Letter 105: Severus tells Eustace to avoid lawsuits while using a faithful lay agent if a limited claim must be preserved.

Severus tells Eustace that he acted rightly by opening his troubled thought first to the holy old man and now to Severus. Christ has made the road of salvation broad, even though it seems narrow to many because virtue is hard. In the Gospel he gives more than one way to leave worldly matter behind. He tells one person to sell what he has, give to the poor, and follow him. Elsewhere he promises life to those who have forsaken house, family, lands, and everything for his name. Eustace has chosen and completed one of these roads by forsaking all. He should not torment himself as though he must now carry out the other road in every detail by selling what he has already left. Basil's ascetic rules allow testimony against people who hold property belonging to us, but the voice of religion does not permit monks to throw themselves into lawsuits over possessions. If Eustace can take some part of his father or mother's inheritance for the poor without relaxing the laws of the Spirit or being entangled in court confusion, that is good and should not be despised. But he must not break one commandment while trying to keep another. If a claim must be preserved before time bars it, he may use a faithful layperson to give the necessary reminder. He should avoid both negligent loss and renewed attachment, and stay free from any claim or indictment.

Your devoutness acted rightly and lawfully in informing both that saintly old man at an earlier time and our meanness now of the thought that troubles you. And after other things. Know therefore that our Lord and God Jesus Christ, by way of making the road that leads to salvation broad for us (for His prophet says, although it seems narrow to many by reason of the hardness and difficulty of works of virtue), when in the Gospels urging us to bear the cross and follow Him, and to despise the worldly matter that draws our mind away from heavenly things, and press on to perfection, in one place says, "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come follow me ": while in another place He laid down a principle saying, " Everyone that hath forsaken house or brethren or sisters or mother or father, or wife or children, or lands, for my name's sake shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life."^ Since therefore you also have by God's grace chosen for yourself and completed one of the said roads by forsaking all for His name, do not let your thoughts distress you and think that you ought in all points and under all circumstances to carry the other method into effect also, I mean that of selling what you have forsaken and giving to the poor. Indeed Basil the great in divine teaching, when drawing up the ascetic canons for us, ordered us to testify to a charge of sacrilege only against men who hold property that belongs to us, saying that the voice of religion does not permit us to go to law about it. If therefore you be able to do so out of a superfluity (for neither is there any need for you to do even this as a matter of p. 434. necessity and compulsion), I mean to take a part also of your father's or mother's inheritance to help the poor, without relaxing the laws of the Spirit and being involved in the confusions of courts, the action is good and not to be disallowed, and it ought not to be despised. For the same doctor said, " But every- ^ Mt. xix. 21, 29. where let us take care lest by reason of one command- ment we be seen to be breaking another."^ You are therefore in need of a believing man, one who is powerful in the state, ^ and able to receive instructions and commissions from your devoutness as to the claims which it is proper to make, in order that he may hold the fear of law-courts ^ only before those who hold your property, and when they have given way demand from them some of the things that can be demanded. For you do not require him to be led into suits in the courts,^ if those men be very unjust, and to be further found to be yourself going to law through the instrumentality of the man who has received the instructions and do violence to the laws and rules of the Spirit, which prohibit you from going to law. This I say, because among the things written by you you stated that, if you do not at once remind those who hold the things that belong to you, you will be barred by the time that has elapsed from any claim or indictment