Letter 91: To the Prefect Eutrechius.

To the Prefect Eutrechius. I know well — no words need tell me — how your Excellency regards me. Actions speak more clearly than words. But I am anxious that you should know the nature of the accusation brought against me, because it is an extraordinary one: I am being attacked simultaneously as a man who never married and as a man who was married twice. The contradiction alone ought to expose the fraud. If my current calumniators claim that I am falsifying the apostolic doctrine, why in the world do they not attempt to convict me face to face instead of accusing me in my absence? This fact alone is sufficient to refute their lies entirely — because they know I have innumerable witnesses to the apostolic character of my teaching, which is precisely why they have brought an uncontested indictment rather than an open accusation. Lawful judges must keep one ear free for the accused. If they give both ears to the pleadings of the accusers and deliver a sentence that satisfies them, I will endure the injustice as something that brings me nearer to the kingdom of heaven, and I will await that impartial tribunal before which there is neither prosecutor nor counsel nor witness nor distinction of rank — only the judgment of deeds and words, and righteous retribution. For, as it is written: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad."

Letter 91