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| To the bishops of Italy and Gaul concerning the condition and confusion of the Churches.
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Letter CCXLIII.3036
To the bishops of Italy and Gaul concerning the
condition and confusion of the Churches.
1. To his brethren
truly God-beloved and very dear, and fellow ministers of like mind, the
bishops of Gaul and Italy, Basil, bishop of Cæsarea in
Cappadocia. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has deigned to style the
universal Church of God His body, and has made us individually members
one of another, has moreover granted to all of us to live in intimate
association with one another, as befits the agreement of the
members. Wherefore, although we dwell far away from one another,
yet, as regards our close conjunction, we are very near. Since,
then, the head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of
you,3037
you will not, I
am sure, endure to reject us; you will, on the contrary, sympathize
with us in the troubles to which, for our sins, we have been given
over, in proportion as we rejoice together with you in your glorying
in the peace which the Lord has bestowed on you. Ere now we
have also at another time invoked your charity to send us succour
and sympathy; but our punishment was not full, and you were not
suffered to rise up to succour us. One chief object of our
desire is that through you the state of confusion in which we are
situated should be made known to the emperor of your part of the
world.3038
| 3038 i.e.
Gratian, who succeeded Valentinian I. in 375. | If this is
difficult, we beseech you to send envoys to visit and comfort us in
our affliction, that you may have the evidence of eyewitnesses of
those sufferings of the East which cannot be told by word of mouth,
because language is inadequate to give a clear report of our
condition.
2. Persecution has come upon us, right honourable
brethren, and persecution in the severest form. Shepherds are
persecuted that their flocks may be scattered. And the worst of
all is that those who are being treated ill cannot accept their
sufferings in proof of their testimony, nor can the people reverence
the athletes as in the army of martyrs, because the name of Christians
is applied to the persecutors. The one charge which is now sure
to secure severe punishment is the careful keeping of the traditions of
the Fathers. For this the pious are exiled from their homes, and
are sent away to dwell in distant regions. No reverence is shown
by the judges of iniquity to the hoary head, to practical piety, to the
life lived from boyhood to old age according to the Gospel. No
malefactor is doomed without proof, but bishops have been convicted on
calumny alone, and are consigned to penalties on charges wholly
unsupported by evidence. Some have not even known who has accused
them, nor been brought before
any tribunal, nor even been falsely accused at all. They have
been apprehended with violence late at night, have been exiled to
distant places, and, through the hardships of these remote wastes, have
been given over to death.3039
| 3039 For the
midnight banishment, cf. the story of the expulsion of
Eusebius from Samosata in Theod. iv. 13. Of death following on
exile Basil did not live to see the most signal instance—that
of Chrysostom in 407. | The rest is
notorious, though I make no mention of it—the flight of priests;
the flight of deacons; the foraying of all the clergy. Either the
image must be worshipped, or we are delivered to the wicked flame of
whips.3040
The
laity groan; tears are falling without ceasing in public and in
private; all are mutually lamenting their woes. No
one’s heart is so hard as to lose a father, and bear the
bereavement meekly. There is a sound of them that mourn in
the city—a sound in the fields, in the roads, in the
deserts. But one voice is heard from all that utter sad and
piteous words. Joy and spiritual gladness are taken
away. Our feasts are turned into mourning.3041
Our houses of prayer are
shut. The altars of the spiritual service are lying
idle. Christians no longer assemble together; teachers no
longer preside. The doctrines of salvation are no longer
taught. We have no more solemn assemblies, no more evening
hymns, no more of that blessed joy of souls which arises in the
souls of all that believe in the Lord at communions, and the
imparting of spiritual boons.3042
| 3042 ἐπι ταῖς
σύναξεσι
καὶ τῇ
κοινωνί& 139·
τῶν
πνευματικῶν
χαρισμάτων. | We
may well say, “Neither is there at this time prince, or
prophet, or reader, or offering, or incense, or place to sacrifice
before thee, and to find mercy.”3043
3. We are writing to those who know these
things, for there is not a region of the world which is ignorant of our
calamities. Do not suppose that we are using these words as
though to give information, or to recall ourselves to your
recollection. We know that you could no more forget us than a
mother forget the sons of her womb.3044
But all
who are crushed by any weight of agony find some natural alleviation
for their pain in uttering groans of distress, and it is for this that
we are doing as we do. We get rid of the load of our grief in
telling you of our manifold misfortunes, and in expressing the hope
that you may haply be the more moved to pray for us, and may prevail on
the Lord to be reconciled to us. And if these afflictions had
been confined to ourselves, we might even have determined to keep
silence, and to rejoice in our sufferings for Christ’s sake,
since “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
us.”3045
But at the
present time we are alarmed, lest the mischief growing day by day,
like a flame spreading through some burning wood, when it has
consumed what is close at hand, may catch distant objects too.
The plague of heresy is spreading, and there is ground of
apprehension lest, when it has devoured our Churches, it may
afterwards creep on even so far as to the sound portion of your
district.3046
| 3046 παροικία.
The word seems here to have a wider sense even than that of
“diocese.” |
Peradventure it is because with us iniquity has abounded that we
have been first delivered to be devoured by the cruel teeth of the
enemies of God. But the gospel of the kingdom began in our
regions, and then went forth over all the world. So,
peradventure—and this is most probable—the common enemy
of our souls, is striving to bring it about that the seeds of
apostasy, originating in the same quarter, should be distributed
throughout the world. For the darkness of impiety plots to
come upon the very hearts whereon the “light of the
knowledge” of Christ has shone.3047
4. Reckon then, as true disciples of the
Lord, that our sufferings are yours. We are not being attacked
for the sake of riches, or glory, or any temporal advantages. We
stand in the arena to fight for our common heritage, for the treasure
of the sound faith, derived from our Fathers. Grieve with us, all
ye who love the brethren, at the shutting of the mouths of our men of
true religion, and at the opening of the bold and blasphemous lips of
all that utter unrighteousness against God.3048
The pillars and foundation of the
truth are scattered abroad. We, whose insignificance has allowed
of our being overlooked, are deprived of our right of free
speech. Do ye enter into the struggle, for the people’s
sake. Do not think only of your being yourselves moored in a safe
haven, where the grace of God gives you shelter from the tempest of the
winds of wickedness. Reach out a helping hand to the Churches
that are being buffeted by the storm, lest, if they be abandoned, they
suffer complete shipwreck of the faith. Lament for us, in that
the Only-begotten is being blasphemed, and there is none to offer
contradiction. The Holy Ghost is being set at
nought and he who is
able to confute the error has been sent into exile.
Polytheism has prevailed. Our opponents own a great God and
a small God. “Son” is no longer a name of
nature, but is looked upon as a title of some kind of
honour. The Holy Ghost is regarded not as complemental of
the Holy Trinity, nor as participating in the divine and blessed
Nature, but as in some sort one of the number of created beings,
and attached to Father and Son, at mere haphazard and as occasion
may require. “Oh that my head were waters, and mine
eyes a fountain of tears,”3049
and I will weep many days for the
people who are being driven to destruction by these vile
doctrines. The ears of the simple are being led astray, and
have now got used to heretical impiety. The nurslings of
the Church are being brought up in the doctrines of
iniquity. What are they to do? Our opponents have the
command of baptisms; they speed the dying on their way;3050
| 3050 I suggest this
rendering of προπομπαὶ
τῶν
ἐξοδευόντων
with hesitation, and feel no certainty about the passage except that
the Ben. tr., “deductiones proficiscentium,” and
its defence in the Ben. note, is questionable. The escort of a
bishop on a journey is quite on a different plane from the
ministrations which Basil has in mind. προπομπαὶ
is used by Chrysostom of funerals, and Combefis explains
“excedentium deductæ funebres, deducta
funera;” but the association of ideas seems to
necessitate some reference to the effect of vicious teaching on
the living. There may be an indirect allusion to the effect
on the friends at a funeral, but to take ἐξοδευόντων
to mean “the dying” seems the simplest.
ἐξοδευθείς
is used of Sisera in Judges v. 27, LXX. cf. p.
180 n., where perhaps this rendering might be substituted, and
Canon Bright on Canon xiii. of Nicæa. | they visit the sick; they console the
sorrowful; they aid the distressed; they give succour of various
kinds; they communicate the mysteries. All these things, as
long as the performance of them is in their hands, are so many
ties to bind the people to their views. The result will be
that in a little time, even if some liberty be conceded to us,
there is small hope that they who have been long under the
influence of error will be recalled to recognition of the
truth.
5. Under these circumstances it would have been
well for many of us to have travelled to your reverences, and to have
individually reported each his own position. You may now take as
a proof of the sore straits in which we are placed the fact that we are
not even free to travel abroad. For if any one leaves his Church,
even for a very brief space, he will leave his people at the mercy of
those who are plotting their ruin. By God’s mercy instead
of many we have sent one, our very reverend and beloved brother the
presbyter Dorotheus. He is fully able to supply by his personal
report whatever has been omitted in our letter, for he has carefully
followed all that has occurred, and is jealous of the right
faith. Receive him in peace, and speedily send him back to us,
bringing us good news of your readiness to succour the
brotherhood. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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