our regulation, and should hereafter venture to disobey it, he shall expiate his offence by two months’ excommunication.[25] =THE GLORIOUS FLAVIUS WAMBA, KING.= =VI. Concerning the Arbitrary Conduct of Bishops.= God, the just Judge, who loves right eternally, does not wish that justice should be subject to time, but rather that time should be governed by the principles of equity. God himself is the personification of justice, and to him should be given whatever is bestowed by the faithful upon the church through motives of devotion; for God, as mediator, accepts the vows of every true and sincere worshipper. And vows should never be renounced which are known to have proceeded from, and been confirmed by, a sense of justice; and, therefore, he commits a fraud upon God who unjustly takes from him his property. He also violates the rules of justice who corruptly interferes with the vows of others. While, as has been said, God is justice, what madness is it for anyone to remove from God’s possession any property under the claim of prescription, alleging that he has held it for thirty years? For many rash bishops, prompted by avarice, are in the habit of bestowing upon their cathedral churches, or upon various individuals, or paying out as wages for labor performed, the donations that have been given to their dioceses by the faithful, and, in this way, they not only break the vows of the donors, but are also guilty of sacrilege, in that they thereby defraud the Church of God; for it has been long established that to defraud the church is sacrilege. And when they are urged to make restitution, they decline to do so, because their predecessors acted in the same manner; or refuse to make amends, because they claim to have held the property in question for thirty years. Thus they attempt to maintain their cupidity and rapacity by right of prescription; and instead of at once making reparation for their fault, they attempt to confirm and legalize it by the operation of time. He must be considered a person of great impiety who asserts such a claim, and acknowledges that, for thirty years, he has done injury to God, and refuses to make amends for the injury after that period has elapsed.