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

To the clergy of Neocæsarea.Letter CCVII. 2754To the clergy of Neocæsarea.You all concur in hating me. To a man you have followed the leader of the war againstme. 2755 I was therefore minded to say not a word to any one. I determined that I wouldwrite no friendly letter; that I would start no communication, but keep my sorrow in silenceto myself. Yet it is wrong to keep silence in the face of calumny; not that by contradictionwe may vindicate ourselves, but that we may not allow a lie to travel further and its victimsto be harmed. I have therefore thought it necessary to put this matter also before you all,and to write a letter to you, although, when I recently wrote to all the presbyterate in common,you did not do me the honour to send me a reply. Do not, my brethren, gratify the vanityof those who are filling your minds with pernicious opinions. Do not consent to look lightlyon, when, to your knowledge, God’s people are being subverted by impious teaching. Nonebut Sabellius the Libyan 2756 and Marcellus the Galatian 2757 have dared to teach and writewhat the leaders of your people are attempting to bring forward among you as their ownprivate discovery. They are making a great talk about it, but they are perfectly powerless togive their sophisms and fallacies even any colour of truth. In their harangues against methey shrink from no wickedness, and persistently refuse to meet me. Why? Is it not becausethey are afraid of being convicted for their own wicked opinions? Yes; and in their attacksupon me they have become so lost to all sense of shame as to invent certain dreams to mydiscredit while they falsely accuse my teaching of being pernicious. Let them take upontheir own heads all the visions of the autumn months; they can fix no blasphemy on me,for in every Church there are many to testify to the truth.2. When they are asked the reason for this furious and truceless war, they allege psalmsand a kind of music varying from the custom which has obtained among you, and similarpretexts of which they ought to be ashamed. We are, moreover, accused because we maintainmen in the practice of true religion who have renounced the world and all those cares ofthis life, which the Lord likens to thorns that do not allow the word to bring forth fruit.Men of this kind carry about in the body the deadness of Jesus; they have taken up theirown cross, and are followers of God. I would gladly give my life if these really were myfaults, and if I had men with me owning me as teacher who had chosen this ascetic life. Ihear that virtue of this kind is to be found now in Egypt, and there are, peradventure, some2472754 Placed in 375.2755 i.e. Atarbius of Neocæsarea.2756 Basil is described as the earliest authority for making Sabellius an African by birth. (D.C.B. iv. 569)There is no contemporary authority for the statement.2757 i.e. of Ancyra.700