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we conceal the grief to ourselves, being ashamed to announce your estrangement from us to our associates who are far away, lest we both grieve them and create joy for those who hate us. These things I have sent now on my own, but I have written by the will of all the brethren in Cappadocia, who also exhorted me not to use any chance deacon for the letter, but a man who will be able, beyond the letter, to supply all that we have omitted, fearing lest we should extend our account to great excess, through his own understanding which he has from the grace of God. We mean our most beloved and most reverent brother Peter the fellow-presbyter, whom you should receive in love and send forth to us in peace, that he may become for us a messenger of good things.

204. TO THE NEOCAESAREANS

204.1 For a long time we have been silent toward one another, our most honored and longed-for brethren, as if we had risen up in anger. And yet who is so wrathful and irreconcilable to one who has caused grief as to extend the anger born of hatred for almost a whole generation of man? This is what can be seen happening among us, when there exists no just cause for being separated—at least none that we ourselves know—but on the contrary many and great reasons for the highest friendship and union have existed for us from the beginning: first, the greatest and primary one, the commandment of the Lord who explicitly said, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another,” and again, that of the Apostle clearly presenting to us the good of love, both where he declares that love is the fulfillment of the law, and when he places the good of love before all great things together, in the words where he says: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing,” not as if any of the enumerated things could ever be activated without love, but because the holy man wished, as he himself said, in an exceedingly eminent way to testify to the pre-eminence of the commandment over all things. 204.2 Second, if sharing the same teachers contributes anything great to union, the same men are both your and our teachers of the mysteries of God and spiritual fathers, who from the beginning founded your Church. I mean the great Gregory and all those who in succession to him inherited the throne of the episcopate among you, one after another, as certain stars rising, they have walked in the same footsteps, so as to leave behind discernible signs of their heavenly conduct for those who wish to see. And if physical kinship is not to be rejected, but also contributes greatly to an unbreakable union and fellowship of life, we also possessed these rightful claims with you. For what reason then, O most august of cities (for through you I speak to the whole city), is there no gentle letter from you, no favorable word, but your ears are opened to those who attempt to slander us? Therefore I ought to groan so much the more, the more I see their zealous effort succeeding, since the work of slander has a manifest leader; who, being known for many wrongdoings, is characterized especially by this wickedness, so that the sin has even become his name. But nevertheless bear with my frankness; having thrown open both your ears to those who slander us, all things unexamined to your souls

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ἑαυτοῖς τὴν λύπην στέγομεν αἰσχυνόμενοι τοῖς πόρρωθεν ἡμῶν κοινωνικοῖς τὴν πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀλλοτρίωσιν ὑμῶν διαγγεῖλαι, ἵνα μὴ κἀκείνους θλίψωμεν καὶ χαρὰν τοῖς μισοῦσιν ἡμᾶς ἐμποιή σωμεν. Ταῦτα μόνος ἐπέστειλα νῦν, γνώμῃ δὲ τῶν ἐν Καππαδοκίᾳ πάντων ἀδελφῶν ἔγραψα, οἳ καὶ παρεκάλεσάν με μὴ τῷ τυχόντι χρήσασθαι διακόνῳ τοῦ γράμματος, ἀλλ' ἀνδρὶ ὃς δυνήσεται διὰ τῆς ἐπιστολῆς ὅσα παρήκαμεν, φοβούμενοι μὴ εἰς πολλὴν ἀμετρίαν τὸν λόγον ἐκβάλωμεν, ταῦτα διὰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ συνέσεως ἣν ἔχει ἐκ τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀναπληρῶσαι. Λέγομεν δὲ τὸν ποθεινότατον ἡμῖν καὶ εὐλαβέστατον ἀδελφὸν Πέτρον τὸν συμπρεσβύ τερον, ὃν καὶ δέξασθε ἐν ἀγάπῃ καὶ προπέμψατε πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἰρηνικῶς, ἵνα γένηται ἡμῖν ἀγαθῶν ἄγγελος.

204.τ ΤΟΙΣ ΝΕΟΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΥΣΙΝ

204.1 Πολὺν χρόνον ἀπεσιωπήσαμεν πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ἀδελφοὶ τιμιώτατοι

ἡμῖν καὶ περιπόθητοι, ὥσπερ οἱ πρὸς ὀργὴν διαναστάντες. Καίτοι τίς οὕτω βαρύμηνις καὶ δυσδιάλλακτος τῷ λελυπηκότι ὥστε ὅλῃ σχεδὸν ἀνθρώπου γενεᾷ τὴν ἐκ τοῦ μίσους ὀργὴν συμπαρεκτεῖναι; Ὃ περὶ ἡμᾶς ἐστιν ἰδεῖν γινόμενον οὐδεμιᾶς τοῦ διεζεῦχθαι δικαίας ἀφορμῆς ὑπαρχούσης, οὐκοῦν ὅσα γε ἴσμεν αὐτοί, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐναντίον πολλῶν καὶ μεγάλων πρὸς τὴν ἄκραν ἡμῖν φιλίαν καὶ ἕνωσιν ἐνυπαρχόντων τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς· ἑνὸς μὲν τοῦ μεγίστου καὶ πρώτου, τῆς ἐντολῆς τοῦ Κυρίου διαρ ρήδην εἰπόντος ὅτι «Ἐν τούτῳ γνώσονται πάντες ὅτι ἐμοὶ μαθηταί ἐστε, ἐὰν ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους», καὶ πάλιν τοῦ Ἀποστόλου σαφῶς τὸ τῆς ἀγάπης καλὸν παριστῶντος ἡμῖν τοῦτο μὲν ἐν οἷς ἀποφαίνεται πλήρωμα νόμου εἶναι τὴν ἀγάπην, τοῦτο δὲ ὅταν προτίθησι πάντων ὁμοῦ τῶν μεγάλων τὸ τῆς ἀγάπης καλόν, ἐν οἷς φησίν· «Ἐὰν ταῖς γλώσσαις τῶν ἀνθρώπων λαλῶ καὶ τῶν ἀγγέλων, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, γέγονα χαλκὸς ἠχῶν ἢ κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον. Καὶ ἐὰν ἔχω προφητείαν καὶ εἰδῶ τὰ μυστήρια πάντα καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γνῶσιν καὶ ἔχω πᾶσαν τὴν πίστιν ὥστε ὄρη μεθιστᾶν, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, οὐθέν εἰμι. Κἂν ψωμίσω πάντα τὰ ὑπάρχοντά μου κἂν παραδῷ τὸ σῶμά μου ἵνα καυθῇ, ἀγάπην δὲ μὴ ἔχω, οὐδὲν ὠφελοῦμαι», οὐχ ὡς δυναμένου ποτὲ τῶν ἀπηριθμημένων ἑκάστου δίχα τῆς ἀγάπης ἐνεργηθῆναι, ἀλλὰ βουλομένου τοῦ ἁγίου, ὡς αὐτὸς εἶπε, τῷ καθ' ὑπερβολὴν τρόπῳ τὴν κατὰ πάντων ὑπεροχὴν προσμαρτυρῆσαι τῇ ἐντολῇ. 204.2 ∆εύτερον δὲ ὅτι, εἴ τι μέγα συμβάλλεται πρὸς συνά φειαν καὶ τὸ τῶν αὐτῶν μετασχεῖν διδασκάλων, οἱ αὐτοὶ ὑμῖν τε εἰσὶ καὶ ἡμῖν διδάσκαλοί τε τῶν μυστηρίων τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ πατέρες πνευματικοί, οἱ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν τὴν ὑμετέραν θεμελιώσαντες. Γρηγόριον λέγω τὸν πάνυ καὶ ὅσοι ἐφεξῆς ἐκείνῳ τῆς παρ' ὑμῖν ἐπισκοπῆς τὸν θρόνον διαδεξάμενοι, ἄλλος ἐπ' ἄλλῳ, ὥσπερ τινὲς ἀστέρες ἐπανατέλλοντες κατὰ τῶν αὐτῶν ἰχνῶν ἐπέβησαν, ὥστε διάγνωστα καταλιπεῖν τῆς κατ' οὐρανὸν πολιτείας τὰ σημεῖα τοῖς βουλομένοις. Εἰ δὲ καὶ αἱ σωματικαὶ οἰκειό τητες οὐκ ἀπόβλητοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ μέγα συμβαλλόμεναι πρὸς ἀρραγῆ συνάφειαν καὶ κοινωνίαν βίου, καὶ ταῦτα ἡμῖν ὑπῆρξε πρὸς ὑμᾶς τὰ δίκαια. Τίνος οὖν ἕνεκεν, ὦ σεμνο τάτη πόλεων (δι' ὑμῶν γὰρ τῇ πόλει πάσῃ διαλέγομαι), οὐ γράμμα ἥμερον αὐτόθεν, οὐ φωνὴ δεξιά, ἀλλ' ἤνοικται μὲν ὑμῶν τὰ ὦτα τοῖς διαβάλλειν ἐπιχειροῦσιν; Ὥστε τοσοῦτον πλέον στενάζειν ὀφείλω, ὅσῳ περ ἂν μᾶλλον ἴδω τὸ σπου δαζόμενον αὐτοῖς κατορθούμενον, ἐπειδὴ τὸ τῆς διαβολῆς ἔργον φανερὸν ἔχει τὸν καθηγούμενον· ὃς ἀπὸ πολλῶν ὑπάρχων ἀδικημάτων γνώριμος ἀπὸ ταύτης μάλιστα τῆς πονηρίας χαρακτηρίζεται, ὥστε καὶ ὄνομα αὐτῷ γενέσθαι τὴν ἁμαρτίαν. Πλὴν ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς ἀνάσχεσθέ μου τῆς παρ ρησίας· ἀμφοτέρας τὰς ἀκοὰς τοῖς διαβάλλουσιν ἡμᾶς ἀναπετάσαντες πάντα ἀνεξετάστως ταῖς ψυχαῖς