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having thrust aside the boast of the cross. Shepherds are driven out, and grievous wolves are brought in instead, scattering the flock of Christ. Houses of prayer are empty of worshippers, the wildernesses are full of mourners. The elders mourn, comparing the past with the present; the young are more pitiful, not knowing of what they have been deprived. These things are sufficient to move to sympathy those who have been taught the love of Christ, but the account, when compared with the truth of the events, falls far short of their worth. If, therefore, there is any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, be moved to our assistance. Take up a zeal for piety, deliver us from this storm. Let that good proclamation of the Fathers be spoken among you also with boldness, which overthrows the ill-named heresy of Arius, and builds up the Churches in the sound doctrine in which the Son is confessed to be consubstantial with the Father, and the Holy Spirit is counted and worshipped with equal honor, so that the boldness for the truth which the Lord has given to you, and the boast in the confession of the divine and saving Trinity, He may grant this to us also through your prayers and your cooperation. But the aforementioned fellow-deacon himself will report each detail to your charity. And we have agreed to all things done canonically by your honor, having accepted your apostolic zeal on behalf of orthodoxy.

91. TO VALERIAN, BISHOP OF THE ILLYRIANS

91.1 Grace be to the Lord, who granted us to see the fruit of ancient love in your purity, you who, though so distant in body, have joined yourself to us by a letter and, by embracing us with your spiritual and holy desire, have created an ineffable affection in our souls. For we have learned by experience the power of the proverb, that “As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” For there is a terrible famine of love among us, most honored brother. And the cause is manifest, that because iniquity has abounded, the love of many has grown cold. For this reason your letter appeared to us of great worth, and we are answering you through the same man, our most reverent fellow-deacon Sabinus, through whom we both make ourselves known to you and beseech you to be vigilant in your prayers for us, that the holy God may at some time grant both calm and quiet to the affairs here and may rebuke this wind and the sea, so that we may cease from the tossing and the overturning in which we are now situated, always expecting to be completely submerged. But this the Lord has greatly granted to us in the present circumstances, to hear that you are in precise harmony and unity with one another, and that the proclamation of piety is announced among you without hindrance; for whenever (if indeed the time of this world is not yet concluded, but days of human life still remain) it is necessary for the faith to be renewed in the East by you and that, for the good things you have received from her, you provide her with the return at the proper time. For the sound part here, which vindicates the piety of the fathers, is sufficiently weary, the devil having shaken it by many and varied assaults of his devices in his methodical way. But by your prayers, of those who love the Lord, may the wicked and people-deceiving heresy of the Arian misbelief be extinguished, and may the good teaching of our Fathers, who gathered at Nicaea, shine forth again, so that the doxology in harmony with the saving baptism may be fulfilled to the blessed Trinity.

92. TO THE ITALIANS AND GAULS

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παρωσαμένη τὸ καύχημα τοῦ σταυροῦ. Ποιμένες ἀπελαύ νονται, ἀντεισάγονται δὲ λύκοι βαρεῖς, διασπῶντες τὸ ποίμνιον τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Οἶκοι εὐκτήριοι ἔρημοι τῶν ἐκκλη σιαζόντων, αἱ ἐρημίαι πλήρεις τῶν ὀδυρομένων. Οἱ πρεσ βύτεροι ὀδύρονται, τὰ παλαιὰ συγκρίνοντες τοῖς παροῦσιν· οἱ νέοι ἐλεεινότεροι, μὴ εἰδότες οἵων ἐστέρηνται. Ταῦτα ἱκανὰ μὲν κινῆσαι εἰς συμπάθειαν τοὺς τὴν Χριστοῦ ἀγά πην πεπαιδευμένους, συγκρινόμενος δὲ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τῶν πραγμάτων ὁ λόγος ἀξίας πολὺ τῆς αὐτῶν ἀπολείπεται. Εἴ τι οὖν παραμύθιον ἀγάπης, εἴ τις κοινωνία Πνεύματος, εἴ τι σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί, κινήθητε πρὸς τὴν ἀντίληψιν ἡμῶν. Λάβετε ζῆλον εὐσεβείας, ἐξέλεσθε ἡμᾶς τοῦ χει μῶνος τούτου. Λαλείσθω καὶ παρ' ὑμῖν μετὰ παρρησίας τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἐκεῖνο κήρυγμα τῶν Πατέρων, τὸ καταστρέφον μὲν τὴν δυσώνυμον αἵρεσιν τὴν Ἀρείου, οἰκοδομοῦν δὲ τὰς Ἐκκλησίας ἐν τῇ ὑγιαινούσῃ διδασκαλίᾳ ἐν ᾗ ὁ Υἱὸς ὁμο ούσιος τῷ Πατρὶ ὁμολογεῖται καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον ὁμοτίμως συναριθμεῖταί τε καὶ συλλατρεύεται, ἵνα ἣν ὑμῖν ἔδωκεν ὁ Κύριος ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀληθείας παρρησίαν καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τῇ ὁμολογίᾳ τῆς θείας καὶ σωτηρίου Τριάδος καύχημα, τοῦτο καὶ ἡμῖν διὰ τῶν ὑμετέρων εὐχῶν καὶ τῆς συνεργίας ὑμῶν χαρίσηται. Τὸ δὲ καθέκαστον αὐτὸς ὁ προειρημένος συνδιάκονος ἀναγγελεῖ ὑμῶν τῇ ἀγάπῃ. Καὶ πᾶσι δὲ τοῖς γενομένοις κανονικῶς παρὰ τῆς ὑμετέρας τιμιότητος συνεθέμεθα, τὸν ἀποστολικὸν ὑμῶν ζῆλον ὑπὲρ τῆς ὀρθο δοξίας ἀποδεξάμενοι.

91.τ ΟΥΑΛΕΡΙΑΝΩ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΩ ΙΛΛΥΡΙΩΝ

91.1 Χάρις τῷ Κυρίῳ, τῷ δόντι ἡμῖν ἀρχαίας ἀγάπης καρπὸν ἰδεῖν ἐν τῇ σῇ καθαρότητι, ὅς γε τοσοῦτον διεστὼς τῷ σώματι συνῆψας ἡμῖν σεαυτὸν διὰ γράμματος καί, τῷ πνευματικῷ σου καὶ ἁγίῳ πόθῳ περιπτυξάμενος ἡμᾶς, ἀμύθητόν τι φίλτρον ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἡμῶν ἐνεποίησας. Ἔργῳ γὰρ ἐμάθομεν τῆς παροιμίας τὴν δύναμιν, ὅτι «Ὥσπερ ψυχῇ διψώσῃ ψυχρὸν ὕδωρ, οὕτως ἀγγελία ἀγαθὴ ἐκ γῆς μακρό θεν». ∆εινὸς γάρ ἐστι παρ' ἡμῖν λιμὸς ἀγάπης, ἀδελφὲ τιμιώτατε. Καὶ ἡ αἰτία πρόδηλος, ὅτι διὰ τὸ πληθυνθῆναι τὴν ἀνομίαν ἐψύγη τῶν πολλῶν ἡ ἀγάπη. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ πολλοῦ ἄξιον ἡμῖν ἐφάνη τὸ γράμμα καὶ ἀμειβόμεθά σε διὰ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἀνδρός, τοῦ εὐλαβεστάτου συνδιακόνου ἡμῶν Σαβίνου, δι' οὗ καὶ γνωρίζομέν σοι ἑαυτοὺς καὶ παρακα λοῦμέν σε ἐπαγρυπνεῖν ταῖς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν προσευχαῖς, ἵνα δῷ ποτε ὁ ἅγιος Θεὸς καὶ τοῖς ἐνταῦθα πράγμασι γαλήνην καὶ ἡσυχίαν καὶ ἐπιτιμήσῃ τῷ ἀνέμῳ τούτῳ καὶ τῇ θαλάσσῃ, ὥστε παύσασθαι ἡμᾶς τοῦ σάλου καὶ τῆς ἀνατρο πῆς ἐν ᾗ νῦν καθεστήκαμεν, ἀεὶ καταποντισθήσεσθαι παντελῶς ἀναμένοντες. Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μεγάλως ἐν τοῖς παροῦσιν ὁ Κύριος ἡμῖν ἐχαρίσατο, τὸ ὑμᾶς ἀκούειν ἐν ἀκριβεῖ συμφωνίᾳ καὶ ἑνότητι εἶναι πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ ἀκωλύτως παρ' ὑμῖν τὸ κήρυγμα τῆς εὐσεβείας περιαγγέλ λεσθαι· ὁτεδήποτε γὰρ (εἴπερ μὴ συγκέκλεισται λοιπὸν ὁ χρόνος τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, ἀλλ' ἔτι ἡμέραι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς ὑπολείπονται) ἀνάγκη παρ' ὑμῶν ἀνανεωθῆναι τὴν πίστιν τῇ Ἀνατολῇ καὶ ὧν ἐλάβετε παρ' αὐτῆς ἀγαθῶν, τούτων ἐν καιρῷ παρασχέσθαι αὐτῇ τὴν ἀντίδοσιν. Τὸ γὰρ ὑγιαῖνον ἐνταῦθα μέρος καὶ τὴν τῶν πατέρων εὐσέβειαν ἐκδικοῦν ἱκανῶς κέκμηκε, πολλαῖς καὶ ποικίλαις μηχανη μάτων προσβολαῖς ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ μεθοδείᾳ τοῦ διαβόλου αὐτὸ κατασείσαντος. Ἀλλ' εὐχαῖς ὑμετέραις, τῶν ἀγα πώντων τὸν Κύριον, σβεσθείη μὲν ἡ πονηρὰ καὶ λαοπλά νος αἵρεσις τῆς Ἀρείου κακοδοξίας, ἀναλάμψειε δὲ ἡ ἀγαθὴ τῶν Πατέρων ἡμῶν διδασκαλία, τῶν συνελθόντων κατὰ τὴν Νίκαιαν, ὥστε σύμφωνον τῷ σωτηρίῳ βαπτί σματι τὴν δοξολογίαν ἀποπληροῦσθαι τῇ μακαρίᾳ Τριάδι.

92.τ ΠΡΟΣ ΙΤΑΛΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΓΑΛΛΟΥΣ