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

To Count Terentius. 2810
Letter CCXIV. 2809
1. When I heard that your excellency had again been compelled to take part in public
affairs, I was straightway distressed (for the truth must be told) at the thought of how contrary
to your mind it must be that you after once giving up the anxieties of official life, and allowing
yourself leisure for the care of your soul, should again be forced back into your old career.
But then I bethought me that peradventure the Lord has ordained that your lordship should
again appear in public from this wish to grant the boon of one alleviation for the countless
pains which now beset the Church in our part of the world. I am, moreover, cheered by the
thought that I am about to meet your excellency once again before I depart this life.
2. But a further rumour has reached me that you are in Antioch, and are transacting
the business in hand with the chief authorities. And, besides this, I have heard that the
brethren who are of the party of Paulinus are entering on some discussion with your excellency
on the subject of union with us; and by “us” I mean those who are supporters of the
blessed man of God, Meletius. 2811 I hear, moreover, that the Paulinians are carrying about
a letter of the Westerns, 2812 assigning to them the episcopate of the Church in Antioch, but
speaking under a false impression of Meletius, the admirable bishop of the true Church of
God. I am not astonished at this. They 2813 are totally ignorant of what is going on here;
the others, though they might be supposed to know, give an account to them in which party
is put before truth; and it is only what one might expect that they should either be ignorant
of the truth, or should even endeavour to conceal the reasons which led the blessed Bishop
Athanasius to write to Paulinus. But your excellency has on the spot those who are able to
tell you accurately what passed between the bishops in the reign of Jovian, and from them
I beseech you to get information. 2814 I accuse no one; I pray that I may have love to all, and
2809 Placed in 375.
2810 cf. Letters xcix. and cv.
2811 On the divisions of Antioch, cf. Theod., H.E. iii. 2. Basil was no doubt taking the wise course in supporting
Meletius, whose personal orthodoxy was unimpeachable. But the irreconcilable Eustathians could not forgive
him his Arian nomination.
2812 This description might apply to either of the two letters written by Damasus to Paulinus on the subject
of the admission to communion of Vitalius, bishop of the Apollinarian schism at Antioch. (Labbe. Conc. ii. 864
and 900, and Theod. H.E. v. ii.) The dates may necessitate its being referred to the former.
2813 i.e. the Westerns.
2814 cf. Letter cclviii. and the Prolegomena to Athanasius in this edition, p. lxi. The events referred to took
place in the winter of 363, when Athanasius was at Antioch, and in the early part of 364 on his return to Alexan-
dria.
To Count Terentius.
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