Letter 102: There is nothing surprising in strangers who do not know me listening in silence to the slanders against me.

To Bishop Basilius, There is nothing surprising in strangers who do not know me listening in silence to the slanders against me. But that your holiness -- who does know me -- should fail to refute my accusers' lies, or at best do so halfheartedly, is beyond what anyone who knows your character would believe. I say this not because friendship ought to take precedence over truth, but because the witness of truth is on friendship's side. Your reverence has heard me preach in church many times. In other gatherings where I have spoken on doctrine, you have listened to what I said. I am not aware of any occasion when you found fault with my orthodoxy. So what is happening now? Why in the world, my dear friend, do you not speak a single word against falsehood, while you allow a friend to be slandered and the truth to be assaulted? If your silence is because you look down on the helpless and insignificant, remember the Lord's plain command: "Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones who believe in me, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father" [Matthew 18:10]. But if it is the influence of my accusers that has silenced you, then listen to this other law: "You shall not honor the person of the mighty" [Leviticus 19:15], and "Judge righteous judgment," and "You shall not follow a multitude to do evil" [Exodus 23:2]. You could find countless similar passages in Scripture. I thought it unnecessary to pile them up when writing to a man raised on the divine word.

Letter 102