Letter 204

204. To the Neocaesareans.

For a long time we have kept silence toward one another, most honored and most longed-for brethren, like men who have risen up in anger. And yet who is so deeply embittered and so hard to reconcile with the one who has grieved him that he would prolong the wrath born of hatred over nearly a whole generation of a man's life? Yet this is what may be seen happening in our case, though no just occasion of estrangement exists — none, at least, so far as we ourselves know; but on the contrary, while many great things were present from the beginning to draw us toward the closest friendship and union. The first and greatest is the commandment of the Lord, who said plainly, "By this shall all know that you are My disciples, if you love one another"; and again the Apostle, who clearly sets before us the beauty of love, both where he declares that love is the fulfilling of the law, and where he places the beauty of love above all great things together, in the words: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I dole out all my goods, and give up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing" — not that any of the things enumerated could ever be performed apart from love, but because the Holy One wished, by this extreme manner of speaking, to bear witness to the surpassing supremacy of the commandment above all things.

Second, that if it is any great thing toward union to have shared the same teachers, the same men are teachers of the mysteries of God both to you and to us, and our spiritual fathers, those who from the beginning laid the foundations of your Church. I mean the great Gregory, and all who in succession to him inherited the throne of your episcopate, one after another rising like so many stars, who trod in the same footsteps, so as to leave to those who wished the discernible signs of a heavenly citizenship. And if the bonds of kinship of the body too are not to be cast aside, but contribute much toward an unbroken union and a fellowship of life, these claims too were ours toward you. For what reason, then, O most venerable of cities — for through you I address the whole city — comes there from you no gentle letter, no friendly voice, but your ears are opened to those who attempt to slander? So that I am bound to groan the more, the more I see their endeavor succeeding; since the work of slander has for its evident leader the one who, well known from many wrongdoings, is characterized above all by this wickedness, so that even his name has become "sin." Yet bear with my frankness: opening both your ears to those who slander us, you receive all things into your souls without examination; and there is no one to sift the false from the true. Who was ever at a loss for wicked charges when he contended alone? Who was ever convicted of lying when the one he maligned was not present? What word is not plausible to its hearers, if the reviler insists that it is indeed so, while the one reviled is neither present nor hears the blasphemies? Does not the very custom of life teach you in these matters, that one who is to be a fair and impartial hearer must not be wholly carried off by the one who spoke first, but must wait also for the defense of the accused, that so, by the setting of both speeches side by side, the truth may be made plain? "Judge righteous judgment" is one of the most necessary of the commandments unto salvation.

And I say these things not because I have forgotten the apostolic words — that he, fleeing human tribunals, reserved his whole life for the scrutiny of that court which cannot be deceived — in which he says: "To me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's day." But nevertheless, since false slanders that came before have taken hold of your ears, and our life has been slandered, and our faith concerning God has been slandered — knowing that the slanderer inflicts harm upon three persons at once: for he wrongs the one he maligns, and those to whom his words are addressed, and himself — I would indeed have kept silence about the harm to myself, you may be sure, not from any contempt for the esteem you hold me in (for how could that be, when it is precisely that I may not be deprived of it that I write these things and contend now?), but because I see that of the three who are harmed, I am the one who suffers the least loss. For I am deprived of you, but you are robbed of the truth; and the author of these things separates me from you, but estranges himself from the Lord — because it is not possible to be made God's own out of what is forbidden. It is therefore for your sake rather than my own that I make these words, and to deliver you from a harm not to be borne. For what greater evil could a man suffer than to be deprived of the most precious of all things that are, the truth?

What then do I say, brethren? Not that I am without sin, nor that my life is not full of countless defects. For I know myself, and I do not cease to let fall the tear over my faults, if by any means I might be able to propitiate my God and escape the threatened punishment. But I say that he who passes judgment on us — if he affirms that he has a clean eye, let him pluck the mote from ours; for we confess that we need much care from the healthy. But if he could not say this — and the cleaner he is, the less he will say it, since it is the mark of the perfect not to exalt themselves, else they will surely become liable to the boastfulness of the Pharisee, who, justifying himself, condemned the publican — let him seek the physician along with me, and let him not judge before the time, until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts. Let him remember too Him who said, "Judge not, that you be not judged," and "Condemn not, that you be not condemned." And altogether, brethren, if our faults are curable, why does he not obey the teacher of the churches who says, "Reprove, rebuke, exhort"? But if our lawlessness is incurable, why does he not stand against us to our face, and, publishing our iniquities, free the churches from any harm we might do? Do not, then, endure the abuse muttered against us under the breath. For this even a single serving-girl from the mill might do, or anyone from the marketplace might display to excess, those whose tongue is whetted for every abuse. But there are bishops: let them be summoned to a hearing. There is a clergy in every parish of God: let the most approved be gathered. Let whoever wishes speak with frankness, that what is done may be a proof and not abuse. Let him bring to view the hidden things of my wickedness; but let him not even then hate, but admonish me as a brother. We sinners deserve rather to be pitied by the blessed and sinless men than to be treated harshly.

But if the fault concerns the faith, let the writing be shown to us; again let an equal and common tribunal be seated. Let the charge be read. Let it be examined whether it seems to be a charge rather through the ignorance of the accuser, or whether the document is condemned by its own nature. For many good things do not seem such to those who do not possess an exact tribunal of judgment in the mind. Since even weights of equal heaviness do not seem equal when the scales do not balance evenly against each other. And honey has already appeared bitter to some, whose sense of taste was corrupted by disease. And again an eye that is not in health has failed to see many things that exist, and has supposed many things that do not exist. And so too in the power of words I often see the same thing happen, when the judge falls short of the writer's competence. For the one who judges words and the one who writes them must set out from nearly the same training. Or rather — the works of agriculture the man who is not a farmer is not able to judge, and the unmusical and musical in rhythms he will not discern who does not possess the science of music; but a judge of words anyone who wishes will straightway be, though he can show neither teacher of his own, nor time in which he learned, nor any understanding at all, small or great, of what pertains to words. But I see that even in the oracles of the Spirit it was not permitted to everyone to apply himself to the examination of what is said, but to him who has the Spirit of discernment, as the Apostle taught us, saying in the divisions of the gifts of grace: "For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit; to another the workings of powers; to another prophecy, to another discernings of spirits." So that if our writings are spiritual, let him who wishes to judge ours show himself to have the gift of the discernment of spiritual things; but if, as he himself reviles, they are from the wisdom of this world, let him show himself experienced in the wisdom of the world, and then we will entrust to him the votes of judgment. And let no one suppose that these things are devised by us to escape the proofs. For I entrust it to you, most beloved brethren, to make for yourselves the examination of the charges brought against us. Are you so slow of understanding that you need a host of advocates to find the truth? But if the matter appears to you, by yourselves, beyond dispute, persuade the wranglers to abandon all contentiousness; and if anything seems to you to have some ambiguity, question us through some mediators able faithfully to convey our case; or, if you think fit, demand of us our proofs in writing. But in every way be earnest by all means not to leave these things unexamined.

And of our faith what plainer proof could there be than that we were reared by a blessed woman, a nurse who came from among you? I mean the renowned Macrina, by whom we were taught the words of the most blessed Gregory, as many as, preserved to her by an unbroken memory, she herself guarded, and with which, while we were yet children, she molded and formed us in the doctrines of piety. And when we ourselves had received the power of reasoning, the faculty being completed in us through age, having traversed much land and sea, if we found any walking in step with the rule of piety that had been handed down, these we both inscribed as fathers and made guides of our souls in the journey toward God. And up to this very hour, by the grace of Him who called us with a holy calling to the knowledge of Himself, we know of no word hostile to sound teaching that we have received into our hearts, nor were our souls ever defiled by the ill-named blasphemy of the Arians. But if at any time we received into communion any who set out from that teacher, who concealed the disease that lay in the depths and spoke pious words, or at least did not contradict what was said by us, we received them thus, not entrusting to ourselves the whole judgment concerning them, but following the verdicts already pronounced about them by our fathers. For I, having received letters from the most blessed father Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria — which I both hold in my hands and put forward to those who seek them, in which he plainly declared that if anyone from the heresy of the Arians wished to change over, confessing the faith of Nicaea, this man should be received, drawing no distinction against him — and having as partners with me in this doctrine all the bishops of Macedonia and Achaia, thinking it necessary to follow so great a man because of the trustworthiness of those who laid down the rule, and at the same time longing to receive the reward of peacemaking, I enrolled those who confessed this faith in the portion of those in communion.

And it is more just that our affairs be judged not by one or two who do not walk uprightly toward the truth, but by the multitude of bishops throughout the inhabited world who are joined with us by the grace of the Lord. Let there be examined the Pisidians, Lycaonians, Isaurians, both the Phrygias, as much of the Armenians as borders on you, the Macedonians, Achaeans, Illyrians, Gauls, Spaniards, all Italy, the Sicilians, the Africans, the healthy part of Egypt, whatever remnant of Syria — all who both send letters to us and again receive them from us. From these things you may learn, both from the letters brought from there and from those sent back in turn to them, that we are all of one soul, holding the one mind. So that whoever flees fellowship with us, let it not escape your exactness that he tears himself away from the whole Church. Look about you, brethren, with whom your communion is. When you are not received by us, who henceforth will recognize you? Do not bring us to the necessity of taking some grievous counsel concerning our most beloved church. Do not make me speak the things I now hide in my own heart, groaning to myself and lamenting the wickedness of the time — that, with no cause existing, the greatest of the churches, which from of old held toward one another the rank of sisters, now stand divided. Do not make me lament these things to all in communion together. Do not force me to utter words which up to now I keep within myself, held back by the bridle of reason. It is better that we be put out of the way and that the churches be of one mind with one another, than that, through our boyish small-mindedness, so great an evil be brought upon the peoples of God. Ask your fathers, and they will tell you that, even if the parishes seemed divided by the position of their place, yet in mind they were one, and were governed by a single judgment. Continual were the minglings of the people; continual the visits of the clergy; and the shepherds themselves had so great a measure of love toward one another that each of them used the other as teacher and guide in the things that pertain to the Lord.