3. The cause of the rupture was the
allegation that I wrote to Apollinarius and was in communion with the
presbyter Diodorus. I never regarded Apollinarius as an enemy,
and for some reasons I even respect him. But I never so far
united myself to him as to take upon me the charges against him; indeed
I have myself some accusations to bring against him after reading some
of his books. I do not know that I ever asked him for a book on
the Holy Spirit, or received it on his sending: I am told that he
has become a most copious writer, but I have read very few of his
works. Fragments of
Apollinarius are extant in the works of Theodoret and Gregory of
Nyssa, and in Mai’s Script. Vet. Nov. col. vii., and
Spicil. Rom.x. 2. cf. Thomasius,
Christ. Dogm. 451. cf. Ep.
cclxiii. p. 302. I have
not even time to investigate such matters. Indeed I shrink
from admitting any of the more recent works, for my health does
not even allow of my reading the inspired Scriptures with
diligence and as I ought. What, then, is it to me, if some
one has written something displeasing to somebody else? Yet
if one man is to render an account on behalf of another, let him
who accuses me for Apollinarius’ sake defend himself to me
for the sake of Arius his own master and of Aetius his own
disciple. I never learnt anything from, nor taught anything
to this man whose guilt is laid at my door. Diodorus, as a
nursling of the blessed Silvanus, I did receive from the
beginning: I love him now and respect him on account of his
grace of speech, whereby many who meet him are made the better
men. Diodorus
now presbyter of Antioch, did not become bishop of Tarsus till about
the time of Basil’s death. On his services to the Church
at Antioch, cf. Theod., H.E. ii. 19. and Soc.,
H.E.vi. 8. The controversy as to his alleged
Nestorianism belongs to a later date. On the relations between
Diodorus and Apollinarius, cf. Dorner, Christ. i. pp.
976 and 1022.