Letter 13: Severus orders a careful canonical investigation into charges involving gifts at ordinations and Adelphian associations.

Severus writes to Entrechius in distress. He does not know whether to blame his own sins or the work of an evil spirit for the troubles now happening. Nothing has been more important to him than that Christians, and above all bishops, should live without reproach, so that opponents have no true accusation to make. Yet he is being troubled again by the same kind of matter. Clergy from the church of Flavias had already brought accusations against their bishop Procopius. Severus tried to handle the affair peacefully and keep it from becoming destructive. Now elderly men, poor and almost overcome by life, have come with more serious charges. He would have stopped the accusation if he could, but they persisted. He first proposed that Entrechius hear the case, but they objected, saying that life would be unbearable unless Procopius came before the apostolic throne. Severus therefore chooses a middle course. He sends Theodosius, a presbyter of Antioch, to examine the facts with Entrechius and to reach a canonical judgment. He notes two charges that already seem grave: Procopius should not have accepted gifts connected with ordinations after being warned, and he should not have named Lampetius in the divine sacrifice. Lampetius had been connected with the Adelphian heresy, whose members mask greed, immodesty, vainglory, and spiritual deceit under a false show of piety. Entrechius and Theodosius must investigate carefully and report back, so that the church's appearance may be preserved blameless on every side. Severus also insists that the poor accusers not be worn down by a long and useless hearing. Since necessity drove them to bring the charge, the church to which they belong should provide their daily support. Before the trial, Entrechius must also correct the expunging of their names from the clergy if, as they say, they were punished only because they appealed to Antioch after suffering wrongs.

I do not know whether I should lay the blame of the events that are happening upon my sins, or upon the operation of an evil demon. Though there is nothinfj else that I have had so much at heart or for which I have prayed so much as rhat every Christian should conduct himself blamelessly, but especially those who are high-priests, giving no cause for reproach or blame against themselves, but being " in everything a pattern of good works, in gravity and in holiness," as the A^postle says, " in order that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of us, "^ I see that not once only but twice also 1 am worried about the same matters. Indeed, though some of the devout clergymen of the holy church of Flavias had presented to us certain accusations upon. ■ 1 Tit. ii. 7, 8. certain subjects ^ against their God-loving bishop, and we managed the affair ourselves, and brought things that else would have been troublesome to a peaceful men bowed down with age have risen up to make more serious charges, men who, if one may so say, struggle against life itself, and live in utter poverty and need: if one were to call them a pitiable sight, the expression would not be amiss. The statements made by them are many and various. Still for my part, again following the same practice, I wished to stop their accusation if it were possible: but, as they went on saying the same things, I proposed to commit the hearing of the case ^ to your holiness. But, since they objected, and said that their life would be no life for them, if the religious Procopius their bishop did not come here, I have adopted a middle course (I do not think that others either will think the coming to us an easy thing) and resolved to send the religious Theodosius a presbyter of our apostolic see that he may examine the facts in conjunction with your love of God, and a decision consonant to the canons may be given by you, and a conclusion reached upon each of the subjects^ with the greatest possible accuracy. But at the same time we have resolved to say this much, that the said religious bishop Procopius should not, after the first warninp-, have received a oift at ordinations used to say, and again been detected in the same practices, as those who make the accusation against him say: nor should he have named Lampetius ' at the divine sacrifice, a man who was infected with the heresy of Adelphius, and for this reason was con- demned at Commanus in Armenia, as the minutes' of the records^ of that synod also show. Indeed, to pass over old matters, it is easy for your love of God to learn what canonical discussion the abominable flock of the Adelphians received in Second Cappadocia, seeing that the saintly Soteric bishop of the city of the men of Caesarea and the holy bishops who sat with him, from Cappadocia and from Pontus and from Galatia, then put forth a decision worthy of the priest- hood against it. Of this same heresy the outward token* is greed and immodesty and a mad desire of vain glory, owing to which they pride themselves in attracting admiration and receiving in secret the evil spirit: and, what is most important, the fact that, in- fected as they are with extreme godlessness, and wear- ing as they do a deceitful mask of hypocrisy in all things, they put forward this deception also, that their heresy is not a heresy: for they count up all the p- 62. heretics in order and anathematize them, but Adelphius they honour by silence. The celebrated freedom from passions of which they boast they do not display at all: and concerning- matters on which charges are made against them they give no satisfaction,* but from ^ Cf. vit. Sev. p. 28. 1. 24. " Trpafts. ^ VTrofj.vrjiJ.aTa. ■* TrXrjpocfiopLa. matters on which they are not accused they gather the reputation of not being godless. It lies therefore with your love of God in conjunction with the religious Theodosius the presbyter of our apostolic see to see that the whole matter is as I have said carefully ex- amined, and to make known the result of the examina- tion to us also, in order that on all sides the appear- ance of the church may be preserved blameless. And another thing seems to me to be urgently demanded by piety, I mean that these unhappy men be not vexed by a long and useless session, who from neces- sity, as I believe, have made the accusation; and that they should not support themselves at their own expense, but that they should receive double the necessary daily sustenance from the holy church of which they are members. Another matter too vou must set rig-ht without dispute before the trial itself, a thing which appeared to me absolutely incredible and still even now appears so: I mean that the said men themselves should be enrolled in the sacred number of the clergy, their names having been expunged, as they say, for this reason and no other, because they were able to have recourse to the apostolic throne on account of the things which they suffered and the wounds that have been as it does all presumptuous audacity, needs canonical punishment. I leave to your love of God to reflect