Letter 491: Command without example is only half of leadership, Paul — and the less important half.

To Zosimus the Presbyter: Even while the living are still fighting, they strike truces over the dead, and enemies make peace. Why, then, do you transgress both the laws of nature and the limits of enmity by slandering the dead? You think you are sharpening your tongue against dust and ashes, but first of all you insult sanctity itself, which all human beings claim. Moreover, the dead have an immortal soul, whose avenger is the unsleeping Eye. To Nilus: The same sins become more grievous according to place and time. For instance, murder is abominable; but if committed in a holy place, it becomes more abominable; and if at a holy time, most abominable of all. If, then, it is terrible in itself, and should also receive the added weight of place and time, it becomes greater and more grievous still. To Paul the Subdeacon: Do not consider, good sir, how no one might wrong you, but rather how, even if someone wishes to, he cannot. This is produced from no other source than from holding to what is needful and not reaching for more.

ΥΑ΄. – ΖΩΣΙΜΟ ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΕΡΟ. Οἱ μὲν ζῶντες, καὶ βάλλωνται (52) δὲ τοὺς τεθνεῶ- τας, καὶ οἱ πολέμιοι σπένδονται. Τί τοίνυν καὶ τοὺς τῆς φύσεως θεσμούς, καὶ τοὺς τῆς ἔχθρας ὑπερβαί νεις ὅρους, τὸν τεθνεῶτα κακηγορῶν; Σὺ γὰρ πρὸς κόνιν καὶ τέφραν ἀκονᾷν τὴν γλῶτταν ἡγῇ · ἀλλὰ πρῶτον μὲν τὴν ὁσίαν αὐτὴν ὑβρίζεις, ἧς πάν- τες ἄνθρωποι ἀντιποιοῦνται. Επειτα ψυχὴν ἀθά- νατον ἔχει, ἧς Εκδικός ἐστιν ὁ ἀκοίμητος ὀφθαλμός. ---LETTER 705 CDXCII--- ΥΒ΄. – ΝΕΙΛΩ. Τὰ αὐτὰ ἁμαρτήματα καὶ παρὰ τὸν τόπον καὶ παρὰ τὸν καιρὸν ἀργαλεώτερα γίγνεται. Οἷον ὁ φό- νος ἐστὶν ἐναγής· ἐὰν δὲ καὶ εἰς τόπον ἅγιον τολμηθῇ, ἐναγέστερος γίνεται · ἐὰν δὲ καὶ ἐν καιρῷ ἁγίῳ, ἐναγέστατος. Εἰ τοίνυν αὐτὸς καθ' ἑαυτόν ἐστι χαλεπὸς, προσλάβοι δὲ καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ τόπου 1 καὶ τοῦ καιροῦ προσθήκην, μείζων καὶ ἀργαλεώτε- ρος γίγνεται. Υ.Γ. – ΠΑΥΛΟ ΥΠΟΔΙΑΚΟΝΟ. Μὴ τοῦτο ἐννόει, ὦ βέλτιστε, ὅπως μηδείς σοι ἐπηρεάσῃ, ἀλλ᾽ ὅπως κᾶν, βούληται μὴ δύνηται, Τοῦτο δὲ οὐδαμόθεν ἑτέρωθεν ἐντίκτεται, ἢ ἐκ τοῦ τῆς χρείας ἔχεσθαι, καὶ μὴ πλειόνων ὀρέγεσθαι.