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

To the Chorepiscopi.Letter LIV. 2199To the Chorepiscopi.I am much distressed that the canons of the Fathers have fallen through, and that theexact discipline of the Church has been banished from among you. I am apprehensive lest,as this indifference grows, the affairs of the Church should, little by little, fall into confusion.According to the ancient custom observed in the Churches of God, ministers in the Churchwere received after careful examination; the whole of their life was investigated; an enquirywas made as to their being neither railers nor drunkards, not quick to quarrel, keeping theiryouth in subjection, so as to be able to maintain “the holiness without which no man shallsee the Lord.” 2200 This examination was made by presbyters and deacons living with them.Then they brought them to the Chorepiscopi; and the Chorepiscopi, after receiving thesuffrages of the witnesses as to the truth and giving information to the Bishop, so admittedthe minister to the sacerdotal order. 2201 Now, however, you have quite passed me over;you have not even had the grace to refer to me, and have transferred the whole authority toyourselves. Furthermore, with complete indifference, you have allowed presbyters anddeacons to introduce unworthy persons into the Church, just any one they choose, withoutany previous examination of life and character, by mere favoritism, on the score of relationshipor some other tie. The consequence is, that in every village, there are reckoned many2199 Placed at the same time as the foregoing.2200 Heb. xii. 14.2201 The Ben. note runs, “Ministros, sive subdiaconos, sacratorum ordini ascribit Basilius. Synodus Laodicenainferiores clericos sacratorum numero non comprehendit, sed numerat sacratos a presbyteris usque ad diaconos,ἀπο πρεσβυτέρων ἕως διακόνων, can. 24, distinguit canone 27, ἱερατικοὺς, ἢ κληρικοὺς ἢ λαικοὺς, sive sacratos,sive clericos, sive laicos. Et can. 30. ῞Οτι οὑ δεῖ ἱερατικὸν ἢ κληρικὸν ἢ ἀσκητὴν ἐν βαλανειῳ μετὰ γυναικῶνἀπολούεσθαι, μηδὲ πάντα Χριστιανὸν ἢ λαϊκόν. Non oportet sacratum vel clericum aut ascetam in balneo cummulieribus lavari. sed nec ullum Christianum aut laïcum. Non sequuntur hujus synodi morem ecclesiasticiscriptores. Basilius, epist. 287, excommunicato omne cum sacratis commercium intercludit. Et in epist. 198,ἱερατεῖον intelligit cœtum clericorum, eique ascribit clericos qui epistolas episcopi perferebant. Athanasius adRufinianum scribens, rogat eum ut epistolam legat ἱερατεί& 251· et populo. Gregorius Nazianzenus lectores sacriordinis, ἱεροῦ ταγματος, partem esse agnoscit in epist. 45. Notandus etiam canon 8 apostolicus, ει τις ἐπίσκοποςἢ etc. πρεσβύτερος ἢ διάκονος ἢ ἐκ τοῦ ἱεραρικοῦ καταλόγον, etc. Si quis episcopus vel presbyter vel diaconus,vel ex sacro ordine. Hæc visa sunt observanda, quia pluribus Basilii locis, quæ deinceps occurrent, non parumafferent lucis.” The letter of the Council in Illyricum uses ἱερατικὸν τάγμα in precisely the same way. Theod.,Ecc. Hist. iv. 8, where see note on p. 113. So Sozomen, On the Council of Nicæa, i. 23. Ordo, the nearest Latinequivalent to the Greek τάγμα, was originally used of any estate in the church, e.g. St. Jerome, On Isaiah v. 19,18. On the testing of qualifications for orders, cf. St. Cyprian, Ep. lxviii.469