To the Learned Elias, Against a Wrongdoer on Church Land

Lawmakers have made laws to aid the oppressed, and advocates have practiced the orator’s art to help those who need a fair defense. You, my friend, have studied both eloquence and the law. Now put your skill into practice. Use it to put down the oppressors and to help those they have put down, defending them with the law as with a shield. Let no guilty client have the benefit of your advocacy, even if he is your friend. [a]

Now one of these guilty men is that scoundrel Abraham. After being settled for a long time on an estate belonging to the church, he took several partners in his villainy, and he has not hesitated to admit what he has done. I have sent him to you, with an account of his doings, with the people he has wronged, and with the reverend subdeacon Gerontius. I do not want you to hand the guilty man over to the authorities. My hope is that when his victims have told you all they have had to put up with, and have made you, my learned friend, feel for them, you may be moved to compel the wicked fellow to give back what he has stolen. [b]