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

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.Letter CCXXXIX. 30151. The Lord has granted me the privilege of now saluting your holiness by our belovedand very reverend brother, the presbyter Antiochus, of exhorting you to pray for me as youare wont, and offering in our communication by letter some consolation for our long separation.And, when you pray, I ask you to beg from the Lord this as the first and greatestboon, that I may be delivered from vile and wicked men, who have gained such power overthe people that now I seem to see, indeed, a repetition of the events of the taking of Jerusalem.3016 For the weaker grow the Churches the more does men’s lust for power increase.And now the very title of bishop has been conferred on wretched slaves, for no servant ofGod would choose to come forward in opposition to claim the see;—no one but miserablefellows like the emissaries of Anysius the creature of Euippius, and of Ecdicius of Parnassus:whoever has appointed him 3017 has sent into the Churches a poor means of aiding his ownentry into the life to come.They have expelled my brother from Nyssa, and into his place have introduced hardlya man—a mere scamp 3018 worth only an obol or two, but, so far as regards the ruin of thefaith, a match for those who have put him where he is.At the town of Doara they have brought shame upon the poor name of bishop, and havesent there a wretch, an orphans’ domestic, a runaway from his own masters, to flatter agodless woman, who formerly used George as she liked, and now has got this fellow tosucceed him.And who could properly lament the occurrences at Nicopolis? That unhappy Frontodid, indeed, for a while pretend to be on the side of the truth, but now he has shamefullybetrayed both the faith and himself, and for the price of his betrayal has got a name of disgrace.He imagines that he has obtained from these men the rank of bishop; in reality hehas become, by God’s grace, the abomination of all Armenia. But there is nothing that theywill not dare; nothing wherein they are at a loss for worthy accomplices. But the rest of thenews of Syria my brother knows better, and can tell you better, than I.2. The news of the West you know already, on the recital of brother Dorotheus. Whatsort of letters are to be given him on his departure? Perhaps he will travel with the excellentSanctissimus, who is full of enthusiasm, journeying through the East, and collecting letters3015 Placed in 376.3016 ᾽Ιουδαϊκῆς ἁλώσεως, which the Ben. note is no doubt right in referring to the events of 70.3017 The sudden change from the vaguer plural marks the strong contempt of the writer for the individualpointed at.3018 The paronomasia in ἄνδρα and ἀνδράποδον is untranslatable.776