Letter CLXXVII.850    Placed in 374.

To Saphronius the Master.

To reckon up all those who have received kindness at your excellency’s hand, for my sake, is no easy task; so many are there whom I feel that I have benefited through your kind aid, a boon which the Lord has given me to help me in these very serious times.  Worthiest of all is he who is now introduced to you by my letter, the reverend brother Eusebius, attacked by a ridiculous calumny which it depends upon you alone in your uprightness, to destroy.  I beseech you, therefore, both as respecting the right and as being humanely disposed, to grant me your accustomed favours, by adopting the cause of Eusebius as your own, and championing him, and, at the same time, truth.  It is no small thing that he has the right on his side; and this, if he be not stricken down by the present crisis, he will have no difficulty in proving plainly and without possibility of contradiction.

ΣΩΦΡΟΝΙῼ ΜΑΓΙΣΤΡῼ

[1] Καταλέγειν μὲν πάντας τοὺς δι' ἡμῶν εὐεργετηθέντας παρὰ τῆς σῆς μεγαλονοίας οὐ ῥᾴδιον, οὕτω πολλοὺς σύνισμεν ἑαυτοῖς εὐπεποιηκόσι διὰ τῆς μεγάλης σου χειρὸς ἣν ὁ Κύριος ἡμῖν σύμμαχον ἐπὶ τῶν μεγίστων καιρῶν ἐχαρίσατο. Δικαιότατος δὲ πάντων καὶ ὁ νῦν προσαγόμενος διὰ τοῦ γράμματος ἡμῶν τυγχάνει, ὁ αἰδεσιμώτατος ἡμῶν ἀδελφὸς Εὐσέβιος, παραλόγῳ συκοφαντίᾳ περιπεσών, ἣν ἀποσκεδάσαι μόνης ἐστὶ τῆς σῆς ὀρθότητος. Διὸ παρακαλοῦμεν καὶ τῷ δικαίῳ χαριζόμενον καὶ πρὸς τὸ ἀνθρώπινον ἀφορῶντα καὶ ἡμῖν τὰς συνήθεις παρεχόμενον χάριτας ἀντὶ πάντων γενέσθαι τῷ ἀνδρὶ καὶ προστῆναι αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῆς ἀληθείας. Ἔχει γὰρ οὐ μικρὰν συμμαχίαν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ δικαίου: ἥν, εἰ μὴ ὁ παρὼν καιρὸς καταβλάψειε, πάνυ ῥᾴδιον σαφῶς καὶ ἀναντιρρήτως ἐπιδειχθήσεται.