Letter 44: Severus tells Eutychian that civil rank cannot excuse communion with a deposed bishop.

Severus writes to Eutychian, governor of Apamea, because troubling reports have reached him. Eutychian had spoken well when Severus returned from the royal city to Antioch, and Severus still wants to believe the best of him. Yet he has heard that Eutychian attended a feast and dedication led by someone who had already been deprived of episcopal office. Severus does not soften the warning. A feast led by a deposed bishop is not harmless civic courtesy; it is a public act that fights against God. To show that he is not speaking from quarrelsomeness, he quotes the canon: a bishop, presbyter, or deacon deprived by proper authority may not continue ministering, and those who knowingly communicate with such a person are themselves expelled from the church. The point is Eutychian's soul and public reputation. As a servant of the pious king and ruler of a people, he cannot treat such participation as a small thing. Severus urges him to abandon any hostile attitude toward Peter, the bishop of his metropolis, and to align himself with God's purpose, the king's purpose, and the orthodox faith upheld by the leading notables. Whatever political pressure exists, Eutychian must not let civil rank draw him into communion that Severus regards as hateful to God.

When I compare the reports that have recently come to my hearing with the words spoken by your magnificence when I was leaving the royal city and had reached this city of Antiochus, I still even now consider these untrustworthy and shrink from setting them down in so many words in this letter. I learn that, when one of those who have been deprived and p- 138. stripped of the high-priestly office was celebrating (as he thinks) the unhallowed memory of martyrs and the initiatory festival and dedication of a certain house, you also went there and took part in a least that thus contends against God. In order that you may not think that it is from a quarrelsome disposition that we have been led to use such hard words, or rather in order that you may know that what I have written ^ Cf. Mansi vii. 361. ^ Si/cao-r-j^pta. falls short of the real abomination, I will immediately quote to you the actual canon and law of the Spirit, and you will know clearly that for a man who is in servitude to the pious king- and is the ruler of a people to do anything of the kind without consideration is not a thing free from dang-er. The canon or law that has been mentioned is as follows: — " If any bishop, after he has been deprived by a synod, or a presbyter or deacon by his bishop, shall presume to perform any part of the ministry, be he a bishop according to the previously existing custom, or a presbyter or deacon, no hope of restoration even in another synod shall thenceforward be permitted him, nor shall he be permitted an opportunity of defence: but those also who communicate with him shall all be expelled from p- 139- the church, and especially if they have presumed to communicate with the aforesaid persons after they have learned the verdict that has been put forth against them." ^ Do you think even after reading this law that it is about small or contemptible matters that we are speaking; or that we do so out of concern for your soul and for your reputation? ' You must therefore abandon this discreditable state of mind, if indeed it really is a state of mind at all, and reflect upon the purpose of God and of our pious king, and of the glorious notables who are earnest upholders of the orthodox faith, and not set yourself in hostility to the saintly Peter bishop of your metropolis in any- ^ Mansi ii. 1309. " vTr6\r]^i<;. thing, or rather not conceive any thought that is hostile and hateful to God, and to our triumphant, serene, Christ-loving king