To Bishop Basil, on Their Common Friend

The divine Paul says that the highest good is love, and he ordered those raised in the faith to be fed on love. Your piety possesses great wealth of this love, and so you have told me what was fitting and given me welcome news. For to those who fear the Lord, what can be more welcome than the health and harmony of the doctrines of the truth? Be assured, most godly sir, that we were greatly delighted to hear the news about our common friend. We had been distressed before to hear that he described the nature of the flesh and of the Godhead as one, and openly attributed the saving suffering to the Godhead, which cannot suffer. In equal measure we all rejoiced to read the letters of your holiness and to learn that he keeps the properties of the natures whole. He denies both that God the Word was changed into flesh and that the flesh was changed into the nature of the Godhead. On the contrary, he holds that in the one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word made man, the properties of each nature remain unmixed. We praise the God of all for this harmony in the divine faith. [a]

However, we have written to both provinces of Cilicia, although our information is incomplete as to whether there really are any opponents of the truth there. We have charged the godly bishops to search and examine whether there are any who divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons, and either to bring them to their senses by warning them, or to cut them off from the roll of the brothers. For in fact we reject equally both those who dare to assert one nature of flesh and Godhead, and those who divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons and try to go beyond the definitions of the Apostles. But let your holiness be assured that we are inclined to peace. For if the prophet says, “With those who hate peace I was peaceful,” how much more readily do we welcome the peace of God. [d] Some of those men who have been fed on lies have hurried to Alexandria and stitched together slanders against me. As a result the godly bishop of that city, led astray by what they said, although he had been fully informed by my letters, has sent a pious bishop to the imperial city. So I beg you to show your usual kindness to him, and to meet falsehood with the truth. [e]