Letter 50: You are wrong to admire Athens — the Stoa, the Peripatetic school, and all that Attic pretension — you who once...

To Theodorobios. Of those who boast that they are servants and disciples of the gentle Master and wise Teacher, and who pride themselves on having been allotted the ministry of the priesthood, some have misused the office for tyranny, some for money-making, some for luxury; and some have used it to ignore both themselves and their friends, others to take vengeance on their enemies. There are those who drive away men who live decently, while those caught in the most shameful deeds they judge worthy of a higher rank. But if Eusebius, as you have written, having wiped up the faults of all men at once -- approving those whom he ought not, money-making and living in luxury, ignoring both himself and his friends, taking vengeance on enemies, and abusing the priesthood for tyranny -- has been adorned with not one redeeming advantage (for those who do the things just mentioned are at least in every case adorned with some accomplishments), do not be astonished. For neither to discern of himself what is fitting, nor to bear with one who counsels him, has run aground upon such wickedness, that even those who flourish in every virtue, and who live the apostolic life, and who preserve the stamp of the Savior's disciples -- for there are such men, there are, though some go mad ten thousand times over in insisting that all men have fallen into wickedness -- not only does he not accept or emulate them, but he even reviles them and casts them out [as by ostracism]. For considering their manner of life a refutation of his own way of living, he supposes that by accusing them he is covering up his own wickedness. Do not, then, make little of this; for [God] will hold out a punishment proportionate to the offenses.

Τῶν τοῦ πράου Δεσπότου καὶ σοφοῦ διδασκάλου αὐχούντων εἶναι δούλων καὶ φοιτητῶν, καὶ τὴν τῆς ἱερωσύνης λειτουργίαν κεκληρῶσθαι ἐναβρυνομένων, τινὲς μὲν εἰς τυραννίδα ἀπεχρήσαντο τῷ πράγματι, τινὲς δὲ εἰς χρηματισμὸν, τινὲς δὲ εἰς τρυφὴν· καὶ ἄλλοι μὲν εἰς τὸ καὶ ἑαυτοὺς καὶ φίλους ἀγνοῆ- σαι, ἄλλοι δὲ εἰς τὸ ἐχθροὺς ἀμύνασθαι. Εἰσὶ δὲ οἱ κοσμίως ζῶντας ἀπελαύνουσι, τοὺς δ’ ἐπὶ τοῖς αἰσχίστοις ἁλισκομένους, καὶ μείζονος βαθμοῦ ἀξιοῦσιν. Εἰ δὲ Εὐσέβιος, ὡς γεγράφηκας, τὰ πάντων ὁμοῦ ἐλαττώματα ἀπομαξάμενος, καὶ ἐγκρίτων μὲν οὓς οὐ χρή, χρηματιζόμενος δὲ καὶ τρυφῶν, καὶ ἑαυτὸν καὶ φίλους ἀγνοῶν, ἐχθροὺς τε ἀμυνόμενος, καὶ εἰς τυραννίδα τῇ ἱερωσύνῃ ἀποχρώμενος, οὐδενὶ πλεονεκτήματι κεκόσμηται, (οἳ γὰρ τὰ εἰρημένα δρῶντες, καὶ κατορθώμασί τισι πάντως εἰσὶ κεκοσμημένοι), μὴ θαυμάσῃς. Τὸ γὰρ μήτε ἀφ’ ἑαυτοῦ συνορᾷν τὸ δέον, μήτε συμβουλεύοντος ἀνέχεσθαι (27), εἰς τοιαύτην ἐξώκειλε κακίαν, ὥστε καὶ τοὺς πάσῃ ἀρετῇ κομῶντας, καὶ κατὰ τὸν ἀποστολικὸν ζῶντας βίον (28), καὶ τῶν μαθητῶν τοῦ Σωτῆρος διασῴζοντας τὸν χαρακτῆρα (εἰσὶ γάρ, εἰσί, κἂν μυριάκις τινὲς μαίνωνται, πάντας εἰς κακίαν ἐκπιπτωκέναι διαβεβαιούμενοι), οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἀποδέχεται, οὐδὲ ζηλοῖ, ἀλλὰ καὶ κακίζει, καὶ ἐξοστρακίζει. Ἔλεγχον γὰρ τοῦ οἰκείου βίου τὴν ἐκείνων πολιτείαν ἡγούμενος, διὰ τοῦ ἐκείνους αἰτιᾶσθαι, τὴν οἰκείαν κακίαν περιστέλλειν οἴεται. Μὴ τοὐνὸν ὀλιγώρει· ἀναλογοῦσαν γὰρ τοῖς πταίσμασι τὴν τιμωρίαν ὀρέξει.