The letter is a compact statement of Severus' pastoral distinction between ignorance and willful compromise. Source id IV.5; Brooks page 261; source-facing English extracted by body markers from the Archive OCR text; original Syriac source-text backfill remains pending.
Severus tells Cosmas that Julian has been readily forgiven because his fault was involuntary and committed in ignorance. The distinction matters. A person who knowingly joins heretical communion does grave injury to the faith, but someone drawn in without understanding and then confessing the truth should be healed rather than crushed.
Severus is not making light of communion with false teaching. He treats it as spiritually dangerous precisely because the church's fellowship confesses the faith. But he also refuses to turn discipline into cruelty. Those who were deceived or ignorant and now return should be received, taught, and strengthened. Cosmas must keep the heart of the matter clear: preserve the confession of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, while forgiving those who sinned without willing the sin.
We have readily forgiven the devout Julian the sin that was involuntarily committed by him. Ignorance and the fact that the man who has sinned confesses this, and in consciousness of his fault asks for forgive - ^ He. xii. 4. ^2 Co. iii. 18. ness, is a sufficient defence. In fact, even when the service of Moses' law prevailed, a man's ignorance, or rather the sin arising from this, was not forgiven him on any other condition except on his offering the sacrifice for sin: and now also, when the bloodless sacrifice has taken its place, and the truth has expelled the shadow, in place of a sin-ram, or a pair of turtle- doves or young pigeons, and in place of offering fine wheat flour,^ we have "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world " ^: only if we duly confess the sin. For David also the speaker of divine things somewhere says in song, " I said ' I will confess my forgavest the iniquity of my heart. "^ This also you must clearly know: that the Lord has forgiven through our meanness not only the man who committed the sin, but also all who in ignorance communicated with him. For do not think that the sin committed by the brother is less. For a man to associate in communion with heretics is grievous, and unpardonable, when the sin is voluntarily committed. For how is it anything but shameful that, while we do not consent to eat common sustenance with our own enemies, we should eat the heavenly bread which gives life to the world with the enemies of God, or that we should communi- <:ate with those that are wrongfully presented for ordination by them as with holy men, when the Apostle cries, " What communion hath light with darkness.'* or ^Le. V. i-ii. -John i. 29. ^ Ps. xxxi. 5. what part hath a believer with an unbeHever? "/ and John the son of thunder writes to the believers, "If any man cometh unto you and bringeth not this teaching, receive him not in the house and say not to him ' Hail '; for he that saith to him ' Hail ' is partaker of his evil deeds."?^ Therefore, these things being so, keep your heart "with all observance," as it is written.^ F'or that " without faith it is impossible to please" is a declaration * of the Holy Spirit
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Severus tells Cosmas that Julian has been readily forgiven because his fault was involuntary and committed in ignorance. The distinction matters. A person who knowingly joins heretical communion does grave injury to the faith, but someone drawn in without understanding and then confessing the truth should be healed rather than crushed.
Severus is not making light of communion with false teaching. He treats it as spiritually dangerous precisely because the church's fellowship confesses the faith. But he also refuses to turn discipline into cruelty. Those who were deceived or ignorant and now return should be received, taught, and strengthened. Cosmas must keep the heart of the matter clear: preserve the confession of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit, while forgiving those who sinned without willing the sin.
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
Original text not yet available in this corpus.
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