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LEITERS TOTJIE QATARIS 49

only two burnt-out11 firebrands15 out of the thousands and tens of
thousands of our Lord’s, with the empty name of the office of
bishop16 (remaining), who now arc the material of a wicked
memorial17 for mourning in the Church of God, in the likeness of
the statue of salt into which was turned the wife of Lot, as a
memorial of the burning of Sodom.
But if however, the priestly title and honour had flowed from
the ecclesiastic and canonical imposition of hands for the Persians
and those who obey the Persians, then with the title itself would
have flowed as well the priestly power.'18 And if in this said region19
the faith fill people had been sanctified once again by priestly

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power, the faith in the south of the world*45 would not have
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perished in this sudden and total end. For either some people
would have preserved the profession of their faith unchanged with
unyielding firmness, as those who, as I might say, buried it
undamaged in the caverns of the earth51 until such time as die fear
had been diminished; or in the blood of holy martyrs, diey would
have consecrated their faidi to the Lord, in a praiseworthy end
worthy of die glory of our Lord. For di rough these outstanding
examples was die inheritance of the true faith52 passed on to us by
our spiritual fathers, whose tradition all of us in die holy Church
shall keep until the revealing of our Lord from heaven.
But because die bishops of Fars cut themselves off from this
tradition, their life has been cut off from the hope of faith, just as
at the outset53 in Mazun.54 If the Lord had left no remnant in your
41
45 Isaiah 7:4: W
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