Letter 3: Severus tells Solon that the Callistus case was handled by evidence and process, not by theft from Solon's jurisdiction.

Solon's letter was sharp enough to anger even someone slow to anger, but Severus refuses to answer with contentious words. He wants to show that he is free from blame in the case of Callistus. Callistus was not dragged before Severus on new charges that belonged to Solon's metropolitan court. The matter had already been investigated while Solon was in Antioch, and Severus had acted with moderation, even asking bishops to support a pardon when Callistus repented. The present dispute turns on Hilarian and a forged letter. Severus says the forgery is obvious, even from the handwriting, and the case was directed against him personally. He asks Solon to remember how earlier accusations were handled and not to treat patriarchal oversight as theft from the metropolitan see. Severus is defending both his own procedure and the principle that difficult, public, and interwoven cases cannot be reduced to wounded jurisdiction. The letter also surveys disputed communion and commemoration practices in Isauria and related churches. Severus insists that he has not relaxed where divine law required attention. Names suspected of unlawful communion have been removed as circumstances allowed, and gradual progress has been made. He rejects Solon's claim that some bishops still commemorate those who signed impious acts, explaining the actual omissions and the pastoral reasoning behind them. Even so, Severus keeps praying that Callistus may prove innocent by clear evidence. If Hilarian refuses the right road of defense, Severus sets a deadline: the matter must be carried out by the end of September. The whole letter is a defense of disciplined process. Severus will not let Solon's anger write the history of the case, but he also will not abandon investigation, evidence, and the repair of communion. Solon is also being taught how not to mistake jurisdiction for justice. Severus does not deny the dignity of a metropolitan see, but he refuses to let that dignity hide facts already investigated, handwriting already exposed, and communion problems already addressed. The forged letter against him shows how quickly church order can be weaponized by people who prefer confusion to evidence. A bishop's anger may be understandable, but it cannot become the court of appeal. The practical ending shows Severus' balance. He does not declare Callistus innocent merely because he hopes for his repentance, and he does not abandon Hilarian merely because the case is frustrating. He sets a date, preserves process, and keeps the possibility of clear defense open. That is the larger lesson to Solon: authority is strongest when it is patient enough to examine evidence, humble enough to correct mistakes, and firm enough to keep disputed communion from drifting without decision. The letter therefore exposes two counterfeit forms of order. One is forged paperwork, which borrows the appearance of procedure while attacking the truth. The other is offended status, which treats every intervention as an insult even when wider peace requires action. Severus wants neither. He wants documents tested, witnesses heard, commemorations corrected, and local dignity honored without letting local dignity protect disorder.

The letter of your religiousness was enough to bring even those who are not easily roused to wrath into a state of anger and indignation. But for our part, because we are accustomed to endure such things philosophically, especially when they are done and said by honoured and beloved men like you, we have thought it right in this instance also not to strive with contentious words, but rather, as far as possible, in consonance with the actual truth to write such things as are in accord with the judgments of God, and to show that we are free from all cause of blame on your part, Callistus was not dragged before us by anyone upon any new charges being made against him by you. Then he would have had ground for complaint, inas- much as discipline would, as you say, have been vio- lated, and a judgment and cause ^ that belonged to the holy throne of the metropolitan would have been forcibly removed before examination or pardon by being called up, as one may say, to the exaltation and height of the patriarchal and apostolic throne. But, if the matters upon which the party of Hilarian and Musonius made charoes aoainst Callistus were examined and investi- gated while your holiness was in this ggreat city, how comes it that the transaction does not lie beyond the reach of your objections? Nay, how can you avoid praising us if you again recall to your memory how I turned benevolent ears to such faults, and to the bitter attacks of the accusers, and that with much wise moderation we tempered the vehemence of those men, and the gravity of the accusations in which he was involved; and that after this we further in some sort sent a request, which otherwise would not have beseemed us, to each of the bishops, asking them, o^ccris. inasmuch as he had repented, to vote unanimously for the forgiveness which was to be granted him; and, upon our showing such solicitude, he recgived letters from each of the bishops, and we recgived these with joy, and immediately the things written were read, and the decree of pardon followed? But, as for the matter which is now thought by Hilarian to be connected with the same subject,^ how will it be suited for the hearing of your love of God, and that when the sin was directed against me, I mean that of the forged letter? For I do not know if anyone else among men, or an angel from heaven, will come and disprove its spuriousness, seeing that its prejudice is so manifest, and that Hilarian's handwriting also, when compared with his other signatures, utters, so to speak, a voice and pro- claims the fiction. Therefore look into these things with carefulness and sincere God-l6ving thought, and consider whether you are not making a preposterous request, viz., that the patriarch should recgive judgment from your love of God in a case of insults or sins that were directed against him, and that in the words sung by everyone you may turn things upside down; and whether we ourselves have not now the right to use your words, " I am insulted and contemned." I forbear to mention that, even after the conviction from the letter, Paul, the God-loving bishop of the city of the Olbians, came here, and bore witness and said that Hilarian said in the presence of his love of God that ^ V7r6d€(n<s. with Musonius' assent he wrote that the diaconate ought to be restored to Callistus, but that he should not in addition be archdeacon also, and hold the first place.^ But what is the modest defence to these things, which is given even by your sanctity (for this is the wonderful thing)? "Callistus is not subject to reproof for saying of himself that he does not com- municate with us in the matter of the mention of Peter and Palladius, who are by a violation of strict accuracy named in the sacred tablets, and in the matter of communion with the God-loving bishop of the city of the Hierapolitans, Philoxenus, who names a man who signed the things unlawfully done at Chalcedon." May the all-holy soul of Constantine hear these words, against whom that wicked man armed himself, both by writing to those on the other side and by creeping into the archive-house, and arm- ing and inciting the governor^ of the province^ to do everything that could bow down his venerable old age and subvert the orthodox faith! For so much did he infuriate him, I mean the governor of Isauria at that time, that death alone put a stop to his fury against piety. May Solon also, who succeeded to Constan- tine's see, hear these words! and let him hold Callistus as a teacher of zeal for strict accuracy, because after intolerable impieties he has of his own accord come forth as an unlawful champion on behalf of the laws of the church, one who sprang suddenly from the ground 1 C/. ^ rjy/xwv. 3 i-n-apxia. like the giants fabled in legends. However let Callistus stand upon this peak, there is no objection, and let Solon go up with him. Only let them stay in this citadel, and not immediately come down and say, "All the cities of Isauria have also introduced into the sacred tablets the names of those who unlawfully signed at Chalcedon "; for it is time for me also to say what the well-disposed robber, who was crucified with our Lord and Saviour Christ, said to the blasphemous robber, " Dost not even thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same judgment? " ^ These things we for our part say out of an abundant choice. But anyone who makes a careful investigation will find that your love of God has not maintained the order of things ^ which you took over from Constantine the metropolitan who is among the saints, but that your feathers have gradu- ally tallen off after the manner of a bird, while our meanness has carried out a gradual progress, and has in no way fallen short of the beginning previously made. Indeed every one of those who were ordained by us, whether he incurred dangers or was free from danger, removed the names under suspicion. For neither is the statement made by your religiousness true, I mean that the God-loving Mammian bishop of the city of the Damascenes mentions the name of one who signed. Immediately upon his setting foot in the city and sacrificing the first sacrifice and at the same time with it he offered to God the legal omission of his ^ Lu. xxiii. 40. ^ Karao-Tacrt?. name. But the omission of the mention of such men as Peter and Palladius we for our part have for the present not promised to any man. The things that must be yielded to junctions or general unions of God's holy churches are both regulated and defined, and we never stretch ourselves to things outside the bounds of moderation, " being vainly puffed up," ^ as the apostle says, and wandering outside the royal road. If we had in the beginning yielded this difficulty in these other names to you who did this, but had stopped at this one only, that of those who signed as you say several times, how could 1 on my own authority have laid either upon myself or upon those who have in no way attained to this strictness " heavy burdens and grievous to be borne," ^ according to the Gospel saying, which injure the right teaching of the faith and upset every- thing owing to the stress and difficulty of the present time? The things done in the case of Callistus are therefore as stated above. But your love of God ought also to reflect upon the accusations that Musonius and Hilarian brought in the case of the devout Eustace, and how we for our part dealt with the affair in a proper way and in a seemly fashion; and to see with your eyes how honourable is the place that you hold before us, though you show an appearance of for- getting. Indeed I know clearly that in the matters in which it is my duty to trouble my mind I have not relaxed at all. But, if any man seeks to be burdened ^ Col. ii. 18. - Mt. xxiii. 4. by God's laws, "we have no such custom, neither the churches of God."^ But may the Lord be witness for me of my words and of the feehngs of my heart, that I am still even now praying that Callistus may be found upon manifest proofs to be innocent of the charges made against him, as the previous proceed- ings also and the various measures taken by me in his case showed! But, if he shall neglect the rieht road of defence and take refuge in an accuracy of names that does not exist, and in the fact that he does not communicate with us, it is time for me to say to him appropriately the words of Jeremiah, " ' If thou whiten thyself with natron and take thee much soap, thy sins have scarred thee before me' saith the Lord."^ But neither will the religious Hilarian escape from the strict execution of the canons, if he be proved to be lying. A certain term of days has been fixed for him, and this has been set down in writing; and, if he fail to appear and make no defence to the accusation against him, Callistus will be released from the interdict, and tne position of a man under a charge will rightly pass to him, as disturbing the discipline of the Church. A}id after other things. But you must believe that, after I had given the letter to the devout Stephen, something that had been omitted came into my mind, I mean, to tell you the time within which the religious bishop Hilarian is to come, or else the things stated in the letter about Callistus and about him will be carried ^ I Co. xi. 16. 2 Ter. ii. 22. out. The time is reckoned from to-day, and extends P- 25- to the end of the month of September.