[That the Judicatures of Christians Ought to Be Held on the Second Day of the Week.]

XLVII. Let your judicatures be held on the second day of the week, that if any controversy arise about your sentence, having an interval till the Sabbath,  217  [i.e., Saturday.] you may be able to set the controversy right, and to reduce those to peace who have the contests one with another against the Lord’s day. Let also the deacons and presbyters be present at your judicatures, to judge without acceptance of persons, as men of God, with righteousness. When, therefore, both the parties are come, according as the law says,  218  Deut. xix. 17. those that have the controversy shall stand severally in the middle of the court; and when you have heard them, give your votes holily, endeavouring to make them both friends before the sentence of the bishop, that judgment against the offender may not go abroad into the world; knowing that he has in the court the Christ of God as conscious of and confirming his judgment. But if any persons are accused by any one, and their fame suffers as if they did not walk uprightly in the Lord, in like manner you shall hear both parties—the accuser and accused; but not with prejudice, nor with hearkening to one part only, but with righteousness, as passing a sentence concerning eternal life or death. For says God: “He shall prosecute that which is right justly.”  219  Deut. xvi. 20. For he that is justly punished and separated by you is rejected from eternal life and glory; he becomes dishonourable among holy men, and one condemned of God.

[47] Τὰ δικαστήρια ὑμῶν γινέσθω δευτέρᾳ σαββάτων, ὅπως, ἐὰν ἀντιλογία τῇ ἀποφάσει ὑμῶν γένηται, ἕως σαββάτου ἔχοντες ἄδειαν δυνηθείητε εὐθῦναι τὴν ἀντιλογίαν καὶ εἰρηνεῦσαι εἰς τὴν κυριακὴν τοὺς διαφερομένους πρὸς ἀλλήλους. Συμπαρέστωσαν δὲ τῷ δικαστηρίῳ καὶ οἱ διάκονοι καὶ οἱ πρεσβύτεροι, ἀπροσωπολήπτως κρίνοντες ὡς Θεοῦ ἄνθρωποι μετὰ δικαιοσύνης. Παραγενομένων οὖν ἑκατέρων τῶν προσώπων, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Νόμος λέγει: »Στήσονται ἑκάτεροι ἐν μέσῳ τῷ κριτηρίῳ, οἷς ἔστιν ἡ ἀντιλογία«: καὶ ἀκούσαντες αὐτῶν, ὁσίως ἀνενέγκατε τὰς ψήφους, σπουδάζοντες φίλους αὐτοὺς ἀμφοτέρους ποιῆσαι πρὶν ἀποφάσεως τῆς τοῦ ἐπισκόπου, ὅπως μὴ ἐξέλθοι ἐπὶ γῆς κρίσις κατὰ τοῦ ἁμαρτήσαντος, καθότι καὶ ἐν τῷ δικαστηρίῳ σύμψηφον ἔχει καὶ συνίστορα τῆς δίκης τὸν Χριστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ. Εἰ δέ τινες ἐν βλασφημίαις τοῦ μὴ καλῶς ὁδεύειν ἐν Κυρίῳ ἐλέγχοιντο ὑπό τινος, ὁμοίως ἀκούσαντες ἑκατέρων τῶν προσώπων, τοῦ τε κατηγοροῦντος καὶ τοῦ κατηγορουμένου, ἀλλὰ μὴ προλήψει μηδὲ μονομερῶς, ἀλλὰ μετὰ δικαιοσύνης, ὡς ὑπὲρ ζωῆς αἰωνίου ἢ θανάτου διδόντες ἀπόφασιν: »Δικαίως γάρ, φησὶν ὁ Θεός, διώξει τὸ δίκαιον.« Ὁ γὰρ δικαίως τιμωρηθεὶς καὶ ἀφορισθεὶς παρ' ὑμῶν αἰωνίου ζωῆς καὶ δόξης ἀπόβλητος γέγονεν καὶ παρὰ ἀνθρώποις ὁσίοις ἄτιμος καὶ παρὰ Θεῷ κατάδικος.