SYNESIUS

SYNESIUS

775

possibility of my accepting it. That a mere manshould receive almost divine honours is indeedmost pleasing, if he is worthy of them, but if heis far from being so, his acceptance of them givesbut a poor hope for the future. This is no newfear, but one I have long felt, the fear lest Ishould gain honour among men by sinning againstGod. From my knowledge of myself I feel I amin every respect unworthy of the solemnity ofthe episcopal office.™ ... I now divide my timebetween amusements and study. When 1 amengaged in study, especially religious studies, 1keep entirely to myself, in my amusements I amthoroughly sociable. But the bishop must begodly, and therefore like God have nothing todo with amusements, and a thousaud eyes watchto see that he observes this duty. In religiousmatters, on the other hand, he cannot secludehimself, but must be thoroughly sociable, as heis both a teacher and preacher of the law. Single-handed, he has to do the work of everybody, orbear the hljmtn of everybody. Surely then itneeds a man of the strongest character to supportsuch a burden of cares without illowing themind to be overwhelmed, or the divine particlein the soul to be quenched, when he is distractedby such an infinite variety of employments.”Again, there was the difficulty of his marriage.“ God and the law, and the sacred hand of Theo-philus, gave me my wife. I therefore declareopenly to all and testify that I will not separateentirely from her, or visit her secretly like anadulterer. The one course would be contrary topiety, the other to law. I shall wish and prayto have a large number of virtuous children.”Still more important in his opinion was thequestion of religious belief. “ You know thatphilosophy is opposed to the opinions of thevulgar. I certainly shall not admit that thesoul is posterior in existence to the body. Icannot assert that the world and all its partswill perish together. The resurrection which isso much talked about I consider something sacredand ineffable, and I am far from sharing theideas of the multitude on the subject.” Hewould indeed be content to keep silence in publicon these abstruser points of theology, neitherpretending to believe as the multitude, norseeking to convince them of their errors, “forwhat has the multitude to do with philosophy ?the truth of divine mysteries is not a thing to betalked about. But if I am called to the episco-pacy I do not think it right to pretend to holdopinions which I do not hold. I call God andman as witnesses to this. Truth is the propertyof God,” before whom I wish to be entirely blame-less. ihough I am fond of amusements —for from my childhood I have been accused ofbeing mad after arms aud horses—still I willconsent to give them up—though I shall regretto see my darling dogs no longer allowed to hunt,

m iepcu's and the kindred terms are applied by Synesiusafter he became a Christian only to bishops; the terrupresbyter is always used of the second order of theChristian ministry. Before his conversion he uses iepevsapparently of heathen priests, and on one occasion cer-tainly of Christian presbyters. There are, however, oneor two instances in which lepeus may be intended toinclude presbyters as well as bishops.

In another place he says, “ To be almost or alto-ge er tiutliful, is to be almost or altogether divine.”And again, “ Truth is the nobility oi language.”

and my bows moth-eaten! Still I will submitto this if it is God’s will. And though I hatoall cares and troubles I will endure these pettymatters of business, as rendering my appointedservice to God, grievous as it will be. But Iwill have no deceit about dogmas, nor shall therebe variance between my thoughts and my

tongue.It shall never be said of me that I

got myself consecrated without my opinionsbeing known. But let Father Theophilus,dearly beloved by God, decide for me with fullknowledge of the circumstances of the case, andlet him tell me his opinion clearly. Then hewill either leave me in private life to philosophisequietly by myself, or else he will have no openingleft for afterwards judging me, and removing mefrom the episcopal body.”

For seven months at least the matter remainedundecided. Synesius went to Alexandria to con-sult Theophilus, and popular feeling ran so highthroughout the country that he felt if he de-clined the bishopric he could never return tohis native land. The people also sent two envoysto Theophilus urging him to use all his influenceto overcome Synesius’s scruples. This Theophiluswas sure to do, for, apart from the regard he maywell have had for Synesius, it must have been awelcome triumph for him over his opponents atAlexandria that the most distinguished pupil ofthe Alexandrine school should be consecrated byhim a Christian bishop, a visible sign to thepeople that even the uoblest form of paganismwas found insufficient by its noblest disciples.The religious difficulties w’ere just those whichmight be expected in a pupil of the Alexandrineschool, whether he derived his inspiration fromOrigen or from Hypatia. How far, and in whatway, Theophilus, already so well known as avigorous opponent of such views, succeeded ininducing Synesius to change them we have un-fortunately no means of knowing. After all,these views w r ere rather in opposition to thecommonly received opinions among Christiansthan to any dogmatical teaching of the church.Even as regards the doctrine of the resurrection,Synesius would probably have had no difficultyin accepting the Greek form of the creed, theresurrection of the dead, though he could hardlyhave accepted the Latin form, the resurrection ofthe body, or the resurrection of the flesh. Ilifamusements and his hunting seem to have beengiven up entirely. It has been hastily assumedthat he retained his wife, but there is no evidencewhatever to shew that he did so. His own letteris of itself a sufficient proof that a bishop wasgenerally expected to separate from his wife, or,in the language of the day, to live with her as asister, though it may be true, as Socrates asserts,that exceptions to the rule might easily havebeen found in the Eastern Empire. The bishop,especially if occupying an important post, feltthat by retaining his wife he lost caste amonghis people, and Synesius, in giving up so muchin the hope of benefiting the people of Ptolemais,was hardly likely to pursue a course which mustfatally damage his influence, even if his wifewould have consented to a mode of life whichmust inevitably lower both herself and her hus-band in public estimation. Besides, Synesiusnever mentions his wife in any subsequent letter,®

° It must be remembered, however, that Synesius onlyvery rarely aud very briefly aUudcs to his wile in former