Nilus of Ancyra→Eusebius (correspondent of Nilus of Ancyra)|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To Eusebius the Dux [a military commander, addressed by his title dux].
Do not become a judge of the judges; for in the Church you occupy the place of the feet, not of the head. Do not, therefore, reject the priests because not all of them happen to be pure. For it does not in fact befit you to judge and to pass judgment upon the bishops of the Lord. Yet by divine forethought none of the bodiless angels is entrusted with the helm of the priesthood, lest, being themselves without sin, they should at once put to death the men who stumble, dealing with them by severity; but rather men of like passions to ourselves and compounded of blood receive the dignity of presidency, so that, whenever they take in hand someone who has fallen into accusations, being themselves pressed down by their own faults, they may show kindness toward those of their own kind. And consider for me that first Peter of the Church, the head of the chorus of the apostles, who was set in place out of repentance, for he was not sinless. Do not, then, demand that all the leaders of the Churches be irreproachable, and that they have no blemish nor any human stain.
To Eusebius the Dux [a military commander, addressed by his title dux].
Do not become a judge of the judges; for in the Church you occupy the place of the feet, not of the head. Do not, therefore, reject the priests because not all of them happen to be pure. For it does not in fact befit you to judge and to pass judgment upon the bishops of the Lord. Yet by divine forethought none of the bodiless angels is entrusted with the helm of the priesthood, lest, being themselves without sin, they should at once put to death the men who stumble, dealing with them by severity; but rather men of like passions to ourselves and compounded of blood receive the dignity of presidency, so that, whenever they take in hand someone who has fallen into accusations, being themselves pressed down by their own faults, they may show kindness toward those of their own kind. And consider for me that first Peter of the Church, the head of the chorus of the apostles, who was set in place out of repentance, for he was not sinless. Do not, then, demand that all the leaders of the Churches be irreproachable, and that they have no blemish nor any human stain.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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.