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.been brought before any tribunal, nor even been falsely accused at all. They have been apprehendedwith violence late at night, have been exiled to distant places, and, through thehardships of these remote wastes, have been given over to death. 3039 The rest is notorious,though I make no mention of it—the flight of priests; the flight of deacons; the foraying ofall the clergy. Either the image must be worshipped, or we are delivered to the wicked flameof whips. 3040 The laity groan; tears are falling without ceasing in public and in private; allare mutually lamenting their woes. No one’s heart is so hard as to lose a father, and bearthe bereavement meekly. There is a sound of them that mourn in the city—a sound in thefields, in the roads, in the deserts. But one voice is heard from all that utter sad and piteouswords. Joy and spiritual gladness are taken away. Our feasts are turned into mourning. 3041Our houses of prayer are shut. The altars of the spiritual service are lying idle. Christiansno longer assemble together; teachers no longer preside. The doctrines of salvation are nolonger taught. We have no more solemn assemblies, no more evening hymns, no more ofthat blessed joy of souls which arises in the souls of all that believe in the Lord at communions,and the imparting of spiritual boons. 3042 We may well say, “Neither is there at thistime prince, or prophet, or reader, or offering, or incense, or place to sacrifice before thee,and to find mercy.” 30433. We are writing to those who know these things, for there is not a region of the worldwhich is ignorant of our calamities. Do not suppose that we are using these words as thoughto give information, or to recall ourselves to your recollection. We know that you could nomore forget us than a mother forget the sons of her womb. 3044 But all who are crushed byany weight of agony find some natural alleviation for their pain in uttering groans of distress,and it is for this that we are doing as we do. We get rid of the load of our grief in telling youof our manifold misfortunes, and in expressing the hope that you may haply be the moremoved to pray for us, and may prevail on the Lord to be reconciled to us. And if these afflictionshad been confined to ourselves, we might even have determined to keep silence,and to rejoice in our sufferings for Christ’s sake, since “the sufferings of this present timeare not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” 3045 But at thepresent time we are alarmed, lest the mischief growing day by day, like a flame spreading2843039 For the midnight banishment, cf. the story of the expulsion of Eusebius from Samosata in Theod. iv.13. Of death following on exile Basil did not live to see the most signal instance—that of Chrysostom in 407.3040 cf. Dan. iii. 10. The whips seem as rhetorical as the image and the flame.3041 Amos viii. 10.3042 ἐπι ταῖς σύναξεσι καὶ τῇ κοινωνί& 139· τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρισμάτων.3043 Song of the Three Children, 14.3044 Is. xlix. 15.3045 Rom. viii. 18.784