LETTER 225 (written after 383)
THE FATHERS SPEAK
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS TO KYRIAKOS, LETTER 211
(in Gregory's later years) You honor pious men, I know, and you do good for the poor. Here is a proper occasion on both counts. How?
OUf reverend and most beloved of God, Sakerdos, our brother in the priesthood, directs a well-known house for the poor [TrLCUXEtOVJ. being prompted by piety and zeal for his work. Among the premises of the house are the domains of Liandros and Kaberina, contiguous to the grounds of the asylum; they come from a donation made by the most honorable Kastor to provide for the maintenance of the house. If you exempt those domains from taxation altogether, you will ensure not a mean part of those poor people's subsistence and earn for yourself the reward that you know is due to pious men. It is obvious that through this favor you will also provide for future needs, by means of any procedure you may devise, and restrain anyone attempting an action prejudicial to these domains.
Gregory requests from Hellebikhos, a high ranking offi· cer in the imperial forces in the Orient, to give a proper release to a certain Mamas who serves in the army, though he had been tonsured as a church reader.
GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, TO HELLEBIKHOS.
LETTER 225 (written after 383) How does ill health aggravate us! We should have
Priests and Hierarchs: Shepherds of Sheep
rushed toward you to embrace you in remembrance of our old friendship and intimacy, but our ailing body does not permit it. So we address you by letter: greetings and amicable salutation! As a gift for both of us, here is what we propose: Mamas, a church reader [avayvc.::,o"('l<;], the son of a soldier, has been consecrated to God on account of his good character. Discharge him for God's sake and for us; do not count him among the deserters and give him a proper discharge in writing, that he be not slandered by others. Thus shall you expect success for the war pursuits under your command. Those who have in hand the supreme power and a discretionary authority should have all the more regard for God, and thus put their hope [in Him].
Cappadocia, like any other province of the empire, had its share of common crimes: thefts, frauds and swindles, murders, assaults, abductions and rapes, whose perpetrators had to be brought before competent courts of justice and had submitted to canonical procedures for the application of what the former Codex Iuris Canonici llsed to call "medicinal pains." We should remember that the Christians were only a part of the population and that Christians were divided among themselves. This complicated singularly the administration of justice in the empire. Conflicts of jurisdiction were unavoidable and at best were resolved by mutual agreement between secular and ecclesiastical judges. The following two letters show Saint Basil's view on how to treat criminals guilty of violent revolt and theft. Callisthenes, a magistrate, had called Basil to arbitrate the case of his house slaves, who were in revolt. Basil recommends that the COllrse of justice be tempered by indulgence. He would have preferred to have the culprits brought before his metropolitan court, but agrees to their being deferred to the criminal court of Sasima, where the disorder has taken place.