Miscellaneous Letters (3 of 4)

We think it an important matter to obtain penalties from those who have wronged us:  an important matter, I say, (for even this is sometimes useful for the correction of others)—but it is far greater and more Godlike, to bear with injuries.  For the former course curbs wickedness, but the latter makes men good, which is much better and more perfect than merely being not wicked.  Let us consider that the great pursuit of mercifulness is set before us, and let us forgive the wrongs done to us that we also may obtain forgiveness, and let us by kindness lay up a store of kindness.

Phineas was called Zelotes because he ran through the Midianitish woman with the man who was committing fornication with her, and because he took away the reproach from the children of Israel:  but he was more praised because he prayed for the people when they had transgressed.  Let us then also stand and make propitiation, and let the plague be stayed, and let this be counted unto us for righteousness.  Moses also was praised because he slew the Egyptian that oppressed the Israelite; but he was more admirable because he healed by his prayer his sister Miriam when she was made leprous for her murmuring.  Look also at what follows.  The people of Nineve are threatened with an overthrow, but by their tears they redeem their sin.  Manasses was the most lawless of Kings, but is the most conspicuous among those who have attained salvation through mourning.

O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee, saith God.  What anger is here expressed—and yet protection is added.  What is swifter than Mercy?  The Disciples ask for flames of Sodom upon those who drive Jesus away, but He deprecates revenge.  Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, one of those who outraged Him, but Jesus restores it.  And what of him who asks whether he must seven times forgive a brother if he has trespassed, is he not condemned for his niggardliness, for to the seven is added seventy times seven?  What of the debtor in the Gospel who will not forgive as he has been forgiven?  Is it not more bitterly exacted of him for this?  And what saith the pattern of prayer?  Does it not desire that forgiveness may be earned by forgiveness?

Having so many examples let us imitate the mercy of God, and not desire to learn from ourselves how great an evil is requital of sin.  You see the sequence of goodness.  First it makes laws, then it commands, threatens, reproaches, holds out warnings, restrains, threatens again, and only when forced to do so strikes the blow, but this little by little, opening the way to amendment.  Let us then not strike suddenly (for it is not safe to do so), but being self-restrained in our fear let us conquer by mercy, and make them our debtors by our kindness, tormenting them by their conscience rather than by anger.  Let us not dry up a fig tree which may yet bear fruit, nor condemn it as useless and cumbering the ground, when possibly the care and diligence of a skilful gardener may yet heal it.  And do not let us so quickly destroy so great and glorious a work through what is perhaps the spite and malice of the devil; but let us choose to shew ourselves merciful rather than severe, and lovers of the poor rather than of abstract justice; and let us not make more account of those who would enkindle us to this than of those who would restrain us, considering, if nothing else, the disgrace of appearing to contend against mendicants who have this great advantage that even if they are in the wrong they are pitied for their misfortune.  But as things are, consider that all the poor and those who support them, and all the Monks and Virgins are falling at your feet and praying you on their behalf.  Grant to all these for them this favour (since they have suffered enough as is clear by what they have asked of us) and above all to me who am their representative.  And if it appear to you monstrous that we should have been dishonoured by them, remember that it is far worse that we should not be listened to by you when we make this request of you.  May God forgive the noble Paulus his outrages upon us.

Letter CXV.

Ep. CXV.

(Sent about Easter a.d. 382 with a copy of the Philocalia, or Chrestomathy of Origen’s works edited by himself and S. Basil.)

You anticipate the Festival, and the letters, and, which is better still, the time by your eagerness, and you bestow on us a preliminary festival.  Such is what Your Reverence gives us.  And we in return give you the greatest thing we have, our prayers.  But that you may have some small thing to remember us by, we send you the volume of the Philocalia of Origen, containing a selection of passages useful to students of literature.  Deign to accept this, and give us a proof of its usefulness, being aided by diligence and the Spirit.

Letter CXXI.

Ep. CXXI.

(Written a little later, as a letter of thanks for an Easter Gift.  Theodore had quite recently been made Archbishop of Tyana.)

We rejoice in the tokens of love, and especially at such a season, and from one at once so young a man, and so perfect; and, to greet you with the words of Scripture, stablished in your youth, for so it calls him who is more advanced in wisdom than his years lead us to expect.  The old Fathers prayed for the dew of heaven and fatness of the earth and other such things for their children, though perhaps some may understand these things in a higher sense; but we will give you back all in a spiritual sense.  The Lord fulfil all thy requests, and mayest thou be the father of such children (if I may pray for you concisely and intimately) as you yourself have shewn yourself to your own parents, so that we, as well as every one else, may be glorified concerning you.

Letter CXXII.

Ep. CXXII.

You owe me, even as a sick man, tending, for one of the commandments is the visitation of the sick.  And you also owe to the Holy Martyrs their annual honour, which we celebrate in your own Arianzus on the 23rd of the month which we call Dathusa.  And at the same time there are ecclesiastical affairs not a few which need our common examination.  For all these reasons then, I beg you to come at once:  for though the labour is great, the reward is equivalent.

Letter CXXIII.

Ep. CXXIII.

(To excuse himself for postponing his acceptance of an invitation.)

I reverence your presence, and I delight in your company; although otherwise I counselled myself to remain at home and philosophize in quiet, for I found this of all courses the most profitable for myself.  And since the winds are still somewhat rough, and my infirmity has not yet left me, I beg you to bear with me patiently for a little while, and to join me in my prayers for health; and as soon as the fit season comes I will attend upon your requests.

Letter CXXIV.

Ep. CXXIV.

(A little later on, when the weather was more settled, Gregory accepts the invitation and proposes to come at once, but declines to attend the Provincial Synod.)

You call me?  And I hasten, and that for a private visit.  Synods and Conventions I salute from afar, since I have experienced that most of them (to speak moderately) are but sorry affairs.  What then remains?  Help with your prayers my just desires that I may obtain that for which I am anxious.

Letter CLII.

Ep. CLII.

(On his retirement from Constantinople Gregory had at the request of the Bishops of the Province, and especially of Theodore of Tyana the Metropolitan, and Bosporius Bishop of Colonia (see letters above) and at the earnest solicitation of the people, undertaken the charge of the Diocese of Nazianzus; but he very soon found that his health was not equal to so great a task, and that he could not fulfil its calls upon him.  He struggled on for some time, but at length, finding himself quite unequal to it, he wrote as follows to the Metropolitan:)

It is time for me to use these words of Scripture, To whom shall I cry when I am wronged?  Who will stretch out a hand to me when I am oppressed?  To whom shall the burden of this Church pass, in its present evil and paralysed condition?  I protest before God and the Elect Angels that the Flock of God is being unrighteously dealt with in being left without a Shepherd or a Bishop, through my being laid on the shelf.  For I am a prisoner to my ill health and have been very quickly removed thereby from the Church, and made quite useless to everybody, every day breathing my last, and getting more and more crushed by my duties.  If the Province had any other head, it would have been my duty to cry out and protest to it continually.  But since Your Reverence is the Superior, it is to you I must look.  For, to leave out everything else, you shall learn from my fellow-priests, Eulalius the Chorepiscopus and Celeusius, whom I have specially sent to Your Reverence, what these robbers who have now got the upper hand, are both doing and threatening.  To repress them is not in the power of my weakness, but belongs to your skill and strength; since to you, with His other gifts God has given that of strength also for the protection of His Church.  If in saying and writing this I cannot get a hearing, I shall take the only course remaining to me, that of publicly proclaiming and making known that this Church needs a Bishop, in order that it may not be injured by my feeble health.  What is to follow is matter for your consideration.

Ep. CLIII. To Bosporius, Bishop of Colonia

(S. Gregory had to carry out his threat.  He resigned the care of Nazianzus, and nothing would induce him to withdraw his resignation.  Bosporius wrote him an urgent letter with this object, but he replied as follows:)

Twice I have been tripped up by you, and have been deceived (you know what I mean), and, if it was justly, may the Lord smell from you an odour of sweet savour; if unjustly, may the Lord pardon it.  For so it is reasonable for me to speak of you, seeing we are commanded to be patient when injuries are inflicted on us.  But as you are master of your own opinions, so am I of mine.  That troublesome Gregory will no longer be troublesome to you.  I will withdraw myself to God, Who alone is pure and guileless.  I will retire into myself.  This I have determined; for to stumble twice on the same stone is attributed by the proverb to fools alone.

Ep. CLVII. To Theodore, Archbishop of Tyana

(S. Gregory succeeded at the end of a.d. 382 in convincing the Metropolitan and his Comprovincials of his sincerity in desiring to retire; and so they began to cast about for a Successor.  Gregory desired that his cousin the Chorepiscopus Eulalius should be nominated, but the Bishops felt some jealousy at what they took to be an attempt on his part to dictate to them, and refused to allow him to take any part in the election, on the ground that he either never had been, or at any rate had ceased to be one of the Bishops of the Province.  He protested, but finding that he could not convince them he withdrew his claim to a vote and wrote to Theodore, as follows:—)

Our spiritual affairs have reached their limit:  I will not trouble you any further.  Join together:  take your precautions:  take counsel against us:  let our enemies have the victory:  let the canons be accurately observed, beginning with us, the most ignorant of men.  There is no ill-will in accuracy; only do not let the rights of friendship be impeded.  The children of my very honoured son Nicobulus have come to the city to learn shorthand.  Be kind enough to look upon them with a fatherly and kindly eye (for the canons do not forbid this), but especially take care that they live near the Church.  For I desire that they should be moulded in character to virtue by continual association with Your Perfectness.

Letter CLXIII.

Ep. CLXIII.

(George a layman of Paspasus, was sent by Theodore of Tyana to Saint Gregory that the latter might convince him of his error and sin in repudiating an oath which he had taken, on the ground that it was taken in writing and not viva voce.  Gregory seems to have brought him to a better mind, and sent him back to the Metropolitan with the following letter, requesting that due penance be imposed upon him, and have its length regulated by his contrition.  This letter was read to the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, by Euphrantes, a successor of Theodore in the See of Tyana, and was accepted by the Fathers, wherefore it is regarded as having almost the force of a Canon of the Church Universal.)

God grant you to the Churches, both for our glory, and for the benefit of many, being as you are so circumspect and cautious in spiritual matters as to make us also more cautious who are considered to have some advantage over you in years.  Since, however, you have wished to take us as partners in your spiritual inquiry (I mean about the oath which George of Paspasus appears to have sworn), we will declare to Your Reverence what presents itself to our mind.  Very many people, as it seems to me, delude themselves by considering oaths which are taken with the sanction of spoken imprecations to be real oaths, but those which are written and not verbally uttered, to be mere matter of form, and no oaths at all.  For how can we suppose that while a written schedule of debts is more binding than a verbal acknowledgment, yet a written oath is something other than an oath?  Or to speak concisely, we hold an oath to be the assurance given to one who asked for and obtained it.  Nor is it sufficient to say that he suffered violence (for the violence was the Law by which he bound himself), nor that afterwards he won the cause in the Law Court—for the very fact that he went to law was a breach of his oath.  I have persuaded our brother George of this, not to pretend excuses for his sin, and not to seek out arguments to defend his transgression, but to recognize the writing as an oath, and to bewail his sin before God and Your Reverence, even though he formerly deceived himself and took a different view of it.  This is what we have personally argued with him; and it is evident that if you will discourse with him more carefully, you will deepen his contrition, since you are a great healer of souls, and having treated him according to the Canon for as long a time as shall seem right, you will afterwards be able to confer indulgence upon him in the matter of time.  And the measure of the time must be the measure of his compunction.

Letter CLXXXIII.

Ep. CLXXXIII.

(Helladius, Archbishop of Cæsarea, contested the validity of the election of Eulalius to the Bishopric of Nazianzus, and accused Bosporius of heresy.  S. Gregory here throws the whole weight of his authority into the other scale.  It is however manifest from the very terms of the letter that the person addressed is not Theodore of Tyana.  It was conjectured by Clémencet that perhaps he was Theodore of Mopsuestia.)

Envy, which no one easily escapes, has got some foothold amongst us.  See, even we Cappadocians are in a state of faction, so to speak—a calamity never heard of before, and not to be believed—so that no flesh may glory in the sight of God, but that we may be careful, since we are all human, not to condemn each other rashly.  For myself, there is some gain even from the misfortune (if I may speak somewhat paradoxically), and I really gather a rose out of thorns, as the proverb has it.  Hitherto I have never met Your Reverence face to face, nor conversed with you by letter, but have only been illuminated by your reputation; but now I am of necessity compelled to approach you by letter, and I am very grateful to him who has procured me this privilege.  I omit to write to the other Bishops about whom you wrote to me, as the opportunity has not yet arisen.  Moreover my weak health makes me less active in this matter; but what I write to you I write to them also through you.  My Lord the God-beloved Bishop Helladius must cease to waste his labour on our concerns.  For it is not through spiritual earnestness, but through party zeal, that he is seeking this; and not for the sake of accurate compliance with the canons, but for the satisfaction of anger, as is evident by the time he has chosen, and because many have moved with him unreasonably, for I must say this, and not trouble myself about it.  If I were physically in a condition to govern the Church of Nazianzus, to which I was originally appointed, and not to Sasima as some would falsely persuade you, I should not have been so cowardly or so ignorant of the Divine Constitutions as either to despise that Church, or to seek for an easy life in preference to the prizes which are in store for those who labour according to God’s will, and work with the talent committed to their care.  For what profit should I have from my many labours and my great hopes, if I were ill advised in the most important matters?  But since my bodily health is bad, as everyone can plainly see, and I have not any responsibility to fear on account of this withdrawal, for the reason I have mentioned, and I saw that the Church through cleaving to me was suffering in its best interests and almost being destroyed through my illness, I prayed both before and now again my Lords the God-beloved Bishops (I mean those of our own Province) to give the Church a head, which they have done by God’s Grace, worthy both of my desire and of your prayers.  This I would have you both know yourself, most honourable Lord, and also inform the rest of the Bishops, that they may receive him and support him by their votes, and not bear heavily on my old age by believing the slander.  Let me add this to any letter.  If your examination finds my Lord the God-beloved Priest Bosporius guilty concerning the faith—a thing which it is not lawful even to suggest—(I pass over his age and my personal testimony) judge him so yourselves.  But if the discussion about the dioceses is the cause of this evil report and this novel accusation, do not be led away by the slander, and do not give to falsehoods a greater strength than to the truth, I beg you, lest you should cast into despair those who desire to do what is right.  May you be granted good health and spirits and courage and continual progress in the things of God to us and to the Church, whose common boast you are.

Letter CXXXIX.

Ep. CXXXIX.

(This letter is written at a somewhat earlier date in reference to the consent he had been induced to give to remaining for some time longer as administrator of the See of Nazianzus.  It is certainly not addressed to Theodore of Tyana, and it is not known who this Theodore is.)

He Who raised David His servant from the Shepherd’s work to the Throne, and Your Reverence from the flock to the Work of the Shepherd:  He that orders our affairs and those of all who hope in Him according to His own Will:  may He now put it into the mind of Your Reverence to know the dishonour which I have suffered at the hands of my Lords the Bishops in the matter of their votes, in that they have agreed to the Election, but have excluded us.  I will not lay the blame on Your Reverence, because you have but recently come to preside over our affairs, and are, as is to be expected, for the most part unacquainted with our history.  This is quite enough:  for I have no mind to trouble you further, that I may not seem burdensome at the very beginning of our friendship.  But I will tell you what suggests itself to me in taking counsel with God.  I retired from the Church at Nazianzus, not as either despising God, or looking down on the littleness of the flock (God forbid that a philosophic soul should be so disposed); but first because I am not bound by any such appointment:  and secondly because I am broken down by my ill health, and do not think myself equal to such anxieties.  And since you too have been heavy on me, in reproaching me with my resignation, and I myself could not endure the clamours against me, and since the times are hard, threatening us with an inroad of enemies to the injury of the commonwealth of the whole Church, I finally made up my mind to suffer a defeat which is painful to my body, but perhaps not bad for my soul.  I make over this miserable body to the Church for as long as it may be possible, thinking it better to suffer any distress to the flesh rather than to incur a spiritual injury myself or to inflict it upon others, who have thought the worst of us, judging from their own experience.  Knowing this, do pray for me, and approve my resolution:  and perhaps it is not out of place to say, mould yourself to piety.

To Nicobulus.

Letter XII.

§8. To Nicobulus.

(See the introduction to the first letter to Sophronius above.)

Ep. XII.  (About a.d. 365).

You joke me about Alypiana as being little and unworthy of your size, you tall and immense and monstrous fellow both in form and strength.  For now I understand that soul is a matter of measure, and virtue of weight, and that rocks are more valuable than pearls, and crows more respectable than nightingales.  Well, well! rejoice in your bigness and your cubits, and be in no respect inferior to the famed sons of Aloeus.  You ride a horse, and shake a spear, and concern yourself with wild beasts.  But she has no such work; and no great strength is needed to carry a comb, or to handle a distaff, or to sit by a loom, “For such is the glory of woman.”  And if you add this, that she has become fixed to the ground on account of prayer, and by the great movement of her mind has constant communion with God, what is there here to boast of in your bigness or the stature of your body?  Take heed to seasonable silence:  listen to her voice:  mark her unadornment, her womanly virility, her usefulness at home, her love of her husband.  Then you will say with the Laconian, that verily soul is not a subject for measure, and the outer must look to the inner man.  If you look at the things in this way you will leave off joking and deriding her as little, and you will congratulate yourself on your marriage.

Letter LI.

Ep. LI.

(An answer to a request made by Nicobulus for a treatise on the art of writing letters.  Benoît thinks this and the following ones were written to the Younger Nicobulus.)

Of those who write letters, since this is what you ask, some write at too great a length, and others err on the side of deficiency; and both miss the mean, like archers shooting at a mark and sending some shafts short of it and others beyond it; for the missing is the same though on opposite sides.  Now the measure of letters is their usefulness:  and we must neither write at very great length when there is little to say, nor very briefly when there is a great deal.  What?  Are we to measure our wisdom by the Persian Schœne, or by the cubits of a child, and to write so imperfectly as not to write at all but to copy the midday shadows, or lines which meet right in front of you, whose lengths are foreshortened and which show themselves in glimpses rather than plainly, being recognized only by certain of their extremities?  We must in both respects avoid the want of moderation and hit off the moderate.  This is my opinion as to brevity; as to perspicuity it is clear that one should avoid the oratorical form as much as possible and lean rather to the chatty:  and, to speak concisely, that is the best and most beautiful letter which can convince either an unlearned or an educated reader; the one, as being within the reach of the many; the other, as above the many; and it should be intelligible in itself.  It is equally disagreeable to think out a riddle and to have to interpret a letter.  The third point about a letter is grace:  and this we shall safeguard if we do not write in any way that is dry and unpleasing or unadorned and badly arranged and untrimmed, as they call it; as for instance a style destitute of maxims and proverbs and pithy sayings, or even jokes and enigmas, by which language is sweetened.  Yet we must not seem to abuse these things by an excessive employment of them.  Their entire omission shews rusticity, but the abuse of them shews insatiability.  We may use them about as much as purple is used in woven stuffs.  Figures of speech we shall admit, but few and modest.  Antitheses and balanced clauses and nicely divided sentences, we shall leave to the sophists, or if we do sometimes admit them, we shall do so rather in play than in earnest.  My final remark shall be one which I heard a clever man make about the eagle, that when the birds were electing a king, and came with various adornment, the most beautiful point about him was that he did not think himself beautiful.  This point is to be especially attended to in letter-writing, to be without adventitious ornament and as natural as possible.  So much about letters I send you by a letter; but perhaps you had better not apply it to myself, who am busied about more important matters.  The rest you will work out for yourself, as you are quick at learning, and those who are clever in these matters will teach you.

Letter LII.

Ep. LII.

(Nicobulus asked Gregory to publish a collection of his letters.  Gregory forwards a copy.)

You are asking flowers from an autumn meadow, and arming Nestor in his old age, in demanding from me now something clever in the way of language, after I have long neglected all that is enjoyable in language and in life.  But yet (since it is not an Eurysthean or Herculean labour that you are imposing on me, but rather one which is very agreeable and quiet, to collect for you as many of my own letters as I can), do you place this volume among your books—a work not amatory but oratorical, and not for display so much as for use, and that for our own home.  For different authors have different characteristics, greater or smaller.  Mine is a tendency to instruct by maxims and positive statements wherever opportunity occurs.  And as in a legitimate child, so also in language, the father is always visible, not less than parents are shewn by bodily characteristics.  Mine are such as I have mentioned.  You may repay me both by writing and by deriving profit from what I have written.  I cannot ask for or request any better reward than this, either more profitable to the asker, or more becoming him who gives it.

Letter LIII.

Ep. LIII.

(Gregory put a collection of Basil’s letters with his own, and gave them the first place.  Nicobulus seems to have been surprised at this, and asked the reason.  Gregory explains as follows.)

I have always preferred the Great Basil to myself, though he was of the contrary opinion; and so I do now, not less for truth’s sake than for friendship’s.  This is the reason why I have given his letters the first place and my own the second.  For I hope we two will always be coupled together; and also I would supply others with an example of modesty and submission.

Letter LIV.

Ep. LIV.

On Laconicism.  To be laconic is not merely, as you suppose, to write few words, but to say a great deal in few words.  Thus I call Homer very brief and Antimachus lengthy.  Why?  Because I measure the length by the matter and not by the letters.

Letter LV.

Ep. LV.

An Invitation.  You flee when I pursue you:  perhaps in accordance with the laws of love, to make yourself more valuable.  Come then, and fill up at last the loss I have suffered by your long delay.  And if any home affairs detain you, you shall leave us again, and so make yourself more precious as an object of desire.

To Olympius.

Letter CIV.

§9.  To Olympius.

(Olympius was Prefect of Cappadocia Secunda in 382.  One letter to him against the Apollinarians, has already been given; the rest, which are to follow are mainly recommendations of various persons to his patronage.)

Ep. CIV.

All The Other favours which I have received I know to be due to your kindness; and may God reward you for them with His own mercies; and may one of these be, that you may discharge your office of prefect with good fame and splendour from beginning to end.  In what I now ask I come rather to give than to receive, if it is not arrogant to say so.  I personally introduce poor Philumena to you, to entreat your justice, and to move you to the tears with which she afflicts my soul.  She herself will explain to you in what and by whom she has been wronged, for it would not be right for me to bring accusations against any one.  But this much it is necessary for me to say, that widowhood and orphanhood have a right to the assistance of all right-minded men, and especially of those who have wife and children, those great pledges of pity, since we—ourselves only men—are set to judge men.  Pardon me that I plead with you for these by letter, since it is by ill health that I am deprived of seeing a ruler so kind and so conspicuous for virtue that even the prelude of your administration is more precious than the good fame of others even at the end of their term.

Letter CV.

Ep. CV.

The time is swift, the struggle great, and my sickness severer, reducing me almost to immovability.  What is left but to pray to God, and to supplicate your kindness, the one, that He will incline your mind to gentler counsels, the other that you will not roughly dismiss our intercession, but will receive kindly the wretched Paulus, whom justice has brought under your hands, perhaps in order that it may make you more illustrious by the greatness of your kindness, and may commend our prayers (such as they are) to your mercy.

Letter CVI.

Ep. CVI.

Here is another laying before you a letter, of which, if the truth may be said, you are the cause yourself, for you provoke them by the honour you do them.  Here too is another petitioner for you, a prisoner of fear, our kinsman Eustratius, who with us and by us entreats your goodness, inasmuch as he cannot endure to be in perpetual rebellion against your government, even though a just terror has frightened him, nor does he choose to entreat you by anyone else than me, that he may make your mercy to him more conspicuous through his use of such intercessors, whom at all events you yourself make great by thus accepting their appeal.  I will say one thing, and that briefly.  All the other favours you conferred upon me; but this you will confer upon your own judgment, since once you purposed to comfort our age and infirmity with such honours.  And I will add that you are continually rendering God more propitious to you.

Letter CXXV.

Ep. CXXV.

(Given above, § 1.)

Letter CXXVI.

Ep. CXXVI.

(While Gregory was at Xantharis an opportunity presented itself for seeing Olympius, but a return of illness prevented him from taking advantage of it.  He writes to express his regret, and takes the opportunity also to request that Nicobulus may be exempted from the charge of the Imperial Posts.)

I was happy in a dream.  For having been brought as far as the Monastery to obtain some comfort from the bath, and then hoping to meet you, and having this good fortune almost in my hands, and having delayed a few days, I was suddenly carried away by my illness, which was already painful in some respects and threatening in others.  And, if one must find some conjecture to account for the misfortune, I suffered in the same way as the polypods do, which if torn by force from the rocks risk the loss of the suckers by which they attach themselves to the rocks, or carry off some portion of the latter.  Something of this kind is my case.  And what I should have asked Your Excellency for had I seen you, I now venture to ask for though I am absent.  I found my son Nicobulus much worried by the care of the Post, and by close attention to the Monastery.  He is not a strong man, and has great distaste for solitude.  Make use of him for anything else you please, for he is eager to serve your authority in all things; but if it be possible set him free from this charge, if for no other reason, at any rate to do him honour as my Hospitaller.  Since I have asked many favours from you for many people, and have obtained them, I need also your kindness for myself.

Letter CXXXI.

Ep. CXXXI.

(In 382 Gregory was summoned to a Synod at Constantinople; he wrote to Procopius, the Prefectus Urbi, and declined to go, on the ground of his great dislike to Episcopal Synods, from which, he said, he had never known any good to result.  However he seems to have received a more urgent summons through Icarius and Olympius.  His reply to Icarius has been lost; that to Olympius is as follows.)

It is more serious to me than my illness, that no one will believe that I am ill, but that so long a journey is enjoined upon me, and I am pushed into the midst of troubles from which I rejoiced to have withdrawn, and almost thought that I ought to be grateful for this to my bodily affliction.  For quiet and freedom from affairs is more precious than the splendour of a busy life.  I wrote this yesterday to the Most Illustrious Icarius, from whom I received the same summons:  and I now beg your Magnanimity also to write this for me, for you are a very trustworthy witness of my ill health.  Another proof of my inability is the loss which I have now suffered in having been unable even to come and enjoy your society, who are so kind a Governor, and so admirable for virtue that even the preludes of your term of office are more honourable than the good fame which others can earn by the end of theirs.