Letter 7: Severus tells Castor to preserve church order by ranking subdeacons ahead of readers and singers.

The devout subdeacons in your see have brought us a petition. Their request does not go beyond the holy canons; it stays within the boundaries set by the fathers, just as Scripture says. Your Holiness knows the commandment in Moses - or rather, the commandment of Christ speaking through Moses: "Do not move the ancient landmarks your fathers set up." Here is what this means. The subdeacons who sent us the petition say that they are being badly slighted and insulted by the readers and psaltai [church singers] of the holy church under your care. Those men are trying to seize the subdeacons' place by force and claim the first rank for themselves, against every principle of justice and against the rule observed in the holy churches. Everywhere under the sun, the order of subdeacons ranks ahead of readers: in the sacred tablets, in the receiving of the divine body and blood of Christ, and in the public proclamation of the church. Nowhere will anyone hear a reader named before a subdeacon by the sacred voice of those who proclaim the ranks. Your God-loving Reverence must preserve that same order. Do not be so negligent that church discipline takes second place to private ambition. As a teacher and interpreter of divine words, you know that even among the heavenly hosts there are ranks and degrees, some higher and some lower, some ascending and some descending. Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven, shows this when he writes to the Colossians about "thrones or dominions, principalities or powers." By these names he shows that order gives beauty even to the heavenly and invisible spirits. That order descends also to the church, founded by God the Word, who became incarnate and made both visible and invisible things. Because the great mystery of religion is administered there every day, the church does not differ from heaven in its likeness. The same wise Paul writes in Ephesians that Christ gave "some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers." Elsewhere he says that God placed in the church "first apostles, second prophets, third teachers," and the rest in their order. All this teaches us to honor order and avoid disorder and confusion. I urge Your Holiness to keep that principle in this matter, which is why I have written.

The order of devout subdeacons in your see has asked a certain petition of us, which does not pass beyond the holy canons, but is contained within the fathers' landmarks, as the sacred scripture says. For your sanctity well knows that there is a legal commandment in Moses, or rather a commandment of Christ who spoke through him, "You shall not remove the landmarks that are from of old, which your fathers set up." What this is it is necessary for us to say clearly. Those of the said order of subdeacons who presented the petition to us say that they are greatly contemned and insulted by the readers and psaltai or singers of the holy church that is under you, inasmuch as they are trying to seize their place by violence, and seek to grasp for themselves the first rank, contrary to every consideration of justice and the law that prevails in the holy churches. Everywhere under the sun the order of subdeacons ranks before that of readers: both when named in the sacred tablets, and in the reception of the divine body and blood of Christ. No one will anywhere see a reader mentioned before a subdeacon by the sacred voice of those that proclaim. Therefore your love of God also must preserve the same order, and not be so negligent as to place discipline second to the covetousness of individuals. You, who are a teacher and expounder of the divine words, are not unaware that even in the hosts that are in heaven there are certain ranks and degrees which are ranked before one another, those which are high as well as those which are low, those which ascend as well as those which descend. Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven, shows this when he writes to the Colossians and says, "Whether they be thrones or dominions, whether they be principalities or powers," and by such names shows that there is some order which bestows fair adornment even upon the heavenly and invisible spirits, and thence descends to the church also, which was founded by God the Word who became incarnate and made the things that are seen and the things that are not seen, but differs in no way in its similitude from heaven, by reason of the great mystery of religion that is every day administered in it. Wherefore also the same wise Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians writes thus about it: "And he himself gave: some apostles; and some prophets; and some preachers; and some pastors and teachers." In another place he says, "For God set first in his church apostles; next prophets; next teachers," and all that follow. By all these things we are taught to honour order, and to shun disorder and confusion: which principle we urge your sanctity also to observe in this present matter which gave occasion for this letter.