Letters 1 part 2/11

and the things that happen every day everywhere on land and sea—for either husbands reach the end of life first, or wives suffer this first—from these I find many occasions for consolation;

and besides these, the hopes granted to us by God our Savior;

for it was for this very reason that the mystery of the dispensation was accomplished, that having learned the cessation of death, we might not grieve overmuch when separated by the death of those we love, but might await the thrice-longed-for hope of the resurrection.

I exhort you, your Excellency, both to consider these things and to conquer the passion of despondency;

especially since your common offshoots are present, and furnish you every occasion of solace.

Let us, then, praise him who wisely governs our affairs, and not provoke him by the excess of our lamentations.

For being wise, he knows what is expedient, and being good, he brings this about for us.

Experience has shown us the most illustrious Athanasius the rhetor to be such a man as the letters of you, most reverend one, described him to be.

For eloquence adorns his tongue, and character adorns his eloquence;

and the treasure of faith illumines all of it together.

Always, then, procure such men for us, most God-beloved.

For know well, through this very acquaintance you have filled us with great delight.

Nature leads the way, as being older than resolve;

but resolve conquers nature;

and of this the most illustrious Athanasius the rhetor is a clear proof.

For though he boasts Egypt as his fatherland, he did not partake of the insolence of that nation, but tempered his character with gentleness.

And he is also a most ardent lover of divine things.

But I, as you know, most God-beloved, am reluctant even to gather such reports from others;

so far am I from imparting them to those who desire them.

It is not, however, stinginess but lack of material that prevents me from doing this.

Let your Holiness, then, pray that the report concerning us be confirmed by truth;

so that not only something praiseworthy may be said of us, but that it may also be attested by our deeds.

Those who sowed this very great rumor thought that by it they would altogether grieve us, having supposed it to be exceedingly evil tidings.

But we, through divine grace, both welcomed the report gladly and await the experience of it with pleasure;

and whatever suffering is brought upon us for the sake of the divine doctrines is exceedingly dear to us.

...were given to those who contend, truth itself alone would have sufficed to persuade her own lovers to embrace with all good cheer the dangers undergone on her behalf.

And witness to what has been said is the divine Apostle, crying out expressly:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.'"

And teaching that he awaits no recompense, but loves only him who has saved him, he immediately added:

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

And he added other things, through which he more clearly laid bare his own longing:

"For I am persuaded," he says, "that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Behold, O dear friend, the flame of apostolic love;

see the beacon of his ardent love.

"I do not reach out for what is his," he says, "but I long for him alone;"

"and this love I am not able to quench;"

"but I would most gladly choose to be deprived of both present and future goods, and to suffer whatever pain now, and to endure it again hereafter, so that I might carry this flame about unquenched."

And these things this divine man not only said, but also did, and left everywhere on land and sea memorials of his sufferings.

Looking to him, and indeed to all the others as well—patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, priests—I consider what is thought grievous to be exceedingly delightful.

For I am ashamed, I confess, even before those who have by no means learned these things, but have been guided by nature alone, and yet have excelled in the contests of virtue.

For that Socrates, son of Sophroniscus, having endured the indictment of false accusation, both despised the lying of his accusers and displayed his courage amid dangers, crying out:

"Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot harm me."

And the orator of Paeania, having blended philosophy with rhetorical skill, offered this very sentiment both to the men of his own time and to those who were to come after.

"For death is the end of life for all men, even if one shuts himself up and keeps watch over himself in a little chamber."

And indeed the historian older than he, I mean the son of Olorus, also wrote many other praiseworthy maxims;

"One must bear what comes from the divine of necessity, and what comes from enemies with courage."

And why do I speak of philosophers and historians and orators? For even those who preferred myth to truth mingled with their myths many beneficial exhortations;

just as, to be sure, Homer also taught in his verses, training in them the wisest of the Greeks toward manly courage.

"Striking his breast, he chided his heart with these words:"

"and you once endured a thing yet more shameless than this."

And other things similar to these one could easily gather too, both from poets and orators and philosophers;

but for us the divine words suffice for every benefit.

And I have set these things down also, wishing to show how utterly shameful it is that those who have shared in prophetic and apostolic teaching, and have believed in the saving Passion, and await the resurrection of bodies and release from corruption and the bestowal of immortality and the kingdom of heaven, should be worsted by the disciples of nature.

But that you also, most admirable sir, may instruct those who do not know how we think, know that we believe, as we were taught, in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

For we were neither instructed, nor baptized, nor do we believe, nor do we teach belief, in two Sons, as some slanderously allege;

but just as we know one Father, and one Holy Spirit, so too one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, God the Word made man.

We do not, however, deny the distinctive properties of the natures;

but just as we consider those who divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two Sons to be impious, so we call those who attempt to confuse the natures enemies of the truth.

For we believe that an unconfused union has come to be, and we know that certain properties belong to the humanity, and certain others to the divinity.

For just as man — I mean man in the common sense, the rational and mortal living being — has a soul and has a body, yet is conceived as one living being;

and the difference of the two natures does not divide the one into two persons;

yet in the one we know both the soul's immortality and the body's mortality;

and we confess the soul to be invisible, but the body visible, yet — as I said — one living being, at once rational and mortal;

for the union is undivided, just as indeed it is also unconfused.

Yet nonetheless we also know the beginninglessness of the divinity, and the recentness of the humanity.

For the divine nature was begotten of God the Father before the ages, timelessly, impassibly, without division.

But if the distinction between flesh and divinity should be abolished, with what weapons shall we array ourselves against Arius and Eunomius? And how shall we overthrow their blasphemy against the Only-begotten? For as it is, we assign the humble sayings to him as man, and the lofty and God-befitting ones to him as God, and the demonstration of the truth becomes exceedingly easy for us.

But indeed the discourse on the faith exceeds the measure of a letter.

These few little words suffice to show the character of the apostolic faith.

They say that words reshape even characters that are ill-disposed, and make them better.

But to me it seems that things tempered by nature toward beauty adorn speech themselves, and have no need of fine words;

just as bodies that are naturally well-formed have no need of adornments brought in from outside.

In these respects the most distinguished Athanasius the rhetor is resplendent.

But he delighted me the more, having become an ardent admirer of your Magnificence.

For he continually praises you always.

And I, contending with him and recounting your affairs, prevailed in praises;

for I know more of your achievements.

Yet I am grieved that I do not praise all your qualities, but see the chief of the good things lacking to the praises;

which, if God should grant it to be added, you will hold mastery in every kind of virtue over all who pursue the same manner of life as you.

In this way too he brings chastisements upon men, not only exacting penalties for their offenses, but also providing an occasion for benevolence to those of ample means.

Take pity, I beseech you, on the tillers of the earth, who have expended their labor but reaped little fruit;

and let this year's poor harvest become for you the occasion of a spiritual good harvest;

and through this mercy of yours reap the divine mercy as a harvest.

Your Piety, I know well, longs for our company, being a nursling of divine love.

But I desire it more, insofar as I know that greater benefit accrues to me from such company.

For want, in some way, naturally kindles desire;

but the Lord of all is able to grant what is desired.

For he himself guides all things, and knows what is going to be expedient, and continually dispenses this to each.

But how much I rejoiced upon encountering the letter of your Holiness, I am unable to show through words.

And the most honorable and most reverend deacon Thalassius increased my gladness, by relating the things I longed to learn.

For what, my lord, is more delightful to me than your good fortune? And what makes it so great as the moderation of your disposition — the greatest of the great things among us? For you have done something like a wise and diligent physician, who did not wait for a summons, but came of his own accord to those in need of treatment.

May the generous giver of good things grant that your Reverence also excel in these things, and that we too may at least emulate the praiseworthy deeds of the best men.

Come to my aid, then, O dear friend, and persuade him who is able to grant it to grant this request.

When the only-begotten God became man, and taking our nature accomplished our salvation, the people of that time, though they beheld the fount of these benefactions, did not celebrate a festival.

But at the present time, every land and sea and cities and villages, although they do not see the Benefactor with their bodily eyes, celebrate the memory of these benefactions;

and these festal gatherings pour forth such great gladness that the streams of spiritual joy run everywhere.

And the festal gatherings that hold the memory of the greatest benefactions bring something more to those who celebrate with greater eagerness.

Having now celebrated these, and having reaped their blessing, we address a greeting to your Reverence.

For this is what both the law of the feast and the law of love enjoin.

No one who has been deemed worthy of divine adoption laments orphanhood.

For by his will, some become fathers by nature, and others by grace.

Let us, then, hold fast to him, and keep the memory of those who have departed unquenched.

For the remembrance of those who lived well will benefit us, rousing us to imitate them.

Those who have made their prime illustrious by the labors of virtue proceed toward old age with pleasure;

rejoicing in their former victories, and released from further contests by reason of old age.

This pleasure, I believe, your Piety also possesses, and bears old age more easily, remembering the labors of youth.

The sufferings of the Carthaginians required the tragic art of Aeschylus and Sophocles; and perhaps the magnitude of the evils would even have overwhelmed their eloquence.

For she who was of old hard to conquer even for the Romans — or rather, who many times contended with mighty Rome for the primacy and brought upon her the utmost peril — has now become a mere trifle to barbarians.

And those who adorned her much-vaunted senate now wander over the whole world, having as their means of livelihood the hands of the hospitable.

And they move those who see them to tears, and teach the precariousness and fickleness of human affairs.

I have indeed seen many others also who have come from there, and I was filled with dread.

For I do not know, as Scripture says, what the coming day will bring forth.

But I admire not least the most admirable and most magnificent Celestiacus;

for he bears his misfortune nobly, and makes the change from prosperity an occasion for philosophy, and hymns the Ruler of all things, and has judged this to be expedient, whatever that One has either ordered to happen, or, happening, has not prevented.

For the reasoning of divine providence is ineffable.

May your Magnificence deem this man, wandering about with his wife and children, worthy of Abrahamic hospitality.

For trusting in your Magnanimity, I have become their guide, and I point them toward your generous hand.

Behold, now is the time for your academy to show the benefit of eloquence.

For I hear that a splendid assembly is being convened among you, and that the gathering consists of men distinguished by ancestral renown, and refined in speech, and that your discourses concern virtue and the immortality of the soul, and the other topics that accompany these.

For he himself formerly adorned the metropolis of the Carthaginians;

He opened the doors of his house to many strangers, and had never expected that he himself would need the kindness of others.

Be, then, his tongue, and plead his cause, O dear friend, since he stands in need of your voice;

for he cannot brook the poet's counsel, which bids the man in need—even should one give him but a word—

to turn ill fortune into good fortune;

but he promises to give to those who show him kindness things which speech cannot utter, nor mind avail to reckon.

To the most admirable and most magnificent Celestiacus, his fatherland is the much-renowned Carthage, and his lineage, born in that city, is illustrious.

But now, driven out from there, he wanders in foreign lands, and looks about for the hands of those who love God.

He has also a burden—necessary indeed, yet one that intensifies his anxiety:

I mean his wife, and his children, and his household, on whose account he needs greater expenditure.

But I have marveled at his disposition.

For as though borne along by favoring winds, so he hymns the Pilot, and gives no thought to the harsh billow;

for he has reaped piety from his calamity, and his ill fortune has brought him this thrice-blessed fruit.

For when he enjoyed prosperity, he did not admit such words;

but stripped of that prosperity, he cast off impiety along with it, and now possesses the wealth of faith;

and for the sake of this he now disdains that former misfortune.

I entreat, therefore, your Sanctity, to render this foreign land a fatherland for him, and to urge those who abound in wealth to comfort one who has become a member of their own order, and to dispel the cloud of his calamity.

For it is fitting that those who share the same nature—who likewise transgress, yet have escaped punishment—should offer comfort to those who have fallen into misfortune, and by their compassion toward such persons propitiate God.

If the God of all had inflicted punishment at once on all who transgress, He would have utterly destroyed them all.

But since He judges with forbearance and loving-kindness, He punishes some, while to others He offers the punishment of these as instruction.

This too the loving God has done in our case.

For He brings to our doors those from what was formerly called Libya, but is now called Africa, and by displaying their sufferings, He makes us afraid, and through that fear rouses us to compassion;

and thereby He accomplishes two things at once:

for He both benefits us through the lesson of their chastisement, and through us offers them consolation.

This comfort I entreat your Piety to extend to the most admirable and most magnificent Celestiacus;

for he who once adorned their metropolis now has neither city, nor hearth, nor the necessities of life.

It is fitting, then, that those entrusted, as your Holiness is, with the shepherding of souls should urge upon their citizens what is beneficial;

For this reason the divine Apostle, writing to the blessed Titus, also added these words:

"And let our own people also learn to maintain good works for necessary needs."

For if our own city, though desolate and having but few inhabitants—and these poor—yet comforts those who arrive, much more is it fitting that Beroea, nurtured together with piety, should do this;

especially since your Holiness presides over it.

The sufferings of the most magnificent and most illustrious Celestiacus required a tragic tongue to relate them.

But I inform your Magnificence in summary: that his fatherland was Libya, once sung of by all; his city, the illustrious Carthage; his order and lineage, the most distinguished senate;

and his wealth was great, flowing beyond his need.

But all this is now but a tale—a narrative stripped bare of the reality it once possessed.

For the barbarian war has deprived him of all these things.

Such is the good fortune of men: it is unwilling to remain always with the same persons, but hastens to pass over to others.

This man I bring as a guest to your Magnificence, and I entreat that he may enjoy that generosity of yours which is praised by all.

I ask also that all those in office and the wealthiest may come to know him through your Excellency;

so that you may become for them also the means of that gain, and may yourself receive from the God who loves mankind even greater recompense.

All the forms of virtue are, indeed, worthy of praise;

but loving-kindness adorns the others as well.

This virtue we unceasingly ask of the God of all;

it is this that makes wealth stoop down toward the poor.

Knowing that your Magnificence is resplendent with this virtue, I confidently commend the most admirable and most magnificent Celestiacus, a man who had been master of great wealth and possessions, but who suddenly became bereft of them all, yet bears his poverty as easily as few bear their wealth.

And the setting of this drama of calamity is Libya and Carthage, and the evils wrought by the barbarians.

I, then, have brought him as a guest to your Greatness;

do you point him out to others, and move them to pity.

In many other forms of virtue, my lord, you shine forth; and not least does loving-kindness adorn your Holiness, together with disdain of riches, and a right hand ever pouring forth aid for those in need.

Knowing this clearly, I make known to your Piety the most admirable and most magnificent Celestiacus;

whom formerly, in Carthage, wealth and power displayed as illustrious;

but now, stripped of these, piety and Christian philosophy adorn him;

for he bears his seeming misfortune with good cheer, since it has also become for him the means of his soul's salvation.

This man came to us bearing letters that attested his former prosperity;

and having spent many days among us, he furnished the testimony of our own experience.

For this reason we commend him the more earnestly to your Holiness, and entreat that, through your love of God, he may also become known to the wealthy of the city;

for it is likely that they, upon learning his circumstances, and fearing a like calamity for themselves, will be eager, through compassion, to escape such punishment.

For he is compelled to wander about, since he stands in need of considerable expenditure;

for with him are also his wife and children, and the household servants who fled together with him from the hands of the barbarians.

...of his disposition, and how his generosity of spirit overcomes his want.

He has, too, a swarm of cares:

for with him are also the companion of his life, and his children, and servants—who remain with him not out of necessity alone, but also out of devoted love;

for he does not consider it right to dismiss those who could not bear to abandon him.

I entreat that he may become known also to the wealthy among the citizens, through your love of God;

for I think that they, being instructed by your Holiness, and seeing the reversal of his prosperity, will imitate your magnanimity, my lord, and will deem him worthy of what help they can give, considering the common bond of our nature.

When those who have obtained the office of ruling hold the scale of justice without wavering, and draw its cord level, they procure for their subjects an abundance of every kind of good.

And if, moreover, sufficient understanding is also present, and to him who needs it a decision of loving-kindness is added, manifold blessings well up for their subjects from the seats of government.

Having enjoyed these things through your Illustriousness, the people of Euphratensia, having experience as their teacher of the blessings of your former governance, danced for joy at the present time, upon learning that your Magnificence had been entrusted anew with the helm of government.

But I pray that they may obtain even greater blessings, and that your Illustriousness may partake of yet greater renown;

and that to your other excellent qualities may be added piety, the crowning point of all blessings, so that the praise of those who extol you may not go lame.

I had also hoped to meet with your Magnificence, when I was compelled to spend several days in Hierapolis;

And I continually inquired of those arriving whether the insignia of office had been delivered to your Admirableness.

But since the divine and saving feast pressed upon us, we returned to the city entrusted to us.

Now, having received the letter of your Magnificence, and being greatly delighted, we both pay the debt of greeting, and, God willing, we have immediately sent, as you commanded, the most honored and most reverend deacon, the water-inspector.

The feast, in offering these things and displaying the bounty of divine grace, was producing spiritual joy.

But the magnitude and multitude of calamities surrounding us on every side dimmed the gladness of the feast, and mingled groans and lamentations with the hymns.

For such are the offspring of sin.

For it is sin that has filled our life with grief.

Because of it we also dread the life to come, envisioning that incorruptible tribunal.

...and that we may as quickly as possible enjoy a clear and untroubled sky.

I wished to write things pleasing to the heart, and to sing of the spiritual joy of the feast;

but the multitude of our sins does not permit it, bringing upon us punishments sent from God.

For who is so afflicted with insensibility as not to perceive the divine wrath? Let your Reverence, then, pray that our affairs may obtain a good change, so that we too may change the character of our letters, and write things pleasing instead of lamentations.

The custom of the feast enjoins that a festal letter be written, but the cloud of calamities has not allowed us, as is our custom, to reap the joy of the feast.

But in addressing your Greatness, I entreat that I may be informed of your most longed-for health.

The divine festival has, as usual, brought us its spiritual gifts;

but the bitter fruits of sin have not allowed us to enjoy them with gladness.

For such are its offshoots;

from the beginning it produced thorns and thistles, sweat and toil and sorrows;

and at present it both shakes the earth against us and has set the tribes of barbarians upon us from every side.

Yet we take comfort, considering the abyss of mercy;

and we believe that the Lord will not cast off His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance.

And in addressing your Magnificence, I beg you to inform me of your most beloved health.

If I had made use of letters to your Greatness under no compelling necessity, I would perhaps have incurred the charge of presumption, neither taking my own measure nor recognizing the greatness of your authority.

But since the remnant of the city and country entrusted to me by God is in danger of being utterly destroyed, certain persons having dared to bring false charges against the relief that had been granted, your Magnificence will, I well know, pardon the boldness of this letter, once it examines both the necessity of the matter and the purpose of the writer.

I groan and lament that I am compelled to write against a man whose faults I ought rather to have veiled, on account of the title of the priesthood.

Yet I write nonetheless, championing the poor who are wronged by him.

He has laid bare his own purpose, having despised the bond of excommunication.

He has taken up an accusation not even befitting men who live by manual labor;

and on account of the ill will he has borne toward the illustrious Philip, he has proceeded against the wretched taxpayers.

As for his purpose, and the course of life he has followed from the beginning, and the enormity of his transgressions, I consider it superfluous to recount them.

This alone I entreat of your Highness: that you not believe his lying accusations;

but rather that you confirm the relief, and spare the wretched taxpayers, and spare the thrice-wretched decurions, who are being required to pay what they are unable to collect.

For who is unaware of the heaviness of the tax-assessment of our fiscal units (iuga), on account of which most of the landowners have fled, the farmers have run away, and many estates have become deserted? It is not unfitting, in discussing land, to make use also of geometrical demonstrations;

for our region is forty miles in length, and as much in breadth. It has many great mountains, some entirely bare, others shaded with unfruitful growth.

This extent of the region comprises fifty thousand freehold iuga, and in addition to these, ten thousand more that are fiscal (state) iuga.

Let your Wisdom, then, consider the excess of this injustice.

For even if none of the land were unplowed, but the whole were most easy for the farmers to cultivate, they would still have collapsed under the payments, unable to bear the stringency of the assessment.

For when, under the Magnificent Isidore of blessed memory, fifteen thousand iuga became liable for the gold-tax, the tax-collectors of the comital order, unable to bear the loss, complained repeatedly, and by petitions besought your exalted throne to release them from two thousand five hundred insolvent iuga;

and those who, before your Highness, were entrusted with these reins of office ordered that the insolvent land-tax (iugatio) be released to the wretched decurions, and that an equal number of other iuga be given in exchange to the Comitiani;

and even so they are not able to fulfill the whole quota.

I ask pardon for having used so many words, and I entreat your Magnificence to reject the false accusations made against the wretched taxpayers, to put a stop to the calamities of this suffering region, to raise it up as it sinks, and to leave behind an ever-memorable glory to the generations that come after.

In this entreaty the saints among us join with me, and especially the most holy and most sacred man of God, the lord James;