Letter 225 TO DEMOSTHENES, AS BY COMMON CONSENT, excerpt
prelude 1: the letters of basil 1. I promptly availed myself of the opportunity and addressed a letter to that most admirable man, Count Terentius, thinking that it was less suspicious to write to him by means of strangers about the present concerns, while at the same time I did not want to hinder our very dear brother Acacius by any delay in the matter. So I have given the letter to the revenue-collector of the prefect as he set out on the public circuit, and charged him to show the letter first to you.
2. But as for the road to Rome, I do not know why no-one has told your Intelligence that it is quite impassable in winter, the country intervening from Constantinople to our regions being full of those hostile to us. But if it is necessary to go by sea, the time will be right—provided that the most God-beloved bishop, Gregory my brother, agrees both to the sea voyage and to the ambassadorship of matters so important.
3. But for my part, I do not see that there is anyone who can escort him, and I realize that he is quite inexperienced in the affairs of the Church;30 and that although a meeting with him would inspire respect in a kindly disposed man and be worth much, yet with a lofty and elevated personage who is seated somewhere on high and is therefore unable to listen to those who from a lowly position on the ground tell him the truth31—what would be the benefit to our common interest from his meeting such as Gregory, whose character is foreign to servile flattery?32
Letter 225 TO DEMOSTHENES, AS BY COMMON CONSENT, excerpt33 This letter was written in December of 37534 or according to Fedwick35 in June/July of that year. The addressee is Demosthenes, Vicar of the civil diocese of Pontica, an aggressive implementer of Valens' arianizing policies. According to Theodoret's account (H.E. 4.16), the emperor Valens and his prefect Modestus had unsuccessfully attempted to intimidate Basil
30 êpeiron ˆnta t«n katå tåw §kklhs¤aw.
31 I.e. Pope Damasus of Rome.
32 ıw éllÒtrian ¶xei yvpe¤aw éneleuy°rou tÚ ∑yow.
33 Mss.: VPBM, LC, ed.: Courtonne III, 21–23, Def 3.320–325, tr.: NPNF 2nd ser. 8.267.
34 Loofs, op. cit., p. 9, n. 2.
35 Op. cit., p. 17.
prelude 1: the letters of basil
some four years earlier. In that episode a Demosthenes, superintendent of the imperial kitchen, had also attempted to berate Basil, but was put firmly in his place by Basil.36 Gregory Nazianzen's remarks about the threats of 'the chief cook' in Oration on Basil 47 also tend to confirm that the Demosthenes of Theodoret's is the same man in this letter. It would help explain his implacability reported here. In the winter of 375/376 the present Demosthenes had summoned a council at Ancyra in which he tried to secure the arrest and imprisonment of Gregory of Nyssa on what seem rather strained charges of mishandling Church funds and of irregular ordination as bishop.
Basil wrote this carefully crafted official letter to defend Gregory's failure to put in an appearance. Despite the punctilious courtesies, one can scarcely miss a vein of subtle irony—at least on Basil's part, but which might be expected partly to elude Demosthenes, if he was the same man of low culture mentioned above and as is the case in letter 237 below. In reality, Basil is calling Demosthenes' bluff. He knows that the Vicar will not openly assail him, and that he is attempting to injure the Neo-nicene cause by attacking his brother. With scrupulous politesse, he intimates to Demosthenes that Gregory is now under his own protection, hidden somewhere, and that henceforth the Vicar should direct his attentions to their real object, himself. He also repeatedly hints that canonical and doctrinal questions are not the business of civil rulers, a brave position to take in the prevailing Constantinian ideology of state and church.
The sequel to these events may be traced in Basil's letters 231 and 237 following.
Versification is supplied here in the absence of any in Courtonne.
. . . 2. When we realized that some of the enemies of peace were about to rouse your august tribunal against us, we were expecting to be summoned by your Magnanimity that the truth might be learned from us—if indeed your great prudence were willing to make the examination of ecclesiastical affairs your own concern.
3. But when the tribunal overlooked us, and your authority, moved by the reproaches of Philochares, ordered our brother and fellowminister Gregory to be arraigned, he obeyed the summons—for how might he do otherwise? But he was seized by a pain in the side, and at the same time because of the chill that came upon him, by a flare-up of an old kidney complaint. 3. It was necessary, being as he was under the inescapable guard of the soldiers,37 to convey him
36 Cf. also Socrates H.E. 4.26 and Sozomen H.E. 6.16 for related accounts of his staunch opposition to Valens and Modestus and his survival.
37 Cf. Maraval, 1990, p. 21 n. 1. He suggests that the participle katexÒmenow is causal, and that Gregory, having been arrested, escaped, and was now in a safe place not named by Basil.
prelude 1: the letters of basil to some quiet spot, where his body might receive care, and his unbearable pains find relief. 4. For this reason we have all come to beseech your Greatness not to be indignant at the delay of the response. For neither was the public good any the worse for our postponement nor were the interests of the Church in any way harmed thereby.
5. But if the question is about money, that it was wasted, the treasurers of the Church funds are at hand ready to give an accounting to anyone who wishes, and to prove the mischief of those who have brazened your careful hearing of the case. For it is easy for them, from the very accounts of the blessed bishop, to make the truth evident to those who seek it.
6. But if it is something else of a canonical nature that requires investigation, and your Magnanimity consents to undertake to hear and to judge it, we all38 need to be present, because if there has been any defect in the canonical procedure, those who did the ordaining are responsible, not he who was constrained, under every necessity, to undertake the ministry.
7. We therefore beseech you to reserve the hearing for us in our fatherland, and not to drag us beyond its borders,39 or bring us to a necessity of meeting bishops with whom we have not yet come to agreement on Church questions. 8. And at the same time we beg you to spare both our old age and our infirmity. For you will learn by actual investigation, God willing, that nothing pertaining to the canons, either small or great, was omitted in the appointment of the bishop. 9. We therefore pray that under your rule both agreement and peace with our brothers may be achieved. But since this has not yet come to pass, it is difficult even for us to meet, because many of the simpler folk are being harmed by our dissensions with each other.
38 I.e. the bishops of Cappadocia.
39 efiw tØn Íperor¤an. A note in the Benedictine edition cites a law of Valens for the year 373 (Cod. Theod. 9.1.10): It is not permitted an accuser to go beyond the borders of the province. The judgments of offences ought to be carried out where the crime is said to have been committed. By the present laws we restrain the transfer of tribunals.