De Episcopis (Epigr. XVII)
The Sacred Office and Human Blindness
The author defends the divine institution of the episcopacy against its detractors, challenging the inconsistency of those who criticize the office while simultaneously refusing to serve in it.
Christ held the Apostles dear and entrusted them to his flock, so that when death, looming with its savage claws, might cut off the golden rivers of doctrine, gentle bishops would receive the torch and keep the sacred order by their keys; yet now, an impious barbarism tears at them, indulging its own ambitions, and eager to drag down and drown those whose heights it cannot reach itself. O blind people! If being a bishop is a good thing, why do you refuse it? But if it is a bad thing, it is better that a few become bishops than everyone.
Read the original Latin
Quos charos habuit Christus Apostolos, Testatosque suo tradiderat gregi; Ut cum mors rabidis unguibus imminens Doctrinae fluvios clauderet aureae, Mites acciperent Lampada Praesules, Servarentque sacrum clavibus ordinem; Hos nunc barbaries impia vellicat Indulgens propriis ambitionibus, Et quos ipsa nequit scandere vertices Hos ad se trahere, et mergere gestiens. O coecum populum! si bona res siet Praesul, cur renuis? sin mala, pauculos Quam cunctos fieri praestat Episcopos.
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