Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/The Decretals/The Epistles of Pope Fabian/To All the Bishops of the East/Preface

The Second Epistle.

To All the Bishops of the East.

That the chrism should be renewed with consecration every year, and that the old supply should be set aside to be burnt in the churches; also concerning the accusing of priests, and on the duty of the sheep not to dare to blame their shepherd unless he errs in the faith.

Fabian, bishop of the city of Rome, to all the bishops of the East, and to the whole body of the faithful, greeting in the Lord.

Your love for the seat of the apostles requires counsels which we neither can nor ought to deny you.&#160; It is clear, moreover, that our predecessors did this for the bishops of many districts; and brotherly charity and the debt of obedience impose the duty of so doing also upon us who, by the bountiful goodness of God, are placed in the same seat.&#160; Care, therefore, is to be had by your solicitude, that neither remissness may avail to neglect, nor presumption be able to disturb, those things which have been ordained by the apostles and their successors, and established under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.&#160; But as it was proper that that should be defined which the use of right order required, so what has been so defined ought not to be violated.