Resultados25 letters/passages
isidore_pelusium · c. 401 · score 0.02
Let the one who has received authority use it as a trust, not as a possession. Authority is a loan from God, and like all loans, it must be repaid with interest. The interest God demands is justice for the oppressed, mercy for the weak, and defense of the truth against all who would corrupt it.
isidore_pelusium · c. 415 · score 0.02
With what eyes, I ask, will you look upon your associates, since you have made enemies of all who were well-disposed and friendly toward you? For they, as I have heard, speak with contempt in their hearts, since they did not think they would suffer anything unjust from you. But those who are certain of enduring the wor …
isidore_pelusium · c. 432 · score 0.02
To Theodore the Prefect. The ruler who governs justly builds a monument more enduring than bronze or marble — a monument of gratitude in the hearts of those he has served. But the ruler who governs unjustly digs his own grave, for the oppressed never forget and history never forgives. You have been given authority over …
isidore_pelusium · c. 431 · score 0.02
To Herminus the Count. The authority of the secular ruler is ordained by God for the maintenance of order and the punishment of evildoers, and the ruler who exercises this authority justly is a minister of God no less than the priest who offers the sacrifice. But authority misused becomes tyranny, and the ruler who opp …
isidore_pelusium · c. 429 · score 0.02
To Apollonius the Bishop: That man alone do I consider king and ruler...
isidore_pelusium · c. 405 · score 0.02
Insofar as I surpass others in your esteem regarding honor, to that same degree I bear a heavier burden of responsibility. For honor without duty is a crown without authority, and authority without accountability is a sword without a scabbard. Let the one who is most honored serve the most, and the one who is highest b …
isidore_pelusium · c. 411 · score 0.01
To Theodorus the Augustalis: The boastful and overbearing manner is not the mark of a ruling spirit, as you suppose, but rather the gentle and approachable manner, and treating everyone with fairness. For the former is fitting for beasts and serpents, while the latter is fitting for rulers and most beneficial to their …
isidore_pelusium · c. 396 · score 0.01
… s of the demands this entails. To Theodore the Augustalis. Even though you hold imperial authority, you must remember that all earthly power is temporary and borrowed from the true King, before whom every ruler must give account. Therefore exercise your office with justice and mercy, knowing that the measure you use fo …
isidore_pelusium · c. 401 · score 0.01
To Basil. For those who have been established in lawful authority, prosperity will surely follow; and prosperity will be achieved when piety — the highest of all goods and the chief of divine commandments — is strengthened. Piety is supported by right belief concerning God and sincere confession, and is made manifest b …
isidore_pelusium · c. 396 · score 0.01
And if someone should say that this ought to have been done in the full marketplace and not in the palace, we would say that what is done in the palace is ratified everywhere as well. For the most divine vote ratified within prevails everywhere. And it is perhaps even more likely that it was also put down in writing. W …
isidore_pelusium · c. 408 · score 0.01
...you would rise above the swords that wound the soul, having acquired impassibility as your armor of resistance, and angels will minister to you after the struggle — not serving as slaves, since that is owed to God alone, but crowning you as a victor. For this is the reward of the one who nobly contends in the presen …
isidore_pelusium · c. 417 · score 0.01
People often dare things greater than pardon or punishment for the sake of money and power, and of yielding none of these to anyone. For wishing to acquire them...
isidore_pelusium · c. 413 · score 0.01
To Eustephius, on the celebrated death of our Savior: You asked: from where is it clear that Christ came to his death willingly? Most of all, from the fact that he raised the dead by his own sovereign authority. For he who bestowed life upon the dead would surely not have been led unwillingly to his passion. And if als …
isidore_pelusium · c. 408 · score 0.01
Of Saint Isidore of Pelusium. Whoever touches the altars of God while weighed down by sins, and handles the holy things in an unclean manner, shall himself suffer judgment, but the divine tribunal is not contaminated by his deeds. For the holiness of the mysteries depends not upon the worthiness of the minister but upo …
isidore_pelusium · c. 418 · score 0.01
The temperate, the condescending, the gentle, the generous -- he who rules and judges not by favor but by judgment, and the other qualities...
isidore_pelusium · c. 425 · score 0.01
To be particularly on guard against treachery; for such persons above all are plotted against...
isidore_pelusium · c. 425 · score 0.01
Know this, O shrine of intelligence, that if you promote the best men — those who are truthful, upright, and contemptuous of money — to positions of authority (for most positions of power are currently held by the ignoble), you will both adorn your own administration and benefit the governed. For when good men rule, th …
isidore_pelusium · c. 404 · score 0.01
Nothing, O excellent one, is more beneficial than piety. For it preserves even the subjects of victorious kings. Looking to piety, then, try to steer the ship of government so that, at least as far as your part is concerned, the governed may remain free from storms. If the task involves labors, it also involves joys. A …
isidore_pelusium · c. 393 · score 0.01
To Theodore the Domestikos. The constitution of affairs overturns what happens by chance, while disobedience to these things destroys the orderly movement of the other. For this reason I say that you must guard the city, so that through you the splendor of civic virtue may be displayed for all to see. I know indeed tha …
isidore_pelusium · c. 431 · score 0.01
Even though in grave matters circumstances seem to compel and almost force one to deviate from what is right and honorable, yet those who are not lacking in prudence, having taken counsel, choose what is becoming rather than what appears at first sight, and regard as truly victorious not what seems to prevail but what …
isidore_pelusium · c. 399 · score 0.01
One must use one's own power as though it were to last forever, yet exercise it as though it were about to end tomorrow. All insults are not endured for Christ's sake; sometimes they come upon us for our own misdeeds, whether we are acting unjustly or doing something else wrong. But when reproach comes solely because o …
isidore_pelusium · c. 420 · score 0.01
Every discourse is useful, and especially that which is addressed to the most-honored monks and priests. For the more readily vice is at hand, the more one must guard against its assault. It is therefore necessary that those who hold the office of teaching display a great change of life, living in quietness, free from …
isidore_pelusium · c. 417 · score 0.01
I say that flattery is more powerful and more pernicious than violence. For what compulsion cannot achieve, fawning can. And those who have not been subdued by fear...
isidore_pelusium · c. 398 · score 0.01
To Simplicius. We rejoice with the city over your rule, and we are glad to see justice now walking in the open and judging. For this you will have God as both helper and ally, who will both reveal the wicked and make the good manifest to you. For when rulers govern with justice, they become instruments of divine provid …
isidore_pelusium · c. 413 · score 0.01
Some use their power to avenge themselves against enemies. And there are those who drive out those who live decently while deeming those caught in the most shameful acts worthy of a higher rank. If Eusebius, as you have written, having wiped away the faults of all alike, admits those he should not, and takes bribes and …