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who has established the character of his own disciples in perfect love. Wherefore I also reply of necessity, exhorting you to pray for us and to care for our other affairs as your own. But since, through ignorance, we ourselves are not able to understand the meaning of what is happening, we have decided to consider that to be true which you yourself might deign to explain to us. It is necessary also for the remaining things to be determined by your magnanimity: our meeting with each other, and the fitting time and a suitable place. If, then, your reverence endures at all to condescend to our lowliness and to share some word with us, whether you wish the meeting to be with others or by yourself, we will obey, having once for all resolved to serve you in love and to do in every way what is written to us by your piety for the glory of God. But we have compelled the most reverend brother to say nothing to us by word of mouth, because his word had not previously been confirmed by his deeds.

61. TO ATHANASIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA

61.1 I have read the letters of your holiness, in which you have lamented over the governor of Libya, that ill-omened man. And we have lamented our own country, because it is the mother and nurse of such evils. And we have also lamented your neighbor Libya, which is reaping the fruit of our evils and has been handed over to the bestial character of a man living in both cruelty and licentiousness. This, then, was the wisdom of Ecclesiastes: "Woe to you, O city, whose king is a youth (and here there is something even worse), and whose princes do not eat from the night," but are dissolute in the middle of the day, raging for the marriages of others more irrationally than beasts. For him, therefore, the scourges from the just Judge await, to be measured back with the same measure with which he himself has preemptively inflicted them on His saints. And he has been made known also to our Church from the letters of your godliness, and all will consider him abominable, sharing with him neither fire, nor water, nor shelter, if there is any benefit in a common and unanimous condemnation for those so possessed. And the letters themselves, being read everywhere, are a sufficient monument for him. For we will not cease showing them to all, both his own people and friends and strangers. But certainly, even if the penalties do not touch him immediately, as with Pharaoh, yet at some later time they will bring him a heavy and painful reckoning.

62. TO THE CHURCH OF PARNASSUS, A LETTER OF CONSOLATION

62.1 And following an ancient custom, which has prevailed from long succession, and showing to you the fruit of the Spirit, love according to God, we visit your piety by letter, sharing with you both in the grief over what has happened and in the care for the matters at hand. Concerning the sorrowful things, therefore, we say this much: that it is time for us to look to the precepts of the Apostle and not to grieve "as the rest, who have no hope," yet not to be unaffected by what has happened, but to feel the loss, yet not to be cast down by grief, blessing the shepherd for his end, as one who ended his life in a ripe old age and rests in the greatest honors from the Lord. But concerning the rest, we have this to advise: that it is fitting, having put away all dejection, to come to yourselves and to rise up for the necessary care of the Church, so that the holy God may take care of His own

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ἐν τῇ τελείᾳ ἀγάπῃ τὸν χαρακτῆρα τῶν ἑαυτοῦ μαθητῶν θεμένῳ. ∆ιὸ καὶ ἀντιφθέγγομαι ἀναγκαίως εὔχεσθαι ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν παρακαλῶν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα κήδεσθαι ὡς οἰκείων. Τὸν δὲ νοῦν τῶν γινομένων ἐπειδὴ αὐτοὶ ὑπὸ ἀμαθίας συνεῖναι οὐκ ἔχομεν, ἐκεῖνον ἐκρίναμεν ἀληθῆ εἶναι νομίζειν ὃν ἂν αὐτὸς ἡμῖν ἐξηγήσασθαι καταξιώσῃς. Ἀνάγκη δὲ καὶ τὰ λειπόμενα παρὰ τῆς σῆς μεγαλονοίας ὁρισθῆναι, τὴν συντυχίαν ἡμῶν τὴν πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ καιρὸν τὸν πρέποντα καὶ τόπον ἐπιτήδειον. Εἴπερ οὖν ὅλως ἀνέχεται καταβῆναι πρὸς τὴν ταπείνωσιν ἡμῶν ἡ σεμνότης σου καὶ λόγου τινὸς μεταδοῦναι ἡμῖν, εἴτε μετ' ἄλλων, εἴτε κατὰ σεαυτὸν βούλει γενέσθαι τὴν συντυχίαν, ὑπακουσό μεθα, τοῦτο ἅπαξ ἑαυτοῖς συμβουλεύσαντες, δουλεύειν σοι ἐν ἀγάπῃ καὶ ποιεῖν ἐκ παντὸς τρόπου τὰ εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ παρὰ τῆς εὐλαβείας σου ἡμῖν γραφόμενα. Τὸν δὲ αἰδεσι μώτατον ἀδελφὸν οὐδὲν ἠναγκάσαμεν ἀπὸ γλώττης εἰπεῖν ἡμῖν, διότι οὔτε πρότερον μεμαρτυρημένον εἶχε τὸν λόγον ὑπὸ τῶν ἔργων.

61.τ ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΩ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΩ ΑΛΕΞΑΝ∆ΡΕΙΑΣ

61.1 Ἐνέτυχον τοῖς γράμμασι τῆς ὁσιότητός σου, δι' ὧν τοῦ ἡγεμόνος τῆς

Λιβύης, τοῦ δυσωνύμου ἀνδρός, κατεστέ ναξας. Καὶ ὠδυράμεθα μὲν τὴν ἑαυτῶν πατρίδα, ὅτι τοιού των κακῶν μήτηρ ἐστὶ καὶ τροφός. Ὠδυράμεθα δὲ καὶ τὴν γείτονα τῆς ὑμετέρας Λιβύην, τῶν ἡμετέρων κακῶν ἀπο λαύουσαν καὶ θηριώδει ἤθει παραδοθεῖσαν ἀνδρὸς ὠμότητί τε ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀκολασίᾳ συζῶντος. Τοῦτο ἦν ἄρα τοῦ Ἐκκλη σιαστοῦ τὸ σοφόν· «Οὐαί σοι πόλις ἧς ὁ βασιλεύς σου νεώτερος (ἐνταῦθα δέ ἐστί τι καὶ χαλεπώτερον) καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντές σου οὐκ ἀπὸ νυκτὸς ἐσθίουσιν», ἀλλὰ μεσούσης τῆς ἡμέρας ἀκολασταίνουσι, βοσκημάτων ἀλογώτερον ἀλλοτρίοις γάμοις ἐπιμαινόμενοι. Ἐκεῖνον μὲν οὖν αἱ μάστιγες μένουσι παρὰ τοῦ δικαίου Κριτοῦ, τῷ ἴσῳ μέτρῳ ἀντιμετρηθησόμεναι ἃς αὐτὸς προλαβὼν ἐπέθηκε τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ. Ἐγνωρίσθη δὲ καὶ τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ ἡμῶν ἐκ τῶν γραμμάτων τῆς σῆς θεοσεβείας, καὶ ἀποτρόπαιον αὐτὸν πάντες ἡγήσονται, μὴ πυρός, μὴ ὕδατος, μὴ σκέπης αὐτῷ κοινωνοῦντες, εἴπερ τι ὄφελος τοῖς οὕτω κεκρατημένοις κοινῆς καὶ ὁμοψήφου καταγνώσεως. Ἀρκοῦσα δὲ αὐτῷ στήλη καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ γράμματα ἀναγινωσκόμενα πανταχοῦ. Οὐ γὰρ διαλείψομεν πᾶσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ οἰκείοις καὶ φίλοις καὶ ξένοις ἐπιδεικνύντες. Πάντως δέ, κἂν μὴ ἅψωνται αὐτοῦ παραχρῆμα τὰ ἐπιτίμια, ὥσπερ τοῦ Φαραώ, ἀλλ' εἰς ὕστερόν ποτε βαρεῖαν αὐτῷ καὶ ἀλγεινὴν τὴν ἀνάδοσιν οἴσει.

62.τ ΤΗ ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑ ΠΑΡΝΑΣΣΟΥ ΠΑΡΑΜΥΘΗΤΙΚΗ

62.1 Καὶ ἔθει ἑπόμενοι παλαιῷ ἐκ μακρᾶς τῆς ἀκολουθίας κεκρατηκότι καὶ

τὸν καρπὸν τοῦ Πνεύματος, τὴν κατὰ Θεὸν ἀγάπην, ὑμῖν ἐπιδεικνύμενοι, διὰ τοῦ γράμματος τὴν εὐλάβειαν ὑμῶν ἐπισκεπτόμεθα, κοινωνοῦντες ὑμῖν τῆς τε ἐπὶ τῷ συμβάντι λύπης καὶ τῆς φροντίδος τῶν ἐν χερσίν. Ὑπὲρ μὲν οὖν τῶν λυπηρῶν τοσοῦτον λέγομεν ὅτι καιρὸς ἡμῖν ἀποβλέψαι πρὸς τὰ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου παραγγέλματα καὶ μὴ λυπεῖσθαι «Ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί, οἱ μὴ ἔχοντες ἐλπίδα», οὐ μὴν οὐδ' ἀπαθῶς ἔχειν πρὸς τὸ συμβάν, ἀλλὰ τῆς μὲν ζημίας αἰσθάνεσθαι, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς λύπης μὴ κατα πίπτειν, τὸν μὲν ποιμένα τοῦ τέλους μακαρίζοντας, ὡς ἐν γήρει πίονι τὴν ζωὴν καταλύσαντα καὶ ταῖς μεγίσταις παρὰ τοῦ Κυρίου τιμαῖς ἐναναπαυσάμενον. Περὶ δὲ τῶν λοιπῶν ἐκεῖνα παραινεῖν ἔχομεν, ὅτι προσήκει, πᾶσαν ἀπο θεμένους κατήφειαν, ἑαυτῶν γενέσθαι καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀναγ καίαν πρόνοιαν τῆς Ἐκκλησίας διαναστῆναι, ὅπως ἂν ὁ ἅγιος Θεὸς ἐπιμεληθῇ τοῦ ἰδίου