Gregory Forced on the Church

These, then, are the outrages committed against us and against the church. We were holding our assemblies in peace, as usual. The people were rejoicing in them and growing in a godly way of life, and our fellow ministers in Egypt, the Thebaid and Libya were in love and peace with one another and with us. Then, suddenly, the prefect of Egypt issued a public letter in the form of an edict, declaring that one Gregory from Cappadocia was coming from the court to be my successor. This announcement threw everyone into confusion, for such a proceeding was entirely new and heard of now for the first time. The people, however, gathered in the churches all the more constantly. They knew very well that neither they themselves, nor any bishop or presbyter, nor in short anyone at all, had ever made a complaint against me. They saw that only the Arians were on his side, and they knew too that he was himself an Arian, sent by Eusebius and his party to the Arian faction. For you know, brothers, that Eusebius and his party have always been the supporters and companions of the impious heresy of the Arian madmen. Through these men they have always carried on their plots against me, and they were the authors of my banishment into Gaul. [a]

So the people were rightly indignant and cried out against what was being done. They called the other magistrates and the whole city to witness that this new and wicked attempt was being made against the church, not on the ground of any charge brought against me by church people, but through the wanton attack of the Arian heretics. For even if a general complaint against me had prevailed, it was not an Arian, or one who professed Arian teaching, who ought to have been chosen to replace me. Instead, according to the church’s canons and Paul’s direction, when the people were “gathered together,” and the “spirit” of those who ordain, “with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,” everything ought to have been examined and carried out according to the canons, in the presence of those among the lay people and clergy who were asking for the change. It ought not to be that a man brought from far away by Arians, as though trading in the title of bishop, should, with the patronage and strong arm of pagan magistrates, force himself on people who neither asked for him nor wanted him, and who did not even know anything of what had been done. Such proceedings tend to dissolve all the canons of the church. They force the pagans to blaspheme, and to suspect that our appointments are not made by a divine rule but as the result of trade and patronage. [e]