97

adding, but also that through these very difficulties we may be helped more, believing in him when we are also more in need.

124. TO THEODORE

124.1 Some say that those who have been captured by the passion of love, when by some rather violent necessity they are led away from their desired ones, if they should look upon the image of the beloved form, they assuage the vehemence of their passion through the enjoyment in their eyes. Now, whether these things are true or not, I cannot say; but what has happened to me with regard to your goodness is not far from what has been said. For since a certain disposition has come to me for your sacred and guileless soul, so to speak, of love, and since enjoying what is desired, like any other good thing, is not easy for us because of the opposition from our sins, I considered that I had seen a most vivid image of your goodness in the presence of our most reverent brothers. For even if it had happened that I met with your genuineness without them, I would have reckoned to have seen them in you, because the measure of love, I say, is so great in each of you that the rivalry for the greater part is equally manifest in each. For these things I have given thanks to the holy God and I pray, if any time of life still remains, that life may be made pleasant for me through you, since, for the present at least, I consider living to be a wretched and avoidable thing when separated from the company of the dearest friends. For there is not, in my judgment, any reason for which one might be cheerful when separated from those who truly love.

125. A COPY OF THE FAITH DICTATED BY THE MOST HOLY BASIL WHICH EUSTATHIUS, BISHOP OF SEBASTEIA, SUBSCRIBED

125.1 Those who have either been preoccupied with another confession of faith and wish to transfer to communion with the orthodox, or who now for the first time desire to be in the instruction of the word of truth, must be taught the faith written by the blessed Fathers in the synod once convened at Nicaea. And this same thing would be useful also for those who are suspected of holding contrary to the sound teaching and who obscure their heterodox opinion with plausible excuses. For to these also the established faith is sufficient. For either they would correct their secret disease, or, covering it in the depth, they themselves will bear the judgment for their deceit, but for us they will prepare an easy defense on the day of judgment, when the Lord will reveal the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the hearts. It is fitting, therefore, to receive them confessing that they believe according to the words set forth by our Fathers at Nicaea and according to the meaning soundly indicated by these words. For there are some who even in this faith adulterate the word of truth and draw the sense of the words in it toward their own will. In fact, Marcellus even dared, being impious against the hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ and explaining him as a mere word, to pretend from there that he had received the principles of the *homoousion*, interpreting it wrongly. And some of those from the impiety of Sabellius the Libyan, supposing hypostasis and ousia to be the same thing, draw from there the starting points for the construction of their own blasphemy, from the fact that it is written in the creed that: "But if any one says that the Son is of another ousia or hypostasis, the catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes." For they did not say the same thing

97

προστιθέμενοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ δι' αὐτῶν τῶν δυσχερῶν ὠφε λώμεθα μᾶλλον αὐτῷ πιστεύοντες ὅτε καὶ μᾶλλον χρῄ ζομεν.

124.τ ΘΕΟ∆ΩΡΩ

124.1 Λέγουσί τινες τοὺς ἑαλωκότας τῷ πάθει τοῦ ἔρωτος, ὅταν κατά τινα

βιαιοτέραν ἀνάγκην τῶν ποθουμένων ἀπάγωνται, εἰ πρὸς τὴν εἰκόνα τῆς ἀγαπηθείσης μορφῆς ἀποβλέψειαν, τὸ σφοδρὸν ἀναπαύειν τοῦ πάθους διὰ τῆς ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς ἀπολαύσεως. Εἰ μὲν οὖν ἀληθῆ ταῦτα ἢ μή, λέγειν οὐκ ἔχω· ὃ δέ μοι πρὸς τὴν σὴν συμβέβηκεν ἀγα θότητα οὐ πόρρω τῶν εἰρημένων ἐστίν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ γέγονέ τις διάθεσις ἐμοὶ πρὸς τὴν ἱερὰν καὶ ἄδολόν σου ψυχήν, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, ἐρωτική, τὸ δὲ ἀπολαύειν τῶν ποθουμένων, ὡς οὐδὲ ἄλλο τι τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ἐν εὐκολίᾳ ἡμῖν ἐστι διὰ τὴν ἐκ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἐναντίωσιν, ἐνόμισα εἰκόνα τῆς ἀγα θότητός σου ἐναργεστάτην ἐν τῇ τῶν εὐλαβεστάτων ἀδελφῶν ἡμῶν παρουσίᾳ ἑωρακέναι. Καὶ γὰρ εἰ δίχα τού των συνέβη τῇ σῇ με περιτυχεῖν γνησιότητι, ἐλογισάμην ἂν ἐν σοὶ κἀκείνους ἑωρακέναι, διότι τῆς ἀγάπης, λέγω, τοσοῦτον ἐν ἑκάστῳ ὑμῶν τὸ μέτρον ἐστὶν ὡς ἐπίσης τὴν περὶ τοῦ πλείονος ἑκάστῳ φιλονεικίαν ἐμφαίνεσθαι. Ἐπὶ τούτοις ηὐχαρίστησα τῷ ἁγίῳ Θεῷ καὶ εὔχομαι, εἴπερ ἔτι ὑπολείπεταί τις χρόνος ζωῆς, γενέσθαι μοι διὰ σοῦ τὴν ζωὴν ἡδεῖαν, ὡς, τό γε νῦν, ἄθλιον πρᾶγμα τὸ ζῆν καὶ φευκτὸν εἶναι ἡγοῦμαι τῆς τῶν φιλτάτων συνουσίας κεχωρισμένον. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι, κατὰ τὴν ἐμὴν κρίσιν, ἐφ' ᾧ τις ἂν εὐθυμήσειε τῶν ἀληθῶς ἀγαπώντων διεζευγμένος.

125.τ ΑΝΤΙΓΡΑΦΟΝ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ ΥΠΑΓΟΡΕΥΘΕΙΣΗΣ ΠΑΡΑ ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΩΤΑΤΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΥ Η ΥΠΕΓΡΑΨΕΝ ΕΥΣΤΑΘΙΟΣ Ο ΣΕΒΑΣΤΕΙΑΣ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΣ

125.1 Τοὺς ἢ προληφθέντας ἑτέρᾳ πίστεως ὁμολογίᾳ καὶ μετατίθεσθαι πρὸς

τὴν τῶν ὀρθῶν συνάφειαν βουλομένους ἢ καὶ νῦν πρῶτον ἐν τῇ κατηχήσει τοῦ λόγου τῆς ἀληθείας ἐπιθυμοῦντας γενέσθαι διδάσκεσθαι χρὴ τὴν ὑπὸ τῶν μακαρίων Πατέρων ἐν τῇ κατὰ Νίκαιάν ποτε συγκροτη θείσῃ συνόδῳ γραφεῖσαν πίστιν. Τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ τοῦτο χρήσιμον ἂν εἴη καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ὑπονοουμένους ἐναντίως ἔχειν τῇ ὑγιαινούσῃ διδασκαλίᾳ καὶ συσκιάζοντας ἑαυτῶν ἀποφυ γαῖς εὐπροσώποις τὸ τῆς κακοδοξίας φρόνημα. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ τούτοις αὐτάρκης ἡ ἐγκειμένη πίστις. Ἢ γὰρ διορθώ σαιντο ἑαυτῶν τὴν ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ νόσον ἢ συγκαλύπτοντες αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ βάθει αὐτοὶ μὲν τὸ κρίμα τῆς ἀπάτης βαστά σουσιν, ἡμῖν δὲ τὴν ἀπολογίαν κούφην ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς κρίσεως παρασκευάσουσιν, ὅτε ἀποκαλύψει ὁ Κύριος τὰ κρυπτὰ τοῦ σκότους καὶ φανερώσει τὰς βουλὰς τῶν καρ διῶν. Λαμβάνειν τοίνυν αὐτοὺς ὁμολογοῦντας προσήκει ὅτι πιστεύουσι κατὰ τὰ ῥήματα τὰ ὑπὸ τῶν Πατέρων ἡμῶν ἐκτεθέντα ἐν τῇ Νικαίᾳ καὶ κατὰ τὴν ὑγιῶς ὑπὸ τῶν ῥημάτων τούτων ἐμφαινομένην διάνοιαν. Εἰσὶ γάρ τινες οἱ καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ πίστει δολοῦντες τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἑαυτῶν βούλημα τὸν νοῦν τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ ῥημάτων ἕλκοντες. Ὅπου γε καὶ Μάρκελλος ἐτόλμησεν ἀσεβῶν εἰς τὴν ὑπόστασιν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ ψιλὸν αὐτὸν ἐξηγούμενος λόγον ἐκεῖθεν προφασίσασθαι τὰς ἀρχὰς εἰληφέναι τοῦ ὁμοουσίου τὴν διάνοιαν κακῶς ἐξηγούμενος. Καί τινες τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς δυσσεβείας τοῦ Λίβυος Σαβελλίου ὑπόστασιν καὶ οὐσίαν ταὐτὸν εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνοντες ἐκεῖθεν ἕλκουσι τὰς ἀφορμὰς πρὸς τὴν κατασκευὴν τῆς ἑαυτῶν βλασφημίας, ἐκ τοῦ ἐγγεγράφθαι τῇ πίστει ὅτι· «Ἐὰν δέ τις λέγῃ ἐξ ἑτέρας οὐσίας ἢ ὑποστάσεως τὸν Υἱόν, ἀναθεματίζει ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ ἀποστολικὴ Ἐκκλησία.» Οὐ γὰρ ταὐτὸν εἶπον