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

To the bishops of Italy and Gaul concerning the condition and confusion of the Churches.Letter CCXLIII. 3036To the bishops of Italy and Gaul concerning the condition and confusion of the Churches.1. To his brethren truly God-beloved and very dear, and fellow ministers of like mind,the bishops of Gaul and Italy, Basil, bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia. Our Lord JesusChrist, Who has deigned to style the universal Church of God His body, and has made usindividually members one of another, has moreover granted to all of us to live in intimateassociation with one another, as befits the agreement of the members. Wherefore, althoughwe dwell far away from one another, yet, as regards our close conjunction, we are very near.Since, then, the head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of you, 3037 you will not, I amsure, endure to reject us; you will, on the contrary, sympathize with us in the troubles towhich, for our sins, we have been given over, in proportion as we rejoice together with youin your glorying in the peace which the Lord has bestowed on you. Ere now we have alsoat another time invoked your charity to send us succour and sympathy; but our punishmentwas not full, and you were not suffered to rise up to succour us. One chief object of ourdesire is that through you the state of confusion in which we are situated should be madeknown to the emperor of your part of the world. 3038 If this is difficult, we beseech you tosend envoys to visit and comfort us in our affliction, that you may have the evidence ofeyewitnesses of those sufferings of the East which cannot be told by word of mouth, becauselanguage is inadequate to give a clear report of our condition.2. Persecution has come upon us, right honourable brethren, and persecution in theseverest form. Shepherds are persecuted that their flocks may be scattered. And the worstof all is that those who are being treated ill cannot accept their sufferings in proof of theirtestimony, nor can the people reverence the athletes as in the army of martyrs, because thename of Christians is applied to the persecutors. The one charge which is now sure to securesevere punishment is the careful keeping of the traditions of the Fathers. For this the piousare exiled from their homes, and are sent away to dwell in distant regions. No reverence isshown by the judges of iniquity to the hoary head, to practical piety, to the life lived fromboyhood to old age according to the Gospel. No malefactor is doomed without proof, butbishops have been convicted on calumny alone, and are consigned to penalties on chargeswholly unsupported by evidence. Some have not even known who has accused them, nor3036 Placed in 376.3037 1 Cor. xii. 21.3038 i.e. Gratian, who succeeded Valentinian I. in 375.783