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| To Flavian.
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Letter XVIII.—To Flavian2259
| 2259 The
date of this letter is probably as late as 393. Flavian’s
authority at Antioch was now undisputed, by his reconciliation, after
the deaths of Paulinus and Evagrius, with the Bishops of Alexandria and
Rome, and, through them, with all his people. Gregory writes to him not
only as his dear friend, but one who had known how to appease wrath,
and to check opposition from the Emperor downward. He died in 404. The
litigiousness of Helladius is described by Greg. Naz., Letter ccxv. He
it was who a few years later, against Ambrose’s authority, and
for mere private interest, consecrated the physician Gerontius
(Sozomen, viii. 6). | .
Things with us, O man of God, are not in a good way. The development of
the bad feeling existing amongst certain persons who have conceived a
most groundless and unaccountable hatred of us is no longer a matter of
mere conjecture; it is now evinced with an earnestness and openness
worthy only of some holy work. You meanwhile, who have hitherto been
beyond the reach of such annoyance, are too remiss in stifling the
devouring conflagration on your neighbour’s land; yet those who
are well-advised for their own interests really do take pains to check
a fire close to them, securing themselves, by this help given to a
neighbour, against ever needing help in like circumstances. Well, you
will ask, what do I complain of? Piety has vanished from the world;
Truth has fled from our midst; as for Peace, we used to have the name
at all events going the round upon men’s lips; but now not only
does she herself cease to exist, but we do not even retain the word
that expresses her. But that you may know more exactly the things that
move our indignation, I will briefly detail to you the whole tragic
story.
Certain persons had informed me
that the Right Reverend Helladius had unfriendly feelings towards me,
and that he enlarged in conversation to every one upon the troubles
that I had brought upon him. I did not at first believe what they said,
judging only from myself, and the actual truth of the matter. But when
every one kept bringing to us a tale of the same strain, and facts
besides corroborated their report, I thought it my duty not to continue
to overlook this ill-feeling, while it was still without root and
development. I therefore wrote by letter to your piety, and to many
others who could help me in my intention, and stimulated your zeal in
this matter. At last, after I had concluded the services at Sebasteia
in2260
| 2260 Sebasteia (Sivâs) was in Pontus on the upper Halys:
and the “mountain district” between this and
Helladius’ “metropolis” (Cæsarea, ad
Argæum) must have been some offshoots of the
Anti-Taurus. | commemoration of Peter2261
| 2261 His
brother, who had urged him to write the books against Eunomius, and to
whom he sent On the Making of Man. | of most blessed memory, and of the holy
martyrs, who had lived in his times, and whom the people were
accustomed to commemorate with him, I was returning to my own See, when
some one told me that Helladius himself was in the neighbouring
mountain district, holding martyrs’ memorial services. At first I
held on my journey, judging it more proper that our meeting should take
place in the metropolis itself. But when one of his relations took the
trouble to meet me, and to assure me that he was sick, I left my
carriage at the spot where this news arrested me; I performed on
horseback the intervening journey over a road that was like a
precipice, and well-nigh impassable with its rocky ascents. Fifteen
milestones measured the distance we had to traverse. Painfully
travelling, now on foot, now mounted, in the early morning, and even
employing some part of the night, I arrived between twelve and one
o’clock at Andumocina; for that was the name of the place where,
with two other bishops, he was holding his conference. From a shoulder
of the hill overhanging this village, we looked down, while still at a
distance, upon this outdoor assemblage of the Church. Slowly, and on
foot, and leading the horses, I and my company passed over the
intervening ground, and we arrived at the chapel2262
just as he had retired to his
residence.
Without any delay a messenger
was despatched to inform him of our being there; and a very short while
after, the deacon in attendance on him met us, and we requested him to
tell Helladius at once, so that we might spend as much time as possible
with him, and so have an opportunity of leaving nothing in the
misunderstanding between us unhealed. As for myself, I then remained
sitting, still in the open air, and waited for the invitation indoors;
and at a most inopportune time I became, as I sat there, a gazing stock
to all the visitors at the conference. The time was long; drowsiness
came on, and languor, intensified by the fatigue of the journey and the
excessive heat of the day; and all these things, with people staring at
me, and pointing me out to others, were so very distressing that in me
the words of the prophet were realized: “My spirit within me was
desolate2263
.” I was kept in this state till noon, and
heartily did I repent of this visit, and that I had brought upon myself
this piece of discourtesy; and my own reflection vexed me worse than
this injury done me by my enemies2264
| 2264 χαλεπώτερον
τῆς παρὰ τῶν
ἐχθρῶν μοι
γενομένης
ὕβρεως. The
Latin does not express this, “quam si ab hostibus profecta
fuisset.” | , warring as it
did against itself, and changing into a regret that I had made the
venture. At last the approach to the Altars was thrown open, and we
were admitted to the sanctuary; the crowd, however, were excluded,
though my deacon entered along with me, supporting with his arm my
exhausted frame. I addressed his Lordship, and stood for a moment,
expecting from him an invitation to be seated; but when nothing of the
kind was heard from him, I turned towards one of the distant seats, and
rested myself upon it, still expecting that he would utter something
that was friendly, or at all events kind; or at least give one nod of
recognition.
Any hopes I had were doomed to
complete disappointment. There ensued a silence dead as night, and
looks as downcast as in tragedy, and daze, and dumbfoundedness, and
perfect dumbness. A long interval of time it was, dragged out as if it
were in the blackness of night. So struck down was I by this reception,
in which he did not deign to accord me the merest utterance even of
those common salutations by which you discharge the courtesies of a
chance meeting2265
| 2265 τῶν
κατημαξευμένων
(so Paris Editt. and Migne, but it must be
καθημαξευμένων, from ἅμαξα) τούτων
τὴν
συντυχίαν
ἀφοσιουμένων | ,—“welcome,” for instance,
or “where do you come from?” or “to what am I
indebted for this pleasure?” or “on what important business
are you here?”—that I was inclined to make this spell of
silence into a picture of the life led in the underworld. Nay, I
condemn the similitude as inadequate. For in that underworld the
equality of conditions is complete, and none of the things that cause
the tragedies of life on earth disturb existence. Their glory, as the
Prophet says, does not follow men down there; each individual soul,
abandoning the things so eagerly clung to by the majority here, his
petulance, and pride, and conceit, enters that lower world in simple
unencumbered nakedness; so that none of the miseries of this life are
to be found among them. Still2266
| 2266 πλὴν ἀλλ᾽
ἐμοὶ, κ.τ.λ. See note, p. 313. | , notwithstanding
this reservation, my condition then did appear to me like an
underworld, a murky dungeon, a gloomy torture-chamber; the more so,
when I reflected what treasures of social courtesies we have inherited
from our fathers, and what recorded deeds of it we shall leave to our
descendants. Why, indeed, should I speak at all of that affectionate
disposition of our fathers towards each other? No wonder that, being
all naturally equal2267
| 2267 ἐν
ὁμοτίμῳ τῇ
φύσει. Cf.
οἱ
ὁμότιμοι, the peers of the Persian kingdom. | , they wished for no
advantage over one another, but thought to exceed each other only in
humility. But my mind was penetrated most of all with this thought;
that the Lord of all creation, the Only-begotten Son, Who was in the
bosom of the Father, Who was in the beginning, Who was in the form of
God, Who upholds all things by the word of His power, humbled Himself
not only in this respect, that in the flesh He sojourned amongst men,
but also that He welcomed even Judas His own betrayer, when he drew
near to kiss Him, on His blessed lips; and that when He had entered
into the house of Simon the leper He, as loving all men, upbraided his
host, that He had not been kissed by him: whereas I was not reckoned by
him as equal even to that leper; and yet what was I, and what was he? I
cannot discover any difference between us. If one looks at it from the
mundane point of view, where was the height from which he had
descended, where was the dust in which I lay? If, indeed, one must
regard things of this fleshly life, thus much perhaps it will hurt no
one’s feelings to assert that, looking at our lineage, whether as
noble or as free, our position was about on a par; though, if one
looked in either for the true freedom and nobility, i.e. that of
the soul, each of us will be found equally a bondsman of Sin; each
equally needs One Who will take away his sins; it was Another Who
ransomed us both from Death and Sin with His own blood, Who redeemed
us, and yet showed no contempt of those whom He has redeemed, calling
them though He does from deadness to life, and healing every infirmity
of their souls and bodies.
Seeing, then, that the amount of
this conceit and overweening pride was so great, that even the height
of heaven was almost too narrow limits for it (and yet I could see no
cause or occasion whatever for this diseased state of mind, such as
might make it excusable in the case of some who in certain
circumstances contract it; when, for instance, rank or education, or
pre-eminence in dignities of office may have happened to inflate the
vainer minds), I had no means whereby to advise myself to keep quiet:
for my heart within me was swelling with indignation at the absurdity
of the whole proceeding, and was rejecting all the reasons for enduring
it. Then, if ever, did I feel admiration for that divine Apostle who so
vividly depicts the civil war that rages within us, declaring that
there is a certain “law of sin in the members, warring against
the law of the mind,” and often making the mind a captive, and a slave as
well, to itself. This was the very array, in opposition, of two
contending feelings that I saw within myself: the one, of anger at the
insult caused by pride, the other prompting to appease the rising
storm. When by God’s grace, the worse inclination had failed to
get the mastery, I at last said to him, “But is it, then, that
some one of the things required for your personal comfort is being
hindered by our presence, and is it time that we withdrew?” On
his declaring that he had no bodily needs, I spoke to him some words
calculated to heal, so far as in me lay, his ill-feeling. When he had,
in a very few words, declared that the anger he felt towards me was
owing to many injuries done him, I for my part answered him thus:
“Lies possess an immense power amongst mankind to deceive: but in
the Divine Judgment there will be no place for the misunderstandings
thus arising. In my relations towards yourself, my conscience is bold
enough to prompt me to hope that I may obtain forgiveness for all my
other sins, but that, if I have acted in any way to harm you, this may
remain for ever unforgiven.” He was indignant at this speech, and
did not suffer the proofs of what I had said to be added.
It was now past six
o’clock, and the bath had been well prepared, and the banquet was
being spread, and the day was the sabbath2268
| 2268 Cf.
Dies Dominica (by Thomas Young, tutor of Milton the poet):
“It’s without controversie that the Oriental Christians,
and others, did at that time hold assemblies on the Sabbath
day.…Yet did they not hold the Sabbath day holy,” p. 35.
Again, “Socrates doth not record that they of Alexandria and Rome
did celebrate those mysteries on the Sabbath. While Chrysostom
requireth it of the rich Lords of Villages, that they build Churches in
them (Hom. 18 in Act.), he distinguisheth those
congregations that were on other days from those that were held upon
the Lord’s day. ‘Upon those congregations (συνάξεις) Prayers and hymns were had, in these an oblation was made
on every Lord’s day,’ and for that cause the Lord’s
day is in Chrysostom called, ‘dies panis’. Athanasius
purgeth himself of a calumny imputed to him, for breaking the cup,
because it was not the time of administering the holy mysteries;
‘for it is not,’ saith he, ‘the Lord’s
day.’” A law of Constantine had enacted that the first day
of the week, “the Lord’s day,” should be observed
with greater solemnity than formerly; which shows that the seventh day,
the Sabbath, still held its place; and it does not follow that in
remoter places, as here, both were kept. The hour of service was
generally “in the evening after sunset; or in the morning before
the dawn,” Mosheim. | ,
and a martyr’s commemoration. Again observe how this disciple of
the Gospel imitates the Lord of the Gospel: He, when eating and
drinking with publicans and sinners, answered to those who found fault
with Him that He did it for love of mankind: this disciple considers it
a sin and a pollution to have us at his board, even after all that
fatigue which we underwent on the journey, after all that excessive
heat out of doors, in which we were baked while sitting at his gates;
after all that gloomy sullenness with which he treated us to the bitter
end, when we had come into his presence. He sends us off to toil
painfully, with a frame now thoroughly exhausted with the over-fatigue,
over the same distance, the same route: so that we scarcely reached our
travelling company at sunset, after we had suffered many mishaps on the
way. For a storm-cloud, gathered into a mass in the clear air by an
eddy of wind, drenched us to the skin with its floods of rain; for
owing to the excessive sultriness, we had made no preparation against
any shower. However, by God’s grace we escaped, though in the
plight of shipwrecked sailors from the waves: and right glad were we to
reach our company.
Having joined our forces we
rested there that night, and at last arrived alive in our own district;
having reaped in addition this result of our meeting him, that the
memory of all that had happened before was revived by this last insult
offered to us; and, you see, we are positively compelled to take
measures, for the future, on our own behalf, or rather on his behalf;
for it was because his designs were not checked on former occasions
that he has proceeded to this unmeasured display of vanity. Something,
therefore, I think, must be done on our part, in order that he may
improve upon himself, and may be taught that he is human, and has no
authority to insult and to disgrace those who possess the same beliefs
and the same rank as himself. For just consider; suppose we granted for
a moment, for the sake of argument, that it is true that I have done
something that has annoyed him, what trial2269
was instituted against us, to judge either of the fact or the hearsay?
What proofs were given of this supposed injury? What Canons were cited
against us? What legitimate episcopal decision confirmed any verdict
passed upon us? And supposing any of these processes had taken place,
and that in the proper way, my standing2270
| 2270 τὸν βαθμὸν
i.e.“a grade of
honour”: cf. 1 Tim. iii. 13. βαθμὸν
ἑαυτοῖς
καλὸν
περιποιοῦνται. So in the Canons often. | in
the Church might certainly have been at stake, but what Canons could
have sanctioned insults offered to a free-born person, and disgrace
inflicted on one of equal rank with himself? “Judge righteous
judgment,” you who look to God’s law in this matter; say
wherein you deem this disgrace put upon us to be excusable. If our
dignity is to be estimated on the ground of priestly jurisdiction, the
privilege of each recorded by the Council2271
| 2271 The
Council of Constantinople. | is
one and the same; or rather the oversight of Catholic correction2272
| 2272 the oversight of Catholic correction. “On July 30, 381, the Bishop of Nyssa received the supreme
honour of being named by Theodosius as one of the acknowledged
authorities in all matters of theological orthodoxy: and he was
appointed to regulate the affairs of the Church in Asia Minor,
conjointly with Helladius of Cæsarea, and Otreius of
Melitene:” Farrar’s Lives of the Fathers,
1889. | , from the fact that we possess an equal
share of it, is so. But if some are inclined to regard each of us by
himself, divested of any priestly dignity, in what respect has one any
advantage over the other; in education for instance, or in birth
connecting with the noblest and most illustrious lineage, or in
theology? These things will be found either equal, or at all events not
inferior, in me. “But what about revenue?” he will say. I
would rather not be obliged to speak of this in his case; thus much
only it will suffice to say, that our own was so much at the beginning,
and is so much now; and to leave it to others to enquire into the
causes of this increase of our revenue2273
| 2273 He is
speaking of the funds of his Diocese, which at one period certainly he
had been accused of mismanaging. | ,
nursed as it is up till now, and growing almost daily by means of noble
undertakings. What licence, then, has he to put an insult upon us,
seeing that he has neither superiority of birth to show, nor a rank
exalted above all others, nor a commanding power of speech, nor any
previous kindness done to me? While, even if he had all this to show,
the fault of having slighted those of gentle birth would still be
inexcusable. But he has not got it; and therefore I deem it right to
see that this malady of puffed-up pride is not left without a cure; and
it will be its cure to put it down to its proper level, and reduce its
inflated dimensions, by letting off a little of the conceit with which
he is bursting. The manner of effecting this we leave to
God.
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