THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS - VOLUME 27
Cyril of Jerusalem, Optatus, Pacian and the Pilgrimage of Egeria
c. AD 350 – 385

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Texts are public domain except where marked in Sources and Credits.

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INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
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HOW THIS BOOK IS ARRANGED

This is the twenty-seventh volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early
Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth
century. This volume holds Cyril of Jerusalem, Optatus, Pacian and the Pilgrimage of
Egeria, from the period about AD 350 – 385.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any
passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section
numbers.

THE TRANSLATIONS

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for
SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation.
In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been
altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the
back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the
works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

IN THIS VOLUME

Cyril was bishop of Jerusalem from about AD 350 until his death in AD 386, and was driven
from his city more than once during the Arian disputes. His Catechetical Lectures were
given to candidates for baptism about AD 350.

Optatus was bishop of Milevis in Numidia. About AD 366 he wrote a reply to the Donatist
bishop Parmenian, and the work was later enlarged with a seventh book. It is the main
source for the early history of the Donatist schism.

Pacian was bishop of Barcelona in the later fourth century and died about AD 390. His
letters to Sympronian, a follower of Novatian, and his writings on penance and baptism are
among the few Latin works from Spain in his time.

Egeria, also called Etheria, was a woman from the far west of the Roman world, probably
from Spain or Gaul, who travelled to Egypt, Jerusalem, Sinai and Asia Minor about AD 381
to 384 and wrote an account of her journey for the women of her community at home. It is
an important early witness to the worship of Jerusalem.

The journal of Egeria survives in a single manuscript that has lost its beginning and its
end, so the account of her journey opens in the middle of her visit to Sinai and breaks
off before its close.

DATES AND AUTHORSHIP

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short
introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is
uncertain.


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
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CATECHETICAL LECTURES Cyril of Jerusalem

c. AD 313–386

Bishop of Jerusalem; his catechetical lectures survive.

LECTURE 1

First Catechetical Lecture of Our Holy Father Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem

To those who are to be Enlightened, delivered extempore at Jerusalem, as an Introductory
Lecture to those who had come forward for Baptism : with a reading from Isaiah. Wash you,
make you clean; put away your iniquities from your souls, from before mine eyes, and the
rest . 1. Disciples of the New Testament and partakers of the mysteries of Christ, as yet
by calling only, but ere long by grace also, make you a new heart and a new spirit , that
there may be gladness among the inhabitants of heaven: for if over one sinner that
repenteth there is joy, according to the Gospel , how much more shall the salvation of so
many souls move the inhabitants of heaven to gladness. As ye have entered upon a good and
most glorious path, run with reverence the race of godliness. For the Only-begotten Son of
God is present here most ready to redeem you, saying, Come unto Me all that labour and are
heavy, laden, and I will give you rest . Ye that are clothed with the rough garment of
your offences, who are holden with the cards of your own sins, hear the voice of the
Prophet saying, Wash you, make you clean, put away your iniquities from before Mine eyes :
that the choir of Angels may chant over you, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered . Ye who have just lighted the torches of faith ,
guard them carefully in your hands unquenched; that He, who erewhile on this all-holy
Golgotha opened Paradise to the robber on account of his faith, may grant to you to sing
the bridal song.

2. If any here is a slave of sin, let him promptly prepare himself through faith for the
new birth into freedom and adoption; and having put off the miserable bondage of his sins,
and taken on him the most blessed bondage of the Lord, so may he be counted worthy to
inherit the kingdom of heaven. Put off, by confession , the old man, which waxeth corrupt
after the lusts of deceit, that ye may put on the new man, which is renewed according to
knowledge of Him that created him . Get you the earnest of the Holy Spirit through faith,
that ye may be able to be received into the everlasting habitations . Come for the
mystical Seal, that ye may be easily recognised by the Master; be ye numbered among the
holy and spiritual flock of Christ, to be set apart on His right hand, and inherit the
life prepared for you. For they to whom the rough garment of their sins still clings are
found on the left hand, because they came not to the grace of God which is given through
Christ at the new birth of Baptism: new birth I mean not of bodies, but the spiritual new
birth of the soul. For our bodies are begotten by parents who are seen, but our souls are
begotten anew through faith: for the Spirit bloweth where it listeth : and then, if thou
be found worthy, thou mayest hear, Well done, good and faithful servant , when thou art
found to have no defilement of hypocrisy in thy conscience.

3. For if any of those who are present should think to tempt God's grace, he deceives
himself, and knows not its power. Keep thy soul free from hypocrisy, O man, because of Him
who searcheth hearts and reins . For as those who are going to make a levy for war examine
the ages and the bodies of those who are taking service, so also the Lord in enlisting
souls examines their purpose: and if any has a secret hypocrisy, He rejects the man as
unfit for His true service; but if He finds one worthy, to him He readily gives His grace.
He gives not holy things to the dogs ; but where He discerns the good conscience, there He
gives the Seal of salvation, that wondrous Seal, which devils tremble at, and Angels
recognise; that the one may be driven to flight, and the others may watch around it as
kindred to themselves. Those therefore who receive this spiritual and saving Seal, have
need also of the disposition akin to it. For as a writing-reed or a dart has need of one
to use it, so grace also has need of believing minds.

4. Thou art receiving not a perishable but a spiritual shield. Henceforth thou art planted
in the invisible Paradise. Thou receivest a new name, which thou hadst not before.
Heretofore thou wast a Catechumen, but now thou wilt be called a Believer. Thou art
transplanted henceforth among the spiritual olive-trees, being grafted from the wild into
the good olive-tree , from sins into righteousness, from pollutions into purity. Thou art
made partaker of the Holy Vine . Well then, if thou abide in the Vine, thou growest as a
fruitful branch; but if thou abide not, thou wilt be consumed by the fire. Let us
therefore bear fruit worthily. God forbid that in us should be done what befell that
barren fig-tree . that Jesus come not even now and curse us for our barrenness. But may
all be able to use that other saying, But I am like a fruitful olive-tree in the house of
God: I have trusted in the mercy of God for ever ,-an olive-tree not to be perceived by
sense, but by the mind , and full of light. As then it is His part to plant and to water ,
so it is thine to bear fruit: it is God's to grant grace, but thine to receive and guard
it. Despise not the grace because it is freely given, but receive and treasure it
devoutly.

5. The present is the season of confession: confess what thou hast done in word or in
deed, by night or by day; confess in an acceptable time, and in the day of salvation
receive the heavenly treasure. Devote thy time to the Exorcisms: be assiduous at the
Catechisings, and remember the things that shall be spoken, for they are spoken not for
thine ears only, but that by faith thou mayest seal them up in the memory. Blot out from
thy mind all earthly care: for thou art running for thy soul. Thou art utterly forsaking
the things of the world: little are the things which thou art forsaking, great what the
Lord is giving. Forsake things present, and put thy trust in things to come. Hast thou run
so many circles of the years busied in vain about the world, and hast thou not forty days
to be free (for prayer ), for thine own soul's sake? Be still , and know that I am God,
saith the Scripture. Excuse thyself from talking many idle words: neither backbite, nor
lend a willing ear to backbiters; but rather be prompt to prayer. Shew in ascetic exercise
that thy heart is nerved . Cleanse thy vessel, that thou mayest receive grace more
abundantly. For though remission of sins is given equally to all, the communion of the
Holy Ghost is bestowed in proportion to each man's faith. If thou hast laboured little,
thou receivest little; but if thou hast wrought much, the reward is great. Thou art
running for thyself, see to thine own interest.

6. If thou hast aught against any man, forgive it: thou comest here to receive forgiveness
of sins, and thou also must forgive him that hath sinned against thee. Else with what face
wilt thou say to the Lord, Forgive me my many sins, if thou hast not thyself forgiven thy
fellow-servant even his little sins. Attend diligently the Church assemblies ; not only
now when diligent attendance is required of thee by the Clergy, but also after thou hast
received the grace. For if, before thou hast received it, the practice is good, is it not
also good after the bestowal? If before thou be grafted in, it is a safe course to be
watered and tended, is it not far better after the planting? Wrestle for thine own soul,
especially in such days as these. Nourish thy soul with sacred readings; for the Lord hath
prepared for thee a spiritual table; therefore say thou also after the Psalmist, The Lord
is my shepherd, and I shall lack nothing: in a place of grass, there hath He made me rest;
He hath fed me beside the waters of comfort, He hath converted my soul :-that Angels also
may share your joy, and Christ Himself the great High Priest, having accepted your
resolve, may present you all to the Father, saying, Behold, I and the children whom God
hath given Me . May He keep you all well-pleasing in His sight! To whom be the glory, and
the power unto the endless ages of eternity. Amen.

LECTURE 2

On Repentance and Remission of Sins, and Concerning the Adversary.

Ezekiel XVIII. 20-23. The rightheousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the
wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins,
&c. 1. A Fearful thing is sin, and the sorest disease of the soul is transgression,
secretly cutting its sinews, and becoming also the cause of eternal fire; an evil of a
man's own choosing, an offspring of the will For that we sin of our own free will the
Prophet says plainly in a certain place: Yet I planted thee a fruitful vine, wholly true:
how art thou turned to bitterness, (and become) the strange vine ? The planting was good,
the fruit coming from the will is evil; and therefore the planter is blameless, but the
vine shall be burnt with fire since it was planted for good, and bore fruit unto evil of
its own will. For God, according to the Preacher, made man upright, and they have
themselves sought out many inventions . For we are His workmakship, says the Apostle,
created unto good works, which God afore prepared, that we should walk in them . So then
the Creator, being good, created for good works; but the creature turned of its own free
will to wickedness. Sin then is, as we have said, a fearful evil, but not incurable;
fearful for him who clings to it, but easy of cure for him who by repentance puts it from
him. For suppose that a man is holding fire in his hand; as long as he holds fast the live
coal he is sure to be burned, but should he put away the coal, he would have cast away the
flame also with it. If however any one thinks that he is not being burned when sinning, to
him the Scripture saith, Shall a man wrap up fire in his bosom, and not burn his clothes ?
For sin burns the sinews of the soul, [and breaks the spiritual bones of the mind, and
darkens the light of the heart ].

2. But some one will say, What can sin be? Is it a living thing? Is it an angel? Is it a
demon? What is this which works within us? It is not an enemy, O man, that assails thee
from without, but an evil shoot growing up out of thyself. Look right on with thine eyes ,
and there is no lust. [Keep thine own, and ] seize not the things of others, and robbery
has ceased . Remember the Judgment, and neither fornication, nor adultery, nor murder, nor
any transgression of the law shall prevail with thee. But whenever thou forgettest God,
forthwith thou beginnest to devise wickedness and to commit iniquity. 3. Yet thou art not
the sole author of the evil, but there is also another most wicked prompter, the devil. He
indeed suggests, but does not get the mastery by force over those who do not consent.
Therefore saith the Preacher, If the spirit of him that hath power rise up against thee,
quit not thy place . Shut thy door, and put him far from thee, and he shall not hurt thee.
But if thou indifferently admit the thought of lust, it strikes root in thee by its
suggestions, and enthrals thy mind, and drags thee down into a pit of evils.

But perhaps thou sayest, I am a believer, and lust does not gain the ascendant over me,
even if I think upon it frequently. Knowest thou not that a root breaks even a rock by
long persistence? Admit not the seed, since it will rend thy faith asunder: tear out the
evil by the root before it blossom, lest from being careless at the beginning thou have
afterwards to seek for axes and fire. When thine eyes begin to be diseased, get them cured
in good time, lest thou become blind, and then have to seek the physician. 4. The devil
then is the first author of sin, and the father of the wicked: and this is the Lord's
saying, not mine, that the devil sinneth from the beginning : none sinned before him. But
he sinned, not as having received necessarily from nature the propensity to sin, since
then the cause of sin is traced back again to Him that made him so; but having been
created good, he has of his own free will become a devil, and received that name from his
action. For being an Archangel he was afterwards called a devil from his slandering: from
being a good servant of God he has become rightly named Satan; for "Satan" is interpreted
the adversary . And this is not my teaching, but that of the inspired prophet Ezekiel: for
he takes up a lamentation over him and says, Thou wast a seal of likeness, and a crown of
beauty; in the Paradise of God wast thou born : and soon after, Thou wast born blameless
in thy days, from the day in which thou wast created, until thine iniquities were found in
thee. Very rightly hath he said, were found in thee; for they were not brought in from
without, but thou didst thyself beget the evil. The cause also he mentions forthwith:
Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty: for the multitude of thy sins wast thou
wounded, and I did cast thee to the ground. In agreement with this the Lord says again in
the Gospels:

I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven . Thou seest the harmony of the Old Testament
with the New. He when cast out drew many away with him. It is he that puts lusts into them
that listen to him: from him come adultery, fornication, and every kind of evil. Through
him our forefather Adam was cast out for disobedience, and exchanged a Paradise bringing
forth wondrous fruits of its own accord for the ground which bringeth forth thorns. 5.
What then? some one will say. We have been beguiled and are lost. Is there then no
salvation left? We have fallen: Is it not possible to rise again? We have been blinded:
May we not recover our sight? We have become crippled: Can we never walk upright? In a
word, we are dead: May we not rise again? He that woke Lazarus who was four days dead and
already stank, shall He not, O man, much more easily raise thee who art alive? He who shed
His precious blood for us, shall Himself deliver us from sin. Let us not despair of
ourselves, brethren; let us not abandon ourselves to a hopeless condition. For it is a
fearful thing not to believe in a hope of repentance. For he that looks not for salvation
spares not to add evil to evil: but to him that hopes for cure, it is henceforth easy to
be careful over himself. The robber who looks not for pardon grows desperate; but, if he
hopes for forgiveness, often comes to repentance. What then, does the serpent cast its
slough , and shall not we cast off our sin? Thorny ground also, if cultivated well, is
turned into fruitful; and is salvation to us irrecoverable? Nay rather, our nature admits
of salvation, but the will also is required.

6. God is loving to man, and loving in no small measure. For say not, I have committed
fornication and adultery: I have done dreadful things, and not once only, but often: will
He forgive? Will He grant pardon? Hear what the Psalmist says: How great is the multitude
of Thy goodness, O Lord ! Thine accumulated offences surpass not the multitude of God's
mercies: thy wounds surpass not the great Physician's skill. Only give thyself up in
faith: tell the Physician thine ailment: say thou also, like David: I said, I will confess
me my sin unto the Lord: and the same shall be done in thy case, which he says forthwith:
And thou forgavest the wickedness of my heart . 7. Wouldest thou see the loving-kindness
of God, O thou that art lately come to the catechising? Wouldest thou see the loving-
kindness of God, and the abundance of His long-suffering? Hear about Adam. Adam, God's
first-formed man, transgressed: could He not at once have brought death upon him? But see
what the Lord does, in His great love towards man. He casts him out from Paradise, for
because of sin he was unworthy to live there; but He puts him to dwell over against
Paradise : that seeing whence he had fallen, and from what and into what a state he was
brought down, he might afterwards be saved by repentance. Cain the first-born man became
his brother's murderer, the inventor of evils, the first author of murders, and the first
envious man. Yet after slaying his brother to what is he condemned? Groaning and trembling
shalt thou be upon the earth . How great the offence, the sentence how light!

8. Even this then was truly loving-kindness in God, but little as yet in comparison with
what follows. For consider what happened in the days of Noe. The giants sinned, and much
wickedness was then spread over the earth, and because of this the flood was to come upon
them: and in the five hundredth year God utters His threatening; but in the six hundredth
He brought the flood upon the earth. Seest thou the breadth of God's loving-kindness
extending to a hundred years? Could He not have done immediately what He did then after
the hundred years? But He extended (the time) on purpose, granting a respite for
repentance. Seest thou God's goodness? And if the men of that time had repented, they
would not have missed the loving-kindness of God. 9. Come with me now to the other class,
those who were saved by repentance. But perhaps even among women some one will say, I have
committed fornication, and adultery, I have defiled my body by excesses of all kinds: is
there salvation for me? Turn thine eyes, O woman, upon Rahab, and look thou also for
salvation; for if she who had been openly and publicly a harlot was saved by repentance,
is not she who on some one occasion before receiving grace committed fornication to be
saved by repentance and fasting? For inquire how she was saved: this only she said: For
your God is God in heaven and upon earth . Your God; for her own she did not dare to say,
because of her wanton life. And if you wish to receive Scriptural testimony of her having
been saved, you have it written in the Psalms: I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon
among them that know me . O the greatness of God's loving-kindness, making mention even of
harlots in the Scriptures: nay, not simply I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon, but
with the addition. among them that know me. There is then in the case both of men and of
women alike the salvation which is ushered in by repentance.

10. Nay more, if a whole people sin, this surpasses not the loving-kindness of God. The
people made a calf, yet God ceased not from His loving-kindness. Men denied God, but God
denied not Himself . These be thy gods, O Israel , they said: yet again, as He was wont,
the God of Israel became their Saviour. And not only the people sinned, but also Aaron the
High Priest. For it is Moses that says: And the anger of the Lord came upon Aaron: and I
prayed for him, saith he, and God forgave him . What then, did Moses praying for a High
Priest that sinned prevail with God, and shall not Jesus, His Only-begotten, prevail with
God when He prays for us? And if He did not hinder Aaron, because of his offence, from
entering upon the High Priesthood, will He hinder thee, who art come out from the
Gentiles, from entering into salvation? Only, O man, repent thou also in like manner, and
grace is not forbidden thee. Render thy way of life henceforth unblameable; for God is
truly loving unto man, nor can all time worthily tell out His loving kindness; nay, not if
all the tongues of men unite together will they be able even so to declare any
considerable part of His loving-kindness. For we tell some part of what is written
concerning His loving-kindness to men, but how much He forgave the Angels we know not: for
them also He forgives, since One alone is without sin, even Jesus who purgeth our sins.
And of them we have said enough.

11. But if concerning us men thou wilt have other examples also set before thee , come on
to the blessed David, and take him for an example of repentance. Great as he was, he fell:
after his sleep, walking in the eventide on the housetop, he cast a careless look, and
felt a human passion. His sin was completed, but there died not with it his candour
concerning the confession of his fault. Nathan the Prophet came, a swift accuser, and a
healer of the wound. The Lord is wroth, he says, and thou hast sinned . So spake the
subject to the reigning king. But David the king was not indignant, for he regarded not
the speaker, but God who had sent him. He was not puffed up by the array of soldiers
standing round: for he had seen in thought the angel-host of the Lord, and he trembled as
seeing Him who is invisible ; and to the messenger, or rather by him in answer to God who
sent him, he said, I have sinned against the Lord . Seest thou the humility of the king?
Seest thou his confession? For had he been convicted by any one? Were many privy to the
matter? The deed was quickly done, and straightway the Prophet appeared as accuser, and
the offender confesses the fault. And because he candidly confessed, he received a most
speedy cure. For Nathan the Prophet who had uttered the threat, said immediately, The Lord
also hath put away thy sin. Thou seest the swift relenting of a merciful God. He says,
however, Thou hast greatly provoked the enemies of the Lord. Though thou hadst many
enemies because of thy righteousness, thy self-control protected thee; but now that thou
hast surrendered thy strongest armour, thine enemies are risen up, and stand ready against
thee.

12. Thus then did the Prophet comfort him, but the blessed David, for all he heard it
said, The Lord hath put away thy sin, did not cease from repentance, king though he was,
but put on sackcloth instead of purple, and instead of a golden throne, he sat, a king, in
ashes on the ground; nay, not only sat in ashes, but also had ashes for his food, even as
he saith himself, I have eaten ashes as it were bread . His lustful eye he wasted away
with tears saying, Every night will I wash my couch, and water my bed with my tears . When
his officers besought him to eat bread he would not listen. He prolonged his fast unto
seven whole days. If a king thus made confession oughtest not thou, a private person, to
confess? Again, after Absalom's insurrection, though there were many roads for him to
escape, he chose to flee by the Mount of Olives, in thought, as it were, invoking the
Redeemer who was to go up thence into the heavens . And when Shimei cursed him bitterly,
he said, Let him alone, for he knew that "to him that forgiveth it shall be forgiven ."

13. Thou seest that it is good to make confession. Thou seest that there is salvation for
them that repent. Solomon also fell but what saith he? Afterwards I repented . Ahab, too,
the King of Samaria, became a most wicked idolater, an outrageous man, the murderer of the
Prophets , a stranger to godliness, a coveter of other men's fields and vineyards. Yet
when by Jezebel's means he had slain Naboth, and the Prophet Elias came and merely
threatened him, he rent his garments, and put on sackcloth. And what saith the merciful
God to Elias? Hast than seen how, Ahab is pricked in the heart before Me ? as if almost He
would persuade the fiery zeal of the Prophet to condescend to the penitent. For He saith,
I will not bring the evil in his days. And though after this forgiveness he was sure not
to depart from his wickedness, nevertheless the forgiving God forgave him, not as being
ignorant of the future, but as granting a forgiveness corresponding to his present season
of repentance. For it is the part of a righteous judge to give sentence according to each
case that has occurred.

14. Again, Jeroboam was standing at the altar sacrificing to the idols: his band became
withered, because he commanded the Prophet who reproved him to be seized: but having by
experience learned the power of the man before him, he says, Entreat the face of the Lord
thy God ; and because of this saying his hand was restored again. If the Prophet healed
Jeroboam, is Christ not able to heal and deliver thee from thy sins? Manasses also was
utterly wicked, who sawed Isaiah asunder , and was defiled with all kinds of idolatries,
and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood ; but having been led captive to Babylon he used
his experience of misfortune for a healing course of repentance: for the Scripture saith
that Manasses humbled himself before the Lord, and prayed, and the Lord heard him, and
brought him back to his kingdom. If He who sawed the Prophet asunder was saved by
repentance, shall not thou then, having done no such great wickedness, be saved?

15. Take heed lest without reason thou mistrust the power of repentance. Wouldst thou know
what power repentance has? Wouldst thou know the strong weapon of salvation, and learn
what the force of confession is? Hezekiah by means of confession routed a hundred and
fourscore and five thousand of his enemies. A great thing verily was this, but still small
in comparison with what remains to be told: the same king by repentance obtained the
recall of a divine sentence which had already gone forth. For when he had fallen sick,
Esaias said to him, Set thine house in order; for thou shall die, and not live . What
expectation remained, what hope of recovery, when the Prophet said, for thou shalt die?
Yet Hezekiah did not desist from repentance; but remembering what is written, When thou
shalt turn and lament, then shalt thou be saved , he turned to the wall, and from his bed
lifting his mind to heaven (for thickness of walls is no hindrance to prayers sent up with
devotion), he said, "Remember me, O Lord, for it is sufficient for my healing that Thou
remember me. Thou art not subject to times, but art Thyself the giver of the law of life.
For our life depends not on a nativity, nor on a conjunction of stars, as some idly talk;
but both of life and its duration. Then art Thyself the Lawgiver according to Thy Will.

And he, who could not hope to live because of the prophetic sentence, had fifteen years
added to his life, and for the sign the sun ran backward in his course Well then, for
Ezekias' sake the sun turned back but for Christ the sun was eclipsed, not retracing his
steps, but suffering eclipse , and therefore shewing the difference between them, I mean
between Ezekias and Jesus. The former prevailed to the cancelling of God's decree, and
cannot Jesus grant remission of sins? Turn and bewail thyself, shut thy door, and pray to
be forgiven, pray that He may remove from thee the burning flames. For confession has
power to quench even fire, power to tame even lions . 16. But if thou disbelieve, consider
what befel Ananias and his companions. What streams did they pour out ? How many vessels
of water could quench the flame that rose up forty-nine cubits high ? Nay, but where the
flame mounted up a little too high, faith was there poured out as a river, and there spake
they the spell against all ills : Righteous art Thou, O Lord, in all the things that Thou
hast done to us: for we have sinned, and transgressed Thy law . And their repentance
quelled the flames . If thou believest not that repentance is able to quench the fire of
hell, learn it from what happened in regard to Ananias . But some keen hearer will say,
Those men God rescued justly in that case: because they refused to commit idolatry, God
gave them that power. And since this thought has occurred, I come next to a different
example of penitence .

17. What thinkest thou of Nabuchodonosor? Hast thou not heard out of the Scriptures that
he was bloodthirsty, fierce , lion-like in disposition? Hast thou not heard that he
brought out the bones of the kings from their graves into the light ? Hast thou not heard
that he carried the people away captive? Hast thou not heard that he put out the eyes of
the king, after he had already seen his children slain ? Hast thou not heard that he brake
in pieces the Cherubim? I do not mean the invisible beings;-away with such a thought, O
man ,-but the sculptured images, and the mercy-seat, in the midst of which God spake with
His voice . The veil of the Sanctuary he trampled under foot: the altar of incense he took
and carried away to an idol-temple : all the offerings he took away: the Temple he burned
from the foundations . How great punishments did he deserve, for slaying kings, for
setting fire to the Sanctuary, for taking the people captive, for setting the sacred
vessels in the house of idols? Did he not deserve ten thousand deaths?

18. Thou hast seen the greatness of his evil deeds: come now to God's loving-kindness. He
was turned into a wild beast , he abode in the wilderness, he was scourged, that he might
be saved. He had claws as a lion ; for he was a ravager of the Sanctuary. He had a lion's
mane: for he was a ravening and a roaring lion. He ate grass like an ox: for a brute beast
he was, not knowing Him who had given him the kingdom. His body was wet from the dew;
because after seeing the fire quenched by the dew he believed not . And what happened ?
After this, saith he, I, Nabuchodonosor, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and I blessed
the Most High, and to Him that liveth for ever I gave praise and glory . When, therefore,
he recognised the Most High , and sent up these words of thankfulness to God, and repented
himself for what he had done, and recognised his own weakness, then God gave back to him
the honour of the kingdom.

19. What then ? When Nabuchodonosor, after having done such deeds, had made confession,
did God give him pardon and the kingdom, and when thou repentest shall He not give thee
the remission of sins, and the kingdom of heaven, if thou live a worthy life? The Lord is
loving unto man, and swift to pardon, but slow to punish. Let no man therefore despair of
his own salvation. Peter, the chiefest and foremost of the Apostles, denied the Lord
thrice before a little maid: but he repented himself, and wept bitterly. Now weeping shews
the repentance of the heart: and therefore he not only received forgiveness for his
denial, but also held his Apostolic dignity unforfeited. 20. Having therefore, brethren,
many examples of those who have sinned and repented and been saved, do ye also heartily
make confession unto the Lord, that ye may beth receive the forgiveness of your former
sins, and be counted worthy of the heavenly gift, and inherit the heavenly kingdom with
all the saints in Christ Jesus; to Whom is the glory for ever and ever. Amen .

LECTURE 3

On Baptism.

Romans VI. 3, 4. Or know ye not that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death? were buried therefore with Him by our baptism into death, &c. 1.
Rejoice, ye heavens, and let the earth be glad , for those who are to be sprinkled with
hyssop, and cleansed with the spiritual hyssop, the power of Him to whom at His Passion
drink was offered on hyssop and a reed . And while the Heavenly Powers rejoice, let the
souls that are to be united to the spiritual Bridegroom make themselves ready. For the
voice is heard of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord . For this
is no light matter, no ordinary and indiscriminate union according to the flesh , but the
All-searching Spirit's election according to faith. For the inter-marriages and contracts
of the world are not made altogether with judgment: but wherever there is wealth or
beauty, there the bridegroom speedily approves: but here it is not beauty of person, but
the soul's clear conscience; not the condemned Mammon, but the wealth of the soul in
godliness.

2. Listen then, O ye children of righteousness, to John's exhortation when he says, Make
straight the way of the Lord. Take away all obstacles and stumbling-blocks, that ye may
walk straight onward to eternal life. Make ready the vessels of the soul, cleansed by
unfeigned faith, for reception of the Holy Ghost. Begin at once to wash your robes in
repentance, that when called to the bride-chamber ye may be found clean. For the
Bridegroom invites all without distinction, because His grace is bounteous; and the cry of
loud-voiced heralds assembles them all: but the same Bridegroom afterwards separates those
who have come in to the figurative marriage. O may none of those whose names have now been
enrolled hear the words, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment ?
But may you all hear, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou wast faithful over a few
things, I will set thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord .

For now meanwhile thou standest outside the door: but God grant that you all may say, The
King hath brought me into His chamber . Let my soul rejoice in the Lord: for He hath me
with a garment of salvation, and a robe of gladness: He hath crowned me with a garland as
a bridegroom , and decked me with ornaments as a bride: that the soul of every one of you
may be found not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; I do not mean before you have
received the grace, for how could that be? since it is for remission of sins that ye have
been called; but that, when the grace is to be given, your conscience being found
uncondemned may concur with the grace. 3. This is in truth a serious matter, brethren, and
you must approach it with good heed. Each one of you is about to be presented to God
before tens of thousands of the Angelic Hosts: the Holy Ghost is about to seal your souls:
ye are to be enrolled in the army of the Great King. Therefore make you ready, and equip
yourselves, by putting on I mean, not bright apparel , but piety of soul with a good
conscience. Regard not the Laver as simple water, but rather regard the spiritual grace
that is given with the water. For just as the offerings brought to the heathen altars ,
though simple in their nature, become defiled by the invocation of the idols , so
contrariwise the simple water having received the invocation of the Holy Ghost, and of
Christ, and of the Father, acquires a new power of holiness.

4. For since man is of twofold nature. soul and body, the purification also is twofold,
the one incorporeal for the incorporeal part, and the other bodily for the body: the water
cleanses the body, and the Spirit seals the soul; that we may draw near unto God. having
our heart sprinkled by the Spirit, and our body washed with pure water . When going down,
therefore, into the water, think not of the bare element, but look for salvation by the
power of the Holy Ghost: for without both thou canst not possibly be made perfect . It is
not I that say this, but the Lord Jesus Christ, who has the power in this matter: for He
saith, Except a man be born anew (and He adds the words) of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God . Neither doth he that is baptized with water, but
not found worthy of the Spirit, receive the grace in perfection; nor if a man be virtuous
in his deeds, but receive not the seal by water, shall he enter into the kingdom of
heaven. A bold saying, but not mine, for it is Jesus who hath declared it: and here is the
proof of the statement from Holy Scripture. Cornelius was a just man, who was honoured
with a vision of Angels, and had set up his prayers and alms-deeds as a good memorial
before God in heaven. Peter came, and the Spirit was poured out upon them that believed,
and they spake with other tongues, and prophesied: and after the grace of the Spirit the
Scripture saith that Peter commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ ; in
order that, the soul having been born again by faith , the body also might by the water
partake of the grace.

5. But if any one wishes to know why the grace is given by water and not by a different
element, let him take up the Divine Scriptures and he shall learn. For water is a grand
thing, and the noblest of the four visible elements of the world. Heaven is the dwelling-
place of Angels, but the heavens are from the waters : the earth is the place of men, but
the earth is from the waters: and before the whole six days' formation of the things that
were made, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water . The water was the
beginning of the world, and Jordan the beginning of the Gospel tidings: for Israel
deliverance from Pharaoh was through the sea, and for the world deliverance from sins by
the washing of water with the word of God. Where a covenant is made with any, there is
water also. After the flood, a covenant was made with Noah: a covenant for Israel from
Mount Sinai, but with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop . Elias is taken up, but not
apart from water: for first he crosses the Jordan, then in a chariot mounts the heaven.
The high-priest is first washed, then offers incense; for Aaron first washed, then was
made high-priest: for how could one who had not yet been purified by water pray for the
rest? Also as a symbol of Baptism there was a laver set apart within the Tabernacle.

6. Baptism is the end of the Old Testament, and beginning of the New. For its author was
John, than whom was none greater among them that are born of women. The end he was of the
Prophets: for all the Prophets and the law were until John : but of the Gospel history he
was the first-fruit. For it saith, The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, &c.: John
came baptising in the wilderness . You may mention Elias the Tishbite who was taken up
into heaven, yet he is not greater than John: Enoch was translated, but he is not greater
than John: Moses was a very great lawgiver, and all the Prophets were admirable, but not
greater than John. It is not I that dare to compare Prophets with Prophets: but their
Master and ours, the Lord Jesus, declared it: Among them that are born of women there hath
not risen a greater than John : He saith not "among them that are born of virgins," but of
women . The comparison is between the great servant and his fellow-servants: but the pre-
eminence and the grace of the Son is beyond comparison with servants. Seest thou how great
a man God chose as the first minister of this grace?-a man possessing nothing, and a lover
of the desert, yet no hater of mankind: who ate locusts, and winged his soul for heaven :
feeding upon honey, and speaking things both sweeter and more salutary than honey:

clothed with a garment of camel's hair, and shewing in himself the pattern of the ascetic
life; who also was sanctified by the Holy Ghost while yet he was carried in his mother's
womb. Jeremiah was sanctified, but did not prophesy, in the womb : John alone while
carried in the womb leaped for joy , and though he saw not with the eyes of flesh, knew
his Master by the Spirit: for since the grace of Baptism was great, it required greatness
in its founder also. 7. This man was baptizing in Jordan, and there went out unto him all
Jerusalem , to enjoy the first-fruits of baptisms: for in Jerusalem is the prerogative of
all things good. But learn, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, how they that came out were
baptized by him: confessing their sins, it is said . First they shewed their wounds, then
he applied the remedies, and to them that believed gave redemption from eternal fire. And
if thou wilt be convinced of this very point, that the baptism of John is a redemption
from the threat of the fire, hear how he says, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come ? Be not then henceforth a viper, but as thou hast been
formerly a viper's brood, put off, saith he, the slough of thy former sinful life. For
every serpent creeps into a hole and casts its old slough, and having rubbed off the old
skin, grows young again in body. In like manner enter thou also through the strait and
narrow gate : rub off thy former self by fasting, and drive out that which is destroying
thee. Put off the old man with his doings , and quote that saying in the Canticles, I have
put off my coat, how shall I put it on ?

But there is perhaps among you some hypocrite, a man-pleaser, and one who makes a pretence
of piety, but believes not from the heart; having the hypocrisy of Simon Magus; one who
has come hither not in order to receive of the grace, but to spy out what is given: let
him also learn from John: And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees, Every
tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire .
The Judge is inexorable; put away thine hypocrisy. 8. What then must you do? And what are
the fruits of repentance? Let him that hath two coats give to him that hath none : the
teacher was worthy of credit, since he was also the first to practise what he taught: he
was not ashamed to speak, for conscience hindered not his tongue: and he that hath meat,
let hive do likewise. Wouldst thou enjoy the grace of the Holy Spirit, yet judgest the
poor not worthy of bodily food? Seekest thou the great gifts, and impartest not of the
small? Though thou be a publican, or a fornicator, have hope of salvation: the publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you . Paul also is witness, saying,
Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the rest, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And
such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified . He said not, such are
some of you, but such were some of you. Sin committed in the state of ignorance is
pardoned, but persistent wickedness is condemned.

9. Thou hast as the glory of Baptism the Son Himself, the Only-begotten of God. For why
should I speak any more of man? John was great, but what is he to the Lord? His was a
loud-sounding voice, but what in comparison with the Word? Very noble was the herald, but
what in comparison with the King? Noble was he that baptized with water, but what to Him
that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and with fire ? The Saviour baptized the Apostles with
the Holy Ghost and with fire, when suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of the
rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire: and it sat upon each one of them, and
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost . 10. If any man receive not Baptism, he hath not
salvation; except only Martyrs, who even without the water receive the kingdom. For when
the Saviour, in redeeming the world by His Cross, was pierced in the side, He shed forth
blood and water; that men, living in times of peace, might be baptized in water, and, in
times of persecution, in their own blood. For martyrdom also the Saviour is wont to call a
baptism, saying, Can ye drink the cup which I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that
I am baptized with ? And the Martyrs confess, by being made a spectacle unto the world,
and to Angels, and to men ; and thou wilt soon confess:-but it is not yet the time for
thee to hear of this.

11. Jesus sanctified Baptism by being Himself baptized. If the Son of God was baptized,
what godly man is he that despiseth Baptism? But He was baptized not that He might receive
remission of sins, for He was sinless; but being sinless, He was baptized, that He might
give to them that are baptized a divine and excellent grace. For since the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise partook of the same , that having
been made partakers of His presence in the flesh we might be made partakers also of His
Divine grace: thus Jesus was baptized, that thereby we again by our participation might
receive both salvation and honour. According to Job, there was in the waters the dragon
that draweth up Jordan into his mouth . Since, therefore, it was necessary to break the
heads of the dragon in pieces , He went down and bound the strong one in the waters, that
we might receive power to tread upon serpents and scorpions . The beast was great and
terrible. No fishing-vessel was able to carry one scale of his tail : destruction ran
before him , ravaging all that met him. The Life encountered him, that the mouth of Death
might henceforth be stopped, and all we that are saved might say, O death, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?The sting of death is drawn by Baptism.

12. For thou goest down into the water, bearing thy sins, but the invocation of grace ,
having sealed thy soul, suffereth thee not afterwards to be swallowed up by the terrible
dragon. Having gone down dead in sins, thou comest up quickened in righteousness. For if
thou hast been united with the likeness of the Saviour's death , thou shalt also be deemed
worthy of His Resurrection. For as Jesus took upon Him the sins of the world, and died,
that by putting sin to death He might rise again in righteousness; so thou by going down
into the water, and being in a manner buried in the waters, as He was in the rock, art
raised again walking in newness of life . 13. Moreover, when thou hast been deemed worthy
of the grace, He then giveth thee strength to wrestle against the adverse powers. For as
after His Baptism He was tempted forty days (not that He was unable to gain the victory
before, but because He wished to do all things in due order and succession), so thou
likewise, though not daring before thy baptism to wrestle with the adversaries, yet after
thou hast received the grace and art henceforth confident in the armour of righteousness ,
must then do battle, and preach the Gospel, if thou wilt.

14. Jesus Christ was the Son of God, yet He preached not the Gospel before His Baptism. If
the Master Himself followed the right time in due order, ought we, His servants, to
venture out of order? From that time Jesus began to preach , when the Holy Spirit had
descended upon Him in a bodily shape, like a dove ; not that Jesus might see Him first,
for He knew Him even before He came in a bodily shape, but that John, who was baptizing
Him, might behold Him. For I, saith he, knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with
water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding
on Him, that is He . If thou too hast unfeigned piety, the Holy Ghost cometh down on thee
also, and a Father's voice sounds over thee from on high-not, "This is My Son," but, "This
has now been made My son;" for the "is" belongs to Him alone, because In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . To Himbelongs the "is," since
He is always the Son of God: but to thee "has now been made:" since thou hast not the
sonship by nature, but receivest it by adoption. He eternally "is;" but thou receivest the
grace by advancement.

15. Make ready then the vessel of thy soul, that thou mayest become a son of God, and an
heir of God, and joint-heir with Christ ; if, indeed, thou art preparing thyself that thou
mayest receive; if thou art drawing nigh in faith that thou mayest be made faithful; if of
set purpose thou art putting off the old man. For all things whatsoever thou hast done
shall be forgiven thee, whether it be fornication, or adultery, or any other such form of
licentiousness. What can be a greater sin than to crucify Christ? Yet even of this Baptism
can purify. For so spake Peter to the three thousand who came to him, to those who had
crucified the Lord, when they asked him, saying, Men and brethren, what shall we do ? For
the wound is great. Thou hast made us think of our fall, O Peter, by saying, Ye killed the
Prince of Life . What salve is there for so great a wound? What cleansing for such
foulness? What is the salvation for such perdition? Repent, saith he, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost . O unspeakable loving-kindness of God! They have
no hope of being saved, and yet they are thought worthy of the Holy Ghost. Thou seest the
power of Baptism! If any of you has crucified the Christ by blasphemous words; if any of
you in ignorance has denied Him before men; if any by wicked works has caused the doctrine
to be blasphemed; let him repent and be of good hope, for the same grace is present even
now.

16. Be of good courage, O Jerusalem; the Lord will take away all thine iniquities . The
Lord will wash away the filth of His sons and of His daughters by the Spirit of judgment,
and by the Spirit of burning . He will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be
cleansed from all your sin . Angels shall dance around you, and say, Who is this that
cometh up in white array, leaning upon her beloved ? For the soul that was formerly a
slave has now adopted her Master Himself as her kinsman: and He accepting the unfeigned
purpose will answer: Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair: thy teeth are
like flocks of sheep new shorn, (because of the confession of a good conscience: and
further) which have all of them twins ; because of the twofold grace, I mean that which is
perfected of water and of the Spirit , or that which is announced by the Old and by the
New Testament. And God grant that all of you when you have finished the course of the
fast, may remember what I say, and bringing forth fruit in good works, may stand blameless
beside the Spiritual Bridegroom, and obtain the remission of your sins from God; to whom
with the Son and Holy Spirit be the glory for ever. Amen.

LECTURE 4

On the Ten Points of Doctrine.

Colossians II. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after
the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, &c. 1. Vice mimics virtue, and the
tares strive to be thought wheat, growing like the wheat in appearance, but being detected
by good judges from the taste. The devil also transfigures himself into an angel of light
; not that he may reascend to where he was, for having made his heart hard as an anvil ,
he has henceforth a will that cannot repent; but in order that he may envelope those who
are living an Angelic life in a mist of blindness, and a pestilent condition of unbelief.
Many wolves are going about in sheeps' clothing , their clothing being that of sheep, not
so their claws and teeth: but clad in their soft skin, and deceiving the innocent by their
appearance, they shed upon them from their fangs the destructive poison of ungodliness. We
have need therefore of divine grace, and of a sober mind, and of eyes that see, lest from
eating tares as wheat we suffer harm from ignorance, and lest from taking the wolf to be a
sheep we become his prey, and from supposing the destroying Devil to be a beneficent Angel
we be devoured: for, as the Scripture saith, he goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour . This is the cause of the Church's admonitions, the cause of the
present instructions, and of the lessons which are read.

2. For the method of godliness consists of these two things, pious doctrines, and virtuous
practice: and neither are the doctrines acceptable to God apart from good works, nor does
God accept the works which are not perfected with pious doctrines. For what profit is it,
to know well the doctrines concerning God, and yet to be a vile fornicator? And again,
what profit is it, to be nobly temperate, and an impious blasphemer? A most precious
possession therefore is the knowledge of doctrines: also there is need of a wakeful soul,
since there are many that make spoil through philosophy and vain deceit . The Greeks on
the one hand draw men away by their smooth tongue, for honey droppeth from a harlot's lips
: whereas they of the Circumcision deceive those who come to them by means of the Divine
Scriptures, which they miserably misinterpret though studying them from childhood to old
age , and growing old in ignorance. But the children of heretics, by their good words and
smooth tongue, deceive the hearts of the innocent , disguising with the name of Christ as
it were with honey the poisoned arrows of their impious doctrines: concerning all of whom
together the Lord saith, Take heed lest any man mislead you . This is the reason for the
teaching of the Creed and for expositions upon it.

3. But before delivering you over to the Creed , I think it is well to make use at present
of a short summary of necessary doctrines; that the multitude of things to be spoken, and
the long interval of the days of all this holy Lent, may not cause forgetfulness in the
mind of the more simple among you; but that, having strewn some seeds now in a summary
way, we may not forget the same when afterwards more widely tilled. But let those here
present whose habit of mind is mature, and who have their senses already exercised to
discern good and evil , endure patiently to listen to things fitted rather for children,
and to an introductory course, as it were, of milk: that at the same time both those who
have need of the instruction may be benefited, and those who have the knowledge may
rekindle the remembrance of things which they already know.

I. Of God.

4. First then let there be laid as a foundation in your soul the doctrine concerning God
that God is One, alone unbegotten, without beginning, change, or variation ; neither
begotten of another, nor having another to succeed Him in His life; who neither began to
live in time, nor endeth ever: and that He is both good and just; that if ever thou hear a
heretic say, that there is one God who is just, and another who is good , thou mayest
immediately remember, and discern the poisoned arrow of heresy. For some have impiously
dared to divide the One God in their teaching: and some have said that one is the Creator
and Lord of the soul, and another of the body ; a doctrine at once absurd and impious. For
how can a man become the one servant of two masters, when our Lord says in the Gospels, No
man can serve two masters ? There is then One Only God, the Maker both of souls and
bodies: One the Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker of Angels and Archangels: of many
the Creator, but of One only the Father before all ages,-of One only, His Only-begotten
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom He made all things visible and invisible .

5. This Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not circumscribed in any place , nor is He less
than the heaven; but the heavens are the works of His fingers , and the whole earth is
held in His grasp : He is in all things and around all. Think not that the sun is brighter
than He , or equal to Him: for He who at first formed the sun must needs be incomparably
greater and brighter. He foreknoweth the things that shall be, and is mightier than all,
knowing all things and doing as He will; not being subject to any necessary sequence of
events, nor to nativity, nor chance, nor fate; in all things perfect, and equally
possessing everyabsolute form of virtue, neither diminishing nor increasing, but in mode
and conditions ever the same; who hath prepared punishment for sinners, and a crown for
the righteous.

6. Seeing then that many have gone astray in divers ways from the One God, some having
deified the sun, that when the sun sets they may abide in the night season without God;
others the moon, to have no God by day ; others the other parts of the world ; others the
arts ; others their various kinds of food ; others their pleasures ; while some, mad after
women, have set up on high an image of a naked woman, and called it Aphrodite , and
worshipped their own lust in a visible form; and others dazzled by the brightness of gold
have deified it and the other kinds of matter;-whereas if one lay as a first foundation in
his heart the doctrine of the unity of God, and trust to Him, he roots out at once the
whole crop of the evils of idolatry, and of the error of the heretics: lay thou,
therefore, this first doctrine of religion as a foundation in thy soul by faith.

Of Christ.

7. Believe also in the Son of God, One and Only, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who was begotten
God of God, begotten Life of Life, begotten Light of Light , Who is in all things like to
Him that begat, Who received not His being in time, but was before all ages eternally and
incomprehensibly begotten of the Father: The Wisdom and the Power of God, and His
Righteousness personally subsisting : Who sitteth on the right hand of the Father before
all ages. For the throne at God's right hand He received not, as some have thought,
because of His patient endurance, being crowned as it were by God after His Passion; but
throughout His being,-a being by eternal generation ,-He holds His royal dignity, and
shares the Father's seat, being God and Wisdom and Power, as hath been said; reigning
together with the Father, and creating all things for the Father, yet lacking nothing in
the dignity of Godhead, and knowing Him that hath begotten Him, even as He is known of Him
that hath begotten; and to speak briefly, remember thou what is written in the Gospels,
that none knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any the Father save the Son .

8. Further, do thou neither separate the Son from the Father, nor by making a confusion
believe in a Son-Fatherhood ; but believe that of One God there is One Only-begotten Son,
who is before all ages God the Word; not the uttered word diffused into the air, nor to be
likened to impersonal words ; but the Word the Son, Maker of all who partake of reason,
the Word who heareth the Father, and Himself speaketh. And on these points, should God
permit, we will speak more at large in due season; for we do not forget our present
purpose to give a summary introduction to the Faith.

Concerning His Birth of the Virgin.

9. Believe then that this Only-begotten Son of God for our sins came down from heaven upon
earth, and took upon Him this human nature of like passions with us, and was begotten of
the Holy Virgin and of the Holy Ghost, and was made Man, not in seeming and mere show ,
but in truth; nor yet by passing through the Virgin as through a channel ; but was of her
made truly flesh, [and truly nourished with milk ], and did truly eat as we do, and truly
drink as we do. For if the Incarnation was a phantom, salvation is a phantom also. The
Christ was of two natures, Man in what was seen, but God in what was not seen; as Man
truly eating like us, for He had the like feeling of the flesh with us; but as God feeding
the five thousand from five loaves; as Man truly dying, but as God raising him that had
been dead four days; truly sleeping in the ship as Man, and walking upon the waters as
God.

Of the Cross.

10. He was truly crucified for our sins. For if thou wouldest deny it, the place refutes
thee visibly, this blessed Golgotha , in which we are now assembled for the sake of Him
who was here crucified; and the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood
of the Cross . But He was crucified not for sins of His own, but that we might be
delivered from our sins. And though as Man He was at that time despised of men, and was
buffeted, yet He was acknowledged by the Creation as God: for when the sun saw his Lord
dis-honoured, he grew dim and trembled, not enduring the sight.

Of His Burial.

11. He was truly laid as Man in a tomb of rock; but rocks were rent asunder by terror
because of Him. He went down into the regions beneath the earth, that thence also He might
redeem the righteous . For, tell me, couldst thou wish the living only to enjoy His grace,
and that, though most of them are unholy; and not wish those who from Adam had for a long
while been imprisoned to have now gained their liberty? Esaias the Prophet proclaimed with
loud voice so many things concerning Him; wouldst thou not wish that the King should go
down and redeem His herald? David was there, and Samuel, and all the Prophets , John
himself also, who by his messengers said, Art thou He that should come, or look we for
another ? Wouldst thou not wish that He should descend and redeem such as these?

Of the Resurrection.

12. But He who descended into the regions beneath the earth came up again; and Jesus, who
was buried, truly rose again the third day. And if the Jews ever worry thee, meet them at
once by asking thus: Did Jonah come forth from the whale on the third day, and hath not
Christ then risen from the earth on the third day? Is a dead man raised to life on
touching the bones of Elisha, and is it not much easier for the Maker of mankind to be
raised by the power of the Father? Well then, He truly rose, and after He had risen was
seen again of the disciples: and twelve disciples were witnesses of His Resurrection, who
bare witness not in pleasing words, but contended even unto torture and death for the
truth of the Resurrection. What then, shall every word be established at the mouth of two
of three witnesses , according to the Scripture, and, though twelve bear witness to the
Resurrection of Christ, art thou still incredulous in regard to His Resurrection?

Concerning the Ascension.

13. But when Jesus had finished His course of patient endurance, and had redeemed mankind
from their sins, He ascended again into the heavens, a cloud receiving Him up: and as He
went up Angels were beside Him, and Apostles were beholding. But if any man disbelieves
the words which I speak, let him believe the actual power of the things now seen. All
kings when they die have their power extinguished with their life: but Christ crucified is
worshipped by the whole world. We proclaim The Crucified, and the devils tremble now. Many
have been crucified at various times; but of what other who was crucified did the
invocation ever drive the devils away? 14. Let us, therefore, not be ashamed of the Cross
of Christ; but though another hide it, do thou openly seal it upon thy forehead, that the
devils may behold the royal sign and flee trembling far away . Make then this sign at
eating and drinking, at sitting, at lying down, at rising up, at speaking, at walking: in
a word, at every act . For He who was here crucified is in heaven above. If after being
crucified and buried He had remained in the tomb, we should have had cause to be ashamed;
but, in fact, He who was crucified on Golgotha here, has ascended into heaven from the
Mount of Olives on the East. For after having gone down hence into Hades, and come up
again to us, He ascended again from us into heaven, His Father addressing Him, and saying,
Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool .

Of Judgment to Come.

15. This Jesus Christ who is gone up shall come again, not from earth but from heaven: and
I say, "not from earth," because there are many Antichrists to come at this time from
earth. For already, as thou hast seen, many have begun to say, I am the Christ : and the
abomination of desolation is yet to come, assuming to himself the false title of Christ.
But look thou for the true Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, coming henceforth no more
from earth, but from heaven, appearing to all more bright than any lightning and
brilliancy of light, with angel guards attended, that He may judge both quick and dead,
and reign in a heavenly, eternal kingdom, which shall have no end. For on this point also,
I pray thee, make thyself sure, since there are many who say that Christ's Kingdom hath an
end .

Of the Holy Ghost.

16. Believe thou also in the Holy Ghost, and hold the same opinion concerning Him, which
thou hast received to hold concerning the Father and the Son, and follow not those who
teach blasphemous things of Him . But learn thou that this Holy Spirit is One,
indivisible, of manifold power; having many operations, yet not Himself divided; Who
knoweth the mysteries, Who searcheth all things, even the deep things of God : Who
descended upon the Lord Jesus Christ in form of a dove; Who wrought in the Law and in the
Prophets; Who now also at the season of Baptism sealeth thy soul; of Whose holiness also
every intellectual nature hath need: against Whom if any dare to blaspheme, he hath no
forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come : "Who with the Father
and the Son together " is honoured with the glory of the Godhead: of Whom also thrones,
and dominions, principalities, and powers have need . For there is One God, the Father of
Christ; and One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of the Only God; and One Holy
Ghost, the sanctifier and deifier of all , Who spake in the Law and in the Prophets, in
the Old and in the New Testament.

17. Have thou ever in thy mind this seal , which for the present has been lightly touched
in my discourse, by way of summary, but shall be stated, should the Lord permit, to the
best of my power with the proof from the Scriptures. For concerning the divine and holy
mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy
Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside by mere plausibility and artifices of speech. Even
to me, who tell thee these things, give not absolute credence, unless thou receive the
proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures. For this salvation which
we believe depends not on ingenious reasoning , but on demonstration of the Holy
Scriptures.

Of the Soul.

18. Next to the knowledge of this venerable and glorious and all-holy Faith, learn further
what thou thyself art: that as man thou art of a two-fold nature, consisting of soul and
body; and that, as was said a short time ago, the same God is the Creator both of soul and
body . Know also that thou hast a soul self-governed, the noblest work of God, made after
the image of its Creator : immortal because of God that gives it immortality; a living
being, rational, imperishable, because of Him that bestowed these gifts: having free power
to do what it willeth . For it is not according to thy nativity that thou sinnest, nor is
it by the power of chance that thou committest fornication, nor, as some idly talk, do the
conjunctions of the stars compel thee to give thyself to wantonness . Why dost thou shrink
from confessing thine own evil deeds, and ascribe the blame to the innocent stars? Give no
more heed, pray, to astrologers; for of these the divine Scripture saith, Let the
stargazers of the heaven stand up and save thee, and what follows: Behold, they all shall
be consumed as stubble on the fire, and shall not deliver their soul from the flame .

19. And learn this also, that the soul, before it came into this world, had committed no
sin , but having come in sinless, we now sin of our free-will. Listen not, I pray thee, to
any one perversely interpreting the words, But if I do that which I would not : but
remember Him who saith, If ye be willing, and hearken unto Me, ye shall eat the good
things of the land: but if ye be not willing, neither hearken unto Me, the sword shall
devour you, &c. : and again, As ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and
to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness
unto sanctification . Remember also the Scripture, which saith, Even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge : and, That which may be known of God is manifest in them
; and again, their eyes they have closed . Also remember how God again accuseth them, and
saith, Yet I planted thee a fruitful vine, wholly true: how art thou turned to bitterness,
thou the strange vine ?

20. The soul is immortal, and all souls are alike both of men and women; for only the
members of the body are distinguished . There is not a class of souls sinning by nature,
and a class of souls practising righteousness by nature : but both act from choice, the
substance of their souls being of one kind only, and alike in all. I know, however, that I
am talking much, and that the time is already long: but what is more precious than
salvation? Art thou not willing to take trouble in getting provisions for the way against
the heretics? And wilt thou not learn the bye-paths of the road, lest from ignorance thou
fall down a precipice? If thy teachers think it no small gain for thee to learn these
things, shouldest not thou the learner gladly receive the multitude of things told thee?
21. The soul is self-governed: and though the devil can suggest, he has not the power to
compel against the will. He pictures to thee the thought of fornication: if thou wilt,
thou acceptest it; if thou wilt not, thou rejectest. For if thou wert a fornicator by
necessity, then for what cause did God prepare hell? If thou were a doer of righteousness
by nature and not by will, wherefore did God prepare crowns of ineffable glory? The sheep
is gentle, but never was it crowned for its gentleness: since its gentle quality belongs
to it not from choice but by nature.

Of the Body.

22. Thou hast learned, beloved, the nature of the soul, as far as there is time at
present: now do thy best to receive the doctrine of the body also. Suffer none of those
who say that this body is no work of God : for they who believe that the body is
independent of God, and that the soul dwells in it as in a strange vessel, readily abuse
it to fornication . And yet what fault have they found in this wonderful body? For what is
lacking in comeliness? And what in its structure is not full of skill? Ought they not to
have observed the luminous construction of the eyes? And how the ears being set obliquely
receive the sound unhindered? And how the smell is able to distinguish scents, and to
perceive exhalations? And how the tongue ministers to two purposes, the sense of taste,
and the power of speech? How the lungs placed out of sight are unceasing in their
respiration of the air? Who imparted the incessant pulsation of the heart? Who made the
distribution into so many veins and arteries? Who skilfully knitted together the bones
with the sinews? Who assigned a part of the food to our substance, and separated a part
for decent secretion, and hid away the unseemly members in more seemly places? Who when
the human race must have died out, rendered it by a simple intercourse perpetual?

23. Tell me not that the body is a cause of sin . For if the body is a cause of sin, why
does not a dead body sin? Put a sword in the right hand of one just dead, and no murder
takes place. Let beauties of every kind pass before a youth just dead, and no impure
desire arises. Why? Because the body sins not of itself, but the soul through the body.
The body is an instrument, and, as it were, a garment and robe of the soul: and if by this
latter it be given over to fornication, it becomes defiled: but if it dwell with a holy
soul, it becomes a temple of the Holy Ghost. It is not I that say this, but the Apostle
Paul hath said, Know ye not, that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you ? Be tender, therefore, of thy body as being a temple of the Holy Ghost. Pollute not
thy flesh in fornication: defile not this thy fairest robe: and if ever thou hast defiled
it, now cleanse it by repentance: get thyself washed, while time permits.

24. And to the doctrine of chastity let the first to give heed be the order of Solitaries
and of Virgins, who maintain the angelic life in the world; and let the rest of the
Church's people follow them. For you, brethren, a great crown is laid up: barter not away
a great dignity for a petty pleasure: listen to the Apostle speaking: Lest there be any
fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright .
Enrolled henceforth in the Angelic books for thy profession of chastity, see that thou be
not blotted out again for thy practice of fornication. 25. Nor again, on the other hand,
in maintaining thy chastity be thou puffed up against those who walk in the humbler path
of matrimony. For as the Apostle saith, Let marriage be had in honour among all, and let
the bed be undefiled . Thou too who retainest thy chastity, wast thou not begotten of
those who had married? Because thou hast a possession of gold, do not on that account
reprobate the silver. But let those also be of good cheer, who being married use marriage
lawfully; who make a marriage according to God's ordinance, and not of wantonness for the
sake of unbounded license; who recognise seasons of abstinence, that they may give
themselves unto prayer ; who in our assemblies bring clean bodies as welt as clean
garments into the Church; who have entered upon matrimony for the procreation of children,
but not for indulgence.

26. Let those also who marry but once not reprobate those who have consented to a second
marriage : for though continence is a noble and admirable thing, yet it is also
permissible to enter upon a second marriage, that the weak may not fall into fornication.
For it is good for them, saith the Apostle, if they abide even as I. But if they have not
continency, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn . But let all the other
practices be banished afar, fornication, adultery, and every kind of licentiousness: and
let the body be kept pure for the Lord, that the Lord also may have respect unto the body.
And let the body be nourished with food, that it may live, and serve without hindrance;
not, however, that it may be given up to luxuries.

Concerning Meats.

27. And concerning food let these be your ordinances, since in regard to meats also many
stumble. For some deal indifferently with things offered to idols , while others
discipline themselves, but condemn those that eat: and in different ways men's souls are
defiled in the matter of meats, from ignorance of the useful reasons for eating and not
eating. For we fast by abstaining from wine and flesh, not because we abhor them as
abominations, but because we look for our reward; that having scorned things sensible, we
may enjoy a spiritual and intellectual feast; and that having now sown in tears we may
reap in joy in the world to come. Despise not therefore them that eat, and because of the
weakness of their bodies partake of food: nor yet blame these who use a little wine for
their stomach's sake and their often infirmities : and neither condemn the men as sinners,
nor abhor the flesh as strange food; for the Apostle knows some of this sort, when he
says: forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be
received with thanksgiving by them that believe . In abstaining then from these things,
abstain not as from things abominable , else thou hast no reward: but as being good things
disregard them for the sake of the better spiritual things set before thee.

28. Guard thy soul safely, lest at any time thou eat of things offered to idols: for
concerning meats of this kind, not only I at this time, but ere now Apostles also, and
James the bishop of this Church, have had earnest care: and the Apostles and Elders write
a Catholic epistle to all the Gentiles, that they should abstain first from things offered
to idols, and then from blood also and from things strangled . For many men being of
savage nature, and living like dogs, both lap up blood , in imitation of the manner of the
fiercest beasts, and greedily devour things strangled. But do thou, the servant of Christ,
in eating observe to eat with reverence. And so enough concerning meats.

Of Apparel.

29. But let thine apparel be plain, not for adornment, but for necessary covering: not to
minister to thy vanity, but to keep thee warm in winter, and to hide the unseemliness of
the body: lest under pretence of hiding the unseemliness, thou fall into another kind of
unseemliness by thy extravagant dress.

Of the Resurrection.

30. Be tender, I beseech thee, of this body, and understand that thou wilt be raised from
the dead, to be judged with this body. But if there steal into thy mind any thought of
unbelief, as though the thing were impossible, judge of the things unseen by what happens
to thyself. For tell me; a hundred years ago or more, think where wast thou thyself: and
from what a most minute and mean substance thou art come to so great a stature, and so
much dignity of beauty . What then? Cannot He who brought the non-existent into being,
raise up again that which already exists and has decayed ? He who raises the corn, which
is sown for our sakes, as year by year it dies,-will He base difficulty in raising us up,
for whose sakes that corn also has been raised ? Seest thou how the trees stand now for
many months without either fruit or leaves: but when the winter is past they spring up
whole into life again as if from the dead : shall not we much rather and more easily
return to life? The rod of Moses was transformed by the will of God into the unfamiliar
nature of a serpent: and cannot a man, who has fallen into death, be restored to himself
again?

31. Heed not those who say that this body is not raised; for it is raised: and Esaias is
witness, when he says: The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tombs shall awake :
and according to Daniel, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise,
some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame . But though to rise again is
common to all men, yet the resurrection is not alike to all: for the bodies received by us
all are eternal, but not like bodies by all: for the just receive them, that through
eternity they may join the Choirs of Angels; but the sinners, that they may endure for
ever the torment of their sins.

Of the Laver.

32. For this cause the Lord, preventing us according to His loving-kindness, has granted
repentance at Baptism , in order that we may cast off the chief-nay rather the whole
burden of our sins, and having received the seal by the Holy Ghost, may be made heirs of
eternal life. But as we have spoken sufficiently concerning the Laver the day before
yesterday, let us now return to the remaining subjects of our introductory teaching.

Of the Divine Scriptures.

33. Now these the divinely-inspired Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament teach
us. For the God of the two Testaments is One, Who in the Old Testament foretold the Christ
Who appeared in the New; Who by the Law and the Prophets led us to Christ's school. For
before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, and, the law hath been our tutor to
bring us unto Christ . And if ever thou hear any of the heretics speaking evil of the Law
or the Prophets, answer in the sound of the Saviour's voice, saying, Jesus came not to
destroy the Law, but to fulfil it . Learn also diligently, and from the Church, what are
the books of the Old Testament, and what those of the New. And, pray, read none of the
apocryphal writings : for why dost thou, who knowest not those which are acknowledged
among all, trouble thyself in vain about those which are disputed? Read the Divine
Scriptures, the twenty-two books of the Old Testament, these that have been translated by
the Seventy-two Interpreters .

34. For after the death of Alexander, the king of the Macedonians, and the division of his
kingdom into four principalities, into Babylonia, and Macedonia, and Asia, and Egypt, one
of those who reigned over Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus, being a king very fond of learning,
while collecting the books that were in every place, heard from Demetrius Phalereus, the
curator of his library, of the Divine Scriptures of the Law and the Prophets, and judged
it much nobler, not to get the books from the possessors by force against their will, but
rather to propitiate them by gifts and friendship; and knowing that what is extorted is
often adulterated, being given unwillingly, while that which is willingly supplied is
freely given with all sincerity, he sent to Eleazar, who was then High Priest, a great
many gifts for the Temple here at Jerusalem, and caused him to send him six interpreters
from each of the twelve tribes of Israel for the translation . Then, further, to make
experiment whether the books were Divine or not, he took precaution that those who had
been sent should not combine among themselves, by assigning to each of the interpreters
who had come his separate chamber in the island called Pharos, which lies over against
Alexandria, and committed to each the whole Scriptures to translate. And when they had
fulfilled the task in seventy-two days, he brought together all their translations, which
they had made in different chambers without sending them one to another, and found that
they agreed not only in the sense but even in words. For the process was no word-craft,
nor contrivance of human devices: but the translation of the Divine Scriptures, spoken by
the Holy Ghost, was of the Holy Ghost accomplished.

35. Of these read the two and twenty books, but have nothing to do with the apocryphal
writings. Study earnestly these only which we read openly in the Church. Far wiser and
more pious than thyself were the Apostles, and the bishops of old time, the presidents of
the Church who handed down these books. Being therefore a child of the Church, trench thou
not upon its statutes. And of the Old Testament, as we have said, study the two and twenty
books, which, if thou art desirous of learning, strive to remember by name, as I recite
them. For of the Law the books of Moses are the first five, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy. And next, Joshua the son of Nave , and the book of Judges, including
Ruth, counted as seventh. And of the other historical books, the first and second books of
the Kings are among the Hebrews one book; also the third and fourth one book. And in like
manner, the first and second of Chronicles are with them one book; and the first and
second of Esdras are counted one. Esther is the twelfth book; and these are the Historical
writings. But those which are written in verses are five, Job, and the book of Psalms, and
Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, which is the seventeenth book. And
after these come the five Prophetic books: of the Twelve Prophets one book, of Isaiah one,
of Jeremiah one, including Baruch and Lamentations and the Epistle ; then Ezekiel, and the
Book of Daniel, the twenty-second of the Old Testament.

36. Then of the New Testament there are the four Gospels only, for the rest have false
titles and are mischievous. The Manichaeans also wrote a Gospel according to Thomas, which
being tinctured with the fragrance of the evangelic title corrupts the souls of the simple
sort. Receive also the Acts of the Twelve Apostles; and in addition to these the seven
Catholic Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude; and as a seal upon them all, and the
last work of the disciples, the fourteen Epistles of Paul . But let all the rest be put
aside in a secondary rank. And whatever books are not read in Churches, these read not
even by thyself, as thou hast heard me say. Thus much of these subjects. 37. But shun thou
every diabolical operation, and believe not the apostate Serpent, whose transformation
from a good nature was of his own free choice: who can over-persuade the willing, but can
compel no one. Also give heed neither to observations of the stars nor auguries, nor
omens, nor to the fabulous divinations of the Greeks . Witchcraft, and enchantment, and
the wicked practices of necromancy, admit not even to a hearing. From every kind of
intemperance stand aloof, giving thyself neither to gluttony nor licentiousness, rising
superior to all covetousness and usury. Neither venture thyself at heathen assemblies for
public spectacles, nor ever use amulets in sicknesses; shun also all the vulgarity of
tavern-haunting. Fall not away either into the sect of the Samaritans, or into Judaism:
for Jesus Christ henceforth hath ransomed thee. Stand aloof from all observance of
Sabbaths , and from calling any indifferent meats common or unclean. But especially abhor
all the assemblies of wicked heretics; and in every way make thine own soul safe, by
fastings, prayers, almsgivings, and reading the oracles of God; that having lived the rest
of thy life in the flesh in soberness and godly doctrine, thou mayest enjoy the one
salvation which flows from Baptism; and thus enrolled in the armies of heaven by God and
the Father, mayest also be deemed worthy of the heavenly crowns, in Christ Jesus our Lord,
to Whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
=====================

CATECHETICAL LECTURES continued

LECTURE 5

Of Faith.

Hebrews XI. 1, 2. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. 1. How great a dignity the Lord
bestows on you in transferring you from the order of Catechumens to that of the Faithful,
the Apostle Paul shews, when he affirms, God is faithful, by Whom ye were called into the
fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ . For since God is called Faithful, thou also in
receiving this title receivest a great dignity. For as God is called Good, and Just, and
Almighty, and Maker of the Universe, so is He also called Faithful. Consider therefore to
what a dignity thou art rising, seeing thou art to become partaker of a title of God . 2.
Here then it is further required, that each of you be found faithful in his conscience:
for a faithful man it is hard to find : not that thou shouldest shew thy conscience to me,
for thou art not to be judged of man's judgment ; but that thou shew the sincerity of thy
faith to God, who trieth the reins and hearts , and knoweth the thoughts of men . A great
thing is a faithful man, being richest of all rich men. For to the faithful man belongs
the whole world of wealth , in that he disdains and tramples on it. For they who in
appearance are rich, and have many possessions, are poor in soul: since the more they
gather, the more they pine with longing for what is still lacking. But the faithful man,
most strange paradox, in poverty is rich: for knowing that we need only to have food and
raiment, and being therewith content , he has trodden riches under foot.

3. Nor is it only among us, who bear the name of Christ, that the dignity of faith is
great : but likewise all things that are accomplished in the world, even by those who are
aliens from the Church, are accomplished by faith. By faith the laws of marriage yoke
together those who have lived as strangers: and because of the faith in marriage contracts
a stranger is made partner of a stranger's person and possessions. By faith husbandry also
is sustained, for he who believes not that he shall receive a harvest endures not the
toils. By faith sea-faring men, trusting to the thinnest plank, exchange that most solid
element, the land, for the restless motion of the waves, committing themselves to
uncertain hopes, and carrying with them a faith more sure than any anchor. By faith
therefore most of men's affairs are held together: and not among us only has there been
this belief, but also, as I have said, among those who are without . For if they receive
not the Scriptures, but bring forward certain doctrines of their own, even these they
accept by faith.

4. The lesson also which was read to-day invites you to the true faith, by setting before
you the way in which you also must please God: for it affirms that without faith it is
impossible to please Him . For when will a man resolve to serve God, unless he believes
that He is a giver of reward? When will a young woman choose a virgin life, or a young man
live soberly, if they believe not that for chastity there is a crown that fadeth not away
? Faith is an eye that enlightens every conscience, and imparts understanding; for the
Prophet saith, And if ye believe not, ye shall not understand . Faith stoppeth the mouths
of lions , as in Daniel's case: for the Scripture saith concerning him, that Daniel was
brought up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed
in his God . Is there anything more fearful than the devil? Yet even against him we have
no other shield than faith , an impalpable buckler against an unseen foe. For he sends
forth divers arrows, and shoots down in the dark night those that watch not; but, since
the enemy is unseen, we have faith as our strong armour, according to the saying of the
Apostle, In all thinks taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked one . A fiery dart of desire of base indulgence is often
cast forth from the devil: but faith, suggesting a picture of the judgment, cools down the
mind, and quenches the dart.

5. There is much to tell of faith, and the whole day would not be time sufficient for us
to describe it fully. At present let us be content with Abraham only, as one of the
examples from the Old Testament, seeing that we have been made his sons through faith. He
was justified not only by works, but also by faith : for though he did many things well,
yet he was never called the friend of God , except when he believed. Moreover, his every
work was performed in faith. Through faith he left his parents; left country, and place,
and home through faith . In like manner, therefore, as he was justified be thou justified
also. In his body he was already dead in regard to offspring, and Sarah his wife was now
old, and there was no hope left of having children. God promises the old man a child, and
Abraham without being weakened in faith, though he considered his own body now as good as
dead , heeded not the weakness of his body, but the power of Him who promised, because he
counted Him faithful who had promised , and so beyond all expectation gained the child
from bodies as it were already dead.

And when, after he had gained his son, he was commanded to offer him up, although he had
heard the word, In Isaac shall thy seed be called , he proceeded to offer up his son, his
only son, to God, believing that God is able to raise up even from the dead . And having
bound his son, and laid him on the wood, he did in purpose offer him, but by the goodness
of God in delivering to him a lamb instead of his child, he received his son alive. Being
faithful in these things, he was sealed for righteousness, and received circumcision as a
seal of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision , having received a promise
that he should be the father of many nations . 6. Let us see, then, how Abraham is the
father of many nations . Of Jews he is confessedly the father, through succession
according to the flesh. But if we hold to the succession according to the flesh, we shall
be compelled to say that the oracle was false. For according to the flesh be is no longer
father of us all: but the example of his faith makes us all sons of Abraham. How? and in
what manner? With men it is incredible that one should rise from the dead; as in like
manner it is incredible also that there should be offspring from aged persons as good as
dead. But when Christ is preached as having been crucified on the tree, and as having died
and risen again, we believe it. By the likeness therefore of our faith we are adopted into
the sonship of Abraham. And then, following upon our faith, we receive like him the
spiritual seal, being circumcised by the Holy Spirit through Baptism, not in the foreskin
of the body, but in the heart, according to Jeremiah, saying, And ye shall be circumcised
unto God in the foreskin of your heart : and according to the Apostle, in the circumcision
of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, and the rest .

7. This faith if we keep we shall be free from condemnation, and shall be adorned with all
kinds of virtues. For so great is the strength of faith, as even to buoy men up in walking
on the sea. Peter was a man like ourselves, made up of flesh and blood, and living upon
like food. But when Jesus said, Come , he believed, and walked upon the waters, and found
his faith safer upon the waters than any ground; and his heavy body was upheld by the
buoyancy of his faith. But though he had safe footing over the water as long as he
believed, yet when he doubted, at once he began to sink: for as his faith gradually
relaxed, his body also was drawn down with it. And when He saw his distress, Jesus who
remedies the distresses of our souls, said, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt ? And being nerved again by Him who grasped his right hand, be had no sooner
recovered his faith, than, led by the hand of the Master, he resumed the same walking upon
the waters: for this the Gospel indirectly mentioned, saying, when they were gone up into
the ship . For it says not that Peter swam across and went up, but gives us to understand
that, after returning the same distance that he went to meet Jesus, he went up again into
the ship.

8. Yea, so much power hath faith, that not the believer only is saved, but some have been
saved by others believing. The paralytic in Capernaum was not a believer, but they
believed who brought him, and let him down through the tiles : for the sick man's soul
shared the sickness of his body. And think not that I accuse him without cause: the Gospel
itself says, when Jesus saw, not his faith, but their faith, He saith to the sick of the
palsy, Arise ! The bearers believed, and the sick of the palsy enjoyed the blessing of the
cure. 9. Wouldest thou see yet more surely that some are saved by others' faith? Lazarus
died : one day had passed, and a second, and a third: his sinews were decayed, and
corruption was preying already upon his body. How could one four days dead believe, and
entreat the Redeemer on his own behalf? But what the dead man lacked was supplied by his
true sisters. For when the Lord was come, the sister fell down before Him, and when He
said, Where have ye laid him? and she had made answer, Lord, by this time he stinketh; for
he hath been four days dead, the Lord said, If thou believe, thou shalt see the glory of
God; as much as saying, Supply thou the dead man's lack of faith: and the sisters' faith
had so much power, that it recalled the dead from the gates of hell. Have then men by
believing, the one on behalf of the other, been able to raise the dead, and shalt not
thou, if thou believe sincerely on thine own behalf, be much rather profited? Nay, even if
thou be faithless, or of little faith, the Lord is loving unto man; He condescends to thee
on thy repentance: only on thy part say with honest mind, Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief . But if thou thinkest that thou really art faithful, but hast not yet the
fulness of faith, thou too hast need to say like the Apostles, Lord, increase our faith :
for some part thou hast of thyself, but the greater part thou receivest from Him.

10. For the name of Faith is in the form of speech one, but has two distinct senses. For
there is one kind of faith, the dogmatic, involving an assent of the soul on some
particular point: and it is profitable to the soul, as the Lord saith: He that heareth My
words, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment
: and again, He that believeth in the Son is not judged, but hath passed from death unto
life . Oh the great loving-kindness of God! For the righteous were many years in pleasing
Him: but what they succeeded in gaining by many years of well-pleasing , this Jesus now
bestows on thee in a single hour. For if thou shalt believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, and
that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, and shalt be transported into
Paradise by Him who brought in thither the robber. And doubt not whether it is possible;
for He who on this sacred Golgotha saved the robber after one single hour of belief, the
same shall save thee also on thy believing .

11. But there is a second kind of faith, which is bestowed by Christ as a gift of grace.
For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of
knowledge according to the same Spirit: to another faith, by the same Spirit, and to
another gifts of healing . This faith then which is given of grace from the Spirit is not
merely doctrinal, but also worketh things above man's power. For whosoever hath this
faith, shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove . For
whenever any one shall say this in faith, believing that it cometh to pass, and shall not
doubt in his heart, then receiveth he the grace. And of this faith it is said, If ye have
faith as a grain of mustard seed . For just as the grain of mustard seed is small in size,
but fiery in its operation, and though sown in a small space has a circle of great
branches, and when grown up is able even to shelter the fowls ; so, likewise, faith in the
swiftest moment works the greatest effects in the soul. For, when enlightened by faith,
the soul hath visions of God, and as far as is possible beholds God, and ranges round the
bounds of the universe, and before the end of this world already beholds the Judgment, and
the payment of the promised rewards. Have thou therefore that faith in Him which cometh
from thine own self, that thou mayest also receive from Him that faith which worketh
things above man .

12. But in learning the Faith and in professing it, acquire and keep that only, which is
now delivered to thee by the Church, and which has been built up strongly out of all the
Scriptures. For since all cannot read the Scriptures, some being hindered as to the
knowledge of them by want of learning, and others by a want of leisure, in order that the
soul may not perish from ignorance, we comprise the whole doctrine of the Faith in a few
lines. This summary I wish you both to commit to memory when I recite it , and to rehearse
it with all diligence among yourselves, not writing it out on paper , but engraving it by
the memory upon your heart , taking care while you rehearse it that no Catechumen chance
to overhear the things which have been delivered to you. I wish you also to keep this as a
provision through the whole course of your life, and beside this to receive no other,
neither if we ourselves should change and contradict our present teaching, nor if an
adverse angel, transformed into an angel of light should wish to lead you astray. For
though we or an angel from heaven preach to you any other gospel than that ye have
received, let him be to you anathema . So for the present listen while I simply say the
Creed , and commit it to memory; but at the proper season expect the confirmation out of
Holy Scripture of each part of the contents.

For the articles of the Faith were not composed as seemed good to men; but the most
important points collected out of all the Scripture make up one complete teaching of the
Faith. And just as the mustard seed in one small grain contains many branches, so also
this Faith has embraced in few words all the knowledge of godliness in the Old and New
Testaments. Take heed then, brethren, and hold fast the traditions which ye now receive,
and write them an the table of your heart . 13. Guard them with reverence, lest per chance
the enemy despoil any who have grown slack; or lest some heretic pervert any of the truths
delivered to you. For faith is like putting money into the bank , even as we have now
done; but from you God requires the accounts of the deposit. I charge you, as the Apostle
saith, before God, who quickeneth all things, and Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate
witnessed the good confession, that ye keep this faith which is committed to you, without
spot, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ . A treasure of life has now been
committed to thee, and the Master demandeth the deposit at His appearing, which in His own
times He shall shew, Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of
lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in light which no man can approach unto; Whom
no man hath seen nor can see. To Whom be glory, honour, and power for ever and ever. Amen.

LECTURE 6

Concerning the Unity of God . On the Article, I Believe in One God. Also Concerning
Heresies.

Isaiah XLV. 16, 17. (Sept.) Sanctify yourselves unto Me, O islands. Israel is saved by the
Lord with an everlasting salvation; they shall not be ashamed, neither shall they be
confounded for ever, &c. 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ .
Blessed also be His Only-begotten Son . For with the thought of God let the thought of
Father at once be joined, that the ascription of glory to the Father and the Son may be
made indivisible. For the Father hath not one glory, and the Son another, but one and the
same, since He is the Father's Only-begotten Son; and when the Father is glorified, the
Son also shares the glory with Him, because the glory of the Son flows from His Father's
honour: and again, when the Son is glorified, the Father of so great a blessing is highly
honoured. 2. Now though the mind is most rapid in its thoughts, yet the tongue needs
words, and a long recital of intermediary speech. For the eye embraces at once a multitude
of the 'starry quire;' but when any one wishes to describe them one by one, which is the
Morning-star, and which, the Evening-star, and which each one of them, he has need of many
words. In like manner again the mind in the briefest moment compasses earth and sea and
all the bounds of the universe; but what it conceives in an instant, it uses many words to
describe . Yet forcible as is the example I have mentioned, still it is after all weak and
inadequate. For of God we speak not all we ought (for that is known to Him only), but so
much as the capacity of human nature has received, and so much as our weakness can bear.
For we explain not what God is but candidly confess that we have not exact knowledge
concerning Him. For in what concerns God to confess our ignorance is the best knowledge .
Therefore magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together ,-all of us in
common, for one alone is powerless; nay rather, even if we be all united together, we
shall yet not do it as we ought I mean not you only who are here present, but even if all
the nurslings of the whole Church throughout the world, both that which now is and that
which shall be, should meet together, they would not be able worthily to sing the praises
of their Shepherd.

3. A great and honourable man was Abraham, but only great in comparison with men; and when
he came before God, then speaking the truth candidly he saith, I am earth and ashes . He
did not say `earth', and then cease, lest he should call himself by the name of that great
element; but he added `and ashes', that he might represent his perishable and frail
nature. Is there anything, he saith, smaller or lighter than ashes? For take, saith he,
the comparison of ashes to a house, of a house to a city, a city to a province, a province
to the Roman Empire, and the Roman Empire to the whole earth and all its bounds, and the
whole earth to the heaven in which it is embosomed;-the earth, which bears the same
proportion to the heaven as the centre to the whole circumference of a wheel, for the
earth is no more than this in comparison with the heaven : consider then that this first
heaven which is seen is less than the second, and the second than the third, for so far
Scripture has named them, not that they are only so many, but because it was expedient for
us to know so many only. And when in thought thou hast surveyed all the heavens, not yet
will even the heavens be able to praise God as He is, nay, not if they should resound with
a voice louder than thunder. But if these great vaults of the heavens cannot worthily sing
God's praise, when shall `earth and ashes', the smallest and least of things existing, be
able to send up a worthy hymn of praise to God, or worthily to speak of God, that sitteth
upon the circle of the earth, and holdeth the inhabitants thereof as grasshoppers .

4. If any man attempt to speak of God, let him first describe the bounds of the earth.
Thou dwellest on the earth, and the limit of this earth which is thy dwelling thou knowest
not: how then shalt thou be able to form a worthy thought of its Creator? Thou beholdest
the stars, but their Maker thou beholdest not: count these which are visible, and then
describe Him who is invisible, Who telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all
by their names . Violent rains lately came pouring down upon us, and nearly destroyed us:
number the drops in this city alone: nay, I say not in the city, but number the drops on
thine own house for one single hour, if thou canst: but thou canst not. Learn then thine
own weakness; learn from this instance the mightiness of God: for He hath numbered the
drops of rain , which have been poured down on all the earth, not only now but in all
time. The sun is a work of God, which, great though it be, is but a spot in comparison
with the whole heaven; first gaze stedfastly upon the sun, and then curiously scan the
Lord of the sun. Seek not the things that are too deep for thee, neither search out the
things that are above thy strength: what is commanded thee, think thereupon .

5. But some one will say, If the Divine substance is incomprehensible, why then dost thou
discourse of these things? So then, because I cannot drink up all the river, am I not even
to take in moderation what is expedient for me? Because with eyes so constituted as mine I
cannot take in all the sun, am I not even to look upon him enough to satisfy my wants? Or
again, because I have entered into a great garden, and cannot eat all the supply of
fruits, wouldst thou have me go away altogether hungry? I praise and glorify Him that made
us; for it is a divine command which saith, Let every breath praise the Lord . I am
attempting now to glorify the Lord, but not to describe Him, knowing nevertheless that I
shall fall short of glorifying Him worthily, yet deeming it a work of piety even to
attempt it at all. For the Lord Jesus encourageth my weakness, by saying, No man hath seen
God at any time .

6. What then, some man will say, is it not written, The little ones' Angels do always
behold the face of My Father which is in heaven ? Yes, but the Angels see God not as He
is, but as far as they themselves are capable. For it is Jesus Himself who saith, Not that
any man hath seen the Father, save He which is of God, He hath seen the Father . The
Angels therefore behold as much as they can bear, and Archangels as much as they are able;
and Thrones and Dominions more than the former, but yet less than His worthiness: for with
the Son the Holy Ghost alone can rightly behold Him: for He searcheth all things, and
knoweth even the deep things of God : as indeed the Only-begotten Son also, with the Holy
Ghost, knoweth the Father fully: For neither, saith He, knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him . For He fully beholdeth, and, according
as each can bear, revealeth God through the Spirit: since the Only-begotten Son together
with the Holy Ghost is a partaker of the Father's Godhead. He, who was begotten knoweth
Him who begat; and He Who begat knoweth Him who is begotten. Since Angels then are
ignorant (for to each according to his own capacity doth the Only-begotten reveal Him
through the Holy Ghost, as we have said), let no man be ashamed to confess his ignorance.
I am speaking now, as all do on occasion but how we speak, we cannot tell: how then can I
declare Him who hath given us speech? I who have a soul, and cannot tell its distinctive
properties, how shall I be able to describe its Giver?

7. For devotion it suffices us simply to know that we have a God; a God who is One, a
living , an ever-living God; always like unto Himself ; who has no Father, none mightier
than Himself, no successor to thrust Him out from His kingdom: Who in name is manifold, in
power infinite, in substance uniform . For though He is called Good. and Just, and
Almighty and Sabaoth , He is not on that account diverse and various; but being one and
the same, He sends forth countless operations of His Godhead, not exceeding here and
deficient there, but being in all things like unto Himself. Not great in loving-kindness
only, and little in wisdom, but with wisdom and loving-kindness in equal power: not seeing
in part, and in part devoid of sight; but being all eye, and all ear, and all mind : not
like us perceiving in part and in part not knowing; for such a statement were blasphemous,
and unworthy of the Divine substance. He foreknoweth the things that be; He is Holy, and
Almighty, and excelleth all in goodness, and majesty, and wisdom: of Whom we can declare
neither beginning, nor form, nor shape. For ye have neither heard His voice at any time,
nor seen His shape , saith Holy Scripture. Wherefore Moses saith also to the Israelites:
And take ye good heed to your own souls, for ye saw no similitude . For if it is wholly
impossible to imagine His likeness, how shall thought come near His substance?

8. There have been many imaginations by many persons, and all have failed. Some have
thought that God is fire; others that He is, as it were, a man with wings, because of a
true text ill understood, Thou shalt hide me under the shadow of Thy wings . They forgot
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten, speaks in like manner concerning Himself to
Jerusalem, How often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen doth gather
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not . For whereas God's protecting power was
conceived as wings, they failing to understand this sank down to the level of things
human, and supposed that the Unsearchable exists in the likeness of man. Some again dared
to say that He has seven eyes, because it is written, seven eyes of the Lord looking upon
the whole earth . For if He has but seven eyes surrounding Him in part, His seeing is
therefore partial and not perfect: but to say this of God is blasphemous; for we must
believe that God is in all things perfect, according to our Saviour's word, which saith,
Your Father in heaven is perfect : perfect in sight, perfect in power, perfect in
greatness, perfect in foreknowledge, perfect in goodness, perfect in justice, perfect in
loving-kindness: not circumscribed in any space, but the Creator of all space, existing in
all, and circumscribed by none . Heaven is His throne, but higher is He that sitteth
thereon: and earth is His footstool , but His power reacheth unto things under the earth.

9. One He is, everywhere present, beholding all things, perceiving all things, creating
all things through Christ: For all things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made . A fountain of every good, abundant and unfailing, a river of blessings, an
eternal light of never-failing splendour, an insuperable power condescending to our
infirmities: whose very Name we dare not hear . Wilt thou find a footstep of the Lord?
saith Job, or hast thou attained unto the least things which the Almighty hath made ? If
the least of His works are incomprehensible, shall He be comprehended who made them all?
Eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the
things which God hath prepared for them that love Him . If the things which God hath
prepared are incomprehensible to our thoughts, how can we comprehend with our mind Himself
who hath prepared them? O the depth of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! saith the Apostle. If His
judgments and His ways are incomprehensible, can He Himself be comprehended?

10. God then being thus great, and yet greater, (for even were I to change my whole
substance into tongue, I could not speak His excellence: nay more, not even if all Angels
should assemble, could they ever speak His worth), God being therefore so great in gooness
and majesty, man hath yet dared to say to a stone that he hath graven, Thou art my God ! O
monstrous blindness, that from majesty so great came down so low! The tree which was
planted by God, and nourished by the rain, and afterwards burnt and turned into ashes by
the fire,-this is addressed as God, and the true God is despised. But the wickedness of
idolatry grew yet more prodigal, and cat, and dog, and wolf were worshipped instead of
God: the man-eating lion also was worshipped instead of God, the most loving friend of
man. The snake and the serpent , counterfeit of him who thrust us out of Paradise, were
worshipped, and He who planted Paradise was despised. And I am ashamed to say, and yet do
say it, even onions were worshipped among some. Wine was given to make glad the heart of
man : and Dionysus (Bacchus) was worshipped instead of God. God made corn by saying, Let
the earth bring forth grass, yielding seed after his kind and after. his likeness , that
bread may strengthen man's heart : why then was Demeter (Ceres) worshipped? Fire cometh
forth from striking stones together even to this day:

how then was Hephaestus (Vulcan) the creator of fire?11. Whence came the polytheistic
error of the Greeks ? God has no body: whence then the adulteries alleged among those who
are by them called gods? I say nothing of the transformations of Zeus into a swan: I am
ashamed to speak of his transformations into a bull: for bellowings are unworthy of a god.
The god of the Greeks has been found an adulterer, yet are they not ashamed: for if he is
an adulterer let him not be called a god. They tell also of deaths , and falls , and
thunder-strokes of their gods. Seest thou from how great a height and how low they have
fallen? Was it without reason then that the Son of God came down from heaven? or was it
that He might heal so great a wound? Was it without reason that the Son came? or was it in
order that the Father might be acknowledged? Thou hast learned what moved the Only-
begotten to come down from the throne at God's right hand. The Father was despised, the
Son must needs correct the error: for He Through Whom All Things Were Made must bring them
all as offerings to the Lord of all. The wound must be healed: for what could be worse
than this disease, that a stone should be worshipped instead of God?

Of Heresies.

12. And not among the heathen only did the devil make these assaults; for many of those
who are falsely called Christians, and wrongfully addressed by the sweet name of Christ,
have ere now impiously dared to banish God from His own creation. I mean the brood of
heretics, those most ungodly men of evil name, pretending to be friends of Christ but
utterly hating Him. For he who blasphemes the Father of the Christ is an enemy of the Son.
These men have dared to speak of two Godheads, one good and one evil ! O monstrous
blindness! If a Godhead, then assuredly good. But if not good, why called a Godhead? For
if goodness is an attribute of God; if loving-kindness, beneficence, almighty power, are
proper to God, then of two things one, either in calling Him God let the name and
operation be united; or if they would rob Him of His operations, let them not give Him the
bare name.

13. Heretics have dared to say that there are two Gods, and of good and evil two sources,
and these unbegotten. If both are unbegotten it is certain that they are also equal, and
both mighty. How then doth the light destroy the darkness? And do they ever exist
together, or are they separated? Together they cannot be; for what fellowship hath light
with darkness? saith the Apostle . But if they are far from each other, it is certain that
they hold also each his own place; and if they hold their own separate places, we are
certainly in the realm of one God, and certainly worship one God. For thus we must
conclude, even if we assent to their folly, that we must worship one God. Let us examine
also what they say of the good God. Hath He power or no power? If He hath power, how did
evil arise against His will? And how doth the evil substance intrude, if He be not
willing? For if He knows but cannot hinder it, they charge Him with want of power; but if
He has the power, yet hinders not, they accuse Him of treachery. Mark too their want of
sense. At one time they say that the Evil One hath no communion with the good God in the
creation of the world; but at another time they say that he hath the fourth part only.
Also they say that the good God is the Father of Christ; but Christ the call this sun.

If, therefore according to them, the world was made by the Evil One, and the sun is in the
world, how is the Son of the Good an unwilling slave in the kingdom of the Evil? We bemire
ourselves in speaking of these things, but we do it lest any of those present should from
ignorance fall into the mire of the heretics. I know that I have defiled my own mouth and
the ears of my listeners: yet it is expedient. For it is much better to hear absurdities
charged against others, than to fall into them from ignorance: far better that thou know
the mire and hate it, than unawares fall into it. For the godless system of the heresies
is a road with many branches, and whenever a man has strayed from the one straight way,
then he falls down precipices again and again. 14. The inventor of all heresy was Simon
Magus : that Simon, who in the Acts of the Apostles thought to purchase with money the
unsaleable grace of the Spirit, and heard the words, Thou hast neither part nor lot in
this matter , and the rest: concerning whom also it is written, They went out from us, but
they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us . This
man, after he had been cast out by the Apostles, came to Rome, and gaining over one Helena
a harlot , was the first that dared with blasphemous mouth to say that it was himself who
appeared on Mount Sinai as the Father, and afterwards appeared among the Jews, not in real
flesh but in seeming , as Christ Jesus, and afterwards as the Holy Spirit whom Christ
promised to send as the Paraclete . And he so deceived the City of Rome that Claudius set
up his statue, and wrote beneath it, in the language of the Romans, "Simoni Deo Sancto,"
which being interpreted signifies, "To Simon the Holy God ."

15. As the delusion was extending, Peter and Paul, a noble pair, chief rulers of the
Church, arrived and set the error right ; and when the supposed god Simon wished to shew
himself off, they straightway shewed him as a corpse. For Simon promised to rise aloft to
heaven, and came riding in a daemons' chariot on the air; but the servants of God fell on
their knees, and having shewn that agreement of which Jesus spake, that If two of you
shall agree concerning anything that they shall ask, it shall be done unto them , they
launched the weapon of their concord in prayer against Magus, and struck him down to the
earth. And marvellous though it was, yet no marvel. For Peter was there, who carrieth the
keys of heaven : and nothing wonderful, for Paul was there , who was caught up to the
third heaven, and into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful far a
man to utter . These brought the supposed God down from the sky to earth, thence to be
taken down to the regions below the earth. In this man first the serpent of wickedness
appeared; but when one head had been cut off, the root of wickedness was found again with
many heads.

16. For Cerinthus made havoc of the Church, and Menander , and Carpocrates , Ebionites
also, and Marcion , that mouthpiece of ungodliness. For he who proclaimed different gods,
one the Good, the other the Just, contradicts the Son when He says, O righteous Father .
And he who says again that the Father is one, and the maker of the world another, opposes
the Son when He says, If then God so clothes the grass of the field which to-day is, and
to-morrow is cast into the furnace of fire ; and, Who maketh His sun to rise on the evil
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust . Here again is a second
inventor of more mischief, this Marcion. For being confuted by the testimonies from the
Old Testament which are quoted in the New, he was the first who dared to cut those
testimonies out , and leave the preaching of the word of faith without witness, thus
effacing the true God: and sought to undermine the Church's faith, as if there were no
heralds of it.

17. He again was succeeded by another, Basilides, of evil name, and dangerous character, a
preacher of impurities . The contest of wickedness was aided also by Valentinus , a
preacher of thirty gods. The Greeks tell of but few: and the man who was called-but more
truly was not-a Christian extended the delusion to full thirty. He says, too, that Bythus
the Abyss (for it became him as being an abyss of wickedness to begin his teaching from
the Abyss) begat Silence, and of Silence begat the Word. This Bythus was worse than the
Zeus of the Greeks, who was united to his sister: for Silence was said to be the child of
Bythus. Dost thou see the absurdity invested with a show of Christianity? Wait a little,
and thou wilt be shocked at his impiety; for he asserts that of this Bythus were begotten
eight Aeons; and of them, ten; and of them, other twelve, male and female. But whence is
the proof of these things? See their silliness from their fabrications. Whence hast thou
the proof of the thirty Aeons? Because, saith he, it is written, that Jesus was baptized,
being thirty years old . But even if He was baptized when thirty years old, what sort of
demonstration is this from the thirty years? Are there then five gods, because He brake
five loaves among five thousand? Or because he had twelve Disciples, must there also be
twelve gods?

18. And even this is still little compared with the impieties which follow. For the last
of the deities being, as he dares to speak, both male and female, this, he says, is Wisdom
. What impiety! For the Wisdom of God is Christ His Only-begotten Son: and he by his
doctrine degraded the Wisdom of God into a female element, and one of thirty, and the last
fabrication. He also says that Wisdom attempted to behold the first God, and not bearing
His brightness fell from heaven, and was cast out of her thirtieth place. Then she
groaned, and of her groans begat the Devil , and as she wept over her fall made of her
tears the sea. Mark the impiety. For of Wisdom how is the Devil begotten, and of prudence
wickedness, or of light darkness? He says too that the Devil begat others, some of whom
created the world: and that the Christ came down in order to make mankind revolt from the
Maker of the world.

19. But hear whom they say Christ Jesus to be, that thou mayest detest them yet more. For
they say that after Wisdom had been cast down, in order that the number of the thirty
might not be incomplete, the nine and twenty Aeons contributed each a little part, and
formed the Christ : and they say that He also is both male and female . Can anything be
more impious than this? Anything more wretched? I am describing their delusion to thee, in
order that thou mayest hate them the more. Shun, therefore, their impiety, and do not even
give greeting to a man of this kind, lest thou have fellowship with the unfruitful works
of darkness : neither make curious inquiries, nor be willing to enter into conversation
with them. 20. Hate all heretics, but especially him who is rightly named after mania ,
who arose not long ago in the reign of Probus . For the delusion began full seventy years
ago , and there are men still living who saw him with their very eyes. But hate him not
for this, that he lived a short time ago; but because of his impious doctrines hate thou
the worker of wickedness, the receptacle of all filth, who gathered up the mire of every
heresy . For aspiring to become pre-eminent among wicked men, he took the doctrines of
all, and having combined them into one heresy filled with blasphemies and all iniquity, he
makes havoc of the Church, or rather of those outside the Church, roaming about like a
lion and devouring. Heed not their fair speech, nor their supposed humility: for they are
serpents, a generation of vipers . Judas too said Hail! Master , even while he was
betraying Him. Heed not their kisses, but beware of their venom.

21. Now, lest I seem to accuse him without reason, let me make a digression to tell who
this Manes is, and in part what he teaches: for all time would fail to describe adequately
the whole of his foul teaching. But for help in time of need , store up in thy memory what
I have said to former hearers, and will repeat to those now present, that they who know
not may learn, and they who know may be reminded. Manes is not of Christian origin, God
forbid! nor was he like Simon cast out of the Church, neither himself nor the teachers who
were before him. For he steals other men's wickedness, and makes their wickedness his own:
but how and in what manner thou must hear. 22. There was in Egypt one Scythianus , a
Saracen by birth, having nothing in common either with Judaism or with Christianity. This
man, who dwelt at Alexandria and imitated the life of Aristotle , composed four books ,
one called a Gospel which had not the acts of Christ, but the mere name only, and one
other called the book of Chapters, and a third of Mysteries, and a fourth, which they
circulate now, the Treasure . This man had a disciple, Terebinthus by name. But when
Scythianus purposed to come into Judaea, and make havoc of the land, the Lord smote him
with a deadly disease, and stayed the pestilence .

23. But Terebinthus, his disciple in this wicked error, inherited his money and books and
heresy , and came to Palestine, and becoming known and condemned in Judaea he resolved to
pass into Persia: but lest he should be recognised there also by his name he changed it
and called himself Buddas . However, he found adversaries there also in the priests of
Mithras : and being confuted in the discussion of many arguments and controversies, and at
last hard pressed, he took refuge with a certain widow. Then having gone up on the
housetop, and summoned the daemons of the air, whom the Manichees to this day invoke over
their abominable ceremony of the fig , he was smitten of God, and cast down from the
housetop, and expired: and so the second beast was cut off. 24. The books, however, which
were the records of his impiety, remained; and both these and his money the widow
inherited. And having neither kinsman nor any other friend, she determined to buy with the
money a boy named Cubricus : him she adopted and educated as a son in the learning of the
Persians, and thus sharpened an evil weapon against mankind. So Cubricus, the vile slave,
grew up in the midst of philosophers, and on the death of the widow inherited both the
books and the money. Then, lest the name of slavery might be a reproach, instead of
Cubricus he called himself Manes, which in the language of the Persians signifies
discourse . For as he thought himself something of a disputant, he surnamed himself Manes,
as it were an excellent master of discourse. But though he contrived for himself an
honourable title according to the language of the Persians, yet the providence of God
caused him to become a self-accuser even against his will, that through thinking to honour
himself in Persia, he might proclaim himself among the Greeks by name a maniac.

25. He dared too to say that he was the Paraclete, though it is written, But whosoever
shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath no forgiveness . He committed blasphemy
therefore by saying that he was the Holy Ghost: let him that communicates with those
heretics see with whom he is enrolling himself. The slave shook the world, since by three
things the earth is shaken, and the fourth it cannot bear,-if a slave became a king .
Having come into public he now began to promise things above man's power. The son of the
King of the Persians was sick, and a multitude of physicians were in attendance: but Manes
promised, as if he were a godly man, to cure him by prayer. With the departure of the
physicians, the life of the child departed: and the man's impiety was detected. So the
would-be philosopher was a prisoner, being cast into prison not for reproving the king in
the cause of truth, not for destroying the idols, but for promising to save and lying, or
rather, if the truth must be told, for committing murder. For the child who might have
been saved by medical treatment, was murdered by this man's driving away the physicians,
and killing him by want of treatment.

26. Now as there are very many wicked things which I tell thee of him, remember first his
blasphemy, secondly his slavery (not that slavery is a disgrace, but that his pretending
to be free-born, when he was a slave, was wicked), thirdly, the falsehood of his promise,
fourthly, the murder of the child, and fifthly, the disgrace of the imprisonment. And
there was not only the disgrace of the prison, but also the flight from prison. For he who
called himself the Paraclete and champion of the truth, ran away: he was no successor of
Jesus, who readily went to the Cross, but this man was the reverse, a runaway. Moreover,
the King of the Persians ordered the keepers of the prison to be executed: so Manes was
the cause of the child's death through his vain boasting, and of the gaolers' death
through his flight. Ought then he, who shared the guilt of murder, to be worshipped? Ought
he not to have followed the example of Jesus, and said, If ye seek Me, let these go their
way ? Ought he not to have said, like Jonas, Take me, and cast me into the sea: for this
storm is because of me ?

27. He escapes from the prison, and comes into Mesopotamia: but there Bishop Archelaus, a
shield of righteousness, encounters him : and having accused him before philosophers as
judges, and having assembled an audience of Gentiles, lest if Christians gave judgment,
the judges might be thought to shew favour,-Tell us what thou preachest, said Archelaus to
Manes. And he, whose mouth was as an open sepulchre , began first with blasphemy against
the Maker of all things, saying, The God of the Old Testament is the author of evils, as
He says of Himself, I am a consuming fire . But the wise Archelaus undermined his
blasphemous argument by saying, "If the God of the Old Testament, as thou sayest, calls
Himself a fire, whose Son is He who saith, I came to send fire on the earth ? If thou
findest fault with Him who saith, The Lord killeth, and maketh alive , why dost thou
honour Peter, who raised up Tabitha, but struck Sapphira dead? If again thou findest
fault, because He prepared fire, wherefore dost thou not find fault with Him who saith,
Depart from Me into everlasting fire ? If thou findest fault with Him who saith, I am God
that make peace, and create evil , explain how Jesus saith, I came not to send peace but a
sword . Since both speak alike, of two things one, either both are good, because of their
agreement, or if Jesus is blameless in so speaking. why blamest thou t Him that saith the
like in the Old Testament?"

28. Then Manes answers him: "And what sort of God causes blindness? For it is Paul who
saith, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest
the light of the Gospel should shine unto them ." But Archelaus made a good retort,
saying, "Read a little before: But if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that are
perishing . Seest thou that in them that are perishing it is veiled? For it is not right
to give the things which are holy unto the dogs . Again, Is it only the God of the Old
Testament that hath blinded the minds of them that believe not? Hath not Jesus Himself
said, For this cause speak I unto them in parables, that seeing they may not see ? Was it
from hating them that He wished them not to see? Or because of their unworthiness, since
their eyes they had closed . For where there is wilful wickedness, there is also a
withholding of grace: for to him that hath shall be given; but from him that hath not
shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have .

29. "But if some are right in their interpretation, we must say as follows (for it is no
unworthy expression)-If indeed He blinded the thoughts of them that believe not he blinded
them for a good purpose, that they might look with new sight on what is good. For he said
not, He blinded their soul, but, the thoughts of them that believe not . And the meaning
is something of this kind: `Blind the lewd thoughts of the lewd, and the man is saved:
blind the grasping and rapacious thought of the robber, and the man is saved.' But wilt
thou not understand it thus? Then there is yet another interpretation. The sun also blinds
those whose sight is dim: and they whose eyes are diseased are hurt by the light and
blinded. Not that the sun's nature is to blind, but that the substance of the eyes is
incapable of seeing. In like manner unbelievers being diseased in their heart cannot look
upon the radiance of the Godhead. Nor hath he said, `He hath blinded their thoughts, that
they should not hear the Gospel:' but, that the light of the glory of the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ should not shine unto them. For to hear the Gospel is permitted to all:
but he glory of the Gospel is reserved for Christ's true children only. Therefore the Lord
spoke in parables to those who could not hear : but to the Disciples he explained the
parables in private :

for the brightness of the glory is for those who have been enlightened, the blinding for
them that believe not. These mysteries, which the Church now explains to thee who art
passing out of the class of Catechumens, it is not the custom to explain to heathen. For
to a heathen we do not explain the mysteries concerning Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, nor
before Catechumens do we speak plainly of the mysteries: but many things we often speak in
a veiled way, that the believers who know may understand, and they who know not may get no
hurt . 30. By such and many other arguments the serpent was overthrown: thus did Archelaus
wrestle with Manes and threw him. Again, he who had fled from prison flees from this place
also: and having run away from his antagonist, he comes to a very poor village, like the
serpent in Paradise when he left Adam and came to Eve. But the good shepherd Archelaus
taking forethought for his sheep, when he heard of his flight, straightway hastened with
all speed in search of the wolf. And when Manes suddenly saw his adversary, he rushed out
and fled: it was however his last flight. For the officers of the King of Persia searched
everywhere, and caught the fugitive: and the sentence, which he ought to have received in
the presence of Archelaus, is passed upon him by the king's officers. This Manes, whom his
own disciples worship, is arrested and brought before the king. The king reproached him
with his falsehood and his flight: poured scorn upon his slavish condition, avenged the
murder of his child, and condemned him also for the murder of the gaolers: he commands him
to be flayed after the Persian fashion. And while the rest of his body was given over for
food of wild beasts, his skin, the receptacle of his vile mind, was hung up before the
gates like a sack . He that called himself the Paraclete and professed to know the future,
knew not his own flight and capture.

31. This man has had three disciples, Thomas, and Baddas, and Hermas. Let none read the
Gospel according to Thomas : for it is the work not of one of the twelve Apostles, but of
one of the three wicked disciples of Manes. Let none associate with the soul-destroying
Manicheans, who by decoctions of chaff counterfeit the sad look of fasting, who speak evil
of the Creator of meats, and greedily devour the daintiest, who teach that the man who
plucks up this or that herb is changed into it. For if he who crops herbs or any vegetable
is changed into the same, into how many will husbandmen and the tribe of gardeners be
changed ? The gardener, as we see, has used his sickle against so many: into which then is
he changed? Verily their doctrines are ridiculous, and fraught with their own condemnation
and shame! The same man, being the shepherd of a flock, both sacrifices a sheep and kills
a wolf. Into what then is he changed? Many men both net fishes and lime birds: into which
then are they transformed?

32. Let those children of sloth, the Manicheans, make answer; who without labouring
themselves eat up the labourers' fruits: who welcome with smiling faces those who bring
them their food, and return curses instead of blessings. For when a simple person brings
them anything, "Stand outside a while," saith he, "and I will bless thee." Then having
taken the bread into his hands (as those who have repented and left them have confessed),
"I did not make thee," says the Manichee to the bread: and sends up curses against the
Most High; and curses him that made it, and so eats what was made . If thou hatest the
food, why didst thou look with smiling countenance on him that brought it to thee? If thou
art thankful to the bringer, why dost thou utter thy blasphemy to God, who created and
made it? So again he says, "I sowed thee not: may he be sown who sowed thee! I reaped thee
not with a sickle: may he be reaped who reaped thee! I baked thee not with fire: may he be
baked who baked thee!" A fine return for the kindness!

33. These are great faults, but still small in comparison with the rest. Their Baptism I
dare not describe before men and women . I dare not say what they distribute to their
wretched communicants . . . . Truly we pollute our mouth in speaking of these things. Are
the heathen more detestable than these? Are the Samaritans more wretched? Are Jews more
impious? Are fornicators more impure ? But the Manichee sets these offerings in the midst
of the altar as he considers it . And dost thou, O man, receive instruction from such a
mouth? On meeting this man dost thou greet him at all with a kiss? To say nothing of his
other impiety, dost thou not flee from the defilement, and from men worse than
profligates, more detestable than any prostitute? 34. Of these things the Church
admonishes and teaches thee, and touches mire, that thou mayest not be bemired: she tells
of the wounds, that thou mayest not be wounded. But for thee it is enough merely to know
them: abstain from learning by experience. God thunders, and we all tremble; and they
blaspheme. God lightens, and we all bow down to the earth; and they have their blasphemous
sayings about the heavens . These things are written in the books of the Manichees. These
things we ourselves have read, because we could not believe those who told of them: yes,
for the sake of your salvation we have closely inquired into their perdition.

35. But may the Lord deliver us from such delusion: and may there be given to you a hatred
against the serpent, that as they lie in wait for the heel, so you may trample on their
head. Remember ye what I say. What agreement can there be between our state and theirs?
What communion hath light with darkness ? What hath the majesty of the Church to do with
the abomination of the Manichees? Here is order, here is discipline , here is majesty,
here is purity: here even to look upon a woman to lust after her is condemnation. Here is
marriage with sanctity , here steadfast continence, here virginity in honour like unto the
Angels: here partaking of food with thanksgiving, here gratitude to the Creator of the
world. Here the Father of Christ is worshipped: here are taught fear and trembling before
Him who sends the rain: here we ascribe glory to Him who makes the thunder and the
lightning.

36. Make thou thy fold with the sheep: flee from the wolves: depart not from the Church.
Hate those also who have ever been suspected in such matters: and unless in time thou
perceive their repentance, do not rashly trust thyself among them. The truth of the Unity
of God has been delivered to thee: learn to distinguish the pastures of doctrine. Be an
approved banker , holding fast that which is good, abstaining from every form of evi l .
Or if thou hast ever been such as they, recognise and hate thy delusion. For there is a
way of salvation, if thou reject the vomit, if thou from thy heart detest it, if thou
depart from them, not with thy lips only, but with thy soul also: if thou worship the
Father of Christ, the God of the Law and the Prophets, if thou acknowledge the Good and
the Just to be one and the same God . And may He preserve you all, guarding you from
falling or stumbling, stablished in the Faith, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be glory
for ever and ever. Amen.

LECTURE 7

The Father.

Ephesians III. 14, 15. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, . . . of whom all
fatherhood in heaven and earth is named, &c. 1. Of God as the sole Principle we have said
enough to you yesterday : by "enough" I mean, not what is worthy of the subject, (for to
reach that is utterly impossible to mortal nature), but as much as was granted to our
infirmity. I traversed also the bye-paths of the manifold error of the godless heretics:
but now let us shake off their foul and soul-poisoning doctrine, and remembering what
relates to them, not to our own hurt, but to our greater detestation of them, let us come
back to ourselves, and receive the saving doctrines of the true Faith, connecting the
dignity of Fatherhood with that of the Unity, and believing In One God the Father: for we
must not only believe in one God; but this also let us devoutly receive, that He is the
Father of the Only-begotten, our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. For thus shall we raise our thoughts higher than the Jews , who admit indeed by their
doctrines that there is One God, (for what if they often denied even this by their
idolatries?); but that He is also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, they admit not;
being of a contrary mind to their own Prophets, who in the Divine Scriptures affirm, The
Lord said unto me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten thee . And to this day they
rage and gather themselves together against the Lord, and against His Anointed , thinking
that it is possible to be made friends of the Father apart from devotion towards the Son,
being ignorant that no man cometh unto the Father but by the Son, who saith, I am the
Door, and I am the Way . He therefore that refuseth the Way which leadeth to the Father,
and he that denieth the Door, how shall he be deemed worthy of entrance unto God? They
contradict also what is written in the eighty-eighth Psalm, He shall call Me, Thou art my
Father, my God, and the helper of my salvation. And I will make him my first-born, high
among the kings of the earth . For if they should insist that these things are said of
David or Solomon or any of their successors, let them shew how the throne of him, who is
in their judgment described in the prophecy, is as the days of heaven, and as the sun
before God, and as the moon established for ever . And how is it also that they are not
abashed at that which is written, From the womb before the morning-star have I begotten
thee : also this, He shall endure with the sun, and before the moon, from generation to
generation . To refer these passages to a man is a proof of utter and extreme
insensibility.

3. Let the Jews, however, since they so will, suffer their usual disorder of unbelief,
both in these and the like statements. But let us adopt the godly doctrine of our Faith,
worshipping one God the Father of the Christ, (for to deprive Him, who grants to all the
gift of generation, of the like dignity would be impious): and let us Believe in One God
the Father, in order that, before we touch upon our teaching concerning Christ, the faith
concerning the Only-begotten may be implanted in the soul of the hearers, without being at
all interrupted by the intervening doctrines concerning the Father. 4. For the name of the
Father, with the very utterance of the title, suggests the thought of the Son: as in like
manner one who names the Son thinks straightway of the Father also . For if a Father, He
is certainly the Father of a Son; and if a Son, certainly the Son of a Father. Lest
therefore from our speaking thus, In One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and
Earth, and of All Things Visible and Invisible, and from our then adding this also, And in
One Lord Jesus Christ, any one should irreverently suppose that the Only-begotten is
second in rank to heaven and earth,-for this reason before naming them we named God the
Father, that in thinking of the Father we might at the same time think also of the Son:
for between the Son and the Father no being whatever comes.

5. God then is in an improper sense the Father of many, but by nature and in truth of One
only, the Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; not having attained in course of time
to being a Father, but being ever the Father of the Only-begotten . Not that being without
a Son before, He has since by change of purpose become a Father: but before every
substance and every intelligence, before times and all ages, God hath the dignity of
Father, magnifying Himself in this more than in His other dignities; and having become a
Father, not by passion , or union, not in ignorance, not by effluence , not by diminution,
not by alteration, for every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down
from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow of turning .
Perfect Father, He begat a perfect Son, and delivered all things to Him who is begotten:
(for all things, He saith, are delivered unto Me of My Father :) and is honoured by the
Only-begotten: for, I honour My Father , saith the Son; and again, Even as I have kept My
Father's commandments, and abide in His love . Therefore we also say like the Apostle,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of
all consolation : and, We bow our knees unto the Father from whom all fatherhood in heaven
and on earth is named : glorifying Him with the Only-begotten: for he that denieth the
Father, denieth the Son also : and again, He that confesseth the Son, hath the Father also
; knowing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father .

6. We worship, therefore, as the Father of Christ, the Maker of heaven and earth, the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; to whose honour the former temple also, over against us
here, was built. For we shall not tolerate the heretics who sever the Old Testament from
the New , but shall believe Christ, who says concerning the temple, Wist ye not that I
must be in My Father's house ? and again, Take these things hence, and make not my
Father's house a house of merchandise , whereby He most clearly confessed that the former
temple in Jerusalem was His own Father's house. But if any one from unbelief wishes to
receive yet more proofs as to the Father of Christ being the same as the Maker of the
world, let him hear Him say again, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and not one
of them shall fall on the ground without My Father which is in heaven ; this also, Behold
the fowls of the heaven that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns;
and your heavenly Father feedeth them ; and this, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work .

7. But lest any one from simplicity or perverse ingenuity should suppose that Christ is
but equal in honour to righteous men, from His saying, I ascend to My Father, and your
Father, it is well to make this distinction beforehand, that the name of the Father is
one, but the power of His operation manifold. And Christ Himself knowing this has spoken
unerringly, I go to My Father, and your Father: not saying `to our Father,' but
distinguishing, and saying first what was proper to Himself, to My Father, which was by
nature; then adding, and your Father, which was by adoption. For however high the
privilege we have received of saying in our prayers, Our Father, which art in heaven, yet
the gift is of loving-kindness. For we call Him Father, not as having been by nature
begotten of Our Father which is in heaven; but having been transferred from servitude to
sonship by the grace of the Father, through the Son and Holy Spirit, we are permitted so
to speak by ineffable loving-kindness.

8. But if any one wishes to learn how we call God "Father," let him hear Moses, the
excellent schoolmaster, saying, Did not this thy Father Himself buy thee, and make thee,
and create thee ? Also Esaias the Prophet, And now, O Lord. Thou art our Father: and we
all are clay, the works of Thine hands . For most clearly has the prophetic gift declared
that not according to nature, but according to God's grace, and by adoption, we call Him
Father. 9. And that thou mayest learn more exactly that in the Divine Scriptures it is not
by any means the natural father only that is called father, hear what Paul says:-For
though ye should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in
Christ Jesus I begat you through the Gospel . For Paul was father of the Corinthians, not
by having begotten them after the flesh, but by having taught and begotten them again
after the Spirit. Hear Job also saying, I was a father of the needy : for he called
himself a father, not as having begotten them all, but as caring for them. And God's Only-
begotten Son Himself, when nailed in His flesh to the tree at the time of crucifixion, on
seeing Mary, His own Mother according to the flesh, and John, the most beloved of His
disciples, said to him, Behold! thy mother, and to her, Behold! thy Son : teaching her the
parental affection due to him , and indirectly explaining that which is said in Luke, and
His father and His mother marvelled at Him : words which the tribe of heretics snatch up,
saying that He was begotten of a man and a woman. For like as Mary was called the mother
of John, because of her parental affection, not from having given him birth, so Joseph
also was called the father of Christ, not from having begotten Him (for he knew her not,
as the Gospel says, until she had brought forth her first-born Son ), but because of the
care bestowed on His nurture.

10 Thus much then at present, in the way of a digression, to put you in remembrance. Let
me, however, add yet another testimony in proof that God is called the Father of men in an
improper sense. For when in Esaias God is addressed thus, For Thou art our Father, though
Abraham be ignorant of us , and Sarah travailed not with us , need we inquire further on
this point? And if the Psalmist says, Let them be troubled from His countenance, the
Father of the fatherless, and Judge of the widows , is it not manifest to all, that when
God is called the Father of orphans who have lately lost their own fathers, He is so named
not as begetting them of Himself, but as caring for them and shielding them. But whereas
God, as we have said, is in an improper sense the Father of men, of Christ alone He is the
Father by nature, not by adoption: and the Father of men in time, but of Christ before all
time, as He saith, And new, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory
which I had with Thee before the world was .

11. We believe then In One God the Father the Unsearchable and Ineffable, Whom no man hath
seen , but the Only-begotten alone hath declared Him . For He which is of God, He hath
seen God : whose face the Angels do alway behold in heaven , behold, however, each
according to the measure of his own rank. But the undimmed vision of the Father is
reserved in its purity for the Son with the Holy Ghost. 12. Having reached this point of
my discourse, and being reminded of the passages just before mentioned, in which God was
addressed as the Father of men, I am greatly amazed at men's insensibility. For God with
unspeakable loving-kindness deigned to be called the Father of men,-He in heaven, they on
earth,-and He the Maker of Eternity, they made in time,-He who holdeth the earth in the
hollow of His hand, they upon the earth as grasshoppers . Yet man forsook his heavenly
Father, and said to the stock, Thou art my father, and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me
. And for this reason, methinks, the Psalmist says to mankind, Forget also thine own
people, and thy father's house , whom thou hast chosen for a father, whom thou hast drawn
upon thyself to thy destruction.

13. And not only stocks and stones, but even Satan himself, the destroyer of souls, have
some ere now chosen for a father; to whom the Lord said as a rebuke, Ye do the deeds of
your father , that is of the devil, he being the father of men not by nature, but by
fraud. For like as Paul by his godly teaching came to be called the father of the
Corinthians, so the devil is called the father of those who of their own will consent unto
him . For we shall not tolerate those who give a wrong meaning to that saying, Hereby know
we the children of God, and the children of the devil , as if there were by nature some
men to be saved, and some to be lost. Whereas we come into such holy sonship not of
necessity but by choice: nor was the traitor Judas by nature a son of the devil and of
perdition; for certainly he would never have cast out devils at all in the name of Christ:
for Satan casteth not out Satan . Nor on the other hand would Paul have turned from
persecuting to preaching. But the adoption is in our own power, as John saith, But as
marry as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, even to them
that believe in His name . For not before their believing, but from their believing they
were counted worthy to become of their own choice the children of God.

14. Knowing this, therefore, let us walk spiritually, that we may be counted worthy of
God's adoption. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God .
For it profiteth us nothing to have gained the title of Christians, unless the works also
follow; lest to us also it be said, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works
of Abraham . For if we call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth
according to every man's work, let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear ,
loving not the world, neither the things that are in the world: for if any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him . Wherefore, my beloved children, let us by
our works offer glory to our Father which is in heaven, that they may see our good works,
and glorify our Father which is in heaven . Let us cast all our care upon Him, for our
Father knoweth what things we have need of .

15. But while honouring our heavenly Father let us honour also the fathers of our flesh .
For when our fathers on earth are of a contrary mind to our Father in heaven, then we must
obey Christ's word. But when they put no obstacle to godliness in our way, if we are ever
carried away by ingratitude, and, forgetting their benefits to us, hold them in contempt,
then the oracle will have place which says, He that curseth father or mother, let him die
the death . 16. The first virtue of godliness in Christians is to honour their parents, to
requite the troubles of those who begat them , and with all their might to confer on them
what tends to their comfort (for if we should repay them ever so much, yet we shall never
be able to return their gift of life ), that they also may enjoy the comfort provided by
us, and may confirm us in those blessings which Jacob the supplanter shrewdly seized; and
that our Father in heaven may accept our good purpose, and judge us worthy to shine amid
righteous as the sun in the kingdom of our Father : To whom be the glory, with the Only-
begotten our Saviour Jesus Christ, and with the Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever,
to all eternity. Amen.

LECTURE 8

Almighty.

Jeremiah XXXIX. 18, 19 (Septuagint). The Great, the strong God, Lord of great Counsel, and
mighty in His works, the Great God, the Lord Almighty and of great name . 1. By believing
In One God we cut off all misbelief in many gods, using this as a shield against Greeks;
and every opposing power of heretics; and by adding, In One God the Father, we contend
against those of the circumcision, who deny the Only-begotten Son of God. For, as was said
yesterday, even before explaining the truths concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, we made it
manifest at once, by saying "The Father," that He is the Father of a Son: that as we
understand that God is, so we may understand that He has a Son. But to those titles we add
that He is also "Almighty;" and this we affirm because of Greeks and Jews together, and
all heretics.

2. For of the Greeks some have said that God is the soul of the world : and others that
His power reaches only to heaven, and not to earth as well, Some also sharing their error
and misusing the text which says, "And Thy truth unto the clouds ," have dared to
circumscribe God's providence by the clouds and the heaven, and to alienate from God the
things on earth; having forgotten the Psalm which says, If I go up into heaven, Thou art
there. if I go down into hell, Thou art present . For if there is nothing higher than
heaven, and if hell is deeper than the earth, He who rules the lower regions reaches the
earth also. 3. But heretics again, as I have said before, know not One Almighty God. For
He is Almighty who rules all things, who has power over all things. But they who say that
one God is Lord of the soul, and some other of the body, make neither of them perfect,
because either is wanting to the other . For how is he almighty, who has power over the
soul, but not over the body? And how is he almighty who has dominion over bodies, but no
power over spirits? But these men the Lord confutes, saying on the contrary, Rather fear
ye Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell . For unless the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ has the power over both, how does He subject both to punishment? For how
shall He be able to take the body which is another's and cast it into hell, except He
first bind the strong man, and spoil his goods ?

4. But the Divine Scripture and the doctrines of the truth know but One God, who rules all
things by His power, but endures many things of His will. For He rules even over the
idolaters, but endures them of His forbearance: He rules also over the heretics who set
Him at nought, but bears with them because of His long-suffering: He rules even over the
devil, but bears with him of His long-suffering, not from want of power; as if defeated.
For he is the beginning of the Lord's creation, made to be mocked , not by Himself, for
that were unworthy of Him, but by the Angels whom He hath made. But He suffered him to
live, for two purposes, that he might disgrace himself the more in his defeat, and that
mankind might be crowned with victory. O all wise providence of God! which takes the
wicked purpose for a groundwork of salvation for the faithful. For as He took the
unbrotherly purpose of Joseph's brethren for a groundwork of His own dispensation, and, by
permitting them to sell their brother from hatred, took occasion to make him king whom He
would; so he permitted the devil to wrestle, that the victors might be crowned; and that
when victory was gained, he might be the more disgraced as being conquered by the weaker,
and men be greatly honoured as having conquered him who was once an Archangel.

5. Nothing then is withdrawn from the power of God; for the Scripture says of Him, for all
things are Thy servants . All things alike are His servants, but from all these One, His
only Son, and One, His Holy Spirit, are excepted; and all the things which are His
servants serve the Lord through the One Son and in the Holy Spirit. God then rules all,
and of His long-suffering endures even murderers and robbers and fornicators, having
appointed a set time for recompensing every one, that if they who have had long warning
are still impenitent in heart, they may receive the greater condemnation. They are kings
of men, who reign upon earth, but not without the power from above: and this
Nebuchadnezzar once learned by experience, when he said; For His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and His power from generation to generation . 6. Riches, and gold, and silver are
not, as some think, the devil's : for the whole world of riches is for the faithful man,
but for the faithless not even a penny . Now nothing is more faithless than the devil; and
God says plainly by the Prophet, The gold is Mine, and the silver is Mine, and to
whomsoever I will I give it . Do thou but use it well, and there is no fault to be found
with money: but whenever thou hast made a bad use of that which is good, then being
unwilling to blame thine own management, thou impiously throwest back the blame upon the
Creator. A man may even be justified by money: I was hungry, and ye gave Me meat : that
certainly was from money. I was naked, and ye clothed Me: that certainly was by money. And
wouldest thou learn that money may become a door of the kingdom of heaven? Sell, saith He,
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven .

7. Now I have made these remarks because of those heretics who count possessions, and
money, and men's bodies accursed . For I neither wish thee to be a slave of money, nor to
treat as enemies the things which God has given thee for use. Never say then that riches
are the devil's: for though he say, All these will I give thee, for they are delivered
unto me , one may indeed even reject his assertion; for we need not believe the liar: and
yet perhaps he spake the truth, being compelled by the power of His presence: for he said
not, All these will I give thee, for they are mine, but, for they are delivered unto me.
He grasped not the dominion of them, but confessed that he had been entrusted with them,
and was for a time dispensing them. But at a proper time interpreters should inquire
whether his statement is false or true .

8. God then is One, the Father, the Almighty, whom the brood of heretics have dared to
blaspheme. Yea, they, have dared to blaspheme the Lord of Sabaoth , who sitteth above the
Cherubim : they have dared to blaspheme the Lord Adonai : they have dared to blaspheme Him
who is in the Prophets the Almighty God . But worship thou One God the Almighty, the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Flee from the error of many gods, flee also from every
heresy, and say like Job, But I will call upon the Almighty Lord, which doeth great things
and unsearchable, glorious things and marvellous without number , and, For all these
things there is honour from the Almighty : to Whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
=====================

CATECHETICAL LECTURES continued

LECTURE 9

On the Words, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of All Things Visible and Invisible.

Job XXXVIII. 2-3. Who is this that hideth counsel from Me, and keepeth words in his heart,
and thinketh to hide them from Me ? 1. To look upon God with eyes of flesh is impossible:
for the incorporeal cannot be subject to bodily sight: and the Only begotten Son of God
Himself hath testified, saying, No man hath seen God at any time . For if according to
that which is written in Ezekiel any one should understand that Ezekiel saw Him, yet what
saith the Scripture? He saw the likeness of the glory of the Lord ; not the Lord Himself,
but the likeness of His glory, not the glory itself, as it really is. And when he saw
merely the likeness of the glory, and not the glory itself, he fell to the earth from
fear. Now if the sight of the likeness of the glory brought fear and distress upon the
prophets, any one who should attempt to behold God Himself would to a certainty lose his
life, according to the saying, No man shall see My face and live . For this cause God of
His great loving-kindness spread out the heaven as a veil of His proper Godhead, that we
should not perish. The word is not mine, but the Prophet's. If Thou shalt rend the
heavens, trembling will take hold of the mountains at sight of Thee, and they will flaw
down . And why dost thou wonder that Ezekiel fell down on seeing the likeness of the
glory? when Daniel at the sight of Gabriel, though but a servant of God, straightway
shuddered and fell on his face, and, prophet as he was, dared not answer him, until the
Angel transformed himself into the likeness of a son of man . Now if the appearing of
Gabriel wrought trembling in the Prophets, had God Himself been seen as He is, would not
all have perished?

2. The Divine Nature then it is impossible to see with eyes of flesh: but from the works,
which are Divine, it is possible to attain to some conception of His power, according to
Solomon, who says, For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the
Maker of them is seen . He said not that from the creatures the Maker is seen, but added
proportionably. For God appears the greater to every man in proportion as he has grasped a
larger survey of the creatures: and when his heart is uplifted by that larger survey, he
gains withal a greater conception of God. 3. Wouldest thou learn that to comprehend the
nature of God is impossible? The Three Children in the furnace of fire, as they hymn the
praises of God, say Blessed art thou that beholdest the depths, and sittest upon the
Cherubim . Tell me what is the nature of the Cherubim, and then look upon Him who sitteth
upon them. And yet Ezekiel the Prophet even made a description of them, as far as was
possible, saying that every one has four faces, one of a man, another of a lion, another
of an eagle, and another of a calf; and that each one had six wings , and they had eyes on
all sides; and that under each one was a wheel of four sides. Nevertheless though the
Prophet makes the explanation, we cannot yet understand it even as we read. But if we
cannot understand the throne, which he has described, how shall we be able to comprehend
Him who sitteth thereon, the Invisible and Ineffable God? To scrutinise then the nature of
God is impossible: but it is in our power to send up praises of His glory for His works
that are seen.

4. These things I say to you because of the following context of the Creed, and because we
say, We Believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of All
Things Visible and Invisible; in order that we may remember that the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ is the same as He that made the heaven and the earth , and that we may make
ourselves safe against the wrong paths of the godless heretics, who have dared to speak
evil of the All wise Artificer of all this world , men who see with eyes of flesh, but
have the eyes of their understanding blinded. 5. For what fault have they to find with the
vast creation of God?-they, who ought to have been struck with amazement on beholding the
vaultings of the heavens: they, who ought to have worshipped Him who reared the sky as a
dome, who out of the fluid nature of the waters formed the stable substance of the heaven.
For God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water . God spake once for all,
and it stands fast, and falls not. The heaven is water, and the orbs therein, sun, moon,
and stars are of fire: and how do the orbs of fire run their course in the water? But if
any one disputes this because of the opposite natures of fire and water, let him remember
the fire which in the time of Moses in Egypt flamed amid the hail, and observe the all-
wise workmanship of God. For since there was need of water, because the earth was to be
tilled, He made the heaven above of water that when the region of the earth should need
watering by showers, the heaven might from its nature be ready for this purpose.

6. But what? Is there not cause to wonder when one looks at the constitution of the sun?
For being to the sight as it were a small body he contains a mighty power; appearing from
the East, and sending forth his light unto the West: whose rising at dawn the Psalmist
described, saying: And he cometh forth out of his chamber as a bridegroom . He was
describing the brightness and moderation of his state on first becoming visible unto men:
for when he rides at high noon, we often flee from his blaze: but at his rising he is
welcome to all as a bridegroom to look on. Observe also his arrangement (or rather not
his, but the arrangement of Him who by an ordinance determined his course), how in summer
he rises higher and makes the days longer, giving men good time for their works: but in
winter contracts his course, that the period of cold may be increased, and that the nights
becoming longer may contribute to men's rest, and contribute also to the fruitfulness of
the products of the earth . See also how the days alternately respond each to other in due
order, in summer increasing, and in winter diminishing; but in spring and autumn granting
equal intervals one to another. And the nights again complete the like courses; so that
the Psalmist also says of them, Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night
proclaimeth knowledge . For to the heretics who have no ears, they all but cry aloud, and
by their good order say, that there is none other God save the Creator who hath set them
their bounds, and laid out the order of the Universe

7. But let no one tolerate any who say that one is the Creator of the light, and another
of darkness : for let him remember how Isaiah says, I am the God who made the light, and
created darkness . Why, O man, art thou vexed thereat? Why art thou offended at the time
that is given thee for rest ? A servant would have had no rest from his masters, had not
the darkness necessarily brought a respite. And often after wearying ourselves in the day,
how are we refreshed in the night, and he who was yesterday worn with toils, rises
vigorous in the morning because of the night's rest ? And what more helpful to wisdom than
the night ? For herein oftentimes we set before our minds the things of God; and herein we
read and contemplate the Divine Oracles. And when is our mind most attuned to Psalmody and
Prayer? Is it not at night? And when have we often called our own sins to remembrance? Is
not at night ? Let us not then admit the evil thought, that another is the maker of
darkness: for experience shews that this also is good and useful.

8. They ought to have felt astonishment and admiration not only at the arrangement of sun
and moon, but also at the well-ordered choirs of the stars, their unimpeded courses, and
their risings in the seasons due to each: and how some are signs of summer, and others of
winter; and how some mark the season for sowing, and others shew the commencement of
navigation . And a than sitting in his ship, and sailing amid the boundless waves, steers
his ship by looking at the stars. For of these matters the Scripture says well, And let
them be for signs, and for seasons, and for years , not for fables of astrology and
nativities. But observe how He has also graciously given us the light of day by gradual
increase: for we do not see the sun at once arise; but just a little light runs on before,
in order that the pupil of the eye may be enabled by previous trial to look upon his
stronger beam: see also how He has relieved the darkness of the night by rays of
moonlight.

9. Who is the father of the rain? And who hath begotten the drops of dew ? Who condensed
the air into clouds, and bade them carry the waters of the rain , now bringing golden-
tinted clouds from the north , now changing these into one uniform appearance, and again
transforming them into manifold circles and other shapes? Who can number the clouds in
wisdom ? Whereof in Job it saith, And He knoweth the separations of the clouds , and hath
bent down the heaven to the earth : and, He who numbereth the clouds in wisdom: and, the
cloud is not rent under Him . For so many measures of waters lie upon the clouds, yet they
are not rent: but come down with all good order upon the earth. Who bringeth the winds out
of their treasuries ? And who, as we said before, is he that hath begotten the drops of
dew? And out of whose womb cometh the ice ? For its substance is like water, and its
strength like stone. And at one time the water becomes snow like wool, at another it
ministers to Him who scattereth the mist like ashes , and at another it is changed into a
stony substance; since He governs the waters as He will . Its nature is uniform, and its
action manifold in force. Water becomes in vines wine that maketh glad the heart of man:
and in olives oil that maketh man's face to shine: and is transformed also into bread that
strengtheneth man's heart , and into fruits of all kinds which He hath created .

10. What should have been the effect of these wonders? Should the Creator have been
blasphemed? Or worshipped rather? And so far I have said noticing of the unseen works of
His wisdom. Observe, I pray you, the spring, and the flowers of every kind in all their
likeness still diverse one from another; the deepest crimson of the rose, and the purest
whiteness of the lily: for these spring from the same rain and the same earth, and who
makes them to differ? Who fashions them? Observe, pray, the exact care: from the one
substance of the tree there is part for shelter, and part for divers fruits: and the
Artificer is One. Of the same vine part is for burning , and part for shoots, and part for
leaves, and part for tendrils, and part for clusters. Admire also the great thickness of
the knots which run round the reed, as the Artificer hath made them. From one and the same
earth come forth creeping things, and wild beasts, and cattle, and trees, and food; and
gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and stone. The nature of the waters is but one, yet
from it comes the substance of fishes and of birds; whereby as the former swim in the
waters, so the birds fly in the air.

11. This great and wide sea, therein are things creeping innumerable . Who can describe
the beauty of the fishes that are therein? Who can describe the greatness of the whales,
and the nature of its amphibious animals, how they live both on dry land and in the
waters? Who can tell the depth and the breadth of the sea, or the force of its enormous
waves? Yet it stays at its bounds, because of Him who said, Hitherto shalt thou come, and
no further, but within thyself shall thy waves be broken . Which sea also clearly shews
the word of the command imposed upon it, since after it has run up, it leaves upon the
beach a visible line made by the waves, shewing, as it were, to those who see it, that it
has not passed its appointed bounds. 12. Who can discern the nature of the birds of the
air? How some carry with them a voice of melody, and others are variegated with all manner
of painting on their wings, and others fly up into mid air and float motionless, as the
hawk: for by the Divine command the hawk spreadeth out his wings and floateth motionless,
looking towards the south . What man can behold the eagle's lofty flight? If then thou
canst not discern the soaring of the most senseless of the birds, how wouldest thou
understand the Maker of all?

13. Who among men knows even the names of all wild beasts? Or who can accurately discern
the physiology of each? But if of the wild beasts we know not even the mere names, how
shall we comprehend the Maker of them? God's command was but one, which said, Let the
earth bring forth wild beasts, and cattle, and creeping things, after their kinds and from
one earth , by one command, have sprung diverse natures, the gentle sheep and the
carnivorous lion, and various instincts of irrational animals, bearing resemblance to the
various characters of men; the fox to manifest the craft that is in men, and the snake the
venomous treachery of friends, and the neighing horse the wantonness of young men , and
the laborious ant, to arouse the sluggish and the dull: for when a man passes his youth in
idleness, then he is instructed by the irrational animals, being reproved by the divine
Scripture saying, Go to the ant, thou sluggard, see and emulate her ways, and become wiser
than she . For when thou seest her treasuring up her food in good season, imitate her, and
treasure up for thyself fruits of good works for the world to come. And again, Go to the
bee, and learn how industrious she is : how, hovering round all kinds of flowers, she
collects her honey for thy benefit: that thou also, by ranging over the Holy Scriptures,
mayest lay hold of salvation for thyself, and being filled with them mayest say, How sweet
are thy words unto my throat, yea sweeter than honey and the honeycomb unto my mouth .

14. Is not then the Artificer worthy the rather to be glorified? For what? If thou knowest
not the nature of all things, do the things that have been made forthwith become useless?
Canst thou know the efficacy of all herbs? Or canst thou learn all the benefit which
proceeds from every animal? Ere now even from venomous adders have come antidotes for the
preservation of men . But thou wilt say to me, "The snake is terrible." Fear thou the
Lord, and it shall not be able to hurt thee. "A scorpion stings." Fear the Lord, and it
shall not sting thee. "A lion is bloodthirsty." Fear thou the Lord, and he shall lie down
beside thee, as by Daniel. But truly wonderful also is the action of the animals: how
some, as the scorpion, have the sharpness in a sting; and others have their power in their
teeth; and others do battle with their claws; while the basilisk's power is his gaze . So
then from this varied workmanship understand the Creator's power.

15. But these things perhaps thou knowest not: thou wouldest have nothing in common with
the creatures which are without thee. Enter now into thyself, and from thine own nature
consider its Artificer. What is there to find fault with in the framing of thy body? Be
master of thyself, and nothing evil shall proceed from any of thy members. Adam was at
first without clothing in Paradise with Eve, but it was not because of his members that he
deserved to be cast out. The members then are not the cause of sin, but they who use their
members amiss; and the Maker thereof is wise. Who prepared the recesses of the womb for
child-bearing? Who gave life to the lifeless thing within it? Who knitted us with sinews
and bones, and clothed us with skin and flesh , and, as soon as the child was born,
brought streams of milk out of the breasts? How grows the babe into a boy, and the boy
into a youth, and then into a man; and, still the same, passes again into an old man,
while no one notices the exact change from day to day? Of the food, how is one part
changed into blood, and another separated for excretion, and another part changed into
flesh? Who gives to the heart its unceasing motion? Who wisely guarded the tenderness of
the eyes with the fence of the eyelids ? For as to the complicated and wonderful
contrivance of the eyes, the voluminous books of the physicians hardly give us
explanation. Who distributes the one breath to the whole body? Thou seest, O man, the
Artificer, thou seest the wise Creator.

16. These points my discourse has now treated at large, having left out many, yea, ten
thousand other things, and especially things incorporeal and invisible, that thou mayest
abhor those who blaspheme the wise and good Artificer, and from what is spoken and read,
and whatever thou canst thyself discover or conceive, from the greatness and beauty of the
creatures mayest proportionably see the maker of them , and bending the knee with godly
reverence to the Maker of the worlds, the worlds, I mean, of sense and thought, both
visible and invisible, thou mayest with a grateful and holy tongue, with unwearied lips
and heart, praise God and say, How wonderful are Thy works, O Lord; in wisdom hast Thou
made them all . For to Thee belongeth honour, and glory, and majesty, both now and
throughout all ages. Amen.

Appendix to Lecture IX.

Note.-In the manuscripts which contain this discourse under the name of "A Homily of S.
Basil on God as Incomprehensible," some portions are changed to suit that subject: but the
conclusion especially is marked by great addition and variation, which it is well to
reproduce here. Accordingly in place of the words in §15: ti/ mempto/n, "What is there to
find fault with?" and the following, the manuscripts before mentioned have it thus: "What
is there to find fault with in the framing of the body? Come forth into the midst and
speak. Control thine own will, and nothing evil shall proceed from any of thy members. For
every one of these has of necessity been made for our use. Chasten thy reasoning unto
piety, submit to God's commandments, and none of these members sin in working and serving
in the uses for which they were made. If thou be not willing, the eye sees not amiss, the
ear hears nothing which it ought not, the hand is not stretched out for wicked greed, the
foot walketh not towards injustice, thou hast no strange loves, committest no fornication,
covetest not thy neighbour's wife. Drive out wicked thoughts from thine heart, be as God
made thee, and thou wilt rather give thanks to thy Creator.

Adam at first was without clothing, faring daintily in Paradise: and after he had received
the commandment, but failed to keep it, and wickedly stretched forth his hand (not because
the hand wished this, but because his will stretched forth his hand to that which was
forbidden), because of his disobedience he lost also the good things he had received. Thus
the members are not the cause of sin to those who use them, but the wicked mind, as the
Lord says, For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, fornications, adulteries, envyings,
and such like. In what things thou choosest, therein thy limbs serve thee; they are
excellently made for the service of the soul: they are provided as servants to thy reason.
Guide them well by the motion of piety; bridle them by the fear of God; bring them into
subjection to the desire of temperance and abstinence, and they will never rise up against
thee to tyrannise over thee; but rather they will guard thee, and help thee more mightily
in thy victory over the devil, while expecting also the incorruptible and everlasting
crown of the victory. Who openeth the chambers of the womb? Who, &c."

At the end of the same section, after the words "Wise Creator," this is found: "Glorify
Him in His unsearchable works, and concerning Him whom thou art not capable of knowing,
inquire not curiously what His essence is. It is better for thee to keep silence, and in
faith adore, according to the divine Word, than daringly to search after things which
neither thou canst reach, nor Holy Scripture hath delivered to thee. These points my
discourse has now treated at large, that thou mayest abhor those who blaspheme the wise
and good Artificer, and rather mayest thyself also say, How wonderful are Thy works O
Lord; in wisdom hast Thou made them all. To Thee be the glory, and power, and worship,
with the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and throughout all ages. Amen."

LECTURE 10

On the Clause, and in One Lord Jesus Christ, with a Reading from the First Epistle to the
Corinthians.

For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth ; yet to us there
is One God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and One Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom are all things, and we through Him. 1. They who have been taught to believe
"In One God the Father Almighty," ought also to believe in His Only-begotten Son. For he
that denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father . I am the Door , saith Jesus; no one
cometh unto the Father but through Me . For if thou deny the Door, the knowledge
concerning the Father is shut off from thee. No man knoweth the father, save the Son, and
he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him . For if thou deny Him who reveals, thou
remainest in ignorance. There is a sentence in the Gospels, saying, He that believeth not
on the Son, shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him For the Father hath
indignation when the Only-begotten Son is set at nought. For it is grievous to a king that
merely his soldier should be dishonoured; and when one of his nobler officers or friends
is dishonoured, then his anger is greatly increased: but if any should do despite to the
king's only-begotten son himself, who shall appease the father's indignation on behalf of
his only-begotten son?

2. If, therefore, any one wishes to shew piety towards God, let him worship the Son, since
otherwise the Father accepts not his service. The Father spake with a loud voice from
heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased . The Father was well
pleased; unless thou also be well pleased in Him, thou hast not life. Be not thou carried
away with the Jews when they craftily say, There is one God alone; but with the knowledge
that God is One, know that there is also an Only-begotten Son of God. I am not the first
to say this, but the Psalmist in the person of the Son saith, The Lord said unto Me, Thou
art My Son . Heed not therefore what the Jews say, but what the Prophets say. Dost thou
wonder that they who stoned and slew the Prophets, set at nought the Prophets' words?

3. Believe thou In One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God. For we say "One
Lord Jesus Christ," that His Sonship may be "Only-begotten:" we say "One," that thou
mayest not suppose another: we say "One," that thou mayest not profanely diffuse the many
names of His action among many sons. For He is called a Door ; but take not the name
literally for a thing of wood, but a spiritual, a living Door, discriminating those who
enter in. He is called a Way , not one trodden by feet, but leading to the Father in
heaven; He is called a Sheep , not an irrational one, but the one which through its
precious blood cleanses the world from its sins, which is led before the shearers, and
knows when to be silent. This Sheep again is called a Shepherd, who says, I am the Good
Shepherd : a Sheep because of His manhood, a Shepherd because of the loving-kindness of
His Godhead. And wouldst thou know that there are rational sheep? the Saviour says to the
Apostles, Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves . Again, He is called a Lion
, not as a devourer of men, but indicating as it were by the title His kingly, and
stedfast, and confident nature: a Lion He is also called in opposition to the lion our
adversary, who roars and devours those who have been deceived . For the Saviour came, not
as having changed the gentleness of His own nature, but as the strong Lion of the tribe of
Judah , saving them that believe, but treading down the adversary. He is called a Stone,
not a lifeless stone, cut out by men's hands, but a chief corner-stone , on whom whosoever
believeth shall not be put to shame.

4. He is called Christ, not as having been anointed by men's hands, but eternally anointed
by the Father to His High-Priesthood: on behalf of men . He is collect Dead, not as having
abode among the dead, as all in Hades, but as being alone free among the dead . He is
called Son of Man, not as having had His generation from earth, as each of us, but as
coming upon the clouds To Judge Both Quick and Dead . He is called Lord, not improperly as
those who are so called among men, but as having a natural and eternal Lordship . He is
called Jesus by a fitting name, as having the appellation from His salutary healing. He is
called Son, not as advanced by adoption, but as naturally begotten. And many are the
titles of our Saviour; lest, therefore, His manifold appellations should make thee think
of many sons, and because of the errors of the heretics, who say that Christ is one, and
Jesus another, and the Door another, and so on , the Faith secures thee beforehand, saying
well, In One Lord Jesus Christ: for though the titles are many, yet their subject is one.

5. But the Saviour comes in various forms to each man for his profit . For to those who
have need of gladness He becomes a Vine; and to those who want to enter in He stands as a
Door; and to those who need to offer up their prayers He stands a mediating High Priest.
Again, to those who have sins He becomes a Sheep, that He may be sacrificed for them. He
is made all things to all men , remaining in His own nature what He is. For so remaining,
and holding the dignity of His Sonship in reality unchangeable, He adapts Himself to our
infirmities, just as some excellent physician or compassionate teacher; though He is Very
Lord, and received not the Lordship by advancement , but has the dignity of His Lordship
from nature, and is not called Lord improperly , as we are, but is so in verity, since by
the Father's bidding He is Lord of His own works. For our lordship is over men of equal
rights and like passions, nay often over our elders, and often a young master rules over
aged servants. But in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lordship is not so: but He is
first Maker, then Lord : first He made all things by the Father's will, then, He is Lord
of the things which were made by Him.

6. Christ the Lord is He who was born in the city of David . And wouldest thou know that
Christ is Lord with the Father even before His Incarnation , that thou mayest not only
accept the statement by faith, but mayest also receive proof from the Old Testament? Go to
the first book, Genesis: God saith, Let us make man, not `in My image,' but, in Our image
. And after Adam was made, the sacred writer says, And God created man; in the image of
God created He him . For he did not limit the dignity of the Godhead to the Father alone,
but included the Son also: that it might be shewn that man is not only the work of God,
but also of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself also Very God. This Lord, who works
together with the Father, wrought with Him also in the case of Sodom, according to the
Scripture: And the Lord rained upon Sadam and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord
out of heaven . This Lord is He who afterwards was seen of Moses, as much as he was able
to see. For the Lord is loving unto man, ever condescending to our infirmities.

7. Moreover, that you may be sure that this is He who was seen of Moses, hear Paul's
testimony, when he says, For they all drank of a spiritual rock that followed them; and
the rock was Christ . And again: By faith Moses forsook Egypt , and shortly after he says,
accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt . This Moses
says to Him, Shew me Thyself. Thou seest that the Prophets also in those times saw the
Christ, that is, as far as each was able. Shew me Thyself, that I may see Thee with
understanding . But He saith, There shall no man see My face, and live . For this reason
then, because no man could see the face of the Godhead and live, He took on Him the face
of human nature, that we might see this and live. And yet when He wished to shew even that
with a little majesty, when His face did shine as the sun , the disciples fell down
affrighted. If then His bodily countenance, shining not in the full power of Him that
wrought, but according to the capacity of the Disciples, affrighted them, so that even
thus they could not bear it, how could any man gaze upon the majesty of the Godhead? `A
great thing,' saith the Lord, `thou desirest, O Moses: and I approve thine insatiable
desire, and I will do this things for thee, but according as thou art able. Behold, I will
put thee in the clift of the rock : for as being little, thou shalt lodge in a little
space.'

8. Now here I wish you to make safe what I am going to say, because of the Jews. For our
object is to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ was with the Father. The Lord then says to
Moses, I will pass by before thee with My glory, and will proclaim the name of the Lord
before thee . Being Himself the Lord, what Lord doth He proclaim? Thou seest how He was
covertly teaching the godly doctrine of the Father and the Son. And again, in what follows
it is written word for word: And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him
there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and
proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth, both keeping righteousness and shewing mercy unto thousands, taking
away iniquities, and transgressions, and sins . Then in what follows, Moses bowed his head
and worshipped before the Lord who proclaimed the Father, and said: Go Thou then, O Lord,
in the midst of us .

9. This is the first proof: receive now a second plain one. The Lord said unto my Lord,
sit Thou on My right hand . The Lord says this to the Lord, not to a servant, but to the
Lord of all, and His own Son, to whom He put all things in subjection. But when He saith
that all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all
things under Him, and what follows; that God may be all in all . The Only-begotten Son is
Lord of all, but the obedient Son of the Father, for He grasped not the Lordship , but
received it by nature of the Father's own will. For neither did the Son grasp it, nor the
Father grudge to impart it. He it is who saith, All things are delivered unto Me of My
Father ; "delivered unto Me, not as though I had them not before; and I keep them well,
not robbing Him who hath given them."

10. The Son of God then is Lord: He is Lord, who was born in Bethlehem of Judaea,
according to the Angel who said to the shepherds, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
that unto you is born this day in the city of David Christ the Lord : of whom an Apostle
says elsewhere, The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching the gospel
of peace by Jesus Christ: He is Lord of all . But when he says, of all, do thou except
nothing from His Lordship: for whether Angels, or Archangels, or principalities, or
powers, or any created thing named by the Apostles, all are under the Lordship of the Son.
Of Angels He is Lord, as thou hast it in the Gospels, Then the Devil departed from Him,
and the Angels came and ministered unto Him ; for the Scripture saith not, they succoured
Him, but they ministered unto Him, that is, like servants. When He was about to be born of
a Virgin, Gabriel was then His servant, having received His service as a peculiar dignity.
When He was about to go into Egypt, that He might overthrow the gods of Egypt made with
hands , again an Angel appeareth to Joseph in a dream . After He had been crucified, and
had risen again, an Angel brought the good tidings, and as a trustworthy servant said to
the women, Go, tell His disciples that He is risen, and goeth before you into Galilee; lo,
I have told you :

almost as if he had said, "I have not neglected my command, I protest that I have told
you; that if ye disregard it, the blame may not be on me, but on those who disregard it.
This then is the One Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the lesson just now read speaks: For
though there be many that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, and so on, yet
to us there is One God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and One Lord,
Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him . 11. And He is called by
two names, Jesus Christ; Jesus, because He saves,-Christ, because He is a Priest . And
knowing this the inspired Prophet Moses conferred these two titles on two men
distinguished above all : his own successor in the government, Auses , he renamed Jesus;
and his own brother Aaron he surnamed Christ , that by two well-approved men he might
represent at once both the High Priesthood, and the Kingship of the One Jesus Christ who
was to come. For Christ is a High Priest like Aaron; since He glorified not Himself to be
made a High Priest, but He that spake unto Him, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order
of Melchizedek . And Jesus the son of Nave was in many things a type of Him. For when he
began to rule over the people, he began from Jordan , whence Christ also, after He was
baptized, began to preach the gospel. And the son of Nave appoints twelve to divide the
inheritance ; and twelve Apostles Jesus sends forth, as heralds of the truth, into all the
world. The typical Jesus saved Rahab the harlot when she believed: and the true Jesus
says, Behold, the publicans and the harlots go before you into the kingdom of God . With
only a shout the walls of Jericho fell down in the time of the type: and because Jesus
said, There shall not be left here one stone upon another , the Temple of the Jews
opposite to us is fallen, the cause of its fall not being the denunciation but the sin of
the transgressors.

12. There is One Lord Jesus Christ, a wondrous name, indirectly announced beforehand by
the Prophets. For Esaias the Prophet says, Behold, thy Saviour cometh, having His own
reward . Now Jesus in Hebrew is by interpretation Saviour. For the Prophetic gift,
foreseeing the murderous spirit of the Jews against their Lord , veiled His name, lest
from knowing it plainly beforehand they might plot against Him readily. But He was openly
called Jesus not by men, but by an Angel, who came not by his own authority, but was sent
by the power of God, and said to Joseph, Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for
that which is conceived , in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son,
and thou shalt call His name Jesus . And immediately he renders the reason of this name,
saying, for He shall save His people from their sins. Consider how He who was not yet born
could have a people, unless He was in being before He was born . This also the Prophet
says in His person, From the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of My name ; because
the Angel foretold that He should be called Jesus. And again concerning Herod's plot again
he says, And under the shadow of His hand hath He hid Me .

13. Jesus then means according to the Hebrew "Saviour," but in the Greek tongue "The
Healer;" since He is physician of souls and bodies, curer of spirits, curing the blind in
body , and leading minds into light, healing the visibly lame, and guiding sinners' steps
to repentance, saying to the palsied, Sin no more, and, Take up thy bed and walk . For
since the body was palsied for the sin of the soul, He ministered first to the soul that
He might extend the healing to the body. If, therefore, any one is suffering in soul from
sins, there is the Physician for him: and if any one here is of little faith, let him say
to Him, Help Thou mine unbelief . If any is encompassed also with bodily ailments, let him
not be faithless, but let him draw nigh; for to such diseases also Jesus ministers , and
let him learn that Jesus is the Christ.

14. For that He is Jesus the Jews allow, but not further that He is Christ. Therefore
saith the Apostle, Who is the liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ ? But
Christ is a High Priest, whose priesthood passes not to another , neither having begun His
Priesthood in time , nor having any successor in His High-Priesthood: as thou heardest on
the Lord's day, when we were discoursing in the congregation on the phrase, After the
Order of Melchizedek. He received not the High-Priesthood from bodily succession, nor was
He anointed with oil prepared by man , but before all ages by the Father; and He so far
excels the others as with an oath He is made Priest: For they are priests without an oath,
but He with an oath by Him that said, The Lord sware, and will not repent . The mere
purpose of the Father was sufficient for surety: but the mode of assurance is twofold,
namely that with the purpose there follows the oath also, that by two immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong encouragement for our faith,
who receive Christ Jesus as the Son of God.

15. This Christ, when He was come, the Jews denied, but the devils confessed. But His
forefather David was not ignorant of Him, when he said, I have ordained a lamp for mine
Anointed : which lamp some have interpreted to be the brightness of Prophecy , others the
flesh which He took upon Him from the Virgin, according to the Apostle's word, But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels . The Prophet was not ignorant of Him, when He said, and
announceth unto men His Christ . Moses also knew Him, Isaiah knew Him, and Jeremiah; not
one of the Prophets was ignorant of Him. Even devils recognised Him, for He rebuked them,
and the Scripture says, because they knew that He was Christ . The Chief-priests knew Him
not, and the devils confessed Him: the Chief Priests knew Him not, and a woman of Samaria
proclaimed Him, saying, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not
this the Christ ?

16. This is Jesus Christ who came a High-Priest of the good things to come ; who for the
bountifulness of His Godhead imparted His own title to us all. For kings among men have
their royal style which others may not share: but Jesus Christ being the Son of God gave
us the dignity of being called Christians. But some one will say, The name of "Christians"
is new, and was not in use aforetime : and new-fashioned phrases are often objected to on
the score of strangeness . The prophet made this point safe beforehand, saying, But upon
My servants shall a new name be called, which shall be blessed upon the earth . Let us
question the Jews: Are ye servants of the Lord, or not? Shew then your new name. For ye
were called Jews and Israelites in the time of Moses, and the other prophets, and after
the return from Babylon, and up to the present time: where then is your new name? But we,
since we are servants of the Lord, have that new name: new indeed, but the new name, which
shall be blessed upon the earth. This name caught the world in its grasp: for Jews are
only in a certain region, but Christians reach to the ends of the world: for it is the
name of the Only-begotten Son of God that is proclaimed.

17. But wouldest thou know that the Apostles knew and preached the name of Christ, or
rather had Christ Himself within them? Paul says to his hearers, Or seek ye a proof of
Christ that speaketh in me ? Paul proclaims Christ, saying, For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake . Who then is this?
The former persecutor. O mighty wonder! The former persecutor himself preaches Christ. But
wherefore? Was he bribed? Nay there was none to use this mode of persuasion. But was it
that he saw Him present on earth, and was abashed? He had already been taken up into
heaven. He went forth to persecute, and after three days the persecutor is a preacher in
Damascus. By what power? Others call friends as witnesses for friends but I have presented
to you as a witness the former enemy: and dost thou still doubt? The testimony of Peter
and John, though weighty, was yet of a kind open to suspicion: for they were His friends.
But of one who was formerly his enemy, and afterwards dies for His sake, who can any
longer doubt the truth?

18. At this point of my discourse I am truly filled with wonder at the wise dispensation
of the Holy Spirit; how He confined the Epistles of the rest to a small number, but to
Paul the former persecutor gave the privilege of writing fourteen. For it was not because
Peter or John was less that He restrained the gift; God forbid! But in order that the
doctrine might be beyond question, He granted to the former enemy and persecutor the
privilege of writing more, in order that we all might thus be made believers. For all were
amazed at Paul, and said, Is not this he that was formerly a persecutor ? Did he not come
hither, that he might lead us away bound to Jerusalem? Be not amazed, said Paul, I know
that it is hard for me to kick against the pricks: I know that I am not worthy to be
called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God ; but I did it in ignorance :
for I thought that the preaching of Christ was destruction of the Law, and knew not that
He came Himself to fulfil the Law and not to destroy it . But the grace of God was
exceeding abundant in me .

19. Many, my beloved, are the true testimonies concerning Christ. The Father bears witness
from heaven of His Son: the Holy Ghost bears witness, descending bodily in likeness of a
dove: the Archangel Gabriel bears witness, bringing good tidings to Mary: the Virgin
Mother of God bears witness: the blessed place of the manger bears witness. Egypt bears
witness, which received the Lord while yet young in the body : Symeon bears witness, who
received Him in his arms, and said, Now, Lord, lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,
according to Thy word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared
before the face of all people . Anna also, the prophetess, a most devout widow, of austere
life, bears witness of Him. John the Baptist bears witness, the greatest among the
Prophets, and leader of the New Covenant, who in a manner united both Covenants in
Himself, the Old and the New. Jordan is His witness among rivers; the sea of Tiberias
among seas: blind and lame bear witness, and dead men raised to life, and devils saying,
What have we to do with Thee, Jesus? we know Thee, who Thou art, the Holy One of God .
Winds bear witness, silenced at His bidding: five loaves multiplied into five thousand
bear Him witness. The holy wood of the Cross bears witness, seen among us to this day, and
from this place now almost filling the whole world, by means of those who in faith take
portions from it .

The palm-tree on the ravine bears witness, having supplied the palm-branches to the
children who then hailed Him. Gethsemane bears witness, still to the thoughtful almost
shewing Judas. Golgotha , the holy hill standing above us here, bears witness to our
sight: the Holy Sepulchre bears witness, and the stone which lies there to this day. The
sun now shining is His witness, which then at the time of His saving Passion was eclipsed
: the darkness is His witness, which was then from the sixth hour to the ninth: the light
bears witness, which shone forth from the ninth hour until evening. The Mount of Olives
bears witness, that holy mount from which He ascended to the Father: the rain-bearing
clouds are His witnesses, having received their Lord: yea, and the gates of heaven bear
witness [having received their Lord ], concerning which the Psalmist said, Lift up your
doors, O ye Princes, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall
come in . His former enemies bear witness, of whom the blessed Paul is one, having been a
little while His enemy, but for a long time His servant: the Twelve Apostles are His
witnesses, having preached the truth not only in words, but also by their own torments and
deaths: the shadow of Peter bears witness, having healed the sick in the name of Christ.
The handkerchiefs and aprons bear witness, as in like manner by Christ's power they
wrought cures of old through Paul .

Persians and Goths , and all the Gentile converts bear witness, by dying for His sake,
whom they never saw with eyes of flesh: the devils, who to this day are driven out by the
faithful, bear witness to Him. 20. So many and diverse, yea and more than these, are His
witnesses: is then the Christ thus witnessed any longer disbelieved? Nay rather if there
is any one who formerly believed not, let him now believe: and if any was before a
believer, let him receive a greater increase of faith, by believing in our Lord Jesus
Christ, and let him understand whose name he hears. Thou art called a Christian: be tender
of the name; let not our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, be blasphemed through thee:
but rather let your good works shine before men that they who see them may in Christ Jesus
our Lord glorify the Father which is in heaven: To whom be the glory, both now and for
ever and ever. Amen.

LECTURE 11

On the Words, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Begotten of the Father Very God Before All
Ages, by Whom All Things Were Made.

Hebrews I. 1. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the
Fathers by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. 1. That we
have hope in Jesus Christ has been sufficiently shewn, according to our ability, in what
we delivered to you yesterday. But we must not simply believe in Christ Jesus nor receive
Him as one of the many who are improperly called Christs . For they were figurative
Christs, but He is the true Christ; not having risen by advancement from among men to the
Priesthood, but ever having the dignity of the Priesthood from the Father . And for this
cause the Faith guarding us beforehand lest we should suppose Him to be one of the
ordinary Christs, adds to the profession of the Faith, that we believe In One Lord Jesus
Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God.

2. And again on hearing of a "Son," think not of an adopted son but a Son by nature , an
Only-begotten Son, having no brother. For this is the reason why He is called "Only-
begotten," because in the dignity of the Godhead, and His generation from the Father, He
has no brother. But we call Him the Son of God, not of ourselves, but because the Father
Himself named Christ His Son : and a true name is that which is set by fathers upon their
children . 3. Our Lord Jesus Christ erewhile became Man, but by the many He was unknown.
Wishing, therefore, to teach that which was not known, He called together His disciples,
and asked them, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am ? -not from vain-glory, but
wishing to shew them the truth, lest dwelling with God, the Only-begotten of God , they
should think lightly of Him as if He were some mere man. And when they answered that some
said Elias, and some Jeremias, He said to them, They may be excused for not knowing, but
ye, My Apostles, who in My name cleanse lepers, and cast out devils, and raise the dead,
ought not to be ignorant of Him, through whom ye do these wondrous works. And when they
all became silent (for the matter was too high for man to learn), Peter, the foremost of
the Apostles and chief herald of the Church, neither aided by cunning invention, nor
persuaded by human reasoning, but enlightened in his mind from the Father, says to Him,
Thou art the Christ, not only so, but the Son of the living God. And there follows a
blessing upon his speech (for in truth it was above man), and as a seal upon what he had
said, that it was the Father who had revealed it to him. For the Saviour says, Blessed art
thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My father which
is in heaven . He therefore who acknowledges our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God,
partakes of this blessedness; but he who denies the Son of God is a poor and miserable
man.

4. Again, I say, on hearing of a Son, understand it not merely in an improper sense, but
as a Son in truth, a Son by nature, without beginning ; not as having come out of bondage
into a higher state of adoption , but a Son eternally begotten by an inscrutable and
incomprehensible generation. And in like manner on hearing of the First-born , think not
that this is after the manner of men; for the first-born among men have other brothers
also. And it is somewhere written, Israel is My son, My first-born . But Israel is, as
Reuben was, a first-born son rejected: for Reuben went up to his father's couch; and
Israel cast his Father's Son out of the vineyard, and crucified Him. To others also the
Scripture says, Ye are the sons of the Lord your God : and in another place, I have said,
Ye are gods, and ye are all sons of the Most High . I have said, not, "I have begotten."
They, when God so said, received the sonship, which before they had not: but He was not
begotten to be other than He was before; but was begotten from the beginning Son of the
Father, being above all beginning and all ages, Son of the Father, in all things like to
Him who begat Him, eternal of a Father eternal, Life of Life begotten, and Light of Light,
and Truth of Truth, and Wisdom of the Wise, and King of King, and God of God, and Power of
Power .

5. If then thou hear the Gospel saying, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the
Son of David, the Son of Abraham , understand "according to the flesh." For He is the Son
of David at the end of the ages , but the Son of God Before All Ages, without beginning .
The one, which before He had not, He received; but the other, which He hath, He hath
eternally as begotten of the Father. Two fathers He hath: one, David, according to the
flesh, and one, God, His Father in a Divine manner . As the Son of David, He is subject to
time, and to handling, and to genealogical descent: but as Son according to the Godhead ,
He is subject neither to time nor to place, nor to genealogical descent: for His
generation who shall declare ? God is a Spirit ; He who is a Spirit hath spiritually
begotten, as being incorporeal, an inscrutable and incomprehensible generation. The Son
Himself says of the Father, The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten
Thee . Now this to-day is not recent, but eternal: a timeless to-day, before all ages.
From the womb, before the morning star, have I begotten Thee .

6. Believe thou therefore on Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, and a Son Only-Begotten,
according to the Gospel which says, For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life
. And again, He that believeth on the Son is not judged, but hath passed out of death into
life . But he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him . And John testified concerning Him, saying, And we beheld His glory, glory as of
the only-begotten from the father,-full of grace and truth : at whom the devils trembled
and said, Ah! what have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the living God . 7. He is
then the Son of God by nature and not by adoption , begotten of the Father. And he that
loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him ; but he that despiseth Him
that is begotten casts back the insult upon Him who begat. And whenever thou hear of God
begetting, sink not down in thought to bodily things, nor think of a corruptible
generation, lest thou be guilty of impiety. God is a Spirit , His generation is spiritual:
for bodies beget bodies, and for the generation of bodies time needs must intervene; but
time intervenes not in the generation of the Son from the Father. And in our case what is
begotten is begotten imperfect: but the Son of God was begotten perfect; for what He is
now, that is He also from the beginning , begotten without beginning. We are begotten so
as to pass from infantile ignorance to a state of reason: thy generation, O man, is
imperfect, for thy growth is progressive. But think not that it is thus in His case, nor
impute infirmity to Him who hath begotten. For if that which He begot was imperfect, and
acquired its perfection in time, thou art imputing infirmity to Him who hath begotten; if
so be, the Father did not bestow from the beginning that which, as thou sayest, time
bestowed afterwards .

8. Think not therefore that this generation is human, nor as Abraham begat Isaac. For in
begetting Isaac, Abraham begat not what he would, but what another granted. But in God the
Father's begetting there is neither ignorance nor intermediate deliberation . For to say
that He knew not what He was begetting is the greatest impiety; and it is no less impious
to say, that after deliberation in time He then became a Father. For God was not
previously without a Son, and afterwards in time became a Father; but hath the Son
eternally, having begotten Him not as men beget men, but as Himself only knoweth, who
begat Him before all ages Very God. 9. For the Father being Very God begat the Son like
unto Himself, Very God ; not as teachers beget disciples, not as Paul says to some, For in
Christ Jesus I begat you through the Gospel . For in this case he who was not a son by
nature became a son by discipleship, but in the former case He was a Son by nature, a true
Son. Not as ye, who are to be illuminated, are now becoming sons of God: for ye also
become sons, but by adoption of grace, as it is written, But as many as received Him, to
them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name:
which were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God . And we indeed are begotten of water and of the Spirit, but not thus was
Christ begotten of the Father. For at the time of His Baptism addressing Him, and saying,
This is My Son , He did not say, "This has now become My Son," but, This is My Son; that
He might make manifest, that even before the operation of Baptism He was a Son.

10. The Father begat the Son, not as among men mind begets word. For the mind is
substantially existent in us; but the word when spoken is dispersed into the air and comes
to an end . But we know Christ to have been begotten not as a word pronounced , but as a
Word substantially existing and living; not spoken by the lips, and dispersed, but
begotten of the Father eternally and ineffably, in substance . For, In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God , sitting at God's right
hand;-the Word understanding the Father's will, and creating all things at His bidding:
the Word, which came down and went up; for the word of utterance when spoken comes not
down, nor goes up; the Word speaking and saying, The things which I have seen with My
Father, these I speak : the Word possessed of power, and reigning over all things: for the
Father hath committed all things unto the Son .

11. The Father then begat Him not in such wise as any man could understand, but as Himself
only knoweth. For we profess not to tell in what manner He begat Him, but we insist that
it was not in this manner. And not we only are ignorant of the generation of the Son from
the Father, but so is every created nature. Speak to the earth, if perchance it may teach
thee : and though thou inquire of all things which are upon the earth, they shall not be
able to tell thee. For the earth cannot tell the substance of Him who is its own potter
and fashioner. Nor is the earth alone ignorant, but the sun also : for the sun was created
on the fourth day, without knowing what had been made in the three days before him; and he
who knows not the things made in the three days before him, cannot tell forth the Maker
Himself. Heaven will not declare this: for at the Father's bidding the heaven also was
like smoke established by Christ. Nor shall the heaven of heavens declare this, nor the
waters which are above the heavens . Why then art thou cast down, O man, at being ignorant
of that which even the heavens know not? Nay, not only are the heavens ignorant of this
generation, but also every angelic nature. For if any one should ascend, were it possible,
into the first heaven, and perceiving the ranks of the Angels there should approach and
ask them how God begat His own Son, they would say perhaps, "We have above us beings
greater and higher; ask them." Go up to the second heaven and the third; attain, if thou
canst, to Thrones, and Dominions, and Principalities, and Powers: and even if any one
should reach them, which is impossible, they also would decline the explanation, for they
know it not.

12. For my part, I have ever wondered at the curiosity of the bold men, who by their
imagined reverence fall into impiety. For though they know nothing of Thrones, and
Dominions, and Principalities, and Powers, the workmanship of Christ, they attempt to
scrutinise their Creator Himself. Tell me first, O most daring man, wherein does Throne
differ from Dominion, and then scrutinise what pertains to Christ. Tell me what is a
Principality, and what a Power, and what a Virtue, and what an Angel: and then search out
their Creator, for all things were made by Him . But thou wilt not, or thou canst not ask
Thrones or Dominions. What else is there that knoweth the deep things of God , save only
the Holy Ghost, who spake the Divine Scriptures? But not even the Holy Ghost Himself has
spoken in the Scriptures concerning the generation of the Son from the Father. Why then
dost thou busy thyself about things which not even the Holy Ghost has written in the
Scriptures? Thou that knowest not the things which are written, busiest thou thyself about
the things which are not written? There are many questions in the Divine Scriptures; what
is written we comprehend not, why do we busy ourselves about what is not written? It is
sufficient for us to know that God hath begotten One Only Son.

13. Be not ashamed to confess thine ignorance, since thou sharest ignorance with Angels.
Only He who begat knoweth Him who was begotten, and He who is begotten of Him knoweth Him
who begat. He who begat knoweth what He begat: and the Scriptures also testify that He who
was begotten is God . For as the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath He given to the
Son to have life in Himself ; and, that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour
the Father ; and, as the Father quickeneth whom He will, even so the Son quickeneth whom
He will . Neither He who begat suffered any loss, nor is anything lacking to Him who was
begotten (I know that I have said these things many times, but it is for your safety that
they are said so often): neither has He who begat, a Father, nor He who was begotten, a
brother. Neither was He who begat changed into the Son , nor did He who was begotten
become the Father . Of One Only Father there is One Only-begotten Son: neither two
Unbegotten , nor two Only-begotten; but One Father, Un-begotten (for He is Unbegotten who
hath no father); and One Son, eternally begotten of the Father; begotten not in time, but
before all ages; not increased by advancement, but begotten that which He now is.

14. We believe then In the Only-Begotten Son of God, Who Was Begotten of the Father Very
God. For the True God begetteth not a false god, as we have said, nor did He deliberate
and afterwards beget ; but He begat eternally, and much more swiftly than our words or
thoughts: for we speaking in time, consume time; but in the case of the Divine Power, the
generation is timeless. And as I have often said, He did not bring forth the Son from non
existence into being, nor take the non-existent into sonship : but the Father, being
Eternal, eternally and ineffably begat One Only Son, who has no brother. Nor are there two
first principles; but the Father is the head of the Son ; the beginning is One. For the
Father begot the Son Very God, called Emmanuel; and Emmanuel being interpreted is, God
with us .

15. And wouldest thou know that He who was begotten of the Father, and afterwards became
man, is God? Hear the Prophet saying, This is our God, none other shall be accounted of in
comparison with Him. He hath found out every way of knowledge, and given it to Jacob His
servant, and to Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen on earth, and conversed among
men . Seest thou herein God become man, after the giving of the law by Moses? Hear also a
second testimony to Christ's Deity, that which has just now been read, Thy throne, O God,
is for ever and ever . For lest, because of His presence here in the flesh, He should be
thought to have been advanced after this to the Godhead, the Scripture says plainly,
Therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows
. Seest thou Christ as God anointed by God the Father?16. Wouldest thou receive yet a
third testimony to Christ's Godhead? Hear Esaias saying, Egypt hath laboured, and the
merchandise of Ethiopia: and soon after, In Thee shall they make supplication, because God
is in Thee, and there is no God save Thee. For Thou art God, and we knew it not, the God
of Israel, the Saviour . Thou seest that the Son is God, having in Himself God the Father:
saying almost the very same which He has said in the Gospels: The Father is in Me, and I
am in the Father .

He says not, I am the Father, but the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father. And again
He said not, I and the Father am one, but, I and the Father am one, that we should neither
separate them, nor make a confusion of Son-Father . One they are because of the dignity
pertaining to the Godhead, since God begat God. One in respect of their kingdom; for the
Father reigns not over these, and the Son over those, lifting Himself up against His
Father like Absalom: but the kingdom of the Father is likewise the kingdom of the Son. One
they are, because there is no discord nor division between them: for what things the
Father willeth, the Son willeth the same. One, because the creative works of Christ are no
other than the Father's; for the creation of all things is one, the Father having made
them through the Son: For He spake, and they were made; He commanded, and they were
created, saith the Psalmist . For He who speaks, speaks to one who hears: and He who
commands, gives His commandment to one who is present with Him.

17. The Son then is Very God, having the Father in Himself, not changed into the Father;
for the Father was not made man, but the Son. For let the truth be freely spoken . The
Father suffered not for us, but the Father sent Him who suffered. Neither let us say,
There was a time when the Son was not; nor let us admit a Son who is the Father : but let
us walk in the king's highway; let us turn aside neither on the left hand nor on the
right. Neither from thinking to honour the Son, let us call Him the Father; nor from
thinking to honour the Father, imagine the Son to be some one of the creatures. But let
One Father be worshipped through One Son, and let not their worship be separated. Let One
Son be proclaimed, sitting at the right hand of the Father before all ages: sharing His
throne not by advancement in time after His Passion, but by eternal possession.

18. He who hath seen the Son, hath seen the Father : for in all things the Son is like to
Him who begat Him ; begotten Life of Life and Light of Light, Power of Power, God of God;
and the characteristics of the Godhead are unchangeable in the Son; and he who is counted
worthy to behold Godhead in the Son, attains to the fruition of the Father. This is not my
word, but that of the Only-begotten: Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not
known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father . And to be brief, let us
neither separate them, nor make a confusion : neither say thou ever that the Son is
foreign to the Father, nor admit those who say that the Father is at one time Father, and
at another Son: for these are strange and impious statements, and not the doctrines of the
Church. But the Father having begotten the Son, remained the Father and is not changed. He
begat Wisdom, yet lost not wisdom Himself; and begat Power, yet became not weak: He begat
God, but lost not His own Godhead: and neither did He lose anything Himself by diminution
or change; nor has He who was begotten any thing wanting. Perfect is He who begat, Perfect
that which was begotten: God was He who begat, God He who was begotten; God of all
Himself, yet entitling the Father His own God. For He is not ashamed to say, I ascend unto
My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God .

19. But lest thou shouldest think that He is in a like sense Father of the Son and of the
creatures, Christ drew a distinction in what follows. For He said not, "I ascend to our
Father," lest the creatures should be made fellows of the Only-begotten; but He said, My
Father and your Father; in one way Mine, by nature; in another yours, by adoption. And
again, to my God and your God, in one way Mine, as His true and Only-begotten Son, and in
another way yours, as His workmanship . The Son of God then is Very God, ineffably
begotten before all ages (for I say the same things often to you, that it may be graven
upon your mind). This also believe, that God has a Son: but about the manner be not
curious, for by searching thou wilt not find. Exalt not thyself, lest thou fall: think
upon those things only which have been commanded thee . Tell me first what He is who
begat, and then learn that which He begat; but if thou canst not conceive the nature of
Him who hath begotten, search not curiously into the manner of that which is begotten.

20. For godliness it sufficeth thee to know, as we have said, that God hath One Only Son,
One naturally begotten; who began not His being when He was born in Bethlehem, but Before
All Ages. For hear the Prophet Micah saying, And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephrata, art
little to be among the thousands of Judah. Out of thee shall come forth unto Me a Ruler,
who shall feed My people Israel: and His goings forth are from the beginning, from days of
eternity . Think not then of Him who is now come forth out of Bethlehem , but worship Him
who was eternally begotten of the Father. Suffer none to speak of a beginning of the Son
in time, but as a timeless Beginning acknowledge the Father. For the Father is the
Beginning of the Son, timeless, incomprehensible, without beginning . The fountain of the
river of righteousness, even of the Only-begotten, is the Father, who begat Him as Himself
only knoweth. And wouldest thou know that our Lord Jesus Christ is King Eternal? Hear Him
again saying, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it, and was glad .
And then, when the Jews received this hardly, He says what to them was still harder,
Before Abraham was, I am . And again He saith to the Father, And now, Father, glorify Thou
Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was . He
says plainly, "before the world was, I had the glory which is with Thee." And again when
He says, For Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world , He plainly declares,
"The glory which I have with thee is from eternity."

21. We believe then In One Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, Begotten of
His Father Very God Before All Worlds, by Whom All Things Were Made. For whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were made through Him ,
and of things created none is exempted from His authority. Silenced be every heresy which
brings in different creators and makers of the world; silenced the tongue which blasphemes
the Christ the Son of God; let them be silenced who say that the sun is the Christ, for He
is the sun's Creator, not the sun which we see . Silenced be they who say that the world
is the workmanship of Angels , who wish to steal away the dignity of the Only-begotten.
For whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or anything that is named,
all things were made by Christ. He reigns over the things which have been made by Him, not
having seized another's spoils, but reigning over His own workmanship, even as the
Evangelist John has said, All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made . All things were made by Him, the Father working by the Son.

22. I wish to give also a certain illustration of what I am saying, but I know that it is
feeble; for of things visible what can be an exact illustration of the Divine Power? But
nevertheless as feeble be it spoken by the feeble to the feeble. For just as any king,
whose son was a king, if he wished to form a city, might suggest to his son, his partner
in the kingdom, the form of the city, and he having received the pattern, brings the
design to completion; so, when the Father wished to form all things, the Son created all
things at the Father's bidding, that the act of bidding might secure to the Father His
absolute authority , and yet the Son in turn might have authority over His own
workmanship, and neither the Father be separated from the lordship over His own works, nor
the Son rule over things created by others, but by Himself. For, as I have said, Angels
did not create the world, but the Only-begotten Son, begotten, as I have said, before all
ages, By Whom All Things Were Made, nothing having been excepted from His creation. And
let this suffice to have been spoken by us so far, by the grace of Christ.

23. But let us now recur to our profession of the Faith, and so for the present finish our
discourse. Christ made all things, whether thou speak of Angels, or Archangels, of
Dominions, or Thrones. Not that the Father wanted strength to create the works Himself,
but because He willed that the Son should reign over His own workmanship, God Himself
giving Him the design of the things to be made. For honouring His own Father the Only-
begotten saith, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for
what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise . And again, My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work , there being no opposition in those who work. For all Mine
are Thine, and Thine are Mine, saith the Lord in the Gospels . And this we may certainly
know from the Old and New Testaments. For He who said, Let us make man in our image and
after our likeness , was certainly speaking to some one present. But clearest of all are
the Psalmist's words, He spake and they were made; He commanded, and they were created ,
as if the Father commanded and spake, and the Son made all things at the Father's bidding.
And this Job said mystically, Which alone spread out the heaven, and walketh upon the sea
as on firm ground ; signifying to those who understand that He who when present here
walked upon the sea is also He who aforetime made the heavens. And again the Lord saith,
Or didst Thou take earth, and fashion clay into a living being ? then afterwards, Are the
gates of death opened to Thee through fear, and did the door-keepers of hell shudder at
sight of Thee ? thus signifying that He who through loving-kindness descended into hell,
also in the beginning made man out of clay.

24. Christ then is the Only-begotten Son of God, and Maker of the world. For He was in the
world, and the world was made by Him; and He came unto His own, as the Gospel teaches us .
And not only of the things which are seen, but also of the things which are not seen, is
Christ the Maker at the Father's bidding. For in Him, according to the Apostle, were all
things created that are in the heavens, and that are upon the earth, things visible and
invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things have
been created by Him and for Him; and He is before all, and in Him all things consist .
Even if thou speak of the worlds, of these also Jesus Christ is the Maker by the Father's
bidding. For in these last days God spake unto us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of
all things, by whom also He made the worlds . To whom be the glory, honour, might, now and
ever, and world without end. Amen.


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
=====================

CATECHETICAL LECTURES continued

LECTURE 12

On the Words Incarnate, and Made Man.

Isaiah VII 10-14. "And the Lord spoke again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign, &c.:" and
"Behold! a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel&c." 1.
Nurslings of purity and disciples of chastity, raise we our hymn to the Virgin-born God
with lips full of purity. Deemed worthy to partake of the flesh of the Spiritual Lamb ,
let us take the head together with the feet , the Deity being understood as the head, and
the Manhood taken as the feet. Hearers of the Holy Gospels, let us listen to John the
Divine . For he who said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God , went on to say, and the Word was made flesh . For neither is it holy to
worship the mere man, nor religious to say that He is God only without the Manhood. For if
Christ is God, as indeed He is, but took not human nature upon Him, we are strangers to
salvation. Let us then worship Him as God, but believe that He also was made Man. For
neither is there any profit in calling Him man without Godhead nor any salvation in
refusing to confess the Manhood together with the Godhead. Let us confess the presence of
Him who is both King and Physician. For Jesus the King when about to become our Physician,
girded Himself with the linen of humanity , and healed that which was sick. The perfect
Teacher of babes became a babe among babes, that He might give wisdom to the foolish. The
Bread of heaven came down on earth that He might feed the hungry.

2. But the sons of the Jews by setting at nought Him that came, and looking for him who
cometh in wickedness, rejected the true Messiah, and wait for the deceiver, themselves
deceived; herein also the Saviour being found true, who said, I am come in My Father's
name, and ye receive Me not: but if another shall come in his own name, him ye will
receive . It is well also to put a question to the Jews. Is the Prophet Esaias, who saith
that Emmanuel shall be born of a virgin, true or false ? For if they charge him with
falsehood, no wonder: for their custom is not only to charge with falsehood, but also to
stone the Prophets. But if the Prophet is true, point to the Emmanuel, and say, Whether is
He who is to come, for whom ye are looking, to be born of a virgin or not? For if He is
not to be born of a virgin, ye accuse the Prophet of falsehood: but if in Him that is to
come ye expect this, why do ye reject that which has come to pass already?

3. Let the Jews, then, be led astray, since they so will: but let the Church of God be
glorified. For we receive God the Word made Man in truth, not, as heretics say , of the
will of man and woman, but of The Virgin and the Holy Ghost according to the Gospel, Made
Man , not in seeming but in truth. And that He was truly Man made, of the Virgin, wait for
the proper time of instruction in this Lecture, and thou shalt receive the proofs : for
the error of the heretics is manifold. And some have said that He has not been born at all
of a virgin : others that He has been born, not of a virgin, but of a wife dwelling with a
husband. Others say that the Christ is not God made Man, but a man made God . For they
dared to say that not He-the pre-existent Word-was made Man; but a certain man was by
advancement crowned.

4. But remember thou what was said yesterday concerning His Godhead. Believe that He the
Only-begotten Son of God-He Himself was again begotten of a Virgin. Believe the Evangelist
John when he says, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us . For the Word is
eternal, Begotten of the Father Before All Worlds: but the flesh He took on Him recently
for our sake. Many contradict this, and say: "What cause was there so great, for God to
come down into humanity? And, is it at all God's nature to hold intercourse with men? And,
is it possible for a virgin to bear, without man?" Since then there is much controversy,
and the battle has many forms, come, let us by the grace of Christ, and the prayers of
those who are present, resolve each question. 5. And first let us inquire for what cause
Jesus came down. Now mind not my argumentations, for perhaps thou mayest be misled but
unless thou receive testimony of the Prophets on each matter, believe not what I say:
unless thou learn from the Holy Scriptures concerning the Virgin, and the place, the time,
and the manner, receive not testimony from man . For one who at present thus teaches may
possibly be suspected: but what man of sense will suspect one that prophesied a thousand
and more years beforehand? If then thou seekest the cause of Christ's coming, go back to
the first book of the Scriptures. In six days God made the world: but the world was for
man. The sun however resplendent with bright beams, yet was made to give light to man,
yea, and all living creatures were formed to serve us: herbs and trees were created for
our enjoyment. All the works of creation were good, but none of these was an image of God,
save man only. The sun was formed by a mere command, but man by God's hands: Let us make
man after our image, and after our likeness . A wooden image of an earthly king is held in
honour; how much more a rational image of God?

But when this the greatest of the works of creation was disporting himself in Paradise,
the envy of the Devil cast him out. The enemy was rejoicing over the fall of him whom he
had envied: wouldest thou have had the enemy continue to rejoice? Not daring to accost the
man because of his strength, he accosted as being weaker the woman, still a virgin: for it
was after the expulsion from Paradise that Adam knew live his wife . 6. Cain and Abel
succeeded in the second generation of mankind: and Cain was the first murderer. Afterwards
a deluge was poured abroad because of the great wickedness of men: fire came down from
heaven upon the people of Sodom because of their transgression. After a time God chose out
Israel: but Israel also turned aside, and the chosen race was wounded. For while Moses
stood before God in the mount, the people were worshipping a calf instead of God. In the
lifetime of Moses, the law-giver who had said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, a man dared
to enter a place of harlotry and transgress . After Moses, Prophets were sent to cure
Israel: but in their healing office they lamented that they were not able to overcome the
disease, so that one of them says, Woe is me! for the godly man is perished out of the
earth, and there is none that doeth right among men : and again, They are all gone out of
the way, they are together became unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one
: and again, Cursing and stealing, and adultery, and murder are poured out upon the land .
Their sons and their daughters they sacrificed unto devils . They used auguries, and
enchantments, and divinations . And again, they fastened their garments with cords, and
shade hangings attached to the altar .

7. Very great was the wound of man's nature; from the feet to the had there was no
soundness in it; none could apply mollifying ointment, neither oil, nor bandages . Then
bewailing and wearying themselves, the Prophets said, Who shall give salvation out of Sion
? And again, Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, and upon the son of man whom
Thou madest strong for Thyself: so will not we go back from Thee . And another of the
Prophets entreated, saying, Bow the heavens, O Lord and come down . The wounds of man's
nature pass our healing. They slew Thy Prophets, and cast down Thine altars . The evil is
irretrievable by us, and needs thee to retrieve it. 8. The Lord heard the prayer of the
Prophets. The Father disregarded not the perishing of our race; He sent forth His Son, the
Lord from heaven, as healer: and one of the Prophets saith, The Lord whom ye seek, cometh,
and shall suddenly come . Whither? The Lord shall come to His own temple, where ye stoned
Him. Then another of the Prophets, on hearing this, saith to him: In speaking of the
salvation of God, speakest thou quietly? In preaching the good tidings of God's coming for
salvation, speakest thou in secret? O thou that bringest good tidings to Zion, get thee up
into the high mountain. Speak to the cities of Judah. What am I to speak? Behold our God!
Behold! the Lord cometh with strength ! Again the Lord Himself saith, Behold! I come, and
I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall flee unto the
Lord . The Israelites rejected salvation through Me: I come to gather all nations and
tongues . For He came to His own and His own received Him not . Thou comest and what dost
Thou bestow on the nations? I come to gather all nations, and I will leave on them a sign
. For from My conflict upon the Cross I give to each of My soldiers a royal seal to bear
upon his forehead. Another also of the Prophets said, He bowed the heavens also, and came
down; and darkness was under His feet . For His coming down from heaven was not known by
men.

9. Afterwards Solomon hearing his father David speak these things, built a wondrous house,
and foreseeing Him who was to come into it, said in astonishment, Will God in very deed
dwell with men on the earth ? Yea, saith David by anticipation in the Psalm inscribed For
Solomon, wherein is this, He shall come down like rain into a fleece : rain, because of
His heavenly nature, and into a fleece, because of His humanity. For rain, coming down
into a fleece, comes down noiselessly: so that the Magi, not knowing the mystery of the
Nativity, say, Where is He that is born King of the Jews ? and Herod being troubled
inquired concerning Him who was born, and said, Where is the Christ to be born ? 10. But
who is this that cometh down? He says in what follows, And with the sun He endureth, and
before the moon generations of generations . And again another of the Prophets saith,
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold! thy King
cometh unto thee, just and having salvation . Kings are many; of which speakest thou, O
Prophet? Give us a sign which other Kings have not. If thou say, A king clad in purple,
the dignity of the apparel has been anticipated. If thou say, Guarded by spear-men, and
sitting in a golden chariot, this also has been anticipated by others. Give us a sign
peculiar to the King whose coming thou announcest. And the Prophet maketh answer and
saith, Behold! thy King cometh unto thee, just, and having salvation: He is meek, and
riding upon an ass and a young foal, not on a chariot. Thou hast a unique sign of the King
who came. Jesus alone of kings sat upon an unyoked foal, entering into Jerusalem with
acclamations as a king. And when this King is come, what doth He? Thou also by the blood
of the covenant hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water .

11. But He might perchance even sit upon a foal: give us rather a sign, where the King
that entereth shall stand. And give the sign not far from the city, that it may not be
unknown to us: and give us the sign plain before our eyes, that even when in the city we
may behold the place. And the Prophet again makes answer, saying: And His feet shall stand
in that day upon the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east . Does any one
standing within the city fail to behold the place? 12. We have two signs, and we desire to
learn a third. Tell us what the Lord cloth when He is come. Another Prophet saith, Behold!
our God, and afterwards, He will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be
opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear: then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and
the tongue of the stammerers shall be distinct . But let yet another testimony be told us.
Thou sayest, O Prophet, that the Lord cometh, and doeth signs such as never were: what
other clear sign tellest thou? The Lord Himself entereth into judgment with the elders of
His people, and with the princes thereof . A notable sign! The Master judged by His
servants, the eiders, and submitting to it.

13. These things the Jews read, but hear not: for they have stopped the ears of their
heart, that they may not hear. But let us believe in Jesus Christ, as having come in the
flesh and been made Man, because we could not receive Him otherwise. For since we could
not look upon or enjoy Him as He was, He became what we are, that so we might be permitted
to enjoy Him. For if we cannot look full on the sun, which was made on the fourth day,
could we behold God its Creator ? Th-Lord came down in fire on Mount Sinai, and the people
could not bear it, but said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; and let not
God speak to us, lest we die : and again, For who is there of all flesh that hath heard
the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, and shall live ? If to
hear the voice of God speaking is a cause of death, how shall not the sight of God Himself
bring death? And what wonder? Even Moses himself saith, I exceedingly fear and quake .

14. What wouldest thou then? That He who came for our salvation should become a minister
of destruction because men could not bear Him? or that He should suit His grace to our
measure? Daniel could not bear the vision of an Angel, and were thou capable of the sight
of the Lord of Angels? Gabriel appeared, and Daniel fell down: and of what nature or in
what guise was he that appeared? His countenance was like lightning ; not like the sun:
and his eyes as lamps of fire, not as a furnace of fire: and the voice of his words as the
voice of a multitude, not as the voice of twelve legions of angels; nevertheless the
Prophet fell down. And the Angel cometh unto him, saying, Fear not, Daniel, stand upright:
be of good courage, thy words are heard . And Daniel says, I stood up trembling : and not
even so did he make answer, until the likeness of a man's hand touched him. And when he
that appeared was changed into the appearance of a man, then Daniel spoke: and what saith
he? O my Lord, at the vision of Thee my inward parts were turned within me, and no
strength remaineth in me, neither is there breath left in me . If an Angel appearing took
away the Prophet's voice and strength, would the appearance of God have allowed him to
breathe? And until there touched me as it were a vision of a man , saith the Scripture,
Daniel took not courage. So then after trial shewn of our weakness, the Lord assumed that
which man required: for since man required to hear from one of like countenance, the
Saviour took on Him the nature of like affections, that men might be the more easily
instructed.

15. Learn also another cause. Christ came that He might be baptized, and might sanctify
Baptism: He came that He might work wonders, walking upon the waters of the sea. Since
then before His appearance in flesh, the sea saw Him and fled, and Jordan was turned back
, the Lord took to Himself His body, that the sea might endure the sight, and Jordan
receive Him without fear. This then is one cause; but there is also a second. Through Eve
yet virgin came death; through a virgin, or rather from a virgin, must the Life appear:
that as the serpent beguiled the one, so to the other Gabriel might bring good tidings .
Men forsook God, and made carved images of men. Since therefore an image of man was
falsely worshipped as God, God became truly Man, that the falsehood might be done away.
The Devil had used the flesh as an instrument against us; and Paul knowing this, saith,
But l see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me
into captivity , and the rest. By the very same weapons, therefore, wherewith the Devil
used to vanquish us, have we been saved. The Lord took on Him from us our likeness, that
He might save man's nature: He took our likeness, that He might give greater grace to that
which lacked; that sinful humanity might become partaker of God. For where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound . It behoved the Lord to suffer for us;

but if the Devil had known Him, he would not have dared to approach Him. For had they
known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory . His body therefore was made a
bait to death that the dragon , hoping to devour it, might disgorge those also who had
been already devoured . For Death prevailed and devoured; and again, God wiped away every
tear from off every face . 16. Was it without reason that Christ was made Man? Are our
teachings ingenious phrases and human subtleties? Are not the Holy Scriptures our
salvation? Are not the predictions of the Prophets? Keep then, I pray thee, this deposit
undisturbed, and let none remove thee: believe that God became Man. But though it has been
proved possible for Him to be made Man, yet if the Jews still disbelieve, let us hold this
forth to them What strange thing do we announce in saying that God was made Man, when
yourselves say that Abraham received the Lord as a guest ? What strange thing do we
announce, when Jacob says, For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved ?
The Lord, who ate with Abraham, ate also with us. What strange thing then do we announce?
Nay more, we produce two witnesses, those who stood before Lord on Mount Sinai: Moses was
in a clift of the rock , and Elias was once in a clift of the rock : they being present
with Him at His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, spoke to the Disciples of His decease
which fire should accomplish at Jerusalem . But, as I said before, it has been proved
possible for Him to be made man: and the rest of the proofs may be left for the studious
to collect.

17. My statement, however, promised to declare also the time of the Saviour's and the
place: and I must not go away convicted of falsehood, but rather send away the Church's
novices well assured. Let us therefore inquire the time when our Lord came: because His
coming is recent, and is disputed: and because Christ Jesus is the same yesterday, and to-
day, and for ever . Moses then, the prophet, saith, A Prophet shall the Lord your God
raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me : but let that "like unto me" be reserved
awhile to be examined in its proper place . But when cometh this Prophet that is expected?
Recur, he says, to what has been written by me: examine carefully Jacob's prophecy
addressed to Judah: Judah, thee may thy brethren praise, and afterwards, not to quote the
whole, A prince shall not fail out of Judah, nor a ruler from his loins, until He come,
for whom it is reserved; and He is the expectation, not of the Jews but of the Gentiles .
He gave, therefore, as a sign of Christ's advent the cessation of the Jewish rule. If they
are not now under the Romans, the Christ is not yet come: if they still have a prince of
the race of Judah and of David , he is not yet come that was expected. For I am ashamed to
tell of their recent doings concerning those who are now called Patriarchs among them, and
what their descent is, and who their mother: but I leave it to those who know. But He that
cometh as the expectation of the Gentiles, what further sign then hath He? He says next,
Binding his foal unto the vine . Thou seest that foal which was clearly announced by
Zachariah .

18. But again thou askest yet another testimony of the time. The Lord said unto Me, Thou
art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee: and a few words further on, Thou shalt rule
them with a rod of iron . I have said before that the kingdom of the Romans is clearly
called a rod of iron; but what is wanting concerning this let us further call to mind out
of Daniel. For in relating and interpreting to Nebuchadnezzar the image of the statue, he
tells also his whole vision concerning it: and that a stone cut out of a mountain without
hands, that is, not set up by human contrivance, should overpower the whole world: and he
speaks most clearly thus; And in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven shall set up
a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and His kingdom shall not be left to another
people .

19. But we seek still more clearly the proof of the time of His coming. For man being hard
to persuade, unless he gets the very years fear a clear calculation, does not believe what
is stated. What then is the season, and what the manner of the time? It is when, on the
failure of the kings descended from Judah, Herod a foreigner succeeds to the kingdom? The
Angel, therefore, who converses with Daniel says, and do thou now mark the words, And thou
shalt know and understand: From the going forth of the word for making answer , and for
the building of Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince are seven weeks and three score and
two weeks . Now three score and nine weeks of years contain four hundred and eighty-three
years. He said, therefore, that after the building of Jerusalem, four hundred and eighty-
three years having passed, and the rulers having failed, then cometh a certain king of
another race, in whose time the Christ is to be born. Now Darius the Mede built the city
in the sixth year of his own reign, and first year of the 66th Olympiad according to the
Greeks. Olympiad is the name among the Greeks of the games celebrated after four years,
because of the day which in every four years of the sun's courses is made up of the three
(supernumerary) hours in each year. And Herod is king in the 186th Olympiad, in the 4th
year thereof.

Now from the 66th to the 186th Olympiad there are 120 Olympiads intervening, and a little
over. So then the 120 Olympiads make up 480 years: for the other three years remaining are
perhaps taken up in the interval between the first and fourth years. And there thou hast
the proof according to the Scripture which saith, From the going forth of the word that
Jerusalem be restored and built until Messiah the Prince are seven weeks and sixty-two
weeks. Of the times, therefore, thou hast for the present this proof, although there are
also other different interpretations concerning the aforesaid weeks of years in Daniel.
20. But now hear the place of the promise, as Micah says, And thou, Bethlehem, house of
Ephrathah, art than little to be among the thousands of Judah? For out of thee shall come
forth unto Me a ruler, to be governor in Israel: and His goings forth are front the
beginning, from the days of eternity . But assuredly as to the places, thou being an
inhabitant of Jerusalem, knowest also beforehand what is written in the hundred and
thirty-first psalm. Lo! we heard of it at Ephrathah, we found it in the plains of the wood
. For a few years ago the place was woody . Again thou hast heard Habakkuk say to the
Lord, When the years draw nigh, than shalt be made known, when the time is come, thou
shalt be shewn . And what is the sign, O Prophet, of the Lord's coming? And presently he
saith, In the midst of two lives shalt thou be known , plainly saying this to the Lord,
"Having come in the flesh thou livest and diest, and after rising from the dead thou
livest again." Further, from what part of the region round Jerusalem cometh He? From east,
or west, or north, or south? Tell us exactly. And he makes answer most plainly and says,
God shall come from Teman (now Teman is by interpretation `south') and the Holy One front
Mount Paran , shady, woody: what the Psalmist spake in like words, We found it in the
plains of the wood.

21. We ask further, of whom cometh He and how? And this Esaias tells us: Behold! the
virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His
name Emmanuel . This the Jews contradict, for of old it is their wont wickedly to oppose
the truth: and they say that it is not written "the virgin," but "the damsel." But though
I assent to what they say, even so I find the truth. For we must ask them, If a virgin be
forced, when does she cry out and call for helpers, after or before the outrage? If,
therefore, the Scripture elsewhere says, The betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to
save her , doth it not speak of a virgin? But that you may learn more plainly that even a
virgin is called in Holy Scripture a "damsel," hear the Book of the Kings, speaking of
Abishag the Shunamite, And the damsel was very fair : for that as a virgin she was chosen
and brought to David is admitted.

22. But the Jews say again, This was said to Ahaz in reference to Hezekiah. Well, then,
let us read the Scripture: Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, in the depth or in the
height . And the sign certainly must be something astonishing. For the water from the rock
was a sign, the sea divided, the sun turning back, and the like. But in what I am going to
mention there is still more manifest refutation of the Jews.(I know that I am speaking at
much length, and that my hearers are wearied: but bear with the fulness of my statements,
because it is for Christ's sake these questions are moved, and they concern no ordinary
matters.) Now as Isaiah spoke this in the reign of Ahaz, and Ahaz reigned only sixteen
years, and the prophecy was spoken to him within these years, the objection of the Jews is
refuted by the fact that the succeeding king, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, was twenty-five years
old when he began to reign: for as the prophecy is confined within sixteen years, he must
have been begotten of Ahaz full nine years before the prophecy. What need then was there
to utter the prophecy concerning one who had been already begotten even before the reign
of father Ahaz ? For he said not, hath conceived, but "the virgin shall conceive,"
speaking as with foreknowledge .

23. We know then for certain that the Lord was to be born of a Virgin, but we have to shew
of what family the Virgin was. The Lord sware in truth unto David, and will not set it
aside. Of the fruit of body will I set upon thy throne : and again, seed will I establish
for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven . And afterwards, Once have I sworn by My
holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as
the sun before Me, and as the moon established for ever . Thou seest that the discourse is
of Christ, not of Solomon. For Solomon's throne endured not as the sun. But if any deny
this, because Christ sat not on David's throne of wood, we will bring forward that saying,
The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat : for it signifies not his wooden seat,
but the authority of his teaching. In like manner then I would have you seek for David's
throne not the throne of wood, but the kingdom itself. Take, too, as my witnesses the
children who cried aloud, Hosanna to the Son of David , blessed is the King of Israel .
And the blind men also say, Son of David, have mercy on us . Gabriel too testifies plainly
to Mary, saying, And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David .

Paul also saith, Remember Jesus Christ raised firm the dead, of the seed of David,
according to my Gospel : and in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans he saith, Which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh . Receive thou therefore Him that was
born of David, believing the prophecy which saith, And in that day there shall be a root
of Jesse, and He that shall rise to rule over the Gentiles: in Him shall the Gentiles
trust . 24. But the Jews are much troubled at these things. This also Isaiah foreknew,
saying, And they shall wish that they had been burnt with fire: for unto us a child is
born(not unto them), unto us a Son is given . Mark thou that at first He was the Son of
God, then was given to us. And a little after he says, And of His peace there is no bound
. The Romans have bounds: of the kingdom of the Son of God there is no bound. The Persians
and the Medes have bounds, but the Son has no bound. Then next, upon the throne of David,
and upon his kingdom to order it. The Holy Virgin, therefore, is from David. 25. For it
became Him who is most pure, and a teacher of purity, to have come forth from a pure
bride-chamber. For if he who well fulfils the office of a priest of Jesus abstains from a
wife, how should Jesus Himself be born of man and woman? For thou, saith He in the Psalms,
art He that took Me out of the womb . Mark that carefully, He that took Me out of the
womb, signifying that He was begotten without man, being taken from a virgin's womb and
flesh. For the manner is different with those who are begotten according to the course of
marriage.

26. And from such members He is not ashamed to assume flesh, who is the framer of those
very members. But then who telleth us this? The Lord saith unto Jeremiah: Before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified
thee . If, then, in fashioning man He was not ashamed of the contact, was He ashamed in
fashioning for His own sake the holy Flesh, the veil of His Godhead? It is God who even
now creates the children in the womb, as it is written in Job, Hast thou not poured me out
as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast
knit me together with bones and sinews . There is nothing polluted in the human frame
except a man defile this with fornication and adultery. He who formed Adam formed Eve
also, and male and female were formed by God's hands. None of the members of the body as
formed from the beginning is polluted. Let the mouths of all heretics be stopped who
slander their bodies, or rather Him who formed them. But let us remember Paul's saying,
Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you ? And again
the Prophet hath spoken before in the person of Jesus, My flesh is from them : and in
another place it is written, Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she
bringeth forth .

And what is the sign? He tells us in what follows, She shall bring forth, and the remnant
of their brethren shall return. And what are the nuptial pledges of the Virgin, the holy
bride? And I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness . And Elizabeth, talking with Mary,
speaks in like manner: And blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a performance
of those things which were told her from the Lord . 27. But both Greeks and Jews harass us
and say that it was impossible for the Christ to be born of a virgin. As for the Greeks we
will stop their mouths from their own fables. For ye who say that stones being thrown were
changed into men , how say ye that it is imposssible for a virgin to bring forth? Ye who
fable that a daughter was born from the brain , how say ye that it is impossible for a son
to have been born frown a virgin's womb? Ye who falsely say that Dionysus was born from
the thigh of your Zeus , how set ye at nought our truth? I know that I am speaking of
things unworthy of the present audience: but in order that thou in due season mayest
rebuke the Greeks, we have brought these things forward answering them from their own
fables.

28. But those of the circumcision meet thou with this question: Whether is harder, for an
aged woman, barren and past age, to bear, or for a virgin in the prime of youth to
conceive? Sarah was barren, and though it had ceased to be with her after the manner of
women, yet, contrary to nature, she bore a child. If, then, it is against nature for a
barren woman to conceive, and also for a virgin, either, therefore, reject both, or accept
both. For it is the same God who both wrought the one and appointed the other. For thou
wilt not dare to say that it was possible for God in that former ease, and impossible in
this latter. And again: how is it natural for a man's hand to be changed in a single hour
into a different appearance and restored again? How then was the hand of Moses made white
as snow, and at once restored again? But thou sayest that God's will made the change. In
that case God's will has the power, and has it then no power in this ease? That moreover
was a sign concerning the Egyptians only, but this was a sign given to the whole world.
But whether is the more difficult, O ye Jews? For a virgin to bear, or for a rod to be
quickened into a living creature?

Ye confess that in the case of Moses a perfectly straight rod became like a serpent, and
was terrible to him who cast it down, and he who before held the rod fast, fled from it as
from a serpent; for a serpent in truth it was: but he fled not because he feared that
which he held, but because he dreaded Him that bad changed it. A rod had teeth and eyes
like a serpent: do then seeing eyes grow out of a rod, and cannot a child be born of a
virgin's womb, if God wills? For I say nothing of the fact that Aaron's rod also produced
in a single night what other trees produce in several year. For who knows not that a rod,
after losing its bark, will never sprout, not even if it be planted in the midst of
rivers? But since God is not dependent on the nature of trees, but is the Creator of their
natures, the unfruitful, and dry, and barkless rod budded, and blossomed, and bare
almonds. He, then, who for the sake of the typical high-priest gave fruit supernaturally
to the rod, would He not for the sake of the true High-Priest grant to the Virgin to bear
a child?

29. These are excellent suggestions of the narratives: but the Jews still contradict, and
do not yield to the statements concerning the rod, unless they may be persuaded by similar
strange and supernatural births. Question them, therefore, in this way: of whom in the
beginning was Eve begotten? What mother conceived her the motherless? But the Scripture
saith that she was born out of Adam's side. Is Eve then born out of a man's side without a
mother, and is a child not to be born without a father, of a virgin's womb? This debt of
gratitude was due to men from womankind: for Eve was begotten of Adam, and not conceived
of a mother, but as it were brought forth of man alone. Mary, therefore, paid the debt, of
gratitude, when not by man but of herself alone in an immaculate way she conceived of the
Holy Ghost by the power of God.

30. But let us take what is yet a greater wonder than this. For that of bodies bodies
should be conceived, even if wonderful, is nevertheless possible: but that the dust of the
earth should become a man, this is more wonderful. That clay moulded together should
assume the coats and splendours of the eyes, this is more wonderful. That out of dust of
uniform appearance should be produced both the firmness of bones, and the softness of
lungs, and other different kinds of members, this is wonderful. That clay should be
animated and travel round the world self moved, and should build houses, this is
wonderful. That clay should teach, and talk, and act as carpenter, and as king, this is
wonderful. Whence, then, O ye most ignorant Jews, was Adam made? Did not God take dust
from the earth, and fashion this wonderful frame? Is then clay changed into an eye, and
cannot a virgin bear a son. Does that which for men is more impossible take place, and is
that which is possible never to occur?

31. Let us remember these things, brethren: let us use these weapons in our defence. Let
us not endure those heretics who teach Christ's coming as a phantom. Let us abhor those
also who say that the Saviour's birth was of husband and wife; who have dared to say that
He was the child of Joseph and Mary, because it is written, And he took unto him his wife
. For let us remember Jacob who before he received Rachel, said to Laban, Give me my wife
. For as she before the wedded state, merely because there was a promise, was called the
wife of Jacob, so also Mary, because she had been betrothed, was called the wife of
Joseph. Mark also the accuracy of the Gospel, saying, And in the sixth month the Angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to
a man whose name was Joseph , and so forth. And again when the census took place, and
Joseph went up to enrol himself, what saith the Scripture? And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, to enrol himself with Mary who was espoused to him, being great with child . For
though she was with child, yet it said not "with his wife," but with her who was espoused
to him. For God sent forth His Son, says Paul, not made of a man and a woman, but made of
a woman only, that is of a virgin. For that the virgin also is called a woman, we shewed
before . For He who makes souls virgin, was born of a Virgin.

32. But thou wonderest at the event: even she herself who bare him wondered at this. For
she saith to Gabriel, How shall this be to me, since I know not a man? But he says, The
Holy Ghost shall came upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:
wherefore also the holy thing which is to be born shall be called the Son of God .
Immaculate and undefiled was His generation: for where the Holy Spirit breathes, there all
pollution is taken away: undefiled from the Virgin was the incarnate generation of the
Only-begotten. And if the heretics gainsay the truth, the Holy Ghost shall convict them:
that overshadowing power of the Highest shall wax wroth: Gabriel shall stand face to face
against them in the, day of judgment: the place of the manger, which received the Lord,
shall put them to shame. The shepherds, who then received the good tidings, shall bear
witness; and the host of the Angels who sang praises and hymns, and said, Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth peace among men of His good pleasure : the Temple into which He
was then carried up on the fortieth day: the pairs of turtle-doves, which were offered on
His behalf : and Symeon who then took Him up in his arms, and Anna the prophetess who was
present.

33. Since God then beareth witness, and the Holy Ghost joins in the witness, and Christ
says, Why do ye seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth ? let the heretics be
silenced who speak against His humanity, for they speak against Him, who saith, Handle me,
and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have . Adored be the Lord the
Virgin-born, and let Virgins acknowledge the crown of their own state: let the order also
of Solitaries acknowledge the glory of chastity for we men are not deprived of the dignity
of chastity. In the Virgin's womb the Saviour's period of nine months was passed: but the
Lord was for thirty and three years a man: so that if a virgin glories because of the nine
months, much more we because of the many years.


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
=====================

CATECHETICAL LECTURES continued

LECTURE 13

1. Every deed of Christ is a cause of glorying to the Catholic Church, but her greatest of
all glorying is in the Cross; and knowing this, Paul says, But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the Cross of Christ . For wondrous indeed it was, that one who was blind
from his birth should receive sight in Siloam ; but what is this compared with the blind
of the whole world? A great thing it was, and passing nature, for Lazarus to rise again on
the fourth day; but the grace extended to him alone, and what was it compared with the
dead in sins throughout the world? MarvelIous it was, that five loaves should pour forth
food for the five thousand; but what is that to those who are famishing in ignorance
through all the world? It was marvellous that she should have been loosed who had been
bound by Satan eighteen years: yet what is this to all of us, who were fast bound in the
chains of our sins? But the glory of the Cross led those who were blind through ignorance
into light, loosed all who were held fast by sin, and ransomed the whole world of mankind.

2. And wonder not that the whole world was ransomed; for it was no mere man, but the only-
begotten Son of God, who died on its behalf. Moreover one man's sin, even Adam's, had
power to bring death to the world; but if by the trespass of the one death reigned over
the world, how shall not life much rather reign by the righteousness of the One ? And if
because of the tree of food they were then east out of paradise, shall not believers now
more easily enter into paradise because of the Tree of Jesus? If the first man formed out
of the earth brought in universal death, shall not He who formed him out of the earth
bring in eternal life, being Himself the Life? If Phinees, when he waxed zealous and slew
the evil-doer, staved the wrath of God, shall not Jesus, who slew not another, but gave up
Himself for a ransom , put away the wrath which is against mankind?

3. Let us then not be ashamed of the Cross of our Saviour, but rather glory in it. For the
word of the Cross is unto Jews a stumbling-block, and unto Gentiles foolishness, but to us
salvation: and to them that are perishing it is foolishness, but unto us which are being
saved it is the power of God . For it was not a mere man who died for us, as I said
before, but the Son of God, God made man. Further; if the lamb under Moses drove the
destroyer far away, did not much rather the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world , deliver us from our sins? The blood of a silly sheep gave salvation; and shall not
the Blood of the Only-begotten much rather save? If any disbelieve the power of the
Crucified, let him ask the devils; if any believe not words, let him believe what he sees.
Many have been crucified throughout the world, but by none of these are the devils scared;
but when they see even the Sign of the Cross of Christ, who was crucified for us, they
shudder . For those men died for their own sins, but Christ for the sins of others; for He
did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth . It is not Peter who says this, for then
we might suspect that he was partial to his Teacher;

but it is Esaias who says it, who was not indeed present with Him in the flesh, but in the
Spirit foresaw His coming in the flesh. Yet why now bring the Prophet only as a witness?
take for a witness Pilate himself, who gave sentence upon Him, saying, I find no fault in
this Man : and when he gave Him up, and had washed his hands, he said, I am innocent of
the blood of this just person . There is yet another witness of the sinlessness of
Jesus,-the robber, the first man admitted into Paradise; who rebuked his fellow, and said,
"We receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss ; for we
were present, both thou and I, at His judgment." 4. Jesus then really suffered for all
men; for the Cross was no illusion , otherwise our redemption is an illusion also. His
death was not a mere show , for then is our salvation also fabulous. If His death was but
a show, they were true who said, We remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet
alive, After three days I rise again . His Passion then was real: for He was really
crucified, and we are not ashamed thereat; He was crucified, and we deny it not, nay, I
rather glory to speak of it. For though I should now deny it, here is Golgotha to confute
me, near which we are now assembled; the wood of the Cross confutes me, which was
afterwards distributed piecemeal from hence to all the world . I confess the Cross,
because I know of the Resurrection; for if, after being crucified, He had remained as He
was, I had not perchance confessed it, for I might have concealed both it and my Master;
but now that the Resurrection has followed the Cross, I am not ashamed to declare it.

5. Being then in the flesh like others, He was crucified, but not for the like sins. For
He was not led to death for covetousness, since He was a Teacher of poverty; nor was He
condemned for concupiscence, for He Himself says plainly, Whosoever shall look upon a
woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already ; not for smiting or
striking hastily, for He turned the other cheek also to the stutter: not for despising the
Law, for He was the fulfiller of the Law; not for reviling a prophet, for it was Himself
who was proclaimed by the Prophets; not for defrauding any of their hire, for He
ministered without reward and freely; not for sinning in words, or deeds, or thoughts, He
who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who when He was reviled, reviled not
again; when He suffered, threatened not ; who came to His passion, not unwillingly, but
willing; yea, if any dissuading Him say even now, Be it far from Thee, Lord, He will say
again, Get thee behind Me, Satan .

6. And wouldest thou be persuaded that He came to His passion willingly? others, who
foreknow it not, die unwillingly; but He spoke before of His passion: Behold, the Son of
man is betrayed to be crucified . But knowest thou wherefore this Friend of man shunned
not death? It was lest the whole world should perish in its sins. Behold, we go up to
Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed, and shall be crucified ; and again, He
stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem . And wouldest thou know certainly, that the
Cross is a glory to Jesus? Hear His own words, not mine. Judas had become ungrateful to
the Master of the house, and was about to betray Him. Having but just now gone forth from
the table, and drunk His cup of blessing, in return for that drought of salvation he
sought to shed righteous blood. He who did eat of His bread, was lifting up his heel
against Him ; his hands were but lately receiving the blessed gifts , and presently for
the wages of betrayal he was plotting His death. And being reproved, and having heard that
word, Thou hast said , he again went out: then said Jesus, The hour is come, that the Son
of man should be glorified . Seest thou how He knew the Cross to be His proper glory? What
then, is Esaias not ashamed of being sawn asunder , and shall Christ be ashamed of dying
for the world?

Now is the Son of man glorified . Not that He was without glory before: for He was
glorified with the glory which was before the foundation of the world . He was ever
glorified as God; but now He was to be glorified in wearing the Crown of His patience. He
gave not up His life by compulsion, nor was He put to death by murderous violence, but of
His own accord. Hear what He says: I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to
take it again : I yield it of My own choice to My enemies; for unless I chose, this could
not be. He came therefore of His own set purpose to His passion, rejoicing in His noble
deed, smiling at the crown, cheered by the salvation of mankind; not ashamed of the Cross,
for it was to save the world. For it was no common man who suffered, but God in man's
nature, striving for the prize of His patience.

7. But the Jews contradict this , ever ready, as they are, to cavil, and backward to
believe; so that for this cause the Prophet just now read says, Lord, who hath believed
our report ? Persians believe , and Hebrews believe not;they shall see, to whom He was not
spoken of, and they that have not heard shall understand , while they who study these
things shall set at nought what they study. They speak against us, and say, "Does the Lord
then suffer? What? Had men's hands power over His sovereignty?" Read the Lamentations; for
in those Lamentations, Jeremias, lamenting you, wrote what is worthy of lamentations. He
saw your destruction, he beheld your downfall, he bewailed Jerusalem which then was; for
that which now is shall not be bewailed; for that Jerusalem crucified the Christ, but that
which now is worships Him. Lamenting then he says, The breath of our countenance, Christ
the Lord was taken in our corruptions . Am I then stating views of my own? Behold he
testifies of the Lord Christ seized by men. And what is to follow from this? Tell me, O
Prophet. He says, Of whom we said, Under His shadow we shall live among the nations . For
he signifies that the grace of life is no longer to dwell in Israel, but among the
Gentiles.

8. But since there has been much gainsaying by them, come, let me, with the help of your
prayers, (as the shortness of the time may allow,) set forth by the grace of the Lord some
few testimonies concerning the Passion. For the things concerning Christ are all put into
writing, and nothing is doubtful, for nothing is without a text. All are inscribed on the
monuments of the Prophets; clearly written, not on tablets of stone, but by the Holy
Ghost. Since then thou hast heard the Gospel speaking concerning Judas, oughtest thou not
to receive the testimony to it? Thou hast heard that He was pierced in the side by a
spear; oughtest thou not to see whether this also is written? Thou hast heard that He was
crucified in a garden; oughtest thou not to see whether this also is written? Thou hast
heard that He was sold for thirty pieces of silver; oughtest thou not to learn what
prophet spake this? Thou hast heard that He was given vinegar to drink; learn where this
also is written. Thou hast heard that His body was laid in a rock, and that a stone was
set over it; oughtest thou not to receive this testimony also from the prophet? Thou hast
heard that He was crucified with robbers; oughtest thou not to see whether this also is
written? Thou hast heard that He was buried; oughtest thou not to see whether the
circumstances of His burial are anywhere accurately written? Thou hast heard that He rose
again;

oughtest thou not to see whether we mock thee in teaching these things? For our speech and
our preaching is not in persuasive words of man's wisdom . We stir now no sophistical
contrivances; for these become exposed; we do not conquer words with words , for these
come to an end; but we preach Christ Crucified , who has already been preached aforetime
by the Prophets. But do thou, I pray, receive the testimonies, and seal them in thine
heart. And, since they are many, and the rest of our time is narrowed into a short space,
listen now to a few of the more important as time permits; and having received these
beginnings, be diligent and seek out the remainder. Let not thine hand be only stretched
out to receive, but let it be also ready to work . God gives all things freely. For if any
of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth (bis), and he shall receive. May He
through your prayer grant utterance to us who speak, and faith to you who hear.

9. Let us then seek the testimonies to the Passion of Christ: for we are met together, not
now to make a speculative exposition of the Scriptures, but rather to be certified of the
things which we already believe. Now thou hast received from me first the testimonies
concerning the coming of Jesus; and concerning His walking on the sea, for it is written,
Thy way is in the sea . Also concerning divers cures thou hast on another occasion
received testimony. Now therefore I begin from whence the Passion began. Judas was the
traitor, and he came against Him, and stood, speaking words of peace, but plotting war.
Concerning him, therefore, the Psalmist says, My friends and My neighbours drew near
against Me, and stood .And again, Their wards were softer than oil, yet be they spears .
Hail, Master ; yet he was betraying his Master to death; he was not abashed at His
warning, when He said, Judas, betrayest than the Son of Man with a kiss l for what He said
to him was just this, Recollect thine own name; Judas means confession ; thou hast
covenanted, thou hast received the money, make confession quickly. O God, pass not over My
praise in silence; far the mouth of the wicked, and the mouth of the deceitful, are opened
against Me; they have spoken against Me with a treacherous tongue, they have com-passed Me
about also with words of hatred . But that some of the chief-priests also were present,
and that He was put in bonds before the gates of the city, thou hast heard before, if thou
rememberest the exposition of the Psalm, which has told the time and the place; how they
returned at evening, and hungered like dogs, and encompassed the city .

10. Listen also for the thirty pieces of silver. And I will say to them, If it be good in
your sight, give me my price, or refuse , and the rest. One price is owing to Me from you
for My healing the blind and lame, and I receive another; for thanksgiving, dishonour, and
for worship, insult. Seest thou how the Scripture foresaw these things? And they weighed
for My price thirty pieces of silver . How exact the prophecy! how great and unerring the
wisdom of the Holy Ghost! For he said, not ten, nor twenty, but thirty, exactly as many as
there were. Tell also what becomes of this price, O Prophet! Does he who received it keep
it? or does he give it back? and after he has given it back, what becomes of it? The
Prophet says then, And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the house of
the Lord, into the foundry . Compare the Gospel with the Prophecy: Judas, it says,
repented himself, and cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed .

11. But now I have to seek the exact solution of this seeming discrepancy. For they who
make light of the prophets, allege that the Prophet says on the one hand, And I cast them
into the house of the Lord, into the foundry, but the Gospel on the other hand, And they
gave them for the potter's field . Hear then how they are both true. For those
conscientious Jews forsooth, the high-priests of that time, when they saw that Judas
repented and said, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood, reply, What is
that to us, see thou to that . Is it then nothing to you, the crucifiers? but shall he who
received and restored the price of murder see to it, and shall ye the murderers not see to
it? Then they say among themselves, It is not lawful to cast them into the treasury,
because it is the price of blood . Out of your own mouths is your condemnation; if the
price is polluted, the deed is polluted also: but if thou art fulfilling righteousness in
crucifying Christ, why receivest thou not the price of it? But the point of inquity is
this: how is there no disagreement, if the Gospel says, the potter's field, and the
Prophet, the foundry? Nay, but not only people who are goldsmiths, or brass-founders, have
a foundry, but potters also have foundries for their clay. For they sift off the fine and
rich and useful earth from the gravel, and separate from it the mass of the refuse matter,
and temper the clay first with water, that they may work it with ease into the forms
intended. Why then wonderest thou that the Gospel says plainly the potter's field, whereas
the Prophet spoke his prophecy like an enigma, since prophecy is in many places
enigmatical?

12. They bound Jesus, and brought Him into the hall of the High-priest. And wouldest thou
learn and know that this also is written? Esaias says, Woe unto their soul, for they have
taken evil counsel against themselves, saying, Let us bind the Just, for He is troublesome
to us . And truly, Woe unto their soul! Let us see how. Esaias was sawn asunder, yet after
this the people was restored. Jeremias was cast into the mire of the cistern, yet was the
wound of the Jews healed; for the sin was less, since it was against man. But when the
Jews sinned, not against man, but against God in man's nature, Woe unto their soul!-Let us
bind the Just; could He not then set Himself free, some one will say; He, who freed
Lazarus from the bonds of death on the fourth day, and loosed Peter from the iron bands
of.a prison? Angels stood ready at hand, saying, Let us burst their bands in sunder ; but
they hold back, because their Lord willed to undergo it. Again, He was led to the
judgment-seat before the Elders; thou hast already the testimony to this, The Lord Himself
will come into judgment with the ancients of His people, and with the princes thereof .

13. But the High-priest having questioned Him, and heard the truth, is wroth; and the
wicked officer of wicked men smites Him; and the countenance, which had shone as the sun,
endured to be smitten by lawless hands. Others also come and spit on the face of Him, who
by spittle had healed the man who was blind from his birth. Do ye thus requite the Lord?
This people is foolish and unwise . And the Prophet greatly wondering, says, Lord, who
hath believed our report ? for the thing is incredible, that God, the Son of God, and the
Arm of the Lord , should suffer such things. But that they who are being saved may not
disbelieve, the Holy Ghost writes before, in the person of Christ, who says, (for He who
then spake these things, was afterward Himself an actor in them,) I gave My back to the
scourges; (for Pilate, when he had scourged Him, delivered Him to be crucified ; and My
cheeks to smitings; and My face I turned not away from the shame of spittings; saying, as
it were, "Though knowing before that they will smite Me, I did not even turn My cheek
aside; for how should I have nerved My disciples against death for truth's sake, had I
Myself dreaded this? I said. He that loveth his life shall lose it : if I had loved My
life, how was I to teach without practising what I taught?

First then, being Himself God, He endured to suffer these things at the hands of men; that
after this, we men, when we suffer such things at the hands of men for His sake, might not
be ashamed. Thou seest that of these things also the prophets have clearly written
beforehand. Many, however, of the Scripture testimonies I pass by for want of time, as I
said before; for if one should exactly search out all, not one of the things concerning
Christ would be left without witness. 14. Having been bound, He came from Caiaphas to
Pilate,-is this too written? yes; And having bound Him, they led Him away as a present to
the king of Jarim . But here some sharp hearer will object, "Pilate was not a king," (to
leave for a while the main parts of the question,) "how then having bound Him, led they
Him as a present to the king?" But read thou the Gospel; When Pilate heard that He was of
Galilee, he sent Him to Herod ; for Herod was then king, and was present at Jerusalem. And
now observe the exactness of the Prophet; for he says, that He was sent as a present; for
the same day Pilate and Herod were made friends together, for before they were at enmity .
For it became Him who was on the eve of making peace between earth and heaven, to make the
very men who condemned Him the first to be at peace; for the Lord Himself was there
present, who reconciles the hearts of the princes of the earth. Mark the exactness of the
Prophets, and their true testimony.

15. Look with awe then at the Lord who was judged. He suffered Himself to be led and
carried by soldiers. Pilate sat in judgment, and He who sitteth on the right hand of the
Father, stood and was judged . The people whom He had redeemed from the land of Egypt, and
oftimes from other places, shouted against Him, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him
. Wherefore, O ye Jews? because He healed your blind? or because He made your lame to
walk, and bestowed His other benefits? So that the Prophet in amazement speaks of this
too, Against whom have ye opened your mouth, and against whom have ye let loose your
tongue ? and the Lord Himself says in the Prophets, Mine heritage became unto Me as a lion
in the forest; it gave its voice against Me; therefore have I hated it . I have not
refused them, but they have refused Me; in consequence thereof I say, I have forsaken My
house .

16. When He was judged, He held His peace; so that Pilate was moved for Him, and said,
Hearest Thou not what these witness against Thee ? Not that He knew Him who was judged,
but he feared his own wife's dream which had been reported to him. And Jesus held His
peace. The Psalmist says, And I became as a man that heareth not; and in whose mouth are
no reproofs ; and again, But I was as a deaf man and heard not; and as a dumb man that
openeth not his mouth . Thou hast before heard concerning this , if thou rememberest. 17.
But the soldiers who crowd around mock Him, and their Lord becomes a sport to them, and
upon their Master they make jests. When they looked on Me, they shaked their heads . Yet
the figure of kingly state appears; for though in mockery, yet they bend the knee. And the
soldiers before they crucify Him, put on Him a purple robe, and set a crown on His bead;
for what though it be of thorns? Every king is proclaimed by soldiers; and Jesus also must
in a figure be crowned by soldiers; so that for this cause the Scripture says in the
Canticles, Go forth, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, and look upon King Solomon in the crown
wherewith His mother crowned Him . And the crown itself was a mystery; for it was a
remission of sins, a release from the curse.

18. Adam received the sentence, Cursed is the ground in thy labours; thorns and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee . For this cause Jesus assumes the thorns, that He may cancel
the sentence; for this cause also was He buried in the earth, that the earth which had
been cursed might receive the blessing instead of a curse. At the time of the sin, they
clothed themselves with fig-leaves; for this cause Jesus also made the fig-tree the last
of His signs. For when about to go to His passion, He curses the fig-tree, not every fig-
tree, but that one alone, for the sake of the figure; saying, No more let any man eat
fruit of thee ; let the doom be cancelled. And because they aforetime clothed themselves
with fig-leaves, He came at a season when food was not wont to be found on the fig-tree.
Who knows not that in winter-time the fig-tree bears no fruit, but is clothed with leaves
only? Was Jesus ignorant of this, which all knew? No but though He knew, yet He came as if
seeking; not ignorant that He should not find, but shewing that the emblematical curse
extended to the leaves only.

19. And since we have touched on things connected with Paradise, I am truly astonished at
the truth of the types. In Paradise was the Fall, and in a Garden was our Salvation. From
the Tree came sin, and until the Tree sin lasted. In the evening, when the Lord walked in
the Garden, they hid themselves ; and in the evening the robber is brought by the Lord
into Paradise. But some one will say to me, "Thou art inventing subtleties; shew me from
some prophet the Wood of the Cross; except thou give me a testimony from a prophet, I will
not be persuaded. Hear then from Jeremias, and assure thyself; I was like a harmless lamb
led to be slaughtered; did I not know it ? (for in this manner read it as a question, as I
have read it; for He who said, Ye know that after two days comes the passover, and the Son
of Man is betrayed to be crucified , did He not know? I was like a harmless lamb led to be
slaughtered; did I not know it?(but what sort of lamb? let John the Baptist interpret it,
when he says, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world . They devised
against Me a wicked device, saying -(He who knows the devices, knew He not the result of
them?

And what said they?)-Come, and let us place a beam upon His bread -(and if the Lord reckon
thee worthy, thou shalt hereafter learn, that His body according to the Gospel bore the
figure of bread;)-Come then, and let us place a beam upon His bread, and cut Him off out
of the land of the living;-(life is not cut off, why labour ye for nought?)-And His name
shall be remembered no more. Vain is your counsel; for before the sun His Name abideth in
the Church. And that it was Life, which hung on the Cross, Moses says, weeping, And thy
life shall be hanging before thine eyes; and thou shalt be afraid day and night, and thou
shalt not trust thy life . And so too, what was just now read as the text, Lord, who hath
believed our report? 20. This was the figure which Moses completed by fixing the serpent
to a cross, that whoso had been bitten by the living serpent, and looked to the brasen
serpent, might be saved by believing . Does then the brazen serpent save when crucified,
and shall not the Son of God incarnate save when crucified also? On each occasion life
comes by means of wood. For in the time of Noe the preservation of life was by an ark of
wood. In the time of Moses the sea, on beholding the emblematical rod, was abashed at him
who smote it; is then Moses' rod mighty, and is the Cross of the Saviour powerless? But I
pass by the greater part of the types, to keep within measure. The wood in Moses' case
sweetened the water; and from the side of Jesus the water flowed upon the wood.

21. The beginning of signs under Moses was blood and water; and the last of all Jesus'
signs was the same. First, Moses changed the river into blood; and Jesus at the last gave
forth from His side water with blood. This was perhaps on account of the two speeches, his
who judged Him, and theirs who cried out against Him; or because of the believers and the
unbelievers. For Pilate said, I am innocent and washed his hands in water; they who cried
out against Him said, His blood be upon us : there came therefore these two out of His
side; the water, perhaps, for him who judged Him; but for them that shouted against Him
the blood. And again it is to be understood in another way; the blood for the Jews, and
the water for the Christians: for upon them as plotters came the condemnation from the
blood but to thee who now believest, the salvation which is by water. For nothing has been
done without a meaning. Our fathers who have written comments have given another reason of
this matter. For since in the Gospels the power of salutary Baptism is twofold, one which
is granted by means of water to the illuminated, and a second to holy martyrs, in
persecutions, through their own blood, there came out of that saving Side blood and water
, to confirm the grace of the confession made for Christ, whether in baptism, or on
occasions of martyrdom. There is another reason also for mentioning the Side. The woman,
who was formed from the side, led the way to sin; but Jesus who came to bestow the grace
of pardon on men and women alike, was pierced in the side for women, that He might undo
the sin.

22. And whoever will inquire, will find other reasons also; but what has been said is
enough, because of the shortness of the time, and that the attention of my hearers may not
become sated. And yet we never can be tired of hearing concerning the crowning of our
Lord, and least of all in this most holy Golgotha. For others only hear, but we both see
and handle. Let none be weary; take thine armour against the adversaries in the cause of
the Cross itself; set up the faith of the Cross as a trophy against the gainsayers. For
when thou art going to dispute with unbelievers concerning the Cross of Christ, first make
with thy hand the sign of Christ's Cross, and the gainsayer will be silenced. Be not
ashamed to confess the Cross; for Angels glory in it, saying, We know whom ye seek, Jesus
the Crucified . Mightest thou not say, O Angel, "I know whom ye seek, my Master?" But,
"I," he says with boldness, "I know the Crucified." For the Cross is a Crown, not a
dishonour.

23. Now let us recur to the proof out of the Prophets which I spoke of. The Lord was
crucified; thou hast received the testimonies. Thou seest this spot of Golgotha! Thou
answerest with a shout of praise, as if assenting. See that thou recant not in time of
persecution. Rejoice not in the Cross in time of peace only, but hold fast the same faith
in time of persecution also; be not in time of peace a friend of Jesus, and His foe in
time of wars. Thou receivest now remission of thy sins, and the gifts of the King's
spiritual bounty; when war shall Come, strive thou nobly for thy King. Jesus, the Sinless,
was crucified for thee; and wilt not thou be crucified for Him who was crucified for thee?
Thou art not bestowing a favour, for thou hast first received; but thou art returning a
favour, repaying thy debt to Him who was crucified for thee in Golgotha. Now Golgotha is
interpreted, "the place of a skull." Who were they then, who prophetically named this spot
Golgotha, in which Christ the true Head endured the Cross? As the Apostle says, Who is the
Image of the Invisible God; and a little after, and He is the Head of the body, the Church
. And again, The Head of every man is Christ ; and again, Who is the Head all principality
and power . The Head suffered in "the place of the skull." O wondrous prophetic
appellation! The very name also reminds thee, saying, "Think not of the Crucified as of a
mere man; He is the Head of all principality and power. That Head which was crucified is
the Head of all power, and has for His Head the Father; for the Head of the man is Christ,
and the Head of Christ is God ."

24. Christ then was crucified for us, who was judged in the night, when it was cold, and
therefore a fire of coals was laid. He was crucified at the third hour; and from the sixth
hour there was darkness until the ninth hour ; but from the ninth hour there was light
again. Are these things also written? Let us inquire. Now the Prophet Zacharias says, And
it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall not be light, and there shall be cold
and frost one day; (the cold on account of which Peter warmed himself;) And that day shall
be known unto the Lord ; (what, knew He not the other days? days are many, but this is the
day of the Lord's patience, which the Lord made ;)-And that day shall be known unto the
Lord, not day, and not night what is this dark saying which the Prophet speaks? That day
is neither day nor night? what then shall we name it? The Gospel interprets it, by
relating the event. It was not day; for the sun shone not uniformly from his rising to his
setting, but from the sixth hour till the ninth hour, there was darkness at mid-day. The
darkness therefore was interposed; but God called the darkness night . Wherefore it was
neither day nor night: for neither was it all light, that it should be called day; nor was
it all darkness, that it should be called night; but after the ninth hour the sun shone
forth. This also the Prophet foretels; for after saying, Not day, nor night, he added, And
at evening time it shall be light . Seest thou the exactness of the prophets? Seest thou
the truth of the things which were written aforetime?

25. But dost thou ask exactly at what hour the sun failed ? was it the fifth hour, or the
eighth, or the tenth? Tell, O Prophet, the exact time thereof to the Jews, who are
unwilling to hear; when shall the sun go down? The Prophet Amos answers, And it shall come
to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at noon (for there was
darkness from the sixth hour;) and the light shall grow dark over the earth in the day ".
What sort of season is this, O Prophet, and what sort of day? And I will turn your feasts
into mourning; for this was done in the days of unleavened bread, and at the feast of the
Passover: then afterwards he says, And I will make Him as the mourning of an Only Son, and
those with Him as a day of anguish ; for in the day of unleavened bread, and at the feast,
their women were wailing and weeping, and the Apostles had hidden themselves and were in
anguish. Wonderful then is this prophecy.

26. But, some one will say, "Give me yet another sign; what other exact sign is there of
that which has come to pass? Jesus was crucified; and He wore but one coat, and one
cloak:now His cloak the soldiers shared among themselves, having rent it into four; but
His coat was not rent, for when rent it would have been no longer of any use; so about
this lots are cast by the soldiers; thus the one they divide, but for the other they cast
lots. Is then this also written? They know, the diligent chanters of the Church, who
imitate the Angel hosts, and continually sing praises to God: who are thought worthy to
chant Psalms in this Golgotha, and to say, They parted My garments among them, and upon My
vesture they did cast lots . The "lots" were what the soldiers cast . 27. Again, when He
had been judged before Pilate, He was clothed in red; for there they put on Him a purple
robe. Is this also written? Esaias saith, Who is this that cometh from Edom? the redness
of His garments is from Bosor ; (who is this who in dishonor weareth purple? For Bosor has
some such meaning in Hebrew .) Why are Thy garments red, and Thy raiment as from a trodden
wine-press? But He answers and says, All day long have I stretched forth Mine hands unto a
disobedient and gainsaying people .

28. He stretched out His hands on the Cross, that He might embrace the ends of the world;
for this Golgotha is the very centre of the earth. It is not my word, but it is a prophet
who hath said, Thou hast wrought salvation in the midst of the earth . He stretched forth
human hands, who by His spiritual hands had established the heaven; and they were fastened
with nails, that His manhood, which here the sins of men, having been nailed to the tree,
and having died, sin might die with it, and we might rise again in righteousness. For
since by one man came death, by One Man came also life ; by One Man, the Saviour, dying of
His own accord: for remember what He said, I have power to lay down My life, and I have
power to take it again . 29. But though He endured these things, having come for the
salvation of all, yet the people returned Him an evil recompense. Jesus saith, I thirst
,-He who had brought forth the waters for them out of the craggy rock; and He asked fruit
of the Vine which He had planted. But what does the Vine? This Vine, which was by nature
of the holy fathers, but of Sodom by purpose of heart;-(for their Vine is of Sodom, and
their tendrils of Gomorrah ;)-this Vine, when the Lord was athirst, having filled a sponge
and put it on a reed, offers Him vinegar. They gave Me also gall for My meat, and in My
thirst, they gave Me vinegar to drink . Thou seest the clearness of the Prophets'
description. But what sort of gall put they into My mouth? They gave Him, it says, wine
mingled with myrrh . Now myrrh is in taste like gall, and very bitter. Are these things
what ye recompense unto the Lord? Are these thy offerings, O Vine, unto thy Master?
Rightly did the Prophet Esaias aforetime bewail you, saying, My well-beloved had a
vineyard in a hill in a fruitful place; and (not to recite the whole) I waited, he says,
that it should bring forth grapes; I thirsted that it should give wine; but it brought
forth thorns; ; for thou seest the crown, wherewith I am adorned. What then shall I now
decree? I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it . For the clouds which
are the Prophets were removed from them, and are for the future in the Church; as Paul
says, Let the Prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge; ; and again, God gave
in the Church, same, Apostles, and some, Prophets . Agabus, who bound his own feet and
hands, was a prophet.

30. Concerning the robbers who were crucified with Him, it is written, And He was numbered
with the transgressors . Both of them were before this transgressors, but one was so no
longer. For the one was a transgressor to the end, stubborn against salvation; who, though
his hands were fastened, smote with blasphemy by his tongue. When the Jews passing by
wagged their heads, mocking the Crucified, and fulfilling what was written, When they
looked on Me, they shaked their heads , he also reviled with them. But the other rebused
the reviler; and it was to him at rebuked the reviler; and it was to him the end of life
and the beginning of restoration; the surrender of his soul a first share in salvation.
And after rebuking the other, he says, Lord, remember me ; for with Thee is my account.
Heed not this man, for the eyes of his understanding are blinded; but remember me. I say
not, remember my works, for of these I am afraid. Every man has a feeling for his fellow-
traveller; I am travelling with Thee towards death; remember me, Thy fellow-wayfarer. I
say not, Remember me now, but, when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.

31. What power, O robber, led thee to the light? Who taught thee to worship that despised
Man, thy companion on the Cross? O Light Eternal, which gives light to them that are in
darkness! Therefore also he justly heard the words, Be of good cheer ; not that thy deeds
are worthy of good cheer; but that the King is here, dispensing favours. The request
reached unto a distant time; but the grace was very speedy. Verily I say unto thee, This
day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise; because to-day thou hast heard My voice, and hast
not hardened thine heart . Very speedily I passed sentence upon Adam, very speedily I
pardon thee. To him it was said, In the day wherein ye eat, ye shall surely die ; but thou
to-day hast obeyed the faith, to-day is thy salvation. Adam by the Tree fell away; thou by
the Tree art brought into Paradise. Fear not the serpent; he shall not cast thee out; for
he is fallen from heaven . And I say not unto thee, This day shalt thou depart, but, This
day shalt thou be with Me. Be of good courage: thou shalt not be cast out. Fear not the
flaming sword; it shrinks from its Lord . O mighty and ineffable grace! The faithful
Abraham had not yet entered, but the robber enters ! Moses and the Prophets had not yet
entered, and the robber enters though a breaker of the law.

Paul also wondered at this before thee, saying, Where sin abounded, there grace did much
more abound . They who had borne the heat of the day had not yet entered; and be of the
eleventh hour entered. Let none murmur against the goodman of the house, for he says,
Friend, I do thee no wrong; is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own ? The
robber has a will to work righteousness, but death prevents him; I wait not exclusively
for the work, but faith also I accept. I am come who feed My sheep among the lilies , I am
come to feed them in the gardens. I have found a sheep that was lost , but I lay it on My
shoulders; for he believes, since he himself has said, I have gone astray like a lost
sheep ; Lord, remember me when Thou camest in Thy kingdom.

35. Of this garden I sang of old to My spouse in the Canticles, and spoke to her thus. I
am come into My garden, My sister, My spouse ; (now in the place where He was crucified
was a garden ;) and what takest Thou thence? I have gathered My myrrh; having drunk wine
mingled with myrrh, and vinegar, after receiving which, He said, It is finished . For the
mystery has been fulfilled; the things that are written have been accomplished; sins are
forgiven. For Christ being come an High-Priest of the good things to came, by the greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,
nor yet by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, entered in once far all
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption; for if the bland of bulls and of
goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the defiled, sanctifieth to the purifying of
the flesh, how much more the blood of Christs ? And again, Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which
He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh . And because His
flesh, this veil, was dishonoured, therefore the typical veil of the temple was rent
asunder, as it is written, And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the
top to the bottom ; for not a particle of it was left; for since the Master said, Behold,
your house is left unto you desolate , the house brake all in pieces.

33. These things the Saviour endured, and made peace through the Blood of His Cross, for
things in heaven, and things in earth . For we were enemies of God through sin, and God
had appointed the sinner to die. There must needs therefore have happened one of two
things; either that God, in His truth, should destroy all men, or that in His loving-
kindness He should cancel the sentence. But behold the wisdom of God; He preserved both
the t truth of His sentence, and the exercise of His loving-kindness. Christ took our sins
in His body on the tree, that we by His death might die to sin, and live unto
righteousness . Of no small account was He who died for us; He was not a literal sheep; He
was not a mere man; He was more than an Angel; He was God made man. The transgression of
sinners was not so great as the righteousness of Him who died for them; the sin which we
committed was not so great as the righteousness which He wrought who laid down His life
for us,-who laid it down when He pleased, and took it again when He pleased. And wouldest
thou know that He laid not down His life by violence, nor yielded up the ghost against His
will? He cried to the Father, saying, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit ; I
commend it, that I may take it again. And having said these things, He gave up the ghost ;
but not for any long time, for He quickly rose again from the dead.

34. The Sun was darkened, because of the Sun of Righteousness . Rocks were rent, because
of the spiritual Rock. Tombs were opened, and the dead arose, because of Him who was free
among the dead ; He sent forth His prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water . Be not
then ashamed of the Crucified, but be thou also bold to say, He beareth our sins, and
endureth grief for us, and with His stripes we are healed . Let us not be unthankful to
our Benefactor. And again; for the transgression of my people was He led to death; and I
will give the wicked for His burial, and the rich for His death . Therefore Paul says
plainly, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was
buried, and that He hath risen again the third day according to the Scriptures .

35. But we seek to know clearly where He has been buried. Is His tomb made with hands? Is
it, like the tombs of kings, raised above the ground? Is the Sepulchre made of stones
joined together? And what is laid upon it? Tell us, O Prophets, the exact truth concerning
His tomb also, where He is laid, and where we shall seek Him? And they say, Look into the
solid rock which ye have hewn . Look in and behold. Thou hast in the Gospels In a
sepulchre hewn in stone, which was hewn out of a rock . And what happens next? What kind
of door has the sepulchre? Again another Prophet says, They cut off My life in a dungeon ,
and cast a stone upon Me. I, who am the Chief corner-stone, the elect, the precious , lie
for a little time within a stone-I who am a stone of stumbling to the Jews, and of
salvation to them who believe. The Tree of life , therefore was planted in the earth, that
the earth which had been cursed might enjoy the blessing, and that the dead might be
released.

36. Let us not then be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the Cross our seal made with
boldness by our fingers on our brow, and on everything; over the bread we eat, and the
cups we drink; in our comings in, and goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and
when we rise up; when we are in the way, and when we are still . Great is that
preservative; it is without price, for the sake of the poor; without toil, for the sick;
since also its grace is from God. It is the Sign of the faithful, and the dread of devils:
for He triumphed over them in it, having made a shew of them openly ; for when they see
the Cross they are reminded of the Crucified; they are afraid of Him, who bruised the
heads of the dragon . Despise not the Seal, because of the freeness of the gift; out for
this the rather honour thy Benefactor.

37. And if thou ever fall into disputation and hast not the grounds of proof, yet let
Faith remain firm in thee; or rather, become thou well learned, and then silence the Jews
out of the prophets, and the Greeks out of their own fables. They themselves worship men
who have been thunderstricken but the thunder when it comes from heaven, comes not at
random. If they are not ashamed to worship men thunderstricken and abhorred of God, art
thou ashamed to worship the beloved Son of God, who was crucified for thee? I am ashamed
to tell the tales about their so-called Gods, and I leave them because of time; let those
who know, speak. And let all heretics also be silenced. If any say that the Cross is an
illusion, turn away from him. Abhor those who say that Christ was crucified to our fancy
only; for if so, and if salvation is from the Cross, then is salvation a fancy also. If
the Cross is fancy, the Resurrection is fancy also; but if Christ be not risen, we are yet
in our sins . If the Cross is fancy, the Ascension also is fancy; and if the Ascension is
fancy, then is the second coming also fancy, and everything is henceforth unsubstantial.

38. Take therefore first, as an indestructible foundation, the Cross, and build upon it
the other articles of the faith. Deny not the Crucified; for, if thou deny Him, thou hast
many to arraign thee. Judas the traitor will arraign thee first; for he who betrayed Him
knows that He was condemned to death by the chief-priests and elders. The thirty pieces of
silver bear witness; Gethsemane bears witness, where the betrayal occurred; I speak not
yet of the Mount of Olives, on which they were with Him at night, praying. The moon in the
night bears witness; the day bears witness, and the sun which was darkened; for it endured
not to look on the crime of the conspirators. The fire will arraign thee, by which Peter
stood and warmed himself; if thou deny the Cross, the eternal fire awaits thee. I speak
hard words, that thou may not experience hard pains. Remember the swords that came against
Him in Gethsemane, that thou feel not the eternal sword. The house of Caiaphas will
arraign thee, shewing by its present desolation the power of Him who was erewhile judged
there. Yea, Caiaphas himself will rise up against thee in the day of judgment, the very
servant will rise up against thee, who smote Jesus with the palm of his hand; they also
who bound Him, and they who led Him away. Even Herod shall rise up against thee; and
Pilate; as if saying, Why deniest thou Him who was slandered before us by the Jews, and
whom we knew to have done no wrong? For I Pilate then washed my hands. The false witnesses
shall rise up against thee, and the soldiers who arrayed Him in the purple robe, and set
on Him the crown of thorns, and crucified Him in Golgotha, and cast lots for His coat.
Simon the Cyrenian will cry out upon thee, who bore the Cross after Jesus.

39. From among the stars there will cry out upon thee, the darkened Sun; among the things
upon earth, the Wine minggled with myrrh; among reeds, the Reed; among herbs, the Hyssop;
among the things of the sea, the Sponge; among trees, the Wood of the Cross;-the soldiers,
too, as I have said, who nailed Him, and cast lots for His vesture; the soldier who
pierced His side with the spear; the women who then were present; the veil of the temple
then rent asunder; the hall of Pilate, now laid waste by the power of Him who was then
crucified; this holy Golgotha, which stands high above us, and shews itself to this day,
and displays even yet how because of Christ the rocks were then riven ; the sepulchre nigh
at hand where He was laid; and the stone which was laid on the door, which lies to this
day by the tomb; the Angels who were then present; the women who worshipped Him after His
resurrection; Peter and John, who ran to the sepulchre; and Thomas, who thrust his hand
into His side, and his fingers into the prints of the nails. For it was for our sakes that
he so carefully handled Him; and what thou, who wert not there present, wouldest have
sought, he being present, by God's Providence, did seek.

40. Thou hast Twelve Apostles, witnesses of the Cross; and the whole earth, and the world
of men who believe on Him who hung thereon. Let thy very presence here now persuade thee
of the power of the Crucified. For who now brought thee to this assembly? what soldiers?
With what bonds wast thou constrained? What sentence held thee fast here now? Nay, it was
the Trophy of salvation, the Cross of Jesus that brought you all together. It was this
that enslaved the Persians, and tamed the Scythians; this that gave to the Egyptians, for
cats and dogs and their manifold errors, the knowledge of God; this, that to this day
heals diseases; that to this day drives away devils, and overthrows the juggleries of
drugs and charms.


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
=====================

CATECHETICAL LECTURES continued

LECTURE 14

On the Words, and Rose Again from the Dead on the Third Day, and Ascended into the
Heavens, and Sat on the Right Hand of the Father,

1 Cor. XV. 1-4. Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you
.... that He hath been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, Rejoice, O
Jerusalem, and keep high festival, all ye that love Jesus; for He is risen. Rejoice, all
ye that mourned before , when ye heard of the daring and wicked deeds of the Jews: for He
who was spitefully entreated of them in this place is risen again. And as the discourse
concerning the Cross was a sorrowful one, so let the good tidings of the Resurrection
bring joy to the hearers. Let mourning be turned into gladness, and lamentation to joy:
and let our mouth be filled with joy and gladness, because of Him, who after His
resurrection, said Rejoice . For I know the sorrow of Christ's friends in these past days;
because, as our discourse stopped short at the Death and the Burial, and did not tell the
good tidings of the Resurrection, your mind was in suspense, to hear what you were longing
for.

Now, therefore, the Dead is risen, He who was free among the dead , and the deliverer of
the dead. He who in dishonour wore patiently the crown of thorns, even He arose, and
crowned Himself with the diadem of His victory over death. 2. As then we set forth the
testimonies concerning His Cross, so come let us now verify the proofs of His Resurrection
also: since the Apostle before us affirms, He was buried, and has been raised on the third
day according to the Scriptures. As an Apostle, therefore, has sent us back to the
testimonies of the Scriptures, it is good that we should get full knowledge of the hope of
our salvation; and that we should learn first whether the divine Scriptures tell us the
season of His resurrection, whether it comes in summer or in autumn, or after winter; and
from what kind of place the Saviour has risen, and what has been announced in the
admirable Prophets as the name of the place of the Resurrection, and whether the women,
who sought and found Him not, afterwards rejoice at finding Him; in order that when the
Gospels are read, the narratives of these holy Scriptures may not be thought fables nor
rhapsodies.

3. That the Saviour then was buried, ye have heard distinctly in the preceding discourse,
as Isaiah saith, His burial snail be in peace : for in His burial He made peace between
heaven and earth, bringing sinners unto God: and, that the righteous is taken out of the
way of unrighteousness : and, His burial shall be in peace: and, I will give the wicked
for His burial . There is also the prophecy of Jacob saying in the Scriptures, He lay down
and couched as a lion, and as a lion's whelp: who shall rouse Him up ? And the similar
passage in Numbers, He couched, He lay down as a lion, and as a lion's whelp . The Psalm
also ye have often heard, which says, And Thou hast brought me down into the dust of death
. Moreover we took note of the spot, when we quoted the words, Look unto the rock, which
ye have hewn . But now let the testimonies concerning His resurrection itself go with us
on our way.

4. First, then, in the 11th Psalm He says, For the misery of the poor, and the sighing of
the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord . But this passage still remains doubtful with
some: for He often rises up also in anger , to take vengeance upon His enemies. Come then
to the 15th Psalm, which says distinctly: Preserve Me, O Lord, for in Thee have I put my
trust : and after this, their assemblies of blood will I not join, nor make mention of
their names between my lips ; since they have refused me, and chosen Csar as their king :
and also the next words, I foresaw the Lord alway before Me, because He is at My right
hand, that I may not be moved : and soon after Yea and even until night my reins chastened
me . And after this He says most plainly, For Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell ;
neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. He said not, neither wilt Thou
suffer Thine Holy One to see death, since then He would not have died; but corruption,
saith He, I see not, and shall not abide in death. Thou hast made known to Me the ways of
life . Behold here is plainly preached a life after death. Come also to the 29th Psalm, I
will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thous has lifted Me up, and hast not made My foes to rejoice
over Me . What is it that took place? Wert thou rescued from enemies, or wert thou
released when about to be smitten? He says himself most plainly, O Lord, Thou hast brought
up My soul from hell . There he says, Thou wilt not leave, prophetically: and here he
speaks of that which is to take place as having taken place, Thou hast brought up. Thou
hast saved Me from them that go down into the pit . At what time shall the event occur?
Weeping shall continue for the evening, and joy cometh in the morning : for in the evening
was the sorrow of the disciplines, and in the morning the joy of the resurrection.

5. But wouldst thou know the place also? Again He saith in Canticles, I went down into the
garden of nuts ; for it was a garden where He was crucified . For though it has now been
most highly adorned with royal gifts, yet formerly it was a garden, and the signs and the
remnants of this remain. A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed , by the Jews who said, We
remember that that deceiver said while He was yet alive, After three days, I will rise:
command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure; and further on, So they went, and
made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone with the guard . And aiming well at these, one
saith, and in rest Thou shalt judge them . But who is the fountain that is sealed, or who
is interpreted as being a well-spring of living water ? It is the Saviour Himself,
concerning whom it is written, For with Thee is the fountain of life .

6. But what says Zephaniah in the person of Christ to the disciples? Prepare thyself, be
rising at the dawn: all their gleaning is destroyed : the gleaning, that is, of the Jews,
with whom there is not a cluster, nay not even a gleaning of salvation left; for their
vine is cut down. See how He says to the disciples, Prepare thyself, rise up at dawn: at
dawn expect the Resurrection. And farther on in the same context of Scripture He says,
Therefore wait thou for Me, saith the Lord, until the day of My Resurrection at the
Testimony . Thou seest that the Prophet foresaw the place also of the Resurrection, which
was to be surnamed "the Testimony." For what is the reason that this spot of Golgotha and
of the Resurrection is not called, like the rest of the Churches, a Church, but a
Testimony? Why, perhaps, it was because of the Prophet, who had said, until the day of My
Resurrection at the Testimony.

7. And who then is this, and what is the sign of Him that rises? In the words of the
Prophet that follow in the same context, He says plainly, For then will I turn to the
peoples a language : since, after the Resurrection, when the Holy Ghost was sent forth the
gift of tongues was granted, that they might serve the Lord under one yoke . And what
other token is set forth in the same Prophet, that they should serve the Lord under one
yoke? From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia they shall bring me offerings . Thou knowest what
is written in the Acts, when the Ethiopian eunuch came from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia
. When therefore the Scriptures tell both the time and the peculiarity of the place, when
they tell also the signs which followed the Resurrection, have thou henceforward a firm
faith in the Resurrection, and let no one stir thee from confessing Christ risen from the
dead .

8. Now take also another testimony in the 87th Psalm, where Christ speaks in the Prophets,
(for He who then spoke came afterwards among us): O Lord, God of My salvation, I have
cried day and night before Thee, and a little, farther on, I became as it were a man
without help, free among the dead . He said not, I became a man without help; but, as it
were a man without help. For indeed He was crucified not from weakness, but willingly and
His Death was not from involuntary weakness. I was counted with them that go down into the
pit . And what is the token? Thou hast put away Mine acquaintance far from Me (for the
disciples have fled). Wilt Thou shew wonders to the dead ? Then a little while afterwards:
And unto Thee have I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer came before Thee .
Seest thou how they shew the exact point of the Hour, and of the Passion and of the
Resurrection?

9. And whence bath the Saviour risen? He says in the Song of Songs: Rise up, come, My
neighbour : and in what follows, in a cave of the rock ! A cave of the rock He called the
cave which was erewhile before the door of the Saviour's sepulchre, and had been hewn out
of the rock itself, as is wont to be done here in front of the sepulchres. For now it is
not to be seen, since the outer cave was cut away at that time for the sake of the present
adornment. For before the decoration of the sepulchre by the royal munificence, there was
a cave in the front of the rock . But where is the rock that had in it the cave? Does it
lie near the middle of the city, or neat the walls and the outskirts? And whether is it
within the ancient walls, or within the outer walls which were built afterwards? He says
then in the Canticles: in a cave of the rock, close to the outer wall .

10. At what season does the Saviour rise? Is it the season of summer, or some other? In
the same Canticles immediately before the words quoted He says, The winter is past, the
rain is past and gone ; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the pruning is come .
Is not then the earth full of flowers now, and are they not pruning the vines? Thou seest
how he said also that the winter is now past. For when this month Xanthicus is come, it is
already spring. And this is the season, the first month with the Hebrews, in which occurs
the festival of the Passover, the typical formerly, but now the true. This is the season
of the creation of the world: for then God said, Let the earth bring forth herbage of
grass, yielding seed after his kind and after his likeness . And now, as thou seest,
already every herb is yielding seed. And as at that time God made the sun and moon and
gave them courses of equal day (and night), so also a few days since was the season of the
equinox.

At that time God said, let us make man after our image and after our likeness . And the
image he received, but the likeness through his disobedience he obscured. At the same
season then in which he lost this the restoration also took place. At the same season as
the created man through disobedience was cast out of Paradise, he who believed was through
obedience brought in. Our Salvation then took place at the same season as the Fall: when
the flowers appeared, and the pruning was come. 11. A garden was the place of His Burial,
and a vine that which was planted there: and He hath said, I am the vine ! He was planted
therefore in the earth in order that the curse which came because of Adam might be rooted
out. The earth was condemned to thorns and thistles: the true Vine sprang up out of the
earth, that the saying might be fulfilled, Truth sprang up out of the earth, and
righteousness looked down from heaven . And what will He that is buried in the garden say?
I have gathered My myrrh with My spices: and again, Myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices
. Now these are the symbols of the burying; and in the Gospels it is said, The women came
unto the sepulchre bringing the spices which they had prepared : Nicodemus also bringing a
mixture of myrrh and aloes . And farther on it is written, I did eat My bread with My
honey : the bitter before the Passion, and the sweet after the Resurrection. Then after He
had risen He entered through closed doors: but they believed not that it was He: for they
supposed that they beheld a spirit . But He said, Handle Me and see. Put your fingers into
the print of the nails, as Thomas required. And while they yet believed not for joy, and
wondered, He said unto them, Have ye here anything. to eat? And they gave Him a piece of a
broiled fish and honeycomb . Seest thou how that is fulfilled, I did eat My bread with My
honey.

12. But before He entered through the closed doors, the Bridegroom and Suitor of souls was
sought by those noble and brave women. They came, those blessed ones, to the sepulchre,
and sought Him Who had been raised, and the tears were still dropping from their eyes,
when they ought rather to have been dancing with joy for Him that had risen. Mary came
seeking Him, according to the Gospel, and found Him not: and presently she heard from the
Angels, and afterwards saw the Christ. Are then these things also written? He says in the
Song of Songs, On my bed I sought Him whom my soul loved. At what season? By night on my
bed I sought Him Whom my soul loved: Mary, it says, came while it was yet dark. On my bed
I sought Him by night, I sought Him, and I found Him not . And in the Gospels Mary says,
They have taken away my Lord, and I know nowhere they have laid Him . But the Angels being
then present cure their want of knowledge; for they said, Why seek ye the living among the
dead ? He not only rose, but had also the dead with Him when He rose . But she knew not,
and in her person the Song of Songs said to the Angels, Saw ye Him Whom my soul loved? It
was but a little that I passed from them(that is, from the two Angels), until I found Him
Whom my soul laved. I held Him, and would not let Him go .

13. For after the vision of the Angels, Jesus came as His own Herald; and the Gospel says,
And behold Jesus met them, saying, All hail! and they came and took hold of His feet .
They took hold of Him, that it might be fulfilled, l will hold Him, and will not let Him
go. Though the woman was weak in body, her spirit was manful. Many waters quench not love,
neither do rivers drawn it ; He was dead whom they sought, yet was not the hope of the
Resurrection quenched. And the Angel says to them again, Fear not ye; I say not to the
soldiers, fear not, but to you ; as for them, let them be afraid, that, taught by
experience, they may bear witness and say, Truly this was the Son of God ; but you ought
not to be afraid, for perfect love casteth out fear . Go, tell His disciples that He is
risen ; and the rest. And they depart with joy, yet full of fear; is this also written?
yes, the second Psalm, which relates the Passion of Christ, says, Serve the Lord with
fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling. ;-rejoice, because of the risen Lord; but with
trembling., because of the earthquake, and the Angel who appeared as lightning.

14. Though, therefore, Chief Priests and Pharisees through Pilate's means sealed the tomb;
yet the women beheld Him who was risen. And Esaias knowing the feebleness of the Chief
Priests, and the women's strength of faith, says, Ye women, who come from beholding, come
hither ; for the people hath no understanding;-the Chief Priests want understanding, while
women are eye-witnesses. And when the soldiers came into the city to them, and told them
all that had come to pass, they said to them, Say ye, His disciples came & night, and
stole Him away while we slept ? Well therefore did Esaias foretell this also, as in their
persons, But tell us, and relate to us another deceit . He who rose again, is up, and for
a gift of money they persuade the soldiers; but they persuade not the kings of our time.
The soldiers then surrendered the truth for silver; but the kings of this day have, in
their piety, built this holy Church of the Resurrection of God our Saviour, inlaid with
silver and wrought with gold, in which we are assembled ; and embellished it with the
treasures of silver and gold and precious stones. And it this come to the governor's ears,
they say, we will persuade him . Yea, though ye persuade the soldiers, yet ye will not
persuade the world; for why, as Peter's guards were condemned when he escaped out of the
prison, were not they also who watched Jesus Christ condemned?

Upon the former, sentence was pronounced by Herod, for they were ignorant and had nothing
to say for themselves; while the latter, who had seen the truth, and concealed it for
money, were protected by the Chief Priests. Nevertheless, though but a few of the Jews
were persuaded at the time, the world became obedient. They who hid the truth were
themselves hidden; but they who received it were made manifest by the power of the
Saviour, who not only rose from the dead, but also raised the dead with Himself. And in
the person of these the Prophet Osee says plainly, After two days will He revive us, and
in the third day we shall rise again, and shall live in His sight . 15. But since the
disobedient Jews will not be persuaded by the Divine Scriptures, but forgetting all that
is written gainsay the Resurrection of Jesus, it were good to answer them thus: On what
ground, while you say that Eliseus and Elias raised the dead, do you gainsay the
Resurrection of our Saviour? Is it that we have no living witnesses now out of that
generation to what we say? Well, do you also bring forward witnesses of the history of
that time. But that is written;-so is this also written: why then do ye receive the one,
and reject the other? They were Hebrews who wrote that history; so were all the Apostles
Hebrews: why then do ye disbelieve the Jews ? Matthew who wrote the Gospel wrote it in the
Hebrew tongue ; and Paul the preacher was a Hebrew of the Hebrews; and the twelve Apostles
were all of Hebrew race: then fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem were appointed in succession
from among the Hebrews . What then is your reason for allowing your own accounts, and
rejecting ours, though these also are written by Hebrews from among yourselves.

16. But it is impossible, some one will say, that the dead should rise; and yet Eliseus
twice raised the dead,-when he was alive, and also when dead. Do we then believe, that
when Eliseus was dead, a dead man who was cast upon him and touched him, arose and is
Christ not risen? But in that case, the dead man who touched Eliseus, arose, yet he who
raised him continued nevertheless dead: but in this case both the Dead of whom we speak
Himself arose, and many dead were raised without having even touched Him. For many bodies
of the Saints which slept arose, and they came out of the graves after His Resurrection,
and went into the Holy City , (evidently this city, in which we now are ,) and appeared
unto many. Eliseus then raised a dead man, but he conquered not the world; Elias raised a
dead man, but devils are not driven away in the name of Elias. We are not speaking evil of
the Prophets, but we are celebrating their Master more highly; for we do not exalt our own
wonders by disparaging theirs; for theirs also are ours; but by what happened among them,
we win credence for our own.

17. But again they say, "A corpse then lately dead was raised by the living; but shew us
that one three days dead can possibly arise, and that a man should be buried, and rise
after three days." If we seek for Scripture testimony in proof of such facts, the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself supplies it in the Gospels, saying, Far as Jonas was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth . And when we examine the story of Jonas, great is the force of
the resemblance. Jesus was sent to preach repentance; Jonas also was sent: but whereas the
one fled, not knowing what should come to pass; the other came willingly, to give
repentance unto salvation. Jonas was asleep in the ship, and snoring amidst the stormy
sea; while Jesus also slept, the sea, according to God's providence , began to rise, to
shew in the sequel the might of Him who slept. To the one they said, Why art thou snoring?
Arise, call upon thy God, that God may save us ; but in the other case they say unto the
Master, Lord, save us . Then they said, Call upon thy God; here they say, save Thou. But
the one says, Take me, and cast me into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you ; the
other, Himself rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm . The one was
cast into a whale's belly: but the other of His own accord went down thither, where the
invisible whale of death is. And He went down of His own accord, that death might cast up
those whom he had devoured, according to that which is written, I will ransom them from
the power of the grave; and from the hand of death I will redeem them .

18. At this point of our discourse, let us consider whether is harder, for a man after
having been buried to rise again from the earth, or for a man in the belly of a whale,
having come into the great heat of a living creature, to escape corruption. For what man
knows not, that the heat of the belly is so great, that even bones which have been
swallowed moulder away? How then did Jonas, who was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly, escape corruption? And, seeing that the nature of all men is such that we
cannot live without breathing, as we do, in air, how did he live without a breath of this
air for three days? But the Jews make answer and say, The power of God descended with
Jonas when he was tossed about in hell. Does then the Lord grant life to His own servant,
by sending His power with him, and can He not grant it to Himself as well? If that is
credible, this is credible also; if this is incredible, that also is incredible. For to me
both are alike worthy of credence. I believe that Jonas was preserved, for all things are
possible with God ; I believe that Christ also was raised from the dead; for I bare many
testimonies of this, both from the Divine Scriptures, and l from the operative power even
at this day of Him who arose,-who descended into hell alone, but ascended thence with a
great company; for He went down to death, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose
through Him.

19. Death was struck with dismay on beholding a new visitant descend into Hades, not bound
by the chains of that place. Wherefore, O porters of Hades, were ye scared at sight of
Him? What was the unwonted fear that possessed your? Death fled, and his flight betrayed
his cowardice. The holy prophets ran unto Him, and Moses the Lawgiver, and Abraham, and
sane, and Jacob; David also, and Samuel, and Esaias, and John the Baptist, who bore
witness when he asked, Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another ? All the Just
were ransomed, whom death had swallowed; for it behoved tile King whom they had
proclaimed, to become the redeemer of His noble heralds. Then each of the Just said, O
death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting ? For the Conqueror hath redeemed
us. 20. Of this our Saviour the Prophet Jonas formed the type, when he prayed out of the
belly of the whale, and said, I cried in my affliction, and so on; out of the belly of
hell , and yet he was in the whale; but though in the whale, he says that he is in Hades;
for he was a type of Christ, who was to descend into Hades. And after a few words, he
says, in the person of Christ, prophesying most clearly, My head went down to the chasms
of the mountains ; and yet he was in the belly of the whale. What mountains then encompass
thee? I know, he says, that I am a type of Him, who is to be laid in the Sepulchre hewn
out of the rock. And though he was in the sea, Jonas says, I went dawn to the earth, since
he was a type of Christ, who went down into the heart of the earth. And foreseeing the
deeds of the Jews who persuaded the soldiers to lie, and told them, Say that they stole
Him away, he says, By regarding lying vanities they forsook their own mercy . For He who
had mercy on them came, and was crucified, and rose again, giving His own precious blood
both for Jews and Gentiles; yet say they, Say that they stole Him away, having regard to
lying vanities . But concerning His Resurrection, Esaias also says, He who brought up from
the earth the great Shepherd of the sheep ; he added the word, great, lest He should be
thought on a level with the shepherds who had gone before Him.

21. Since then we have the prophecies, let faith abide with us. Let them fall who fall
through unbelief, since they so will; but thou hast taken thy stand on the rock of the
faith in the Resurrection. Let no heretic ever persuade thee to speak evil of the
Resurrection. For to this day the Manichees say, that, the resurrection of the Saviour was
phantom-wise, and not real, not heeding Paul who says, Who was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh; and again, By the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord from the
dead . And again he rims at them, and speaks thus, Say not in thine heart, who shall
ascend into heaven; or who shall descend into the deep I that is, to bring up Christ from
the dead ; and in like manner warning as he has elsewhere written again, Remember Jesus
Christ raised from the dead ; and again, And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching
vain, and your faith also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we
testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up . But in what follows he
says, But now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep
;-And He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; (for if thou believe not the one witness,
thou hast twelve witnesses;) then He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once ; (if
they disbelieve the twelve, let them admit the five hundred;) after that He was seen

James , His own brother, and first Bishop of this diocese. Seeing then that such a Bishop
originally saw Christ Jesus when risen, do not thou, his disciple, disbelieve him. But
thou sayest that His brother James was a partial witness; afterwards He was seen also of
me Paul, His enemy; and what testimony is doubted, when an enemy proclaims it? "I, who was
before a persecutor , now preach the glad tidings of the Resurrection." 22. Many witnesses
there are of the Saviour's resurrection.-The night, and the light of the full moon; (for
that night was the sixteenth ;) the rock of the sepulchre which received Him; the stone
also shall rise up against the face of the Jews, for it saw the Lord; even the stone which
was then rolled away , itself bears witness to the Resurrection, lying there to this day.
Angels of God who were present testified of the Resurrection of the Only-begotten: Peter
and John, and Thomas, and all the rest of the Apostles; some of whom ran to the sepulchre,
and saw the burial-clothes, in which He was wrapped before, lying there after the
Resurrection; and others handled His hands and His feet, and beheld the prints of the
nails; and all enjoyed together that Breath of the Saviour, and were counted worthy to
forgive sins in the power of the Holy Ghost. Women too were witnesses, who took hold of
His feet, and who beheld the mighty earthquake, and the radiance of the Angel who stood
by: the linen clothes also which were wrapped about Him, and which He left when He
rose;-the soldiers, and the money given to them; the spot itself also, yet to be seen;-and
this house of the holy Church, which out of the loving affection to Christ of the Emperor
Constantine of blessed memory, was both built and beautified as thou seest.

23. A witness to the resurrection of Jesus is Tabitha also, who was in His name raised
from the dead ; for how shall we disbelieve that Christ is risen, when even His Name
raised the dead? The sea also bears witness to the resurrection of Jesus, as thou hast
heard before . The drought of fishes also testifies, and the fire of coals there, and the
fish laid thereon. Peter also bears witness, who had erst denied Him thrice, and who then
thrice confessed Him; and was commanded to feed His spiritual sheep. To this day stands
Mount Olivet, still to the eyes of the faithful all but displaying Him Who ascended on a
cloud, and the heavenly gate of His ascension. For from heaven He descended to Bethlehem,
but to heaven He ascended from the Mount of Olives ; at the former place beginning His
conflicts among men, but in the latter, crowned after them. Thou hast therefore many
witnesses; thou hast this very place of the Resurrection; thou hast also the place of the
Ascension towards the east; thou hast also for witnesses the Angels which there bore
testimony; and the cloud on which He went up, and the disciples who came down from that
place.

24. The course of instruction in the Faith would lead me to speak of the Ascension also;
but the grace of God so ordered it, that thou heardest most fully concerning it, as far as
our weakness allowed, yesterday, on the Lord's day; since, by the providence of divine
grace, the course of the Lessons in Church included the account of our Saviour's going up
into the heavens ; and what was then said was spoken principally for the sake of all, and
for the assembled body of the faithful, yet especially for thy sake . But the question is,
didst thou attend to what was said? For thou knowest that the words which come next in the
Creed teach thee to believe in Him "Who Rose Again The Third Day, And Ascended Into
Heaven, And Sat Down ON The Right Hand OF The Father." I suppose then certainly that thou
rememberest the exposition; yet I will now again cursorily put thee in mind of what was
then said. Remember what is distinctly written in the Psalms, God is gone up with a
shouts; remember that the divine powers also said to one another, Lift up your gates, ye
Princes , and the rest; remember also the Psalm which says, He ascended on high, tie led
captivity captive ; remember the Prophet who said, Who buildeth His ascension unto heaven
; and all the other particulars mentioned yesterday because of the gainsaying of the Jews.

25. For when they speak against the ascension of the Saviour, as being impossible,
remember the account of the carrying away of Habakkuk: for if Habakkuk was transported by
an Angel, being carried by the hair of his head , much rather was the Lord of both
Prophets and Angels, able by His own power to make His ascent into the Heavens on a cloud
from the Mount of Olives. Wonders like this thou mayest call to mind, but reserve the
preeminence for the Lord, the Worker of wonders; for the others were borne up, but He
bears up all things. Remember that Enoch was translated ; but Jesus ascended: remember
what was said yesterday concerning Elias, that Elias was taken up in a chariot of fire ;
but that the chariots of Christ are ten thousand-fold even thousands upon thousands : and
that Elias was taken up, towards the east of Jordan; but that Christ ascended at the east
of the brook Cedron: and that Elias went as into heaven ; but Jesus, into heaven: and that
Elias said that a double portion in the Holy Spirit should be given to his holy disciple;
but that Christ granted to His own disciples so great enjoyment of the grace of the Holy
Ghost, as not only to have It in themselves, but also, by the laying on of their hands, to
impart the fellowship of It to them who believed.

26. And when thou hast thus wrestled against the Jews,-when thou hast worsted them by
parallel instances, then come further to the pre-eminence of the Saviour's glory; namely,
that they were the servants, but He the Son of God. And thus thou wilt be reminded of His
pre-eminence, by the thought that a servant of Christ was caught up to the third heaven.
For if Elias attained as far as the first heaven, but Paul as far as the third, the
latter, therefore, has obtained a more honourable dignity. Be not ashamed of thine
Apostles; they are not inferior to Moses, nor second to the Prophets; but they are noble
among the noble, yea, nobler still. For Elias truly was taken up into heaven; but Peter
Has the keys of the kingdom of heaven, having received the words, Whatsoever thou shalt
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven . Elias was taken up only to heaven; but Paul
both into heaven, and into paradise (for it behoved the disciples of Jesus to receive more
manifold grace), and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful far than to utter.
But Paul came down again from above. not because he was unworthy to abide in the third
heaven, but in order that after having enjoyed things above man's reach, and descended in
honour, and having preached Christ, and died for His sake, he might receive also the crown
of martyrdom. But I pass over the other parts of this argument, of which I spoke yesterday
in the Lord's-day congregation; for with understanding hearers, a mere reminder is
sufficient for instruction.

27. But remember also what I have often said concerning the Son's sitting at the right
hand of the Father; because of the next sentence in the Creed, which says, "And Ascended
Into Heaven, And Sat Down AT The Right Hand OF The Father." Let us not curiously pry into
what is properly meant by the throne; for it is incomprehensible: but neither let us
endure those who falsely say, that it was after His Cross and Resurrection and Ascension
into heaven, that the Son began to sit on the right hand of the Father. For the Son gained
not His throne by advancement ; but throughout His being (and His being is by an eternal
generation ) He also sitteth together with the Father. And this throne the Prophet Esaias
having beheld before the incarnate coming of the Saviour, says, I saw the Lord sitting on
a throne, high and lifted up , and the rest. For the Father no man hath seen at any time ,
and He who then appeared to the Prophet was the Son. The Psalmist also says, Thy throne is
prepared of old; Thou art from everlasting . Though then the testimonies on this point are
many, yet because of the lateness of the time, we will content ourselves even with these.

28. But now I must remind you of a few things out of many which are spoken concerning the
Son's sitting at the right hand of the Father. For the hundred and ninth Psalm says
plainly, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies
Thy footstool . And the Saviour, confirming this saying in the Gospels, says that David
spoke not these things of himself, but from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, saying, How
then data David in the Spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou
on My right hands ? and the rest. And in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter on the day of
Pentecost standing with the Eleven ; and discoursing to the Israelites, has in very words
cited this testimony from the hundred and ninth Psalm. 29. But I must remind you also of a
few other testimonies in like manner concerning the Son's sitting at the right hand of the
Father. For in the Gospel according to Matthew it is written, Nevertheless, I say unto
you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power , and the
rest: in accord-once with which the Apostle Peter also writes, By the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ, who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven . And the Apostle
Paul, writing to the Romans, says, It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God . And charging the Ephesians, he thus speaks,
According to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised
Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand ; and the rest. And the Colossians he
taught thus, If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God . And in the Epistle to the Hebrews he says, When He had
made purification of our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high . And
again, But unto which of the Angels hath He said at any time, Sit thou at My right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool ? And again, But He, when He had offered one
sacrifice for all men, far ever sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth
expecting till His enemies be made His footstool . And again, Looking unto Jesus, the
author and perfecter of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the
Cross, despising shame, and is set down an the right hand of the throne of God ·

LECTURE 15

On the Clause, and Shall Come in Glory to Judge the Quick and the Dead; Of Whose Kingdom
There Shall Be No End,

Daniel VII. 9-14. I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did
sit, and then, I saw in a vision of the night, and behold one like unto the Son of Man
came with the clouds of heaven, 1. We preach not one advent only of Christ, but a second
also, far more glorious than the former. For the former gave a view of His patience; but
the latter brings with it the crown of a divine kingdom. For all things, for the most
part, are twofold in our Lord Jesus Christ: a twofold generation; one, of God, before the
ages; and one, of a Virgin, at the close of the ages: His descents twofold; one, the
unobserved, like rain on a fleece ; and a second His open coming, which is to be. In His
former advent, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger; in His second, He
covereth Himself with light as with a garment · In His first coming, He endured the Cross,
despising shame ; in His second, He comes attended by a host of Angels, receiving glory .
We rest not then upon His first advent only, but look also for His second. And as at His
first coming we said, Blessed is fire that cometh in the Name of the Lord , so will we
repeat the same at His second coming; that when with Angels we meet our Master, we may
worship Him and say, Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord. The Saviour comes,
not to be judged again, but to judge them who judged Him; He who before held His peace
when judged , shall remind the transgressors who did those daring deeds at the Cross, and
shall say, These things hast thou done, and I kept silence . Then, He came because of a
divine dispensation, teaching men with persuasion; but this time they will of necessity
have Him for their King, even though they wish it not.

2. And concerning these two comings, Malachi the Prophet says, And the Lord whom ye seek
shall suddenly come to His temple ; behold one coming. And again of the second coming he
says, And the Messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, He cometh, saith the
Lord Almighty. But who shall abide the day of His coming? or who shall stand when He
appeareth? Because fire cometh in like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' herb; and fire
shall sit as a refiner and purifier. And immediately after the Saviour Himself says, And I
will draw near to you in judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers,
and against the adulteresses, and against those who swear falsely in My Name , and the
rest. For this cause Paul warning us beforehand says, If any man buildeth on the
foundation gold, and silver, and precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work
shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire
. Paul also knew these two comings, when writing to Titus and saying, The grace of God
hath appeared which bringeth salvation unto all men, instructing us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and godly, and righteously in this
present world; looking for the blessed hope, and appearing of the glory of the great God
and our Saviour Jesus Christ . Thou seest how he spoke of a first, for which he gives
thanks; and of a second, to which we look forward. Therefore the words also of the Faith
which we are announcing were just now delivered thus ; that we believe in Him, who also
Ascended Into The Heavens, And Sat Down ON The Right Hand OF The Father And Shall Come IN
Glory TO Judge Quick And Dead; Whose Kingdom Shall Have NO End.

3. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, comes from heaven; and He comes with glory at the end of
this world, in the last day. For of this world there is to be an end, and this created
world is to be re-made anew . For since corruption, and theft, and adultery, and every
sort of sins have been poured forth over the earth, and blood has been mingled with blood
in the world, therefore, that this wondrous dwelling-place may not remain filled with
iniquity, this world passeth away, that the fairer world may be made manifest. And
wouldest thou receive the proof of this out of the words of Scripture? Listen to Esaias,
saying, And the heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all the stars shall fall,
as leaves from a vine, and as haves fall from a big-tree . The Gospel also says, The sun
shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
heaven . Let us not sorrow, as if we alone died; the stars also shall die; but perhaps
rise again. And the Lord rolleth up the heavens, not that He may destroy them, but that He
may raise them up again more beautiful. Hear David the Prophet saying, Thou, Lord, in the
beginning didst lay the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy
hands; they shall perish, but Thou remainest . But some one will say, Behold, he says
plainly that they shall perish.

Hear in what sense he says, they shall perish; it is plain from what follows; And they all
shall was old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt. Thou fold them up, and they shall
be changed. For as a man is said to "perish," according to that which is written, Behold,
how the righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart , and this, though the
resurrection is looked for; so we look for a resurrection, as it were, of the heavens
also. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood . Here let converts
from the Manichees gain instruction, and no longer make those lights their gods; nor
impiously think, that this sun which shall be darkened is Christ . And again hear the Lord
saying, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away ; for the
creatures are not as precious as the Master's words.

4. The things then which are seen shall pass away, and there shall come the things which
are looked for, things fairer than the present; but as to the time let no one be curious.
For it is not far you, He says, to know times or seasons, which the Father hath put in His
own power . And venture not thou to declare when these things shall be, nor on the other
hand supinely slumber. For he saith, Watch, for in such an hour as ye expect not the Son
of Man cometh . But since it was needful for us to know the signs of the end, and since we
are looking for Christ, therefore, that we may not die deceived and be led astray by that
false Antichrist, the Apostles, moved by the divine will, address themselves by a
providential arrangement to the True Teacher, and say, Tell us, when shall these things
be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world ? We look for
Thee to come again, but Satan transforms himself into an Angel of light; put us therefore
on our guard, that we may not worship another instead of Thee. And He, opening His divine
and blessed mouth, says, Take heed that no man mislead you. Do you also, my hearers, as
seeing Him now with the eyes of your mind, hear Him saying the same things to you; Take
heed that no man mislead you. And this word exhorts you all to give heed to what is
spoken; for it is not a history of things gone by, but a prophecy of things future, and
which will surely come. Not that we prophesy, for we are unworthy; but that the things
which are written will be set before you, and the signs declared. Observe thou, which of
them have already come to pass, and which yet remain; and make thyself safe.

5. Take heed that no man mislead you: for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ,
and shall mislead many. This has happened in part: for already Simon Magus has said this,
and Menander , and some others of the godless leaders of heresy; and others will say it in
our days, or after us. 6. A second sign. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars .
Is there then at this time war between Persians and Romans for Mesopotamia, or no? Does
nation rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom, or no? And there shall be
famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. These things have already come
to pass; and again, And fearful sights from heaven, and mighty storms . Watch therefore,
He says; for ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come . 7. But we seek our own sign of
His coming; we Churchmen seek a sign proper to the Church . And the Saviour says, And then
shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another . If thou
hear that bishops advance against bishops, and clergy against clergy, and laity against
laity even unto blood, be not troubled ; for it has been written before. Heed not the
things now happening, but the things which are written; and even though I who teach thee
perish, thou shalt not also perish with me; nay, even a hearer may become better than his
teacher, and he who came last may be first, since even those about the eleventh hour the
Master receives. If among Apostles there was found treason, dost thou wonder that hatred
of brethren is found among bishops? But the sign concerns not only rulers, but the people
also; for He says, And because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold
. Will any then among those present boast that he entertains friendship unfeigned towards
his neighbour? Do not the lips often kiss, and the countenance smile, and the eyes
brighten forsooth, while the heart is planning guile, and the man is plotting mischief
with words of peace?

8. Thou hast this sign also: And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the
world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come . And as we see, nearly
the whole world is now filled with the doctrine of Christ. 9. And what comes to pass after
this? He says next, When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken
of by Daniel the Prophet, standing in the Holy Place, let him that readeth understand .
And again, Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or, Lo, there;
believe it not . Hatred of the brethren makes room next for Antichrist; for the devil
prepares beforehand the divisions among the people, that he who is to come may be
acceptable to them. But God forbid that any of Christ's servants here, or elsewhere,
should run over to the enemy! Writing concerning this matter, the Apostle Paul gave a
manifest sign, saying, For that day shall not come, except there came first the falling
away, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth
himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the
temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with
you, I told you these things? And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he
may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of iniquity cloth already work, only
there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall the
lawless one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and
shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying
wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perishing . Thus wrote
Paul, and now is the falling away. For men have fallen away from the right faith ; and
some preach the identity of the Son with the Father , and others dare to say that Christ
was brought into being out of nothing . And formerly the heretics were manifest; but now
the Church is filled with heretics in disguise . For men have fallen away from the truth,
and have itching ears . Is it a plausible discourse? all listen to it gladly. Is it a word
of correction? all turn away from it. Most have departed from right words, and rather
choose the evil, than desire the good . This therefore is the falling away, and the enemy
is soon to be looked for: and meanwhile he has in part begun to send forth his own
forerunners , that he may then come prepared upon the prey. Look therefore to thyself, O
man, and make safe thy soul. The Church now charges thee before the Living God; she
declares to thee the things concerning Antichrist before they arrive. Whether they will
happen in thy time we know not, or whether they will happen after thee we know not; but it
is well that, knowing these things, thou shouldest make thyself secure beforehand.

10. The true Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God, comes no more from the earth. If any
come making false shows in the wilderness, go not forth; if they say, Lo, here is the
Christ, Lo, there, believe it not . Look no longer downwards and to the earth; for the
Lord descends from heaven; not alone as before, but with many, escorted by tens of
thousands of Angels; nor secretly as the dew on the fleece ; but shining forth openly as
the lightning. For He hath said Himself, As the lightning cometh out of the east, and
shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be ; and again, And
they shall see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds with power and great glory, and He
shall send forth His Angels with a great trumpet ; and the rest.

11. But as, when formerly He was to take man's nature, and God was expected to be born of
a Virgin, the devil created prejudice against this, by craftily preparing among idol-
worshippers fables of false gods, begetting and begotten of women, that, the falsehood
having come first, the truth, as he supposed, might be disbelieved; so now, since the true
Christ is to come a second time, the adversary, taking occasion by the expectation of the
simple, and especially of them of the circumcision, brings in a certain man who is a
magician , and most expert in sorceries and enchantments of beguiling craftiness; who
shall seize for himself the power of the Roman empire, and shall falsely style himself
Christ; by this name of Christ deceiving the Jews, who are looking for the Anointed , and
seducing those of the Gentiles by his magical illusions. 12. But this aforesaid Antichrist
is to come when the times of the Roman empire shall have been fulfilled, and the end of
the world is now drawing near . There shall rise up together ten kings of the Romans,
reigning in different parts perhaps, but all about the same time; and after these an
eleventh, the Antichrist, who by his magical craft shall seize upon the Roman power; and
of the kings who reigned before him, three he shall humble , and the remaining seven he
shall keep in subjection to himself. At first indeed he will put on a show of mildness (as
though he were a learned and discreet person), and of soberness and benevolence : and by
the lying signs and wonders of his magical deceit a having beguiled the Jews, as though he
were the expected Christ, he shall afterwards be characterized by all kinds of crimes of
inhumanity and lawlessness, so as to outdo all unrighteous and ungodly men who have gone
before him displaying against all men, but especially against us Christians, a spirit
murderous and most cruel, merciless and crafty . And after perpetrating such things for
three years and six months only, he shall be destroyed by the glorious second advent from
heaven of the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus, the true Christ, who
shall slay Antichrist with the breath of His mouth , and shall deliver him over to the
fire of hell.

13. Now these things we teach, not of our own invention, but having learned them out of
the divine Scriptures used in the Church , and chiefly from the prophecy of Daniel just
now read; as Gabriel also the Archangel interpreted it, speaking thus: The fourth beast
shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall surpass all kingdoms . And that this
kingdom is that of the Romans, has been the tradition of the Church's interpreters. For as
the first kingdom which became renowned was that of the Assyrians, and the second, that of
the Medes and Persians together, and after these, that of the Macedonians was the third,
so the fourth kingdom now is that of the Romans . Then Gabriel goes on to interpret,
saying, His ten horns are ten kings that shall arise; and another king shall rise up after
them, who shall surpass in wickedness all who were before him ; (he says, not only the
ten, but also all who have been before him;) and he shall subdue three kings; manifestly
out of the ten former kings: but it is plain that by subduing three of these ten, he will
become the eighth king; and he shall speak words against the Most High . A blasphemer the
man is and lawless, not having received the kingdom from his fathers, but having usurped
the power by means of sorcery.

14. And who is this, and from what sort of working? Interpret to us, O Paul. Whose coming,
he says, is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders ;
implying, that Satan has used him as an instrument, working in his own person through him;
for knowing that his judgment shall now no longer have respite, he wages war no more by
his ministers, as is his wont, but henceforth by himself more openly . And with all signs
and lying wonders; for the father of falsehood will make a show of the works of falsehood,
that the multitudes may think that they see a dead man raised, who is not raised, and lame
men walking, and blind men seeing, when the cure has not been wrought. 15. And again he
says, Who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is
worshipped; (against every God; Antichrist forsooth will abhor the idols,) so that he
seateth himself in the temple of God . What temple then? He means, the Temple of the Jews
which has been destroyed. For God forbid that it should be the one in which we are! Why
say we this? That we may not be supposed to favour ourselves. For if he comes to the Jews
as Christ, and desires to be worshipped by the Jews, he will make great account of the
Temple, that he may more completely beguile them; making it supposed that he is the man of
the race of David, who shall build up the Temple which was erected by Solomon . And
Antichrist will come at the time when there shall not be left one stone upon another in
the Temple of the Jews, according to the doom pronounced by our Saviour ; for when, either
decay of time, or demolition ensuing on pretence of new buildings, or from any other
causes, shall have overthrown all the stones, I mean not merely of the outer circuit, but
of the inner shrine also, where the Cherubim were, then shall he come With all signs and
lying wonders, exalting himself against all idols; at first indeed making a pretence of
benevolence, but afterwards displaying his relentless temper, and that chiefly against the
Saints of God.

For he says, I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints ; and again elsewhere,
there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation upon earth,
even to that same time . Dreadful is that beast, a mighty dragon, unconquerable by man,
ready to devour; concerning whom though we have more things to speak out of the divine
Scriptures, yet we will content ourselves at present with thus much, in order to keep
within compass. 16. For this cause the Lord knowing the greatness of the adversary grants
indulgence to the godly, saying, Then let them which be in Judaea flee to the mountains .
But if any man is conscious that he is very stout-hearted, to encounter Satan, let him
stand (for I do not despair of the Church's nerves), and let him say, Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ and the rest ? But, let those of us who are fearful provide for
our own safety; and those who are of a good courage, stand fast: for then shall be great
tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever
shall be . But thanks be to God who hath confined the greatness of that tribulation to a
few days; for He says, But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened ; and
Antichrist shall reign for three years and a half only. We speak not from apocryphal
books, but from Daniel; for he says, And they shall be given into his hand until a time
and times and half a time . A time is the one year in which his coming shall for a while
have increase; and the times are the remaining two years of iniquity, making up the sum of
the three years; and the half a time is the six months.

And again in another place Daniel says the same thing, And he swear by Him that liveth for
ever that it shall be for a time, and times, and half a time . And some peradventure have
referred what follows also to this; namely, a thousand two hundred and ninety days ; and
this, Blessed is he that endureth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and
thirty days . For this cause we must hide ourselves and flee; for perhaps we shall not
have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of Man be come . 17. Who then is the
blessed man, that shall at that time devoutly witness for Christ? For I say that the
Martyrs of that time excel all martyrs. For the Martyrs hitherto have wrestled with men
only; but in the time of Antichrist they shall do battle with Satan in his own person .
And former persecuting kings only put to death; they did not pretend to raise the dead,
nor did they make false shows of signs and wonders. But in his time there shall be the
evil inducement both of fear and of deceit, so that if it be possible the very elect shall
be deceived . Let it never enter into the heart of any then alive to ask, "What did Christ
more? For by what power does this man work these things? Were it not God's will, He would
not have allowed them. The Apostle warns thee, and says beforehand, And for this cause God
shall send them a working of error; (send, that is, shall allow to happen; not that they
might make excuse, but that they might be condemned . Wherefore? They, he says, who
believed not the truth, that is, the true Christ, but had pleasure in unrighteousness,
that is, in Antichrist. But as in the persecutions which happen from time to time, so also
then God will permit these things, not because He wants power to hinder them, but because
according to His wont He will through patience crown His own champions like as He did His
Prophets and Apostles;

to the end that having toiled for a little while they may inherit the eternal kingdom of
heaven, according to that which Daniel says, And at that time thy people shall be
delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book (manifestly, the book of
life); and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to
everlasting life, and same to shame and everlasting contempt; and they that be wise shall
shine as the brightness of the firmament; and of the many righteous , as the stars for
ever and ever. 18. Guard thyself then, O man; thou hast the signs of Antichrist; and
remember them not only thyself, but impart them also freely to all. If thou hast a child
according to the flesh, admonish him of this now; if thou hast begotten one through
catechizing , put him also on his guard, test he receive the false one as the True. For
the mystery of iniquity doth already work . I fear these wars of the nations ; I fear the
schisms of the Churches; I fear the mutual hatred of the brethren. But enough on this
subject; only God forbid that it should be fulfilled in our days; nevertheless, let us be
on our guard. And thus much concerning Antichrist. 19. But let us wait and look for the
Lord's coming upon the clouds from heaven. Then shall Angelic trumpets sound; the dead in
Christ shall rise first ,-the godly persons who are alive shall be caught up in the
clouds, receiving as the reward of their labours more than human honour, inasmuch as
theirs was a more than human strife; according as the Apostle Paul writes, saying, For the
Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and
with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord .

20. This earning of the Lord, and the end of the world, were known to the Preacher; who
says, Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and the rest ; Therefore remove anger from thy
heart, and put away evil from thy flesh; ... and remember thy Creator ... or ever the evil
days come .... or ever the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars be darkened ,
.... and they that look out of the windows be darkened ; (signifying the faculty of
sight;) or ever the silver cord be loosed; (meaning the assemblage of the stars, for their
appearance is like silver;) and the flower of gold be broken ; (thus veiling the mention
of the golden sun; for the camomile is a well-known plant, having many ray-like leaves
shooting out round it;) and they shall rise up at the voice of the sparrow, yea, they
shall look away from the height, and terrors shall be in the way . What shall they see?
Then shall they see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven; and they shall mourn
tribe by tribe . And what shall come to pass when the Lord is come? The almond tree shall
blossom, and the grasshopper shall grow heavy, and the caper-berry shall be scattered
abroad · And as the interpreters say, the blossoming almond signifies the departure of
winter; and our bodies shall then after the winter blossom with a heavenly flower . And
the grasshopper shall grow in substance (that means the winged soul clothing itself with
the body ,) and the caper-berry shall be scattered abroad (that is, the transgressors who
are like thorns shall be scattered .

21. Thou seest how they all foretell the coming of the Lord. Thou seest how they know the
voice of the sparrow. Let us know what sort of voice this is. For the Lord Himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of
God . The Archangel shall make proclamation and say to all, Arise to meet the Lord . And
fearful will be that descent of our Master. David says, God shall manifestly come, even
our God, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall burn before Him, and a fierce tempest
round about Him, and the rest . The Son of Man shall come to the Father, according to the
Scripture which was just now read, on the clouds of heaven, drawn by a stream of fire ,
which is to make trial of men. Then if any man's works are of gold, he shall be made
brighter; if any man's course of life be like stubble, and unsubstantial, it shall be
burnt up by the fire . And the Father shall sit, having His garment white as snow, and the
hair of His head like pure wool . But this is spoken after the manner of men; wherefore?
Because He is the King of those who have not been defiled with sins; for, He says, I will
make your sins white as snow, and as wool , which is an emblem of forgiveness of sins, or
of sinlessness itself. But the Lord who shall come from heaven on the clouds, is He who
ascended on the clouds; for He Himself hath said, And they shall see the Son of Man coming
on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory .

22. But what is the sign of His coming? lest a hostile power dare to counterfeit it. And
then shall appear, He says, the sign of the Son of Man in heaven . Now Christ's own true
sign is the Cross; a sign of a luminous Cross shall go before the King , plainly declaring
Him who was formerly crucified: that the Jews who before pierced Him and plotted against
Him, when they see it, may mourn tribe by tribe , saying, "This is He who was buffeted,
this is He whose face they spat on, this is He whom they bound with chains, this is He
whom of old they crucified, and set at nought . Whither, they will say, shall we flee from
the face of Thy wrath?" But the Angel hosts shall encompass them, so that they shall not
be able to flee anywhere. The sign of the Cross shall be a terror to His foes; but joy to
His friends who have believed in Him, or preached Him, or suffered for His sake. Who then
is the happy man, who shall then be found a friend of Christ? That King, so great and
glorious, attended by the Angel-guards, the partner of the Father's throne, will not
despise His own servants. For that His Elect may not be confused with His foes, He shall
send forth His Angels with a great trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from
the four winds . He despised not Lot, who was but one; how then shall He despise many
righteous? Come, ye blessed of My Father , will He say to them who shall then ride on
chariots of clouds, and be assembled by Angels.

23. But some one present will say, "I am a poor man," or again, "I shall perhaps be found
at that time sick in bed; or, "I am but a woman, and I shall be taken at the mill: shall
we then be despised? Be of good courage, O man; the Judge is no respecter of persons; He
will not judge according to a man's appearance, nor reprove according to his speech . He
honours not the learned before the simple, nor the rich before the needy. Though thou be
in the field, the Angels shall take thee; think not that He will take the landowners, and
leave thee the husbandman. Though thou be a slave, though thou be poor, be not any whir
distressed; He who took the form of a servant despises not servants. Though thou be lying
sick in bed, yet it is written, Then shall two be in one bed; the one shall be taken, and
the other left . Though thou be of compulsion put to grind, whether thou be man or woman ;
though thou be in fetters , and sit beside the mill, yet He who by His might bringeth out
them that are bound , will not overlook thee. He who brought forth Joseph out of slavery
and prison to a kingdom, shall redeem thee also from thy afflictions into the kingdom of
heaven. Only be of good cheer, only work, only strive earnestly; for nothing shall be
lost. Every prayer of thine, every Psalm thou singest is recorded;

every alms-deed, every fast is recorded; every marriage duly observed is recorded;
continence kept for God's sake is recorded; but the first crowns in the records are those
of virginity and purity; and thou shalt shine as an Angel. But as thou hast gladly
listened to the good things, so listen again without shrinking to the contrary. Every
covetous deed of thine is recorded; thine every act of fornication is recorded, thine
every false oath is recorded, every blasphemy, and sorcery, and theft, and murder. All
these things are henceforth to be recorded, if thou do the same now after having been
baptized; for thy former deeds are blotted out. 24. When the Son of Man, He says, shall
came in His glory, and all the Angels with Him . Behold, O man, before what multitudes
thou shalt come to judgment. Every race of mankind will then be present. Reckon,
therefore, bow many are the Roman nation; reckon how many the barbarian tribes now living,
and how many have died within the last hundred years; reckon how many nations have been
buried during the last thousand years; reckon all from Adam to this day. Great indeed is
the multitude; but yet it is little, for the Angels are many more. They are the ninety and
nine sheep, but mankind is the single one . For according to the extent of universal
space, must we reckon the number of its inhabitants. The whole earth is but as a point in
the midst of the one heaven, and yet contains so great a multitude; what a multitude must
the heaven which encircles it contain? And must not the heaven of heavens contain
unimaginable numbers ? And it is written, Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten
thousand times ten thousand stood before Him ; not that the multitude is only so great,
but because the Prophet could not express more than these. So there will be present at the
judgment in that day, God, the Father of all, Jesus Christ being seated with Him, and the
Holy Ghost present with Them; and an angel's trumpet shall summon us all to bring our
deeds with us. Ought we not then from this time forth to be sore troubled? Think it not a
slight doom, O man, even apart from punishment, to be condemned in the presence of so
many. Shall we not choose rather to die many deaths, than be condemned by friends?

25. Let us dread then, brethren, lest God condemn us; who needs not examination or proofs,
to condemn. Say not, In the night I committed fornication, or wrought sorcery, or did any
other thing, and there was no man by. Out of thine own conscience shall thou be judged,
thy thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing, in the day when God shall judge the
secrets of men . The terrible countenance of the Judge will force thee to speak the truth;
or rather, even though thou speak not, it will convict thee. For thou shall rise clothed
with thine own sins, or else with thy righteous deeds. And this has the Judge Himself
declared-for it is Christ who judges-for neither cloth the Father judge any man, but he
hath given all judgment unto the Son , not divesting Himself of His power, but judging
through the Son; the Son therefore judgeth by the wills of the Father; for the will of the
Father and of the Son are not different, but one and the same. What then says the Judge,
as to whether thou shall bear thy works, or no? And before Him shall they gather all
nations : (for in the presence of Christ every knee must bow, of things in heaven, and
things in earth, and things under the earth : and He shall separate them one from another,
as the shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. How does the shepherd make the
separation?

Does he examine out of a book which is a sheep and which a goat? or does he distinguish by
their evident marks? Does not the wool show the sheep, and the hairy and rough skin the
goat? In like manner, if thou hast been just now cleansed from thy sins, thy deeds shall
be henceforth as pure wool; and thy robe shall remain unstained, and thou shall ever say,
I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on ? By thy vesture shall thou be known for a
sheep. But if thou be found hairy, like Esau, who was rough with hair, and wicked in mind,
who for food lost his birthright and sold his privilege, thou shall be one of those on the
left hand. I But God forbid that any here present should be cast out from grace, or for
evil deeds be found among the ranks of the sinners on the left hand!

26. Terrible in good truth is the judgment, and terrible the things announced. The kingdom
of heaven is set before us, and everlasting fire is prepared. How then, some one will say,
are we to escape the fire? And how to enter into the kingdom? I was an hungered, He says,
and ye gave Me meat. Learn hence the way; there is here no need of allegory, but to fulfil
what is said. I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink;
I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited
Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me . These things if thou do, thou shall reign
together with Him; but if thou do them not, thou shalt be condemned. At once then begin to
do these works, and abide in the faith; lest, like the foolish virgins, tarrying to buy
oil, thou be shut out. Be not confident because thou merely possessest the lamp, but
constantly keep it burning. Let the light of thy good works shine before men , and let not
Christ be blasphemed on thy account. Wear thou a garment of incorruption , resplendent in
good works; and whatever matter thou receivest from God to administer as a steward,
administer profitably. Hast thou been put in trust with riches? Dispense them well. Hast
thou been entrusted with the word of teaching? Be a good steward thereof.

Canst thou attach the souls of the hearers ? Do this diligently. There are many doors of
good stewardship. Only let none of us be condemned and cast out; that we may with boldness
meet Christ the Everlasting King, who reigns for ever. For He doth reign for ever, who
shall be judge of quick and dead, because for quick and dead He died. And as Paul says,
For to this end Christ both died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead
and living . 27. And shouldest thou ever hear any say that the kingdom of Christ shall
have an end abhor the heresy; it is another head of the dragon, lately sprung up in
Galatia. A certain one has dared to affirm, that after the end of the world Christ shall
reign no longer ; he has also dared to say, that the Word having come forth from the
Father shall be again absorbed into the Father, and shall be no more ; uttering such
blasphemies to his own perdition. For he has not listened to the Lord, saying, The Son
abideth for ever . He has not listened to Gabriel, saying, And He shall reign over the
house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end . Consider this text.
Heretics of this day teach in disparagement of Christ, while Gabriel the Archangel taught
the eternal abiding of the Saviour; whom then wilt thou rather believe? wilt thou not
rather give credence to Gabriel? Listen to the testimony of Daniel in the text ; I saw in
a vision of the night, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven,
and came to the Ancientt of days. .... And to Him was given the honour, and the dominion,
and the kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and languages shall serve Him; His dominion is
an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed
. These things rather hold fast, these things believe, and east away from thee the words
of heresy; for thou hast heard most plainly of the endless kingdom of Christ.

28. The like doctrine thou has also in the interpretation of the Stone, which was cut out
of a mountain without hands, which is Christ according to the flesh ; And His kingdom
shall not be left to another people. David also says in one place, Thy throne, O God, is
far ever and ever ; and in another place, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
foundations of the earth, &c., they shall perish, but Thou remainest, &c.; but Thou art
the same, and Thy years shall not fail : words which Paul has interpreted of the Son . 29.
And wouldest thou know how they who teach the contrary ran into such madness? They read
wrongly that good word of the Apostle, For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies
under His feet ; and they say, when His enemies shall have been put under His feet, He
shall cease to reign, wrongly and foolishly alleging this. For He who is king before He
has subdued His enemies, how shall He not the rather be king, after He has gotten the
mastery over them.

30. They have also dared to say that the Scripture, When all things shall be subjected
unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subjected unto Him that subjected all things
unto Him ,-that this Scripture shews that the Son also shall be absorbed into the Father.
Shall ye then, O most impious of all men, ye the creatures of Christ, continue? and shall
Christ perish, by whom both you and all things were made? Such a word is blasphemous. But
further, how shall all things be made subject unto Him? By perishing, or by abiding? Shall
then the other things, when subject to the Son abide, and shall the Son, when subject to
the Father, not abide? For He shall be subjected, not because He shall then begin to do
the Father's will (for from eternity He doth always those things that please Him ), but
because, then as before, He obeys the Father, yielding, not a forced obedience, but a
self-chosen accordance; for He is not a servant, that He should be subjected by force, but
a Son, that He should comply of His free choice and natural love.

31. But let us examine them; what is the meaning of "until" or "as long as?" For with the
very phrase will I close with them, and try to overthrow their error. Since they have
dared to say that the words, till He hath put His enemies under His feet, shew that He
Himself shall have an end, and have presumed to set bounds to the eternal kingdom of
Christ, and to bring to an end, as far as words go, His never-ending sovereignty, come
then, let us read the like expressions in the Apostle: Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam till Moses . Did men then die up to that time, and did none die any more after Moses,
or after the Law has there been no more death among men? Well then, thou seest that the
word "unto" is not to limit time; but that Paul rather signified this,-"And yet, though
Moses was a righteous and wonderful man, nevertheless the doom of death, which was uttered
against Adam, reached even unto him, and them that came after him; and this, though they
had not committed the like sins as Adam, by his disobedience in eating of the tree."

32. Take again another similar text. For until this day... when Moses is read, a vail
lieth upon their heart . Does until this day mean only "until Paul?" Is it not until this
day present, and even to the end? And if Paul say to the Corinthians, For we came even as
far as unto you in preaching the Gospel of Christ, having hope when your faith increases
to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond you , thou seest manifestly that as far as
implies not the end, but has something following it. In what sense then shouldest thou
remember that Scripture, till He hath put all enemies under His feet ? According as Paul
says in another place, And exhort each other daily, while it is called to-day ; meaning,
"continually." For as we may not speak of the "beginning of the days" of Christ, so
neither suffer thou that any should ever speak of the end of His kingdom. For it is
written, His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom .


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
=====================

CATECHETICAL LECTURES continued

LECTURE 16

On the Article, and in One Holy Ghost, the Comforter, Which Spake in the Prophets.

1 Corinthians XII. 1, 4. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you
ignorant. ... Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, &c. I. Spiritual in
truth is the grace we need, in order to discourse concerning the Holy Spirit; not that we
may speak what is worthy of Him, for this is impossible, but that by speaking the words of
the divine Scriptures, we may run our course without danger. For a truly fearful thing is
written in the Gospels, where Christ has plainly said, Whosoever shall speak a word
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that
which is to come . And there is often fear, test a man should receive this condemnation,
through speaking what he ought not concerning Him, either from ignorance, or from supposed
reverence. The Judge of quick and dead, Jesus Christ, declared that he hath no
forgiveness; if therefore any man offend, what hope has he?

2. It must therefore belong to Jesus Christ's grace itself to grant both to us to speak
without deficiency, and to you to hear with discretion; for discretion is needful not to
them only who speak, but also to them that hear, lest they hear one thing, and misconceive
another in their mind. Let us then speak concerning the Holy Ghost nothing but what is
written; and whatsoever is not written, let us not busy ourselves about it. The Holy Ghost
Himself spoke the Scriptures; He has also spoken concerning Himself as much as He pleased,
or as much as we could receive. Let us therefore speak those things which He has said; for
whatsoever He has not said, we dare not say. 3. There is One Only Holy Ghost, the
Comforter; and as there is One God the Father, and no second Father;-and as there is One
Only-begotten Son and Word of God, who hath no brother;-so is there One Only Holy Ghost,
and no second spirit equal in-honour to Him. Now the Holy Ghost is a Power most mighty, a
Being divine and unsearchable; for He is living and intelligent, a sanctifying principle
of all things made by God through Christ.' He it is who illuminates the souls of the just;
He was in the Prophets, He was also in the Apostles in the New Testament. Abhorred be they
who dare to separate the operation of the Holy Ghost! There is One God, the Father, Lord
of the Old and of the New Testament: and One Lord, Jesus Christ, who was prophesied of in
the Old Testament, and came in the New; and One Holy Ghost, who through the Prophets
preached of Christ, and when Christ was come, descended, and manifested Him .

4. Let no one therefore separate the Old from the New Testament ; let no one say that the
Spirit in the former is one, and in the latter another; since thus he offends against the
Holy Ghost Himself, who with the Father and the Son together is honoured, and at the time
of Holy Baptism is included with them in the Holy Trinity. For the Only-begotten Son of
God said plainly to the Apostles, Go ye, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost . Our hope is in
Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost. We preach not three Gods ; let the Marcionites be
silenced; but with the Holy Ghost through One Son, we preach One God. The Faith is
indivisible; the worship inseparable. We neither separate the Holy Trinity, like some; nor
do we as Sabellius work confusion. But we know according to godliness One Father, who sent
His Son to be our Saviour we know One Son, who promised that He would send the Comforter
from the Father; we know the Holy Ghost, who spake in the Prophets, and who on the day of
Pentecost descended on the Apostles in the form of fiery tongues, here, in Jerusalem, in
the Upper Church of the Apostles ; for in all things the choicest privileges are with us.
Here Christ came down from heaven; here the Holy Ghost came down from heaven. And in truth
it were most fitting, that as we discourse concerning Christ and Golgotha here in
Golgotha, so also we should speak concerning the Holy Ghost in the Upper Church; yet since
He who descended there jointly partakes of the glory of Him who was crucified here, we
here speak concerning Him also who descended there: for their worship is indivisible.

5. We would now say somewhat concerning the Holy Ghost; not to declare His substance with
exactness, for this were impossible; but to speak of the diverse mistakes of some
concerning him, lest from ignorance we should fall into them; and to block up the paths of
error, that we may journey on the King's one highway. And if we now for caution's sake
repeat any statement of the heretics, let it recoil on their heads, and may we be
guiltless, both we who speak, and ye who hear. 6. For the heretics, who are most profane
in all things, have sharpened their tongue against the Holy Ghost also, and have dared to
utter impious things; as Irenus the interpreter has written in his injunctions against
heresies . For some of them have dared to say that they were themselves the Holy Ghost;-of
whom the first was Simon , the sorcerer spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles; for when he
was cast out, he presumed to teach such doctrines: and they who are called Gnostics,
impious men, have spoken other things against the Spirit , and the wicked Valentinians
again something else; and the profane Manes dared to call himself the Paraclete sent by
Christ . Others again have taught that the Spirit is different in the Prophets and in the
New Testament Yea, and great is their error, or rather their blasphemy. Such therefore
abhor, and flee from them who blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and have no forgiveness. For what
fellowship hast thou with the desperate, thou, who art now to be baptized, into the Holy
Ghost also ? If he who attaches himself to a thief, and consenteth with him, is subject to
punishment, what hope shall he have, who offends against the Holy Ghost?

7. Let the Marcionists also be abhorred, who tear away from the New Testament the sayings
of the Old . For Marcion first, that most impious of men, who first asserted three Gods ,
knowing that in the New Testament are contained testimonies of the Prophets concerning
Christ, cut out the testimonies taken from the Old Testament, that the King might be left
without witness. Abhor those above-mentioned Gnostics, men of knowledge by name, but
fraught with ignorance; who have dared to say such things of the Holy Ghost as I dare not
repeat. 8. Let the Cataphrygians also be thy abhorrence, and Montanus, their ringleader in
evil, and his two so-called prophetesses, Maximilla and Priscilla. For this Montanus, who
was out of his mind and really mad (for he would not have said such things, had he not
been mad), dared to say that he was himself the Holy Ghost,-he, miserable man, and filled
with all uncleanness and lasciviousness; for it suffices but to hint at this, out of
respect for the women who are present. And having taken possession of Pepuza, a very small
hamlet of Phrygia, he falsely named it Jerusalem; and cutting the throats of wretched
little children, and chopping them up into unholy food, for the purpose of their so-called
mysteries ,-(wherefore till but lately in the time of persecution we were suspected of
doing this, because these Montanists were called, falsely indeed, by the common name of
Christians;)-yet he dared to call himself the Holy Ghost, filled as he was with all
impiety and inhuman cruelty, and condemned by an irrevocable sentence.

9. And he was seconded, as was said before, by that most impious Manes also, who combined
what was bad in every heresy ; who being the very lowest pit of destruction, collected the
doctrines of all the heretics, and wrought out and taught a yet more novel error, and
dared to say that he himself was the Comforter, whom Christ promised to send. But the
Saviour when He promised Him, said to the Apostles, But tarry, ye in the city of
Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high . What then? did the Apostles who
had been dead two hundred years, wait for Manes, until they should be endued with the
power; and will any dare to say, that they were not forthwith full of the Holy Ghost?
Moreover it is written, Then they laid their hands on and they received the Holy Ghost ;
was not this before Manes, yea, many years before, when the Holy Ghost descended on the
day of Pentecost?

10. Wherefore was Simon the sorcerer condemned? Was it not that he came to the Apostles,
and said, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy
Ghost? For he said not, "Give me also the fellowship of the Holy Ghost," but "Give me the
power;" that he might sell to others that which could not be sold, and which he did not
himself possess. He offered money also to them who had no possessions ; and this, though
he saw men bringing the prices of the things sold, and laying them at the Apostles' feet.
And he considered not that they who trod under foot the wealth which was brought for the
maintenance of the poor, were not likely to give the power of the Holy Ghost for a bribe.
But what say they to Simon? Thy money perish with thee, thee, because thou hast thought to
purchase the gift of God with money ; for thou art a second Judas, for expecting to buy
the grace of the Spirit with money. If then Simon, for wishing to get this power for a
price, is to perish, holy great is the impiety of Manes, who said that he was the Holy
Ghost? Let us hate them who are worthy of hatred; let us turn away from them from whom God
turns away; let us also ourselves say unto God with all boldness concerning all heretics,
Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee, and am not I grieved with Thine enemies ? For
there is also an enmity which is right, according as it is written, I will put enmity
between thee and her seed ; for friendship with the serpent works enmity with God, and
death.

11. Let then thus much suffice concerning those outcasts; and now let us return to the
divine Scriptures, and let us drink waters out of our own cisterns [that is, the holy
Fathers ], and out of our own springing wells . Drink we of living water, springing up
into everlasting life ; but this spake the Saviour of the Spirit, which they that believe
on Him should receive . For observe what He says, He that believeth an Me (not simply
this, but), as the Scripture hath said (thus He hath sent thee back to the Old Testament),
out of his belly shall flaw rivers of living water, not rivers perceived by sense, and
merely watering the earth with its thorns and trees, but bringing souls to the light. And
in another place He says, But the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of
living water springing up into everlasting life,-a new kind of water living and springing
up, springing up unto them who are worthy.

12. And why did He call the grace of the Spirit water? Because by water all things
subsist; because water brings forth grass and living things; because the water of the
showers comes down from heaven; because it comes down one in form, but works in many
forms. For one fountain watereth the whole of Paradise, and one and the same rain comes
down upon all the world, yet it becomes white in the lily, and red in the rose, and purple
in violets and hyacinths, and different and varied in each several kind: so it is one in
the palm-tree, and another in the vine, and all in all things; and yet is one in nature,
not diverse from itself; for the rain does not change itself, and come down first as one
thing, then as another, but adapting itself to the constitution of each thing which
receives it, it becomes to each what is suitable . Thus also the Holy Ghost, being one,
and of one nature, and indivisible, divides to each His grace, according as He will : and
as the dry tree, after partaking of water, puts forth shoots, so also the soul in sin,
when it has been through repentance made worthy of the Holy Ghost, brings forth clusters
of righteousness. And though He is One in nature, yet many are the virtues which by the
will of God and in the Name of Christ He works. For He employs the tongue of one man for
wisdom; the soul of another He enlightens by Prophecy;

to another He gives power to drive away devils; to another He gives to interpret the
divine Scriptures. He strengthens one man's self-command; He teaches another the way to
give alms; another He teaches to fast and discipline himself; another He teaches to
despise the things of the body; another He trains for martyrdom: diverse in different men,
yet not diverse from Himself, as it is written, But the manifestation of the Spirit is
given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given through the Spirit the ward of
wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another
faith, in the same Spirit; and to another gifts of healing, in the same Spirit; and to
another workings of miracles; and to another prophecy; and to another discernings of
spirits; and to another divers kinds of tongues; and to another the interpretation of
tongues: but all these worketh that one and the same Spirit, dividing to every man
severally as He will .

13. But since concerning spirit in general many diverse things are written in the divine
Scriptures, and there is fear lest some out of ignorance fall into confusion, not knowing
to what sort of spirit the writing refers; it will be well now to certify you, of what
kind the Scripture declares the Holy Spirit to be. For as Aaron is called Christ, and
David and Saul and others are called Christs , but there is only one true Christ, so
likewise since the name of spirit is given to different things, it is right to see what is
that which is distinctively called the Holy Spirit. For many things are called spirits.
Thus an Angel is called spirit, our soul is called spirit, and this wind which is blowing
is called spirit; great virtue also is spoken of as spirit; and impure practice is called
spirit; and a devil our adversary is called spirit. Beware therefore when thou hearest
these things, lest from their having a common name thou mistake one for another. For
concerning our soul the Scripture says, His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return to
his earth : and of the same soul it says again, Which farmeth the spirit of man within him
. And of the Angels it is said in the Psalms, Who maketh His Angels spirits, and His
ministers aflame of fire . And of the wind it saith, Thou shalt break the ships of
Tarshish with a violent spirit ; and, As the tree in the woad is shaken by the spirit ;
and, Fire, hail, snow, ice, spirit of storm . And of good doctrine the Lord Himself says,
The words that I have spoken unto you, they are spirit , and they are life; instead of,
"are spiritual." But the Holy Spirit is not pronounced by the tongue; but He is a Living
Spirit, who gives wisdom of speech, Himself speaking and discoursing.

14. And wouldest thou know that He discourses and speaks? Philip by revelation of an Angel
went down to the way which leads to Gaza, when the Eunuch was coming; and the Spirit said
to Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot . Seest thou the Spirit talking to
one who hears Him? Ezekiel also speaks thus, The Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and said
unto me, Thus saith the Lord . And again, The Holy Ghost said , unto the Apostles who were
in Antioch, Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
Beholdest thou the Spirit living, separating, calling, and with authority sending forth?
Paul also said, Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and
afflictions await me . For this good Sanctifier of the Church, and her Helper, and
Teacher, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, of whom the Saviour said, He shall teach you all
things (and He said not only, He shall teach, but also, He shall bring to your remembrance
whatever I have said unto you ; for the teachings of Christ and of the Holy Ghost are not
different, but the same)-He, I say, testified before to Paul what things should befall
him, that he might be the more stout-hearted, from knowing them beforehand. Now I have
spoken these things unto you because of the text, The words which I have spoken unto you,
they are spirit; that thou mayest understand this, not of the utterance of the lips , but
of the good doctrine in this passage.

15. But sin also is called spirit, as I have already said; only in another and opposite
sense, as when it is said, The spirit of whore-dam caused them to err . The name "spirit"
is given also to the unclean spirit, the devil; but with the addition of, "the unclean;
for to each is joined its distinguishing name, to mark its proper nature. If the Scripture
speak of the soul of man, it says the spirit with the addition, of the man; if it mean the
wind, it says, spirit of storm; if sin, it says, spirit of whoredom; if the devil, it
says, an unclean spirit: that we may know which particular thing is spoken of, and thou
mayest not suppose that it means the Holy Ghost; God forbid! For this name of spirit is
common to many things; and every thing which has not a solid body is in a general way
called spirit . Since, therefore, the devils have not such bodies, they are called
spirits: but there is a great difference; for the unclean devil, when he comes upon a
man's soul (may the Lord deliver from him every soul of those who hear me, and of those
who are not present), he comes like a wolf upon a sheep, ravening for blood, and ready to
devour. His coming is most fierce; the sense of it most oppressive; the mind becomes
darkened; his attack is an injustice also, and so is his usurpation of another's
possession.

For he makes forcible use of another's body, and another's instruments, as if they were
his own; he throws down him who stands upright (for he is akin to him who fell from heaven
); he twists the tongue and distorts the lips; foam comes instead of words; the man is
filled with darkness; his eye is open, yet the soul sees not through it; and the miserable
man gasps convulsively at the point of death. The devils are verily foes of men, using
them foully and mercilessly. 16. Such is not the Holy Ghost; God forbid! For His doings
tend the contrary way, towards what is good and salutary. First, His coming is gentle; the
perception of Him is fragrant; His burden most light; beams of light and knowledge gleam
forth before His coming . He comes with the bowels of a true guardian: for He comes to
save, and to heal, to teach, to admonish, to strengthen, to exhort, to enlighten the mind,
first of him who receives Him, and afterwards of others also, through him. And as a man,
who being previously in darkness then suddenly beholds the sun, is enlightened in his
bodily sight, and sees plainly things which he saw not, so likewise he to whom the Holy
Ghost is vouchsafed, is enlightened in his soul, and sees things beyond man's sight, which
he knew not; his body is on earth, yet his soul mirrors forth the heavens. He sees, like
Esaias, the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up ; he sees, like Ezekiel; Him who
is above the Cherubim ; he sees like Daniel, ten thousand times ten thousand, and
thousands of thousands ; and the man, who is so little, beholds the beginning of the
world, and knows the end of the world, and the times intervening, and the successions of
kings,- things which he never learned: for the True Enlightener is present with him. The
man is within the walls of a house; yet the power of his knowledge reaches far and wide,
and he sees even what other men are doing.

17. Peter was not with Ananias and Sapphira when they sold their possessions, but he was
present by the Spirit; Why, he says, hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy
Ghost ? There was no accuser; there was no witness; whence knew he what had happened?
Whiles it remained was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own
power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart ? The unlettered Peter, through
the grace of the Spirit, learnt what not even the wise men of the Greeks had known. Thou
hast the like in the case also of Elisseus. For when he had freely healed the leprosy of
Naaman, Gehazi received the reward, the reward of another's achievement; and he took the
money from Naaman, and bestowed it in a dark place. But the darkness is not hidden from
the Saints . And when he came, Elisseus asked him; and like Peter, when he said, Tell me
whether ye sold the land for so much ? he also enquires, Whence comest thou, Gehazi ? Not
in ignorance, but in sorrow ask I whence comest thou? From darkness art thou come, and to
darkness shalt thou go; thou hast sold the cure of the leper, and the leprosy is thy
heritage. I, he says, have fulfilled the bidding of Him who said to me, Freely ye have
received, freely give ; but thou hast sold this grace; receive now the condition of the
sale. But what says Elisseus to him? Went not mine heart with thee? I was here shut in by
the body, but the spirit which has been given me of God saw even the things afar off, and
shewed me plainly what was doing elsewhere. Seest thou how the Holy Ghost not only rids of
ignorance, but invests with knowledge? Seest thou how He enlightens men's souls?

18. Esaias lived nearly a thousand years ago; and he beheld Zion as a booth. The city was
still standing, and beautified with public places, and robed in majesty; yet he says, Zion
shall be ploughed a field , foretelling what is now fulfilled in our days . And observe
the exactness of the prophecy; for he said, And the daughter of Zion shall be left as a
booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers . And now the place is filled
with gardens of cucumbers. Seest thou how the Holy Spirit enlightens the saints? Be not
therefore carried away to other things, by the force of a common term, but keep fast the
exact meaning. 19. And if ever, while thou hast been sitting here, a thought concerning
chastity or virginity has come into thy mind, it has been His teaching. Has not often a
maiden, already at the bridal threshold , fled away. He teaching her the doctrine of
virginity? Has not often a man distinguished at court , scorned wealth and rank, under the
teaching of the Holy Ghost? Has not often a young man, at the sight of beauty, closed his
eyes, and fled from the sight, and escaped the defilement? Askest thou whence this has
come to pass? The Holy Ghost taught the soul of the young man. Many ways of covetousness
are there in the world; yet Christians refuse possessions: wherefore? because of the
teaching of the Holy Ghost. Worthy of honour is in truth that Spirit, holy and good; and
fittingly are we baptized into Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. A man, still clothed with a
body, wrestles with many fiercest demons; and often the demon, whom many men could not
master with iron bands, has been mastered by the man himself with words of prayer, through
the power which is in him of the Holy Ghost; and the mere breathing of the Exorcist
becomes as fire to that unseen foe. A mighty ally and protector, therefore, have we from
God; a great Teacher of the Church, a mighty Champion on our behalf. Let us not be afraid
of the demons, nor of the devil; for mightier is He who fighteth for us. Only let us open
to Him our doors; for He goeth about seeking such as are worthy and searching on whom He
may confer His gifts.

20. And He is called the Comforter, because He comforts and encourages us, and helpeth our
infirmities; far we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit Himself
maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered , that is, makes
intercession to God. Oftentimes a man for Christ's sake has been outraged and dishonoured
unjustly; martyrdom is at hand; tortures on every side, and fire, and sword, and savage
beasts, and the pit. But the Holy Ghost softly whispers to him, "Wait thou on the Lord , O
man; what is now befalling thee is a small matter, the reward will be great. Suffer a
little while, and thou shale be with Angels for ever. The sufferings of this present time
art not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us ." He portrays
to the man the kingdom of heaven; He gives him a glimpse of the paradise of delight; and
the martyrs, whose bodily countenances are of necessity turned to their judges, but who in
spirit are already in Paradise, despise those hardships which are seen.

21. And wouldest thou be sure that by the power of the Holy Ghost the Martyrs bear their
witness? The Saviour says to His disciples, And when they bring you unto the synagogues,
and the magistrates, and authorities, be not anxious how ye shall answer, or what ye shall
say; for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in that very hour, what ye ought to say . For it
is impossible to testify as a martyr for Christ's sake, except a man testify by the Holy
Ghost; for if na man can say that Jesus Christ is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost , how
shall any man give his own life for Jesus' sake, but by the Holy Ghost? 22. Great indeed,
and all-powerful in gifts, and wonderful, is the Holy Ghost. Consider, how many of you are
now sitting here, how many souls of us are present. He is working suitably for each, and
being present in the midst, beholds the temper of each, beholds also his reasoning and his
conscience, and what we say, and think, and believe . Great indeed is what I have now
said, and yet is it small. For consider, I pray, with mind enlightened by Him, how many
Christians there are in all this diocese, and how many in the whole province of Palestine,
and carry forward thy mind from this province, to the whole Roman Empire; and after this,
consider the whole world; races of Persians, and nations of Indians, Garbs and Sarmatians,
Gauls and Spaniards, and Moors, Libyans and Ethiopians, and the rest for whom we have no
names; for of many of the nations not even the names have reached us. Consider, I pray, of
each nation, Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, Solitaries, Virgins, and laity besides; and
then behold their great Protector, and the Dispenser of their gifts;-how throughout the
world He gives to one chastity, to another perpetual virginity, to another almsgiving, to
another voluntary poverty, to another power of repelling hostile spirits. And as the
light, with one touch of its radiance sheds brightness on all things, so also the Holy
Ghost enlightens those who have eyes; for if any from blindness is not vouch-safed His
grace, let him not blame the Spirit, but his own unbelief.

23. Thou hast seen His power, which is in all the world; tarry now no longer upon earth,
but ascend on high. Ascend, I say, in imagination even unto the first heaven, and behold
there so many countless myriads of Angels. Mount up in thy thoughts, if thou canst, yet
higher; consider, I pray thee, the Archangels, consider also the Spirits; consider the
Virtues, consider the Principalities, consider the Powers, consider the Thrones, consider
the Dominions ;-of all these the Comforter is the Ruler from God, and the Teacher, and the
Sanctifier. Of Him Elias has need, and Elisseus, and Esaias, among men; of Him Michael and
Gabriel have need among Angels. Naught of things created is equal in honour to Him: for
the families of the Angels, and all their hosts assembled together, have no equality with
the Holy Ghost. All these the all-excellent power of the Comforter overshadows. And they
indeed are sent forth to ministers , but He searches even the deep things of God,
according as the Apostle says, For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God. For what man knoweth the thing of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in
him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God .

24. He preached concerning Christ in the Prophets; He wrought in the Apostles; He to this
day seals the souls in Baptism. And the Father indeed gives to the Son; and the Son shares
with the Holy Ghost. For it is Jesus Himself, not I, who says, All things are delivered
unto Me of My Father ; and of the Holy Ghost He says, When He, the Spirit of Truth, shall
come, and the rest .... He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew
it unto you . The Father through the Son, with the Holy Ghost, is the giver of all grace;
the gifts of the Father are none other than those of the Son, and those of the Holy Ghost;
for there is one Salvation, one Power, one Faith; One God, the Father; One Lord, His only-
begotten Son; One Holy Ghost, the Comforter. And it is enough for us to know these things;
but inquire not curiously into His nature or substance : for had it been written, we would
have spoken of it; what is not written, let us not venture on; it is sufficient for our
salvation to know, that there is Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost.

25. This Spirit descended upon the seventy Elders in the days of Moses. (Now let not the
length of the discourse, beloved, produce weariness in you: but may He the very subject of
our discourse grant strength to every one, both to us who speak, and to you who listen!)
This Spirit, as I was saying, came down upon the seventy Elders in the time of Moses; and
this I say to thee, that I may now prove, that He knoweth all things, and worketh as He
will . The seventy Elders were chosen; And the Lord came down in a cloud, and took of the
Spirit that was upon Moses, and put it upon the seventy Elders ; not that the Spirit was
divided, but that His grace was distributed in proportion to the vessels, and the capacity
of the recipients. Now there were present sixty and eight, and they prophesied; but Eldad
and Modad were not present: therefore that it might be shewn that it was not Moses who
bestowed the gift, but the Spirit who wrought, Eldad and Modad, who though called, bad not
as yet presented themselves, did also prophesy .

26. Jesus the Son of Nun, the successor of Moses, was amazed; and came to him and said,
"Hast thou heard that Eldad and Modad are prophesying? They were called, and they came
not; my lard Moses, forbid them ." "I cannot forbid them," he says, "for this grace is
from Heaven; nay, so far am I from forbidding them, that I myself am thankful for it. I
think not, however, that thou hast said this in envy; art thou jealous for my sake,
because that they prophesy, and thou prophesiest not yet? Wait for the proper season; and
oh that all the Lord's people may be prophets, whenever the Lord shall give His Spirit
upon them ! "saying this also prophetically, whenever the Lord shall give; "For as yet
then He has not given it; so thou hast it not yet."-Had not then Abraham this, and Isaac,
and Jacob, and Joseph? And they of old, had they it not? Nay, but the words, "whenever the
Lord shall give" evidently mean "give it upon all; as yet indeed the grace is partial,
then it shall be given lavishly." And he secretly alluded to what was to happen among us
on the day of Pentecost; for He Himself came down among us. He had however also come down
upon many before. For it is written, And Jesus the son of Nun was filled with a spirit of
wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him . Thou seest the figure everywhere the same
in the Old and New Testament;-in the days of Moses, the Spirit was given by laying on of
hands; and by laying on of hands Peter also gives the Spirit. And on thee also, who art
about to be baptized, shall His grace come; yet in what manner I say not, for I will not
anticipate the proper season.

27. He also came down upon all righteous men and Prophets; Enos, I mean, and Enoch, and
Noah, and the rest; upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for as regards Joseph, even Pharaoh
perceived that he had tire Spirit of God within him . As to Moses, and the wonderful works
wrought by the Spirit in his days, thou hast heard often: This Spirit Job also had, that
most enduring man, and all the saints, though we repeat not all their names. He also was
sent forth when the Tabernacle was in making, and filled with wisdom the wise-hearted men
who were with Bezaleel . 28. In the might of this Spirit, as we have it in the Book of
Judges, Othniel judged ; Gideon waxed strong; Jephtha conquered ; Deborah, a woman, waged
war; and Samson, so long as he did righteously, and grieved Him not, wrought deeds above
man's power. And as for Samuel and David, we have it plainly in the Books of the Kingdoms,
how by the Holy Ghost they prophesied themselves, and were rulers of the prophets;-and
Samuel was called the Seer ; and David says distinctly, The Spirit of the Lord spake by me
, and in the Psalms, And take not thy Holy Spirit from me , and again, Thy good Spirit
shall lead me in the land of righteousness . And as we have it in Chronicles, Azariah , in
the time of King Asa, and Jahaziel in the time of King Jehoshaphat, partook of the Holy
Ghost; and again, another Azariah, he who was stoned . And Ezra says, Thou gavest also Thy
good Spirit to instruct them . But as touching Elias who was taken up, and Elisseus, those
inspired and wonder-working men, it is manifest, without our saying so, that they were
full of the Holy Ghost.

29. And if further a man peruse all the books of the Prophets, both of the Twelve, and of
the others, he will find many testimonies concerning. the Holy Ghost; as when Micah says m
the person of God, surely I will perfect power by the Spirit the Lord ; and Joel cries,
And it shall come to pass afterwards, saith God, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all
flesh , and the rest; and Haggai, Because I am with you, saith the Lord of Hosts ; and My
Spirit remaineth in the midst of you ; and in like manner Zechariah, But, receive My words
and My statutes which command by My Spirit, to My servants the Prophets ; and other
passages. 30. Esaias too, with his majestic voice, says, And the Spirit of God shall rest
upon Him, the spirit ode wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and godliness; and the Spirit of the fear of God shall fill Him ;
signifying that the Spirit is one and undivided, but His operations various. So again,
Jacob My servant, ..... I have put My Spirit upon Him . And again, I will pour My Spirit
upon thy seed ; and again, And now the Lord Almighty and His Stirs hath sent Me ; and
again, This is My covenant with them, saith the Lord, My Spirit which is upon thee ; and
again, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me , and the rest; and
again in his charge against the Jews, But they rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit , and
Where is He that put His Holy Spirit within them ? Also thou hast in Ezekiel (if thou be
not now weary of listening), what has already been quoted, And the Spirit fell upon me,
and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the Lord . But the words, fell upon me we must
understand in a good sense, that is "lovingly; and as Jacob, when he had found Joseph,
fell upon his neck; as also in the Gospels, the loving father, on seeing his son who had
returned from his wandering, had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him
.

And again in Ezekiel, And he brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldaea, to
them of the captivity . And other texts thou heardest before, in what was said about
Baptism; Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you , and the rest; a new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; and then immediately, And I will put My
Spirit within you . And again. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the
Spirit of the Lord . 31. He endued with wisdom the soul of Daniel, that young as he was he
should become a judge of Elders. The chaste Susanna was condemned as a wanton; there was
none to plead her cause; for who was to deliver her from the rulers? She was led away to
death, she was now in the hands of the executioners. But her Helper was at hand, the
Comforter, the Spirit who sanctifies every rational nature. Come hither to me, He says to
Daniel; young though thou be, convict old men infected with the sins of youth; for it is
written, God raised up the Holy Spirit upon a young stripling ; and nevertheless, (to pass
on quickly,) by the sentence of Daniel that chaste lady was saved. We bring this forward
as a testimony; for this is not the season for expounding. Nebuchadnezzar also knew that
the Holy Spirit was in Daniel; for he says to him, O Belteshazzar, master of the
magicians, of whom I know, that the Holy Spirit of God is in thee . One thing he said
truly, and one falsely; for that he had the Holy Spirit was true, but he was not the
master of the magicians, for he was no magician, but was wise through the Holy Ghost. And
before this also, he interpreted to him the vision of the Image, which he who had seen it
himself knew not; for he says, Tell me the vision, which I who saw it know not . Thou
seest the power of the Holy Ghost; that which they who saw it, know not, they who saw it
not, know and interpret.

LECTURE 17

Continuation of the Discourse on the Holy Ghost.

1 Corinthians XII. 8. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, &c. 1. In the
preceding Lecture, according to our ability we set before you, our beloved hearers , some
small portion of the testimonies concerning the Holy Ghost; and on the present occasion,
we will, if it be God's pleasure, proceed to treat, as far as may be, of those which
remain out of the New Testament: and as then to keep within due limit of your attention we
restrained our eagerness (for there is no satiety in discoursing concerning the Holy
Ghost), so now again we must say but a small part of what remains. For now, as well as
then, we candidly own that our weakness is overwhelmed by the multitude of things written.
Neither to-day will we use the subtleties of men, for that is unprofitable; but merely
call to mind what comes from the divine Scriptures; for this is the safest course,
according to the blessed Apostle Paul, who says, Which things also we speak, not in words
which man's WiSdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things
with spiritual . Thus we act like travellers or voyagers, who having one goal to a very
long journey, though hastening on with eagerness, yet by reason of human weakness are wont
to touch in their way at divers cities or harbours.

2. Therefore though our discourses concerning the Holy Ghost are divided, yet He Himself
is undivided, being one and the same. For as in speaking concerning the Father, at one
time we taught how He is the one only Cause ; and at another, how He is called Father , or
Almighty ; and at another, how He is the Creator of the universe; and yet the division of
the Lectures made no division of the Faith, in that He, the Object of devotion, both was
and is One;-and again, as in discoursing concerning the Only-begotten Son of God we taught
at one time concerning His Godhead , and at another concerning His Manhood , dividing into
many discourses the doctrines concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, yet preaching undivided
faith towards Him;-so now also though the Lectures concerning the Holy Spirit are divided,
yet we preach faith undivided towards Him. For it is one and the Self-same Spirit who
divides His gifts to every man severally as He will , Himself the while remaining
undivided. For the Comforter is not different from the Holy Ghost, but one and the self-
same, called by various names; who lives and subsists, and speaks, and works; and of all
rational natures made by God through Christ, both of Angels and of men, He is the
Sanctifier .

3. But lest any from lack of learning, should suppose from the different titles of the
Holy Ghost that these are divers spirits, and not one and the self-same, which alone there
is, therefore the Catholic Church guarding thee beforehand hath delivered to thee in the
profession of the faith, that thou "Believe IN One Holy Ghost The Comforter, Who Spake BY
The Prophets;" that thou mightest know, that though His names be many, the Holy Spirit is
but one;-of which names, we will now rehearse to you a few out of many. 4. He is called
the Spirit, according to the Scripture just now read, For to one is given by the Spirit
the word of wisdom . He is called the Spirit of Truth, as the Saviour says, When He, the
Spirit of Truth, is come . He is called also the Comforter, as He said, For if I go not
away, the Comforter will not came unto you .

But that He is one and the same, though called by different titles, is shewn plainly from
the following. For that the Holy Spirit and the Comforter are the same, is declared in
those words, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost ; and that the Comforter is the
same as the Spirit of Truth, is declared, when it is said, And I will give you another
Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth ; and again, But
when the Comforter is came whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
Truth . And He is called the Spirit of God, according as it is written, And I saw the
Spirit of God descending ; and again, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God . He is called also the Spirit of the Father, as the Saviour says, For
it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you ; and again
Paul saith, Far this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, and the rest; ... that He would
grant you to be strengthened by His Spirit . He is also called the Spirit of the Lord,
according to that which Peter spoke, Why is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the
Spirit of the Lord ?

He is called also the Spirit of God and Christ, as Paul writes, But ye are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. But if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His . He is called also the Spirit of the Son
of God. as it is said, And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son
. He is called also the Spirit of Christ, as it is written, Searching what or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify ; and again, Through your
prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ . 5. Thou wilt find many other titles
of the Holy Ghost besides. Thus He is called the Spirit of Holiness, as it is written,
According to the Spirit of Holiness . He is also called the Spirit of adoption, as Paul
saith, For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father . He is also called the Spirit of
revelation, as it is written, May give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him . He is also called the Spirit of promise, as the same Paul says, In whom
ye also after that ye believed, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise . He is also
called the Spirit of grace, as when he says again, And hath done despite to the Spirit of
grace . And by many other such-like titles is He named. And thou heardest plainly in the
foregoing Lecture, that in the Psalms He is called at one time the good Spirit , and at
another the princely Spirit ; and in Esaias He was styled the Spirit of wisdom and
understanding, of counsel, and might, of knowledge, and of godliness, and of the fear of
God . By all which Scriptures both those before and those now alleged, it is established,
that though the titles of the Holy Ghost be different, He is one and the same; living and
subsisting, and always present together with the Father and the Son ;

not uttered or breathed from the mouth and lips of the Father or the Son, nor dispersed
into the air, but having a real substance , Himself speaking, and working, and dispensing,
and sanctifying; even as the Economy of salvation which is to usward from the Father and
the Son and the Holy Ghost, is inseparable and harmonious and one, as we have also said
before. For I wish you to keep in mind those things which were lately spoken, and to know
clearly that there is not one Spirit in the Law and the Prophets, and another in the
Gospels and Apostles; but that it is One and the Self-same Holy Spirit, which both in the
Old and in the New Testament, spoke the divine Scriptures . 6. This is the Holy Ghost, who
came upon the Holy Virgin Mary; for since He who was conceived was Christ the Only-
begotten, the power of the Highest overshadowed her, and the Holy Ghost came upon her ,
and sanctified her, that she might be able to receive Him, by whom all things were made .
But I have no need of many words to teach thee that generation was without defilement or
taint, for thou hast learned it. It is Gabriel who says to her, I am the herald of what
shall be done, but have no part in the work. Though an Archangel, I know my place; and
though I joyfully bid thee All hail, yet holy thou shale bring forth, is not of any grace
of mine. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God .

7. This Holy Spirit wrought in Elisabeth; for He recognises not virgins only, but matrons
also, so that their marriage be lawful. And Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost , and
prophesied; and that noble hand-maiden says of her own Lord, And whence is this to me,
that the Mother of my Lord should come to me ? For Elisabeth counted herself blessed.
Filled with this Holy Spirit, Zacharias also, the father of John, prophesied , telling how
many good things the Only-begotten should procure, and that John should be His harbinger
through baptism. By this Holy Ghost also it was revealed to just Symeon, that he should
not see death, till he had seen the Lord's Christ ; and he received Him in his arms, and
bore clear testimony in the Temple concerning Him. 8. And John also, who had been filled
with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb , was for this cause sanctified, that be might
baptize the Lord; not giving the Spirit himself, but preaching glad tidings of Him who
gives the Spirit. For he says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He
that cometh after me, and the rest; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire
. But wherefore with fire? Because the descent of the Holy Ghost was in fiery tongues;
concerning which the Lord says joyfully, I am come to send fire on the earth; and what
will I, if it be already kindled ?

9. This Holy Ghost came down when the Lord was baptized, that the dignity of Him who was
baptized might not be hidden; as John says, But He which sent me to baptize with water,
the same said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shall see the Spirit descending and remaining
upon Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the tidy Ghost . But see what saith the
Gospel; the heavens were opened; they were opened because of the dignity of Him who
descended; for, lo, he says, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God
descending as a dove, and lighting upon Him : that is, with voluntary motion in His
descent. For it was fit, as some have interpreted, that the primacy and first-fruits of
the Holy Spirit promised to the baptized should be conferred upon the manhood of the
Saviour, who is the giver of such grace. But perhaps He came down in the form of a dove,
as some say, to exhibit a figure of that dove who is pure and innocent and undefiled, and
also helps the prayers for the children she has begotten, and for forgiveness of sins ;
even as it was emblematically foretold that Christ should be thus manifested in the
appearance of His eyes; for in the Canticles she cries concerning the Bridegroom, and
says, Thine eyes are as doves by the rivers of water .

10. Of this dove, the dove of Noe, according to some, was in part a figure . For as in his
time by means of wood and of water there came salvation to themselves, and the beginning
eta new generation, and the dove returned to him towards evening with an olive branch;
thus, say they, the Holy Ghost also descended upon the true Noe, the Author of the second
birth, who draws together into one the wills of all nations, of whom the various
dispositions of the animals in the ark were a figure:-Him at whose coming the spiritual
wolves feed with the lambs, in whose Church the calf, and the lion, and the ox, feed in
the same pasture, as we behold to this day the rulers of the world guided and taught by
Churchmen. The spiritual dove therefore, as some interpret, came down at the season of His
baptism, that He might shew that it is He who by the wood of the Cross saves them who
believe, He who at eventide should grant salvation through His death.

11. And these things perhaps should be otherwise explained; but now again we must hear the
words of the Saviour Himself concerning the Holy Ghost. For He says, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God . And that this grace
is from the Father, He thus states, How much more shall your heavenly Father' give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him . And that we ought to worship God in the Spirit, He
shews thus, But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in Spirit and in truth; for the Father also seeketh such to warship Him. God is a
Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth . And again, But
if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils ; and immediately afterwards, Therefore I say
unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the
Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy
Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come .
And again He says, And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may be with you for ever, the Spirit of Truth;

whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; but ye know
Him, for He abideth with you, and shall be in you . And again He says, These things have I
spoken unto you being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your
remembrance all things that I said unto you . And again He says, But when the Comforter is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me . And again the Saviour says, For if I
go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ..... And when He is come, He will
convince the world or sin, of righteousness, and of judgment ; and afterwards again. I
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He the
Spirit of Truth is come, He will declare unto you all the truth; for He shall not speak
from Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear that shall He speak, and He shall announce unto
you the things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine, and shall announce
it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, That He shall
take of Mine, and shall announce it unto you .

I have read to thee now the utterances of the Only-begotten Himself, that thou mayest not
give heed to men's words. 12. The fellowship of this Holy Spirit He bestowed on the
Apostles; for it is written, rind when He had said this, He breathed an them, and saith
unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are re milled unto
them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained . This was the second time He
breathed on man (His first breath having been stifled through wilful sins); that the
Scripture might be fulfilled, He went up breathing upon thy face, and delivering thee from
affliction . But whence went He up? From Hades; for thus the Gospel relates, that then
after His resurrection He breathed on them. But though He bestowed His grace then, He was
to lavish it yet more bountifully; and He says to them, "I am ready to give it even now,
but the vessel cannot yet hold it; for a while therefore receive ye as much grace as ye
can bear; and look forward for yet more; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye
be clothed with power from on high . Receive it in part now; then, ye shall wear it in its
fulness. For he who receives, often possesses the gift but in part; but he who is clothed,
is completely enfolded by his robe. "Fear not," He says, "the weapons and darts of the
devil; for ye shall bear with you the power of the Holy Ghost." But remember what was
lately said, that the Holy Ghost is not divided, but only the grace which is given by Him.

13. Jesus therefore went up into heaven, and fulfilled the promise. For He said to them, I
will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter . So they were sitting,
looking for the coming of the Holy Ghost; and when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
here, in this city of Jerusalem,-(for this honour also belongs to us ; and we speak not of
the good things which have happened among others, but of those which have been vouchsafed
among ourselves,)-on the day of Pentecost, I say, they were sitting, and the Comforter
came down from heaven, the Guardian and Sanctifier of the Church, the Ruler of souls, the
Pilot of the tempest-tossed, who leads the wanderers to the light, and presides over the
combatants, and crowns the victors. 14. But He came down to clothe the Apostles with
power. and to baptize them; for the Lord says, ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost
not many days hence . This grace was not in part, but His power was in full perfection;
for as he who plunges into the waters and is baptized is encompassed on all sides by the
waters, so were they also baptized completely by the Holy Ghost. The water however flows
round the outside only, but the Spirit baptizes also the soul within, and that completely.
And wherefore wonderest thou? Take an example from matter; poor indeed and common, yet
useful for the simpler sort. If the fire passing in through the mass of the iron makes the
whole of it fire, so that what was cold becomes burning and what was black is made
bright,-if fire which is a body thus penetrates and works without hindrance in iron which
is also a body, why wonder that the Holy Ghost enters into the very inmost recesses of the
soul?

15. And lest men should be ignorant of the greatness of the mighty gift coming down to
them. there sounded as it were a heavenly trumpet, For suddenly there came from heaven a
sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind , signifying the presence of Him who was to grant
power unto men to seize with violence the kingdom of God; that both their eyes might see
the fiery tongues, and their ears hear the sound. And it filled all the house where they
were sitting; for the house became the vessel of the spiritual water; as the disciples sat
within, the whole house was filled. Thus they were entirely baptized according to the
promise, and invested soul and body with a divine garment of salvation. And there appeared
unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost. They partook of fire, not of burning but of saving fire; of
fire which consumes the thorns of sins, but gives lustre to the soul. This is now coming
upon you also, and that to strip away and consume your sins which are like thorns, and to
brighten yet more that precious possession of your souls, and to give you grace; for He
gave it then to the Apostles. And He sat upon them in the form of fiery tongues, that they
might crown themselves with new and spiritual diadems by fiery tongues upon their heads. A
fiery sword barred of old the gates of Paradise; a fiery tongue which brought salvation
restored the gift.

16. And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave theist utterance . The
Galilean Peter or Andrew spoke Persian or Median. John and the rest of the Apostles spoke
every tongue to those of Gentile extraction; for not in our time have multitudes of
strangers first begun to assemble here from all quarters, but they have done so since that
time. What teacher can be found so great as to teach men all at once things which they
have not learned? So many years are they in learning by grammar and other arts to speak
only Greek well; nor yet do all speak this equally well; the Rhetorician perhaps succeeds
in speaking well, and the Grammarian sometimes not well, and the skilful Grammarian is
ignorant of the subjects of philosophy. But the Holy Spirit taught them many languages at
once, languages which in all their life they never knew. This is in truth vast wisdom,
this is power divine. What a contrast of their long ignorance in time past to their
sudden, complete and varied and unaccustomed exercise of these languages!

17. The multitude of the hearers was confounded;-it was a second confusion, in the room of
that first evil one at Babylon. For in that confusion of tongues there was division of
purpose, because their thought was at enmity with God; but here minds were restored and
united, because the object of interest was godly. The means of falling were the means of
recovery. Wherefore they marvelled, saying , How hear we them speaking? No marvel if ye be
ignorant; for even Nicodemus was ignorant of the coming of the Spirit, and to him it was
said, The Spirit breatheth where it listeth, and than hearest the voice thereof, but canst
not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; but if, even though I hear His voice, I
know not whence he cometh, how can I explain, what He is Himself in substance? 18. But
others mocking said, They are full of nero wine , and they spoke truly though in mockery.
For in truth the wine was new, even the grace of the New Testament; but this new wine was
from a spiritual Vine, which had oftentimes ere this borne fruit in Prophets, and had
budded in the New Testament. For as in things sensible, the vine ever remains the same,
but bears new fruits in its seasons, so also the self-same Spirit continuing what He is,
as He had often wrought in Prophets, now manifested a new and mar-vellous work. For though
His grace had come before to the Fathers also, yet here it came exuberantly; for formerly
men only partook of the Holy Ghost, but now they were baptized completely.

19. But Peter who had the Holy Ghost, and who knew what he possessed, says, "Men of
Israel, ye who preach Joel, but know not the things which are written, these men are not
drunken as ye suppose . Drunken they are, not however as ye suppose, but according to that
which is written, They shall be drunken with the fatness of thy house; and than shall make
them drink of the torrents of thy pleasure . They are drunken, with a sober drunkenness,
deadly to sin and life-giving to the heart, a drunkenness contrary to that of the body;
for this last causes forgetfulness even of what was known, but that bestows the knowledge
even of what was not known. They are drunken, for they have drunk the wine of the
spiritual vine, which says, I am the vine and ye are the branches . But if ye are not
persuaded by me, understand what I tell you from the very time of the day; for it is the
third hour of the day . For He who, as Mark relates, was crucified at the third hour, now
at the third hour sent down His grace. For His grace is not other than the Spirit's grace,
but He who was then crucified, who also gave the promise, made good that which He
promised. And if ye would receive a testimony also, Listen, he says: "But this is that
which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

And it shall come to pass after this, saith God, l will pour forth of My Spirit -(and this
word, I will pour forth, implied a rich gift; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure,
for the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand ; and He has given
Him the power also of bestowing the grace of the All-holy Spirit on whomsoever He will);-I
will pour forth of My Spirit utah all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy; and afterwards, Yea, and on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in
those days of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy . The Holy Ghost is no respecter of
persons; for He seeks not dignities, but piety of soul. Let neither the rich be puffed up,
nor the poor dejected, but only let each prepare himself for reception of the Heavenly
gift.

20. We have said much to-day, and perchance you are weary of listening; yet more still
remains. And in truth for the doctrine of the Holy Ghost there were need of a third
lecture; and of many besides. But we must have your indulgence on both points. For as the
Holy Festival of Easter is now at hand we have this day lengthened our discourse and yet
we had not room to bring before you all the testimonies from the New Testament which we
ought. For many passages are still to come from the Acts of the Apostles in which the
grace of the Holy Ghost wrought mightily in Peter and in all the Apostles together; many
also from the Catholic Epistles. and the fourteen Epistles of Paul; out of all which we
will now endeavour to gather a few, like flowers from a large meadow, merely by way of
remembrance.

21. For in the power of the Holy Ghost, by the will of Father and Son, Peter stood with
the Eleven, and lifting up his voice, (according to the text, Lift up thy voice with
strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem ), captured in the spiritual net of
his words, about three thousand souls. So great was the grace which wrought in all the
Apostles together, that, out of the Jews, those crucifiers of Christ, this great number
believed, and were baptized in the Name of Christ, and continued steadfastly in the
Apostles' doctrine and in the prayers . And again m the same power of the Holy Ghost,
Peter and John went up into the Temple at the hour of prayer, which was the ninth hour ,
and in the Name of Jesus healed the man at the Beautiful gate, who had been lame from his
mother's womb for forty years; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken, Then shall the
lame man leap as an hart . And thus, as they captured in the spiritual net of their
doctrine five thousand believers at once, so they confuted the misguided rulers of the
people and chief priests, and that, not through their own wisdom, for they were unlearned
and ignorant men , but through the mighty power of the Holy Ghost; for it is written, Then
Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said to them . So great also was the grace of the Holy
Ghost, which wrought by means of the Twelve Apostles in them who believed, that they were
of one heart and of one soul , and their enjoyment of their goods was common, the
possessors piously offering the prices of their possessions, and no one among them wanting
aught; while Ananias and Sapphira, who attempted to lie to the Holy Ghost, underwent their
befitting punishment.

22. And by the hands of the Apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people
. And so great was the spiritual grace shed around the Apostles, that gentle as they were,
they were the objects of dread; for of the rest durst no man join himself to them; but the
people magnified them; and multitudes were added of those who believed on the Lord, both
of men and women; and the streets were filled with the sick on their beds and couches,
that as Peter passed by, at least his shadow might overshadow some of them. And the
multitude also of the cities round about came unto this holy Jerusalem, bringing sick
folk, and them that were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one in
this power of the Holy Ghost . 23. Again, after the Twelve Apostles had been cast into
prison by the chief priests for preaching Christ, and had been marvellously delivered from
it at night by an Angel, and were brought before them in the judgment hall from the
Temple, they fearlessly rebuked them in their discourse to them concerning Christ, and
added this, that God hath also given His Italy Spirit to them that obey Him . And when
they had been scourged, they went their way rejoicing, and ceased not to teach and preach
Jesus as the Christ .

24. And it was not in the Twelve Apostles only that the grace of the Holy Spirit wrought,
but also in the first-born children of this once barren Church, I mean the seven Deacons;
for these also were chosen, as it is written, being full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom .
Of whom Stephen, rightly so named , the first fruits of the Martyrs, a man full of faith
and of the Holy Ghost, wrought great wanders and miracles among the people, and vanquished
those who disputed with him; for they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by
which he spake . But when he was maliciously accused and brought to the judgment hall, he
was radiant with angelic brightness; for all they who sat in the council, looking
steadfastly on him, saw his face, as it had been the face of an Angels . And having by his
wise defence confuted the Jews, those stiffnecked men, uncircumcised in heart and ears,
ever resisting the Holy Ghost , he beheld the heavens opened, and saw the Son of Man
standing on the right hand of God. He saw Him, not by his own power, but, as the Divine
Scripture says, being full of the Holy Ghost, he looked up steadfastly into heaven, and
saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God .

25. In this power of the Holy Ghost, Philip also in the Name of Christ at one time in the
city of Samaria drove away the unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice; and healed
the palsied and the lame, and brought to Christ great multitudes of them that believe. To
whom Peter and John came down, and with prayer, and the laying on of hands, imparted the
fellowship of the Holy Ghost, from which Simon Magus alone was declared an alien, and that
justly. And at another time Philip was called by the Angel of the Lord in the way, for the
sake of that most godly Ethiopian, the Eunuch, and heard distinctly the Spirit Himself
saying, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot . He instructed the Eunuch, and baptized
him, and so having sent into Ethiopia a herald of Christ, according as it is written,
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hand unto God , he was caught away by the Angel, and
preached the Gospel in the cities in succession.

26. With this Holy Spirit Paul also had been filled after his calling by our Lord Jesus
Christ. Let godly Ananias come as a witness to what we say, he who in Damascus said to
him, The Lord, even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me,
that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost . And straightway
the Spirit's mighty working changed the blindness of Paul's eyes into newness of sight;
and having vouchsafed His seal unto his soul, made him a chosen vessel to bear the Name of
the Lord who had appeared to him, before kings and the children of Israel, and rendered
the former persecutor an ambassador and good servant,-one, who from Jerusalem, and even
unto Illyricum, fully preached the Gospel , and instructed even imperial Rome, and carried
the earnestness of his preaching as far as Spain, undergoing conflicts innumerable, and
performing signs and wonders. Of him for the present enough.

27. In the power of the same Holy Spirit Peter also, the chief of the Apostles and the
bearer of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, healed Aeneas the paralytic in the Name of
Christ at Lydda, which is now Diospolis, and at Joppa raised from the dead Tabitha rich in
good works. And being on the housetop in a trance, he saw heaven opened, and by means of
the vessel let down as it were a sheet full of beasts of every shape and sort, he learnt
plainly to call no man common or unclean, though he should be of the Greeks . And when he
was sent for by Cornelius, he heard clearly the Holy Ghost Himself saying, Behold, men
seek thee; but arise and get thee down, and go with them, nothing doubling; for I have
sent them . And that it might be plainly shewn that those of the Gentiles also who believe
are made partakers of the grace of the Holy Ghost, when Peter was come to Cesarea, and was
teaching the things concerning Christ, the Scripture says concerning Cornelius and them
who were with him; While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word; so that they of the circumcision also which came with Peter were
astonished, and when they understood it said that on the Gentiles also was poured out the
gift of the Holy Ghost .

28. And in Antioch also, a most renowned city of Syria, when the preaching of Christ took
effect, Barnabas was sent hence as far as Antioch to help on the good work, being a good
man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith ; who seeing a great harvest of believers in
Christ, brought Paul from Tarsus to Antioch, as his fellow-combatant. And when crowds had
been instructed by them and assembled in the Church, it came to pass that the disciples
were called Christians first in Antioch ; the Holy Ghost, methinks, bestowing on the
believers that new Name, which had been promised before by the Lord. And the grace of the
Spirit being shed forth by God more abundantly in Antioch, there were there prophets and
teachers of whom Agabus was one . And as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy
Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And
after hands had been laid on them, they were sent forth by the Holy Ghost . Now it is
manifest, that the Spirit which speaks and sends, is a living Spirit, subsisting, and
operating, as we have said.

29. This Holy Spirit, who in unison with Father and Son has established the New Covenant
in the Church Catholic, has set us free from the burdens of the law grievous to be
borne,-those I mean, concerning things common and unclean, and meats, and sabbaths, and
new moons, and circumcision, and sprinklings, and sacrifices; which were given for a
season, and had a shadow of the good things to come , but which, when the truth had come,
were rightly withdrawn. For when Paul and Barnabas were sent to the Apostles, because of
the question moved at Antioch by them who said that it was necessary to be circumcised and
to keep the customs of Moses, the Apostles who were here at Jerusalem by a written
injunction set free the whole world from all the legal and typical observances; yet they
attributed not to themselves the full authority in so great a matter, but send an
injunction in writing, and acknowledge this: For it hath seemed good unto the Holy Ghost
and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain
from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from
fornication ; shewing evidently by what they wrote, that though the writing was by the
hands of human Apostles, yet the decree is universal from the Holy Ghost: which decree
Paul and Barnabas took and confirmed unto all the world.

30. And now, having proceeded thus far in my discourse, I ask indulgence from your love ,
or rather from the Spirit who dwelt in Paul, if I should not be able to rehearse
everything, by reason of my own weakness, and your weariness who listen. For when shall I
in terms worthy of Himself declare the marvellous deeds wrought by the operation of the
Holy Ghost in the Name of Christ? Those wrought in Cyprus upon Elymas the sorcerer, and in
Lystra at the healing of the cripple, and in Cilicia and Phrygia and Galatia and Mysia and
Macedonia? or those at Philippi (the preaching, I mean, and the driving out of the spirit
of divination in the Name of Christ; and the salvation by baptism of the jailer with his
whole house at night after the earthquake); or the events at Thessalonica; and the address
at Areopagus in the midst of the Athenians; or the instructions at Corinth, and in all
Achaia? How shall I worthily recount the mighty deeds which were wrought at Ephesus
through Paul, by the Holy Ghost ? Whom they of that City knew not before, but came to know
Him by the doctrine of Paul; and when Paul had laid his hands on them, and the Holy Ghost
had come upon them, they spake will tongues, and prophesied. And so great spiritual grace
was upon him, that not only his touch wrought cures, but even the handkerchiefs and
napkins , brought from his body, healed diseases, and scared away the evil spirits; and at
last they also who practised curious arts brought their books together, and burned them
before all men .

31. I pass by the work wrought at Troas on Eutychus, who being borne down by his sleep
fell dawn from the third loft, and was taken up dead; yet was saved alive by Paul . I also
pass by the prophecies addressed to the Elders of Ephesus whom he called to him in
Miletus, to whom he openly said, That the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying -and
the rest; for by saying, in every city, Paul made manifest that the marvellous works done
by him in each city, were from the operative power of the Holy Ghost, by the will of God,
and in the Name of Christ who spoke in him. By the power of this Holy Ghost, the same Paul
was hastening to this holy city Jerusalem, and this, though Agabus by the Spirit foretold
what should befall him; and yet he spoke to the people with confidence, declaring the
things concerning Christ. And when brought to Cesarea, and set amid tribunals of justice,
at one time before Felix, and at another before Festus the governor and King Agrippa, Paul
obtained of the Holy Ghost grace so great, and triumphant in wisdom, that at last Agrippa
himself the king of the Jews said, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian . This Holy
Spirit granted to Paul, when he was in the island of Melita also, to receive no harm when
bitten by the viper, and to effect divers cures on the diseased. This Holy Spirit guided
him, the persecutor of old, as a herald of Christ, even as far as imperial Rome, and there
he persuaded many of the Jews to believe in Christ. and to them who gainsaid he said
plainly, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the Prophet, saying unto your fathers, and
the rest .

32. And that Paul was full of the Holy Ghost, and all his fellow Apostles, and they who
after them believed in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, hear from himself as he writes plainly
in his Epistles; And my speech, he says, and my preaching was not in persuasive words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power . And again, But He who
sealed us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the earnest of the Spirit . And again,
He that raised up Jesus front the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit
which dwelleth in you . And again, writing to Timothy, That good thing which was committed
to thee guard through the Holy Ghost which was given to us . 33. And that the Holy Ghost
subsists, and lives, and speaks, and foretells, I have often said in what goes before, and
Paul writes it plainly to Timothy: Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in later times
some shall depart from the faith ,-which we see in the divisions not only of former times
but also of our own; so motley and diversified are the errors of the heretics. And again
the same Paul says, Which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as
it hath now been revealed unto His Holy Apostles and Prophets in the Spirit . And again,
Wherefore, as saith the Holy Ghost ; and again, The Holy Ghost also witnesseth to us . And
again he calls unto the soldiers of righteousness, saying, And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, with all prayer and
supplication . And again, Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with
the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs . And again,
The grace of the Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be
with you all .

34. By all these proofs, and by more which have been passed over, is the personal, and
sanctifying, and effectual power of the Holy Ghost established for those who can
understand; for the time would fail me in my discourse if I wished to quote what yet
remains concerning the Holy Ghost from the fourteen Epistles of Paul, wherein he has
taught with such variety, completeness, and reverence. And to the power of the Holy Ghost
Himself it must belong, to grant to us forgiveness for what we have omitted because the
days are few, and upon you the hearers to impress more perfectly the knowledge of what yet
remains; while from the frequent reading of the sacred Scriptures those of you who are
diligent come to understand these things, and by this time, both from these present
Lectures, and from what has before been told you, hold more steadfastly the Faith in "One
God The Father Almighty; And IN Our Lord Jesus Christ, His Only-Begotten Son; And IN The
Holy Ghost The Comforter." Though the word itself and title of Spirit is applied to Them
in common in the sacred Scriptures,-for it is said of the Father, God is a Spirit , as it
is written in the Gospel according to John; and of the Son, A Spirit before our face,
Christ the Lord , as Jeremias the prophet says; and of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, thee
Holy Ghost , as was said;-yet the arrangement of articles in the Faith, if religiously
understood, disproves the error of Sabellius also . Return we therefore in our discourse
to the point which now presses and is profitable to you.

35. Beware lest ever like Simon thou come to the dispensers of Baptism in hypocrisy, thy
heart the while not seeking the truth. It is ours to protest, but it is thine to secure
thyself. If thou standest in faith , blessed art thou; if thou hast fallen in unbelief,
from this day forward cast away thine unbelief, and receive full assurance. For, at the
season of baptism, when thou art come before the Bishops, or Presbyters, or Deacons
,-(forits grace is everywhere, in villages and in cities, on them of low as on them of
high degree, on bondsmen and on freemen, for this grace is not of men, but the gift is
from God through men,)-approach the Minister of Baptism, but approaching, think not of the
face of him thou seest, but remember this Holy Ghost of whom we are now speaking. For He
is present in readiness to seal thy soul, and He shall give thee that Seal at which evil
spirits tremble, a heavenly and sacred seal, as also it is written, In whom also ye
believed, and were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise .

36. Yet He tries the soul. He casts not His pearls before swine; if thou play the
hypocrite, though men baptize thee now, the Holy Spirit will not baptize thee . But if
thou approach with faith, though men minister in what is seen, the Holy Ghost bestows that
which is unseen. Thou art coming to a great trial, to a great muster , in that one hour,
which if thou throw away, thy disaster is irretrievable; but if thou be counted worthy of
the grace, thy soul will be enlightened, thou wilt receive a power which thou hadst not,
thou wilt receive weapons terrible to the evil spirits; and if thou cast not away thine
arms, but keep the Seal upon thy soul, no evil spirit will approach thee; for he will be
cowed; for verily by the Spirit of God are the evil spirits cast out. 37. If thou believe,
thou shalt not only receive remission of sins, but also do things which pass man's power .
And mayest thou be worthy of the gift of prophecy also! For thou shall receive grace
according to the measure of thy capacity and not of my words; for I may possibly speak of
but small things, yet thou mayest receive greater; since faith is a large affair . All thy
life long will thy guardian the Comforter abide with thee; He will care for thee, as for
his own soldier; for thy goings out, and thy comings in, and thy plotting foes. And He
will give thee gifts of grace of every kind, if thou grieve Him not by sin; for it is
written, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye were sealed unto the day of
redemption . What then, beloved, is it to preserve grace? Be ye ready to receive grace,
and when ye have received it, cast it not away.


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
=====================

CATECHETICAL LECTURES continued

LECTURE 18

On the Words, and in One Holy Catholic Church, and in the Resurrectionof the Flesh, and
the Life Everlasting.

Ezekiel XXXVII. 1. The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of
the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. 1. The root
of all good works is the hope of the Resurrection; for the expectation of the recompense
nerves the soul to good works. For every labourer is ready to endure the toils, if he sees
their reward in prospect; but when men weary themselves for nought, their heart soon sinks
as well as their body. A soldier who expects a prize is ready for war, but no one is
forward to die for a king who is indifferent about those who serve under him, and bestows
no honours on their toils. In like manner every soul believing in a Resurrection is
naturally careful of itself; but, disbelieving it, abandons itself to perdition. He who
believes that his body shall remain to rise again, is careful of his robe, and defiles it
not with fornication; but he who disbelieves the Resurrection, gives himself to
fornication, and misuses his own body, as though it were not his own. Faith therefore in
the Resurrection of the dead, is a great commandment and doctrine of the Holy Catholic
Church; great and most ncessary, though gainsaid by many, yet surely warranted by the
truth. Greeks contradict it , Samaritans disbelieve it, heretics mutilate it; the
contradiction is manifold, but the truth is uniform.

2. Now Greeks and Samaritans together argue against us thus. The dead man has fallen, and
mouldered away, and is all turned into worms; and the worms have died also; such is the
decay and destruction which has overtaken the body; how then is it to be raised? The
shipwrecked have been devoured by fishes, which are themselves devoured. Of them who fight
with wild beasts the very bones are ground to powder, and consumed by bears and lions.
Vultures and ravens feed on the flesh of the unburied dead, and then fly away over all the
world; whence then is the body to be collected? For of the fowls who have devoured it some
may chance to die in India, some in Persia, some in the land of the Goths. Other men again
are consumed by fire, and their very ashes scattered by rain or wind; whence is the body
to be brought together again ?

3. To thee, poor little feeble man, India is far from the land of the Goths, and Spain
from Persia; but to God, who holds the whole earth in the hallow of His hands , all things
are near at hand. Impute not then weakness to God, from a comparison of thy feebleness,
but rather dwell on His power . Does then the sun, a small work of God, by one glance of
his beams give warmth to the whole world; does the atmosphere, which God has made,
encompass all things in the world; and is God, who is the Creator both of the sun, and of
the atmosphere, far off from the world? Imagine a mixture of seeds of different plants
(for as thou art weak concerning the faith, the examples which I allege are weak also),
and that these different seeds are contained in thy single hand; is it then to thee, who
art a man, a difficult or an easy matter to separate what is in thine hand, and to collect
each seed according to its nature, and restore it to its own kind? Canst thou then
separate the things in thine hand, and cannot God separate the things contained in His
hand, and restore them to their proper place? Consider what I say, whether it is not
impious to deny it?

4. But further, attend, I pray, to the very principle of justice, and come to thine own
case. Thou hast different sorts of servants: and some are good and some bad; thou
honourest therefore the good, and smitest the bad. And if thou art a judge, to the good
thou awardest praise, and to the transgressors, punishment. Is then justice observed by
thee a mortal man; and with God, the ever changeless King of all, is there no retributive
justice ? Nay, to deny it is impious. For consider what I say. Many murderers have died in
their beds unpunished; where then is the righteousness of God? Yea, ofttimes a murderer
guilty of fifty murders is beheaded once; where then shall he suffer punishment for the
forty and nine? Unless there is a judgment and a retribution after this world, thou
chargest God with unrighteousness. Marvel not, however, because of the delay of the
judgment; no combatant is crowned or disgraced, till the contest is over; and no president
of the games ever crowns men while yet striving, but he waits till all the combatants are
finished, that then deciding between them he may dispense the prizes and the chaplets .
Even thus God also, so long as the strife in this world lasts, succours the just but
partially, but afterwards He renders to them their rewards fully.

5. But if according to thee there is no resurrection of the dead, wherefore condemnest
thou the robbers of graves? For if the body perishes, and there is no resurrection to be
hoped for, why does the violator of the tomb undergo punishment? Thou seest that though
thou deny it with thy lips, there yet abides with thee an indestructible instinct of the
resurrection. 6. Further, does a tree after it has been cut down blossom again, and shall
man after being cut down blossom no more? And does the corn sown and reaped remain for the
threshing floor, and shall man when reaped from this world not remain for the threshing?
And do shoots of vine or other trees, when clean cut off and transplanted, come to life
and bear fruit; and shall man, for whose sake all these exist, fall into the earth and not
rise again? Comparing efforts, which is greater, to mould from the beginning a statue
which did not exist, or to recast in the same shape that which had fallen? Is God then,
who created us out of nothing, unable to raise again those who exist and are fallen ? But
thou believest not what is written of the resurrection, being a Greek: then from the
analogy of nature consider these matters, and understand them from what is seen to this
day. Wheat, it may be, or some other kind of grain, is sown; and when the seed has fallen,
it dies and rots, and is henceforth useless for food. But that which has rotted, springs
up in verdure; and though small when sown, springs up most beautiful. Now wheat was made
for us; for wheat and all seeds were created not for themselves, but for our use; are then
the things which were made for us quickened when they die, and do we for whom they were
made, not rise again after our death ?

7. The season is winter , as thou seest; the trees now stand as if they were dead: for
where are the leaves of the fig-tree? where are the clusters of the vine? These in winter
time are dead, but green in spring; and when the season is come, there is restored to them
a quickening as it were from a state of death. For God, knowing thine unbelief, works a
resurrection year by year in these visible things; that, beholding what happens to things
inanimate, thou mayest believe concerning things animate and rational. Further, flies and
bees are often drowned in water, yet after a while revive ; and species of dormice , after
remaining motionless during the winter, are restored in the summer (for to thy slight
thoughts like examples are offered); and shall He who to irrational and despised creatures
grants life supernaturally, not bestow it upon us, for whose sake He made them?

8. But the Greeks ask for a resurrection of the dead still manifest; and say that, even if
these creatures are raised, yet they had not utterly mouldered away; and they require to
see distinctly some creature rise again after complete decay. God knew men's unbelief, and
provided for this purpose a bird, called a Phoenix . This bird, as Clement writes, and as
many more relate, being the only one of its kind , arrives in the land of the Egyptians at
periods of five hundred years, shewing forth the resurrection, not in desert places, lest
the occurrence of the mystery should remain unknown, but appearing in a notable city ,
that men might even handle what would otherwise be disbelieved. For it makes itself a
coffin of frankincense and myrrh and other spices, and entering into this when its years
are fulfilled, it evidently dies and moulders away. Then from the decayed flesh of the
dead bird a worm is engendered, and this worm when grown large is transformed into a
bird;-and do not disbelieve this, for thou seest the offspring of bees also fashioned thus
out of worms , and from eggs which are quite fluid thou hast seen wings and bones and
sinews of birds issue. Afterwards the aforesaid Phoenix, becoming fledged and a full-grown
Phoenix, like the former one, soars up into the air such as it had died, shewing forth to
men a most evident resurrection of the dead. The Phoenix indeed is a wondrous bird, yet it
is irrational, nor ever sang praise to God; it flies abroad through the sky, but it knows
not who is the Only-begotten Son of God. Has then a resurrection from the dead been given
to this irrational creature which knows not its Maker, and to us who ascribe glory to God
and keep His commandments, shall there no resurrection be granted?

9. But since the sign of the Phoenix is remote and uncommon, and men still disbelieve our
resurrection, take again the proof of this from what thou seest every day. A hundred or
two hundred years ago, we all, speakers and hearers, where were we? Know we not the
groundwork of the substance of our bodies? Knowest thou not how from weak and shapeless
and simple elements we are engendered, and out of what is simple and weak a living man is
formed? and how that weak element being made flesh is changed into strong sinews, and
bright eyes, and sensitive nose, and hearing ears, and speaking tongue, and beating heart,
and busy hands, and swift feet, and into members of all kinds ? and how that once weak
element becomes a shipwright, and a builder, and an architect, and a craftsman of various
arts, and a soldier, and a ruler, and a lawgiver, and a king? Cannot God then, who has
made us out of imperfect materials, raise us up when we have fallen into decay? He who
thus flames a body out of what is vile, cannot He raise the fallen body again? And He who
fashions that which is not, shall He not raise up that which is and is fallen?

10. Take further a manifest proof of the resurrection of the dead, witnessed month by
month in the sky and its luminaries . The body of the moon vanishes completely, so that no
part of it is any more seen, yet it fills again, and is restored to its former state ; and
for the perfect demonstration of the matter, the moon at certain revolutions of years
suffering eclipse and becoming manifestly changed into blood, yet recovers its luminous
body: God having provided this, that thou also, the man who art formed of blood, mightest
not refuse credence to the resurrection of the dead, but mightest believe concerning
thyself also what thou seest in respect of the moon. These therefore use thou as arguments
against the Greeks; for with them who receive not what is written fight thou with
unwritten weapons, by reasonings only and demonstrations; for these men know not who Moses
is, nor Esaias, nor the Gospels, nor Paul.

11. Turn now to the Samaritans, who, receiving the Law only, allow not the Prophets. To
them the text just now read from Ezekiel appears of no force, for, as I said, they admit
no Prophets; whence then shall we persuade the Samaritans also? Let us go to the writings
of the Law. Now God says to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob ;
this must mean of those who have being and subsistence. For if Abraham has come to an end,
and Isaac and Jacob, then He is the God of those who have no being. When did a king ever
say, I am the king of soldiers, whom he had not? When did any display wealth which he
possessed not? Therefore Abraham and Isaac and Jacob must subsist, that God may be the God
of those who have being; for He said not, "I was their God," but I am. And that there is a
judgment, Abraham shews in saying to the Lord, He who judgeth all the earth, shall He not
execute judgment ?

12. But to this the foolish Samaritans object again, and say that the souls possibly of
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob continue, but that their bodies cannot possibly rise again.
Was it then possible that the rod of righteous Moses should become a serpent, and is it
impossible that the bodies of the righteous should live and rise again? And was that done
contrary to nature, and shall they not be restored according to nature? Again, the rod of
Aaron, though cut off and dead, budded, without the scent of waters , and though under a
roof, sprouted forth into blossoms as in the fields; and though set in dry places, yielded
in one night the flowers and fruit of plants watered for many years. Did Aaron's rod rise,
as it were, from the dead, and shall not Aaron himself be raised? And did God work wonders
in wood, to secure to him the high-priesthood, and will He not vouchsafe a resurrection to
Aaron himself? A woman also was made salt contrary to nature; and flesh was turned into
salt; and shall not flesh be restored to flesh? Was Lot's wife made a pillar of salt, and
shall not Abraham's wife be raised again? By what power was Moses' hand changed, which
even within one hour became as snow, and was restored again? Certainly by God's command.
Was then His command of force then, and has it no force now?

13. And whence in the beginning came man into being at all, O ye Samaritans, most
senseless of all men? Go to the first book of the Scripture, which even you receive; And
God formed man of the dust of the ground . Is dust transformed into flesh, and shall not
flesh be again restored to flesh? You must be asked too, whence the heavens had their
being, and earth, and seas? Whence sun, and moon, and stars? How from the waters were made
the things which fly and swim? And how from earth all its living things? Were so many
myriads brought from nothing into being, and shall we men, who bear God's image, not be
raised up? Truly this course is full of unbelief, and the unbelievers are much to be
condemned; when Abraham addresses the Lord as the Judge of all the earth, and the learners
of the Law disbelieve; when it is written that man is of the earth, and the readers
disbelieve it .

14. These questions, therefore, are for them, the unbelievers: but the words of the
Prophets are for us who believe. But since some who have also used the Prophets believe
not what is written, and allege against us that passage, The ungodly shall not rise up in
judgment , and, For if man go down to the grave he shall come up no more , and, The dead
shall not praise Thee, O Lord ,-for of what is well written, they have made ill use-it
will be well in a cursory manner, and as far as is now possible, to meet them. For if it
is said, that the ungodly shall not rise up in judgment, this shews that they shall rise,
not in judgment, but in condemnation; for God needs not long scrutiny, but close on the
resurrection of the ungodly follows also their punishment. And if it is said, The dead
shall not praise Thee, O lord, this shews, that since in this life only is the appointed
time for repentance and pardon, for which they who enjoy it shall praise the Lord, it
remains not after death for them who have died in sins to give praise as the receivers of
a blessing, but to bewail themselves; for praise belongs to them who give thanks, but to
them who are under the scourge, lamentation. Therefore the just then offer praise; but
they who have died in sins have no further season for confession .

15. And respecting that passage, If a man go down to the grave, he shall come up no more,
observe what follows, for it is written, He shall come up no more, neither shall he return
to his own house. For since the whole world shall pass away, and every house shall be
destroyed, how shall he return to his own house, there being henceforth a new and
different earth? But they ought to have heard Job, saying, For there is hope of a tree;
for if it be cut down, it will sprout again, and the tender branch thereof will not cease.
For though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the rocky
ground; yet from the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth a crop like a new plant.
But man when he dies, is gone; and when mortal man falls, is he no mores ? As it were
remonstrating and reproving (for thus ought we to read the words is no more with an
interrogation ); he says since a tree falls and revives shall not man, for whom all trees
were made himself revive? And that thou mayest not suppose that I am forcing the words,
read what follows; for after saying by way of question, When mortal man falls, is he no
more? he says, For if a man die, he shall live again ; and immediately he adds, I will
wait till I be made again ;

and again elsewhere, Who shall raise up on the earth my skin, which endures these things .
And Esaias the Prophet says, The dead men shall rise again, and they that are in the tombs
shall awake . And the Prophet Ezekiel now before us, says most plainly, Behold I will open
your graves, and bring you up out of your graves . And Daniel says, Many of them that
sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to
everlasting shame . 16. And many Scriptures there are which testify of the Resurrection of
the dead; for there are many other sayings on this matter. But now, by way of remembrance
only, we will make a passing mention of the raising of Lazarus on the fourth day; and just
allude, because of the shortness of the time, to the widow's son also who was raised, and
merely for the sake of reminding you, let me mention the ruler of the synagogue's
daughter, and the rending of the rocks, and how there arose many bodies of the saints
which slept , their graves having been opened. But specially be it remembered that Christ
has been raised from the dead . I speak but in passing of Elias, and the widow's son whom
he raised; of Elisseus also, who raised the dead twice; once in his lifetime, and once
after his death. For when alive he wrought the resurrection by means of his own soul ; but
that not the souls only of the just might be honoured, but that it might be believed that
in the bodies also of the just there lies a power, the corpse which was cast into the
sepulchre of Elisseus, when it touched the dead body of the prophet, was quickened, and
the dead body of the prophet did the work of the soul, and that which was dead and buried
gave life to the dead, and though it gave life. yet continued itself among the dead.
Wherefore?

Lest if Elisseus should rise again, the work should be ascribed to his soul alone; and to
shew, that even though the soul is not present, a virtue resides in the body of the
saints, because of the righteous soul which has for so many years dwelt in it, and used it
as its minister . And let us not foolishly disbelieve, as though this thing had not
happened: for if handkerchiefs and aprons, which are from without, touching the bodies of
the diseased, raised up the sick, how much more should the very body of the Prophet raise
the dead? 17. And with respect to these instances we might say much, rehearsing in detail
the marvellous circumstances of each event: but as you have been already wearied both by
the superposed fast of the Preparation , and by the watchings , let what has been
cursorily spoken concerning them suffice for a while; these words having been as it were
sown thinly, that you, receiving the seed like richest ground, may in bearing fruit
increase them. But be it remembered, that the Apostles also raised the dead; Peter raised
Tabitha in Joppa, and Paul raised Eutychus in Troas; and thus did all the other Apostles,
even though the wonders wrought by each have not all been written. Further, remember all
the sayings in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, which Paul wrote against them who
said, How are the dead raised, and with what manner of body do they come ? And how he
says, For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised ; and how he called them fools ,
who believed not; and remember the whole of his teaching there concerning the resurrection
of the dead, and how he wrote to the Thessalonians, But we would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as the rest
which have no hope , and all that follows: but chiefly that, And the dead in Christ shall
rise first .

18. But especially mark this, how very pointedly Paul says, For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality . For this body shall be raised
not remaining weak as now; but raised the very same body, though by putting on
incorruption it shall be fashioned anew ,-as iron blending with fire becomes fire, or
rather as He knows how, the Lord who raises us. This body therefore shall be raised, but
it shall abide not such as it now is, but an eternal body; no longer needing for its life
such nourishment as now, nor stairs for its ascent, for it shall be made spiritual, a
marvellous thing, such as we cannot worthily speak of. Then, it is said. shall the
righteous shine forth as the sun , and the moon, and as the brightness of the firmament .
And God, fore-knowing men's unbelief, has given to little worms in the summer to dart
beams of light from their body , that from what is seen, that which is looked for might be
believed; for He who gives in part is able to give the whole also, and He who made the
worm radiant with light, will much more illuminate a righteous man.

19. We shall be raised therefore, all with our bodies eternal, but not all with bodies
alike: for if a man is righteous, he will receive a heavenly body, that he may be able
worthily to hold converse with Angels; but if a man is a sinner, he shall receive an
eternal body, fitted to endure the penalties of sins, that he may burn eternally in fire,
nor ever be consumed . And righteously will God assign this portion to either company; for
we do nothing without the body. We blaspheme with the mouth, and with the mouth we pray.
With the body we commit fornication, and with the body we keep chastity. With the hand we
rob, and by the hand we bestow alms; and the rest in like manner. Since then the body has
been our minister in all things, it shall also share with us in the future the fruits of
the past .

20. Therefore, brethren, let us be careful of our bodies, nor misuse them as though not
our own. Let us not say like the heretics, that this vesture of the body belongs not to
us, but let us be careful of it as our own; for we must give account to the Lord of all
things done through the body. Say not, none seeth me; think not, that there is no witness
of the deed. Human witness oftentimes there is not; but He who fashioned us, an unerring
witness, abides faithful in heaven , and beholds what thou doest. And the stains of sin
also remain in the body; for as when a wound has gone deep into the body, even if there
has been a healing, the scar remains, so sin wounds soul and body, and the marks of its
scars remain in all; and they are removed only from those who receive the washing of
Baptism. The past wounds therefore of soul and body God heals by Baptism; against future
ones let us one and all jointly guard ourselves, that we may keep this vestment of the
body pure, and may not for practising fornication and sensual indulgence or any other sin
for a short season, lose the salvation of heaven, but may inherit the eternal kingdom of
God; of which may God, of His own grace, deem all of you worthy.

21. Thus much in proof of the Resurrection of the dead; and now, let me again recite to
you the profession of the faith, and do you with all diligence pronounce it while I speak
, and remember it. 22. The Faith which we rehearse contains in order the following, "And
IN One Baptism OF Repentance For The Remission OF Sins; And IN One Holy Catholic Church;
And IN The Resurrection OF The Flesh; And IN Eternal Life." Now of Baptism and repentance
I have spoken in the earliest Lectures; and my present remarks concerning the resurrection
of the dead have been made with reference to the Article "In the resurrection of the
flesh." Now then let me finish what still remains to be said for the Article, "In one Holy
Catholic Church," on which, though one might say many things, we will speak but briefly.
23. It is called Catholic then because it extends over all the world, from one end of the
earth to the other; and because it teaches universally and completely one and all the
doctrines which ought to come to men's knowledge, concerning things both visible and
invisible, heavenly and earthly ; and because it brings into subjection to godliness the
whole race of mankind, governors and governed, learned and unlearned; and because it
universally treats and heals the whole class of sins, which are committed by soul or body,
and possesses in itself every form of virtue which is named, both in deeds and words, and
in every kind of spiritual gifts.

24. And it is rightly named (Ecclesia) because it calls forth and assembles together all
men; according as the Lord says in Leviticus, And make an assembly for all the
congregation at the door of the tabernacle of witness . And it is to be noted, that the
word assemble, is used for the first time in the Scriptures here, at the time when the
Lord puts Aaron into the High-priesthood. And in Deuteronomy also the Lord says to Moses,
Assemble the people unto Me, and let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me .
And he again mentions the name of the Church, when he says concerning the Tables, And an
them were written all the wards which the Lord spake with you in the mount out of the
midst of the fire in the day of the Assembly ; as if he had said more plainly, in the day
in which ye were called and gathered together by God. The Psalmist also says, I will give
thanks unto Thee, O Lord, in the great Congregation; I will praise Thee among much people
.

25. Of old the Psalmist sang, Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, (ye that
are) from the fountains of Israel . But after the Jews for the plots which they made
against the Saviour were cast away from His grace, the Saviour built out of the Gentiles a
second Holy Church, the Church of us Christians, concerning which he said to Peter, And
upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it
. And David prophesying of both these, said plainly of the first which was rejected, l
have hated the Congregation of evil doers ; but of the second which is built up he says in
the same Psalm, Lord, I have loved the beauty of Thine house ; and immediately afterwards.
In the Congregations will I bless thee, O Lord . For now that the one Church in Judaea is
cast off, the Churches of Christ are increased over all the world; and of them it is said
in the Psalms, Sing unto the Lord a new song, His praise in the Congregation of Saints .
Agreeably to which the prophet also said to the Jews, I have no pleasure in you, saith the
Lord Almighty ; and immediately afterwards, For from the rising of the sun even unto the
going down of the same, My name is glorified among the Gentiles . Concerning this Holy
Catholic Church Paul writes to Timothy, That thou mayest know haw thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the House of God, which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground
of the truth .

26. But since the word Ecclesia is applied to different things (as also it is written of
the multitude in the theatre of the Ephesians, And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed
the Assembly ), and since one might properly and truly say that there is a Church of evil
doers, I mean the meetings of the heretics, the Marcionists and Manichees, and the rest,
for this cause the Faith has securely delivered to thee now the Article, "And in one Holy
Catholic Church;" that thou mayest avoid their wretched meetings, and ever abide with the
Holy Church Catholic in which thou wast regenerated. And if ever thou art sojourning in
cities, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is (for the other sects of the profane
also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor merely where the Church is,
but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the
mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of
God (for it is written, As Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it , and all
the rest,) and is a figure and copy of Jerusalem which is above, which is free, and the
mother of us all ; which before was barren, but now has many children.

27. For when the first Church was cast off, in the second, which is the Catholic Church,
God hath set, as Paul says, first Apostles, secondly Prophets, thirdly teachers, then
miracles, then gifts of headings, helps, governments, divers kinds of tongues , and every
sort of virtue, I mean wisdom and understanding, temperance and justice, mercy and loving-
kindness, and patience unconquerable in persecutions. She, by the armour of righteousness
on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour , in former days amid
persecutions and tribulations crowned the holy martyrs with the varied and blooming
chaplets of patience, and now in times of peace by God's grace receives her due honours
from kings and those who are in high place , and from every sort and kindred of men. And
while the kings of particular nations have bounds set to their authority, the Holy Church
Catholic alone extends her power without limit over the whole world; for God, as it is
written, hath made her border peace . But I should need many more hours for my discourse,
if I wished to speak of all things which concern her.

28. In this Holy Catholic Church receiving instruction and behaving ourselves virtuously,
we shall attain the kingdom of heaven, and inherit Eternal Life; for which also we endure
all toils, that we may be made partakers thereof from the Lord. For ours is no trifling
aim, but our endeavour is for eternal life. Wherefore in the profession of the Faith,
after the words, "And IN The Resurrection OF The Flesh," that is, of the dead (of which we
have discoursed), we are taught to believe also "IN The Life Eternal," for which as
Christians we are striving. 29. The real and true life then is the Father, who through the
Son in the Holy Spirit pours forth as from a fountain His heavenly gifts to all; and
through His love to man, the blessings of the life eternal are promised without fail to us
men also. We must not disbelieve the possibility of this, but having an eye not to our own
weakness but to His power, we must believe; for with God all things are possible. And that
this is possible, and that we may look for eternal life, Daniel declares, And of the many
righteous shall they shine as the stars for ever and ever . And Paul says, And so shall we
be ever with the Lord : for the being for ever with the lord implies the life eternal. But
most plainly of all the Saviour Himself says in the Gospel, And these shall go away into
eternal punishment, but the righteous into life eternal .

30. And many are the proofs concerning the life eternal. And when we desire to gain this
eternal life, the sacred Scriptures suggest to us the ways of gaining it; of which,
because of the length of our discourse, the texts we now set before you shall be but few,
the rest being left to the search of the diligent. They declare at one time that it is by
faith; for it is written, He that believeth on the San hath eternal life , and what
follows; and again He says Himself, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My
word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life , and the rest. At another time,
it is by the preaching of the Gospel; for He says, that He that reapeth receiveth wages,
and gathereth fruit unto life eternal . At another time, by martyrdom and confession in
Christ's name; for He says, And he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto
life eternal . And again, by preferring Christ to riches or kindred; And every one that
hath forsaken brethren, or sisters , and the rest, shall inherit eternal life. Moreover it
is by keeping the commandments, Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill , and
the rest which follow; as He answered to him that came to Him, and said, Good Master, what
shall I do that I may have eternal life ? But further, it is by departing from evil works,
and henceforth serving God; for Paul says, But now being made free from sin, and become
servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life .

31. And the ways of finding eternal life are many, though I have passed over them by
reason of their number. For the Lord in His loving-kindness has opened, not one or two
only, but many doors, by which to enter into the life eternal, that, as far as lay in Him,
all might enjoy it without hindrance. Thus much have we for the present spoken within
compass concerning The Life Eternal, which is the last doctrine of those professed in the
Faith, and its termination; which life may we all, both teachers and hearers, by God's
grace enjoy! 32. And now, brethren beloved. the word of instruction exhorts you all, to
prepare your souls for the reception of the heavenly gifts. As regards the Holy and
Apostolic Faith delivered to you to profess, we have spoken through the grace of the Lord
as many Lectures, as was possible, in these past days of Lent; not that this is all we
ought to have said, for many are the points omitted; and these perchance are thought out
better by more excellent teachers. But now the holy day of the Passover is at hand, and
ye, beloved in Christ, are to be enlightened by the Laver of regeneration. Ye shall
therefore again be taught what is requisite, if God so will; with how great devotion and
order you must enter in when summoned, for what purpose each of the holy mysteries of
Baptism is performed, and with what reverence and order you must go from Baptism to the
Holy Altar of God, and enjoy its spiritual and heavenly mysteries; that your souls being
previously enlightened by the word of doctrine, ye may discover in each particular the
greatness of the gifts bestowed on you by God.

33. And after Easter's Holy Day of salvation, ye shall come on each successive day,
beginning from the second day of the week, after the assembly into the Holy Place of the
Resurrection , and there, if God permit, ye shall hear other Lectures; in which ye shall
again be taught the reasons of every thing which has been done, and shall receive the
proofs thereof from the Old and New Testaments,-first, of the things done just before
Baptism,-next, how ye were cleansed from your sins by the Lord, by the washing of water
with the word ,-and how like Priests ye have become partakers of the Name of Christ,-and
how the Seal of the fellowship of the Holy Ghost was given to you,-and concerning the
mysteries at the Altar of the New Testament, which have taken their beginning from this
place, both what the Divine Scriptures have delivered to us, and what is the power of
these mysteries, and how ye must approach them, and when and how receive them;-and at the
end of all, how for the time to come ye must behave yourselves worthily of this grace both
in words and deeds, that you may all be enabled to enjoy the life everlasting. And these
things shall be spoken, if it be God's pleasure.

34. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord alway; again I will say, Rejoice: for your
redemption hath drawn nigh , and the heavenly host of the Angels is waiting for your
salvation. And there is now the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way
of the Lord ; and the Prophet cries, Ho, ye that thirst, come ye to the water ; and
immediately afterwards, Hearken unto me, and ye shall eat that which is good, and your
soul shall delight itself good things . And within a little while ye shall hear that
excellent lesson which says, Shine, shine, O thou new Jerusalem; for thy light is come .
Of this Jerusalem the prophet hath said, And afterwards thou shalt be called the city of
righteousness, Zion, the faithful mother of cities ; because of the law which went forth
out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem , which word has from hence been
showered forth on the whole world. To her the Prophet also says concerning you, Lift up
thine eyes round about, and behold thy children gathered together ; and she answers,
saying, Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves with their young ones to me ?
(clouds. because of their spiritual nature, and doves, from their purity). And again, she
says, Who knoweth such things? or who hath seen it thus? did ever a land bring forth in
one day? or was ever a nation barn all at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought
forth her children . And all things shall be filled with joy unspeakable because of the
Lord who said, Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy .

35. And may these words be spoken now again over you also, Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth; and then; for the Lord hath had mercy on His people, and comforted the lowly of
His people . And this shall come to pass through the loving-kindness of God, who says to
you, Behold, I will blot out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins
. But ye who have been counted worthy of the name of Faithful (of whom it is written, Upon
My servants shall be called a new name which shall be blessed on the earth ,) ye shall say
with gladness,

LECTURE 19

First Lecture on the Mysteries.

With A Lesson From The First General Epistle OF Peter, Beginning AT"Be sober, be
vigilant", to the end of the Epistle. 1. I Have long been wishing, O true-born and dearly
beloved children of the Church, to discourse to you concerning these spiritual and
heavenly Mysteries; but since I well knew that seeing is far more persuasive than hearing,
I waited for the present season; that finding you more open to the influence of my words
from your present experience, I might lead you by the hand into the brighter and more
fragrant meadow of the Paradise before us; especially as ye have been made fit to receive
the more sacred Mysteries, after having been found worthy of divine and life-giving
Baptism . Since therefore it remains to set before you a table of the more perfect
instructions, let us now teach you these things exactly, that ye may know the effect
wrought upon you on that evening of your baptism.

2. First ye entered into the vestibule of the Baptistery, and there facing towards the
West ye listened to the command to stretch forth your hand, and as in the presence of
Satan ye renounced him. Now ye must know that this figure is found in ancient history. For
when Pharaoh, that most bitter and cruel tyrant, was oppressing the free and high-born
people of the Hebrews, God sent Moses to bring them out of the evil bondage of the
Egyptians. Then the door posts were anointed with the blood of a lamb, that the destroyer
might flee from the houses which had the sign of the blood; and the Hebrew people was
marvellously delivered. The enemy, however, after their rescue, pursued after them , and
saw the sea wondrously parted for them; nevertheless he went on, following close in their
footsteps, and was all at once overwhelmed and engulphed in the Red Sea.

3. Now turn from the old to the new, from the figure to the reality. There we have Moses
sent from God to Egypt; here, Christ, sent forth from His Father into the world: there,
that Moses might lead forth an afflicted people out of Egypt; here, that Christ might
rescue those who are oppressed in the world under sin: there, the blood of a lamb was the
spell against the destroyer; here, the blood of the Lamb without blemish Jesus Christ is
made the charm to scare evil spirits: there, the tyrant was pursuing that ancient people
even to the sea; and here the daring and shameless spirit, the author of evil, was
following thee even to the very streams of salvation. The tyrant of old was drowned in the
sea; and this present one disappears in the water of salvation. 4. But nevertheless thou
art bidden to say, with arm outstretched towards him as though he were present, "I
renounce thee, Satan." I wish also to say wherefore ye stand facing to the West; for it is
necessary. Since the West is the region of sensible darkness, and he being darkness has
his dominion also in darkness, therefore, looking with a symbolical meaning towards the
West, ye renounce that dark and gloomy potentate. What then did each of you stand up and
say? "I renounce thee, Satan,"-thou wicked and most cruel tyrant! meaning, "I fear thy
might no longer; for that Christ hath overthrown, having partaken with me of flesh and
blood, that through these He might by death destroy death , that I might not be made
subject to bondage for ever." "I renounce thee,"-thou crafty and most subtle serpent. "I
renounce thee,"-plotter as thou an, who under the guise of friendship didst contrive all
disobedience, and work apostasy in our first parents. "I renounce thee, Satan,"-the
artificer and abettor of all wickedness.

5. Then in a second sentence thou art taught to say, "and all thy works." Now the works of
Satan are all sin, which also thou must renounce;-just as one who has escaped a tyrant has
surely escaped his weapons also. All sin therefore, of every kind, is included in the
works of the devil. Only know this; that all that thou sayest, especially at that most
thrilling hour, is written in God's books; when therefore thou doest any tiring contrary
to these promises, thou shalt be judged as a transgressor . Thou renouncest therefore the
works of Satan; I mean, all deeds and thoughts which are contrary to reason. 6. Then thou
sayest, "And all his pomp ." Now the pomp of the devil is the madness of theatres , and
horse-races, and hunting, and all such vanity: from which that holy man praying to be
delivered says unto God, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity . Be not interested in
the madness of the theatre, where thou wilt behold the wanton gestures of the players ,
carried on with mockeries and all unseemliness, and the frantic dancing of effeminate men
;-nor in the madness of them who in hunts expose themselves to wild beasts, that they may
pamper their miserable appetite; who, to serve their belly with meats, become themselves
in reality meat for the belly of untamed beasts; and to speak justly, for the sake of
their own god, their belly, they cast away their life headlong in single combats . Shun
also horse-races that frantic and soul-subverting spectacle . For all these are the pomp
of the devil.

7. Moreover, the things which are hung up at idol festivals , either meat or bread, or
other such things polluted by the invocation of the unclean spirits, are reckoned in the
pomp of the devil. For as the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist before the invocation of the
Holy and Adorable Trinity were simple bread and wine, while after the invocation the Bread
becomes the Body of Christ, and the Wine the Blood of Christ , so in like manner such
meats belonging to the pomp of Satan, though in their own nature simple, become profane by
the invocation of the evil spirit. 8. After this thou sayest. "and all thy service ." Now
the service of the devil is prayer in idol temples; things done in honour of lifeless
idols; the lighting of lamps , or burning of incense by fountains or rivers , as some
persons cheated by dreams or by evil spirits do [resort to this ], thinking to find a cure
even for their bodily ailments. Go not after such things. The watching of birds,
divination, omens, or amulets, or charms written on leaves, sorceries, or other evil arts
, and all such things, are services of the devil; therefore shun them. For if after
renouncing Satan and associating thyself with Christ , thou fall under their influence,
thou shall find the tyrant more bitter; perchance, because he treated thee of old as his
own, and relieved thee from his hard bondage, but has now been greatly exasperated by
thee; so thou wilt be bereaved of Christ, and have experience of the other. Hast thou not
heard the old history which tells us of Lot and his daughters? Was not he himself saved
with his daughters, when he had gained the mountain, while his wife became a pillar of
salt, set up as a monument for ever, in remembrance of her depraved will and her turning
back. Take heed therefore to thyself, and turn not again to what is behind , having put
thine hand to the plough, and then turning back to the salt savour of this life's doings;
but escape to the mountain, to Jesus Christ. that stone hewn without hands , which has
filled the world.

9. When therefore thou renouncest Satan, utterly breaking all thy covenant with him, that
ancient league with hell , there is opened to thee the paradise of God, which He planted
towards the East, whence for his transgression our first father was banished; and a symbol
of this was thy turning from West to East, the place of lights . Then thou weft told to
say, "I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and in one Baptism
of repentance ." Of which things we spoke to thee at length in the former Lectures, as
God's grace allowed us. 10. Guarded therefore by these discourses, be sober. For our
adversary the devil, as was just now read, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom
he may devour . But though in former times death was mighty and devoured, at the holy
Layer of regeneration God has wiped away every tear from off all faces . For thou shalt no
more mourn, now that thou hast put off the old man; but thou shall keep holy-day , clothed
in the garment of salvation , even Jesus Christ.

11. And these things were done in the outer chamber. But if God will, when in the
succeeding lectures on the Mysteries we have entered into the Holy of Holies , we shall
there know the symbolical meaning of the things which are there performed. Now to God the
Father, with the Son and the Holy Ghost, be glory, and power, and majesty, forever and
ever. Amen.

LECTURE 20

(on the Mysteries. II.) — Of Baptism.

Romans VI. 3-14. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were
baptized into His death? &c. .... for ye are not under the Law, but under grace. 1. These
daily introductions into the Mysteries , and new instructions, which are the announcements
of new truths, are profitable to us; and most of all to you, who have been renewed from an
old state to a new. Therefore, I shall necessarily lay before you the sequel of
yesterday's Lecture, that ye may learn of what those things, which were done by you in the
inner chamber , were symbolical. 2. As soon, then, as ye entered, ye put off your tunic;
and this was an image of putting off the old man with his deeds . Having stripped
yourselves, ye were naked; in this also imitating Christ, who was stripped naked on the
Cross, and by His nakedness put off from Himself the principalities and powers, and openly
triumphed over them on the tree . For since the adverse powers made their lair in your
members, ye may no longer wear that old garment; I do not at all mean this visible one,
but the aid man, which waxeth corrupt in the lusts of deceit . May the soul which has once
put him off, never again put him on, but say with the Spouse of Christ in the Song of
Songs, I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on ? O wondrous thing! ye were naked
in the sight of all, and were not ashamed ; for truly ye bore the likeness of the first-
formed Adam, who was naked in the garden, and was not ashamed.

3. Then, when ye were stripped, ye were anointed with exorcised oil , from the very hairs
of your head to your feet, and were made partakers of the good olive-tree, Jesus Christ.
For ye were cut off from the wild olive-tree , and grafted into the good one, and were
made to share the fatness of the true olive-tree. The exorcised oil therefore was a symbol
of the participation of the fatness of Christ, being a charm to drive away every trace of
hostile influence. For as the breathing of the saints, and the invocation of the Name of
God, like fiercest flame, scorch and drive out evil spirits , so also this exorcised oil
receives such virtue by the invocation of God and by prayer, as not only to burn and
cleanse away the traces of sins, but also to chase away all the invisible powers of the
evil one.

4. After these things, ye were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was
carried from the Cross to the Sepulchre which is before our eyes And each of you was
asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, and ye made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and
ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three days burial of Christ . For as
our Saviour passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so you also in
your first ascent out of the water, represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and
by your descent, the night; for as he who is in the night, no longer sees, but he who is
in the day, remains in the light, so in the descent, as in the night, ye saw nothing, but
in ascending again ye were as in the day. And at the self-same moment ye were both dying
and being born; and that Water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother. And
what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he said, in that case, There is a
time to bear and a time to die ; but to you, in the reverse order, there was a time to die
and a time to be born; and one and the same time effected both of these, and your birth
went hand in hand with your death.

5. O strange and inconceivable thing! we did not really die, we were not really buried, we
were not really crucified and raised again; but our imitation was in a figure, and our
salvation in reality. Christ was actually crucified, and actually buried, and truly rose
again; and all these things He has freely bestowed upon us, that we, sharing His
sufferings by imitation, might gain salvation in reality. O surpassing loving-kindness!
Christ received nails in His undefiled hands and feet, and suffered anguish; while on me
without pain or toil by the fellowship of His suffering He freely bestows salvation. 6.
Let no one then suppose that Baptism is merely the grace of remission of sins, or further,
that of adoption; as John's was a baptism conferring only remission of sins: whereas we
know full well, that as it purges our sins, and ministers to us the gift of the Holy
Ghost, so also it is the counterpart of the sufferings of Christ. For this cause Paul just
now cried aloud and said, Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ
Jesus, were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into His
death . These words he spoke to some who were disposed to think that Baptism ministers to
us the remission of sins, and adoption, but has not further the fellowship also, by
representation, of Christ's true sufferings.

7. In order therefore that we might learn, that whatsoever things Christ endured, For Us
and for Our Salvation He suffered them in reality and not in appearance, and that we also
are made partakers of His sufferings, Paul cried with all exactness of truth, For if we
have been planted together with the likeness of His death, we shall be also with the
likeness of His resurrection. Well has he said, planted together . For since the true Vine
was planted in this place, we also by partaking in the Baptism of death have been planted
together with Him. And fix thy mind with much attention on the words of the Apostle. He
said not, "For if we have been planted together with His death," but, with the likeness of
His death. For in Christ's case there was death in reality, for His soul was really
separated from His body, and real burial, for His holy body was wrapt in pure linen; and
everything happened really to Him; but in your ease there was only a likeness of death and
sufferings, whereas of salvation there was not a likeness but a reality.

8. Having been sufficiently instructed in these things, keep them, I beseech you, in your
remembrance; that I also, unworthy though I be, may say of you, Now I love you , because
ye always remember me, and hold fast the traditions, which I delivered unto you. And God,
who has presented you as if were alive from the dead , is able to grant unto you to walk
in newness of life : because His is the glory and the power, now and for ever. Amen.

LECTURE 21

(on the Mysteries. III.) — On Chrism.

1 John II. 20-28. But ye have an unction from the Holy One, &c. .... that, when He shall
appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 1. Having
been baptized into Christ, and put on Christ , ye have been made comformable to the Son of
God; for God having foreordained us unto adoption as sons , made us to be conformed to the
body of Christ's glory . Having therefore become partakers of Christ , ye are properly
called Christs, and of you God said, Touch not My Christs , or anointed. Now ye have been
made Christs, by receiving the antitype of the Holy Ghost; and all things have been
wrought in you by imitation , because ye are images of Christ. He washed in the river
Jordan, and having imparted of the fragrance of His Godhead to the waters, He came up from
them; and the Holy Ghost in the fulness of His being lighted on Him, like resting upon
like . And to you in like manner, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred
streams, there was given an Unction , the anti-type of that wherewith Christ was anointed;
and this is the Holy Ghost; of whom also the blessed Esaias, in his prophecy respecting
Him, said in the person of the Lord, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. because He hath
anointed Me: He hath sent Me to preach glad tidings to the poor .

2. For Christ was not anointed by men with oil or material ointment, but the Father having
before appointed Him to be the Saviour of the whole world, anointed Him with the Holy
Ghost, as Peter says, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost David also
the Prophet cried, saying, Thy throne, O God, is far ever and ever; a sceptre of
righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom; Thou hast loved righteousness and hated
iniquity; therefore God even Thy God hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy
fellows . And as Christ was in reality crucified, and buried, and raised, and you are in
Baptism accounted worthy of being crucified, buried, and raised together with Him in a
likeness, so is it with the unction also. As He was anointed with an ideal oil of
gladness, that is, with the Holy Ghost, called oil of gladness, because He is the author
of spiritual gladness, so ye were anointed with ointment, having been made partakers and
fellows of Christ.

3. But beware of supposing this to be plait ointment. For as the Bread of the Eucharist.
after the invocation of the Holy Ghost, is mere bread no longer , but the Body of Christ,
so also this holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say) common, after
invocation, but it is Christ's gift of grace, and, by the advent of the Holy Ghost, is
made fit to impart His Divine Nature . Which ointment is symbolically applied to thy
forehead and thy other senses ; and while thy body is anointed with the visible ointment,
thy soul is sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit. 4. And ye were first anointed
on the forehead, that ye might be delivered from the shame, which the first man who
transgressed bore about with him everywhere; and that with unveiled face ye might reflect
as a mirror the glory of the Lord . Then on your ears; that ye might receive the ears
which are quick to hear the Divine Mysteries, of which Esaias said, The Lord gave me also
an ear to hear ; and the Lord Jesus in the Gospel, He that hath ears to hear let him hear
. Then on the nostrils; that receiving the sacred ointment ye may say, We are to God a
sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved . Afterwards on your breast; that having
put on the breast-plate of righteousness, ye may stand against the wiles of the devil .
For as Christ after His Baptism, and the visitation of the Holy Ghost, went forth and
vanquished the adversary, so likewise ye, after Holy Baptism and the Mystical Chrism,
having put on the whole armour of the Holy Ghost, are to stand against the power of the
adversary, and vanquish it, saying, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me .

5. Having been counted worthy of this Holy Chrism, ye are called Christians, verifying the
name also by your new birth. For before you were deemed worthy of this grace, ye had
properly no right to this title, but were advancing on your way towards being Christians.
6. Moreover, you should know that in the old Scripture there lies the symbol of this
Chrism. For what time Moses imparted to his brother the command of God, and made him High-
priest, after bathing in water, he anointed him; and Aaron was called Christ or Anointed,
evidently from the typical Chrism. So also the High-priest, in advancing Solomon to the
kingdom, anointed him after he had bathed in Gihon . To them however these things happened
in a figure, but to you not in a figure, but in truth; because ye were truly anointed by
the Holy Ghost. Christ is the beginning of your salvation; for He is truly the First-
fruit, and ye the mass ; but if the First-fruit be holy, it is manifest that Its holiness
will pass to the mass also.

7. Keep This unspotted: for it shall teach you all things, if it abide in you, as you have
just heard declared by the blessed John, discoursing much concerning this Unction . For
this holy thing is a spiritual safeguard of the body, and salvation of the soul. Of this
the blessed Esaias prophesying of old time said, And on this mountain,-(now he calls the
Church a mountain elsewhere also, as when he says, In the last days the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be manifest ;)-on this mountain shall the Lord make unto all nations a
feast; they shall drink wine, they shall drink gladness, they shall anoint themselves with
ointment . And that he may make thee sure, hear what he says of this ointment as being
mystical; Deliver all these things to the nations, for the counsel of the Lord is unto all
nations . Having been anointed, therefore, with this holy ointment, keep it unspotted and
unblemished in you, pressing forward by good works, and being made well-pleasing to the
Captain of your salvation, Christ Jesus, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

LECTURE 22

(on the Mysteries. IV.) — On the Body and Blood of Christ.

1 Cor. XI. 23. I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, how that the
Lord Jesus, in the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, &c. 1. Even of itself the
teaching of the Blessed Paul is sufficient to give you a full assurance concerning those
Divine Mysteries, of which having been deemed worthy, ye are become of the same bad and
blood with Christ. For you have just heard him say distinctly, That our Lord Jesus Christ
in the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks He brake
it, and gave to His disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is My Body: and having taken the
cup and given thanks, lie said, Take, drink, this is My Blood . Since then He Himself
declared and said of the Bread, This is My Body, who shall dare to doubt any longer? And
since He has Himself affirmed and said, This is My Blood, who shall ever hesitate, saying,
that it is not His blood?

2. He once in Cana of Galilee, turned the water into wine, akin to blood , and is it
incredible that He should have turned wine into blood? When called to a bodily marriage,
He miraculously wrought that wonderful work; and on the children of the bride-chamber ,
shall He not much rather be acknowledged to have bestowed the fruition of His Body and
Blood ? 3. Wherefore with full assurance let us partake as of the Body and Blood of
Christ: for in the figure of Bread is given to thee His Body, and in the figure of Wine
His Blood; that thou by partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, mayest be made of the
same body and the same blood with Him. For thus we come to bear Christ in us, because His
Body and Blood are distributed through our members; thus it is that, according to the
blessed Peter, we became partakers of the divine nature .

4. Christ on a certain occasion discoursing with the Jews said, Except ye eat My flesh and
drink My blood, ye have no life in you . They not having heard His saying in a spiritual
sense were offended, and went back, supposing that He was inviting them to eat flesh. 5.
In the Old Testament also there was shew-bread; but this, as it belonged to the Old
Testament, has come to an end; but in the New Testament there is Bread of heaven, and a
Cup of salvation, sanctifying soul and body; for as the Bread corresponds to our body, so
is the Word appropriate to our soul. 6. Consider therefore the Bread and the Wine not as
bare elements, for they are, according to the Lord's declaration, the Body and Blood of
Christ; for even though sense suggests this to thee, yet let faith establish thee. Judge
not the matter from the taste, but from faith be fully assured without misgiving, that the
Body and Blood of Christ have been vouch-safed to thee.

7. Also the blessed David shall advise thee the meaning of this, saying, Thou hast
prepared a table before me in the presence of them that afflict me . What he says, is to
this effect: Before Thy coming, the evil spirits prepared a table for men , polluted and
defiled and full of devilish influence ; but since Thy coming. O Lord, Thou hast prepared
a table before me. When the man says to God, Thou hast prepared before me a table, what
other does he indicate but that mystical and spiritual Table, which God hath prepared for
us over against, that is, contrary and in opposition to the evil spirits? And very truly;
for that had communion with devils, but this, with God. Thou hast anointed my head with
oil . With oil He anointed thine head upon thy forehead, for the seal which thou hast of
God; that thou mayest be made the engraving of the signet, Holiness unto God . And thy cup
intoxicateth me, as very strong . Thou seest that cup here spoken of, which Jesus took in
His hands, and gave thanks, and said, This is My blood, which is shed far many for the
remission of sins .

8. Therefore Solomon also, hinting at this grace, says in Ecclesiastes, Come hither, eat
thy bread with joy (that is, the spiritual bread; Came hither, he calls with the call to
salvation and blessing), and drink thy wine with a merry heart (that is, the spiritual
wine); and let oil be poured out upon thy head (thou sees he alludes even to the mystic
Chrism); and let thy garments be always white, far the Lord is well pleased with thy works
; for before thou camest to Baptism, thy works were vanity of vanities . But now, having
put off thy old garments, and put on those which are spiritually white, thou must be
continually robed in white: of course we mean not this, that thou art always to wear white
raiment; but thou must be clad in the garments that are truly white and shining and
spiritual, that thou mayest say with the blessed Esaias, My saul shall be joyful in my
God; far He hath clothed me with a garment of salvation, and put a robe of gladness around
me .

9. Having learn these things, and been fully assured that the seeming bread is not bread,
though sensible to taste, but the Body of Christ; and that the seeming wine is not wine,
though the taste will have it so, but the Blood of Christ ; and that of this David sung of
old, saying, And bread strengtheneth man's heart, to make his face to shine with oil ,
"strengthen thou thine heart," by partaking thereof as spiritual, and "make the face of
thy soul to shine." And so having it unveiled with a pure conscience, mayest thou reflect
as a mirror the glory of the Lord , and proceed from glory to glory, in Christ Jesus our
Lord:-To whom be honour, and might, and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

LECTURE 23

(on the Mysteries. V.) — On the Sacred Liturgy and Communion .

1 Pet. II. 1. Wherefore putting away all filthiness, and all guile, and evil speaking ,
&c. 1. By the loving-kindness of God ye have heard sufficiently at our former meetings
concerning Baptism, and Chrism, and partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ; and now it
is necessary to pass on to what is next in order, meaning to-day to set the crown on the
spiritual building of your edification. 2. Ye have seen then the Deacon who gives to the
Priest water to wash , and to the Presbyters who stand round God's altar. He gave it not
at all because of bodily defilement; it is not that; for we did not enter the Church at
first with defiled bodies. But the washing of hands is a symbol that ye ought to be pure
from all sinful and unlawful deeds; for since the hands are a symbol of action, by washing
them, it is evident, we represent the purity and blamelessness of our conduct. Didst thou
not hear the blessed David opening this very mystery, and saying, I wall wash my hands in
innocency, and so will compass Thine Altar, O Lord ? The washing therefore of hands is a
symbol of immunity from sin.

3. Then the Deacon cries aloud, "Receive ye one another; and let us kiss one another ."
Think not that this kiss is of the same character with those given in public by common
friends. It is not such: but this kiss blends souls one with another, and courts entire
forgiveness for them. The kiss therefore is the sign that our souls are mingled together,
and banish all remembrance of wrongs. For this cause Christ said, If thou art offering thy
gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against time, leave
there thy gift upon the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and
then come and offer thy gift . The kiss therefore is reconciliation, and for this reason
holy: as the blessed Paul somewhere cried, saying, Greet ye one another with a holy kiss ;
and Peter, with a kiss of charity .

4. After this the Priest cries aloud, "Lift up your hearts ." For truly ought we in that
most awful hour to have our heart on high with God, and not below, thinking of earth and
earthly things. In effect therefore the Priest bids all in that hour to dismiss all cares
of this life, or household anxieties, and to have their heart in heaven with the merciful
God. Then ye answer, "We lift them up unto the Lord:" assenting to it, by your avowal. But
let no one come here, who could say with his mouth, "We lift up our hearts unto the Lord,"
but in his thoughts have his mind concerned with the cares of this life At all times,
rather, God should be in our memory but if this is impossible by reason of human
infirmity, in that hour above all this should be our earnest endeavour.

5. Then the Priest says, "Let us give thanks unto the Lord." For verily we are bound to
give thanks, that He called us, unworthy as we were, to so great grace; that He reconciled
us when we were His foes; that He vouch-safed to us the Spirit of adoption. Then ye say,
"It is meet and right:" for in giving thanks we do a meet thing and a right; but He did
not right, but more than right, in doing us good, and counting us meet for such great
benefits. 6. After this, we make mention of heaven. and earth, and sea ; of sun and moon;
of stars and all the creation, rational and irrational, visible and invisible; of Angels,
Archangels, Virtues, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, Thrones; of the Cherubim with many
faces: in effect repeating that call of David's Magnify the Lord with me . We make mention
also of the Seraphim, whom Esaias in the Holy Spirit saw standing around the throne of
God, and with two of their wings veiling their face, and with twain their feet, while with
twain they did fly, crying Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Sabaoth . For the reason of
our reciting this confession of God , delivered down to us from the Seraphim, is this,
that so we may be partakers with the hosts of the world above in their Hymn of praise.

7. Then having sanctified ourselves by these spiritual Hymns, we beseech the merciful God
to send forth His Holy Spirit upon the gifts lying before Him; that He may make the Bread
the Body of Christ, and the Wine the Blood of Christ ; for whatsoever the Holy Ghost has
touched, is surely sanctified and changed. 8. Then, after the spiritual sacrifice, the
bloodless service, is completed, over that sacrifice of propitiation we entreat God for
the common peace of the Churches, for the welfare of the world ; for kings; for soldiers
and allies; for the sick; for the afflicted; and, in a word, for all who stand in need of
succour we all pray and offer this sacrifice. 9. Then we commemorate also those who have
fallen asleep before us, first Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, that at their
prayers and intercessions God would receive our petition . Then on behalf also of the Holy
Fathers and Bishops who have fallen asleep before us, and in a word of all who in past
years have fallen asleep among us, believing that it will be a very great benefit to the
souls , for whom the supplication is put up, while that holy and most awful sacrifice is
set forth.

10. And I wish to persuade you by an illustration. For I know that many say, what is a
soul profited, which departs from this world either with sins, or without sins, if it be
commemorated in the prayer? For if a king were to banish certain who had given him of-
fence, and then those who belong to them should weave a crown and offer it to him on
behalf of those under punishment, would he not grant a remission of their penalties? In
the same way we, when we offer to Him our supplications for those who have fallen asleep,
though they be sinners, weave no crown, but offer up Christ sacrificed for our sins ,
propitiating our merciful God for them as well as for ourselves. 11. Then, after these
things, we say that Prayer which the Saviour delivered to His own disciples, with a pure
conscience entitling God our Father, and saying, Our Father, which art in heaven. O most
surpassing loving-kindness of God! On them who revolted from Him and were in the very
extreme at misery has He bestowed such a complete forgiveness of evil deeds, and so great
participation of grace, as that they should even call Him Father. Our Father, which art in
heaven; and they also are a heaven who bear the image of the heavenly , in whom is God,
dwelling and walking in them .

12. Hollowed be Thy Name. The Name of God is in its nature holy, whether we say so or not;
but since it is sometimes profaned among sinners, according to the words, Through you My
Name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles , we pray that in us God's Name may be
hollowed; not that it comes to be holy from not being holy, but because it becomes holy in
us, when we are made holy, and do things worthy of holiness. 13. Thy kingdom come. A pure
soul can say with boldness, Thy kingdom come; for he who has heard Paul saying, Let not
therefore sin reign in your mortal body , and has cleansed himself in deed, and thought,
and word, will say to God, Thy kingdom come. 14. Thy will be done as in heaven so an
earth. God's divine and blessed Angels do the will of God, as David said in the Psalm,
Bless the Lord, all ye Angels of His, mighty in strength, that do His pleasure . So then
in effect thou meanest this by thy prayer, "as in the Angels Thy will is done, so likewise
be it done on earth in me, O Lord."

15. Give us this day our substantial bread. This common bread is not substantial bread,
but this Holy Bread is substantial, that is, appointed for the substance of the soul . For
this Bread goeth not into the belly and is cast out into the draught , but is distributed
into thy whole system for the benefit of body and soul . But by this day, he means, "each
day," as also Paul said, While it is called to-day . 16. And forgive us our debts as we
also forgive our debtors. For we have many sins. For we offend both in word and in
thought, and very many things we do worthy of condemnation; and if we say that we have no
sin, we lie, as John says . And we make a covenant with God, entreating. Him to forgive us
our sins, as we also forgive our neighbours their debts. Considering then what we receive
and in return for what, let us not put off nor delay to forgive one another. The offences
committed against us are slight and trivial, and easily settled; but those which we have
committed against God are great, and need such mercy as His only is. Take heed therefore,
lest for the slight and trivial sins against thee thou shut out for thyself forgiveness
from God for thy very grievous sins.

17. And lead us not into temptation, O Lord. Is this then what the Lord teaches us to
pray, that we may not be tempted at all? How then is it said elsewhere, "a man untempted,
is a man unproved ;" and again, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fail into divers
temptations ? But does perchance the entering into temptation mean the being overwhelmed
by the temptation? For temptation is, as it were, like a winter torrent difficult to
cross. Those therefore who are not overwhelmed in temptations, pass through, shewing
themselves excellent swimmers, and not being swept away by them at all; while those who
are not such, enter into them and are overwhelmed. As for example, Judas having entered
into the temptation of the love of money, swam not through it, but was overwhelmed and was
strangled both in body and spirit. Peter entered into the temptation of the denial; but
having entered, he was not overwhelmed by it, but manfully swam through it, and was
delivered from the temptation . Listen again, in another place, to a company of unscathed
saints, giving thanks for deliverance from temptation, Thou, O God hast prayed us; Thou
hast tried us by, fire like as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; Thou
layedst afflictions upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went
through fire and water; and thou broughtest us out into a place of rest . Thou seest them
speaking boldly in regard to their having passed through and not been pierced . But Thou
broughtest us out into a place of rest; now their coming into a place of rest is their
being delivered from temptation.

18. But deliver us from the evil. If Lead us not into temptation implied the not being
tempted at all, He would not have said, But deliver us from the evil. Now evil is our
adversary the devil, from whom we pray to be delivered . Then after completing the prayer
thou sayest, Amen ; by this Amen, which means "So be it," setting thy seal to the
petitions of the divinely-taught prayer. 19. After this the Priest says, "Holy things to
holy men." Holy are the gifts presented, having received the visitation of the Holy Ghost;
holy are ye also, having been deemed worthy of the Holy Ghost; the holy things therefore
correspond to the holy persons . Then ye say, "One is Holy, One is the Lord, Jesus Christ
." For One is truly holy, by nature holy; we too are holy, but not by nature, only by
participation, and discipline, and prayer.

20. After this ye hear the chanter inviting you with a sacred melody to the communion of
the Holy Mysteries, and saying, O taste and see that the Lord is good . Trust not the
judgment to thy bodily palate no, but to faith unfaltering; for they who taste are bidden
to taste, not bread and wine, but the anti-typical Body and Blood of Christ. 21. In
approaching therefore, come not with thy wrists extended, or thy fingers spread; but make
thy left hand a throne for the fight, as for that which is to receive a King . And having
hollowed thy palm, receive the Body of Christ, saying over it, Amen. So then after having
carefully hollowed thine eyes by the touch of the Holy Body, partake of it; giving heed
lest thou lose any portion thereof ; for whatever thou losest, is evidently a loss to thee
as it were from one of thine own members. For tell me, if any one gave thee grains of
gold, wouldest thou not hold them with all carefulness, being on thy guard against losing
any of them, and suffering loss? Wilt thou not then much more carefully keep watch, that
not a crumb fall from thee of what is more precious than gold and precious stones?

22. Then after thou hast partaken of the Body of Christ, draw near also to the Cup of His
Blood; not stretching forth thine hands, but bending , and saying with an air of worship
and reverence, Amen , hallow thyself by partaking also of the Blood of Christ. And while
the moisture is still upon thy lips, touch it with thine hands, and hallow thine eyes and
brow and the other organs of sense . Then wait for the prayer, and give thanks unto God,
who hath accounted thee worthy of so great mysteries . 23. Hold fast these traditions
undefiled and, keep yourselves free from offence. Sever not yourselves from the Communion;
deprive not yourselves, through the pollution of sins, of these Holy and Spiritual
Mysteries. And the God of peace sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit, and soul, and
body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ :-To whom be
glory and honour and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and world
without end. Amen.


CATECHETICAL LECTURES
=====================

CATECHETICAL LECTURES continued

PROCATECHESIS

Or — Prologue to the Catechetical Lectures of Our Holy Father, Cyril, Archbishop of
Jerusalem.

1. Already there is an odour of blessedness upon you, O ye who are soon to be enlightened
: already ye are gathering the spiritual flowers, to weave heavenly crowns: already the
fragrance of the Holy Spirit has breathed upon you: already ye have gathered round the
vestibule of the King's palace ; may ye be led in also by the King! For blossoms now have
appeared upon the trees ; may the fruit also be found perfect! Thus far there has been an
inscription of your names , and a call to service, and torches of the bridal train, and a
longing for heavenly citizenship, and a good purpose, and hope attendant thereon. For he
lieth not who said, that to them that love God all things work together for good. God is
lavish in beneficence, yet He waits for each man's genuine will: therefore the Apostle
added and said, to them that are called according to a purpose . The honesty of purpose
makes thee called: for if thy body be here but not thy mind, it profiteth thee nothing.

2. Even Simon Magus once came to the Laver : he was baptized, but was not enlightened; and
though he dipped his body in water, he enlightened not his heart with the Spirit: his body
went down and came up, but his soul was not buried with Christ, nor raised with Him . Now
I mention the statements of (men's) falls, that thou mayest not fall: for these things
happened to them by way of example, and they are written for the admonition of those who
to this day draw near. Let none of you be found tempting His grace, lest any root of
bitterness spring up and trouble you . Let none of you enter saying, Let us see what the
faithful are doing: let me go in and see, that I may learn what is being done. Dost thou
expect to see, and not expect to be seen? And thinkest thou, that whilst thou art
searching out what is going on, God is not searching thy heart?

3. A certain man in the Gospels once pried into the marriage feast , and took an
unbecoming garment, and came in, sat down, and ate: for the bridegroom permitted it. But
when he saw them all clad in white , he ought to have assumed a garment of the same kind
himself: whereas he partook of the like food, but was unlike them in fashion and in
purpose. The bridegroom, however, though bountiful, was not undiscerning: and in going
round to each of the guests and observing them (for his care was not for their eating, but
for their seemly behaviour), he saw a stranger not having on a wedding garment, and said
to. him, Friend, how camest thou in hither? In what a colour ! With what a conscience!
What though the door-keeper forbade thee not, because of the bountifulness of the
entertainer? what though thou wert ignorant in what fashion thou shouldest come in to the
banquet?- thou didst come in, and didst see the glittering fashions of the guests:
shouldest thou not have been taught even by what was before thine eyes? Shouldest thou not
have retired in good season, that thou mightest enter in good season again? But now thou
hast come in unseasonably, to be unseasonably cast out. So he commands the servants, Bind
his feet, which daringly intruded: bind his hands, which knew not how to put a bright
garment around him: and cast him into the outer darkness; for he is unworthy of the
wedding torches . Thou seest what happened to that man: make thine own condition safe.

4. For we, the ministers of Christ, have admitted every one, and occupying, as it were,
the place of door-keepers we left the door open: and possibly thou didst enter with thy
soul bemired with sins, and with a will defiled. Enter thou didst, and wast allowed: thy
name was inscribed. Tell me, dost thou behold this venerable constitution of the Church?
Dost thou view her order and discipline , the reading of Scriptures , the presence of the
ordained , the course of instruction ? Be abashed at the place, and be taught by what thou
seest . Go out opportunely now, and enter most opportunely to-morrow. If the fashion of
thy soul is avarice, put on another fashion and come in. Put off thy former fashion, cloke
it not up. Put off, I pray thee, fornication and uncleanness, and put on the brightest
robe of chastity. This charge I give thee, before Jesus the Bridegroom of souls come in
and see their fashions. A long notice is allowed thee; thou hast forty days for
repentance: thou hast full opportunity both to put off, and wash, and to put on and enter.
But if thou persist in an evil purpose, the speaker is blameless, but thou must not look
for the grace: for the water will receive, but the Spirit will not accept thee . If any
one is conscious of his wound, let him take the salve; if any has fallen, let him arise.
Let there be no Simon among you, no hypocrisy, no idle curiosity about the matter.

5. Possibly too thou art come on another pretext. It is possible that a man is wishing to
pay court to a woman, and came hither on that account . The remark applies in like manner
to women also in their turn. A slave also perhaps wishes to please his master, and a
friend his friend. I accept this bait for the hook, and welcome thee, though thou camest
with an evil purpose, yet as one to be saved by a good hope. Perhaps thou knewest not
whither thou wert coming, nor in what kind of net thou art taken. Thou art come within the
Church's nets : be taken alive, flee not: for Jesus is angling for thee, not in order to
kill, but by killing to make alive: for thou must die and rise again. For thou hast heard
the Apostle say, Dead indeed unto sin, but living unto righteousness . Die to thy sins,
and live to righteousness, live from this very day.

6. See, I pray thee, how great a dignity Jesus bestows on thee. Thou weft called a
Catechumen, while the word echoed round thee from without; hearing of hope, and knowing it
not; hearing mysteries, and not understanding them; hearing Scriptures, and not knowing
their depth. The echo is no longer around thee, but within thee; for the indwelling Spirit
henceforth makes thy mind a house of God. When thou shalt have heard what is written
concerning the mysteries, then wilt thou understand things which thou knewest not. And
think not that thou receivest a small thing: though a miserable man, thou receivest one of
God's titles. Hear St. Paul saying, God is faithful . Hear another Scripture saying, God
is faithful and just . Foreseeing this, the Psalmist, because men are to receive a title
of God, spoke thus in the person of God: I said, Ye are Gods, and are all sons of the Most
High . But beware lest thou have the title of "faithful," but the will of the faithless.
Thou hast entered into a contest, toil on through the race: another such opportunity thou
canst not have . Were it thy wedding-day before thee, wouldest thou not have disregarded
all else, and set about the preparation for the feast? And on the eve of consecrating thy
soul to the heavenly Bridegroom, wilt thou not cease from carnal things, that thou mayest
win spiritual?

7. We may not receive Baptism twice or thrice; else it might be said, Though I have failed
once, I shall set it right a second time: whereas if thou fail once, the thing cannot be
set right; for there is one Lord, and one faith, and one baptism : for only the heretics
are re-baptized , because the former was no baptism. 8. For God seeks nothing else from
us, save a good purpose. Say not, How are my sins blotted out? I tell thee, By willing, by
believing . What can be shorter than this? But if, while thy lips declare thee willing,
thy heart be silent, He knoweth the heart, who judgeth thee. Cease from this day from
every evil deed. Let not thy tongue speak unseemly words, let thine eye abstain from sin,
and from roving after things unprofitable. 9. Let thy feet hasten to the catechisings;
receive with earnestness the exorcisms : whether thou be breathed upon or exorcised, the
act is to thee salvation. Suppose thou hast gold unwrought and alloyed, mixed with various
substances, copper, and tin, and iron, and lead: we seek to have the gold alone; can gold
be purified from the foreign substances without fire? Even so without exorcisms the soul
cannot be purified; and these exorcisms are divine, having been collected out of the
divine Scriptures. Thy face has been veiled , that thy mind may henceforward be free, lest
the eye by roving make the heart rove also. But when thine eyes are veiled, thine ears are
not hindered from receiving the means of salvation. For in like manner as those who are
skilled in the goldsmith's craft throw in their breath upon the fire through certain
delicate instruments, and blowing up the gold which is hidden in the crucible stir the
flame which surrounds it, and so find what they are seeking; even so when the exorcists
inspire terror by the Spirit of God, and set the soul, as it were, on fire in the crucible
of the body, the hostile demon flees away, and there abide salvation and the hope of
eternal life, and the soul henceforth is cleansed from its sins and hath salvation. Let us
then, brethren, abide in hope, and surrender ourselves, and hope, in order that the God of
all may see our purpose, and cleanse us from our sins, and impart to us good hopes of our
estate, and grant us repentance that bringeth salvation. God hath called, and His call is
to thee.

10. Attend closely to the catechisings, and though we should prolong our discourse, let
not thy mind be wearied out. For thou art receiving armour against the adverse power,
armour against heresies, against Jews, and Samaritans , and Gentiles. Thou hast many
enemies; take to thee many darts, for thou hast many to hurl them at: and thou hast need
to learn how to strike down the Greek, how to contend against heretic, against Jew and
Samaritan. And the armour is ready, and most ready the sword of the Spirit : but thou also
must stretch forth thy right hand with good resolution, that thou mayest war the Lord's
warfare, and overcome adverse powers, and become invincible against every heretical
attempt. 11. Let me give thee this charge also. Study our teachings and keep them for
ever. Think not that they are the ordinary homilies ; for though they also are good and
trustworthy, yet if we should neglect them to-day we may study them to-morrow. But if the
teaching concerning the layer of regeneration delivered in a consecutive course be
neglected to-day, when shall it be made right? Suppose it is the season for planting
trees: if we do not dig, and dig deep, when else can that be planted rightly which has
once been planted ill? Suppose, pray, that the Catechising is a kind of building: if we do
not bind the house together by regular bonds in the building, lest some gap be found, and
the building become unsound, even our former labour is of no use. But stone must follow
stone by course, and corner match with corner, and by our smoothing off inequalities the
building must thus rise evenly. In like manner we are bringing to thee stones, as it were,
of knowledge. Thou must hear concerning the living God, thou must hear of Judgment, must
hear of Christ, and of the Resurrection. And many things there are to be discussed in
succession, which though now dropped one by one are afterwards to be presented in
harmonious connexion. But unless thou fit them together in the one whole, and remember
what is first, and what is second, the builder may build, but thou wilt find the building
unsound.

12. When, therefore, the Lecture is delivered, if a Catechumen ask thee what the teachers
have said, tell nothing to him that is without . For we deliver to thee a mystery, and a
hope of the life to come. Guard the mystery for Him who gives the reward. Let none ever
say to thee, What harm to thee, if I also know it? So too the sick ask for wine; but if it
be given at a wrong time it causes delirium, and two evils arise; the sick man dies, and
the physician is blamed. Thus is it also with the Catechumen, if he hear anything from the
believer: both the Catechumen becomes delirious (for he understands not what he has heard,
and finds fault with the thing, and scoffs at what is said), and the believer is condemned
as a traitor. But thou art now standing on the border: take heed, pray, to tell nothing
out; not that the things spoken are not worthy to be told, but because his ear is unworthy
to receive. Thou wast once thyself a Catechumen, and I described not what lay before thee.
When by experience thou hast learned how high are the matters of our teaching, then thou
wilt know that the Catechumens are not worthy to hear them.

13. Ye who have been enrolled are become sons and daughters of one Mother. When ye have
come in before the hour of the exorcisms, let each one of you speak things tending to
godliness: and if any of your number be not present, seek for him. If thou wert called to
a banquet, wouldest thou not wait for thy fellow guest? If thou hadst a brother, wouldest
thou not seek thy brother's good? Afterwards busy not thyself about unprofitable matters:
neither, what the city has done, nor the village, nor the King , nor the Bishop, nor the
Presbyter. Look upward; that is what thy present hour needeth. Be still , and know that I
am God. If thou seest the believers ministering, and shewing no care, they enjoy security,
they know what they have received, they are in possession of grace. But thou standest just
now in the turn of the scale, to be received or not: copy not those who have freedom from
anxiety, but cherish fear.

14. And when the Exorcism has been done, until the others who are being exorcised have
come , let men be with men, and women with women. For now I need the example of Noah's
ark: in which were Noah and his sons, and his wife and his sons' wives. For though the ark
was one, and the door was shut, yet had things been suitably arranged. If the Church is
shut, and you are all inside, yet let there be a separation, men with men, and women with
women : lest the pretext of salvation become an occasion of destruction. Even if there be
a fair pretext for sitting near each other, let passions be put away. Further, let the men
when sitting have a useful book; and let one read, and another listen: and if there be no
book, let one pray, and another speak something useful. And again let the party of young
women sit together in like manner, either singing or reading quietly, so that their lips
speak, but others' ears catch not the sound: for I suffer not a woman to speak in the
Church . And let the married woman also follow the same example, and pray; and let her
lips move, but her voice be unheard, that a Samuel may come, and thy barren soul give
birth to the salvation of "God who hath heard thy prayer;" for this is the interpretation
of the name Samuel.

15. I shall observe each man's earnestness, each woman's reverence. Let your mind be
refined as by fire unto reverence; let your soul be forged as metal: let the stubbornness
of unbelief be hammered out: let the superfluous scales of the iron drop off, and what is
pure remain; let the rust of the iron be rubbed off, and the true metal remain. May God
sometime shew you that night, the darkness which shines like the day, concerning which it
is said, The darkness shall not be hidden from thee. and the night shall shine as the day
. Then may the gate of Paradise be opened to every man and every woman among you. Then may
you enjoy the Christ-bearing waters in their fragrance . Then may you receive the name of
Christ , and the power of things divine. Even now, I beseech you, lift up the eye of the
mind: even now imagine the choirs of Angels, and God the Lord of all there sitting, and
His Only-begotten Son sitting with Him on His right hand, and the Spirit present with
them; and Thrones and Dominions doing service, and every man of you and every woman
receiving salvation. Even now let your ears ring, as it were, with that glorious sound,
when over your salvation the angels shall chant, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered : when like stars of the Church you shall enter in,
bright in the body and radiant in the soul.

16. Great is the Baptism that lies before you : a ransom to captives; a remission of
offences; a death of sin; a new-birth of the soul; a garment of light; a holy indissoluble
seal; a chariot to heaven; the delight of Paradise; a welcome into the kingdom; the gift
of adoption! But there is a serpent by the wayside watching those who pass by: beware lest
he bite thee with unbelief. He sees so many receiving salvation, and is seeking whom he
may devour . Thou art coming in unto the Father of Spirits, but thou art going past that
serpent. How then mayest thou pass him? Have thy feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace ; that even if he bite, he may not hurt thee. Have faith in-dwelling,
stedfast hope, a strong sandal, that thou mayest pass the enemy, and enter the presence of
thy Lord. Prepare thine own heart for reception of doctrine, for fellowship in holy
mysteries. Pray more frequently, that God may make thee worthy of the heavenly and
immortal mysteries. Cease not day nor night: but when sleep is banished from thine eyes,
then let thy mind be free for prayer. And if thou find any shameful thought rise up in thy
mind, turn to meditation upon Judgment to remind thee of Salvation. Give thy mind wholly
to study, that it may forget base things. If thou find any one saying to thee, Art thou
then going in, to descend into the water? Has the city just now no baths? take notice that
it is the dragon of the sea who is laying these plots against thee. Attend not to the lips
of the talker, but to God who worketh in thee. Guard thine own soul, that thou be not
ensnared, to the end that abiding in hope thou mayest become an heir of everlasting
salvation.

17. We for our part as men charge and teach you thus: but make not ye our building hay and
stubble and chaff, lest we suffer loss, from our work being burnt up: but make ye our work
gold, and silver, and precious stones ! For it lies in me to speak, but in thee to set thy
mind upon it, and in God to make perfect. Let us nerve our minds, and brace up our souls,
and prepare our hearts. The race is for our soul: our hope is of things eternal: and God,
who knoweth your hearts, and observeth who is sincere, and who a hypocrite, is able both
to guard the sincere, and to give faith to the hypocrite: for even to the unbeliever, if
only he give his heart, God is able to give faith. So may He blot out the handwriting that
is against you , and grant you forgiveness of your former trespasses; may He plant you
into His Church, and enlist you in His own service, and put on you the armour of
righteousness : may He fill you with the heavenly things of the New Covenant, and give you
the seal of the Holy Spirit indelible throughout all ages, in Christ Jesus Our Lord: to
whom be the glory for ever and ever! Amen.

(To the Reader .) These Catechetical Lectures for those who are to be enlightened thou
mayest lend to candidates for Baptism, and to believers who are already baptized, to read,
but give not at all , neither to Catechumens, nor to any others who are not Christians, as
thou shalt answer to the Lord. And if thou make a copy, write this in the beginning, as in
the sight of the Lord.


AGAINST THE DONATISTS
=====================

AGAINST THE DONATISTS Optatus of Milevis

fl. c. AD 370

African bishop who wrote against the Donatists.

INTRODUCTION

APPENDIX III. CONSTANTINUS AUGUSTUS AELAFIO.

1 INTRODUCTION In this letter Constantine sends orders to his Vicar in Africa that
Caecilian and certain other Bishops (both Catholic and Donatist) should be directed to
proceed, with some of their clergy, to Aries, where a Council was to be held (as he
explains) once more publicly to vindicate the character of Caecilian. The date is 314.
This letter may be compared with another letter sent by Constantine to Chrestus, Bishop of
Syracuse, and preserved for us by Eusebius (x, 5). In both these letters August 1 is fixed
as the date for the opening of the Council at Arles; in both we find a reference to the
Council which had been already held at Rome under Miltiades. Indeed the similarity between
them is so striking that it has been suggested that the letter to Aelafius is a forgery
and has been copied from that to Chrestus. But Mgr. Duchesne has shown (op. cit. p. 32)
that this is quite impossible, since the letter to Chrestus was unknown in Africa, at the
time when the letter to Aelafius was placed in the collection used by Optatus. The only
edition of Eusebius known to St. Augustine, for example, was the version of Rufinus, where
Book Ten (containing the letter to Chrestus) is wanting.

2 It has also been urged as an argument against the authenticity of the Letter to Aelafius
that the Bishops are herein ordered to adopt a most improbable itinerary. They were
directed to follow the coast of Mauritania, thence to pass into Spain, and then to travel
to Arles by land; whereas it has been pointed out that it would have been far simpler and
cheaper to embark at Carthage, or Hippo, and go straight to Marseilles by sea. But here
again Mgr. Duchesne has observed, with irrefutable force, that if the Letter to Aelafius
be not genuine, it must have been composed by an African of the fourth century. During the
course of that century there is no reason to suppose that there was any change of routes.
And (to quote the words of Duchesne): 'The Africans who were the contemporaries of St.
Optatus knew how people went from their own country into Gaul. No one of them, had he
forged such a letter as this, would ever have dreamed of placing within it an impossible
itinerary.'

3 On the other hand we can nowadays know but little of the circumstances which may well
have caused the itinerary described in this letter to have been chosen for the journey of
the Bishops to Gaul. So we may safely conclude, with Duchesne, that as to the authenticity
of the letter there is no room for genuine doubt. CONSTANTINE THE EMPEROR TO AELAFIUS 4
Already some time back, since it was brought to my knowledge that many persons in our
dominion of Africa had begun to separate from one another with mad fury, and had brought
purposeless accusations against each other about the keeping of the most holy Catholic
Law, I thought it well, in order to settle this quarrel, that Caecilian the Bishop of
Carthage, against whom especially they all often petitioned me, should go to the City of
Rome, and that some of those who had deemed fit to bring certain charges against him,
should appear as well. I also ordered some Bishops from the Gauls to proceed to our above-
mentioned City of Rome, that, by the integrity of their lives and praiseworthy manner of
living, together with seven Bishops of the same Communion, and the Bishop of the City of
Rome, and their assessors, they might give due attention to the questions which had been
raised. Now they brought to my knowledge, by the written Acts of their meeting, all that
had been done in their presence, affirming also by word of mouth that their judgement was
based upon equity, and declaring that not Caecilian, but those who brought charges against
him, were guilty----so that, after giving their judgement, they forbade the latter to go
back to Africa.

5 Wherefore, in consequence of all this I once hoped that, in accordance with the probable
issue of events, a fitting end had been made to all the seditions and contentions of every
kind which had been suddenly called into being by the other party. But after I had read
your letters, which you had deemed it your duty to send to Nicasius and the rest, about
the crafty pretext of these men, I recognised clearly that they would not place before
their eyes either considerations of their own salvation, or (what is of more importance)
the reverence which is due to Almighty God----for they are persisting in a line of action
which not merely leads to their shame and disgrace, but also gives an opportunity of
detraction to those who are known to turn their minds away from the keeping of the most
holy Catholic Law. I write thus because----and this is a thing which it is well that you
should know----some have come from these men, asserting that the above-mentioned Caecilian
is deemed not to be worthy of the worship of our most holy religion, and in answer to my
reply that they were making an empty boast (since the affair had been terminated in the
City of Rome by competent men of the highest character, who were Bishops), they thought
fit to answer with persistent obstinacy that the whole case had not been heard, but that
these Bishops had shut themselves up somewhere and given the judgement as was most
convenient to themselves.

6 Wherefore, since I perceived that these numerous and important affairs were being
pertinaciously delayed by discussions, so that it appeared that no end could be made of
them without both Caecilian and three of those who are making a schism against him coming
to the town of Arles, for the judgement of those who are opposed to Caecilian, and are
bound to accept him as Bishop, I have deemed it well to impose upon your care to provide,
as soon as you receive this letter of mine, that the above-mentioned Caecilian with some
of those whom he himself shall choose----and also some from the provinces of Byzacium,
Tripolis, the Numidias and the Mauritanias, and each of the provinces, (and these must
bring a certain number of their clergy whom they shall choose)----and also some of those
who have made a schism against Caecilian (public conveyance being provided through Africa
and Mauritania) shall travel thence by a short course to Spain. In the same way you shall
provide in Spain each Bishop with a single right of conveyance so that they may all arrive
at the above-mentioned place by August 1; furthermore you will be pleased to convey to
them without delay that it is their duty to provide, before they depart, for suitable
discipline in their absence, in order that no sedition or contention of disputing parties
may arise----a thing which would be the greatest disgrace.As to the rest, after the matter
has been fully inquired into, let it be brought to an end.

7 For when they shall all have come together, those things which are now known to be
subjects of contention should with reason receive a timely conclusion, and be forthwith
finished and arranged. I confess to your Lordship, since I am well aware that you also are
a worshipper of the most High God, that I consider it by no means right that contentions
and altercations of this kind should be hidden from me, by which, perchance, God may be
moved not only against the human race, but also against me myself, to whose care, by His
heavenly Decree, He has entrusted the direction of all human affairs, and may in His wrath
provide otherwise than heretofore. For then shall I be able to remain truly and most fully
without anxiety, and may always hope for all most prosperous and excellent things from the
ever-ready kindness of the most powerful God, when I shall know that all, bound together
in brotherly concord, adore the most holy God with the worship of the Catholic religion,
that is His due.

APPENDIX IV. EPISTOLA CONCILII ARELATENSIS AD SILVESTRUM PAPAM, A.D. 314

8 INTRODUCTION The authenticity of this letter has never been contested. It is to be
found, though under a slightly different form, in the collection of Canons of Merovingian
Gaul, where it has been derived, not from African sources, but from the Archives of the
Church of Arles. In all probability a letter was also sent from the Council, announcing
its decisions, to the Church of Carthage. But if so, this letter has been lost. In the
same way the Council of Sardica, at the conclusion of its labours, sent two letters (both
extant), one to the Pope, the second to the Church of Alexandria. We also possess a letter
from the Council of Nicaea to Alexandria; the letter from Nicaea to the Pope has shared
the same fate as the letter from Arles to Carthage. That there was such a letter can
hardly be doubted. As Duchesne writes (p. 15):

9 'Il n'est guère douteux que les légats de Silvestre au Concile de Nicée n'aient rapporté
une lettre de cette assemblée, accompagnant, comme pour le Concile d'Arles, l'envoi des
Canons disciplinaires.'

LETTER OF THE COUNCIL OF ARLES TO POPE SILVESTER.

1 To the most beloved Pope Silvester: Marinus, Acratius, Natalis, Theodore, Proterius,
Vocius, Verus, Probatius, Caecilian, Faustinus, Surgentius, Gregory, Reticius, Ambitausus,
Termatius, Merocles, Pardus, Adelfius, Hibernius, Fortunatus, Aristasius, Lampadius,
Vitalis, Maternus, Liberius, Gregory, Crescens, Avitianus, Dafnus, Orantalis, Quintasius,
Victor, Epictetus, eternal health in the Lord! 2 Being united by the common tie of
charity, and by that unity which is the bond of our mother, the Catholic Church, we have
been brought to the City of Arles by the wish of the most pious Emperor, and we salute
thee with the reverence which is thy due, most glorious Pope. Here we have suffered from,
troublesome men, dangerous to our law and tradition----men of undisciplined mind,whom both
the authority of our God, which is with us,and our tradition and the rule of truth reject,
because they neither have reasonableness in their argument, nor any moderation in their
accusations, nor was their manner of proof to the point. Therefore by the Judgement of God
and of Mother Church, who knows and approves her own, they have been either condemned or
rejected. And would, most beloved Brother, that you had deemed it well to be present at
this great spectacle. We believe surely that in that case a more severe sentence would
have been passed against them; and our assembly would have exulted with a greater joy, had
you passed Judgement together with us. But since you were by no means able to leave that
region, where the Apostles daily sit, and their blood without ceasing bears witness to the
glory of God, it did not seem to us that by reason of your absence,most well-beloved
Brother, we ought to deal exclusively with those matters, on account of which we had been
summoned, but we judged that we also should take counsel on our own affairs;

3 because, as the countries from which we come are different, so events of various kinds
will happen which we think that we ought to watch and regulate. Accordingly we thought
well in the presence of the Holy Spirit and His Angels that from among the various matters
which occurred to each of us, we should make some decrees to provide for the present state
of tranquillity. We also agreed to write first to you, who hold [the government of] the
greater dioceses, that by you especially they should be brought to the knowledge of all.
What it is that we have determined on, we have appended to this writing of our
insignificance. But in the first place, we were bound to discuss a matter that concerned
the usefulness of our life. Now since one died and rose again for many, the same season
should be observed with a religious mind by all at the same time, lest divisions or
dissensions might arise in so great a service of devotion. We judge, therefore, that the
Pasch of the Lord should be observed throughout the world upon the same day.

4 Also, concerning those who have been ordained clerics in any places whatsoever, we have
decreed that they remain fixed in the same places. Concerning those too who throw down
their arms in time of peace, we have decreed that they should be kept from communion.
Concerning the wandering agitators who belong to the Faithful, we have decreed that, as
long as they continue their agitation, they be debarred from communion. Concerning the
strolling players we have decreed that, as long as they act, they be debarred from
communion. Concerning those [heretics] who are weighed down by illness and wish to
believe, we have decreed that hands be laid upon them. Concerning magistrates who belong
to the Faithful and are appointed to office, we have determined that, when they are
promoted, they should receive ecclesiastical letters of communion, but in such a way that
in whatever place they may be living, the Bishop of that place shall have a heed to them,
and if they begin to act against discipline, they be then excluded from communion. We have
decreed similarly with regard to those who wish to hold state offices. Moreover, with
regard to the Africans,inasmuch as they use their own law of rebaptising, we have decreed
that if any heretic comes to the Church, he should be questioned concerning the Creed, and
if it be found that he has been baptised in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
hands shall be laid upon him and no more.But if, on being questioned as to the Creed, he
does not give the Trinity in answer, then let him rightly be baptised, and the rest, etc.

5 Then giving over, he commanded all to return to their homes. Amen.

APPENDIX V. EPISTOLA CONSTANTINI IMPERATORIS AD EPISCOPOS CATHOLICOS POST SYNODUM
ARELATENSE SCRIPTA A.D. 314 circa finem.

6 INTRODUCTION Two objections, both of them sufficiently flimsy, have been brought against
the authenticity of this letter, from which St. Optatus quotes twice (i, 23, 25, cf. pp.
44, 49), though, as we have seen, he was mistaken as to its date. It has been urged that
the indignation of Constantine at an appeal having been made to him from the decision of
the Bishops is overdone, and it has been represented that the piety of its expressions is
strange as emanating from an Emperor in an official document. To the first objection we
may reply that Constantine might well be shocked. As Emperor, he could have no right to
settle the purely ecclesiastical question who was the legitimate Bishop of Carthage,
though in this capacity he considered it his duty to provide for the ecclesiastical trial
of such matters as they arose, and deemed himself bound to enforce Catholic law and
discipline (when it had been duly determined) throughout his dominions; as a Christian, he
was still in the lowest rank, a catechumen. Small wonder then if he was scandalised, and
expressed his scornful anger, at the behaviour of the Donatists in his regard. As for the
piety of the tone of this letter, Duchesne observes that Constantine's letter to Chrestus
of Syracuse, concerning the authenticity of which no one doubts, is equally full of pious
expressions. Besides, Constantine seems to have been fond of preaching to his subjects on
occasion. 'Il a toujours beaucoup sermonné ses sujets. Sa vie écrite par Eusèbe et les
autres documents que l'on a de son activité oratoire en ce genre, même certaines lois du
code théodosien, nous édifient suffisamment là-dessus.' (Op. cit. p. 39.)

7 Moreover, this letter may perhaps have been touched up by an ecclesiastical secretary,
of whom Constantine had several in his household. One of them, Hosius, the celebrated
Bishop of Cordova, was certainly closely involved in these African controversies (cf.
Eusebius, E.H. x, 6). However this may be, there is no doubt that Constantine felt the bad
conduct of the Donatists very deeply. Whatever we may think as to the form of this letter,
its substance is certainly his. Expressions may have been placed upon his lips, or made to
flow from his pen. But this happens not seldom to personages of high estate Whatever was
written in an official document, such as the one before us, he adopted and made his own.

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE TO THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS.

1 Constantine Augustus, to his dearest brothers, the Catholic Bishops, Health! The
everlasting and worshipful, the incomprehensible kindness of our God by no means allows
the weakness of men to wander for too long a time in the darkness. Nor does it suffer the
perverse wills of some to come to such a pass as not to give them anew by its most
splendid light a saving passage, opening the way so that they may be converted to the rule
of justice. I have indeed experienced this by many examples. I can also describe it from
myself. For in me of old there were things that were far from right, nor did I think that
the power of God saw anything of what I carried amongst the secrets of my heart. Surely
this ought to have brought me a just retribution, flowing over with all evils. But
Almighty God, who sitteth in the watchtower of Heaven, hath bestowed upon me gifts which I
deserved not. Of a truth, those things which of His Heavenly kindness He has granted to
me, His servant, can neither be told nor counted. On this account, O most holy Bishops of
Christ the Saviour, my dearest brothers, I indeed rejoice; yes, in a special way do I
rejoice, that at length, after you have held a most impartial inquiry, you have recalled
to a better hope and fortune those whom the wickedness of the devil seemed by his wretched
persuasion to have turned away from the most noble light of the Catholic Law.

2 Oh, truly triumphant Providence of Christ the Saviour, to come to the rescue of those
who, already falling away from the truth, and in a certain manner taking up arms against
it, had joined themselves to the Gentiles! For, if even now they will consent with pure
faith to make their obedience to the most holy Law, they will be able to understand how
great a provision has been made for them by the Will of God. And this, my most holy
brothers, I hoped might be found even in those in whom the greatest hardness of heart has
been engendered. But your right judgement has not been of any avail to them, nor has the
merciful God made an entrance into their dispositions. In truth, not undeservedly has the
mercy of Christ departed far from those men, in whom it is as clear as the sun of noon-
day,that they are of such a character, as to be seen to be shut off even from the care of
Heaven, since so great a madness still holds them captive, and with unbelievable arrogance
they persuade themselves of things which cannot lawfully be either spoken or heard----
departing from the right judgement that was given, from which, as through the provision of
Heaven I have learnt they are appealing to my judgement----Oh, what force has the
wickedness which even yet is persevering in their breasts!

3 How often have they been crushed already by myself in a reply, which, by their most
shameless approaches to me, they have deservedly brought upon themselves. Surely, if they
had kept this before their eyes, they would never have ventured on this appeal of theirs.
They ask judgement from me, who am myself waiting for the judgement of Christ. For I
declare----as is true----that the judgement of Bishops ought to be looked upon as if the
Lord Himself were sitting in Judgement. For it is not lawful for them to think or to judge
in any other way, excepting as they have been taught by the teaching of Christ. Why then,
as I have said with truth, do wicked men seek the devil's services? They search after
worldly things, deserting those which are heavenly. Oh, mad daring of their rage! They
have made an appeal, as is done in the lawsuits of the pagans. For pagans are accustomed
sometimes to escape from the lower courts where justice may be obtained speedily, and
through the authority of higher tribunals to have recourse to an appeal. What of those
shirkers of the law who refuse the judgement of Heaven, and have thought fit to ask for
mine? Do they thus think of Christ the Saviour? Behold, they are now 'Betrayers.' Behold,
without any need for disputatious examination, of their own accord they have themselves
betrayed their wicked deeds. How can they, who have leapt savagely upon God Himself, feel
as men should feel?

4 But, my dearest Brothers, although this wickedness has been discovered in them,
nevertheless do you, who follow the way of the Lord the Saviour, show patience, and still
give them a choice to choose what they may think well. And if you see that they persevere
in the same courses, do you go your way, and return to your own Sees, and remember me,
that our Saviour may always have mercy on me. But I have directed my men to bring these
wicked deceivers of religion to my court that they may live there, and there survey for
themselves what is worse than death. I have also sent a suitable letter to the prefect who
is my viceroy in Africa, enjoining him, that, as often as he finds any instances of this
madness, he is to send the guilty, forthwith, to my court, lest any longer, beneath so
great a shining of our God, such things be done by them, as may provoke the greatest anger
of the Heavenly Providence.

5 May Almighty God keep you safe, my dearest Brothers, through the ages, in answer to my
prayers and yours.

APPENDIX VI. EPISTOLA CONSTANTINI IMPERATORIS AD EPISCOPOS PARTIS DONATI A.D. 315

6 INTRODUCTION St. Augustine informs us (Ep. xliii, 20) that, in accordance with what we
read in this letter, Constantine, after the Council of Arles, commanded representatives of
both Catholics and Donatists to appear before him at Rome. The Donatists complied, but on
the appointed day Caecilian failed to arrive. Constantine thereupon put off his judgement
until a later date and directed that the Donatists should be conducted under a safeguard
to Milan. Some of them, however, contrived to escape before Caecilian arrived at Milan----
to be vindicated a third time from the charges which had been so persistently brought
against his good name.

CONSTANTINE AUGUSTUS TO THE DONATIST BISHOPS.

7 A few days ago I determined that, in accordance with your demand, you should go back to
Africa, so that there the whole case, which you think lies against Caecilian, should be
tried by friends of mine whom I had chosen, and reach a fitting conclusion. However,
whilst I was thinking it over for a long time, and duly turning the matter over in my
mind, I deemed it best, rather than this----since I know that some of your party are full
of turbulence and obstinately refuse to regard the right judgement and the statement of
the complete truth, and that for this reason it would perhaps happen, that if the case
were tried in Africa it would be determined, not as is fitting, and as the demands of
truth require, but that through your exceedingly great obstinacy something might easily
result which would both be displeasing to God in Heaven, and also would be exceedingly
detrimental to my good reputation, which I desire always to preserve undiminished----that
Caecilian should preferably come here, as was first settled. Thus, as I have said, I have
determined, and I believe that, in compliance with my letter, he will soon arrive. But I
promise you, that if, in his presence, you prove by your evidence anything against him
concerning even one accusation or evil deed, I will regard this the same as though all
your charges were seen to be proved.

8 May Almighty God grant us perpetual safety!

APPENDIX VII. EXEMPLUM EPISTOLAE PRAEFECTORUM PRAETORIO AD CELSUM VICARIUM, QUA REMITTUNTUR IN AFRICAM DONATISTAE QUI IN GALLIAS VENERANT PROPTER CAUSSAM CAECILIANI. A.D. 315

9 INTRODUCTION Du Pin dates this letter 316; but (though Ziwsa follows him in printing it
after the succeeding letter Perseverare Menalium) this must be a mistake. The letter
itself concludes thus: 'Hilarus Princeps optulit IV Kal. Maias, Triberos' It is addressed
to Celsus who had by April 316 given place to Eumelius as Vicar of Africa. It was
therefore written in 315. It carries into execution Constantine's permission, of which we
have just read in the preceding letter, to the Donatist Bishops to return to Africa after
the Council of Arles. Of itself it has no intrinsic importance, but is of some interest in
consequence of its close connection with the document given by Optatus (i, 23), containing
the names of the obscure signatories of the famous appeal to Constantine. Optatus records
the names of Lucianus, Dignus, Nasutius, Capito and Fidentius. These all reappear in the
document before us, excepting Dignus, who perhaps had died at Arles.

PETRONIUS ANNIANUS AND JULIANUS TO DOMITIUS CELSUS THE VICAR OF AFRICA.

10 Since Lucian, Capito, Fidentius, Nasutius the Bishops, and Mammarius the priest, who in
accordance with the divine precept of the Lord Constantine Maximus, the unconquered,
always august, had gone to Gaul with other men of their Law, were commanded by his Majesty
to proceed to their own homes, we have, my brother, in compliance with the command of the
Eternity of our most clement Lord, ordered for them a service of post-horses, with
suitable provisions, so far as the port of Arles, from which they may set sail for Africa,
a fact which it is desirable that your Carefulness should learn from this our letter. We
pray, my Brother, that the best of good fortune may always attend you. Given at Trêves on
April 28, by Hilary, the Magistrate.

APPENDIX VIII. EPISTOLA CONSTANTINI IMPERATORIS AD CELSUM VICARIUM AFRICAE. A.D. 315 OR 316

11 INTRODUCTION This letter was written by Constantino during the interval that elapsed
between the appearance of the Donatists at Rome and the judgement at Milan. It betrays
considerable irritation even against Caecilian, due no doubt to the fact that he had
failed to obey the Emperor's summons (given in a letter no longer extant) to Rome.
Constantine in this letter expresses a new determination----which he failed to carry out
----to go himself to Africa and investigate the conditions on the spot. Since Constantine
mentions in this letter the 'flight' of some of the Donatists as having already taken
place, it was not written before September 315, when the Emperor left Rome; on the other
hand it must have been written before Celsus was succeeded as Vicar of Africa by Eumelius
early in 316. We are thus enabled to fix its date, as having been written in the autumn of
315 or the winter of 315-316.

TO CELSUS, THE VICAR OF AFRICA:

12 The latest despatches from your Lordship have informed me how Menalius, a man whom
madness long ago took hold of, and the others who have departed from the truth of God, and
given themselves over to a most shameful error, persevere in their course. You tell me in
your letter, my well-beloved Brother, that you have obeyed my order with regard to the
seditious in accordance with their deserts, and have placed a check upon the tumult which
they were preparing. And now that they were contemplating wicked deeds has become manifest
from the fact that, when I had determined to inquire most fully between them and
Caecilian, concerning the various charges which they brought against him, they did their
best to withdraw from my presence by taking to flight.By this most disgraceful deed they
acknowledged that they were hastening to return to the things which they both had done
previously and are now persisting in doing. But (since it is certain that no one ever
gains an unmixed advantage from his own misdeeds, even though punishment may be delayed
for a little while), I have thought well to command your Lordship that in the meantime you
should leave them alone, and understand that we must temporise with them.

13 But after you have read this letter, you should make it plain both to Caecilian and to
them, that when by the Divine Goodness I come to Africa, I shall render it most clear to
all, both to Caecilian, and to those who are acting against him, by reading a perfectly
plain judgement, as to what and what kind of worship is to be given to the Supreme God,
and with what manner of service He is pleased. Also, by diligent examination, I shall
acquaint myself to the full with the things which at the present time some persons fancy
they can keep dark through the allurements of their ignorant minds, and shall drag them
into the light. Those same persons who now stir up the people in such a war as to bring it
about that the supreme God is not worshipped with the veneration that is His due, I shall
destroy and dash in pieces. And since it is sufficiently clear that no one may hope to
obtain the honours of a martyr with that kind [of Martyrdom] which is seen to be foreign
to the truth of religion, and is altogether unbecoming, I shall without any delay cause
those men whom I shall ascertain to have acted against that which is right and against
religion itself, and whom I shall discover to have been guilty of violence in their
worship, to undergo the destruction which they have deserved by their madness and reckless
obstinacy.

14 Wherefore, let them also know for certain what they ought to do to secure full credence
after they have invoked their own salvation, since I am going most diligently to search
into the things which concern not merely the people, but also those clerics who are in the
first places, and shall pass judgement in accordance with that which is most clearly in
the interests of truth and religion. I shall also make these persons see what worship and
what kind of worship is to be given to the Divinity, for by no means do I believe that I
can in any way escape the greatest guilt otherwise than by refusing to close my eyes to
that which is wicked. What can be done by me more in accordance with my constant practice,
and the very office of a Prince, than, after having driven away errors and destroyed all
rash opinions, to bring it about that all men should show forth true religion and
simplicity in concord, and to render to Almighty God the worship which is His due?

APPENDIX IX. EPISTOLA CONSTANTINI IMPERATORIS AD EPISCOPOS ET PLEBEM AFRICAE, UT DONATISTAS TOLERENT. A.D. 321

15 INTRODUCTION This letter speaks for itself. It seems to be contemporaneous with the
Rescript of Verinus (May 5, 321). Its object is to inform the Catholics of Africa that the
Government had changed its plan of dealing with the recalcitrant Donatists. Rigorous
measures were to be abandoned, and toleration granted, in the hope of attaining good
results in the end. With regard to this new determination Duchesne writes as follows (op.
cit. p. 28): 'This toleration, in face of the fanaticism, of the audacity and the violence
of the schismatics, was in reality an abandonment. Without doubt the Emperor exhorts the
Catholic Bishops to endure with patience the wrongs inflicted upon them by the Donatists;
he also makes reparation, up to a certain point, for the material damage caused by these
sectaries, but this does not make it less true that he tolerates them. In thus granting
them toleration, he goes back upon his much more decided attitude anterior to the Rescript
of 321 and allows the judgement to fall into abeyance, which he had himself given against
Donatus and in favour of Caecilian.'

LETTER OF CONSTANTINE ON TOLERATION TO BE GRANTED TO THE DONATISTS.

1 Constantine Augustus to all the Bishops in Africa and to the people of the Catholic
Church. You know right well that, as Faith required, so far as Prudence permitted, as much
as a single-minded intention could prevail, I have endeavoured by every effort of kindly
government to secure that, in accordance with the prescriptions of our law, the Peace of
the most holy Brotherhood, whose grace the supreme God has poured into the hearts of His
servants, should, through complete concord, be preserved secure. 'But whereas the
provisions that we have made have not prevailed to subdue the obstinate violence of crime,
which has been implanted in the breasts of certain men----few though they be----and
whereas some favour is still shown to this wickedness of theirs, so that they would not on
any account suffer a place in which they were proud to have sinned to be extorted from
them, we must see to it, that as all this evil affects a few, it may be, through the mercy
of Almighty God, mitigated for the people. For we ought to hope for a remedy, from that
source to which all good desires and deeds are referred.But, until the Heavenly medicine
shows itself, our designs must be moderated so far as to act with patience, and whatever
in their insolence they attempt or carry out, in accordance with their habitual wantonness
----all this we must endure with the strength which comes from tranquillity.

2 In no way let wrong be returned to wrong, for it is the mark of a fool to snatch at that
vengeance which we ought to leave to God, especially since our faith ought to lead us to
trust that whatever we may endure from the madness of men of this kind, will avail before
God for the grace of martyrdom. For what is it, to overcome in this world in the Name of
God, excepting to endure with an unshaken heart the untamed savagery of men who harass the
people of the Law of Peace? But, if you will give yourselves loyally to this affair, you
will speedily bring it about that, by the favour of God on high, these men, who are making
themselves the standard-bearers of this most miserable strife, may all come to recognise,
as their laws or customs fall into decay,that they ought not, through the persuasion of a
few, to give themselves over to perish in everlasting death,when they might, through the
grace of repentance, be made whole again, having corrected their errors, for everlasting
life.

3 Fare you well, by your common prayer, for ever, by God's favour, dearest brethren.

APPENDIX X. RESCRIPTUM CONSTANTINI AD EPISCOPOS NUMIDAS UBI HAERETICI TULERUNT BASILICAS A CATHOLICIS UT AD ALIAM BASILICAM FACIENDAM SIBI LOCUM VEL DOMUM EIS DENT. A.D. 330

4 INTRODUCTION In this Rescript Constantine provides that, as the Donatists refused to
give back to Catholics their basilicas----amongst which was one that he had himself built
for their use----the Donatists should, lest worse things befall, be left in undisturbed
possession of their ill-gotten goods, and that a new Church should be built, again at his
expense, to provide for the religious needs of Catholics. He also states that he had
ordered that certain exemptions, relative to the curia and munera personalia, of which the
Donatists had succeeded by their intrigues in depriving Catholic clerics of lower degree,
should be restored to them, according to a custom which was already ancient. Duchesne has
shown (op. cit. pp. 28, 29) that certain passages in this letter are in even verbal accord
with the prescriptions of Constantine in his letter to the Consular of Numidia still
preserved in a law of the Theodosian Code.

5 He prints them as follows in parallel columns: Letter to the Numidian Bishops.
Theodosian Code, xvi,ii. Ad consularem quoque scribi mandavi Numidiae ut ipse in eiusdem
ecclesiae fabricatione in omnibus sanctimoniam vestram iuvaret. Lectores etiam Ecclesiae
Catholicae et hypodiacones, reliquos quoque [qui] instinctu memoratorum quibusdam pro
moribus ad munera vel ad decurionatum vocati sunt, iuxta sta[tu]tum legis meae ad nullum
munus statui evocandos. Sed et eos qui ducti sunt haereticorum instinctu iussimus protinus
molestis perfunctionibus absolvi. Data non. febr., Serdica. Imp. Constantinus Valentino
consulari Numidiae. Lectores divinorum apicum et hypodiaconi ceterique clerici qui per
iniuriam haereticorum ad curiam devocati sunt absolvantur; et de cetero ad similitudinem
Orientis minime ad curias devocentur sed immunitate plenissima potiantur. Data non. febr.,
Serdica. Constantine evidently was as good as his word. He dated, and no doubt despatched,
his letters on the same day to the Numidian Bishops and his Prefect in Africa. Would that
Princes had always thus faithfully kept their promises to the Church.

Rescript of Constantine to the Bishops of Numidia.

6 Constantine the supreme Victor and always triumphant Emperor, to Zenuzius, Gallicus,
Victorinus, Sperantius, Januarius, Felix, Crescentius, Pontius, Victor, Babbertius,
Donatus, Bishops. 7 Since this is certainly the Will of the Supreme God, who is the Author
of this world and its Father, (through whose goodness we enjoy life, look up to heaven,
and rejoice in the society of our fellow-men), that the whole human race should agree
together and be joined in a certain affectionate union by, as it were, a mutual embrace,
it is not doubtful that heresies and schism have come from the devil, who is the head of
wickedness. Therefore, there is no room to doubt that whatever heretics do, is done
through his prompting who has taken possession of their senses, minds and thoughts. For,
when he has reduced men of this character beneath his power, he rules them in every sort
of fashion. And what good thing can be done by a man who is insane, unbelieving,
irreligious, profane, opposed to God, an enemy of the Holy Church, who (departing from
God, the Holy, the True, the Just, the Supreme, and the Lord of all, from Him who has
given us life and preserved us in this world----having bestowed upon us breath for the
life which we enjoy, and willed us to have, that which is His own ----and has made all
things perfect by His Will) runs on the downward path to the side of the devil?

8 But, inasmuch as the soul which has once been possessed by the Evil One----for it must
needs do the works of its teacher----does those things which are opposed to equity and
justice, it follows that they who have been possessed by the devil yield themselves to his
falsehood and wickedness. Moreover, it is not to be wondered at that the wicked depart
from the good, for thus has it been rightly laid down in the proverb, 'Like flock with
like together.' It must needs be that those who have been stained with the evil of an
impious mind should depart from our fellowship. For, as Scripture says, the wicked man
brings forth wicked things from a wicked treasure, but the good man brings forth good from
good. But since (as we have said) heretics and schismatics, who, deserting good and
following after evil, do the things that are displeasing to God, are proved to cling to
the devil, who is their father, most rightly and wisely has your Gravity acted in
accordance with the holy precepts of the Faith, by abstaining from contending with their
perversity, and giving them the use of that which they claim for themselves, though they
have no right to it, and it does not belong to them, lest----so great is their wicked and
shameless perversity----they might even break out into tumults, and stir up men like
themselves at their crowded meetings, and thus a state of sedition might be produced,
which could not be allayed.

9 For their criminal purpose always requires them to do the works of the devil. Therefore,
since the Bishops of God overcome them, together with their father himself, by patience,
let those who are the worshippers of the Supreme God obtain glory for themselves, but
these others condemnation and condign punishments. In fact, may the Judgement of the
Supreme God become the more imposing and appear the more just from this, that He bears
with them in calmness, and His patience condemns all the deeds which have come from them,
enduring them for a while, for God indeed has declared that He is the Avenger of all. So
when vengeance is reserved to God, the enemy is punished the more severely. And I have now
been informed that you, the servants of God, have done this willingly, and I have rejoiced
that you demand no punishment upon the impious and wicked, the sacrilegious and profane,
the perfidious and irreligious, upon those who displease God and are the enemies of the
Church, but rather ask that they should be pardoned. This is to know God truly and
thoroughly, this is to walk in the way of His Commandments, this is to believe with
happiness, this is to think with truth, this is to understand that when the enemies of the
Church are spared in this world, the greater punishment is laid up against them for
hereafter.

10 I have learnt by the receipt of the letter of your Wisdom and Dignity, that the
heretics or schismatics, with their accustomed wickedness, determined to seize the
basilicas belonging to the Catholic Church, which I had ordered to be built in the City of
Constantine, and that, though they had been often warned, both by us and by our judges at
our command, to give up what was not theirs, they have refused to do so, but that you,
imitating the Patience of the most high God, with a calm mind relinquish to their
wickedness what is yours, and ask instead for another site for yourselves in exchange,
namely the Custom House. This petition of yours I gladly welcomed, according to my custom,
and straightway sent a suitable letter to the accountant, commanding him to see that our
Custom House should be passed over, with all its rights, to the ownership of the Catholic
Church. I have given you this with ready liberality, and have ordered it to be at once
delivered to you. I have also commanded a basilica to be built on that spot at the
Imperial expense, and have directed letters to be written to the Consular of
Numidia,telling him to be of assistance to your Holiness in all things which concern the
building of this Church.

11 I have also decreed, in accordance with my Statute law, that the lectors and subdeacons
of the Catholic Church, and any others who, by the command of the above-mentioned, have
been summoned in consequence of their fitness, to public offices, or to the decurionship,
should be free from all public obligations ; also we have provided that those who at the
instigation of heretics had been summoned, should forthwith be set free from disagreeable
duties. For the rest I have also ordered that the law which I have made concerning
Catholic ecclesiastics be observed. All these things have been written out at length, as
this letter testifies, in order that they may be made known to your patience. And indeed,
oh that the heretics or schismatics would at length provide for their own salvation, and
that, having wiped away the darkness from their eyes, they would open them to the vision
of true light, and that they would depart from the devil, and, however late, would flee to
God, who is One and True, and the Judge of all mankind. But, since it is clear that they
are remaining in their malice, and wish to die in their crimes, our warning and former
careful exhortation is enough for them. For if they had been willing to obey our commands,
they would have been freed from all evil.

12 Let us, however, my Brothers, follow after the things that are ours, let us walk in the
way of the Commandments, let us by good actions keep the Divine Precepts, let us free our
life from errors and with the help of the mercy of God, let us direct it along the right
path. 13 Given on February 5 at Sardica. DEO GRATIAS.

APPENDIX XI. ACTA CONCILII CIRTENSIS. A.D. 305

14 INTRODUCTION This document seems to have been joined in the Appendix to the Gesta apud
Zenophilum. Its substance was given by St. Optatus (i, 14) who added: 'Sicut scripta
Nundinarii tunc diaconi testantur et vetustas membranarum testimonium perhibet, quas
dubitantibus proferre poterimus; harum namque plenitudinem rerum in novissima parte
istorum libellorum ad implendam fidem adiunximus.' It was produced by Catholics at the
Conference of Carthage (Coll. iii, 351-355, 387-400; 408-432, 452-470; Brev. Coll. iii,
xv, xvii). St. Augustine quotes it in several passages (con. Cresc. iii, 26, 27; Ep.
xliii, 3; c. Litt. Petil. i, 21; de unico Baptismo xvii; ad Donat. post coll. xiv
(Cirtense concilium, si tamen concilium dicendum est, in quo vix undecim vel duodecim
Episcopi fuerunt); con. Gaud. i, 47 &c). I give a translation of the document as it is to
be found almost in its entirety in con. Cresc, iii, 27.

ACTS OF THE COUNCIL OF CIRTA

15 When Diocletian was Consul for the eighth and Maximinian for the seventh time, on March
4, after Secundus, Bishop of Tigisis and Primate, had taken his seat in the house of
Urbanus Donatus, he said: 'Let us first see that all are duly qualified to act, and thus
we shall be able to consecrate a Bishop.' Secundus said to Donatus of Mascula: 'It is
alleged that you have been guilty of Betrayal.' Donatus replied: 'You know how Florus
searched for me to make me offer incense, and God did not deliver me into his hands, my
brother; but since God has pardoned me, so do you too leave me to God.' Secundus said:
'What then are we to do about the Martyrs? They have been crowned because they did not
"betray."' Donatus said: 'Send me to God. Before Him I will render my account.' Secundus
said: 'Come to one side.'

16 Secundus said to Marinus of the Waters of Tibilis: 'It is alleged that you too were
guilty of Betrayal.' Marinus answered: 'I did give papers to Pollus. My codices are safe.'
Secundus said: 'Stand on one side.' Secundus said to Donatus of Calama: 'It is alleged
that you were guilty of Betrayal.' Donatus answered: 'I gave them medical treatises.'
Secundus said: 'Stand on one side.' And in another place: Secundus said to Victor of
Rustica: 'It is alleged that you "betrayed" four Gospels.' Victor answered: 'Valentianus
was Curator. He forced me to throw them into the fire. I knew that they were lost. Pardon
me this fault and God will also pardon me.' Secundus said: 'Stand on one side.' And in
another place: Secundus said to Purpurius of Limata: 'It is alleged that you killed at
Milevis the two sons of your sister.' Purpurius answered: 'Do you think that I am
frightened of you, like the rest? What have you done, who were forced by the Curator and
the soldiers to give up the Scriptures? How did you come to be set free by them, unless
you surrendered something, or ordered it to be surrendered? For they did not let you go at
random. Yes, I did kill, and I intend now to kill those who act against me. So do not now
provoke me to say anything more. You know that I interfere with nobody's affairs.'

17 Secundus the Less said to Secundus his uncle: 'Do you hear what he is saying against
you? He is ready to leave, and make a schism; and not only he, but also all those who are
accused by you. I know that they intend to abandon you, and pronounce sentence against
you. You will then remain alone, a heretic. So what business is it of yours what any one
has done? He has to render an account to God.' Secundus said to Felix of Rotarium, [to
Nabor] of Centurio and Victor of Garba: 'What do you think?' They answered: 'They have
God, to whom they must render their account.' Secundus said: 'You know and God knows. Sit
down.' And they all answered: 'Thanks be to God.'

APPENDIX XII. RELATIO ANULINI PROCONSULIS AD IMPERATOREM. A.D. 313

18 INTRODUCTION We have here a report of the Pro-Consul Anulinus to Constantine, informing
him that he had duly sent his letter to Caecilian, but that a few days afterwards he had
been approached by a deputation, followed by a crowd of people, requesting him to transmit
two documents----one sealed, the other open----to the Emperor (cf. Opt. i, 22). This
document was produced in its entirety by the Catholics at the Carthage Conference (Gesta
Coll. Carthag. diei iii, ccxv-ccxx, cccxvi, cf. Brev. iii, 8, 24). It has also been
reproduced by St. Augustine (Ep. lxxxviii, 2, from which source I have made my
translation) and is often mentioned by him (con. Crescon. iii, 67; De Un. Bapt. 28; Ep.
lxxxix, 3; cxxviii, 2; cxxiv, 9, &c).

Report of Anulinus to the Emperor.

19 My duty has caused me, amongst the acts of my insignificance, to send your Majesty's
heavenly letter, after I had received and venerated it, to Caecilian and his subordinate
clerics ; at the same time I exhorted them that----now that Unity has been effected with
general consent, since through the condescension of your Majesty their liberty was seen to
be in every respect completely secure, and the Catholic Church was protected----they
should apply themselves to the service of their holy Law and to the things of God, with
due reverence. But a few days afterwards I was approached by certain persons, followed by
a great throng of the populace, who held that Caecilian must be opposed, and presented me
in my official capacity with two documents, one bound in leather and sealed, the other a
libellus unsealed, and demanded with insistence that I should send them to the sacred and
venerable Court of your Highness. This my littleness has been careful to do (preserving
Caecilian in his position), and I have forwarded their Acts, that your Majesty may be in a
position to determine everything. I have sent the two libelli, of which the one bound in
leather has been endorsed Libellus Ecclesiae Catholicae criminum Caeciliani traditus a
parte Maiovini. Also the one without a seal together with that in leather. Given on the
fifteenth of April at Carthage when Constantine Augustus was for the third time Consul.

APPENDIX XIII. EPISTOLA CONSTANTINI AD MELCHIADEM. A.D. 313

20 INTRODUCTION In this letter Constantinc calls upon Pope Melchiades (or Miltiades) to
judge the question lately raised in Africa between Caecilian and his accusers. The Emperor
encloses for the Pope's information the two documents which (as we have just read) he had
lately received from Anulinus (cf. Optatus, i, 22; Augustine, Ep. xliii, 5; Ep. xciii, 13;
de Unit. xviii; con. Crescon. iii, 61). This letter has been preserved for us by Eusebius
(H.E. x, 5) E0peidh_ toiou~toi. It was produced by the Catholics at the Conference in 411
(Coll. iii, 319; Brev. iii, 12).

LETTER OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE IN WHICH HE PROVIDES FOR THE CASE CONCERNING CAECILIAN TO BE JUDGED AT ROME.

1 Constantine Augustus to Miltiades Bishop of Rome and to Marcus. Whereas several
documents have been sent to me from Anulinus, the most illustrious ProConsul of Africa, in
which it is shown that Caecilian, Bishop of Carthage, has been accused on many grounds by
certain of his fellow-Bishops in Africa----since it appears to me a very grievous thing
that in those Provinces which Divine Providence has freely committed to my fidelity, where
there is a vast population, the multitude (as it were divided into twain) are found to be
deteriorating, and the Bishops, amongst others, are at variance----I have resolved that
this Caecilian with ten of the Bishops who accuse him and ten others whom he himself may
choose to aid in his defence, shall sail to Rome; that there in your presence and in the
presence of Reticius, Maternus and Marinus your fellow-Bishops, whom I have ordered to
hasten to Rome for this purpose, this case may be determined in the manner which you know
to be in agreement with the most holy Law. Moreover, that you may derive the fullest
knowledge of all this business, I have added copies of the documents which were sent me by
Anulinus, to my letters to your above-mentioned fellow-Bishops. After you have perused
these your Gravity will carefully consider in what way this controversy may be most
accurately investigated and justly decided. And it will not have escaped your careful
observation that so great is my reverence for the most holy Catholic Church that I am
absolutely unwilling that any schism or dissension should be left in any place by you. My
most esteemed one, may the Divinity of the Most High God preserve you for many years.

APPENDIX XIV. CONSTANTINI EPISTOLA AD PROBIANUM, QUA INGENTIUM AD COMITATUM MITTI IUBET. A.D. 315

2 INTRODUCTION This letter was produced by the Donatists at the Conference in 411 (Coll.
Carthag. Diei iii, dlvi, dlviii; Brev. iii, 41, 42). St. Augustine gives us the complete
text (con. Crescon. iii, lxx. Cf. Ep. lxxxviii, 4; ad Donat. 19).

LETTER OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE TO PROBIANUS THE PRO-CONSUL OF AFRICA.

1 The Emperors Constantine Maximus and Valerius Licinius Caesars to Probianus the Pro-
Consul of Africa. Your predecessor Aelianus at a time when he was discharging the duties
of that most worthy man, Verus our Vicar, in consequence of his ill-health, thought well
(and with reason), amongst other matters, to investigate and determine the business----
that is, the charges----brought by envy against Caecilian, a Bishop of the Catholic
Church. For after he had secured the presence of Superius the centurion, and Caecilianus
the Magistrate of Aptunga, and Saturninus who was formerly Curator, and Calidius the
younger Curator, and Solon a public official of that city, he gave them a fair hearing----
so that when it was alleged as an objection against Caecilian that he had been raised to
the Episcopate by Felix, who was accused of the Betrayal and burning of the Divine
Scriptures, the innocence of Felix was proved. Finally, when Maximus charged Ingentius, a
decurion of Ziqua, with having falsified a letter of Caecilianus formerly Duovir, we have
learned from the Acts of the Proceedings that this Ingentius was prepared for torture, and
was only saved by his statement that he was a decurion of Ziqua. Wherefore it is our will
that you should despatch this Ingentius, under suitable escort, to my Court of Constantine
Augustus, so that it may be made quite clear, in the presence and hearing of those who are
concerned with this affair, and for some time past have been incessantly appealing to me,
that it is to no purpose that they show their malice against Caecilian the Bishop and have
been pleased to bestir themselves against him with violence. So will it be brought to pass
that these disputes having ceased, as is right, the people may without any dissension
serve their religion with the reverence that is its due.

APPENDIX XV. A.D. 312

2 We have here a letter of the Emperor Constantine to the Pro-Consul Anulinus, commanding
that restitution should be made of their property to the Catholic churches. It has been
preserved by Eusebius (H.E. x, 5).

An Imperial Decree

3 Hail, Anulinus, most highly esteemed by us! After this manner is our benevolence, that
we will that those things which by just title belong to others should not only remain
unmolested, but also, when necessary, be restored, most esteemed Anulinus! Wherefore we
decree that, so soon as you have received this letter, if any of those things which belong
to the Catholic Church of the Christians, in the several cities or other places, are held
by Decurions or by any others, these you shall cause immediately to be restored to their
churches. For we have determined that whatever these same churches formerly possessed
shall be restored in accordance with justice. When therefore your Fidelity has understood
that this decree of our orders is most clear, you will make haste to see that everything,
whether gardens or houses, or whatever else belongs to these churches, be restored to them
as soon as may be possible----that we may learn that you have attended to, and most
carefully carried into execution, this our decree. Farewell, my most esteemed and beloved
Anulinus.

APPENDIX XVI. A.D. 312 OR 313

4 Letter of the Emperor Constantine to the Pro-Consul Anulinus, concerning the Immunity of
Clerics belonging to the Catholic Church at Carthage, where Caecilian was Bishop. This
letter has been preserved by Eusebius (H.E. x, 7).

A Copy of a Letter of the Emperor Constantine, in which he orders that all those holding
office in the Churches should be exempt from all Civil Duties.

5 Hail, Anulinus, most highly esteemed by us! Whereas from many incidents it is abundantly
clear that whenever the religion, by which the supreme reverence due to the Divine Majesty
is guarded, has been held in contempt, the greatest perils have overtaken the State, and
whereas this religion, when it has been duly accepted and protected, has, through the
goodness of God, conferred the highest prosperity on the Roman name and has given their
chief benefits to all human affairs----We have resolved that those men, who with due piety
and careful observance of this Law, have given their service to the divine worship, should
receive the recompence for their labours, O most esteemed Anulinus! Wherefore it is our
will that those men called Clerics, who within the Province entrusted to your care serve
this most holy religion in the Catholic Church, over which Caecilian presides, shall be
held totally exempt from all public offices, to the end that they may not, through some
mistake or sacrilegious deviation, be drawn away from the service which is due to God Most
High; but may be free to serve their own Law without any disturbance. For through their
showing supreme reverence to God, the very greatest advantage will accrue to the
Commonwealth. Farewell, my most esteemed and beloved Anulinus!

6 [Footnotes have been moved to the end and renumbered]

APPENDIX 1. THE TRIAL OF FELIX, BISHOP OF APTUNGA

APPENDIX I. — ACTA PURGATIONIS FELICIS EPISCOPI AUTUMNITANI

1 INTRODUCTION 2 The scene of the events described in this document----of which
unfortunately a large part is missing----was Carthage. The date is a.d. 314. It is,
therefore, exactly sixteen hundred years since Constantine, fresh from his victory over
Maxentius and full of zeal for the welfare of the religion which he had so recently
embraced, gave orders for the charge of Betrayal brought so persistently against Felix,
Bishop of Aptunga, to be heard publicly on the spot----that is to say in Africa. It was
indeed notorious that there was no real ground for this charge. But to the Donatists it
was a matter of life and death that the truth of their accusation against the consecrator
of Caecilian should be substantiated, or at any rate generally accepted. Otherwise any
attempt to justify their schism broke down of itself. When the matter was gone into at
Rome under Pope Miltiades, it had been admitted that no accusation was made against
Caecilian personally. The whole question really concerned Felix. Consequently Caecilian
was declared at Rome to be the rightful Bishop of Carthage, and the legates Eunomius and
Olimpius promulgated the Roman decree at Carthage itself. Still the Donatists remained
obstinate, and represented to Constantine that their case had not been fairly heard, but
that the judges had shut themselves up and given their verdict without any regard to the
weight of evidence.

3 Thus it came to pass that a certain Alfius Caecilianus was ordered to go before the
Proconsul's court at Carthage, there to give an account of a former investigation of this
same matter which had been held at the time when he was himself duovir. He was told to
bring with him the men who had been his secretary and notary respectively. The name of the
Proconsul before whom the trial was to be heard was Aelianus. With Aelianus were at least
three commissioners or assessors (though their name of duovirs seems to us somewhat
quaintly out of keeping with this fact), Gallienus, Fuscius and Sisenna. 4 The case heard
at Rome had direct reference to Caecilian. Now, the case of Felix was to be examined anew,
without any reference to Caecilian, on its own merits.We shall see that Aelianus required
the Acts of the former African trial to be produced and read in extenso. Alfius
Caecilianus, in consequence of his age, had been excused from going to the Imperial Court
and had made a deposition before the duovir Aurelius Didymus Speretius. It was shown that
the letter upon which the Donatists relied to convict Felix had been interpolated (or
rather added to) by a certain Ingentius. This Ingentius was secretary to one Augentius,
who had been fellow-aedile with Caecilianus. After these Acts had been read the counsel
Apronianus insisted on questioning Caecilianus, who explained in some detail his dealings
with Ingentius.

5 Ingentius had falsely represented that Felix had told him that he had certain valuable
codices in his possession----and that their owner now wanted them back----so would
Ingentius obtain a letter from Caecilianus stating that they had been burned when he was
duovir? Thus Felix would be able to steal the codices! Had Caecilianus given the letter,
as requested, it was to have been used as a proof that Felix had been a Betrayer. It was
an ingenious plot; but it failed. At first Caecilianus would not write anything. In the
end Ingentius induced Augentius to persuade Caecilianus to write a letter of some kind.
This letter has been almost wholly lost, but it is clear that from the point of view of
Ingentius it was quite unsatisfactory, as it contained nothing which would have been of
any value for his purpose. So Ingentius forged the interpolation, which had been read out
at the previous trial. Caecilianus swore that this interpolation was a forgery, and indeed
it could not possibly be genuine, since it consisted of an addition (after the original
conclusion) purporting to relate a conversation with Felix, who was absent from home at
the time. It represents him as giving up the Scriptures privately to a friendly official.
This was meant to explain why there was no public proof available of Felix's fall.

6 The evidence was all against Ingentius, who had to confess to the forgery, under fear of
torture. But he tried to make out that he committed his crime through love for a certain
Bishop Maurus, who was charged with simony. It was shown, however, that, notwithstanding
his oaths to the contrary, he had been an envoy of the Donatist faction throughout Numidia
and Mauritania, so that it became clear that the calumny had been invented in the
interests of party. Thus was Felix finally and triumphantly vindicated. The Donatists, who
styled themselves 'the Pure,' were conscious of being themselves Traditores. It was partly
in order to cover up their own guilt that they invented the quite baseless charge against
Felix, the consecrator of Caecilian Bishop of Carthage. That charge once formulated, the
next step was to argue that all who communicated with Caecilian----'polluted' by Betrayal
----were themselves 'polluted,' even though this conclusion might involve the whole
Catholic world in apostasy from Christ. All this has been made clear in the pages of St.
Optatus.

7 The document now before us has vivid touches of dramatic interest, where various scenes
are described, as they took place, with much actuality. Sometimes, it must be admitted, we
cannot well refrain from asking ourselves how far, with regard to details, play is being
given to the exercise of the imagination. But as to the central fact of the innocence of
Felix there can be no question, nor as to the justice of the verdict which Optatus tells
us was delivered in his favour. Whoever else may have behaved discreditably, against Felix
of Aptunga there was no evidence. The Acts of the Vindication of Felix, Bishop of Aptunga
(the Consecrator of Caecilian, Bishop of Carthage) before Aelianus, Proconsul of Africa,
at Carthage, during the Consulate of Volusianus and Aunianus. . . . In the town of
Autumna, Gallienus the Duovir said: 'Since, Caecilianus, you are here present, listen to
the letter of my lord, the Right Honourable Aelius Paulinus, acting deputy of the Prefect,
in which, according to his letter addressed to us, he has deigned to command that you and
the secretary whom you employed during the period of your administration, and the notary
should make a declaration. But, inasmuch as the notary of that time has departed this
life, you will have to bring with you all the Acts of your administration, in compliance
with the requirements of the letter of my Lord, and you will have to go with your
secretary to Carthage. The Curator is present. In his presence we charge you, what answer
do you make to this?'

8 Caecilianus said: 'As soon as you handed to me the letter of the Right Honourable Aelius
Paulinus, acting deputy of the Prefect, I sent immediately to my secretary Miccius to come
and bring me the Acts which were set down at that time, and he is still searching for
them. For no small space of time has passed since I held the office of Duovir. It was
eleven years ago. So, as soon as he has found them, I will obey a command of such high
dignity.' Gallienus the Duovir said: 'It is to your interest to obey the command, for you
see that it is sacred.' Caecilianus said: 'I have due devotion to a command of such great
dignity.' Then when, a little time after, the secretary Miccius had also arrived, Fuscius
the Duovir said: 'Have you too, Miccius, heard that you also have to go with Caecilianus
to the office of the Right Honourable Deputy, and bring there with you the documents
concerning that time? What have you to say to this?'

9 Miccius answered: 'The magistrate, when his year of office was completed, took all his
Acts home with him. ... I am searching to see whether the wax tablet can be found among
them. ' And whilst he was searching, Quintus Sisenna the Duovir said: 'He has answered
according to what the Court already knows.' Apronianus said: 'If the magistrate took away
all his Acts, whence can we procure the Acts which were then made or put together at a
time of so great importance?' And, when he said this, Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Both
my questions and the answers of the various persons are contained in the Acts.' Agesilaus
said: 'There are besides other letters, necessary for the understanding of this affair. It
is of importance that they should be read.' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Read them in the
hearing of Caecilianus, that he may know whether he dictated them.'

10 Agesilaus read aloud : During the consulate of Volusianus and Annianus, on the
nineteenth of August, in a lawsuit before Aurelius Didymus Speretius, priest of mighty
Jupiter, duovir of the magnificent colony of the Carthaginians, Maximus said: 'I speak in
the name of the seniors of the Christian people of the Catholic Law. The case must be
pleaded before the Supreme Emperors against Caecilian and Felix, who strive their utmost
to attack the supremacy of that Law. The proofs of the charges against them in this matter
are being searched for. When persecution was proclaimed against the Christians, that is to
say, when they were required to offer sacrifice, or betray whatever Scriptures they might
have, to be burned, Felix, who was then Bishop of Autumna, had given his consent for
Scriptures to be given up by the hand of Galatius, that they might be committed to the
fire. And at that time Alfius Caecilianus, whom you may observe here present, was a
magistrate, and since it was then his duty to see that, in accordance with the proconsular
command, all should sacrifice, and that, in accordance with the Imperial law, they should
hand over any Scriptures they might possess, I ask him, since he is here and you see he is
an old man and cannot go to the Imperial Court, to make his deposition in the Acts as to
whether he gave (as is stated in the Acts ) a letter in accordance with an agreement which
he had already made, and as to whether the statements which he has made in the letter are
true----so that the actions and the truthfulness of these persons may be set forth in the
trial before the Emperor.'

11 Speretius the Duovir said to Caecilianus who was present: 'Do you hear what are the
depositions in the Acts? ' Alfius Caecilianus said: 'I had gone to Zama with Saturninus to
buy linen garments, and when we arrived there, the Christians themselves sent to me in the
praetorium to ask "Has the Emperor's ordinance reached you?" I answered "No, but I have
already seen copies, and have seen churches destroyed and also Scriptures burnt at Zama
and Furni. So if you have any Scriptures, bring them forth, that the Emperor's command may
be obeyed." Then they sent to the house of the Bishop Felix to bring out the Scriptures
from there, that they might be burnt in accordance with the Emperor's decree. So Galatius
went with us to the place where they had been accustomed to celebrate their prayers. We
took out the Chair and the letters of salutation, and afterwards all were burnt in
accordance with the Emperor's decree. And when we sent to the house of this Bishop Felix
the public officials informed us that he was not there. And when, at a later time,
Ingentius arrived----the secretary of Augentius, with whom I was aedile----I dictated to
that colleague the letter which I wrote to this Bishop Felix.'

12 Maximus said: 'He is here. Let this letter be shown him, that he may recognise it.' He
answered: 'It is the one.' Maximus said: 'Since he has recognised his own letter, I shall
read it, and ask that it be inserted in the Acts in full.' And he read it aloud:
'Caecilianus to his father Felix, health! Inasmuch as Ingentius has approached my
colleague Augentius his friend, and asked whether, in accordance with the Emperor's
command, any Scriptures of your Law were burnt in the year when I was aedile . . . my
friend Galatius, a Christian, publicly brought forth letters of salutation from the
Basilica. I wish thee good health. 'This is the proof that the Christians and the owner of
the praetorium had written to entreat my mercy----that you said "Take the key and take
also whatever books you may find upon the Chair and whatever codices there may be upon the
stone. But see, I beg you, that the officials do not take away the oil and wheat." And I
said to you "Are you unaware that where Scriptures are found, the house itself is pulled
down?" And you said "What then are we to do?" And I said to you "Let one of your people
take them out into the court where you make your prayers, and let them be placed there.
And I will come with the officials and take them away.'

13 'And we all went there and took everything away in accordance with the Emperor's
command.' Maximus said: 'Since the reading of his letter, which he has acknowledged that
he sent, has been placed upon the Acts, we ask that his words should remain upon the
Acts.' Speretius the Duovir said: 'What you have said has been written down.' Agesilaus
said: 'With regard to the present letter which he has recognised, he says that the last
part which has just been read is a forgery.' Caecilianus said: 'My lord, I dictated up to
the point where we find the words "My dearest father, I wish thee good health." '
Apronianus said: 'Always has it been so, that those who have refused to adhere to the
Catholic Church, have acted thus treacherously, by terrorising, by acting a pretence, by
anti-religious bent. For when Paulinus was Vice-prefect here, a man without official
position was suborned to act the part of a courier, that he might go to those who belong
to the Catholic unity, and ensnare and terrify them.And now the conspiracy has been
discovered. For a lying story was made up against the most holy Bishop Felix, so that it
might appear that he had betrayed and burnt the Scriptures. It was in fact Ingentius
(since his whole line of conduct was opposed to the holiness and religion of Caecilian)
who was suborned to come with a letter that purported to be from Felix the Bishop to
Caecilianus the Duovir, and pretend to him that he was commissioned by Felix. Let him give
us the very words in which this story was concocted.'

14 Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Tell us.' Apronianus said: ['Ingentius spoke in this way
to Caecilianus:] "Tell my friend Caecilianus," said Felix to me, "that I received [from
somebody] eleven precious divine codices, and, as he is now demanding of me to restore
them, say that you burnt them in your year of office, so that I need not return them to
him." For this reason Ingentius must be questioned as to the manner in which these designs
were manufactured and fabricated, as to how he strove to lead his master to tell lies,
that he might bespatter Felix with infamy. Let him tell us by whom he was sent, but if
this plot against the good name of Felix, by which he might do injury to the episcopal
character of Caecilian from its commencement. . . For there is a certain person who was
sent by the other side as ambassador through Mauritania and Numidia.'

15 In the presence of Ingentius, Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'At whose bidding did you
undertake to do these things that are brought against you? ' Ingentius said: 'Where?'
Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'As you pretend not to understand what you are asked, I will
speak more plainly. Who sent you to the magistrate Caecilianus?' Ingentius said: 'No one
sent me.' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'How was it then that you went to the magistrate
Caecilianus?' Ingentius said: 'When we had arrived and the case of Maurus, a Bishop from
Utica, who bought his bishopric, was being tried, Felix, the Bishop of Autumna, came up to
the city to preach, and said "Let no one communicate with him, for he is guilty of fraud."
And I, on the other hand, said to him "Let no one communicate with you any more than with
him, because you are a Betrayer." I was grieving over the case of Maurus my guest, since I
had communicated with him when I was abroad----for I escaped from the persecution. From it
I went into the country of Felix himself and took with me three seniors, that they might
see whether in truth he had been a Betrayer or not.'

16 Apronianus said: 'It is not so. He went to Caecilianus. Ask Caecilianus about it.'
Aelianus the Proconsul said to Caecilianus: 'How was it that Ingentius came to you?'
Caecilianus answered: 'He came to me at home. I was at dinner with the workmen. He came in
and stood in the doorway."Where is Caecilianus?" said he. I answered "Here." I said to him
"What is it? Is all right? " "Everything," said he. I answered him "If you are not too
proud to dine, come and have dinner." He said to me "I am coming back." He came alone. He
began to tell me that he wanted me to look into the matter and inquire whether the
Scriptures had been burnt in the year when I was Duovir. I said to him "You annoy me. You
are a man who has been suborned. Be off with you. Take yourself away from me." And I
spurned him from me. And he came yet a second time together with my colleague with whom I
had been aedile. My colleague said to me "Felix, our Bishop, sent this man here that you
might give him a letter, because he has received precious codices, and is unwilling to
give them back. Write for him that they were burnt in the year when you were Duovir." And
I said "Is this the faith of Christians? " '

17 Ingentius said: 'My lord, let Augentius also be called, for I too have held honourable
office. [If you listen to this story] it will be all over with my honour, and . . .'
Aelianus the Proconsul said to Ingentius: 'You are convicted on another ground.' Aelianus
the Proconsul said to an officer: 'Strip and bind him.' And when he was made ready,
Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Let him be drawn up.' And while he was being drawn up on the
rack, Aelianus the Proconsul said to Caecilianus: 'Under what circumstances did Ingentius
come to you? ' He answered: ' "Our friend Felix," so he spoke, "sent me here that you
should write to him, since there is an abandoned man who is the owner of some most
precious codices which are in his possession, and he is unwilling to restore them. So
----that they may not be claimed back----write that they were burnt." And I said to him
"Is this the faith of a Christian? " Then I began to rebuke him. But my colleague said
"Write thither to our friend Felix." And so I dictated the letter which lies before you,
up to the place that I have pointed out.'

18 Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Listen without fear to the reading of your letter. See
how far you dictated.' Agesilaus read out: ' " . . . I wish you, my dearest father, good
health for many years." ' Aelianus the Proconsul said to Caecilianus: 'Did you dictate as
far as this? ' He answered: 'As far as this. The rest is a forgery.' Agesilaus read aloud
[the remainder of the letter]: ' "This is the proof that the Christians and the owner of
the praetorium had written to entreat my mercy, and that you had said 'Take the key and
take also whatever books you may find upon the Chair and whatever codices there may be
upon the stone. But see, I beg you, that the officials do not take away the oil and the
wheat.' And I said to you, 'Are you unaware that where Scriptures are found the house
itself is pulled down?' And you said 'What then shall we do?' And I said to you 'Let one
of your people take them out into the halls where you make your prayers, and let them be
placed there. And I will come with the officials and take them away.' And we went thither,
and took everything away as we had arranged,and burnt it in accordance with the Emperor's
command." '

19 Maximus said: 'Since there has also been placed upon the Acts the purport of this
letter, which he himself said that he had acknowledged and sent, we ask that this should
be set down on your Acts.' Speretius said: 'What you have said has been written down.'
Caecilianus answered: 'It is a forgery from that point. It is my letter up to where I said
"My dearest father, farewell." ' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Who do you say added to the
letter? ' Caecilianus said: 'Ingentius.' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Your statement is
set down in the Acts.' Aelianus the Proconsul said to Ingentius: 'You shall be tortured to
prevent your telling lies.' Ingentius said: 'I have sinned. I did add to this letter,
through my grief on account of Maurus my guest.' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Constantine
Maximus ever Augustus, and Licinius, Caesars, deign to show such favour to Christians as
to be unwilling that their discipline should be corrupted; on the contrary, they are
determined that this religion should be observed and respected. Do not, therefore, flatter
yourself that, because you tell me that you are a worshipper of God, on this account you
cannot be tortured. You shall be tortured, that you may not tell lies----a thing which is
thought to be foreign to Christians. So tell the truth frankly, that you may not be
tortured.'

20 Ingentius said: 'I have already confessed without torture.' Apronianus said: 'Be
pleased to ask him by what authority, by what craft, by what madness he went through all
the districts of Mauritania and also of Numidia, and by what means he stirred up sedition
against the Catholic Church.' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Have you been to the
Numidias?' He answered: 'No, my Lord. Let anyone prove it who can.' Aelianus the Proconsul
said: 'Nor to Mauritania? ' He answered: 'I was there on commercial business.' Apronianus
said: 'In this he lies, my Lord, for it is impossible to travel to Mauritania, excepting
through the Numidias. Now he says that he was in Mauritania, but not in Numidia.' Aelianus
the Proconsul said to Ingentius: 'What is your rank?' Ingentius answered: 'I am a decurion
of the Ziquenses.' Aelianus the Proconsul said to the officer: 'Lower him.' When he had
been lowered, Aelianus the Proconsul said to Caecilianus:

21 'You have given false evidence.' Caecilianus answered: 'Not so, my lord. Command the
attendance of him who wrote the letter. He is his friend. He will tell you to what point I
dictated the letter.' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Who is it whom you wish to have here?
' Caecilianus said: 'Augentius, with whom I was aedile. It is only through the evidence of
Augentius himself who wrote the letter, that I can prove my case. He can tell you to what
point I dictated to him.' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Is it then certain that the letter
is a forgery?' Caecilianus answered: 'It is certain, my lord. In my blood I do not lie.'
Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Since you held the office of Duovir in your country we ought
to give credence to your words.' Apronianus said: 'It is no new thing for them to act in
this way. They have added what they pleased to the Acts. It is a trick of theirs.'

22 Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Through the evidence of Caecilianus, who tells us that
the Acts have been falsified, and many additions made to his letter, the purpose of
Ingentius in doing these things has been made clear. So let him be committed to gaol, for
we shall require him for stricter examination. Moreover, it is manifest that Felix the
holy Bishop has been cleared from the charge of burning the Divine writings, since no one
has been able to prove anything against him to show that he gave up or burned the most
sacred Scriptures. For through all the evidence, it has been made clear on the
interrogatories that no Divine Scriptures were either discovered or corrupted or burnt by
him. It is shown by the Acts that Felix the holy Bishop was neither present when these
things were done, nor was privy to them, nor did he order anything of the kind.'

23 Agesilaus said: 'What does your lordship order to be done with these witnesses, who
came to give evidence to your lordship?' Aelianus the Proconsul said: 'Let them go back to
their homes.' [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]


AGAINST THE DONATISTS
=====================

AGAINST THE DONATISTS continued

APPENDIX 2. THE TRIAL BEFORE ZENOPHILUS

APPENDIX----II — GESTA APUD ZENOPHILUM

1 (INTRODUCTION.) It is A.D. 320, six years after the vindication of Felix of Aptunga, and
another trial is proceeding. Time has amply brought her revenge. Now the accusation is no
longer against the consecrator of Caecilian the Catholic Bishop of Carthage, but against
Silvanus the Donatist Bishop of Cirta, the consecrator of Majorinus, who had been intruded
into Caecilian's Chair. In this trial it is conclusively proved that Silvanus and his
abettors had been guilty not merely of Betrayal----the sin falsely alleged against Felix
and Caecilian, as a pretext for abandoning communion with Caecilian----but also of theft
and simony under peculiarly disgraceful circumstances. St. Optatus, in his description of
the commencement of the Donatist schism, has mentioned the name of the Deacon Nundinarius,
the editor of the Acts of the Bishops who, in the year 303, met at Cirta to elect a
successor to the recently deceased Bishop of that city. When the citizens of Cirta heard
that Silvanus had been chosen to be their chief Pastor----Silvanus, a man of bad
reputation, who was well known to them as a Traditor ---- they cried out 'Traditor est,
alius fiat. Purum et integrum civem nostrum volumus.' The clergy also protested against
this election, but Silvanus was supported by a noisy mob of the lowest rabble, and
consecrated Bishop by the notorious Secundus of Tigisis. One of the first acts of Silvanus
after his consecration was to ordain a certain Victor. This Victor, in order to be made a
priest, paid a large sum of money to Silvanus, which Silvanus on his part promptly
distributed amongst Secundus and the other Bishops who had taken part in his own
consecration. (Such was the character of the shameless men, who were so soon, for their
own purposes, to precipitate the Donatist schism by their consecration of Majorinus in
opposition to Caecilian.)

2 Now these facts were well known to Nundinarius the Deacon. It was therefore an evil hour
for Silvanus, leading him into much trouble, when, for some reason unknown to us, he
violently quarrelled with Nundinarius. Other guilty Donatist Bishops, especially the
terrible Purpurius and a certain Fortis, were greatly alarmed when the news of this
quarrel reached their ears, and wrote to Silvanus, and to their party in Cirta, that it
was imperative that a reconciliation should be effected between Silvanus and Nundinarius.
Means must be found to hush the matter up, lest worse things befall them. Evidently it
would be too deplorable if it were to be publicly proved that they had been themselves
guilty of crimes far more shameful than anything with which they falsely reproached the
Catholic Bishops. But it was all to no purpose. Nundinarius was, in the end (though he
seems to have wavered for a while), not to be appeased. Catholics called out for a public
investigation. It was granted, and followed in due course before Zenophilus.

3 Throughout the proceedings Nundinarius proved the case against Silvanus with merciless
precision. There was first the evidence of an inhabitant of Cirta----a certain Victor, a
grammarian. As this Victor tried at first to screen Silvanus, there were read aloud
municipal Acts recorded during the persecution when Munatius Felix was Curator. From these
it became clear that Silvanus had indeed been a Betrayer, and Victor had to admit this,
though he tried to save himself by denying that he was present when it all happened. Then
the compromising and discreditable letters were read, from which it was seen how much
Purpurius and Fortis dreaded exposure. No doubt they were afraid that Nundinarius might
denounce them, as already he had denounced Silvanus in a libellus of accusation, which had
been addressed to all the clergy and elders of Cirta, and was read in full before
Zenophilus. Furthermore, witnesses were produced who told the old story of the events that
took place at the consecration of Silvanus, which proved him to have been guilty of
Betrayal and Simony. It was also shown that he and Purpurius, as well as other Donatists,
had been guilty of thefts from the Temple of Serapis. Further evidence was given which
proved that the Numidian Bishops (now Donatists) had received money from Lucilla, in order
that Majorinus might be consecrated rival Bishop of Carthage in opposition to Caecilian,
and that they had kept it all for themselves, though part of it at least was intended by
its donor for the poor.

4 Most of these Proceedings are extant, but the judgement is wanting. It is, however,
certain that Silvanus was banished by Zenophilus for Betrayal, for robbing the Treasury of
vinegar casks, for taking money for Ordination, and for having been himself made Bishop by
violence, of all of which crimes he had been proved guilty in the course of these
Proceedings.

THE PROCEEDINGS BEFORE ZENOPHILUS.

5 The Commencement of the Proceedings before Zenophilus, by which it becomes clear that
Silvanus, who with others consecrated Majorinus, the Predecessor of Donatus, was a
Betrayer. In the consulship of Constantine Maximus Augustus and Constantine the younger
the most noble Caesar, on the thirteenth of December, (Sextus of Thamagudi being the
secretary,) after Victor the Grammarian had been brought in and sworn, Nundinarius the
deacon also being present, Zenophilus, a most noble man of consular rank,said: 'What is
your name?' He answered: 'Victor.' Zenophilus said: 'What is your station in life?' Victor
said: 'I am a lecturer in the literature of Rome, a Latin grammarian.' Zenophilus said:
'What is your rank?' Victor said: 'My father was a decurion of Cirta. My grandfather was a
soldier. He had seen service at court. For our family is of Mauritanian blood.' Zenophilus
said: 'Be mindful of your honour and character, and tell me with simplicity----what was
the cause of the dissension amongst Christians?'

6 Victor said: 'I do not know the origin of the dissension. I am one of the Christian
people. However, when I lived at Carthage and the Bishop Secundus had at length arrived
there, they are said to have discovered that Caecilian had been wrongfully made a Bishop,
by whom I know not; and they set up another in opposition. From that time forward the
dissension at Carthage began, but I cannot know its origin fully, for our city always has
one church, and if dissension there was, we know nothing about it.' Zenophilus said: 'Are
you in communion with Silvanus?' Victor answered: 'I am.' Zenophilus said: 'Why then have
you passed over that man whose innocence has been cleared ?' And added: 'Besides, it is
stated that you know something else with the fullest certainty----that Silvanus is a
Betrayer. Own to this.' Victor replied: 'This I know not.' Zenophilus said to Nundinarius
the Deacon:

7 'Victor says that he does not know that Silvanus is a Betrayer.' Nundinarius the deacon
said: 'He knows quite well, for he himself gave up the codices.' Victor answered: 'I had
fled from that storm----and if I lie, let me perish. When we suffered the inrush of sudden
persecution, we fled to Mount Bellona. I remained there with Mars the deacon. Victor the
priest was there also. When this Mars was ordered to give up all the books, he said that
he had not got them. Then Victor gave up the names of all the lectors. They came to my
house in my absence. The magistrates went in and carried off my codices. When I got back,
I found that the codices had been taken away.' Nundinarius the deacon said: 'But at the
public investigation you answered that you gave up the codices. Why deny things that can
be proved?'

8 Zenophilus said to Victor: 'Acknowledge frankly, that you may not be questioned with
greater severity.' Nundinarius the deacon said: 'Let the Acts be read.' Zenophilus said:
'Let them be read.' Nundinarius then gave them, and the notary read aloud: 'In the
consulate of Diocletian the Eighth, and Maximinian the Seventh, on the nineteenth of May,
from the Acts of Munatius Felix the perpetual flamen, the guardian of the colony at Cirta.
'When they came to the house in which the Christians were accustomed to assemble, Felix
the flamen and guardian of the state said to Paul the Bishop: "Bring out the Scriptures of
the Law, and anything else that you may have here, as has been commanded, that you may
obey the order." 'Paul the Bishop said: "The lectors have the Scriptures. But we surrender
what we have here." 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said to Paul the
Bishop:

9 "Show us the lectors or send to them." 'Paul the Bishop said: "You all know them."
'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said: "We do not know them." 'Paul
the Bishop said: "The public officers know them----that is Edusius and Junius, the
notaries." 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said: "Let the matter of
the lectors stand over. They will be pointed out by the public officers. Do you surrender
what you have." 'In the presence of Paul the Bishop (who remained seated), of Montanus and
Victor of Deusatelium, and Memorius priests, Mars and Helius the deacons, Marcuclius,
Catullinus, Silvanus and Carosus the subdeacons standing by with Januarius, Meraclus,
Fructuosus, Migginis, Saturninus, Victor and the rest of the grave-diggers, Victor of
Aufidus made this brief inventory against them. 'Two golden chalices, also six silver
chalices, six silver pots,a silver chafing vessel, seven silver lamps, two torches, seven
short brass candlesticks with their lamps, also eleven brass candlesticks with their
chains, eighty-two women's garments, thirty-eight veils, sixteen men's garments, thirteen
pair of men's shoes, forty-seven pair of women's shoes, eighteen pattens for the country.'

10 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said to Marcuclius, Silvanus and
Carosus the grave-diggers: "Bring forth whatever you have." 'Silvanus and Carosus said:
"All that was here we have thrown out." 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the
state said to Marcuclius, Silvanus and Carosus: "Your answer is set down in the Acts."
'After the cupboards in the bookcases had been found to be empty, Silvanus brought forth a
silver casket and a silver candlestick, for he said that he had found them behind a jug.
'Victor of Aufidus said to Silvanus: "Had you not found these things, you were a dead
man." 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said to Silvanus: "Search more
carefully, lest anything else should have been left behind." 'Silvanus said: "Nothing has
been left behind. This is all----what we have thrown out." 'And when the dining-room was
opened, there were found in it four casks and six jugs.

11 'Felix the perpetual flamen and life-guardian of the state said: "Bring forth whatever
Scriptures you have, that we may obey the precepts and commands of the Emperors."
'Catullinus brought forth one very large codex. 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian
of the state said to Marcuclius and Silvanus: "Why have you given us only one codex? Bring
forth the Scriptures which you have." 'Catullinus and Marcuclius said: "We have no more,
for we are sub-deacons, but the lectors have the codices." 'Felix the perpetual flamen and
guardian of the state said to Marcuclius and Catullinus: "Show us the lectors."
'Marcuclius and Catullinus said: "We do not know where they live." 'Felix the perpetual
flamen and guardian of the state said to Catullinus and Marcuclius: "If you do not know
where they are living, tell us their names." 'Catullinus and Marcuclius said: "We are not
Traitors, behold we are here. Order us to be killed."

12 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said: "Let them be taken into
custody." 'And when they came to the house of Eugenius, Felix the perpetual flamen and
guardian of the state said to Eugenius: "Bring forth the Scriptures which you have, that
you may obey the decree." 'And he brought forth four codices. 'Felix the perpetual flamen
and guardian of the state said to Silvanus and Carosus: "Show us the other lectors."
'Silvanus and Carosus said: "The Bishop has already told you that the notaries Edusius and
Junius know them all. Let them point out their houses to you." 'Edusius and Junius said:
"We will point them out to you, my lord." 'And when they came to the house of Felix, the
worker in marbles, he brought forth five codices. And when they came to the house of
Victorinus, he brought forth eight codices. And when they came to the house of Projectus,
he brought forth five large and two small codices.

13 'And when they came to the house of Victor the Grammarian, Felix the perpetual flamen
and guardian of the state said to him: "Bring forth whatever Scriptures you have, that you
may obey the decree." 'Victor the Grammarian brought forth two codices, and four quinions.
Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said to Victor: "Bring forth the
Scriptures. You have more." 'Victor the Grammarian said: "If I had more, I would have
given them." 'And when they came to the house of Euticius of Caesarea, Felix the perpetual
flamen and guardian of the state said to Euticius: "Bring forth the Scriptures which you
have, that you may obey the decree." 'Euticius said: "I have none." 'Felix the perpetual
flamen and guardian of the state said to Euticius: "Your statement is set down in the
Acts." 'And when they came to the house of Coddeo, his wife brought forth six codices.

14 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state then said: "Look and see whether
you have not got more. Bring them forth." 'The woman said: "I have no more." 'Felix the
perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said to Bos the public official : "Go in and
search whether she has not any more." 'The public official said: "I have searched and have
not found anything else." 'Felix the perpetual flamen and guardian of the state said to
Victorinus, Silvanus and Carosus: "If anything has been kept back, the danger is yours." '
After these things had been read, Zenophilus said to Victor: 'Now confess without more
ado.' Victor answered: 'I was not there.' Nundinarius the deacon said: 'We have seen
letters to Bishops written by Fortis.' And he read out a copy of the accusation delivered
to the Bishops by Nundinarius the deacon. 'Christ is witness and His Angels, that they
with whom you have been in communion have been Betrayers----that is to say, Silvanus of
Cirta is a Betrayer, and a thief of the goods of the poor----a thing which all of you
Bishops, priests, deacons, elders, know to be true concerning the four hundred pieces of
money, that were given by the noble woman Lucilla, for the sake of winch you conspired
together that Majorinus might be made Bishop, whence came the schism. For Victor the
fuller gave twenty pieces of money, to be made priest, in your presence and in that of the
people, as Christ knows and His angels.'

15 And a copy of a letter was read aloud: 'Purpurius, the Bishop, to his fellow Bishop
Silvanus----Health in the Lord! Nundinarius the deacon, our son, has come to me and has
begged of me to send this letter of supplication to your Holiness, that, if it be
possible, there may be peace between you and him. For I wish this to be done in writing by
you, if you are willing, in order that no one may know what is going on between us, so
that I may alone be concerned with you in this present matter, and may bring to a
conclusion the dissension between you. For he has handed to me a petition written by his
hand concerning the affair, on account of which, by your command, he was degraded. It is
not right for a father to chastise a son against the truth, and I know that the things
which were written in the bill of accusation that was handed to me are true. Search for a
remedy by which this ill-will may be extinguished before the flame burst forth which it
may not be possible afterwards to extinguish without the spiritual shedding of blood. Call
together your fellow clerics and the elders of the people who belong to the Church, and
let them carefully inquire what are these dissensions of yours, that whatever is done may
be done according to the precepts of the Faith. You shall not decline to the right hand
nor to the left. Be not willing to lend your ear to evil teachers who refuse peace. You
slay us all ... [and, in another hand] Fare you well.'

16 And a copy of another letter: 'Purpurius the Bishop to the Clerics and Elders of Cirta
----eternal health in the Lord! Moses cried out to the whole assembly of the children of
Israel and told them what the Lord commanded to be done. Nothing was to be done without
the advice of the Elders. So do you too, my beloved, whom I know to have all heavenly and
spiritual wisdom, search out with all your strength what is the nature of this dissension
and bring [men] to peace. For Nundinarius the deacon says that you have knowledge of all
the circumstances from which this dissension has arisen between our well-beloved Silvanus
and himself. For he has handed me a petition in which all these things have been written.
And he said that you too are acquainted with them. I know that no one can overhear.Do you
search out a satisfactory remedy that this thing may be extinguished without danger to
your soul, for fear lest when you respect persons you should unawares find yourself before
the Judge. Judge just judgement between the parties in accordance with your gravity and
justice. Be careful not to decline either to the right hand or to the left. There is
question of a matter which belongs to God who searcheth the thoughts of every man. Be
careful that no one knows the story of this conspiracy. What is contained in the bill of
accusation is true. It is not good, for the Lord says "Out of thy mouth thou shalt be
condemned and out of thy mouth shalt thou be justified." '

17 This also was read out: 'Fortis to our well-beloved brother Silvanus, eternal health in
the Lord! Our son Nundinarius the deacon has come to me and related the things which have
taken place between you and him, through the intervention of the Evil One, who wishes to
turn aside the souls of the just from the way of truth. When I heard these things I
fainted in my spirit that such a dissension had come between you----that a priest of God
should arrive at that . . . which is not expedient for us to be done. Now therefore
beseech him that you may have, as is possible, the peace of the Lord, the Saviour Christ,
with him. Let us not come into a public court and be condemned by the Gentiles. For it has
been written "Take heed lest, whilst you bite and accuse one another, you be devoured one
by another." Therefore I beseech the Lord that this scandal may be removed from our midst,
so that this business, which concerns God, may be carried through with the giving of
thanks, as the Lord says "My peace I give unto you, My peace I leave to you." What peace
can there be, where there is dissension and where there are rivalries? For when I was
roasted by the soldiers, and set apart, and had come to that pass with such foul
treatment, I commended my soul to God and forgave you, for God sees the minds of men, and
[how, just like you, I was led into the deed you know of ]. But God has delivered us and
we serve Him together with you. Therefore even as we have been forgiven, so be you two
reconciled to peace, that you may be able to celebrate the peace of Easter with joy in the
Name of Christ. Let no one know about it. . . .'

18 There was also read out: 'Fortis to the brethren and sons, to the clergy and seniors,
eternal health in the Lord! Your deacon, Nundinarius, has come to me and told me of the
things that have been done against you, which surely ought to have been adjusted by you in
such a way that you should not have arrived at so great a pitch of madness that men should
be degraded for telling the truth----a thing which both you and we know, even as you have
related to us. And it is written "Is there not any wise man amongst you who can judge
between brethren? But does brother go to law with brother----and this amongst the
unbelievers?" ----just as you now strive in judgement. Have things then come to this pass,
that we should give such an example to the Gentiles, so that they who have believed in God
through us, should themselves speak evil of us, when we come before the public? Therefore,
that it may not come to this, do you who are spiritual see to it that no one should know,
so that we may keep Easter with peace, and do you exhort them to be reconciled to Peace,
and that there may be no dissension, lest, should things be made public, you too commence
to be in danger (if this should occur), and afterwards blame yourselves. You especially
will take care, you, Possessor, Donatius the priest, and Valerius and Victor, each of you,
who know all that was done ----take care that you be at peace one with another.'

19 Another letter was also read out: 'Sabinus to his brother Silvanus, eternal health in
the Lord! Nundinarius your son has come to us----not only to me but also to our brother
Fortis, bringing a serious complaint. I am surprised at your lordship, that you have acted
thus with your son, whom you brought up and ordained. For if an earthly building has been
erected, is not something heavenly added to it, which is built by the hand of a priest?
However, we ought not to be surprised at you, for the Scripture says "I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise and I will reject the prudence of the prudent," and again it says "Men
have loved the darkness rather than the light," just as you are doing. It should be enough
for you to know all the facts. Our brother Fortis has written to you about this. Now I
would ask of your charity, my very kind brother, to fulfil the saying of the prophet
Isaiah: "Cast evil forth from your souls, and come let us dispute together, saith the
Lord." And again, "Cast forth wickedness from your midst." So do you now act after this
manner. Overcome and avert the plot of those who have been unwilling that there should be
peace between you and your son. No! let your son Nundinarius keep Easter in peace with
you, that the matter which is already known to all of us may not became public as well. I
would beg of you, my very kind brother, to fulfil the petition of my mediocrity. Let no
one know about it.'

20 Also another letter was read aloud: 'Sabinus to his brother Fortis, eternal health in
the Lord! How great is your charity according to the witness of all your colleagues, I
know very well ; but that you have had a special friendship with Silvanus, according to
the will of God, who has said "Some I love above my soul," I know too. Wherefore I have
not hesitated to send you these writings, because I caused yours concerning Nundinarius to
be given to him. If we act with diligence God's affair always goes vigorously.Do not put
forward an excuse. For business presses upon us during these days, and urges us without
delay to see to these things before the most solemn Feast of Easter, that through you
there may be brought about a peace full of fatness, and we may be found worthy co-heirs of
Christ, who has said "My peace I give unto you, My peace I leave to you." And once again I
beseech you to do as I ask.' [And in another hand] 'I pray that you have good health in
the Lord and are mindful of us. Fare you well. But I entreat you let no one know about
it.'

21 After these documents had been read, Zenophilus said: 'From the Acts and letters which
have been read aloud, it is clear that Silvanus is a Betrayer.' And he said to Victor:
'Frankly confess whether you know that he betrayed anything.' Victor said: 'He did betray,
but not in my presence.' Zenophilus said: 'What office did Silvanus hold at the time
amongst the clergy?' Victor answered: 'The persecution broke out when Paul was Bishop;
Silvanus was then a sub-deacon.' Nundinarius the deacon replied: 'When he came here, as he
said to be made Bishop, the people answered "Let it be another, hear us, O God." '
Zenophilus said to Victor: 'Did the people cry out "Silvanus is a Betrayer"?' Victor said:
'I myself fought against his being made Bishop.' Zenophilus said: 'So you did know that he
was a Betrayer! Confess to this.' Victor answered: 'He was a Betrayer.' Nundinarius the
deacon said:

22 'You seniors cried out "Hear us, O God! We want our fellow-citizen. This man is a
Betrayer." ' Zenophilus said to Victor: 'So you cried out with the people that Silvanus
was a Betrayer and ought not to be made Bishop?' Victor said: 'I did cry out, and so did
the people. For we wanted our fellow-citizen, a man of integrity.' Zenophilus said: 'For
what reason did you deem him unworthy?' Victor said: 'We wanted one who was a man of
integrity and our fellow-citizen. For I knew that for this reason we should have to go to
the Emperor's Court, if the office were given to such as he.' Then when Victor of
Samsuricum and Saturninus the grave-diggers had been brought in and sworn, Zenophilus
said: 'What is your name?' Saturninus said: 'Saturninus.' Zenophilus said: 'What is your
station in life?' Saturninus said: 'I am a grave-digger.' Zenophilus said:

23 'Do you know that Silvanus is a Betrayer?' Saturninus said: 'I know that he gave up a
silver lamp.' Zenophilus said to Saturninus: 'What else?' Saturninus said: 'I do not know
of anything else, excepting that he took the lamp from behind a tun.' And after Saturninus
had been ordered down, Zenophilus said to the one who remained standing: 'And you, what is
your name?' He answered: 'Victor of Samsuricum.' Zenophilus said: 'What is your station in
life?' Victor said: 'I am an artisan.' Zenophilus said: 'Who gave up the silver table ?'
Victor answered: 'I did not see----what I know I will tell you.' Zenophilus said to
Victor: 'Although it has now become certain from the replies of those whom we have already
questioned, nevertheless, do you tell us whether Silvanus is a Betrayer.' Victor said:
'When it was demanded a second time how it was that he dismissed this matter ----that we
should be led to Carthage, I heard from the mouth of the Bishop himself: "There were given
to me a silver lamp and a silver casket, and these I gave up." '

24 Zenophilus said to Victor of Samsuricum: 'From whom did you hear that?' Victor said:
'From Silvanus the Bishop.' Zenophilus said to Victor: 'Did you hear from himself that he
had been a Betrayer?' Victor said: 'I heard him say that he gave up these things with his
own hands.' Zenophilus said: 'Where did you hear that?' Victor said: 'In the basilica.'
Zenophilus said: 'At Cirta ?' Victor said: 'He began there his address to the people with
these words: "On what ground do they say that I am a Betrayer? Is it because of the lamp
and the casket ?"' Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'What else is there about which you
think that we should question these men?' Nundinarius said: 'About the casks belonging to
the imperial treasury.Who took them away?' Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'What casks?'
Nundinarius said: 'They were in the temple of Serapis, and Purpurius the Bishop took them
away. The vinegar that they contained was taken away by Silvanus the Bishop, Dontius the
priest, and Lucianus.'

25 Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'Do these men who are before us know that this was
done?' Nundinarius answered: 'Yes.' Saturninus the deacon said: 'Our fathers told us that
they were taken away.' Zenophilus said: 'By whom----as it is alleged----were they taken
away?' Saturninus said: 'By Purpurius the Bishop, and the vinegar by Silvanus and Dontius
and Superius the priests, and Lucianus the deacon.' Nundinarius said: 'Did Victor give
twenty pieces of money and was he made a priest?' Saturninus said: 'Yes.' And when he had
said this, Zenophilus said to Saturninus: 'To whom did he give the money?' Saturninus
said: 'To Silvanus the Bishop.' Zenophilus said to Saturninus: 'Then he gave twenty pieces
of money as a bribe to Silvanus the Bishop, that he might be made a priest?' Saturninus
said: 'Yes.' Zenophilus said to Saturninus: 'Was the money laid before Silvanus?'
Saturninus said: 'It was laid before the Episcopal Chair.'

26 Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'By whom was the money taken away?' Nundinarius said:
'The Bishops divided it among themselves.' Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'Do you wish
Donatus to be called?' Nundinarius said: 'By all means let him come, for the people cried
out about him two days after the Peace : "Hear us, O God, we wish for our fellow-citizen."
' Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'Is it certain the people cried out this?' He answered:
'Yes.' Zenophilus said to Saturninus: 'Did they cry out that Silvanus was a Betrayer?'
Saturninus said: 'Yes.' Nundinarius said: 'When he was made Bishop, we did not communicate
with him because it was said that he was a Betrayer.' Saturninus said: 'What he says is
true.' Nundinarius said: 'I saw Mutus the worker in the sand-quarries carry him on his
shoulders. ' Zenophilus said to Saturninus: 'Did it happen in this way?' Saturninus said:
'Yes, in this way.'

27 Zenophilus said: 'Is everything that Nundinarius says true----how Silvanus was made
Bishop by the quarry-men?' Saturninus said: 'It is all true.' Nundinarius said: 'Common
women were there.' Zenophilus said to Saturninus: 'Did the quarry-men chair him?'
Saturninus said: 'They and the populace carried him; the citizens were shut up in the
Martyrs' Hall.' Nundinarius the Deacon said: 'Were the people of God there?' Saturninus
said: 'They were shut up in the big shed.' Zenophilus said: 'Is it certain that everything
which Nundinarius says is true?' Saturninus said: 'It is all true.' Zenophilus said: 'And
what do you say?' Victor said: 'All is true, my Lord.' Nundinarius said: 'Purpurius the
Bishop took away a hundred pieces of money.' Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'Of whom in
your opinion ought we to ask questions about the four hundred pieces of money?'
Nundinarius said: 'Let Lucianus the Deacon be brought forward, for he knows everything.'

28 Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'Do these men know about it?' Nundinarius said: 'No.'
Zenophilus said: 'Let Lucianus be brought forward.' Nundinarius said: 'They do know that
the four hundred pieces of silver were received, but they do not know that the Bishops
shared them.' Zenophilus said to Nundinarius and to Victor: 'Do you know that the money
was received from Lucilla?' Saturninus and Victor said: 'We do know it.' Zenophilus said:
'Did not the poor get it?' They said: 'No one got anything.' Zenophilus said to Saturninus
and Victor: 'Was nothing taken away from the temple of Serapis?' Saturninus and Victor
said: 'Purpurius took away the casks, and Silvanus the Bishop, and Dontius and Superius
the priests, and Lucianus the deacon, took away the vinegar.' Zenophilus said: 'By the
answers of Victor the Grammarian and of Victor of Samsuricum and of Saturninus, it has
been made clear that all the statements of Nundinarius are true. Let them be dismissed,
and go their way.'

29 Zenophilus said: 'Who else is there that you think ought to be questioned?' Nundinarius
said: 'Castus the deacon, that he may tell us whether Silvanus is not a Betrayer, for he
ordained him.' And when Castus the deacon had been called in and sworn, Zenophilus said:
'What is your name?' He answered: 'Castus.' Zenophilus said to Castus: 'What is your state
of life?' Castus said: 'I have no dignity.' Zenophilus said to Castus: 'Although the
charges of Nundinarius have now been admitted to be true, through the evidence of Victor
the Grammarian, as well as through that of Victor of Samsuricum and of Saturninus,
nevertheless, do you also tell us whether Silvanus is a Betrayer?' Castus answered: 'He
said that he found a lamp behind a tun.' Zenophilus said to Castus: 'Tell us also about
the casks taken from the temple of Serapis and the vinegar.' Castus answered: 'Purpurius
the Bishop took away the casks.'

30 Zenophilus said: 'Who took the vinegar?' Castus answered that Silvanus the Bishop and
Dontius and Superius the priests took the vinegar out of the temple. Zenophilus said to
Castus: 'Tell us how many pieces of money Victor gave to be made priest.' Castus said: 'He
offered, my lord, a little money-bag, but what it held I know not.' Zenophilus said to
Castus: 'To whom was the bag given?' Castus said: 'He took it with him to the big shed.'
Zenophilus said to Castus: 'Was not the money divided among the people?' Castus answered:
'As far as I saw, it was not given to them.' Zenophilus said to Castus: 'Did not the poor
people get any of the money which Lucilla had given?' Castus said: 'I did not see anybody
get anything.' Zenophilus said to Castus: 'Where then did the money go?' Castus said: 'I
do not know.' Nundinarius said: 'Surely you either heard or saw it, if it was said to the
poor: "Lucilla, out of her substance, makes you also a present"?'

31 Castus said: 'I did not see anyone get anything.' Zenophilus said: 'The evidence of
Castus is quite clear, that he has no knowledge that the money which Lucilla gave was
distributed among the people. So let him be dismissed.' And when Crescentianus the
subdeacon was called in and sworn, Zenophilus said: 'What is your name?' He answered:
'Crescentianus.' Zenophilus said to Crescentianus: 'Tell us frankly, as the rest have
done, whether you know that Silvanus is a Betrayer.' Crescentianus said: 'The clerics who
were called before me have related everything.' Zenophilus said to Crescentianus: 'What
have they related?' Crescentianus said: 'They related that he was a Betrayer.' Zenophilus
said to Crescentianus: 'Did they say that he was a Betrayer? And,' he added, 'Who said
it?' Crescentianus said: 'Those who lived with him among the people said that he had once
betrayed.' Zenophilus said: 'Did they say this of Silvanus?' Crescentianus said:

32 'Yes.' Zenophilus said to Crescentianus: 'Were you there when he was made Bishop?'
Crescentianus said: 'I was present with the people, but shut up in the big shed.'
Nundinarius the deacon said: 'The country people and quarry-men made him Bishop.'
Zenophilus said to Crescentianus: 'Is there no doubt that it was Mutus the quarry-man who
carried him?' He said: 'There is no doubt about it.' Zenophilus said to Crescentianus: 'Is
it within your knowledge that casks were taken away from the temple of Serapis?'
Crescentianus said: 'Several persons used to say that Bishop Purpurius himself took the
casks and the vinegar, which came to our senior Bishop Silvanus, and the sons of Aelion
said so.' Zenophilus said to Crescentianus: 'What did you hear?' Crescentianus said that
the vinegar had been taken away by the senior Bishop Silvanus, and by Dontius and Superius
the priests and Lucian the deacon. Zenophilus said to Crescentianus:

33 'Did the people get any of the four hundred pieces of money, the gift of Lucilla?'
Crescentianus said: 'No one to my knowledge had any of it, nor do I know who spent the
money.' Nundinarius said: 'Did no old women ever get any of it?' Crescentianus said: 'No.'
Zenophilus said: 'It is certain that whenever any gift of this kind is made, all the
populace receive their part of it in public' Crescentianus said: 'I neither heard nor saw
that he gave any.' Zenophilus said to Crescentianus: 'None then of the four hundred pieces
of money were given to the people?' Crescentianus said: 'None----otherwise surely some
small trifle would have come to us.' Zenophilus said: 'Where then was the money taken?'
Crescentianus said: 'I do not know. No one got anything.' Nundinarius said: 'How much
money did Victor give to be made priest?' Crescentianus said: 'I saw that he brought
baskets with money in them.'

34 Zenophilus said to Crescentianus: 'To whom were the baskets given?' Crescentianus said:
'To Silvanus the Bishop.' Zenophilus said: 'Were they given to Silvanus?' Crescentianus
said: 'Yes, to Silvanus.' Zenophilus said: 'Was nothing given to the people?' He answered:
'Nothing. We too must have received something if the distribution had been made in the
usual manner.' Zenophilus said to Nundinarius: 'What else is there that you think should
be asked of Crescentianus?' Nundinarius said: 'His evidence is the very thing. Since
Crescentianus the subdeacon has given his evidence frankly about everything, let him be
dismissed.' Then when Januarius the subdeacon was brought in and sworn, Zenophilus said:
'What is your name?' He answered: (What followed in the manuscript is lost.) [Footnotes
moved to the end and renumbered]

INTRODUCTION

THE WORK OF ST. OPTATUS THE AFRICAN BISHOP OF MILEVIS ON THE SCHISM OF THE DONATISTS AGAINST PARMENIAN

BOOK THE FIRST Who were the Betrayers at the Time of the Persecution. The Causes of the
Schism. Where and by whom the Schism was made.

I. THE DIVINE GIFT OF PEACE, BESTOWED UPON ALL CHRISTIANS.

One Faith, most honoured brethren, commends us all, who are Christians, to the keeping of
Almighty God. To this Faith it appertains to believe that the Son of God, the Lord, shall
come to judge the world----that He, who has already come, has been born, according to His
Human Nature, through Mary a Virgin, that He has suffered, died, and (after having been
buried) has risen from the grave. Also, before ascending to Heaven, whence He had
descended, He left behind, through His Apostles, as His parting gift, to all Christians,
Peace. And, lest it should seem that to His Apostles only He had left this Peace, He said:
'That which I say to you, I say to all.' And He also said: 'My peace I give unto you, My
peace I leave unto you.' Thus we see that Peace has been given to all Christians.. That it
is God's Peace, we know, inasmuch as He says 'My Peace.' But when He says 'I give to you,'
we know that He willed that it should belong not only to Himself, but to all those as well
who should believe in Him,

II. THIS PEACE WAS DISTURBED BY THE SCHISM.

1 If this Peace had remained whole and inviolate as it was given, and had not been
disturbed by the authors of the schism, there would not be any disagreement to-day between
us and our brethren, nor would they be causing God inconsolable tears (as Isaiah the
prophet bears witness ), nor would they deserve the name, and do the deeds, of false
prophets ; nor would they have built a crumbling and whitened wall ; nor would they
overturn simple but too credulous minds; nor would they, by wickedly imposing hands upon
the heads of all, place upon them the veils of destruction ; nor would they speak evil
things to God ; nor would they re-baptise the Faithful; nor should we now be grieving for
the souls which they have either destroyed or slain,----souls of the innocent, for whom
God was the first to grieve, saying by the mouth of Ezekiel the prophet:

2 'Woe to you who place a veil over every head and over every age, for the destruction of
souls. The souls of My people have been destroyed; and they spoke evil things to Me
amongst My people, that they might slay souls which ought not to die, whilst they proclaim
to My people their empty deceits.'

III. WHY SCHISMATICS SHOULD BE CALLED BRETHREN.

1 Lest any one should say, that without thought I call them brethren, I would reply that
such they are, for we cannot escape from the words of the prophet Isaiah ; and, although
they would not deny (as all men know well) that they hold us in abhorrence, and ban us
utterly and are unwilling to be called our brethren, still we may not depart from the fear
of God, for the Holy Spirit exhorts us by Isaiah the prophet, saying: 'You who fear the
Word of the Lord, hear ye the Word of the Lord. 'To those who detest and curse you, and
are unwilling to be called your brethren, say ye nevertheless: ' "You are our brethren." '
They therefore are without doubt brothers, though not good brothers. Wherefore let no one
marvel that I term those brothers, who are unable to escape being our brethren. They and
we have one spiritual birth, though widely differing is our conduct.

2 For even Ham, who mocked undutifully at his father's shame, was the brother of the
innocent. In accordance with his deserts, he incurred the yoke of slavery, so that he----
their brother----was assigned in bondage to his brethren. From this we see that, even
where there is sin, the name of brotherhood is not lost. Concerning the sins of these our
brethren, I will speak in another place. For they, sitting over against us, speak evil
things about us. They consort with that Thief who robs God, and share their lot with
adulterers (that is, with heretics), and make their sins an object of praise, and plan
reproachful words against us Catholics.

IV. WHY OPTATUS THOUGHT IT WELL TO UNDERTAKE THE TASK OF REFUTING PARMENIAN'S BOOK.

1 They all----each in his own district----make a great noise with wicked words. To some of
their statements I may reply when opportunity arises. But we have found only one with whom
it is possible to discuss these matters either by correspondence, or by the exchange of
treatises----Parmenian our brother, if indeed he will allow us to call him brother. Since
they are unwilling to be in communion, as we are, with the whole body of Bishops, let it
be freely granted that they are not colleagues, if they refuse so to be, but (as we have
already said), brothers they are. Now, my brother Parmenian, in order that he might not
speak like the rest, in a windy and unconvincing manner, has not only given utterance to
his opinions in speech, but has also set them down in writing. Since, then, love of truth
compels us to answer what he has said, we may still have some sort of conference ----even
though we cannot meet together.

2 By this means also the wishes of certain people will be satisfied. For many have often
expressed a desire for a public discussion between champions drawn from both sides, in
order to elicit the truth. And this might well have been done. At any rate, though the
Donatists forbid their people to come to us, and close the way to any approach to us, and
avoid a meeting, and refuse to speak with us, let there be a conference, my brother
Parmenian, between us two in this way, that, as I have not thought little of, nor
despised, your treatises, which you have wished to be read and quoted by many, but on the
contrary have patiently listened to everything that you have brought forward,----so do
you, in your turn, attend to the reply which, with humility, I make to you.

V. THE NATURE OF PARMENIAN'S BOOK.

1 Now I understand well, and you do not deny,----and every man, who is not a fool, will
quite plainly see for himself----that you never would have written at such a length for
any other purpose, excepting that you might, by your writings, strike an undeserved blow
at the Catholic Church. But (as it has been given me to discover) whilst your wishes say
one thing, your arguments shout another. Moreover, I perceive that not all that you have
written is an argument against Catholicism. Indeed, though you are not a Catholic, what
you say often tells in favour of the Catholic Church. Therefore it will only be necessary
for us to answer you when through wrong information you write, not of what you have
yourself seen, but of what you have heard from others speaking falsely (although we have
read in the Epistle of Peter: 'Be ye unwilling to judge your brother without certainty '
).

2 For instance, amongst other things which have no reference to us (that they have no such
reference I shall prove), you say that we asked for armed troops to be employed against
you. But in other parts of your treatise there are some things which tell in our favour,
and against you----such are the analogy of the Flood, and that of Circumcision. Some
things there are which tell both for us and for you. For example, what you have written in
praise of Baptism (excepting that you have said untrue things concerning the Flesh of
Christ) tells in your favour as well as in ours, because, although you are outside, still,
from us you went forth. It would also be in favour of both sides----if you had not joined
yourselves to those who are certainly schismatics ----that you have proved that heretics
are strangers to Catholic Sacraments. Some things are arguments for us alone. Such is your
reference to the One Church.

3 Some things that you have mentioned tell the wrong way for you, in consequence of your
ignorance, as a foreigner, [of the facts]----for instance, your indictment of 'Betrayers'
and schismatics. The way in which you have written concerning the Sacraments and
Sacrifice, offered by one who is in sin, also goes against you. So, when we investigate,
we discover that in reality you have brought nothing against us except your mistaken
charge, that we asked to have troops employed against you. That this is a calumny we shall
be able to prove to absolute demonstration. Take this calumny out of your book, and you
are ours. For what can be more to our purpose than your argument from the fact that there
was only one Flood ----the type of Baptism? And, in maintaining that the one Circumcision
availed for the salvation of the people of the Jews, you have written in defence of our
doctrine, as though you were one of us. For this is our argument, who defend the Unity of
Baptism conferred in [the Name of] the Trinity. It is not an argument in favour of you,
who dare to repeat, against the laws, that Baptism, of which the one Flood and one
Circumcision are typical. And this, although you yourselves would not deny that what has
been commanded to be done once only, ought not to be repeated. But whilst you have praised
with acuteness that which is worthy of all praise, you have by a quibble introduced your
own persons, as if----since it is only lawful once [to baptise]----for you it were lawful,
for others unlawful.

4 If it be unlawful for Betrayers to baptise, it cannot be lawful for you, for we can
prove that your first fathers were Betrayers. If it be unlawful for schismatics to
baptise, it must therefore be unlawful for you, for you originated the Schism. If it be
unlawful for sinners to baptise, we can prove from divine testimony that you are sinners
also. Finally, since the validity of Baptism does not depend upon the character of the man
who has been chosen to baptise, but upon an act which lawfully is done but once, for this
reason we do not set right baptisms which have been administered by you, because both
amongst us and amongst you the Sacrament is one. The whole nature of this Sacrament we
shall set forth in our fifth book.

VI. THE ARGUMENTS SET FORTH IN PARMENIAN'S TREATISE.

My brother Parmenian, you have indeed treated of many things, but I see that I must not
answer you point by point, in the same order as that which you have employed. For you have
written in the first place of the figures and praise of Baptism. Here (with the exception
of your error concerning the Flesh of Christ) you have written well. But this, however,
tells in our favour, as we shall show in its proper place. Secondly, you have maintained
that there is only One Church, from which heretics are shut out. You have, however, been
unwilling to recognise where this One Church is to be found. Thirdly, you have denounced
the 'Betrayers' without fixing names or describing persons. Fourthly, you have attacked
the makers of Unity. Fifthly (to pass over matters of but trifling importance), you have
written about the Sacraments and Sacrifice of a sinner.

VII. THE DIVISION OF THIS WORK AND THE CONTENTS OF ITS SEVERAL BOOKS.

But it seems to me that in the first place the cities, positions, and names of the
Betrayers and schismatics should be pointed out. In this way the true authors of the
crimes, concerning which you have written, may be convicted of their certain guilt.
Secondly, I shall have to say which is the Church, or where is to be found the One Church
----which is the Church----because, besides the One Church, there is no other. Thirdly, I
shall prove that we did not ask for the troops and that what is said to have been done by
the makers of Unity does not concern us. In the fourth place, I shall show who is the
sinner whose sacrifice God repudiates, or from whose Sacraments we must flee. Fifthly, I
shall treat of Baptism; and in the sixth place of your ill-considered assumptions and
mistakes.

VIII. THE FLESH OF CHRIST IS NOT SINFUL.

1 But before I say anything of these subjects separately, I shall show briefly that you
have spoken wrongfully of the Flesh of Christ, for you have said that the Flesh which was
drowned by the floods of the Jordan, and was thus cleansed from all stains, was the Flesh
of Sin. You might have said this with reason if the Baptism of the Flesh of Christ had
sufficed for all, so that it were not necessary for any man to be baptised for himself.
Had this been so, the whole human family would have been in the Jordan, and all that which
is born in the flesh would have been there. In that case there would have been no
difference between the Faithful and any one of the heathen, for flesh belongs to them all;
and since there is no man who is without flesh, if, according to your mode of expression,
the Flesh of Christ was drowned in the waters of the Jordan, the flesh of all men would
have gained this benefit. But the Flesh of Christ is one thing in Christ----quite another
is the flesh of each man in himself. What came over you to call the Flesh of Christ
sinful? Would that you had said 'the flesh of men in the Flesh of Christ.' But even thus,
you would have spoken without reason, since each believer is baptised in the Name of
Christ, not in the Flesh of Christ, which belonged to Himself exclusively.

2 I may add that His Flesh, which was conceived by the Holy Ghost, could not be washed,
amongst others, for the remission of sins, for It was without any sin. You have gone on to
say that It was drowned in the floods of the Jordan.This word drowned, you have used
inadvisedly enough, for it is a word which should be used only of Pharaoh and his people,
who were so drowned by the weight of their offences, as to remain, like lead, beneath the
waters. But the Flesh of Christ, when It went down into and came up from the Jordan, ought
not to have been spoken of by you as drowned. His Flesh was found to be more holy than the
very Jordan, so that rather did It cleanse the water by Its entrance, than Itself was
cleansed.

IX. MENTION OF HERETICS MADE BY PARMENIAN TO NO GOOD PURPOSE.

Moreover, I cannot pass over a matter in which I think you have acted craftily. In order
that you might lead the minds of your readers off the point, or deceive them, after you
had described Circumcision and the Flood, and after you had praised Baptism, you thought
fit to raise, as it were from the dead, heretics who were already dead and, together with
their heresies, buried in oblivion----and this although not only their errors, but even
their names, were unknown throughout Africa----Marcion, Praxeas, Sabellius, Valentinus,
and the rest up to the Cataphrygae, all of whom were confuted in their time by Victorinus
of Pettau, by Zephyrinus of Rome, by Tertullian of Carthage, and by other champions of the
Catholic Church. Why, then, do you wage a war with the dead, who have nothing to do with
the affairs of our time? For no reason, excepting that you, who are a schismatic of to-
day, having nothing that you can prove against Catholics, have been pleased to enumerate
so many heretics and their heresies, to spin out your somewhat wordy treatise.

X. THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN HERETICS AND SCHISMATICS.

1 Now there is another question: For what purpose have you mentioned those who have not
the Sacraments which you and we alike possess? Sound health does not clamour for medicine;
strength which is secure in itself does not need outside help; truth has no lack of
arguments; it is the mark of a sick man to seek remedies; it is the sign of a sluggard and
a weakling to run in search of auxiliaries; it belongs to a liar to rake up arguments. To
return to your book, you have said that the Endowments of the Church cannot be with
heretics, and in this you have said rightly, for we know that the churches of each of the
heretics have no lawful Sacraments, since they are adulteresses, without the rights of
honest wedlock, and are rejected by Christ, who is the Bridegroom of One Church, as
strangers.This He Himself makes clear in the Canticle of Canticles. When He praises One,
He condemns the others because, besides the One which is the true Catholic Church, the
others amongst the heretics are thought to be churches, but are not such. Thus He declares
in the Canticle of Canticles (as we have already pointed out) that His Dove is One, and
that she is also the chosen Spouse, and again a garden enclosed, and a fountain sealed up.

2 Therefore none of the heretics possess either the Keys, which Peter alone received, or
the Ring, with which we read that the Fountain has been sealed ; nor is any heretic one of
those to whom that Garden belongs in which God plants His young trees. Concerning these
men, that which you have written at length (although it has nothing to do with our present
business) is abundantly sufficient. But to my surprise you have thought good to attach
yourselves to those who certainly are schismatics, for in denying the Endowments of the
Church both to those who are heretics, and also to schismatics, you have denied them to
yourselves. Amongst other things you have said that schismatics have been cut off, like
branches, from the Vine, and that they have been reserved, marked off for punishment, like
dried wood, for the fires of Hell. But I see that you do not yet know that the Schism at
Carthage was begun by your fathers. Search out the beginning of these affairs, and you
will find that in associating heretics with schismatics, you have pronounced judgement
against yourselves.

3 For it was not Caecilian who went forth from Majorinus, your father's father, but it was
Majorinus who deserted Caecilian; nor was it Caecilian who separated himself from the
Chair of Peter, or from the Chair of Cyprian ----but Majorinus, on whose Chair you sit----
a Chair which had no existence before Majorinus himself. Since then there can be no
possible doubt that these things have thus happened, and that you are the heirs of
Betrayers and schismatics, I am, my brother Parmenian, sufficiently surprised----seeing
that you are yourself a schismatic----that you should have thought it advisable to join
schismatics to heretics. If, however, these are your principles, and you wish to do so,
heap up together what you have laid down only a little before. For you have said that 'It
could not be that one who was stained should wash away sins in a baptism-that-is-not-
Baptism, that one who is unclean should cleanse, that one who trips men up should raise
them, that one who is lost should free, that one who is guilty should give pardon, that
one who has been condemned should absolve.'

4 All these things might well be true of heretics alone, since they have falsified the
creed, for amongst them one has said that there are two Gods, though God is One; another
wishes the Father to be recognised in the Person of the Son ; another robs the Son of God
of His Flesh, through which the world has been reconciled to God, and there are yet others
of the same kind, who admittedly are separated from Catholic Sacraments. Wherefore you
should regret that you have coupled schismatics with such men as these, for, when you
thought that you were attacking others, you failed to observe how wide is the gulf between
schismatics and heretics, and turned the sword of judgement upon yourself. This is the
reason that you do not see which is the Holy Church, and have in this way made confusion
of everything.

XI. THE MARKS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND OF SCHISM.

Catholicism is constituted by a simple and true understanding in the law, by an unique and
most true mystery, and by unity of minds. But schism, after the bond of peace has been
broken, is brought into existence through passion, is nourished by hatred, is strengthened
by envy and dissensions, so that the Catholic Mother is abandoned, whilst her unfilial
children go forth outside and separate themselves (as you have done) from the root of
Mother Church----cut off by the shears of their hatred----and wickedly depart in
rebellion. They are not able, however, to do anything new, or different from that which
long ago they learned from their Mother.

XII. TO RETURN TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HERETICS AND SCHISMATICS.

1 But heretics, exiles from the truth, deserters of the sound and most true Creed,
corrupted by their wicked opinions and led astray from the bosom of Holy Church, reckoning
nothing of their noble birth, in order to deceive the ignorant and ill-informed, have been
pleased to be born of themselves. And they, who for a long time had been nourished on
living food----which not assimilated has turned to corruption ----have by impious
disputations vomited forth deadly poisons, to the destruction of their wretched dupes. You
see, then, my brother Parmenian, that none but heretics only----who are cut off from the
home of truth----possess 'various kinds of false Baptisms with which he, who is stained,
cannot wash, nor the unclean cleanse, nor the destroyer raise, nor he, who is lost, free,
nor the guilty man give pardon, nor the condemned man absolve.' Rightly hast thou closed
the Garden to heretics; rightly hast thou claimed the Keys for Peter ; rightly hast thou
denied the right of cultivating the young trees to those who are certainly shut out from
the garden and from the paradise of God ; rightly hast thou withdrawn the Ring from those
to whom it is not allowed to open the Fountain. But to you schismatics, although you are
not in the Catholic Church,these things cannot be denied, since you have shared true
Sacraments with us.

2 Wherefore, since all these things are justly denied to heretics, why did you think well
to deny them to yourselves as well, who clearly are schismatics, for you have gone
outside? For our part we were willing that in this matter heretics alone should be
condemned, but so far as lies with you, you have chosen to strike yourselves, together
with them, in one condemnation.

XIII. THE ORIGINATORS OF THE DONATIST SCHISM WERE BETRAYERS.

But now (to return to the order upon which we have determined), in the first place listen
to the names of those who were Betrayers and learn more distinctly who were the
originators of the schism. It is certain that two evil things have been perpetrated in
Africa----even the worst of all ----the first----Betrayal, the second----Schism. Both
these crimes were committed, in one period of time, by the same wicked men. You ought,
therefore, my brother Parmenian, to learn that of which you are understood to be ignorant;
for sixty years and more have passed since the storm of persecution spread abroad
throughout the whole of Africa ----a persecution which made some Martyrs, others
Confessors, whilst not a few it laid low in a terrible death, leaving unharmed those who
lay in hiding. Why should I make mention of laymen who at that time were supported by no
ecclesiastical dignity? Why name a host of clerics ? Or deacons in the third,or priests in
the second degree of the sacerdotium, when the heads and chiefs of all, some Bishops of
that period, in order to purchase for themselves, at the loss of Life Eternal, some very
short prolongation of this uncertain day, impiously betrayed the records of the law of
God? Amongst whom were Donatus of Mascula, Victor of Rusicca, Merinus from the Baths of
Tibilis, Donatus of Calama, and Purpurius of Limata, the murderer ----who, when he was
questioned on the charge of having killed his sister's sons in the prison of Mileum,
confessed it with the words: 'Yes, I did kill them, and not them alone do I kill, but
whoever shall act against me.' And Menalius who pretended that he had a pain in his eyes,
and trembled at the idea of meeting his own people, for fear lest it should be proved
against him by his fellow-citizens that he had offered incense to idols.

XIV. THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL OF CIRTA.

After the persecution, these Bishops and others whom we shall soon show to have been the
first leaders of your schism, gathered together on the thirteenth of May at the town of
Cirta ----in the house of Urbanus Carisius----for the Basilicas had not yet been restored.
This is attested by the writings of Nundinarius, then a deacon, and is proved by the age
of the parchments, which I can show to anyone really in doubt, for in the Appendix to
these books I have subjoined the whole number of these documents to certify the truth of
my statements. These Bishops, on being questioned by Secundus of Tigisis, acknowledged
that they had been Betrayers. And, as Secundus himself was taunted by Purpurius not for
having escaped, but for having been set free after he had remained for a long time amongst
the soldiers, they all stood up and began to mutter that he had been set free only because
he betrayed the sacred books. Then Secundus, fearing their temper, received advice from
his brother's son, Secundus the Less, to remit an affair of this character to God. The
others, who had not been accused, that is to say, Victor of Garba, Felix of Rotarium and
Nabor of Centurio, were then consulted. They said that a case of this kind ought to be
reserved to the Lord. Then said Secundus 'Sit down all.' They all replied 'Thanks be to
God,' and sat down. You see, therefore, my brother Parmenian, that it is quite clear who
were the Betrayers.

XV. THE SCHISM TOOK ITS RISE FROM THE CONSECRATION OF MAJORINUS.

1 It was not long after this, that these very persons whom I have mentioned, of the
character I have described, Betrayers, men who had offered incense to idols, and
murderers, proceeded to Carthage, and there, although Caecilian was already the Bishop,
made the Schism by consecrating Majorinus----on whose Chair, Parmenian, you sit. And since
I have shown, that men who were guilty of Betrayal were your first fathers, it follows
that Betrayers were also the originators of your Schism. In order to make this matter
clear and beyond doubt to all, we shall have to prove from what root the branches of error
have stretched themselves forth to the present day, and from what fountain this your
rivulet of noxious water, creeping stealthily along, has flowed down even to our times. We
shall have to point out whence, and where, and from whom this evil of schism has arisen;
what were the causes which met together to produce it; who were the persons who effected
it ; who were the authors of this wicked thing; who fostered it; by whom appeal was made
to the Emperor, that he should judge between the parties; who were they that sat in
judgement; where the Council was held; what were its decrees.

2 The question is about a Division. Now in Africa, as in other parts of the world, the
Church was One, before it was divided by those who consecrated Majorinus----whose Chair
you have inherited, and now occupy. We shall have to see who has remained in the root,
with the whole world ; who went forth; who sits on a second chair, which had no existence
before the Schism ; who has raised altar against altar; who has consecrated a Bishop when
another was in undisturbed possession; who it is that lies under the judgement of John,
the Apostle, when he declared that many Anti-Christs should go forth without, 'because
they were not of us, for if they had been of us they would have remained with us.'
Therefore, he who was unwilling to remain with his brethren in unity has followed the
heretics, and gone forth without, as an Anti-Christ.

XVI. THE QUARREL OF LUCILLA AGAINST CAECILIAN.

No one is unaware that the Schism, after the consecration of Caecilian, was effected at
Carthage through a certain mischief-making woman named Lucilla. When the Church was still
in tranquillity, before her Peace had been disturbed by the storms of persecution, this
woman could not put up with the rebuke which she received from the archdeacon Caecilian.
It was said that she kissed a bone of some martyr or other----if he was a martyr----before
she received the spiritual Food and Drink. Having then been corrected for thus touching
----before she touched the Sacred Chalice----the bone of a dead man (if he was a martyr,
at least he had not yet been acknowledged as such ), she went away in confusion, full of
wrath. This was the woman upon whom, whilst she was angry and afraid that she might fall
under the discipline of the Church, on a sudden, the storm of persecution broke.

XVII. MENSURIUS WHEN SUMMONED TO THE COURT ENTRUSTED THE ORNAMENTS OF THE CHURCH TO CERTAIN SENIORS.

It was at this time also that a deacon called Felix who had been summoned before the
tribunals on account of a much spoken-of letter which he had written concerning the
usurping Emperor, fearing his danger, is said to have lain hidden in the house of Bishop
Mensurius. When Mensurius publicly refused to give him up, an account of the matter was
despatched. A rescript came back that unless Mensurius would surrender the deacon Felix,
he should be himself sent to the palace. On receiving this summons he found himself in no
small difficulty, for the Church possessed very many gold and silver ornaments, which he
could neither hide under ground, nor take away with him. So he confided them to the care
of some of the seniors, whom he believed to be worthy of trust, not, however, before he
had made an inventory, which he is said to have given to a certain old woman. He charged
her, that, when peace was restored to Christians, she should hand this over, if he himself
did not return home, to whomsoever she found sitting on the Bishop's Chair. He went away
and pleaded his cause; he was commanded to return, but was not able to reach Carthage.

XVIII. THE CONSECRATION OF CAECILIAN AS BISHOP OF CARTHAGE. THE CAUSE AND THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHISM.

The storm of persecution passed over, and subsided. By the disposition of God, Maxentius
sent pardon, and liberty was restored to Christians. Botrus and Celestius----so it is said
----wishing to be consecrated Bishops at Carthage, arranged that, without inviting the
Numidians, only the neighbouring bishops should be asked to perform the ceremony at
Carthage.Then, by the vote of the whole people, Caecilian was chosen, and was consecrated
Bishop, Felix of Autumna laying his hand upon him. Botrus and Celestius were disappointed
of their hope. The inventory of the gold and silver, as had been ordered by Mensurius, was
handed over, in the presence of witnesses, to Caecilian, who was now in possession of the
See. The above-mentioned seniors were summoned; but they had swallowed up in the jaws of
their avarice, as booty, that which had been entrusted to their keeping. When they were
commanded to make restitution, they withdrew from communion with Caecilian. The ambitious
intriguers, who had failed to obtain their consecration, did likewise. Lucilla, too, that
influential, mischief-making woman, who had before been unwilling to brook discipline,
together with all her retainers, separated herself from her Bishop. Thus wickedness
produced its effect through the meeting together of three different causes and sets of
persons.

XIX. THE UNLAWFUL CONSECRATION BY NUMIDIAN BISHOPS OF MAJORINUS AGAINST CAECILIAN.

1 In this way it came to pass, that at that time the Schism was brought to birth by the
anger of a disgraced woman, was fed by ambition, and received its strength from avarice.
It was by these three that the accusations were concocted against Caecilian, so that his
Consecration might be declared void. They sent to Secundus of Tigisis to come to Carthage,
whither the Betrayers, of whom we have already made mention, proceeded. They received
hospitality----not from Catholics, at whose request Caecilian had been consecrated ----but
from the avaricious, from the ambitious, from those who had been unable to govern their
tempers. Not one of them went to the Basilica, where all the people of Carthage had
assembled with Caecilian.Then Caecilian demanded: 'If there is anything to be proved
against me, let the accuser come out and prove it.' Nothing could at that time be got up
against him by all these enemies of his; they imagined, however, that he might be
blackened by his Consecrator being falsely alleged to have been a Betrayer. So Caecilian
gave a second demand----that, since----so they thought ----Felix had bestowed nothing upon
him, they should themselves ordain him, as if he were still a deacon.

2 Then Purpurius, relying upon his usual ribaldry, thus spoke, as though Caecilian had
been his sister's son : 'Let him stand forth as if he were to be consecrated Bishop, and
let his head be well smacked in Penance.' When the bearing of all this was seen, the whole
Church [of Carthage] retained Caecilian, in order not to hand itself over to murderers.
The alternatives were, either that he should be expelled from his See as guilty, or that
the Faithful should communicate with him as innocent. The church was crowded with people;
Caecilian was sitting in his episcopal Chair; the altar was set up in its own place
----that very altar upon which Bishops acknowledged by all had in past times offered
sacrifice----Cyprian, Carpophorius, Lucian and the rest. In this manner they went forth,
and altar was raised against altar; and there was an unlawful consecration; and Majorinus,
who had been lector when Caecilian was archdeacon ----Majorinus, a member of the household
of Lucilla----at her instigation, and through her bribes----was consecrated Bishop by
Betrayers, who in the Numidian Council had (as we have already said) acknowledged their
crimes and granted pardon to one another. It is, therefore, clear that both the Betrayers
who consecrated, and Majorinus who was consecrated, went forth from the Church.

XX. THE LETTER OF THE NUMIDIAU BISHOPS AGAINST FELIX, THE CONSECRATOR OF CAECILIAN.

1 Meanwhile, out of the fountain of their own crimes, which had gushed forth amongst them
in channels of many kinds of wickedness, they thought that a single one----that of
Betrayal----might be spared with which to calumniate the consecrator of Caecilian. For,
since, as they foresaw, slander would not be able to occupy herself at the same time with
two charges of a similar nature, they endeavoured to blacken the life of another man, that
by this means they might consign their own crimes to silence. And, through fear that they
should themselves be convicted by the innocent, they strove to convict the innocent
instead. To this end they distributed on all sides a letter, inspired by their hatred.
(This letter we have placed, together with the other Acts, in the Appendix.) As they were
still at Carthage, they sent their letters before them, that by untruthful reports they
might plant their falsehood in the ears of all. Rumour spread the lie broadcast amongst
the people. Thus, whilst these calumnies were noised abroad about one man only, their own
most certain crimes were hidden away in silence.

2 It often comes to pass that sin is blushed for, but at that period there was no one for
whom to blush, since, with the exception of a few Catholics, all had sinned, so the
wickedness which had been committed by many wore the cloak of innocence. The shame of
Betrayal, which admittedly had been committed by Donatus of Mascula and the others whom we
have mentioned, seemed but of small account. To this Betrayal they added the enormous
wickedness of schism.

XXI. HOW GRAVE IS THE EVIL OF SCHISM, OF WHICH THE DONATISTS ARE GUILTY.

1 Therefore, my brother Parmenian, you see these two accusations----so evil, so terrible
----of Betrayal and Schism proved against your chiefs. Acknowledge, though late, that you,
in attacking others, have fallen upon your own people. And whilst it is certain that those
who went before you worked this second abomination, you too strive to follow them in their
sin-stained footsteps, so that you also have been doing for long, and are even now doing,
that of which your Fathers were guilty in the beginning of the Schism. They in their day
broke peace; you now banish unity. It can be said with reason of your Fathers as well as
of yourselves, that, if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch. A raging
malice blinded your Fathers' eyes; envy has robbed yours of sight. Even you will not by
any means be able to deny that schism is the supreme evil.

2 Yet, without fear, you have imitated Dathan, Abiram and Koran, your shameless teachers,
and you have been unwilling to keep before your eyes the fact that God has both forbidden
this wickedness, and gravely punished it when it has been committed. Moreover, remember
that the way in which sins are either forgiven or punished shows that there are degrees of
guilt. Now, by the Commandments of God, three things are, amongst others, forbidden by
Him. Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not go after strange gods, and summing up the
commands, thou shalt not commit schism. Let us see concerning these three, what should be
punished, and what it may be lawful to pardon. Murder of kith is the chief sin.
Nevertheless, God did not strike Cain dead in his guilt, but declared that He would punish
any man who might be his murderer. In the city of Nineve one hundred and twenty thousand
inhabitants sacrilegiously followed after strange gods, but when, by the preaching of
Jonah the prophet, God had declared His anger, a short period of fasting, together with
prayer, obtained their pardon. Let us see whether any such forgiveness was granted to
those who first of all ventured to divide the people of God.

3 God had placed over so many thousands of children of Israel, from whose necks His Divine
Providence had cast away the yoke of servitude, one Priest, holy Aaron. But his ministers,
coveting and lawlessly usurping a priesthood to which they had no right, and leading
astray a part of the people, imitated the sacred rites, and placed more than two hundred
of their followers (who were to perish with them)----censers in their hands----before the
people whom they had led astray. God, to whom schism is displeasing, could not see this
and let it pass; they had, after a certain fashion, declared war against God, as if there
were a second God, who would accept a second sacrifice. Therefore God was wrathful with a
mighty wrath, on account of the schism which had been made, and what He had not done in
punishment of the sacrilegious and the fratricide, that He did do in punishment of
schismatics. The army of ministers stood in array, and the sacrilegious host that
(together with its forbidden sacrifices) was to perish in an instant. The opportunity for
penance was denied them and withdrawn, for this was not the kind of sin that should
deserve pardon. The earth was commanded to hunger after its food. Forthwith it opened its
jaws for those who had divided the people, and with eager mouth swallowed them up that had
despised the commandments of God. Within the space of one moment the earth opened to
devour them, seized her victims, was shut once again, and, so that they might not appear
to reap any benefit from the suddenness of their death, it was not allowed these men who
were unworthy to live even to die. Of a sudden they were shut in the prison of Hell, and
were buried there before they died.

4 And yet you wonder that something of similar severity has been done against you----you
who either cause or approve schism, although you see here what they, who compassed the
first schism, deserved to suffer! Or is it because punishment of this kind has now ceased,
that on this account you claim innocence for yourself and for your party? In each of these
occurrences, God has set forth a model by examples of the punishment that will come to
their imitators. The first sins He has put an end to with punishment, as an example for
all time. The sins that come after He will reserve for His Judgement. What have you to say
to this, you, who having usurped the name of the Church, both secretly foster and without
shame defend the schism?

XXII. THE LETTER OF THE DONATIST BISHOPS TO THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE, IN WHICH THEY ASK FOR JUDGES OF THEIR CASE.

1 I hear that some of your party, in their love of disputation, produce documents. But we
have to ask which of these are worthy of trust, which are in accordance with reason, which
agree with the truth ? It may be that your documents----if indeed you have any----will be
found to be stained with falsehoods. Our documents are proved to be true by the rival
arguments and pleadings of the parties, by the final judgements, and by the letters of
Constantine. With regard to that which you ask of us: 'What have Christians to do with
kings, or Bishops with the palace?' If it be a crime to be acquainted with kings, the
whole of the odium falls upon you, for your fathers Lucianus, Dignus, Nasutius, Capito,
Fidentius and the rest, when the Emperor Constantine was still without any knowledge of
these affairs, addressed a petition to him, of which I will transcribe a copy :

2 'O Constantine, most excellent Emperor, since thou dost come of a just stock, and thy
father (unlike other Emperors) did not persecute Christians, and Gaul is free from this
wickedness, we beseech thee that thy piety may command that we be granted judges from
Gaul; for between us and other Bishops in Africa disputes have arisen; Given by Lucianus,
Dignus, Nasutius, Capito, Fidentius and the rest of the Bishops who adhere to Donatus.'

XXIII. THE ANSWER OF CONSTANTINE. HE APPOINTED JUDGES TO MEET AT ROME.

After having read this letter, Constantine replied with much anger. And in his rescript he
testified to the matter of their petition in the words: 'You ask a judgement from me in
this world, although I myself am waiting for the Judgement of Christ in the next.'
Nevertheless, he granted them judges----Maternus from the city of Cologne, Reticius from
the city of Autun, Marinus of Aries. These three Bishops from Gaul and fifteen others, who
were Italians, arrived in Rome. They met in the House of Fausta on the Lateran, on the
second of October which was a Friday, in the year when Constantine for the fourth, and
Licinius for the third time, were Consuls. There were present Miltiades, Bishop of the
city of Rome, and Reticius, Maternus and Marinus, Bishops from Gaul, and Merocles of
Milan, Florianus of Sinna, Zoticus of Quintianum, Stennius of Ariminum, Felix from
Florence of the Tuscans, Gaudentius of Pisa, Constantius of Faenza, Proterius of Capua,
Theophilus of Beneventum, Sabinus of Terracina, Secundus of Preneste, Felix of the Three
Taverns, Maximus of Ostium, Evandrus of Ursinum and Donatianus of Criolo.

XXIV. THE ACQUITTAL OF CAECILIAN BY THE ROMAN COUNCIL.

When these nineteen Bishops had taken their seats together, the case of Donatus and that
of Caecilian were brought forward. This judgement was passed against Donatus ----by each
of the Bishops----that he acknowledged having both rebaptised, and laid his hand in
Penance upon Bishops who had fallen away---- a thing foreign to the Church. Donatus
brought forth his witnesses; they admitted that they had nothing of which they could
accuse Caecilian. Caecilian was pronounced innocent by the sentence of all the above-named
Bishops; also by the sentence of Miltiades, by which the matter was closed, and judgement
pronounced in these words : 'Since it is certain that those who came with Donatus have
failed to accuse Caecilian in accordance with their undertaking, and since it is also
certain that Donatus has not proved him guilty on any count, I judge that, according to
his deserts, he be maintained in the communion of the Church, continuing to hold his
position unimpaired.'

XXV. HOW CONSTANTINE RECEIVED THE APPEAL OF DONATUS FROM THE ROMAN JUDGEMENT.

It is, therefore, sufficient, that Donatus was condemned by the verdict of so many
Bishops, and that Caecilian was cleared by the judgement of so great an authority. Yet
Donatus thought well to appeal. To this appeal the Emperor Constantine replied in these
words: 'Oh, mad daring of their fury! A Bishop has thought fit to appeal to us, as is done
in the lawsuits of the Pagans.'

XXVI. WHAT TOOK PLACE IN AFRICA AFTER THE ROMAN SYNOD.

At the same time Donatus also asked that he might be allowed to return, and promised that
he would not go to Carthage. Then it was suggested to the Emperor by Filuminus his
advocate, that, for peace' sake, Caecilian should be detained at Brescia----and so it was
done. Then two Bishops were sent to Africa, Eunomius and Olimpius, to do away with the
dual Bishops and establish a single one. They came, and remained at Carthage forty days,
that they might declare where was the Catholic Church. The seditious party of Donatus
could not endure this, and every day noisy uproars were made through party spirit.
Eventually these Bishops, Eunomius and Olimpius, delivered their final decree to the
effect that the Catholic Church was that which was dispersed all over the world, and that
the Judgement of the nineteen Bishops which had already been delivered could not be upset.
Accordingly they communicated with the clergy of Caecilian, and went their way. All this
we can prove from the written Acts which any who please may read in our Appendix. When
these things had taken place, Donatus was the first to return to Carthage, unasked.
Caecilian, on hearing this news, hastened back to his own people. In this way the schism
was planted anew. But the fact remains that so many Bishops had by their Judgement
condemned Donatus, and had also pronounced the innocence of Caecilian.

XXVII. THE CLEARING OF FELIX, THE CONSECRATOR OF CAECILIAN.

1 But since two persons on the Catholic side had been for some time accused in this matter
----the consecrated and the Consecrator----even after the consecrated had been acquitted
at Rome, it still remained for the Consecrator to be declared guiltless. Then Constantine
wrote to Aelianus, the pro-consul, to lay aside his public duties and make public inquiry
into the life of Felix of Autumna. The appointed officer took his seat. The witnesses were
Claudius Saturianus, a state commissioner, who had been in the city of Felix all through
the time of the persecution, and had been a commissioner when he was impeached, Callidius
Gratianus and Alfius Caecilianus the magistrate; also Superius the Warder was summoned,
and Ingentius the public notary, who was in constant fear of the torture with which he was
threatened. By the evidence of all it was ascertained that there was nothing that could
disgrace the life of Felix the Bishop.

2 The Volume of Acts is in existence in which are recorded the names of those who had been
present at the trial, Claudius Saturianus the official, and Caecilianus the Magistrate,
and Superius the Warder, and Ingentius the Notary, and Solon a public official of the
time. After they had given their replies, the above-mentioned pro-consul gave his
Judgement, of which this is a part: 'That Felix, the holy Bishop, is guiltless of having
burned the divine Books, is clear from the fact that no one was able to prove anything
against him----neither that he had given up nor burned the most sacred Scriptures. For all
the above-mentioned witnesses proved clearly that none of the divine Writings had been
either discovered, or injured or burned. It is shown by the Acts that the holy Bishop
Felix was not present at that time, and that he was neither privy to any such crime, nor
commanded it to be done.'

3 And so he left the court, cleared of every stain upon his reputation and wonderfully
praised. Up to that time men did not know what to think of him, and he had walked under a
dark cloud, caused by the breath of hatred and jealousy, whilst truth lay hid. And
besides, every document, mentioned either in the Acts or in the letters which we have
mentioned or read, was disclosed.

XXVIII. THE END OF THIS FIRST BOOK.

1 You see, my brother Parmenian, that you have assaulted Catholics to no purpose----
falsely nicknaming them Betrayers, changing the names of those who were concerned, and
transferring their deeds. You have shut your eyes, that you might not recognise the guilt
of your fathers; you have opened them to cast accusations upon the innocent and blameless.
You have stated everything according to what is opportune, nothing according to what is
true; so that it was of you that the most Blessed Apostle Paul said: 'Some have turned
aside to vain-speaking, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what
they say nor of whom they say it.' We have just now proved that your fathers were
Betrayers and schismatics; yet you, who are their heir, have not wished to spare either
schismatics or Betrayers, so that by the proofs which we have alleged, all the darts which
you mistakenly wished to hurl against others have glanced back----warded off by the shield
of truth----to strike your fathers. Everything, then, which you have been able to say
against Betrayers and schismatics, belongs to yourselves, for we have nothing to do with
any of it,----we who both remain in the Root, and are joined, with all, in the whole
[Catholic] world.

2 [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]

INTRODUCTION

BOOK THE SECOND Which is the One True Catholic Church and Where is it to be found? The
Five Endowments of the Church belong to Catholicism, not to the schism. The donatists have
been guilty of shamelessly scraping the heads of Priests, and of Murders, of giving the
Eucharist to Dogs, and of casting away the Holy Chrism.

I. WHICH AND WHERE IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? IT IS SPREAD ALL OVER THE WORLD.

1 We have shown who were the Betrayers, and have pointed out the origin of the Schism in
such a manner that we have almost seen it take place before our eyes. The difference
between heresy and schism has also been explained. It is now our business to show (as we
promised that we would do in the second place) which is the One Church, called by Christ
His Dove and His Bride. The Church, then, is One, and her holiness is not measured by the
pride of individuals, but is derived from the Sacraments. It is for this reason that she
alone is called by Christ His Dove and His own beloved Bride. The Church cannot be amongst
all the heretics and schismatics. It follows that [according to you] she must be in one
place only. 2 You, my brother Parmenian, have said that she is with you alone. This, I
suppose, can only be because, in your pride, you strive to claim some special holiness for
yourselves, so that the Church may be where it pleases you, and may not be where it
pleases you not. And so, in order that she may be with you in a little piece of Africa, in
a corner of one small region, is she not to be with us in another part of Africa? Is she
not to be in Spain, in Gaul, in Italy, where you are not? If you maintain that she is with
you only, is she not to be in Pannonia, in Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, Achaia, Macedonia and in
all Greece, where you are not? In order that you may be able to argue that she is with
you, is she not to be in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Pamphylia, Phrygia, Cilicia and in
the three Syrias, and in the two Armenias, and in all Egypt and in Mesopotamia, where you
are not? And is she not to be throughout innumerable islands and so many other provinces
which can hardly be counted, where you are not?

3 Where in that case will be the application of the Catholic Name, since on this very
account was the Church called Catholic, because she is in accordance with reason, and is
scattered all over the world? For if you limit the Church just as it may please you, into
a narrow corner, if you withdraw whole peoples from her communion, where will that be
which the Son of God has merited, where will that be which the Father has freely granted
Him, saying, in the second Psalm: 'I will give to Thee the nations for Thine inheritance;
and the ends of the earth for Thy possession'? To what purpose do you break so mighty a
promise, so that the breadth of all the kingdoms is compressed by you into a sort of
narrow prison? Why do you strive to stand in the way of so great a largesse? Why do you
fight against the Saviour's Merits? Permit the Son to possess that which has been granted
to Him; permit the Father to fulfil that which He has promised.

4 Why do you put bounds, why set limits? There is nothing in any part of the earth which
has been withheld from His dominion, since the whole earth has been promised by God the
Father to the Saviour. The whole earth has been granted to Him together with its nations.
The whole world is Christ's as His undivided possession. God proves this when he says: 'I
will give unto Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and for Thy possession the bounds
of the earth.' And in the seventy-first Psalm, it has been written of the Saviour Himself,
'He shall reign from sea to sea, and from the waters to the bounds of the world.' When the
Father gives, He makes no exception; you, that you may give Him one fraction, endeavour to
take away the whole measure. And, still, you endeavour to persuade men that the Church is
amongst you alone, taking away from Christ that which He has won----denying that God has
performed His promises. What ingratitude! What folly! What presumption is yours! Christ
invites you, with all others, into the company of the Heavenly Kingdom and exhorts you to
be co-heirs with Him; and you strive to rob Him of the inheritance given Him by the
Father, allowing Him a part of Africa and refusing Him the whole world, which the Father
has bestowed upon Him.

5 Why do you desire to make the Holy Ghost appear a liar, who in the forty-ninth Psalm
tells of the goodness of Almighty God, saying: 'The Lord, the God of Gods has spoken and
has called the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof'? Therefore the
earth has been called to become flesh.And, as it has been written, so has it been done,
and the earth owes praises to its Creator. Once more this is mentioned, where the Holy
Spirit exhorts us in the hundred and twelfth Psalm with the words: 'The Name of the Lord
must be praised from the rising of the sun even to its going down.' And again, in the
ninety-fifth Psalm: 'Sing ye to the Lord a new song.' If this were the only verse, you
might say that the Holy Ghost had exhorted you alone. But that He might show that this has
been said not to you alone, but to the Church which is everywhere, He continued:

6 'Sing to the Lord, all the earth; declare amongst the nations His glory, His wonderful
works amongst all peoples.' He said: 'Declare amongst the nations.' He did not say, 'in a
small part of Africa, where you are'; He did say 'Declare amongst all peoples.' He who
said 'all peoples' excepted no man. Yet you are proud to be alone and separated from 'all
peoples,' though to them this command was given; and you maintain that you, who are not in
any part of the whole, are yet yourselves alone the whole. He has said: 'The name of the
Lord must be praised,' and 'by all the earth from the rising of the sun to the going down
thereof.' Can then the Pagans, who are outside the covenant of Christ, either sing to God
or praise the name of the Lord? Is it not His Church alone, which is within the covenant,
that may praise Him? Therefore, if you say that the Church is with you only, you are
defrauding God's ear of its due. If you alone are praising Him, 'the whole world,' which
is from the rising of the sun to its going down, will be keeping silence. You have shut
the mouths of all the Christian nations. You have imposed silence on all the peoples who
desire to praise God from moment to moment. If then God waits for the praise which is His
due, and if the Holy Spirit exhorts men to sound His praises,if 'the whole world' is
prepared to render to God His due, lest God be robbed----then should you also praise Him,
together with all, or, (since you have refused to be with all,) in your isolation, hold
your tongues.

II. HE PROVES FROM THE CATHEDRA PETRI THAT THE CATHEDRA WHICH IS THE FIRST ENDOWMENT OF THE CHURCH BELONGS TO CATHOLICS, NOT TO DONATISTS.

1 So we have proved that the Catholic Church is the Church which is spread throughout the
world. We must now mention its Adornments, and see where are its five Endowments (which
you have said to be six ), amongst which the CATHEDRA is the first; and, since the second
Endowment, which is the 'Angelus,' cannot be added unless a Bishop has sat on the
Cathedra, we must see who was the first to sit on the Cathedra, and where he sat. If you
do not know this, learn. If you do know, blush. Ignorance cannot be attributed to you----
it follows that you know.For one who knows, to err is sin. Those who do not know may
sometimes be pardoned. You cannot then deny that you do know that upon Peter first in the
City of Rome was bestowed the Episcopal Cathedra, on which sat Peter, the Head of all the
Apostles (for which reason he was called Cephas ), that, in this one Cathedra, unity
should be preserved by all, lest the other Apostles might claim----each for himself----
separate Cathedras, so that he who should set up a second Cathedra against the unique
Cathedra would already be a schismatic and a sinner.

2 Well then, on the one Cathedra, which is the first of the Endowments, Peter was the
first to sit.


AGAINST THE DONATISTS
=====================

AGAINST THE DONATISTS continued

III. THE SUCCESSION OF BISHOPS OF ROME.

To Peter succeeded Linus, to Linus succeeded Clement, to Clement Anacletus, to Anacletus
Evaristus, to Evaristus Sixtus, to Sixtus Telesphorus, to Telesphorus Hyginus, to Hyginus
Anacetus, to Anacetus Pius, to Pius Soter, to Soter Alexander, to Alexander Victor, to
Victor Zephyrinus, to Zephyrinus Calixtus, to Calixtus Urban, to Urban Pontianus, to
Pontianus Anterus, to Anterus Fabian, to Fabian Cornelius, to Cornelius Lucius, to Lucius
Stephen, to Stephen Sixtus, to Sixtus Dionysius, to Dionysius Felix, to Felix Marcellinus,
to Marcellinus Eusebius, to Eusebius Miltiades, to Miltiades Silvester, to Silvester
Marcus, to Marcus Julius, to Julius Liberius, to Liberius Damasus, to Damasus Siricius,
who to-day is our colleague, with whom 'the whole world,' through the intercourse of
letters of peace, agrees with us in one bond of communion. Now do you show the origin of
your Cathedra, you who wish to claim the Holy Church for yourselves!

IV. THE DONATIST BISHOPS AND THEIR MEETINGHOUSES IN ROME.

1 But you allege that you too have some sort of a party in the City of Rome. It is a
branch of your error growing out of a lie, not from the root of truth. In a word, were
Macrobius to be asked where he sits in the City, will he be able to say on Peter's
Cathedra? I doubt whether he has even set eyes upon it, and schismatic that he is, he has
not drawn nigh to Peter's 'Shrine,' against the precept of the Apostle who writes:
'Communicating with the "Shrines" of the Saints.' Behold, in Rome are the 'Shrines' of the
two Apostles. Will you tell me whether he has been able to approach them, or has offered
Sacrifice in those places, where----as is certain----are these 'Shrines' of the Saints. So
it follows that your colleague Macrobius must confess that he sits where once sat
Encolpius; and if Encolpius himself could be questioned, he would say that he sat where
before him sat Bonifacius of Balla; and if Bonifacius could be asked, he would in his turn
reply that he sat where Victor of Garba sat, whom some time ago your people sent from
Africa to a few wanderers.

2 How do you explain that your party has not been able to possess a Roman citizen as
Bishop in Rome? How is it that in that City they were all Africans and strangers who are
known to have succeeded one another? Is not craft here manifest? Is this not the spirit of
faction----the mother of schism? This Victor of Garba was sent first, I will not say as a
stone into a fountain (for he could not ruffle the pure waters of the Catholic people),
but because some Africans who belonged to your party, having gone to Rome, and wishing to
live there, begged that someone should be sent from Africa to preside over their public
worship. So Victor was sent to them. He was there as a son without a father, as a beginner
without a master, as a disciple without a teacher, as a follower without a predecessor, as
a lodger without a home, as a guest without a guest-house, as a shepherd without a flock,
as a Bishop without a people. For neither flock nor people can that handful be termed, who
amongst the forty and more Basilicas in Rome, had not one place in which to assemble.

3 Accordingly they closed up a cave outside the City with trellis-work, where they might
have a meeting-house at once, and on account of this were called Mountaineers. Since then,
Claudian has succeeded to Lucian, Lucian to Macrobius, Macrobius to Encolpius, Encolpius
to Boniface, Boniface to Victor. Victor would not have been able, had he been asked where
he sat, to show that anyone had been there before him, nor could he have pointed out that
he possessed any Cathedra save the Cathedra of pestilence ; for pestilence sends down its
victims, destroyed by diseases, to the regions of Hell which are known to have their gates
----gates against which we read that Peter received the saving Keys----Peter, that is to
say, the first of our line, to whom it was said by Christ: 'To thee will I give the Keys
of the Kingdom of Heaven,' and these keys 'the gates of Hell shall not overcome.'

4 How is it, then, that you strive to usurp for yourselves the Keys of the Kingdom of
Heaven, you who, with your arguments, and audacious sacrilege, war against the Chair of
Peter?

V. THE DONATIST AUTHORS OF SCHISM, FOES OF PEACE.

1 Thus do you repudiate the blessedness deserved by him who walked not in the counsel of
the wicked, and did not stand in the way of sinners, and sat not on the Chair of
Pestilence. Your fathers walked in the counsel of the ungodly, to divide the Church. They
also walked in the way of sinners, when they strove to divide Christ, whose garments not
even the Jews would rend, though the Apostle Paul cries out and says: 'Is then Christ
divided?' Would that your fathers, after having already walked in the evil way, had
recognised their sin, and turned back upon themselves; would that they had set right their
wicked deeds; would that they had recalled the Peace which they had put to flight. That
would have been to turn back on their way, for on the way we have to walk, not stand
still. But, since your fathers would not come back, it is certain that they stood in the
way of sinners. They, whose steps had been impelled by mad wickedness, were held back,
bound and benumbed by the spirit of strife; and, that they might not be able to return to
better things, themselves placed the shackles of schism upon themselves, so that with
obstinacy they stood in their error, and were not able to come back to the Peace which
they had deserted. Nor did they listen to the Holy Spirit speaking in the thirty-third
Psalm:

2 'Turn away from evil and do good; seek Peace and pursue it' ; but they stood in the way
of their sins. Your fathers also sat on the Chair of Pestilence, which, as we have said
above, sends down to death those whom it has beguiled. But you, whilst by your zealous
defence you pay homage to your fathers' error, have made yourselves the heirs of their
wickedness, when you might have been, though late, the sons of Peace. For it has been
written in the Prophet Ezekiel: 'Raise thy voice over the son of the sinner, that he
follow not in his father's footsteps, since the soul of the father is Mine and Mine is the
soul of the son. The soul which sins, alone shall be punished.' If you would disown your
fathers' sin, they alone would have to give an account of their own deed.By acting thus,
even you might be blessed and receive praise from the mouth of the Prophet, who says in
the first Psalm:

3 'Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly nor stood in the
way of sinners, and has not sat in the Chair of Pestilence, but has his will in the Law of
the Lord.' What does it mean to have the 'will in the Law,' unless both to learn the
divine precepts with piety, and fulfil them with fear----to have the will set on that Law
in which it has been written (in the Gospel): 'Peace on earth to men of good will,' and in
another place (in Isaiah the Prophet ): 'I will lay the foundations of peace in Sion,' and
in another (the eighty-fourth Psalm): 'Let us see what the Lord shall say, for He shall
speak peace to His people,' and in yet another (the seventy-fifth Psalm): 'The Son of God
has come, and His place has been set in peace,'

4 and again (in the seventy-first Psalm): 'Let the mountains receive peace for the.
people, and the hills justice,' and in the Gospel: 'My peace I give to you, My peace I
leave to you' ; and Paul says: 'He who sows peace, peace also shall he reap,' and in all
his epistles : 'Let peace abound amongst you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost' ; and in the thirty-third Psalm: 'Seek peace and thou shalt obtain it.'
Peace had been put to flight by your fathers and departed. You ought to seek it as God has
commanded, though, until now, you have neither been willing to seek it yourselves, nor to
accept it, when it was freely offered to you. For who is there in so many Provinces that
has heard of whom you have been born, and (if there be anyone who had heard this) who is
there that does not marvel at your error? Who is there that does not condemn your
wickedness? Wherefore, since it is clear, yea, clearer than the light itself, that we are
with so many peoples who cannot be numbered, and that so many countries are with us;
whilst you see that you are to be found only in a portion of one country; and that you, by
your errors, are separated from the Church; in vain do you claim for yourselves alone this
name of the Church with her Endowments, which are rather with us than with you.

5 Now these Endowments are connected one with another, and are distinct, but in such a
way, that it may be understood that one cannot be separated from another. For they are
numerically distinct, but with one act of the mind we see them joined in their Body, as
are the fingers on the hand----each of which we perceive to be removed by spaces from the
others. Therefore he who possesses one, must possess them all, since not one of them can
be apart from its fellows. We may add that we possess----and that in the strictest sense
----not one Endowment alone, but all.

VI. THE SECOND ENDOWMENT OF THE CHURCH, 'THE ANGELUS,' OR BISHOP, IS NOT WITH THE DONATISTS.

1 So, of the above-mentioned Endowments, the Cathedra is, as we have said, the first,
which we have proved to be ours, through Peter, and which draws to itself the ANGEL
----unless, perchance, you claim him for yourselves, and have him shut up somewhere or
other. Send him out if you can, and let him exclude from his communion seven angels, our
colleagues in Asia, to whose churches wrote the Apostle John----churches with which you
cannot prove that you have any intercourse whatsoever. On what ground, then, can you
maintain that you possess an Angel able to move the Fountain, or one who, as such, can be
numbered among the other Endowments of the Church? Whatever is without the Seven Churches
is alien. Supposing then that you really had even one Angel who belongs to the Church,
through that one Angel you would be in communion with other Angels too, and through them
with the above-mentioned Churches, and through these Churches with us also.

2 If these things be as I have stated them, you have lost your case.

VII. THE THIRD ENDOWMENT, SPIRITUS, THE HOLY SPIRIT, IS IN THE CHURCH, NOT WITH THE DONATISTS.

1 Now perhaps you will see that the Endowments of the Church cannot be with you, for you
cannot claim for yourselves alone the SPIRIT of God, nor can you shut up (in a small
corner of Africa) Him whose Presence we recognise though we see it not.For so has it been
written in the Gospel: 'God is a Spirit,' and 'breatheth where He willeth, but you hear
not His voice, nor do you know whence He cometh and whither He goeth.' Permit God to come
whence He willeth, and allow Him freedom to go where He pleaseth. He can be heard, but He
cannot be seen. And yet, through your lust for calumny, you have been pleased to blaspheme
and say: 'What Spirit can there be in that Church, excepting one which should give birth
to sons of Hell?' Thou hast vomited forth thine invective and hast thought that thou
mightest thus be able to strengthen thyself by producing testimony from the Gospel, where
we read:

2 'Woe to you, hypocrites, who compass seas and lands to make one proselyte, and when you
have found him, make him a son of Hell twofold worse than yourselves.' If this accusation
----unjust and groundless though it be----had to be made at all, would that it had been
made by any other of your party than yourself.Indeed I am lost in wonder that you, of all
men, should have dared falsely to bring against another a charge, the very thought of
which might well make you blush, were you but to consider your own Consecration. For you
have reminded us that we read in the Gospel: 'Woe to you, hypocrites, who compass seas and
lands to make one proselyte '---- that is, to change his sect. As for you personally, I
have no idea to what sect you previously belonged. But your quotation was unfortunate. I
think that perhaps you are already sorry that you made it. Is it we who have travelled
through any lands? Is it we who have compassed any seas? Is it we who have set sail to
foreign ports? Is it we who have brought in a Spaniard or a Gaul? Have we consecrated a
foreigner, not known to our people?

VIII. CONCERNING THE FONS, THE SIGILLUM AND THE UMBILICUS.

It is certain that the FOUNTAIN also is one of the Endowments, from which heretics can
neither drink themselves, nor give others to drink. For, as they alone do not possess the
SEAL, that is to say the Catholic Creed, in its integrity, they cannot open the true
Fountain. For since it has been written in the Canticle of Canticles: 'Thy Navel is as a
round goblet,' you have tried to say that the Navel is the Altar. If the Navel be a member
of the body, from the fact that it is a member, it cannot be amongst the Endowments. To be
an Ornament, it must not be part of the body.

IX. THE ENDOWMENTS OF THE CHURCH ARE WITH CATHOLICS; NOT WITH DONATISTS.

1 The Endowments then are seen to be Five. Since these Endowments belong to the Catholic
Church (which is in so many countries already mentioned by us), they cannot be wanting to
us here in Africa. Understand, however late, that you are disobedient sons, that you are
boughs broken off from the tree, that you are branches cut off from the vine, that you are
a river separated from its source. For that stream which is small and which is derived
from another cannot be the source. Nor can the tree be cut off from the branch, since the
tree, which has been planted and is alive, has its own roots; whereas the branch, which
has been cut off, withers and dies. Now do you see, my brother Parmenian, now do you
recognise, now do you understand, that by your arguments you have fought against yourself?
For it has been proved that we are in the Holy Catholic Church, who have too the Creed of
the Trinity ; and it has been shown that, through the Chair of Peter which is ours----
through it ----the other Endowments also belong to us.

2 Again, ours is the Sacerdotium, which you have affected to regard as in our case of no
account ----by way of some excuse for your error and hatred in re-baptising after us----
though this you do not after your own people, even when they have been proved guilty of
sin; for you have maintained that, if the priest be in sin, the Endowments are able to
work alone. So----to answer you----we have shown what is heresy, and what is schism, and
which is the Holy Church, and that of this Holy Church there has been constituted a
Representative, and that the Catholic Church is the Church which is scattered over the
whole world (of which we amongst others are members), and that her Endowments are with her
everywhere.We have also shown in our first Book that we cannot justly be reproached with
the crime of Betrayal, and that this crime has been condemned not only by you, but by us
also.

X. CATHOLICS POSSESS THE SACRAMENTS.

1 Now I should like you to tell me this. Why have you thought well to speak only of the
Endowments of the Church, and have said nothing about her holy members and her inward
organs, which without doubt are in the Sacraments and in the Names of the Trinity ? These
Names are met by Faith and its profession, recorded upon the Acts of the Angels ; here are
sown heavenly and spiritual seeds, so that, for those who are born again, a new nature may
be procreated from a holy germ, and he who had once been born to the world may, where the
Trinity meets Faith, be spiritually new-born to God. In this way does God become the
Father of men, thus does the Holy Church become their Mother. I perceive that all these
things have been left unmentioned by you, on purpose, lest in them all, the true
principles of Baptism might be recognised, in which there is nothing that the human
minister may, after your fashion, claim for himself.

2 For this reason you determined to occupy yourself with the Endowments alone, which you
have denied to Catholics, vainly striving to claim them for yourselves exclusively, having
clutched them, as it were in your hand, or shut them up in a box. Although the question is
about regeneration, and man's renovation, you have made no mention either of Faith or of
its profession by the Faithful. You determined rather to speak of the Endowments alone,
and have passed over in silence all these things without which spiritual faith and
reparation cannot exist. And although the Endowments belong to the Spouse, not the Spouse
to the Endowments, you dealt with the Endowments as if life were given by them, not by the
inward organs, which we understand to be rather in the Sacraments than in the Ornaments.

XI. THE CHURCH IS RIGHTLY CALLED PARADISE, BUT IT BELONGS TO THE WIDE WORLD.

Nor do I pass over the fact that you have said openly that the Church is (as we believe) a
Paradise----a thing which without doubt is true----a garden in which God sets His little
trees. And yet you have denied to God His rich possessions by compressing His garden into
a narrow corner, claiming without reason everything for yourselves alone. Surely the
plantations of God, through different precepts, have different seeds. The just, the
continent, the merciful, the virgins are spiritual seeds. Of these seeds God raises little
plants in His Paradise. Grant to God that His garden be spread far and wide. Why do you
deny to Him the Christian peoples of East and North, also those of all the provinces of
the West and of innumerable islands ----with whom you share no fellowship of communion----
against whom you----few in number and rebels----are ranged, in isolation?

XII. FROM THE PRAYER OF OBLATION WE GATHER THAT THE ONE CHURCH IS EVERYWHERE.

It is now time to condemn, as is only right, your falsehood, with which each day you
season your Sacrifices. For who can doubt that you dare not pass over what is prescribed
in the Mystery of the Sacraments? You say that you offer the Sacrifice to God on behalf of
the Church, which is One. This in itself is part of your falsehood, to call that One, of
which you have made Two. You proclaim that you sacrifice to God on behalf of the One
Church, which has been spread throughout the whole world. But what reply would you make
were God to say to any one of you: 'Why dost thou offer sacrifice for the Whole----thou
who art not in the Whole? ' If we are displeasing to you, what wrong has the City of
Antioch done you, or the Province of Arabia ? Yet we are able to prove that those who come
from Antioch and Arabia have been rebaptised by you.

XIII. THE PRAISE BESTOWED UPON THE CHURCH BY PARMENIAN BELONGS TO CATHOLICS.

1 In one thing alone we cannot be ungrateful to you, my brother Parmenian. You have
praised our Church (that is the Catholic, which is contained throughout the entire
world)----although you do not belong to her ----by enumerating her Endowments (mistaken
though you are as to their number) and by teaching that she is a garden enclosed and a
fountain sealed up, and the only Bride. This we say of that which is our own; you have
said, it of that which does not belong to you. Whatever you have been able to say in
praise of the Church, we, before you, have said the same. We too, with you, condemn the
Betrayers----those men whom, if you remember, we have shown up in our first Book. And
although we are in communion with the whole [Catholic] world, and all the Provinces are in
communion with us, you for some time past have thought well to provide two churches, as if
Africa alone had Christian people----that Africa in which, through your fault, two parties
have been made! And you----not remembering Christ, who says that His Spouse is One----have
said, not that there are two parties in Africa, but two Churches. Without doubt that
Church is One, to which it has been granted to be pointed out by the Word of Christ, who
says:

2 'One is My dove; My spouse is One.'

XIV. THE CATHOLICS HAVE DONE NOTHING WITH CRUELTY.

1 But you, having forgotten this, have used these words in order to stir up hatred against
Catholics: 'That,' you have said, 'cannot rightly be called a Church which battens on
bloody morsels, and is fattened on the blood and the flesh of the Saints.' The Church has
her own determinate members----Bishops, priests, deacons, clerics, and the mass of the
faithful. Tell us against which class of men in our Church the charge that you have
thought well to bring can be proved. Name some cleric individually, point out some deacon
by his name; show that this evil thing has been done by some priest; prove the guilt of
Bishops. Make us see that any one of our people has plotted against any man. Who of us has
persecuted any one? Who is there on your side, of whom you can either say or prove that he
has been persecuted by us?

2 Unity displeases you. So----if you deem it to be a crime, convict us of being in
communion with Thessalonians, Corinthians, Galatians and the Seven Churches which are in
Asia. If it seems to you wicked or a proof of guilt to communicate with the 'shrines' of
the Apostles and of all the Saints, far from denying this, we make it our boast.

XV. THE PEACE AND HAPPINESS OF THE CHURCH BEFORE IT WAS DISTURBED BY THE DONATISTS.

1 But that I may show that----to quote your words ----it was your party which 'has
battened on bloody morsels, and has been fattened on the blood and flesh of Christians,'
your rabid madness must now be described from its beginning; now the story of your
wickedness must be related anew; now your folly must be proved. First we have to show that
the cause of your gladness ought to be your shame, and how wicked is your joy at having
received liberty to return to your original wrongdoing. Go over again the times that are
past, enter into the sequence of events, consider how different were the persons
concerned, and how different were their aims. Recall Constantine the Christian Emperor to
your memory. Think of the service which he rendered to God, and remember his ardent desire
that schism should be removed, and all dissension die away, so that Holy Mother Church
might see, rejoicing, her children throughout the world living in unity. He restored the
unity of communion; he gave back wives to husbands, children to parents, brothers to
brothers.

2 These are the things concerning which God bears witness that He is well pleased, when He
says in the hundred and thirty-second Psalm: 'Behold how good and how pleasant a thing it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity.' For Peace in unity joined together the
peoples of Africa and of the East, and the rest beyond the sea, and this unity itself,
through the representation of all its members, made the Body of the Church solid. And then
over this the Devil, whom it always tortures to see brethren living in peace, was sorely
vexed. At that time, under a Christian Emperor, Satan, as if shut up in the idols, lay
abandoned in his temples. Your leaders too and first fathers had been sent, as they
deserved; into banishment. In the Church there were no schisms. Pagans were not allowed
their sacrilegious rites. Peace, beloved by God, dwelt amongst all Christian peoples. The
devil mourned in his temples; you mourned in foreign lands.

XVI. THE EDICT OF JULIAN.

Next, as is known to all men, there followed another Emperor, who, in conjunction with
you, devised evil plans, and from the servant of God became the tool of God's enemy. His
edicts bore him witness that he was an apostate. Yet this was the man whom you entreated
to be allowed to return. If you deny that you sent such entreaties, we reply that we have
read them. Nor did he whom you entreated make difficulties. He commanded you to come
back,as you asked. For he knew well that you would come, with fierceness, to break up
Peace. If you have any shame, blush. The same decree, which gave freedom to you, ordered
the temples to be opened to their idols.

XVII. THE MADNESS AND CRUELTY OF THE DONATISTS.

You returned, in your madness, to Africa almost at the moment when the devil was loosed
from his dungeons. Still you do not blush----you who, at the same time as the Enemy, have
reasons for rejoicing, which you share with him. You came raging; you came full of wrath,
rending the members of the Church; subtle in your deceits; savage in your slaughters,
provoking the children of Peace to war. A large number you banished from their homes.
Approaching with a hired band, you rushed upon the Basilicas. Many of your party
throughout numerous districts (which it would be too long to mention by their names)
worked massacres so bloody, that the judges of the time sent a report to the Emperor
concerning deeds of such atrocity. But the Judgement of God intervened and came to our
aid, so that the Emperor who had already long ago ordered you to come back, and who, at
your instigation, had arranged, or was even then arranging, for our persecution, died in
the midst of his profanity and sacrileges.

XVIII. THE DONATISTS' MURDEROUS DEEDS.

1 Catholics were slaughtered in the above-mentioned districts. You remember how your
people ran to and fro from place to place. Were not Felix of Zaba and Januarius of
Flumenpiscinum of your party, and the others who rushed all together as swiftly as they
could, to a fortified place called Lemella ? So soon as they saw that the Basilica,
notwithstanding their clamours, was closed against them, they commanded their followers to
climb to the top, strip the roof, and throw down the tiles. These orders were executed
without delay. In the defence of the altar, a number of Catholic deacons were wounded with
tiles----of whom two were killed----Primus the son of Januarius, and Donatus the son of
Ninus. Your fellow-Bishops, whose names I have just given, were present and urged them on,
so that, without doubt, of your party has it been said: 'Their feet are swift to shed
blood.'

2 Primosus, the Catholic Bishop of the place, complained of all this----whilst you
listened disingenuously to his complaints----at your Council held in the City of Theneste.
See then how you did the things, of which you have said: 'That is not the Church which
battens on bloody morsels'; and again you have said: 'Soldiers sent to war are one thing,
consecrated Bishops are another.' What in your hatred you bring as a charge against us was
done by others, not by us; that which you say ought not to have been done, has been done
by you. You have recalled how the most blessed Apostle Paul has said that the Church ought
to be without wrinkle and without stain. In the presence, and at the order, of your
Bishops, Catholic deacons were slain over the altar. The same things happened also at
Carpi. Do not such deeds appear to you indelible stains? When you came into the cities of
Mauritania, the people were overwhelmed with dread, so that children who were near to
birth died in their mothers' wombs. Does not this seem to you to be a 'wrinkle' such as
cannot be stretched or made smooth by any reparation whatsoever? What have we done of such
a character as this? We wait for the vengeance of God.

3 And yet you create a prejudice against Macarius, although anything that he may have done
with harshness on behalf of unity may well be regarded as of light account, when compared
with these monstrous, bitter, bloodstained acts of war done by you on behalf of
dissension. Why should I mention Tipasa, a city of Mauritania Caesariensis, whither rushed
from Numidia Urban of Forma and Felix of Idicra, two burning torches, set on fire by
hatred ? These men upset the minds of quiet people, who were established in unity, and,
aided by the favour and fury of certain officials, in the very presence of Athenias the
magistrate, with colours flying, broke up the Catholic assemblies, with bloodshed.
Catholics were driven out from their homes. Their men were wounded. Their women were
dragged into captivity. Their infants were slain. Mothers miscarried. Look now at your
church. Under the guidance of its Bishops it

4 'battened on bloody morsels.' After all this, you have gone on to say: 'Let the greed of
vultures consume whatever it will; still the number of doves is greater.' What, then, has
happened to the common saying that a liar should have his memory in due keeping? Have you
forgotten what you said a moment before, that in the Canticle of Canticles 'The Church is
Christ's one Dove' ? If yours is the One Church, the Dove is One. What then did you mean
by saying that 'the number of doves is greater'?

XIX. THE EUCHARIST WAS GIVEN BY THE DONATISTS TO DOGS. AN AMPULLA OF CHRISM WAS THROWN AWAY. THEIR OTHER SACRILEGES.

1 Moreover, a hideous crime (which seems to you something of little importance) was
committed, in such a fashion that your above-mentioned fellow-Bishops profaned everything
which is most holy. They commanded the Eucharist to be cast to the dogs. This did not pass
without evidence of the Divine Judgement, for these same dogs were inflamed with madness,
and tore their own masters in pieces as though they had been murderers, and attacked with
avenging teeth those guilty of the Holy Body,as if they had been strangers and enemies.
They also threw a phial of chrism out of a window, in order to break it, and although its
fall was precipitated by violence, an angel's hand was there to bring it down gently to
earth, with the support that is from heaven. Though thrown away, it was not allowed to
feel its fall, but, by the protection of God, found its home unbroken amongst the rocks.

2 You never could have done such things as these, if you had borne in mind the Commands of
Christ, who has said: 'Give not that which is holy to dogs, and cast not your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turning rend you.' Could the
makers of Unity have done anything of a like nature, out of which you might labour to
create a baseless prejudice against us Catholics? Urban of Forma and Felix of Idicra, when
they came back, found that nuns whom they had seduced from their state of chastity had
become mothers. Such, my brother Parmenian, is the character of the Bishops, whose deeds
you cover up; and, when you ought to be blushing for your own sins, you bring charges
against innocent Catholics. 3 At this time the above-mentioned Bishop Felix, amongst his
other crimes and horrible misdeeds, seized a young maiden to whom he himself had given the
veil ----by whom he had a short time before been called by the name of Father----and did
not hesitate in the least to be guilty of shameless incest. And, as if, through his sin,
he had been made holy, he went with haste to Tysedis! There he ventured to rob of the
episcopal name and office and honour Donatus, a Bishop seventy years of age, against whom
no charge could be brought. The Catholic Bishop was approached by the schismatic, the
innocent by the guilty, the priest of God by one steeped in sacrilege, the chaste by the
incestuous. The Bishop was attacked by one no longer a Bishop, who, relying upon the
decrees and conspiracy of your party, and armed by your laws and your commands, cast those
hands which a short time before had been made heavy by sins, upon the head of the
innocent, and dared to let judgement fall from that tongue of his, which was not now
worthy even to be allowed to do penance. See, my brother Parmenian, the sort of persons
whom you defend; see the kind of men they are, on whose behalf you have, this long while,
maintained that the Endowments of the Church are working.

XX. IT IS PROVED AGAINST THE DONATISTS, WHO CALL THEMSELVES SAINTS, THAT NO MAN CAN BE FREE FROM SIN.

1 Will you then----you who wish men to think you holy and innocent----tell me this----
whence comes this sanctity of yours, which you too freely claim for yourselves----a
sanctity which the Apostle John does not dare to profess, when he writes: 'If we shall say
that we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.' He who spoke
thus kept himself, with wisdom, prepared for the grace of God. For it belongs to a
Christian man to will what is good, and to run the course which he has rightly willed. But
it is not given to man to bring to perfection; so that after the stages, which a man can
go, there remains something for God with which He may meet man's deficiency. For He alone
is perfection; and perfect alone is Christ, the Son of God. We, the others, are all half-
perfect ; for it is ours to will, it is ours to run, but it is God's to make perfect. So
the most blessed Apostle Paul has written:

2 'It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of him that reacheth to the
grace of God.' For perfect sanctity has not been given, but promised, by Christ our
Saviour. Thus He says: 'You shall be holy, because I am holy.' So that He alone is perfect
and holy. He did not say 'You are holy' but He did say 'You shall be holy.' With what
reason then do you, in your pride, claim for yourselves perfect holiness, except it be to
make it clear that you deceive yourselves, and that the truth is not in you? You have been
unwilling to live in the school of John, for, when you lead some astray, you promise them
that you will grant them forgiveness of their sins; and, when you are pleased to forgive
sins, you profess your own innocence and bestow forgiveness of sins, in such a manner as
though you had no sin yourselves. This in you is not presumption [merely]; it is
deception. This is not truth; it is a falsehood.For it is only a moment after you have
laid your hands upon the heads of others and pardoned their crimes, that you turn to the
altar, and are unable to pass over the Lord's Prayer. Then no doubt you say:

3 'Our Father who art in Heaven, forgive us our debts and sins.' What ought you to be
called when you confess your own sins, if you are holy when you forgive the sins of
others? In this way do you deceive yourselves, and the truth is not in you. But it is
clear that this is dictated to you by your nursing mother Pride, as Christ bears witness
in the Gospel. Although He did not mention your names, still He pointed out your character
by a parable. For thus has it been written: 'Jesus spoke this parable on account of those
who consider themselves holy and despise others.' The evidence itself clearly shows that,
when you puff yourselves up as holy, and plainly and openly despise us, this has been said
of you. Two men, He said, went up into the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a
Publican. The Pharisee swollen out, proud, puffed up, such as we see you too to be, his
body not humbled, his neck not bent, but with raised countenance and swelling breast----
cried aloud:

4 'I give Thee thanks, my God, because in nothing have I sinned.' This is to say to God:
'I have nothing for Thee to pardon.' O wildness of a madman! O pride that must be punished
and condemned! God is prepared to pardon and the guilty one hastens to reject forgiveness.
The Publican in his humility, recognising that he was a man, besought in this manner:
'Have mercy, O Lord, on me a sinner.' Thus did he deserve to be justified; thus did pride
go down from the Temple, condemned in the Pharisee ----your teacher. More tolerable is it
to find sins where there is humility, than innocence where there is pride. But you, though
you are burdened with the heavy sins of Betrayal and Schism, take credit to yourselves
that you are proud as well!

XXI. THE SIN OF THE DONATISTS IN STRIPPING BISHOPS OF THEIR DIGNITY AND SUBMITTING THEM TO PENANCE.

1 Now that we have proved that you ought to blush with shame for those things at which you
rejoice, and have shown with what mad rage you conducted yourselves in so many places,
something should be said about the depth of your impiety. For who ever will be able to
explain the crimes that have been done, or those that are being actually done, by you? It
is clear that, with a certain wicked ingenuity, you arranged all your plans in such a way
as by one bad action to accomplish different results. For example, when a priest or a
Bishop was removed by you from his post, you saw to it that you might capture all his
flock. How could a mass of men stand firm when they saw you tear their ruler from them? In
this manner is it always that, after the shepherd has by some misfortune been killed,
wolves set upon the sheep. You exorcised the Faithful, and without reason washed the walls
of the churches, that by wickedness of this kind you might undermine the minds of very
simple people. By such evil designs as these you throttled the intelligence of not a few,
and having disguised the light of your cunning by covering it all under a cloud of feigned
simplicity, you shot arrows from your quiver, to lay low the miserable by the seductions
that your hearts contrived. Even as the Holy Ghost foretold of you, through David the
Prophet, in the Psalm:

2 'For lo the wicked have bent their bow, they have prepared the arrows in their quiver to
shoot the upright of heart when the moon is dark.' In what way have your deeds fallen
short of your plans? You have shot the innocent, you have disarmed the faithful. Bishops
have been stripped of the office belonging to their title. O unheard-of impiety, upon whom
have you laid your cut-throat hands, to keep them amongst the torments of Penance ? The
savagery of highway robbers is seen to be a thing of less account, when compared with the
deeds that you have done. The robber gives those whom he murders a quick death; you slay
your victim, yet leave him amongst the living. Those whom you have succeeded in deceiving
have been entrapped through the weakness of their understanding, for they who had been
ordained in the Name of God had, by God's own work, been made perfect [in their office].
And you fight fiercely against the work of God, destroying His work by the engines of your
wickedness.

3 It is clear, therefore, that of you it has been written in the tenth Psalm: 'That which
Thou hast made perfect they have destroyed.' Your impiety has filled you with pride, but
'Justice looking down from heaven' accuses you; whilst on earth men praise you with
mistaken praise for doing wickedness, so that of you the Holy Ghost has said in the ninth
Psalm: 'Whilst the wicked man is proud, the poor man is set on fire; they are caught in
the counsels which they devise. The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul and he
who does iniquity shall be blessed.' What greater iniquity than yours can there be found
to be praised? What is there more iniquitous than to exorcise the Holy Ghost, to break
down altars, to cast the Eucharist to animals? Yet your people praise you and----thus do
they plunge you into folly----call you fortunate, and name you for good luck, and swear by
your name, and so are seen already to treat your persons as though you were God.

XXII. THE IMPIETY OF THE DONATISTS, WHO WERE ACCUSTOMED TO SWEAR BY THEIR BISHOPS.

Men are accustomed to use the Name of God when they swear, as a pledge of their
truthfulness, but your party, when they swear by you, keep silence about God and Christ.
If the worship due to God has passed from Heaven to you (as would seem from the fact that
men swear by you), then let none of you or your party fall sick! Then refuse to die; give
orders to the clouds: draw down the rain, if you can, that they may swear even more freely
in your name, and may keep silence about God. For what could the Devil effect more by the
hands of your people, than he did in the ages that are past, when he caused his temples to
be built and his idols to be fashioned----excepting this, that silence should be kept
about God, whilst men in their foolishness speak of him alone.

XXIII. THE WICKEDNESS OF THE DONATISTS IN SCRAPING THE HEADS OF ANOINTED PRIESTS.

1 O sacrilege heaped upon impiety! You gladly listen to men swearing by you, but refuse
your ears to the voice of God in the hundred and fourth Psalm, when He says: 'Touch not
Mine Anointed and cast not your hands on My prophets.' That both kings and priests are
God's Anointed is shown by the books of Kings and also by David, saying in the hundred and
thirty-second Psalm: 'As the precious ointment on the head, that ran down unto the beard
of Aaron.' You, on the contrary, have striven against God to despise His precepts, as
earnestly as they who fear God strive to keep His Commandments. Tell us, where is your
authority for scraping the heads of priests, when there are so many examples to the
contrary, showing that this may not be done? Saul, before he sinned, received the grace of
being anointed. After his anointing, he sinned grievously. God, when He saw this, wishing
to give us an example not to touch the Oil, professed His repentance. For we read that the
Lord spoke thus:

2 'It repenteth Me to have anointed Saul to be a king.' Yet surely God might have taken
away the Oil which He had bestowed; but, since He wished to teach that the Oil should not
be touched even in a sinner, He who had given it, declared that it repented Him. If then
God, in order to teach you, could not (because He would not) take away that which He had
given, who are you to take away what you did not give? And when you ought to have opened
your ears to listen, you prepared your razor for sin. When you ought to have been the sons
of God, you preferred to be the sons of men, and, in order to bite into other men's
offices, turned your teeth into arrows and arms. You sharpened your tongues into swords;
you fulfilled that which was written of you in the fifty-sixth Psalm:

3 'Sons of men----their teeth are arms and arrows; their tongue is a sharp sword.'

XXIV. THE WRONG DONE BY THE DONATISTS TO MEN OF EVERY DEGREE AND AGE BY LAYING HANDS UPON THEM IN PENANCE.

1 So you have sharpened your tongues into swords with which you slew not the bodies of
men, but their dignities; you have destroyed not their members, but their titles. What
boots it for those to live, who have been slain by you in their office? Their members are
indeed whole and sound, but they carry about the corpse of the dignity which you have
scratched away. For you stretched forth your hand and placed the death-bearing Veils upon
every head; so that whilst there are (as I have said above) four kinds of heads in the
Church----Bishops, priests, deacons, and the Faithful, yon have not spared one. You have
overturned the souls of men. God holds these actions of yours up to detestation in Ezekiel
the Prophet, when He says: 'Woe to you who make a Veil,' that is, who place your hands
'upon every head and upon every age, to overturn souls.'

2 You have found boys, you have wounded them with Penance, so that none of them might be
ordained. Recognise that you have 'overturned souls.' You have found old men amongst the
Faithful,you have made them do Penance. Recognise that you have 'overturned souls.' You
have found deacons, priests, Bishops, you have made them as laymen. Recognise that you
have 'overturned souls.' He, upon whose head thou hast now endeavoured to lay thine hands,
had, for a long time, been thy fellow and companion. You were once wont to run together.
Guilty he was not----but let us assume his guilt. In that case, as thou thinkest, he has
fallen. See then (if thou hast read the Apostle) to Whom thou dost stand, and let him see,
to Whom he has fallen. If thou art a servant, recognise thy Lord, and understand that he
who, a short time ago, ran together with thee, to thee has not fallen. Why dost thou
invade Another's power, why dost thou in thy rashness ascend the tribunal of God? And
though thyself art guilty, darest to pass judgement upon another? Yet thou hast read:

3 'He who stands, stands to his own Lord, and who falls, to his own Lord he falls. But his
Lord is powerful to raise him up.' Who then art thou to judge Another's servant? That you
have no right to touch the Oil bestowed by God upon a Bishop, you ought to have learnt
from David the servant of God, who was anointed by Samuel, with the condition that what
had already been given to Saul, should by no means be taken away.When, through the
command, or the providence, of God, they were shut up together in one cave, Saul, who had
sinned, came into the power of the youth David. Saul, although he sees not, is seen,
because (as usually happens to one that passes from the light of day) he was not able, in
the darkness of the shut-in-air, to see the other who was near him. A great army followed
the old king. Still he had fallen into the power of another. David had the chance of
victory in his hands. Without effort he might have slain his incautious adversary who was
wrapt in security. Without bloodshed, and the clash of arms, he might have summarily
changed war into slaughter. The opportunity was there. His soldiers were in favour of this
course. The situation urged him on to snatch a victory. Already he commenced to draw his
sword. His armed hand was now reaching for his enemy's throat. But the remembrance of the
divine commands completely blocked the way. He fought against the persuasion of his
soldiers, and resisted the fitness of the circumstances, as if he had said:

4 'To no purpose, O Victory, dost thou tempt me; in vain, O opportunity, dost thou lure me
on to triumphs!' He wished to conquer his foe, but desired even more to keep the commands
of the Lord. 'I will not,' he said, 'lay my hands upon the Lord's anointed.' He checked
his hand and his sword----he feared to violate the Oil; he saved his enemy; and, that he
might accomplish his duty towards his King to the end, after his death took up his
defence. You neither fear God, nor regard those who are your brethren. You have sharpened
the razors of your tongue upon the whetstone of your malice, and, trampling underfoot the
precepts of Heaven, have rushed upon the heads of miserable men, that, after you had slain
their leaders, you might drag them in their blindness and ignorance into bondage. You
hunger after the dignities of innocent priests, with a hunger so furious that you have
made open sepulchres of your throats. For each separate sepulchre one funeral is enough,
and then it is closed. For your throats many funerals of many dignities have not by any
means been enough. They still remain open, seeking whom they may devour. So that with
reason was it said of you:

5 'Their throat is an open sepulchre'; for with cursing you are beforehand, though it has
been written: 'Bless ye and curse not.' If any man has done anything against your will,
you threaten him with horrors and foul menaces; and then, since some there are who deserve
more evil than good, you attribute to your bitter curses whatever has befallen them from
the Judgement of God, or is the just result of their sins. With reason was it said of you
in the thirteenth Psalm: 'Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.' You boast that
some men have been known to die after you have cursed them. It is certain that it is not
lawful to kill. On this account do you hold yourselves innocent, merely because you have
not used cold steel? If there be no murder without steel, the poisoner, also, may judge
himself to be innocent; and a man need not deem himself guilty who has killed another by
withdrawing his food; he also, then, may claim to be guiltless who smothers his victim----
still clinging to life----by stifling his breath. Of murders there are many kinds, but the
name of Death is one. Thou dost declare with confidence that a man has died through thy
curses. What difference does it make whether thou smitest him with the sword, or dost
strike him with the tongue? Beyond doubt thou art a murderer, if a man, who was alive, has
met his death through thee.

6 Whoever of thy party has thus acted professes in vain that he is a Christian, or a
priest of God, for he takes no care to imitate the Mildness of God, though it is written
in Solomon : 'God hath not made death, nor doth He rejoice in the destruction of the
living.' I do not believe that you are able to forget the crimes that you have committed
throughout several districts, where you set to work to slay those who were preaching the
Law of God, that is to say, His Prophets, contrary to His command, who says: 'Lay not your
hands upon My Prophets.' Deuterius, Partenius, Donatus and Getulicus, Bishops of God, you
slew with the sword of your tongue. You shed the blood, not of their body, but of their
dignity. Afterwards they still lived, but were slain by you in their dignities----they who
were Priests of God.

7 It is known to many (and has been proved) that in the time of persecution some Bishops
fell away through cowardice from the confession of the Name of God, and offered incense to
idols. But never did any one of those who remained faithful either place his hand [in
Penance] upon the fallen, or command them to bend their knees [as penitents]. Yet you to-
day do to those who preserved Unity that which was never done by any man to those who
offered incense to idols. For it has been written; 'Touch not Mine Anointed, and lay not
your hand upon My prophets.' God avenges the Oil which is His own, for the sin belongs to
man, but the unction to God. 'Touch not,' He says, 'Mine Anointed,' in order that when the
sin of man is punished, the Oil, which is God's, be subjected to no indignity. God has
reserved to His own Judgement that which is His own, but you everywhere rush upon that
which is Another's, and destroy the happiness of all. For, what greater unhappiness, than
for priests of God to live, and not be what they once had been?

XXVI. MATRONS, BOYS AND VIRGINS WERE COMPELLED BY THE DONATISTS TO DO PENANCE.

1 Matrons, together with boys and virgins, although they had committed no sin, were
compelled by you to learn to do Penance, with you for their instructors, whilst they still
remained in possession of their innocence and modesty. Is this a small unhappiness? You
have destroyed both sexes; you have harassed all ages. Truly of you has it been said in
the thirteenth Psalm: 'Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace
they have not known, the fear of God is not before their eyes.' You have prescribed
Penance for the people. It was not performed voluntarily by any man, but it was enforced
by you, nor did you inflict it equally, for the same periods of time, but arranged
everything with respect of persons. By your command one person did Penance for a whole
year, another for a month, yet another for hardly a day. If to consent to unity is (as you
will have it) a sin, if it is the same fault in all, why is there not the same Penance for
the same guilt?

2 There is no doubt that the people who believe have been called Israel, and that the
Faithful, one by one, are the daughters of Israel, that is, those who see God with their
mind, and have faith in God. Yet you have compelled these people to bend and incline their
necks, have joined their heads in a row, and made of them a crowd of penitents. These are
the Faithful over whom God grieves, saying, by the mouth of Ezekiel the Prophet: 'Woe to
you, daughters of Israel who mend pillows,' appurtenances of the neck, to place them under
the elbow and under the hand----that is, under your elbows and under your hands, when you
stretch the veils of Penance over the heads of these men and women. The extent of your
wickedness and rage I have now set forth, and I have pointed out your pride. It remains to
make clear your folly also, but this I will do in my Sixth Book.

3 [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]


AGAINST THE DONATISTS
=====================

AGAINST THE DONATISTS continued

BOOK 3

Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists (1917) Book 3. pp. 120-179. I. The severities
against the Donatists were provoked by themselves, and Catholics ought not to be blamed
for them. II. These things happened to the Donatists through the just punishment of God.
III. The pride of Donatus. IV. An account of violent deeds done by Donatists against
Donatists. V. Excuse is made for the severities exercised by the champions of unity.
VI.Against the alleged Donatist martyrs. VII.Macarius is defended from the Donatist
calumnies. VIII. That neither can Macarius be called a persecutor, nor can those who were
put to death by him be called martyrs. IX. It was necessary to bring about unity in
Africa. X. It is shown from Ezekiel that the severity employed against the Donatists was
by the will of God. XI. It is shown that the Donatists are deceivers. XII. A calumny that
had been brought against Macarius. APPENDIX TO BOOK III. XIII. In what way and why
Macarius was admitted to Communion. XIV. That even if Macarius was guilty, he ought not to
have been repelled from Communion.

BOOK THE THIRD

The Four Reasons on Account of which it was not possible to bring about unity without
Severity. Because the Schismatics had built Churches 'that were not wanted.' Because
Donatus of Carthage had appealed to the Emperor to bring about Unity. Because Donatus of
Bagaia collected Bands of Armed Men to stop the Work of Unity. Because none of those
Things with which the Work of Unity has been reproached came to pass in Opposition to the
Will of God. I. The severities against the Donatists were provoked by themselves, and
Catholics ought not to be blamed for them. I have written in my second Book (as I think,
at sufficient length) concerning the Church, which is the Bride of Christ, and about her
Endowments, and of the Saviour's inheritance. It remains for me to show, in the first
place, the errors of the schismatics; secondly, to point out how it came to pass that
unity was enforced; and thirdly, to prove who brought it about that an armed force was
sent.

That much severity was shown by the makers of unity cannot be denied. But why impute this
to |121 Leontius, Macarius or Taurinus 1? Ascribe it rather to your own ancestors, who, as
the prophet has written, 'have themselves eaten sour grapes, that your teeth may be set on
edge.' 2 They are primarily responsible, who divided the people of God and built basilicas
which were not wanted.3 Secondly, Donatus of Carthage ought to be blamed, for it was in
consequence of his appeal 4 that an attempt was made to enforce unity at the next
opportunity. Thirdly, Donatus of Bagaia, who got together a mob of madmen, so that
Macarius asked for the help of an armed force, in order to protect himself and the
interests which had been committed to his care. Then came armed men 'with their quivers,'
5 and 'every town was filled with those who shout.' 6 Unity |122 was proclaimed, and you
all 'took to flight.' 7 To no man was it said 'Deny God'; to none was the commandment
given 'Burn the Scriptures'; to none was it said 'Place incense in the censer'; or 'Pull
down the basilicas.' These are the commands which give birth to martyrs. Unity was
proclaimed. There were merely exhortations that the people should assemble in one place,
to pray together to God and His Christ. At first there were no threats 8; no one had seen
a weapon or a prison; there were, as I have said, exhortations merely. Yet you were all
filled with fear; you fled; you trembled----so that which has been written in the fifty-
second Psalm was certainly said of you:

'They trembled for fear where there was no fear.' 9 Then all your Bishops, with their
clergy, 'took to flight.' Some died. The 'more hardy' were 'captured and banished to a
distance.' 10 II. These things happened to the Donatists through the just punishment of
God. Still, none of these things was done at our instigation, none by our advice, none
with our privity, none by our aid. They were all done through the grief of God,11 (who
grieved bitterly,12) to punish your sin against |123 the water of Baptism which, contrary
to His command, you had moved a second time,13 drawing to yourselves,14as it were, the
water of the ancient pool.15 I know not whether it contained that Fish by which is
understood Christ,16 the Fish captured, as we read in the book of the Patriarch Tobias----
captured in the River Tigris, of which the gall and the liver were taken by [young] Tobias
as a protection for his wife Sara, and to give sight to his father in his blindness----
that Fish through the entrails of which 17 Asmodeus,18 the devil, was put to flight by
Sara the maiden (by whom is understood the Church), and blindness was removed from
Tobias.19This is that Fish, which in Baptism, through the |124 Invocation of God,20 is
placed in the waters of the font, so that what had been water is, from the Fish,21 also
called 'piscina.'

This is that Fish, the name of which in Greek contains in its one name alone, through each
of its letters, a number of holy names, ΙΧΘΥΣ, that is to say in Latin, Iesus Christus,
Dei Filius, Salvator----Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour.22 This 'piscina,' which
in the whole Catholic Church throughout the world is joyfully filled with saving waters
for the life of the human race, you have drawn away 23 according to your own wills; and
have made null that one only Baptism 24 (through which walls have been built up for the
protection of men 25), and have made as it were other walls,26 building |125 an unworthy
building, since you have not been able to build up without throwing down. And what kind of
building can that be which is built out of a ruin? 27 This it is over which God grieves
and weeps, through the prophet Isaiah,28 saying that the daughter of His people (generis)
was laid low. For it is the genus of God to have no genus.29 He is of Himself,30 and He
remaineth for ever. And like to Him in this is the water, of which we do not read that it
was created.31 To avenge the injury done to this water,32 God points out His Tears, which
you have caused Him. These He declares can be dried by no consolation, addressing you by
Isaiah His prophet:

'Depart from me, I will weep bitterly. No one will be able to comfort me, for the laying
low of the daughter of my people.' 33 In this passage our innocence is defended, whilst
God with grief makes clear His wrath against you, giving the cause and alleging the
reason. Besides, He does not say 'in Sion,' 34 for it is not |126 in the whole of Sion,35
but only in its valley 36 that judgements were delivered. Not that Mount Sion which in
Syrian Palestine is separated by only a small river from the walls of Jerusalem,37 on the
summit of which there is not the great plain, on which were 38 the seven synagogues,
whither the Jewish people might assemble and learn the law given to Moses----but where no
lawsuits were heard and no judgements were given by any, for it was a place of teaching,
not of controversial discussion. (If anything of this sort had to be done, it was done
within the walls of Jerusalem.) Therefore was it written in Isaiah the prophet:

'The Law shall go forth from Sion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' 39 |127 It was
not therefore on this Mount Sion that Isaiah beheld the valley, but on the holy mountain,
that is the Church, which has reared her head throughout all the Roman world, beneath the
whole expanse of Heaven. This is the mountain on which the Son of God rejoices that He is
made King by God the Father, saying: 'That He hath made me King upon His holy hill of
Sion' ---- that is, over the Church, of which He is King and Spouse and Head----not on the
hill [in Palestine],where there were no gates beloved by God, but on the mount, by which
the Church is spiritually signified. The gates of this Church are entered by the innocent,
the just and the merciful, by the pure of heart, and the virgins. These are the gates of
which the Holy Ghost makes mention, through David, in the eighty-sixth Psalm, when He
says:

'Her foundations are upon the holy hills; the Lord loveth the Gates of Sion' 42---- not
the gates of that material mountain,43 where now, after the triumphs of the Emperor
Vespasian, there are no gates, and scarce any traces of its ancient ruins are to be found.
Wherefore, the spiritual Sion is the Church, in which Christ was made King by God the
Father----that is in the whole world, where there is One Catholic Church |128 . . . for
the most holy prophet David bears witness in another place also that Sion is the Church:
'Laud thy God, O Sion, for he hath made fast the bars of thy gates. He hath blessed thy
children within thee.' 44 We understand the various provinces of the whole world to
represent the various valleys of the mountain.45And since Isaiah had not his vision of the
whole mountain, but of one valley, that means in Africa alone, for in Africa alone your
fathers were pleased to build fresh temples, although the first were amply sufficient. In
Africa alone walls were cast down, and in order that walls might be made 46 the water of
the holy font was turned to a wrong purpose, and novelty was introduced by you against
antiquity, and water of human origin was provided, against that which is divine.47 |129

Chiding the valley of Sion, God challenges all this,demanding 49: 'What aileth you that
you have gone up into superfluous temples? Every city is full of those who clamour. Their
wounded were not wounded by the sword, and those who are dead in thee are not dead in
battle. From the smallest to the greatest all thy princes are in error, wandering upon the
hills. 50 They have been turned to flight, and those who have been taken have been
grievously bound.51 And thy strong ones have been put to flight to a far distance. Let me
go, for I will weep bitterly. No one will be able to |130 console me for the devastation
of the daughter of my people. And the Elamites 52 shall come up with their quivers.'
Elamites in the Latin tongue 53 are called choirs of the camps.54 And he goes on to say:
'Your inmost recesses shall be made public,55 and the secrets of the House of Israel shall
be laid bare.' 56

This has happened in Africa alone, and God pointed out for what reason all this was done,
blaming you with these words: 'Because 57 you have diverted the water of the old pool into
your city, and have cast down the walls of Jerusalem to build another wall, and have made
a pool between the two walls. You have paid no heed to the old pool, nor to Him who
created it in the beginning.' 58 So you see, my brother Parmenian, that you, by whose
first fathers the seed of all these things was sown, find yourselves burdened with the
crop. |131 III. The pride of Donatus. Secondly, Donatus of Carthage was responsible, for
through his poisonous wiles 59 the question of [effecting] unity was first mooted. I shall
be able to show that the makers of unity did nothing at our instigation, nor of their own
wickedness, but that everything happened through provocatory causes, which were set in
motion by Donatus of Carthage, in his lightness of heart, and were due to the actions of
individuals controlled by him, whilst he was struggling to be thought great. Is there
anyone that can be ignorant of all this excepting yourself; for, since you were a
stranger,60 they have been able to get you to believe idle fables?

Again, who can deny a fact, to which the whole of Carthage is the leading witness, that
the Emperor Constans did not originally send Paul and Macarius to bring about unity, but
to be his almoner, in order that the poor people 61 in the various churches might be
afforded assistance, by means of which they might breathe anew, be clothed, fed, and
rejoice? But when they came to Donatus, your father, and told him why they had come, he,
as was usual with him, fell into a rage, and burst out with these words: 'What has the
Emperor to do with the Church?' And, from the fountain of his levity, he poured forth
torrents of reproaches no less evil-sounding than those with which he had once upon a time
not hesitated to |132 assail the prefect Gregory----calling him 'Gregory, the stain upon
the Senate, the disgrace of Prefects,' and the like. Gregory replied to him with patience
worthy of a Bishop.62 Copies of these letters exist and are in the mouths of many chanted
everywhere.63Then Donatus----against the commands of the Apostle Paul----planned to do a
wrong to those in high places, and to kings,64 on behalf of whom, if he had listened to
the Apostle, he would have prayed every day, since this is the teaching of the blessed
Apostle Paul:

'Pray for kings and for powers, that with them we may lead a quiet and tranquil life.' 65
For the State is not in the Church, but the Church is in the State, that is to say, in the
Roman Empire,66 |133 which Christ calls Libanus in the Canticle of Canticles, saying:
'Come, my spouse, whom I have found,67 come from Libanus,' that is to say, from the Roman
Empire, where are the holy offices of the priesthood,68 and modesty and virginity, which
exist not amongst foreign peoples,69and which, if they did exist, could not be safe from
outrage. With reason does Paul teach us that we must pray for kings and powers, even
though the Emperor be living a pagan life.70 How much more, then, if he be a Christian----
how much more if he fears God, and is pious, and full of mercy, as facts prove this one 71
to have been?

For he had sent ornaments to the Houses of God, he had sent alms for the poor, nothing to
Donatus 72! Why, then, did Donatus act like a madman? Why was he full of anger? Why did he
refuse the gifts which had been sent? For when the commissioners announced that they were
going through the different |134 provinces, and that they would give alms to those who
were Mailing to accept them, he declared that he had sent letters everywhere in advance to
forbid that anything which had been brought should be distributed anywhere amongst the
poor. Oh, this is the way to console the wretched, to provide for the needs of the poor,
to come to the aid of sinners! God cries out: 'It is I who have made both the rich man and
the poor man.' 73 Not that He was unable to give to the poor man also. But, if He had
given to the poor as well as to the rich, the sinner would not be able to discover any
means of helping himself. On this account has it been written that:

'Even as water puts out a fire, so do alms-deeds wipe out sin.' 74 It is certain that both
are now with God----the one who wished to give, and the other who stood in the way of his
giving. Well, if God were now to say to Donatus 'O Bishop, what do you wish to make out
Constants to have been? If he was innocent, why would you not receive from an innocent
giver? If he was a sinner, why did you not permit aims to be given by him, for whose sake
I made the poor man?' When questioned after this fashion, what sort of face will he show?
Why in his levity and madness did he work so hard to keep good things from so many 75 poor
people? |135 He believed that he held dominion over Carthage; and since there is no one
superior to the Emperor excepting God alone (who made the Emperor), Donatus, in raising
himself above the Emperor, had already, as it were, passed the boundaries apportioned to
humanity, so that he almost regarded himself, not as man, but as God, when he refused to
revere him, who, after God, was feared by mankind.

Finally, the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, rebukes the prince of Tyre,
that is to say, the prince of Carthage, with these words: 'O Son of man, speak against the
prince of Tyre, saith the Lord God, because thine heart has been puffed up, and thou hast
said I am God.' 76 That Tyre is Carthage is shown, in the first place, by Isaiah, when,
after describing the vision of Tyre, he goes on: 'Howl, O ye ships of Carthage.' 77 In the
second place this is also proved by profane literature,78 and, if there be any other city
called by this name, there is no other in which any of those things were done which are
known to have been done at Carthage. 'Speak,' says the Lord, 'against the prince of Tyre.'
He does not command the prophet to speak against any secular king,79 nor was he to speak
to many, |136 but to one----that is to Donatus, Bishop of Carthage. For it was not fitting
for Ezekiel, whose words I have just quoted,80 to compare to any man, excepting to a
prince, that Bishop who claimed for himself (as we have said) princedom over Carthage, who
puffed up his heart, and thought himself to be superior to men and wished to have even all
his own colleagues beneath him----from whose offerings he would never deign to accept
aught. Now, his conscience, and Christ his God bear witness to this----and the complaints
of many.81 For in his very intercourse with others, he did them this wrong, that he acted
in some secret way or other, alone by himself, and afterwards only in a perfunctory manner
82 mingled with the rest. |137

In this fashion was his heart puffed up, so that in the end he seemed to himself no longer
to be man, but God. Moreover, in the mouths of the people he was seldom called a Bishop,
but was spoken of as 'Donatus of Carthage.' And deservedly was he both addressed and
chided as Prince of Tyre (that is of Carthage), because he was the first of the Bishops,83
as though he were something more than the rest. And whilst he wished to have nothing
common to mankind,84 he lifted up his heart, not like the heart of a man, but like the
heart of a god,85 since he desired to be something more than other men.86 But God follows
after Donatus with these words: 'Thou hast said, I am God.' 87 For though he did not make
use of this expression, still he either himself accomplished, or suffered, that which
would bring about its result.88 He puffed up his heart in such a way as to think that no
other man ought to be compared with him, and, in the swelling of his own mind, he seemed
to himself to be something higher than the others. Since whatever is above men, in a sort
of way is God.89 |138

Besides, whereas Bishops ought to serve God, he demanded so much for himself from his
Bishops, that they all had to venerate him with no less fear than they venerated God----
because to himself he seemed to be God. And though men are wont to swear by God alone, he
allowed men to swear by him, as if by God. If this were done by any man in mistake, it was
his duty to forbid it. As, then, he did not forbid it, to himself he seemed to be God.
Again, whilst all those who believed in Christ were, before the day of his insolence,
called Christians, he ventured to divide the people with God, so that those who followed
him were no longer called Christians, but Donatists, and when any people visited him from
any province of Africa, he did not ask those questions (which the custom of men always
calls for) about the weather, about peace and war, about the harvest, but to everyone who
came into his presence, he spoke thus:

'How goes my party in your part of the world?' 90 As though he had now really divided the
people with God, so that, without faltering, he dared to call it his 'party.' For, from
his time to the present day, whenever any action is brought before the public courts on
ecclesiastical affairs; all [of his sect] have, on being questioned (as we read in the
records of the proceedings), spoken in such a way as to assert that they belong to the
party of Donatus. Concerning Christ they kept silence. And what am I to say of their
clergy, when I read the petition which (as I have stated in the first book 91) was sent to
Constantine, |139 subscribed by Bishops in this manner: 'Given by Capito and by Nasutius,
Dignus, and the other Bishops of the party of Donatus'? 92 They, we know, made their
complaints against Bishops, who, whilst they did not belong to the party of Donatus, dwelt
in the Catholic Church of Christ.93

Since, then, Donatus did not live as a Bishop amongst his fellow-Bishops, and refused to
be a man amongst men, it is certain that he puffed up his heart and seemed to himself to
be God. And as for the Bishops by whom you were consecrated, their names, my brother
Parmenian, are well known to you, and you know also where they lived, and which of them
made a petition to return home----in your company. You know, too, who it was to whom they
made this petition, and you know his character.94 Now, all this we have learned through
their having brought before the judges in Africa this same old petition in which they had
written: 'Given by the Bishops of the party of Donatus.' 95 What reply, I ask, will they
make in the approaching Judgement of God, since they in this world acknowledged
equivalently 96 that they belonged, not to the Church of Christ, but freely confessed that
they were |140 of the party of Donatus, though it is written in the Gospel that Christ has
said:

'He that confesses Me before men, him will I confess before My Father'? 97 These men
confessed, not Christ, but Donatus. That the evidence by which clearly to identify the
person of Donatus might be by no means scanty there is yet another proof, with which the
above-mentioned accusation was closed. God had said that Donatus would not die upon the
earth.99 That this is the case is known to all. He dwelt in the house of God, but lived in
the heart of the sea. We read that the sea always signifies the world. It was not enough
for him to be beloved by some Christian people, but, by reason of his acquaintance with
worldly letters, he was also in the heart of the sea, that is, was beloved by the
world,and on account of his knowledge seemed to himself to be wise. But of this wisdom of
his God made little,101 saying:

'Art thou more wise than Daniel?' 102 With how great reason, and how well, has been
humbled that wisdom of his, which made him think himself wiser than was Daniel (when he
refused the gifts of the King), and would not accept that which had been sent by a
Christian Emperor. And he |141 seemed to himself to be a new Daniel, or to have been
raised above Daniel in wisdom, for we read that Daniel, when he was once required to
receive presents from King Balthassar----a ring; a chain and the rest----answered thus:
'Thy gifts to thyself, O King.' 103 He answered with wisdom, and did not hurl abuse at the
King, and did not blame him for what he offered, but put the matter off for a while. Quite
otherwise Donatus, who both spoke to Constans as abusive words as he knew how, and refused
what had been destined for the poor. We can see the wisdom of holy Daniel in not accepting
that day the gifts that were offered him. For the question that they asked him was still
[known only] in Heaven, and it would have been the act of a fool to receive any kind of
reward for that which he had not yet in his power to reveal. Therefore he was for the time
unwilling to accept these presents. Afterwards, when God showed him what he should say to
the King, he told it to Balthassar, and, later on, gladly accepted that which he was known
formerly to have rejected.104Deservedly, therefore, does God rebuke the Prince of Tyre
(that is Donatus), when He asks him:

'Art thou more wise than Daniel?' 105 But oh! how far removed is the presumption of
Donatus from the character of Daniel! For what Balthassar gave, he gave to Daniel, not to
the poor; but that which Constans, the Christian Emperor, had sent, he had sent to the
poor, not to Donatus. So to Donatus God said: 'The wise men have not taught thee their
wisdom' 106; for thou hast refused to learn from the words of Solomon: 'Hide thy bread in
the heart of the poor man, and he shall pray for thee.' 107 Moreover, he would not learn
from Daniel himself the lesson which Daniel gave to Nebuchadnezzar, as to how one who had
offended God might make satisfaction: 'And do thou, O King,' he said, 'hear my advice, and
may it find favour in thy sight. Redeem thy sins by alms-deeds, and the unjust things that
thou hast done by having compassion upon the poor.' 108

Daniel advised a king, who was a sinner and sacrilegious, to give alms. Donatus, who has
deserved to be blamed,109 hindered Constans, a Christian Emperor, from doing deeds of
mercy. Therefore is he blameworthy, because wise men have not taught him their wisdom,110
for he did not suffer the gifts sent by this King to be distributed through his hands.
From all these things it is certain that Donatus |143 was the fountain from which flowed
the causes of the evils which ensued.111 IV. An account of violent deeds done by Donatists
against Donatists. So, you see, my brother Parmenian, to whose charge any severity that
may have occurred in the work of bringing about unity ought to be attributed. You say that
an armed force was asked for by us Catholics. If so, how is it that no one at that time
ever saw an armed soldier in the proconsular Province?

Paul and Macarius came in order to console the poor everywhere,112 and exhort everyone
individually 113to unity. But when they drew near to the city of Bagaia, then it was that
the second Donatus 114 (as we have already written) who was the Bishop of that city, in
his desire to oppose an obstacle to unity, and to place a check in the way of the above-
mentioned legates of the Emperor, sent his heralds through the neighbourhood, and
especially to all the fairs, and called upon his fighting dervishes 115 to come in a body
to a place which he had fixed for them. So it was |144 that at that juncture those men
were called together, whose madness had been deemed by these same Bishops, only a short
time previously, to have been set on fire by their wickedness. For when men of this sort
were, before the attainment of unity, wandering about in every place, and in their
insanity called Axido and Fasir 'Captains of the Saints,' no man could rest secure in his
possessions. Written acknowledgments of indebtedness had lost their value. At that time no
creditor was free to press his claim, and all were terrified by the letters of these
fellows, who boasted that they were 'Captains of the Saints.' If there was any delay in
obeying their commands, of a sudden a host of madmen flew to the place. A reign of terror
was established. Creditors were hemmed in with perils, so that they who had a right to be
supplicated on account of that which was due to them, were driven, through fear of death,
to be themselves the humble suppliants. Very soon everyone lost what was owing to him----
even to very large amounts, and held himself to have gained something in escaping from the
violence of these men.

Even journeys could not be made with perfect safety, for masters were often thrown out of
their own chariots and forced to run, in servile fashion, in front of their own slaves,
seated in their lord's place. By the judgement and command of these outlaws, the condition
of masters and slaves was completely reversed. So when the Bishops of your party were
reproached [with this state of affairs], they are said to have written |145 to Taurinus,
who was at the time in possession of civil authority,116 saying that as men of this class
could not be corrected by the Church,117 they requested that they should be punished 118
by the above-mentioned officer. In answer to this letter Taurinus ordered an armed force
to go through the fairs, where these mad vagrants were accustomed to wander about. In the
district round Octavum 119 a large number were put to death, of whom many were beheaded.
Even to the present day we may count their bodies by the whitened altars or tables.120
When the custom was introduced of burying some in the basilicas, the priest Clarus 121 in
the district of Subula was required by his Bishop to undo the burial.122 Through this it
came to be known that what was done had been |146 done through a command,123 when not even
burial in the House of God was permitted them.

Afterwards the numbers of these fanatics had once more increased; so Donatus of Bagaia
found the means of getting together from them a furious horde with which to oppose
Macarius. Of the same class were those who, out of desire for a false martyrdom, hired men
to strike and kill them to their own destruction.124 From amongst these also they were
drawn who cast themselves down headlong from the summits of lofty mountains, throwing away
their good-for-nothing lives.125 See the character of these men, from whom a Bishop, the
second Donatus, provided himself with cohorts! |147 Alarmed, then, at this state of
terror, those who had brought the treasure to distribute amongst the poor, conceived the
plan, in such extreme necessity, of asking for soldiers from the Prefect 126 Silvester,
not to do violence to anyone, but to put an end to the violence which had been arranged by
the above-mentioned Bishop Donatus.

In this way did it come to pass that soldiers were seen in arms. Now, consider to whom it
is right, or possible, to attribute that which followed afterwards. The fanatics had got
together an enormous horde, and it is known that they had prepared an ample
commissariat.127 They had turned a basilica into a sort of public granary, where they
awaited those upon whom they might expend their savagery; and they would have done
whatever their madness might have urged, had not the presence of an armed force stood in
their way. For, when quartermasters 128 were, as is usual, sent ahead of the soldiers,
they were not received with due respect 129----contrary to the command of the Apostle, who
says 'Honour to whom honour is due, custom to whom custom, tribute to whom tribute. Owe no
man anything.' 130 Those who had been sent on horseback were maltreated by the men whose
names you have blown about |148 with the fan of hatred.131 They were the authors of their
own wrongs, and. by their example, through the injuries which they inflicted upon others,
brought upon themselves whatever sufferings they may have endured. The soldiers who had
been thus molested went back to their quarters,132 and everyone resented that which two or
three had endured. All were profoundly stirred up, and not even their officers could hold
back these soldiers in their anger. In this way that came to pass, which you have recorded
thus, to create prejudice against unity. These events, and others which you have
mentioned, have their own causes, and the persons whose names I have given are
responsible. We have not even seen them, though we have heard of them, just as you have
done.

If to have heard of a thing makes us guilty, we hold you to be partners of our guilt,
since you have heard of it likewise; if to know of a thing by hearing gives freedom from
responsibility, then that which was done, in consequence of your appeal,133 by others,
ought not to be ascribed to us. You set down your complaints in due order, saying that
under Leontius and under Ursacius a very large number 134 suffered wrongfully, that some
were put to |149 death under Paulus and Macarius, that under their successors unnamed
individuals were proscribed for a time. What has this to do with us, or with the Catholic
Church? It is you who have brought about everything of which you complain, for you refused
to accept gladly the peace which had been praised by God, valuing the inheritance of
schism more highly than the precepts given us by the Saviour.

You have brought accusations against the makers of unity. Blame unity itself, if you can!
For I imagine that you do not deny that unity is the supreme good? 135 How does the
character of the workmen affect us, provided it be certain that they effected a work which
is good? For the grape is trodden and pressed underfoot by sinful workmen, yet thence
comes the wine with which Sacrifice is offered to God.136 Oil, too, is made by wretched
people,137 some of whom are men of evil lives and unclean tongues, yet it is used without
reproach 138 in condiments,139 in lamps, even in the holy Chrism.140 V. Excuse is made for
the severities exercised by the champions of unity. You say that the makers of unity did
evil things.Perhaps this was according to the Will of God, who is sometimes pleased to
permit that which He might have prevented. For some evil things are done in an evil way
142; some evil things are done in a good way.143 The murderer 144 does an evil thing in an
evil way, the judge does an evil thing in a good way when he punishes the murderer.145

For this is the Voice of God: 'Thou shalt not kill' 146; and: 'If any man shall be found
sleeping with a woman who has a husband, you shall kill both,' 147 is also His Voice. |151
One God, and two differing Voices. Thus when Phineas, the priest's son, found an adulterer
with an adulteress, he stood with raised sword in his hand and hesitated between the two
divine Voices. One sounded in his ears: 'Thou shalt not kill' 148; the other: You shall
kill both.' 149 Were he to strike, he would act contrary to law.Were he not to strike, he
would fail in his duty.151 He chose the offence which was better ----to strike. And
perhaps there were not wanting those who would have wished to brand him as a murderer for
inflicting this punishment. But God, that He might show that some evil things are done in
a good way, spoke thus:

'Phineas has lessened 153 My wrath.' Thus God was pleased with the act of homicide,
because thereby adultery was punished. What if God has now been pleased with those things
which you |152 say that you have suffered----you who refused to have unity, well pleasing
to God, with the whole [Catholic] world, and with the 'Shrines' of the Apostles? 154 VI.
Against the alleged Donatist martyrs. I am now compelled, against my will, to make mention
of those men----whom I do not wish to mention----who are placed by you amongst the
martyrs, by whom you swear, as the one thing which those of your communion hold sacred.155
I should indeed prefer to pass them over in silence, but this is forbidden me by
considerations of truth. On account of the names of these men, a mad hatred yelps
thoughtlessly against unity, and on account of them there are some who reject unity with
contumely, thinking that it is something to be fled from or assailed, because Marculus and
Donatus are said to have been slain and to be dead. As if no one at all ought ever to be
killed in punishment of offences against God. No one ought to have been injured by the
makers of unity, but neither ought the divine precepts to be despised by Bishops, to whom,
the command was given:

'Seek peace, and thou shalt obtain it' 157; and once more: 'How good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity.' And again: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called the Sons of God.' 159 Whatever evils those persons who refused to
hear these words willingly, or loyally to carry them out, may have endured, they have
themselves----if to be killed is an evil----brought their own evil upon themselves.160
VII. Macarius is defended from the Donatist calumnies. But you contend that Macarius is to
be blamed, because you think that his actions were not in accordance with the Will of God.
Yet you will find men of old who were guilty of similar conduct. You should bring your
charge first against Moses himself, the Lawgiver,161 who, coming down from Mount Sinai,
when the Tables of the Law on which it had been written: 'Thou shalt not kill,'

had scarce been promulgated,162 ordered three thousand men to be killed in one instant.163
Put Macarius aside for a little while. First appeal to 164 Phineas, the priest's son, whom
I mentioned just |154 now,165 to judge you----if indeed you know where to find any judge
excepting God. For that which you blame has been praised by God in His own person, because
it was done through zeal for God.166 Meanwhile suppress for the moment 167 charges
prompted by hatred against Macarius. First give your mind 168 to the Prophet Elias, who at
the brook Cison,169 in obedience to the Will of God, slew four hundred and fifty men. But
perhaps you will answer that these were slain deservedly----your partisans 170 unjustly.
Punishment never follows without due cause. Moses inflicted punishment (as we have said),
and Elias, and Phineas----but you will not have it that Macarius punished with justice. If
those who are said to have been killed had in no way offended, it may be granted that
Macarius was guilty in that which was done by him alone----a business of which we know
nothing, but which was provoked by you.

Why is prejudice created against us for things that were done by somebody else? Moreover,
you are the cause of that which is said to have occurred, |155 for it came about on your
account, who were 'outside' (even as you are still outside), not on account of us, who
dwell 'within,' and have never departed from the root.173 But, since we have spoken
concerning the above instances in order, let us now see why Moses commanded three thousand
to be slain, why Phineas two, why Elias four hundred and fifty, why Macarius those two
whose names you daily (as I have already said) fan with the fan of hatred.174 It is clear
that those were punished who despised a divine command; for 'Thou shalt not make a graven
image' 175 is the Voice of God, and 'Thou shalt not commit adultery' 176 is the Voice of
the same God. The same God has said

'Thou shalt not offer sacrifice to idols ' 177 and 'Thou shalt not make a schism.' 178 And
'Seek peace and thou shalt obtain it' 179 is the Commandment of the same God. In the days
of Moses the people of Israel worshipped the head of a calf, which they had made in a
sacrilegious |156 fire 180; on this account three thousand men deserved death, because
they despised the Voice of God. Phineas at one blow slew the adulterers. He deserved to be
praised by God, because he put to death those who despised His Commands. And the four
hundred and fifty whom we read to have been slain by Elias, were slain for this reason,
that, contrary to the Command of God----false prophets that they were----they had despised
the divine Precepts. So also those two whose death you lay to the charge of Macarius are
not far removed from false prophets. (For that God said you would be false prophets, we
shall prove very soon.) And in refusing to look at Peace, lest they should dwell in unity
with their brethren, they stood out obstinately against the Commands and against the Will
of God.

So you see that similar things were done by Moses and Phineas and Elias and Macarius,
because the Commands of one God were vindicated by them all. But I see you now
distinguishing between times, and saying that the times before the Gospel were different
from those after the Gospel,181 and you can bring forward the fact that it has been
written that Peter put back into his sheath the sword with which he had cut off the ear of
the high priest's servant, whom, as though out of devotion,182 he might have slain. |157
But Christ had come to suffer, not to be defended. And if Peter had carried out his
intention, it would have appeared that in the Passion of Christ, a servant was punished,
not a people freed. VIII. That neither can Macarius be called a persecutor, nor can those
who were put to death by him be called martyrs.

For that Macarius did not draw forth the sword which Peter sheathed, is proved by God,
who, speaking to the valley of Sion, says: 'They that have been wounded in thee were not
wounded by the sword.' 183 Show, if you can, that any one man in the time of Macarius was
struck with the sword. He goes on to say: 'They that died in thee did not die in war.' 184
So you should consider carefully whether it be not rash to call men, who experienced no
war waged against Christians, by the name of martyrs. For nothing was at that time either
done or heard, such as it has been customary to do or say in a war against Christians 185
----in a war that is called persecution, like that which was carried on under two of the
four beasts which Daniel saw rising from the sea.186 Of these beasts, the first was like a
lion. This was the persecution under Decius and Valerian. The second was like a bear. This
was the second persecution under Diocletian and Maximian, when impious magistrates waged
war against the Christian Name----amongst whom, sixty years and more ago, were Anulinus in
the Proconsular Province, and Florus in Numidia. |158

It is well known to all what their carefully planned cruelty 187 brought about. War,
declared against the Christians, was raging furiously. In the temples of the demons the
devil was triumphant. The altars were smoking with unclean odours,188 and those who could
not 189 come to the sacrilegious sacrifices were everywhere driven to offer incense.190
Every spot was made into a temple of abomination.191 Old men, soon to be on their
deathbeds, were defiled 192; unwitting infancy was polluted; little children were carried
by their mothers to the shameful deed; parents were driven to the bloodless slaughter of
their children 193; some were driven to destroy the temples of the living God, others to
deny Christ, others to burn the books of God,194 others to offer incense. Not even you
will be able to pretend that any of these things was done by Macarius. Under the
persecutor Florus, Christians were forced to the temples of idols; under Macarius, the
slothful 195 were ordered 196to the [Christian] basilica. Under Florus, the command was
given to deny Christ and pray to idols. Under Macarius, on the contrary, all were warned
that one |159 God should be prayed to by all together in the Church.197

Since then you see that no war was waged against Christians; and that God mentions that
some have died without war, saying 'And they who died in thee did not die in war' 198; and
that those may well be held to be but doubtful martyrs who were not urged either to
sacrilegious sacrifices, or to profane offering of incense,199 or to denial of the Name of
God; and that there is no path to martyrdom excepting through confession----with what
reason can you call those men martyrs, who were not confessors? Or, which among them was
driven 200 to deny Christ, and confessed His Name? So, if there can be no martyrdom apart
from confession of the Name of Christ----and if in this case no one confessed Christ----
and if that which you assert to have been done, was done in vindication of the Commands of
God----and if, whereas God had prophesied that this should come to pass, His Commands were
vindicated, whilst you are unable to prove that we had any share in it----if these things
be so, consider whether it be not merely idle, but also superstitious, to place those who
died without persecution 201 where they are, who, having confessed Christ, were allowed to
die on behalf of the Name of God.

Or, if you will have it that they are martyrs----prove |160 that they were lovers of Peace
(in which are laid the first foundations of martyrdom), or that unity, beloved by God, was
dear to them, or that they lived in charity with their brethren----(for that all
Christians are brothers we have proved in our first Book, and shall also prove beyond
doubt in our fourth). Those men who (as you maintain) ought to be called martyrs, refused
to recognise their brethren, and had no charity. And let it not be said in their excuse
that they were unwilling to hold communion with Betrayers, since it has been most clearly
proved that they themselves were the sons of Betrayers. Therefore you have no way of
excusing them, for it is abundantly clear that they had not charity, without which
martyrdom can neither be [rightly] named nor have any existence, without which the very
greatest and most commanding 202 virtue loses its effect, without which the knowledge of
all tongues is worthless, without which even the fellowship of angels is of no avail----as
says the Apostle Paul:

'If I have the power of commanding mountains so as to move them from place to place, and
if I speak with the tongues of all nations, even of angels, and if I deliver my body to
the flames, and have not charity in me, I am nothing. But I shall be as tinkling brass 203
in the desert, so that the effect of my word should die away there, where there is none to
hear.' 204 If one so great,205 if the blessed Paul, if the Vessel |161 of Election,
declares that (although possessing commanding virtue 206 and the company of angels) he is
nothing, unless he have charity, consider whether they ought not to be called something
very different from martyrs, who, having deserted charity, may, by reason of that
desertion, perhaps have suffered something. IX. It was necessary to bring about unity in
Africa. The whole world rejoices concerning Catholic unity, excepting a portion of Africa,
in which a conflagration has been blown up from a spark. You complain that some evil deeds
or other 207 were committed by the makers of unity. No complaint of this kind is made by
Italy, or by Gaul, or by Spain, or by Pannonia, or by Galatia, or by Greece, or by any of
the Provinces of Asia.

No one was sent there to put things right,208 because there was nothing there which needed
setting right.209No tailor 210 (so to speak) was sent to them, because amongst them there
was no rent to repair. Here, too, in Africa, of old----so long as the people remained in
unity----the garment had been whole, but it was torn by the envious hand of an enemy. It
may be said, metaphorically, that pieces, coming originally from one garment, were hanging
loose,211and that branches, coming from the same root, were divided one from another.212
|162 Why does part prefer itself before part? 213 Why does one piece of the garment raise
itself above the second, though it cannot prove itself to be better? What if the despised
piece were to say: 'Why dost them sound thine own praises only? Have we not grown up
together? Have we not been together in the hands of those who made us up into one, and
have we not together been cleansed by Him who washed us 214? An enemy has wished to cut us
off 215 from one another; an adversary has wished to mar 216 our beauty.'

In part of the garment we are still one, but we hang on different sides.217 For that which
has been rent 218 has been partly 219 divided, not totally,220 since it is surely certain
that you and we have one ecclesiastical discipline,221 and if men's minds are at war, the
Sacraments are not at war.222 Finally, we can also say: 'Together we believe the same
truths,223 and have been |163 sealed with one Seal,224 nor have we been baptised otherwise
than you; in like manner 225 we read the divine Testament; in like manner together we
worship one God; the Prayer of the Lord 226 is one with you and with us. But since, as we
have just said, part had been rent asunder, the work of mending 227 had become necessary,
whilst parts [of the garment] were hanging on either side.' 228 When he who arranges or
works at a matter of this sort 229 wishes to restore the garment to its former appearance,
he torments 230 the threads that are next to his hand.231 The tailor, who wounds whilst he
is mending the rent, displeases you. He who brought it about that the tailor has had the
opportunity of offending,232 should displease you even more. And [remember] that the
things which you allege to have been committed by the makers of unity either should be
attributed to your fathers,233 of whose actions they |164 were the result, or came from
the Will of God. But we had nothing to do with them.

X. It is shown from Ezekiel that the severity employed against the Donatists was by the
will of God. How will it be if the severities (great though they may have been) were
nevertheless inflicted----as we have said----by the Will of God? For we read in the
Prophet Ezekiel of a whitened wall, against which God threatened storm, rain, thunderbolts
234 and accusations: 'There shall be false prophets to build up a wall which is ready to
fall, 235 crying "Peace, peace"----and where is peace?' 236 Call to mind how of old you
tore away one from another the members of Mother Church.237 For you were not able to
seduce any one family at once. Either the wife departed and the husband stayed behind, or
the parents were seduced and the children refused to follow them, or the brother stood
firm, when his sister wandered off. At your instigation divisions were made between man
and wife----between parents and their children----and you could not even leave in peace
that which natural law permits.

No doubt, you have said: 'Peace be with you'; but God on the other hand asks: 'Peace, and
where is peace?' that is to say: 'Why do you give a salutation concerning that which you
have not? Why do you name that which you have destroyed? Peace you love not, yet do you
give a salutation concerning peace.' 'They,' He says, 'built a wall which is ready to
fall.' 239 The House of God is one.240 They who have gone out and wished to make a |166
party,241 have built a wall, not a house, for there is no second God, to dwell in a second
house.242 On this account false prophets are said to have made a wall, and if a door be
placed 243 in this wall, anyone who enters through that door is [still] outside.244Nor can
a single wall have the Corner Stone----the Stone which is Christ, who, receiving into
Himself two peoples----Gentiles and Jews----joins both walls with the bond of peace.245

For a wall has as many disadvantages as a house has advantages. The house protects all
that is shut within it, turns the edge 246 of the storm, throws off 247the rain, keeps out
murderer 248 and thief 249 and beast. Thus also the Catholic Church embraces all the sons
of peace in her bosom and breast. On the other hand the wall, which has been built in a
ruinous state,250supports no corner stone 251; it has a purposeless door 252; it keeps
nothing inside it 253; but is soaked with the |167 rain,254 is struck by the storm, and is
able neither to keep off the murderer, nor to stop the thief when he approaches. The wall
belongs to the house, but is not the house. So your party is a quasi-church, but is not
the Catholic Church.255 'And,' He says, 'they whiten it.' That is to say that you judge
yourselves alone to be saints. You complain that you have had some sufferings (though we
had nothing to do with them). Therefore it is certain that these were sufferings which you
endured alone, for the time of peace is different from the time of persecution.

If you consider that it was a persecution, tell us, what had all the Provinces, of which
the Catholic Church is composed,256 to suffer together with you? Since it was
'punishment,' not persecution, the wall suffered alone, against which God threatened
storm, rain, thunderbolts and accusations, for thus did He speak: 'Why have you built up a
ruin? Why have you made it white? Why have you painted 257 it? This is against My Will,
saith the Lord.' 258 You are displeased with the days of a Leontius, of an Ursacius, of a
Macarius and the rest. Put right 259 the Will of God, if you can, who has said: |168 'I
will rise against the wall in My wrath, and will send upon it much storm and rain, floods
and thunderbolts,and I will strike the wall that is ready to fall, and its joints shall be
loosened.' 261 And do not let any of your party object with the question:

'If unity is a good thing, how is it that, after having been so often brought about, it
has not been able to last?' For this reason, that the matter has been arranged thus by
God, who threatened storm, rain, stones and accusations.262 Now these four things could
not happen at the same time. First there was a storm |169 under Ursacius.263 The wall 264
was then shaken, but did not fall, so that rain might have an opportunity to work.265 Rain
then followed under Gregory.266 The wall was made wet, but was not swamped,267 so that the
stones might have their opportunity. Under the makers of unity the stones followed after
the rain. The wall was scattered about,268 but built itself up again from its foundations.
Three things have already been accomplished. Accusations are still due to you, but how
they are to come and when, is known to Him, who has been pleased to make these
declarations concerning you.

XI. It is shown that the Donatists are deceivers. And that no one might doubt as to the
meaning of this, God has added these words: 'The things which I speak concern not the clay
269 or the side 270 [of the wall] or the wall [itself], but false prophets who deceive 271
My people.' 272 Consider whom this word 'deceive' fits. All were in communion with us. You
rushed in upon us in our absence,273 but, in order to possess those whom you coveted, you
had to beguile them----and all men know what are your words of beguilement. |170 You are
wont to say: 'Look behind you.' 274 You are wont to say: 'Redeem your souls.' 274 You are
wont to say to Christian men----even to clerics: 'Be ye Christians.' 274 But in saying
'Look behind you,' you are acting against the gospel, in which it has been written:

'No man who holds the handle of the plough and looks behind him shall enter the kingdom of
heaven.' 275 And do you wish to know what was the fate of the one who looked behind, and
of the one who looked before? Remember those who escaped from Sodom ----Lot and his wife.
She looked behind her and was changed into a pillar of salt, whilst he who looked before
him escaped free.276 Why then do you say 'Look behind you '? Moreover, when you say
'Redeem your souls,' I would ask from whom did you buy them, that you should sell them?
Who is that angel who deals in souls as in the market-place? 277 When you say 'Redeem your
souls' you are renouncing the Redeemer, for Christ alone is the Redeemer of souls, which
before His coming were possessed by the Devil. These Christ our Saviour redeemed in His
Blood, as the Apostle says:

'You have been bought at a great price.' 278 |171 For it is certain that we have been all
redeemed by the Blood of Christ. Christ has not sold those whom He redeemed. Souls bought
by Christ cannot be sold, to be redeemed again----as you would have it 279----by you.
Again, how can a soul have two Lords? Or, is there, perhaps, a second Redeemer? What
prophets have announced that a second is to come? What Gabriel has spoken a second time to
a second Mary? What Virgin has a second time given birth to a Child? Who has worked new or
second deeds of power? 280 If there is none, save One, who has redeemed the souls of all
believers, what means it that you say 'Redeem your souls '? What kind of thing is this
that you say to Christian men----even to clerics----'Be ye Christians'? And you dare to
say to each one, as though you expected a miracle 281:

'Gaius Seius, or Gaia Seia,282 art thou still a pagan man or woman?' You call him, who has
acknowledged 283 that he has been converted to God, a pagan----him you call a pagan, who
has been washed by us or by you neither in our name, nor in yours, but in the Name of
Christ (for some there are who have been baptised by you, and |172 have afterwards passed
over to our Communion)----him you call a pagan, who before the altar 284 has prayed to God
the Father through His Son. For whoever has believed, has believed in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, yet him you call a pagan after his Profession
of Faith! If----which God forbid----any Christian should fall away,285 he may be called a
sinner; a pagan he cannot be a second time.286 But all these things you wish to be held of
no account. And if he, whom you deceive, listens to you,287then his consent alone, and the
stretching forth of your hand,288 and a few words spoken by you are enough in your sight
289 to make a Christian out of a Christian,290 and he seems to you to be a Christian who
has done what you want, rather than the man whom Faith has drawn [to Baptism].

XII. A calumny that had been brought against Macarius. And if anyone should be rather slow
in giving adhesion to your deceitful words, you have no lack of arguments, with which you
may with some ease persuade men, even against their will, to do what you like----telling
them that it has been heard from the lips of your old Bishops 292 that he who partook or
|173 received 293 of the sacrifice of unity as it drew near,294partook of a sacrilegious
sacrifice.295 We do not deny that this was said by some, who, as is certain, afterwards
offered, with complete security, that sacrifice from which shortly before they had held
back the people.296But one consideration made them speak in this fashion, quite another
consideration determined their action.297 For with regard to those who are reported to
have said these things, they were led thus to speak by a false rumour which had filled
their ears, and those of all the people. For it was said that Paul and Macarius would come
at that time, to be present at the sacrifice, and that, when the altars were set in festal
array,they would bring out an image,299 which they would first place upon the altar, and
that then in this way was the sacrifice to be offered.

As soon as their ears heard this, not only were their minds disquieted, but everyone's
tongue was stirred up to use these words, so that all who had heard the story cried out:
'He who partakes of this, partakes of a sacrilege.' And rightly would this have been said,
if any corresponding truth had attached to such a tale. But when the above-mentioned
officers arrived, nothing was seen of that, concerning which a little before lying reports
had been spread. Christian eyes saw nothing to shock them, their sight afforded no proof
of those things which had upset their hearing. No stain was beheld, and the solemn rite
was observed after the accustomed manner.301 When they saw that in the divine sacrifices
302 nothing was changed, or added or taken away, the Peace which God has praised was
pleasing to men of good will.303 On this account none of those ought to be blamed who from
your body has made his way to Peace.304They who had been disturbed by an unfortunate story
were strengthened by the simple and pure truth. And let it not be said that he [who came
from you to Unity] of the bitter has made the sweet, or that of the sweet he has made the
bitter.

The bitterness, which was proclaimed by falsehood, remained and continued in the breast of
[mere] opinion; the truth which was seen with the eyes, having its own sweetness in
itself,305 was separated from the boundaries of a false opinion. So neither was that which
is sweet made out of bitterness, nor was that |175 which is bitter made out of sweetness.
For what was seen was something else and quite different,306 and the report had been very
far from 307 the actual facts. So, you perceive that you have brought forward your abusive
accusation unjustly, making up a story, at your own pleasure, of whatever you liked, to
tear in pieces 308 Macarius and Taurinus. You have lost that, which you were quite clever
enough to have seen, whilst hatred has led astray your senses, and closed the avenues of
your understanding. APPENDIX TO BOOK III.309 XIII. In what way and why Macarius was
admitted to Communion.

Now your malice has come to such a pitch that you say that Macarius after these events
ought not to have been admitted to Communion, but rather should have been repelled by
Catholic Bishops. In the first place, communion has only one name, but various modes. A
Bishop is in communion with a Bishop in one way and a layman is in communion with a Bishop
in another way. |176 Secondly, it would be a grave matter if Macarius had done that which
he is said to have done, of his own will, since those who act thus are punished by the
public courts and the Roman laws. For that man is a murderer who, compelled by no
necessity, by no one's commands, by no superior authority, but, driven on by rage, of his
own will, does what the laws forbid. But it was in consequence of your appeal 310 that
Macarius did what he is said to have done.

He was not a Bishop, and did not discharge the duties of a Bishop. Neither did he lay
hands on anyone, nor did he offer sacrifice. Wherefore, as it is clear that he had nothing
to do with the functions of Bishops, no Bishop was polluted by reason of one who did not
offer sacrifice with Bishops. Nothing remains for you but to urge that he communicated
with the people, and, indeed, it is certain that he spoke amongst the people, but only to
press some point, not to preach----which belongs to Bishops.311 For he spoke, if he was
able to speak at all, stripped of any authority. On the other hand, a Bishop's discourse
is approved by all, being adorned with sanctity, that is to say, with a twofold
salutation. For a Bishop does not commence to say anything to the people without first
saluting the people in the name of God. As he begins, so does he end. Every sermon in the
church is begun by the name of God and with the name of God is also ended. |177 Which of
you will dare to say that Macarius saluted the people after the manner of Bishops?
Therefore, since he neither saluted before he spoke, nor ventured to salute after having
spoken, nor laid his hand on anyone, nor offered sacrifice to God with episcopal rite, how
can you say that the College of Bishops can have been polluted, although you see that
Macarius had nothing to do with any episcopal duty?

Your malice, having been in this point trodden under foot by the footprints of truth, is
seen again to raise its head. For you say that he ought not even to have communicated
amongst laymen. Yet it is certain that he was (as the Apostle Paul shows) a minister of
the Will of God, and what wonder, if even the pagan judges should be considered ministers
of the Will of God, according to the Apostle who says: 'The judge does not bear the sword
without reason,for he is a minister of the Will of God.' So, too, Macarius was a judge in
his own person. And if he did not act judicially, he ought, by the laws of Rome, to have
been punished by the judges. Or, if you say that even so Macarius should not have been
admitted to communion, still we do not see that he ought to have been repelled, who acted
in the same kind of manner as did Moses, whom God did not reject after twenty-three
thousand men had been killed, but called him to speak with Him a second time.313 We do not
see that he ought to have been repelled, who did the same thing as did Phineas (whom I
have mentioned above), and then deserved to receive Divine praise.314 It does not seem to
us that he ought to have been repelled, who did that which was done by Elias the prophet,
when he slew so many false prophets.315 (For that they too were false teachers we have
proved above.) |178

XIV. That even if Macarius was guilty, he ought not to have been repelled from Communion.
But were we to keep silence concerning these examples and admit with you that Macarius was
guilty----even so, he ought not to have been repelled by us in the absence of an accuser.
For it has been written that no man should be condemned before his case has been heard.
Tell us, then, who accused him and was not listened to? Tell us (if you can) that Macarius
confessed his fault and that we did not pronounce sentence. For after all, we are in the
Church judges of a kind,316 as you yourselves do not deny. Indeed, you maintain that we
ought to judge in accordance with truth. We, then, cannot do that which God has not done.
In His Judgement He has thought well to separate persons, and has not willed that one man
should be at the same time accuser and judge. For no man can in one case at the same
moment bear the weight of two persons,317 so as to be in the same judgement both accuser
and judge. This is a thing which God has not done by His omnipotence, but, in order to set
before us the form of passing judgement, has taught us that neither should a guilty man be
condemned without an accuser, nor should he be the accuser, who would be the judge in the
same case.

Accordingly, at the very beginning of the world, when men were commencing to be born,
after his brother Abel had been killed by Cain, we read that God called Cain and asked him
where was his brother.318 He doubled his sin and said that he did not know, as though he
would make God ignorant, and when could there be anything not known to God, under whose
eyes and countenance are all things which are done? Nevertheless, God does not judge
without an accuser and asks concerning a thing which surely He knew. And yet you wish us
to repel one whom we have not seen doing any evil, and who has had no one |179 to accuse
him. I perceive here what your malice is about to whisper: you will say that what has been
done has not escaped our knowledge. We acknowledge that we have heard about it, but to
condemn one whom no man has ventured to accuse would be to sin. If you tell us that his
deed has not escaped us, will you tell God, who had seen the brother's murder, why He
asked about it? It would not have been right for us to do something which God refused to
do, when He would not pass sentence, excepting on one who was guilty. You must find an
accuser. Otherwise the condemnation could not be just----unless he who should pass
sentence was himself to be the accuser! Wherefore God says:

'Behold thy brother's blood. It cries to me from the earth.' 319 Thus it is that, since by
no means can you prove that Macarius was accused before us by any man, you cannot find
fault with our judgement. [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered] 1. We find the names
of Ursacius and Paulus joined to those of Macarius and Leontius in iii, 4. (Cf. also iii,
10, and for Taurinus iii, 4; iii, 12.) 2. Jeremiah xxi, 29: 'ut vobis stupescerent dentes,
ipsi uvas acidas comederunt.' The Vulgate has: 'Patres comederunt uvam acerbam et dentes
filiorum obstupuerunt.' 3. Basilicas non necessarias. We find this expression many times
in Optatus. It is first used by him in i, 10, where the churches of heretics are said to
have no relationship with Christ and are contrasted with His lawful Bride. Elsewhere it is
a technical phrase and means simply that the Donatist churches are 'not wanted.' It
evidently is a quotation----probably from a judgement, cither of Miltiades or of Arles----
or possibly the words were those of Eunomius and Olimpius (i, 26). The Donatists erected
new churches, refusing to go to the old ones. There is no doubt a μείωσις. The intention
of the inventor of the expression was to avoid hurting the feelings of the Donatists by
calling their new churches schismatical. They are simply non necessariae----' not wanted.'

4. qui provocavit----to the Emperor----to his horror (cf. Appendix, pp. 393, 396,397). 5.
Cf. Is. xxii, 6: et Elam sumpsit pharetram. 6. repleta est unaquaeque civitas
vociferantium. St. Optatus in his next chapter thus quotes Is. xxii, 2. Du Pin must have
forgotten this when, without MS. authority, he supplied clamoribus after vociferantium. 7.
Is. xxii, 3. 8. terror (in active sense). 9. Ps. lii, 6. 10. qui fortiores sunt etc. Cf.
Is. xxii, 3----quoted thus in the next chapter: 'Omnes principes tui in fugam conversi
sunt, et qui capti sunt graviter alligati et fortiores tui longe fugati sunt.' 11. in
dolore Dei. Cf. iv, 9 (quod dolet Deus) and i, 2. 12. Is. xxii, 4. St. Optatus has led up
to this quotation by his various references to this chapter of Isaiah. 13. By rebaptising
Catholics. 14. transducentes ad vos aquam antiquae piscinae. Cf. Is. xxii, 9, which St.
Optatus will soon quote from his version: 'Quoniam convertistis aquam antiquae piscinae ad
civitatem vestram.'

15. The reference is to the pool of Bethsaida (cf. John v, 4), the waters of which were
regarded by Tertullian as typical of Baptism (De Baptism. v and vi). The Angel was only
allowed to move the pool once each time for healing. Optatus looks upon this fact as a
figure of the unity of Baptism. 16. The metaphor here is slightly changed. The 'piscina'
is understood as a lake full of fish. St. Optatus asks sarcastically whether Christ was in
that lake, meaning that the sacrilegious rebaptisms of the Donatists, in this unlike True
Baptism, gave Christ to no man. It is well known, of course, that the Fish was a principal
emblem of Christ among the early Christians. 17. eiusdem piscis visceribus. 18. Cf.
Paradise Lost, iv, 168-170: 'Than Asmodeus, with the fishy fume That drove him, though
enamoured, from the spouse Of Tobit's son.' 19. 'See Tobias vi, 9-10. St. Optatus
mystically applies this narrative. Sara is the Church which puts the Evil One to flight
through Christ. Christ is the one protection of His Church; by Christ alone, through His
Church, is blindness removed from men.

20. per invocationem. The Invocation of God, that is to say, the Blessing of the Font,
puts Christ (the Fish) into what was mere empty water, so that it becomes a Fishpond. But
in the second Baptism of the Donatists there was no Christ, therefore no symbolic Fish.
21. a pisce. 22. Cf. Tertullian (De Baptismo i): 'Sed nos pisciculi secundum ἴχθυν nostrum
Iesum Christum in quo nascimur, nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus.' 23.
transduxistis once more. Cf. Is. xxii, 9. 24. solvistis singulare Baptisma. 25. ex quo
Baptismate hominibus muri facti sunt ad tutelam. The reference is to Is. xxii, 11, 12: 'Et
deicistis muros Hierusalem, ut faceretis alteram munitionem et constituistis aquam inter
duas munitiones et ad piscinam antiquam (= the first----the Catholic Baptism) adtendere
noluistis.' The thought of St. Optatus is that the Donatists by rebaptising pulled down
the first wall and built up a second (alteros muros, duas munitiones). This was to build
an edifice on a ruin. Hence, as he will say immediately, comes the sorrow of God filiam
esse contritam. ('Recedite a Me, amare flebo. Nolite incumbere ut consolemini Me super
vastitate filiae populi Mei.' Is. xxii, 4. Vulgate.)

26. Cf. iii. 10: 'foras exeuntes . . . parietem fecerunt,' etc. 27. Cf. iii, 10. 28. Cf.
Is. xxii, 4. 29. We here have another 'paronomasia' or play upon words, of which St.
Optatus, like many of the Fathers, was so fond. 30. ex se est. 31. The reference is to the
description of the Creation of the World in Genesis, where we read: 'The Spirit of God was
borne over the waters,' without any account of the creation of the waters themselves. 32.
in cuius aquae iniuria. 33. Isaiah xxii, 4: 'Missum Me facite, amare plorabo: nemo poterit
consolare Me in contritione filiae generis Mei.' The Vulgate has 'vastatione' for
'contritione.' 34. St. Optatus is continuing his argument from Isaiah xxii, where, instead
of The Burden of the Valley of the Vision, he evidently read The Vision of the Valley of
Sion. St. Jerome tells us that the LXX had Verbum Vallis Sionis for Onus Vallis Visionis.
Optatus' point here is that the subject of this prophecy is not the actual Mount Sion, but
the spiritual Sion, which is the Catholic Church. (In v, 4 he writes: 'Sion Ecclesiam esse
in tertio libro probavimus.')

35. In tota Sion. Only G has tota, but it seems to have probably slipped out of the older
MSS., as a little later Optatus has in toto monte. 36. Is. xxii, 5. Vulgate In valle
visionis. 37. We have here a digression which shows, and probably was intended to show,
St. Optatus' acquaintance with the topography of Jerusalem. Sion was outside of Jerusalem.
We read as follows in the narrative of a Bordeaux pilgrim to the Holy Land, to be found in
Itinera Hierosolymitana (CSEL. vol. 29, p. 22): 'Item exeuntibus Hierusalem ut ascendas
Sion, in parte sinistra et deorsum in Valle iuxta murum est piscina, quae dicitur Silua
[i.e. Siloe] . . . Intus autem intra murum Sion paret locus, ubi palatium habuit David. Et
septem synagogue, quae illic fuerunt, una tantum remansit, reliquae autem arantur et
seminantur, sicut Isaias propheta dixit.' 38. fuerant. The Bordeaux pilgrim, whom I have
just quoted, wrote in 333, about thirty years before St. Optatus. Nothing else seems to be
known concerning these seven synagogues.

39. Is. ii, 3. The topographical digression finishes with this quotation. 40. Psalm ii, 6.
41. The material hill. 42. Psalm lxxxvi, 1. 43. non illius corporalis montis. 44. Psalm
cxlvii, 1, 2. 45. per singulas provincias totius orbis valles singulas intellegimus
montis. Casaubon suggests that St. Optatus wrote this by a slip of the pen instead of per
singulas valles montis intellegimus singulas provincias totius orbis. As an alternative he
conjectures that we should read praeterea for per. But surely St. Optatus may have thought
it more elegant to write it as the MSS. give it. 'By the provinces we understand the
valleys.' 46. in qua sola deiecti sunt muri et, ut fierent muri, aqua sanctae piscinae
transversa est. Ziwsa brackets ut fierent muri, which is omitted by RBGv, evidently
regarding it as incomprehensible. But it represents 'ut faceretis alteram munitionem' in
Optatus' version of Is. xxii, 20. RBv have aqua sancta et piscina for aqua sanctae
piscinae. The reference is still to the rebaptism by Donatists. They who were already
Christians were, by an impious novelty, rebaptised, that they might become Christians.
(Cf. v, 3: 'Qui rebaptizatur, iam Christianus fuerat; quomodo dici potest iterum
Christianus?')

47. 'In una valle, hoc est sola Africa, in qua sola, cum sufficerent templa Dei, quae
fuerant, alia facere voluerunt principes vestri, in qua sola deiecti sunt muri, et, ut
fierent muri, aqua sanctae piscinae trans- versa est, et novitas contra antiquitatem a
vobis instituta est, et aqua humana contra divinam ordinata est' (cf. v, 3 etc.). By aqua
humana is meant water used by rebaptisers. By aqua divina is meant the water used in
Baptism, which, in accordance with Catholic doctrine, is one, and once for all. This is a
sort of summing up in which St. Optatus endeavours, with considerable ingenuity, to show
once more that Is. xxii, 1-11 has reference to the Donatists. We shall perhaps see this
more clearly if we place his words in juxtaposition with his Latin version of Isaiah,
which he knew to be familiar to his readers. St. Optatus. Isaias. Cum sufficerent templa
Dei, alia facere voluerunt = 'Ascendistis in templa supervacanea.' Principes vestri =
'Omnes principes tui.' In qua sola deiecti sunt muri = 'Deiicistis muros Hierusalem.' Ut
fierent muri = 'Ut faceretis alteram munitionem . . . inter duas munitiones.' Aqua sanctae
piscinae transversa est = 'Convertistis aquam antiquae piscinae.' Novitas contra
antiquitatem = 'Ad piscinam antiquam adtendere noluistis.' Aqua humana contra divinam =
'Nec ad Eum . . . qui creavit illam.'

48. hoc totum interrogat. 49. Is. xxii, 1. 50. errore sunt . . . errantes in montibus. 51.
graviter adligati. 52. St. Jerome (in loco) writes that Elam ---- ascensus eorum. He adds
that Elamites = contemptores. 53. Casaubon conjectures that Optatus by a mistake of memory
thought that Elamite was found for Sulamite in Cant. vii, i: 'Quid videbis in Sulamite
nisi choros castrorum?' 54. chori castrorum seems to refer to the military bands----the
singers of the camp. 55. penetralia vestra deferentur ad publicum. Cf. Is. xxii, 8,
Vulgate: 'Et revelabitur operimentum ludae.' LXX 'Et revelabunt portas Iudae, et aspicient
die illo in domos electas civitatis.' 56. et secreta domus Israhel nudabuntur. Cf.
Vulgate: 'Et scissuras civitatis David videbitis.' LXX: 'Et revelabunt abscondita domorum
arcis David.' 57. quoniam. 'Because.' This is emphatic. This was the cause of whatever
violence may have been done by the troops of Macarius. 58. Is. xxii, 11 sq: 'You refused
to pay heed to the old pool'----that is to say, you would not count the first Baptism as
valid, and you despised 'Him, who created it in the beginning.'

59. veneficio. G has beneficio, but there can be little doubt that veneficio, which has
the support of all the other MSS., is the true reading. Beneficio is obviously a guess, to
escape the difficulty of veneficio. 60. quia peregrimus es (cf. i, 5; ii, 4; ii, 7). 61.
paupertas. 62. patientia episcopali. 63. multorum ore ubique cantantur. Cf. St. Augustine
(Retract. i, 21): 'ut ore multorum vibique cantatur.' 64. potestatibus et regibus iniuriam
facere. 65. i Tim. ii, 1. 66. now enim respublica est in Ecclesia, sed Ecclesia in
republica est, id est in Imperio Romano. It had from very early times been the custom in
the Christian Church to pray for the prosperity of the Emperor and the Empire. The
preservation and the well-being of the Christian Church was considered to be in a certain
sense dependent on the preservation and the well-being of the Roman Empire, inasmuch as
the fall of the Empire was commonly expected to synchronise with the coming of Antichrist
and the end of the world----a time of utmost stress and affliction for the Church of
Christ on earth. It must also be remembered that St. Optatus is writing of the local
conditions of his time. In no sense could the Empire, as a whole, be said to be in the
Church (even theologically), for as a matter of fact a considerable part of the Empire was
still pagan. On the other hand the Church was confined within the temporal jurisdiction of
the Empire and overlapped by it on every side. Thus Lord Bryce writes with reference to
this passage in Optatus: 'Christianity as well as civilisation became conterminous with
the Roman Empire' (Bryce's The Holy Roman Empire, p. 11, eighth edition). The Church
therefore had at that period no claim upon the Empire, as such, excepting to be treated
with justice; whereas the Empire had this claim upon the Church, that the Church, being an
external organisation within itself (though in a different order), should strive to
promote peace and harmony and avoid unnecessary antagonism. Such good offices and hearty
co-operation the temporal ruler has always a right to expect from the spiritual society
within his borders. This the Catholic Church consistently remembered; Donatus as
consistently forgot.

67. veni, sponsa Mea inventa (cf. Cant. iv, 8). 68. sacerdotia sancta. 69. in barbaris
gentibus. 70. qui gentiliter viveret. 71. Constans. 72. nihil Donato. Perhaps this should
be translated: 'This was nothing to Donatus.' 73. Proverbs xxii, 2. 74. Eccles. iii, 33.
75. tantis (cf. Vulgate: sed haec quid sunt inter tantos? Ioan. vi, 9). 76. Ez. xxviii, 2.
77. Is. xxiii, 1. The Vulgate has naves maris; the Hebrew 'Ships of Tarshish '; the Old
Latin (as we see from St. Optatus and St. Ambrose) naves Carthaginis; the LXX πλοῖα
Καρχηδόνος. 78. mundanae litterae. 79. non adversus saecularem aliquem regem. 80. It may
be well to give here in English those sentences in Ez. xxviii, 2-9, which, as Optatus
thinks, may be applied to Donatus the Great. (We possess an African text of the passage in
Tyconius Donatista, but I translate from the Vulgate.) 2. 'O Son of man, say to the prince
of Tyre: Thus saith the Lord God: Because thine heart has been puffed up, and thou hast
said "I am God, and I have sat on the Chair of God [Tyconius has habitationem Dei
habitavi) in the heart of the sea," although thou art a man and not God,

3. Behold thou art wiser than Daniel. [St. Optatus, St. Jerome, St. Augustine and Tyconius
read with the LXX Numquid tu sapientior quant Daniel?] 5. And thine heart has been lifted
up in thy strength; 6. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Because thine heart has been
lifted up as though it were the heart of God, 8. Thou shalt die the death of them that are
slain [Tyconius has morte vulneratorum] in the heart of the sea. 9. Wilt thou still say
before them that slay thee "I am God," whereas thou art a man and not God, and art in the
hand of them that slay thee?' 81. in qua re media est fides, etc. Du Pin explains thus:
'Testis est conscientia eius.' Albaspinaeus understands Fides to mean Lex Christiana. 82.
ut solus secreto nescio quid ageret et postea ceteris perfunctorie misceretur. Du Pin
thinks that by the first phrase of this sentence it is to be inferred that Donatus offered
the Divine Mysteries by himself, and held aloof from the public meetings of the other
Bishops, clergy or faithful, with whom he would only mix from time to time (perfunctorie)
as a great act of condescension.

83. sc. of the Bishops of Africa, where Carthage was the chief See. 84. nihil humanum
voluit habere. 85. Ez. xxviii, 6. 86. a ceteris hominibus aliquid plus esse. 87. Ez.
xxviii, 2. 88. quod effectum huius vocis impleret. 89. quia quicquid est supra homines,
iam quasi Deus est. 90. quid apud vos agitur de parte mea? 91. i, 22. 92. Cf. note 3, p.
43. 93. in Christi Catholica habitabant. 94. quorum nomina bene nosti, et ubi fuerint non
ignoras, et qui vel a quo petierint et qualem rogaverint, ut redirent et tecum redirc
potuissent, et nos didicimus, etc. St. Optatus quite lost his thread in this long
sentence, where we find one of his numerous anacolutha. In my English rendering I have
endeavoured to make it grammatical----involved it must always remain. 95. Cf. once more
note 3, p. 43. 96. alio modo ---- aliquo modo. 97. Matt, x, 32. Luke xii, 8.

98. illum. 99. The reference is to Ez.xxviii, 8: 'Morieris in interitu occisorum in corde
marts'----in the heart of the sea. 100. id est in amore saeculi. That is, he was beloved
by worldly people. 101. hanc sapientiam eius evacuavit Deus. 102. Ez. xxviii, 3. 103. Dan.
v, 17. 104. St. Optatus evidently thinks that Daniel could not answer Belshazzar on the
same day, but gave his interpretation the next day and then accepted the King's gifts with
joy! This seems to us an exceedingly odd notion, and curiously enough there is no
suggestion of it in the Book of Daniel, so one wonders from what source Optatus derived
it. 105. Ez. xxviii, 3. 106. Dan. ii, 27. 107. Eccles. xxix, 15. 108. Dan. iv, 24. 109.
i.e. in Ezekiel. 110. C.f. Dan. ii, 27. 111. unde constat Donatum malarum fontem
caussarum. (Cf. for caussa in this sense i, 27; iii. 3: 'seminata est caussa'; iii, 14.)

112. qui pauperes ubique dispungerent. 113. singulos. 114. alter Donatus. This word alter
used here of Donatus of Bagaia makes it absolutely certain that Optatus knew nothing of
the distinction between Donatus of Black Huts and Donatus the Great (cf. note 3, p. 45).
115. circumcelliones agonisticos. St. Augustine (con. Cresconium, i, 28) describes the
conduct of these men, and gives the etymology of the word circumcelliones: 'Quis enim
nescit hoc genus hominum in horrendis facinoribus inquietum, ab utilibus operibus otiosum,
crudelissimum in mortibus alienis, vilissimum in suis, maxime in agris territans et victus
sui caussa cellas circumiens rusticanas, unde et circumcellionum nomen accepit, universo
mundo pene famosissimum Africani erroris opprobrium?' 116. tunc Comiti. 117. in Ecclesia
corrigi non posse. 118. acciperent disciplinam. 119. A town in Numidia. Amongst the
Bishops who were assembled at the Carthaginian Council under St. Cyprian we read of Victor
ab Octavo. 120. per dealbatas aras aut mensas potuerunt numerari. That is to say, whitened
tombs made in the shape of an altar. As the Donatists pretended to look upon these
fanatics, who had been justly put to death for murder and other crimes, as martyrs, they
raised altars over their graves. (It is well known that the first Christians used to say
Mass on altars erected over the bodies of martyrs, e.g. in the Catacombs.) These altars
were sometimes called Tables, as in the Catholic Church of the present day. Thus St.
Augustine writes (Sermo de div. 113): 'Denique, sicut nostis, quicunque Carthaginem
nostis, in eodem loco Mensa Dei constructa est, et tamen mensa dicitur Cypriani: non quia
ibi est umquam Cyprianus epulatus, sed quia ibi est immolatus, et quia ipsa immolatione
sua paravit hanc mensam: non in qua pascat sive pascatur; sed in qua sacrificium Deo, cui
et ipse obtains est, offeratur.'

121. A Donatist priest. 122. ut insepultam faceret sepulturam. This phrase shows that St.
Optatus was acquainted with Cicero (Phil. i, 1). 123. unde proditum est mandatum fuisse
fieri quod factum est. The command (mandatum) was, I think, that of the Donatist Bishops.
At first the circumcellions erected altars over their dead, but in the open air and not in
the churches. The later Donatists, when they honoured these slain circumcellions as
martyrs, forgot not only that it was their own Bishops who (after the custom had been
introduced of burying them in the churches) had ordered their bodies to be exhumed,but
also that these same Bishops had begged Taurinus to repress them, since ecclesiastical
discipline had no effect. Therefore they, not the Catholics, were responsible for the
massacres ('quod factum est'). Both Casaubon and Du Pin, however, understand mandatum to
refer to a command not of Donatist, but of Catholic, Bishops, and think that St. Optatus
means to say that prejudice was created against Catholics by the exhumation of the dead
circumcellions, and that on this account Catholics were reproached for the alleged
massacres. But they seem to forget that Optatus has just stated that this was done by the
order of a Donatist Bishop. It is difficult to see how his command carried out by the
Donatist priest Clarus could create prejudice against Catholics.

124. sibi percussores in suam perniciem conducebant. (Cf. i, 16.) 125. qui ex altorum
montium cacuminibus viles animas proicientes se praecipites dabant. Cf. S. Augustine,
Tract. ii. in Ioannem: 'Flammis se donant, aquis se praefocant, praecipitio se collidunt,
et pereunt.' 126. Comite. 127. habebant vocatorum infinitam turbam et annonam conpetentem
constat fuisse praeparatam. 128. metatores (seu mensores castrorum). 129. conpetenter
(ἁρμοδίως). 130. Rom. xiii, 7. 131. contusi sunt ab iis, quorum nomina flabello invidiae
ventilasti. This phrase is repeated a little further on (iii, 7): quorum nomina cotidie,
ut supra dixi, flabello invidiae ventilatis. Parmenian had evidently made much use of the
names of two Donatists (whom Macarius had put to death), in order to stir up ill feeling
against Catholics (flabello invidiae). St. Optatus here says that these men had brought
their death upon themselves by the injuries that they had inflicted on the soldiers of
Macarius. 132. numeros suos (literally the rank and file).

133. vobis provocantibus (to the Emperor). 134. quam plurimos. 135. nam aestimo vos non
negare Unitatem summum bonum esse. Cf. 'Scisma summum malum esse et vos negare minime
poteritis ' (i,21). 136. inde Deo sacrificium offertur. 137. a sordidis. 138. simpliciter
erogatur. Du Pin writes 'id est eo innocue utuntur.' 139. in sapore. Apparently this
refers to the use of oil in ordinary life----as we should say, in salads. If this is so,
in lumine, which follows, probably does not refer to lamps in churches. 140. These
principles may perhaps seem to contradict that which St. Optatus urged, in his first Book,
against the Donatist schism, on account of the character of its originators. But even
though it must be granted that, under ordinary circumstances, a man's sin does not vitiate
the character of his work, yet evil conduct and bad lives clearly discredit the founders
of a new religion or sect, who, as is manifest, stand in an altogether exceptional
position. Further, in the first book Optatus had argued against the Donatists from
Donatist principles. They said that the Catholic Church had apostatised by communicating
with Betrayers. Optatus of course denies that this was a fact, and proves not only that
the Donatists themselves had communicated with Betrayers, but also that the very founders
of their sect were Betrayers. It was an argumentum ad hominem, but in the passage before
us, as elsewhere, he argues from the true principle that the character of a workman does
no detriment to his work.

141. malos fuisse. 142. male. 143. bene. 144. latro (cf. i, 19, note 9, p. 166). 145. St.
Optatus evidently had not heard of the distinction drawn by moralists (which, as soon as
one has heard it, clears up the whole difficulty) between that which is intrinsically evil
or evil in itself, and can therefore never be done lawfully, and that which is in itself
'indifferent,' and therefore derives its moral character from circumstances and from the
intention of the agent. 146. Exod. xx, 13; Deut. v, 17; Matt, v, 21. 147. Deut. xxii, 22;
Levit. xx, 10. 148. non occides. 149. occidetis utrosque. 150. peccaret. 151. delinqueret.
152. elegit melius peccatum. The word peccatum like peccaret [supra) is not used here in
the real sense of sin----a fault against conscience----but of a fault against an
apparently unrestricted Law of God, which was seen to be abrogated by another commandment,
and is therefore called loosely peccatum. 'Melius peccatum' is an oratorical trick----an
oxymoron. Cf. 'tacitus loquitur' (v, 3 ); 'stulta sapientia' (vi, 1); and (iii, 9): 'ut
sartor peccare potuisset.' For this use of peccare cf. Cicero (Or. 21): 'non modo in vita,
sed saepissime et in poematis et in oratione, peccatur'; and again: 'Peccare est tanquam
transilire lineas' (Parad. 3, 1).

153. mitigavit. Numbers xxv, 11. 154. qui unitatem cum toto orbe terrarum et cum Memoriis
Apostolorum, quae Deo placita est, habere noluistis. Optatus once more urges union with
(1) the rest of Catholic Christendom, and (2) with the Apostolic See of Rome, where rest
the bodies of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (cf. ii, 4). 155. tanquam per unicam
religionem vestrae communionis. Religio is here the sacredness of an oath. 156.
inconsiderate rabida latrat invidia. 157. Ps. xxxiii, 15. 158. Ps. cxxxii, 1. 159. Matt,
v, 9. 160. mali sui ipsi sunt caussa. Cf. S. August. (c. Hit. Petil. ii. 20): 'Illi, de
quibus maximam invidiam facere soletis, Marculus et Donatus, ut moderatius dixerim,
incertum est, utrum se praecipitaverint, . . . quapropter de omnibus talibus invidiosis
criminibus hoc vobis . . . libera et secura voce respondet [Ecclesia Catholica]: Si non
probatis quod dicitis, ad neminem pertinet; si autem probatis, ad me non pertinet.' This
is precisely the statement and argument of St. Optatus in this Book.

161. Legislatorem. 162. prope-necdum propositis tabulis legis. 163. Cf. Ex. xxxii, 13; Ex.
xxi, 23; Deut. v, 17; Matt. v, 21. 164. in iudicium provocate. 165. Cf. Num. xxv, 20. 166.
nam quod accusatis, in persona ipsius a Deo laudatum est, quod in zelo Dei factum est.
Both Ziwsa and Du Pin print a comma after ipsius, but I venture to think that it should be
rather after accusatis, and have translated accordingly. 167. subprimite interim. 168.
recurrite primo. 169. Cf. 3 Kings xviii, 40. 170. illos . . . istos. 171. nunquam sequitur
vindicta. Killing is not to be called 'punishment' unless when due cause has been given.
'Therefore,' says St. Optatus to the Donatists, 'you object that in the case of Macarius
it should not be called "punishment," but murder.' 172. foris. Outside the Church. 173.
qui intus habitamus, et nunquam de radice recessimus. 174. flabello invidiae ventilatis
(cf. iii, 4).

175. Ex. xx, 4. 176. Deut. v, 8. 177. Cf. Ex. xx, 5. 178. Cf. 1 Cor. i, 10; xii, 25. 179.
Ps. xxxiii, 15. 180. quod illis sacrilega flamma conflavit. 181. This is probably what all
modern readers of St. Optatus will have been thinking. Nor can we honestly say that St.
Optatus is very happy in the reply which he hazards. 182. quasi devotus. 183. Is. xxii, 2.
184. Ibid. 185. in bello Christianorum. 186. Cf. Dan. vii, 3 sq. 187. artificiosa
crudelitas. 188. immundis fumabant arae nidoribus. 189. Through illness or old age. 190.
Hence those guilty of this sin were called Turificati. 191. omnis locus templum erat ad
scel us. 192. inquinabantur. 193. Incruenta parricidia facere cogebantur. The murders by
parents of their children's souls were incruenta parricidia. For parricidium cf. note 3,
p. 40. 194. Leges divinas (the Holy Scriptures). 195. pigri----literally slothful. This,
however, seems to have been a word of general reproach, applied indifferently by Donatists
to Catholics, and by Catholics to Donatists (cf. vi, 8).

196. conpellebantur. 197. ut Deus unus pariter in Ecclesia ab omnibus rogavetur. 198. Is.
xxii, 2. The repetition of this text shows the importance attached to it by Optatus. This
cannot seem to us moderns anything but extraordinary. 199. inmunda incensa. 200. coactus
est. 201. sine bello. 202. imperiosa. 203. aeramentum (anything made of brass or copper,
see Pliny xxxv, 15) tinniens. 204. Partly a quotation and partly a paraphrase of 1 Cor.
xiii, 19. 205. si tanta res. 206. quamvis in imperiosa virtute. 207. nescio quae esse
commissa. 208. emendator. 209. emendandum. 210. sartor. 211. pendebant quodam modo panni
de una vestis origine. 212. St. Optatus here abruptly changes the metaphor. But he at once
leaves the thought of the tree and its branches, which he has already developed (ii, 9),
and returns to the garment and its rents. 213. ut quid se pars parti anteponit? The
Donatists had preferred themselves before Catholics, saying in justification of their
schism that the Catholic Church had become corrupt.

214. lotorem. 215. excidere. 216. deformare. 217. in parte vestis adhuc unum sumus, sed in
diversa pendemus. 218. scissum est. St. Optatus here tries to establish a distinction
between scindere, to tear away without dividing from the garment, and abscindere or
excidere (the word he had just used), to tear away, or cut off, altogether----totally.
219. ex parte. 220. ex toto. 221. ecclesiastica conversatio. 222. si hominum litigant
mentes, non litigant sacramenta. So Catholics now remind the 'Orthodox' Greeks that they
use the same Sacraments, and by this remembrance exhort them to unity. 223. pares
credimus. 224. uno sigillo signati sumus, sc. in Confirmation. St. Optatus goes on to
speak of Baptism; elsewhere (v, 1) he writes of the seal of Circumcision: 'Iudaei hoc
sigillo se insigniri gloriantur.' 225. pariter. 226. Oratio dominica. Some have seen here
a reference to the holy Sacrifice of the Altar----the Lord's Prayer per eminentiam.

227. sartura. 228. partibus hinc atque inde pendentibus. It is most true that the One
Catholic Church can never be divided. Yet, when large numbers of men, still keeping the
Faith, fall into schism, they may be said to hang loosely to her in the manner described
by Optatus in the text: thus ever since the great Division between East and West, the
separated Eastern Bishops have been summoned to the Oecumenical Councils of the Catholic
Church, as well as the Uniats who are in her full communion. 229. huius rei artifex aut
operarius. 230. conpungit. 231. vicina fila. 232. ut sartor peccare potuisset. (For
peccare cf. note 5, p. 151.) 233. ad parentes vestros pertinent. 234. lapides petrobolos.
235. ruinosam (cf. iii, 2). 236. Cf. Ez. xiii, 10. There is, however, nothing to be found
here, in any extant version, of 'accusations,' unless they be found in the words 'Ubi est
litura quam linistis?' (Ez. xiii, 12). (Cf. note 3, p. 168.)

237. Matris Ecclesiae. 238. persuasionibus vestris divisa sunt corpora et nomina pietatis,
et non potuistis praetcr miller e quod legitimum est. In this very obscure passage, at
first reading, it will probably seem that pietatis refers to corpora as well as to nomina.
But this can hardly be the case. I think that it is clear that corpora refers to the
relationship between husband and wife, nomina pietatis to that between parents and their
children. The chief difficulty is as to the meaning of quod legitimum est. The context
shows that St. Optatus is referring to the division between brother and sister. He has to
bring in an idea to correspond to corpora and nomina pietatis. An unmarried man and woman
under ordinary circumstances ought not to live alone in the same house, but natural law
makes an exception for brother and sister. 'You,' he says, 'do not spare that affectionate
union which natural law approves' (quod legitimum est). Albaspinaeus, however, refers quod
legitimum est not to the institution of the family, to which Optatus has just been
alluding, but to that which is coming, and understands it thus: 'And yet you have not been
able to omit the customary salutations.' But this involves a full stop after pietatis,
which is awkward; besides it is exceedingly doubtful whether quod legitimum est can bear
this meaning. Still it may be noted that in ii, 12, St. Optatus uses the phrase praeterire
illud legitimum for passing over that 'which is prescribed' at Mass. In his references to
the sad divisions in families caused by Donatism, St. Optatus shows a strange
forgetfulness of the fact that such divisions were foretold by its divine Founder as an
inevitable consequence of the spread of Christianity itself (Matt, x, 34; Luke xii, 51).
Moreover, they must necessarily have followed upon that conversion of individual Donatists
to the Catholic Church which throughout his work Optatus so urgently advocates.

239. Cf. Ez. xiii, 10. 240. Domus Dei una est. (Cf. iii, 2: Fecistis quasi alteros muros.)
241. partem. 242. quia non est alter Deus, qui alter am domum inhabitet. 243. conlocata.
(Cf. ii, 2, Cathedram conlocaret.) 244. foris (sc. outside the One Church, which is the
One House of God, of which St. Optatus has just written: 'The House of God is one'). 245.
nodo pacis. The metaphor seems to require cement rather than knot. The two walls abut upon
the Corner Stone, which makes them into one wall (cf. Eph. ii, 20-21). 246. retundit. 247.
diffundit. 248. latronem. 249. furem. The difference between latro and fur is that the
former word carries with it the idea of violence----in Optatus even of murder (cf. i, 19
etc.). 250. aedificatus ruinosus. 251. nec lapidem angularem sustinet (for one wall has no
corner). 252. ianuam sine caussa habet (cf. supra: 'quicunque intraverit foris est'----for
when you enter the door you are still out of doors).

253. nec inclusa custodit (for it is a straight line, and one straight line cannot enclose
a space). 254. pluvia udatur (for it has no roof). 255. pars vestra quasi ecclesia est,
sed Catholica non est. (Cf. 'quasi necessaria,' v, 4.) 256. est constituta. 257. linistis.
258. Cf. Ez. xiii, 12-14. 259. emendate. 260. lapides petrobolos. 261. Ez. xiii, 13, 14.
262. Cf. Ez. xiii, 13, 14. In the Vulgate we read 'Et erumpere faciam (a) spiritum
tempestatum in indignatione Mea et (b) imber inundans in furore Meo erit, et (c) lapides
grandes in ira in consumptionem. Et destruam parietem, quem linistis, et cadet.' From St.
Jerome's commentary we find that the LXX had 'Et disrumpam spiritum auferentem in furore
Meo, et pluvia inundans in ira Mea erit; et lapides magnos (περιβόλους) in furore inducam
in consummationem. Et suffodiam parietem, quem linistis, et cadet, et ponam earn super
terrain et revelabuntur fundamenta eius, et cadet et consummemini cum increpationibus; et
cognoscetis quia ego Dominus.' St. Optatus' African version gives us (a) tempestatem
nimiam (b) et pluviam, diluvia (c) et lapides petrobolos, et (d) accusationes. Where are
these last accusaiiones? Probably they are the equivalent of the increpationes of St.
Jerome. The Greek of the LXX has καὶ συντελεσθήσεσθε μετ̕ ἐλέγχων (μετ̕ ἐλέγχων = cum
accusationibus.) The accusationes were to be the last calamity that should beset the
Donatists. Then they were to fall. One wonders whether perhaps St. Optatus thought, though
he did not like to say so expressly, that his book contained these destined 'accusations
'!

263. 1 Cf. iii, 4. 264. The Donatist schism. 265. That something might be left for the
rain to do. 266. Cf. iii, 3. 267. udatus est, sed non maduit. 268. dispersus. 269. luto.
270. latere. 271. seducunt. 272. Cf. Ez. xiii, 2. 273. nobis absentibus inruistis. 274.
Adlendite post vos. Redimite animas vestras. Estote Christiani. These were evidently
catchwords in common use among the Donatists. 275. nemo tenens manicam aratri post se
adtendens (cf. Luke ix, 62). 276. Cf. Gen. xix, 26. 277. quis est ille nescio quis
angelus, qui nundinas facit animarum? 278. 1 Cor. vi, 20; vii, 28. 279. sicut vultis. 280.
quis virtutes novas aut alter as fecit? (Cf. 'Suam virtutem mittere'; 'a Filio Dei tantas
celebrari virtutes,' v, 8.) 281. cum miraculo quodam. 282. Common names, as if we should
say 'Mary, or Nicholas' (cf. vi, 8). So St. Augustine (De Bapt. ii, 7) tells us that the
Donatists used to say to Catholics 'Bonus homo esses, si non esses Traditor, consule
animae tuae, esto Christianus.'

283. professus est. Sc. by Baptism. 284. ante aram. Catechumens were not allowed to pray
before the altar and were not taught the Our Father until just before Baptism. 285.
deliquerit. 286. For a baptised man to become a pagan would be a miracle (miraculum
quoddam), for' quod factum est (sc. Baptisma) infectum non potest fieri.' 287. si tibi
consenserit. 288. In Penance. 289. tam tibi. 290. christianum faciunt de christiano. 291.
quasi facile. 292. qui iamdudum in vestro collegio fuerant. 293. qui gustaret aut
acciperet. 294. de sacrificio adventantis unitatis, = 'of the Sacrifice of [the newly
recovered] Unity,' i.e. who communicated at the general Communion of union. 295. de sacro
----sc. sacrilege St. Optatus will explain immediately that the Donatists put about the
calumny that Paulus and Macarius would cause the images of the Emperors to be exposed on
the altar during the offering of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist in their camp. Hence they
concluded that the Catholic Sacrifice was not dissimilar to the sacrifice of the Pagans
----a sacrilege (sacro).

296. quos constat postea tota securitate fecisse, unde paulo ante populos deterrebant.
297. alia ratio exegit has voces, alia invitavit in factum. 298. cum alt aria solemniter
aptarentur. 299. sc. of the Emperor. 300. qui inde gustat de sacro gustat. 301. visa est
puritas, et ritu solito solemnis consuetudo perspecta est. 302. divinis sacrificiis. 303.
volentibus:----the reference is to 'Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.' 304. i.e. to the
Unity of the Church (cf. i, 1 etc.). qui de collegio vestro ad Pacem transitum fecit. 305.
in se. 306. et aliud et extra est. Casaubon remarks here that he does not think that St.
Optatus meant to say anything more than what no doubt he might have said much more simply;
'That which is seen is very different from that which is heard.' But he adds that, by the
word extra, bitter gossip, which is outside of us, and is only heard, may perhaps be here
subtly contrasted with the inherent sweetness which truth has in itself, and which we can,
if we will, see for ourselves.

307. longe fuerat. Had been a complete misrepresentation. 308. ut lacerares. 309. These
two chapters are given both by Ziwsa and Du Pin as the last two chapters (vi and vii) of
Book VII, but are evidently an appendix (written later) to Book III. (cf. p. 271). 310.
vobis provocantibus, sc. to the Emperor (see iii, 1). 311. non tandem tractandi, quod est
Episcoporum. We learn from St. Jerome and from St. Possidius in his life of St. Augustine
that in the churches of Africa priests were not permitted to preach in the presence of a
Bishop. But Casaubon has no difficulty in showing that Baronius was mistaken in thinking
that this custom ----which St. Augustine tells us (Ep. lxxvii) was abolished in his
lifetime----was ever universal, or that priests were anywhere forbidden to preach
excepting when a Bishop was present. Still preaching the Word of God has always been
regarded in the Catholic Church as per se the duty of a Bishop, only per accidens that of
a priest.

312. Rom. xiii, 4. 313. Cf. Ex. xxxii, 28. 314. Cf. Num. xxv, 11. 315. Cf. 3 Kings xviii,
40. 316. sumus enim qualescumque iudices in Ecclesia. Qualescumque is written modestly, in
comparison with secular judges. 317. duas portare personas. 318. Gen. iv, 9. 319. Gen. iv,
10.


AGAINST THE DONATISTS
=====================

AGAINST THE DONATISTS continued

BOOK 4

Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists (1917) Book 4. pp.180-202.

BOOK THE FOURTH

An Answer is made to certain Arguments of Parmenian, drawn from various Passages in the
Old Testament. I. The Argument of this Book. We have now, my brother Parmenian, shown
openly and clearly that in charging us with asking for the help of the soldiers, you have
calumniated us to no purpose.1 Now learn this also, that what you have said about the
Sacraments and sacrifice of a sinner 2refers to you rather than to us. Since a man is not
necessarily a sinner 3 because you have so chosen to term him, it would be equally easy
for us, copying your gratuitous assumption,4to say that you are the sinners. But
assumptions of this kind on both, sides should be sent packing.5Let neither of us judge
the other with man's judgement. It belongs to God to know who is guilty; His it is to pass
judgement. Let then all of us, who are |181 but men, keep silence. Let God alone point out
the sinner, whose sacrifice is unclean,6 and from whose hands one who wishes to be
anointed should fear to receive unction.

How most clearly true this is, acknowledge, my brother Parmenian! II. That the Donatists
are the Brethren of Catholics.7 If, that is, you are freely content to hear this
ascription of brotherhood which I have so often used. And I would beg of you to recognise
that, however distasteful the word brother may be to you, still it has of necessity to be
employed by us, lest perchance (considering the proof that it ought to be used) we should,
by refraining from it, be blameworthy. For, if you are not willing to be my brother, I
should begin to be unbrotherly,8 were I to keep silence concerning this name. For you are
our brethren, and we are yours, as the Prophet says: 'Has not one God made you, and one
Father begotten you?' 9 Nor can you avoid being our brethren, since to all has it been
said: 'You are all gods and sons of the Most High.' 10

And both you and we have received the one command in the words: |182 'Call no man your
father on earth, because One is your Father in the Heavens.' 11 Our Saviour Christ alone
is the Son of God by Birth,12 but both you and we have been made sons of God in the same
manner, as it has been written in the Gospel: 'The Son of God has come. As many as
received Him, to them has He given the power to become sons of God, to those who believe
in His Name.' 13 We have both been made and are called His sons; you have been made His
sons, but are not so called,because you are not willing to be in peace, or to listen to
the Son of God Himself, when He says: 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called sons of God.' 15 Christ by His coming recalled God and man to Peace,16 and

'taking away the wall of partition, made both One.' 17 But you will not have peace with
us, that is, with your brothers. For you cannot escape being our brothers----you whom
together with us one Mother Church has borne from the same bowels of her Mysteries,18 and
whom God the Father has received in the same manner as sons of adoption. Wherefore Christ,
foreseeing this time----how it |183 would come to pass that you should to-day be at
variance with us, gave such commands with regard to prayer, that, at least in prayer,19
unity might remain, and that supplications might join those who should be torn asunder by
faction. We pray for you, for we wish to do so, and you pray for us, even though you do
not wish it. Otherwise let any one of you say: 'My Father, who art in Heaven,' and 'Give
me my daily bread,' and 'Forgive me my trespasses, as I forgive him who trespasses against
me.'

Accordingly, if things which have been prescribed may not be changed, you see that we have
not been absolutely 20 divided from one another, whilst we willingly pray for you, and you
(though unwillingly) pray for us. You perceive, my brother Parmenian, that the bonds of
holy brotherhood between you and us do not admit of being absolutely 21 broken. III. That
the Donatists are sinners. We have now to search for the sinner, at whose hands we should
fear to receive unction, or whose sacrifice ought to be disowned.21 Let human mistrust
give way, and the arguments of both sides keep silence. God alone shall point out who is a
sinner. We read in the forty-eighth Psalm in the second division 22 that the Holy Ghost
has said: 'But to the sinner God said.' Here we have to give the whole attention of our
mind, and see who is the sinner. |184

For, if after we have read: "'But to the sinner God said,' some such words as these were
to follow: 'Thou hast snatched up arms, thou hast marched out of the camp,23 thou hast
stood against the foe in battle array,' then the soldier would have reason to fear,
because he might seem to be the sinner. Or, if He said: 'Thou hast got together
merchandise, thou hast gone on journeys, thou hast held fairs, thou hast bought and sold
for the sake of profit,' then the man of business would have to fear, because he might
seem to be the sinner. Or, if He said: 'Thou hast built a ship, thou hast fitted it out
with rigging and sails, thou hast seized 24 the winds favourable for a voyage,' then the
sailor would have to fear, because he might seem to be the sinner. Or, if after we have
read:

'But to the sinner God said,' these words were to follow: 'Dissension and schism have been
displeasing to thee, |185 thou hast agreed with thy brother and with the One Church, which
is in all the world, thou hast communicated with the Seven Churches and with the Shrines
of the Apostles.25Thou hast embraced Unity'---- if these things were to be read
immediately afterwards, then we should have to fear that we were the sinners. But when God
says: 'Why dost thou declare My commandments and take My covenant in thy mouth? For
discipline thou hast despised, and thou hast cast My words behind thee. Sitting thou didst
speak against thy brother, and didst lay a scandal against thy mother's son. Thou didst
see a thief and didst run with him, and with adulterers thou hast been a partaker' 26;
then all these things have been said to you. Clear yourselves from all of them, if you
can!

IV. That the Donatists are despisers of discipline. So discipline has been held in
contempt by you. To what end then dost thou. who dost not obey the covenant, recite the
covenant, in which has been set forth the discipline which you 27 will not observe? For
you cannot say that you observe something, against which you bear arms! God says: 'Seek
peace, and thou shalt obtain it.' 28 Thou hast rejected peace. Is not this to despise
discipline? |186 In the Gospel we read: 'On earth peace to men of good will.' 29 Thou wilt
have neither peace nor good will. Is not this to despise discipline? Moreover, we read in
the hundred and thirty-second Psalm: 'Behold how good and pleasant it is to dwell together
in unity.' 30 Thou 31 wilt not dwell in unity with thy brethren. Is not this to despise
discipline? Christ says in the Gospel:

'He who has once been cleansed, has no need to be cleansed anew.' 32 Thou by rebaptising
dost cleanse anew. Is not this to despise discipline? God says: 'Touch not Mine anointed,
and lay not thy hand upon My Prophets.' 33 You 34 have stripped so many priests of God of
their dignities. Is not this to despise discipline? Christ says: 'From this I know that
you are My disciples, if you love one another.' 35 You hold in hatred us, who are surely
your brethren; |187 nor have you been willing to imitate the Apostles, by whom Peter was
beloved, though he denied his Lord.Is not this to despise discipline? Thou 37 declarest
the commandments 38 of God, and takest His covenant in thy mouth. How dost thou exhort:
'Seek peace,' though thou dost not possess peace? Thou recitest the covenant,39 and dost
not obey the covenant, in which has been set forth discipline.

V. That the Donatists are slanderers and have propagated scandals. You have been chosen to
sit and teach the people,and you slander us who are your brethren. As I have said above,
one Mother Church has given us birth, one God the Father has received us, and yet you 'lay
scandals against' 41 us by forbidding each of your followers to salute us, or receive from
us the customary signs of courtesy.42 |188 Consider your haughty words, consider your
discourses,43 consider the commands that you have given, turn over your actions in your
minds, and you will then find out why the man who formerly asked you for the Sacraments,
has feared to receive them at your hands.44 There is not one of you who does not mingle
abuse of us with his discourses;43 not one of you who does not begin in one manner and
continue in another.45 You begin the sacred readings on the Lord's Day,46 and unfold your
comments in such a way as to do us wrong; you bring forth the Gospel, and heap abuse upon
your brother in his absence; you pour hatred into the minds of those who listen to you,
and by your teaching persuade men to live at enmity with one another. By all your
discourses you 'lay scandals against' us. Therefore, to each one of you has it been said:

'Sitting thou didst speak against thy brother, and didst lay a scandal against thy
mother's son.' 47 When God reproves the sinner and chides him that sits, it is clear that
His words are addressed specially |189 to you, not to the people who have no permission to
sit in the church.48 You see therefore that without a doubt to you should be referred the
Divine Words: 'Sitting thou didst lay a scandal against thy mother's son.' I have so many
times proved that we have one mother, nor can you deny this----you who 'lay scandals
against' us----though some of your party allege texts which they have not understood, in
order to take away from us even what is usually shared by all men----the courtesy of
salutation. For some of you refuse us the embraces that are customary in everyday
life,49and many are taught not to say 'God speed you' 50to any one of us, and think that
this is commanded by what they have read without understanding it, through not knowing of
whom it was that an Apostle 51 has said:

'With such as these not even to take food,' nor 'say "God speed you"' to him, 'for their
speech creepeth on like a spreading sore.' 52 This was said of heretics, whose teaching at
that time began to be full of errors, for through the subtle seductiveness of their
speech, they introduced diseases, |190 creeping along in the darkness, to corrupt the
soundness of the Faith.53 Such a one was Marcion, who from a Bishop became an Apostate,
and. brought in two Gods and two Christs; such was Ebion,54 who argued that not the Son
but the Father had suffered; such Valentinus, who strove to take away from Christ His
Flesh. This is that speech which had a cancer 55 to torment the members of the Faith. This
has been said also of the heretic Scorpian,56 who maintained that there ought to be no
martyrdom. |191 But let them keep their poisons for themselves, and let no discourse 57
with them be allowed, lest by listening to them simple minds be troubled, however
slightly.

Wherefore these are they whose speech has to be avoided, lest it creep in, like a
spreading sore. This was said too of Arius, who endeavoured to teach that the Son of God
was made out of non-existing substances,58 and not born of God----whose teaching, had it
not been driven away by three hundred and eighteen Bishops in the Nicene Council, would,
like a cancer, have entered the breasts of many. This was said also of Photinus, a heretic
of the present time, who has dared to say that the Son of God was merely a man, not God.
It may have been said of you as well, since your word has introduced no small cancer into
the ears and minds of some. This is your word, which you address to the sons of Peace,
when you say: 'You have perished. Look behind you. Your soul will be lost. How long do you
hang back? 59 '

In this way have you made Penitents of the Faithful; thus have you destroyed the honours
due to Priests.60 Behold! It is your word also, which to-day creeps on as a spreading
sore, so that you forbid us the greetings and ordinary intercourse of life. |192 But how
could our teaching have produced any such result? We guard the sons of Peace with pure
teaching; we lead no strangers astray; we ruin no man. It is therefore clear that you
daily 'lay scandals against' us, and it would be a long matter to go through all the ways
in which you slander us, and all the kinds of scandal which you 'lay against' us. VI. That
the Donatists are thieves and on what ground. For also when God says: 'Thou didst see a
thief and didst run with him,' 62 concerning what kind of thievery think you that this has
been said? Was it perhaps on account of some stolen article of clothing, or some pocket
that had been picked,63 or about goods the stealing of which brings loss and gain to men?

Yes, without doubt such thefts as these are forbidden; but in this passage God rebukes
those which are made from Himself. Do you ask what thefts are made from God? They are to
be found amongst you! God's possession is the mass of the Faithful,64 from which that
thief the Devil tries every day to steal something, striving to corrupt in some way or
other the morals of a Christian man or woman, and thus to snatch away, if not the whole
man----at any rate something or other from the man. |193 Since you saw this Thief bringing
force to bear against us, you have helped him by your deeds. For none are unaware, that
everyone who is born (even though he may be born of Christian parents) cannot be without
the unclean spirit, who must of necessity be driven out and separated from a man before
the saving layer. This is effected by the exorcism,through which the unclean spirit is
cast forth and driven, in flight, to desert places.

The house in the heart of the Believer is made empty, the house is made clean. God enters
and dwells therein, even as says the Apostle: 'You are the Temple of God, and God dwells
in you.' 66 Whereas then each [baptised] man is full of God, and that Thief the Devil is
endeavouring to steal something away from him, you exorcise that faithful man by
rebaptising him, and say to God, who dwells within him: 'Go forth, O cursed one,' that
there may be fulfilled what was spoken by Ezekiel the Prophet: 'And they spoke evil things
to Me amongst My people for the sake of a handful of barley and a morsel of bread, that
they might kill souls which ought not to die, whilst they announce to My people empty
deceits.' 67 So God hears wrongful insults, which are not His due, and departs from such a
dwelling as this; and the man who, when he entered the church, was full of God, goes out
an empty vessel.

The Devil, who wished, like a thief, to steal something, sees that the whole, from which
he was striving to snatch some little thing, has become his by your assistance. Wherefore,
of you God said: 'Thou didst see a thief and didst run together with him.' Again it has
been written in the Gospel: 'But when God shall have left a man, he remains an empty
vessel, but the unclean spirit wandering through desert places, says, in his hunger 69: "
My house is empty," 70that is to say, He who had shut me out has been Himself shut out. "
I will go back and dwell therein." And he brings with him seven others more wicked, and he
shall dwell there, and that man's last state shall be worse than his first.' That is:
'Thou didst see a thief and didst run together with him, and with adulterers didst cast
thy lot.'

He terms heretics adulterers, and their churches adulterous,71 which Christ contemns and
disowns in the Canticle of Canticles, as though He should say: 'Why do you make churches
that "are not wanted 73"?' |195 'One is My beloved, one is My Spouse, one is My dove' 74
that is, the Catholic Church, in which you too might be.75 And yet by rebaptising you have
chosen to cast your lot amongst adulterers. It has been most clearly proved by divine
witness that you are sinners. It has also been shown that thine auxiliaries have warred
against thee,76 for thou hast brought up to thy relief 77 the saying of the Prophet: 'The
sacrifice of the sinner, is as of one who would offer in sacrifice a dog.' 78 Now, if you
have any shame, recognise with grief that you are the sinners. VII. In what sense it has
been said: Let not the oil of the sinner anoint My Head.

Also learn this, whose Word it is: 'Let not the oil of the sinner anoint My Head.' 79 For
whose voice is this thou hast not understood? It is surely the voice of Christ, who had
not yet been anointed, when He prayed that the oil of the sinner should not soil His Head.
Thou hast said, without |196 understanding, that David the Prophet feared the oil of the
sinner. The Psalmist had already been anointed by Samuel. There was then no reason why he
should be anointed a second time. Consequently it is the voice of Christ, which says: 'Let
not the oil of the sinner anoint My Head.' It is a prayer, not a command; the expression
of a desire, not a precept. For, were it a command, He would have said: 'The oil of the
sinner shall not anoint My Head.' It is therefore the Voice of the Son of God, even then
fearing to meet the oil of the sinner, that is of any man whomsoever, for no man is
without sin, but God alone. Accordingly His Son feared the oil of man, for it would have
been shameful that God should be anointed by man. Accordingly He prays the Father that He
should not be anointed by man, but by God the Father Himself. It is then the Son who asks;
let us see whether the Father has granted the request.

This the Holy Spirit points out and makes clear in the forty-fourth Psalm, wherein He says
to the Son Himself: 'The Lord thy God shall anoint Thee with the oil of gladness
differently 80 from Thy fellows.' His fellows had been the priests and kings of the Jews,
each of whom was known to have been anointed |197 by men. But, since it was right that the
Son should be anointed by the Father----God by God----as the Son asked and the Spirit
announced that it had been promised----this the Father fulfilled in the Jordan. For when
the Son of God, our Saviour, came there, He was pointed out to John with these words 81:
'Behold the Lamb of God; He it is who taketh away the sins of the world.' 82 He went down
into the water, not that there was anything in God that could be cleansed, but the water
had to come before the oil that was to come after, thus to commence and ordain and fulfil
the Mysteries of Baptism.83

For when the waters went over Him, and He was held in the hands of John, the Mystery
followed in due order, and the Father fulfilled that for which the Son had prayed, and the
Holy Ghost had announced was to come. The Heaven was opened, as the Father anointed.
Forthwith the spiritual oil descended in the likeness of a Dove, and sat upon His Head and
flowed over Him. On this account He was first called Christ, when He was anointed by God
the Father. And lest it might seem that the laying on of hands was lacking to Him, the
Voice of God was heard, saying from the cloud: 'This is My well-beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased.84 Hear ye Him.' 85 Here, therefore, we find the meaning of that which was
written: 'Let not the oil of the sinner anoint My Head.' Learn, then, though late, my
brother Parmenian, the nature of the truth, for now is the time for learning how to find
it.86

VIII. That heretics are children of adulterers. And with regard to that which you have
quoted from the Prophet Solomon 87: 'The children of adulterers shall not come to
perfection, and bastard slips cannot take deep roots,' this may well be understood to have
been said in a literal sense. For, if you take it figuratively, you have excused those who
are actually guilty of adultery. But grant that it was said in figure. In that case it has
been spoken of heretics, whose sacraments are like invalid wedlock, in whose beds is to be
found iniquity, where the very seeds [of life] have been corrupted to the destruction of
the Faith.88 |199 When Valentinus maintains that the Son of God was on earth in a
phantasm, not in Flesh, he corrupted his own faith and that of his followers. The seed of
[spiritual] birth has been rooted out in those who have not believed that the Son of God
was born in the Flesh of Mary the Virgin, and that in the Flesh He suffered.

IX. That a certain passage in Jeremiah is to be understood of the idolatrous Jews. Now
with regard to what you mention that you have read in the Prophet Jeremiah that the people
of God have done two evil things in that 'they forsook the Fountain of living water, and
digged to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water' 89; you have indeed read
this, but have been unwilling to understand the real state of the case. In your love for
bringing charges, you have twisted round everything so as to abuse Catholics, and, to suit
your own purposes, you have attempted to digress a great deal according to your own
whims.90 For if you imagine that everything which has been written by the Prophets belongs
to our own times, you are making excuses for the Jews, concerning whom it is certain that
it was written, that they forsook the Living God, the True God, the God who had bestowed
His Blessings upon them, and made for themselves idols----that is to say, broken cisterns,
which can hold no water.

In God the Everlasting Majesty flows over,91 even |200 as, in a fountain, water freely
gushes forth from its channels. But idols, unless they be made, have no being, and wells,
unless they be dug, hold no water in their depth.92 Cisterns cannot be hollowed out
without skill and tools, nor can idols be made without a craftsman. In idols there is no
virtue that belongs to them,93 but it is given and applied to them through the mistake of
man. Virtue is believed to be in an idol, which is not there of its own nature. A cistern,
the making of which is a weary work,94 is broken with deliberation, so that neither has it
water of itself, nor of itself can it hold the water that it has received. Similarly an
idol is not anything of itself, and, whilst it is being worshipped, is nothing. This is
the meaning of the Word of God, that His people did two evil things, in that they
abandoned the fountain of living water and made for themselves broken cisterns which they
had themselves dug out. For the people of Israel had forsaken the true water, had not
recognised the Divine Majesty, and had followed the evil worship of idols.

This it is over which God grieves, this it is at which He says that the Heaven has
shuddered. |201 For God grieves over the same thing through the Prophet Isaiah, when in
this matter He calls to witness two elements with these words: 'Hear, O Heaven, and
perceive with thine ears, O Earth. I have brought up and have exalted children. But they
have forsaken Me.' 95 How is it, my brother Parmenian, that you have had nothing to say
concerning this passage? Or why is it that there is here no mention of water? It will be
seen that, through your love of fault-finding, you have done such violence to the Law,
that, whenever you read anything of water, you have, by some conjuring tricks, twisted it
round for your purposes of hatred, and have made a sort of drag-net out of malicious
arguments, and have thus drawn to yourself all things which in themselves are good.

For what intelligence have you shown 96 with regard to this passage in Jeremy, since God
cries out that He has been forsaken, and that cisterns have thus been made? His wrath is
concerning Himself, not concerning something which is His, for the Baptismal Water belongs
to God, but is not God Himself.97 And if you think that you [and your baptism] have been
deserted, pray when were any of you baptised 98 among us, so that it |202 should be true
that they who deserted your [baptism] came to us? 99 So we have shown that what you have
said about the Sacraments and sacrifice of a sinner tells not against us, but against
yourselves. [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered] 1. Cf. iii, 4. 2. de oleo et
sacrificio peccatoris. For this phrase cf. i, 5, 6, 7; iv, 7, 9. For oleum cf. note 3, p.
11.

3. non ille debet esse peccator. 4. vestram praesumptionem. The Donatists boastfully
claimed that the validity of the Sacraments depended upon their personal holiness. This
was the 'presumption' with which they started. 5. facessat ex utraque parte praesumptio.
Cf. 'facesse Tarquinios' (Liv. i, 47). 6. cuius sacrificium est canina victima. Canina =
Like that of a dog. Cf. infra iv, 6: quasi qui victimet canem. The reference is to Deut.
xxiii, 18: 'Non offeres pretium canis in domo Domini Dei tui'; cf. also Is. lxvi, 3:
'Facinorosus qui sacrificat Mihi vitulum, quasi qui canem occidat' (the reading of St.
Aug. c. ep. Par men. ii, 5). 7. The whole of this chapter is a digression (cf. i, 3). 8.
impius. 9. Malach. ii, 10. 10. Ps. lxxxi, 6. 11. Matt. xxiii, 9. 12. solus natus est
Filius Dei. 13. John i, 11. 14. They had been made the sons of God by Baptism, but had, by
reason of their schism, lost their right to the title.

15. Matt. v, 9. 16. Deum et hominem revocavit in Pacem. A very strong phrase. 17. Eph. ii,
13. 18. quos iisdem Sacramentorum visceribus (cf. ii, 10). 19. The Lord's Prayer. 20. in
totum. 21. cuius potuit vel oleum timeri, vel sacrificium repudiavi. 22. sub secundo
diapsalmate. Ps. xlix, 16. For Diapsalma cf. S. August. Enarr. in Ps. iv, 4; Quaest. ex
utroque mixtim (Migne, P.L. p. 2334); S. Hieron. Ep. xxviii, De Voce Diapsalma. 23.
processisti de castris. This is the reading of G. It is probably a conjecture but seems to
give the right sense. RBv read proiecisti castris, which it is not possible to translate.
Ziwsa conjectures proiecisti te castris (thou hast flung itself upon fortresses), but this
is hardly Latin. Besides Optatus is not likely to have represented an army as first
attacking, and afterwards as standing in array against the enemy in the field. 24.
captasti.

25. Cf. ii, 14. 26. Ps. xlix, 16, 17, 18, 20. 27. St. Optatus here passes abruptly from
the singular to the plural number, from Parmenian individually to the Donatists
collectively. 28. Ps. xxxiii, 15. 29. Luke ii, 14. 30. Ps. cxxxii, 1. 31. Here St. Optatus
returns to the singular. 32. John xiii, 10. 33. Ps, civ, 15. 34. We have the plural once
more. 35. John xiii, 34. 36. Cf. vii, 3. 37. We have the singular again. 38.
iustificationes. 39. Ziwsa has added at the beginning of this last sentence a second
quomodo and places a note of interrogation at the end (Quomodo testamentum vecitas?). This
addition (for which no reason is given) seems unnecessary. The vecitas testamentum
corresponds well with the exponis iustificationes Dei etc. of the beginning of the
paragraph. 40. electi estis, qui sedentes populum doceatis. To sit, i.e. when teaching the
people. We learn from St. Augustine (Hom. xxvi; Tract. xix and cxii in S. Ioan.; in Expos.
Ps. cxlvii etc.) that in the Churches of Africa the Bishops only were allowed to sit
(though an exception was made in favour of those who were ill or tired, at least when the
reading was long). He tells us, however, that a far better custom prevailed in some
European Churches: 'longe consultius in quibusdam ecclesiis transmarinis, non solum
antistites sedentes loquuntur ad populum, sed ipsi etiam populo sedilia subiacent' (de
Catech. rudibus, c. xiii).

41. Ps. xlix, 20. 42. ne nos salutent, ne a nobis dignationem accipiant. In the early days
of Christianity, Christians were accustomed to salute one another with the kiss of peace,
not only at a stated time in the church during divine service, but also when meeting in
the street. Casaubon points out that in Low Latin dignatio was used for facilitas or
humanitas and quotes from Sidonius Apollinaris the phrase 'dignitate clarus, dignatione
communis.' (For legitimum, cf. note 5, p. 164.) 43. tractatus----i.e. ad populum =
sermons. Ziwsa, however, gives libellus as its equivalent. 44. et invenietis oleum vestrum
timuisse, qui rogabat. Du Pin rejects this sentence, as not being consistent with the
context; but it is found in all the MSS. 45. qui non aut aliud initiet aut aliud explicet.
46. lectiones dominicas. 47. Ps. xlix, 20. 48. non ad populum qui in Ecclesia non habent
sedendi licentiam. Cf. supra: 'Electi estis, qui sedentes populum doceatis,' where see
note.

49. in perfunctoria salutatione oscula denegatis solita. 50. Ave. 51. Apostolus. 52. We
have here three passages joined together in one sentence----1 Cor. v, 11; 2 John 10; 2
Tim. ii, 17. Parmenian (or possibly some other Donatist) had quoted all the three texts.
St. Optatus supposes the context known, and cites a portion of each, without continuing
them. 53. quorum caeperat illis temporibus vitiosa esse doctrina, qui subtili seductione
verborum morbis obscure serpentibus corrumperent fidei sanitatem. 54. The MSS. have Ebion.
Du Pin substituted Praxeas who was accused by Tertullian. 'Patrem cruci fixit.' St.
Optatus probably wrote Ebion by a slip of the pen. 55. qui habuit cancer. St. Augustine
(De Bapt. con. Donat. iv, 12) writes that he would have understood the words in 2 Tim. ii,
17 (quoted above by St. Optatus), 'serpit eorum sermo velut cancer,' of wicked men within
the Church, but that the authority of St. Cyprian will not admit of this interpretation.
He proceeds, however, to argue against St. Cyprian, who had written (Ep. ad Iubaianum):
'Nam cum dicant [Apostoli] sermonem eorum [haereticorum] ut cancer serpere, quomodo is
sermo dare remissam peccatorum qui ut cancer serpit ad aures audientium?' To this
Augustine makes answer: 'Nec foris, sicut nec intus, quisquam qui ex parte diaboli est,
potest vel in se vel in quoquam maculare Sacramentum quod Christi est . . . cum Baptisma
verbis evangelicis datur ... si quis per hominem perversum id accipiens . . . remissionem
accipit peccatorum non per verba sicut cancer serpentia, sed per Evangelica Sacramenta de
caelesti fonte manantia.'

56. St. Optatus seems to have been led astray here by the fact that Tertullian gave the
inscription of Scorpiace to the book which he wrote against the heretics, who had attacked
the martyrs. Hence apparently he thought that there had been a heretic called Scorpian.
But at the commencement of this book Tertullian attacks no individual, but terms Gnostics,
Valentinians and other heretics in general Scorpios. 57. relatio. Relatio = recounting,
i.e. narrative or teaching (from referre, to relate). Ziwsa says = sermo. 58. ex nullis
substantiis ( = ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων) factum esse. 59. quamdiu vos tenetis? = quamdiu apud
Catholicos manetis? Ziwsa says that se tenere here = zögern, sich aufrecht erhalten. 60.
Cf. i, 2; ii, 24 supra etc. 61. simplici. Simplex = unadulterated, unmixed by any new
teaching or heresy. 62. Ps. xlix, 18. 63. aut de involato gremio. Gremium----the fold of
the garment-----pocket. Involato not from in-volare = to swoop upon, but from the unusual
verb in-vola-re from vola, the palm of the hand, = to place in the palm of the hand----to
steal (cf. French voler).

64. possessio Dei est turba Fidelium. 65. nam neminem fugit quod omnis homo qui nascitur,
quamvis de parentibus Christianis nascatur, sine spiritu immundo esse non possit, quem
necesse sit ante salutare lavacrum ab homine excludi et separari. Hoc exorcismus operatur
etc. We see the importance which Optatus attached to the very ancient pre-baptismal
exorcism. 66. 1 Cor. iii, 16. 67. Ez. xiii, 19: maledicebant . . . vanas seductiones
(Vulgate 'violabant , . . mentientes populo Meo credenti mendaciis'). 68. Ps. xlix, 18.
69. ieiunus. 70. We have here a paraphrase of Matt. xii, 43-45. 71. Cf. note 4, p. 18. 72.
aspernatur et repudiat. 73. non necessarias. Cf. note 3, p. 121. 74. Cant. vi, 8. 75.
Catholica, in qua . . . esse, Cf. iii, 3: 'in Christi Catholica habitabant,' etc. 76. tua
auxilia contra te militasse. We have this abrupt transition to the singular in order to
emphasise the fact that Parmenian had quoted this text, which is now turned against him.

77. in auxilium addideras. 78. Is. lxvi, 3: quasi qui victimet canem. We read in the
Vulgate 'quasi qui excerebret canem.' The word victimo is used in the sense of sacrifice
by Apuleius. Excerebrare (literally to beat out the brains) is found only in the Vulgate.
It is translated in the Douay Version: 'He that killeth in sacrifice.' (Cf. note 1, p.
181.) 79. Ps. cxl, 6. 80. aliter a consortibus tuis. (The Vulgate has 'prae consortibus
tuis,') Ps. xliv, 8. 81. Ad Ioannem ostensus est his verbis. 82. John i, 29. 83. In
Confirmation: Cf. Tixeront (op. cit. ii, 314). 84. de quo bene sensi. 85. Matt. iii, 17;
Mark i, 11; Luke ix, 35; 2 Pet. i, 17. 86. ration em veritatis, f rater Parmeniane, vel
sero, addisce, quoniam nunc tempus est invenire discendi. G reads tempus discendi
invenisti ----evidently an emendation, but the rhythm is wrong, and the reading of the
other MSS. gives good sense. Casaubon suggests the very violent and unnecessary change
Nunc non tempus est iuvenile discendi.

87. Sap. iii, 16; iv, 3: filios adulterorum inconsummatos et spuria vitulamina altas
radices dare non posse. (Vulgate: 'Filii adulterorum in inconsummatione erunt, et spuria
vitulamina non dabunt radices altas.' ) 88. apud quos sunt sacramentorum falsa connubia,
et in quorum toris iniquitas invenitur, ubi in exterminium Fidei corrupta sunt semina. For
toris Du Pin reads choris with v. But the MSS, have toris, and the reference to Sap. iii,
16 makes this reading certain (cf. also note 4, p. 18). 89. Jer. ii, 13. 90. multum ad
arbitrium tuum declinare conatus es. RBv have destinare. 91. in Deo perennis Maiestas
exundat. This passage is absolutely corrupt in RBv. Ideo perennis male destans exultant,
sicut in fonte aqua largiter defluentibus venis exuberant. From G it is clear that Ideo
should be in Deo and that male destans should be Maiestas. Casaubon conjectured exundat
for exultant and exuberat for exuberant. Ziwsa accepts this emendation. It is the text
which I have translated.

92. sinus capaces habere non possunt. 93. in idolis virtus naturalis nulla est. 94. cuius
fabrica vexatio est Gb, vexationes RB. Casaubon conjectured 'cuius si fabrica vitiata est
aquam nec habeat etc' 95. Is. i, 2 (cf. Jer. ii, 13). 96. qualis est tuus intellectus----
of what kind is your understanding? 97. pro Se irascitur, non pro re sua. Aqua enim
baptismatis res Dei est, non Deus. Parmenian had taken fons aquas vivae to be true
baptism, which Catholics had forsaken, whereas St. Optatus points out that it refers to
God Himself. 98. baptizati, i.e. rebaptised. 99. et si [vos G] putatis desertos esse,
quando apud vos fuerunt, qui apud nos baptizati sunt, ut merito vestri desertores ad nos
venire viderentur? (For, apud vos fuerunt BG read apud nos fuerunt; for qui apud nos etc.
RB read quia etc.) The Latin of this passage is obscure and the text not certain, but the
argument of Optatus is clear. 'You say that we have deserted the font of true baptism,
but, granted that you have true baptism, has your baptism ever been "deserted" by those
that came over from you to us? We have never rebaptised any who had received baptism at
your hands.' Viderentur is (as so often in Optatus) used pleonastically.

BOOK THE FIFTH

In this Fifth Book it is shown that though Men are the Ministers of Baptism, it is God Who
cleanses, and that it is his Christ who gives what is received in baptism, and that the
rebaptised cannot possess the kingdom of God, and that they have lost the Wedding Garment.

I. FROM PARMENIAN'S OWN PRINCIPLES IT FOLLOWS THAT BAPTISM IS ONE.

1 In our First Book we have shown by the clearest proofs who were the Betrayers of the Law
and the originators of the schism; in the Second we have pointed out that with us is the
One True Catholic Church, whilst in the Third we have proved that whatever is said to have
been done with severity cannot rightfully be in any way ascribed to us. We have also
maintained that there is divine warrant for saying that it is you, rather than we, who are
'sinners.' We must now in this place speak of Baptism. In the matter at present to be
considered the whole question consists in this, that you have dared to do violence to
Baptism----that you have repeated what Christ has commanded to be done but once. And this,
my brother Parmenian, you do not deny, since at the beginning of your treatise you have
said many things which are on our side, and tell for us, but against you. Thus with
reference to Baptism, you have mentioned that there was only one Flood, and only one
Circumcision for the people of the Jews. But although you dealt with these subjects at the
beginning of your oration, as the sermon was developed you soon forgot all about them, and
introduced two waters; so you made a silly commencement to your argument, for you knew
that you were going on to discuss the true water and the false.

2 You strengthen the oneness of Holy Baptism, when trying to weaken it ; for you have
wished to lay as it were a foundation, with regard to the Jewish Circumcision, that the
Baptism of Christians had been foreshadowed in the Circumcision of the Hebrews. In this
way you have defended, whilst attacking, the Catholic Church. As your treatise progressed,
you claimed to empty of value one kind of Baptism,that you might fill the other to the
full. By saying that (apart from the Baptism of heretics), there is one Baptism and yet a
second, you could not deny----although you have tried to show that they are different
----that they are two; when you endeavoured to remove one of these, you laboured to treat
the second as though it were the first. But before the coming of Baptism, Circumcision was
sent forward in advance in a figure. Yet you have maintained that there are amongst
Christians two waters. Show then that there are also two Circumcisions amongst the Jews
----of which one was the better, the other the worse. If you search for this, you will not
be able to find it. The family of Abraham----by descent from whom men are judged to be
Jews----glory in being marked with this seal. Therefore the truth ought afterwards to
follow, like in character to its figure, which was sent on before.

3 For God too, who wished to show that the reality to come (when the truth should follow
the type) must be something unique, willed not that anything should be removed from the
ear, nor from the finger; but that part of the body was chosen where what had been once
cut away should leave them with a sign that is to our point, because it cannot be removed
a second time. For when this is done once it preserves health; if done again it may do
harm. Similarly, Christian Baptism, effected by the Trinity, confers grace; if it be
repeated it causes loss of life. 4 What then has come over you, my brother Parmenian, to
bring forward a thing which is one,and over against it to compare two Baptisms (even
though you allege that they are different)----the one true, the other false? For in this
way you have proceeded to argue that there are two waters, and claiming one as true for
yourselves, wished to ascribe the other to us as false. After this you have made mention
also of the Flood. This was indeed a figure of Baptism, inasmuch as the whole sin-stained
world, after the sinners had been drowned, was, through the intervention of washing,
restored----cleansed----to its former appearance. But since you were going to say that
(besides the muddy fountains of the heretics) there was another water----that is a lying
water in opposition to the true----to what purpose have you thought well to refer to the
Flood, which happened but once? But as you will have it so, show first two Arks unlike one
another, and two dissimilar doves, bearing different branches in their mouth----that is,
if you are to prove that there is a true water and another which is false.

5 That water alone is true which has been sanctified not from any place, nor by any
[human] person,but by the Trinity. And, as you have said that there is a water which is
lying, learn where you may find such----with Praxeas, the Patripassian, who totally denies
the Son, and maintains that the Father has suffered. Since the Son of God is Truth----as
He Himself bears witness, saying: 'I am the Door, and the Way and the Truth' -----
therefore----if the Son of God is Truth----where He is not, there is a lie. And as the Son
is not with the Patripassian, there the Truth is not, and where the Truth is not, there
the water is lying. So, though late, cease now to concoct accusations, and do not transfer
to Catholics that which was said against Patripassians. It has, then, been clearly
demonstrated that what you have said of the Flood and of Circumcision might have been said
just as well by us as in support of your side.

6 It remains to show that you have praised Baptism in such a way as to bring forward many
things which tell both for you and for us, but something that tells against you. Whatever
we share with you is in favour of both. For this reason does it favour you, because from
us you went out. Thus, for example, you and we have one ecclesiastical discipline, we read
from the same Scriptures, we possess the same Faith, the same Sacraments of Faith, the
same Mysteries. With reason, therefore, have you praised Baptism, for who amongst the
Faithful is unaware that the one Baptism is life for virtues, death to evil deeds, birth
to immortality, the attainment of the heavenly kingdom, the harbour of innocence, and (as
you too have said) the shipwreck of sins ? These are the blessings conferred upon every
believer, not by the minister of this Sacrament, but by the Faith of him who believes and
by the Trinity.

II. THAT IN BAPTISM THE WORK IS DONE BY THE TRINITY, NOT BY THE PERSON OF THE MINISTER.

1 Then you will ask what you have, when praising Baptism, said against yourselves. Listen!
But first you must acknowledge something which not one of you will be able to deny. You
say that the Trinity counts for nothing, unless you be present. If you think little of us,
at least reverence the Lord, who is First in the Trinity, who with His Son and the Holy
Ghost effects and completes all things,even when no human person is present. But, my
brother Parmenian, you have said in praise of the water, of which we read in the Book of
Genesis, that the waters first gave forth living beings'.Could they have given them birth
of their own instance ? Was not the whole Trinity there as well? Surely God the Father was
there----He who had deigned to command: 'Let the waters bring forth swimming things, birds
and the rest.' But if that which was then done were to be done without any to effect it,
God would have said:

2 'O waters, bring forth.' So the Son of God----who effected it ----was there. The Holy
Ghost was there, as it has been written: 'And the Spirit of God was borne over the
waters.' I see nothing there which is a fourth----nothing less than the Three. Yet that
which the Trinity effected came to birth, although you were not there. If then it be not
allowed to the Trinity to do anything without you, call back the fishes to their first
beginning ; if in your absence the Trinity may not effect anything, drown in the waters
the birds as they fly.

III. THAT BAPTISM IS NOT TO BE REPEATED.

1 Since then you have said that there was only one Deluge and that Circumcision could not
be repeated, whilst we have taught that the heavenly gift is bestowed upon every believer
by the Trinity, not by man----why have you thought it right to repeat Baptism not after
us, bat after the Trinity? Concerning this Sacrament, no small contention has been
engendered, and the question is discussed whether it be lawful to do this a second time
after the Trinity, in the Name of the same Trinity. You say: 'It is lawful,' whilst we
say: 'It is not lawful.' Between your 'It is lawful,' and our 'It is not lawful,' the
souls of the multitude hesitate and sway backwards and forwards. Let no one believe either
you or us. We are all like litigants in a suit. Judges must be sought for. If they are to
be Christians, they cannot be provided by either side, because truth is impeded by party
spirit. A judge must be sought for from outside. If he is to be a Pagan, he cannot know
the Christian secrets. If he is to be a Jew, he is an enemy of Christian Baptism.
Therefore, concerning this matter no judgement can be found on earth; we have to seek a
Judge from heaven. But why need we knock at heaven's gate, when we have at hand in the
Gospel a testament?

2 Here earthly things may with reason be compared with heavenly. For example, in the case
of any man who has many sons, so long as the father is present, he himself gives his
orders to each, nor is any testament necessary. Thus Christ, so long as He was present on
earth (although even now He is not absent), gave His orders to the Apostles with regard to
whatever was necessary for the time. But just as an earthly father, who feels himself to
be on the borderland of death, and fears lest his sons may break peace after his death,
and go to law, calls in witnesses and transfers his will from his breast, so soon to pass
away, to a record which will last for a long time ----and should any dispute arise amongst
the brothers, they do not go to the grave, but the testament is looked for, and he who
rests in the grave silently speaks from the record; in the same manner He, to whom the
testament belongs, is in heaven----therefore let His Will be sought in the Gospel as in
His testament.

3 For through His foreknowledge Christ had foreseen the things which you do now, but which
were then yet to come. Accordingly, when the Son of God washed the feet of His disciples,
He spoke thus to Peter: 'That which I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know
afterwards.' By saying 'thou shalt know afterwards' He pointed out these present times. In
this way amongst other prescriptions of His testament, He gave this prescription
concerning the Water. If, when He washed the feet of His disciples, and the others were
silent, Peter had also been silent, He would have set the example of humility only, and
would have made no declaration respecting the Sacrament of Baptism. But when Peter
refuses, and does not allow his feet to be washed, Christ refuses him the Kingdom, unless
he should accept this service. But so soon as there is mention of the heavenly Kingdom----
whereas part of his body was demanded to have service rendered unto it----he offered his
whole body to be cleansed.

4 Now come, be present, ye crowds and all Christian peoples, and learn what is lawful.
When Peter makes his appeal, Christ teaches. Let him who doubts learn. For it is the Voice
of Christ: 'He, who has once been washed, has no need of being washed again, for he is
altogether clean.' And thus did He make His declaration concerning that washing which he
had commanded to be done through the Trinity ----not concerning that of Jews or heretics,
who, whilst they wash, defile, but concerning the holy water which flows from the
fountains of the Three Names. For thus the Lord Himself commanded, when He said: 'Go,
baptise all nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.' This
was the washing of which He said: 'He that has been washed once has no need of being
washed a second time.' In saying once He forbade it to be done again, and spoke of the
thing, not of the person. For if there had been a difference [to be considered between
persons], He would have said:

5 'He that has been rightly washed once,' but by not adding the word rightly, He points
out that whatever has been done in the [Name of the] Trinity is done rightly. This is the
reason why we receive without rebaptising those who come [to us] from you. When Christ
says: 'He has no need of being washed a second time,' this is a general, not a particular
declaration, for if these things had been said to Peter [only], Christ would have said:
'Because thou hast been once washed, thou hast no need of being washed a second time.'
Wherefore, whenever anyone who has been baptised by you wishes to pass over to us, we,
taught by this command and example, receive him with all simplicity.For far be it from us
ever to exorcise one of the Faithful who has been made whole ; far be it from us to bring
back to the font one who has been already washed, far from us to sin against the Holy
Ghost----an offence for which forgiveness is denied in this world and in the world to come
; far from us to repeat that which is [to be done] only once, or to make twofold that
which is one. For thus has it been written by the Apostle:

6 'One God, one Christ, one Faith, one Baptism.' Do you then, who seem to take delight in
striving to make Baptism twofold, if you give a second Baptism, give a second Faith; if
you give a second Faith, give also a second Christ; if you give a second Christ, give a
second God? You cannot deny that God is one----unless indeed you would fall into the traps
of Marcion. God then is one. Of one God there is one Christ. He who is rebaptised had
before been made a Christian. How can he be said to become a Christian a second time? The
one Faith is thus separated from the errors of the heretics, and the one only Faith from
their varying faith. It has also a prescriptive right over against you, who reject that
which is for once only, attributing everything to the [external] Endowments, nothing to
the [hidden] Sacraments ; though this quality of Faith belongs to the. believer, not to
the 'Minister.' For he who has believed in God at the interrogation of any person
whomsoever, has believed. Yet after his one Credo thou dost exact a second Credo.

7 It follows then that Baptism is one, and, as, through the very fact that it is one, it
is holy, so also, through the very fact that it is one, not only that it should be
separated from the profane and sacrilegious baptisms of heretics, but also that what is
one should not be made twofold, and that what is for once only should not be repeated.

IV. THAT IT IS GOD, NOT THE MINISTER, WHO CLEANSES IN THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM.

1 It is clear that in the celebration of this Sacrament of Baptism there are three
elements, which you will not be able either to decrease or diminish, or put on one side.
The first is in the Trinity, the second in the believer, the third in him who operates.
But they must not all be weighed by the same measure.For I perceive that two are
necessary, and that one is quasi-necessary. The Trinity holds the chief place, without
whom the work itself cannot be done. The faith of the believer follows next. Then comes
the office of the 'Minister,' which cannot be of equal authority. The first two remain
always unchangeable and unmoved. For the Trinity is always Itself; and the Faith is the
same in everyone. Both [the Trinity and Faith] always preserve their own efficacy. It will
be seen, therefore, that the office of the minister cannot be equal to the other two
elements [in the Sacrament of Baptism], because it alone is liable to change.

2 You will have it that between you and us there is a distinction, though the office is
the same, and, judging yourselves to be more holy than we, you do not hesitate to place
your pride higher than the Trinity,although the person of the 'Minister' can be changed,
but the Trinity cannot be changed. And, whereas it is Baptism which should be longed for
by those who receive it, you put yourselves forward as the persons to be eagerly sought
after. Since you are----amongst others----' Ministers' of the Sacrament, show what is the
nature of the place that you occupy in this Mystery, and whether you can belong to its
'body'! 3 The Name of Baptism is but one. It possesses its own body ----a body which has
its own well-defined members, to which nothing can be added, in which nothing can be taken
away. If the 'Minister' who has to be chosen is counted as one of these members,then the
whole body belongs to the 'Minister.' All these members are both at all times and once for
all with this 'body,' and cannot be changed, whereas the 'Ministers' are changed every
day, both as to place and time, and in their own persons. For it is not one man only, who
baptises always or everywhere. This work is now done by different men from those who did
it of old. In the time to come it will be done by yet others. The 'Ministers' can be
changed; the Sacraments cannot be changed. Since therefore you see that all who baptise
are labourers, not lords, and that the Sacraments are holy through themselves, not through
men, why do you claim so much for yourselves? Why is it that you try to shut God out from
His own gifts? Allow Him to bestow those things, which are His own. For that gift, which
belongs to God, cannot be given by man. If you think otherwise, you are endeavouring to
make of no effect the words of the Prophets and the promises of God, by which it is proved
that it is God, not man, who cleanses. Here David the Prophet is against you, for he says
in the fiftieth Psalm:

4 'Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be cleansed beyond the snow' ; and again in the same
Psalm: 'O God, wash me from my wickedness and cleanse me from my sin.' He said: 'Wash me.'
He did not say: 'Choose for me one by whom I may be washed.' And the Prophet Isaiah also
has written that 'the Lord shall wash away the defilement of the sons and daughters of
Sion.' We have proved in our Third Book that Sion is the Church ; it follows that God
washes the sons and daughters of the Church. He did not say: 'They shall wash who judge
themselves to be holy.' Admit then that the Prophets overcome you, or, with them,
recognise that it is not man who washes, but God. As long as you ask: 'How can he give,
who has not anything to give?' understand that it is the Lord who is the giver,understand
that it is God who cleanses each man, whoever he may be; for no one can wash away the
defilement and stains of the mind, but God alone, who is also the Maker of the mind. Or,
if you think that it is your washing [that cleanses], tell us what is the nature of this
mind, which is washed through the body, or what 'form' it has, or in what part of a man it
dwells. To know this has not been granted to any. How, then, do you think that it is you
who cleanse, when you do not know the nature of that which you cleanse? It belongs not to
man, but to God to cleanse, for He has Himself promised that He will cleanse, through the
Prophet Isaiah, when He said:

5 'Even though your sins are like scarlet, I will make you white as snow.' He said: 'I
will make you white,' and not: 'I will cause you to be made white.' If this has been
promised by God, why do you wish to give that which it is not permitted to you either to
promise, or to give, or to have? Behold by Isaiah God has promised Himself to wash those
stained by sin, not through a man. Go back to the Gospel, and see what Christ has promised
for the salvation of the human race. When the Samaritan woman refused water to the Son of
God, then He said that which gives His answer to your contentions : 'He who shall drink
the water which I give shall not thirst for ever.' He said: 'the water which I give.' He
did not say: 'which they shall give, who deem themselves holy,'

6 as you think yourselves to be; but He did say that He would give. He Himself, therefore,
it is who gives, and that which is given is His own. What, therefore, is it which you
strive, with absolute unreasonableness,to vindicate for yourselves?

V. WHY AND WHEN THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST WAS CONFERRED.

1 To give the final proof concerning this matter, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the
Saviour, when he was baptising many to repentance and the remission of their sins,
declared that the Son of God was about to come. These are his words: 'Behold, He cometh to
baptise you.' Yet we do not read that Christ rebaptised anyone after John. With regard,
therefore, to these words: 'He cometh to baptise you,' Christ coming after John baptised
no one. This promise was made for our times, that He might give what is given to-day,
according to His Word: 'He who shall drink the water which I give shall not thirst for
ever.' And although the disciples of John said to their master: 'Behold He, whom thou hast
baptised, baptises.' He baptised indeed, but by the hands of His Apostles, to whom He had
given the laws of Baptism. As it has been written in another place:

2 'For He Himself baptised no one, but His disciples baptised.' In this matter we are all
His disciples, so that we should work, in order that He may give, who promised that He
would give. Still, when John was baptising many thousands of men, even in the presence of
Christ, the servant worked, and the Lord did nothing until He gave the Form of Baptism.
After the lapse of a considerable period, thousands of men were washed in repentance and
forgiveness of sins. But no one was washed in the Trinity, no one yet knew Christ, no one
had heard that there was a Holy Ghost. But when there came the fullness of time, at a
fixed moment, the Son of God gave the laws of Baptism. He gave also the way by which we
might go to the Kingdom of Heaven, for He then commanded: 'Go ye, teach all nations,
baptising them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.'

3 From that day what He had commanded had to be done. It was not His will to amend that
which had been done before that time, lest He might [seem to] give permission to rebaptise
----although the Baptism of John was one thing, and the Baptism of Christ is another.
Before His law [was given] He willed the Baptism of John, which was not full, to be held
for full. And yet with regard to the thousands of men mentioned above, although they knew
not the Son of God and the Holy Ghost, He could not refuse them the Kingdom of Heaven,
because they had believed in God. So it is the Voice of the Son of God, who says: 'From
the days of John to this day the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and they who do
violence bear it away.' For this reason does He say: 'They who do violence,'

4 because John was still baptising. So, because the time before His commandments was
different from the time after His commandments, they who have been baptised in the Name of
the Saviour after the commandments, have entered the Kingdom, through the laws [of
Baptism], whilst those who were before the commandments did violence, without the law, but
were not shut out. Therefore, though before the commandments, the Baptism of John was
imperfect, it was judged by Him, in whose place no man judges, as though it were perfect,
because a certain line of division was placed between the times that preceded and those
that followed His command. When the most blessed Paul saw some at Ephesus who had been
baptised, after the commandments [of Christ], in the Baptism of John, he asked them
whether they had received the Holy Ghost. They replied that they did not know whether
there was a Holy Ghost, and he said to them that, after the Baptism of John, they must
receive the Holy Ghost.

5 They had been baptised, in the same manner as had been the many whom John had baptised.
But those who had been baptised before the law, belonged to the time of exemption, for He
had been present who could give exemption. Those who were not bound by the laws were
altogether not guilty. But those who, as we read, were baptised at Ephesus with the
Baptism of John after the law, had after the laws erred in the Sacrament, because the
Baptism of the Lord had now been introduced and the Baptism of the servant had been
abrogated. And so it is that, after the divine commands, men had to go into the Kingdom by
laws, not by violence. For Christ had already fixed the limit of time by saying: 'From the
days of John until to-day.' After 'to-day' that which was lawful yesterday was lawful no
longer. Wherefore do not deceive yourselves with the saying of the Apostle Paul,for he did
not ask about the person of the 'Minister,' but about the thing. With the fact, not with
the person, he was dissatisfied. So he commanded the Baptism of the Saviour, that they who
did not know might learn, for this they had not received, but something different. But
what do you change? If you have been able to change things, you will have done well,
provided you have acted according to the Law. Paul said:

6 'In what Baptism have you been baptised?' and they said to him: 'The Baptism of John.'
He persuaded them to receive the Baptism of Christ. You do not say: 'What have you
received? but 'From whom have you received it? ' and you inveigh against the characters of
men, and wish to repeat what is for once only. They who had been baptised at Ephesus, had
believed in repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Rightly was it said to them, that they
should be baptised in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. But
what is there for you to change in men, who have already made profession that they believe
in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost? Whether you ask them this
again, or something else, be convinced that you must sin----if you either interrogate
concerning that which has not been commanded, or wish to do something which has been done
already.

VI. AN ANSWER TO THE ARGUMENT, THAT A MAN CANNOT GIVE THAT WHICH HE HAS NOT.

1 I return now to that question of yours: 'How is he, who has not anything to give, able
to give?' Whence comes this saying? Where can it be found? It has not been read in a book,
but has been brought in from the street. 'How is he, who has not anything to give, able to
give?' These words have not been written in the Law, for if (as you will have it) it is
man who gives, God does nothing----and if God does nothing, and if everything that has to
be given is in your hands, then [the baptised] are converted to you. Let those whom you
baptise be washed in your name. Blush at the most blessed Paul, who cries out and
expresses his thanksgiving: 'Have you been baptised in my name?' He rejoices that he
baptised only two persons and one household, but you strive to rebaptise whole peoples,
and are contented both to have sinned in the past, and to go on sinning, saying:

2 'What does he give, who has not anything to give?' He, in whom we believe, is Himself
the giver of that in which we believe, not another through whose instrumentality we are
brought to believe. Besides, under John a vast multitude of men were baptised. Prove (if
you can) that John either received, or possessed, anything to give. He was the 'Minister'
; the gift was from God, who does not fail in giving. And now whilst we all are Ministers
of Baptism, the works are man's, but the gifts are from God.

VII. THAT THE GRACE OF BAPTISM IS THE GIFT OF GOD, NOT OF MAN, WHO IS SHOWN TO BE ONLY THE MINISTER.

1 So consider how ridiculous is that saying, which is always heard to come from you, as
though for your glorification: 'This gift of Baptism belongs to him who gives, not to him
who receives.' And would that you should say this of God, who is the true Giver. But----a
stupid thing----you say that you are the givers. If this be so, suppose that both you and
we are dealing with two Pagans. Do you, who say that you are holy, ask the one whom you
have in your hands, whether he renounces the Devil and believes the Lord, and we will
suppose that he says: 'I will not.' On the other hand, let us who, as you will have it,
are sinners, ask the other Pagan, whether he renounces the Devil, and believes God and the
other questions, and we will suppose that he says: 'I do renounce and I do believe, and
the rest' ----

2 will you tell me when you baptise the one who is unwilling, and we baptise the other who
is willing, which of these two can arrive at the grace of God? Surely, without doubt, it
is acquired by the one who believes, not by him, in whose case, as you say, your holiness
takes the place of his own will. Recognise, though late, that you are only ministers. Or
if (you say that) the work is in the workmen, and not in itself, find some who will claim
this for themselves in their arts, so that we may, according to your challenge, compare
human arts with things that are divine. When something is dyed with a precious colour, its
nature is often changed. A white fleece is dyed, and becomes purple. Even as the white
wool passes into the royal purple, so the catechumen passes into the Christian. Surely,
whilst he begins to be that which he was not, he ceases to be that which he was. The wool
changes both its colour and its name, and the man changes both his appellation and his
disposition. We have to think of the results that have been effected, and must consider
once more what it is that has effected those results. You say that it is your gift that
has made that man a Christian.

3 If this is all your doing, then the workman also who makes the purple, may say that he
has the precious colour in his own hands, and has no need to procure from the Ocean
precious dyes----unknown to many----that the fleeces may be promoted to a marvellous
dignity, and is free to assert that he can make the purple, merely by his touch, without
admixture from the blood of the fish. But if on the contrary this workman is unable to
give the colour by his touch alone, then neither is the workman in Baptism able to give
anything of himself without the Trinity. Such is this question, about which we have our
present contention. For in Whom the nations should be baptised has been ordained by the
Saviour. Through whom they should be baptised was appointed without the making of any
exception. He did not say to the Apostles:

4 'Do it you! Let not others do it.' Whosoever has baptised in the Name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, has discharged the Apostles' work. And so it has been
written in the Gospel. When John said: 'O Master, we have seen one casting out devils in
Thy Name, and we have forbidden him, because he followeth not with us,' Christ said:
'Forbid him not, for he that is not against you is for you.' For to them the command had
been given that their work should be sanctification by the Trinity, and that they should
not baptise in their own name, but in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost. Therefore it is the Name which sanctifies, not the work. Understand, though
late in the day, that you are labourers not lords. And, if the Church is the Vineyard, and
men are the vines, and those who are to attend to the vines have been duly appointed, why
do you rush upon that which appertains to the dominion of the Father of the Family? Why do
you claim for yourselves what belongs to God? Why do you wish that something of which you
cannot have even a part, should be yours altogether? For on account of swelling pride----
yours----with which you are swollen against us ----the most blessed Paul chides the
Corinthians. In himself and Apollo he gives a picture of that which happens in our time.

5 'Let not one,' he said, 'be puffed up against another.' And, that he may show how all
this Sacrament of Baptism belongs to God, so that there is nothing here that the
'Minister' may claim for himself, he speaks as follows: 'I indeed have planted '---- that
is, 'of a pagan I have made a catechumen'----'Apollo has watered'---- that is, he has
baptised the catechumen, but God has given that which had been planted, or watered, the
power to grow. In like manner anyone to-day, who wishes to dig up and loosen the ground in
his vineyard,hires a labourer for an agreed sum, to make holes in the ground, in which----
with bent back, the sweat running down his sides----he may place the little vines that
have been selected, and (after he has trodden the ridges under his feet) pour water upon
them. He is able to dig at the trenches and plant the vines. He is able to bring them
water, but he is not able to command the water to hold them ; it is in the power of God
alone from the pith of vine-branches to bring forth roots which assimilate themselves to
the soil, and the budding eyelets, out of which leaves burst forth.

6 Even as the blessed Apostle Paul, to tame your presumption and pride, and that the
workman may not think either that he has any dominion over Baptism, or claim any share for
himself----however small----in so great a gift, writes as follows, showing that all
belongs to God: 'Neither he that plants nor he that waters is anything, but God alone, who
leads to the attainment of the increase .' You are workmen amongst others. When the sun
goes in, that is to say, when the world has come to an end----on the Judgement Day ----you
may argue with us about reward. Do not wish to claim for yourself that which belongs to
the supreme authority of God. For if this is your due, then the servants who wait at the
Lord's table should claim to be thanked by His guests for the courtesies which their Lord
has rendered. It is the Voice of Christ, who gives the invitation:

7 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world.' The nations flock to receive His grace. He, who deigned to invite, is the
giver thereof. A crowd of His servants exercise their ministry. Thanks must be rendered,
not to those who serve, but to Him who provides the repast. Since you are the ministers,
it is shameless in you to claim for yourselves the entire ownership of the banquet, though
the most blessed Paul confesses with humility that he and the others are servants----in
order that no one may imagine that he ought to place his hope in Apostles or Bishops
alone. On this account says the Apostle: 'For what is Paul, or what Apollo? Surely the
ministers of Him, in whom you have believed?' Accordingly, in all those who serve there is
not ownership but service. Now, therefore, my brother Parmenian, you see that of the three
elements [in Baptism] which I have mentioned above, the one which is threefold comes
first, is immovable, is supreme and unchangeable, but that the person of any individual
minister remains only for a time.

VIII. CONCERNING THE FAITH OF HIM WHO RECEIVES BAPTISM.

1 It remains now to say something of the merit of the believer, to whom belongs the faith,
which the Son of God placed before both His Sanctity and Majesty. For you cannot be more
holy than is Christ. When that woman, whose daughter was dead, came to Him, and besought
that she should be restored to life, He promised nothing of His own Power, but asked about
the faith of another, so that if the woman believed, her daughter should be raised up, in
view of her mother's faith ; but that if she believed not, the Power of the Son of God
would be idle, with nothing to do. The woman is questioned. She replies that she believed
that what she had asked for could be accomplished. She is ordered to depart. She returns
to her house, and finds the daughter alive whom she had left dead. She does not rush to
kisses, she does not hasten to embraces, but returns to render thanks to the Saviour. And
the Son of God, that He might show that He had stood by,and that her faith alone had
worked, said to her:

2 'O woman, depart in peace. Thy faith hath made thee whole.' What comes of your saying:
'It is of the giver, not of the receiver' ? And what think you of the centurion's faith?
He besought the Saviour to ward off death from his son, when he was ill. Christ then went
to the dying boy. In such estimation did the centurion hold Him, that he acknowledged the
unworthiness of his house, and begged that the Son of God would not enter it in person,
but that He should send His Power, by which death might be put to flight, and the lad be
restored to life. It was not the valour of the centurion, nor his wisdom that was praised,
but his faith: 'And his son was cured at that hour.' Of a truth it is 'of the giver,' not
of him that receives! There are many things of this kind in the Gospel about perfect
faith, but we must finish the story of at least three witnesses to Faith.

3 What think you of that woman, who, after she had been ill for twelve years of a hidden
malady, belonging to women, and had spent all her substance upon doctors, on beholding so
many wonderful works performed by the Son of God, went into the crowd, saw the physician,
saw also the people? Her pain urged her on to ask for medicine, shame hindered her from
disclosing, in the presence of men, the cause of her complaint. Her silent faith told her
what to do. 'I will send forth my hand,' [she said] 'and I will touch the hem of His
garment and I shall be healed.' When no one observed her, in the midst of the crowd she
put forth her hand. She touched and was healed. But she did not venture to tell aloud that
for which she had not ventured to ask. However, that the fruit of her faith might not be
hidden from those who were unaware of it, the Saviour asked:

4 'Who has touched Me?' His disciples marvelled and said: 'The crowds press on Thee, yet
Thou dost ask, "Who has touched Me?"' and Christ asked: 'Who, I say, has touched Me? I
have felt that virtue has gone forth from Me.' So the woman acknowledged that she it was
who had touched Him and been healed. In the other cases the mother had asked for her
daughter, the centurion had asked for his son. Here neither did the woman ask, nor did
Christ promise, but faith obtained all that it anticipated. Without doubt 'it is of him
that gives, not of him that receives.'

IX. THAT THE EXAMPLE OF NAAMAN THE SYRIAN WAS BROUGHT BY PARMENIAN WITHOUT RELEVANCE.

In order to add to the bulk of your treatise, you have thought well, my brother Parmenian,
to describe Naaman the Syrian at length as some kind of unripe mass of hardest wounds just
coming to their birth.What has this to do with our present business? You might bring it
forward relevantly, and might well have employed a long discourse about it, had you come
across some catechumen of rudest morals and hardest heart, who should refuse to receive
the most gentle grace of the saving Water. With relevance in that case would your words
have shown how man may be renewed ; with relevance might you then have pointed out that an
inveterate hardness of nature may be changed and softened into the flesh of an infant.
But, with regard to this business, which we are at present discussing together, to what
purpose have you recalled such a history as this ? For we do hot read here that anyone had
washed that leprous Syrian before the word or at the command of Elisha, in such a way that
he might be duly washed again to his greater advantage. But even if it were so, still, it
would not serve your purpose,as something which you might lawfully imitate. For we do not
read that he had first washed in the waters of Syria, or that he had been washed by
anyone, without gaining thereby any advantage. But if it had been so, this would not
appertain to the praise of Elisha (who did not wash him, but gave him advice); rather
would it redound to the glory of the Jordan that the first grace came to the Syrian ----in
that river wherein afterwards, in the time of John, through confession unto repentance,
the sins of a multitude were to die.

X. THE PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST WAS WRONGLY BROUGHT FORWARD BY PARMENIAN.

1 Lastly what is to be said with regard to that part of your treatise concerning the
heavenly nuptials, in which----taking away hope of future things----you have applied it
all to the present time, saying that he, who escaped your doorkeepers and ministers,has
been cut off from your fellowship, in such a way as to be cast outside, with contumely,
far from the communion of the Faithful? If the parable mean this, nothing is left for
faith to hope, nothing for the resurrection to restore, nothing further in heaven to be
awaited, nothing for God, the King and Father of the Family, to recognise at His own
Banquet, when He shall rejoice over the presence of many and grieve over the absence of
some, and shall say that many have been called, but few chosen. In that case there will be
no occasion for Him to be wrath with the man who is without the Wedding Garment.

2 For the Son of God, Christ Himself, is the Bridegroom; He is also the Garment and the
Tunic, that floats in the water, to clothe many, yet awaits others innumerable and is
never used up. And before anyone say that I have been rash in calling the Son of God the
Garment, let him read the words of the Apostle who says: 'As many of you as have been
baptised in the Name of Christ, have put on Christ.' O tunic ever one and unchangeable,
which fitly clothes all ages and forms, which is not too loose in infants, nor stretched
in youth, nor changed in women! Assuredly the day will come, when the heavenly nuptials
begin to be celebrated. There without anxiety shall they sit down, who have preserved the
one Baptism. For with regard to any who has allowed himself to be rebaptised by you----
resurrection is not denied him, for he has believed in the resurrection of the Flesh. He
shall rise indeed, but naked. But because he has allowed you to spoil him of his wedding
garment, he shall hear the Father of the Family speak thus:

3 'My friend,' that is to say----'I recognise thee----once thou didst renounce the devil,
and wert converted to Me, and I gave thee a wedding garment. Why hast thou come thus,
without that which I gave thee?'----that is to say, 'why hast thou not what I gave thee?'
For no one can be angry with one who has not something, which has not been given him.
'Thou didst receive a wedding garment, together with these others, and thou alone art
without one. Why hast thou come naked and doleful ? Who has torn his spoils from thee?
What thieves' doors hast thou entered ? What murderous robbers hast thou met on the way?'
However many they are who come thus, they shall have no place at that banquet.

XI. AS THE DONATISTS COULD NOT REBAPTISE CHILDREN WHO WERE DEAD, WHY SHOULD THEY REBAPTISE THE LIVING?

And to make an end, however late, I think that even this is enough. Still, although we may
be making a mistake in bringing forward so many proofs, let me give this one more. Let us
suppose that, in your absence, a thousand have been baptised. Of these say that a hundred
have chanced to die. For a little while keep your hands off this wickedness. Let your
'holiness' (as you call it) first raise again those who have been buried, let it cleanse
the dead if it can, and let them be brought back to the living. If you are not able to
raise the dead, to what purpose do you endeavour to lay hands upon the living, excepting
to fulfil that which God spoke of you through the Prophet Ezekiel, saying: 'that they
might kill souls, which ought not to die'? [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]

BOOK THE SIXTH

In this Book it is shown that the Donatist Bishops wickedly destroyed altars, that they
sold the Holy Vessels, and without Warrant stripped Nuns of their Veils.

I. THE WICKEDNESS OF THE DONATISTS IN BREAKING OR SCRAPING THE ALTARS.

1 Your wicked actions with regard to the Divine Sacraments have----so it seems to me----
been clearly shown up. I now have to describe things done by you, as you yourselves will
not be able to deny, with cruelty and folly. For what so sacrilegious as to break, to
scrape, to take away altars of God, upon which you too once offered sacrifice, upon which
were laid both the prayers of the people, and the Members of Christ,where Almighty God was
called upon, where the Holy Spirit descended in answer to prayer, from which many have
received the pledge of everlasting salvation, and the safeguard of faith, and the hope of
resurrection? Altars, I say, upon which the Saviour forbade the gifts of the brotherhood
to be laid, unless they should be seasoned with peace. 'Lay down,' He said, 'thy gift
before the altar,and go back, agree with thy brother, that the priest may be able to offer
on thy behalf.'

2 For what is an altar excepting the seat of both the Body and the Blood of Christ? All
these altars you, in your madness, have either scraped, or broken, or taken away. Whatever
reason you may have had prompting you to this wickedness (for which no atonement is
possible), it should have been done in the same way [everywhere]. But in one place, the
abundance of wood it was (as I think) that led to the altars being broken up, in other
places the lack of timber caused them to be scraped, whilst yet again elsewhere it was
partly the sense of shame, which induced men to take them away. But in each case a
disgraceful wickedness was committed when you laid sacrilegious and impious hands upon so
great a Thing. Why should I mention the hired mob of abandoned wretches, and the wine that
was given as the pay of crime? ----the wine, for which a fire was made out of the broken
remnants of the altars, that unclean lips might drink it [hot] with sacrilegious draughts?
If in your jaundiced judgement we seemed to you to be corrupt, what harm had God done you,
God, who at those altars was once habitually invoked? In what way had Christ offended you,
whose Body and Blood were wont during determinate times there to dwell ? In what way had
you yourselves even offended yourselves, that you should break down those altars, upon
which before us you had (as you think, with sanctity) offered sacrifice for long periods
of time? In impiously attacking our hands there, where the Body of Christ used to dwell,
you have also smitten your own.

3 By thus acting you have imitated the Jews. They laid hands upon Christ on the cross; you
have struck Him upon the altar. If you wished to attack Catholics at these altars, there
you might have spared at least your own former sacrifices. Thy pride has now been
manifested in that place where formerly thou didst offer sacrifice with humility, there
thou dost freely sin, where once thou wert accustomed to pray on behalf of the sins of
many. After this fashion you have, of your own accord, entered into the company of
sacrilegious priests, and are associated with the crimes of wicked men, concerning whom
Elijah the prophet makes his plaint before the Lord. For he has used these words (with
which you too, amongst others, have deserved to be accused by him): 'O Lord,' he says,
'they have broken down Thine altars.' When he says 'Thine,' he shows that the [altar]
where any offering has been made to God by anyone whomsoever, belongs to God.

4 It might have satisfied your madness, to have wounded the members of the Church, and to
have divided by your beguilements the peoples of God, who were formerly placed in unity.
Amongst all your other proceedings, you might at least have spared the altars. Why did you
break, together with the altars themselves, the entreaties and longings of men? For from
them the people's prayer was wont to go up to the ears of God. Why did you cut to pieces
the road of their prayers to Him? With impious hands you have laboured in a sort of
fashion to draw away the ladder,that you might prevent supplication ascending in the
accustomed way to God. And though all of you shared in one conspiracy, still, in this
matter, whilst your wrongdoing was the same, you carried it out by different methods. If
it was sufficient to move, it was not lawful to break; if it was right to break, it is a
sin to have scraped. For if, as your assembly decreed, it was not lawful [to preserve the
altars], that man who broke them up would seem to have acted rightly. In that case he is
guilty who, by scraping, preserved the larger part of them.

5 What is this new and foolish wisdom of yours to seek for that which is new in the very
heart of that which is old ? It is as though, after having removed some skin from the
body, you were to look, as it were, for a second skin in that part of the body which lay
hid under the part which you had cut away.The gift which is proper to itself and, by
reason of its unity, is a whole in itself, may, after something has been taken from it, be
lessened. Changed it cannot be. You have, it is true, scraped what seemed good to you, but
what you hate is still there! Again, even though you have agreed, that whatever has been
touched by us in the Name of God in His actual service, should be deemed by you to be
unclean, which of the Faithful is there who is unaware that during the celebration of the
Mysteries, the wood of the altar is itself covered with linen ? During the sacred rites
themselves, the covering can be touched, not the wood. Or, if the veils can be penetrated
by the touch, then so can the wood; and, if the wood can be penetrated, then so can the
earth. If you scrape the wood, you should also dig up the earth which is underneath, you
should make a deep hole, whilst you are searching after that which you are pleased to
judge to be purity.

6 But take care lest you go down to those below, there to find Korah, Dathan and Abiram,
the schismatics----your masters. It is, then, well known that you have both broken and
scraped altars. How is it that in this matter your madness seems to have presently
somewhat cooled down ? For we see that afterwards you changed your plan, and that the
altars were now no longer either broken or scraped by you, but only moved. If this was
enough, then you yourselves prove that what you did at first should by no means have been
done.

II. THAT THE DONATISTS SACRILEGIOUSLY BROKE AND SOLD THE CHALICES.

But when you broke the very Chalices, which carry the Blood of Christ, you committed two
horrible sins. For you have melted them down, thus making money for yourselves by
abominable bargains. Nor in this business did you even trouble to select the purchasers,
but were guilty of sacrilege in selling indiscriminately, and of avarice in selling at
all. You also suffered your own hands to be burned, with which you were accustomed, before
us, to handle these same Chalices. Still you ordered the sale to take place everywhere.
Perhaps wanton women bought them for their own purposes; Pagans bought them, so that from
them they might manufacture vessels, in which to burn incense to their idols. O shameful
wickedness! O unheard-of crime! To take away something from God, that you might give it to
idols----to steal something from Christ, that it might serve for a sacrilege.


AGAINST THE DONATISTS
=====================

AGAINST THE DONATISTS continued

III. REFUTATION OF THE DONATIST PRETEXT THAT THE ALTARS AND SACRED VESSELS HAD BEEN CONTAMINATED THROUGH BEING USED BY CATHOLICS.

1 But I perceive that, in this matter, in order to stir up undeserved hatred against us,
you wish to have recourse to the book of the Prophet Haggai, where it has been written:
'Those things which have been touched by the defiled have been defiled.' For those who are
in anger, it is easy whilst the anger lasts to hurl abuse, but whenever an accusation is
made, some clear proof is necessary. Who then amongst us has ever entered the temples of
idols? Who has watched the sacrilegious sacrifices? Men may be defiled by incense, odours,
sacrileges, sacrifices, blood. But in this matter between us, who has entered the temple?
Who has burnt incense to idols? Who has been stained by unclean odours ? Who has looked
upon the blood of an unclean beast, or of a man, poured forth? Whom can you prove to have
given his advice for the perpetration of any evil deed? Prove----if you can----that even
one Bishop has been mixed up with any wrongdoing. You have your suspicions, about some
Primate or other, who was at that time reported to have faltered. Suspicion is not a
sufficient ground for accusation.Who has charged him? Who has convicted him? On what
occasion was he ever ashamed, or put out of countenance? Keep your suspicions to
yourselves.

2 So, as we have said above, if in this matter anything was done with severity, we have
shown, when it is looked at in its commencement, that your fathers are responsible. Why
then do you speak of Catholics, as though they were defiled? Is it because we have
followed the Will and Command of God by loving peace, by communicating with the whole
world, in union with those who live in the East, where Christ was born, where His holy
footsteps touched the ground, where His adorable Feet have walked, where so many and such
great miracles were worked by the Son of God Himself, where so many Apostles accompanied
Him, where is the Sevenfold Church,on having been cut off from which, you do not merely
fail to grieve, but in a sort of way rejoice? You call us defiled, because we have loved
Unity well-pleasing to God. Because we have agreed with and hold communion with the
Corinthians, Galatians, Thessalonians, you call us defiled. You call us defiled, because
we have not, together with you, read corrupt books----deny, if you can, that you read
books which differ [from those of the Church]. How do you venture to read the Epistles
written to the Corinthians, you who have refused to communicate with the Corinthians? To
what purpose do you read aloud that which was written to Galatians or to Thessalonians,
with whom you are not in communion?

3 Since it is certain that all these things are so, understand that you have been cut off
from the holy Church, and that we are not defiled. What ground, therefore, have you for
thinking that the prophet Haggai can be of any help to you? The altars, then, and the
sacred vessels, which we have mentioned above, were formerly in both your hands and ours.
If you slander our hands, why at those altars condemn your own hands as well? But you say
that you have read: 'That, which one, who is defiled, has touched, is defiled.' Suppose
that anyone has been defiled, so that the things which he has touched appear to be defiled
----let it be granted, if there has only been the touch, that the things which the defiled
has touched, without any invocation of the Name of God, may be contaminated----provided
that silence has been kept about God. For if there be invocation of the Name of God, the
invocation itself sanctifies even that which appeared to have been defiled. Thus when two
hundred and fifty censers, which had been carried in the hands of sinners, remained cast
away (after those sinners were swallowed up by the earth), as the Holy priest Aaron
hesitated what to do about them, he heard the Voice of God, saying:

4 'Take up, O Aaron, these censers, and make plates of them and fasten them in the corners
of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, because, though those who carried them have
sinned, nevertheless these vessels are holy, for My Name has been invoked with them, saith
God.' And surely to carry is more than to touch. Therefore it is quite clear that a thing
can be made holy by the invocation of the Name of God, even though it be a sinner who
invokes God. For the touch cannot have as much efficacy, as has the invocation of God's
Name. And do you too, who count on your own sanctity, tell us whether the touch makes holy
or the invocation. Surely it is the invocation not the touch. Otherwise if you rely upon
the touch alone, touch a board, a stone, a garment----and let us see whether (if silence
be kept about God) they can be sanctified.

IV. THAT VIRGINS CONSECRATED TO GOD WERE WRONGFULLY STRIPPED BY THE DONATISTS OF THE ORNAMENTS PROPER TO THEIR STATE.

1 Now consider what a foolish----what an empty thing it is for you to have exercised your
will and your sham authority by making God's virgins learn to do Penance, so that they who
had already made their Profession had afterwards by your orders to change the signs of
their choice upon their heads,and were compelled to cast away their veils, and to receive
others in their place. First tell us where there is any commandment that has been given
concerning veils. For virginity is a matter of choice,not of necessity. So Paul the
Apostle, that famous innkeeper, to whose care was entrusted a people wounded with the
wounds of their sins, had received two pence to lay out----that is, the two Testaments.
These he, as it were, expended by his teaching, and taught how Christian husbands and
wives ought to live; but, when he was asked what command he would give concerning virgins,
he answered that nothing about virginity had been commanded. He acknowledged that he had
laid out the two Testaments, that is the two pence. In a certain way the commission was
exhausted, but, inasmuch as Christ, who had entrusted the wounded man to his keeping, had
promised that He would repay whatsoever over and above might be expended upon his care,
Paul, after having laid out the two pence, gives not commandments, but a counsel with
regard to virginity. He does not stand in the way of those who desire it, but neither does
he drive or force those who desire it not.

2 'He who has given his virgin, does well, and he who has not given her, does better.'
These are words of counsel, nor are any precepts joined to them, neither as to the kind of
wool from which the veil should be made, nor with what sort of purple dye it should be
stained. For virginity cannot be aided with this kind of garment, nor with it are quenched
the heats of the soul, which sometimes are enkindled by the summer, nor by it is the mind
relieved, which from time to time is pressed down by the burdens of desires. For if it
were otherwise, not one veil, but very many, would be placed on the virgin's head, that,
whensoever the desires of the flesh should trouble the soul, the number of veils might
fight against the stings of the mind. The veil was thought of as a sign for the head, not
as a remedy on behalf of chastity. So a garment of this kind may get old, and be gnawed
through and worn out; and yet virginity, as long as it has suffered no damage, can be safe
without a veil.

3 This kind of life is a kind of spiritual marriage. They had already come to the nuptials
of their Spouse by their choice and Profession; and had already loosed their hair, thus to
show that they had given up worldly nuptials, and were joined to their spiritual Spouse.
They had already celebrated heavenly nuptials. For what reason have you forced them to
loose their hair a second time? For what reason is it, I say, that you have exacted of
them a second Profession? Who is the second spiritual spouse whom they may wed a second
time? When did He die, to whom they had been wedded, that they may marry again? You have
laid heads once more bare, which had already received the veil. You have stripped them of
the marks of their Profession, which seem to have been introduced, as a protection against
abductors or suitors. The veil is a sign of their free choice ---- not an aid to chastity
----lest the suitor should either continue to sue for, or the abductor dare to violate,
that which had already been consecrated to God.

4 The veil, accordingly, is a sign, not a sacrament. You have then found virgins of this
kind, who had already been wedded spiritually----these you forced to second nuptials, and
ordered once more to loose their hair. This is not suffered even by those women who enter
upon a natural marriage. For if it should have chanced to any one of them to change her
husband, after widowhood has befallen her, the great secular festivity is not repeated;
she is not puffed up to the skies; there is no great assemblage of people provided.
Therefore, you have not taken away ornaments from their heads, but (as we have said above)
the proofs of the choice of the better part. You have sprinkled the hair, which had been
already consecrated to God, with unclean ashes.You even gave orders that they should be
washed with salt water. And would that you had quickly restored that which you had taken
away. You lengthened out delays, so that some who were dragged back to [the world]
remained a long time in their original dress, after you had removed the outward signs,
with which they had fortified themselves against suitors and abductors. For when men saw
that you had removed the barrier which formerly stood in their way, instead of suitors
they became abductors. Nor did anyone seem to himself to have sinned, in carrying off one
who was such as he had seen her to be, at the time when he was looking for a wife.

V. THAT THE SACRED BOOKS AND VESSELS WERE TAKEN AWAY FORCIBLY FROM THE CATHOLICS BY THE DONATISTS.

In this business how great were the injuries that you did to God, how great were the gains
that you won for the Devil. You impiously melted down Chalices, you savagely broke and
foolishly scraped altars, you forced wretched maidens (not without disgrace) to take a
second veil, although nothing can be read in Scripture about the first. And I cannot pass
over a thing, which neither is pleasing to God, nor can be excused by your adherents, nor
be defended by any man. You judged that by civil courts and public laws the books of the
Divine Law should, through the action of officials, be torn away from very many, wishing
to have for themselves alone that which before the schism the Church had held for all in
common. I do not fear, as a Christian, to state a fact of which, through your accusations,
the pagan officers could not be unaware. You seized with violence the altar cloths and
books belonging to the Lord, which formerly had been possessed in common. You also seized
the palls and the manuscripts. In your proud judgement you thought that in each case they
had been defiled. If I mistake not, you made haste to purify all these things. Without
doubt you washed the palls. Tell us what you did with the manuscripts. If you are to act
wisely you must pass the same judgement in all things. Either wash both, or leave both
alone. If you act differently, you will have tainted your own efforts. The pall you wash;
the manuscript you wash not. If you do well on one side, you do evil on the other. You are
unable to deny that you give scandal on the one hand, if you do well on the other; and if
you rejoice to seem full of respect for religion in one matter, you ought also to bewail
that you are held to be guilty of sacrilege in the other.

VI. THE FOLLY OF THE DONATISTS IN WASHING THE WALLS.

1 Now, what kind of thing have you done when you determined in many places to have even
the walls washed, and ordered the whole interior to be sprinkled with salt water? O Water,
which by God wert created sweet, over which the Holy Spirit was borne before the very
birth of the world! O Water, which, that thou mightest make the land pure, hast washed the
earth! O Water, which, in the days of Moses, after thou hadst been sweetened by wood, so
that thou mightest lose the bitterness that is natural to thee, didst satiate by thy most
sweet draughts the hearts of so many people ! It has remained for thee, after so high an
office, to receive no slight degradation! In the presence of Moses bitterness dies in
thee, and to-day thy sweetness, together with the Catholic people, is harassed by
schismatics. Together we suffer the conflict, together we look for the vengeance of God.

2 Tell us, my brother Parmenian, what injury the place had done you, what injury the very
walls that they should suffer such things as these at your hands? Is it because within
them God was entreated? Or, that there Christ was praised? Or, that there was invoked the
Holy Ghost? Or, that there, though you were absent, the books of the Prophets and the Holy
Gospels were read aloud? Or, that there the minds of brethren, who had once been at
strife, had been brought into harmony? Or, that unity, well pleasing to God, had found
there a house, wherein to dwell? Point out to us what it is that you have found to wash.
If it be the footsteps of Catholics----we have trodden both street and square ----why do
you not cleanse them all? For you and we, in order to care for our bodies, have cleansed
them in the same baths, and many of ours have often used them before you. If you think
that everything should be purified after us----wash the water also, if you can. Or, if, as
we have just said, our footsteps seem to you to be defiled, it might be enough to wash the
earth. Why, then, have you thought fit to wash the walls also, on which the footsteps of
men cannot be placed? We could not tread the walls, but have only been able to see them.
But if you think that what has been touched even by our looks should be washed, why have
you left other things unwashed?

3 We see the roof; we also see the heavens. They cannot be washed by you! Have you
deserved well of God by washing the one? In that case you would seem to have committed a
sin, for which there is no expiation, in not washing the other. As, then, you wish to
appear full of a sort of diligence in one quarter, you have been found to have been
negligent in another. Your diligence, however, should be termed folly, or----to call it by
its true name----vanity----unless, indeed, in thus acting you have perhaps inspired the
uneducated populace with terror, making them think that, since the pillar in the church
has been washed, so also should be their bodies. If you have had this cunning design, you
have craftily deceived the wretched people; if you have acted as you have done without
thought, then your dulness has been exposed. Those whom you have led astray know that your
conduct in these matters has been stupid, and this you will not yourselves be able to
deny.

VII. THAT THE DONATISTS RAGED EVEN AGAINST THE DEAD.

Why should I also mention that great act of irreverence which arose from your conspiracy
to seize the temples for this purpose, that you might claim the cemeteries for yourselves
alone, and not permit the bodies of Catholics to be buried? To terrify the living, you do
wrong even to the dead and refuse them a place for their funeral rites. If you had been at
war with them whilst they were living, at least the death of your foe might appease your
hatreds. Now that man is silent, with whom a moment ago you were in conflict, why insult
his obsequies? Why interfere with his burial? To what purpose do you enter into strife
with the dead? You have lost the fruit of your malice. And if you are not willing that
bodies should rest together, you will not be able to separate their souls, set together
before God.

VIII. THE DONATISTS COMPARED TO BIRD-CATCHERS.

1 To make an end----it is impossible fully to narrate all the evil things that you have
done; but we may take them for granted in you, who are the leaders of this wrongdoing.
Still who could keep silence about those who are now yours----those, that is, whom you
have succeeded in drawing to your faction either by party-spirit or by subtle craft
----not only men, but also women? From sheep they have been suddenly made wolves, from
being faithful they have become faithless, from being patient full of rage, from lovers of
peace lovers of strife, from lovers of simplicity full of craft, from lovers of modesty
without shame, once gentle now they are savage, once innocent now they are doers of evil.
After persons of either sex have fallen away to you,they grieve that others are still
there, where they were born ; they urge those who are standing firm to follow them in
their fall. If they knew that they had gained glory, they would have enjoyed their own
happiness in silence. But, desiring to have some consolation for their own wicked
departure, they invite others to fall in like manner, and accuse those who are resting in
the bosom of Mother Church as though they were slothful and slow. For they are not ashamed
to use these words:

2 'Gaius, Seius, or Gaia, Seia, how long are you staying where you are?' That is to say:
'You ought now to follow me in my error, you ought now to desert the truth. How long are
you staying where you are?' That is to say: 'Imitate me in my fall, imitate me in my
shameful passing over. How long will you be called one of the Faithful? Now desert the
Faith. Now learn to do Penance.' You are bird-catchers, and these men or women are the
birds. For there is not only one kind of bird-catchers. Some there are who with an art
that is not artful go to trees resting on deep roots, which are to be found in front of a
grove, where the birds fly naturally and sit on real boughs. Amongst them you will find no
frauds, no wily devices. These men rely only upon their art and skill in bird-catching.

3 But I say that you resemble the bird-catcher, who, unlike the rest, is not content to
go, after night has departed, before sunrise, to real trees. He carries his tree with him,
and makes up into a bundle what will be his grove. Out of which, with all kinds of
devices, he fashions a tree that has neither pith nor roots. On this he places false
boughs. So that, which had been lately cut down, now receives strange leaves in place of
those which it had lost. Some birds he carries with him shut up in a cage. Upon the false
branches he places others that have been stuffed to look as though they were alive. The
living birds are hid in their cages, the others are seen, like living birds upon the
branches. A double fraud is united by the craft of one man. And to deceive the simplicity
of the birds that are alive and flying about, those which are certainly dead seem to
stretch out their necks and sing, whilst those which are out of sight in their prison are
thought to be singing from the throats of the others. Between the appearance on the trees
and the sound from the cage one crafty mind does its work. The birds that were already
captured capture those that are free, and the birds that are dead slay those that are
alive.Such are they whom you have wounded either by re-baptising them, or by making them
submit to Penance. These men and women strive with great zeal and labour, that other men
and women may perish with them----for fear lest they should perish alone.

4 [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]

BOOK 7

Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists (1917) Book 7. pp.275-310. I. That the Donatists
can be received back into the Communion of the Church more easily than could have been
their fathers who were guilty of Betrayal. II. That good and evil will be found in the
Church of God, and must be borne with to the Day of Judgement. III. The Donatists might
have appealed to the example of the Apostle Peter to ask pardon for themselves. IV. That
Eccles. x, 1 should be referred to Donatists rather than to Catholics. V. That the
Donatists and not the Catholics resembled Jamnes and Mambres. Pseudo-Optatus, Passage A
(see p. 276, l. 21). Pseudo-Optatus Passage B (see p. 279, line 3). Pseudo-Optatus,
Passage C (see p. 279, 1. 16).

BOOK THE SEVENTH

In this last Book it is shown that the Children of the Betrayers, whose Names were given
in the First Book, may now, for the Sake of Unity, be received back into the Catholic
Communion. I. That the Donatists can be received back into the Communion of the Church
more easily than could have been their fathers who were guilty of Betrayal. Having shown
up the Betrayers and having pointed out the holy Church----having refuted the calumnies
which you were wont to utter against us, and having exposed your sins----which have
merited to be chidden by God----and your repetition of the Sacraments, and your gratuitous
claims 1 and your violence, we ought now to finish our answers and statements 2; but,
since I perceive that, though the wood of malice has been cut down by the axes of truth,
challenges are still sprouting 3 forth from you or from your friends, in which, as I hear,
you maintain that, in consequence of your being known as the children of Betrayers, you
ought not to be invited to the communion of unity 4----to this let me say a few words in
reply.

It is most true that the Catholic Church was sufficient for herself with her countless
peoples in all |276 countries 5; she was sufficient for herself also in Africa, although
here she is but in few places. But God was not pleased with your separation, for the
members of one body had been torn asunder, and, against the Will of God, you, who are our
brothers, wandered away from your brethren. Sentence had been passed at home 6 upon your
fathers, that they who ought to have been expelled in consequence of their confession of
Betrayal, should go forth of their own accord. No [formal] judgement was pronounced,7yet
the effect of the sentence was obtained. They should have been cast off after the
Betrayal, to which they owned in the Council in Numidia. But, not to give an opportunity
for the display of their malice,8the severity of judgement was refrained from, and your
ancestors of their own accord made their plans, in consequence of their guilt, to cover up
their crime and depart with the appearance of pride----when they should have grieved and
blushed for shame. For if at that time they had thought it right, for the sake of Peace,
to enter into unity,9 {Passage A is found here in the manuscripts} and had come to the
Catholic Church of their own accord----unlike you, who are known to have been drawn 10 by
the Will of |277 God 11 to return whence you had wandered (though you are wandering
still)----if, as I have said, they had come of their own accord to the Catholic Church,
perhaps our fathers would have hesitated about receiving them, because they had been
Betrayers; but we have cause for rejoicing, that none guilty of Betrayal have lived down
to our times.

So to-day we find quite a new state of affairs, since we have to deal, not with them, but
with you. Although it appears that a stain has passed from them to you by inheritance,
nevertheless you cannot on this ground be held guilty together with your fathers,
according to the Judgement of God, who has spoken by Ezekiel the prophet, saying: 'The
soul of the father is Mine, and Mine is the soul of the son. The soul that sinneth, shall
be punished alone.' 12 And this was proved even in ancient times----at the very beginning
of the world,13 in that his father's sin did not belong to Seth, the son of Adam.14 And
|278 that no one might say that in another place it was written by the Lord that He would
'punish the sins of the fathers even unto the fourth generation' 15---- ----these are
undoubtedly both words 16 of God, but both do not refer to one people. The first was said
through Moses to a definite set of men, the second through Ezekiel to a different class.
God, since He knew that the Jews would declare to Pontius Pilate:

'His Blood be upon us, and upon our children,' 17 in His foreknowledge saw that what they
would say, was, in comparison with the greatness of their sin, but little, and threatened
the Jews themselves, in order that their crime might be expiated by adequate 18penalties,
saying that He would punish the offences of the fathers even to the fourth generation. So
this word 19 belongs in a particular way to the Jews, and to them alone; but the other, in
which God has deigned |279 to promise not to punish in sons any sins of their fathers, nor
in fathers any faults perchance committed by their sons, belongs to Christians. 20
{Passage B is found here in the manuscripts} Your fathers, who are proved to have done
these things in the days of Unity, have fallen away from the number of the living, leaving
you as it were an inherited stain, which God has already washed away by His Providence,
when He made a distinction (as we have said above) between fathers and their sons.
Accordingly, since Betrayal is a sin, your fathers must see to it, as to what answer they
may make in the Judgement of God; but your sin it cannot be, since you are living in other
times.

II. That good and evil will be found in the Church of God, and must be borne with to the
Day of Judgement. So it is that for long past we have desired to receive you into our
Communion, because it was not you that sinned at that time, but your fathers. 21 {Passage
C is found here in the manuscripts} Nor ought any man to judge concerning another man, as
though he were himself wholly without sin, since it has been written in the Gospel that
Christ says: 'Judge not, that you be not judged.' 22 And this above all, because it will
not be possible to find one who is absolutely holy. For should any such there be, who are
unable to sin, they are guilty of lying in the Lord's Prayer, if without reason they beg
for pardon and say to God the Father: |280 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them
that trespass against us.'

So the Apostle John both shows the consciences of all men and discloses 23 his own with
these words: 'If we shall say that we have not sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is
not in us,' 24---- a saying the reason of which we have explained more clearly in our
Fourth Book. But grant that there are some who have been made perfect with complete
sanctity, it is not lawful for them to be without brethren, whom they are taught not to
repel by the precepts of the Gospel, wherein we find described a field----that is the
whole world, in which is the Church 25 and Christ the Sower, who gives wholesome
precepts.26 On the other hand there is an evil man----that is the Devil,27who sows cruel
28 sins not in the light, but in the |281 darkness.29 Different kinds of seeds come to
birth 30in one field. Similarly, in the Church there is not a mass of souls all alike.31
The field receives good seeds or bad----the seeds are different. But there is One Creator
of all souls----one Lord of the field. There are Two who sow seeds where the tares are
born, but the field has one Lord, the Lord God Himself. His is the earth; His are the good
seeds; His is also the rain. Accordingly, we have consented to receive in unity you, who
have been drawn 32 [to the Catholic Church], for we are not free either to separate or to
reject even sinners who have been born with us in one field [and] have received
nourishment 33 from one water 34----that is from the one Baptism; even as the Apostles
were not free to separate the tares from the wheat (since separation is impossible without
destruction35), lest, whilst pulling up what ought to be pulled up, that which ought |282
not to be, should be, trodden down. In like manner Christ has commanded that both His own
seeds, and those which belong to the other,36 should grow in His field throughout the
entire world, in which there is the One Church.37

After all have ripened 38 together, shall come the Day of Judgement, which is the harvest
of souls. Then there shall sit the Judge, the Son of God, who recognises what is His own
and what is the other's.39 His it shall be to choose what He may gather in His barn,40 and
what deliver over to the burning----whom He shall condemn 41 to torments that know no
end,42 and upon whom He may bestow 43 the rewards which He has promised. Let us recognise
that we all are men; let no one usurp to himself the power of Judgement that belongs to
God. For if any Bishop were to claim it all for himself,44 pray, what will there be for
Christ to do in Judgement? It should be enough for a man not to be guilty of sins of his
own, without wishing to be judge of the sins of another. |283

So it is our declaration 45 [not only] that we do not reject you, [but even that for the
sake of Peace we would not have rejected your fathers, if it had come to pass in their day
that unity was accomplished].46 For it would be a sin for us Bishops to do now, that which
was not done by the Apostles, who were not permitted either to separate seeds or to pluck
up the tares from the wheat. III. The Donatists might have appealed to the example of the
Apostle Peter to ask pardon for themselves. But even if the Catholic Church should
hesitate about receiving you, ought you not to have striven to attain the pattern of unity
47? But you have shrunk from bringing forward the examples to be found in the Gospel, as
for instance what has been written concerning the person of the most blessed Peter, where
we may read a description of the way in which unity is to be retained or procured.48
Without doubt it is evil to do anything against a prohibition, but it is worse not to have
unity when you may. We see that this unity was preferred to punishment 49 by Christ
Himself, who chose that all His disciples should be in unity rather than punish 50 a sin
against Himself. For, as He did |284 not wish to be denied, He declared that whosoever
should deny Him before men him would He deny before His Father,51 [but He did not declare
that He would punish one who should give up any Scripture, since it is more serious to
deny Him who spoke, than to give up the words which He has spoken].52 And though this has
been thus written, nevertheless, for the sake of unity, blessed Peter (for whom it would
have been enough if after his denial he had obtained pardon only) both deserved to be
placed over all the Apostles, and alone received the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, which
he was to communicate to the rest.53 So from |285 this example it is given us to
understand that for the sake of unity sins should be buried, since the most blessed
Apostle Paul says that charity 54 can cover a multitude of sins:

'Bear your burdens together,' 55 he says; and in another place: 'Charity is high-souled,56
charity is kind, charity envieth not, charity is not puffed up, charity seeketh not the
things that are her own.' 57 |286 And he has said well. For he had seen all these things
in the other Apostles, who for the sake of unity, through charity, would not withdraw from
the communion of Peter----of the man, that is to say, who had denied Christ.58 But if
their love of innocence had been greater than the gain 59 of peace and unity, they would
have said that they ought not to hold communion with Peter, who had denied his Master and
the Son of God, the Lord. They might, as has been said, not have held communion with the
most blessed Peter; it would have been possible for them to quote against him the words of
Christ, who had declared that He would deny before His Father whosoever should have denied
Him before men. We ought industriously to pay attention to the inward meaning of
this.Whilst I say a few words concerning it, may the blessed Saint Peter himself pardon
me,62 if I mention that which we read and know that he did. I hesitate to say that so
great holiness as his has sinned, but he himself proved this fact, when he grieved
bitterly and wept copiously, since he would neither have grieved nor wept, had he not
committed any offence. Now the Head of the Apostles might surely have so governed himself,
as to have done nothing, on account of which |287 he should grieve.

But many faults 63 are seen in this one case of his,64 for this reason, that it might be
shown that for the sake of unity all things should be reserved for God.65 And I know not
whether in any other man this kind of sin could be of such weight, as was clearly the case
in blessed Peter. For whoever during some persecution perchance denied the Son of God,
will be seen, when compared with blessed Peter, to have sinned more lightly, if he denied
Him whom he had not seen, if he denied Him whom he had not recognised, if he denied Him to
whom he had made no promise, if he denied but once. For in blessed Peter this kind of sin
was broadened out 66----in the first place, when Christ asked of all, whom did men say
that He was, one said 'Elias,' another said 'the Prophet'; then we read that Christ said:

'Whom do you say that I am?' and Peter said to Him: 'Thou art the Son of the Living God'
67---- on account of which recognition 68 he deserved to be praised by Christ, [because
this he had said through the prompting 69 of God the Father 70 ]. Behold, when the others
did not recognise the Son of God, He was recognised by Peter alone. In the second place,
when Christ said on the eve of His Passion: |288 'Behold I am bound, and you all flee,' 71
when the others kept silence, he alone promised that he would not go back.72 Out of His
Foreknowledge, the Son of God said: 'O Peter, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me
thrice.' 73 Something else was added to the weight of his sin----a promise, which he would
not fulfil. After Christ was brought into the house of Caiaphas, out of so great a number
no one was questioned----to fill up the measure of his transgression ---- save blessed
Peter. When questioned, at first he denies; when questioned, he denies a second time;
thirdly, he said that he knew Christ not at all; and the cock crew, not to mark the time
by his crowing, but that blessed Peter might recognise how he had sinned. At last he
grieved bitterly and wept copiously.

Behold (as we have said above), when the others did not recognise he alone recognised,
when the others made no promises he alone promised, when the others did not deny once he
alone denied and that three times, but yet, for the sake of unity, he was not to be
separated from the number of the Apostles.74 From which we understand that all things were
ordered by the Providence of the Saviour, that Peter should receive the Keys. The way of
malice was stopped up, that the Apostles might not conceive in their minds that they were
free to judge, and condemn with severity, him who had denied Christ. So many guiltless
ones |289 are standing upright,75 and the sinner receives the Keys, that the work of unity
76 might receive its pattern.77It was provided that the sinner should open for the
guiltless,78 lest the guiltless might close [the gates] against sinners, and thus the
unity which is necessary could not be.79

If you had mentioned these things, and asked for communion, how 80 could the Catholic
Church, our Mother, have hesitated to receive you in her Bosom,81since it is certain that
you are not Betrayers, but the sons of Betrayers? IV. That Eccles. x, 1 should be referred
to Donatists rather than to Catholics. Now some of your party in their desire to point us
out to their people as worthy of contempt, mix up in their discourses that which was said
by the Prophet Solomon concerning 'the flies that are soon to die': 'Flies that are soon
to die banish the sweetness of oil,' 82 and call us 'flies that are soon to die.' That
liquid 83which is seasoned by 84 the Name of Christ, and, after |290 it has been seasoned
is called Chrism, they call 'Oil.' Before consecration 86 it is still by nature simple
oil; it becomes sweet, when it is seasoned from 87 the Name of Christ.

There are then three things, of which the Prophet Solomon has made mention----the oil, the
sweetness and the flies that are soon to die which destroy the sweetness. These three
things have their places in due order. In the first place is the oil, in the second is the
sweetness that has been produced,88 in the third the dying flies which banish the
sweetness. Let then whoever amongst you brings forward such an argument 89prove why he
calls us 'flies that are soon to die.' You think that you have the power of consecration
90which gives its sweetness to the oil----you have then both the oil and its sweetness. Do
we 'banish' your oil,91so that you may with reason 92 call us 'flies which are soon to
die'? That which is yours remains with you. And if anyone passes over from you to us, he
is left by us, as he was sent away by you.93 So how can |291 you say that we are 'flies
soon to die, which corrupt the sweetness of the oil,' when, [coming] after you, we do no
such deed? 94

Again if you say that the sweetness of the oil can be corrupted by us, either we can
effect something, and give sweetness to the oil, or if, as you maintain, we are not able
to effect anything, then the oil still remains such as it was by nature.95 How then do you
say that we are 'flies soon to die, which corrupt the sweetness of the oil'? Accordingly,
the oil, before it is consecrated by us, is such as it was by nature.96 After it has been
consecrated,97 it is able to receive sweetness from the Name of Christ. How can we by the
same action both consecrate and corrupt? 98 It follows that, if the oil be sweet of its
own nature, there is nothing more left for men to effect, when it is consecrated in the
Name of Christ. The same workman cannot at the same time make two things which are
repugnant and opposite to each other.

When we, in your absence, consecrate, we do not corrupt. But if we do corrupt, who had
before us consecrated anything for us to corrupt? Wherefore ----that the saying of the
Prophet (if it be such) may not remain without application----understand that you are the
flies that are soon to die. For you have |292 banished what it had not by nature, but by
consecration, since we read that what is sweet is not capable of corruption by nature,99
for oil is simple and has its own one and distinctive name. Once it has been consecrated
it is called Chrism, in which there is the sweetness which, having shut out 100 the
hardness of sins, softens the outward skin of the conscience,101which renews a gentle
mind, which prepares a habitation for the Holy Spirit, so that He may be hither invited
and, after bitterness has been put to flight, may deign here gladly to dwell. This 102 is
the sweetness of the oil which flies that are soon to die are able to corrupt. If we were
to banish the oil which you had consecrated, with reason might you call us flies that are
soon to die, but so long as we preserve that which you have anointed even as we find it,
we cannot be flies that are soon to die; but whilst you, driven by the storms of jealousy,
falling, as it were, [like flies] into the oil, banish (by rebaptising) the sweetness of
that oil, which has been consecrated in the Name of Christ----from which good morals
should be seasoned,103 and the light of the mind be enkindled to a health-giving 104 and
true understanding----you are banishing the reality in which was the oil and sweetness.105

But how have we been able to corrupt a sweetness, which no man before us produced by
consecration? You have led men astray. You have rebaptised. |293 You have anointed a
second time.106 Oh for shame! To your own destruction have you----like flies, which
destroy even whilst they are dying----banished that which had been consecrated in the Name
of Christ. Now, sin which has no pardon is death. It has been written that: 'he who shall
have sinned against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven unto him, either in this
world or in the world to come.' 107 Wherefore, inasmuch as you untruly call us flies, and
hasten to annul 108 all that we have done, and say that we ought to be rejected or
despised, claiming sanctity for yourselves alone, you put forward your innocence, as the
ground for promising that you can forgive the sins of others. You see therefore that it
was not of us, as you argue, but of yourselves that the most blessed Apostle Paul has
said:

'There shall be men, lovers of themselves, covetous, praising themselves, proud,
blasphemers, not obeying |294 parents, ungrateful, wicked; not guarding peace, without
affection, detractors, not gentle, without kindness, 109 and the rest.' V. That the
Donatists and not the Catholics resembled Jamnes and Mambres. Now, to turn to the fact
that you have thought fit to take upon yourself the character of Moses, who, as the
Apostle Paul tells us, was opposed by Jamnes and Mambres 110----if this be so, what is the
truth, that may be found with you, which the Catholic Church opposes? Or, what is there
with us which you can prove to be a lie? Is it that we are in one communion with the whole
world? Will you be able to prove that this is a lie? Is it that we keep and defend the
true and one Creed? Will you be able to prove that this is a lie? Will you be able to
prove that the Chair of Peter is a lie----and the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, which
were granted him by Christ, with which we are in communion? 111 |295

In the very passage of Scripture which you have mentioned, consider the order of the
actions of the persons themselves, and pay attention as to which was the first. Yes,
surely, Jamnes and Mambres who by their false artifices strove to fight against Moses and
the truth, are in the second place. Moses, whose miracles they attempted in vain to
impugn, was before them.112 As Moses is the first, so also is the Catholic Church; the
first.113 As Jamnes and Mambres fought against and opposed Moses, so also do you in
rebellion fight against the true Catholic Church.114 Why, then, is it that you 115 have
wished to change names between yourselves and us excepting that thou 116 mightest prove
thyself on a level with thy colleagues? For there are some of your party, who, having
forgotten, or being |296 ignorant of past times, say against us things which belong of
right to those men who, having already fallen away from the Catholic Church,117
consecrated Majorinus----that is to say to the authors of Schism and Betrayal. Because
they still preserved Peace, before they banished unity,----well-pleasing to God----they
were the light of the world, and with reason were they termed the salt of the earth. So
long as they taught Peace, they were still called the sons of Peace. Before they were
puffed up, they were blessed in their poverty of spirit, and were part of the savour.
Whilst they were meek, they were blessed----they were part of the savour. Whilst they were
just, they were blessed----they were part of the savour. Whilst they were sons of Peace,
they were blessed----they were the whole of the savour. After they bestowed the riches of
error upon their breath and lungs 118 and made the schism, they were seen to be cruel and
without mercy;

whilst they impiously tore asunder the members of the Church following after wickedness,
they held the Kingdom of God in contempt, and, dividing the Church, were unwilling to be
in Peace, they became salt that has been spoiled,119 from which nothing could be seasoned
to please God with its sweetness.120 And since your first leaders were thus wicked, some
of your colleagues |297 argue in a wrong-headed way,121 so that they say that those were
foolish, who, quitting the Schism, having, however late, recognised the truth and their
Mother the Catholic Church, followed after Peace. Some of your party think that these men
made a mistake; they consider that, as it were having lost their savour,122they departed
from wisdom. From which it is clear that you all make the same mistake in your application
of names. For you have compared both Jamnes and Mambres to peace-loving Catholics, and
yourselves, who are schismatics, you have compared to Moses----something very far removed
from the truth. And some of your foolish colleagues have thought well to pass judgement on
the wise, so as to say that the lovers of Peace have become fools and have refused to
understand that their own fathers have, through their dissension, lose their savour 123.
124 |298

Pseudo-Optatus, Passage A (see p. 276, l. 21). If at that time they had thought it right,
for the sake of Peace, to enter into unity, even they would not have been repelled by the
Church, since in their case dire straits 125 made excuse for the will. For not any of them
had been voluntarily Betrayers; otherwise, this sin of theirs might have been likened to
other transgressions. Whatever God has willed not to be done, He has forbidden by His
Mouth----even as He has said: 'Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery,' 126
and the rest. He might have also forbidden what was done by your fathers. But since that
which the mind does is one thing, whereas that which circumstances bring about is quite
another, whatever is within the power of man to effect is fit matter for prohibition, but
whatever evil deeds are brought about through necessity may not be blamed with much
violence. Therefore wilful sins receive punishment, those done through necessity receive
pardon.

The murderer, who is not compelled to his crime by any man, is free to do the deed; he is
also free to leave it undone; the adulterer, who is compelled by no one from outside, can
commit adultery or not, as he chooses. Similarly with other matters of like nature, where
free choice exists. Accordingly, when those things are done, which have been forbidden,
they are destined for judgement; when things which have not been forbidden are done
through some sort of necessity, perchance He who was unwilling |299 to forbid them, may
deign easily to pardon. So with regard to this crime 127 which might have been brought
against your fathers as a deadly 128 offence----if at that time they had been exposed, or
brought to judgement concerning it, they might have come to their own rescue by alleging
more than one example. For we read that in the first times 129 the Tables of the Law were
broken,130also that Books were given up or cut and burned,but that no one was condemned.

If (as I have just said) your fathers' deeds had then been laid bare----if they could have
been brought to judgement----without doubt they might have pleaded that they had done no
more than was done by Moses the Lawgiver. Although necessity and free will have no
resemblance, but are contrary to one another, [yet] since (so far as the legal name is
concerned) there was the same case for your fathers as for Moses, your fathers might have
said 132 that they, through necessity, did what Moses had of his free will done first. In
his indignation with the people, he did not consider that God had written with His own
finger----and what has been written in heaven is more than what has been written on earth
----nor did he reflect that what the Finger of God has written is not the same 133 as that
which has been written with a pen made by the hand of a man. Moses carried what he had
received in the Cloud, and your fathers gave up what they had made for payment. With
reason, then, might your fathers have defended themselves, arguing that it was not a
deadly 134 offence, if anyone of them had done, when |300 terrified by an excessive fear,
what Moses had done through anger. Neither do we read that the Lord was wroth with Moses,
nor that He avenged those broken Tables which He had written with His own Hand, nor that
Moses was termed a sinner or punished.

The Law came from God in the same way that water comes from a fountain, or that fruit 135
is cut from a tree without injury to its root. That which has been used 136 is not lost,
provided that it is safely preserved in its source.137 Similarly, Moses was not condemned
after he had scattered and broken to pieces 138the Tables of the Law. And subsequently he
was called back, went up Mount Sinai,139 was permitted to speak with God, and received a
second time the Law now renewed, as has been disclosed by the title of the book, which in
Greek is called Deuteronomy.140 You see that in the Law that which had been preserved safe
in its Source was not lost. But lest anyone should suppose that Moses had merit in a
certain boldness with God due to his converse with Him, and that it was for this cause
that God was not displeased with him, and that, this being so, it was fitting for
friendship always to demand and receive its |301 reward and fruit----why then was he
afterwards punished for another offence? Was it not to show that what he had done in his
wrath was a venial 141 offence? The Law was safe in God,142 even after it, together with
the Tables of Stone, had been broken by man;

whereas [on the other occasion] through not rendering that reverence which was due from
man, Moses deserved the penalty of dying in the midst of his journey, so that he entered
not into the Land of Promise 143----from which it is clear that something, which, as in
the present example,144 could escape without punishment,145 cannot be looked upon as a
very great sin. If this had been pleaded by your fathers, who could have refused them
communion? And again, if they had put forward instances, which followed afterwards, in
which we read of what happened when the renewed 146Law was kept in the Ark, and the people
of Israel were conquered in battle. The Law, which by the advice of the people 147 was
borne in the Ark against the enemy, could not be guarded by the priests themselves and by
the rest of the children of Israel, but far from being carried away [in safety] was given
up 148 to the enemy.149 When the Law had been given up,148 those who had urged its being
brought forward fled away in panic, and we do not read that they suffered any punishment
in consequence. If this example had been alleged 150 by your fathers, who would have been
able to repel them from his communion? Again, (what would have happened) if your leaders
had not kept silence concerning those cases in which we read that Baruch gave up to Judin
the Scribe the book of the |302 Law which he had received from the lips of Jeremiah the
Prophet, and that the king's chief men commanded both Baruch himself, who had received the
book, and Jeremiah, through whom God had spoken, to escape and lie hid? Jeremiah dictated,
Baruch surrendered----both fled. The book was brought to Joachim the king.

Now the king, in consequence of the coldness of the season, had a brazier burning before
him----so, as he was not pleased to hear the book recited by Judin the Scribe, he at once
tore it up into small fragments 152 and consigned it to the flames. And God was wroth
neither with Jeremiah who fled, nor with Baruch who fled with him and surrendered the
book. For if God had been wroth with them, He would have spoken to some other Prophet. He
did not speak to any other, but to Jeremiah himself, for thus do we read: 'The Word of the
Lord came to Jeremiah, after the King burned the chapter of the book 153 and the words,
which Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah. God said to Jeremiah: " Take to thyself
another paper and write all thy words, which were formerly written in the book, that was
burned by Joachim, king of Judah."' 154 So we see that neither was God wroth, nor did the
book which had been burned perish, nor was Baruch punished, nor was Jeremiah disowned by
God.155 From this it is clear that something, which no punishment ever followed, was at no
time a serious fault.156 If your fathers had alleged these examples, who could have
rejected them from communion? So when God saw that the Tables of the Law had been broken
by Moses, and that the Ark had been abandoned to its foes, and that the book of the Law,
after it had been given up by Baruch, was both cut up and burned, He showed His Providence
and promised |303 that He would write the Law henceforward neither on Tables nor in Books,
but in the very inward parts of man ----that is, on the mind and heart of each believer,
even as He had written it in the heart of Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the other
Patriarchs, who, without the Law, certainly lived according to the Law.158 This is proved
by the blessed Apostle Paul, when he says:

'Written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the Living God, not on Tables of Stone, but on
the fleshy tablets of the heart.' 159 After the Law had been broken by Moses, and
abandoned by the children of Israel to their enemies, and torn up and burned (when offered
by Baruch to Joachim the king)----before the Christian times in which later on God would
write in a better way----God pointed out a law through the Prophet, when He said: 'For
this is My Covenant, which I will provide for the house of Israel and for the house of
Judah, and after those days, saith the Lord, I will give My Laws and will write them in
their heart and in their minds.' 160 This He promised long ago and has last of all
fulfilled in Christian times. Therefore the Book is now in the second place; in the second
place are the parchments.If God wrote the Law there, where it could not be betrayed ----so
that your fathers, who had already believed in the Trinity, although they gave up the
books, gave up neither their own hearts nor minds, in which God, according to His Promise,
had already written His Law----on what ground, my brother Parmenian, have you said that
the Law was completely burned by the Betrayers? Behold, neither has it been completely
burned, nor has it been wholly taken away, so long as it both remains in the |304 hearts
of the Faithful, and thousands of books are everywhere read aloud.162 From these
considerations it is evident that you have, though in ignorance, taken on you to accuse
your fathers in vain. If, therefore, it would have been impossible to repel even your
fathers from communion, had they at the time of Unity brought forward so many examples
which might have been reasonably alleged, how much more impossible is it to reject you,
who are certainly not Betrayers, but the sons of Betrayers; since a distinction has to be
made between both the persons and the names of fathers and sons, and where the sin has not
been shared, there the same judgement cannot be passed?

Although if they had been brought into unity,163 and had come to the Catholic Church of
their own accord .... etc.164 |305 Pseudo-Optatus Passage B (see p. 279, line 3). Nor
would he have visited upon the fathers any offences perchance committed by the sons.
Since, therefore, the Law was renewed in the times of Moses without any man being
punished, and the Ark of the Covenant was freely restored by the enemy, and at God's
command a second book was written by Jeremiah,165 why is it thought that your fathers
alone committed a deadly 166 sin, when they did something, on account of which, in so many
instances, no one was condemned? For if the Law was given for this purpose, that men
should be taught, not that the Law itself should be as it were worshipped in the place of
God, then, after your fathers' sin, though individuals 167 lost their volumes 168under the
pressure of fear, yet the mass of the Faithful 169suffered no loss. For the Law, which had
been necessary, 170still has its force 171 amongst the teachers of the people and the
worshippers of God. The libraries are filled with books. Nothing is wanting to the Church.
In different places 172 the divine praises are everywhere proclaimed. The mouths of the
lectors keep not silence. The hands of all are full of volumes 173 [of Scripture]. Nothing
is lacking to the people who wish to be taught----although the law would not seem to have
been written more for the sake of teaching, than for that of the judgement to |306 come,
in order that the sinner may know what may befall him, should he not live rightly. Thus
has it been written, and thus do we read, that

'the Law has not been given for the just,' because 'every just man is himself a law unto
himself.' 174 And in another place the blessed Apostle Paul also says that the Law does
not make men just, but itself loves justice.175 It is results which are always looked for
in all those things that produce results.176 The Law, which produces results, is not
needed,177 when the result is obtained in a quicker way.178 It was not said to Abraham:
'Believe,' but he believed of his own accord 179----so in him the result of the Law was
made complete without the Law. We do not read: 'Abraham heard the Law and believed,' but
we do read: 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for justice.' 180 And in the
earliest times the Patriarch Noah did nothing by which he might become just, yet he as a
just man was chosen to build the Ark, in which during the Deluge 181he might navigate the
waters with success. It were a long task to go through all the cases individually of all
who, without the Law, were found to be just. |307

If these things had been pleaded by your fathers, who would then have rejected them from
his communion? Again, [what would have happened] if they had asserted that what the
Apostle says of those who are outside the Law 182 ought not to be passed over in silence?
'the nations, that know not the Law, do the things that belong to the Law, for they have
the Law written in their hearts.' 183 For many are known to have sinned with the
Law,184and many to have lived well without the Law. The Law and Man are two things, but
they cannot be on an equality,185for Man was not made for the Law, but the Law was given
for the sake of men. I do not see that injury has anywhere been done to God, so long as
the source 186 of the Law remains with Him. After the Scripture has been given up----so it
is said----by your fathers, it wants for nothing, all the members of the Law are sound----
are safe, and are read aloud. There is, for those who desire to teach and to be taught,
nothing less than there was of the Law. Was it then necessary for man to be slain rather
than that any Scripture should be given up? Again, men have not been slain, yet all the
Scriptures are here without diminution. The Law and God are not one and the same thing. If
they had had to die for God, who can both raise up the dead and give reward, [well and
good]; but a book that has not been surrendered cannot do even the second of these two
things.187

Therefore, necessity shackles [a man's] own strength of will.188 We often see that
carelessness is as disastrous |308 as necessity. For if the parchments or the books, in
which the canonical 189 Scripture is contained, must be kept totally unimpaired, why are
not some careless people condemned? There is no wide gulf between giving up 190 and
placing in a bad situation, or treating badly. One man has placed the book in a house,
which has been burned down in a fire. Let him be condemned, who carelessly placed the book
in that house, if another is to be condemned who through fear gave up the book that he
knew would be demanded of him. Let them also be condemned, who placed neglected
parchments, or books, where they might be gnawed by little household animals 191 (that is
by mice) in such a way that they could not be read. Let him be condemned, as well, who has
placed them in a part of the house, where, in consequence of too great abundance of rain,
water has dropped through the eaves from the roof, so that all the writing has been washed
away by the wet, and can no longer be read. Let those too be condemned, who have been rash
enough to entrust themselves, together with the books of the Law, to the hungry waves of
the sea, and in their eagerness to save their lives, when in the water, have let the
Scriptures slip from their hands.

Accordingly if the Scripture be the same 192 always, and, if he who has not been able to
save it, is guilty----then, one has given it up to the waves, another has abandoned it to
rodents,193 another has carelessly allowed it to be spoiled by the dropping water, and yet
another, terrified by the fear of death, has, as man, given it to man. If all have done
the same thing,194 why is one chosen out to be condemned----and this, even though the
fault of the Betrayer is lighter than is that of him who has been careless? He who placed
it in the way of mice, or left it under the dropping water, with his will was careless,
whilst he who lost it in the river, sinned through rashness. He who through the fear of
death gave anything up, gave it as a |309 man to a man. It was whole whilst with the
giver, it remained whole in the hands of the receiver. If he who received it, gave it up
to the flames, this is the sin of the one who burned it, not of him who surrendered it. If
these things had been urged by your fathers, how could we have rejected them from our
communion? Or if again they had thought well to refer to the times of King Antiochus,195
when all the Jews were compelled to surrender their Books to be burned, and the whole of
the Scripture was given up so completely that not a letter 196 remained in any one book?

Not one of the Jews was then condemned, nor was any sentence pronounced against any Jew
either by God or by some angel, because the sin was his who commanded and threatened, not
the people's who surrendered with fearfulness and sorrow. And in order that this Antiochus
should do no injury to His people in these early days,197 God immediately provided for one
man Esdras,198 who was called a Reader at the time, to dictate the whole as it had been
before, to the minutest point.199 In this way the tyrant Antiochus was not able to enjoy
the fruit of his wickedness,200 since (with the exception of the Seven Brothers and one
old man who refused to eat swine's flesh) 201 he killed no Jew, and yet the Law could not
be destroyed.202 In the same way your fathers too in their day were not killed, and yet
all the books of the Law of the Lord are read aloud everywhere. If, as I have urged above,
your fathers had pointed out these things, who would not have received them into his
communion without fear,203 since, as has been said, their sin was a sin of necessity, not
of the will 204? Your fathers, who are proved, ....etc.205 |310

Pseudo-Optatus, Passage C (see p. 279, 1. 16). . . . for if one who has sinned, as did
your ancestors, comes to the Church to plead the necessity of his case, first of all let
him be received, and then sheltered 206 in the kindly bosom of Mother Church. Nor ought
any man, etc.207 [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. The positions of A, B, and C
have been indicated in {} in the text as part of the online edition. The printed copy from
which this was made was defective at a couple of points in the footnotes: these are
indicated in {} below.] 1. {Note to the online edition: defective printed text here} (cf.
i, 7; ii, 5 etc.), i.e. that the effects of Baptism were derived from the sanctity of
their recipients, not from God. 2. responsorum dictorumque nostrorum. 3. pullulare. 4. ad
unam communionem.

5. revera sufficiebat sibi Ecclesia Catholica habens innumerabiles populos in provinciis
universis. 6. domesticum iudicium. At the Council of Cirta in Numidia. 7. Against those
who had consecrated Majorinus. 8. ne invidia esset. Du Pin forgets the 'malice' against
Secundus (cf. 'et cum ipse Secundus a Purpurio increparetur,' i, 14), when he understands
'ne invidia esset' to mean here 'that they might not be reproached with the expulsion of
so many Bishops.' 9. Balduinus in his second Edition inserted here the passage A which I
print at the end of the Book (p. 298). 10. adductos (cf. in, 11: 'quem fides adduxerit').
11. non sine voluntate Dei (St. Optatus often uses this phrase, as also its equivalent cum
voluntate Dei). 12. Ez. xviii, 4. 13. in ipsis natalibus mundi. 14. dum non pertinuit ad
Seth, filium Adae, patris admissum. From the theological point of view this has been
considered the most difficult passage to be found in the works of St. Optatus. St.
Augustine writes (de Haer. 19): 'Sethiani nomen acceperunt a filio Adae, qui vocatus est
Seth. Eum quippe honorant, sed fabulosa et haeretica vanitate.' The Sethitic legend is
distinctly African. Julius Africanus is quoted as one of the first Christian writers to
extol this Patriarch unduly, and the legend went on growing. Some, therefore, have thought
that St. Optatus had received unawares a false tradition from heretical sources about
Seth. Thus Casaubon writes with regard to this passage of Optatus: 'Non ego is iam, qui
gravius quidquam de viro sancto pronuntiaverim. Id tantum dicam, vereri me, ne imprudenti
et incauto illi haec exciderint, quae saevioris examinis acrimoniam aegre sustineant.' All
the other commentators pass the passage over in silence. But is it not almost certain that
St. Optatus had not the doctrine of original sin before his mind at all? With much
probability it may be urged that the question here concerns not Adam qua father of the
human race, but Adam considered as any other father. In this sense it is clear that Adam's
sins were not attributed to his son Seth any more than are the sins of any other father
attributed to any other son. We must always bear in mind that Optatus wrote before the
rise of the Pelagian heresy. Still, the difficulty will remain unanswered: Why should
Optatus in this connection have mentioned Seth rather than Abel, or even Cain?

15. Ex. xx, 5. 16. voces. 17. Matt. xxvii, 25. 18. conpetentibus. 19. vox. 20. Here
Balduinus inserted B, the second doubtful passage. I have printed it immediately after A
(p. 305). 21. And here C; it may be found on page 310. 22. Matt. vii, 1; Luke vi, 37. 23.
resignet. CGv designet. 24. I John i, 8. 25. ager, qui est totus orbis, in quo est
Ecclesia. If St. Augustine at the Conference at Carthage had remembered and employed these
careful words of St. Optatus----'the field in which is the Church,' he would have been
saved a tiresome discussion with his Donatist adversaries. The Donatists naturally and
triumphantly replied to the argument of the Catholics that the tares had to grow up with
the wheat in the Field, and that the Field is the Church: 'Oh no, on the contrary, the
Maker of the world Himself has said that the Field is the world. Now "the world has not
known the Father." But if (as you say) the Church is the Field, it is also the world, for
"the Field is the world." Therefore the Church has not known the Father! Which is absurd.'
To this ingenious syllogism St. Augustine had to rely upon a long explanation as to the
different meaning of the word 'world' in Holy Scripture (Gesta Coll. Carthag. Diei iii,
cclxv-cclxxxi; Brev. Coll. iii, 10). No exception could have been taken to the statement
of Optatus 'the Church is in the world.' Had it been used, the Donatists would have been
deprived of one of their many opportunities of wasting time.

26. praecepta salutaria. 27. homo est malus, id est diabolus. 28. inportuna peccata. In
contrast with the wholesome precepts ('praecepta salutaria') of Christ, concerning which
Optatus has just written. (Christ's precepts save us; sins harm us cruelly.) Inportunitas
has been used in the sense of inmanitas in ii, 18 (cf. however iii, 7, where inportune is
used for unseasonably, which may perhaps be the meaning here----'unseasonable sins'). 29.
per tenebras. 30. nascuntur diversa semina. 31. in Ecclesia non est similis turba
animarum. 32. adductos, sc. ad Ecclesiam Catholicam (cf. last chapter: 'ad Ecclesiam
Catholicam . . . non sine voluntate Dei adductos'). 33. nutritos. 34. una pluvia nutritos.
Thus Du Pin. Ziwsa places a comma after pluvia, making una pluvia depend not upon
nutritos, but upon preceding natos = 'born with us from one water----that is to say,
nourished from the one Baptism.' It must be admitted that, strictly speaking, not
nourishment but birth comes from Baptism, but on the other hand seeds are not born from
rain. For this reason I prefer on the whole Du Pin's punctuation, and have translated
accordingly.

35. 7 sine exterminio. 36. aliena. 37. in agro Suo per totum orbem terrarum, in quo est
Una Ecclesia. 38. post crementa communia. Crementum (literally increase) is an unusual Low
Latin variant of incrementum. 39. quid est Suum et quid alienum. 40. in horreo. 41.
destinet. 42. interminata. 43. repraesentet. 44. si sibi totum vindicet. The context tells
us that the totum here refers to the power of judgement and especially of separation. If
any Bishop were now to separate all sinners from the Visible Church, there could not be
that separation by Christ, on the Day of Judgement, of the tares from the wheat, and of
the goats from the sheep, of which we read in the Gospels. It is hardly necessary to say
that the Church has never at any time claimed to judge in foro interno, that is,
concerning the conscience or interior state and fixture lot of any man.

45. professio. 46. The words in square brackets are only to be found in C and Codex
Tilianus. 47. unitatis adsequi formam. Unitatis forma = the idea of unity presented by
Christ and externally realised in the Visible Church. It is very difficult to translate
forma, as used by St. Optatus, into English (cf. v, 5 formam baptizandi; i, 21 exemplorum
formam; v, 3 formam humilitatis; vii, 6 iudicandi formam; v, 14 quam formam habet mens).
It is obviously impossible to render forma in these passages by the same English word,
though the idea is the same in all of them----a rule or concept, clothed, as it were,
before our eyes, in order that we may adhere to it. 48. forma unitatis retinendae vel
faciendae. 49. vindictae suae. 50. vindicare. 51. Cf. Matt. x, 33; Luke xii, 9. 52. The
passage in square brackets is a clumsy interpolation. It is, however, to be found in C and
Codex Tilianus.

53. bono unitatis beatus Petrus . . . et praeferri Apostolis omnibus meruit et claves
regni caelorum communicandas ceteris solus accepit. After communicandas some Gallican and
Anglican authorities have supplied a Christo. Thus Dr. Pusey (Note R to Tertullian, Oxford
Translation of the Fathers). Similarly Mr. Denny (op. cit., n. 1165) writes 'that is, as
Bossuet says, that Peter first received the keys which were afterwards to be imparted to
the Apostles (Matt, xviii and John xx), but to be imparted not by Peter, but by Christ, as
is clear.' Dr. Pusey sends us to Du Pin. Now it is curious that in his edition of St.
Optatus Du Pin has no note whatsoever on this passage. Dr. Pusey, however, refers to his
De Antiqua Ecclesiae disciplina Dissertationes historicae, where we read as follows (Diss.
iv, cap. i): 'communicandas ceteris (id est quod Christus commendaturus erat ceteris).'
But it should be noted that neither Du Pin nor Bossuet nor Denny say one single word in
support of their view that a Christo should be understood after the word communicandas in
this passage of Optatus. It is simple assertion, to which Bossuet adds the words 'as is
clear' (Defensio Decl. Cleri Gallicani, pars III, lib. viii, cap. xii, tom. ii, p. 90); on
the other hand, it should be observed that we nowhere read either in Matt. xviii or in
John xx----the passages referred to by Bossuet----that Christ gave the Keys to the other
Apostles. With regard to the words of St.

Optatus we may note in the first place that we shall search in vain for any passage where
he states that Christ gave the Keys to 'the other Apostles'; on the contrary Optatus says
expressly, both here and in i, 10 ('ut haeretici omnes neque claves habeant, quas solus
Petrus accepit'), that Peter alone received them; so that for the Gallican interpretation
of this passage to be possible we should have to change the word solus to primus----the
alone of Optatus for the first of Bossuet; secondly that, though Optatus uses the verb
communicare in eighteen places, in every other case it is used intransitively----twice
absolutely and fifteen times with the dative----in the technical sense of ecclesiastical
communion (to be in communion with). Here however we find the usual classical
construction, communicare aliquid (here claves) cum aliquo or alicui (here ceteris).
Communicare aliquid alicui always means in Latin to give something (e.g. information,
power, here the Keys) to someone else, without ceasing to possess it oneself----to make it
a common possession shared between oneself and the other (cf. Liv. Lib. xxiii, 5:
'Civitatem nostram magnae parti vestrum dedimus communicavimusque vobiscum,' and Cicero De
Inv. ii, 39: 'Praemia virtutis non oportet cum improbis communicari'). This is undeniable
and forces us to see that the gloss a Christo is impossible----apart from the exigencies
of controversy----and does violence to the text, to which indeed it is in direct
opposition. The meaning is clea beyond all doubt----'the Keys which he was to communicate
to the rest.' St.

Peter had to impart to the other Apostles, for them to use also, the Keys which, as their
'Head' (cf. infra), he had himself alone received from Christ. 54. Once more St. Optatus
identifies 'charity' in this famous passage with unity (cf. iii, 8: 'si beatus Paulus . .
. pronuntiat se nihil esse, nisi caritatem habuerit, videte an non dicantur martyres . . .
caritatis [i.e. unitatis] desertores'). 55. onera vestra invicem sustinete. Cf. Gal. vi,
2. 56. magnanimis. 57. 1 Cor. xiii, 4, 5. 58. Harnack quotes this sentence and observes:
'That is still a dangerous fundamental thought of Catholicism at the present day.' 59.
utilitas. 60. diligenter. 61. ad quam formam. 62. ipsius Sancti Petri beatitudo veniam
tribuat. In the same spirit St. Augustine carefully praises St. Cyprian before combating
his views as to Rebaptism of heretics (e.g. De Baptis. con. Donat. vii, 1: 'Et beatus
Cyprianus quidem iam corpore quod corrumpitur non aggravante animam nec deprimente terrena
habitatione sensum multa cogitantem serenius aspicit veritatem quam meruit adipisci per
caritatem talem. Adiuvet itaque nos orationibus suis in istius carnis mortalitate' etc.).

63. multa errata. 64. in uno titulo eius. 65. omnia debere Deo servari, sc. for the
Judgement of God. (Cf. i, 14: 'Secundus consilium accepit . . . ut talem caussam Deo
servaret ... hi dixerunt talem caussam Deo debere reservari.') 66. dilatatum est. 67.
Matt. xvi, 15-17. 68. pro qua agnitione. 69. instinctu Dei Patris. 70. The passage in
square brackets is to be found only in C and Codex Tilianus. 71. John xvi, 32; Matt. xxvi,
31. 72. non recessurum. 73. Matt. xxvi, 34. 74. de numero apostolorum separari non meruit.
75. stant tot innocentes ---- are standing unfallen (cf. ii, 25). (Possibly stant = are
standing by----so Ziwsa in Index s.v. stare.) 76. unitatis negotium. 77. formaretur (cf.
p. 283, note 3). 78. It was provided that St. Peter ('the sinner') should open for the
other Apostles ('the guiltless'). 79. A schismatic or other sinner could not comply with
the command of living within the Unity of the Church ('the unity which is necessary'),
unless recovery were possible for him on repentance. So Peter holds the Keys, and through
his ministry the gates of the Church on earth and of Paradise above are always open for
the sinner who will turn from sin and seek the admittance which will never be denied him.

80. quando. Quando in several places is used by St. Optatus to = How (e.g. ii, 21). 81.
pio sinu. 82. Eccles. x, 1. 83. illum scilicet liquorem. 84. ex. 85. Albaspinaeus observes
that the heretics of his day in like manner called the holy Chrism 'oil' out of contempt.
This fact is familiar to all students of the letters of both the English and foreign
Reformers. They habitually wrote of Ordination as 'greasing.' 86. antequam fiat. 87. de.
88. suavitas de confectione, i.e. through consecration. 89. quisquis est talis tractator
ex vobis. 90. si apud vos putatis esse confectionem. Catholic writers often use the phrase
conficere sacramentum, and even conficere Corpus Domini. 91. Catholics never questioned
the validity of Donatist orders. Consequently such an Episcopal act as the consecration of
Chrism (however illicitly) was validly performed. 92. merito. 93. The baptised man was
regarded as baptised, the priest as a priest, the Bishop as a Bishop, etc.

94. By re-baptising or re-confirming or re-ordaining converts from Donatism. 95. oleum
tale esse, quale et natum est. Cf. natus est hoc facere in late Latin (it is his nature to
do this), and the classical fruges consumere nati (whose nature it is). 96. conficiatur.
97. confectum. 98. quomodo possumus uno facto et conficere et corrumpere? 99. suavitas
enim legitur non natura posse corrumpi (cf. supra). 100. exclusa. 101. cutem conscientiae.
102. sc. sweetness derived from consecration. 103. unde condirentur mores. 104. salutarem.
105. vos exterminatis rem ubi oleum fuit et suavitas. 106. You have repeated not only
Baptism, but also Confirmation. 107. Matt. xii, 22. Casaubon thinks that St. Optatus could
not have made this quotation, and that it slipped in from a marginal note. It is quite
true that the object of St. Optatus, which was to show that the Donatists were not only
muscae (flies) but also muscae moriturae (flies that were about to die), would have been
attained without the quotation. It would have been enough for his purpose to have said
that their rebaptising was a great sin and that 'sin without pardon----until it is
pardoned----is death.' But unhappily he has already said (v, 3) that rebaptising (as
involving a certain exorcism of the Holy Ghost) is that sin against the Holy Ghost for
which there is no forgiveness in this world, or in the world to come. So hard was it to
kill rigorism in the African Church, that we find it even in unexpected places. Still, we
rejoice to find that St. Optatus is not always consistent with himself in this terrible
severity. We have seen how clear he was that even these rebaptisers should have been
reconciled with the Church, had they been willing.

108. dissolvere. 109. 2 Tim. iii, 2. 110. Cf. 2 Tim. iii, 8; Ex. vii, 11. 111. Cathedram
Petri et claves regni caelorum a Christo concessas, ubi est nostra societas, numquid
poteris adprobare mendacium? (cf. ii, 23: 'Negare non potes scire te in urbe Roma . . .
societate concordat'). The Donatists claimed that they possessed the truth. To this
Optatus opposed the authority of the Catholic Church and set out the grounds of Catholic
security in three pertinent questions: (a) Is it a lie (a delusion) to appeal to the fact
of communion with the Catholic Church throughout the world? 'Is it a delusion that we are
in one communion with the whole [Catholic] world,?' (b) Is it a delusion that we keep and
guard the Creed? 'Is it a delusion that we keep and defend the true and one Creed?' (c) Is
the Chair of Peter a delusion? 'But you cannot deny that you know that Peter established
his Chair at Rome.' Or, is it a delusion that we are in communion with that Chair? Or, is
it, perhaps, a delusion that Christ gave the Keys of Heaven to Peter?----the Keys of
Heaven which, through our communion with the Chair of Peter, we share ('ubi est nostra
societas': cf. i, 12; ii, 4; ii, 9).

Is this all a falsehood----a mere delusion? ('Numquid poteris adprobare mendacium?') Such
is the argument of Optatus. He appealed just as Catholics appeal to-day (and as they
always have appealed): 1. To communion with the Catholic Church in other lands, 2. To the
possession of the Creed, 3. To communion with the Chair of Peter. This is the ultimate
assurance of safety for a Catholic that he is in the true Church of Christ----the
Soliditas Cathedrae Petri. This is no freak of the imagination (mendacium). Here beyond
all doubt we find and here we possess the great reality. 112. Moses came first, before
Pharaoh, and though Jamnes and Mambres worked the same miracles, yet Moses had precedence
and prescriptive right. (Cf. Exod. vii, 11.) St. Optatus here passes to another great
argument for the Catholic Church. It is 'in possession.' 113. ut Moyses prior est, sic et
Catholica prior est.

114. rebelles contra veram Catholicam militatis (cf. 'contra Cathedram Petri sacrilegio
militatis,' ii, 5). 115. plural----Donatists in general. 116. singular----Parmenian in
particular. 117. iamdudum de Catholica lapsi. 118. erroris divitias dederunt spiritui et
pulmonibus suis. 119. sal infatuatum. Cf. S. Aug. De Serm. Dom. i, 6: 'si sal infatuatum
fuerit, in quo salietur . . . ergo ad nihilum valet sal infatuatum, nisi ut mittatur
foras, et calcetur ab hominibus . . . qui persecutionem timendo infatuatur, calcatur ab
hominibus,' and S. Hilar. in Matt. iv: 'si sal infatuatum fuerit, ad nihilum valet id quod
salietur.' 120. St. Optatus forgot for a moment that salt does not produce sweetness. 121.
aliter. 122. quasi infatuatos (with reference to sal infatuatum supra). 123. infatuatos
esse. 124. Chapters VI and VII have been placed at the end of Book III, to which they
belong as an Appendix (v. p. 175-179). 125. necessitas. Here this word does not mean
necessity literally, but rather dire straits.

126. Exodus xx, 13, 14. 127. There is here an anacoluthon in the Latin. 128. capitate.
129. primis temporibus. 130. Cf. Ex. xxxii, 19; Deut. ix, 17. 131. vel incisi et incensi.
132. cum eodem nomine legis parentum vestrorum et Moysi una fuerit caussa, possent dicere
parentes vestri etc. Both Du Pin and Ziwsa print a full stop after caussa, but this
punctuation seems to obscure the sense. 133. unum. 134. capitate. 135. poma. 136. quod
erogatum est. 137. si in origine sua salvum est. 138. post tabulas sparsas legis et
comminutas. 139. Cf. Ex. xxxiv, 2; Deut. x, 1. 140. et secundum legem innovatam accepit,
quam prodiit titulus libri, qui Graeco vocabulo Deuteronomos scribitur. For prodiit
Casaubon conjectured prodidit. I have translated secundum as an adverb = secundo, though
for this it is hard to find authority. Ziwsa in his index says that secundum is here a
preposition, but it is very difficult thus to get even fair sense. 'He received the
renewed Law in accordance with the Law' hardly seems satisfactory. I am much tempted to
think that secundum is a mistake for secundam. The reference to Deuteronomy makes this to
me almost certain. ('The very title Deuteronomy,' our author seems to say, 'bears witness
to the second Law.') But as secundam has no MS. authority, and has occurred to no one
else, I have not ventured to translate it in the text. It is hardly necessary to say that
in Greek Deuteronomy means 'The Second Law,'

141. leve. 142. Cf. Rom. vii, 12. 143. Cf. Num. xx, 12; Deut. i, 37. 144. in praesenti
exemplo. Casaubon suggests in praecepta = against the Commandments. But in praesenti
exemplo means as contrasted with the later offence of striking the rock. 145. inpune. 146.
innovata lex. Cf, p. 300, note 6. 147. populorum. 148. tradita. 149. Cf. 1 Kings v, 1.
150. haec ratio redderetur. 151. arulam ardentem. 152. concisum minutatim. Cf. Jer. xxxvi,
19, 21. 153. capitulum libri. 154. Jer. xxxvi, 27, 28. 155. nec Hieremias a Deo contemptus
est. 156. gravis culpa. 157. in ipso interiori homine. 158. legitime sine lege. 159. 2
Cor. iii, 3. 160. Jer. xxxi, 33. (Cf. Heb. x, 16.) 161. secundo loco est charta, secundo
loco membranae. 162. librorum milia ubique recitantur. 163. quamquam et si illorum unitas
fieret, et si ad Ecclesiam Catholicam sponte venissent, etc. Casaubon suggests that it
should be 'etsi illorum unitas fieret,' and that the si in next clause ought to be
omitted. If this emendation can be adopted, the translation will be much easier.

164. (See page 276, line 22, for continuation.) 165. Cf. Ex. xxxiv, 28; i Kings vi, 2
seq.; Jer. xxxvi, 27 seq. 166. capitale. 167. unusquisque eorum. 168. codices suos.
Codices, according to the original meaning of the word in this connection, were vellum
books, which in the course of time had taken the place of rolls. 169. turba credentium.
170. quae necessaria fuerat. 171. valet. 172. per loca singula. 173. mantis omnium
codicibus plenae sunt. 174. 2 Tim. i, 9 (cf. Rom. ii, 14). 175. Cf. Rom. iii, 10; Gal. ii,
16. 176. semper in omnibus rebus efficientibus effect a quaeruntur. 177. vacat. 178. per
compendium paratum est, quod efficitur (paratum est = comparatum est). 179. ultro. 180.
Gen. xv, 6 (cf. Rom, iv, 3; Gal. iii, 6; James ii, 23). 181. Cf. Gen. vi. 182.
extralegalibus. 183. Cf. Rom. ii, 14. 184. in lege. 185. Lex et Homo duae res sunt, sed
pares esse non possunt.

186. origo. 187. liber non traditus de duobus his nec alterum potest. It seems impossible
to imagine that this trivial special pleading should be the work of St. Optatus. 188.
impedit igitur necessitas vires suas. This is the reading of the MSS, We understand
homini. Casaubon suggests impendit. 189. legitima. 190. tradere. 191. domesticae
bestiolae. 192. una. 193. rosoribus bestiis. 194. unum. 195. Cf. 1 Maccab. i, 59. 196.
apex. Literally a dot or accent or point. 197. primitivo populo. 198. Cf. 1 Esdr. vii.
199. ad apicem. 200. malignitatis suae. 201. Cf. 2 Maccab. vii, 13. 202. lex perire non
potuit. 203. intrepide. 204. peccaverat necessitas, non voluntas. 205. (For continuation
see p. 279, line 4.) 206. sustinendus. 207. (For continuation see p. 279, line 17.) For
three other probably spurious passages see p. 283, l. 1-4; p. 284, l. 2-5; p. 287, l.
21-22. [Note to the online edition: pp.311-320, which contain 100 quotations in Latin from
Optatus: "A hundred noteworthy sayings of St. Optatus", have been omitted.]


AGAINST THE DONATISTS
=====================

AGAINST THE DONATISTS continued

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION TO BOOK 7

INTRODUCTION TO BOOK VII

1 At first sight there appears to be some question as to the genuineness of this Seventh
Book. But on examination it becomes practically certain that the great bulk of the Book
was written by St. Optatus several years after he had closed his original work with the
striking metaphor on bird-catching to be found at the end of Book VI. Some slight doubt
still remains concerning two passages in the first chapter, and one paragraph in the
second chapter. But these are almost certainly (were it not for the opinion of Ziwsa, to
which we shall shortly allude, we should write quite certainly) spurious. Accordingly----
in this following the example of Du Pin----we have separated them from the text, and
marked them A, B, C. Du Pin indeed tells us in his Preface to his Edition of St. Optatus
that until he had examined the MSS. he was inclined to reject all the Seventh Book as
spurious, in consequence of the following considerations:

2 (I) St. Optatus himself gives the argument of his work as a whole, and says that he had
divided it into six Books. Moreover, St. Jerome writes expressly that St. Optatus wrote
six Books against the Donatist calumnies. (II) In his First Book St. Optatus terms the
sins of Betrayal and Schism, duo mala pessima. In certain parts of the Seventh Book, on
the contrary, all kinds of excuses----some of them very far-fetched----are made for the
sin of Betrayal, and the writer endeavours to tone down its guilt by all the means at his
command. (III) It seemed to Du Pin at first that there was a certain difference of style
between the Seventh and the first six Books. But on discovering that the Seventh Book was
found (without A, B, C) in all the manuscripts which he was able to consult, Du Pin was
led to revise his opinion as to its genuineness.

3 The difficulty arising (I) from the fact that St. Optatus has himself mentioned his
intention of writing six Books vanished upon further consideration, for (a) it is certain
(as we have already stated ) that Optatus made additions to his original work in the time
of Pope Siricius, and further (b) in the opening words of Book VII its author himself
distinctly states that this Book is an afterthought, due to the fact that the Donatists
did not profess themselves satisfied by that which he had already written. With regard to
(II) the change of tone concerning the sin of Betrayal----which had been Du Pin's chief
difficulty ----it is only to be found in the passages marked A and B. These Du Pin
unhesitatingly rejects (whilst, in the end, with no less hesitation accepting the rest of
the Book) as the work of a Donatist interpolator, referring to them in his Index as
pseudo-Optatus.

4 As for (III) the dissimilarity of style, Du Pin remarks that this too is only to be
observed in A and B. Indeed far from being dissimilar in style there is a very remarkable
similarity in this respect between Book VII, speaking generally, and the other six Books;
whilst for myself I fully agree with Ziwsa in thinking that even A and B are quite
Optatian in style. From this point of view they seem to me to be clever forgeries----
skilful imitations of the genuine work of St. Optatus, with which their author was
evidently familiar. The only remaining difficulty arises from the statement of St. Jerome
to which we have already alluded. But is it not possible that St. Jerome was only
acquainted with the First Edition of St. Optatus? However this may be, Du Pin meets the
difficulty by suggesting that when St. Jerome wrote, that which we now read as a connected
whole, and call the Seventh Book of St. Optatus, was principally to be found in the shape
of Appendices or additions,, not to the completed work, but to several of the other Books
regarded separately. To illustrate this idea, Du Pin points out that the Donatists very
likely objected that two statements----both of them to be found in the First Book----that
their Fathers were Betrayers, and that yet they were the Brethren of Catholics----were
markedly inconsistent and even destructive of one another. 'If our Fathers were
Betrayers,' we can well imagine that they urged, 'why do you call us Brethren, and why
invite us to Communion?' To this objection St. Optatus made his reply in the first three
chapters of the Seventh Book.

5 All that we read in the two following chapters concerning 'flies about to die' and about
Jamnes and Mambres should be referred to the end of the Second, or perhaps rather to the
Fourth Book, where Donatist calumnies of a similar character are refuted. The last two
chapters (6 and 7) belong to the Third Book, to which they are an addition. As this seems
to be, in the judgement of all, a fact established beyond doubt, I have already printed
the translation of those chapters in their proper place at the end of Book III. I have
thought it safer, however, (in this following not only Ziwsa but Du Pin himself,) to keep
the first five chapters in the form of a separate Book, as we find them in the existing
manuscripts. 6 A, B, C, etc., stand in a different position from the rest of the Book, not
merely from the fact that they are wanting in most of the MSS., but above all from their
character. Ziwsa indeed hesitates and thinks that they may perhaps be a kind of
retractation by St. Optatus of the severe things which are to be found in his work,
especially in his First Book. Everything written by Ziwsa concerning Optatus deserves, and
must always receive, the most serious and respectful consideration. But it is certain that
there is no sign whatever in Book VII (apart from A and B) of anything that expresses
toning down or apology, much less retractation, by the author. There is no recognition of
any contrast between previous and present statements. Ziwsa's theory must therefore
remain, what after all he states it to be, a bare possibility and unverifiable hypothesis.
Moreover, not only do A and B contradict the argument concerning the wickedness of
Betrayal, which has been brought forward again and again in the previous Books, but they
are also in opposition to the clear statement made in the Seventh Book itself at the end
of its first chapter:

7 'Tradere peccatum est.' They seem to me to be in their poverty of thought, lack of
argumentative force, and general perversity of expression, quite unworthy of St. Optatus
(as well as contrary to the consistent expression of his mind), and to be just what a
cunning Donatist, if he had the opportunity, would be glad to insert in the work of his
great adversary----or possibly they may have come from the hand of some unscrupulous
Catholic, who, in his desire to make the reconciliation of the Donatists as easy as
possible, allowed himself to forget for the moment that no end, however good and desirable
in itself, can justify the employment of dishonest means for its attainment. In any case,
whatever their history, we may be quite sure that A and B failed of their purpose. They
remain merely as a somewhat wearisome curiosity. Ziwsa, who has no doubt as to the
genuineness of the rest of Book VII, observes that in many places it is carelessly
written, and partakes rather of the nature of a rough sketch, or of notes not yet worked
up, than of a finished composition. But we must not press this too far, for, as Du Pin
reminds us, St. Optatus in all the Books is very unequal in the polish of his work. Still,
even though we bear this fact in mind, we shall have to admit that, if Book VII is really
to be considered as a whole (and not a collection of chapters to be added to preceding
books), the conclusion----wherever we place it (whether at the close of Chapter 5 or of
Chapter 7)-----is exceedingly abrupt and furnishes the most marked contrast in this
respect to the highly polished termination of Book VI. That this was the end of the work
as originally written, there can (as we have already stated) be no doubt.

8 With regard then to Book VII, problems exist with reference to its exact purpose and
original arrangement which will never admit of certain and definite solution, but that
(apart from A and B) it is the work of St. Optatus is no longer questioned by any critic.
The MSS. evidence is too clear, and the similarity of thought and expression too striking,
for doubt to be possible. For example, who that has ever read the undoubted 'Igitur negare
non potes scire te in urbe Roma Petro primo Cathedram episcopalem esse conlatam,' of ii,
2, can hesitate as to the 'Cathedram Petri . . . poteris adprobare mendacium?' of vii, 5?
This question of the Seventh Book is simply the echo of the statement of the First Book.
Non potes negare = poteris adprobare? (id est, non poteris adprobare) mendacium. We have
here St. Optatus' summing up ----his final cry of triumphant gladness. No forger could
have had the first sentence of St. Optatus so stamped upon his mind, with its unmistakable
ring, as to be able to change its form and yet reproduce it with such apparent
unconsciousness and lack of effort, as forgery would here involve. And many similar
instances might be adduced, which prove that, even independently of the weight of MSS.
authority, this Seventh Book comes from the same brain and personality to which we owe the
first six Books of St. Optatus against the Donatists.

9 [Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION

1 THE WORK OF ST. OPTATUS AGAINST THE DONATISTS THE WORK OF ST. OPTATUS BISHOP OF MILEVIS
AGAINST THE DONATISTS WITH APPENDIX TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH NOTES CRITICAL,
EXPLANATORY, THEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL BY THE REV. O. R. VASSALL-PHILLIPS, B.A. BALLIOL
COLLEGE, OXFORD PRIEST OF THE CONGREGATION Of THE MOST HOLY REDEEMER 'Legant qui volunt
quae narret et quibus documentis quam multa persuadeat Venerabilis Memoriae Milevitanus
Episcopus Catholicae Communionis Optatus.'----S. Augustinus. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON FOURTH AVENUE & 30th STREET, NEW YORK BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
All rights reserved PERMISSU SUPERIORUM CONG. SS. RED. NIHIL OBSTAT Th. Bergh, O.S.B.,
Censor Deputatus. IMPRIMATUR E. Can. Surmont, Vic. Gen. Westmonasterii die 15 Feb., 1915.

PREFACE

2 St. Optatus, Bishop of Milevis in Africa, is perhaps the least known of all the Fathers
of the Church. His treatise against the Donatists----the one work that he left to
posterity, was translated into French in 1564.It is extremely improbable that, but for
this exception, it has, until now, ever appeared in any language save Latin. It is quite
certain that it has never yet been clothed in an English dress. There is indeed an
advertisement still to be seen in The Oxford Library of the Fathers, in which it was
announced (in 1848) that a translation of St. Optatus into English would 'soon' appear.
Sixty-eight years have elapsed; but this intention has not yet been carried into
execution. Until recently St. Optatus could hardly be found, even in the original Latin,
anywhere but in the edition published by Du Pin at Antwerp in 1702, and subsequently
incorporated by Migne. His work was until 1870 out of the reach of all persons who had not
access to the largest libraries. In 1870----it is true-----Fr. Hurter, S.J., published Du
Pin's text in convenient form with short notes, and in 1893 a new critical edition was
brought out (edited by the late Professor Ziwsa) in the Corpus Scriptorum
Ecclesiasticorum, which has now for many years been in course of publication at Vienna.
Comparatively few people, however, have heard of this excellent edition of the Latin
Fathers; still fewer are aware that its volumes may be purchased separately, and that for
the sum of a few shillings they may possess themselves of 'the Seven Books of St. Optatus
concerning the Schism of the Donatists, against Parmenian.'

3 Indeed it is not too much to say that the very name of Optatus is barely known even to
many students of theology and ecclesiastical history. Yet his is no mean name, and he
cannot be ignored with safety, for he has bequeathed to the Church material of no small
value, both to the theologian and the ecclesiastical historian. Optatus was held in high
repute by the great Augustine, upon whom his influence was undoubtedly considerable. To
this Harnack bears witness: 'Even when he entered into the Donatist controversy, Augustine
did so as a man of the second or indeed the third generation. He therefore enjoyed the
great advantage of having at his disposal a fund of conceptions and ideas already
collected. In this sphere Optatus especially had worked before him.' The work of St.
Optatus is, therefore, of consequence not only from the point of view of history----he is
the historian of Donatism in its origins----but also from that of doctrine----of
'conceptions and ideas.' It derives special importance from the fact that here we find the
first sustained argument from the Catholic side not merely against heresy (false doctrine)
but also against schism (separation from the Church).

4 Heresies come and go. They are essentially ephemeral, according to some transitory
fashion of mental speculation. And in fact history proves that the limit of their duration
is hardly known to last four centuries. Often indeed they pass into all but complete
oblivion. Thus it comes about that a long and sometimes weary discussion concerning a
heresy which has perhaps long since vanished from the midst of men is apt to lose much of
its actuality. But the Church dies not, and in every age excuses are found by the
rebellious for their rebellion against her supreme authority. The argument against heresy
is necessarily specialised and multiform; the argument against schism is very simple and
admits of no substantial variation in its presentment. Consequently, it never ceases to be
of deep interest to follow the reasoning that has been employed by the champions of the
Catholic Church, at any period of her history, on behalf of her exclusive and peremptory
claim upon the spiritual allegiance of mankind. Whenever this is in discussion, there is
no drowsy stirring of dead bones, but an issue which is ever-living and therefore in a
certain sense ever-new. Now, upon this subject Optatus is perfectly explicit. Again and
again he lays it down that there is but one true Church of Christ, that she is not merely
local, but is scattered all over the world, her chief rulers bound together by formal
bonds and proofs of union, each with his fellow, and above all with the Bishop of Rome,
Peter's successor.

5 In other words for Optatus the one question of paramount importance is: 'Which and where
is the One Church?' And to this question his answer is clear-cut and unmistakable in its
import. The Church of Christ may be easily recognised by all those who will look for her
marks. She and she alone is One; she and she alone is truly Catholic. In fact this is her
name----Catholica. She alone is Apostolic----Apostolic for this reason, that all over the
world ('ubique') her children are in communion with the Cathedra Petri, the See of that
Apostle to whom alone the Lord promised the keys of the kingdom of Heaven ----the See
'against which to contend is sacrilege.' And because Parmenian, his Donatist adversary,
had failed to recognise 'where is the Church?' he is said by Optatus to have 'made
confusion of everything.' The clearness and decisiveness of the teaching of St. Optatus on
the Church have caused Harnack to write thus: 'In this thought (of the Church as an
institution) Catholicism was first complete . . . But Augustine was not the first to
declare it; he rather received it from tradition. The first representative of the new
conception known to us, and Augustine also knew him, was Optatus.'

6 It is hardly necessary to observe that this 'conception' was never really 'new' in
Christendom. Optatus did not invent it. He had 'received it' (in the same way that before
him in Africa Cyprian had already 'received it,' and, as Harnack admits, Augustine
'received it) from tradition.' He 'received it' also from the express words of Christ and
from the prophecies of the Old Testament. It is, however, perfectly true to say that St.
Optatus is the first writer known to us who sets out in detail the Catholic conception of
the one true Church of Christ. The opportunity came to him only with the Donatist schism.
It will always be the great merit of Optatus to have seized that opportunity and to have
availed himself of it to such an extent, that Augustine had but to broaden it out and
illustrate it with his matchless genius. St. Augustine had only to fill in the picture
which St. Optatus had already drawn in clear outline. To the end of time the Catholic
theologian, preacher or controversialist, desirous of showing the true nature of the
Church, and the obligation (binding everywhere, always, upon all persons, and under all
conceivable circumstances) of living within her visible unity, will find everything that
he needs ready to Ms hand, in the writings of St. Optatus. Moreover, Optatus will remind
us that from this obligation---- strict though it be in itself----ignorance (that
ignorance which we now call 'invincible') will excuse its victims.Ignorance could not be
pleaded by Parmenian; it was therefore impossible to hold him guiltless. But Optatus was
evidently aware that in his day in Africa (as in our day in England) there were Christians
who, through no fault of their own, knew nothing of the claims of the Chair of Peter.

7 Apart from the constitution and marks of the Church, there is only one specific doctrine
----that Baptism may not lawfully be repeated after it has once been validly administered
(the Credo unum Baptisma of the Creed)----with which St. Optatus was directly concerned in
his controversy with his Donatist adversaries. His statements as to other Truths of Faith
(denied in later ages) are only by the way, and are generally incidental to the course of
his historical narrative. This, it seems important to observe, gives them an even greater
polemical value than would have been theirs had Optatus written controversially on these
subjects, and been contradicted by Donatists or any other Christians then living. But this
is far from being the case. For example, St. Optatus is able to write to his opponent:
'Bene revocasti Claves ad Petrum.' Similarly, with regard to all the other Catholic
doctrines to which he makes reference throughout his work, it is quite clear that he and
Parmenian are standing on common ground, and were perfectly agreed.

8 When then we reflect that St. Optatus wrote in the century preceding the Councils of
Ephesus and Chalcedon, in the very heart of what are sometimes known as 'Primitive Times,'
when we remember that he was anterior to Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome and Leo the Great,
when we recall the fact that the Reformation in Germany and England does not yet go back
four hundred years, but that Optatus wrote six centuries before the Norman set foot on our
English soil, and that some thousand years and then two hundred more were to elapse
between the writings of Optatus and the breach with Rome over King Henry's divorce, it is
a most striking and moving fact that this old Father of the Church bears his express and
unequivocal witness not only to the necessity of union with the Cathedra Petri, but also
to most of those Catholic Doctrines so violently assailed in the days of Luther, Calvin,
Zwingli, Cranmer, Knox and their associates, and still denied on all sides around us.

9 For example, St. Optatus affirms explicitly the truth of Baptismal Regeneration ; again
and again makes reference to the Sacrifice of the Altar ; states the doctrine of the Real
Presence in words that are incapable of any misunderstanding ; insists on the sacredness
of the Holy Chrism ; writes of the adornment of altars for the offering of the Sacrifice ;
refers to the ceremony of Exorcism before Baptism ; appeals to deutero-canonical Books as
to authentic Scripture ; takes the continuance of Miracles in the Church for granted ; and
is quite express in his references to cloistered Virginity and the difference between the
Commandments of God and Counsels of Perfection. Sometimes indeed he is so modern in his
expressions (or at least his words are so directly applicable to our modern circumstances)
that when we first read them we rub our eyes and ask ourselves 'Can it be a Catholic
writer of the fourth century, whom we are reading, not one of the twentieth?' Instances of
this may be found in the famous description of the origin of the Donatist schism, which,
as Cardinal Wiseman has pointed out, can be paralleled with startling exactness by the
schism under Henry; or again in such isolated expressions as 'Cathedra ducit ad se
Angelum,' which is all that we need should it be urged that it is safe to remain in
Anglicanism, because of the (supposed) validity of Anglican Orders. If these Orders were
ever so valid, they could not be more valid than were those of the Donatists;

10 but St. Optatus teaches us that, by themselves, valid Orders are of no avail. It is
useless to have a Bishop (Angelus) who is out of communion with that One Chair of Peter,
of which Optatus is at the time writing. Orders he may have, still he remains visibly in
schism. Cathedra ducit ad se Angelum. Or, similarly, 'Per Cathedram Petri, quae nostra
est, per ipsam et ceteras dotes apud nos esse probatum est.' It is through the Chair of
Peter----through our Union with that Chair which itself 'is ours,' that we derive and can
prove our security as to the other Endowments of the Church, amongst which is reckoned
lawful Episcopacy. Or, again, in discussion with any Protestant, what need we say more
than those three words of St. Optatus----'Catholica prior est' ? Before any Protestant
body had its birth, before Luther's turbulent spirit began to trouble the peace of
Christendom, before the ecclesiastical Provinces of Canterbury and York were torn away by
the State from their union with the Apostolic See, before the ambition of Photius
separated Byzantium from the elder Rome, before Donatism arose, there was the Catholic
Church and the Chair of Peter. Catholica prior est.

11 It is beyond doubt that, as Vincent of Lerins taught in the fifth century, and as
Catholic theologians have since taught in every age, there must be a certain development
of doctrine in the Church----that is to say, an 'explication' or unfolding, more and more
explicit as the years pass on, of that which has always been implicit in the Deposit of
the Faith delivered in the beginning to the Saints; for, where there is life, there must
also be growth. Yet, whilst studying St. Optatus I have asked myself whether since his day
there has been room for any real development. Whatever development of doctrine may have
been necessary, at least with regard to the doctrines concerning the Holy See and the
Eucharist, seems to me, as I read Optatus, to have already taken place and to be generally
well known and accepted throughout the Church. The work, then, of St. Optatus derives its
great doctrinal importance from its unambiguous teaching, principally indeed as to the
marks of the Church, but also concerning other revealed truths, unhappily denied in modern
times by great bodies of Christians separated from the Catholic Unity.

12 There are two subjects, the treatment of which by St. Optatus will probably jar upon
the sensibilities of most, if not all, modern readers: the first is religious persecution,
and the second the application of certain passages in the Old Testament, in minute and
even verbal detail, to the controversies of his day. 13 With regard to persecution, the
Donatists continually upbraided the Catholics with the punishments inflicted upon their
fathers by Macarius and Leontius and other officers sent by the Emperors to secure
religious unity. Now, the reply of St. Optatus up to a point is curiously similar to that
which we make to-day when we are reminded of what happened in England under Mary Tudor.
St. Optatus urged in the first place that these punishments had been greatly exaggerated
(just as we say when confronted with Foxe's 'Book of Martyrs'). In the second place he
pointed out (as we do) that those who were punished were for the most part turbulent
conspirators against the public security, and that their treatment of Catholics had been
infinitely worse than any reprisals to which it may have led. Thirdly he laid stress upon
the fact (and here again we take precisely the same ground) that whatever happened came to
pass by the authority of the State, and not by that of the Church, and that the Church was
in no way responsible. If he had stopped here, all would have been well, but unfortunately
St. Optatus went further, and argued that 'perchance' the sufferings of the Donatists were
'by the will of God,' and endeavoured to justify them by several parallels from the Old
Testament.

14 This is, it seems to us, exceedingly regrettable, but we must remember that to Optatus,
it was an axiom, and as such seemed a truism which no man would or could dispute, that it
was the duty of a Christian State to secure the observance of the true religion, and to
punish not only offences against society, but also those against Almighty God. The modern
distinction, so clear to us, between 'crime' and 'sin' was utterly unknown to him, and no
doubt, if it had been stated in his hearing, would have seemed to him----at least in the
case of a Christian State----utterly immoral and involving the gravest dereliction of duty
on the part of a Christian ruler. We know from his own letters that it so appeared to
Constantine. When this fact is grasped, it will be more easy to understand a point of
view, which is inapplicable to any set of circumstances that can be imagined as arising in
modern times. All that can be said fairly on this subject, even by those who think St.
Optatus most mistaken and wrong, is that unfortunately he was not ahead of his age.

15 But it is not only with reference to the punishment of schismatics that the appeal of
St. Optatus to the Old Testament will strike us as strange and sometimes even perverse.
Again and again, when arguing against some Donatist custom or personage, he quotes a
passage from Ezekiel, or Daniel, or Isaiah, as though Donatus the Great or the sacrileges
of his followers had been before the mind of the Hebrew Prophet. This to us (at least to
me)----however ingenious it may sometimes be----is tiresome and irritating in the extreme.
But we must remember that of course St. Optatus did not think or mean anything of the
kind. What he did mean was that Almighty God, when inspiring His Prophet, intended that
Prophet's words to be applied (amongst other ways) to the case of the Donatists. All the
Fathers of the time (indeed all Christians) held a theory of verbal dictation of the
inspired writings, which has never been taught officially by the Church and has long been
practically unknown amongst Catholics. Moreover, in the fourth and fifth centuries it was
generally believed that Holy Scripture had many senses in addition to the literal or first
sense. Consequently all ecclesiastical writers during those centuries used the text of
Scripture from time to time in a way that will inevitably seem to us to be most far-
fetched and unreal. But if this treatment of the Bible so appears to us, it would not have
thus appeared to the contemporaries of Optatus.

16 Indeed it is highly probable that many Donatists were much impressed and even converted
by his appeal against them couched in the very words of some great Hebrew Prophet. And if
St. Optatus is sometimes insulting to the Donatists in his application of Holy Scripture,
it is clear that often----this is certainly true of the muscae moriturae in Book VII and
of all the passages dealt with in Book IV----he is merely retorting arguments that had
been used against Catholics by Parmenian or other Donatists. Evidently, it did not seem to
him safe to leave those arguments, so far as they consisted of quotations from Scripture,
to answer themselves, and St. Optatus knew, as we cannot possibly know, the mentality of
those men of his own day, for whose sake he was writing his work. 17 However, such an
exegesis of Scripture is so alien to our habits of thought that it may draw the attention
of the reader away from the real and great excellences of Optatus to a sense of mere
annoyance at what will seem to be now and again his perversity of interpretation. (In
fairness it should be said that, so far as this is true of Optatus, it is true also often
of St. Ambrose and sometimes even of St. Augustine.) In my anxiety that there should be
nothing to hinder the study of the really important and interesting parts of the work of
St. Optatus, I thought for a moment of excluding his applications of the Old Testament to
the circumstances of the Donatist schism. But a very little consideration made me see that
such a course was out of the question, and that if I translated St. Optatus at all I must
translate every word, so that it would be impossible for anyone to think that Optatus had
been bowdlerised or mutilated at my hands. He is great enough to be read in his entirety
and reckoned with as a whole. The reader may be certain that I have translated----for him
to read, if he likes----everything without exception as it stands in the Seven Books of
Optatus, as he submitted them to the judgement of his own time.

18 St. Optatus can often be usefully illustrated from St. Cyprian and St. Augustine;
occasionally from St. Jerome and Tertullian. I am aware that I have laid myself open to
criticism by sometimes supplying references to the writings of these Fathers in their
original; sometimes in a translation. I can but explain that considerations of space made
it impossible to give them both in Latin and English. It only remained to do what seemed
to me the more useful in each case. Sometimes I thought it safer to sacrifice the
vernacular for the sake of giving the exact words of my authority (after all my footnotes
are hardly likely to be read by many persons without a knowledge of Latin); sometimes,
however, I felt it important to give the quotation in a form which all can understand. I
can only plead that I have exercised my judgement to the best of my ability, and have
always translated with faithfulness.

19 I much wished to present the Latin text. But that could not have been done without
doubling the size and expense of my book. I have, however, always given the Latin in a
note in three cases: (1) when any controversial point was involved, (2) when there was any
doubt lingering in my mind as to the exact meaning of my author, (3) when I thought that
my English version was somewhat free. 20 St. Optatus is by no means easy to translate. His
sentences are often very long and involved. Not seldom he loses his thread and anacolutha
are frequent. Often too he is very crabbed and obscure. I have been most anxious, and I
hope careful, to observe the two golden rules of faithful translation: firstly, to put no
idea in the rendering which is not clearly in the text, and secondly to express every
thought and phrase of the author in words that are as nearly as one can make them the
equivalent of his own. To secure these two points I have never hesitated, when necessary,
to sacrifice idiomatic English to literalness in translation. Few things are more
exasperating than is a French paraphrase, which so often is as misleading with regard to
the exact sense of its supposed original, as it is charming in its own beauty and delicacy
of expression. The style of Optatus is often majestic, always full of force and vigour,
and sometimes rises to heights of real eloquence. There is one peculiarity of the African
Latin of the time which, until we are accustomed to it, creates a difficulty and therefore
perhaps here requires a word of notice. It is not too much to say that Optatus had no idea
of the sequence of tenses observed by the classical authors, or even of any distinction in
meaning between the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive. This is often noticeable in St.
Augustine, but even more so in St. Optatus.

21 Optatus uses these tenses quite indifferently and often linked together in the same
sentence, without any reference to the question of time. On the other hand, his Latin is
often most musical; he had a very sensitive ear for rhythm and euphony (it is often a
delight to read aloud his sonorous sentences for the very joy of listening to their
sound), and accordingly he will use the pluperfect subjunctive where we should expect the
imperfect, merely because of the cadence. If proposuisset will finish a sentence more
imposingly and rhythmically than proponeret, proposuisset will inevitably fall from his
pen. Our only guide, as to whether it should be translated 'he would propose' or 'he would
have proposed,' is the sense of the context. As soon as we have become at all conversant
with the writings of St. Optatus we shall be accustomed to this peculiarity, and it ceases
to trouble us. It might well be otherwise with anyone who has never read the original. He
would naturally be much surprised to see a Latin imperfect given in a note, but translated
in the text by an English verb in the pluperfect, or vice versa. For this reason I have
thought it well to give this explanation in advance.

22 It remains to say a few words about the occasion of this treatise and its date; we must
also state what is known of Optatus and of Parmenian, the Donatist, to whom these Books
are addressed. St. Optatus himself tells us the origin of his work.As the Donatists at the
time refused a conference or public discussion with Catholics, it seemed desirable to
answer them in writing. Accordingly Optatus determined to reply to a book which had
recently appeared, written by a certain Parmenian. This Parmenian, about the year 350, had
become the Donatist Bishop of Carthage, in succession to Donatus, the successor of
Majorinus, who had commenced all the trouble by allowing himself to be intruded into the
See already occupied by Caecilian, the lawful Catholic Bishop. So we find Optatus writing
to Parmenian of Majorinus as his avus, and reproaching him with sitting in the 'Cathedra
Pestilentiae' on which Majorinus was the first to sit. Optatus tells us that Parmenian was
not an African, but a stranger to Carthage.Besides the book against the Catholic Church
which St. Optatus here answers, Parmenian wrote another against a fellow-Donatist named
Tichorinus, which was, in its turn, answered by St. Augustine. Of these two works of
Parmenian, Du Pin writes in his Preface: 'Diversa utriusque operis divisio, diversus
methodus, diversum argumentum, quamquam eadem utrobique in Ecclesiam Catholicam convitia
legerentur.'

23 We are able to gather the date of the work of St. Optatus from internal evidence. St.
Optatus himself tells us that when he wrote his book more than sixty years had elapsed
since the storms of persecution burst over all Africa. Now, the persecution of Diocletian
(which without doubt is here referred to) began early in 303 and ceased in the East in
305. Again, whilst St. Optatus terms Photinus 'a heretic of this present time,' St. Jerome
tells us that Photinus died in the year 376. Putting these two dates----that of the
cessation of the Diocletian persecution and the death of Photinus----together, and bearing
the words of Optatus concerning them in mind, we gather that he wrote after 365 and before
376. But we can narrow it still further, for St. Jerome also tells us that Optatus wrote
when Valentinian and Valens were Emperors. Valentinian was elected Emperor in 372, and
died in 375. Between these years therefore St. Optatus published the first edition of his
work. I say the first edition, for the following considerations seem to make it certain
that he subsequently brought out his work anew with considerable additions, directed
against the cavils with which the Donatists had met its publication. In the list of Popes
we now find the name of Siricius given after that of Damasus. But Siricius was not raised
to the Supreme Pontificate until 384, some years after the death of both Valentinian and
Valens.

24 It is, therefore, quite certain that Optatus could not possibly have written in the
lifetime of these Emperors, that 'together with the whole Catholic world' he was then
'united with Siricius in the bonds of communion.' Moreover, Optatus gives us not only a
list of the Popes from St. Peter, but also a list of the Donatist anti-Popes from Victor
Garbensis (the first of the series) to Macrobius. Of this Macrobius he writes as of one
still living, and calls him the socius of Parmenian. Later on, however, in the same
chapter Optatus gives the names of two obscure anti-Popes, Lucianus and Claudianus
(otherwise unknown to history), who had succeeded Macrobius in the Donatist line. These
names, like that of Pope Siricius, must necessarily have been added after the work had
been finished and first given to the world. We may, therefore, safely conclude that
Optatus wrote his Six Books against Parmenian about the year 373, when Valentinian and
Valens were Emperors, during the Pontificate of Damasus. But he lived on until the time
when Siricius was Pope and Theodosius Emperor, and then brought out a new edition of his
work up to date, and no doubt added in some shape or other the chapters which now
constitute his Seventh Book.

25 Concerning the life of St. Optatus hardly anything is known, but he has always been
held in honour in the Church by reason of the tradition concerning the sanctity of his
life, as well as the vigour and learning with which he defended the Faith. Thus St.
Fulgentius joins his name with those of Augustine and Ambrose, and writes as follows:
'Sive quod Sanctus Ambrosius, sive quod Sanctus Augustinus, sive quod Sanctus Optatus
senserunt a nobis quoque salva veritate fidei sentiatur.' St. Augustine too joins together
St. Ambrose and St. Optatus as authorities, writing, 'doctrinam quam commendavit
Milevitanus Optatus vel Mediolanensis Ambrosius.' In another place St. Augustine appeals
to St. Optatus as the great authority for the history of the Donatist schism, and
describes him as 'Venerabilis memoriae Milevitanus Episcopus Catholicae Communionis
Optatus.' Concerning the accuracy of St. Optatus as an historian there has never been any
more doubt than as to his orthodoxy and learning as a theologian. His work was, as he
himself tells us and St. Augustine bears witness,richly documented and was never
controverted on any side. Indeed there is an amusing story given by St. Augustine and
still to be found in the Gesta Collationis Carthaginensis as to how the Donatist Bishops
appealed to his authority concerning Constantine's refusal to allow Caecilian to return
immediately to his See, and the way in which the laugh was turned against them when the
whole passage was read aloud.

26 We know from St. Jerome that Optatus was an African by birth, and from St. Augustine
that he was a convert to the Faith. Augustine's beautiful words on this subject may well
be quoted; they seem to lose the fragrant delicacy of their aroma if any attempt be made
to translate them: 'Nonne aspicimus quanto auro et argento et veste sussarcinatus exierit
de Aegypto Cyprianus Doctor suavissimus et Martyr beatissimus; quanto Lactantius, quanto
Victorinus, Optatus, Hilarius, ut de vivis taceam!' Here the names of Optatus, Lactantius
and Cyprian are brought together----three great African converts----by a fourth,
Augustine, the greatest of them all. And if, as is undoubted, Augustine, himself 'rich
with the spoils of the Egyptians,' owed much also to Optatus, Optatus owed even more to
Cyprian. We see the influence of St. Cyprian throughout the writings of Optatus, though,
like Augustine after him, Optatus did not fear to desert Cyprian, where (as in the
question of the re-baptism of heretics) Cyprian was wrong.

27 To overestimate the influence of Cyprian on the Church in Africa in the fourth century
is hardly possible. By his sanctity, by his learning, above all by his heroic martyrdom,
Cyprian had won for himself a position which was unique in the veneration and affection of
the Faithful. For this reason the works of St. Cyprian were continually appealed to by the
Donatists. Petilian quoted them against St. Augustine, as in the days of Optatus they had
already been quoted by Parmenian. The Canon of Scripture was fixed by Pope St. Damasus
whilst St. Optatus was very likely still alive, and (whatever we may think of the use that
Optatus sometimes made of the sacred text) there is no doubt of the veneration in which he
held the inspired writings. On occasion, we must admit, he quoted them with inaccuracy;
from which it follows that he must have quoted by heart. But he (or rather a writer who
lived not many years later) tells us that the MSS. were numerous in his time and 'in the
hands of all.' Optatus probably knew neither Greek nor Hebrew. He employed a pre-
Hieronymian version (African in form, but less typically so than that used by St.
Cyprian), to the very words of which (even in the translation) he seems to have ascribed
inspiration. But surely it is far better to honour the text of the Written Word of God too
much than too little, and in this, as in so many other things, St. Optatus may, if we
will, be to us, in these days of Modernism, both an example and an inspiration.

28 Nothing is known as to the exact date or place of his death. Throughout Christendom
there are magnificent temples raised to the honour of Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine; in
memory of Cyprian there is a famous Chapel in the Catacombs; in no land----so far as I
have been able to discover----is there even an altar raised to Heaven under the invocation
of Optatus of Mile vis. For him there is no public cultus anywhere amongst the Faithful in
the Church of God. But he lives in his work----a monument of his zeal for the Catholic
Faith and for Catholic Unity. No Catholic, having once read this book, and having therein
entered into the loyal, upright, devoted, strenuous, somewhat impetuous spirit of its
author----a Bishop who threw himself whole-heartedly into the fight that he knew to be
necessary; a formidable and on occasion hard-hitting champion of Religion; a good shepherd
who knew not guile and hated schism, but loved the Peace which, as he tells us, Christ
bequeathed as a keepsake to His children; who loved the Unity of the Church which alone
can secure that Peace for those who will seek and ensue it; who loved the Chair of Peter
and the safety of his flock better far than he loved aught on earth beside----but will
recognise to the full the justice of the simple words of the Roman Martyrology which on
the fourth of each recurring June commemorate this single-minded servant of God,

29 Milevi in Numidia Sancti Optati Episcopi doctrina et sanctitate conspicui. 'He being
dead yet speaketh.' At least six manuscripts of St. Optatus are in existence (all of them
in a more or less incomplete state), and were consulted by Ziwsa. We shall refer to them
as A, B, C, G, P, R, respectively. A = Orléans, Bibliothèque de la ville, 169 (seventh
century----only a fragment). B = Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1712, formerly in the
Library of Baluze, 290 (fourteenth century). C = Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1711,
formerly in Colbert's Library (eleventh century). G = Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale,
13335, once in the Library of St. Germain-des-Prés, 609 (1248), (fifteenth century). P =
Petrograd, Imperial Public Library, Lat. 25 Q.v. omd. I. 2 (fifth or sixth century). R =
Reims, Bibliothèque de la ville, 221 (olim 138) (beginning of ninth century). Of these
manuscripts, P is the most ancient and undoubtedly the most valuable. Unfortunately it is
extant for the first two Books only. For the other Books R is the best authority. Ziwsa,
however, seems to think that some of the various readings in G may represent changes made
by St. Optatus himself in his second edition; from this point of view (late though it is)
G becomes very important. A is too fragmentary to be of much service; it is extant for the
first two chapters of the Seventh Book only. To C we owe all that remains of the Appendix;
unhappily it commences in its present state only about the middle of the Sixth Book. Ziwsa
holds B in small account, and Du Pin tells us that it is valde mendosus.

30 The Editio Princeps of Optatus was printed at Metz in 1549 by Cochlaeus, a Canon of
Warsaw. He dedicated his book to the Abbot of Tongerloo, in the hope that in the splendid
library of that renowned Abbey some manuscript might be discovered, whereby his text might
be corrected, since he had at his disposal only a MS. of the fifteenth century, full of
faults, which is known as Codex Cusanus. Ziwsa was unable to examine it. Cochlaeus himself
says of this Codex that it was 'ex antiquo codice quopiam mendose ab indocto librario
scriptum et ab alio deinceps multo adhuc mendosius rescriptum.' Poor material indeed upon
which to work! The Editio Princeps of Optatus is referred to as v. Fourteen years later,
in 1563, a new edition was brought out by Francis Balduinus, who tells us that in the
edition of Cochlaeus there were more mistakes than sentences, at which, under the
circumstances, we can hardly be surprised. Balduinus had a hitherto unknown MS., which was
lent him by a Paris theologian, at his disposal, but the text was still exceedingly
corrupt, until in the year 1569 he was able to produce a much better edition, since by
this time he had access to two new MSS. neither of which is available to us. The second of
these MSS., known as Codex Tilianus, from the name of a Bishop of Meaux to whom it
belonged, contains the passages in Book VII. which are now generally held to be spurious,
and which Balduinus was the first to print. He brought out yet another edition in 1599.
This third edition of Balduinus possesses some valuable notes by its author, and is quoted
as b.

31 Three more editions were brought out in the next century: the first, full of mistakes,
prepared by Albaspinaeus, Bishop of Orleans, and published after his death in 1631. This
same year the Anglican scholar Casaubon published in London an edition of Optatus, but
could only use b, as he was unable to consult any manuscripts. This edition, therefore,
abounds in conjectural emendations, many of them highly ingenious, which, apart from any
intrinsic probability that they may possess, receive importance from the critical acumen
and learning of their author. Yet another edition was published by Priorius in Paris, but
it is of no value whatsoever. The text is that of the first edition of Balduinus. We now
come to the great work of Du Pin, the famous Gallican theologian. Du Pin brought out his
edition of Optatus in 1700, again at Amsterdam in 1701, and in an improved form at Antwerp
in 1702. He discovered the important MSS CBG, and was thus able to make the first serious
attempt to restore the correct text of Optatus in the many places where it had become
corrupt. He added notes of his own, and also printed anew those of Casaubon, Albaspinaeus,
Barthius and Balduinus. He is the author of the concise marginal summary of the contents
of each chapter, prefixed a Preface and a History of the Donatist schism to the text of
Optatus, and appended many valuable documents in various ways illustrative of Donatism, as
well as the Gesta Collationis Carthaginensis, so far as they exist, in full.

32 For nearly two hundred years nothing fresh was done for Optatus, until, as we have
already stated, at the end of the nineteenth century Ziwsa published his critical edition.
He had the advantage not only of the labours of his predecessors, but also for the first
two Books he had access to P, which was unknown to all of them. Ziwsa gives us the various
readings, but was precluded by the rule of the Vienna Academy for the Corpus Scriptorum
Ecclesiasticorum from providing other footnotes. He has, however, contributed a long
Preface, dealing exclusively with questions concerning the text, as well as two valuable
Indices, the first Nominum et Rerum, the second Verborum et Locutionum S. Optati. In my
translation I have generally followed Ziwsa's text, but have not been afraid to desert it,
if I thought that I saw good reason----especially when Ziwsa himself has deserted P. The
different readings will always be found in a footnote, unless they are of absolutely no
consequence. I have (as will be seen) freely availed myself of the notes furnished by Du
Pin, especially of his own and of those of Casaubon. But it is strange how often those
passages in Optatus which seem to me to present most difficulty and have caused the
greatest uncertainty in my mind as to their precise meaning have been left untouched by
all the commentators, without any explanation whatever.

33 In conclusion I must express my deepest sense of obligation to Dom John Chapman, O.S.B.
With unfailing kindness and generosity he has corrected my work throughout, whilst it was
yet in manuscript. To him I owe numerous suggestions. Without his aid I should never have
ventured to undertake a task which has been to me a delightful labour, full of unexpected
interest on every page. My hope is that many others may, through this English work, go if
possible to the Latin, or may, in any case, fall happily under that which to me it is no
exaggeration to term the spell and fascination of St. Optatus of Milevis. [Blank page]

CONTENTS

34 PREFACE .............. PAGE V THE SEVEN BOOKS OF ST. OPTATUS OF MILEVIS AGAINST THE
DONATISTS. Book the First Who were the Betrayers at the time of the Persecution. The
Causes of the Schism. Where and by whom the Schism was made ................. 1-56 Book
the Second Which is the One True Catholic Church and Where is it to be found? the five
endowments of the Church belong to Catholicism, not to the Schism. The Donatists have been
guilty of shamelessly scraping the heads of priests, and of murders, of giving the
Eucharist to Dogs, and of casting away the Holy Chrism ................. 57-119 Book the
Third The Four Reasons on Account of which it was not possible to bring about unity
without severity. Because the Schismatics had built Churches 'that were not wanted.'
Because Donatus of Carthage had appealed to the Emperor to bring about Unity. Because
Donatus of Bagaia collected Bands of Armed Men to stop the Work of Unity.

35 Because none of those Things with which the Work of Unity has been reproached came to
pass in Opposition to the Will of God ................. 120-179 Book the Fourth An Answer
is made to certain Arguments of Parmenian, drawn from various passages in the Old
Testament ................. 180-202 Book the Fifth In this Fifth Book it is shown that
though Men are the Ministers of Baptism, it is God Who cleanses, and that it is His Christ
Who gives what is received in Baptism, and that the Rebaptised cannot possess the Kingdom
of God, and that they have lost the Wedding Garment ................. 203-245 Book the
Sixth In this Book it is shown that the Donatist Bishops wickedly destroyed altars, that
they sold the Holy Vessels, and without Warrant stripped Nuns of their Veils
................. 246-268 Book the Seventh In this last Book it is shown that the Children
of the Betrayers, whose Names were given in the First Book, may now, for the Sake of
Unity, be received back into the Catholic Communion ................. 275-297

36 PSEUDO-OPTATUS. A 298 | B 305 | C 310 A hundred noteworthy sayings of St. Optatus
................. 311 APPENDIX PREFACE TO APPENDIX ................. 321 I.----The Acts of
the Vindication of Felix, Bishop of Aptunga ................. 327 II.----The Proceedings
before Zenophilus ................. 346 III.----Letter of Constantine to Aelafius
................. 382 IV.----Letter of the Council of Arles to Pope Sylvester
................. 388 V.----Letter of Constantine to the Catholic Bishops
................. 393 VI.----Letter of Constantine to the Donatist Bishops
................. 399 VII.----Letter of Prefects to Celsus ................. 401 VIII.----
Letter of Constantine to Celsus ................. 403 IX.----Letter of Constantine to the
Bishops and People of Africa ................. 407 X,----A Rescript of Constantine
................. 410 XI.----Acts of the Council of Cirta ................. 416 XII.----
Letter of the Proconsul Anulinus to Constantine ................. 420 XIII.----Letter of
Constantine to Pope Miltiades ................. 422 XIV.----Letter of Constantine to
Probianus ................. 425 XV.----Letter of Constantine to Anulinus (I)
................. 428

37 XVI.----Letter of Constantine to Anulinus (II) ................. 430 [Footnotes
renumbered and moved to the end]

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THE APPENDIX

PREFACE TO THE APPENDIX

1 St. Optatus makes several references to the documents which he tells us that he was
appending to his work, in order fully to establish the accuracy of his statements. For
example, with regard to the Council at Cirta, which was the beginning of all the evil
subsequently to be known as Donatism, he appeals to the evidence afforded by the writings
of Nundinarius the Deacon, and to the Acts of the Council, which----so he says----
'dubitantibus proferre poterimus, harum namque plenitudinem rerum in novissima parte
istorum libellorum ad implendam fidem adiunximus' (i, 14). In the same way he states (i,
20) that he is appending the letter, in which the Bishops who were responsible for the
consecration of Majorinus brought their charges against Caecilian. Again, with regard to
the decrees of Eunomius and Olimpius he is able to write (i, 26): 'De iis rebus habemus
volumina actorum, quod, si quis voluerit, in novissimis partibus legat.'

2 These decrees have been lost. But we have still extant (in their entirety or in part)
most of the documents which were placed in his Appendix by St. Optatus. The Colbertine MS.
(C) has alone preserved for us any part of this Appendix. Moreover we possess this MS. in
a very incomplete state. It commences only with the middle of the Sixth Book, and at the
end of the Seventh we read: 'Expliciunt Sancti Optati Episcopi Libri Numero VII vel Gesta
Purgationis Caeciliani Episcopi et Felicis Ordinatoris Eiusdem. necnon Epistola
Constantini Imperatoris. Amen.' But unfortunately there are many pages wanting between the
Gesta Purgationis Caeciliani and the Gesta Purgationis Felicis----so that Duchesne writes
that at least as much of the Gesta Purgationis Caeciliani has been lost as yet remains,
perhaps double or treble or possibly even more. With regard to the Gesta Purgationis
Felicis comparatively little is missing, though the account of the inquiry before the Pro-
Consul Aelianus starts somewhere in the middle.

3 Duchesne has carefully reconstructed the Appendix of St. Optatus, and shown that it
probably contained the following documents: I. Acta Purgationis Caeciliani (1) Gesta apud
Zenophilum. (2) Acts of Cirta. (3) Synodal letter of Donatist Council at Carthage against
Caecilian (lost). (4) Letter of Pro-Consul Anulinus to Constantine. (5) Supplication of
Donatists (in Optatus i, 22). (6) Letter of Constantine to Miltiades. (7) Report of
Anulinus to Constantine (lost). (8) Acts of Roman Council (nearly all lost: a fragment in
Opt. i, 23, 24). (9) Letter of Constantine to Eumelius (lost). (10) Proceedings of
Eunomius and Olimpius in Africa (lost). II. Acta Purgationis Felicis (11) Letter of
Constantine to Aelius (or Aelianus?) (lost). (12) Letter of Constantine to Probianus. (13)
Acta Purgationis Felicis (the beginning lost). III Epistola[e] Constantini Imperatoris
Probably, however, the collection of Optatus did not contain the letter of the Council of
Arles (though it is found in C), since we find no reference to it in his work.

4 Of these documents, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 have been quoted or analysed by St. Optatus and
St. Augustine; 4 and 12 have been reproduced in their entirety, and 9 in part, by St.
Augustine only; 10 was known to St. Optatus only. All these documents, with the exception
of 1 and 10, were put in and read at the Conference at Carthage in 411. I give, in the
first place, a translation of everything that we still find in C. We have part of the two
interesting trials----of Felix of Aptunga (the consecrator of Caecilian) on the one side
and of Silvanus (one of the consecrators of Majorinus) on the other. By these documents
considerable light is thrown upon several details of Roman judicial procedure in Africa
during the early years of the fourth century. There are also six letters of Constantine; a
short document consisting of a joint letter from officials named Petronius and Julianus;
and the well-known synodal letter sent by the Council of Arles, at the conclusion of its
labours, to Pope Silvester. These letters have been printed in their chronological order.
In each case I have thought it well to prefix a short introduction.

5 With regard to my translation, perhaps I may be permitted to crave the indulgence of my
readers. The great Emperor's sentences (as at least they appear in his letters) are of
extraordinary length and complexity, with parenthesis heaped upon parenthesis, so that the
task of disentangling them in such a way as to make their meaning intelligible in English,
without the sacrifice either of grammar or of verbal accuracy, is one of no small
difficulty, as anyone who may make the attempt will discover for himself. Ziwsa is
satisfied with printing these ten documents, but I have also translated and printed the
others of St. Optatus' original collection which still remain extant. They are: xi.----(a)
The Acts of the Council of Cirta (to be found nearly complete in Augustine con. Crescon.
iii, 30). xii.----(b) Letter of Anulinus to Constantine (of which the text has been
preserved in Augustine Ep. lxxxviii, 2).

6 xiii.----(c) Letter of Constantine to Miltiades (to be found in Eusebius, H.E. x, 5).
xiv.----(d) Letter of Constantine to Probianus (entire in Augustine con. Crescon. iii,
81). I give also two official letters (xv, xvi) from Constantine to the Pro-Consul
Anulinus, which have been preserved by Eusebius, and throw considerable light on the
Emperor's attitude towards Catholics and Donatists respectively at this time (a.d. 313).
In addition to the documents which Duchesne shows to have been contained in the Appendix
of Optatus, the following were quoted either by St. Augustine or by the Donatists at the
Conference of Carthage (a.d. 411). (1) Acts of seizure of Sacred Books at Rome in 303
(lost). (2) Acts of Donatist Martyrs of Abilina (Migne, P.L. viii, 689-703). (3) Letters
of Mensurius and Secundus (lost). (4) Procès-verbal of the restitution of the Holy Places
in Rome to Pope Miltiades by order of the Emperor Maxentius (lost).

7 (5) The two letters of Constantine preserved by Eusebius (x, 5, 7), which I have printed
and numbered xv, xvi. (6) Three letters of Constantine (lost). (7) Supplication to
Constantine by Donatists, complaining of persecution (lost). (8) Letter of Constantine to
Verinus, May 5, 321 (lost). [Footnotes moved to the end]


THE EXTANT WORKS OF PACIAN
==========================

THE EXTANT WORKS OF PACIAN Pacian of Barcelona

d. c. AD 391

Bishop of Barcelona.

LETTER 1: TO SYMPRONIAN. ON THE CATHOLIC NAME — OF THE CATHOLIC NAME

[Translated by the Rev. C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student of Christ Church.] Variety of
heresies united in the Cataphrygians. 320 --- No one convinced against his will; truth not
to be blamed if it fail. 321 --- Value and antiquity of the name Catholic. 322 ---
Penitence, a necessary, though sad, remedy. 323 --- Exhortations to penitence in O. and N.
T. after great sin. 324 --- If Apostles only could absolve, they only could baptize. 325
--- All Apostolic functions descended to Bishops, so none defined. 326 --- Caution in
giving absolution; it precludes not Judgment of Christ. 327 Pacian to Sympronian his
brother, greeting. 1. If it be not a carnal intention, my lord , but as I judge, a calling
of the Spirit, that thou enquirest of us the faith of the Catholic verity, thou, before
all, taldng thy rise as far as appears, from a streamlet at a distance, and not holding to
the fountain and source of the principal Church, shouldest, in the first instance, have
shewn what or how different are the opinions which thou followest. Thou shouldest unfold
thyself as to what cause more particularly had loosened thee from the unity of our body.
For those parts, for which a remedy is sought, should be laid bare. Whereas now (if I may
so say) the bosom of correspondence being closed, we see not on what members more
especially we have to bestow our care. For such are the heresies which have sprung forth
from the Christian head, that of the mere names the roll would be immense. For to pass
over the heretics of the Jews, Dositheus the Samaritan, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees,
it were long to enumerate how many grew up in the times of the Apostles, Simon Magus, and
Menander, and Nicolaus, and others hidden by an inglorious fame. What again in later times
were Ebion, and Apelles, and Marcion, and Valentinus, and Cerdon, and not long after them,
the Cataphrygians, and Novatians, not to notice any recent swarms!

2. Whom then in my letters must I first refute? Wouldest thou the mere names of all, my
paper will not contain them; |320 unless indeed by your writings every way condemnatory of
penance you declare your agreement with the Phrygians. But, most illustrious Lord, so
manifold and so diverse is the error of these very men, that in them we have not only to
overthrow their peculiar fancies against penance, but to cut off the heads, as it were, of
some Lernaean monster. And, in the first place, they rely on more founders than one, for I
suppose Blastus the Greek is of them; Theodotus also and Praxeas were once teachers of
your party, themselves also Phrygians of some celebrity, who falsely say they are inspired
of Leucius , boast that they are instructed by Proculus . Following Montanus, and
Maximilla, and Priscilla, howmanifold controversies have they raised concerning the day of
Easter, the Paraclete, Apostles, Prophets, and many other disputes, as this also
concerning the Catholic name, the pardon of penance.

3. Wherefore if we would discuss all these points, thou hadst need been present and
teachable. But if on those points merely on which thou writest, my instruction should not
be sufficiently full, yet as it is our duty to serve, in whatsoever way we can, those who
solemnly adjure us , we now, for the sake of informing you, discourse with thee summarily
on those matters about which thou hast deigned to write to us. If thou wouldest have
fuller knowledge on our side, thou must on thine declare thyself more unreservedly, lest
by somewhat of obscurity in thy enquiries, thou leave us uncertain, whether thou art
consulting or censuring. 4. Meanwhile (and this concerns our present correspondence ) I
would above all entreat thee not to borrow authority for error from this very fact that,
as thou sayest, throughout the whole world no one has been found , who could convince or
persuade thee contrary to what thou believest. For |321 although we be unskilled, most
skilful is the Spirit of God, and if we are faithless, faithful is God, Who cannot deny
Himself. Then, also, because it was not allowed the Priests of God to contend long with
one who resisted . We, says the Apostle, have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
After one admonition , as thou thyself knowest, the contentious is passed by. For who can
persuade any of any thing against his will? Thine own fault was it therefore, brother, and
not theirs, if no one convinced thce of what in itself is most excellent. For at this day
too it is in thy power to despise our writings also, if thou hadst rather refute than
approve them. Yet very many resisted both the Lord Himself, and the Apostles, nor could
any ever be persuaded of the truth, unless he consented to it by his own religious
feeling.

5. Therefore, my Lord, neither have we written with that confidence, as though we could
persuade thee, if thou resistest, but in that faith by which we would not deny thee an
entrance to holy peace, if thou wiliest. Which peace if it be after thine own soul and
heart, there ought to be no contest about the name of Catholic. For if it is through God
that our people obtain this name, no question is to be raised, when Divine authority is
followed. If through man, you must discover when it was first taken. Then, if the name is
good, no odium rests with it; if ill, it need not be envied. The Novatians, I hear, are
called after Novatus or Novatian; yet it is the sect which I accuse in them, not the name:
nor has any one objected their name to Montanus or the Phrygians. 5. But under the
Apostles, you will say, no one was called Catholic. Be it thus. It shall have been so.
Allow even that. When after the Apostles heresies had burst forth, and were striving under
various names to tear piecemeal and divide the Dove and the Queen of God, did not the
Apostolic people require a name of their own, whereby to mark the unity of the people that
were uncorrupted, lest the error of some should rend limb by limb the undefiled virgin of
God? Was it not seemly that the chief head should be distinguished by its own peculiar
appellation? Suppose, this very day, I entered a populous city. When I had found
Marcionites, |322 Apollinarians, Cataphrygians, Novatians, and others of the kind who call
themselves Christians, by what name should I recognise the congregation of my own people,
unless it were named Catholic? Come tell me, who bestowed so many names on the other
peoples? Why have so many cities, so many nations, each their own description? The man who
asks the meaning of the Catholic Name, will he be ignorant himself of the cause of his own
name if I shall enquire its origin? Whence was it delivered to me? Certainly that which
has stood through so many ages was not borrowed from man. This name "Catholic" sounds not
of Marcion, nor of Apelles, nor of Montanus, nor does it take heretics as its authors.

7. Many things the Holy Spirit hath taught us, Whom God sent from Heaven to the Apostles
as their Comforter and Guide. Many things reason teaches us, as Paul saith, and honesty,
and, as he says, nature herself. What! Is the authority of Apostolic men, of Primitive
Priests, of the most blessed Martyr and Doctor Cyprian, of slight weight with us? Do we
wish to teach the teacher? Are we wiser than he was, and are we puffed up by the spirit of
the flesh against the man, whom his noble shedding of blood, and a crown of most glorious
suffering, have set forth as a witness of the Eternal God? What thinkest thou of so many
Priests on this same side, who throughout the whole world were compacted together in one
bond of peace with this same Cyprian? What of so many aged Bishops, so many Martyrs, so
many Confessors? Come say, if they were not sufficient authorities for the use of this
name, are we sufficient for its rejection? And shall the Fathers rather follow our
authority, and the antiquity of Saints give way to be emended by us, and times now
putrifying through their sins, pluck out the grey hairs of Apostolic age? And yet, my
brother, be not troubled; Christian is my name, but Catholic my surname. The former gives
me a name, the latter distinguishes me. By the one I am approved; by the other I am but
marked.

8. And if at last we must give an account of the word Catholic, and draw it out from the
Greek by a Latin interpretation, "Catholic" is 'every where one ,' or, (as learned men
think,) "obedience in all," i. e. all the commands of |323 God. Whence the Apostle,
Whether ye he obedient in all things; and again, For as by one man's disobedience many
were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. Therefore he
who is a Catholic, the same man is obedient . He who is obedient, the same is a Christian,
and thus the Catholic is a Christian. Wherefore our people when named Catholic are
separated by this appellation from the heretical name. But if also the word Catholic means
'every where one,' as those first think, David indicates this very thing, when he saith,
The queen did stand in a vesture of gold, wrought about with, divers colours; that is, one
amidst all. And in the Song of Songs the Bridegroom speaketh these words, My dove, My
undefiled, is but one; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice one of her
that bare her. Again it is written, The virgins shall be brought unto the King after her.
And further, Virgins without number. Therefore amidst all she is one, and one over all. If
thou askest the reason of the name, it is evident.

9. But as to penance , God grant that it may be necessary for none of the faithful; that
no one after the help of the sacred font may fall into the pit of death, and that Priests
may not be compelled to inculcate or to teach its tardy consolations, lest, whilst by
remedies they soothe the sinner, they open a road to sin. But we lay open this indulgence
of our God to the miserable, not to the happy; not before sin, but after sins; nor do we
announce a medicine to the whole, but to the sick. If spiritual wickednesses have no power
over the baptized, none, that fraud of the serpent, which subverted the first man, which
hath printed on his posterity so many marks of condemnation: if it hath retired from the
world, if we have already begun to reign, if no crime steals over our eyes, none over our
hands, none over our minds, then let this gift of God be cast aside, this help rejected;
be no confession, no groans, heard; let a proud righteousness despise every remedy.

10. But if the Lord Himself hath provided these things for His own creature man, if the
same Lord Who hath bestowed remedies on the fallen, hath given rewards to them that stand,
cease to accuse the Divine goodness, to erase by |324 the interposition of your own rigour
so many inscriptions of heavenly mercy, or by inexorable harshness to prohibit the
gratuitous good gifts of the Lord. This is not a largess from our own bounty. Turn ye,
saith the Lord, even to Me, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and
rend your heart; and again, Let the wicked man leave his ways, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts , and turn unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy. And also after this manner
crieth the Prophet, For He is gracious, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great
kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. Hath the serpent so lasting a poison, and hath
not Christ a remedy? Doth the Devil kill in the world, and hath Christ no power here to
help? Be we indeed ashamed to sin, but not ashamed to repent. Be we ashamed to hazard
ourselves, but not ashamed to be delivered. Who will snatch the plank from the
shipwrecked, that he escape not? Who will grudge the curing of a wound? Doth not David
say, Every night I will wash my bed, I will water my couch with my tears; and again, I
acknowledge my sin, and mine unrighteousness have I not hid;

and yet more, I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord, and so Thou forgavest the
wickedness of my heart. Did not the Prophet answer him when, after the guilt of murder and
adultery, penitent for Bathsheba, The Lord also hath put away from thee thy sin? Did not
confession deliver the king of Babylon, when condemned after so many sins of idolatry? And
what is it that the Lord saith, Shall he who has fallen not arise, and he who has turned
not return? What answer give the subjects of those many parables of our Lord? That the
woman findeth the coin, and rejoiceth when she hath found it? That the shepherd carrieth
back the wandering sheep? That when the son was returning, all his goods wasted in riotous
living with harlots and fornicators, the Father with kindness met him, and, assigning the
grounds, chideth the , envious brother, saying, This My son was dead, and is alive again,
was lost, and is found. What of him who was wounded in the way, whom Levite and Priest
passed by? Is he not taken care of? |325

11. Ponder what the Spirit saith to the Churches. The Ephesians He accuses of having
forsaken their love; to them of Thyatira He imputeth fornication; the people of Sardis He
blameth as loitering in the work; those of Pergamus as teaching things contrary; of the
Laodiceans He brandeth the riches; and yet He calleth all to penance and to satisfaction.
What meaneth the Apostle, when he writeth to the Corinthians thus, Lest, when I come, I
bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and
fornication, and lasciviousness, which they have committed? What, when again to the
Galatians, If a man be overtaken in a fault, (i. e. any whatever,) ye who are spiritual
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be
tempted. Does then the master of the family in a large house guard only the silver and
golden vessels? Does he not deign to guard both the earthen and the wooden, and some that
are put together and repaired? Now I rejoice, saith the Apostle, that ye sorrowed to
repentance; and again, for godly sorrow worketh repentance unto enduring salvation. But
penitence, you say, was not allowed. No one enjoins a fruitless labour, For the labourer
is worthy of his hire. Never would God threaten the impenitent, unless He would pardon the
penitent . This,you will say, God alone can do. It is true. But that also which He does
through His Priests, is His own authority.

Else what is that which He saith to the Apostles, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall
be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven? Why
said He this, if it was not lawful for men to bind and loose? Is this allowed to Apostles
only? Then to them also only is it allowed to baptize, and to them only to give the Holy
Spirit, and to them only to cleanse the sins of the nations; for all this was enjoined on
none others but Apostles. 12. But if both the loosening of bonds and the power of the
Sacrament are given in one place, either the whole has been derived to us from the
Apostolic form and authority, or else not even this relaxation has been made from the
decree. I, he saith, have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. This,
therefore, we build up, which the doctrine of the Apostles laid as the foundation. And,
lastly, Bishops also are named Apostles, as saith Paul of Epaphroditus, My brother and
fellow-soldier; but your Apostle. 13. If, therefore, the power of the Laver, and of the
Anointing, gifts far greater, descended thence to Bishops, then the right of binding and
of loosing was with them. Which although for our sins it be presumptuous in us to claim,
yet God, Who hath granted unto Bishops the name even of His only Beloved, will not deny it
unto them, as if holy and sitting in the chair of the Apostles.

14. I would write more, brother, were I not pressed by the hasty return of the servant,
and were I not reserving a fuller account for thee when either present, or making
confession of thy whole purport. Let no one despise the Bishop on consideration of the
man. Let us remember that the Apostle Peter hath named our Lord, Bishop. But are now, he
saith, returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. What shall be denied to the
Bishop, in whom operateth the Name of God? He shall indeed give an account, if he have
done any thing wrong, or if he shall have judged corrupt and unrighteous judgment. Nor is
God's Judgment forestalled, but that He may undo the work of a wicked builder. In the mean
while, if that his ministration be holy, he abideth as an helper in the work of God. See
the Apostle writeth to Laity: To whom, ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I
forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of
Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
But if what the Laity forgive, the Apostle saith that he hath forgiven, what a Bishop hath
done, in what character can it be rejected? Therefore neither the Anointing, nor Baptism,
nor remission of sins, nor the renewing of the Body, were granted to his sacred authority,
because nothing was entrusted to him as assumed by himself, but the whole has descended in
a stream from the Apostolic privilege.

15. Know , brother, that not indiscriminately to all is this very pardon through penance
granted; nor until there shall have been either some indication of the Divine will, or
perchance some visitation, may men be loosed; that with |327 careful pondering and much
balancing, after many groans and much shedding of tears, after the prayers of the whole
Church, pardon is in such wise not refused to true penitence, as that no one thereby
prejudgeth the future Judgment of Christ. If, brother, thou wouldest write thy sentiments
more openly, thou shalt be more fully instructed. [Marginal numbered notes, references,
and footnotes all moved to the end and renumbered] 1. Domine 2. He was one of the "false
Christs" shortly after our Lord's Coming. See Orig. c. Cels. i. 57. in Matt. Comm. Lat. §.
33. ed. de la Rue al. Tr. 27. in Joan. tom. 13. §. 27. 3. He separated from the Church as
a Quarto-deciman, whence S. Irenaeus wrote to him as a schismatic, (Eus. H. E. v. 20.) he,
however, seems to have so done as judaizing, (Tert. adv. omn. haer. c. 8.) S. Epiphanius
mentions Quarto-decimans as an off-shoot of Montanists. Haer. 50. c. 1. see Tillemont, t.
2. Art. Montanistes c. 15.

4. who first denied our Lord in persecution, then His Divinity. Tert. L. c. Some then of
the Montanists became nakedly Humanitarians, as others (note d.) Sabellians. 5. One
section of the Cataphrygians, named from one Aeschines, (kata Aeschinem,) said that Christ
was both the Son and the Father. Tert. ib. c. 8. 6. The forger of Apocryphal books. 7.
from whom one division of the Montanists was called kata Proclum, (Tert. 1. c.) and who
held a disputation with Caius at Rome in the time of Zephyrinus. Eus. H. E. vi. 20. 8. hoc
V. 9. quoquo modo adjurantibus V. R. 10. colloquimur. Conloquemur. R. 11. literas added V.
12. inventus sit V. 13. 2Tim.2, 13. 14. obnitenti Vat.R. obtinendo Edd. Galland.
conjectures obnitendo. 15. see ab. St. Cypr. Ep. 59. fin, p. 171. 16. 1 Cor.11, 16. Titus
3, 10. 17. Vat. omits et, "if it be dear to thy soul."

18. debet V. 19. multa ed. Rom. 20. 1 Cor. 11, 14. 21. ubique unum V. 22. doctores V. 23.
2 Cor. 2, 9. 24. Rom. 5, 19. 25. justi "'to what is right"' omitted Vat. 26. Ps. 45, 10.
27. Song of Solomon 6,9. Ps. 45, 15. 28. Song of Solomon 6,8. 29. see Tert. de Poen. c. 7.
p. 361. 30. Ipse V. R. 31. Joel 2, 12. 13. 32. added. V. 33. Is. 55,7. 34. Joel 2, 13. 35.
or, (as S. Jerome from the Heb.) "shall he turn again, and He [God] not return?" 36. Ps.
6, 6. Ps.32,5. ver. 6. 37. illi V. 38. 2 Sam. 12, 13. 39. Jer.8,4. see on Tert. de Poen.
c. 4. p. 354. n. o. Oxf. Tr. Tert. de Poen. c. 8. 40. nepotata G. 41. Luke 15, 24. 32. 42.
Tert. de Poen. c. 8. 43. 2 Cor. 12,21.

44. Gal.6, 1. 45. 2 Cor. 7, 9. ver. 10. 46. Luke 10, 7. 47. Tert. de Poen. c. 8. 48. Mat.
18, 18. 49. 1 Cor. 3, 10. 50. Phil. 2, 25. 51. et om. V. 52. 1 Pet. 2, 25. 53. 2 Cor. 2,
10. 11. 54. scito R

LETTER 2: TO SYMPRONIAN. CONCERNING NOVATIAN'S LETTER

EPISTLE II.

CONCERNING NOVATIAN'S LETTER. [Translated by the Rev. C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student of
Christ Church.] Novatians claimed to be called Christians only, not Catholics; cannot get
rid of their human name; or affix any on the Catholics. Sympronian's captious criticism;
all language God's gift. The civil power may punish misbelievers, if with good end.
Novatians not persecuted, yet dwindle. Contrast of S. Cyprian and Novatian. Nov. no
martyr, nor would suffering out of the Church make one. Pride of Novatian; humility is
innocence. Pacian the Bishop to Sympronian his brother, greeting. 1. On a prolix question
I will, as far as I can, seek brevity. Nor will I, brother, make thee any return of evil,
although, under plea of fair questioning, casting and directing at me hidden arrows in thy
speech, of thine own framing. We are bidden to pray for those that persecute us, and to
bless those who curse us. Deceit belongeth as it were to the fox, violence to the lion.
Either is most alien from the nature of man, but deceit is deservedly the most odious. For
whereas thou deemest thou art best informed , thou questionest as if ignorant; when thou
thinkest that thou art teaching, thou pretendest to be taught. The Pharisees of old were
wont to call the Lord, Rabbi, when they were setting before Him ambiguous questions of the
law; they entitled Him Master, when they would claim all mastery for themselves. But do
what thou wilt, brother, thou shalt hear all in return from me without guile. I had rather
be thought unskilful, than malicious. I. had rather be judged foolish, than crafty.

2. Wherefore, before I assign the grounds of our faith, (about which thou art anxious,)
hear a few words on your letter, which you put as a front to your treatise. You say that
you were refreshed by our former Epistle, and then straightway add that my answer was
couched in bitter terms. If bitter things refresh, I know not what would be the effect
|328 of sweet; unless it be that, as in a draught of medicine, what is bitter is wont to
cure more than what is sweet. But, I beg, look again at my letters and see whether they
are at all sprinkled with gall; what there was haughty, what unsweet in my answer. Thou
sayest that I named many heresies, about which no one enquired. Well, how did this affect
thee, if thou wert not an heretic? You raised a question concerning our faith, and said
that you wished for instruction; I wrote that the causes of ignorance were manifold, in
order that you might shew which one especially had influence on you, to save perplexity in
opening a large number.

3. On the name Catholic I answered fully and with calmness. For I said, that it mattered
to neither, what the other was called. And if you demanded the meaning of the name, I said
that, whatever it might be , it was wonderful, whether it was 'one in all,' or 'one over
all,' or (an interpretation which I have not mentioned before,) 'the king's son,' that is,
'the Christian people.' Certainly too that was no accessory name which endured through so
many ages. And indeed I am glad for thee that although thou mayest have preferred others,
yet thou agreest that the name attaches to us. What, should you deny? Nature would cry
out. But and if you still have doubts, let us hold our peace. We will both be that which
we shall be named, witness the antiquity of the name. If, however, thou perseverest in
asking, beware lest that man of might exclaim, Why askest thou thus after My Name, seeing
it is wonderful? I next added, that we need not consider, whence Catholics, derived this
name, because neither was it wont to be any imputation against the Valentinians, if they
were called after Valentinus, nor the Phrygians, if from Phrygia, nor the Novatians, if
after Novatian. At this you are grievously excited, and rouse yourself as if pierced with
a sting. For in your wrath you thus exclaim, 'Is it ever any objection to that holy man
Cyprian, that his people bear the name of Apostaticum, Capitolinum , or Synedrium? Thou
revilest, but lo!

I am not moved. Have we been called by any of |329 these names? Ask a century, brother,
and all its years in succession, whether this name has adhered to us; whether the people
of Cyprian have been called other than Catholic? No one of these names have I ever heard.
Consider now, if a man can be called by a name, which he knows not to have been given him.
What then? These are taunts, not names, and taunts of the angry, taunts of the petulant. I
too could call you by as many names as you will, were it lawful to be angry. Callest thou
Cyprian holy, and his people apostatizing? How so? If the first-fruit be holy, the lump is
also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches. Am I Apostate, or Novatus? I, I
say, or Novatus who forsook his father, abandoned the Church, and caused his wife to
miscarry ? Am I Apostate, or Novatian, whom a letter in his absence made a feigned Bishop
, whom the Episcopal seat received without consecration from any? But of these points
hereafter. In the mean time, tell me yourselves what ye are called. Do ye deny that the
Novatians are called frorm Novatian? Impose on them whatever name you like; that will ever
adhere to them. Search, if it please you, whole annals, and trust so many ages. You will
answer, "Christian. But if I enquire the genus of the sect, you will not deny that it is
Novatian.

And yet it is not the name of thy Novatian which I censure, and which, so often sought
after, thou cnvelopest in lines of circumlocution, and, if I may so speak, in closed
bosom. Confess it without deceit. There is no wickedness in the name. Why, when so often
enquired for, do you hide yourself? Why ashamed of the origin of your name? When you first
wrote, I thought you a Cataphrygian. Dost thou acknowledge it in thy second letter? Dost
thou grudge me my name, and yet shun thine own? Think what there is of shame in a cause
which shrinks from its own name. 5. But what is this thy criticism on which thou art so
busy? As though I had applied to a Rhetorician, or had to |330 treat of a science, or to
expound verses of Virgil? What then had I said? or what verses of Virgil was I expounding
? Having named several heretics, I added, 'Et quos fama recondit obscura .' And whence
thinkest thou this to be quoted from a verse of Virgil, if thou hadst no knowledge at all
of Virgil? But I did not set down the verse in order, for I said, 'Quos fama recondit
obscura,' just as, when speaking, we are accustomed, out of the abundance of human
language, to say any thing which may have been said before. Whereas you requote the verse
in its own order, in its rhythm. Hadst thou so much more love for Virgil, as to deem it
sacrilege, to make any infringement on his verse? And yet I had learnt this of a little
child. What wonder if I stumbled on that which I knew? Is there such a spirit of
enterprise then, brother, that now at last thou readest those very things, which thou
didst blush should once have been read by others? As well mayest thou accuse one, taught
in Latin, for speaking Latin, as thou mightest a Greek for speaking Greek, a Parthian for
speaking Parthian, a Carthaginian for speaking Punic. Medes, Egyptians, Hebrews, have each
their own language, according to the abundance of the Lord, Who hath harmonized language
into an hundred and twenty tongues.

A Bishop quote a verse from a Poet! What? Does the Apostle Paul blush, when he hath both
quoted and approved of that Athenian verse? For in the Acts of the , Apostles he putteth
it thus, As certain also of your own poets have said, For we are His offspring. Since then
we are the offspring of God. And again, to Titus he said, One of themselves, even a
prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. And
he added, This witness is true. So we have authority for our error. Nor are we
Rhetoricians, but whatever word we use, we believe it to be the rich gift of God. Latium,
Egypt, Athens, Thracians, Arabians, Spaniards, acknowledge God. The Holy Spirit
understandeth all languages. |331 7. But why do you say, 'I will smear thy letters with
fresh oil of cedar, to protect them from the destructive enemies of the Muses?' What
Muses, I pray you? Those who invented letters, and wrote the sheets which are the prey of
moths? Tell me, I pray then, brother, did the Muses invent letters? Are not all things
through The Lord, and all from God? Besides those hundred and twenty tongues, was there
yet another of the Muses? That idea was falsely devised by Hesiod on Helicon, but only to
please the Athenians, who , the Apostle says, had no leisure but to talk. We (the Apostle
is our witness) retain the measures of all words, and all kinds of language, as inspired
by God. Yet I pardon you, brother, if you rely somewhat upon your own author, and if you
join together the philosophy of Novatian, whereby he made shipwreck of religion, with the
authority of Hesiod. But thou oughtest to have remembered the words of the Apostle, who
saith, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.

8. And now of what sort is that which you think is to be imputed to Catholics, "if at any
time kings or governments have persecuted you? Then, on the other hand, ought it to be
imputed to you, as often as Catholics have had to endure the wickedness and persecution of
kings, and pagan princes have persecuted us. Have ye had to bear the odium attached to
Christians? But we have had more reason to complain. Let him who did this, see to it with
what intention, in what spirit he did it; to procure peace or discord. But and if some of
them have erred, he saith, shall they make the faith of God without effect? And yet think
not that there was any reason to complain of us. When through our Faith princes had begun
to be Christians, these very princes, favouring the Catholic, that is their own, side,
were moved by their own sorrow; unless it is to be imputed to Daniel, that he was avenged
by Darius: or to that most holy woman Esther, when for her a chief minister of the king is
put to death: or to the three youths, because after they had made trial of the flames, the
king of Babylon for their sakes threatens the wicked and unbelieving. Does not Peter put
|332 Simon to confusion with the consent of the judge ? Does not Paul strike Elymas blind
with the approval of Sergius?

And even at Jerusalem he had been avenged, had he when in bonds had any confidence in them
. Dost thou not know that authorities themselves are the servants of the innocent, and
minister for good to the holy side ? As saith the Apostle, Rulers are not a terror to good
works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good,
and thou shall have praise of the same through the Lord; for he is a minister of God to
thee for good. 9. And yet I have complained of no one, I have been avenged on no one, nor
do I think that the Novatians are any obstacle to me, in whose fewness and decrease, if I
would, I might glory. See, no one accuses your people to the Emperor, and yet thou art
alone . Nevertheless we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, of which one
thing I know the Novatians would complain, if their cause were acceptable to any princes.
10. "It profiteth more," you say, "to overcome than to please." But they who are led by a
burning desire to overcome make their way by contention. Whereas the Apostle saith, But if
any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Churches of God. On
the other hand, of the desire of pleasing he saith, I please all men in all things, not
seeking mine own, profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. But ye, whilst
ye are thinking of your own, not the profit of your brethren, had rather destroy by
overcoming, than refresh by pleasing. To overcome evil with good, is the office of reason:
but to wish for victory, in whatever cause it be, is the part of a mad presumption. This
cometh from the law not of Apostles, but of Greeks, amongst whom it is found on record,
that the whole spirit of the Lacedemonians was inflamed with a |333 desire of conquering.
The filthy boar also, and the infuriated tigress, what else do they desire but to conquer,
rather than to please?

11. "I have leisure," you write, and therefore art thou well pleased with contention. But
to me, fully occupied in Catholic business, your letters were delivered after about thirty
days; resumed, after forty more. 12. You say that I am angry. God forbid. I believe that I
am roused; like the bee who sometimes defends her honey with her sting. But reconsider the
letters on either side. You will soon see whether it be with stings or with flowers that
we join issue on paper. The Apostle indeed speaks of some similar persons, whose mouths
must be stopped . But listen, we engage with thee, as doves, with the mouth rather than
with the teeth. 13. Oh! would it were true that thou sayest thou wouldest be taught! at
once, with my own hands would I give thee the very anointing of the Holy Spirit. Dost thou
love me? I have not harmed thee, this I know. But then couldest thou love me, if thou
didst not hold things contrary; then wouldest thou approach my work with kindly feelings.

14. Dost thou marvel that the Epistles of Cyprian please me? And how should they not, the
Epistles of a blessed Martyr and a Catholic Priest? Dost thou force Novatian upon me? I
hear that he was a philosopher of the world; it is not then much wonder to me that he fell
away from the Church of the Living God. I know that he deserted the root of the ancient
law, the fountain of the ancient people; envying Cornelius, lending himself to the phrenzy
of Novatus, made Bishop without legitimate consecration, and therefore not even made, by
the letter of those men, who pretended they were Confessors, who rent asunder the limbs of
their one mother. These points, brother, I will prove to you in letters, by the confession
of your own friends. Thus this philosopher of thine, seeking to establish his own wisdom,
as the Apostle saith, was not made subject to the wisdom of God, since by its wisdom the
world knoweth not the wisdom |334 of God. For whereas thou supposest that Novatian
suffered first, and subjoinest that Cyprian said, "My adversary hath preceded me," see how
clear the answer I can make. Novatian never endured martyrdom; nor was that ever heard or
read from the words of the most blessed Cyprian. Thou hast his Epistles in which he
mentions Cornelius Bishop of the City , of whom Novatian was then envious, as resisting
the hostile princes, often a confessor, often harassed;

as made the leader of many Confessors, of many Martyrs also, and as receiving a most
glorious crown with many others, whilst Novatian was still alive, and even free from all
anxiety. For he had left the Church of Christ for this very reason, that he might not have
to bear the toils of Confessorship . First, stung by envy, he could not endure the
Episcopate of Cornelius; then, with the mockery of those letters of a few, he had bound
himself to Novatus. All this concerning Novatian you may learn from the letters of
Cyprian. 15. But, moreover, although Novatian did endure some suffering, yet was he not
also slain. And although he was slain, yet was he not crowned. Why not? He was without the
peace of the Church, without the bounds of concord, without the pale of that mother, of
whom he ought to be a part who is a Martyr. Hear the Apostle, And though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow
all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing. But Cyprian suffered, in concord with all, in the common
peace of all, amid a company of Confessors; and, having often been a Confessor in
reiterated persecutions, and harassed with many a torment, had at last given him to drink
of the cup of salvation. This was to be crowned! Wherefore let Novatian have his Epistles
to himself, to himself his haughtiness, to |335 himself his pride, by which, whilst he is
lifted up on high, he is dashed down to pieces, whilst he spares no one, he is himself
cast out.

16. Lo! the man, who by an inexorable religion closes the way of salvation against his
brethren! Lo! the man, who is confident that he beareth the fan , and is purging the
garner of the Lord! Take pity on thyself, brother Sympronian, lest Novatian deceive thee
under this mask, as though he were therefore to be thought the more righteous, because he
despised others in comparison of himself. Audacity often feigns itself confidence; and the
false image of a good conscience flatters even desperate sinners. Whereas contrariwise all
humility is innocence, even that of the debtor, even that of the sinner, even that which
softeneth its soul with the sinner. Blot me, I pray Thee, says Moses, out of Thy book
which Thou hast written; and this, that sinners might not perish. For I could wish, saith
the Apostle, that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh. Both then pray for sinners; and yet neither Moses nor Paul offend God on
this account. Is Novatian better than they? a corrector of Prophets? a teacher of
Apostles? Is he now seen with Christ, as was this same Moses? Is he now carried up, as was
Paul, into the third heaven? Is he alone to be now heard, and all others neglected? This
would have been a sufficient answer to return to your letter.

17. But as you argue to some extent against doing penance, or for doing it before Baptism;
and have filled your page with many chapters of examples from his treatise, I will, though
more than is called for, answer each point. I will not hold back the substance of the
truer faith. And as thou hast deigned to enjoin on me to hear thee at great length, do
thou in return afford a kind requital to our treatise. The Lord perhaps will vouchsafe,
that we, who have patiently yielded ourselves to thy enquiries, may gather some fruit from
thy patience also. The Lord vouchsafe to guard and protect thee for ever, and make thee to
live a Christian and a Catholic, and to agree with us! Amen. [Marginal numbered notes,
references, and footnotes all moved to the end and renumbered] 1. Mat. 5, 44. 2. autem om.
V. 3. nosse te for nocere V. It.

4. aenigmata 5. praetulisti, perhaps as a false front. [Tr.] 6. repetas added V. 7. esset
added V. 8. Judg. 13, 18. 9. intended, doubtless, to refer to the admission of the lapsed,
who had sacrificed in the Capitol, see ab. on S. Cypr. Ep. 8. §. 2. p. 18. n. u. 10. Rom.
11, 16. 11. see ab. S.Cypr. Ep. 52. §.3. p. 113. 12. finxit. Novatian's consecration,
although wholly irregular, does not appear to have the irregularity here seemingly
ascribed to it. Yet S. Cyprian is thought to speak of the absence of consecration in terms
equally strong (de Laps. §. 10. p. 138. Oxf. Tr. see Tillemont, H. E. t. 3. p. 350. note
g. sur S. Corneille. 13. linteata sedes. "used in investitures." Hoffm. 14. illis added V.
R. 15. tune for tunc V. 16. "disputandum! Quid ergo dixeram? aut quos Virgilii" inserted
from Vat. after Virgilii, omitted through the

17. Aen. v. 302. 18. Coteler. (quoted by Galland.) on the Recogn. ii. 42. conjectures,
that CXX has been substituted for lxx, according to the distribution of languages into
lxxii, or lxxv. see his note, t. i. p. 513. and Abp. Potter on S. Clem. Al. Strom, i. p.
404. Else the number might have been taken from Acts 1, 15. 19. Acts 17, 28. 20. Tit. 1,
12. 21. ver. 16. 22. ut om. V. 23. Acts 17, 21. 24. Col.2,8. 25. regum et persecutionem
Edd. impius et persecutiones V. impietatem Marg. regum imperiis R. 26. Rom. 3, 3. 27. the
Catholic Faith. 28. Doubtless, Nero, who Philastrius (Haer. c. 29.) says was present, with
which correspond the tales of Dio Chrys. Or, 21. and especially Sueton. (vi. 12. quoted by
Baronius and Tillemont, H. E. S. Pierre Art. 34.) as to a juggler, who promised Nero to
fly, and tell to the ground in his presence.

29. non R. 30. ''Vindicatus esset et Hierosolymis, si quid fidei ligatus habuisset.'' If
it may thus be rendered, it may allude to Acts 25, 10. 11. and 26, 32. Could he have
reposed confidence in Festus, he might have been set at liberty, through his civil
privilege. 31. partibus for patribus. V. 32. Rom. 13, 3. 4. 33. the sect melting away of
itself, without civil interference. 34. Rom. 14, 10. 35. 1 Cor. 11, 16. 36. 1 Cor. 10, 33.
37. Tit. 1, 9. "indentare for e0pistomiIzein for which it is also used by Lucif. Calar.
pro S. Ath. ii. 40." (Gall. B. P. vi. p. 195.) Gall. 38. see on S. Cypr. Ep. 52. §. l.p.
111. n. m. 39. Rom. 10, 3. 40. 1 Cor.1, 21. 41. A spurious account of a confession, or
contest (a!qlhsij), also called a martyrdom, of Novatian is mentioned by Eulogius ap.
Phot. Cod. 182. 208.280. The Novatians set much store by it; Eulogius says, that "it was
of the extremest vulgarity in language, thought, and composition;" and a bad fiction
(kako&plastoj). It consisted chiefly of a long and foolish dialogue between Novatian and a
Ducenarian, and did not even pretend that N. "endured scourging, or suffering, or torment
of any kind." Socrates' statement (iv. 28.) that he was martyred, as well as that of the
text, seem derived from this, and are discredited by it, as it would doubtless give the
most favourable account.

42. Ep. 55. ad Anton. §. 6. 7. p 120. sqq. 43. Rome 44. see ab. p. 111. n. m. 45. 1 Cor.
13, 2. 3. 46. palam ferre V. others, paleam auferre. 47. quae animam suam cum peccatore
blanditur. 48. Exod. 32, 82. 49. Rom. 9, 3. 50. Mat. 17, 3. 51. 2 Cor. 12.


THE EXTANT WORKS OF PACIAN
==========================

THE EXTANT WORKS OF PACIAN continued

LETTER 3: TO SYMPRONIAN. AGAINST THE TREATISE OF THE NOVATIANS

EPISTLE III.

AGAINST THE TREATISE OF THE NOVATIANS. [Translated by the Rev. C. H. Collyns, M.A.,
Student of Christ Church.] Pacian the Bishop to Sympronian his brother, greeting. 1. The
whole treatise of the Novatians, which you have addressed to me thronged with propositions
on all sides, amounts to this, brother Sympronian: That there is no room for repentance
after Baptism; that the Church cannot remit mortal sin; that by the receiving of sinners
she herself perishes. Illustrious honour! Singular authority! Great constancy! To reject
the guilty; to flee the touch of sinners; to have so little confidence in her own
innocence! 2. Who is the assertor of this doctrine, brother, Moses, or Paul, or Christ?
But Moses wishes to be wiped out of the book for the sake of blasphemers; and Paul to be
accursed for his brethren; and the Lord Himself willeth to suffer for the unrighteous.
None of these, you will say. Who then, I ask? It was the ordinance of Novatian. Some
spotless and pure man, I suppose, who was no follower of Novatus, who never deserted the
Church, who was made Bishop by Bishops, who was consecrated according to the received
rites, who obtained the Episcopal Chair in the Church when duly vacant? What is that to
thee? thou wilt say. I answer, Novatian taught this doctrine. But, at least, when did he
teach it, brother, or at what period? Immediately after the Passion of the Lord? After the
reign of Decius, that is, nearly three hundred years after the Passion of the Lord. And
what then did he? Did he follow Prophets, as the Cataphrygians? some Philumene, as
Apelles? or received he himself so great authority? Spake he with tongues? Did he
prophesy? Could he raise the dead? For some one of these powers he ought to have had who
was to bring in a Gospel with new laws . Although the Apostle crieth even against this,
Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed. |337

3. Novatian, you will say, discerned this; but Christ taught it. Was there no one of
discernment from the Advent of Christ even to the reign of Decius? Again, since Decius,
has every Bishop been weary of his office ? all others relaxed men, choosing rather to
join themselves with the lost, to perish with the miserable, to be wounded through the
wounds of others? Novatian vindicateth, righteousness is set free; Novatian guideth, every
error is corrected. 4. "But come," you will say, "let our conflict be carried on with
examples, and let us contend with reasoning." But I so far am safe. Contented with the
line of the Church itself, with the peace of the ancient congregation, I have learnt no
desire of discord, I have sought no arguments for contest. Thou, having been separated
from the rest of the body, and divided from thy mother, that thou mayest give account of
thy deed, art an assiduous searcher into the inmost recesses of books; every thing which
is hidden, you molest; and whatever is at rest, you disturb. Our Fathers, unrequired,
entered into no dispute; our very unanxiousness sought no arms; every advance of your
party is guarded. I then know not what Novatian did, of what Novatian was guilty, what the
swelling pride of Evaristus, what the report of Nicostratus. Despising your weapons, I
know them not; yet, beware, how thou engage with unarmed truth. Let us await, however,
what thou mayest object, what thou hast to say. Will truth be able to hold its ground
though unarmed, or innocence unskilled?

5. You set forth, and rightly indeed, that "the Church is a people born again of water and
the Holy Spirit, free from denying the Name of Christ, the temple and house of God, the
pillar and ground of the truth; a Holy Virgin of chastest feelings, the spouse of Christ,
of His Bones and His Flesh, not having spot, or wrinkle, holding the laws of the Gospels
entire." Who of us denies this? But we add moreover that: the Church is the queen in a
vesture of gold, wrought about: with divers colours; the fruitful vine on the walls of the
House of the Lord; the mother of virgins without number; |338 the one beautiful and
perfect Dove, the chosen' of her mother, the very mother of all; built upon the foundation
of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. A great
house enriched with a diversity of every kind of vessel. But this of ours hereafter.
Meanwhile, consider we those of yours.

6. "The Church is a people born again of water and the Holy Spirit" Well! say, who hath
closed the fountain of God against me? Who hath taken the Holy Spirit from me? Yea, rather
with us is the living water, the very water which springeth from Christ; but thou,
separated from the everlasting Fountain, whence receivest thou thy birth? Nor hath the
Holy Spirit departed from the chief mother; whence then came He to thee? Unless perchance
He hath followed one that is in strife, and abandoning so many priests, nor pleased to
abide in His consecrated dwelling-place, hath preferred the broken cisterns of an
adulterated fountain? Whence have your people the Spirit, not having, been sealed by an
anointed priest? Whence the water, being separated from its mother's womb? Whence renewal,
who have lost the cradle of Bridal Peace? 7. 'The Church is a people free from denying the
Name of Christ' Are there then no Confessors amongst us, no Martyrs, no untainted and
spotless Priests, who have been proved by prisons, by chains, by fire, by the sword? "
There were," thou wilt say, " but by receiving those who had denied, they perished. I do
not mention, I do not infer even this, that your own Novatian, whilst he was still living
in the Church, both wrote, and recommended, and read a book, on receiving those who had
denied, or the lapsed. In the mean time, whom will you be able to persuade that by
receiving the lapsed the whole Church hath perished? That by the admission of penitents,
the people of those who admit them has been made a denier of the Faith? But even if the
people here or there have been too lax, have the other peoples also who approved not of
their deed, but followed custom and peace, lost the Christian name? Hear the voice of
Jeremiah, In those days shall they not say, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the
children's teeth are |339 set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity. Nor
is the Lord silent by the mouth of Ezekiel, As the soul of the father, so also the soul of
the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die; and afterwards, The son shall not
bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son;

the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him. You yourself bring forward this
example; Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they shall deliver
neither son nor daughter; they only shall be delivered. See, they who are placed in the
midst of sinners, who cannot deliver others, are themselves saved. Whereas thou bindest
the whole world with the chains of a few; thou condemnest the whole Church for the
infirmity of a small portion. What are all with you saints, whom Novatus trained, whom
Evaristus chose, whom Nicostratus taught, whom Novatian instructed? Hast thou escaped the
thorns and briars? Hast thou no tares in thy corn? Is thy wheat already purged? Will He
that purgeth come to thee without His fail? Shalt thou alone of all have no chaff? But
come, proceed with the rest. 8. "The Church is the body of Christ." Truly, the body, not a
member; the body composed of many parts and members knit in one, as saith the Apostle, For
the body is not one member, but many. Therefore the Church is the full body, compacted and
diffused now throughout the whole world; like a city, I mean, all whose parts are united,
not as ye are, O Novatians, some small and insolent portion, and a mere swelling that has
gathered, and separated from the rest of the body. 9. "The Church is the temple of God."
Truly, an ample temple, a great house, having vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood
and earth, some unto honour; and many indeed of glorious fashion destined for the manifold
uses of various works. 10. "The Church is a holy Virgin, of chastest feelings, the Spouse
of Christ." "A Virgin," it is true, but a mother also. A " Spouse," it is clear, but also
a wife and an helpmeet taken from her Husband, and therefore bone of His bones, and flesh
of His flesh. For of her David saith, Thy |340 wife shall be as the fruitful vine upon the
walls of thine house; thy children like the olive-branches round about thy table. Great,
therefore, is the progeny of this Virgin, and without number her offspring, wherewith the
whole world is filled, wherewith the populous swarm ever throngs the circumfluous hive.
Great is the care of that mother for her children, and tender her affection. The good are
honoured, the haughty are chastised, the sick are cared for, no one perishes, no one is
despised, the young are kept safe under the indulgent protection of a mother.

11. "The Church is without spot or wrinkle," that is, without heresies, without
Valentinus, without Cataphrygians, without Novatians. For in these are certain spotted and
wrinkled folds, envious of the ornaments of the precious vesture. But the sinner and the
penitent are not a spot on the Church, because, as long as he sinneth and repenteth not,
he is put without the Church . When he ceases to sin, he is already whole. But the heretic
rends, divides, spots, wrinkles, the garment of the Lord, the Church of Christ. For
whereas there are schisms and contentions among you, saith the Apostle, are ye not carnal,
and walk as men? and moreover, Their word will eat as doth a canker. This is the spot that
defileth unity, this the wrinkle. Lastly, when the Apostle is speaking of these things, he
is setting forth the love and affection of Christ. As Christ, he saith, loved the Church,
and gave Himself for it; that He might remove , that is, the heretics, because they know
not how to love. But why is this, you will say, for the wretched penitent? Because he
wisheth both to love and be loved.

12. "The Church is that which keepeth the laws of the Gospels entire." Truly "entire,"
because all, because fully |341 Where reward is given to the faithful, where tears are not
denied to the wretched, where the weeping of them that ask is heard, where the wounded are
bound up, where the sick are healed, where insolent health claimeth nothing for itself nor
a proud righteousness, where charity endureth long solicitous for all, believing all
things, hoping all things, enduring all things; (whence is that of the Apostle, Who is
weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?) where the whole brotherhood
mourning together, beareth its own burdens, secure in mutual affection, all in turn
bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace. This will be the Church, brother Sympronian; this will be the " people born
again in Christ of water and the Holy Spirit."

13. "I know not," you say, "whether sin can be remitted by Bishops, since our Lord hath
said, Whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father Which is
in heaven. Why then did your Novatian teach this, when a Priest, before he had falsely
assumed the Episcopate, long before Cornelius was made Bishop of Rome, before he was
envious of his priesthood? You have the evidence of Cyprian to this; Cyprian, whom not
even ye have ever been able to defame. For in a certain place he writes to Antonianus
after this manner ; 'It was added, moreover, (Novatian being then the writer, and with his
own voice reciting what he had written, and Moyses, then a Confessor, now a Martyr,
subscribing,) that peace should be given to the lapsed when sick, and in extremities;
which Epistle was sent throughout the world, and brought to the knowledge of all the
Churches.' What sayest thou, brother Sympronian? Novatian wrote this, and, that he might
add the assent of his entire will, recited it also when written. His right hand is
witness; witness the hand which wrote; witness the tongue which read. As yet Cornelius, on
account of whom all this envy of yours burst forth, was not Bishop. Long subsequent to
this, with very many brother Bishops, with very many Confessors, and forthwith Martyrs, as
the same Cyprian writes, he agreed in the decision of the elders, that peace might be
given. If the approach to penance is to |342 be refused, Novatian is involved in the
guilt, who wrote, recommended, and recited this. Where then was this impatient rigour?
Where then this unrelenting censorship? Had no one preferred Cornelius to you, that
authority of Novatian so writing had remained.

14. Now this whole judgment displeaseth, now are arrows shot at us, and these very men
furnish them, by whose authority the cause whereat they direct them, gained its strength.
But when began the Novatians to fall into this very heresy? Listen, I pray, and consider
the whole course of your error. Cornelius, now made Bishop of Rome by sixteen Bishops, had
succeeded to the place of the vacant Chair, and in that virginal chastity wherewith he was
endued, suffered frequent persecutions from the angered Prince. At that time by chance a
certain Presbyter named Novatus , having defrauded the widows in the Church of Carthage,
robbed orphans, denied and withheld the money of the Church, cast his father out of his
house, suffered him to die of hunger and left him without burial, stricken with his heel
the womb of his pregnant wife, and destroyed her child, came from Africa to Rome. And
there, when at the urgent request of his brethren in the Church, the day on which he must
render account at Carthage was close upon him, he lay concealed.

15. And not long after, when this Novatian was troubled at the Episcopate of Cornelius,
(for he had hoped it for himself,) he, with some partizans of his side, (as is men's wont
in such cases,) urges him on when hesitating, encourages him when doubtful, exhorts him to
hope for something great. He finds some out of the number of those who escaped the tempest
of that persecution, in whose minds he could infuse against Cornelius this very odium
about the receiving of the lapsed. He gives to Novatian their letters to him. He by
authority of these letters, there being already a Bishop sitting at Rome, in opposition to
the laws of the singleness of the Priesthood, assumes to himself the name of a second
Bishop; accuses Cornelius of being in communion with the lapsed; asserts his own
innocence. Over against such a man I am |343 to render account; against such, I am to
maintain the cause of modesty; against such is purity of life to be vindicated!

16. "But," thou wilt say, "why do ye too, Bishops, approve such things?" This let another
say; do thou defend Novatian. Let the cause seem to others inexcusable; to thee it should
be acceptable. Be he innocent in thy sight, whoever is in thy behalf guilty. Accuse not
another of a crime, from which you cannot clear yourself. Well, be it that we Bishops
every way owe a debt of shame, because we have received the name of Apostles, because we
are sealed with the title of Christ. "The Lord," thou sayest, "denies him that denieth, I
would not that thou shouldest acknowledge him denying." Who does acknowledge him denying?
He, I ask, who constrains him to penance, rebukes him, shews him his crime, lays bare his
wounds, tells him of eternal punishments, corrects him by the destruction of the flesh?
This is to chasten, not to acknowledge. The Lord saith unto us, Ye are the salt of the
earth. Good then is the harmony when we so teach, nor will its authority be slight,
whosoever shall hear us. Thou seest that the sentence of the Lord is not trampled on, but
enforced by us; severity is not laid aside, but His will laid open.

17. "But," thou wilt say, "you forgive sin to the penitent, whereas it is allowed to you
to remit sin only in Baptism." Not to me at all, but to God only, Who both in Baptism
forgiveth the guilt incurred, and rejecteth not the tears of the penitent. But what I do,
I do not by my own right, but by the Lord's. We are labourers together with God, saith the
Apostle; ye are God's building; and again, I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave
the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but
God that giveth the increase. Wherefore, whether we baptize, whether we constrain to
penance, or grant pardon to the penitent, we do this by the authority of Christ. See thou
to it, whether Christ hath this power, whether Christ have done this. |344 18. "If
remission of sin," thou sayest, "could be given to the penitent, Baptism was not
necessary." Most senseless comparison! For Baptism is the Sacrament of the Lord's Passion:
the pardon of penitents is the earning of him that confesseth. The former all can obtain,
because it is the gift of the grace of God, that is, a free gift; but penitence is the
toil of the few, who after falling arise, who after wounds recover, who are holpen by
tearful prayers, who recover life through the destruction of the flesh.

19. Thou maintainest that to no purpose did I adduce that instance that God hath said, I
desire not the death of a sinner, but rather that he repent. What had I added that of
Isaiah, When thou shall return and mourn, then shall thou be saved, and know where thou
hast been? What if that of the Apocalypse, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works? "These things," (thou wilt say,) "were spoken to the
Gentiles before Baptism." Hear the Apostle, Now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Therefore, those who lived without the law
will not be holden by this condition of repentance. And should they have repented, they
had done it out of an unconstrained faith, not by any bond of repentance imposed by the
law. 20. Therefore (thou wilt say) the Jews at least who repented before Baptism cannot
repent after Baptism. Who taught thee this, brother Sympronian? Who convinced thee that he
who may have repented before, ought not to repent afterwards? But this we will see
hereafter. Meanwhile, even if the Jews were precluded from repentance after Baptism,
because they had repented before, allow that the Gentiles at least who, before, knew not
the law of repentance, ought to repent afterwards. But I would not that thou shouldest be
deceived even as to the Jews. For on this very ground did they before repent, because they
had corrupted their old Baptism, and they repented as having, after Faith, betrayed the
Faith. Hear the Apostle, Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how
that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat;
and did all drink the same |345 spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock
that followed them: and that Bock was Christ. This Baptism then they had violated, and
therefore did they repent. Let us now see what thou sayest.

21. "If God bids man often repent," (sayest thou,) "He allows him often to sin." What
sayest thou? Does he then who frequently points out the remedy for a crime, point out the
crime? And when the physician cures, does he teach us to be constantly wounded? God
wisheth not man to sin even once, and yet He delivers him from sin. Nor yet when He
delivereth, doth He teach sin; as neither does he who delivers from a fire, teach to
kindle it; nor does he who rescues the shipwrecked from the cliffs, drive him upon the
rocks. It is one thing to be delivered from danger, another to be forced upon danger. And
perchance I might allow this, if luxury were accounted penitence, on which such toil is
imposed, the destruction of the flesh enjoined, continual tears, unending groans. Will he
then who has been cured wish again to feel the knife, again to suffer cautery? Will he
wish to sin again, and again to repent, when it is written, Sin no more, lest a worse
thing come unto thee; and again, On him that sinneth constantly I have no mercy .

22. But if, as thou sayest, he is driven into sin, to whom is pointed out the medicine of
penance; what then will be his case, who is shut out even from penance? who has his whole
wound laid bare, and yet despairs of any remedy? who is utterly and entirely denied any
approach to life? 23. "In Baptism," (thou wilt say,) "we die once for all according to the
Apostle, Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized
into His Death? Therefore we are buried with Him by Baptism into death: that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk
in newness of life. What marvel? The Apostle taught that we were renewed, that no one
might sin. And yet it followed that he who had sinned should repent. The one is to live
uninjured, the other cured. The innocent should receive a |346 crown, the penitent pardon:
the one a reward, the other a remedy. And, lastly, the same Apostle saith, For when we
were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Much more then, being
now justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. From the wrath, that
is, which was due to sinners. But if He suffered not the Gentile people to die, much more
when redeemed will He not suffer them to be lost. Nor will He cast away those, whom He
hath bought at a great Price. Nor is the loss of His servants a little matter in His eyes.
, He That has risen again shall die no more, as it is written. But Himself is our Advocate
with the Father, Himself intercedeth for our sins, no powerless Maintainer of the cause of
the wretched, no inadequate Intercessor! Answer, brother; can the devil oppress the
servants of God, and cannot Christ set them free?

24. Thou sayest, that "the repentance of Peter was before the Passion of our Lord?" No one
adduced this instance to thee. And yet Peter had been already baptized. For to him the
Lord had said , He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every
whit. Afterwards, however, he received the remedy of Christ's Death, but he repented
before, and was esteemed holy before he attained to thisremedy. Nor would his repentance
be written as a memorial, had it not in some way profited the penitent. He wept, it is
said, bitterly. Wiliest thou not that the believer should do what Peter did? Wiliest thou
not that what profited Peter should profit us? Come say, Favoureth it not me, that Thomas,
after the Resurrection of the Lord, doubt of the Resurrection? Is he not marked by the
Lord as guilty of faithlessness, when are shewn him the prints of the nails, the pierced
Hands, the wound in the Side, when the Lord saith unto him thus, Be not faithless, but
believing? What then? Was he ashamed to repent? Was he not humbled? Does he not
straightway acknowledge his God and his Lord? And is not that confession his commendation?

25. How acutely now dost thou dispatch that head which I set down, that power was given
unto Bishops, that |347 whatsoever they bound on earth, should be bound also in heaven;
and whatsoever they loosed on earth, should be loosed also in heaven. Thou sayest, that
this has reference not to the Faithful, but to Catechumens, that in the case, namely, of
people yet to be baptized, sins were allowed either to be loosed or retained. Lastly, thou
joinest together clauses from two Evangelists, so as to seem one; and addest, that what
Matthew detailed less fully, John filled up: so that whereas the Lord had said according
to Matthew, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, He completed His words in John, saying,
Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain,
they are retained; so that this loosing or binding may seem to refer to the Gentiles who
were yet to be baptized, because the former Evangelist spoke first of the Gentiles, but
the latter "filled up" concerning loosing and binding. What sayest thou? Do the two
Evangelists relate meanings mutually halved between them, and but half entire? Were they
mutually deficient either in language or in reason? Or did not in all the Holy Spirit fill
the whole man, carrying out entirely the sense proposed, and defining the words even to
the full? No one super-addeth to a man's testament when confirmed:

shall another covenant change the covenant of God? What is this desire in you of
overcoming, that you dare any such thing? What is this, which according to Matthew himself
the Lord had said before His Passion, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in
heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven? Our Lord had
foretold this in St. Matthew, and made there no mention of the Gentiles. Why then do you
join on the chapter of John to him, where he has set down what is peculiar to himself, and
so set it down, as to keep it distinct from the Gentiles; which, had he wished to refer to
the Gentiles, he could surely join that together which himself elsewhere set down. 26. All
thou seekest then, thou hast in Matthew. Why didst not thou, who teachest a Bishop, read
the whole? Look at the first head of that command. According to the relation of Matthew
himself, the Lord spake a little above to |348 Peter; (He spake to one, that from one He
might lay the foundation of unity;) afterwards delivering the very same command in common
to all, He still begins in the same terms as to Peter; And I say also unto thee, He saith,
that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. And 1 will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Say, brother, did He speak this of the
Gentiles only, Upon this rock, He saith, I will build My Church? Doth He call nations not
baptized, the Church? Is man not as yet re-born, the body of Christ? What do I loose to
the Gentiles? What is not bound? For if it is not imputed, nor bound, why bind I on, what
I bind not of right? The Gentile is free from the Law. See now, on the other hand, whether
both words do not agree with the baptized. He is loosed by pardon, because he was bound by
sin: he is bound by anathema, because he had been loosed by faith, and set free through
grace. But if I grant that this power of loosing and binding regarded the Gentiles also,
much more do I prove that it appertained to the baptized. For if he could be loosed or
bound, who had no chain, how much more he, who was held by the laws of faith?

27. Thou sayest that Matthew had written, If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go
and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; and that immediately after the Lord
added, Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; so that it would seem
to have reference to offence given to a brother. But look, seest thou not what He saith
above, If thy brother shall trespass against thee? but here He addeth, Verily I say unto
you, whatsoever ye shall loose on earthy &c. The former is a command to one, the latter a
power of loosing granted to many; the one, that same looseth against whom it is committed,
the other, the Church; the former is obtained without the priest, without the brethren,
the latter from all. Whatsoever ye shall loose, He says. He excepted nothing whatever.
Whatsoever, He says, great or small. Listen to what He saith to Peter below, that sin
against man is to be forgiven seventy times seven, in |349 order to shew that in other
cases it can be forgiven at least once . And yet he who sins against Peter, doth despite
to the Lord, as He declares Himself when speaking to Samuel, They have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected Me. What then is commanded to us so often, is allowed to the
Church, at least, once.

28. But to return to the lost sheep, the piece of silver, and the younger son, examples
upon which I slightly touched in my former letter, thou hast gone over again in full,
teaching and shewing that the piece of silver, and the sheep, and the younger son, refer
to publicans and sinners, that is, a lowly people, not to the image of the Christian
people, nor the likeness of the faithful. I congratulate myself on being taught, but I am
sorry that I comprehend not. For what shall I say? That whatsoever the law saith, it saith
to those under the law, and that this was spoken principally to the former people, but as
a likeness of the faithful, but as an image of those who should be, as the Apostle saith,
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come; and again, All which things in them
were a shadow of good things to come. Certainly thou thyself acknowledgest that these
things were spoken to publicans and sinners, that is, a lowly people, and therefore the
younger. Say then, is not the Christian people itself that younger people ? Hath it not
grown together into the root? Hath He not compacted these members into one? built, as it
is written, upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief corner Stone. Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles?

Yes, of the Gentiles also. For there is One God, Who justifieth the ungodly by faith, and
the uncircumcision through faith. Certainly, that lowly people, whom God compared to the
piece of silver, the younger son, and the sheep, was the Church, whence are Apostles,
whence is the whole assembly of believers, whence the Christian people. |350To this body
then are joined our members also, and all portions of believers, out of the wild olive
tree of the Gentiles, that they might grow together into a good olive tree, partaking, as
the Apostle saith, of its fatness; and so we might be all one in Christ, Jew and Greek,
bond and free. If, therefore, we with those lowly ones are one body, those things which
were said to the lowly among the ancients were spoken also to us; and thus whatever was
declared to a part of the body, was announced to the whole body.

29. I will speak more plainly still. This latter, this poor, this lowly people was an
image of the Church, the humble and modest soul, the soul delivered through Christ. This
the Lord came to save. This He left not in hell. This is the sheep which is carried back
on the shoulders, that is, with the effort and might of patience. This the piece of
silver, which is looked for, and, when found, is shewn unto the neighbours. Seest thou how
its fashion is like unto the similitude of penitents? Seest thou that mercy is extended
even to this time? Seest thou that whatever was spoken to the Church at its birth, relates
also to the Church in its fulness? Thence did the Lord then add, Likewise joy shall be in
heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which
need no repentance. For if all these things were written for our admonition, to whom, I
ask, shall that sinful, humble, people be compared, but to the penitent people? And if,
the figures recurring in regular order, the ninety and nine sheep that were safe are the
whole Church, but the one that strayed in that small portion of offenders, the piece of
money which was lost is that wretched sinner, let the son returning after his evil ways,
be held the pattern of him that is redeemed.

30. Thou now seest that I rightly set down, when treating of the cure of penitents, that
the Lord said, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick;
and rightly again, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Whatsoever
was said of publicans and sinners, will apply to all that are sick, and all that are
miserable. 31. Thou sayest, "It was written of Martyrs only, Blessed are they that mourn."
Does no one bewail his sins besides |351 them? Doth not David cry, Every night wash I my
bed? and again, For I have eaten ashes as it were bread; and, mingled my drink with
weeping? Saith not Jacob, Few and evil have the years of my life been? Does not the
Apostle write to Timothy, Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears? And
yet he spoke not this of a Martyr. What now? Are the eyes of the wretched penitents dry?
And they who grieve that they have sinned, know they not how to weep? We ourselves, the
communicants, we, the faithful, have not we tears? Hath anyone of us pleasure in
rejoicing, when the world rejoiceth? Ye, Novatians, Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye
have reigned as kings without us. It is not then they only who are miserable, who are the
objects of commiseration .

82. Your next proposition is, that it is written by the Lord, All manner of sin and
blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. Either I
am mistaken, or this example makes against thee. For if all manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven, thou seest that pardon is not denied to penitents; all sin then, even
blasphemy itself then. According to Luke you have it added, And whosoever shall sin
against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. What can be more large than this as to
the mercy of God, the clemency of the Judge? Is not thine eye evil because the Householder
is good? May not He do, what He willeth? Moreover, Who art thou that judgest a servant? to
his own Master he standeth or falleth. Yea, God is able to make him stand. But he that
blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit, He saith, shall not be forgiven. Thou usually readest
the whole lessons. Why didst thou not read here what that meaneth, against the Spirit?
Thou hast it written above, that, when our Lord was casting out devils by His word, and
performing many other deeds by the power of the Spirit, the Pharisees said, This fellow
doth not cast out devils but by |352 Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

This it is to have sinned against the Holy Spirit, to have blasphemed against those things
which were wrought by the Holy Spirit. For in other sins we either fall through error, or
are conquered by fear, or are overcome by the infirmity of the flesh. This is the
blindness of not seeing what thou seest, imputing to the devil the works of the Holy
Spirit, and calling that glory of God, by which the. devil himself is overcome, the power
of the devil. This it is then which shall not be forgiven. All other things, brother
Sympronian, are forgiven to good penitents. 33. After this thou thus givest the instances
of the branches and the vine: in John the Lord saith, I am the true Vine, and My Father is
the Husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away, and every
branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it. Thou seest then that in the branches fruit is
required, that is, good works of repentance, as John says, Bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance. Thou seest that the branches are purged. This purging is the
destruction of the flesh, the loss of joy, the loss of inheritance, the toils of life; and
these are the peculiar acts of penitents. You see also that the Husbandman is the Lord,
Who destroyeth not even the very branches, but purgeth and gathereth, some certainly for
the fire, some to renew and plant again His vineyards.

34. "Eli the priest," thou sayest, "speaketh, saying, If one man sin against another, they
shall pray for him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? In like
manner John, If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall
ask,and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto
death: I do not say that thou shall pray for it. Thou seest that all this has reference to
sins still remaining, not to those persons who have at any time sinned, and begun to
repent before any one asketh for them. It were a long task to unfold the instances. Remark
all the sins which God threatens, thou wilt at once see that they are present sins. But if
his past righteousness shall not profit the righteous in the time of his iniquity, neither
shall his wickedness which he hath forsaken hurt the wicked man in the time of his
righteousness; for it |353 is written, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy. But if God
hath punished even past sins, tell me, hath He it not in His own power to change His
sentence against him, to whom He hath appointed punishment and suffering for things past
and overlooked? Did He not deliver Rahab, Nebuchadnezzar the king, the Gibeonites, the
Ninevites, and Zoar, from the destruction foretold?

Doth not Joel thus speak in His Name, Turn unto the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, for He is gracious and merciful, slow
to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. Who knoweth if He will
return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him? Wherefore if thou shalt have anyhow
proved that punishment is appointed for the sinner, thou must allow this, either that it
is appointed for enduring sins, or that liberty is left to God of changing His sentence in
their favour, on repentance. 35. Thou sayest it is further written, If thy hand or thy
foot offend thee, cast them from thee. The meaning of this Moses foretold by the testimony
of the Book of Deuteronomy, If thy brother, (for these are our eyes and our hands,) or thy
daughter, or thy wife, which is in thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul,
entice thee, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known: then he
added below, Thou shalt accuse him, and thine hand shall be upon him to put him to death.
Dost thou see then that this was not spoken of penitents, but of those who not only
themselves persevere in wickedness, but also cease not to put stumblingblocks in our way?
These, however dear they be, we must relinquish; however useful, we must abandon.

36. Further, thou settest forth that the Apostle Paul said, Put away from among yourselves
the evil thing ; the evil which continues, that is. But repentance is not an evil, for
|354 David saith, It is a good thing to make confession unto the Lord. And yet he who is
doing penance is not with me, nor is he joined in the portion of the saints, nor in peace.
But the Apostle saith, If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous,
or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one not even
to eat. Thou seest that not without cause doth it stand, if he be, i. e. one who is not
yet penitent, who has not ceased to be wicked. And certainly the same words apply to the
covetous, to drunkards, and to railers. Answer, brother, is no one of this kind
comprehended in your communion? Thence then is it that God crieth by Isaiah, The
destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together; not of the
penitent, not of those who are busied in works of mercy, to whom God saith again in the
same Isaiah, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

37. "Nevertheless," thou sayest, "the Apostle condemned him that erred. For in the first
Epistle to the Corinthians he saith thus: For I verily, as absent in body, but present in
spirit, have already judged, concerning him that hath so done this deed, in the Name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the
spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus. Mark, brother, first that he condemns
not those with whom this man is in communion. He alone who had done this deed, is
delivered to Satan, he only is excommunicated, the peace of the Saints being kept entire.
Ye for one sinner condemn all churches. Next thou seest, that this very incestuous sinner
is not delivered to death, but to Satan, to be reformed, to be buffeted, to repent.
Lastly, he says, for the destruction of the flesh, not however of the soul, not even of
the spirit also, but for the destruction of the flesh only, trials, namely, straits in the
flesh, wearing of the members, as in another place he saith of them who refrain not,
Nevertheless, such shall have trouble in the flesh. Wouldest thou know? In the second
Epistle to the Corinthians, the same Paul absolves this same wicked man. For of him he
|355 saith. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many.

So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such an
one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you, that ye would
confirm your love toward him. And so below, To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also:
for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the
Person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us. Seest thou the indulgence of
the Apostle, tempering even his own sentences? Seest thou his most gentle lenity, so far
removed from your pride? Widely differing from the front which Novatian assumes, but
consulting for the common life and salvation of all? 38. But thou inveighest against us
also with the severity of a censor. Thou sayest, that "according to the law of heaven it
is not allowed to break one of the commandments, and that lambs ought not to hold
communion with wolves, and that all consenting unto such is in fault, that he then who
toucheth pitch is defiled, and that there is no society of light with darkness, of the
temple of God with idols, or agreement of Christ with Belial." Thou sayest at last that we
"rescind the commandments of God." Do we alter one tittle of the law, or the Novatians
rather, who have violated all laws of the Church, all laws of concord, who, after so many
years of peace, so many sacred treaties, have produced these new laws of yours, new
customs, new rites, feigning sanctity under an inexorable front, a sanctity heretofore
unknown? Do we receive wolves into the Church, who avoid the very faces of heretics, or
the Novatians rather, who, themselves rapacious wolves, shudder at the poor sheep but
little more wretched than themselves? Do we "consent unto the wicked," do we "touch
pitch," have we fellowship with darkness, do we join ourselves unto idols and unto Belial,
or they who received Evaristus, who received Nicostratus, and the others who left the
Church, defiled in tongue, |356 in hand, in life? Have we dealings with adulterers and
thieves, or they who preferred Novatus over their own lives and heads, after he had
embezzled the money of orphans and widows, the murderer of his wretched parent and of his
wife's offspring, not only not penitent, but even glorying?

39. But the Apostle Paul said, Lay hands suddenly on no man. Yet he teacheth, that slowly
and after repentance it must not be refused. "Yet at the destruction of Jericho Achan the
son of Carmi was put to death for stealing a garment." Slay ye then all who have stolen
our money and our books, and exercise your fury against the bones of Novatus. Take upon
you again that yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. Why delay ye, O
Novatians, to ask eye for eye, tooth for tooth, to demand life for life, to renew once
more the practice of circumcision and the sabbath? Put to death the thief. Stone the
petulant. Choose not to read in the Gospel that the Lord spared even the adulteress who
confessed, when none had condemned her; that He absolved the sinner who washed His feet
with her tears; that He delivered Rahab at Jericho, itself a city of the Phoenicians; that
He set Tamar free from the sentence of the Patriarch; that when the Sodomites also
perished, He destroyed not the daughters of Lot; willing likewise to have delivered his
sons-in-law, had they believed the destruction to come.

40. Come, dost thou not remember that the Lord saith by David, With them that hated peace
was I peaceful? and that the sentence of Solomon is not withheld when he saith, A brother
that helpeth a brother shall be exalted? What says the Apostle? Brethren, if a man be
overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens,
and so shall ye fulfil the law of Christ; and again, (which I have before quoted,) I could
wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the
flesh; and |357 again, I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save
all; that is, so as to share their groans with the wounded, suffering with the sick, death
with the dying, to be able to blend the fall of brethren with his own standing, to abate
from his own health, and apply medicine to the sinking.

41. What profiteth it you to harden yourselves with an haughty and hard brow, to be stiff
and bear your necks high, to turn away your faces from the miserable, to close the ear and
eye? Have ye, I pray you,never fallen? Is there no stain on your minds? No mote, I pray,
in your eyes? Who will boast that he hath a clean heart, or that he is free from sins? Ye,
I suppose, are just, benevolent, temperate, your members are all sound, your whole body
unharmed, ye have no need of a physician, nor of medicine for weakness! Enter ye heaven at
once, penetrate the approaches to paradise while the sword gives way before you, close
your holy gifts against so many nations of ours, who confess the One and Only God! But if
they are in a far different state from that which the implacable rigour of nature and your
cruelty pretend, ye must see now, O Novatians, that God can have mercy; now, that a
remedy, late though it be, is open to wretched brethren who confess what is past; now,
that that wounded man, passed by by the Levite and Priest, can be healed by Christ; now,
that the prayers of the Church are not to be refused to the humble; now, that the hands of
the Priests are to be imparted to those brethren who deserve pity.

42. But we understand, as thou reproachest us, that the Church of God is a dove, not
bitter with gall , not fierce nor rending with talons, white moreover with small and
tenderplumage. We know likewise that, being the well of living water, and a fountain
sealed, it is defiled with no filth of engulfing heresy, and that it is a garden enclosed
and full of herbs great alike and small, vile and precious; that it is the eight souls
from the Ark, among whom, however, was Ham also, and those thousands of birds and beasts,
in pairs and in sevens, clean alike and unclean. But by the dry fountains and clouds
carried about of winds we understand the barrenness of heretics, and the assaults of
strangers' voices. 43. Neither do we promise liberty, when we are ourselves the servants
of punishment, but we confess our sins, and exhort the rest also to confess theirs, and to
believe on Him Who justifieth the wicked by faith, Who revoketh the sentence pronounced
against wickedness. When also we avoid you, we beware of false prophets and ravening
wolves. But we believe that Jannes and Mambres withstood Moses, as ye do the Catholics.
Whence the Apostle layeth it down thus, Now as Jannes and Mambres withstood Moses, so do
these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But
they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs
also was. That this was spoken against you, is clear; for ye can neither proceed further,
nor hide your folly.

44. He that is washed by the dead, profiteth nothing , he, that is, who is dipped in an
heretical fountain, and in like manner, he who is anointed with the oil of the sinner, who
is filled, that is, with an unclean spirit. So then ye shall be also children of blood.
For ye desire not the peace, but the blood of brethren. Your cruelty is a false faith. An
heretical congregation is an adulteress woman; for the Catholic hath never from the
beginning left the couch and the chamber of her Spouse, nor gone after other and strange
lovers. Ye have painted a divorced form in new colours, ye have withdrawn your couch from
the old wedlock, ye have left the body of a mother, the wife of One Husband, decking
yourselves out with new arts of pleasing, new allurements of corruption. 45. For whereas
ye bring forward as a witness against me the most blessed Cyprian, because in his Epistle
on the Lapsed he says that Moses and Daniel and Job prayed for sinners, and obtained not,
our Lord saying, Though. Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they shall deliver neither son
nor |358 daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. Would,
would ye did rely on the witness of Cyprian, would ye acquiesced in doctrines so salutary!
For when he was urging the lapsed to penance, who were unwilling to do penance because
they said that they had received peace from Confessors or Martyrs, he taught and shewed
that not even those Patriarchs obtained any thing for the unrepentant. For who can deliver
one unwilling? Who can humble himself for the proud? Who obtain any thing for the
unrepentant? So when he said this, he was constraining them to the remedies of penance.
Nor did a man of such gravity and merit in any wise contradict himself, but he taught that
the sinner must pour forth prayer, and must love Confession.

46. These examples, however, of Cyprian shake you, in which he relates that both Moses and
other saints who prayed for sinners, obtained not their request. Sayest thou? Seest thou
not for whom Moses obtained not his request? Returned to the people, what heareth he in
the camp? The voices of drunkards and the songs of the idol-sacrifice were resounding
through it. The people was still persevering in wickedness, still remaining in the very
crime, but repentance it knew not. And yet who of us told thee that Moses obtained not his
request? God indeed had said unto him, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot
out of My book. He had spoken, however, with the authority of a Judge, and with the power
of a Lord. But see how soon He turned back the sentence pronounced against the wickedness
of the people. Listen. Immediately, in the same place, the Prophet saith, And Moses
besought the Lord his God, Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people? and so on.
Then again below, And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His
people. Seest thou that the anger of God was softened? Seest thou that the offence was
atoned for? And he prayed for a people not praying, nor repenting what they had done.

47. "But Noah," thou sayest, "and Daniel, and Job,could not deliver sons nor daughters."
And the meaning of this is; if they should ask for them who asked not themselves, if they
should pray for him that persevered in crime, if they |359 would throw their protection
over not individuals, not a few, but many thousands. Yet Noah delivered his own household
from the general ruin; and Job received again all which he lost; and Daniel by prayer
removed that sword which was hanging over the wise men of Babylon. Lot certainly prayeth
for the safety of a city, Paul for the passengers of the ship. So they who know how to
repent are absolved by help of the righteous. 48. Lastly, look even at the very words
which are written, They only shall be delivered. Who are they? Those same who pray for
sinners, shall pray for such with impunity. And why condemnest thou the Church? Why
forbiddest thou to pray for the penitent? if we may pray even for those, for whom we may
not obtain? Read, therefore, my Cyprian with more care. Read the whole Epistle on the
Lapsed; read another which he wrote to Antonianus, in which Novatian is pressed by
examples of all sorts. Then thou wilt learn what he pronounced as to the healing of
penitents; Cyprian, I say, who is opposed to you, and adhered to the Catholic laws.
Tertullian after he had fallen into heresy, (for you have taken much from this source,)
you may hear himself, in his Epistle, and that same which he published when a Catholic,
confess that the Church can forgive sins.

49. Thou seest then that the Church is a Queen in a vesture of gold, wrought about with
divers colours; consisting, that is, of many diverse bodies, and of many people. This
painting is not of one colour, nor doth this great diversity glisten in one garment. This
part of her array covereth, another adorneth. One part is fitted to the bosom, another
sweeps along in the lowest fold, and contracts defilement in the very act of walking. Part
is likened to the purple of Martyrs; part to virgin silk. A part is sewed on beneath in
folds, or repaired by the stitches of the needle. One after this manner, and another after
that. And yet in all is she made one queen. 50. Therefore she is also a fruitful and rich
vine, with many branches, and the varied tresses of many a tendril. |360 Look. Are there
every where large clusters, is every grape full-swelled? Have none of these suffered from
the winter cold? Has none endured the rough hail? Has none to accuse the burning heat of
summer? One bud is studded thicker with shoots; another is stronger; another cleaner; one
bursts forth into fruit, another only into exuberance of leaves. Yet is she a vine in
every part beautiful.

51. She is the mother of virgins without number. Calculate now, if thou canst, the
Catholic flocks, and count on thy fingers the swarms of our people. Not those only, which
are scattered throughout the whole world and fill whole regions, but those, brother
Sympronian, which are with thee in the nearest borders and in the neighbouring city.
Contemplate how many of us you alone see, how many people of mine you alone meet. Art not
thou absorbed as eaves-droppings in great fountains, as a single drop by the ocean? Say,
say, are these virgins the offspring of your people? Art thou alone the mother of so many?
This queen, I say, is ours, the chosen one of her mother and perfect. Nothing indeed can
be chosen, except what is better and greater from another; nothing can be perfect except
what is full. 52. Next consider this, whether she is not especially built upon the
foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner
Stone. If her beginning was before thee, if her belief was before thee, if she hath not
left her former foundations, if she hath not moved them, if she hath not separated from
the rest of the body and appointed her own rulers for herself and peculiar documents, well
; if she hath made unreceived interpretations, if she hath invented some new law, if she
hath given a divorce from peace to her own body, then clearly may she seem to have left
Christ, then may she seem to stand apart from Prophets and Apostles.

53. This then will be the great house, rich in diversity of all vessels, in which glistens
the pure gold, in which gleams the ductile silver, but which despises not, as it is
written, the vessels of wood and earth. For a great house employeth |361 many services, is
busied about various works. It seeks not silver only, nor is delighted with ornament of
gold alone. Now and then what is of slight account is more ornament to things great; and
in a noble suite, things little are sometimes pleasing. No workman despiseth his own work,
nor thinks that vile which he hath made. And whence was it, thinkest thou, that Christ
suffered for sinners, except that He was unwilling to lose any thing which He Himself
formed? Whence was it, thinkest thou, that He even now intercedeth with the Father for the
miserable, except that He repels not him of little worth, even though he be most despised.
None of those whom He has received, would He lose, although compared to vessels of wood
and earth, and so He putteth together in His house all vessels.

54. At length, brother Sympronian, be not ashamed to be with the many; at length consent
to despise these festering spots of the Novatians, and these parings of yours; at length,
to look upon the flocks of the Catholics, and the people of the Church extending so far
and wide. Where one is, (thou wilt say,) there am I also; and where two are, there is the
Church: "where one," yet in concord, "where two," but at peace. "Where one is, there is
the Church also." How much more, where many are? Two, it saith, are belter than one, and a
three-fold cord is not broken. Hear what David saith, I will sing unto Thy Name in the
great Congregation; and again, I will praise Thee among much people; and, The Lord, even
the most mighty God, hath spoken: and called the world, from the rising up of the sun,
unto the going down thereof. What! shall the seed of Abraham, which is as the stars and
the sand on the sea shore for number, be contented with your poverty ? In thy seed, he
saith, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Say, does Novatian make these up?
Not thus little hath God redeemed with His Own Blood, nor is Christ so poor.

55. Recognise now, brother, the Church of God extending |362 her tabernacles, and fixing
the stakes of her curtains on the right and on the left; Understand that The Lord's name
is praised, from the rising up of the sun, unto the going down thereof. See, see, I beg
you, that, whilst the Novatians are striving over words, the riches of Catholics are being
dispersed throughout the world. 56. I have now instructed thee on all the points, about
which thou hast consulted me. I have passed over no head or sentence of your propositions.
I have answered every tittle and word. If you enquired as one consulting, I have shewn you
lovingly. If as attacking, I have argued not indi-ligently. I will add, when I shall have
leisure, another Epistle also, in which I will not confute your views, but set forth ours.
And if you read it with good feeling and without fastidiousness, perchance it may not hurt
you. Meanwhile in this Epistle I beg you to read each and all parts of it thoroughly. All
that is read in haste passes away. If thou cravest better gifts, and hast a soul open to
good instruction, thou wilt not easily despise things so true. The Lord vouchsafe to guard
and protect thee for ever, and make thee live a Christian to the unity of the Spirit!
Amen.

[Selected footnotes only] 1. see Tert. de Praescr. c. 6. p. 440. n. g. and c. 30. 2. ib.
c. 30. p. 464. 3. see S. Cypr. Ep. 50. p. 109. n. k. and Ep. 52. p. 112. 4. Bellarm. de
Eccl. iii. 9. arg. 7. defends this, as though S. Pacian meant it of heretics only, of whom
he had just spoken. But St. P. speaks much more broadly; the Novatians objected to the
reception of certain open offenders; St. P. answers, that the Church received them, not as
offenders, but when cleansed by penitence, in which case they were no longer "spots." The
question did not relate to a discipline which neither Church, nor heretics, can exert, as
to secret offenders; these, St. P. often says, (e. g. §. 7.) both must have; but heretics,
he says, were altogether denied, and of these the Church was free, the Novatians were made
up; restored penitents were no defilement, because they were cleansed; while in their
sins, they were shut out by the discipline of the Church.

5. Ep. 55. 6. S. Cypr. Ep. 52. ad Corn. §. 3. p. 113. 7. See St. C. on the oneness of the
Episcopate. Ep. 59. §. 5. p. 155. n. c. 8. probably Ecclus. 12, 3. "non est enim ei bene
qui assiduus est in malis." 9. see on Tert. de Bapt. c. 12. p. 270. n. i. Oxf. Tr. 10. See
on Tert. de Poenit. c. 7. p. 362. n. d. Oxf. Tr. 11. See Tert. adv. Jud. c. 1. adv. Marc.
iii. ult. 12. The Vat. supplies "acrobystiam." The Ed. notices that a little part of the
sentence is wanting, the letters being faint and illegible, else it seems complete. 13. i.
e. The sympathy of the members of the Church is not confined to the fallen; all "groan,
being burdened" and so all have sympathy. 14. So quoted also by Lucif. Calar. de non parc.
in D.del. p. 237 h. quoted by Sabat. ad loc. and in the latter clause, Opt. c. Don. vii.
Breviar. fid. c. Arian. ap. Sirm. quoted ib. on S. Matt. 12, 32.

15. Latinius' coni. "deque"'for "de quo" gives an easier reading, "If God hath punished
even past sins, andhas appointed punishment and suffering for things past and overlooked,
say, hath He it not in His power to change His sentence." 16. LXX.so quoted nearly by S.
Cypr. Ep. ad Fortun. §. 5. p. 284. Oxf. Tr. Lucif. Cal. de non parc. in D. del. p. 228. d.
17. as if it had been to_ ponhro_n, which S. Aug. qu. 39. in Deut. observes, it is not.
18. Prov, 18, 19. so quoted by S. Cypr. ab. Ep. 55. §.15. p. 126. and by S. Paulinus. see
Sabat. ad loc. 19. which the dove was supposed not to have. Horus Hierogl. i. 54. 20. See
above on S. Cypr. Ep. 71. §. 1. p. 238. n. b. 21. de Laps. §. 12. p. 166. Oxf. Tr. 22.
Noah, in S. Cypr. 23. This break has been necessarily made, although there is no
distinction in the present text, of which the former part plainly belongs to the
Catholics, the latter to the Novatians.

24. It must be borne in mind in these contrasts, that the Novatians, as the Donatists
afterwards, claimed to be the whole Church; they do not apply to us, who, however
outwardly rent, claim to be a portion only.


THE EXTANT WORKS OF PACIAN
==========================

THE EXTANT WORKS OF PACIAN continued

PARAENESIS, OR, TREATISE OF EXHORTATION TO PENANCE

THE PARAENESIS OR

TREATISE OF EXHORTATION UNTO PENANCE.

[Translated by the Rev. C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student of Christ Church.] 1. Although I have
spoken several times, however hurriedly, of the cure of penitents, still, mindful of the
Lord's solicitude, Who for the loss of one poor sheep spared not even His own neck and
shoulders, carrying back the delicate sinner to the reintegrated flock, I shall endeavour
(as I can) to build up even with my pen the example of so great excellence, and as a
servant shall imitate, with the humility becoming me, the industry of the Lord's labour.
2. My only fear is, dearly beloved, lest by the unhappiness of wonted contrariety, by
insisting on what is done, I should teach, rather than repress, sins; and that after the
example of the Athenian Solon it would be better to be silent concerning great crimes,
than to warn against them, the morals of our age having gone so far, that men deem
themselves reminded, when they are forbidden. For this I suppose has very lately been the
effect of my Cervulus , that the offence has been wrought the more diligently, the more
earnestly it was branded. And all that censure of a disgrace visibly stamped and often
repeated, seems not to have repressed, but to have taught wantonness. Wretched man that I
am! Where has been my guilt? They had not known, I suppose, how to act the wanton, had not
I by blaming taught them.

3. But let that pass. Rebels from God, and placed without the Church, are also exasperated
by chastisement, as a wrong, |365 indignant forsooth that their morals can be blamed by
any. And as mud is wont then most to stink, when you stir it, and fire then to burn more
if you turn it, and madness then to be more fierce if you provoke it: so they, by turning
the heel, have broken the pricks of necessary blame, yet not without being hurt and
wounded by their resistance. 4. Do ye however, most beloved, remember that it is said by
The Lord, Reprove a fool, and he will hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee;
and again, Whom I love, I rebuke and chasten. Do ye then, following lovingly, not
obstinately opposing, believe that the kindly and anxious diligence of this my work,
undertaken according to the will of the Lord by me your brother and priest, is of love
rather than of rigour.

5. Moreover let no man imagine that this very discourse on the institution of penance is
framed for penitents only, lest for this reason whoever is placed without that rank,
despise what shall be spoken as intended for others; whereas the discipline of the whole
Church is tied as it were into this fastening, since Catechumens must be careful that they
pass not into this state, and the faithful that they return not to it; and penitents
themselves must toil, to arrive speedily at the fruit of this their work. 6. But in my
discourses the order preserved will be this. First, to speak of the degrees of sins, that
no one think that the extremest peril is set upon all sins whatsoever. Then I shall speak
of those faithful, who, ashamed of their remedy, use an ill-timed bashfulness, and
communicate, with body defiled and mind polluted. In the sight of men most timid, before
the Lord most shameless, they contaminate with profane hands and polluted mouth the Altar
to be dreaded even by Saints and Angels. Thirdly, my discourse shall relate to those, who,
having duly confessed and laid bare their crimes, either know not or refuse the remedies
of penance, and the very acts belonging to the ministry of confession. Lastly, it shall be
our endeavours to shew most clearly, what will be the punishment of those who either do no
penance, or even neglect it, and who die therefore in their wound and imposthumes: and
what again will be their crown, what their |366 reward, who purge the stains of their
conscience by right and regular Confession.

7. First, therefore, as we proposed, let us treat of the degrees of sinners, diligently
searching out what are sins, what are crimes, that no one may think that, for the
innumerable faults from the deceitfulness of which no man is free, I bind the whole human
race under one undistinguishing law of penance. With Moses and the ancients, those guilty
of even the least sin, and (so to speak) of one farthing were immersed in the same
aestuary of misery; as well those who had broken the sabbath, as those who had touched
what was unclean, who had taken forbidden food, or who murmured, or who had entered the
temple of The Most High King when their wall was leprous or their garment defiled, or,
when under this defilement, had touched the altar with their hand or with their garment
come in contact with it, so that it were easier to ascend into heaven, or better to die,
than to have to keep the whole of these commandments.

8. From all these therefore and many carnal offences besides, that each might more
speedily attain his destined end, the Blood of The Lord hath delivered us, redeemed from
the servitude of the Law, and set free in the liberty of the Faith. And therefore saith
the Apostle Paul, For ye have been called unto liberty. This is that liberty, that we are
not bound by all those things whereby they of old were held: but (if I may use the
expression) the whole entangled mass of our faults being forgiven and the indulgence of
remedies appointed, we are constrained to a few and necessary points, which, whether to
keep or to avoid, were most easy for believers; so that he could not deny that he most
truly deserved hell, who, ungrateful for so great forgiveness, kept not even these few.
But what these are let us see. 9. After the Passion of the Lord, the Apostles having
considered and treated of all things, delivered an Epistle to be sent to such of the
Gentiles as had believed; of which letter the import was as follows: The Apostles and
elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch
and Syria and Cilicia: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us
have troubled you with words; so below, |367 It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us,
to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats
offered to idols, and from blood, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves,
ye shall do well. Fare ye well. This is the whole conclusion of the New Testament. The
Holy Spirit, despised in those many ordinances, hath left these injunctions to us on
condition of hazard of our lives. Other sins are cured by the compensation of better
works: but these three crimes we must dread, as the breath of some basilisk, as a cup of
poison, as a deadly arrow: for they know how, not to corrupt only, but to cut off the
soul. Wherefore niggardliness shall be redeemed by liberality, slander be compensated by
satisfaction, moroseness by pleasantness, harshness by gentleness, levity by gravity,
perverse ways by honesty; and so in all cases which are well amended by their contraries.
But what shall the despiser of God do? What the blood-stained? What remedy shall there be
for the fornicator? Shall either he be able to appease the Lord who hath abandoned Him? Or
he to preserve his own blood, who hath shed another's? Or he to restore the temple of God,
who hath violated it by fornication? These, my brethren, are capital, these are mortal,
crimes.

10. Now hear John and be confident, if ye can. If any man see his brother sin a sin which
is not unto death, let him ask, and the Lord shall give him life, if he have sinned a sin
not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. But if
you like, hear separately also of each. God thus addresses Moses when praying for the
people who had blasphemed, Whosoever hath (He saith) sinned against Me, him will I blot
out of My book. Concerning the murderer, the Lord thus judgeth, He that smiteth with the
sword, (He saith,) shall die by the sword. And of the fornicator the Apostle says, Defile
not the temple of God, which temple ye are; if any man defile the temple of God, him shall
God destroy. 11. These things are written, most beloved brethren, and engraven on
everlasting monuments; written and engraven, I say not on wax and paper and brass or with
the pen, but |368 in the book of The Living God. Heaven and earth shall pass, (He saith,)
one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away, till all be fulfilled. What then? Must
we die? Many too have in mind fallen into these sins. Many are guilty of blood; many, sold
unto idols; many, adulterers. I say moreover that not hands only are involved in murder,
but every design also which hath driven the soul of another to death; and that not only
those who have burnt incense on profane altars, but altogether every lust that wandereth
beyond the marriage couch and the lawful embrace, is bound by the sentence of death.
Whosoever shall have done these things after believing, shall not see the face of God. But
those who are guilty of so great crimes are in despair. What have I done unto you? Was it
not in your power that it should not be? Did no one warn you? No one foretell it? Was the
Church silent? Said the Gospels nothing? Did the Apostles threaten nothing? Did the priest
ask nothing? Why seek ye late consolations? Then ought ye when ye might. This is a hard
saying. But they who call you happy lead you into error, and disturb the path of your
feet.

He shews the way of wickedness to the innocent, who after their crimes flatters the
guilty. "Are we then to perish? will some one say. "And where is the merciful God, Who
devised not death, nor hath pleasure in the destruction of the living? Shall we die in our
sins? And what wilt thou do, the priest? By what gains wilt thou repay so many losses to
the Church? Receive the remedy, if ye begin to despair, if ye acknowledge yourselves
miserable, if ye fear. Whoso is too confident is unworthy. To this man (saith the Lord)
will 1 look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.
12. You then I first call on, brethren, who, having committed crimes, refuse penance: you,
I say, timid after being shameless, modest after sinning; who blush not to sin, yet blush
to confess; who with evil conscience touch the Holy Things of God, and fear not the Altar
of The Lord; who come to the hands of the priest, who come in the sight of |369 angels
with the confidence of innocence; who insult the Divine patience; who bring to God, as if,
because silent, He knew not, a polluted soul and a profane body. Hear first what the Lord
hath clone, and then what He hath said. When the people of the Hebrews were bringing back
the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem, Uzzah, from the house of Aminadab the Israelite, who had
touched the side of the ark without having examined his conscience, was slain; and yet he
had drawn near, not to take any thing from it, but to hold it when leaning through the
stumbling of the kine. So great a care was there of reverence towards God, that He endured
not bold hands even in help. The same also the Lord crieth, saying, And as for the flesh,
all that be clean shall eat thereof. But the soul that eateth of the Jlesh of the
sacrifice of peace offerings, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off
from his people. Are these things old and happen they not now? What then? Hath God ceased
to care for what concerns us?

Had He withdrawn out of view of the world, and doth He look down upon no one from heaven?
Is His long-suffering ignorance? God forbid, thou wilt say. He seeth then what we do, but
He waiteth indeed and endureth, and granteth a season for repentance, and alloweth His
Christ to put off the end, lest they quickly perish whom He hath redeemed. Understand
well, thou sinner. Thou art beheld by God. Thou canst appease Him if thou wilt. But grant
that it is a thing of old that the unclean were not permitted to approach the table of
God: open the writings of the Apostles, and learn what is of later date. 13. In the first
Epistle to the Corinthians Paul hath |370 inserted these words, Whosoever, he saith, shall
eat this Bread, and drink this Cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body
and Blood of the Lord. So likewise below: For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily,
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's Body. For this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we
should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should
not be condemned with the world. Do ye tremble or not? Shall be guilty, he saith, of the
Body and Blood of the Lord. One guilty as to human life could not be absolved; doth he
escape who violates the Body of The Lord? He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, he
saith, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Awake, O sinner. Fear judgment present
within thee if thou hast done any such thing. For this cause, he saith, many are weak and
sickly among you, and many sleep. If then any one fears not the future, let him now, at
least, dread present sickness and present death. But when we are judged, he saith, we are
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world. Rejoice, O sinner,
if in this life thou art either cut off by death, or wasted by sickness, that thou be not
punished in the life to come. See how great wickedness he committeth, who cometh when
unworthy to the Altar, to whom it is reckoned as a remedy, if he either labours under
sickness, or is destroyed by death!

14. But if your own soul is of little value to you, spare the people, spare the priests.
The Apostle saith, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. What will, thou do, by whose
means the whole lump is corrupted; through whom the whole brotherhood shall suffer? Shalt
thou live guilty of so many souls? Shalt thou be excused when the innocent shall have
imputed to thee their communion, when the Church shall have named thee as the author of
her desolation? 15. Behold again the Apostle saith to the Priest, Lay hands suddenly on no
man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. What wilt thou do, who deceivest the Priest?
Who either misleadest him if ignorant, or, not fully knowing, perplexest him with the
difficulty of proof? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by that Lord from Whom no secrets
are |371 hid, even in consideration of my danger, cease ye from hiding the wounds of your
consciences. The wise, when: sick, fear not the physician, not even when about to cut, not
even when about to burn them in the secret parts of the body. We have heard of some who,
not ashamed even as to parts of the body, withdrawn by modesty from sight, have endured
the pains of the knife and of cautery, and even of the corrosive powder. And how great
then is the endurance which men have shewn? Shall the sinner fear? Shall the sinner blush
to purchase everlasting life by present shame? And withdraw his ill-concealed wounds from
the Lord when He stretcheth forth His Hands? And hath he any thing whereat to blush before
the priest, who hath injured the Lord? Or is it better that he should thus be lost, lest
thou, shrinking through shame, shouldest without shame perish? By not giving way to shame,
thou wouldest gain more through its loss, thou, for whom it were better to perish for
thyself. But if ye are ashamed that the eyes of your brethren should see, fear not those
who are partners in your misfortune. No body is glad at the suffering of its own members;
it grieves with them, and labours with them for a remedy. In one and two is the Church,
and in the Church is Christ. And he therefore, who hides not his sins from the brethren,
assisted by the tears of the Church, is absolved by Christ.

16. And now I would address those who, well and wisely confessing their wounds under the
name of penance, neither know what penance is, nor what the cure for their wounds, and are
like those who lay bare indeed their wounds and swellings, and acknowledge them also to
the physician who sitteth by; but when warned what is to be applied, neglect it, and
refuse what they have to take. This is just as if one should say, "Lo! I am sick, Lo! I am
wounded, but I wish |372 not to be cured." Such is it, but see a thing still more foolish.
17. Another disease is added to the original cause, and a new wound inflicted, all that is
just contrary is applied, all that is hurtful is drank. Under this evil especially doth
our brotherhood labour, adding on to old faults new sins. Therefore hath it burst forth
into vice more grievously still, is now racked by a most destructive consumption. What
then shall I the Priest now do who am compelled to cure? It is late in such cases. If
however there is any one of you who can bear to be cut and cauterized, I still can do it.
Behold the knife of the Prophet; Turn unto the Lord your God, (he saith,) with all your
heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart. Fear
not this cutting, most beloved. David bore it. He lay in filthy ashes, and was disfigured
by a covering of rough sackcloths He who had once been accustomed to gems and to purple,
hid his soul in fasting; he whom seas, whom woods, whom streams served and the land
bringing forth the promised wealth, wasted in floods of tears those eyes with which he had
beheld the glory of God; the ancestor of Mary, the ruler also of the Jewish kingdom,
confessed himself unhappy and miserable. That king of Babylon performs penitence ,
forsaken of all, and is worn away by seven years of squalidness. His uncombed hair and
wild roughness surpassed the shagginess of lion's mane, and his hands hooked with crooked
talons take the semblance of eagles', while he eats grass as oxen, chewing the green herb.
Yet this punishment commends him to God, and restores him to the kingdom, once his own.
Whom men shuddered at, God received, blessed through this very calamity of a severer
discipline. Behold the cutting which I promised! Whoso shall be able to endure it shall be
healed.

18. I will yet apply fire from the cautery of the Apostle. |373 Let us see whether ye can
bear it. I have judged, he saith. when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the
power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of
the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord Jesus. What say ye,
penitents? Where is the destruction of your flesh? Is it that in the very time of penance
ye always walk abroad in greater pomp, full from the feast, sleek from the bath, with
well-studied attire? Lo, here is one man once thrifty, once somewhat poor, once sordidly
dressed in a coarse cloak. Now he is daintily bedecked and wealthy and a proper man, as
though he would lay it to God's charge that he cannot serve Him, and would refresh his
dying soul with the pleasure of his members. It is well that we are of moderate means,
else should we be doing those same things too, whereof certain men and women of richer
state are not ashamed, dwelling in marble, weighed down with gold, sweeping along in silk,
glowing with scarlet. If the ferruginous powder glisteneth on their eye-brow, or the
fictitious colour gloweth upon their cheeks, or the artificial ruddiness melt over their
lips,----these things perhaps ye have not. But still ye have your pleasant retreats at
your villas or the sea, and wines of more exquisite quality, and rich banquetings, yea old
wines well-refined . So act, so believe, so ye but live.

19. I can bear it no longer, brethren. Daniel with his fellows, covered with sackcloth and
ashes, bloodless through fasting, speaketh thus: We have sinned, we have committed
iniquity, we have done wickedly, we have transgressed Thy precepts and Thy judgments. Of
Azariah also the Divine Scripture saith, Azariah stood up, and prayed; and opening his
mouth made confession to God with his fellows. David himself saith, Every night wash I my
bed, and water my couch with my tears. But we----what of such sort do we? what like to
this? I speak not of those things which we gather together in heaps, by trafficking,
merchandizing, ravening; by hunting out gains abroad, and lusts at home; by doing nothing
simply, giving nothing to the poor, forgiving nothing to brethren. |374 Not even those
things which can be seen by the Priest, and praised by the Bishop when he witnesseth them;
not even these daily duties do we observe: To weep , namely, in sight of the Church, to
mourn our lost life in sordid garb, to fast, to pray, to fall prostrate; to refuse luxury,
if one invite to the bath; to say, if one bid to a feast, "These things for the happy! I
have sinned against the Lord, and am in danger of perishing eternally. What have I to do
with feasting who have injured the Lord?" and besides this, to hold the poor man by the
hand, to entreat the prayers of the widows, to fall down before the Priests, to ask the
entreaties of the interceding Church, to essay all sooner than perish.

20. I know that some of your brethren and sisters wrap the breast in hair-cloth, lie in
ashes, and study late fastings; nor yet perhaps have they so sinned. Why speak of
brethren? The wild goats, we are told, know what will cure themselves. I have heard that
when pierced with the poisoned arrow they traverse the Cretan forests, until, plucking the
stalk of the dittany, they with the poisonous liquid of the healing juice expel from their
bodies the ejected darts. We repel the fiery darts of the devil with no juice of penance,
with no plant of confession. The swallow knoweth how by her own swallow-wort to give sight
to her blinded young. We cure the lost light of the mind by no root of severe discipline.
Lo! man like neither the goat, nor the swallow, is jealous of his own blindness and
malady! 21. Now, brethren, consider what we promised at the close, what reward, or
contrariwise what end will follow these works. The Spirit of the Lord threateneth delicate
sinners who do not penance, saying, They received not the love of the truth, that they
might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them the working of delusion, that they
should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness. Also the Apocalypse thus speaketh of the harlot, How much
|375 she hath glorified herself, and lived deliriously, so much torment and sorrow give
her. And the Apostle Paul saith, Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance. But after thy hardness treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the Day of
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

22. Fear then, most dearly beloved, these righteous judgments. Leave off error. Condemn
delicate living. The last time is now hastening on. Darkness and hell are opening their
enlarged bosoms for the wicked. After the punishment of souls in time, everlasting
punishment is reserved also for the revivified bodies. Let no one believe as to the heart
of Tityus, or the vulture of the Poets! The eternal fire, itself for itself, renews the
substance of the regenerated bodies . Listen, if ye believe not. The force of the waters
raging in the fire shall be recruited by the punishment which feeds it. If ye draw back
from the torture of confession, remember hell, which confession shall extinguish for you.
Estimate its force even from things visible; for some few petty outlets of it do wear away
the mightiest mountains with their subterranean fires. Thence do the Sicilian Aetna and
the Campanian Vesuvius boil with unwearied volumes of flame; and to prove to us the
eternity of judgment, they are cleft asunder, they are devoured, and yet do they never
end.

23. Consider in the Gospel the rich man, as yet suffering under the tortures of the soul
only. What then shall be those exceeding tortures of the restored bodies? What gnashing of
teeth therein? What weeping? Remember, brethren, there is no confession in the grave; nor
can penance then be assigned, when the season for penitence is exhausted. Hasten whilst ye
are alive, whilst ye are on the way with your adversary. Lo! we fear the fires of this
world, and we shrink back from the iron claws of tortures. |376 Compare with them the
hands of ever-during torturers, and the forked flames which never die! 24. By the faith of
the Church, by mine own anxiety, by the souls of all in common, I adjure and intreat you,
brethren, not to be ashamed in this work, not to be slack to seize, as soon as ye may, the
proffered remedies of salvation; to bring your souls down by mourning, to clothe the body
with sackcloth, to sprinkle it with ashes, to macerate yourselves by fasting, to wear
yourselves with sorrow, to gain the aid of the prayers of many. In proportion as ye have
not been sparing in your own chastisement, will God spare you. For He is merciful and
long-suffering, of great pity, and repenteth Him against the evil He hath inflicted .
Behold! I promise, I engage, if ye return to your Father with true satisfaction, erring no
more, adding nothing to former sins, saying also some humble and mournful words, as,
Father, we have sinned before Thee, and are no more worthy to be called Thy sons;
straightway shall leave you both that filthy herd, and the unseemly food of husks.
Straightway on your return shall the robe be put upon you, and the ring adorn you, and
your Father's embrace again receive you. Lo! He saith Himself, I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked; but that he turn from his way and live. And again He saith, Shall
they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not return? And the Apostle saith, God
is able to make him stand.

25. The Apocalypse also threateneth the seven Churches unless they should repent. Nor
would He indeed threaten the impenitent, unless He pardoned the penitent. God Himself also
saith, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent. And again, When thou
shalt return and mourn, then shalt thou be saved, and know where thou hast been. And let
no one so despair of the vileness of a sinful soul, as to believe that God hath no longer
need of him. The Lord willeth not that one of us should perish. |377 Even those of little
worth, and the least are sought after. If ye believe not, see. Lo! in the Gospel the piece
of silver is sought after, and when found is shewn unto the neighbours. The poor sheep,
although to be carried back on His lowly-stooping shoulders, is not burdensome to the
Shepherd. Over one sinner that repenteth the Angels in heaven rejoice, and the celestial
choir is glad. Come, then, thou sinner; cease not to ask! Thou seest where there is joy
over thy return!

Amen. [Selected footnotes only] 1. The Heathen new-year's profligacies were so entitled,
(see Du Cange v. Cervulus,) against which this treatise was written. Litanies and fasts
were appointed in the Church to repress them. (see ib.) The work is mentioned, by S.
Jerome de vir. ill. c. 106. 2. Dei Sancta. See on Tert. de Spect. c. 25. p. 214. n. n.
Oxf. Tr. 3. imitated from Tert. de Poenit. fin. p. 369. Oxf. Tr. 4. exomologesin facit.
see Tert. l. c. p. 364. and Note L. 5. k See Tert. de Poen. c. 11. p. 367. 6. See, of
Christians, on Tert. Apol. c. 40. p. 87. n. z. 7. Dan. 3, 25. (Song of 3 Children, beg.)
not LXX. nor Vulg. but so quoted in S. Cypr. de Laps. §. 19. p. 173. Oxf. Tr. 8. See Tert.
de Poen. c. 9. 9. Tert. de Poen. fin. p. 369.

10. "The juice [of the dittany], drunk with wine, is of benefit to those bitten by
venomous animals. But such is the power of the plant, that even its smell will drive away,
its touch will destroy, venomous animals." Dioscorides de Mater. Med. iii. 34. ed.
Sprengel, (furnished by a medical friend.) 11. Tert. l. c. 12. Tert. Apol. c. 48. p. 102.
13. Tert. de Poen. c. ult. p. 368. The very words are in part retained. 14. V. has Aetna
Siculus, which may be a trace of the right reading. The Edd. have vel Lisaniculus. Bal. ad
Cypr. p. 568. (quoted by Gall.) makes the same correction from an old Carthusian Ms. and
does not notice the difference of gender as a difficulty. A scribe perhaps conformed it to
"et Vesuvius" which follows, 15. et qui sententiam flectat adversus malitiam irrogatam.
Joel 2, 13. so quoted by S. Cypr. Ep. 55. §. 18. de taps. §. ult. p. 176. de bono Pat. §.
2. p. 252. Lucif. Cal. de reg. Apost. p. 220. c. (ap. Sabat.) Vict. Tun. de Poen. App. S.
Ambr. ii. 593. (ib.).

DISCOURSE ON BAPTISM

DISCOURSE ON BAPTISM

TO THE FAITHFUL AND THE CATECHUMENS. [Translated by the Rev. C. H. Collyns, M.A., Student
of Christ Church.] 1. It is my wish to explain after what manner we are born in Baptism,
and after what manner we are renewed. I shall speak indeed, brethren, in His own words,
lest perchance on account of the beauty of my sentences, ye should believe that I take
pleasure in my style, and that ye may be able to comprehend a mysterious subject. And
would that I could inculcate it upon you. I seek not glory: for glory belongeth to God
Alone. My only anxiety is my concern for you, and especially for these Candidates for
Baptism, if in any wise it may be possible for us to comprehend the examination of so
great happiness. I shall therefore shew what Heathenism was previously, what Faith
bestows, what indulgence Baptism grants. And if this shall so sink into your hearts, as I
feel it, ye will judge, brethren, that no preaching ever yielded usmore fruit.

2. Learn then, dearly beloved, in what death man was placed before Baptism. Ye know that
assuredly of old, how Adam was returned to his earthly origin; what condemnation imposed
upon him the law of eternal death; and this death had dominion over all his posterity, as
being held under this one law, over the whole race from Adam to Moses. But through Moses
one only people was chosen, the seed that is of Abraham, if they had been able to keep the
commands of righteousness. Meanwhile we all were held under sin, that we might eat the
fruits of death: appointed to feed on husks |379 and to keep swine, that is to filthy
works, by wicked augels, whose dominion allowed us neither to do nor to know
righteousness. For our very condition compelled us to obey such masters. How we were
delivered from these powers and from this death, now listen.

8. When Adam sinned, (as I have mentioned,) the Lord then saying, Dust thou art, and unto
dust thou shall return, he was assigned unto death. This assignment was transmitted to the
whole race, for all sinned, nature herself now impelling them, as saith the Apostle, As by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned. Sin therefore reigned, in whose bonds we were dragged, as it
were captives unto death, death, that is, eternal. But this sin, before the time of the
Law, was not even understood, as saith the Apostle, Until the Law was, sin in the world
was not accounted, that is, was not seen; at the coming of the Law, it revived. For it was
made manifest, that it might be seen; but to no purpose, for no one hardly kept it. For
the Law said, Thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou shall not covet,
yet concupiscence with all vices still continued. So then before the Law this sin slew man
with a concealed, under the Law, with a drawn, sword. What hope therefore had man? Without
the Law he perished, because he could not see sin, and under the Law, because he ran into
that very sin which he saw. Who could free him from death? Hear the Apostle, O wretched
man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Grace (he saith) through
our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. But what is grace? The remission of sin, that is, a free gift. For grace is a free
gift. Christ therefore, coming and taking upon Him the nature of man, first presented
before God this very human nature pure from the power of sin and innocent. Isaiah saith,
Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Butter
and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. And of
Him again, Who did no sin, |380 neither was guile found in His mouth. Under this
guardianship of innocence when Christ first undertook the defence of man in the very flesh
of sin, forthwith that father of the disobedience of sin, who had once deceived our first
parents, began to be excited, to be troubled, to tremble. For he was to be overcome by the
loosening of that law by which alone he had retained possession of man, or could retain
it. He arms himself therefore for a spiritual contest with the Immaculate, and first he
attacks Him with that artifice with which he had overcome Adam in Paradise, under the
pretence of dignity; and as if perplexed about His heavenly power, he saith, If Thou be
the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread; that so ashamed or unwilling to
conceal that He was the Son of God, He might fulfil the commands of the tempter.

Behold still he is not silent, suggesting that if He would cast Himself down from above,
He would be received in the hands of angels, to whom The Father had entrusted that on
their hands they should bear Him up, lest by any means He should dash His foot against a
stone; that so, while the Lord wished to prove that He it was of Whom the Father had given
this command, He might do what the tempter urged. Last of all the serpent being now
crushed, as if he were now giving up, promises Him those very kingdoms of the world, which
he had taken from the first man: that so whilst the Advocate of man believes that he has
overcome, He by receiving the empire (which He was to recover,) might incline towards the
dignity offered by the Evil One, and so at last sin. But in all these attacks the Enemy is
overcome, and destroyed by the heavenly power, as saith the Prophet unto the Lord, That
thou mightest still the enemy, and the avenger. For I shall behold the heavens, the works
of Thy fingers.

5. The Devil ought now to have yielded. But nevertheless he ceaseth not yet. He suborns
with his wonted snares, and stimulates with rage the Scribes and Pharisees and all that
band of wicked men. They, therefore, after various arts and lying devices of the heart, in
which serpent-like they thought to deceive the Lord by professions of fealty, when they
|381 prevailed nothing, at last attacked Him with open violence and a most cruel kind of
suffering; that so through the indignity of the thing, or the pain of punishment, He might
either do or say something unrighteous, and thus destroy the human nature which He bore,
and His soul be left in hell, which had one law to retain the sinner. For the sting of
death is sin. Christ therefore endured, and did no sin, neither was guile found in His
mouth, as we have said, not then even when He was led as a victim,. This was to conquer,
to be condemned without sin! For the Devil had received over sinners the power which he
claimed for himself over the Immaculate One; and thus he himself was overcome; decreeing
that against the Holy One which was not allowed him by the law that he had received .
Whence saith the Prophet to the Lord, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and
clear when Thou art judged . And thus, as the Apostle saith, Having led principalities in
triumph, Christ condemned sin in the flesh, nailing it to His Cross and blotting out the
hand-writing of death . Thence it was that God left not His soul in hell, nor suffered His
Holy One to see corruption. Thence it was that having trodden under-foot the stings of
death He rose again on the third day in the flesh, reconciling it to God, and restoring it
to immortality, having overcome and blotted out sin.

6. But if He only conquered, what conferred He on others? Hear briefly. The sin of Adam
had passed on the whole race. For by one man (as saith the Apostle) sin |382 entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men. Therefore also the
righteousness of Christ must needs pass over to the whole race; and as Adam by sin
destroyed his race, so must Christ by righteousness give life to all His race. This the
Apostle urges, saying, For as by the disobedience of one, many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. That as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life. 7. Some one will here
object. "But the sin of Adam deservedly passed on his posterity, because they were born of
him. And are we then born of Christ, that we can be saved for His sake? Cease to have
carnal thoughts. And now shall ye see in what wise we are born of Christ as of our parent.
In these last days Christ took a soul with the flesh from Mary. This He came to save. This
He left not in hell. This He joined to His Spirit and made His own. And this is the
marriage of the Lord, joined together to one flesh, that according to that great
sacrament, might be these two in one flesh, Christ and the Church. From this marriage is
born the Christian people, the Spirit of the Lord coming from above; and straightway the
heavenly seed being poured upon and mingled with the substance of our souls, we grow in
the bowels of our mother, and coming forth from her womb are made alive in Christ. Whence
the Apostle, The first Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening
Spirit. Thus Christ begetteth in the Church by His Priests, as says the same Apostle, For
in Christ Jesus have I begotten you. And so the seed of Christ, that is, the Spirit of God
produces, by the hands of the Priests, the new man conceived in the womb of our Mother,
and received at the birth of the font, faith presiding over the marriage rite.

For neither will he seem to be engrafted into the Church, who hath not believed, nor he to
be born again of Christ, who hath not himself received the Spirit. We must believe
therefore that we can be born. For so saith Philip, If thou believest . . . thou mayest.
Christ therefore must be received that He may beget, for |383 thus saith the Apostle John,
As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God. But these things
cannot otherwise be fulfilled except by the Sacrament of the Laver, and of the Chrism, and
of the Bishop. For by the Laver sins are washed away, by Chrism the Holy Spirit is poured
out, but both these we obtain at the hand and the mouth of the Bishop. And so the whole
man is born again and renewed in Christ, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead,
even so we also should walk in newness of life; that is, that having laid aside the errors
of our former life, the serving of idols, cruelty, fornication, wantonness, and all other
vices of flesh and blood, we should through the Spirit follow new ways in Christ, faith,
modesty, innocence, chastity. And as we bore the image of the earthy,so also should we
bear His, Who is from Heaven, for the first man is of the earth, earthy; the Second from
heaven, heavenly. This if we do, most beloved, we shall die no more.

Although we be dissolved in this body, we shall live in Christ, as He Himself saith, He
that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. We are sure indeed, and that
on the testimony of the Lord, that both Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Saints
of God are alive. For of these very men saith the Lord, They all live unto Him, for God is
not the God of the dead but of the living. And the Apostle saith of himself, For to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain; I could wish to depart and be with Christ. And again,
Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not
by sight. 8. This is what, we believe, dearly beloved. But if in this life only we have
hope, then are we of all men the most miserable. The life of this world, cattle, and wild
beasts, and birds, as yourselves see, have in common with us, or even longer. That is
peculiar to man, which Christ hath given through His Spirit, that is, life, eternal; yet
only if we now sin no more. For as death is gained by wickedness, is avoided by goodness;
so life is lost by wickedness, is retained by goodness. For the wages of sin is death; but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Before all other things, my little ones, remember, that once (as we said above) all
nations were given over to the princes |384 and powers of darkness, now are set free
through the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He it is, He it is Who redeemed us,
forgiving us all sins, as saith the Apostle, blotting out the hand-writing of disobedience
that was against us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross, putting off the
flesh, He made a shew of the powers openly, triumphing over them in Himself. He set them
free, who were bound, and burst our chains in sunder, as David had said; The Lord raiseth
them that are cast down. The Lord looseth the prisoners, the Lord giveth sight to the
blind. And again, Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer to Thee the Sacrifice
of thanksgiving. Freed therefore from our bonds, when through the Sacrament of Baptism we
come unto the Sign of the Lord, we renounce the Devil and all his angels, whom before we
served, that we should now serve them no longer, being delivered by the Blood and Name of
Christ. But if after this any one forgetful of himself and ignorant of his redemption,
return again to the serving of Angels, and to the weak and beggarly elements of the world;
he shall be bound again by his old fetters and chains, that is, by the bonds of sin, and
his last state shall be worse than his first.

For the Devil shall bind him more strongly, as if overtaken in flight, and Christ shall
not now be able to suffer for him; for, Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.
Therefore, dearly beloved, we are washed once, once are set free, are once admitted into
the kingdom of heaven; once is that, blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and
whose sin is covered. Hold mightily what ye have received; keep it. blessedly, sin no
more. Preserve yourselves pure and unspotted from that time even to the Day of the Lord.
Great and boundless are the rewards granted unto the faithful, which eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man. These rewards that ye may
receive, obtain by the labours of righteousness and spiritual vows! Amen. [Selected
footnotes] 1. res ipsa. R., apparently, servitus ipsa, in the same sense, the slavery
perpetuated itself; being slaves, we could not but remain slaves, and all our actions
enslaved us the more. 2. Gratia, i.e. Dei. according to the reading of D. E. Vulg. S.
Ambr. S. Aug. &c. see Scholz. 3. "What is that righteousness whereby the Devil was
conquered? What, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ? And how was he conquered? Because
when he found in Him nothing worthy of death, he yet slew Him. And so it is just that the
debtors whom he held should be set free, believing in Him Whom without any debt to shew."
S. Aug. de Trin. xiii. 14. see others ap. Petav. de Incarn. ii. 5. 10. sqq. 4. These words
are so quoted by S. Aug. ad loc. as having their exactest and deepest fulfilment in our
Lord; "Thou Alone, justly judgest, art unjustly judged, Who hast the power to lay down Thy
life, and hast the power to take it again. Thou prevailest then, when Thou art judged." He
is followed by S. Greg. M. in 7. Ps. Poen. ad loc. as also (quoted by Lorin. ad loc.)
Gaud. Brix. S. 12. Isid. de Pass. Dom. c. 25. p. 554.

5. This rendering occurs in Tert. de Pudic. c. 19. It maybe an explanation of what the
Vulg. now has, "decreti," tou~ do&gmatoj Vel. (in the sing, for toi=j do&masin ) Two old
Lat. Mss. ap. Sabat. have "delicti." as S. Pac. §. ult. has "inobauditionis," which may be
a comment, as S. Hil. (de Trin. ix. 10.) quoting "chirographum in sententiis," paraphrases
"chir. legis peccati," in reference to his own words, §. 7. and S. Iren. 5. 17. 3. has
"chirographum debiti nostri," in reference to "debita nostra" just before. 6. against the
Arians who, as well as Apollinaris, denied that our Lord had a human soul, see Petav. de
Inc. i. 5, 5. and add ib. v. 11.


THE PILGRIMAGE OF EGERIA (ETHERIA)
==================================

THE PILGRIMAGE OF EGERIA (ETHERIA) late 4th century

The account that a woman named Egeria (the name is also spelled Etheria) wrote for a
community of sisters at home, about her journey in the Holy Land, Egypt, Syria and
Mesopotamia in the 380s. The first part describes Mount Sinai, Mount Nebo and the other
places she visited; the second describes in detail the daily services, Lent, Holy Week,
Easter, Epiphany and the teaching of those to be baptized in the church at Jerusalem. The
beginning and some leaves in the middle of the one surviving manuscript are lost.

THE APPROACH TO SINAI

1 were pointed out according to the Scriptures. In the meanwhile we came on foot to a
certain place where the mountains, through which we were journeying, opened out and formed
an infinitely great valley, quite flat and extraordinarily beautiful, and across the
valley appeared Sinai, the holy mountain of God. And this place, where the mountains
opened out, lies next to the place where are the graves of lust. Now on reaching that
spot, the holy guides who were with us told us, saying: "The custom is that prayer should
be made by those who arrive here, when from this place the mount of God is first seen."
And this we did. The whole distance from that place to the mount of God was about four
miles across the aforesaid great valley. 2 For that valley is indeed very great, lying
under the slope of the mount of God, and measuring, as far as we could judge by our sight,
or as they told us, about sixteen miles in length, but they called its breadth four miles.
We had, therefore, to cross that valley in order to reach the mountain. Now this is the
great and flat valley wherein the children of Israel waited during those days when holy
Moses went up into the mount of the Lord and remained there forty days and forty nights.
This moreover is the valley in which the calf was made, and the spot is shown to this day,
for a great stone stands fixed there on the very site. This also is the same valley at the
head of which is the place where, while holy Moses was feeding his father-in-law's flocks,
God spake to him twice out of the burning bush. And as our route was first to ascend the
mount of God, which is in sight here—[because] the ascent was easier by the way we were
coming—and then to descend to the head of the valley where the bush was, that being the
easier descent, so we determined, having first seen all that we desired, to descend from
the mount of God so as to arrive at the place of the bush, and thence to return on our
journey throughout the whole length of the valley, together with the men of God, who there
showed us each place which is mentioned in the Scriptures. And so it was done. Thus, going
from that spot where we had prayed when we arrived from Faran, our route was to cross the
middle of the head of that valley, and so turn to the mount of God.

3 Now the whole mountain group looks as if it were a single peak, but, as you enter the
group, [you see that] there are more than one; the whole group however is called the mount
of God. But that special peak which is crowned by the place where, as it is written, the
Glory of God descended, is in the centre of them all. And though all the peaks in the
group attain such a height as I think I never saw before, yet the central one, on which
the Glory of God came down, is so much higher than them all, that when we had ascended it,
all those mountains which we had thought to be high, were so much beneath us as if they
were quite little hills. This is certainly very wonderful, and not, I think, without the
favour of God, that while the central height, which is specially called Sinai, on which
the Glory of the Lord descended, is higher than all the rest, yet it cannot be seen until
you reach its very foot, though before you go up it. But after that you have fulfilled
your desire and descend, you can see it from the other side, which you cannot do before
you begin to ascend. This I had learned from information given by the brethren before we
had arrived at the mount of God, and after I arrived I saw that it was manifestly so.

THE ASCENT OF SINAI

1 We reached the mountain late on the sabbath, and arriving at a certain monastery, the
monks who dwelt there received us very kindly, showing us every kindness; there is also a
church and a priest there. We stayed there that night, and early on the Lord's Day,
together with the priest and the monks who dwelt there, we began the ascent of the
mountains one by one. These mountains are ascended with infinite toil, for you cannot go
up gently by a spiral track, as we say snail-shell wise, but you climb straight up the
whole way, as if up a wall, and you must come straight down each mountain until you reach
the very foot of the middle one, which is specially called Sinai. By this way, then, at
the bidding of Christ our God, and helped by the prayers of the holy men who accompanied
us, we arrived, at the fourth hour, at the summit of Sinai, the holy mountain of God,
where the law was given, that is, at the place where the Glory of the Lord descended on
the day when the mountain smoked. Thus the toil was great, for I had to go up on foot, the
ascent being impossible in the saddle, and yet I did not feel the toil, on the side of the
ascent, I say, I did not feel the toil, because I realized that the desire which I had was
being fulfilled at God's bidding.

2 In that place there is now a church, not great in size, for the place itself, that is
the summit of the mountain, is not very great; nevertheless, the church itself is great in
grace. When, therefore, at God's bidding, we had arrived at the summit, and had reached
the door of the church, lo, the priest who was appointed to the church came from his cell
and met us, a hale old man, a monk from early life, and an ascetic, as they say here, in
short one worthy to be in that place; the other priests also met us, together with all the
monks who dwelt on the mountain, that is, such as were not hindered by age or infirmity.
No one, however, dwells on the very summit of the central mountain; there is nothing there
excepting only the church and the cave where holy Moses was. When the whole passage from
the book of Moses had been read in that place, and when the oblation had been duly made,
at which we communicated, and as we were coming out of the church, the priests of the
place gave us eulogiae, that is, of fruits which grow on the mountain.

3 For although the holy mountain Sinai is rocky throughout, so that it has not even a
shrub on it, yet down below, near the foot of the mountains, around either the central
height or those which encircle it, there is a little plot of ground where the holy monks
diligently plant little trees and orchards, and set up oratories with cells near to them,
so that they may gather fruits which they have evidently cultivated with their own hands
from the soil of the very mountain itself. So, after we had communicated, and the holy men
had given us eulogiae, and we had come out of the door of the church, I began to ask them
to show us the several sites. Thereupon the holy men immediately deigned to show us the
various places. They showed us the cave where holy Moses was when he had gone up again
into the mount of God, that he might receive the second tables after he had broken the
former ones when the people sinned; they also deigned to show us the other sites which we
desired to see, and those which they themselves well knew.

4 But I would have you to know, ladies, reverend sisters, that from the place where we
were standing, round outside the walls of the church, that is from the summit of the
central mountain, those mountains, which we could scarcely climb at first, seemed to be so
much below us when compared with the central one on which we were standing, that they
appeared to be little hills, although they were so very great that I thought that I had
never seen higher, except that this central one excelled them by far. 5 From thence we saw
Egypt and Palestine, and the Red Sea and the Parthenian Sea, which leads to Alexandria and
the boundless territories of the Saracens, all so much below us as to be scarcely
credible, but the holy men pointed out each one of them to us.

HOREB

Having then fulfilled all the desire with which we had hastened to ascend, we began our
descent from the summit of the mount of God which we had ascended to another mountain
joined to it, which is called Horeb, where there is a church. This is that Horeb where was
holy Elijah the prophet, when he fled from the face of Ahab the king, and where God spake
to him and said: What doest thou here, Elijah? as it is written in the books of the Kings.
The cave where holy Elijah lay hid is shown to this day before the door of the church
which is there. A stone altar also is shown which holy Elijah raised to make an offering
to God; thus the holy men deigned to show us each place. There, too, we made the oblation,
with very earnest prayer, and also read the passage from the book of the Kings; for it was
our special custom that, when we had arrived at those places which I had desired to visit,
the appropriate passage from the book should always be read. The oblation having been made
there, we came to another place not far off, which the priests and monks pointed out to
us, where holy Aaron had stood with the seventy elders, when holy Moses was receiving the
law from the Lord for the children of Israel. In that place, although it is not covered
in, there is a great rock which has a flat surface, rounded in shape, on which those holy
men are said to have stood; there is also in the midst of it a kind of altar made of
stones. The passage from the book of Moses was read there, and one psalm, suitable to the
place. Then, after prayer had been made, we descended thence.

THE BUSH

1 And now it began to be about the eighth hour, and there were still three miles left
before we could get out of the mountains which we had entered late on the previous day; we
had not, however, to go out on the same side by which we had entered, as I said above,
because it was necessary that we should walk past and see all the holy places and the
cells that were there, and thus come out at the head of the valley, as I said above, that
is of the valley that lies under the mount of God. It was necessary for us to come out at
the head of the valley, because there were very many cells of holy men there, and a church
in the place where the bush is, which same bush is alive to this day and throws out
shoots. So having made the whole descent of the mount of God we arrived at the bush about
the tenth hour. This is that bush which I mentioned above, out of which the Lord spake in
the fire to Moses, and the same is situated at that spot at the head of the valley where
there are many cells and a church. There is a very pleasant garden in front of the church,
containing excellent and abundant water, and the bush itself is in this garden. The spot
is also shown hard by where holy Moses stood when God said to him: Loose the latchet of
thy shoe, and the rest.

2 Now it was about the tenth hour when we had arrived at the place, and so, as it was
late, we could not make the oblation, but prayer was made in the church and also at the
bush in the garden, and the passage from the book of Moses was read according to custom.
Then, as it was late, we took a meal with the holy men at a place in the garden before the
bush; we stayed there also, and next day, rising very early, we asked the priests that the
oblation should be made there, which was done.

THE SITES IN THE VALLEY AND THE RETURN TO FARAN

1 And as our route lay through the middle and along the length of the valley—the same
valley, as I said above, where the children of Israel sojourned while Moses ascended into
the mount of God and descended thence—so the holy men showed us each place that we came to
in the whole valley. At the top of the head of the valley where we had stayed and had seen
the bush out of which God spake in the fire to holy Moses, we had seen also the spot on
which holy Moses had stood before the bush when God said to him: Loose the latchet of thy
shoe, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. In like manner they began to
show us the other sites when we set out from the bush. They showed us the place where the
camps of the children of Israel were in those days when Moses was in the mount. They also
showed us the place where the calf was made, for a great stone is there to this day, fixed
on the very spot. Then, too, as we were going on the other side we saw the top of the
mountain which overlooks the whole valley; from which place holy Moses saw the children of
Israel engaged in dancing at the time when they had made the calf.

2 They showed us a great rock in the place where holy Moses, as he was descending with
Joshua the son of Nun, in his anger brake the tables that he was carrying, on the same
rock. They showed us where they all had their dwelling places in the valley, the
foundations of which dwelling places appear to this day, round in form and made with
stone. They showed us also the place where holy Moses, when he returned from the mount,
bade the children of Israel run from gate to gate. They showed us also the place where the
calf which Aaron had made for them was burnt at holy Moses' bidding. They showed us also
the stream of which holy Moses made the children of Israel drink, as it is written in
Exodus. They showed us also the place where the seventy men received of the spirit that
was upon Moses. They showed us also the place where the children of Israel lusted for
meat. They showed us also the place which is called a Burning, because part of the camp
was consumed what time holy Moses prayed, and the fire ceased. They showed us also the
place where it rained manna and quails upon them. Thus were shown to us (the sites of) all
the events which in the sacred books of Moses are recorded to have occurred there, viz.,
in the valley which, as I have said, lies under the mount of God, holy Sinai.

3 Now it would be too much to write of all these things one by one, for so great a number
could not be remembered, but when your affection shall read the holy books of Moses it
will more quickly recognize the things that were done in that place. Moreover this is the
valley where the Passover was celebrated when one year had been fulfilled after that the
children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt. For the children of Israel abode in
that valley for some time, that is, while holy Moses ascended into and descended from the
mount of God the first and the second time; they tarried there also while the tabernacle
was being made, together with all things that were shown (to Moses) in the mount of God.
The place also was shown to us where the tabernacle was set up by Moses for the first
time, and all things were finished which God had bidden Moses in the mount that they
should be made. At the very end of the valley we saw the graves of lust, at the place
where we resumed our route, that is where, leaving the great valley, we re-entered the way
by which we had come, between the mountains of which I spoke above.

4 On the same day we came up with the other very holy monks who, through age or infirmity,
were unable to meet us in the mount of God for the making of the oblation, who yet deigned
to receive us very kindly, when we reached their cells. So now that, together with the
holy men who dwelt there, we had seen all the holy places we desired, as well as all the
places which the children of Israel had touched in going to and from the mount of God, we
returned to Faran in the name of God. And although I ought always to give thanks to God in
all things, not to speak of these so great favours which He has deigned to confer on me,
unworthy as I am, that I should journey through all these places, although I deserved it
not, yet I cannot sufficiently thank even all those holy men who deigned with willing mind
to receive my littleness in their cells and to guide me surely through all the places
which I was always seeking, according to the holy Scriptures. Moreover, many of these holy
men who dwelt on or around the mount of God deigned to escort us back to Faran, but these
were of greater bodily strength.

FARAN TO CLYSMA

1 Now when we had arrived at Faran, which is thirty-five miles distant from the mount of
God, we were obliged to stay there for two days to rest ourselves. On the third day,
hastening thence, we came to a station in the desert of Faran, where we had stayed on our
outward journey, as I said above. On the next day we came to water, and, travelling for a
little while among the mountains, we arrived at a station which was on the sea, at the
place where the route leaves the mountains, and begins to run continuously by the sea. It
runs by the sea in such a manner that at one time the waves touch the feet of the animals,
while at another the course is through the desert, a hundred, two hundred, and sometimes
even more than five hundred paces from the sea, for there is no sort of a road there, the
whole being sandy desert. The inhabitants of Faran, who are accustomed to travel there
with their camels, put signs in different places, and make for these signs when they
travel in the day time, but the camels mark the signs at night. In short, the inhabitants
of Faran travel more quickly and safely by night in that place, being accustomed thereto,
than other men can travel in places where there is a clear road. Thus on our return
journey we emerged from the mountains at the place where we entered them on our journey
out, and so turned towards the sea.

2 So also did the children of Israel return from Sinai, the mount of God, to this place by
the way they had come, that is, to the place where we left the mountains and reached the
Red Sea. But while we turned back from this spot along the route by which we had made our
journey out, the children of Israel marched hence on their own way, as it is written in
the books of holy Moses. So we returned to Clysma by the same route and the same stations
by which we had come out, and when we had arrived at Clysma we were obliged to stay there
also for rest, because we had travelled hard along the sandy way of the desert.

CLYSMA TO THE CITY OF ARABIA

1 Now although I had been acquainted with the land of Goshen ever since I was in Egypt for
the first time, yet [I visited it again] in order that I might see all the places which
the children of Israel touched on their journey out from Rameses, until they reached the
Red Sea at the place which is now called Clysma from the fort which is there. I desired
therefore that we should go from Clysma to the land of Goshen, that is, to the city called
Arabia, which city is in the land of Goshen. The whole territory is called after the city,
the land of Arabia, the land of Goshen, although it is part of Egypt. It is much better
land than all the rest of Egypt. From Clysma, that is from the Red Sea, there are four
desert stations, but though in the desert, yet there are military quarters at the stations
with soldiers and officers who always escorted us from fort to fort. On that journey the
holy men who were with us, clergy and monks, showed us all the places which I was always
seeking in accordance with the Scriptures; some of these were on the left, some on the
right of our path, some were far distant from, and some near to our route.

2 For I hope that your affection will believe me [when I say that], as far as I could see,
the children of Israel marched in such wise that as far as they went to the right, so far
did they turn back to the left; as far as they went forward, so far did they return
backward, journeying thus until they reached the Red Sea. Epauleum was shown to us from
the opposite side, when we were at Migdol, where there is now a fort with an officer set
over soldiers to maintain Roman discipline. These escorted us thence, according to custom,
to another fort, and Baal-zephon was shown to us, when we were at that place. It is a
plain above the Red Sea, along the side of the mountain which I mentioned above, where the
children of Israel cried out when they saw the Egyptians coming after them. Etham also was
shown to us, which is on the edge of the wilderness, as it is written, also Succoth, which
is a slight elevation in the middle of a valley, and by this little hill the children of
Israel encamped. This is the place where the law of the Passover was received. The city of
Pithom, which the children of Israel built, was shown to us on the same journey at the
place where, leaving the lands of the Saracens, we entered the territory of Egypt; the
same Pithom is now a fort.

3 The city of Hero, which existed at the time when Joseph met his father Jacob as he came,
as it is written in the book of Genesis, is now a come, though a large one—a village as we
say. This village has a church and martyr-memorials, and many cells of holy monks, so that
we had to alight to see each of them, in accordance with the custom which we had. The
village is now called Hero; it is situated at the sixteenth milestone from the land of
Goshen, and it is within the boundaries of Egypt; moreover, it is a very pleasant spot,
for an arm of the Nile flows there. Then, leaving Hero, we came to the city which is
called Arabia, situated in the land of Goshen, for it is written concerning it that
Pharaoh said to Joseph, In the best of the land of Egypt make thy father and brethren to
dwell, in the land of Goshen, in the land of Arabia.

RAMESES

Rameses is four miles from the city of Arabia, and in order to arrive at the station of
Arabia, we passed through the midst of Rameses. The city of Rameses is now open country,
without a single habitation, but it is certainly traceable, since it was great in
circumference and contained many buildings, for its ruins appear to this day in great
numbers, just as they fell. There is nothing there now except one great Theban stone, on
which are carved two statues of great size, which they say are those of the holy men,
Moses and Aaron, raised in their honour by the children of Israel. There is also a
sycomore tree, which is said to have been planted by the patriarchs; it is certainly very
old, and therefore very small, though it still bears fruit. And all who have any
indisposition go there and pluck off twigs, and it benefits them. This we learned from
information given by the holy bishop of Arabia, who himself told us the name of the tree
in Greek—dendros alethia, or as we say, the tree of truth. This holy bishop deigned to
meet us at Rameses; he is an elderly man, truly pious from the time he became a monk,
courteous, most kind in receiving pilgrims, and very learned in the Scriptures of God. He,
after deigning to give himself the trouble of meeting us, showed us everything there and
told us about the aforesaid statues, as well as about the sycomore tree. This holy bishop
also informed us how Pharaoh, when he saw that the children of Israel had escaped him,
before he set out after them, went with all his army into Rameses and burnt the whole city
which was very great, and then set out thence in pursuit of the children of Israel.

EPIPHANY AT THE CITY OF ARABIA AND THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM

1 Now it fell out by a very happy chance that the day on which we came to the station of
Arabia was the eve of the most blessed day of the Epiphany, and the vigils were to be kept
in the church on the same day. Wherefore the holy bishop detained us there for some two
days, a holy man and truly a man of God, well known to me from the time when I had been in
the Thebaid. He became a holy bishop after being a monk, for he was brought up from a
child in a cell, for which reason he is so learned in the Scriptures and chastened in his
whole life, as I said above. From this place we sent back the soldiers who according to
Roman discipline had given us the help of their escort as long as we had walked through
suspected places. Now, however, as the public road —which passed by the city of Arabia and
leads from the Thebaid to Pelusium—ran through Egypt, there was no need to trouble the
soldiers further. Setting out thence we pursued our journey continuously through the land
of Goshen, among vines that yield wine and vines that yield balsam, among orchards, highly
cultivated fields and very pleasant gardens, our whole route lying along the bank of the
river Nile among oft-recurring estates, which were once the homesteads of the children of
Israel. And why should I say more? for I think that I have never seen a more beautiful
country than the land of Goshen.

2 And travelling thus for two days from the city of Arabia through the land of Goshen
continuously, we arrived at Tatnis, the city where holy Moses was born. This city of
Tatnis was once Pharaoh's metropolis. Now although I had already known these places—as I
said above—when I had been at Alexandria and in the Thebaid, yet I wished to learn
thoroughly all the places through which the children of Israel marched on their journey
from Rameses to Sinai, the holy mountain of God; this made it necessary to return to the
land of Goshen and thence to Tatnis. We set out from Tatnis and, walking along the route
that was already known to me, I came to Pelusium. Thence I set out again, and journeying
through all those stations in Egypt through which we had travelled before, I arrived at
the boundary of Palestine. Thence in the Name of Christ our God I passed through several
stations in Palestine and returned to Aelia, that is Jerusalem.

VISIT TO THE JORDAN VALLEY

1 Having spent some time there, at God's bidding my will was to go as far as Arabia, to
mount Nebo, where God commanded Moses to go up, saying to him: Get thee up into the
mountain Arabot, into Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against
Jericho, and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a
possession, and die in the Mount whither thou goest up. So Jesus our God, who will not
forsake them that hope in Him, deigned to give effect to this my wish. Wherefore setting
out from Jerusalem and journeying with holy men, with a priest and deacons from Jerusalem
and with certain brothers, that is monks, we came to that spot on the Jordan where the
children of Israel had crossed when holy Joshua, the son of Nun, had led them over Jordan,
as it is written in the book of Joshua, the son of Nun. The place where the children of
Reuben and of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh had made an altar was shown us a little
higher up on that side of the river-bank where Jericho is. Crossing the river we came to a
city called Livias, which is in the plain where the children of Israel encamped at that
time, for the foundations of the camp of the children of Israel and of their dwellings
where they abode appear there to this day.

2 The plain is a very great one, lying under the mountains of Arabia above the Jordan; it
is the place of which it is written: And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the
Arabot Moab on the Jordan over against Jericho, forty days. This is the place where, after
Moses' death, Joshua the son of Nun was straightway filled with the spirit of wisdom, for
Moses had laid his hands upon him, as it is written. This is the place where Moses wrote
the book of Deuteronomy, and where he spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel
the words of this song until it was ended; it is written in the book of Deuteronomy. Here
holy Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel one by one, in order, before
his death. So when we had arrived at this plain, we went to the very spot, and prayer was
made; here, too, a certain part of Deuteronomy was read, as well as his song, with the
blessings which he pronounced over the children of Israel; after the reading, prayer was
made a second time, and giving thanks to God, we moved on thence. For it was always
customary with us that, whenever we succeeded in reaching the places we desired to visit,
prayer should first be made there, then the lection should be read from the book, then one
appropriate psalm should be said, then prayer should be made again.

3 At God's bidding we always kept to this custom, whenever we were able to come to the
places we desired. After this, that the work begun should be accomplished, we began to
hasten in order to reach mount Nebo. As we went, the priest of the place, i.e. Livias,
whom we had prayed to accompany us from the station, because he knew the places well,
advised us, saying: "If you wish to see the water which flows from the rock, which Moses
gave to the children of Israel when they were thirsty, you can see it if you are willing
to undertake the labour of going about six miles out of the way. When he had said this, we
very eagerly wished to go, and turning at once out of our way, we followed the priest who
led us. In that place there is a little church under a mountain, not Nebo, but another
height behind, yet not far from Nebo. Many truly holy monks dwell there, whom they call
here ascetics.

4 These holy monks deigned to receive us very kindly, and permitted us to go in to greet
them. When we had entered and prayer had been made with them, they deigned to give us
eulogiae, which they are wont to give to those whom they receive kindly. There, in the
midst, between the church and the cells, there flows from out of the rock a great stream
of water, very beautiful and limpid, and excellent to the taste. Then we asked those holy
monks who dwelt there what was this water of so good a flavour, and they said: "This is
the water which holy Moses gave to the children of Israel in this desert." So prayer was
made there according to custom, the lection was read from the books of Moses and one psalm
said, then—with the holy clergy and monks who had come with us—we went out to the
mountain. Many of the holy monks also who dwelt by that water, and who could undertake the
labour, deigned to ascend mount Nebo with us. So setting out thence, we arrived at the
foot of mount Nebo, which was very high; nevertheless the greater part could be ascended
sitting on asses, though a little bit was steeper and had to be climbed laboriously on
foot, which was done.

MOUNT NEBO

1 We arrived, then, at the summit of the mountain, where there is now a church of no great
size, on the very top of mount Nebo. Inside the church, in the place where the pulpit is,
I saw a place a little raised, containing about as much space as tombs usually contain. I
asked the holy men what this was, and they answered: "Here was holy Moses laid by the
angels, for, as it is written: No man knoweth of his burial, since it is certain that he
was buried by the angels. His tomb, indeed, where he was laid, is [not] shown to this day;
for as it was shown to us by our ancestors who dwelt here where [he was laid], so do we
show it to you, and our ancestors said that this tradition was handed down to them by
their own ancestors. So prayer was made anon, and all things that we were accustomed to do
in their order in every place were done here also, and we began to go out of the church.
Then they who knew the place—the priests and holy monks—said to us: "If you wish to see
the places that are mentioned in the books of Moses, come out of the door of the church,
and from the very summit, from the side on which they are visible from here, look and see,
and we will tell you each place that is visible from hence. Then we rejoiced greatly and
immediately came out.

2 From the door of the church we saw the place where the Jordan runs into the Dead Sea,
which place appeared below us as we stood. On the opposite side we saw not only Livias,
which was on the near side of Jordan, but also Jericho, which was beyond Jordan; to so
great a height rose the lofty place where we stood, before the door of the church. The
greatest part of Palestine, the land of promise, was in sight, together with the whole
land of Jordan, as far as it could be seen with our eyes. On the left side we saw all the
lands of the Sodomites and Segor which is the only one of the five cities that exists to-
day. There is a memorial of it, but nothing appears of those other cities but a heap of
ruins, just as they were turned into ashes. The place where was the inscription concerning
Lot's wife was shown to us, which place is read of in the Scriptures. But believe me,
reverend ladies, the pillar itself cannot be seen, only the place is shown, the pillar is
said to have been covered by the Dead Sea. Certainly when we saw the place we saw no
pillar, I cannot therefore deceive you in this. The bishop of the place, that is of Segor,
told us that it is now some years since the pillar could be seen. The spot where the
pillar stood is about six miles from Segor, and the water now covers the whole of this
space.

3 Then we went to the right side of the church, out of doors and opposite to us two cities
were pointed out, the one Esebon, now called Exebon, which belonged to Seon, king of the
Amorites, and the other, now called Sasdra, the city of Og the king of Basan. Fogor, which
was a city of the kingdom of Edom, was also pointed out from thence, opposite to us. All
these cities which we saw were situated on mountains, but a little below them the ground
seemed to be flatter. Then we were told that in the days when holy Moses and the children
of Israel had fought against those cities, they had encamped there, and indeed the signs
of a camp were visible there. [From] the side of the mountain which I have called the
left, which was over the Dead Sea, a very sharp-cut mountain was shown to us, which was
formerly called Agri specula. This is the mountain on which Balak the son of Beor placed
Balaam the sooth-sayer to curse the children of Israel, and God refused to permit it, as
it is written. Then, having seen everything that we desired, we returned in the Name of
God through Jericho back to Jerusalem along the whole of the route by which we had come.

VISIT TO AUSITIS

1 Now after some time I wished to go to the region of Ausitis to visit the tomb of holy
Job, for the sake of prayer. For I used to see many holy monks coming thence to Jerusalem
to visit the holy places for the sake of prayer, who, giving information of everything
concerning those places, increased my desire to undertake the toil of going to them also,
if indeed that can be called toil by which a man sees his desire to be fulfilled. So I set
out from Jerusalem with the holy men who deigned to give me their company on my
journey—they themselves also going for the sake of prayer—making my journey from Jerusalem
through eight stations to Carneas. The city of Job is now called Carneas, but it was
formerly called Dennaba, in the land of Ausitis, on the confines of Idumea and Arabia.
Travelling on this journey I saw on the bank of the river Jordan a very beautiful and
pleasant valley abounding in vines and trees, for much excellent water was there, and in
that valley there was a large village, which is now called Sedima. The village, which is
situated in the middle of the level ground, has in its midst a little hill of no great
size, shaped as large tombs are wont to be. There is a church on the summit and down
below, around the little hill great and ancient foundations appear, while in the village
itself some grave-mounds still remain.

2 When I saw this pleasant place I asked what it was, and it was told me: "This is the
city of king Melchizedek, which was called Salem, but now, through the corruption of the
language, the village is called Sedima. On the top of the little hill, which is situated
in the midst of the village, the building that you see is a church, which is now called in
the Greek language opu Melchisedech. For this is the place where Melchizedek offered pure
sacrifices— that is bread and wine—to God, as it is written of him."

THE CITY OF MELCHIZEDEK

Directly I heard this, we alighted from our beasts, and lo! the holy priest of the place
and the clergy deigned to meet us, and straightway receiving us led us up to the church.
When we had arrived there, prayer was first said according to custom, then the passage
from the book of holy Moses was read, then one psalm suitable to the place was said, then,
after prayer made, we came down. When we had come down the holy priest addressed us. He
was an elderly man, well taught in the Scriptures, and he had presided over the place from
the time he had been a monk, to whose life many bishops—as we learned afterwards— bore
great testimony, saying that he was worthy to preside over the place where holy
Melchizedek—when Abraham was coming to meet him—was the first to offer pure sacrifices to
God. When we had come down from the church, as I said above, the holy priest said to us :
"Behold, these foundations which you see around the little hill are those of the palace of
king Melchizedek. For from his time to the present day if any one wishes to build himself
a house here, and so strikes on these foundations, he sometimes finds little fragments of
silver and bronze. And this way which you see passing between the river Jordan and this
village is the way by which holy Abraham returned to Sodom, after the slaughter of
Chedorlaomer king of nations, and where holy Melchizedek, the king of Salem, met him."

ÆNON

1 Then, because I remembered that it was written that S. John had baptized in Ænon near to
Salim, I asked him how far off that place was. The holy priest answered: "It is near, two
hundred paces off, and, if you wish, I will now lead you there on foot. This large and
pure stream of water, which you see in this village, comes from that spring. Then I began
to thank him and to ask him to lead us to the place, which was done. So we began to go
with him on foot through the very pleasant valley, until we reached a most pleasant
orchard, in the midst of which he showed us a spring of excellent and pure water, which
sent out continuously a good stream. The spring had in front of it a sort of pool, where
it appears that S. John the Baptist fulfilled his ministry. Then the holy priest said to
us: "This garden is called nothing else to this day than cepos tu agiu iohannu in the
Greek language, or as you say in Latin, hortus sancti Johannis. Many brethren, holy monks,
direct their steps hither from various places that they may wash there. So at the spring,
as in every place, prayer was made, the proper lection was read and an appropriate psalm
was said, and everything that it was customary for us to do whenever we came to the holy
places, we did there also.

2 The holy priest also told us that to this day, at Easter, all they who are to be
baptized in the village, that is in the church which is called opus Melchisedech, are
always baptized in this spring, returning early to vespers with the clergy and monks,
saying psalms and antiphons, so that they who have been baptized are led back early from
the fountain to the church of holy Melchizedek. Then, receiving eulogiae out of the
orchard of S. John the Baptist from the priest, as well as from the holy monks who had
cells in the same orchard, and always giving thanks to God, we set out on the way we were
going.

THE CITY OF ELIJAH AND THE BROOK CHERITH

1 Then going for a time through the valley of the Jordan on the bank of the river, because
our route lay that way for a while, we suddenly saw the city of the holy prophet Elijah,
that is Thesbe, whence he had the name of Elijah the Tishbite. There, to this day, is the
cave wherein the holy man sat; there too is the tomb of holy Getha, whose name we read in
the books of the Judges. There too we gave thanks to God according to custom and pursued
our journey. And as we journeyed that way we saw a very pleasant valley opening towards us
on the left; it was very large and discharged a very great torrent into the Jordan, and in
that valley we saw the cell of one who is now a brother, that is a monk. Then I, as I am
very inquisitive, began to ask what was this valley where the holy monk had now made
himself a cell, for I did not think it was without reason. Then the holy men who were
journeying with us, and who knew the place, said, "This is the valley of Corra, where holy
Elijah the Tishbite dwelt in the time of king Ahab, when there was a famine, and at the
bidding of God the raven used to bring him food, and he drank water of the torrent. For
this brook which you see running through this valley into Jordan, is Corra." Wherefore
giving thanks to God Who deigned to show us everything that we desired, unworthy as we
were, we began to make our journey as on other days. And as we journeyed day by day, on
the left side, whence on the opposite side we saw parts of Phœnicia, there suddenly
appeared a great and high mountain which extended in length . . .

2 [A leaf is torn out.]

THE BURIAL-PLACE OF JOB AND THE RETURN TO JERUSALEM

. . . which holy monk and ascetic, after so many years spent in the desert, found it
necessary to move and to go down to the city of Carneas, in order to advise the bishop and
clergy of that time, according as it had been revealed to him, that they should dig in
that place which had been shown to him; which was done. And they, digging in that place
which had been shown to him, found a cave, which they followed for about a hundred paces,
when suddenly, as they dug, a stone tomb came to light, and when they had uncovered it,
they found carved on its lid (the name) Job. To this Job the church which you see was then
built in that place, in such a manner that the stone with the body should not be moved,
but that it should be placed, where the body had been found, and that the body should lie
under the altar. That church, which was built by some tribune, has been unfinished to this
day. Next morning we asked the bishop to make the oblation, which he deigned to do, and
the bishop blessing us, we set out. There too we communicated, and always giving thanks to
God we returned to Jerusalem, journeying through each of the stations through which we had
passed three years before.

JOURNEY INTO MESOPOTAMIA

Having spent some time there in the Name of God, when three full years had passed since I
came to Jerusalem, and having seen all the holy places which I had visited for the sake of
prayer, my mind was to return to my country. I wished, however, at God's bidding, to go to
Mesopotamia in Syria, to visit the holy monks who were there in great number, and who were
said to be of such holy life as could hardly be described, and also for the sake of prayer
at the memorial of S. Thomas the Apostle, where his body is laid entire. This is at
Edessa. For Jesus our God by a letter which He sent to Abgar the king by the hand of
Ananias the courier, promised that He would send S. Thomas thither, after that He Himself
had ascended into Heaven. The letter is kept with great reverence at the city of Edessa,
where the memorial is. Now your affection may believe me that there is no Christian who
having arrived at the holy places that are at Jerusalem, does not go on thither for the
sake of prayer; it is at the twenty-fifth station from Jerusalem. And since from Antioch
it is nearer to Mesopotamia, it was very convenient for me at God's bidding that as I was
returning to Constantinople, and my way lying through Antioch, I should go thence to
Mesopotamia. This then, at God's bidding, I did.

ANTIOCH TO MESOPOTAMIA: THE CROSSING OF THE EUPHRATES

Then, setting out from Antioch to Mesopotamia in the Name of Christ our God, I journeyed
through certain stations and cities of the province of Cœle-Syria, which is Antioch, and
entering the borders of the province of Augustofratensis, I came to the city of Gerapolis
which is the metropolis of Augustofratensis. And as this city is very beautiful and rich
and abounds in everything, it was necessary for me to make a halt there, for the borders
of Mesopotamia were not far distant. Then starting from Ierapolis, I came, in the Name of
God, at the fifteenth milestone to the river Euphrates, of which it is very well written
that it is the great river Euphrates; it is huge and, as it were, terrible, for it flows
down with a current like the river Rhone, only the Euphrates is still greater. And as we
had to cross in ships, and in large ships only, I waited there until after midday, and
then in the Name of God I crossed the river Euphrates and entered the borders of
Mesopotamia in Syria.

EDESSA

1 Then, journeying through certain stations, I came to a city whose name we read recorded
in the Scriptures—Batanis, which city exists to-day: it has a church with a truly holy
bishop, both monk and confessor, and certain martyr-memorials. The city has a teeming
population, and the soldiery with their tribune are stationed there. Departing thence, we
arrived at Edessa in the Name of Christ our God, and, on our arrival, we straightway
repaired to the church and memorial of saint Thomas. There, according to custom, prayers
were made and the other things that were customary in the holy places were done; we read
also some things concerning saint Thomas himself. The church there is very great, very
beautiful and of new construction, well worthy to be the house of God, and as there was
much that I desired to see, it was necessary for me to make a three days' stay there. Thus
I saw in that city many memorials, together with holy monks, some dwelling at the
memorials, while others had their cells in more secluded spots farther from the city.
Moreover, the holy bishop of the city, a truly devout man, both monk and confessor,
received me willingly and said: "As I see, daughter, that for the sake of devotion you
have undertaken so great a labour in coming to these places from far-distant lands, if you
are willing, we will show you all the places that are pleasant to the sight of Christians.

2 Then, first thanking God, I besought the bishop much that he would deign to do as he
said. He thereupon led me first to the palace of King Abgar, where he showed me a great
marble statue of him—very much like him, as they said—having a sheen as if made of pearl.
From the face of Abgar it seemed that he was a very wise and honourable man. Then the holy
bishop said to me: "Behold King Abgar, who before he saw the Lord believed in Him that He
was in truth the Son of God. There was another statue near, made of the same marble, which
he said was that of his son Magnus; this also had something gracious in the face. Then we
entered the inner part of the palace, and there were fountains full of fish such as I
never saw before, of so great size, so bright and of so good a flavour were they. The city
has no water at all other than that which comes out of the palace, which is like a great
silver river.

THE STORY OF KING ABGARUS

1 Then the holy bishop told me about the water, saying: "At some time, after that King
Abgar had written to the Lord, and the Lord had answered King Abgar by Ananias the
courier—as it is written in the letter itself—when some time had passed, the Persians came
against the city and surrounded it. And straightway Abgar, bearing the letter of the Lord
to the gate, with all his army, prayed publicly. And he said: O Lord Jesus, Thou hadst
promised us that none of our enemies should enter this city, and lo! the Persians now
attack us. And when the king had said this, holding the open letter in his uplifted hands,
suddenly there came a great darkness outside the city before the eyes of the Persians, as
they were approaching the city at a distance of about three miles, and they were so
baffled by the darkness that they could hardly form their camp and surround the whole city
about three miles off. So baffled were the Persians that they could never afterwards see
the way to enter the city, but they surrounded it and shut it in with their hostile
forces, at a distance of about three miles, for several months. Then, when they saw that
they could by no means enter, they wished to slay those within the city by thirst.

2 Now that little hill which you see, my daughter, over against the city, supplied it with
water at that time, and the Persians, perceiving this, diverted the water from the city
and made it to run near that place where they had made their camp. And on that day and at
that hour when the Persians diverted the water, the fountains which you see in this place
burst forth at once at God's bidding, and by the favour of God they remain here from that
day to this. But the water which the Persians had diverted was dried up at that hour, so
that they who were besieging the city had nothing to drink for even one day; which thing
is plain to the present time, for no moisture of any sort has ever been seen there from
that day to this. So, at God's bidding, Who had promised that this should come to pass,
they were obliged to return to their own home in Persia. Moreover afterwards, as often as
enemies determined to come and take the city, this letter was brought out and read in the
gate, and straightway all enemies were driven back by the will of God. The holy Bishop
also told me that the place where these fountains broke forth had previously been open
ground within the city, lying under the palace of King Abgar, which same palace had been
situated on somewhat higher ground, as was plainly visible.

3 For the custom was at that time that, whenever palaces were built, they should always
stand on higher ground. But after that these fountains had burst forth here, then Abgar
built this palace for his son Magnus, whose statue I saw near that of his father, so that
the fountains should be included in the palace. And when the holy bishop had told me all
these things, he said to me: "Let us now go to the gate by which Ananias the courier
entered with the letter of which I spoke. So when we had come to the gate, the bishop,
standing, made a prayer and read us the letters; then, after he had blessed us, another
prayer was made. Moreover the holy man told us that from the day on which Ananias the
courier entered it with the letter of the Lord, the gate is kept to this day, that no one
who is unclean, nor any mourner, should pass through nor should any dead body be borne out
through it. The holy bishop also showed us the memorial of Abgar and of his whole family,
very beautiful, but made in the ancient style. He took us also to the palace which King
Abgar had at first, on the higher ground, and if there were any other places he showed
them to us. It was very pleasant to me to receive from the holy man himself the letters of
Abgar to the Lord and of the Lord to Abgar, which the holy bishop had read to us there.

4 For although I have copies at home, yet it seemed to me more pleasant to receive them
from him, lest perhaps something less might have reached us at home, and indeed that which
I received here is fuller. So if Jesus our God bids it, and I come home, you too shall
read them, ladies, my own souls.

CHARRÆ (HARAN)

1 Then, after three days spent there, it was necessary for me to go still farther, to
Charræ, as it is now called. In holy Scripture it is called Charran, where holy Abraham
dwelt, as it is written in Genesis when the Lord said unto Abram: Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy father's house, and go to Charran and the rest. And when I arrived
at Charræ I went straightway to the church which is within the city, and soon I saw the
bishop of the place, a truly holy man of God, both monk and confessor, who deigned to show
us all the places there that we desired. He took us at once to the church, which is
without the city on the spot where stood the house of holy Abraham; it stands on the same
foundations, and it is made of the same stone, as the holy bishop said. When we had come
to the church, prayer was made, the passage from Genesis was read, one psalm was said, and
after a second prayer the bishop blessed us and we came out. Then he deigned to take us to
the well whence holy Rebecca used to fetch water, and the holy bishop said to us: "Behold
the well whence holy Rebecca watered the camels of holy Abraham's servant Eleazar"; thus
he deigned to show us each thing.

2 Now at the church, which is outside the city, as I said, ladies, reverend sisters, where
Abraham's house was originally, there is now the martyr-memorial of a certain holy monk
named Helpidius. It happened very pleasantly for us that we arrived on the day before the
martyr's feast of saint Helpidius, which is on the twenty-third of April. On that day it
was of obligation that all the monks from all parts and from all the borders of
Mesopotamia should come down to Charræ, even the greater ones who dwelt in solitude, whom
they call ascetics. For this day is observed with great dignity there on account of the
memorial of holy Abraham, whose house stood where the church now is, in which the body of
the holy martyr is laid. So it happened to us very pleasantly beyond our expectations that
we should see these holy monks of Mesopotamia, truly men of God, as well as those whose
good report and manner of life had reached men's ears far and wide, whom I thought that I
could not by any means see, not because it was impossible for God to give me this, Who had
deigned to give me all things, but because I had heard that they never come down from
their dwellings except on Easter Day and on this day. For they are men who do many
wonders, and, moreover, I did not know in what month was the day of the martyr's feast
which I have mentioned;

3 but at God's bidding it came about that I arrived on the day that I had not hoped for.
We stayed there two days, for the memorial day and for the sake of seeing those holy men,
who deigned to receive me very willingly for the sake of salutation, and to speak with me,
of which I was not worthy. Nor were they seen there after the memorial day, for they
sought the desert without delay in the night, each one returning to his own cell. In that
city I found scarcely a single Christian excepting a few clergy and holy monks—if any such
dwell in the city; all are heathen. And in like manner, as we gazed with great reverence
at the place where the house of holy Abraham was at first for the sake of his memorial, so
do those heathen gaze with great reverence at a place about a mile from the city, where
are the memorials of Nahor and Bethuel. And since the bishop of that city is very learned
in the Scriptures, I asked him, saying: "I beg of you, my lord, to tell me that which I
desire to hear. And he said: "Tell me, daughter, what you wish, and I will tell it you, if
I know it. Then I said: "I know by the Scriptures that holy Abraham came to this place
with his father Terah and with Sarah his wife, and with Lot his brother's son, but I have
not read when Nahor and Bethuel came here;

4 I know only that afterwards Abraham's servant came to Charræ that he might seek Rebecca,
the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, for Isaac the son of his master Abraham. Then
the holy bishop said to me: "Truly, daughter, it is written as you say, in Genesis, that
holy Abraham came here with his relatives, but canonical Scripture does not say when Nahor
and his relatives and Bethuel came here, but it is plain that they did come here
afterwards, since their memorials are here at about a mile from the city. The Scripture
does indeed relate how holy Abraham's servant came here to take holy Rebecca, and how holy
Jacob came here when he took to himself the daughters of Laban the Syrian. Then I asked
where was the well where holy Jacob watered the flocks which Rachel, the daughter of Laban
the Syrian, was feeding. The bishop said to me: "The place is six miles hence, near the
village which then was the farm of Laban the Syrian, and if you wish to go there, we will
go with you and show it to you; there are also many very holy monks and ascetics, and a
holy church. I also asked the holy bishop where was that place of the Chaldees where Terah
lived at first with his family, and the holy bishop said to me: "The place, daughter, of
which you ask, is at the tenth station hence, as you go into Persia.

5 There are five stations from here to Nisibis, and five stations thence to Hur, which was
a city of the Chaldees, but there is now no access for Romans, for the Persians hold the
whole country. This district is specially called the Eastern; it is on the borders of the
Romans, the Persians and the Chaldees. And many other things he deigned to tell me, as did
also the other holy bishops and holy monks, but all they told us was from the Scriptures
of God or of the acts of holy men, that is of monks, either the wonderful things that
those already departed had done, or what those who are still in the body do daily, at any
rate those who are ascetics. For I would not that your affection should think that the
monks ever told me any other stories except from the Scriptures of God or else those of
the acts of the greater monks.

RACHEL’S WELL AND THE RETURN TO ANTIOCH

1 Now after two days which I spent there, the bishop took us to the well where holy Jacob
had watered holy Rachel's flocks; the well is six miles from Charræ, and in its honour a
very great and beautiful holy church has been built hard by. When we had come to the well,
prayer was made by the bishop, the passage from Genesis was read, one psalm suitable to
the place was said and, after a second prayer, the bishop blessed us. We saw also, lying
on a spot near the well, that very great stone which holy Jacob had moved away from the
well, and which is shown to-day. No one dwells there around the well, except the clergy of
the church which is there and the monks who have their cells near at hand, whose truly
unheard-of mode of life the bishop described to us. Then, after prayer had been made in
the church, I visited, in company with the bishop, the holy monks in their cells, giving
thanks both to God and to them, who deigned with willing mind to receive me in their cells
wherever I entered, and to address me in such words as were fitting to proceed out of
their mouth. They deigned also to give me and all who were with me eulogiae, such as is
the custom for monks to give those whom they receive with willing mind into their cells.

2 And the place being in a large plain, a great village over against us was pointed out to
me by the holy bishop, about five hundred paces from the well, through which village our
route lay. This village, as the bishop said, was once the farm of Laban the Syrian, and is
called Fadana; in the village the memorial of Laban the Syrian, Jacob's father-in-law, was
shown to me; the place was also shown to me where Rachel stole her father's images. So,
having seen everything in the Name of God, and bidding farewell to the holy bishop and the
holy monks who had deigned to conduct us to the place, we returned by the route and by the
stations through which we had come from Antioch.

ANTIOCH TO TARSUS

When I had got back to Antioch, I stayed there for a week, while the things that were
necessary for our journey were being prepared. Then, starting from Antioch and journeying
through several stations, I came to the province called Cilicia, which has Tarsus for its
metropolis. I had already been at Tarsus on my way to Jerusalem, but as the memorial of
saint Thecla is at the third station from Tarsus, in Hisauria, it was very pleasant for me
to go there, especially as it was so very near at hand.

VISIT TO SAINT THECLA’S CHURCH AND THE RETURN TO CONSTANTINOPLE

1 So, setting out from Tarsus, I came to a certain city on the sea, still in Cilicia,
which is called Pompeiopolis. Thence I entered the borders of Hisauria and stayed in a
city called Coricus, and on the third day I arrived at a city which is called Seleucia in
Hisauria; on my arrival I went to the bishop, a truly holy man, formerly a monk, and in
that city I saw a very beautiful church. And as the distance thence to saint Thecla, which
is situated outside the city on a low eminence, was about fifteen hundred paces, I chose
rather to go there in order to make the stay that I intended. There is nothing at the holy
church in that place except numberless cells of men and of women. I found there a very
dear friend of mine, to whose manner of life all in the East bore testimony, a holy
deaconess named Marthana, whom I had known at Jerusalem, whither she had come for the sake
of prayer; she was ruling over the cells of apotactitae and virgins. And when she had seen
me, how can I describe the extent of her joy or of mine? But to return to the matter in
hand: there are very many cells on the hill and in the midst of it a great wall which
encloses the church containing the very beautiful memorial.

2 The wall was built to guard the church because of the Hisauri, who are very-malicious
and who frequently commit acts of robbery, to prevent them from making an attempt on the
monastery which is established there. When I had arrived in the Name of God, prayer was
made at the memorial, and the whole of the acts of saint Thecla having been read, I gave
endless thanks to Christ our God, who deigned to fulfil my desires in all things, unworthy
and undeserving as I am. Then, after a stay of two days, when I had seen the holy monks
and apotactitae who were there, both men and women, and when I had prayed and made my
communion, I returned to Tarsus and to my journey. From Tarsus, after a halt of three
days, I set out on my journey in the Name of God, and arriving on the same day at a
station called Mansocrenae, which is under Mount Taurus, I stayed there. On the next day,
going under Mount Taurus, and travelling by the route that was already known to me,
through each province that I had traversed on my way out, to wit, Cappadocia, Galatia, and
Bithynia, I arrived at Chalcedon, where I stayed for the sake of the very famous martyr-
memorial of saint Euphemia, which was already known to me from a former time.

3 On the next day, crossing the sea, I arrived at Constantinople, giving thanks to Christ
our God who deigned to give me such grace, unworthy and undeserving as I am, for He had
deigned to give me not only the will to go, but also the power of walking through the
places that I desired, and of returning at last to Constantinople. When I had arrived
there, I went through all the churches—that of the Apostles and all the martyr-memorials,
of which there are very many—and I ceased not to give thanks to Jesus our God, Who had
thus deigned to bestow His mercy upon me. From which place, ladies, light of my eyes,
while I send these (letters) to your affection, I have already purposed, in the Name of
Christ our God, to go to Ephesus in Asia, for the sake of prayer, because of the memorial
of the holy and blessed Apostle John. And if after this I am yet in the body, and am able
to see any other places, I will either tell it to your affection in person, if God deigns
to permit me this, or in anywise, if I have another project in mind, I will send you news
of it in a letter. But do you, ladies, light of my eyes, deign to remember me, whether I
am in the body or out of the body.

JERUSALEM: THE DAILY OFFICES

1. Matins.

1 Now that your affection may know what is the order of service (operatio) day by day in
the holy places, I must inform you, for I know that you would willingly have this
knowledge. Every day before cockcrow all the doors of the Anastasis are opened, and all
the monks and virgins, as they call them here, go thither, and not they alone, but lay
people also, both men and women, who desire to begin their vigil early. And from that hour
to daybreak hymns are said and psalms are sung responsively (responduntur), and antiphons
in like manner; and prayer is made after each of the hymns. For priests, deacons, and
monks in twos or threes take it in turn every day to say prayers after each of the hymns
or antiphons. But when day breaks they begin to say the Matin hymns. Thereupon the bishop
arrives with the clergy, and immediately enters into the cave, and from within the rails
(cancelli) he first says a prayer for all, mentioning the names of those whom he wishes to
commemorate; he then blesses the catechumens, afterwards he says a prayer and blesses the
faithful. And when the bishop comes out from within the rails, every one approaches his
hand, and he blesses them one by one as he goes out, and the dismissal takes place, by
daylight.

2. Sext and None.

2 In like manner at the sixth hour all go again to the Anastasis, and psalms and antiphons
are said, while the bishop is being summoned; then he comes as before, not taking his
seat, but he enters at once within the rails in the Anastasis, that is in the cave, just
as in the early morning, and as then, he again first says a prayer, then he blesses the
faithful, and as he comes out from [within] the rails every one approaches his hand. And
the same is done at the ninth hour as at the sixth.

3. Vespers.

3 Now at the tenth hour, which they call here licinicon, or as we say lucernare, all the
people assemble at the Anastasis in the same manner, and all the candles and tapers are
lit, making a very great light. Now the light is not introduced from without, but it is
brought forth from within the cave, that is from within the rails, where a lamp is always
burning day and night, and the vesper psalms and antiphons are said, lasting for a
considerable time. Then the bishop is summoned, and he comes and takes a raised seat, and
likewise the priests sit in their proper places, and hymns and antiphons are said. And
when all these have been recited according to custom, the bishop rises and stands before
the rails, that is, before the cave, and one of the deacons makes the customary
commemoration of individuals one by one. And as the deacon pronounces each name the many
little boys who are always standing by, answer with countless voices: Kyrie eleyson, or as
we say Miserere Domine. And when the deacon has finished all that he has to say, first the
bishop says a prayer and prays for all, then they all pray, both the faithful and
catechumens together. Again the deacon raises his voice, bidding each catechumen to bow
his head where he stands, and the bishop stands and says the blessing over the
catechumens.

4 Again prayer is made, and again the deacon raises his voice and bids the faithful, each
where he stands, to bow the head, and the bishop likewise blesses the faithful. Thus the
dismissal takes place at the Anastasis, and one by one all draw near to the bishop's hand.
Afterwards the bishop is conducted from the Anastasis to the Cross [with] hymns, all the
people accompanying him, and when he arrives he first says a prayer, then he blesses the
catechumens, then another prayer is said and he blesses the faithful. Thereupon both the
bishop and the whole multitude further proceed behind the Cross, where all that was done
before the Cross is repeated, and they approach the hand of the bishop behind the Cross as
they did at the Anastasis and before the Cross. Moreover, there are hanging everywhere a
vast number of great glass chandeliers, and there are also a vast number of cereofala,
before the Anastasis, before the Cross and behind the Cross, for the whole does not end
until darkness has set in. This is the order of daily services (operatio) at the Cross and
at the Anastasis throughout the six days.

JERUSALEM: THE SUNDAY OFFICES

1. Vigil.

1 But on the seventh day, that is on the Lord's Day, the whole multitude assembles before
cockcrow, in as great numbers as the place can hold, as at Easter, in the basilica which
is near the Anastasis, but outside the doors, where lights are hanging for the purpose.
And for fear that they should not be there at cockcrow they come beforehand and sit down
there. Hymns as well as antiphons are said, and prayers are made between the several hymns
and antiphons, for at the vigils there are always both priests and deacons ready there for
the assembling of the multitude, the custom being that the holy places are not opened
before cockcrow. Now as soon as the first cock has crowed, the bishop arrives and enters
the cave at the Anastasis; all the doors are opened and the whole multitude enters the
Anastasis, where countless lights are already burning. And when the people have entered,
one of the priests says a psalm to which all respond, and afterwards prayer is made; then
one of the deacons says a psalm and prayer is again made, a third psalm is said by one of
the clergy, prayer is made for the third time and there is a commemoration of all. After
these three psalms and three prayers are ended, lo! censers are brought into the cave of
the Anastasis so that the whole basilica of the Anastasis is filled with odours.

2 And then the bishop, standing within the rails, takes the book of the Gospel, and
proceeding to the door, himself reads the (narrative of the) Resurrection of the Lord. And
when the reading is begun, there is so great a moaning and groaning among all, with so
many tears, that the hardest of heart might be moved to tears for that the Lord had borne
such things for us. After the reading of the Gospel the bishop goes out, and is
accompanied to the Cross by all the people with hymns, there again a psalm is said and
prayer is made, after which he blesses the faithful and the dismissal takes place, and as
he comes out all approach to his hand. And forthwith the bishop betakes himself to his
house, and from that hour all the monks return to the Anastasis, where psalms and
antiphons, with prayer after each psalm or antiphon, are said until daylight; the priests
and deacons also keep watch in turn daily at the Anastasis with the people, but of the lay
people, whether men or women, those who are so minded, remain in the place until daybreak,
and those who are not, return to their houses and betake themselves to sleep.

2. Morning Services.

3 Now at daybreak because it is the Lord's Day every one proceeds to the greater church,
built by Constantine, which is situated in Golgotha behind the Cross, where all things are
done which are customary everywhere on the Lord's Day. But the custom here is that of all
the priests who take their seats, as many as are willing, preach, and after them all the
bishop preaches, and these sermons are always on the Lord's Day, in order that the people
may always be instructed in the Scriptures and in the love of God. The delivery of these
sermons greatly delays the dismissal from the church, so that the dismissal does [not]
take place before the fourth or perhaps the fifth hour. But when the dismissal from the
church is made in the manner that is customary everywhere, the monks accompany the bishop
with hymns from the church to the Anastasis, and as he approaches with hymns all the doors
of the basilica of the Anastasis are opened, and the people, that is the faithful, enter,
but not the catechumens. And after the people the bishop enters, and goes at once within
the rails of the cave of the martyrium. Thanks are first given to God, then prayer is made
for all, after which the deacon bids all bow their heads, where they stand, and the bishop
standing within the inner rails blesses them and goes out, each one drawing near to his
hand as he makes his exit. Thus the dismissal is delayed until nearly the fifth or sixth
hour. And in like manner it is done at lucernare, according to daily custom.

4 This then is the custom observed every day throughout the whole year except on solemn
days, to the keeping of which we will refer later on. But among all things it is a special
feature that they arrange that suitable psalms and antiphons are said on every occasion,
both those said by night, or in the morning, as well as those throughout the day, at the
sixth hour, the ninth hour, or at lucernare, all being so appropriate and so reasonable as
to bear on the matter in hand. And they proceed to the greater church, which was built by
Constantine, and which is situated in Golgotha, that is, behind the Cross, on every Lord's
Day throughout the year except on the one Sunday of Pentecost, when they proceed to Sion,
as you will find mentioned below; but even then they go to Sion before the third hour, the
dismissal having been first made in the greater church.

5 [A leaf is wanting.]

JERUSALEM: THE FESTIVALS AT EPIPHANY

1. Night Station at Bethlehem.

1 Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord, and the rest which follows. And
since, for the sake of the monks who go on foot, it is necessary to walk slowly, the
arrival in Jerusalem thus takes place at the hour when one man begins to be able to
recognize another, that is, close upon but a little before day-break. And on arriving
there, the bishop and all with him immediately enter the Anastasis, where an exceedingly
great number of lights are already burning. There a psalm is said, prayer is made, first
the catechumens and then the faithful are blessed by the bishop; then the bishop retires,
and every one returns to his lodging to take rest, but the monks remain there until
daybreak and recite hymns.

2. Morning Services at Jerusalem.

2 But after the people have taken rest, at the beginning of the second hour they all
assemble in the greater church, which is in Golgotha. Now it would be superfluous to
describe the adornment either of the church, or of the Anastasis, or of the Cross, or in
Bethlehem on that day; you see there nothing but gold and gems and silk. For if you look
at the veils, they are made wholly of silk striped with gold, and if you look at the
curtains, they too are made wholly of silk striped with gold. The church vessels too, of
every kind, gold and jewelled, are brought out on that day, and indeed, who could either
reckon or describe the number and weight of the cereofala, or of the cicindelae, or of the
lucernae, or of the various vessels? And what shall I say of the decoration of the fabric
itself, which Constantine, at his mother's instigation, decorated with gold, mosaic, and
costly marbles, as far as the resources of his kingdom allowed him, that is, the greater
church as well as the Anastasis, at the Cross, and the other holy places in Jerusalem? But
to return to the matter in hand: the dismissal takes place on the first day in the greater
church, which is in Golgotha, and when they preach or read the several lessons, or recite
hymns, all are appropriate to the day. And afterwards when the dismissal from the church
has been made, they repair to the Anastasis with hymns, according to custom, so that the
dismissal takes place about the sixth hour. And on this day lucernare also takes place
according to the daily use.

3. Octave of the Festival.

3 On the second day also they proceed in like manner to the church in Golgotha, and also
on the third day; thus the feast is celebrated with all this joyfulness for three days up
to the sixth hour in the church built by Constantine. On the fourth day it is celebrated
in like manner with similar festal array in Eleona, the very beautiful church which stands
on the Mount of Olives; on the fifth day in the Lazarium, which is distant about one
thousand five hundred paces from Jerusalem; on the sixth day in Sion, on the seventh day
in the Anastasis, and on the eighth day at the Cross. Thus, then, is the feast celebrated
with all this joyfulness and festal array throughout the eight days in all the holy places
which I have mentioned above. And in Bethlehem also throughout the entire eight days the
feast is celebrated with similar festal array and joyfulness daily by the priests and by
all the clergy there, and by the monks who are appointed in that place. For from the hour
when all return by night to Jerusalem with the bishop, the monks of that place keep vigil
in the church in Bethlehem, reciting hymns and antiphons, but it is necessary that the
bishop should always keep these days in Jerusalem. And immense crowds, not of monks only,
but also of the laity, both men and women, flock together to Jerusalem from every quarter
for the solemn and joyous observance of that day.

4. The Presentation. Mass.

4 The fortieth day after the Epiphany is undoubtedly celebrated here with the very highest
honour, for on that day there is a procession, in which all take part, in the Anastasis,
and all things are done in their order with the greatest joy, just as at Easter. All the
priests, and after them the bishop, preach, always taking for their subject that part of
the Gospel where Joseph and Mary brought the Lord into the Temple on the fortieth day, and
Symeon and Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, saw Him,—treating of the words
which they spake when they saw the Lord, and of that offering which His parents made. And
when everything that is customary has been done in order, the sacrament is celebrated, and
the dismissal takes place.

JERUSALEM: LENT

1 And when the Paschal days come they are observed thus: Just as with us forty days are
kept before Easter, so here eight weeks are kept before Easter. And eight weeks are kept
because there is no fasting on the Lord's Days, nor on the Sabbaths, except on the one
Sabbath on which the Vigil of Easter falls, in which case the fast is obligatory. With the
exception then of that one day, there is never fasting on any Sabbath here throughout the
year. Thus, deducting the eight Lord's Days and the seven Sabbaths (for on the one
Sabbath, as I said above, the fast is obligatory) from the eight weeks, there remain
forty-one fast days, which they call here Eortae, that is Quadragesimae.

1. Services on Sundays.

2 Now the several days of the several weeks are kept thus: On the Lord's Day after the
first cockcrow the bishop reads in the Anastasis the account of the Lord's Resurrection
from the Gospel, as on all Lord's Days throughout the whole year, and everything is done
at the Anastasis and at the Cross as on all Lord's Days throughout the year, up to
daybreak. Afterwards, in the morning, they proceed to the greater church, called the
martyrium, which is in Golgotha behind the Cross, and all things that are customary on the
Lord's Days are done there. In like manner also when the dismissal from the church has
been made, they go with hymns to the Anastasis, as they always do on the Lord's Days, and
while these things are being done the fifth hour is reached. Lucernare, however, takes
place at its own hour, as usual, at the Anastasis and at the Cross, and in the various
holy places; on the Lord's Day the ninth hour is kept.

2. Weekday Services.

3 On the second weekday they go at the first cockcrow to the Anastasis, as they do
throughout the year, and everything that is usual is done until morning. Then at the third
hour they go to the Anastasis, and the things are done that are customary throughout the
year at the sixth hour, for this going at the third hour in Quadragesima is additional. At
the sixth and ninth hours also, and at lucernare, everything is done that is customary
throughout the whole year at the holy places. And on the third weekday all things are done
as on the second weekday.

3. Wednesday and Friday.

4 Again, on the fourth weekday they go by night to the Anastasis, and all the usual things
are done until morning, and also at the third and sixth hours. But at the ninth hour they
go to Sion, as is customary at that hour on the fourth and sixth weekdays throughout the
year, for the reason that the fast is always kept here on the fourth and sixth weekdays
even by the catechumens, except a martyrs' day should occur. For if a martyrs' day should
chance to occur on the fourth or on the sixth weekday in Quadragesima, they do not go to
Sion at the ninth hour. But on the days of Quadragesima, as I said above, they proceed to
Sion on the fourth weekday at the ninth hour, according to the custom of the whole year,
and all things that are customary at the ninth hour are done, except the oblation, for, in
order that the people may always be instructed in the law, both the bishop and the priest
preach diligently. But when the dismissal has been made, the people escort the bishop with
hymns thence to the Anastasis, so that it is already the hour of lucernare when he enters
the Anastasis; then hymns and antiphons are said, prayers are made, and the service
(missa) of lucernare takes place in the Anastasis and at the Cross. And the service of
lucernare is always later on those days in Quadragesima than on other days throughout the
year. On the fifth weekday everything is done as on the second and third weekday. On the
sixth weekday everything is done as on the fourth, including the going to Sion at the
ninth hour, and the escorting of the bishop thence to the Anastasis with hymns.

4. Saturday.

5 But on the sixth weekday the vigils are observed in the Anastasis from the hour of their
arrival from Sion with hymns, until morning, that is, from the hour of lucernare, when
they entered, to the morning of the next day, that is, the Sabbath. And the oblation is
made in the Anastasis the earlier, that the dismissal may take place before sunrise.
Throughout the whole night psalms are said responsively in turn with antiphons and with
various lections, the whole lasting until morning, and the dismissal, which takes place on
the Sabbath at the Anastasis, is before sunrise, that is, the oblation, so that the
dismissal may take place in the Anastasis at the hour when the sun begins to rise. Thus,
then, is each week of Quadragesima kept, the dismissal taking place earlier on the
Sabbath, i.e. before sunrise, as I said, in order that the hebdomadarii, as they are
called here, may finish their fast earlier. For the custom of the fast in Quadragesima is
that the dismissal on the Lord's Day is at the fifth hour in order that they whom they
call hebdomadarii, that is, they who keep the weeks' fast, may take food. And when these
have taken breakfast on the Lord's Day, they do not eat until the Sabbath morning after
they have communicated in the Anastasis. It is for their sake, then, that they may finish
their fast the sooner, that the dismissal on the Sabbath at the Anastasis is before
sunrise. For their sake the dismissal is in the morning, as I said; not that they alone
communicate, but all who are so minded communicate on that day in the Anastasis.

5. The Fast.

6 This is the custom of the fast in Quadragesima: some, when they have eaten after the
dismissal on the Lord's Day, that is, about the fifth or sixth hour, do not eat throughout
the whole week until after the dismissal at the Anastasis on the Sabbath; these are they
who keep the weeks' fast. 7 Nor, after having eaten in the morning, do they eat in the
evening of the Sabbath, but they take a meal on the next day, that is, on the Lord's Day,
after the dismissal from the church at the fifth hour or later, and then they do not
breakfast until the Sabbath comes round, as I have said above. For the custom here is that
all who are apotactitae, as they call them here, whether men or women, eat only once a day
on the day when they do eat, not only in Quadragesima, but throughout the whole year. But
if any of the apotactitae cannot keep the entire week of fasting as described above, they
take supper in the middle (of the week), on the fifth day, all through Quadragesima. And
if any one cannot do even this, he keeps two days' fast (in the week) all through
Quadragesima, and they who cannot do even this, take a meal every evening. For no one
exacts from any how much he should do, but each does what he can, nor is he praised who
has done much, nor is he blamed who has done less; that is the custom here. For their food
during the days of Quadragesima is as follows:—they taste neither bread which cannot be
weighed, nor oil, nor anything that grows on trees, but only water and a little gruel made
of flour. Quadragesima is kept thus, as we have said. And at the end of the weeks' fast
the vigil is kept in the Anastasis from the hour of lucernare on the sixth weekday, when
the people come with psalms from Sion, to the morning of the Sabbath, when the oblation is
made in the Anastasis. And the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth weeks in
Quadragesima are kept as the first.


THE PILGRIMAGE OF EGERIA (ETHERIA)
==================================

THE PILGRIMAGE OF EGERIA (ETHERIA) continued

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER: SATURDAY BEFORE PALM SUNDAY

1 Now when the seventh week has come, that is, when two weeks, including the seventh, are
left before Easter, everything is done on each day as in the weeks that are past, except
that the vigils of the sixth weekday, which were kept in the Anastasis during the first
six weeks, are, in the seventh week, kept in Sion, and with the same customs that obtained
during the six weeks in the Anastasis. For throughout the whole vigil psalms and antiphons
are said appropriate both to the place and to the day. 2 And when the morning of the
Sabbath begins to dawn, the bishop offers the oblation. And at the dismissal the
archdeacon lifts his voice and says: "Let us all be ready to-day at the seventh hour in
the Lazarium." And so, as the seventh hour approaches, all go to the Lazarium, that is,
Bethany, situated at about the second milestone from the city. And as they go from
Jerusalem to the Lazarium, there is, about five hundred paces from the latter place, a
church in the street on that spot where Mary the sister of Lazarus met with the Lord.
Here, when the bishop arrives, all the monks meet him, and the people enter the church,
and one hymn and one antiphon are said, and that passage is read in the Gospel where the
sister of Lazarus meets the Lord. Then, after prayer has been made, and when all have been
blessed, they go thence with hymns to the Lazarium. And on arriving at the Lazarium, so
great a multitude assembles that not only the place itself, but also the fields around,
are full of people. Hymns and antiphons suitable to the day and to the place are said, and
likewise all the lessons are read. Then, before the dismissal, notice is given of Easter,
that is, the priest ascends to a higher place and reads the passage that is written in the
Gospel: When Jesus six days before the Passover had come to Bethany, and the rest. So,
that passage having been read and notice given of Easter, the dismissal is made. This is
done on that day because, as it is written in the Gospel, these events took place in
Bethany six days before the Passover; there being six days from the Sabbath to the fifth
weekday on which, after supper, the Lord was taken by night. Then all return to the city
direct to the Anastasis, and lucernare takes place according to custom.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER: PALM SUNDAY

1 On the next day, that is, the Lord's Day, which begins the Paschal week, and which they
call here the Great Week, when all the customary services from cockcrow until morning have
taken place in the Anastasis and at the Cross, they proceed on the morning of the Lord's
Day according to custom to the greater church, which is called the martyrium. It is called
the martyrium because it is in Golgotha behind the Cross, where the Lord suffered. When
all that is customary has been observed in the great church, and before the dismissal is
made, the arch-deacon lifts his voice and says first: "Throughout the whole week,
beginning from to-morrow, let us all assemble in the martyrium, that is, in the great
church, at the ninth hour." Then he lifts his voice again, saying: "Let us all be ready
to-day in Eleona at the seventh hour." So when the dismissal has been made in the great
church, that is, the martyrium, the bishop is escorted with hymns to the Anastasis, and
after all things that are customary on the Lord's Day have been done there, after the
dismissal from the martyrium, every one hastens home to eat, that all may be ready at the
beginning of the seventh hour in the church in Eleona, on the Mount of Olives, where is
the cave in which the Lord was wont to teach.

(b) Procession with Palms on the Mount of Olives.

2 Accordingly at the seventh hour all the people go up to the Mount of Olives, that is, to
Eleona, and the bishop with them, to the church, where hymns and antiphons suitable to the
day and to the place are said, and lessons in like manner. And when the ninth hour
approaches they go up with hymns to the Imbomon, that is, to the place whence the Lord
ascended into heaven, and there they sit down, for all the people are always bidden to sit
when the bishop is present; the deacons alone always stand. Hymns and antiphons suitable
to the day and to the place are said, interspersed with lections and prayers. And as the
eleventh hour approaches, the passage from the Gospel is read, where the children,
carrying branches and palms, met the Lord, saying; Blessed is He that cometh in the name
of the Lord, and the bishop immediately rises, and all the people with him, and they all
go on foot from the top of the Mount of Olives, all the people going before him with hymns
and antiphons, answering one to another: Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the
Lord. And all the children in the neighbourhood, even those who are too young to walk, are
carried by their parents on their shoulders, all of them bearing branches, some of palms
and some of olives, and thus the bishop is escorted in the same manner as the Lord was of
old.

3 For all, even those of rank, both matrons and men, accompany the bishop all the way on
foot in this manner, making these responses, from the top of the mount to the city, and
thence through the whole city to the Anastasis, going very slowly lest the people should
be wearied; and thus they arrive at the Anastasis at a late hour. And on arriving,
although it is late, lucernare takes place, with prayer at the Cross; after which the
people are dismissed.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER: MONDAY, TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY

1 On the next day, the second weekday, everything that is customary is done from the first
cockcrow until morning in the Anastasis; also at the third and sixth hours everything is
done that is customary throughout the whole of Quadragesima. But at the ninth hour all
assemble in the great church, that is the martyrium, where hymns and antiphons are said
continuously until the first hour of the night and lessons suitable to the day and the
place are read, interspersed always with prayers. Lucernare takes place when its hour
approaches, that is, so that it is already night when the dismissal at the martyrium is
made. When the dismissal has been made, the bishop is escorted thence with hymns to the
Anastasis, where, when he has entered, one hymn is said, followed by a prayer; the
catechumens and then the faithful are blessed, and the dismissal is made.

4. Tuesday in Holy Week.

2 On the third weekday everything is done as on the second, with this one thing added—that
late at night, after the dismissal of the martyrium, and after the going to the Anastasis
and after the dismissal there, all proceed at that hour by night to the church, which is
on the mount Eleona. And when they have arrived at that church, the bishop enters the cave
where the Lord was wont to teach His disciples, and after receiving the book of the
Gospel, he stands and himself reads the words of the Lord which are written in the Gospel
according to Matthew, where He says: Take heed that no man deceive you. And the bishop
reads through the whole of that discourse, and when he has read it, prayer is made, the
catechumens and the faithful are blessed, the dismissal is made, and every one returns
from the mount to his house, it being already very late at night.

5. Wednesday in Holy Week.

3 On the fourth weekday everything is done as on the second and third weekdays throughout
the whole day from the first cockcrow onwards, but after the dismissal has taken place at
the martyrium by night, and the bishop has been escorted with hymns to the Anastasis, he
at once enters the cave which is in the Anastasis, and stands within the rails; but the
priest stands before the rails and receives the Gospel, and reads the passage where Judas
Iscariot went to the Jews and stated what they should give him that he should betray the
Lord. And when the passage has been read, there is such a moaning and groaning of all the
people that no one can help being moved to tears at that hour. Afterwards prayer follows,
then the blessing, first of the catechumens, and then of the faithful, and the dismissal
is made.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER: MAUNDY THURSDAY

1 On the fifth weekday everything that is customary is done from the first cockcrow until
morning at the Anastasis, and also at the third and at the sixth hours. But at the eighth
hour all the people gather together at the martyrium according to custom, only earlier
than on other days, because the dismissal must be made sooner. Then, when the people are
gathered together, all that should be done is done, and the oblation is made on that day
at the martyrium, the dismissal taking place about the tenth hour. But before the
dismissal is made there, the archdeacon raises his voice and says: "Let us all assemble at
the first hour of the night in the church which is in Eleona, for great toil awaits us to-
day, in this very night." Then, after the dismissal at the martyrium, they arrive behind
the Cross, where only one hymn is said and prayer is made, and the bishop offers the
oblation there, and all communicate. Nor is the oblation ever offered behind the Cross on
any day throughout the year, except on this one day. And after the dismissal there they go
to the Anastasis, where prayer is made, the catechumens and the faithful are blessed
according to custom, and the dismissal is made.

(b) Night Station on the Mount of Olives.

2 And so every one hastens back to his house to eat, because immediately after they have
eaten, all go to Eleona to the church wherein is the cave where the Lord was with His
Apostles on this very day. There then, until about the fifth hour of the night, hymns and
antiphons suitable to the day and to the place are said, lessons, too, are read in like
manner, with prayers interspersed, and the passages from the Gospel are read where the
Lord addressed His disciples on that same day as He sat in the same cave which is in that
church. And they go thence at about the sixth hour of the night with hymns up to the
Imbomon, the place whence the Lord ascended into heaven, where again lessons are read,
hymns and antiphons suitable to the day are said, and all the prayers which are made by
the bishop are also suitable both to the day and to the place.

(c) Stations at Gethsemane.

3 And at the first cockcrow they come down from the Imbomon with hymns, and arrive at the
place where the Lord prayed, as it is written in the Gospel: and He was withdrawn (from
them) about a stone's cast, and prayed, and the rest. There is in that place a graceful
church. The bishop and all the people enter, a prayer suitable to the place and to the day
is said, with one suitable hymn, and the passage from the Gospel is read where He said to
His disciples: Watch, that ye enter not into temptation; the whole passage is read through
and prayer is made. And then all, even to the smallest child, go down with the Bishop, on
foot, with hymns to Gethsemane; where, on account of the great number of people in the
crowd, who are wearied owing to the vigils and weak through the daily fasts, and because
they have so great a hill to descend, they come very slowly with hymns to Gethsemane. And
over two hundred church candles are made ready to give light to all the people. On their
arrival at Gethsemane, first a suitable prayer is made, then a hymn is said, then the
passage of the Gospel is read where the Lord was taken. And when this passage has been
read there is so great a moaning and groaning of all the people, together with weeping,
that their lamentation may be heard perhaps as far as the city.

(d) Return to Jerusalem.

4 From that hour they go with hymns to the city on foot, reaching the gate about the time
when one man begins to be able to recognize another, and thence right on through the midst
of the city; all, to a man, both great and small, rich and poor, all are ready there, for
on that special day not a soul withdraws from the vigils until morning. Thus the bishop is
escorted from Gethsemane to the gate, and thence through the whole of the city to the
Cross.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER: GOOD FRIDAY

1 And when they arrive before the Cross the daylight is already growing bright. There the
passage from the Gospel is read where the Lord is brought before Pilate, with everything
that is written concerning that which Pilate spake to the Lord or to the Jews; the whole
is read. And afterwards the bishop addresses the people, comforting them for that they
have toiled all night and are about to toil during that same day, (bidding) them not be
weary, but to have hope in God, Who will for that toil give them a greater reward. And
encouraging them as he is able, he addresses them thus: "Go now, each one of you, to your
houses, and sit down awhile, and all of you be ready here just before the second hour of
the day, that from that hour to the sixth you may be able to behold the holy wood of the
Cross, each one of us believing that it will be profitable to his salvation; then from the
sixth hour we must all assemble again in this place, that is, before the Cross, that we
may apply ourselves to lections and to prayers until night."

(b) The Column of the Flagellation.

2 After this, when the dismissal at the Cross has been made, that is, before the sun
rises, they all go at once with fervour to Sion, to pray at the column at which the Lord
was scourged. And returning thence they sit for awhile in their houses, and presently all
are ready.

(c) Veneration of the Cross.

3 Then a chair is placed for the bishop in Golgotha behind the Cross, which is now
standing; the bishop duly takes his seat in the chair, and a table covered with a linen
cloth is placed before him; the deacons stand round the table, and a silver-gilt casket is
brought in which is the holy wood of the Cross. The casket is opened and (the wood) is
taken out, and both the wood of the Cross and the title are placed upon the table. Now,
when it has been put upon the table, the bishop, as he sits, holds the extremities of the
sacred wood firmly in his hands, while the deacons who stand around guard it. It is
guarded thus because the custom is that the people, both faithful and catechumens, come
one by one and, bowing down at the table, kiss the sacred wood and pass through. And
because, I know not when, some one is said to have bitten off and stolen a portion of the
sacred wood, it is thus guarded by the deacons who stand around, lest any one approaching
should venture to do so again. And as all the people pass by one by one, all bowing
themselves, they touch the Cross and the title, first with their foreheads and then with
their eyes; then they kiss the Cross and pass through, but none lays his hand upon it to
touch it. When they have kissed the Cross and have passed through, a deacon stands holding
the ring of Solomon and the horn from which the kings were anointed; they kiss the horn
also and gaze at the ring . . . all the people are passing through up to the sixth hour,
entering by one door and going out by another; for this is done in the same place where,
on the preceding day, that is, on the fifth weekday, the oblation was offered.

(d) Station before the Cross. The Three Hours.

4 And when the sixth hour has come, they go before the Cross, whether it be in rain or in
heat, the place being open to the air, as it were, a court of great size and of some
beauty between the Cross and the Anastasis; here all the people assemble in such great
numbers that there is no thoroughfare. The chair is placed for the bishop before the
Cross, and from the sixth to the ninth hour nothing else is done, but the reading of
lessons, which are read thus: first from the psalms wherever the Passion is spoken of,
then from the Apostle, either from the epistles of the Apostles or from their Acts,
wherever they have spoken of the Lord's Passion; then the passages from the Gospels, where
He suffered, are read. Then the readings from the prophets where they foretold that the
Lord should suffer, then from the Gospels where He mentions His Passion. Thus from the
sixth to the ninth hours the lessons are so read and the hymns said, that it may be shown
to all the people that whatsoever the prophets foretold of the Lord's Passion is proved
from the Gospels and from the writings of the Apostles to have been fulfilled. And so
through all those three hours the people are taught that nothing was done which had not
been foretold, and that nothing was foretold which was not wholly fulfilled. Prayers also
suitable to the day are interspersed throughout. The emotion shown and the mourning by all
the people at every lesson and prayer is wonderful; for there is none, either great or
small, who, on that day during those three hours, does not lament more than can be
conceived, that the Lord had suffered those things for us.

5 Afterwards, at the beginning of the ninth hour, there is read that passage from the
Gospel according to John where He gave up the ghost. This read, prayer and the dismissal
follow.

(e) Evening Offices.

6 And when the dismissal before the Cross has been made, all things are done in the
greater church, at the martyrium, which are customary during this week from the ninth
hour—when the assembly takes place in the martyrium—until late. And after the dismissal at
the martyrium, they go to the Anastasis, where, when they arrive, the passage from the
Gospel is read where Joseph begged the Body of the Lord from Pilate and laid it in a new
sepulchre. And this reading ended, a prayer is said, the catechumens are blessed, and the
dismissal is made. But on that day no announcement is made of a vigil at the Anastasis,
because it is known that the people are tired; nevertheless, it is the custom to watch
there. So all of the people who are willing, or rather, who are able, keep watch, and they
who are unable do not watch there until the morning. Those of the clergy, however, who are
strong or young keep vigil there, and hymns and antiphons are said throughout the whole
night until morning; a very great crowd also keep night-long watch, some from the late
hour and some from midnight, as they are able.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER: THE VIGIL OF EASTER

Now, on the next day, the Sabbath, everything that is customary is done at the third hour
and also at the sixth; the service at the ninth hour, however, is not held on the Sabbath,
but the Paschal vigils are prepared in the great church, the martyrium. The Paschal vigils
are kept as with us, with this one addition, that the children when they have been
baptised and clothed, and when they issue from the font, are led with the bishop first to
the Anastasis; the bishop enters the rails of the Anastasis, and one hymn is said, then
the bishop says a prayer for them, and then he goes with them to the greater church,
where, according to custom, all the people are keeping watch. Everything is done there
that is customary with us also, and after the oblation has been made, the dismissal takes
place. After the dismissal of the vigils has been made in the greater church, they go at
once with hymns to the Anastasis, where the passage from the Gospel about the Resurrection
is read. Prayer is made, and the bishop again makes the oblation. But everything is done
quickly on account of the people, that they should not be delayed any longer, and so the
people are dismissed. The dismissal of the vigils takes place on that day at the same hour
as with us.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER: THE EASTER OCTAVE

1 Moreover, the Paschal days are kept up to a late hour as with us, and the dismissals
take place in their order throughout the eight Paschal days, as is the custom everywhere
at Easter throughout the Octave. But the adornment (of the churches) and order (of the
services) here are the same throughout the Octave of Easter as they are during Epiphany,
in the greater church, in the Anastasis, at the Cross, in Eleona, in Bethlehem, as well as
in the Lazarium, in fact, everywhere, because these are the Paschal days. On the first
Lord's Day they proceed to the great church, that is, the martyrium, as well as on the
second and third weekdays, but always so that after the dismissal has been made at the
martyrium, they go to the Anastasis with hymns. On the fourth weekday they proceed to
Eleona, on the fifth to the Anastasis, on the sixth to Sion, on the Sabbath before the
Cross, but on the Lord's Day, that is, on the Octave, (they proceed) to the great church
again, that is, to the martyrium.

2 Moreover, on the eight Paschal days the bishop goes every day after breakfast up to
Eleona with all the clergy, and with all the children who have been baptised, and with all
who are apotactitae, both men and women, and likewise with all the people who are willing.
Hymns are said and prayers are made, both in the church which is on Eleona, wherein is the
cave where Jesus was wont to teach His disciples, and also in the Imbomon, that is, in the
place whence the Lord ascended into heaven. And when the psalms have been said and prayer
has been made, they come down thence with hymns to the Anastasis at the hour of lucernare.
This is done throughout all the eight days.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER: EASTER SUNDAY EVENING TO THE ASCENSION

1 Now, on the Lord's Day at Easter, after the dismissal of lucernare, that is, at the
Anastasis, all the people escort the bishop with hymns to Sion. And, on arriving, hymns
suitable to the day and place are said, prayer is made, and the passage from the Gospel is
read where the Lord, on the same day, and in the same place where the church now stands in
Sion, came in to His disciples when the doors were shut. That is, when one of His
disciples, Thomas, was absent, and when he returned and the other Apostles told him that
they had seen the Lord, he said: "Except I shall see, I will not believe." When this has
been read, prayer is again made, the catechumens and the faithful are blessed, and every
one returns to his house late, about the second hour of the night.

11. Sunday after Easter.

2 Again, on the Octave of Easter, that is, on the Lord's Day, all the people go up to
Eleona with the bishop immediately after the sixth hour. First they sit for awhile in the
church which is there, and hymns and antiphons suitable to the day and to the place are
said; prayers suitable to the day and to the place are likewise made. Then they go up to
the Imbomon with hymns, and the same things are done there as in the former place. And
when the time comes, all the people and all the apotactitae escort the bishop with hymns
down to the Anastasis, arriving there at the usual hour for lucernare. So lucernare takes
place at the Anastasis and at the Cross, and all the people to a man escort the bishop
thence with hymns to Sion. And when they have arrived, hymns suitable to the day and to
the place are said there also, and lastly that passage from the Gospel is read where, on
the Octave of Easter, the Lord came in where the disciples were, and reproved Thomas
because he had been unbelieving. The whole of that lesson is read, with prayer afterwards;
both the catechumens and the faithful are blessed, and every one returns to his house as
usual, just as on the Lord's Day of Easter, at the second hour of the night.

12. Easter to Whitsuntide.

3 Now, from Easter to the fiftieth day, that is, to Pentecost, no one fasts here, not even
those who are apotactitae. During these days, as throughout the whole year, the customary
things are done at the Anastasis from the first cockcrow until morning, and at the sixth
hour and at lucernare likewise. But on the Lord's Days the procession is always to the
martyrium, that is, to the great church, according to custom, and they go thence with
hymns to the Anastasis. On the fourth and sixth weekdays, as no one fasts during those
days, the procession is to Sion, but in the morning; the dismissal is made in its due
order.

13. The Ascension.—Festival at Bethlehem.

4 On the fortieth day after Easter, that is, on the fifth weekday—(for all go on the
previous day, that is, on the fourth weekday, after the sixth hour to Bethlehem to
celebrate the vigils, for the vigils are kept in Bethlehem, in the church wherein is the
cave where the Lord was born)—On this fifth weekday, the fortieth day after Easter, the
dismissal is celebrated in its due order, so that the priests and the bishop preach,
treating of the things suitable to the day and the place, and afterwards every one returns
to Jerusalem late.

THE FESTIVALS OF WHITSUNTIDE

1. Whitsunday.—(a) Morning Station.

1 But on the fiftieth day, that is, the Lord's Day, when the people have a very great deal
to go through, everything that is customary is done from the first cockcrow onwards; vigil
is kept in the Anastasis, and the bishop reads the passage from the Gospel that is always
read on the Lord's Day, namely, the account of the Lord's Resurrection, and afterwards
everything customary is done in the Anastasis, just as throughout the whole year. But when
morning is come, all the people proceed to the great church, that is, to the martyrium,
and all things usual are done there; the priests preach and then the bishop, and all
things that are prescribed are done, the oblation being made, as is customary on the
Lord's Day, only the same dismissal in the martyrium is hastened, in order that it may be
made before the third hour.

(b) Station at Sion.

2 And when the dismissal has been made at the martyrium, all the people, to a man, escort
the bishop with hymns to Sion, [so that] they are in Sion when the third hour is fully
come. And on their arrival there the passage from the Acts of the Apostles is read where
the Spirit came down so that all tongues [were heard and all men] understood the things
that were being spoken, and the dismissal takes place afterwards in due course. For the
priests read there from the Acts of the Apostles concerning the selfsame thing, because
that is the place in Sion—there is another church there now—where once, after the Lord's
Passion, the multitude was gathered together with the Apostles, and where this was done,
as we have said above. Afterwards the dismissal takes place in due course, and the
oblation is made there. Then, that the people may be dismissed, the archdeacon raises his
voice, and says: "Let us all be ready to-day in Eleona, in the Imbomon, directly after the
sixth hour."

(c) Station at the Mount of Olives.

3 So all the people return, each to his house, to rest themselves, and immediately after
breakfast they ascend the Mount of Olives, that is, to Eleona, each as he can, so that
there is no Christian left in the city who does not go. When, therefore, they have gone up
the Mount of Olives, that is, to Eleona, they first enter the Imbomon, that is, the place
whence the Lord ascended into heaven, and the bishops and the priests take their seat
there, and likewise all the people. Lessons are read there with hymns interspersed,
antiphons too are said suitable to the day and the place, also the prayers which are
interspersed have likewise similar references. The passage from the Gospel is also read
where it speaks of the Lord's Ascension, also that from the Acts of the Apostles which
tells of the Ascension of the Lord into heaven after His Resurrection. And when this is
over, the catechumens and then the faithful are blessed, and they come down thence, it
being already the ninth hour, and go with hymns to that church which is in Eleona, wherein
is the cave where the Lord was wont to sit and teach His Apostles. And as it is already
past the tenth hour when they arrive, lucernare takes place there; prayer is made, and the
catechumens and likewise the faithful are blessed.

(d) Night Procession.

4 And then all the people to a man descend thence with the bishop, saying hymns and
antiphons suitable to that day, and so come very slowly to the martyrium. It is already
night when they reach the gate of the city, and about two hundred church candles are
provided for the use of the people. And as it is a good distance from the gate to the
great church, that is, the martyrium, they arrive about the second hour of the night, for
they go the whole way very slowly lest the people should be weary from being afoot. And
when the great gates are opened, which face towards the market-place, all the people enter
the martyrium with hymns and with the bishop. And when they have entered the church, hymns
are said, prayer is made, the catechumens and also the faithful are blessed; after which
they go again with hymns to the Anastasis, where on their arrival hymns and antiphons are
said, prayer is made, the catechumens and also the faithful are blessed; this is likewise
done at the Cross. Lastly, all the Christian people to a man escort the bishop with hymns
to Sion, and when they are come there, suitable lessons are read, psalms and antiphons are
said, prayer is made, the catechumens and the faithful are blessed, and the dismissal
takes place. And after the dismissal all approach the bishop's hand, and then every one
returns to his house about midnight.

5 Thus very great fatigue is endured on that day, for vigil is kept at the Anastasis from
the first cockcrow, and there is no pause from that time onward throughout the whole day,
but the whole celebration (of the Feast) lasts so long that it is midnight when every one
returns home after the dismissal has taken place at Sion.

2. Resumption of the Ordinary Services.

6 Now, from the day after the fiftieth day all fast as is customary throughout the whole
year, each one as he is able, except on the Sabbath and on the Lord's Day, which are never
kept as fasts in this place. On the ensuing days everything is done as during the whole
year, that is, vigil is kept in the Anastasis from the first cockcrow. And if it be the
Lord's Day, at the earliest cockcrow the bishop first reads in the Anastasis, as is
customary, the passage from the Gospel concerning the Resurrection, which is always read
on the Lord's Day, and then afterwards hymns and antiphons are said in the Anastasis until
daylight. But if it be not the Lord's Day, only hymns and antiphons are said in like
manner in the Anastasis from the first cockcrow until daylight. All the apotactitae, and
of the people those who are able, attend; the clergy go by turns, daily. The clergy go
there at first cockcrow, but the bishop always as it begins to dawn, that the morning
dismissal may be made with all the clergy present except on the Lord's Day, when (the
bishop) has to go at the first cockcrow, that he may read the Gospel in the Anastasis.
Afterwards everything is done as usual in the Anastasis until the sixth hour, and at the
ninth, as well as at lucernare, according to the custom of the whole year. But on the
fourth and sixth weekdays, the ninth hour is kept in Sion as is customary.

BAPTISM: PREPARATION OF THE CANDIDATES

1. The Inscribing of the Competents.

1 Moreover, I must write how they are taught who are baptised at Easter. Now he who gives
in his name, gives it in on the day before Quadragesima, and the priest writes down the
names of all; this is before the eight weeks which I have said are kept here at
Quadragesima. And when the priest has written down the names of all, after the next day of
Quadragesima, that is, on the day when the eight weeks begin, the chair is set for the
bishop in the midst of the great church, that is, at the martyrium, and the priests sit in
chairs on either side of him, while all the clergy stand. Then one by one the competents
are brought up, coming, if they are males (viri) with their fathers, and if females
(feminae), with their mothers. Then the bishop asks the neighbours of every one who has
entered concerning each individual, saying: "Does this person lead a good life, is he
obedient to his parents, is he not given to wine, nor deceitful?" making also inquiry
about the several vices which are more serious in man. And if he has proved him in the
presence of witnesses to be blameless in all these matters concerning which he has made
inquiry, he writes down his name with his own hand. But if he is accused in any matter, he
orders him to go out, saying: "Let him amend, and when he has amended then let him come to
the font (lavacrum)." And as he makes inquiry concerning the men, so also does he
concerning the women. But if any be a stranger, he comes not so easily to Baptism, unless
he has testimonials from those who know him.

2. Preparation for Baptism—Catechisings.

2 This also I must write, reverend sisters, lest you should think that these things are
done without good reason. The custom here is that they who come to Baptism through those
forty days, which are kept as fast days, are first exorcised by the clergy early in the
day, as soon as the morning dismissal has been made in the Anastasis. Immediately
afterwards the chair is placed for the bishop at the martyrium in the great church, and
all who are to be baptised sit around, near the bishop, both men and women, their fathers
and mothers standing there also. Besides these, all the people who wish to hear come in
and sit down—the faithful however only, for no catechumen enters there when the bishop
teaches the others the Law. Beginning from Genesis he goes through all the Scriptures
during those forty days, explaining them, first literally, and then unfolding them
spiritually. They are also taught about the Resurrection, and likewise all things
concerning the Faith during those days. And this is called the catechising.

3. "Traditio" of the Creed.

3 Then when five weeks are completed from the time when their teaching began, (the
Competents) are then taught the Creed. And as he explained the meaning of all the
Scriptures, so does he explain the meaning of the Creed; each article first literally and
then spiritually. By this means all the faithful in these parts follow the Scriptures when
they are read in church, inasmuch as they are all taught during those forty days from the
first to the third hour, for the catechising lasts for three hours. And God knows,
reverend sisters, that the voices of the faithful who come in to hear the catechising are
louder (in approval) of the things spoken and explained by the bishop than they are when
he sits and preaches in church. Then, after the dismissal of the catechising is made, it
being already the third hour, the bishop is at once escorted with hymns to the Anastasis.
So the dismissal takes place at the third hour. Thus are they taught for three hours a day
for seven weeks, but in the eighth week of Quadragesima, which is called the Great Week,
there is no time for them to be taught, because the things that are [described] above must
be carried out.

4. "Redditio" [Recitation] of the Creed.

4 And when the seven weeks are past, [and] the Paschal week is left, which they call here
the Great Week, then the bishop comes in the morning into the great church at the
martyrium, and the chair is placed for him in the apse behind the altar, where they come
one by one, a man with his father and a woman with her mother, and recite the Creed to the
bishop. And when they have recited the Creed to the bishop, he addresses them all, and
says: "During these seven weeks you have been taught all the law of the Scriptures, you
have also heard concerning the Faith, and concerning the resurrection of the flesh, and
the whole meaning of the Creed, as far as you were able, being yet catechumens. But the
teachings of the deeper mystery, that is, of Baptism itself, you cannot hear, being as yet
catechumens. But, lest you should think that anything is done without good reason, these,
when you have been baptised in the Name of God, you shall hear in the Anastasis, during
the eight Paschal days, after the dismissal from the church has been made. You, being as
yet catechumens, cannot be told the more secret mysteries of God."

5. Mystic Catechisings.

5 But when the days of Easter have come, during those eight days, that is, from Easter to
the Octave, when the dismissal from the church has been made, they go with hymns to the
Anastasis. Prayer is said anon, the faithful are blessed, and the bishop stands, leaning
against the inner rails which are in the cave of the Anastasis, and explains all things
that are done in Baptism. In that hour no catechumen approaches the Anastasis, but only
the neophytes and the faithful, who wish to hear concerning the mysteries, enter there,
and the doors are shut lest any catechumen should draw near. And while the bishop
discusses and sets forth each point, the voices of those who applaud are so loud that they
can be heard outside the church. And truly the mysteries are so unfolded that there is no
one unmoved at the things that he hears to be so explained.

6 Now, forasmuch as in that province some of the people know both Greek and Syriac, while
some know Greek alone and others only Syriac; and because the bishop, although he knows
Syriac, yet always speaks Greek, and never Syriac, there is always a priest standing by
who, when the bishop speaks Greek, interprets into Syriac, that all may understand what is
being taught. And because all the lessons that are read in the church must be read in
Greek, he always stands by and interprets them into Syriac, for the people's sake, that
they may always be edified. Moreover, the Latins here, who understand neither Syriac nor
Greek, in order that they be not disappointed, have (all things) explained to them, for
there are other brothers and sisters knowing both Greek and Latin, who translate into
Latin for them. But what is above all things very pleasant and admirable here, is that the
hymns, the antiphons, and the lessons, as well as the prayers which the bishop says,
always have suitable and fitting references, both to the day that is being celebrated and
also to the place where the celebration is taking place.

THE DEDICATION OF CHURCHES

1 Those are called the days of dedication when the holy church which is in Golgotha, and
which they call the martyrium, was consecrated to God; the holy church also which is at
the Anastasis, that is, in the place where the Lord rose after His Passion, was
consecrated to God on that day. The dedication of these holy churches is therefore
celebrated with the highest honour, because the Cross of the Lord was found on this same
day. And it was so ordained that, when the holy churches above mentioned were first
consecrated, that should be the day when the Cross of the Lord had been found, in order
that the whole celebration should be made together, with all rejoicing, on the self-same
day. Moreover, it appears from the Holy Scriptures that this is also the day of
dedication, when holy Solomon, having finished the House of God which he had built, stood
before the altar of God and prayed, as it is written in the books of the Chronicles.

2 So when these days of dedication are come, they are kept for eight days. And people
begin to assemble from all parts many days before; not only monks and apotactitae from
various provinces, from Mesopotamia and Syria, from Egypt and the Thebaid (where there are
very many monks), and from every different place and province—for there is none who does
not turn his steps to Jerusalem on that day for such rejoicing and for such high days—but
lay people too in like manner, both men and women, with faithful minds, gather together in
Jerusalem from every province on those days, for the sake of the holy day. And the
bishops, even when they have been few, are present to the number of forty or fifty in
Jerusalem on these days, and with them come many of their clergy. But why should I say
more? for he who on these days has not been present at so solemn a feast thinks that he
has committed a very great sin, unless some necessity, which keeps a man back from
carrying out a good resolution, has hindered him. Now on these days of the dedication the
adornment of all the churches is the same as at Easter and at Epiphany, also on each day
the procession is made to the several holy places, as at Easter and at Epiphany. For on
the first and second days it is to the greater church, which is called the martyrium. On
the third day it is to Eleona, that is, the church which is on that mount whence the Lord
ascended into heaven after His Passion, and in this church is the cave wherein the Lord
used to teach His Apostles on the Mount of Olives. But on the fourth day . . .


SOURCES AND CREDITS
===================

Where each text comes from, and the licence under which it may be reused.

CATECHETICAL LECTURES English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

AGAINST THE DONATISTS English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

THE EXTANT WORKS OF PACIAN English translation: an out-of-copyright translation as
transcribed, or commissioned and given to the public domain, by Roger Pearse for his
collection Early Church Fathers – Additional Texts ( tertullian.org/fathers ). SermonIndex
has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own.
No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been
made. Licence. published 1842. Licence: Public domain.

THE PILGRIMAGE OF EGERIA (ETHERIA) English translation by M. L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe,
from The Pilgrimage of Etheria , translated by M. L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe (London:
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1919;
Translations of Christian Literature , Series III, Liturgical Texts); public domain. The
text was read by machine (Mistral OCR) from a scan of the 1919 edition from the University
of California library at the Internet Archive and has not been proofread against the
printed book. SermonIndex has removed running heads and page numbers, joined words split
across lines, and divided the text into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. Footnotes and the editor’s introduction are left out. The translators’
introduction, the list of Bible references, the plates and the index are also left out,
and so are the passages from the Old Armenian Lectionary and the notes that they quote at
the foot of the pages. This edition does not number the chapters as the Latin editions do;
the sections here follow its own headings. No original-language text is shown beside it,
and no modern English version has been made. Licence. The translation was published in
1919 and is in the public domain. Licence: Public domain.