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

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata. 2451Letter CXXXVIII. 24501. What was my state of mind, think you, when I received your piety’s letter? When Ithought of the feelings which its language expressed, I was eager to fly straight to Syria; butwhen I thought of the bodily illness, under which I lay bound, I saw myself unequal, notonly to flying, but even to turning on my bed. This day, on which our beloved and excellentbrother and deacon, Elpidius, has arrived, is the fiftieth of my illness. I am much reducedby the fever. For lack of what it might feed on, it lingers in this dry flesh as in an expiringwick, and so has brought on a wasting and tedious illness. Next my old plague, the liver,coming upon it, has kept me from taking nourishment, prevented sleep, and held me onthe confines of life and death, granting just life enough to feel its inflictions. In consequenceI have had recourse to the hot springs, and have availed myself of help from medical men.But for all these the mischief has proved too strong. Perhaps another man might endureit, but, coming as it did unexpectedly, no one is so stout as to bear it. Long troubled by itas I have been, I have never been so distressed as now at being prevented by it from meetingyou and enjoying your true friendship. I know of how much pleasure I am deprived, althoughlast year I did touch with the tip of my finger the sweet honey of your Church.2. For many urgent reasons I felt bound to meet your reverence, both to discuss manythings with you and to learn many things from you. Here it is not possible even to findgenuine affection. And, could one even find a true friend, none can give counsel to me inthe present emergency with anything like the wisdom and experience which you have acquiredin your many labours on the Church’s behalf. The rest I must not write. I may,however, safely say what follows. The presbyter Evagrius, 2452 son of Pompeianus of Antioch,who set out some time ago to the West with the blessed Eusebius, has now returned fromRome. He demands from me a letter couched in the precise terms dictated by the Westerns.My own he has brought back again to me, and reports that it did not give satisfaction to themore precise authorities there. He also asks that a commission of men of repute may bepromptly sent, that they may have a reasonable pretext for visiting me. My sympathisers2450 Placed in 373.2451 The translation of Sec. 1, down to “medical men,” is partly Newman’s.2452 On Evagrius, known generally as Evagrius of Antioch, to distinguish him from Evagrius the historian,see especially Theodoret, Ecc. Hist. v. 23. He had travelled to Italy with Eusebius of Vercellæ. His communicationto Basil from the Western bishops must have been disappointing and unsatisfactory. On his correspondencewith Basil, after his return to Antioch, see Letter clvi. His consecration by the dying Paulinus in 388 inevitablyprolonged the disastrous Meletian schism at Antioch.585