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THEODORET OF CYRUS

LETTERS 1-123.

[Translated by the Rev. Blomfield Jackson, M.A., Vicar of St.
Bartholomew's, Moor Lane, and Fellow of King's College, London.]


I. To an unknown correspondent.

   In the words of the prophet we find the wise hearer mentioned with the
excellent councillor.[1] I, however, send the book I have written on the
divine Apostle, not as much to a wise hearer as to a just and clever judge.
When goldsmiths wish to find out if their gold is refined and unalloyed,
they apply it to the touchstone; and just so I sent my book to your
reverence, for I wish to know whether it is what it should be, or needs
some fining down. You have read it and returned it, but have said nothing
to me on this point. Your silence leads me to conjecture that the judge has
given sentence of condemnation, but is unwilling to hurt my feelings by
telling me so. Pray dismiss any such idea, and do not hesitate to tell me
your opinion about the book.

II. To the same.

   When men love warmly, I doubt whether in the case of the children of
those whom they love, they can be impartial judges. Justice is carried away
by affection. Fathers fancy that their ugly boys are beautiful, and sons do
not see the uncomeliness of their fathers. Brother looks at brother in the
light of affection rather than of nature. It is thus that I am afraid your
holiness has judged what I have written, and that the sentence has been
delivered by warmth of feeling. For truly the power of love is very great,
and not seldom it keeps out of sight considerable errors in our friends. It
is because you have so much of it, my dear friend, that you have wreathed
what I have written with your kindly praises. All I can do is to ask your
piety to beseech the good Lord to ratify your eulogy, and make the man you
have praised something like the picture painted in the words of his
admirers.

III. To Bishop Irenaeus.[2]

   Comparisons of this kind are forbidden by the divine Apostle. In his
Epistle to the Romans he writes "Therefore judge nothing before the time
until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart: and then shall
every man have praise of God."[1] And he is quite right; for we can see
only outward deeds, but the God of all knows also the intention of the
doers, and when He delivers his sentence judges not so much the work as the
will. So He will crown the divine Apostle who became to the Jews as a Jew,
to them that were under the law as under the law, and to them that were
without law as without law[2] for his object in thus assuming an actor's
mask was that he might do good to mankind. His was no time-server's career.
The gain he got was loss, but he secured the good of them whom he taught.
As I said, then, the divine Paul bids us wait for the judgment of God. But
we are venturing on high themes; we are handling a theology passing
understanding and words; not like the unholy heretics, seeking blasphemous
positions, but endeavouring to confute their impiety, and as far as in us
lies to give praise to the Creator; we shall therefore do nothing
unreasonable in attempting to reply to your enquiry.

   You have suggested the case of an impious judge giving to two athletes
of piety the alternative of sacrificing to demons, or flinging themselves
into the sea. You describe the one as choosing the latter and plunging
without hesitation into the deep, while the other, refusing both, shews
quite as much abhorrence of the worship of idols as his companion, but
declines to commit himself to the waves, and waits for this fate to be
violently forced upon him. You have suggested these circumstances, and you
ask which of these two took the better course. I think that you will agree
with me that the latter was the more praiseworthy. No one ought to withdraw
himself from life unbidden, but should await either a natural or a violent
death. Our Lord gave us this lesson when He bade those that are persecuted
in one city flee to another and again commanded them to quit even this and
depart to another.[3] In obedience to this teaching the divine Apostle
escaped the violence of the governor of the city, and had no hesitation in
speaking of the manner of his flight, but spoke of the basket, the wall,
and the window, and boasted and glorified in the act.[1] For what looks
discreditable is made honourable by the divine command. In the same manner
the Apostle called himself at one time a Pharisee[2] and at another a
Roman,[3] not because he was afraid of death, but acting quite fairly in
right.[4] In the same way when he had learnt the Jews' plot against him he
appealed to Caesar[5] and sent his sister's son to the chief captain to
report the designs hatched against him, not because he clung to this
present life, but in obedience to the divine law. For assuredly our Lord
does not wish us to throw ourselves into obvious peril; and this is taught
us by deed as well as by word, for more than once He avoided the murderous
violence of the Jews. And the great Peter, first of the Apostles, when he
was loosed from his chains and had escaped from the hands of Herod, came to
the house of John, who was surnamed Mark, and after removing the anxiety of
his friends by his visit and bidding them maintain silence, betook himself
to another house in the endeavour to conceal himself more effectually by
the removal.[6] And we shall find just the same kind of wisdom in the old
Testament, for the famous Moses, after playing the man in his struggle with
the Egyptian and finding out the next day that the homicide had become
known, ran away, travelled a long journey, and arrived at the land of
Midian.[7] In like mariner the great Elias when he had learnt Jezebel's
threats did not give himself up to them which wished to kill him, but left
the world and hurried to the desert.[8] And if it is right and agreeable to
God to escape the violence of our enemies, surely it is much more right to
refuse to obey them when they order a man to become his own murderer. Our
Lord did not give in to the devil when he bade Him throw Himself down,[9]
and when he had armed against Him the hands of the Jews by means of the
scourge and the thorns and the nails, and the creature was urging Him to
bring wholesale destruction on His wicked foes, the Lord Himself forbade,
because He knew that His Passion was bringing salvation to the world, and
it was for this reason that just before His Passion He said to His Apostles
"Pray that ye enter not into temptation,"[1] and taught us to pray "Lead us
not into temptation."[2] Now let us shift our ground a little, and we shall
see our way more clearly. Let us eliminate the sea from the argument, and
suppose the judge to have given each of the martyrs a sword, and ordered
the one who refused to sacrifice to cut off his own head; who in his senses
would have endured to redden his hand with his own blood, become his own
headsman, lift his hand against himself, in obedience to the judge's order?

   Clearly your second martyr deserves the higher praise. The former
indeed deserves credit for his zeal, bat the latter is adorned by right
judgment as well.

   I have answered you according to the measure of the wisdom given me; He
who knows thoughts as well as acts, will shew which of the two was right in
the day of His appearing.

IV. Festal.

   The Creator of oar souls and bodies has given His bounty to both, and
at one and the same time has overwhelmed us with good things that both
heart and senses can feel. At the time of the sacred feast He has given us
the rain we so much longed for, that our celebration might be clear of
sadness. We have praised oar bountiful Lord, and now as we are wont write a
festal letter and address your piety with the request that you will aid us
with your prayers.

V. Festal.

   The God who made us gives us care and sorrow after our sin. But He has
furnished us with divine occasions of consolation by appointing divine
feasts. The thoughts they suggest both remind us of God's gifts to us, and
promise complete freedom from all our troubles. Enjoying these good things
and filled with cheerfulness, we address your magnificence, and, according
to the custom of the festival, pay friendship's debt.

VI. Festal.

   Our loving Lord has allowed us, with the zeal of folks who love the
Christ, to celebrate the divine feast of salvation and enjoy the fruit of
the spiritual blessing that flows from it. Since we know the disposition of
your Piety toward us, we write to tell you this. For they who have friendly
thoughts to others are always pleased to hear cheering intelligence of
them.

VII. To Theonilla.

   Had I heard of the death of your dignity's most honourable husband I
should have written long ago, and now my object in writing is not to lull
your great sorrow to sleep by consolatory words. They are unnecessary. They
who have learnt the wisdom of philosophers and consider what this life is,
find reason strong enough to meet and break grief's rising surge. And even
while you are remembering your long companionship, reason recognises the
divine decrees, and to meet the forces of the tears of sorrow marshals at
once the course of nature, the law of God, and the hope of the
resurrection. Knowing this as I do, there is no necessity to use many
words. I only beseech you to avail yourself of good sense in the hour of
need. Think of the death of him who is gone as no more than a long journey,
and wait for the promise of our God and Saviour. For He who promised the
resurrection cannot lie, and is the fount of truth.

VIII. To Eugraphia.

   It is needless for me to bring once more to bear upon your grief the
spells of the spirit. The mere mention of the sufferings that wrought oar
salvation is enough to quench distress, even at its worst. Those sufferings
were all undergone for humanity. Our Lord did not destroy death to make one
body victorious over death, hut through that one body to effect our common
resurrection, and make our hope of it a sure and certain hope. And if even
while our holy celebrations are bringing you manifold refreshment of soul,
you cannot overcome your sense of sorrow, let me beg you, my honoured
friend, to read the very words of the marriage contract which follow on the
mention of the dowry, and to see how the wedding is preceded by the
reminder of death. Knowing as we do that men are mortal, and be thinking us
of the peace of survivors, it is customary to lay down what are called
conditions, and for no hesitation to be shewn at the mention of death
before the joining together in marriage. These are the plain words "If the
husband should die first it is agreed that so and so be done; if this lot
should first fall to the wife, so and so." We knew all this before the
wedding; we are waiting for it so to say every  day. Why then take it
amiss? The union must needs be broken either by the death of the husband or
the departure of the wife. Such is the course of life. You know, my
excellent friend, alike God's will and human nature; dispel then your
despondency and wait for the fulfilment of the common hope of the just.

IX. To an anonymous correspondent.

   Your piety is annoyed and distressed at the sentence passed on me
unjustly and without a trial. I am comforted that you are so feeling. Had I
been justly condemned I should have been sorry at having given my judges
reasonable grounds for what they have done, but, as it is, my conscience is
quite clear, and I feel joyful and exultant and look forward to the
remission of other sins on account of this injustice. Naboth lives in men's
memories only because he suffered that unjust death. Only pray that we be
not abandoned of God and let the enemy continue to do his worst. God's good
will is enough to make me very cheerful and if He is on my side I despite
all my troubles as trifles.[1]

X. To the learned Elias.

   Legislators have made laws in aid of the oppressed, and advocates bare
practised the orator's arts to help them that stand in need of fair
defence. You, my friend, have studied eloquence and the law. Now put your
art in practice, and by it put down the oppressors, help them that are put
down by them, and defend them with the law as with a shield. Let no guilty
client enjoy the benefit of your advocacy, even though he be your friend.

   Now one of these guilty men is that villain Abraham. After being
settled for a considerable time on an estate belonging to the church, he
then took several partners in his rascality, and has bad no hesitation in
owning his proceedings. I have sent him to you with an account of his
doings, the parties be has wronged, and the reverend sub-deacon Gerontius.
I do not want you to deliver the guilty man to the authorities, but in the
hope that when his victims have told you all they have bad to put up with,
and have made you, my learned friend, feel sympathy for their case, you may
be induced to compel the wicked fellow to restore what he has stolen.

XI. To Flavianus bishop of Constantinople.

   The Creator and Guide of the Universe has made you a luminary of the
world, and changed the deep moonless night into clear noon. Just as by the
haven's side, the beacon light shews sailors in the night time the harbour
mouth, so shines the bright ray of your holiness to give great comfort to
all that are attacked for true religion's sake, and shews them the safe
port of the Apostles' faith. They that know it already are filled with
comforts and they that knew it not are saved from being dashed upon the
rocks. I indeed am especially bound to praise the giver of all good,
because I have found a noble champion who drives away fear of men by the
power of the fear of God, fights heartily in the front rank for the
doctrines of the Gospel, and gladly bears the brunt of the apostolic war.
So to-day every tongue is moved in eulogy of your holiness, for it is not
only the nurslings of true religion who admire the purity of your faith,
but the praises of your courage are sung even by the enemies of the truth.
Falsehood vanishes at truth's lightning flash.

   I write thus knowing that the very reverend and pious Hypatius the
reader, both readily obeys the bidding of your holiness, and constantly, my
Lord, mentions your laudable deeds. I salute you as holy and right dear to
God. I exhort you to support us with your prayers that we may lead the rest
of our lives according to God's laws.

XII. To the bishop Irenaeus.(1)

   Job, that famous tower of adamant and noble champion of goodness, was
not shaken even by blows of continuous troubles of every sort and kind, but
stood impregnable and firm. At the end however of all his trials the
righteous Law-giver explained the reason of them in the words, "Dost thou
think that I answered thee for any other reason than that thou mightest
appear just?"(2) I think that these words are known to your piety which is
able to support the many and various attacks of troubles and anxieties, and
so far from shrinking from them, exhibits the strength and stability of
your administration. So the bountiful Lord, seeing the bravery and holiness
of your soul, has refused to keep a worthy champion in concealment, and has
brought him forth to the contest to adorn your venerable head with a crown
of victory, and give your struggles as a high example of good service to
the rest. So, my dear friend, conquer in this battle too, and bear bravely
the death of your son-in-law, my own dear friend. Conquer in your wisdom
the claims of kinsmanship and the memory of a noble and generous character,
a memory which must always recall something beyond painters art or
rhetorician's skill. Repel the assault of sorrow by the thought of Him who
wisely administers all the affairs of men, with perfect knowledge of the
future and right guidance of it for our good. Let us join in the joy of him
who has been delivered from this life's storms. Let us rather give thanks
because, wafted by kindly winds, he has cast anchor in the windless haven
and has escaped the grievous shipwrecks whereof this life is full. But need
I say all this to one who is a tried gladiator of goodness? Need I, as it
were, anoint for endurance one who is a trainer of other athletes? Still I
write. It is a comfort to myself to write as I do. I am really and truly
grieved when I remember an intimacy that I esteemed so highly. Once more I
praise the great Guide of all, Who both knows what would be good for us and
guides our life accordingly. I have dictated this after writing my former
communication, on one of my friends in Antioch telling me that the end had
come.

XIII. To Cyrus.

   I had heard of the island of Lesbos, and its cities Mitylene, Methymna,
and the rest; but I was ignorant of the fruit of the vine cultivated in
it.(1) Now, thanks to your diligence, I have become acquainted with it, and
I admire both its whiteness and the delicacy of its flavour. Perhaps time
may even improve it, unless it turns it sour; for wine, like the body, and
plants, and buildings, and other things made by hand, is damaged by time.
If, as you say, it makes the drinker longlived, I am afraid it will be of
little use to me, for I have no desire to live a long life, when life's
storms are so many and so hard.

   I was however much pleased to hear of the health of the monk. Really my
anxiety about him was quite distressing, and I wrongly blamed the doctors,
for his complaint required the treatment they gave. I have sent you a
little pot of honey which the Cilician bees make from storax flowers.

XIV. To Alexandra.

   Had I only considered the character of the loss which you have
sustained, I should have wanted consolation myself, not only because I
count that what concerns you concerns me, be it agreeable or otherwise, but
because I did so dearly love that admirable and truly excellent man. But
the divine decree has removed him from us and translated him to the better
life. I therefore scatter the cloud of sorrow from my soul, and urge you,
my worthy friend, to vanquish the pain of your sorrow by the power of
reason, and to bring your soul in this hour of need trader the spell of
God's word. Why from our very cradles do we suck the instruction of the
divine Scriptures, like milk from the breast, but that, when trouble falls
upon us, we may be able to apply the teaching of the Spirit as a salve for
our pain? I know how sad. how very grievous it is, when one has experienced
the worth of some loved object, suddenly to be deprived of it, and to fall
in a moment from happiness to misery. But to them that are gifted with good
sense, and use their powers of right reason, no human contingency comes
quite unforeseen; nothing human is stable; nothing lasting; nor beauty, nor
wealth, nor health, nor dignity; nor any of all those things that most men
rank so high. Some men fall from a summit of opulence to lowest poverty;
some lose their health and struggle with various forms of disease; some who
are proud of the splendour of their lineage drag the crushing yoke of
slavery. Beauty is spoilt by sickness and marred by old age, and very
wisely has the supreme Ruler suffered none of these things to continue nor
abide, with the intent that their possessors, in fear of change, may lower
their proud looks, and, knowing how all such possessions ebb and flow, may
cease to put their confidence in what is short lived and fleeting, and may
fix their hopes upon the Giver of all good. I am aware, my excellent
friend, that you know all this, and I beg you to reflect on human nature;
you will find that it is mortal, and received the doom of death from the
beginning. It was to Adam that God said "Dust thou art and to dust thou
shalt return."(1) The giver of the law is He that never lies, and
experience witnesses to His truth. Divine Scripture tells us "all men have
one entrance into life and the like going out,"(2) and every one that is
born awaits the grave. And all do not live a like length of time; some men
come to an end fill too soon; some in the vigour of manhood, and some after
they have experienced the trials of old age. Thus, too, they who have taken
on them the marriage yoke are loosed from it, and it must needs be that
either husband first depart or wife reach this life's end before him. Some
have but just entered the bridal chamber when their lot is weeping and
lamentation; some live together a little while. Enough to remember that the
grief is common to give reason ground for overcoming grief. Besides all
this, even they who are mastered by bitterest sorrow may be comforted by
the thought that the departed was the father of sons; that he left them
grown up; that he had attained a very high position, and in it, so far from
giving any cause for envy, made men love him the more, and left behind him
a reputation for liberality, for hatred of all that is bad, for gentleness
and indeed for every kind of moral virtue.(1)

   But what excuse for despondency will be left us if we take to heart
God's own promises and the hopes of Christians; the resurrection, I mean,
eternal life, continuance in the kingdom, and all that "eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which
God hath prepared for them that love Him"?(2) Does not the Apostle say
emphatically, "I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope"?(3)
I have known many men who even without hope have got the better of their
grief by the force of reason alone, and it would indeed be extraordinary if
they who are supported by such a hope should prove weaker than they who
have no hope at all. Let us then, I implore you, look at the end as a long
journey. When he went on a Journey we used indeed to be sorry, but we
waited his return. Now let the separation sadden us indeed in some degree,
for I am not exhorting what is contrary to human nature, but do not let us
wail as over a corpse; let us rather congratulate him on his setting forth
and his departure hence, because he is now free from a world of
uncertainties, and fears no further change of soul or booty or of corporeal
conditions. The strife now ended, he waits for his reward. Grieve not
overmuch for orphanhood and widowhood. We have a greater Guardian whose law
it is that all should take good care of orphans and widows and about whom
the divine David says "The Lord relieveth the fatherless and widow, but the
way of the wicked He turneth upside down.(1) Only let us put the rudders of
our lives in His hands, and we shall meet with an unfailing Providence. His
guardianship will be surer than can be that of any man, for His are the
words "Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? Yet will I not forget thee."(2) He is
nearer to us than father and mother for He is our Maker and Creator. It is
not marriage that makes fathers, but fathers are made fathers at His will.

   I am now compelled thus to write because my bonds(3) do not suffer me
to hasten to you, but your most God-loving and most holy bishop is able
unaided to give all consolation to your very faithful soul by word and by
deed, by sight and by communication of thought and by that spiritual and
God-given wisdom of his whereby I trust the tempest of your grief will be
lulled to sleep.

XV. To Silvanus the Primate.(4)

   I know that in my words of consolation I am somewhat late, but it is
not without reason that I have delayed to send them, for I have thought it
worth while to let the violence of your grief take its course. The
cleverest physicians will never apply their remedies when a fever is at its
height, but wait for a favourable opportunity for using the appliances of
their skill. So after reckoning how sharp your anguish must be, I have let
these few days go by, for if I myself was so distressed and filled with
such sorrow by the news, what must not have been the sufferings of a
husband and yoke-fellow, made, as the Scripture says, one flesh,(5) at the
violent sundering of the union cemented both by time and love? Such pangs
are only natural; but let reason devise consolation by reminding you that
humanity is frail and sorrow universal, and also of the hope of the
resurrection and the will of Him who orders our lives wisely. We must needs
accept the decrees of inestimable wisdom, and own them to be for our good;
for they who reflect thus piously shall reap piety's rewards, and so
delivered froth immoderate lamentations shall pass their lives in peace. On
the other hand they whom sorrow makes its slaves will gain nothing by their
wailing, but will at once live weary lives and grieve the Guardian of us
all. Receive then, my most honoured friend, a fatherly exhortation "The
Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. He hath done whatsoever pleased
Him. Blessed be the name of the Lord."(1)

XVI. To Bishop Irenaeus.(2)

   There is nothing good, it seems, in prospect for us, so, far from
calming down, the  tempest troubling the Church seems to rise higher every
day. The conveners of the Council have arrived and delivered the letters of
summons to several of the Metropolitans including our own, and I have sent
a copy of the letter to your Holiness to acquaint you how, as the poet has
it, "Woe has been welded by woe."(3) And we need only the Lord's goodness
to stay the storm. Easy it is for Him to stay it, but we are unworthy of
the calm, yet the grace of His patience is enough for us, so that haply by
it we may get the better of our foes. So the divine apostle has taught us
to pray "for He will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye
may be able to bear it."(4) But I beseech your godliness to stop the mouths
of the objectors and make them understand that it is not for them who
stand, as the phrase goes, out of range, to scoff at men fighting in the
ranks anti giving and receiving blows; for what matters it what weapon the
soldier uses to strike down his antagonists? Even the great David did not
use a panoply when he slew the aliens' champion,(5) and Samson slew
thousands on one day with the jawbone of an ass.(6) Nobody grumbles at the
victory, nor accuses the conqueror of cowardice, because he wins it without
brandishing a spear or covering himself with his shield or throwing darts
or shooting arrows. The defenders of true religion must be criticized in
the same way, nor must we try to find language which will stir strife, but
rather arguments which plainly proclaim the truth and make those who
venture to oppose it ashamed of themselves.

   What does it matter whether we style the holy Virgin at the same time
mother of Man and mother of God, or call her mother and servant of her
offspring, with the addition that she is mother of our Lord Jesus Christ as
man, but His servant as God, anti so at once avoid the term which is the
pretext of calumny, and express the same opinion by another phrase? And
besides this it must also be borne in mind that the former of these titles
is of general use, and the latter peculiar to the Virgin; and that it is
about this that all the controversy has arisen, which would God had never
been. The majority of the old Fathers have applied the more honourable
title to the Virgin, as your Holiness yourself has done in two or three
discourses; several of these, which your godliness sent to me, I have in my
own possession, and in these you have not coupled the title mother of Man
with mother of God but have explained its meaning by the use of other
words. But since you find fault with me for having left out the holy and
blessed Fathers Diodorus and Theodorus in my list of authorities, I have
thought it necessary to add a few words on this point.

   In the first place, my dear friend, I have omitted many others both
famous and illustrious. Secondly this fact must be borne in mind, that the
accused party is bound to produce unimpeachable witnesses, whose testimony
even his accusers cannot impugn. But if the defendant were to call into
court authorities accused by the prosecutors, even the judge himself would
not consent to receive them. If I had omitted these holy men in compiling
an eulogy of the Fathers, I should, I own, have been wrong, and should have
proved myself ungrateful to my teachers. But if when under accusation I
have brought forward a defence, and have produced unimpeachable witnesses,
why do men who are unwilling to see any of these testimonies lay me under
unreasonable blame? How I reverence these writers is sufficiently shewn by
my own book in their behalf, in which I have refuted the indictment laid
against them, without fear of the influence of their accusers or even of
the secret attack made upon myself. These people who are so fond of foolish
talk bad better get some other excuse for their sleight of words. My object
is not to make my words and deeds fit the pleasure of this man or that man,
but to edify the church of God, and please her bridegroom and Lord. I call
my conscience to witness that I am not acting as I do through care of
material things, nor because I cling to the honour with all its cares,
which I shrink from calling an unhappy one. I would long ago have withdrawn
of my own accord, did I not fear the judgment of God. And now know well
that I await my  fate. And I think that it is drawing near,  for so the
plots against me indicate.(1)

XVII. To the Deaconess Casiana.

   Had I only considered the greatness of your sorrow, I should have put
off writing a little while, that I might make time my ally in my attempt to
cure it, but I know the good sense of your piety, and so I make bold to
offer you some words of consolation suggested partly by human nature, and
partly by divine Scripture. For our nature is frail, and all life is full
of such calamities, and the universal Governor and Ruler of the World,--the
Lord who wisely orders our concerns,--gives us by means of His divine
oracles consolation of various kinds, of which the writings of the holy
Evangelists and the divine utterances of the blessed prophets are full. But
I am sure it is needless to cull these passages, and suggest them to your
piety, nurtured as you have been from the beginning in the inspired word,
ruling your life in accordance with them, and needing no other teaching.
But I do implore you to remember those words that charge us to master our
feelings, and promise us eternal life, proclaim the destruction of death,
and announce the common resurrection of its all. Besides all this, nay,
before all this, I ask you to reflect that He who has bidden these things
so be is the Lord, that He, is a Lord all wise and all good, Who knows
exactly what is best for us, and to this end guides all our life. Sometimes
death is better than life, and what seems distressing is really pleasanter
than fancied joys. I beg your piety to accept the consolation offered by my
humility, that you may serve the Lord of all by nobly bearing your pain,
and affording to men as well as women an example of trite wisdom. For all
will admire the strength of mind which has bravely borne the attack of
grief and broken the force of its violent assault by the magnanimity of its
resolution. And we are not without great comfort in the living likenesses
of your departed son; for he has left behind him offspring worthy of deep
affection, who may be able to stay the excess of our sorrow.

   Lastly I implore you to remember in your grief what your bodily
infirmity can endure, and to avoid increasing your sufferings by mourning
overmuch; and I implore our Lord of His infinite resources to give you
ground of consolation.

XVIII. To Neoptolemus.

   Whenever I cast my eyes on the divine law which calls those who are
joined together in marriage "one flesh,"(1) I am at a loss how to comfort
the limb that has been sundered, because I take account of the greatness of
the pang. But when I consider the course of nature, and the law which the
Creator has laid down in the words "Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt
return,"(1) and all that goes on daily in all the world on land and sea--
for either husbands first approach the end of life or this lot first
befalls the wives--I find from these reflections many, grounds of
consolation; and above all the hopes that have been given us by our Lord
and Saviour. For the reason of the accomplishment of the mystery of the
incarnation was that we, being taught the defeat of death, should no more
grieve beyond measure at the loss by death of those we love, but await the
longed-for fulfilment of the hope of the resurrection. I entreat your
Excellency to reflect on these things, and to overcome the pain of your
grief; and all the more because the children of your common love are with
you, and give you every ground of comfort. Let us then praise Him who
governs our lives wisely, nor rouse His anger by immoderate lamentation,
for in His wisdom He knows what is good for us, and in His mercy He gives
it.

XIX. To the Presbyter Basilius.

   I have found the right eloquent orator Athanasius to be just what your
letter described him. His tongue is adorned by his speech, and his speech
by his character, and all about him is brightened by his abundant faith.
Ever, most God-beloved friend, send us such gifts. You have given me, be
assured, very great pleasure through my intercourse with him.

XX. To the Presbyter Martyrius.

   Natural disposition appears in us before resolution of character, and,
in this sense, takes the lead; but disposition is overcome by resolution,
as is plainly proved by the right eloquent orator Athanasius. Though an
Egyptian by birth, he has none of the Egyptian want of self-control, but
shews a character tempered by gentleness.(2) He is moreover a warm lover of
divine things. On this account he has spent many days with me, expecting to
reap some benefit from his stay. But I, as you know, most God-beloved
friend, shrink from trying so to derive good from others, and am far from
being able to impart it to those who seek it, and this not because I
grudge, but because I have not the wherewithal, to give. Wherefore let your
holiness pray that what is said of me may be confirmed by fact, and that
not only may good things be reported of me by word, but proved in deed.

XXI. To the learned Eusebius.

   The disseminators of this great news, with the idea that it would be
very distasteful to me, fancied that they might in this way annoy me. But I
by God's grace welcomed the news, and await the event with pleasure. Indeed
very grateful to me is any kind of trouble which is brought on me for the
sake of the divine doctrines. For, if we really trust in the Lord's
promises, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us."(1)

   And why do I speak of the enjoyment of the good things which are hoped
for? For even if no prize had been offered to them that struggle for the
sake of true religion, Truth alone by her own unaided force would herself
have been sufficient to persuade them that love her to welcome gladly all
perils in her cause. And the divine Apostle is witness of what I say,
exclaiming as he does, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
peril or sword? As it is written, 'For thy sake we are killed all the day
long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'"(2)

   And then to teach us that he looks for no reward, but only loves his
Saviour, he adds straightway "Nay in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved US."(3)

   And he goes on further to exhibit his own love more clearly. "For I am
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."(4)

   Behold, my friend, the flame of apostolic affection; see the torch of
love.(5)

   I covet not, he says, what is His. I only long for Him; and this love
of mine is an unquenchable love and I would gladly forego all present and
future felicity, aye, suffer and endure again all kinds of pain so as to
keep with me this flame in all its force. This was exemplified by the
divine writer in deed as well as in word and everywhere by land and sea he
has left behind him memorials of his sufferings. So when I turn my eyes on
him and on the rest of the patriarchs. prophets, apostles, martyrs,
priests, what is commonly reckoned miserable I cannot but hold to be
delightful. I confess to a feeling of shame when I remember how even they
who never learnt the lessons we have learnt, but followed no other guide
but human nature alone, have won conspicuous places in the race of virtue.
The famous Socrates, son of Sophroniscus, when under the calumnious
indictment, not only treated the lies of his accusers with contempt, but
expressed his cheerfulness in the midst of his troubles in the words.
"Anytus and Meletus(1) can kill me, but they cannot harm me." And the
orator of Paeania,(2) who was as wise as he was eloquent, enriched both the
men of his own day and them that should come after him with the saying: "to
all the race of men the end of life is death, even though one shut himself
up for safety in a cell; so good men are bound ever to put their hand to
every honourable work, ever defending themselves with good hope as with a
shield, and bravely to bear whatever lot may be given them by God."(3)

   Moreover a writer of earlier date than Demosthenes, I mean the son of
Olorus, wrote many noble sentiments, and among them this "We must bear what
the gods send us of necessity and the fortune of war with courage."(4) Why
need I quote philosophers, historians, and orators? For even the men who
gave higher honour to their mythology than to the truth have inserted many
useful exhortations in their stories; as Homer in his poems introduces the
wisest of the Hellenes preparing himself for deeds of valour, where he says

   "He chid his angry spirit and beat his breast, And said 'Forbearmy
mind, and think on this: There hath been time when bittereragonies Have
tried thy patience.'"(5)

   Similar passages might easily be collected from poets, orators, and
philosophers, but for us the divine writings are sufficient.

   I have quoted what I have to prove how disgraceful it were for the mere
disciples of nature to get the better of us who have had the teaching of
the prophets and the apostles, trusting in the Saviour's sufferings and
looking for the resurrection of the body, freedom from corruption, the gift
of immortality and the kingdom of heaven.

   So, my dear friend, comfort those who are discouraged at the stories
bruited abroad, and if anybody is pleased at them, tell them that we are
happy too, that we are exulting and dancing with joy, and that what they
call punishment we are looking for as the kingdom of heaven itself.

   To inform those who do not know in what mind we are, be assured, most
excellent friend, that we believe, as we have been taught, in the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. There is no truth in the slander of some that
we have been taught to believe, or have been baptized, or do believe, or
teach others to believe, in two Sons. As we know one Father and one Holy
Ghost so we know one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of
God, God the Word who was made man. We do not however deny the properties
of the natures. We hold them to be in error who divide the one Lord Jesus
Christ into two Sons, and we also call them enemies of the truth who
endeavour to confound the natures. We believe an union to have been made
without confusion, and we reckon some qualities to be proper to the manhood
and others to the Godhead; for just as the man--I mean man in general--
reasonable and mortal being, has a soul and has a body, and is reckoned to
be one being, just so the distinction between the two natures does not
divide the one man into two persons, but we recognise in the one man both
the immortality of the soul and the mortality of the body, and acknowledge
the invisible soul and the visible body, but, as I said, one being at once
reasonable and mortal; so do we recognise our Lord and God, I mean the Son
of God our Lord Christ, even after His incarnation, to be one Son; for the
union is indivisible, as we know it is without confusion. We acknowledge
too that the Godhead is without beginning, and that the manhood is of
recent origin; for the one nature is of the seed of Abraham and David, from
whom descended the holy Virgin, but the divine nature was begotten of the
God and Father before the ages without time, without passions, without
severance. But suppose the distinction between flesh and Godhead to be
destroyed, what weapons shall we use in our war with Arius and Eunomius?
How shall we undo their blasphemy against the only begotten? As it is, we
apply the words of humiliation as to man, the words of exaltation and
divinity as to God, and the setting forth of the truth is very easy to us.

   But this disquisition on the faith is exceeding the limits of a letter.
Still even these few words are enough to show the character of the
apostolic faith.(1)

XXII. To Count Ulpianus.

   It is said that what is faulty in men's ways may be brought to order
and improved by words. But I think that characters made beautiful by
nature, themselves make words fair, though they stand in need of none, just
as bodies naturally beautiful need no artificial colouring. These qualities
are conspicuous in the right eloquent orator Athanasius, and I have been
the more pleased with him because he is an ardent lover of your Excellency,
and is constantly sounding your praises. Here, however, I have striven with
him, and in enumerating your high qualities, have outdone him, for I know
more about good deeds of yours than he. I am however vexed at not being
able to praise them all, and to see that my summary of your virtues falls
short of what might be said in your praise, but if God grant it even to
approach the truth you will hold the pre-eminence in every kind of virtue
among all your contemporaries.(2)

XXIII. To the Patrician Areobindas.(3)

   In distributing wealth and poverty among men the Creator and Governor
of all gives no unjust judgment, but gives the poverty of the poor to the
rich as a means of usefulness. So He brings chastisement upon men not
merely in the infliction of punishment for their faults, but to provide the
wealthy with opportunities for shewing kindness to mankind. This year the
Lord has sent us scourges, far less than our sins, but enough to distress
the husbandmen, of whose sufferings I lately made your magnificence
acquainted through your own hinds. Pity, I beseech you, the tillers of the
ground, who have spent their toil with but very little result. Be this bad
year a suggestion of spiritual abundance, and do ye through the exercise of
compassion gather in the harvest of the compassion of God. On this account
the excellent Dionysius has hurried to your greatness to tell you of the
trouble, that he may receive the remedy. He carries this letter, like a
suppliant's branch of olive, in the hope that by its means he may receive
greater kindness.

XXIV. To Andreas Bishop of Samosata.

   Your piety, nursling of God's love, longs, I am sure, for my society.
But I am all the more eager for yours in proportion as I know that from it
more advantage will accrue to me. Want somehow naturally makes our wishes
the stronger, but the Lord of all is able to give us what we long for. He
rules all things Himself; knows what is sure to do us good, and never
ceases to give every man this boon. I really cannot tell you how much
delighted I was with your letter, and the very honourable and devout deacon
Thalassius increased my pleasure by telling me what I was very anxious to
know, for what call be more welcome to me than news that all goes well with
you? And what is it that so increases your welfare as the moderation of the
great men among us? You have acted like a wise and active physician who
does not wait to be sent for, but comes of his own accord to them that need
his care. This has given me great pleasure, and I have learnt by my own
experience what the poet means when he says "laughing through her
tears."(1) May the bountiful Giver of all good things grant your holiness
to excel in them, and to make us emulous of what is praiseworthy in all
good men. Help us then my dear friend, and persuade him who can to grant
our petition."

XXV. Festal.

   When the only begotten God had been made Man, and had wrought out our
salvation, they who in those days saw Him from whom these bounties flowed
kept no feast. But in our time, land and sea, town and hamlet, though they
cannot see their benefactor with eyes of sense, keep a feast in memory of
all He has done for them; and so great is the joy flowing from these
celebrations that the streams of spiritual gladness run in all directions.
Wherefore we now salute your piety, at once to signify the cheerfulness
which the feast has caused in us, and to ask your prayers that we may keep
it to the end.

XXVI. Festal.

   The fountains of the Lord's kindness are ever gushing forth with good
things for them that believe; but some further good is conveyed by the
celebrations which preserve the memory of the greatest of benefits to them
that keep the feasts with more good will. We have just now celebrated the
rites and enjoyed their blessing, and thus salute your piety, for so the
custom of the feast and law of love enjoins.

XXVII. To Aquilinus, deacon and Archimandrite.

   No one who has won the divine adoption weeps for orphanhood, for what
guardian care can be more powerful than that of our Father which is on
high, because of Him fathers of earth are fathers. By His will some are
made fathers by nature, some by grace. To Him then let us hold fast and
keep alive the memory of them that are dead. For we shall be the better for
the recollection of them that have lived well, rousing us to imitation of
them.

XXVIII. To Jacobus, presbyter and monk.

   They who have made the vigour of their manhood bright by virtuous
industry hasten happily towards old age, gladdened by the recollection of
their former victories, and for old age's sake rid of further struggle.
This joy I think your own piety possesses, and that you bear your old age
the more easily for the recollection of the labours of your youth.

XXIX. To Apellion.

   The sufferings of the Carthaginians would demand, and, in their
greatness, perhaps out-task, the power of the tragic language of an
AEschylus or a Sophocles. Carthage of old was with difficulty taken by the
Romans. Again and again she contended with Rome for the mastery of the
world, and brought Rome within danger of destruction. Now the ruin has been
the mere byplay of barbarians. Now dignified members of her far-famed
senate wander all over the world, getting means of existence from the
bounty of kindly strangers, moving the tears of beholders, and teaching the
uncertainty and instability of the lot of man.

   I have seen many who have come thence and I have felt afraid, for I
know not, as the Scripture says, "what the morrow will bring forth."[1] Not
least do I admire the admirable and most honourable Celestinianus, so
bravely does he bear his misfortune, and makes the loss of his happiness an
occasion for philosophy, praising the governor of all, and holding that to
be good which God either ordains or suffers to be. For the wisdom of divine
Providence is unspeakable. He is travelling with his wife and children, and
I beg your excellency to treat him with an hospitality like that of
Abraham. With perfect confidence in your benevolence I have undertaken to
introduce him to you, anti I am telling him how generous is your right
hand.[1]

XXX. To Aerius the Sophist.[2]

   Now is the time for your Academy to prove the use of your discussions.
I am told that a brilliant assemblage collects at your house, of which the
members are both illustrious by birth and polished of speech, and that you
debate about virtue and the immortality of the soul, anti other kindred
subjects. Show now opportunely your nobility of soul and wealth of virtue,
and receive the most admirable and honourable Celestinianus in the spirit
of men who have learnt the rapid changes of human prosperity. He was
formerly an ornament of the city of Carthage, where he flung open the doors
of his house to many priests, and never thought to need a stranger's
kindness. Be his spokesman, my friend, and aid him in his need of your
voice, for he cannot suffer the advice of the poet which bids him that
needeth speak though he be ashamed.[3]

   Persuade I beg you any of your society who are capable of so doing to
emulate the hospitality of Alcinous,[4] to remove the poverty which has
unexpectedly befallen him, and to change his evil fortune into good. Let
them praise our kindly Lord for making us wise by other men's calamities,
not having sent us to strangers' houses and having brought stranger's to
our doors. To men that shew kindness He promises to give what words cannot
express and no intelligence can understand.

XXXI. To Domnus bishop of Antioch.[5]

   The most admirable and honourable Celestinianus is a native of the
famous Carthage, and of an illustrious family in that city. Now he has been
exiled from it. He is wandering in foreign parts, and has to look to the
benevolence of them that love God. He carries with him a burden from which
he cannot escape and which increases his care--I mean his wife, his
children and his servants, for whom he is at great expense. I wonder at his
spirit. For he praises the great Pilot as though he were being borne by
favourable breezes, and cares nothing for the terrible storm. From his
calamity he has reaped the fruit of piety, and this thrice blessed gain has
been brought him by his misfortune; for while he was in prosperity he never
accepted this teaching, but when the evil day left him bare, among the rest
of his losses he lost his impiety too, and now possesses the wealth of the
faith, and for its sake thinks little of his ruin.

   I therefore beseech your holiness to let him find a fatherland in these
foreign parts, and to charge them that abound in riches to comfort one who
once was endowed like themselves, and to scatter the dark cloud of his
calamity. It is only right and proper that among men of like nature, where
all have erred, they that have escaped chastisement should bring comfort to
them that have fallen on evil days, and by their sympathy for these latter
propitiate the mercy of God.

XXXII. To the Bishop Theoctistus.[1]

   If the God of all hall forthwith inflicted punishment on all that err
he would utterly have destroyed all men. But He spares; He is a merciful
Judge; and therefore some He chastises, and to others He gives the lesson
of the punishment of the chastised. An instance of this merciful dealing
has been shewn in our times. Exiles from what was once known as Libya, but
is now called Africa, have been brought by Him to our doors, and by shewing
us their sufferings He moves us to fear, and by fear rouses us to sympathy;
thus He accomplishes two ends at once, for He both benefits us by their
chastisement, and to them by our means brings comfort. This comfort I now
beg you to give to the very admirable and honourable Celestinianus, a man
who once was an ornament of the Africans' chief city, but now has  neither
city nor home, nor any of the necessaries of life. Now it is proper that
those who in the jurisdiction of your holiness have been entrusted with the
pastoral care of souls should bring before their fellow citizens what is
for their good, for indeed they need such teaching. For this reason, as we
know, the divine Apostle in his Epistle to Titus writes "Let ours also
learn to maintain good works for necessary uses,"[1] for if our city,
solitary as it is, and with only a small population, and that a poor one,
succours the strangers, much rather may Beroea,[2] which has been nurtured
in true religion, be expected to do so, especially under the leadership of
your holiness.

XXXIII. To Stasimus, Count and Primate.[3]

   To narrate the sufferings of the most honourable and dignified
Celestinianus would require tragic eloquence. Tragic writers set forth
fully the ills of humanity, but I can only in a word inform your excellency
that his country is Libya, so long on all men's tongues, his city the far
famed Carthage, his hereditary rank a seat in her famous council, his
circumstances affluent. But all this is now a tale, mere words stripped
bare of realities. The barbarian war has deprived him of all this. But such
is fortune; she refuses to remain always with the same men and hastens to
change her abode to dwell with others.[4] I beg to introduce this guest to
your excellency, and beseech you that be may enjoy your far famed
beneficence. I beg also that through your excellency he may become known to
all those who are in  office and opulence, in order that you may both
become a means of advantage to them and win the higher reward from our
merciful God.

XXXIV. To the Count Patricius.

   All kinds of goodness are praiseworthy, but all are made more beautiful
by loving kindness. For it we earnestly pray the God of all; through it
alone we obtain forgiveness when we err; it makes wealth stoop to the poor.
and because I know that your Excellency is richly endowed with it I
confidently commend to you the admirable and excellent Celestinianus, once
lord of vast wealth and possessions and suddenly stripped of all, but
bearing his poverty as easily as few men bear their riches. The subject of
the tragedy involving the fall of his fortunes is the barbarian invasion of
Libya and Carthage. I have introduced him to your greatness; pray suggest
his case to others, and move them to pity. You will win greater gain by
giving many a lesson in loving kindness:

XXXV. To the Bishop Irenaeus.[1]

   You are conspicuous, my Lord, for many forms of goodness, and your
holiness is beautified in an especial degree by loving-kindness, by
contempt of riches, and by a generosity that gushes forth for the help of
them that need. I know too that you deem worthy of more than ordinary
attention those who have been brought up in prosperity and have fallen from
it into trouble. Knowing this as well as I do I venture to make known to
you the very admirable and excellent Celestinianus. He was once well known
in Carthage for wealth and position, now stripped of these he is favourably
known by his piety and philosophy, for he bears what men call misfortune
with resignation because it has brought him to the salvation of his soul.
He came to me with a letter which described his former prosperity, and
after he had passed several days with me I proved the truth of what was
said of him by experience. I have therefore no hesitation in commending him
to your Holiness, and begging you to make him known to the well-to-do men
of the city. It is probable that when they have learnt what has befallen
him, in fear of a like fate befalling themselves, they will endeavour to
escape judgment by shewing mercy. He has no resource but to go about
begging, as he is put to the greater expense because he has with him his
wife and children, and the domestics who with him escaped the violence of
the barbarians.

XXXVI. To Pompianus, Bishop of Emesa.

   I know very well that your means are small and your heart is great, and
that in your case generosity is not prevented by limited resources. I
therefore introduce to your holiness the admirable and excellent
Celestinianus, once enjoying much wealth and prosperity, but now escaped
from the hands of the barbarians with nothing but freedom, and having no
means of livelihood except the mercy of men like your piety. And cares
crowd round him, for travelling with him are his wife, children and
servants, whom he has brought with him from no motives but those of
humanity, for he cannot think it right to dismiss them when they refuse to
abandon him. I beg you of your goodness to make him known to our wealthy
citizens, for I think that, after being informed by your holiness and
seeing how soon prosperity may fall away, they will bethink them of our
common humanity, and, in imitation of your magnanimity, will give him such
help as they can.

XXXVII. To Salustius the Governor.[1]

   When rulers keep the scales of justice true, and let them hang in even
balance, they confer all kinds of benefits upon their subjects; if they are
also gifted with prudence and further show loving-kindness to him that
needs it, manifold advantages accrue from their rule to them that live
under it. Having enjoyed these good things through your excellency, and
having experienced them in your refiner administration, they have now been
moved with joy at the information that to your munificence the helm of
government has been entrusted. I pray that they may gain yet greater good,
that your excellency may win still higher praise, and that the encomiums of
your eulogists may be vindicated by the addition to all your other
honourable titles to fame of that colophon[2] of good things--true
religion. As I was compelled to pass several days in Hierapolis I hoped to
have the pleasure of meeting your excellency, and persistently enquired of
new comers if the insignia of office had been conveyed to you. But I was
compelled by the divine feast of salvation to return in haste to the city
entrusted to me. Now however that I have received your excellency's letter,
with very great pleasure I return your salutation. and without delay have
sent, as you requested, the honourable and pious deacon who is by God's
grace a water-finder. May the Lord in His loving kindness grant him both to
do good service to the city and increase your excellency's glory.

XXXVIII. Festal.

   The divine feast of salvation has brought us the founts of God's good
gifts, the blessing of the Cross, and the immortality which sprang from our
Lord's death, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ which gives promise
of the resurrection of us all. These being the gifts of the feast, such its
exhibition of the bounty of divine grace, it has filled us with spiritual
gladness. But encompassed as we are on every side by many and great
calamities, the brightness of the feast is dimmed, and lamentation and
wailing are mingled with our psalmody. Such sorrows does sin bring forth.
It is sin which has filled our life with pangs; it is on account of sin
that death is lovelier to us than life; it is on account of sin that when
we think in imagination of that incorruptible tribunal we shudder even at
the life to come. So may your piety pray that God's loving-kindness may
light on us, and that this gloomy and terrible cloud may be dispersed and
sunshine again quickly give us joy.

XXXIX. Festal.

   My wish was to write in cheerful terms and sound the note of the
spiritual joy of the feast, but I am prevented by the multitude of our
sins, which are bringing on us the judgment of God. For who indeed can be
so insensible as not to perceive the divine wrath? May your piety then pray
that affairs may undergo a change for the better; that so we too may change
the style of our letter, and write words of cheerfulness instead of those
of wailing.

XL. To Theodorus the Vicar.[1]

   The custom of the feast bids me write a festal letter, but the cloud of
our calamities suffers me not to gather the usual happy fruit from it. Who
is so stony-hearted as not to be shocked and affrighted at the anger and
grief of the Lord? Who is not stirred to the memory of faults? Who does not
look for the righteous sentence? All this dims the brightness of the feast,
but the Lord is frill of loving-kindness, and we trust He will not actually
fulfil His threats, but will look mercifully on us, scatter our sadness,
open the springs of mercy, and shew His wonted long suffering. I salute
your greatness, and beseech you to send me news of the health I sincerely
trust you are enjoying.

XLI. To Claudianus.[2]

   The divine Celebration has as usual conferred on us its spiritual
boons; but the sour fruits of sin have not suffered us to enjoy them with
gladness. They have had their usual results; in the beginning they caused
thorns, caltrops, sweats, toil and pain to sprout; at the present moment
sin sets the earth quaking against us, and makes nations rise against us on
every side. And we lament because we force the good Lord, who is wishful to
do us good, to do us ill, and compel Him to inflict punishment.

   Yet when we be think us of the unfathomable depths of His pity we are
comforted, and trust that the Lord will not cast off His people, neither
will He forsake His inheritance.[1] While saluting your magnificence I
beseech you to give me news of your much-wished for health.

XLII. To Constantius the perfect.[2]

   Did no necessity compel me to address a letter to your greatness, I
might haply be found guilty of presumption, for neither taking due measure
of myself nor recognising the greatness of your power. But now that all
that is left of the city and district which God has committed to my charge
is in peril of utterly perishing, and certain men have dared to bring
calumnious charges against the recent visitation, I am sure your
magnificence will pardon the boldness of my letter when you enquire into
the necessity of the case, my own object in writing. I groan and lament at
being compelled to write against a man over whose errors one ought to throw
a veil, because he is of the clerical order. Nevertheless I write to defend
the cause of the poor whom he is wronging. After being charged with many
crimes and excluded from the Communion, pending the assembly of the sacred
Synod, in alarm at the decision of the episcopal council he has made his
escape from this place, thereby trampling, as he supposed, on the laws of
the Church, and, by his contempt of the sentence of excommunication has
laid bare his motive. He has undertaken an accusation not even fit for men
of mean crafts, and in consequence of his ill-feeling towards the
illustrious Philip has proceeded against the wretched tax-payers. I feel
that it is quite needless for me to mention his character, his course of
life from the beginning and the greatness of his wrong-doings, but this one
thing I do beseech your Excellency, not to believe his lies, but to ratify
the visitation, and spare the wretched tax-payers. Aye, spare the thrice
wretched decurions who cannot exact the moneys demanded of them. Who indeed
is ignorant of the severity of the taxation of the acres among us? On this
account most of our landowners have fled, our hinds have run away, and the
greater part of our lands are deserted. In discussing the land there will
be no impropriety in our using geometrical terms. Of our country the length
is forty milestones, and the breadth the same. It includes many high
mountains, some wholly bare, and some covered with unproductive vegetation.
Within this district there are fifty thousand free jugers,[1] and besides
that ten thousand which belong to the imperial treasury. Now only let your
wisdom consider how great is the wrong. For if none of the country had been
uncultivated, and it had all furnished easy husbandry for the hinds, they
would nevertheless have sunk under the tribute unable to endure the
severity of the taxation. And here is a proof of what I say. In the time of
Isidorus[2] of glorious memory, fifteen thousand acres were taxed in gold,
but the exactors of the Comitian assessment unable to bear the loss,
frequently complained, and by offerings besought your high dignity to let
them off two thousand five hundred for the unproductive acres, and your
excellency's predecessors in this office ordered the unproductive acreage
to be taken off the unfortunate decurions, and an equivalent number to be
substituted for the Comitian; and not even thus are they able to complete
the tale.

   So with many words I ask your favour, and beseech your magnificence to
put aside the false accusations that are made against the wretched tax-
payers, to stem the tide of distress in this unhappy district, and let it
once more lift its head. Thus you will leave an imperishable memory of
honour to future generations. I am joined in my supplication to you by all
the saints of our district, and especially by that right holy and pious man
of God, the Lord Jacobus.[3] who holds silence in such great esteem that he
cannot be induced to write, but he prays that our city, which is made
illustrious by having him as neighbour and is protected by his prayers, may
receive the boon which I ask.

XLIII. To the Augusta Pulcheria[4]

   Since you adorn the empire by your piety and render the purple brighter
by your faith, we make bold to write to you, no longer conscious of our
insignificance in that you always pay all due honour to the clergy. With
these sentiments I beseech your majesty to deign to show clemency to our
unhappy country, to order the ratification of the visitation which has been
several times made, and not to accept the false accusations which some men
have brought against it. I beseech you to give no credit to him who bears
indeed the name of bishop, but whose mode of action is unworthy even of
respectable slaves.[1] He has been himself under serious charges and
subject to the bann of excommunication under the most holy and God-beloved
archbishop of Antioch, the Lord Domnus, pending the summoning of the
episcopal council for the investigation of the charges against him. He has
now made his escape, and betaken himself to the imperial city, where he
plies the trade of an informer, attacking the country which is his mother
country with its thousands of poor, and, for the sake of his hatred to one,
wags his tongue against all. Out of regard to what is becoming to me I will
say nothing as to his character and education, and indeed he shows only too
plainly what he has at present in hand. But of the district I will say
this, that when the whole province had its burdens lightened, this portion,
although it bore a very heavy share of the burden, never enjoyed the
benefit of relaxation. The result is that many estates are deprived of
husbandmen; nay, many are altogether abandoned by their owners, while the
wretched decurions have demands made on them for these very properties,
and, being quite unable to bear the exaction, betake themselves some to
begging, and some to flight. The city seems to be reduced to one man, and
he will not be able to hold out unless your piety supplies a remedy. But I
am in hopes that your serenity will heal the wounds in the city and add yet
this one more to your many good deeds.

XLIV. To the patrician[2] Senator.

   Thanks be to the Saviour of the world because to your greatness He is
ever adding dignity and honour. The reason of my not writing up to this
time to exhibit the delight which I have felt at the colophon[2] of your
honour, has been my wish not to trouble your magnificence. At the moment of
my now thus writing, the district which Providence has committed to my care
stands as the proverb has it on a razor's edge.[4] You will remember the
visitation which was made at the time when we first were benefited by your
presence among us; how it was with difficulty established in the time of
the most excellent prefect the Lord Florentius;(1) and how it was confirmed
by the present holder of the office. An individual who bears the name of
bishop, but of ways unworthy even of stage players, has fled from the
episcopal synod at a time when he was lying under sentence of
excommunication and is endeavouring to calumniate and discredit the
visitation, while through his hatred to the illustrious Philip be assails
the truth. I therefore beseech your excellency to make his lies of none
effect, and that the visitation lawfully confirmed may remain undisturbed.
It is indeed becoming to your greatness to reap the fruit of this good deed
among the rest, to receive the acclamations of those whom yon are
benefiting, and so to do honour at once to the God of all and to his true
servant the very man of God the Lord Jacob,(2) who joins with me in sending
you this supplication. Had it been his wont to write he would have written
himself.

XLV. To the Patrician Anatolius.(3)

   Your greatness knows full well how all the inhabitants of the East feel
towards your magnificence, as sons feel towards an affectionate father. Why
then have you shewn hate to them that love you, deprived them of your
kindly care, and driven them all to weeping and lamentation by putting your
own advantage before the service of others? In truth I think there is not
one of them that fear the Lord who is not much grieved at losing your
official sway, and I think that even all the rest, although they have not
right knowledge about divine things, when they reflect on the kindnesses
you have conferred share in these sentiments of distress. I for my part am
specially sorry when I bethink the of your dignity and your unaffected
character, and I pray the God of all ever to bestow on you the bulwark of
His invincible right hands and supply you with abundance of all kinds of
blessings. We beseech your excellency no less when absent than when present
to extend to us your accustomed protection, and to undo the rage of that
unworthy bishop of ours whose purposes are perfectly well known to your
greatness. He is endeavouring, as I am informed, to work the entire ruin of
our district, and has accepted the part of an informer to culumniate the
recent visitation, and this when all in a word know that the taxation of
our district is very heavy, and that in consequence many estates have been
abandoned by the husbandmen. But this man, in contempt of his
excommunication, and in flight from the holy synod, has thrust out his
tongue against the unhappy poor. May your magnificence then consent to look
to it that the truth be not vanquished by a lie. And I bring the same
supplication about the Cilicians. For we cease not to wail till the
iniquity be undone. The Lord, who promises to reward even a drop of water,
will requite you for this trouble.

XLVI. To the learned Petrus.

   Nothing is able to stay the praiseworthy purpose of them that highly
esteem what is right. That this is the case is confirmed by  the grief
shown by your magnificence at the news you have lately received, and your
re-refusal to overlook the attack that right has suffered. You have
opportunely put away your distress, and righteously stopped the mouth of
the enemy of the truth. No sooner did we hear of this, and found true
philosophy so coupled with rhetorical skill, than we felt the more warmly
disposed towards your' excellence. Now we beseech you the more earnestly to
counteract this fine fellow's lies and confirm the comfort given to the
unhappy poor.

XLVII. To Proclus,(1) Bishop of Constantinople.

   A year ago, thanks to your holiness, the illustrious Philip governor of
our city was delivered from serious danger. After entering into the
enjoyment of the security which he owed to your kindness, he filled our
ears with your praises. But all your labour a certain most pious personage
was endeavouring to make null and void. The visitation made several times
twelve years ago he calumniates, and has adopted a style of slander which
would be unbecoming even in a respectable slave. Now I beseech your
sanctity to put a stop to his lies, and to induce the illustrious praefects
to ratify the decision which they duly and mercifully gave. As a matter of
fact our city was taxed more severely than all the cities of the provinces,
and after every city had been relieved ours continued to this day assessed
at over sixty-two thousand acres. At last the occupants of that seat of
honour were with difficulty induced to send inspectors of the district;
their report was first received by Isidorus of famous memory and confirmed
by the glorious and Christ-loving lord Florentius, and tile whole matter
was very carefully enquired into by our present ruler, whose equity adorns
the throne, and he confirmed the assessment by an imperial decree. But this
truth-loving person, all for his hatred of one single individual, the
excellent Philip, has declared war against the poor. Under these
circumstances I implore your holiness to array the forces of your righteous
eloquence against his eloquence of wrong, to throw your shield over the
truth which is attacked and at once prove her strength and the futility of
lies.

XLVIII. To Eustathius, bishop of Berytus.(1)

   I have gladly received the accusation, although I have no difficulty in
disproving the indictment. I have written not three letters only but four;
and I suspect one of two things; either those who promised to convey the
letters did me wrong in the matter of their delivery, or else your piety,
though in receipt of them, is yet anxious for more, and so gets up a charge
of idleness against me. I, as I said before, am not distressed at the
accusation, for it is plain proof to me of the warmth of your affection.
Continue then to ply your craft, cease not to prefer your complaint and so
to cause pleasure to myself.

XLIX. To Damianus,(2) bishop of Sidon.

   It is the nature of mirrors to reflect the faces of them that gaze into
them, and so whoever looks at them sees his own form. This is the same too
with the pupils of the eyes, for they shew in them the likeness of other
people's features. Of this your holiness furnishes an instance, for you
have not seen my ugliness, but have beheld with admiration your own beauty.
I really have none of the qualities which you have mentioned. It is
nevertheless my prayer that your words may be vindicated by actual fact,
and I beseech your piety by your prayers to cause it to come to pass that
your praises may not fall to the ground through having no reality to
correspond with them.

L. To the Archimandrite Gerontius.(1)

   The characters of souls are often depicted in words and their unseen
forms revealed; so now your reverence's letter exhibits the piety of your
holy soul. Your waiting for that sentence, your anxiety, your search for
advocates and preparation for a defence, clearly indicate your soul's zeal
about divine things. We on the contrary are in a manner inactive and
sleepy; we are nurtured in idleness, and stand in need of much assistance
from prayers. Give them to us, O man beloved of God, that now at all events
we may wake up and give some care to the soul.

LI. To the presbyter Agapius.(2)

   The works of virtue are admirable in themselves, but yet more admirable
do they appear if they find an eloquence able to report them well. Neither
of these advantages has been lacking in the case of the bishop beloved of
God, the lord Thomas, for he himself has contributed his own labours on
behalf of piety, and has found in your holiness a tongue to bestow meet
praise on those labours. Coming as he did with such testimony in his favour
we have been all the more delighted to see him, and, after enjoying his
society for a short space, have dismissed him to his charge.

LII. To Ibas, bishop of Edessa. (3)

   It is, I think, of His providential care for our common salvation that
the God of all brings on some men certain calamities, that chastisement may
prove to be to them that have erred a healing remedy; to virtue's athletes
an encouragement to constancy; and to all who look on a beneficial
exemplar. For it is natural that when we see others punished we should be
filled with fear ourselves. In view of these considerations I look on the
trouble of Africa as a general advantage. In the first place when I bear in
mind their former prosperity and now took on their sudden overthrow, I see
how variable are all human affairs, and learn a twofold lesson;--not to
rejoice in felicity as though it would never come to an end, nor be
distressed at calamities as hard to bear. Then I recall the memory of past
errors, and tremble lest I fall into like sufferings. My main motive in now
writing to you is to introduce to your holiness the very Godbeloved bishop
Cyprianus,(1) who starting from the famous Africa is now compelled, by the
savagery of the barbarians, to travel in Foreign lands.

   He has brought a letter to us from the very holy bishop the lord
Eusebius,(2) who wisely rules the Galatians. When your piety has received
him with your wonted kindness I beg you to send him with a letter to
whatever pious bishops you may think fit so that while he enjoys their
kindly consolation he may be the means of their receiving heavenly and
lasting benefits.

LIII. To Sophronius, bishop of Constantina.(3)

   Since I know, O God-beloved, how generous and bountiful is your right
hand, I put a coveted boon within your reach; for just as men hungry for
this world's gain are annoyed at the sight of them that stand in need of
pecuniary aid, so the liberal are delighted, because the riches they reach
after are heavenly. A man who furnishes this excellent opportunity is the
God-beloved bishop Cyprianus, formerly known among them that minister to
others, but now, while he gives a deplorable account of the African
calamities, he has to look to the benevolence of others, and depends on the
bounty of pious souls. I hope that he too will enjoy your brotherly
kindness, and will be forwarded with letters to other havens of refuge.

LIV. Festal.

   By our divine and saving celebrations both the down-hearted are
cheered, and the joyous made yet more joyful. This I have learnt by
experience, for, when whelmed in the waves of despair, I have risen
superior to the surge at sight of the haven of the feast. May your piety
pray that I may be wholly rescued from this storm, and that our loving Lord
may grant me forgetfulness of my sorrow.

LV. Festal.

   We are much distressed, for we are gifted with the nature not of rocks
but of men, but the recollection of the Lord's Epiphany has been to me a
very potent medicine; so at once I write, according to the custom of the
feast, and salute your magnificence with a prayer that you may live in
prosperity and repute.

LVI. Festal.

   My grief is now at its height and my mind is seriously affected by it,
but I have thought it right to fulfil the custom of the feast, so now I
take my pen to salute your reverence and pay the debt of affection.

LVII. To the praefect Eutrechius.(1)

Besides other boons the Ruler of the universe has granted to us that of
hearing of your excellency's honour, and of congratulating at once yourself
on your elevation and your subjects on so gentle a rule. I have thought it
wrong to give no expression to my satisfaction and to refrain from
manifesting it by letter. Your magnificence knows quite well how warm is
our affection towards you--an affection most warmly reciprocated. And being
so filled with love we beseech the Giver of all good things ever to pour on
you His manifold gifts.

LVIII. To the consul Nomus.(2)

   I am divided in mind at the idea of sending a letter to your greatness.
On the one hand I know how everything depends on your judgment; I see you
under the weight of public anxieties, and so think it better to be silent.
On the other hand, being well aware of the breadth and capacity of your
intelligence, I cannot bear to say nothing, and am afraid of being charged
with negligence. I am moreover stimulated by the longing regret left with
me by the short taste I had of your society. My full enjoyment of it was
prevented by the disease and death of that most blessed man, so now I think
writing will be a comfort. I pray the Master of all to guide your life that
it be ever borne on favourable breezes and so we may reap the benefit of
your kindly care.

LIX. To Claudianus.(3)

   Sincere friendships are neither dissolved by distance of place nor
weakened by time. Time indeed inflicts indignities on our bodies, spoils
them of the bloom of their beauty, and brings on old age; but of friendship
he makes the beauty yet more blooming, ever kindling its fire to greater
warmth and brightness. So separated as I am from your magnificence by many
a day's march, pricked by the goad of friendship I indite you this letter
of salutation. It is conveyed by the standard-bearer Patroinus, a man who
on account of his high character is worthy of all respects for he
endeavours with much zeal to observe the laws of God. Deign, most excellent
sir, to give us by him information of your excellency's precious health,
and of the desired fulfilment of your promise.

LX. To Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria.(1)

   Among many forms of virtue by which, we hear that your holiness is
adorned (for all men's ears are filled by the flying fame of your glory,
which speeds in all directions) special praise is unanimously given to your
modesty, a characteristic of which our Lord in His law has given Himself as
an ensample, saying, "Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart;"(2)
for though God is high, or rather most high He honoured at His incarnation
the meek and lowly spirit. Looking then to Him, sir, you do not behold the
multitude of your subjects nor the exaltation of your throne, but you see
rather human nature, and life's rapid changes, and follow the divine laws
whose observance gives us the kingdom of heaven. Hearing of this modesty on
the part of your holiness, I take courage in a letter to salute a person
sacred anti dear to God, and I offer prayers whereof the fruit is
salvation. Occasion is given me to write by the very pious presbyter
Eusebius, for when I heard of his journey thither I immediately indited
this letter to call upon your holiness to support us by your prayers, and
by your reply to give us a spiritual feast, sending to us who are hungry
the blessed banquet of your words.

LXI. To the presbyter Archibius.

   I did not let the two letters which I had just received from you go
unheeded, but wrote without delay, and gave my letter to the very devout
presbyter Eusebius.(3) In consequence of some delay, it was for the time
postponed, for the weather  kept the vessels within the harbour, inasmuch
as it indicated a coming storm at sea and bade sailors and pilots wait
awhile. So I discharged this debt for the time, not that I may cease to be
a debtor but that I may increase the debt. For this obligation becomes many
times greater by being discharged, inasmuch as they who try to observe the
laws of friendship increase the potency of its love, and, blowing sparks
into a flame, kindle a greater warmth of affection, while all who are fired
thereby strive to surpass one another in love. Receive then my defence, my
venerable  friend; forgive me; and send me a letter to tell me how you are.

LXII. To the presbyter John.

   A saying of one of the men who used to be called wise was, "Live
unseen." I applaud the sentiment, and have determined to confirm the word
by deed, for I see no impropriety in gathering what is good from others,
just as bees, it is said, gather their honey and draw forth the sweet dew
from bitter herbs as well as from them that are good to eat, and I myself
have seen them settling on a barren rock and sucking up its scanty
moisture. Far more reasonable is it for them that are credited with reason
to harvest what is good from every source; so, as I said, I try to live
unseen, and above all men am I a lover of peace and quiet. On his recent
return from your part of the world the very pious presbyter Eusebius
announced that you had held a certain meeting, and that in the course of
conversation mention had been made of me, and that your piety spoke with
praise of my insignificant self. I have therefore deemed it ungrateful, and
indeed unfair, that he who spoke thus well and kindly of me should fail to
be paid in like coin; for although we bare done nothing worthy of praise
still we admire the intention of them that thus praise us, for such praise
is the off-spring of affection. Wherefore I salute your reverence, using as
a means of conveyance of my letter him who has brought to me the unwritten
words which you have spoken about me. When, most pious sir, you have
received my letter, write in reply. You were first in speech; I in writing;
and I answer speech by letter. It remains now to you to answer letter for
letter.

LXIII. Festal.(1)

   We have enjoyed the wonted blessings of the Feast. We have kept the
memorial Feast of the Passion of Salvation; by means of the resurrection of
the Lord we have received the glad tidings of the resurrection of all, and
have hymned the ineffable loving kindness of our God and Savior. But the
storm tossing the churches has not suffered us to take our share of
unalloyed gladness. If, when one member is in pain the whole body is
partaker of the pang,(2) how can we forbear from lamentation when all the
body is distressed? And it intensifies our discouragement to think that
these things are the prelude of the general apostasy. May your piety pray
that since we are in this plight we may get the divine succour, that, as
the divine Apostle phrases it, we may ''be able to withstand the evil
day."(1) But if any time remain for this life's business, pray that the
tempest may pass away, and the churches recover their former calm, that the
enemies of the truth may no more exult at our misfortunes.

LXIV. Festal.

   When the Master underwent the Passion of salvation for the sake of
mankind, the company of the sacred Apostles was much disheartened, for they
know not clearly what was to be the Passion's fruit. But when they knew the
salvation that grew therefrom, they called the proclamation of the Passion
glad tidings, and eagerly offered it to all mankind. And they that
believed, as being enlightened in mind, cheerfully received it, and keep
the Feast in memory of the Passion, and make the moment of death an
opportunity for entertainment and festivity. For the close connexion with
it of the resurrection does away with the sadness of death, and becomes a
pledge for the resurrection of all. After just now taking part in this
celebration, we send you these tidings of the feast as though they were
some fragrant perfume, and salute your piety.

LXV. To the general Zeno.(2)

   To be smitten by human ills is the common lot of all men; to endure
them bravely and rise superior to their attack is no longer common. The
former is of human nature; the latter depends upon resolution. It is on
this account that we wonder how the philosophers resolved on the noblest
course of life and conquered their calamities by wisdom. And philosophy is
produced by our reason's power, which rules our passions and is not led to
and fro by them. Now one of human ills is grief, and it is this which we
exhort your excellency to overcome, and it will not be difficult for you to
rise victorious over this feeling, if you consider human nature, and take
to heart the uselessness of sorrow. For what gain will it be to the
departed that we should wail and lament? When, however, we reflect upon the
common birth, the long years of intercourse, the splendid service in the
field, and the far-famed achievements, let us reflect that he who was
adorned by them was a man subject to the law of death; that moreover all
things are ordained by God, who guides the affairs of men in accordance
with His sacred knowledge of what will be for their good. Thus have I
written so far as the limits of a letter would allow me, beseeching your
eminence for all our sakes to preserve your health, which is wont to be
maintained by cheerfulness and ruined by despondency. Wherefore in my care
for the advantage of us all I have penned this letter.

LXVI. To Aerius the Sophist.(1)

   She that gave you birth and nurtured you invites you to the longed-for
feast. The holy shrine is crowned by a roof; it is fitly adorned; it is
eager for the inhabitants for whom it was erected. These are Apostles and
Prophets, loud-voiced heralds of the old and new covenant. Adorn,
therefore, the feast with your presence; receive the blessing which swells
forth from it, and make the feast more joyous to us.

LXVII. To Maranas.

   It was thy work, my good Sir, to call the rest also to the feast of the
dedication. Through thy zeal and energy the holy temple has been built, and
the loud-voiced heralds of the truth have come to dwell therein, and guard
them that approach thither in faith. Nevertheless I write and signify the
season of the feast.

LXVIII. To Epiphanius.

   It was my wish to summon you to the feast of holy Apostles and
Prophets, not only as a citizen, but as one who shares both my faith and my
home. But I am prevented by the state of your opinions. Therefore I put
forward no other claims than those of our country, and I invite you to
participate in the precious blessing of the holy Apostles and Prophets.
This participation no difference of sentiment hinders.

LXIX. To Eugraphia.(2)

   Had I not been unavoidably prevented, I should no sooner have heard
that your great and glorious husband had fallen asleep than I should
straightway have hurried to your side. I have enjoyed at your hands many
and various kinds of honour, and I owe you full many thanks. When hindered,
much against my will, from paying my debt, I deemed it ill-advised to send
you a letter at the very moment, when your grief was at its height; when it
was impossible for my messenger to approach your excellency, and when grief
prevented you from reading what I wrote. But now that your reason has had
time to wake from the intoxication of grief, to repress your emotion, and
to discipline the license of sorrow, I have made bold to write and to
beseech your excellency to bethink you of human nature, to reflect how
common is the loss you deplore, and, above all, to accept the divine
teaching, and not let your distress go beyond the bounds of your faith. For
your most excellent husband, as the Lord Himself said, "is not dead but
sleepeth"(1)--a sleep a little longer than he was wont. This hope has been
given us by the Lord; this promise we have received from the divine
oracles. I know indeed how distressing is the separation, how most
distressing; and especially so when affection is made stronger by sympathy
of character and length of time. But let your grief be for a journey into a
far country, not for a life ended. This kind of philosophy is particularly
becoming to them that be brought up in piety, and it is of this philosophy
that I beseech you, my respected friend, to seek the adornment. And I do
not offer you this advice as a man labouring himself under insensibility;
in truth my heart was grieved when I learnt of the departure of one I loved
so well. But I call to mind the Ruler of the world and His unspeakable
wisdom, which ordains everything for our good. I implore your holiness to
take these reflections to heart, to rise superior to your sorrow, and
praise God who is the Master of us all. It is with ineffable providence
that He guides the lives of men.

LXX. To Eustathius, bishop of Aegoe.(2)

   The story of the noble Mary is one fit for a tragic play. As she says
herself, and as is attested by several others, she is a daughter of the
right honourable Eudaemon. In the catastrophe which has overtaken Libya she
has fallen from her father's free estate, and has become a slave. Some
merchants bought her from the barbarians, and have sold her to some of our
countrymen. With her was sold a maiden who was once one of her own domestic
servants; so at one and the same time the galling yoke of slavery fell on
the servant and the mistress. But the servant refused to ignore the
difference between them, nor could she forget the old superiority: in their
calamity she preserved her kindly feeling, and, after waiting upon their
common masters, waited upon her who was reckoned her fellow slave, washed
her feet, made her bed, and was mindful of other like offices. This became
known to the purchasers. Then through all the town was noised abroad the
free estate of the mistress and the servant's goodness. On these
circumstances becoming known to the faithful soldiers who are quartered in
our city (I was absent at the time) they paid the purchasers their price,
and rescued the woman from slavery. After my return, on being informed of
the deplorable circumstances, and the admirable intention of the soldiers,
I invoked blessings on their heads, committed the noble damsel to the care
of one of the respectable deacons, and ordered a sufficient provision to be
made for her. Ten months had gone by when she heard that her father was
still alive, and holding high office in the West, and she very naturally
expressed a desire to return to him. It was reported that many messengers
from the West are on the way to the fair which is now being held in your
parts. She requested to be allowed to set out  with a letter from me. Under
these circumstances I have written this letter, begging your piety to take
care of a noble girl, and charge some respectable person to communicate
with mariners, pilots, and merchants, and commit her to the care of trusty
men who may be able to restore her to her father. There is no doubt that
those who, when all hope of recovery has been lost, bring the daughter to
the father, will be abundantly rewarded.

LXXI. To Zeno,(1) General and Consul.

   Your fortitude rouses universal admiration, tempered as it is by
gentleness and meekness, and exhibited to your household in kindliness, to
your foes in boldness. These qualities indicate an admirable general. In a
soldier's character the main ornament is bravery, but in a commander
prudence takes precedence of bravery; after these come self-control and
fairness, whereby a wealth of virtue is gathered. Such wealth is the reward
of the soul which reaches after good, and with its eyes fixed on the
sweetness of the fruit, deems the toil right pleasant. For to virtue's
athletes the God of all, like some great giver of games, has offered
prizes, some in this life, and some in that life beyond which has no end.
Those in this present life your excellency has already enjoyed, and you
have achieved the highest honour. Be it also the lot of your greatness to
obtain too those abiding and perpetual blessings, and to receive not only
the consul's robe, but also the garment that is indescribable and divine.
Of all them that understand the greatness of that gift this is the common
petition.

LXXII. To Hermesigenes the Assessor.(1)

   At the time when men were whelmed in the darkness of ignorance, all did
not keep the same feasts, but celebrated distinct ceremonies in different
cities. In Aeleis were the Olympian games, at Delphi the Pythian, at Sparta
the Hyacinthian, at Athens the Panathenaic, the Thesmophoria, and the
Dionysian. These were the most remarkable, and further some men celebrated
the revel feast of some daemons and some of others. But now that those
mists have been scattered by intellectual light, in every land and sea
mainlanders and islanders together keep the feast of our God and Saviour,
and whithersoever any one may wish to travel abroad, journey he either
towards rising or towards setting sun, everywhere he will find the same
celebration observed at the same time. There is no longer necessity, in
obedience to the law of Moses which was adapted to the infirmity of the
Jews, to come together into one city and keep the feast in memory of our
blessings, but every town, every village, the country and the farthest
frontiers, are filled with the grace of God, and in every spot divine
shrines and precincts are consecrated to the God of all. So through every
town we observe our several festivals and communicate with one another in
the feast. It is the same God and Lord who is honoured in our hymns and to
whom our mystic sacrifices are offered. On this account, as is well known,
we neighbours address one another by letter and signify the joy that comes
to us in the feast. So now do I to you and offer the festal salutation to
your excellency. You will without doubt reply and honour the custom of the
feast.

LXXIII. To Apollonius.(2)

   Themistocles the son of Neocles, the far-famed and admirable general,
is described by the admiring historian as endowed with natural virtue
alone. Of Pericles, however, the son of Xanthippus, it is said that he also
derived ability from his education to charm his hearers by his persuasive
eloquence, and was gifted with the power alike of knowing what measures
should be taken and of enforcing them by word of mouth. In writing about
him there is no impropriety in my using his own words. These things
illustrate your magnificence, for God, our Creator, hath given you natural
capacity, and your education makes its brilliance the more conspicuous.
Nothing then is wanting to the full complement of your high qualities save
only knowledge of their Author; be but this added, and the tale of virtues
which we shall have will be complete. Thus I write to you on receiving news
of your arrival, beseeching the Giver of all good to grant a beam of light
to your soul's eye, to show you the greatness of His boon, to kindle your
love of that possession, and to grant the longed for favour to him that
longs for it.(1)

LXXIV. To Urbanus.

   It has been granted to us by our generous Lord once again to enjoy the
feast and to send to your excellency the festal salutation. We pray that
you may be well and prosperous, and share the ineffable and divine boon
which to them that approach supplies the seeds of the blessings hoped for,
and gives the symbols of the life and kingdom that have no end. These
things we beseech the loving Lord to impart to you, for it is natural for
friends to ask that their friends may be blessed.

LXXV. To the Clergy of Beraea.

   I perceive that it is with reason that I am well disposed to your
reverences, for I have been assured by your kindly letter that my affection
was returned. For this affection of mine towards you I have many reasons.
First of all there is the fact that your father, that great and apostolic
man, was my father too. Secondly I look upon that truly religious
bishop,(2) who now rules your church, as I might on a brother both in blood
and in sympathy. Thirdly there is the near neighbourhood of our cities, and
fourthly our frequent intercourse with one another, which naturally begets
friendship and increases it when it is begotten. If you like, I will name
yet a fifth, and that is that we have the same close connexion with you as
the tongue has with the ears, the former uttering speech, and the latter
receiving it; for you most gladly listen to my words, and I am delighted to
let fall my little drop upon you. But the colophon(1) of our union is our
harmony in faith; our refusal to accept any spurious doctrines; our
preservation of the ancient and apostolic teaching, which has been brought
to you by hoary wisdom and nurtured by virtue's hardy toil. I beseech yon
therefore to take greater care of the flock, to preserve it unharmed for
the Shepherd, and boldly to utter the famous words of the patriarch "that
which was born of beasts I offered not unto Thee."(2)

LXXVI. To Uranius, Governor of Cyprus.

   True friendship is strengthened by intercourse, but separation cannot
sunder it, for its bonds are strong. This truth might easily be shewn by
many other examples, but it is enough for us to verify what I say by our
own case. Between me and you are indeed many things, mountains, cities, and
the sea yet nothing has destroyed my recollection of your excellency. No
sooner do we behold any one arriving from those towns which lie on the
coast, than the conversation is turned on Cyprus and on its right worthy
governor, and we are delighted to have tidings of your high repute. And
lately we have been gratified to an unusual degree at learning the most
delightful news of all: for what, most excellent sir, can be more pleasing
to us than to see your noble soul illuminated by the light of knowledge?
For we think it right that he who is adorned with many kinds of virtue
should add to them also its colophon, and we believe that we shall behold
what we desire. For your nobility will doubtless eagerly seize the God-
given boon, moved thereto by true friends who clearly understand its value,
and guided to the bountiful God "Who wills all men to be saved and to come
to the knowledge of the truths"(3) netting men by men's means to salvation,
and bringing them that He captures to the ageless life. The fisherman
indeed deprives his prey of life, but oar Fisher frees all that He takes
alive from death's painful bonds, and therefore "did he shew himself upon
earth, and conversed with men,"(4) bringing men His life, conveying
teaching by means of the visible manhood, and giving to reasonable beings
the law of a suitable life and conversation. This law He has confirmed by
miracles, and by the death of the flesh has destroyed death. By raising the
flesh He has given the promise of resurrection to us all, after giving the
resurrection of His own precious body as a worthy pledge of ours. So loved
He men even when they hated Him that the mystery of the oeconomy fails to
obtain credence with some on account of the very bitterness of His
sufferings, and it is enough to show the depths of His loving kindness that
He is even yet day by day calling to men who do not believe. And He does so
not as though He were in need of the service of men,--for of what is the
Creator of the universe in want?--but because He thirsts for the salvation
of every man. Grasp then, my excellent friend, His gift; sing praises to
the Giver, and procure for us a very great and right goodly feast.

LXXVII. To Eulalius, bishop of Persian Armenia.(1)

   I know that Satan has sought to sift you as wheat,(2) and that the Lord
has allowed him so to do that He may shew the wheat, and prove the gold,
crown the athletes, and proclaim the victors' names. Nevertheless I fear
and tremble, not indeed distressed for the sake of you who are noble
champions of the truth, but because I know that it comes to pass that some
men are of feebler heart. If among twelve apostles one was found a traitor,
there is no doubt that among a number many times as great any one might
easily discover many falling short of perfection. Thus reflecting I have
been confounded and filled with much discouragement, for, as says the
divine Apostle, "whether one member suffer all the members suffer with
it."(3) "We are members one of another,"(4) and form one body, having the
Lord Christ for head.(5) Yet one consolation I have in my anxiety, when I
bethink me of your holiness. For brought up as you have been in the divine
oracles, and taught by the arch-shepherd what are the good shepherd's
marks, there is no doubt that you will lay down your life for the sheep.
For, as the Lord says, "he that is an hireling" when he sees "the wolf
coming," "fleeth because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep,"
but "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep."(6) Just so it is not
in peace that the best general shews his inborn valour, but in time of war,
by at once stimulating others and himself exposing himself to peril for his
men. For it would be preposterous that he should enjoy the dignity of his
command, and, in the hour of need, run out of danger's way. Thus the thrice
blessed prophets ever acted, making light of the safety of their bodies,
and, for the sake of the Jews who hated and rejected them, underwent all
kinds of peril and toil. Of them the divine apostle says "they were stoned,
they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain by the sword; they
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted,
tormented, of whom the world was not worthy; they wandered in deserts and
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."(1) Thus the divine apostles
travelled preaching over all the world, without home, bed, bedding, board,
or any of the necessaries of life, but scourged, racked, imprisoned, and
undergoing countless kinds of death. And all this they underwent, not for
the sake of their friends, but voluntarily facing these perils for the sake
of the men who were persecuting them. A far stronger claim is made on you
now to accept the peril at present assailing you, for the sake of fellow-
believers and brothers and children. This affection is shown even by
unreasoning animals, for sparrows may be seen fighting with all their force
in behalf of their brood, and putting out in their defence all the strength
they have; other kinds of birds moreover undergo danger for their young.
But why do I speak of birds? Bears too, and leopards, wolves, and lions,
voluntarily suffer any pain for the safety of their offspring, for instead
of fleeing from the hunter they will await his attack and do battle for
their young.

   I have adduced these instances not as though anointing your piety for
endurance and courage by the example of brute beasts, but to console myself
in my despondency, and to be assured that you will not leave Christ's flock
without a shepherd when wolves make their attack, but will invoke the Lord
of the flock to help you and will heartily do battle in its behalf. A
crisis like this proves who is a shepherd and who a hireling; who
diligently feeds the flock and who on the other hand feeds on the milk and
thinks little of the safety of the sheep. "But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it."(2)
But one thing I do beseech your reverence, and that is to have greater heed
of the unsound; and not only to strengthen the unstable but also to raise
the fallen, for shepherds by no means neglect those of their flock who have
fallen sick, but keep them apart from the rest, and try in every possible
way to restore  them, and so must we do. We must make  them that are
slipping stand up, and give  them a helping hand and a word of
encouragement. When they are bitten we must  heal them; we must not give up
the attempt to save them nor leave them in the devil's maw. Thus ever acted
the divine Apostle Paul; and when the Galatians, after receiving the
baptism of salvation, and the gift of the divine Spirit, fell away into the
sickness of Judaism, and received circumcision, he wailed and lamented more
exceedingly than the most affectionate mother, and tended them and freed
them from that infirmity. We can hear him exclaiming, "My little children,
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you."(1) So too
the teacher of the Corinthians, who had committed that abominable
fornication, he both chastised as might a father, and very skilfully
treated, and after cutting him off in the first Epistle, readmitted him in
the second and says, "So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him
and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with
overmuch sorrow."(2) And again, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us
for we are not ignorant of his devices."(3) In the same manner too those
who partook of things offered to idols he properly rebuked, suitably
exhorted, and freed from their grievous error.

   Wherefore our Lord Jesus Christ permitted the first of the apostles,
whose confession tie had fixed as a kind of groundwork and foundation of
the Church, to waver to and fro, and to deny Him, and then raised Him up
again. And thus He gave us two lessons: not to be confident in our own
strength, and to strengthen the unstable. Reach out, therefore, I beseech
you, a hand to them that are fallen, "draw them out of the horrible pit,
out of the miry clay, and set their feet upon a rock," and "put a new song
into their mouth, even praise unto our God,"(4) that their example of life
may become an example of salvation, that "many shall see it and fear and
shall trust in the Lord."(5) Let them be prevented from participating in
the holy mysteries, but let them not be kept from the prayer of the
catechumens, nor from hearing the divine Scriptures and the exhortation of
teachers,(6) and let them be prohibited from partaking of the sacred
mysteries, not till death, but during a given time, till they recognise
their ailment, covet health, and are properly contrite for having abandoned
their true Prince and deserted to a tyrant, and for having left their
benefactor and gone over to their foe.

   The same lessons are given us by the precepts of the holy and blessed
Fathers. I write as I do, not to teach you piety, but to remind you as a
brother might, knowing well that even the best of pilots in the moment of
the storm needs monition even from his men. So the great and famous Moses,
renowned throughout the world, who did those mighty works of wonder, did
not refuse the counsel of Jethro, a man still sunk in idolatrous error; for
he did not regard his impiety, but acknowledged the soundness of his
advice. Moreover I implore your piety to offer earnest prayer to God in my
behalf that for the remaining days of my life I may live in accordance with
His laws.

   Thus have I written by the most honourable and religious presbyter
Stephanus, whom on account of the goodness of his character I have seen
with great pleasure.

LXXVIII. To Eusebius, bishop of Persian Armenia.

   Whenever anything happens to the helmsman, either the officer in
command at the bows, or the seaman of highest rank, takes his place, not
because he becomes a self-appointed helmsman, but because he looks out for
the safety of the ship. So again in war, when the commander falls, the
chief tribune assumes the command, not in the attempt to lay violent hands
on the place of power, but because he cares for his men. So too the thrice
blessed Timothy when sent by the divine Paul took his place.(1) It is
therefore becoming to your piety to accept the responsibilities of
helmsman, of captain, of shepherd, gladly to run all risk for the sake of
the sheep of Christ, and not to leave His creatures abandoned and alone. It
is rather yours to bind up the broken, to raise up the fallen, to turn the
wanderer from his error, and keep the whole in health, and to follow the
good shepherds who stand before the folds and wage war against the wolves.
Let us remember too the words of the patriarch Jacob; "In the day the
drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from my
eyes. The rams of thy flock I have not eaten. That which was born of beasts
I brought not unto thee. I bare the loss of it. Of my hand didst thou
require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night."(1) These are the
marks of the shepherd; these are the laws of the tending of the sheep. And
if of brute cattle the illustrious patriarch had such care, and offered
this defence to him who trusted them to his charge, what ought not we to do
who are entrusted with the charge of reasonable sheep, and who have
received this trust from the God of all, when we remember that the Lord for
them gave up His life? Who does not fear and tremble when he hears the word
of God spoken through Ezekiel? "I judge between shepherd and sheep because
ye eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool and ye feed not the
flocks."(2) And again, "I have made thee a watchman unto the house of
Israel; when thou speakest not to warn the wicked from his wicked way, the
same wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood shall I require at
thine hand."(3) With this agree the words spoken in parables by the Lord.
"Thou wicked and slothful servant ... Thou oughtest to have put my money to
the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received the same with
usury."(4) Up then, I beseech you, let us fight for the Lord's sheep. Their
Lord is near. He will certainly appear and scatter the wolves and glorify
the shepherds. "The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul
that seeketh Him."(5) Let us not murmur at the storm that has arisen for
the Lord of all knoweth what is good for us. Wherefore also when the
Apostle asked for release from his trials He would not grant his
supplication but said, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness."(6) Let us then bravely bear the evils that
befall us; it is in war that heroes are discerned; in conflicts that
athletes are crowned; in the surge of the sea that the art of the helmsman
is shewn; in the fire that the gold is tried. And let us not, I beseech
you, heed only ourselves, let us rather have forethought for the rest, and
that much more for the sick than for the whole, for it is an apostolic
precept which exclaims "Comfort the feeble minded, support the weak."(7)
Let us then stretch out our hands to them that lie low, let us tend their
wounds and set them at their post to fight the devil. Nothing will so vex
him as to see them fighting and smiting again. Our Lord is full of loving-
kindness. He receives the repentance of sinners. Let us hear His own words:
"As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but that the wicked turn from his way and live."(1) So He prefaced His
words with an oath, and He who forbids oaths to others swore Himself to
convince us how He desires our repentance and salvation. Of this teaching
the divine books, both the old and the new, are full, and the precepts of
the holy Fathers teach the same.

   But not as though you were ignorant have I written to you; rather have
I reminded you of what you know, like those who standing safe upon the
shore succour them that are tossed by the storm, and shew them a rock, or
give warning of a hidden shallow, or catch and haul in a rope that has been
thrown. "And the God of peace shall bring Satan under your feet shortly"(2)
and shall gladden our ears with news that you have passed from storm to
calm, at His word to the waves "Peace be still."(3)

   And do you too offer prayers for us, for you who have undergone peril
for His sake can speak with greater boldness.(4)

LXXIX. To Anatolius the Patrician.(5)

   The Lord God has given your excellency to us to be at the present time
a source of very great comfort, and has afforded us a meet haven for the
storm. We have therefore confidence in informing your lordship of our
distress. Not long ago we acquainted your excellency that the right
honourable Count Rufus had shewn us an order written in the imperial
handwriting commanding the gallant general to provide with prudence and
diligence for our residence at Cyrus, and not to suffer us to depart to
another city, on the ground that we are endeavouring to summon synods to
Antioch, and are disturbing the orthodox.(6) Now I make known to you that
in obedience to the imperial letter I have come to Cyrus. After an interval
of six or seven days they sent the devoted Euphronius, the commander, with
a letter begging me to acknowledge in writing that the imperial order had
been shown me. I therefore promised to remain in Cyrus and its adjacent
district, and to tend the sheep entrusted to my care. I therefore beseech
your excellency to make exact enquiry, both whether these orders had really
been issued, and for what reason. I am indeed conscious of many other sins,
but I do not know that I have erred either against the Church of God, or
against public order. And I write as I do, not because I take it ill to
have to live at Cyrus, for in truth she is dearer to me than any of the
most famous cities, because my office in her has been given me by God. But
the fact of my being bound to her not by preference but by compulsion does
seem somewhat grievous, and besides it does give a handle to the wicked to
grow bold and to refuse to obey our exhortations.

   Under these circumstances I beseech your lordship, if no order of the
kind has really been issued, to let me know; but if the letter really comes
from the victorious emperor, tell his pious majesty not readily to believe
calumnies, nor give ear to accusers alone, but to demand an account from
the accused. Though really the evidence of the facts alone was quite enough
to persuade his piety that the charges against me were false. For when did
I ever make myself offensive about anything to his serene majesty or his
chief officers? Or when was I ever obnoxious to the many and illustrious
owners here? It is on the contrary well known to your excellency that I
have spent a considerable portion of my ecclesiastical revenues in erecting
porticoes and baths, building bridges, and making further provision for
public objects. But if any persons take it ill that I mourn over the ruin
of the churches of Phoenicia, be it known to your lordship that it is
impossible for me not to grieve when I see the horn of the Jews exalted on
high and the Christians in tears and sorrow, though they send them to the
very ends of the earth.(1) We cannot fight against the apostolic decrees,
for we remember the word of the Apostle which says, "We ought to obey God
rather than men,"(2) and more terrible to us than any of the pains of this
life is the "judgment seat of Christ"(3) the Lord, before whom we shall all
stand to render an account of our words and of our deeds. On account of
that judgment seat the hardships of this present life must be endured. For
them that suffer wrong the hope of what is to come is consolation enough,
but to us the loving Lord has given further comfort in you, most excellent
sir, whose life is bright  with piety and faith.

LXXX. To the prefect Eutrechius.(1)

   I have been much astonished that no information has been sent me by
your lordship of the plots against me. To counteract them would very likely
have been a difficult matter to any one not having the means of convicting
their promoters of lies; but to give information of what was going on
needed not so much power as friendliness. and we had hoped that when your
excellency had been summoned to the imperial city, and had been chosen to
adorn the prefect's exalted seat, every tempest of the Church would be
calmed down. But we suffer from such disturbances as we did not see even in
the beginning of the dispute. The churches of Phoenicia are in trouble; in
trouble are those of Palestine, as all unanimously report; and the distress
is proved by the letters of the most pious bishops. All the saints among us
groan and every pious congregation is lamenting. While looking for a
cessation of our former troubles we have been afflicted with new ones. I
myself have been forbidden to quit the coasts of Cyrus, if the dispatch is
true which has been shewn me, and which is said to be an autograph of our
victorious emperor. It runs as follows "Since so and so the bishop of this
city is continually assembling synods and this is a cause of trouble to the
orthodox, take heed with proper diligence and wisdom that he resides at
Cyrus, and does not depart from it to another city." I have accepted the
sentence, and remain still. Your lordship can bear witness to my
sentiments, for you know how on my arrival at Antioch I departed in a
hurry, on account of those who wished to detain me there. And those were
unquestionably wrong who gave both their ears to my calumniators and would
not keep one for me. Even to murderers, and to them that despoil other
men's beds, an opportunity is given of defending themselves, and they do
not receive sentence till they have been convicted in their own presence,
or have made confession of the truth of the charges on which they are
indicted.  But a high priest who has held the office of bishop for five and
twenty years(2) after passing his previous life in a monastery, who has
never troubled a tribunal, nor yet on any single occasion been prosecuted
by any man, is treated as a mere plaything of calumny, without being
allowed even the common privilege of grave-robbers of being questioned as
to the truth of the accusations brought against them. Yet they have done
wrong; I have done no wrong. But I am ready for even more serious troubles.
Though they be ever so much annoyed at my bewailing the calamities of
Phoenicia I shall not cease so to do so long as I behold them. The only
judgment that is awful to me is the judgment of God. For them,
nevertheless, I pray that from the God of all they may obtain forgiveness;
for your excellency, that you may ever live in honour, excel in all good
things, speak boldly against lies, and fight on the side of the truth. And
let the contrivers of this plot know that, though I depart to the uttermost
ends of the earth, God will not suffer the confirmation of impious
doctrines, but will nod His head and destroy them that bow down to
doctrines of abomination.

LXXXI. To the Consul Nomus.(1)

   For but a brief portion of a day I enjoyed the society of your
lordship, for I was deprived by unavoidable circumstances of what I so
earnestly desired. I had hoped that our short interview would have kindled
good will and friendly intercourse, but I was disappointed. I have now
written you two letters, without receiving any reply; and by the imperial
decree I am forbidden to travel beyond the boundaries of Cyrus. For this
apparent punishment cause there is none, except the fact of my convening an
episcopal synod. No indictment was published; no prosecutor appeared; the
defendant was not convicted; but the sentence was given. We submit, for we
know the reward of the wronged. I am aware however that Festus the
Procurator who was entrusted with the government of the Jews when they
demanded the death of the divine Paul, publicly replied, "It is not lawful
to us Romans to deliver any man before that he which is accused have the
accusers face to face, and have license to answer for himself concerning
the crime laid against him."(2) Now these words were spoken by one who was
no believer in our Master, Christ, but was a slave to the errors of
polytheism. I was never asked whether I was assembling synods or not, or
for what reason I was assembling them, or what umbrage this could give,
either to the Church or to the government; yet just as though I had been a
very guilty criminal I am prohibited from visiting other cities; while to
every one else every city lies open, and that not only to Arians and
Eunomians, but to Manichees and Marcionists, to them that are sick with the
unsoundness of Valentinus and Montanus, aye to pagans and Jews, while I, a
foremost champion of the teaching of the Gospels, am from every city
excluded. Some however maintain that I do not adhere to it. Then let there
be a council: let there be assembled there the godly bishops who are
capable of judging: then let there be assembled those in office and in rank
who have been instructed in divine lore. Let me state what I hold, and let
the judges declare what opinion is agreeable to the teaching of the
Apostles. I have not thus written from any desire to see the great city,
nor from trying to travel to any other. In fact I rather love the quiet of
them whose wish is to administer the churches in a monastic state. I should
like your excellency to know that neither in the time of the blessed and
sainted Theodotus, nor in that of John of blessed memory, nor in that of
the very holy lord bishop Domnus, did I of my own accord enter Antioch;
five or six  times I was invited but I with difficulty assented, and when I
did assent it was in obedience to the canon of the Church which orders him
who is summoned to a synod and refuses to be present to be held guilty. And
when I appeared, what thing unpleasing to God did I do? Was it that I
removed from the sacred lists the names of such and such a man guilty of
unspeakable wickedness? Was it that I ordained to the priesthood men of
character and of honourable life? Was it that I preached the gospel to the
people? If these things are worthy of indictment and punishment, I gladly
welcome yet severer punishments for their sake. My accusers compel me to
speak. Even before my conception my parents promised to devote me to God;
from my swaddling-band, they devoted the according to their promise and
educated me accordingly; the time before my episcopate I spent in a
monastery and then was unwillingly consecrated(1) bishop. Five and twenty
years I so lived that I was never summoned to trial by any one nor ever
brought accusation against any. Not one of the pious clergy who were under
me ever frequented a court. In so many years I never took an obol nor a
garment from any one. Not one of my domestics ever received a loaf or an
egg. I could not endure the thought of possessing anything save the rags I
wore. From the  revenues of my see I erected public porticoes; I built two
large bridges; I looked after the public baths. On finding that the city
was not watered by the river running by it, I built the conduit, and
supplied the dry town with water. But not to mention these matters I led
eight villages of Marcionists with their neighbourhood into the way of
truth; another full of Eunomians and another of Arians I brought to the
light of divine knowledge, and, by God's grace, not a tare of heresy was
left among us. All this I did not effect with impunity; many a time I shed
my blood; many a time was I stoned by them and brought to the very gates of
death. But I am a fool in my boasting, yet my words are spoken of
necessity, not of consent. Once the thrice blessed Paul was compelled to
act in the same way to stop the mouths of his accusers. Yet I put up with
seeming ignominy and count it high honour, for I hear the voice of the
Apostle crying, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution."(1) But I beseech your excellency to give heed to the affairs
of the Church, and calm the storm that has arisen, for in fact not even at
the beginning of the dispute was the Church beset by such confusion. No one
informs you of the greatness of the peril, of the lamentations of the
Christians in Phoenicia and of the wails of our holiest monks. Wherefore I
have written to you at some length, that on learning the agitation of the
Church your excellency might stay it, and reap. the fruits of the benefit
which such action will produce.

LXXXII. To Eusebius, bishop of Ancyra.(2)

   I had hoped at this time to hear frequently from your holiness.
Suffering as I do under charges which are plain calumny I stand in need of
brotherly consolation. For they who are now renewing the heresy of Marcion,
Valentinus, Manes, and of the other Docetae, annoyed at my publicly
pillorying their heresy, have endeavoured to deceive the imperial ears, by
calling me a heretic and falsely accusing me of dividing into two sons our
one Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Word made man. Their utterances did not
meet with the success that they expected. A despatch was therefore written
to the right honourable and glorious commander and consul, containing
indeed no accusation of heresy, but certain other charges no less
unfounded. They alleged that I was endeavouring to assemble frequent synods
at Antioch; that certain persons thereupon took umbrage; that for this
reason I ought to desist from these proceedings and manage the churches
entrusted to my charge. When this communication was shewn me I caught at
the sentence as an opportunity of good. For in the first place I gained the
rest I so much longed for; furthermore I trust in the wiping out of the
stains of the many errors I have committed, on account of the wrong devised
against me by the enemies of truth. Even in this present life our supreme
Ruler very plainly shews us what care He takes of them that suffer wrong.
While I have been remaining at rest, prisoned within the boundaries of my
own country; while throughout the East all men have been distressed and
have been bitterly lamenting though compelled to silence by the terror that
has fallen on them (for what has befallen me has stricken terror into the
hearts of all) the Lord has stooped from heaven, has convicted my
calumniators of their falsehood, and laid bare their impious intent. They
armed even Alexandria against me and by means of their worthy instruments
are dinning into all men's ears that I am preaching two sons instead of
one.

   I, on the contrary, am so far from holding this abominable opinion,
that, on finding some of the holy fathers of the Nicene Council opposing in
their treatises the madness of Arius and forced in their struggle against
their opponents to make too marked a distinction, I have objected, and
refused to admit such distinction, for I know how the exigencies of the
distinction result in exaggeration.

   And lest any one should suppose that I am speaking as I do through
fear, let any one who likes get hold of my ancient writings written before
the Council of Ephesus, and those written after it twelve years ago. For by
God's grace I interpreted all the Prophets and the Psalms and the Apostles:
I wrote long ago against the Arians, the Macedonians, the sophistry of
Apollinarius and the madness of Marcion: and in every one of my books by
God's grace the mind of the Church shines clear. Moreover I have written a
book on the Mysteries, another on Providence, another on the Questions of
the Magi, a life of the Saints, and besides these, not to name every one in
detail, many more.(1)

   I have enumerated them not for ambition's sake, but to challenge my
accusers and my judges to put any of my writings they may choose to the
test. They will find that by God's grace I hold no other opinion than just
that which I have received from holy Scripture.

   When, then, your holiness has heard this from me, I beg you to inform
the ignorant and to persuade the unbridled tongues that revile me and all
who are deceived by them, not to believe what they have heard of me from my
calumniators. Beg them to believe rather the Lawgiver when he exclaims "Men
shall not receive a false report."(1) Ask them to wait till the facts are
proved.

   My prayer is that the churches may enjoy a calm and that this long and
painful storm may vanish away. But if the multitude of our sins suffer not
this to come to pass; if for their sakes we are delivered to the sifter; we
pray that we may share the perils undergone for the faith, in order that
since we have not the confidence that comes from this life, at least for
guarding the faith in its integrity we may meet with pity and pardon in the
day of the appearance of the Lord. And for this we beseech your holiness to
join us in our prayers.

LXXXIII. Of Theodoretus, bishop of Cyrus, to Dioscorus, Archbishop of
Alexandria.

   To them that suffer under false accusation the greatest comfort is
given by the words of Scripture. When such a sufferer is wounded by the
lying words of an unbridled tongue, and feels the sharp stings of distress,
he remembers the story of the admirable Joseph, and as he beholds that
model of chastity, an exemplar of every kind of virtue, suffering, trotter
a calumnious charge, imprisoned and lettered for invading another man's
bed, and spending a long time in a dungeon, his pain is lightened by the
remedy that the story furnishes. So again when he finds the gentle David,
hunted as a tyrant by Saul, and then catching his enemy and letting him go
unharmed, an anodyne is given him in his distress. But when he sees the
Lord Christ Himself, Maker of the ages, Creator of all things, very God,
and Son of the very God, called a gluttonous man and a wine bibber by the
wicked Jews, it is not only consolation but rather great joy that is given
him in that he is deemed worthy of sharing the sufferings of the Lord.

   Thus I was compelled to write when I read the letters of your holiness
to the most pious and sacred archbishop Domnus, for there was contained in
them the statement that certain men have come to the illustrious city
administered by your holiness, and have accused me of dividing the one Lord
Jesus Christ into two sons, and this when preaching at Antioch, where
innumerable hearers swell the congregation. I wept for the men who had the
hardihood to contrive the vain calumny against me. But I grieved, and, my
Lord, forgive me, forced as I am by pain to speak, that your pious
excellency did not reserve one ear unbiassed for me instead of believing
the lies of my accusers. Yet they were but three or four or about a dozen
while I have countless hearers to testify to the orthodoxy of my teaching.
Six years I continued teaching in the tithe of Theodotus bishop of Antioch,
of blessed and sacred memory, who was famous alike for his distinguished
career and for his knowledge of the divine doctrines. Thirteen years I
taught in the time of bishop John of sacred and blessed memory, who was so
delighted at my discourses as to raise both his hands and again and again
to start up: your holiness in your own letters has borne witness how,
brought up as he was from boyhood with the divine oracles, the knowledge
which he had of the divine doctrines was most exact. Besides these this is
the seventh year of the most pious lord archbishop Domnus.(1) Up to this
present day, after the lapse of so long a time, not one of the pious
bishops, not one of the devout clergy has ever at any time found any fault
with my utterances. And with how much gratification Christian people hear
our discourses your godly excellency can easily learn, alike from those who
have travelled thence hither, and from those who reached your city from us.

   All this I say not for the sake of boasting, but because I am forced to
defend myself. It is not the fame of my sermons to which I am calling
attention; it is their orthodoxy alone. Even the great teacher of the world
who is wont to style himself last of saints and first of sinners, that he
might stop the mouths of liars was compelled to set forth a list of his own
labours; and in shewing that this account of his sufferings was of
necessity, not of free will, he added "I am become a fool in glorying; ye
have compelled me."(2) I own myself wretched--aye thrice wretched. I am
guilty of many errors. Through faith alone I look for finding some mercy in
the day of the Lord's appearing. I wish and I pray that I may follow the
footprints of the holy Fathers, and I earnestly desire to keep undefiled
the evangelic teaching which was in sum delivered to us by the holy Fathers
assembled in council at the Bithynian Nicaea. I believe that there is one
God the Father and one Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father:(1) so also
that there is one Lord Jesus Christ, only begotten Son of God, begotten of
the Father before all ages, brightness of His glory and express image of
the Father's person,(2) on account of man's salvation, incarnate and made
man and born of Mary the Virgin in the flesh. For so are we taught by the
wise Paul "Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ
came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen,"(3) and again
"Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the spirit of holiness."(4) On this account we also call the
holy Virgin "Theotokos,"(5) and deem those who object to this appellation
to be alienated from true religion.

   In the same manner we call those men corrupt arid exclude them from the
assembly of the Christians, who divide our one Lord Jesus Christ into two
persons or two sons or two Lords, for we have heard the very divine Paul
saying "One Lord, one faith, one baptism"(6) and again "One Lord Jesus
Christ by Whom are all things"(7) and again "Jesus Christ the same
yesterday and to-day and for ever"(8) and in another place--"He that
descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens."(9) And
countless other passages of this kind may be found in the Apostle's
writings, proclaiming the one Lord.

   So too the divine Evangelist exclaims, "And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth."(10)

   And his namesake exclaimed, "After me cometh one who is preferred
before me for He was before me."(11) And when he had shewn one person, he
expressed both the divine and the human. for the words "man" and "comes"
are human, but the phrase "He was before me" expresses the divine. But
nevertheless he did not recognise a distinction between Him who came after
and Him who was before, but owned the same being to be eternal as God, but
born man, after himself, of the Virgin.

   Thus too, the thrice blessed Thomas, when he had put his hand on the
flesh of the Lord, called Him Lord and God, saying "My Lord and my God."(1)
For through the visible nature he discerned the invisible.

   So do we know no difference between the same flesh and the Godhead but
we own God the Word made man to be one Son.

   These lessons we bare learnt alike from the holy Scripture and from the
holy Fathers who have expounded it, Alexander and Athanasius, loud voiced
heralds of the truth, who have been ornaments of your apostolic see; from
Basil and from Gregory and the rest of the lights of the world; and that,
in our endeavour to shut the mouths of them that dare to oppose the blessed
Theophilus and Cyril, we use their works, our own writings testify. For we
are most anxious by the medicines supplied by very holy men to heal them
that deny the distinction between the Lord's flesh and the Godhead, and who
maintain at one moment that the divine nature was changed into flesh, and
at another that the flesh was transmitted into nature of Godhead.

   For they clearly instruct us in the distinction between the two
natures, and proclaim the immutability of the divine nature, calling the
flesh of the Lord divine as being made flesh of God the Word; but the
doctrine that it was transmuted into nature of Godhead they repudiate as
impious.

   I think that your excellency is well aware that Cyril of blessed memory
often wrote to me, and when he sent his books against Julian to Antioch,
and in like manner his book on the scapegoat, he asked the blessed John,
bishop of Antioch, to shew them to the great teachers of the East; and in
compliance with this request the blessed John sent us the books. I read
them with admiration, and I wrote to Cyril of blessed memory; and he wrote
back to me praising my exactitude and kindness. This letter I have
preserved.

   That I twice subscribed the writings of John of blessed memory
concerning Nestorius my own hand bears witness, but this is the kind of
thing whispered about me by men who try to conceal their own unsoundness by
calumniating me.

   Therefore I implore your holiness to turn your back on the liars; to
give heed to the Church's quiet and either to heal by salutary medicines
them that are trying to destroy the doctrines of the truth, or, if they
refuse to accept your treatment, to expel them from the fold, to the end
that the sheep may be spared from contagion. I beg you to give me your
customary salutation. That I have written you my true sentiments is proved
by my works on the holy Scriptures and against the Arians and Eunomians.

   I will in addition write yet a brief word. If any one refuses to
confess tile holy Virgin to be "Theotokos," or calls our Lord Jesus Christ
bare man, or divides into two sons Him who is one only begotten and first
born of every creature, I pray that he may fall from hope in Christ, and
let all the people say amen, amen.

   Now that I have thus spoken, deign, my lord, to give me your sacred
prayers, and to cheer me by a letter in reply telling me that your holiness
has turned your back on my accusers.

   I and my household salute all thy brotherhood in piety in Christ.

LXXXIV. To the bishops of Cilicia.(1)

   Your piety has heard of the calumnies directed against me. The
opponents of the truth allege that I divide our one Lord Jesus Christ, the
only begotten Son of God, into two sons, and it is said by some that a
ground for their calumny is derived from a handful of men among you who
hold these opinions, and who divide God the Word made man into two sons.
They ought to listen to those words of the Apostle which openly declare
"out Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things,"(2) and again "one Lord, one
faith, one baptism."(3) They ought to have followed the Master's teaching,
for the Lord Himself says "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he
that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in Heaven."(4) And
again "If ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before."(5)
And the tradition of holy baptism teaches us that there is one Son, just as
there is one Father and one Holy Ghost. I hope then that your piety will
deign, if there really are any, though I cannot believe it, who disobey the
apostolic doctrines to close their mouths, to rebuke them as the laws of
the Church require, and teach them to follow the footsteps of the holy
Fathers and preserve undefiled the faith laid down at Nicaea in Bithynia by
the holy and blessed Fathers, as summing up the teaching of Evangelists and
Apostles. For it becomes you who love God to give heed both to God's glory
and our common credit, and not to overlook the attacks which are made upon
us all through the ignorance or contentiousness of these few l men--if they
really are guilty, and if they are not, like ourselves, suffering from the
whetted tongues of false accusers.

   Deign to remember us in your prayers to God, for so the law of love
ordains.

LXXXV. To the bishop Basil.(1)

   The chief good is said by the divine Paul to be love,(2) and by love he
ordered the nurslings of the faith to be fed. Of this love your piety
possesses great wealth, and so has told me what was befitting and given me
pleasant news. For to them that fear the Lord what can be pleasanter than
the health and harmony of the doctrines of the truth? Be well assured, most
godly sir, that we were much delighted to hear the intelligence of our
common friend; and in proportion to our previous distress at hearing that
he described the nature of flesh and of Godhead as one, and openly
attributed the passion of salvation to the impossible Godhead, so were all
rejoiced to read the letters of your holiness, and to learn that he
maintains in their integrity the properties of the natures and denies both
the change of God the Word into flesh, and the mutation of the flesh into
the nature of Godhead, maintaining on the contrary that in the one Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word made man, the properties of either nature
abide unconfounded. We praise the God of all for the harmony of divine
faith. We have however written to either Cilicia,(3) although our
intelligence is imperfect, as to whether there are really any opponents of
the truth, and have charged the godly bishops to search and examine if
there are any who divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons, and
either to bring them to their senses by admonition, or cut them off from
the roll of the brethren. For in fact we equally repudiate both those who
dare to assert one nature of flesh and Godhead, and those who divide the
one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons and strive to go beyond the definitions
of the Apostles.

   But let your holiness be well assured that we are disposed to peace.
For if the prophet says, "With them that hate peace I was peaceful."(1)
much more readily do we welcome the peace of God.

   Some of those men who have been fed on lies have hurried to Alexandria
and patched up calumnies against me, with the result that the godly bishop
of that city, led away by their statements, although he had been fully
informed by my letters, has sent a pious bishop to the imperial city. I beg
you therefore to shew your accustomed kindness to him, and to confront
falsehood with the truth.

LXXXVI.(2) To Flavianus, bishop of Constantinople.

   At the present time, most God-beloved lord, I have received many
buffetings of billows, but I called upon the great Pilot, and have been
able to stand firm against the storm; the attacks, however, now made upon
me transcend every story in tragedy. In relation to the attacks which are
being plotted against the apostolic faith, I thought that I should find an
ally and fellow-worker in the most godly bishop of Alexandria, the lord
Dioscorus,(3) and so sent him one of our pious presbyters, a man of
remarkable prudence, with a synodical letter informing his piety that we
abide in the agreement made in the time of Cyril of blessed memory, and
accept the letter written by him as well as that written by the very
blessed and sainted Athanasius to the blessed Epictetus, and, before these,
the exposition of the faith laid down at Nicaea in Bithynia by the holy and
blessed Fathers. We exhorted him to induce those who are unwilling to abide
by these documents at once to abide by them. But one of the opposite party,
who keep up these disturbances, by tricking some of those who are on the
spot and contriving countless calumnies against myself has stirred an
iniquitous agitation against me.

   But the very godly bishop Dioscorus has written us a letter such as
never ought to have been written by one who has learnt from the God of all
not to listen to vain words. He has believed the charges brought against me
as though he had made personal enquiry into every one of them, and had
arrived at the truth after questioning, and has thus condemned me. I
however have bravely borne the calumnious charge, and have written him back
a courteous letter, representing to his piety that the whole charge is
false, and that not one of the godly bishops of the East holds opinions
contrary to the apostolic decrees. Moreover the pious clergy whom he sent
as messengers have been convinced by the actual evidence of the facts.
These however he has dismissed unheeded, and, lending his ears to my
calumniators, has acted in a manner quite incredible, were it not that the
whole church bears witness to if. He put up with them that were crying
Anathema against me; nay he stood up in his place and confirmed their words
by adding his voice to theirs. Besides all this he sent certain godly
bishops to the imperial city, as we learnt, in the hope of increasing the
agitation against me. I in the first place have for champion Him who seeth
all things, for it is on behalf of the divine decrees that I am wrestling--
next after Him I invoke your holiness to fight in defence of the faith that
is attacked, and do battle on behalf of the canons that are being trodden
under foot. When the blessed Fathers were assembled in that imperial
city(1) in harmony with them that had sat in council at Nice, they
distinguished the dioceses, and assigned to each diocese the management of
its own affairs, expressly enjoining that none should intrude from one
diocese into another. They ordered that the bishop of Alexandria should
administer the government of Egypt alone, and every diocese its own
affairs.(2)

   Dioscorus, however, refuses to abide by these decisions; he is turning
the see of the blessed Mark upside down; and these things he does though he
perfectly well knows that the Antiochene metropolis possesses the throne of
the great Peter, who was teacher of the blessed Mark, and first and
coryphaeus of the chorus of the apostles.(3)

   But I know the majesty of the see, and I know and take measure of
myself. I have learnt from the first the humility of the Apostles. I
beseech your holiness not to overlook the trampling underfoot of the holy
canons, and to stand forward zealously as champion of the divine faith, for
in that faith we have hope of our salvation and on its account are
confident that we shall meet with mercy.

   But that your holiness may not be ignorant of this, know, my lord, that
he shewed his ill-will towards me from the time of my assenting, in
obedience to the canons of the holy Fathers, to the synodical letters
issued in your see in the time of Proclus of blessed memory; on this point
he has chidden me once and again on the ground of my violating the rights
of the church of Antioch and, as he says, of that of Alexandria.
Remembering this, and finding, as he thinks, an opportunity, he has
exhibited his hostility. But nothing is stronger than the truth. Truth is
wont to conquer even with few words. I beseech your holiness to remember me
in your prayers to the Lord that I may have power to prevail against the
waves that are beating me hither and thither.

LXXXVII. To Domnus, bishop of Apamea.(1)

   The law of brotherly love demanded that I should receive many letters
from your godliness at this time. For the divine Apostle charges us to weep
with them that weep and rejoice with them that do rejoice.(2) I have not
received a single one, although just lately I was visited by some of the
pious monks of your monastery with the pious presbyter Elias. Nevertheless
I have written, and I salute your holiness; and I make you acquainted with
the fact that the consolation of the Master has stood me in stead of all
other, for in truth not even had I as many mouths as I have hairs on my
head, could I worthily praise Him for my being deemed worthy of suffering
on account of my confession of Him, and for the apparent disgrace which I
hold more august than any honour. And if I be banished to the uttermost
parts of the earth all the more will I praise Him as being counted worthy
of greater blessings. Nevertheless I hope your holiness will put up prayers
for the quiet of the holy churches. It is because of the storm that is
assailing them that I wail and groan and lament. That quiet, as I know, was
driven away by the Osrhoene clergy,(3) who poured out countless words
against me, although I had no share in their condemnation, nor in the
sentence passed upon them; on the contrary, as your holiness knows, I
besought that the communion might be given to them at Easter. But
slanderers find no difficulty in saying what they like. My consolation lies
in the blessing of the Master who said, "Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely for my sake; rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your
reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before
you."(1)

LXXXVIII. To Taurus the Patrician.(2)

   Slanderers have forced me to go beyond the bounds of moderation, and
compel me to write to you who have adorned the highest offices, and
obtained the most distinguished honours. I therefore implore you to pardon
me, for I do not write in self sufficiency, but because I am thrust forward
by necessity. It is not because I expect to fall unjustly into trouble and
distress, for this is the common fate of all who have sincerely served God,
but because I desire to persuade your excellency that those who accuse my
opinions are producing false charges against me. From my mother's breast I
have been nurtured on apostolic teaching, and the creed laid down at Nicaea
by the holy and blessed Fathers I have both learnt and teach. All who bold
any other opinion I charge with impiety, and if any one persists in
asserting that I teach the contrary, let him not bring a charge which I
cannot defend, but convict me to my face. For this is agreeable to the laws
alike of God and of man, but to whom is it so becoming to champion the
wronged as to you, O friend of Christ, to whom boldness of utterance is
given by the splendour of your lineage, the greatness of your rank and your
foremost place in the law?

LXXXIX. To Florentius the patrician.(3)

   In sending a letter to your greatness I am daring what is beyond me,
but the cause of my daring is not self-confidence, but the slanders of my
calumniators. I have thought it well worth while to instruct your righteous
ears how openly the impugners of my opinions are calumniating me. I have
been guilty, I own, of many errors, but up to now I have ever kept the
faith of the apostles undefiled, and on this account alone I have cherished
the hope that I shall meet with mercy on the day of the Lord's appearing.
On behalf of this faith I continue to contend against every kind of heresy;
this faith I am ever giving to the nurslings of piety; by means of this
faith I have metamorphosed countless wolves into sheep, and have brought
them to the Saviour who is the Arch-shepherd of us all. So have I learnt
not only from the apostles and prophets but also from the interpreters of
their writings, Ignatius, Eustathius, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory, John, and
the rest of the lights of the world; and before these from the holy Fathers
in council at Nicaea, whose confession of the faith I preserve in its
integrity, like an ancestral inheritance, styling corrupt and enemies of
the truth all who dare to transgress its decrees. I invoke your greatness,
now that you have heard from me in these terms, to shut the mouths of my
calumniators. It is in my opinion wholly unreasonable to accept as true
what is charged against men in their absence; rather is it lawful and right
that those who wish to appear as prosecutors should accuse the defendants
in their presence, and endeavour to convict them face to face. Under these
conditions the judges will without difficulty be able to arrive at the
truth.

XC. To Lupicinus the Master.(1)

   I have passed through the contests of my prime. I see before me the
confines of old age, and have expected as an old man to have more honour
given me. But I am a mark for the shafts of slander, and am driven to meet
by defence accusations levelled against me. Under these circumstances, I
beseech your excellency not to believe the lies of my accusers. Had I been
living a life of silence, there might have been room for the suspicion of
unorthodoxy. But I am continually discoursing in the churches, and
therefore have, by God's grace, innumerable witnesses to the soundness of
what I teach. I follow the laws and rules of the apostles. I test my
teaching by applying to it, like a rule and measure, the faith laid down by
the holy and blessed Fathers at Nicaea. If any one maintain that I hold any
contrary opinion, let him accuse me face to face; let him not slander me in
my absence. It is fair that even the defendant should have an opportunity
of speech, and meet with his defence the charges brought against him, and
that then and not till then should the judges lawfully pronounce their
sentence. This favour I beg through your excellency's assistance. If any
men wish to condemn me unheard, I accept with willingness even their unjust
sentence. For I wait for the judgment of the Master, where we need neither
witnesses nor accusers. Before Him, as says the divine Apostle, "all things
are naked and opened."(1)

XCI. To the prefect Eutrechius.(2)

   I well know, and need no words to tell me, how your excellency regards
me. Actions speak more clearly than words, but I have been anxious for you
to know the cause of the accusation that is brought against me. For I am
suffering under a most extraordinary charge, being at one and the same time
attacked as unmarried, and as having been married twice.(3) If my present
calumniators assert that I am falsifying the apostolic doctrine, why in the
world, instead of accusing me in my absence, do they not attempt to convict
me face to face? This fact alone is enough to give utter refutation to
their lies, for it is because they know that I have innumerable witnesses
to the apostolic character of my doctrines that they have urged an
undefended indictment against me. Lawful judges must on the contrary keep
one ear unbiassed for the accused. If they give both to the pleadings of
the opponents, and deliver a sentence acceptable to them, I shall put up
with the injustice as bringing me nearer to the kingdom of heaven, and
shall await that impartial tribunal, where there is neither prosecutor, nor
counsel, nor witness, nor distinction in rank, but judgment of deeds and
words and righteous retribution. "For," it is said, "we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things
done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or
bad."(4)

XCII. To Anatolius the Patrician.(5)

   The very holy lord archbishop Domnus has arranged for the most pious
bishops to repair to the imperial city, with a view to the complete
refutation of the false accusation made against us all. At this time we
stand in especial need of the aid of your magnificence, since the Lord of
all has endowed you with the gifts of pure faith, of warm zeal in its
behalf, of intelligence and capacity, and power withal to carry out your
prudent counsels. I beg you therefore to defend the cause of the wronged,
to contend against lies, and champion the apostolic teaching now assailed.
Without doubt the master and guide of the churches will bless your
endeavour, will scatter the lowering cloud, and bless the nurslings of the
faith with clear sky. Even should He permit the tempest to prevail, your
greatness will reap your perfect reward, and we shall bow our heads before
the storm, ready to live with cheerfulness wheresoever it may drive us, and
waiting the judgment of God and his true and righteous sentence.

XCIII. To Senator the Patrician.

   I cherish an indelible memory of your magnificence, and now by very
religious and holy bishops I salute you. The very holy lord bishop Domnus
has arranged for them to journey to the imperial city in order to put an
end to the false charges raised against me. For certain men have contrived
manifest calumnies against me, and have grievously disturbed the churches
for whose sake the Lord Christ "endured the Cross despising the shame";(2)
in whose behalf the band of the divine apostles and companies of victorious
martyrs were delivered to many kinds of death. On behalf of their peace I
call on your magnificence to contend. It had been easy for the God of all
to have nodded His head and scattered the lowering clouds; but He bides His
time, and thereby at once shews the endurance of them that are assailed,
and gives us opportunities of doing good.

XCIV. To Protogenes(3) the Praefect.

   The loving-kindness of the Lord has already given you an opportunity of
carrying out your good intentions. He has given you a greater opportunity
now, that your excellency may the more easily champion the cause of the
truth that is assailed, bring lies to nought, and give the churches the
calm for which they so intensely long. Your excellency has already learned
from many other sources bow great is the surge by which the churches in the
East are overwhelmed, but you will acquire more accurate information
concerning it from the very religious bishops who, on account of it, have
undertaken their long journey in the winter, relying, next after the Grace
of God, on the providence of your authority. Disperse for us, then, O
Christian man, the storm, change the moonless night into clear sunshine,
and bridle the tongues set wagging against us. We by God's grace are ever
fighting for the apostolic decrees, and we preserve undefiled the faith
laid down at Nicaea, and style impious all who dare to violate its dogmas.
In evidence of the truth of what I say may be cited my catechumens, those
who are from time to time baptized by me, and the hearers of my discourses
in the churches. If they mean to accuse me in accordance with the law, they
must convict the in my presence, not slander me in my absence. In this
manner your excellency, when giving judgment in other cases, is wont to
deliver your sentences, perceiving on which side lies the right from the
pleadings both of the prosecution and of the defence.

XCV. To the praefect Antiochus.(1)

   You have laid aside the cares of your very important government, but
your fame flourishes among all; for they that have reaped the fruit of your
benevolence, and they are many and everywhere, persistently extol it,
proclaiming your good report in all directions, and stirring their hearers'
tongues to join in the chorus of acclamation. When I behold the worthy
fruit which adorns with its beauty its far-famed stem, I am delighted. For
this reason I call your excellency to greater and higher deeds, and beseech
you to give heed to the tranquillity of the churches. They have been
overwhelmed with a great storm by the contrivers of calumnies against me,
and under these circumstances the very religious bishops, making light of a
long journey, of infirmity, and of old age, have left their own flocks
unshepherded, and undertaken to travel this great distance, in their
eagerness to confute the lies told against us all. I beseech your greatness
to give them your protection, to shew care for the calumniated East, and
your forethought for the welfare of the apostolic faith. It is only fitting
that you should add this further glory to the rest of your good deeds.

XCVI. To Nomus the Patrician.(2)

   I have written to you two letters, indeed I think three, but without
getting any answer. I had wished to say no more, but to know my own place
and the greatness of dignities, and to beg you to inform me of the cause of
your silence. Really I do not know what offence I can have given to your
excellency. We err unwillingly as well as willingly, and sometimes are
quite ignorant in what way we are transgressing. I therefore beg your
greatness, remembering the divine laws which plainly charge us "If thy
brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between him
and thee alone"(1) to deign to make plain to me the origin of the
annoyance, that I may either prove myself innocent, or, made aware of where
I was wrong, may beg your pardon. In my confidence in the evidence of my
conscience I hope for the former. All men are adorned by magnanimity, and
not least those who, following the example of your excellency, trained in
outside education as well as instructed in divine principles, both hear the
apostolic laws loudly exclaiming "Let not the sun go down upon your
wrath"(2) and remember the words of Homer(3)

   "In fit bounds contain thy mighty mind;

   Benignity is best."

   I have thus written not as though giving you information, but to remind
one who is much occupied, and I do so in remembrance of the law of the
Lord, who says "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there
rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift
before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother and
then come and offer thy gift."(4) In obedience to these words I have
thought it right to salute your excellency by the most pious bishops, and
to exhort you to give heed to the tranquillity of the churches. They are
indeed overwhelmed by a great storm.

XCVII. To the Count Sporacius.(5)

   I am delighted with your excellency's letter. My pleasure has been
increased by the very religious presbyter and monk Iamblichus, who has told
me of your warm zeal, your earnestness in religion, and your real goodwill
to me. On hearing of this as well as of the efforts of the glorious and
pious lord Patricius(1) on my behalf I give you the apostolic blessing
which the blessed Onesiphorus obtained from that holy tongue; "The Lord
give mercy to your house, for he oft refreshed. me and was not ashamed of
my chain;" "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in
that day."(2) This I pray for you, even though the enemies of the truth
inflict on me yet greater miseries as they suppose; for we have been taught
to regard men's purpose; but be sure of this, that with true religion death
to me is very pleasant, and exile to the ends of the earth. Still we are
distressed at the storm of the churches. which the Lord of all is mighty to
disperse.

XCVIII. To Pancharius.

   WE are distressed to see the tempest of the churches, but their Master
and Ruler ever through mighty billows shows to men His own wisdom and
power. He rebukes the winds and brings about a calm as He did when He was
in the apostles' boat.(3) So though I am distressed, nevertheless because I
know this power of our Saviour and am aware of what He arranges for us,
even though adversity befall me. I give thanks and accept it as a gift of
God. I have learned the lesson to care little for the present, and to wait
for the expected blessings. But it behoves your excellency zealously to
defend the apostolic faith, that you may receive from the God of all the
recompense of such conduct.

XCIX. To Claudianus the Antigrapharius.(4)

   Although you have not yet met me, I think that your excellency is aware
of the open calumnies that have been published against me, for you have
often heard me preaching in church, when I have proclaimed the Lord Jesus,
and have pointed out the properties alike of the Godhead and of the
manhood; for we do not divide one Son into two, but, worshipping the Only-
begotten, point out the distinction between flesh and Godhead. This,
indeed, is I think confessed even by the Arians, who do not call the flesh
Godhead, nor address the Godhead as flesh. Holy Scripture clearly teaches
us both natures. Nevertheless, though I have ever thus spoken, certain men
are uttering lying words against me. But I rely on my conscience and have
as witness to my teaching Him who looks into the hearts. So, as the prophet
says, I regard the contrivances of calumny as "a spider's web."(1) I await
the great judgment which needs no words, but makes manifest what in the
meanwhile is unknown.

   I send this by the very religious bishops, thinking it worth while to
salute your excellency by them and to remind you of your promise. For
attacked as I am I do not cease to go a-hunting, for I know that even the
sacred apostles in the midst of the assaults made upon them did not cease
to ply the net of the spirit.

C. To Alexandra.(2)

   I have recently received your excellency's letter. For the zeal you
have shewn on my behalf I thank you, and pray the God of all to guard the
goods you have, to increase them with further boons, and to grant you the
enjoyment of future and everlasting blessings. I think that He hears the
prayer even of them that are sentenced to relegation, and all the more when
it is for the sake of His divine doctrine that they are undergoing apparent
disgrace. I am writing by the very religious bishops, and I beg that they
may meet with your kindly care. It is for the sake of the faith of the
gospel and the peace of the churches that they have undertaken this long
journey.

CI. To the Deaconess Celarina.

   The flames of the war against us have been lit up again. After yielding
awhile, the enemy of men has once more armed against us men nurtured in
lies, who utter open slander against me, and say that I divide our one Lord
Jesus Christ into two sons. I however know the distinction between Godhead
and manhood, and confess one Son, God the Word made man. I assert that He
is God eternal, who was made man at the end of days, not by the change of
the Godhead, but by the assumption of the manhood. It is however needless
for me to inform your piety of my sentiments, for you have exact knowledge
of what I preach, and how I instruct the ignorant. I beseech you therefore
since the workers of lies have poured their insults upon all the godly
bishops of the East at once, and overwhelmed the churches with a storm,
that your piety will show all possible zeal on behalf of the doctrines of
the gospel anti the peace of the churches. On this account the very godly
bishops have left the churches shepherded by them, have disregarded the
inclemency of winter, and endured the labours of their long journey, that
they may calm the tempest which has arisen. I am sure that your godly
excellency will regard them as champions of piety and governors of the
churches.

CII. To Bishop Basilius.(1)

   There is nothing remarkable in the reproaches that are directed against
me being heard in silence by men who do not know me; but that your holiness
should not refute the lies of my revilers, or at least should do so only to
a certain extent, and with no great heartiness, passes the belief of any
one who knows your character and conduct. And I say this not because
friendship ought to be preferred to truth, but because the witness of truth
is on the side of friendship. Your reverence has very often heard me
preaching in church, and, in other assemblies where I have spoken on
doctrinal questions; you have listened to what I have said, and I do not
know of any occasion on which you have found fault with me for expressing
unorthodox opinions. But what is the case at the present moment? Why in the
world, my dear friend, do you not utter a word against falsehood, while you
allow a friend to be calumniated and the truth to be assailed? If this is
because you disregard the helpless and insignificant, remember the plain
proclamation of the commandment of the Lord "Take heed that ye despise not
one of these little ones which believe in me, for I say unto you that in
heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in
heaven."(2) If however it is the influence of my calumniators which imposes
silence upon you, you must listen to the other law which says "Thou shalt
not honour the person of the mighty"(3) and "Judge righteous judgment"(4)
and "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil"(5) and "He that shutteth
his eyes from seeing evil and stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood."(6)
You may find innumerable similar passages in holy Scripture, which I have
thought it needless to collect when writing to a man brought up in the
divine oracles, and watering Christian people with his teaching. But this I
will say, that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and
shall give account of our words and deeds. I, who for every other reason
dread this tribunal, now that I am encompassed with calumny, find my chief
consolation in the thought of it.

CIII. To the Count Apollonius.(1)

   The very godly bishops have been led to travel to the imperial city by
the calumnies uttered against me, and I by their holinesses send your
excellency my salutation, and pay the debt of friendship, not indeed to
wipe out the cherished obligation, but to make it greater. For in truth the
obligations of friendship are increased by their discharge. That I should
now be reaping the fruits of calumny is not extraordinary, for, in that I
am human, there is nothing that I must not expect. All troubles of this
kind must be borne by them that have learned wisdom; one thing only is
distressing--that harm should accrue to the soul.

CIV. To Flavianus,(2) Bishop of Constantinople.

   I have already in another letter informed your holiness how openly the
calumniators of our teaching are slandering us.(3) Now in like manner by
means of the very godly bishops I do the so, me, having not only these as
witnesses of the orthodoxy of my teaching but also countless other men who
are my hearers in the churches of the East. Above and beyond all these I
have my conscience, and Him who sees my conscience. And I know too how the
divine Apostle often appealed to the testimony of his conscience, for "our
rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience "(4) and again "I say
the truth in Christ I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the
Holy Ghost."(5) Know then, O holy and godly sir, that no one has ever at
any time heard us preaching two sons; in fact this doctrine seems to the
abominable and impious, for there is one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are
all things. Him I acknowledge both as everlasting God and as man in the end
of days, and I give Him one worship as only begotten. I have learned
however the distinction between flesh and Godhead, for the union is
unconfounded. Thus drawn up as it were in battle array to oppose the
madness of Arius and Eunomius, we very easily refute the blasphemy hazarded
by them against the only begotten, by applying what was spoken in humility
about the Lord, and suitably to His assumed nature, to man, and, on the
other hand, what becomes the divine and signifies the divine nature, to
God; not dividing Him into two persons, but teaching that both the former
and latter attributes belong to the only begotten, the latter to Him as God
the Creator and Lord of all, and the former as made man on our account. For
divine Scripture says that He was made man, not by mutation of the Godhead,
but by assumption of human nature, of the seed of Abraham. This the divine
Apostle openly says in the words "For verily He took not on Him the nature
of angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham, wherefore in all things
it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren."(1) And again "Now to
Abraham and his seed were the promises made: he saith not and to seeds, as
of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ."(2)

   These and similar passages have been cut out of divine Scripture by
Simon, Basilides, Valentinus, Bardesanes, Marcion, and the man who is named
after his maniacal heres.(3) So they style the Master Christ God only, and
describe Him as having nothing human about Him, but appearing in
imagination and appearance as man to men. On the other hand the Arians and
Eunomians say that God the Word assumed only a body, and that He Himself
supplied the place of a soul in the body. And Apollinarius describes the
Master's body as endued with a soul;(4) but, deriving, I know not whence.
the idea of a distinction between soul and intelligence,(5) deprives
intelligence of its share in the achieved salvation.(6) The teaching of the
divine Apostles lays down on the contrary that a soul both reasonable and
intelligent was assumed together with flesh, and the salvation of which the
hope is held out to them that believe is complete.

   There is yet another gang of heretics who hold differently.Photinus,(7)
Marcellus,(8) and Paul of Samosata,(9) assert that our Lord and God was
only man. When arguing with these we are tinder the necessity of advancing
proofs of the Godhead, and of shewing that the Master Christ is everlasting
God. When, on the other band, we are contending with the former faction,
which calls our Lord Jesus Christ God only, we are obliged to marshal
against them the forces of the divine Scripture, and collect from it
evidence of the assumption of the manhood. For a physician must use
remedies appropriate to the disease, and suit the medicine to the case.

   Now, therefore, I beseech your holiness to scatter the slander raised
against me, and bridle the tongues now vainly reviling me. For, after the
incarnation, I worship one Son of God, one Lord Jesus Christ, and denounce
as impious all who hold otherwise. Deign, sir, to give me too your holy
prayers, that, by God's grace, I may reach the other side of the ocean of
danger, and drop my anchor in the windless haven of the Lord.

CV. To Eulogius the OEconomus.(1)

   We have heard from many sources of your piety's efforts on behalf of
true religion. It is therefore right that you should readily succour one
who is calumniated for the same cause, and should refute the revilers'
lies. You, O godly Sir, know what I hold, and what I teach, and that no one
has ever heard of my preaching two sons. Exert, I implore you, in this case
too your divine energy, and stop the months of the evil speakers. In
conflicts of this kind one must help not only one's friends but even those
who have caused us pain.

CVI. To Abraham the OEconomus.

   By the godly bishops I salute you. I beseech you to give heed to the
churches' calm, and to disperse the waves of calumny. "Whatsoever a man
soweth that shall he also reap,"(2) as says the divine Apostle. Without
doubt then he who fights for the apostolic doctrines shall reap the fruit
of the apostolic blessing and enjoy the Apostles' devotion.

CVII. To the presbyter Theodotus.

   The struggles which your piety has undergone on behalf of the apostolic
doctrines are not unknown, but are frequently mentioned alike by those who
have known them by experience, and by others who have heard of them from
these. Continue, my dear sir, your efforts, and fight for the doctrines of
the Fathers. For these I too am buffeted in all directions and, while I
receive the shock of the great waves, I beseech  our Governor either to nod
his head and scatter the tempest, or enable the victims of the storm by His
grace to play the man.

CVIII. To Acacius the Presbyter.

   True indeed is the promise of David's Psalm, for through him the Spirit
of truth gave this promise to them that believe, "Commit thy way unto the
Lord, trust also to him; and he shall bring it to pass; and he shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday."(1)
This we find too has come to pass in the case of your piety. For the great
care yon bestow upon them that are weeping for their orphanhood, and your
struggles on behalf of the apostolic doctrines, are in every one's mouth,
and so, as the prophets say, "Hidden things are made manifest." Since I too
have beard of your piety's admirable exertions I write to salute you, most
godly sir, and beseech you to increase your glory by adding to your
labours, and to fight on behalf of the doctrine of the Gospels, that we may
both keep the inheritance of our fathers unimpaired, and bring our Master
His talent with good usury.(2)

CIX. To Eusebius, Bishop of Ancyra.(3)

   Many are the devices secretly plotted against me, and through me
patched up against the faith of apostles. I am however comforted by the
sufferings of the Saints, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and men famous in
the churches in the word of Grace; and besides these by the promises of our
God and Saviour, for in this present life He has promised us nothing
pleasant or delightful, but rather trouble, toil, and peril, and attacks of
enemies. "In the world," He says, "ye shall have tribulation,"(4) and "if
they have persecuted me they will also persecute you,"(5) and "If they have
called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them
of his household,"(8) and "The time cometh when whosoever killeth you will
think he doeth God service,"(7) and "Straight is the gate and narrow the
way which leadeth unto life,"(8) and "When they persecute you in this city
flee you into another,"(9) and I might quote all similar passages. The
divine Apostle too speaks in the same strain. "Yea and all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men and seducers
shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."(1) These words
give me the greatest comfort in this distress. As the calumnies uttered
against me have probably reached your holiness's ears, I beseech your
holiness to give no credence to the lies of my slanderers. I am not aware
of ever having taught anyone up to the present time to believe in two sons.
I have been taught to believe in one only begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ,
God the Word made man. But I know the distinction between flesh and
Godhead, and regard as impious all who divide our one Lord Jesus Christ
into two sons, as well as those who, travelling in an opposite direction,
call the Godhead and manhood of the master Christ one nature. For these
exaggerations stand opposed to one another, while between them lies the way
of the doctrines of the Gospel, beautified by the footprints of prophets
and apostles, and of all who after them have been conspicuous for the gift
of teaching. I was anxious to adduce their opinions, and to point out how
they bear witness in favour of my own, but I want more words than a letter
allows room for, wherefore I have written summarily what I have been taught
about the incarnation of the only begotten; I send my statement to your
godly excellency.(2) I bare written not with the object of teaching others,
but of making my defence against the accusations brought against me, and of
explaining my sentiments to those who are ignorant of them. After your
holiness has read what I have written, if you find it in conformity with
the apostolic doctrines, I hope you trill confirm my opinion by what you
reply--if, on the contrary, anything that I have said jars with the divine
teaching, I request to be told of it by your holiness. For, though I have
spent much time in teaching, I still need one to teach me. "We know," says
the divine Apostle "in part,"(3) and again he says, "If any man think that
he knoweth anything he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."(4) So I
hope that I may hear the truth from your holiness, and that you may also
give heed to the calm of the Church, and fight for the divine doctrines. It
is for their sakes that the very godly bishops, making light of the
difficulties of the journey, and of the winter, have set out for the
imperial city, in the endeavour to bring about some end to the storm. Send
them I pray you, on their way with your prayers and with your prayers too
strengthen me.(1)

CX. To Domnus, bishop of Antioch.(2)

   When I read your letter I remembered the very blessed Susannah, who
when she saw the famous villains, and believed that the God of all was
present, uttered that remarkable cry, "I am straitened on every side;"(3)
but nevertheless preferred to fall into the snares of slander rather than
to despise the just God. And I, sir, have two alternatives as I have often
said, to offend God and wound my conscience, or to fall by man's unjust
sentence. The most pious emperor, I think, knows nothing of this. For what
hindered him from writing, and ordering the ordination to take place, if in
truth it so pleased him? Why in the world do they utter threats without and
cause alarm, and yet do not send letters openly ordering it? One of two
things must be true; either the very pious emperor is not induced to write,
or they are trying to make us break the law and afterwards be indicted by
them for illegality. I have before me the example of the blessed
Principius,(4) for in that case, when they had given orders by writing,
they punished him for obedience. Moreover the letters which I read on the
very day of the letter-bearer's arrival are of a contrary tenour. For one
of the holy monks has written to some one that he fins received letters
both from the very illustrious guardsman and the very glorious ex-magister
stating that the case of the very godly lord bishop Irenaeus will stand
more favourably, and in return for this good will they ask prayers on their
behalf. I think therefore that a reply ought to be written to the clergy
who have written from the imperial city to the effect that(3) "in obedience
to the sentence of the very godly bishops of Phoenicia, and knowing both
the zeal and the magnanimity and love for the poor and all the other
virtues of the very godly bishop Irenaeus, and in addition to this the
orthodoxy of his opinions, I have ordained him. I am not aware that he has
ever objected to apply to the holy Virgin the title 'Theotokos,' or has
ever held any other opinions contrary to the doctrines of the Gospel. As to
the question of digamy, I have followed my predecessors; for Alexander of
blessed and sacred memory, the ornament of this apostolic see, as well as
the very blessed Acacius, bishop of Beroea, ordained Diogenes of blessed
memory who was a 'digamus;'(1) and similarly the blessed Praylius ordained
Domninus of Caesarea who was a 'digamus.'(2) We have therefore followed
precedent, and the example of men well known and illustrious both for
learning and character. Proclus, bishop of Constantinople, of blessed
memory well aware of this and many other instances, both himself accepted
the ordination, and wrote m praise and admiration of it. So too did the
leading godly bishops of the Pontic Diocese,(3) and all the Palestinians.

   "No doubt has been raised about the matter, and we hold it wrong to
condemn a man illustrious for many and various noble actions." In my
opinion it is becoming to write in these terms. If your holiness holds any
other view, let what seems good to you be done. I, as they suppose, have
undergone one punishment, and am ready by God's help to undergo yet
another. Even a third and fourth, if they like, by the stay of God's grace
I will endure, praising the Lord. If your holiness thinks right, let us see
what answer comes from Palestine, and, after considering more exactly what
course is to be taken, let us so write to Constantinople.

CXI. To Anatolius the Patrician.(4)

   Your excellency will be recompensed for the kindness you have shewn me
by the God of all, for all that is done for His sake has its reward. I
laugh at all my slanderers. The bodies of them who are most severely
scourged do not feel the pain, because the scourged flesh is deadened.
Still I lament over them whose unrestrained mouths utter such lies. In what
way have the accusers of the godly bishop Ibas(1) been wronged by me that
they should utter such calumnies against me? To begin with, I was not even
one of the judges, for in obedience to the imperial decree I was living at
Cyrus. Moreover, as I have heard from many, they all along treated my
absence as a grievance, for I had arranged for their partaking of the Holy
Communion at the Easter feast of salvation,(2) and as they often expressed
a wish to meet me, I received them with kindness and advised them as to the
proper course to take. But that I may also speak in the defence of the very
godly bishop the lord Domnus, what was the proper course for him to take?
He was openly attacked; he saw men deposed by a synodical sentence sent
into another diocese, and resuming their priestly functions in violation of
the laws of the Church; he saw things holy and divine laughed at and turned
into ridicule by the enemies of the Church; what was he to do? When he knew
this he handed over the case to others, and not only to the very godly lord
Ibas, but also to the holy lord bishop Symeon of Amida, that the
metropolitans of the two provinces might hear the charges. What fairness is
there in charging the same persons with cruelty and kindness? If we
excommunicate, we run into danger; if we do not excommunicate, we do not
escape it. We alone of all the world are objects of attack. Other dioceses
are at peace. We alone are exposed to calumniators,--specially I myself,
though I took no part in the trial, and am absolutely without
responsibility in the matter.

   Thus have I been forced to write on reading your lordship's letter, and
on learning from it how for these reasons a great commotion has been made
against me, a man confined to my diocese; a man of peace; one not even
deliberating with the godly bishops of the province. As a matter of fact,
although there have been already two episcopal ordinations in our province,
I took part in neither. Were I not restrained by the imperial decree I
would have gone away, and spent the remainder of my days in some remote
spot. I am faint for the plots hatched against me. I am sure those
Edessenes never put together their slander against me of their own accord.
They were prompted to these attacks on me by their truly truthful
neighbours. I thank our Saviour that he has deemed me worthy of the
beatitudes of the Gospel, all unworthy though I be. For this reason I have
gladly accepted the sentence of relegation. I am ready for exile, and, for
the sake of the "hope laid up for me,"(1) welcome whatever fate they may
inflict. I pray without ceasing for your excellency, and beseech all the
saints to share in my petitions.

CXII. To Domnus, bishop of Antioch.(2)

   When news was brought to me that the pettiness of the victorious
emperor had been put an end to, a reconciliation effected between him and
the very godly bishop,(5) the summons to the council cancelled, and the
peace of the churches restored, I hoped that our troubles were a thing of
the past. But I am deeply distressed at what I hear from your holiness. It
is impossible to hope for any good from this notorious council, unless the
merciful Master with His wonted providence shall undo the riotous demons'
devices. Even in the great synod, I mean that of Nicaea, the Arian party
voted with the orthodox and set their hands to the apostolic exposition.
But they did not cease to war against the truth till they had torn asunder
the body of the Church. For thirty years the supporters of the apostolic
doctrines and they who were infected with the Arian blasphemy continued in
communion with one another. But at Antioch,(4) when the latest council was
finished, when they had seated the man of God, the great Meletius, on the
apostolic throne, and then after a few days ejected him by the imperial
authority, Euzoius who was affected with the undoubted plague of Arius was
put forward, and straightway the champions of apostolic doctrines seceded
and thereafter the division continued.

   As I look back on what happened then, and look forward to similar
events in the future, my wretched spirit sighs and wails, for I see no
prospect of good. The men of the other dioceses do not know the poison
which lies in the Twelve Chapters;(1) having regard to the celebrity of the
writer of them, they suspect no mischief, and his successor in the see(2)
is I think adopting every means to confirm them in a second synod. For
supposing he who lately wrote them at command, and anathematized all who
did not wish to abide by them, were presiding over an oecumenical council,
what could he not effect? And be well assured, my lord, that no one who
knows the heresy they contain will brook to accept them, though twice as
many men of this sort decree them. Before now, though a larger number have
rashly confirmed them, I resisted at Ephesus, and refused to communicate
with the writer of them till he had agreed to the points laid down by me,
and had harmonized his teaching with them, without making any mention of
the Chapters. This your holiness can ascertain without any difficulty if
you order the acts of the synod to be investigated; for they are preserved
as is customary with the synodical signatures, and there are extant more
than fifty synodic acts shewing the accusation of the Twelve Chapters. For
before the journey to Ephesus the blessed John(3) had written to the very
godly bishops Eutherius of Tyana, Firmus of Caesarea, and Theodotus of
Ancyra, denouncing these Chapters as Apollinarian,(4) And at Ephesus the
exposition and confirmation of these Chapters was the cause of our
deposition of the Alexandrian and of the Ephesian.(6) Moreover at Ephesus
many synodic letters were written both to the victorious emperor, and to
the great officers, about these Chapters; and in like manner to the laity
at Constantinople and to the reverend clergy. Moreover when we were
summoned to Constantinople we bad five discussions in the imperial
presence, and afterwards sent the emperor three protestations. And to the
very godly bishops of the West, of Milan I mean, of Aquileia, and of
Ravenna, we wrote on the same subject, protesting that the Chapters were
full of the Apollinarian novelty. Furthermore their writer received a
letter from the blessed John by the hands of the blessed Paul,(1) openly
blaming them; and in like manner from Acacius of blessed memory. And to
give your holiness concise information on the subject I have sent you both
the letter of the blessed Acacius, as well as that of the blessed John to
the blessed Cyril, in order that you may perceive that though they were
writing to him on the subject of agreement they blamed these Chapters. And
the blessed Cyril himself, in his letter to the blessed Acacius plainly
indicated the drift of these Chapters in the words "I have written this
against his innovations and when peace is made they will be made manifest."
The very defence proves the accusation. I have sent you the copy of what he
wrote at the tithe of the agreement, that you may see, my lord, that he
made no mention of them, and that those who attend the Council are under an
obligation to bring forward what was written at the time of the agreement,
and to state plainly what had caused the difference and on what terms the
sundered parts were atoned. For they who are summoned to fight for the
truth must flinch from no toil, and must invoke the divine aid, that we may
preserve unimpaired the heritage bequeathed us by our forefathers.

   Your holiness must look out for men of like mind among the godly
bishops and make them companions of your journey; and likewise of the
reverend clergy those who are zealous for the truth, lest betrayed even by
them of our own side we are either driven to do something displeasing to
the God of all, or, in our abandonment, fall an easy prey to our foes.

   It is faith in which we have our hopes of salvation, and we must leave
no means untried to prevent aught spurious being brought into it, and the
apostolic teaching from being corrupted.

   I write you these words from far away, with sighs and with groans, and
I beseech our common Master to scatter this dark cloud and bestow on us
once more the boon of the bright sunshine.

CXIII. To Leo, Bishop of Rome.

   If Paul, the herald of the truth, the trumpet of the Holy Ghost,
hastened to the great Peter(2) in order that he might carry from him the
desired solution of difficulties to those at Antioch who were in doubt
about living in conformity with the law, much more do we, men insignificant
and small, hasten to your apostolic see(3) in order to receive from you a
cure for the wounds of the churches. For every reason it is fitting for you
to hold the first place, inasmuch as your see is adorned with many
privileges. Other cities are indeed adorned by their size, their beauty,
and their population; and some which in these respects are lacking are made
bright by certain spiritual boons. But on your city the great Provider has
bestowed an abundance of good gifts. She is the largest, the most splendid,
the most illustrious of the world, and overflows with the multitude of her
inhabitants. Besides all this, she has achieved her present sovereignty,
and has given her name to her subjects. She is moreover specially adorned
by her faith, in due testimony whereof the divine Apostle exclaims "your
faith is spoken of throughout the whole world."(4) And if even after
receiving the seeds of the message of salvation her boughs were straightway
heavy with these admirable fruits, what words can fitly praise the piety
now practised in her? In her keeping too are the tombs that give light to
the souls of the faithful, those of our common fathers and teachers of the
truth, Peter and Paul.(5) This thrice blessed and divine pair arose in the
region of sunrise, and spread their rays in all directions. Now from the
region of sunset, where they willingly welcomed the setting of this life,
they illuminate the world. They have rendered your see most glorious; this
is the crown and completion(1) of your good things; but in these days their
God has adorned their throne(2) by setting on it your holiness, emitting,
as you do, the rays of orthodoxy. Of this I might give many proofs, but it
is enough to mention the zeal which your holiness lately shewed against the
ill-famed Manichees, proving thereby your piety's earnest regard for divine
things. Your recent writings, too, are enough to indicate your apostolic
character. For we have met with what your holiness has written concerning
the incarnation(3) of our God and Saviour, and we have marvelled at the
exactness of your expressions.

   For both writings agreed in setting forth both the everlasting Godhead
of the Only-begotten derived from the everlasting Father, and the manhood
derived from the seed of Abraham and David; and that the nature assumed was
in all things like unto us, being unlike to us in this respect alone, that
it remained free from all sin; since it springs not of nature but of free
will.

   The letters moreover contain this, that the Only-begotten Son of God is
one, and his God head impassible, immutable, and invariable, like the
Father who begat Him and the Holy Spirit; and that on this account He took
the passible nature, divine nature being incapable of suffering, that by
the suffering of His own flesh He might bestow freedom from suffering on
them that have believed in Him. These statements and others of like nature
were contained in your letters. We, in admiration of your spiritual wisdom,
have landed the grace of the Holy Ghost uttered through you, and we invoke
and beseech and beg and implore your highness to protect the churches of
God that are now assailed by the storm.

   We had expected that through the instrumentality of the
representatives(4) sent by your holiness to Ephesus, the tempest would have
been done away, but we have fallen under severer attacks of the storm. For
the very righteous bishop of Alexandria was not content with the illegal
and very unrighteous deposition of the most holy and godly bishop of
Constantinople, the lord Flavianus, nor was his soul satisfied with a
similar slaughter of the rest of the bishops, but me too in my absence he
stabbed with a pen, without summoning me to the bar, without trying me in
my presence, without questioning me as to my opinions about the incarnation
of our God and Saviour. Even murderers, tomb-breakers, and adulterers, are
not condemned by their judges until they have themselves confirmed by
confession the charges brought against them, or have been clearly convicted
by the testimony of others. Yet I, nurtured as I have been in the divine
laws, have been condemned by him at his pleasure, when all the while I was
five and thirty days' march away.

   Nor is this all that he has done. Only last year when two fellows
tainted with the unsoundness of Apollinarius had gone thither and patched
up slanders against me, he stood up in church and anathematized me, and
that after I had written to him and explained my opinions to him.

   I lament the disturbance of the church, and long for peace. Six and
twenty years have I ruled the church entrusted to me by the God of all,
aided by your prayers. Never in the time of the blessed Theodotus,(1) the
chief bishop of the East; never in the time of his successors in the see of
Antioch, did I incur the slightest blame. By the help of God's grace
working with me more than a thousand souls did I rescue from the plague of
Marcion; many others from the Arian and Eunomian factions did I bring over
to our Master Christ. I have done pastoral duty in eight hundred churches,
for so many parishes does Cyrus contain; and in them, through your prayers,
not even one tare is left, and our flock is delivered from all heresy and
error. He who sees all things knows how many stones have been cast at me by
evil heretics, how many conflicts in most of the cities of the East I have
waged against pagans, against Jews, against every heresy. After all this
trial and all this danger I have been condemned without a trial.

   But I await the sentence of your apostolic see. I beseech and implore
your holiness to succour me in my appeal to your fair and righteous
tribunal. Bid me hasten to you, and prove to you that my teaching follows
the footprints of the apostles. I have in my possession what I wrote twenty
years ago; what I wrote eighteen, fifteen, twelve, years ago; against
Arians and Eunomians, against Jews and pagans; against the magi in Persia;
on divine Providence; on theology; and on the divine incarnation. By God's
grace I have interpreted the writings of the apostles and the oracles of
the prophets. From these it is not difficult to ascertain whether I have
adhered to the right rule of faith, or have swerved from its straight
course. Do not, I implore you, spurn my prayer; regard, I implore you, the
insults piled after all my labours on my poor grey head.

   Above all, I implore you to tell me whether I ought to put up with this
unrighteous deposition or not; for I await your decision. If you bid me
abide by the sentence of condemnation, I abide; and henceforth I will
trouble no man, and will wait for the righteous tribunal of our God and
Saviour. God is my witness, my lord, that I care not for honour and glory.
I care only for the scandal that has been caused, in that many of the
simpler folk, and especially those whom I have rescued from various
heresies, cleaving to the authority of my judges and quite unable to
understand the exact truth of the doctrine, will perhaps suppose me guilty
of heresy.

   All the people of the East know that during all the time of my
episcopate I have not acquired a house, not a piece of ground, not an obol,
not a tomb, but of my own accord have embraced poverty, after distributing,
at the death of my parents, the whole of the property which I inherited
from them.

   Above all I implore you, O holy sir, beloved of God, to grant me the
help of your prayers. I have told you this by the reverend and godly
presbyters Hypatius and Abramius chorepiscopi(1) and by Alypius exarch(2)
of our monks. I would hasten to you myself were I not kept back by the
chains of the imperial order, which imprison me as they do others. Treat my
messengers, I beseech you, as a father might his sons; give them kindly and
unbiassed audience; deign to grant your protection to my old age,(3)
slandered as it is and attacked in vain. Above all, regard, to the utmost
of your power, the faith conspired against; preserve for the churches the
inheritance of their fathers unimpaired. So will your holiness receive the
recompense due for such deeds from the great Giver of all good gifts.(1)

CXIII. (a).(2) From Pope Leo to Theodoret.

   To our much beloved brother Theodoretus, bishop, Leo, bishop.

CXIV.(3) To Andiberis.

   The reverend presbyter Peter is distinguished not only by his priestly
rank, but also by his wise practice in medicine. During his long residence
with us he has won all hearts by his conciliatory manners. On learning of
my departure he has now determined to leave Cyrus; I therefore commend him
to your excellency, and hope that,, fully capable as he is of doing good
service to the city,--for when he lived at Alexandria he practised the same
profession,--he will meet with kindness at your hands.

CXV. To Apella.

   When I undertook the direction of the see of Cyrus, I procured for it
from all directions men who practised necessary arts, and besides this
induced skilful physicians to live there. Of these one is the reverend
presbyter Peter, who practises his profession with wisdom, and adorns it by
his character. On my departure, several have left the city and Peter also
has determined to leave. Under these circumstances I beseech your
excellency to give him your kind care. He is well able to attend the sick
and to wage war against their ailments.

CXVI.(4)  To the presbyter Renatus.

   We have heard of the warm and righteous zeal of your holiness, and the
just and lawful boldness of speech which you employed in condemning the
audacious proceedings at Ephesus. Nor is this known to us alone, but the
fame of your orthodoxy has gone out into all lands, and all men are
celebrating your righteousness, your zeal, your boldness, and your
denunciation of my unfair treatment. And your holiness took this course
after seeing one massacre. If you had seen the others which took place
after your departure you would perhaps have emulated the fervour of the
famous Phinehas.(1) I am one of those who was subsequently condemned, being
forbidden by the imperial order to attend the council, and sentenced in my
absence.(2)

   Six and twenty years have I been a bishop; innumerable labours have I
undergone; I have struggled hard for the truth; I have freed tens of
thousands of heretics from their errors and brought them to the Saviour;
and now they have stripped me of my priesthood; they are exiling me from
the city. For my old age, for my hairs grown gray in the truth, they have
no respect. Wherefore, I beseech your sanctity, persuade the very sacred
and holy archbishop(3) to bid me hasten to your council. For that holy see
has precedence over all churches in the world, for many reasons; and above
all for this, that it is free from all taint of heresy, and that no bishop
of heterodox opinion has ever sat upon its throne, but it has kept the
grace of the apostles undefiled.(4) Confident in your justice I shall
accept your decisions, whatever they may be, and shall claim to be judged
by my writings. More than thirty books have I written against Arius and
Eunomius, against Marcion, against Macedonius, against the heathen and
against Jews; I have interpreted the holy Scriptures, and any one who likes
may easily learn that I have followed in the steps of the apostles,
proclaiming the one Son, one Father, and one Holy Ghost; one Godhead of the
Trinity, one sovereignty, one power, eternity, immutability, impassibility,
one will;(3) that the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ was perfect, perfect
the manhood taken for our salvation and for our sakes delivered unto death.
I do not know one Son of man and another Son of God, but one and the same,
Son of God and God  begotten of God, and Son of man, through the form of
the servant, of the seed of Abraham and David. These and like doctrines I
continue to teach; these also I have found in the writings of the most holy
and sacred lord archbishop Leo, and I praise the Lord of all that I agree
with his apostolic doctrines. Receive, I beseech you, my supplication, and
do not overlook the wrongs under which I suffer. On this account I have
sent to your holiness the godly presbyters Hypatius and Abramius,
chorepiscopi, and Alypius exarch of our monks, adorned as they are by good
lives, and able by word of mouth to give you exact information as to the
affairs of my insignificant self.

CXVII. To the bishop Florentius.(1)

   Truly the grace of our God and Saviour has not yet abandoned the human
race, but has left us a seed in your holiness "lest we should become as
Sodom, and be made like unto Gomorrah."(2) This seed suffers us not
altogether to faint, but charges us to wait for the passing away of the
dire storm; this renders us hopeful.

   We have therefore sent to your holiness. the very godly presbyters
Hypatius and Abramius, chorepiscopi, and Alypius, exarch of our monks, that
you may put an end to the disaster which has befallen the churches of the
East; that in the first place you may confirm the faith handed down to us
from the first by the holy Apostles, may proscribe the heresy that has
started up, and openly convict the men who have the hardihood to debase the
preaching of the Oeconomy;(3) and secondly may fight as champion of them
who are being attacked for the truth's sake. For it is in the cause of the
apostolic Faith, most holy, that we have undergone that unrighteous
massacre, because we refused to abandon the truth of the Gospel doctrines.
Now it behoves your holiness not to overlook the unjust persecution of men
of like mind with yourself, but by your just help to put a stop to
injustice, and teach the assailants of the truth that men who strive to act
unscrupulously at their own good pleasure cannot be allowed to work out
their ends.

CXVIII. To the Archdeacon of Rome.(1)

   A terrible storm has attacked our churches, but the adherents of the
apostolic faith have in your holiness a safe and quiet haven. Not only do
you champion the cause of the doctrines of the Gospel, but you utterly
detest the wrong done to me. I was living far away at a distance of thirty-
five days' journey, when I was condemned at their good pleasure by those
most righteous judges. Teaching which has obtained in the churches from the
coming of God our Saviour till this day they have abandoned. They have
introduced a novel and bastard doctrine, diametrically contrary to the
tradition of the apostles, and are openly at war with them that hold to the
ancient instruction. Deign, then, most godly sir, to kindle the zeal of the
very sacred and holy archbishop, that the churches of the East too may
enjoy your kindly care. Above all fight in behalf of the faith delivered
from the beginning by the holy apostles; preserve the heritage of our
fathers unimpaired, and scatter the mist that oppresses us. Give us instead
of moonless night clear sunshine, and condemn the wickedness of the
massacre unrighteously wrought against us. It is becoming to your holiness
to add yet this act of zeal to your other good deeds.

CXIX. To Anatolius the patrician.(2)

   Your excellency has been fully informed as to the acts of the most
righteous judges at Ephesus, for their sound has gone out into all lands
and their most just judgment to the ends of the world.(3) What church has
not felt the storm that has been raised by it? The one side wronged, the
other were wronged, but they who neither suffered nor did the wrong share
the distress of the wronged, and lament over them that so savagely and
against all laws human and divine massacred their own members. Even house
breakers caught in the very act are first tried and then punished by their
judges; even murderers, violators of sepulchres, and adulterers, are first
haled before the bench, and their accusers ordered to make their
indictment, and the motive of the witnesses is tested to see that they are
not giving evidence to curry favour with the prosecutors or are prejudiced
against the defendants and after this they are bidden to make their defence
to the charges brought against them. This is done twice, thrice; sometimes
even four times; and then, and not till then, after the truth has been
sought in the words of both accuser and accused, the sentence is given. As
to how these men judged in the case of the rest I will say nothing, lest I
may seem a meddler in what does not concern me. I am forced to speak on
behalf of myself alone, for the unrighteous deed of violence compels me.
The imperial order kept me at home, and prevented me from travelling beyond
the bounds of the city placed under my pastoral care. The decision of the
synod went against me, and a man was condemned who was five and thirty
days' journey away.

   Now the God of all said to the patriarch Abraham about Sodom and
Gomorrah: "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great and because
their sin is very grievous; I will go down now and see whether they have
done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me; and if
not, I will know."(1) He knew quite well the wickedness of those men, and
nevertheless He said, "I will go down and see," so teaching us to wait for
the proof of facts. But these men never summoned me to trial, they never
heard the sound of my voice, they refused to hear from me a statement of my
opinions, and handed me over, as a victim to be slaughtered, to the rage of
the enemies of the truth.

   I, however, welcome my rest, and especially so at the present time,
when the apostolic decrees have been by many destroyed, and the new heresy
strengthened. But lest any one who does not know me should believe that the
slanders uttered against me are true, and should be scandalized at the idea
of my holding opinions other than those of the gospel, I implore your
excellency to ask as a favour from the victorious sovereign that I may go
to the West, and there plead my cause before the very godly and holy
bishops; and if I be found transgressing in the least degree the rule of
the faith, that I may be plunged into the midst of the deep sea. If he will
not grant you this request, let him at least command me to inhabit my
monastery,(2) which is a hundred and twenty miles away from Cyrus, seventy-
five from Antioch. and lies three miles away from Apamea.

   Of these petitions, if possible, I ask the former; if not at least I
implore that, through your excellency's interposition, the second may be
granted me. I shall ever carry the memory of your kindness in my heart and
on my lips, supplicating the Lord of hosts to requite your excellency as
well with present as with future blessings. I am compelled to write to you
in these terms because I have heard that certain persons are endeavouring
to compass my removal from this place.

CXX. To Lupicius.(1)

   Even the enemies of the truth must, I think, be indignant at the
injustice and illegality of the violence done us. It is only reasonable
that the nurslings of the truth, at whose head stands your excellency,
should be still more distressed at this new and surprising tragedy. It is
only right that those who are the more grieved should show the more
earnestness and zeal to counteract the deeds impiously and illegally done;
and restore to its previous concord the Church's body now in peril of being
torn asunder. Wherefore I beseech your excellency to reckon the present
crisis an opportunity for spiritual reciprocity; to give on your side
earnestness on behalf of the truth, and to receive from our generous Master
alike His kindly care in this present life and in the life to come the
kingdom of heaven.

CXXI. To Anatolius the patrician.(2)

   The Lord who overlooks and governs all things has shewn both the
apostolic truth of my doctrines, and the falsehood of the slander laid at
my door. For the writings sent from the right godly and holy lord Leo,
archbishop of Great Rome, to Flavianus of holy memory and to the rest
assembled at Ephesus, are entirely in harmony with what I myself have
written and have always preached in church. So soon therefore as I had read
them, I praised the loving-kindness of the Lord, in that He had not wholly
forsaken the churches, but had protected the spark of orthodoxy; or--shall
I not rather say?--not a spark, but a very great torch, such as might
enkindle and enlighten the world; for he has truly, in his writings,
observed the apostolic stamp, and in them we have found at once what has
been delivered by the holy and blessed prophets and apostles, and their
successors in the preaching of the Gospel, and moreover the holy Fathers
assembled at Nicaea. By these I confess that I abide, and indict all who
hold other doctrines as guilty of impiety. Side by side with these writings
of mine I have set one of the letters sent by him to Ephesus, to the end
that when your excellency reads them you may remember the words which I
have often spoken in church, may recognise the harmony of the doctrines,
and may bate the utterers of the lie as well as those who have set up their
new heresy in opposition to the doctrines of the Apostle.

CXXII.(1) To Uranius(2) bishop of Emesa.

   I have been greatly delighted that we who correspond in character
should have corresponded by letter. But I do not quite see what you mean by
saying "Are not these my words?" If it were said only for the sake of
salutation, I am not annoyed at it; but if it is intended to remind me of
the advice which recommended silence, and of the so-called oeconomy,(3) I
am very much obliged, but I do not accept the suggestion. For the divine
Apostle charges us to take quite the opposite course. "Be instant in season
and out of season."(4) And the Lord says to this very spokesman, "Be not
afraid, but speak"(5) and to Isaiah, "Cry aloud, spare not"(8) and to Moses
"Go down, charge the people"(7) and to Ezekiel "I have made thee a watchman
unto the house of Israel," and it shall be "if thou warn not the
wicked,"(8) and the like: for I think it needless to write at length to one
who knows. Not only therefore are we not distressed at having spoken
freely, but we even rejoice and are glad, and laud Him who has thought us
worthy of these sufferings; aye and call on my friends to encounter the
same perils.

   If they know that we do not keep the apostolic rule of the faith, but
swerve to the right hand or the left, let them hate us; let them join the
opposite side; let them be ranked with them that are at war with us.  But
if they bear witness to our holding the right teaching of the gospel
message, we hail them with the cry, "Do you too 'stand having your loins
girt about with truth, ... and your feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace,'"(1) and so on, for it is said that virtue comprises not
only temperance, righteousness, and prudence, but also courage, and that by
means of courage the rest of its component parts are preserved. For
righteousness needs the alliance of courage in its war against wrong;
temperance vanquishes intemperance by the aid of courage. And for this
reason the God of all said to the prophet "The just shall live by his
faith, and if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."(2)
Shrinking he calls cowardice. Hold fast then, my dear friend, to the
apostolic doctrines, for "He that shall come will come, and will not
tarry,"(3) and "He shall render to every man according to his deeds,"(4)
for "the fashion of this world passeth away,"(5) and the truth shall be
made manifest.

CXXIII. To the same.

   Your letter was a long one, and a pleasant one, and it shews how warm
and genuine is your affection. So delighted am I with it that I am not at
all sorry for having erroneously conjectured the meaning of the beginning
of your former one. For my misapprehension of the intention of your letter
has disclosed your brotherly love, made plain the sincerity of your faith,
and shewn your zeal for the true religion. We have indeed shared between us
the words and the trials of the prophet; your holiness has used the words;
I am buffeted by the hurricane and billows, and against the towers of the
ship I exclaim in his words "They that observe lying vanities forsake their
own mercy."(6) Perhaps He who is Jonah's Lord and mine will grant that I
too may rise and be released from the monster. But if the surge continue to
boil I trust that even thus I shall enjoy the divine protection, and learn
by my own experience how His strength is "made perfect in weakness,"(7) for
He has measured the peril by my infirmity. The divine prophet whom I have
mentioned was flung into the sea by his shipmates one and all, but I am
granted the consolation of your holiness, and of other godly men. For them
and for your godliness I pray that the blessing bestowed upon the excellent
Onesiphorus may be yours, for you have not blushed at my gibes; nay rather
you have shared in my afflictions for the faith's sake.

   And one thing which I wish you to know is that, though other godly
bishops have sent me their bounty, I have declined to receive it;--not from
any want of respect to the senders, God forbid;--but because hitherto food
convenient for me has been provided by Him Who gives it even to the ravens
without stint. In the case of your reverence I have acted differently, for
really the warmth of your affection has overcome what has hitherto been my
fixed principle. For be well assured, thy godly friend, that ever since
friendship grew up between us the fire of our love has been kindled to
greater heat.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF II/III, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The Electronic
Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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