Addressing all bishops, not the Bishop of Rome singularly, canon 102 of the Council of Trullo (AKA Quinisext), held A.D. 692, reads:
It behoves those who have
received from God the power to loose and bind, to consider the quality of the
sin and the readiness of the sinner for conversion, and to apply medicine
suitable for the disease, lest if he is injudicious in each of these respects
he should fail in regard to the healing of the sick man. For the disease of sin
is not simple, but various and multiform, and it germinates many mischievous
offshoots, from which much evil is diffused, and it proceeds further until it
is checked by the power of the physician. Wherefore he who professes the
science of spiritual medicine ought first of all to consider the disposition of
him who has sinned, and to see whether he tends to health or (on the contrary)
provokes to himself disease by his own behaviour, and to look how he can care
for his manner of life during the interval. And if he does not resist the
physician, and if the ulcer of the soul is increased by the application of the
imposed medicaments, then let him mete out mercy to him according as he is
worthy of it. For the whole account is between God and him to whom the pastoral
rule has been delivered, to lead back the wandering sheep and to cure that
which is wounded by the serpent; and that he may neither cast them down into
the precipices of despair, nor loosen the bridle towards dissolution or
contempt of life; but in some way or other, either by means of sternness and
astringency, or by greater softness and mild medicines, to resist this sickness
and exert himself for the healing of the ulcer, now examining the fruits of his
repentance and wisely managing the man who is called to higher illumination.
For we ought to know two things, to wit, the things which belong to strictness
and those which belong to custom, and to follow the traditional form in the
case of those who are not fitted for the highest things, as holy Basil teaches
us. (NPNF2 14:408)
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