Letter 100. From Theophilus.

A translation by Jerome of Theophilus's paschal letter for 404 a.d. In it Theophilus inculcates penitence for sinners, recommends the practice of fasting and condemns the errors of Origen.

Overview: You must cease from sins, having initiated a routine of virtues, by which the mind is prepared for celebrating Easter. The observance of Lent is holy, both for the sake of fasting and for the sake of a true faith in God. We must also reject the errors of Origen before Easter Sunday, and suppress avarice while joining together in love for God and our neighbors.

The below translation made by ChatGPT 3.5 from this Latin text.

1. Now also the living wisdom of God calls us to celebrate the holy Easter, desiring all of us to be participants therein: wherefore I hasten running at that with a step, fasting and continence, and every affliction of the body contending against the industy of the adversaries of virtues, let us reduce our pleasures to nothing, supported by the help of the Savior: and we, confessing our sins simply to God, who can heal, fear the true judgement of conscience, that with David clamoring and saying: remember not the sins of my youth and my ignorance: be mindful of me according to your mercy (Ps 27.7); we will consume with terror of eternal fire, the growing vices: of which the end is, to do nothing beyond them, and the beginning of salvation, the forgetting of our past. For just as the beginning of a good life's way (of life), is to do just things, thus the beginning of those who have ceased sinning is to restrain their impulses, while they are checked either by reason or by fear so that they don't fall into headlong destruction. And whenever the recollection of the law has been brought to mind, they immediately flee and halting no longer, they come to the camp of triumphant virtues, gradually retracing their steps and turning towards the judgment of the wise, they dissolve away like smoke into nothingness. Difficult are the cures for afflictions which have not immediately been suppressed as they began to grow: the eradication of such maladies is easy, when those who recently sinned are converted by penitence to prudence, and who have found profit in repenting at the end of their sins. For we cannot suppress the incentives of vices, unless we have started to make virtues, or the old ones will cease before they are excluded from the new works. And just as if we firmly resist the coming pleasures, past sins are erased, so if we persevere in forgetting the past, future sins will no longer be able to grow beyond. Indeed, the operators of the evils, as if bringing into their domain those who can prohibit them but do not, are wholly insane indulging in sin, and dragging silence into sense, they strive to fulfill whatever desire suggests to the mind. The liberty of present vices breeds future vices: and if you have neglected the past, it is the source and seedbed of the future.

2. Sins must be prohibited. Since it is so, those who can prohibit sin and hide from work and remain silent become accomplices to the increase of evil, even as they are in the right judgment of those who are authors of wickedness and who will pay the penalty of sloth. They have preferred irrational leisure, culpable quiet, to severities that cut off vice in the sweat of their brow. For, if we turn away from vices, they will completely perish, and their fraudulent sweetness will dry up. Every impulse of pleasure, so to speak, will become torpid: for our mind will be a seat of virtue. The remembrance of the law does not allow sins to be generated, nor does it permit them to grow; and when they have thought of the future judgment seat and the fearsome day of judgment, then it will prohibit the beginning, middle, and end of sin, and it will dry up the bitter waves and swelling whirlpools all the way to the source, and it will dry up the veins; virtue accompanied by the law will crush the seeds of vices, and it will raise the mind from humble things to lofty ones. On the contrary, vices, unless they are restrained, flourish, and when they become obedient to themselves, they drag themselves down to hell; and once they have taken possession of souls, they oppress them with the allurements of pleasures and do not allow them to look up to heaven, or to stand erect like human bodies, but like beasts, they lean towards earthly things. Of whom the Psalmist testifies, saying, "They have called their names in their lands" (Psalm 48).

3. Those who must get rid of vices. Let someone say, what must those do who, feeling that they have sinned, desire to change their sins for virtues, and scorn worse things in love of better things? Let them hear Moses speaking in this manner: Have you sinned? Stop, subverting previous sins with the cessation of vices, and correcting vices with the most powerful remedy; turn away the sweet allurements of wicked living and the enticing pleasures of the body, as if they were harmful poisons. Do not enter the slippery and soft path of pleasure; for fasting and continence seize a celebration, and we can barely change bad things with good things, laboring and sweating, and suppressing opposing pleasures. There are few who keep the way of truth, while wickedness uses innumerable ways to harm and cannot be conquered unless we are supported from above by the help of wisdom, calling out to us and saying: Do not be afraid, for I am with you (Gen. 26,24). It is the destruction of evil to not commit further wrongs: the root of vices is to despise the learned precepts of the law. As negligence bears the fruit of sins, so solicitude produces virtues. A guarded law drives away disgrace, but one neglected gives birth to punishment; and however, if it is despised, it imitates the ferocity of the strict judge, so much it exhibits the gentleness of the kindest father if it is preserved. Therefore, the cessation of sin is the beginning of virtue. The study of past, present, and future defects in the law is an unwearied medicine: when it has obtained security for its possessor, it is free from all disturbances. For wisdom works good in us: after we have given her a dwelling place in our hearts and turned our thoughts into deeds. And there is no doubt that in either direction, whether to do or not to do good, we have the free capacity, and when the wicked are oppressed, the right things are born: then the chorus of virtues sings together, when there is solitude of vices in the souls. For just as self-restraint holding domination in our bodies, prevents the birth of weaknesses, and neither weakens nor kills its lovers, restoring past illnesses into their original health, and expelling that which is against nature, it restores that which is congruous with nature, so that the rational order of this life might be preserved with an equal balance: so the soul, preserving the orders of the laws, as much as human nature is capable of receiving, is separated from the contagion of evils, and, being worried in every part and inspecting itself, allows nothing to come in that is contrary to brilliant thoughts. Instead indeed, he who has turned to the temple of God, continually delights in the heavenly solemnity, having riches, observing the law, which raises up those who are lying down, punishing the wicked, correcting others, and always crying out: Will he who has fallen not rise again? Or he who is turned away, will he not return? [Jeremiah 8] He bestows hope of salvation to the repentant: while he advises, so that it may be of benefit: he rebukes, so that he may correct: and by casting the shame of former sins upon the sinner, he compels them to seek better things: which no one can desire unless they have first condemned the wounds of their conscience.

4. However, because the law aims to bring back those who are neglecting themselves and sinking in the best of plans into a better way of life, as a standard of wicked works, it does not allow them to be without reward or to be oppressed by eternal tribulations who obey it; as many of us as celebrate holy Easter let us make the bringer of the Law our friend through continence and fasts, the Prophet promising these things to those who celebrate Easter: You will be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a diadem of the kingdom in the hand of your God (Isai. 62.3). Let us seek a rich banquet of virtues, adorning ourselves with knowledge of Scripture, as if with festive garments. Let us prepare holy kisses, rejoicing with the Angels in Heaven, fleeing all negligence, and breaking delay, so that we may go eagerly with disciples to our Saviour, and say to Him, "Where will You have us prepare the Passover for You?" (Matthew 26) And ((al. ut.)) situated (there) in the heavenly chamber, and making the mystical Passover, we will be able to sing: "How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts!" (Psalm 84:1) For there we shall find the choirs of Angels, and celebrating feasts with them, we will have them as companions in the mysteries of God, and we will rejoice with indescribable joy, learning the sacraments of wisdom with them, where there is no deception of fraud, where he who does not have the wedding garment is forbidden to enter the feast, although he may boast of being just in the present world. "All things there are full of the wisdom of the aging and advanced: and according to the Prophet, no immature wisdom will be found there. For, he says, a youth of 100 years shall be there, showing the magnitude of perfect knowledge. Therefore, brothers and sisters, sharing in the holy and heavenly calling, let us hear the Savior crying out through the Prophet: 'I will gather all peoples together, and they will come and see my glory, and I will set upon them the sign of the world.'" (Isaiah 65:20, 66)

5. Therefore, let us hurry to the celebration and say: But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6).He will give joy to those who labor for him. He will bless those who fast and repent, and they will find their joy in the Lord. Love truth and peace. These are the feasts of the Lord. So, let us not live in darkness, but get rid of our evil deeds and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in sleeping and impurities, not in contention and rivalry; but but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the flesh in its lusts (Rom. 13:12). It is just that all those purified by fear of the Lord should observe a worthy solemnity, redeeming chastity by abstinence and fasting, and arousing wakeful faith in dormant senses, and to imitate the wisest Daniel, of whom it is written: There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father knowledge and wisdom were found in him (Dan. 5. 11). For they who take care of themselves in order to make progress toward better things, having the law as their strongest guide, obey its commands and overturn the sins that come against them, illuminating the splendor of the Easter festival with their works and anticipating victory with a secure conscience, neglecting the darts of disturbance with hope. But those who are imitators of these, before entering the fray, seize the palm of victory of desire for valor and possess the crown of triumphs in heavenly things, contemplating with an unveiled face in their minds; they will be clamorous and say: Lord God, my strength, and he shall place my feet in the consummation, establishing me on high places, that I may overcome in his song.

6. And beloved brothers, let us not think the struggle is perpetual, so that we may become weary; but let us know that the end of this [struggle] is the crown of justice, which no age of centuries corrupts. The study of this life and struggle is temporary, but those who have run with unhindered pace and have come to the end of the rewards, will find new mansions, demonstrating victory with songs. Therefore, celebrating fasts properly, since the grace of the Lord promises triumphs over the most wicked demons, let us also participate properly in the solemnity. Not at all during the days of Lent, as is the habit of luxurious rich men, let us gasp for a cup of wine, nor delight ourselves in the consumption of meats in preparing for battle, when labor and sweat is necessary. For indeed, gluttony and drunkenness, and the other allurements of this life drain the wealthiest treasure of souls, and stifle the most abundant seed of knowledge and learning with their admixture. Therefore, the Lord and Savior, calling his disciples to the rigor of continence, spoke: Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare shall it come upon all that sit upon the face of the whole earth. (Luke 21:34-35) Arise; let us go hence. (John 14:31), those who, because of their negligence, will immediately suffer punishment. But those who keep the precepts of the law, avoid drinking wine during fasting, reject eating meat, and restrain insatiable greed out of fear of God. Therefore scripture daily cries out to the temperate: "They shall not drink wine nor strong drink" (Judges 13:4,7,14). And on the other hand, the Jews hear a rebuke for their fault: "You made the prophets drink wine" (Amos 2:12). They are unable to accept correction, who are caught up in the pleasure of luxury, nor can they control the greed of their bellies with reason and advice, due to their love of gluttony and quickly perishing pleasure, they shame the pursuit of virtue, not blushing to drink wine secretly, and avoiding those who would be judges with greedy mouths, drinking mead in their bedrooms, so that they exchange hunger and fasting, which they should seek for voluntarily, for luxury and drunkenness during the time of fasting: not knowing that, even if they flee the conscience of men and eat flesh behind closed walls, and tear apart birds during Lent and approaching Easter with unclean hands, promising fasting outside with sad face, that the Lord will rebuke those with such wickedness, saying: 'These people commit great iniquities' in order to keep away from my holy ones. It is not appropriate for those fasting during times of struggle and battle to eat meat, as Scripture warns: "You shall afflict your souls" (Leviticus 16:29). Nor should you seek out fatted birds with anxious toil, and stuff their fat into your greedy throat. Do not inquire after cooks who, through skillful art, can satisfy the cravings of gluttonous stomachs by preparing meats in various tastes and flavors, with smoking dishes and the aroma of their wares tempting even the most restrained person, as different colored and flavored wines are sought after to the detriment of self-control.

7. The story of Saint Daniel teaches us, and the virtue of the three youths, to desire and honor fasting, who, to explain briefly a lengthy speech, changed their servitude to freedom, and when they should have desired the pleasures of captivity, they despised Babylonian feasts and preferred simple food to the royal table. For King Nebuchadnezzar had commanded the chief eunuch to bring into the palace from the sons of the captivity of Israel and the royal seed, boys in whom there was no blemish, handsome in body and fit to learn wisdom, to be in the king's court, to learn the scriptures and the Chaldean language, and to live on the remains of his table, and to drink his wine (Dan. 1:4-5). Therefore, from the tribe of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were chosen, who were of one mind and faith, whose nobility slavery could not change. Among them Daniel, as Scripture testifies, resolved in his heart not to be defiled by the king's table. (Ibid. 7). "Three boys also associated not only by kinship but also by religion, receive the council of men, and approve of wisdom, at the same time beseeching the prince of the eunuchs, by the merciful help of God, they obtain what they desire, and preserve the nobility of their lineage in the land of captivity: for fearing the superintendent, lest he should attach more severe punishment to the heads of other boys, they soothe him with reason and counsel, speaking these words: Try your servants for ten days, and let us be given from the seeds, and we will eat, and we will drink water, and our faces will appear before thee, and the faces of the boys that eat of the king's table; and as thou shalt see, so do with thy servants." [Daniel 1:12] For by the mercy of God he saw even the desire for virtue sustained, and that continent and strong bodies were preserved, and faith conquered all deformity, and no wasting impaired beauty's radiance.

8. We have repeated this, most beloved brothers, in order that, knowing the words of Paul the Apostle preaching about the virtues of the saints, in which he says: Considering the end of their conversation, imitate their faith (Heb. 13.7), we may encourage those who take delight in eating meat during the time of fasting, to imitate the continence of the saints, who were not able to be overcome by force, so as to lose the rigour of virtue, who, fearing the empires of the Babylonians, showed that they despised captive pleasure, but remained free, and overcame with reason the desires of the belly, and conquered the titillating pleasures of the throat, and left us examples of their fortitude, dwelling in Babylon in their bodies, but with sense and faith dwelling with the Angels in heavenly Jerusalem, so that they may teach us throughout all ages that during the time of fasting we must abstain from wine and meat, take seeds from the earth, and drink water, with which companions chastity abounds.

9. What should I mention the remarkable victories of the Maccabees (2 Maccabees 7)? They, in order to not consume illegal meats and to avoid touching common foods, offered their bodies to torments: and are praised throughout the churches of Christ in the entire world, stronger in punishments, more passionate than the fires with which they were burned. All the ingenuities of cruelty were conquered in them, and the fortitude of those suffering overcame whatever the anger of the persecutor had come up with. Amid more fatherly punishments of the law than of the memories of pain: their entrails were torn apart, their bodies dissolved by pus and passion yet their sentence remained immobile: their spirits were free, and in hope the evil presence of the future was despised. The torturers were tired, but faith was not tired: bones were broken, and every connection of nerves and limbs was dissolved by the whirling wheel, and fires breathing death rose up to the sky; pans filled with fervent oil were there, and with incredible terror they sounded for frying the bodies of the saints; and yet, amidst all these things, they walked mentally in paradise, not feeling what they suffered, but what they eagerly desired to see. For the mind fortified by the fear of God overcomes flames, scorns various pains of torment. And once it has dedicated itself to virtue, it tramples and despises whatever adversities happen. This is how Paul was, writing: In all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him who loved us (Rom. 8:37). For what the weakness of our flesh cannot endure, the soul overcomes through natural frailty, talking to God in faith.

10. So those who fast, that is, who imitate the angelic conversation on earth, should remember the saying: 'The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, and joy, and peace, and gladness' (Rom. 14). Through continence, these people gain great and eternal rewards with brief and small effort, and they receive much more than they offer. They mitigate the present difficulties with the glory of the future time, as in this race for virtue, there will be an end to the struggle. For those who engage in battle against vices and dedicate their souls to the disciplines of wisdom, as much as human nature allows, they seek knowledge of future things, perceiving the kingdoms of heaven through a mirror and image, sense and faith, and they will attain eternal rewards, which will never be closed by any end of time. Days and nights follow each other in certain intervals, gradually decreasing, what they lose, they receive, and what they receive, they give: convening twice a year in the same measure, nor do they remain in the same state, but they distinguish the moments of time by the brevity and length of hours, in order to make the diversity of seasons useful for the world. For the day borrows from its order and circle its times of night, and night again receives what it has given out; and while they each give and receive in turn, and receive back little by little what they had lost in their waning, they gradually grow full again; and so the wisdom of the Creator is interpreted. And from this reciprocal interchange of spaces of time either the month's circle of the moon is completed, or the year returns as the sun moves through its own footsteps, while always-changing and yet always-the-same times are renewed. And so the moon, created by the all-wise artifice of God, changing its forms to reach fullness and hastening to diminution, whatever it has acquired while growing, it loses when it decreases. Nor does it remain in the same state, but ascending and descending by certain degrees, it proceeds from poverty to riches and, from riches, returns to poverty, demonstrating that it is changeable and mutable by the diversity of its forms. Who, indeed, could express with fitting words the course of the sun, and the year's circle corresponding to the monthly computation or the moon's, while it revolves through the four seasons and continually returns upon itself, and ascends and descends by the same measure, and glides away by an eternal order, so that the space which the moon fills up in thirty days and nights, the course of the sun restores by the spaces of the revolving year. And when he (the sun) has reached equality of day and night, and stood for a little while on the balance of justice, he hastens toward inequality, leaving behind what he had come to. I think Ecclesiastes says this in his own book, so that we do not draw from others’ wells: The spirit goes around, and returns to its own circle (Eccl. 1), signifying the annual course of the sun. For the wheel of time returns in itself, returning to where it had started.

11. But the holy and heavenly solemnity emitting the rays of its own splendor is not limited by any spaces: and when the struggles of the saints and the toil of the present age have been brought to an end, perpetual joy and eternal festival will follow. Hence, perfect men, separating their souls from every darkness of error, now proclaim their feasts: Let us enter into his gates with praise, into his courts with hymns (Psalm 94), sounding the Advent of the Savior with happy voices. For when wickedness was reigning throughout the whole world, and demons had filled human eyes with darkness, and no one could give them any help, according to what is written: "I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered, and there was none to uphold" (Ps. 89), in order that impiety should at last have an end, and the fraud of idolatry destroyed, the living Word of God, leaving nothing of our likeness untouched except sin alone, which has no real existence, has been made incarnate in a new way, and, uniting Himself to us, has been made man, that He might become the Son of Man, and that, while remaining Son of God, He might make us the Sons of God. His birth of the Virgin was, indeed, believed by those of dull sight to be according to the flesh, but by the spiritual minded it was understood to be according to the Spirit. But in the works and the magnitude of the signs, the invisible God was perceived by the wise, both with the human appearance displayed, with the virtues signifying God, covered by the cheapness of servile form. Although the Jews handed him over and with impious voices shouted to have him crucified, blaspheming the Lord in the slaughter of his body, indeed by the killing of the Lord's flesh, they became impious servants. Yet, he approached fearless towards death, in order to provide an example of virtue for us, the Lord of glory was shown in the passion itself, remaining in the majesty of impassible divinity and passable in flesh, just as Blessed Peter spoke, and therefore suffering for us, he did not flee from death, so that we would not lose victory in battling with the property of his death. For if he had feared the cross, bearing the opposite of what he had taught, who of his disciples would willingly have fought for religion? Therefore, he is ridiculed by the foolish and unbelieving who subjected the world to his own faith and bestowed the dignity of the Christian name upon the saints. And even though the greatness of his virtues shines forth, they do not cease to blaspheme. But indeed God, who is mocked, has been demonstrated by his works to overthrow the temples of demons, in order to rebuke the impiousness of the Origenists. Whose founder, Origen, so deceived the ears of the simple and the light-hearted with his own persuasiveness, that they are accustomed to be dashed against the shores by waves coming from the open sea, and to be broken up into swirling masses in themselves.

12. Therefore, we speak with zeal of faith to him who has dared to write that the ruin of reasonable creatures is the body's fabric, that if this kind of impiety pleases you, how does the Apostle Paul write, "I desire young women to marry and bear children" (Tim. 5)? Did he command marriage so that, as bodies are born from women, the souls falling from heaven may be turned towards appropriately prepared prisons? Or is it so that he, serving God's teachings regarding marriage, may preserve the human race? For if he wishes young women to marry and bear children from which human bodies are born, but errant souls are united with bodies only through punishment and torment, there can be no doubt that young women are united with bonds for the sake of souls' punishment rather than for the order of procreation in marriage. But heaven forbid that we should believe that the marriage union of husband and wife is joined together not for blessing but for sin. Neither did God create Adam and Eve, in order to bring together by a blessing those spirits who fell from heaven and from rational creatures, saying, 'increase and multiply, and fill the earth.' For if souls were sent down from heaven to earth because of prior sins, so that they might be bound to bodies, then Paul is lying when he writes: 'Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled.' [Heb. 12] But he certainly does not lie. Therefore, bodies are not made for the destruction of souls, but so that the world may compensate for the losses of those being born and dying through perpetual succession, and overcome the brevity of human life. For if those who are falling and united with bodies are blessed by God, they will be of a better condition after they have received the bodies. If they are said to receive bodies for the sake of punishing sinners, how are they blessed in bodies, into which they came because of sins? For one of two things will be true: either they were blessed before their fall, or, after their fall and union with bodies, they cannot be blessed. For if blessing follows this life, it renounces that (life); if it is transferred to that (life), it is not found to have been in this (life). But if before they fell and before they were clothed in human bodies, they were in blessing, and when they fell and had bodies, they were blessed again, their prior lives will be similar to their subsequent lives in the condition of the blessing; and this is by no means subsequent, because the sinners merit punishment, while not sinners merit blessing. Whatever truth there may be in either of the two (lives), it will be culpable if they do not wish to observe the rule of ecclesiastical doctrine. For whether it is on account of sins that souls falling from heaven are bound like prisoners, attached to bodies with chains, let them answer how Adam and Eve, male and female, alive in their bodies, were blessed. For according to their madness, they are not called naked souls, but rather bodies which distinguish both sexes. Whether, indeed, they (i.e. the just) dwelt before in the heavenly abodes, and were then blessed, and worthily held converse without their bodies; in what manner were they blessed either before their fall, or after they became corrupted, and inhabited ruinous bodies for their punishment, and then again became blessed? For surely blessing and punishment are not the same; they are kept far apart, both in name and in effect, and cannot possibly be joined, since they are so utterly antagonistic. And in what sense is a great offspring promised as a blessing to the just, as when the prophet says, 'The least among you shall become a thousand, and the smallest a great nation?'

13. Therefore, those who want to celebrate the Lord's feasts, should also despise the images of Origen and overcome the obscenity of his teachings by reason. For just as the impious error and custom of the Ethnics preferred falsehood, manufacturing idols in the likeness of men and blaspheming the invisible God, while they fashioned for themselves their form and their limbs and their genital organs: now professing a man, now a woman, and changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man (Rom. 1.23), of various forms: so Origen, with the facility and impiety of believers, dropped shrines of idols, as it were, in his treatises, which undermine us by the authority of the Scriptures and the zeal of faith, let us use this simile: For just as builders wanting to build a house with square corners measure equal walls all around, and directing them by rule and plumb-line, build with works in accord with their plan, and join the four sides of the square with angles upward and downward, preserving the equal beginning and gradually augmenting it, so that the beauty of the design join the diversity of the material of the task, and the craftsman's structure preserves the angular lines; thus the teachers of the Church, having the testimonies of the Scriptures, firmly establish the foundations of their teaching, and persist fearlessly, offering their works to Christ and saying: Confirm me in your words (Ps. 118.28). For he, of whom it is written: The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner (Matthew 21), has united us and those who are above with one solemnity, to which, sailing with swift course, we do not at all fear the rage of the heretical waves to be rapidly dissipated.

14. For just as the helmsmen of great ships, when they see an immense whirling wave coming from the deep, like hunters, they undertake the foaming waves and sustain them by the projection of the prow, turning the rudder in different directions and tightening or loosening the ropes, and when the wave subsides, they release the struggling chains on both sides of the ship so that they may be prepared for the approaching swell of water. And when the wave comes again, they tighten the heads of the chains and expand the palms so that the labor of either side may be equalized by the cleft blasts from all directions, and what could not be borne together may be borne separately with more ease. They who are concerned with themselves, follow the example of this comparison and, using the helm like a divine dispensation of words, rush to meet the storm and waves of heretics, retaining the law of God for their skill, that they may raise up those who have fallen. Let those who stand persevere firmly and let them all be kept safe in the common support of the teaching. For as the helm is to the helmsman, so is the law of God to the soul: in which, making the Lord's Passover, we may prefer nothing else to the love of God and our neighbor in the world, nor change our opinion with the variation of human circumstances which turn hither and thither, so that, having already served with dishonorable flattery those for whose power we once labored, if the winds should turn and riches be changed to poverty, high birth to humility, glory to ignominy, we should suddenly become their enemies, resisting in their face those whom we formerly deemed worthy of respect, considering not their faith but their times of need. On the contrary, they demonstrate hidden enmities in a time of necessity and proceed out of their dens in the likeness of serpents, so that not only are we ungrateful towards those whose benefits we enjoyed, rejoicing if we possess the names of clients, but as if we were traitors we persecute them even unto blood: trampling on them when they are cast down and prostrate, whom not long since we regarded as wealthy; we denounce them as the worst of all men, and extol their power, defaming their misfortunes; we honor or despise some not for their nature, but for the variety of accidents, so that those whom we previously called masters and patrons, we now name mere bullies and very wicked slaves. In every way, it is clear that our injustice is manifested, while we praise the unworthy and with criticism, pursue the worthy, imitating that which was spoken reproachfully against the blessed Job, "For your sins, you have suffered a few things, you have been beaten." (Job 11: 7).

15. Therefore, let us cherish the most steadfast courage, not uncertain wealth: let poverty not humiliate us by its harshness, nor riches elevate us, which have been accustomed to depress and elevate the most foolish of men; but let us restrain both for the sake of honesty, and enduring both sorrowful and joyful things with an equal mind. The care of riches interrupts the sweetest slumbers, brings forth harmless slanders, and when it has gathered infinite resources, prepares the material for eternal fires. But after insatiable greed has clung to the sought-after wealth, greed is not satisfied, but despises laws, and holds the flames of hell in contempt, regarding the future judgment seat as useless. Nor do adversaries fight against their enemies as much as riches fight against virtues, unless reason and mercy towards those close by temper them. These (riches) are preferred over nobility in the cities, these (riches) give an ancient family to new people. The desire for wealth can never be satisfied with any amount of wealth. He who is greedy always lacks, not knowing moderation, as much as he lacks what he has. Hell is not filled with the dead, but the more it receives, the more it desires. Therefore, greed imitates him, and cannot be satisfied, but whatever he has, he will demand more: he thinks all that he possesses to be less than what he desires; always immense, always immoderate, not restraining the ardor of sinners by the magnitude of wealth, in feasts he devours not foods, but injustice: in judgments he mixes wrangling, and discord, he brings forth envy, through which he arrives at homicide: he is not in control of his mind, but rather he is like one who is drunkenly fluctuating, having one measure, he always seeks beyond measure. The sea is enclosed by shores, and harbours either constructed or naturally very strong, prevent the incoming waves from the deep and the violence of raging whirlpools; but the desire for riches, unless controlled by reason, neither respects counsel nor is it mitigated by law, nor can any abundance satisfy it. Covetousness does not blush, nor is it afraid of future judgment, but, in its desire for more, as those addicted to luxury are wont to do, it strives to embrace all pleasures and to be mad with lust, so it fills cities, villages, villas, islands, seas, lands, shores, roads, and passageways with calumnies and dissensions; avarice possesses islands, seas, lands, shores, roads, studies, while, in its desire for more, it exchanges goods back and forth by means of trade and lays the insatiable foundation of riches by means of frauds and perjuries.

16. Therefore, despising such rage, let us seek riches in the worship of God, and the steadfast possessions of chastity and holiness, worshipping the one divinity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; believing the resurrection of the dead to be incorruptible, and everlasting. For it is impossible that death should prevail over that which is confirmed by the passion of Christ, raising up the incorruptible and eternal temple of his body. Let us pray for the most pious Emperors; and by observance of the law of God, let us adorn the fasts: for virtue keeps its followers without any necessity, and elevates the mind, which fluctuates on various thoughts from earthly things to lofty things, contemplating not at all the beauty of bodies, but rather the order of conversation and morals, showing to the person the choirs of angels rejoicing in heaven, and teaching the flashes of shining disciplines, so that in this present age, he may endure the wounds inflicted on him as the strongest athlete, and prepare for himself future glory: not subject to vice, but lifting up the inner man with the desire for eternal things; and restraining all the impulses of pleasure by reason, he considers that which is to come, and withdraws from the solicitude of worldly things, preferring spiritual things to bodily things, so that he may also despise the body itself, and, by persuading himself to embrace a life that is harder but better than the present pleasures, he who was once a slave to passion may serve chastity with good liberty, and being removed from the precipices, receive the gentle reins of fasting. For if the nature of the body is weak and without a ruler and master, nor does it want to obey a commanding mind, it provokes infinite shipwrecks for itself and the ruler and drags them into the most shameful lusts and the abyss of pleasures, so that it does not consider what is honorable, but fleeing from good things, it dwells in filth and squalor. But when virtue has governed the soul like a charioteer, and standing as if in a chariot, has restrained its impulse and various desires with the reins of teaching, it lifts it up from humble things to lofty ones, revealing to it invisible and eternal things for visible ones, preparing a dwelling in the heavens for it, and making for it friends who, serving the ministry of God, enjoy spiritual delights - so that what it saw here in an image, it may perceive there in truth and see greater clarity with the rays of the sun that descend for us in part, so that we may tend from lesser things to greater things and make progress as if by letters and syllables for reading: for both those things need these and these those. "When we have been joined to the company of the blessed there, we will hear: Well done, good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a few things, I will place you over many. Enter into the joy of your Lord." (Matthew 25:21, 23)

17. On the eleventh day of the month of Phamenoth, the holy Lenten fast begins, and on the sixteenth day of the month of Pharmuthi, we have the week of Passion. And we will end the fast on the twenty-first day of the same month of Pharmuthi, and we shall celebrate Easter on the twenty-second day of the same month. After which we will join (or let us join) the seven weeks of Holy Pentecost: remembering the poor, loving both God and neighbor, praying for enemies, pleasing persecutors, lifting up the ruins of the weak with consolation and mercy. So that our tongue always resounds in the praises of God, so that the just judgments of the Church are never destroyed by irrational clemency, nor that the laws of God be preferred to those of men. If we desire its friendships, we will obtain heavenly glory in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom, and with whom, to God the Father be glory and power with the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

18. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The brothers who are with us greet you. And you should know this: For deceased bishops, each has a place assigned. In the city of Nichium for Theopemptus, Theodosius; in Terenuthide for Arsinthius; in the town of Geras for Eudemon Pyrrhus; in Achaeis for Apollinus Museus; in Athrividis for Isidore Athanasius; in Cleopatrida for Offellus; and in the town of Laton for Timothy Apelles. Therefore, write to them and, according to custom, accept the ecclesiastical letters from them.