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

To Glycerius.Letter CLXX. 2564To Glycerius.How far will your mad folly go? How long will you counsel mischief against yourself?How long will you go on rousing me to wrath, and bringing shame on the common orderof solitaries? Return. Put confidence in God, and in me, who imitate God’s loving-kindness.If I rebuked you like a father, like a father I will forgive you. This is the treatment you shallreceive from me, for many others are making supplication in your behalf, and before all therest your own presbyter, for whose grey hairs and compassionate disposition I feel muchrespect. Continue longer to hold aloof from me and you have quite fallen from your degree.2565 You will also fall away from God, for with your songs and your garb 2566 you areleading the young women not to God, but to the pit.2564 Placed with the preceding.2565 τοῦ βαθμοῦ. cf. 1 Tim. iii. 13. οἱ καλῶς διακονησαντες βαθμὸν ἑαυτοῖς καλὸν περιποιοῦνται. Thereseems an evident allusion to this passage, but not such as to enable Basil to be positively ranked with Chrysostomin his apparent interpretation of βαθμός objectively of preferment, or with Theodoret in his subjective idea ofhonour with God. Apparently the “degree” is the Diaconate.2566 στολή. The technical use of this word for a “stole” is not earlier than the ninth century. It was indeedused for a sacred vestment, e.g. the sacred robe which Constantine presented to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem.(Theodoret ii. 27.) In Latin “stola” designated the distinctive dress of the matron, and it seems to be used witha suggestion of effeminacy.631