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| To Bishop Innocent.
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Letter LXXXI.2277
To Bishop Innocent.2278
| 2278 cf.
Letter l. The see of this Innocent is unknown.
cf. Letter lxxxi. and note. To the title of this letter
one manuscript adds “of Rome,” as the Ben. Ed. note
“prorsus absurde.” |
I was delighted to
receive the letter your affection sent me; but I am equally grieved at
your having laid on me the load of a responsibility which is more than
I can carry. How can I, so far removed as I am, undertake so
great a charge? As long as the Church possesses you, it rests as
it were on its proper buttress. Should the Lord be pleased to
make some dispensation in the matter of your life, whom, from among us
here can I send to take the charge of the brethren, who will be in like
esteem with yourself? That is a very wise and proper wish which
you express in your letter, that while you are yet alive you may see
the successor destined after you to guide the chosen flock of the Lord
(like the blessed Moses, who both wished and saw). As the place
is great and famous, and your work has great and wide renown, and the
times are difficult, needing no insignificant guide on account of the
continuous storms and tempests which are attacking the Church, I have
not thought it safe for my own soul to treat the matter perfunctorily,
specially when I bear in mind the terms in which you write. For
you say that, accusing me of disregard of the Churches, you mean to
withstand me before the Lord. Not then to be at issue with you,
but rather to have you on my side in my defence which I make in the
presence of Christ I have, after looking round in the assembly of the
presbyters of the city, chosen the very honourable vessel, the
offspring2279
of the blessed
Hermogenes, who wrote the great and invincible creed in the great
Synod.2280
| 2280 Bishop
of Cæsarea, in which see he preceded Dianius. cf.
Letters ccxliv. 9 and cclxiii. 3. “The great
Synod” is Nicæa. Baronius on the year 325 remarks
that Basil’s memory must have failed him, inasmuch as not
Hermogenes but Leontius was present at Nicæa as Bishop of
Cæsarea. But Hermogenes may have been present in lower
orders. cf. Stanley, East. Ch. pp. 105,
140. | He is a
presbyter of the Church, of many years standing, of steadfast
character, skilled in canons, accurate in the faith, who has lived
up to this time in continence and ascetic discipline, although the
severity of his austere life has now subdued the flesh; a man of
poverty, with no resources in this world, so that he is not even
provided with bare bread, but by the labour of his hands gets a
living with the brethren who dwell with him. It is my
intention to send him. If, then, this is the kind of man you
want, and not some younger man fit only to be sent and to
discharge the common duties of this world, be so good as to write
to me at the first opportunity, that I may send you this man, who
is elect of God, adapted for the present work, respected by all
who meet him, and who instructs with meekness all who differ from
him. I might have sent him at once, but since you yourself
had anticipated me in asking for a man of honourable character,
and beloved by myself, but far inferior to the one whom I have
indicated, I wished my mind in the matter to be made known to
you. If therefore this is the kind of man you want, either
send one of the brethren to fetch him at the time of the fast, or,
if you have no one able to undertake the journey to me, let me
know by letter.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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