Letter 111: Severus refuses a simple ruling on John the scribe and entrusts judgment to God's mercy.

Andrew's letter reaches Severus on the commemoration of Timothy of Alexandria and the younger Theodosius. Severus had been waiting anxiously and gives thanks that the letter finally arrived. After other matters, Andrew asks about John the scribe, who threw himself into a river and died. Severus hesitates. He has no easy ruling to give. He notes that church histories sometimes allow women under threat of bodily violation or denial of the faith to remove themselves from life, because they face a double danger. For men, Severus says, he has not found the same principle accepted in general. He remembers the Maccabean martyr who leaped back upon the instruments of torture when his persecutors thought he was weakening, but even that example must be judged by disposition of heart and the words spoken at the time. Severus therefore refuses to pronounce confidently where he lacks certainty. He entrusts John to the God of mercy, who desires the salvation of human beings, and he frames the case by intention, pressure, confession, and hope. The letter is important because it does not turn a tragic death into a slogan. Severus allows the examples he knows, marks the limits of those examples, and leaves final judgment to God while still guiding Andrew away from careless approval or automatic condemnation. That restraint is the heart of the answer. Andrew has asked for a ruling, but Severus gives him something more honest than a slogan. Some deaths may be read through martyrdom, some through fear, some through despair, and some only through the secrets of the heart. A church leader must know the difference between principles he can state and judgments he must leave to divine mercy. The date of Andrew's letter matters too. Its arrival on the commemoration of Timothy and Theodosius frames the whole response in memory, exile, and hope. Severus hears Andrew's question as one more burden in a life already full of anxieties, but he still answers carefully because pastoral uncertainty deserves care, not silence.

The letter of your devoutness which has now been brought, I received on the last day of the month of July, on which was the commemoration of the saintly Timothy, who was archbishop of the city of the Alexandrines, who completed a long residence in exile after the manner of a martyr, and of King Theodosius the younger, piously deceased, who in zeal and in the maturity of his intellect surpassed all who reigned before him: to whose prayers I also ascribed the receipt of the letter, since I had been expecting it for many days, and I was disturbed by various anxieties, and I was anxious lest it too had been overlooked and lost. And after other things. As to John the scribe who threw himself into a river and departed from this life, I am in doubt, and I have no sure decision to give. Know that since the times of Christ's coming in the flesh we find in church histories that this is allowed to women, to remove themselves I mean from this life, and throw themselves on to rocks or into water: on account of the weakness of their nature, and the fact that they are exposed to double danger, that of the pollution of the body I mean, and that of denial of the faith: but in the case of men we have nowhere known this principle to have been accepted or sanctioned. But it is written about one of the holy Maccabean martyrs that the torturers thought he was drawing back, and that he was showing signs of change: and upon their releasing him for a short time he leaped upon the implements of torment glowing from the fire and the instruments^ of torture, and separated his soul from his body and flew to heaven." Therefore, what has thus happened must certainly be judged according to the disposition " of his heart and the character of the words that John said. But may the God of mercy, who desires our salvation rather than our destruction, grant him the portion of those that are saved! Indeed the holy John the bishop not only treats such a death as a subject of praise in the case of the holy Pelagia the - martyr, but also pronounces a festal discourse over three other women, I mean Domnina and Prosdocia and Berenice, who by reason of the urgent dangers to which they were exposed threw themselves into the waves of the Euphrates.^ Eusebius also in his Church History recorded acts like these on the part of females.^ And after other things. But you did well in sending isa or copies of the synodical letter and of the other letter to those in the East, for their comfort and establishment in the faith. And again after other things. But the fact that ^ opyava. - 4 M. xii. 20. ^ 8ta^eo-is. ^ P. G. xlix. 579, 629. 5 jj. E. viii. 12. you have continued to reside at Alexandria we also regard as the effect of great prayer, although I am in no small degree weary, since I write letters to everyone with my own hands, and fill the place of a notary, and I am moreover annoyed at the confusion of the letters, since my handwriting is ill-regulated, although the recipients of them are good believers. If you are obliged to come to us, seek the lord James the man of the count's retinue (?),^ and he will appear before you more quickly than words can express, and with God's help you will be free from care in other things. And again afiej" other things. But as for those who, after knowing of the death of the wicked Gaian, hold assemblies in which a dead service is performed in his name, and commit impieties like those of the heathen, who celebrate symbolic services in honour of dead men as of gods, it is quite clear that some divine wrath of no gentle kind will come upon them in common, as may be inferred from the divine scriptures. But may God orrant them to be roused from their error, and to be converted from their recklessness while there is time! As to the passage in the letter addressed to father John the son of Aphthonia which you say was a difficulty to you, it is a perfectly recognised construction, and it ouijht not after such lone consideration to have baffled you. After the conjunction " indeed " the conjunction " but " is used, either immediately, or after other things ^ This perhaps represents Ko/xtTiavo9; or we might render "of Beth Kumis ". that have been said in a parenthesis: as is also to be seen clearly apparent in the place that was a difficulty to you. It stands thus: "And let these thinofs indeed be both conceived and understood in this way: and let them keep us away indeed from things that are evil, but let them lead us to the hope of things that are excellent." If we inquire into things that are so well recognised, it will even give rise to an accusation of foolish speaking among those who are versed in outside learning. Such constructions may be found plentifully used, both in every one of the ancients, and in the holy fathers. For such a construction is a piece of fine and artistic composition. For instance, an expression of the holy Basil, taken from the letter to Amphilochius about the Holy Spirit, follows so to speak in the very track and confirms what - I say. " Therefore the names indeed are of exalted nature and great like these, and names that have not indeed any excess of glory. But of what kind are the operations? Ineffable indeed on account of their greatness, but innumerable on account of their abundance."^ You notice, I think, how the doctor after saying "Therefore the names indeed are like these," again employed another conjunction "indeed", saying " names that have not indeed any excess of glory." But this clause is a parenthesis, and the sentence composed by him fits together as if it had never been inserted at all: as if he had said, " There- ^ De Sp. S. 48, 49 (P. G. xxxii. 156). fore the names indeed are of exalted nature and great like these. But of what kind are the operations.^ Ineffable indeed on account of their greatness, but innumerable on account of their abundance." Since this book was found lying at hand by me, I have quoted this to you from it. If it had not been so, as I said before, one may find similar constructions like showers of rain in every book.