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

To the Presbyters of Nicopolis.you to make you brave for true religion’s sake. No one of us has been torn by lashes; 3024no one of us has suffered confiscation of his house; we have not been driven into exile; wehave not suffered imprisonment. What great suffering have we undergone, unless peradventureit is grievous that we have suffered nothing, and have not been reckoned worthy ofthe sufferings of Christ? 3025 But if you are grieved because one whom I need not name occupiesthe house of prayer, and you worship the Lord of heaven and earth in the open air,remember that the eleven disciples were shut up in the upper chamber, when they that hadcrucified the Lord were worshipping in the Jews’ far-famed temple. Peradventure, Judas,who preferred death by hanging to life in disgrace, proved himself a better man than thosewho now meet universal condemnation without a blush.3. Only do not be deceived by their lies when they claim to be of the right faith. Theyare not Christians, but traffickers in Christ, 3026 always preferring their profit in this life toliving in accordance with the truth. When they thought that they should get this emptydignity, they joined the enemies of Christ: now that they have seen the indignation of thepeople, they are once more for pretending orthodoxy. I do not recognise as bishop—I wouldnot count among Christ’s clergy 3027 —a man who has been promoted to a chief post bypolluted hands, to the destruction of the faith. This is my decision. If you have any partwith me, you will doubtless think as I do. If you take counsel on your own responsibility,every man is master of his own mind, and I am innocent of this blood. 3028 I have writtenthus, not because I distrust you, but that by declaring my own mind I may strengthen somemen’s hesitation, and prevent any one from being prematurely received into communion,or after receiving the laying on of hands of our enemies, when peace is made, later on, tryingto force me to enroll them in the ranks of the sacred ministry. Through you I salute theclergy of the city and diocese, and all the laity who fear the Lord.2823024 κατεξάνθη. cf. the use of καταξαίνω (=card or comb) in the Letter of the Smyrneans on the Martyrdomof Polycarp, § 2, “They were so torn by lashes that the mechanism of their flesh was visible, even as far as theveins and arteries.” cf. note, p. 2, on the difference between the persecution of the Catholics by Valens and thatof the earlier Christians by earlier emperors, though exile and confiscation were suffered in Basil’s time.3025 cf. Acts v. 41.3026 χριστέμποροι. cf. the use of the cognate subst. χριστεμ πορία in the letter of Alexander of Alexandriain Theodoret, Ecc. Hist. i. 3. χριστέμπορος occurs in the Didache, § 12, and in the Pseud. Ig., e.g., ad Mag. ix.3027 ἱερεῦσι. cf. note in Letter liv. p. 157.3028 cf. Matt. iv. 24.779