75

may they strengthen their all-glorious kingdom with praiseworthy zeal. 140 TO ASPAR, CONSUL AND PATRICIAN. This too needed to be added to the other achievements of your manliness, that our most pious and Christ-loving emperor, whom divine grace appointed for the benefit of his subjects, should learn through your genius the excess of the injustice against us and should repeal by a just law one that is not so. For even if we, supported by divine Providence, made the supposed punishment an occasion for good, and gladly accepted the tranquility; yet we have suffered unjust and lawless things, having committed none of the offenses of which the enemies of the truth accused us, but suffering the terrible things of those who have dared the greatest crimes; or rather, we have endured even harsher things than these. For we were both judged without a trial, and condemned in our absence; and having been prevented by imperial letters from reaching Ephesus, we received the most just verdict of the holy judges. But the most serene emperor has resolved all these things, through the zeal of your magnificence. But I, thinking it wrong if I should be silent and not even express thanks, have come to this letter, through which I beseech your greatness, to offer praises on our behalf both to the victorious and Christ-loving emperor, and to the most God-loving and most pious Augusta; for whom I beseech the good Lord to the best of my ability, that he might keep their kingdom secure, providing humanely for its subjects, terrifying its enemies, and dispensing praiseworthy peace to all. And may your greatness be entreated to beseech them, to grant a complete resolution to the storm of the Church, and to order a synod to be assembled, not with those accustomed to make a disturbance again disrupting the council, but with the tranquility of those who have been instructed in divine things; confirming the apostolic doctrines, and rejecting those that are spurious and alien to the truth; so that your greatness may also reap the benefit from this. 141 TO VINCOMALUS, MAGISTER. I was very much amazed to learn that your magnificence, being completely ignorant of our affairs, but having learned only of the injustice against us, appeared as our advocate, and moved every resource to undo the plots against us. But the greatly-giving Lord will surely give recompense to your greatness. For he who promised to give a reward for a little water will surely provide greater rewards to those who have given greater things. But we have suffered such things, not only from our most manifest enemies, but also from genuine friends, as we supposed, being warred against by the former, and betrayed by the latter, such as either no one, or very few of the ancients, have endured. For who has ever heard of such a trial? Who, having bound the accused thirty-five stages away, ordered the judges to try one who was not present? And what judge has been so cruel and beastly, as to pass judgment on men whose voice he has not heard, and not only to judge, but also to condemn, and this very cruelly and savagely? For while the Lord commanded that the erring brother, who does not heed counsel, after a first, and second, and third admonition, should afterward be regarded as a Gentile and a tax collector; these most upright and most just judges, did not grant to their fellow believers even what they grant to Gentiles and tax collectors. For they see them, and sometimes even converse with them, and with

75

ἀξιεπαίνῳ ζήλῳ τὴν πανεύφημον αὐτῶν βασιλείαν κρατύνωσιν. 140 ΑΣΠΑΡΙ ΥΠΑΤΙΚΩ ΚΑΙ ΠΑΤΡΙΚΙΩ. Ἔδει καὶ τοῦτο τοῖς ἄλλοις τῆς ὑμετέρας ἀνδρίας κατορθώ μασι προστεθῆναι, τὸ τὸν εὐσεβέστατον ἡμῶν καὶ φιλόχριστον βασιλέα, ὃν ἡ θεία χάρις ἐπ' εὐεργεσίᾳ τῶν ἀρχομένων ἀν έδειξε, διὰ τῆς ὑμετέρας μεγαλοφυΐας μαθεῖν τὴν τῆς καθ' ἡμῶν ἀδικίας ὑπερβολὴν καὶ λῦσαι νόμῳ νόμον δικαίῳ τὸν οὐ τοιοῦτον. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς, ὑπὸ τῆς θείας ἐρειδόμενοι Προ μηθείας, ἀφορμὴν ἀγαθῶν ἐποιήσαμεν τὴν νομισθεῖσαν τιμω ρίαν, καὶ τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἀσπαστῶς ἐδεξάμεθα· ἀλλ' οὖν ἄδικα πεπόνθαμεν καὶ παράνομα, οὐδὲν μὲν πεπλημμεληκότες ὧν ἐσυκοφάντησαν ἡμᾶς οἱ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθροί, τὰ δὲ τῶν τὰ μέγιστα τετολμηκότων πεπονθότες δεινά· μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ τού των ὑπέστημεν χαλεπώτερα. Ἀκρίτως γὰρ καὶ ἐκρίθημεν, καὶ ἀπόντες κατεδικάσθημεν· καὶ βασιλικοῖς γράμμασι κωλυ θέντες καταλαβεῖν τὴν Ἔφεσον, τὴν δικαιοτάτην τῶν ἱερῶν δικαστῶν ἐδεξάμεθα ψῆφον. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα πάντα λέλυκεν ὁ γαληνότατος βασιλεύς, διὰ τὴν τῆς ὑμετέρας μεγαλοπρεπείας σπουδήν. Ἐγὼ δὲ ἀδικεῖν νομίσας εἰ σιγήσαιμι καὶ μηδὲ χάριν ὁμολογήσαιμι, ἐπὶ τάδε ἦλθον τὰ γράμματα, δι' ὧν τὸ ὑμέτε ρον παρακαλῶ μέγεθος, τὰς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν εὐφημίας καὶ τῷ νικηφόρῳ καὶ φιλοχρίστῳ βασιλεῖ προσενεγκεῖν, καὶ τῇ θεοφι λεστάτῃ καὶ εὐσεβεστάτῃ Αὐγούστῃ· ὑπὲρ ὧν εἰς δύναμιν τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἱκετεύω ∆εσπότην, ὥστε αὐτῶν βεβαίαν φυλάξαι τὴν βασιλείαν, τῶν μὲν ὑπηκόων φιλανθρώπως προμηθουμένην, τοὺς δὲ πολεμίους δεδιττομένην, καὶ τὴν ἀξιέπαινον εἰρήνην πρυτανεύουσαν ἅπασιν. Ἱκετεῦσαι δὲ αὐτοὺς παρακληθήτω τὸ ὑμέτερον μέγεθος, δοῦναι λύσιν τελείαν τῷ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας χειμῶνι, καὶ κελεῦσαι συναθροισθῆναι σύνοδον, μὴ πάλιν τῶν θορυβεῖν εἰωθότων τὸ συνέδριον ταραττόντων, ἀλλὰ μεθ' ἡσυ χίας τῶν τὰ θεῖα πεπαιδευμένων· τὰ μὲν ἀποστολικὰ δόγματα βεβαιούντων, ἀποκρινόντων δὲ τὰ νόθα καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀλλό τρια· ἵνα καὶ τὸ ἐντεῦθεν δρέψηται κέρδος τὸ ὑμέτερον μέγε θος. 141 ΒΙΓΚΟΜΑΛΩ ΜΑΓΙΣΤΡΩ. Λίαν ἐθαύμασα γνοὺς ὅτι πάμπαν ἀγνοοῦσα τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἡ ὑμετέρα μεγαλοπρέπεια, μόνην δὲ τὴν καθ' ἡμῶν ἀδικίαν μαθοῦσα, συνήγορος ἡμῶν ἀνεφάνη, καὶ πάντα πόρον ἐκίνησεν, ὥστε διαλῦσαι τὰ καθ' ἡμῶν τυρευθέντα. Ἀλλὰ τῷ μὲν ὑμετέρῳ μεγέθει δώσει πάντως τὰς ἀντιδόσεις ὁ μεγαλόδωρος Κύριος. Ὁ γὰρ ὑπὲρ σμικροῦ ὕδατος μισθὸν δώσειν ἐπαγγειλάμενος μείζους παρέξει δήπουθεν ἀμοιβὰς τοῖς τὰ μείζονα δεδωκό σιν. Ἡμεῖς δὲ τοιαῦτα πεπόνθαμεν, οὐ μόνον παρὰ τῶν προ δηλοτάτων ἐχθρῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρὰ τῶν γνησίων, ὡς ὑπελαμ βάνομεν, φίλων, ὑπὸ μὲν ἐκείνων πολεμηθέντες, ὑπὸ δὲ τούτων προδοθέντες, οἷα ἢ οὐδείς, ἢ ἄγαν ὀλίγοι τῶν παλαιῶν ὑπέστησαν. Τίς γὰρ τοιαύτης δίκης ἀκήκοε πώποτε; Τίς τὸν κατηγορούμενον πρὸ πέντε καὶ τριάκοντα πεδήσας σταθμῶν, ἐκέλευσε δικάσαι τῷ μὴ παρόντι τοὺς δικαστάς; Τίς δὲ οὕτως ὠμὸς καὶ θηριώδης γεγένηται δικαστής, ὥστε δικάσαι ἀνδρά σιν, ὧν τῆς φωνῆς οὐκ ἐπήκουσε, καὶ οὐ δικάσαι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ καταδικάσαι, καὶ τοῦτο λίαν ὠμῶς καὶ θηριωδῶς; Τοῦ γὰρ Κυρίου προστεταχότος τὸν πλημμελοῦντα τῶν ἀδελφῶν, καὶ τῆς συμβουλίας οὐκ ἀνεχόμενον, μετὰ πρώτην, καὶ δευτέραν, καὶ τρίτην νουθεσίαν, ὕστερον ἔχειν ὡς τὸν ἐθνικὸν καὶ τὸν τελώνην· οἱ ὀρθότατοι καὶ δικαιότατοι κριταί, οὐδὲ ὧν τοῖς ἐθνικοῖς καὶ τελώναις μεταδιδόασι, τοῖς ὁμοπίστοις μετέδο σαν. Ἐκείνους μὲν γὰρ καὶ ὁρῶσιν, καὶ ἔστιν ὅτε προσδιαλέ γονται, καὶ μετὰ