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to be of patristic prayers. So that we should not be persuaded about these things, for the testimony from the events themselves is sufficient. And indeed it is not untimely to add, for the sake of the truth, that it is not our brother Timothy, the chorepiscopus, who brought to us the things that were rumored. For neither in a meeting nor through a letter does he appear to have uttered anything, small or great, containing slander about you. So that we do not deny having heard something; but Timothy is not the one fabricating the slanders against you. And hearing it in any case, if nothing else, we will at least do what Alexander did, we will keep one of our ears intact for the one being slandered.

25.τ TO ATHANASIUS, BISHOP OF ANCYRA

25.1 Some of those who came to us from Ancyra reported to me, and these were many and not easy even to count, but all speaking in agreement, that you, dear friend (how could I put it euphemistically?), do not remember us in the most pleasant way, nor in your usual manner. But nothing human startles me, know well, nor is any change in all things unexpected, having long since learned the weakness of nature and how easily it is turned to the opposite. Whence if some of our affairs have changed and from former honor, revilings and insults are now directed at us, I do not make a great thing of it. But this at first seemed to me truly strange and unnatural, that it was you who was so disposed towards us as to be angry with us and harsh, and even to threaten something, as the report of those who heard it says. As for the threats, indeed (for the truth will be spoken) I laughed at them. I would truly be a child, to fear such bugbears. But this seemed to me fearful and worthy of much concern: that your exactness, which we believed was preserved in a few as a support of orthodoxy and a seed of the ancient and true love for the comfort of the Churches, should have partaken of the present state of affairs to such a degree as to make the blasphemies of random people more authoritative than our long experience, and to be led to the suspicion of improper things without proof. And yet why do I say suspicion? For he who was indignant and uttered threats, as they say, seems to have shown the anger not of one suspecting, but of one already clearly and irrefutably persuaded. 25.2 But, as I said, we refer the cause of these things to the times. For what trouble would it have been, O wonderful one, in a short letter, concerning the things you wished, to converse as it were alone with me alone, or, if you did not trust such things to writing, to summon me to you? But if it was absolutely necessary to speak out and the irrepressible nature of your anger allowed no time for delay, yet it was possible, surely, to use some one of the suitable men and one naturally able to keep secrets as a minister of your words to us. But now, whose ears among those who visit you for any need whatever have not been filled with the rumor, that we are writing and composing certain mischiefs? For they who report your words verbatim say that you used this expression. But though I have turned my own mind to many things, it in no way releases me from my perplexity. So that such a thought has also occurred to me: lest some one of the heretics, having maliciously forged my name to his own writings, has grieved your orthodoxy and led you to utter that expression. For surely you would not have endured to bring this reproach against the things written by us against those who dared to say the Son and God is unlike in substance to God the Father, or against those who blasphemed that the Holy Spirit is a creature and a thing made, you who have endured those great and famous struggles for orthodoxy. But you yourself could resolve our perplexity, if you would be willing to openly declare the things that moved you to grief against us.

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εἶναι πατρικῶν προσευχῶν. Ὥστε οὐχ ἡμᾶς δεῖ περὶ τούτων πείθεσθαι, ἀρκοῦσα γὰρ ἡ ἐξ αὐτῶν τῶν γινο μένων ἐστὶ μαρτυρία. Ἐκεῖνό γε μὴν οὐκ ἄκαιρον προσ θεῖναι τῆς ἀληθείας ἕνεκεν, ὅτι οὐχ ὁ ἀδελφὸς Τιμόθεός ἐστιν, ὁ χωρεπίσκοπος, ὁ ἀνενεγκὼν ἡμῖν τὰ θρυληθέντα. Οὔτε γὰρ ἐν συντυχίᾳ, οὔτε διὰ γράμματος φαίνεται μικρόν τι ἢ μεῖζον διαβολῆς ἐχόμενον περὶ σοῦ φθεγξά μενος. Ὥστε ἀκηκοέναι μέν τι οὐκ ἀρνούμεθα· οὐ μὴν Τιμό θεον εἶναι τὸν τὰς διαβολάς σοι κατασκευάζοντα. Ἀκούον τες δὲ πάντως, εἰ μή τι ἄλλο, τὸ γοῦν τοῦ Ἀλεξάνδρου ποιήσομεν, τὴν ἑτέραν τῶν ἀκοῶν ἀκεραίαν ταμιευσόμεθα τῷ διαβαλλομένῳ.

25.τ ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΩ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΩ ΑΓΚΥΡΑΣ

25.1 Ἀπήγγειλάν μοί τινες τῶν ἐκ τῆς Ἀγκύρας πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀφικομένων,

πολλοὶ δὲ οὗτοι καὶ οὓς οὐδὲ ἀριθμῆσαι ῥᾴδιον, σύμφωνα δὲ πάντες φθεγγόμενοι, σέ, τὴν φίλην κεφαλὴν (πῶς ἂν εὐφήμως εἴποιμι;), οὐχ ὡς ἥδιστα μεμνῆσθαι ἡμῶν, οὐδὲ κατὰ τὸν σεαυτοῦ τρόπον. Ἐμὲ δὲ οὐδὲν ἐκπλήσσει τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων, εὖ ἴσθι, οὐδὲ ἀπροσ δόκητός ἐστιν οὐδενὸς τῶν πάντων μεταβολή, πάλαι τὸ τῆς φύσεως ἀσθενὲς καὶ τὸ εὐπερίτρεπτον πρὸς τὰ ἐναν τία καταμαθόντα. Ὅθεν οὔτ' εἴ τι τῶν ἡμετέρων μεταπέ πτωκε καὶ ἐκ τῆς πρότερον τιμῆς λοιδορίαι καὶ ὕβρεις περὶ ἡμᾶς νῦν γίνονται, μέγα τοῦτο ποιοῦμαι. Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνό μοι τὴν πρώτην παράδοξον ὡς ἀληθῶς καὶ ὑπερ φυὲς ἐφάνη, τὸ σὲ εἶναι τὸν οὕτω πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἔχοντα ὥστε ὀργίζεσθαι ἡμῖν καὶ χαλεπαίνειν, ἤδη δέ τι καὶ ἀπειλεῖν, ὡς ὁ τῶν ἀκουσάντων λόγος. Τῶν μὲν οὖν ἀπει λῶν καὶ πάνυ (εἰρήσεται γὰρ τὸ ἀληθὲς) κατεγέλασα. Ἦ κομιδῇ γ' ἂν παῖς εἴην, τὰ τοιαῦτα μορμολύκεια δεδοικώς. Ἐκεῖνο δέ μοι φοβερὸν καὶ πολλῆς ἄξιον φροντίδος ἔδοξε, τὸ τὴν σὴν ἀκρίβειαν, ἣν ἐν ὀλίγοις ἔρεισμά τε ὀρθότητος καὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας καὶ ἀληθινῆς ἀγάπης σπέρμα εἰς παρα μυθίαν ταῖς Ἐκκλησίαις σώζεσθαι πεπιστεύκαμεν, ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον τῆς παρούσης καταστάσεως μετασχεῖν ὥστε τὰς παρὰ τῶν τυχόντων βλασφημίας κυριωτέρας ποιήσασθαι τῆς μακρᾶς ἡμῶν πείρας, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀτόπων ὑπό νοιαν χωρὶς ἀποδείξεων ὑπαχθῆναι. Καίτοι τί λέγω ὑπό νοιαν; Ὁ γὰρ ἀγανακτήσας καὶ διαπειληθείς, ὥς φασιν, οὐχ ὑπονοοῦντος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἤδη σαφῶς καὶ ἀναντιρρήτως πεισθέντος δοκεῖ πως ὀργὴν ἐνδεδεῖχθαι. 25.2 Ἀλλ', ὅπερ ἔφην, ἐπὶ τὸν καιρὸν τούτων ἀναφέρομεν τὴν αἰτίαν. Ἐπεὶ πόσου πόνου ἦν, ὦ θαυμάσιε, ἐν ἐπι στολῇ βραχείᾳ, περὶ ὧν ἐβούλου, οἱονεὶ μόνον μόνῳ διαλεχθῆναι, ἤ, εἰ μὴ ἐπίστευες γραφῇ τὰ τοιαῦτα, πρὸς σεαυτὸν μεταπέμψασθαι; Εἰ δὲ πάντως ἐξειπεῖν ἔδει καὶ ἀναβολῇ καιρὸν οὐκ ἐδίδου τὸ δυσκάθεκτον τῆς ὀργῆς, ἀλλ' ἑνί γέ τινι τῶν ἐπιτηδείων καὶ στέγειν ἀπόρρητα πεφυκό των ἐξῆν δή που τῶν πρὸς ἡμᾶς λόγων χρήσασθαι διακόνῳ. Νυνὶ δὲ τίνος οὐχὶ περιτεθρύληται τὰ ὦτα τῶν καθ' ὁποιανδήποτε χρείαν ὑμῖν ἐπιφοιτώντων, ὡς ἡμῶν ἄτας τινὰς γραφόντων καὶ συγγραφόντων; Τούτῳ γάρ σε κεχρῆ σθαί φασι τῷ ῥήματι, οἱ ἐπὶ λέξεως τὰ σὰ διηγούμενοι. Ἐμὲ δὲ ἐπὶ πολλὰ τὴν διάνοιαν ἀναγαγόντα τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ οὐδέν τι μᾶλλον τῆς ἀμηχανίας ἀφίησιν. Ὥστε με καὶ τοιοῦτόν τι εἰσῆλθε· μή τις τῶν αἱρετικῶν, κακούργως τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ συγγράμμασι τὸ ἐμὸν ὄνομα παραγράψας, ἐλύπησέ σου τὴν ὀρθότητα καὶ ἐκείνην ἀφεῖναι τὴν φωνὴν προ ηγάγετο. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ τοῖς γεγραμμένοις ὑφ' ἡμῶν πρὸς τοὺς ἀνόμοιον κατ' οὐσίαν τολμήσαντας εἰπεῖν τὸν Υἱὸν καὶ Θεὸν τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρί, ἢ πρὸς τοὺς κτίσμα καὶ ποίημα εἶναι τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον βλασφημήσαντας, ταύτην ἂν ἐπενεγκεῖν τὴν λοιδορίαν ἠνέσχου, ὁ τοὺς μεγάλους ἄθλους ἐκείνους καὶ περιβοήτους ὑπὲρ τῆς ὀρθο δοξίας διενεγκών. Λύσαις δ' ἂν ἡμῖν τὴν ἀμηχανίαν αὐτός, εἰ ἐθελήσειας τὰ κινήσαντά σε πρὸς τὴν καθ' ἡμῶν λύπην φανερῶς ἐξαγγεῖλαι.