Canonical Epistle

It is not the foods that weigh on us, most holy Father, if the captives ate what their captors set before them, especially since there is one report from all: that the barbarians who overran our parts did not sacrifice to idols. And the Apostle says: "Foods for the belly and the belly for foods; but God will destroy both the one and the other." And the Saviour too, who makes all foods clean, says: "It is not what goes in that defiles the man, but what comes out."

As for the captive women having been defiled, when the barbarians outraged their bodies: if the life of any of them was already condemned before, as one who went "after the eyes of those who go whoring," as it is written, clearly the habit of sexual immorality is suspect also in the time of captivity, and such women should not readily be admitted to the communion of prayers. But if any woman lived in the utmost chastity and showed a former life pure and beyond all suspicion, and has now fallen into outrage by force and compulsion, we have the example in Deuteronomy of the young woman whom a man found in the field and lay with by force: "To the young woman," it says, "you shall do nothing; the young woman has no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises up against his neighbour and kills his life, so is this matter; the young woman cried out, and there was no one to help her." So much, then, for these matters.

Covetousness is a dreadful thing, and it is not possible in one letter to set out the divine Scriptures in which not only robbery is proclaimed a horrible and abominable thing, but covetousness in general, and laying hands on what belongs to others for base gain; and everyone of this kind is excommunicated from the Church of God. But that in the time of the invasion, amid so much wailing and so many lamentations, some should have dared to think the time that brought destruction to all a time of gain for themselves, belongs to impious and God-hated men, who have left no excess of wickedness undone. Hence it has been decided to excommunicate such people, lest wrath come upon the whole people, and first upon those who preside, for not making inquiry. For I fear, as the Scripture says, lest the ungodly destroy the righteous with him. "For sexual immorality," it says, "and covetousness, because of which the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Do not, then, be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and truth), proving what is pleasing to the Lord; and do not take part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them; for the things done by them in secret it is shameful even to speak of. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light." So the Apostle.

And if some, while they are paying the penalty for their former covetousness committed in time of peace, turn again to covetousness in the very time of wrath, making profit from the blood and ruin of men who have been driven from their homes, or taken captive, or killed, what else must be expected but that, persisting in covetousness, they heap up wrath both for themselves and for the whole people?

Did not Achar the son of Zara commit a trespass in the devoted thing, and wrath came upon the whole congregation of Israel? He was one man who sinned; did he die alone in his sin? For us too, whatever in this time is gain that is not ours but another's must be regarded as a devoted thing. For that Achar took from the spoil, and these now take from the spoil too; he took what belonged to enemies, but these now take what belongs to brothers, making a deadly gain.

Let no one deceive himself, as though he had found something; for not even one who finds is permitted to profit. For Deuteronomy says: "When you see your brother's calf or his sheep straying on the road, do not overlook them; you shall surely return them to your brother. And if your brother does not come near you, or you do not know him, you shall gather them, and they shall be with you until your brother seeks them, and you shall give them back. And so you shall do with his ass, and so you shall do with his garment, and so you shall do with every lost thing of your brother's, whatever is lost by him and you find." So Deuteronomy. And in Exodus, not only if one finds what belongs to a brother, but also to an enemy: "You shall surely return them," it says, "to the house of their owner." If it is not permitted to profit from a brother or an enemy who in time of peace is careless and living in luxury and neglecting his own goods, how much less from one in misfortune, who is fleeing from enemies and has left his own goods behind by necessity?

Others deceive themselves by keeping other people's property that they have found in place of their own that was lost; so that, because the Boradi and the Goths did to them the deeds of war, they themselves become Boradi and Goths to others. We have therefore sent our brother and fellow-presbyter Euphrosynus to you for this purpose, so that, following the pattern used here, he may likewise give direction both as to whose accusations ought to be received and as to who ought to be excluded from the prayers.

[Concerning those who forcibly detain captives who have escaped from the barbarians.] Something incredible has also been reported to us as having happened in your country, surely done by unbelievers and impious men who do not even know the name of the Lord: that some have gone so far in cruelty and inhumanity as to detain by force certain captives who had escaped. Send some people into the country, lest thunderbolts fall upon those who do such things.

[Concerning those who were enrolled with the barbarians and dared to commit outrages against their own people.] As for those who were enrolled with the barbarians and went with them on the raid in the captivity, forgetting that they were men of Pontus and Christians, and became so barbarized as to kill their own countrymen by wood or by strangling, and to show roads or houses to the barbarians, who did not know them: they must be kept away even from the hearing, until the saints, gathering together, and before them the Holy Spirit, decide something in common about them.

[Concerning those who dared to enter other people's houses during the barbarian invasion.] Those who dared to enter other people's houses, if they are accused and convicted, are not to be counted worthy even of the hearing; but if they denounce themselves and make restitution, they are to be among the kneelers, in the order of those who are returning.

[Concerning those who found in the field or in their own houses things left behind by the barbarians.] Those who found something in the field, or in their own houses, left behind by the barbarians, if they are accused and convicted, are likewise to be among the kneelers; but if they denounce themselves and make restitution, they are to be counted worthy even of the prayer.

Those who fulfil the commandment must fulfil it without any base gain, not demanding fees for information, or for salvage, or for finding, or by whatever name they call these.

Weeping takes place outside the gate of the house of prayer; there the sinner must stand and beg the faithful who go in to pray for him. Hearing takes place inside the gate, in the narthex; there the one who has sinned must stand until [the dismissal of] the catechumens, and then go out. For "let him hear," it says, "the Scriptures and the teaching, and be put out, and not be counted worthy of the prayer." Kneeling is that he stands within the gate of the church and goes out with the catechumens. Standing together is that he stands together with the faithful and does not go out with the catechumens. Last is participation in the holy things.