Letter 819: Virtue must be practiced with all one's strength — not merely admired from a distance.
Are you unaware that those who are, from demons, depraved, since they are not willing to direct their gaze toward the truth, are manifestly refuted from the very things in which they take pride? For a certain man, endowed with a form approved by God, wears in beauty the emblem of all virtue, and is such that no one could corrupt him. But some call a virtue by the name of the vice closest to it, and do not hesitate to do so. Wherefore, if they also represent the same matters, they do not speak the truth, nor do they regard the matter rightly, nor do they turn to virtue; against these the Scriptures inveigh, because they stir up absurd laughter. Those who receive the priesthood, O excellent man, must not only not be defiled, but must be zealous to guard and safeguard it with all purity. For the priesthood, which has been entrusted to them by degree and by right, they must neither violate nor allow to be violated. To Maron, Presbyter. Not those who receive the priesthood, excellent man, but those who defile it, must one accuse and expose and put to shame. For the priesthood does not suffer injury from those who hold it rightly, but rather infects those who hold it wickedly. It is said that dominion over external things has been spoken of, but it is shameful, and has advanced not through poverty but through the poverty of Fortune itself. Wherefore if you also think and act rightly, do not be ashamed on account of poverty, nor be overcome by disgrace, but be transformed to virtue as to a better state.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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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