By Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis
A certain virgin, the daughter of an elder in Caesarea of Palestine, having been beguiled and led astray by a man, fell, and he who had beguiled her instructed her to make an accusation against a certain reader of the church of the city. And the time having arrived when her conception became known, and being called upon to confess her matter by her father, she made the accusation against that reader, and the elder, her father, thereupon, like one who believed her implicitly, made the affair known to the Bishop. Then the Bishop laid his hand upon the shrine, and commanded that the reader should be called, and his affair having been enquired into, like one who was confident in his own integrity, he was unwilling to confess that he had done the wrong; for how was it possible for him to accuse himself of that which he had not done? And the Bishop becoming angry said unto him, “Will you not confess, O wretched and polluted man, you who are guilty and full of uncleanness?” And the reader answered him, saying, “Master, I have neither knowledge nor feeling about this matter, for my thoughts and mind are clean in respect thereof, and no thought concerning this woman has ever entered my mind. But if you wish to hear that which has never taken place, I will say that I myself committed the offense.” And having spoken thus, the Bishop straightway removed the reader from his position. Then the reader drew nigh and entreated the Bishop, saying, “Master, since I have stumbled and fallen, give the command that the woman be given unto me to wife, for I am no longer a cleric, and she is not a virgin.” So the Bishop gave the woman to the reader to wife, because he thought that he was held by love of her, and that he could not cut the affair concerning her out of his thoughts.
