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Epistula ad episcopos, presbyteros et diaconos

To the imprisoned bishops, presbyters, and deacons in prison for piety.

52.541

Blessed are you of the prison, and of the chain, and of the cause of the bonds; blessed and thrice-blessed, and many times so, you who have captivated the whole world with affection for you, you have made lovers of you even those who are far away. Everywhere on land and sea are sung your right actions, your courage, your unwavering purpose, your unenslaved mind. Nothing has terrified you of the things that seem to be terrible, not a tribunal, not an executioner, not snowstorms of tortures, not threats full of a thousand deaths, not a judge breathing fire from his mouth, not enemies gnashing their teeth, and moving countless kinds of plots, not so many slanders, not shameless accusations, not death appearing before your eyes every day; but the cause of what was happening was sufficient for you as a consolation for what was happening.

For these reasons, all openly crown you and proclaim you, not only friends, but even the enemies themselves, and those who contrive these things; and if not openly, if one should unfold their conscience, he would find much admiration for you even among them. For such is virtue, it is admired even by those who war against it; such is wickedness, it is condemned even by those who pursue it. And such are the things here, but the things in heaven, what word will be able to describe? Your names are written in the book of life, you have been numbered with the holy martyrs. I know these things clearly, not by having ascended into heaven, but having learned them from divine oracles. For if he who stood by a marriage being transgressed, and was not able to correct the transgression, but only to reprove it, the fruit of the barren woman, the citizen of the desert, because for this he inhabited the prison and was beheaded, is both a martyr and the first of martyrs; you who have stood by the laws and ordinances of the fathers being transgressed, and the priesthood being insulted and transgressed, and have suffered so many things for the sake of truth, and for dissolving slanders so shameless, consider how great a reward you will receive.

It is not lawful for you to have the wife of your brother Philip, said that noble and lofty man, and it was sufficient for him for unspeakable boldness. You also have said, Our bodies are set forth for punishments, penalties, tortures; consume, expend these with whatever penalties you wish; we do not choose to slander, but to die ten thousand times. But you were not beheaded, but you have suffered things much more grievous 52.542. For it is not the same to lay down one's head in a brief moment of time, and to wrestle for so long a time with so many pains, fears, threats, prisons, removals, tribunals, hands of executioners, shameless tongues of slanderers, reproaches, revilings, jeers. For this too is a very great kind of contest, and the blessed Paul places it in the rank of great struggles, saying thus: Remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great contest of sufferings. Then, speaking of the contest, he has set down this, saying thus: On the one hand, being made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and on the other, becoming partakers of those who suffered so. And if those who partook struggled, much more those who endured.

For not one, or two, or three, but many deaths you have endured in your purpose, if not in experience. Therefore rejoice and leap for joy; for the Master of the heavens commanded this, not only not to grieve, nor to fall down, but also to leap for joy, and

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Epistula ad episcopos, presbyteros et diaconos

ΤΟΙΣ ΕΓΚΕΚΛΕΙΣΜΕΝΟΙΣ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΙΣ, Πρεσβύτεροις καὶ διακόνοις ἐν δεσμωτηρίῳ δι' εὐσέβειαν.

52.541

Μακάριοι τοῦ δεσμωτηρίου, καὶ τῆς ἁλύσεως, καὶ τῆς τῶν δεσμῶν ὑποθέσεως ὑμεῖς· μακάριοι καὶ τρισμακάριοι, καὶ πολλάκις τοῦτο, οἳ πᾶσαν ἀνηρτήσασθε τὴν οἰκουμένην τῷ περὶ ὑμᾶς φίλτρῳ, ἐραστὰς ὑμῶν καὶ τοὺς πόῤῥωθεν ὄντας πεποιήκατε. Πανταχοῦ γῆς καὶ θαλάττης ᾄδεται ὑμῶν τὰ κατορθώματα, ἡ ἀνδρεία, ἡ ἀπερίτρεπτος γνώμη, τὸ ἀδούλωτον φρόνημα. Οὐδὲν ὑμᾶς κατέπληξε τῶν δοκούντων εἶναι δεινῶν, οὐ δικαστήριον, οὐ δήμιος, οὐ βασάνων νιφάδες, οὐκ ἀπειλαὶ μυρίων γέμουσαι θανάτων, οὐ δικαστὴς πῦρ ἀπὸ τοῦ στόματος ἀφιεὶς, οὐκ ἐχθροὶ θήγοντες τοὺς ὀδόντας, καὶ μυρία εἴδη κινοῦντες ἐπιβουλῆς, οὐ συκοφαντίαι τοσαῦται, οὐκ ἀναίσχυντοι κατηγορίαι, οὐ θάνατος πρὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν φαινόμενος· ἀλλ' ἤρκεσεν ὑμῖν εἰς παράκλησιν τῶν γινομένων ἡ τῶν γινομένων ὑπόθεσις.

∆ιὰ ταῦτα φανερῶς μὲν ὑμᾶς πάντες στεφανοῦσι, καὶ ἀνακηρύττουσι, οὐ φίλοι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ ἐχθροὶ, καὶ ταῦτα κατασκευάζοντες· εἰ καὶ μὴ φανερῶς, κἄν τις αὐτῶν ἀναπτύξειε τὸ συνειδὸς, πολὺ καὶ παρ' ἐκείνοις ὑμῶν εὑρήσει τὸ θαῦμα. Τοιοῦτον γὰρ ἀρετὴ, καὶ παρὰ τοῖς πολεμοῦσιν αὐτὴν θαυμάζεται· τοιοῦτον κακία, καὶ παρὰ τοῖς μετιοῦσιν αὐτὴν καταγινώσκεται. Καὶ τὰ μὲν ἐνταῦθα τοιαῦτα, τὰ δὲ ἐν οὐρανοῖς τίς παραστῆσαι δυνήσεται λόγος; Ἐγγέγραπται ὑμῶν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐν βίβλῳ ζωῆς, μετὰ τῶν ἁγίων κατηριθμήθητε μαρτύρων. Οἶδα ταῦτα ἐγὼ σαφῶς, οὐκ εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβὰς, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ θείων αὐτὰ μαθὼν χρησμῶν. Εἰ γὰρ ὁ γάμῳ παρανομουμένῳ παραστὰς, καὶ μὴ διορθῶσαι δυνηθεὶς τὴν παρανομίαν, ἀλλ' ἐλέγξαι αὐτὴν μόνον, ὁ τῆς στείρας καρπὸς, ὁ τῆς ἐρήμου πολίτης, ἐπειδὴ διὰ τοῦτο τὸ δεσμωτήριον ᾤκησε καὶ ἀπετμήθη, καὶ μάρτυς, καὶ μαρτύρων ὁ πρῶτός ἐστιν· ὑμεῖς οἱ νόμοις πατέρων καὶ θεσμοῖς παραβαθεῖσι, καὶ ἱερωσύνῃ ἐπηρεαζομένῃ καὶ παρανομουμένῃ παραστάντες, καὶ τοσαῦτα παθόντες ὑπὲρ ἀληθείας, καὶ τοῦ λῦσαι συκοφαντίας ἀναισχύντους οὕτως, ἐννοήσατε ἡλίκην λήψεσθε τὴν ἀμοιβήν.

Οὐκ ἔξεστί σοι ἔχειν τὴν γυναῖκα Φιλίππου τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, εἶπε τοῦτο ὁ γενναῖος ἐκεῖνος καὶ ὑψηλὸς ἀνὴρ, καὶ ἤρκεσεν αὐτῷ πρὸς παῤῥησίαν ἄφατον. Εἴπατε καὶ ὑμεῖς, Πρόκειται ἡμῶν τὰ σώματα κολάσεσι, τιμωρίαις, βασάνοις· ἀνάλισκε, δαπάνα ταῦτα τιμωρίαις οἵαις βούλει· συκοφαντεῖν οὐχ αἱρούμεθα, ἀλλὰ ἀποθνήσκειν μυριάκις. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀπετμήθητε, ἀλλὰ πολλῷ χαλεπώτερα 52.542 πεπόνθατε. Οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἴσον ἐν βραχείᾳ καιροῦ ῥοπῇ κεφαλὴν ἀποθέσθαι, καὶ τοσαύταις ἐπὶ τοσούτῳ χρόνῳ παλαίειν ὀδύναις, φόβοις, ἀπειλαῖς, δεσμωτηρίοις, ἀπαγωγαῖς, δικαστηρίοις, δημίων χερσὶ, συκοφαντῶν ἀναισχύντοις γλώτταις, ὀνείδεσι, λοιδορίαις, σκώμμασι. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο μέγιστον ἄθλου εἶδος, καὶ τίθησιν αὐτὸ ἐν τάξει μεγάλων ἀγώνων ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος, οὕτω λέγων· Ἀναμιμνήσκεσθε τὰς πρότερον ἡμέρας, ἐν αἷς φωτισθέντες πολλὴν ἄθλησιν ὑπεμείνατε παθημάτων. Εἶτα λέγων τὴν ἄθλησιν, τοῦτο τέθεικεν, οὕτως εἰπών· Τοῦτο μὲν ὀνειδισμοῖς καὶ θλίψεσι θεατριζόμενοι, τοῦτο δὲ κοινωνοὶ τῶν οὕτως πασχόντων γενηθέντες. Εἰ δὲ οἱ κοινωνήσαντες ἤθλησαν, πολλῷ μᾶλλον οἱ ὑπομείναντες.

Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἕνα, καὶ δύο, καὶ τρεῖς, ἀλλὰ πολλοὺς ὑπομεμενήκατε θανάτους τῇ γνώμῃ, εἰ καὶ μὴ τῇ πείρᾳ. Χάρητε τοίνυν καὶ σκιρτήσατε· τοῦτο γὰρ ὁ τῶν οὐρανῶν ∆εσπότης ἐκέλευσε, μὴ μόνον μὴ ἀλγεῖν, μηδὲ καταπίπτειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ σκιρτᾷν, καὶ