Letter 84: Severus uses Arian-era precedents to allow Mark's repentance while requiring written anathemas.

Severus answers a question about Mark by recalling church history. Asterius, an Arian sophist, was received more than once and fell back more than once; Hosius of Corduba, venerable in age and admired by Athanasius, was also overcome by the pressure of the times and later received. The point is not to excuse instability, but to show that the fathers sometimes allowed repentance even after serious and repeated failure. Mark, Severus concludes, should be received on the basis of a written statement. He must anathematize both the two-nature teaching after the union and the Massalian error, together with the persons and doctrines involved. Severus knows that earlier fathers sometimes received people when only the impiety, not every person attached to it, was anathematized. They did this as pilots steering through storms, using pastoral policy for the church's safety. But Mark's case requires clarity. The letter is a lesson in disciplined mercy. Severus does not want to repel a penitent simply because he has fallen before. He also does not want repentance reduced to vague regret. Written renunciation protects Mark, the community, and the truth. Historical precedent gives room for return, but return must be more than sentiment. It must name the error, break with it, and show that mercy has not become permission to repeat the same betrayal. By using examples from the Arian crisis, Severus makes the case larger than Mark. The church has survived periods when fear and pressure bent even prominent people. That memory should make bishops patient, not careless. They may receive the person who returns, but they must make sure the return is intelligible to everyone watching.

It is related in church histories that Asterius, who was a sophist and author among the Arians,' was often received and often returned to his vomit, ^ insomuch that this expression of his is cited in histories. He cried out lying on his face before everyone and saying, "Trample upon me, the salt which has lost its savour." Hosius also, the bishop of ^ Gf. Socr. i. 36, Theod. Hist. Rel. I cannot find this story. Pe. ii. 22. V. 4- Corduba, the old man, whom Athanasius who is among" the saints often called "a man of goodly old age," ^ was often perverted and overcome by the times and again received, and many others. Therefore with Mark also this same principle should hold good, and he should be received on the basis of a written document, upon his anathematizing the heresies of the Diphysites and of the Massalians, together with the impious men themselves and their impiety. For indeed " both the impious man and his impiety are equally hated before God,'"" as a wise man said; although the fathers as pilots ^ from motives of policy received some men upon the impiety alone being anathematized {I refer to the pepragmena or things done at Chalcedon), thinking that those who did them were also anathematized at the same time in silence. When this is done it is absolutely necessary that the office of superintendent should also be entrusted to Mark, seeing that the majority of the brethren and, if one may so say, all are asking for him as you write. Indeed after considering the matter from many points of view I have come to this conclusion, that it is better that he should be canonicallv received now while he is humbled, than that, desired as he is by many persons, he should betake himself perhaps to the royal among cities, and do things that many are wont to do, and with money buy independence, and get the monastery ^ Ap. c. Ar. 44 (?); cf., note i. " W. xiv. 9. ^ KvfSepvrjrai. under his control with liberty to follow the impiety with head bare and unashamed. I have also received - the letter that you wrote about the hateful opinions of Romanus, in which you state that you have read the tome written by me cursorily. But I wish you to read it yet again and pay attention to the contents, and to condemn more strongly the impious man, and induce the saintly bishops also to do the same, and repudi- ate that wicked man by a common synodical letter addressed by them to my meanness. There is yet another thing that I had almost forgotten to make known to your religiousness, viz., that the devout Mark in what he said displayed an appearance of shrinking from the superintendence of the monastery, and seeking only to live at peace, and besides this asserted further that a royal letter had assigned the monastery to the apostolic see of the city of the Antiochenes, and that the clergymen in Tarsus had a spite against them, and prevented them from lesson- reading and the offering of oblations if they were in need, the holy remnants of the bloodless sacrifice being often lackingf to them. And I said to him and to the man who was with him, "You cannot raise these matters now: but for the present you Mark must certainly show true repentance by a form of satisfaction^ and by a change in your deeds, and then, if you have the witness of time to the blamelessness of your future conduct, we will also go on to settle the said points," if •7r\r]po<fiopLa. " KC^aAaia. V. 4- anyone try to act. perversely towards you, and to do any spiteful and injurious action to your holy monastery." Therefore, in order that the questions raised upon these subjects too may not be unknown to you, I have added these few words in the letter, Moreover on second thoughts I have determined to warn your religiousness of this further point also: that, when I was composing the letter to the metropolitan,^ and I thouo-ht that the number of brethren livingf in the monastery was large, I came to the following decision: that is that the entrusting of the super- intendence to the devout Mark should depend on the opinion of the majority. But I learn that there are not more than fifteen: and distinct information has been sent me that one or two only are thought to be opposed to him, and that it is certainly he who ought to receive the post of superintendent, upon giving complete satisfaction with sincerity and with his whole heart, so far as men can see. We have also sent an ison or copy of the form of satisfaction" which our notaries have drawn up, having compiled it from other forms ^ that were previously composed by me in the cases of various persons. The God-loving Basil bishop of Pompeiupolis has informed us that he has been compelled by the God- loving Dionysius bishop of the metropolis to under- take an unlawful laying on of hands or ordination. If this is really so, it is also proper that your love of V. 5. ^ 7rXr}po(f>opLa. ^ ■jrXrjpot^opiWi. God and the religious presbyter and logothete John should take care that it too receive correction.