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| To Patrophilus, bishop of Ægæ.
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Letter CCXLIV.3051
To Patrophilus, bishop of
Ægæ.3052
| 3052
“Aigaiai is the more correct form.” Ramsay,
Hist. Geog. A.M. 116. In the gulf of Issus, now
Ayas. St. Julianus, son of a senator of Anazarbus, is said to
have suffered there. (Basil, Menol. and,
possibly, Chrysost., Hom. in Jul. Mart.) |
1. I have read, and
read with pleasure, the letter which you have sent by Strategius the
presbyter. How should I not so read it, written as it is by a
wise man, and dictated by a heart which has learned to observe the
universal love taught by the commandment of the Lord? Possibly I
am not unaware of the reasons which have hitherto kept you
silent. You have been, as it were, amazed and astounded, at the
idea of the change in the notorious Basil. Why, ever since he was
a boy he did such and such service to such an one; at such and such
times he did such and such things; he waged war against foes
innumerable for the sake of his allegiance to one man; now he has
become a totally different character; he has exchanged love for war; he
is all that you have written; so you naturally shew considerable
astonishment at the very unexpected turn of affairs. And if you
have found some fault, I do not take it ill. I am not so beyond
correction as to be amazed at the affectionate rebukes of my
brothers. Indeed so far was I from being vexed at your letter
that it really almost made me laugh to think that when there were, as I
thought, so many strong causes already existing to cement our
friendship, you should have expressed such very great astonishment at
the trifles which have been reported to you. So truly have you
suffered the fate of all those who omit to enquire into the nature of
circumstances, and give heed to the men who are being discussed; of all
who do not examine into the truth, but judge by the distinction of
persons, in forgetfulness of the exhortion “Ye shall not respect
persons in judgment.”3053
2. Nevertheless, since God in judgment of man does
not accept persons, I will not refuse to make known to you the defence
which I have prepared for the great tribunal. On my side, from
the beginning, there has been no cause of quarrel, either small or
great; but men who hate me, for what reason is best known to themselves
(I must not say a word about them), incessantly calumniated me. I cleared myself
again and again of slanders. There seemed no end to the matter,
and no good came of my continual defence, because I was far away, and
the authors of the false statements, being on the spot, were able by
their calumnies against me to wound a susceptible heart, and one which
has never learnt to keep one ear open for the absent. When the
Nicopolitans, as you yourself are partly aware, were asking for some
proof of faith, I determined to have recourse to the written
document.3054
| 3054
i.e.the formula proposed to Eustathius by Basil, and
signed in 373 by him with Fronto, Severus, and others, and appearing
as Letter cxxv. | I thought
that I should fulfil two objects at once; I expected both to persuade
the Nicopolitans not to think ill of the man,3055
and to shut the mouths of my
calumniators, because agreement in faith would exclude slander on
both sides. Indeed the creed had been drawn up, and it was
brought from me, and signed. After it had been signed, a place
was appointed for a second meeting, and another date fixed, so that
my brethren in the diocese might come together and be united with
one another, and our communion for the future be genuine and
sincere. I, for my part, arrived at the appointed time, and,
of the brethren who act with me, some were on the spot, and others
were hurrying thither, all joyous and eager as though on the high
road to peace.3056
Couriers
and a letter from myself announced my arrival; for the spot
appointed for the reception of those who were assembling was
mine. But nobody appeared on the other side; no one came in
advance; no one to announce the approach of the expected
bishops. So those who had been sent by me returned with the
report of the deep dejection and the complaints of those who were
assembled, as though a new creed had been promulgated by me.
They were moreover said to be for deciding, that they certainly
would not suffer their bishop to go over to me. Then came a
messenger bringing me a letter hastily drawn up, and containing no
mention of the points originally agreed on. My brother
Theophilus,3057
a man worthy of
all respect and honour at my hands, sent one of his adherents, and
made certain announcements, which he thought it not improper for him
to utter, nor unbecoming in me to hear. He did not condescend
to write, not so much because he was afraid of being convicted on
written evidence, as because he was anxious not to be compelled to
address me as bishop. Assuredly his language was violent, and
came from a heart a vehemently agitated. Under these
circumstances I departed abashed and depressed, not knowing what to
answer to my questioners. Then, without any long interval of
time, there was the journey into Cilicia,3058
| 3058 cf.
Letter cxxx. The journey of Eustathius to Cilicia was the
occasion of his presenting an Arian creed to a certain
Gelasius. |
the return thence, and forthwith a letter repudiating communion with
me.3059
| 3059 cf.
Letter ccxxvi. The letter of repudiation was conveyed by
Eustathius the chorepiscopus. |
3. The cause of the rupture was the
allegation that I wrote to Apollinarius and was in communion with the
presbyter Diodorus. I never regarded Apollinarius as an enemy,
and for some reasons I even respect him. But I never so far
united myself to him as to take upon me the charges against him; indeed
I have myself some accusations to bring against him after reading some
of his books. I do not know that I ever asked him for a book on
the Holy Spirit, or received it on his sending: I am told that he
has become a most copious writer, but I have read very few of his
works.3060
| 3060 Fragments of
Apollinarius are extant in the works of Theodoret and Gregory of
Nyssa, and in Mai’s Script. Vet. Nov. col. vii., and
Spicil. Rom.x. 2. cf. Thomasius,
Christ. Dogm. 451. cf. Ep.
cclxiii. p. 302. | I have
not even time to investigate such matters. Indeed I shrink
from admitting any of the more recent works, for my health does
not even allow of my reading the inspired Scriptures with
diligence and as I ought. What, then, is it to me, if some
one has written something displeasing to somebody else? Yet
if one man is to render an account on behalf of another, let him
who accuses me for Apollinarius’ sake defend himself to me
for the sake of Arius his own master and of Aetius his own
disciple. I never learnt anything from, nor taught anything
to this man whose guilt is laid at my door. Diodorus, as a
nursling of the blessed Silvanus, I did receive from the
beginning: I love him now and respect him on account of his
grace of speech, whereby many who meet him are made the better
men.3061
| 3061 Diodorus
now presbyter of Antioch, did not become bishop of Tarsus till about
the time of Basil’s death. On his services to the Church
at Antioch, cf. Theod., H.E. ii. 19. and Soc.,
H.E.vi. 8. The controversy as to his alleged
Nestorianism belongs to a later date. On the relations between
Diodorus and Apollinarius, cf. Dorner, Christ. i. pp.
976 and 1022. |
4. At this letter I was affected in such a manner
as might be expected, and astounded at so sudden and pleasant a
change. I felt quite unable to reply. My heart could hardly
beat; my tongue failed me, and my hand grew numb. I felt like a
poor creature (for the truth shall be told; yet it is pardonable); I
all but fell into a state of misanthropy; I looked on every one with
suspicion and thought that there was no charity to be found
in mankind. Charity
seemed a mere specious word, serving as a kind of decoration to
those who use it, while no such sentiment was really to be found
in the heart of man. Could it really be that one who seemed
to have disciplined himself from boyhood to old age, could be so
easily brutalized on such grounds, without a thought for me,
without any idea that his experience of bygone years ought to
have more weight than this wretched slander? Could he
really, like an unbroken colt as yet untaught to carry his rider
properly, on some petty suspicion rear and unseat his rider and
fling to the ground what was once his pride? If so, what
must be thought of the rest with whom I had no such strong ties
of friendship, and who had given no such proofs of a well trained
life? All this I turned over in my soul and continually
revolved in my heart, or, shall I rather say my heart was turned
over by these things fighting and pricking me at the recollection
of them? I wrote no answer; not that I kept silence from
contempt; do not think it of me my brother, for I am not
defending myself to men but I speak before God in Christ. I
kept silence from utter inability to say a word commensurate with
my grief.
5. While I was in this position another
letter came to me, addressed to a certain Dazizas, but in reality
written to all the world. This is obvious from its very rapid
distribution, for in a few days it was delivered all over Pontus, and
was travelling about Galatia; indeed it is said that the carriers of
this good news traversed Bithynia, and reached the Hellespont
itself. What was written against me to Dazizas3062
| 3062 In
Letter cxxxi. the name appears as Dazinas, or Dexinas.
In this place the mss. agree in the form
Dazizas. | you are very well aware, for they do not
reckon you as so far beyond the bounds of their friendship as to have
left you alone undistinguished by this honour. However, if the
letter has not reached you, I will send it to you. In it you will
find me charged with craft and treachery, with corruption of Churches
and with ruin of souls. The charge which they think the truest of
all is, that I made that exposition of the faith for secret and
dishonest reasons, not to do service to the Nicopolitans, but with the
design of disingenously extracting a confession from them. Of all
this the Lord is Judge. What clear evidence can there be of the
thoughts of the heart? One thing I do wonder at in them, that
after signing the document presented by me, they show so much
disagreement, that they confuse truth and falsehood to satisfy those
who are accusing them, quite forgetful that their written confession of
the Nicene Creed is preserved at Rome, and that they with their own
hand delivered to the council at Tyana the document brought from Rome
which is in my hands, and contains the same creed. They forgot
their own address, when they came forward and bewailed the deceit by
which they had been tricked into giving their adhesion to the document
drawn up by the faction of Eudoxius,3063
| 3063 ? The Creed of
Arminum. | and so
bethought them of the defence for that error, that they should go to
Rome3064
and there
accept the creed of the Fathers, that so they might make amends,
for the mischief they had done the Church by their agreement in
evil, by their introduction of something better. Now the
very men who undertook long journeys for the faith’s sake,
and made all these fine speeches, are reviling me for walking
craftily, and for playing the plotter under the cloke of
love. It is plain from the Letter, now being carried about,
that they have condemned the faith of Nicæa. They saw
Cyzicus, and came home with another creed.3065
| 3065 The Synod of
Tyana had been ready to recognise the Eustathians as Catholics in
374. The Semi-Arian Council of Cyzicus was held in 375 or 376
(Mansi iii. 469). |
6. But why say anything of mere verbal
inconsistency? The practical proofs of their change of position
afforded by their conduct are far stronger. They refused to yield
to the sentence of fifty bishops passed against them.3066
| 3066 i.e. at
Constantinople in 360. | They declined to resign the government
of their Churches although the number of bishops assenting to the
decree for their deposition was so many, on the alleged ground that
they were not partakers of the Holy Ghost, and were not governing their
Churches by the grace of God, but had clutched their dignity by the aid
of human power, and through lust of vain glory. Now they are for
receiving the men consecrated by these same persons as bishops. I
should like you to ask them in my stead, (although they despise all
mankind, as bereft of eyes, ears, and common sense), to perceive the
inconsistency of their conduct, what sentiments they do really
entertain in their own hearts. How can there be two bishops, one
deposed by Euippius,3067
| 3067 cf.
Letter ccxxviii. | and the other
consecrated by him? Both are the actions of the same man.
Had he not been endowed with the grace bestowed upon Jeremiah to pull
down and build again, to root out and to plant,3068
he certainly would not have rooted the
one out and planted the other. Grant him the one and you must
grant him the other. Their one object, as it seems, is everywhere
to look to their own advantage, and to regard every one who acts in
accordance with their own wishes as a friend, while they treat any
one who opposes them as an enemy, and spare no calumny to run him
down.3069
| 3069 The Ben.
note on this passage suggests that the reference to Jeremiah is an
argument supposed to be put forward by Eustathius, and immediately
answered by Basil, but there seems no necessity of this. Basil
says nothing for or against the powers of the bishops who condemned
Eustathius; he only points out the inconsistency of Eustathius in
accepting their powers to ordain when it suited his purpose, while
he refused to admit their authority to depose. It is enough
for Basil’s argument that Eustathius treated him as having
authority. On Basil’s own views as to the validity of
heretical ordination, cf. Canon i., Letter
clxxxviii. |
7. What measures are they now taking against
the Church? For the shiftiness of their originators, shocking;
for the apathy of all who are affected by them, pitiable. By a
respectable commission the children and grandchildren of Euippius have
been summoned from distant regions to Sebasteia, and to them the people
have been entrusted.3070
| 3070 i.e.
bishops and presbyters whose spiritual descent is to be traced to
Euippius, viz.: Eustathius and his clergy. Over
what see Euippius presided is unknown. | They have
taken possession of the altar. They have been made the leaven of
that Church. I am persecuted by them as a Homoousiast.
Eustathius, who brought the Homoousion in the script from Rome to
Tyana, although he was not able to get admitted into their much to be
coveted communion, either because they feared, or respected the
authority of, the large number of persons who had agreed in condemning
him, is now in intimate alliance with them. I only hope that I
may never have time enough on my hands to tell of all their
doings—who were gathered together, how each one had been
ordained, and from what kind of earlier life each arrived at his
present dignity. I have been taught to pray “that my mouth
may not utter the works of the men.”3071
If you enquire you will learn these
things for yourself, and, if they are hidden from you, they will not
assuredly continue hidden from the judges.
8. I will not, however, omit to tell you, my
dear friend, in what a state I have been. Last year I suffered
from a very violent fever, and came near to the gates of death.
When, by God’s mercy, I was restored, I was distressed at coming
back to life, as I bethought me of all the troubles before me. I
considered with myself for what reason, hidden in the depths of the
wisdom of God, yet further days of life in the flesh had been allowed
me. But when I heard of these matters I concluded that the Lord
wished me to see the Churches at rest after the storm which they had
previously suffered from the alienation of the men in whom, on account
of their fictitious gravity of character, every confidence had been
placed. Or peradventure the Lord designed to invigorate my soul,
and to render it more vigilant for the future, to the end that, instead
of giving heed to men, it might be made perfect through those precepts
of the Gospel which do not share in the changes and chances of human
seasons and circumstances, but abide for ever the same, as they were
uttered by the blessed lips that cannot lie.3072
| 3072 Contrast the
famous appeal of Antigone in Soph., Ant. 454 to the eternal
principles of right and wrong; οὐ γάρ τι
νῦν γε
καχθὲς, ἀλλ᾽
ἀεί ποτε ζῆ
ταῦτα
κοὐδεὶς
οἶδεν ἐξ
ὅτου
᾽φάνη. The Christian saint
can make the more personal reference to the ἀψευδὲς
στόμα. |
9. Men are like clouds, shifting hither and
thither in the sky with the change of the winds.3073
And of all men who have ever come
within my experience these of whom I am speaking are the most
unstable. As to the other business of life, those who have
lived with them may give evidence; but as to what is within my own
knowledge, their inconsistency as regards the faith, I do not know
that I have ever myself observed it or heard from any one else, of
anything like it. Originally they were followers of Arius;
then they went over to Hermogenes, who was diametrically opposed to
the errors of Arius, as is evinced by the Creed originally recited
by him at Nicæa.3074
| 3074 cf.
Letter lxxxi. p. 172. Hermogenes was bishop of
Cæsarea, in which see he preceded Dianius. He acted as
secretary at Nicæa, when yet a deacon. “The actual
creed was written out and read, perhaps in consideration of
Hosius’ ignorance of Greek, by Hermogenes.”
(Stanley, Eastern Church, p. 140, ed. 1862.) |
Hermogenes, fell asleep, and then they went over to Eusebius, the
Coryphæus, as we know on personal evidence, of the Arian
ring. Leaving this, for whatever reasons, they came home
again, and once more concealed their Arian sentiments. After
reaching the episcopate, to pass by what occurred in the interval,
how many creeds did they put forth? One at Ancyra;3075
| 3075 In 358, when
the ὁμοιούσιον was accepted. | another at Seleucia;3076
| 3076 In 359, when
the Semiarians supported the Antiochene Dedication Creed of
341. | another at Constantinople,3077
| 3077 In 360, when
the Acacians triumphed, and Eustathius with other Semiarians were
deposed. The Creed of Ariminum, as revised at Nike, was
accepted. | the famous one; another at
Lampsacus,3078
| 3078 In 364, when
the Creeds of Ariminum and Constantinople were condemned by the
Semiarians, and the Dedication Creed was reaffirmed. | then that of
Nike in Thrace;3079
| 3079 The Creed of
Nike in Thrace was the Creed of Arminum revised, and it seems out of
order to mention it after Lampsacus. | and now again
the creed of Cyzicus.3080
| 3080 In 375
or 6. This is the formula referred to in Letter ccli.
4, as the latest. On the variety of Creeds, cf. p. 48,
n. | Of this
last I know nothing, except that I am told that they have suppressed
the homoousion, and are supporting the like in essence, while
they subscribe with Eunomius the blasphemies against the Holy Spirit.
Although all of the creeds which I have enumerated may not be
opposed to one another, yet they alike exhibit the inconsistency of
the men’s minds, from their never standing by the same
words. I have said nothing as to countless other points, but
this that I do say is true. Now that they have gone over to
you, I beg you to write back by the same man, I mean our fellow
presbyter Strategius, whether you have remained in the same mind
towards me, or whether you have been alienated in consequence of
your meeting them. For it was not likely that they would be
silent, nor that you yourself, after writing to me as you have,
would not use free speaking to them too. If you remain in
communion with me, it is well; it is what I would most earnestly
pray for. If they have drawn you over to them, it is
sad. How should separation from such a brother not be
sad? If in nothing else, at least in bearing losses like this,
we have been considerably tried at their hands.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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