Letter 258

258. To Epiphanius the Bishop

What was long ago foretold by the prediction of the Lord, and is now at last confirmed by the experience of events — that because lawlessness is multiplied the love of the many shall grow cold — has by now prevailed among us; and so it seemed good to break open the letter that was brought from your honour. For it is no ordinary token of love, first to have remembered us, who are so small and worthy of nothing, and then to have sent brethren to visit us, men fit to be ministers of letters of peace. For there is no rarer sight than this, now that all are disposed toward all with suspicion. For nowhere is there compassion, nowhere fellow-feeling, no brotherly tear for a brother in distress. Neither persecutions for the truth, nor Churches groaning all together, nor this long catalogue of hardships that beset us, can move us to care for one another. But we leap upon the fallen, we scrape afresh the wounds, we who seem to share the same mind heighten the outrages of the heretics; and those who agree in the most vital matters are nonetheless divided from one another by some single point. How then shall we not marvel at the man who, amid such circumstances, displays a pure and guileless love toward his neighbours, and across so great a sea and continent as separates us bodily, bestows upon our souls such care as is possible?

I marvelled at this too in you, that you received with grief the dissension of the brethren on the Mount of Olives, and wish that some reconciliation may come about between them; and that not even the things contrived by certain persons, which brought disturbances upon the brotherhood, escaped you, but you took up the care for these matters also — and this I welcomed. But that other thing I no longer judged worthy of your good sense: to entrust to us the correction of matters so weighty — to men neither led by the grace of God, because we live with sins, nor possessing any power in argument, because, though we have gladly withdrawn from vain things, we have not yet taken up the proper habit in the doctrines of the truth. We have therefore already written to our beloved brethren on the Mount of Olives, to our own Palladius and to Innocent the Italian, in answer to what they wrote to us, that we can add nothing to the faith of Nicaea, not even the slightest thing, except the glorifying of the Holy Spirit, because our fathers mentioned this part only in passing, the question concerning it not having been stirred up at that time. But the doctrines woven on afterward to that faith, concerning the Lord's incarnation, as being deeper than our comprehension, we have neither examined nor accepted, knowing that, once we have disturbed the simplicity of the faith, we shall find no end of arguments, the controversy ever leading us on to more, and we shall throw into confusion the souls of the simpler folk by the introduction of strange notions.

As for the Church at Antioch — I mean that part which agrees in the same mind — may the Lord grant us one day to see it united. For this above all is in danger of having received the snares of the enemy, who bears it a grudge because it was there that the name of Christians was first given. And the heresy is cut off from the orthodox; but orthodoxy too is cut, even against itself. As for us, since the first to speak boldly for the truth and to contend that noble contest in the times of Constantius was the most reverend Meletius the bishop, and since my Church held him in communion, loving him exceedingly for that firm and unyielding constancy, we hold him in communion to this present day by the grace of God, and we will hold him so, if God will. For the most blessed Pope Athanasius too, when he came from Alexandria, greatly wished that communion with him should be brought about; but through the malice of advisers their union was put off to another time — as it ought not to have been. But of those who entered last we have not yet admitted any to communion — not judging them unworthy, but having nothing of which to convict them. And indeed we have heard many things from the brethren, but we did not admit them, because the accused did not stand face to face with their accusers, according to that which is written, "Does our law judge a man unless it first hear him and know what he does?" So we cannot yet write to them, most honoured brother, nor ought we to be compelled to this. But it would befit your peaceful disposition not to join the one and tear apart the other, but to bring what is divided into the union already existing. So first pray, and then, with all your power, exhort them to cast ambition out of their souls, and, for the sake of restoring strength to the Church and bringing down the arrogance of the enemies, to come to terms with one another. That too greatly comforted my soul which was added by your exactness to the rest that was nobly and exactly stated in theological terms: that it is necessary to confess three hypostases. So let the brethren at Antioch also be taught this by you — though surely they have been taught it already; for plainly you would not have chosen communion with them, had you not secured above all this part of their belief.

As for the nation of the Magousaeans — concerning which you deigned to inquire of us in the other letter — they are many among us, scattered over almost the whole country, settlers brought in to us of old from Babylonia. They follow peculiar customs, holding no intercourse with other men; and to use reason with them is altogether impossible, inasmuch as they have been taken captive by the devil unto his will. For they have neither books nor teachers of doctrines, but are reared in a senseless custom, the son receiving the impiety in succession from the father. Apart, then, from these things which are seen by all, they refuse the sacrifice of animals as a defilement, slaughtering by others' hands the animals they need for use; they are mad for unlawful marriages; they hold fire to be God; and the like. But as for any descent from Abraham, none of the Magi has down to the present told us any such tale; rather they name a certain Zarnouas as the founder of their race. So I have nothing further to write to your honour concerning them.