Letter 61: I have read the letter of your holiness, in which you have expressed your distress at the unhappy governor of Libya. I am grieved that my own country should have given birth to and nurtured such vices. I am grieved too that Libya, a neighbouring country, should suffer from our evils, and should have been delivered to the inhumanity of a man whos...

To Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. I have read your letter with the gratitude it deserves, and I marvel — as I always do — at the vigor of your spirit and the clarity of your mind. At an age when most men are content to rest, you continue to fight for the faith with the energy of a man in his prime. The Church owes you more than it can ever repay. The situation here is as I described in my previous letter, or worse. The Arian party grows more aggressive, and our side grows more discouraged with each passing month. What keeps me going is the knowledge that men like you still stand firm, and that the God we serve has not abandoned His Church — however much it may feel that way on the darkest days. I have entrusted the bearer of this letter with certain matters too sensitive to commit to writing. Please hear him out in full. He speaks with my authority and represents my views exactly. Pray for us, father. And if your influence can stir the Western bishops to act, I beg you to use it without delay. We are running out of time.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. I have read the letter of your holiness, in which you have expressed your distress at the unhappy governor of Libya. I am grieved that my own country should have given birth to and nurtured such vices. I am grieved too that Libya, a neighbouring country, should suffer from our evils, and should have been delivered to the inhumanity of a man whose life is marked at once by cruelty and crime. This however is only in accordance with the wisdom of the Preacher, Woe to you O land when your King is a child; Ecclesiastes 10:16 (a still further touch of trouble) and whose Princes do not eat after night but revel at mid-day, raging after other men's wives with less understanding than brute beasts. This man must surely look for the scourges of the righteous Judge, repaid him in exact requital for those which he himself has previously inflicted on the saints. Notice has been given to my Church in accordance with the letter of your reverence, and he shall be held by all as abominable, cut off from fire, water and shelter, if indeed in the case of men so possessed there is any use in general and unanimous condemnation. Notoriety is enough for him, and your own letter, which has been read in all directions, for I shall not fail to show it to all his friends and relatives. Assuredly, even if retribution does not reach him at once, as it did Pharaoh, certainly it will bring on him hereafter a heavy and hard requital.

[Πρός: Ἀθανασίῳ, ἐπισκόπῳ Ἀλεξανδρείας] Ἐνέτυχον τοῖς γράμμασι τῆς σῆς ὁσιότητος, δι’ ὧν τοῦ ἡγεμόνος τῆς Λιβύης, τοῦ δυσωνύμου ἀνδρός, κατεστέναξας. καὶ ὠδυράμεθα μὲν τὴν ἡμετέραν πατρίδα, ὅτι τοιούτων κακῶν μήτηρ ἐστὶ καὶ τροφός· ὠδυράμεθα δὲ καὶ τὴν γείτονα τῆς ἡμετέρας Λιβύην, τῶν ἡμετέρων κακῶν ἀπολαύουσαν, καὶ θηριώδει ἤθει παραδοθεῖσαν ἀνδρὸς ὠμότητί τε ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀκολασίᾳ συζῶντος. τοῦτο ἦν ἄρα τοῦ Ἐκκλησιαστοῦ τὸ σοφόν· Οὐαί σοι, πόλις, ἧς ὁ βασιλεύς σου νεώτερος (ἐνταῦθα δέ ἐστί τι καὶ χαλεπώτερον), καὶ οἱ ἄρχοντές σου οὐκ ἀπὸ νυκτὸς ἐσθίουσιν, ἀλλὰ μεσούσης τῆς ἡμέρας ἀκολασταίνουσι, βοσκημάτων ἀλογώτερον ἀλλοτρίοις γάμοις ἐπιμαινόμενοιϲ ἐκεῖνον μὲν οὖν αἱ μάστιγες μένουσι παρὰ τοῦ δικαίου κριτοῦ, τῷ ἴσῳ μέτρῳ ἀντιμετρηθησόμεναι, ἃς αὐτὸς προλαβὼν ἐπέθηκε τοῖς ἁγίοις αὐτοῦ. Ἐγνωρίσθη δὲ καὶ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἡμῶν ἐκ τῶν γραμμάτων τῆς σῆς θεοσεβείας, καὶ ἀποτρόπαιον αὐτὸν πάντες ἡγήσονται, μὴ πυρός, μὴ ὕδατος, μὴ σκέπης αὐτῷ κοινωνοῦντες, εἴπερ τι ὄφελος τοῖς οὕτω κεκρατημένοις κοινῆς καὶ ὁμοψήφου καταγνώσεως. ἀρκοῦσα δὲ αὐτῷ στήλη, καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ γράμματα ἀναγινωσκόμενα πανταχοῦ. οὐ γὰρ διαλείψομεν πᾶσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ οἰκείοις καὶ φίλοις καὶ ξένοις ἐπιδεικνύντες· πάντως δέ, κἂν μὴ ἅψωνται αὐτοῦ παραχρῆμα τὰ ἐπιτίμια, ὥσπερ τοῦ Φαραώ, ἀλλʼ εἰς ὕστερόν ποτε βαρεῖαν αὐτῷ καὶ ἀλγεινὴν τὴν ἀνάδοσιν οἴσει.