankness, so that you may know that he despised this means too, and may stop blaming us. I wrote him much that was needed; I write here only a few things worthy of tears, cutting short most of them for fear of seeming long-winded. "The whole city," I wrote, "telling in tragic tones your notorious dramas, says: Why do you sell ordinations? Why do you drink away the priesthood? Why do you peddle what is divine? Why do you defile the sanctuaries? Why do you make money by appropriating what belongs to the poor? Why, on the threshold of old age, do you make innovations in wrongdoing? Why did you not remain a ruler, but were caught being ruled by vice? Know, then, that you will pay a greater penalty, because you yourself have done what you were appointed to prevent others from doing."

To Maron. I would gladly learn from you why your war against virtue is without truce or herald. If you admire Epicurus and paint your own life with your eyes on him, why do you pretend to be a Christian? But if you wish to bear the name of Christian, why do you live an Epicurean life?

To Eutocius the deacon. Pure and exact freedom is to need nothing at all; and this, being above human nature, must be counted divine. Next after it is to need few things, which is both possible and attainable for human beings. Let us, then, cherish this, since the first is for now beyond our reach.

To Olympius the deacon. [On the saying, "In the world you will have tribulation."] You know that toils and contests bring forth an unspeakable and unending gladness, and that labours are nothing compared with the greatness of the glory born of virtue. How, then, knowing this, did you seek to learn what "You will have tribulation in this world" means? For it is clear that the present life is the stadium of contests and struggles, and the life to come that of crowns and prizes.

To Ausonius the corrector. Having learned that your Magnanimity has been petitioned by the whole city, I thought it wrong to have no share in such a petition, since I am perhaps the first and only one who ought to care that it be granted. As for its having come to this late (for I must make a defence on the city's behalf), the cause is the attitude of the governors who do not readily heed it. Because of those who rule cruelly and inhumanely, and do not mix humanity with their integrity, the city has at last grown numb about constantly bringing petitions even to those who, like you in your understanding, rule lawfully and humanely and do good of their own accord. So much for that. Deign to put the people's petition into effect. For as we know that the man who is detained has met with difficulties because of your Magnificence, so we know that he can be helped if he obtains your favour.

To Orion the deacon. Disciples should love those who are truly their teachers as fathers and fear them as rulers, neither loosening fear through love nor dimming love through fear. [Letter 2.27] If you love salvation, do everything that leads to it. For the mark of one who desires something to come about is not … but to do everything so that it may come about.

To Zosimus the presbyter, and Anatolius and Maron the deacons. If moderation befits the lovers of virtue (for it adorns and brightens their other excellences too), it is clear that humility profits sinners. For on what ground would they think highly of themselves, enduring laughter and shame here and awaiting judgment and punishment there? The righteous have their good deeds as grounds for boasting; but sinners, on account of what deeds could they ever be puffed up? Which of your deeds, then, is not enough to humble you and pull down your pride? So many are the offences charged against you, they say, that not even one of the common people is ignorant of them; so are they mocked throughout the whole city and noised abroad. And if, doing such things, you are both proud and arm yourselves against the earnest, contriving to cut short their course of virtue, see where the evil ends. For if pride in his good deeds harmed the Pharisee who prided himself on virtue (Scripture describes him not as lying, but as boastful), how will pride in your failings not harm you, who are not even like the tax collector but, as they say, far worse than he, and bring you down to utter destruction? Sober up, then, from such drunkenness, and above all be eager not to do wrong; for so you may advance on the road to doing right. But if you have decided, which I do not believe, to wallow in your sins to the end, do not cure evil with evil, arming yourselves against those against whom it is not lawful, and exalting yourselves over those over whom you should least of all.

To the same. Those who neither fear judgment nor love the kingdom, but anoint themselves for cruelty and inhumanity (some rank you as their leaders, bringing this verdict from what you openly do), would do well to consider what is both reasonable and consistent, as I persuade myself; and let it be judged by the verdict of those who read it too. Whatever they do not choose to suffer for God's sake they must endure in any case. If they die for God, they will be immortal and incorruptible. And if they do not give their money to the needy for his sake, they will not go off there with it. He asks of them here what they will in any case leave behind even if he does not ask, because they are mortal and perishable. He wishes them to do by choice what they must do by necessity anyway. He asks only this much to be added: that it be done for his sake, since the thing itself will in any case happen by the nature of things. Therefore the sensible should choose to suffer for his sake what they must in any case suffer. For if this is added, it will hold sufficient obedience and will surpass the labours by the rewards.

To Athanasius. If you love the kingdom, why do you not despise money? And if you lay claim to the divine reward, why do you not stop hunting the human one?

To Apollonius the bishop. Now with this letter, as with a prelude, we feast our longing, which leaps with divine gladness and presses on toward the sight of you, yet cannot rest until the time to come unless, having gained some comfort from this letter, it seems already to lay down from here a firm hope, I mean the expectation of the coming festival. Hasten, then, as fast as you can, bringing forth a feast for us by your presence.

To Heraclius the bishop. The greater and more important the affairs you were ordained to manage, the more sleepless and clear-sighted you must be, so that you may not slip in divine undertakings and bring on yourself a heavier indictment. For the charge against one who fails in the greatest things must be as great as the reward of one who keeps his ministry blameless.

To Ischyrion the presbyter. I greatly praised your Godliness for honouring your father's judgment and for giving the vote for the best counsel to the one whose lot it is to lead.

To Dionysius. [On forgetfulness.] Forgetfulness is not outside human weakness; yet it happens like other diseases. It comes upon souls from which memory has departed, but it flees and is gone when someone defeats it with the weapons of memory. Since, then, while you were with us you had an unforgetting memory of virtue, but since leaving have given yourself up to forgetfulness, as we hear, we thought it necessary to shoot it down with a letter, so as to bring back the vanished memory. Let forgetfulness go over the cliffs, then, so that the grace of memory may shine out again.

To Macarius the bishop. Each of the unfortunate deserves pity and compassion while he bewails his own misfortunes. But if he turns to slandering and abusing others, he loses, as you know, even the pity due to his misfortunes; for he is judged no longer worthy of compassion but of hatred, since he uses his misfortune for meddling. Since, then, the seeds of meddling must be cut out as they begin, before they spring up, grow uncontrollable, and bring danger on the one who started them (for the man who is slandered is celebrated by all for his goodness), deign to summon the man drunk with misfortune and persuade him to keep away from a celebrated man. [Letter 2.36] To Peter. Since you wrote, "What is meant by 'They shall beat their swords into ploughs'?", I think, or rather I am persuaded, that this was clearly prophesied: the plough of peace, I mean the divine preaching about Christ, will tame warlike lands, and their weapons of wickedness will be refashioned into the useful tools of farming. [Letter 2.37] Since, scandalized, as you wrote, by the life of Zosimus the presbyter, you think that those baptized by him are harmed in what is vital and most necessary, I thought it right to reply as quickly as possible that the one being initiated is not harmed at all with respect to the saving symbols if the priest does not live well. He himself will certainly (for I must affirm it) enjoy those divine benefits that are beyond words, while the priest will render a harsher account of his own life, and his punishment will be increased as much as the honour he received. For one who did not become good even when honoured with the priesthood would rightly deserve greater punishment. Let none of those initiated into that divine rite, which opens the heavens to the initiated, worry that he is harmed by it with respect to the tokens of salvation; nor, whenever he stumbles, let him think the priest's life a plausible excuse. I say this not as though all priests were like this, God forbid (for if these charges attach to some, they are absent from others; and if some lack good deeds, not all lack them), but wishing to show that even if all were like this, the one being enlightened is not harmed at all. If you think these are human reasonings, I will try to convince you from the divine oracles. What was more abominable than Balaam? Yet God used his tongue for blessings. What than Caiaphas? Yet he prophesied, and grace touched his tongue but did not touch his mind. And if you wish to learn something still more paradoxical, God fed Elijah, who ran his course up to heaven, by a raven, an unclean bird. Do not doubt, then, whether the divine and supernatural gifts are given through some sinful priests (for one ought not to condemn all, nor is it just).

To Zosimus. I greatly wonder how, neither driven by any example nor likely to have anyone to imitate you (for may no one fall into so deep a pit, and may you too come up out of this deadly drunkenness), you slander priests who flourish in virtues and abound in spiritual achievements, thinking that the ridicule of others is a defence of your own conduct. But it is not so, excellent friend, it is not. Rather, among men you incur laughter and condemnation, and from God you will undergo many punishments: because you embraced vice, because you dishonoured virtue, because you slandered those whom virtue has nourished, and because, raging drunkenly against the priesthood, you insulted it, so that most people, not to say all, scandalized by you, think that they have been harmed with respect to the symbols of salvation. So that you may be freed from all these evils (for I pray that you may), know yourself.

To Arabianus the bishop. [On what sort of priest is best.] Think that you must not only be above blame but also full of praise; for the first belongs even to ordinary people, the second to those at the summit of virtue.

To Eudaemon the deacon. [On self-sufficiency.] Since our nature has very many necessities, and the greatest is that of the belly (for it gives us many orders and is least willing to be persuaded by reason), let us cut back its tyranny by reasoning and contrive to subdue what seems unsubduable. This will happen if we serve necessity with what it needs and punish excess with self-sufficiency.

To Zosimus. [On judgment.] It is not toward escaping punishment, excellent friend, but toward paying a harsher one, unless you change your mind and fight back against all your defeats, that your not yet having paid it will turn out for you. [Letter 2.42] That not only others (for perhaps that is a small thing for most people), but even Libanius himself, celebrated by all for his eloquence, was struck with amazement at the tongue of the celebrated John, the beauty of his thoughts and the density of his arguments, is proved by the letter in which he calls blessed not only John, for being able to speak so, but also those whom he praised, and these were emperors, for having found such a praiser. It is this: "Libanius to John. Having received your long and fine speech, I read it to men who are themselves craftsmen of words, and there was not one of them who did not leap up and shout and do everything that people do when they are struck with amazement. I was glad, then, that to showing your art in the law courts you add display speeches, and I call you blessed for being able to praise so, and those who found such a praiser: the father who gave the kingdom and the sons who received it." So Libanius wrote. And Plutarch thinks that clarity and smoothness are genuine Atticism. "For so," he says, "the orators spoke. Gorgias of Leontini first brought this disease into political speeches, embracing the lofty and the stylized and ruining clarity. And this disease," he says, "touched even the admirable Plato." If, then, one must (and one must) believe Plutarch in this, the celebrated John surpasses all others, both writing Attic in his diction and using clarity as I do not know whether anyone else has.

To Eustathius the presbyter. [A use of Philo. On the resurrection.] You said that the doctrine of the resurrection of bodies is laughed at by the Greeks as impossible. Since, then, they reject the sacred Scriptures, one must construct from reasonings and in demonstrative order a compelling argument that prepares us to see the matter clearly. If, then, they are wise, let them consider what the philosophers say. For they, asserting that bodily substance is mixed from the four elements, suppose it to be changeable, since the elements readily pass into one another: fire, thickening and sinking down, becomes air; air becomes water; water, earth; and conversely earth, being thinned, becomes water; water, air; and air, fire. What, then, is incredible in our saying that this body, which now shares mostly in earth, being thinned, becomes ethereal and spiritual? For we say that it rises, not such as it is now, but rearranged for the better, having put off all corruption and all passions as in a melting furnace. If, then, those who reason so are wise, let them stop their unbelief. But if, having no share in learning and being unpractised in dialectic, they ask what this or that is, the argument will proceed by example, showing the truth even to the unlearned. For we say, using a cruder example for the sake of clarity, that as gold-bearing earth, when it takes water, becomes mud, but in contact with fire becomes gold and no longer suffers what it suffered before, so too the body, in contact with immortality and incorruption, will be beyond the reach and access of all the passions to which it is now easily subject. And if they consider fairly the power of him who made it from nothing, they will not even need such reasonings. For he who made what did not exist will much more raise up what has come to be.

To Zosimus the presbyter. If it were possible to take your money away with you after death, even so it would not be so precious, since it would be overshadowed by the far more precious things there; still, it might seem to bring you some shadow of comfort. But if that is impossible, while it is possible to exchange it by spending it on alms, especially since you have not even the excuse of children, which seems plausible, it is better that what is a matter of necessity should become a matter of choice. And if you are unwilling to give, why do you not blush even to seize what belongs to the poor? [Letter 2.45] To Alexander. [To ascetics who fast excessively.] Let the labour of virtue be measured, so that the swing back to the opposite may not be beyond measure either.

To Athanasius the presbyter. [Against the Greeks.] Say to the man who disputed with you, who champions the ways of the Greeks and said that the Gospel introduced a new way of life, contrary to ancient custom: "Most wise sir, you seem not to know that only newness can stop an evil custom. That is why the Master of the Gospel came here and introduced a way of life fit for heaven. If he had been urging people to remain in what was established, there would have been no need to innovate; but if he came to rebuke those who were not rightly disposed, new measures were needed so that the wickedness that prevailed might be dissolved. For it was not possible for correction to happen while the same disorder prevailed; whoever wishes to remove and abolish what is bad must establish what is not yet customary in place of what formerly prevailed, to people's harm. So it would rather be astonishing if, having come here to change things, he had provided nothing new in the laws. For both a lawgiver and a counsellor ought to be seen to say what is beneficial, taking no account of whether there is anything new in their opinions. As one who persuades people to what is unprofitable deserves hatred even if he seems to follow customs, so it is right to applaud one who comes forward with what is best, even if he advises things outside what is established. If, then, you see harm attached to the oracles, show it, and I will concede you the victory. But if you cannot say this, and cling to custom as to something strong, it is plain that you refuse what is useful because of the respectability of what is customary. It is no terrible thing to innovate if the portion of what is beneficial belongs to the new. For harmful and harmless things are not judged by time, but by whether vice is found in the older things and virtue in the newer. You seem to think that the word about chastity should not be sown in one who has wallowed in brothels from his youth, nor the word about gentleness in a murderer. For if each of them preferred custom to what is fitting, he would pierce himself with countless evils." [Letter 2.47] [What birthright Esau gave up to Jacob.] It was not simply being called firstborn, dearest friend, that Esau gave up to Jacob, as you think, but the patriarchal dignity, which is owed above all to virtue and not to seniority of birth. For since kingship, priesthood and the patriarchal dignity were owed to the firstborn or eldest, and the law of seniority called him to rule, but he was destitute of virtue, he came to such a pass that he sold willingly what he would justly have been deprived of against his will. [Letter 2.48] [Why Reuben, though firstborn, was counted worthy neither of priesthood nor of kingship.] This very thing that you mentioned, my friend, confirms as true what I wrote to you before. Because Reuben raged against his father's bed, he was counted worthy neither of kingship nor of priesthood, though he was firstborn. Levi, though third, was counted worthy of the priesthood, not only because his father had promised to dedicate a tenth (for counted from the youngest he was tenth, while counting from the eldest the tenth would have been found among the sons of the maidservants), but also because of his holiness, and because, for the honour of God, he filled his hands with the blood of his kin. Moses admired him for this and said in the blessings: "He who says to his father or his mother, 'I have not seen you,' and did not recognize his brothers, kept the words of the Lord." Judah, the fourth, was counted worthy of kingship because of his impartial judgment and right verdict. For whereas many hide their own offences and condemn others, he condemned himself and freed from punishment the woman thought to have committed sexual immorality; for this he was rightly counted worthy of kingship. For those from Levi served as priests and those from Judah reigned, not by lot, but receiving it as a prize of virtue. So when some in the wilderness who were descended from Reuben, thinking themselves worthy of the priesthood as descendants of the firstborn, raged against those serving as priests, thinking that Moses had given away the priesthood as a favour to his brother and his nephews, they were shot down from heaven with thunderbolts and lightning, justice confirming the prize of the priesthood not by seniority but by virtue.