Letter 205

205. To Elpidius the Bishop.

Once again we have set in motion our beloved fellow presbyter Meletius, to carry our greetings to your Charity. And although we had quite resolved to spare him on account of the weakness which he has willingly brought upon himself, bringing his flesh into bondage for the gospel of Christ, nevertheless, judging it fitting for ourselves to address you through such men — men able readily to supply from themselves whatever escapes the letter, and to become, as it were, a living letter in place of a written one, both to the writer and to the receiver — and at the same time fulfilling his own longing, which he ever cherishes for your Perfection, ever since he came to know by experience the good things in you, we now entreated him to come to you. Through him we both discharge the debt of visitation, and we urge you to pray for us and for the Church of God, that the Lord may grant us to lead a calm and quiet life, delivered from the malicious assaults of the enemies of the gospel.

And if it appears to your good sense to be fitting and necessary that we should come together with one another, and meet also the rest of our most honored brethren, the bishops who dwell along the seaboard, do you yourself appoint for us both a place and a time at which this shall be, and write to the brethren, so that, leaving each at fixed dates the business in hand, we may be able to do something for the building up of the Church of God, and to remove the griefs that now arise among us toward one another out of suspicions, and to ratify that love without which the Lord Himself has determined for us that the working of every commandment is incomplete.