1. As time moves
on, it continually confirms the opinion which I have long held of your
holiness; or rather that opinion is strengthened by the daily course of
events. Most men are indeed satisfied with observing, each one,
what lies especially within his own province; not thus is it with you,
but your anxiety for all the Churches is no less than that which you
feel for the Church that has been especially entrusted to you by our
common Lord; inasmuch as you leave no interval in speaking, exhorting,
writing, and despatching emissaries, who from time to time give the
best advice in each emergency as it arises. Now, from the sacred
ranks of your clergy, you have sent forth the venerable brother Peter,
whom I have welcomed with great joy. I have also approved of the
good object of his journey, which he manifests in accordance with the
commands of your excellency, in effecting reconciliation where he finds
opposition, and bringing about union instead of division. With
the object of offering some contribution to the action which is being
taken in this matter, I have thought that I could not make a more
fitting beginning than by having recourse to your excellency, as to the
head and chief of all, and treating you as alike adviser and commander
in the enterprise. I have therefore determined to send to your
reverence our brother Dorotheus the deacon, of the Church under the
right honourable bishop Meletius, being one who at once is an energetic
supporter of the orthodox faith, and is earnestly desirous of seeing
the peace of the Churches. The results, I hope, will be, that,
following your suggestions (which you are able to make with the less
likelihood of failure, both from your age and your experience in
affairs, and because you have a greater measure than all others of the
aid of the Spirit), he may thus attempt the achievement of our
objects. You will welcome him, I am sure, and will look upon him
with friendly eyes. You will strengthen him by the help of your
prayers; you will give him a letter as provision by the way; you will
grant him, as companions, some of the good men and true that you have
about you; so you will speed him on the road to what is before
him. It has seemed to me to be desirable to send a letter to the
bishop of Rome, begging him to examine our condition, and since there
are difficulties in the way of representatives being sent from the West
by a general synodical decree, to advise him to exercise his own
personal authority in the matter by choosing suitable persons to
sustain the labours of a journey,—suitable, too, by gentleness
and firmness of character, to correct the unruly among us here; able to
speak with proper reserve and appropriateness, and thoroughly well
acquainted with all that has been effected after Ariminum to undo the
violent measures adopted there. I should advise that, without any
one knowing anything about it, they should travel hither, attracting as
little attention as possible, by the sea, with the object of escaping
the notice of the enemies of peace.