Recall therefore how great and what manner of things, while I listened and approved, you are wont to say concerning the administration of a bishop who, having set aside the care of the people committed to him, more ardently desires present goods than future ones; and forgetful that he must render an account not only of himself, but also of the flock entrusted to him, to the Shepherd of all shepherds, does not consider the losses of himself and of his own: whom the sins of the offending do not grieve, nor the good deeds of those making progress gladden; but being anxious only about himself, and for the most part not even about himself at all, he is ignorant of what good or evil is done by his own people: who does not preach perseverance to the just, repentance to the depraved, contempt of the world to the converted, future punishments to those turned away; who cannot say to the despisers of his admonition:
Think upon the future judgment—which perhaps he himself does not think upon; to the lovers of the world: Do not love the world—if the love of the world delights him; to the ambitious: Set an end to ambition—if ruinous ambition casts him headlong; to the drunken: Beware of drunkenness—if he gorges himself with wine even to the alienation of his mind. Crude with sumptuous feasts, he cannot praise to his people the abstinence which he tramples underfoot; addicted to the vice of greed, he cannot dissuade the covetous from the love of money; clinging to enmities, he will not dare to compose the minds of those at variance with priestly tranquillity; he is ashamed to preach justice to judges, which he himself corrupts by favor of a powerful person; nor does he defend the oppressed, if he either honors or despises persons;
and whatever good he does not do or evil he commits, he will neither command to be done nor forbid; because by the contrariety of his own action he either loses or diminishes the necessary authority of teaching.