2. I have been specially struck with
admiration at your having been distressed even by the dispute of the
monks on the Mount of Olives, and at your expressing a wish that some
means might be found of reconciling them to one another. I have
further been glad to hear that you have not been unaware of the
unfortunate steps, taken by certain persons, which have caused
disturbance among the brethren, and that you have keenly interested
yourself even in these matters. But I have deemed it hardly
worthy of your wisdom that you should entrust the rectification of
matters of such importance to me: for I am not guided by the
grace of God, because of my living in sin; I have no power of
eloquence, because I have cheerfully withdrawn from vain studies; and I
am not yet sufficiently versed in the doctrines of the truth. I
have therefore already written to my beloved brethren at the Mount of
Olives, our own Palladius, This Palladius
may possibly be identified with the Palladius of Cæsarea of
Athanasius, Ep. ad Pall. Migne, Pat.
xxvi. 1167, and in the Ath. of this series, p. 580. and Innocent the
Italian, in answer to their letters to me, that it is impossible for me
to make even the slightest addition to the Nicene Creed, except the
ascription of Glory to the Holy Ghost, because our Fathers treated this
point cursorily, no question having at that time arisen concerning the
Spirit. As to the additions it is proposed to make to that Creed,
concerning the incarnation of our Lord, I have neither tested nor
accepted them, as being beyond my comprehension. The Ben. note
remarks “Cum nonnulli formulæ Nicenæ aliquid de
Incarnatione adderent ad comprimendos Apollinaristas, id Basilius
nec examinaverat,” etc. I rather understand the
present προσυφαίνομενα
to refer to the proposals of Innocent to Palladius. I know well that, if once we begin
to interfere with the simplicity of the Creed, we shall embark on
interminable discussion, contradiction ever leading us on and on,
and shall but disturb the souls of simpler folk by the introduction
of new phrases. Yet Basil will
admit an addition which he holds warranted, in the case of the
glorification of the Spirit, and would doubtless have acquiesced in
the necessity of the additions finally victorious in 451.