Letter XXV.250    Placed, like the former, before the episcopate.

To Athanasius, bishop of Ancyra.251    This Athanasius was appointed to the see of Ancyra (Angora) by the influence of Acacius the one-eyed, bp. of Cæsarea, the inveterate opponent of Cyril of Jerusalem, and leader of the Homœans.  He therefore started his episcopate under unfavorable auspices, but acquired a reputation for orthodoxy.  cf. Greg. Nyss., Contra Eunom. I. ii. 292.  On Basil’s high opinion of him, cf. Letter xxix.

1.  I have received intelligence from those who come to me from Ancyra, and they are many and more than I can count, but they all agree in what they say, that you, a man very dear to me, (how can I speak so as to give no offence?) do not mention me in very pleasant terms, nor yet in such as your character would lead me to expect.  I, however, learned long ago the weakness of human nature, and its readiness to turn from one extreme to another; and so, be well assured, nothing connected with it can astonish me, nor does any change come quite unexpected.  Therefore that my lot should have changed for the worse, and that reproaches and insults should have arisen in the place of former respect, I do not make much ado.  But one thing does really strike me as astonishing and monstrous, and that is that it should be you who have this mind about me, and go so far as to feel anger and indignation against me, and, if the report of your hearers is to be believed, have already proceeded to such extremities as to utter threats.  At these threats, I will not deny, I really have laughed.  Truly I should have been but a boy to be frightened at such bugbears.  But it does seem to me alarming and distressing that you, who, as I have trusted, are preserved for the comfort of the churches, a buttress of the truth where many fall away, and a seed of the ancient and true love, should so far fall in with the present course of events as to be more influenced by the calumny of the first man you come across than by your long knowledge of me, and, without any proof, should be seduced into suspecting absurdities.

2.  But, as I said, for the present I postpone the case.  Would it have been too hard a task, my dear sir, to discuss in a short letter, as between friend and friend, points which you wish to raise; or, if you objected to entrusting such things to writing, to get me to come to you?  But if you could not help speaking out, and your uncontrollable anger allowed no time for delay, at least you might have employed one of those about you who are naturally adapted for dealing with confidential matters, as a means of communication with me.  But now, of all those who for one reason or another approach you, into whose ears has it not been dinned that I am a writer and composer of certain “pests”?  For this is the word which those, who quote you word for word, say that you have used.  The more I bring my mind to bear upon the matter the more hopeless is my puzzle.  This idea has struck me.  Can any heretic have grieved your orthodoxy, and driven you to the utterance of that word by malevolently putting my name to his own writings?  For you, a man who has sustained great and famous contests on behalf of the truth, could never have endured to inflict such an outrage on what I am well known to have written against those who dare to say that God the Son is in essence unlike God the Father, or who blasphemously describe the Holy Ghost as created and made.  You might relieve me from my difficulty yourself, if you would tell me plainly what it is that has stirred you to be thus offended with me.

ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙῼ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠῼ ΑΓΚΥΡΑΣ

[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 ἀπροσδόκητός ἐστιν οὐδενὸς τῶν πάντων μεταβολή, πάλαι τὸ τῆς φύσεως ἀσθενὲς καὶ τὸ εὐπερίτρεπτον πρὸς τὰ ἐναντία καταμαθόντα. Ὅθεν οὔτ' εἴ τι τῶν ἡμετέρων μεταπέπτωκε καὶ ἐκ τῆς πρότερον τιμῆς λοιδορίαι καὶ ὕβρεις περὶ ἡμᾶς νῦν γίνονται, μέγα τοῦτο ποιοῦμαι. Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνό μοι τὴν πρώτην παράδοξον ὡς ἀληθῶς καὶ ὑπερφυὲς 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 ἀπειλῶν 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 παραμυθίαν 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 ὑπόνοιαν χωρὶς ἀποδείξεων ὑπαχθῆναι. Καίτοι τί λέγω ὑπόνοιαν; Ὁ γὰρ ἀγανακτήσας καὶ διαπειληθείς, ὥς φασιν, οὐχ ὑπονοοῦντος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἤδη σαφῶς καὶ ἀναντιρρήτως πεισθέντος δοκεῖ πως ὀργὴν ἐνδεδεῖχθαι.

[2] Ἀλλ', ὅπερ ἔφην, ἐπὶ τὸν καιρὸν τούτων ἀναφέρομεν τὴν αἰτίαν. Ἐπεὶ πόσου πόνου ἦν, ὦ θαυμάσιε, ἐν ἐπιστολῇ 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 πεφυκότων 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 κεχρῆσθαί 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 προηγάγετο. 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 ὀρθοδοξίας διενεγκών. Λύσαις δ' ἂν ἡμῖν τὴν ἀμηχανίαν αὐτός, εἰ ἐθελήσειας τὰ κινήσαντά σε πρὸς τὴν καθ' ἡμῶν λύπην φανερῶς ἐξαγγεῖλαι.