Letter 95: Severus tells Sergius and Marion to combine canonical severity with penitence, careful reception, and disciplined ordination.

Severus tells Sergius and Marion that he read their letter carefully. It was thoughtful enough to hold even a distracted mind. On the subdeacon who had fallen under a sentence of separation because of the wretched Cyriac, Severus' answer is severe but not hopeless: if the man repents, God's merciful sentence can absolve him through their judgment. The same applies to anyone else who has committed, or may commit, a similar sin. God does not desire the sinner's death but his conversion and life, so even Severus' ordinance against Cyriac mixed severity with the healing medicine of repentance. He praises John, the presbyter and archimandrite, for first bringing to Sergius and Marion the letter Severus had written to Philoxenus, Thomas, and John on the hill of Marde. Their ears and judgment, he says, are like a furnace able to distinguish alloy from sound metal. If they are delaying the reception of children baptized by heretics in order to awaken fear and penitence, Severus agrees with the purpose. But the delay must not become so long that those who have begun to repent despair of being received and return to the same mire. The rule, he says, should remain the one approved at Ephesus for those baptized by people holding Nestorius' doctrines: no second baptism and no chrism. They are to renounce the heresy in writing, condemn it by anathema, and be received by the judgment of orthodox priests. Severus knows that baptism administered by any heresy is defective, but the fathers applied different remedies to different diseases. Some cases require rebaptism, some chrism, and some anathema and reception. What matters is that the church's lawful judgment brings the Spirit's healing to the wound. Severus explains the theology behind that judgment. The word of the baptizer perfects baptism; the word of the one who anoints works with the chrism; and, in the same way, an anathema spoken under orthodox authority and followed by entrance into the holy place can bring invisible grace to those received. Christ gave the keys to Peter and then to all the disciples, promising that what they bind and loose on earth is bound and loosed in heaven. Nothing lawfully said and done by orthodox bishops according to the commandments and canons is empty of the Holy Spirit. He asks Sergius and Marion to consult his earlier writing against unlawful re-anointing and to see that he has not shifted positions. If they wish, they may appoint a period of repentance for converts from heresy, with tears, prayer, and the laying on of their hands. Like Jacob placing the bright rods before the flock, they should set before these rational sheep the white and shining rod of orthodox teaching, so that the darkness of heresy is stripped away and the light of the orthodox faith is put on in its place. The decision in the present circumstances rests with their discernment. They should share Severus' answer with the fellow-ministers who asked the question and then act together after examining the facts. As for the men who follow Romanus and Julian, Severus says he has nothing to say to them. He will not abandon the middle of the royal road simply because filthy opponents spread contrary reports about him. Isaiah's words are enough: God's people should not fear human reproach, because human derision wears out, while God's righteousness endures. Severus adds a practical request. The presbyter and archimandrite of the monastery of Bassus has sent monks to Alexandria with a letter saying that the community lacks presbyters and deacons. Winter kept that letter from crossing the sea. Once sailing resumes, Sergius and Marion should not be slow to meet the need, either by ordaining themselves or by authorizing other exiled bishops to do it. Still, necessity must not become an excuse for careless ordination. The archimandrites must testify about the men to be advanced, and no one should be made priest or deacon simply because he wants the office. Finally Severus asks for a careful reply on all these matters when winter has passed. He gives thanks for the safety of Maximin the scholastic and sends him greetings through them. He has not yet begun a response to Julian's latest foolish work, though his earlier writings already refute it. All summer, even while hiding in corners, he has been overwhelmed by letters asking for explanations of scriptural passages and doctrine. Solitude, lack of scribes, and constant demands have hindered him, but he trusts that their prayers will strengthen him if Christ grants him life and grace from above.

I have read your sanctities' letter in no negligent way but very carefully indeed: for it was such as to attract even those whose mind wanders and who stare vacantly at the stage-play of the life here and cleave to it. And after other things. As to the subdeacon who has fallen under a decree of separation from the miserable wicked Cyriac, if he repent of the - sins that he has committed, the merciful sentence of God will absolve him through your holinesses. And, if anyone else also has committed or shall commit any such sin, as we pray may not be the case, he shall in an exactly similar way attain absolution according to your legal judgment, on account of Him who does " not wish the death of the sinner so much as that he be converted and live."^ In fact even in the ordinance regarding Cyriac we have mixed with the severity the mild drug of penitence by inviting him also to recognise the sin that has been committed. For we hear Paul saying in his epistle to the Romans as follows: " Behold therefore the mildness and severity of God; on them which fell severity, but upon thee the mildness of God if thou continue in mildness."^ For by everything this is what we are taught, to look to Him who sought the sheep that was lost, and bore it on His shoulders and carried it up and counted it in the flock of those that are being- saved. Greatly did I rejoice in the Lord, as the wise Paul somewhere said,^ that the religious presbyter and archimandrite John, trained as he is to do all things with understanding and guided by the divine Spirit, ^ Eze, xxxiii. ii. 2 j^q ^i. 22. ^ Ph. iv. 10. 5. brought first to your sanctities the letter written by me to the saintly bishops Philoxenus, Thomas, and John, who were then living on the hill called that of Marde.^ For my part I say that your ears and your tranquil and thoughtful mind, which is built up with all devoutness, are like a furnace of fire, in that they have the capacity of distinguishing what is alloyed from what is sound. Wherefore also I have gladly accepted your action in keeping with you the letter written by me to them, and first giving me the benefit of your advice. If therefore it is in order to cause fear and trembling in those who have turned their eyes towards penitence that your sanctities are making the delay in the matter of the reception of the children who were baptized by heretics, I concur with your purpose: only unless perhaps the long delay cause those who have turned their eyes towards penitence to become inert, and despair of being received by you, and return to their first vomit as it is written, and wallow again in the same mire.^ Nevertheless the form of penitence that was once approved by the holy oecumenical synod that assembled at Ephesus in the case of those who have been baptized by men who hold the hateful profane doctrines of Nestorius ^ must be maintained in full force, and there must be no thought either of - second baptism or of chrism. Indeed those who did this when the impiety introduced as an innovation at Chalcedon first prevailed were repudiated both by the 1 V. 14. 22 Pe. ii. 22. ^ Cf. holy Timothy who fed the great Christ-loving city of the Alexandrines in saintly fashion and by all the orthodox bishops, as having walked outside the royal and lawful road. But, if we are now going to discuss the question in what way those who are baptized by men who divide the one Christ into two natures after the ineffable union ought to be received, those who observe our actions carefully will say to us, and very rightly, " Why did you repudiate such an inquiry at the time when the impious wicked Flavian was driven from the see of the city of the Antiochenes, and all the bishops who deposed him were assembled together? " They will also blame us for receiving those who were ordained by him in the orders which they then held on merely anathematizing and re- nouncing the heresy. No one is so devoid of the - sacred teachings of orthodoxy as not to call baptism given by any heresy imperfect and spurious: but those who know this look at the regulations of the holy fathers, and reflect that according to the character of the heresy treatment also must be applied, and the stain must be purged and expiated either by another baptism or by chrism, or by an anathema of the heresy, and the judgment of the orthodox priests and reception by them. The utterance of those who officiate with orthodox mind, whatever it may be, is accompanied also by the curative treatment and grace of the Spirit: since the word of the baptizer perfects baptism also and causes the Spirit to come down upon the water, on account of Him who graciously allowed 5. US who creep upon earth to share in this power. For He cleanses the washing- of water by His word, as Paul says in his epistle to the Ephesians/ So also the word of the anointer is mingled with the chrism, and applies curative treatment and brings the grace of - the Spirit into play. After the same fashion also an anathema of the heresy, when enjoined upon those who utter the condemnation by order of orthodox high-priests, and proffered by the mouth of those, as well as entrance into the holy of holies performed in accordance with the judgment of those who receive them brings healing to the sore, and causes the pure and sincere grace of the Spirit to flash invisibly upon those who have been accepted. With these things the sanction from above is also identified in the giving of the de- cision, according to the commandment plainly laid down in the Gospels of Him who said to Peter, " I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven,"^ and repeated the same again to all the disciples and said, " 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."^ For there is nothing lawfully said by the orthodox high-priests, and performed in accordance with the divine commandments and canons, that is not full of the Holy Spirit, as David also the spiritual singer said, ^ Eph. V. 26. 2 ]y[j xvi. 19. ^ Id. xviii. i8. " I Opened my mouth and breathed in spirit because I longed for thy commandments." ^ I beg your sanctities also to consult carefully the words written by me in Antiochus' city against those who dare to re-anoint contrary to the law/^ and to reflect what unhallowed objections we met on their part, and that we have not held different opinions at different times, but always have the same thoughts, endeavouring as we do all the days of our life to guide our short-sighted mind by the writings of our holy fathers and their lawful regulations. If you like, assign a certain time for converts from heresy to the orthodox faith, in order that they may expiate their sin by tears and weeping, being admitted, that is, to expiation through your holy prayers and entreaties, and the outstretching of your saintly hands. Wherefore like Jacob the divine patriarch show them the rod of orthodox teaching, which is white and shines with sound doctrines, and is cleared of every green and dead hue of heresy: ^ in order that these rational sheep, fired by your teachings, may cast from them all the murkiness and darkness of heresy, and in its stead put on the white and full light of the orthodox faith: and may clothe themselves in the many colours of virtues, and may cease to be counted among the heretics' unknown * sheep, and may mix with those that are known, making up the one flock of the one Shepherd and God and our Saviour Christ. 1 Ps. cxviii. 131. 2 V. 6. 3 Ge. XXX. 37 ff. 4 jviarg. "late ". 5. I for my part have written these things to you the ministers of Christ, and careful stewards of God's mysteries. But it will rest with your discriminations at the present time to take what steps you like in the existing circumstances. Only please communicate what we have written to our brothers and fellow-ministers who brought before us the question concern- ing this present matter, in order that it may not be thought that we did not deign to answer your sanctities: and, after you have examined all the circumstances conjointly, take the right course. As to the mad dog^s who have followed the witless Romanus and the stony Julian we have not a word to say, seeing that, while we walk according to the law in all respects, both in doctrines and in canonical actions, they are absurdly spreading these contrary opinions concerning us. For neither will we for our part by reason of rivalry with those filthy men abandon the middle of the royal road and walk upon the rocks on the other side. We must listen to Him who cries with a loud voice through Isaiah the prophet to those who keep His laws, " Hearken unto me, ye that know judgment, my people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, and be not overcome by their derision; for like a garment shall it be consumed by lapse of time, and like wool shall it be eaten by a moth; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation to generations." Is. li. 7, 8. This point also I have thoug"ht necessary to bring to the knowledge of your perfections in Christ our God: that the religious presbyter and archimandrite of the holy cloister of the blessed Bassus has sent two of his devout monks to the great Christ-loving city of Alexander, bearing a letter which states that they are in straits with regard to the sacred ministry, and in want of presbyters and deacons/ Wherefore also he begged me to write to your holinesses, or else to some other of the saintly bishops who share the same per- secution with us, in order that you may satisfy this their need by your saintly and lawful hand. And, - since it was then the winter season, the letter remained, as I have been informed, in the same great city of the Alexandrines, because it was no longer possible for voyagers to cross the sea. Therefore I beg your sanctities not to be remiss in supplying such a need. In all good things it beseems you to show courage as well as to give comfort, and to be first in every action that is on the right side. For I intend, if God pleases, to write about this through you also, in order that either you or others with your sanction may carry out the duty which thus presents itself and is urgent: that is upon the archimandrites presenting with their testimony those who ought to be duly advanced to the ministry of the sacraments, lest any take necessity as an excuse for being appointed deacons and priests with- out discrimination and casually, without having any 1 Cf. 1. 59. 5. virtue to qualify them for this, except that they desire the priesthood and diaconate. Therefore, now that you know these things, speaking with God's permission, I beg you, when the winter has passed, as soon as sailing begins, to write us a careful answer, saying what your opinion is on all the matters mentioned in the epistle, and to put our meanness in a safer position through your understanding in the Lord. For the safety of the learned and Christ-loving scholastic Maximin we offer prayers of thanksgiving as sacrifices at all times, as we also stated in the previous letter: and we moreover give him loving greeting through your sanctities. Against the last fatuous work of the wickedly impious Julian, which promulgates the same arguments upon the same subjects, I have not up to to-day begun to write, ^ although it is refuted beforehand by what has been already written by me before, so that everyone who meets with it will know its feebleness and the futility of the erroneous phantasy which he confessed. During the whole time of the summer, and that though I have been hiding in corners, I have never ceased being worried by constant letters from men who in various ways ask different questions at different times, and beg to have now scriptural expres- 1 The last work of Julian must be the Appetidices; and, as the answer of Severus to this is contained in the translation of Paul of Callinicus published in Apr. 528 (Assem. B. O. ii. 46), this letter cannot be placed later than 527. sions, now doctrinal theories ^ explained to them, - Also the loneliness of solitude, and the fact that I have not men at hand to serve as scribes when I want it in addition to the other things hinder me from writing. But I think that I shall be strengthened through your saintly prayers, and that I shall be sufficient for everything, if Christ our God grant me life and grace from above.