[After What Manner the Bishops are to Be Honoured, and to Be Reverenced as Our Spiritual Parents.]

XXXIII. For if the divine oracle says, concerning our parents according to the flesh, “Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee;”  164  Ex. xx. 12. and, “He that curseth his father or his mother, let him die the death;”  165  Ex. xxi. 17. how much more should the word exhort you to honour your spiritual parents, and to love them as your benefactors and ambassadors with God, who have regenerated you by water, and endued you with the fulness of the Holy Spirit, who have fed you with the word as with milk, who have nourished you with doctrine, who have confirmed you by their admonitions, who have imparted to you the saving body and precious blood of Christ, who have loosed you from your sins, who have made you partakers of the holy and sacred eucharist, who have admitted you to be partakers and fellow-heirs of the promise of God! Reverence these, and honour them with all kinds of honour; for they have obtained from God the power of life and death, in their judging of sinners, and condemning them to the death of eternal fire, as also of loosing returning sinners from their sins, and of restoring them to a new life.

[33] Διὰ τοῦ ἐπισκόπου σου ὁ Θεὸς υἱοποιεῖταί σε, ἄνθρωπε: γνώριζε οὖν, υἱέ, τὴν δεξιάν, τὴν μητέρα σου καὶ στέργε, καὶ τὸν μετὰ Θεὸν γενόμενόν σου πατέρα σέβου. Εἰ γὰρ περὶ τῶν κατὰ σάρκα γονέων φησὶν τὸ θεῖον λόγιον: »Τίμα τὸν πατέρα σου καὶ τὴν μητέρα σου, ἵνα εὖ σοι γένηται«, καί: »Ὁ κακολογῶν πατέρα ἢ μητέρα θανάτῳ τελευτάτω«, πόσῳ μᾶλλον περὶ τῶν πνευματικῶν γονέων ὑμῖν ὁ λόγος παραινέσει τιμᾶν αὐτοὺς καὶ στέργειν, ὡς εὐεργέτας καὶ πρεσβευτὰς πρὸς Θεόν; Τοὺς δι' ὕδατος ὑμᾶς ἀναγεννήσαντας, τοὺς τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι πληρώσαντας, τοὺς τῷ λόγῳ γαλακτοτροφήσαντας, τοὺς ἐν τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ ἀναθρεψαμένους, τοὺς ἐν ταῖς νουθεσίαις στηρίξαντας, τοὺς τοῦ σωτηρίου σώματος καὶ τοῦ τιμίου αἵματος ἀξιώσαντας ὑμᾶς, τοὺς τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν λύσαντας καὶ τῆς ἁγίας καὶ ἱερᾶς εὐχαριστίας μετόχους ποιήσαντας καὶ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας τοῦ Θεοῦ κοινωνοὺς καὶ συγκληρονόμους θεμένους ὑμᾶς. Τούτους εὐλαβούμενοι τιμᾶτε παντοίαις τιμαῖς: οὗτοι γὰρ παρὰ Θεοῦ ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου ἐξουσίαν εἰλήφασιν ἐν τῷ δικάζειν τοὺς ἡμαρτηκότας καὶ καταδικάζειν εἰς θάνατον πυρὸς αἰωνίου καὶ λύειν ἁμαρτιῶν τοὺς ἐπιστρέφοντας καὶ Ζωογονεῖν αὐτούς.