Letter 541

To Phrancus the Chancellor [kankellarios, an usher or clerk in an official's chancery]. When the mind of the flesh is provoked, take into your heart the dread of the eternal punishments. Then you will lie, as Solomon says, in the heart of the sea, and like a helmsman in a surge beyond words [Proverbs 23:34]. For if at the moment of the battle against the shapely face that provokes you, you are able to set yourself in such agony at the eternal punishment already proclaimed, then, just as one storm-tossed at sea, you will easily and without toil overcome the violent enticement brought on by the demons that wrestle against you.

Ὅταν ἐρεθίζεσαι τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς, λάβε εἰς καρδίαν σου τὴν φρίκην τῶν αἰωνίων κολάσεων. Κατακείσῃ δὲ, καθὼς λέγει Σολομὼν, ἐν καρδίᾳ θαλάσσης, καὶ ὡς κυβερνήτης ἐν ἀφάτῳ κλύδωνι. Ἐὰν γὰρ δυνηθῇς ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς μάχης τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἐρεθίζον σε εὔμορφον πρόσωπον, οὕτως ἐναγά νιον σεαυτὸν καταστῆσαι τῇ προκατηγγελμένη αἰω νίῳ κολάσει, καθάπερ ὁ χειμαζόμενος ἐν θαλάσσῃ ῥᾳδίως τε καὶ ἀπόνως περιγενήσῃ τῆς παρὰ τῶν προσπαλαιόντων δαιμόνων ἐπαγομένης βιαίας παρα- κλήσεως.