707and even greater rewards will be rendered by a benign God. And indeed, I would wish that it might be granted to us to enjoy your presence also. But since A the bonds of exile have taken this from us, and have shut us up in one place, we have sent my most reverend and most pious lord the presbyter, and through him we offer the greeting which we owe to you: and we signify to you that we thank you most abundantly and greatly without any intermission; and we ask you to grant us pardon for the long silence which we have observed heretofore. For we have not been silent for so long out of contempt for you or negligence, but because we have only now found a man who could proceed to where you are now residing, and could carry our letters, we finally write to you and explain how we fare. After you have therefore received him with sincere affection of heart, I would wish you to make us more certain as to your health. For indeed, even being settled in this solitude, we shall derive the greatest consolation from letters of such a kind.
CLXIV. To Alexander, Bishop of Corinth.
You know what charity I have displayed towards you, and how, even though I have had little association with you, I am still gripped by love for you as if by certain bonds. And for that reason, it has seemed passing strange to me that you have endured not to write to me even once in such a long time. And you, indeed, I well know, will plead a lack of couriers, nor is this out of place. For although many come from there, yet no one of them can easily gain access here, to where we are now dwelling. But, since I have not received a letter from you even once, I am not at all satisfied with this excuse. B For neither did I myself, when I could have fled to this same excuse, remain silent; but instead, I roused my most reverend and most pious lord the presbyter and sent him to you so that he might meet with you, and deliver this greeting of ours, and learn the state of your health, of which I am extremely eager to know something. After you have therefore looked upon him with a friendly spirit and with the humanity that is fitting, as if he were my own member, when he shall return to me, I beseech you not to begrudge making me certain as to your health. For indeed your letters will bring me the greatest consolation, even as I am established in solitude.CLXV. To the Bishops who had come with the Western Bishops.
We have admired your former promptness of spirit, and the zeal which you have displayed for the benefit of the Churches. But after you have added such a long pilgrimage besides, and having cast aside all hesitation, with a brave spirit, as it became you, you undertook such a long journey, we do not admire you in any common way for this also: nor do we cease to thank you, both now through letters and without letters. Nor indeed alone, but all those in the East are gripped with admiration, and are heralds of your firmness and constancy, and of your fervent charity and unmoved resolution. And they do not count the length of the journey nor the hardship of the pilgrimage burdensome and troublesome in any way, so as to run to you and behold your many renowned deeds. And therefore my most reverend and most pious lord the presbyter, even if he is otherwise endowed C with a body that is not very strong, thought there was nothing he ought not undergo in order to betake himself to you and enjoy your presence and meeting. After you have therefore received him, as your charity requires, we request this of you: that even if evils should grow worse, you do not begrudge bringing them a remedy, but that you attain an end equal to the beginnings. For you know what reward the benign God is about to bring you if you labor for so many perturbed Churches, and omit nothing by which you might guide them into a tranquil harbor.CLXVI. To the Bishops who came with the Western Bishops.
Great and renowned are those things which you did first, namely, that you conceived a just indignation, consonant with your virtue, on account of those evils that have occupied so many Churches, and that you grieved for their sake: and you did not stop here, but also performed those things which the rationale of your office demanded. But that which is by far the greatest and most renowned is what has now been done by you, namely, that each of you, having left your domestic homes, undertook so long a pilgrimage and lingers in a foreign region, and suffers the labors of a long pilgrimage for the benefit of the Churches. And because of this we do not cease to thank you, and to admire and call you blessed for so many and such great rewards which God, out of His kindness, is storing up for you on this account. And since, due to the exile by which we are now restrained, we can neither associate with you, nor likewise write to you assiduously, because we do not easily find those to whom we may give letters (for otherwise we would have overwhelmed you with the frequency of our letters): on that account we have beseeched my most reverend and most religious lord the presbyter—who himself also was desiring of his own will to set out and see you—to obtain letters from you to us, and to enjoy your charity in person. After you have therefore received him, as it becomes you and your dignity, I beseech you, do not begrudge making us more certain as to your health when it is permitted. For it is our utmost desire to know this: nor are we about to receive from hence a small consolation in this solitude in which we are dwelling.CLXVII. To the same.
We give you most ample thanks for such firmness of spirit, and for the zeal and care, and the labors and sweats, and finally for this long pilgrimage which you have undertaken for the sake of the benefit of the Churches. For indeed D