Letter 48

48. To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.

It was scarcely possible for us to find a deacon to carry letters to your reverence, since those among us have so cowered before the winter that they cannot endure to put out even the smallest distance from their rooms. For we have been snowed under by so great a quantity of snow that, buried in our very houses, we have lurked in our hiding-places for two months already. You will, then, surely pardon us — knowing both the timidity of Cappadocian ways and the sluggishness of our bodies — if we did not write sooner, nor bring to the knowledge of your honour the things from Antioch; which, in any case, it is stale and cold to make known to you, who learned them long ago, as is likely. Yet, reckoning it no trouble to signify even what is already known, we have sent the letters carried by the reader. And so much for these things.

As for Constantinople, it has had Demophilus now a long time, as these men themselves will report, and as has surely been proclaimed beforehand to your holiness. And a certain fiction of orthodoxy and devotion about him is bruited abroad in agreement by all who arrive, so that even the divided parts of the city have come together into one, and some of the neighbouring bishops have accepted the union. But our own people have appeared no better than our hopes; for, coming upon us at once, on the very heels of your departure, they said many grievous things and did many, and at last withdrew, confirming the schism for us. Whether, then, anything better will come about, and whether they will cease from their malice, is unclear to all save God alone. Such, then, is the present state of things.

The rest of the church stands firm by the grace of God, and prays, together with the spring, to see you again in our country, and to be renewed through your good teaching. And as for me, my body is no better than usual.