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¹ Perhaps someone, hearing too that the book of Acts often mentions the breaking of bread, and finding the same in Paul, will reason that the bread mystically broken then was of the same kind set out for common eating—but the unleavened was not eaten at just any time; it was reserved for certain fixed days and sacrifices. If these considerations are not decisive (the matter can be argued either way), still, to my mind, the balance tips the greater way—the way that grants the victory, since even a runner is crowned who outpaces the others by a single stride.

² And let the great number of God’s eastern clergy weigh upon you, and the dignity of the Church of Jerusalem, from which, as from a fountain, the stream of the faith and of the apostolic tradition flowed—a tradition to which the offering of leavened loaves also belongs. Why should I speak to you of the peoples of the East, among whom you may fairly count the Indians and the Ethiopians? Look also, I ask you, to Egypt, and to the regions of Libya around Cyrene, and to the thirsty land beyond it, and you will see them all of one mind, following the same rule concerning the bread of the mystical offering. And consider too the bread of the Church of the Corinthians, which you will surely not accuse of failing to keep the traditions—for the one who handed them down commended it precisely for keeping them; to vote against him exceeds all insolence, not to say, lest I distress you, impiety. You hear, I know well, even your own Sardinians testifying against the offering of unleavened bread; but you pretend to be deaf. I, however, listen keenly to them, and to the old proverb—“a witness from one’s own house”—crying out and casting the white pebble in my favor.

³ How is it, then, that while you set yourselves against so much—I will even say so great a body of evidence—you think you commit no sin, and, acting against the custom of the Churches of God, still raise your eyebrow? And when you ought to be led along with us, you instead force us to be dragged along with you, and accuse us—we who, if we wished, could accuse you with far greater justice? For our part, we are careful not to give you trouble on this account, or provoke your love of honor and love of contention; but you do not know how to spare even those who spare you.