[After What Manner False Accusers are to Be Punished.]

XLIII. Thou shalt therefore cast him out of the congregation as a murderer of his brother. Some time afterwards, if he says that he repents, mortify him with fastings, and afterwards ye shall lay your hands upon him and receive him, but still securing him, that he does not disturb anybody a second time. But if, when he is admitted again, he be alike troublesome, and will not cease to disturb and to quarrel with his brother, spying faults out of a contentious spirit, cast him out as a pernicious person, that he may not lay waste the Church of God. For such a one is the raiser of disturbances in cities; for he, though he be within, does not become the Church, but is a superfluous and vain member, casting a blot, as far as in him lies, on the body of Christ. For if such men as are born with superfluous members of their body, which hang to them as fingers, or excrescences of flesh, cut them away from themselves on account of their indecency, whereby the unseemliness vanishes, and the man recovers his natural good shape by the means of the surgeon; how much more ought you, the pastors of the Church (for the Church is a perfect body, and sound members; of such as believe in God, in the fear of the Lord, and in love), to do the like when there is found in it a superfluous member with wicked designs, and rendering the rest of the body unseemly, and disturbing it with sedition, and war, and evil-speaking; causing fears, disturbances, blots, evil-speaking, accusations, disorders, and doing the like works of the devil, as if he were ordained by the devil to cast a reproach on the Church by calumnies, and mighty disorders, and strife, and division! Such a one, therefore, when he is a second time cast out of the Church, is justly cut off entirely from the congregation of the Lord. And now the Church of the Lord will be more beautiful than it was before, when it had a superfluous, and to itself a disagreeable member. Wherefore henceforward it will be free from blame and reproach, and become clear of such wicked, deceitful, abusive, unmerciful, traitorous persons; of such as are “haters of those that are good, lovers of pleasure,”  206  2 Tim. iii. 3, 4. affecters of vainglory, deceivers, and pretenders to wisdom; of such as make it their business to scatter, or rather utterly to disperse, the lambs of the Lord.

[Sec. VI.—The Disputes of the Faithful to Be Settled by the Decisions of the Bishop, and the Faithful to Be Reconciled.]

Do thou therefore, O bishop, together with thy subordinate clergy, endeavour rightly to divide the word of truth. For the Lord says: “If you walk cross-grained to me, I will walk cross-grained to you.”  207  Lev. xxvi. 27, 28. And elsewhere: “With the holy Thou wilt be holy, and with the perfect man Thou wilt be perfect, and with the froward Thou wilt be froward.”  208  Ps. xviii. 26. Walk therefore holily, that you may rather appear worthy of praise from the Lord than of complaint from the adversary.

[43] Ποιήσεις οὖν αὐτὸν ἀποσυνάγωγον ὡς φονέα ἀδελφοῦ. Ἔπειτα χρόνου διαστάντος, ἐὰν λέγῃ μετανοεῖν, στιβώσατε αὐτὸν νηστείαις, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα χειροθετήσαντες προσδέξασθε αὐτὸν, ἀσφαλισάμενοι μέντοι αὐτόν, μή τινα ταράξῃ πάλιν. Εἰ δὲ πάλιν εἰσελθὼν ὁμοίως στασιάζει, οὐ παυόμενος τοῦ ταράσσειν καὶ κατακερτομεῖν τῶν ἀδελφῶν, ἐκ φιλονεικίας μώμους ἐπιτηδεύων, ἐκβάλετε αὐτὸν ὡς λοιμόν, ἵνα μὴ τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ λυμαίνηται: »Ὁ τοιοῦτος γὰρ ταραχὰς συνίστησι πόλει.« Οὗτος γὰρ κἂν ἔσω ᾖ, μὴ πρέπων τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, περισσὸς καὶ μάταιος τυγχάνει, σπιλῶν ὅσον τὸ ἐπ' αὐτῷ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Εἰ γάρ τινες τῶν ἀνθρώπων, γεννώμενοι καὶ περισσὰ τῶν σωμάτων μέλη προσηρτημένα ἔχοντες, οἷον δακτύλους ἢ ὑπερσαρκώματα, περικόπτουσιν ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν ταῦτα διὰ τὴν ἀπρέπειαν, καὶ οὐδεμία προσγίνεται ἀπρέπεια, ἀπολαβόντος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου διὰ τοῦ τεχνίτου τὴν φυσικὴν εὐκοσμίαν, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ὑμεῖς, οἱ ποιμένες, τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ὑπαρχούσης σώματος ἀρτίου καὶ μελῶν ὑγιεινῶν τῶν ἐπὶ Θεὸν πιστευόντων ἐν φόβῳ Κυρίου καὶ ἀγάπῃ, ὅταν εὑρεθῇ ἓν μέλος περισσόν, πονηρὰ φρονοῦν καὶ τῷ λοιπῷ σώματι ἀπρέπειαν ἐμποιοῦν καὶ χειμάζον αὐτὸ στάσει καὶ μάχῃ καὶ καταλαλιᾷ, παρέχον αὐτῷ ψόγους, πράγματα, μώμους, καταλαλιάς, ἐγκλήματα, ἀκαταστασίας, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τοῦ διαβόλου ἐνεργήματα ἐκτελῶν ὡς ἂν κεχειροτονημένος ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου σκυβαλίζειν τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν διὰ βλασφημιῶν καὶ πολλῆς ἀκαταστασίας καὶ ἔριδος καὶ διχοστασίας; Οὗτος οὖν, δεύτερον ἔξω τῆς Ἐκκλησίας βληθείς, ἀξίως ἀπετμήθη τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου συναγωγῆς: καὶ μᾶλλον νῦν κεκόσμηται ἡ τοῦ Κυρίου Ἐκκλησία ἢ τὸ πρῶτον, ὅτε τὸ περιττὸν ἐκέκτητο καὶ ἑαυτῆς ἀνοίκειον μέλος: διὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀβλασφήμητός ἐστιν καὶ ἀσκυβάλιστος, πονηρῶν ἀπαλλαγεῖσα, δολίων, λοιδόρων, ἀνημέρων, προδοτῶν, μισοκάλων, φιληδόνων, κενοδόξων, ἀπατηλῶν, δοξοσόφων, ἔργον θεμένων διασπείρειν, μᾶλλον δὲ διασκορπίζειν τὰ τοῦ Κυρίου ἀρνία.