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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
Rule 220: Is Any One Who Wishes Allowed to Talk to Sisters 2 of Not, Who May Talk, and…
We have said on this subject in the Longer Rules1 that the individual man ought not to talk with another man just as he pleases, but only he who is able to confer and receive benefits, and he after examination—a fortiori2 this applies to a woman. But if one remembers the Lord’s words: Every idle word that men speak they shall give account thereof in the day of Judgment ’3 he fears in every matter such a judgment and obeys the apostle when he says: “Whether therefore ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God”4; and elsewhere: “Let all things be done unto edifying’5; nor will he allow anything to be done idly and uselessly. But as to whom and when and how, let time, place and person be so chosen that no suspicion of evil will arise from any of them; then all concerned will be free from offence and the meeting will be for the edifying of faith. But Scripture does not allow two solitary persons to meet. ‘For two are better than one” it says. Moreover they are trusted. “Woe to the solitary man, if he falls, there is none to raise him up.”6
Notes
- F. 33. R. “superius.”
- οὐχ ὅτι γε.
- Mt. xii. 36.
- 1 Cor. x. 31.
- 1 Cor. xiv. 26†.
- Eccl. iv. 9; 10. In the first part Bas. has οἱ δύο (Sw. with B omits οἱ). The 2nd part in Bas. is οὐαὶ δὲ τῷ ἑνί, ὅταν ἐὰν πέσῃ, οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ ἐγείρων, against Sw.’s (B) text: καὶ οὐαὶ αὐτῷ τῷ ἑνὶ ὅταν πέσῃ καὶ μὴ ᾖ δεύτερος ἐγεῖραι αὐτόν.