All for the Arian Cause

Gregory, then, is an Arian, and he has been sent to the Arian party, for no one asked for him but they alone. And so, as a hired hand and a stranger, he uses the governor to inflict these dreadful and cruel deeds on the people of the catholic churches, since they are not his own. Pistus, whom Eusebius and his party had earlier appointed over the Arians, was rightly anathematized and excommunicated for his impiety by you, the bishops of the catholic church, as you all know, after we wrote to you about him. So now they have sent this Gregory to them in the same way. And so as not to be put to shame a second time by our writing against them again, they have used outside force against me, so that, having taken possession of the churches, they may seem to have escaped all suspicion of being Arians. But in this too they are mistaken. For none of the church’s people are with them, except the heretics only, and those excommunicated on various charges, and those whom the governor has forced to pretend. This, then, is the drama of Eusebius and his party, which they have long been rehearsing and composing, and which they have now managed to perform through the false charges they made against me before the emperor. [a]

Even so, they are not yet content to keep quiet; even now they seek to kill me. And they make themselves so fearsome to our friends that all of them are driven into exile and expect death at their hands. But you must not stand in awe of their wickedness on this account. On the contrary, avenge it, and show your indignation at this unheard-of conduct of theirs against us. For if, when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and, as the blessed apostle says, we ought to weep with those who weep, then, now that so great a church as this is suffering, let everyone avenge its wrongs as though he were suffering himself. For we have a common Savior, whom they blaspheme, and canons that belong to us all, which they are breaking. Suppose that while one of you was sitting in your church, with the people assembled with you and no blame against you, someone suddenly came on the pretext of an edict as your successor and did the same things to you. Would you not be indignant? Would you not demand justice? If so, then it is right for you to be indignant now, so that, if these things are passed over unnoticed, the same harm does not spread little by little to every church, and our schools of religion become a marketplace and an exchange.