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

To Bishop Innocent.Letter LXXXI. 2277To Bishop Innocent. 2278I was delighted to receive the letter your affection sent me; but I am equally grieved atyour having laid on me the load of a responsibility which is more than I can carry. Howcan I, so far removed as I am, undertake so great a charge? As long as the Church possessesyou, it rests as it were on its proper buttress. Should the Lord be pleased to make somedispensation in the matter of your life, whom, from among us here can I send to take thecharge of the brethren, who will be in like esteem with yourself? That is a very wise andproper wish which you express in your letter, that while you are yet alive you may see thesuccessor destined after you to guide the chosen flock of the Lord (like the blessed Moses,who both wished and saw). As the place is great and famous, and your work has great andwide renown, and the times are difficult, needing no insignificant guide on account of thecontinuous storms and tempests which are attacking the Church, I have not thought it safefor my own soul to treat the matter perfunctorily, specially when I bear in mind the termsin which you write. For you say that, accusing me of disregard of the Churches, you meanto withstand me before the Lord. Not then to be at issue with you, but rather to have youon my side in my defence which I make in the presence of Christ I have, after looking roundin the assembly of the presbyters of the city, chosen the very honourable vessel, the offspring2279 of the blessed Hermogenes, who wrote the great and invincible creed in the greatSynod. 2280 He is a presbyter of the Church, of many years standing, of steadfast character,skilled in canons, accurate in the faith, who has lived up to this time in continence and asceticdiscipline, although the severity of his austere life has now subdued the flesh; a manof poverty, with no resources in this world, so that he is not even provided with bare bread,but by the labour of his hands gets a living with the brethren who dwell with him. It is myintention to send him. If, then, this is the kind of man you want, and not some youngerman fit only to be sent and to discharge the common duties of this world, be so good as towrite to me at the first opportunity, that I may send you this man, who is elect of God, adaptedfor the present work, respected by all who meet him, and who instructs with meekness2277 Placed in 372.2278 cf. Letter l. The see of this Innocent is unknown. cf. Letter lxxxi. and note. To the title of this letter onemanuscript adds “of Rome,” as the Ben. Ed. note “prorsus absurde.”2279 ἔκγονος, i.e. the spiritual offspring of Hermogenes, by whom he had been ordained.2280 Bishop of Cæsarea, in which see he preceded Dianius. cf. Letters ccxliv. 9 and cclxiii. 3. “The greatSynod” is Nicæa. Baronius on the year 325 remarks that Basil’s memory must have failed him, inasmuch as notHermogenes but Leontius was present at Nicæa as Bishop of Cæsarea. But Hermogenes may have been presentin lower orders. cf. Stanley, East. Ch. pp. 105, 140.508