Letter 135: (About the middle of a.d. 382 Theodosius, on the recommendation of S. Damasus, summoned a new Synod of Eastern Bishops to meet at Constantinople, to try and heal the schism which had been embittered by the election of Flavian at Antioch.

Gregory, declining to attend the synod at Constantinople. The emperor Theodosius, on the recommendation of Damasus, has summoned a new synod of Eastern bishops to meet at Constantinople in an effort to heal the schism that the election of Flavian at Antioch has only deepened. I have been invited to attend. I will not go. And here is why. I have had my fill of synods. I have attended them, participated in them, and suffered from them. The one at Constantinople, from which I so recently resigned, taught me everything I needed to know about what happens when bishops assemble: ambition masquerades as zeal, faction disguises itself as principle, and the Holy Spirit is invoked by every side to justify positions that have nothing to do with Him. Let those who still have the stomach for such things attend. I wish them well. But I will serve the Church better on my knees in Cappadocia than on my feet in Constantinople.

Ep. CXXXV. (About the middle of a.d. 382 Theodosius, on the recommendation of S. Damasus, summoned a new Synod of Eastern Bishops to meet at Constantinople, to try and heal the schism which had been embittered by the election of Flavian at Antioch. As soon as Gregory heard of the convocation of this Synod he wrote to several of his influential friends at Court, to beg them to do their utmost for the promotion of peace.) I am philosophizing at leisure. That is the injury my enemies have done me, and I should be glad if they would do more of the same sort, that I might look upon them still more as benefactors. For it often happens that those who are wronged get a benefit, while they, whom we would treat well, suffer injury. That is the state of my affairs. But if I cannot make every one believe this, I am very anxious, that at all events you, for them all, to whom I most willingly give an account of my affairs, should know, or rather I feel certain that you do know it, and can persuade those who do not. You, however, I beg to give all diligence, now at any rate, if you have not done so before, to bring together to one voice and mind the sections of the world that are so unhappily divided; and above all if you should perceive, as I have observed, that they are divided not on account of the Faith, but by petty private interests. To succeed in doing this would earn you a reward; and my retirement would have less to grieve over if I could see that I did not grasp at it to no purpose, but was like a Jonas, willingly casting myself into the sea, that the storm might cease and the sailors be saved. If, however, they are still as storm-tost as ever, I at all events have done what I could. 5. To Amphilochius the Younger