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

To Theophilus the Bishop. 3082
Letter CCXLV. 3081
It is some time since I received your letter, but I waited to be able to reply by some fit
person; that so the bearer of my answer might supply whatever might be wanting in it. Now
there has arrived our much beloved and very reverend brother Strategius, and I have judged
it well to make use of his services, both as knowing my mind and able to convey 3083 news
of me with due propriety and reverence. Know, therefore, my beloved and honoured friend,
that I highly value my affection for you, and am not conscious so far as the disposition of
my heart goes, of having at any time failed in it, although I have had many serious causes
of reasonable complaint. But I have decided to weigh the good against the bad, as in a balance,
and to add my own mind where the better inclines. Now changes have been made by
those who should least of all have allowed anything of the kind. Pardon me, therefore, for
I have not changed my mind, if I have shifted any side, or rather I should say, I shall still be
on the same side, but there are others who are continually changing it, and are now openly
deserting to the foe. You yourself know what a value I put on their communion, so long as
they were of the sound party. If now I refuse to follow these, and shun all who think with
them, I ought fairly to be forgiven. I put truth and my own salvation before everything.
3081 Placed in 376.
3082 i.e.of Castabala, who had accompanied Eustathius to Rome, and was closely associated with him. cf. p.
198.
3083 διακομίσαι . Two mss. have διακονῆσαι.
To Theophilus the Bishop.
794