Nicene/Post-Nicene, Series II, Volume 32

Basil, 329/330 (?) - 379

... Scripture designates Him by innumerable other titles, calling Him Shepherd, King, Physician, Bridegroom, Way, Door, Fountain, Bread, Axe, and Rock.... Again, because to the faithful He is a defence strong, unshaken, and harder to break than any bulwark, He is a Rock....
De Spiritu Sancto, Chapter VIII, § 17

... Some "were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea."... Typically, "That rock was Christ;" and the water a type of the living power of the word; as He says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink."...
De Spiritu Sancto, Chapter XIV, § 31

... For the rest of the affairs of the East perhaps you may need the aid of more, and we must wait for the Westerns. But plainly the discipline of the Church of Antioch depends upon your reverence's being able to control some, to reduce others to silence, and to restore strength to the Church by concord. No one knows better than you do, that, like all wise physicians, you ought to begin your treatment in the most vital parts, and what part is more vital to the Churches throughout the world than Antioch? Only let Antioch be restored to harmony, and nothing will stand in the way of her supplying, as a healthy head, soundness to all the body....
Letter LXVI, To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria

IN my former letter it seemed to me sufficient to point out to your excellency, that all that portion of the people of the holy Church of Antioch who are sound in the faith, ought to be brought to concord and unity.... united under the God-beloved bishop Meletius.... it is the prayer of the whole East, and the earnest desire of one who, like myself, is so wholly united to him, to see him in authority over the Churches of the Lord. He is a man of unimpeachable faith; his manner of life is incomparably excellent, he stands at the head, so to say, of the whole body of the Church ... . this same course of procedure has already recommended itself to the Westerns who are in agreement with you, as I learn from the letters brought to me by the blessed Silvanus.
Letter LXVII, To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria

... 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 ... .
Letter LXIX, To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, § 1

I wish your reverence to know that our brother Anthimus has ordained Faustus, who is living with the pope* as bishop, without having received the votes, and in place of our right reverend brother Cyril. Thus he has filled Armenia with schisms....
Letter CXX, To Meletius, bishop of Antioch
{*The note of the Edinburg editors: "The title was not even at this time confined to bishops, and who this papa [pope] is is quite uncertain. The title is not generally limited to the bishop of Rome until the eighth century. So late as 680 Cyrus is called pope of Alexandria at the Sixth Council. (Mansi xi. 214.) It was not till 1073 that Gregory VII. asserted an exclusive right to the name. (Gieseler, vol. 1, 2, 405.)"}

... You must know that Faustus came with letters for me, from the pope, requesting that he might be ordained bishop. When however I asked him for some testimonial from yourself and the rest of the bishops, he made light of me and betook himself to Anthimus. He came back, ordained by Anthimus, without any communication having been made to me on the subject.
Letter CXXI, To Theodotus, bishop of Nicopolis

... I hear, moreover, that the Paulinians are carrying about a letter of the Westerns, assigning to them the episcopate of the Church in Antioch, but speaking under a false impression of Meletius, the admirable bishop of the true Church of God.... I congratulate those who have received the letter from Rome. And, although it is a grand testimony in their favour, I only hope it is true and confirmed by facts. But I shall never be able to persuade myself on these grounds to ignore Meletius, or to forget the Church which is under him, or to treat as small, and of little importance to the true religion, the questions which originated the division. I shall never consent to give in, merely because somebody is very much elated at receiving a letter from men. Even if it had come down from heaven itself, but he does not agree with the sound doctrine of the faith, I cannot look upon him as in communion with the saints.
Letter CCXIV, To Count Terentius, § 2

... For just as when hail-storm and flood, and all natural calamities, at once injure and destroy things that have no strength, while they are only themselves affected by falling on the strong, so the terrible trials set in action against the Church have been proved feebler than the firm foundation of our faith in Christ....
Letter CCXL, To the Presbyters of Nicopolis, § 1

... quite forgetful that their written confession of the Nicene Creed is preserved at Rome, and that they with their own hand delivered to the council at Tyana the document brought from Rome which is in my hands, and contains the same creed. They forgot their own address, when they came forward and bewailed the deceit by which they had been tricked into giving their adhesion to the document drawn up by the faction of Eudoxius, and so bethought them of the defence for that error, that they should go to Rome and there accept the creed of the Fathers ... .
Letter CCXLIV, To Patrophilus, bishop of AEgae, § 5

... Moreover the very blessed Pope Athanasius* came from Alexandria, and was most anxious that communion should be established between Meletius and himself ... .
Letter CCLVIII, To Epiphanius the bishop, § 3
{*Athanasius was bishop of Alexandria.}

3. One of those who have caused me great sorrow is Eustathius of Sebasteia in Lesser Armenia.... What propositions were made to him by the blessed bishop Liberius [bishop of Rome], and to what he agreed, I am ignorant. I only know that he brought a letter restoring him, which he shewed to the synod at Tyana, and was restored to his see. He is now defaming the very creed for which he was received; he is consorting with those who are anathematizing the Homoousion, and is prime leader of the heresy of the pneumatomachi. As it is from the west that he derives his power to injure the Churches, and uses the authority given him by you to the overthrow of the many, it is necessary that his correction should come from the same quarter ... .
Letter CCLXIII, To the Westerns, § 3

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