Letter 81: Severus tells John that Timothy's different pastoral actions served one consistent aim: salvation and orthodox faith.

John the tribune, writing in the name of Leontius, has praised Severus too highly and then criticized Timothy of Alexandria too sharply. Severus begins with self-reproach, saying that being called a city set on a hill only increases his tears, because public visibility can make private negligence more harmful. But he is much more grieved by the attack on Timothy, whom he honors as a confessor and defender of the orthodox faith. The accusation is that Timothy contradicted himself by first rejecting clergy ordained by heretics and later receiving some of them when they anathematized their error in writing. Severus answers by showing that pastoral consistency is not the same as doing the same outward act in every circumstance. Peter went first to the circumcised and then to the nations. Paul could keep aspects of the law in one situation and reject them in another. Their aim was one: salvation. He then extends the argument through church precedent. Cyprian and his synod once took a stricter view of baptisms performed by heretics, but later broader judgment prevailed without making Cyprian contemptible. The point is not that doctrine shifts with convenience. It is that fathers and bishops sometimes correct policy when a better path for healing and truth becomes clear. Timothy's reception of repentant clergy should be read in that light, not as weakness. Severus also clarifies why he loves Timothy. He does not love him as if Timothy had been crucified for him, but as a faithful steward of the mysteries and a servant of the crucified Christ. Timothy contended against both division of Christ and false appearance in Christ's humanity. John must therefore learn a wiser kind of judgment. A bishop may use different remedies while keeping one faith and one purpose. To call that contradiction is to misunderstand the medicine of the church. Severus insists that Timothy's change of practice must be read from its pastoral purpose. A doctor may burn, cut, soothe, or bind according to the disease before him; the different treatments do not prove that the doctor has changed sides. Timothy first resisted heretical ordinations in order to make the danger plain. Later, when written anathemas and repentance were present, he received some men in order to save them and strengthen the orthodox body. The rule is not convenience but discernment. He also warns John against turning reverence for the fathers into a weapon against living pastoral judgment. Peter, Paul, Cyprian, and the later church all show that a bishop may adapt a remedy without betraying the faith. The church is not preserved by mechanical sameness. It is preserved when doctrine remains whole and wounded people are treated in the way most likely to bring them back to life. Timothy's honor, in Severus' eyes, lies exactly there: he fought false doctrine fiercely while still knowing how to receive repentance when repentance became real. This makes the letter more than a defense of one Alexandrian bishop. It is Severus' account of how authority should reason under pressure. A rigid person may appear consistent because he always says no, but that kind of sameness can fail charity and even fail doctrine when repentance is real. A careless person may always say yes and call it mercy. Timothy, as Severus presents him, avoids both errors. He says no while no would protect the faith, and he says yes when confession, anathema, and repentance make reception possible. John is being asked to judge by that whole pattern rather than by one isolated contrast.

For my part I thought that the negligence and sloth that has grown old with me, and the sleep of sins from which up to the present day I have not been roused, were unknown to the majority of men, but known to God only, " who knoweth the hearts," and makes " light the hidden things of darkness," and reveals the thoughts that are in the mind.^ But you by naming me a city set upon a height have caused me an increase of tears, if I not only injure myself by my R. V. 17-19. ' TtVAos. ^ Ac. XV. 8; i Co. iv. 5. V. I. forgetfulness, but also make myself a bad example to others who know me. The holy scripture knows of such cities also and evil powers, and men who regard impiety, whose memory the Lord destroyed with tumult. However, I considered that you were led by love and your faith towards Christ to write thus, though you distressed my wretchedness. But, concerning the other part of your letter, I was much grieved: and I prayed that the earth might open for me, seeing that you have dared to open a blaspheming mouth against the saint and archbishop Timothy, the preserver of the orthodox faith, who was left as a remnant and a root for Israel, enduring long exiles,^ and bearing Christ's marks in him. What cause of blame is there, tell me, in the fact of his receiving- canonic- ally upon repentance those who were ordained by heretics, when they anathematized their heresy in writing? Are you not in the habit of hearing that Melitus,' the archbishop of Antioch, was ordained by Arians, and that he afterwards showed himself an approved champion of orthodoxy, insomuch that he was thought worthy to suffer many things, and put on the crown of confession? What then.-^ Did those who recgived this man at that time and honoured him with tens of thousands of praises, one of whom was the ggreat Basil, also praise or recgive the man who ordained him, holding as he did Arian opinions? Nay, him they justly repudiated as having remained in the nets 1 iiopia<s. ^ Meletius is meant. of Arius, while they admired Melitus as having by repentance purged away the dregs of heresy and combated on behalf of orthodoxy. But you say that the holy Timothy contradicted himself, seeing that at first he said that those who had been ordained should not be recgived, but at a later time recgived them. Being an old man and without learning and un- instructed I acquiesce in what you say. However, we find that the holy apostles also showed similar self-con- tradiction. For instance Peter, though he was in the habit of preaching the gospel to those of the circum- cision only, and did not go on to preach to those of the nations also, because he thought it to be " unlawful to approach or join himself to anyone of another race," afterwards, when he had recgived a revelation from God, said, " God hath showed me also not to call any - man common and unclean": and again, "God also who knoweth the hearts bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit even as unto us, and put no difference between us and them."^ In such cases the purpose is approved though the things done are thought to appear in some way contradictory. But, that you may learn that it is not I only the un- instructed who say these things, I remember to have heard a discourse of the holy John, bishop of Con- stantinople, read: and I have now again looked for the book, and have copied some sentences from it for your affection, which give us an example bearing upon this 1 Ac. X. 28, XV. 8. V. I, present subject, that we are not to be scandalized without reason. The discourse in which the holy man writes these things is the encomium on Paul the Apostle: and he speaks thus: "So neither would Paul have been known to imitate his Lord, except that he became now a Jew, now as one not under the law. For now he would keep the law: now he would neglect the law. And at one time he would cleave to the life here; at another again he would despise it. And now he would ask for money: now he would refuse it even when given. And he would sacrifice, and shave: and again he would anathematize the doers of these things. And now he would circumcize: now he would reject circumcision. And the things done were contradictory: but the thought and inten- tion from which these proceeded was very consistent - and consonant with itself. For he sought one thing, the salvation of those who saw and heard these things. For this reason now he would keep the law: now he would subvert it. For it was not only in vv^hat he did, but also in what he said that he was versatile and rich in expedients: not being changed in his mind, nor passing from one disposition to another, but remaining that which he was, and tgreating each of the said matters in accordance with the need of the time. Do not there- fore speak evil of him on account of these things, but celebrate and crown him the more on account of these thino-s. For in fact in the case of a physician also, when you see him now burning now feeding; and using now iron now medicine; and now prohibiting foods V. I. SELECT lp:tters of the holy severus. 279 and drinks, now allowing the patient to enjoy these without stint; and at one time restrictino- him on all sides, at another ordering the man who has been seized with fever to drink a glass full of cold water, you do not blame him for the variation, nor because of the perpetual change: but you will then praise the tech- nical skill the more, because you see it boldly applying methods that seem to us contradictory and hurtful, and pledging itself for a safe result. For such is the man of technical skill. But, if we accept a physician when he does these contradictory things, much more must we celebrate the soul of Paul, which approached those in trouble in this way."^ So far the holy John: - but I wish to say one other thing which also springs from rusticity and an uninstructed mind. I consider that all the bishops throughout the earth who are bound together with one another in the orthodox faith and combined in union are one. For all follow the model of one, of the ggreat God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Therefore, as, when Cyprian in Africa with the synod under him said that all who had been bap- tized by heresy ought to recgive the laver of regener- tion, as if they had never originally been baptized at all, but at last the opinion of Sixtus of Rome, and of Dionysius of Alexandria and of the others prevailed, so that those who had been baptized by heretics in the name of the three substances, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, were not re-baptized, no one of sound 1 P. G. xlix. 498. 19 V. I. intelligence said that those saintly bishops contradicted themselves, but that upon later consideration they chose a better and more canonical course, so also the holy Timothy too at first, owing to the blasphemy and the impenitent heart of the Proterians as it was at the beginning, and the zeal of the orthodox people of the city of the Alexandrines, said that he would not accept P- 315- those who had been ordained by the opposite party: but at last, when they canonically repented and he lawfully accepted them, he did not show himself self- contradictory, but rather very consistent, since he said those things on account of the zeal of the believers, but allowed the canons to prevail, and accepted those who repented in accordance with the final conclusions of the fathers, and further by signing the Encyclical united himself to all the bishops in the world/ Though these things seem contradictory to many, yet neverthe- less their one purpose was the salvation of those who had perished, and that those who stood upright might not under the influence of immoderate zeal leave the royal road, and turn away to that which is rather on the right side. Therefore, you that are beloved on account of our Lord Jesus, do not out of ignorance injure your soul: but hear me the unlearned and unin- structed, and do not revile the man of God, with whom all the fathers were satisfied at that time, not having recgived the satisfaction ' that is from men, but that which is from God: and I the mean and sinful 1 C/i ^ TrXrjpo(jiopia. am, as I persuade.myself, no false witness of this. We did not love Timothy as having been crucified for us, as you say, but as having been a true bondservant ol Him who was of His own accord crucified for the race of men, and a faithful and wise steward of God's mysteries: ^ who also contended against the heresy of the Diphysites or Nestorians, and the impious phantasy 2 of the Eutychianists, proclaiming Emmanuel to be one nature out of two, the Godhead that is and the manhood, and the same of one essence with the Father in the Godhead, and of one essence with us men in the manhood. For He took of the seed of Abraham and was made like us His brethren in all things except sin, ^ in order that He might redeem those who were under sin, and might save us by His blood, and we might thenceforth be called a holy people, inasmuch as we were cgreated by the blood of God, who suffered for us in the flesh and remained impass- ible. Let your beloved person know that to all who came to my pitifulness of the holy fathers in Pam- phylia, and of the Christ-loving laymen, I read what was written to me by you: and each of them urged me to write to you many things taken from the doctors who were eminent at various times in the church. For some of them actually knew you at the time when Promotus the count, whose soul is at rest, was living in the royal city: with whom you perhaps in fact - discussed these things. But for my part, seeing that ^ Lu. xii. 42; I Co. iv. I. ^ ^avrao-ta. ^ He. ii. i6, 17, iv. 15. as an uninstructed and unlearned man I avoid many words, I have sent you in an epistle the fruit of my rusticity: having besought the merciful God to place in you the wisdom which is gentle and obedient, in respect of the things that have been written by me. May the Lord of peace and of tranquillity grant us peace and tranquillity at all times and in all ways!