Saint Basil: The Letters, Volume I

The Letters, Volume I

1926·434 pages PDF (18.5MB) Source

Bilingual Greek/English edition of the letters of Saint Basil of Caesarea (c. 329–379), Volume I (Letters I–LVIII), translated by Roy J. Deferrari of the Catholic University of America for the Loeb Classical Library. Published by William Heinemann, London, and G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1926. The volume opens with a substantial introduction by Deferrari surveying Basil's life, theological controversies, and epistolary corpus, followed by the Greek text and facing English translation of the first fifty-eight letters.

Author

Basil of Caesarea

Basilius Caesariensis

329–379

Readings

Letter LIII: To the Chorepiscopoi

Epistola LIII: Χωρεπισκόποις

Letter 53 of Basil of Caesarea, addressed to the chorepiscopoi (country bishops under his jurisdiction), addresses two concerns. The first section defends the full equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and Son against any attempt to subordinate, elevate, or otherwise displace the Spirit from its proper rank within the Trinity. The second — and for this project, central — section denounces the taking of money from candidates for ordination, even when disguised under the name of piety. Basil identifies the practice as worse than ordinary simony because it corrupts the good as an instrument of sin, condemns it with Peter's curse upon Simon Magus, and declares covetousness to be the root of all evils and equivalent to idolatry. He threatens any minister who continues the practice with expulsion from the altars of the diocese.

Basil of Caesarea·370·Letter LIII·p. 336–341