Letter 495: You are under pressure, Pamretios, and you want to know whether you should give way.
To Zosimos and Maron. Some say that not even Metrodorus the Epicurean confirmed the doctrines of Epicurus — who was banished by all the wise — through his actions as thoroughly as your wretched trio has. If then they speak the truth, cease from your licentiousness. But if not, hold fast to temperance.
To Theodosios the Bishop. I hesitate to speak, lest I seem to flatter — for I consider flattery the most shameful of all subtle passions. But I will speak, compelled by the truth: that no one, as I think, or rather as I am convinced, could attain to your excellences, not even with ten tongues and ten mouths and an inexhaustible power of speech.
To Dionysios the Presbyter. The one who, knowing no good, lives in wickedness is worthy of forgiveness, since he either did not know or could not know the good, and so is not culpable. But the one who, after many experiences of virtue, falls away is properly to be condemned, as one who knows the best course and yet provides the worst.
To Martinianos. On avarice. The love of bodies, if assailed by sickness and old age, is extinguished — though such ills may make it more intense for a time. For as the body fades, desire too fades, and satiety naturally follows. But the love of money no one has ever been able to extinguish through age or sickness. The reason is that this love has no proper limit — for it can neither be satisfied, since neither fifty talents suffice for the insatiable hydra through whose many and unslaked mouths the foods pass without ever bringing fullness, nor does it become weary even when possessed of a hundred, having the semblance of a perishing thing yet proving itself insatiable. How then could anyone tame or restrain such a monster?
Since divine providence, chiefly concerned for those who sin, looks to their salvation — and therefore using a just and humane proclamation of clemency, He exclaims: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near." But if those who sin, not heeding the admonition, and despising such patience and leniency, shall receive condemnation — perhaps indeed in this life, but certainly when the time for the chastisement of the wicked arrives — He will no longer spare those who refused to spare themselves, and from those by whom His own long-suffering was despised, He will exact punishments. To this the Scripture points when it says: "I was silent, and shall I always be silent and endure?" For there is no one who, having received from such great patience no benefit, but having drawn from it the occasion of more grievous sins, should not be bound by divine punishments and torments.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
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