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

To a lapsed Monk.Letter XLV. 2102To a lapsed Monk.1. I am doubly alarmed to the very bottom of my heart, and you are the cause. I ameither the victim of some unkindly prepossession, and so am driven to make an unbrotherlycharge; or, with every wish to feel for you, and to deal gently with your troubles, I am forcedto take a different and an unfriendly attitude. Wherefore, even as I take my pen to write, Ihave nerved my unwilling hand by reflection; but my face, downcast as it is, because of mysorrow over you, I have had no power to change. I am so covered with shame, for yoursake, that my lips are turned to mourning and my mouth straightway falls. Ah me! Whatam I to write? What shall I think in my perplexity?If I call to mind your former empty mode of life, when you were rolling in riches andhad abundance of petty mundane reputation, I shudder; then you were followed by a mobof flatterers, and had the short enjoyment of luxury, with obvious peril and unfair gain; onthe one hand, fear of the magistrates scattered your care for your salvation, on the other theagitations of public affairs disturbed your home, and the continuance of troubles directedyour mind to Him Who is able to help you. Then, little by little, you took to seeking for theSaviour, Who brings you fears for your good, Who delivers you and protects you, thoughyou mocked Him in your security. Then you began to train yourself for a change to a worthylife, treating all your perilous property as mere dung, and abandoning the care of yourhousehold and the society of your wife. All abroad like a stranger and a vagabond, wanderingthrough town and country, you betook yourself to Jerusalem. 2103 There I myself lived withyou, and, for the toil of your ascetic discipline, called you blessed, when fasting for weeksyou continued in contemplation before God, shunning the society of your fellows, like arouted runaway. Then you arranged for yourself a quiet and solitary life, and refused allthe disquiets of society. You pricked your body with rough sackcloth; you tightened a hardbelt round your loins; you bravely put wearing pressure on your bones; you made your sideshang loose from front to back, and all hollow with fasting; you would wear no soft bandage,and drawing in your stomach, like a gourd, made it adhere to the parts about your kidneys.You emptied out all fat from your flesh; all the channels below your belly you dried up; yourbelly itself you folded up for want of food; your ribs, like the caves of a house, you made toovershadow all the parts about your middle, and, with all your body contracted, you spent1482102 To be ranked with the preceding.2103 cf. note on Letter xlii. p. 145. Maran, Vit. S. Bas. cap. xii., regards this implied sojourn at Jerusalem asunfavourable to the genuineness of the letter; but supposing the letter to be genuine, and grounds to exist fordoubting Basil to have spent any long time in the Holy Land, there seems no reason why “Jerusalem” may notbe taken in a figurative sense for the companionship of the saints. See also Proleg. on Basil’s baptism.447