Letter 415

To the Same Person. He who, through the fear of God, has subjected himself to the service of his fellow ascetics, if afterward he begins to grow hard, and to become arrogant, and to keep silver on his own private account, this man has transgressed the divine laws and has set them at naught; and he has annulled the covenants and the profession both of renunciation and of submission, and he is called a traitor [betrayer], for he has betrayed the word he had earlier pledged.

Ὁ διὰ τὸν φόβον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἑαυτὸν ὑποτάξας τῇ τῶν συνασκοuμένων ὑπηρεσίᾳ, ἐὰν ὕστερον ἄρξηται σκληρύνεσθαι, καὶ ὑπερηφανεύεσθαι, καὶ κρατεῖν ἀργύρια ἐπὶ λόγῳ ἰδίῳ, οὗτος τοὺς θείους νόμους παρέβη, καὶ παρηκωνίσατο, ἠθέτησέ τε τὰς συν- θήκας, καὶ τὴν ὁμολογίαν, τῆς τε ἀποταγῆς, καὶ τῆς ὑποταξίας, καὶ λέγεται προδότης, προέδωκε γὰρ τὸν προφθάσαντα λόγον.