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

ination of the case, and consume considerable time in weighing the severity of the law against
the common fault of humanity, and with many a sigh and many a lament for the stern necessity
of the case, proclaim before all the people that they are obeying the law from necessity,
and not passing sentence to gratify their own wishes. 2900 How much greater care and diligence,
how much more counsel, ought to be taken by one who is on the point of breaking
off from long established friendship with a brother! In this case there is only a single letter
and that of doubtful genuineness. It would be quite impossible to argue that it is known by
the signature, for they possess not the original, but only a copy. They depend on one single
document and that an old one. It is now twenty years since anything has been written to
that person. 2901 Of my opinions and conduct in the intervening time I can adduce no better
witnesses than the very men who attack and accuse me.
7. But the real reason of separation is not this letter. There is another cause of alienation.
I am ashamed to mention it; and I would have been for ever silent about it had not recent
events compelled me to publish all their mind for the sake of the good of the mass of the
people. Good men have thought that communion with me was a bar to the recovery of their
authority. Some have been influenced by the signature of a certain creed which I proposed
to them, not that I distrusted their sentiments, I confess, but because I wished to do away
with the suspicions which the more part of the brethren who agree with me entertained of
them. Accordingly, to avoid anything arising from that confession to prevent their being
accepted by the present authorities, 2902 they have renounced communion with me. This
letter was devised by an after-thought as a pretext for the separation. A very plain proof of
what I say is, that after they had denounced me, and composed such complaints against me
as suited them, they sent round their letters in all directions before communicating with
me. Their letter was in the possession of others who had received it in the course of transmission
and who were on the point of sending it on seven days before it had reached my
hands. The idea was that it would be handed from one to another and so would be quickly
distributed over the whole country. This was reported to me at the time by those who were
giving me clear information of all their proceedings. But I determined to hold my tongue
meaning of drawing so as to disclose is confirmed by Basil’s πάνδημοι πᾶσι γίγνονται in this passage and in
Hom. in Ps. xxxii.
2900 The Ben. note compares the praise bestowed on Candidianus by Gregory of Nazianzus for trying cases
in the light of day (Ep. cxciv) and Am. Marcellinus xvii. 1, who says of Julian, Numerium Narconensis paulo ante
rectorem, accusatum ut furem, inusitato censorio vigore pro tribunali palam admissis volentibus audiebat.
2901 i.e. Apollinarius.
Against Eustathius of Sebasteia.
2902 Though this phrase commonly means the reigning emperor, as in Letter lxvi., the Ben. note has no doubt
that in this instance the reference is to Euzoius. In Letter ccxxvi. § 3. q.v., Basil mentions reconciliation with
Euzoius as the real object of Eustathius’s hostility. Euzoius was now in high favour with Valens.
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