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| To the heretic Simplicia.
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Letter CXV.2387
To the heretic Simplicia.2388
| 2388 The Ben.
E. note that in the imperial codex No. lxvii. appears an argument of
this letter wanting in the editions of St. Basil. It is as
follows: “Letter of the same to Simplicia about her
eunuchs. She was a heretic. The blessed Basil being ill
and entering a bath to bathe, Simplicia told her eunuchs and maids
to throw his towels out. Straightway the just judgment of God
slew some of them, and Simplicia sent money to the blessed Basil to
make amends for the injury. Basil refused to receive it, and
wrote this Letter.” This extraordinary preface seems to
have been written by some annotator ignorant of the circumstances,
which may be learnt from Greg. Naz. Letter xxxviii. It
appears that a certain Cappadocian church, long without a bishop,
had elected a slave of Simplicia, a lady wealthy and munificent, but
of suspected orthodoxy. Basil and Gregory injudiciously
ordained the reluctant slave without waiting for his
mistress’s consent. The angry lady wrote in indignation,
and threatened him with the vengeance of her slaves and
eunuchs. After Basil’s death she returned to the charge,
and pressed Gregory to get the ordination annulled. cf.
Maran, Vit. Bas. chap. xxv. |
We often ill advisedly
hate our superiors and love our inferiors. So I, for my part,
hold my tongue, and keep silence about the disgrace of the insults
offered me. I wait for the Judge above, Who knows how to punish
all wickedness in the end, even though a man pour out gold like sand;
let him trample on the right, he does but hurt his own soul. God
always asks for sacrifice, not, I think, because He needs it, but
because He accepts a pious and right mind as a precious
sacrifice. But when a man by his transgressions tramples on
himself God reckons his prayers impure. Bethink thyself, then, of
the last day, and pray do not try to teach me. I know more than
you do, and am not so choked with thorns within. I do not mind
tenfold wickedness with a few good qualities. You have stirred up
against me lizards and toads,2389
| 2389 Presumably the
slaves and eunuchs mentioned below. If the letter is genuine
it is wholly unworthy of the Archbishop of Cæsarea. |
beasts, it is true, of Spring
time, but nevertheless unclean. But a bird will come from
above who will devour them. The account I have to render is
not according to your ideas, but as God thinks fit to judge.
If witnesses are wanted, there will not stand before the Judge
slaves; nor yet a disgraceful and detestable set of eunuchs; neither
woman nor man, lustful, envious, ill-bribed, passionate, effeminate,
slaves of the belly, mad for gold, ruthless, grumbling about their
dinner, inconstant, stingy, greedy, insatiable, savage,
jealous. What more need I say? At their very birth they
were condemned to the knife. How can their mind be right when
their feet are awry? They are chaste because of the knife, and
it is no credit to them. They are lecherous to no purpose, of
their own natural vileness. These are not the witnesses who
shall stand in the judgment, but rather the eyes of the just and the
eyesight of the perfect, of all who are then to see with their eyes
what they now see with their understanding.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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