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having been established through these sufferings, knows no succession nor expects an end, but is endless, not interrupted by the difficulty of the times, not by the plots of men, not by the assaults of demons, not by death itself. But if you wish also to mourn, mourn for those who do such things, the perpetrators of these evils, the ministers who both have stored up for themselves the greatest punishment for the future and here have already paid the ultimate penalty, with so many turning away from them and considering them enemies, cursing them, condemning them. But if they are not aware of these things, for this reason especially are they pitiable and worthy of tears, just like those possessed by the disease of madness, kicking and striking those they meet rashly and in vain, and often even their benefactors and friends, yet not being aware of the madness with which they rage. For this reason they suffer from an incurable disease, neither admitting physicians nor enduring medicines, but also repaying with the opposite those who wish to heal and benefit them. So for this reason too they are pitiable, if indeed they are not aware of so great a wickedness. And even if they are not turned back by the condemnation of others, it is impossible for them to escape the rebuke of their own conscience, the inescapable, the incorruptible, the one that yields to no fear, that is not corrupted by flattery or the giving of money, that is not withered by long time. 13.2 For the son of Jacob who said to his father that a wild beast had devoured Joseph, and having acted out that wicked drama, and having attempted with this mask to conceal the murder of his brother, deceived his father at the time, but he did not deceive his conscience nor persuade it to be quiet; but it remained rising up against him, crying out continuously and never being silenced. For after a long time had passed, he who had denied to his father the deed he had dared, who had told no one else, with no one accusing, no one convicting, no one standing by, no one reminding him of that drama, being in danger concerning his freedom and life itself, showing that the accuser of conscience had not been muzzled in so long a time nor been buried, says these words: "Yes, for we are in sin concerning our brother; when he pleaded with us, and we disregarded his affliction and the anguish of his soul; and now his blood is required of us." And yet the charge brought against him was different, and he was being judged for theft and was thus being led to court as one who had stolen a golden cup; but since he was conscious of none of these things in himself, he did not grieve over these things, nor did he say that he was suffering these things for which he was being judged and led away as a prisoner, but for those things for which no one was accusing him, nor demanding an accounting, nor dragging him to court, or rather did not even know had been dared by him, for these things indeed he becomes his own conviction and accuser. For conscience took hold of him, and he who with so much impunity had shed his brother's blood and suffered nothing, now became sympathetic, and he accused the band of those who had partaken with him in the foul murder and made a tragedy of all the cruelty, saying: "When he pleaded with us, and we disregarded his affliction and the anguish of his soul." For nature was sufficient, he says, to soften and bend us to mercy, but he also added tears and offered supplication, and not even so did he bend us; but "we disregarded his affliction and the anguish of his soul." For this reason this tribunal has been assembled for us, he says, for this reason we are in danger for blood, because we too have sinned against blood. So too Judas, not bearing the rebuke of his conscience, rushed to a noose and ended his life by hanging. And when he dared that shameless bargain, saying, "What are you willing to give me, and I will deliver him to you," he was not ashamed before his hearers that, being a disciple, such things

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διὰ τῶν παθημάτων τούτων συγκροτηθὲν διαδοχὴν οὐκ οἶδεν οὐδὲ ἀναμένει τέλος, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἀπέραντον, οὐ δυσκολίᾳ καιρῶν, οὐκ ἀνθρώπων ἐπιβουλαῖς, οὐ δαιμόνων ἐφόδοις, οὐκ αὐτῇ διακοπτόμενον τῇ τελευτῇ. Εἰ δὲ βούλει καὶ θρηνεῖν, τοὺς τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐργαζομένους θρήνει, τοὺς τῶν κακῶν τούτων αὐθέντας, τοὺς ὑπηρέτας οἳ καὶ εἰς τὸ μέλλον μεγίστην ἐθησαύρισαν ἑαυτοῖς τιμωρίαν καὶ ἐνταῦθα δίκην ἔδοσαν ἤδη τὴν ἐσχάτην, τοσούτων ἀποστρεφομένων αὐτοὺς καὶ πολεμίους ἡγουμένων, ἐπαρωμένων, καταδικαζόντων. Εἰ δὲ οὐκ αἰσθάνονται τούτων, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μάλιστά εἰσιν ἐλεεινοὶ καὶ δακρύων ἄξιοι, καθάπερ οἱ φρενίτιδι κατεχόμενοι νόσῳ, λακτίζοντες μὲν καὶ παίοντες τοὺς ἀπαντῶντας εἰκῆ καὶ μάτην, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ τοὺς εὐηργετηκότας καὶ φίλους, οὐκ αἰσθανόμενοι δὲ τῆς μανίας ἣν μαίνονται. ∆ιὸ καὶ ἀνίατα νοσοῦσιν, οὔτε ἰατροὺς προσιέμενοι, οὔτε φαρμάκων ἀνεχόμενοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς θεραπεύειν καὶ εὐεργετεῖν βουλομένους τοῖς ἐναντίοις ἀμειβόμενοι. Ὥστε καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐλεεινοί, εἴ γε μὴ αἰσθάνονται τῆς τοσαύτης πονηρίας. Εἰ δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἑτέρων κατάγνωσιν οὐκ ἐπιστρέφονται, τοῦ οἰκείου συνειδότος τὸν ἔλεγχον ἀμήχανον αὐτοὺς διαφυγεῖν, τὸν ἄφυκτον, τὸν ἀδέκαστον, τὸν οὐδενὶ εἴκοντα φόβῳ, τὸν οὐ κολακείᾳ, οὐ χρημάτων δόσει διαφθειρόμενον, οὐ χρόνῳ μακρῷ μαραινόμενον. 13.2 Ὁ γὰρ τοῦ Ἰακὼβ υἱὸς ὁ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα εἰπὼν ὅτι θηρίον πονηρὸν κατέφαγε τὸν Ἰωσήφ, καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν ἐκεῖνο ὑποκρινάμενος δρᾶμα, καὶ τῷ προσωπείῳ τούτῳ τὴν ἀδελφοκτονίαν συσκιάσαι ἐπιχειρήσας, τὸν μὲν πατέρα ἠπάτησε τότε, τὸ δὲ συνειδὸς οὐκ ἠπάτησεν οὐδὲ ἔπεισεν ἡσυχάζειν· ἀλλ' ἔμενεν αὐτοῦ κατεξανιστάμενον καταβοῶν διηνεκῶς καὶ οὐδέποτε ἐπιστομιζόμενον. Χρόνου γὰρ παρελθόντος μακροῦ, ὁ τὸν γεγεννηκότα ἀρνησάμενος τὸ τόλμημα ὅπερ ἐτόλμησεν, ὁ μηδενὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ἐξειπών, οὐδενὸς κατηγοροῦντος, οὐδενὸς ἐλέγχοντος, οὐδενὸς ἐφεστῶτος, οὐδενὸς ἀναμιμνήσκοντος τῆς δραματουργίας ἐκείνης, κινδυνεύων περὶ ἐλευθερίας καὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ζῇν, δεικνὺς ὅτι οὐκ ἐπεστομίσθη τοῦ συνειδότος ὁ κατήγορος ἐν οὕτω μακρῷ χρόνῳ οὐδὲ κατεχώσθη, ταῦτά φησι τὰ ῥήματα· «Ναί· ἐν ἁμαρτίαις γάρ ἐσμεν περὶ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἡμῶν· ὅτε κατεδέετο ἡμῶν, καὶ ὑπερείδομεν τὴν θλῖψιν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν ὀδύνην τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ· καὶ νῦν ἐκζητεῖται τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐξ ἡμῶν.» Καίτοι ἕτερον ἦν ὅπερ ἐπήγετο αὐτῷ ἔγκλημα καὶ διὰ κλοπὴν ἐκρίνετο καὶ ὡς ὑφελόμενος κύλικα χρυσῆν οὕτως εἰς δικαστήριον ἤγετο· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τούτων ἑαυτῷ οὐδὲν συνῄδει, ὑπὲρ μὲν τούτων οὐκ ἤλγει, οὐδὲ ἔφη ταῦτα πάσχειν ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐκρίνετο καὶ δέσμιος ἤγετο, ὑπὲρ δὲ ὧν οὐδεὶς ἐνεκάλει, οὐδὲ εὐθύνας ἀπῄτει, οὐδὲ εἰς δικαστήριον εἷλκε, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ᾔδει τετολμημένων αὐτῷ, ὑπὲρ δὴ τούτων αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἔλεγχος καὶ κατήγορος γίνεται. Ἐπελαμβάνετο γὰρ αὐτοῦ τὸ συνειδὸς καὶ ὁ μετὰ ἀδείας τοσαύτης τὸ αἷμα ἐκχέας τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ καὶ μηδὲν παθών, νῦν καὶ συμπαθητικὸς ἐγίνετο, καὶ τοῦ χοροῦ τῶν κοινωνησάντων αὐτῷ τῆς μιαιφονίας κατηγόρει καὶ τὴν ὠμότητα πᾶσαν ἐτραγῴδει λέγων· «Ὅτε κατεδέετο ἡμῶν, καὶ ὑπερείδομεν τὴν θλῖψιν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν ὀδύνην τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ.» Ἤρκει μὲν γὰρ ἡ φύσις, φησί, μαλάξαι καὶ ἐπικάμψαι πρὸς ἔλεον, ὁ δὲ καὶ δάκρυα προσετίθει καὶ ἱκετηρίαν ἐτίθει, καὶ οὐδὲ οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἐπέκαμψεν· ἀλλ' «ὑπερείδομεν τὴν θλῖψιν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν ὀδύνην τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ». ∆ιὰ τοῦτο ἡμῖν τὸ δικαστήριον τοῦτο συγκεκρότηται, φησί, διὰ τοῦτο περὶ αἵματος κινδυνεύομεν, ἐπειδὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς αἷμα ἡμαρτήκαμεν. Οὕτω καὶ ὁ Ἰούδας οὐκ ἐνεγκὼν τοῦ συνειδότος τὸν ἔλεγχον, ἐπὶ βρόχον ὥρμησε καὶ δι' ἀγχόνης τὸν βίον κατέλυσεν. Καὶ ὅτε μὲν τὸ ἀναίσχυντον ἐκεῖνο συμβόλαιον ἐτόλμα, λέγων· «Τί θέλετέ μοι δοῦναι, κἀγὼ ὑμῖν αὐτὸν παραδώσω», οὐ τοὺς ἀκούοντας ᾐσχύνετο ὅτι μαθητὴς ὢν τοιαῦτα