教牧守則·對話錄與書信 第 8 章

But very often those who covet to preside seize, for the use of their own lust, the words of the Apostle where he says: If any man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work (1 Tim. 3:1); yet he who praises the desire straightway turns into terror what he had praised, when he suddenly subjoins: A bishop then must be blameless (ibid. 2). And when he enumerates in due course the necessary virtues, he makes plain what that blamelessness itself is. He therefore both favours from desire and terrifies from precept, as if he plainly said: I praise what you seek, but first learn what it is you are seeking;

lest, while you neglect to measure yourselves, your reprehensibleness should appear the fouler, the more it hastens to be beheld by all upon the height of honour. For the great craftsman of ruling impels by favours, draws back by terrors, that he may both restrain his hearers from pride by the summit of blamelessness he has described, and, by praising the office that is sought, shape it to their life. Yet it must be noted that this was said at that time when whoever presided over the peoples was the first to be led to the torments of martyrdom. Then, therefore, it was praiseworthy to seek the episcopate, when through it there was no doubt that each would come to graver sufferings. Hence the very office of the episcopate is defined by the expression of good work, when it is said:

If any man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work (1 Tim. 3:1). He therefore is his own witness that he does not seek the episcopate who seeks through it not the ministry of a good work but the glory of honour. For he not only does not at all love the sacred office, but knows it not, who, panting after the summit of governance, is fed in the hidden meditation of his thought upon the subjection of others, rejoices in his own praise, lifts up his heart to honour, exults in the abundance of flowing riches. Thus the world's gain is sought under the appearance of that honour whereby the world's gains ought to have been destroyed. And when the mind thinks to seize the summit of humility unto exaltation, what it seeks without, it changes within.