Letters 166–189

To Ascholius, bishop of Thessalonica

God has fulfilled my old prayer in deigning to allow me to receive the letter of your veritable holiness.  What I most of all desire is to see you and to be seen by you, and to enjoy in actual intercourse all the graces of the Spirit with which you are endowed.  This, however, is impossible, both on account of the distance which separates us, and the engrossing occupations of each of us.  I therefore pray, in the second place, that my soul may be fed by frequent letters from your love in Christ.  This has now been granted me on taking your epistle into my hands.  I have been doubly delighted at the enjoyment of your communication.  I felt as though I could really see your very soul shining in your words as in some mirror; and I was moved to exceeding joy, not only at your proving to be what all testimony says of you, but that your noble qualities are the ornament of my country.  You have filled the country beyond our borders with spiritual fruits, like some vigorous branch sprung from a glorious root.  Rightly, then, does our country rejoice in her own offshoots.  When you were engaging in conflicts for the Faith she heard that the goodly heritage of the Fathers was preserved in you, and she glorified God.  And now what are you about?  You have honoured the land that gave you birth by sending her a martyr who has just fought a good fight in the barbarian country on your borders, just as a grateful gardener might send his first fruits to those who had given him the seeds.  Verily the gift is worthy of Christ’s athlete, a martyr of the truth just crowned with the crown of righteousness, whom we have gladly welcomed, glorifying God who has now fulfilled the gospel of His Christ in all the world.  Let me ask you to remember in your prayers me who love you, and for my soul’s sake earnestly to beseech the Lord that one day I, too, may be deemed worthy to begin to serve God, according to the way of His commandments which He has given us to salvation.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata

Letter CLXVI.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata

Letter CLXVII.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.

I am delighted at your remembering me and writing, and, what is yet more important, at your sending me your blessing in your letter.  Had I been but worthy of your labours and of your struggles in Christ’s cause, I should have been permitted to come to you and embrace you, and to take you as a model of patience.  But since I am not worthy of this, and am detained by many afflictions and much occupation, I do what is next best.  I salute your excellency, and beseech you not to grow weary of remembering me.  For the honour and pleasure of receiving your letters is not only an advantage to me, but it is a ground of boasting and pride before the world that I should be held in honour by one whose virtue is so great, and who is in such close communion with God as to be able, alike by his teaching and example, to unite others with him in it.

To Antiochus

Letter CLXVIII.

To Antiochus.

I mourn for the Church that is deprived of the guidance of such a shepherd.  But I have so much the more ground for congratulating you on being worthy of the privilege of enjoying, at such a moment, the society of one who is fighting such a good fight in the cause of the truth, and I am sure that you, who nobly support and stimulate his zeal, will be thought worthy by the Lord of a lot like his.  What a blessing, to enjoy in unbroken quiet the society of the man so rich in learning and experienced in life!  Now, at least, you must, I am sure, know how wise he is.  In days gone by his mind was necessarily given to many divided cares, and you were too busy a man to give your sole heed to the spiritual fountain which springs from his pure heart.  God grant that you may be a comfort to him, and never yourself want consolation from others.  I am sure of the disposition of your heart, alike from the experience which I, for a short time, have had of you, and from the exalted teaching your illustrious instructor, with whom to pass one single day is a sufficient provision for the journey to salvation.

Basil to Gregory

Letter CLXIX.

Basil to Gregory.

You have undertaken a kindly and charitable task in getting together the captive troop of the insolent Glycerius (at present I must so write), and, so far as in you lay, covering our common shame.  It is only right that your reverence should undo this dishonour with a full knowledge of the facts about him.

This grave and venerable Glycerius of yours was ordained by me deacon of the church of Venesa to serve the presbyter, and look after the work of the Church, for, though the fellow is in other respects intractable, he is naturally clever at manual labour.  No sooner was he appointed than he neglected his work, as though there had been absolutely nothing to do.  But, of his own private power and authority, he got together some wretched virgins, some of whom came to him of their own accord (you know how young people are prone to anything of this kind), and others were unwillingly forced to accept him as leader of their company.  Then he assumed the style and title of patriarch, and began all of a sudden to play the man of dignity.  He had not attained to this on any reasonable or pious ground; his only object was to get a means of livelihood, just as some men start one trade and some another.  He has all but upset the whole Church, scorning his own presbyter, a man venerable both by character and age; scorning his chorepiscopus, and myself, as of no account at all, continually filling the town and all the clergy with disorder and disturbance.  And now, on being mildly rebuked by me and his chorepiscopus, that he may not treat us with contempt (for he was trying to stir the younger men to like insubordination), he is meditating conduct most audacious and inhuman.  After robbing as many of the virgins as he could, he has made off by night.  I am sure all this will have seemed very sad to you.  Think of the time too.  The feast was being held there, and, as was natural, large numbers of people were gathered together.  He, however, on his side, brought out his own troop, who followed young men and danced round them, causing all well-disposed persons to be most distressed, while loose chatterers laughed aloud.  And even this was not enough, enormous as was the scandal.  I am told that even the parents of the virgins, finding their bereavement unendurable, wishful to bring home the scattered company, and falling with not unnatural sighs and tears at their daughters’ feet, have been insulted and outraged by this excellent young man and his troop of bandits.  I am sure your reverence will think all this intolerable.  The ridicule of it attaches to us all alike.  First of all, order him to come back with the virgins.  He might find some mercy, if he were to come back with a letter from you.  If you do not adopt this course, at least send the virgins back to their mother the Church.  If this cannot be done, at all events do not allow any violence to be done to those that are willing to return, but get them to return to me.  Otherwise I call God and man to witness that all this is ill done, and a breach of the law of the Church.  The best course would be for Glycerius to come back with a letter, and in a becoming and proper frame of mind; if not, let him be deprived of his ministry.

To Glycerius

Letter CLXX.

To Glycerius.

How far will your mad folly go?  How long will you counsel mischief against yourself?  How long will you go on rousing me to wrath, and bringing shame on the common order of solitaries?  Return.  Put confidence in God, and in me, who imitate God’s loving-kindness.  If I rebuked you like a father, like a father I will forgive you.  This is the treatment you shall receive from me, for many others are making supplication in your behalf, and before all the rest your own presbyter, for whose grey hairs and compassionate disposition I feel much respect.  Continue longer to hold aloof from me and you have quite fallen from your degree.  You will also fall away from God, for with your songs and your garb you are leading the young women not to God, but to the pit.

To Gregory

Letter CLXXI.

To Gregory.

I wrote to you, not long ago, about Glycerius and the virgins.  Even now they have not returned, but are still hesitating, how and why I know not.  I should be sorry to charge this against you, as though you were acting thus to bring discredit on me, either because you have some ground of complaint against me, or to gratify others.  Let them then come, fearing nothing.  Do you be surety for their doing this.  For it pains me to have my members cut off, although they have been rightly cut off.  If they hold out the burden will rest on others.  I wash my hands of it.

To Sophronius, the bishop

Letter CLXXII.

To Sophronius, the bishop.

There is no need for me to say how much I was delighted by your letter.  Your own words will enable you to conjecture what I felt on receiving it.  You have exhibited to me in your letter, the first fruits of the Spirit, love.  Than this what can be more precious to me in the present state of affairs, when, because iniquity abounds, the love of many has waxed cold?  Nothing is rarer now than spiritual intercourse with a brother, a word of peace, and such spiritual communion as I have found in you.  For this I thank the Lord, beseeching Him that I may have part in the perfect joy that is found in you.  If such be your letter, what must it be to meet you in person?  If when you are far away you so affect me, what will you be to me when you are seen face to face?  Be sure that if I had not been detained by innumerable occupations, and all the unavoidable anxieties which tie me down, I should have hurried to see your excellency.  Although that old complaint of mine is a great hindrance to my moving about, nevertheless in view of the good I expect, I would not have allowed this to stand in my way.  To be permitted to meet a man holding the same views and reverencing the faith of the Fathers, as you are said to do by our honourable brethren and fellow presbyters, is in truth to go back to the ancient blessedness of the Churches, when the sufferers from unsound disputation were few, and all lived in peace, “workmen” obeying the commandments and not “needing to be ashamed,” serving the Lord with simple and clear confession, and keeping plain and inviolate their faith in Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

To Theodora the Canoness

Letter CLXXIII.

To Theodora the Canoness.

I should be more diligent in writing to you but for my belief that my letters do not always, my friend, reach your own hands.  I am afraid that through the naughtiness of those on whose service I depend, especially at a time like this when the whole world is in a state of confusion, a great many other people get hold of them.  So I wait to be found fault with, and to be eagerly asked for my letters, that so I may have this proof of their delivery.  Yet, whether I write or not, one thing I do without failing, and that is to keep in my heart the memory of your excellency, and to pray the Lord to grant that you may complete the course of good living which you have chosen.  For in truth it is no light thing for one, who makes a profession, to follow up all that the promise entails.  Any one may embrace the gospel life, but only a very few of those who have come within my knowledge have completely carried out their duty in its minutest details, and have overlooked nothing that is contained therein.  Only a very few have been consistent in keeping the tongue in check and the eye under guidance, as the Gospel would have it; in working with the hands according to the mark of doing what is pleasing to God; in moving the feet, and using every member, as the Creator ordained from the beginning.  Propriety in dress, watchfulness in the society of men, moderation in eating and drinking, the avoidance of superfluity in the acquisition of necessities; all these things seem small enough when they are thus merely mentioned, but, as I have found by experience, their consistent observance requires no light struggle.  Further, such a perfection of humility as not even to remember nobility of family, nor to be elevated by any natural advantage of body or mind which we may have, nor to allow other people’s opinion of us to be a ground of pride and exaltation, all this belongs to the evangelic life.  There is also sustained self-control, industry in prayer, sympathy in brotherly love, generosity to the poor, lowliness of temper, contrition of heart, soundness of faith, calmness in depression, while we never forget the terrible and inevitable tribunal.  To that judgment we are all hastening, but those who remember it, and are anxious about what is to follow after it, are very few.

To a Widow

Letter CLXXIV.

To a Widow.

I have been most wishful to write constantly to your excellency, but I have from time to time denied myself, for fear of causing any temptation to beset you, because of those who are ill disposed toward me.  As I am told, their hatred has even gone so far that they make a fuss if any one happens to receive a letter from me.  But now that you have begun to write yourself, and very good it is of you to do so, sending me needful information about all that is in your mind, I am stirred to write back to you.  Let me then set right what has been omitted in the past, and at the same time reply to what your excellency has written.  Truly blessed is the soul, which by night and by day has no other anxiety than how, when the great day comes wherein all creation shall stand before the Judge and shall give an account for its deeds, she too may be able easily to get quit of the reckoning of life.

For he who keeps that day and that hour ever before him, and is ever meditating upon the defence to be made before the tribunal where no excuses will avail, will sin not at all, or not seriously, for we begin to sin when there is a lack of the fear of God in us.  When men have a clear apprehension of what is threatened them, the awe inherent in them will never allow them to fall into inconsiderate action or thought.  Be mindful therefore of God.  Keep the fear of Him in your heart, and enlist all men to join with you in your prayers, for great is the aid of them that are able to move God by their importunity.  Never cease to do this.  Even while we are living this life in the flesh, prayer will be a mighty helper to us, and when we are departing hence it will be a sufficient provision for us on the journey to the world to come.

Anxiety is a good thing; but, on the other hand, despondency, dejection, and despair of our salvation, are injurious to the soul.  Trust therefore in the goodness of God, and look for His succour, knowing that if we turn to Him rightly and sincerely, not only will He not cast us off forever, but will say to us, even while we are in the act of uttering the words of our prayer, “Lo! I am with you.”

To Count Magnenianus

Letter CLXXV.

To Count Magnenianus.

Your excellency lately wrote to me, plainly charging me, besides other matters, to write concerning the Faith.  I admire your zeal in the matter, and I pray God that your choice of good things may be persistent, and that, advancing in knowledge and good works, you may be made perfect.  But I have no wish to leave behind me a treatise on the Faith, or to write various creeds, and so I have declined to send what you asked.  You seem to me to be surrounded by the din of your men there, idle fellows, who say certain things to calumniate me, with the idea that they will improve their own position by lying disgracefully against me.  The past shews what they are, and future experience will shew them in still plainer colours.  I, however, call on all who trust in Christ not to busy themselves in opposition to the ancient faith, but, as we believe, so to be baptized, and, as we are baptized, so to offer the doxology.  It is enough for us to confess those names which we have received from Holy Scripture, and to shun all innovation about them.  Our salvation does not lie in the invention of modes of address, but in the sound confession of the Godhead in which we have professed our faith.

To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium

Letter CLXXVI.

To Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium.

God grant that when this letter is put into your hands, it may find you in good health, quite at leisure, and as you would wish to be.  For then it will not be in vain that I send you this invitation to be present at our city, to add greater dignity to the annual festival which it is the custom of our Church to hold in honour of the martyrs.  For be sure my most honoured and dear friend, that our people here, though they have had experience of many, desire no one’s presence so eagerly as they do yours; so affectionate an impression has your short intercourse with them left behind.  So, then, that the Lord may be glorified, the people delighted, the martyrs honoured, and that I in my old age may receive the attention due to me from my true son, do not refuse to travel to me with all speed.  I will beg you too to anticipate the day of assembly, that so we may converse at leisure and may comfort one another by the interchange of spiritual gifts.  The day is the fifth of September.  Come then three days beforehand in order that you may also honour with your presence the Church of the Hospital.  May you by the grace of the Lord be kept in good health and spirits in the Lord, praying for me and for the Church of God.

To Saphronius the Master

Letter CLXXVII.

To Saphronius the Master.

To reckon up all those who have received kindness at your excellency’s hand, for my sake, is no easy task; so many are there whom I feel that I have benefited through your kind aid, a boon which the Lord has given me to help me in these very serious times.  Worthiest of all is he who is now introduced to you by my letter, the reverend brother Eusebius, attacked by a ridiculous calumny which it depends upon you alone in your uprightness, to destroy.  I beseech you, therefore, both as respecting the right and as being humanely disposed, to grant me your accustomed favours, by adopting the cause of Eusebius as your own, and championing him, and, at the same time, truth.  It is no small thing that he has the right on his side; and this, if he be not stricken down by the present crisis, he will have no difficulty in proving plainly and without possibility of contradiction.

To Aburgius

Letter CLXXVIII.

To Aburgius.

I know that I have often recommended many persons to your excellency, and so in serious emergencies have been very useful to friends in distress.  But I do not think that I have ever sent to you one whom I regard with greater respect, or one engaged in contests of greater importance, than my very dear son Eusebius, who now places this letter in your hands.  He will himself inform your excellency, if the opportunity is permitted him, in what difficulties he is involved.  I ought to say, at least, as much as this.  The man ought not to be misjudged, nor, because many have been convicted of disgraceful doings, ought he to come under common suspicion.  He ought to have a fair trial, and his life must be enquired into.  In this way the untruth of the charges against him will be made plain, and he, after enjoying your righteous protection, will ever proclaim what he owes to your kindness.

To Arinthæus

Letter CLXXIX.

To Arinthæus.

Your natural nobility of character and your general accessibility have taught me to regard you as a friend of freedom and of men.  I have, therefore, no hesitation in approaching you in behalf of one who is rendered illustrious by a long line of ancestry, but is worthy of greater esteem and honour on his own account, because of his innate goodness of disposition.  I beg you, on my entreaty, to give him your support under a legal charge, in reality, indeed, ridiculous, but difficult to meet on account of the seriousness of the accusation.  It would be of great importance to his success if you would deign to say a kind word in his behalf.  You would, in the first place, be helping the right; but you would further be showing in this your wonted respect and kindness to myself, who am your friend.

To the Master Sophronius, on behalf of Eunathius

Letter CLXXX.

To the Master Sophronius, on behalf of Eunathius.

I have been much distressed on meeting a worthy man involved in very great trouble.  Being human, how could I fail to sympathise with a man of high character afflicted beyond his deserts?  On thinking in what way I could be useful to him, I did find one means of helping him out of his difficulties, and that is by making him known to your excellency.  It is now for you to extend also to him the same good offices which, as I can testify, you have shown to many.  You will learn all the facts of the case from the petition presented by him to the emperors.  This document I beg you to take into your hands, and implore you to help him to the utmost of your power.  You will be helping a Christian, a gentleman, and one whose deep learning ought to win respect.  If I add that in helping him you will confer a great kindness upon me, though, indeed, my interests are matters of small moment, yet, since you are always so good as to make them of importance, your boon to me will be no small one.

To Otreius, bishop of Melitene

Letter CLXXXI.

To Otreius, bishop of Melitene.

Your reverence is, I know, no less distressed than myself at the removal of the very God-beloved bishop Eusebius.  We both of us need comfort.  Let us try to give it to one another.  Do you write to me what you hear from Samosata, and I will report to you anything that I may learn from Thrace.

It is to me no slight alleviation of our present distress to know the constancy of the people.  It will be the same to you to have news of our common father.  Of course I cannot now tell you this by letter, but I commend to you one who is fully informed, and will report to you in what condition he left him, and how he bears his troubles.  Pray, then, for him and for me that the Lord will grant him speedy release from his distress.

To the presbyters of Samosata

Letter CLXXXII.

To the presbyters of Samosata.

Grieved as I am at the desolation of the Church, I none the less congratulate you on having been brought so soon to this extreme limit of your hard struggle.  God grant that you may pass through it with patience, to the end that in return for your faithful stewardship, and the noble constancy which you have shewn in Christ’s cause, you may receive the great reward.

To the Senate of Samosata

Letter CLXXXIII.

To the Senate of Samosata.

Seeing, as I do, that temptation is now spread all over the world, and that the greater cities of Syria have been tried by the same sufferings as yourselves, (though, indeed, nowhere is the Senate so approved and renowned for good works, as your own, noted as you are for your righteous zeal,) I all but thank the troubles which have befallen you.

For had not this affliction come to pass, your proof under trial would never have been known.  To all that earnestly strive for any good, the affliction they endure for the sake of their hope in God is like a furnace to gold.

Rouse ye, then, most excellent sirs, that the labours you are about to undertake may not be unworthy of those which you have already sustained, and that on a firm foundation you may be seen putting a yet worthier finish.  Rouse ye, that ye may stand round about the shepherd of the Church, when the Lord grants him to be seen on his own throne, telling each of you in his turn. some good deed done for the sake of the Church of God.  On the great day of the Lord, each, according to the proportion of his labours, shall receive his recompense from the munificent Lord.  By remembering me and writing to me as often as you can, you will be doing justice in sending me a reply, and will moreover give me very great pleasure, by sending me in writing a plain token of a voice which it is delightful to me to hear.

To Eustathius, bishop of Himmeria

Letter CLXXXIV.

To Eustathius, bishop of Himmeria.

Orphanhood is, I know, very dismal, and entails a great deal of work, because it deprives us of those who are set over us.  Whence I conclude that you do not write to me, because you are depressed at what has happened to you, and at the same time are now very much occupied in visiting the folds of Christ, because they are attacked on every side by foes.  But every grief finds consolation in communication with sympathising friends.  Do then, I beg you, as often as you can, write to me.  You will both refresh yourself by speaking to me, and you will comfort me by letting me hear from you.  I shall endeavour to do the same to you, as often as my work lets me.  Pray yourself, and entreat all the brotherhood earnestly to importune the Lord, to grant us one day release from the present distress.

To Theodotus, bishop of Beræa

Letter CLXXXV.

To Theodotus, bishop of Beræa.

Although you do not write to me, I know that there is recollection of me in your heart; and this I infer, not because I am worthy of any favourable recollection, but because your soul is rich in abundance of love.  Yet, as far as in you lies, use whatever opportunities you have of writing to me, to the end that I may both be cheered by hearing news of you, and have occasion to send you tidings of myself.  This is the only mode of communication for those who live far apart.  Do not let us deprive one another of it, so far as our labours will permit.  But I pray God that we may meet in person, that our love may be increased, and that we may multiply gratitude to our Master for His greater boons.

To Antipater, the governor

Letter CLXXXVI.

To Antipater, the governor.

Philosophy is an excellent thing, if only for this, that it even heals its disciples at small cost; for, in philosophy, the same thing is both dainty and healthy fare.  I am told that you have recovered your failing appetite by pickled cabbage.  Formerly I used to dislike it, both on account of the proverb, and because it reminded me of the poverty that went with it.  Now, however, I am driven to change my mind.  I laugh at the proverb when I see that cabbage is such a “good nursing mother of men,” and has restored our governor to the vigour of youth.  For the future I shall think nothing like cabbage, not even Homer’s lotus, not even that ambrosia, whatever it was, which fed the Olympians.

Antipater to Basil

Letter CLXXXVII.

Antipater to Basil.

“Twice cabbage is death,” says the unkind proverb.  I, however, though I have called for it often, shall die once.  Yes:  even though I had never called for it at all!  If you do die anyhow, don’t fear to eat a delicious relish, unjustly reviled by the proverb!

To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons

Letter CLXXXVIII.

(Canonica Prima.)

To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons.

“Even a fool,” it is said, “when he asks questions,” is counted wise.  But when a wise man asks questions, he makes even a fool wise.  And this, thank God, is my case, as often as I receive a letter from your industrious self.  For we become more learned and wiser than we were before, merely by asking questions, because we are taught many things which we did not know; and our anxiety to answer them acts as a teacher to us.  Assuredly at the present time, though I have never before paid attention to the points you raise, I have been forced to make accurate enquiry, and to turn over in my mind both whatever I have heard from the elders, and all that I have been taught in conformity with their lessons.

I.  As to your enquiry about the Cathari, a statement has already been made, and you have properly reminded me that it is right to follow the custom obtaining in each region, because those, who at the time gave decision on these points, held different opinions concerning their baptism.  But the baptism of the Pepuzeni seems to me to have no authority; and I am astonished how this can have escaped Dionysius, acquainted as he was with the canons.  The old authorities decided to accept that baptism which in nowise errs from the faith.  Thus they used the names of heresies, of schisms, and of unlawful congregations.  By heresies they meant men who were altogether broken off and alienated in matters relating to the actual faith; by schisms men who had separated for some ecclesiastical reasons and questions capable of mutual solution; by unlawful congregations gatherings held by disorderly presbyters or bishops or by uninstructed laymen.  As, for instance, if a man be convicted of crime, and prohibited from discharging ministerial functions, and then refuses to submit to the canons, but arrogates to himself episcopal and ministerial rights, and persons leave the Catholic Church and join him, this is unlawful assembly.  To disagree with members of the Church about repentance, is schism.  Instances of heresy are those of the Manichæans, of the Valentinians, of the Marcionites, and of these Pepuzenes; for with them there comes in at once their disagreement concerning the actual faith in God.  So it seemed good to the ancient authorities to reject the baptism of heretics altogether, but to admit that of schismatics, on the ground that they still belonged to the Church.

As to those who assembled in unlawful congregations, their decision was to join them again to the Church, after they had been brought to a better state by proper repentance and rebuke, and so, in many cases, when men in orders had rebelled with the disorderly, to receive them on their repentance, into the same rank.  Now the Pepuzeni are plainly heretical, for, by unlawfully and shamefully applying to Montanus and Priscilla the title of the Paraclete, they have blasphemed against the Holy Ghost.  They are, therefore, to be condemned for ascribing divinity to men; and for outraging the Holy Ghost by comparing Him to men.  They are thus also liable to eternal damnation, inasmuch as blasphemy against the Holy Ghost admits of no forgiveness.  What ground is there, then, for the acceptance of the baptism of men who baptize into the Father and the Son and Montanus or Priscilla?  For those who have not been baptized into the names delivered to us have not been baptized at all.  So that, although this escaped the vigilance of the great Dionysius, we must by no means imitate his error.  The absurdity of the position is obvious in a moment, and evident to all who are gifted with even a small share of reasoning capacity.

The Cathari are schismatics; but it seemed good to the ancient authorities, I mean Cyprian and our own Firmilianus, to reject all these, Cathari, Encratites, and Hydroparastatæ, by one common condemnation, because the origin of separation arose through schism, and those who had apostatized from the Church had no longer on them the grace of the Holy Spirit, for it ceased to be imparted when the continuity was broken.  The first separatists had received their ordination from the Fathers, and possessed the spiritual gift by the laying on of their hands.  But they who were broken off had become laymen, and, because they are no longer able to confer on others that grace of the Holy Spirit from which they themselves are fallen away, they had no authority either to baptize or to ordain.  And therefore those who were from time to time baptized by them, were ordered, as though baptized by laymen, to come to the church to be purified by the Church’s true baptism.  Nevertheless, since it has seemed to some of those of Asia that, for the sake of management of the majority, their baptism should be accepted, let it be accepted.  We must, however, perceive the iniquitous action of the Encratites; who, in order to shut themselves out from being received back by the Church have endeavoured for the future to anticipate readmission by a peculiar baptism of their own, violating, in this manner even their own special practice.  My opinion, therefore, is that nothing being distinctly laid down concerning them, it is our duty to reject their baptism, and that in the case of any one who has received baptism from them, we should, on his coming to the church, baptize him.  If, however, there is any likelihood of this being detrimental to general discipline, we must fall back upon custom, and follow the fathers who have ordered what course we are to pursue.  For I am under some apprehension lest, in our wish to discourage them from baptizing, we may, through the severity of our decision, be a hindrance to those who are being saved.  If they accept our baptism, do not allow this to distress us.  We are by no means bound to return them the same favour, but only strictly to obey canons.  On every ground let it be enjoined that those who come to us from their baptism be anointed in the presence of the faithful, and only on these terms approach the mysteries.  I am aware that I have received into episcopal rank Izois and Saturninus from the Encratite following.  I am precluded therefore from separating from the Church those who have been united to their company, inasmuch as, through my acceptance of the bishops, I have promulgated a kind of canon of communion with them.

II.  The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder.  With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed.  In this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such attempts die.  The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events if we regard it as done with intent.  The punishment, however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years.  And let their treatment depend not on mere lapse of time, but on the character of their repentance.

III.  A deacon who commits fornication after his appointment to the diaconate is to be deposed.  But, after he has been rejected and ranked among the laity, he is not to be excluded from communion.  For there is an ancient canon that those who have fallen from their degree are to be subjected to this kind of punishment alone.

Herein, as I suppose, the ancient authorities followed the old rule “Thou shalt not avenge twice for the same thing.”  There is this further reason too, that laymen, when expelled from the place of the faithful, are from time to time restored to the rank whence they have fallen; but the deacon undergoes once for all the lasting penalty of deposition.  His deacon’s orders not being restored to him, they rested at this one punishment.  So far is this as regards what depends on law laid down.  But generally a truer remedy is the departure from sin.  Wherefore that man will give me full proof of his cure who, after rejecting grace for the sake of the indulgence of the flesh, has then, through bruising of the flesh and the enslaving of it by means of self control, abandoned the pleasures whereby he was subdued.  We ought therefore to know both what is of exact prescription and what is of custom; and, in cases which do not admit of the highest treatment, to follow the traditional direction.

IV.  In the case of trigamy and polygamy they laid down the same rule, in proportion, as in the case of digamy; namely one year for digamy (some authorities say two years); for trigamy men are separated for three and often for four years; but this is no longer described as marriage at all, but as polygamy; nay rather as limited fornication.  It is for this reason that the Lord said to the woman of Samaria, who had five husbands, “he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.”  He does not reckon those who had exceeded the limits of a second marriage as worthy of the title of husband or wife.  In cases of trigamy we have accepted a seclusion of five years, not by the canons, but following the precept of our predecessors.  Such offenders ought not to be altogether prohibited from the privileges of the Church; they should be considered deserving of hearing after two or three years, and afterwards of being permitted to stand in their place; but they must be kept from the communion of the good gift, and only restored to the place of communion after showing some fruit of repentance.

V.  Heretics repenting at death ought to be received; yet to be received, of course, not indiscriminately, but on trial of exhibition of true repentance and of producing fruit in evidence of their zeal for salvation.

VI.  The fornication of canonical persons is not to be reckoned as wedlock, and their union is to be completely dissolved, for this is both profitable for the security of the Church and will prevent the heretics from having a ground of attack against us, as though we induced men to join us by the attraction of liberty to sin.

VII.  Abusers of themselves with mankind, and with beasts, as also murderers, wizards, adulterers, and idolaters, are deserving of the same punishment.  Whatever rule you have in the case of the rest, observe also in their case.  There can, however, be no doubt that we ought to receive those who have repented of impurity committed in ignorance for thirty years.  In this case there is ground for forgiveness in ignorance, in the spontaneity of confession, and the long extent of time.  Perhaps they have been delivered to Satan for a whole age of man that they may learn not to behave unseemly; wherefore order them to be received without delay, specially if they shed tears to move your mercy, and shew a manner of living worthy of compassion.

VIII.  The man who in a rage has taken up a hatchet against his own wife is a murderer.  But it is what I should have expected from your intelligence that you should very properly remind me to speak on these points more fully, because a wide distinction must be drawn between cases where there is and where there is not intent.  A case of an act purely unintentional, and widely removed from the purpose of the agent, is that of a man who throws a stone at a dog or a tree, and hits a man.  The object was to drive off the beast or to shake down the fruit.  The chance comer falls fortuitously in the way of the blow, and the act is unintentional.  Unintentional too is the act of any one who strikes another with a strap or a flexible stick, for the purpose of chastising him, and the man who is being beaten dies.  In this case it must be taken into consideration that the object was not to kill, but to improve, the offender.  Further, among unintentional acts must be reckoned the case of a man in a fight who when warding off an enemy’s attack with cudgel or hand, hits him without mercy in some vital part, so as to injure him, though not quite to kill him.  This, however, comes very near to the intentional; for the man who employs such a weapon in self defence, or who strikes without mercy, evidently does not spare his opponent, because he is mastered by passion.  In like manner the case of any one who uses a heavy cudgel, or a stone too big for a man to stand, is reckoned among the unintentional, because he does not do what he meant:  in his rage he deals such a blow as to kill his victim, yet all he had in his mind was to give him a thrashing, not to do him to death.  If, however, a man uses a sword, or anything of the kind, he has no excuse:  certainly none if he throws his hatchet.  For he does not strike with the hand, so that the force of the blow may be within his own control, but throws, so that from the weight and edge of the iron, and the force of the throw, the wound cannot fail to be fatal.

On the other hand acts done in the attacks of war or robbery are distinctly intentional, and admit of no doubt.  Robbers kill for greed, and to avoid conviction.  Soldiers who inflict death in war do so with the obvious purpose not of fighting, nor chastising, but of killing their opponents.  And if any one has concocted some magic philtre for some other reason, and then causes death, I count this as intentional.  Women frequently endeavour to draw men to love them by incantations and magic knots, and give them drugs which dull their intelligence.  Such women, when they cause death, though the result of their action may not be what they intended, are nevertheless, on account of their proceedings being magical and prohibited, to be reckoned among intentional homicides.  Women also who administer drugs to cause abortion, as well as those who take poisons to destroy unborn children, are murderesses.  So much on this subject.

IX.  The sentence of the Lord that it is unlawful to withdraw from wedlock, save on account of fornication, applies, according to the argument, to men and women alike.  Custom, however, does not so obtain.  Yet, in relation with women, very strict expressions are to be found; as, for instance, the words of the apostle “He which is joined to a harlot is one body” and of Jeremiah, If a wife “become another man’s shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted?”  And again, “He that hath an adulteress is a fool and impious.”  Yet custom ordains that men who commit adultery and are in fornication be retained by their wives.  Consequently I do not know if the woman who lives with the man who has been dismissed can properly be called an adulteress; the charge in this case attaches to the woman who has put away her husband, and depends upon the cause for which she withdrew from wedlock.  In the case of her being beaten, and refusing to submit, it would be better for her to endure than to be separated from her husband; in the case of her objecting to pecuniary loss, even here she would not have sufficient ground.  If her reason is his living in fornication we do not find this in the custom of the church; but from an unbelieving husband a wife is commanded not to depart, but to remain, on account of the uncertainty of the issue.  “For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?”  Here then the wife, if she leaves her husband and goes to another, is an adulteress.  But the man who has been abandoned is pardonable, and the woman who lives with such a man is not condemned.  But if the man who has deserted his wife goes to another, he is himself an adulterer because he makes her commit adultery; and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has caused another woman’s husband to come over to her.

X.  Those who swear that they will not receive ordination, declining orders upon oath, must not be driven to perjure themselves, although there does seem to be a canon making concessions to such persons.  Yet I have found by experience that perjurers never turn out well.  Account must however be taken of the form of the oath, its terms, the frame of mind in which it was taken, and the minutest additions made to the terms, since, if no ground of relief can anywhere be found, such persons must be dismissed.  The case, however, of Severus, I mean of the presbyter ordained by him, does seem to me to allow of relief of this kind, if you will permit it.  Give directions for the district placed under Mestia, to which the man was appointed, to be reckoned under Vasoda.  Thus he will not forswear himself by not departing from the place, and Longinus, having Cyriacus with him, will not leave the Church unprovided for, nor himself be guilty of neglect of work.  I moreover shall not be held guilty of taking action in contravention of any canons by making a concession to Cyriacus who had sworn that he would remain at Mindana and yet accepted the transfer.  His return will be in accordance with his oath, and his obedience to the arrangement will not be reckoned against him as perjury, because it was not added to his oath that he would not go, even a short time, from Mindana, but would remain there for the future.  Severus, who pleads forgetfulness, I shall pardon, only telling him that One who knows what is secret will not overlook the ravaging of His Church by a man of such a character; a man who originally appoints uncanonically, then imposes oaths in violation of the Gospel, then tells a man to perjure himself in the matter of his transfer, and last of all lies in pretended forgetfulness.  I am no judge of hearts; I only judge by what I hear; let us leave vengeance to the Lord, and ourselves pardon the common human error of forgetfulness, and receive the man without question.

XI.  The man who is guilty of unintentional homicide has given sufficient satisfaction in eleven years.  We shall, without doubt, observe what is laid down by Moses in the case of wounded men, and shall not hold a murder to have been committed in the case of a man who lies down after he has been struck, and walks again leaning on his staff.  If, however, he does not rise again after he has been struck, nevertheless, from there being no intent to kill, the striker is a homicide, but an unintentional homicide.

XII.  The canon absolutely excludes digamists from the ministry.

XIII.  Homicide in war is not reckoned by our Fathers as homicide; I presume from their wish to make concession to men fighting on behalf of chastity and true religion.  Perhaps, however, it is well to counsel that those whose hands are not clean only abstain from communion for three years.

XIV.  A taker of usury, if he consent to spend his unjust gain on the poor, and to be rid for the future of the plague of covetousness, may be received into the ministry.

XV.  I am astonished at your requiring exactitude in Scripture, and arguing that there is something forced in the diction of the interpretation which gives the meaning of the original, but does not exactly render what is meant by the Hebrew word.  Yet I must not carelessly pass by the question started by an enquiring mind.  At the creation of the world, birds of the air and the fishes of the sea had the same origin; for both kinds were produced from the water.  The reason is that both have the same characteristics.  The latter swim in the water, the former in the air.  They are therefore mentioned together.  The form of expression is not used without distinction, but of all that lives in the water it is used very properly.  The birds of the air and the fishes of the sea are subject to man; and not they alone, but all that passes through the paths of the sea.  For every water-creature is not a fish, as for instance the sea monsters, whales, sharks, dolphins, seals, even sea-horses, sea-dogs, saw-fish, sword-fish, and sea-cows; and, if you like, sea nettles, cockles and all hard-shelled creatures of whom none are fish, and all pass through the paths of the sea; so that there are three kinds, birds of the air, fishes of the sea, and all water-creatures which are distinct from fish, and pass through the paths of the sea.

XVI.  Naaman was not a great man with the Lord, but with his lord; that is, he was one of the chief princes of the King of the Syrians.  Read your Bible carefully, and you will find the answer to your question there.