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If therefore you judge without partiality, you will recognize the one who accuses his neighbor with false testimony, and having proven him a slanderer, an envious man, a murderer, one who stirs up trouble like an evil man with contradictions, unstable in his words, contradicting himself in what he says and being caught by the words of his own mouth. For his own lips are a strong snare set for him. Whom after the proofs of his falsehood you shall judge severely and deliver to the sword of fire, and you shall do to him what he wickedly intended to do to his neighbor. For as far as it was in his power, he murdered his brother, by preoccupying the ears of the judge; but it is written, that "Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," and: "You shall purge the innocent blood from your midst, that was shed in vain." You shall therefore excommunicate him as a murderer of a brother. Then after a time has passed, if he says he repents, wear him out with fastings, and after these things, having laid hands on him, receive him, having taken security from him, however, that he not disturb anyone again. But if, having entered again, he similarly causes faction, not ceasing from troubling and mocking the brethren, practicing blame out of contentiousness, cast him out as a plague, so that he may not ruin the Church of God; "For such a one stirs up troubles for the city." For this man, even if he is within, not being fitting for the Church, happens to be superfluous and vain, staining, as far as it is in his power, the body of Christ. For if some men, being born and having superfluous members of their bodies attached, such as fingers or fleshy growths, cut these off from themselves because of their unseemliness, and no unseemliness is added, when the man through the surgeon recovers his natural comeliness, how much more you, the shepherds, since the Church is a complete body with healthy members who believe in God in the fear of the Lord and in love, when one superfluous member is found, thinking evil things and causing unseemliness for the rest of the body and afflicting it with sedition and strife and slander, furnishing it with censures, troubles, faults, slanders, accusations, disorders, and performing such operations of the devil as if appointed by the devil to defile the Church through blasphemies and much disorder and contention and discord? This man, therefore, having been cast out of the Church a second time, was worthily cut off from the Lord's congregation; and the Lord's Church is now more adorned than at first, when it possessed the superfluous and unfitting member; wherefore from

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Eἰ οὖν ἀπροσωπολήπτως κρίνετε, ἐπιγνώσεσθε τὸν κατηγοροῦντα κατὰ τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ μαρτυρίαν ψευδῆ, καὶ ἀποδείξας αὐτὸν συκοφάντην, βάσκανον, φονέα, ταράσ σοντα ὡς κακὸν ἀντιλογίαις, ἄστατον ἐν τοῖς λόγοις, ἑαυτοῦ ἐναντίον ἐφ' οἷς φθέγγεται καὶ ἁλισκόμενον ·ήμασιν ἰδίου στόματος. Παγὶς γὰρ αὐτῷ ἰσχυρὰ ἐφέστηκεν τὰ ἴδια χείλη. Ὃν μετὰ τοὺς ἐλέγχους τῆς ψευδολογίας κρινεῖς ἀποτόμως καὶ τῇ μαχαίρᾳ τοῦ πυρὸς παραδώσεις, καὶ ποιήσεις αὐτῷ ὃν τρόπον ἐπονηρεύσατο ποιῆσαι τῷ πλησίον. Ὅσον γὰρ τὸ ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἐφόνευσεν τὸν ἀδελφόν, προλαβὼν τὰ ὦτα τοῦ κριτοῦ· γέγραπται δέ, ὅτι «Ὁ ἐκχέων αἷμα ἀνθρώπου ἀντὶ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ ἐκχυθήσεται», καί· «Ἐξαρεῖς τὸ αἷμα τὸ ἀναίτιον ἀπὸ σοῦ, τὸ ἐκχυθὲν μάτην.» 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. Eἰ 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.» Oὗτος γὰρ κἂν ἔσω ᾖ, μὴ πρέπων τῇ Ἐκκλησίᾳ, περισσὸς καὶ μάταιος τυγχάνει, σπιλῶν ὅσον τὸ ἐπ' αὐτῷ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Eἰ 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, ἀπο λαβόντος 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; Oὗτος 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