Ep. CLII.

It is time for me to use these words of Scripture, To whom shall I cry when I am wronged?76    Hab. ii. 1.  Who will stretch out a hand to me when I am oppressed?  To whom shall the burden of this Church pass, in its present evil and paralysed condition?  I protest before God and the Elect Angels that the Flock of God is being unrighteously dealt with in being left without a Shepherd or a Bishop, through my being laid on the shelf.  For I am a prisoner to my ill health and have been very quickly removed thereby from the Church, and made quite useless to everybody, every day breathing my last, and getting more and more crushed by my duties.  If the Province had any other head, it would have been my duty to cry out and protest to it continually.  But since Your Reverence is the Superior, it is to you I must look.  For, to leave out everything else, you shall learn from my fellow-priests, Eulalius the Chorepiscopus77    Chorepiscopi;—a grade of clergy called into existence in the latter part of the Third Century, first in Asia Minor, to meet the difficulty of providing Episcopal supervision in the country districts of large Dioceses.  They seemed to have been allowed to confer the Minor, but not the Holy Orders, unless by special commission from the Diocesan, on the ground of their lack of original Jurisdiction.  That they were originally possessed of full Episcopal Orders there can be no doubt, but eventually the position was allowed to be held by Priests, and in the West the office became practically merged in that of the Archdeacon. and Celeusius, whom I have specially sent to Your Reverence, what these robbers78    The Apollinarians. who have now got the upper hand, are both doing and threatening.  To repress them is not in the power of my weakness, but belongs to your skill and strength; since to you, with His other gifts God has given that of strength also for the protection of His Church.  If in saying and writing this I cannot get a hearing, I shall take the only course remaining to me, that of publicly proclaiming and making known that this Church needs a Bishop, in order that it may not be injured by my feeble health.  What is to follow is matter for your consideration.

[152] ΘΕΟΔΩΡΩΙ

Καιρός μοι τὸ τῆς Γραφῆς εἰπεῖν: « Πρὸς τίνα βοήσομαι ἀδικούμενος; Τίς ὀρέξει μοι χεῖρα πιεζομένῳ; » Εἰς τίνα τὸ βάρος τῆς Ἐκκλησίας χωρήσει, κακῶς οὕτω διακειμένης καὶ λελυμένης; « Διαμαρτύρομαι ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν ἀγγέλων » ὅτι μὴ δίκαια πάσχει τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ ποίμνιον, ἀποίμαντον ὂν καὶ ἀνεπίσκεπτον διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν νέκρωσιν. Ἐμὲ γὰρ ἡ νόσος κατέχει καὶ τάχιον ἀπήγαγε τῆς Ἐκκλησίας καὶ νῦν παντάπασιν ἀχρειοῖ, ἀεὶ τὰ τελευταῖα πνέοντα καὶ πλέον τοῖς πράγμασι συντριβόμενον. Εἰ μὲν οὖν ἄλλην τινὰ κεφαλὴν εἶχεν ἡ ἐπαρχία, πρὸς ἐκείνην ἔδει βοᾶν καὶ διαμαρτύρεσθαι: τῆς δὲ σῆς εὐλαβείας ὑπερκειμένης, πρὸς σὲ βλέπειν ἀναγκαῖον. Φρόντισον τῆς σῆς Ἐκκλησίας ὃν βούλει τρόπον καὶ μὴ παρίδῃς ἀναξίως ἑαυτῆς πράττουσαν. Ἵνα γὰρ τἄλλα ἐάσω, οἷα νῦν ἐπιστάντες οἱ Ἀπολλιναριανοί, τὰ μὲν πεποιήκασι, τὰ δὲ ἀπειλοῦσι, παρὰ τῶν κυρίων μου τῶν συμπρεσβυτέρων μαθήσῃ, Εὐλαλίου τοῦ χωρεπισκόπου καὶ Κελευσίου, οὓς ἐξ ἔργου πρὸς τὴν σὴν εὐλάβειαν ἀπεστάλκαμεν. Καὶ τὸ ταῦτα ἐπισχεῖν, οὗ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐστὶν ἡλικίας καὶ ἀσθενείας, ἀλλὰ τῆς σῆς ἀγχινοίας καὶ δυνάμεως, ἐπειδή σοι, μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων, καὶ τὸ ἰσχύειν ἔδωκεν ὁ Θεὸς ἐπὶ τῇ κοινῇ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας προστασίᾳ. Εἰ δὲ ταῦτα λέγων καὶ γράφων μὴ ἀκουοίμην, ὃ λείπεται μόνον, τοῦτο γενήσεται, δημοσίᾳ κηρύξαι πᾶσι καὶ καταστῆσαι γνώριμον ὅτι ἐπισκόπου χρῄζει ἡ Ἐκκλησία, ἵνα μὴ παρὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας ἀρρωστίας καταβλάπτηται. Τὸ δὲ ἑξῆς ὑμεῖς εἴσεσθε.