Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To Gregory my brother.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Letter
LVIII.2211
To Gregory my brother.2212
| 2212 Three
mss. give the title Γρηγορίω
ἐπισκόπῳ
καὶ
ἀδελφῷ, but, as is
pointed out by the Ben. Ed., the letter itself is hardly one which
would be written to one with the responsibilities of a bishop.
Basil seems to regard his brother as at liberty to come and help him
at Cæsarea. Gregory’s consecration to the see of
Nyssa is placed in 372, when his reluctance had to be overcome by
force. cf. Letter ccxxv. On the extraordinary
circumstance of his well meant but futile forgery of the name of his
namesake and uncle, bishop of an unknown see, vide
Prolegom. |
How am I to dispute with
you in writing? How can I lay hold of you satisfactorily, with
all your simplicity? Tell me; who ever falls a third time into
the same nets? Who ever gets a third time into the same
snare? Even a brute beast would find it difficult to do so.
You forged one letter, and brought it me as though it came from our
right reverend uncle the bishop, trying to deceive me, I have no idea
why. I received it as a letter written by the bishop and
delivered by you. Why should I not? I was delighted; I
shewed it to many of my friends; I thanked God. The forgery was
found out, on the bishop’s repudiating it in person. I was
thoroughly ashamed; covered as I was with the disgrace of cunning
trickery and lies, I prayed that the earth might open for me.
Then they gave me a second letter, as sent by the bishop himself by the
hands of your servant Asterius. Even this second had not really
been sent by the bishop, as my very reverend brother
Anthimus2213
| 2213 Bishop
of Tyana, estranged from Basil, cf. Letters cxx., cxxi.,
cxxii., and ccx. | has told
me. Now Adamantius has come bringing me a third. How
ought I to receive a letter carried by you or yours? I might
have prayed to have a heart of stone, so as neither to remember the
past, nor to feel the present; so as to bear every blow, like
cattle, with bowed head. But what am I to think, now that,
after my first and second experience, I can admit nothing without
positive proof? Thus I write attacking your simplicity, which
I see plainly to be neither what generally becomes a Christian man,
nor is appropriate to the present emergency; I write
that, at least for the
future, you may take care of yourself and spare me. I must
speak to you with all freedom, and I tell you that you are an
unworthy minister of things so great. However, whoever be the
writer of the letter, I have answered as is fit . Whether,
then, you yourself are experimenting on me, or whether really the
letter which you have sent is one which you have received from the
bishops, you have my answer. At such a time as this you ought
to have borne in mind that you are my brother, and have not yet
forgotten the ties of nature, and do not regard me in the light of
an enemy, for I have entered on a life which is wearing out my
strength, and is so far beyond my powers that it is injuring even my
soul. Yet for all this, as you have determined to declare war
against me, you ought to have come to me and shared my
troubles. For it is said, “Brethren and help are against
time of trouble.”2214
If the
right reverend bishops are really willing to meet me, let them make
known to me a place and time, and let them invite me by their own
men. I do not refuse to meet my own uncle, but I shall not do
so unless the invitation reaches me in due and proper form.2215
| 2215 Negat
Basilius se adfuturum, nisi decenter advocetur, id est, nist
mittantur qui eum in indictum locum deducant. Erat Basilius,
ut in ejus modi officiis exhibendis diligentissimus, ita etiam in
reposcendis attentus. Meletius Antiochenus et Theodorus
Nicopolitanus, cum Basilium ad celebritatem quamdam obiter
advocassent per Hellenium Nazianzi Peræquatorem, nec iterum
misissent qui de visdem admoneret aut deduceret; displicuit Basilio
perfunctoria invitandi ratio, ac veritus ne suspectus illis esset,
adesse noluit.” Note by Ben. Ed. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
