With all patience I read your letter and wondered why, when you could briefly and easily justify yourself in a case, you intend to remain with what you are accused of, and try to heal the incurable by verbosity. We were not the first, and we were not the only ones, Parigorius, who decreed that women should not live together with men. But read the canon issued by our holy fathers at the Council of Nicaea, which clearly forbade the possession of synisacts. A celibate life is honorable because a man withdraws from cohabitation with a woman. Why, if a man, bearing a vow by name, in fact acts like those who live with women, then it is evident that he only in the name seeks the honor of virginity, but does not abstain from unseemly pleasures. It was all the more convenient for you to yield to my demand, since, as you say, you are free from all carnal passion. And I do not think that a seventy-year-old would live together with a woman out of passion, and what I have defined is determined not because something unseemly is being done, but because we have been taught by the Apostle "not to consider stumbling a stumbling block to a brother" (cf. Rom. 14:13). I know that what some people do is reasonable, but for others it is a reason for sin. For this reason, following the decree of the Holy Fathers, I commanded you to separate from this woman. Why then do you blame the chorbishop and mention the old enmity? Why do you complain about me, as if I willingly incline my ears to accept slander, and not about myself, who finds it difficult to lag behind the habit of a woman? Therefore, remove her from your home and place her in a monastery. Let her live with virgins, and men serve you, so that the name of God will not be blasphemed for your sake (cf. Rom. 2:24). And while you do this, the thousands of excuses that you make in your letters will not benefit you, but you will end your life idle and give an account to the Lord of your idleness. And if, without reforming, you dare to keep the priesthood with you, then you will be anathema to all the people, and whoever receives you will be pronounced excommunicated in the whole Church.

81 (85). On what should not be sworn

(St. Basil, who often in general meetings and in private conversations suggested that tax collectors should not force the villagers to take oaths, proposes the same in writing. (Written in 372)

And at every meeting I do not cease to testify, and say the same thing in private, so that when collecting public taxes, the collectors do not bring the villagers to oaths. It remains also to testify in a letter before God and men about the same thing, namely, that you must cease and not cause death to the souls of men, but to devise some other means of punishment, and to show this mercy to people, so that their souls may be unharmed. I am writing to you about this not because you have need of verbal exhortation (you have your own motives to fear the Lord), but so that all who are in your dependence may learn from you not to irritate the Holy One and not to bring Yourself to indifference to Him by a bad habit in a forbidden matter. For they are of no use for oaths and for the punishments themselves, but in their souls they give place to the evil recognized by all. As soon as people learn to break their oath, they are in no hurry to pay their due, but think that the oath was invented for them as an instrument of deception and as a pretext for postponing payment. And so, either a speedy recompense from the Lord will come upon the perjurers, and there will be no one to do what is required, because those who are subject to judgment have already been destroyed by punishment, or the Lord in His long-suffering delays punishment, and, as I have already said before, those who have tried the patience of the Lord despise the goodness of the Lord. Let them not break the laws in vain, and do not provoke God against themselves. I have said that I was obliged to say: the disobedient will see this.

102 (106). To the warrior

(During his journey, having become acquainted with this virtuous warrior, he asks him to succeed in the love of God. (Written in 372)

During my journey I have been vouchsafed much by the Lord, for which I must thank Him, but I consider it my greatest blessing to be the acquaintance with your piety, granted to me by the good Lord. For I recognized in you a man who proves by himself that even in military life it is possible to preserve the perfection of love for God, and that a Christian should be distinguished not by the cut of his dress, but by his spiritual disposition. Wherefore even then I willingly spent time with thee, and now, as soon as I think of thee, I enjoy the greatest gladness. Therefore, be of good courage and be strong, strive unceasingly to nourish and increase in yourselves the love of God, so that the abundance of the blessings given to you from Him may also increase. As for what thou rememberest of me, I have no need of any other proof, seeing the testimony of the works themselves.

111 (115). To Simplicia, the Heretic

(He admonishes this angry woman that generosity in violation of justice is of no avail; he advises her not to teach the bishop, but to remember the Judgment of God, at which the witnesses will not be slaves and eunuchs. (Written about 372 A.D.))

People unwisely hate the good and love the bad. Therefore, I myself restrain my tongue, suppressing resentment by silence about the insults inflicted on me. But I await the Heavenly Judge, Who knows how to avenge all wickedness in the end. Let some people pour money more generously than sand, but by trampling on justice, he harms the soul, because God, as I think, always demands sacrifice, not as having need of it, but accepting pious and righteous disposition for a sacrifice of great value. But when someone tramples on himself with negligence, then the Lord changes his prayers into unclean ones. Therefore, bring to mind the last day, and do not teach me, if you please. I know more than you do, and I am not choked by so many inner thorns, I do not mix ten times as many vices with a small number of good qualities. Thou hast stirred up lizards and toads against me, animals of spring, of course, but nevertheless unclean. But a bird will come from on high to devour it. I will give an answer, not as you think, but as God Himself judges. And if there is a need of witnesses, it will not be slaves, nor dishonorable and miserable eunuchs, but a race of neither husbands nor wives, men who are misogynistic, envious, servant for a vile price, irritable, pampered, enslaved to the belly, gold-loving, cruel, ready to weep for a tidbit, fickle, miserly, all-taking, insatiable, frenzied, and jealous, and what more can I say? People who have been condemned to distortion since birth. Therefore, how can those who have crooked legs be right? They are chaste, but without reward for this, because iron has made them chaste; they give themselves up to frenzy, but in vain, because of their own vileness. They will not be witnesses at the Judgment, but the eyes of the righteous and the eyes of perfect men will testify, who will then see also that which they now look at with one understanding.