For in fact by ineffable graciousness the immanent power of the Holy Spirit baptizes at the word of the baptizer and accompanies it. For the wise Paul also says that we are cleansed ** by the laver of water by the word," and so put off" every spot and wrinkle of sin.^ This power He who became poor for our sake gave p- 479. to those that perform priestly functions, in order that we *' through his poverty might be rich";^ and He said also to the holy apostles, and to those who succeeded these afterwards, "Verily I say unto you, all things that ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and all things that ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This same power He also named '* the keys of the kingdom of heaven." ^ There- fore with the knowledge of these things direct your steps to that which it is right to do, and follow the safe course as I said before, not as by stealth and with fear, but **with open face":* because ** we are not of fear that leadeth unto perdition, but of faith that gaineth the soul,"^ as the same wise Paul again somewhere says. The end.
3« Of the same to Thecla the countess. {From those 519-88. after banishment, from the 2>rd book the ^^rd letter.)
The letter of reminder that was given by your magni- ficence to the learned and believing grammarian Stephen
1 Eph. V. 26, 27. '^ 2 Co. viii. 9. * Mt, xviii. 18, 19.
^ 2 Co.iii. 18. ^ He. x. 39.
28
424 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. IX. 3.
showed me by the reading of it that still even now you remain that Thecla whom Theotecnus the presbyter, who is in all things steadfast and religious, would depict to me in words of piety, tracing the likeness as p. 480. in colours: who so much attracted me by his words that I was then the first to begin to write a letter to you. Wherefore also I confess myself indebted to God our Saviour that neither has his testimony which he bore on your behalf been falsified, nor my faith in your God- loving modesty which I then gained. The devoutness of your character is shown by the fact that your ow^n judgment was not enough for you, and you had not con- fidence enough to presume to things to which it is not proper to presume before being confirmed by a lawful utterance of high-priests. And now you are blessed on account of your praiseworthy fear, by the text of the sacred writings that says, ** Blessed is he that feareth everything through devoutness."^ Further praise I assign to you from the divine law also which ordered a man in disputed causes, and that while the service consisting in shadowy things and types yet prevailed, to repair to the place where the Levites and priests dwelt, and the judge who had the headship over all things at that time, and from them obtain a solution of the doubt. It is good and very beneficial to quote in the letter the words of the law itself, which are as follows: *' But, if any matter be too hard for thee in judgment, be« tween blood and blood, and between judgment and
"^ Pr. xxviii. 14.
IX. 3. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 426
judgment, and between stroke and stroke, and between reviling and reviling, words of judgment in your cities, thou shalt arise and go up to the place which the Lord God shall choose for His name to be called there: and thou shalt go in unto the priests the Levites and unto p. 481. the judge that shall be in those days, and they shall inquire and show thee thy judgment: and thou shalt do according to the commandment which they shall pronounce to thee that are from the place which the Lord thy God shall choose for His name to be called there: and thou shalt observe well to do according to all things that shall be ordained for thee. According to the law and according to the judgment which they shall pronounce to thee do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall pronounce to thee, neither to the right hand, nor to the left." ^ The intention of these expressions of the law you have fulfilled in actual deed, both by feeling intelligent doubt, and by referring the question as to the doubt to the j[)ronouncement of the high-priests, in that you have stated that a certain baby, having been seized with severe illness, and having al- ready reached the very gates of death, was sent to a prayer house building to receive the laver of regenera- tion, and the communion of the divine light; and, it so happening that the presbyter of that place was not there, you say that the deacon by reason of the urgency of the case dipped the boy in the water of life, and performed the legal ceremony; and after the action
1 De* xvii. 8-1 1.
426 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. IX. 3.
the presbyter came and complained of what had been done as unlawful, and sought to subject the deacon to punishment. For it was doubted among you whether the boy who was baptized received the perfect grace. You must know that in matters that are doubtful
p. 482. and rarely occur one cannot find broad statutes: since those who made the statutes took care to avoid giving occasion through absence of restraint for the rules of strictness to be corrupted. Therefore con- cerning this problem ^ also and concerning its rareness it is written in the Constitutions * or in the Commands of the Apostles, which they named the Testament ' of the Lord, that a deacon also may administer the laver of regeneration when a presbyter is not present, by reason of the imminence of the necessary end of death: this same rare observance being proclaimed in these words: '* In case of necessity, if a presbyter is not present, let a deacon baptize ".* Therefore the presbyter did well in paying attention to what was done by the deacon out of necessity, and performing the ceremonies that follow baptism^ and laying upon the boy who had been baptized the anointing with the holy chrism,^ and the seal of the perfection that results from this.
As to the other question about the other strange and
p. 483. unknown boy who could not repeat any mystic symbol, by which you might have been able to learn whether he is a believer or an unbeliever, as not having received
^ TTpdrao-t?. ^ Siarof CIS. ' BiajBiJKrj.
^Test. Dom. ii. 10. -^ n,vpov.
X. I. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 427
the laver of regeneration, a letter has been written by me to the God-loving bishop Theodore of a certain city in Isauria named Olbe,^ and I have determined to quote the same to you at the end of this letter, as being sufficient to provide you with a solution of the doubt.
May you be preserved to us, noble God-loving woman, who show your strict practice regarding faith in God even by the questions which you ask in doubt! That strictness continue to keep till your last breath: for *' without faith it is impossible to please " ^ says the Apostle. The end.
X. Tenth section.* About a man who has a wife and children and wishes to become a monk: and the same also about women, and about the marriage of these.
I. Of the same to Alypius. [From those before episco- 490-512. pacyyfrom the 2^rd book the 257M letter.)
In many instances, when it was necessary for some sanction to be given to an action, I have known your p. 484- illustriousness to set great store by the judgments of my erring and uncertain mind, as I persuade myself that it is.
And after other things. You certainly, I think,
^ ix. 2. 2 jjg^ xi. 6. ^ TtrAo?.
428 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. I.
remember that I engaged in a discussion with you about your consort, whom, having been struck by some unexpected suspicion, you drove from your house, and acted like men whose marriage has been dissolved, not even giving her the necessary susten- ance; and how I quoted to you the laws of the Lord and God and Saviour of all, that men are not per- mitted to put away those that cohabit with them under any other conditions except for one reason, I mean that of fornication; and fornication we judge to be that which is manifestly detected, and demon- strated by witnesses or manifest proofs, so that, if any suspicion otherwise occur, we do not define this as fornication: but rather we turn the supposition into a gentler channel. For " in matters that are in doubt we must incline to clemency," as the Theologian Gregory says.^ I have indeed gained sure knowledge that the woman is not liable to charges of fornication so much as to going out freely. But such a thing as this invites you to forgiveness, and does not give you cause for separation. But, if you are strict in requir- p. 485. ing modest conduct, know clearly that you are com- manded to practise the same observance towards your wife as you wish her to practise towards yourself Christ our lawgiver speaking through Paul said, ** The wife hath not power over her body: but the husband: and in the same fashion the husband also hath not power over his body: but the wife."^ Re-
1 Or. xxi. 15. 2 I Qq^ vii. 4.
X. I. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 429
fleet therefore whether you also have never been discovered to have been seduced by the pleasures of the body. But why do I say ** pleasures"? Whether you have not in curiosity gratified your eye with greedy gazing, making yourself in no lovely fashion a spectator of another's loveliness; the eye which the divine word condemns to be plucked out, in order that it may not bring eternal torture upon the whole body: ^ whether you have not relaxed under the in- fluence of the touch: whether you have not indulged the sense of smell: whether your ears have never taken delight in dissolute songs: whether you have kept all your senses untainted. He that is a strict examiner of the doings of others shall have the same judgment exacted from him in the case of his own sins ialso. If **the head of the wife is the husband,*!;^ how is he to find fault with the rest of his bodyv as being diseased, when he himself is not in sound health?
And again after other things. And many think in the case of a man that when he sins with his body he deserves forgiveness, but a woman deserves to be afflicted with grievous punishments. But this is not so: but exactly the contrary. For scripture says that p. 4S6. a woman shall be admitted to forgiveness, inasmuch as she is the "weaker vessel":^ but a man, inasmuch as he holds the place of head, must be an example to the other members of the same body. Therefore be
^ Mt. V. 29. ^ I Co. xi. 3. ^ I Pe. iii. 7.
430 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. I.
not merciless or hard to your member, if you obey Christ's laws; and do not apply amputation and cut it off from you: but claim it as part of your body, in order that Christ, the Word of God, who out of graciousness became head to the body of the church that was infirm, may claim you also as part of Him. If He raised human nature, which had committed fornication, to heaven by showing Himself as man upon earth, what terrible thing shall we think our- selves to be doing, if we show ourselves gentle to our own members, or rather if we are not found to be harsh to them beyond what is right, and that when they are not committing unpardonable sins? In fact Christ plainly proclaims to us that we ought not casually and lightly to cut off her who has been united to us in one flesh through trusting vain suspicions: and He says that separation was introduced into the polity ^ or social life by Moses on account of our own hardness of heart: but *'from the beginning it was not so," He proclaims to the discerning.*
How therefore, tell me, shall we ourselves have for- giveness, when we do not conduct ourselves, I do not say according to the gospel laws, but not even accord- ing to the figurative laws used by Israel who conducted p. 487. himself according to the flesh and was a child? For such statutes were given to them in the Book of Numbers by Moses, or rather by God who gave the statute to Moses. He says that, if a man say that his
1 TToXtTcta. 2 Mt. xix. 5-9.
X. I. SELECT LETTERS OF THE ^OLY SEVERUS. 431
wife has committed adultery, and do not find her doing this evidently, or be able to prove the act by witnesses, but is. excited by the rage of jealousy, that he shall commit such judgment to God: and that he shall approach the priests of his time, not entering a suit of jealousy, but offering **a sacrifice of jealousy/* And look, I pray, at the principle that is carried out in the sacrifice, how even before the actual methods of con- viction are used it defends the woman. Whereas it was the custom for fine wheaten flour to be offered in sacrifice, he commanded barley meal to be offered on her behalf, signifying by the barley the falseness and futility of jealous suspicion: but neither shall oil (he says) be poured over the sacrifice, on account of the asperity and unkindness of the occasion: and, when the sacrifice has been performed in this way, and the rest of the sacred rite has been duly accomplished, then the woman shall drink the water of conviction, the priest having first prayed over the same water, and shall either repel the evil suspicion from her by suffer- ing no evil in her body, or shall be found to be guilty of the charges, and fall into God's hands by her belly being rent and the penalty for the deeds that have been done paid by her on the spot^ Wherefore have p. 488. I repeated this to you? That you may learn that we also ought not to entrust the judgment upon this matter to ourselves, but to refer everything to our sacrifice which is Christ He is no liar who said that
^ Nu. V. 12-31,
432 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. L
ualess our *' righteousness exceed that of the scribes and of the Pharisees " we shall not " enter into the king- dom of heaven".^ Therefore both according to the old law and according to the gospel polity,^ where the suspicion is not clear, let us not take ourselves but God as the judge of these things. And we must obey Paul who gives wiser advice than we do. He says, '* Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come and make light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise from God."»
That you have just cause for making the charge we are clearly persuaded: but that the woman has not offended beyond forgiveness I think you have already been persuaded by what has been written. But, if this does not persuade, we say this. She has sinned, she has done all that is evil as you have said, she has. recognized her sin, she confesses that she is guilty, she weeps and groans, she takes. refuge in your mercy, she begs your clemency; seize the opportunity. Commit yourself to God: prepare pity for yourself by showing pity. You also being a man are certainly in need of mercy. Look at common nature. Consider the p. 489. instability of human things. We are certainly not walking upon ground that is firm and not to be shaken. Let us expect ourselves also to fall, and let us set upright those that have fallen. The saying
^ Mt. V. 20. 2,roXtT€Mi. ^ I Co. iv. 5.
X. 2. SELECT LETTERS 9F THE HOLY SEVERUS. 433
is not mine: ** Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,"^ says divine scripture. Not the end.
2. Of the same in the person of Abba on behalf t?/" 489-608. brother Maximus, to a certain woman. {From those before episcopacy, from the ist book the 2"] 2nd letter.)
I have asked our holy father Abba about that question as Requested in your modesty's epistle, and I have received a complete answer from him. He said that those who have once been united in marriage, seeing that marriage **is honourable and the bed unsullied,"^ ought not to desire to separate from one another by reason of religion except where there is consent. For the divine Apostle says, " Deprive not one another, except it be by consent for a time, in order that ye may give yourselves up to prayer, and again come together." For the same said above that it is the husband who has power over the wife's body, and, vice versa, that it is the wife who has power over the husband's body: saying, ** The wife hath not power over the body but the husband: and in the same fashion the husband also hath not power over his body, but the wife.'*^ It is therefore manifest that, p 490. unless the husband consents, the wife who separates has no forgiveness, and she makes herself a cause of
^ Id, X. 12. 2 jje. xiii. 4. ^ i Co. vii. 4, 5.
434 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 2.
his turning aside to fornication. If then your husband consents, you are permitted to place yourself under the yoke of piety: there is no one who will find fault with so praiseworthy and admirable a choice. But, if the husband cannot restrain his body, and therefore will not permit you to do this, put up with the mar- riage-state: such intercourse that saves the husband is better than an abstinence from pleasures that is unknown to the canons- The aim of divine scripture not in this only but in everything else too regards not the person of him who has obtained mercy, but that of him who is infirm: and it especially wishes that those who are strong shall condescend to those who lie on the earth. It does not accept the man who regards his own interest only, but the man who rather treats his neighbour's interest as if it were his own profit* So therefore in this present case also it is pleasing to God that both of you should attain and win the goal of purity consisting in continence: but, if the inclina- tions of your husband's will do not accord with your own readiness, the laws of holy scripture judge the marriage-state to be better, in order that they may gain you both. This we say on the assumption that the husband wishes to live chastely, and restricts the pleasures that cannot be restrained to intercourse with his wife only. But, if he goes beyond what is right, p. 491- and does not kee{) the marriage unsullied, but associates with other women also after the manner of a beast, then the wife incurs no danger by neglecting such a man, and giving the preference to the excellent state.
X. 2. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 436
and taking no account of the marriage, but soaring on piety's wing, and turning her eyes to the solitary life, and keeping her holiness of mind and of body always unsullied.
This also our said holy father further laid down, saying that, although the husband be living chastely, being content to have intercourse with you only, but you have already chosen for yourself to live among virgins, and have included yourself in their order, although the thing was not right in its beginning, for you ought not in fact to have left your husband while he was living chastely, yet still it is not seemly for you now to separate from the virgins, and give them also occasion for stumbling. It is to be feared lest, if you return to your husband, they also may imitate such a practice, and may defile God's bridechamber after having been once united to Christ the heavenly Bride- groom. It is impiety of a high degree that after having been set apart to God they should prefer the corruptible intercourse rather than the immortal and heavenly connexion. But, if you have not yet lived with virgins, but only withdrawn from intercourse, according to the principle stated by us above act in common with the husband, and, if he does not consent, you ought to follow his inclination, and prefer the p. 492. marriage-state to purity, because this is pleasing to God.
But, if the husband does not desire intercourse with you, but wishes you to live within the house with the children who have been born to you from the common
SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 3.
marriage even if they be males, this too is also accept- able to God.
These things have been said as in a letter: but we think that in what we have written we have in no point failed to answer the question of your religiousness. This epistle has been addressed to you by our holy father himself in his own very words; for he was able to make his own spiritual mind clear without the great- ness of his divine thoughts being befouled by the squalor of my words. The end.
508-11. 3. Of the same to Theodore the tribune and notary. {From those before episcopacy ^ from the /^th book the Sgth letter.)
I think that I still see the torch ^ of the divine light shining in you, under the influence of which you would have almost gone so far as to betake yourself to the philosophic life, had it not been that you restrained that tyrannical desire like some fiery steed by the bits of God's laws. What are the bits? " Art thou bound to a wife? seek not release." And again ** Let every man in the calling wherein he was called therein abide." And again, " Deprive not one another, except p. 493. it be by consent for a time, in order that ye may give yourselves up to prayer, and again come together."^ If then you have by devout and God-loving conduct attached your spouse to the same zeal and yearning for
1 kafiTrdBa. * I Co* vii. 27, 29, 5.
X. 3. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 437
the good life, fly, and withdraw to philosophy. But, if she has not attained to this excellence, and cleaves to the life here, and is unable to restrain the impulse of the flesh, seek not your own good but your fellows.^ The whole force of Christianity as well as the command- ment supporting the law and the prophets that says, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,"^ points to this: the commandment which the Lord above all fulfilled when He graciously showed Himself to us by His coming in the flesh, and He said ** A new com- mandment I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also may love one another; and by this shall every man know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." * How then shall we not offend against the laws of love, if we suffer the wife who has been reckoned to be one and the same flesh with us to perish? for, just as no man of sense prays that his head may be sound, while his other members are afflicted with paralysis, or are filled with disease, (for the head also will certainly share in the malady), so it is not in accordance with sound understanding for us to con- cern ourselves about our own salvation, while we neglect p. 494* our wife's, when we shall on her account be brought to hell. Although in the Gospels with leaving father or mother or children there is also included without division the leaving of a wife,* yet this must necessarily be subject to the later apostolic distinction. In fact in
1 Id. X. 24. 2 Mt. xxii. 39, 40.
3 John xiii. 34, 35. * Mt xix. 29.
438 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 3,
external laws also, and in fine in every statute and conception general loose statements assuredly follow later distinctions. That the wise Paul understands the meaning of the Lord s laws better than we do we shall admit even against our will. But let us not think it the wife's consent if the wife permit the husband to go merely in order that he may betake himself to a life of continence, while ' she turns aside to the pleasure of worldly passions and a dissolute life; but only if she choose the same continence and philosophy as the husband, or, if not this, at least chastity and purity. Indeed, when Paul permitted separation from society by consent, he used the plural, saying, " in order that ye may give yourselves up to prayer," and not " in order that the husband alone may give himself up," or contrariwise *'the wife."
This epistle I have written to you in proportion to my poverty. If you obey this, you will obtain the reward for the choice of philosophy, and that for the education of your children, training them " in the training and teaching of the Lord ".^ p. 495, I forbear to say that you can also in all characters practise philosophy, seeing that you have a soul- possessing pillar of excellence in that sharer of your name and your belief and man of God: whom also I beg you greet.
Who could voluntarily forget you, good couple that you are, the modesty of your character, the gentleness
1 Eph. vi. 4.
X. 4- SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 439
of your thoughts, your sadness, your cheerfulness? For, while you are sad for piety's sake, you yet also by God's grace avoid wildbeast-like harshness, and you show the mercy of pity towards the needy and poor. Through you your father Asclepius of learned and illustrious memory also reaps a blessing, inasmuch as it was to form the material of your beneficence that he amassed the profits derived from law-courts. For alone, if I may so say, with few others he failed to conform to the passage of Koheleth that says, "There is a sickness which I have seen undfer the sun, riches kept for him that springs from them to his hurt."^ Wherefore also you seem in your sleep to see him feasting when you are justified. Accordingly as one that is wise in the Lord take the same Koheleth as a good counsellor and '* all that thy hand findeth to do do according to thy might "; ^ and reverse the order, and feed your children by good works, and leave them to God as a patron. The end.
p. 496. 4. Of the same to Conon the silentiary. [From those 508-11.
before episcopacy, from the ^rd book the 227M
letter,^
John, the soldier of Christ, being ardent in every- thing, and fervent through abundance of faith, has thought fit to address an epistle to me containing a
^ Ec. V. 12. 2 /^^ ix. 10.
29
440 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 4-
question that is overbold and passes beyond canonical limits about your modest daughter, and about those who are eager to take her in marriage. He gave in fact the names of those who are wooing her, and also in the name of your magnificence asked that the question might be brought before the holy old men, and before some of the women who have practised an ascetic life, in order that they may say to whom it is most fitting for the girl to be joined in marriage. But I, knowing that fathers who have the spirit of discretion turn deaf ears to such questions, in order that they may not seem to be bringing upon them- selves the reputation of soothsayers and charlatans, did not dare to write anything of the kind to them, lest perhaps I might even expose myself to sentence as an uninstructed person, for being clad in the philo- sophic and solitary garb and yet propounding to them questions suited for those that live in the world, which those attempt only out of compliance with the pleasure of those that ask, men who pass all their time in Byzantium, and often turn their attention even in- p. 497. voluntarily to such voluntary service,^ to use a scriptural expression. But we know a few of the fathers who return answer, being stirred by God, and not by the questions or the propositions,^ but by abundant Spirit: of whom the sacred text says, *' Speech in the heart of a man is as deep water, and a flowing river and a
^ Sebyanayuth dekltha^iO^XoOpyja-K^Ca (Col. ii. 23). The text needs a slight emendation. ^ yrpoTacr€i^,
X. 4. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 441
fountain of Hfe."^ The wealth of grace is so to speak plentiful, and of its own accord it makes those that surround it outside share in any gift. If your great- ness had gone to some such men in order to visit them, you would perhaps at any rate have derived, not as the result of the question or of the proposition,* but as the product of such plentiful store, something that would have been of service for the solution of the question and the understanding of the present matter.
As to those who have received such grace from God let this suffice. But, since the utterance of our Saviour says in the Gospels, ** To every one that asketh thee give,'** whether it be a gift pertaining to the intellect, or one pertaining to the senses, it is necessary for me also who see few things, and, far from being able to foresee or preconceive the future, do not even know what lies at hand, to say what my advice is. It is that you should give the girl who has been brought up by you in faith and in the love of God to that one among all her wooers who has the most correct and p. 498. orthodox disposition as regards faith in Christ, and sets himself most earnestly to lead a devout and modest life: for this all other things also follow as in the second line. In fact He is no liar who said, *'Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteous- ness, and all these things shall be added unto you ": * since to speak the truth it is indeed an abominable
1 Pr. xviii. 4. 2 ^p<$Tao-ts. * Lu. vi. 30. * Mt. vi. 33.
442 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 5.
thing, and one that does not greatly gratify God, or perhaps even excites His wrath, for us to pass over manifest judgments as to what it is right to do, and facts from which God's pleasure is especially to be seen, from whom everything whatsoever that is good comes down,^ and give directions by unknown things or by predispositions, and commit everything to revelations; for some have even applied this meaning to the words, **Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."* If you will turn your eyes towards the said object, and choose what it is right to do, you will not stray from the right course, seeing that you will obtain God as a surety for the future and for a good result. The Apostle also admonishes us saying, ** Whatsoever ye do whether in word or in deed, do all in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him."^ The end.
p. 499.
518-8. 5. Of the same to Theodore the Byzantine monk,
brother-in-law of prefects} [From those during
episcopacy, from, the ^th book the i8th /etter.)
It was perfectly obvious that your devoutness would fall into ** a later mind " as is written ^ after thus incon- siderately beginning the solitary life; and this after many arguments had often been discussed between you and
1 Ja. i. 17. 2 Mt. iv. 7. * Col. iii. 17.
* hrapxau ^ Pr. xxiv. 71.
X. 5. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 443
me, and scriptural principles and patristic admonitions; which the God-clad doctors of the holy church left to us, directing every man in every order and kind of life known to the gospel to the royal road, and handing down the advice that we should beware of turning aside to the right or to the left, as the divine scripture says.^:
Hovsrever, a"^ you have in fervour betaken yourself to such a garb and mode of life; you need another exposition. Before attaching yourself to' Jesus and taking up the cross you were yourself free to consider what mode of life was best for you to choose. But, as you have gone up to the hill of philosophy, do not any more return to the land of Sodom, lest you be fixed as a pillar of salt. To bury a father also was right, and in full accord with reasons of nature: but even this was thought a secondary matter after following Jesus. You should at the beginning have listened to Koheleth who says, ** Let not thine heart be hasty to utter thy speech before God's face; since a dream cometh p. 560. through a multitude of trials." ^ However, since as I said we have come to this, we will now quote the admonition of the same Koheleth which says, ** Better is it for thee that thou shouldst not vow than vow and not pay."^ This too is worthy of consideration: that, when Moses the great was prescribing the array of physical war (which however signified the nature of the spiritual array), he ordered the rulers of the sons
•.
1 Id, iv. 27. 2 Ec. V. 1, 2. * Id, V. 4.
444 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 5.
of Israel in time of battle to cry to those that were going out to combat and say, " Who is the man that hath built a new house and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war and another man dedicate it. And who is the man that hath planted a vineyard? And who is the man that hath betrothed a wife? 'V and things like these. If a man then, when the law gave him liberty to stay at home for one of these reasons, had in ready ardour taken up arms and hastened to join battle with the foemen, and accordingly stood even at the very pinnacle of danger: and afterwards had come to remember the passibility of the flesh, and had gone back again, would anyone be right in saying that he had not left the line of battle and been enrolled with deserters and traitors, because before going out to the combat he had permission from the law to remain within the house? Certainly not. Accordingly you also, who have joined battle with invisible enemies, p. 501. and stripped yourself not against blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers and spirits of wicked- ness,* must not trade upon laws which you rendered superfluous by taking arms: but keep the same excel- lent mind in which you made light of children and of wife, and perform true service to the ** Father of the orphans and Judge of the widows,"' and He will be more truly a husband to the wife, and a father to the children. We must also examine the character of
1 De. XX. 5-7. 2 Eph. vi. 12. * Ps. Ixvii. 6
X. 5- SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 446
times and of persons, and so apply the divine command- ments to deeds to be done, and choose those that are good instead of those that are bad. For this reason among animals also some are clean and allowed to be eaten and hallowed for sacrifice, those whose hoof is parted, and those that besides this chew their food also and masticate it, and chew the cud as it is written.^ Often, when a thing a short time before appeared to be lawful and a matter of duty, the interposition of some small circumstance has at once and immediately rendered it unlawful. For instance, after the twelve men whom Moses sent had explored the land of promise, together with Caleb and Joshua the son of Nun he urged the whole congregation to go up to that land; but, when they showed fear and hung back and turned to conten- tion and abuse, and after the transgression against God's commandment and the wrath threatened against them prayed the next day that they might go up, he who the day before had been urging them to go up pre- p. 502. vented them from doing so, saying, '* Ye shall not prosper. Go not up, for the Lord is not with you; '' ^ and nevertheless they went up, and they roused God to double exasperation.
You too therefore, who put on the angelic garb of the monastic life without restraining the fervour that led you to this by the strict letter of the canons, have other men also as an example, who were fired with a fire or fervour like yours. Imitate them, and distin-
1 Le, xi. 3. 2 Nu^ xiy^ ^i^ ^2.
446 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 5-
guish yourself in the struggles of the solitary existence, lest, while wishing to correct a small fault, and that at an improper time, you forget yourself and fall into a pit of evils, and dishonour the sacred garb by involv- ing yourself in worldly cares. As it is an unhallowed and profane thing for us to apply to human use a revered vessel that has once been set apart for the service of God, so also is it foul and abominable for a man who has given himself to God, and hallowed in some sort his own life, to turn back to the claims and judgments of the flesh.
Say farewell therefore to the thoughts that call you to live in the world, and keep to the road that lies before you, until you reach, as it is written, **the goal of victory of the upward calling of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."^
There is only one thing which I would have wished p. 503* added to. the beginning that you have made; that you. had joined yourself in everything, both in community of opinion concerning the faith and in community of habi- tation, to the holy fathers of the house of the saintly presbyter Theodore; which also you were in the beginning impelled to do and for which you were very eager; and I do not know how the hater of what is good hindered you. But it is easy for us not to be cheated by Satan to use the language of the divine Apostle.2
These things we have written while much harassed
1 Ph. iii. 14. 2 2 Co. li. it.
X. 6. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 447
with many affairs and not able even to breathe, because we are inflamed with love towards you, and know that we owe even more to your excellent person. Never at any time shall we be forgetful of the good deeds that you have shown towards us. The end.
6. Of the same to the inmates of the monastery of the 513-8. blessed Bassus, {From those during episcopacy; from, the yth book the 354th letter.)
Some respectable men have come to us, asking me to write to your love of God, in order that you may. dismiss the man who has renounced the world, who is from the village and has in unapproved fashion put on the garb of monasticism among you, so that he may continue to till the soil and not dishonour the holy pro- fession of monks, since it was not in quest of virtue for its own sake that he came to this. I hear that he has left his wife contrary to the apostolic law and without consent, while they have, 1 learn, children also, born of their common cohabitation. But this will certainly p. 504. seem a crime to you also, and a thing contrary to the divine laws. Either therefore explain what the truth of the matter is, or, if the case is as we have been in- formed, send the man to live in the world. We must provide ** things honest," as it is written, '* not only before God, but also before men." 1 The end.
^ Id, viii. 21.
448 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. /.
519-85. 7. Of the same to Ceesarta the patrician} {From those after banishment^ from, the ^rd book the ^bth letter.)
It seemed to me perfectly credible that, as stated by your glorious modesty, you gained so much profit from reading my mean letter with understanding. The good soil that is like your God-loving soul knows, it knows indeed, how, even when receiving barren seed, to give forth fruitful produce in plenty, inso- much as to reach to the perfect measure of a hundred.^
And after other things. As to the short treatise that is being circulated and carried about by certain persons, which you say is inscribed with my name and bears such an ascription, a treatise that I shrink from even taking upon my lips, seeing that it is full of ignorance and stupidity, know that it is not the work of our meanness at all: but a forgery either of certain p. 505. foolish men who are called orthodox, or of heretics who wish to hide their shame and make it appear to those who come across it that it is we who keep men away from communion with them by' fraudulent words, not they who separate from them by reason of their sound faith, and recognise and abhor their manifest impiety and Jewish opinions.
Let not this too be unknown to your God-loving
^ Cf* p. 244 note 3. If the inference there drawn is conrect, this letter cannot be placed later than 521. 2 Mt xiii. 8.
X. 7. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 449
highness: that a certain devout presbyter also came from the East, and showed us other letters also purporting to be mine, that are in part forged and falsified; the forgery and garbling having been done by certain persons whose business it is to forge such things to their own destruction as the Apostle says.^ And we brought him the documents themselves: and after comparing the genuine documents he reprobated and condemned the falsehood, and cursed the wicked men who commit such wanton wickedness against the truth. And no wonder if the devil through his own instruments wrought such things against us the sinner and weakling, considering that in the same way he contrived similar things or even more serious against the apostolic doctors of the church also. The great Basil in the letter addressed to the ascetics and solitaries under him, at Orobiane and at Chalane, asserts that certain persons were circulating forged and spurious letters against him: as to whom he also p. 506. says; " Many letters are being circulated against me, which contain abuse and derision and speak evil of us in respect of the actions: for which we have a defence ready before the court of truth '': and again; "My words shall judge me: but for the offences of others no man shall condemn us." Moreover in another letter also, writing to those at Neocsesarea, he showed that certain persons were also inventing dreams against him, thinking by this also to cast aspersions upon his
^ 2 Pe. iii. 16.
460 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 7.
faith: about whom even while laughing iat their absurdity he says, " Men who acted so shamelessly against us as even to invent certain dreams against us, bringing charges against our teachings as hurtful."^ But, since I do not read negligently anything that is written to me by your believing excellency, but do so with much consideration and diligently, I think it to be necessary for us to give you some short answer on another matter also. You besought me to pray on behalf of your modesty that the Lord would release you from the bonds of this world, and would bring you to the Calm haven of penitence, seeing that you are buried as you say in the evils of this world. Do not forget there- fore, you whom I revere above everyone, that the apostle Paul in his epistle to Titus lays down a law for women that are yoked in marriage in these terms; ** Let the young women be lovers of their husbands, lovers p. 507. of their children, chaste, pure, good housekeepers, subject to their husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed."^ It is therefore manifest that, if anyone depart from the canon of this statute, and be carried though but a little to the right side or the left, he will be judged as a transgressor against the law. A woman who fears God and obeys Christ^s commands must practise love of her husband as readily as the love of God itself. If the husband is the head of the wife in the same fashion as the Lord is the head of the church, a woman who loves her husband chastely
1 Ep. 207. I. 2 Tit. ii. 4, 5.
^ X. 7. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVER OS. 451
through the medium of her husband loves Christ the Head of all heads. On the same principle also a woman who keeps her house, and keeps the things within the house with strenuousness and watchfulness, imitates a man who presides over a church and wisely administers the sacred things on the care of those that are in need. That every believer's house also is a church the same Paul further bears witness when in greeting certain believers in his epistles he says, ** Greet also the church that is in your house." ^ One may fitly admire the way in which the Apostle, after saying that women who love God ought to be such as keep their houses, immediately added ** good housekeepers." For there are women who from their great carefulness in housekeeping are induced to make profit out of the Pk 5?8- goods, and are hence incited to covetousness, the mother of evil deeds. Wherefore, to cut away such a vice, he said that such women ought to be good, in order that by the justification and consolation of those that are in need the house also may be increased; seeing that the blessings that are from heaven will be measured to them in return, and they will through beneficence lay down beforehand a good foundation for themselves in the future life. At the same time by naming them good he also inculcates kindness to menservants and bondmaids, and all that are bound under the yoke of slavery. Of the love of a husband also and of chastity this is the criterion, not that a wife
^ I Co. xvi. 19.
462 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 7.
look at her personal chastity only, but how far she regards her husband s preservation also with watchful eyes, and makes every effort that he too may be content with intercourse with her only, not that he may turn himself to another connexion. If she herself be chaste, but do not concern herself about her husband falling into fornication, she has, unknown to herself, become chaste in half her body and in half of it defiled, in that she is transgressing against the divine laws. If in fact they are not two, according to our Saviour's saying,^ but the two are reckoned as making one flesh, what profit is there in the chastity of one portion, when the conjoined portion is led away to lasciviousness? Marriage is then ** honourable and the bed unsullied,''* p. 509. when the whole of it is hallowed in the whole body. But the whole body is husband and wife, having the same mind, and treating the marriage as a mystery of God, and hence making the procreation of children to be blessed, and from all sides bringing praise and glory, not reviling, upon the word of God. If you walk by these laws and know your place, and do not desire other things beyond the measure that is com- manded, you will be an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven, and with the wives of those patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all that are such, you will receive the promises of immortal life: who also lived with men that were owners' of sheepfolds (?) and lords of cattle and of much wealth and armed
^ Mt xix. 16. 2 He. xiii. 4.
X. 7. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 463
themselves for war when the time summoned to this also, and with them fulfilled God's commandments perfectly.
These things I have written because I gave my attention to the words contained in the letter of your believing soul, and I considered the fire of the Spirit that is in you, and I feared lest out of great fervour you might incautiously form some plan that is at variance with the laws of piety; for you know such pleas, which by the use of considerations that are rather upon the right side are apt to deceive the pious.
The words of divine scripture that have been cited p. 510. would even by themselves have been enough to confirm your love of God in acquiescence with the admonition of our meanness: but I have thought it good to corroborate what I have said from the teaching of the fathers also, and to plant the loyal disposition more firmly in you. The wise John, who was bishop of Constantinople, towards the end of the commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, in the exposition the beginning of which is "But Jesus stood before the governor " wrote in these terms about the cunning of the devil, by which he has cheated specially fervent souls: *' He has also a third evil trap: as for example: when he thows an appearance of devoutness over a sin. * And how has the devil succeeded so far as to cheat even in these things?' Hearj and beware of his counsels. Christ commanded through Paul that wife should not separate from husband, and they should not defraud one another, except perhaps by
454 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 7.
consent. But some women, having on the ground of a desire for continence separated themselves from their husbands as if they were doing some devout action, have thrust them down into adultery. Reflect therefore what an evil thing it is that, while under- going so much toil, they should be charged with having done the greatest wrong and pay the utmost penalty, and thrust their spouses down into a pit of destruction. Other persons again by abstaining from foods under the law of fasting have gradually come to p. 511. reject these: a thing which itself also brings heavy punishment. And this happens when they assign greater validity to their own thoughts than to the determinations of the scriptures."^ Therefore I beg your glorious modesty to turn the glances of your understanding on all sides, and hear the divine laws, and listen to Paul who says, ** Let every man wherein he was called therein abide." ^ Since God called you under the yoke of marriage, in it also maintain a loyal contest, and show prowess: and be one that loves her husband and loves her children and is a good housekeeper, in order that through these things you may at the same time be also one that loves God. Never on account of these things term yourself one buried in the mire of evils, and flee from the bonds of the world: but flee from the bonds of evil. •For in these we are all in the same fashion bound. The divine text somewhere says,
1 P. G. Iviii. 768. 2 I Co. yii J4
X. 8. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 466
*^ Who will boast that he hath a pure heart? Or who will be confident of being pure from sins? " ^ But we who have believed the gospel try, as far as is possible for men, to purify our soul through commandments: in order that God, looking upon the readiness of our heart as is sung in the Psalms,^ not upon the weakness of our nature, may admit us to mercy and graciousness in the day of judgment, and make us sharers in the kingdom of heaven, because the heavenly One became man and consorted with those that are on the earth, having become a man in truth and without difference and not in semblance. The end,
8. Of the same to Georgia daughter of Anastasia p* 5^2. the hypatissa. {From those after banishment, from the ^th book the 22nd letter.)
' Since for my part I never regard your glorious modesty's affairs with indifference, but with great earnestness concern myself for your salvation, as for that of a beloved daughter, and I look into God's deep judgments, by the evidence of actual facts I perceive that you are supported by great help from above, and conduct your life with very watchful care. For that you should have reached the flower of your age and not yet been yoked in marriage to your glorious parents perhaps and to the others who love a worldly manner seems a reason for anger as well as a matter of sorrow. But I regard it as a thing of
1 Pr. XX. 9. 2 ps. ix. 38.
30
466 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 8.
great profit and pronounce it to be so. This, I think, is the meaning to which the statement made by the wise Paul to the Corinthians also points; *' If any man thinketh that he is put to shame in his virgin if she hath passed the flower of her age, so also ought it to be."^ What he says is in fact something like this; *'What is thought by some to be a cause of shame, I mean that a virgin should reach an advanced time of life, this I have thought to be both advan- tageous and beneficial." Just as the fruit of a tree, when taken before the time, causes no pleasure by p. 513- its taste, because it is without the sweetness that gives the pleasure, but actually hurts the teeth, by reason of its sharpness or acidity, in the same way also a virgin who has not yet ripened in her season so to speak, but has the disposition of the flesh undeveloped and too tender, hurts and does not profit the man who marries her: because her character is not fixed, and inasmuch as her time has not yet come is unstable and not constant, but rather easily excited and driven to childish wrath, and disturbed perhaps by melancholy and irrational gloominess. How is it anything but shameful that, while a wrestler does not go down into the violence of the arena [unless he has been thoroughly trained in wrestling, or a soldier]^ into the battle array, unless he has been thoroughly trained
^ I Co. vii. 36.
2 This is clearly the sense required, but more than this is needed to fill the gap.
X. 8. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 467
in military matters, a virgin should be introduced into the society of marriage, and should pass to the headship and government of her husband's house without having been perfectly trained in her parents' house, or learned how she should govern a house, and in what way she ought to behave to each of those that are under her authority? It has often happened that bad men, when they have obtained women who are undeveloped and of unfixed character, have per- verted them to their own bad model, and stamped the lines of their own wickedness upon their tender dis- position as upon wax. Whence, when they have been sated and not been able . ...
your modest mother in your father's glorious house, p- 514. and through advanced age has been instructed in administrative science, and has been perfectly exercised in such useful exercises, and you have at the same time also increased the wisdom of your character, you will go to your husband s house like some image and statue that is perfect in beauty and not lacking in anything, and you will be to him *'a / helper like unto him "; since woman was in fact created by Him who said in the beginning, ** It is not good that the man should be alone; let us make him a helper like unto him."^ A woman who is trained and skilled in governing a house, and intelligent and a real helper in the world's difficulties, is in truth a
1 Ge. ii. 18.
468 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. X. 8.
haven for a man. For in fact, when a man has gone out to.
in a law-court, either because he is doing or because he is suffering wrong, or again he is often inflamed to anger, and wantonly insults or on the contrary is in- sulted in his turn, the anger of another blowing against him like some storm. But, when the time calls and he returns to his house for food, agitated and disturbed by anxieties, he encounters his wife s intelligence: he finds her temper both placid and calm: he tells what has happened to him in the street. Then she like a trained physician gently looks into the hidden sources of trouble: she touches his heart with intelligent words^ p. 5 '5- and learns the causes. And, when she has found that he has been excited without good reason, she appeases the fury of his mind by offering peaceful
that^ I have written these things also. And I beg you, lady, not to tell anyone whatever that you have received this letter from me, even if he be an angel from heaven. You will in fact both bring danger upon me by telling it and vex God; and you will make many angry with me, because I did not write to them too just as I have done to you. But we believe that Christ, the God of orthodoxy, who every day carries out the words that say, ** Other sheep also
1 Possibly from another letter.
XI. SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 459
I have which are not of this fold; and I must bring them also and they shall hear my voice, and they shall be one flock and one Shepherd,"^ will make your glorious and exalted father also His own. Not the end.
XI. Eleventh ^ection.^ That a man who can help or p. 516. assist the right confession while engaged in state affairs must not become a monk.
Of the same to Misael the chamberlain. ^ {From those 518-8. during episcopacy, from the A^th book the looth tetter.)
How can I express my admiration of the labours of your magnificence which you display towards my meanness in the way that they deserve, seeing that I have one mouth and one tongue? Still however, since you do not care about praises upon earth, but make it your one and only endeavour that through good works your name may be written in the book of life, I pray as a sinner that this grace may be abundantly bestowed upon you by God the bestower of gifts that are so great. For by your faithful care you have delivered our church that was in a pitiful condition through the hostile contrivances of the illustrious -^gilas from a heavy burden.
^ John X. 16. 2 TtrXos.
^ C/. Land, Anec. Syr. ii. 275. 12, 22, iii. 356. 11.
460 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. XL
But it wounds me deeply that, because your soul has been smitten with divine love, it should conceive the idea of adopting the philosophic and solitary life, though it is living in a philosophic manner and has within that which it seeks as if it were at a distance. By God's grace, while you conduct yourself in so p- S17. chaste and ascetic a fashion, you have this privilege also that has been bestowed from above, I mean not only to believe on Christ, but also to suffer for His sake,^ and endure distress with Israel when in turmoil; whence also the illustrious crown of martyrdom is being woven for you. By desiring retreat or solitari- ness at a time so unsuited for it you are doing the same as if one of those three boys, of one of whom you are hamesake, when the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar the fighter against God was set forth, and he was required to stand up and confute the error, had fled and withdrawn, thinking to win safety for himself, and not bow his head to the abominable and unlawful object of worship. In* that case they would not have obtained such glory with God as that which they gained by undergoing the trial of the furnace, and quenching the fire by their virtue, and gaining God as a witness to their modest and humble mind by saying, ** Our God is in heaven whom we serve, one that is able to deliver us from the burning furnace of fire; and if not be it known unto thee, O king, that we do not serve thy gods, and the golden image
1 Ph. i. 29.
XL SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 461
which thou hast set up we do not worship '*; ^ in order that these words might be an instruction and a pattern in piety to all in later times too who should love God.
How then can you, when the king is pious, flee from the fight with the heretics, instigated as you are p- 5^8. by a God-loving thought, and refusing to endure their blasphemies, and looking at this only, and reckoning our nakedness as nothing? If this is carried into effect, you will now double for me personally the grief that I felt by reason of the departure of Peter the presbyter ^ who is among the saints, and will throw me " fall after fall," as the great Job somewhere says: ^ and then I shall know clearly from facts themselves that God has utterly abandoned us, and has turned away His face from those that praise Him in the right way: and we will say as is written *' to the mountains, * Fall upon us/ and to the hills, * Cover us.' " * I forbear to say that neither will you obtain that desire, seeing it will not be in accordance with God's judgment that you will be abandoning the life in the world.
Further also a story like this has been conveyed to us by those who have grown old in asceticism. In the times of the Arians, two men who lived in the philo- sophic manner remained in the desert, and in the unsocial life. And, when the word of truth was being attacked, and was being obscured by heretical craftiness of speech, and they were called to give help (for they had in fact qualifications for fighting on behalf of piety), they were
I Da. iii. 17, 18. ^ Qf p, ^^ ^nd Wright C.B.M. 335.
^ Job xvi. 14, 4 Ho. X. 8,
462 SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. XI.
disinclined to do so, because they clung to philosophy, and action seemed to them irksome. And the one put constraint upon himself, and showed more respect to the commandment than to the peace that he loved, and hastily set off to take part in the contests, and p. 519- obeyed those who called him. But the other remained according to his pleasure in the desert, and the spirits of evil came and assailed him with greater vehemence, and he became possessed of the feeling that he had been stripped of God's grace and help, and was in danger of being devoured by fiends as it were by lions; and he was awakened and reflected upon his thought- lessness, and he changed his mind and immediately followed his brothers good resolution, and took a hand with him in the contests on behalf of the faith. I say nothing of Obadiah who served under Ahab the grievous tyrant, and secretly fed a hundred prophets in a cave, contrary to the pleasure of the holder of power. I also pass over the selling of Joseph, and the bondage to the Egyptian woman and her false charge, and the other stories: since not' only have you heard the sacred writings, but you are in fact well-versed in them. Wherefore these things too we have written as a mere admonition only so to speak, by which we urge you, inasmuch as you live not to yourself but to God, immediately to say what has been written and has been handed down by our Lord as a teacher, ** Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt." ^
^ Mk. xiv. 36.
SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS. 463
It is ill truth a great sin for us to desert Christ when He needs help. Such a man acts in the same way as a man who is rich and quickly passes by one who is hungry, and one who is naked or sick, or shut up in prison; for the need of all these Christ makes His own. Wherefore also He bitterly inveighs against the crime and holds it up to reprobation before the theatre ^ p- S«o. of the world or rather before all rational nature, saying, ** Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of these little ones, neither did ye it to me."^ May we all escape having experience of these words! The end.
The end of the sixth book of the select^ or chosen letters taken from the letters of the holy Severus, patriarch of Antioch in Syria.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit in whose power we began and by whose help we have ended for ever and ever Amen!
For the glory and honour of the holy Trinity the saintly lord Elisha, metropolitan of the Christ-loving city of Nisibis, exerted himself and acquired this spiritual treasure; for his own profit and that of all who love God. But, if any man borrows this book to read it or to copy from it, and detains it, or makes erasures or excisions, or shall do it any kind of injury,
^ Oiarpov. ^ Mt. xxv. 45. ^ iKXoyat.
464
SELECT LETTERS OF THE HOLY SEVERUS.
let him know that he is transgressing against the awful word of God.
p. 521. Translated from Greek into Syriac by the religious presbyter Athanasius of Nisibis and written at his dictation by the devout presbyter Severus, at the instance of the saintly bishops, Matthew of the city of Berrhoea and Daniel of the city of Edessa, in the year nine hundred and eighty of the Greeks. But for our Lord's sake let every reader pray for them!
But this book was written by ... . who is diligent in his business and foolish
reads what is written, and breaks what is commanded; loves what is near, and despises what is counselled; a trumpet for words, and a flute for sounds, that has been in no way benefited by anything that passes through them; a foolish sailor who has not gained proper skill in steering his ship rightly: and
how to call his name unless it
be ** hateful " and if you who hate if you wish ....
'' Whoever loves not our Lord Jesus Christ, let. him be anathema." ^
1 I Co. xvi, 22.
INDEX OF PERSONS, PLACES. ETC.
[An asterisk denotes doubt whether all the passages relate to the same person.)
PAGE
Abba, monk, . . 433, 435, 436
Achillas, cleric of Alexandria,. 334
Adelphius, heresiarch, . . 55
AdvoccUus fiscif . . . .197
^Egilas, illustris, . . . 459
^lian, presb., . . . 378, 379
^neas, presb. and monk, . . 47
Africa,. 212, 279, 296, 297, 298
Agapetus, bp. of Synada,. 311,312
Agapius, bp., . . . • ijo
'Akiba, mohast. of,. 104, 109, 382
Alexander (i), bp. of Alexandria, 197
(2), bp. of Constantinople,. 197
(3), z//»dr<sLr of Anazarba, . . 87-9
Alexandria (in Egypt), 7, 8, 76, 79,
143, 144, 151, 153, 157, 163, 165,
166, 170, .195, 213, 216, 223, 225,
228, 257, 267, 270, 280, 284, 300,
320, 331, 334, 357, 415; i>ynod
of, 160, 225
Minor (in Cilicia), 98. Bp. John.
Alypius(i), boy, . . I43» ^44
(2), ... . . 427-32
Amasia, 221
Ambrose, bp. of Milan, . . 304 Ammian, . . . 233-6, 246
Ammonius, presb. of Alexandria, 253-6 Amphilochius, bp. of Iconium, 312, 416 Anasartha, Castra, 91. Bp. designate