Letter 9: Severus answers Stephen that a forced ordination by non-orthodox clergy does not require the usual dismissal letter.

Though I am a sinful and lowly man, nothing pleases me more than trying to do everything I intend to do with reason. For that reason I accept and praise Your God-loving Reverence for hesitating over one of the points I wrote to you. On that point I must give a canonical answer, for Scripture says: "The lips of a priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law from his mouth." Your question is this: should the devout presbyter Stephen be counted among the holy clergy of the church in Tripolis, even though he does not bring a dismissal letter from the bishop who ordained him? First, we hear that the man was ordained by force, and that he resisted an ordination outside the proper boundaries because he could not live in a foreign city that was not his own. Second, even if that report were not true, we must recognize that those who do not hold the orthodox faith, and therefore do not share the pure communion of our apostolic throne, have no part in strict canonical order. When people flee from association with them and come over to sound teaching, we should not demand from those ordainers a dismissal letter, or any other canonical document, as though it were required by law. We can learn this easily from the letter of holy Cyril to Nestorius - every word of Cyril may be called a law of the church. In that letter he declared himself to be in communion with everyone whom Nestorius had separated or deprived because of the faith, whether lay people or clergy. He wrote: "We are all in communion with all who have been separated by your devoutness and deprived on account of the faith, laymen and clergymen." So do what we have judged to be right, without doubt or hesitation. Know also that, if we had not had such regard for the holy memory of the presbyter Severus, whose lot is with the saints, perhaps we would not have written such a directive to you at all. Your God-loving Reverence should be assured that we do not wish to write to the God-loving bishops under the apostolic throne about ordinations or about enrolling individual people among the clergy, unless some just cause arises - as it has here. As for the venerable cross that has traditionally stood before the house of Theodore, the Illustrious governor and vindex [a late Roman legal official], Your Holiness should make every effort to keep it there. Bishops like you have a duty to restrain any disorderly movements of the crowd if they occur, to maintain good order in the cities, and to watch over the peaceful customs of the people entrusted to them.

Sinful and vile man though we are, nothing pleases us so much as to try to do everything that we wish to do with reason. Wherefore also we accept and praise your love of God for having been in doubt with regard to one of the paragraphs that were written by us: regarding which we must by all means make a canonical answer; for it is written, "The lips of a priest shall keep knowledge, and they shall ask for law from his mouth." What is the question which you ask because you were in doubt? Whether the devout presbyter Stephen ought to be reckoned among the holy clergy of the holy church in Tripolis, when he does not bring with him a dimissory letter from him who ordained him. Now in the first place we hear that the man was ordained by force, and that he recoiled from or objected to an ordination outside the bounds, because he cannot live in a strange city which is not his own. In the second place, even if this which we have stated is not the fact, we ought to know that those who do not hold to the orthodox faith, and therefore to the pure communion of our apostolic throne, have no share in strict canonical form, and we ought not to seek a dimissory letter from these, as if it were something necessary and required by law, or any other canonical requisite, when men flee from association with these and come over to the sound teaching. This we may learn easily and without trouble from the epistle of the holy Cyril to Nestorius, in which he asserted himself to be in communion with all who had been separated by him, and had received from him either a ban of excommunication or a decree of deprivation, in these words: "But we are all in communion with all who have been separated by your devoutness and deprived on account of the faith, laymen and clergymen." Do therefore the things which have been decided by us to be right without any doubt or hesitation, and know clearly that, if we had not taken much account of the saintly memory of Severus the presbyter whose is the lot of the saints, we should not perhaps have written to you any such thing. For your love of God must be assured that it is our earnest endeavour and desire not to write anything at all to the God-loving bishops under the apostolic throne about ordination, or about the enrolling of individuals in the order of the clergy, unless perhaps some just cause somewhere arise, as we see to be the case in the present instance. As to the venerable cross remaining fixed before the house of Theodore the illustrious governor and vindex after the former fashion, let your sanctity make it your earnest concern that it do so. It is the duty of bishops like you to cut short and to restrain any unregulated movements of the mob, if they should indeed occur, and to set themselves to maintain all good order in the cities, and to keep watch over the peaceful manners and customs of those who are fed by them.