Letter 1578: I am thoroughly astonished at those who confuse not only the things themselves but their very names — who have...

To Theodosios. Even if here, where all things are small in comparison with your insensibility, there is room that admits those who do not come from the same source, yet there [in the world to come] the discrimination will be exact. In former times, then, when the men of the Church were trained and through an excellent way of life shone bright with the divine Spirit, here too those who fell and harbored knowing malice were set apart, and again they were reckoned back into the holy assembly of the Church. But now (though I wish to say nothing harsh) everything is dared shamelessly, and there is no one to call it to account. Rather, to those who love virtue such men are a burden, while to those who love sin they are gentle. For the one sort they prepare to grow numb, while the other sort they train up to greater wickedness, above all when wealth also flows abundantly around them. Do not, therefore, since Eusebius too (who, I know not how, ordained you, being himself an enemy to virtue) does not drive you, after you have driven yourself into the uttermost wickedness, away from the full membership of the Church, do not now suppose that there too you will suffer nothing dreadful. For justice will pursue both him and you all the more, inasmuch as here it gained nothing by being long-suffering, but even consented to be blasphemed on your account.

Εἰ καὶ ἐνταῦθα, ὦ πάντα μικρὰ πρὸς τὴν σὴν ἀναλγησίαν φθέγγεσθαι, χῶρος εἰσδέχεται τοὺς οὐκ ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν ἥκοντας, ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖσε διάκρισις ἔσται ἀκριβής. Πρώην μὲν οὖν, ἡνίκα οἱ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας παιδεύεται καὶ δι’ ἀρίστην πολιτείαν τῷ θείῳ ἐλαμ- πρύνοντο Πνεύματι, κἀνταῦθα ἐχωρίζοντο οἱ πταίον- τες καὶ γνωσικαχοῦντες, πάλιν κατηριθμοῦντο εἰς τὸν ἱερὸν τῆς Ἐκκλησίας σύλλογον. Νῦν δὲ (ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν βούλομαι δυσχερὲς εἰπεῖν) πάντα ἀναίδην τολμᾶται, καὶ οὐδεὶς ὁ ἐπεξιῶν. Ἀλλά τοῖς μὲν φιλο- αρέτοις εἰσὶ βαρεῖς, τοῖς δὲ φιλαμαρτήμοσι προσ- ηνεῖς. Τοὺς μὲν γὰρ ἀποναρκῆσαι παρασκευάζουσι, τοὺς δὲ εἰς κακίαν μείζονα παιδοτριβοῦσι· μάλιστα ὅταν καὶ πλοῦτος αὐτοῖς περιῤῥέῃ. Μὴ τοίνυν, ἐπειδὴ καὶ Εὐσέβιος (ὁ οὐκ οἶδ’ ὅπως σε χειροτονή- σας, τῇ ἀρετῇ πολέμιος τυγχάνων) σὲ εἰς ἐσχάτην κακίαν ἐλάσαντα οὐκ ἀπελαύνει τοῦ πληρώματος τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, ἤδη νόμιζε κακείσε μηδὲν πείσεσθαι δεινόν. Τοσοῦτον γὰρ κἀκεῖνον καὶ σὲ μετελεύσεται ἡ δίκη, ὅσον ἐνταῦθα μακροθυμήσασα οὐδὲν ὤνησεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ βλασφημηθῆναι δι’ ὑμᾶς κατεδέξατο.