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would become more desired? What then, O lady? give glory to the good God, utter the words of Job, the Lord has given, the Lord has taken away, as it seemed good to the Lord, so it has come to pass. From this may there be truly the greatest glory and may you appear as the spouse of such an educated man as you were; for he was both knowledgeable and wise and a teacher of the uninitiated. As therefore he was a good example to men, so be you also to women, avoiding the love of mourning and showing that God is your protector, who brought you from non-being into being and led you to the prime of life and joined you to so great a man, and having separated you again, may he unite you through the resurrection. Therefore consider the matter to be a journey abroad; would you not have borne the deprivation, if an earthly king had commanded it? Bear, my lady, this too, which the only true king of all has commanded. Yes, we exhort you, and indeed we believe that you will receive him back on that day, preserving your widowhood in the Lord and raising your beautiful children excellently; whom we also greet and in like manner we advise you to bear the paternal deprivation and to be shaped by maternal ordering towards all uprightness. 455 {1To Theophilus of Ephesus}1 I took into my hands the letter, which your sacred Eminence sent to Athanasius our brother, and having read it I was grieved, my most holy father, a sufficient grief, first, that among us ourselves, who rightly divide the word of truth against the now raging heresy of the iconoclasts, quarrels arise and schisms spring up, then, that I, the least, am compelled to make my discourse in opposition. But let your majesty forgive; for the discourse is about truth, than which nothing is more precious or more venerable. But what is it contained in the letters, about which is the grief? We, he says, advised neither that the Manichaeans be killed nor that they not be killed; but if we had permitted it, we would have done the greatest of the best things. What are you saying, O God-honored one? The Lord forbade this in the Gospels, saying: No, lest in gathering the tares you root up the wheat along with them; let both grow together until the harvest. And you yourself would say that permission for their uprooting is the greatest of the best things? And that by "tares" he meant the heretics, both those of that time, clearly, and those of later times, that is, all of them, let us hear Chrysostom, interpreting this very thing; on which he says the following: Why then does the master forbid it, saying, "lest you root up the wheat along with them"? He said this to forbid wars and bloodshed and slaughters from happening; for one must not kill heretics, since a truceless war was about to be introduced into the world. And after other things: What else does he mean by "do not root up the wheat along with them" than this, that "4if you were to take up arms and slaughter heretics, it is necessary that many of the saints also be struck down with them"5. which is what has happened in our own times; for both bloodshed and slaughters have filled our world and many of the saints have perished with them; and the word of the Lord has not failed, as is confessed by many. And what do we say about not permitting heretics to be killed? Not even to pray against them has been permitted to us. For let us hear again the Lord to Carpus the saint, as has been indicated through the voice of Dionysius the all-wise, saying: Strike against me then; for I am ready to suffer again for the salvation of men, and this is dear to me, not that other men should sin. But see if it is good for you to exchange the dwelling in the chasm with the serpents for that with God and the good and man-loving angels. Do you see, God-fearing one, the divine indignation, because he prayed that the heretics be rid of life, and how, if he had persisted in this disposition, the saint was about to be condemned? Therefore, as the truth has shown, one ought not to pray against them at all, but rather to pray for them, as the Lord himself has shown

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γένοιτο περισπουδαστότερον; Τί οὖν λοιπόν, ὦ κυρία; δὸς δόξαν τῷ ἀγαθῷ θεῷ, φθέγξαι τὰ τοῦ Ἰώβ, ὁ Κύριος ἔδωκεν, ὁ Κύριος ἀφείλατο, ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ ἔδοξεν, οὕτως καὶ ἐγένετο. εἴη ἐντεῦθεν ὡς ἀληθῶς μέγιστον κλέος καὶ φανείης οἵου πεπαιδευμένου ἀνδρὸς ὁμόζυγος ἐγένου· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνος καὶ γνωστικὸς καὶ σοφὸς καὶ παιδευτὴς τῶν ἀμυήτων. ὡς οὖν ἐκεῖνος ἀνδράσιν ὑπόδειγμα καλόν, ἔσο καὶ αὐτὴ γυναιξίν, ἐκκλίνουσα τὸ φιλοπενθὲς καὶ δεικνύουσα ὅτι σοι προστάτης ὁ θεός, ὃς καὶ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναί σε παρήγαγεν καὶ εἰς ἀκμὴν ἡλικίας ἤγαγε καὶ τηλικούτῳ ἀνδρὶ συνέζευξεν, καὶ αὖθις διαζεύξας ἑνώσειεν διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως. ὥστε νόμισον ἀποδημίαν εἶναι τὸ πρᾶγμα· οὐκ ἆρα ἤνεγκες τὴν στέρησιν, εἰ βασιλεὺς ἐπίγειος ἐπέτρεψεν; οἶσον, δέσποινά μου, καὶ τήνδε, ἣν ὁ μόνος ἀληθινὸς καὶ πάντων βασιλεὺς ἐκέλευσεν. ναί, παρακαλοῦμεν, καί γε πιστεύομεν ἀπολήψεσθαί σε αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, φυλάττουσαν τὴν χηρείαν ἐν Κυρίῳ καὶ τεκνοτροφοῦσαν ἄριστα τὰ καλὰ βλαστήματα· ἅπερ καὶ προσαγορεύομεν καὶ ὁμοιοτρόπως σοι παραινοῦμεν φέρειν τὴν πατρικὴν στέρησιν καὶ μητρικῇ διαπλάττεσθαι ῥυθμίσει πρὸς πᾶσαν εὐθύτητα. 455 {1Θεοφίλῳ τῆς Ἐφέσου}1 Ἔλαβον ἐπὶ χεῖρας τὸ γραμματεῖον, ὅπερ ἀπέστειλεν ἡ ἱερά σου κορυφὴ Ἀθανασίῳ τῷ ἡμετέρῳ ἀδελφῷ, καὶ ἀναγνοὺς ἐλυπήθην, ἱερώτατέ μου πάτερ, λύπην ἱκανήν, πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς, τοῖς ὀρθοτομοῦσι τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας κατὰ τὴν νῦν λυττῶσαν αἵρεσιν τῶν εἰκονομάχων, ἐρεσχελίαι γίγνονται καὶ σχίσματα ἐπιφύονται, ἔπειτα ὅτι ἀναγκάζομαι ὁ ἐλάχιστος ἀντιθετικῶς τὴν διά λεξιν ποιήσασθαι. ἀλλὰ συγγινωσκέτω ἡ μεγαλειότης σου· περὶ γὰρ ἀληθείας ὁ λόγος, ἧς οὐδὲν προτιμότερον οὐδὲ αἰδεστικώτερον. Τί δὲ τὸ ἐμφερόμενον ἐν τοῖς γράμμασι, περὶ οὗ ἡ λύπη; ἡμεῖς, φησίν, οὔτε κτένεσθαι τοὺς Μανιχαίους οὔτε μὴ κτένεσθαι συνεβουλεύσαμεν· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐπετρέψαμεν, τῶν καλλίστων τὸ μέγιστον εἴχομεν ἂν ποιῆσαι. τί φῆς, ὦ θεοτίμητε; ὁ Κύριος ἀπηγόρευσεν ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις τοῦτο, εἰπών· οὔ, μήποτε συλλέγοντες τὰ ζιζάνια ἐκριζώσητε ἅμα αὐτοῖς τὸν σῖτον· ἄφετε συναυξάνεσθε μέχρι τοῦ θερισμοῦ. καὶ αὐτὸς τῶν καλλίστων τὸ μέγιστον φαίης εἶναι τὴν ἐπιτροπὴν τῆς ἐκριζώσεως; καὶ ὅτι τὰ ζιζάνια τοὺς αἱρετικοὺς εἴρηκεν, τούς τε τηνικαῦτα δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τοὺς ἐφ' ὑστέρῳ, ἤγουν ἅπαντας, ἀκουσώμεθα τοῦ Χρυσοστόμου, αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἑρμηνεύοντος· ἐφ' ᾧ τάδε· τί οὖν ὁ δεσπότης κωλύει λέγων, μήποτε ἐκριζώσητε ἅμα αὐτοῖς τὸν σῖτον; τοῦτο δὲ ἔλεγεν κωλύων πολέμους γίνεσθαι καὶ αἵματα καὶ σφαγάς· οὐ γὰρ δεῖ ἀναιρεῖν αἱρετικούς, ἐπεὶ ὁ πόλεμος ἄσπονδος ἔμελλεν εἰς τὴν οἰκουμένην εἰσάγεσθαι. καὶ μεθ' ἕτερα· τί δὲ ἄλλο διὰ τοῦ μὴ ἐκριζώσητε ἅμα αὐτοῖς τὸν σῖτον ἢ τοῦτό φησιν, ὅτι "4εἰ μέλλοιτε κινεῖν ὅπλα καὶ κατασφάττειν αἱρετικούς, ἀνάγκη πολλοὺς καὶ τῶν ἁγίων συγκαταβάλλεσθαι"5. ὅπερ καὶ γέγονεν ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς χρόνοις· καὶ γὰρ καὶ αἵματα καὶ σφαγαὶ ἐπλήρωσαν τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς οἰκουμένην καὶ πολλοὶ τῶν ἁγίων συναπῆλθον· καὶ ὁ λόγος τοῦ Κυρίου οὐ διέπεσεν, ὡς ὡμολόγηται παρὰ πολλοῖς. καὶ τί λέγομεν περὶ τοῦ μὴ ἐπιτρέπειν κτένεσθαι αἱρετικούς; οὐδέ γε κατεύχεσθαι αὐτῶν συγκεχώρηται ἡμῖν. ἀκουσώμεθα γὰρ αὖθις τοῦ Κυρίου πρὸς Κάρπον τὸν ἅγιον, ὡς ὑποδεδήλωται διὰ φωνῆς ∆ιονυσίου τοῦ πανσόφου, λέγοντος· παῖε κατ' ἐμοῦ λοιπόν· ἕτοιμος γάρ εἰμι καὶ αὖθις ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων ἀνασῳζομένων παθεῖν, καὶ προσφιλές μοι τοῦτο, μὴ ἄλλων ἁμαρτανόντων ἀνθρώπων. πλὴν ὅρα εἰ καλῶς ἔχει σοι τὴν ἐν τῷ χάσματι μετὰ τῶν ὄφεων μονὴν ἀνταλλάξασθαι τῆς μετὰ θεοῦ καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ φιλανθρώπων ἀγγέλων. Ὁρᾷς, θεοσύνετε, τὴν θείαν ἀγανάκτησιν, ἐπειδὴ κατηύχετο τῶν αἱρετικῶν ἀπαλλαγῆναι τῆς ζωῆς, καὶ ὅπως, εἰ ἐπιμένων τῇ διαθέσει ταύτῃ ἦν, ἔμελλεν ὁ ἅγιος καταδικάζεσθαι; οὔτε οὖν, ὡς δέδειχεν ἡ ἀλήθεια, κατεύχεσθαι δεῖ ὅλως, μᾶλλον μὲν οὖν ὑπερεύχεσθαι, ὡς αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος ὑπέδειξεν