Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To the Bishop of Melitene. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Letter XIV2222
2222 To
Otreius, Bishop of Melitene (in eastern Cappadocia, on or near the
upper Euphrates), to whose successor Letoius Gregory addressed his
Canonical Epistle about Penitents (Cod. Medic.). Written when
Gregory was in exile under Valens. Zacagni thinks that the
“war,” and the carping criticisms here complained of, refer
to the followers of Eustathius of Sebasteia or of Macedonius, who had
plenty to find fault with, even in the gestures and dress of the
Catholics (cf. Basil, De Spirit. S., end). | .—To the
Bishop of Melitene.
How beautiful are the likenesses of beautiful objects, when they
preserve in all its clearness the impress of the original beauty! For
of your soul, so truly beautiful, I saw a most clear image in the
sweetness of your letter, which, as the Gospel says, “out of the
abundance of the heart” you filled with honey. And for this
reason I fancied I saw you in person, and enjoyed your cheering
company, from the affection expressed in your letter; and often taking
your letter into my hands and going over it again from beginning to
end, I only came more vehemently to crave for the enjoyment, and there
was no sense of satiety. Such a feeling can no more put an end to my
pleasure, than it can to that derived from anything that is by nature
beautiful and precious. For neither has our constant participation of
the benefit blunted the edge of our longing to behold the sun, nor does
the unbroken enjoyment of health prevent our desiring its continuance;
and we are persuaded that it is equally impossible for our enjoyment of
your goodness, which we have often experienced face to face and now by
letter, ever to reach the point of satiety. But our case is like that
of those who from some circumstance are afflicted with unquenchable
thirst; for just in the same way, the more we taste your kindness, the
more thirsty we become. But unless you suppose our language to be mere
blandishment and unreal flattery—and assuredly you will not so
suppose, being what you are in all else, and to us especially good and
staunch, if any one ever was,—you will certainly believe what I
say; that the favour of your letter, applied to my eyes like some
medical prescription, stayed my ever-flowing “fountain of
tears,” and that fixing our hopes on the medicine of your holy
prayers, we expect that soon and completely the disease of our soul
will be healed: though, for the present at any rate, we are in such a
case, that we spare the ears of one who is fond of us, and bury the
truth in silence, that we may not drag those who loyally love us into
partnership with our troubles. For when we consider that, bereft of
what is dearest to us, we are involved in wars, and that it is our
children that we were compelled to leave behind, our children whom we
were counted worthy to bear to God in spiritual pangs, closely joined
to us by the law of love, who at the time of their own trials amid
their afflictions extended their affection to us; and over and above
these, a fondly-loved2223 home, brethren,
kinsmen, companions, intimate associates, friends, hearth, table,
cellar, bed, seat, sack, converse, tears—and how sweet these are,
and how dearly prized from long habit, I need not write to you who know
full well—but not to weary you further, consider for yourself
what I have in exchange for those blessings. Now that I am at the end
of my life, I begin to live again, and am compelled to learn the
graceful versatility of character which is now in vogue: but we are
late learners in the shifty school of knavery;2224
2224 This
passage is very corrupt, and I have put the best sense I could on the
fragmentary words preserved to us (H. C. O.). | so
that we are constantly constrained to blush at our awkwardness and
inaptitude for this new study. But our adversaries, equipped with all
the training of this wisdom, are well able to keep what they have
learned, and to invent what they have not learned. Their method of
warfare accordingly is to skirmish at a distance, and then at a
preconcerted signal to form their phalanx in solid order; they utter by
way of prelude2225
2225 προλογίζοντας. But προλοχίζοντας
would suit the context better; i.e. “they
lay an ambush wherever their interests are concerned” (H. C.
O.). | whatever suits
their interests, they execute surprises by means of exaggerations, they
surround themselves with allies from every quarter. But a vast amount
of cunning invincible in power2226
2226 Or
“accompanies their power:” τῇ δυνάμει
may go with ὁμαρτεῖ, or
with ἀκαταγώνιστος
(H. C. O.). | accompanies them,
advanced before them to lead their host, like some
right-and-left-handed combatant, fighting with both hands in front of
his army, on one side levying tribute upon his subjects, on the other
smiting those who come in his way. But if you care to inquire into the
state of our internal affairs, you will find other troubles to match; a
stifling hut, abundant in cold, gloom, confinement, and all such
advantages; a life the mark of every one’s censorious
observation, the voice, the look, the way of wearing one’s cloak,
the movement of the hands, the position of one’s feet, and
everything else, all a subject for busy-bodies. And unless one from
time to time emits a deep breathing, and unless a continuous groaning
is uttered with the breathing, and unless the tunic passes gracefully
through the girdle (not to mention the very disuse of the girdle
itself), and unless our cloak flows aslant down our backs—the
omission of anyone of these niceties is a pretext for war
against us.
And on such grounds as these, they gather together to battle against
us, man by man2227
2227 κατ᾽ ἄνδρας,
καὶ δήμους,
καὶ
ἐσχατίας. But the Latin, having “solitudines,” shows
that ἐρήμους was read for δήμους. We
seem to get here a glimpse of Gregory’s activity during his exile
(376–78). Rupp thinks that Macrina’s words to her brother
also refer to this period: “Thee the Churches call to help them
and correct them.” He moved from place to place to strengthen the
Catholic cause; “we,” he says in the longer
Antirrhetic, “who have sojourned in many spots, and have
had serious conversation upon the points in dispute both with those who
hold and those who reject the Faith.” Gregory of Nazianzum
consoles him during these journeys, so exhausting and discouraging to
one of his spirit, by comparing him to the comet which is ruled while
it seems to wander, and of seeing in the seeming advance of heresy only
the last hiss of the dying snake. His travels probably ended in a visit
to Palestine: for his Letter On Pilgrimages certainly
presupposes former visits in which he had learnt the manners of
Jerusalem. His love of Origen, too, makes it likely that he made a
private pilgrimage (distinct from the visit of 379) to the land where
Origen had chiefly studied. | , township by
township, even down to all sorts of out-of-the-way places. Well, one
cannot be always faring well or always ill, for every one’s life
is made up of contraries. But if by God’s grace your help should
stand by us steadily, we will bear the abundance of annoyances, in the
hope of being always a sharer in your goodness. May you, then, never
cease bestowing on us such favours, that by them you may refresh us,
and prepare for yourself in ampler measure the reward promised to them
that keep the commandments.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|