Theodoret of Cyrrhus→Sabinianus|c. 440 AD|theodoret cyrrhus
From: Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus
To: Sabinianus, Bishop [possibly of Perrhae, who was deposed and then appealed to those who had removed him]
Date: ~449 AD
Context: Theodoret expresses bewilderment that Sabinianus has appealed to the very men who deposed him, and argues that silence in the face of heresy is complicity.
To Bishop Sabinianus,
I praised your holiness for leaving the see you were envied for. Once it was a venerable office; now it has been turned into something to be bought and sold, and we have made it ridiculous. But I was astonished to hear you had appealed to the very men who ejected you. You should have done the opposite: when invited to take the helm again, you should have refused -- on the grounds that your shipmates have become your enemies.
Are you not aware, most godly sir, of what our Savior taught us through His apostles? Do you not know what the heirs of apostolic teaching have now laid down as doctrine? From the time the Gospel was first preached down to this present darkness, which of the ancient teachers ever spoke of "one nature" of flesh and Godhead? Who ever dared to call the nature of the Only-begotten "passible"? Yet in our day some men openly and boldly proclaim these things, while others listen in silence -- and by their silence become participants in the blasphemy.
What, then, should be done by those who abhor such doctrines? Two choices remain: they may either engage directly and prove these teachings false, or they may break communion with their opponents as openly impious.
As for me, I have received the wrong done to me as a divine blessing. I do not mean I have thanked those who wronged me -- how could I thank fratricides, men who have become followers of Cain? But I praise my Master for counting me worthy of the lot of those who suffer injustice, for separating me from wrongdoers and blasphemers, and for granting me this most welcome rest.
Letter 126
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To the Bishop Sabinianus.
I praised your holiness on your quitting the envied see. Once it was venerable; now it is ridiculous, for we have made it a thing to be bought and sold. I was astounded to hear of your having appealed to the men who ejected you. You ought to have done just the contrary, and, on being invited to grasp the tiller, to have declined to do so, on the ground that your shipmates had become your foes. Are you not aware, most godly sir, what our Saviour, through His sacred apostles, taught us to preach? Do you not know what the heirs of the apostolic doctrines have just now laid down as objects of worship? For who of the old teachers from the time when the message was first preached down to the period of the darkness that now obtains, ever listened to any one preaching one nature of flesh and Godhead or dared at any time to call the nature of the only begotten passible? These doctrines in our day are by some men openly and boldly uttered, while among others their utterance is overlooked, and by silence men become participators in the blasphemy. What then, may well be asked, is the proper course to be taken by those who abominate such doctrines? They have, I should reply, two alternatives before them; they may either come to close quarters, and prove the spuriousness of the doctrines, or they may decline communion with their opponents as openly impious.
I, indeed, have received the wrong done me as a divine blessing. I do not mean that I have thanked them that have wronged me; how could I thank fratricides, and men who have become followers of Cain?
But I praise my Master for thinking me worthy of the lot of them that suffer wrong, for separating me from wrong-doers and blasphemers, and for giving me my most delightful rest.
◆
From:Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrrhus
To:Sabinianus, Bishop [possibly of Perrhae, who was deposed and then appealed to those who had removed him]
Date:~449 AD
Context:Theodoret expresses bewilderment that Sabinianus has appealed to the very men who deposed him, and argues that silence in the face of heresy is complicity.
To Bishop Sabinianus,
I praised your holiness for leaving the see you were envied for. Once it was a venerable office; now it has been turned into something to be bought and sold, and we have made it ridiculous. But I was astonished to hear you had appealed to the very men who ejected you. You should have done the opposite: when invited to take the helm again, you should have refused -- on the grounds that your shipmates have become your enemies.
Are you not aware, most godly sir, of what our Savior taught us through His apostles? Do you not know what the heirs of apostolic teaching have now laid down as doctrine? From the time the Gospel was first preached down to this present darkness, which of the ancient teachers ever spoke of "one nature" of flesh and Godhead? Who ever dared to call the nature of the Only-begotten "passible"? Yet in our day some men openly and boldly proclaim these things, while others listen in silence -- and by their silence become participants in the blasphemy.
What, then, should be done by those who abhor such doctrines? Two choices remain: they may either engage directly and prove these teachings false, or they may break communion with their opponents as openly impious.
As for me, I have received the wrong done to me as a divine blessing. I do not mean I have thanked those who wronged me -- how could I thank fratricides, men who have become followers of Cain? But I praise my Master for counting me worthy of the lot of those who suffer injustice, for separating me from wrongdoers and blasphemers, and for granting me this most welcome rest.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.