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

To Petrus, bishop of Alexandria.To Petrus, bishop of Alexandria. 3210Letter CCLXVI. 32091. You have very properly rebuked me, and in a manner becoming a spiritual brotherwho has been taught genuine love by the Lord, because I am not giving you exact and detailedinformation of all that is going on here, for it is both your part to be interested in whatconcerns me, and mine to tell you all that concerns myself. But I must tell you, right honourableand well-beloved brother, that our continuous afflictions, and this mighty agitationwhich is now shaking the Churches, result in my taking all that is happening as a matter ofcourse. Just as in smithies where men whose ears are deafened get accustomed to the sound,so by the frequency of the strange tidings that reach me I have now grown accustomed tobe undisturbed and undismayed at extraordinary events. So the policy which has been fora long time pursued by the Arians to the detriment of the Church, although their achievementshave been many and great and noised abroad through all the world, has neverthelessbeen endurable to me, because of their being the work of open foes and enemies of the wordof truth. It is when these men do something unusual that I am astonished, not when theyattempt something great and audacious against true religion. But I am grieved and troubledat what is being done by men who feel and think with me. Yet their doings are so frequentand so constantly reported to me, that even they do not appear surprising. So it comes aboutthat I was not agitated at the recent disorderly proceedings, partly because I knew perfectlywell that common report would carry them to you without my help, and partly because Ipreferred to wait for somebody else to give you disagreeable news. And yet, further, I didnot think it reasonable that I should show indignation at such proceedings, as though I wereannoyed at suffering a slight. To the actual agents in the matter I have written in becomingterms, exhorting them, because of the dissension arising among some of the brethren there,not to fall away from charity, but to wait for the matter to be set right by those who haveauthority to remedy disorders in due ecclesiastical form. That you should have so acted,stirred by honourable and becoming motives, calls for my commendation, and moves mygratitude to the Lord that there remains preserved in you a relic of the ancient discipline,and that the Church has not lost her own might in my persecution. The canons have notsuffered persecution as well as I. Though importuned again by the Galatians, I was neverable to give them an answer, because I waited for your decision. Now, if the Lord so willand they will consent to listen to me, I hope that I shall be able to bring the people to theChurch. It cannot then be cast in my teeth that I have gone over to the Marcellians, andthey on the contrary will become limbs of the body of the Church of Christ. Thus the disgrace3063209 Placed in 377.3210 cf. Letter cxxxiii. p. 200.832