Letter 266: 1. You have very properly rebuked me, and in a manner becoming a spiritual brother who has been taught genuine love by the Lord, because I am not giving you exact and detailed information of all that is going on here, for it is both your part to be interested in what concerns me, and mine to tell you all that concerns myself. But I must tell you...

You have rightly rebuked me, and in a manner befitting a spiritual brother taught by the Lord to love genuinely. I should be keeping you better informed of everything happening here, since you have every right to be concerned about my affairs, and I have every obligation to share them. But I must tell you, dear brother: our afflictions have been so continuous and so severe that I have begun to take everything as a matter of course. Like smiths whose ears go deaf from the constant hammering, I have grown accustomed, through the sheer frequency of terrible news, to receiving it without alarm or surprise. The policies that the Arians have long pursued to the detriment of the Church -- though their achievements have been many, great, and reported throughout the world -- have been endurable to me, since they are the work of open enemies of the truth. It is when the Arians do something unusual that I am astonished, not when they attempt something bold against true religion. What grieves and troubles me is what is being done by men who are supposed to think and feel as I do. And yet even these betrayals come so frequently that they have ceased to surprise me. I am aware that you care deeply about these matters, and I should not be letting my weariness prevent me from giving you full reports. The situation is grave. I will do better.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To Petrus, bishop of Alexandria. 1. You have very properly rebuked me, and in a manner becoming a spiritual brother who has been taught genuine love by the Lord, because I am not giving you exact and detailed information of all that is going on here, for it is both your part to be interested in what concerns me, and mine to tell you all that concerns myself. But I must tell you, right honourable and well-beloved brother, that our continuous afflictions, and this mighty agitation which is now shaking the Churches, result in my taking all that is happening as a matter of course. Just as in smithies where men whose ears are deafened get accustomed to the sound, so by the frequency of the strange tidings that reach me I have now grown accustomed to be undisturbed and undismayed at extraordinary events. So the policy which has been for a long time pursued by the Arians to the detriment of the Church, although their achievements have been many and great and reported abroad through all the world, has nevertheless been endurable to me, because of their being the work of open foes and enemies of the word of truth. It is when these men do something unusual that I am astonished, not when they attempt something great and audacious against true religion. But I am grieved and troubled at what is being done by men who feel and think with me. Yet their doings are so frequent and so constantly reported to me, that even they do not appear surprising. So it comes about that I was not agitated at the recent disorderly proceedings, partly because I knew perfectly well that common report would carry them to you without my help, and partly because I preferred to wait for somebody else to give you disagreeable news. And yet, further, I did not think it reasonable that I should show indignation at such proceedings, as though I were annoyed at suffering a slight. To the actual agents in the matter I have written in becoming terms, exhorting them, because of the dissension arising among some of the brethren there, not to fall away from charity, but to wait for the matter to be set right by those who have authority to remedy disorders in due ecclesiastical form. That you should have so acted, stirred by honourable and becoming motives, calls for my commendation, and moves my gratitude to the Lord that there remains preserved in you a relic of the ancient discipline, and that the Church has not lost her own might in my persecution. The canons have not suffered persecution as well as I. Though importuned again by the Galatians, I was never able to give them an answer, because I waited for your decision. Now, if the Lord so will and they will consent to listen to me, I hope that I shall be able to bring the people to the Church. It cannot then be cast in my teeth that I have gone over to the Marcellians, and they on the contrary will become limbs of the body of the Church of Christ. Thus the disgrace caused by heresy will be made to disappear by the method I adopt, and I shall escape the opprobrium of having gone over to them. 2. I have also been grieved by our brother Dorotheus, because, as he has himself written, he has not gently and mildly reported everything to your excellency. I set this down to the difficulty of the times. I seem to be deprived by my sins of all success in my undertakings, if indeed the best of my brethren are proved ill-disposed and incompetent, by their failure to perform their duties in accordance with my wishes. On his return Dorotheus reported to me the conversation which he had had with your excellency in the presence of the very venerable bishop Damasus, and he caused me distress by saying that our God-beloved brethren and fellow-ministers, Meletius and Eusebius, had been reckoned among the Ariomaniacs. If their orthodoxy were established by nothing else, the attacks made upon them by the Arians are, to the minds of all right thinking people, no small proof of their rectitude. Even your participation with them in sufferings endured for Christ's sake ought to unite your reverence to them in love. Be assured of this, right honourable sir, that there is no word of orthodoxy which has not been proclaimed by these men with all boldness. God is my witness. I have heard them myself. I should not certainly have now admitted them to communion, if I had caught them tripping in the faith. But, if it seem good to you, let us leave the past alone. Let us make a peaceful start for the future. For we have need one of another in the fellowship of the members, and specially now, when the Churches of the East are looking to us, and will take your agreement as a pledge of strength and consolidation. If, on the other hand, they perceive that you are in a state of mutual suspicion, they will drop their hands, and slacken in their resistance to the enemies of the faith.

[Πρός: Πέτρῳ, ἐπισκόπῳ Ἀλεξανδρείας] Καλῶς μου καθήψω καὶ πρεπόντως πνευματικῷ ἀδελφῷ, ἀληθινὴν ἀγάπην παρὰ τοῦ Κυρίου δεδιδαγμένῳ, ὅτι σοι μὴ πάντα καὶ μικρὰ καὶ μείζω φανερὰ ποιοῦμεν τῶν τῇδε. καὶ γὰρ ἐπιβάλλει καὶ σοὶ φροντίζειν τῶν καθʼ ἡμᾶς καὶ ἡμῖν τῇ σῇ ἀγάπῃ ἀναφέρειν τὰ ἡμέτερα. ἀλλὰ γίνωσκε, τιμιώτατε ἡμῖν καὶ ποθεινότατε ἀδελφέ, ὅτι τὸ συνεχὲς τῶν θλίψεων, καὶ ὁ πολὺς οὗτος ὁ κλόνος ὁ νῦν σαλεύων τὰς ἐκκλησίας, πρὸς οὐδὲν ἡμᾶς ξενίζεσθαι τῶν γινομένων ποιεῖ. ὡς γὰρ οἱ ἐν τοῖς χαλκείοις τὰς ἀκοὰς κατακτυπούμενοι ἐν μελέτῃ εἰσὶ τῶν ψόφων, οὕτως ἡμεῖς τῇ πυκνότητι τῶν ἀτόπων ἀγγελιῶν εἰθίσθημεν λοιπὸν ἀτάραχον ἔχειν καὶ ἀπτόητον τὴν καρδίαν πρὸς τὰ παράλογα. τὰ μὲν οὖν παρὰ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν ἐκ παλαιοῦ κατὰ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας σκευωρούμενα, εἰ καὶ πολλὰ καὶ μεγάλα καὶ κατὰ πᾶσαν διαβεβοημένα τὴν οἰκουμένην, ἀλλʼ οὖν φορητὰ ἡμῖν ἐστι διὰ τὸ παρὰ φανερῶν ἐχθρῶν καὶ πολεμίων τοῦ λόγου τῆς ἀληθείας γίνεσθαι· οὓς ὅταν μὴ ποιήσωσι τὰ συνήθη θαυμάζομεν, οὐχ ὅταν μέγα τι καὶ νεανικὸν κατὰ τῆς εὐσεβείας τολμήσωσι. λυπεῖ δὲ ἡμᾶς καὶ ταράσσει τὰ παρὰ τῶν ὁμοψύχων καὶ ὁμοδόξων γινόμενα. ἀλλʼ ὅμως καὶ ταῦτα, διὰ τὸ πολλὰ εἶναι καὶ συνεχῶς ἐμπίπτειν ἡμῶν ταῖς ἀκοαῖς, οὐδὲ ταῦτα παράδοξα καταφαίνεται. ὅθεν οὔτε ἐκινήθημεν ἐπὶ τοῖς πρώην γινομένοις ἀτάκτως, οὔτε τὰς σὰς διωχλήσαμεν ἀκοάς, τοῦτο μὲν εἰδότες ὅτι φήμη διακομίσει αὐτομάτως τὰ πεπραγμένα, τοῦτο δὲ ἀναμένοντες ἑτέρους ἀγγέλους τῶν λυπηρῶν γενέσθαι· ἔπειτα οὔτε κρίναντες εὔλογον εἶναι ὑμᾶς ἀγανακτεῖν ἐπὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις, ὥσπερ δυσχεραίνοντας διότι παρώφθητε. αὐτοῖς μέντοι τοῖς ταῦτα ποιήσασιν ἐπεστείλαμεν τὰ πρέποντα, παρακαλοῦντες αὐτούς, ἐπειδή τινα διχόνοιαν ἔπαθον οἱ ἐκεῖ ἀδελφοί, τῆς μὲν ἀγάπης μὴ ἀποστῆναι, τὴν δὲ διόρθωσιν ἀναμένειν παρὰ τῶν δυναμένων ἐκκλησιαστικῶς ἰατρεύειν τὰ πταίσματα. ὅπερ ἐπειδὴ ἐποίησας, καλῶς καὶ προσηκόντως κινηθείς, ἐπῃνέσαμέν σε, καὶ ηὐχαριστήσαμεν τῷ Κυρίῳ, ὅτι ἐστὶ λείψανον τῆς παλαιᾶς εὐταξίας σωζόμενον παρὰ σοὶ καὶ ἡ Ἐκκλησία τὴν ἑαυτῆς ἰσχὺν οὐκ ἀπώλεσεν ἐν τῷ ἡμετέρῳ διωγμῷ. οὐ γὰρ μεθʼ ἡμῶν ἐδιώχθησαν καὶ οἱ κανόνες. πολλάκις οὖν ὀχληθεὶς παρὰ τῶν Γαλατῶν, οὐδέποτε ἠδυνήθην αὐτοῖς ἀποκρίνασθαι, ἀναμένων τὰς ὑμετέρας ἐπικρίσεις. καὶ νῦν, ἐὰν ὁ Κύριος δῷ, καὶ θελήσωσιν ἀνασχέσθαι ἡμῶν, ἐλπίζομεν τὸν λαὸν προσάξειν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ὡς μὴ αὐτοὺς ἡμᾶς ὀνειδίζεσθαι Μαρκελλιανοῖς προσκεχωρηκέναι, ἀλλʼ ἐκείνους μέλη γενέσθαι τοῦ σώματος τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὥστε τὸν πονηρὸν ψόγον, τὸν κατασκεδασθέντα ἐκ τῆς αἱρέσεως, ἐναφανισθῆναι τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ προσλήψει, καὶ μὴ ἡμᾶς καταισχυνθῆναι ὡς προσθεμένους αὐτοῖς. Ἐλύπησε δὲ ἡμᾶς ὁ ἀδελφὸς Δωρόθεος, ὡς αὐτὸς ἐπέστειλας, μὴ πάντα προσηνῶς μηδὲ πράως διαλεχθεὶς τῇ κοσμιότητί σου. καὶ τοῦτο τῇ τῶν καιρῶν λογίζομαι δυσκολίᾳ. ἐοίκαμεν γὰρ εἰς μηδὲν εὐοδοῦσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν, εἴπερ οἱ σπουδαιότατοι τῶν ἀδελφῶν οὐχ εὑρίσκονται προσηνεῖς, οὐδὲ εὔθετοι ταῖς διακονίαις τῷ μὴ πάντα κατὰ γνώμην ἡμετέραν ἐπιτελεῖν. ὃς ἐπανελθὼν διηγήσατο ἡμῖν τὰς ἐπὶ τοῦ σεμνοτάτου ἐπισκόπου Δαμάσου πρὸς τὴν σὴν τιμιότητα γενομένας αὐτῷ διαλέξεις, καὶ ἐλύπει ἡμᾶς λέγων τοῖς Ἀρειομανίταις συγκατηριθμῆσθαι τοὺς θεοφιλεστάτους ἀδελφοὺς ἡμῶν τοὺς συλλειτουργοὺς Μελέτιον καὶ Εὐσέβιον. ὧν εἰ καὶ μηδὲν ἄλλο συνίστη τὴν ὀρθοδοξίαν, ὁ γοῦν παρὰ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν πόλεμος ἀπόδειξιν ἔχει ὀρθότητος οὐκ ὀλίγην τοῖς εὐγνωμόνως λογιζομένοις. τὴν δὲ σὴν εὐλάβειαν συνάπτειν αὐτοῖς εἰς ἀγάπην ὀφείλει καὶ ἡ κοινωνία τῶν ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ παθημάτων. ἐκεῖνο δὲ πέπεισο, ὡς ἀληθῶς τιμιώτατε, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι τι ῥῆμα ὀρθοδοξίας, ὃ μὴ μετὰ πάσης παρρησίας παρὰ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τούτων ἐκηρύχθη ὑπὸ Θεῷ μάρτυρι καὶ ἀκροαταῖς ἡμῖν. οἳ οὐδʼ ἂν πρὸς ὥραν αὐτῶν ἐδεξάμεθα τὴν συνάφειαν, εἰ σκάζοντας αὐτοὺς περὶ τὴν πίστιν εὕρομεν. ἀλλὰ, εἰ δοκεῖ, τὰ παρελθόντα ἐάσωμεν, τοῖς δὲ ἐφεξῆς ἀρχήν τινα δῶμεν εἰρηνικήν. χρῄζομεν γὰρ ἀλλήλων πάντες κατὰ τὴν τῶν μελῶν κοινωνίαν, καὶ μάλιστα νῦν, ὅτε αἱ τῆς ἀνατολῆς ἐκκλησίαι πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἀποβλέπουσι, καὶ τὴν μὲν ὑμετέραν ὁμόνιαν ἀφορμὴν εἰς στηριγμὸν καὶ βεβαιότητα λήψονται· ἐὰν δὲ αἴσθωνται ὑμᾶς ἐν ὑποψίᾳ τινὶ πρὸς ἀλλήλους εἶναι, ἐκλυθήσονται καὶ παρήσουσιν ἑαυτῶν τὰς χεῖρας, πρὸς τὸ μὴ ἀνταίρειν τοῖς πολεμίοις τῆς πίστεως.