Letter 87: I am astonished that, with you to appeal to, so grave an offense should have been committed against the presbyter as that he should have been deprived of his only means of livelihood. The most serious part of the business is that the perpetrators transfer the guilt of their proceedings to you; while all the while it was your duty not only not to...
I'm shocked that such a serious offense was committed against the presbyter [a senior priest/elder in the early church] while you were in a position to prevent it. He's been stripped of his only source of income.
What makes this worse is that the people responsible are blaming you for it. You should have stopped this — not just stood by. You have a duty to protect everyone under your authority, but especially presbyters, and most of all those who share my faith and walk the same path.
If you care at all about doing right by me, fix this immediately. With God's help, you have the power to do this and far more.
I've also written to the provincial governor [the civil authority in Cappadocia, modern central Turkey]. If these people won't do the right thing voluntarily, they'll be compelled to do so by the courts.
Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
[Πρός: Ἀνεπίγραφος ὑπὲρ τῶν αὐτῶν]
Ἐθαύμασα πῶς, σοῦ μεσιτεύοντος, τοσοῦτον ἐτολμήθη κακὸν κατὰ τοῦ συμπρεσβυτέρου ὥστε ἣν μόνην εἶχεν ἀφορμὴν τοῦ βίου, ταύτην διαρπασθῆναι, καὶ τὸ δεινότατον, ὅτι οἱ τοῦτο τετολμηκότες ἐπὶ σὲ τὴν αἰτίαν ὧν πεποιήκασιν ἀναφέρουσιν· ὃν οὐχ ὅπως ἐπιτρέπειν τὰ τοιαῦτα γίνεσθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ παντὶ σθένει διακωλύειν ἀκόλουθον ἦν, μάλιστα μὲν κατὰ πάντων, εἰ δʼ ἄρα, κατὰ γοῦν τῶν πρεσβυτέρων, καὶ τούτων ὅσοι ἡμῖν ὁμόψυχοι, καὶ τὴν αὐτὴν τῆς εὐσεβείας ὁδὸν πορευόμενοι. εἴ τι οὖν φροντίζεις τοῦ ἀναπαῦσαι ἡμᾶς, ταχέως διορθωθῆναι τὰ γενόμενα ποίησον. δύνασαι γὰρ σὺν Θεῷ καὶ ταῦτα καὶ ἔτι μείζω τούτων κατορθοῦν, οἷς ἂν ἐθέλῃς. ἐπέστειλα δὲ καὶ τῷ ἄρχοντι τῆς πατρίδος, ἵνα, ἐὰν ἀφʼ ἑαυτῶν μὴ θελήσωσι ποιῆσαι τὰ δίκαια, ἐκ τῆς κινήσεως τῶν δικαστηρίων ἀναγκασθῶσι ποιῆσαι.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg2040/tlg004/tlg2040.tlg004.perseus-grc2.xml
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