Letter 196

Isidore of PelusiumUnknown|isidore pelusium
From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk at Pelusium
To: Lampetius the Bishop
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore on the stubbornness of certain clergy who refuse correction — arguing that this refusal is itself a sign of a soul that has turned in on itself.

The advisory and beneficial words of sound teaching reach your hearing — but certain people have stopped up their ears. And what is worse, they do it deliberately: not out of error but out of pride.

Stubbornness is the hallmark of a mind that has turned in on itself. The things given by God for our common benefit — corrective words, fraternal admonition, the check of a wise friend — are precisely the things the stubborn person refuses. He treats correction as attack and counsel as insult.

This does not improve with time. It gets worse. Address it now.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.