Letter 33: Severus tells Dionysius that a priestly ordination compelled by fear has no lawful force.

Severus tells Dionysius that a new and alarming thing has happened: military force has been used to compel an ordination. Soldiers, swords, and fear have no place in making a priest. An ordination pressed forward under threat is not an act of the Spirit but an act of violence wearing sacred clothing. He therefore judges the ordination void. The person who was compelled should not be treated as bound by a rite forced on him against his will, and those who used coercion cannot claim that the church's order has been satisfied. For Severus, law and pastoral judgment meet here: the church does not recognize a ministry born from fear, and the attempted ordination remains void as the law itself requires.

Time has, it seems, brought a new thing, I mean a that ordination be conferred by high-priests upon certain persons; for such is the unreasonable treatment which the God-loving bishop of Pompeiupolis has informed the apostolic see that he has received; and he says that soldiers with their swords held above his head almost threatened to take his head off, unless he laid his hand on the head of such-and-such a man. This illeoal act therefore must bv all means be annulled, and be considered as if it had never been done. For it is known to everyone that, where there is fear and a threat of death, and anything- akin to these, and any of the passions that are created by the devil, there the descent of the Holy Spirit is assuredly prevented. I forbear to mention that as a result of this a very bad precedent will also be laid upon the churches, and we shall be required henceforth to perform solemn functions after the manner of tyrants, unless what has been wrongfully done remains void, as is in fact demanded by law