Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

To the Presbyter Evagrius. 2513
Letter CLVI. 2512
1. So far from being impatient at the length of your letter, I assure you I thought it even
short, from the pleasure it gave me when reading it. For is there anything more pleasing
than the idea of peace? Is anything more suitable to the sacred office, or more acceptable
to the Lord, than to take measures for effecting it? May you have the reward of the peacemaker,
since so blessed an office has been the object of your good desires and earnest efforts.
At the same time, believe me, my revered friend, I will yield to none in my earnest wish and
prayer to see the day when those who are one in sentiment shall all fill the same assembly.
Indeed it would be monstrous to feel pleasure in the schisms and divisions of the Churches,
and not to consider that the greatest of goods consists in the knitting together of the members
of Christ’s body. But, alas! my inability is as real as my desire. No one knows better than
yourself, that time alone is the remedy of ills that time has matured. Besides, a strong and
vigorous treatment is necessary to get at the root of the complaint. You will understand
this hint, though there is no reason why I should not speak out.
2. Self-importance, when rooted by habit in the mind, cannot be destroyed by one man,
by one single letter, or in a short time. Unless there be some arbiter in whom all parties
have confidence, suspicions and collisions will never altogether cease. If, indeed, the influence
of Divine grace were shed upon me, and I were given power in word and deed and spiritual
gifts to prevail with these rival parties, then this daring experiment might be demanded of
me; though, perhaps, even then, you would not advise me to attempt this adjustment of
things by myself, without the co-operation of the bishop, 2514 on whom principally falls the
care of the church. But he cannot come hither, nor can I easily undertake a long journey
while the winter lasts, or rather I cannot anyhow, for the Armenian mountains will be soon
impassable, even to the young and vigorous, to say nothing of my continued bodily ailments.
I have no objection to write to tell him of all this; but I have no expectation that writing will
lead to anything, for I know his cautious character, and after all written words have little
power to convince the mind. There are so many things to urge, and to bear, and to reply
to, and to object, that a letter has no soul, and is in fact but waste paper. However, as I have
said, I will write. Only give me credit, most religious and dear brother, for having no private
feeling in the matter. Thank God. I have no such feeling towards any one. I have not busied
in xl. Mar. ii. 935. As early as the time of St. Augustine (†430) a thriving trade in forged relics had already begun.
(Aug., De Opere Monach. 28.) cf. Littledale’s Plain Reasons, p. 51.
2512 Placed in 373.
2513 cf. Letter cxxxviii.
2514 Meletius of Antioch.
To the Presbyter Evagrius.
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