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with no proof having been brought for the charges, they are handed over to punishments. Some neither knew their accusers nor saw a court of law nor were slandered in the first place, but in the dead of night, having been violently seized, they were banished into exile, handed over to death by the hardships of the desert. And the things that follow these are known to everyone, even if we are silent: exiles of presbyters, exiles of deacons, the plundering of the entire clergy. For it is necessary either to worship the image or to be handed over to the evil flame of the scourges. The groaning of peoples, continual weeping both at home and in public, with all lamenting to one another the things they suffer. For no one is so stony-hearted as to bear his orphanhood meekly when deprived of a father. The sound of lamentation in the city, the sound in the fields, on the roads, in the deserts. One mournful voice of all uttering gloomy things. Joy and spiritual gladness have been taken away. Our feasts have been turned into mourning, the houses of prayer have been shut, the altars of spiritual worship are idle. No longer are there gatherings of Christians, no longer the presidency of teachers, no saving doctrines, no festivals, no nocturnal hymns, no that blessed exultation of souls which comes to the souls of those who believe in the Lord at the synaxes and in the communion of spiritual gifts. It is fitting for us to say: "There is not at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or offering, or incense, no place to bring fruit before the Lord and to find mercy." 243.3 We write these things to those who know them, because there is no part of the inhabited world that is still ignorant of our misfortunes. So it is not fitting to think that we make these statements for the sake of teaching, nor to remind you of your care. For we know that you would never forget us, any more than a mother would her own offspring. But since, just as those who are held by some pain are accustomed to somehow lighten their afflictions through groans, this we also do, as it were unburdening the weight of our grief, through which we report our manifold misfortunes to your love, if somehow having been moved more fervently to prayers on our behalf you might beseech the Lord to be reconciled to us. If then the afflictions were the only things distressing us, we would have advised ourselves to keep quiet and to rejoice in our sufferings for Christ, since "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." But now we fear lest the evil, growing, just as some flame moving through burning matter, when it has consumed what is near, may touch also what is far off. For the evil of heresy spreads, and there is fear lest, having devoured our Churches, it should then creep also to the healthy part of your own diocese. Perhaps, then, because sin abounded among us, we were first delivered as food to the ravenous teeth of the enemies of Christ. Or perhaps, which is more likely to be conjectured, that since the Gospel of the kingdom, beginning from our regions, went out into all the inhabited world, for this reason the common enemy of our souls strives for the words of apostasy, having taken their beginning from the same regions, to be spread throughout all the inhabited world. For upon whom the light of the knowledge of Christ shone, upon them he devises that the darkness of impiety also should come. 243.4 Therefore, consider our sufferings your own, as genuine disciples of the Lord. We are warred against not for money, not for glory, not for any other of the temporary things, but for the common possession, the ancestral treasure of the sound faith, we stand contending. Suffer with us, O lovers of the brethren, because among us the mouths of the pious have been shut, but every insolent and blasphemous tongue of those who speak injustice against God has been opened. The pillars and the ground of the truth are in dispersion; we, who on account of smallness

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μηδεμιᾶς ἀποδείξεως τοῖς ἐγκλήμασιν ἐπενεχθείσης ταῖς τιμωρίαις ἐκδίδονται. Τινὲς δὲ οὔτε ἔγνωσαν κατηγόρους οὔτε εἶδον δικαστήρια οὔτε ἐσυκοφαν τήθησαν τὴν ἀρχήν, ἀλλ' ἀωρὶ τῶν νυκτῶν βιαίως ἀναρπασ θέντες εἰς τὴν ὑπερορίαν ἐφυγαδεύθησαν ταῖς ἐκ τῆς ἐρημίας κακοπαθίαις παραδοθέντες εἰς θάνατον. Τὰ δὲ τούτοις ἑπόμενα γνώριμα παντί, κἂν ἡμεῖς σιωπήσωμεν· φυγαὶ πρεσβυτέρων, φυγαὶ διακόνων, παντὸς τοῦ κλήρου λεηλασία. Ἀνάγκη γὰρ ἢ προσκυνῆσαι τῇ εἰκόνι ἢ τῇ πονηρᾷ φλογὶ τῶν μαστίγων παραδοθῆναι. Στεναγμὸς λαῶν, δάκρυον διηνεκὲς καὶ κατ' οἴκους καὶ δημοσίᾳ, πάντων πρὸς ἀλλήλους ὀδυρομένων ἃ πάσχουσιν. Οὐδεὶς γὰρ οὕτω λίθινος τὴν καρδίαν ὥστε πατρὸς στερηθεὶς πράως φέρειν τὴν ὀρ φανίαν. Ἦχος θρηνούντων ἐν πόλει, ἦχος ἐν ἀγροῖς, ἐν ὁδοῖς, ἐν ἐρημίαις. Μία φωνὴ ἐλεεινὴ πάντων τὰ σκυθρωπὰ φθεγγομένων. Ἐξῆρται χαρὰ καὶ εὐφροσύνη πνευματική. Εἰς πένθος ἐστράφησαν ἡμῶν αἱ ἑορταί, οἶκοι προσευχῶν ἀπεκλείσθησαν, ἀργὰ τὰ θυσιαστήρια τῆς πνευματικῆς λατρείας. Οὐκέτι σύλλογοι Χριστιανῶν, οὐκέτι διδασκάλων προεδρίαι, οὐ διδάγματα σωτήρια, οὐ πανηγύρεις, οὐχ ὑμνῳ δίαι νυκτεριναί, οὐ τὸ μακάριον ἐκεῖνο τῶν ψυχῶν ἀγαλ λίαμα ὃ ἐπὶ ταῖς συνάξεσι καὶ τῇ κοινωνίᾳ τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρισμάτων ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐγγίνεται τῶν πιστευόντων εἰς Κύριον. Ἡμῖν πρέπει λέγειν ὅτι· «Οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τούτῳ ἄρχων οὔτε προφήτης οὔτε ἡγούμενος οὔτε προσφορὰ οὔτε θυμίαμα, οὐ τόπος τοῦ καρπῶσαι ἐνώπιον Κυρίου καὶ εὑρεῖν ἔλεος». 243.3 Ταῦτα εἰδόσιν ἐπιστέλλομεν, διότι οὐδὲν μέρος ἐστὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης ὃ τὰς ἡμετέρας λοιπὸν ἠγνόησε συμφοράς. Ὥστε οὐ διδασκαλίας ἕνεκεν τοὺς λόγους τούτους ἡμᾶς ποιεῖσθαι νομίζειν προσῆκεν οὐδὲ τοῦ ὑπομνῆσαι ὑμῶν τὴν ἐμμέλειαν. Οἴδαμεν γὰρ ὅτι οὐκ ἄν ποτε ἐπιλάθησθε ἡμῶν, οὐ μᾶλλόν γε ἢ ἡ μήτηρ τῶν ἐκγόνων τῆς κοιλίας αὐτῆς. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ὥσπερ οἱ ὀδύνῃ τινὶ κατεχόμενοι διὰ τῶν στεναγμῶν κουφίζειν πως τὰς ἀλγηδόνας πεφύκασι, τοῦτο καὶ ἡμεῖς ποιοῦμεν, οἷον ἀποσκευαζόμεθα τῆς λύπης τὸ βάρος, δι' ὧν πρὸς τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀγάπην τὰς πολυειδεῖς ἡμῶν συμφορὰς διαγγέλλομεν, εἴ πως ἂν σφοδρότερον εἰς τὰς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν προσευχὰς κινηθέντες δυσωπήσητε τὸν Κύριον διαλλαγῆναι ἡμῖν. Εἰ μὲν οὖν αἱ θλίψεις ἦσαν μόναι αἱ καταπονοῦσαι ἡμᾶς, κἂν συνεβουλεύσαμεν ἑαυτοῖς τὴν ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν καὶ χαίρειν τοῖς ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ παθήμασιν, ἐπειδὴ «Οὐκ ἄξια τὰ παθήματα τοῦ νῦν καιροῦ πρὸς τὴν μέλλουσαν δόξαν ἀποκαλυφθήσεσθαι εἰς ἡμᾶς». Νῦν δὲ φοβούμεθα μή ποτε αὐξανόμενον τὸ κακόν, ὥσπερ τις φλὸξ διὰ τῆς καιομένης ὕλης βαδίζουσα, ἐπειδὰν κατανα λώσῃ τὰ πλησίον, ἅψηται καὶ τῶν πόρρω. Ἐπινέμεται γὰρ τὸ κακὸν τῆς αἱρέσεως, καὶ δέος ἐστὶ μὴ τὰς ἡμετέρας Ἐκκλησίας καταφαγοῦσα ἕρψῃ λοιπὸν καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ ὑγιαῖνον μέρος τῆς καθ' ὑμᾶς παροικίας. Τάχα μὲν οὖν διὰ τὸ παρ' ἡμῖν πλεονάσαι τὴν ἁμαρτίαν πρῶτοι παρεδόθημεν εἰς κατάβρωμα τοῖς ὠμοφάγοις ὀδοῦσι τῶν ἐχθρῶν τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Τάχα δέ, ὃ καὶ μᾶλλόν ἐστιν εἰκάσαι, ὅτι, ἐπειδὴ τὸ Εὐαγγέ λιον τῆς βασιλείας ἀπὸ τῶν ἡμετέρων τόπων ἀρξάμενον εἰς πᾶσαν ἐξῆλθε τὴν οἰκουμένην, διὰ τοῦτο ὁ κοινὸς τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν ἐχθρὸς τὰ τῆς ἀποστασίας ῥήματα, ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν τόπων τὴν ἀρχὴν λαβόντα, εἰς πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην διαδοθῆναι φιλονεικεῖ. Ἐφ' οὓς γὰρ ἔλαμψεν ὁ φωτισμὸς τῆς γνώσεως τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐπὶ τούτους ἐλθεῖν καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀσεβείας σκότος ἐπινοεῖ. 243.4 Ὑμέτερα οὖν λογίσασθε τὰ πάθη ἡμῶν ὡς γνήσιοι μαθηταὶ τοῦ Κυρίου. Οὐχ ὑπὲρ χρημάτων, οὐχ ὑπὲρ δόξης, οὐχ ὑπὲρ ἄλλου τινὸς τῶν προσκαίρων πολεμούμεθα, ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ τοῦ κοινοῦ κτήματος, τοῦ πατρικοῦ θησαυροῦ τῆς ὑγιαι νούσης πίστεως ἑστήκαμεν ἀγωνιζόμενοι. Συναλγήσατε ἡμῖν, ὦ φιλάδελφοι, ὅτι ἀποκέκλεισται μὲν παρ' ἡμῖν τῶν εὐσεβούντων τὰ στόματα, ἠνοίγη δὲ πᾶσα θρασεῖα καὶ βλάσφημος γλῶσσα τῶν λαλούντων κατὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀδικίαν. Οἱ στῦλοι καὶ τὸ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας ἐν διασπορᾷ· ἡμεῖς, οἱ διὰ σμικρότητα