Letter 131: For the ordained minister: wealth is the beauty of virtue; pleasure is self-control; luxury is contentment with...

To a priest. The very men who claim to be the arbiters of virtue and vice, when they ought to cast the deciding vote for virtue, give it to vice. And by these very means they ostracize the earnest while they band together with the base, and they have made those who wish to do what is required more dispirited. And they have made such war upon those who possess frankness of speech that they have all but quenched the impulse toward what is good in nearly everyone. And so those who live the life of dogs and swine rage against those whose life is apostolic. And although they ought to drive those men away, they make a matter of laughter out of things worthy of lamentation, not only taking no account of virtue, but even priding themselves and deeming themselves worthy of approval. Who, then, is the man who will rebuke those who are so disposed? Who is the man who will set them right? Who is the man who will refute them? Who is the man who will quench their arrogant thoughts? Who is the man who will pull down their haughty brow? Who is the man who will exhort them to take pride not only in their office, but also in giving account for their authority? For if the Judge in the Gospels, even when uttering oracles, is not believed, who is the man who will be believed by them, and who will check their raging madness, which is unwilling to stand still but daily becomes more grievous? For many who have attempted it have profited those men nothing, but have pierced themselves through with the greatest evils. That those men will there receive the greatest crowns, I for my part know with certainty; but the grosser sort are both led on to virtue and flee from vice by the things that happen here. Since, then, this alone has resulted from the reproofs - that the one who spoke frankly suffers some evil unjustly, while those who received the counsel are in no way helped - for this reason it has now become more fearful than before to speak what is best. But if, as you say, some of them actually seek advisers (for not all have been carried down into the pit of self-love and of vice), they would be right to hear that, above all, there are the divine Scriptures, by following which you [plural] would come to know what is required. But if you also need a counselor, cease doing what you do, and then seek the adviser. For when you have ceased from these things and have made the road of speaking what is best a safe one, then seek the one who counsels what is required. But before you cease, do not seek who, having told you the noblest things, will be willing to be ostracized by you; for you will not find him. These things I write, not as one fearing to suffer here (for I have suffered much on this account, as you know), and I said to the One who arranged it: "You have crowned me, though not willingly"; for to me also "God has granted" [Philippians 1:29] not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake; rather, I write wishing to silence those men, the ones who pretend to seek a counselor, not that they may be counseled, but that they may plot mischief. For that I have written these things not out of fear, let such men hear - that you [plural], by the things you do, both lead your subjects by the hand into vice and will undergo a double punishment: both because you did not do what is required, and because you tripped up those who could have been saved, had they not been scandalized by you. Cease, therefore, doing such things as not even the enemies of Christ do toward the blaspheming of his name. Quench the conceit that you have been deemed worthy of the presidency beyond the many; slacken your pride; pull down your haughty brow; consider that you are earth and ashes; look to what was a little before, and to what comes a little after. Recognize that your own people are better in virtue; do not use the weapons of the priesthood against the priesthood itself; do not, while being styled with the name of poverty [literally, of possessing nothing], behave drunkenly toward the teacher of it. Do not regard as fables the evangelical words that have been chanted to you; do not suppose that you sin unpunished; do not think the Divine is unjust; do not imagine that God, who sees all things, overlooks. Do not ostracize the virtuous; do not band together with those who pursue every kind of vice; do not train those who look toward vice; do not quench the frankness of those who possess divine zeal; do not make others' misfortunes your business; do not, while proposing in word what is required, dishonor this in deed. But why need I prolong, when these things are sufficient to strike down those who are not utterly without feeling? Therefore, ceasing, I shall turn to silence, beseeching the Divine that this letter may prove effective.

Αὐτοὶ οἱ τῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τῆς κακίας αὐχοῦντες εἶναι διαιτηταὶ (3), τὴν νικῶσαν ψῆφον δέον τῇ ἀρετῇ δοῦναι, τῇ κακίᾳ παρέχονται. Καὶ δι’ ὧν τοὺς μὲν σπουδαίους ἐξοστρακίζουσι, τοὺς δὲ φαύλους συγκροτοῦσι, τοὺς τὰ δέοντα ποιεῖν βουλομένους, ἀθυμοτέρους πεποιήκασι. Καὶ τοσοῦτον πεπολεμήκασι τοὺς παῤῥησίαν ἔχοντας, ὡς σβέσαι σχεδὸν ἁπάντων τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ καλὰ ὁρμήν· λυττῶσι τοιγαροῦν οἱ κυνῶν καὶ χοίρων βίον ἔχοντες κατὰ τῶν ἀποστολικῶν τὸν βίον (4). Καὶ δέον ἐκείνους ἀποσοβεῖν, γέλωτος ὑπόθεσιν τὰ θρήνου ἄξια ποιοῦνται, οὐ μόνον οὐδένα τῆς ἀρετῆς ποιούμενοι λόγον, ἀλλὰ καὶ καθ’ ἑαυτοὺς σεμνύνοντες καὶ ἀποδοχῆς ἀξιοῦντες. Τίς οὖν οἱ τοῖς οὕτω διακειμένοις ἐπιτιμήσων; Τίς ὁ διορθώσων; Τίς ὁ ἐλέγξων; τίς ὁ σβέσων αὐτῶν τὰ φρονήματα; Τίς ὁ κατασπάσων τὴν ὀφρύν; Τίς ὁ παραινέσουν, μὴ μόνον ἐπὶ τῇ ἀρχῇ σεμνύνεσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ τὰς εὐθύνας; Εἰ γὰρ ὁ κριτὴς ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις. λοις χρησμηδῶν οὐ πιστεύεται, τίς ὁ παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς πιστευθησόμενος, καὶ λυττῶσαν αὐτῶν τὴν μανίαν, καὶ στῆναι μὴ βουλομένην, ἀλλ᾽ ὁσημέραι ἀργαλεωτέραν γενομένην κωλύσων; Πολλοὶ γὰρ ἐπιχειρήσαντες, ἐκείνους μὲν ὤνησαν οὐδέν, ἑαυτοὺς δὲ μεγίστοις διέπειραν (5) κακοῖς. Ὅτι δὲ ἐκεῖσε μεγίστους λήψονται στεφάνους, ἐγὼ μὲν ἀκριβῶς οἶδα· οἱ δὲ παχύτεροι ἀπὸ τῶν τῇδε γινομένων καὶ ἐνάγονται εἰς ἀρετήν, καὶ φεύγουσι τὴν κακίαν. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν τοῦτο μόνον ἐκ τῶν ἐλέγχων περιγέγονε, τὸ παθεῖν ἀδίκως τι κακὸν τὴν παρρησιασάμενον, μηδὲν δὲ ὠφεληθῆναι τοὺς τὴν συμβουλὴν δεξαμένους, διὰ τοῦτο μᾶλλον νῦν ἢ πρότερον τὰ δὲ βέλτιστα λέγειν φοβερώτερον γέγονεν. Εἰ δὲ, ὡς φῄς, τινὲς αὐτῶν καὶ παραινέτας ζητοῦσιν, (οὐ γὰρ πάντες εἰς τὸ βάραθρον τῆς φιλαυτίας καὶ τῆς κακίας κατηνέχθησαν) ἀκοῦσαι ἂν εἶσαν δίκαιοι, ὅτι μάλιστα μέν εἰσι αἱ θεῖαι Γραφαί, αἷς ἀκολουθοῦντες τὸ δέον γνοίητε. Εἰ δὲ καὶ συμβούλου δεῖσθε, παύσασθε δρῶντες ἃ δρᾶτε, καὶ τότε ζητεῖτε τὸν παραινέτην. Ἐπειδὲν γὰρ τούτων παύσησθε, καὶ τὴν τοῦ τὰ βέλτιστα λέγειν ὁδὸν κατασκευάσητε ἀσφαλῆ, τηνικαῦτα τὸν συμβουλεύοντα (6) τὰ δέοντα ζητεῖτε. Πρὶν δὲ παύσασθε, μὴ ζητεῖτε, τίς ὑμῖν φράσας τὰ κάλλιστα ὑφ᾽ ὑμῶν ἐξοστρακισθῆναι θελήσει· οὐ γὰρ εὑρήσετε. Ταῦτα δὲ γράφω, οὐχ ὡς δεδιὼς τε παθεῖν ἐνταῦθα, (πολλὰ γὰρ τούτου ἕνεκα, ὡς οἶσθα, πέπονθα) καὶ εἶπον τῷ κατασκευάσαντι· «Ἐστεφάνωσας οὐχ ἑκών»· κἀμοὶ γὰρ «ἐχαρίσατο ὁ θεὸς» οὐ μόνον τὸ εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πάσχειν· ἀλλ᾽ ἐκείνους ἐπιστομίσαι βουλόμενος, τοὺς προσποιουμένους σύμβουλον ζητεῖν, οὐχ ἵνα (7) συμβουλευθῶσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα ἐπιβουλεύσωσιν. Ὅτι γὰρ οὐ φόβου ἕνεκεν ταῦτα γέγραφα, ἀκουέτωσαν οἱ τοιοῦτοι (ὅτι ὑμεῖς δι᾽ ὧν πράττετε, καὶ τοὺς ἀρχομένους εἰς κακίαν χειραγωγεῖτε, καὶ διπλῆν τιμωρίαν ὑφέξετε) ὅτι τε μὴ τὸ δέον ἐπράξατε, ὅτι τε ὑπεσκελίσατε τοὺς σωθῆναι δυναμένους ἄν, εἰ μὴ παρ᾽ ὑμῶν ἐσκανδαλίσθησαν. Παύσασθε τοιγαροῦν τοιαῦτα δρῶντες, ἃ οὐδὲ οἱ ἐχθροὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πρὸς βλασφημίαν τοῦ ὀνόματος αὐτοῦ δρῶσιν. Σβέσατε τὸ ἐπὶ τῷ προεδρίας ἠξιῶσθαι παρὰ τοὺς πολλοὺς οἴημα· χαλάσατε τὸν τύφον· κατασπάσατε τὴν ὀφρὺν, ἐννοήσατε, ὅτι γῆ ἐστε καὶ σποδός· σκοπήσατε τὸ πρὸ βραχέος, καὶ τὸ μετὰ βραχύ. Ἐπίγνωτε τοὺς ἑαυτῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀμείνους· μὴ τοῖς ὅπλοις τῆς ἱερωσύνης κατ᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς ἱερωσύνης χρήσεσθε· μὴ εἰς τὸν τῆς ἀκτημοσύνης χρηματιζόμενοι παροινήσατε (8) διδάσκαλον. Μὴ μύθους ἡγεῖσθε τοὺς ἐπασθέντας ὑμῖν εὐαγγελικοὺς λόγους· μὴ νομίζετε ἁμαρτάνειν ἀτιμωρητί· μὴ τὸ θεῖον ἄδικον εἶναι νομίσητε· μὴ τὸν παντεπόπτην Θεὸν παρορᾶν οἰήθητε. Μὴ τοὺς φι- ἀρετοὺς ἐξοστρακίσητε· μὴ τοὺς πᾶσαν μετιόντας κα- κίαν συγκροτήσητε· μὴ παιδοτριβήσητε τοὺς ὀρῶν- τας εἰς κακίαν· μὴ σβέσητε τῶν θείῳ ζήλῳ ἐχόντων τὴν παρρησίαν· μὴ τὰς ἀλλοτρίας πραγματεύεσθε συμφοράς· μὴ λόγῳ τὸ δέον ὑποτιθέμενοι, ἔργῳ τοῦτο ἀτιμάσητε, ἀλλὰ τί χρὴ μηκύνειν, καὶ τούτων ἱκανῶν ὄντων τοὺς μὴ λίαν ἀναισθήτως ἔχοντας κα- τατοξεῦσαι ; Διόπερ παυσάμενος ἐπὶ σιγὴν (9) τρέ- ψομαι, ἀνύσιμον τουτὶ γενέσθαι τὸ γράμμα, τὸ θεῖον ἀντιβολῶν.