Letter 15: It is entirely unfitting for a monk to be reading pagan Greek writings.
If you revere dignity, then direct toward it those things you consider doubtful. But if you prefer ease to what is right, you will find yourself stripped of both. For the one who loves honor must first submit to its demands, and the one who seeks virtue must first renounce what is contrary to it.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
ΣΤ΄. ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΑΥΤΟΝ.
Εἰ τὴν σεμνότητα σέβῃ, ἔπειτα πρὸς αὐτὴν
τρέπου ἃ καὶ νομίζεις ἀμφίβολα· εἰ δέ σοι μᾶλλον
τῶν ἡδέων τἀχρεῖα, οὐ πείσῃς τὶς σὲ καὶ ὁ
πείσων. Εἰ μὲν οὖν οὕτω διακείσῃ, οὐ τοῖς πλείστοις
εἶ σωφρονέστερος, καὶ ὅλως ὑπὲρ τίνος τῶν ἐπὶ
ΙΕ΄. – ΤΩ ΑΥΤΩ
Εἰ ἑώρας τὸν ἀσθενήσαντα, μᾶλλον ἂν αὐτῷ ἐπένευσας, εἰδὼς ὅτι ἡ ἀρετὴ προσήκει τοῖς εἰδόσιν ταύτην ἐπιτελεῖν καθ᾿ ἕκαστον.
ΙΕ΄. – ΙΣΧΥΡΙΩΝΙ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΟ.
• Όταν ἡ μεγαλοφροσύνη (36) μὴ πρὸς αὐθάδειαν,
ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἐπιείκειαν βλέπῃ, τότε καὶ τὴν ἀλαζονείαν
ἐκφεύγει καὶ τὴν δουλοπρέπειαν, οὐκ ἐῶσα κερασθῆ-
ναι τὸ ἄσχημον τῷ εὐπρεπεῖ.
ΚΕ΄. – ΑΝΘΕΜΙΩ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΩ.
Οἱ ἐλεγθέντες ἐδείκνυσαν καὶ ἄνω καὶ κάτω
φερομένους, καὶ ὅσοι τούτων ἔτυχον, παρὰ τῶν ἐλεγχο-
μένων βδελύττονται. Τί οὖν ποήσομεν; Απορήσεις πότε
ἑαυτὸν ἰάσῃ, τὸ μὴ ἑαυτῷ εὐαρεστεῖν.
ΡΛΒ΄. – ΠΑΥΛΩ
Ἡ στέρησις τῶν ἀγαθῶν πρὸς τὴν τῶν χειρόνων ἐπίγνωσιν συντελεῖται.
P. 333. LIB. 1, EP. 193.
Duas lineas omisit auctor catenæ incipiens in
hunc modum, Τὰ δέρματα τῶν ἐρ. κ. τ. λ.
P. 61, lit. A, lin. 3. Ρ. γεγονώς, cal. γε-
γωνώς.
Revision history
- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from Patrologia Graeca 78 OCR.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://archive.org/details/PatrologiaGraeca (PG vol.78)
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