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| Against Eustathius of Sebasteia.
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Letter
CCXXIII.2876
Against Eustathius of
Sebasteia.2877
| 2877 On the
mutual relations of Basil and Eustathius up to this time,
cf. Prolegomena. |
1. There is a time
to keep silence and a time to speak,2878
is the saying
of the Preacher. Time enough has been given to silence, and now
the time has come to open my mouth for the publication of the truth
concerning matters that are, up to now, unknown. The illustrious
Job bore his calamities for a long time in silence, and ever showed his
courage by holding out under the most intolerable sufferings, but when
he had struggled long enough in silence, and had persisted in covering
his anguish in the bottom of his heart, at last he opened his mouth and
uttered his well-known words.2879
In my
own case this is now the third year of my silence, and my boast has
become like that of the Psalmist, “I was as a man that heareth
not and in whose mouth are no reproofs.”2880
Thus I shut up in the bottom of my
heart the pangs which I suffered on account of the calumnies
directed against me, for calumny humbles a man, and calumny makes a
poor man giddy.2881
| 2881 cf.
ἡ συκοφαντία
περιφέρει
σοφόν. Eccles. vii. 8,
LXX. Calumnia conturbat sapientem et perdet robur cordis
illius. Vulg. | If,
therefore, the mischief of calumny is so great as to cast down even
the perfect man from his height, for this is what Scripture
indicates by the word man, and by the poor man is meant he who lacks
the great doctrines, as is the view also of the prophet when he
says, “These are poor, therefore they shall not hear;…I
will get me unto the great men,”2882
he means by poor those who are lacking in understanding; and here,
too, he plainly means those who are not yet furnished in the inner
man, and have not even come to the full measure of their age; it is
these who are said by the proverb to be made giddy and tossed
about. Nevertheless I thought that I ought to bear my troubles
in silence, waiting for some indication to come out of them. I
did not even think that what was said against me proceeded from ill
will; I thought it was the result of ignorance of the truth.
But now I see that hostility increases with time, and that my
slanderers are not sorry for what they said at the beginning, and do
not take any trouble to make amends for the past, but go on and on
and rally themselves together to attain their original object.
This was to make my life miserable and to devise means for sullying
my reputation among the brethren. I, therefore, no longer see
safety in silence. I have bethought me of the words of
Isaiah: “I have long time holden my peace, shall I
always be still and refrain myself? I have been patient like a
travailing woman.”2883
God grant
that I may both receive the reward of silence, and gain some
strength to confute my opponents, and that thus, by confuting them, I may dry up
the bitter torrent of falsehood that has gushed out against
me. So might I say, “My soul has passed over the
torrent;”2884
and, “If
it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up
against us,…then they had swallowed us up quick, the water had
drowned us.”2885
2. Much time had I spent in vanity, and had
wasted nearly all my youth in the vain labour which I underwent in
acquiring the wisdom made foolish by God. Then once upon a time,
like a man roused from deep sleep, I turned my eyes to the marvellous
light of the truth of the Gospel, and I perceived the uselessness of
“the wisdom of the princes of this world, that come to
naught.”2886
I wept many
tears over my miserable life and I prayed that guidance might be
vouchsafed me to admit me to the doctrines of true religion.
First of all was I minded to make some mending of my ways, long
perverted as they were by my intimacy with wicked men. Then I
read the Gospel, and I saw there that a great means of reaching
perfection was the selling of one’s goods, the sharing them with
the poor, the giving up of all care for this life, and the refusal to
allow the soul to be turned by any sympathy to things of earth.
And I prayed that I might find some one of the brethren who had chosen
this way of life, that with him I might cross life’s
short2887
and troubled
strait. And many did I find in Alexandria, and many in the
rest of Egypt, and others in Palestine, and in Cœle Syria,
and in Mesopotamia. I admired their continence in living,
and their endurance in toil; I was amazed at their persistency in
prayer, and at their triumphing over sleep; subdued by no natural
necessity, ever keeping their souls’ purpose high and free,
in hunger, in thirst, in cold, in nakedness,2888
they never yielded to the body; they
were never willing to waste attention on it; always, as though
living in a flesh that was not theirs, they shewed in very deed
what it is to sojourn for a while in this life,2889
and what to have one’s
citizenship and home in heaven.2890
All
this moved my admiration. I called these men’s lives
blessed, in that they did in deed shew that they “bear about
in their body the dying of Jesus.”2891
And I prayed that I, too, as far
as in me lay, might imitate them.
3. So when I beheld certain men in my own
country striving to copy their ways, I felt that I had found a help to
my own salvation, and I took the things seen for proof of things
unseen. And since the secrets in the hearts of each of us are
unknown, I held lowliness of dress to be a sufficient indication of
lowliness of spirit; and there was enough to convince me in the coarse
cloak, the girdle, and the shoes of untanned hide.2892
| 2892 With St.
Basil’s too great readiness to believe in Eustathius because
of his mean garb contrast Augustine De Serm. Dom.
“Animadvertendum est non in solo rerum corporearum nitore
atque pompa, sed etiam in ipsis sordibus lutosis esse posse
jactantiam, et eo periculosiorem quo sub nomine servitutis Dei
decipit.” | And though many were for withdrawing
me from their society, I would not allow it, because I saw that they
put a life of endurance before a life of pleasure; and, because of the
extraordinary excellence of their lives, I became an eager supporter of
them. And so it came about that I would not hear of any fault
being found with their doctrines, although many maintained that their
conceptions about God were erroneous, and that they had become
disciples of the champion of the present heresy, and were secretly
propagating his teaching. But, as I had never at any time heard
these things with my own ears, I concluded that those who reported them
were calumniators. Then I was called to preside over the
Church. Of the watchmen and spies, who were given me under the
pretence of assistance and loving communion, I say nothing, lest I seem
to injure my own cause by telling an incredible tale, or give believers
an occasion for hating their fellows, if I am believed. This had
almost been my own case, had I not been prevented by the mercy of
God. For almost every one became an object of suspicion to me,
and smitten at heart as I was by wounds treacherously inflicted, I
seemed to find nothing in any man that I could trust. But so far
there was, nevertheless, a kind of intimacy kept up between us.
Once and again we held discussions on doctrinal points. and apparently
we seemed to agree and keep together. But they began to find out
that I made the same statements concerning my faith in God which they
had always heard from me. For, if other things in me may move a
sigh, this one boast at least I dare make in the Lord, that never for
one moment have I held erroneous conceptions about God, or entertained
heterodox opinions, which I have learnt later to change. The
teaching about God which I had received as a boy from my blessed mother
and my grandmother Macrina, I have ever held with increased
conviction. On my coming to ripe years of reason I did not shift
my opinions from one to another, but carried out the
principles delivered to me by
my parents. Just as the seed when it grows is first tiny
and then gets bigger but always preserves its identity, not
changed in kind though gradually perfected in growth, so I reckon
the same doctrine to have grown in my case through gradually
advancing stages. What I hold now has not replaced what I
held at the beginning. Let them search their own
consciences. Let these men who have now made me the common
talk on the charge of false doctrine, and deafened all
men’s ears with the defamatory letters which they have
written against me, so that I am compelled thus to defend myself,
ask themselves if they have ever heard anything from me,
differing from what I now say, and let them remember the judgment
seat of Christ.
4. I am charged with blasphemy against
God. Yet it is impossible for me to be convicted on the ground of
any treatise concerning the Faith, which they urge against me, nor can
I be charged on the ground of the utterances which I have from time to
time delivered by word of mouth, without their being committed to
writing, in the churches of God. Not a single witness has been
found to say that he has ever heard from me, when speaking in private,
anything contrary to true religion. If then I am not an
unorthodox writer, if no fault can be found with my preaching, if I do
not lead astray those who converse with me in my own home, on what
ground am I being judged? But there is a new invention!
Somebody,2893
| 2893
i.e.Apollinarius. cf. Letters cxxx. p.
198, and ccxxiv. | runs the charge, in
Syria has written something inconsistent with true religion; and twenty
years or more ago you wrote him a letter: so you are an
accomplice of the fellow, and what is urged against him is urged
against you. O truth-loving sir, I reply, you who have been
taught that lies are the offspring of the devil; what has proved to you
that I wrote that letter? You never sent; you never asked; you
were never informed by me, who might have told you the truth. But
if the letter was mine, how do you know that the document that has come
into your hands now is of the same date as my letter? Who told
you that it is twenty years old? How do you know that it is a
composition of the man to whom my letter was sent? And if he was
the composer, and I wrote to him, and my letter and his composition
belong to the same date, what proof is there that I accepted it in my
judgment, and that I hold those views?
5. Ask yourself. How often did you
visit me in my monastery on the Iris, when my very God-beloved brother
Gregory was with me, following the same course of life as myself?
Did you ever hear anything of the kind? Was there any appearance
of such a thing, small or great? How many days did we spend in
the opposite village, at my mother’s, living as friend with
friend, and discoursing together night and day? Did you ever find
me holding any opinion of the kind? And when we went together to
visit the blessed Silvanus,2894
| 2894
i.e.Silvanus of Tarsus. cf. Letters xxxiv.
p. 136, and lxvii. p. 164. | did we not talk of
these things on the way? And at Eusinoe,2895
| 2895 I have not
been able to identify Eusinoe. There was an Eusene on the
north coast of Pontus. | when you were about to set out with other
bishops for Lampsacus,2896
| 2896 i.e.
in 364, the year after St. Basil’s ordination as
presbyter, and the publication of his work against Eunomius.
The Council of Lampsacus, at which Basil was not present, repudiated
the Creeds of Ariminum and Constantinople (359 and 360), and
reasserted the 2d Dedication Creed of Antioch of 341. Maran
dates it 364 (Vit. Bas. x.). | was not our
discourse about the faith? Were not your shorthand writers at
my side the whole time while I was dictating my objections to the
heresy? Were not your most faithful disciples there too?
When I was visiting the brotherhood, and passing the night with them
in their prayers, continually speaking and hearing of the things
pertaining to God without dispute, was not the evidence which I gave
of my sentiments exact and definite? How came you then to
reckon this rotten and slender suspicion as of more importance than
the experience of such a length of time?
What evidence of my frame of mind ought you to
have preferred to your own? Has there been the slightest want of
harmony in my utterances about the faith at Chalcedon, again and again
at Heraclea, and at an earlier period in the suburb of
Cæsarea? Are they not all mutually consistent? I only
except the increase in force of which I spoke just now, resulting from
advance, and which is not to be regarded as a change from worse to
better, but rather as a filling up of what was wanting in the addition
of knowledge. How can you fail to bear in mind that the father
shall not bear the iniquity of the son, nor the son bear the iniquity
of the father, but each shall die in his own sin?2897
I have neither father nor son
slandered by you; I have had neither teacher nor disciple. But if
the sins of the parents must be made charges against their children, it
is far fairer for the sins of Arius to be charged against his
disciples; and, whoever begat the heretic Aetius,2898
for the charges against the son to be
applied to the father. If on the other hand it is unjust for any one to be accused for
their sakes, it is far more unjust that I should be held responsible
for the sake of men with whom I have nothing to do, even if they were
in every respect sinners, and something worthy of condemnation has been
written by them. I must be pardoned if I do not believe all that
is urged against them. since my own experience shows me how very easy
it is for accusers to slip into slander.
6. Even if they did come forward to accuse
me, because they had been deceived, and thought that I was associated
with the writers of those words of Sabellius which they are carrying
about, they were guilty of unpardonable conduct in straightway
attacking and wounding me, when I had done them no wrong, before they
had obtained plain proof. I do not like to speak of myself as
bound to them in the closest intimacy; or of them as being evidently
not led by the Holy Spirit, because of their cherishing false
suspicions. Much anxious thought must be taken, and many
sleepless nights must be passed, and with many tears must the truth be
sought from God, by him who is on the point of cutting himself off from
a brother’s friendship. Even the rulers of this world, when
they are on the point of sentencing some evil doer to death, draw the
veil aside,2899
| 2899 ἀφέλκονται
. So the Harl. ms. for
ἐφέλκονται. On the sense which may be applied to either verb cf.
Valesius on Am. Marcellinus xviii. 2, whom the Ben. Ed. point out to be
in error in thinking that Basil’s idea is of drawing a curtain or
veil over the proceedings, and Chrysostom Hom. liv.
in Matt. ᾽Επὶ
τοῖς
δικασταῖς,
ὅταν δημοσί&
139· κρινωσι, τὰ
παραπετάσματα
συνελκύσαντες
οἱ
παρεστῶτες
πᾶσιν ἀυτοὺς
δεικνύουσι. This meaning of drawing so as to disclose is
confirmed by Basil’s πάνδημοι
πᾶσι
γίγνονται in
this passage and in Hom. in Ps. xxxii. | and call in experts
for the examination of the case, and consume considerable time in
weighing the severity of the law against the common fault of humanity,
and with many a sigh and many a lament for the stern necessity of the
case, proclaim before all the people that they are obeying the law from
necessity, and not passing sentence to gratify their own
wishes.2900
| 2900 The Ben. note
compares the praise bestowed on Candidianus by Gregory of Nazianzus
for trying cases in the light of day (Ep. cxciv) and Am.
Marcellinus xvii. 1, who says of Julian, Numerium Narconensis
paulo ante rectorem, accusatum ut furem, inusitato censorio vigore
pro tribunali palam admissis volentibus audiebat. | How much
greater care and diligence, how much more counsel, ought to be taken by
one who is on the point of breaking off from long established
friendship with a brother! In this case there is only a single
letter and that of doubtful genuineness. It would be quite
impossible to argue that it is known by the signature, for they possess
not the original, but only a copy. They depend on one single
document and that an old one. It is now twenty years since
anything has been written to that person.2901
Of my opinions and conduct in the
intervening time I can adduce no better witnesses than the very men who
attack and accuse me.
7. But the real reason of separation is not
this letter. There is another cause of alienation. I am
ashamed to mention it; and I would have been for ever silent about it
had not recent events compelled me to publish all their mind for the
sake of the good of the mass of the people. Good men have thought
that communion with me was a bar to the recovery of their
authority. Some have been influenced by the signature of a
certain creed which I proposed to them, not that I distrusted their
sentiments, I confess, but because I wished to do away with the
suspicions which the more part of the brethren who agree with me
entertained of them. Accordingly, to avoid anything arising from
that confession to prevent their being accepted by the present
authorities,2902
| 2902 Though
this phrase commonly means the reigning emperor, as in Letter
lxvi., the Ben. note has no doubt that in this instance the
reference is to Euzoius. In Letter ccxxvi. §
3. q.v., Basil mentions reconciliation with Euzoius as
the real object of Eustathius’s hostility. Euzoius was
now in high favour with Valens. | they have renounced
communion with me. This letter was devised by an after-thought as
a pretext for the separation. A very plain proof of what I say
is, that after they had denounced me, and composed such complaints
against me as suited them, they sent round their letters in all
directions before communicating with me. Their letter was in the
possession of others who had received it in the course of transmission
and who were on the point of sending it on seven days before it had
reached my hands. The idea was that it would be handed from one
to another and so would be quickly distributed over the whole
country. This was reported to me at the time by those who were
giving me clear information of all their proceedings. But I
determined to hold my tongue until the Revealer of all secrets should
publish their doings by plain and incontrovertible
demonstration.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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