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according to the voice of the Lord, that they may be divine salt and light to all the brotherhood and to those outside, having the word of life in themselves.

But if you must ever be moved in anger with a rod and a proper staff against the disorderly, in order to put a stop to evil and to check pestilential corruption among them, so that the works and disposition of wickedness may not extend to what is worse, this too was not judged inconsistent by the apostles in their own ordinances and by our God-bearing fathers. For every movement and every action of ours which checks and persecutes wickedness, but helps righteousness and virtue, is both praiseworthy and pleasing to God and acceptable to all the righteous. And Jesus is a witness, striking the stubborn Jews with a whip, who had made the house of prayer a house of trade, and overturning the tables of the money-changers. Therefore, do not, in a pretense of meekness merely for the praise of men, despise some small thing that has occurred against the commandment of God for the destruction of the apostolic canons and ordinances and to the outrage of the evangelical life and the state of monks; but imitating your Jesus and God, (363) being indignant and dispassionately stirring yourself up, carry out vengeance for the commandments of God and for the canons laid down by His apostles. Let there be for you, along with all things, precision in the examination of each one's thoughts, so that you may know which of them require the company of those who pray and receive communion, and which require excommunication and repentance with tears and the station of penitents, lest you make the church of God, instead of a holy temple, a den of thieves or a brothel in ignorance or knowledge through partiality, and you will not escape the terrible judgment of God's wrath for this.

For know that to each of such persons the eyewitnesses and disciples of the Word rightly assigned a suitable place. And you must diligently apply yourself more to the reading of their ordinances and canons, so that you may know what are the hidden mysteries of those who believe in Christ, and may not err by doing things not befitting godliness. 'You will make your spiritual sons reverent,' according to what is written, and you will teach them to be reverent towards the sacred and divine places and vessels of the consecrated temple of God and its liturgy, since it is written: 'Blessed is the man who is in awe of everything out of reverence'. For know that only to the ordained and to those purified from many struggles and repentance through tears, and to the consecrated and most reverent (264) of the monks who partake of the undefiled mysteries of Christ, was the liturgy of such things and the touching of them dedicated by the fathers and apostles. You shall not permit entry into the divine bema to all and to those who wish it, but only, as has been said, to the ordained and consecrated of your more reverent brothers and fathers; but to the rest and to the brothers who walk disorderly, see what is said to you, you shall close it to them. For, know well, many are cut off from the present life from contempt of such things, and if you at all overlook this happening, the blood of those cut off from life for this reason will be required from your hands.

These things, O shepherd of the sheep of Christ, and even more than these, which you ought to know precisely and to do diligently for the protection of your flock. Therefore, if you know that you have reached such competence and have been blessed with such gifts, that from the light of good works and divinely-inspired wisdom and knowledge shining from you alone all who approach you, both your own and strangers, are enlightened, then shepherd the sheep of Christ with confidence with the skilled word of

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κατά τήν τοῦ Κυρίου φωνήν, ἵνα ὦσι πάσῃ ἀδελφότητι καί τοῖς ἔξω ἅλας θεῖον καί φῶς, λόγον ζωῆς ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχοντες.

Εἰ δέ κατά τῶν ἀτάκτων δεῖ σέ ποτε ἐν ῥάβδῳ καί βακτηρίᾳ εὐλόγῳ κινηθῆναι θυμῷ πρός τό ἀνακοπήν τινα ποιήσασθαι τοῦ κακοῦ καί ἀναστεῖλαι λοιμώδη φθοράν ἐν αὐτοῖς, ἵνα μή ἐπί τό χεῖρον ἐπεκτανθῇ τά τῆς φαύλης ἐργασίας καί διαθέσεως, οὐδέ τοῦτο ἀπᾷδον ἐκρίθη τοῖς ἀποστόλοις ἐν ταῖς αὐτῶν διατάξεσι καί τοῖς θεοφόροις πατράσιν ἡμῶν. Πᾶσα γάρ κίνησις καί πᾶσα πρᾶξις ἡμῶν, ἡ κακίαν μέν ἀναστέλλουσα καί διώκουσα, δικαιοσύνῃ δέ βοηθοῦσα καί ἀρετῇ, ἐπαινετή τέ ἐστι καί θεάρεστος καί πᾶσιν εὐαπόδεκτος τοῖς δικαίοις. Καί μάρτυς Ἰησοῦς, φραγγελίῳ τύπτων τούς ἀτεράμονας Ἰουδαίους, ἐμπορίου οἶκον τόν οἶκον πεποιηκότας τῆς προσευχῆς, καί τάς τραπέζας τῶν κολλυβιστῶν ἀνατρέπων. Μή οὖν ἐν προσποιήσει πραότητος διά μόνον ἔπαινον τῶν ἀνθρώπων, μικροῦ τινος πράγματος παρ᾿ ἐντολήν Θεοῦ γενομένου ἐπί καταστροφῇ τῶν ἀποστολικῶν κανόνων καί διατάξεων καί ἐφ᾿ ὕβρει τοῦ εὐαγγελικοῦ βίου καί τῆς τῶν μοναχῶν καταστάσεως καταφρονήσῃς, ἀλλά τόν σόν μιμούμενος Ἰησοῦν καί Θεόν, (363) ἐμβρινώμενος καί ἑαυτόν ἀπαθῶς ἐκταράσσων, ἐκδίκησιν ποιοῦ τῶν ἐντολῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῶν τεθέντων κανόνων ὑπό τῶν ἀποστόλων αὐτοῦ. Ἔστω σοι μετά πάντων καί ἐπί τῇ ἐξετάσει τῶν λογισμῶν ἑκάστου ἀκρίβεια, ὡς ἄν εἰδείης τίνες μέν αὐτῶν συστάσεως δέονται τῆς τῶν εὐχομένων καί κοινωνούντων, τίνες δέ ἀφορισμοῦ καί τῆς μετά δακρύων μετανοίας καί στάσεως τῶν μετανοούντων, ἵνα μή τήν ἐκκλησίαν Θεοῦ ἀντί ναοῦ ἁγίου σπήλαιον ληστῶν ἤ πορνεῖον ἐν ἀγνοίᾳ ἤ γνώσει ποιήσῃς κατά προσπάθειαν, καί οὐκ ἐκφεύξῃ τό φοβερόν ἐπί τούτῳ κρίμα τῆς ὀργῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ.

Ἴσθι γάρ ὅτι ἑκάστῳ τῶν τοιούτων κατάλληλον οἱ αὐτόπται τοῦ Λόγου καί μαθηταί τόν τόπον εἰκότως ἀπένειμον. Καί δεῖ σε τῆς ἀναγνώσεως μᾶλλον τῶν διατάξεων καί τῶν κανόνων αὐτῶν ἐπιμελῶς ἔχεσθαι, ἵνα εἰδώς ἔσῃ τίνα τά τῶν εἰς Χριστόν πιστευόντων εἰσί κεκρυμμένα μυστήρια, καί μή σφάλῃ ποιῶν τά μή τῇ θεοσεβείᾳ προσήκοντα. "Εὐλαβεῖς ποιήσεις" κατά τό γεγραμμένον "τούς πνευματικούς σου υἱούς" καί διδάξεις αὐτούς εὐλαβεῖσθαι ἀπό τῶν ἱερῶν τε καί θείων τόπων ὁμοῦ καί σκευῶν τοῦ ἡγιασμένου ναοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῆς λειτουργίας αὐτοῦ, ἐπειδή γέγραπται· "Μακάριος ἄνθρωπος ὁ πάντα δι᾿ εὐλάβειαν καταπτήσσων". Μόνοις γάρ, ἴσθι, τοῖς ἱερωμένοις καί τοῖς ἐξ ἀγώνων καί μετανοίας διά δακρύων καθαρθεῖσι πολλῶν καί τῶν ἀχράντων μετέχουσι μυστηρίων Χριστοῦ ἡγιασμένοις καί εὐλαβεστάτοις (264) τῶν μοναχῶν ἡ λειτουργία τῶν τοιούτων καί τό ἅπτεσθαι αὐτῶν παρά τῶν πατέρων καί ἀποστόλων ἀφιερώθη. Οὐ συγχωρήσεις πᾶσι καί τοῖς βουλομένοις τήν τοῦ θείου βήματος εἴσοδον, ἀλλ᾿ ἤ μόνοις, ὡς εἴρηται, τοῖς ἱερωμένοις καί ἡγιασμένοις τῶν εὐλαβεστέρων ἀδελφῶν καί πατέρων σου, τοῖς δέ λοιποῖς καί ἀτάκτως περιπατοῦσι τῶν ἀδελφῶν ὅρα τί σοί λέγεται ἀποκλείσεις αὐτήν. Πολλοί γάρ, εὖ ἴσθι, ἐκ τῆς τῶν τοιούτων καταφρονήσεως τέμνονται τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς, καί πάντως παρορῶντός σου τοῦτο γίνεσθαι, τό αἷμα τῶν τεμνομένων διά τοῦτο τῆς ζωῆς ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν σου ἀπαιτηθήσεται.

Ταῦτα, ὦ ποιμήν τῶν προβάτων Χριστοῦ, καί τούτων ἔτι πλείονα, ἅ εἰδέναι ἀκριβῶς καί ποιεῖν σπουδαίως ὀφείλεις εἰς φυλακήν τοῦ ποιμνίου σου. Τοιγαροῦν καί εἰ σαυτόν ἔγνως εἰς τοσαύτην ἐλάσαντα ἱκανότητα καί τοιούτων εὐμοιρήσαντα χαρισμάτων, ὡς ἐκ μόνου τοῦ ἐκλάμποντος ἀπό σοῦ φωτός τῶν καλῶν ἔργων καί τῆς ἐνθέου σοφίας καί γνώσεως φωτίζεσθαι πάντας τούς πλησιάζοντάς σοι τῶν ἰδίων καί ἀλλοτρίων, ποίμαινε θαρρῶν τά πρόβατα Χριστοῦ τῷ ἐπιστήμονι λόγῳ τῆς