The Errors Of Crowds

Ad negligentiam vitae, non nos negligentium turba persuadeat, nec ad damnum propriae salutis, alienis ducamur erroribus. Quid nobis in illo Dei judicio proderit multitudo; ubi singuli judicabuntur, ubi sola examinatio merilorum, actus quemque, non populus absolvent? Cessent, cessent solatia malesuada discriminis. Nimirum praestat vitam propagasse cum paucioribus quam perdidisse cum pluribus. Atque adeo, non nos ad incuriam peccatorum, sola peccantium numerositas pertrahat, neque hoc, quod sibi alii parum consulunt, quaedam nobis efficiatur auctoritas. Obsecro te, delictum alienum semper ut opprobrium respice, numquam ut exemplum. Sanctus Eucherius Lugdonensis, Epistola Paraenetica ad Valerianum Cognatum, de Contemptu Mundi Source: Migne PL 50.718a

To the neglect of life let not the negligence of the crowd persuade us, nor to the loss of your own salvation let us be lead by the errors of others. How will the multitude profit us in that day of God’s judgement, when each will be sentenced separately, when his own deeds, not the peole, will absolve him? Let them cease, let them cease, the evil leading comforts that separate. Without doubt the superior life is to have spent it with the poor and not to have been ruined with the many. And, therefore, let not the carelessness of sinners attact our attention but the grave number of sins. Let us not allow those who counsel themselves so poorly to be made into an authority for us. I beseech you, always look upon the wrongs of others as a disgrace, never as an example. Saint Eucherius of Lyon, Letter Of Exhortation To His Kinsman Valerian, On Contempt For The World