Letter 266

266. To Peter, Bishop of Alexandria

You rebuked me well, and as befits a spiritual brother taught true love by the Lord, in that we do not make all things, both small and greater, clear to you. For it belongs both to you to care for our affairs, and to us to refer ours to your love. But know, our most honoured and most beloved brother, that the continuousness of our afflictions, and this great turmoil that now shakes the Churches, makes us find nothing of what happens strange. For as those whose ears are deafened in the foundries become inured to the noises, so we, by the frequency of the dreadful tidings, have at last grown accustomed to keep our heart untroubled and undismayed before what is contrary to reason. The things, then, contrived from of old by the Arians against the Church, even if they are many and great and noised abroad over all the world, are nevertheless bearable to us, because they come from open enemies and foes of the word of truth; whom we marvel at when they do not do their usual things, not when they venture something great and audacious against true religion. But the things done by those of the same soul and the same faith grieve and trouble us. Yet even these, because they are many and continually fall upon our ears, do not appear extraordinary. Hence we were neither moved at the disorderly things done lately, nor did we trouble your ears — knowing, on the one hand, that report would of itself carry what was done, and, on the other, waiting for others to become the messengers of these sorrows; and then, not judging it reasonable that you should be vexed at such things, as though aggrieved at having been overlooked. To the very men, however, who did these things we wrote what befitted, exhorting them, since the brethren there suffered some dissension, not to fall away from love, but to await the correction from those able to heal the faults in the manner of the Church. And since you did this, being moved well and fittingly, we praised you, and gave thanks to the Lord that there is a remnant of the ancient good order preserved in you, and that the Church has not lost its own strength in our persecution. For the canons were not persecuted along with us. Often, then, troubled by the Galatians, I was never able to answer them, awaiting your decisions. And now, if the Lord grants it, and they are willing to bear with us, we hope to bring the people to the Church, so that we ourselves may not be reproached for having gone over to the Marcellians, but that they may become members of the body of the Church of Christ, so that the wicked blame, spread abroad from the heresy, may be made to vanish in our reception of them, and that we may not be put to shame as having joined ourselves to them.

Brother Dorotheus grieved us, as you yourself wrote, by not having conversed in all things gently and meekly with your good order. And this I reckon to the difficulty of the times. For we seem, because of our sins, to prosper in nothing, if even the most diligent of the brethren are not found gentle, nor fit for their ministries, by not accomplishing everything according to our mind. He, on his return, recounted to us the discussions he had with your honour in the presence of the most revered bishop Damasus, and he grieved us by saying that our most God-beloved brethren and fellow-ministers, Meletius and Eusebius, were reckoned together with the Arian-maddened. Even if nothing else established their orthodoxy, at least the war waged against them by the Arians furnishes no small proof of their rightness to those who reason fairly. And your reverence ought to be joined to them in love also by the fellowship of sufferings for Christ. But be persuaded of this, most truly honoured one, that there is no word of orthodoxy which was not proclaimed with all boldness by these men, with God as witness and ourselves as hearers. With whom we would not have received communion even for an hour, had we found them limping concerning the faith. But, if you please, let us leave the past, and give to what follows some peaceful beginning. For we all need one another, according to the fellowship of the members, and especially now, when the Churches of the East look toward us, and will take your concord as an occasion for support and steadfastness; but if they perceive that you are in some suspicion toward one another, they will be weakened and will let their hands fall, so as not to lift them against the enemies of the faith.