Letter 270

270. Without Address, Concerning an Abduction

I am greatly grieved that I do not find you, in the face of forbidden deeds, either indignant or able to reckon that this abduction now committed is against life itself and against human living a lawless act and a tyranny, an outrage against the free. For I know that, if you all held such a mind, nothing would have hindered, long ago, this evil custom from being driven out of our country. Take up, then, for the present the zeal of a Christian, and be moved in a manner worthy of the wrong. And the girl, wherever you find her, take her away with all energy and restore her to her parents; and that man himself banish from the prayers, and make him an outcast; and those who joined in the deed with him, according to the proclamation already issued by us, banish, with all their households, from the prayers for three years. And the village that received the abducted girl, and kept her, or fought in defence of her, this too put outside the prayers, all together; that all may learn to drive off the abductor as a serpent, as some other wild beast, regarding him as a common enemy, and so to stand up for the wronged.