From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk
To: An unnamed person
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore defends himself against criticism that his counsel failed, arguing that the advisor's responsibility ends with speaking clearly.
If I claimed to possess words capable of eliminating every kind of wickedness, I would rightly be accused of arrogance. But what I know above all else is this: it belongs to the advisor to say what is best; it belongs to the one being advised to be persuaded. One is master of speaking; the other, of acting.
Why, then, if you are unwilling to accept the advice, do you blame the one who fulfilled his part by speaking well? And if you will not accept even this, you will have to extend your criticism to the inscrutable wisdom of God himself — which could not persuade the apostate Jews, and could not persuade the traitor. So great is the respect God pays to human freedom that he will not compel even those he died for.
Context:Isidore defends himself against criticism that his counsel failed, arguing that the advisor's responsibility ends with speaking clearly.
If I claimed to possess words capable of eliminating every kind of wickedness, I would rightly be accused of arrogance. But what I know above all else is this: it belongs to the advisor to say what is best; it belongs to the one being advised to be persuaded. One is master of speaking; the other, of acting.
Why, then, if you are unwilling to accept the advice, do you blame the one who fulfilled his part by speaking well? And if you will not accept even this, you will have to extend your criticism to the inscrutable wisdom of God himself — which could not persuade the apostate Jews, and could not persuade the traitor. So great is the respect God pays to human freedom that he will not compel even those he died for.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.