書信集 第 1 章 第 23/32 段

Knowing these things, therefore, we exhort you both not to be troubled yourselves and to still the disturbances of those who are wavering — even though we know that our defense is hard to be accepted, because the wicked slanders against us have already taken hold beforehand, coming from persons of good repute.

Now concerning the fact that the things circulated as ours are not ours, I think that, even though their anger against us greatly darkens their reasoning so that they cannot perceive what is advantageous, nevertheless, if they were questioned by you yourselves, they would not have come to such a degree of hardness as to dare utter with their own mouth the falsehood that those compositions are mine.

But if they are not mine, why am I condemned for what belongs to another? But they will say that I am a partner of Apollinarius, harboring within myself the perversion of such doctrines.

Let them be required to produce their proofs.

If they know how to search out a man's heart, let them declare it, and you may then acknowledge their truthfulness in all things.

But if they prove my communion with him from things visible and evident to all, let them show either canonical letters sent by me to him, or from him to me;

or the mingling of his clergy with us, if we ever received any of them into the prayer of communion.

They bring forward only the letter written to him some twenty-five years ago, layman to layman (and not even this as it was written by me, but altered — by whom, God knows); from this alone you may recognize the injustice, that no one who holds the episcopate is accused for whatever he wrote out of carelessness, without due caution, in his lay life;

and this letter, moreover, has nothing to do with the faith, but is a mere note bearing a friendly greeting.

Perhaps those men themselves might also be found to have written even to Greeks and to Jews, and yet not be held to account for it.

For up to this day no one has ever been judged for such a thing as that for which we are condemned by those who strain out gnats.

That we neither wrote those things nor agree with them, but rather anathematize those who hold that wicked opinion of the confusion of the hypostases, in which the most impious heresy of Sabellius has been renewed — this is known to God, who knows the hearts, and it is known also to the whole brotherhood which has come to know by experience our own humble estate.

And let those very men, who are now our vehement accusers, examine their own conscience, and they will know that from childhood we have been far removed from such doctrines.

But if anyone seeks to know what our belief is, he will learn it from that very document on which their own signature stands in their own hand — which they, wishing to repudiate their own change of position, now conceal beneath a slander against us.

For they do not confess that they have repented of subscribing to the document given to them by us, but instead bring against us charges of impiety, supposing it unknown that their withdrawal from us is a mere pretext;

but in truth they have withdrawn from the faith which, having many times before many witnesses professed in writing, they finally also accepted when it was presented by us, and subscribed it — which anyone is free to read, and to learn the truth from the very documents themselves.

Their true intention will become evident, if, after reading the subscription they gave to us, one also reads the confession of faith they gave to Gelasius, and comes to know how great is the difference between that confession and this one.

Let those, then, who so readily turn to opposite positions, not go searching for the speck in another's eye, but rather cast out the beam that is in their own eye.

But we shall, in another letter, defend ourselves and instruct concerning all these matters more fully, which will satisfy those who seek further.

But you, for the present, having received this letter of ours, take away all sorrow, and confirm your love toward us, on account of which I hold most firmly to union with you.

And it would be the greatest sorrow to us, and an inconsolable pain in our heart, if the slanders against us should prevail over you to such a degree as to cool your love and estrange us from one another.

Perceiving that certain enemies of peace were about to trouble your venerable tribunal against us, we were expecting to be summoned by your Magnanimity, so that the truth might be taught by us — if indeed your great prudence deigned to take upon itself the examination of ecclesiastical matters.

...by the decree (for how could it be otherwise?), but seized by an attack of pleurisy, and at the same time, from the chill that had come upon him, his usual kidney ailment having flared up again, he was compelled — though held fast, without excuse, by the soldiers — for the sake of the care of his body and relief from his unbearable pains, to be removed to some quiet place;

for this reason we have all come to entreat your Greatness not to be at all displeased at the delay of the response.

For indeed nothing of the public affairs has fared the worse on account of our delay, nor has anything of the ecclesiastical affairs been harmed because of it.

But if the matter concerns money, as though it had been misappropriated, the stewards of the sacred funds are right there, ready to give account to whoever wishes it, and to expose the slander of those who have dared to bring such charges before your careful hearing;

for it will be easy for them, from the very documents of the blessed bishop himself, to make the truth plain to those who seek it.

But if there is some other canonical matter requiring examination, and your Magnanimity deigns to receive the hearing and judgment of this also, it is a concern to all of us, because, if anything canonical has been lacking, those who ordained him are responsible, not the one who was compelled by every necessity to undertake the ministry.

Therefore we beseech you to preserve for us the hearing in our own homeland, and not to drag it into exile, nor to compel a meeting with bishops with whom we have not yet resolved our ecclesiastical disputes.

At the same time we also entreat you to have regard for our old age and our infirmity.

For you will come to know, by experience itself, God willing, that neither in small nor in great matter has anything canonical been neglected in the appointment of the bishop.

We pray, therefore, that under your rule concord and peace with our brethren may also be brought to pass;

but since this has not yet come about, the meeting is burdensome to us, because many of the simpler folk are being harmed by our division from one another.

For we have rest for our souls in nothing else but your progress and your perfection through the commandments of Christ.

And until this is ours, we consider it necessary to visit you through our most genuine brothers who fear the Lord, and to converse with your love by letters.

For this very reason, then, we have sent our most devout and genuine brother, fellow-worker in the Gospel, and fellow-presbyter Melitius, who will relate to you the longing we have for you, and our care for your souls, that night and day we entreat the Lord for your good repute, so that we too may have confidence in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ through your salvation, and that you may shine forth in the brightness of the saints, your work being tested by the righteous judgment of God.

At the same time, the harshness of the present crisis that has gripped us causes us much concern, in which all the Churches have been shaken, and all souls are being sifted.

For some have opened their mouths unsparingly against their fellow servants.

Falsehood is spoken without fear; truth is concealed.

And the accused are condemned without trial, while the accusers are believed without examination.

Hence I too, having heard that letters have long been circulating against me, branding and pillorying and accusing us of matters for which we have a ready defense before the tribunal of truth, was inclined to remain silent, and this indeed I did.

I bear the lashes of accusation, content that I have the Lord, the knower of hidden things, as witness of the slander.

But since I see that many have already taken our silence as confirmation of the slanders, and have supposed us to be silent not out of patience, but because we have no mouth to open in defense of the truth, for this reason I have attempted to write to you, entreating your love in Christ that you not altogether accept as true the slanders that come from one side only, because, as it is written, the law judges no one unless it first hears him and knows what he does.

And yet, for a fair-minded judge, the facts themselves suffice to reveal the truth.

So even if we remain silent, it is possible for you to look closely at what is actually happening.

For those who charge us with false doctrine have now been shown openly to be joining the party of the heretics;

those who condemn us on account of others' writings appear to be contradicting their own confessions, which they set down for us in writing.

Understand the habit of those who dare such things: it is their custom always to shift to whatever party is powerful, trampling upon their weaker friends while courting those in power.

For those who wrote those much-talked-of letters against Eudoxius and his whole party, and circulated them to all the brotherhoods, solemnly testifying that fellowship with them should be avoided as ruin to the soul, and who on this account did not accept the votes issued for their deposition, since these had come from heretics — as they persuaded us at the time — these same men have now, forgetting everything, gone over to them.

And no denial is left open to them;

for they have openly revealed their own purpose, embracing house-communions with them in Ancyra, since they have not yet been received by those men into full communion.

why do they even now still assail the Churches of Amasea and Zela, and set up presbyters and deacons of their own accord?

For if they hold communion with them as orthodox, why do they assail them as heretics? But if they have supposed them to be heretics, how is it that they do not shun communion with them? Are not these things clear even to a childish mind, most honored brothers — that, always looking to their own advantage, they attempt either to slander some or to commend others? And so they have also fallen away from us, not because they were indignant that we did not write back to them (though this is what they claim chiefly provoked them), nor because we did not receive the chorepiscopoi whom they say they had sent.

And yet those who contrive this will render an account to the Lord.

For a certain Eustathius, having been sent and having delivered letters to the office of the Vicar, spent three days in the city, and as he was about to depart for home, late in the evening — I being already asleep — is said to have come near our dwelling.

But hearing that I was asleep, he went away, and did not approach us again the next day either, but having thus discharged his duty toward us in this manner, he returned home.

And this is the offense of which we are guilty; and these forbearing men did not weigh our former service — which we rendered them in love — against this fault;

but they made their wrath against us so heavy on account of this sin, that, as far as it lay with them, they proclaimed us excommunicate to all the Churches throughout the world.

This, however, is not truly the cause of the rupture;

but, since they supposed they would then gain favor with Euzoius if they estranged themselves from us, they devised these pretexts for themselves, so that through their war against us they might find some standing with them.

These men now also slander the faith of Nicaea and call us 'Homoousiasts,' because in that faith the Only-Begotten Son is confessed to be consubstantial with God the Father — not as though one substance were divided into two related parts, God forbid;

for that holy and God-beloved council did not intend this, but rather that whatever the Father is according to substance, the Son must be understood to be the same.

For they themselves explained this to us by saying, 'Light from Light.'

But they have a certain 'wise' doctrine to excuse such changes of their own;

namely, that they use the words of the faith, like physicians, according to the occasion, adapting themselves differently at different times to the underlying maladies.

But it is not for me to expose the rottenness of this sophistry; it is for you to perceive it.

For if different creeds must be composed at different times, and change along with the times, then false is the declaration of him who said:

'One Lord, one faith, one baptism.'

But if that saying is true, let no one deceive you with these empty words.

Ask, then, what this innovation is.

For we confess what we also received: that the Paraclete is ranked together with the Father and the Son, not numbered with creation.

For we have believed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we are baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

For our mind, being illumined by the Spirit, looks up toward the Son, and in him, as in an image, beholds the Father.

We neither devise names of our own, but call him Holy Spirit and Paraclete, nor do we consent to deny the glory owed to him.

These are our beliefs, with all truthfulness.

On these grounds, let the accuser accuse;

let him who believes the slanders against us prepare for the trial.

The Lord is near; let us be anxious about nothing.

If someone writes in Syria, this is nothing to us.

'For by your words you will be justified,' it says, 'and by your words you will be condemned.'

Let my own words judge me;

but let no one condemn us for others' errors, nor put forward letters written by us twenty years ago as proof that we are now in communion with those who wrote those things.

For before those writings existed, we, being laymen, wrote to laymen, before any such suspicion had even arisen against them;

and we wrote nothing at all concerning the faith, nor anything like what these men now circulate to slander us, but mere forms of address fulfilling an affectionate greeting.

For we equally shun and anathematize, as impious, both those afflicted with the disease of Sabellius and those who champion the doctrines of Arius.

If anyone says that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are the same, supposing one thing with many names and one hypostasis expressed under three appellations, such a person we place in the party of the Jews.

Likewise, if anyone says that the Son is unlike the Father in substance, or reduces the Holy Spirit to a creature, we anathematize him and reckon him to be close to Hellenic error.

But it is impossible for the mouths of those who speak evil against us to be restrained by our letters;

rather, it is likely that they will be further provoked by our defenses, and will contrive greater and harsher things against us.

It is not, however, difficult for your ears to be kept safe.

So do that which is within your power.

Keep your heart toward us undivided and unprejudiced by slanders, and require of us an account regarding the charges brought forward.

And if you find the truth to be on our side, give no room to falsehood;

but if you perceive us to be failing in our defense, then believe our accusers as speaking the truth.

Those men keep watch, eager to do us harm;

we do not seek this from you.

We exhort you rather to remain at home and conduct yourselves decorously, fulfilling the work of the Lord in quietness, and to avoid their encounters, which are craftily contrived for the ruin of those who listen — so that you may keep your love toward us undivided, preserve the faith of the Fathers unbroken, and be found approved before the Lord as friends of the truth.

For neither is the loss of a good father bearable to a child who loves his father, nor is the departure of a shepherd and teacher tolerable to the Church of Christ.

So give us proof of good and noble resolve by your surpassing devotion toward your bishop.

But this good disposition of yours toward your spiritual father, when governed by measure and reason, is acceptable; but when it oversteps its bounds, it is no longer worthy of the same approval.

A good arrangement has been made concerning our most God-beloved brother and fellow-minister Euphronius, by those entrusted with the stewardship of the Churches — necessary for the present time, and beneficial both to the Church to which he was transferred and to you yourselves, from whom he was taken.

Do not think this to be a merely human matter, nor that it was set in motion by the reasonings of men who mind earthly things; rather, be persuaded that those charged with the care of the Churches of God did this by the cooperation of the Spirit, and embrace this impulse in your minds, and be diligent to bring it to completion.

Do not raise objections against your mother, the Church in Nicopolis.

Do not be harsh toward those who have taken up the care of your souls.

For while the affairs of Nicopolis stand firm, your own part will be preserved along with them;

but if some tempest touches that city, even if you have ten thousand guarding you, your own affairs too will be consumed along with the main body.

As, therefore, those who dwell beside rivers, when they see men from afar setting down fortifications against the currents, know that their own safety is being provided for beforehand by these men who repel the onrushes of the streams;

so also those who have now taken up the burden of care for church affairs, in guarding others, are securing your own safety, and you will be under shelter from all disturbance, while others receive the assaults of the war.

Besides, it is fitting that you consider this too, that he has not cast you off, but has taken on others in addition.

Surely we are not so envious as to compel one who is able to share his gifts with others also, to shut up his grace within you alone and confine it to your region only.

For neither is he praiseworthy who fences in a spring and ruins the outflow of water, nor is he free from the passion of envy who prevents an enduring teaching from spreading further.

Let him, then, have the care of Nicopolis also, and let your affairs be an addition to the concerns there.

For while more labor has come upon the man, your care is diminished in nothing.

But this grieved me exceedingly, and it seemed to have been said beyond due measure - that, failing to obtain what we seek, we will resort to the law-courts and stir up men against us with matters, for whom the overthrow of the churches is the very sum of their prayer.

that some overthrow may indeed result from this, but that the weight of what happens should turn back upon the heads of those who furnished the occasion for it.

But accept our counsel, offered to you with fatherly affection, and the arrangement made by the most God-beloved bishops in accordance with the will of God.

And wait also for us, who, coming in person - if the Lord works together with us - will exhort in person all that it was not possible to entreat your piety through this letter, and will try to bring to you, through the very deeds themselves, whatever consolation may be possible.

TO THE CITIZENS OF COLONIA. I received the letter of your Excellency, and I gave thanks to the all-holy God, that, though occupied with care for public affairs, you do not treat the concerns of the churches as a secondary matter, but each of you was as anxious about them as about his own affair, one that holds together his very life; and you wrote to us, grieved at the departure of your most God-beloved bishop Euphronius, whom Nicopolis has not taken away from you - rather, if she were pleading her own case, she would say that she has received back her own; but if she were seeking to appease you, she would speak to you words befitting an affectionate mother, that she will have him as a father common to you both, who will impart a share of his grace to each in turn, and will neither allow those there to suffer anything from the incursion of adversaries, nor will he deprive you of his accustomed care.

Therefore, considering the harshness of the times, and understanding with sober judgment the necessity of this arrangement, forgive the bishops for having come to this course in the establishment of the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, and exhort yourselves to that which befits men who possess a mature mind of their own, and who also know how to accept the counsels of those who love them.

For it is likely that you are ignorant of much of what is stirring, because you are situated on the extremity of Armenia;

but we, who are engaged in the midst of these affairs, and are struck every day from every side by reports of churches being overthrown, are in great anxiety lest the common enemy, envying the long peace of our life, be able to sow his tares also in your regions, and the portion of the Armenians too become food for our adversaries.

But for now, be at peace, having agreed to share the use of a good vessel in common with your neighbors.

A little later, if the Lord grants us our visit, you will also receive a more complete consolation for what has happened, if this should appear necessary to you.

TO THE CLERGY OF NICOPOLIS. Even a deed done by one devout man, and by a second, assures us that it comes about in obedience to the counsel of the Spirit.

For when nothing human lies set before their eyes, and holy men do not rush into their actions with a view to their own advantage, but set before themselves nothing other than pleasing God, it is clear that it is the Lord who directs their hearts.

this manner of consolation.

In this I praise not only the discovery of what was advantageous, but I also admire the nobility of his judgment, in that he did not, by bringing the matter to delays, both dissolve the zeal of those who were seeking it, give occasion for watchfulness to those who contended against it, and stir up the plots of those lying in wait, but immediately brought the good resolution to its completion.

May the Lord keep him, together with his whole household, by his own grace, so that the church may remain like itself in the equally honored succession from him who went before, and may give no room to the Evil One, who now, if ever, is vexed at the establishment of the churches.

As for the brothers in Colonia, we ourselves have exhorted them much by letters, and you too ought to accept their disposition rather than provoke them, as though they had been overlooked on account of insignificance, nor by contempt lead them on to contentiousness.

For no one is so insignificant as to be unable, in the present circumstances, to furnish an occasion for great evils to those who desire an occasion.

And we say this not merely conjecturing, but having been taught by the experience of our own troubles - which may God, through your prayers, cause to pass away.

Join also in prayer with us for a good journey, that, coming to you, we may find anchorage together with you in your present shepherd, and be mutually consoled at the departure of our common father.

TO THE CITIZENS OF NICOPOLIS. The arrangements concerning the churches are made by those who have been entrusted with their governance, but they are confirmed by the peoples.

So that what lay with the most God-beloved bishops has been fulfilled;

but what remains now looks to you - namely, whether you will deem it worthy to cling wholeheartedly to the bishop given to you, and firmly to repel the attempts coming from outsiders.

For nothing so abashes rulers, nor the rest of those who envy your peaceful settlement, as unanimity in love for the one given to you and the firmness of your resolve.

For it produces in them despair of every evil undertaking, if they see that neither clergy nor people accept their schemes.

Whatever judgment, then, you hold concerning what is good, make this common to the whole city;

and speak to the populace and to all who dwell in the region, fitting words, strengthening their good resolves, so that the genuineness of your love toward God may be spread abroad among all.

And if we ourselves should be deemed worthy at some time to come and visit that church, the nurse of piety, which we honor as the metropolis of orthodoxy, because from ancient times it has been governed by most honored men, chosen of God, who held fast to the faithful word according to right teaching - of whom you yourselves have approved, and we have agreed, that the one now brought forward is worthy.

Only may you be preserved by the grace of God, dissolving the wicked designs of your enemies, and instilling in your souls strength and vigor for the safeguarding of what has been well granted to you.

TO AMPHILOCHIUS, BISHOP OF ICONIUM. I find few occasions for writing to your piety, and this grieves me not a little.

For it is as if, though it were possible to see you and enjoy your company often, I did this but rarely.

But it is not in my power to write, for want of persons traveling from here to you;

for to communicate to you our affairs brings me relief;

and I know that there is nothing you are so anxious about as our affairs.

But now Elpidius, hastening to his own master in order to strip off the false slanders fabricated against him by certain enemies, has asked us for this letter.

Even if we have nothing else to testify in his favor, yet because he considered it a matter of great concern to become the bearer of our letters, hold him as one of your own household, remember us, and pray for the church.

Know that our most God-beloved brother is banished beyond the borders, unable to bear the harassments of shameless men.

As for us, our enemies are concocting plots against us at the Camp, so runs the report of those who know;

but the hand of the Lord is with us for the present.

Only pray that we may not be abandoned to the end.

and the Lord will scatter the counsels of our enemies.

Yet the release from all our present and expected griefs, for us, would be to behold you.

So then, if it should ever become possible for you, while we are still above ground, deem us worthy to see you.

The book concerning the Spirit has been written by us and worked out in detail, as you yourself know.

But the brothers with me prevented me from sending it written on papyrus, saying that they had instructions from your nobility to have it written in book form.

In order, then, that we might not seem to do anything contrary to your instruction, we have held it back for now, but we will send it a little later, only if we should find some suitable person to carry it.

May you, being in health and good spirits, praying to the Lord on our behalf, be granted to me and to the church of God by the loving-kindness of the Holy One.

TO AMPHILOCHIUS, BISHOP OF ICONIUM. Every day that brings a letter from your piety is a feast for us, indeed the greatest of feasts.

But when it also brings with it the tokens of a feast, what else must one call it than 'a feast of feasts,' just as the old law used to call it 'a sabbath of sabbaths'? We give thanks, then, to the Lord, having learned both that you are in bodily health and that, the church being at peace, you have kept the commemoration of the saving dispensation.

But certain disturbances have troubled us;

indeed we have not passed the time free from dejection, because our most God-beloved brother has been driven into exile.