NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Without address.Letter XXXVII. 2020Without address.I look with suspicion on the multiplication of letters. Against my will, and because Icannot resist the importunity of petitioners, I am compelled to speak. I write because I canthink of no other means of relieving myself than by assenting to the supplications of thosewho are always asking letters from me. I am really afraid lest, since many are carrying lettersoff, one of the many be reckoned to be that brother. I have, I own, many friends and relativesin my own country, and I am placed in loco parentis by the position 2021 which the Lord hasgiven me. Among them is this my foster brother, son of my nurse, and I pray that the housein which I was brought up may remain at its old assessment, so that the sojourn among usof your excellency, so beneficial to us all, may turn out no occasion of trouble to him. Nowtoo I am supported from the same house, because I have nothing of my own, but dependupon those who love me. I do then entreat you to spare the house in which I was nursed asthough you were keeping up the supply of support for me. May God in return grant youHis everlasting rest. One thing however, and it is most true, I think your excellency oughtto know, and that is that the greater number of the slaves were given him from the outsetby us, as an equivalent for my sustenance, by the gift of my father and mother. At the sametime this was not to be regarded as an absolute gift; he was only to have the use for life, sothat, if anything serious happen to him on their account, he is at liberty to send them backto me, and I shall thus in another way be responsible for rates and to collectors.1372020 Of the same time as the preceding.2021 By some supposed to be that of a bishop; but Maran, who dates the letter before the episcopate, thinksthe use of the phrase is justified by our understanding the presbyterate to be meant. Vide Prolegomena.425