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

Against Eustathius of Sebasteia.ination of the case, and consume considerable time in weighing the severity of the law againstthe common fault of humanity, and with many a sigh and many a lament for the stern necessityof the case, proclaim before all the people that they are obeying the law from necessity,and not passing sentence to gratify their own wishes. 2900 How much greater care and diligence,how much more counsel, ought to be taken by one who is on the point of breakingoff from long established friendship with a brother! In this case there is only a single letterand that of doubtful genuineness. It would be quite impossible to argue that it is known bythe signature, for they possess not the original, but only a copy. They depend on one singledocument and that an old one. It is now twenty years since anything has been written tothat person. 2901 Of my opinions and conduct in the intervening time I can adduce no betterwitnesses than the very men who attack and accuse me.7. But the real reason of separation is not this letter. There is another cause of alienation.I am ashamed to mention it; and I would have been for ever silent about it had not recentevents compelled me to publish all their mind for the sake of the good of the mass of thepeople. Good men have thought that communion with me was a bar to the recovery of theirauthority. Some have been influenced by the signature of a certain creed which I proposedto them, not that I distrusted their sentiments, I confess, but because I wished to do awaywith the suspicions which the more part of the brethren who agree with me entertained ofthem. Accordingly, to avoid anything arising from that confession to prevent their beingaccepted by the present authorities, 2902 they have renounced communion with me. Thisletter was devised by an after-thought as a pretext for the separation. A very plain proof ofwhat I say is, that after they had denounced me, and composed such complaints against meas suited them, they sent round their letters in all directions before communicating withme. Their letter was in the possession of others who had received it in the course of transmissionand who were on the point of sending it on seven days before it had reached myhands. The idea was that it would be handed from one to another and so would be quicklydistributed over the whole country. This was reported to me at the time by those who weregiving me clear information of all their proceedings. But I determined to hold my tonguemeaning of drawing so as to disclose is confirmed by Basil’s πάνδημοι πᾶσι γίγνονται in this passage and inHom. in Ps. xxxii.2900 The Ben. note compares the praise bestowed on Candidianus by Gregory of Nazianzus for trying casesin the light of day (Ep. cxciv) and Am. Marcellinus xvii. 1, who says of Julian, Numerium Narconensis paulo anterectorem, accusatum ut furem, inusitato censorio vigore pro tribunali palam admissis volentibus audiebat.2901 i.e. Apollinarius.2902 Though this phrase commonly means the reigning emperor, as in Letter lxvi., the Ben. note has no doubtthat in this instance the reference is to Euzoius. In Letter ccxxvi. § 3. q.v., Basil mentions reconciliation withEuzoius as the real object of Eustathius’s hostility. Euzoius was now in high favour with Valens.742