Letter 114: Severus tells Thecla that uncertain baptismal cases require faith and careful ecclesiastical action.

Thecla the countess has sent a reminder through Stephen the grammarian, and Severus answers by drawing on earlier advice. He quotes material sent to Theodore of Olba because the question touches baptism, faith, and the church's responsibility when certainty is lacking. Thecla's rank does not make the issue merely private; her concern draws Severus into a careful explanation for a wider circle. Severus' answer returns to a central rule: the church must not act as if doubt were certainty, but it must also not abandon people to doubt. When baptism or communion is unclear, the safest course is the one that protects the sacrament and the soul together. The church's authority exists for salvation, not for clever avoidance of responsibility. Faith is therefore not a vague disposition; it must take form in action ordered by the church. The letter ends by pressing the necessity of faith. Without faith, Severus says with the Apostle, it is impossible to please God. That statement is not an abstract moral tag. It is the reason Thecla's question matters. Decisions about rites, reception, and discipline are decisions about trust in God and the means God has given the church. Severus wants Thecla to see that careful pastoral procedure is not cold legalism. It is faith trying to guard a soul. Thecla receives the answer as a countess, but Severus does not flatter rank. He gives her the same kind of ecclesiastical reasoning he gives bishops and presbyters: cite the earlier ruling, apply it carefully, and let faith determine the action. Her social position may make the question more visible, but it does not change the rule. The church's care for uncertain cases must be ordered, public, and confident in God's mercy.

The letter of reminder that was given by your magni- ficence to the learned and believing grammarian Stephen ^ Eph. V. 26, 27. " Co. viii. 9. ^ Mt. xviii. 18, 19. * 2 Co.i ii. 18. ^ He. x. 39. 28 showed me by the reading of it that still even now you remain that Thecla whom Theotecnus the presbyter, who is in all things steadfast and religious, would depict to me in words of piety, tracing the likeness as in colours: who so much attracted me by his words that I was then the first to begin to write a letter to you. Wherefore also I confess myself indebted to God our Saviour that neither has his testimony which he bore on your behalf been falsified, nor my faith in your God- loving modesty which I then gained. The devoutness of your character is shown by the fact that your own judgment was not enough for you, and you had not con- fidence enough to presume to things to which it is not proper to presume before being confirmed by a lawful utterance of high-priests. And now you are blessed on account of your praiseworthy fear, by the text of the sacred writings that says, " Blessed is he that feareth everything through devoutness."^ Further praise I assign to you from the divine law also which ordered a man in disputed causes, and that while the service consisting in shadowy things and types yet prevailed, to repair to the place where the Levites and priests dwelt, and the judge who had the headship over all things at that time, and from them obtain a solution of the doubt. It is good and very beneficial to quote in the letter the words of the law itself, which are as follows: " But, if any matter be too hard for thee in judgment, be- tween blood and blood, and between judgment and ^ Pr. xxviii. 14. IX. 3- judgment, and between stroke and stroke, and between reviling and reviling, words of judgment in your cities, thou shalt arise and go up to the place which the Lord God shall choose for His name to be called there: and thou shalt go in unto the priests the Levites and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and they shall inquire and show thee thy judgment: and thou shalt do according to the commandment which they shall pronounce to thee that are from the place which the Lord thy God shall choose for His name to be called there: and thou shalt observe well to do according to all things that shall be ordained for thee. Accordino- to the law and according to the judgment which they shall pronounce to thee do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall pronounce to thee, neither to the right hand, nor to the left." ^ The intention of these expressions of the law you have fulfilled in actual deed, both by feeling intelligent doubt, and by referring the question as to the doubt to the pronouncement of the high-priests, in that you have stated that a certain baby, having been seized with severe illness, and having al- ready reached the very gates of death, was sent to a prayer house building to receive the laver of regenera- tion, and the communion of the divine light; and, it so happening that the presbyter of that place was not there, you say that the deacon by reason of the urgency of the case dipped the boy in the w^ater of life, and performed the legal ceremony; and after the action ^ De. xvii. 8-1 1. the presbyter came and complained of what had been done as unlawful, and sought to subject the deacon to punishment. For it was doubted among you whether the boy who was baptized received the perfect grace. You must know that in matters that are doubtful and rarely occur one cannot find broad statutes: since those who made the statutes took care to avoid giving occasion through absence of restraint for the rules of strictness to be corrupted. Therefore con- cerning this problem ^ also and concerning its rareness it is written in the Constitutions '^ or in the Commands of the Apostles, which they named the Testament ^ of the Lord, that a deacon also may administer the laver of regeneration when a presbyter is not present, by reason of the imminence of the necessary end of death: this same rare observance being proclaimed in these words: "In case of necessity, if a presbyter is not present, let a deacon baptize ".* Therefore the presbyter did well in paying attention to what was done by the deacon out of necessity, and performing the ceremonies that follow baptism, and laying upon the boy who had been baptized the anointing with the holy chrism,^ and the seal of the perfection that results from this. As to the other question about the other strange and unknown boy who could not repeat any mystic symbol, by which you might have been able to learn whether he is a believer or an unbeliever, as not having received ^ Trporao-is. " Siara^eis. ^ htaBrjK-q. '* Test. Dom. ii. 10. ^ ixvpov. the laver of regeneration, a letter has been written by me to the God-loving bishop Theodore of a certain city in Isauria named Olbe/ and I have determined to quote the same to you at the end of this letter, as being sufficient to provide you with a solution of the doubt. May you be preserved to us, noble God-loving woman, who show your strict practice regarding faith in God even by the questions which you ask in doubt! That strictness continue to keep till your last breath: for " without faith it is impossible to please " '^ says the Apostle.