Certain Orthodox [bishops], in a Letter to Pope Agapetus (concerning whom Baronius [writes], year 536): “We know,” they say, “[it is] well, if you inform our most pious Emperor, and the Princes lovable to Christ himself, that those communicate with the anathema who have the anathema in their midst — as the ancient scripture shows us in Achan and Jonathan, who knowingly and unknowingly fell into the anathema, and, by being ignorant of these [things], were in danger of perishing with them, since in the midst of them was the anathema. And [we know it is well] if you remind [them], by their beloved and cherished empire dedicated to God, to lead to God those who have been led away by them [the heretics] from the right faith — and, if [the empire] cannot do this, [that] the plotters against the Church be repelled.” And afterward again, to the Emperor Justin: “It is to be feared, most pious Emperor, lest, on account of much delay, we too suffer that [fate] of the Israelite people — having in [our] midst [men] anathematized by every priesthood — [that people] which, because it had in its midst Achan and Jonathan, subjecting themselves to the anathema in knowledge and in ignorance, was in danger of perishing entirely, although it was ignorant that it had the anathema in its midst. Do not, therefore, most Christian Emperors, despise such an evil, but [with] over-much zeal [strive] toward the knowledge of God.” But Turrianus (bk. 1 On Monastic Vows): “Now,” he says, “it is known to all, what punishments God took upon Israel on account of one Acham, who had secretly turned aside, from [the things] consecrated to God, a scarlet cloak, and two hundred shekels and a golden bar. But upon the culprit himself — who, by God’s will, the lots being drawn, was detected — this sentence [was] pronounced: ‘whoever shall be detected in this crime, shall be burned with fire, with all his substance, because he has transgressed the pact of the Lord, and done a wicked thing in Israel.’ And a little after: ‘and Acham answered Joshua, and said, “Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus I did, for I saw a scarlet cloak,”’ and what follows. Then is subjoined the punishment, and the cause of the punishment: ‘“because,” he says, “thou hast disturbed us today, let God disturb thee in this day”; and all Israel stoned him, and all [the things] which were his were consumed by fire: and they gathered upon him a great heap of stones, which remains unto the present day: the name of that place was called “the valley of Achor,” that is, of disturbance.’ If — as I have often said, and shall say more often — whatever [things] are written, are written for us, upon whom the ends of the ages have come: what punishment, I pray, is decreed for those who have taken and turned aside, from [the things] consecrated to God, not a scarlet cloak, or two hundred shekels, or a golden bar, but themselves — that is, the living temple of God, and the vessels of the Lord dedicated to God? who have hidden the cloak of their order in the earth, as that Acham [hid] the scarlet [one]: and have covered over the golden and divine rule of religion, the earth being dug up, as far as [it was] in their power, likewise as Acham — nay, worse than Acham? since he confessed [that he had] sinned, but these are not even willing to repent. Wherefore, as he, after confession, experienced fire in this life, so these Apostates will experience everlasting flames in the other age, unless they prefer to repent. Worse, moreover, than Acham. For he disturbed his [fellow] countrymen — for thirty-six men fell, on account of his sin, in the battle, as the history itself attests, the rest being turned to flight: but these, of whom I speak, disturb very many brethren — that is, Christians — by scandal, of whom they slay some, while by their example they teach and persuade [them] to do the same; others they draw back from the order of Monks, lest they ever suffer themselves to be dedicated to it — for whom it is more expedient that, with a millstone [mola asinaria] hung from the neck, they be drowned in the deep of the sea, than that they scandalize one of the little ones. But because those, in whose midst Acham was a culprit, were punished with the slaughter of thirty-six men, the severity of this example teaches us [that] they too sin who [receive] fugitive and Apostate monks of this kind — whether open or hidden, such as they are who, under the pretext of translation [transfer] or exemption, seek autonomy — [they] sin, I say, who
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receive [these apostate monks], and hold [them] among the number of their own. For if it is not lawful for me to detain, for my use, another man’s servant, against the Lord’s [master’s] will, how would it be lawful [to detain] him who, putting off the power over his own body, has been ascribed to God into the order of Monks, and confirmed this by the pledge of a vow of obedience — [how lawful] to have [him], against his [order’s] authority and will, among my ministers, [him] who now cannot be mine, but [is] of that order to which he is bound by vow? How, then, will they grant to another what they themselves do not have? — since they have been made beforehand the anathema of the Lord. Or how would it be lawful for those Lords [Masters] to enjoy the anathema of the Lord, and to turn [it] to their own uses, after the example of Achan?”