Letter 214: 1. When I heard that your excellency had again been compelled to take part in public affairs, I was straightway distressed (for the truth must be told) at the thought of how contrary to your mind it must be that you after once giving up the anxieties of official life, and allowing yourself leisure for the care of your soul, should again be force...

When I heard that Your Excellency had been called back into public life, my first reaction was regret. I know how much you valued the peace you had found after stepping away from official duties, and how seriously you had committed yourself to the care of your soul. But then I reconsidered. Perhaps the Lord has arranged your return to public affairs precisely because He wants to offer some relief to the countless troubles now afflicting the Church in our region. That thought cheers me considerably, as does the prospect of seeing you again before I leave this life. A further report has reached me: you are in Antioch, conducting business with the senior authorities there. I have also heard that the party of Paulinus [a rival claimant to the bishopric of Antioch] is approaching you about the possibility of union with us -- by "us" I mean the supporters of the blessed Meletius [the Nicene bishop whom Basil recognized as the legitimate bishop of Antioch]. Word has it that the Paulinians are circulating a letter from the Western bishops assigning them the episcopate of Antioch, based on misinformation about Meletius and the true state of the Church here. I am not surprised. The Westerners are completely ignorant of our situation, and the people informing them put party loyalty ahead of truth. It is only to be expected that they would either not know the facts or actively conceal the reasons behind the blessed Bishop Athanasius's original letter to Paulinus. Your Excellency has people on the spot who can give you an accurate account of what actually passed between the bishops in the reign of Jovian [Emperor, 363-364 AD]. I urge you to get the full story from them. I accuse no one. I pray that I may love all, "especially those who are of the household of faith." For that reason I congratulate those who received the letter from Rome -- it is a significant endorsement, and I hope it is well-founded. But I will never let it persuade me to ignore Meletius, or to forget his Church, or to treat the theological issues that caused the division as trivial. I will never give in simply because someone is elated at receiving a letter from important men. Even if it had come down from heaven itself, if the man does not hold to sound doctrine, I cannot regard him as in communion with the saints. Consider this carefully, my excellent friend: the people who falsified the truth and introduced the Arian innovation against the sound faith of our fathers have no other basis for rejecting the homoousios [the Nicene term meaning "of the same substance," affirming the Son's full equality with the Father] than their claim that the term is unscriptural. But if rejection of the unscriptural is grounds for their position, then let them reject the unscriptural innovations on their own side too. Where in Scripture will you find the word "unbegotten"? Where is "of a different substance" to be found? Let me ask this question plainly: does not the refusal of those who reject the homoousios because it is not in Scripture, while they accept what is equally unscriptural, look like sheer dishonesty? I write all this so that you may be on your guard when they approach you. Be sympathetic to both sides, but hold firmly to the truth. Refuse to sacrifice sound doctrine on the altar of a superficially attractive unity.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To Count Terentius. 1. When I heard that your excellency had again been compelled to take part in public affairs, I was straightway distressed (for the truth must be told) at the thought of how contrary to your mind it must be that you after once giving up the anxieties of official life, and allowing yourself leisure for the care of your soul, should again be forced back into your old career. But then I bethought me that perhaps the Lord has ordained that your lordship should again appear in public from this wish to grant the boon of one alleviation for the countless pains which now beset the Church in our part of the world. I am, moreover, cheered by the thought that I am about to meet your excellency once again before I depart this life. 2. But a further rumour has reached me that you are in Antioch, and are transacting the business in hand with the chief authorities. And, besides this, I have heard that the brethren who are of the party of Paulinus are entering on some discussion with your excellency on the subject of union with us; and by us I mean those who are supporters of the blessed man of God, Meletius. I hear, moreover, that the Paulinians are carrying about a letter of the Westerns, assigning to them the episcopate of the Church in Antioch, but speaking under a false impression of Meletius, the admirable bishop of the true Church of God. I am not astonished at this. They are totally ignorant of what is going on here; the others, though they might be supposed to know, give an account to them in which party is put before truth; and it is only what one might expect that they should either be ignorant of the truth, or should even endeavour to conceal the reasons which led the blessed Bishop Athanasius to write to Paulinus. But your excellency has on the spot those who are able to tell you accurately what passed between the bishops in the reign of Jovian, and from them I beseech you to get information. I accuse no one; I pray that I may have love to all, and especially unto them who are of the household of faith; Galatians 6:10 and therefore I congratulate those who have received the letter from Rome. And, although it is a grand testimony in their favour, I only hope it is true and confirmed by facts. But I shall never be able to persuade myself on these grounds to ignore Meletius, or to forget the Church which is under him, or to treat as small, and of little importance to the true religion, the questions which originated the division. I shall never consent to give in, merely because somebody is very much elated at receiving a letter from men. Even if it had come down from heaven itself, but he does not agree with the sound doctrine of the faith, I cannot look upon him as in communion with the saints. 3. Consider well, my excellent friend, that the falsifiers of the truth, who have introduced the Arian schism as an innovation on the sound faith of the Fathers, advance no other reason for refusing to accept the pious opinion of the Fathers than the meaning of the homoousion which they hold in their wickedness, and to the slander of the whole faith, alleging our contention to be that the Son is consubstantial in hypostasis. If we give them any opportunity by our being carried away by men who propound these sentiments and their like, rather from simplicity than from malevolence, there is nothing to prevent our giving them an unanswerable ground of argument against ourselves and confirming the heresy of those whose one end is in all their utterances about the Church, not so much to establish their own position as to calumniate mine. What more serious calumny could there be? What better calculated to disturb the faith of the majority than that some of us could be shown to assert that there is one hypostasis of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? We distinctly lay down that there is a difference of Persons; but this statement was anticipated by Sabellius, who affirms that God is one by hypostasis, but is described by Scripture in different Persons, according to the requirements of each individual case; sometimes under the name of Father, when there is occasion for this Person; sometimes under the name of Son when there is a descent to human interests or any of the operations of the œconomy; and sometimes under the Person of Spirit when the occasion demands such phraseology. If, then, any among us are shown to assert that Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one in substance, while we maintain the three perfect Persons, how shall we escape giving clear and incontrovertible proof of the truth of what is being asserted about us? 4. The non-identity of hypostasis and ousia is, I take it, suggested even by our western brethren, where, from a suspicion of the inadequacy of their own language, they have given the word ousia in the Greek, to the end that any possible difference of meaning might be preserved in the clear and unconfounded distinction of terms. If you ask me to state shortly my own view, I shall state that ousia has the same relation to hypostasis as the common has to the particular. Every one of us both shares in existence by the common term of essence (ousia) and by his own properties is such an one and such an one. In the same manner, in the matter in question, the term ousia is common, like goodness, or Godhead, or any similar attribute; while hypostasis is contemplated in the special property of Fatherhood, Sonship, or the power to sanctify. If then they describe the Persons as being without hypostasis, the statement is per se absurd; but if they concede that the Persons exist in real hypostasis, as they acknowledge, let them so reckon them that the principle of the homoousion may be preserved in the unity of the Godhead, and that the doctrine preached may be the recognition of true religion, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the perfect and complete hypostasis of each of the Persons named. Nevertheless, there is one point which I should like to have pressed on your excellency, that you and all who like you care for the truth, and honour the combatant in the cause of true religion, ought to wait for the lead to be taken in bringing about this union and peace by the foremost authorities in the Church, whom I count as pillars and foundations of the truth and of the Church, and reverence all the more because they have been sent away for punishment, and have been exiled far from home. Keep yourself, I implore you, clear of prejudice, that in you, whom God has given me as a staff and support in all things, I may be able to find rest. About this page Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202214.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.