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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

25. Rule 25: What is Evil Speaking? (R. 42)

I think there are two occasions on which it is allowable to say something bad¹ of a man. When a man is obliged to take counsel with others approved for this purpose as to how one who has sinned may be corrected; and again when there is need to secure the safety of some who may often through ignorance be likely to consort with evil as if it were good, for the apostle bids us not to consort with such² lest we get the noose round our own soul. This we find happened to the same apostle, to judge by what he writes to Timothy— Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil, of whom be thou ware also, for he greatly withstood our words.”³ Apart from such necessity, he who speaks against any one, with the purpose of accusing or traducing him, is an evil speaker, even if what he says is true.

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