The Accidental Heretic

In Letter 51, a letter from St. Basil the Great to Bishop Bosporius, we catch a quick glimpse into St. Basil’s beautiful pastoral heart. Bishop Bosporius thought Basil had anathemetized a fellow bishop named Dianius for listening to the Arians, and evidently had written Basil about it. Letter 51 is Basil’s reply.

Now, “anathemetized” is not a word we use all that often these days, obviously, but avoiding a deep historical analysis, which may be possible, but too much for our current read on this letter, it at least means that Bishop Dianius would not be considered a canonical bishop of the Church and that his beliefs would be “denounced”, of a sort, so that nobody would follow his example. These were days when the decisions hammered out at the First Ecumenical Council were still being practically decided in the everyday life of the Church, and Basil was not only on the front lines, but was practically surrounded by opposing bishops.

So, back to the letter concerning Bishop Dianius. Not only had Basil not anathemetized Dianius, but he felt a need to clarify what had happened and to reassure the bishop Bosporius, who seems to have had some connection to the elderly, and at this point, reposed Bishop Dianius. Here is what Basil said:

"Later, so willing was he in his fatherly heart, by reason of the mildness and reasonableness of his character, to reassure all men, when he had already fallen in to the sickness which caused his death, he summoned us and said, that with the Lord as his witness he had agreed to the pact from Constantinople (that is, the Arian council at Ariminium) in the simplicity of his heart, but that in no way had he been inclined to reject the faith as set forth by the holy fathers at Nicaea, nor was he at heart any different from what he had been in the beginning when he had accepted it.”

“In the simplicity of his heart.” What a phrase. How similar this Dianius must be to so many of us now. We look at all the bickering over a word or two so many centuries ago, and we scratch our heads in wonder at what it all could mean. Here was a man who, upon hearing what sounded like ok doctrine to him, went along with this host of bishops. That sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. He did not, in the least bit, conceive that agreeing to the one went perfectly against the decision of the Nicene Council.

Then, in Letter 52, not to Bp. Bosporius, but still referring to reports from him, our father Basil contrasts this man, Dianius, who signed on to false doctrine in innocence, with the intentional and proud assertions of those willfully refuse to follow the decisions of the Nicene Council. Yet, even in this reproach, he tempers his assertion with a possible back door out of heresy for those bishops who might feel trapped in a corner by being labeled heretical and enemies of the Church. In this way, Basil might just be calling it like it is, but also hinting at an honorable way out.

"For while their refusal to follow the Fathers, and to count their declaration less authoritative than their own opinion, calls for censure as teeming with arrogance, yet on the other hand, their regarding with suspicion a doctrine with which others have found fault does somehow seem to free them from a portion of the blame."

These two letters, taken together, not only show that St. Basil was far from an impulsive reactionary to the Arian influences within his diocese, but rather that he was approaching his fellow bishops and the laity in a way to, if possible, pastorally guide his own flock and those of the bishops around him into the light of sound doctrine.