[What Ought to Be the Characters of a Bishop and of the Rest of the Clergy.]

II. Let him therefore be sober, prudent, decent, firm, stable, not given to wine; no striker, but gentle; not a brawler, not covetous; “not a novice, lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into condemnation, and the snare of the devil: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased.”  13  Prov. vii. 1, etc. Prov. vii. 1, etc. Such a one a bishop ought to be, who has been the “husband of one wife,”  14  Prov. v. 3, 4 Prov. v. 3, 4 who also has herself had no other husband, “ruling well his own house.”  15  Prov. vii. 25, 26 Prov. vii. 25, 26 In this manner let examination be made when he is to receive ordination, and to be placed in his bishopric, whether he be grave, faithful, decent; whether he hath a grave and faithful wife, or has formerly had such a one; whether he hath educated his children piously, and has “brought them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;”  16  Prov. v. 11, etc. Prov. v. 11, etc. whether his domestics do fear and reverence him, and are all obedient to him: for if those who are immediately about him for worldly concerns are seditious and disobedient, how will others not of his family, when they are under his management, become obedient to him?

[2] Ἔστω οὖν καὶ νηφάλιος, σώφρων, κόσμιος, εὐσταθής, ἀτάραχος, μὴ πάροινος, μὴ πλήκτης, ἀλλ' ἐπιεικής, ἄμαχος, ἀφιλάργυρος: μὴ νεόφυτος, ἵνα μὴ τυφωθεὶς εἰς κρίμα ἐμπέσῃ τοῦ διαβόλου, ὅτι: «Πᾶς ὁ ὑψῶν ἑαυτὸν ταπεινωθήσεται». Τοιοῦτον δὲ δεῖ εἶναι τὸν ἐπίσκοπον: μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἄνδρα γεγενημένον μονογάμου, καλῶς τοῦ ἰδίου οἴκου προεστῶτα. Οὕτως γὰρ δοκιμαζέσθω, ὁπόταν τὴν χειροτονίαν λαμβάνων καθίσταται ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς: εἰ ἔστι πιστὸς καὶ κόσμιος καὶ σεμνός, εἰ γυναῖκα πιστὴν καὶ σεμνὴν ἔχει ἢ ἔσχηκεν, εἰ τέκνα θεοσεβῶς ἀναθρέψας καὶ ἐν νουθεσίᾳ Κυρίου παιδεύσας προήγαγεν, εἰ οἱ κατ' οἶκον αὐτοῦ, εὐλαβούμενοι καὶ ἐντρεπόμενοι αὐτόν, ὑπήκοοι πάντες εἰσὶν αὐτῷ. Εἰ γὰρ οἱ κατὰ σάρκα ἴδιοι αὐτοῦ πρὸς αὐτὸν στασιάζουσιν καὶ ἀπειθοῦσιν, πῶς οἱ ἔξω τῆς οἰκίας αὐτοῦ ἴδιοι γενόμενοι αὐτῷ ὑποταγήσονται;