Canon II.
Covetousness is a great evil; and it is not
possible in a single letter to set forth those scriptures in which not
robbery alone is declared to be a thing horrible and to be abhorred,
but in general the grasping mind, and the disposition to meddle with
what belongs to others, in order to satisfy the sordid love of
gain. And all persons of that spirit are excommunicated from the
Church of God. But that at the time of the irruption, in the
midst of such woful sorrows and bitter lamentations, some should have
been audacious enough to consider the crisis which brought destruction
to all the very period for their own private aggrandizement, that is a
thing which can be averred only of men who are impious and hated of
God, and of unsurpassable iniquity. Wherefore it seemed good to
excommunicate such persons, lest the wrath (of God) should come upon
the whole people, and upon those first of all who are set over them in
office, and yet fail to make inquiry. For I am afraid, as the
Scripture says, lest the impious work the destruction of the righteous
along with his own.126
“For
fornication,” it says,
127
“and
covetousness are things on account of which the
wrath
of
God cometh upon the
children of
disobedience. Be not ye
therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes
darkness,
but now are ye
light in the
Lord:
walk as
children of
light (for
the fruit of the
light128
| 128
τοῦ
φωτός for the received πνεύματος. |
is in all
goodness, and
righteousness, and
truth), proving what is
acceptable unto the
Lord. And have no
fellowship with the
unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them; for it is a
shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in
secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the
light.” In this
wise speaks the
apostle. But if
certain parties who pay the proper penalty for that former
covetousness
of theirs, which exhibited itself in the time of
peace, now turn aside
again to the indulgence of
covetousness in the very time of
trouble
(i.e., in the
troubles of the inroads by the
barbarians), and make
gain
out of the
blood and ruin of men who have been utterly despoiled, or
taken captive, (or) put to death, what else ought to be expected, than
that those who struggle so hotly for covetousness should heap up wrath
both for themselves and for the whole people?
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