St Basil the Great LETTERS, Second Part

Translated by Bl. Jackson.

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Page 77

Letter CLXXXVIII. [2611]

(Canonica Prima.)

To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons. [2612]

"Even a fool," it is said, "when he asks questions," is counted wise. [2613] But when a wise man asks questions, he makes even a fool wise. And this, thank God, is my case, as often as I receive a letter from your industrious self. For we become more learned and wiser than we were before, merely by asking questions, because we are taught many things which we did not know; and our anxiety to answer them acts as a teacher to us. Assuredly at the present time, though I have never before paid attention to the points you raise, I have been forced to make accurate enquiry, and to turn over in my mind both whatever I have heard from the elders, and all that I have been taught in conformity with their lessons.

I. As to your enquiry about the Cathari, [2614] a statement has already been made, and you have properly reminded me that it is right to follow the custom obtaining in each region, because those, who at the time gave decision on these points, held different opinions concerning their baptism. But the baptism of the Pepuzeni [2615] seems to me to have no authority; and I am astonished how this can have escaped Dionysius, [2616] acquainted as he was with the canons. The old authorities decided to accept that baptism which in nowise errs from the faith. Thus they used the names of heresies, of schisms, and of unlawful congregations. [2617] By heresies they meant men who were altogether broken off and alienated in matters relating to the actual faith; by schisms [2618] men who had separated for some ecclesiastical reasons and questions capable of mutual solution; by unlawful congregations gatherings held by disorderly presbyters or bishops or by uninstructed laymen. As, for instance, if a man be convicted of crime, and prohibited from discharging ministerial functions, and then refuses to submit to the canons, but arrogates to himself episcopal and ministerial rights, and persons leave the Catholic Church and join him, this is unlawful assembly. To disagree with members of the Church about repentance, is schism. Instances of heresy are those of the Manichaeans, of the Valentinians, of the Marcionites, and of these Pepuzenes; for with them there comes in at once their disagreement concerning the actual faith in God. So it seemed good to the ancient authorities to reject the baptism of heretics altogether, but to admit that of schismatics, [2619] on the ground that they still belonged to the Church.

[2611] Placed in 347.

[2612] In this letter Basil replies to several questions of Amphilochius concerning the Canons, and also concerning the interpretation of some passages of Holy Scripture. Maran dates it at the end of 374.

[2613] Prov. xvii. 28, lxx.

[2614] i.e.the followers of Novatian. cf. Eusebius vi. 43. cf. De. Sp. Scto. ch. x. p. 17 and note.

[2615] Or Pepuziani, another name for the Montanists. "Epiphanius may safely be disregarded, who, treating of the Montanists, in the 48th section of his work on heresies, treats of the Pepuziani, in the 49th, as a kindred, but distinct, sect." Dr. Salmon in D.C.B. iv. 303. The name is derived from Pepuza in Western Phrygia, the Montanist, or Cataphrygian, "Jerusalem." (Eus. H.E. v. 18.)

[2616] i.e. of Alexandria. Jerome (Vir. illust. lxix.) says that he agreed with Cyprian and the African Synod on the rebaptizing of heretics. The Ben. note says: "Videtur hac in re major auctoritas Basilio attribuenda quam Hieronymo. Plus operae insumpserat Basilius in ea re examinanda."

[2617] parasunagoge.

[2618] Archbp. Trench (N.T. Syn. 330) quotes Augustine (Con. Crescon. Don. ii. 7): "Schisma est recens congregationis ex aliqua sententiarum diversitate dissensio; haeresis autem schisma inveteratum;" and Jerome (Ep. ad Tit. iii. 10): "Inter haeresim et schisma hoc esse arbitrantur, quod haeresis perversum dogma habeat; schisma propter episcopalem dissensionem ab ecclesia separetur; quod quidem in principio aliqua ex parte intelligi queat. Caeterum nullum schisma non sibi aliquam confingit haeresim, ut recte ab ecclesia recessisse videatur." To these may be added Aug. (Quaest. in Matt. xi. 2): "Solet autem etiam quaeri schismatici quid ab haereticis distent, et hoc inveniri quod schismaticos non fides diversa faciat sed communionis disrupta societas. Sed utrum inter zizania numerandi sint dubitari potest, magis autem videntur spicis corruptis esse similiores, vel paleis aristarum fractis, vel scissis et de segete abruptis."

[2619] ton aposchisanton, hos eti ek tes ekklesias onton. The Ben. note is "Quod autem addit Basilius, ut adhuc ex Ecclesia exsistentium, non idcirco addit quod schismaticos in Ecclesiae membris numeraret. Illius verba si quis in deteriorem partem rapiat, facilis et expedita responsio, Nam sub finem hujus, canonis de Encratitis ipsis, id est, de haereticis incarnationem et Dei singularitatem negantibus, ait sibi non jam integrum esse eos qui huic sectae conjuncti sunt ab Ecclesia separare, quia duos eorum episcopos sine baptismo ac sine nova ordinatione receperat. Nemo autem suspicabitur Basilium ejusmodi haereticos ab Ecclesia alienissimos non judicasse. Quare quidquid schismaticis tribuit, in sola baptismi societate positum est. Nam cum Cyprianus et Firmilianus schismaticos et haereticos ita ab Ecclesia distractos crederent, ut nihil prosus ad eos ex fontibus Ecclesiae perflueret; Basilius huic sententiae non assentitur, et in schismaticis quia fidem Ecclesiae retinent, vestigium quoddam agnoscit necessitudinis et societatis cum Ecclesia, ita ut valida sacramentorum administratio ab Ecclesia ad illos permanare possit. Hinc sibi integrum negat detestandos haereticos ab Ecclesia separare, quorum baptisma ratum habuerat. Idem docent duo praestantissimi unitatis defensores. Optatus et Augustinus. Quod enim scissum est, inquit Optatus lib. iii. n. 9, ex parte divisum est, non ex toto: cum constet merito, quia nobis et vobis ecclesiastica una est conversatio, et si hominum litigant mentes, non litigant sacramenta. Vid. lib. iv. n. 2. Sic etiam Augustinus lib. i. De baptismo n. 3: Itaque isti (haeretici et schismatici) in quibusdam rebus nobiscum sunt: in quibus autem nobiscum non sunt, ut veniendo accipiant, vel redeundo recipiant, adhortamur. Vid. lib. iii. n. 26. Sic ex Basilio haeretici nobiscum sunt quoad baptisma."

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