Letters 4.223–5.26

To Heron. Anger (θυμός) and wrath (ὀργή) seem perhaps to be one and the same thing; but the first denotes the sharp movement of the passion, which steals even one's thoughts away, while the second denotes a lasting dwelling in the passion. So the first is named from boiling up, the second from swelling and longing for revenge.

To Heraclius. [On "Wolves and lambs shall feed together."] I greatly wonder how the fame of the writings left by the all-wise John, which have travelled everywhere, has reached the ends of land and sea, yet has not touched your ignorance. In wondering, I do not blame him, but I censure your unsurpassable negligence, which has suffered the same as those who do not see the sun at steady noon and in a bright calm because their power of sight has been entirely extinguished. By what you say, you accuse yourself of having no love for what is good. For who has not been captivated by those writings? Who of those born after him does not know to give thanks to divine providence that he was born after him, and has not departed this life without experience of that divine lyre, which made its own the Orphic myth, rightly disbelieved for the exaggeration of its claims? For it did not make wild beasts captive to divine music; it tamed men who were like beasts, gentling their savagery and bringing them to meekness and harmony. For wolves and lambs made peace with one another, not in form but in character, and came together in the same place. Take up that lyre, then, and all the disorder now dancing within you will depart entirely and give way to that articulate music.

To Eudaemon the deacon. [Against the Jews. Where a passage of Josephus about the Saviour is set down in his very words.] Since among Greeks and barbarians and all people the testimony of enemies is rightly thought trustworthy, while the Jews, surpassing all wickedness, believed neither the prophets nor God himself; and since there was a certain Josephus, an eminent Jew and a zealot for the law, who paraphrased the Old Testament truthfully, fought most bravely for the Jews, and showed all their affairs to be beyond words, yet thought it right to yield to the truth of the facts (for he did not imitate the mind of the impious), I think it necessary to set out his words. What, then, does he say? "At that time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure; and he won over many Jews, and many of the Greek nation too. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, on the accusation of the leading men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at first did not cease. For he appeared to them on the third day, alive again, the divine prophets having foretold these and countless other wonderful things about him. And to this day the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out." I greatly admire the man's love of truth in many things, but especially where he said, "a teacher of people who receive the truth with pleasure." For there are those who, through unsurpassable negligence (among whom were the Jews who did not believe), limit even things that are very clear and divine, bringing their verdict from their own negligence and not from any unclearness in the facts. If, then, even enemies did not dare to stand against the truth, who will disbelieve things clearer than the sun?

To Paul. [That those who shine with right doctrines must also have a life that runs with their word.] If we defeat heretics, Greeks, and Jews by the rightness of our doctrines, we ought to defeat them in our works as well, so that, defeated in the one, they may not think they win in the other, and those who have denied the faith may not reproach us with our life, or be able to say, "You who stumble in plain things, how can you expect to be believed about things that are unclear?" For even if piety comes first and is more important, it still needs right living too, so that our approval may be shown most perfect and complete. And the divine Scripture votes for this, saying, "Faith without works is dead." Let us drive ourselves with all our strength, then, to exactness of life, so that, winning in everything, we may muzzle our opponents, who dare to speak, even while we keep silent.

To Herminus the count. [On "Beware of practising your almsgiving before men in order to be seen."] Since you have written, "How is it possible for the merciful man not to be seen?", I say that here he is examining the intention of the one who shows mercy. Since one seeks praise from those one wants to please, while one who wants to please God wants to receive his praise from him, he said this. For the one who is seen does not necessarily act in order to be seen; it is the one who wants to be watched, and therefore makes the mystery public. For even if the deed cannot be hidden, the merciful man ought not to display it; one who does this parades those who receive his gifts and proclaims his own reward and praise.

To Palladius the reader. [On the examples by which the wise man personifies Wisdom in many forms.] Since you asked why examples are not taken in every respect, I would say: so that they may be examples, and not identity. And the man, the son of Sirach I mean, who wrote that book of Wisdom, personified Wisdom; and not finding a way to present her beauty, her height, her fragrance, and the other things that belong to Wisdom by one example or one plant, he went round all the plants as far as he could, gathered from each what was fitting and most suitable for presenting her, and so sketched her for people: collecting the beauty from this plant, the height from another, and the fragrance from another, and taking, as from a treasury, not everything that belongs to the plants but those things the image needed, he enabled us to conceive something worthy of Wisdom. And so that I may not seem to have escaped you, I shall try to make it clear as well as I can. A wise man would incur a reproach of ignorance if I set it out at length; I have not set down the sayings themselves, which you probably have ringing in your ears.

To Zosimus. [On the divine coming.] The coming in the flesh of the Son of God, which took away human sins …, made all afraid, both men and demons: it persuaded the one to spare their nature, since it had been united to God, and compelled the other to abstain from plotting against it, since it had now become sinless. But none of this has softened you, nor made you afraid, nor trained you to self-control. If, then, you are a man, be taught by the first; if a demon, learn from the second not to misuse the finest nature for the passions. For you will come to judgment to render account for all these things, and you will be required to give a long account of your long insensibility.

To Alphius the bishop. [On Sennacherib.] Since Sennacherib threatened Hezekiah with things beyond human nature and power, he was made to learn the nothingness of his own weakness. He who expected to take Jerusalem at a rush and at the first shout lost almost his whole army without war or battle, and thought himself lucky merely to be saved. When he had escaped home, he was killed by his own sons, so that he might both learn his own weakness and not escape justice.

To Antiochus. Just as in bodies imbalances of temperament arise from excess (for when the elements leave their proper bounds, overstep them and fall into immoderation, then diseases and grievous deaths result), so it is also with souls. For if we roll from a temperate life into anger, we become both puffed up and servile, hated for the one and laughable for the other. For by mixing opposite vices, arrogance and flattery together, we both earn hatred and incur ridicule. But if we cut back the excess of the passion, we shall be humble with exactness and lofty with safety. For such is our philosophy: it brings modesty and loftiness together into one soul; modesty, by exalting itself over no one; loftiness, by deigning to flatter no one, …

To Hermogenes, Lampetius and Leontius, bishops. Even if you judge it superfluous to discuss what is fitting with Zosimus, Eustathius and Maron, men who neither possess anything good of their own, nor accept the teaching that comes from events, nor admit counsel from others, but have fallen into acknowledged ruin, yet you would surely do right to turn to God in prayers, perhaps to learn how you may draw them up from the depth of wickedness; for the work, it seems, is divine …

To Paul. If wealth, beauty, strength, glory, power, and all the things that seem to be good wither quickly and dissolve like smoke, who is so foolish as to pride himself and think highly of himself on account of any one of them? For since the one who has all of them together is stripped and left bare, sometimes even while alive, and certainly when dead, how will the one who does not have them all together (for it is not possible for all to come together) not incur ridicule, priding himself on shadows, dreams and indistinct fancies?

To Zosimus the presbyter. One must, my good man, persuade the hearers by deeds that there is a kingdom of heaven, and turn the listeners to desire it. And hearers are persuaded when they see the teacher doing things worthy of the kingdom. But if someone doing things worthy of punishment, as you do, should philosophize about the kingdom, how will he persuade his hearers? He does the same as one who would persuade people to love a thing after first persuading them himself that it does not exist.

To Dometius the count. Defeat, most wise man, is not dying in war, but fearing the enemy and throwing away one's shield. As for one whose body failed him while he still longed for deeds of valour, the law is that he be enrolled among the victors; for those who organize athletic contests also honour the athletes who died in the wrestling itself more than those who did not suffer this. If, then, this is so, for what reason do you think the martyrs were defeated by dying, and do not rather proclaim them victors for this very reason? For the goal of this battle is not the body (which they put to death even while it seemed to live), but not to corrupt the glory of virtue.

To Palladius the deacon. If neither the greatness of the episcopate, nor your doing nothing worthy of it, nor the apostolic tongue that shaped what sort of man a bishop must be, nor the incorruptible tribunal that will cast a vote that cannot be led astray, nor anything else restrains you from this madness, by which, frenzied by an unreasonable desire, you expect to buy the dignity, at least be shamed by those outside. For they say that Pittacus, having received rule from the Mitylenaeans after defeating Phrynon, the ruler of Rhegium, in single combat, gave the rule back; and when they did not want to take it back, he forced them, since he did not wish to be a tyrant but a private citizen. If, then, the man who had gained rule by his own dangers and blood willingly laid it down, having taken on the danger but shaken off the tyranny, and that a tyranny subject to no audit, you, who, as they say, would not rightly be counted even among the subjects, dream of buying an office that is accountable, subject to countless audits and greater than every human dignity, which you ought not to accept even if it were offered, and you are not only not ashamed but even pride yourself on it. And who will indict you as such audacity deserves?

To Palladius the subdeacon. The equitable man ought to have a more humane judgement than the man who is strictly just and exacting. For it befits him to use humaneness more than strict justice. [Letter 5.8] It is better not to be caught in wickedness; but once caught, it is better to know that one has been caught, and quickly to come to one's senses as if from drunkenness. For the man who has been caught but does not think he has been caught is incurably sick.

To Ammonius the scholasticus. Those who sow in their own children while they are still infants, first the teaching about the divine supremacy and providence, and second the way of virtue, are not only parents but also the best of teachers, and will obtain divine rewards. But those who plant in them polytheism and its wickedness, as having sacrificed their children to demons, will receive the wages they deserve. [Letter 5.10] In civil wars, even if the victors are more wretched than the vanquished (for they are the more ashamed, the more they have done beyond the others), yet they quarrel as men who will be reconciled. But among us, where the war is more grievous than a civil war (for it is a contest within one body), they quarrel as men who will not be reconciled. And yet the one who has done more than the others seems to pride himself, when he ought to blush. For punishment is laid up for those who do wrong rather than for those who suffer it. [Letter 5.11] To Martinianus and Zosimus. Flee wickedness, my good men; for it is terribly able to drive its own lovers mad and make them senseless. Pursue virtue; for it is wonderfully able to make wise and to keep in their proper state those who cling to it. Often it shows even through the eyes, which look gently and calmly, that the mind within is steeped and filled with self-control.

To Zosimus the presbyter. Many (for to say all would perhaps make my words harsh) ridicule you very fiercely and bitterly; I pray that they are not telling the truth. But since your own full brother too, lamenting and bewailing you, reported the same things to us, not to say heavier ones, begging me to draw you up, if possible, from the depth of lechery in which you have grown old to the harm of your own head (and so I have bidden a long farewell to the one who advised not to take in hand those who are mastered by it), I have written so that you may come to yourself and consider the shame of licentiousness, the old age toward which you are creeping, the divine priesthood into which, I know not how, you burst like a reveller, the present reproaches and scandals, and the punishment to come, you who wallow in all evils and behave like a youth on the threshold of old age. For how will you urge the young to self-control, when you do not urge it on yourself even in old age? How do you not shudder, doing such things and approaching the altar? How do you dare to touch the undefiled mysteries? I advise you, then (for even if it grieves you, the truth will be spoken with frankness): either stop doing such things, or separate yourself from the venerable altar, lest you call down fire from heaven on your own head, which gives the careless pretexts for the talk they long for. [Letter 5.13] To the same. I learn that a wise man, superior to money and a fellow-contender for virtue, met with you, and having exhausted everything needed for your correction, was sent away without result, unable to benefit you at all, your disease having proved stronger than his art of healing. For when you ought to have been charmed by the beauty of his thoughts, admired his understanding, respected his good sense and stopped your wickedness, you sent him away not only without result but even with insult. What then must be done? If each of us does no good, but exhortation too is despised, and people's laughter is trampled underfoot, and that many are scandalized is reckoned as nothing by you, and the fear of God has no access to you, and the threat of judgment is laughed at, we have unwittingly been talking to a heart of stone.

To Aedesius the curial. Since war is joined when anger is kindled, but is not extinguished when anger is quenched, never throw yourself into grievous wars, especially when the dispute is not about piety or virtue; for in these one must contend to the point of blood, betraying neither the one nor the other.

To Ischyrion the scholasticus. When magnanimity looks not toward arrogance but toward gentleness, then it escapes both boastfulness and servility, not allowing the unseemly to be mixed with the seemly. [Letter 5.16] To Peter. Even if under the tyranny of Eusebius, as you have written, no one knows any cause of the ruin of the lovers of virtue except virtue alone (for the penalty comes before the trial, and the memory of the coming judgment is a sharper ruin to those who remember it), still, do not lose heart. For the all-seeing eye will surely not allow virtue to be outdone by wickedness to the end, but will do what befits him and what is owed to virtue and to wickedness. [Letter 5.17] Know that what seems to be a small slip creeps on into a great evil. For saying "This is nothing" has made wickedness burst in upon life. Many think it nothing to busy themselves with other people's beauty; but from this adulteries are born, and the overthrow of households. For I pass over …

[Letter 5.17, continued] … for now that among us, even before the act, the man who looks licentiously is punished as an adulterer. I pass over too that my words are now addressed to you, who do not believe the sacred Scriptures but say that you are ardently persuaded by Demosthenes. Know then, my good man, that not even he missed such a thing, but he cries out plainly: "Daily ease and carelessness, as in private lives, so also in cities, do not make themselves felt at once in each thing neglected, but meet one in the sum of affairs." If, then, you think him trustworthy, at least obey him, and cut off small slips, so that the great ones may not even begin. [Letter 5.18] Many people pass verdicts on others from their own case. The money-lover does not believe that anyone is free of possessions, nor the licentious man that anyone is chaste, nor the cruel man that anyone is humane, nor the grasping man that anyone is merciful; and conversely the chaste man thinks many are such, and likewise the man without possessions and the humane man. If then the man who has the vote of all against himself, as they say, condemns all, we rightly do not wonder. For what was to be expected has happened in your case too. [Letter 5.19] To the same. Many who stumbled and then fought again set up trophies against the passions to which they had earlier confessed defeat. If, then, you too have often stumbled, admit it and change your course.

To Peter. You seem not to know, blessed man, that it is not so much the prudence of the speaker or the eloquence of the adviser that can shame the one who stumbles, as the good sense of the one advised. For he himself is master of being persuaded or not. If you disbelieve it, I shall be able to persuade you by using one example, with which nothing else can be compared. For what is more eloquent than the Word, or what is wiser than the Wisdom which said so many and such great things, both gentle and forceful, to check the avarice of Judas, and did not succeed? Not through its own weakness, but because the hearer is master of his own will, by the boundary of free will, because of which the account rendered at the judgment is also just. If, then, this is so, the one who fulfils his own part is worthy of approval; the one who does not obey good exhortations is worthy of blame and accusation; and the one who turns the accusation due to the one who should have been persuaded upon the one who failed to persuade is foolish, since he is ignorant of the nature of both divine and human affairs.

To Leontius the bishop. Truly, as you have written, many disturbances have burst into the churches. For where the name of peace is, there the works of war dance. These things happen because many and various sins have been committed by those entrusted with the teaching office. Leaving them one by one, I shall write of the one thing on which all depend, a thing honourable, great and splendid, which made the companies of the apostles like lights everywhere in the world, but now, neglected, has filled the churches with confusion. What is it? I shall say it with frankness, for I could not do otherwise: then lovers of virtue were advanced to the priesthood, but now lovers of money; then those who fled the office because of the greatness of the charge, now those who leap upon the office because of the greatness of the luxury; then those who prided themselves on voluntary poverty, now those who make money by voluntary greed; then those who had the divine tribunal before their eyes, now those who have not even a thought of it; then those ready to be beaten, now those ready to beat. And why say much? The dignity seems at last to have passed from priesthood to tyranny, from humility to arrogance, from fasting to luxury, from stewardship to despotism; for they do not think fit to manage as stewards, but to appropriate as masters. These things are not said against all, but against the guilty; for there are some who live according to the apostolic stamp but do not dare to break into speech; though in this one respect they are very blameworthy, that, fearing the multitude of the licentious, they neglect so great a correction, as far as it lies with them.

To Daniel the presbyter. Even if the man who owes you an apology is neither asked for it by you nor pressed for it, and for that reason you think you yourself have an excuse for not having forgiven him the debt of his offences against you, still, give him forgiveness yourself, even though he does not ask or beg pardon, as far as it rests with you, and do not appear to act like those who long to retaliate. For so he too, respecting your philosophy, will punish himself as one who has offended a holy man. … if possible, by sending for him; but if not, …

To Theodosius the bishop. It is not shameful to be defeated by things it is impossible to overcome. So do not think yourself that those who cannot make their words equal to your praises are defeated; but accept their intention and pardon their weakness. For, thinking it better to speak inadequately than to incur a charge of neglect, they venture upon an unattainable task.

To Zosimus the presbyter. Your earlier transgression seemed to have a plausible pretext that made it pardonable, since you were thought to be avenging your brother; but for your present transgression you have no such screen, and you have even forfeited the earlier pardon. For if you were formerly retaliating on behalf of your wronged brother, how are you not ashamed now to wrong and drive out on every side the very man on whose behalf, as you say, you retaliated then? From this you have shown that you did that too by deliberate choice; for one who does not spare a brother, how would he spare a stranger? [Letter 5.25] Not the purple sheen of woven cloth, nor the gleams of many-coloured stones blended with gold, are to be thought a woman's adornment; for many tasteless women who hunt after such adornment have become tiresome and hateful to their husbands. But the beauty of the soul composed of virtues, which both draws the husband's longing and proves a remedy that wins his goodwill.

To Polychronius. As in cities a favourable position of the site attracts favourable seasons, so too in souls goodwill toward virtue hunts out the divine alliance. [Letter 5.27] If those who are struck by the sharp goads of worldly glory embrace self-chosen labours, those who are wounded by the sharpest arrows of glory beyond the world would with much more right strip vigorously for the contest of labours.