Letter 282

282. To a Bishop

When uncalled you complain, and when called you do not obey. From this second course it is plain that you employed your former plea to no purpose; for, in all likelihood, you would not have come even then, had you been called. Heed, then, those who call you now, and do not again prove yourself ungracious, knowing that to add a charge to a charge confirms the first and makes the second accusation more credible than the former. I always urge you to bear with us; but if you will not bear with us, still it is not right to slight the martyrs, in commemoration of whom you are summoned. Grant, then, this favour—first to both, but if that does not seem good to you, at least to the more honoured of the two.