Letter 451: I would gladly ask you this, Maron: why is your war against virtue an unrelenting and unproclaimed one — a war waged...

To Bishop Eusebius: Know, admirable one, that judgment is without mercy for the one who has not shown mercy -- and not only on account of the gifts belonging to others, of which you deprive the poor, but also on account of your own possessions, whose sharing you are obligated to make willingly. To Ursenouphius the Reader: For this reason we are easily overcome, good sir, and easily captured: because we arm ourselves against one another... To Heracleius: How many who desired more lost everything, and gathering what was superfluous also lost what was necessary? How many who transgressed the established limits were stripped even of what was moderate? One must therefore cut away the superfluous so that we may be rich in what is necessary. For the greatest wealth is not to possess riches, but to have no need of riches.

ΥΒ΄. – ΕΥΣΕΒΙΟ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟ. Ἴσθι, θαυμάσιε, ὡς ἡ κρίσις ἀνέλεος τῷ μὴ ποιή- σαντι ἔλεος, οὐκ ἐκ τῶν ἀλλοτρίων μόνον δωρεῶν, ὧν αὐτὸς τοὺς πτωχοὺς ἀποστερεῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων, ὧν ἑκουσίως τὴν μετάδοσιν ποιεῖσθαι χρεω- στεῖς. Ο΄. – ΟΥΡΣΕΝΟΥΦΙΟ ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΤΗ. Διὰ τοῦτο εὐχείρωτοί ἐσμεν, ὦ βέλτιστε, καὶ εὐάλωτοι, ὅτι κατ' ἀλλήλων ὁπλιζόμεθα (22), στρα- [...] ΥΝ. - ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΟ. Πόσοι τοῦ πλείονος ἐπιθυμήσαντες, τοῦ παντὸς ἐξέπεσον, καὶ τὰ περιττὰ συναγαγόντες, καὶ τὰ ἀναγκαῖα ἀπώλεσαν; καὶ ὑπερβάντες τοὺς νενομισμένους ὅρους, καὶ τῶν μετρίων ἐγυμνώθησαν; Χρή οὖν περικόπτειν τὰ περιττὰ, ἵν᾿ ἐν τοῖς ἀναγκαίοις πλουτῶμεν · οὐ γὰρ τὸν πλοῦτον ἔχειν, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὴ δεῖσθαι πλούτου, πλοῦτός· ἐστι μέγιστος.