To Anatolius the Patrician, on the Accusers of Ibas

Your excellency will be repaid by the God of all for the kindness you have shown me, for everything done for his sake has its reward. I laugh at all my slanderers. The bodies of those who are most severely flogged do not feel the pain, because the flogged flesh has gone numb. Still, I grieve over those whose unbridled mouths speak such lies. How have the accusers of the godly bishop Ibas been wronged by me, that they should utter such slanders against me? To begin with, I was not even one of the judges, for in obedience to the imperial decree I was living at Cyrrhus. Moreover, as I have heard from many, they complained all along about my absence; for I had arranged for them to share in Holy Communion at the saving feast of Easter, and since they often said they wished to meet me, I received them kindly and advised them on the right course to take. But let me also speak in defense of the very godly bishop, the lord Domnus. What was the right course for him to take? He was openly attacked. He saw men who had been deposed by the sentence of a synod sent into another diocese and taking up their priestly functions again, in violation of the church’s laws. He saw holy and divine things laughed at and turned into ridicule by the enemies of the church. What was he to do? When he learned of this, he handed the case over to others: not only to the very godly lord Ibas, but also to the holy lord bishop Symeon of Amida, so that the metropolitans of the two provinces might hear the charges. What fairness is there in charging the same people with both cruelty and kindness? If we excommunicate, we run into danger; if we do not excommunicate, we do not escape it. We alone of all the world are the targets of attack. Other dioceses are at peace. We alone are exposed to slanderers, and I above all, though I took no part in the trial and bear no responsibility whatever in the matter. [a]

I have been forced to write in this way on reading your lordship’s letter, and on learning from it how great a commotion has been raised against me for these reasons: against me, a man confined to my own diocese, a man of peace, one who does not even meet to deliberate with the godly bishops of the province. In fact, although there have already been two ordinations of bishops in our province, I took part in neither. If I were not held back by the imperial decree, I would have gone away and spent the rest of my days in some remote place. I am faint from the plots hatched against me. I am sure those people of Edessa never put together their slander against me of their own accord. They were prompted to these attacks on me by their truly truthful neighbors. I thank our Savior that he has counted me worthy of the beatitudes of the gospel, unworthy as I am. For this reason I have gladly accepted the sentence confining me. I am ready for exile, and for the sake of “the hope laid up for me,” I welcome whatever fate they may inflict. I pray without ceasing for your excellency, and I beg all the saints to share in my petitions. [e]