Iberian Fathers, Volume 3

Letter 2

1. Mt 5.44. 2. Cf. Cicero, De officiis 1.13.41. LETTER 2 acian the bishop to sympronian, his brother, greeting. 1. On this far-ranging question I will, as far as I am able, seek brevity. Nor will I, my brother, reply to you with any repayment of malice, although under the guise of fair questioning you cast and directed [at me] in your speech hidden arrows, which you yourself cunningly devised. We are bid “to pray for those who persecute” [us] and “to bless those who curse” [us].1 For deceit belongs, so to speak, to the fox and violence to the lion. Either one is most hostile to man, but deceit is deservedly the more odious.2 For although you believe that you are very well-informed, you question as if you are ignorant; when you think that you are teaching, you pretend to be taught. The Pharisees of times past used to call our Lord “rabbi” when they would set before him as obstacles ambiguous questions of the Law. They designated him as “master” when in fact they claimed all mastery for themselves. (2) But do what you please, my brother. In return, you will hear everything from me without guile. I would rather be thought ignorant than malicious. I would rather be judged foolish than crafty. Therefore, before I explain the guiding principles of our faith, about which you are agitated, accept these few words concerning your letter, with which you prefaced your treatise. 2. You say that you were refreshed by my previous letter, and you immediately add that my answer was written with bitterness. If bitter things refresh, then I do not know what the effect of sweet things would be, unless it is that, as with potions of medicine, 27 28 PACIAN OF BARCELONA 3. Cf. Ep. 1.4. 4. Cf. De baptismo 6. 5. Judg 13.18. what is bitter is apt to cure more readily than what is sweet. But I ask you, look at my letter again and see whether it is at all stained with venom, and what was disdainful, what was harsh in my answer . You say that I named many heresies, about which no one inquired . Come now, what did this matter to you unless you were a heretic? When you raised a question concerning our faith and said that you wished to be instructed, I wrote that the causes of ignorance were many, so that you might show which one had the greatest influence upon you, lest I become perturbed over many other issues I might unravel. (2) Concerning the name “Catholic” I answered fully and in a conciliatory manner. For I said that it mattered to neither one of us what the other was called. But if you demanded to know the meaning of the name, whatever it might be, it is “wonderful ”—whether it means “one in all” or “one above all”3 or, an interpretation I have not mentioned previously, “the king’s child”—that is, the Christian people.4 Certainly this name, which has endured for so many centuries, was not bestowed upon us by ourselves, but by God. And truly I rejoice that, although you may have preferred other names, you agree that the name belongs to us. And what if you were to deny this? Then nature would cry out. Or if you still have doubts, let us say nothing about it. We will both be that which we are called, under the witness of the antiquity of the name. If, however, quite stubbornly you continue to ask, take care lest that “man of might” may exclaim to you, “Why do you ask my name? The name itself is wonderful .”5 I then sensibly added that we ought not to consider whence Catholics acquired this name, because neither was it traditionally considered to represent a charge against the Valentinians if they were named after Valentinus, nor against the Phrygians, if from Phrygia, nor against the Novatians, if after Novatian. 3. At this you are gravely upset, and rouse yourself as if pierced by a weapon’s barb. For in your anger you exclaim, “Is it prejudicial to that holy man Cyprian that his people bear the name of 6. Apostaticum. This is a reference to the lapsi (“the fallen”), who had in varying degrees denied their Christian faith in the Decian persecution of 250...