Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Theodoret/Letters/Letter 48

by Philip Schaff et al.

XLVIII. To Eustathius, Bishop of Berytus.^[1]

I have gladly received the accusation, although I have no difficulty in disproving the indictment. I have written not three letters only but four; and I suspect one of two things; either those who promised to convey the letters did me wrong in the matter of their delivery, or else your piety, though in receipt of them, is yet anxious for more, and so gets up a charge of idleness against me. I, as I said before, am not distressed at the accusation, for it is plain proof to me of the warmth of your affection. Continue then to ply your craft, cease not to prefer your complaint and so to cause pleasure to myself.

Footnotes

1. Eustathius of Berytus (Beyrout) was a bad specimen of the time-serving ecclesiastic. Fierce in his attacks on Ibas, and a prominent member of the Latrocinium in 449, he narrowly escaped deposition himself at Chalcedon in 451.