Letter 30: Severus tells Apamea's clergy to choose a bishop by Scripture, virtue, and canonical order rather than rhetoric, pressure, or faction.

Severus begins by rebuking the clergy of Apamea for the way they opened their letter. They are clergy writing to a bishop about a spiritual matter, he says, so they should not have begun with a quotation from a Greek rhetorician. Scripture was more than enough. David, Job, Proverbs, and Elijah could have taught the same lesson about human frailty and right judgment without making the letter sound false at the start. Paul sometimes quoted poets, but only when speaking to people who had not been formed by Scripture. That excuse does not apply to them. He then turns to the urgent matter. Isaac, their bishop, has died, and Severus grieves that Isaac left this life before he could defend the orthodox faith he had confessed in Antioch. Still, God's judgments must be accepted. What remains is not to leave the church of Apamea without a shepherd during the holy days of Christ's Passion and Resurrection. The clergy must quickly draw up a psephisma [an episcopal election slate] naming three candidates of good reputation, tested virtue, orthodox faith, and real spiritual strength. Severus defines that strength carefully. A bishop must be powerful not through office, connections, or social rank, but because he rules his own passions and can teach sound doctrine while refuting opponents. Such a choice will please God and also gladden the pious king, who cares deeply about the apostolic faith. The clergy must not be swayed by worldly authority or fleshly considerations, and they must not vote for men who themselves still need purification. Severus will not accept such a candidate, not even under pressure. He closes with a warning and an administrative order. If they nominate unsuitable men, they will be sharing in other people's sins. They should send serious, modest, trustworthy delegates to the apostolic see for judgment. He has also heard that, while Isaac was dying, certain people unlawfully removed the steward responsible for church property and took the keys from him. Severus orders the former steward restored and the new appointees removed, so the original steward cannot later claim that temporary removal kept him from giving a full account of his past administration.

Your love of God, marked out as you are by the orders of the holy clergy of the church, and addressing a bishop, and upon a spiritual subject/ ought not to have cited the rhetor of Greece in the preludes ■' or begin- nings of your admirable letter. In due time Elijah the Tishbite, urged by the same zeal, will now say to you also, " Is it because there is not a prophet in Israel that ye go to inquire of the fiy-Baal, the abomination of the gods of Ekron?"^ Fitly also will the book of Pro- verbs reprove you which says, " Drink waters out of thy vessels and out of the spring of thy wells." ^ You did not make search in order to draw from the divine scripture a saying that would prove the swiftness and weakness of human life. For the prophet David says, " Our days pass away like a shadow." " And the divine Job, while playing the philosopher during the grievous trial caused by his suffering, said, " For we are of yesterday, and we know not":'' and again, " My life was swifter than a runner." ' We are not unaware that the wise Paul also often quoted the words of poets in speaking to certain persons. But the character of the hearers, who had not been instructed out of the God- inspired words, in itself made the use of testimony from these seemly in his case. The divine scripture should therefore have been enough for you, and you should not have started by making the beginning spurious and false. We therefore (for we must now return to that which is more useful and more urgent) have been orieved at the decease of Isaac of religious memory, your bishop; and we have been distressed because he left the present life before he had main- tained a contest on behalf of the doctrines of orthodoxy, which he proclaimed in writing and otherwise in this great Christ-loving city. However we submit to God, the orderer of such deep judgments. But the duty that remains for us is this; not to be negligent and leave your holy church without a shepherd during the days that are so venerated of the saving Passion and of the Resurrection of Christ. Make haste therefore and draw up quickly a psephisma in favour of three men of favourable repute and well known for virtue and, as it is written, "powerful men and religious, men that are just and hate pride." ^ But the powerful man is defined by the divine law as the man who through his life and conduct has power over the passions of the flesh, and possesses accurate and well-tried faith, which is greater than everything and is the foundation of our salvation. For the man who is to stand at the head oi rational souls must have power in him. and is " able to comfort by sound teaching and to refute the gain- savers,""- as the Apostle, who had Christ speaking in him, handed down to us. This besides pleasing God will also gladden our pious king, seeing that he is much concerned for the apostolic faith, and has been brought up in such doctrines from his boyhood: who also in some sort did not praise our meanness for having delayed until to-day to institute shepherds for the cities 1 Ex. xviii. 21. - Tit. i. 9. that are in need, who shall feed them with under- standing. Do not therefore look to worldly authori- \ ties, or under the influence of fleshly considerations put / forth your vote in favour of certain men who live in a worldly atmosphere and need much purification, and ought not to be entrusted with the purification of the people and to offer the bloodless and rational sacrifice on behalf of the faults of whole congregations and as an expiation: for I hear that certain men among you dare to do such things, thinking to make a mockery of things that are divine and not subjects for mockery. Let no one think that I shall acquiesce in a vote in favour of such men, no not if I be very mad. It does not suit me because of the inconsiderate action of certain per- sons to "partake in other men's sins," as it is written,^ or for no purpose to be sent to the eternal fire. When therefore you have duly drawn up a psephisiua in accordance with our counsels, or rather according as the sacred ordinances and laws provide, let there come according to custom devout men, men modest in their conduct and earnest in character, such as are fitted to approach the apostolic throne and receive its judg- ment. We learn that, while Isaac of saintly memory was breathing his last, certain persons, wishing to hide their own faults, by an evil action dared to remove from his office the man who was entrusted with the prior stewardship of the church property, and to put forward ^ I Ti. V. 22. 1. Others in his place, having unlawfully and contrary to custom taken the keys from him.. Accordingly we have determined that the man who administered the stewardship before shall hold the same charge, and those who have now been introduced shall be turned out and remain somewhere at a distance, and that they shall not participate at all, lest by depriving him for a short time of his stewardship we seem to be giving him also some just reason for not giving an account for the whole of his administration in time past.