Letter 58: How am I to dispute with you in writing? How can I lay hold of you satisfactorily, with all your simplicity? Tell me; who ever falls a third time into the same nets?

To Gregory, My Brother. How am I to dispute with you, who are my own flesh and blood and my closest friend in the whole world? I cannot argue with you as I would with a stranger. With a stranger I can be sharp, even harsh if necessary. With you I am disarmed before I begin. But this much I will say, because love compels me: your decision troubles me. You have the gifts — intelligence, eloquence, learning, and above all a genuine devotion to God — that the Church desperately needs. To see those gifts lying idle, or deployed only in private study, while the Churches perish for want of capable leaders, is painful to me. I do not ask you to want the burden. I never wanted mine. But there comes a moment when refusing a burden is itself a kind of selfishness — when the very modesty that makes a man shrink from office is the quality that proves he should hold it. Think on this, brother. Pray about it. And do not imagine that by retreating you are serving God better than by advancing. The desert is holy, but so is the battlefield.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To Gregory my brother. How am I to dispute with you in writing? How can I lay hold of you satisfactorily, with all your simplicity? Tell me; who ever falls a third time into the same nets? Who ever gets a third time into the same snare? Even a brute beast would find it difficult to do so. You forged one letter, and brought it me as though it came from our right reverend uncle the bishop, trying to deceive me, I have no idea why. I received it as a letter written by the bishop and delivered by you. Why should I not? I was delighted; I showed it to many of my friends; I thanked God. The forgery was found out, on the bishop's repudiating it in person. I was thoroughly ashamed; covered as I was with the disgrace of cunning trickery and lies, I prayed that the earth might open for me. Then they gave me a second letter, as sent by the bishop himself by the hands of your servant Asterius. Even this second had not really been sent by the bishop, as my very reverend brother Anthimus has told me. Now Adamantius has come bringing me a third. How ought I to receive a letter carried by you or yours? I might have prayed to have a heart of stone, so as neither to remember the past, nor to feel the present; so as to bear every blow, like cattle, with bowed head. But what am I to think, now that, after my first and second experience, I can admit nothing without positive proof? Thus I write attacking your simplicity, which I see plainly to be neither what generally becomes a Christian man, nor is appropriate to the present emergency; I write that, at least for the future, you may take care of yourself and spare me. I must speak to you with all freedom, and I tell you that you are an unworthy minister of things so great. However, whoever be the writer of the letter, I have answered as is fit . Whether, then, you yourself are experimenting on me, or whether really the letter which you have sent is one which you have received from the bishops, you have my answer. At such a time as this you ought to have borne in mind that you are my brother, and have not yet forgotten the ties of nature, and do not regard me in the light of an enemy, for I have entered on a life which is wearing out my strength, and is so far beyond my powers that it is injuring even my soul. Yet for all this, as you have determined to declare war against me, you ought to have come to me and shared my troubles. For it is said, Brethren and help are against time of trouble. Ecclesiastes 40:24 If the right reverend bishops are really willing to meet me, let them make known to me a place and time, and let them invite me by their own men. I do not refuse to meet my own uncle, but I shall not do so unless the invitation reaches me in due and proper form.

[Πρός: Γρηγορίῳ ἀδελφῷ.] Πῶς ἄν σοι διὰ γραμμάτων μαχεσθείην; πῶς δʼ ἂν ἀξίως σου καθαψαίμην τῆς περὶ πάντα χρηστότητος; τρίτον τίς, εἰπέ μοι, τοῖς αὐτοῖς περιπίπτει δικτύοις; τρίτον τίς τῇ αὐτῇ περιπίπτει πάγῃ; οὐδʼ ἂν τῶν ἀλόγων τι τοῦτο ῥᾳδίως πάθοι. μίαν μοι συμπλάσας ἐπιστολὴν ἐκόμισας, ὡς παρὰ τοῦ αἰδεσιμωτάτου ἐπισκόπου καὶ κοινοῦ θείου ἡμῶν, ἀπατῶν με οὐκ οἶδα ἀνθʼ ὅτου. ἐδεξάμην ὡς παρʼ ἐπισκόπου διὰ σοῦ κομισθεῖσαν. τί γὰρ οὐκ ἔμελλον; ἐπέδειξα πολλοῖς τῶν φίλων ὑπὸ περιχαρείας, ηὐχαρίστησα τῷ Θεῷ. ἠλέγχθη τὸ πλάσμα, αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἐπισκόπου διὰ τῆς ἰδίας φωνῆς ἀρνησαμένου. κατῃσχύνθημεν ἐπʼ ἐκείνῃ· ηὐξάμεθα ἡμῖν διαστῆναι τὴν γῆν, ῥᾳδιουργίας καὶ ψεύδους καὶ ἀπάτης ὀνείδει περιβληθέντες. δευτέραν πάλιν ἀπέδωκάν μοι, ὡς διὰ τοῦ οἰκέτου σου Ἀστερίου παρʼ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἐπισκόπου μοι ἀποσταλεῖσαν. οὐδὲ ἐκείνην ἀληθῶς αὐτὸς ὁ ἐπίσκοπος διεπεμψατο, ὡς ὁ αἰδεσιμώτατος ἀδελφὸς Ἄνθιμος ἡμῖν ἀπήγγειλε. τρίτην πάλιν Ἀδαμάντιος ἧκε πρὸς ἡμᾶς κομίζων. πῶς ἔδει με δέξασθαι τὰ διὰ σοῦ καὶ τῶν σῶν πεμπόμενα; ηὐξάμην ἂν λίθου καρδίαν ἔχειν, ὥστε μήτε τῶν παρελθόντων μεμνῆσθαι μήτε τῶν παρόντων αἰσθάνεσθαι, ὑπὲρ τοῦ πᾶσαν πληγὴν εἰς γῆν κεκυφὼς φέρειν ὡς τὰ βοσκήματα. ἀλλὰ τί πάθω πρὸς τὸν ἐμαυτοῦ λογισμόν, μετὰ μίαν καὶ δευτέραν πεῖραν, οὐδὲν δυνάμενον ἀνεξετάστως προσίεσθαι; Ταῦτα τῆς σῆς ἁπλότητος καθαπτόμενος ἔγραψα, ἣν οὐδʼ ἄλλως πρέπουσαν Χριστιανοῖς, τῷ παρόντι καιρῷ ὁρῶ μὴ ἁρμόζουσαν, ἵνα πρὸς γοῦν τὸ ἐφεξῆς ἑαυτόν τε φυλάττοις κἀμοῦ φείδῃ· ἐπειδή, δεῖ γάρ με πρὸς σὲ μετὰ παῤῥησίας εἰπεῖν, ἀναξιόπιστος εἶ τῶν τοιούτων διάκονος· πλὴν οἵτινες ἂν ὦσιν οἱ ἐπεσταλκότες, ἀπεκρινάμεθα αὐτοῖς τὰ εἰκότα. εἴτε οὖν αὐτὸς απόπειράν μοι καθιείς, εἴτε τῷ ὄντι παρὰ τῶν ἐπισκόπων λαβὼν τὴν ἐπιστολὴν ἔπεμψας, ἔχεις τὰς ἀποκρίσεις. σὲ δὲ ἄλλα εἰκὸς ἦν ἐν τῷ παρόντι φροντίζειν, ἀδελφόν τε ὄντα καὶ μήπω τῆς φύσεως ἐπιλελησμένον, μηδὲ ἐν ἐχθροῦ μοίρᾳ ἡμᾶς ὁρῶντα, ἐπειδὴ εἰς βίον παρήλθομεν συντρίβοντα μὲν ἡμῶν τὸ σῶμα, κακοῦντα δὲ καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν τῷ ὑπερβαίνειν τὴν ἡμετέραν δύναμιν. ἀλλʼ ὅμως, ἐπειδὴ οὕτως ἐκπεπολέμωσαι, τούτου ἕνεκεν παρεῖναί σε δεῖ νῦν καὶ κοινωνεῖν τῶν πραγμάτων. Ἀδελφοὶ γάρ, φησίν, ἐν ἀνάγκαις ἔστωσαν χρήσιμοι. Εἰ δὲ τῷ ὄντι συντυχίαν ἡμετέραν καταδέχονται οἱ αἰδεσιμώτατοι ἐπίσκοποι, καὶ τόπον ἡμῖν ὡρισμένον καὶ καιρὸν γνωρισάτωσαν, καὶ δι’ ἰδίων ἡμᾶς ἀνθρώπων μεταστειλάσθωσαν. ὥσπερ γὰρ πρὸς τὸ ἀπαντῆσαι αὐτὸς πρὸς τὸν ἐμαυτοῦ θεῖον οὐκ ἀπαξιῶ, οὕτως ἐὰν μὴ μετὰ τοῦ πρέποντος σχήματος ἡ κλῆσις γένηται, οὐκ ἀνέξομαι.