end of medicine, to heal the one who is laboring; but the form of the care is different: for according to the variety of the diseases, the therapeutic method is appropriately applied to each of the maladies; so too, there being much variety of passions in the soul's disease, the therapeutic care must necessarily be manifold, working the cure in proportion to the passion. And so that one may have a technical method concerning the problem proposed, we shall thus set forth the account.
There are three things considered in our soul according to the first division: the rational, the appetitive, and the irascible. In these are found both the virtuous deeds of those who live in accordance with virtue, and the falls of those who slip into vice. Therefore, it behooves him who is about to apply the appropriate remedy to the ailing part of the soul, first to consider in what the passion consists, and then so to apply the remedy to the sufferer; lest, through ignorance of the therapeutic method, the part that is ailing be one thing, and the part to which the remedy is applied be another: just as we truly see many physicians who, through ignorance of the primarily affected part, exacerbate the disease with their medicines. For since a disease often arises from the domination and excess of heat, because for those who are suffering from an excess of cold, what warms and comforts is useful, and brings benefit when applied reasonably to them; yet the same, when applied inconsiderately to those who are inflamed by immoderate heat, B makes the disease very difficult to cure. Just as, therefore, for physicians the knowledge of the properties of the elements is deemed most necessary, so that the correction of what is disposed against nature might be attained for each of those that are well or ill constituted; so we too, for our part, returning to this division of those things which are considered in the soul, let us make the general contemplation the beginning and foundation of the appropriate cure of the passions.
Divided in three ways, therefore, as we have said, the property of the movements of the soul is divided into the rational, the appetitive, and the irascible; and the perfect duty of the rational part of the soul, acting rightly according to virtue, is the pious conception concerning the Divine, and the knowledge capable of discerning good and evil, and the clear and C undistorted understanding concerning the nature of the things which are subject to it; what, among the things that exist, is to be sought, and what is abominable and to be rejected; and again, on the contrary, the vice in this part will entirely be considered, when there is impiety concerning divine things, and no judgment concerning what is truly honorable; and when the opinion concerning the nature of things is perverted and corrupt, so that it calls light darkness and darkness light, as the Scripture says. The movement of the appetitive part, moreover, is of virtue if the longing is led up to that which is truly desirable and truly beautiful, and if any erotic power and disposition within us is wholly D occupied there, in being convinced that nothing is desirable to its own nature except virtue, and that which leads the mind to virtue.
The declination and sin of this part arises when someone transfers their desire to vain glory, which cannot truly exist, or to the flower that is merely smeared over the surface of bodies. Hence arises libido, the desire for glory, ambition, avarice, and all other things of this kind which depend on this species of vice. Again, the proper operation of the irascible disposition, derived from virtue, is hatred of evil and war against the passions, and having the soul steeled for courage, so that it does not quail at what the many consider fearful, but resists sin even to the shedding of blood; B scorning the threats of death, painful punishments, and separation from what is most pleasant, and—to sum it up—becoming superior to all those things which, through habit and preconceived opinion, hold many in pleasure, fighting instead for faith and virtue. The stumbles of this part are plain to all: envy, hatred, anger, abuse, scuffles, and contentious and vengeful dispositions that drag out the memory of an injury for a long time, and incite many to murder and bloodshed. For if the undisciplined reason finds no way to use this weapon to its own advantage, it turns the sharpness of the steel against itself; and that weapon given to us by God for defense becomes destructive to him who uses it C evilly.
Now, having distinguished these things in the manner mentioned, whatever sins touch the rational part of the soul have been judged by the Fathers to be more grievous, and worthy of a greater, more lasting, and more laborious conversion. For instance, if anyone has denied the faith in Christ, or defected to Judaism, or to the worship of idols, or to Manichaeism, or has appeared to have revolted into some other such form of impiety, he who has voluntarily betaken himself to such evil, and then has condemned himself, has the whole time of his life as his time for repentance. For never, when the mystical prayer is being performed, shall he be deemed worthy to worship God with the people, but he shall pray apart; he shall be altogether D a stranger to the communion of the sanctified elements; but at the hour of his departure, he shall be granted the portion of the sanctification. But if it should happen, beyond what is expected, that he lives on, he shall continue to live under that same judgment, lacking the mystical sanctified elements until the end of his life. Those, however, who were tortured by agonies and cruel punishments, and who were disciplined for a set time—the kindness of the holy Fathers having been exercised toward them as if the soul had not fallen, but rather that bodily weakness had not resisted the torments—are dealt with differently. Wherefore, the measure of those who have sinned in fornication, and of that transgression forced by pain and suffering, has been measured out in the same period of time for their conversion.
[Can. 3.] As for those who go to sorcerers, or seers, or to those who promise to perform certain rites of purification and averting of evils through demons: these are to be asked and examined with precision, whether they persist in the belief in
A Christ, or whether they were brought through some necessity to that sin, after some affliction or intolerable loss had instilled this state of mind in them; or whether, having entirely neglected the testimony committed to us, they have fled to the fellowship of demons. For if they did that to weaken the faith, and so as not to believe that the God worshipped by Christians exists, they shall assuredly be subject to the judgment of apostates. But if some unendurable necessity, having overcome their faint-heartedness, led them to this, having ensnared them through some deceptive hope, in their case too there shall be clemency, in likeness to those who were unable to withstand tortures at the time of their confession.
B [Can. 4.] Of the sins which happen through desire and pleasure, the division is as follows: the one is called adultery, the other fornication. Now to some of the more rigorous, it has seemed good to consider even the sin of fornication to be adultery, because there is one lawful union, both of woman with man, and of man with woman. Everything therefore which is not lawful is entirely contrary to the law, and he who does not have his own, is manifestly possessing another’s; for to man one helper has been given by God, and to woman one head has been assigned. Therefore if one possesses his own vessel, as the divine Apostle calls it, the law of nature grants him its just use. But if one should turn aside outside his own, he will entirely be in another’s; for whatever is not one’s own is alien to each person, even if the one who is the master does not acknowledge it. Fornication, therefore, has been shown by those who examine the matter a little more accurately to be not far from the sin of adultery, with the divine Scripture also saying: "Be not much with an alien woman." But since there happened to be some indulgence from the Fathers toward the weaker, the sin was distinguished by this general division, so that it is called fornication when it is the fulfillment of desire performed without the injustice of another, but adultery when it is the treachery and also the injustice toward another. And in this category they also reckon C bestiality and pederasty; because these, too, are adultery against nature. For the injustice happens toward that which is both alien and against nature. Since this division has therefore been made in this kind of sin as well, the universal remedy is for the human being to become pure through repentance from the mad passion directed toward such pleasures; but because in the case of those who are polluted by fornication, no injustice is mingled with this sin, for this reason a double time of conversion is prescribed for those who are defiled by adultery, and in other forbidden evils, the congress with animals and the madness against males. For in these cases, as I said, the sin is doubled: one indeed in the illicit and nefarious pleasure; the other, however, which consists in the injustice that is done to another. There is, however, a certain difference D in the argument of repentance, even for those who sin through pleasure
A For he who has been moved of his own accord to the confession of his sin, because he wished to be his own accuser for his secret deeds, as one who has already begun to apply a remedy to the affection, and has shown a sign of transformation toward what is better, is involved in more lenient penances. But he who is caught in the bad deed, or is convicted against his will by some suspicion or accusation, he is in a more strenuous state of conversion, so that, having been purified through precision, he may thus be admitted to the communion of the sacraments. The Canon, therefore, is of this kind: those who have been defiled by fornication are to be altogether excluded from prayer for three years; for three years they are to be participants only of the hearing [of the Word]; and in three other years they are to pray with those who are prostrating themselves in conversion, and only then are they to be participants of the sacraments. B In the case of those who have used a more diligent conversion and have shown in their life a return to the good, it is permitted to him who dispenses the ecclesiastical economy for the sake of utility to curtail the time of the hearing, and to bring them more quickly to conversion, and again to curtail this time further and more quickly restore the communion, so that by his own testing he may discern the state of the one being healed. For just as it is forbidden to cast pearls before swine, so also it is absurd to deprive of the precious pearl him who has already become a man through alienation from vice and purification. The lawlessness that takes place in adultery, or even in the other kinds of impurity, as has been said, shall be healed according to the same judgment as the defilement of fornication, but the time C is doubled. Yet in this regard, the disposition of the one being healed shall also be observed, in the same manner as with those who have been caught in the defilement of fornication, so that there may be a faster or slower participation of the good for them.
It remains, in addition to these things, for us to set forth for examination the irascible part of the soul, when, having slipped from the good use of anger, it falls into sin. Since there are many sins committed through anger, and all kinds of evils, it pleased our Fathers not to be overly subtle in other matters throughout, nor to deem it worthy of great effort to provide a cure for every fault that arises from anger; D even though Scripture prohibits not only the striking of the soul, but also every insult or blasphemy, and whatever else of this kind anger brings about; but they established, through the penances, a watch over the defilement of murder alone. This evil is divided by the distinction between the voluntary and the involuntary, in which things voluntary murder is: first, that which is perpetrated from premeditation, by one who has prepared himself for this very purpose, so that he might commit the defilement. Then, that also is considered among the voluntary, when someone in an encounter and fight, striking and being struck, inflicts a deadly wound by his hand. For he who has once been overcome by anger, and yields to the impulse of rage, has nothing come into his mind, at the time of the passion, that is able to cut off the evil. Therefore, even in that case, he who from [a state of] contention—
proceeds to the outcome of murder, is brought to the act of will, and not to failure. But involuntary [offenses] have manifest signs, when a person, applying his zeal to some other matter, by accident commits some very grave evil. In these cases, therefore, the murder is extended into a triple time for those who bring a remedy to their voluntary crime through conversion. For there are three sets of nine years, with the number of nine years ordained in each degree, so that in the perfect separation the person may abide for nine years, being kept away from the Church; for as many other years he may remain in the hearing [of the Word], being deemed worthy only of the hearing of teachers and Scriptures, and [only] of presence with the people; and in the third set of nine, praying with those who are prostrate in conversion, so [he may] arrive at the participation of the sacrament. And in the same way, the same observation shall be held by him who administers the Church, and in proportion to the conversion the extension of the penalty shall also be curtailed for him, so that instead of nine years, in each degree, [only] eight or seven or five years may occur, if the magnitude of the repentance overcomes the time and surpasses, by the zeal of correction, those who, B in the long time prescribed, wash away the stains they have contracted in a listless manner. The involuntary [deed], however, is judged worthy of pardon, yet [is] not praiseworthy. But I have said this so that it may be clear that even if someone should be involuntarily in the defilement of murder, the canon has pronounced that he must be cast out from priestly grace, as one who has already become profane and a victim of atonement. But as much time as is for expiation for simple fornication, so much also was deemed right to be held for those who had committed involuntary murder; that is to say, with the will of the penitent also examined, so that if the conversion be indeed worthy of faith, the number of years should not be kept; but, being cut C short by the prolixity of time, it may be reduced by a shortcut to the restoration of the Church and to the participation of the good. But if anyone should depart from life without having completed the time prescribed by the canons, the kindness of the Fathers orders that partaking of the effect of the sacraments, not empty of the viaticum for that final and long journey, he should be sent forth. But if, after he has become a partaker of the sacrament, he should return to life again, let him await the time set, remaining in that degree in which he was before the communion was given to him by necessity.
[Can. 6.] The other species of idolatry (for thus does the divine Apostle call avarice D) I know not how it was passed over by our Fathers without any medicine of punishment. And yet this evil seems to be an affection of the third of the constitutions of the soul. For the reason, wandering from the judgment of that which is beautiful, imagines that the beautiful is in matter, not looking toward the beauty separated from matter; and the desire is inclined toward those things which are lower, slipping away from that which is truly to be sought. And the contentious and irascible disposition takes from such a sin many
b. And to speak the whole, such a disease agrees with the apostolic definition of avarice. A For the divine Apostle declared it not only to be idolatry, but also the root of all evils; and yet this kind of disease has been overlooked, unexamined and uncared for; hence this infirmity abounds in the Churches, and no one scrutinizes those who are being led to the clergy, lest they have been defiled by such a form of idolatry. But concerning these matters, because they have been passed over by our Fathers, we think it sufficient, by the public word of doctrine, as much as possible, to cure them, like certain congestion-induced ailments, by purging the affections of insatiable avarice through discourse. B We consider only theft, and tomb-desecration, and sacrilege to be passions, for this is how the tradition has come to us from the succession of the Fathers. And yet in divine Scripture both usury and interest are prohibited, as is the seizing of another’s property through some power for one's own possession, even if this happens to be done under the pretext of a contract or transaction. Since, therefore, we are not worthy to attain the power of the canons, we shall add a canonical judgment to what has already been said regarding those things which are admittedly prohibited. Theft is therefore divided into brigandage and burglary; and the aim in both is one and the same: the removal of another's property; but there is a great difference between them in their C intent. For the brigand even takes up murder as an ally to what he is striving for, preparing himself for this very thing with arms and numbers and opportune places, so that such a person is subject to the judgment of murderers if, through repentance, he should return to the Church of God. But he who usurps what belongs to another through a secret removal, if he then manifests his sin to the priest through confession, will cure the infirmity by changing the zeal for the vice into its opposite; I mean by providing what he has to the poor, so that by casting away what he possesses, he may clearly show himself to be free from the disease of avarice. But if he has nothing, and only has his body, the Apostle commands him to expiate such a passion through bodily labor. D The text is as follows: "Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have to give to him who has need."
[Can. 7.] Tomb-desecration, too, is itself divided into that which deserves forgiveness and that which does not. For if someone, sparing the means of the dead and leaving the covered body intact, so that the shame of the nature might not be shown to the sun, has used some of the stones lying before the tomb for the construction of some work, this is not even then praiseworthy; yet custom has made it pardonable, when the material has been transferred to something better and more useful to the community. But to search through the dust of the flesh which has turned to earth, and to move the bones [in the hope of gaining some ornament from those interred]
is condemned by the same judgment as simple fornication, just as the distinction was made in the preceding discourse; provided, of course, that the steward or administrator considers the remedy from the very life of the one being healed, so that he may shorten the duration of the penance prescribed by the canons. B [Can. 8.] Sacrilege, however, in the ancient Scripture, was considered no more tolerable than the condemnation for murder. For both he who was convicted of murder and he who had carried off things dedicated to God underwent the punishment of stoning. But in ecclesiastical custom, I know not how, some relaxation and leniency have been introduced, so that the expiation for such a disease is thought to be more tolerable; for the tradition of the Fathers has prescribed that such persons undergo penance for a shorter time than for adultery. But in this sort of punishment, one must above all things see what kind of disposition the person has to whom it is applied; and one must not think that time alone suffices for a cure (for what medicine has ever come from time itself?), but rather the mind and intent of him who heals himself through conversion. These things, O man of God, we have composed studiously from what was at hand, because it is necessary to obey the commands of the brethren, and we have sent them with haste. But do not cease to offer the customary prayers to God on our behalf. For as a grateful son, you owe to him who has begotten you according to God C the nourishment of prayers in his old age, in accordance with the commandment which bids one to honor his parents, so that it may be well with you, and you may live long upon the earth. It is clear, however, that you will receive this letter as a priestly symbol, and will not despise this hospitable gift, even if it be less than what befits your own profound excellence.