To Meletius, Bishop of Antioch. This letter,
the first of six to Meletius of Antioch, is supposed to be assigned
to this date, because of Basil’s statement that the state of
the Church of Cæsarea was still full of pain to him.
Basil had not yet overcome the opposition of his suffragans, or won
the position secured to him after his famous intercourse with Valens
in 372. Meletius had now been for seven years exiled from
Antioch, and was suffering for the sake of orthodoxy, while not in
full communion with the Catholics, because of the unhappy Eustathian
schism.