Letter 338: Theodore Studite, Letter 338; Greek heading: Κωνσταντίνῳ.

What is the reason for my writing to your Honor? It is your fine uprightness in the faith, because you have not been carried away together with the persecutors of Christ [the iconoclasts], casting your reasonings aside to be borne off wherever they may lead, but, like a skilled helmsman, you sit at the spiritual tiller, steering the ship of your soul into the good harbors of orthodoxy, having backed the stern against the heretical surging waves by the breezes of the Spirit. Since I was taught this by our beloved brother who is delivering this letter to you, I thought it well to write, joining myself to your love, which it is necessary for the Christian to do, and especially when, as now, the body of Christ has been cut by the sword of heresy [hairesis] at the hand of the devil. May you therefore be guarded, O good man, unharmed by the providence of God, building upon the foundation gold, silver, and indeed precious stones, so that you may be reckoned a temple of the Lord. So be it.