Letters 1 part 6/11

Dissolve for us, then, O lovers of Christ, this winter storm, and turn the moonless dark into clear, bright sky, and bridle the tongues that have been stirred up against us.

For we, by divine grace, continually fight on behalf of the apostolic doctrines, and we keep the faith set forth at Nicaea inviolate, and we call impious those who dare to falsify these doctrines.

And witnesses to these things are those catechized by us, those baptized by us, and those who attend to the discourses given in the churches.

But if they wish to accuse us lawfully, they must refute us to our face, not slander us in our absence.

For thus also, in other cases, Your Excellency, when judging, pronounces verdicts, discerning what is just from the arguments of accusation and defense.

You have laid aside the cares of your highest office, yet your renown flourishes among all.

For those who have reaped the fruit of your benefactions sing of them unceasingly — and these are very many, and everywhere, offering good report to many others, and in turn stirring their tongues also to praise.

But I rejoice, beholding the lovable fruit that adorns the much-celebrated root.

For this reason I entreat Your Excellency toward yet greater and more perfect things, and I ask that you take thought for the calm of the Churches.

For those who have woven calumnies against us have filled them with a great storm.

Let Your Greatness, then, come to their aid, caring both for the East that is being slandered and providing for the apostolic faith.

For it befits you to add this glory also to your other achievements.

And though I had thereafter resolved to keep silence, yet now, at least, wishing both to know myself and to recognize the greatness of the authorities, I thought it better to write once more, and to entreat you to let me learn the cause of your silence.

For in truth I do not know that I have committed any offense against Your Magnificence.

But since we stumble not only willingly but also unwillingly, and sometimes are ignorant of the offenses we commit, let Your Excellency, calling to mind the divine laws, which expressly enjoin:

"If your brother sins against you, rebuke him between you and him alone" — let it deign to make plain to me the occasion of this grief, so that I may either show myself innocent, or, having learned my fault, ask forgiveness.

But I hope the former will prove true, trusting in the testimony of my conscience.

Now magnanimity adorns all men, but not least those who, like Your Excellency, have been both formed by secular learning and instructed in divine things, and who give heed to the apostolic laws that cry aloud:

"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath";

and who remember the Homeric verses:

"But do thou restrain thy great heart within thy breast."

I have said these things not by way of teaching, but as one reminding Your Magnificence, who is already versed in many matters;

and moreover, calling to mind also the laws of the Lord, which declare these things:

"If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."

Following these teachings, I thought it necessary also, through the most God-beloved bishops, to address Your Greatness, and to entreat you to take thought for the calm of the Churches.

The letter of Your Magnificence brought me comfort;

and my gladness was increased also by the most God-beloved presbyter and monk Iamblichus, who related your fervent zeal, your earnestness concerning divine things, and your genuine disposition toward us.

And I, having learned these things, and hearing also of the struggles undertaken on our behalf by the most glorious and Christ-loving lord, the patrician, offer you the apostolic blessing which the blessed Onesiphorus obtained from that holy tongue:

"May the Lord grant unto you to find mercy from the Lord in that day."

These things I pray for you, even should the enemies of the truth surround me with yet greater sorrows, as they suppose.

For we have been taught to look to the intention.

And let Your Greatness know this also, that together with piety, even death is most sweet to us, as are the farthest bounds of the world.

Yet nevertheless the storm besetting the Churches grieves us — a storm which the Lord of all is able to dissolve.

We indeed are grieved, seeing the surge that has overtaken the Churches;

for suddenly he rebukes the winds and brings about a calm;

and this he did also in the case of the boat of the apostles.

But nevertheless, knowing this power of our Savior, and being acquainted also with his other dispensations, even if something contrary to our wishes should come to pass, we acknowledge our thanks and receive it as a gift given by God.

But it is fitting that Your Magnificence bring forward zeal on behalf of the apostolic faith, so that you may receive from the God of all the recompense due for this.

I think that Your Magnificence knows, even though not yet personally acquainted with us, the manifest character of the calumny that has been raised against us.

For you have often heard us discoursing in church, both proclaiming the one Lord Jesus and demonstrating the properties proper to the Godhead and those proper to the manhood.

For we do not divide the One into two sons, but, worshiping the one Only-begotten, we point out the distinction between flesh and Godhead.

This, I think, even those who hold the opinions of Arius confess, and they do not call the flesh Godhead, nor indeed do they call the Godhead flesh.

For the divine Scripture clearly teaches us both this nature and that.

But nevertheless, although these things have always been thus stated by us, certain persons weave false words against us.

But we, taking courage in our conscience, and having as witness of our teaching the Overseer of our thoughts, reckon the webs of calumny, according to the Prophet, to be a spider's web.

For we await that tribunal which has no need of words, but makes manifest the things that until now lay hidden.

I write these things through the most God-beloved bishops, having thought it profitable to address Your Magnificence through them, and to remind you of your promise.

For not even while being warred against do I abstain from the hunt.

For I know that the holy Apostles too, even while being assailed, ever made use of the spiritual net.

We believe that He hears also those who are confined, indeed far more than these, since it is on account of His divine teaching that they endure their seeming guilt.

I write these things through the most God-beloved bishops, entreating that they may enjoy your patronage.

For it was for the sake of the evangelical faith, and for the grace of the peace of the churches, that they chose this long journey abroad.

The war against us has flared up again, and the tormentor of mankind, having relented a little, has once more armed against us those who have been bred up together with falsehood.

who openly slander us, saying that we divide our one Lord Jesus Christ into two Sons.

But we know the difference between the Godhead and the manhood;

yet we confess one Son, God the Word who became man.

And we say that He is God before all ages, and became man in the last of days—not by any change of the Godhead, but by the assumption of manhood.

But indeed I do a superfluous thing in teaching Your Godliness what I hold, since you know precisely what we preach and what we teach those who are ignorant.

I entreat, therefore, since the workers of falsehood have poured abuse upon all the most God-beloved bishops of the East together, and have filled the churches with tempest, that Your Piety bring to bear all possible zeal on behalf of the evangelical doctrines and the peace of the churches.

the most God-beloved bishops both left the churches shepherded by them, and disregarded the wintry season, and endured the hardships of travel, that they might quell the storm that had arisen.

and I know well that your godly Perfection will find them to be champions of piety and pilots of the churches.

That those who do not know us should listen in silence to the reproaches spoken against us is nothing strange;

but that Your Holiness should not refute the falsehood of those who revile us, or should do so only moderately and not very earnestly, no one who knows our intimacy would believe.

Not that truth ought to be subordinated to friendship, but that testimony to the truth is itself inherent in friendship.

For Your Piety has often heard us speaking in church, and when doctrinal discussions arose among us in other assemblies, has listened to what was said by us;

and I do not know that Your Piety has ever found fault with me, as though I held unsound doctrines.

"See that you despise not one of these little ones, of the least of those who believe in Me.

For I say to you, their angels do always behold the face of My Father who is in heaven."

But if the power of our accusers procures silence from Your Godliness, you must hear the other legislation, which says:

"You shall not respect the person of the mighty."

"You shall not follow a multitude to do evil."

"shutting his eyes so that he may not see injustice,

and closing his ears so that he may not hear the judgment of unjust blood."

And countless other such things are to be found in the divine Scripture.

which I have considered it superfluous to gather together in writing to a man nurtured in the divine oracles, who offers the irrigation of teaching to peoples who love Christ.

This alone, then, I will say: that we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and render account for both our words and our deeds.

And I, fearing this tribunal above all else, take from the remembrance of it the occasions of comfort amid what is said against us.

The calumny raised against all of us together has drawn the most God-beloved bishops to the imperial city;

and I, through their Holiness, offer my greeting to Your Magnificence, and pay the debt of friendship—

not that I may cancel the thrice-beloved debt, but that I may increase it further.

For the debts of friendship increase through their repayment.

That we too should partake of the fruits of calumny is nothing strange.

For being human, one must expect everything.

For this reason, to those who have been trained in the pursuit of wisdom, all such things are bearable;

only one thing is grievous—that the soul should partake of some defilement.

And I have already informed Your Holiness through other letters that those who accuse our teaching are openly slandering us;

and now I do the same likewise through the most God-beloved bishops, having them as witnesses to the orthodoxy of my doctrines, as well as many thousands of other people who hear my words in the churches throughout the East;

and I know that the divine Apostle too often made use of the testimony of conscience;

"For this is our boasting: the testimony of our conscience."

"I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit."

Let your sacred and God-beloved head know, then, that none of us has ever been heard preaching two Sons.

For in truth this doctrine seems to me abominable and impious.

"For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things."

Him I know both as God before all ages and as man in the last of days, and I offer one worship to Him as the Only-begotten.

I have indeed been taught the difference between the flesh and the Godhead;

not dividing them into two persons, but teaching that both the one set of properties and the other belong to the one Only-begotten;

And the divine Scripture says that He became man, not because the Godhead was changed, but because human nature was taken from the seed of Abraham.

For this the divine Apostle plainly proclaims, saying:

"For surely he does not take hold of angels, but he takes hold of the seed of Abraham;

therefore he had to be made like his brethren in every respect."

"Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed."

"It does not say, 'and to seeds,' as of many, but as of one:

'and to your seed,' who is Christ."

But those who hold the views of Arius and Eunomius say that God the Word assumed only a body, and that He himself fulfilled the function of the soul within the body.

But the teaching of the divine Apostles teaches that a rational and intellectual soul was assumed together with the flesh, and it promises complete salvation to those who believe.

And there is also another band of heretics who hold beliefs opposite to these.

For Photinus and Marcellus and Paul of Samosata say that our Lord and God is only a man.

And when contending against the other faction, which calls our Lord Jesus Christ God only, one must set the divine Scripture against them and gather from it the testimonies concerning the humanity that was assumed.

For the physician must use remedies suited to the ailments, and apply to each what is fitting.

I entreat, therefore, Your Holiness to dissolve the calumny composed against us, and to bridle the tongues that revile us in vain.

For even after the incarnation we worship one Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and we call those who hold otherwise impious.

And deign, my lord, to grant us also your holy prayers, that, enjoying the divine favor, we may cross the sea that is full of dangers, and come to anchor in the windless harbors of the Savior.

We have learned from many the contests which your Love of God has waged on behalf of true religion.

For you know exactly, most God-beloved one, both what we believe and what we teach, and that no one has ever heard us proclaiming two Sons.

Let your Piety, then, employ that same zeal here also, and stop the mouths of those who speak unjust things.

For in such contests it is fitting to fight not only for friends, but even for those who have caused us grief.

And through the most God-beloved bishops I address your Piety, and I entreat you to care for the calm of the churches and to dissolve the waves of calumny;

For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, according to the divine Apostle.

He, then, who fights on behalf of the apostolic doctrines will clearly reap the apostolic blessing and enjoy communion with them.

The contests which your Love of God has undertaken on behalf of the apostolic doctrines have not gone unnoticed;

rather, they are celebrated not only by those who have learned of them by experience, but also by those who have heard of them from these.

Hold fast, then, O beloved head, to these contests, and strive mightily on behalf of the doctrines of the Fathers.

For these doctrines we too are assailed from many quarters, and as we receive the towering waves, we entreat the Pilot either to nod and calm the surge, or to grant courage to those tossed by the waves;

for the Spirit of truth has, through him, conferred this courage upon those who believe;

"Reveal your way unto the Lord, and hope in him, and he shall act; and he shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday."

This we find has come to pass also in the case of your Piety.

For how great a care your Piety takes for those who lament their orphaned state, and how you contend for the apostolic doctrines, all men proclaim, since—according to the prophetic word—hidden things have become manifest.

Many are the things concocted against us, and many the fabrications, made by our means, contrived against the apostolic faith;

but the sufferings of the holy prophets, apostles, martyrs, and of those who have distinguished themselves in the churches by the word of grace, console our souls;

and besides these, also the promises of God our Savior.

For he promised us nothing pleasant or agreeable in the present life, but afflictions, toils, dangers, and the uprisings of enemies.

For "in the world," he says, "you shall have tribulation."

"If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also."

"...how much more the members of his household?" And:

"The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he is offering worship to God."

"Narrow is the gate, and constricted the way, that leads unto life."

"When they persecute you in this city, flee into another."

And whatever else is like unto these.

And the divine Apostle says things in accord with these:

"All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted;"

"but evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."

These things, then, have afforded us the greatest comfort in this present storm.

But since it is likely that the calumnies against us have reached even your Holiness, I entreat your Holiness not to lend your ears at all to the false speech of the calumniators.

For I am not aware that up to the present I have taught anyone to believe in two Sons.

For I was taught to believe in one Only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word who became man.

For these are precipices opposite to one another;

but the middle way is that of the evangelical doctrines, adorned by the footsteps of the holy prophets and apostles, and of those after them who distinguished themselves in the gift of teaching.

I should have wished also to set forth their testimonies and to show them witnessing to our own conviction;

but this would require more words than the measure of a letter allows.

For this reason, having written in summary what we have learned concerning the incarnation of the Only-begotten, I have sent it to your Perfection in God.

I wrote it not offering instruction to others, but making a defense against the calumny that has arisen, and showing my own conviction to those who do not know it.

Let your Holiness, then, having read it, if you find what is written to be in accord with the apostolic doctrines, confirm this conviction in your reply to us;

but if anything contained in it does not agree with the divine teaching, this too I ask to learn from your Holiness.

For even though we have spent much time in teaching, we still stand in need of one to teach us.

"For we know in part," says the divine Apostle.

And again we have heard him saying:

"And if any man thinks that he knows anything, he does not yet know as he ought to know."

We entreat, then, to learn the truth from your Holiness, and that you care for the calm of the church and fight on behalf of the divine doctrines.

For it is for the sake of these very things that the most God-beloved bishops, disregarding the toils of the journey and the wintry season, have set out for the imperial city, contriving to procure some resolution for the surging storm.

I beseech you, my lord, to furnish them too with the provisions of prayer, and to support us with the same.

Reading the letter of the most blessed lady, I was reminded of Susanna, who, seeing those accursed men, and believing that the God of all was present, uttered that wondrous cry:

But nevertheless she chose rather to fall into the snares of calumny than to show contempt for the righteous Judge.

And now, my lord, two things lie before us:

and this we have often said:

either to offend God and injure our conscience, or to fall under the unjust judgments of men.

But it does not seem to me that the most pious Emperor knows anything of these things.

For we have before us the example concerning the blessed Principius;

for there too, though they had given command in writing, they exacted punishment from the one who obeyed.

But the letters which I read on that very day on which the courier arrived are contrary to these fears.

For a certain holy and eminent monk wrote to someone that he had received letters both from the most magnificent spatharius and from the most glorious former magister, indicating that the case of the most God-beloved bishop, the lord Irenaeus, would receive correction;

and in return for this diligence they asked for prayers on their behalf.

I think, then, that it is necessary to write to the clergy who wrote from the imperial city, that, being persuaded by the vote of the most God-beloved bishops of Phoenicia, I ordained the most God-beloved bishop Irenaeus;

knowing well his zeal, his magnanimity, his love for the poor, and his other virtues, and besides these, the correctness of his doctrines.

For we do not know him ever to have refused to call the holy Virgin Theotokos, or to have held any other view contrary to the evangelical doctrines.

As for the matter of the second marriage, we have followed those before us.

We have followed, then, both custom and men of note, celebrated for both their knowledge and their manner of life.

And Proclus of blessed memory, bishop of the Constantinopolitans, having likewise been instructed in many other such matters, himself also accepted the ordination, and wrote in praise and admiration.

Likewise also the leading, most God-beloved bishops of the diocese of Pontus, and all the Palestinians; and no doubt whatsoever has arisen concerning this matter;

and we consider it impious to condemn a man distinguished by many and manifold good deeds.

These things, and things like them, in my opinion, ought to be written.

But if your Holiness discerns something else, let what seems good be done.

For as for me, having already received the one punishment, as they suppose, I am ready, with God's help, to receive the other also.

But if your Holiness approves, let us also see the answers from Palestine;

and having considered more precisely what must be done, let us then write to Constantinople accordingly.

Your Magnanimity will receive from the God of all the recompense for the benefits done to us.

For whatever is done for his sake carries a reward joined to it.

I, however, laugh at the multitude of slanders.

For indeed bodies that are more violently tormented no longer perceive the pain, once the tormented flesh has become deadened.

Yet I do lament the most unbridled mouths that utter falsehood;

for what wrong have the accusers of the most God-beloved bishop Ibas suffered at our hands, that they should employ these falsehoods against us? For in the first place, I was not even among the judges;

for in accordance with the imperial decree I was residing in Cyrrhus.

Moreover, as I have heard from many, they continued to be distressed at our absence;

for indeed I myself arranged for them to partake of the mystical communion at the saving Passover;

and when they wished to meet with us, I received them graciously, and advised what was needful.

How is it just that the same men should be accused both of cruelty and of benevolence? For if we cast them out, we are in danger; and if we do not cast them out, we do not escape the dangers;

and we alone are made war upon throughout the whole world.

And the other dioceses live in peace;

but we alone lie exposed to slanderers;

and I especially so, though I neither took part in judging, and am entirely blameless.

I was compelled to write these things upon reading the letters of Your Greatness, and learning through them that on this account too a very great agitation has arisen against us — men who have been confined, and who live quietly, and who do not even sit in council with the most God-beloved bishops of the province.

For indeed, though an episcopal ordination has already taken place twice in our province, I took part in neither.

And if I were not restrained by the imperial law, I should indeed have withdrawn, and having reached some remote place, I should have spent there the days that remain.

For I have grown weary of the things concocted against me.

For indeed I do not think that these same Edessenes wove this slander against us of their own accord, but that they were instructed to do this against us by the truth-loving men there.

And thanks be to the Savior of all, that He has deemed me, unworthy as I am, worthy of the evangelical beatitudes.

and whatever they wish to bring upon me, I welcome gladly, for the sake of the hope laid up for me.

And I continually pray on behalf of Your Magnanimity, and I entreat all the saints to share with me in these prayers.

We had hoped that the grievous troubles had ceased, since certain persons had reported to us that the ill will of the ever-victorious emperor had been quenched, that a reconciliation had taken place between him and the most God-beloved bishop, that the summoning of the synod had been halted, and that peace had returned to the Churches.

But the things now written by Your Holiness have greatly grieved us.

For indeed, at the great synod — I mean the one assembled at Nicaea — those of Arius's faction voted together with the orthodox and, by the laying on of hands, assented to the apostolic exposition of faith.

And for thirty years they continued in communion with one another, both those who held fast to the apostolic doctrines and those who were infected with the blasphemy of Arius.

Looking to these events, and foreseeing similar ones, my wretched soul groans and laments, awaiting nothing good.

For those from the other dioceses do not even know the poison lodged in the Twelve Chapters;

but, attending to the eminence of the one who wrote them, they suspect nothing base;

and I think that the one who has succeeded to his throne is contriving everything, so as to confirm these chapters by a second synod.

For as for him who formerly wrote such things by way of decree, and anathematized those unwilling to abide by them — what would he not do, presiding over an ecumenical synod? And know well, my lord, that none of those who have recognized the heresy lodged within them will endure to accept them, even should twice as many vote for them.

For indeed, even when a greater number had, as it happened, already confirmed these things, we resisted at Ephesus, and we did not enter into communion with the one who wrote them until, having assented to what was set forth by us, he fitted to it a teaching in accord with it, making no mention whatsoever of those chapters.

And this is easy for Your Holiness to know, should you order the acts to be sought out.

For they are certainly stored, according to the custom that has been followed, bearing the subscriptions of the synod.

For before the journey to Ephesus, the blessed John wrote to those around the most God-beloved bishop Eutherius of Tyana, and Philmon of Caesarea, and Theodotus of Ancyra, calling these chapters the teaching of Apollinarius.

And at Ephesus, the deposition made by us of both the bishop of the Alexandrians and the bishop of the Ephesians had as its cause the exposition and confirmation of these chapters.

And many synodal letters were also written at Ephesus concerning these matters, both to the ever-victorious emperor and to the great officials;

and likewise also to the people in Constantinople and to the most reverend clergy.

And indeed, having been summoned to Constantinople, we held five hearings before the emperor himself, and afterward sent him three formal protests.

And to the most God-beloved bishops of the West, I mean the bishop of Milan, and of Aquileia, and of Ravenna, we wrote concerning these matters, protesting that these were filled with the innovation of Apollinarius;

and the blessed John, writing to the very one who wrote these chapters, through the blessed Paul openly rebuked him for them;

and likewise also Acacius, of blessed memory.

And that Your Holiness may learn this briefly, I have sent a copy both of the letter of the blessed Acacius and of that written by the blessed John to the late Cyril;

so that you may know that, even while writing to him about the reconciliation, they made an accusation regarding these chapters.