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| The Letter of the Same Holy Synod of Ephesus, to the Sacred Synod in Pamphylia Concerning Eustathius Who Had Been Their Metropolitan.
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The Letter
of the Same Holy Synod of Ephesus, to the Sacred Synod in Pamphylia
Concerning Eustathius Who Had Been Their Metropolitan.
(Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tome III., col.
806.)
Forasmuch as the divinely inspired Scripture says,
“Do all things with advice,”272
| 272 Ecclesiasticus, xxxii., 19—“Do
nothing without advice” (sine consilio nihil
facias): The deutero-canonical book of Ecclesiasticus is here
by an Ecumenical Council styled “divinely-inspired
Scripture.” |
it is especially their duty who have had the priestly ministry allotted
to them to examine with all diligence whatever matters are to be
transacted. For to those who will so spend their lives, it comes
to pass both that they are established in [the enjoyment of] an honest
hope concerning what belongs to them, and that they are borne along, as
by a favouring breeze, in things that they desire: so that, in
truth, the saying [of the Scripture] has much reason [to commend
it]. But there are times when bitter and intolerable grief swoops
down upon the mind, and has the effect of cruelly beclouding it, so as
to carry it away from the pursuit of what is needful, and persuade it
to consider that to be of service which is in its [very] nature
mischievous. Something of this kind we have seen endured by that
most excellent and most religious Bishop Eustathius. For it is in
evidence that he has been ordained canonically; but having been much
disturbed, as he declares, by certain parties, and having entered upon
circumstances he had not foreseen, therefore, though fully able to
repel the slanders of his persecutors, he nevertheless, through an
extraordinary inexperience of affairs, declined to battle with the
difficulties which beset him, and in some way that we know not set
forth an act of resignation. Yet it behooved him, when he had
been once entrusted with the priestly care, to cling to it with
spiritual energy, and, as it were, to strip himself to strive against
the troubles and gladly to endure the sweat for which he had
bargained. But inasmuch as he proved himself to be deficient in
practical capacity, having met with this misfortune rather from
inexperience than from cowardice and sloth, your holiness has of
necessity ordained our most excellent and most religious brother and
fellow-bishop, Theodore, as the overseer of the Church; for it was not
reasonable that it should remain in widowhood, and that the
Saviour’s sheep should pass their time without a shepherd.
But when he came to us weeping, not contending with the aforenamed most
religious Bishop Theodore for his See or Church, but in the meantime
seeking only for his rank and title as a bishop, we all suffered with
the old man in his grief, and considering his weeping as our own, we
hastened to discover whether the aforenamed [Eustathius] had been
subjected to a legal deposition, or whether, forsooth, he had been
convicted on any of the absurd charges alleged by certain parties who
had poured forth idle gossip against his reputation. And indeed
we learned that nothing of such a kind had taken place, but rather that
his resignation had been counted against the said Eustathius instead of
a [regular] indictment. Wherefore, we did by no means blame your
holiness for being compelled to ordain into his place the aforenamed
most excellent Bishop Theodore. But forasmuch as it was not
seemly to contend much against the unpractical character of the man,
while it was rather necessary to have pity on the elder who, at so
advanced an age, was now so far away from the city which had given him
birth, and from the dwelling-places of his fathers, we have judicially
pronounced and decreed without any opposition, that he shall have both
the name, and the rank, and the communion of the episcopate. On
this condition, however, only, that he shall not ordain, and that he
shall not take and minister to a Church of his own individual
authority; but that [he shall do so only] if taken as an assistant, or
when appointed, if it should so chance, by a brother and fellow-bishop,
in accordance with the ordinance and the love which is in Christ.
If, however, ye shall determine anything more favourable towards him,
either now or hereafter, this also will be pleasing to the Holy
Synod.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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