Why He Waited for the Emperor’s Command

Now why did they form this plot against me, and lay a treacherous ambush to seize me, when they could have enforced the order by a written declaration? An emperor’s command usually gives great boldness to those entrusted with it; but their wish to act in secret only strengthened the suspicion that they had received no command. And did I ask for anything so absurd? Let your Majesty’s fairness decide. Will not everyone say that such a demand was a reasonable one for a bishop to make? [a]

You know, for you have read the Scriptures, how serious an offense it is for a bishop to desert his church and neglect the flocks of God. For when the shepherd is away, the wolves have their chance to attack the sheep. And this is what the Arians and all the other heretics wanted: that while I was away they might find an opportunity to trap the people into ungodliness. If I had fled, then, what defense could I have made before the true bishops? Or rather, before him who has entrusted his flock to me? He is the one who judges the whole earth, the true King of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Would not everyone have rightly charged me with neglecting my people? Would not your Piety have blamed me, and justly asked, “After you had returned under the authority of our letters, why did you withdraw without such authority and desert your people?” Would not the people themselves, on the day of judgment, have reasonably charged me with this neglect and said, “The one who had oversight of us fled, and we were neglected, with no one to remind us of our duty”? If they had said this, what could I have answered?

Ezekiel made such a complaint against the shepherds of old. And the blessed apostle Paul, knowing this, has charged every one of us through his disciple, saying, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.” Because I feared this, I did not want to flee, but to receive your commands, if this really was the will of your Piety. But I never obtained what I so reasonably asked for, and now I am falsely accused before you. For I resisted no commands of your Piety; nor will I now try to return to Alexandria until your Grace wishes it. I say this in advance, so that the slanderers may not make it a pretext for accusing me again.