Theodoret of Cyrrhus→Domnus of Antioch|c. 440 AD|theodoret cyrrhus
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Theodoret to the Patrician Anatolius.
The knowledge that Your Magnificence abounds in the love of God encourages me to call upon your great and generous patronage. This I do not in the interests of personal profit, for by God's grace I possess nothing and desire nothing, but on behalf of others who lack the protection of a powerful friend.
The people of Cyrrhus, over whom by God's providence I have been set as bishop, are suffering grievously. The burden of their taxes has become unbearable, not because the assessment is unjust but because the majority of the population has fled. Many have migrated to places where life is easier, and the fiscal obligation that belonged to the whole community now falls upon the few who remain.
I therefore beseech Your Magnificence to lend the weight of your authority to their relief. You have it in your power to lighten their load and to earn from God a reward far surpassing any earthly distinction.
Letter 31
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To Domnus Bishop of Antioch.
The most admirable and honourable Celestinianus is a native of the famous Carthage, and of an illustrious family in that city. Now he has been exiled from it. He is wandering in foreign parts, and has to look to the benevolence of them that love God. He carries with him a burden from which he cannot escape and which increases his care — I mean his wife, his children and his servants, for whom he is at great expense. I wonder at his spirit. For he praises the great Pilot as though he were being borne by favourable breezes, and cares nothing for the terrible storm. From his calamity he has reaped the fruit of piety, and this thrice blessed gain has been brought him by his misfortune; for while he was in prosperity he never accepted this teaching, but when the evil day left him bare, among the rest of his losses he lost his impiety too, and now possesses the wealth of the faith, and for its sake thinks little of his ruin.
I therefore beseech your holiness to let him find a fatherland in these foreign parts, and to charge them that abound in riches to comfort one who once was endowed like themselves, and to scatter the dark cloud of his calamity. It is only right and proper that among men of like nature, where all have erred, they that have escaped chastisement should bring comfort to them that have fallen on evil days, and by their sympathy for these latter propitiate the mercy of God.
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Theodoret to the Patrician Anatolius.
The knowledge that Your Magnificence abounds in the love of God encourages me to call upon your great and generous patronage. This I do not in the interests of personal profit, for by God's grace I possess nothing and desire nothing, but on behalf of others who lack the protection of a powerful friend.
The people of Cyrrhus, over whom by God's providence I have been set as bishop, are suffering grievously. The burden of their taxes has become unbearable, not because the assessment is unjust but because the majority of the population has fled. Many have migrated to places where life is easier, and the fiscal obligation that belonged to the whole community now falls upon the few who remain.
I therefore beseech Your Magnificence to lend the weight of your authority to their relief. You have it in your power to lighten their load and to earn from God a reward far surpassing any earthly distinction.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.