Letter 24: Theodore Studite, Letter 24; Greek heading: Θεοκτίστῳ μαγίστρῳ.

That your most exalted Eminence labors on our behalf out of surpassing love of God was shown both by the words conveyed through the most reverend abbot, and has now been made plain also by what came through our brother in response to the declarations and replies that were sent. And the rewards for so great and good a disposition of yours toward the common benefit will assuredly be reckoned to it—even though we say nothing—by God, who determines all things by measure and weight. But what dispensation [oikonomia: the prudent accommodation by which the Church relaxes strict discipline for a higher good] must be made, O master, beyond what we have already done, so far as it lies with us? For up to the present we have held ourselves back and kept silence, both I and the archbishop (since there is a time for speaking and a time for keeping silent), pursuing every means that the matter should not break out into the open. But he who searches has searched it out, and he who spoke was not deceived, that "there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest"; so that even against our own choosing, the affairs being of such a nature, they cannot for long appear to be other than what they are. And now, employing dispensation, we say these two things: either he who has been deposed shall cease from priestly ministry, and immediately we are in communion with the most holy patriarch—which is also profitable for the common good—or, if this is not endurable, then we remain under the same withdrawal as before, leaving to the Lord the vindication concerning such a chief point. But what is greater than this is—forgive me—no longer a manner of dispensation, but the debt of transgression and of the violation of the divine canons. For the definition of dispensation, as you know, is neither to set aside in any way at all anything of what is established, nor, where it is possible, to yield a little for a season and with reason, so as thereby to find without artifice what is sought—that is, with a view to being drawn on to what is more vigorous in the matter and not to suffer loss in things more perfect. And this we have been taught, among the apostles, from Paul, who purified himself and circumcised Timothy, and among the fathers, from Basil the Great, who accepted the gift of Valens and for a season kept silent about pronouncing the bare word "God" concerning the Spirit. But neither did Paul remain in his purifying, nor Basil any longer accepting the gift of Valens and not proclaiming the Spirit to be God; on the contrary, both are seen to have chosen death rather than each of these. In this way anyone who has practiced dispensation from of old has not fallen away from the good; for he quickly laid hold again of what he had a little let go, as in the case of a helmsman who has let the rudder slacken a little because of a storm blowing against him. But one who is carried otherwise has missed the mark, accomplishing transgression instead of dispensation. And the examples are many, which it is superfluous to write because of prolixity. But as for your Lordship's saying that, with regard to the canon of the apostles concerning those who ordain and are ordained for money, Chrysostom made a certain concession in the case of the six bishops he deposed, there is no difference—even if it seems so—since, when he had alienated them from all priesthood, he conceded to them only participation at the altar [communion as laymen, not the right to officiate]. But let us grant that there is a difference and that there is a concession: let those who wish imitate it, and there is no one to hinder them; for he too is a mouth of God and a fellow-dweller with the apostles, whom many remember down to the present and concerning whom no one has disputed. But here it is not so: for he who crowned the adulterer [a reference to Joseph the steward, who officiated at the unlawful second marriage of the Emperor Constantine VI], as though he had done nothing improper, is once again ministering as priest, and not entering anywhere in a hidden corner, but set forth in the very catholic [universal] Church as a good example for the priests. And what to us is the second marriage of Valentinian, a pagan? And who, having crowned him in this, is proclaimed a saint and not a lawbreaker, if indeed he was even crowned? And who at that time of the divinely-inspired fathers handed down in writing that Valentinian acted in a holy manner in taking two wives, and that it is necessary from this point on that this be done? Many others, then, since for them too the wish is a law—not divine, but human and reprehensible—have done so and may perhaps do so even to the end of the age. But the Church of God has remained unharmed, even though it was struck with many darts, and the gates of Hades have not been able to prevail against it. Nor does it tolerate doing or saying anything contrary to the established definitions and laws, even though many shepherds in many ways have acted foolishly; since they have indeed convened great and most numerous synods, and named themselves churches of God, and have taken thought for the canons in appearance, while in truth moving against the canons. What wonder, then, if now too fifteen bishops, having perhaps been gathered together, have acquitted the man deposed by the canons on two counts, releasing him to perform priestly ministry? A synod, therefore, master, is not simply the gathering together of hierarchs and priests, even if they be many (for better, it says, is one doing the will of the Lord than ten thousand transgressing it), but the gathering in the name of the Lord in the searching out and the safeguarding of the canons, and the binding and loosing not at random, but as seems good to the truth and to the canon and to the standard of strictness [akribeia]. Either let those who assembled show that they have done this, and we are with them; or, if they do not show it, let them cast out the unworthy man, lest it be handed down as an accusation against them and against the generations to come; for the word of God does not by nature admit of being bound, and authority is given to the hierarchs in no respect, upon any transgression of a canon, except only to walk in the things decreed and to follow those who went before (I do not know, unless something is uncanonical and overlooked). And with respect to this there is a canon of Saint Basil concerning a priest who has sworn in truth to be content only with his own church and to offer the gift nowhere else. And again, the canon of the council at Carthage concerning those who ordain men apostatizing from the monasteries: that such men ought not to perform priestly ministry in any church other than the one over which each holds episcopal charge, and that those ordained are to be deposed. If, then, in these slight matters—which to most do not even seem to be anything sinful—the judgments and the just ordinances of God are not left unavenged, how much more in the present case? It is not possible, then, it is not possible, O master, for either our church or any other to do anything contrary to the established laws and canons. For if this were granted, the gospel is empty, the canons are in vain, and each man according to the season of his own high-priesthood—since it is permitted to him to act as he pleases together with those who are with him—let him be a new evangelist, another apostle, a fresh lawgiver. But by no means: for we have a charge from the apostle himself, that if anyone should teach as doctrine or command us to do anything beyond what we have received, beyond what the canons of the catholic and local synods of the various times prescribe, we are to hold him unacceptable and not to reckon him in the lot of the saints; and we have passed over saying the harsher word which he himself has spoken. To us, then, who are outside the world, nothing else is owed than to seek and to do such things, from which it falls also to you to be roused up together with us and to be zealous. And if life is in these things, it would be well; but if not, it is profitable even to be homeless and hearthless and to wander about under heaven, after every affliction and distress. Let your God-loving soul, then, which is zealous for the things of God, give help according to its power.